It's time for Coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety Holy crap, I don't know who the hell we think when we are getting off our show, idiot. The kids are crying or turning off, crying. The countries are screwing it up. Gold Play inter murals, Brother, gold Play intermurals. They're supposed to be with your adults, but they're really not. Who's the kid here? Who's the kid here? Are you kidding me? Now? Here's Nick coffee. When there's a little bit of a
delay, not for the show to start. I mean, John is doing his job. He got the party started right at three o'clock. He hits I assume is it a button? It is a bum. He hits the button and we're off enrolling. But when it takes me a little longer to, you know, turn on my microph and start yap, And it's because I've got to I've got to get my tweet out there, just to remind people like, hey, in case you might have forgot about us, we're
here. It's Coffee and Company from three to six on Sports Talk seven ninety, field by Thornton's with myself, Nick Coffee, and the company man John Alden. I mean, there's no way they'd forget, right, No, not at all with the mainstay. Now, it's true. I mean it's
we're a staple here. We're a part of your day. And uh, I'm sure you listen every second of this program from three to six, and we appreciate you for that because I mean, you wouldn't just listen to a few minutes, because then you'd feel under you'd feel like you you know, you didn't get the full fix. That is the experience of this show. Do you think people forgot about the worry of yesterday storms? I mean it
was definitely underwhelming, at least in our area. Yeah, and again it's good because like it sounds like there was no I mean I don't think any I'm not really sure of any severe damage in you know, the major area
around here, maybe south of US maybe Tennessee got it pretty hard. But I actually feel like Wednesday, I'm not sorry, Tuesday was actually worse than Wednesday, but I feel like the build up, right, the buzz about some severe, very dangerous weather, and look, as we discussed yesterday, I mean they had us on alert and I'm assuming everybody was ready and prepared if in case things got crazy, But it didn't really seem like it did.
When I left here, I drove straight to dinner to meet my family, and it was raining really hard, and once I got into dinner to the restaurant, it thundered really loud ones. But then after that it was kind of, you know, pretty chill, which you know, that's what we want, right we don't want crazy weather. But just my last thing
I'll say about it and we'll move on it. I just there's got to be some level of like a barometer to where they decide, okay, we're going to really ramp it up and really emphasize how worried we are, you know what I'm saying, Like because yesterday again I'm not a meteorologist, what the hell do I know? But it didn't really feel like it was anything crazy at all. But the one time it felt like something might happen was
when we heard thund I know from our studio. Yeah yeah, and uh, you know, it was loud, but sounds like things were you know, not dangerous, which again is good. All right, Let me remind you guys, if you want to take us with you wherever you go maybe you're going to be, you know, jumping out of your car heading into the gym, maybe your go I don't know, whatever you're doing on a
Thursday afternoon here in Louisville, you could take us with you. Listen live on the AHET Radio Listen live at seven ninety Louisville dot Com had another another listener hit me up earlier this week that told me that they finally got got Their employer is now restricting streaming access to seven ninety Louisville dot com at work, which I'm not sure if it's because we're we're clogging up their bandwidth. I can't imagine that's the case, because you know, streaming audio really shouldn't
be that heavy on your connection. Video different story, but it's probably because they want you to be productive. But I think all employers should understand that the best way for your employees to be happy and be productive is if they are working hard while consuming the show. Just my thoughts, probably biased, but uh, you know I I send them a work around, oh digital, Oh yeah, send them a little send them a little work around to where they can bypass the uh, the the block that I guess I or
somebody's got on their on their on their access. Now they should know and I probably should have told them this, like, hey, you know, like you could eventually get caught again, but this should this should bypass whatever you're sending me. Very concerned listener too, because I got a screenshot of what it was showing at work, and I'm like, oh, I've seen that before. Not that I'm you know, super tech guy, but I
used to work the Cube life. I used to have to uh, you know, I used to have to keep my uh keep you know, keep my eyes out for some of the latest hacks to get to work around things. Because obviously they don't want you. They don't want you to doing anything other than working whenever you're at, whenever you're at your desk. I guess if you are at, if you're at working from home, they'd have no ability to do that, right, I wouldn't think. So I let's say,
just have direct access to your computer. Yeah, if you have, if you have a laptop that they sent home with you, I feel like they you could still have like some restrictions, but also like if you're on your own internet, would that would you still be would you still be blocked?
