Two for the Win
Mike is a U.S. Navy Veteran and Bryan has more than a decade of civil service experience. Together, these blue collar guys dissect the latest sports headlines and events.
Two for the Win
Two For The Win - E34 - The Underdogs Strike Back! And, Welcoming Special Guests!
If you thought the NBA Finals was going to be a Thunder blowout, the Pacers have something to say about it. We break down how Indiana has grabbed control of the series, exposing OKC's turnover troubles while showcasing unselfish team basketball that turns up in the fourth quarter when it matters most.
Meanwhile, the Panthers are showing what happens when you bully Connor McDavid and the Oilers in the NHL Finals, taking a commanding 2-1 series lead with a 6-1 thrashing in Game 3. What started as a potentially even matchup has quickly evolved into a physical mismatch that has Edmonton searching for answers.
The show doesn't stop with championship action. MLB delivers its own thrills with Oakland Athletics outfielder Denzel Clark performing superhero-level catches that have us questioning physics. From running full-speed into walls to nearly falling out of stadiums while securing the ball, Clark's highlights deserve your immediate attention even if baseball isn't usually your thing.
We're especially proud to present our first-ever guest interview with young basketball players and entrepreneurs Caden O'Brien-James and Christian Wright. These inspiring athletes share their journey creating Solace Outfitters, a clothing brand with purpose beyond profit, while pursuing their basketball dreams despite physical challenges and life obstacles. Their story of perseverance, teamwork, and vision provides a refreshing glimpse into the next generation of athlete-entrepreneurs.
From NFL offseason developments to WNBA standings and Angel Reese's record-breaking pace to 30 double-doubles, we've packed this episode with insights across the sports landscape. Join us for two hours of passionate sports talk from hosts who genuinely love the games and stories behind them.
June 12 2025. Welcome back, everybody for another episode of sports talk with yours truly and my co host, as well as congratulations to all those graduates out there moving on to the next phase of their life. Next phase of their life. I'm sure your parents are proud of you, we're proud of you. I'm Brian with an I and I'm Mike, and we are two for the win. Mike, what do we have on tonight's agenda?
Speaker 2:Well, we got finals, trying to go final and the MLB is doing its thing and the NFL said not so fast, we're going to capture some interest from the fans because camps have started.
Speaker 1:Oh, they sure have, and I'm eager to talk about that when we get to it, as well as our interview with Mr Wright and Mr O'Brien James coming up at the end of this episode. Mike, yes.
Speaker 2:Stick around, for that folks See.
Speaker 1:But first let's talk some NHL action, bro. So first up, we got here. Forgive me if I chop this name up Chris Kreider, chris Kreider, chris Kreider forgive me, lady, ladies and gentlemen, words are hard is heading to the Anaheim D. After, uh, the winger waved his no trade clause and allowed the new york rangers to deal him away, he will be joining once again, as I just mentioned, the ducks. Uh, this is a pretty good move here for both teams. Uh, and obviously mr creeter, you know, waved his, you know no trade clause, so this, this is obviously a mutual thing all the way around. Mike, what do you make of this?
Speaker 2:Well, sometimes a fresh start, you know, going somewhere else is a good thing. You know, sometimes you get into a spot, not just in sports, but just in life. Sometimes you'll be at a job and you're just kind of going through the motions and one day you're just like I really don't like it here, I want to move on. Yeah, one day it's time to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and maybe he's reading the tea leaves, maybe he's just in a mood, whatever the case, you know, and obviously the Ducks want him and the Rangers are okay with parting with him. So good luck to him, good luck to the Ducks and hopefully Good luck to the Ducks and hopefully the Rangers don't regret it.
Speaker 2:Hey, we've definitely seen in this playoffs where some teams have regretted letting somebody go and watching them score against them in the playoffs. But speaking of playoffs, because we are now into the finals, as we all know, right now in the NHL finals, we all know the teams it's the Panthers, it's the Edmonton Oilers. But if you thought this series looked like it was going to start doing something, being one-to-one, this Game 3 really showed what team really has the lead in this. The Panthers came out and just embarrassed, embarrassed Edmonton. They came out to win that game 6-1 in Game 3, to give them two games to one in the series. But I'm telling you, man, I saw the Panthers just bullying, just bullying that team Like they were sitting there, just like, look so their star player, connor mcdavid.
Speaker 2:He tries to make a motion up the line and when he tries to go up that line, he got hit so hard that even as he was still moving forward, he turns backwards and stumbles and falls on his backside without the puck, and then they take the puck and go the other direction. So, man, and it wasn't the only one that got hit like that during the game, the Panthers, they were just like man, they were de-bowing them that whole game. They were like what chain, what?
Speaker 1:chain. What you talking about, bro? Yeah, man, what you talking about with us?
Speaker 2:That was something I'm telling you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Panthers. They've honestly kind of really been something through this playoff run here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's really looking like they're going to go ahead and they're going to repeat as champs in this, at least from what I see. I mean, edmonton needs to figure something out, because they're getting pushed around and you can't get pushed around. The one thing that was really exciting in this game in the third period you just had an all-out brawl. You know, I like to say sometimes I went to the fight and the hockey game broke out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I went to the fight and the hockey game broke out. Yeah, man, that's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because sometimes you get lucky and there's a fight and yeah, the whole hockey started fighting.
Speaker 1:It was great. Hockey might be the most fight-positive sport. I have ever seen A lot of times people frown on fights. Hockey is almost encouraged to an extent.
Speaker 2:They usually have a guy they call the goon on the ice. He's the guy that protects the star player. He's the one that comes over and gets in a dust-up with the other guy from the other team who's messing with their star. Unfortunately for Edmonton, it didn't seem like they had anybody to protect Connor McDavid. It seemed like oh, that's funny. But let's move along and we're going to move on into the MLB.
Speaker 1:MLB.
Speaker 2:And some unfortunate news for the Diamondbacks their hot prospect Burns, their star pitcher. He's done. He's done for the year, Done-skis. He's having Tommy John surgery and he will miss the rest of the year and that's a pretty big blow to their rotation because he was the anchor, he was the lead guy, the ace, and they've been having little struggles with their pitching rotation here recently.
Speaker 1:Isn't there another player who had Tommy John surgery that we recently talked about?
Speaker 2:There's so many players who have Tommy John surgery we recently talked about Bro. There's so many players that have Tommy John surgery. It's almost commonplace, man, that Tommy John Well, you got to think about this, like. Well, the reason it's called Tommy John surgery is the pitcher, the very first pitcher to ever have this surgery. His name was Tommy John. Tommy John, he's still alive. He's still alive and he said you know, I wish I would have been known for something on the field not being known for surgery, but you know, they should have named it after the doctor, because the doctor's the one that did everything. I just laid there.
Speaker 1:Hey, we can't all be superstars, superstars. Some of us are just regular superstars.
Speaker 2:But speaking about being called out for your accomplishments, so there was a recent game with the Mets and the Nationals and once again that pesky microphone picking up things you don't want to have heard necessarily, but in this case it was kind of funny. So it was later in the game. The Mets are in the ninth inning, up 4-0. All right. So kind of seems like this game's well wrapped up, right. But they kind of walked the bases loaded. But that was after a call from the umpire, chad Whitson, who calls what, unfortunately, the manager of the Mets thought was a strike. It wasn't a strike. I'll just say that right now. He thought it was a strike and he turns to them and he argues with them while the mic's on and he says I'm not magic, it was not a strike. It was not a strike Because it was a 3-2 count. So either it's a strike and the guy's out, or it's a walk and the bases would be loaded. So I love when things like this happen in baseball because it allows us to say that's baseball, that's baseball.
Speaker 1:I've begun applying that saying to my life. With the term baseball, it's no longer that's baseball, that's baseball. I've begun applying that saying to my life with the term baseball. It's no longer. That's life, that's baseball.
Speaker 2:It means the same thing. So, moving on those Diamondbacks we talked about recently, those Diamondbacks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like there's a that's kind of pointed. I would be offended, sir. No, no, no.
Speaker 2:Listen, this is a good thing. This is a good thing. So their third baseman, suarez, he has joined a group and he's probably pretty proud of this. So Suarez joins a group of players from Venezuela, of players from Venezuela. So these are Venezuelan-born players, and how many home runs they have just with the Venezuelan players. So he has moved up in the standings with how many career home runs he has. With a home run that he hit recently and that was against the Mariners I believe, yes, it was a 5-2 win against the Mariners. I believe, yes, it was a 5-2 win against the Mariners he hit a home run and that home run gave him 295 for his career, breaking the tie he had with Manglio Ordonez, former Tigers player Tigers fans will remember him fondly, but still has him third on the all-time list now for Venezuelan-born players, behind the big cat, andres Galarraga and Miguel Cabrera, another former Tiger who just recently retired. Now Galarraga sits with 399, and Cabrera has 511. So, suarez, you need to start swinging a little more if you're going to catch those guys.
Speaker 2:But still an impressive feat because he's only 5 away from 300, and that's a pretty good benchmark to be on as a player.
Speaker 1:And congratulations to him. Just a great feat, not just in baseball but also for your nationality and heritage.
Speaker 2:So good job, and that probably that probably means a lot to him because he he might have grown up liking those players as his favorite player. Yeah, and have your name included with players that you grew up watching and idolizing.
Speaker 1:That's probably a big thing for, yeah, you can now stand among them in the stars, shoulder to shoulder. That's's an incredible thing, man, especially coming from where he comes from.
Speaker 2:So moving right along. So the Braves have hit a little bit of a skid. They've been losing series. The last two series that they've had, Except for the Brewers series, they finally came away winning a series and the final game they won 6-2. And the reason I bring this game up is for two things. One, Ronald Acuna Jr is definitely back because he had three hits and two RBIs and is boasting a .353 batting average so far since his return, boasting a .353 batting average so far since his return. So he's back to form. But not only did he have a good performance, but something we don't see much in baseball anymore their pitcher, Spencer Swallenbach, went nine innings for a complete game. We don't see pitchers doing complete games anymore, Wow.
Speaker 1:Usually there's a pitch rotation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, usually you hit a certain number and you're pulled. But Spencer went the whole nine innings, allowed only five hits, two runs and struck out nine with no walks. He allowed one home run.
Speaker 1:What brought this on? By the way, is there a reason why he went all nine innings? Do you just be like nah, bro, I'm staying in tonight?
Speaker 2:you know, sometimes a manager will just see a see a pitcher out there and if he's got it, you just let him do his thing roll. You know, if he's, if he's not so high in the pitch count or he's looking, okay, you just let him roll. You let him do his thing. And sometimes for a manager it's just a feel you just let him roll, you let him do his thing. And sometimes for a manager it's just a feel Like you just know the guy, like you can go up to him and talk to him and say how's it going?
Speaker 1:I'm good, skip, okay, we're good, he's getting the next thing I mean obviously he's the starting pitcher, so if he wants it, he's good. He's probably going to keep it.
Speaker 2:Well, you hope, you hope, you hope. But speaking of hope, since the Brewers recently lost that game, they have some hope coming up from their minors. They have a good young pitcher. He's only 23 years old, right-hander, and I am going to do my best with his name. You want me to do it? I love doing this.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, okay, it's right there. Maybe I should let you keep this one, jacob Mizorowski. Mizorowski, you know what. Y'all can look it up, I'll spell it for you.
Speaker 2:But this kid Mizorowski.
Speaker 1:Mizorowski, mizorowski, he throws at 103.
