Deep track alert on a Tuesday, no hits. We follow the advice of Andy Bernard when it comes to Dave Matthews band all right typically joins us on Fridays. And my initial hypothesis is that it's sixty two degrees outside. So Chris Camaraddie wanted to leave his house, but why don't we get you on a Tuesday today, not a Friday, because I got to leave the house. That's what it is with shorts on, shorts on, I got the T shirt on.
I mean it's I'm not going to complain about it. It's amazing. So I don't obviously want this to happen often because we are very reliant on these atmospheric rivers to bless our mountains with water to help, you know, the hotter times of the year. But I don't mind a couple sixty sixty five degree days in February.
I think it puts wind in the sales. Yeah, absolutely, get you to the end. We already made it through January, so shout out to the group.
Yeah we did it.
Congrats everybody. And now to me, February is just the second.
Worst month of the year, shortest month, but it is a short month, agreed.
And then we'll get to March, and ultimately we'll probably still have a lot of cold weather and snow in March. But when you get to March, you've just kind of made it to the end.
That's how I feel.
I had this conversation with my in laws recently and they all disagreed. They all said March is too much of a tease in terms of the fluctuation of the weather, and I was like, well, if that's a teas, then what's going on right now?
The same big teas because it will snow this Weekend's gonna be freezing next week. But nonetheless, we got you out of the house and on schedule release day.
Oh huge c K.
Schedule release day here. Look, you know it's an exercise in futility to try to analyze whether or not Utah is an easy schedule or a hard schedule. Just tell me who was picked to finish sixteenth, and then I'll pick them to win it like Arizona State, but for the first time since nineteen sixty seven, Utah and BYU play in October. It's October the eighteenth. Now for me, I'm a last yearst Game of the Year guy. And my second option would be like first game of the year,
but not buried in the middle October the eighteenth. And there were a lot of people in the Big Twelve. You know, you hear these things like, oh, well, yeah, we're excited at BYU and Utah are conference, but we don't really know what that rivalry is all about. And if last year was the first time you watched that game, you were indoctrinated. It was excellent start to finish. Obviously
you'd fans wish you went the other way. It was close, it was dramatic, the overnight splits were through the roof. Millions of people watched it, and there are other rivalry games being played later on Arizona Arizona State's the final game of the year. So I don't really have a question. I just think that's the one thing that stands out of BYU Utah damn, you know, kind of slammed there in the middle of October.
Well, since you know I'm a man of the people, I know you are. The first thing I thought of was the Big Twelve hijacked uea weekend for families. Yes, they did this entire state. I hadn't considered that that angle that is a a Disneyland weekend, that is a fall break is a very important staple in the Utah Public Public School calendar. And the fact that that is going to be part of the week I mean, I think maybe it's not going to keep people from traveling
and going to do stuff with their family. It'll just presumably make one spouse angry that another spouse is going to want to hijack theoretical happenings on the on the vacation. But that's the first thing I thought of. I was like, dude, what, Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, my wife's a first grade teacher. I'm always looking at UEA weekends as a time to potentially get out of town. It's also around the time my son was born. But I think it's ridiculous.
Man.
I don't know, like, maybe we'll get some light shed. I don't know if Brett or Mark will be taking questions because I know when he when Utah joined, he did like these mini like round tables with media members andvarious markets, and I was part of one and he spoke glowingly of the rivalry, said it's, you know, one of the best in the country. As we know it is. So the fact that we go from November ninth and year one to October eighteenth and year two, I don't
I don't really get it, man. I mean that is that is basically just it's doing a disservice to the rivalry. Yeah, and I think it's doing a disservice to the fans.
And you just brought up another dynamic, which is UA weekend, And you know, I don't know. That's the one thing because again analyzing the rest of this stuff, like, hey, is it easier? Is at hard? I don't know, neither do you.
So that's the one you're not You're not crushing Cincinnati well springball tape.
I mean the issue is, yeah, we'll look at springball stuff, but then another portal window opens and I don't even know what they're going to look like in the fall, none of these teams. So the BYU game is the one that stands out non con UCLA opening week pass, it being a little Rose Bowl action And if you want to take a road trip, that's probably the option because then it's cal Poly here at home.
It would have been cool if they played cal Poly on the road. San Luis Obispo would never happen in a million years, but an amazing college town. A lot of people each time I'm sure aren't familiar with it. It's smack dab in the middle of south central California. Beautiful place. Had lots of friends in high school who went there. But this is all a preamble to the ultimate unveiling of the third game.
Laramie.
Have a great Laramie story, you do.
Does it involve fans throwing feces at people?
It does not.
It involves the late great Dirk Facer trying to save my life out to Dirk. It was the two thousand and eight season they went undefeated. I was the beat writer at the CROWNNY that year, and I think the game was in the middle of October, so everybody was like, thank god, we got to Laramie and we're dodging potentially a very sticky situation. It was like fifty degree or fifty mile an hour wins in that day. It was
like a crazy odd game. Nobody threw the ball. When we're leaving the stadium, I looked out to like the West or whatever, and I've never seen like a stranger things type like cloud, just pure black, and I thought were screwed because everybody, not only me, the DEAs guys, Tribune guys, everybody, they were trying to put it home, and we you know, looked up and back then, I don't think the weather on the internet was all that much, like it wasn't as accurate as it was now.
So we're like, all right, let's just brave it.
So we get in our car and we start to drive home, and within like an hour, it is like the worst blizzard I've ever been a part of.
It was so bad.
