H1: Deer Population, Open Line Thursday, Sports Page

Happy Open Line Thursday, everybody. This Thursday, February 12th. We are The Junks, coming to you live on 106.7 The Fan. Team 980. 910 The Fan, if you're listening in Richmond, thank you for that. You can also watch us on the Monumental Sports Network. We're celebrating 30 years of the Junkies, the ultimate upset. Nobody would have guessed that 30 years ago. We'd be sitting here today, but we've defied the odds. And it's presented by our friends at Main Street Bank. Cheer Local, Bank Local, Main Street Bank is a business-focused community bank proudly serving the DMV since 2004. Visit mstreetbank.com to learn how to put their team in your office. Main Street Bank, member FDIC, equal housing opportunity lender. I'm Cakes. That's Jason Bishop. What's up? Hello. What's up? Hello. John Paul Flame is here. What's up, Cakesy? He's rocking Sup Dogs here for, I believe, the second time this week. Brett Oliveria loves you for that. and Eric Bickle. Yeah, you know what's funny about the 30th anniversary is Jeff came in yesterday. Yes. Jeff, who works with... Jeff Walker. Jeff Walker. I always want to call him Jeff Parker for some reason. Oh, really? Jeff Walker. Jeff Walker. Yes, I finally got it into my brain. Who's lost a lot of weight, by the way. Yeah, he's dropped a lot of weight. It looks great. Yeah. And Jeff's a funny guy. He's a really nice guy. I like him a lot. He and I always have a nice interaction every day. He came in here and he said, it's y'all's 30th year? Yeah. He had no idea. I heard it. And listen, I don't expect everybody to know that. I mean, who cares? But we've been working here a long time. We work together. It just told me a lot. And he said, I don't listen to the radio. That's the first thing he said. I said, you're just finding that out? We've been playing these things for a month and a half now. I don't expect you to be some sort of junkies history person. But I mean, it's kind of like the whole show is based around it. We're wearing promos on the station. The whole year is going to be around it. It's kind of a big deal for us, a little thing. But I don't expect most people to know. But he worked at our station to show after. Yep. I was just, I don't know, it was a great moment for me. He's late to the party. It's all good. No, it doesn't mean it's that bad. Yeah. It just shocked me. And then I guess he answered it himself. He said, yes, I'm sorry about it. He says, I don't listen to the radio. That's what I found the most shocking. Like, if he does DJ gigs as well. So if he's doing a DJ gig until, I don't know, say two in the morning, he'll get in his car and drive to his house in total silence. Well, you can either do total silence or you listen to Spotify or Apple Music. No, no, I understand that he does it, I'm saying, but a lot of people live that way. Got it. Hold on, a lot of people live the way of getting into a vehicle and not listening to radio. No, the only reason why I say that is he works in radio, though. That's what's shocking. He works in radio. And I get it, too. I get in my car and listen to podcasts. I'm not always listening to radio. Of course. It just floored me. I didn't hear him say that. I couldn't fathom getting into a vehicle. And even driving for five or ten minutes. Like a quick errand. And not having some sort of audio entertainment. That just blew my mind. Yeah, but if you're DJing and you're playing loud music, you might want to just decompress. It's going, four straight hours. Yeah, we've never done that. You need to get some zen to get centered again. You've got to understand it. I guess I can see it. There have been times where I've had a lot on my mind. Maybe it's something with my kids going on or it could be anything. It could be just distraught about my golf swing. If I have a lot on my mind, I'll often find myself 20 minutes into my ride And I didn't turn anything on It doesn't happen a lot Let's say that happens twice a year But there have been times where that's happened Where you're driving in silence Because you're so consumed I don't know, maybe something's going on with your mom Or something with your family Just something's going on I guess it could happen It's happened to me But he does it on a daily And I think it's like you said He's got those beats just resonating Beat dropping all night. Just reverberating. Bouncing around his brain. Get in your car and just chill. And I guess Jeff is now into making beats. And he's got a bunch of buddies that are rappers. And he's in the music scene even more than ever. So that's where he's focusing. He's kind of a renaissance man. He's also a hunter and a fisherman. He's a hunter. Is he really? Yeah. What's he hunt? Like deer? Oh, damn. Remember I told you I wanted to mention... Remember yesterday I said there's something going on in my neighborhood? Remind me. I don't remember that, but okay. We had... The last couple days we've been driving around. And I live off of Beach Drive. And we have the park police. And it's... You know, I see park police occasionally. But there have been like five of them stationed in different areas on the way back to my house. and the sirens are on and the guys are just sitting in there and they're just chilling. And I was like, what's going on? Is that like a criminal? What the hell is going on? Tracking somebody in the park? Is this like a crime scene? Right. And my wife said, no. This is news to me. I've lived here in this neighborhood 20 years. Yep. This is when they kill deer. Yeah, same in my neighborhood. They've got signs at the park that say you can't be in the park after sundown. Right. Because there are sniper teams that go in to control the deer population. And I've got to tell you, Cakes lives in a very similar neighborhood. There are homes everywhere. It suddenly was kind of terrifying to me that they're just indiscriminately somewhat. Well, I mean, these are experts. Okay, they're experts. It's also like, I mean, the park that I live in, there are homes basically right adjacent to it. There are homes everywhere. But it's, I don't know, it's an eight or ten acre park. and they've... I'm sure they're great at it. How often do you have deer in your backyard or front yard? In my front yard, sometimes, never in my backyard. Yeah, I have on occasion. I mean, several times a year. I mean, I live in a neighborhood called Washingtonian Woods. Right. My parents have them daily. Yeah. Daily deer come feed in their front or backyard. Yeah. Do your parents go out and try to feed them any food? No. Sometimes they'll send me pictures. I always feel like I should... This is dumb, but sometimes I feel like if I'm on a walk, like there are deer in the park, I should bring them an apple or something to eat, and I just don't. You're a nature lover. Do they like apples? I don't know. That I don't know. That's a great question. I think they do. I would assume they would. Because I worked with a guy who he would go out, and he would feed him apples, and he was feeding them for the kill. So he was trying to give them a pattern. And he was trying to beef them up, and then once they got to a certain size, then he would shoot them. No, I think they like apples. I'm thinking more along horses. horses like apples and carrots. A deer? I don't know. I can tell you that at least my buddy would feed them apples. Specifically. It may not be at the top of their food chain, what they like the most. But it's free food. He would carry around one of those crates from 7-Eleven full of apples, and he would beef up the deer, and then he would shoot them. If I were a deer living in the park, and some rando just came up with an apple, I'd probably go up and get it. Because I'm a dumb deer, and I don't have a big, fully developed brain like a human. like most humans and I'd probably go out and try to get the food. So you don't feel it's just a little... So what do they eat? Just grass? I think mostly grass. I don't know. It's a terrible diet. Probably grass, leaves. You see some of those videos on YouTube where deer come up to people's houses in the middle of nowhere and people are just feeding them stuff? Sure. Will deer actually come up to people and eat out of their hands? In some spots maybe. If they've been around enough people I think they will. Hopefully if you're slow enough And you have the patience to let it come to you Yeah I don't know I don't know it just might be AI I don't know what's real It doesn't freak you out though that they're just shooting these deer In the neighborhood No because where I live is kind of far away from there But I still don't think there are going to be Random shots that ricochet into somebody's Family room Are you like nervous that there's just gunshots going off Those dudes are going to hit their target That's what I'm talking about Those guys have high powered scopes And I'm sure they're the best in the biz. They can see your BMW in your driveway through their scope. That kind of frightens you a little bit. It just frightens me. I live in a regular neighborhood. It's a neighborhood, and they're in the... And you have an army of snipers next door. Yeah, they're just running around killing the deer. And I'm sure they're the best. I'm sure nothing ever happens. They're doing it so the deer don't jump out and jump through your windshield at 4.45 in the morning. I appreciate it. Yeah, sure. Although I have to also say, you know me, I don't really have an affinity for animals. Yeah, it's been documented. I don't really, I mean, let them be, that's fine. I do think deer are kind of pretty. Sure. They're tricol. I have to say I have a weakness, I have a soft spot for deer. They're like majestic. Maybe. They're so athletic too. There's something about a deer that's just kind of pretty. And when I see them, and I see them all the time, I go, I feel kind of bad when I see a sickly one. Yeah, sometimes they have like patches on their skin and flies. They're mangy. Yeah, but for the most part they're nice to look at. They're not eating silly flat iron steak. You know what I mean? They don't know what a skirt steak tastes like. It's a rough go. My buddy has the same feeling about fox. He thinks foxes are majestic wholesome creatures. Beautiful. Beautiful. Yeah, yeah. I have a little soft spot for fox, and this is going to sound bizarre because of the Marist Red Foxes. I have a little soft spot, but not like deer. There's something. I think deer are more peaceful than a fox. The word pretty. A fox will try and prey on a small dog. They'll kill dogs. Sure. Deer is, you know. I mean, a fox probably weighs 20-ish pounds. If they see a 10-pound dog. They'll try and kill it. Yeah, they're going to try to take it down. There's meat eaters. There's a fox, I remember, last year that was loving my mat. It would scratch itself and lay on it. Did he have the yips? There was a fox that was sickly at Hidden Creek and one of the members who loves foxes loves fox went to a a vet and got medicine like mange medicine and like put it in food and like put it near the fox den so that the fox would heal up Guys really into foxes. It looked better after a week. It's amazing, right? Yeah, it's silly. I don't have anything really against foxes. If I had a dog and it was preying on my dog, then I certainly would. It definitely used to be cool to call hot, like, teenagers. When we were teenagers, let me just see. Yeah. Like she's a Fox or she's Fox. Right. Like when we were in middle school or early high school, that was definitely the lingo back in the day. Hey, Mike Barr, you might want to like put the paddles to that. I always thought Fox was like an older woman. That's hot. That's a cougar. Well, I thought a cougar was just someone that likes younger men. That's I guess. Yeah. But it's an older cougar is an older woman. Yeah. Now, if I go to Jackson's, I would say either Cougar or Fox. Right. I wouldn't think younger. Okay. No, Cougars are, I'm going to guess, 40s and 50s. Sounds about right. Some girl just crashed on the giant slalom. Oof. A Cougar could be. That's a brutal sport, by the way. Yeah, brutal. They're all brutal. Did you see, by the way, there was a doctor that put an x-ray, and it almost had me because he's like, this is what happened to Lindsey Vonn, and it wasn't her exact x-ray, but it was allegedly an x-ray of someone's legs that suffered the same kind of fracture she suffered. And they were broken in a billion pieces. Well, she just had her third surgery. Yes. Three surgeries in what, four days, five days? She probably has more coming. Yeah. It'd be like Tiger Woods. How many surgeries does Tiger had? About 20? Don Makowski tweeted yesterday. The magic man? The magic man. Former calf. That he was going through, I think it was his 23rd surgery. On his leg? I had hit. Or overall. Glute. I don't know what this particular one was, but he was kind of like asking for prayers. Knock on wood, I'm holding at one vasectomy. Just holding it. I didn't even know you could count that. If you count that, I've got about eight or nine. I mean, it's a minor surgical procedure, but you can count it. I might be in double digits if you count little ones like that. Like if you count eye surgeries, I wouldn't count it. I don't think I would count an eye surgery. Like the laser? Yeah, the LASIK. Even though you did smell the burning flesh. Look, they're cutting on your Bozak? Sorry, that's a surgery, in my opinion. In my book? That is a surgery, my friends. Add it up, and I've got about seven. That's a lot. Don't want to keep adding to it. Hey, real quick, let's go to Will. It is an open line Thursday. People call us throughout the show, just so they know. Let's go to Will in Stafford. He wants to chime in on the deer situation. Will, what's up, buddy? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Good morning. Good morning. Just a great conversation, man. A couple things. You know, in Arlington, here in Fairfax, you know, all over Northern Virginia, they have marksman teams that'll thin their population as well. You know, they're good at what they do. They're not like a bunch of cowboy tods, you know, sitting in the woods spraying buckshot everywhere. Right. I mean, I assume that's the case. but it's still a little disconcerting. I don't know. Just knowing these guys are like shooting in your backyard. Yeah. Understand yet. Then in the population, you know, it's a good thing. Uh, you know, part of conservation safety. Also deer get, uh, what's called chronic wasting disease. They basically get this zombie status, you know, walking around. So, uh, you know, they put anything with, uh, chronic wasting, they'll put them down. Also for Jason, uh, if you go out like past Leesburg, if you go down to like skyline, uh, skyline drive, Leroy Caverns. Deer out there are very domesticated. They'll walk right up and eat an apple out of your hand. Really? It's not a good... Yeah, it's not a good thing to do, but... Apple. They do it a lot. Do they get feisty? Are they aggressive, or will they come up kind of gently and take it out of your hand? Male deer, like in a rut season, of course, you don't want to get around them like that, but doe, stuff like that, they'll walk up and see videos of all the time. I might do that. Deer experts. Where is apples on their sort of food chain? Is that something they really like? I'm not sure on that. I think that's more of like a human interaction. Deer will eat berries in the wild. They'll eat corn, dig into cornfields and stuff. But I grew up hunting with my dad. I got out of it once I discovered girls at 17 and everything. Smart. I get it. I get it. It's way more fun. Don't hunt anymore. It's a different kind of hunting. It's a good subject. Thanks, guys. All right. Thanks for the call, man. Appreciate it. You can call us on an open line Thursday, 800-636-1067. You can do that throughout the show. Here is your guest lineup for today. Mark Turgeon, former Terps head coach, who is taking over as the head coach for University of Missouri-Kansas City next season. He'll be on the show coming up at 845. When we come back, we'll get into the junk sports page. The Terps had a nice win at home. The Wiz, shocker, lost their last game before the All-Star break. We'll get into that and more next. Welcome back to an Open Line Thursday brought to you by Window Nation. searching for new windows and doors. Search windownation.com. Their windows are measured to fit the first time and installed by experts to last. Window Nation for your home because it's where you live, Ricky. 800-636-1067 is the number. Richard. If you want to call us throughout the show. Hey, Richie. All right, let's bring on a couple of these calls. Let's go to Sean. It's Stafford. Sean, what's up, buddy? Hey, I used to work for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. And several years ago, we did a study on, we were teaming up with insurance companies, did a study on deer strikes. And we found that in Fairfax County alone that year, there were 5,500 deer strikes by cars. That's crazy. A lot. Just in Fairfax County. I'm surprised. I'll be honest with you. I'm surprised I haven't hit more deer. I've hit one deer in my life, and it was probably 20-some years ago. But out where I live, I mean, there's some dark areas. There's deer everywhere out in Loudoun County. And I get up at four. Yeah. I'm surprised. I had a friend that hit two deer on his motorcycle in his driveway. Wow. Yeah, you got to be careful for sure. No, I understand it. I understand sort of the idea behind it. Yeah, well, the cars are a top-tier predator for deer. here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, thank you, Sean. I appreciate it, buddy. I see them all the time. Yeah, it's a big number. I hit a deer 20 years ago, like getting on Route 50 when I drove the Dodge Durango. I think pummeled me. It ran up against the side of me. It was like racing. That's my one deer encounter. It hit my rear, like right panel near the rear right tire. Right. And it just bounced off and ran away. Right. Let's go to Dwayne Ed Bowie. Dwayne, what's up, buddy? It's Open Line Thursday. Your chance to see you to the show. What's up, pal? Good morning, Evie. How are you doing? Great. How are you? I'm well, thanks. So yesterday I was in the hole for just trying to discuss the tanking. Yeah. And I thought about it, and here's the only way on this planet to stop tanking. It has to be relegation. Now, hear me out. All right. You're going to say, okay, well, you're going to have guys making $20 million. Do they want to play in G League? No, they don't want to play in G League. and that is the reason why they wouldn't want to go to G League. Now, you're going to have guys at the top in the NBA playing hard not to get relegated. You're going to have guys in G League playing hard to get to NBA. So, no, here's the thing. In Premier League, it's the same thing. And, JP, you know this. You watch soccer. So, there is no tanking in Premier League. If you're tanking, you're going to be the worst team, and nobody's going to want to watch you. Then you're going to want to go top. Right, but here's the question. Do they have a draft in the Premier League? Well, they have buy-ins. They have something better than draft, to be honest with you. See, I think that's the answer, and we were discussing this, and I think Drafty read an article about some, and somebody had pointed out, the answer might be eliminate the draft. If you eliminate the draft and just make everything free agency and you have a salary cap, like a real salary cap, and then teams have to accommodate for players, So if you have big salaries, you might have to release them to sign new ones. You know what I mean? So college players would essentially be like free agents? Yes. That eliminates the tanking. And now you could say, well, that gives the haves more. But if you have a salary cap, that should, in theory, make it equal. So everyone has an equal shot at signing them. I think on the face of it, that might work. That might work. But then ask yourself this question. of why is there no tanking in hockey the way it is in NBA? And Cakes, you might know this, but I don't think there's as much tanking in hockey. Yes, a team might go lose 15 straight, but they're not really tanking. I think the answer is it's typically they don't have a guy that can have an immediate turnaround impact in the NHL the way they can in the NBA. I mean, a lot of those, even some of the top draft picks, they don't come to play for their NHL team for a couple years. Now, some of them do. Well, that's true, but I still think relegation might be fun as well. It's also the math, right? A hockey player is only going to play at most one-third of the game. An NBA player is one of five on the court and generally will play 40 out of 48 minutes. So they're just going to have a bigger impact. Same thing, like NFL, you're on the field half the time. Now a quarterback has a major impact. But an NBA player, if you get the right one, can dramatically change the trajectory of your franchise because you're one of five. Baseball, much bigger team. Football, much bigger team. That's the smallest team out there. And less games for football, too. If you suck, you realize you suck with eight games to go in the regular season. At least you're kind of trying for the first quarter of the season, first half of the season. I agree. But I think it is something to think about, though. I don't think they're ever going to abolish the draft. I know it's hard to wrap your brain around it, but it might work. I never thought college players would be getting $10 million and going from team to team. Definitely didn't think that was ever going to happen either. You've got to think outside the box there, Rick. Let's go to Ben. Silver Spring. It's Open Line Thursday. Your chance to see you on the show. Ben, what's up, buddy? I want to bring up Stefan Diggs spinning one last time. Hopefully it's the last. But the whole thing comes down to is I had the impression when he spun the ball, The look on his face was this is the stupidest thing that I have ever done And I just kind of wondering if you think the same thing You think he regretted it as soon as he did it As soon as he did it If you could see the look on his face it was either of he was just pissed off because they were getting killed. But it looked like as he spun it, he's going, looks at the ball and goes, this was the stupidest thing. Because it looked like he went to go down to pick it up. Maybe he realized that he shouldn't have been doing that when they were getting crushed. Yeah, that's what I mean. You're getting crushed. Or was it simply just, and I didn't even pay attention to it, I don't even remember the exact moment when it happened. It was very late in the game. Was it just a frustration thing? Like, he spun it, but it was just more of just frustration. It might also just be habit. Maybe he's just used to all this. I think that's probably what it was. It's a muscle memory. When he plays, he spins the ball. I don't know. But, you know, there's a little too much celebration for stupid things all the time. That's for sure. Agreed. We can all agree to that. And one other thing real quick, the guy about the deer. Ever since that inter-county connector went up, it really screwed up, in Montgomery County anyway, the north-south migration of deer and fox. Is that right? We have more deer. I live up in Burtonsville, which isn't really up anymore. But we have more fox and deer in the morning. And at night, they make the craziest sounds. So, like you said, that stuff's all over the place. When they kill the deer, and somebody tells me, by the way, that they do it with bow and arrow. They're not even doing it with a gun. Maybe that makes you feel a little safer, although the bow and arrow take you out, too. Yeah, but they hit a human. That would be the worst luck ever. Worst luck ever. But when they take one down, what do they do? They just let it lay there? No, I think they probably throw it in a truck and take it out of the park. They do. I don't know what they do with it after that. I've never seen that, so I believe you. I'm just assuming. I don't know that. Because we've had this conversation before. When deer die, they just fall down and die. Then the vultures come in and eat them. So maybe that's what happens here. Maybe the vultures eat them here. That could be. Whole circle of life thing. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe a bear. Maybe a bear comes along. I hope we don't have that many bears in my neighborhood. They've been seen in my neighborhood. No, I know. There's been one in a blue moon. Yeah, I mean, they're not all over the place. There was definitely a bear in the old town. like two, two and a half years ago. Yeah. Bear. Yeah, I know. It's crazy. Just strolling around. They can go all the way from the mountains, I don't know, miles west, and just find themselves in a neighborhood. Right. How about this? So my wife was waiting for my daughter, because again, you know, she's up in the Chantilly area for volleyball a bunch, you know, three times a week. And they don't get out until 10. And so she's sleeping in her car. I know last night I got, two nights ago I got home at 11. she's sleeping in the car waiting and then she's hearing something and then they sound like gunshots and then she looks up the volleyball spots right next to a gun range oh okay I think gun ranges are great I didn't know they were that close to normal stuff right that's also a little bit disconcerting yeah let's go to Toothpick Toothpick what's up buddy we're taking some calls early Hey, what's good, man? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm always up around this time. I just sometimes can't get a chance to call. Listen, I got this NBA thing figured out, man. It's a couple of steps. First, you got to knock 10 games off the schedule. That didn't happen. I'm going to end it right there. They're not going to knock 10 games off the schedule. They're not going to do it because of the money involved. I understand. I know you were going to say that. I knew you were going to say there's money involved. but everyone wants to see the stars, right? And the thing about it is right now they're playing every team in the NBA. So just like football, sometimes you won't play a different division. So that's what makes it special, and that's what makes you have to sometimes get out of your comfort zone, your area, and go to different areas. They don't care about special. They just want money. That's not the main point. That's not the main point, right? You got to stop letting these guys sell their draft picks seven and eight years down the road. you've got to limit it to like three years. And the protected picks, you've got to get rid of those because that's really what incentivizes teams to take, just like the Wizards this year. We all know, hey, if they finish outside of whatever, then their pick goes to somebody else. It's like they have to finish in the bottom three or bottom four, whatever, to ensure that they get their first-round pick this year. So you've got to let these other teams, where you finish at is the draft that you get, the pick that you get. So if you're the worst, then you pick first. You can't be number seven and get the first pick in the draft. That's what I said yesterday. Well, I mean, that's irritating. I'm like, it's going to enrage me when I see a team that has a 2% or 3% chance to get a top pick, land a top three pick. Because I know it's going to happen. I know one of these weird teams, let me pull up, who has the lowest chances of getting in there. this year, pulling up Tankathon. It seemed like if Chicago, who has a 3% chance of getting the number one overall pick, leaps into the top three, I'm going to be pissed. They shouldn't be eligible to get a pick like that. Same with Portland. Same with Charlotte. If I see one of those logos pop up during the lottery, I agree. You're going to be very upset. I'm going to be neat. We understand why they're doing it. The idea is to try to reduce the tanking. But that's why they're doing it. But it's still going to drive me crazy. And you said you will never watch another basketball game if the Dallas Mavericks win the lottery. Yes. I'll stand by that. Will you pay us? But we'll let you off the hook if you pay us each $100. Is that part of the deal? Well, hold on. I said in your past I'm not going to get into these dumb one-sided bets. I know, but you said you're never going to watch basketball the rest of your life. And assuming you've got another 20 years. 20 years in you. Yeah. You know, you're really going to go 20 years? I'll give you a buyout. Screw them. Just pay me $100, and you get a buyout. No, I get one, too. If the Wiz got good all of a sudden, and that's probably never going to happen, but they went to the Eastern Conference Finals, then he's not going to watch. Well, you have to pay us $100. I would definitely want to watch. He's golfing in that. I'm not going to agree to that. Why not? I'm not agreeing to that stipulation. So your words are empty. Your words are empty. No, not really. Empty words. They're empty. I just want to have an out. You always want to have outs in life And poker You want to have like an escape hatch Well your escape hatch is just saying I lied Man lies Lies is such an ugly word It wouldn't be a lie it would just be not living up to his promise Don't live up to your words You're not a man of integrity I'm just trying to get a hundred bucks out of it It's been the first time I haven't lived up to a promise Hey the Wiz did their part last night Yeah they did Alex R didn't play Yeah mysterious injury again Hyping up Will Riley the last three days, and he really struggled. I don't get any glee in it. But Trey played. I think Trey started. I just don't think they're going to catch Sacktown, who've lost 14 in a row. Well, that was a tankapalooza game. It was – didn't they play Utah? They played the Jazz. Utah's front court is the biggest front court in the history of the NBA, it seems. But I don't think the Jazz can tank any – well, I mean, they can tank. They just don't – they wouldn't play their best players. But last night, I mean – No, they played Markin and Jackson. Look at their starting front court. And Nurkic. Yeah. They're only playing them in the mid-20 minutes range. I know, but Markkinen's starting it small forward. Yeah, they're huge. Dallas is doing their best to try to get into the mix. They've lost eight straight. And Cooper's going to be out because he's got a strained foot. Although the All-Star breaks this weekend. They've gone up to that. Now they have a 7.5 chance of landing the number one pick. I'm not making that proclamation official. You can take that off the record, Valdez. Before you know it, they're going to have a 10% chance and landed the top pick. And they're probably going to get it. It's rigged. I already told you. Don't worry, Wiz fans. I thought it was rigged for the Wizards. I thought that's what you said a week ago. Yeah, it still is. Oh, you're saying calm down. Yeah, calm down. The handshake, wink, wink deal is still in effect. I wish I could believe you. Let's see. I'm having a hard time with it. So they've got the second worst record right now. Yes. They're at 14-39. New Orleans is at 15-41. Indiana at 15 and 40. I'm starting to buy in that LeBron might come here. Why would you buy into that? Because Windy was on Rich Eisen's show. Who was? Windhorse. And he said there's some options for LeBron's last year. Let me find the audio. Did he mention Washington? He mentioned by name obviously staying with the Lakers. going back to Cleveland. Golden State, he mentioned by name. Find the audio. We'll play that when we come back. And then we'll also get into the Junk Sports page. Talk about the Terps and more. We'll do that next here on The Fan. Let's get into the Junk Sports page. It's brought to you by our friends at Open Road. Where's my read here? What was Valdez going to play? He was going to play some audio for it. Let me just get the sponsor in from our good friends at Open Road Distillery. We love sponsors. In Reston, Virginia. If you haven't been there yet, especially if you live in Northern Virginia, then you're a loser. Right. You're pretty much a loser. I like this tax you're taking. I like co-signing. I like this approach. I mean, it's just a great spot. You're shaming people into going. Yeah, it's a great spot. It's got good vibes. Head on over there. Get a great meal. They've got tons of TVs. Huge bar. They've got the speakeasy there if you want to just get a great meal at the Heirloom. but of course when you walk in check out the distillery and their dark liquors are available in ABC stores in Northern Virginia can we also just get Eddie to bring some more pies by yeah we should can we do that he's not a sponsor so we can't hype up his company but we destroyed the pecan pie I mean just have Eddie bring his pies by there literally wasn't one crumb left from the crust like we vaporized that pie. I told you the day I brought home the blueberry, I ate half of it myself the first day. It was gone the second day. And of course, I had a big dollop of spray whipped cream on top of the pecan pie. Oh, that would... I mean, you have to have that. I wouldn't have had a dollop, though. I would have had a lot. It was probably two dollops. By the way, my buddy... Maybe bring a bunch of pies. Yeah, bring some. My buddy Greg, we were talking about the deer and bear yeah he sent me a video there a bear on his front porch i don know this wasn recent where does he live he lives up in the woods up in the mountains This is a bear What state Virginia Okay Just look at it Just chilling on his front porch What do you do in that instance? Looks like his dog just hanging out there. Right. But it's a bear. Do you play like one of those alarm? You know how you have those things? Like an air siren? I think they... Yeah, air siren or something? I don't know. What do you do? I think they just... He's bear spray. He's eating the cat food. Oh, yeah. Bears will eat anything. They'll eat anything. They'll eat anything they can get their hands on. Imagine walking your front door and seeing a big-ass bear on your front porch. I think I've told this on the air before. When I took a trip with my kids out west when they were playing field hockey, when they were much younger, and we were doing a tour of a national park, they said the bears in that national park are so smart that if you're even driving through and you have your windows cracked and they smell food in your car, they will get on top of your car and start shaking your car until the frame of your car bends and they can pry the door open and get in and get the food. That's how far bears will go to get food. They don't F around. They do not mess around. That's why they tell you when you're camping near where bears live, you better not have any food that they can smell. You better have it in an airtight container, like the airtight container JP wanted to take home that Eddie brought his pies in yesterday from work. I know. It's a nice storage bin. It's been here for a while. What's funny? JP walks by and he goes, is anybody going to take this bin? Is anybody going to use this bin? And we're like, do whatever you want. And we're like, I think that's Eddie's bin. They brought the pies in. But it shows you the anal guy who's very into being organized. Yes. Got very aroused seeing an empty storage bin. Yeah, it gave him blood flow. Seeing that empty plastic container. It moved him. It did move him. To me, it just looked like junk. It just looked like a random Tupperware container. And believe me, my house could use some organization. Sure. Because it was couldn't. Just organize the area and put the bin underneath the table. Very proud of you. Right. It's kind of your thing. All right, so Matt wanted to play some audio from Brian Windhorst. Yeah, he's on with Rich Eisen. This is regarding LeBron's potential destinations. Yeah, potential destinations. Because I believe this is his final year in terms of contract in L.A. Yeah. I mean, he's playing at a decent level when he plays, so we think he's going to come back. There's a couple of friction between him, his camp, the ownership in L.A. I don't know, but it's giving me visions of sugar plums in my head. And especially when Windhor says this. All right. Sugar plums. The pathway, too, is to stay with the Lakers for less money. How much less? A lot of variables we don't know yet. Three, would he go someplace else? If he becomes a free agent, would he go someplace else? And would he go someplace to make the most money? Or would he go someplace where he could take less money, but that he would feel comfortable or feel like he could win. It would probably, there's a good chance it would be his last year. He certainly has to go into it with a strong possibility it would be his last year. So he has to go to a place where he could be comfortable playing a year. And I think there's a couple of places where that might make sense. Cleveland is one of them. Heat? You want to go down the memory lane here? I'm not sure I put the Heat on the list. Okay, where else? Where else? You know, Golden State, depending on how things go, would be one of them, depending on where their team is. would Kerr have to be there? Maybe. But that's a good question. Sure. Okay. And there's a place or two that I won't say right now that I'm keeping my eye on. Is that the finger thing? We doing the finger thing? Yeah, I just, you know, frankly, with All-Star Weekend and stuff, I don't need this in my life. Let's just say, I don't mean the fingers, but like... No, no, no, I got it. I got you. Let's just put it this way. I respect you. I have a team or two that I think he could consider going to. And I have researched the concept. And I will continue to keep my eye on the concept. Keep digging. And let's just say that it's not without merit. It's just not something I'm going to say. And I don't mean to be a jerk that way. No, no, no. But I'm going to try to lay low this weekend. All right, so why do you think Washington is one of those? Because there's two unnamed teams that are in the race right now. Like dark horses. Dark horses. But why does Washington – It could be anybody. 32 teams or whatever. Because they're starting to stack a roster. He has a relationship with AD. He loved playing with them. It's just – All right. Now you've made a case with that one point. It's just – It could be on LeBron's radar. And if the stars align and everyone's healthy next year and Will has a pitch for him and he doesn't want to go to the Lakers, I mean – How about this? And it's a short-term thing. It's a short-term thing. It's the same thing that Jordan did. Why not just, if we're going to go there, why don't we go there? Why don't we just get KD to come to? Get KD to come home. Start the KD to DC thing again. Let's just do it one last time. Come home, baby. KD to DC too. KD to DC, finally. Let me just say this about LeBron. I watch a lot of the Lakers because, you know, I'm a Luka fan. LeBron is still very good, but he's not the player that you think of with LeBron. He gets a lot of dunks because he cherry-picks a little bit, and Luka throws these long passes to him. He doesn't play defense like he used to. No, he lets guys go right by him. He's the third best player on that team. Austin Reeves is better than him at this time. Will's got me thinking delusional. That's all. I think it's delusional. Will's in your head. Will Dawkins is in. I didn't think Trey Young was possible. I didn't think AD was possible. You know what? We're dreaming big, Valdez. Anything is possible. Scorching kicks of bullets fever. Kevin Garnett. Anything is possible. How about you watch them play a game? Because neither AD or Trae Young have stepped on the court yet. I'm going to be honest with you, JP. I'm watching a lot of effing Wizards. Oh, look at you. It's good. Hold on. But why would the Wiz be interested in LeBron's farewell tour? I don't. It's just. Where they're trying to go. It's a stars aligning thing because he has a relationship with AD. That's your big part. That's my big thing. They're collecting old stars. Push for the championship. But you can only collect so many old stars because then the young stars, or hopefully their stars, aren't going to be on the court. The idea is hopefully that Trey and AD stick and are here for a few years. You want to bring Durant back. You want to bring LeBron. I don't know. Will could be collecting them like Pokemon. No, I don't think so. Getting the whole band back together. I'm willing to go there. I'm willing to think about it. I'm willing to say there's a non-zero chance that it could happen. The problem is it just doesn't fit into their plan. To me. Well, sometimes plans will change. Maybe. But how would it benefit them long-term to have LeBron? Long-term or wouldn't? I'm not thinking about long-term. I'm thinking about the 2026-2027 season and how on fire that would be with those three stars in the lineup. Well, people would definitely go see them. But right now the Lakers are. But all their young guys would be sitting on the bench. Here's the problem with that logic. Right now the Lakers aren't even a legit contender with Luka, Austin Reeves, and LeBron. Well, LeBron paired up with Trey and AD is inferior to the trio in LA. I don't think the idea would be that it would make you a contender. It would just be... It would put you on the map. Nobody expects the Wizards to be a contender next season. I don't think a lot of people think that. I know, but he's giving you this dream scenario as to why LeBron would come here. Well, LeBron wants to be with the contender. The guy Valdez has a fever dream he's walking through right now. He's barely coherent. Was he going to go to New York? Was he going to go to Boston? I don't know. I would think he would stay in L.A. Or maybe. I don't think he'd go back to Cleveland. I think he could go back to Cleveland. Maybe. He ain't coming to Washington. This is a minor note. It's possible. Hold on. I want to play this other clip real quick. What were you going to say? I'm sorry. I just wanted to say that last night you got to see Jaden Hardy play for. And he's not going to be some major piece. but I'm telling you, Jaden Hardy can play. He was part of the deal and he put up 11 points in 15 minutes. I can't remember who said it, but somebody said he's the king of garbage time. Whether the Wizards are leading by a lot, which isn't usually the case, or trailing by a lot. So just some context. Chris Miller maybe? I don't know. I don't know. On the broadcast. Not sure. Real quick. I've been Ben. But I watched him in the NBA Finals. He can contribute. Kansas State lost by 40. Well, I don't know, 30 last night to Cincinnati. Cincinnati is just an average team. Kansas State was playing them at home. Now, Kansas State is bad. They are 1-10 in the Big 12. But they got embarrassed at home in Manhattan, Kansas. 91-62. And this is what their coach, Jerome Tang, who's in year four. Year one, he got to the Elite Eight. Year two, I think NIT. Year three bad. This year, awful. He's probably going to get fired up to this year. This is what he said about his team after the game. I'm going to honor Christ like I always do. Blessed to do this. But this was embarrassing. These dudes do not deserve to wear this uniform. There will be very few of them in it next year. Like, I'm embarrassed for the university. I'm embarrassed for our fans, our student section. You know, it is just ridiculous. We got practice at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning, and we will get this thing right. I have no answer, no words. So you got two questions. So whoever wants to ask two questions, I'll answer them to the best of my ability right now. But right now, I'm like pissed. Oh, man, he's cleaning house. after the season. I mean, he might be part of it. Most coaches, I mean, there are coaches out there like the Danny Hurley's of the world. You know, he might criticize his team. Maybe McCroney out of UCLA. But most coaches aren't going to say that. He basically said, we suck and these kids aren't going to be here next year. It's pretty straightforward. I mean, you know what it is? Refreshing. It's refreshing. Yeah, I like it. Honest. He's honest. Absolutely. But he might not be there next year. He might not be. Yeah, he may be swept out too. All right, when we come back, we will hit the skins And don't forget, we'll talk to Mark Turgeon, former Terps head coach. He'll now be at UMKC next season. He'll join the show coming up at 8 o'clock here on The Fan.