It's a good question anyways. So before we, you know, get into the typical stuff that we get into, I just want to I kind of feel like the last two weeks here, the buzz and I guess it's going to be three weeks total around the city of Louisville has been great and something I don't really remember ever happening before. We had the Kentucky Derby last week. Obviously, Derby one fifty and every year that's a big deal. And as we discussed on Monday, I don't think Derby could have gone any
better for those that put it on right. Obviously, if you bet money on the ponies and they didn't come through for you, then I'm sure you didn't have a great experience. But you know, we lucked out. I think for the most part with weather, attendance was was strong, and you know, the race itself couldn't have been better. So now we've got the PGA event that's coming up next week and this week they're already doing a lot
of preparations for it. Tiger Woods is in town. I don't know if you saw that John there's pictures of him on the course yesterday at Valhalla, and Tiger Woods is one of those celebrities that I feel like for the rest of his life and probably after he's dead and gone, Like he's that famous to where I don't care who you are. You know who he is. He's a larger than life fishing Yeah sure, And when you know he's in your city like it, you know, it kind of feels cool. Like
it hasn't impacted me in any way. I'm not like riding around looking for him like paparazzi, but you know, he's like a mega super famous person and I don't really have any strong opinions on him at all. I'm not
a golf guy. I think that's been pretty clear over the years. It's the one sport that I kind of feel like I should, Like it would benefit me with you know, this show probably, and it would benefit me professionally to be able to go out and hit the golf course tap business, right, Like I can't tell you how many times we've had a client that, you know, hey, when we go play around a golf and I've had to tell him like, I mean, we can, but like I
would, I would just embarrass you. I embarrass myself, and you'd be embarrassed to be seen with me playing around of golf. Now, since then, I've gotten a little bit. I can now play, but you know, it's not good, Like I still will occasionally take a swing with the driver and miss the ball, you know. So you know, if I was gonna get into it, I probably would have already done it by now.
I've been telling myself that for years. Although I do play a couple times a year and it's always a lot of fun, but usually the fun for me is just pounding bush lights with the boys on the golf course. Like that's kind of that's kind of why I do it. That's that's the injury, that's that's that's what gets me there. Right, You tell them we're gonna go play around the golf and I can't drink beer and you know, hang with the fellas. Then like, yeah, I'm out, you're
the party guy. Yeah, Because I'm really competitive with myself and if I suck at something, I'm not gonna do it because I'm gonna get really mad and not enjoy myself. That's why growing up, I played one sport. That's the only sport I played, and I got made fun of in school whenever we had to like have pe three and PE two. I don't remember
one of them was weightlifting. I don't rember which one that was. But like, you know, high school pe right where you're like a junior, and obviously you play a lot of different sports like you know, will football, flag, football, archery, We played it all soccer, and I was the worst at every sport other than basketball. Not even kidding you, Like people were people were like, like, have you seen him throw baseball? Got he look it was like a thing. I'm not kidding, I
mean it was. It was embarrassing. So you know, when I was five years old, I played t ball, got hitting the stomach with the ball, never came back and started playing basketball. And that was my life. So that's one of the reasons why I genuinely don't like playing unless I'm just having fun, because like I'm really, if I'm sucking at it, which I do, it just it's not fun for me. And plus, golf is such a time consuming sport for your entire day, you nailed it.
I had always heard that, but as someone who doesn't play often and previously have never played, I'd never really thought about that. But yeah, it'll if you play eighteen, you're with a crew. You know, let's just say you have three or four of your buddies. I mean, that's gonna take you a long time. And I'm and I'm the guy that'll make it take even longer because I'm just like, no, I'm gonna pick up
the ball and move on. I'm not gonna let you guys sit here, and just you know, I'd be the one making it last two hours longer than it needed to be because I'm I'm terrible at it. So uh, Anyways, Tiger is I mean, he's Tiger freaking Woods and it got me thinking, like where does he rank as far as the most famous people in the world? And fame is different for all different types of people, right, Like I know that Kylie Jenner insanely famous. I don't know why.
I don't mean, I'm not trying to be that guy like, you know, bagging on people who are famous on social media, but I genuinely don't know what why, Like what's her what's her craft? Right? What does she do? I mean, she's famous, she's you know, you know, believed to be super attractive. I'm not saying she's unattractive, honestly, you know, I feel like I could pick her out of a lineup.
But like when you ask me, hey, who are the most famous people in the world, I wouldn't think of her, But if you said her, I would like, oh, yeah, clearly she's like she's super famous. I feel like it stems from whenever they had the show Keeping Up with the Kardashians, right, I mean that's probably what and just being a part of that entire crew that again famous from a reality show, but their fame like on the internet, on websites and you know, TMZ stuff like that's
taking it to a different level. So when I think famous, I think of someone that everybody regardless of what their interests are, if you're a big sports person or if you're not a big sports person, if you're big into music, if you're a kid, like, do you know who that is? Do you recognize that person? You don't have to know their bio, you don't have to know everything about them. You may not even know what they do, but you know who they are because they're that freaking famous.
