[MUSIC] >> Fan Morning Joe's 4759 to the fan, Ben Anderson. >> Bryan Gunning. >> Bryan Gunning. >> They're covering co-hosts in the last three days. >> How's it going? >> I didn't know, normally I endeavor about what happened while I was gone. >> You do? >> I know. >> If I'm not on the show, it might as well not as not be happening. >> I'm so- >> I'm so aware and I'm like, I'm bedridden. And I'm just like, I'll let the team down, I'll let my head hurts. But I should have scrouched some takes together. >> Yeah, no, so what happened? You had a little Danielle, I had imagined making out Marquesi Pocus head in here. >> No, Sam McKee was in here yesterday. >> You guys dragged him out of bed in the morning and it was cuz I was sick not cuz you weren't here. >> Yeah. >> Same. Ryan Fabro, I know this is my own doing. We're having a meeting about this. I love working with McKee, I love working with you too. I love working with all our co-hosts, of course. >> Yeah, though he was bright eyed and bushy tailed. He enjoyed waking up at that time, he said. >> Maybe, maybe again, I don't know. Maybe as a one off, maybe he enjoyed it. >> I don't know. Anyways, good to have you back. >> Yeah, I'm happy to be back. I can tell I'm still like working my way back cuz normally I'm the king of screaming in people's faces at 554 in the morning. But I did have a moment, the last two minutes before the show where I thought to myself, you and Hazo are yelling at each other right now. >> Is that right? That's how I felt. >> And not disdainfully. >> It was just, no, no, no, it's just like, sports, have you had an opinion before? Opinions. >> I think it was about traffic. >> Yeah, like, okay, so what, again, it shows how little I was out. >> What? >> I was out. I was just like. >> That was literally five minutes ago. >> And I go. I'm loud and I turn myself up. >> Did you have a moment of self-reflection? You're like, oh, it's not so good. >> No, I did have a moment. It wasn't quite self-reflection cuz I think self-reflection would imply that I imply that I then, you know, like reflect. I was just like. >> I mean, it doesn't imply that. >> It is. >> That's what it is. >> Well, it's like, I did have the thought of, eh, must suck for others. Am I gonna change my ways? Probably not. But must suck for others. Wake up. >> Like, all I actually came to that realization is bad job by you, brain-gunning. Wake up. Be ready to be screamed at and have people screaming at you and do some screaming. >> Yeah, what we were talking about is just driving into it. Some days it's fine driving in here. It's weird how many cars there are on the road before five o'clock in the morning. Like lots of people, I guess, work as early as we do. >> Yeah. >> But some people coming home from work. >> I don't know if it's the Friday of it all, Friday of a long weekend, the crazies were out there on the road today. Like had a guy, like eyes in the left lane and there's some people ahead of me. And I was, listen, I wanted to go a little bit faster as well, but there was a deal. Line up in the left lane, I had somebody behind me, not just give me the high beams. Give me like 45 consecutive high beams and then take a break and then another 45 consecutive high beams. So I mean, what you have to do in that is you got to hit the break a little bit. Like there's no leave in the lane, you got to get, oh, you thought 110 was slow. Try 100. >> Yeah. >> Right on the nose. >> I don't know. It just felt like today the crazies were out there, but we were in a different wave of traffic. You didn't sense it. >> We were, although I did sense this, I don't know if you do this again. It's like I am constantly, not just like, I feel like I say this and it makes me sound so high and mighty. I'm just like very neurotic and can't stop like over analyzing things. But I like to do a little, little count when I drive in the building like, do we have some cars here? And I don't know if it's just the Olympics of it all, like people are working in this building right now. Our little parking section, I know, it was just Friday in the summer. That is dare I say 700 times more traffic in our garage at this time on a Friday morning than ever. Also, that was great because you just did what I do every day when you're not here is just start the show with my grievances of my drive in. So good job by you. You're really playing to me. >> Speaking of the Olympics, the Canadian men's basketball team wrapping up group play today with a rematch against Spain, the team they beat at the FIBA World Cup to advance to these Olympic games, of course, Geordi Fernandez's home country, Canada 2 and 0 with wins over Greece and then, of course, the win over Australia. But they're currently seated third as we head to the quarterfinals. They've qualified automatically for the quarterfinals. They're behind the United States, which is like a point differential of a quadrillion. >> I'm sure I do not surprise. >> In Germany is second, they've got a positive points differential that's higher than Canada. If Germany wraps up its group play against France and Whambi, so that's no guarantee, Spain hasn't punched their ticket. There's a lot on the line for Spain in this game as well. So it's very important that Canada not only win this game, but win it by a lot to leap frog Germany potentially and end up in the top two. Because the top two seeds, and I don't remember if you were doing the show when we had Dan Schulman on and he was explaining the whole thing with us. >> Was not here. >> Well, Dan rightly pointed out because I was like, Canada has to win silver or this has been a disappointment, which I think they're the second best team. >> Sure. >> And we haven't seen all of them. And I know Nicola Yogech plays for Serbia and that's the defending silver medalist that the World Cup and Germany is defending gold medalist. But I don't care before you know Jamal Murray in that tournament. >> Before you sell me my opinion with Dan Schulman's, I would just like to agree, or I would like to state I don't agree with you. I don't think it's silver medal or bus for me personally. >> I think anything shy of that is like we're talking about relative disappointments anyways. But it doesn't like that's true, but not if you play the Americans in some other game. >> Yeah, but so this is what I'm talking about. This game is important to end up in the top two seeds in that number one pot, which would assure any matchup against the United States of America would only come in a gold medal game for Canada. So it is extremely important for a shade kill just Alexander and company to beat Spain by not a little, but as many as possible. Because that's the tiebreaker. And to