It got so cold so fast that the roads the roads had about like six inches of solid ice on top. So we're stuck because there was an accident. Obviously, we're stuck between Laramie and Rock Springs, Wyoming, and is calling us because they were a little ahead of us, and he was like, did you get through? And I was like, no, man, we're stuck. And he was like, all right, well just keep calling me to make sure you guys are all right, because like we you know, you can't like just run
your car. You're gonna burn gas. And we don't know how long we're going to be there. The temperatures are dropping. It's insane, Like I got out on the highway. Was just like a sheet device. It was like a hockey arena. It was the wildest thing. So for hours and hours on end we had to sit there. Eventually we got going. We got to Rock Springs at like four thirty am, and I vowed that I would never ever, in a million years go back to Laramie again.
Well, to your point, the good news is this is September thirteenth.
Does that matter though it's sixty six degrees.
In februarying, I guess nothing is real. I learned which I did not know. Maybe I should if this game has been on the schedule for like ten years. Yeah, and so is this the final? Like, hey, okay, we did the thing. The deal is complete and no more of this nonsense.
I mean, considering this was made when Utah was a Pac twelve team. A a home game versus Wyoming makes sense because Wyoming is traditionally a decent Mountain West Conference team. It is not a bad schedule and it's not a bad team to have on your schedule. The trip to Laramie can be tricky, man, it can be Harry. I know by you handled it last year.
I don't.
I don't think it's that bad frankly for a Utah team that does not have a ton of great road games. With this upcoming twenty twenty five schedule, it's like two out of the three first games you can go to and they make sense. Pasadena in August, which is going to be great, probably hot, and then Laramie in September it'll still be green.
You can what can you do in Laramie?
Wrong? Got ath Lyne jays all over the place?
I mean wrong.
I mean I would assume that I'm not the type of person that can just walk into any sort of establishment in Laramie and be welcomed with open arms.
Maybe wish I could argue with that. Maybe probably probably following on that one.
But cool stadium, I'll say, I don't have you been there?
Not for years?
Interesting stadium? Yeah, if you're looking to splash your cash, is it like, do you want to drive whatever it is six or seven hours Selaramie or do you want to say for a five thousand dollars trip to Morgantown because you got a flight to Pittsburgh.
I don't know.
Well, again, we are the wrong people. Ask with that guy in there. Porters is out front facing excited. Yeah about the.
App Man on the Street.
Man on the Street interviews every single day, calling in live hits.
So what is uh, what what is calling your heart about this potential September weekend trip to Laramie.
I just like the the open skies of Wyoming, I guess, I.
Mean, listen when you get out on the planes. I've driven through there multiple times in the summer. It is something to behold like from like a this we're at there. I don't know what elevation they're at. They're at very high elevation. It's just like the planes, and you're like, man, this is like very much the most secluded Division one versity in the country.
Yeah, like that.
I'm a whenever i'm there, I'm like, how do they recruit people?
What will you be doing with your free time when you're not working in Laramie?
Probably will be spending too much time there.
I don't know, Uh, have you been except yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. I've been to Laramie for one football game. I've been to Laramie for a couple of rodeos.
See if there's a rodeo, I'm down right like you could overlap some stuff in Laramie.
Yeah.
I mean, if there's an event like I can, I'll throw down. I'll go to Laramie with Porter.
You want to go, I do not, but I will support the two of you in your endeavors. Headed to UH to Laramie, whether it's a football game or a rodeo. I think I'm good. But let's pull out the c K Yelp Guide, the K travel Zagat Guide, Yeah, and talk about road trip options. We already talked about Pasadena. We just got into Laramie, all due respect. Then it's Morgantown, Provo, Waco, Texas, Lawrence, Kansas. Any hot rex with the other trip potential.
Never been to any of those places?
Yeah, I know, I know a lot of good places in Provo. Come on, I'll give an underrated shout out to a place that's not in Provo. The Purple Turtle. American Fork, great burgers, amazing tater tots, like a mom and pop fast food place. Yeah, the Purple Turtle.
So hit up the Purple Turtle on the way to in America.
And it makes sense. Purple.
You know, it's the melding of red and blue. It's it's a perfect place for people.
To meet any gut feel on uh BYU next year, like top preseason, top twenty five. Where do you think BYU.
Land fifteen fifteen. I'm trying to think how many guys they're going to lose to the draft. They didn't lose anybody that significant in the portal.
Honor Pay graduated, Baddie graduated.
Yeah, I mean so like they have a lot of a couple guys in the trenches. Baddy was was. You know, they're arguably one of their best defensive players in Connor Was. Both guys are team captains. They get Keanu Tonavasa like that's a huge get. Jake Retzlov has another year in aeron system. They still have a bunch of weapons. Chase Roberts decides to come back.
LG. Martin's coming back.
They're deep, man like, I mean think, I think their defense surprised a lot of people last year. They turned out to be one of the better defensive teams in the Big twelve. I don't know what their non con schedule is like in twenty twenty five. You might have it pulled up on your fancy MacBook.
You talking about BYU, Yeah, yes, I will pull it up. It's like Portland's not it's not all that. It's like Portland State, they have to go to East Carolina. Oh, that's a tricky one that finishes their deal with them. Yeah, I'm almost talking about that earlier.
Yeah, that's a tricky game.
So it's Portland State. They have Portland State in Provo, they have Stanford in Provo, and then they have a September thirteenth by which is wild and then they're out East Carolina.
That's a pretty decent non con schedule if you think about it. I mean, I know, Stanford is no world beater at the moment, Andrew Luck is back at his alma mater trying to to build things as the pseudo GM of the football program. But Stanford here and then at East Carolina, I mean, there are worse non conference schedules.
BYU is on the road quite a bit as I'm reading this. So Portland State home, Stanford home, bye week out, East Carolina at Colorado home against West Virginia at Arizona home against Utah, and then yeah Jack Trice for Iowa State, Lubbock for Texas Tech.
