(upbeat music) - Man, morning shows, four seven, five, nine, and then it's bread-gutting. Good morning to you, Brent, it's been a while. - And good morning to you, yeah, so long. - Yeah, for me. - I thought there was a chance, no, I just meant like since we've seen each other. I thought there was a chance, like, in the wild. - That's true. - We'd run into one another. - That's happened occasionally in Burlington. - I went to, like, super, super inside our kid's soccer, but I went to move my car from one parking lot to another, and I was looking for you, but I couldn't see you, so. - I was there, no, no, this wasn't me being, like, lapsed father or not there, no, I assumed you were, it just, honestly, you had the one time I ran into you there, you had your big dumb white golf hat on, so every time I go, I'm just looking, like, if I am looking for you, I'm, like, looking for your white golf hat. - Oh, okay, on a Saturday, interesting. - Yeah, no, I was there, and my kid scored a goal, and then did the gritty. - Oh, okay. - Across the field, so yeah. - Bye. - I was there. - My kid, normally, very disinterested. I don't know if it was just, like, the spirit of the penalty kicks we watched before heading over to soccer, like, the spirit of Scrapo took him over, or whatever it was, but yeah, he was on fire, scoring tons. - I was in kind of rough shape, gotta say. Saturday morning, because I had a buddy over, we were watching the game in my backyard, on the big projector screen. - Nice. - The eight-year-old was allowed to stay up till the wee hours of the night, to watch it with us, and-- - Look at you. - We had some celebratory cocktails in the immediate aftermath. - The eight-year-old? - No, okay, I was like, wow, you are cool with that. - And then he went to bed, and we're like, yeah, you got to stay up and see the thing, now don't see what's coming next. - This is not for your eyes. - Yeah, well, it's like that Sandra Bullock Netflix movie, like, "Just cover him." - No looking. - Yeah, Bird Box. - There's the one. - Yeah, remember that crappy movie had a good run, because we were all-- - Nothing to do. - Yeah, we were all in the same-- - Restrictions are put on these people. I better watch it, I want to live more of this. - Yeah, I want to have a communal experience watching this horrible movie, we all did that. - Anyways, it's good to be back. I was on vacation, my wife was out of town, so I was on child duty, didn't lots of stuff, did African lion so far, which I thought I'd done before, I was talking to my dad about it, he's like, I don't remember ever taking you there. - I don't ever remember going as a child, I actually believe it or not. This is like a gift from my mother. She got the family of seasons passed for last summer. - No way! - Yeah, 'cause they have splash pads and stuff, that was really more the gist of it than anything else. But yeah, we went a bunch two summers ago. - Oh yeah, no, I guess I'd never been, I thought I'd been a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I did, so you go to the drive-thru safari part. - Yeah, yeah. - And they tell you, like immediately, it's like, hey, listen, we're not responsible for whatever happens to your car. And like, beyond that, by the time you get to the monkeys, there's like a cutoff, it's like, hey, if you want to see the other animals, but not the monkeys, here, take a left turn here. - Amazing. - And we power through, we're like, nah, what's the point? You're not going into the drive-thru safari without driving through the monkeys. You're kind of hoping, you know. - Yeah, you want to vote monkey action. - To get some interaction, I was taking videos, and at that point, I handed the phone off to my six-year-old to take a video. - Okay, nice. - And we got an interaction, but it wasn't with our car. The car ahead of us had one of those like, you know, the storage tooly bins on top. - Yes, yes, yes. - All the monkeys were rapping, crying in that thing. - Yeah, they're like, there's bananas in there, I know it. - Something better than what I'm looking at is in there. You wouldn't put a lid on something if there's nothing good in there. - And so we enjoyed watching that, and then just a stream of urination all on the side of the car. It was just a tremendous experience for me and my children. Unfortunately, upon watching, I was like, and we got it on video, of course, we got the video of the inside of the car for six minutes, and then our narration of what was happening, but not a single piece of usable footage. - You, there's like savvy tech people out there. I'm sure we could put the narration of what's happening to a video, like close enough approximation of what you saw. - But we'd have to do it. We'd have to get like a trained monkey to like reenact it. - Yeah, no, no, I'm just saying, I'm saying out there in the wilderness, I'm willing to bet somebody if some African lion safari or another has had an interaction pretty similar to, oh my God, he's ripping the bin off. I think we can find footage that would match up pretty quickly. - That was sweet, not as sweet as like us finally, like she, this woman with the monkeys on her car, she'd stayed stationary, which I think if you like want that interaction and probably like just start driving a bit. - I would think, although you could enrage them, I don't know how that works. - There's nothing sweeter than passing her car and just the look of sheer terror. - Oh yeah. - Okay, like scary things happen, you react how you react. What did she think was gonna happen when she didn't take the cut off and drove in there? - Listen, like especially when you have a thing attached, like I don't even have a roof rack. So I was like, how bad could it be? All right, so you rip off the windshield. - There's no antenna, right. - No, like, oh, you're gonna rip off the windshield wire and probably need new wipers anyway. So you're doing me a favor. - Thanks, monkey. - No, you got a toolie on your car, obviously, getting destroyed. - Anyways. - What do you think she had in there? It must've smelled something. - I don't know. I don't know what people have in those things. - It's a great question. I know I do see them on cars and I'm like, what kind of? - Skis? - Kind of freight you haul and that's all I can think. - I guess it's not skis. - No. - Skis would go right