This is the DRIVE Podcast with Josh Graham. I love it. I need it. Couldn't live without it. You can hear the DRIVE weekday afternoons 3 till 6 on WSJS.
So glad to have you! On a Wednesday drive, it is WSJS, Deuce Talk Sports for the Triad. We're after the Orioles lost for a fifth straight game last night. Not watching that tonight. Nope.
Gotta change the vibes, change the energy. Gonna take the night off from watching the O's. So you might think that means Josh is gonna be locked in on the NBA draft. Night one. Round one of the draft tonight. Night two is the second round tomorrow. You'd be wrong on that front as well. WD and I actually going to the Winston-Salem Dash game later on tonight.
That should be some fun. The reason why I'm taking off of the draft though is because, frankly, as a television product, the NBA draft has become unwatchable. And it's the NBA's fault that that's the case.
Let's just start practically. You often don't know who is going where when watching the draft. That's a problem that's been the case for decades. How have they not figured this out yet is the question.
And I'm talking about the hats, namely. Where guys are getting picked, they're wearing hats for teams that they're not going to play for, they don't know where they're going. Why does the NBA struggle with this and no other league does?
Oh well, Josh. These trades don't become official until a certain point so you have to do it this way in case something... The NFL doesn't have this problem. No other draft has this problem. Why does the NBA have this problem and has had this problem for decades? Do they think it's cute? Do they think it's novel?
It's not. When the Hornets... We all remember Shay Gildas-Alexander wearing a Hornet hat when actually he was going to play for the Thunder. We all remember, most notably, Kobe Bryant wearing a Hornet hat when he wasn't going to play for the Charlotte Hornets.
Figure that out. Especially for a draft like this one that is not great and is probably going to feature a lot of trades. Prepare to be confused three, four, five times tonight where guys are wearing hats for teams that they're not going to play for because that's the NBA draft, you guys.
There's a practical rant. But the biggest reason the draft feels so small now, feels so developmental, feels so insignificant, is because over the last ten years, Adam Silver took over in 2014 after all, the last ten years Adam Silver has undercut college basketball. A secret ingredient to the NFL being as big as it is, is that college football fans also love the NFL. There isn't this group of college fans that, well I suppose there is, it's not a big group of people that watch college and don't watch the NFL or vice versa, you just watch football.
And that might sound small, insignificant to you. But in basketball, there's a wide divide that we don't see between college, football, and the NFL. There are people who love the NBA who do not like college basketball, there are people that love college basketball that do not watch the NBA all that much.
Why is there that wide of a gulf? That, therein lies the problem with why the NBA draft does not move the needle all that much, that you might have forgotten that the draft was this week until today, while the NFL draft is being talked about for months. Now we get it, everything the NFL touches, it turns to gold. But Roger Goodell views college football, college sports as a partner, as an ally, as something that grows his game.
Or else, if he didn't, he'd probably schedule more Saturday games in the months of September, October, November, December. The reason he doesn't do that is because he views a healthy college football as being good for the NFL, being an asset for the NFL, because this is a big country. There are more sports communities than those inside NFL cities. People watch the NFL draft wanting to see where their favorite player from Arkansas is going to end up in Fayetteville, or where there are folks in Blacksburg, Virginia that might not care about the NFL but care about their Hokies. Where's our guy going to end up? And we're going to root for that team now because our guy is there. Clemson, South Carolina, a lot of people root for the Jaguars there because of Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne.
You can apply that to so many different places across this country. In the NBA, they don't seem to care about college basketball. Adam Silver's had comments critical of college basketball. He's created an alternative path for the top prospects to go to, rather than college basketball.
G-League ignite. He has no problem promoting and propping up overtime elite. So tonight, when you look at the top pick perhaps of this draft, who once upon a time was an overtime elite, and two more guys that are expected to be taken in the top ten who are playing in G-League at night, and you're watching the same way mid-50s, 60s types are watching the Grammys wondering who the heck are these people, you have the NBA to blame for that. Because no one's watching G-League games.
G-League at night. They're not. Or at least not the same way they're watching Duke and Carolina and college basketball. And if Adam Silver viewed college basketball as more of an ally, a partner in a sense that could help his league, college basketball is better, the NBA is better in turn two because of those college communities in Lexington, Kentucky, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and places across America that are college towns. They will be rooting for their guys into the NBA in ways that were not seen because top players aren't going to those schools who are ending up in the NBA draft the way that they once were. And they're not staying in college all that long. You might think that's a college problem. The NBA.
This is the good news to try to fix this. The NBA draft's become unwatchable. It's the NBA's fault, but they can fix some of these problems.
You could start by getting rid of the one and done. Have guys, don't have guys going to college basketball who don't want to end up in college basketball, that want to just leave right out of high school. Fine. Have that go back. Go back to that. That's an NBA rule. That's not a college rule. But have it if you go to college, like college baseball, like the NFL, that you have to stay in college a handful of years. The reason why people were against that or are against that, it seems, is because that's unfair to the college athlete. Oh, financially speaking, they're not able to make money in college.
Oh, wait, though. Now you have the settlement with the NCAA where they can make money now. And then NIL factored into this.
It's not so unfair to stay in college anymore. So having that would strengthen college basketball and thus add name recognition to the guys who were taken in the draft. And that would elevate things. And the other thing you could do is get the hats right. It sounds so small, but it's such a big deal.
If I'm watching tonight, I want to know where these guys are playing. I don't want to be confused by that. It is a positive step to go from one night to two nights. So that way you have more time to talk about the picks and what it means.
Maybe get some more sob stories in there as people like to do. But the draft, I'm not excited to watch it tonight because it's been bad. It's hard to watch. And it's been that way for a long time. And it's the NBA's fault. And let's hope that someday they fix it. On X at WSJS Radio, if you want in, that's where we're streaming video.
