KUTV's @DaveFox2 Talkin' Jazz regular season, NBA Draft + more

It's a big night.

It's a big, big night for fans of local sports television programs, maybe even a historic night as the final edition of Talking Jazz for this season, not ever. Yeah, but still it's a big night as we huge welcome in the off season Talking Sports and the man, not the goat, but the man over there is Dave Fox.

Although Dave, how are you good? How are you normally? Not normally? But over the last few years Locke has wrapped up Talking Jazz. Yeah, but come on, but you set me straight last year and so now it's you. Yes, Plus he wasn't available.

Well, I mean, ultimately, people just want top shelf talent for the closer.

That's true, That's that's isn't I mean, that's where your hardest throwing pitcher is, right, he's the closer.

Yeah.

Indeed, indeed, so you bringing the talent to close out the season tonight ten thirty.

Five, Cam Yu, Yeah, I'm excited. Care to give us a little primer? Well, we're gonna talk a little bit.

You know, we talked so much about Cooper flag, you know, the capture the flag.

But what if that doesn't happen?

Spence is gonna tell you why you know, it's this guy is not falling and kind of take you through the next few And then the question I always have is this group of jazz players we just watched, you know, limp through this season. You know who's coming back that really excites you, that needs to step up, that needs to be the man?

And Spence's gonna give you a couple of names for that.

And I think we're gonna get your NBA predictions as well, East and West champions and the overall champions. So what more could you ask for? And Timmy Peterson's gonna drop in the top five jazz place.

My guy, Yeah, my guy, Timmy Peter, you go, how is my guy doing?

He's you know, I just left the studio to walk over here, and he's hard at work putting it all together for you.

Right, because he puts together all the shows.

He writes the five questions with Spence, what exactly what what?

What exactly do you do you do over there? I read it. That's what you say.

You're a professional reader. I mean you do it at a high level that you are. You are my life mentor forty years in this business whatever, with never having worked to in your life I can remember back in the day when you would take a helicopter to high school football games.

Was that before the Fox is Den? No?

That was after Okay, but now what I do is even more time consuming, as you know, because I'm calling the game.

Right in two a week. But do you take a helicopter to those games? No? But that would be cool. You need to get that. You might be onto something. Who do you negotiate your contract with our guy? Can't you know what? Leave that to me. I'm gonna you're gonna handle that. I'm gonna negotiate your work in a helicopter. I'm gonna get you.

Helicopter transportation every high school football and basketball game.

There's a reason we don't have a helicopter anymore. You know what much it costs to operate those things?

A lot for it. Yeah, so, but I'm gonna have to drive. But refresh my memory. Once upon a time, weren't you taking a helicopter?

We called it the Touchdown Report, and I hit three games a night on Friday. I'm the helicopter. We'd fly in back then a lot. You know, the kids still watch television, so they'd have shines for you in cakes and all treats and everything, and we would get we'd hit three games in about ninety minutes and then come back and put together report on it. It was so much fun. I love flying, loved it. It was just a blast. What a setup that is? Oh it was great.

That would be awesome.

They actually did. I drove into what I'll never forget. It was a Bingham High school. Did it once and then it was like, yeah, we're not doing that again.

Were you driving the motorcycle in the sidecar? Who was driving the bike? Our GM at the time. All right, he's not there anymore. But his brilliant idea. And I was like, this is a terrible idea.

Hear that again?

Moving forward? Mikelic on the bike, Yes, and I think that I think we need to.

Bring that back.

No, we're not gonna do that.

Just a hard no. Yeah.

And here's a funny thing talk about. This is just you know, Hollywood, right. I drove to the game and then got in the sidecar around back behind the school and then we drove around. Oh okay, it wasn't even reality was behind the scenes.

Hey, show business, show business. It was horrible.

