Wemby Gets Ejected, the NBA Draft Lottery Gets Weird, Skip Bayless Returns to First Take | 05.11

Summary

Podcast Summary:
The Right Time with Bomani Jones
Episode: Wemby Gets Ejected, the NBA Draft Lottery Gets Weird, Skip Bayless Returns to First Take (05.11.26)
Host: Bomani Jones, Producer: Ryan Brumley
Release Date: May 11, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode delves into a whirlwind week in the NBA: a viral ejection featuring Victor Wembanyama ("Wemby"), the odd and consequential NBA draft lottery, and the long-awaited on-screen reunion of Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith on "First Take." Bomani brings his signature blend of sharp analysis, cultural context, and humor, while also fielding questions and stories from listeners. The show features candid basketball talk, vivid personal anecdotes, and reflections on sports media discourse.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Wemby's Ejection – The Elbow Heard 'Round the League

[00:01 – 14:05]

• Context & Incident:

  • Bomani details Victor Wembanyama's flagrant elbow to Nas Reid's mouth, which led to an ejection in a pivotal playoff matchup.
  • Initially gave Victor the benefit of the doubt, but upon replay realized, "He did this on purpose."

    "There was more plausible deniability in that time that Ron Artest elbowed James Harden in the mouth than there was when Victor elbowed Nas Reed." — Bomani Jones (01:15)

  • Wemby didn’t even argue the call:

    "I have never seen anybody offer less argument over a flagrant 2… he was just like, I'm ejected. Alright, see you guys later." — Bomani (02:53)

• Implications for the Spurs:

  • Bomani critiques the Spurs for lacking a "goon" to protect their star—“How y’all ain’t got no goon?”
  • Cites historic NBA need for enforcer types and wonders why Wemby has to be his own muscle.

    "He should not have to be his own goon. Somebody else should have stepped up very much clearer." — Bomani (11:45)

• Player/Aesthetic Asides:

  • Tangents about modern athlete fashion (Jalen Williams’ crop-top pink jacket) and tattoos (Carter Bryant’s butterflies).
  • Humor about cultural shifts: "I'm 45 years old...I'm supposed to look at what they wear and think it's ridiculous." (05:18)

• Injury and Series Implications:

  • Every playoff game is “a bill waiting to happen”—chance for injury or loss.
  • Praise for Anthony Edwards gutting out a 36-point effort on one leg (12:59).

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2. NBA Draft Lottery – Chaos, Trades, and 'Due Luck'

[14:05 – 32:40]

• Lottery Event Vibe:

  • The show pokes fun at the draft lottery spectacle: too many people, contrived "Mother's Day" narratives.
  • Thankful for cameos by former stars as team reps: "Oh, Tayshawn Prince...John Wall, what you up to?"

• Lottery Results:

  • Top 5: Washington Wizards (#1), Utah Jazz (#2), Memphis Grizzlies (#3), Chicago Bulls (#4), Los Angeles Clippers (#5).
  • John Wall, representing the Wizards, "did not seem to care a single, solitary iota" about winning the top pick (17:16).

• Prospect Breakdowns:

  • Top choices: AJ DeBonsa, Darren Peterson, Caleb Wilson. Cam Boozer "will probably be an All Star" but lacks "superstar" upside.
  • Intrigue: Utah owner Ryan Smith’s deep NIL investment in DeBonsa at BYU, fueling speculation about draft-night trades.
  • Wizards’ theoretical lineup with Anthony Davis, Trae Young, and DeBonsa "feels like a playoff team."

    "They're an actual factual NBA team that will not win 50 games because I'm 45 and the Wizards haven't won 50 games in my life." — Bomani (20:20)

• Pacers/Clippers Trade Debacle:

  • Pacers lost a critical pick via a trade for Zubac after betting on being "due some luck." GM Kevin Pritchard apologized on Twitter with the exact words "do some luck."

    "[If] you believe this explanation, he made that trade feeling certain that the Pacers were going to get to keep their pick. And the reason was they were due some good luck...I would fire him today. That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard in my life." — Bomani (22:54)

• Analysis of Tanking & Odds:

  • The "flattened lottery odds" seemed to punish overt tanking: all major tankers got positions at 1, 2, 3, 5, but there's still no guarantee of getting long-term value.
  • Shout out to OKC's clever asset management: “They out here finding dudes off the street and they got a lottery pick.” (24:02)
  • Reflection: Tanking rarely pays off as intended, and the draft remains unpredictable.

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3. Skip Bayless & Stephen A. Smith Reunion: Revisiting "First Take"

[33:47 – 44:43]

• Cultural Impact & Critique:

  • Bomani watched and enjoyed the reunion—describes "First Take" as deeply influential, particularly among Black audiences.
  • Pushes back on the notion that "First Take" deserves all the blame for hot-take sports culture.

    "People act like First Take became such a big deal because nobody liked it, right? Like, just because your friends didn't like it, you think that nobody liked it. And that's not true." — Bomani (37:41)

• Show Dynamics:

  • Key to the show’s success: Bayless and Smith trust and respect each other, allowing for passionate but ultimately good-natured debate.

    "Two guys who really enjoy each other's company and really respect each other, arguing with each other about sports—wins. It works." — Bomani (40:45)

• Bayless’s Talent:

  • Love him or not, Skip is a true master of his craft: even outlandish takes are well argued.

    "...Skip showed up to the night before, got on Twitter and said, LeBron is the ninth best player of all time, and then showed up on TV with his top 10 and explanations. You may not have agreed with it, but...maybe it's not that crazy." — Bomani (41:15)

• First Take vs. PTI:

  • Draws structural comparisons to "PTI," insisting criticisms often reflect discomfort with the show's audience, not just the content (36:20).

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4. Listener Voicemails, Personal Stories, & Braves Remembrance

[44:43 – End]

• Remembering Bobby Cox (Braves Manager)

  • Cox's passing at 84 evokes Bomani’s childhood and the 1990s Braves dynasty: "You can never take 1991 away from me...those Braves are the most important...the first thing I ever loved that wasn't about family." — Bomani (45:57)
  • Cox as figurehead/steadying influence and his infamous (but understated) ejections (46:49).

• Voicemail Highlights:

  • Ted Turner’s literary award petty moment: Listener relays a story of Turner throwing shade at a Pulitzer-winning author's ex-wife in public (50:23).

  • Misreading Backgrounds/Ethnicity:

    • Bomani: “Of course...Isaiah Hartenstein, way high on the list." (53:05)
    • Humorous discussion around misunderstood ethnic identities in sports.

  • Mike Vrabel “leak” speculation:

    • Debates the comedy of Vrabel’s scandal leaking and reflects on handling semi-celebrity status in sports towns (54:28).

