Rough Bunker Sports Podcast - What The Timberwolves Need After The LaMelo Gamble

One big trade idea can change how you see an entire season and that’s exactly where we start, with a full Minnesota Timberwolves temperature check. I talk through why this roster could be electric on offense, why losing size and bench scoring scares me, and why chemistry matters as much as any headline when you’re trying to survive the Western Conference. I also get into what the Wolves still need, how health can make or break a run, and why coaching staff changes can hit harder than fans realize.

Then I pivot to football and the Minnesota Vikings training camp story that’s going to dominate every conversation: the quarterback battle. I lay out why Kyler Murray feels like the fast track to a more dynamic offense, why J.J. McCarthy might benefit from time, and why the offensive line and run game are still the real foundation for any win prediction. I hit a few broader NFL notes too, including pressure points around veteran QBs and which storylines I’m not buying.

The Minnesota Minute turns into a love letter to women’s sports in this state, with a Minnesota Lynx spotlight and an honest rant about the WNBA, officiating, and protecting star players. After that, it’s hot takes, dad talk about coaching without becoming that parent, the reality of youth sports politics and costs, plus my list of the most hated athletes and a rapid fire set of questions to start arguments in your group chat.

If you’re here for Minnesota sports analysis, Wolves and Vikings debate, WNBA talk, and real life coaching perspective, make sure you subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a five-star review.

Transcript

Welcome And Busy Week Recap

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Rough Bunker Sports Podcast, a place where sports headlines, dad life, and everyday conversation collide. We are talking the biggest games, the hottest takes, family life, coaching kids, and everything in between, whether you're driving to work, heading to practice, or just trying to survive another week. So pull up a chair, crack a cold one, put the cruise control on, and just chill. This is the Rough Bunker podcast. Alright, well, welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to the Rough Bunker Sports Podcast. I'm your host, Tony Antonuti. Just going over some stuff here. It was a busy week for a lot of different reasons, for all sorts of stuff going on in the NBA world, some in the NFL world. Obviously the World Cup's going on. I know I'm a day late. I'll just start with that. Kind of some updates on what I was going, what I was doing and stuff like that. Golf to golf had a golf scramble yesterday on Friday, which is why I didn't post yesterday and I'm a day late. Did the Chisholm Blue Streaks Athletic Scramble over at the Evelith Golf Course with a couple other friends with Tony, my partner with Boss Two Boys and Boss Two Barrels Sauna Company. We did pretty well. I I'd say as a group we did well. I didn't do as good as I would have liked to have done. But uh in hindsight, you know, it is what it is. I'm still new to the sport. I did have a great time. It was a lot of fun with with him and Mikey P and Aaron Kritz. Just a shout out those guys too. Shout out to Travis Vockey. He was the athletic director over at the Chisholm High School, Chisholm School District. He's the one that put it on. Shout out to the Evelith Golf Course. Put on a good scramble. A lot of people there. We didn't win. We did place, but we didn't win, uh, unfortunately. But you know, the food at Jim's was pretty decent from what I was told. My wife and I went down to a surprise birthday party after I was done with the scramble and stuff like that. So I was it was a good day. Overall, a good day, good golf outing. I'll definitely be doing it again next year, just because you know I like to get into that stuff being a coach with the school district and stuff like that. I I like to participate in stuff like that. So, like I said, overall, good good scramble, good time, good company, good golf, good food, good, you know, the whole thing was it was good time.

Feedback Requests And Merch Ideas

SPEAKER_00 2:49

So, getting into the podcast, quick recap of last episode talked a lot about the twin or a lot about the Timberwolves and what they should be doing in the offseason, talked about the Vikings a little bit. I didn't get any reaction really from you from you guys on the hot takes that I had. Definitely looking for some feedback on that stuff. If you're looking at a little bit of debate, you know, I'm I'm definitely up for a healthy debate there with anything that goes on with the hot takes or with any kind of a nuclear take for the week. So definitely don't be scared to comment or share something with me, whether you see me out in public or message me or call me or you know, whatever. Definitely leave a message with one of us or just you know comment on the on the episode. I'll have it posted on the Boss2 Boys Facebook page, and then I do have my Instagram page now for Roughbunker Sports Podcast. I do have a well I don't have yet, but I'm looking at the merch line. Something simple, probably a couple t-shirts, a sweatshirt, a couple hats. I can post that on the Facebook page and on the Instagram page also uh for future reference. So today it's loaded today with what's going on with the Timberwolves and Minnesota Sports and things like that. I will go over some other Viking stuff, possibly position battles. Obviously, the the quarterback position battle will go over, or I will go over what the roster looks like as of right now for the Timberwolves and what moving forward, what it looks like and how I feel about it. You know, for the hot takes section, hot takes only, I'll I'll have an overrated superstar, I'll do a surprise NFL playoff team. I might even do an NBA finals prediction with what's been going on now. Maybe even have a Vikings take with that also. For dad talk segment, we'll go ahead and we'll talk about some coaching, uh, some youth coaching issues, how coaching kids without becoming that parent. I can talk, I'll talk about that for a bit. And then for our section top 10 list, I'll go over my most hated athletes of all time, and we'll go from there. Uh, like I said, I do have an idea for a merch line for Rough Bunker Sports. I want to see what I can get there. I want to have some feedback on that. I know at Tony and I have been talking about a Boss Two Boys revamp for some of our merch there. And if you're interested, give us a shout. You want a hat or a shirt? It is on the Spotify website. I I did share that on the Facebook page again. So definitely go ahead and look at that and tell me what you guys think. If you want anything new or if you think that changes need to be made or anything like that.

