The Deebo Fallout (Hour 1)

Live from the police show yet not overly ostentatious studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street, welcome on in to a Tuesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, channel 158, and that free Odyssey app. You could always get at me, which I know a lot of you have today on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter, as because of our interview making the rounds on social media in regards to Deebo Samuel, where he hung up on us last night because he didn't really want to answer any questions. I have people in Philadelphia today who are genuflecting to me, who are saying I'm the greatest thing ever, and then I got people out there on the West Coast in San Francisco that may be flying into the studio right now to wait till I leave the studio tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific, to try to kick my ass.

Well, here's the bottom line. Whether you love me, whether you hate me, whether you love the interview, whether you hated the interview, I don't really care. I just appreciate you tuning into the show tonight and all the interaction that did occur with it. But everything I asked Deebo Samuel, I don't think I did anything wrong. I know I didn't do anything wrong. And the reality is he just wanted to plug what he was plugging, and he didn't really outside of, I will give him credit, answering one question on what happened last year with this play and how he fell off from the great level in 2021 to where he was in 2022. Outside of answering that, he didn't really want to answer anything else.

So it is what it is. It's not the first time an athlete's going to get mad at me. It won't be the last time, but we will move on and I will let you formulate your opinion. I think I've been doing this now for a long time and we have great access to athletes and we've had a lot of athletes and coaches and players all throughout the sporting world, owners, presidents of organizations that have come on this show. And it's about having a conversation and it's about doing the show for you, the fan. And sometimes we're going to ask questions that some could deem uncomfortable or what a lot of you could deem as, oh, you didn't suck up to the athlete. You didn't ask the athlete, oh, well, Deebo, how about this catch that you made?

I was wondering what happened with this comments that were made months ago. We all know going back to the Super Bowl and let's be real, Deebo has continued this for most of the off season. I was just amazed and I'm not saying that a player shouldn't have confidence in his team.

If you're a player, you should go and think you're going to win every game, even though it's not realistic. But to say that they would have blown out the Eagles, that the 49ers are blown out the Eagles, I thought that was disrespectful to Philly because Philly was an unbelievable team last year. And that's why in the opportunity that I had, I don't care who else has talked to Deebo Samuel, but the opportunity that I had to talk to Deebo Samuel, I thought it was important to eventually bring that up. And it's not like I just harped on the issue. If you have ears and you listened, the first question that I asked him about were the comments. He said, that's old. So when you say that's old, just naturally, I'm going to respond with, well, then do you not believe that anymore?

He said, no, I still stand by it. And that's in the past. So I said, how about the future? Because when you look at the future, they still play the Eagles this year.

How does that game play out? And then that's where he started to hand the phone off to his PR rep and hang up on us and scream for Ashley, Ashley, Ashley. And it's very simple. Then after that, I asked one more question about it and then you heard the exchange. So it is what it is.

I'm not really losing any sleep over it. Just because we had a, I guess you could say confrontational discussion with Deebo Samuel doesn't mean like I can't stand the guy like this is the funny part about it. When I first got to talk to Deebo Samuel, this was two years ago, I was excited because I'm a fan of Deebo Samuel.

He's electrifying on a football field. So I have a job to do. I did my job, which I know I did very well. And he has a job to do as well. Sometimes my priorities don't match with his priorities.

And that's just the nature of what transpired yesterday. So you can react to it however you want. If you love me, thank you. If you hate me, thank you as well. All I care is that you listen.

And I've had a blast doing this show for as long as we've had starting on the weekend overnights and now four years in this time slot, talking to everyone in the East coast, middle of the country, West coast as well. And if everyone liked what you did, it wouldn't be fun. It wouldn't be. And that's sports. Everyone has an opinion.

So formulate your opinions, how you want. Alrighty. So I felt like I had to address that right at the top of the show.

And no, we're not going to sit here and talk about it for the next four hours. Alrighty, Elijah Stewart is here with us today, EJ, and I always love when EJ gets to work with us. And we have a loaded show for you today. Brett Boone is going to join us live from Seattle coming up in about 15 minutes.

