5.27: Last Week - Hour 1

on Friday. Feels like it's been forever since we since we were, you know, in this position hopefully creating some magic today. That's what we try to do every day. But there's only a few more shows with us left because Austin's actually going to be out on Friday. So I'm gonna make the most of what we have and today, you know, throughout the week, I just want to give

people heads up there. This will still be a show I do in fact prepare and we'll continue to do that, but I also want in my mind to just not really have any any map, if that makes sense, right. We're gonna end up where we end up in the three hour experience, and I don't really know where that could take us, but hopefully we'll enjoy ourselves and have

some fun. And I do also feel like the end of May early June is usually the as far as sports for me specifically, and I know I'm not alone, but when it comes to like what we really are interested in when it comes to sports in this market, it's pretty dead right now. I mean, you do have college baseball postseason getting underway, and that's actually grown in

popularity over the years, but we don't talk. Even if you end up getting into it more so than you typically would and you watch it on TV now more than you did a few years ago. It still isn't necessarily like a big sports talk radio kind of thing, but nonetheless, college basketball, college football, the NFL. I mean, that's really kind of what we eat off of around here for a good chunk of the year. And it's pretty dry right now. Right the dust is pretty much

settled when it comes to the portal. We've pretty much exhausted a lot of the different talking points out there when it comes to the college football season coming up here.

So we'll continue to you know, I'm sure get into some of that throughout these next four days at some point, But what I'm getting at is this is usually the time of year where I'm like, all right, we got from now until mid August where it's you know, you can you can basically take the guardrails off a little bit, if you will, and just end up in places that you know, people would typically say, what the hell are they doing? Why are they not talking about the depth

we have on the defensive line this year? Or why are they not talking about you know, major League baseball? And I'm not really sure if anybody who says those things they're regular listeners, because I mean, you've never got

that here. But it's a really long winded way of me putting it that it works out well for this being the last week because this is typically the time of the year on the calendar where I feel more comfortable and I'm not in my own head as much as far as bringing up anything, right, It's not like, well you need to only only you know, if you're gonna you're gonna talk about this, you know, do it when you have a five minute segment and not whenever.

You know, it's prime time drive time listening, and you know, I'm just gonna try to not have any awareness of that and see where we where we end up. But you can listen to us wherever you are, whatever you're doing, as long as you have some type of connection, because you can listen live on the Aheart Radio app also listen live at seven to ninety Louisville dot Com. Certainly a lot on the docket today to react to from

the long weekend. We'll get into the NBA playoffs because we have I mean, we've got my Pacers doing what the Knicks did, blowing a game that now has me worried about what happens tonight, because I mean, the Pacers have been the better team in this series for a

good chunk of it. It's kind of tricky because they weren't really the better team for probably sixty five to seventy percent of Game one, but they pulled off an insane come back, and then also in Game two they were better and really kind of you know, it was a close, a really good game by the way, but the Pacers end up pulling it out and go up too. Oh and then of course Game three, I mean it's

an endy. It looks as if the Knicks have decided, Okay, let's just go ahead and throw in the towel and see if we can survive Game four, send it back to New York with new life. Well then, you know, the Pacers let me down. That's not really what I'm sure they're thinking about letting me down, But they let themselves down because they should have won the game and

they got sloppy. The Knicks give them credit. Carl Anthony Towns is a rare guy in a lot of ways, but man, he's a hell of a player, super skilled and just just a tough tough dude. And sometimes he doesn't necessarily sound like a tough tough dude, but he's tough. He's a really tough matchup, So I really, I mean, I'm if. I mean, I don't want to. First of all, I know a lot of you probably don't really care as much about the Nicks and the Pacers like I do.

But I kind of feel like a loss here it's over. I mean I shouldn't say it's over, but like New York stole two back from you, and then you go into the garden needing to win two of the last three here, and you do. You will get a trip home in game in game six if we get there.