• Miscellaneous:

  • Brief reference to the challenges of media criticism (e.g., the Atlantic’s Adam Silver profile), importance of trust in on-air partnerships, and the upcoming live show.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Wemby's Elbow:
  • "He did this on purpose...I have never seen anybody offer less argument over a flagrant 2." — Bomani (02:53)
• On the Need for "Goons" in Today's NBA:
  • "This is not a league that's supposed to be completely and totally absent of goons." — Bomani (11:45)
• On NBA Lottery Outcomes:
  • "He [John Wall] did not seem to care a single, solitary iota about the fact that they had won this lottery." — Bomani (17:16)
  • "He made that trade feeling certain that the Pacers were going to get to keep their pick. And the reason was they were due some good luck...that's the dumbest shit I've ever heard in my life." — Bomani (22:54)
• On "First Take's" Critics:
  • "A lot of those criticisms of First Take I have always heard, and have felt to a degree like they were also a wee bit like criticisms of the audience..." — Bomani (36:20)
• On Skip Bayless:
  • "Skip thinks God put him on this earth to argue about sports." — Bomani (43:47)
• On Bobby Cox:
  • "Bobby meant something to a lot of us because that team meant something to a lot of us. And he is the most readily associated voice or face of that team. And, you know, rest in peace." — Bomani (49:05)
• On being "Recognizable":
  • "I am not really famous, but I am certainly recognizable...there is no laying low in Nashville." — Bomani (55:09)

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Important Timestamps

| Segment Topic | Timestamp | |-----------------------------------------------|--------------| | Wemby’s Ejection & Playoff Fallout | 00:01–14:05 | | NBA Draft Lottery Results & Analysis | 14:05–32:40 | | Pacers’ Trade Debacle & 'Due Luck' Critique | 20:40–24:12 | | Tanking, Lottery Odds, and League Health | 24:12–32:40 | | Skip Bayless/Stephen A. "First Take" Reunion | 33:47–44:43 | | Remembering Bobby Cox (Braves) | 44:43–49:05 | | Voicemail: Ted Turner Story | 49:10–50:25 | | Voicemail: Misconstrued Ethnicities | 51:46–53:05 | | Voicemail: Mike Vrabel "leak" jokes | 53:59–56:10 |

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Episode Tone & Style

Bomani is wry, irreverent, and deeply knowledgeable. He slips between playful anecdote and pointed critique with ease, always maintaining a conversational tone and engaging directly with both the moment and larger sports/cultural dynamics.

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Bottom Line

This episode covers the messiest and most entertaining storylines of the NBA week while also providing a crash course in sports media literacy and a poignant nod to baseball nostalgia. Whether you want to keep up with NBA drama, rethink how you view sports debate shows, or just enjoy some sharp storytelling, this "Right Time" episode delivers plenty to chew on.

Transcript

[Bomani Jones]

Wave. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Right Time, a Wave original. My name is Bomani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. We are going to talk about a surprisingly fascinating NBA draft lottery in just a minute. But first, I have to admit, I didn't think our boy L. Slim had it in him. And you're like, what is it? And the it is. Well, I can't say he stole off on Nas Reed because that gives an improper impression of what really happened, but he did elbow him in the mouth, and it's so. All right, I want to tell you what was going on when I was watching this, right? I was on the phone and. And so I had the television on mute as I was watching the game. And when I was looking up and seeing things, I saw Nas Reed hit Victor in the face, right? And I was like, huh, that's something. And, you know, I was cutting Victor a measure of slack. I don't know if slack's the right word, but the bottom line is for most people, when they intentionally elbow somebody in the mouth, they gotta get their elbows up, and then they do the elbow swing from up there, right? I'm looking at it like, okay, Victor, eight feet tall, he saw himself as just trying to clear out some space. Except these dudes is way smaller. Maybe he ain't know what was going on, brother. They sent me that. That video where you got Victor throwing that elbow, and then he hit Nas Reed right in the grill. And then you look up, and they zoom in on Dylan Harper. And Dylan Harper is like, whoa. And I was like, oh, no, no, no. He. He did this on purpose. There was more plausible deniability in that time that Ron Artest elbow James Harden in the mouth than there was when Victor elbow Nazrid. Right there. There. There was more. And I also want to make this note in fairness to Nas Reed, who took that licking and kept on ticking. I think we have a tendency to talk about Victor and like, oh, boy, he's so skinny. He's so skinny. Yeah. And he's also, like, diesel, like, right. It's very clear to me. That's a strong right there. Like. Like that combined with the leverage of that elbow swinging around.

[Ryan Brumley]

I mean, like, whether or not he's strong, the amount of limb that comes at you, like, just, you know, basic physics.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah.

[Ryan Brumley]

How arm hit far. His arm has to travel when it goes across his body.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah. Kept it close, too. And look, that look on his face. He had had enough and he decided that one way or another he was going to clear them out. And he cleared Nas Reid out. And the way you really know he did it on purpose is I have never seen anybody offer less argument over a flagrant to. Yeah, he was just like, I'm ejected. All right, see you guys later. And just walked in the tunnel. Oh, you decided that you were going to send a message to the league in game four. A, a, a, A, a Very important, very important game. Yeah, it's, it's. Try to remember. Me and Shannon got a scale on these things, right? So it was not a pivotal. Pivotal is game five. It was not a do or die. Nobody already had three. Try to remember what the term must win.

[Ryan Brumley]

One of them.

[Bomani Jones]

It was a must win for Minnesota.

[Ryan Brumley]

Yes, right.

[Bomani Jones]

It was a must win for Minnesota. But I'm trying to remember, say they. What they were going for was the decisive advantage. Right? Like that. Like that's they were going for, but they had it. And that's a game that even without Victor, they should have won. But absolutely with him, I think they're probably going to win. And the truth is you can't do that in the situation that he's in. You cost your squad a game in a situation where. Look, man, I've had people say to me that I've seen in the YouTube comments, right? Where they're like, oh, so the Lakers are winning. You ain't got nothing to say about LeBron? Well, the Lakers over there getting their asses kicked, and I ain't got nothing to say about them either. Okay. There's just not that much interesting going on with them at this point.

[Ryan Brumley]

We'll get to LeBron in July.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Thunder are going to get them up out of there, and then the Thunder is going to go home and they gonna be posted up and they gonna be resting and. And I don't know what they do to practice. Apparently they go put on one pieces and wrestle because that's the kind of basketball they decide they gonna play. You know what? They don't wrestle. They wrestle. That's what they gonna do. They gonna go out there and they gonna paint their faces and they gonna get all greasy and. And on one hand they gonna pr. Practice how to do holds, and on the other hand they gonna practice how to sell them. Right? You know, that, that, that's what they gonna do. But all I'm saying is they're gonna get to go over there and they're going to rest up. And chances are that Jalen Williams is going to be back after having a month of resting up, where the hardest decision that he's had to make is which ridiculous get up he's going to wear on the sideline. Boy, I don't see. Let me tell you something right now. And I get this. I'm 45 years old and. And this is, this is something I think everybody needs to understand that I feel personally about life and everything else. I'm not supposed to be on the same as these kids, of course, right. I'm supposed to look at what they wear and. And think it's ridiculous. That's what I'm supposed to think. Man, I saw that boy, Jalen Williams, on the sideline with a pink jacket that looked like a bit of a crop top. And I think I saw he had a star on his face. Meanwhile, one of them dudes from the spurs, one of them, last name, last name Cat, Carter, Bryant. That's what his name is. Now, on another day, we talk about my thing with black people giving their kids white people names. And yes, last name, last name is white people names. Ryan, you know, you from the South. South. You know exactly what I'm talking about here. Yeah, right. Like when black people start being like, ooh, I'm gonna give my kids white people names, they'll get. They'll get better jobs. Nah, now they won't. No, they won't, because they're gonna show up one day. But anyway, he was on the ground during the game and his jersey pulled to the side, and that boy had multiple butterflies tattooed on his back. And I said, what? Like it wasn't in the middle of the low part of his back. Hashtag iykyk. However, it was still multiple butterflies on his back. And I'm like, that dude that gave you that tattoo was like, are you sure you want to do this? Okay. I don't know what the rest of it was, right? I have no idea.

