All right, let's get at drive time Wednesday afternoon, about thirteen minutes past the hour of two o'clock. It has been chilly and cold and rainy, but the sun is about to come out here in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. It is an April Spring Chili day, as we are about to turn our calendars to May coming up tomorrow. But as it is every single day, it's going to
have you along for the riot Spence check. It's Beyond the Mike, Porter Larsen, Beyond the Glass today, producing the program, booking the program, A lot to do, a lot to get to jam pack Wednesday show to get you halfway through that work week. We will get you one day closer to the weekend. We will talk some NBA playoff basketball. We'll talk some family members behaving badly, talk some local NBA stuff with Utah Jazz. High speed ahead to the draft lottery coming up in less than two weeks now.
Fudnight of NBA basketball last night, Chaotic night of NBA basketball last night, but the playoffs continue to rule. We've got a doubleheader tonight. Both games should be awesome. Golden State is in Houston at the Toyota Center. To take on the Houston Rockets. They're going to try to close out Houston and that will be a dog fight. It will be a rock fight. It will be a physical
matchup starting at five point thirty on TNT. Then after the Warriors and the Rockets complete their game, it'll be the Timberwolves and the Lakers from Crypto dot Com Arena in Los Angeles, California, where the Lakers will try to stave off elimination. It is staving season only time of year. We talked about staving off elimination, which is what the Pistons did last night at Madison Square. Gardener Jalen Brunson l had to leave the game with an injury. I
did come back. So we'll see what the Knicks were able to do. Is they go back to the Motor City. The Indiana Pacers and Tyrese Haliburton's father John were able to eliminate the Milwaukee Bucks in overtime and epic collapse from Milwaukee. What's next for Giannis That's a conversation.
Now.
Boston Celtics had no problem with the Orlando Magic. They curb stomped them in the second half and they vans on to the second round. One eighty nine was your final score, and we saw vintage Jamal Murray playoff Jamal bubble Jamal if you were with forty three points leading the Denver Nuggets to a pretty dominating victory over the LA Clippers. And now Denver leads that series three to two. New York's still up three to two on the Pistons. So a lot of NBA basketball in the show today,
a lot of playoff basketball on the show today. The NFL draft, of course, is in the rear view mirror. Some new information today about the slide of shad Or Sanders. Apparently the Pittsburgh Steelers, according to a Steelers beat rider who joined a Rich Eisen today, we're never going to take a quarterback that they thought could start this year. Still waiting on Aaron Rodgers. Apparently the Pittsburgh Steelers is and we've got some Pittsburgh Steelers are is the right
way to say that. And we have some new landing spots for some of our local players that were not drafted, some uts and some Cougars finding their way to undrafted free agent deals. The college's basket football transfer portal continues to remain open. I believe there's five roster spots left for Alex Jensen and coach Chilias and the staff at Utah to fill out their roster, so we'll give you the latest there as far as the current landscape of
the college basketball situation here in state. RSL takes their act on the road once again. It is a road heavy portion of the schedule for our local soccer club. They're going to be in Vancouver coming up on Saturday for a seven to thirty first kick, so we'll get to a little soccer on the program today as well. The Utah Hockey Club, the headline on ESPN is Mammoth Gaff question mark Utah Mama name after leak. The Utah Hockey Club apparently allowed their name to leak and now
they're trying to walk it back. I don't know. It feels very reminiscent of leaking some uniforms for the Utah Jazz that were not well received before, trying to spin that pr Gaff as well. Who's running the show down there? Kind of embarrassing. But we may have a name for the hockey club and it is certainly not my preference, but we'll get to some of that. Some of those stories coming up on the show. Downtown Salt Lake City is undergoing a massive renovation, and we have some new
details leaked about the Delta Center renovation. I part of me wonders if they leaked that to try to distract people from what they did actually leaking the name of the hockey club. So we'll get to some of those storylines on the program today with a really good guest list. We'll start things off today with one of our favorites to talk basketball. Do we bring up to Tony Jones that he thought you Orge Sanders would be drafted first in the NFL draft? Maybe, but mostly we'll talk some
jazz hoops. We'll talk some Nuggets hoops. We'll do some draft today with TJ Trevor Sikima, one of our favorites from Pro Football Focus, to recap the NFL draft and look ahead to the NFL offseason prior to the start of the season. Come fall an hour in studio with our guy Chris Comraddi from The Athletic and then Dave Fox. Yes, we will let d on the show today after he ditched us yesterday. I was on TV with Dave last night ten thirty five KM. Why you call it Five
Questions with Spence. You can find that streaming online at KMYU dot com. Tony Jones, Trevor sickham Met, Chris Camaraddie, Dave Fox, Me, Spence checkets, all of you the great listeners on this Wednesday afternoon and that guy Porter Larson on a Wednesday. Whenever a family member of a famous
person is the story, the story is never good. And we've got the Jeff Olbert situation with his kid pranking showre Sanders and I, I don't know that I've ever seen a press conference where his son had to apologize for the behavior of his father as a professional basketball player. I thought Tyree s Halliburton handle it well. But just clown behavior from his dad last night.
Yeah, I mean if if you would have seen like a LeVar Ball or Chom Moran, like one of the dads who's public a little more public, do that, it would be it would be all over the place. So you know, Tyrese Haliburton's dad had a extra drink or two and probably shouldn't be allowed to sit front row for a while for a good while. Probably. Yeah, that's embarrassing. You mentioned the stuff with Shador and the Falcons defensive coordinator.
Maybe a good lesson for those who are around the very talented or very successful folk.
Just just enjoy the ride.
Don't make yourself the story, don't make yourself the subject, because as you mentioned, it's it's very rarely ever a good story in that regard.
And to go at Yannis, you know, like that's the.
Other like do you want to get your head ripped off?
Also well head ripped off, but also universally liked and respect that. I thought, I thought Jannis handled it so well last night.
Yeah, Jana Sonodakunpo is number one. Yes, a freak of nature. He will he could have popped that guy's head off like a like a daisy. But he's a sweetheart also, so yeah, it's funny that not only do you go out on the floor and make an ass of yourself, but you do it too, probably like the most well liked superstar in today's age, maybe in the NBA in a long time.
Yeah, pretty sill.
Would you rather fight Yiannis or a gorilla?
Be honest?
Okay, fair enough, but you know that that conversation. I don't know how it leaked into my algorithm, but now it's dominating everything I pull up on social media.
I didn't really see it much until you mentioned it yesterday, and then I went home and it was everywhere. The debate about gorillas and fighting and you know you're gonna lose.
Probably won't do much on that debate today. The LPGA Tour is also in our state down at Black Desert for the LPGA Championship. So a fun time right now here in the state of Utah. First guest on a Wednesday will be our buddy Tony Jones. But before we get to TJ, courtesy of our good friends at Prize Picks, it is time now for your opening tip. Welcome to the Drive with Spence.
Check its on Utah's number one sports talk Now into the studios of ESPN seven hundred to set the scene for the show. The opening tip of the Drive is brought to you by Prize Picks. Use the code ESPN seven hundred and run your game with Prize Picks.
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bucks no matter what. If you download the Prize Picks app today, use the promo code ESPN seven hundred to check out. All right tonight, I'm going over on Lebron James twenty six point five points. I'm going under on Anthony Edwards forty point five points rebounds and assists. I'm going under on Julius Randall nineteen point five points, and I will take the over on Luka Doncic thirty eight point five points slash assists. I think the Lakers get
it done tonight. So I'm going over on most of the Lakers and under on most of the Timberwolves.
All right.
NBA playoff action last night saw the Detroit Pistons stave off elimination at Madison Square Garden. That series has been unexpectedly really really fun. They're going to head back to Detroit. The Detroit Pistons have not won a home playoff game in seventeen years because the Knicks went there and won
a couple of games in Detroit. And it's funny whenever I hear some of these stats dropped about how long it's been since some of these teams have had playoff success, it is a reminder of how lucky we've been here in Salt Lake, about the consistent competitive nature of our pro basketball team. Yes, we've never won a championship, and if we're honest, we haven't had a team that I think has been a serious championship contender since nineteen ninety eight.
But more often than not, we have had competitive teams that advance to the playoffs and offer up some really, really fun spring basketball this time of year here in Salt Lake. Now it has been three years as the Jazz started their decision too. I don't know if you believe them. They were breaking it down and now they're building it up, which is just dumb. But after the Jazz made their decision to move on from a very good and still somewhat young, competitive team, it has been
three years since we've seen playoff basketball. Hopefully it's back sooner rather than later. But you know, cities like Washington, cities like Detroit, and there are plenty of other examples of cities that have truly gone like ten to fifteen sometimes more years without a team that is even somewhat
competitive playing playoff basketball, winning playoff basketball at home. It is a reminder of how lucky we've been here and another reminder of my hope that we are not in the beginning stages of a long ten to fifteen year run where we don't have a competitive team here in saul Lake, because that is as a basketball fan, that is purgatory. Of course, the Celtics had no issue with
the Magic. I still have not come off my stance that Boston is the best team in the league, even watching what Cleveland just did just dispatching of the Miami Heat. The only thing that would concern me as a Celtic fan is right now. Some of the health issues is Drew Holliday has had to sit. Tatum is back and he was awesome last night, but he had to miss a couple of games. Porzingis is always a wild card with his health, and even Jalen Brown had to miss
a game. And Cleveland, of course, dispatching of Miami very quickly allowed them to sit there and will allow them to sit there players and rest and get ready for round two. But no problem for the Celtics last night a really really good game in Denver and a reminder of what the Nuggets look like when the two man game of Jamal Murray and Nicola jokicch looks like you did last night. It's so problematic. Now you look at Jokicic's stat line and you see four thirteen and only
thirteen points. He was a maestro last night getting other players involved. He had twelve assists, he had ten boards, and even when he doesn't score or shoot it well, he controls the game. And you could tell that he was intentional at getting Jamal looks because Jamal was going early seventeen of twenty six, eight to fourteen from three forty three points, and when Jamal gets going like that, it's a reminder of how tough they could be. Now they go back to Los Angeles and this series is
not over. In fact, I think it's going to go seven. Last night was just a kind of a decent Kawhi game. He did have twenty and eleven but only took fifteen shots. Zubots looked really good, but we saw yet another example. And look, we talk often about regardless of what Kawai does, the rest of his career will always look back on what could have been because of how dominant he's been when he's healthy. James Harden can do nothing to change the narrative that he is just a shrinking violet when
it comes to spring basketball. And he did nothing last night. And this is a guy who in the past, with Houston and other stops, has straight up quit on teams, and he looked horrible last night. But most of the attention from playoff basketball last night, before we get to what could come our way with a really good doubleheader tonight, is what happened in Indiana as the Milwaukee Bucks took a twenty point lead in the first half behind Giannis and Gary Trent, and you feel really bad for Gary
Trent today because he's taken a lot of heat. He did hit four threes in overtime, and they were not even in the game without Gary Trent shooting, because it really was Yannis and then everybody else. And Yannis thirty points, twenty boards, thirteen assists. And this is the stat that's blowing me away because a lot of people talking about what's next with Jannis and Milwaukee. Over Jannis's last ten playoff games, he's averaging thirty two points, sixteen rebounds, and
six assists. Yet Milwaukee is one in nine in those ten games, and they've been ousted in the first round of the playoffs for three straight years. Next year, Dame Low will probably miss the entire season if he's back, and won't be intel spring, and so the conversation turns into what's next for Giannisante to Cumbo, Milwaukee had a
seven point lead with forty seconds left. Teams in the history of the NBA Playoffs that are up seven points with forty seconds left before last night were one thousand, six hundred and nine and zero over sixteen hundred games, no one ever lost. They Indiana needed a perfect storm with two just atrocious turnovers by Gary Trent Junior, who again was shooting lights out, so it's hard to be
super critical. And then Tyres Halliburton, who ten days ago was named the most overrated player in the NBA by one hundred and fifty of his peers who were contacted by the Athletic, just had a dynamite close to a great series for him twenty six points nine, as sists that last layup he beat Giannis to get to the ten and then lay it in. And of course the attention today is on the poor be behavior of Tyree Halliburton's father, John, who I didn't even know about outside
of hearing certain things here there. I'd never seen him. He has a reputation of really standing up for a son, which is great, but he has a reputation of being a little bit off the cuff, being a guy that
has a difficult time containing himself. And I'll just say this, if that was you, if you're listening to program, if that was you last night, mister John Doe listening to this radio show, and you had a front row seat, and you're a Pacers fan, and after the game the Pacers win and you go confront Giannis like that, you would be banned from NBA arenas for the rest of
your life. And I think the league needs They're not going to ban John Halliburton for the rest of his life, but I think the league needs to come down on Tyresee's father for what he did last night. I don't know what that looks like. Maybe just tell him he's got to sit in the friends and family room, the green room, and the arenas you can know longer sit courtside.