Timberwolves Moves And Lineup Fit

SPEAKER_00 5:29

So, kicking the show off now, we'll go ahead and get into some big sports headlines. The Timberwolves have made some moves, uh, I would say, with the addition now of Lamello Ball. Uh trading Nasreed to the Charlotte Hornets for Lamella Ball. I don't know how much I love that move. I think Lamella will definitely be a help offensively, but losing Nasreed's size and scoring ability off the bench is going to kill us. It really, really is. I don't know how we were how we are gonna replace that. It's gonna be up to uh kind of a committee of guys. Hopefully they can bring somebody in that can have that bench scoring because we're gonna need some scoring off the bench. I don't know what their ideas are for that. You know, the rookies that they did take in the draft, that one rookie from Duke, I don't know his name off the top of my head. He is a he's a scorer, he can shoot it, but I don't know I don't know what they're gonna do for the answer there. Uh our offense is gonna be electric with you know, Lamilla Ball, Edwards, Ayo, Shannon, McDaniels, but we don't have that big stretch four that most teams like to have. I know there's talks with Rudy Gobert getting shipped out. You know, they're in talks with the Celtics for Jalen Brown, and maybe at once this is posted, maybe that'll already have happened. I don't I don't know. Maybe that French, that other French kid that they drafted a couple years ago, maybe he's gonna play the four or play that stretch four big. I don't I don't know. They're gonna have to find something there that makes sense, they're gonna have to find something there that's gonna benefit them moving forward for playoffs for season, and hopefully they can mesh well together. I mean, that chemistry of that team is gonna be critical for us to get out of the West because obviously the Spurs aren't going anywhere. Denver is still really good. Uh the Lakers are gonna be good with everybody healthy, so it's gonna be tough to get out of the West, like normal. It really, really is. I think you know, they're gonna have to find something there. But the biggest loss for the Timberwolves, and this is just my opinion, uh, I don't know how much you guys are gonna agree with me, but that's Mike Onori. Losing the assistant coach, that is vital. Like he's he was a vital part of our our offense, he was a vital part of our team. Him, and good for him for getting the opportunity over in Portland. Good for him. He deserves a head coaching job. He's that good. I think he'll do extremely well in Portland. I th I think you know they don't have a lot over there. They're young, but with Dame back and the core that they have of young talent, it's gonna be interesting to see what he can do with that young core in Portland. He's he's gonna be a great addition there. He's gonna be well received. He was, I think he was the highest or most sought-after assistant coach for a head job. So we'll see how well he does there. And who knows how this team's going to look come after Summer League. Are they gonna bring those two rookies in? Are they gonna make them part of the rotation? Who knows? Who who knows? Hopefully, they can figure it out and hit the ground running. I know that the defensive side of the ball is gonna be very sketchy with Lamelo. He's not much of a defender. We'll see what kind of attitude he has coming into the season and playing alongside Anthony Edwards. Because Anthony Edwards is wanting to win like yesterday. He's been upset the last few years, you know, getting bounced two years in a row in the Western Conference Finals and last year in the Western Conference semis. He's out for blood, and he should be. Like, we can't just waste his talent and waste his prime trying to figure it out. Like, we need to have it now, and it needs to be figured out now before we lose him. I did hear one sports analyst predict, you know, we're mortgaging our future just to trade Anthony Edwards away in two years or lose him in two years, which I hope is not the case. He is the one shining light for Minnesota men's basketball for the NBA. So it's gonna be it's gonna be interesting to see how that all works and how all that is gonna shake up. The other big headline for the NBA, obviously, was Giannis moving to the heat. I don't really have much to say on that, honestly. I think he's gonna fit in fine. I think Eric Spoolstra will figure out a way to get him to play with the rest of the team. It can't just be him against everybody else. He's got to have some talent around him. When he won that championship in Milwaukee, he had shooters around him. He had guys that he could trust and guys that he could lean on to pick up the slack on defense, score when he needed him to score, you know, a good kick out. Yeah, he he scored 50 points in that last game of the finals, but you know, he had Chris Middleton, he had Drew Holiday, he had Bobby Portis Jr., he had guys that he trusted, and I don't know if he has that yet in Miami. But we'll have to see how all that stuff all that stuff's gonna roll out for them. It's just it's gonna be interesting to see the NBA next year with the different dynamics on teams. On the one team that I'm just sick and tired of hearing about is uh Oklahoma City. I mean, yeah, they're good, yeah, they're talented, yeah, they're young. They're gonna be losing some pieces here because of contracts and uh some other different things there, some attitudes, and some guys just want to have their team. Some guys want a fresh start, some guys want to go somewhere to be utilized a little bit differently. So we'll we'll see what happens there. Uh I just I don't I I the way that the Spurs were able to handle them and manipulate them and kind of use their own game against them really showed the rest of the league what what they can do with that, what how they can do it. So we'll we'll see. I I just think they're they're they're so overhyped and they're so looked at as the team to beat, which I just I don't think they are anymore. You gotta you gotta say the Knicks, you gotta say San Antonio, you know, those are the those are my two teams that are gonna be really, really good. Again, you know, Cleveland, if they get LeBron and Cleveland, they're gonna be a contender too. They're they really, really are, because he's that type of a player where he can step into a team like that and really get them over the hump. Shit, I'd love to see him come to Minnesota and play with Anthony Edwards and LaMelo. That'd be one of the best things in my lifetime of watching basketball is for him to team up with two young young guys like that. So I think that'd be really, really, really cool. I don't think it's not gonna happen. That's a pipe dream, of course, to see LeBron in a Timberwolves jersey, but you never know. You never know what those guys are gonna do. It depends on what LeBron wants and if he wants to come to the Midwest again, and we'll we'll just have to see we'll have to see what what the plan is there.