[Ryan Brumley]

You just saw the butterflies.

[Bomani Jones]

I saw enough to have questions. We were talking about basketball. Sorry about that, but yeah, Jalen Williams be over there in them get ups, you know what I'm saying? He gonna be back probably by the time they play. And meanwhile, every game the spurs play is another game where something can go wrong, right? Every game you play is a game where somebody might get hurt, somebody might get dinged up, whatever it is. Every game. My daddy always says about owning a house or just everything in general, my daddy say everything you own is a bill waiting to happen. Every game you play is a bill waiting to happen. And they needed to hurry up and be done with this. Okay? It was bad enough they lost that game one in their own house. They needed to hurry up and be done with this. And part of why they not done with this is because Victor lost his cool. And you can't do that. On the other hand, I do respect the guery of it. Like, I really respect the fact that he was like, no, I elbowed him in the head. And now I'm going to go back and take a shower here for it. My question for the spurs is how y' all ain't got no goon? How is there not one person on your team whose job it is to goon?

[Ryan Brumley]

And I'm Cornette's not the goon.

[Bomani Jones]

Now, he could be if he decided Now, I mean, look, in this NBA, anybody can be a goon. Anybody can be a goon because nobody going to fight. Right? Like, I feel like everybody in the NBA could basically treat this like it's a new school and you just go find somebody to establish who you are out here in these streets. But outside of the Detroit Pistons, it don't seem like anybody got a goon out here. And the spurs clearly need a goon.

[Ryan Brumley]

Is Lou Dort not a goon?

[Bomani Jones]

No, Lou Dort's a goon. Now, the problem with the Thunder is, is that they don't have a goon because they have an ethos of guery. Right? But yeah, Lou Dort is the closest thing to an outright goon. I'll put it to you like this. I think you know that it's on the board that if you do something to shay, the one person that you really don't want any problems with is the off ball linebacker himself. Lou Dort. Right, Lou Dort. Lou Dort might as well play football with a hand in the dirt. Like that's, that's his whole situation. He must be terrible. Either he terrible at hockey or the white people up there don't let us play because otherwise I don't understand how he out here playing basketball. I said something once, people got mad at me about this, and I don't know why they, why they misunderstood this. If Lou Dort was from Mississippi, Lou Dort's in the NFL.

[Ryan Brumley]

Oh, for sure.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like. Like that's what.

[Ryan Brumley]

I don't know what Lou Dort is. Filling a gaps.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes.

[Ryan Brumley]

Or rushing to pass.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, yeah. I don't know what Lou Dort actually does in basketball, other than Goon, that's it. But beef stew up there in Detroit, they need one of those in San Antonio, because all anybody can do to stop this cat is to knock him around. That's the only option. And he just got sick of it. It took Shaq eight years, nine years before he tried something like this. And that was when he took that swing at Brad Miller that for the sake of all parties involved, it's a good thing he did not connect, because Shaq would still be at Joliet right now. He would be behind bars right now. If he had connected on that punch with Brad Miller, they'd have had to make Brad Miller. They would. The Bulls would have had to retire Brad Miller's jersey. They might have even made him the logo if Shaq had connected that punch.

[Ryan Brumley]

Take it one like this.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He'd be the. He'd be. Yeah. That would be. The memorial to Brad Miller would be at the United Senate. It would be chalk outline on the floor. Like, imagine that. They couldn't take it off. They couldn't take the outline off the floor until they had completed the investigation. They still played games out there. They got tape on the ground. Brad Miller laid out on the ground, his head over here, the rest of his body over there like that. That's what it would have taken in order to do that. But no, you got. Everybody got to have a goon. Like, this is not a league that's supposed to be completely and totally absent of goons. He should not have to be his own goon. Somebody else should have stepped up very much clearer and been like, hey, hey, hey. We don't tolerate this. And it's not like they don't follow this man. It's not like they don't run behind this man. Right? It's not like they got an issue with him. It's not like when he first got there when they had Cisco and the mother haters that ain't even want to throw oops to him. Everybody seems to be on board, right? How is nobody's job to. To go fight Nas Reed or whoever it was for Victor? I don't. It is. It doesn't make any sense. Somebody needs to be on the job like every. It should be some dread hair brothers in the lobby. They got a bunch of them dreadhead cats. Ain't none of them Castle, Vassal. Can't. None of y' all is Vassell. My bad.

[Ryan Brumley]

I like Castle.

[Bomani Jones]

And how about we start calling them Cassell and Vassal? Just throw people off Right. But somebody's supposed to be the problem. He cannot do that for himself. That. That was the. That that's where this NBA has gone to places that are just too far for me. Honestly. If I'm the Spurs, I trade two first round picks to get beef stew down there. Can you imagine if they have beef? Dude, imagine the ovation of beef stew we get every time, man. We need to talk to my man Bruce. I wonder what I got to call. Bruce

[Ryan Brumley]

got takes.

[Bomani Jones]

Oh, I'm sure he does.

[Ryan Brumley]

I'm sure he has thoughts.

[Bomani Jones]

Positive, I bet.

[Ryan Brumley]

You sure I'm. Bruce might have taught him that move.

[Bomani Jones]

Nah, Bruce is a little more subtle.

[Ryan Brumley]

Yeah, that would be. Bruce's frustration is he was too. He was too. Too obvious with it.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, Bruce would have taught him. Now see what you got to do is just put your foot right there. Not that far. Not that far. Just right there. See, I'll see. See how your knee right there by the thigh bone that ccc. Now Bruce go call me and start talking about how he had to talk to his therapist about me and what happened also in that game. As much there is to say. Dude, shout out to Anthony Edwards, man. Yeah, put up. What was it? 36 last night.

[Ryan Brumley]

36 on one leg.

[Bomani Jones]

36 on one leg. He's going to the tunnel and getting oxygen in between and everything else. I love that team, man. They're not good enough to do enough. But I really, really, really like them and their whole get down and everything else. They. They a squad full of dudes that go hard and Julius Randle and is it is it is. It is great to see what they're doing and how they're doing it. But the bottom line is the spurs should have dispatched of them and be in here resting and allowing us to rest because Ryan, we wrapping shit up. We gonna talk about, you know, some of this a little bit later. I suppose the Knicks got him up out of there. I am imagining that the thunder going to get to Laker is going to be a. That was a. That was a 1, 2, 3 Cancun classic in Philadelphia. Boy. Oh man, that was a. I didn't even bother to watch the game. I went to go see the Michael Jackson movie because I was just like, for what? Right? And then I looked at the score during the movie and I was like, oh, they got a direct flight for Philly to Cancun. I know they have flights to Cancun that late, but they was like the motherfuckers like, yo, we got a flight to Cancun.