And I've got a list here, John. Okay, this always surprises me, but it shouldn't because this has been I mean, this guy has been listed as one of In fact, I think it's been the most famous person not only in sports but in the world for a long long time, and it always surprises me. But it shouldn't because it's been this way for a long time. Christiano Ronaldo, so he's he's listed here as the most famous person in the world, not famous sports person, just the most famous person
in the world. And I think why that surprises me each time is because soccer is growing in America and it's popular to certain crowds, right, Like we're not people who just you know, like it's not as if we're learning what the sport is here in America, but it's so different across the world. It's it's their culture, right and it's not really ours. I mean again, not not to say that like people don't like it and care about it, but like here we do American football, we do NFL, Like
that's that's the dominant sport here. And there's others too that you know, obviously get a lot of tension and bring in millions of viewers, but you know, American football, NFL, that's that's what's king here. So rinaldo and then another soccer start, you know it, ISS's who I would have assum would have been number one if you were picking between I don't even know the difference between the two, Like, I mean, I mean serious, Like I don't like I'm either between either of the two. Do you know
which country they're from? No, Okay, Messi's from argentinaka, Ronaldo's from Portugal. Okay, I think I you know I would I would not have guessed Argentina for Messi, but Portugal I remember Ronaldo being from there. But again, if it's like a multiple choice question, I probably would have got it. But number three is Kylie Jenner, and again she's you know, she's got I mean, I think her fame is mostly because of again like
TMZ paparazzi kind of stuff. Yeah, but also she has like I think at one point she had the most followers on one of the platforms, maybe Instagram. But she's twenty six years old and says here that she is an American TV personality, model and business woman, so you know, keeping up with the Kardashians is what she's I guess most known for. As you said, John John's playing coy here, like he's not really into the Kardashians, Like you're a super fan you know all about them, right, oh yeah,
everything. So Selena Gomez, I would have never guessed that. But you know, she's a musician, right like I mean that's a nod. Like I know she's famous, but I wouldn't have guessed at this level, even more so than like a Taylor Swift or a Beyonce. I'm a little surprised. So this this list, you know, it's at let me see here, maybe you hey, you google twenty twenty four most famous people in
the world. I want to see because I want to reference if there's differences, because the one person that did not come in the top three that really surprised me is in fact Taylor Swift. But number four Selena Gomez, as we discussed. And then number five, this one I think is legit. The rock Wayne Johnson, like he's he's everywhere. Yeah, that's fair, and I think he's been in enough kids movies. He at one point,
maybe he still is. He was the highest paid actor in Hollywood. So you can be like me in your thirties and maybe older, even a little younger, and you remember, do you remember the rock you know, because he was doing the rock Bottom on Monday n iraw like that was my introduction
to The Rock, and then of course he became the megastar. In fact, that's a good question that again we'll never know the answer, But is The Rock bigger in Hollywood mainstream media fame now than Hulk Hogan was when he was you know, but he never really went from like The Rock has literally
been in some of the biggest movies. I mean they're not all great, but like Hulk was still mainly for wrestling, and then he'd occasionally make an appearance in like terrible movies like Muscles with Sanna, a legendary Christmas movie with hul Cogan which randomly had me Accunis in it, which is I mean, you watch it every year. I've never seen it, but I would love
to see it. No, I remember like finding old Like, you know, there was a there was an article we did on we read on the show a few years ago about like the worst Christmas movies ever, and there were many that I've never even heard of or knew existed. And that was one. Muscles with Santa Ariana Grande's number six, Kim Kardashian number seven, Beyonce number eight, Chloe Kardashian number nine, Justin Bieber number ten, so
like I'd believe all that, but again, everybody sees it differently. Like I have never once ever went out of my way and I was I've never found myself seeking to find. Hey, I wonder what Chloe Kardashian's posting today on Instagram. I really would love to see what she's up to today. Oh Justin Bieber, Yeah, I would love to really let me, let me see what he's got going on? Is TikTok man? I just need
my Bieber fix. I'm a Biber fanatic, so again that's not you know, I'm not knocking people who are fan, but it's just not my lane. Everybody has their own things they're into. I'm a sports door. But again, all these people I can't really like, I can't tell you if Justin Bieber is making movies or music right now, genuinely mean that. I
still don't know what the Kardashians do. I know, Beyonce's Beyonce, but like I don't, I don't, you know, I still know that they are Like if oh my god, that's that's that's car, that's Justin Bieber so number eleven, Elon Musk, I get it. Because you know he's Elon Musk, But I feel like there are people that would see him and not know who he is. But I don't know, Maybe I'm I think it checks out. I think Elon Musk, especially over the past four or