But letting that one slip away when it was right there you were blowing them out, I'd be a liar if I said, as a Pacers fan, I haven't been thinking like that could have when that lead slipped away and the Knicks came back and took it from us and won. Credit to them again. And I think it was a collective effort on both sides, the Pacers doing things that left the door open for the Knicks, but

also credit to the Knicks. They took advantage of it, and if they were able to win tonight, it changes everything. I think a win tonight for the Pacers is I mean it almost means the series might be over it. That sounds like an extreme thing. But look, if you can get up three to one, yeah, I guess then if you slip up, then the pressure's there, like there's always gonna be some some some components or some pressure components as far as Okay, if you lose this one,

then Mann, the pressure's on. But still to tonight just seems like an insanely important game in this series. Every one of them is right, you got to get best of boar out of seven. But if the Knicks win tonight, they actually have taken back all the momentum plus some right, because being tied to a piece wouldn't typically be what the Knicks would be view. I don't think the Knicks

would look at that as like a great position. But man, after they got down oh two and had an old time melt down in Game one, if they can then just a week later find themselves with a best two out of three series where they get home court advantage, it's new life for them. So if you can't tell I'm a little scared about tonight, I mean, would you agree, Austin Like the Pacers lose this, then they get tight the butthole gets tight. Oh yeah.

a good position for the Pacers. But then that fourth quarter it was a much different thing. I hate that feeling. Yeah, oh yeah, it makes it you know, it makes me feel alive. It's a little it's a little bit of a rush on the hammock. No hammock. I wish we had a hammock, but uh, just imagine you yeah, hammock. Yeah. I just realized I probably need to just in my mind think of things that I typically would say on this show that I need not to do when I moved to eight forty whas because I don't know if

it would be a good thing. Probably would not be. In fact, I know it wouldn't be a good thing, and I need to not do it. Like imagine me, Hey, let's throw it to Scott Fitzgerald. The buttholes are going to get tight, right like that's you know, it was just it was a It was a It stood out to me as something that you know, probably shouldn't say anyway. There's no real added benefit, but you know sometimes there's

just not I didn't even notice it. Yeah, well, because again that's just our style, right, you know, just shed some light on it, be to be clear. What I mean is is, and I think most people know, is that you're gonna get like, you're gonna get nervous, You're gonna get tight because you realize we had a momentum and now we've let it slip away. Uh oh, we're you know, we're up against it here. They've got us on our heels and I guess I should have said

that rather than mentioning butthole being tight. But you know, again, sometimes it's just, you know, we're lawless at times around here.

a little bit dead now. And for as much as we and I say we, I know I'm not alone have hyped up Anthony Edwards. And I don't mean just like around here on this show. I mean like he's one of the he's one of the bigger stars in the NBA. Is really really, really good. I do think it's gonna be something I remember for a long time, just because it seemed like a big moment one in his career. But also just in kind of the passing of the torch, if you will, when it comes to

new stars of the league. But when Anthony Edwards participated with Team USA last year in the Olympics, it was it was a known thing. In fact, many of the superstars that represented Team USA would come out and say, he's our best player. He's that he's that special, which he is, but you know, he he doesn't have an element to his game that is that is, you know, super important this day and age. I know people call him a free throw merchant meaning shay Jodis Alexander, but

he's a three level scorer. And I heard a really good breakdown and I do think at times it is almost it makes it watchable at times if you're if you because it's not uncommon to tune into the NBA and for you know, three four minutes of action with

very little to no stoppages in that time. It's a rare thing for you to not see somebody really just selling a foul and just trying debate people into contact and manipulating the defender, which technically there's nothing against that, there's no rule against that, but like it's just it's not really entertaining to watch, but it's a huge part of the NBA now And for all these players that you know play above the rim and are vertical, guys like you know Anthony Edwards, who is just a specimen,

just a freak athlete, can do can you know, can do a lot of things. But then you have guys like Sga who he's a he's a three level scorer. He's certainly a good athlete. He's really quick. But what makes him such a special player is a lot of things. But I think he can get to the line as good as anybody. But also with that, it's because he has phenomenal footwork, right Like he you can't speed him up. He can speed you up, slow you down, and make

you foul him. And sometimes it is just him, you know, he doesn't do it as bad as Brunts and Brunson is the worst I've ever seen, and just laying his big frame on somebody and falling down and then getting a call, and then at times he'll hook and holt. I mean, he's gifted at it. But you know, it's if you can do it and it helps you win and it's not technically against the rules, then I see

why people are doing it. But what I'm getting at with SGA and Anthony Edwards, both phenomenal players, both are probably I mean those guys right there might be the two faces of the NBA in five years. I mean, that's just how good they are. So it's not like one's way better than the other. But I think the supporting cast that Shay has is actually better than what Anthony Edwards has. But also to me stands out in this series that Edwards is just not quite there yet.