[Ryan Brumley]

3:30. 3:30 tip. They were trying to make their 8:00 clock flight.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah. Like, hey, hey, we got to go. We got no. No media. No media. Anybody just. Just. Just box up my locker, just send it to me. I don't even really need to. I don't need to be back for that. I guess we're gonna see what happens with the Cavs and the Pistons. The Pistons, we gonna see if they want to get them out of there. Jim Harden decided to show up and play a little bit, just enough basketball so he could say he played a little bit of basketball. But no, everybody's trying to get this out of here so we can get ourselves a couple nights to get ready for the conference finals, where we only got one game per night. You know what I'm saying? We could all 30 tips. We could be crisp. We could be at our best. But nah, Victor had to prove a point to somebody, but I love that he did. All right. So they really be trying to make too much of the draft lottery. Can I just go ahead and say that now? Like, back in the day, all we need is the draft lottery. Back when it just looked like the. The Godfather scene at the train station where they was talking about selling dope.

[Ryan Brumley]

Yeah.

[Bomani Jones]

Where they just go around and you get, like, Bruno Titaglia combing his hair, and they just identify all the people. Did the same scene in Godfather 2 in. In Cuba. They just went around and talked about everybody that was there. That's all we need the lottery to be. It looked like it was 15,000 people there. Like, what was this huge audience.

[Ryan Brumley]

Got all the players there. Yeah, I do like seeing the random folks, representatives from each team. It's like, oh, Tayshawn Prince. I want. I know he worked for the Grizzlies,

[Bomani Jones]

you know, so that I appreciate.

[Ryan Brumley]

Right.

[Bomani Jones]

Like, and when they're like, hey, could you go sit there for us? John Wall?

[Ryan Brumley]

Yeah.

[Bomani Jones]

Hey, Khan. What you. What you up to, bro? You doing anything? You do anything for mother's day? Well, me and my mom. Yeah. Anyway, we was just hoping if you could be a good luck charm, perhaps, and go with us to the draft. Right, But I'm just. All those other people who are there. I get it in the sense that I guess it's an opportunity to introduce the audience to the players, but they not hooping, right? They just tall in suits. They could be anybody out there, you know, and they get to play up this. This gets on my nerves too, man. You know, this is really about the mothers. No, it's not It's Mother's Day. But this ain't about them.

[Ryan Brumley]

Do you think that's where they want to be?

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, great point. Great point. They ain't get no. Ain't no check today. Like, this is. This is some. Let me know. Like these pancakes still. Still raw in the middle, right? Like, all this is. Is flipping. The pancake breakfast is not ready. Why are we here? But anyway, the lottery goes through. The Washington Wizards got the number one pick, the Utah Jazz. All right, number two. The Memphis Grizzlies were at number three. Number four was Chicago Bulls. Chicago Bulls. And number five is the Los Angeles Clippers. Okay, the lottery did turn out to be interesting on a few levels. Okay, number one, John Wall. I don't know if you remember 30 years ago when the Sixers won the lottery and Pat Croce went and dapped up everybody.

[Ryan Brumley]

That. Yeah, that's a little before my time.

[Bomani Jones]

That was at the podium. Pat CRO. I mean, Pat Croce was that guy, but Pat Croce could not have possibly been happier. John Wall did not seem to care a single, solitary iota about the fact that they had won this lottery in a draft that's got, in my estimation, three guys you'd love to have as the number one pick. That would be debona, AJ debonza, Darren Peterson. Even with all the other stuff, right, I think you're still pretty happy to get Darren Peterson and Caleb Wilson. No, I do not have Kam Boozer on that list. Cam Boozer looked like he had to work a little bit too hard to get his buckets in college. And I know I said this about Paolo Banchero and people thought I was just hating. And, yes, both those dudes went to Duke, but it should look easy when you're in college. It did not look easy with Cam Boozer in college. Like, that's not. It's not a number one compared to those other guys. Those guys have the potential to be superstars. Cam Boozer will probably be an All Star, right? But he's not. I don't see it with those guys. DeBonsa is interesting to me because for those who have not been paying attention, he went to high school in Utah. He played for BYU because a gentleman named Ryan Smith got him to the school in Utah and then got him to BYU because it's the nil world. For those of you who don't know what Ryan Smith does, he's the owner of the Utah Jazz. I don't get the feeling that he put in this level of investment Just because he loved BYU that much. If you are the Wizards and you are sold on DeBonsa, who to me is the clear number one pick from what I've seen. If that's your guy, what would it take for you to move down to number two? Because Utah is going to go to the playoffs next year. They're not going to be bad. So you can't just be like, oh, give us the. Give us your pick from next year. That's not going to work out. Like, it's going to work out where they got whatever. If they. If you were to make this trade right, you got DeBonsa, Walker Kessler, who everybody wants to have and everybody wants to trade for, but has been on these terrible teams. Now you'll get to actually be good at basketball and do things for a team that wants to be good at basketball. Jaren Jackson is on that roster.

[Ryan Brumley]

Ace Bailey, Ace Bailey.

[Bomani Jones]

Keante George, who's at a borderline all star sort of place. What do you need to get back in order to make that move? Because I think you got a live one in Smith and that you could. What's he willing to give up? What will you take? Because I. You're just not going to convince me that he's just going to be satisfied after all of this to not make a try again.

[Ryan Brumley]

Debons, not make an offer.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Something. Something's got to happen there. Meanwhile, for the Wizards, I don't know what they're going to do ultimately with Anthony Davis and Trey Young, but those two guys went to Boza. That feels like a playoff team.

[Ryan Brumley]

Yeah, That's a real NBA team.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, they're an actual factual NBA team that will not win 50 games because I'm 45 years old and the Wizards haven't won 50 games in my life. I have been using that stat for nearly 20 years in this job. It is still hits like it did the first time.

[Ryan Brumley]

Incredible.

[Bomani Jones]

It just keeps happening. But something happened also in this lottery that was interesting, which is the Indiana Pacers made a trade for Evita Zubots this year, who played for the. For the Clippers. Big man, good player. Okay, here's what the hall now is right. The trade Evita Zubot and Kobe Brown went to the Clippers in return for Benedict Matheran, who I thought was going to be a good player. Isaiah Jackson, the number five pick in the draft. There's a 2029 first round pick that's involved in this and I think it might be another pick. Right. And so the thing with the pick was there was some protection scheme in play that if the pick was between five and nine, it went to the Clippers. If it was in the ping pong or outside, it went to Indiana. Okay, they lost. They were all snake eyes. The pick goes to the Clippers. Big win for them because you could still get a very good player at the number 5 pick in this draft that everybody did all the taking in the world for. Put a pin in the thought about all the tanking in the world. But anyway, you still have this possibility. Kevin Pritchard, who used to be the GM in Portland and is now the GM in Indiana, he sent a tweet apologizing for making that trade, apologizing for making that trade after the pick didn't go their way. And his explanation for why he apologized or. No, the explanation for why the trade. And Ryan, you tell him that if I'm lying, I'm flying. He just thought that they were, quote, do some luck, unquote. So we're clear if you believe this explanation, he made that trade feeling certain that the Pacers were going to get to keep their pick. And the reason was they were due some good luck.