Those are tough games.
TCU at home, Cincinnati on the road, UCF at home, Yeah, you couldn't schedule Utah November twenty ninth because you had to fit in UCF. That's BYU's final game.
And that was Utah's final game this year, right, don't, I don't. I mean, I'm sure trying to get everybody somewhat pleased with a sixteen team schedule is near impossible. But again, if you're the Big Twelve, this is is there a outside of Arizona State in Arizona? Is there another rivalry within this conference?
Right now?
Pay State, Kansas?
Yeah?
I mean those are your three. Yeah, but I maybe I'm biased here. I feel like the casuals will turn in for Utah BYU way more than Arizona Arizona State.
Well, and again based off of the debut of that game in the Big Twelve last year, just checked every box. So that's the one thing that's certainly puzzling Dion. Without Shador, what does Colorado look like? You know? They they had Travis and Travis Hunter. They according to what I read this morning, they have the number one QB transfer.
They got Caden Psalter from Liberty.
But there's another and Juju Lewis, who was a five star kid who was committed to USC for a very long time.
Okay, that was the kid I read about. So obviously Dion has shown he can get talent. But now that you know Travis Hunter and his kid is, they're going to move on? What's both U town buy? You have Colorado next year? What do you think?
I mean, this is the great question that a lot of people who followed Dion Sanders and follow Colorad are wondering is for so long Dion was adamant that you know the reason why he wanted to do this was to coach his sons, and I think a lot of people were waiting for the other shoe to drop when Shador and Shiloh and Travis graduated and or moved on to their professional aspirations. They did a pretty good job.
I mean, you land a five star kid, high school kid, and then you land one of the best dual threat quarterbacks in the portal and Cadence Salter. You could do worse, but this it will be a significant step down. I think people underestimate how good Shador Sanders was behind a pretty bad offensive line again for a second year in a row, and I know that's been their priority is to beef up the offensive line. I'm fascinated to see
what their rushing attack looks like. Because I'm not saying Dion was patting Shadoor stats, but you could tell that their their best option was to go five wide and to have Shador drop back and throw it to Travis or a bevy of those you know, future and NFL receivers. I don't know what their schedule looks like. I haven't looked at it, but nobody's out of it.
Man Like.
If twenty twenty four taught us one thing, everybody's in play, and I think they have. I think they have Georgia Tech at home to start their non conference schedule, which is a great non conference game, but it'll be fascinating, man Like. Dion has coached his kids since they were nine years old, and it's been like this for.
Fifteen years.
And not only like, he literally went from Peewee to prep school, to high school, to Jackson State and now to Colorado.
The latest mock, this is Matt Miller's mock, has Shador going six in the NFL draft, and that would be to the Vegas Raiders. That might be my favorite option.
There are worse places to go. Listen.
It would be fascinating to have the ultimate football dad, Dion Sanders have to deal with Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly.
Yep, two guys.
I'm sure he respects a ton for obvious reasons from the fit and scheme point of view. For our guy, shout out, John Paul Uhud are going to play for Chip Kelly. I mean, there are worse offensive minds to go play for. I mean, I think I read somewhere that the Raiders are going to pay Chip six million dollars a year to be there.
O see.
Oh, I guess that's why you leave Ohio State.
After one which is which is more than Dion is making right now at Colorado.
Did you ever think Dion was seriously flirting with Jerry Jones? You didn't think so? Now.
I mean I talked to so many people who covered the Cowboys and they were like, listen, nobody is ever going to be a bigger star in the room than Jerry. Jerry might make it seem like, I mean, who knows. Maybe he was helping Dion out being able to cultivate some leverage in his ongoing renegotiation talks with Colorado because Colorado is paying Dion five five point seven million a year, right now, that's a that's a bargain, I think, considering
what he's been able to do in two years. Now the hard part comes though, to your point, it's like, what does Colorado look like post Shador, post Travis Hunter? We're going to see It sounds super cliche, but it's like, you're really going to see what kind of coach Gian is?
Now?
Yeah, no, for sure? What are you? I know you're not a scout, but I'm a scout. Well, I know you Gran Ta Okay, I know you're Gran Tape. No, a're a ball I'm ready should during the NFL? How do you think that looks? Hmmm?
Behind a good line, he's he can be really good man Like he has like tremendous touch, Like he gets the ball out so fast unless he's running for his life, which he did way too often the last two years. But it yeah, in the right system where he doesn't
have to throw it forty five times. I think it can be good if he goes to a team that has an offensive mind at the helm, that understands how they want to play, and if they have a def do you line and a decent running game like's It's like, yeah, all those things generally helps make a quarterback be successful.
But let's just say like him going to the Raiders, which is even crazy to say like that to me, would say like Chador will have more success as opposed to going to the Titans at one, or the Giants at whatever number they're at, or even the Browns. Like I'm giving the benefit of the doubt to a guy like Pete Carroll who's won a Super Bowl and has been to several Super Bowls, and a guy like Chip Kelly who just led Ohio State to a national title.
You have to have somebody who understands what they're doing. And that's not the case for Chador. It's it's for every quarterback. So where's cam Ward gonna go? Is cam Ward going to go to Tennessee and be successful? I don't know, man, Like I can't even tell you who's on that roster.
Matt Miller has cam Ward off the board of three to the Giants. Okay, they need a quarterback, I would argue Tennessee needs one too. Abdual Carter the Edge Russia from Penn State seems to be getting all the love for the number one pick, Travis Hunter off the board of two, cam Ward three, Mason Graham a tackle at four, Will Johnson, the Michigan quarterback, corner back at five, then Shador at six. Any like Jayden Daniels comps there well
to see what Jayden did this year. I mean Shador at times there's a little bit of they're built the same, They're very similar.
