SPEAKER_02 0:00

Uh welcome to the Bet Big Talk Loud Podcast for Friday, April 10th. I'm Chris Hodge. We have the one and only JR in a more colorful hat than he was in last week on the Zoom. Uh JR, good to see you, as always.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

I appreciate it as always. And uh listen, the Islanders are, you know.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Nah, here we go.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Here we go. What they've done over the last couple of weeks has just been self-defecating. Um, but they had a great game last night. They came out uh 40 shots on net. It was like 23 to 3 in shots on goal in the first period. They really Toronto. Listen, two points is two points in the NHL, buddy. That's all that matters, the standings, right?

SPEAKER_00 0:47

I know, I know when the Islanders were on a game. When they were on a four-game losing streak last week, you won a black hat. They won a game last night, you wear the color.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

We got to get out of the black and white and get into some color. You always make the comment too. I walk in, you're like, who wears a black hat? I'm like, what's wrong with a black hat?

SPEAKER_02 1:02

No, a black hat in and of itself, there's nothing wrong with it. But when you have iconic colors, and the and I'm not an Islander fan, but the islanders do have an iconic logo, iconic colors, and you just ruin it by taking all the colors out of it. It doesn't make any sense.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Good looking hat. That's all that matters. Put the island on it, and that's what matters.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

All right, let's let's let's let's do a podcast. And you know, for all the people that are in relationships out there, just JR, man, how many times a day or a week does your wife look at you and go, What the fuck are you talking about?

SPEAKER_01 1:35

I actually we we we spoke about this a minute ago. I feel like I'm the one that's always looking over and saying, What are you talking about? And it actually is, what the fuck are you talking about half the time? But uh, I mean, listen, we I'm I'm with my wife now 30 years. You see me look over, she's actually trying to look over your shoulder.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

I'm not listening.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

No, there was there was something that's going viral. I showed you the video earlier today.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Oh, that's a great video, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

And and and you know what? To me, it's a healthy relationship. I don't know if the people are married or it's boyfriend, girlfriend. I don't know, but if you check out the people at the Nets um Pacers game last night, there's a man clearly talking about it.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

And he's like trying to make a case. You can see him like making his case, but he just turns him and says, You can read the lips. What the fuck are you talking about?

SPEAKER_02 2:26

And his his look was like, all right, and and I'm just you know, I said this to my wife uh this morning, and my wife is just like, that's us anytime on camera. Like, if we were out to eat dinner and someone just picked up their phone and secretly videoed us, at some point through that video, I'm gonna look at you and be like, What the fuck are you talking about? Why are you making a scene? Like just something.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

And I but I thought, you know, you're so loud. Why are you yelling?

SPEAKER_02 2:57

Yeah, and and I just thought, like, I watched that video and I'm like, that's a healthy relationship right there. She's looking at us, like, that's you.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

What the hell are you talking about? What the fuck are you talking about? And he don't even like, oh, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

So if you haven't seen that video, it just all you gotta do is Google Nets Pacers fan. That's it. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

And the Nets Pacers game last night was so bad, so bad, that it got made for these two fans for this 15-second conversation.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

So, one of the interviews I did last Friday, um, they asked me, Is there a sport that you no longer can be into? Like that you just don't cover as much as you used to. And there's no doubt that that's the NBA for us, right? We we are so big in college and pro football, college basketball's huge. Um, baseball's always been good. And now we've moved into hockey, right? Which has been just phenomenal. Our record, the the money we're making, it's been fantastic. But the NBA, where we used to do, I mean, if this was 10 years ago, you couldn't get me off of watching the NBA. I feel like this is the worst jet, you know, uh commissioner in the history of sports. The the the product itself is so bad. I mean, look at how many games where you go look at scores uh at scores, and I've never seen so many teams blown out by 20, 30 points or lines that are up at used to be back 20, 30 years ago. You saw a line of 14, 15. You get on the underdog just saying, hey, you know, any given basketball team can win, right? That's not the case anymore. These lines are 17 and a half regularly. It's how are you how are you going anywhere with that?