And look, we'll see, I mean SGA is in the Western Conference Finals. I mean they still have to win this series and then potentially beat the Pacers or the Knicks, and then if you win a ring, it does change everybody looks at you. But I just I've been really impressed with SGA in this entire postseason. And there's been a lot of talk about again free throw merchant and wanting to discredit how good he actually is by mentioning, well, he just gets to the free throw line a lot. Well,

that's that check. That's a big part of basketball. And if you or somebody that can get to the free throw line a lot and score a lot of points, because you know, you make a lot of your free throws. In turn, you know what that does, It makes you

a really really good basketball player. I mean, when you think of the guys in the NBA over the years, or even guys in college that were really really good at getting to the line and they shot a lot of free throws, they made a lot of free throws, how many of those guys would you classify as not good players? And I don't mean like I mean, anybody playing in the NBA or high level college is technically a good player. But when you can, i mean take

all levels of it, high school, college, NBA. If there's somebody that is getting to the free throw line more than anybody else and it's not even close, that person's a good player, right because they're they're able to get to the line score a lot of points. So it's just one of those things that how that's now being used as well, he's really not that good he can just get to the free throw line. Well, it kind of works together. That's that's you know, that's kind of

how it works. So anyways, NBA playoffs again, who knows what we'll get tonight because you just never know what This series in the East it's not. I haven't put any I haven't had any action on it. The last couple of days, I did a I did a player prop bet with Halliburton and Nie Smith and on Sunday and it did not didn't go well for me.

it's a holiday, that kind of stuff. But I think if you just have a shorter work week and the weekends extended in that regard, like what you do by adding Monday is just making it to where we get a little bit of a delay in having to return to our normal schedule and work week, whereas if we get Friday, it's like we got we got out early, you know what I mean. And really, again, let's be honest, it's the same exact thing as far as the amount of time you're working and the amount of time that

you're not working. But the way you can manipulate it, I just think it'd be if we did go to I don't think we're going to it. If we already to go to a four day work week, I would be all in on making sure that's a Friday that we don't work. I mean, look, I think you use this I try platform somehow, trust me. The amount of people who don't follow at all anything politically, and look, if you don't, more power to you live your life,

do your thing. But and you just heard there was somebody out there that was like, yeah, I'm all about everybody getting three day weekends, there'd be enough people to where that you hit, you'd hit the ballot like you'd appear as receiving votes because enough people who don't care what he say. Hey, if all I gotta do is to, you know, go vote for this guy and there's a chance that he may win and eliminate a work day out of the week, I'm all in.

feels like getting off early and then Monday. Now, give me, give me Friday off. Let me have my Monday that that kind of mental get back to work type of day, and I'll enjoy the Friday.

back into the work week. Whereas when you just hit the ground running, I mean it's it's a little much. And again, the Sunday sun Sundays are gonna be different from me moving forward because now you know, for the last however many years, I get up like everybody else does to start the week on a Monday. But you know, it hasn't been at three point thirty in the morning. Now it's gonna be that early, and it's just gonna it's gonna be lunchtime on Sunday. I'm gonna be like, well,

you got enjoyed the rest of your weekend. I gotta go ahead and start winding down because three thirty am is gonna come really early tomorrow. So and by the

way this was. I was listening to the show that I know Terry had stopped by the remote today with Tony and Dwight out when you guys were there, and I don't know if you caught the they were just they brought up Tony retiring and how happy they were for him and whatnot, and then they mentioned how he's going to be able to, you know, sleep in a little bit more now, and then each each of them and I texted them all in a group shadow was like, thanks a lot, guys, but they just like it wasn't

even as if they were. They they didn't spend any time talking about it, but they were unable. Dwight went and Tony Venetti and Terry Miners were all three unable to reference the morning show and the morning job that I just took that I'm now gonna, you know, do. They couldn't just they couldn't just move on without acknowledging how bad that would suck and how awful it would be to have to get up early. Oh yeah, mornings,

that sucks. Mornings. That's awful. And I'm like, well, thanks, guys, really look really looking forward to it, which I really am. In all seriousness, but I'm well aware that here's my plan for the mornings. By the way, and for those who still haven't really picked up, or maybe you just haven't been listening, I'm leaving after this week and just moving down the hall and moving up your radio dial.