With their Jayden's way more of a like a dual threat. Yeah, Like Shador can take off and run if he needs to, but he's way more content staying in the pocket and waiting for routes to open up. And he's really good at delivering the ball on time in you know, difficult, difficult circum circumstances. Jayden, I mean, nobody saw it coming.
I mean it's like I remember my year on the beat for the Athletic I think was the year that Asu was here, and it was like that rainy day and Utah's defense just really made him look like the true freshman that he was. And then he goes to LSU and everything kind of pops off, and then he goes to the NFL and has an MVP caliber type season in his rookie year. I think we have to be careful with the comps because he set the bar so high. So does Shador have the capability to be
as good as Jaden? I don't know, but he's he can be a good quarterback if he finds the right team.
And I do think the Raiders fit is somewhat interesting. And you know, honestly, yeah, face value. I always kind of roll my eyes when I hear a parent say, well, I will not let my son play for this franchise, or you know, we're going to step in to make sure that he has the best chance of succeeding. But it's happened so many times over the.
Years, and Wheneverie not going to Sandy.
Absolutely and then John Elway back in the day, like and so, I don't believe Zach Wilson was going to be a great NFL quarterback anywhere he landed. But I always thought Sam Darnold had in him what he did this year in minnesot To, and when the Jets drafted him as a Jets fan, I'm like, all right, we got our guy.
You want him to bring him home.
I would love that, really, I would love that for me. I wouldn't love it for Donald because ultimately, whether it's Sam Donald Zach Wilson. I'll leave Aaron Rodgers out of this. I would I would get it like if if my son Connor was the potential number one pick in the draft and the Jets had the number one pick in the draft, even though as a Jets fan, I think I'd be tempted to be involved to get him to a place where he has the best chance to succeed
long term. Zack essentially is out of the league and Sam luckily had enough, He had enough coaches who.
Got to go to San Francisco and sit behind. Yeah, I think that's a huge.
There are a lot of smart football people that love Sam Donald, and I don't think Zach had that going for him. I don't mcveigha him a shot, but he was third string all year and I'm not even sure that they'll be in the league next year, So I've kind of changed my tune. Like, if you're a father and you have a chance to influence what will chart the course of your son's future, you do that, even if it's getting involved to make sure that he lands with the Raiders to play for Pete Carroll as opposed
to the Titans or whatever. It is I would kind of understand if Dion wanted to flex his muscles a little bit, Oh.
Yeah, without a doubt.
And he has the clout and the type of way that I think if he when he talks, people listen like I think when you have the type of career and the personality like Dion, your words go a long way.
And Chador too.
I mean, like being around those guys for the last couple of years, it is not hard to see that the apple hasn't fallen too far from the Treatly, those guys are totally understanding of life as a professional athlete, even at you know, the time they were teenagers, all
the way up until now. You can make an argument that nobody's ever been more prepared from a social standpoint being in a locker room understanding the ins and outs of being a professional than Shaudor because he's been around his dad his entire life, and his dad has kind
of treated him as such. So yeah, it's going to be an interesting top part of the draft because I'm no expert, but I don't know if the Cleveland Browns or the Tennessee Titans are the type of franchise where you want to go in and become the savior.
Maybe.
I mean, if you can become the savior of the Cleveland Browns, you'll walk on water. But that's that's easier said than done. Shiloh Pro is his other kid, a pro special teamer. I mean he might get a late round draft or an undrafted free agent.
But yeah, all right, Utah schedule release, Big twelve schedule release. We have Chris Camaraddi live in studio. We'll do a little bit more a college football cks on the college football side of things for the athletic Deep tracks Snow Outside Away from the World twenty twelve. But I mean that's just me because I'm an expert. But we do follow the Andy Bernard rule. Deep tracks, no hits. Did you see our guy and the band let's get his
mic out. Our guy and the band be inducted into the Hall of Fame to ask you this already.
I think we talked about this a few weeks ago. Rock and roll.
Yeah, don't remember what ad for breakfast this morning. We're just talking off air. Nothing is real now, but Chris Camerani is live in studio four o'clock hour. Look, I know you're not an NBA guy. Okay, and I know that you're plugging in a college football. We'll get back to little college football in a bit. But what has happened this week in pro basketball is truly historic and
it's never happened before. But for a guy like you, who once upon a time maybe watch a little more pro basketball than he does now, and the data is in man, no matter what you want to spin as an NBA employee or an NBA person, less people are simply watching pro basketball. They just are. I have my own theories about it. And as we approach the end of football season super Bowl, you know, the Sunday, and then we move into football offseason, the numbers will grow.
They always do. But does news like this reverberate with you at all? That Luka Doncich, a twenty five year old generationally special players been traded to the Lakers. Does that do anything for a non NBA guy like yourself.
I'm gonna risk myself sounding super nerdy, but like to me, I'm way more fascinated like what ends up being reported, like how how each side basically tries to construct and control various narratives as to why something's happened and why some things didn't.
I did.
I like to listen to press conferences because one I think for reporters it's really important to learn to ask simple, succinct, easy questions, but with meaning. And I watched some of Luka Doncic and Rob Polinka's press conference today and you know a lot of those guys, you know, you have some of these guys on your show, did it? We're pretty direct in asking Luca and Rob like some of these theories of why Luca got traded and why.
He might have been on the block.
And it's fascinating to me in this world where and I'm obviously as a reporter myself, like you have to try to always tell the truth and find the right people to talk to. But yeah, and the meat in the Meeta aftermath, I was wondering, like, who who is going to take control of the spin zone with this?