In addition to YouTube and Twitch, Will Dalton, the executive producer of this show, who can't talk today. Can't talk about his Yankees. Can't talk bad about my Orioles lose it for a fifth straight game because his Yankees also got blasted by the Mets last night. Yeah, but it's only three straight for us.
So we're not quite where you are. We took two out of three against you guys last week. You guys have lost. You're about to lose your fourth straight series. So don't really want to hear much from you today. Let's talk about your Charlotte Hornets, though.
From the draft to their new head coach, Charles Lee. Full disclosure, not a not a lot of substance from this presser. There were a lot of cliches. See, this is where we earned our money, having to sit through 30 minutes of a lot of nothing.
Comments that are going to make you roll your eyes. Statements like this, where Charles Lee was talking about going from the championship Celtics to being the head coach of the Hornets. It was exciting. Like I didn't feel overwhelmed by any stretch of the imagination because I finally get to do those things. Like you get to be a part of a championship caliber team and you're on a deep playoff run. And then I also get to be the head coach of the Charlotte Hornets.
Like just even saying that gives me chills a little bit. Oh, yeah. Pinch me. I get to be the head coach of the Charlotte Hornets, guys. Whoa.
Wild. This next comment. It also could be an eye roll, but I'm not convinced Charles Lee is insincere here when talking about the roster that he's inheriting from Charlotte. I think we have a very, very good team. We've been snake bitten, I think, with some injuries. But I'm looking forward to this like talent rich group doing everything they can to be healthy. And some of that's going to obviously be on us as coaches and performance staff. He's not wrong, but that's a big if.
Oh, if we could stay healthy. Yeah. You mean LaMelo Ball who's played miss more games than he's played in the last two years and flipping off cameras and riding scooters or go karts on his roof. That guy. That's a person you're going to trust.
Riding lime scooters into traffic. That guy. Miles Bridges. Is he coming back? We don't know.
Nobody asked yesterday. Not that Charlotte would tell you what's going to happen with that anyway. Boring's intentional, it feels, with this new regime. Jeff Peterson breaking the tradition or breaking what has been done by past Charlotte leadership groups, who Charlotte is meeting with, what players are working out as a lot of teams do. Charlotte being very secretive about that. They don't want headlines.
They don't want attention right now. Jeff Peterson wouldn't reveal draft strategy the day before the draft. No, no, no. We're just talking about Charles Lee today.
Got it. So not a lot of substance yet from Charles Lee. But then again, he's only been there for a week. Not a lot of substance from that press conference.
Certainly yesterday as well. That was a lot of basketball out of the shoot. Maybe a little bit too much basketball. Let's take a quick break from that. Talk some baseball because we're bringing in the prop queen, Ariel Epstein, who's with us. You know her from MLB Network. You know her just being an outright great person from her appearances on this show.
I might be billing her a little bit too much right now. Ariel Epstein, you're here. We'll get back to the draft later. But when it comes to betting drafts, NFL, basketball, how nervous does that make you? Because I venture to say Vegas has a pretty good sense of what's what for events like this. I actually am enjoying betting any kind of draft.
And of course, thanks for always having me on, Josh. The draft is a place for any sport that, although the books are usually spot on for some things, you could still find those edges. There's actually sports that you can't there's actually states that you can't even bet the draft in. In New York, they're very particular about what you can bet on because, again, it's very subjective.
You could find inside information. But overall, I've had really good success betting draft position of certain players. For example, you could bet in the NFL draft, you could bet for a player to go over under seven and a half.
And I've had good I've had pretty good success doing things like that. And you really have to try to get ahead of it. You have to bet these drafts even a week in advance. You'll see the most movement.
Oh, my gosh. I see so much movement in draft coverage from two weeks prior to the draft up till day of draft. You'll get much better numbers on on the baseball front. Three weeks ago, June six, your Yankees, they were forty five and nineteen, had won 70 percent of their games at that point.
Since then, seven and ten. They're in danger of losing their fourth straight series. Meanwhile, my Orioles, since taking two out of three against the Phillies and then two out of three against the Yankees, they've lost five straight. And after tonight's series, they got in their face in Cleveland, they got the champion Rangers coming in.
So it's not getting any easier anytime soon. What's your current read? See, these are two of the three best teams in the American League, two of the three best teams in baseball. Cleveland's right there, too. What's your current read on the top of the American League and really the top of baseball right now? I've been getting blown up on X for the last 24 hours because we discussed this on MLB Network yesterday on my show off base. They asked if I thought the Guardians were the best team in the American League.
I said they're not. Now, granted, record wise, the Guardians are the best team in the league at the moment. They could get better when your ECU alum, Gavin Williams, joins the rotation again at some point.
He hasn't started yet this year for Cleveland. Could they make ads at the trade deadline? Sure.
Inexperience is what scares me. And although the Guardians have been great and overachieved all season so far, it reminds me of the Orioles of last year, a team that can get to the playoffs, which I hope they do because it plus one eighty five. I have a ticket for the Guardians playoff. You know, I don't see this team going to the World Series. When you ask me who the best team in the American League is, I'm looking at the team that is most likely to win the AL pennant. The Yankees at the moment are that team. If the Orioles go out and get a second pitcher at the deadline to join the starting rotation, then they're the team to beat. The Yankees are just so they have so much depth in their starting rotation. The bullpen for the Yankees will get better once they decide which of these six starters they're going to add to the bullpen come playoff time, because it's not going to be a six man rotation, according to Yankees manager Aaron Boone. When the Yankees now potentially at the deadline bolster their bullpen by adding maybe another bullpen arm, the lineup is extremely tough. The Orioles lineup is awesome, but they need a second starter. And if the because pitching wins you championships in baseball. I spoke to Jake Peavy, who has won two World Series and Cy Young awards. When you ask Jake Peavy what the equation for any success of the World Series team is, he says it's a one to punch. If you don't have a one to punch, you're not winning a World Series. That's what the Orioles are missing. Once they get that second pitcher, who's not who they go for last year that I was so mad. Oh, clarity, clarity.