It wasn't just what he did. It wasn't the timing of it, because if you look at the replay, and by the way, if you watch Inside the NBA on TNT last night, I don't know what the hell Shaq was thinking. Now that's kind of an evergreen sentence because Shaq is a legend, but at times he says things that are so idiotic and dumb it makes you wonder if he's just doing it for the sake of argument. I thought Chuck nailed it last night. I thought Kenny Smith nailed it last night. I thought Shaq was up
in the night. This was all on John Halliburton. None of this should be at the feed of Giannis Sante Tocumbo, who is an unbelievable talent, one of the best players we've ever seen, a former NBA champ, a former MVP, and I have no issue with what Giannis did, and the fact that John Halliburton did that to Yannis, to me, even makes it worse. One of the classiest players, and Giannis's postgame comments could not have been more mature and better.
So that's kind of the big takeaway. Family members behaving poorly, And as I said earlier, whenever the story is about the family member of the famous person, it's never a positive thing. Lebron James famously had to tell his mom, Gloria, to stop chirping at other players, to the point where she stopped sitting courtside. Jeff Olbrick his son, defensive coordinator who has been fined, the Falcons defensive coordinator who has been fined. Whenever the story is about the family member
of the famous one, it's never a good thing. Doubleheader of NBA Playoff action tonight, and I am juice for both these games. Closeout games always the hardest, more often than not, unless you're the Celtics playing the Magic We Got Warriors, Rockets, TNT and then Timberwolves Lakers. So two good games tonight. Let's break it down with one of the best, one of our favorites, Tony Jones on a Wednesday afternoon. TJ. Happy Wednesday, buddy, how are we doing?
Happy Wednesday?
How are you good?
Man?
I'm good? So just give me the Tony Jones take on the John Halliburton Giannis Ante Tocoombo altercation last night.
It was completely unacceptable in you know, a long story short, John Hollibarton's Burton shouldn't be allowed into another aren for the remainder of the playoffs. So you know this is that was a serious breach. You know, uh, you can't do what he did. I mean, he basically went up to Gianni's cursed him out, you know, called them all sorts of names. You know, I went face to face
with him. I mean that that's just Jianna's showed Giannice is a better man than I would than I am, because I would have knocked his block off, and Jannis had every right to knock his block off, and he showed a level of emotional maturity that I think that, uh, that all of us can take a lesson from. And you know, it's good that Tyrese went into the press conference and owned it and rebuke what his father did.
And you know, I think the NBA should come down hard, and I think that, you know, they should set an example of the father and not let him into another arena until until next season. And you know, this is basically, you know, this is basically a player going into the stands just reversed. You know, it was you know, it was just something that that just should not happen, can happen, and should never happen again.
You know, Tony good stuff there. I actually would not be opposed to the league doing something even a little bit more harsh, because let's call this how it is. If if that was a fan last night, if that was who if whoever's listening to the show right now, if that was you, if you had a front row seat and you're a Pacers fan, and the Pacers win the game, and a fan did that to Giannis, he
would be banned for life right now. I don't I'm not saying anything that anything that harsh should happen, but it's almost in a way you expect better behavior from family members of players. So I agree with you that the league has to do something. But what do you think about even coming down a little a little bit harder than keeping him out of arenas for the rest of the postseason.
I mean, you can keep him. I wouldn't be opposed to keep him out of arenas for a full calendar year. Yeah, And I think that was I think it was best. And that's the thing, you know, I saw a lot of that, Like, you know, if that was a fan, if that was a fan joh Halbert was is a fan. He doesn't work for the Pacers, he doesn't work for the NBA. He is a fan who happens to be a father of.
The player.
And and you know, I don't see any other you know, parents or you know, coming out coming onto the floor and doing something like that. And you know, and as a parent, you know, you have to set an example, and you know, and you know, he's too old to do what he did, Like he's too old to be
doing stuff like that. Like you expect that, you know, if something like that were to happen with a family member, you expect that with a brother or something like that, or a cousin or somebody like that, somebody who's you know, in his twenties. You know, this man is way too old to be doing what he did that. You know, it just really really unacceptable.
And I also to him one more thing here, I feel like he took away the moment from his kid. Feel I feel like he you know what I mean. Like ten days ago, you guys at the Athletic released a survey of one hundred and fifty players, and his peers identified him as the most overrated player in pro basketball. And I can't imagine what that did. Like, I'm sure
that really bummed him out. And that final game winning layoup TJ he beat Giannis for the lay up, and you know, he he essentially leads his team to a first round playoff victory. Like I felt like the actions from his father kind of took away the shine of the moment for his kid.
Yeah. Absolutely, because Tyres Holiverson should have been able to go up to that press conference and talk about his heroics in the last you know, forty seconds in overtime and also in the last minute of regulation. Instead, he had to answer those questions, and that was unfair to him. Uh,
patently unfair to him. It was unfair, to be honest, that he had to address uh that he had to address that, that he had to be put in a position to where he had to compose himself enough to where he would be able to to to address that with the elequence and the grace that he did address that, and it just took away from from you know, the entire not the narrative of the game, but you know the conversation of the game, which is, you know, the Indiana Pacers came back from seven down in the last
forty seconds of overtime to win a game. You know, we should be talking about that. We should be talking about the two turnovers by Gary Trent Jr. We should be talking about you know, Doc Rivers kind of looking helpless on the sidelines. We should be talking about Giannie's future, anything else other than Tyrese Holliburton's father, And.
We will do that now. Tony Well said, so let's talk about what you think is next for Gianni's Actually, you know what, before we get there, let's do a little dame you know, because there's always this debate that goes on in state, like who's the best in state college player that is playing in the NBA, And usually that digresses into BYU vers Utah and it's clearly Damien and it has been for a long time a local legend.
I can remember Randy Ray coming on my radio show and Dame was a sophomore and telling both me and Gordon, you guys have to get up here and see this kid. And one of my regrets is that I did not do that enough. I think I saw Dame play here two or three times, and I don't know if this is the end, but he's turning thirty five this offseason, and that is not an injury that is easy to come back from, even if you're twenty two. So what are your thoughts about this unfortunate situation that may end
Damian Lillard's career? How do you think this plays out?
Do you know the one? So there were two tweets that I sent out around twenty twelve and twenty thirteen that got me everything but a Child of God by every BYU fan on Twitter. And I'm gonna tell you the two tweets. Can you guess what the two tweets are?
I'm gonna guess they had something to do with him being better than for that or something like that.
Okay, So the one tweet was I covered when I was remember I was covering Utah State, so this was twenty eleven. Actually this is twenty eleven, and and I covered Utah State against Weaver State and Damian Lillard just went absolutely nothing. Utah State won the game, but Damian Lillard was was absolutely ridiculous. And I tweeted that night I said, Damian Lillard is the best NBA prospect in the state of Utah. And this was Jimmers senior year
and that did not go overwhelmed at all. So that was one tweet, and the second tweet was is uh and I'm super proud of this one. The second tweek was I said, uh after the state tournament and I had the twenty twelve or twenty thirteen, I don't know, after the state tournament, the high school state tournament, I said that Sam Merrill was the best UH senior point guard in the state of Utah. And that was TJ Hall this year when he was a high four star kid.
He was like a top forty kid nationally. And they had both, you know, Sam and signed with Utah State and TJ signed with BYU, and both of those tweets and ended up aging really well. And both of those tweets got me in a lot of hot water with with the BYU fan base. Uh so b yu. I love you guys. You know, Agent Davans was going to be number one, number two pick in the draft, So we're even getting to Dame. I don't think his career is over, h I one believe that he's coming back.
I one hundred believe that we have seen the last of him as an All Star, all NBA level player. You know, the there are a lot of comparisons going around to to Kevin Durant's Achilles injury, you know, but the difference is Damian Lillard six for two and Kevin Durant uh is seven foot and you know Damian Lillard's you know, really dependent on you know, his urse, his explosion off the dribble, his first step, you know, getting separation for you know, his his ability to score at
all three levels. I I one hundred percent believe that he's going to come back. So I don't think he's going to retire. I don't think that, you know, we've seen the last of him. What I'm hoping is that when he does come back, he finds himself in a position where he can win a championship. You know, as a veteran guard, who can you know, as a veteran guard, who's you know, able to provide some clutch and timely scoring.
I don't think that he's going to ever be the guy that he was before the Achilles because that's just too hard for you know, a thirty five year old, you know, small guard who's dependent on who's dependent on the first step to to really uh to to really deal with and come back and play at the same level. But you know, his career as an All NBA guy, uh, his career as an All Star guy. You know, he's he's was this sensational and he's one of the best
offensive under the rim uh players of our era. And you know he's he's you know, done everything the right way. He's conducted himself, you know, professionally, nothing but professionally on and off the floor. You know, I wish nothing but the best for him. And you know, like I said, I'm sure that we'll see him back in an NBA uniform in about a year.
I hope you're right, and I hope it looks okay. I hope it's not one of those things where like after ewing his hurt his achilles and came back and played for the Sonics, and it's like, who is that player? You know, I don't want to watch Dame look anything other than what we're accustomed to seeing him look like. But it does lend Tony a conversation about what's next for Giannis and Milwaukee. You know, ultimately, if you're Yiannis.
I referenced this earlier. Last ten playoff games for Giannis, he's averaging thirty two, sixteen and six, but they're one in nine and they've lost in the first round three straight years. So look, let's be clear. Milwaukee is not trading him unless Jannis comes to them and says, okay, I gave you everything, and look here, here's the deal. When you are when you when you want a championship. Okay,
the Lebron thing is perfect here. When Lebron left Cleveland the first time for Miami, they were burning his jersey. When he left the second time for la it was love because he won a title for the city. So Jannis can actually leave Milwaukee if he wants to with his head held high. Do you think that's going to happen? And if so, how do you think that trade goes down.
You know, it's it's really interesting because if you're if you're Milwaukee, you're gonna want you know, you're gonna want a Yannis level deal, and you're gonna want you know, you're gonna want real assets. So you know, Houston's got real assets, Oklahoma City's got real assets. The Utah Jazz never real assets. I don't think that giannest is going to go to Milwaukee's front office and say, hey, trade
me to the Utah Jazz. You know, but you know people are throwing out you know, Golden State Warriors, the Los Angeles Lakers, you know, those teams don't have any assets to get honest, you know, unless Milwaukee's taking the trade, you know, for twenty five or thirty cents on the dollars. So you know, if Joannis goes to if Jannie goes to you know, his front office and he says, hey, you know, please trade me, then you know, the the the the ultimate you know landing side is probably Houston
or you know, Oklahoma City. But if I'm Oklahoma City, I don't know that I want to trade for you honest, like I just you know, I think that they are a NBA title contend there right now. I don't think they need another piece, and I think that with the assets that they have, they're set up to be a title contender for years for years to come. The one Eastern conference place where I would say is really interesting. I think it's Philadelphia because I think they have, you know,
Paul George's salary. Let's assume that they keep their pick right now, they have they have this year's pick, and you know they also have they have a young guy that's already there and Jared McCain that you know, they could possibly put into a trade. And they have the Los Angeles Clippers twenty twenty eight unprotected first round pick, so you know, the the sixers could potentially actually put together.