So at five am Monday through Friday, I will get Kentucky in this morning news started as the host alongside with Scott Fitzgerald, John Alden, and John Shannon is our news anchor. It'll be from five to nine am. And really looking forward to it, but obviously it's a big lifestyle change to have to get up that early, and I'm gonna do most of my preparation at night before I go to bed. That way, I don't really have a lot to do by the time I get here. There may be some slight things to kind of just

double check. There are some things, I guess you know when you go to bed early, there's things that could happen over the night or late in the evening that you missed if you went to sleeps Anyways, I'm gonna try to get most of that kind of stuff done in the evening and then I'm gonna try to get here by about four fifteen, and after the show, I'll probably stick around for an hour or two, talk to some sales folks, maybe work on some some video content

that kind of stuff, and then I'm gonna like make it a priority to wear it is part of my daily daily job is to get an appen because if I don't, then it just becomes to where like it's just it's you know, eventually I'll hit a wall, and

I don't want to hit that wall. Because with this big move, there's been many that have been happy for me and congratulated me, and I'm greatly appreciate that, and it's been it's been awesome to see how many folks are, you know, telling me that they can't wait to listen and that they're you know, they're they're happy for me

and all that, and that's great. But there's also been mixed in some people who are like, just so, you know, that kind of a shift can really mess with you mentally, and then people are like, you know, I worked at UPS overnights for a long time and there was never a moment in my twenty years on third shift that I was not tired. Look, thank you really making me feel good. So again I.

planning or having any thought towards it. If you just you know, if it just becomes routine, then you know, like I'll I'll create my own sleeping schedule without even really knowing what it is. But you know, I don't want to. My biggest worry is if I go sleep during the day like I've never I don't know if I've ever woken up from a nap and not been grumpy. Ever, I don't know if I've ever woken from a woken up from a nap and not been tired the rest to the day, of course, So I don't have a

whole lot of experience with naps. I just don't. I don't. I don't sleep very often during the day. But I'm gonna have to and find some balance in.

let me set the table for you guys. There's a lot we can get into, and including Greg Sanky as he is h he's clapping back taking shots at the ACC and the Big Twelve, which I shouldn't even say clapping back, because I don't think the ACC took any shots at Greg Sanki or the Big twelve took any

shots at Greg Sanky. They're just basically like, yeah, we're not gonna We're not just gonna agree with anything you say, because clearly you work for one league, we work for another league, and what you may think is best for yours may not be best for ours, and vice versa. And yet he's in full defense mode. And yet it just brings me back to what I've said for a long time now, how could anybody think this would ever work without real issues? Because again, everybody's out for themselves,

as they should be because it's their job. So we'll get into that. Also, how about this. I never even realized it at all, never even thought about it. But Indiana, the Hoosiers, they've never had a mascot. Did anybody know that? Well, now they're getting a mascot, and I think it's you know, at this point, Indiana's such a brand in college athletics,

and the Hoosiers such a rare thing. Like, I don't really know what you could do that wouldn't seem weird and unusual to start, but everybody needs a mascot to an extent. So we got a lot to get to stick with us. It's coffee and company the final week, and we're feel about Thornton right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