Yes. When they went for Jack Flaherty, I said, this is not what the Orioles needed at all. And that's the mistake they cannot make again. And because of new ownership and what we've seen them do by going and getting their ace, Corbin Burns, the Orioles are a huge contender with that chip on their shoulder, like the Florida Panthers and the NHL, who could come all the way back. No doubt.
But they need a number two. W.D. smiling ear to ear at the Yankees being the best team in the American League comment. I'm smiling because for it. But I'm not wrong. This team is the team. If you might be different. But if you really had to stake your life on a team to make it to at least the ALCS, you're choosing the Yankees over the Guardians. I am.
I am for sure. I mean, Garrett Cole, even though he wasn't great last night, he's probably going to be OK. Ariel Epstein's with us. I'm smiling as well at the Jake Peavy comment because I used him on my immaculate grid yesterday for Padre Red Sox. Ariel, the All-Star Game is less than three weeks away now. What's your biggest storyline that you're following or battle to crack the starting lineup? It's really interesting. The American League first base race between Ryan Mountcastle, Ryan Mountcastle and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
I had a friend, by the way, yesterday I brought this up. I'm like, hey, Ryan Mountcastle's having the best season of an American League first baseman. Is the AL first base race really that bad? Like it's Mountcastle, Vlad Guerrero and who, Naylor from Cleveland?
Like that's that's it? It's crazy because when you think All-Star Game, you think star power. No offense to Ryan Mountcastle. Vlad Guerrero Jr. is the star name of that duo. But the Orioles fans have showed out. I mean, they have about, I think, five players that are inside the top three of the American League race, including Jorge Mateo, which really shook me.
So they stood out. And then on the National League side, the Padres, as of like last week, were just dominating the All-Star Game. It just shows how much voting really matters, because, again, here are the Padres, a mediocre team filled with stars that are going to be in the All-Star Game and can't seem to find a way to get into like an NLCS. No doubt. And we'll see what happens at shortstop between Gunnar Henderson, who is an MVP candidate, but not as big of a star right now as Bobby Witt Jr.
Both of those guys went in the same draft. Adley Ruchman. Gunnar's leading the way.
Right now, let's see if that continues. Ariel Epstein on the way out. Give me a prop for later tonight that we can all jump on. I really like the White Sox today, so it's not a prop. It's a side. It's a very short night plate, and I hate betting day games.
I always get murdered. So I would say the White Sox are my fishy line of the day. I'm going first five money line and full game.
A fishy line is when I see a line move against a public favorite. So that's the Dodgers. The White Sox getting the Dodgers tonight. It makes a lot of sense. The White Sox.
They're right. Eric Betty's pitching is a sub one era in home games this year. He's five and one straight up in the first five innings of a home game. His only lost Betty at home in the first five innings was to the Tigers, his first start of the year. The Dodgers had to throw a seven inning bullpen game yesterday and relief of Bobby Miller. That bullpen is going to be a bit depleted today for the Dodgers with Gavin Stone going. So if he can't go more than five, the Dodgers are going to be throwing a lot of tired arms out there. Well, the White Sox should get at least six, maybe even seven out of Betty, who's been awesome at home. So it's worth taking that first five and the full game on a terrible White Sox team that no one's betting on.
But the line moved 15 cents against the Dodgers overnight. Boom. There it is. Yeah.
Yeah. See, I'm going to I'm going to see the Winston-Salem Dash tonight, which is the high A team for the Chicago White Sox. And we've got Annapolis and the Charlotte Knights down the road. So, yes, it's just fitting that the White Sox are your side. There it is. And I've been following them closely because secretly I like Betty and I like crochet potentially as Orioles. And probably one of them will not be on the White Sox come the end of the month.
Maybe on an orange team, just saying. Ariel Epstein, it's good to see you, as always. Thanks for the tip and for spending the time with us. Thanks as always, Josh Graham. Josh Graham loves to talk sports. He also loves the way his new jeans highlight his man curves. Ooh, hot.
Oh, yeah, that's hot. You're on the drive with Josh Graham. Even at the risk of this segment being triggering for North Carolina Tar Heel fans, we do emphasize and express that this is a safe space for fans of all creeds, including the Carolina blue types, because there were two headlines that might have given Carolina fans some PTSD based on how similar they were to other noteworthy headlines. As they prepared to become conference members again, fuel has been added to the A&M Texas rivalry. Texas last night poached A&M's baseball coach, Jim Schlossnagle, who took A&M to the championship series just this past week and was a game away, a few outs away on Sunday away from winning A&M's first ever College World Series. But that wasn't where the drama was. The drama is that Jim Schlossnagle certainly was going to be considered for the Texas baseball job that had just come free. So after the game, Schlossnagle was naturally asked what he had to say about that opening. Again, this is in the postgame press conference Monday night after A&M lost to Tennessee. I think it's pretty selfish of you to ask me that question, to be honest with you. But I left my family to be the coach at Texas A&M. I took the job at Texas A&M to never take another job again, and that hasn't changed in my mind. And that's unfair to talk about something like that.
That'd be like you asking Montgomery if he's going to sign in the draft. But I understand you got to ask the question. But I gave up a big part of my life to come take this job, and I've poured every ounce of my soul in this job, and I've given this job every single ounce I can possibly give it. Write that. Write that. So a few things there.
Obviously, if we're playing that clip, Jim Schlossnagle took the Texas job the very next day. So. I given.