NFL Talk And Vikings QB Battle

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Moving on to the NFL, biggest storyline and heading into training camp, and this is more for the Vikings than for anybody else, obviously, is the quarterback battle between Kyler Murray and and McCarthy, and I've touched on that. I'm not trying to beat a dead horse, but we'll we'll just have to see what JJ brings. And I've watched a little bit of highlights or you know clips from mini camp and whatnot. And I I don't know. I I I want us I want to have a more dynamic offense, and I think Kyler Murray's the answer to that. He just is. He just is. Looking at the rookie class from this year, I I hate to say this, but I think the Cowboys got probably the best player in the draft in Caleb Downs. He's going to make that defense really good. Really, really good. So we'll we'll have to see how that all shakes out. Hopefully, not well, because I hate the Cowboys. I I just I'm so sick of hearing about next year's their year, and I don't think any year's gonna be their year as long as Jerry Jones is in charge. That's just the bottom line on that. It sucks for Cowboys fans, but I just I don't I don't see it swinging any other way until Jerry Jones is is no longer in charge of everything. It just that's that's just the way I feel. And just that NFC East it's got such a I don't know how to explain it, just it's got the Cowboys and you got you know the Eagles and you've got New York with new coaching and you've got all that kind of stuff. And then on the flip side with the AFC, you know, the the one that everybody keeps talking about and is probably under the most pressure to perform is Aaron Rodgers. I mean, him and the Steelers they got rid of Mike Tomlin, they bring in Mike McCarthy. You know, McCarthy won a Super Bowl with Rodgers. I think he has probably the most pressure on him or you know expectation to be good, like really, really good, like Aaron Rodgers good. I just don't see it. He's old, lost a step. Yeah, he can still throw the ball around, but who's he throwing to? DK? I mean, DK is not you can't just you can't just throw it into one guy. And I just I don't I don't I I think that with Aaron Rodgers' age and attitude and all that kind of stuff, just it's not helping his case. I and he needs to perform this year, he might as well throw in the towel. And how are you gonna remember him? Are you gonna remember him chucking it around in Green Bay, or are you gonna remember him bouncing around the NFL because he can't decide on who he wants to play for and who's gonna be fair to him, and you know, he he cries like a little baby. So we'll see how that all rolls out.

College Football Contenders To Watch

SPEAKER_00 16:02

College football moving on, because I do have a couple things I wanted to say about college football. There's teams that have extreme high expectation every year, obviously, like Alabama, Ohio State, USC, LSU, you know, a lot a lot of these teams, and they're probably gonna eventually make two massive conferences like the NFL. They're gonna have an East and a West. And the team that I'm actually really high on more than most people is probably Oregon. And it's not because I'm a homer with Koy Peric going there. I just I think that they have a lot of the pieces there that stuck around and the coaching with Dan Lanning and all that other kind of stuff. That I really think that they have what it takes to finally get over the hump and and win it. Tennessee's another one, as long as everybody can stay healthy. Miami, you know, I know they lost a lot, but I think Miami is gonna be really, really, really good again. Really good. So now I'm gonna move on to to the second segment of the show.