that I would say, it sucks, I know that this is the way these FIFA tournaments work and it's not like you can play like a tiebreaker game, but it is antithetical to anything where, well, honestly, that we teach our children when it comes to sports. It's like, it's like, yeah, okay, it's also not only about wins and losses how you play the game, but it's like, it's very binary. It's like either you win or you lose and if you win, you don't run it up, you just shake hands, you'd be honorable about it. You got to run it up against Spain today. I just, I wish there was another way to break the tie other than point differential. Yeah, cause it's so tough, it's so tough with, you know, unlike hockey or soccer, the, you know, the goals versus points is so much more definitive. If you get down to a tiebreaker of, you know, man, like, I imagine different tournaments do it different ways, but it's like you have the point differential and then usually it's like goals against and then goals for or vice versa. That feels like a more tangible thing because a goal in soccer or hockey is so much more of an entity than one basket or two points or three points in a basketball game. So I don't like the idea of just going to one of those metrics either. I think the reason why I can't sit here and say it's a bust. So whether it's unless it's at least a silver medal is because of exactly this. If Canada could just go win their group and then all of a sudden they avoid the states until the final, then we're sitting here and saying, okay, great, but that's not what's going to happen. They're very well go undefeated in the round robin and still find themselves in a position where they have to face America because they didn't run it up enough on Spain. So that's the biggest reason why if the tiebreaker was something else, if we had a better way, I could get to the place where, hey, silver medal or bus, but I'm not going to, maybe I should, but I'm not going to kill Canada for beating Spain, but not doing it by 35 points to give them the point differential. If they need that part of it, I just can't get myself kind of worked up to. Will I be disappointed? Of course. Do I want them being able to avoid the states and set up the gold medal game? We'd all of course, of course, but I can't sit here and look at it as a disappointment. If they beat Spain and it's by 12 and then all of a sudden they have the states in the sent me. I can't get disappointed. Yeah, that is the one caveat to my being disappointed if Canada finishes anywhere other than in that gold medal game, the United States of America who again didn't play Jason Tatum for one second in an Olympic game in the round robin. He played against those Sudan, by the way, shout out to him and also let me throw this in there. I'd feel differently about it. If it was not Canada going perfect, if it was, hey, you stubbed your toe against an Australia, a Spain, a one of these teams, and then you face the states and the semis. I can't sit here and feel the same way about it as if you go perfect in group play. Yeah. Well, and that's part of the reason why I'm of the belief now that a silver medal is the goal for this team because we're getting more of a sample, right? Like we saw them at the feeble World Cup and yes, they beat the Americans in the bronze medal game despite the shocking shot by Mikhail Bridges at the end of regulation to send it over that and they still held on and won in in overtime to win a bronze medal. But during that tournament, they lost to Brazil. Remember, that's what created the winner take all game for Canada against Spain in an albiter against Japan as we speak, Brazil is OK. Great. Yeah. Brazil's not very good. They're on the same level as Canada. Canada scored like 60 somewhat points in that game. At that point, you're like, well, how good is Canada, really? Even with Shea Gilger's Alexander, but they won that game against Spain. They beat the Americans. Of course, they lost to Germany before that to have to lose their shot at a gold medal in that tournament. But now that we've seen them play legit, the defending bronze medal in Australia and beat them not like handily, but 10 points in a close game like just pulled away because they're the better team that beat the honest and grace, which is an inferior opponent. And then we're going to see them against Spain again, a team that they just beat them in the World Cup and a Spanish team that's already lost once in this tournament to Australia, right? And again, it's fighting tooth and nail. This is what I've seen, not just Shea Gilger's Alexander, but the Dorture Chamber, Dylan Brooks, RJ Barrett is the leading scorer for team Canada. Yeah, that's the second best basketball playing nation in this tournament. It's just that on paper, there's no question about it in my mind. No, there's not. I mean, heading into it, I think the other biggest curiosity. I mean, sorry, Germany, winning the feeble World Cup gets you exactly as much credit as you've gotten. And quite frankly, it's as much as you deserve. And I'm fine with that was France, right? That was the one where you could have seen a world where in right before our eyes, when Banyama went from, wow, what is it going to be when he owns this league to to see on this league right now? That was entirely in the realm of possibility. And I'm not putting what's happened to France in this tournament is on when Banyama by any means here. But I also look at it as just, it hasn't gone the same way it has for Canada. I understand how you then end up at silver, but just when the boogeyman of the States is out there and there is still, no, no, I understand that, but I don't, I don't look at them as though they've been this power of the tournament and everyone is ready to hand them the silver, silver medal at this point in time. The thing I, the thing I come back to it this is that unlike other sports, and again, like pick any of the ones we follow, like hockey, we're getting back to it, soccer, we've just been through a big window of it. There is no other sport that we follow in this way where the gap is so clear between one and two. And I think that's just what kind of highlights the way we feel about this tournament as well. Because again, like pick your soccer, like, okay, Argentina, whatever is the best team in the world, they look at what it took for them to get past France and the World Cup final. Look how arduous the Copa was for, for them in hockey. It's like, we're going to see, I don't think Canada or any country is going to cakewalk to the four day through the four nations face off. But with this sport, it is just so different where America is just so clearly more dominant. Head, shoulders, quite