Write that. My heart. Given every. All my effort, every. Everything I have I've given to this job.
Well, if that reporter were given everything he had to his job, he naturally should ask you that question. That's number one. Number two. I think it's selfish for you to ask the question.
You know what else might be selfish? Leaving to. Take the Texas job. Write that.
When you're already in the SEC. And. You know. That. I'm not saying you're wrong for doing so. I'm just saying. That can be easily construed as.
Selfish. So he takes the Texas job. Which is shades of Roy Williams.
20 plus years ago. With Bonnie Bernstein. Kansas loses to Carmelo Anthony and Jim Boeheim in the championship game. And the Carolina job is open. Matt Doherty had just been fired.
And this happened. Bonnie, I could give a flip about what those people want as a journalist, you have to ask that question. I understand that.
But as a human being. That's all those people who want that answer. No. Right now, they're not very sensitive. They offer you the job, though.
Would you be willing to take it? I haven't thought about that for one second. I haven't thought about that for one second. And the guy in your ear that told you, you have to ask that question as a journalist.
That's fine. But as a human being, that's not very nice because it's not very sensitive. And I got to think that in tough times that people should be more sensitive.
I could give a **** about North Carolina right now. The goal of Bonnie Bernstein to ask a follow up. Short zone backwards.
Short zone backwards. The follow up is something. Could you imagine if the A&M coach did not storm off the way he did? If the reporter asked the question again. Followed up and said, well, you didn't really answer the question. I think it's selfish. It's like asking this guy if he's going to go into the draft.
Yeah, we plan to write that. We plan to ask him that question. Why? Why is that unfair?
He said, oh, I think it's unfair to ask. Not if you're staying. This if you're staying, this is a good opportunity to tell us that you're staying. So that will help you in recruiting when you say, oh, it's unfair. Well, that tells me you're leaving for the Texas job. That's what it tells me. Jim Sloshnagle has spoken today.
Introduced at Texas. And this is the closest thing he came to an apology. There's a lot of decisions in life that you don't get to choose the timing.
You don't get to meet with your team as you would like. And for that, I am sorry. Sorry. Can we write that?
Do I have your permission to write that, Jim Sloshnagle? Sorry. OK. Sorry. But I will write that and I will talk about that.
Do I have permission? Is that OK with you, Jim Sloshnagle? Write that.
Is that fair? OK, got it. Just got to make sure I'm understanding of things. Here's what you need to understand.
You need to write this. The YMCA is fall sports registrations underway. The Y. They have fall sports such as soccer, flag football, tee ball, baseball, volleyball, basketball.
You want your kid to grow personally as they strengthen skills, establish work ethic, create lasting friendships and have fun. Well, then you need to write down this Web site address. YMCA NWNC dot org. Register. Learn more. Write that. Write that down.
That's what you should do. The Y. Northwest. Write that.
North Carolina. So that was one headline that might have brought back some memories for Tar Heel fans. Sadly, this one, too. There was a big trade in the NBA last night. McCall Bridges.
Once a Phoenix Sun. Then a Brooklyn Net. Now a member of the New York Knicks traded in exchange for four unprotected first round picks. Listen, given how developmental the drafts become, I do not care about the picks.
I don't. You remember when Rudy Gobert was traded for all those picks? Do you think Minnesota is missing those picks right now?
Probably not. If you get a player that's going to help you and you think you can win a title, then go and get the player, especially if they are a great fit and somebody that's going to be around for a long time, like McCall Bridges, will be. The reason why this might be PTSD for Tar Heel fans, that makes it four. Four players from the 2016 Villanova title team that is now on the New York Knicks. Joining Josh Hart, Dante DiVincenzo, and Jalen Brunson. Four.
We got four. Hey, Knicks. Hey, New York.
Hey, New York. Here's what you should do. Just for fun.
Just to make Kenny Smith mad. You should, on a two-way contract, sign Chris Jenkins. Just consider it.
Ryan Archidiacono. Make it happen. Maybe hang up the tie that Archidiacono got from Jim Nantz after that buzzer beater and hang it on your wall.
Maybe just do that. I forgot about the tie. It's one of the weirdest traditions ever. We should have asked Ian Eagle if he wanted to bring that back. It'd be great now that he's calling the Final Four. Give him a tie. How about Ian Eagle buys a new pair of glasses every year, gives him a pair of his glasses.
More of a thinking man's picture. Next year, Duke wins the national championship. Cooper Flagg, I want you to have these pair of specs. Just want you to have it.
Thought you might want them, okay? Thanks, Ian. This is perfect for New York. Another wing. See, that's what you need to beat the Celtics. You need wings, and adding another is going to help the Knicks.
More continuity. The NBA has become more and more like AAU, where you just plug in different guys with each other. Let's jump from team to team, all that. And the Knicks are going the other direction. They're selling culture, which Tom Thibodeau is great at getting people to buy into, and getting you to play defense and all that. Very good coach, great for New York, great fit there.
And now you have a bunch of guys who are already bought in on each other that have continuity, that have chemistry, that played together for not one, but two national championship teams in 2016 and in 2018. When you look at the East, Boston's the best team in the NBA. Still the best team in the East. I still probably feel that way, but can you really separate all that much the Knicks and Milwaukee?
And you got Indiana there. Cleveland and Orlando would probably be in that next tier, their wildcards, but the East just got a lot more fun with the Knicks adding McCall Bridges here, because they also, you would assume, are going to get healthier up front, too. Imagine if this Knick team that went to Game 7 with the Pacers in Round 2 had Julius Randle, and was healthy up front, and also had McCall Bridges on it. It'd be pretty darn good. So this is perfect for New York, not perfect for the Tar Heels, who are going to be reminded again and again and again about what that 2016 team did to North Carolina, but I still think it would be a funny idea. Is Chris Jenkins playing basketball anywhere?