They could potentially actually put together a package that is that is at least worth you know, opening the conversation or opening the door, opening all the lines of communication with Milwaukee.
All right, since you referenced the Jazz, as you know, online, a lot of jazz fans are talking about the potential of the Jazz getting involved if Giannis does ask out of Milwaukee. The issue, well, there are several issues. I don't know that the Jazz are looking to do the whole big game hunting thing this offseason. It feels like they've really leaned into a long game play. So that's one look. If Yannis wants to come to Utah, the Jazz will be interested. I'm not saying that they wouldn't be.
I just don't know that that's a play that they're going to try to make, because I think they're gonna long game it and we'll see if they get Cooper flag at one. But I guess I guess. The way I'll ask you is whether it's Giannis or anyone else that could be available. There are a lot of teams that have real issues because they have high pay rolls
and they're not good. Phoenix is one of them. Rumors about Durant being dealt, So whether a Jonas or Durant or anyone else, you think the Jazz are going to try to make a play to get involved with some of these big name guys that will be moved.
Well, I don't think it makes sense for the Jazz to do any of that unless they get Cooper flags. Because if they get Cooper flag, I think he's good enough that he's going to roll out of bed into the NBA and he's going to average fifteen to five and flave you know, instantly as a rookie and instantly be a high level starter. But he's the only guy in the draft that that's gonna instantly going to be
a high level guy like that. So, you know, if you're the Jazz, let's say you get Cooper Flaggs, you can offer you know, a lot of Jazz fans have lamented the fact that, you know, the Jazz haven't been able to trade John Collins or Jordan Clarkson as of yet. Well guess what. Now they're tradable salary and they're all they're both going into the last years of their contract, which means they can offer Milwaukee one of the biggest
things that Milwaukee really needs right now. They can offer Milwaukee, you know, relief from their books. Give them John Collins, you give them Jordan Clarkson. And do you they have eleven tradeable first round picks? Uh? And you give them
five or six of those. And then you know, the question is if you're Milwaukee, Okay, do we want a tangible young guy to come back and Milwaukee The answer is probably yes, because if Milwaukee deals with Houston, they're gonna ask rom and Thompson if if Milwaukee deals with Oklahoma City, they're going to ask for one of those young guys, you know. So then the question is, you know, how does Milwaukee feel about Keyante George or Isaiah Collier
or Coles Otowski. And I don't know the answer to that, But the Jazz can for sure get their foot in the door by offering tradables, by offering salary and salary relief, and offering a bunch of picks because Milwaukee does not have a lot of picks, does not have any picks at all, you know, So you know it'll be interesting.
But you know, if the Jazz don't get Cooper Flagg, it doesn't just doesn't make sense because if they don't get Cooper Flag, they probably just need to just go ahead and tank next year and try to get one of one of the three big guys in the twenty twenty six draft. But if they do get Cooper Flag, then I think that that accelerates their timeline a little bit and they can go and they can try to make moves to where they can try to be competitive right away.
All right, a couple more things on last night before we get a thought on time, then I'll set you loose. And I hate to ask you about the Knicks kind of letting it go there with the Pistons. They'll be me Tony. Come on, man, it's sports sock Radio. We all know where your heart lies. And look they're still up three to two. Detroit does don't want a playoff game at home in almost twenty years. Jalen gets hurt. I don't know, man, Sometimes Kat just shrinks in big moments.
That's not new. But a thought on last night, and do you think the Knicks get it done in Detroit? Are we looking at a game seven at MSG?
My thoughts are that that was a really blown opportunity. You know, I watched that game, you know, on the edge of my seat, and you know, you just have to close that game out right, Like you know, you got a gift from the NBA in Detroit. And I don't like to admit this, but we got a gift in game four, and you know, and we should have lost the game four, like we we should be playing for our season tomorrow. That's that's that's the real sobering reality of it. Like we could easily be playing for
our season tomorrow. And you know, I think we just got to go in there and put together a really complete basketball game on both ends of the floor. But you know, jamb Brunson is beat really beat beat up. The Pistons took a lot of have taken a lot of skin off of the Knicks, whether the Knicks win this series or not. And you know, they they've really beaten you know, jialing Up. You know Karling Anthony Towns has had to go through, you know, a lot on
the interior on both ends of the floor. On the Pistons are big, and they're physical, and I think they have the best player on the series in k Cunningham. And you know, I think that we're capable of going into Little Feasas Arena and winning tomorrow. I think we're fully capable of that. But at the same time, I'm just not going to be surprised that this if we're looking at a Game seven on Saturday.
And honestly, I wouldn't mind that because I like watching Game sevens at MSG. Even though both of our poultses are the sky high and we may have to have blood removed because our heart rate will be through the roof, but we'll see how it plays out matches fund as spring basketball in New York, all right, wasn't too long ago that most everybody was off of Denver. The Clips were up two to one. We saw a little bubble Jamal last night, town, didn't we We saw a little
playoff Jamal Murray. Takeaways from the Nuggets win last night, a couple of takeaways.
Number one, you saw, you know, playoff Jamal Murray. That was a special display of shot making. And he really had a bounce on his step, and you know, he had it really going, you know, off the dribble, and you know he the shot making was just absolutely insane. You know, there are times where you know, Jamal murray shot making is just, you know, something to behold. I remember the Lakers series in twenty twenty three in the
Western Conference Finals. You know, his display of shot making is his ability to raise his game not only in that series, but the Phoenix series where he was the second best player in the series in a series that feature Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, and both Durant and Booker were really, really, really good. You know, it's it's when when he plays like that and you have Nicola Jokis. Denver is just really tough to be So, you know, that's one takeaway to the second takeaway, which is really
shocking to me. David Adaman's out coaching Tyleru and some of the the the adjustments that he's made. I'll give
you one right now. In the first three games, you know, Nikola Jokis operated you know, a lot in the middle of the floor, which is you know, conventionally you want your best player in the middle of the floor to where he can drive right, he can drive left, he can you know, kind of survey the floor, you know, kind of you know, Denver puts Jokids kind of in a lot of Dirk Novitsky situations where you know, styline extended.
You know, he can move right and he can move left. Well, you know, the Clippers were doubling him so fiercely and so hard in the middle of the floor, and they were they had turned were able to turn your kitch over with a lot of blind double blind side double teams, and you know, it was a problem. It was kind of mucking up Denver's offense. It was kind of throwing Denver's offense off kilter. Denver relies on a lot of timing, a lot of d h o's, a lot of dribble handoffs,
a lot of pick and rolls. Uh. It was thrown off the timing of the offense. And you know, that's one of the reasons why the Clippers really looked like they were in control of the first three games of the series, well in games four, in Games five, David
Adaman has done a couple of things with Jokic. Number one, he's had him operating on the sides of the floor to where so that means, h if the Clippers are sending double teams, it's alleviated the double team pressures because if he's on one side of the floor or the other as opposed to the middle of the floor, you can only send one double teams from one angle. And Yolkic could see and there weren't There haven't been any blindside double teams that have been able to turn them over.
And you know, once he sees the double teams, you cook because then he can just he's like a supercomputer. He can just kind of pick you apart, you know, with with his reads. So that was one thing, and the other thing, Uh, he's gotten the cola Yolkicic on the move. He's gotten the col Yolkic on the move a lot more in the last two games. You know, so he's you know, gotten cut into the basket, He's
gotten them actually coming off of down screens. He's running ato plays for him, and it's it's made Jokic's a lot harder to tag uh for you know, the Los Angeles Clippers defense, it's made him uh, it's made him a lot more difficult uh to keep uh. It's made it's made it a lot more difficult for them to keep taps on him and to know the where he's going to be at a given time with any offense. You know. So those you know, adjustments have really swayed
the series. And you know, once you you know, put Jokics in positions where he's going to be able to succeed. He's the best player in the world. He's going to succeed and he's going to you know, figure out a way to to to uh uh put his impact on the game. So, you know, I think David Adaman has made some really, really really great adjustments in this series that have turned the series back from the back from Los Angeles to.
Denver, tj good stuff today, man, appreciate the time and you'd be good and travel safe and well. Chatzoon, no problem.
Appreciate you, my guy.
Tony Jones covers the NBA for the athletic at t Jones on the NBA is where you find them. Stops by today courtesy of our friends at IFA Country Stores. IFA Country Stores have everything you need to care for
your lawn, no matter its size or shape. Their four plus lawn care program can promote healthy green grass this summer visit with their team of pro turf and landscape consultants that help provide products and services to local baseball and soccer fields, golf courses, parks, and other city properties throughout Utah. It's the same knowledge and care that they share with you about your yard only at IFA and unline at IFA dot co Op. I should have known. I should have known when I left it open for
ck there was a potential of getting weird. Spin doctors. Yeah, man, all right, nineties one hit Wonders is where we went with today? What year was this?
I gotta say ninety three, ninety four ish that check me on this.
Let's see spin Doctors. What's the name of the song?
Two princes princes, then they had another one little miss camp be wrong.
Oh my gosh, only you would have this knowledge. Mom had the cassette played in the Volvo nineteen ninety one. Oh man, I'm off. Okay, that's still pretty good. Uh can we be honest? Horrible band?
Oh yeah, that's why they were one hit wonder fair enough?
Chris Comrodnie live in studio. Hello, Christopher, how are you good man?
How are you?
I'm good, I'm good. So let's get the Shador Sanders stuff out of the way. As really the only local media member that has experienced covering Colorado Dion and Shador. Let me ask you this. Do you think Dion did him a little bit of a disservice throughout the course of this process, because you hear a lot of like, well, like his dad, he sandbagged a bunch of interviews, and like his dad, he wanted to choose where he wanted to play. Dion could have sandbagged every interview possible. He's
the best cornerback potential you've ever seen play. Chador is just simply not that talent. Do you think he maybe was done a bit of a disservice by his father.
He was done a disservice by his father and basically the entire ecosystem of the NFL draft, because if we're being honest, the folks who are tasked with pontificating on such things in the months and years prior ash your door at the top as a top ten picks. So my question is, was the lead up to the combine, the interviews, skipping the combine, opting to maybe throw it
pro day, and then throwing a pro day. Did all of that stuff suddenly sour team so much to the point that it cost him to slip four rounds.
I don't know.
And to me, like I told one of my bosses, like, beyond the prank call, beyond where he ended up. I think this is a learning lesson for basically everybody who's involved in stuff like this to take a step back and figure out what went wrong and why did it
go wrong because we've never seen this before. I mean, like the closest analogy we have, honestly is Rogers was it was Aaron sliding when Alex Smith went one and still a first rounder, still a first rounder and obviously went to the ideal spot when a Super Bowl is going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer, but I don't. I can't remember ever having a prospect in the most important position in football, let alone sports slide at the level that Shador Sanders slid to. And I
think we will have think pieces. I think we will have reports coming out in the coming days. I mean Diana Rossini, who works with me at the Athletic Now reported this week that you know, a lot of it came down to the interviews, came down to the fact
that he didn't want to participate at the combine. And again, my question is going to be for a while now until we get it answered, and you'll only get an answered through sources, league sources, through people who will speak on condition of anonymity, because a lot of these folks, remember, most people in the world of sports kind of live in semi fear of Deon Sanders. You do not want to get on the wrong side of Dion because of the cultural and media sway that he has. But again,
how did this happen? How did this kid go from being like maybe where the Steelers going to take him at twenty one as recently as a month ago, to going in the fifth round to the Browns after they had selected Dylan Gabriel the third round. It's a fascinating story and I'm really interested to see what comes out in the coming weeks and months.