He made the all star game three times as a player, David Hall from the score in Chicago, long time TV and radio personality is going to join us. We will chat about all the latest with Northwestern football as this did break on our show yesterday, where the way that I interpreted it is very simple. Northwestern thought they could cover up the alleged hazing. They thought just giving a two week suspension to Pat Fitzgerald in the middle of the summer would make this go away. Then students at a great journalism school did their job very quickly, did some digging, talked to the right people, and they put the actual allegations out there. The way that it was explained by Matt Fortuna, who joined us yesterday, was what was released over the weekend by the student journalists wasn't anything that Northwestern didn't know, no matter what they say. So the way that I interpret this is that they tried to sweep this under the rug, which is just so stupid to do in the year of 2023, not thinking the truth would come out, then maybe all of, if not some of the truth, bare minimum, did come out. And whether Pat Fitzgerald knew about it or not, he's responsible for what goes on in his football program. And since the public now had that info is why the university changed its tune, why Pat Fitzgerald is out of a job. But that doesn't mean that's where that should stop, because everyone that thought they could just cover this up and was involved in that should now lose their job as well. And I'm not someone that usually advocates, I don't like getting on the radio and saying, this person should lose their job, this person should lose their job.

That's not fun. But if you're going to fire Pat Fitzgerald, which I understand, you're going to have to fire a lot of other people as well. And I know they said today that the rest of the coaching staff is actually going to stay intact.

But the people that made this decision and were part of the decision making process to try to cover this up, need to be out of a job as well. So we'll chat it up with David Hall at 7.20 p.m. Eastern, 4.20 p.m. Pacific. And then Chris Dillon is going to join us in studio at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific.

You may not be familiar with that name, but he is a producer. And I just watched about two and a half episodes of this docuseries. There's three episodes to the Wilt Chamberlain docuseries, which was really good. And I've enjoyed, I'm going to finish the last half tonight, probably after the All-Star game ends or whenever I get bored with Major League Baseball's All-Star game.

So a whole lot to do today on the show, but I got to start with Shoei Ohtani. And EJ, I'm sure you've experienced this a lot. Sometimes athletes say things and then what they say, the way that we view it is completely different to the way that they view it. Like for example, DeAndre Hopkins says he wants to win, but DeAndre Hopkins also wants to be number one wide receiver and wants to get paid. So this late in the year, the teams that maybe are the best winning situations don't have enough money to give DeAndre Hopkins the money that he wants. So the reason I bring that up is because priorities, just the way that we think of them are completely different when it comes to an athlete or any regular person, because there's multiple wants that people have. Where you look at DeAndre Hopkins, I don't think the Patriots are going to be any good this year, but DeAndre Hopkins can say, oh, well, if Bill Belichick wants to pay me $10 million a year, and I'll just do the Patriots out there because they've been talked about, if Belichick wants to pay me 10 or 11 million dollars a year and I'll be the number one wide receiver, I could talk myself into the Patriots being a winning organization because of their past, even though Tom Brady's no longer there.

So that is where I'm making the point that athletes sometimes say one thing and then the way that we view their actions don't line up. So the reason I bring that up is because I heard Shohei Ohtani through his interpreter yesterday say, it sucks to lose. So when he keeps on getting questions asked about his future and you hear him say it sucks to lose and he wants to win and those feelings just keep on getting stronger every year, you would think an organization that's had Mike Trout for as long as they did and still have him and has only been to one lousy playoff series with Mike Trout and has played in three postseason games, you would think that Shohei Ohtani saying to us on the surface, guys, I want to win. It's clearly not going to happen here with the Angels.

We'll see what happens in the second half of the season and then I'm going to leave. Like you could assume those things, but just because Ohtani says that now at the All-Star break that it sucks to lose doesn't mean that he's necessarily leaving because we've seen a lot of times athletes say one thing and then what we think is going to happen doesn't end up happening. And the interesting part here with the Shohei Ohtani situation, EJ, is that wouldn't you agree it feels like everyone has already assumed that Shohei Ohtani is going to be on a different team next year?

Yeah, definitely. So when I get on the radio last week and I say, if I'm Artie Moreno and I'm running the Angels, I'm not getting rid of Ohtani until I know that he doesn't want to be there. And I would take the risk of getting nothing back from having a walk at the end of the year if I still think there's a shot that I could keep him because he's by far and away the best player in the sport. But everyone keeps on saying, oh, well, Shohei Ohtani is going to leave at the end of the year. But we haven't heard that from Shohei Ohtani yet.

He gave a very vague kind of explanation before the start of the season where it was one of those things of I'm just focused on this year. Now you could listen to that and go, oh, that means he's leaving because he won't say he's staying. But I could also argue it that if he wants to stay with the Angels, who he originally picked, what would benefit him in the most active free agency pursuit we've ever seen for a Major League Baseball player to say now, I definitely want to be back because he could then threaten leaving and then continue to drive up the price and maybe use other teams to drive up the Angels price on what they want to give him.