five years, has been a big name. Bill Gates number twelve, Yep, Younger people wouldn't recognize him, but they know the name Bill Gates. I'm sure Robert Downey Junior, number thirteen didn't see that coming. Yeah, that's a little bit of a surprise. I know, the Marvel movies and Iron Man and all that stuff were a huge deal for a long time. So what where I'm referencing this is this is from legit dot com or it's like a legit it's under one of these new sites umbrellas. But like the
platform here is called legit, which means of course it's legit. Of course. Yeah, but there it does say that they're basing it off of longevity. So I think that would make sense for maybe Robert Downey Junior. It would certainly make sense for number fourteen. Will Smith. I mean, he's been relevant in the acting in realm for decades now. When's the last time he did a movie though, he king Richard that was what he got, what he won the oscar for and then slash that rock in the okay face
or whatever got it. So I just didn't know if he'd been But he's one of those guys that he could not do movies for a few years, and he's not going to fall off and people be like, damn, what happened to the Rock? I forgot he exist? Or what happened to Will Smith? I forgot he existed. Jeff Bezos Number fifteen, no surprise there. Number sixteen's Tiger Woods. And that's why I bring this up because I'm pretty sure Tiger Woods is more famous than anybody that came to Derby last week.
I mean, maybe there's a super celebrity that showed up and we didn't know about it, but that's not how it works. If you show up at Derby and you're super famous, that's kind of why you're there, because you're super famous. I would imagine many many of these super celebrities that go to the Derby do not know or care about horse racing, but it's like that kind of an event that brings out the stars. For seventeen, Mark
Zuckerberg Rihanna eighteen, Taylor Swift nineteen. I you know, I'm not like a fan of Taylor Swift by any means, but I would have guessed like she was like number two. Oh and yeah, I totally agree. Did you find a different list? Now? I found something that wasn't like it was more of like the one hundred most influential people, which is kind of a different thing, a little different. But yeah, so right now, one of the most famous people on the planet is in Louisville, and that's
pretty cool. And that's Tiger Woods. And again, I feel like a phony saying this because I'm about to give you a golf take and I don't know anything about golf, but I feel like this is not like me talking into my rear end. I think it maybe it actually might be something that a lot of people just tend to agree with, Like, yeah, no brainer, Nick, that's not a hot take. That's a very known thing. There's nobody that did for their sport or does for their sport even to
this day, like Tiger Woods does for golf. There's no there's don't. I don't and it's a different sport because right like it's it's an individual thing right, It's it's not like a team, but he will always be the most followed, most covered, most talked about golfer in any event that he's in, until, of course, you know, he fails to qualify or something like that, But even after that, it'll still be one of the
most talked about things. When you're recapping on a write up or a news story about set event, what happened with Tiger's always going to be brought up, and it's most likely going to lead and if he wants to keep playing until he's eighty, this will still this will still be the case. So yeah, I yeah, I'd be a liar to act like, oh man, I can't wait for the PGA event next week. But I'm happy that we have these events like this in Louisville because hey, it's good for the
city, and you know, I'm a Louisville man. Am I not? I'm car I mean, I'm Cardboy. You are card Boy. All right, let's get to our first break here. What I want to get to coming up here on the other side, we'll talk a little uh well, I don't want to act like, hey, everybody's stick around. We're going to talk NBA playoffs, because yeah, I know a lot of you don't
really care about that. But I found myself last night becoming nine year old Nick watching the Pacers get beat and it was painful because I love the Pacers, but it also, you know, made me sad. But I felt alive, like I felt like you know, I was into it. I was yelling about the refs, dropped a couple of f bombs in front of my kids, like a like a loser. Wife's still giving me crap about
it. But also once again, as always, we'll talk some portal stuff and some nil numbers, right because I've been saying for a long time there's no way these guys are getting the amount of money that their price tag is believed to be. And there is an athletic article that I guess gives us a peek behind the curtain that tells us, really, like what the highest paid nil guy in the portal what is he really getting? And no surprise, it's not anything close to what people are running with. But we were
loaded the rest of the way. Stick with us, no guest, which means you guys can be a part of the show. Five O two, five to seven to one, seventy nine hundred. This is the number if you want to give us a call, the Ellen and Federal Credit Union text line five O two sixty five three zero seven ninety keep it locked right here. On a Sports Talk seven ninety about a little John Daly on a Thursday. I've heard this song before. I don't remember it sounding this good.