Tell me what it's been like as the Jazz TV partner. You know, when when when Quinn had his best teams with Gobert and Mitchell and they're winning fifty five or whatever games every year and they're advancing to the postseason. The Jazz were the second highest rated NBA team from a local standpoint. Number one was Golden State. I remember this because I was over at the team of the time and the Golden State Warriors team that I believe they're number one again this year in local TV ratings.

A couple of things.

First of all, remember when the Jazz back in the days you were talking about, they weren't on local TV. They were on cable. They were on what was that channel? Was a Rocky Mountain something network?

Yeah, some rs they all went back exactly. It doesn't even exist anymore. Root Sports.

Yeah, it became a number of those things. It was always the same thing. They had like some ten year deal that was absurd. So in that respect, I don't even know. We weren't able to measure that against overnight normal television over their ratings.

But and then two other things.

I'll tell you the ratings have actually been People still watch the Jazz more so than the hockey, but the hockey doesn't have as many television viewers because.

The station the hockey is on is not on Comcast. Oh you're aware of that. I did not know that.

So that hurts a little bit. So that you know the numbers of it's kind of like the fan base. I mean, what they have gone through this year is difficult, whether it's you know, whether you're a player, whether you're a fan, whether you're a broadcaster. I mean, it's tough, but they're still there. And it's the same thing with viewership. They're still watching. So we don't get the overnights quickly

Did you hear?

I did not mean to have a ratings conversation because I know you guys do a good job, but when teams lose, fans are going to turn the TV off.

But did you hear justin xanik yesterday? Did your Xana? I heard part of it? Yeah, Porter, can we bring back?

Is the biggest highlight from xanax pressure yesterday for Dave, Like, let's do you tell me when you're ready for that?

Hi?

Everyone?

Ow?

Are you Spence? Good to see you? All right?

That's okay, good? Now, that's enough. No, I just wanted it in case you.

Got a Spence mentioned I missed that part.

Dave, don't overthink it. Game recognizes game. It's not a big deal. It's just like when your two basketball minds in the same room. You just kind of have this synergistic thing.

Okay, I got a text Timmy right now, I just got a new idea for the open of Time night show. Well, look, did that make the feed that they because sometimes.

They edit those.

But I mean, obviously I'm beging tongue in cheek because Justin's I'm not the first thing that Justin said after greeting a fellow basketball simon again I don't want to talk about it was he praised the fan base for sticking with them during this process. And Justin's point, which is correct, is if you go across the landscape of pro basketball and if you attend games in other markets where they're doing what the Jazz are doing, those buildings are maybe half full, maybe, and those TV ratings are

Well, two things.

First of all, there are some decent teams in the NBA that don't have full buildings, So don't forget that. I mean, I'm not I'm obviously, you know, the Lakers fill it up, and the top teams do, There's no doubt about that. But secondly, if you go back over, the Jazz have been through a couple of these, never as bad as this, obviously they have. They have more losses this year than they've ever had before, but they've been a couple of through a couple of rebuilding process.

I think a couple of things are the Jazz have.

Been the pro sport for so long that you know, everyone just has embraced them. You know there's more now obviously, and it's growing, but from the word go, now, first.

Couple of years, it wasn't so good. Right.

Your dad was involved in helping turn things around, so he remembers those days. You remember the old Frank Laden line when Yeah, someone called up with time the game is, I said, what time can you be here?

Things like that. Shout out to Fran classic line, shout out absolutely.

But I I just I think when you adopt the team and you're that invested for that long, your heart just doesn't leave it. And kids were raised on it, and now they're raising their kids on it, and maybe it'll change when we get more and more.

We've got a hockey team now, we have soccer.

In the sun, and what happens when the Millers get Major League Baseball, which I think will happen. Maybe that dilutes some things, but I just think, you know, there's there's a loyalty, a level of loyalty that you just don't see with other markets that have way more choices than we used to have. It's you know, it's getting better now and they've just stuck with it. It's very impressive, really impressive. So I don't know how much longer they can do it.