Do you think he's done playing basketball? You know, I was going to ask you that earlier. I need to see about that. That team, man. Gosh. I remember Eric Palha, I think was his name, or Pascal, I forget how to pronounce it. You had Ryan Archdiocheno. You had these four guys. At the time, everybody thought the Tar Heels had the team with all these NBA players. Oh, man, watch out. Here comes, you know, Isaiah Hicks, who was a first-round draft, Tony Bradley. Watch out for those bigs, and Joel Berry.
Oh, man, here they come. But it actually was Villanova that had all the NBA guys. He is a student athlete development assistant at Villanova. Bring him back. So he's available.
That's right. Nick's making it happen. Go, New York, go, New York. To give away Post Malone tickets, he'll be in Charlotte in October. We have Dash tickets as well for this week. We're going to play weekly positivity. This is our way to lift morale across the Piedmont Triad. Weekly positivity next on The Drive. This might make it into my weekly positivity.
Boss lady down the hall. Got new candy. I don't even know what this is.
Jolly Rancher hard candy sticks and lollipops. It's big time. I got to go get that. If you want to go see Post Malone in October in Charlotte, give us a call right now. All you have to do is give us a call and tell us something good.
336-777-1600. This is our way of lifting morale across the Piedmont because we understand. It's Wednesday. It's hump day. We're just trying to get through the middle of the week, you guys.
And this is our way. It might have been a rough day at work. So maybe you call in, win some tickets and find something in your life that is going well.
Going good? That you can share with us is right now presented by Biscuit King, we play Weekly Positivity. Oh, yeah. And that's the fact, Jack. WD's movie for next week is the classic Stripes. Weekly Positivity presented by our friends at Biscuit King.
Let me try that again. Biscuits. Oh, thank you. Weekly Positivity giving us a chance to tell you what's going on in the world.
That is good. Like biscuits at Biscuit King, Lexington and High Point. Pay them a visit. Hi, Will.
Hi, Josh. What are you laughing about? I'm thinking about what my weekly positivity stuff here. Get to the phones. Yeah, I'll tell you something good, because I can tell that you had not prepared for this segment and didn't know what to say there.
So I'll give you an example of something that's good. Other than going to the baseball game with you tonight, the dash facing the Rome emperors. Don't quite know where Rome is relative to high a baseball, but that's who we're going to be seeing tonight. It just dawned on me that July is next week and that's good. We're going to be doing our show from the NSMA, the Grand Over on Monday. We're going to be doing our show from Bank of America Stadium a week from today for Charlotte FC facing inner Miami. It's the Fourth of July next week. We're going to be on the air on the fourth, but off next Tuesday. It's going to be a weird week, as I guess what I'm saying.
But exciting that July is here and we have some notes of note. Let's go to Dina. Dina, who's in High Point. Hi, Dina. Hi, there. I'm having the most wonderful time. That's good.
Why is that? Well, I just decided a few weeks ago that I would try to grow my own hot peppers. And I went to the farmers market and I bought these seeds for some Thai hot chili peppers.
And they are absolutely gorgeous and they're huge. And I cannot wait to see how awesome they're going to make all my food so spicy. How can I try some of these peppers? I love peppers, Dina. Oh, they're so good.
I got habaneros too. Wow. Yeah.
I did. And they're so beautiful. And they're just like the most beautiful plants. You might think that this is a radio bit that I'm saying, hey, I might actually want to try these. Oh, that sounds great and conversational. No, genuinely, I would like to try some of these hot peppers.
Anyway, Dina. I also planted some scotch bonnet. I'm telling you, I really went out there.
And I'm super proud of myself because I usually don't have success like that. And it's going to be pretty cool. Do you know what else is pretty cool? Post Malone in Charlotte.
Post Malone isn't so cool. Well, you're going to go see him in October. That's pretty cool. My birthday's in October. Wow. When's your birthday? October 13th.
Wow. Was that on a Friday? Were you born on Friday the 13th? No, I was born on a Tuesday. See, I'll let you in on something, Dina.
What's that? My name's Josh. My brother's name is Jordan. My sister's name is Jessica.
And my brother was born December the 13th on a Friday. And my dad tried to push for Jason. It didn't work out.
My mom didn't want to do that. But we're all J's and that would have been Jason on Friday the 13th. A missed opportunity, in my opinion. That's pretty funny, yeah.
That's what I think. Well, you enjoy the Post Malone show. Thank you for the call.
That is fantastic. And I really, really enjoy you guys in the afternoons. I listen to you. Well, if you really meant that, Dina, you'd give me some hot peppers. But, you know. Oh, yeah. No, I'll get you some hot peppers. I also like impressing my husband with some unexplained how-did-you-know-that sports facts out of the blue. Can you give me an example? Oh, gosh.
No, not right off the top of my head. I'm too excited. Well, maybe when you bring in the hot peppers to our studio.
A hot pepper. Right on. You can dazzle. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it.
All right. Thanks, Dina. There you go.
Stay on the line so WD can get your information. Let's go to Dave and Clemens. Dave, good luck topping that. Tell me something good.
Hey, JG. So tonight's pizza night at the house, and guess what we're gonna have. Or what we're gonna order. Oh, what is that?
A Graham Slam pizza. You know what's amazing about this, Dave? Okay.
So you're a longtime listener of the show, and you just showed off how long term of a listener you are. Note remembering the pie guys, Graham Slam pizza and Clemens. I don't. Buffalo chicken.
