All right, we have an ongoing situation in the studio.
Chris Camradi is live with us for the next hour as he has wont to do from time to time, and my dog, Duke has taken a real liking to Chris, and I'm going to try to keep Duke over here. But if you want to see Chris dodge Duke try to hump him on camera, go to our YouTube channel, because Chris is wearing shorts and Duke is a sweet, cuddly dog, but he has some claws that might hurt.
Are you gonna be okay?
Well, are you going to take care of your child? I don't know how to do it.
Duke, come on over. I mean I can't really do much. I mean you can't how Duke sit? Duke sit and stay? Is it working?
No?
Yeah, I didn't think so if he humps he would you stop it? We'll put him in the producer's room with porter. If he starts to hump, because for some reason he's taking a real liking to you.
Duke, no humping.
No, he's good.
So if you want to see Chris on camera, try to avoid being humped by my four year old dog. A sentence I ever thought i'd say, log on our YouTube channel, correct, how are you, Chris, I'm good. I cannot say the same for local basketball fans har our market. Maybe folks don't really understand how a lottery works. I find it intellectually embarrassing that whether it's okay, your guy didn't win an election, so let's cry foul, let's say it was stolen, or your team didn't win the lottery,
something's amiss. I almost don't want to spend any oxygen on it.
Now.
I understand why you're disappointed, and I even get some of the dynamics that don't land well with people that think basketball scripted anyway, But how have you digested the meltdown in our market over the past forty eight out well, thirty six hours or whatever.
There's a very thick sense of irony across the board here. And I always go back to kind of the idiom of like when you were a kid, your parents taught you, let's hope, and I feel like most of the previous generations were taught how to lose. You have to learn how to take a now, wear it, figure out a
way to move forward, and you know, press on. But lately, man It is a very fascinating kind of development we have culturally where we refuse to do that, whether it's in our personal lives, in our you know, political lives, even in sports now. And it used to be like, I don't know, it used to be your annoying uncle or your annoying older brother's friend, who would be like, dude,
it's all, it's all. It's all part of this timeline, man. Yeah, the powers that be in you know, big Brother, big Brother, all of the illuminati. That's what I was looking for, illuminati. And now it's like I think Blarson said that like seventy five percent of his poll said it's rigged.
With like two thousand votes, I don't like three. Yeah, when I checked, it was too get up to three.
I think so.
So I think it is a societal failure to understand that life is hard and at the end of the day, this is an entertainment business. This should be viewed as professional wrestling light That's how I would put it to people. It is a product that you have to pay a lot of money for to see in person or either on your tablet, your laptop or your TV. Now it's not scripted to that level.
But at the end of the.
Day, it is still entertainment. So you have to figure out a way to compartmentalize how you want to prioritize this level of potential stress in your life. Because if you have a bunch of adults out there who are huffing and puffing and just want to go sit out in the rain and scream into the void like they're on Garden State and trash bags.
I think we have a pretty big problem with it.
Yeah, I mean, look, and again, you know, it's one of the great things about fans in our state. They feel very strongly about the teams they support, and whether it's the Jazz or college football and RSL or Utah Hockey Club, I feel like the fans in our state are very passionate about the teams they support, and in a way feel like those teams represents something to the rest of the world that maybe, you know, can shield the oddities that our state entails. And so maybe if
the Jazz are good, then we're okay. Maybe if b YU football wins were not weird.
A billion percent.
That is why I think when the Donnovan Mitchell Show exploded onto the scene here, that's why he resonated with people at a level that really no other professional athlete.
Really ever has before.
Yeah, and the inferiority complex, which we've talked about ad nauseum on your show the last few years, is on full display in the wake of this. You know, of these lottery results, and we're talking about historically a pretty pervasive culture that is a US versus them mentality. And I don't think we want to get into the anthropological levels of that on the Drive on Wednesday on a rainy Wednesday, but it is easy for a lot of folks here to cry foul when they believe that schemes
are at play. Let's just say that.
Yeah, And it's so difficult to talk about this with any sort of nuance without sounding like you're being insensitive to a fan base right now that feels like they've been screwed, because I get it where it's not just a one off. It's ten times in the lottery without ever moving up with it's ten times in a lottery
without getting that magic ticket. But for every piece of quote unquote proof for evidence, you feel like you have to indicate that the fixes in I can throw twenty pieces at you to indicate that it very much is not like. The team that by far at this point has benefited most from the lottery is the San Antonio Spurs historically speaking, and also my favorite city there. You go, okay, well that's if San Antonio is for you, then San Antonio is for you. Chris, I've probably been there six
or seven times. It's very much not for me, and it's very much not for most of the people in pro basketball. You could make an argument that San Antonio is the worst market in the NBA, not even kidding.
Let's quantify worst.
Okay, Well, it's boring, it's not very big, it's not very fun.
There's not a lot to do.
You can only eat nachos and walk around the river walk so many times. It has excellent Mexican food, doesn't have a lot of culture, and most NBA players have never really chosen to land there via free agency. It's not really unlike us when it comes to the view of the city across the landscape of pro basketball, Antonio's benefited from the lottery.
More than anyone. I don't think it's a debate.
If you want to throw some other teams in there, it's Cleveland, which is also on the short list of Hey, I don't really want to live there. It's the New Orleans Pelicans, New Orleans.
I like New Orleans. I'm not, you know, here to knock on every city.
But the point is, Minnesota's got the number one pick twice in the last decade.
Orlando is another one.
And you know, folks around here probably here Orlando and they think, oh Disney, No, Central Florida, much different thing.
Correct.
The fact of the matter is it hasn't been the Lakers, it hasn't been the Heat, it hasn't been the Knicks. When Zion was available to be drafted number one. Overall, the Knicks had the best chance to get the number one pick. It goes to the Pelicans. The majority of the teams that have benefited most from the lottery system are not big market destination cities. So the whole like it's fixed, it's rigged to what end to benefit the Spurs and the Calves, Like, give me a break.
Well, how often have the Jazz been in the drive ever seat to even get a top pick in.
The last forty years?
Not often, less than five, not often. Yeah, it's got to be less than a handful. Yeah, the Darren year did.
They didn't they move up to get Darren.
Yeah.
Yeah, they moved up five to three to three okay, and then Canter moved up to two. Okay. I think I think Canter was three okay, moved up to three okay. But those were those were two times where like the jazz weren't supposed to So the one time that it's supposed to go their way and it doesn't, we're gonna we're gonna go to these lengths. Let's be honest, guys. And this this goes into the point that I've been making for a long time, is you've existed in that
mushy middle. You've existed in the forty to fifty five win range for thirty years off and on. Now that's the reason why you're not in the mix. And the one year you've decided to get in the mix, it doesn't go your way.
I get it. But I think the one thing, and I did my homework, man, I did my notes.
I know you did.
One thing that we haven't talked about or I haven't heard people talk about, is you can be frustrated that the jazz didn't get the number one overall pick. But if you're a jazz fan, you should probably be more frustrated of the recent lottery picks that clearly are not panning out.
That the Jazz made.
Correct if you're talking about Cody Williams tenth last year, who, according to a lot of people, could have potentially gone number one in a in a in a very weak draft, barely could play last year, I think Hollinger or somebody had him rated as like the worst peer stat nerd thing in the league.
Yep, one of the worst in the history as far as rookies go.
Keante George fringe lottery guy. I think he was like the fourteenth.
Fifteenth, kay something like that.
Yeah, mid first round. You know has talent, but clearly isn't a top tier guy. The Taylor Hendricks one is difficult to judge because of the injury, but the year before he got hurt, he was pretty much playing with the stars. So and my point is, while I did my notes, I looked at the teams that are remaining in the NBA playoffs, and there are a multitude of players that were drafted not in the top five that are leading their teams right now. Steph Curry seventh overall.
Do you know who the second highest remaining player who was drafted highest outside of the Celtics, So to eliminate the Celtics, Ant not number one, So you can't do Cat. You can't do ANT, and you no ANT. Okay, no Cat, no ANT, no Celtics.
Jamal Murray j seventh.
Overall, then you have Halliburton twelfth, Sga eleventh, Mikal Bridges tenth, Jalen Williams twelfth, Jimmy Butler thirtieth, Pascal Siakam twenty seventh. Like, all of these guys have gotten to various points of their careers by playing generally on bad teams, and then you know, as as the story goes, you eventually get to move up. But these are not guys that were considered to be can't miss prospects, and here they are.
I mean, the Pacers, for crying out loud, have Halliburton, who was drafted by the Kings and was a fringe lottery guy. I think a lot of people kind of left Myles Turner for dead once upon a time as like a potential star player, and Siakam had a great run in Toronto they acquired him via trade. My point is is that the infrastructure, the Jazz just simply haven't built since dealing Darren and or dealing Donovan and Rudy.
One hundred percent, Jalen Brunson thirty three, Nicola Jokic forty one, and.
The Raymond a second.
It's a really good.
Point because now the issue with where the Jazz find themselves because of what you just pointed out, you know, the inability so far.
You know, the Walker Kestler.
Was was a twenty two and he was in the go bet trade, Larry marketing and the Mitchell trade. And I keep saying this, those are the only two where I'm like, yeah, all.
Right, Larry and Walker. Okay, we've got those two.
But but it's it's still kind of a maybe.
I think those two have have you know, I think they've established that they're good.
They are, but are they going to be part of the next good jest?
That's a good question.
But where the Jazz find themselves kind of up a creek without a paddle because of even Isaiah Collier, I honestly don't know that I'm ready to say Isaiah Callier is a rotational NBA player for a team that's trying to win. I think he showed some things Keyante leaves a lot of questions. We'll see what happens with Taylor when he gets healthy. H Cody has a marathon to go. The problem with the failures so far of building up an infrastructure that is appealing to other teams is that
there are conversations about Phoenix blowing up. There are conversations about Giannis being willing to be traded if Austin loses tonight with the Tatum injury. They have a new ownership group that will have a luxury tax bill of over five hundred million dollars next year just for the right to have the team. Okay, so what's going to happen on the open market this year? Is there a lot of good players are going to be available. The Jazz
don't have anything to offer outside of draft capital. And if you're Milwaukee, you can talk to Oklahoma City about their bevy of draft picks, and also chet Holmgrin and Jalen Williams, like you can get two really good young players from OKC, San Antonio or Houston in addition to the same draft capital the Jazz have. And so if you're Milwaukee, the Jazz just don't have anything.
To offer for you.
Honest they don't have anything to offer for Jalen Brown or Kevin Durant.
Like they don't have anything to offer anybody.
They're not going to be in the mix, and so it just continues to be this slow build. The question now becomes Chris and Tim Bontemps from ESPN wrote a good piece where he quoted a couple of front office people in the NBA. They were celebrated the fact that the Jazz and the Wizard specifically did not get the number one overall pick because they don't want to see
intentional losing rewarded. So twenty nineteen, Adam Silver flattens the lottery odd Since then, the worst team in the NBA has not sniffed the number one overall pick one time. What do the Jazz do now? Do they try to change the ethos to actually put their best foot forward? And what does that even look like with this roster?
Well one, well, let's let's touch on what you were just saying. I don't think they can they have a because they're not good enough. They have a bleep ton of cap room, But I don't know who are you going to convince to take a bunch of projects off your hands? Now the picks, you know, like you know the MJ meme FM picks, you know, like or that maybe it wasn't name to somebody else, but.
It was MJJ.
Okay, but I think at the time it was bleeped those kids, that's right, which no, but that's what it means, say thank you. I'm not advocating that.
What they have to offer, they don't. You're talking about a bunch of projects and an one time All Star. And I know people think that Walker Kessler is the second coming of Mark Eaton, but he's not. Like he's a He's a decent big man who can play defense in the modern MBA where basically nobody plays defense. But does that make a difference when you want to become a deep postseason team, I honestly don't know, Like I don't.
I don't.
Thinking of the teams that are left, I don't know how many of them have the profile of a player that Walker Kessler represents. Anyways, that's that's that's a different story. My point is we talk about player development with this organization. Look at Okay, see man, those players played on really really, really bad teams for a long time, and these are outside of CHET who was a byproduct of being really bad for a long time. These were guys that were
drafted late lottery. I don't even know where loud do Or was drafted, but he developed into a player. I mean, okay, so you're talking about the Jalens, Sga, lou Dort, and then there there circuses undrafted see exactly, and their circus of very talented role players, all of guys who were not, you know, big time lottery players. The Jazz haven't shown
the ability to develop players even in bad seasons. Sga, I think will always be will be an exception because I think he was considered the gem of that Chris Paul Dial wait once upon a time, but he was
still no guarantee. So is there a player on the this Jazz roster that has can sniff even remotely the potential of anybody, let's say, And maybe this is unfair to compare them to where okay, C was four or five years ago, but it's kind of the closest comp And is there anybody on this roster that has the ceiling that some of these guys have.
No, the answer is no, And it's not unfair to compare the Jazz to where Oklahoma City was, or where Detroit was, or where Orlando was, because the Jazz find themselves in the spot now where those teams were when they were trying to get back to respectability. But the problem is those teams were showing signs. When you started to see what Shay could be as the primary guy, You're like, all right, they've got something there. When Caid
got healthy, You're like, they've got something there. When Pollo showed that he should have been the number one pick and Notchabar, You're like, they've got something there. All these teams that I use as an example of them being where the Jazz are at three four years ago, had signs of improvement and hope that this team does not
have for the fan base. So if we're in lockstep about the inability to acquire a real game changer via trade just based off of what you have on the roster, so what does it look like next year if you add five and maybe twenty one. They have the twenty first pick as well. But what you don't do is intentionally lose games by faking injuries with players or having your seven foot or shoot seven threes. An What you do do is put your best foot forward based off of what you have here?
What does that look like?
If you're not gonna if you're not gonna intentionally lose games like they clearly did this year, and you're not inventing injuries for marketing, and you're not inventing injuries for Clarkson and Sexton and Collins, and you're playing walker and you're actually trying to win because you've now done your calculation that tanking does no good, so we might as well do our fan base as service and actually show up for work.
What does that look like with this team? I don't think it's great.
It's best case scenario. It's a thirty two win team, which, if we're talking historically, means they might have a better chance of what I'm saying. And you know, you know, I grind on a lot of time. You do podcasts, and I did a big one for you this week. I listened to this Zach lowpodcast. You listen to Zach And the fascinating thing that I took away from that was teams voted twenty nine to one to flatten the curve.
Yes they did.
Do you know the one team who did not?
Is it the Jazz? No Washington.
Okay, see okay.
Sam Presty said the only way for a market like ours to get game changing talent is through the lottery. Yeah, the Jazz voted for that.
Interesting. Yeah.
Yeah, So it just leads you to wonder whether or not they're going to change their viewpoint and they'll get a good player at five.
But they have to get the right I mean, like they just have to get good players. Yeah, so simple, and it sounds very like U reductive. There you go, but like they just simply I don't know who's in the scouting department, the front office. I know everyone was obsessed with Danny Ainge's ability to draft players because he chose Tatum and Brown, but it hasn't Pandam out so far. And I just don't know if any of these players on the roster are going to make a leap in
the next two to three years. I mean, the most disheartening thing is that you feel like now, rather than being three to five years away, they could potentially be five to seven years away.
And as I've talked to you about and other guests on this show, the reality is a lot of teams have gone through five, seven, eight, nine years. Detroit hasn't won a home playoff game since two thousand and eight. I think Charlotte's gone twenty one years without a playoff win.
Minnesota.
Minnesota just barely won playoff series in back to back years for the first time in twenty five years. That happen, right, I mean? So, like what the reality is of the current situation? And look, I am not here for the whole Like, hey, it took three years to break down, now we're rebuilt.
Shut up.
It's so insulting that they would even have the nerve to propagate that message. The reality is we are three years into a project that might take eight or nine years. It might okay, now, there are lightning and bottle situations that happen all the time. And to your point about the list you read, it doesn't have to happen at one. It's more likely to happen at one. It's more likely
to happen to the top three. But based off of the history of this market, our best players being mid lottery, late first round, some of the second Paul millsapp and others, and other examples as well, you can find diamonds in the rough. The best player in the world was the second round pick, but at this point they have not shown the ability to draft and develop well at least this iteration of the jazz final question for this segment it was posed to me earlier on a show I did.
How long will the fans ride? How long do the fans ride?
In this market where we went from John and Carl to Darren and Booze, from Darren and Booze to Hayward and Favors, from Hayward and Favors to Rudy and Mitchell, and all of those teams are very competitive. Whether you think they were championship teams are not. I didn't, but they were least competitive. We are now potentially in for the first time that this will take longer than two or three years.
It's already been three. How long did jazz fans ride?
I think you could break it down into several tiers. First off, it would behoove the powers that be to be clear and concise about what they want to do, and like say it into a microphone and probably avoid the phrase big game, hunting.
At all costs, at all costs. And then signed Drew you Banks, it's not gonna work.
Hey, he got traded. He did he didn't have he didn't have what it takes to take.
But that was their first signing after the Big Game hunting. It was true, you bank, that's right.
I'm fascinated to see what tickets cost, to see if any of that is more massage to be logical for the product that you're selling to a fan base that is doesn't suffer fools and understands what good basketball is. It's a big off season, man, I mean, like you can you can make an argument that this is the biggest off season twenty years since post John and Carl. But even post John and Carl, you had Jerry.
At Jerry little ak Bridge.
You had a little ak Bridge. Yeah on the.
Curl played football, right bowler.
I just it.
It behooves everybody to be transparent about what they want to do.
And when when.
Your guy, your guy, which one the guy.
Who screamed into the who screamed yea.
Hey, my guy went on on a run, on a run the sun was rising over the.
The goal doesn't change, I would say, I would ask to say what what that goal is? And if you say, build a championship contender in Utah, then you have to say then how right?
Porter revealed to us that he makes that run every morning.
He runs and then as soon as the sun rises over the Wasatch he lets out an audible.
Porter, Well, well, I know that. I know Porter well, but.
Ry did once. But that's a daily routine for our guy.
Yeah, I told you, maybe not, it's at sunrise. I might be I might be fast asleep.
At that point.
Nothing would have made me more full of joy if I was on a walk with Duke in the morning and suddenly my guy comes running along just.
Screaming, shirtless or no, you think he's wearing the shirt.
Oh, he's wearing the shirt out, long sleeve hat backwards, long sleeve, long sleeve hat backwards.
Yeah, okay, just sprinting along the Wasatch Mountain, sunrising, audible and like viral yell coming from the bottom.
Of the garden. Garden State, Ye, garden State.
I like it. What was your reaction when were you watching the Lottery Life?
I started laughing and Amanda was like, why are you laughing? And I was like, oh, man, I feel for my friends and our friends who work over there. Sure, sure, because I think the messaging was a little off. You know, the the Instagram posts of we like our odds where it's like, you shouldn't because you have fourteen percent, Like you have an eighty six percent chance of not getting the number one pixel.
What are you doing?
We like our odds that are not good.
But my reaction was, I feel bad for some friends that work over there. And then it immediately was a tailspin of embarrassment from a lot of local media members.
Oh my god, that was my favorite part.
Everybody was and I'll say it, and I'm not going to swear, but it's a swear that I can say on air.
Everybody was showing their ass. Oh for sure, everybody was.
And it was the encapsulation of all the bad stereotypes about Utah in a couple hours.
Yeah, the local media meltdown may have been my favorite part. I will tell you this. I felt so bad for Ashley. I felt so bad for Ryan's like, I don't I don't know. I'm not trying to tell another man what to do about a family situation. I don't know that you want to send Ashley in that scenario. Like I wanted to reach the TV and give her a hug. I felt so bad for her.
Well, I mean, they'll be there next year and she's.
Gonna be okay. I mean, look as Ryan on his run with the visceral yell, realize.
We'll see. We'll see who represents them next year.
Let me ask you this, go ahead, if the Jazz so Xanik gave the media the interviews after the Jazz got five, if the Jazz got one, who does media?
I would say, Justin and Ryan.
You know our guys up there, Oh yeah, and no visceral yell needed after that.
Maybe maybe a different type of visceral yell. Maybe a holler.
Bring that swag, sap, we'll catch a break coming up next b y U as a new athletic director. The Big Twelve has their Vegas odds released for over under. We're going to go through the University of Utah football schedule. Chris is gonna tell us win or loss for every single game. Let's go some college football coming up on the other side with Ck live in studio.
Keep it right here on ESPN seven hundred.
Download the ESPN seven hundred app for free, and take Utah's number one sports talk with you where ever you go. Utah's best local and national sports talk, Utah Football and Basketball podcast, and more all on the ESPN seven hundred as available now on the App Store and Google Play.
Yeah for another big segment. By the way, thanks for leaving your house on a rainy day. We usually only get you when the sun is shining.
Correct.
Yeah, it's we can't win them all. We were winning them a lot in the end of April early May. Yep, but I'll take it. It's not snow.
The light at the end of the tunnel is already coming gone. We're good. I mean, I definitely woke up to walk the dog today in thirty eight degree weather and rain at seven am, and I wasn't thrilled about that.
But it's like it's a tolerable thirty eight degrees sure, you know what I mean. You know, like in this you get the fresh the crispness of the air, and I think May is the best month of the year.
I agree with that weatherwise. How many code of packs of jackets do you have?
So many?
I need to get at least one because every time you wear one in I'm more of a patagony, you guy.
Okay, North Face, Okay, East Coast. You know the deal.
My brother in law, legend Ben, what up? Ben?
He used to be one of the head designers there. So you got hook hookup on the He's a black diamond. Oh, very very talented kid.
Ben sounds like a guy I need to get to know you. Should So what do you hook you up on? Deals with jackets?
I mean, I don't know what do you think?
I mean like back in the day, would he Yes? But not anymore?
Friends and family discount?
Can I get that?
Are you friends?
I'm friends with the family.
Well, you got to know Ben. I gotta introduce you to Ben.
Well, I know Amanda, I know Leo.
Yeah.
Can I be a friend of the family.
You can thank you Ben, if you're listening, hook me up with a discount code. Actually, you know what, don't Is there a Ben checkets? There is my little brother Ben. He's the creative director at Round.
Must be something.
You're also welcome to a family friends discount it ron go to round dot com.
All right?
I send that ask because it's one of the things I don't like about our market, where everyone wants everything for free favor. No one will ever pay for tickets. You gotta know someone. No one's ever gonna buy a jacket. You need twenty five percent off, So you know what I am going to buy a Cota Paxi jacket without a disc.
And I'm gonna buy something from Rome. You already have a hat, No? Oh, I do my white one?
Yeah?
Yeah, the one.
I only wear a golfing so once a year. Correct, All right, give me a quick hot take. RSL is in action tonight.
Okay.
I know nothing about Portland other than they're good this year. Do you know anything about them?
I don't.
My hot take my hot take is that, basically it's the same thing that I said last week. RSL does one thing. Okay, sometimes they diego Luna. Well, sometimes he's so good man. Other than that, they don't do anything.
Well.
Yeah, do you know how many former RSL strikers scored on Saturday?
Chi Cho okay, Anderson Yep, the Moose, The moose is freaking loose, dude, shout out John Paul. I know the mooseky one. The reason I know the Moose gout one is I was playing golf with Elliott yep, and he was celebrating all of his former players playing well yep.
And then former Academy Monarch product Milan Aloski scored for Saint Louis. He's still around well, he was in Europe, came back, Saint Louis signed him. He was like san Diego, Sorry, san Diego signed him.
He was like a good young player.
So four okay, four former RSLs. Well, I guess, and we can count if we're counting former players. Albert scored two.
We got to count out.
So five former RSL players scored and first start for your for your.
Guy big Willie goals.
Yeah he is my guy.
Did it?
How did it go?
Didn't go well? A couple of yells guys out tonight. Johnny Russell available for selection this evening. I believe, big deal. That is a big deal. I think they win tonight. Uh no, they lose two one Diego scores.
They lose.
Yeah, I'll go, I'll do that. I mean he has goals and then and everyone out. I think the second leading scorer on the team is a bunch of guys tied for one.
That is correct, including our guys Sam Junka, who's the backup left back.
Yep, and and I and I get that they are in dire straits on the back line. I think Gladys suspended or somebody's one defender suspended because of yellow card accumulation. Then a bunch of other dudes are out. I don't I mean, I don't know. I haven't heard, but Vera gotta be out for a while, dude. And that was a tough knock.
I know. I bring it up every week. But shit, shoot, I bad. We did it. We did it, shooting bad.
It's only taken four years.
That's right, it's all good. You can send me the bill now.
You realize Amy Donaldson swears every time she's on the show, so you're in good company.
But so, yeah, big, we did it.
Big, big willy goals. At least it wasn't the other one.
No, no, no, And you know, we really should operate with a dumb button, but you know we I guess that's not the budget.
So you're gonna go to one Portland.
I'll go you won Portland. Diego scores in the ring. Is Diego already better than you thought he could ever be?
Uh yeah?
But like you saw what he was capable of when he played with Chiico and Gomez last year, because he was scoring goals and assisting. I think at one point, like he like I think at this time last year he already had like ten assists. I think he has zero assists this year. I think he has seven goals and zero assists. Let's see, which is kind of emblematic of the the metaphor of carrying a team on your shoulders.
Let's see you falling up the stats. Well, just you know, pulling up the stats. Computers running a little slow today. Yeah, seven goals and you know every goal he scores is like a wonder strike. You know, they're not just like tap ins or whatever. Like who was the was it Euromovsisian who just seemed like every game he would just kind of that's a great pull or tapping seven goals to assists for ass Okay, Uh, does Diego suck?
Is he just not good?
Uh? He doesn't suck, because if he sucked, he wouldn't be a professional on one of the better lower level teams in Europe. I think you have to be somewhat of an alpha if you want to come in as an attacking player in MLS at the DP spot. And it doesn't even need to be like ambiance. You just have to deliver, like I think of Albert. Like when Albert came, he was Hobby's replacement. He had huge shoes to fill and it was an impossible job.
But if you look at.
His stat record during his time here, like six or seven years, the dude scored a lot of goals and like really really good. I mean like really good. And if that's going to be kind of how you carry yourself on the field. You don't need to be the loudest person in the locker room. You don't need to be you know, your guy KB five, You don't need
to be throwing your weight around. But if you're an attacking player, man, you got a pretty and I think I think we said we talked about this last week, but the summer transfer windows signings from last summer are no bueno right now?
Yeah, I mean yeah, Diego's the bright spot, a mecca shout out on a bench and uh oh hato.
Those two central holding mids are good.
They're good.
There's just nothing up top and there's no answer on the roster. I mean, I try to wax positive about the club. I just it's hard to right now.
Do you think I'm gonna flip the script on you?
Oh wow?
Do you think the Millers are going to splash the cash this summer for a high profile player?
I do?
Now the question that I keep coming back to is whether or not, and it might be too late. It might be too late because the academy has developed and the ethos that developed. I just wonder because I know Steve starts, Steve's Eve wants to win.
He's a competitive dude.
He you know, Like, I think there's probably I don't know this for sure, but I wonder how the Millers would articulate the way Ryan is running the Jazz and their decision to lose on purpose. The Millers never wanted to do that. They always wanted to try to put
a competitive team on the floor. And I know there are Jazz fans listening that will probably say, well, they never play luxury tax, and I understand that, but whenever I hear the whole like, well, the Millers aren't going to invest in soccer because they wouldn't pay luxury tax in the NBA. Luxury tax in the NBA is one hundred and eighty million dollars. Spend twenty or thirty on
the club. I think they'll do that, Yeah, But I wonder if at some point anybody will say out loud, like, maybe we don't lean in only to developing young players, and then moving them on. Maybe we want some good players here, that's my hope.
I yeah, And to your point, they bought a franchise that is one of the worst in the Western Conference right now in a NWSL. They have the worst team in the NWSL right now. Sooner or later, the rubber is going to have to meet the road and you're going to have to see some infusion of fiscal means to upgrade the roster.
There's no other way right there that it's.
It like, yes, keep the academy going there will They will churn out some players every once in a while, but it doesn't work at the level that it does in Europe, and you have to be able to convince your fan base that you give a damn about him.
Are you watching so welcome to Wrexham. Do you watch that?
I do not? You do not?
Are you anti Ryan Reynolds and the other dude or Rob whatever his name is.
It's not that I'm anti. I just don't have a lot of bandwidth for it right now.
Yeah. I just watched more depressing stuff.
Are you all caught up on Gem Sounds? Oh?
Yeah, we finished it.
I still have the finale. Okay, I was out of Town last week. Are we saying finale or finale finale okay or I don't know? Sounds sounds sophisticated.
The final iteration, did you watch Goggins on SNL?
We did?
Yes, Okay, that's pretty funny.
I love Goggins, Baby Billy will Be. I think one of the top characters in TV history. I like him in Fallout, and that's probably not really up up your avenue, but it's a it's a video game show, post apocalyptic, pretty good, okay, plays a dude with out a face and know, but yeah, I love Goggins.
Yeah, no principles.
Indeed, I did catch a little SNL Goggins, But I got I got to finish the I have to finish the final episode of Gemstones, and I have two left of severance.
What I had I didn't finish. I had not intentionally.
I just had some traveling and I got behind and I had to watch like four straight two weeks ago. And I've got two more left, so I'll get that done. B YU as a new athletic director. His name is Brian Santiago. I don't know Brian well, I've met him a couple of times. I played in a group behind him at Steve Young's charity golf tournament name drop flex b YU fans.
What up, how's the swing?
Good player?
Yeah?
Good player.
I have been surprised to both hear from privately BYU fans and then and read online BYU fans not react positively to this hire. But from what I can ascertain, the feel is like I was at the Wilkin line for chocolate milk and Santiago did not say hi to me. I was waiting in line for cougartail Lavelle Edwards. I saw Santiago. I tried to say hello, and he kept walking.
He handed me the razor and said go shave correctly.
That's the feel I get.
I haven't heard anything like this won't work because he's not good at his job, or this won't work because he doesn't have good relationships. It's the feel of church ran over and he left without saying hello to our family, Like it's weird personal interaction, Like he doesn't seem to have the reputation of a very nice guy. Okay, And here's the thing. It doesn't matter, No, it doesn't, and we do. That's another thing that we do here that
drives me crazy. Like if you had one interaction at Jay Doggs in Provo where he took your barbecue sauce and you had to for more. It doesn't mean he's not going to be good at his job. That's the feel I get that. That's kind of the the take on the higher What he is my understanding is very good friends with Ryan Smith and Danny Inge. And that's
fine because this really is a relationship business. And if you're going to be an ad at a P four institution in the current landscape of collegiate athletics, your number one qualification is are you friends with rich people? And without Ryan Smith and Danny Ainge, Kevin Young's not the head coach at BYU, And in one year, Kevin Young has turned that thing into something that, if it keeps ticking,
is going to be really, really good. So I don't know if you could add any context of this whole situation, but that's kind of my understanding of where we're at with this new hire.
I don't know Brian at all, and that I did not know that there is a undercurrent of frustration, can we say, or dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction, Yeah, well, I'll go on a tangent for you. Once upon a time somebody did hand me a razor at BYU and said, you have to go shave or else can't be allowed into this dance.
Wow, guess what I did?
Are you snuck in?
Oh?
Yeah, that's a boy because you weren't a student down there.
Come on, they were like, here's this, here's this ninety nine cent razor that will slice your skin off. No, no shaving cream.
Did you have the thick sea cake?
So thick?
But it was thick enough like yours where it was like it was gonna hurt. So I just went into the bathroom, faked it, came around, came out and snuck in.
Anyways, was it a linger?
Longer?
It was a linger?
It was okay.
Important context, Brian Santiago has very big shoes to fill, and maybe there is a portion of the fan base that is nervous that he.
May not be able to live up to.
Uh, the expectations and the types of hires. I mean, Tom Holmo, the guy really oversaw tumultuous Chaine, good and bad for the amount of time he was there. Like going through the Route of Independence, which was much maligned by a lot of folks, here locally. You know BYU fans in my life still are angry about it, But the dude made hires, and when you make hires generally
things work out. So to your point, Brian Santiago's number one thing on his list has to be maintain relationships with those heavy hitters, the guys who open up their checkbooks. And when the time comes, you have to figure out who's going to be, you know, leading your profitable programs, because if you have the right people in place, you're going to be okay more often than not.
And I think one of the frustrations that's been shared to me with people who are close to BYU athletics and who it's very close to their hearts and b WHYU fans are very passionate, they love their teams. I think one of the things that they were expecting based off of I think it's Shane rees excuse me, see Shane rees Se period.
Shane president of BYU.
Three months ago, when Tom announced his retirement, he said, okay, national search, we are interviewing big hitters, heavy hitters across the country. And you know, whether it's Scott O'Neill who was with the Sixers and now is the CEO of Live or The name I threw out was Brian Rolap, who is Roger Goodell's like right hand man. I don't know how realistic that is. Brian lives in Darien, Connecticut. He's in my family's stake, and so we know the
rowlapse and the feeling is when Goodell has done. Brian Rolap could be the commissioner of the NFL, but he's a Mormon dude, b YU guy lds excuse me. And I think they were expecting I think BYU fans were expecting some big, heavy hitter from somewhere else in the country that has run pro teams that has like Scott O'Neil would have been a great call, but I think is comfortable where he's at, and Scott is a dynamic sports professional who's a really good dude.
Would have been a great hire.
But there may have been like an over expectation of what the athletic director BYU means. And you're not going to leave your job is the number two at the NFL to go run BYU Athletics.
You're just not. So it's like everything else we talk about.
I think the expectation was up here and I think the Santiago news kind of caught people in an underwhelming fashion.
Do you think the precedent of them being able to steal the hire of Kevin Young maybe set their mind in motion. Maybe where their point If we can get the guy who is going to be the next big NBA head coach, why can't we get the guy who is a GM of a major sports franchise to run our athletic department.
Maybe?
I mean, it seemed like conventional wisdom always pointed to Santiago. In this day and age, I think it would be very difficult for somebody who has not been in the room on a day to day basis during this insane amount of change to come in and be like, Yeah, let me learn about this ongoing house settlement versus the NCAA that is changing at every basic turn every single day.
Tell me about nil, tell me about this and that Brian Santiago has been in all those meetings for ad nauseum forever, so he knows.
Twenty seven years ago came to BYU as a member of Steve Cleveland's staff.
On the basketball side.
I believe you can hear Steve Cleveland breaking down basketball in the market somewhere mornings and then twenty years ago, Tom hires Brian. I don't know how long he was the associate AD, but I do know he was one of Tom's right hand men for twenty years. Yeah, and to your point, to watch Tom traverse the space and learn from him on the job, my guests would be Tom probably lobbied for it to have Santiago get the gig. There's this narrative out there that Brian Santiago is like
their sixth or seventh choice. I can't speak to that. But the position of athletic director I don't think is as appealing of a job as most people fully believe.
Why would it be, I don't actually And especially listen man, you have to understand what you're getting into at a school like b YU for for the good and for the difficulty. Well, right, like the fact that they've been able to write the ship, so to speak, with Kilane Higher and bringing Kevin Ky, your being able to bring them on, but just the entire landscape of what you're facing. You have to understand what you're going to have to
do on a day to day basis. Bringing in somebody who Scott O'Neill's where's he at Sixers or Flyers?
Scot O'Neil, now I believe is the CEO of Live Golf, Live Golf, but he was running, yeah, the Flyers and the Sixers. Okay, so he's got that Saudi money now, like he's say what you want about it? We can and we have, but I don't think Scott's leaving that to be the ad of by.
Exactly, and I don't.
We can't Grandma or Foyer request what these guys are being paid because they are at a private institution. My guess would be it would be a step down for a lot of folks who are in the professional realm, especially if he's getting that live money. So it just made sense for the guy to follow Tom as somebody who has basically been with him for the last several years.
Do you recall And I'm honestly asking to ask, because I was thinking about this when I was getting these texts from BYU fans like, hey, you're going to talk about the Santiago stuff. Well, yeah, he's the idea at BYU. Okay, well he's not very nice, he's this or that or whatever. And then some of the online stuff where there are people that are very outward about like how mad they are.
That this was the deal.
I did not know this.
I got to dive in, Yeah, dive in, and you know, just the position of athletic director. I don't know how much context or color I've douted the conversation nationwide, but there have been a lot of youth fans that have soured on Mark. A lot of youth fans have soured on Mark Carlin. And I'll continue to say Mark personally has always been good to me. Comes on the show,
he answers questions, all that stuff. The whole post game pressure after the BYU Utah football game was just a really odd choice that did not land well with anybody, including you fans, and it left him open for a ton of criticism from BYU fans. I still would have loved to be a fly on the wall when Brett or Mark woke up and said, what are you kidding?
Like?
I actually think Mark got off pretty easy based off.
Of what he had to say.
So do you do you feel like there has been a little bit of a change of a feel in the community about Mark Carlon at all?
Is that landed all with you?
And I don't know if it's the ad just being an easy target for people because sports fans are so.
Crazy, anybody who's in charge is going to bear the brunt of a lot of grief that that folks have. I think it's hard to say, it's hard to distill down to the corners of the very sad existence of sports internet as well. But listen, I think Utah fans wanted the running utes to be resurrected for a long time, and they got. They got pretty much everybody wanted to be hired was Alex Jensen. Kyle Whittingham's just gonna keep doing it until he decides to ride his motorcycle forever.
And they've been they've been raising money for for you know, facilities and all that stuff.
You know.
One I think you can say a a misstep is I think the collective got off to a slower start when it when nil really took off. So I'm interested to see how that goes and see how Utah handles when, if and when the house settlement gets finalized and everybody's allotted that twenty point five million, how Mark and his staff decide to really break that down to various teams and players on their athletic rosters.
Yeah, and I do think there's another thing, and I don't think it's as and we've kind of discussed this. I don't think it's as prevalent with the University of Utah as it is with BYU, because even I listened to the introductory press conference earlier today where President Reese and Brian Santiago addressed the media and addressed the contingent, and it really is steeped in we needed a BYU guy,
We needed a BYU blue guy. And even the religious dogmatic language is used like we need somebody who loves Jesus, like they talk like that. So we need a BYU guy who's going to further the message of Jesus, who's going to foster a community of disciple graduates who move on and make a difference in the world. So I know that's more unique to forty five miles down south
and isn't as prevalent here in Salt Lake. But is there a little bit of a feel you think that Mark isn't necessarily a guy that is a Utah guy.
I saw it guy. I mean doctor Hill wasn't either.
That was gonna be my point.
But I was, But also I wanted to ask you, I don't recall it. I was in the I was in the media when Doctor Hill was the ad because I can remember when he and Monson had their thing right and which time, well right, right, But I was doing radio part of the time when Doctor Hill came out and said Gordon wrote a piece criticizing because I don't know that doctor Hill really ever wanted to play BYU and anything. I'm not speaking for him. I just
don't think he was a big fan of that dynamic. Yeah, Monson writes this huge piece like doctor Hill's wrong here, Chris comes out with a whole like self serving media. After a while, Chris agreed to come on our show and it was really frosty, and that was doing radio with Gordon, which made it a lot of fun. Did Doctor Hill seem to have the same sort of criticism levied his way from the community or maybe social media gives people voices.
Social media gives people voices.
Once upon a time there was a very public back and forth between Chris and Kyle during some contract stuff. And are you know my colleagues, some of my closest friends, Matt Piper and Kyle Goon were on the beat then, and it got pretty frosty and contentious publicly between those two. But one thing I would say about Chris is that, like he understood that things could get sideways, but like it helps everybody out to like sit down and talk it out as adults in private and on the record.
And there's a reason why he was so good at what he did for such a long time is because when you have a working relationship that is as unique as the media that's covering an institution and the guy in charge of calling the shots of a multi million dollar athletic department, it's not always going to be roses. And I think one thing that's been kind of missed here is that because a store, a story may come out that's not portraying your university or your team in
a very glowing light, is not a personal thing. Sometimes facts can be facts. But I think unfortunately, and especially in this market, we've we've had this kind of shift towards media members who are always going to put a spin on it that makes the people or the team or the institution that they're covering seem like they can do no wrong, and that is not the right way of doing the job you have.
But that is where that is. That is for the reality.
Checkpot where you and I are on the same page.
All right, I've kept you too long, and I know that you need to get home to watch the well and you also want to watch the Knicks advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in twenty five years.
Question before I go, what do you got? What is Brian Santiago's first Halloween costume.
It won't be near as good as Tom's, I'll tell you that much. It will not get to see as he can.
Thanks man,