frankly, like knees and toes above everybody else. So this is not an elimination game for Canada against Spain. They've already clinched their spot in the quarterfinals. But there are stakes, right? There's statements to be made and quite factually, I mean, if Germany loses to France, they just need a win to end up in that second seed in that same pod as the Americans. Where's your level of nervousness when this team plays? Because it was very high, obviously, at the World Cup, because they were trying to finally realize something in this golden generation that's been nothing but disappointment, including a last ditch Olympic qualification tournament on home soil, in which they lost to Chetia. Yes. So we get through that on the strength of Shay Giljes Alexander against Spain. And we've seen what he's been capable of, not being the leading scorer, but being the engine of this team through two wins. Like, where's your level of nervousness considering you have SGA? The nerves that SGA eases do come back when I sit there and look at the obvious hole that Canada still has on this roster, and it's just size, like they haven't really dealt with size that can punish you. I mean, obviously, Giannis is that, but it was very much a case of, okay, Giannis will get his and we'll see what can happen around him. My nervousness comes from the matchups that Canada is just clearly going to struggle with, be it against to France, be it against the States. There may be a couple of other countries that can kind of give them that, but the nerves of will this group be able to get it done? No, if it's a close game late, if they've been able to answer those questions early on in the game, I feel like Canada has as good a closer in any as SGA. I feel like this version of RJ Barrett, I'm not ready to extrapolate this to NBA RJ Barrett and all of a sudden, what's the Raptors big three really look like? But we talked about this with when I was on the show with Doug Smith earlier in the week that he is maybe the guy who is the most comfortable playing FIBA basketball of all the Canadians and it's kind of showing in spades. So as much as this rightfully so should be about SGA because of how transcendent he's been, the thing that gives me or that eases my nerves the most is that I know there's help coming for him. I knew it was going to be there defensively with what Brooks is capable of doing in Dort. I didn't, I thought there was a chance Barrett could score like this, but I wasn't certain and that's probably been the biggest thing that's changed for me. Yeah. He's in his free throws as well. Yeah. Shay Gill just Alexander puts me in his situation where, yeah, it's a close game in the fourth quarter, five minutes to go. You know you have the best, you have the best player on the floor, unless you're playing the Americans and I guess unless you're playing Serbia, but last I checked, y'all just didn't get it done in the postseason. So I would defer to the guy that finished just behind him in MVP voting, the guy that Shaq said should have won the MVP just to ask Shaq. So I mentioned it, Jordan Fernandez against his home nation, Spain, Jesus, it's not the first time he's faced them, faced in the World Cup. That's right. Beat the brains in. Yeah. I mean, came back from 12 points down to win W scoreboard. Um, and I also understand that like this happens in all international sports, right? We're an American head coach of the Canadian men's soccer team. That's right. We had a British coach of the women's soccer team wave goodbye and before her, a British man. Yeah. In charge of the women's national team, but that's because there's, there's not an overabundance of high level soccer coaches in this country and maybe like there's a growing group of them that we can pick from, like even your brothers, you would like somebody from the nation that they're representing to be of that citizenship. I think it depends on the country, but go ahead. I don't want it to rail your point. Like in, in hockey, say like Bruce Boudreau was the head coach of team USA, right, facing Canada in a gold medal game. Would that not feel a little bit weird? I think it'd only be weird for Boudreau. I don't think the Americans think about it for one second. Okay. Um, Bruce Cassidy is the American saying he was the head coach of team Canada. Would that not feel weird? Yeah. We'd feel weird. That's why I said, I think it totally depends on the country. I think there are, this is a very like binary one or zero thing for me. Are you a country of that ilk in that sport that you have had not just success and not just talent, but have had a track record of it for so long that there's an infrastructure and coaching plans and all of that in place, then I think it should be your guy, all things being considered. Do I think is it, is there a chance the best hockey coach in the world is not Canadian? Of course there's a chance, but is it so different that we can't find someone with the right passport to coach the men? Yeah. Well, of course we can, but I think that when we look at basketball, quite frankly, we did the thing for a while of like, okay, Jay, Triano, I'd love you. Let's bring it and all these people were the right person at the time for the program. But at a certain point in time, you look around and you go, okay. You go just Alexander. Oh, okay. RJ, but your mom, or Lou door, and you say, we got to step up. If there's a Canadian coach that can do as good a job as Jordan Hernandez, I'd love to see it. But I also don't think it gets to be a proving ground for you to prove that you should have to go. Jordan Fernandez had no previous NBA head coaching experience. He had no previous NBA head coaching experience, but he was certainly someone tracking towards that goal and then not because of the job he was given. But I also don't know that this was not somebody that they completely unearthed. This was somebody on that trajectory to become that guy. So I interviewed for the Raptors, Joe. Right. So this is how I look at it. I think you're kind of a country that absolutely should have one of your guys coach the team. And I think that this is part of what I go back to the difference of basketball versus kind of all these other sports we talk about is not that the world hasn't taken amazing stride since the 92 dream team. But the chasm between what USA basketball is and what the rest of the world is is still massive compared to soccer, compared to hockey, compared to the other international sports we think of. And that's why I just think you still see a lot of this. And I understand, you know, Jordan Fernandez is not American. He's Spanish and I understand that. But I think that's why you