It is good. It's not bad. John Daily my favorite golfer, and it's because he's actually one of my favorite athletes. And I mean that sincerely, because he is so genuinely one of a kind, and like, I think a lot and maybe this is me being cynical, but I think a lot of like a lot of people like Art wouldn't be the exact same person if you met him in a you know, when nobody was around. Is what you see like on TV and stuff and interviews. I feel like John
Daily is the exact same human being every second of his life. And he had a lot of I mean, I don't know if i'd call him flaws, but my man liked to party and crush beers, and you know, sometimes they got in the way of work. That's a pretty relatable thing I would imagine for a lot of people and his you know, his situation played out in front of all of us, and you know he was just so genuinely him and he's still uh, he's still killing it being him. I
mean he's just he's doing appearances. He still plays I think on like the Senior Tour or something like that. But love John Daly. The ESPN thirty for thirty on him was so well done. One of my favorites. And they did a lot of really good ones, but I love the John Daily one. All right. It's Coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety n at coffee. That is me, the company man, John Alden writing Shotgun. This afternoon and last night I watched the Pacers Knicks
game, and the nostalgia was unbelievable for me. I mean, I mean it was I'm gonna sound like a psychopath here, but like it was. It was amazing, Like it was like an out of body experience because you know, I grew up watching Reggie Miller own the New York Knicks and and brag about it and put it, you know, and mocks Spike Lee court side like we always were. Not always, but a lot of times you know, especially when I was really into the Indiana Pacers as a kid.
We'd get by the Knicks and they'd be you know, arrogant going in. You know, there's such a fraud franchise. They think that like the NBA needs them because they're in a big market, like they've They've done nothing in my lifetime that you know, I feel like has ever mattered. And yes, I'm biased because you know, they're kind of a rival, I guess,
but we would always own the Knicks more often than not. Now they got us a couple of times, but we would win against the next but then we run into guests who you know, Jordan and the Bulls, and that never worked out in our favor, and it, you know, it made me sad. So last night, it's it's the Knicks, and it's it's the Pacers. Pacers. You know, a lot of leads slip away
and completely you know, choked it be honest with you. But Reggie's on the call, and Reggie was talking smack before the game, and it just it took me back to nineteen ninety I mean in ninety seven, ninety eight, ninety nine, I mean that was when I was obsessed with Reggie Miller, which was kind of weird for me as a kid growing up, because obviously, how can you be a kid in the nineties and not idolize Michael
Jordan. I love Jordan Jordan, Michael freaking Jordan, but I also love Reggie Miller, and I love Reggie Moore actually, and I knew he wasn't Jordan even as a kid, but you know, I mean, I had my heart broken by Jordan many times. And that's why it almost brought me to tears watching the Last Dance docuseriies when Jordan talked about the battles he had with the Pacers and Reggie, and I'm getting chills thinking about it. Now.
Don't laugh at me, because you could tell Michael Jordan respected the hell out of Reggie Miller as a competitor. Reggie did not kiss his ass and a lot of guys did in the nineties, because you know, he was Michael Jordan, and I think Jordan respected that, and they had some really good battles, and Reggie's my idol. And you know, after the emotion kind of wore off a little bit, you know, because I was so mad that they lost, and I was so mad that Josh Hart walked over.
Did you see this? John Josh Hart during the game walks over. There's like five ten seconds. I don't know how much times left. The game was essentially over. Free throws were being shot, probably thirty seconds or something like that. Reggie's doing the game, he's the color analyst in the garden and he Josh Hart walks over to him and like tries to talk to
him. So Reggie takes his headset off while they're broadcasting live and says, hey, man, I think they're saying FU, which is what they were, but he said the actual word on TV, and like people are gassing that up, like, oh man, Josh Harden is so cool and I'm like, no, he's a clown. And what I had to wait what made me calm down a little bit, as I had to remind myself Reggie
Miller is a villain and I idolized a villain. I love him. I don't see him the way other people do, but he loves he loves being a villain and he's great at it. So like that's just gonna always happen,
you know. If Reggie's talking rectly before the game like he was, and the Knicks end up, you know, beating his Pacers, which by the way, still his franchise in my opinion, then they're gonna come back at him, right like when you when you when you play like Reggie Miller and you don't come through, it's gonna come back at you in a major
way. So but I'm just sensitive to it. And when the Knicks were pulling away with some nonsense calls, I mean, I don't know if I'm a big fan of Rick Carlisle being such a baby about the officiating, but there were some crazy calls in that game that were just, you know, insane. And you know, Jalen Brunson's out here just being unstoppable, which I gotta tip my cap to him. He's amazing. But tomorrow is Game three in Indie and I'm I'm trying to go. I'm not kidding you,
I'm trying to go to My buddies are going. They're all they're Pacers fanatics. We need you need to introduce me to him because I don't have any Pacers fans friends. Actually I do. You know one of my buddies, Andrew Linz, he used to work here for Chris is the director of ops. He's now coaching at Butler. He's a big Pacers fan, so he and I, you know, we talked Pacers. But you know he lives he lives there. But this was Reggie before the game. And again,