Yeah, and your point about the conversation, I mean, there was a point last year mid season where Vegas had pretty good odds for Shador to be a finalist for the Heisman Trophy and be the number one overall pick. So it wasn't just people throwing stuff against the wall the hope it would stick, like you could get odds on Shoudor going number one mid season last year there was the Saints at nine, who need a quarterback. To
your point of this Dealers at twenty one. I do often find the chasm between NFL talent evaluators, NBA talent evaluators, and media talent evaluators interesting because how much of the media talent evaluating is also draped in I want this to be a great story, Like we sit down and watch mel Kuiper lose his mind for three days because he thought should Or should be the number one overall pick. Is that mel Kiper really analyzing should Or as a talent?
Or is that mel Kuiper the actor on television also wanting the story. Right, there's a gap between the two. You're taught when you're evaluating talent, if you're working for a team, you're taught to remove emotion. Now, do you have to analyze everything that surrounds the player?
Yes?
But can he play simple? Bottom line? But on the media side of things, how much of this talent evaluation is draped in the narrative that they want you to click on their stuff and watch their TV show?
Right, Well, it's a business and of its self, and the sport has owned the off season like unlike any other professional sport. We have really like worldwide because the international soccer window can get exciting, but the summer transfer window, as you know, the most important transfer window, is only like three weeks long, and you don't have you'll have some monumental movement like in bab Beta Real Madrid that
comes along once and once a blue moon. You can make an argument that people are more tantalized by the off season and the draft than they are by the season for a lot of teams, because in the NFL, a lot of teams are bad for a long time and all you have to sell them is hope and what did we learn from Ted Lasso?
It kills you?
Hope that kills you?
So Porter loved that show? Is that Porter show hated it?
I know. My point is is it is a It is an ecosystem in of itself, the NFL draft, and a lot of people have figured out a cultivated a way to market themselves as pseudo experts. Selfishly, I'm going to lean and rock with my guy Dane Brugler, who you've had on the show many times, who knows the stuff because he isn't one of those guys. He is kind of the the guy behind the curtains for a long time. It's like I'll show up in October November, and I'll and I'll start to give you guys, you know,
some feedback on who I think is good. But the internet's a fickle place, man, And you can you can create a fabricated existence for yourself and and project yourself as an expert when you're really not. And you can be a fan of things. But unfortunately, in this world, somebody might find something hyperbolic and be like, oh, this person said it. Oh, let me check out their online
io on x Oh they're a draft expert. Okay, let's spin this and let's aggregate it and then send it into the universe, and then it takes on a life of its own. And this happens often, but in the NFL draft it happens at an alarmingly high rate.
Porter brought this up, and I think it's spot on. And let's see Dane had Schador going twenty one. Yep, the Giants trading back in. But I think as far as his overall big board, he was like forty three or something. So Dane actually was closer than most of the other analysts, certainly the mel Kuipers of the world. But I don't know if there's another event or anything on the sporting calendar that's covered by more liars and charlatans than the NFL draft. No Porter brought it up.
It's one hundred percent correct, because people realize you could be Joe Schmoe that knows nothing about what you're doing, and you create a mock and it finds its way into an algorithm. People are going to click on mock drafts no matter what, and it always makes it hard to understand where the real information is coming from. And honestly, you're also getting smoke screens and misdirections from teams.
That's the most undersold part of this. And talk about that, well, you know you've been in the front office rooms before, right, And.
That's also what makes it complicated, because what you want to do when you're in a front office is you use your media contacts to send out messages via the media that will throw other teams off your sense and will make other teams believe that you're actually looking at players that you have no desire to select, and you want to throw media, you know, you want to throw the media messaging out there so teams actually stay away from the guy that you like or think that you
like somebody that you don't. And therefore it makes our job analyzing this stuff beyond microphones or beyond computers, writing about it really hard to do. And that's why you can look at every single mock. Everybody gets it wrong every single year, so it makes it hard to really understand what's real and what isn't. But you made multi trips down to Boulder to cover Colorado and Dion and Shador and I told this anecdote Monday after the draft where when we were down well it was Vegas Big
twelve media Day this year is in Dallas. When we were in Vegas for Big twelve Media Day, we're on radio row. We're interviewing players and coaches, Kenny Dillingham. You know, you go down the list, and it was a pretty docile environment. Intel boom. You look over, double doors open. Six cameras are following Shador and Shiloh and Dion as they walk in, and suddenly the circus is in town. And if you're running a front office, if you're a general manager, you don't want the circus in town for
somebody you perceived to be as a backup quarterback. Like all things being equal, unless you're a generational talent, unless you're Peyton, unless you're Andrew Luck, and there are no questions about who you could be as a quarterback, all of your variables really need to be in place. And it seemed like a lot of the variables surrounding Shador were question marks that were never fully answered.
Well, he existed in a biodome of he existed a biodome great movie, by the way, right, so we could go there. He existed in this reality that was cultivated from the get go, having always been coached by his dad, Hall of famer, you know, bombastic human being knows that like like a plus genius and messaging. But to your point, yes, like what this was was this was the ultimate reminder that the NFL has the zerost time for bs. I wish I could have said it like it would have been a good one.
It would have been a good one to land right there. Yeah.
They just do not suffer fools. And I'm not saying Shadoor is a fool. I'm just saying like they do not have time for the pomp and circumstance, like you are expected to get in line and adhere and granted there. You know, there have been some characters over the years, but like think about recently, like who who came into the league with a lot of kind of fanfare but a lot of questions Like Johnny manziineal is a great one, perfect one? Yeah, yep, And you know, you know, different
set of circumstances, different set of issues. But like what would be really fascinating would be go into a multiverse and be like if Shador doesn't play for Dion, if Shador goes to play at Oregon State, or does he go play at you know, Texas Tech or a different school. Does this conversation change because he's a he is a You can't say he's not a good quarterback. He's a
good quarterback. But the line of delineation that I found fascinating after his fall is so many people were like, you shouldn't be surprised by Dion Sanders slide, or should or Sanders slide?
Look at the tape.
If that's the argument, then why were we projecting him as a first round pick all along. I understand that he had a circumstance where he played for his dad, who obviously prioritized the offense around him to make him look good, but they failed to recruit offensive lineman two years in a row. He was running for his life. He was the most sacked quarterback in college football the last two years. He held the ball way too long,
but he could make some throws. I'm absolutely one hundred percent confident by saying this, like, if should or gets a shot, like he will not look terrible. There's a chance he might not pan out, but he's not going to be the least prepared quarterback in the history of the NFL. But he was brought in in a system that catered to his every need both on the field
and off the field. When I was at Colorado's pro day last year or fall camp media day, sorry, Dion spoke and then the other two people that got on the dais were.
Who Travis and not Travis?
Oh? Wow? Shador and Shiloh Oh come on, jeez, that doesn't surprise you. I mean, and again going back to the biodome, the ecosystem. I've used that word a lot today. It's fun when you when you're brought up this way in like kind of just the the prince who was promised. Once you get to the NFL, all that stuff goes out the window. And one thing that I'm really interested
in is like Deon knows this. He lived that life, but he didn't lift that life at the level list Shador's gonna have to because he's playing quarterback, right, which is a position that takes on a life of its own. It's so much more pressure than cornerback. Dion could could you know, go one on one with Chris Carter or Andre Risen or Jerry Rice. But like Shador, if he's going to get a shot, like he's gonna have to go up against the Baltimore Ravens defense, and the Steelers
defense by himself. This is a totally different ballgame. I don't think we're ever going to see something like this again, which is why I think the draft coverage was so intense. It was burning white hot on this issue. But it was very tiresome and it and it turned into I guess you could say good TV for for the folks at NFL Network in ESPN because everybody was waiting at baited breath for where'shi door gonna go? But you can make an argument that the entire weekend was hijacked by this.
Well.
Andrew Marshawn from your outlet from the Athletic wrote a great piece on the Melo Kuiper meltdown because I'll be honest, watching Melo meltdown was fun. It was good television. I mean, even though it did it kind of distracted from what we were actually doing. Good Bad Moon Rising pull the original Bad Moon Rising Andre Rising?
Uh?
Was he the one who was a left eye who burned the house down?
Yea rest and peace?
Rest in peace, Left Eye? Best poly Shor movie.
Oh I'm gonna I'm gonna zag on you. You're not gonna be ready for this. I'm not in Sino Man.
In Sino Man, is I'm gonna go Son in law?
Sun in Law is his best leading role in the army now underrated. Okay, but if I want to watch one polyshore movie, it's going to be in Sino Man.
Okay, here's the question. Chris Camraddie's favorite polyshore movie texted in right now to eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred, and you will win one round of golf to Davis Park, the best polyshore movie according to Ck. Because that's what we do on the show eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. It is the festival of a tease. Every day this spring we are giving away one round of golf to the best courses
in the state. Listen to The Down and Dirty with Scott Mitchell, The Sean O'Connell Show, and then this little old radio show. The drive was Spence checkets from two to six for your chance to win each day from ESPN seven hundred the Utah Golf Association. All right, a couple more draft things before you catch a break. Is it an indictment at all that Caleb Lohner was the only you drafted and no BYU players are drafted or is this just a moment in time that it's a great quest?
And I was talking with this about this with Porter while you were on your last segment. What are the odds that the only dude between both schools, both rivals, who is drafted is a former basketball player that played basketball at both of those schools.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm gonna go the logical route and say it's lightning in a bottle. But you're looking at back to back years now where Utah didn't have much NFL talent. BYU's different because a lot of their guys either transferred in the portal or stayed. I mean most of their guys stayed, honestly, But I don't know, like off the top of my head, who would have gone really all that much higher than Caleb even at.
BYU, Like I thought Junior would be drafted.
Tifuna, Yeah, yeah, I mean he he came. It all depends on who you play with, man. Junior played with a lot better talent his early years at the U than his later years. And when you play with better players, they're going you're going to look better because they're going to make you look better. Yeah. I don't know if if Chase would have been I mean he probably would
have maybe six to seven rounds, six seventh round. But like, other than that, it's a really fascinating team to if you really think about it, because like they were so good, but they don't have because the Eten kid didn't get drafted.
No he didn't.
So yeah, it's I think, i'll say lightning in a bottle moment. But for Utah, there was a time where it was like every year you're kind of relied upon to have a top three round pick. Now next year it'll be different because Spencer Fano is likely a top ten pick. But there was a time during Utah's you know PAC twelve run, before the demise of the conference, where you were looking at four or five guys going from you know, rounds two to six every single year.
Yeah, a lot of them landed. I thought Baddy would be drafted. I thought Tyler Batty was gonna get drafted. A lot of them landed on their feet. Conra O'Toole got one of the richest like undrafted deals with Seattle. I think he got like three hundred K guaranteed with a signing bonus. But yeah, it's just always interested to consider, I guess we should shout out Jalen Royals, who was draft from the fourth round by the Chiefs. Fano is a top ten pick. Is that what we're hearing?
My guy Dan Brugler has him as a top ten.
Really okay, very nice? Well, hopefully it is just a moment in time. All right, we'll catch a quick break. Cek is live in studio for another big segment. We also are going to bring in Dave Fox today, who has two Pelotons and two Emmys. Do you have a peloton or an Emmy? Do you have either?
I definitely don't have an Emmy. I have an old used exercise bike hand me down from Aaron Falk.
You have a hand me down exercise buck from Falk. Oh that rules erin if you're listening. Get back about Tea Times coming up this weekend in honor of Andre bad Moon Rising and of course Cameron Rising. By the way, have you heard anything about our guy Cam Last thing I heard he was out of Utah Royals game.
It is Mike on but yeah, that was the last time I saw Cam publicly? Was I think he went with a a former Utah and BYU players porter.
Have you heard anything about the future of one young Cameron Rising.
No, I think that's kind of the question right now.
Last I just to be clear, last I talked to Cam was in January, so at that point he wasn't necessarily training for an NFL team, So I don't necessarily know what the next move is for one Cam Rising.
I honestly thought he'd make like three hundred grand and go play quarterback for like Sacramento State or something.
Well, they just got Jayden Rashada.
It was just a hypothetical. I'm just saying, not that school per se. But didn't you think that maybe you go play another year of college football?
Maybe? But man, I mean we've talked about the sad nauseam, but the amount of serious injury back to back to back, it was a lot. Yeah, and I would imagine that the mental component is as hard, if not harder, than the physical part.