on the rack. - On the rack, I'd think, yeah, not bikes. - I honestly have no idea. It must've smelled good, though. - Kries, maybe. - There is no transition to what could be the biggest moment in this country's sporting history. I exaggerate only slightly. - Yeah, kinda. - Yeah. - Yeah, obviously, 2010, Golden Gold is the tippy top. - Yeah. - There's just nothing that's gonna surpass that. - Hey, if Canada wins the World Cup, we're hosting in 2026. - That would be pretty impressive. And speaking of it, like Sydney Crosby was there on Friday and I, which we'll get to, and we'll talk to Josh Kloke as well, who's in New Jersey getting ready for this game. - Just a very quick and moves boost for that conversation. I've never enjoyed something more Sydney Crosby being a part of that. Oh my God. - And him, it's like, yeah, we do a boys trip every once in a while. Once we found out, Canada was playing in the quarterfinals of the Copa America. We're like, yeah, why not go to Austin, Texas in July? Sure, okay. - All right, but hey, you got it? Honestly, man, Crosby loves sports. There was this pitcher going around of him watching. It's apparently him watching curling like three days before the gold medal game in 2010. He looks like he is trying to curl the stones with his brain. He's so locked in, like God, just, Bab's called it and like, say this a lot retractively. Bab's is right, God, serial winner. He just can't help himself. - Yep, surrounding himself with this, I don't know what do you call it, a province mate? Like somebody that's from the same province as you. - I don't know. - Yeah, anyways, with the maritime messy. Some great shots coming out of Friday. Anyways, that was-- - Or they're gonna be calling it, I love the joke of they're gonna be calling messy South American Shuffleburg by the end of this. - I love that as well. - Anyways, so that was, to this point, the biggest win on a tournament level, on the biggest stage, or close to the biggest stage. World Cup is the biggest stage, but Copa America has a long and storied history with some of the best in the case of Argentina. - It's the second biggest one you're playing in. - In the case of Argentina, the highest ranked FIFA nation and the defending World Cup champions. Anyways, they beat Venezuela in kicks in a game that they deserve to win. - They liked it. - Venezuela, the great job, chipping the keeper and tying the game up and sending it to penalty kicks. But Canada-- - That's why the ref helped them out. - Sure. - For being a yellow card. So they say, "I don't know about these things." But the guy's seen very important. The guy is the important guy to see mad about that. - I gotta say, I haven't been offended at the quality of the refereeing, especially considering some of the conc attack refereeing we've seen Canada go through on its way to qualifying for the World Cup. Anyways, so beat Venezuela. - Yes. - And they were off to the semifinals of the Copa America with a rematch on the horizon tonight against Argentina in New Jersey in Argentina group in which they lost to nothing in the first match of this entire tournament, first match of the group stage play. They were scoreless at halftime, ended up giving up two goals in the second half. Argentina did have a ton of chances in that game, and the Maxime Cripo had to be out freaking standing. But Canada had its own chances as well. And they've got more than a punter's chance to create what I think. And boy, people had some opinions about it when I tweeted it up yesterday that this would be the biggest upset in our nation's sporting history if we even include the professional ranks here. To me, the only question is what would be number two? - Yeah. - Do you disagree with anything I just said? - No, I mean, I can't think of another, like there are things that were unexpected, but I don't necessarily frame them as upsets, right? Like my brain immediately goes to golf. Like just the thought of Mike Weir winning the Masters. - Yeah, that was an interesting one for me. - He's sane, but that's not like, it wasn't an upset. It's not unheard of that a guy in Mike Weir's station, like he was third in the world during that season. - That's what I'm getting at, right? Like that, but we were also in the throes of the tiger of it all, and anybody other than him being thought of to win a major, heading into it was sacrosanct, so I think that was the other part of it. But the Weir one is the only one that kind of jumps to mind, but to your point, he's number three in the world. Like that's a spot he's supposed to be at. I mean, even like, again, like just sticking if this isn't so much an upset, but just a recent super impactful moment. It's not insane, the Nick Taylor won the Canadian Open. It's insane that he did it, sinking a 72 foot bomb and a playoff and all that. The only other one I can think of is Raps. - Yeah, Raps in 2019. - Yeah, that's the only other one. - There is another one, but okay. - Okay, it continues on the wrap. - Well, I was just gonna say like it's the, it's not even so much about what that team was. It was just again, the idea of, you know, to go back to the Weir, like Canadian winning the Masters, the Raptors winning an NBA championship, the brain just does not compute. Like we, and you know, maybe mileage varied in the moment, but there was going to be a period of time where we look back on the D'Rosen and Lowry getting smoked in the conference finals every year. It's like God, glory days of the Raptors. What could have been? And then they go beat the Warriors. And you know, I understand Kevin Durant heard yada yada yada, but they beat the Warriors to win an NBA title. They shut down Oracle with the title. Like that's super unheard of. So that's the one that jumps out to me. - Well, and it's, it's not just that it was the Raptors. And the uniforms they were wearing, it was the style and quality of play that the Raptors were using leading up to that finals. Like they just barely, in a rock fight of all rock fights, got through the Philadelphia 76ers because Kawhi Leonard hit one of the most outrageous shots in the history of the NBA playoffs that bounced on the rim four times. And Jimmy Butler missed a free throw and they continued, and you know, they were down to nothing against the box and Raoula four straight victories on the strength