SPEAKER_02 4:32

The lines are downright obnoxious. You're dealing with tanking. Terrible. Um, you know, the the 10 teams for the playoffs, and you know you got the play-in tournament next week, but the 10 teams for the playoffs were basically set three weeks ago where no one can catch them. I mean, I I think in the east, I think uh the 10th place team is up 10 games. I think in the west, uh the 10th place team is up 11 games. Like they added two extra spots for you, and you're still down 11 games out of missing.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

11 games. And you got teams tanking.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

All over the place. And then I I forget what game it was. It might have been the Golden State game a couple nights ago where where a team down one fouled with three minutes to go just for the hell of it, and then claimed it was a mistake. Like this shit going on in the NBA, also from a gambling standpoint, which is why you and I really don't do it anymore, is these teams don't have to announce who's playing until like 6:30.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

I mean, where are we what are we doing with that? How are you gonna have enough time to make a decision on lineups if you're not getting it until 30 minutes before they tip off?

SPEAKER_02 5:32

And JR, for the life of me, I can't understand this, right? Because take baseball, for example. You know who the starting pitcher is at 6 o'clock in the morning in almost every single game, uh, 99% of the games. I mean, if you if you were gonna gamble on baseball and you didn't know who the hell the starting pitcher was, up until a half hour before game time, you would never bet baseball ever.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

That's right. And I remember listen, it before all these legal sports books came out, it used to be that you would bet a baseball game by either putting it in listed or action. Okay. So you would call in when when this is back in the day when you actually called the bookie, right? And you say, All right, give me the New York Yankees, uh, they they give you the line minus 135. All right, uh, weaver listed. That means if weaver doesn't pitch, I can go to bed and and and not worry about uh did weaver start or not? Because if weaver doesn't start, no action. There's no action. Or if you say action, because if you're using an underdog, well then you want to put it in action. Because normally if there's a pitching change, it's gonna be to your favor in most cases. So you put it in action, right? And now you know no matter who pitches, final score is all that matters.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

So you know, and you made a great point with your pivot throughout the course of the year, and and it was it was fantastic what you said, because you know, we're always trying to evolve from a gambling standpoint. So if you look at the four major sports, right? You look at football, basketball, baseball, and hockey, you know, for years and years, even this year as well, um, hockey was the least better on sport, right? No doubt. And you, you know, we we watch so many football games together, so many basketball games together, and it's not the performance of the athletes or the teams, it's the referees. And in hockey, the referees impact that sport the least. Unless they call nine penalties on one team, which they're not gonna do, right? You're gonna you'll get four power plays to two. That national title game that was just played the other night between Michigan and UCU. No, no, Michigan was the better basketball team, but they went to the free throw line about 20 more times.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

It was crazy. I mean, and this is where we talk about that um it's the to me, hockey being the purest sport, meaning I can look at matchups, lineups, and lines against line, and goalie versus goalie, and you know, offensive teams versus defensive teams, and get such a better idea of outcome, which is why uh I believe that we've had such an incredibly good record. I mean, don't get me wrong, there are days or even weeks where just shit don't go your way. That's part of, you know, the ups and downs and ebbs and flows uh, you know, when it comes when it's variants, right, in sports betting. And if you ain't got the heart for that, you ain't got the gut for that, you shouldn't be betting sports. But when you've got so much more ups than downs, like I talked to one of my biggest clients the other day, and granted, we we just did not have as great of a college football season as we would have liked to, right? We've talked about that on the show. And that was at the beginning of the season, the NIL kind of nipped us. And you, I'll give you a ton of credit, man. You really pivoted fast. You figured it out in about five, six weeks that uh a lot of benching going on, a lot of you know, kids that were getting the money were no longer playing through the duration of the game. And that was getting a lot of back doors open, right? So you had to start looking a little more at underdogs than favorites. There was a lot going on there, and I really you did a great job. You pointed it out to me. I was like, wow, that's a just a great point. We were just getting bad beat after bad beat.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