And immediately I was texting my brother in law, who's a diehard Mavericks fan, and I was like asking him, I was like, how do you explain this to Sasha, my nephew who's who's nine and loves and loves the MAVs like they live in northern California. They went and saw Luca play in Sacramento like two months ago. He has a Luca jersey. I was like, how do you
explain this to him? And he was like, it's hard, man, like this is this is part of the dad life where it's like, yeah, sometimes things don't work out.
Yeah.
But then I told him.
I was like, hey, well, I mean that you can look at it from like a glass half full point of view, And I said, you could tell him, and you can tell me if this is wrong. But like, aren't the MAVs in theory going to be a better team this year on paper with Anthony Davis then if if healthy, then with Luca and Kyrie.
Yeah, potentially, Okay, I would say no, just because Luca. I've never really seen a player at Luca's age impact the game the way he impacts it. In five years, five first team All NBA selections, five All Star Games, he was thirty five, eleven and nine last year in the playoffs and led them to the finals. He actually led the NBA in minutes played if you combine the regular season in the postseason last year, mile like, he
must be such a royal pain in the ass. It's the only thing that makes sense from a basketball standpoint, it doesn't make sense at all in my opinion. Now maybe it frees up Kyrie a little bit. And Anthony Davis is really good. I mean, Luca is so good that we're talking about Anthony Davis like he's Curtis Borcher, you know, the big the jazz here that had horrible feed. He's a really good player.
Ben han logged in.
Good shout out. Ben hand logged in Onto Tuesday. It's never a bad time to get a Ben hand logged and shout out. And maybe it ups there, you know. Bottom line this year a little bit, but moving forward, Like I'm not a conspiracy theory guy, you know that. And usually when somebody is, I kind of roll my eyes, whether it's sports or politics or religion. But the Lakers man wilt to Kareem. Kareem's your bridge, Kareem to Magic.
Magic was your bridge, Magic to Shaq and Kobe. There's your bridge, Kobe and Shack to.
Lebron, Kobe and Shack to Kobe and Powell.
Correct, correct, Chay, just another bridge. And now the bridge is Lebron to Luca and it's the if you're a Lakers fan, it is the perfect you could not have hand picked a better player to step in and run your team after Lebron is done, whether that's this year or the year after. Lebron has a player option to play for the Lakers for one more year. My guess is he probably wants to play for one more year. I mean, as he already got his kid in the
league and poor kid can't play. I kind of feel bad for him, But ultimately I think you get Lebron for one year next to Luca. We'll see how that works. There's some redundancy, but that's the type of redundance you want because they're both brilliant and they're both geniuses with making decisions.
Has there ever been redundancy at that level in the NBA and have it worked to a championship level?
Good question. I mean, when you think about teams with a couple of great like heatles, you know, I was gonna say, the one interesting thing you talked about is Lebron played with peak Dwayne Wade, like in his prime Dwayne Waight right, and those two figured it out right, And so I've never been I've always pushed back on the whole, like, well, they both need the ball, so they can't play together like no.
Especially in today's NBA works, it's like, just try to just use your skill to get open. Nobody's running these complex sets. It's like, give no outset the screen, get around him.
Give me the talents, and then we'll figure it out. I've always been that guy. So even though there is a little bit of redundancy between the two, there are two of the top I don't know four or five decision makers in the history of the game, and at twenty five you do not make this trade. It truly is wild and I haven't talked to anybody around the league that saw this coming. Everybody is just completely.
Seeing I think that's like fascinating to me more than like the encore part my job. It's like, in this day and age, how did Nico Harrison and Rob Polinka basically keep this under wraps? I mean, Rob basically said in his press conference today he was like, it was made clear that if this got out, if this was leaked at all, we would not go.
Forward with this trade. YEA.
So it was basically two old friends that knew each other going back to their you know, Rob's Rob days with with Kobe and Nico's days at Nike and ownership groups obviously, but yeah, what's it going to do for the league though? That's that's my points Like to you, I asked you that off there, and you're like, people will maybe watch more Lakers games.
Yeah, but like, what do you think Rob Polinka does a night when he's not working. There's something off about that dude. He was dressed like he was the lead singer of a bad Bond Jovie band for the press conference. There's something jail.
The jail pointed downward is the is the first question that I have that the tight leather jacket unzipped on both ends a little bit. It was a secondary one. But listen, man, like, when you're living that la elite lifestyle, you got to keep up with the with the joneses.
I'm thinking, if you go to the Viper Room on a random Tuesday morning at like one am, there's a chance Polinka just comes limping out of the restaurant.
You don't You don't think he's, you know, playing some pickup on Santa Monica.
No, I get vibes from him. The bodies are buried somewhere. I'm not gonna lie. He's a good rob. Blow he does look a lot like blah, but but but ultimately does this up the bottom line of interest for the league? I mean, over the past twenty four or forty eight hours, the highest downloaded articles on ESPNS dot com or all this Luca is this Luca trade. Everybody's talking about it, all right? Moving over to our local pro basketball team.
When you're at a family gathering or you're hanging out with friends and they know that you cover sports, what what do they ask you? What do they say to you about you get me free tickets? Outside of of course being mooches, because they all are, but outside of wanting pre jazz tickets? What? What's the jazz taker on town?
Right now?
It's tough, isn't It's a tough scene.
I think, apoplectic, Like.
I don't know if there is a vibe right now, I think, and again for if there is a faction of jazz fans that are frustrated that the franchise is where it is, I'll give my unsolicited opinion that people don't care about It's like they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. Listen, Like, even if you would have been able to keep Rudy or keep Donovan, one of
those guys. If you would have been able to build around the edges, those guys weren't going to be able to compete with some of these teams that have been constructed in the Western Conference right now.