of Fred Van Vliet hitting every single three that he took. - Yep. - I don't remember going into that final just, hey, man, if they could just take a game here to start the series at home, wouldn't that be thrilling to give people like the thought, like the 1% thought that they could win it? And with the looming specter of the return of Kevin Durant. And of course, yeah, had to take advantage of Kevin Durant returning ever so briefly. And then Clay Thompson also leaving and then just barely winning the series in six games. No, that's the number one for me that comes to mind. But you know what? We're stuck kind of in our Toronto sports ecosystem here. - You didn't tell me this involves Carey Price, are you? - I 100% am like, no, no. - Brent, go ahead and set it up and then I'll vehemently disagree. Go ahead. - Okay, so in the 2021 post season, where the Toronto Maple Leafs were more than 20 points up on the Montreal Canadiens during that regular season looked like the juggernaut of all juggernauts in any of the divisions across the National Hockey League. Of course, in a bizarro weirdo season, but yeah, man, you want to talk about the Leafs looking like their best lockdown version of themselves went into Edmonton that season. We played three straight, like, they only scored one goal across that three game and the Leafs had three separate goalies that won games. - Chlorides. - They looked legit, legit, legit. Awesome Matthews, the pace, goal scoring pace that he was on if he played 82 games that year. What a surpass the 69 that he scored this past season. It was unreal. And of course they lost game one of that series in very traumatic fashion with the captain going out, like in the moment thought he was like decapitated. - God, just bleeding out of his ears like this. - Yeah, so you could understand how everybody's, you know, emotions, how you could let that one get away. But then like, oh, Sanity prevailed. They won the next three games. And it was just a formality that that series was over. My God, to see the Montreal Canadiens celebrating at the conclusion of game seven, I know it's only a three-one series comeback. And I know it was only the first round of a post-season series. It's not, listen, I'm not saying that it's number two, but it has to be part of the conversation. If like we're running down the top 10 upsets, especially recent upsets in Canadian sports, two Canadian teams as well. And the Montreal Canadiens going all the way to the Cup Final, where they got their heads caved in, naturally. But yeah, they beat the Golden Knights on their way there. - Who also missed their number one center. I know that it was one without Matthews or without Tavares, but you know. - Yeah. Anyways, does it not belong in the conversation? - No, no, it can go in the conversation. I think honestly, I just think the biggest thing of it, and I'll be honest, like let me just, let me just look at this through my blue lenses. I tell you this. I think the biggest problem I have with it is that everyone was lining up to tell me that that season didn't matter if the Leafs did exactly what the Canadiens did. So I look at it kind of through that lens. I also look at it through the lens of, it's the first round of a playoff for a franchise that has however many cups the Canadians have, and just the idea that that is the thing. Like you're right, when you lay it out that way, yeah. And in terms of upsets and what was expected, 1,000%. But I just think given the things that that franchise has actually accomplished and given the nature of everyone telling me how little it mattered, like I think the, and I know that you were mentioning Canadians, but just in this idea of first round upsets. Like I think the jackets and the lightning is infinitely bigger than what happened with the Leafs and the Canadians. And I know we're doing the Canadian. I understand that. I'm just like trying to frame it from a first round perspective. - People lost the plot there in my Twitter mentions. They're like, "Buster Douglas!" It's like I get it, yeah. No, I know what the biggest upsets and sports are. - What did Chevalo do? - Yeah, right, yeah. Leicester City got it. - Got it, understood. - Nope, very good, yeah. - You're gonna tell me they had like a Canadian Ted Lasso situation happening over there, and that's what it's Canadian, yeah. - Yeah, some of the more outrageous responses were like that a summit series, Canada, beating the, like juggernaut Russians, like, no. It was a shock that it went eight games because the Canadians were expected to just drowns the Russians in that series. It was very dramatic in a historic sporting moment for this country, but not an upset. - Not close. - Other major events getting votes, and this one I'm surprised you didn't mention. Now, part of it is the stakes as well. 2007 presidents come. - Yes. - So singles play, the Americans are running away with the President's Cup, but set up on singles Sunday, the match up at Royal Montreal that everybody wants to see. Mike Weir versus Tiger Woods. And Weirzy beats Tiger Woods in singles play. I guess the stakes kind of play into that. - It's stakes, it's a singles match in golf, which I guess shit, like, hey, they set up the rules. I certainly love Sunday singles at the President's Cup and the Ryder Cup. Like, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you I don't love it, but I just, I think so often the memory of that we have of those things is so much better than if you go back and try to relive it. And again, like, I know them all over the place, but you're gonna talk about singles at the Ryder Cup or President's Cup. I go to Patrick Reed and Rory Macquarie and everyone's like, the greatest match of all time. Well, it's the greatest 12 holes of all time. And then they ran out of steam and kind of pillow fun. Like, this is just the way singles is in golf. So I think that's the other one. It's just a very kind of finicky almost. It's hard to put it in a stakes perspective. I mean, awesome for Weir to do it at home and beatin' Tiger. Like, I'm not diminishing it. Pay any beans, obviously, it was incredible, but it just doesn't, it doesn't mean anything other than like Mike Weir beat Tiger Woods. That's very good in the grand scheme. In all of these examples, except for maybe one that I have upcoming, it was, these