[Ryan Brumley]

To be clear, this is not reported. This is his words on the Twitter.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes, these are. He said, quote, do some luck. I would fire him today. That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard in my life. And a couple weeks ago, somebody said to my face that the characters on the Wire didn't have no depth. I don't want you to think I say that every time I hear something, that I think something's the dumbest shit of my life. No, there's a new champion. The new champion is Kevin Pritchard. He just thought that we would do some luck. And look, man, me and Ryan talked about this during the break. If he had said, I thought God was on our side, I'd have been more okay with that. And I'm going to tell you why. Because people don't think God is luck. He thinks God is real. If you say that, and maybe you just read the tea leaves wrong or whatever it was, Kevin Pritchard truly believed we're due was a strategy that that's.

[Ryan Brumley]

That's 100%, you know, going all in. Because we're going to win this hand.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes. Yes. I mean, I can't lose nine hands in a row.

[Ryan Brumley]

Right?

[Bomani Jones]

So put the rest of the money on this one.

[Ryan Brumley]

Exactly. We're due for good cards.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, yeah. He did that with. Nah, man. When this happens and you lost, what do you say to the fans, nothing. Nothing at all. We have nothing to talk about. If we had had a pick, we'd have something to talk about. We don't have a pick. We have nothing to talk about. And I feel bad for him in this regard. People around Indiana had been figuring it out. Boy, they had been like, hey, man, boy, we get that top four pick, Halliburton comes back, our roster gonna be loaded. We might have DebonSA, we might have all these people. And they came back with nothing. Nothing but a handful of meat. That's all they came back with. That had to be terrible shout out to the league, though. Cause, man, we thought Oklahoma City, the way things had been going, now they'll just simply have a lottery pick. Ryan. They have a dude named AJ Mitchell of whom I had never heard, who was a second round pick, who had 24 points or something like that the other day. They out here finding dudes off the street and they got a lottery pick. They're getting the stupid Sixers to give them Jared McCain for a number, for a first, first round pick they obviously don't need, and they got another first round pick. That's, that's, that's what we got. And we also got out of this lottery. Your explanation for why it is that the league wanted to flatten the tanking, flat flatten the lottery odds and all this stuff, because through the years, tanking hadn't really been effective for anybody, hadn't really gotten anybody what they were looking for. And this year, all the teams that we saw shamelessly tank. The ones we saw tank probably the Most shamelessly. Washington, Utah, Memphis, 1, 2, 3, or. And I guess this doesn't matter because it wasn't their pick. The Clippers who traded James Harden after they started picking their season up like the. The cheaters never prosper. No, no, no. That hasn't, that hasn't been what this has looked like. That, that's, that's not what this has been. Did you look at the Atlantic article on Adam Silver, by the way?

[Ryan Brumley]

I have not. It is on my list, but I, I'm a big Tim Alberta guy, so I'm excited to read it.

[Bomani Jones]

Okay. I didn't think he did good with this.

[Ryan Brumley]

Interesting.

[Bomani Jones]

Well, I thought it was supposed to be an article about Adam Silver.

[Ryan Brumley]

Yeah, I mean, he's not a. He's not a traditional sports writer, so it's very, I'm very interested to see what your criticism.

[Bomani Jones]

It was way too much about Tim Alberta. Way too much. First person.

[Ryan Brumley]

Yeah.

[Bomani Jones]

And I think Anybody who wrote the piece I wrote, wrote, read the piece I wrote for Vanity Fair, you will. You can glean from that my feelings about first person stuff in profiles of other people. It made some interesting points, right? It did feel a little bit too much like why isn't this the NBA that I used to love? Which I don't think is an adequate grievance against the league necessarily. Like I think it made. I think it made a lot of points about what it didn't like about the league but did not really support or give like a proper evidentiary basis for what it was. It raises a question basically is Adam Silver too nice to be the commissioner? Which I think is a fair question. It raised the question as to whether or not the only thing Adam Silver cares about with this league is money, which I don't think is true. I think one thing Adam Silver cares very much so about in this league is the players in the league and their well being and whether this league is serving them as partners. I do. Now whether that's the job of the commissioner, that is a very interesting question. Right.

[Ryan Brumley]

But I do not think serving the players and making the most money is the same thing as they players are entitled to.

[Bomani Jones]

Well, Adam is the guy to talk about their mental health and things for example like them is formed human beings not simply as people who are looking to make money. But this lottery proves the difficulty of this job, man. We're. This is a draft that people think has four, maybe five like perennial all star type players. I mean when I say perennial I mean like 7, 8, 9, 10 time all star type players. That's what regardless of what I think of Boozer, that's what people think. And those guys are going to Washington which is actually I think very good for the league. But Memphis, Utah, the Clippers, not bad for the league. But you'd rather em go to the Lakers.

[Ryan Brumley]

I mean Chicago hasn't been well run

[Bomani Jones]

and Chicago had Michael Jordan at one time.

[Ryan Brumley]

Yeah, right.

[Bomani Jones]

Like that's, that's, that's that there like I've said before, there is not a nation of Bulls fans. Even after all that time with Michael Jordan. How crazy is that?

[Ryan Brumley]

Feels impossible, right?

[Bomani Jones]