So just because something is said doesn't mean that will happen. And ultimately, I think a lot of us want to see Ohtani in the postseason because of how great he is. So we start to put the cart before the horse and say, oh, that means Ohtani is leaving. But the important thing to note here is we don't know if Ohtani is staying or leaving. So I find this decision that the Angels have to be fascinating, where they're probably not going to make the playoffs, like it's not inconceivable that they get that third wildcard spot. But with what they've shown you for such a long time, I don't expect them to go on this great run now, especially with Mike Trout out for a while. And outside of Ohtani, they don't have a lot of great starting, they have really nothing else in the starting rotation.

We know how great and elite Ohtani is at the dish. So I understand the one side of it that says you should trade them and you should get something back. But even though you probably won't make the playoffs this year, sometimes the way that we view what athletes should do is not what athletes think they should do. And ultimately, Evardi Moreno doesn't want to be known as the guy that got rid of Ohtani and rather just have him walk and get nothing back. I could kind of understand that, even though I think the average person would say trade him, trade him, trade him, trade him because you'd rather get something back than nothing at all because we all think that he's going to leave at the end of the year. What's interesting about the Ohtani thing is, we've seen this with NBA players a lot where it's this kind of understood thing that once they get to the last year of their deal, like they're going to leave unless you end up trading them.

And oftentimes the players don't even have to say anything like it's just like being reported by woads and shams and there's enough innuendo. It feels like that's happening here in baseball, but it's not something we see quite as often. And when you have a guy like Ohtani who doesn't speak all that much, I kind of wonder, is this educated guesses that are happening where they're just kind of looking at the few things he says and then the angels keep losing and saying, well, that must mean he wants to leave? Or do they somehow know behind the scenes that the baseball world expects him to leave? Like it's kind of hard to tell. With the NBA, it's very easy. You can kind of tell. Okay. Even though the guy hasn't said he wants to leave, we know he wants to leave.

With this whole tiny situation, it's very hard to kind of figure out. And for Ken Rosenthal, I thought he laid it out the best way the other day. He said Artie Moreno doesn't want to be known as the guy that drove Shoei Ohtani out. So he said probably what happens is they'll contend, they'll try to contend this year.

They won't make the playoffs and then he'll leave at the end of the year. Now that's just the opinion of Ken Rosenthal. But the big thing here is how likely is it that Ohtani wants to stay? Because I think most of us want Ohtani and I think most of us want Ohtani to just get away from the Angels and go to a better situation. And I wonder internally, what do the Angels actually think their realistic shot is to keep Shoei Ohtani? Because even though you don't want to be known as the guy that traded Ohtani, right?

That traded Babe Ruth as you go through it. If you don't think you could retain him, sure, go get something back for him. But I really do believe, and this is why I think the Angels should keep him and try to sign him. And then if you don't, whatever, you missed out on a bunch of great prospects and I get it.

You'd rather get something back than nothing back. But who knows what those prospects will ever be. I really do believe that it's so ambiguous what Ohtani is going to do. And that's what makes what's going to happen during the hot stove, the most anticipated hot stove ever because of one player in the Major League Baseball calendar, because no one truly knows what Shoei Ohtani is going to do. And I feel like, particularly with maybe this particular fan base, the Angels fan base, which we know is not as large or as intense as most other teams, especially in big markets.

Not the Dodger fan, not the Yankee fan. Like how much do they really care about getting something back for Shoei Ohtani? Like when we think about Artie Moreno.

Because he's so one-on-one. Right, like we think of Artie Moreno being this guy under this pressure saying, oh, you can't let him leave for nothing. I'm like, I mean, does he have that kind of pressure from that fan base to have to trade him if he knows Shoei Ohtani is leaving?

Or maybe if he doesn't know, are they still saying, I don't care, it looks like we're not going to get him, I'm not going to keep him, so you need to trade him? I don't feel that. I feel like if he, they played a string out, they missed the last wildcard spot by five games or whatever, and it's a fairly competitive September. I think it'll be fine. I don't think it'll be this catastrophe. It'll be catastrophic for the franchise and their future, because they won't have those assets. But it will be catastrophic for Artie Moreno, the pressure he's dealing with within his fan base, his clients.

