It’s time once again for another all-mailbag edition of Traina Thoughts. Before we get to that, let me plug this week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina, which came out Thursday. This week’s guest is Jim Nantz, and he was excellent. We discussed Nantz’s ratings expectations for the Thanksgiving game between the Chiefs and Cowboys, Nantz’s 40th anniversary at CBS, the roles that Brent Musburger and Mike Francesa played in his career, why younger people are choosing careers in hot takes over play-by-play and much more.

Make sure you give it a listen.

O.K., time for the mailbag. Thanks as always for all the questions. We’ll start with questions that came in via Instagram.

What is Greg Olsen’s best chance at becoming the No. 1 guy soon? Amazon? –@mjacobson86

The next lead analyst to have their contract expire will be Amazon Prime’s Kirk Herbstreit, but that won’t happen until after next season. Unfortunately for Olsen, he has to sit tight for at least two more seasons before landing a No. 1 analyst job. And that would only happen if Amazon wanted to part ways with Herbstreit or if Herbstreit no longer wanted to do Thursday Night Football.

As soon as a lead analyst job opens up, Olsen will be every network’s first choice to fill it. The problem is that the people who currently hold those jobs have deals in place for many years to come unless something unexpected happens.

Who would you like to see call games for NBC assuming they get MLB rights? –@mchuck16

I’ve said this many times before, but I think the best play-by-play person today is Don Orsillo, who calls Padres games. I’d be more than happy if NBC hired him. NBC also couldn’t go wrong if it brings in Dan Schulman to be its lead MLB broadcaster.

What is your reaction to Adam Silver’s comments calling the NBA a highlight-driven league? –@itssameandyp

What do you make of Adam Silver basically telling fans to watch highlights instead of full games? –@adamdigital

I think Silver is getting unfairly bashed over these remarks because the full context was not presented. Here was his full quote.

Let’s say, though, that Silver had just said the NBA is a highlights-driven league. The essence of that statement is not completely false because of the way young people consume content. You can’t deny that there is a whole generation out there who just consumes content on their phones and aren’t trained to watch full games.

I also think it’s hard to make the regular season attractive when you have 82 games and half the league makes the playoffs. No matter how the networks try to spin things, there really isn’t such a thing as a “big game” during the regular season. Yes, late in the season, when teams are jockeying for playoff positioning, the games have extra intensity. But a regular season game in the middle of January is just a hard sell.

So I get what Silver was trying to say about the league’s success with social media and higlights.

Please s--- on the Fox scorebug some more. It looks like it’s from the ‘90s, but worse, right? – @rasonjego

This eloquent description of what I said about Fox’s new scorebug came from Monday’s Traina Thoughts.

I don’t have a sophisticated way to explain my dislike for the Fox NFL scorebug. The best way I can put it is that it just looks really stupid.

That’s just an ugly mess with so much wasted space. That thing needs to be tightened up and cleaned up.

Do you think a sports superstar will get caught up in a gambling scandal? – @amyroanne

Since you said “superstar,” I will say no. If the player is a superstar, they are making tons of money and have a slew of endorsements. They wouldn’t need to get caught up in a gambling scandal. I don’t consider what happened to Calvin Ridley as a gambling “scandal.” He wasn’t fixing games or doing anything shady. He just wanted some action. He wanted to have fun betting some parlays. That’s not a scandal to me. So, I say there’s no way a superstar gets involved in a gambling scandal.

One amazing win from betting and one bad loss you will always remember? –@drew_nature_dogs

I have a TERRIBLE memory and I’ve had a million brutal losses, so nothing stands out as the most devastating. Off the top of my head, though, I lost a prop bet on over rushing yards for a quarterback last season because he took kneel downs at the end of a game. (This was a big topic on this week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina in the “Traina Thoughts” segment with Sal Licata.)

Mt. Rushmore of wrestling finishing moves? –@neil_grewal1

When I was a kid, my favorite was Ric Flair’s figure four. I especially enjoyed it when Flair would start the move and scream, “Now we go to school!”

Obviously, the Stone Cold Stunner has to be on the list. Jake “The Snake” Roberts has to make the list for the DDT. And I’d put whatever this finishing move was that the Road Warriors would execute.

Would you and Sal ever consider hosting a live pod? – @nicholas_falco

When are we getting a live podcast taping from Maureen’s Kitchen? – @mikemarra_ny

There are no plans for a live show. I just don’t think more than five people would show up. If I hear from a ton of people that they want a live show, then I’d look into it. So for now, it’s just you two guys.

When it comes to the report on Thursday that CBS/Paramount has made a bid to buy Warner Brothers Discovery, which includes TNT and TBS, obviously, my first thoughts went to sports.

This would be waaaaay more intriguing if WBD still had the NBA, but it doesn’t. If a deal is struck, the most interesting aspect could be some MLB playoff games airing on CBS since TBS currently has those rights. The NHL would also be part of the deal. The NCAA tournament already airs on CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV, so I’m not sure how much would change there.

MLB won’t have the Mets and Yankees play on the 4th of July and Sept. 11 because MLB is completely clueless when it comes to making the schedule. You want MLB to actually think of matchups? The league didn’t even have the Yankees play on Labor Day! You cannot do a worse job of scheduling than Major League Baseball.

I appreciate you being a big fan, but the pain and suffering will continue until the Giants start Jaxson Dart.

I didn’t have to think about this for too long. The Sopranos. It’s the greatest show of all time.

Anytime Howard talks about his mother. Any time Howard picks on Baba Booey. Anything with Ronnie. Anything with Sal and Richard. Memet’s continued quest to get Gary’s job.

I couldn’t really care less about the halftime show because I hate that the performers only do about 20-30 seconds of a song and do a medley. I find that extremely frustrating. If I like a song, I want the WHOLE song. I don’t like to be teased with a quick sample. So I would pick an artist I truly dislike so I could just avoid the halftime show altogether and use that time to make my second half bets. So that would be any country music artist.

What a way to end the mailbag. I would assume if my wife were kidnapped, I would be on the phone with the police or family members to tell them what’s going on and not listening to the radio, unless I’m a complete sociopath. But I’d probably have Frank Sinatra on in the background because I’d want soothing music to calm me down.


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Traina Thoughts Mailbag: MLB on NBC, Greg Olsen, Adam Silver Controversy and More.

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