are not like bums. And not to say Canada soccer is a bum, but like. They've been bumish in the past. They're like, only recently are we getting past the idea of them not being bums, right? And even, you know, the way they ran through World Cup qualifying and then got to the World Cup, but the way they performed in at least two of the three group stage matches they had at the World Cup was like, okay, let's get real here. They are ranked in the 50s when it comes to the FIFA World ranking. I was about to do an analogy of like a homeless person getting an apartment and like how Fonzo Davies is like something really nice in that apartment, but I'm just gonna leave it 'cause I don't think I complete it, but then everyone knows I have the thoughts. Okay, that's good. They can fill in the blanks themselves. Exactly. Yeah, it's an ad lib mad libs. Yeah. Anyway, Bianca Andrescu beating Serena at the 2019 US Open. And again, like not thing, no, definitely. Not like someone undeserving of a Grand Slam title, but it's Serena, the greatest of all time. And at her home tournament with 99.9999% of people in the crowd rooting for Serena to overcome that. Vilna beating Schumacher, 97, I guess. Yeah, we have to mention it for sure. 'Cause it's like a matters, but yeah, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you. Sure. The Andrescu one is interesting. That's just like a missed Canadian heritage moment for me. My buddy was getting married that day and I was in the wedding party. So it's just like gone fleeting since time. I have no idea. I was fully engaged. But I'm just trying to remember, I think part of what takes, and this is like, oh, you did a good thing first, so it can be less of an upset. But like, did she not beat her two weeks before at the Rogers Cup or whatever it was? Yeah. Yep, yep, yep. And same thing. So the Canadian women winning Olympic gold in Tokyo went through the United States and they beat Sweden in the final. That's a big deal. There's absolutely no debate about it. They almost beat 'em in London. Shoot 'em beat 'em in London if not for a horrific call there. Yeah, the first, just 'cause you're accomplishing something for the first time doesn't mean it's an incredible upset. Yeah. Just how I would kind of phrase that one. Yeah, and like, it's tough when we're talking about regular season wins. But yeah, the 21 win Raptors beat the 72 win Bulls in '96 at Skydom. Yeah, okay, it's cool. It's a great moment. And five over Bulls. And 500,000 people were in attendance for it. Just go ask 'em. All right, with there, yeah. Anyways, there is no hockey equivalent here for a nation because we're always the favorites. No. Soccer is one of the sports where, and sorry, there's the World Baseball Classic Canada beat the United States in a one off that they didn't advance out of the group also. But okay, sure. That'll be glad. Great. Soccer is a sport that we are not known for. Made the World Cup in the '80s. And a moment in time where the coverage of media, or the media coverage of sports was quite different. And man, go back and try and find some of the footage of like one, the win in Newfoundland to get us into that World Cup. And any of the World Cup footage, they didn't score goal. So the history of soccer in this country is very limited as far as the success. It's only, again, recently that we're getting beyond losing eight one to Honduras and a chance to get into the final round of World Cup qualifying, not to make the World Cup. The Hex on the Hex. Ridiculous. And now you're in the semi-finals of one of the top three international events in the world. It's like World Cup Euro Copa America. With the number one FIFA ranked nation and the best player that's ever played the sport, or the only thing that separates you from the final of said tournament to me, there's no comparison. And obviously, the likelihood is that it's gonna look something similar to the way the first 90 minutes went against Argentina, but in a world where there is anything possible, just ask Kevin Garnett. I mean, what would a win do to change the perception of this team in soccer in this country? 'Cause I feel like I've done some variation of this conversation before, but as much as it was awesome to watch the run up to Canada's World Cup appearance and all the victories and the ice tech and the TV ratings, man, you still go to an international soccer friendly or a game that is worth, I mean, there's no qualifying for the World Cup in 2026, but Canadian fans will be outnumbered pretty significantly by any visiting team. Does advancing to a finals of a Copa America, God forbid, like if you beat Argentina, why can't you beat Uruguay in the final? Does that change anything? - I think it does, but I think this is something that really takes a generation to kind of make its way through in terms of the waves almost. Like, and I was thinking about this a lot when I went to, like soccer on Saturday morning, and I don't begrudge these people, but I'm seeing kids decked out in like full kit, Portugal, like in bop a jerseys through the roof and all that. And it's like, yeah, you know what? That kid's like, that kid's dad or mum or whoever didn't probably sit them down and goes like, this is the most hellfire important Canada soccer game. 'Cause guess what? Up until five minutes ago, there never had been one in that kid's life, probably. And I think that this is something where like Canada, like we're a nation of immigrants, the melting pot, or not the melting pot, the mosaic, all of that, people come and they bring their allegiances from other countries, be it a, you know, a Portugal or Italy or whatever it is. And it just, or South American countries, well, and it just takes a long time for that to be shaken. Not even think it's a shaken. It's just like, yeah, why would I care? Like, what, I've been cheering for Argentina my whole life or even, you know, Chile or whatever. Again, pick your country that's just been semi-relevant in soccer for their life. And all of a sudden I'm just supposed to glom on to Canada and they get their teeth kicked in every time. Like, why am I supposed to care about this? Now there's a real reason to care. There's a real reason to have investment. But I honestly think it's something that takes, like, you need several moments of these stacked on top of one