I don't think so. And I have to think that he actually believes that he could have some sort of a chance of retaining Ohtani, and I respect the gamble. I respect the gamble.

I would gamble, too. Instead of all these nerds that tell me, oh, you got this prospect and that prospect, and most of us have never seen them play. I respect that you're saying, I don't care about the prospects. I think I could keep one of the greatest players that most of us have ever seen, right? I know it's crazy in such a short sample size, but he's one of one, and what he does, I respect saying, I think I could retain him. Even if I end up walking away with nothing, I'm going to do my best.

And even if I let him go for nothing, that's the risk that I'm willing to take. It is the Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. The three-time All-Star, Brett Boone, will join us next. All right, and we continue to the Zach Gelb Show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. The All-Star game coming up in just a bit out in Seattle.

Let's welcome in a former Seattle Mariner and a man that has played in three All-Star games himself. You can now check him out on the Boone Podcast, and that, of course, is Brett Boone, kind enough to join us on CBS Sports Radio. Brett, I know it's been a while since we last connected, but appreciate the time. How you been?

You got it, Zach. I've been good. I've been busy. Seattle, they're doing a really good job out here for the All-Star game, and we started that, I got in on Friday, we had that celebrity softball game, and the teachers game, and the swingman junior had a new game they put in the rotation.

That was cool. The city's doing a really good job, and I saw Nellie last night watching a home run derby, so I'm exhausted, I'm going place to place, doing a lot of stuff, but enjoying it. And for me, you know, this is kind of my city, and the city's been great to me, so walking around, just interacting with the fans, it's been a lot of fun. When you look back all these years later from your three All-Star game appearances, Brett, what are the memories that still come to mind for you? I'll tell you, I remember my first one was in 98, and I got the call, and I was in a kid in a candy shop. It's like, all right, you get to the big leagues, that's the first thing. You get to your first All-Star game, that's another level, you know.

There's certain things in your career that are kind of pinnacle. Going to a World Series. But I remember getting the call for the first one, it was great, it was in Colorado. But the fondest memory I think I have is the 0-1, obviously, we had an unbelievable season, and I did my first home run derby. I remember going to the ballpark and Joe Torre said, Dooney, you're hitting fourth, and you earned it this year, and it was cool, because as much as I like to play that cool guy game, you know, the realness inside me was like, wow, I'm hitting fourth in the All-Star game, you know, who would have thought I would have ever done that? That was really cool, but the pinnacle for me, probably, was my first home run derby. We're in Seattle, we won 116 games that year, so there was a lot of standing ovations, a lot of positive fan interactions, especially in the city.

But to be in my home city, I remember, as athletes, we don't, we have an ability to kind of zone out the noise. So that goes for a home game when the fans are cheering for you, a world game where you got some hostile fans, and you kind of get in the box and I'm in my own world. But for the first time, I stepped in that box when I got announced to the home run derby, and it kind of was a little bit overwhelming, the standing ovation I got, and I kind of stepped out of the box like, wow, usually I'm not affected by this stuff, and it affected me. And to this day, I still remember that I got a chance to talk to Julio before the All-Star, before the home run derby last night, he put on a great show, he ended up not winning, and I said, listen, I remember when I did it here, this could be the biggest ovation you ever hear, and sure enough, he gave him the plate and the roof flew off, and it was really cool. So that's, you know, as much as it's an exhibition, not a big deal, I didn't have the walk-off three-run homer, that was one of the key moments that I'll always remember. It's so cool to just hear the genuine passion that you had for the All-Star game, and I always ask this to players that have played with a lot of other great players, because I always have that vision when a player goes into the locker room for the first time, whether it's American League or National League, you're probably in awe of the other great players, but for you, each and every day when you went into the clubhouse, you had all these All-Stars on your team, so was that still surreal to you the first time in 98 when you walk into the clubhouse, you have all these other great players getting dressed and getting ready to go? Well, I get that a lot, you know, because I did, I grew up in a pretty unique situation, going to the ballpark, you know, and I always thought, it doesn't everybody get to do this, I'm just going to work with my dad, you know, his workplace just happened to have Pete Rhodes and Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton there, later on in his career I was hanging out with, you know, Reggie Jackson and Rod Carew and Don Baylor and Don Sutton, and it was no big deal for me.

