TONIGHT: PCA vs Jacob Misiorowski + FFF & Top 10 WORST No. 1 NBA Draft Picks

Summary

Dan Bernstein Unfiltered – Episode Summary
Episode: TONIGHT: PCA vs Jacob Misiorowski + FFF & Top 10 WORST No. 1 NBA Draft Picks
Date: June 26, 2026
Host: Dan Bernstein with Matt Abbatacola, Erica, Brendan, and guest contributors

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Main Theme & Purpose
This episode of "Dan Bernstein Unfiltered" dives deep into the current state and injuries plaguing the Chicago Cubs as they face a crucial series against their division tormentors, the Milwaukee Brewers, and mis-match ace Jacob Misiorowski. The team also hosts Feedback Friday (FFF), engaging with thoughtful listener emails and voicemails, and caps off the show with a lively, detailed Top 10 ranking of the worst No. 1 NBA Draft picks of all time.

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1. Cubs Injury Woes & Rotation Uncertainty

[01:51–12:49]

Key Points

• State of Cubs Pitching Staff

  • Cubs are heading into Milwaukee, facing their so-called "division tormentor" rather than a rival.
  • A string of wins (4 straight, 10 of 13) have been overshadowed by frequent injuries, especially to starters.
  • “It just feels awful because every day another pitcher goes down.” — Dan Bernstein [03:41]

• Ben Brown's Uncertain Future

  • Dan suspects we may not see Ben Brown again this season due to a recurring bone growth issue (osteoma) in his neck:
    • "If I were a betting person, I would bet that we've seen the last of Ben Brown this year. I'm not reporting, not reporting it. I don't know it." — Dan Bernstein [03:56]
  • Medical mystery: Brown previously avoided surgery, but may soon face it depending on advice from a multi-specialist team.

• Impacts on Trade Deadline & Rotation

  • Cubs must prepare as if Ben Brown is gone for the season and Justin Steele will be limited or working out of the bullpen.
  • “This is a really tough situation for Jed Hoyer, but from a human standpoint, with Ben Brown, it's just really sad. I mean, the guy finally emerged...” — Erica [07:30]

• Mindset Shift: From “Last Stand” to “Storm the Castle”

  • Dan urges caution in framing this Brewers series as the Cubs’ last stand:
    • “Don’t put that on the thumbnail, numb nuts.” — [09:10]
  • Uses a comedic Princess Bride analogy for the ragtag status of the rotation: “Let’s list our assets…Storm the castle…this is the ragtag band of the Cubs pitching staff.” — Dan Bernstein [09:12]

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2. Key Series vs Milwaukee Brewers & PCA vs Misiorowski

[10:37–12:49]

• Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski looms as the most intimidating pitcher in the division. Cubs’ task is compounded by their injury-battered roster.
• Discussion emphasizes:
  • “Can we show some pride here? Can we put together better at bats? … At least look like we deserve to hang with this team?” — Erica [11:29]
• Brewers are given a 68% win probability, Cubs at 32% (FanGraphs). “You can feel really, really, really good until you step into the box against that…” — Matt [12:05]

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3. Listener Interaction & Community Notes

Feedback Friday (FFF)

[18:21–54:52]

Notable Segments:

• Shout-Out to Chicago Hounds:

  • Pro rugby team wins national title undefeated. “You can see why…those are some thickly built men who I would not want to run into in a dark alley somewhere.” — Dan Bernstein [19:58]

• Chicago Sports Trivia Challenge:

  • “Find Cody and Win” — Listeners can win Cubs tickets by finding Cody Delmendo at a Wrigleyville bar. Hints are dropped throughout. [17:05]

• Pride Night Reflections:

  • A trans woman, Cindy, shares a heartfelt note on the enduring importance of Pride nights in sports, contrasting supportive ballpark moments with harassment by street preachers:
    • “Knowing that we can all be ourselves and still enjoy the game is a great feeling, especially nowadays…If it wasn't for nights like this, I don't know if I'd still be around to continue my 30 stadium goal.” — Cindy [31:59]

• Pop Culture & Local Lore:

  • Listeners riff on classic kids shows (Bluey, Crashbox), and a hilariously in-depth email about moose danger as an analogy for underestimated sports situations [24:00–24:41].

• Acronym Guy, Bulls Regime, and Chicago Sports Discourse

  • Listener Spencer provides a thorough and tongue-in-cheek analysis of the negative Chicago tradition of execs using “acronyms” (e.g., SLAP), arguing Bernstein’s long crusade is to thank for changing local sports culture. [46:20]

• Classic Scoreisms

  • Renewed appreciation for old Mike North radio bits (shouting “Tino Antonacci!” when Sam Antonacci bats) and other Score radio-isms.

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4. Memorable Quotes

• “This isn’t just a flexor strain or a shoulder issue…this is new, unique and in different. Unprecedented for most pitchers to have a bone growth there.” — Matt [06:42]
• “This is the ragtag band of the Cubs pitching staff. Here comes Colin Ray and whatever that bar is in Iowa that gives out free drinks every time he pitches…” — Dan Bernstein [09:12]
• “Every day another pitcher goes down. I want to say, too, I don’t necessarily have evidence to back this up. This is more just a hunch.” — Dan Bernstein [03:41]
• “I want the immediate response to be ‘ugh.’ And yes, that is the proper adjective [for Kwame Brown].” — Matt [61:48]
• “Take that…Ah, take that.” (Celebrating a listener’s zombie-fighting Bears Hallmark movie pitch) — Matt [39:45]

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5. Top 10 WORST No. 1 NBA Draft Picks

[54:55–75:39]

A staple segment, full of banter and historical digression, with contributions from the whole panel.

The List (Summarized with Notable Commentary)

1. LaRue Martin (1972 – Portland):

   • Averaged 5.3 PPG; was drafted ahead of Bob McAdoo and Julius Erving.
   • “A nice man…has lived a very successful life outside of basketball.” — Matt [71:40]

2. Anthony Bennett (2013 – Cleveland):

   • “His career trajectory says it all — Cleveland, T-Wolves, Raptors, D-League, Europe, and Taiwan.” — Matt [70:38]

3. Greg Oden (2007 – Portland):

   • Remembered for knee injuries and being picked before Kevin Durant.
   • “Bad scouting is what it was…knee injuries that turned into micro fracture surgery.” — Matt [68:33]

4. Markelle Fultz (2017 – Philadelphia):

   • Lost his shooting mechanics due to mysterious shoulder injury, never fulfilled promise.

5. Kent Benson (1977 – Milwaukee):

   • Most memorable for being knocked out by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in NBA debut.

6. Kwame Brown (2001 – Washington):

   • “The proper adjective is ‘ugh.’” — Matt [61:48]
   • Cited as central to Stephen A. Smith’s media rise.

7. Purvis Ellison (1989 – Sacramento):

   • “Never nervous Purvis” in college; “out of service Purvis” due to chronic injuries [59:31].

8. Michael Olowokandi (1998 – LA Clippers):

   • “Incredible athlete, terrible basketball player.”

9. Andrea Bargnani (2006 – Toronto):

   • “He can make shots…but as a one of one, the impact felt was very low.”

10. Kenyon Martin (2000 – New Jersey):

    • “For one of one you thought it should have been way better than that…one of the worst drafts ever.” — Matt [56:57]

Honorable Mentions and Discussion

• Panel digresses into other ‘busts’ (Darko Milicic, etc.) and the importance of drafting for individual talent vs. team success.

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6. Tone, Style & Notable Moments

• Signature Bernstein mix of sarcasm and depth, both playful and sharply critical.
• Frequent local Chicago references (e.g., “Don’t put that on the thumbnail, numb nuts”).
• In-show running bits: movie analogies, classic Score radio references, feedback as banter fuel.