Speaker 2:Yes. He can get up to 103 with his pitchers, but he averages about 97.7. Okay, there's one thing else he is 6'7" 6'7" 6'7". He is a tall pitcher, so this is giving me total Randy Johnson vibes, with him throwing heat and being super tall, because when a guy is super tall like that, he generally gets a little extra reach when he's throwing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know I was just thinking about this, I wonder how height plays into being a pitcher, like shorter pitchers versus taller pitchers, right, Not only because of the reach, but also because of the trajectory they're throwing at. So this is a very interesting scientific, I guess inquiry.
Speaker 2:So not only is this pitcher who is pitching tonight, by the way, so you might see some highlights tomorrow of this pitcher Not only does he sport that 97.7 mile an hour fastball on average, which he will hit triple digits with it on occasion, he also sports a slider at 93. Kind of sounds like Randy Johnson as well. He also has a curveball which he drops down all the way to 86.2. So you're either gearing up for 97 or it's coming across 86 with that and his changeup which drops down to about 90, 90.8. So there's quite a difference. He's changing speeds and he's coming at you fast. So you're probably seeing a pitcher that, if he figures it out and he gets, he has some kind of control or location, uh, that he can hit consistently.
Speaker 1:You might be seeing a player that's going to be prominent in the Brewers rotation here soon yeah, I'm eager to see, uh, not just how he starts, but I'm eager to see how his uh, the beginning of, but I'm eager to see how the beginning of his career plays out. Because this is like they got their eye on him. They know he's got some stuff. He's not quite at the breaking point where he's broken out yet. Actually, he hasn't broken out at all, he hasn't really played yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's ranked 68 in the prospect pipeline. Usually MLB ranks the top 100. He's at 68. But remember, this is all of baseball and this is all of the players that are in the minors. So even to be in the top 100, you're doing something Because you figure every single team has 27 players at every level in the minors.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean congratulations for him to get the opportunity to. So I'm eager to see this young man play. And we got you know Andrew McCutcheon passes Roberto Clemente.
Speaker 2:Yes so.
Speaker 1:Pirates all-time home run. List number 241. All-time home run list number 241.
Speaker 2:So yes, it's not quite the home run count that we had before with the 295. Right, but it's significant in the fact that you have one fan favorite, andrew McCutcheon, passing. Another fan favorite, in Roberto Clemente. And a fun fact about Roberto Clemente they actually have a banner or a thing over in right field that they had up on the wall for Roberto Clemente, kind of honoring him, and they took it down at one point for renovations or whatever reason. They took it down for renovations or whatever reason they took it down and the fans were so pissed that they just started berating them with emails and letters saying how dare you, how could you take this down? It was back up the next game. So obviously passing a player, that means that. So much to Pirates fans and being a significant Pirate in his own right means something that's very uncommon.
Speaker 1:Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off there, Mike. It's very uncommon for Pirates franchise as well. There's not a lot of players who've been able to stand shoulder to shoulder or even right below Mr Clemente.
Speaker 2:Well, and remember, andrew McCutcheon hasn't stuck with the Pirates, so he has moved around from team to team to team throughout his 17 years. So coming back to the Pirates and then passing Roberto Clemente tells you something. It means that he did a lot in his short time with the Pirates. Well, I say short time. He had a few years with the Pirates before he started moving around. Yeah, but it just shows he's a good player, he's always been a good player and fans love him, especially those Pirates fans. Oh yeah, so moving on, we're going to be talking about Carlos Santana.
Speaker 1:The rock star, mr Latin Pop himself. I love no the baseball player.
Speaker 2:Oh dang, but funny. You should mention that because they did play the song when he did this feat. So on June 11th it was actually an anniversary for him, which he did not know at the time, but it was his 15-year anniversary from his Major League debut. And what does he do on his 15-year anniversary? Hits one hell of a grand slam over the right field wall to help his Guardians get a win and not get swept by their Ohio State brethren in the Cincinnati Reds Brethren. You hear that?
Speaker 1:They're brethren.
Speaker 2:Hey look, it's both Ohio teams and there is a rivalry.
Speaker 1:There always is. They probably throw rocks at each other now, come on.
Speaker 2:Anyway, but the point is it's a cool story. On his anniversary of becoming a big leader, big leaguer, he hits a grand slam.
Speaker 1:He's a big leaguer.
Speaker 2:And his manager even said he's like look, if you've been in the game for 15 years, you have to be a good player to even be here for 15 years. So that means something. So, moving right along recently with the Athletics they had a game. You know the Athletics, they've been having some trials and tribulations, you know over the years, but this was a pretty interesting one recently. Recently they were playing the Los Angeles Angels and this was on Wednesday. They were playing the Los Angeles Angels and this was on Wednesday. Their pitcher, jp Sears, was having a pretty decent game. So Sears was looking to get his sixth win of the year. You know he goes out there, pitches five and a third innings so he qualifies to get the win.
Speaker 2:And at the time the A's were up 3-0. And while they were up 3-0, he comes out. He had left two batters on and he was replaced by Grand Holmes. Grand Holmes, unfortunately, grand Holmes didn't do so well. He didn't do so well and Spears kind of took it personally because he started yelling at the umpire who missed an obvious strike call. But here's the thing this strike call was not caught by the catcher. Here's the thing this strike call was caught was not caught by the catcher. The catcher goes to catch the ball and he winds up dropping it. It was a strike. It was clearly a strike but because the catcher dropped it, the home plate umpire. Gabe Morales didn't call it a strike. Spears was livid. I can understand he was pissed.
Speaker 2:I can understand, Because now the very next play, the very next batter game gets all tied up. Now he has no decision and possibly looking at getting a loss. So he had a few words for the umpire sitting there screaming at him from the dugout and the umpire didn't take it too kindly and he said that's enough, you can go to the showers. He kicks him out. So in this day and age where you don't see managers going out much and getting in fights, it's good to see that players will sit there and get on the top of the rail and bark at the umps as well.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, sit there and get on the top top of the rail and bark at the umps as well. Well, yeah, I mean when you feel like you've been slighted, especially, you know, I could understand it being a little upset you got a hand a little better. But I mean, how do you approach that?
Speaker 2:well, I mean, think about it, you've done all that good work. Your manager decides to pull you out and, yeah, you let two guys on, but you were still doing pretty decent. And you're you're expecting like, hey man, you know, I got five wins already on the year, I'm going to get my six, as long as we can just keep things together. We're up three, they have no runs, and then you just start letting runs in. It's like dang it Come on.
Speaker 2:Come on, man but we talked bad about what's going on with A's Now we got to talk some good. Yeah, we talked bad about what's going on with the A's Now we got to talk some good, and the good we're going to talk about is Denzel Clark. I've been waiting for this part Denzel. Clark. He is having himself a month.
Speaker 1:Man on fire, man on fire, that's what this guy is.
Speaker 2:Not only does he rob a home against the Rangers or not, the Rangers, the Rays what was it like a week, week and a half ago? But he decides to outdo that with what he's been doing these past two weeks, or this past week really, because he had a game just the other day where they're playing against the Baltimore. They're playing against Baltimore, there's two on and it's the top of the fourth, so Baltimore has three and the Athletics have four. Their center fielder, clark, goes running full speed to the gap in left field and doesn't slow down, doesn't slow down, it makes the catch at the wall. As he runs into the wall full speed, I swear to you, it looked like the wall tackled him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know if you guys have ever run into a wall at full speed, but I think you should give it a shot, just to understand.
Speaker 2:Do not listen to this man. Do not do that, because we do not want to be on the hook for you hurting yourselves.
Speaker 1:Make sure the wall has padding. This man, do not do that because we do not want to be on the hook for you hurting. Make sure the wall has padding his wall had some padding?
Speaker 2:probably not.
Speaker 1:It has padding, but still even running full force into a wall oh, by the way, still by the way, running full force into it not looking at it?
Speaker 2:uh, yes, he was not looking at it, he was. He had his eye on the ball. Why? Why do we know that? Because he caught the ball. He caught the ball he caught it, the ball he did not drop it, caught it and held onto it Exactly and then got up and walked off the field Under his own power. So that was a crazy play, but it gets better. He wasn't done. Remember how I said the A's were playing the Angels.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:He went for the next one.
Speaker 1:Look, the next one has Spider-Man jealous because Yep, oh boy, this was such a great catch. This was such a great catch.
Speaker 2:First inning. First inning right he's like hold on, Runs over towards the left field wall, Is darn near over the wall when he catches this ball and almost leans and falls out of the stadium as he catches the ball, turns back around, drops down and just screams like yeah, because he caught it, I would be on fire too.
Speaker 1:Look, you just caught it. You got your team in a better position and you're basically Spider-Man at this point.
Speaker 2:That was in the I implore everybody, even if you're not a baseball fan, go look up Denzel Clark's highlights from these last few weeks and see this man and understand that he's doing stuff that we haven't seen since, like Griffey and Andrew Jones players of that caliber where he's just going up and taking home runs away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this guy is so athletic.
Speaker 2:And playing for the.
Speaker 1:Athletics. He's athletic playing for the Athletics, so that's a coincidence. But this catch, this play, is arguably in the conversation for one of the greatest plays. I mean, I know there's been several greatest plays, but they were talking about this play on this level. This was just such a great playing catch by this gentleman. So congratulations to him on that catch and making that catch and actually staying in bounds as well, because he did, like you say, almost fall out of his stadium.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he almost fell out, but he stayed in. He stayed in, but still keeping in thoughts with the Angels. The Angels had a game against Seattle not too long ago and there was a funny little thing that happened to this game Well, not really in the game, but part of the game. So the Angels coach left a little snack on the field for the Mariners coach as a father-son moment. And you may be asking yourself, what do you mean, father-son moment? So the Angels' first base coach is Eric Young Sr. Obviously, his son, eric Young Jr, is on the other team and he happened to leave a power bar and some little snacks there for his son because he knew his son was coming onto the field next. And you know doing what most parents do they look out for their kids.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and by the way, I missed in the beginning of our show happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there this coming weekend. This is definitely a Father's Day type of scenario to me because, like you said, they've done this before. A very dad thing to do, right. From the stands this time actually, I think no, no, no, it was the last one from the stands.
Speaker 2:No, this is on the teams opposite teams. Oh, yeah, yeah you have a coach from the mariners getting snacks from the coach of the angels, like you know, so you got two. You got two rival teams who are family, yeah that are hooking each other up. The the father is giving the son a power bar, giving him a snack. I think. Looking out, looking out, because you know, you know what's happening though Mama Bear's watching the TV going good job, Dad, and you know I like this.
Speaker 1:This is a feel-good moment for me because you know you hear about good moments, but this is truly a good family-related moment and, honestly, it reminded me of Father's Day this weekend, Even though you know.
Speaker 2:Again this kind of alludes back to, that's baseball.
Speaker 1:That's baseball, the good side of baseball. Actually, shall we, michael, get into some WNBA? Move on, sir, let's rock. We don't have a lot on WNBA. We're going to talk some standings. I will say right now it only took Angel Reese 42 games to record 30 double-doubles in the WNBA, which, by the way, fewest in league history. To get to that point, reese records a milestone in five less games than Tina Charles, who held the record with 47 games as far back as 2011. Bro, do you remember 2011? It feels like yesterday to me, this steve. It feels like yesterday to me 2011. 2012 still feels like yesterday. It was a great time. Rg3 was in the nfl. It was.
Speaker 2:It was cray is that all you remember about 2011?
Speaker 1:I was very uh, you know I that's all I hope to remember about that time.