But the flip side is, that's one thing to be a little kid running around, probably being a pain in the ass, and it's another thing when it's your job, and it's your livelihood, it's what you do for a living, it's just as overwhelming. And yes, my first, I'm sitting there and I'm listening to Barry Bonds hold court and toss hitting and Manny Ramirez is sitting there and Juan Gonzalez at the time, one of the biggest run producers in the world, and I was like a kid, yeah, everybody thought, oh, well Brett's used to this, no big deal. It's one thing being a kid, it's another thing, this is what you do for a living, and it was just as kind of cool and unreal as I think it is for any guy that goes to his first All-Star game. Talking to Brett Boone right now, when you get to the Angels, they're currently five games out, a game under.500 of that final wildcard spot. You know Mike Trout is now going to miss some significant amount of time. The talk is, what do they do with Shohei Ohtani? I don't think they're going to trade him and probably they'll end up losing him in the offseason anyway, but if you were running the Angels, would you move Ohtani from now until August 1st? Ohtani's an interesting take for me. I think when the bottom line, what he does for the game of baseball, the way he moves the needle, not only in America, but especially that Japanese market, I got to see it up close in 2001 when Ichiro came over here. So you know, put the economical impact aside, what he's doing in the game right now, you know I'm here with a lot of great players from a lot of different generations, and the talk is Ohtani and they can't believe, you know I rode over in the car today with Raleigh Fingers, and we're talking about Ohtani and he's in awe. You know those old school guys are usually like, yeah my generation was this and that, but I'll tell you, he's the boss, he's the talk of baseball, from Raleigh Fingers, you know, his Oakland A-teams in the early 70s, to the current players, everything is Shohei Ohtani. The one thing as a fan, and I have an appreciation for it because I didn't think this would ever come to fruition, a guy played two ways at the highest level, what he's doing now, not only if he's doing it at an average level, let's say he's hitting seventh in the lineup but he's a number three or number four starter, that would be unbelievable for me, but the fact that he's doing it at a number one starter level and a middle of the lineup, legitimate all-star level on both sides, it's unbelievable. And by the way, he's one of the fastest guys in the game too and he steals bases, he plays every day. The only thing for me is, if I'm ownership, is it too good to be true?

How long can you keep this up? And I was thinking about when he falls off, and just as a good player, as just a third or fourth starter, the expectations are set so high, are the people going to frown on always not what he used to be, when he's still something we've never seen, so I think it's an interesting case. I don't think money's going to be the problem, it's going to be 600, it's going to be 700, whatever it is, I think you're going to have teams lining up, but as an owner, I'm just thinking, how real is this that he can keep this up for an extended period of time? I, as a fan, I love it that he's playing and I just want to see him get better and better, I don't know if he can get any better, but it's going to be really interesting this offseason, I know the Angels' entire focus this year was retaining Otani. They're a better team, I think they're in a little tough spot in that division, I think Texas has gotten a lot better, they're a better team, the Houston Astros, who I think is going to be at the top of that division at the end, they're a better team because they can just pitch better than everybody else. Mariners have had a rough start, not living up to expectations, but they can really pitch too, so I think it's a tough division for the Angels to go anywhere and make that postseason going to be a real stretch for them, but who knows, we'll see, I think Artie Moreno, the Angels, he was going to sell, he was going to sell, then he decided not to sell, I think the reason he didn't sell is because he wanted to do everything in his power to retain Otani's services.