No, but lack of depth, lack of depth is happening right now in in college football and college basketball, like you've never seen before, right? Correct. Um, we we just talked about the NBA, but you know, these officials, you know, especially now gambling is at the forefront, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Makes you scratch your head.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Absolutely. Somebody, and we watched it all year long. And listen, I don't know, I don't know what I did in the past life, and I shouldn't really say that. I have a blessed life, but I think because I have a blessed life in some sort, some areas, right? Like the gods, they just have to mock me and others. Like they have to. You just can't give one guy some good things here and not take it away in another.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

I don't believe that, man. The universe just loves me.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

Oh, you went where's the freaking? I'm glad you're not in this studio right now. You can stay over there. You're on a sunny day. You might get a lightning bolt that hits you. Um, I'm dealing with officials, man. Jesus. I it happened to me again.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

I've never seen you so depressed. I really never saw you. Not even depressed. Angry. Angry, depressed.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

So take you through. You know, we already had the conversation in my first game. One ref's completely screwed the game up. Second game, we actually get a really good crew. But it's like a team, right? Like if you have one nitwit, right, on this crew, he fucks everything up.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Only strong is your weakest link, right?

SPEAKER_02 10:11

And I got this guy, I got this guy on my sidelines. The guy's name is Donnie, and he's a great official. And Donnie knows he's a great official. He's probably the best official that I've ever been around with, right? I got him on my sideline. We complete a pass down to the 10-yard line. Now it's college rules, so it's not NFL rules. So our guy slides and he catches the ball, but he's down. He gets up, he runs into the end zone for a touchdown, they rule it a touchdown. Now that's just referees that got to get together and realize they're playing college rules, right? So no problem. So we know that call's coming back, right? Never in our mind do we think this call is going to be incomplete because it's a complete catch. It's as easy as a catch it could be. They come back incomplete. The back judge is the guy who calls the incomplete. I look at Donnie, I'm like, you're the best official on the field. You had it as a catch. How the hell do you get overturned by that guy? Because he's the one who overturns it. Now, JR, here's what kills you. Here's what kills you about these officials. Here's how here's how bad they are. Get the back judge over to me. I go, you were behind the play, right? Yes. My receiver had his back to you and was blocking the ball from your view, right? The guy goes, yes. I go, well, how the fuck did you see the ball to make it an incomplete pass? He walks away from me. He walks away from me.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Doesn't say a word.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

Can't give me an explanation because he punted the fucking call, man. It's he fucked it up. And it was a major call in the game. And now, so now I got the the head official who's a good guy, too. He's he's a very good official. So now as he's coming over to talk to me, I feel my phone going off.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

My wife is Well, you gotta also add that you said something to the back judge as he was walking away.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

Oh, yeah, I called him a fucking clown. As he was walking away, I called him a fucking clown. So I think he told him that. That's Watson's story. Yeah, yeah, I forgot. That's good. Yeah, as he's walking away, I'm like, you're a fucking clown. You know, get the head official over to me, and um, my phone is going off like crazy. Now, usually I would never look at my phone during a game, you know. Um, my wife is home watching the game on TV, and she's texting me, just sort of replay. It's an absolute catch. It's an absolute catch. Now, my wife is telling me that. And I'm just like, I'm going into this head official, and he felt so bad. You know, the story's a little bit more could get a little bit more long-winded, but he felt so bad the officials came up to me and talked to me after the game. Now, if you coach a football team, you know they don't do that. They they run off the field immediately.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Go make your complaints to the head officials, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Yeah, the the head official and the guy Don. Again, these two guys are very very, very good officials. Uh, they came after me, or they come up to me after the game and like, hey man, send it into the league. I go, no problem. I'm gonna send it into the league. What the fuck does that do for me now? We just lost. We were we were down 3-0, we're going in, we're gonna score a touchdown, I'll take the lead.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

So it's just like I just say that wins the game for you, but it definitely changes momentum. No doubt it changes momentum.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