another before you see it take hold. And then it does become just as important or close to as important as the Portugal game, or the Italy game or whatever. And I don't but grudge people for having long, deep-seated belief and love for their national team or wherever they came from. Like, I think that's part of what makes this country great. But I think it's also part of the reason why it's hard for Canada soccer to kind of truly take a foothold. Like, I am a big believer that the second you meet a guy who tells you like, "Oh, I like, you know, "I like the Vikings and I like the Lions." I'm like, "Oh, you don't like any team." Like, because you can only hold so much love in your heart for a team, I think. And I think that it just takes a long time when you already have something in there for something else to kind of move in. So I think it's something that just takes a few moments kind of stacked on top of each other before it really takes hold for me. - Who likes to divisional team? Like, in the same division? - I was just spitballing. - Okay, well, actually hold on, we have a real person. - We have a mutual friend that has, like, claimed Packers fandom, but has, like, changed to Lions fandom. We do that. - Oh, that's true. We know, like, you know that person. - Yeah, that's embarrassing. Somebody you're gonna see upcoming. - Anyways, this is North America. We, and rightly or wrongly, we don't support sports franchises. We don't get behind. We don't get excited for teams that don't have a chance to win. - Yeah, this is true for most of you. - We just, and, like, sorry. - Yeah, I know. - I wish regular seasons were more important and finishing fifth instead of sixth than a standings. Like, that's, yeah, if you got no playoffs and it just, like, it would add import to regular seasons, but we're North America. It's about the playoffs, baby. - Yeah. It's like, just get into the postseason. - Chip in the chair. - Yeah, but we need to believe that you have, even if it's, like, a minuscule, a minute chance, that you have a chance of winning it all. So, it's been, well, it's been exhilarating for me, and I'm not the only one to watch Canada qualify for a World Cup. That was awesome for the just casuals. Like, yeah, that's cool. And, like, we'll watch. Oh, but once we realize they have no chance to even get out of the group, it's like, and that's, like, an curiosity. The idea that you could win a trophy, and I know this country has the won a gold cup, and I don't know, like, Craig Forrest is probably punching his radio right now, okay? It's a while ago. It's also a little bit different. - Yep. - That you could win against the top ranked soccer nation, and it would be a huge, huge upset, but one that some people are like, "Yeah, maybe they're capable of pulling it off, especially with the diminished Messi, who is gonna play in tonight's game. Just dealing with a leg thing." Yeah, that changes things for me, because, yeah, the casual sports fan in this country isn't just into, like, "Oh, cool." Like, they're, they're, like, respectable. - Man, you hit it. That's actually a way better way to put it than what I said, 'cause I, it's funny. I've actually had, we'll talk to McKee at 7.30. I've had this exact conversation with him, and I actually think I have used that exact phrasing if I'm a North American sports fan. I don't, like, the, if I am cheering for a franchise, like, you know, the Leafs or whatever, you can get behind the building project, and you can see, you can understand, but for a national team, it's like, "Yes, players get better over time, but then they go away and go to their clubs." There's not, it just doesn't work the same way as a team that you watch, you know, it's hockey team, you watch it three times a week, it's a baseball team, you watch it every day, or it's your MLS team, maybe you watch them once a week, whatever it is. But the other part of it is that the sports I have cared about internationally have been chance to win. I think the most I've been invested in a guy that realistically had no chance to win, but had a chance to do something was Andre de Grasse. Like, I remember being very invested in that, but it was also, there was a cap at how invested I could possibly get, 'cause it's like, that's gonna be so great if he could come second to you, same bull. Like, what an honor that would be for us in the 100, right? And that's what I look at with something like that. The idea of cheering for something that you don't think has a chance of winning or you don't have a hope for. Again, like I get super excited for Canada to play one day, eventually best on Best Hockey, 'cause I'm really excited about Canada's chances. But if I was a fan of Czechia, I don't know that I'd be sitting there going like, "Man, I hope our guys get fourth "or we could lose in the bronze medal game." Like, that'd be great. I cannot put myself in that headspace. But because this thing is new and exciting, I actually can put myself in this headspace where advancing out of the quarter was incredible. And I think part of the nature was the penalty kicks of it all and the exciting, but I get myself to a place. I do wonder, I think the interesting thing is, and I think everybody's mileage would be very different on this, is how quickly does the bar get moved for that? Now, I think it's like, we're not gonna have any games that matter until the World Cup, so I guess it's kind of a moot point. But what does this do to the bar for the conversation? Like, if we, let's say the goal, or let's say Kopa happened again next summer, it's not going to, but let's say it was, would we be happy with beating a team in the quarters? Like, would we be as happy? Would it be a seismic moment? Like, how quickly does the bar change and where people are not expecting more, but that's kind of the price of success, right? Is that people want more from you? - Well, the bar changed before this tournament. - Yeah. - Like, the bar was, okay, that's cool. Like, we got to the World Cup and you scored a goal. - Way to go. - Had to get one. - Time to, like, get a result, let alone a victory, and they did both. - Yeah. - And they got out of the group. And they want a knockout round stage. They're doing the thing that, like, we all expected the Leafs to do, like, baby steps. Like, go to six games against the