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7. Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:51 Cubs pitching injury discussion begins
• 04:15 Ben Brown’s medical mystery & roster impact
• 09:12 Princess Bride analogy & Cubs asset talk
• 10:37 Brewers series preview/PCA vs Misiorowski
• 18:21 Feedback Friday: Chicago Hounds title, trivia contest, Pride Night
• 24:41 Listener emails (children’s TV, moose, Bulls size issues)
• 36:35 Listener voicemail: Bears Hallmark movie pitch
• 41:24 Mallory Swanson/Obvious Shirts local lore
• 46:20 Listener analysis of SLAP acronym & sports media culture
• 54:55 Top 10 WORST No. 1 NBA Draft Picks begins

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Summary Usefulness:
This episode delivers a rich blend of Cubs analysis as they limp into a pivotal Brewers showdown, a vintage “Score” community feel with deeply engaged listener feedback, and a highly entertaining look back at historic NBA busts. For those who didn’t listen, it captures the culture and conversation of Chicago sports with humor, context, and the comfortingly blunt “unfiltered” takes that define Dan Bernstein’s style.

Transcript

[Dan Bernstein]

On July 5, the Chicago Stars return to Evanston vs Utah Royals FC the Chicago Stars celebrating a summer of soccer on the north side and you don't want to miss it.

[Matt]

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[Dan Bernstein]

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[Dan Bernstein]

Dan Bernstein Unfiltered Unfiltered on 312Sports DBU

[Matt]

on 312 we are brought to you in partnership with my bookie and by Chicago Window Guys. Call 847-302-9171. Check out Russ Armstrong's five star reviews at ChicagoNow Guys.com and by the Chicago Stars making this a soccer filled summer in Evanston. Come to a match for family friendly pro sports on the lakefront. Get [e-mail] tickets Cody Delmendo is in for Maddie. He is off today. He has baseball responsibilities, driving around I believe from tournament to tournament and tracking all of his players and following Game Changer and doing all of that. Been there, done that. The Chicago Cubs have a chance to at least show their division tormentor. I didn't say rival notice I haven't. They're not really a rival Right now I think the Milwaukee brewers have risen to the level of divisional tormentor and the Cubs are going to go there in the condition that they're in. And we finished up off the Ivy sort of talking about, you know, where they are and who's doing what and what the mash are. But, but overall, the sense of divergent vibes and outcomes is what's notable to me as they are. They are heading up into their house of horrors to face the most intimidating pitcher in baseball that you have four consecutive wins, 10 of 13. You know, they're one meltdown, one bullpen meltdown away from like a seven game win streak I think we figured out and it just feels awful because every day another pitcher goes down. I want to say too, I don't necessarily have evidence to, to back this up. This is more just a hunch. I'm not reporting it. If I were a betting person, I would bet that we've seen the last of Ben Brown this year. I'm not reporting, not reporting it. I don't know it. But they dealt with this thing. Was it two years ago or last year? It was two years ago.

[Erica]

Two years ago, May of 2024 when

[Matt]

Ben Brown developed a stiff neck and they eventually learned he had a benign bone growth on his neck called an osteoma, which is what it sounds, it's. It's oma is a growth and oste is bone. So it's just a fancy way of saying bone growth. And it, they allowed it to calm down. I don't know if they treated it just with anti inflammatories and pain medication or they built up the area around it. Whatever they did, they did not do surgery. So it's been there, it's. Whatever the issues were has been at bay, but now it's back and I wonder if they, I don't know what his doctors told him the last time was like, hey, we, you know, we're able to do this without surgery. This time we'll go as long as we can go sometimes with these things what the doctors will tell you. And in this case it's probably boy, it's probably any number of specialists that is not just you probably have neurologist because it's on the, the neck. I don't know exactly where it is, but it may just be. They said, yeah, next time we're going to have to do something else. And maybe he's confronting that right now. Maybe the choice that you give the patient is, you know, you know what it took last time to recover from this or we can probably just pop this thing off of there and then have you recovered and it's never going to be an issue again. So maybe there's a decision to make. I don't know. They're not saying anything. I'm just guessing. I'm just going to try to kind of play it out. But the bottom line is I'm. I don't think that Ben Brown is going to be a part of things until we hear from them that they think he is.

[Erica]

Yeah. I believe Craig Council said yesterday that he's just going to rest for a month and then they're going to go from there. That's it. And when you talk about the rest of the season for the Cubs, it's for. At least for him, it's like, okay, it's June 26th.

[Matt]

Right. So a month is the end of July.

[Erica]

End of July. And then you still have to ramp him back up.

[Matt]

Which.

[Erica]

What, at least a couple weeks.

[Logan Severson]

At least. Right.

[Brendan]

If.

[Dan Bernstein]

Then.

[Matt]

If the rest is the difference. Right.

[Erica]

Yeah.

[Matt]

If I remember last time they did try rest and then he went. It was during the ramp up that he felt it again. Like that was. There's. It's. This is abnormal. It's. This isn't just a flexor strain or a shoulder issue that pitching infrastructure folks have dealt with a million times. This is new, unique and in different. Unprecedented for most pitchers to have a, a bone growth there. So I don't know. But rest a month and then wait. Bad sign.

[Erica]

Yeah, I would say that, you know, you kind of led the show with, you know, this is, you know, big series this week against Milwaukee.

[Matt]

Yep.

[Erica]

Whatever happens for, with the Cubs as far as wins and losses over the next month will dictate how they're going to operate at the deadline, I think. And I think the Cubs will be going into that process believing that it will be without Ben Brown. And they have to, they have to look at it that way and they have to do the same thing with Justin Steele, which, you know, Jed Hoyer has already openly said that he thinks that he probably won't start when he comes back. And so when you talk about roster construction from. At the deadline and how they go about things, depending on where they're at, it's. I think that they'll be viewing it with, with, with not having Ben Brown the rest of the year and a limited adjusted steal and whoever else is hurt. So, yeah, it's, it's a really tough situation for Jed Hoyer, but from a human standpoint, with Ben Brown. It's just really sad. I mean, the guy finally emerged to the type of pitcher I thought he could be.

[Matt]

Oh, he's going to be an all star.

[Erica]

Yeah, he brought it was. He was carrying the staff.

[Matt]

Yeah, he was going to be during

[Erica]

the worst stretch of the year.

[Matt]

And I'm just always. The moment a pitcher does anything, the moment he shrugs, the moment he takes his hat off, the moment he walks off the back of the mound this year, I'm always thinking the worst. Hell, I was thinking it last night in the first inning, PCA took time at second base and it looked like there was something. He's like, wait, I need a second. And I thought, oh, no, like broken finger. I thought, you know, jammed his shoulder, something. And they're like, I was on tenter hooks just watching that because of the way things have gone. But either way, I don't, I don't want to paint this as the Cubs last stand. So don't put that on the thumbnail, numb nuts.

[Erica]

Okay?

[Matt]

Because I know you, because you get done. It's not a criticism because it's the job is that the thumbnails have to be attention grabbing and catchy. And I know that you and you and Maddie have gotten very, very good at that. So I'm not faulting you for doing your job. But I am not calling this the Cubs last stand. But this is an opportunity for them to say, what do we got? Let's list our assets and we got to storm the castle. This, this is when you've got that scene in Princess Bride when Wesley has just been been resurrected by Miracle Max because he was only mostly dead. They gave him the chocolate covered pill and it just took effect. That Fesic has to carry him to. To the bridge just outside the castle. He can't even move and he. All he does, he said, let's list our assets because they have to figure out what they have left before they take on this daunting opponent. So if the brewers end up being Prince Humperdinck and his army, in this case, this is where they are. This is the ragtag band of the Cubs pitching staff. Here comes Colin Ray and whatever that bar is in Iowa that gives out free drinks every time he pitches. I hope they don't give out free drinks or they. Or they make you leave if he gives up home runs because that would probably be bad for them. That's the Jameson Tyone bar.

[Brendan]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Wherever that is. So this is. What do you got? Cubs is essentially.

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What do you.

[Matt]

What do you got?

[Erica]

Yeah, I would say, you know, if you've listened off the Ivy, I've talked about, you know, being somewhere between six to 10 games above.500 heading into the All Star break. You got 15 games going into today or tonight. You have 15 games left before the All Star break. You're seven games above.500. I don't think, like, this is a. This is a Pride series for the Cubs. You just got. You got swept at home by this brewers team in embarrassing fashion. Pca, with the two airs that went viral all over the Internet, all that stuff. Mizarowski had a good start against you. Like, everything that could go wrong in that series went wrong. And this series coming up on the road now, it's. I don't want to say it's like, how do you respond? It's more of like, can. Can we show some pride here? Can. Can we put together better at bats? Can we put together a better performance? At least look like we deserve to hang with this team? And I. That's what I'm looking for. Personally, it. Going into this series, and it's going to be. It's a tall task considering the staff they have to face and all the injuries that you have. But, yeah, 15 games before the All Star break here, where. Where can you be going into it? Right now, you're in a spot that I feel good about, as we talked about on. Off the Ivy.

[Matt]

But, yeah, but now Here's a. Here's 105 miles an hour up your ass over and over again. So.

[Dan Bernstein]

Right.

[Matt]

Right. You can feel really, really, really good until you step into the box against that and you kind of look back at the dugout like, I. I don't know. I. I can't see it. So if, say, a Suzuki can lay off the high cheese, if Ian Hap can lay off the. The tunneling or the mixture of the breaking ball and the fastball above his hands, you just. You're. You're hoping to click on a couple of those things. Maybe you get a walk and somebody on base when it happens, but you got a chance. Maybe you run up his pitch count. Maybe he's not feeling well. Maybe it's not his night. You get into their bullpen in the first game of a series, great good things are allowed to happen to the Cubs. They're allowed.

[Erica]

It's. It's hard to believe that, but you are correct.

[Matt]

That's all I'm reminding you. It's just reminding you that these things are allowed to happen. And the offense has been good. Did you know that? You can double your money if the golden arches show up during a game. With that, you are watching in the World cup and you can only bet it on my bookie. It's no lineups, no tactics. You don't even need to know soccer. You watch the broadcast, you can stream it at my bookie. The golden arch is the McDonald's logo. They appear any point on screen of the World cup broadcast. It's one of the most recognizable logos on earth. Use the promo code DBU when you go to my bookie to grab your deposit bonus. And you get up to $500 in protection on your first bet at my bookie. So don't wait until you see it on the screen because by then it's already too late. It's a lock of the season. It is only at my bookie. Maybe that game you're watching tonight is Uruguay and Spain. That is an 8 o' clock start, I believe locally. So keep an eye on it. And I'm gonna give you my DBU pick near the end today. Might just be a thought on that game. It might be nice.

[Erica]

Tease.

[Matt]

Yeah, right.

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[Matt]

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Take 10 minutes. Get covered today with life insurance through Ethos. Get your free [e-mail] dbu that's e t h o s.com dbu Application times may vary. Rates may vary. On July 5, the Chicago Stars return to Evanston versus Utah Royals FC. The Chicago Star is celebrating a summer of soccer on the north side and

[Matt]

you don't want to miss it. With an easy to get to stadium

[Dan Bernstein]

and tickets starting at $19, pro women's soccer has never been more accessible. Come to a match for family friendly pre match entertainment. Then Cheer on us Olympians like Mallory Swanson and Alyssa Nayer playing right on the lakefront in Evanston. Summer soccer doesn't get much better than this.

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[Dan Bernstein]

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[Matt]

speaking of teases, I don't want to forget this. That I want to do this. Before I forget that tonight is Find Cody and Win Night. So after six, Cody is going to go to a Wrigleyville bar. I'm not telling you which Wrigleyville bar because it's he's going to go watch the Cubs take on the brewers. And really you should be finding him just because you want to hang out and watch the game. But the first person to find him. If you are a Cubs fan and if you have a registered Account on the 312 sports app and you can answer a Chicago Cubs trivia question, you'll win a pair of tickets to a future Cubs home game and exclusive 312 sports swag. Cody's already dropped hints on the app and on Socials at 312Sports. So I think you should if you're not a complete idiot, you should have a pretty good idea. And if you are a complete idiot again, you're allowed. You're allowed to accidentally, you know, you walk into a wall, you walk into a door, you're in the wrong neighborhood. But you know, you might just happen stance run into Cody Delmendo. So that's possible too. But you can find Cody, beat the crowd and win Cubs tickets. That's the kind of thing we do for you here.

[Erica]

Yeah, the I've been given the hints on off the Ivy. I might as well drop them here too. The bar has a rooftop. I was at this bar for game one of the 2016 NLCS and the newest hint today was that it's across the street from Wrigley Field. Okay.

[Matt]

All right.

[Dan Bernstein]

Come on.

[Matt]

No excuses now.

[Erica]

No excuses now.

[Progressive Motorcycle Insurance Announcer]

No.

[Erica]

We have made it to Friday So I mean, if you've been following and listening and all of it, like it's going to be really hard to not find me. Like, I want to make it hard. But I also do want people to show up.

[Matt]

Yeah. So you can all watch the game together. I, I also, I found this interesting that fan graphs puts odds on or percentage possibilities largely based on the pitching matchup between the two teams. And when you look at the math of a puncher's chance on the downside of a matchup, it looks like this with Milwaukee has a 68% chance of winning the game and the cubs have a 32% chance of winning the game. Feels about right.

[Erica]

Yep.

[Lowe's Announcer]

Yep.

[Matt]

That's okay.

[Erica]

The odds, the odds on my bookie very much love the brewers tonight. Very much.

[Matt]

I would think so. But there's, there's always opportunity in some of those predictions for you. So you want to play the cubs and their 32% chance of victory. Feel free to do so. I know what we love to do on Fridays is your Feedback Friday. Feedback Friday. When you have sent in emails, you have sent in other thoughts and things. So I want to get started. I like to do this in order of the topics that we've discussed as best I can. And sometimes there's some things that have nothing to do with anything with no topics here. So. And this is the first and this is actually a little newsy item that I wanted to get to and I saw this picture and that was sent in by Erica and it just, there's a picture of a sports team and of large thick men with their socks pulled up and they're wearing cleats and they're in front of a banner that says 2026 champions. And it is a Chicago professional sports team that has just won a title. So she writes. Gentlemen, in keeping with Chicago sports content, I wanted to drop a note about the Chicago Hounds who won the Major League Rugby Championship this past Sunday after going undefeated in the regular season and the playoffs. Take that, Dolphins. Take that. There you go, Larry Zonka. And let's see, Mercury Mars is dead now, right? I think if he's not, I just killed him. Bob Greasy, all you guys. There you go. Undefeated regular season in the playoffs. They play in Bridgeview at SeatGeek. It can be a bit of a hike for some. It's a great time. We enjoyed being first time season ticket holders this year. I'm hoping you can give these guys a shout out, especially since I think a lot of people don't know that we have A professional rugby team. I guess Chicago has the champion professional rugby team. And looking at these guys, you can see why. Yikes. Those are some thickly built men who I would not want to run into in a dark alley somewhere. This is. But congrats, man. They're wearing big medals around their necks that they earned for their. For their rugby major league rugby championship.

[Erica]

Here's a question for you. Have you heard of the man who goes by Chicago solely? Damn.

[Matt]

No.

[Brendan]

No.

[Erica]

Okay. So he is. I would consider him a decent creator friend out there. And what he. What his bit is, is that he runs a mile every day until a Chicago sports team wins a championship. That's how it's. His whole thing started. And he's in like, I believe he's in the 7 hundreds right now when

[Matt]

he runs a mile or he runs a mile each day for just. The number of miles keep increasing.

[Erica]

No, no, no. It's just a mile every single day until a Chicago sports team wins a championship. And he knew about the rugby thing, but he's very particular about it in the fact that the team has to be in Chicago. And since SeatGeek is in Bridgeview, he has not counted it. So a lot of people are asking him, well, what if. What if. When the Bears leave Chicago, right. Arlington Heights, Sure.

[Matt]

And.

[Erica]

And he's sticking to it like he's hoping the Bears win the super bowl before the. Before they eventually move to whether it's Indiana or Arlington Heights.

[Shannon Maldonado]

So.

[Erica]

But I. I was impressed that he knew about this before most of the public did. So shout out to Chicago.

[Matt]

It's his job. I think he should know that.

[Logan Severson]

I think.

[Matt]

I think it's really important that he does. But thanks to Erica for letting us know. And congratulations to the Chicago Hounds. Always good to have a champion of any kind. This is a note from Dan, and he says, I'm listening to forward progress. And I heard you mention that Toy Story is and has been really a movie and movies for parents. I haven't watched it all the way through recently, so I can't really speak to that. But what I can speak to is the show Bluey. Bluey is an Australian show about a family of dogs and their community. My kids are 4 and 6, so for the last few years, and we're on the downslope of it now, it has been on in our house for hours and hours. It is a show for parents disguised as a kids show. The episodes are only seven minutes long. Many have subtle, layered messages that you only catch if you're paying attention. The music is phenomenal, with each episode having its own unique score and feel. There are countless episodes that could be considered the best in the series, and somehow they keep topping themselves. Several episodes have gotten me choked up. A few have left my wife in tears. Not in that manipulative Pixar way, but in a genuinely artistic way that captures what it's like to be a parent. The joy, the challenges, sometimes both at the same time. So I know your kids, Maddie's and mine, are past the age where you'd naturally watch it, and it's not exactly something I tell someone to sit down and binge outside of sports, but it's reassuring to know that some children's entertainment is still exceptionally well done. If you're curious, it's available on Disney plus. Check out the episodes Sleepy Time, Facey Talk, and Cricket. The short episodes are all worth a watch, all being one to two minutes long. That has completely missed me.

[Erica]

Yeah, I know. I never heard of the show.

[Matt]

Yeah, nothing the that. That missed us. So I'm. I guess I'm sorry it did. You know, we had our, the shows they liked. He loved Crashbox, which is also an awesome kids show that was, I think it was on Showtime. That and you know, Handy Manny. And she just wanted to watch cooking shows when she was little. That was just sort of her happy thing. Giada De Laurentiis just, you know, made her happy. So it was. Those were, you know, a lot of what we went through with my kids and obviously after they graduated from Elmo and everything else. God boy, Elmo. Did you see his, the, the, the video that he did?

[Erica]

I've heard people talking about Elmo of recently, but I didn't know why he

[Matt]

check it out on either his Tik Tok or Instagram. He's like, don't make this a thing. He's like talking about the US Soccer and everything. And he's I want, I want them to win, but I am rooting for the United States. But he clears like, don't make this a thing. It was very funny. Our Buddy Jordan in St. Charles says, Gentlemen, during yet another lobotomizing session of void gazing disguised as Tuesday's commute home, I found myself riveted by a particular exchange between Berdstain and Canna Cola, this time concerning the noble moose. You both hedged aplenty with the I don't know, hunting caveats and made mostly harmless speculations. But Matt specifically posited a mouthful of innocent ignorance so alarming he could have resurrected Theodore Roosevelt with a single Additional dis. Matt said, I don't see going after a moose as a great challenge. Followed by a moose doesn't seem like a nimble creature. Oh, you sweet, sweet children of the suburbs. Yes, the moose is the gangly teenager of the ungulates. Yes, moose are in large part wary of human contact. Yes, the moose can be a walking Benny Hill montage when trying to negotiate through tight underbrush with twin satellite dishes growing out of its skull. However, for all its awkward reclusivity and generally unathletic appearance, a motivated moose can quickly transform into your worst fucking nightmare. Let's start with some perspective. Your average adult moose is around 6ft tall and exceeds 1,000 pounds. It can sustain an easy gallop approaching 30 miles an hour and sprints through chest deep snow banks faster than you two after some expired meats and stale donuts. When faced with a full sized privacy fence, most moose can simply push right through it when they can't be bothered to clear it more cleanly than Andre over the top rope and Zeus. Help any hapless city billy who dares attempt what I call Darwin's selfie by venturing too close to a running male or a cow keeping watch over her calves. A provoked moose will charge at chase down and in rare cases, kill people, violently kill their pets, kill their livestock with extreme prejudice. Hell, they're exponentially more lethal than bears and mountain lions when you account for how many poor saps end up liquefying themselves against their dashboard after hitting one of these behemoths with their car. All of this to say, boys, should you continue to underestimate Bullwinkle, be sure to maintain respectful distance and keep a sturdy book on your head. Shove an extra large goalie cup down your trousers. Yeah, Jordan, look, I am enough of an outdoorsman to have encountered moose multiple times. I've been to Alaska. I've seen moose in the parking lot of the hotel. I have had to. My, my taxi to the airport had to stop three times for moose in the road. I'm very, very, very aware. I also know from many fairly rustic Canadian fishing trips that when in the wild and when you see that that cow has calves, steer very, very, very clear. I know that, but that isn't really the point. But again, this is. This is. I think the rules apply here as they used to. And that would be. Just take it. Let's do a note here from Cindy in Tacoma, Washington. Next. And Cindy says over the course of the road trip Zed and I took recently. That's so cool. I don't know if anybody remembers, it was Zed, I think from Zed from Chapel Hill who was a big part of who you crapping for years. And she says we've been following the exploits of how the San Francisco Giants pitchers either deface their caps with misquoted Bible verses or denounced the cap by saying without saying, we hate the LGBTQ community. And it brings us to our experience at PNC park on June 11. It was pride night. It was a great time to let loose, especially for me. It's why I still enjoy this game. And she says, while I'm not the best looking example of it, I am an out trans woman. Actually going out as myself in this current hellscape, even in Seattle is still a bit dangerous. So it was a joy to actually dress up a bit when we went to see the Pirates take on the Dodgers. It was Dollar Dog night, which has to be the unintentionally perfect promotion simpatico to the likes of me. Tough to top. Over the course of the night, both Pirates and Dodgers brass and players had videos playing saying that we mattered. And it brings us to after the game. We were heading back to our hotel and on the way out of the park, we had a couple of street preachers come up to us and ask us, have you thought about turning your life over to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and Zed? Despite being filled with icy light, Mango quickly outwitted the opportunistic ones by going on a classic screed about how the real savior was in fact Brian Cohen and how Jesus was a hypocrite. And that shut him up pretty quick. I want to make note that these chodes weren't out doing this before the game. They were not doing this anytime during the game. They only showed up when the fans were tired and tipsy or in a bit of agony, as I was because I threw my back out the day prior. My meds had worn off and we encountered another one who's more vitriolic with a megaphone saying if you don't repent and turn away from the gay, you're going to hell. This guy was also not doing this outside of the park when people were arriving. And this leads to my main takeaway from what the pitchers did and my unfortunate experience with the street preachers. Did you see Jaden Ivy by any chance? Because that's not. That's not what Jaden Ivy is doing. So maybe he's out there, the former bull as my editorialization. So she says they're all homophobes and transphobes who wanted to wait for the perfect time to maximize their hatred for those who they view as lesser and cause as much of a headache for them as possible. They had to have known this would get the biggest response. Then they play the religious persecution card to try to deflect, even though they did this out of malice and not out of anything near the realm of spreading the word and love of God. If they truly believed what they believe, they would have done this sooner and not cried foul when the pressure really got to them. Instead, they're just a few more you can add to the pile of those who only want to express their religious beliefs when it benefits them the most. It's also why Pride Night still matters to me. Knowing that we can all be ourselves and still enjoy the game is a great feeling, especially nowadays. And she finishes with this if it wasn't for nights like this the teams put on, I don't know if I'd still be around to continue my 30 stadium goal.

[Erica]

It's a lot.

[Matt]

That's a lot. That's from Cindy in Tacoma, Washington. As always, Cindy, thank you for listening and for sending that in. We got some Bulls thoughts. All right. Our guy Ian in Boston says I'm enjoying the NBA draft coverage here on DBU and on owc. Observing the first major moves of a new regime is always the most exciting for me. I hold out hope there's some intrinsic advantage that Bryson Graham will have in every movie makes. Maybe know something no one else does, and I'm being let in on the plan. Back when the Cubs were getting good, the Addison Russell trade and the drafting of Schwarber felt that way. Most of all, I'm excited to see some tall guys coming through the door. I could never understand the last group seeming glee in playing four guard lineups or tossing Derrick Jones Jr. Out there as a small ball five. Even in the Harvard six foot and under intramural basketball league, a five eight small ball five like me got worked consistently. Why did AK seem to believe that playing at a constant size disadvantage was some badge of honor? It's like Robert Falcon Scott dying in his tent on the way back from the South Pole because it was more romantic to man haul his sledges than use dogs like Amundsen did. But I digress. Keep at it. Thank you Ian. And that's the very same Amundsen of Amundsen High School here at Foster and Damon.

[Erica]

Yeah, drive by it a lot actually.

[Matt]

Yeah, yeah, that's where Winnemack park is. The lovely Winnemac Park. And not to be confused with the former bull, as you're talking bulls there. Lou Amundsen was a bull for a brief time, wasn't he?

[Erica]

I think sounds familiar.

[Matt]

I'm pretty sure he, I think he was a Nick and then I, he was on a bunch of teams. Bad, I think Lou Amundsen. But yes, I like this question and I don't know if I have an answer. It was sent in by Sean says Dan Matt. I was flipping through the channels and there was an ad for Skinny Pop popcorn and Jennifer Aniston was checking into a hotel. And instead of a random actor saying, hey, you're Jennifer Aniston, the hotel clerk explained she was a huge fan. And of course Jennifer Aniston says thank you. And the clerk goes on and on about all the great things about Skinny Pop and then asks, checking in and asks for a name. And Jennifer Aniston says Jennifer. And she says jennifer what? And she says Aniston. So would this be considered a run of the mill Iraqpo or is this some subsection of a self Iraqpo? I thought about it and this may. I don't think this is one. I think once you reach a certain level of obvious stardom where you're making fun of how famous you are, that's the whole joke of the bit. The bit is she, she, nobody would realize she doesn't know who it is. So no, I don't think this is a stealth Iraqpo of any kind. I don't think the point was to find some clever creative way like as Micah Ruzzioni walks out of the bar, there happens to be in a Ruzzioni jersey hanging over there or little ways of, of having somebody kind of acknowledge or help you out to. I don't think that's what this is. I think this is a, an inversion of the idea of Iraq poing by making fun of the fact that this woman who at working at the hotel wouldn't know who she is and is instead saying she's a huge fan of Skinny Pop. Does that make sense? Yeah, I think so. I think so. I, I, I think it does. Okay, now we're, we're getting into some of the fun stuff here. I want to, can I we save two different voice messages now? The first one I want to play, I want to do the, the one that was listening when we were talking about the Hallmark movie about the Bears.

[Erica]

Yeah, I can play that.

[Matt]

Okay. And this, this is. What's this guy's name again? This is Logan.

[Erica]

Let me bring up My email, I

[Matt]

think, I think his name is Logan, who has this one. Because I forwarded this to you and I just found this absolutely hysterical. Yes. Yeah, this is, this is Logan.

[Erica]

Yeah, Logan.

[Matt]

Logan Severson. Yeah. And I'm putting this on here just because of, I'll explain afterwards, but we were talking about how we would reimagine this bears themed Hallmark movie and he offered us this.

[Logan Severson]

Hey guys, I was listening to a forward progress on the way home from work today and I, I heard you guys talking about the Hallmark movie featuring the bears or having the bears in it. And I just wanted to give you another alternate ending to this film where. Okay, so the zombies from Hammond, they, they come over here and they're looking for Kevin. They can't find him, but they know, they know he's always up at 4am at the D. The, the George. How A statue. So they, they, they head there and they corner him and he, he climbs up the statue and he's got Bible in hand and he's yelling scripture and whatever. And then he, he, he's praying for something, a savior. And then guess who shows up. Tyson. B's dad. And he just starts arm wrestling these zombies. And it's his right arm, left arm, take your pick. And he's just destroying them all, gets them all. They, they build the stadium in Hammond and they dance on the grave of all these zombies. And then the Soldier Field turns into the arm wrestling capital of the world. And then they build a dome and. Happy ever after. Happy birthday, Dan.

[Erica]

That's the best part to me.

[Lowe's Announcer]

Thank you.

[Erica]

The Happy birthday Dan.

[Matt]

So I just, I wanted that held up as an example. That is exactly what the voice message feature on the app should be used for. That is exactly right. That is something you're, you're in the middle of listening like, wait, I, I, I'm here. You, I have an idea. Take this. I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put, I'm gonna throw this down right now. That is being in the moment, in the bit. That's like in hockey, a defenseman jumping into the play. A defense who knows he's gotta watch his own blue line. Who knows he's creeping forward a little bit, but then he sees it cycling around in the cor uncovered and he can just skate up and smack his stick on the ice and crank one. That's what that was. It missed the net, but it doesn't matter. And I love the idea of Travis Bagent vanquishing opponents by just slamming their arms down. That somehow the Zombies can be done in, can be killed by losing at arm wrestling that their pride is so wounded they just, they evaporate. Oh, that's it. I cannot continue to exist as a zombie that loses at arm wrestling, has no value value and no worth and must go away. So I, I was, I was thinking about that driving in, but here he is. Oh, it comes out. There you go.

[Dan Bernstein]

Take that.

[Matt]

Ah, take that.

[Erica]

I like it.

[Matt]

Well done.

[Erica]

I still just love the Happy birthday Dan. It just, it, it just. The perfect way to end it. Just some, some, something like that and then end it with.

[Matt]

That's it, Logan out. Happy birthday, Dan. Thanks Logan, I appreciate that. One is something that is coming up next week that you need to do. July 5th, you've already done your all state, you know, July 3rd, July 4th, you've done all that. You're saying, look, let's make a whole weekend about, let's, let's make a big family fun weekend out of the July 4th weekend. Well, you know what you can do is you can go watch a little bit of Chicago Stars professional soccer because they're back in Evanston against Utah Royals FC on July 5th and they're celebrating a summer of soccer on the north side and you don't want to miss it. They play at Martin Stadium in Evanston and tickets start at just $19. The whole thing is really cool. It's not just the game that you've got a kid's zone and yard games and a mini pitch and the family friendly atmosphere. Any young kid or soccer player that wants to see the role models play up close can do that. So Mallory S.W. swanson, Alyssa Nayer, these are huge names in pro soccer. Easy to get to via car, bike, CTA or metra right on the shores of Lake Michigan. So come for a match. Come for the pre match entertainment. Cheer on us Olympians like Mallory Swanson and Alyssa Nair playing right on the lakefront in Evanston. Summer soccer doesn't get better than this. Get your tickets [e-mail] tickets.

[Erica]

Have you seen the newest Pepsi commercial, Dan?

[Matt]

I don't know.

[Erica]

Well, it has Mallory and Dansby Swanson in it and I bring it up because Dansby's wearing a shirt that's made by obvious shirts here in Chicago.

[Matt]

Oh, that's cool.

[Erica]

Yeah, and I believe it says Mallory Swanson is good at soccer or something like that. And so I've known Joe, what it's 2026. I've known Joe for like 10 or 11 years and to see his shirt like local Small business make it to,

[Matt]

like, corporate America commercials.

[Erica]

Pretty cool.

[Matt]

So that's a big deal when you actually. Because it's not like he just walks out there and says, I'm wearing this shirt that has to be approved by a lot of people.

[Erica]

Oh, yeah.

[Matt]

A lot of powerful people have to sign off on wardrobe and everything else that does that. That isn't just a random thing where it's like some promo that the guy's cutting for the. For local radio.

[Erica]

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

[Brendan]

Yeah.

[Matt]

So good for him. That. That's really kind of neat. Now I want to start this next group of. In our last group of feedback emails here that are on the same topic with yet another voice message that came in, because there were. There were a couple of these, and I thought this was the rep. This is Brendan, who sent this.

[Brendan]

Hey, Dan, I have to thank you for putting Tino Antonacci back in my head. I'm not even thinking of Sam Antonacci. I just keep thinking of Tino Antonacci. And it took me back to my high school days, listening to the score in the morning and, you know, hearing Connie Franson and my guy and putting jardinier on my shoes. Oh, boy. Well, thank you,

[Matt]

Connie Francis, not Connie Franson. But good, because I. The question I asked was, am I the only one who. Whenever Sam Antonacci is up, I channel the old Mike North, Tito. And apparently that is that I'm not alone. So, yeah, Jake said I'm a younger fan of the show and anytime I go to my dad's place and the socks game is on, he's always singing Tino Antonacci, anytime Sam is up to Batman. So thank you for confirming that my dad is not just acting like a crazy person. You're welcome. Yes, We're. We're all in this together. I understand Canuck boy said you really did this to me. Bernstein. One offhand mention of Mike north, how he used to scream Tea in the land back in 1995, and now I can't watch Sam Antonacci hit without my brain screaming that at the screen. So naturally, instead of doing literally anything productive with my retirement here in Japan, I spent 20 minutes deep diving into the Twitter account of the actual Tino Antonacci. Real guy, still alive, owned Basta Pasta. 8 total tweets since joining in April of 22. It tells you about how he operates. He's not a poster. He's a lurker. He occasionally will surface to like things, and the things he likes are a perfect cross section of a Chicago guy of a certain age, actual Mike north content pro Maga tweets and what I can only describe as a steady diet of attractive Italian women on his timeline, the bio says taking one day at a time which honestly might be the most self aware thing in the whole account. So thanks for that. I now have a face, a restaurant and politically charged Twitter likes permanently associated with every Sam Antonacci at bat for the rest of my life. I hope you're happy. Oh oh Canuck boy. Oh I you know I'm happy. You better believe I am to know that I've done that to you specifically. There is a note here from Manaj sent this and it's a link. So the Atlantic magazine put together a database, a searchable database of what on the Internet is being used to train generative AI. And there's boars and Bernstein stuff on

[Lowe's Announcer]

there

[Matt]

that it absolutely freaked me out. He said you go to this link and search 670 the score. So I did and there's there's a couple of videos here, one of which is has got me in it and then there's an old old, old video of Terry and me at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Chicago Ridge on the who needs to Bud Light Tavern tour. So I just think it's great and it had me doing a whole bit in my head of a generative AI that is only trained listening to Terry and how how this this would be a better world if it were true and if like Pete Heath is is programming all of the missile operations with this particular generative AI but it's only Terry Bore's. So I would just say have fun with that because I almost kept myself up late thinking about how that would go down if that were the case. But I much appreciate that. This is from Jose who said I was listening to the podcast and you mentioned the Tino Antonacci song and you're absolutely not alone. I have other references that I'm constantly dropping on my kids just to amuse myself. I'm always saying watch out it's slippery over there. And of course the there's garage door where you been? Because of greeting callers with their dumbass monikers and it doesn't touch the plethora of Boris isms that play in my head. I was at an impressionable age when listening to the early score which I use this to annoy others and amuse myself because I am not. Well that is much appreciated. I want to, I want to close with this because I can't take all the credit for it. I'm not going to say that Spencer is absolutely right in this analysis, but he's not. Also, he's not entirely wrong either, based on what I know. And all he says is, okay, Bernstein, take a bow. I don't know who in the Pulitzer Committee needs to be notified, but your decades long crusade of speaking truth to stupid has finally reached an inflection point against the forces of institutionalized power and prevailing fan stupidity. This career spanning campaign has been well documented. On Tuesday, June 23, 2026, Acronym Guy was quietly removed from power, though no public statement was issued and acknowledgment was confirmed. As you said, the Bulls admitted the forced retirement of the SLAP acronym. I imagine you think I'm being over the top. I am, but to a point. I firmly believe that your pedantic pantsing of Tim Beckman and WINT is the fountainhead of what just surfaced on draft night. While you're far from the only voice in Chicago sports media, many of them now belong to people from Chicago that have listened to you and throughout their careers. I don't think it's a stretch to say that many of the iconic moments associated with you and the totality of BNB have become entrenched in the ethos of the larger Chicago sports dialogue. But it's not just the one hilarious moment where that humorless oaf was exposed as an idiot. It's the repetition of the following sequence. Chicago sports team fires coach or executive due to sustained failure. Fans and you, Dan, rejoice. Chicago sports team replaces fired person with someone that when asked how they'll bring wins, uses an acronym. Then you question the intelligence of that person, citing the use of an acronym. And then the person is Matt Eberfluss. So amidst the justifiable optimism regarding Bryson Graham, I can envision the cringe rippling through gathered media and across apps and platforms. When he said slap, the reverberations obviously created enough seismic activity to be picked up up by the Bulls. The stink of acronym guy was foul enough to inspire an about face. I'm suspecting you might try to be humble. I want to make one other observation. Bryson Graham's not stupid, but he hasn't been connected to the Chicago sports landscape until recently. It's a quasi experiment. A foreign agent introduced into an existing ecosystem given the first opportunity to speak to a new fan base, a demographic traditionally stupid. And Chicago's no exception. He used an acronym and he had no idea what it meant in that room. So there's a combination of variables in which you fit a new executive, new town, feeding the media drywall because they represent a stupid fan base as universal. But your life work of sniffing out idiots and the means by which this is done is disproportionately weighted here. So the term acronym guy is not only understood locally and it's a pejorative, it led to an observable decision in action within an internationally recognized professional sports organization, he said. The only possible explanation that these normal events could lead to an abnormal outcome is the presence of your buffoonery, said Bryson Graham sits down in his new office, unlocks his computer, gets back to work on his coaching candidate list when someone from Bulls prior to sheepishly walks into his office and has to explain the taboo he committed because some asshat on the radio had successfully drawn a connecting line between the use of an acronym and the respective intelligences of Tim Beckman and Matt Eberfluss that accurately predicted an unfavorable outcome. So we can only hope that without knowing why, Bryson Graham picked up a nearby book from his desk and rests it gently on his head. I don't know about all that, maybe a little bit of that. But Spencer, thank you. I appreciate it.

[Erica]

Says a lot that he decided or that he was told to, you know,

[Matt]

it was just, it was decided to use the passive voice. They may have said, hey, let's, let's not, let's, let's not use that SLAP acronym anymore. But people are already running with it. Oh yeah, Tribune was using it again today. You drop something like that and in this town, based on WINT and based on hits, it's going to get a lot of play. But so far, not. I will say the guys that he picked did happen to fit the HID the mnemonic that he uses to explain what he likes in players. He didn't say that's the founding or the foundational principle of our organization or how I do what I do. It's just a way of remembering the kind of players that they like. I don't, I just, I don't think it's that bad. I think it's fine. You got to call Russ Armstrong for Windows. Why? Because he's going to make your life easier. He's going to make everything better. And he's going to help you sort through all of this advertising that you hear constantly about people trying to sell you Windows. Make it easy on yourself. Call Russ. He'll match any price. You don't have to deal with these teaser ads and deal with companies that say they're local that aren't really local or they're a big window group that is just going to pawn you off through a marketing company to another group here. You don't want that. You want to deal directly with the owner of everything. And that's Russ and that's Chicago Window guys. He comes out to your house to give you the estimate. His factory is here in Chicago. He makes the windows. His crew will do the installation. And again, it's a price match. Guarantee the best product, the best price guaranteed. I love my windows from Russ. You will love yours. 847-302-9171 and check out his five star reviews at ChicagoNowGuys.com

[Lowe's Announcer]

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[Matt]

You want a top 10 list,

[Shannon Maldonado]

hear it.

[Matt]

All right, that is a rhetorical question because whether you want one or not, you're getting one.

[Erica]

Well, it's Friday, so.

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

It is.

[Matt]

It is Friday.

[Erica]

I'm ready for this one.

[Matt]

Good, because we have put together the. No, the draft was Tuesday and Wednesday. The first round was on Tuesday. AJ DeBonsa was the first overall pick in the draft. So we hope he doesn't join this list of the top 10 worst number one overall NBA draft picks, the worst one ones. And I think I'm going to be a little unfair on the first one here and it's in large part of due to what he represents because he was actually okay for as a player. But at number 10 I'm gonna put Kenyon Martin and he ended up having a career Nets Nuggets. Then he went to China and played for the Jinjiang Flying Tigers or Xinjiang Flying Tigers. Then the Clippers and the Knicks and the Bucks. But for one of one you thought it should have been way better than that. But the reason why he has to be here is because he was the one of one in the worst draft in an absolutely awful first round. I've mentioned it before, but this was the 2000 NBA draft. Kenyon Martin, Stromile Swift, Darius Miles, Marcus Fizer, Mike Miller, Demar Johnson, Chris Mim. Jamal Crawford. Look at that. Jamal Crawford is there at 8. Joel Prisbilla.

[Shannon Maldonado]

Keon.

[Matt]

Dueling Jerome Moyeso. Etan Thomas. Courtney Alexander. Mateen Cleaves, Jason Collier. Hito Turkoglu, Desmond Mason. And then the guy that should have gone to the top five, Quentin Richardson. Yikes. Yikes. So not only did the Bulls take Marcus Fizer at 4, they also had the 24th pick in this draft that they used on Dolly Bore Bagariach. Come on, man. The guy I liked in this draft was Chris Mim, who could not play basketball. The guy Terry liked in this draft was Vanderbilt power forward Dan Lange. I don't know where. I don't know if they even allowed him to play at all in the league. One look at him, they're like, no,

[Logan Severson]

get out of here.

[Matt]

And then, God, deep in the second round, at least Michael Red out of Ohio State, was able to put the ball in the basket a few times.

[Erica]

Jesus. For a second round pick, he turned out to have a good career.

[Matt]

He did. As a scorer.

[Erica]

Yeah.

[Matt]

There was that one duel that he had with Ben Gordon where nobody else was scoring. It was like an old, you know, Jordan Barkley game or an old kind of heyday, regular season. Tuesday night, Jordan, Dominique Wilkins game. I want to say it was on a Sunday that I remember. I watched some on TV and then listened to the radio. It was an afternoon game and it was just Ben Gordon and Michael Redd exchanging buckets. But number 10 on the list, Kenyon Martin. Number nine, worst one one pick is Andrea Barnyani.

[Erica]

I would agree that he belongs on this list.

[Brendan]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Andrea Barnyani was the first overall pick in 2006 and was sort of this like, new look thing.

[Dan Bernstein]

Look at this.

[Matt]

He can do everything. He's a big guy and he can shoot it. He's seven feet tall, but, boy, can he stroke. And I get the idea he. It certainly made sense. He just wasn't good enough. He just, just.

[Erica]

You think he came before his time.

[Matt]

It's arguable. It's arguable. It just. He didn't impact basketball. He just didn't have a lot of effect on any winning. You'd see him somewhere and you'd be like, okay, that's pretty good. He can make shots. But as a one of one, the impact felt was very low. And that's why he's number nine. Number eight, Michael Olawa Kendi.

[Erica]

Yes.

[Matt]

The number one overall pick in 1998. Seven feet tall, 270 pounds. The Clippers grabbed him and didn't really know what to do with him because as he was an incredible athlete, just a terrible basketball player, like a great, great athlete. He was a track star, he was a soccer player. He only started playing basketball when he was 18. He played cricket, he played rugby union, which is, it's all great. He just was never, never good at basketball and had a middling career. Lasted for a while with the Clippers and T Wolves and Celtics and just kind of rode along the bench for a while and that was it. That's why Michael Ola McCandy is the eighth worst pick ever. Number seven, Purvis Ellison, the number one pick in 1989. Purvis. Ellison as a freshman was the best player on the Louisville team that beat the Johnny Dawkins Mark Allery Duke Blue Devils to win the the national championship. You remember, it was never nervous, Purvis, because no matter the situation, Purvis was never nervous. And then he was hurt all the time. And his teammate, Danny Ainge called him out of service. Purvis. And that's what he became because he just couldn't stay healthy for long enough. He had one decent year in 91, 92. He averaged 20 points a game and that was it. All downhill from there. Had one decent year as the number one overall pick and away he went. Number six, Kwame Brown. Oh, man. See that's. That is the response I want. I. I want the immediate response to be ugh. And yes, that is the. The proper adjective is.

[Erica]

Is Kwame Brown like the. Like the. Like one of the sole reasons Stephen A. Smith be like took off in his career. Like, when I think of Stephen A. Smith, I just think of his rants about Kwame Brown and how bad he was.

[Matt]

You would know better than I, but that. That's an easy target. That's fish in a barrel listed at 6, 11, 290. And he was taken first overall by the Michael Jordan Run Washington Wizards. And if you remember that there was the. There were all kinds of problems, but he was feuding with Gilbert Arenas, he feuded with coaches and at one point I believe that an angry owner, Michael Jordan, came down after practice to reduce him to tears and refer to him by a gay slur. So that happened. And Kwame Brown was what was Wizards, Lakers, Grizzlies, Pistons, Bobcats, Warriors, Sixers. And then out of basketball he averaged double figures in points one year in 0304 where he averaged 10.9 points a game. For Washington, Kwame Brown, number six, number five is a lesson in Never get too excited about a college national champion or even a historic college team. Scout the player, don't scout the team. Because number five is Kent Benson. Kent Benson was number one overall in 1977. It was coming off of his two time all American performances in Indiana helping the Hoosiers win their 1976 NCAA title. That's the year they were 32 0. He was Final Four most outstanding player. So he had the accolades, he had the recognition. He just didn't really have the basketball ability. And he finished his career averaging nine points and five and a half rebounds. But what was memorable for him is not only was he traded twice in his career for a Hall of Fame player, because in 1980, he was traded to the Pistons for Bob Lanier. In 86, he was traded along with Kelly Tripuka to the Jazz for Adrian Dantley. Ken Benson in his very first game as a pro. This is what I remember. This is what I think of because of the famous highlight. And it's one of those NBA highlights that people of a certain age have seen over and over and over again. If you haven't seen it, it is worth finding on YouTube. I believe it's there. It was only two minutes into his NBA debut. The Bucks were playing the Lakers and Kent Benson was running down the floor and threw a hard elbow right into the solar plexus of. Kareem Abdul Jabbar announces presence with authority. There you go, Kareem. Take that. Well, Kareem got the wind knocked out of him. He stayed on his feet, but he doubled over. It took him a while for him to get his breath and get his bearings back. And when he did, he calmly and with clear aforethought, but definitely well beyond the heat of the moment, walked right over to an unsuspecting Benson and knocked him out. Two minutes into his career, two minutes into his career, he elbows Kareem. Kareem saunters over in response and knocks him out with a right. Gave him a concussion and Jabbar broke his hand and missed two months. Benson only missed the game even with a concussion, was back in action four days later. Played 24 minutes against the Bulls. But that's how I remember Kent Benson. Number five on the list of worst number one overall NBA draft picks. Number four. And this is more sad than anything else, number four is Markel Fultz. Oh, yeah, there you go. There's my. Ugh, I love it. Markelle Fultz, first overall in 2017. And this became sort of an inscrutable story about a difficult to diagnose injury from someone who is believed to be a difference maker as a creative guard who had all these cool little floating shots and abilities to operate in in the mid range and in the paint. And it was a shoulder injury that started described as a scapular muscle imbalance. And then he all of a sudden couldn't shoot. He absolutely lost his ability to shoot. And everybody talked about is he in the thing? Is this Steve Sachs, Chuck Knobloch? Is this some sort of case of the mental yips? Is this Mackie Sasser unable to throw the ball back to the pitcher? And he said it was an injury, it didn't allow me to shoot the ball. So then they worked on his shooting mechanics. They hired a trainer outside the Sixers organization and they had him working and his shot started to look all janky. And even though he kept getting chance after chance after chance, he was then diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, the neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome that affects nerves between the neck and the shoulder. So he was traded to the Magic and they didn't think the Magic didn't he return to placing. The shoulder injury was very serious. And then he tore his ACL and it kind of ended everything. And teams desire to continue experimenting. So that was it for the star crossed career of one Markel Fultz. Number four on our list. Number three is Greg Odin.

[Erica]

Oh, that one's sad too.

[Matt]

Yeah, well, he had some off court issues that make it a little less sad.

[Erica]

Well, this is news to me, but that when I think about Greg Odin, it's more about his knees. Just not. It was stand up, it was his knees.

[Matt]

It was bad scouting is what it was. But Greg Odin, remember he was, he was, he was charged with battery for punching his ex girlfriend in the face to which he, he pleaded guilty. So that, that was something that happened. But Greg Odin just, he had surgery on his wrist when he was in high school and he didn't have much of an injury history in college because he won like every single college award. You know, freshman of the year in conference tournament, most outstanding player. He that was after being national high school of the year or high school player of the year. Never lost a home game throughout high school and college. Associated Press All American. But look at the other names on that list. AP All Americans that year. Aaron Aflalo, Alondo Tucker, AC Law, who now is the Bulls vice president of player personnel, and Kevin Durant.

[Erica]

Yeah, Kevin Durant went second in that draft.

[Dan Bernstein]

Famously.

[Matt]

Famously. Yes, he was the Sonic's draft pick. But Greg Oden had knee injuries that turned into micro fracture surgery and then a chipped kneecap.

[Dan Bernstein]

And

[Matt]

he was taken off the court at one point on two stretchers that had to be connected. And he had the fractured left patella. So all kinds of kneecap injuries. And elsewhere, various setbacks, arthroscopic surgeries. And out.

[Erica]

Yeah, he's. He's one of those, like, I. I definitely view it more as a health thing. I did not know about the girlfriend thing, but when I think of Greg, Odin is like just bad knees.

[Matt]

Bad knees.

[Brendan]

Yep.

[Matt]

And happens with big dudes. Number two, Worst, number one overall NBA draft pick of all time is Anthony Bennett.

[Erica]

Oh, yeah.

[Matt]

Six, eight. Anthony Bennett out of UNLV, was the first overall pick in 2313. And his. All I have to do is read his career history to answer the question, how did his career end up? Well, it went like this. Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Toronto Raptors, Raptors905, Brooklyn Nets, Long Island Nets, Fenerbache, Northern Arizona Suns, Maine Red Claws, Agua Caliente, Clippers, Hopo El Jerusalem, Kao sung, Steelers, Hinshu, JKO Lioneers, Khao Sung, 17 live Steelers. And finishing up in 2025 with the Formosa Dreamers of the Taiwanese Basketball League. That's all it was for former Canadian

[Erica]

star Anthony Bennett as longer than I expected, to be honest.

[Matt]

Hey, man, you can. You can play in the league. But the number one, worst, number one overall NBA draft pick, sadly enough, a nice man. A man who I got the chance to interview one time at his alma mater when I was doing sideline reporting for a TV broadcast. And that is the pride of Loyola University Chicago, LaRue Martin. LaRue Martin was the number one overall pick in the 1972 NBA Draft and the pride of De La Salle High School here in Chicago. He was a classmate of Bryant Gumbel. So he went to De La Salle on the south side, the same place with which my son's hockey club was affiliated for three years. So we. We were part of Meteors hockey before it became Eagles hockey in Chicago South. So I feel some ties to De La Salle in that regard. But boy, Larue Martin, man, it isn't just the fact that his first year he averaged 4.4 points. The next year 4.9. And then he peaked in 74, 75, averaging 7 points. And then in 75, 76, 4 points. And then his career was over. But he made peace with it. He became very successful in other aspects of his life. And I believe he's. He's still. He had Worked for. He worked for Nike and he became the community services manager of UPS Corporation. He's on the National Basketball Retired Players association board of Directors and has been very active in the community. Has lived a very successful life outside of basketball. LaRue Martin, and you say, well, why is it that big a deal? Because sometimes you look at a draft and you think, you know, what, what could have been. What could have been in this draft? Well, here's what happened. The number one pick, LaRue Martin, the number two pick went to the Buffalo Braves. That was Bob McAdoo. The number 10 pick was Paul Westfall. The number 12 pick was Julius Irving. So there were some guys that you probably could have had in this draft, including some hall of Famers here that might have done a little better than our guy. Our number one, congratulations to LaRue Martin. Don't be mad at me, please.

[Erica]

There's a ESPN 30 for 30 and he wasn't the number one pick, but he's one of the biggest boss in NBA history, I believe. Darko Milkic, number two.

[Matt]

Yeah, it was number two in the Carmelo draft, right?

[Erica]

Yeah. LeBron, Carmelo Anthony and Dwayne Wade. Kirk Heinrich went to the Bulls at number seven, I believe, in that draft. But Darko, he went number two.

[Matt]

I call it the Carmelo draft because it was. Didn't Carmelo go3? Yes, because I think that's, that's why I always think of that. They, that was the decision they made. It wasn't LeBron or Darko. It was Carmelo or Darko or they took Darko.

[Erica]

Yeah. And I think Chris Bosch was in that, that draft too. I could be wrong about that. But anyway, it's like a. Historically one of the best drafts. And I don't know of how old this, this documentary from ESPN is, but they've been posting clips on their 30 for 30 Twitter account of him of this documentary. It's intrigued me enough to want to go and watch it. So it's on my list just because I remember that draft as a kid and watching all those careers play out and his just completely, you know, again, I think he's one of the worst draft picks ever. He wasn't number one, but number two. Number two. That's pretty bad.

[Matt]

Yeah, that opens up a whole other thing you could do. I mean, any individual slot in the top five, you absolutely could. I want to remind you that we got some massive World cup matches that are here, including tonight, Uruguay and Spain. You can spend hours breaking down tactics and lineups if you want. Or you can ask a simpler question and that's this. Will the McDonald's logo show up on the broadcast? You know the golden arches? You know what it looks like it's an actual bet at my bookie. There's no injury reports. There's no expected goals, no pretending. You watch qualifying matches from six different confederations, one of the biggest sporting events in the world. You can be there with my bookie. Here's the promo code. Dbu. You got to do that when you register and deposit. DBU lets you claim a deposit bonus and get up to 500 in protection on your first bet at my Bookie. Once you see it on screen, the bet's gone. That's only at MyBookie. So we're going to stay with that game as I bring you DBU picks presented by my bookie. And that's the pick. I'm going to take Spain and I'm going to give half a goal, which is all I need to basically say I am taking Spain as the victor over Uruguay as my DBU pick. Lock in your picks now with my bookie. Bet on anything, anywhere, anytime. That will do it for today's date. DBU here on 312 Sports. We have been brought to you in partnership with my bookie and also by Chicago Window Guys. Give Russ Armstrong a call. He is always waiting for you to make sure that you have the best windows in your home. 847-302-9171 check out his five star reviews at ChicagoNow guys.com and by the Chicago Stars making this a soccer field summer in Evanston. Come to a match for family friendly pro sports on the lakefront. Get tickets right now especially for that July 5th game at ChicagoStars.com tickets talking

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on a Monday Dan Bernstein unfiltered unfiltered

[Matt]

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