At this point. Do you think there was any conversation at all about him coming back to Utah?
I guess would be.
No.
It felt like it was just one of those things like, hey, this has been great, give you a hug, go on your way, right.
Well, there's still guaranteed that Cam wants to still play, That's what I mean. No, for sure, Yeah, I mean my guess would I mean, I don't know. I don't even want to guess. But we have to prepare for and of the eventuality that football will not work out for a lot of people. And you know, Cam reached some incredible heights, but like I said, to go through the amount of injuries that he'd went through in his career, just a Utah alone is a lot.
Do you think the time of college football college basketball programs building their programs with athletes and players that we all get to know over the course of two, three, four five years is just completely done. Because when you look at the history, well, and this isn't just a Utah thing, but if we're you're going to use our local example as the home of the you it's family on three the basketball program, you know, the teams that were the best and the teams that everyone remembers, Van Horn,
britt Andre three four year guys. The best football teams we had were guys that stayed here two three four years. They were upper classmen.
Uh.
And you know, it's not just success, but it's also this thing in the community where hey, Britain's a senior or Cameron's cam raising is like, Okay, they're coming back. Do you think those days are over?
Nor your guy at Yukon's coming back for a senior year? That yeah, I mean the guy who was a lottery pick projection just a couple of years ago. I guess he likes Dan Hurley a lot.
Also getting paid a little money, so played.
A little getting paid a little money. I mean, one thing I will say about in a little bit of a caveat on. You know the the PAC twelve title teams is like a lot of those teams were transfers. Cam was a transfer.
S J.
Quinn Jackson was a transfer. Yeah, a lot of guys who were part of that team didn't necessarily start out as utes. I think college basketball still has a chance because the roster size is small enough you can afford to pay a decent amount of ni OL money to players who want to stay and make money rather than
risking rolling the dice and going to the NBA. And depending on where you go to school, the house settlement could benefit basketball players like pretty well yeah, I mean like I would imagine the house settlement will help Yukon basketball more than it will UCUN football.
Well, and Richie Saunders announces he's coming back, and the reports are that's a seven figure deal. How about BYU basketball, if all the reports are true, paying between thirteen and fifteen million dollars for their roster next year.
Is that true? Well, I mean I was told, I was told, I was told that BYU doesn't prioritize.
Well, well, they also out love, and out develop and outserve everybody. Okay, yes, indeed we know all of that. But Jeff Goodman is the one. The report of the Baylor kid is getting three mil aj deband to seven mil for five months of basketball. That's ten. Richie gets seven figures. There's stills on campus shout out, you got to go. You gotta go down to campus. You gotta get some some swigs with aj I'll go. I'll crush some Uh what what's the cookie company? Crumble, Crumble or chip? I'll crush.
It's not a bad idea, it's a remote.
It's an excellent idea. I wish I would have thought of it. Zach Wilson bought a bunch of chips, I think with his New York Jets money. But yes, I mean all of the lovely ancillary BYU. We love everybody, out serve everybody. Things aside, if you just do the math based off the reports thirteen to fifteen minutes, it makes.
Sense just because it's so it's so front loaded or you know, top loaded, with with AJ getting that much money, you're probably never gonna pay that again to another, you know, number one crew in the country unless your guy, Kevin k why my guy, my guy, unless he manages to strike gold twice and keeps this thing rolling. But I mean, even if you take AJ out of the equation, then you're saying you're paying seven to eight million dollars for
the rest of the roster. That still makes sense and and and probably is necessary in a conference like the Big twelve.
See, that's the thing. And that's why I don't get the Steve Bannon muddy the waters, flood the zone with misinformation and then the deflection about what's really going on. I don't understand why the culture just can't embrace and be honest and authentic about what's really happening. And the reason I don't get it is that it's not a bad thing. To your point, if you want to keep up, it's what you have to do like Utah should be so lucky to be paying this roster thirteen to fifteen mil.
And they're good, Like BYU is going to be a top five team next year, and it's because they have deep pockets. It's not because they outlove everybody. Just stop saying things like that.
Is BYU a final fourteen? It could be is is I don't I'm coming in. I'm coming on the drive with zero aj debonsa tape? Are you are you? Is?
Like?
Is he the surefire number one the following year?
He's awesome?
Like?
Is he is he as guaranteed the number one pick in the twenty sixth draft, as Cooper Flag was for the twenty five.
No, because there's another kid in that draft that's thought to be on his level. Okay, but everything I've seen on tape, because you know me, grind, grind on the tape.
Give me, give me your cump, give me your spence check.
He's He's a Lebron type wing. He's a Durant type wing. He is a Kawhi type wing. He is all of six 't eighty six y nine. He's got a big body and even at his age, he doesn't need to fill out much. I mean usually when we see seventeen eighteen year old great players, it's like they got to put on ten to fifteen pounds. Aj is big, he's strong, he can handle it, he can shoot it. He finishes on the break, he finishes with force, and he guards three or four positions. He's awesome. Can he shoot He
can shoot it. There's nothing he can't do. The only thing he has to improve on is incrementally on everything that he he's already awesome at, and then learn how to play against men in the NBA. But no, he's surefire like BYU fans are gonna love him. He's awesome, He's all that.
So you think he'll be able to handle the pressure of playing Utah twice a year?
Fair question? I mean I think the pressure of the Huntsman Center might get to him. But no, I mean it's he's worth every penny they're paying him. I just don't understand why people can't say it out loud, like what are you hiding? What are you trying to deflect from? Is it like an embarrassment, like they don't want to admit that they're outbidding everybody. I just don't understand the dynamic at all.
I think you. I don't know if it's an embarrassment. I just think you lean in long enough to an approach to things that maybe you feel like you're portraying all the legwork that you've done up until this point. But I agree wholeheartedly. I mean Kirk Bowles, who is a Austin based calumnist who's covered University of Texas for
a long time. He is not the Houston Chronicle. He reported today from several sources that he anticipates Texas spending as much as forty million dollars on their football team this year.
And it's what you gotta do, yep, you know. And all of the pearl clutching right about not wanting to admit this is what's happening. You should lean into it. One caveat that I think is important to make, and maybe this is the sensitivities of the culture of Brigham Young, is that maybe there's an idea that the church up here on South Templar whatever is writing the checks, and we should be very clear that's not happen. Right. These are Crimson or Royal Blue or whatever the current nil
stuff is down there. These are wealthy donors that donate to the collective that are paying the bills. The checks aren't coming from the church. Maybe that's what people are sensitive about.
Yeah, I don't know. I guess any school, not Utah, any school would be lucky to have that amount of money at their disposal to build a basketball program, and a competitive one at that.
Is b YU currently paying more for their basketball team than RSL is paying for their soccer team.
Are we counting transfer fees? Yes, ooh, probably that's wild to consider.
I wanted to get this because we talked about it off air, one more football thing before we kind of move on, because one of the conversations that you hear post draft are NFL gms and executives turned off at the way Shaudor handled the process. And there simply is no other league or any other that has this. Kissed the ring, protect the shield field kind of like you know, quite like football. Would you agree with that, like the
NFL protect the shield, kiss the ring. There is this like cultish feel around football, and if you don't handle yourself, well, nobody's bigger than the shield in the NFL, like nobody is.
Well, yeah, and there's a reason why it took and this is a very dark turn, but it's the reality. If there's a reason why it took so many tragedies in the world of CTE, why it took a movie like Concussion, Why it took something as severe as deaths of former former players for anybody to even remotely challenge
the league. Right, And there's lots of guys who are still afraid to talk about it because they're afraid of being shunned or being excommunicated, or being viewed as the type of person that doesn't respect or you know, have this devout loyalty to the quote unquote shield. It's it's ridiculous.
What is it about football that breeds the religious man?
We don't have enough time for that.
Oh we do, we do. But there's something different even about fandom.
Man, And it's man in it's man in the arena. It is our modern day Gladiator. And I'm and I'm throwing out all the cliche bs. This is not stuff I believe, but this is stuff that some people believe. Most of it is living vicariously through athletes and people that they'll we know will never be able to be fast enough or strong enough, or good enough or talented enough. And it's a great question because you can make an argument that it's leveled up significantly even in the last
like twenty five years. I don't, I'm sure. And this comes along with the advent of the Internet and social media and the explosion of media rights and basically being able to watch every game. But why do you have to spend five hundred dollars on NFL network red zone?
Red zone? Yeah?
Like, and people pay it like it's not even a second thought. For sure. I gotta watch my Jack, I gotta watch the Jaguars, I gotta watch the Carolina Panthers.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's something even about fandom where you see people visit their favorite NFL arena for the first time and openly weep, or go to the Rose Bowl for the first time and openly cry. And then there's the whole media race to prove who's the horniest for football when fall comes, which is just like.
It'sooky, man, it is it is. It is odd. Yeah, I mean that sounds like a story I should explore that.
Our football guys is uncomfortable. Yeah, you're right in there.
I was just saying it's me.
Oh, I know, I'm most ready for Porter.
Goes to Jerry World and he's just like ready to take out a s.
Orders a card carrying member of the Church of Football on Saturdays and Sundays. And look, I love football. I've always my whole life, I've loved football. But whenever anything starts to feel coltish, I tend to go the other way. I'm like, Okay, that's a little weird because still at the end of the day, we are talking about children's game in college played by mostly children. Yeah, that is consumed by people that make it their entire identity, and
when the season ends, it's like they're lost. They're wandering in this abyss. They don't know what to do.
Yeah, little story teas for you, which has been a while.
What finally because you don't tweet them out anymore.
I spent a day with Dan Mullen in Vegas last week nice and we talked about this, okay, and what we're going to talk about it more next week after the piece comes out. I think its supposed to come out on Monday. But Dan was was very transparent and honest about the grind and the drain of the reality of football and college football and the sec and how beneficial it was for him to be away from it and enjoy it. Like I mean, obviously, if you're good
at TV, it's fun. Dan was good at TV. He was Yeah, and he probably could have been on ESPN for another twenty years and been good. He told me that as much when I was in Vegas. But it is fascinating to get the perspective from guys who get a break from it and then get back into it because they're they're basically challenging themselves again again to try to not let what happened the first time happen again.
I'm interested to hear his thoughts and read what you have to say, because nobody can live up to the pressure of being a deity. If you're a football player and a football coach and these fans in your community treat you like you like you walk on water, that has to be exhausting to deal with day in and day out.
Yeah, I think Dan Dan had a quote where he was like, in the sec if you win, people will be eh, good job, But if you lose, it's like you walked in the front door and kick their dog.
For sure. For sure, you know there's there's a little bit of that with what happened with Utah football year ago. You know, coach Waite has spoiled this community so much the one down year, I.
Mean, victim of your own circumstances. Success, Yeah, and you'd rather take that tense times out of ten, because if you don't have success, you don't have the job in the first place anymore, for sure. But perspective is important, man.
It's important in fandom, it's important in everyday life. And I want to believe people are smart enough to understand where fandom fits and how a potential kid in the transfer portal may or may not affect a season, or how you know, a recruit who has Utah on their top five may or may not affect the longevity of the program. But I don't know, man, this is a reality check episode, if we really I mean, that's what we got to do.
For sure.
We got to get we got to get Spencer Hall on, we got to get some sports psychologists on, and we really got to get into the nitty gritty well.
And the other interesting dynamic is, just like other religious elements, the more you can convince people that what you are selling them is paramount to their very existence, the quicker they're going to pull out their checkbook and say where do I sign? And that's the lifeblood of college football programs. The donors, your season ticket holders, people in your community that preach at the Oak Duke. Calm down. My dog
has a humping habit which we're working on. If you want to see my dog hump Chris on YouTube, go ahead and sign on.
Let's get to ten. Let's get to ten viewers.
But the more you can convince people that the altar with which they are worshiping is actually a real thing that benefits their life, the more that they're going to donate, the more money you have, and therefore the more you can keep up.