President's trophy champions, take them to a bunch of over times, that's great. But then the next step went around, then went to, yeah, it's okay. But this is actually happening for Team Canada. We're in their next kick at the can in the very next, significant tournament that they played. They have taken steps. I think where we're at, it's hard to imagine the expectations being like, okay, get to a final. - No, of course not. - When the World Cup, I think the expectations should be now, and reinforced. And maybe should have been, because they finished at the top of their Conkey Gap Group in World Cup qualifying, their best team in North America. Like, they're right there with Mexico and the United States. - For sure. - And just, result, scoreboard, both of those teams who are left in the group stage of this very tournament. - Yep. - And boy, pay attention to some of the American coverage. - God, they are salty. - It's so great. - It's amazing. - Lexi Lauis may never recover from watching Canada advance through the group stage and into the semi-finals of the Copa America as the United States lost a freaking Panama. - Yeah, they got manifest destiny going on all over again. They're like, I don't understand, this is supposed to be us. Like, it just, this is the way it's supposed to be. - Oh, it's great. - Oh, it's so good, I love it, I love it. - Can I just, okay, quickly to go back to the penalty kicks for a moment. - Yes. - Like, rightfully so, we like got into this, but there are just a couple moments from that that, I mean, obviously, like the Davies, the Davies goal to extend it, the Kone winner, but my man, Bombito, with getting the lasers shone in his face and the, okay, the wide angle shot from behind him, where the ref is looking at the other ref, or I assume somebody can go in like, are you seeing the lasers on his face? And he's trying to step in to get Bombito's attention and Bombito's just locked and he cannot, and he has to walk, like right up to his face, he's like, can you see, and I don't even think he said anything, he was just like, get out of my face. Let me, let me boot this home. It was, that was the most steel nails moment from it all. I mean, the fact that they, and again, like, you know me, I love my ref complaining, but that goal, whether it should have been a yellow, or just a, they should have blown it dead or whatever, but the nature of that goal, getting scored on from basically half, that should have broke their back right there. Okay, we're Canada, we're not supposed to do this. And the fact that they could hold on, get it back, continue to push, it was, it was just, God, there's a game filled with so many moments. And honestly, I think it's remarkable that we can have those conversations as well. This is something I've always talked about with other leagues that wanna get some shine is, okay, you'll know your leagues at a good place and we're not having conversations about the state of the league or having conversations about the league. And I feel like that's the thing that's kind of jumping out to me about Canada soccer is yes, I'm having, like, did I have a bunch of texts in my buds? Be like, "Oh man, this didn't cool the Crosby's there." Yes, for sure. But I also had a lot of texts of, I can't believe the way they bounced back. Why wasn't that, like, we're all dumb, we don't know anything, me and my hockey buds, we're like, why wasn't that, seems bad, I don't know, shouldn't be allowed to do that. And we're actually invested in the play of game as opposed to just the narrative or the story. And I think that is such a sign of other little baby steps being taken as well. Yeah, I can make the argument that it was in this team's best interest to go to penalties against Venezuela and to overcome what was, like you said, a heartbreaking back-breaking goal to give up after leading one nothing and having a myriad of other opportunities that they were unable to boot home. Might be smart to take advantage of whatever limited opportunities you get tonight against Argentina, but yeah, an incredible, incredible moment for this nation and the soccer program, biggest win in recent history. And tonight could be one of the biggest wins in our sporting history. Yeah, honestly, like when you look at just stakes, expectations, that's where, I think those are the two things that kind of tie it together to elevate it to this moment, right? If it was just the stakes, it's like, well, I mean, our country's played in semi-finals with tons of sports, we've won medals, but the expectations of not even being close to here and other people's mileage may vary on this for me, but it goes a long way, or may vary for them, but it goes a long way for me. The Americans being so salty about that. Yeah, it's good stuff, so good. All around good, maybe not so good. The Raptors finalizing extensions for Scotty Barnes, who is good, and that was always gonna be obvious that he was gonna get his max extension. Daniel quickly also signed a big bucks contract with the Toronto Raptors. They're now responsible for 50% of the salary cap going forward, and this is, you may recall, a Raptors team that won 25 games a season ago. Get into that, and more next, as the fan morning show continues, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, SportsF590, the fan. Dive deep into Toronto sports and the NFL. The J.D. Bunk is podcast. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Bad morning show SportsF590, the fan man is Brent Gunning. Daniel quickly and decided jury, they understand the team Canada soccer thing. It's like, yeah, oh, great. You made a World Cup. Start winning. It's the only thing that matters in sports. Yes. The future starts now, which I guess is the motto. For the Raptors this offseason, and going forward into next year's regular season. So, it works better than to the core. Yeah, yeah, sounds better to me than to the core. Sure. I don't know how you can, like, to the core, when they were coming up with that slogan, did they think about the possibility of the words being manipulated, and like, yeah, when Vlad hits a ground ball, like, oh, to the core of the earth. I was going to say, throw in the word rotten in front of it. Yeah, rotten to the core, all those things. Anyway, it's hard to mess with future starts now. Yes, that's right. Future kind of