And I didn't mention this in the first segment, as far as things we can we can get into and discuss, and I guess there really isn't any There isn't really anything to there's no breaking news or anything like that. But Mark Pope yet to hear, and maybe he's heard and just isn't public yet, but there's not been any official public acknowledgment that that Kentucky's getting back their star player. And I feel like, you know, maybe there's a chance

that he's already told Pope. He just wants to wait, and I don't even really know what the deadline is,

but it's got to be getting close. At least I would assume that it's getting close as far as the deadline, because you're seeing a lot of guys who participated in the draft combine that didn't get great feedback or maybe they just wanted to go through the process and did not expect at any point, you know, to get any type of indication that the right time to go pro would be now, But they just wanted to go through that experience because there's a lot of value that comes

with it. But anyways, as far as what happens with with you know, the guys that are left, I feel like the majority of them, I mean, there can't be many that have that have I mean as far as guys who have a really tough decision to make, I mean, I feel like most of those guys have already decided what it is that they're going to do. But otega Oway is clearly Kentucky's top player next year, regardless of

who they brought in. And maybe I'm wrong, like maybe one of these guys who transferred in, like Jalen Low, who was really really impressive, It sounds like at the g Lee combine and then that got him an opportunity at the actual NBA Draft combine. Like maybe he's their best player. But I always felt like otakea Away was their best player last year, but like nobody really acknowledged it because I guess they were of the belief that it was going to be either Jackson Robinson or maybe

even Lamont Butler. But Go Takeaway has does not have really any I mean, it says here that the draft deadline, let's say, let's see here, it says the college eligible prospects have until May twenty eighth at eleven fifty nine pm, So it's tomorrow night at midnight is the deadline to submit paperwork stating they no longer intend to go through the process. So Kentucky is going to know one way

or the other. And I don't know enough about otake Away if he's somebody that has the personality or maybe he's shown to really I don't want to say take advantage because that sounds like I'm being critical, and I'm really not. If you have this moment and you realize it's such a big deal that you're coming back to school, I mean, for you to, I guess play into that now if you if you start messing with fans and whatnot,

that's that's a little bit of a different situation. But I think most would love the thought of knowing you can announce, hey, I'm coming back, and you're just going to get showered with nothing but love and praise because people are so excited that you're back. So if a lot of us were, you know, in this position when we were a lot younger, I think we probably would do a lot of these things that current players and recruits do because you know, I think it's human nature

to want to be wanted. And clearly I think otega Oway knows that him coming back is going to be a big, big deal and he's going to make fans wait till the last minute. I guess to have it because there doesn't seem to be any real fear that he will not be back yet as of right now, at three point thirty three, he is not. I guess made it official as far as letting anybody know. And this goes back to the awkward conversations that that you know,

we've had over the years. As far as I guess recent years, more than anything, is if somebody is not going to hit the portal, do they need to tell us that? Right? Used to be well, why would they go anywhere? Why do they need to say anything? Well now, because it's a reset every year, meaning you can do whatever you want. You do feel as if guys would need to say something for you to feel.

a real tough decision. But because of the new world and what it is, I think everybody can read the room right like, we know you can leave if you want. We know if you did leave, you would have a lot of options and probably a lot of potential, you know, money, So what are you gonna do? I do believe I tend to side more so with let's not let's not be stupid here, meaning let's not insult people's intelligence. You know, the whole Like, why would I need to say anything until he's.

to do something. There's actually something that needs to be done in order for him to be able to come back, and that is submit paperwork stating that they no longer intend to go through the process. And I would assume he's either done that or he's doing it now. And it's just kind of a waiting game, I know. With with Mark Pope, he he did his interview with KSR last week, and it sounds like he wanted to do that interview once he knew for sure what his roster

was going to be. And I guess that doesn't mean he couldn't have a last second, you know, change of the roster, because maybe Away had had the decision to you know, maybe Away to change his mind and told him at the last second. Who knows. I guess that's possible, but I'd be highly, highly, highly shocked if he doesn't come back to Kentucky because again, the amount of money he's gonna make is more than he would make even if he probably gets drafted in the early second round

or late first round. So it says here that the when it comes to the different mock drafts that are out there, the vast majority of them don't have him getting drafted. However, Sports Illustrated they have, They've all, they've they've been the one that seemingly has had him in the second round for quite some time. They currently have him going fifty eighth overall, and you've got let's see CBS Sports Updated is its latest mock draft, but always not in it. Same thing with Clutch Points, which is