And in a way, the present day model of college athletics benefits universities at that level way more than it ever has. Sure, yeah, because you can go into these meetings with boosters and folks that potentially can get out their checkbook and be like, you can make a difference, right, you can help us land so on and so forth. And if we get this guy, our fortunes are changed forever, and you.
Will be known as the person that helped us do this, and therefore you will be a member in the community where other community members look at you as the the shining bright north Star. Yeah, and that that that creates an identity that people the crave. You want to be the season ticket older, the booster that wrote the check that had led Devin dan Pier to sign here. Then suddenly you're a hero amongst your community that is worshiping at the altar of Utah football. But no other sport
has this. Maybe European soccer, but no other sport really has this feel where people would It feels like they would dive for the team they cheer for.
Oh it's yeah, soccer for sure, not just soccer worldwide.
Good good segue Oka, right, last few minutes we have here.
So wait, did you get Did you go to the game?
Oh, the vibes were high. So I was San Diego.
Tell me about because they played at San Diego State.
Stadium, San Diego State Stadium.
How it like? Did it look Okay? It did?
It looked better than I was expecting it look at San Diego. So it's gorgeous no matter what. But mountains in the backdrop are beautiful. I don't know that that's sustainable long term, but you know, I guess according to what I was told the turf takes a lot of abuse and beating through out the course of the year,
but the conditions look great. The crowd was pretty good. Yeah, because it was a football stadium, they were kind of scattered, but I would say all in there was probably eighteen nineteen thousand people there or out of the course of the stadium. But the lads get all three diego with the brace your guy. We saw our guy, big Willie Goles come on as a sub, sat next to Johnny Russell for a little portion of the game. My man's intense. He's got a great beard. But vibes are good.
Man.
Three points on the road. Here we are with the lads. All right, here we go.
I know, no, no, no.
Tried, you just got me.
Is there anybody else on this roster that can level up to the level that Diego Luna can level up to? Oh?
Because if question if Arsenala is going, Mecca was really good.
Okay, okay, I guess I should quantify it by saying, like in the attacking third, is there anybody that's a problem, Well, what about big Willy Goals had had a pretty good chance he did put it. I think, I mean it's probably a field goal, it's probably an extra point it, Yeah, he got ensolved it or what. I don't think you can rely on those types of performances every single week
from a guy. Like there's one guy in the world that you can do do that with in his name's Lionel Messi, and even at thirty seven, he's still doing it in this league. But other than that, it's just not realistic. And who knows, maybe Agata's addition changes things. I am fascinated to see what the what the attack
looks like when he's that number nine. But Harsales problem now is not in the attack and a third like they're down like three or four center backs and like that vera collision, dude, Yeah, like wow, like that was some scary like straight gone like you could immediately tell when the other team comes over and like freaks out. That's when you, like I think of when I think of Gordon Hayward's broken foot, like I don't think of everybody else. I think of what Lebron did. Ye you
know what I mean? Because it when it resonates with the opponent on the level, that's like visceral. That's when you know it's bad. I don't. I don't know what his availability will be that for this week because it was so Yeah, I would assume that he should probably be held out because he was knocked out cold, but Glad was hurt somebody Kobe Kobe Henry. Kobe Henry's been hurt for like a month now. I guess Quinton was having some cramping issues or something like. And now you
have to go to Vancouver. Who plays tonight plays Miami tonight in the in the conker caf Semis. So maybe you get those guys tired on the you know, second leg of their two game week in Vancouver, but you're still going to play the best team in the West, maybe the best team in the conference, on the road in a place where historically you haven't been very good.
What's realistic to expect? I mean, Johnny Russell in his prime was really good for SKC's thirty five. He's been without a club for seven months. I was told by my guy, my guy Pops that he was impressed with his initial conditioning. He's not as far behind as they thought. I don't know if he's available this Saturday. Thirty five years old, right, So what's reasonable to expect from from Johnny Russell.
On the field or off the field, well both if you like. On the field, I would say that left footed gold dangerous player late in games, probably shouldn't be starting because you have younger wingers. I mean even a kid like Xavier Gozo who are in the start in
San Diego, Like, these are guys you need to bring along. Yeah, And I think you know the segue to why I ask for off the field is like you need guys like Johnny Russell who've scored sixty goals in this league or whatever to kind of teach a lot of these young guys the ropes and you know, give them advice on how to handle things and how to go at certain defenders on the field, Like I would yes that Johnny Russell could still stand over a free kick and
hit it with his left foot and peg it pretty well, But I don't know if he's going to be in for a seventy minute work shift where he's busting his ass up and down the line the way Pablo wants his wingers to play well.
And your point, Diego is clearly head and shoulders above everybody else and kind of has to make miracles happen every game if they're gonna have a chance to compete, and the summer window will open. But by the time it closes, there's just not a lot of time. Nine games left, all right. One more thing here. The headline on ESPN dot com is Mammoth gaff question mark Utah
Mama name after leak. So we have a situation where the hockey club changed their social handles, but it was not supposed to be for public consumption to Utah Mammoth. This is the same operation that leaked the Jazz yellow jerseys too early and then try to walk it back to say, wait, Purple's back to this isn't bad?
Like what's People just need to be on the same page. I mean, I'm of the opinion that it should just be Utah Hockey Club. I feel the same an imperpetuity forever, and I will I will drive this steak into everyone's heart. We are a state known for fossils, but we're they're dinosaurs, right, Come on, man, Like the entire eastern Utah is known for just a bleep ton of dinosaur fossils. Mammoth, what
are we doing? Yeah, I will say, I'm sure it's very difficult to have and a perfect syncd out roll out in terms of moving things over bing bong bing bong. One who's weird enough to notice that stuff at like eleven pm? Come on, guys, go to sleep, you know, watch some you know, righteous Jempstones or something. But yeah, it's it's not great to me. The bigger misstep is the name as opposed to the the canned rollout.
I would agree, but both of them are embarrassing. But I guess maybe is back. Chris, Great to see you, enjoy mo Apple'll see you next week. Right, It's Chris Comrodnie stops by today. Courtesy of our good friends at IFA Country Stores. They have everything you need to care for your LAWNDO matter size or shape. Their four plus lawn care program can promote healthy green grass this summer.
Visit with their team of pro turf and landscape consultants that help provide products and services to local baseball and soccer fields, golf courses, parks, and other city properties throughout Utah. It's the same knowledge and care that they share with you about your yard. Find them online only at IFA and online at IFA dot co Op. Belly Lakers try to stave off elimination tonight, as do the Houston Rockets. The NBA playoffs roll along with two really good games
tonight after a bunch of great action last night. I was on television last night at ten thirty five on KMYU, also streaming on kutv dot com. We call it five Questions with Spence, even though last night was eight Questions with Spence. I needed more time to be filled. And Dave Fox joins us live in studio after ditching us yesterday. Hello, Dave. Oh sorry, we had a little station sports meeting yesterday.
But thank you for pivoting and allowing me to come into This is rare because normally I'm here and then you come there and right, but it's just the opposite.
So now I can steal all your material. No, all good, But last night was fun. Thanks for having me. Of course, my guy Timmy writing the questions as he does all the time. He is just great. He is the best. He is the best. All right, Where to start? Where to start? Where to start? Today? NBA playoffs. I've been fun. But for the third straight year, there's no playoff basketball in Salt Lake City, Utah. And you know I was thinking about this because they referenced the Detroit Pistons have
not won a home playoff game in seventeen years. Ultimately, we're pretty spoiled. Yeah, how many you know, how many spring basketball exciting events that we've had over the years, even though it's been three years. You know, it's important to remind jazz fans that markets go through this. We just don't go through it very often. Well, and if you talk about the grand history, Detroit had some pretty good years too.
That's just for a long time. Yeah, yeah, this has been a really really long time. And I mean I can go all the way back to ninety seven, ninety eight. How much fun was that. It was just phenomenal to be a part of that. But you're right just to be involved, to say you're a playoff team, to not be stuck in the lottery in a bad position, it means a lot. It just granted, a lot of teams go to the playoffs, I get it, but still, if you're a playoff team, you're a playoff team, and that
says something. It's funny because I was looking at the NHL lotteries is I think it's been announced as Monday, and the odds on Utah getting a number picker zero. They can't happen because they're so far down the lottery. So that's when you're kind of stuck in purgatory. That's not really where you want to be. So at least this year, Spence, the Jazz are in the best position they've been in in quite some time in terms of the hope for getting a lottery a number one pick.
Yeah, fourteen percent chance. Unfortunately, speaking of Detroit and knock on Wood, last year, the Pistons had the worst record in pro bat skpball and they fell to five, which is the Jazz floor. They cannot fall past five. We have recent precedent though of it happening, so unfortunately that is not the play. Because if Cooper Flag is jazz
Man next year, a couple of things. First of all, then we can start understanding exactly the direction the Jazz are going to take, because people ask me all the time what are they gonna do, and I'm like, well, I don't know, and I probably will not even have an idea until after we know where they're drafting. But if they draft one, and if they get Cooper Flag, then we have more of an idea of what they're going to do coming up. And also we will no
longer be NBA purgatory like NBA National. People will start paying attention to the Jazz again because nobody has done that at all this year.
Well, and they get Flag and then they add Giannis, and then you're talking about look at you.
So it's on now.
I have to believe that. First of all, Milwaukee will not trade him. The only way it happens is if Yannis says that's enough, Okay, he would have to ask for it. I read this this morning blew me away. So the past ten playoff games for Milwaukee, Giannis is averaging thirty two points, sixteen rebounds, and six assists, and they're one and nine in those ten games, and it's their third straight year they've lost in the first round.
So it's it's a little bit like so when Lebron left Cleveland the first time for Miami, they burned his jersey. He came back to Cleveland, won a championship, left for Los Angeles and they celebrated it because he got them their championship. Jannis won a title in Milwaukee's, so he can kind of do the thing where it's like, look,
I gave you everything. I had won year title, but now it's time for me to move on the question is how much of that will be his decision as far as where the landing spot is, because Milwaukee's not going to trade him, and I'm sorry, Giannice is not going to be like, hey, they've got great snow in Utah, so to Salt Lake. I guess he's not not a hockey guy up there.
So that's a really good point. And it's getting back to what you said about Lebron. Like you said, he has the title. I think that changes your mindset to a degree. You never stop the pursuit of getting titles, but at least he has one. You look over the careers have stocked on them alone. They were fantastic. Never got a title, but they wanted it. In that grant free agency and demanding trades wasn't quite as prevalent as
it was back then. But uh, it went bad quickly when and I don't mean bad, but I mean once though they had those two runs, then it was like off off the cliff. Few years later, Carl's in LA and John retires. I don't know how patient Jannis will continue to be.
Maybe he really loves Milwaukee he's got his title, and he says, well, I just I'll ride this out. But that team, that team does not And I think you'll agree with me here. That organization isn't even close to being title connectors, especially with the problems now that they have with Damian Loward.
I think they put a lot into that basket. And who knows what his situation is going to be. That's a tough injury to come back from at his age. So yeah, well we'll see what kind of paya Jannis has. But we would welcome him here with open arms in our wonderful community. Take him up do some snowboarding if he would prefer. I'm happy to take him up to Alta and put the boards on and you know, do
some surfing in the summer whatever. NBA players are not allowed to do that, well they can, they're not allowed.
To do that.
Yet Malone got to drive around around Harley all the time. Well he wasn't supposed to, but he did, but he did. You know, it was Carl Malone.
But no, I mean, look, even with Dame, we saw where their ceiling is and at times it looks pretty good, but they're not close to competing with Dames, so they're miles away without him. Game won't be on the floor next year until probably the spring, if at all. But he's under contract for two more years at about one hundred and twenty million, a lot of money. So Milwaukee's in trouble and Phoenix is in trouble. There will be teams that will be moving on from star players. Kevin
Durant will be traded, Giannis will be traded. I just think the Jazz have probably three years too late, but they finally have accepted their fate and they're going to play this long game thing. I don't think like I don't know that Danny Inge will ever utter the phrase big game hunting again. I just think they've leaned into this long term play and we'll see if they get Cooper and then they go from there.