Sponsor Shoutouts And Local Thanks

SPEAKER_00 17:08

It's Minnesota Minute. Before I go into that, though, I do want to shout out we do have, like I said, this this podcast is brought to you by Boss Two Barrel uh Sauna Company. Tony and I have a rental and custom sauna business that we run. More him than myself. He he's kind of the brainchild behind it. I'm more of the support and pusher of the product. So uh if you're if you're ever in need of renting a sauna, we do we do rent out two saunas. We have two saunas to rent out. If you ever have a need for one or you want to check it out or you want to look at it, we do have a website, boss2sauna co.com. Uh go ahead and look on there, and I can share the link for that in the in the in the podcast. I can I can go ahead and share that at the end. What I can also do is, you know, they we do have shirts, we have sweatshirts, we don't have any hats left. I'm gonna talk to Tony about getting some more of that stuff. Just wanted to make sure you guys are aware, you know, boss2 sauna co.com for any kind of rental or custom sauna that you would be looking for. We would prefab everything, bring it to your house, build it where you would want to build it. Tony will come out beforehand, kind of assess the area, make sure that it's you know a good spot for it or where you want it and things like that. And then we'll we'll, like I said, we him and I, or a couple of us, will come out and put it all together. And I know he will give you quotes and stuff like that. So yeah, just give him a call or give me a call, we can set you up with an appointment, or we can set you up with a meeting, and the two of us will come out and and conversate and talk like talk about stuff like that. Uh, if you're in in the lookout or if you're looking for a rental, go ahead on the website. We have all the rental prices on there, whether you want it for one night, two nights, three nights, four nights, a week. It kind of depends on how far and where you're at for difference in pricing for mileage and stuff like that. Uh, but go ahead and take a look if you're looking for it for a party, for a grad party, for a 4th of July party, for deer hunting, for you know, anything like that. We do rent them year-round. So go ahead and take a look at that. Also, shout out hair works in Chisholm. It's a hair salon. Owner of that is Hannah Tomasetti. She does great work. She does walk-in appointments. You can also give her a call. Again, that's hair works. Works with a K H A I R W O R X Hairworks, and ask for Hannah. Okay, so moving on, get into our hot take section of the show here. Just my opinions on a couple different things. Actually, we're gonna no, I'm sorry, we're gonna get into Minnesota Minute segment of the show, not hot takes. That's gonna be in a few other minutes.

Vikings Wins Outlook And Breakouts

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Minnesota Minute here, I'm gonna talk a little bit more that I haven't talked about, or I'll touch back on a couple things. Like with the Vikings, position battles for the Vikings are gonna be key. Obviously, offensive line position battles, and the biggest one obviously is quarterback with JJ McCarthy and Kyler Murray. And I talked about it before, like I said, with Kyler Murray, it's just an offensive boost, confidence, arm talent, things like that. JJ needs another year to kind of sit back and watch and get some reps under him. So I think that's that's one of the biggest things for him. Breakout players for the Vikes, I think one of them I think is going to be that rookie D-tackle and Dallas Turner. I think Dallas Turner is gonna have a massive, massive year. He showed pretty good instincts and everything last year when he got to play. But now I think with him being the guy on the opposite side of Van Genkel, I think he's really gonna flourish out there. And I another one, and I know he's already kind of broke out, was Martellus Bennett. He's gonna have uh he should have a massive year. The one the one person that I just I don't know about is Felton, that wide receiver we drafted last last year out of Maryland. He's a gadget guy. I've heard a couple rumblings out of many camps and stuff like that with him, so he might even be another breakout player. I just I don't know how many wins the Vikings are gonna get. I I really, really don't. It's all based on their quarterback play and offensive line play. Because Flores will have them ready on defense. It's all going to be based on Kyler Murray or JJ McCarthy and how well how much our offensive line can stay healthy. We're we're gonna need them to be healthy to have a consistent running game because that's what's gonna open up the passing for Jefferson and Addison. to and Juwan Jennings to have a decent year. So if I had to predict, and I I know people are gonna get they're gonna laugh when they hear this, I I think 10 and 6 is definitely a reachable, reachable goal. If I had to if it was nine and a half wins from Vegas, I'd say the over. I really, really would. That's just my take on