There is still a nation of Georgetown fans. You don't hear about them very much because they don't come up. But everybody left the Bulls after Mike left for whatever it is, right? Like that thing happened. But no man, it's a tricky, tricky, tricky, tricky job. And in a league where David Stern used to say that his dream NBA Finals is the Lakers and the Lakers? You're sending guys to Utah and Memphis? Oh well, at least we can watch them on all the streaming services. Let me tell you one more thing about that article, Ryan. Tim Alberto made the point. It starts off with him having to track down Adam Silver and how Silver wouldn't do the interview with him unless Mike Bass, the PR man said it was okay. And Mike Bass kept saying no. And Adam Silver's like, hey, he's, you know, he says we can't do it. Da da da, all this stuff. And they described Silver as being like covered in bubble wrap that they work very hard to protect him. And should I be offended that the NBA has consented to be Adam interviewing Adam Silver not once, but twice. Like y' all saying I'm soft. That what this is? Y' all saying y' all gotta be scared of me. Y' all ain't worried? A little humbling. Just a little. You can predict the playoff action all the way to the finals with FanDuel predicts. All you have to do is sign up to get your $25 bonus. Follow all the playoff dishes, swishes, wishes and misses. Every move is a potential plot twist. Predict the spread, the total points and even the game winning moments that make the playoffs where one run, one rebound, one shot changes everything from opening tip to the final buzzer. Stay locked in with every pass, every play and every moment that moves us closer to crowning a Sign up now for your $25 bonus on FanDuel Predicts offered by FanDuel Prediction Markets LLC, a registered futures commission merchant. 18 plus bonus is non withdrawable and expires 7 days after receipt. Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tools. Restrictions apply. See [e-mail] predicts/bonus offer Terms. We cover a lot of trends on this show and over the last few months everybody's been talking about AI. But let's face it, talking about trends doesn't help you be more efficient at work. For that, you need the right tools. You need Zapier. Zapier is how you break the hype cycle and put AI to work for real. In fact, 3.4 million companies are already automating with Zapier. Zapier means you and your team can actually reap the benefits of AI, not just talk about it. With Zapier's AI orchestration platform, you can bring the power of AI to your work. Connect top AI models like ChatGPT and Claw to the apps your team already uses so you can add AI exactly where you need it. Zapier is for everyone, tech expert or not. No IT bottlenecks, no complexity, no AI hype, just results. Teams have already automated over 300 million AI tasks using Zapier. Join the 3.4 million companies already automating with Zapier and transform how you work with Zapier and AI. Get started for free by visiting zapier.com bomani that's Z-A P I E R.com bomani Lets be honest, one size fits all. Grooming products don't work for everyone. Even though it seems convenient, the same shampoo doesn't work for both our face and our beard. And that's where Baskin Lather comes in. Baskin Lather has products like Beard Growth Magic Natural Beard Growth Oil for fuller, thicker facial hair, a blend of vital nutrients to help nourish and increase blood circulation to hair follicles and promotes softening of beard hair and dandruff reduction. Try the Men's Healthy Hair and Beard Starter Kit, an all in one set that helps you maintain a healthy, stylish, well groomed beard. Includes shampoo, conditioner, balm, oil and a stimulator formula. Each product is crafted with high quality ingredients for the beard care you deserve. Explore viral bestsellers and products of healthier hair of all types from Basque and lather. Go to baskandlatherco.com and use code TRT for 20% off. That's 20% [e-mail] code TRT we know you can't be on top of all the news and information of the day. No need for the social media feeds. We got you now. If you haven't heard.

[Ryan Brumley]

All right, Bo, if you haven't heard. On Friday was the reunion of Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith on First Take. People have seem to very much have different opinions of bringing back the show for the first time in 10 years online. What did you think?

[Bomani Jones]

Okay, so I watched the show and I watch First Take fairly regularly. I'm at home, right? I work in sports. It comes on. I have consistently watched it, you know, for however many years. I have appeared on the show at different points. I have histories of not always good with both of those guys, right? I have always felt about the class of people who critique sports media when they talk about First Take. That first take is an easy scapegoat for them because as another buddy of mine who covers the media has made a very important point and I think it's worth Noting what's really the difference between first take and PTI, right? They're built very similarly. PTI, obviously, the difference is 30 minutes versus two hours. And PTI is a much more regimented show. Boom, boom, boom. We're going to get to all these things or whatever it is. But you telling me Mike and Tony don't be hollering at each other, right? You're telling me that there's no room for hyperbole there. You're telling me there's no discussion about legacy there. You're telling me that Michael Wilbon is never going to get up there and tell you how LeBron James will never be as good as Michael Jordan. Right. Like, you're telling me none of those things ever happened there. Those guys are not going to have a discussion about whether somebody quit or any of those things. Like, are you. Are you really trying to tell me that? Because I don't think that's true. And I don't say that as a criticism of those guys. And obviously, the people that were in that show, I've worked with them or known them for over 15 years. Okay. This isn't a criticism of them. This is a criticism of the people who go so hard on First Take. And I don't think that we can ignore the fact that First Take. I've known Jamie Horowitz for a long time. Ryan, you have worked with Jamie Horowitz, right?

[Ryan Brumley]

Right.

[Bomani Jones]

A big thing to understand about Jamie Horowitz and the way that he makes sports media. And Jamie, for those who don't know when it used to be first taker, cold pizza, and it would just be first and 10 with skip. When Jamie Horowitz took over that show, he was like, people watch Skip the most. So why do we make the whole show about Skip? Right? Like, the move toward the embrace debate sort of format comes from Jamie Horowitz and people.

[Ryan Brumley]

And when people watched Skip and Stephen, when Stephen A. Was a contributor on espn, not on full time, they're like, this is what people watch the most. Let's do this all the time.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes, That's. That's how Jamie does things. But the other thing with Jamie is Jamie, unlike most people who work in sports media, is like, hey, look at all these black people watching this show. Why don't we think about a show that these black people will like? So it becomes the show that has the Lil Wayne rap intro, for example, and all these things. Daytime programming at ESPN had always had a huge black audience. I bring that up to say, generally speaking, white people don't really know what to do when they watch something and they get the signal that it ain't for them. Black people typically keep on watching. Right. But a lot of those criticisms of First Take I have always heard in a way, and have felt to a degree like they were also a wee bit like criticisms of the audience, whether people intended for it to be that way or not. The other point that I think is worth. And this is about to say, not to say the First Take is a show that has not earned its criticism over time, but I contend on the Internet, and this is not just people who are professional critics. As is the case with most things, the loudest critics are the people who don't watch the show because if you hated it that much, you wouldn't actually watch it. Like, I try to be careful about not having passionate opinions about things I don't consume. I think that's an important thing to keep in mind at all times. You watch something once or twice and you didn't like it. You don't know. You just don't. It's okay to say you didn't like it, but you don't know. I say all that to say that people act like First Take became such a big deal because nobody liked it. Right. Like, just because your friends didn't like it, you think that nobody liked it. And that's not true. There are a lot of people who like that show. There are a lot of people who watch that show. There were a lot of topics that when something happened in the news, you're like, yo, I gotta go see what Skip Bayless has to say about that. And a lot of y' all don't want to admit that's how you felt about it, but it's the truth. And that's the hallmark to how good that show could be when those two guys were doing it. And the reason that show could be so good because when those two guys were doing it is because those two guys have arguments for being the two best ever at doing television. Along those lines. They're excellent at it. Now, the other day I was talking about. With Dominique, talking about Draymond and what happened with him on Inside the NBA. And a point I was trying to make that I think some people misunderstood was that you got to trust the people that you're with to really be in there. Like joking with each other and needling

[Ryan Brumley]

and arguing on television for 10 hours a week.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes. That's what Tony and Mike have on PTI is that Ride Home always makes this point that they can go hard at each other. And then at the end, one of them always does something to remind the other, hey, baby, I still love you. And then everything goes okay. But you have to have a rapport and affection and a trust in order to get that place. And so what that allows your TV show to do is to get more passionate when the guys trust each other. But it also allows it to keep an air of levity that is necessary. You don't want to feel like the two guys don't like each other. I've done a TV show where it looked like the two guys didn't like each other. It got canceled. Right. You can't have that vibe. First take when it works at its best is because those two guys, it's not that they're the only two guys that they like are each other, but they're the only two that each other trust in that way that they could go back and forth as equals. Like, Stephen A. Can play it up real big when somebody gets up, oh, you got me, you got me, and everything else. And he's being magnanimous to a guest or somebody else who's on his show. But those two guys could only share that show with each other. That's the only place they could. And so at its best, it was a good show. And there were days where it could be really enjoyable to watch. And there were days where you saw a certain measure of self awareness. Like way back when when they did that Dark Knight debate back and forth. That was a demonstration of a measure of self awareness. Now, what I think with that show, doing it together every day, like when it was. They did it once or twice a week together, it kind of jumped off the page. Right. When they did it every day. Of course, it's going to get a little bit old when you get to that point. Right. But I. It was nostalgically good for me.