started last year, though, to be fair. Like, this is not a Raptors team that is getting brand new bodies in place. These guys were granted not playing 82 games, manual quickly, and Scotty Barnes being injured the last half of the season, and the horrible family tragedy that befell RJ Barrett. But they won 25 games. They're 25 and 57. Yeah, there's brutal. Anyways, so now Scotty Barnes and Emmanuel quickly will be earning $73 million combined. Yeah. It's a go-asceles, how they feel about that, six. So, and like, the number is jarring, right? They're super jarring. Yeah, but the NBA is-- Money, yeah. Some of the max contracts and the money that will be handed out annually, like, when Luca Dodge signs his max, extensions are going to be making $60 million a year. It's nuts. Good for him, honestly, yeah. What is really important is the percentage of the cap. Yes. 50%. Oh, that's so long. That's half. Yeah, so Michael Grand was some great contacts for 50% of the cap. And his latest on sportsnet.ca. In 13, 14, when Kyle Lowry and Demardah Rosen were the Raptors' best garden forward, and the first season of what ended up being seven consecutive playoff appearances, they were earning, so again, the raw number figure is not that important, but 15.7 million combined. That's insane. And that was percentage of the cap. Just under 27% of the cap. So, when they had more bona fides, when they had led the Raptors to the Eastern Conference Finals in 15, 16, they were earning 31.6% of the cap. How about Fred Van Vliet and Pascal Siacom and Siacom, at this point, was a max player. Fred Van Vliet on the verge of being a $40 million player for the Houston Rockets. They combined for 46.9% of the cap. And that was after both of them were wearing rings. Yeah. OK, so the cap hit that Scotty Barnes and Emmanuel quickly will be earning his Raptors team more than any duo in Raptors history. Does that one make sense? And two, does it change the expectations? Not just of them, but of this Raptors team immediately. For the first part, it does make sense. It doesn't make sense if you just say, all right, what's the greatest one to punch? The Raptors have ever had and how much percentage of the cap did they make? No, like you can't look at it that way. This is the way the NBA has decided to structure their salaries now with the idea of these super maxes and they're all bonus late or not bonus late. And but if you hit your certain thresholds, then you trigger different levels of these extensions. This is how things are going forward. Does it change the expectations? 1,000%. How can it not? That is the easiest, most digestible thing. And I think, again, like, you know, not that Raptors haven't come a long way and the championship change things, but like we're still like, by and large, I think a lot of hockey fans like in fall and the team, 50% of the cap is jarring to people who follow that sport, which is all we do is sit there and we can't no longer pour over cap friendly, but go through it that way. 20 player rosters, right? No, no, totally. But I just, you're asking about perception. That's how people are going to look at it. Go, I'm sorry, what? 50%. You're telling me, again, like, I'm just doing the, like, worst person, you know, but these people are going to have these opinions of like, you're telling me Drivecidal and McDavid could only make 40% of the cap, but these two are going to make 50. Like, people will look at it through those terms. So it is going to change the expectations. There's no way. I don't think it's about what the Rosen and Lau roommate or what Van Vliet and Siakka made. I just think it's a super easy to digest number. Same, okay. You guys should be far and away capable of leading this team to, you know, I don't think anyone's going to sit here and, like, championship, promise land, but respectability, the playoffs. He's saying this is a championship robust. Yeah, I know. Messiah Jerry's, like, that's what he's, has he ever in his life said anything other than that? He had the one tank here, and he said he hated it the whole time. Guess what? So did we? Yeah. But that's what he's going to say. But I think from a realistic expectation standpoint, like, this group has to take strides now. Has to. Oh, they do. And they were, this day was kind of forced upon them when they consummated the trade for RJ Barrett and a manual quickly. You know what they were doing? A pending, restricted, free agent. But they're like, Scotty Barnes is a different deal. Like, Rookie of the Year, he's the future, the franchise, like, obviously he, that's the beauty of the NBA, CBA is that, like, oh, those guys, it's just, why? I don't understand why any of the max contract players have agents even. Like, what is the point? Like, you just fill in the blanks. Everybody knows what you're going to earn, anyways. So that's a separate deal. Well, it's because agents are the real GMs and the NBA. That's not the obvious. So they all become the general managers. Anyways, the quickly thing is different because he's a restricted free agent. But when you give up asset in trade in your future, potentially, defensive player of the year in OG Ananobi, who re-ups in New York and was a huge part of the success that they had there. And guess what, got injured again? 'Cause that's also his deal. But when you, that's, you give up huge franchise assets to acquire a player who's a restricted free agent, this is what happens. And yeah, you could have rolled the dice to see if somebody else was willing to pony up in restricted free agency. And then the price only gets higher. So they were between a rock and a hard place when the trade was consummated. The fact that it's happened doesn't change anything. I think what, I mean, in an ideal world, if the Raptors had their druthers and they could just, hey, magic wand and do whatever they want, this would be a year where her, yeah, you try to win, but you're not devastated if you miss the playoffs. 