Speaker 1:But congratulations, they're hitting that milestone. And you know, let's talk some WNBA standings real quick. We didn't have a terrible amount of news. I'm sure there's news floating around out there. But sitting here at the top of the standings we've got New York Liberty 9-0, pulling slightly ahead of Minnesota Lynx, because the Lynx were also. I think they were 8-0. I think they both were 8-0 a week ago or something like that. I forget the standings, but they were pretty neck and neck there. Liberty separating themselves just a little bit here, followed up by Atlanta's Dream 6-3. Phoenix Mercury 7 wins. Seattle Storm 6 wins, wins. And then you have the bottom feeders. That's what I'm going to call them because it's, uh, significantly and consistently down the bottom. You know the aces, you know indiana fever pulling in at seven. They kind of hang around middle of the pack here. They had a great year, last year.
Speaker 2:Well, remember, they're also down caitlin, caitlin, yeah, cait.
Speaker 1:Kaitlin Clark's down. So yeah, you know that probably doesn't help them very much. Their new franchise, the Valkyries, golden State Valkyries, middle of the pack, middle of the pack At four and five. They were dwelling around the bottom a week ago, a couple weeks ago. So they're kind of keeping pace Four wins, five losses. The Aces, the Fever, the Valkyries, the Mystics and the Sparks all have four wins. Those teams are kind of neck and neck through the middle there.
Speaker 2:Really the one that you've got to mention. There is the Dallas Wings at the bottom. We're at the Paige Beckers being on that team and they only have one win and ten losses. Who by the way, they're having a pretty rough season.
Speaker 1:The team is having a rough season but if you look at Paige Beckers' stats she is honestly going off. She's having a relatively good season for not being on a very good performing team, right now.
Speaker 2:Well, and this is usually what happens, you know, the best player typically goes to the worst team. Yeah, and you're supposed to build around that. And you know, develop a team, you know kind of a core, you know group of players to make your team formidable. And Paige is just like the beginning of that chapter for that team. Well, at least they hope that's how it's going to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's how they hope it's going to go. But you know the standings. You know we keep an eye on the WNBA. They're in the midst of the heat of their action right now and still kind of new to us, so, forgive us, we're picking up on that.
Speaker 2:You mentioned standings. I realized something. Yes, I need to do a callback. Sir, go ahead and call it back. We need to step back over to the MLB for one second because we did not go through the standings.
Speaker 1:We didn't hit the MLB standings. All right, guys, we're going back in time for just a moment. Pretend it didn't happen.
Speaker 2:No, no, they should still pretend like the WNBA stuff happened. But we're going to just step back for just a second and we're going to run through the standings of the MLB. The AL East is being led by the New York Yankees at 41 and 25 41-25, with the Blue Jays right behind them by four games. Yeah, the Detroit Tigers are leading the AL Central with a 44-25 record, with the Twins right behind them by seven and a half games. So they got a pretty comfortable lead yeah, separation there.
Speaker 2:But I will say this they do not have the best record in the league. I will get to that shortly. In the AL West it is being led by the Astros. I will say this they do not have the best record in the league. I will get to that shortly. In the AL West it is being led by the Astros. The Astros, who at one point were in the back part of this division, have crept back up to a 37-30 record With them four games. Behind them is the Angels and Mariners and the Texas Rangers. Don't count them out. They're only five games back, so this division is getting a little bit tighter, they're getting choppy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're getting tight, they're getting choppy. There's a lot of shifting in the AL West.
Speaker 2:So, switching over to the NL East, we have the team with the best record in baseball being the New York Mets at 45-24. Go Mets, they have the best record, with the Phillies right behind them by five and a half games. Moving on to the NL Central, where we have the Cubs with a 41 and 27 record, with St Louis five games behind them, but don't count out Milwaukee. They had a rough series against the Braves, but they are five and a half games back on the Cubs.
Speaker 2:Moving on to the NL West, we have the Dodgers with a 41-28 record, still holding on to the top spot in that division. But the Giants have crept up after a very, very good series, as of late They've been seven of three of their last 10 games. So they've been on a little bit of a hot streak, making them only one game back of the Dodgers, and the Padres are two and a half games back on the Dodgers. But let's give a little nod to the Rockies, because we bring up their Rockies because they're having a rough year, but they are at 13 wins. Oh the.
Speaker 1:Rockies are having a rocky year, mike. I think that's an understatement, with 13 wins and 55 losses through this point in the season. Are they even sober on the next lowest record, which seems to be in competition relatively to some extent with their divisions? But they're the only team below 20 wins, and not just right on the cusp of 20. I mean nowhere near 20 wins.
Speaker 2:Well, if you've ever seen this team play, you'd understand why they're completely at loss. They're just not playing good baseball. Their team is just in shambles, so they're not getting good play. They got players that are hurt and you never want to say, oh, it's because players are hurt, it's just they need players. They need to develop more and get better players on their team. Another team that I want to give a little shout out to is the White Sox. Now they're not doing so great, but you know what? They have a really, really famous fan as of late.
Speaker 1:Oh, I guess fans make all the difference on the field.
Speaker 2:This one might be in their favor. Who is it? The Pope? He has recently been spotted in Vatican City wearing sporting his Chicago White Sox hat, because he's from Chicago and a big White Sox fan. I have a question. So what I have to say to you, sir, is if some team has the Pope on their side and their win total has gotten better from last year they were the bottom dwellers last year. They were the bottom dwellers last year. They were the Rockies of last year and they're getting a little bit better. They're only marginally ahead of the Rockies.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying when your team has a little fast track to God.
Speaker 1:I really want to know. Maybe that might work in their favor Does the Pope wear white socks or does he wear red socks? Because I really want to know. This is important Because he's the Pope, so if he's wearing red socks, he might be an imposter womp womp. No, we like, no, we like that one. That was good I don't care what nobody says.
Speaker 1:By the way, we just hit the wmba. Everybody remembers that and they're a great group of ladies playing some fine basketball this year. But we're going to talk about some nba action. There's only there are things happening nba in the nba before we get into the um finals bracket. We'll talk about a couple things here. Uh, new, so new Suns coach, jordan Ott. This guy's focused on trying to quote move this thing forward. Okay, uh, the Suns don't have a championship in their entire franchise history since the launch of 1968 or 67. I forget somewhere in the late 60s. But he's taken over an expensive roster with not a lot of gel in time and an owner who has promised to be more involved than prior. So I think, mr Ott and, by the way, jordan Ott, this is his first head coach gig in the NBA, so he's got his work cut out for him, especially with this franchise.
Speaker 2:Well, let's also keep in mind that just because it's the first coaching gig does not mean that he hasn't been around the NBA, been around coaching he clearly has come up the ranks right.
Speaker 1:He's got some credibility and some respect and that's why he was picked. But he went through probably a much more extensive head coach search than some of these other head coaches, not just in basketball but probably across sports in general, because I think they interviewed I forgot the number, I had it down, but they interviewed quite a number of people trying to really find a good fit and they landed on Jordan Ott. There was another option, but I lost the note but it's okay.
Speaker 2:Well, they're not going to have Kevin Durant for much longer, so it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kevin Durant is apparently going to move on somewhere else. There's rumors all over the place. We're not even going to touch that right now. And then De'Aaron Fox has agreed to three-year $140 million contract extension with the San Antonio Spurs. Congratulations to him. Congratulations to the Spurs, keeping a core piece of their nucleus together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they just traded for him not too long ago.
Speaker 1:He really fits well there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is a great fit and a great idea to keep him around, because this is going to work well with Wim Biama.
Speaker 1:Yep, another great one. And then the Mavs and the Pistons. By the way, this is interesting because the NFL is, you know, all American sports are trying to branch out, have been for quite some while. Actually, the NFL might be the furthest behind in this development, but the NBA is going to Mexico City, the Mavs and the Pistons they're going to play a regular season game in Mexico City. This is big news. This is going to be June 10th. Okay, this coming. This already happened. We'll talk about that later. Sorry, I missed that note there.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about Real quick. I'm sorry. It was the 34th game in Mexico since 1992. More than any country outside of the US and Canada to coincide with a traditional Dia de Muertos or Day of the US and Canada to coincide with a traditional Dia de Muertos or Day of the Dead celebration, dia Muertos, dia Muertos. So this went in hand with one of their largest cultural celebrations as well, so that was probably a great thing to be part of.
Speaker 2:So moving along, and since you brought up coaches, we got to talk about this Thibodeau situation with the Knicks because the Knicks they let Thibodeau go and they started putting feelers out trying to find their next coach. So there's been rumors like they flirted with. You know, speaking with Jason Kidd who's currently with the Mavericks, but the Mavericks are like no. So then they reached out to the Rockets, tried to talk to the Rockets about bringing in Ime Udoka.
Speaker 1:You want me to do this one? Try that. Ime, udoka or Udoka. Do this one, try that. Uh, this, uh, emmy, emmy, uroka or yoka. Maybe the d is silent. Maybe the d is silent it's.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure it's emmy yudoka I think it's, and uh anyway, they got the big old no there too.
Speaker 2:So they moved on to the minnesota timberwolves and asked minnesota timberwolves, can we interview Chris Finch? They got a big old note from them too. So now it begs to ask the question did y'all have a plan? Y'all let Tibbs go and it's like okay, this guy got you to playoffs Four out of the five years he was coaching there, and the last year. This year he gets you to the championship game in the East and then you fire him. Yeah, I think it's a little weird.
Speaker 1:I don't think it's a coincidence that pretty much every other NBA franchise is denying interview requests from the Knicks.
Speaker 2:Not to mention they also got the big no for Quinn Snyder with the Hawks too. Yeah, so it gets better. So not only that, but they got denied by Hurley as well, out of the college ranks. He said don't bother calling, I'm not answering. So, he's like they don't want a part of this show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I I gotta give them some respect because this isn't like the nfl, like everybody, even if everybody knows it's a terrible franchise. You have people waiting, jumping left and right to get into that shitty situation here. People know what it is, they know what it was and they want to avoid it and they want to protect. You know the people that they have in-house as well. Mike, what do you got?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's also too. It shows that like teams don't want to let go of prime coaching talent if they have it already in-house. But it also begs to ask the question if and there's been rumors of this in the past where, you know, the NBA has literally told teams do not upstage the finals so maybe, possibly, they might have somebody in mind, but they're putting all these feelers out to say, hey look, we're looking, yeah, but you know, when you're hiring people, you bring in a bunch of people, and if you already know who you're going to hire before you already brought this bunch of people in, does it?
Speaker 3:really matter, or are you?
Speaker 2:trying to just stack the names to make it look good.
Speaker 1:Well, we've already seen two coaches already appointed in the NBA. Okay, the Suns and obviously the Nuggets at the beginning of the playoffs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but, but. But remember, one of them was an interim coach and the other one nobody really knew about because this is his first gig yeah, and and now you have here you know the Knicks are coachless.
Speaker 1:I I don't think this is a coincidence. I think that a lot of people feel Thibodeau got done a little wrong. Now is Thibodeau a hard coach. He's a hard-nosed coach, okay. Does he abuse his players a little bit? Yeah, he does okay.
Speaker 2:He just asks hard minutes out of his starters.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean maybe that can be adjusted.
Speaker 2:But honestly, look at what he did with the franchise during the time he had it so well there the problem is like you don't want to mess things up too much because this team has been getting a little bit better and a little bit better and they're right on the cusp. There may be add a player and now they need to add a coach, but but they were like add a player and you know somebody else that can probably score and play some defense.