I don't. It is a Buffalo chicken pizza. I haven't been to pie guys in a couple of years, but I checked in with some friends just to see if it was still on the menu. There was an ownership change, and apparently the Graham Slam pizza was so popular. People liked it so much in Clemens that they just kept it on the menu, the new ownership, not knowing that it was named after me. So I don't really, I feel bad talking about it right now, because I don't want it to get back to them that the reason it's called the Graham Slam is because of this show, and then they just abruptly rename it the Buffalo chicken pizza or something.
We're in there every weekend. It's still on the menu, and we order it probably once a month, so tonight we're gonna do that, but I also have another good thing if you have a second. I do have a second. Thanks.
What do you have? Okay, we are heading off to Europe for a European vacation for July, and we're gonna go see the Serbian men's national basketball team, my wife's home country, play in the Olympics. We're heading to Paris, we're heading to Croatia, we're also heading Vienna, Austria, and her home of Serbia, and I am excited to go watch Jokic and all the boys for Serbia and follow that team up close and personal.
They play some great basketball out there, and that's what I'm most excited about for July. Does she have a Jokic jersey? We need to figure that out. Who? Who? My wife? Your wife. Of course. Okay, got it. Of course. Just checking.
See, that's why you're a great husband. And a Bogdanovich jersey. Which one? Bogdanovich.
There are a lot of Bogdanovitches that have been running around over the years. Okay, Dave, thank you so much for the call. It's good to hear from you. Enjoy the Gram Slam. There he goes. Gram Slam pizza. Have you ever had the Gram Slam pizza? You brought me a slice of it one time, a long time ago. It is so good.
They're not paying me to say this, but it's still a pizza that's named after this show, so if you're in Clemens, go to Pie Guys and get yourself a Gram Slam pizza. Did you have anything good? I did. Was this enough time for me to stall in order for you to- Well, I actually had something. I don't know what you thought. You were holding up, like, a can. Yeah, because this is part of what's good.
What is it? So I actually, um, I found a new flavor of this rain- You can see why I think you're unprepared, because this is taking forever. Well, I'm also the music star.
Stop, yeah. Get your stuff together, W.D. It's together. Okay.
I found this energy drink of rain energy that I like to have from time to time, and they had a new flavor today, sour gummy worm. Let me see. Bizarre.
Ewan. And it's really good. So that- Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Do that again. It's really... It's good. There you go.
So is that. I'm also excited because a new trailer for College Football 25 dropped today. So we're- Wake Forest was in the trailer coming- They were.
Out of the tunnel on the motorcycle. UNC was too. NC State. What did they have from Carolina? The belt. Yeah. The wrestling belt.
And you could see Keenan in the background. And it's less than a month away. And that's been Weekly Positivity.
It's The Drive with Josh Graham WSJS. When we play grammar school, the sixth man of Tar Heel basketball will throw some things at me as he does, but you could be a lifeline for me and win Post Malone tickets. See him in Charlotte in October.
I'm just gonna throw at you a couple of questions we've been asking on today's show. The NBA draft is tonight. The Hornets are picking sixth. Who is the pick that- That's right. That's the Tar Heel basketball, talking about the Hornets who are picking sixth. Yeah. Gotta make sure we get that right. Who is the player that Adam Silver can announce at the podium that will fill you with the most excitement for what Charlotte could take?
I don't think that player is in this draft, but for tonight, I think the name that I want to hear is Dalton Knecht. Really? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. I saw that boy light it up in Charlotte. I think I like his size. I like his scoring ability, somebody that can be there with Brandon, another scorer. Did you stick around for the nightcap of that first game? He was horrific against Texas. I didn't stick around for the first game, so I guess maybe that's influencing my opinion because I might have saw his worst game of the year. I would like to think that his worst game of the year was a fluke. I've seen his body of work throughout the season and saw how he cooked cats all year long. I would like to see Dalton.
Given that, man, I really don't know. The fan side of me, I would love to see Rob Dillingham grab at number six, you know what I'm saying, just because of who Rob Dillingham is. I don't think that would be great for Rob Dillingham's career or great for the Charlotte Hornets per se. LaMelo Ball and Rob Dillingham in the same backcourt.
Yeah. No, that's not what you need, but those are names that I would like to hear. I would like to hear Harrison Ingram. I don't think, again, I don't think that would be great for the Charlotte Hornets, but just hearing that name. He'll be there in round two. He'll be there in round two.
Take him there. Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure. No, no doubt about it.
You're asking me what? Listen, first of all, I don't think there are any program changers or organization changers in this draft. I agree.
Especially by the time you get to six. So I think I'm just giving you names that I would like to hear get drafted early in that space right there. I agree.
Dalton Connect is my guy, though. I think they're going to take Stephon Castle from UConn. That's my prediction. But the guys that I would be most excited about, because there is not a star in this draft, the way you need to view it is the way that the Dallas Mavericks viewed the draft last year. It's like, who do I most know is going to translate with a certain skill set? And Derek Lively, you just knew, okay, rim running, blocking shots, lobs, okay. And we saw how that translated pretty quickly. You know very similarly with the 7-6 wingspan that Connor Klingen is going to bring that from UConn.
You know that's going to work. Reed Shepherd being a 52% three-point shooter, you know that's probably going to translate too. So even though I don't know if they're the most complete players and they're not stars, don't go chasing that.
Chase a skill set of what's going to help you, and those two things will help you. Reed's height in the east doesn't really bode well for me. I like the fact that the smallest player on that starting lineup right now is like 6'6". But that's why you can reach on a guy like that. Like if Reed Shepherd, let's say he fell to San Antonio, the best place he could end up is San Antonio, because defensively he doesn't have that length.
But since Victor does, you can get away with having that lack of height if somebody were to beat you off the dribble. The other reason you might like Dalton Knecht, did you know that he used to play for UNC? Dalton Knecht, a year ago, transferred from the University of Northern Colorado to play for Tennessee.