And that's where I want to go next, because and Justin alluded to this and Will was kind of asked about it loosely as well, And the reality is it's just like people ask me like, hey, how will Alex Jensen's first team be.

I'm like, I don't know who's playing for him.

I have no idea, And so we get into a conversation like what do the Jazz look like next year? And the reality is we don't know because there are so many dominoes that have to fall and pieces that could fall into place, and if they get one, and if they get Cooper, we have a different conversation.

But they their.

Floor is five as a result of being the worst in the NBA because of a strange echosystem, ecosystem that is incentivizing losing, and that's what pro basketball does, which needs to change. But if you're going to incentivize losing for teams in certain situations, if I'm Xanic and Age, I'm doing the same thing they're doing, so I'd get it. But as a result of being the worst team in the NBA, your prize is a top five pick, but it could be five.

And if it's five, we get into VJ.

Edgecomb and Trey Johnson and and players that have some promise. But I don't think it's fair to expect them to land on the ground to do what Cooper could potentially do. So if the lottery luck doesn't go their way, the fact of the matter is next year could look a lot like this year, and we could be sitting here in April of twenty twenty six having the very same conversation we're having right now.

So my question for you, David Fox, is how long.

Does this fan base stick around if there's no tangible proof they're moving in the right direction.

Well, I don't.

I think you could maybe could survive another year with a little bit of a drop off.

But Spence, let me tell it to the next level here.

I think if the Jazz somehow lady luck shines on them, they get the number one pick and they end up with Cooper Flag, I don't see how you can do anything but go full speed ahead and let me let me ask you this. Tell me if you disagree with me on this, if they had not played the tank game and had not sat all the players that they did, I'm not saying that, you know, they weren't actually hurt, but you know what I'm saying, if.

If maybe they win, David, they weren't actually hurt. Okay, never mind, I'm trying to be I've tried to be Adam Michel. That's what I said. So let's say they don't do that.

Would you agree with me that this, if everyone plays when they're supposed to play all the time, this might be another ten or fifteen win plus team, which puts them over thirty, which means they're knocking on the door being a playoff team. So next year, if you if you do get Cooper Flag and he goes into your starting lineup, I say, you're all in, You're done with that. But I have a feeling that anything but Cooper flag

If they win fifteen more games this year, they win thirty two games and that's not enough for the.

Of the playoffs, but it's getting close. Yeah, but that's no man's land, Dave, Like, that's where you don't your improving though, that's what you're trying to do. It took.

It took Oklahoma City and Houston and Detroit the same kind of improvement.

Yeah, you're talking about Kaid, Cunningham and SGA. You're talking about teams that actually legitimately have cornerstone pieces.

The Jazz have to find one of those. What if they do get him in flag, Well, that's what I'm saying.

If they do get Cooper Flagg, then I think we have a different conversation about what next year could look like. And we'll talk about this tonight on the show. Because if you put Cooper Flag next to Walker and next to Lowry, now you also have to hope that this offseason brings incremental improvement to Kyante and Isaiah, because if we operate off the premise that hypothetically the Jazz get lucky. Their front court is stacked, but they need guard play

Well, I to circle back then to the original question. I don't think the fans are going to suddenly abandon for one more year of this If they see some sort of progress, and that doesn't even necessarily mean a number of wins, because what, like you said, if you win, what was there between.

Winning thirty games and seventeen games?

Either way, you're a lottery team, only you're you get a worse pick. But maybe it looks a little better to the fan base to not finish dead last and be very you know, competitive throughout it. It's a hard one. That's a tough one, Spence. I think they're going to

I don't see that being an issue.

But there are probably some guys that are like, let's you know, Clarkson maybe, uh, Colin say, I don't need another year of this, Let's let's move on for me.

I wonder how it resonates with their coach. I think you heard him yesterday. What did he say yesterday?

I'm all in, what's he gonna say? Dave?