They just couldn't.
Like I wouldn't take those guys over Memphis over the young Houston team obviously. Okay, see, like the list is pretty long, so and and I guess I'm gonna bob and weave a little bit. Going back to Luca. It's like, I think the reason why people are so upset in Dallas is because they probably realized that they struck lottery twice. They had Dirk and then I don't know how many years between Dirk and Luca, but it couldn't have been more than two handful.
I want to say, did Dirk play with Luca one year?
Yeah? I mean maybe we can get our guy to.
Check ESPN Stats and info or guy like it.
Just doesn't happen in this league. So the fact that you had a player like that on your team the face of the franchise, it's so difficult to land those guys in the first place. And I'm not even comparing Luca to Donovan because we know Luca is a generational player, and Donovan's a good he's a good NBA player, He's an one.
One season together.
Yeah, but it is so hard, especially in markets that aren't LA and not you know, New York. But that being said, if you do look at the kind of the powers that be now, it's in the East Eastern Conference obviously Boston, but Cleveland, Milwaukee, not destination towns. Oklahoma City, Houston, Memphis in the West, not destination places. It's all about how you build, and the Jazz have to build and they we honestly don't know if they have any building
blocks right now beyond lowry marketing. I guess you could make an argument for Walker Kessler. Yeah, but your two bigs in twenty twenty five do not solve your problem because the game is now, who are your six foot seven, six foot eight, six foot nine wing players and the Jazz need to find those well.
And to your point about this not necessarily happening very often in pro basketball, you just have to rely on savvy planning and then luck. You just have to like because it has happened in other places, it just hasn't happened here. The only time the Jazz have been built correctly and they've been able to win at a high level. You had some very smart talent evaluators find some very very high value in places in the draft that you
don't typically find it. John and Carl mid late first round, go Baar twenty seven, Donovan late lottery even Hayward late Millsap second round, like most of our best players, if not all of our best players. Darren top five pick, but he's the outlier right anytime they like they I think Cantor was the third pick, like that was you blew that one. But most of the value they found have been mid lottery lad first round, sometimes in the
second round. And when you look at the markets to your point where you have to be analogous with Salt Lake Denver, was your cousin who drove up to Idaho and about the lottery ticket and then the powerball numbers hit because they got Jokich at forty three and is the best player in the world. Milwaukee Yiannis mid first round. You know, so something like that needs to fall into place for the Jazz.
And you need a couple huge dominoes.
Yes, and the most likely way to do that in a market like Salt Lake is simply having a top pick like san Antonio did. I always draw the San Antonio example. I have done this for years because people will say, well, you can't do it in Salt Lake. I'm like, have you been to San Antonio tape?
Man? I like san Antono.
I liked it in the first couple of times, and it's like, Okay, are we doing nachos in the river walk again? Okay?
Yeah, I'm with you. The tech, the text mex if you find the right spots there. But yes, I'm with you.
Okay. So I would prefer saw Lake over San Antonio. Then when you look at the you know, the media numbers, they're a smaller market than we are. But san Antonio David Robinson first overall pick, Tim Duncan, first overall pick. You talk about Laker bridges. Okay, now we have San Antonio bridges, and now they have Victor Wemmen. Yeah, I'm a number one overall pick. They had three opportunities to draft the number one player overall and they've knocked it
out of the park all three times. And the Jazz have never had the number one overall pick. It just is going to take a Little San Antonio time Lady. Luck.
Yeah, they've They've chosen wisely when it comes to choosing to be bad, right, because I think the year that they chose Duncan, I think Robinson was really hurt. The year before was it the lockout.
No, No, the lockout year was the year they won the title over Trell Springs, arou Al in Houston and the New York Knickerbockers. But the year Duncan was a senior at Wake Forest. As the story goes, David Robinson reported a camp and he was like, hey, I'm good, and they're like, well, actually you're not.
Not.
Yeah, your back really hurts, and so he wanted to play that year and they basically said, just watch this kid at wake Forest. That's why you're not playing it. But again, you need the lottery luck. Yeah, best laid plans a side seek. Yeah, you still need the luck to follow your way.
It's funny if that's true that they told like the most in shape giant human in the history of the world. Like I remember like in Awe of David Robinson who was like seven to one and was like cut like a bodybuilder and the stuff that he could do. But Anyways, my question to you, and this is where we're getting really sports talk radio, why doesn't the NBA follow the NFL model where the worst team gets the best top pick. Like, do you think there's a world in which the NBA could go that route?
Well, once upon a time that was talked about, and the fear is that too many teams tams would just be unserious. Well that's what they're always they're doing.
Anyways.
Yeah, and the NBA would tell you their spin is they're trying to avoid the tanking that is so clearly happening.
Yeah.
The irony to me is that in the NFL, I'm sure there are some tankers, but like, for the most part, people are trying way harder than in the NBA. And the NBA has the lottery system. It's just iron Yeah.
The way the NFL is set up, really top to bottom is a better business model. It's not as favorable to the players, right, And so this is an unpopular take. If if a pro athletes listening to the show, because really, the guaranteed contracts in pro basketball change the way players
decided to approach their job. There was a time, Chris, where NBA players honestly needed paychecks on the first and the fifteenth of every month, and if they didn't show up and play in games, they weren't paid right, and they needed the money. They really did. Now, what's Lebron need another dollar for it? And not just Lebron. You can go down the list. A lot of these players will never have to work a day in their life,
and neither will four generations behind them. And at the end of the day, that's a good thing because there were too many oligarchs making millions on their backs and so I'm all for the basketball related income split that goes to the players. Now the NFL simply doesn't do that. There are very few guaranteed deals. There are more now than there used to be, but for the most part, you got to show up, you got to play hard
so you can earn your paycheck. And that leads to teams, even if they're trying not to be great, employing players that are playing their ass off every week, and that's why you get more parody. It's a better business model for the viewer, which is why the NFL has the best TV show when it comes to sports period. End of story. It just does.