He used to play for UNC. I also don't like the Klingen pick because I think if you're going to get Klingen, you're not going to do anything with Mark. That means you've got to get rid of Mark. You're not going to have Mark and Klingen.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on one second. See here's my problem with that. Charlotte's not good enough, period, to be thinking about Phipp. Just take the best player and figure it out later. If that means Mark goes, okay. But they said the same thing about drafting P.J. when they had Miles Bridges. And that worked out for a handful of years, and then you got something substantive back for P.J. But take the best player when you're bad.
Don't try to get twisted into knots of what the best fit is. It's my fault. I don't know. I understand your logic, but I don't know, man. If you already have something that you know can be dominant in that space, why bring in something that can alter their mental space? Now you got Mark playing different because it's his second, third year, and he's looking to see, oh gosh, Klingen's on my back. I don't know.
I don't know. I understand. Get the best available player, but I think you need a scorer. If you're going to get a big man, there's got to be somebody that can stretch that floor a little bit, and I'm just not sure Klingen can do that. You ready to take me to grammar school? Josh Graham has his own way of speaking, and just when you think it can't get any worse, Josh is going to attempt to learn B-Dots vernacular. I'm going to put one in the air.
It's time for B-Dots Grammar School. Nobody better than B-Dots, pregame, during game, postgame, brought to you by Heritage Hardwood Floors. When it comes to flooring, they have no ceiling. Where at Heritage Hardwood Floors?
When it comes to flooring, they have no ceiling. I don't know if this question is caustic enough. I just don't know, because somebody said to me when I was grabbing candy somewhere, Josh, high chews, that's black people candy.
And I'm like, I don't think so. I love high chews as well. And then this person gave example of candy that white people eat, but black people don't. So I will- What was that list?
Well, this is the question, I guess, to you. What type of candy is assorted sours? Can you name what's in the family of assorted sours? Can I name what's in the family of assorted sours? Because I think you might have heard of candy that's in the family of assorted sours. But what type of candy is it?
Have you seen this candy before? What type of- I think it's a trick question. I feel like this is a trick question. What type of flavors are in assorted sours? Yeah.
What type of candy is assorted sours is the best way to ask this question. Lemon heads. There it is. Boom.
Thank you, Don. Dispelling potential racial tropes that nobody has ever heard before. I don't think I've- What did you say again?
In the black community, we would never put those words together the way you did. The candy is called, there is assorted sours that have lemon heads within the family. But there are several different flavors.
There's a grape flavored one, there's green- Oh, like Johnny Appleseed and Cherry Twins and L So it took me a while to ask that question properly, but you knocked it out of the park with lemon heads is within that family. He asked it very caustically, it was a caustically- Very, very caustically. And scared. I was worried. I didn't know if we needed Gary Hahn.
Let's go to the sidelines. Tony Haines. You just wanted to ask me, hey, Doc, do black people eat lemon heads? That's exactly it. That's exactly what I wanted to ask. Yeah, we love lemon heads, John.
Good to know. Like we're thinking about replacing Gary Hahn with Jim Nantz, who was at- What's the Jim Nantz? So on Sunday, there were protesters that ran onto the 18th green because they said there wouldn't be any golf on a dead planet, climate activists.
And they had, they threw like paint on the 18th green and Jim Nantz, once he saw the protesters running out there, said this. Oh boy. So I wonder if that should replace Gary Hahn. Absolutely. I love that. You like that?
Okay. I like now North Carolina Hall of Famer and now it's approved of by B Dot. So have we just done this? Have we just officially retired Gary Hahn? We'll have a retirement ceremony on tomorrow's show for it, but I think Jim Nantz just replaced it. I don't think you should retire. I don't think we should retire the legend.
I don't think we should double retire the retiree, but just find another space for him. But that, oh boy, you got to keep it. Oh boy. Okay.
What do you have? Up first, Josh Graham, what does it mean if someone says that you understood the assignment? And the assignment means that you are spot on, that you get, you are, I want to say up with it is probably another way to put it where, in the sense of like, oh, you got exactly what we were going for here. Let me think of a good example. If I were to jinx the hornets and to take a reverse jinx the hornets into taking somebody good tonight. Oh, the hornets are going to take Stefan Castle when most people wanted them to take Donovan Clingan or whatever.
And then Donovan Clingan gets drafted and they say, Josh, it was your reverse jinx that did the trick. You understood the assignment. That's I could probably give a better example than that. You probably could have given a much better example. And what really upsets me is your example, you tried to find a way where Josh was going to be right. Oh, how about this?
How about this? Josh just gave, Josh just gave an answer in the most caustic way possible. Josh understood the excitement is when you totally nailed something you were supposed to do.
So I guess, I guess we'll give you that. Yes, Josh. I don't like how caustic you're answering these questions.
He made it a lot more complicated than what it needed to be way more, way more. It's very me, unfortunately, sadly. All right. Um, this is from Ryan.
Huh? Ryan says, are you playing a game with Josh today? I said, yeah. She said, ask Josh what a Sigma is. I said, ask Josh what a what? She said a Sigma. I said, spell it. She said, S I G M A a Sigma. And I said, okay. And I asked her and she gave me the answer and I went to Google it just to be sure.
And sure enough, she was correct. So Josh Graham from the mouth of babes, what is a Sigma? This might be a good time to remind people.
We got tickets to post Malone. If you'd like to go to post posty in, uh, October three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one 600, uh, a Sigma, a Sigma with the G S I G M A. Now if you went to a HBCU like myself, I'm a graduate of Winston-Salem state university. We have a fraternity there called the six.
That's where I was thinking first. And I looked stupid last weekend where I said, Oh, is that ECU? No, this is my fraternity. Oh, I'm sorry. It's it's my bad. My bad Sigma, but that's not what we're talking about here. So let's go to, let's just run through the phone lines and see who gives the best answer.