'Cause this is not this past season's draft class. And guess what, the bonus of having that draft pick conveyed to the San Antonio Spurs was that, oh, well, at least you have your first round pick in the good draft class with the real prize at the tippy top and Cooper flag, but not just that, just a much better first round of NBA talent. But instead, you have no choice, but to try and make the playoffs and like a play in tournament appearance is gonna be viewed as a step forward for this team. Anything less than that, honestly, is a massive disappointment and like a shocking failure from Masayu Jerry's told us that explicitly with these comments yesterday. - Yeah, well, I also think that just given the place that this franchise is at, it's that you need to see those strides taken, not just from a, all right, you've kind of toiled long enough, but also, and you've paid enough, but it's also, you need to firmly know what you've got. Like Scotty Barnes, I think there is still a murky ceiling for him. I think there is still obvious, like even his biggest detractors would sit here and say, like, oh, no, there's a, there's a chance that he can become the best player on a winning team. Like nobody would sit here and say, say otherwise, but it's a matter of, you know, can he be, it's kind of the Jason Tatum conversation we have a little bit of, and I'm not calling Scotty Barnes Jason Tatum yet, but it's, is he gonna be one of those three or four players in the league where you go, okay, okay, any team that he's on that has competency around him, you're ready to go, or is he gonna be one of those kind of, you know, more Pascal CAC, kind of players where it's like this guy on any given night can be the eighth best player in the league. But when we actually look at it, he's probably more like the 17th, 20th, something along those lines. Like I still think the future in that regard is super up in the air for Barnes. And then quickly, quite frankly, just haven't seen him as a rap playing with these guys. Like he came in, nice flashes, kind of cooled off a little and then got hurt and then everything kind of got shut down. So you haven't really seen it yet either. I think that's the other thing with this year is that it's gonna become naked right away if it doesn't work and then you're locked into all this. - Yeah, I mean, it is, I mean, now that we're, we started this conversation comparing the two slogans between the Raptors and the Blue Jays. It's a big gamble on Ross Atkins part. And part of it was, he was forced into it. But before the season is like, okay, I know what you guys saw in 2023 and it was hard to walk. But we did win 89 games and I think this team could be better offensively. These players are better than what you saw a season ago. That was the role of the dice that Ross Atkins made. And guess what's happening this year? - Yeah. - That has failed. And guess who's wearing all of it? Ross Atkins. - Yeah. What Messiah Jerry is telling you that, and there are numbers to back this up. So last season, the second most used Raptors lineup was as such. Scotty Barnes, Emmanuel Quickly, Jak and Pertile, RJ Barrett, and Gary Trent Jr. who's pending free agent. And they're gonna probably figure out a sign and trade or whatever. He's gonna not be a Raptor next year. It seems pretty clear. They were plus 10.8 points per 100 possessions in the minutes that they played. - Yep. - I mean, Raptor's biggest problem was the depth and that they just had nobody outside of the starting five and the starting five was hurt or out of the lineup for various reasons and there just was no backfilling. Messiah Jerry is banking on those numbers being able to be extrapolated over an 82 game season. Again, numbers suggest that it's possible. If it doesn't happen though, like the snowball really starts rolling down the hill that all these guys had an incredible run and flags fly forever in 2019 will never forget it. But okay, what is the track record since then missing out on what seemed like the obvious off-ramp for this group, holding on too long, getting middling return on what ended up being a max player in Pascal Siacom and OG Ananobi. And okay, you got what? Like a contract that at the time was viewed as bad, RJ Barrett and Emmanuel Quickly, a guy that the Knicks didn't want to pay and you overpaid and you won what? 35 games? Yeah, the drum beat gets louder for Messiah Jerry if we're talking about a team that's not, in honestly the top eight of the Eastern Conference next year. I think there's a world where that happens. I also think like to me, the most likely scenario is that those guys play something close to worth their contract and the problem is the rest of the roster. And we're sitting here going, okay, hold on, you put two nice pillars in place, but what else is around them? And that is actually what I think is gonna be, 'cause I, in the minutes we saw from Quickly, like there's a reason New York wanted to move off him certainly and that's that I don't think you can expect him from him, expect it from him every single night. But I think Quickly is gonna prove to be a guy that you're gonna be thrilled to have on this team quite honestly, Barnes, I'm a, obviously Barnes is the better player, I'm just less certain about the super, super high end of the ceiling there. But I think what's more likely than not is, we're not having a conversation about how do those guys make 50%. It's how do the rest of these guys make even close to 50% of the cap given how little they've given them that? That's the conversation I expect to be having. - You know, we can't hear this season. Is the thing that we heard from the side jury last season after the trade was consummated. Hey, we're young and there's gonna be growing pains and there's gonna be ugliness to what we're doing here, but it's a slow process. It's like, yeah, that might be what we should expect, but you're telling us we shouldn't expect it and that we should expect victories more often than not in 24, 25. We'll see how that plays out from the side. All right, when we come back, Blue Jays gonna be back in action tonight after, well, does that actually like frankly, I just, I don't feel any shame in saying this. They got thrilling series victory. - It was. - In Seattle. - Cannot lie. - Over the Mariners. - Yeah. - Yeah. It's like, yeah, baseball without stakes can still be fun and feel meaningful. - No lies told in a moment. Blue Jays in San Francisco starting a series against the Giants tonight, with all the guys that you thought they should have signed and Giants are only slightly better. Talk about that in more Naxes. The fan morning show continues, Ben and his spread gunning sports have $5.90, the fan.