It's going to be interesting, we'll see, it's going to come down to Otani, it's where do I want to play, where am I comfortable? He's had a ton of success in Southern California, it's a great place to play, Anaheim Stadium, I played there, it was probably my favorite ballpark to play in, just the weather, the atmosphere, the location, taxes are high, you might want to think about the taxes when it comes to $600-700 million, but it's going to come down to where is he comfortable playing, where does he want to raise his kids, where does he want to be with his family, he's pretty comfortable in Anaheim, I know the people there are unbelievable to him, so it's going to come down to a personal choice, I know the Angels are wanting it, but I know there's a lot of other ball clubs that are going to be lining up. Wrapping up with Brett Boone, the AL is wide open right now, with what you've seen so far and how you think it will play out in the second half, who's the team that you trust the most right now in the American League? The American League, I'm going to have to say, and I can't believe I'm saying it because year in and year out they do it as the Tampa Bay Rays, I mean they're off to an unbelievable start, Baltimore is making noise, they're only two games back, I think in the end Tampa pitches too much, and offensively they're not a star-studded lineup, they have the Wander Francos, the Rosarina has really upped his stock as far as name recognition, but that pitching just every year, year in and year out, the turnovers, unbelievable, whatever that culture they have going in Tampa Bay, they should bottle that and sell it, because whatever it is, it's a winning strategy, I still think in the American League, it's the Tampa Bay Rays or the team to beat. And then you look at the National League, Atlanta's just been ridiculous, the Dodgers haven't even played their best baseball yet, and they just found a way right before the All-Star break to be tied right up there with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the first spot in the NL West, outside of Atlanta and the Dodgers, because those are the two teams I trust the most, who's that next team that you say, okay, if it's not Atlanta, if it's not the Dodgers, maybe we see them in the Fall Classic? Well you would think on paper it makes sense for the San Diego Padres, right? Well who would have thought at this stage in the game, they're number two in the National League in pitching, they're 14th offensively, and you know, you look at that team on paper, that's the best lineup in baseball, the star power, they got four legit MVP candidates every year, but for some reason it's not measured, they're still 14th in the league and hitting I think their pitching's good, I didn't think it was second in the league good, but they're proving me wrong at this point, it's going to be a stretch for them, it's going to be tough, I still think they're six or seven out in the wildcard, so that's going to be a tough draw for them, Dodgers, not as good as they were a year ago, definitely not as good as they've been the last five or six years, but definitely they're still the Dodgers and they're still good, Arias is getting back and healthy, he's the key, Kershaw's still pitching at a high level, and they're going to be a team to beat, I think Atlanta's the clear-cut favorite, I mean they're just the best team in baseball around, offensively, defensively, pitching-wise, they got it all in Atlanta, that lineup's unbelievable, I got a chance to go out there, I think Atlanta's a team, you look to the Central Division, Cincinnati, that's a fun story, think they're making some noise, they don't have the pitching to hold up, that Central Division and the National League and the American League I think is equally bad, I don't think you're going to see a World Series champion from those Central Divisions, but I just don't see anybody better than Atlanta, Arizona might find a playoff spot, that's another great story, to go along with those Baltimore Royals and the Cincinnati Reds, but at the end of the day, I think you're right, I think it's the Dodgers, but I think the superior team in that league, the Atlanta Braves, by far. Two more questions for Brett Boone, who's here with us on the Zach Gelb show, you mentioned Cincinnati, Eli Dela Cruz has taken the league by storm in his first 30 games, I can't believe I'm saying this Brett, I would not have been annoyed with what the All-Star game is today, it's about marketing young stars, if after only 30 games they put him in the All-Star game because that's how great he's been.

He's unbelievable, you know, he's one of those, and I don't say this in a bad way or a condescending way, he's a freaky talent, I mean he's a freak, you know, who's that big, runs that fast, hits balls that far, and is that athletic, but that's what we're seeing in 2023, you know, the Tati's Juniors of the world, I think Eli Dela Cruz, there's a lot of comparisons to a Tati's Junior, who I think is one of the most talented guys in the game, he's got it all, he can run, he can hit homers, he's exciting, and you hit it on the head Zach when you said the marketing in today's game, it's a different animal than it used to be, and I think if you're talking about the cover of a magazine to represent your team, Dela Cruz is becoming that guy, like a Fernando Tati, so they're great players, and they're kind of rockstars too, for the cover of the program. We've been talking about Stars, your brother has one, managing the Yankees and Aaron Judge, and with that toe injury, we haven't seen him for a while, do you think your brother will eventually get Aaron back in the lineup sometime this year? I think so, and to be honest with you, you know, you'd think I'd have some insight, I don't talk to Aaron, we talk weekly, and once in a while we'll talk baseball, he'll have a question and advice, he doesn't always take my advice, I think he should, he'd be smarter, his older brother still knows best, no I'm kidding, but he's been tight-lipped on it, I haven't asked him about it, he hasn't said anything, I'm hearing some grumblings, he's going to be back right after the All-Star break, so we'll see if I'm right.

Are you really? So you haven't heard that from your brother, but someone's telling you. And that's it, yes, and that's honest, I haven't heard that from my brother, I'll tell you that, we don't talk about the game so much, I think the big news was made yesterday or the day before, Sean Casey, who was a good buddy of Aaron's and a teammate for years in Cincinnati, was named the hitting coach, I had no clue, because people were coming up to me and asked me, John Heyman asked me, Booney, are you going to be the hitting coach for your brother?

I said, what are you talking about? I didn't even know that was up for grabs or anything like that, and I told Johnny, I said no, we kind of decided a while ago that that's his thing in New York, it's not the Boone brothers hanging out in New York, that's Aaron's thing, I want to leave it, Aaron's thing, so as much as people think I talked to my brother, I got all this insight on the Yankees, we really don't talk about it, and I heard about the Sean Casey hire with everybody else on Twitter. So just to confirm, your brother has not told you about the judge situation, but someone has got in your ear to tell you that Judge could be back sooner rather than later after the All-Star break. Honest Abe, yes, Aaron Boone, definitely not my source, and that's honest. Well, we appreciate that, and I love that. Make sure you check them out on the Boone Podcast, they keep on pumping out content all throughout the week, it has been great all throughout the year. Brett Boone, great to catch back up with you, thank you.

You got it, Zach, see you. The Defensive Player of the Week is sponsored by the Navy Federal Credit Union, who proudly serves the Armed Forces, DOD veterans and their families, their members are the mission, learn more at navyfederal.org. The Defensive Player of the Week is Victor Wenbyama, before being shut down at Vegas' Summer League, Wenby averaged four blocks per game in the Spurs' first two games, he also added 27 points and 12 rebounds in Vegas for his final game, which was a loss to the Trailblazers. EJ, I know you're such a big basketball fan, let me ask you this, when it comes to Victor Wenbyama, I have made the comparison that what Shohei Ohtani has done for Major League Baseball, where you get told about how one of one someone is for such a long time, that is kind of similar to Victor Wenbyama now. We know what Ohtani does is so unique, but when you look at Victor Wenbyama, I've never seen someone that's 7'5", 7'6", and supposedly has the handles that he does and can shoot the ball, even though it's going to be improving the way that he can.

And when I saw him in person, and I probably sound like a broken record player at this point, but when I saw him in person, he was in a jumpsuit at 7'5", 7'6", he looked like he was just like a floating head, like he did not look like a human being. And what I said about Ohtani, what I'll say about Wenbyama, since most of us have not seen at one time Ohtani play, and now most of us haven't seen Wenbyama play, it's almost as if it's like a mythological person. And that's why there's so much intrigue where with what Ohtani's doing and what he's done the last few years, it makes you want to watch Major League Baseball's regular season. And for the NBA that doesn't really usually give you a reason or incentive to watch their regular season, because it's third in the pecking order, offseason, postseason, and then the regular season, for this upcoming year, even the summer league, which I usually give a rat's ass for, the first two games, I was all locked in because I wanted to see if this guy, Wenby, not that you get the answer in the first two summer league games, well some people, you follow them on social media, thought you get this answer. Put him in the Hall of Fame or put him as the biggest bust of all time after the first game. But it just, all right, we got a little taste, but the actual decision to shut him down, I wasn't surprised by it. I thought maybe if he played great in his first game, it would have been one and done. Yeah.

I think as soon as they got what they wanted to see and then the fans went to see that they weren't going to risk it any further. It's funny you mentioned, you know, seeing him and him look like a mythological figure. A lot of people have made the comparison to LeBron James and the hype. And I think there is some comparison there, but I think a better comp honestly is Yao Ming. I feel like the excitement around Yao Ming when he was coming over, another guy, seven foot five, shot the ball at a rate that most guys his size never will be able to shoot. Now, you know, Wenby has more guard skills than Yao Ming, but I think the mania around just like the hype and what he's going to bring to the NBA, how he's going to change the league.

And the global impact. And of course, the global impact reminds me a little bit more of Yao than it even does LeBron. I will say that when Benyama is the most high prospect of all time, I actually push back on that because I don't think it will exceed the hype of LeBron James. But I go to where Zion Williamson was just a few years ago.

You had Barack Obama, a former president of the United States sitting courtside when he burst through that shoe for Duke, UNC. Now I say that there's so much hype about when Benyama because what has been said, obviously the crazy height that he's at and what we keep on getting told and most of us haven't seen him. So it makes the brain wander even more.

And it makes us try to give you an opinion. And most of us don't know what we're talking about because we haven't really seen him play. I wonder where the hype was with Zion and we got to see some Zion Williamson in college. Imagine if Wenby came to the U.S. and imagine if he attended, I don't know, like a Kentucky or a Duke and college basketball's regular season is sometimes rather pedestrian. And I think nationally, a lot of us don't care until late February when the conference tournaments get underway.