like people couldn't stand him. He was a very unlikable guy girl when I was a kid, but I loved him. So I'm in you know, I'm in the minority here. So like I see this and I'm like, hell yeah, Reggie. But it probably everybody watching this on TV last night before the game, especially Knicks fans, are probably watching this thinking to themselves, the hell with this guy? I forgot how much I hated him. I know people are like, aren't you worried about going back to New York
City and calling the game? No, I've owned this city, I've owned this building, so why would I be worried about walking on out there. It's true though, it's facts. I love that that on my face, that quote. I mean, I you know, when I was in I don't know what great it was. I feel like it was towards the end
of elementary school. Maybe you know I grew up in Bullet County. He'pe you know that there weren't many Louisville fans, right, I mean, John, you you know, probably more when you were growing It was probably it had grown by the time you were growing up. But then you know, at that time, you know, you got to keep in mind it was the later days of Denny in the nineties. Things had kind of worn off
a little bit. Football didn't really have any any notoriety, so it was rare a kid, and you know, Bullet County being a louisvill fan, So everybody idolized the bulls in Kentucky that I was in school with my classmates, and I loved Reggie Miller and Louisville. So like I was, you know, I was, you were going to get absolutely absolutely all right, So let's talk to an Il, shall we, because I find I think
actually nil is is a big talking point for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's just it's you know, sometimes people are just complaining about guys getting paid. Sometimes it's about you know, the amount of money that's out there and it or it's about, hey, our school's got a great, great collective,
we're doing good. Or hey, I'm worried like it's going to can you continue to be talked about because even whenever they do become employees by the school and the school is paying them, they're still going to be able to make money through nil. And you're going to have to do that if you want to get really good players. But I've always said, and I know I'm going to sound like a broken record because I say this probably at least
once every other day when it comes to nil. But now we actually have you know, maybe not proof, but some information as far as what is actually being spent to bring in a transfer on the market. Now football, this is this is strictly basketball, but I still think the same thing in football, Like I don't know if if these football players are getting the two million dollars that they're believed to be you know worth. And I've said it
many times. I think that the reason you don't hear anybody dispute it is because it's a mutually beneficial arrangement. If the school is believed to have paid two million for somebody that looks like they got money, they've got resources they'll spend, which means you're going to be more popular among other players. If the player himself is believed to have gotten two million dollars. I mean that makes it look like, damn, he's he's he's worth that by definition,
that's his value. So there is a let me make sure a site where this Yeah, so this is from the Athletic. This is Brendan Mark, C. J. Moore and Kyle Tucker who put this piece together. Did a really good job. And I don't I don't do this often. If you're ever going to pay for uh, for coverage writing, you know, journalism, the Athletic is phenomenal. I mean they have really really good work
and they have some of the best writers you'll find. You know, I'm sure they do it in the NFL and in soccer and NBA, but for for college sports, their coverage for football and basketball, I think is is is great, uh And you get you know, obviously, this day and age, a lot of people consume their news with a tweet, right or a thread and that's you know, that's still the case. You know,
that's probably gonna be the case for a long time. But you know, I know there is still a market for really good journalism, and the Athletic does it. So if you are ever going to pay for you know, some premium content, I think it would be worth it to do it, to do it here. But here's what we have. This is a breakdown here as far as the amount of money college basketball players are really getting right now on the open market. So I'm going to read some excerpts here.
This is from one insider quote Baylor, Arkansas, and Louisville have helped the market. That is from one insider. Another one says those three plus Indiana, Alabama, and Kentucky are believed to be the biggest spenders during this free agent season. Says here, a mix of that plus obscene asking prices, plus a little bit of a liar's poker have resulted in this new reality. Every kid has multiple seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars offers. That's the opening
line of every agent. That's one insider says. So this is where they break down what they you know, they claim to know, these insiders are the actual going rates for transfers signing with high major programs right now. So like if you're a high major program again we're talking we're talking high major programs. That's the programs around here, Louisville, Kentucky, Indiana, In fact, all of those are in the in the tier of blue blood if you
ask me. But a starter is going for two hundred to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars if you're a starter and you came from the portal. Maybe not everybody's getting that, but that's that's the that's the real amount of money that is that is being spent in this kind of transaction. If you're an All Conference player three hundred and fifty thousand, if you're an All American and you are either staying in school at your previous school or you are transferring to
another school, five hundred thousand dollars plus. But he said there are This is another source that says here there are people paying double that across the board. As far as who that is, you know, I'm not really sure.