And it just these refs, see, it's it's not just that they're wrong, they're human. JR, you and I pick games, we're wrong sometimes. We make a mistake, we're human beings, right? It's the conviction with what well with what they're wrong with.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

They're so convinced that they got it right, and they argue you and they fuck it up, and that's if there may be a chance the guy knew he was wrong, and he already overturned it, so you can't overturn the overturn, right? You you look like a complete ass. So maybe he was just like, didn't want to admit to you, hey, I was wrong, you're right. He just walked away from you. That's what I think happened. I incompetence at its highest level.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Absolutely. And and and the the official on my salon, you know, I'm on a first name basis with the guy again. I can't the guy's a great official. I go, Donnie, you're the best official out here. You know, how does the clown overturn you? I don't get it. Why do we lose to the clown? I don't get that. And and he's like, look, it's his call, it was in his vicinity. Nothing we could do, right? Take it up the ass once again.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

His best was a maximum of inefficiency.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Yeah, and then I then I get told that can't call a referee a fucking clown.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Yeah, I mean, you're you're you're a head coach of a of a team. I don't care, semi pro, pro. You can't you come on, man.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

Really?

SPEAKER_01 14:22

You could say, are you a clown, but a fucking clown?

SPEAKER_02 14:25

Yes, yeah, and I stand by what I said because if I ask you something and you don't have the guts to just stay in front of me and give me the explanation, you walk away from me, you show your back to me, you're a fucking clown. He knows he's wrong, right? But you're still a fucking clown. And then um, you know, they come up to me and I get, you know, they got the headsets on the officials, and I was like, Chris, you can't call an official a clown. He did a good job not throwing a flag on you. I was like, would he prefer it fucking idiot? Like, which one? Let me know. Which way could I go? You're a dum-dum. Oh man. It's just, it's just, I don't understand. So I say all that to say this, Jay, all right? I don't make no money coaching this damn team. I'm not uh I'm not a multi-million dollar coach. Right. I'm not a multi-million dollar coach whose job is basically on the line each and every single week, and you are at the the the mercy of idiots. Like, that's the frustrating thing. Like, you have a game that they they blow a call.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Thank God you're not coaching basketball. Oh my god, dude.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

I'll tell you the truth, and I know a lot about football, and I am a good football coach. I don't think I could get through half a season in the NFL as a head coach. They would either fine me, suspend me, fucking tar and feather me from from in the middle.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

But they'd wind up putting you in prison because you'd you'd hit an official on the field.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

Man, I don't know. Yo, these head coaches, they are oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

But they also think about the locker room they got to deal with, the patience that they have to have these days with these fucking pansy asses that are in these locker rooms where everything you say is under a microscope, everything you do is on camera, so they probably say very little at best.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

I mean, you still got to motivate though, but the thing for me is your team is working hard each and every day of the week. I don't owe the officials, I don't owe the other team. I owe my team, so I got to fight these nitwits, right? When they make a stupid call, and I just don't know how to do it because you know, you and I, like we said, we've watched college football on NFL, man, at nauseum this year, and the bad calls that we've seen. And then you got like a guy like Works.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

I don't have ever seen it. You would think it would be worse 30 years ago when I got into the business.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

So much worse now.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Oh, you know what's funny? You go back and you watch clips of um uh like like the old football shows on Saturday morning and and whatnot that they would have, right? Just the intro, every single part of it is a penalty today. Yeah, every single part of the sports machine back in the day, the hard hit, all penalties that would get you fined and and and suspended all have it. It's insane how pussified the the league has gotten.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