And see if any of these answers are right. Let's go to William and the active bill, William and the active bill. What is a Sigma? Hey William, are you there? Yeah. You hear me? Yeah.
I hear you now. What's a Sigma? Hey, uh, I'm thinking, uh, it's on longer lines of like using Greek letters to define people like it's, uh, not an alpha, but a Sigma.
I mean, it's somebody you can, uh, rely on maybe, uh, somebody to rely on. Okay. Got that written down. Let's go to Artie in Thomasville, Artie. What is, uh, your best shot at, uh, what a Sigma is Artie? I'm going to say as somebody who is exceptionally talented, but is very humble about it exceptionally.
I would describe B dot that way. Exceptionally talented, humble about it though. Okay. Thank you, Artie. Who should I go to next? Let's go to Karma in Winston-Salem. Karma's a cat in case you didn't know.
Karma, what is your, uh, guess of what a Sigma is? Karma are you there? Who is the other person on the line? Oh, who do we have here? Who do we got here? Caller, identify yourself. What's your name? What's your name? Hey, this is Julian.
All right, Julian. What's a Sigma? A Sigma is an alpha, that's the top dog. That's like the, uh, uh, to use an acronym that B dot might be familiar with, it's the HNIC.
Wow. Oh, I love that one. Okay, well, I'm definitely going with that, Julian.
Thanks so much for the help. Uh, that's an alpha and I bet you I can't say what, spell out the acronym that was just put out. So I'm going to go with what Julian said there. That's my guess. Is that your final answer? That is.
A Sigma is a popular, very successful, but highly independent and self-reliant, humble man. Wow. And Julian, we're both correct on that. You are correct, Josh.
So who gets the tickets? HNIC. Josh, do you know what HNIC means? No, I don't.
Wow. Hockey night in Canada. Oh, hockey night in Canada is a great answer, Josh. That's true. Hockey night Canada.
That's clearly what HNIC is. Julian, if you want to go see Post Malone, the tickets are yours. There you go. If he doesn't want the tickets, then we can give them to Artie as well.
Hockey night in the Carolinas is hilarious. All right. All right. The last one. Wait, we're not done yet. We got one more.
I got one more. I'm sorry. I got thrown off the scent a little bit.
You did? Okay. Oh boy.
Okay. What is the ick? I-C-K. The ick. The ick is a turn off. You don't want to catch the ick. And the ick could be somebody. It could be, you know, the way you dress. That's the ick. It could be you smell. That's the ick. It could be the way you talk. That's the ick. It could be an accent. That's the ick.
It's a turn off. 100% correct. Boom, baby. Boom, baby.
It could be a sudden feeling of repulsion against somebody. The ick. Josh Graham, you went three for three today. Good job, buddy. That's great. That's awesome. Yeah. Love it. There you go.
The ick. Excuse me, Josh. I have to talk to my friend, W.D., for a second. Hey, W.D., have you seen the boys in the scrimmage? The boys in the scrimmage. Oh, oh, the alumni game. Yes, sir. I did. Kenny Williams was back.
He was. I got a chance to see one of the head coaches during the live period because Isaiah was playing in the live period this weekend at Greensboro Day, and I got to see a Carolina coach that was there looking for some players, and he was telling me that he did not know that Drake Powell and Ian Jackson were that athletic. They are going to be super fun to watch.
I am so interested to see what H.D. is going to do with these guards and how he's going to give them their playing time. As much as I love R.J. Davis being back, I'm wondering, does he hinder some of the growth of Captain Jack and some of that camaraderie and chemistry that him and Elliott Kadoka get together? But they are going to get that experience from R.J. that we definitely need for the future.
So I really like it, man. This team's going to be awesome. They said Jalen Washington was down there banking with the big boys. We are going to be very good this year. So let Duke get all of the press, all of the highlights, all of the, oh, because Duke is going to be good.
No doubt about it. But we're going to go right up under that radar, and by the end of the year, we're going to be smoking, baby, like a chimney. What are you most excited? Is there a player outside of the first five guys who are expected to hear their names called tonight that you're most excited to see where they end up? For me, it's Jared McCain and it's Zack Eady from Purdue who are both expected to go in the lottery. Who are you excited to watch for? Is it Rob?
Absolutely. I mentioned him earlier, Rob Dillingham and Harrison Ingram. Where do you want to see Rob end up? I would like to see Rob end up somewhere where it's a contender, but where he can get off on some buckets. I heard about him being in Philly. I could see possibly Philly.
I would like it if Rob would end up in LA or something. I could see that with the Lakers. Imagine him at OKC. OKC with SGA and them boys, that would be tough. That would be tough. San Antonio. That would be tough. San Antonio would be good too.
I always wanted to see that. Him and Wimby is what I think would be the X factor for sure. But I want to see where Harrison Ingram goes just knowing those guys and hoping that they can... I really wish that Rob Dillingham would come back for another year. But I know he started smelling that NBA smoke.
But if he don't go lottery, man, he should have just came back to Kentucky. A week from today, you and I are going to be at Bank of America Stadium watching Soccer Dog. Yeah. I don't know how excited I should be about it. I don't think I'm excited yet. I want you to go in with no expectations. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. None. I don't want to see Soccer Match Dog. I'm like, am I supposed to be excited about this?
Because I'm really not. I'm just going to see soccer. No expectations. Yeah. And then right when the game's about to kick off and you see the crowd, it's different than anything else we have.
It's really cool. See how you're heightening the expectation once again, even on accident? Just no expectation.
But when you see the crowd right before kickoff, that's what you do. Next week. We'll see you there, Dot. Thanks for doing this, man. Love you guys.
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