actually a pretty now reputable NBA outlet. But nonetheless, I would say he comes back to Kentucky. But I'm trying to think. If I'm a Louisville fan and I'm in this position, I'm sorry. If I'm a Kentucky fan and I'm in this position, I think I would be comfortable and not worried about it, but you know, just knowing that he could have a last second change of heart that would be that would I guess that would probably

make me a little more nervous. Then again, like to go back to what we talked, what was a couple of weeks ago, we played the sound as somebody was doing the somebody was doing on NBA TV. They were having the five on five scrimmages and they had not only the play by play guy and a guy doing color, but they brought in I think it might have been Jonathan Givoni of Draft Express. I'm not sure who it was,

but it was an analyst. It was basically stating that now with guys like oh, take away, the decision becomes much easier because you might get drafted, or you can for sure go back to college and make more money than you would make even if you did get drafted. And that was him. So it really came down to the only scenario where he's not at Kentucky next year would be that he got some kind of a late guarantee from a team that they're going to take him in the first round, or that he just hates being

at Kentucky. And I don't think that's the case at all. But even if he did, I think the amount of money he's going to make to be at Kentucky would make him not hate it as much. Again, if he even did, and I guess the other scenario would be that he would be worried that his draft stock may actually be better now because he doesn't think Kentucky's going to be very good next year, and that could that could hurt him. I don't think that's true, and I

don't think he would see it that way. So again, I would say all signs point to him to him coming back now one of the probably one of the best players that hit the portal, But yet there really wasn't a whole like PJ. Haggerty was at Memphis with Penny Hardaway last year and was a first team All the mayor I believe, if not first team, he was the second team All American. And he committed to Kansas

State today. And this is a guy who really the momentum in the coverage of his recruitment would have been so different had he not or I guess his agency is representation as handlers, had they not handled it the way that they did, right, because when you come out of the gate, entering the portal and having your representation,

your agent. I guess let guys like Gary Parrish, Matt Norlander and Jeff Borzello, Jeff Goodman, let those guys know, Hey, you're requesting at minimum four million dollars and you want to run the show, you want to be the point guard.

I mean, I think even though we're all about getting good players in the portal that can help you win, I think a lot of people realized there's not going to be many programs that'll that'll that'll take that right that not only is that way too much money for a player, even if you gave him half of that, that's still an insane amount of money that I'm not sure many if any, actually get for nil. But also

you're bringing in a guy to your locker room. Let's say it's a locker room that's already kind of in place with some guys returning, and you know, this guy's showing up and there's no competition because he's already been given the point guards by like, that's just not an ideal scenarios. So he did not get pursued heavily by many big time schools. And I think it's for those reasons I just mentioned, and I think there were a

couple of schools. It sounds like they did try to pursue him with a look, we know what you're asking for, but like, let's let's let's have a conversation here, Like you're not getting that anywhere, and we can give you something we think is not only a good deal for you from a money standpoint, but also you'll play in a really good system with a really good team and get a whole lot of notoriety. So we got that off. We can we can talk about that type of an

arrangement if you're interested. But it sounds like he stuck to his guns and did not And I kind of respect it because I get the feeling this guy, who by the way, is a this will be his sixth year playing I believe, started at TCU, then went to Tulsa, they went to Memphis. Now he's going to be at

Kansas State. So maybe he knows he'll never play in the NBA, and he's not worried about anything other than cashing in as best he can making money in college because when he plays pro, rather it be in you know, the G League or in Japan, China, somewhere in Europe. He knows the big payday is now, so he's just gonna do whatever he can and basically just pick whichever program pays him the most money. And I'm not sure if Kansas State and Jerome Tang were able to do that,

but it went from being PJ. Haggerty is likely going to end up going to NC State to play for will Wade, and then I guess they wouldn't. I guess they wouldn't give him the amount. I mean, it sounds to me like this guy really did, in fact, try to just squeeze out the biggest payday he could get. N C State wasn't willing to pay I guess what he wanted, and I think they were initially going to be his biggest offer, and yet they ended up taking the guy from Texas Tech who transferred last week, who