I wonder where the hype would have been if we got to actually see this guy play a little bit. And it makes me wonder now that we have NIL, if we will have one of these international prospects, you know, decide one day to say, hey, you know what? The American college experience is pretty cool, unlike most things around the world. And, you know, unlike you and I, we don't have to pay for it out of pocket. In fact, they're going to give me three, four or five million dollars, given some of these NIL deals we see in college football and college basketball. I wonder if somebody will decide, let me go over to America with all this hype and all this excitement.

And perhaps I think you'd actually build a bigger platform if they did that as opposed to staying overseas. Where did you go to college, by the way? I went to Hunter College in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. OK. Yeah. Obviously, as you know, I attended Temple. Temple. Wow.

My brother went there. Yeah. So I would sometimes see the way that the Temple athletes were treated.

Exactly. And don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking my alma mater. Kalief Wyatt was a stud for the basketball program. Almost took down Victor Oladipo in the second round of the NCAA tournament up against Indiana. But you even look at the football program, which that was really the height of Temple football, if there was a thing that ever existed. At beat Penn State for the first time in 74 years, had college game day in Philadelphia.

And the football players, with a little bit of success, were rock stars. The basketball program, just being a part of the basketball team, there would be some guys that were terrible, that they were rock stars on campus. Of course. Imagine if Wenby was on a college campus. Yeah. Imagine if Wenby was at Kentucky or he was at Duke or he was at Arizona or UCLA, Carolina, like I'll throw in my zags. Like, I mean, the star, and it's funny, I was having a conversation a couple of days ago with Bart Winkler, ironically.

My guy, Bart. Yeah, exactly. And we were talking about, like, you know, this in-season tournament.

I was saying, look, we could talk about in-season tournaments, whether they're, you know, phony or whatever. When Chet Holmgren played against Paolo Bancaro in a preseason tournament in Vegas, that was like the biggest deal ever. Now imagine if it was Wenby and Yama against a Chet or Paolo in one of those games early in the season. I mean, the ratings would be crazy, the spotlight would be crazy. And I mean, I know it's so different because those guys are so built to, like, go through that European program that they, I don't know if they even can compute what it would mean to play over here in America in college.

But I think for these guys that are looking to be NBA players, like, and build their brands, I think it would be a no-brainer for one of them to decide to do this. Let me also ask you this, in-season tournament, since you brought it up, if you've listened to this show, you know, Adam Silver and I are never sharing a cup of coffee. I can't stand the commissioner, I think he's so overrated and spineless silver. I also can't stand Rob Manfred, but I'll give him credit, the pitch clock was good.

I was a fan of the pitch clock from the start. I'm not a fan from this in-season tournament. And I don't think it will ever be something that I'll actually care about. But where are you at with the in-season tournament? Oh, I love it. I'm really, really excited about it. Because I think it's one of those- Like, sell me on it why I should care about it.

Well, I think when we, well, not what I sold Bart on, because Bart had the same sexism, was look. In college basketball, we start the season with early-season tournaments. And we get marquee matchups at a time where normally we wouldn't be caring about basketball. And you know, during that Thanksgiving break or whatever, we kind of get interested. Oh, you know, Carolina's playing. Oh, Duke is playing. Oh, this is interesting.

It's in a different location. Like, I think to sell these early, regular-season games, to put something on the line, I think it's gonna be great. And I actually think that you'll see- But what's actually on the line?

Money. For the players, the $500,000. But does anyone care if you get to, like, raise a banner? Are the Knicks or are the Trailblazers, the Spurs, are you raising a banner in-season tournament champs?

I guarantee the fan bases that are in that semi-final will give a damn about winning. You think so? Absolutely.

Absolutely. Real NBA fans, once you get to the- Once you're in a group play, maybe you don't care as much. But once you get to quarterfinals and now you're in the semifinals, well, now you want to win.

So I think that you'll have a lot of engagement with this thing. That's the funniest part about the NBA. You just had to change the rules, I think it was, to 65 games to qualify for awards. And now we have to incentivize these players to get these ridiculous contracts to begin with. Which, good for them, make your money as you can.

Maybe $500,000 each if you win it, just to get them to play in the regular season. It shows you how Silver has no control of this league whatsoever. That his players make all this money and they can't even get him to play in the regular season. It drives me bonkers. But look, people complain about the regular season being boring. Here's something that's interesting and new.

What do people want? I don't know. We'll see if it makes any impact. I could be one over. I don't think I will be on this one, but I can be one over.

We'll have to wait and see. Well, thank you. Some of the biggest stories in the world of sports. Thanks for some audio, we call that segment The News Brief.