see this so much more. And again, like we wouldn't we don't feel any type of way that it's not a Canadian coaching our soccer teams because we're not a soccer nation. And that's fine. Eventually, a hundred years from now, when Canada has a missed a world cup going back to 2020, then guess what? I'd like to think at that point in time, we've built up an infrastructure and a program to where we can have a Canadian coach, but I don't think you should shoehorn someone in there. No, you shouldn't shoehorn. But yeah, like eventually, yeah, it's a good point about being at the top of the pecking order in that international sport and having the wealth of options, like the English national soccer team. Yeah. English guy. Yeah. Is their head coach because they're England and it'd be weird if they didn't, right? I would. I would think to me it would certainly feel weird. I'm not saying it's weird that Geordie Fernandez is the head coach of Canada, basketball. And he's done an incredible, incredible job. But yeah, at a certain point, like Steve Nash was available, he has head coaching experience in the NBA. He's out there. But you're right. J. Triano has been a head coach and Geordie Fernandez is obviously one of the best young up-and-coming head coaches that is going to get his first kick of the can in the big chair at the NBA level, just saying it must be like, even if it's 0.1% awkward and weird for the second, what I think is the second best nation in the Olympics to not have a head coach that is from this nation. And that would be if I were running Team Canada basketball, I'd be trying to unearth that next guy. Hmm. I have such a tough time at that because I think, and I think part of it is that Fernandez has done such a good job with the program. It's that I'm just seeing results that have worked here. We just tried the thing where we shoehorned not the Canadian, but the closest thing that we could find to one into that job and Nick Nurse, and it was going to be a synergy with the Raptors and how did that work out? You have to be careful what you wish for. And I'm not saying you're ready to just like find the first guy who says A with the Canadian passport and get them to roll the ball out there for SGA, understand what you're getting at, but they're right off the back of trying to find their Canadian or Canadian adjacent or whatever. And it didn't particularly work out very well with Nick Nurse. No, they lost the Chetchia. It was good for. It's good for Nurse, though. I played with the R. Kels, so he's very excited about that. So Shane Gilchis Alexander is very good, and he's the reason why he should feel comfortable in a close game in the fourth quarter in any of these games at the Olympics. He is a free agent after the 26-27 season in the NBA. He'll be 29 then. Mm-hmm. I mean, there's been no indication that he wants to be anywhere other than Oklahoma City is a team on the rise, they're making the postseason now. Nobody showed up to his house being like, "Where's the crypto king? Show him to me." Yeah. That didn't happen either. That did happen. Well, no, but not there, I'm saying. Oh, in Oklahoma City. Yeah. That's true. But that did happen to him. Yes. So, again, he'll be 29 when he's hitting free agency. I'm not saying it's likely he's leaving Oklahoma City, but I don't think anybody was saying it was likely that Giannis was going to leave Milwaukee. They said it was a possibility. Mm-hmm. And if it's a possibility, you keep your powder dry so you're ready to pounce if it becomes a free agent. The Raptors did that. Mm-hmm. Is that the situation with Shagil just Alexander? You can't plan for, you know, two years, three years from now. Mm-hmm. But is that, do you think, occupying any part of beside Jerry's brain? I actually just think it kind of works out perfectly. I think there's a small little part of you, Jerry, that, like, I'm sure, like, you have to, somebody like him thinks of all possibilities and all angles and what are the thousand different ways this could break. The thing I look at is I do wonder if you don't have to plan and it just kind of works out well. The three years from now is the timeline of when you want to blow this thing up. If the barns quickly, you know, group and Barrett isn't working for you, like, that just feels like the kind of natural timeline situation that Shagil just Alexander is not becoming a raptor. No, no, no. But then you... He's not going to join a team that's rebuilding. Well, I completely understand that. But then this is the thing. You've made your bed with this core. It's either going to hit and take off in a way where you say, "Hey, these three guys are... They're fine. Imagine if SGA was atop the pyramid here." And you go about that. Like, I... Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. No, no, but I think you can kind of chew gum at the same time. Like, what I'm getting at is you're in the perfect position to just kind of let this core matriculate and then you're there. I think the thing with Janus is that, or to tie it to Janus is that obviously there was the kind of personal connection with you, Jerry, the thing that made it also more likely is that it was the box. And I know we want a title there and I understand that. But the box was not... Yeah, in Oklahoma City. Well, it's the thunder. I'm not saying it's Milwaukee. I'm saying it's the box that was not some Trevor treasure trove of assets where every single year they seem to have four picks, two of which are laid in the lottery. And there's some other 21-year-old guy that the entire league is clamoring for. I think the biggest difference between the two situations, and if Janus wasn't going to be swayed by the worst one of these, I think it's hard to see SGA being swayed by the best, is that there's just no world where the thunder are not in an incredible situation. Unless Sam Presti completely screws this up at every turn and just starts giving away assets for nothing, there's just no world. You throw in the privacy aspect of it where he still gets to be SGA. I think this national team stuff is going to give him the kind of pop back home if that is something that he truly wants. He's already won. Not that this is like a thing that matters to him, but he's already won the Northern Star Award. He's supposed to move back home to be recognized as our greatest athlete. I'm not saying it's never going to happen, but I'm pretty close to saying it's never going to happen. Raptor should always keep half an eye on it, sure, but very, very pie in the sky. I think Jamal Murray is infinitely more likely than this. Well, Jamal Murray is extension eligible right now, and he's really going to sign an extension that takes him past the timeline in which Shea Gilchis Alexander becomes a free agent. Of course, it's pie in the sky. So is he honest? But like, nothing was on the record about this, but like pretty clearly, Messiah Jerry had visions of him landing in his lap and being in a, and he, the way he organized that roster was in a way that made it malleable enough that if the opportunity presented itself, they get at Yannis and Dentalkumpo. Same deal with Shea Gilchis Alexander. What you do is you don't like just keep the cupboard's bare so that you can add just Shea Gilchis Alexander, what you have to do is the same thing you did with Kawhi Leonard. You have to build a team that's constantly in the postseason in the top half of the playoff field, but one that, yeah, I mean, that's actually the, the really, the only thing you need to do is make sure that you are relevant and good enough that you're one superstar away from being a championship contender. Yeah, the, the thing you never ever do in these scenarios, and I think they've learned their lesson because they've completely pivoted on how to build a team is you never go full New York Knicks circa like mid aughts LeBron KD free agency. She'd never go full Knicks where he'd say, Hey, there's nobody on the books. You want your brother to run. I mean, maybe that would be exactly the selling point they need for LeBron. If like, would you like your son to run point, but that was always the problem in the past with these teams when they've gone completely scorched or thinking that was the, the way to get these guys to sign on was like, Hey, you have carte blanche. You can tell me who you want. We'll go get them. We got all the money in the world. And as we've seen part of it is because of the blowback that's come into some athletes faces when they have tried to orchestrate everything is that players don't want that anymore. They definitely want to have some say and once they're there, they want to be asked about moves that are being made and potentially even have a little say or sway in that way, but they don't want to be for the most part. They don't want to be the GM starting an expansion franchise from scratch and forever. That was the blueprint of how to chase free agents and it kind of never worked. Yeah. The last one before we take a break here, this is a tough one, especially for you, because you're a hockey puck. Would you sacrifice Canada losing each matchup to the United States at the four nations face off? So I don't know, maybe that's finishing out of the medals, but certainly not winning it. And the Americans hoisting that trophy over their head this upcoming February for a gold medal for the Canadian men's basketball team at the Olympics right now. Okay, can I, can I like script a couple of things? Like if I accept that deal, can I, can I take the script and add a couple of flourishes of my own? Okay. So if I'm going to take this deal, like we're negotiating here, you're God in this instance, how lucky for you. I'm like, okay, hey, got like that man. That is truly a devil's bargain. Why were you talking to that guy? First things first, it has to be over the States in the gold medal game. Yes. That's kind of assumed, but you're right. No, you're right. Or you have to beat the United States. No, I'm actually going to go one further. Like I need, if I am making this, this truly awful devil's bargain that you're forcing upon me and I do love the one aspect of it. So that's why I'm willing to go through this is that I have to beat America in the gold medal game. And I can't have like America so deep, five guys could get hurt and they should not ever be able to use that. And she used to be like, Kevin Durant has to be fully healthy and no, he does, no, nobody doesn't know. Look, Ben, you're asking me when I take it. I told you I'm making some of that. I have lived through one. Oh, you were so happy. Kevin Durant was hurt. All you bad people in Canada cheering. I cannot do that again. Kevin Durant will be healthy. We'll be leaving the game talking about how strong he looks, but God can the one and how strong did Katie look? So that is part of it. The other, so I am accepting this deal, but that has to has to be part of it. RJ Barrett has got to go nuts in that game if I'm going to have this deal as well. I'm getting greedy, man. You're asking me to make candle lose. RJ Barrett's got to go nuts. And then on the other side of things, now people might not think this is what I want, but if I have to have this happen, this is what it's going to be is Austin Matthews going absolutely insanely nuclear in every one of those games and it's burning him and it's burning him to the great him being like, Oh man, man, like people cared about these games. We want them somehow. He's in golf for the Americans. You know what? I'm not going to get so greedy that I'm asking Joe wall to play extra hockey games. Okay, let's live in some semblance of reality, but Matthews is lighting it up. They brought like Matthew Nye's to be a black ace with the team. That's more realistic to be the Joe wall playing extra hockey that he's not required to and it's spurns Matthews. He's looked around. This is like, he's talking to Americans like this, what the playoff feels like. No, not even close. He's like, yeah, I'm pretty close. I'm going to try this in the playoffs. This is great. And then it's spurns Austin Matthews and the Leafs to like, I'm not going to get so greedy as a cup, but like a respectable playoff run. Oh, so you basically come down to yeah, it's fine. I would sacrifice the four nations cup for Canada win hold at the Olympics in basketball if it also me and the Leafs like win a couple of rounds in the most than the the last part of this, the cementing part of this is that then Canada after licking our wounds and having a summer of summits just put a whooping on the world at the 2026 Olympic Games and we get revenge goal. Oh, okay. You added too many caveats. No, I didn't. That's exactly how they should play out. Yeah. Give us something. You're a traitor. If you don't take that deal. You're a sports fan and you don't take that deal, especially if I'm going to give you gold and the one that actually matters. No offense. The four nations face off. Obviously not him. I'm the best we got. Okay. God, I'm going to be so insufferable during that. He'll be like other sports. I'll be like, absolutely not. Yeah. But I don't even need those caveats, honestly. You don't need it. Okay. Power is what? Give me the best caveat I gave you. What is it? Is it the bad thing? No, it's beating the Americans. Yeah. Okay. But that was like kind of implied. Okay. One of the most historic sporting international sporting events of my lifetime. Honestly, you get LeBron James, Steph Curry, Jason, like Kevin Durant, and then Davis. Joellen beat. Oh, there you go. Turn on. He will be. Okay. This is like a, this is like a bit of a deep cut for heat era is LeBron. Joellen beat will turn into Mario Chalmers. They would just start screaming at him like it is. I mean, because it probably would be all his fault. It would be. He'd be crying. Dora. Dora. Can it win in gold that any hockey thing is never historic? No. We've done it. Yeah. Hey, I want to do it again. Oh, we're going to Dora. Yeah. But can it win in gold at the Olympics and men's basketball after missing this tournament for a couple of decades? Oh my God. Against this American team? No. They signed me up for that almost without any other. I have one. I have one other. Yeah. Okay. Drake's not allowed any reading of the celebration. I've had my fill. When they rolled him out before whatever the semi or whatever, a copa, I was like, this is two. Come on. That's, I feel like that's a fair caveat. You know, he's trying. Sid better show up in Paris. If. Oh God. Oh my God. Ben, the tingles right now. If I get a clip of Shae Gilles just Alexander standing next to Sydney Crosby and just being like, it's an honor does it here to watch history? Oh my God. I just, that's another caveat that absolutely neat. Are we too close to camp? Like he can definitely make the trip out there. I mean, he is a man of great principles, but he also once like went to Italy and then told somebody that story and had a good game and told it before every game for a month and change straight. So I think someone just needs to tell him like, Hey, it's a great story to tell before a game one time. Get him over there. I do. I just stumbled upon this as well. I would like Sydney Crosby at some point in his life. I don't even know if we have these anymore, like post COVID. I'd like him to be a. A chief to miss you know, for, for one of our Olympic games, like they're basically just like, you know, like the head. Raw guy or a girl. I'm assuming they have other responsibilities, but it's so good at that with the soccer team. I want him to see him have that gig one day before he's done. Agreed. Okay. All right. It'll be a private winter games. I'm thinking. No, I actually, I like it better the other way. It's like Sydney Crosby go poke around at the winter games if he wants any time. I love the idea of Sydney Crosby. Look at a mountain biker and there I am being like, you got this, bro. I have had some tough, tough bikes out east. I love it. I would love that as well. All right. When we come back, Hey, the NFL preseason started yesterday with the Hall of Fame game, which is who cares? Caleb Williams didn't play. Why didn't he play? Just playing the game. Oh God. This is going to be a long year with him. If they debuted the new kickoff rules, we'll react to that also our guy, Nathan Roark, after being cut by the Giants, signs with the Falcons is the time for him to come home. That and more next is the fan morning show continues, Ben and I sprint counting sports at 590, the fan diving deep into leaps, rafters, J's and NFL, the JD bunk is podcast, subscribe and download the show on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Fan morning show sports at 590, the fan, Ben and I sprint gunning, asking you a question about baseball before we get to the new kickoff rules. Yeah, usually goes the other way, but sure. Do you pay attention to what Bobby Whit Jr. did in the month of July? You could have, you could have stopped that sentence a little shorter and got the same answer of no, but I actually have been been aware in general of his heroics or I should say more of certain specific heroics than a generally great month. But I am aware that he has been on fire on flago as as marks of our agency. In the month of July, Bobby Whit Jr., by the way, of the Kansas City Royals. Yeah, good. Again, like it is a reminder that he's baseball, you do have to remind me of the point I'm going to get to. Yeah. He was 44 for 90 in the month of July. I beg your pardon. So that's a robust 489 average for a month. I'd take it with seven home runs. So he hit 489 with a 520 on base and 833 slug 1353 OPS yesterday, he followed that up with his first game of August with yet another home run. His 20th of the season added a double to go with it. So now for the season, Bobby Whit Jr. has an OPS over a thousand, a thousand and two. He also has 24 stolen bases. He's also one of the best shortstop defenders in Major League Baseball. As mentioned earlier, he plays for the Kansas City Royals. Yes. Skye, like, is having one of the best seasons in baseball. And if this continues, it's going to be one of the best seasons in the history of baseball, considering the position he plays. And he'll be in the MVP discussion, so like people will get better acquainted with his Zouvra, but he lays it freaking Kansas City. The money, no question, but leaving small market teams to big market teams, especially in a sport like baseball that is so regional, Bobby Whit Jr. should be, I hate this term, the face of baseball right now. I mean, Aaron Judge is pretty good too. He also plays for the Yankees. But like, it's those two guys are the best offensive players in the American League and Joey Otani's. Yeah, I was going to say there's a large Japanese man, yeah. But Bobby Whit Jr., how many just general sports fans know who the hell he is? He feels like a classic guy to me that many people who count themselves as sports fans. You know, highlight watchers, Instagram reel, ingesters of sports highlights, they're aware of Bobby Whit Jr. again, a fast guy, royals and was he a home run contest? That was a thing this year. I think that's generally the understanding people have around him, unless you're delving into this stuff or you're, and I think this other thing can't be discounted as well of the like the fantasy sports element of it. Like I, it's not a world I partake in anymore. It's like football's great, everything else I got no time for. But if you're somebody who plays fantasy baseball, you're obviously super aware of what Bobby Whit's doing, but I think that's like a dwindling thing. Obviously, the number is larger of people who play fantasy sports now, but it's not as much of like the conversation as it felt like it was even five years ago. So yeah, I think he is somebody who is a classic example of needing that playoff moment. I mean, think about what it took for Mike Trout to worm his way into the consciousness for a guy who had no playoff moments. That was just seven seasons that would have got you in the hall of fame to start your career. It's all well, it's all he's going to have to get into all right, right? It's like because the career might be over, it's just shut down for the rest of the season. It's insane. Sad by the way. But look at the, look at the ceiling he had to reach to where that crossed over. And he also, it's like an unfair thing because no one would ever say, yeah, shortstop, not that sexy of a position. But unless it is the jeter, like jump, jump throw in the hole, you don't have as many of those moments where as a center fielder, which trout was start the career, you like, you have the robbing of the homers, which aren't, you know, happening all the time. But we remember it when it does. That's the guy who I compare him to. And not that he is my trout, because my trout's my trout for a reason. But that's what he had to do to get on the radar of everybody without being on a playoff team. Yeah. And even still with all the incredible production was like, Oh yeah, did general sports fans outside of baseball know who Mike Trout is and eventually was a running joke. It's like he's most famous for being an Eagles fan. Yeah. Mike Trout in the baseball playoffs, watching football, Annie who blue jays back in action against the Yankees tonight. We'll talk blue jays after seven o'clock with juniors future team, probably, maybe, maybe. Yeah. If he doesn't get enough accolades enough of the spotlight, perhaps. So the NFL's preseason opened up yesterday, a Hall of Fame game that bears one, 21 17. Who cares? Kevin Williams, David Mills played in that game. Okay. All our former Bay from last year. Yeah. But he was with the arm wrestling dad. Is that what it was? Okay. Correct. After I have to remember all of my fringe NFL characters from last season, there was, of course, the, the Italian, the Italian, not quarterback who cares about Davido, but his agent. He was one of our other favorite fringe characters of the NFL season. I'm sure there'll be others this year. Oh yeah. No question. But it was the debut of the new kickoff rules, which are for the uninitiated. It's going to be jarring to see for the first time. It was jarring for me to see for the first time. Kickoff 35, you have to kick it between the 20 and the goal line. That's like the landing area. If you kick it into the end zone, a touch back is at the 30. But if you kick it in the landing zone and it rolls into the end zone, touch back is at the 20. Oh. So you, there is a 10 yard penalty for kicking it into the end zone. And now, like the kickoff return team and the kickoff team are like, they're lined up. I forget which would yard line. I think it's like the 35. But like it's basically like a line of scrimmage just ahead of the returner. So there are returns now, like constantly all the time, which was the NFL is the impetus for this thing, but I don't know if you, I watched a couple of them. There was a penalty. Sure. There's a return. No question. It's an inside run though, right? Yes. Nobody broke one off. It's like an inside running play. Does that get your juices flowing that like, Hey, now we get returns and you have to watch your television for kickoffs after touchdowns. But it generally it's like, yeah, it's, you know, your eye formation hand off up the middle. Yeah, I'm curious to see like, I don't want to, I don't want to judge it based off of one game. I think this will ultimately be something we look at is like the juice not really being worth the squeeze there in terms of not the, not the time of play, but just the total it takes on those guys' bodies. Like we always hear about it and like I'm not, as someone who sits here wishing I could go back and wipe my conscious and just go back to like 2014 Raven Steelers games for the rest of my life. I understand. I love the violence in football, but if what we're bringing it back in for is this, I don't know that it's worth it. I'd like to see coaches have more time to scheme it. I'd like to, because I, yeah, maybe some of them will figure out an exciting way. I never just count the ability of these guys who sleep in their offices and everything to find up a unique or fun way to do something. And then all of a sudden that's the way everybody's doing it and it's a different process. So I'm not ready to pour dirt on it, but honestly, I don't know that it's worth it the way they're doing it. The other thing I couldn't help but think is as you described it to me and I don't know, because I've read the description. I watched it. I don't know why it didn't click for me in this way. It's like, it just sounded like you trying to figure out, or not you, but anyone trying to figure out the right club on an approach shot, it's like, well, you don't want to be sure. Yeah. Can't be long. Long is dead. Can't be long. That's all I could think of when you're laying out the rules to me. Yeah. How about just get rid of kicking? Like, let's just continue to minimize kicking and eventually, no offense, all you kickers out there, just get rid of them entirely. Why can I offer a pushback? Why no offense? Little offense. It's okay. Yeah, not pushback. Yeah. No, no. Good idea. Little offense. Yeah. If you're like, look, especially if you're listening, you're like, but my son's a hot chances are he's like, you know, he's a soccer player. Yeah. Well, exactly. That are our kicker at high school. That was it. Literal horse would go. Hey, me too. There you go. That's what happens. Yeah. Don't touch him though. Stick to soccer. Yeah. Except when we need an extra point or like a 33 yard field goal, you got that covered. Honestly, give me a world in which we don't have field goals either. I'd be fine with that. I am just, I, I, the problem for me with this conversation is I am just the world's most averse to change person in the history of mankind. So you're like, get rid of a thing and I'm like, well, you know what? I hate that thing. And they're like, the game will change. I'm like, oh, that change is too far for. I know. I didn't change so much. This is why I cannot sit here in good conscience, disagreeing with anything you're saying. Like, yes, agreed. I'm kicking, although I will say, like seeing Justin, Justin Tucker, bang, a 60 yarder is. Yeah, wait for him to retire. Sure. And then we'll create like a little target. Well, it'll be a target in the end zone that, hey, if you want to, instead of punting it away, you want to go for three points, your quarterback has to hit like this tiny little target in the end zone. You know what? Let's lean all the way into it. Put Cadel in a dunk tank. I mean, how sick everything would be on the quarterback, right? Like, yeah. It already is. They pay them all the money. It's who we put the blame on anyways. Yeah. That actually, you know, now that we've stumbled upon this, that is really who should have to like, and it shouldn't be kicking because, you know, football, but that is who should own the pressure moment of the game. Of course. It's like some guy. Instead, it's some guy who appears sparingly is not playing the rest of the game. Who does this one thing that's totally irrelevant for the other 59 minutes of the game? The cheesecake is like, hold on. I'm working on my address here, and then I'll get out there for this extra point. Anyways. Okay. So we mentioned Tyson Beijing, somebody that was part of the NFL conversation last year. Nathan work wasn't. Oh, that for a fleeting moment, he had the play of the preseason. But that's what I mean. Patrick Holmes did about it. Sure. But during the regular season, I mean, he dressed as a backup quarterback in week 18, I believe. But other than that, he just, he has not gotten his shot in a regular season game in the NFL. He's cut by the Giants yesterday. Just signed with the Falcons who have all the quarterbacks, like they have two starting quarterbacks feels like a bad place to land if you were choosing. But I guess at this point, beggars can't be choosers. He's the most outstanding player of the CFL when he departed. He's only 26 years old. So I get it. Like just turned it. Yeah. I want to see him play in the NFL, of course. And if we're talking about pay, he is getting paid more. Like every time he gets called up, I think monetarily it's been a good decision for him, even though he hasn't appeared in a regular season game, had the preseason moment a year ago that you referenced the Patrick Mahomes retweeted that put him on everybody's radar, but not to the degree at which anyone was crying for him to be rostered or get into game action. And if it doesn't happen for him, what could happen for him easily is a return to the CFL where he would once again be the star of the league. But it's the CFL. And like nobody's going to question the difference between being the most outstanding player in the CFL and a backup quarterback in the NFL. But man, we're talking about the prime of his career here. Yep. And if we look back in four years and he hasn't, he hasn't taken one regular season snap in the NFL. Will there not be some wistfulness on the part of a guy that again, probably deserves to play in a regular season game and he gets to practice with, with NFLers. Would you make a different decision if you were him? Would you, would you just want to play in a, in a meaningful football game? He hasn't played one in years. I can completely understand that perspective of things, but I think this is a decision. I don't know that he would look at it this way. But I think this is a decision made with when you're 90 sitting in the rocking chair on the line like given the success he had early on in his CFL career, given the age he had it at, given the fact that he, you know, and not that the idea that like, you know, a quarterback from Queens is the most common thing in the CFL these days, but he had the Ohio pedigree of having gone to a, to a school down in the States. I mean, he billoted in Alabama when he's 15 years. This is clearly what he wanted to do and I can just picture a world where he plays out his CFL career and he, okay, he is, you know, Mr. outstanding player for another five years and then at 30 he's like, let me go try to, and guess what, he's going to have way less looks as a 30 year old than he does as a 26 year old and he's going to always have wondered what if I would have gone at truly the peak of my powers? What if I would have gone to my prime? Would I have had a chance? Cause you know, there's good, if you would have done this in reverse order at 30, there would have been that fleeting moment where, oh, maybe if I just was a little younger, a little spryer, that would be the thing that would have tipped me over. I don't understand how you can look at this from Nathan Rourke's perspective. If you're a CFL fan, you can be as frustrated as you want. You can even look at it and say, this is a bad decision because he could have had so much more success. That's all true. But he'll never, ever get this chance again to have said he gave it an honest to goodness try. He gives it another try this year and he comes back to the CFL at not yet 28 years old, probably going to have a good run. Like I'm just looking at the passing leader here, Bo Levi Mitchell, 34 years old. It's not like coming back at 29 would be a death sentence. It feels like this is the only way he has a realistic at the very least shot to do both. And how could you not? Like that's the way I keep looking at it. There's just so many bombs that get a shot in the NFL because, yeah, there's lots of injuries. Tommy DeVito. Sure. Ties in Beijing. Ties in Beijing. Like there's, and Malik Willis is a different deal, but like there's some bad quarterbacks in the NFL. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for a guy that's done nothing but succeed and be successful. Anytime he's thrown a football, wherever it's been, even in the preseason and go through his NFL career quote, unquote, without taking a snap in a regular season game, it's infuriating for me. But I'm not him. Like I can't imagine what it must be like for him to watch like, yeah, Jeff Driscoll. Yeah, of course, of course, I don't, I don't think he thinks of it this way either. But this is one of those like setting yourself up for the rest of your life type things. Like, you know, who knows where he wants to make his life when he retires, but having there are things more important than money though. Yeah, but being able to put like three time or, you know, three seasons of NFL, NFL experience on your like Nathan Roar QB camp looks a little better than, you know, lifetime legend in the CFL. It does. Sorry. Yeah. No, it's just brutal. It sucks. I feel awful for him. You know, PJ Walker was like a significant part of our NFL lives, nationalism, they're just they they're too scared that Nathan Roar is going to be the spark that sets us ablaze as a country. They're just too afraid. Yeah, weaker. We're going to give him a chance. Just give him a chance. Please. Yeah. Get out of Atlanta because there's like, yeah, there's no, I don't think God path to him playing unless you get a couple of quarterback injuries, you need to be one quarterback injury away. Agreed. Not not to. I'm going to come back. Blue Jays back in action tonight against the Yankees. We'll talk about the questions that need answering surrounding this team before the end of the season. Not more in action. The fan morning show continues. Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet 590 to fan. [MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING]