Because I thought Andy asked a pretty brave question. I mean, the attention in the room was pretty palpable when Andy asked him that. When he said, Hey, if there's a team that actually wants to win, to want you, what would you say?

Well, you're right. He can't say, well, heck, I'm gone.

If they fire Mark Dagnold, I want to coach o Case tomorrow.

I mean.

The weird thing about this Will Hardy dynamic, and nobody ever talks about it because Will never would. I think he's been asked about it, but he brushes over it. The head coach of the Boston Celtics should.

Be Will Hardy. Yeah, you're absolutely right. He was emy Udoka's lead assistant.

He takes the Jazz job, and like two weeks later they fire Udoka because of all the stuff that was happening beyond the scenes. Now Mozilla gets the job. They've won a championship, so they're finding Boston. But that job should be Will's. And I often wonder, and really, if I knew him better, I would ask him off the record, like dude Tatum Brown, you know, like champion porzingis, because

You know, just neither one of us know him all that well, but from what we hear out of him night tonight, if he practices what he preaches, I think it's one of those things where he's reconciled that and he's moved on, And he moved on pretty quickly, That's what I believe. And I think he's appreciates what Danny Angel's done in terms of bringing him in, and I think he understands what's going on here. And maybe maybe he's you know, the Missoula, the Boston Celtics of four

No, I'm just saying, like, I don't care if it's Joe Missoula, Will Hardy or Timmy p as the head coach. When you have Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown and Chris Tapsporzingis and Derek White and for the holiday. And that's why my genuine hope for Will and my hope for all of us who care about the jazz and cover the jazz is we get to see what it looks like when Will Hardy as a roster really really good players. But here's the thing, Dave, They've got two years they're

You know, you hit on something really important, though, if you want to absolutely guarantee once again you finished dead last year.

Make Timmy p your head coach, our guy.

I wonder how Timmy would handle the stress of being the coach of the jazz. How does Timmy handle stress? He addles it pretty well, but he is all in on the jazz.

He and I had a little gentleman's bet and it cost him sixty five dollars.

Dave Fox counted. You get right with your maker. You're betting money.

I'm sorry, it's sixty five too late. Sixty five too late. Porter, Make sure you're saving this clip. Shame on you for taking Timmy's money.

Well he hasn't paid yet.

Okay, Well then you're not in trouble yet because we know I got Timmy likes a wager from time to time.

Oh it was a good It was a really brilliant idea. The way we did this too. Love it, Love it so.

Jazz.

Next exciting date for the Utah Jazz is made the twelve. I can't wait when we'll see if Lady Luck shines their way and we'll talk more about the jazz tonight. What else is spinning the beanie? Did you guys cover Roy McElroy making history.

How about that?

It was you know, I mean we all sat there, Washington missed that button thing. Here we go again, a couple of them. Actually, there's so many side stories all that Rory being paired with d Chambeau. I mean, could you have asked for a bit and and and Bryce had even said they did not talk the entire round, which is maybe a little unusual.

I think, you know, if if there's if there's two guys pair that.

Are somewhat closer, have a good relationship, they may chat a little bit. But there was nothing there at all. Good for him, you know, the grandson. There hasn't been a ton of them. Tiger is the last, but there have been a few, so that I'm happy for him in that respect. How did Tommy freestone or freestone back?

Of course, you know it's funny.

Tony has this really cool story about playing the final round in twenty nineteen with Tiger. Yes, when Tiger won the Masters, and Tony said, after they both hit their drive on one, they're walking down the fairway and he walked up to him and asked him about his kids and now, and Tiger wouldn't I didn't want to have any of it.

Nothing.

Yeah, because Tiger knew what was at stake history at sake Again, I don't know that you want the extra out of distraction when you're trying to win a championship, just mucking it up with your buddy.

Well and you're and we all know where Roy stands on the whole Live thing.