It's incredible. But but just from a standpoint of life, like you really can't criticize, and people can't take criticism and constructive criticism. Like if someone comes up to me and says, Hey man, I saw this, why'd you call this play? Okay, what would you see there? And then you go back, look at it on film, and could I have made an adjustment? Could I have called a different play? You know, you get a receiver who drops a ball and be like, hey, man, just make sure you're looking in, keep your hands together, look it in, and they give you a dirty look. Right? Why are you talking down to me? But I gotta be honest, my team, man, they they're not like that at all. My team, they're they're a bunch of grown men, um, very respectful guys, and and they do a great job. I'm I'm more or less just talking about the officials, where you know, you have this job that you're trying to do at the best level you could do it at, and they constantly fuck calls up. Now, there are no point spreads on the games that I coach. Right? Right now you got leagues that are in business with the sports books. Now, every bad call, you got people saying, check their fan, you know, check that account. Because I was about to say it. Check that, check their sportsbook account.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Oh, look, that foul had the game go over, but it's a 22-point game, so there was no reason to foul. Um, did any big money come in on the over on that game? Go back to the I mean, it's it's insane. And you're just not seeing it as often as it's happening. Like back in the day, I believe that the Las Vegas Gaming Commission, because it was so limited as to the action that was coming in and out, and they were the only ones responsible for watching it, it was a pretty good watchful eye, man. You they caught the scams, even though the NCAA, I mean, left and right would just cover shit up. It was insane. But but still, I feel like there was a lot more exposed than what we're seeing today. Like the shit that's gone down in the NBA, as insane as it is, I think that that is nothing more than a mere pinch of what's really going on.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

Yeah, and and look, this is just the sad part part of life, right? It's right the elites, and you can't handicap that. Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Well, well, the elites can do whatever they want, right? In life. Well, that's been, you know. Yeah, they can do whatever they want and get away with it. And it's like right now, these leagues can do whatever they want and get away with it.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

I wish my last name was I wish my last name was Vanderbilt, man.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

It's just crazy what we're watching, and it's just another thing. There's always in our business, JR, there's always things that we have to look at, study, and get by. And then just, you know, two years later, everything gets a mathematical value, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Everything, every category. That's why when people ask me, well, what do you look at most? Well, there is no most, right? There is no one thing that stands out. Of course, money flow, matchups, injuries, starters. I mean, everything matters, right? All the way down to looking at, you know, making your own point spreads. That's something we did for a really long time. We look for differentials in the point spreads because of the the you know different equation that we might be using than versus what the odds maker is doing, right? Now everything seems to be free-flowing. It's they're all looking at the same stuff. They're all looking at um, you know, things that we really, I don't think, consider as much as what they do. We look at it, we have to, but that's the reason why we're so successful, is we're finding things that I think are standalones that they don't even pay attention to.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

And you got to find value too. Like you were great uh for so long here in the NHL. You had a fantastic run that was insane. Um, you gave out a free pick winner last uh last Friday, but you did it for Saturday. It was the under, I believe, in the Minnesota game. I forget who they were playing. Um I came on and you we looked for value. I said, hey, look, you know, whoever wins the Michigan-Arizona game in the Final Four is probably going to be the national title winner. They're gonna be a big favorite on Monday, which we predicted accurately, which wasn't you know hard to do. We just you know punched the numbers and you know it. So instead of you know betting Michigan twice, we just bet Michigan 500 uh to win, you know, uh on on plus 165. You can bet 500, you can bet 5000, you can bet whatever in between. Uh so we try to find value in it in that. And, you know, then what was great for us on Monday night is you had Michigan to win the national title. Well, guess what? You had UConn open up a plus seven and a half, come down to plus six and a half. Now you got a middle. That's it. And the middle hit. So those are certain things that you could do with sports wagering where JR, because we say this on Sports Investors Daily, like everything is stacked against the gambler. Everything truly is now a sports books. You remember when you wanted to buy a half point or a point, minus 120, minus 125? Doesn't even exist.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

I just got done having this conversation with a new client last night. So funny you bring that up. I'm like, do you I said the difference today? Because what it was 15 years ago, there was so much competition. There was thousands of sports books trying to get your business that they would all try to offer you a better deal on the juice. Now, when you go to buy a point or even a half a point back in the day, it cost you 10 cents, right? So it would take the line from minus 110 to minus 120. If it was full. And you're trying to buy it on and off of seven or three, they might charge you an extra 15 cents, right? And then all of a sudden it went to 25 cents. Now you can't buy a half a point. You got to buy a full point, and they're charging you a minimum of 35 to 40 cents for that one point.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