Maybe it's maybe it's those schools we just mentioned again. You know, this mentions all three local schools, Kentucky, Louisville, Indiana as far as you know, the big spenders, which makes sense, right, I mean, you should have a lot of nil money to work with because you just hired new coaches at Louisville and Kentucky and you know, let's be real, Mark Pope and Pat Kelsey are cheap compared to what you know. I mean, Pat Kelsey, I'm stunned he's not making more money. And I'm sure
he will if he if he you know, succeeds early on. But I think that was the strategy for Louisville. I don't know about Kentucky, but you know a lot of this donor money that you thought you'd need to go pay to get Dan Hurley at Yukon and for Louisville, if you were going to go pay to get Scott Drew and pay him eight million a year, if of course you know he would have taken the job. You say, have a lot of money in that money. I think it's now going towards
Nile resources. So that I mean, it's a win win. Here's another so this is you know, that's just one insider, two insiders. Here's another one that says starter is two hundred to three hundred thousand, all conferences, five hundred thousand to seven hundred fifty thousand, and the high end. And there's it's this is what it says here. On one hand, there are there are players in college basketball that are making eight hundred thousand to two
million, and I like I believe that I do. So there's another little breakdown here that says it depends on this I'm sorry, little quote here from another source that they that they that they use for the story. Depends on the position. An All Conference guard could be looking at four and fifty thousand to six hundred thousand. As they've gotten more scares. Here it says six hundred to eight hundred thousand could be the high end of that if there's you
know, for an exceptional player for bigs. What was six hundred thousand plus for an All conference player is now over a million. So they're giving you different different ranges here a little bit, but overall, you know, two million for great Osa bor like, that's just not I don't that's not happening, like Louisville is believed. And look, maybe Louisville would pay that,
I don't know. And if they did, hey, that must mean they have the money and they know they need to get a quality big But you know, Texas Tech Washington, I believe even like they're not going to pay that, and I don't you know, if it was me and I had the money, then yeah, I would say, if okay, we can afford it, and we have it, then you know, why not?
Right? Because the coaches, like when they're talking to folks and I don't even know how it works specifically, but like if you've got somebody that's in between that works for the school, that talks to the coach, and that person also then talks to the collective and whatnot as far as how it's gonna work, you know, if they have it, they'll they'll spend it. And you know, you know, like leaving ni O money for a season just not used is stupid, to be honest, because that's literally what the
money's for. Now. Figure out how you're going to split it up among your players. That's a different conversation. But I bet these guys are shopped for these you know, two million, three million, and then in the end it comes down to where, Okay, your best offer was probably half of that or maybe forty percent of that, and that whoever was willing to pay that, that's where you that's where you picked. So that that to
me, that what I just laid out there. And again I would recommend going and reading the article because it's just really informative stuff that to me seems way more realistic than some of the other things that I've that I've seen, like Jaden Quaen's I don't believe that he made two million dollars to go to Arizona State. I don't. I can't prove that. And if he did, good for him. So the kid bollow is that his name from Indiana?