Wolves Health And Missing Stretch Four

SPEAKER_00 22:22

it. In regards to the Timberwolves, I think they're missing one piece on their roster. They they need a stretch four big if they trade Gobert for Brown, I don't know. They're gonna be small. They're gonna play a lot of small ball. But you never really know. I I I I do want I want them to make one more move to get a stretch four that can score. I mean and and I know that we kind of gave that up with Randall and Nasreed but you know you got to give these younger guys a chance you got to give them a shot. Maybe that that like I said that French kid maybe he's gonna play the four maybe he can stretch out the defense but who knows maybe they go get a veteran. Maybe they maybe they sign some veteran at a minimum and and see who's out there. I'm not exactly 100% sure on who is but we'll see what they do. Connolly's got a good track record for getting a decent roster together. We'll just have to see if this one meshes well and can get along and can get hot at the right time. That's that's the biggest thing biggest concern obviously is going to be health Anthony Edwards knee DiVincenzo's Achilles you know all those things it's gonna be health that's that's my biggest biggest concern for next year. If the mines if the Timberwolves can stay healthy they're gonna they're gonna compete they're gonna they're gonna be in the mix they're gonna be in the final four in the West but they have to stay healthy at the right time we got we got hurt at the wrong time last season unfortunately and it just didn't pan out for us. And I think AO and Shannon and all those guys that stepped up and played well good for them. That's awesome but we can't it's not something we can rely on all next season it's it's gonna be it's gonna be a team effort. We all got to stay healthy. That that's that's the biggest thing that's the biggest concern oh the other thing that I wanted to talk about was Olivia Miles for the WNBA for the Lynx.

Lynx Rise Plus Caitlin Clark Rant

SPEAKER_00 24:25

She is unreal she is the most electrifying rookie this year she's easily the best player on the Lynx this year obviously Collier hasn't played but even when Collier comes back you can't mess up that chemistry she's got with everybody else because she is tearing up the league tearing up the league. It's insane it is awesome to see it's really cool they're the best team in the WNBA right now they're playing the best basketball and she's in charge of it like she's running the floor she's the one that's orchestrating everything and when Collier comes back the pick and roll pick and pop game is going to be unreal with those two. It's gonna be a lot of fun to watch and they're a championship contender like they are every other year. It's crazy to say that the female sports in Minnesota are 10 times better than the male sports and they're winners. They just are I mean and I love it. I absolutely love it. Being a girls basketball coach myself I love watching the women's team do so well and have so much success but I wish it was more publicized. I wish it was more talk about on mainstream media mainstream podcasting or you know ESPN things like that. And I love Caitlin Clark I think she's she's transcended the WNBA she's been the best thing to ever happen to the WNBA and the way that she's treated is absolutely egregious. It's terrible they're beating the shit out of their best product their most sellable product and the league will not take care of her. Like the refs don't protect her the league doesn't protect her and it is insane to me on why you are punishing the one person that got you guys flying commercial airlines that got you guys flying actually I shouldn't say commercial they got she got you out of commercial and onto private planes. She's the one that's got this new CBA agreement skyrocketing. And Collier is one of the biggest cheerleaders for this whole thing. And they just won't protect her. Like I wouldn't be shocked if she said you know fuck the WNBA I'm going over to Europe or I'm going overseas to play somewhere else where I'm actually appreciated where I'm actually cared for where I'm you know taken care of not in a league where I'm getting the shit kicked out of me every night and does she flop? Everybody flops every professional athlete flops at that level of basketball. You can't tell me you don't or they don't because you see it all the time but when you're getting chucked to the ground scratched in the face pushed in the back punched in the throat I mean that's that's unacceptable absolutely unacceptable coming from a league standpoint like it's it's hard to watch sometimes because they like I said they beat the shit out of her every single night it is crazy that they won't protect her.

Hot Takes Overrated Star Bold Vikes

SPEAKER_00 27:27

So now I'll move on to segment three hot takes the hot takes segment ding ding ding this is something that I hope that people would enjoy giving me shit on talking to me discussing debating whatever you guys want to do agree disagree or agree to disagree it it doesn't matter you know the first episode I talked about LeBron and Michael Jordan and why LeBron's a better basketball player this segment today in episode four we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna pick a couple different ones or I'll pick a couple different ones and then I just want your feedback on it just to see if if we agree or if we disagree or you know anything like that. It's just you know who's the who's a current superstar that's the most overrated now defining superstars somebody that is talked about endorsed worth a lot of money you know talked about a lot in the media things like that mine's Shadur Sanders he hasn't done anything in the NFL yes he's Dion's son Dion was a hell of a player probably top five all time any position most feared corner in NFL history his son has not won shit he's won nothing nothing he's the Browns quarterback in a room with him Dylan Gabriel and somebody else so I mean there's not a hell of a lot of competition in that room and from what I've watched he's just he's not he's not it like he's just not he's not and he he the the talk with Schedur Sanders reminds me a lot of how people talk about the Cowboys overhyped you know the talent could be there but for some reason it just doesn't translate and it doesn't happen. And you know like I and like we've said or I've said he plays for the Browns hard to be really good when you play for the Browns given their track record it just Shadur Sanders is definitely a current you you could call him superstar. That's just he's overrated he just is I'm gonna make a bold Vikings prediction for next season. I know in the previous section I said 10 and 6 but I can definitely see them doing better. So the prediction for myself I'm going to make a bold prediction saying 14 and 3 and in the Super Bowl if Kyler Murray can play or have any kind of semblance to what Sam Darnold did for Seattle last year we can make a Super Bowl run. We could make a Super Bowl run and we will make a Super Bowl run and I just I I think that the defense is there and like I said with offensive line health and Kyler Murray's athletic ability it's definitely a possibility it is a possibility so if you're yelling at your phone or you want to tell me I'm stupid go ahead comment on the your hottest take the other ones that you could choose from are I just and I want to hear opinions on this what rookie will be a bust any league surprise NFL playoff team give me your NBA finals predictions for next year. Then one sports opinion that you that'll make any fan mad any fan segment four or section four here area four whatever you want to talk about it or however you want to say it is a d it's my dad talk

Coaching Your Kid Without Favoritism

SPEAKER_00 31:14

section. So with that you know I I I coach I coach girls or women's basketball JV level so coaching my daughters or coaching in general you don't want to become that parent where you just you play your kid all the time because they're yours and there's more talented kids around them. Now I and I've ran into this a couple times where I've had people comment to me that you know you're only playing your daughter because she's your daughter. She's not as good as my daughter and you know she doesn't do this and she doesn't do that and she can't do this and she can't do that. And coming from personal experience I think for me anyway is I I try and put the best five girls on the floor at any given time for certain situations. And that could be talent level for the most part but I also need to trust you. Like I need to I need to be able to trust you to make decisions that some people can't or won't or decide not to or are scared to or things like that. So for me personally being a coach and a and a dad of girls that are on the team it's it's a hard thing to do and it's just this experience that I've had to separate coach from dad. When we step out of the locker room I'm not dad anymore I'm I'm the coach and I've had to make some hard decisions with my kids where it wasn't their night and I had to pull them and I had to play somebody else and were they happy with me? No they won't they weren't and they're not always going to be and you have to be able to separate that coach and dad or coach and mom at times because it you're gonna get those people that don't understand what's going on at practice or what's said in a huddle or what the plan for the game is or anything like that. Like you have to be able to separate that and have those conversations it just it just is you know and I and I grew up with parents that coached me and my friends and one of their dads was our coach. Like he was very he was very he was fair. I I would say he was a very fair coach like he knew what we and this was for baseball like he knew our abilities in certain positions and in certain spots in the order and he never played us against each like he never pitted us against each other. Like we always had competitions with each other but he never he never like made us mad at each other. He never got us to the point where we were fighting with each other physically or emotionally or mentally like there was always competition but I that's how you grew up when I was younger like everything was competition. When you went to the baseball field when you went to wreck in the summer there was always competition every single day no matter what it was it could have been ping pong tetherball knock hockey bumper pool four squares you know home run derby baseball football longest throw tetherball I already said tetherball uh racquetball tennis like there was all sorts of other shit that we had competition with every single day and I think that really helped us get better as athletes and get better as teams because we always wanted to do better than the guy next to us but we were never chopping that person at the knees to get ahead of them if that makes any sense we never got it where it was detrimental to the team in our attitudes and in our competition with each other. We used to have competitions with each other like you know if if you strike out this game I owe you a freezy you know and I'd get a free rec the next day or something something like that something simple but it seems like now like it's just a cutthroat world with youth sports like you're undercutting parents and you're undercutting kids and parents are talking about kids and kids are talking about parents and parents are talking about coaches and it's it's a crazy scene out there with youth sports today compared to when I was growing up and and maybe my audience can say the same thing like it was it wasn't like that you let the coach coach whether it was you know somebody's dad or mom or whatever you know you never really stepped on toes or or questioned anything like unless you were at practice and you watched us and you knew the attitudes and you knew the abilities of players like you never said shit to anybody when you when you would come home as a kid when I would come home and I'd complain about it like my parents would just well do better. Like you need to play more you need to practice more maybe it wasn't your day like that's just how it was and now it's a kid complains about a coach and well we're transferring or oh we're we're jumping to another team or oh you're not getting enough playing time here so you're obviously getting shafted by the coach so we're gonna go over here and make it easy for you there's no adversity there's no there's no any sort of check yourself at the door and check that attitude at the door and just play. Just play what and there are bad coaches out there don't get me wrong there are bad coaches and bad situations there's coaches in it that are just there for the glory and the check or the headline or whatever and those are the coaches that normally don't win a lot and if they do win they win for a very short period of time because they have kids coming in because they're promising things that are unrealistic to every single parent every single player not every player is going to play the whole time not every player is going to score the most points not every player is going to have all the headlines you know that that's it's just that's the way that's the way of sports and the world like and kids need to understand that and kids need to get get that through their heads you're not always you might be the best player and you might not play the best. And it might be a system it might be a coach's kid that's getting more reps or a coach's kid that's getting more opportunity that you just gotta find your niche and do your thing and that's just the way it is and a lot of the youth sports now are just money grabs. They're money grabs whether it be AAU or JO volleyball and I and I've talked about that with Tony on our other podcast on Boss Two Boys our our Chisholm stuff is normally pretty good. It's normally pretty affordable for basketball for volleyball for baseball for things like that in the summer but you look at some of these other teams these club teams and it's insane it's insane and you know you get one of these club teams that has you know everything from like six U all the way up to 18 U and there's three four five teams an age group and it's like $2,000 a kid to play and that doesn't include travel that doesn't include you know hotels that doesn't include drive time that doesn't include gas or anything like that to literally be on the team or to be in that program it's two thousand dollars and that's six to eight kids a team that's insanity like that that just that blows my mind and I don't understand it. I well growing up you know you you played with your buddies you played with your friends and you you just played like you didn't have to travel unless you were an elite athlete for whatever sport you played and if you were an elite player in your area and you got asked to be on let's say an AAU team with kids from around the area that were just as good if not better yeah then you pay the the thousand dollars or whatever it was travel to Florida or travel to the travel the Midwest and play some tournaments and play some games but it wasn't like it is now like now it's it's crazy it's in it's insanity. And the parents are worse. They are worse in that because they think that their kid is the best of the best and sometimes it's just not the case.

Summer Traditions And Being Not Lake Guy

SPEAKER_00 39:59

And now that it's summertime just moving on to the next another subject here it's you know the middle of June towards the it's actually the end of June almost 4th of July 4th of July is next weekend just some kind of traditions for summer like 4th of July going to the lake I'm not much of a lake guy. If you know me you know that I just I'm not I'm not a lake guy I just never have been I don't know if I ever will be just has never been any anything that I've ever really been interested in. Honestly even as a teenager I never really cared to go to the beach you know and I know Tony has a cabin up on Vermilion and stuff like that and he likes to go up there and my wife loves the beach you know she's she's a beach body I'm just I'm just not I just I've never liked it for whatever reason. You know Labor Day is a big weekend for us and my my uncle comes up for from Nashville for 4th of July most of the time and hanging out with family like that's that's the big summer traditions that I remember a lot of baseball going to basketball tournaments now with the with my daughters you know I I like to make that a tradition and just you know golfing doing stuff that we want to do as a family and doing stuff that I want to do as an adult those are my traditions so that's kind of the biggest thing that I liked about like about summer is you know getting it being able to get with friends in the hot weather and things like that. Just I don't want to go to the beach and maybe you can call me weird you can call me different and whatnot I really don't give a shit but yeah I just I'm not a beach person.

Most Hated Athletes And Why

SPEAKER_00 41:39

So we're gonna go ahead we're gonna get on to the next subject here it's kind of an interesting topic most hated athletes of all time now this is all sports and I'm just I'm I'm not gonna really go in any particular order I'm just gonna name off some people and why and things like that about you know the most hated athletes of all time I'm gonna start it off with a bang because I know a lot of people think this I don't personally think this but he's definitely one of the most hated in sports history and that's Tom Brady. Everybody hates a winner everybody hates a winner everybody hates somebody that you know looks like Tom acts like Tom walks like Tom all that stuff Tom Brady is probably one of the best looking guys in sports even still as a commentator he's a winner. He's won the most Super Bowls you know he dated a supermodel wife or married a supermodel wife now he's now they're divorced and things like that but he's definitely one of the most hated athletes of all time another one LeBron James LeBron James is easily one of the most hated also just because of how he's done it and what he's done and how long he's been able to do it being a high school prodigy to leading a shit team to the finals and then jumping to Miami. Like people hated that that he allegedly started super teams which he didn't and that's another conversation for another day but just the way that he's moved and he's won and like I said everybody hates a winner. You're gonna get a a gist of of this kind of stuff that everybody hates a winner. Another one Barry Bonds obviously with the steroids and stuff like that and the home run race and all that other kind of stuff Barry Bonds was an elite athlete before he started taking steroids and you could definitely tell when his neck size grew like six sizes. Another one is Draymond Green he's a he's a dirty player I don't like Draymond Green. I think his mouth writes checks that he can't cash he has back piggybacked on two of the best shooters if not the two best shooters to ever play basketball. Do I think he was important to those teams of course of course he was But to say that like the conversation he had with Shaq that those Warriors teams would beat the Shaq and Kobe teams, not a chance. They don't have anybody to guard Shaq. Great confidence, but it's more arrogance than confidence in that in that aspect. Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant was one of the one of the most hated just for his attitude and the way that he carried himself with his teammates, just be and he was an asshole. And you can mirror that with Michael Jordan. I'm sorry, but you can. Just a baby. He just whines. I don't like him. I've never liked him. When the Vikings broke his collarbone on a sack that one year, I think it was first or second game of the season. I jumped up and down. You know, I normally don't wish any injury on any players, but that one I was okay with. Another A Rod. A-rod was another one, steroids winner, good looking, fantastic baseball player. He just was not very likable. I think when he went to the Yankees is really when when that all when that all went down. I don't really know a lot about John McEnroe, but for tennis purposes, I'm gonna throw John McEnroe in there. His attitude, his his spa, you know, his temper tantrums, things like that. People just did not like that. Another one, and my last one, is Floyd Mayweather. You know, Money Mayweather. The way he carried himself, the way he dominated. He wasn't he wasn't such a good technical boxer. He wasn't your normal knockout guy. And I think that's what made people the most angry was that he just he would literally drag fights on to get decisions, and nobody liked that. So if you have any questions or comments or debates or anything like that with those top with that 10, that list of 10 people, uh, like I said, tell me what you think. Tell me what you want to do, tell me what you want to debate about it, if you have any other extras that you want to throw in there. And you know, a couple honorable mentions would probably be as a team, I'm just gonna say the bad boy pistons. They just they were assholes, nobody liked them. Roger Clemens is another one. And Dominican Sue for the NFL. You know, there's a lot of them, and you know, and does being the most hated usually mean you're what you're not one of the greatest, or you are one of the greatest? That's definitely a debate. And who gets hated simply because they win? You know, that's easily Tom Brady. Tom Brady's the the one that I would immediately think of, Patrick Mahomes, too. But who's which active athlete is the most you know polarizing today? Like who's who's that? Who do you think that is? And then which Minnesota athlete has been the most unfairly criticized? I mean, that's definitely a debate that I would love to get into, and I'm not gonna give any answers to that or who my answer would be. Uh, but definitely let me know what you what you think on that. So who did I leave off? Who's rank who's too high, you know, who's who's on here, who's not on here? Drop your ten most hated athletes, and then we can read the list on episode five. I I'll go ahead and I'll read them off and I'll shout you out, and we'll go ahead from there. Just my rapid fire section here.

Rapid Fire Questions And Fan Prompt

SPEAKER_00 47:44

What's a better sports city, Minneapolis or Chicago? What do you think? Personally, I I honestly think I think it's Chicago. I mean, you got such a nostalgia there with the White Sox, the Cubs, obviously the Bulls with the 90s, not so much anymore. They're ran like a like shit pretty much. But then you got the Bears, who haven't been very good for a long time, and now they're on the up, they're on the upswing. Who's the greatest clutch athlete ever? Any sport. Any sport. I would man, Tom Brady is definitely one of them. For me. I would easily say Tom Brady is the greatest clutch athlete ever. You you can't argue with 28 and 3. Can't argue with that. I'm sorry. You just can't. And and it's obviously who you th or what you would ca categorize as a athlete. But clutch athlete, in my mind, is pretty simple. It's it's Tom Brady. And you know, in your mind, who do you think has who tell me who you think has the best sports logo? I I don't really know the answer. I I like the University of Tennessee's U T or just the T. The hurricane logo with with the stork. Actually the old smoky dog for Tennessee was my favorite. I love that one. The Raiders one is really, really clean. I really like that one. And kinda, I kinda have a question for everybody too, uh, for my golfers out there. If you could golf with one athlete, who would it be? Who would you want to go on a golf course with and golf 18 holes? Golf a full round of golf. Let me know in the comments. Definitely shout that out. And then which coach would you never want to play for? Whether it's college or professional, which coach would you never want to play for? Me and probably Bobby Knight, because I don't know if I'd have been able to keep my mouth shut. So definitely drop it in the comments. Let me know what you think. I know it's a lot. Pick one topic, go ahead, give me what you think. Fan question of the week: what's the greatest Minnesota sports moment you've witnessed? So that you've been alive for and witnessed on TV. I think a lot of people are gonna agree with me. Is gonna be the Minneapolis Miracle. I think that's definitely gonna be a lot of people's answer to that.

Closing Thanks And How To Support

SPEAKER_00 50:28

So, in closing, just ask you guys, you know, subscribe, give me a five-star review, tell me what you think, comment on the episode, follow Rough Bunker Sports Podcast on Instagram, follow me on TikTok. I definitely I'm gonna be posting some stuff here. I'm gonna start doing some shorts. We are partnered, like I said before, with Shank at golf. Go ahead, look on there. I'll put the link in the in the post here. Definitely share this with any sports fan that you're with or like you're around, listen to it with your buddies. You can debate between each other and then you guys can come back and debate me. And we'll go ahead and we'll go from there. I just wanted to also say, you know, thank you for listening. Thank you for the follows. Go ahead and follow Boss2 Boys on Facebook, follow Boss2 Barrel Sonic on Facebook. I know Tony's got some stuff in the works there. Like I said, if anybody wants to even come on the show with me, I can I got a mic here. We can definitely go ahead and do that, and then I can bounce stuff off you. I can come to you, you can come to me, whichever. Uh, just remember, whether you're coaching, chasing birdies, or yelling at the TV, keep the takes hot and the swings loose, and then we'll catch you next time on the Rough Bunker Sports Podcast.