If I can circle back to yesterday's show, and I listened to your show every day, so your NBA guess not. Dave mcmanimum Tim McMahon, and he brought up an interesting point in the same subject in that no, there's no chance Kevin Durant's coming here, but the Jazz could be a facilitator in a deal that involves Durant somewhere. They already have been with Phoenix once before, and you know, you kind of got into the whole. You know, is
there another year of tanking? And I think you both kind of agreed that if you get Cooper Flag, you don't necessarily have to go into a full year of tanking, if I heard that correctly. But the temptation to try to add Dabansa.
Is great.
But Spence one are the odds on getting the number one picked two years in a ruw it?
It doesn't happen much. And you know, I do, I do think there is a chance that if Cooper Flagg is here in Salt Lake City, the Jazz decide, and may have already decided that their timeline starts. Now that's what I think, and their timeline starts with Cooper Flag. And look the draft class next year, and you know, people analyze the draft day to day for a living in a way that I don't. But the draft class next year is thought to be every bit as good
as the draft class this year. And so we love you, Lowry, but you're about to turn twenty eight. And even a guy like Walker Kestler's agent a little bit, which sounds hilarious to say, but if you get Cooper flag at eighteen, and I remind everybody every time I bring up Cooper Flagg, he turned eighteen three and a half months ago. He reclassified and should have been a senior in high school. So it's like Trevin Nell is what twenty seven like?
You know, so he is not some season college basketball player. He should have been a senior in high school this year. He's a young eighteen. So there is part of me to believe the Jazz have already done their calculation and they're saying, if we get Cooper, our project starts now with him.
But I don't know.
About dismissing Kesser yet, He's not that much older. I'm just saying I don't think anybody would be safe if they get Cooper flex probably and Lowry right is even more.
And then you go down the line guys like Jordan Clarkson done, John Collins. You know, maybe they would have traded Jordan if they could by now. Yeah, well no, it may not be. It may be part of the facilitation of Kevin Durant. We'll see where that all goes.
I'll tell you what's beneficial now with both Clarkson and Collins. Is now that we enter the final year of their contracts. So if another general man out here you say, okay that that money does expire. Instead of trading for John Collins last year, gms are saying, I don't want to trade for John Collins because I'm paying him twenty six million dollars next year. But now this year you're saying, okay, that comes off the books. It's expiring, so we'll make that deal.
So forget about big game hunting and think more about the we use the word again, the facilitating things. They could, in a roundabout way benefit the Jazz because they have a lot.
Of other assets to deal with. Hey, did you call any of Jack's and darts high school football games? Several? So, so he turns out to be QB two in the NFL draft process, which I think is pretty interesting. Uh, you know, starts at USC, goes goes to Miss Brian Dayball, who was Josh Allen's offensive coordinator in Buffalo, trades back into the first round to take Jackson.
What sort of NFL player do you think he's gonna be. I think he's going to be a really good one. When I the games I still remember his first game. I think we called one of his first games at Corner Canyon. And remember he played three years at Roy and we actually called a few of his games there. But he wasn't showcase there the way he was at Corner Canyon. You know, Eric Carrig just turns out the quarterbacks there. And the two things that caught me one
he was incredibly accurate with his passing. But when he took off and ran, I mean he ran like a running back here.
A kid that's built really well too, a.
Big, strong kid, and just a great kid. Beyond that, it's just a lot of fun to watch. I love him in the NFL. And I think you talk about the Giants, Sorry about the Jets.
Do you mean to bring what are you doing? No one's asking you about the Jests, Dave cross Town. Uh.
They added Skataboo, So I'm thinking four or five. And I'm not a you know me and my Cowboys guy. I like the Giants. I don't like anyone else in the NFCS, but I think there might be a nice little foundation there, and that's a team that traditionally loves those fans will eat up a running back like Scataboo, you know, a strong kid and Dart. I just think four or five years from now, that's going to be a heck of a tandem in that in that city.
Do you think Jackson in fact Porter get on the microphone, Oh, Jackson Dart NFL prospect juxtaposed to Zach Wilson.
Good question, And it's interesting you mentioned the Corner Canyon thing. They've now put out two first round quarterbacks in a time span that I'm not sure many colleges around the country have. Yeah, I think that Jackson is he has a lot more of like the refined stuff that that Zach had. Clearly a great arm, he could sling it. But but Jackson seems to really know playbooks well. He seems to know pre snap stuff really well, a lot of the stuff that I actually think Zach struggled with.
It was the reason, although he was great at BYU, was not a great prospect. Jackson seems to have a little bit more of that pocket presence pre snap stuff.
I think it more experienced to played for Lane Tiffin. But but I'll circle back to what you said too about the coaching. That's a big part of it.
So Zach goes into a coaching situation where you got a head coach who's the defensive guy. In fact, he's back with the Niners, right, he's the defensive coach.
Again.
I just think it was a bad situation. And again I don't mean to fall back on the Jets.
But they're terrible. Yes they are, and I can census.
And they brought him in and he had to play. Well, that's not the case with Jackson Dark because they had mister unlimited. Don't play it, don't play it, Russell Wilson, mister unlimited. Right, have you ever heard have you ever heard the Russell Wilson mister unlimited? You don't want to It'll ruin your day, don't but don't play that.
Jameis Winston.
They have both of them, so they read who knows what they're gonna do with him, But he's gonna have plenty of time to learn if they so choose to do that.
And I just think it's a great situation for him.
And may I have a hard time saying all this because I'm not a Giants fan in any way, but I'm probably gonna become one just because of Jackson Dart.
Help me understand what they've got cooking at Corner Canyon. Why have they been able to turn these kids out like that? Well, Eric, first of all, has a great system. Now this isn't just sticking a quarterback behind the center, right. The one thing that people don't talk that much about. He always has a great line, a great offensive line. Jackson powers or Powers Jackson is another great kid who's
with the Raiders right now. Yeah, Fee now coming up, he's going to be a sensational well in some respects he's not directly, but their their family. He always builds a great line and he has a decent defense to go along with it. And you know how much that can mean to a quarterback if you're not on the field the whole time. So Eric's just.
Built a machine out there. They're gonna be good. They've got a quarterback this year Auga who's going to be a senior. Watch out for him. He's going to be really he committed to a college. Uh, he's still out there. Cool, but he's only going into his senior year, so heavily recruited.
Uh.
And it's it's funny because what Eric has built as Corner Canyon at Corner Canyon has forced the other teams in that region. And I'm talking about like Lehigh and Skyridge and Loan Peak to up their game. And now you've got this. It's we always me and a Lemon. Frank always called the sec of high school football in Utah.
But do not say Frank Stam on this radio show. You an a Lemma and the other three. You can say that adultcea no no no, and bald weird dude. You can put that bald weird dude. Thank you.
Uh.
And in fact, this year, I've already got our schedule done.
We're gonna do a lot of games out of that involved those four teams because they're just so good. But that's what Eric has built there, and it's it's just going to continue.
They're really good.
He's got a quarterback you probably don't even remember, Devin Brown. He's on Ohio State's roster right now from a couple of years ago.
So good. He's got he's got to going on there. Yeah, I mean, it's just, uh, it's impressive. Let me ask you this. Did Jackson transfer from Roy to Corner Canyon to play for Eric? Was likely exactly right.
He played three years at Roy going into his senior year, and he had the blessing of the roy coaches. Fred Fernandas was the head coach, and he knew he had something special, but he didn't really have the offense or the team to really exploit that.
And he goes to Corner Canyon and Spence.
Within weeks he's getting offers from all over the place, and of course he landed at USC and if they had not had a coaching change, Actually, I mean, what do you expect that that's going to happen when new coach comes in, he brings his quarterback with him. He was pretty good and he's with the Bears now. But he he he instantly was being recruited everywhere. Best move he ever made. I'm not sure where he'd be at now if he had not made that move to Corner Canyon.
Was there?
I mean, this is a silly question. I'm sure Utah would have liked Jackson Dart to play for them. Like, what was there any conference? Did he just simply want to go to SC?
I couldn't tell you this inner workings other than Cam Rising was there at the time and made it a little bit of a he was young that the ttle kid too, well, what he came and went in a hurry.
I mean, was there. He's still playing somewhere. I think he truly was there, not much of a need.
I think that was the issue because the same issue with Zach Wilson if you go all the way back, remember Zach originally committed to Boise State and then made the move to BYU, which turned out great for him. But they end up with Isaac Wilson, and you know, we'll see where that goes. But I've you know, you look, I mean, hindsight's twenty twenty O could look at Obviously, if the youth could do it over again, they would have loved to have Jackson Darty. He was great in
Mississippi and that's and the rest is history. Now he's off to the NFL and we'll see how that goes.
Is it any sort of an indictment or concern that Caleb Loner was the only ute drafted and there were zero BYU players drafted. Yeah, BYU team had had a really good season in the Big twelve.
No NFL guys and no other ute NFL guess that's what I'm saying. And that was one of my five questions for you yesterday. Because I thought the same one of your eight questions, sorry, one of my eight questions.
Eight questions. Suspension just doesn't have the same rings, so I just hide him in there. But I thought the exact same thing.
In fact, I had to read over the draft and draft by school two or three times Saturday afternoon to make sure I was reading this correctly, because in a way, there's a there's a bit of comedy to it. But on the other side of it, good for Caleb, and you've mentioned some of the other tight ends that have gone through this. It's it's a great story for him. He didn't get overly used on Utah's offense last year,
but he had a couple. He had the touchdown at Utah State and had a few other big catches and you will see what he can do in the NFL. I don't know what his blocking acumen is, but for a pass catching tight end, I think it's great. But yeah, when you when you look back at the draft, and boy, the NFL draft is eternity.
We know that.
And that's the only kid that was drafted between BYU and Utah. Jalen Royals course for Utah, stay good for him, goes to a great suation with the Chiefs. But that's the only kid out of those two schools. Is it's I think it's less an indictment on Caleb.
I have no issue with that.
Good for him, and more of what where are all these other, you know, kids that we thought were going to get drafted? But you brought up a great point yesterday when we were talking about Shadurra Sanders. The media's perspective of draft projections in the NFL's perspective of draft projections are two completely different things.
And we learned that, didn't we. Yeah. I mean, if you're a talent evaluator for a team, you're taught to remove emotion. Can the kid play? You know? And on the media side, certainly for a network like ESPN, who's a partner with the NFL and has the NFL Draft, their one motivation is to get you to watch their
TV show exactly, So how do we do that? We create a narrative around should Ur Sanders and we have mel Kuiper lose his mind every five minutes about how he made God and look, I honestly don't know if that is mel Kiper being sincere as a draft analyst or as a TV character. I really don't know, because he seemed to be playing it up to the camera, like every five minutes, let's go back to Mel and he's freaking out. Looks like his hair is going to fall outs. Did he did he really think should or
Sanders should have been the number one player drafted? Or is he playing up to the audience so you turn on ESPN.
Well maybe it's a little bit of both. But think about this. He had him high on his board and he doesn't want to be wrong. It's you know, it's funny thing I always think about when you look at replays in the NFL and the NBA. These officials don't want to have to overturn a call because if they do, they admit they're wrong.
They're wrong.
But that's what replay has created. Well, maybe it's the same situation with with Mel.
He doesn't want he has to defend, and he over defended himself his projections of the draft. When this kid who he had highly projected, I think he had him as the second quarterback.
He thought he should be right, so he had him QB one and he drops fifth. Obviously he's gonna raise a big stink over it. And boy, I think you you hit on it too. There was a little bit of theater with that because how many times did they go to mel I thought he was going to come to blows. At one point, who was he fighting with? I can't remember. He was fighting with Reese Das. It was Reyese Davis.