Yeah, Umaro, you would know better than I. What was the noise from Indiana fans or just I guess college basketball folks As far as what he was being, like what he was going to cause, I don't remember how much the prediction was, but I remember after things kind of settled down with him, I was told that he made around eight hundred thousand dollars. Yeah. So Trilly Donovan, Trillie Donovan had had during his his I guess his you know, he only did only visit one place. I think he
was going to visit place in Indiana. That was it. Yeah, So initially Trilli Donovan was was was sharing that he believes that like they were asking, I guess his agent one point three million, but he ended up getting between seven and eight. Like again, that is one of the best bigs in the portal. I can totally like to me, I would I would
believe that, but like over a million. I mean, I just, you know, I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of people that I should not try to put myself in the shoes in because I can't relate. I don't like if I ever had that level of money. I mean, I love I love U of L. I want to see him do well. I mean, I'm a fan just like everybody else, you know, And if I had the if I had the ability to donate and help with
the collective, like in a major way, I would. But I feel like even if I was stupid rich, I ain't paying a million dollars. Everything that's come out and kind of shown that they're the one who's willing to do that. As the John Ruis guy in Miami, Yeah, well I will say this Rick Keever of glob Brands, sunten City, Planet Fitness, and buff City. So I mean, he was very, very visibly attached with his one million dollar contribution for the collective. But that wasn't you know,
Hey, I'm gonna go pay for a player. You're right. The guy for Miami, he was like, all right here, here's like contracting out Nigel Packers. He put it on put he made it public to flex that he's out here. You know, he's got money he'll pay. So
it's always going to matter. Right again, even whenever they do become employees and things are regulated, I'm sure there's going to be some stipulations as far as well, Okay, if you're going to agree to this, you can you got to be here two years or something like that, or you get this much upfront, you get the rest on the back end, whatever it may be. But nil, like, there is going to be illegal for you to tell these student athletes that they cannot make money from the name,
image and likeness even when they're employees. Which, by the way, we'll get at this later. How about Boise State, Like with a bold strategy, they're head coach letting freshmen know you're we're not gonna let you make any money. I mean, like, that's a great that's a great marketing, marketing strategy. That'll really get the buzz going about Boise being the place to play. Right now, All right, quick break stick around. We still
got a ways to go before it gets here. But the TBT is, I'm sure Louisville fans know is back and they're going to play once again at Freedom Hall, and they are slowly but surely putting the team together. Kyle Kuric is the latest former Cardinal to commit to play for the squad, and right now they have let's see here, I believe the roster currently is Peyton Siva, Russ Smith, and I don't want to walk through Kyle Kirrick and Montres Harrell. So it's a heck of a squad right there. And they'll
add more players. I've heard of a couple of names that could potentially be joining, but it really comes down to their professional situation, right So you can be I mean, I think you can be in this event as long as you are not currently on an NBA contract, So you can be on
a G League contract but not an NBA contract. So for example, David Johnson, I actually think it could have worked out, but he was an injury situation potentially, or maybe it was he was still you know, he had an opportunity to go work out, maybe get a tryout, and he just didn't want to get hurt. I don't those specifics, but he was somebody that initially he was still on an NBA contract I think from when he got drafted, which meant, even though he's playing in the G League,
he's on an NBA contract. But once you're just in the G League as a G League player, not tied to an NBA roster or an NBA franchise, then you can play. So like Mantres Harrald, I really hope that he is a part of this. But he's healthy now. He did not play this past year in the NBA because of a torn ACL But I wouldn't be shocked if he ends up not playing because he he's got a chance to, you know, sign a deal and and go through summer league and maybe
go through training camp. So I know he I know he really really wants to play, Like he came to some of the games last year if you remember, and was into it. And U Tres is one of those guys. Because of the NAA situation, he didn't you know, he wasn't the only thing he you know, I don't. I wouldn't even say he got in trouble. But Louisville, because of their punishment from the n double A, they had to disassociate themselves from a handful of players. He was one
of them. So for like a three year, three year window they couldn't like promote in the arena. He was a former player, and they couldn't let him at ten games, you know, with tickets that were provided by the school. He couldn't be in the locker room, he couldn't come work out of the facility like a lot of former players most all former players can. So that was tough for him because he loved his time here at Louisville.
But that since passed, and you know, he's I think he'll see him in Louisville here and there throughout the rest of his life, so you know, and I'm biased, of course, but Trees was the most. He was the NBA sixth Man of the Year just a few years ago. I believe it was in I know it was when he was playing with the Yeah, and twenty twenty one, or no, I'm sorry, it was
twenty twenty. Yeah, he averaged eighteen points and seven rebounds in let me see how many minutes he played in twenty seven minutes and was he was the NBA six Man of the Year, and then the following year had another. I mean this, He's averaged double figures every year he's been in the league since twenty eighteen, so the fact that he you know, his last year was in Philly and he ended up being waived because of the injury this past year and didn't play. But man, I'm hoping he can get back out
there because he's talented and I mean high energy guy. Like every NBA team can use somebody that just plays like a madman with intensity, physicality, and you know, Trez worked on his outside shot a lot when he was when he was here in his senior junior year and he got better at it. But I felt like I think he felt as if he was gonna make in the NBA, he really needed to have a perimeter game. And you know, I'm sure that's helped him a little bit that he can knock down some
shots. But he became a known player in the league, you know, winning six Man of the Year because he's a dog that will rip it off the will rip the backboard off or rip the rim off the backboard and get get his I mean, he's just a high energy guy and every team needs that. So it should be fun. I can't wait to see how the roster finishes out. And you know, Pat Kelsey's gonna be there court side, getting you know, bringing energy and it's gonna be a lot of fun,
no doubt. It's a lot of fun last year. But now we got a new era here. And I know, Pat Kelsey, I mean Kenny Payne came to one game. Jeff Braum came to more of the TBT games last year than Kenny Payne did. Bum