Speaker 2:They might be in a different position because, let's face it with the way the Pacers are playing, which we'll get to that there might be a chance that they got knocked out by the champ.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, but who knows I mean that's possible too, and we'll get to the Pacers here in just a second. But you know, speaking of the Pacers, bro, let's talk about this last game. Okay, the Indy leads 2-1. Now the Thunder is not handling the Pacers the way I thought that they would be handling them. First of all, turnovers, specifically in the third and fourth quarter, are killing OKC. If you looked at the score, well, their star player is not hitting very much in the fourth quarter either last night. But if you look at how the Pacers are playing, these guys are stealing balls left and right. I mean, at one point I think it was the end of the third quarter I saw OKC come down with a rebound Dude right in front of him, stole it from him and then put it up for a layup, got two right there.
Speaker 2:So I think what you're seeing is you're seeing a team that is playing one, unselfish, like nobody on the team. Like Halliburton gets crap because he's not the guy. He's playing like a traditional point guard. He's facilitating the game, he's trying to keep his team in position to win. He's not trying to be the guy that gets a triple-double or a double-double, he's just trying to be the guy that gets his team in position to win. But it's not always him. They are actually having one guy show up and it's not always the same guy. So it's like who do you guard?
Speaker 1:I'm becoming a slightly bigger fan of Halliburton versus SGA in this one because Halliburton fired back right. I forgot what it was in reference to, but he made a tweet he said overrate that. Okay, halliburton, we hear you bro.
Speaker 2:So the other thing that I'm noticing is it seems like, as funny as it sounds or cliche as it sounds, the Pacers are just trying to keep a pace. They're trying to keep a pace throughout the game and they turn it up in the fourth quarter. Their team is outproducing the Thunder in the fourth quarter across the board. They might get outscored in the first portion of the game, but they turn it up in the back half of the game. And that's where you want it as a coach. You want your team to be efficient in the fourth quarter, not the first quarter. You would like both, but if you have to have one, they want the fourth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you always want your hardest playing down the stretch right because you want to close out the game. And OKC was not in the lead for the majority of this game. I mean there was a couple times they jumped into the lead in and out, but the Pacers really were in control of this game to me, stealing balls, playing aggressively, playing fast. Okc was missing shots. Just, I like OKC, but if they want to win this finals they they got to figure out how to come at the pacers from a different angle here speaking of which, since we're talking about game three, the final score was 116 for the pacers and the thunder had 107.
Speaker 2:Now that most people when this game when we got to this game they were talking like it's a foregone conclusion after the Thunder kind of embarrassed them before they headed back here to Indiana to play against the Pacers in their house they kind of you know people were kind of going ah, it's a wrap, it's Thunder. All the way they got it. Pacers said that's funny, Hold my beer Watch this Hold my beer.
Speaker 1:But I'm eager to see how this shakes out. I really really thought the Thunder, excuse me. I really really thought First of all, I'm glad it's a very competitive finals.
Speaker 2:I said I wanted seven. This is how you get to seven. I think we will probably get to seven. They just got to keep trading games.
Speaker 1:Look the moment the Thunder number one stops, the moment they cut back on the turnovers as well as start making some shots, I think that they can pull it out, but until those two things happen, I'm not entirely you know I don't know. I think the Pacers might have this.
Speaker 2:Well, it's certainly possible that they could possibly pull this off, because if that's what we're going to see from the Thunder through this entire series, I don't think they should be made the favorites.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, I don't. It's hard to pick a favorite here.
Speaker 2:I like both of these teams. This is what I like, though this is what I was hoping for in this series. Because look this right, here is what NBA fans supposed. Okay, this is what true NBA fans want to see. They want to see a competitive finals. They don't want to see this starlit you know finals where it's just a four-to-one you know, four-to-one trouncing of another team. Like they want to see the series go the distance and be competitive and interesting yeah, you know people are crying about there's no stars.
Speaker 2:Well, this is how you get stars. You get teams that make it to the finals consistently and perform well and last year the celtics kind of smashed it in the finals uh.
Speaker 1:So, like you know, I like seeing this competitive uh back and forth. I I have, through this season, become a bigger fan of both okc and the pacers, maybe slightly more the pacers because I'm a bit I'm an underdog guy. Okc was kind of the underdog but once they got into the thick of their season they were were kind of the leaders right. The Pacers always turn it on in the playoffs and here they are in the playoff finals.
Speaker 2:You know why that is their coach? Yeah, that's what it is.
Speaker 1:It's like they save the best for last. It's like they save dessert for dessert right.
Speaker 2:What it is is good coaching. What you're seeing is the Pacers coach is getting the best out of his players, because you can see it in the way they play. They're unselfish. They have a team mentality. Completely Nobody's ISOing, nobody's like it's me, I need my shots. It is all a team effort and it's showing on the court.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like it. I'm eager to see how this shakes out, uh, because the next game can be very telling here at this point in the finals bracket. So if the pacers come away three to one, uh, I have a feeling they're gonna lock it down. But if the thunder can keep up, you know they stay neck and neck, so we're gonna get into some football action here. Everybody, uh, real quick. We don't really follow or talk about the NFL too much, but I thought I'd go ahead and mention that the UFL championship matchup is set between the Michigan Panthers and, once again, for the second year in a row, dc Defenders, by the way, who are the defending champs from last season.
Speaker 2:The Defenders are the defending champs. The Defenders are the defending champs.
Speaker 1:The defenders are the defending champs. Yes, that is exactly what I said. I know you all love that.
Speaker 2:Oh Lord.
Speaker 1:So it's interesting for this kind of young league. It's not uncommon in young leagues and in smaller leagues to have really one powerhouse team. Last year it was the Defenders and the Battlehawks and everybody thought the Battlehawks were going to take it. They were rather okay, but you know, we'll see what happens. I don't want to spend too much time on them because we just don't have much on them. But, ladies and gentlemen, and everybody in between, let's get to our flagship.
Speaker 2:I guess our second, because the NBA is kind of a flagship. I wouldn't say flagship, but it's the sport we love talking about. It's the sport we love talking about the most.
Speaker 1:It's the sport that we're most knowledgeable on. It's the sport that we probably spend the most time on, even in the offseason of it. Don't get me wrong MLB and the NBA have become huge flagship sports on our show as well, but we just don't talk about them the way we talk about the NFL.
Speaker 2:NFL is king.
Speaker 1:The NFL is potentially my future wife. What Well, yeah, I'm single now. So, good lord. What well, yeah, I'm single now. So, yeah, we're in the pre-dating phase right now minicamp otas. But anyway, uh, starting out at the top of our headlines here, uh, deon sanders dealing with a health issue. Okay, uh, hasn't divulged what it is. He's been at his home, you know, actually, since the end of the draft. He will break silence on it soon, but he says he's okay. He says he's going to move on past it, but you know we're all eagerly awaiting news on that. And also, I got to give this some credit to Shadur Sanders here. Okay, because, mary Kay, you know one of the shows he went on recently with Mary Kay. She tried to slide in a question to him about Prime's health and Shadur did not even blink. Okay, he was all business. He talked about being QB for the Cleveland Browns, just did not let the media fish him for information.
Speaker 2:Here's the thing I understand. These people are celebrities. They're in the news, they're in the limelight. You see them in doing interviews and whatnot. Sometimes some things just need to be private and if somebody is going through medical stuff, just give them the grace to deal with their medical stuff and give them the ability to talk about it on their own terms. Trying to fish that out of his son was a low-class move in my opinion. You shouldn't be going and putting one putting his son in a bad spot and two trying to dig into something that's, frankly, none of your business.
Speaker 1:Well, I agree with you to an extent, mike, but this is the media we're talking about and you know the media, the media is going to fish Now. I give her credit. She only asked one question and he shut it down and it was done.
Speaker 2:But most of the time, before these interviews even happen, most people give the I'm not talking about this or I do not want to, don't bring this up you know kind of stuff, and I assure you, I assure you, shador, having the father he does, he probably went in there and said I will not talk about this, don't bring it up.
Speaker 1:And they still brought it up. I think it's likely Now. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't, but I still give him credit for not breaking silence and letting his dad and, by the way, Deion Sanders, our thoughts and prayers are with you. We hope you're okay and we hope you recover soon, Because you know, frankly, I think you're a good coach. Look what you've done with Colorado State right.
Speaker 2:And you've got what two, three young men you've raised in this world, and one of them is in the NFL. No two of them.
Speaker 1:Two of them are in the.
Speaker 2:NFL. Don't forget Shiloh.
Speaker 1:That's right, shiloh was an undrafted free agent. That's right, and he's with Tampa. With Tampa, I give credit where credit's due, man, and it seems like Shadur is really starting to grow a little bit here and stepping back into his realm.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, and he just needs to at this point. Like he's already said, he's just going to play ball. He's not worried about reps, he's worried about performing on the field for his teammates and he's honestly sounding like an NFL quarterback should sound, yeah.
Speaker 1:I give him a lot of credit for that AO. Going on to the next thing here, We'll give that a break. You got one more thing. What you got, Mike.
Speaker 2:No, I want to introduce this one oh oh, oh, Look, look look, we knew Okay, we all knew this day was coming. We all knew this day was coming. That's what she said, because when a player has a huge impact on a team, they usually get a statue, and in this case, there's never somebody who's more deserving of a statue than Tom Brady.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I give that credit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, tom Brady, for all he did for the Patriots. They're finally going to build a statue and they're going to unveil it August 8th with their preseason game. Do you know who they're playing in that preseason game? Who are they playing? Washington Word? Okay, that's awesome, but here's the thing, though. I I wonder when they're going to unveil this statue, is he going to have a great moment seeing this statue, or is he going to have a dwayne wade moment with this statue where he goes? What is that?
Speaker 1:you know, honestly, I almost said something similar. I was like, look, I hope it's better than the Sean Taylor tribute at Washington did.
Speaker 2:Oh, or God, I forget the soccer player. There was a soccer player. They made a statue for him and I swear to you it looked like the guy from the Goonies Sloth Sloth.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's funny. It was like and the handguns, that's what it looked like. And it was like and I ain't got it, that's what it looked like and it's like oh my God, what did you do? And then, like you mentioned before, the Dwayne Wade statue. That was another, that was another fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dwayne.
Speaker 1:Wade's like I love it, it looks just like me.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Looks like you running out of. But congratulations to him getting a statue being forever immortalized there on August 8th, by the way, close to my birthday, one day after my mother's birthday, now Cincy. They got some issues going on here. Trey Hendrickson's holding out wants a new contract, but their rookie, who they just drafted one of the few, has left minicamp over contract dispute His very first contract in the NFL.
Speaker 2:He's in the middle of a dispute, so honestly, this is very telling of how the Bengals are.
Speaker 1:By the way, mike, I'm going to cut you off. This is Shamar Stewart, who we're talking about.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, he's a promising young pass rusher and which they need because their defense was god-awful last year. And now you're sitting here having a debate with this player over his contract when all, look, they're trying to take away guarantees right, guarantees for, like, if a player gets hurt, guarantees for you know the contract. And literally all he wants is what what the other rookies that have signed in his position meaning slot 17, where he was drafted that he just wants what they got. He wants a fair contract. He wants the same thing that everybody else has gotten. It's not like he's saying, hey, I want fully guaranteed and I want an extra 10 mil on top. No, he's like literally, look, I just want what I want, based on what my peers have gotten. And his veteran teammates have come over and said keep doing what you're doing, man.
Speaker 1:You're in the right, keep doing it. And I agree and I feel like the Bengals are running a little thin here financially because typically guarantees wouldn't be an issue for most franchises, especially on a rookie contract. But you know they've got the situation with Trey Hendrickson which might be related. They paid Burrow, they paid T Higgins. Chase is under contract. Yeah, they paid the offense yeah, they paid the offense, so they've paid out a lot of money.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, they cut their leader on defense. Pratt the linebacker, yeah.