[Ryan Brumley]

They were having a great time.

[Bomani Jones]

Two guys who really enjoy each other's company and really respect each other, arguing with each other about sports wins. It goes. It works. The other thing, and I think this is something that people need to understand. Colin Cowherd, as an example, is an excellent midday radio host. Right. And I don't need to get into what exactly a midday host is. And I say this as somebody who considers himself a midday host. Midday host is a very particular brand of person. Colin's an excellent midday host. I don't enjoy listening to his show. It's not for me. Right. Every now and then he says something I like. But how Whether or not I like his show is not about whether or not his show is good. You know what I mean? Right? I don't care how you feel about Skip Bayless. He is a beast. He is excellent at this. And what that show was a reminder of and watching it on Friday, all that crazy shit that Skip got to say, Skip ready to back it all up. Skip showed up to the night before, got on Twitter and said, LeBron is the ninth best player of all time, and then showed up on TV with his top 10 and explanations. You may not have agreed with it, but I had to say, when I got to the end, I was like, I see how you could arrive at this ridiculous conclusion. Right. But that's what Skip's got. Skip says the crazy thing, and then by the time you get to the end, often you're like, huh? I don't necessarily agree, but maybe it's not that crazy.

[Ryan Brumley]

There's always. There's all. His opinion is always well thought out.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes, yes. Like. Like the LeBron thing. Look, man, you stepped on that dope. He wasn't supposed to play this long. Right, right. Like, this gag wasn't supposed to continue to go on for as long as it had or whatever, but there was a time where Skip looked like a soothsayer. In 2010 and 2011, he looked like the dude who was finally right or whatever. Anyway, I say all that to say I disagree with the idea that First Take is responsible for everything that became wrong about sports television. Right. And I think it's a very easy thing for people to point to and say, you don't blame sports talk radio all across the country with people far less talented than those people screaming and typically being far more hurtful and hateful when they're talking about people because they're in the silo of their local markets. Right. Like, you can't sit up there and tell me how much you love Mad Dog Russo and then say you got a problem with them, right back in the back of the Mad Dog. They're your guys with. No, no, no, no, no. Much of the criticism of that show has to do with whom that show serves. And I don't think that people who. Who. Who engage in that even fully realize that that's what they're doing, but I think it's somewhat undeniable that that's a part of it. So I thought that it was good. And if you tell me that Skip's going to be back once every couple weeks, I'll watch that. If you tell me Skip's going to be back every day. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. I'll pass. Right. I'm not gonna do that. Right. But they. The other reason they're great for each other. And I'll say this and go. Skip thinks God put him on this earth to argue about sports.

[Voicemail Caller 1]

Literally.

[Bomani Jones]

He takes this way seriously. He is here to win every debate. Right. And it works with those two in a way that, like, I don't think it worked before Stephen A. Got there. Because Skip also believes he's never lost a debate, and he believes that he can structure the debate to make sure that he never loses a debate, which in part involves making sure he has opponents that he knows he can beat. Remember that time I told you that they told me I wouldn't go be on the show no more?

[Ryan Brumley]

Yes.

[Bomani Jones]

Okay. Right. Stephen A. Is the one guy that he respects enough, truly, that maybe he doesn't win them all, but they'll go back and forth, and then at the end, they'll come back on the other side. And when that works, that is what makes good television, even if it's not your favorite show.

[Ryan Brumley]

All right, tough news in the Atlanta area. Manager Bobby Cox passed away at the age of 84. He, of course, managed the Braves from 1990 to 2010. Bo, Braves being your favorite team, what was your reaction to this news?

[Bomani Jones]

So Bobby has always been an interesting figure, because for me, before you became the manager, he was, and you gotta remember this is a different era of sports coverage, and obviously I was much younger, but he was the general manager of the team. So he managed the team until 1982, fired him, and then hired Joe Torrey, which people, I think, don't quite realize. I didn't realize that, yeah, Joe Torrey replaced him. And they won the champ. They won. They won the division in 82. So I think they fired Cox after 81. Maybe. But then they hired Joe Torrey, won the division in 82, fired him in 84. In my house, the explanation always was they fired Joe Tory because he wouldn't fire Bob Gibson as his pitching coach. I don't know if that's the case. Right. That's the kind of thing my daddy would say. But it's on the board. It's possible.

[Ryan Brumley]

Yeah. Not, not, not. Not that far out there.

[Bomani Jones]

Well, let me tell you what's also possible. Joe Torre being like, I ain't firing Bob Gibson. You fire Bob.

[Ryan Brumley]

Yeah. You go tell Bob Gibson he's fired.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, you go tell him. You go, you. You go tell him. And I'm sure they did it on the phone, but anyway, long distance call. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Bobby built that team and then went to manage it, right? Bobby makes the trade for Doyle Alexander, that gets John Smoltz. But I think Bobby's the one where you draft Tom Glavin. Like all of these things. They got short Holtz, became the general manager in 90, right before the 91 season. But that's what they did, you know, that's how it went. And so he went from being this like just the guy upstairs. And then they fired Russ Nixon and now Bobby Cox is the manager, but I don't know anything about him, right? I don't really know much about the Toronto days or any of that other stuff. And I tell people this all the time, no matter what happens in this world, you can never take 1991 away from me. Like the. The World Series in 95 was great, but the second half of the 1991 season is everything in the world to me for being, I want to say 30. I can't remember the record, but I know at one point they were like 38 and 40 or something like that. Came back, won the division on the last weekend of the season. Everything else, and those of you who know me and have listened to me forever, that those Braves are the most important. Like the first thing I ever loved that wasn't about family, right? Like I would say, the first thing I ever made a choice to love in this world was the Atlanta Braves. And 15 years of knowing we gonna be good no matter what, right? As a manager, we talk about the years they had all the pitching, but they didn't always have all the pitching. And then some years they didn't have the pitching and then they won with hitting all the time. And then this year the bullpen was excellent, and then this year it wasn't. But every year something different was going to happen. You may not win a World Series, and it's real easy to get frustrated with that. And people can say that this is not a dynasty because they only won World World Series. Fine. I don't give a fuck about that. It was so much fun to root for that team. And the steadying force and the constant at every turn was Bobby Cox, right? The other thing with Cox, obviously is that he's all time leader in getting ejected. And the only criticism I had with him for those ejections was they were never fun enough for us. Like, you go out there and he'd just start talking and you'd be like, damn, what did he say? Because they were like, give me some Earl Weaver, man. Turn your cap around, kick some dirt around. All of that stuff. It would never be that. It was like his problem was he could never go back, right? Like, he'd go out there and just keep going, keep going. Then finally they're like, you got him. We gotta, we gotta get you out of there. Right? Like that was. That was it. So, yeah, so Bobby dying, I mean, it wraps a lot for that era. I mean, obviously the players still here, Chipper, still alive. Andrew just went to the hall of Fame, Glavin, Maddox, Smoltz, all these guys. It's not like these guys are gone. There's also a great opportunity to tell the Braves it's okay to retire Terry Pendleton's jersey. You should. The most important player in this transition of this team becoming what it was, is him. Long story, we could talk about another day, but nah, man, Bobby meant something to a lot of us because that team meant something to a lot of us. And he is the most readily associated voice or face of that team. And, you know, rest in peace.