Yeah, when he started yelling about how the NFL gets a wrong a quarterback and Reese of course wants to protect the shields, he said, stop yelling at the NFL please. So it was really good. It was really good. But that's the point Dave like, as a media member, Okay, if you're a media member and you're quote analyzing the draft, your whole motivation is to get the most amount of people to click on your stuff or watch your show.
It unless you're trying to impress the NFL team because you want a job, and there are several media slubs that believe they should be working for NFL teams or whatever. But you always have to remember, as a consumer, the motivation for TV networks is one thing and one thing. Only turn on the TV and keep it on the TV on our station as long as possible. You know this, That's how you say advertise well, Steven A.
Smith did the same thing though, of course very that's very horror show. Yeah, then that's that's his stick for you know in h twenty point eight, by the way, running for president, which you've stopped it, so that is stick you and I don't argue.
Enough on them on my TV show. But do you want to argue more? We can argue more.
All that, I'm pretty much a softie and I have it. I have this weird tendency to almost agree with just about everything you say. Well, I just don't do combative radio.
I don't think well, and I could be wrong, because maybe if I was more like Steven A. Smith, I could sign one hundred million dollar contract. But I don't think people turn on the radio to escape from their day to listen to two people yell at each other. Don't. Maybe I'm wrong, but that was entertaining, no doubt about it. That It's just funny stuff. So Caleb, only local player besides Jalen drafted, but only you. No BYU players drafted.
I'm gonna flip the script on you as far as what you asked me last night, and I'll just stick with the Utah perspective. We saw spring football, we saw Devin Dan Pierre play a lot. We saw a lot of hitting. We saw a lot of live hitting. I mean I was down there on the sidelines. Well, of course, don't touch the quarterback, but I was kind of taken back. And I talked to Morgan about this after the spring game, like, you guys were hitting, and He's like, yeah, we needed,
we need some live action. What gives you the most confidence the year two in the Big twelve for Utah football will be better. Okay, A couple of things.
First of all, and you and I were talking about before the spring game, we we didn't even think we would see some of these.
Guys all that much.
And I wouldn't blame Cotton. I wouldn't see the past couple of years geez. But and I'm going to go back to when I was on your show and I did disagree with you. I said, no, I think they're going to play him a lot because they need to see him.
So thank you. I decided to own horn. That's good to give yourself To circle back and answer your question. A couple of things.
First of all, seeing him for the first time in person, I thought Devin was smaller, shorter, and thinner, and you know, it's kind of he's a small dude because Isaac next to him look pretty big. But the way the ball placement I thought was really exceptional. There were a couple of passes, a couple of corner routes, a couple of sideline routes where he put that ball on the money. That's one thing I appreciate about too. He already seemed to have a great command of the huddle and the team.
Three for as being as small as he is when you see him in person, he really got around well. He now granted that they can't go full bore, and you know, we're gonna see what happens in the in the fall when he's not wearing a yellow vest.
But overall, I thought that I don't know how much.
We really saw, and I don't think we saw a lot Spence, you know what I mean, because they're not going to show it in the spring game. But I think it gives the ute fans some hope for what this team might be able to do this year.
And we'll see.
The main thing they got to just stay healthy. We learned that last year. That's a big part of it. And some of the main players like Barton didn't play. But I'm telling you what, he looks big. He looks like a stud. I mean, he's one of these guys that's gonna be able to play, you know, defensive line if he needs to, moving up from that kind of a Micah Parsons kind of position, you know, linebacker and that. So, you know, if I'm a youth fan, I'm pretty excited
about this offense in the direction it's going. I can't wait to see it when they could really open it up and and you know they're not. It's not as vanilla as it might have been. Having said that, it was kind of a you know, there was some wide open plays.
It was fun to watch. Really was little concerned about who who Devin's going to throw the ball to. So Zach Williams lands at USC. According to our friends at two four to seven Sports, Utahs hosting a wide receiver transfer named Tobias Merriweather who's in town from cal Uh the number sixteen available player in the two four to seven portal rankings. They've got ad wide receiver to Dave. Yeah, we talked about it himself.
Yeah he is.
But I will say this, there were a couple of nice catches made. Now, Zach Williams, there's now a usc good point. There were a couple of drops early, and Kyle mentioned that. In fact, in the first quarter there were a few of them and the ball was being put right on the spot. So it's weird, though, Spence, because it was like wide receiver has been an issue like year after year after year, and they always seem to have plenty of tight ends.
But we'll see where that goes. Yeah, I think we'll always wonder what Dorian could have done last year if Cam was healthy. Right, I mean, there's been some talent like Tim Patrick's an awsome NFL wide receiver device Vaile. There's been some talent there, but you got to have a healthy quarterback that can capitalize on it.
Yeah, and Patrick had that broken leg rough time here at Utah. But and I remember when he did that, I thought, well that this is gonna be a rough comeback for him. And he ends up, like you said, having a really nice career still playing. He got paid by Detroit.
All right, before we say you loose, you had a very You have a very special guest on Talking Sports tonight by my count Utah Men's basketball roster right now has five roster spots left. Yeah, and I believe. So you had a chance to sit with Alex Jensen tell us about it.
Came in today.
It was a lot of fun.
Spent about twenty twenty five minutes with him, and you know how talking sports work, we get maybe eight or nine outes. So we're gonna run it in two parts because it was great tonight. The first part we talk a lot about Alex, his family, the move they just went through coming back to Utah. You know, his wife was in the performing arts on Broadway. That kind of great, great lady. It's funny because he was I was asking about so she's, you know, Broadway girl, performing arts, your
sports basketball? Which direction are the kids headed? And he said his two daughters already are headed to basketball?
Really, so yes, don't they only have girls? Three girls? Well the third is.
Only three years old, so she hasn't made that call yet, right, So his wife's you know, she's not overly, I mean she's not. They're they're fully supportive of what their kids do. She's still waiting to see if she gets her dancer.
We'll see. But we talk a lot about about that.
And then on Sunday night, I'm gonna run part two and we talk a little bit more about basketball. I thought one of the interesting things he brought up, and you see this with all programs now they're going to the GMS, And he said it was really important for him to get a GM that is not a coach, literally is a GM.
And that's that's what he managed to fine. And that's that's where we're at.
In college because he because he's like, he deals with all the money and I deal with all the players.
Could you imagine that phrase five years ago? You know you'd be on probation. I was disappointed that Alex didn't contact me about the vacant GM job. But what are you gonna do?
He asked me about that. I told him that you're happy where you're at. Okay, fair enough. I just try to start my own role. Dave ye heyat great to see, Okay, see a great day Fox. Tune into Talking Sports tonight you'll hear an interview with Alex Jensen.
This is clearly your favorite nineties one hit wonder every time, every time we do this little musical situation on the show, this is what you land on to close out. I feel like every single time.
You you might be right, you might be right.
It's definitely up there as far as one hit wonders go, and it really is a one hit wonder.
I don't know if I can name another one of their songs.
Oh, no way, how bizarre by what's who is this? I don't even know omc omc. Yeah, there's no way that. I don't think they have another song. But anyway, all right, fun out of NBA playoffs, couple of playoff basketball games, we got three playoff hockey games. When had my yearly physical? Today? There we go bring it up because of public service announcement. As someone who wants upon a time had early detection
literally save his life. I would encourage you to get out there and once a year, contact your doctor, go get blood work done. You are still a young No no, no, you're still a young so it's not as vital for you. But when's the last time he had a physical young man?
That's kind of why I was I was saying that I am, how do you put this, not a man of Western medicine as much as I should be.
Probably Okay, so you're doing ayahuasca once a year to make sure that your mentals are okay, Like what exactly does that entail?
I don't do ayahuasca. I haven't gone down like the full the full branch. I just like it takes a lot for me to go into a hospital, into a doctor. I need to get better at that. I do know, you know tests, as you mentioned, the preventative stuff. But yeah, I'm just really bad at it. Unless I literally am like bleeding out of my head.
I just I go elsewhere.
Just go once a year and get some blood taken and look at the levels and see how you're doing. That's all it is.
I actually have reached out to start that process, just a blood test, just make sure everything's in line.
But yeah, I need to work on that.
So I am not a pearl clutch as it pertains to other people's relationships, because it's none of my business. This build Ballichick relationship situation is a little bit how bizarre, may I say it?
Yeah? Apt song for the segment.
Here's what I'll say. I'm usually with you like your relationship is your relationship whatever. But when you're a Hall of fame head coach who is seventy four.
Or more seventy four and she is you know, he's seventy three, she's twenty twenty four.
Okay, yeah, so that's part of the thing here. You're again, you're a Hall of fame head coach who just took a job at the college level, and you're now dating a college aged woman. You're also a professional head coach who is with the New England Patriots. There is a history with the New England Patriots and some like I would say, odd stuff with like flights and models and all the above.
Right, So, yes, I'm with you.
Not usually want to wade into the waters of someone else's relationship, but in this circumstance, you at least have to, I don't know, assess it a little bit, wonder a little bit, because it is.
It is interesting if Bill Belichick is seventy three and is dating a twenty four year old, what's socially acceptable for a forty seven year old man to date as far as the age goes. There's the question for you seventy three, Wow, just go the other way. Yeah, Hey, I'm not judging. Like I said, I'm not a pear clutcher when I oh, he's so young, So okay, whatever, do your thing. Life is hard enough find somebody that
fulfills you and makes you happy. I'm like, but the whole thing about her like being c seed on his emails and the CBS cutting off interviews Sunday Morning Interview where she's like dictating the question Like that stuff is weird for a guy that, historically speaking, has been so controlling about his own communication and narratives.
That's where it becomes like, Okay, we have to dive into we have to see what's going on here, because Bill Belichick is historically known in the NFL as like the most powerful guy around. Yeah, Robert Kraft is part of it, but it was always seen as like Bill Belichick's way or the highway.
Right.
You talk to players who who had him as a coach, You talked to people who worked for Bill Belichick. It is a guy who suffers no fools and kind of looks like a fool now. And it's a little interesting because here's the deal. I don't care how in love you are or or whatever. The circumstance is to allow someone else, even your significant other, to like dictate the words you're saying or the answers to questions you're having,
that's weird. If you're just like an accountant who has a a weird marriage for Bill Belichick who just took a job at North Carolina. Yeah, it's something we're going to talk about.
Hopefully those two crazy kids make it work.
I think I I I think they will be Porter, You don't want you want to hear some crazy I want to. I got odds on like shout out to our got Jimmy Shapiro. Odds on like Bill Belichick's relationship, like will Bill Belichick be the UNC coach or will he be fired first? Or will he and Jordan break up before he gets fired? Or will Jordan end up dating a UNC player? Like? Those were real odds that I received in a in an email from a booking site.
So that's where we're at.
Porter. Bottom line, My Angelou said it best choose love one more time and always one more.
Time, always one more time.
Write that down, May Angelou. Let's get out of here. It's getting weird. We have a new partner on the show. I want to give them a little shout out Outlaw Distilling. Outlaw Distillery, a helmgrown grained glass, nitty gritty whiskey, vodka, rum and moonshine distillery right here in sal Lake County. Outlaw Distillery, Utah, grown with so much history here of cowboys, outlaws,
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tour and tasting booked at Outlawdistillery dot com today. That's how Law Distillery. Good friends of the Show of New Clients, All right, Porter, what comes our way? On a Thursday edition of the program.
On a Thursday edition of The Drive, spence our week of reaction to the NFL draft.
Of course, we.
Will continue to talk NBA playoffs. Bill Riley stops by the program. Aaron Falk stops by the program. I even got Aaron to come in studio, no way, So even though he's not texting you back, you will see him.
Tomorrow, Okay, all right, because I need to know if he's playing golf this weekend.
Pablo Mastrueni joins the program as well, and we'll go from there on a Thursday.
All right, So join us for a Thursday Drive and join some playoff hoops tonight and some playoff hockey as well. Will Saga and I and the special thank you to Tony Jones, to Travis Sikama at A, Chris Com, Ronnie and Dave Fox for the sound you made miss from the show. Go to the website. It's ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. Download our mobile app and take us on the go. ESPN seven hundred app is available in
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