announced his decision in C State. So although there are two different players, right, Haggard, he's a point guard, this guy from Texas Tech's more of like a wing or a hybrid four. But now it's not about competing for roles, it's about competing for the budget. Right, who you know if you're paying this guy who just played in a find or an Elite eight with Texas Tech. He's not coming for cheap, so that I guess eliminated NC State's

ability to pay him what he wanted. So then it was he's going to go back to play for penny and he may not get the most money, but he'll get a lot of money and it'll work out well. Then Kansas State steps in, So I think just maybe I'm forcing it here as far as connecting dots, but I think this guy just went to the highest bidder and Kansas State was able to find the money and say, hey,

let's let's make this work. So, I mean, there's still such a a stenshet of negative tone when you talk about guys just out out for the money, just chasing the bag, going to the highest bidder. Right, there's a tone of it as if they're doing something wrong. But I surely that will eventually fade with college sports fans, right because this is this is their job. Like you at your job, you're gonna do whatever you can to make the most money, right, I mean, maybe not everybody.

Maybe there's maybe there's a compromise to where you will take a lower salary because you don't get responsibilities that bring you stress. Like everybody's got to find their own balance. But at some point, we as a society will no longer have that negative tone to the conversation about guys just doing whatever for the money, because hey, that's this

is their job. They'd be I mean, if you really consider it, you're not being responsible for your future if you're not constantly resetting and I don't mean constantly transferring, but I mean constantly reevaluating your worth and what you can get. Because from here on out, when these guys leave after a four or five or sometimes now six year stent of playing college sports, they're gonna be starting their professional life. Maybe it'll be playing pro in another country.

Maybe it'll be playing pro in the NBA, you know, or maybe it'll be maybe on the football side. You know, you just there's just no market for you in the NFL. You're a great college player, but you just don't translate to the NFL. Well, you can leave college after four years and say, yeah, I'm not going to go to the get you know, maybe you do the undrafted free agent thing for a year and then you know you're out of football and you can go play in the

XFL or the UFL. But if you've stacked up a ton of money because you play four years of college football and you had a big time an IL deal, you can just start your life, and you know, maybe you are more able to just walk away from competing in the sport you grew up loving because you know what, you got five million in the bank and you can go start a business, right you can invest in things like I just I think in the you know, twenty years from now, if I mean, I just think there's

going to be so much that these guys have available to them to start life that really won't have anything to do with them playing pro sports. It'll be them maybe being businessmen. You know, who is it? The guy who played at North Carolina for twenty years and just just finished school recently. I can't think of his name, Bakhat. I don't know if people know the story. It's not super interesting, but you know, it's not something you typically hear about from a college player ending his career. But

he did not get drafted. He has been in the G League, but he made an insane amount of money at Carolina. Right well, he's buying hotels like apparently he is investing in buying hotels and that you know, he's gonna I don't know if he's gonna have his own chain or what it is. I'm not sure if he's like a minority owner and like a company or what it is. But he's using a lot of money he made in college to be in the hotel business. And again,

that's not super interesting. It's not something you typically hear about. But I think that's just an example of that anybody who's out here just trying to get as much money as they can during this period of their life. Not only is there nothing wrong with that, I think it's foolish if you don't, to be honest with you, all right, quick break, we'll come back. We've got a lot more

to get into, including Greg Sank. Really, I think just confirming that there needs to be somebody above all of the conferences, you know, maybe a commissioner of college football, not a commissioner or four commissioners of different conferences trying to work together when clearly they aren't and they shouldn't. It's not their job. So we'll get to that in a lot more. Keep it locked right here on Sports Talk seven.

And yes, last year the Pacers beat the Knicks in Game seven, but that was in the Semis, and if you can get past the Knicks, which you still should be able to do, I mean, you should take care of business tonight and then really, you know, maybe you end up you know, I think if you win the night, you got a good chance of ending the series in New York and that in game Game five. But we'll see.