Speaker 1:Now he's over with the Raiders. Oh, he's going to have a great season.
Speaker 2:So you're sitting here Playing next to Max Crosby. Your worst thing about your team is your defense, your cutting players that were actually kind of good. I mean, he was one of the leaders of tackles on their team Cap casualty. But you can't have what cap casualty. They just let him go. It's just like what.
Speaker 1:But you can't just have rookie cap casualties Like this is your future man. Like well, it's just a rookie contract. He's one of the. He's got to be. Well, he's probably not one of the lowest paid people on the team.
Speaker 2:Most of those contracts are laid out already. You already know, based on where somebody's drafted what the contract's supposed to be, and there may be little caveats here and there, but it's nothing big. But like, just get it done. Like, stop being idiots.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's kind of a peculiar situation over there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just typical Bengals stuff and Bengals fans are like God, this again. Could you all just stop it.
Speaker 1:They're like I don't know if I should. They're like I don't know what to do right now. They're kind of happy, but they're kind of like this is going downhill fast. The Bengals it just sounds like they don't want to be a bad team, but they're not willing to pay for it or they don't have the money.
Speaker 2:Well, they are the cheapest team in the NFL.
Speaker 1:I mean the Browns have five quarterbacks on roster. Come on now, bro. Even they're paying people out.
Speaker 2:They're the ones paying the most out of people, because they're getting fully guaranteed contracts to someone who isn't even getting first-team reds.
Speaker 1:That's right Even on the field. Look bro, we'll pay you. We just need you to buy in.
Speaker 2:Something about those teams in Ohio. I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1:We Something about those teams in Ohio. I don't know what it is. We'll pay you, bro, just don't leave.
Speaker 2:okay, we really don't want our fans to hate us anymore. So, speaking about players on the move or leaving, so JK Dobbins has signed with the Broncos, which I feel is a pretty good fit for them.
Speaker 1:I really do, playing behind Javante Williams. Didn't Williams leave the Broncos? Yeah, he's with Dallas.
Speaker 2:He's with Dallas now. He would be playing alongside the other two back tandem that they were rotating in and out of last year. But this is the time of year where those signings kind of happen and most people don't really hear them or don't really pay attention to them, and recently I've seen one that came across that I think deserves a little more light than it got. So the Buffalo Bills, who have had some issues on defense over the years or recent years, they signed Shaq Thompson to a one-year deal. Now Shaq Thompson, very first, two games, like very first few games. Actually I think it was the first game of the year. Last year he tore his Achilles, missed the entire season. Now he's back and he's a free agent and he's with the Buffalo Bills and he's going to be lining up there with Matt Milano. That's a pretty good tight end combo there.
Speaker 1:You know I like this signing because I'm a big fan of Shaq Thompson.
Speaker 2:He's a veteran guy that can possibly help other players along and teach some of the younger players and get guys to be better at what they do, based on just observing him.
Speaker 1:He might not be a tier one player, but Shaq Thompson's a very smart player. He brings a lot to the table. I think this was a very good signing for them. This is going to help them a lot.
Speaker 2:Well, speaking of another signing that may produce some good play on the field. Nick Chubb has a new team.
Speaker 1:He is no longer with the.
Speaker 2:Browns. He is with the Texans, so now Nick Chubb will be with the Texans. Now they have a legitimate running back to help with their issues. Let's face it Stroud had a really great rookie year and his sophomore year sucked because they really could not get the ball going as far as running and their offensive line was playing what?
Speaker 1:did they have Devin Singletary last year on offense? I believe so.
Speaker 2:They were rotating back.
Speaker 1:They were rotating. They didn't have anybody.
Speaker 2:Chubb was pretty solid. They had Pierce and they had I believe Singletary was one of them. Singletary was their speed back. Either way, they weren't getting the production they needed and if Chubb can stay healthy and be what he was- Chubb's a ground-and-pound guy and he's got some speed.
Speaker 1:Hopefully he still has that speed at this day and age, but honestly I like the signing too. I think Chubb's going to bring something to their offense, and clearly they do too. What do you make about Jair Alexander? There's a lot of drama around this release, so I think it's clear, cut and dry.
Speaker 2:If you really pay attention to the situation. He has missed so many games these last few years where he's not playing hardly any of his games. He's missing like seven to ten games the past two years. And you know you're going to sit here and say you want 17 mil. Uh, sorry, no, you're a good player when you're on the field, but when you're not on the field you know best available. Best ability is availability and he's not available, yeah, so they're going to let him walk. He can go find. Because here's the other thing you got to understand he is a named player. They could have traded him. They could have got picks. They tried, yeah, so they're going to let him walk. He can go find. Because here's the other thing you've got to understand he is a named player. They could have traded him. They could have got picks. They tried to. They tried to trade him during the draft to get picks, yeah, and it didn't happen. Why?
Speaker 1:Because he wants a contract that nobody wants to give him and, honestly, I heard rumors of even teams like Washington maybe being the mix for a trade for him. So I don't know where those talks broke down, but clearly Green Bay just felt it better just to let him go. Yeah, and he even released a tweet saying you know, I'm not the problem and some other things, but you know, if you get a second shot, prove it, bro.
Speaker 2:Yeah, stay on the field.
Speaker 1:I'm not totally. Yeah, stay on the field. I'm not totally. Yeah, stay on the field. I'm not totally, you know. Oh, yeah, that's right, they thought he was a liability, you know. So you know, maybe you get a second shot. You do better on round two. You know and this is some not-so-great news here we don't generally report on negative stuff, mike, but Texan safety Jimmy Ward is arrested on felony family charges Family assault charges.
Speaker 1:Family assault charges. Family assault charges, so domestic assault, basically this is kind of a big deal and it literally happened today this morning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it happened this morning At 5.38 am.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he's 5.38 am, uh, local time to magnolia, texas's local time. Uh, he's rested. He's still sitting in jail. He doesn't have a bond. He does not have a. That is first of all, by the way. That is uh, for those of you not familiar with the legal system, it's that's significant to not have a bond, because something is really awry. I don't want to go too deep onto it and I don't know all the details myself, but I know this is a very sad situation to deal with. So hopefully, these things I honestly hope it turns out to be BS, like so many other, you know, xavier Worthy.
Speaker 2:Well, you hope that calmer heads prevail and then stuff gets figured out, and it's not. It turns out to be. I don't want to say nothing, but it turns out to be not as bad as it first was seen. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, look, if you don't have a bond, you're already behind the curb because they're just saying, no, you're not getting out.
Speaker 2:But we're going to move on past this and we'll try not to dwell on too much From a bad situation to a good situation and we're kind of blending two things here. So recently there was an MLB game at the Baltimore Orioles Stadium, and wouldn't you know it? Sitting behind home plate you have the great Cal Ripken, and you know who's sitting next to him John Harbaugh, John.
Speaker 1:Harbaugh so.
Speaker 2:John Harbaugh and Cal Ripken are sitting next to each other when a foul ball gets hit and comes right near them, like right. I mean it could have split right in between them, but both of them kind of ducked out of the way and Jim Harbaugh had a little fun with his brother and said you're supposed to keep your eyes on and catch it. Yeah, yeah yeah, and you know Cal Ripken being a former baseball player, he's catching a little strays too, like come on, Cal, you could have caught that Easy fly ball.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that must have been a great experience to be sitting there with that.
Speaker 2:But it's a pretty fun experience because you actually see the catcher for the Orioles come over and kind of chop it up with the two of them giving them crap about not catching the ball.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, speaking of the Harbaughs Chargers, head coach Jim Harbaugh has implemented I really like what we're about to read off here. Jim Harbaugh has implemented jersey patches to recognize both team and personal accolades such as all pros, Pro Bowls, team records and playoff appearance, such things like that. He's kind of bringing a little bit of a college game to the pros. They don't do this in the pros. You know. This is his quote right here. I just like a resume. It kind of reminds me of like a general has different patches any playoff appearance captain, it's on there. If they have any nfl record or charger record or the important awards, man of the year all pro, uh, block of granite award. Harbaugh said someday they'll be able to put that jersey up in a frame, put it on a wall, say something really good about themselves, uh, and what they accomplished as a pro football player, uh. He likes that, I like that. I think this honestly, mike, I think this is an incredible idea and I don't know why it hasn't been thought of sooner.
Speaker 2:You know, probably because there was no monetary value in doing it well for the nfl.
Speaker 1:Yeah, everything's about money up there. But I really like that. It's a good thing, Stepping up. Here we have big news out of the administration of the NFL. Brian Rolap, highly respected longtime NFL executive, who many considered as the potential successor to Roger Goodell. As the potential successor to Roger Goodell, he has left the post as the league's EVP to become the PGA commissioner. What a jump. Let me tell you what, bro. This was a guy who was legitimately pegged all the way around right as a replacement for Roger Goodell.
Speaker 2:Well, Roger Goodell is going to still be around because, remember, he didn't just sign an extension, so maybe he just was like I'm not going to wait anymore and I'm getting this better offer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now stepping into his shoes as EVP Hans Schroeder. And then Hans Schroeder is also considered a potential maybe respected replacement for Goodell, as well as David Jurinka, who's SVP of NFL Media, mike North, who's a VP of Broadcast Planning. So those are the top three names in the mix right now to replace Goodell when and if that ever happens. But you know, good luck to him with the PGA Huge move, probably also a big payday and clearly a loss for the NFL. Now the Dolphins could explore a trade for Browns rookie QB Dylan Gabriel after the preseason. Right? This is via Kurt Binker. This is interesting, right?
Speaker 1:Or just wait for him to be cut, or just wait for him to be cut, since they have five of them. But I have a feeling, dylan Gabriel, now Dylan Gabriel, the Dolphins were going to draft Gabriel, shut up, gabriel, whatever.
Speaker 2:No, because, look, his name is synonymous with a performer from the 80s, Dylan Gabriel, who is a singer. Don't give me that look, you're right. Just look it up, you'll see, I did look it up and you're right.
Speaker 1:Look, just go look up Dylan Gabriel I saw it in the same article I'm about to read right now.
Speaker 2:I think Well don't read the whole article.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to, I just pull the excerpts, the notes. You know that's how we do things. Everybody knows we're not journalists. We just pull from what we see. We talk about things we like.
Speaker 1:Anyway, dylan gabriel uh, gabriel gabriel, god damn it, I'm so sorry. Anyway, like the angel, this, this young gentleman, right, the dolphins actually had their eye on him. I forget which round, it was later, later in the draft, but uh, they were gonna pick him. By the way, when the browns picked him, the dolphins traded out of their pick in that round. So clearly, uh, dylan gabriel was their pick, uh to sit behind to and maybe even replace to uh eventually in the future. So I'm eager to see if that uh comes to fruition or not. Um, you know, and we'll see how the browns qb room shakes out during preseason now, uh, this thing coming up, this, this is a great feel-good piece. Right here, mike jeffrey lurie, owner of the of the philadelphia eagles. Right, we talked about at the super bowl how the e Eagles had implemented a quiet room or safe space for not just autism but also people who are susceptible to loud noise and sensitivity.
Speaker 1:Well, just people who have issues with being in crowds and loud noises In crowds and loud noises Just kind of help them, calm down and get them.