Do you think if the NBA adopted the worst to first model. Do you think that would expedite the process of teams teams that need to rebuild faster, like the Jazz or like the Wizards. Do you think that would help the parody?
Maybe is the answer. It's tough because another model that I've seen thrown around is simply you just cycle it every year, just you know, Okay, the Jazz have the first pick next year, then they go to the thirty second pick next and then they move up, you know, and then they just kind of rotated that way. This is one way where you flatten a lot of the odds, and so you're trying to avoid the the you know,
the the tanking stuff at the end. And maybe if you just did worst gets first, you would have some interesting games where you could watch where teams are just really horrible and like the trainer's playing point guard or something. You know what, man, I just go back to promotion relegation. Let's just bring it to the NBA.
It would be communist, man.
It would rule that you I mean, listen, it would rule that's a reality check podcast.
It is man, But that that would rule all right, So Jazz basketball Steph Curry and Town tomorrow night. They lost the Pacers last night. NBA trade deadline comes and goes on Thursday afternoon. There actually is something that you shared that you actually wrote about recently, and it's interesting because I talked about on the show. I believe college football games should be played on college football campuses. Yeah, and I believe that should go for every single game,
maybe besides the National championship game. You make that your super Bowl. We've already talked about the Joel Clatt thing. He wants the Rose Bowl to be the college football super Bowl. He's not wrong, and I think it would be really cool. Yeah, and then every game prior to the Rose Bowl super Bowl for college football is played on a college campus, because that, to me is one
of the things that makes college football amazing. You did a deep dive though, on what it cost fans, namely Notre Dame fans.
It was.
I talked to fans of each of the four semi finalist teams who had gone to various playoff games, whether they were all of them or a few of them.
So give us an idea of what that economic impact was like if you were a fan of a team and had to go to multiple venues to see them play in the CFP. Yeah.
So the Utter Dame fan I talked to was awesome because she's based in Pittsburgh, isn't a lum, isn't a season ticket holder, so she doesn't have the inn in terms of maybe a not as significant hit from a ticket's point of view. But she went to the home game against Indiana, She went to the Sugar Bowl against Georgia, the semi final against was it Penn State maybe Pensteak, Yeah, and then they went to the National She went to the National championship game against Ohio State, and you know,
bless her heart, she was awesome. She's a diehard Notre Dame fan, and she just basically broke down, like down to the dollar, how much everything costs. And I don't have it pulled up in front of me, but it was a lot of money. And it's the type of money that do you remember when we were kids and it was like your parents would be like, one day, I'm gonna take you on that once in a lifetime.
Trip to wherever.
Like that was like I remember that being the conversation when I was a kid. This is kind of what I equated it to like this is probably fans that have been saving or have the means to be able to splurge when they see.
The moment present itself.
And you know, to me, the tickets weren't as expensive as everything else, Like it's it's the last minute flights, it's the hotels, it's the miscellaneous stuff, the lifts, that everything. And to your point, I think you could be able to curb the cost of so many fans emptying their pockets for this stuff. But at the same time, I think one thing we often and I did this when I first started working on this piece, We can't all assume that that fans are lums of schools live in
that town anymore, for sure. So like a lot of these folks of friends, you know, fans of these schools like that. The Ohio State fan I talked to is a is a special education teacher in Santa Monica, and he still went to everyone. You know, it's like you find a way. But everybody that I talked to, I asked him that question. I say, like, would you like to see the model morph from what it is now to having home games.
Up until the National Championship game?
And pretty much everybody said yes, the Notre Dame fan said, like, I would like that, but because we're an independent, it's not currently set up that we would be able to because you know, we know the system currently favors the conference champions. My only thing, And I think the reason why this would never happen is college football as a whole is way too embedded in its relationship with those
high profile bowls. And if we're talking about I mean, you remember like that Penn State SMU game was like ten degrees? Are you really going to keep risking that going deeper and deeper into December and January? I think I think the product potentially being hurt would be very a reason for apprehension for the powers that be.
So the breakdown and this is the lady, the Notre Dame alum, and is this just did you have family with her? Is this just her?
Just her?
So? Can you imagine if you're traveling with like a family force. So this is what it cost one Notre Dame fan to attend Indiana, Georgia, Penn State and Ohio State Ohio State first round against Indiana, tickets, lodging, miscellaneous, one thousand and sixty two quarterfinal UGA, same stuff. One eight hundred and ninety five semifinal Penn State, same stuff, one thousand, seven hundred and twenty five championship game against
Ohio State twenty five hundred dollars. She spent seven thousand, one hundred and eighty two dollars to attend four Notre Dame games.
Yeah, and I think her name is Christy.
It is okay.
Christy had an inn of sorts because some of her group of friends are more high profile donors, and at Notre Dame, if you the more you donate, the more likely you are to get a friendly budget hit when it comes to tickets. So that worked out great for them. It probably was a lot more tickets wise for other
people who aren't in that realm. But like what was crazy is looking at the data from the last few playoffs, there haven't been that many games where the tickets, even as you got into the semi finals in the finals were really out of you know, extraordinary value. But this Ohio State Notre Dame game was nuts. I think it was like at one point, I think game during the game day, like at like seven or eight am, like tickets were like already in like the three to four thousand dollars range.
But I mean a lot of that.
The factors are, like you're talking about regional rivals to Midwest teams. Notre Dame hadn't been there, I think in like eleven years. Haven't won a national title since nineteen eighty eight. So there are a lot of mitigating factors there. But yeah, I mean, just for one person, like seventy one hundred bucks, and then like you said, if you want to take a spouse and a couple of kids, like shoot, man, like you might as well take out a second mortgage on your house.
It's a lot to ask, Yeah, it really is. And it's interested in college football fans. It's just I don't know, if you get older, you just realize most of these things, and maybe you don't understand entirely. Politics, football, religion is so much about community, yeah, right, and that's really all it is. In a lot of ways, even people don't
even care to intellectualize the community they're in. They just want to be in it, yeah, you know, and so they don't give a rip if weird things are happening at the White House, or if weird things are happening in college football. They just want to be in the they want to wear the red hat and feel good when they go out, that's kind of it.
Yeah. And they want to flash the you.
Yeah, and they want to flash to you whatever it is. Yeah, in that community. Yeah, I was surprised to know this most expensive tickets round one Indiana other name.
I mean the proximity.
Yeah, Like you could have also history, the.
First ye history.
Yeah, and like they the folks who were either legally or illegally selling tickets, yeah, could just inflate those numbers to an ungodly level. Because when is Indiana going to get back there? Maybe yeah, maybe they will. But like I think Bloomington is a three hour drive to South Bend. Like the fact that they were so close, it was just a no brainer for people to be able to take advantage of our capitalistic market.
Place, indeed, the neoliberal capitalistic takeover. But look, when you had been indoctrinated into a community and you love being part of that community, You're fine spending this money. Oh.
Everybody I talked to is like, I do it again. I do it in a heartbeat.
You're gonna buy the shoes, You're gonna buy the bibles, You're gonna buy the tickets. You're gonna shell out the cash because you want to be part of that community.
Well, and for so many of these schools this year at least, like like I said, this is potentially a once once in a blue moon type deal. Like for the Ohio States or Texas's they'll be back and they'll have home games. But for a lot of these schools, like I mean, I remember there was a in real
time SMU was trying to get to stay college. But because it's so hard to get there, like a boot like a plane of really rich boosters were like late getting to this private airport and they were being bust there privately, and like I think they eventually got there for like the third quarter, but by the time they got there, the game was out of hand.
It's like, yeah, you just go for it if you can, all.
Right, before I set you loose. The Utah Hockey Club has narrowed their list of name options. What are we at so fans can go through the motion of pretending to vote for the name tonight one more time and then just give qual Tricks your info then they'll do whatever they want. That's the bottom line. But anyway, the exercise is thought to allow these people to potentially vote on Utah Hockey Club, Utah Mammoth, and then the Utah Outlaws, and we learned that Porter's distant cousin is Billy the
Kid or who is it? It's it's one of the Outlaws.
I'm gonna wait till you get it right.
Which Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid and the Wild Bunch Porters related to Butch Cassidy. So we did a twenty minute history lesson on Outlaws in Utah last week.
Who's the dude? Who was the uh like the henchman for Brigham Young.
Porter Rock with Porter Rock well his namesake?
Okay, so another I don't even know.
Is it yep?
My third great grandfather we talked about was like his best friend. So we have so what I before I go? I want to know your votes for the name.
Utah Hockey Club.
I keep going back and forth.
I'm kind of like a dinosaur fossil nerd as well as like an outlaw nerd. So I'm kind of cool with either one. And Spence has kind of gotten me on board with Utah Hockey Club being a decent option as well. So I'm going to currently vote for Outlaw. But I'm I'm going either way.
So we in this state, we are known for having dinosaur fossils. The mammoth thing, I don't really understand, particularly like I don't know when when was the last time if we ever have had a mammoth fossil here, I'm gonna be with Porter, but I'm gonna go hockey club one Outlaws to mammoth is out for me.
Okay, I think I've landed on that as well. We just did an hour with well.
We didn't even talk about the.
Trays in Santa Barbara.
So they're in Coachella.
Man, Oh, that's right, they're in Coachella.
Now, ocella invitation.
I bet Pobs is tripping on something.
Let's tripping on formations.
Little Jack, Little Jack Johnson, Ben Harper on the speaker, Oh, golfing with Pobs man, the music that comes. We had a we had a couple of Jason Moraz tunes. Oh yeah, you've told me about that. That's okay, No, it's not, No, it is. There has to be a line, Jason Maras has to be the line. There has to be a line.
You're offending Dave Fox in here.
Give me a I'm sure Fox loves Maras. I can see Fox in a Fedora. What's what's what's going on right now? Give me a quick thought on the lads Setulus.
I think it's two weeks from today. They they're down in Costa Rica's right, Ye conquered cast.
Yeah. Quick thought is they got worse this offseason?
Yeah?
They did, And there's no really other way to spin it. And I think the fan base is probably very bummed out because for a long time they were waiting to have the type of roster constructed that they had last year, and to see it dissipate in eight months is probably pretty heartbreaking.
Up, you're not buying the spin goals by committee, thirty five year old keeper good with his.
I mean it's MLS dude, Like who knows, like they could for all that we know, like they could get the seventh seed and go on to run to MLS Cup next year with a bunch of with a bunch of dudes. I mean, I guess we know some of them, but like I don't know.
Christopher, great to see you. It's still sixty two. Did you ride you can? Did you ride the bus?
Should have?
Oh wow?
I had to run errands before.
We'll get home safe.
Man.
Good to see it.
Thanks Man.