But anyways, it's just been a lot of fun to see them now have a chance to actually get to the NBA Finals for the first time since they lost to the Lakers, I think it was. And one of that one of those three pet years that they had, and then on the West, obviously the thunder are a real scary matchup. They're that they're that good, but they're not scary, and maybe they should be, right, maybe they should be scary, but they're not scary like the Warriors

when they were rolling three through the NBA. Who else on the West has just been in recent like really it's been the Warriors, right like, even whenever there's been like down years for them, you've had the Nuggets who were in the Nuggets have been kind of a force, I suppose for a little while. But anyways, it's open, it's there if you can. I mean, this is the first time really in my lifetime. My dad and I we went to dinner on Saturday. Shout out to my

dad and happy sixty fourth birthday to the weekend. Yeah, so we were talking. He had me as a friend on Facebook. Hell yeah, I like to hear that. He's he's the man, and he's of course somebody that got me into the Pacers and that's why I'm a Pacers fan of this day. But we were talking and he said something that to me, it's so obvious, yet I hadn't really even given it any thought, and that is that this is the best opportunity for the Pacers to

win an NBA title in my lifetime. And I'm not really sure it's close because their best chances when I was a kid, you know, they had to get past Jordan. That wasn't easy. Jordan, the Bulls, those teams were great, but Michael and his crew in Chicago, they were pretty tough to get to get passed. And then whenever Jordan stepped away and the Pacers franchise was still in a

pretty good spot. One year they lost to the Pistons, which really killed me because the Pistons, that's right when they had it rolling and Tayshawn Prince, former Kentucky Wildcat, blocked Reggie Miller on a breakaway lay up and changed the entire series, and obviously they ended up losing. And then at one point I think this might have been Yeah, this was before the Pistons, but at one point they did win the East and they went on to play

Kobe and Shack in LA. So, yeah, they've had other good teams, they've made the finals in my lifetime, but they're best teams. There's been a goliath in the way. Jordan the Bulls, Scott, the Lakers teams that went on with a three peat with Kobe and Shack, and then also even the really good teams with Paul George what roughly seven, eight, nine years ago, however long ago it was,

we had to get past Lebron in the heat. And I know it sounds like, well, yeah, you got to get past really good teams if you're gonna win the freaking NBA title, and you're right, But I do think there's a difference in getting past a team that's really really good, like the Thunder or even the Wolves or maybe the Knicks. That's a different thing. It's a different type of challenge than having to get past the nineties Bulls, Kobe and Shaq when they were in their prime in

LA in Miami, Lebron James. So it is more open right now than it's ever been. And I'll say this, I don't think they're that scary, but we wouldn't know because we don't fear the Thunder because they've got SGA, who's the MVP of the NBA, and I think it's deserved. But the most talked about thing in regards to SGA in the last week has been that he's a free throw merchant. He's not really that good. I mean, that's

an outlets thing to say, but it's been said. People don't seem to realize that if you are really really good at getting to the line and you make a lot of free throws that you shoot, that works out to where that's an equation to where you're a really good basketball player. And know, by the way, he's good at a lot of other things too. Jalen Williams is probably the best player in the NBA that nobody knows who he is. This is such an overused thing as

far as a saying, but it's true. He could walk into a lot of places nobody would know who he is, and he averages twenty points per game on the best team in the NBA. You would know who chet Holmgrin is just because he's a giant and he was such a phenom coming out of high school that he had more I mean, this, dude, Jalen Williams, he would dis Santa Clara. Nobody watched him in college, and then he goes to Oka See, probably the smallest market in the league.

So I don't fear them like I do the other great dynasties we've talked about, but maybe I should because they look really, really good, although hard for me to say somebody is that scary good. When they lost by fifty points in Game three, I mean they literally did loose by an insane amount, which tells me, yes, you're good. But part of me says that you getting beat by that amount in any point in the playoffs automatically keeps you from being included into that group that you just fear.

And again, I think the nineties Bulls, Kobe and Shaq in La and really, I still believe Miami Lebron was the scariest Lebron we ever got to watch, just because he was playing angry because he couldn't believe that people were upset with him about the decision, which obviously didn't work out for him. All Right, we'll talk a little more about tonight's Game four between the Pacers and Knicks in a little while. We got two more hours left, and I hope you will stick around with us at

his Coffee and Company, Nick Coffee. That's me Austin Montgomery alongside two more hours left on Sports Talk seven ninety