Speaker 1:Overstimulation specifically for autism and they kind of test ran this through the season. Then they brought it to the NFL. A couple other teams picked up. He's now donating $50 million to open the Lurie Autism Institution in partnership with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine. Lurie announced the launch of Lurie Autism Institute this morning actually literally this morning, june 12th and it is the first of its kind institute. That's located in Philadelphia and it aims to be a global hub for autism research and care. So I think this is great news and a great step forward for autism research and autism support, especially for anybody who's on the spectrum. Okay, this is great, right, like I like that they're doing this and we would talk about it a little bit more.
Speaker 1:But we have some things to get to. First of all, once again, this coming weekend, happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. Bless you. I hope you have a good time and, by the way, mike, we're getting ready to have a first here on the show. We have our first show guest. Thank you for joining us. It is the moment we've all been waiting for. We are sitting here with Mr Caden O'Brien James and Mr Christian Wright representing Solace Outfitters. These two young athletes are doing some great things here recently. Guys, go ahead, tell us a little bit about your brand. Tell us a little bit about your brand and tell us a little bit about yourselves.
Speaker 4:Okay, so I'm Caden O'Brien James. I go to school at Christ Church School in Gloucester. I play basketball there. It's like my main thing, what I do.
Speaker 3:I'm Christian Wright. I attend a prep school, kind of like a boarding school out in Charlotte, north Carolina, named Bull City Prep. I am the co-owner of Saw's Outfitters Caden here. He's the owner of it. We give him the owner status because he's the reason we are kind of here with the brand. He came up with the name. He came up with the name. He came up with why we were making the clothing that we wanted to make and honestly we give him most of the credit because he's just brought most of the inspiration behind Sauce Outfitters.
Speaker 2:So what kind of things does your brand make? Speak to that a little. What do you guys do with your brand?
Speaker 4:So right now we have shirts, shorts and sweatshirts. We are actually currently sold out of the two sweatshirts that we made and we are trying to sell out of our shorts and shirts, but all of our clothes have a meaning on it. So our sweatshirts have a message, like our all we need is love. One, the pink one. It says love is the answer on the back, and then our black sweatshirt has another meeting where we're just trying to spread a message in, like all of them, and then same with our shorts, like we have peace and love on it. And then the shirts. We have a whole bunch of different messages too. It's just all. We really started this brand to really try and spread a good message and not just be like another clothing brand out there who is just two teenagers trying to just make money. We are doing it more to spread a message than anything.
Speaker 1:I think that's incredible, honestly and to me that's a big part of how you grow a brand is if you have a meaning and something you stand for, as well as being being able to, you know, benefit the community that you're also part of. That's really where businesses draw a lot of support. It's not necessarily always what they do or what they offer. A lot of times it's for you know the support they gain for the things they're trying to say and do behind it. So I think that's really incredible, you guys, what y'all are doing. Tell us a little bit about playing basketball. How did you guys decide that basketball was your sport? I'm sure you like other sports, but how did you decide you want to pursue basketball?
Speaker 3:So I guess this will start with me Basketball has. Sports when I was younger were never really in the picture for me. If anything, they were never really in the picture. I was kind of just going about my life. I was a gamer. I played a lot of games when I was younger and I still do, to be fair. Yeah.
Speaker 3:But I mean, elementary school hit and it was like fourth or fifth grade and we got to the big playground. We had two separate playgrounds. We had the kiddie playground with the swings and slides and whatever. We had the big playground with the basketball court. All the fifth graders were out there playing basketball and I felt left out. So I eventually hopped in the game and it's been up there ever since that moment. It's been up there, played elementary ball there. Of course we had our COVID years. So I missed unfortunately missed a few years of playing basketball as we all did, I'm sure. Yeah, middle school for my middle school at that time, uh, but I played eighth grade basketball. That was like the year that really solidified the fact that I loved basketball.
Speaker 4:But I was at every middle school game, everyone screaming in every video that's what.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. Katie and I definitely bond bond over bat. Katie and I are most likely friends through the sport of basketball, through covid. Uh, we lived in the same neighborhood. We lived what literally 30 seconds away from each other and there was this neighborhood hoop. In our basketball, all the kids in neighborhood would gather around there every day. Uh, during quarantine we'd hoop all day. It was so much fun it was. That's that's really what like basketball means to me. It's like it's a. It's a great sport and it can open so many doors for you as well. But it's like being bringing your friends and family together and just seeing the smiles on everybody's faces when you can bond over something as simple as just you know passing a ball around and shooting it into a hoop.
Speaker 1:That's just that's what makes basketball so amazing to me, if anything we think that's awesome, uh, and you said you're telling us earlier solace outfitters. Uh, that relates to your sport as well, right, uh? Can you tell us a little more about that, how those two things go together for you guys?
Speaker 4:so our first actual shirt that we ever made. This had to have been back in, like april of last year like no one no one knew we were doing this.
Speaker 4:It was just kind of a test. It's actually how we have the world with solace outfit is on it. It's actually a basketball and so our first really idea for the brand was just all sports related. Like we really just wanted to do it involve it around basketball, because we both, when we go and play games, we always have a compression shirt on. Hey, we were thinking of having like our own logo on the compression shirts I think that's awesome, that's good marketing too by the way.
Speaker 1:That's a good idea, that was the, the main idea.
Speaker 3:So, like you said, we started in april 2024. Um, we were two athletes just trying to get it and we thought the compression shirt idea, having the logo there, people would see that and buy, eat it up. And, uh, when we first did it, like it didn't work out the way we wanted to. We were dealing with some like some internal conflicts, so we didn't get the chance to really take it to the next level then. But it gave us time to really reflect, think back on it and the idea and what we really wanted to do. We thought why limit it just to, you know, athletics and sports when, um, we could just bring it all together as one.
Speaker 3:Because I saw the outfitters uh, it means a person, place, object, action, item, anything that brings you some sort of peace or consolation in a time of distress, sadness or anger or anything like that. And so, as I'm speaking, that basketball was our solace, like we could be in any sort of mood, anger, we could be angry, sad, anything. We just pick up a ball, go to a basketball court and we release all that right there. That's why, that's why our original, our original name was solace outfitters, because, you know, bringing a sort of that. That's why basketball, why our original name was Solace Outfitters, because, you know, bringing a sort of. That's why basketball was our original logo, as in that's our solace in it. It brings us peace.
Speaker 1:I like that.
Speaker 2:That's very deep guys, as far as like players, like some of the adversity that you've had to overcome as players, because I mean, obviously you're building this brand up through your athletics and through your, your message, because it's it is a message that is worth being out there. And you know, as athletes you definitely have highs and lows. Could you speak to a little to that?
Speaker 4:so my like basketball story is a lot different than most people would realize. Ever since I was a kid I've always walked on my toes never knew why and back when I first started playing basketball, I actually started playing because of christian like. When me and him first started to get close, we would always go out and play and that just really made me have the drive to do it. So when he was in eighth grade I was a freshman I tried out for my team. I didn't make it and, as some of you guys know, his dad owns the gym. So every day after that day of tryouts I got cut.
Speaker 4:I went to that gym from 9 to 11 and worked out every day until next year. So I gave the coach no opportunity, no other option but to have me on the team. And then during that time I found out that the reason why I walked on my feet was because I have a disability in my feet called Cavar's foot. It means all the bones in my feet are high arched. So that kind of limits me and some coaches don't see me as good of a player as other people just because I have that. But I do all the little things because I know that can hold me back in some type of way. So ever since I made the team that year, I've just always knew I had to work harder than everyone and just kept on working at it no matter what. So then I ended up. That was when I was at York and I ended up transferring to Christchurch for a new coach, and now I'm just waiting to see what opportunities will come next and like what new doors will open.
Speaker 1:And that's an incredible amount of drive. By the way, it's nice to hear about that because you know you should always be trying to earn your spot Like, even when you're in the spot. You should always be trying to earn your spot Like, even when you're in the spot. You should always be trying to improve, and that means not only are you trying to do the little technical things better, but you also have knowledge of the game more deep than the people you're competing against, and that really pushes you forward. Mike, what do you got for us bud?
Speaker 2:You mentioned a gym. What gym was that that you went to?
Speaker 3:body by body by d baby.
Speaker 1:You know it, you took the words right out of my mouth. I was trying to figure out where we're gonna slide it in, so yep, yep, so we heard about your adversity.
Speaker 2:Can you speak to your adversity through sports?
Speaker 3:yeah, so like, uh, as an athlete, I'm sure, as any athletes tuning in as fellow athletes right here in front of us uh, we're talking about earlier child tribulations are a common thing in the sport. So throughout it with me, um, I feel like most of my struggles have been like recently, like very recently, as in moving to the prep field. Prep basketball is extremely different than just normal varsity high school basketball. Prep basketball you travel, playing all these high end teams. It's like a business. It's really more business focused than any other than normal varsity sports in any normal public private school.
Speaker 3:So this past year of basketball for me has been struggling because I moved from the school I went to for two years, demi Baptist Christian School in Newport News, virginia. That was the school I was at for two years. I was thriving there, I did, I was doing great, but it wasn't the level I needed to be at to for the dreams and goals that I had. I knew I had to go to a better and bigger school. So I took the chance, I bought into myself and I decided to move away from my family and friends here and I moved to Greensboro, north Carolina, originally to another prep school out there in North Carolina, that situation kind of blew up. It was a first year being a prep school and a boarding school, so it wasn't ran properly or coached properly as the way we needed it to be, and that kind of messed up with me and my confidence mentally. It was like we were getting killed by a bunch of these teams. We were. It was and, as I mean, losing is going to be normal it's a normal thing in the sport, of course but it was like it was bad conflict within the team. Everybody was fighting. It was bad conflict within the team. Everybody was fighting. It was just a bad, toxic place to be at. As far as what I needed to be. I'm young still, I'm conforming to everything around me. I didn't want to be in a situation like that.
Speaker 3:So I took my talent somewhere else and I went to Bull City Prep in Charlotte, north Carolina. That's where I'm at now. That's where I've been homed at for the past since January after Christmas break, since January after Christmas break, and I walked into a sort of already set up team per se. So I didn't. It's been a struggle for me finding my spot and my position on the team and because I know what I can do, I know my skillset, I know my talents and I had to figure out and learn that that's not what I'm going to do here. That's not what I'm coming here to do. Like I said, they already had their situation set up. I had very limited minutes, which was new to me. I've always been a starter on every team I've been on.
Speaker 3:So coming to this organization with limited minutes, you know, struggling to find my spot and what I know I can do best, that's really what like it.
Speaker 3:It put me in a really deep, dark space for a little bit of time because it was like I didn't know what I could do, like I was performing at practice too, like I was performing well at practice, and it just felt like I was not being seen at all and I felt like I was just being kicked back and kicked back and it was just a constant uphill battle and I eventually got over it.
Speaker 3:Of course, this AAU season has brought a lot of new light to me and it's brought consolation in knowing that I have to go through this type of this to get to my ultimate goal. Nothing's going to be, nothing's just going to be given to me, so learning that I have to fight through that and work for my position, which another part of it was everything's kind of been given to me as far as basketball-wise. So knowing I had to work for my position was new to me. So it was great realizing that, coming here and having to fight and really grind for that position, that really gave me more grit and more attitude and my, my story, my style of play, which, at the end of the day, I really do appreciate.
Speaker 4:Uh go ahead. That also his story and both of our stories kind of tie into like how we started the brand, because we actually officially started in January and I'd actually just broken my arm in December. So I wasn't doing it, doing anything. I was out for basketball and with some of the conflicts that we kind of had beforehand, I kind of just started it alone. So I just texted him. He had the designs on his computer. I was like, look, I just got this money for Christmas, I don't care, I'm just going to go for it. I'm like, send me the designs. I want to go get it made and just see how it goes from there. And I decided to do that. And it worked out.
Speaker 4:We actually sold out of our first drop and at the very end of that, right before we sold out, I drove, like almost two hours away, to go to one of his games. They gave him his question. I was like, look, I know you've been doing all this stuff behind the scenes, but I really want you to be able to join this with me. And so since then there was nothing that like our parents or anyone could really say then, because we had already made profit. I'd already made profit, like on my own or and then. But that was something that I didn't want to take full credit for, because I knew, even if people didn't know it, I knew that he was doing stuff beyond the scenes and I wanted him to be a part of it too um, I think that's awesome, and you know, again, getting back to success sometimes success is having the ability to get past bruises and bumps and struggles, and you guys seem to be doing that very well.
Speaker 1:And the other thing I want to say real quick, getting back to Christian's story as well you both have an incredible amount of drive. I mean, christian, how old were you when you just left home to go play basketball for a school in North Carolina Just went? You know how many people much less younger folks I said what I said younger folks are scared to leave, they're scared to step out of their comfort zone, they're scared to push the envelope of what they truly can unlock for themselves. I love that you guys are doing it with the brand and I love that you're doing it with your basketball careers. So I just wanted to give you kudos, guys, for that. Don't ever lose that drive, because that's going to get you guys places. Okay, what have we got up here, mike? You?
Speaker 2:got something. So I was just wondering you mentioned that you had broken your arm. Was that playing on on the court? And if it happened on court, could you kind of explain?
Speaker 4:what happened? No, it was not playing on the court. I can explain anyway. So I'm I'm the type of person I care a lot more for other people than myself and I was out with some friends. I was supposed to be there honestly, I learned from it but I had, uh, been out with them. I was on a side by side.
Speaker 4:If you don't know what that is, it's like a golf cart. The person driving had flipped it, but there was like on its side, like I'm sitting on the right, the person driving flipped it on the side, but there was a girl next to me. So before we hit the ground, I tried to like wrap around her to protect her, to make sure that she was okay. Then, with that, like everyone's weight hit uh, everyone's weight landing on my arm, it like snapped it. So once I got out of the golf cart, like my wrist was flopping back and forth. So that's how I knew I did something wrong. But I had made a mistake in the past and I lied to my mom about it. This time, like, I was like okay, I need to tell my mom she was the first person I called and I made sure I told her that and like even that that also ties into the brand, like if you want to explain this stuff yeah.
Speaker 3:So I mean, like you said earlier, we're two young kids. You know, try, like I always say, been my saying recently life's a huge trial and error, so you're going to make wrong, you're going to make wrongs, you're going to do something bad and you're going to learn from it. You're going to face the consequences and learn from it. Yep, in April, when we first started our brand, the eternal conflicts, I guess, was Caden had gone into some trouble, I think that was like a year before it was a while ago.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, if you don't want to delve deep into it, that's okay.
Speaker 3:We're not going to say anything crazy.
Speaker 1:I just want to put that out there. Like you know, this is all a real deep process.
Speaker 4:And I learned from it. I'm more mad at myself than anything with this situation because it was my fault, but I used some matters to learn from it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that. And the reason we didn't continue in April as we are doing now is, like you said, he got into some trouble a few months before and it kind of altered our friendship per se, because my parents had a different view of Caden and himself, because, I mean, was what he did? It was irresponsible at the end of the day. Yeah, he 100% understands that and he's learning. He's learned from it and so we just we were getting some backlash from starting the brand and how it was not a smart idea, as you know it was. It was like irresponsible ownership and it was like how do you know he's not just gonna like leave you to do it by yourself and whatever and whatnot. It was just a lot at one time.
Speaker 3:And it I left to go to Charlotte, I was by myself and I was like I, I mean, I saw my, I had my parents still with me, but I was by myself, I was kind of independent in my own way. So when he sent me the text, well, I remember, I remember the night I'm sitting on my computer I got a text saying send me the stuff from, send me the old logos and icons we made from Solace, that long, that forever, long ago and that's when it opened up. We got on that call that night. We started making up designs for our clothing new logos, new hoodie designs because that's what it was cool during the time we were needed. We needed some, but it was cold during the time we needed some.
Speaker 3:Like he said, I was behind the scenes a little bit at first. I didn't really show that I was working on it. Then one day we just were sending it, we just full send. Nobody will be able to say anything once we make it to where we really desire and aspire to be. That's another part about it.
Speaker 4:That's like a part of our drive too, knowing that we can prove to other people wrong and that they can't say anything then, once we make it to where we want to be, and you know what?
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter how nice and how successful you are or how much you do, there will always be 10 times more haters than there are lovers out there when it comes to that. So you just keep doing what you're doing. And the biggest thing again like you learn, you grow and then you move forward.
Speaker 2:Well, it's the point of making mistakes.
Speaker 1:You make a mistake.
Speaker 2:you learn from it, so you don't continue to make mistakes. And it sounds like you guys are doing that it doesn't sound like you're just continually doing the same mistakes over and over again.
Speaker 1:Well, you learn how to also avoid the same mistakes Not just make them, but you also learn how to avoid those scenarios as well. So that's what's important to take away from it and again, I think you guys are doing a great job with all of it.
Speaker 2:I had a question in mind, but I'm just recalibrating at the moment. I had a question in mind, but I'm just recalibrating at the moment. I have a question, uh, in this world of NIL and how sports has kind of been pretty much consumed by it, Um, it kind of do you guys feel pressure in making NIL a focus and does it take away from sports at all or does it hinder you from being able to be a multi-sport athlete?
Speaker 3:I would say, and I mean like NIL has, I've single-handedly seen it make some of the best coaches in the game leave the game. So I feel like, as far as NIL goes, it's it's make or break. Um, for me personally, nil deals are not of most importance to me as of now. I just love the sport. Loving the sport and playing the sport is always will be the grounded base of it. Making money for playing the sport, I mean, hey, I'm not opposed to it at all, for sure. But I wouldn't say, if a school doesn't offer me NIL deals, I'm not going to that school. So you want it to just come naturally? Yeah, just naturally.
Speaker 3:And I believe that I have made a name for myself enough and my character kind of speaks for myself. I feel like I hold myself to a pretty high standard. Ken and I both hold ourselves to a pretty high standard, and if NIL deals do come, it's going to be due to not only our athletic feats but because we are also just genuinely good people as well. As far as for other people, and as NIL and these big corporations signing people go, I believe it is great. It makes a lot more people want to work a lot harder, but when they get there they kind of. I just think it's morphing our game in a way that in a direction where it's beneficial to some, depending on how you look at it, but for a lot of people I feel like it's hurting our game and breaking it apart per se and then for me, with nil deals, it's like, I know, like someone who just got 500500,000 in a car to go to a school and I'm like that's crazy.
Speaker 4:But for me I'm not really so I'm very fortunate my mom's a college professor. She teaches sociology and at one of her schools that she teaches that she has like a tuition exchange program. So there's like 100 something schools on that list where I can go to college with basically only paying room and board. So, like NIL is it something I'm really worried about per se for me. But also I think it'd be cool to like be able to try and give someone some sort of like NIL deal with our own brand. I would see using NIL deal in that way more than anything.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you see it more of a collaborative way to kind of help build the brand a little more and help benefit not just one or other.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it's a sudden influx of resources, so I think that's very smart investing it some way somehow, especially in yourselves. I think that'd be very smart.
Speaker 2:There's people out there, I'm sure, that just go and blow it all exactly it's smart to set up yourselves and set up your future before anything else, so I agree with that so do you guys feel this day because, like when we grew up, you're playing different sports based on the time of year you might play football in the fall, you might play baseball in the spring and basketball in the winter, because I mean, it's indoor sport. So, uh, do you guys feel like that doesn't really exist much anymore, because it seems like sports in general are kind of becoming an all-year thing with with travel leagues, aau, with, uh, just like you were saying, with prep schools traveling more and more and being more competitive. Is there? Is there a feeling like the multi-sport athlete is kind of going to the wayside to focus on one sport and make a name, or how do you guys feel about that?
Speaker 4:so I actually know a guy who we played against our his eighth grade year, my ninth grade year, who just committed to Oregon for football and basketball. I find that crazy. You're going to a big d1 playing both sports and for me at my school, christchurch actually requires you to play a sport pretty much each season. So I still see a lot of multi-sport athletes and I feel like, but say, if you have one sport and that's the sport that you, that you're really good at, you'll you'll focus on that sport more, but if you're an athlete, you can still play multiple sports at the same time as far as would I go.
Speaker 3:Who's that that tight? That one tight end.
Speaker 4:He's like five star tight end yeah, that's, that's what you're talking about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, five star tight end yeah, five, five star, tight end and like top 10 in his class and at his position for basketball, which I saw him play actually the other day in rock hill, south carolina uh, absolute, animal, absolute animal?
Speaker 2:what's his name?
Speaker 4:go ahead, give him a plug it's kendre harrison, I think he goes to reedsville in one of the carolinas, but he's like his. He just got a video on a slam his high school record is like 86 and one for both sports. It's like insane. And he still has another year left.
Speaker 3:He plays on a cp3s au team. That's how I got the chance to watch him play. Uh, yeah, chris is a team. I said absolute animal in the court. It's crazy. It was great watching him, um for sure.
Speaker 3:But the multi-sport athlete, I mean as far as I've never played. I've only played basketball my whole life. I played tried out baseball one year because my friends were playing it, but I've never personally played multi-sport to really focus on two sports at one time. But, uh, like you were saying, aau being throughout the summer, basically, um, now we have summer leagues and fall leagues now for high schools. It's like every single season there will that one sport is always having a game for it. That's why, june, I've played AAU the past two, three months.
Speaker 3:We both made a use the last two, three months and now june is our dead period per se, per a, if you play. If you play, you know june is the dead period. You have no tournaments during that, that uh season the era. But even though I see it as a dead period as we have no games, I have summer league starting this monday, this coming upcoming monday, monday for my school. So games are always in motion. You should always need to be training for it so you can always stay at your best throughout all year. Now, basketball is not just a winter sport now, at this time. You play all year round. You need to train for it all year round.
Speaker 2:So, with this year-round basketball, with AAU and tournaments and everything that you guys deal with through the year-round of playing, does it ever become too much? Do you ever feel like you don't get enough downtime to really recover, or does it go? Man, I got a tournament this weekend. I just really don't want to go to, but you got to do it. Does that ever happen with you guys, can you?
Speaker 4:talk to that. So for me, at the end of the day, I want to end up becoming a coach. So it's like I don't ever get really tired and, knowing that some coaches don't really believe in me, I take every chance I get to go play to go play and like prove people wrong. So it's kind of just something that I feel like I do no matter what. Whenever I get the chance to, I'll be out playing. So it's kind of just something that I feel like I do no matter what. Whenever I get the chance to, I'll be out playing. And it's like right after I broke my arm after surgery, like the next day I was at the gym just shooting with my left hand. Like it's something I always do and enjoy doing. So I wouldn't for say like be mad if I have a tournament or anything. I mean all athletes know if you know you're about to run out of practice, you won't look forward to it. So I mean sometimes maybe I won't like that, but other than that I enjoy it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, like you said, knowing that conditioning is ahead of you, it's definitely a mental hump you've got to get over, for sure.
Speaker 2:Get to the line Suicide.
Speaker 3:Vegan On the line you gotta get over for sure, get to the line suicide vegan on the line.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh my god, I never liked that phrase either.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh my gosh down and backs ah suicides down backs.
Speaker 3:Yep, yep, I don't miss. Oh jeez, stop, you're giving me PTSD, man, stop, stop please.
Speaker 2:So the drills.
Speaker 1:You guys following, I take it you guys following NBA finals? Yeah, sure, a million percent. So we'll talk about them here a little bit later. Just let us know, pacers or OKC, you ride in either of those trains.
Speaker 4:So we got robbed. Our team actually got robbed just before we choose that, and we got robbed. The two Warriors fans over here Since birth, but I honestly think that's our number one, Just because I think Shy he's going to get to the point where the shots that he missed last game they're going to fall and I don't think they have someone who could really guard him for the whole 40 minutes.
Speaker 3:See, the crazy thing is I've liked OKC. I like the youth of the team. I don't know, I'm a huge Chet fan. I've been watching Chet since high school and all the way through Gonzaga and whatever. So I'm a huge Chet fan. I've been watching Chet since high school and all the way through Gonzaga and whatever. So I'm a huge Chet fan and I just like the vibe and the energy that you know OKC brings Until now. And now I don't like the team. Yeah, I don't like the team anymore. I don't like OKC anymore. I wouldn't per se say I'm a Pacers fan, but I mean I prefer OKC in the final. But what Holly and Siakam and Miles Turner, what they've been doing as a fourth seed, to me is insane, and I'm always an underdog lover and, hey, I believe in Holly Magic because he's been doing some crazy stuff throughout the playoffs.
Speaker 1:So, hey, you know I like both these teams honestly and I've slowly been becoming an OKC fan myself. They're just having like a historic season to me when it comes to shooting and the Pacers. I've been saying it since before the bracket even started I said look, if the Pacers get in, they have a history of turning it up in the playoffs and look at the run they've had.
Speaker 1:I honestly don't know who to pick between the two. Myself, they're conflicting, yeah. So I think I like both these teams, but I do agree with Caden. I think OKC will pull it out, but it would also I wouldn't be mad if the Pacers pulled it out either.
Speaker 2:Well, like I've said all along, I want to see get seven game series regardless because, yeah, I think that's so much more fun to me than a team just like winning four to one. You know four games to one.
Speaker 1:I could see it happening.
Speaker 2:I could see it coming to that, for sure, for sure so so who are some of the players you guys like model your games after? Is there certain players you like, or certain players that you watch them and you're like I like how he did that. I want to do that. I want to learn how to do that me.
Speaker 3:Um, I don't know if you guys know if who sean singletary is, big guy from uva, top arguably top two men's basketball players at uva. Uh, he's one of my trainers, one of my main trainers. Uh, I've stayed the night at his house, me and him, my dad, him, my dad are really cool. We've had dinner together. But he kind of modeled my game after Russell Westbrook and it's kind of funny how Russell Westbrook is one of my favorite players to watch too, or I guess older Russell Westbrook Now he kind of just sits in a corner and watches the Rays. But I love when he was so athletic, exploding through the paint, that little mid-range, that little cross jab or crossover, one dribble pull up at the mid-range, oh, everything about it is just so clean and smooth. And Russ back in his OKC days was unstoppable. If anything, it sucks. He didn't get a ring during those years, definitely well-deserved. They came close, yeah, especially with the roster they had. It's just they all were at their peaks, I guess.
Speaker 3:Harden was coming off the bench on that team so that should tell you something. Exactly, exactly. Serge Ibaka started out. It was a time. Yeah, harden was coming off the bench on that team, so that should tell you something Exactly. Sergi Bacchus started as a. It was a time, but Russell Westbrook, for me personally, for sure.
Speaker 4:So then for me, well, back to the finals thing. I also think with the Pacers, if it's a close game and Halle gets the ball, they're going to win. I said that back when they were playing the Knicks. I, back when they were playing the Knicks, I said watch. I literally told him watch, If Halliburton gets the ball, they're winning the game. And then he hit the two that should have been a three.
Speaker 3:Yeah, eight feet up there.
Speaker 4:We were together when that happened and he caught it as soon as he got the ball I was like he's going to make the shot, they're going to win the game. But for me as a basketball player I'd say like, uh, I'd kind of compare to two people, like a Dennis Rodman, because I always do the small things, and like I always hustle, because I know I can be like a liability on defense because with my feet I can't move them as fast, so I make sure I always box, I always get the rebounds and always do the little things. And then I would also say kind of like a, I want to kind of play like a Jokic, because if you think about it, if he wasn't 7 foot he wouldn't be able to dunk. He's not athletic, he just gets to his spots and scores. I don't want to do anything flashy, I just want to be able to get to my spots and score.
Speaker 1:Just hit them, just execute.
Speaker 3:Just maximize, get there as small as you can. Jokic with his footwork and lack of athleticism, but he does so much with how little he has, which is kind of and that's important.
Speaker 1:You wonder if he had that athleticism to go along, you know, imagine.
Speaker 3:I like that Kane and I have played the same team. This is like one of our first, or like this year, and last year were one of our first years where we haven't been on the same team. This is like one of our first, or, like this year and last year, one of our first years where we haven't been on the same team before or haven't at least played on one team that year together. So I mean, yeah, I definitely yokich. Yeah, rodman, it's definitely what I I'd say a good good pick for him, for sure, awesome, nice, nice and I like the callback to the older player Rodman.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I like it. Yeah, I kind of like that too.
Speaker 2:Bulls fan here, so we haven't been good for years. I like when people still bring up the glory days, yeah.
Speaker 4:Derek. Rose though, definitely had a chance.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, Derek Rose was amazing. Yeah, it just you know those injuries to his knees just slowed his career down, but he still maintained a pretty decent career afterwards. He just wasn't you know the explosive, you know in the paint kind of guy like he was, but you know, it's still kind of funny. He wound up with the Bulls that year, you know, it's like it's kind of like how you know the Cavs just happened to get LeBron, new York happened to get Ewing, you know, yeah, it just worked out perfectly.
Speaker 3:I watched a video the other day it was a little NBA rumors about how it's rigged in some sort of ways, of how certain teams get certain players, like the Pelicans the Pelicans have been one of those teams, the Spurs as well how they just happen to get all these bigger players. It's like some people think there's a lot. If you really do your research on it, the NBA has a lot of weird rumors going around, a lot of weird rumors for sure.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, because LeBron leaves the Cavs and then the next year they get the draft pick and they get Kyrie. He becomes bad.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they pair up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then AD moves from the Pelicans over to the Lakers and the next time they get the pick and they get Zion. So I can see where you're going with that.
Speaker 4:I don't think about the Mavs now Like either.
Speaker 2:I think they might get.
Speaker 4:Ace Bailey, though Like watching full games Cooper Flagg. I think he turns the ball over way too much. I think Ace Bailey would be a better first round pick. I don't know if it will happen, but whoever they get, still they got rid of Luka and now we're going to get first pick. Yeah it better turn out.
Speaker 1:It was wild. They're picking the litter there.
Speaker 3:It better turn out because Luka for a young footballer, high schooler, yeah, in fact, high schooler. It's insane, basically.
Speaker 2:All I know is that Nico is the luckiest general manager in the NBA right now because he gets the number one pick and it's like huh, we got this guy, Cooper Flagg, that was going toe-to-toe with NBA players when he was 17. Exactly, yeah, it's all perspective.
Speaker 3:Just so rough for that guy you know, lost one of the greatest players in the league right now, but unfortunately got one of the best players.
Speaker 2:Here's your consolation prize.
Speaker 3:Exactly, it worked out perfectly.
Speaker 1:Pits on how you view it.
Speaker 2:I suppose it was your perspective of it, he must have had, like a lucky horseshoe, a lucky rabbit's foot, every single thing he could do. He had a four-leaf clover, everything Like cat. That guy gets it. Nico Harrison man, nico harrison, that's what the funniest thing that came out of that was the fact that the fans showed up and it was probably like 6 000 fans showed up and they basically they carried a casket up to the up to the stadium having a funeral for losing luca and julie they do when happened.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't be surprised if something popped in the news, if Nico got hurt in some sort of way. I've never seen a fan base get more Personally in my lifetime. I've never seen a fan base get more outraged than what that was. People were on the news chanting stuff. It was an insane time. People still are. It's just not much.
Speaker 2:But when it first happened. One of the fans ran laps around the stadium to commemorate like the number of times he ran around was lucas jersey number. Just yeah, 77 times around around the stadium 77 times yeah, just to, just to you know, add a little jab to it, geez that's crazy's crazy, that's crazy Wow.
Speaker 1:Well, you guys, we have anything else we need to talk about, anything else you want to mention, anything you want to throw out there, shout outs you know, I guess we want to say thank you to you guys.
Speaker 3:Thank you?
Speaker 1:No, actually. Yeah, thank you to you for being on the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you for coming here today. This is a great opportunity for us, uh, for us, for our people in our community and, of course, for you guys as well. Can't wait to um promote this. Have you guys on all of our socials? Uh, we, this is, this is very professional. Oh yeah, this is very. I mean, this is a great setup. Thank you, I mean you guys run a great show here. Thank you for everything you've given us, all the amenities and whatever and I guess we also want to promote our socials and our website.
Speaker 4:So on Instagram and TikTok we are solace S-O-L-A-C. Dot dot is in period. Outfitters O-U-T-F-I-T-T-E-R yeah. And then our website is solaceoutfittersshop. And then on YouTube, we are Solace Bros. We are up and coming on YouTube. Yes, sir, yes sir, yes sir.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, absolutely, and great job, you guys.
Speaker 4:Thank you, thank you. And then you could see some of our like. We actually just did a stream on Christian's Twitch account which was kind of like behind the scenes to work on some new stuff that we have upcoming. So if you ever tune into one of our Twitch channels, you might see something behind the scenes, okay. Give them your, your twitch handles so they can follow you.
Speaker 3:Mine is twitchtv slash sk sk fire f-i-r-e-w, and then mine is twitchtv slash k-r-o-b-j, just my initials I guess, uh, one more thing I do want to add is, uh, I guess, really just kind of promoting us as ourselves, like who we are, as just genuine people. Like I said, I'm Christian Wright, co-owner. This is Caden O'Brien James. We're just two young guys with two young kids, I guess, teenagers with huge aspirations. That's how it starts. Big goals, yeah, big goals. It starts with a dream For real. There's Big goals, yeah, big goals. It starts with a dream For real. There's no other option for us at this point.
Speaker 4:There's no other option, Literally, and the only way we can lose is if we quit and we're not going to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was just going to say the difference between complacency and really reaching success, I was going to say, is drive and go after it.
Speaker 3:man, I just hear that Athletics Yep, we have to have that.
Speaker 1:Go after your athletics, go after your business, go after everything you want to go after. You might not hit everything you might, and things may not shake out the way you planned. The important thing is you drive for it, you go for it, you know. Yes, sir D drive for it, you go for it. Dress for the job you want, not for the job you have. Yes, sir, that's great. I'd like to again thank you guys for being on the show. I think this is great for everybody all the way around. I can't wait to work with you guys more in the future. Let's get a clothing collab, that's right.
Speaker 3:We're all about it, man, let's get it. We're all about it, man, let's get it, let's get it.
Speaker 1:I told you let's do it. And once again, you know, go to our page as well. Twoforthewincom. That's fresh, we just got that. Thank you everybody for joining us, listening to us, taking part in the conversation with us. Once again, I'm Brian with an I, and I'm Mike and you are I'm Christian.
Speaker 4:Wright and I'm Caden O'Brien-Jabes.
Speaker 1:Thank you everybody for joining us. Have a good one, let's get it. Thanks everybody.