They can do whatever they want.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

It makes it not worth it at that point. Either you get off the game or you go with the side that you think is bringing in the true value. You can't buy the number anymore. It's just it's just not worth it.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

Yeah, and and there was a lot of things through the years. You've been in the business longer than I have. We always try to put the odds in our favor at the best possible price, right? You try to minimize risk. Nothing different than we say on Sports Investor Daily every Saturday throughout the year. Um minimize the risk, try to maximize the profit. You know, now they've made it tough to minimize the risk, and they've made it tough to maximize the profit because so now you got to find the whole other way, which is what we work on. This is what we do day in and day out. We got to find another way.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Especially in basketball games where there's these huge peaks and valleys throughout the game where you can get multiple bets in if you really know what you're doing. Not that we're, you know, uh, you know, soliciting that, but we we've figured out when you get to a certain point in a basketball game or even football games for that matter, buy out. If you got 60, 70% equity, it's just not worth it to risk the entirety of your bet to pick up 30% more equity. Get out of the bet. And then you can go and do something else with the profit, right? Now that great also you on the downside, you have to get out of bets too. You can't just do it when you're going up. Otherwise, now you're limiting potential and maximizing loss. So it's got to be both ways. So if a game starts going against you and you have a good enough value where you're only losing 30% of your bet, and you know, things are just not looking the way they should, get out of the bet.

SPEAKER_02 23:57

So it's funny, it's funny how some sports gamblers think, you know, we had a guy, I think it was a couple weeks ago during the uh the um the tournament where we had him buy out for like 63%. I think the guy had a $10,000 bet and he made like $6,300. Well, the team we gave him actually ended up winning and covering, right? So the guy was like, I lost $3,700. Like, no, you didn't. You won $6,300. You're you guys are looking at this the whole your main goal is to make money. That is your main goal.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

So if that team turns around and loses, does that mean we made you 12-4? You gotta double the number, right? I mean, just and that's just not the the mentality of the sports batter. We know that. I've been dealing with them forever. A lot of I I I love my clients. They've been they're just they understand it because I think I explain it good when we start off. Um, and you know, even when things don't go great, they're just so patient. They know where it's going, they stay patient. Um, and if you stay the course on anything, especially with the ebbs and flows of sports betting, you can really kill it. You can make a lot of money. You gotta you gotta know when to strike, you gotta understand and and know a good strategy to pull back when things don't go great, but when they're good and they they're usually much better than they're not, um, you got to understand and know how to utilize progression and press. And that's what we do better than anybody, using house money against them to really maximize those profits. And that that's what matters.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Yeah, we say it all the time. I mean, I say it. I mean, this is a hard way to make an easy living, right? It really is, right? So, you know, um, anyone out there who listens to our radio show or sees this podcast and thinks that we're this is a get rich quick scheme, like forget about it. Don't don't even be involved, like it's not. You're gonna lose some units, you're gonna win some units. You know, look at you know, April.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

How many times have we turned 10,000 into 150K in two or three months? It's absolutely time and time and time and time again, right? Absolutely, you know, but sometimes that 10K goes down to 6,000 before it goes back up to 15 or 30,000.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

You know, and that's what I mean when I say the peaks and the valleys and the ebbs and the flows of the business.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Well, you said it, I don't know, 15, 20 minutes ago. You said if you would have the stomach for it or the heart for it, whatever terminology you use, yeah, get the hell out, man. Like, you know, me, I I always said, like, I I hate a salary cap in sports. Like, I hate it. I don't like it, right? Because I don't want in my life, your life as well, you don't want to be capped on what you can make, right? You want to make, you know, if you're if you're a salesman and you're responsible for bringing in 10 million, right? And whatever your percentage is, I don't care. It's irrelevant, right? But let's say you're getting paid 20%, right? And you're responsible for bringing in 10 million, and then your boss comes to you and was like, well, you know, I'm gonna cap what you make. So you made your 2 million, but the next three or four million you bring in, you don't get paid on. What the f why would you why would you try to bring money in?

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Well, I I wouldn't show up to work, right?

SPEAKER_02 26:46

It's a waste of time.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

I mean, right. I made my I made my two million, and now you tell me I'm working for free. No, I'm good. Yeah, it's a waste of time.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

I'm good. So, like you have a contract, some some players outperform their contract, some players underperform their contract, right? Which is most of the time. Well, oh fine, but for me, I don't want to be capped on anything, right? I don't want to be capped, and um, it's just it's just amazing that you have certain leagues that are trying to do this in our industry. The reason why I love it, we're not capped. I can either win as much or lose as much.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

I think the salary cap in the NFL has kept it where uh I hate it, but we've had more parity in the NFL than any other league without a real cap.

SPEAKER_02 27:29

Okay, I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm gonna baseball doesn't have a real cap.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

You know, because we say I'm in the minority. But that's not even really true.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

That's not true.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

They buy teams, man. It's not in the NFL, you got to stay within the parameters of a certain budget in order to be able to get there. And all teams get that same budget. That to me makes a much better product for us, the consumer. You're right. For the player, it sucks. Sucks balls, but it's not like I'm gonna feel bad for guys that are making 15 million a year.

SPEAKER_02 28:02

I have no argument to that, right? We're not gonna feel bad for millionaires and and who are playing a sport that they love and they're extremely talented at. I'm not gonna debate that. Um, I'm gonna be in a minority with this one, uh, as I generally am, right? And I have no problem with it. I hate parody. I don't like it, right? I don't like parody.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Is there anything we ever agree on? Hold on. How do you how do you not like parody in sports? Hate it. Hate it. I love the idea that a team that sucks the next year can go deep in the playoffs, even make a run. I mean, look at Seattle, man, what they did.

SPEAKER_02 28:37

So I'm gonna bring up the OKC Thunder. I'm gonna bring them up. All right, small market team, right? OKC is a small market team.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

Um genius general manager.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Presty is probably the best out there. Um, they they have a couple great trades where, you know, Shea, everyone forgets, was involved with the Paul George trade. Everyone forgets that. Um, so here's a team that managed their uh finances, managed their draft capital and um their scouting. They did it better than anyone. And now they're they're gonna be around forever. But now, unfortunately, because there's a salary camp. Now I know you got bird rights in the NBA and all this nonsense, you might not be able to keep this team that you built, right? Because you're gonna you can only pay them so much. I hate that. I would love to see OKC become a dynasty. I would love to see them win four or in the next five times. I would really love that, right? And then you get the root for that in sports. Well, then be better, right? So so be better, manage your team better, like Utah. Utah is never gonna they're they're done. They because they have bad management, bad coaching, bad everything.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

They can That's why I think what Kansas City has done or what Tom Brady did through his career is so magnificent and not something that you're going to see on a regular basis. You're not gonna have constant dynasties. Whereas in basketball, uh, if there was no salary cap, or in baseball, you're gonna have that because there's a cap, but then they say, well, you can go over the cap if you give money to all the smaller franchises through luxury tax, which of course the Dodgers and the Yankees want to get rid of, but that's what they do. They'll spend five times more than what the Royals spend, just so that they can crush them and every bit of their competition. To me, that's unfair. I don't think one team, I mean, if you're a great player, are you gonna go play uh, you know, in in in Minnesota or are you gonna go play in LA? It's just well and if you if there's no cap, they can have all the best players in one spot. So I like it.

SPEAKER_02 30:40

I think it's no, you you you listen, you have to have some sort of system, right? You can't just say you can go spend whatever. Like, I don't mind the luxury tax system. We said this a couple months ago. The problem with the luxury tax system, especially in baseball, is these these teams get their money kicked back to them and then they don't put the money back into the team.

unknown 30:55

True.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

That's why they suck every year. They're just taking what the rich do and and they're just putting it in their pocket. But if you remember back to when the Yankees were dominant back in the early, the late 90s, early 2000s, you know, they had one three World Series in a row going for their fourth. Arizona was the better baseball team that year. And when Arizona knocked them off, it was like, wow, Goliath just got beat. Just like if if the Dodgers get beat this year, that's gonna be a story, right? But when you just have one team like here, case in point, like the NBA might have a dynasty on their hands right now with OKC. They did everything in their power to prevent it, and right now the NBA is at its lowest that it's ever been. Ever been. Ever been. What was the NBA formed on? You and I say this all the time, you fucking morons. It was formed on dynasties. You had the Celtics, then you got to the Lakers into the 80s, the Lakers and the Celtics in the 80s, then you got to the 90s when you had the Bulls, then you got to the 2000s, when the Lakers and Spurs won five, and everybody was.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

But these were competitive. Like they they were competitive, they were teams that were still dynasties. They were there. It felt like there was more competition. There's no one competing with Oklahoma City.

SPEAKER_02 32:11

No, they they it it unless they they suffer an injury. Maybe San Antonio gives them a series in the Western Conference Finals if both teams make it that far, and they probably should. Listen, no one's no one's should beat OKC short of an injury this year, and then they're set up with draft capital for next year. They got guys under contract, so they did it the right way. So the whole point of this end around we just did is if OKC somehow gets penalized for running things the right way. I I just have a problem with that. I I like I don't like that.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

I loved your idea, by the way. You meant you mentioned it a few weeks ago on what they should do in the NBA NBA if they want to fix teams tanking. Yeah, it's giving yeah, that that was it's so easy.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

Uh yeah, just take the team that missed the playoffs. The the first team that missed the playoffs, listen, it it's a it's a ping pong ball system in in the NBA. So just give the team that missed the playoffs, the first team, the most ping pong balls and just work down. It doesn't guarantee that they're gonna be the number one or number two pick. We've seen it happen numerous times where they haven't been, but you just give them that and you just work in reverse. I mean, you got teams in the NBA right now, you're charging full price, right? And the fans are seeing a shit product, and no one seems to care. No, no one seems to care. I mean, you you you mentioned it, you know, 20 minutes ago. You got yeah, I mean, there last night there was I think there was a 22, 23 point spread. Like that's insane.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

I've never seen that in the NBA. 20 plus points. Are you shitting me?

SPEAKER_02 33:43

You had the Nets Pacers game last night. The five that the Nets started, if you combined all five of them, they averaged 35 points a game. That's who started for the Brooklyn Nets last night. Who the fuck is paying money to go see that? Nobody.

SPEAKER_01 34:02

Right. Yeah, nobody. They probably tell everyone the stands. Everyone come down, so it looks like at least there's a few people in the stands. It's insane.

SPEAKER_02 34:10

You uh you got any free picks on deck for I know there's no NHL tonight. You like anything for tomorrow?

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Nothing tonight, but there's a huge board tomorrow. Uh, great board last night. Um, I'm gonna give just the the easiest game on the board for tomorrow. Edmonton goes over in just about every matchup. I we've talked about this 25-26 games over 500. Uh, as far as overs versus unders, they're on the road, taking on the Kings. Both teams are rested for at least a day. Uh, it's just gonna be a score fest. Figure it to, you know, bare minimum, five to two, which just get you there. But I'm looking six to three, seven to three. This is going way over. Six and a half is the number. Uh, but don't be afraid, lay the lumber.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

That's for Saturday. There's obviously no NHL tonight. Tomorrow, there is no NBA. They finish their season on Sunday with every team playing, or their regular season anyway. Um, tonight, bunch of games, but again, by the time you see this podcast, not going to give you anything for tonight because you might miss it. Um, JR just gave you the over in the Edmonton game for Saturday. I know JR will be back in studio next week. We also have some former NFL players that were looking to line up to come and give us some some information on the upcoming NFL draft, which is uh, yeah, we'll have that. And uh a couple other people we're working on, and we think the uh the uh listeners out there and the viewers will love. So uh JR, yeah, go close this out.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

Guys, be safe, have fun, and let's do what we always do. Let's go out there and make some money.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

Have a great weekend, everyone.