[Ryan Brumley]

All right. Boom. A lot of good voicemails. Here's our first.

[Voicemail Caller 2]

Hey, Bomani, this is David in New Orleans. Love the show. Got a story about Ted Turner in polite society. So years ago, I volunteered at a literary conference here in New Orleans, and one of the main faculty was Robert Olin Butler, who's a Pulitzer prize winning fiction writer and whose wife had just left him earlier that year for Ted Turner to become one of his girlfriends. And it turned out this conference was giving Ted Turner an award for the autobiography he wrote, and mainly because he was willing to show up. And so Robert Owen Butler is sitting there at the dinner where Ted Turner is up on the stage with Elizabeth Duvarry, Robert Owen Butler's ex wife. And when he gets up to accept the award, he says, I guess they give this award to you if you write a great book. And then he looks dead eye at Robert Olin Butler and says, don't worry, Bob, you'll get one one day. Have a good one.

[Bomani Jones]

I love stories like that.

[Ryan Brumley]

Yes. Especially like people at that age just like the less you care, the more interesting you are.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, but I'm also very good at not knowing who that person is I was just talking to. Yeah, I have that neck. No, I told you my I told you about Rich Paul story, right?

[Ryan Brumley]

No.

[Bomani Jones]

First time I met Rich Paul, I was on the floor in Miami. This is 2013 or 14. Somewhere in there. It was after one of the Heat finals games and I'm talking to Connor and I think Jamie. Yeah, right. And so we're there, and then somebody's. Hey, have you met Rich Paul? I had never met Rich Paul. I'm talking to him, and I don't think he knew exactly what Conor did. Or maybe they had. I don't. I don't remember the particulars on that, but I just remember Richard looked at Connor and said, oh, yeah, espn. I was just talking to Bob from Disney a little earlier. And Connor goes a little while. Bob from Disney. Hey, are you talking about Bob Iger? And I don't. I don't use that. That is not to shade Rich Paul at all. That is to say that when you rep. LeBron, he's Bob. He's just Bob from Disney. Right. Like, you hold all the cards.

[Ryan Brumley]

Yeah.

[Bomani Jones]

And if I'm not mistaken, Disney had a lot of Bobs, kind of like ESPN used to have a lot of Johns.

[Ryan Brumley]

Yep.

[Bomani Jones]

This is like. Wait, did you just say Bob from. Yeah, Bob from Disney.

[Ryan Brumley]

Incredible. All right, here's our next one.

[Voicemail Caller 1]

What's going on, boy? I have to credit you guys for introducing me and you and the Internet of people from Opelousis in my particular branch of the family. I was, like, the lightest person I ever met up in Pennsylvania. But, yeah, once I had, like, seen on social media, like, People Opelousis and How Stormy was kind of a shocker. And I just seen that rerun episode of Seinfeld where Elaine was dating a guy and he swore that she was black and he thought that she was Latina. And so I was just wondering, like, have you ever misconstrued somebody's background in your life? Like, I have an uncle, my aunt's husband, who. He had a. I could have swore that he was white, and I thought my cousin was biracial, but then I heard some of his views on social, political things, and if he was a white man, he'd be like a Uncle Ruckus for them. So. Yeah. Have you ever misconstrued anybody that, you know, background in ethnicity? All right, that's. Keep going.

[Bomani Jones]

I mean, of course, Isaiah Hartenstein, Isaiah Hardenstein, way high on the list.

[Ryan Brumley]

I know that's got to happen to him every day.

[Bomani Jones]

There's also a couple of twins in professional sports that I. I know exactly what's going on there, but I feel like we don't ever talk about it, so I'm afraid to actually bring it up. It's pretty obvious. If you tried to drop a pencil through their hair, you would know what time it was, but we only talk about it during Latin month, and I just. I just don't know what to do. Did you figure out who I was talking about? Right.

[Ryan Brumley]

Oh, I'm aware. I'm aware. And I will also. I will also not betray anyone.

[Bomani Jones]

Right. Like, I don't know what to do. Like, it. It sounds like a decision has been made, but I saw a picture of a uncle, and he might as well be the ace of spades.

[Ryan Brumley]

Actually, someone very close to him came up earlier in the show.

[Bomani Jones]

That is true.

[Ryan Brumley]

All right, here's our last one.

[Bomani Jones]

Hey, Bomani.

[Voicemail Caller 2]

This is Michael, longtime listener.

[Bomani Jones]

You know, I was thinking about the

[Voicemail Caller 1]

Brable situation and who it would be the funniest if they kept leaking all this to tmz.

[Voicemail Caller 2]

And I've come to the conclusion that I think the only way that this story could get wilder is if Jordan

[Voicemail Caller 1]

Hudson was the one leaking all this for her guide, Bill. What do you think?

[Bomani Jones]

Huh? It. I don't feel like she got any reason to have any beef with Mike Vrabel.

[Ryan Brumley]

I think she knows two people in love when she sees him because she's Bill. And queerly in a lot.

[Bomani Jones]

That's right. That's right. That's right. That is. That is. That is love. Like, this is my question. Who was like, you still got that video from 2020? He still got that 2021 video. Listen that out. And I will just make one more point. I frequently say that I am not really famous, but I am certainly recognizable, right? Like, certain places.

[Ryan Brumley]

That's a good distinction.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah. Yeah. Certain. Certain places, I am famous. I am not famous everywhere. Okay? But one place I am very recognizable is at an arena at a stadium somewhere around, you know, with a sporting event attached to it. That would make sense. Okay. If you're Mike Vrabel In 2021, your arena is Nashville. The whole city of Nashville. Maybe you can lay low at the casino in Biloxi. Maybe you can lay low somewhere in New York City. There is no laying low in Nashville. And he was walking around Nashville like he was invisible. What? What are you. What? What? You better win a lot of games is all I'm saying. Ryan was in the schedule coming out in a couple of days.

[Ryan Brumley]

Sure. Is Thursday.

[Bomani Jones]

Hey, hey, that's. Wait, let's see what the. What the Murderers Row? Cause I did. Their schedule's a monster this year.

[Ryan Brumley]

Yes, especially compared to last year, where they had the easiest schedule in 25 years.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, like, they're going to have them. It's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough. But, hey, ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the right time. We do this four days a week. Hey, go to bowmanijoneslive.com doing a live show in Atlanta, May 15th. That is Friday, May 15th. Bomanijoneslive.com still got tickets. Come check us out. Thank you for joining us here on the right time. We do this four days a week. Ryan Brumley handles everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Hit the voicemail line. 323-59-67767. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. We'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy.