Show Notes
Episode 278 gets recorded with a playoff game going on about 500 feet away. The Braves and Phillies are playing the NL Wild Card at Truist Park, so B-Dawg spends the first part of the show downstairs dealing with the chaos before he finally makes it in. It's been a day, and you can see it on his face.
NBA media days gave us plenty to work with. JJ Redick had the line of the week about the Lakers' starting five, something very strange is happening behind Austin Reaves during his scrum, and Big Shot Bob explains why he never once did a radio station drop. Walker Kessler reportedly pushed his way out of Utah, Kawhi shut down questions before anybody could ask them, and Tyrese Haliburton and Kyrie Irving both say they're fully cleared. Kyrie is coming up on 600 days since his last game, and Robert wants to see him move before he makes any promises.
LeBron says the Sixers have to get comfortable being uncomfortable, which gets us to the real question: who takes a back seat in Philly? Jenners is worried about VJ Edgecombe. Robert says it's Tyrese Maxey and compares it to what happened to Darius Garland in Cleveland. Then he explains why "who's the alpha" doesn't mean much on a team that wins, using the Shaq and Kobe Lakers as proof. (He did not say he was better than Kobe. Jenners tried.)
Also this week, Jalen Duren's contract standoff and the weight clauses in Detroit's offer, which sends Robert into a story about Pat Riley's body fat tests in Miami and why he was happy to be in San Antonio. Giannis meets his first Florida iguanas. And Steph Curry says he played through blurry vision during the Warriors run. Robert isn't buying it, because teams check everything "from the rooter to the tooter." That's your episode title.
On the football side, Michael Penix drops a live "pause" in his postgame, and Iowa's student radio crew barely survives their call of the win over Michigan in the Big House. Then it's college football picks. Jenners is 3-12 on the season, so he's going full George Costanza and picking the opposite of every instinct he has, including against his own Hurricanes at Clemson. Dan Lanning, Lincoln Riley and the big buyout club all come up along the way.
Big Shot of the Week goes to Erin Howell. An 81-year-old man delivering lost airline luggage in Dallas-Fort Worth brought bags to her house, she helped him carry them in, and then she started a GoFundMe that raised $700,000 so he could stop working and pay for his wife's cancer treatment. That turns into a conversation about the healthcare system, and Robert breaks into an ad read for SureCo out of nowhere. Five and a half years into this show, that's how we found out he's the company's chief impact officer.
We wrap with Preseason Prediction Fails, looking back at how far off Vegas and the NBA GMs were last year on the Spurs, Pistons, Pacers, Knicks, Mavs, Lakers and Thunder, along with this season's numbers.
00:00 Intro: Recording During a Braves Playoff Game
01:05 Anniversaries, Gifts & Grandkids
05:04 JJ Redick's Starting Lineup Comment
07:08 Media Day Photo Shoots & Radio Drops
11:20 Walker Kessler's Exit From Utah
13:45 B-Dawg Arrives & Braves vs. Phillies
16:35 LeBron's Sixers: Who Takes a Back Seat?
24:07 Who's the Alpha? Horry on Shaq & Kobe
25:45 Jalen Duren's Contract & Weight Clauses
28:29 Giannis Meets the Miami Iguanas
30:19 Kawhi Shuts Down Questions at Media Day
33:03 Haliburton & Kyrie Are Back
36:06 Steph's Blurry Vision: The Rooter to the Tooter
39:25 Football Audio: Penix's "Pause" & Iowa's Call
41:43 College Football Picks: The Costanza Method
45:25 USC, Oregon & the Big Buyout Club
51:28 Miami at Clemson Pick
54:37 Big Shot of the Week
56:16 Healthcare & Robert's Surprise SureCo Plug
59:27 Game: Preseason Prediction Fails
More from Big Shot Bob Pod with Robert Horry
NBA SEASON IS BACK!!! And the crew is... mostly back. Harp phones in from the casino floor at Harrah's Cherokee Valley River in Murphy, North Carolina, Robert Horry is squeezing us in before a flight, and Rob Jenners is just glad real basketball tips off tonight.
Episode 280, and B-Dawg is somewhere out on the ocean on a Carnival cruise, so it's Robert Horry and Rob Jenners holding it down. Bob's calling in from Vegas, where he's working the Lakers preseason game for season ticket holders. That gets the guys talking about the new ownership, what it means to be a Lakers legend, and why Bob respects teams like the Rockets that keep bringing back the older guys who never saw the big money. (Also: Bob is never getting on a cruise ship. Jaws, the Titanic, the Poop Cruise and a 6'2" shower for a 6'9" man. Case closed.)
Friday Shoot Around. Harp is somewhere recovering from a week of NLDS parties, so it's Big Shot Bob and Rob. Rob opens by telling Bob he never has to apologize for springing Allie Clifton on him Tuesday, and then it's straight into the story everybody kept asking about: Gregg Popovich marrying Mary Beth Budenholzer. Bob knows her personally, and his take is simple. Love is love, Pop needs somebody right now, and if anyone deserves a roast it's Bud.
Harp is across the street working the Braves-Dodgers NLDS game, so it's Big Shot Bob and Rob this week. Rob had a surprise sitting in the waiting room, though. Allie Clifton jumps on in the middle of her walk to talk WNBA playoffs: the Dream and Angel Reese, Becky Hammon's "play like ass and only lose by 10" speech, and who actually got her MVP vote. Then she reminds Bob he never won Defensive Player of the Year, and the Ohio State vs. Alabama trash talk starts.
Syracuse coach Fran Brown got in a ref's face and gave him the flinch, like he was about to swing. The ref didn't move. He just threw the flag. So on this week's Shoot Around, Robert Horry, Rob Jenners and Brandon "Harp" Harper go through the biggest loser moves they've seen from a coach, and Robert tells two stories we'd never heard: why he told his high school coach there was no way he was visiting Bobby Knight at Indiana, and the time Gene Keady cut him and Grant Hill from a team so he could keep a roster full of Big Ten players.