I don't know what Bryson was thinking he was going to get out of him if he was going to have a conversation with somebody who wasn't going to be with him.

No.

No, Spring Football Forever twenty two game coming up on Saturday.

You told me I'm nuts, but I'm kind of excited for this game because I want to see what this offense is going to look like.

I don't know.

You said you don't think that Dann Pierre is going to play at all. I would surely. I'd love to see him get a series. They're not going to show anything.

No, no, but okay, I just want to see him drop back and throw a ball in rece like you can do that at spring practice.

It's not like it's gonna I want to see it in a little more organized situation.

You're gonna see that on Saturday, and I hope because I'm gonna go and watch it.

Well, I mean, I think these spring games are going the way of ultimately exhibitions.

I think at some point I think they'll be gone.

I think at some point, I don't think they'll be gone gone already go there.

I don't think they're gonna be gone gone.

I think a lot of schools will have some sort of fan celebration where you can show up and they're gonna do like a Pro Bowl skills challenge, you know, as opposed to like because there's so much the beause, No, it's not. There's so much at stake, certainly for Utah football, you do not want to risk injury at all. So some sort of fan celebration I think is a good idea, and I think Utah buy you. Every school should do that. But as far as the days of a spring game that's real, I bet you know.

I agree with you.

At on it's way out, But while it's still there, I think I'm gonna go and watch it and see if maybe we can see something. And You're right, they're not gonna unload any great plays that I get that. I just want to see a little bit of something, So we'll see you just you just want to be The football is still here. I love football, as you well know. I've almost got my high school schedule done for next fall. I've got one more game to fill out and I'm done.

What about our braves, They're gonna be good next year. They'll drop a little bit.

Emerson guy, I'm a great quarterback and just a great kid.

But he's graduated. Took him to state championship.

But I think they'll be you know what, they have a great coaching staff and a good just They've got something going on there.

So I'm excited for him, all right, before I say you lose.

Tonight is the final game for the Utah Hockey Club, year one now in the rear view.

No playoffs this year, which is all right.

They only had one eighty plus point season in Arizona the last decade they were there.

They win tonight, they'll break ninety.

So I think, you know the Jazz as far as they're rebuild, there are a lot of fans frustrated that it's not going better. This is a honeymoon phase for the hockey club, right Like I didn't feel some massive letdown when the playoffs were no longer a possibility.

Well, and I believe if they went well, I'm not sure if this is absolute, but I think they might be able to keep Saint Louis out of the playoffs. I don't know if you still have a soft spot in your heart for the Blues since your dad was involved there, but.

Maybe that's motivation, something to play for.

You know, they looked off the good last Nights Manson and how about Keller, you know, the captain, what did he have too?

I think he had two goals and to assist in that game.

There's just it's been fun to get to know these guys, Krause, Keller. You know, they're just on and on there. It's just a lot of fun. And you're right you talk about honeymoon and they were close. You know, they were in the same situation last year where they were a playoff team in what December January, and then everything collapsed when the whole were rumor about them moving came up and it really hurt them.

But I like the that they're on. They seem to be on the right track.

So they are lottery team just like the Jazz, but completely opposite ends of the lottery, so we'll see where that shapes up.

Blues on ninety four points the second wildcard team, one point behind Minnesota, but only two ahead of Calgary, so it's still technically possible they could keep them out.

So we'll see the bottle game. Are you gonna be in a better mood tonight? When am I not in a good mood? I tell? What did I do not in a good mood? I can tell when you're surly? Okay, I'm going to be in a great what's going on? Are you good? Nah? I'm great. Sure you have no reason to complain day. You are misreading me? All right? Well, thanks for hopping in. It's a beautiful day.

I went to the Tulip Festival today with with cath and for my daughters and grandkids.

That's why I will never stay married. The tulip festival. Okay, good for you, good things you do. Good to see I'll see in a couple of hot days. Thanks buddy, A Tulip festival goodness