Nothing Personal with David Samson

Author and sports writer Dan Shaughnessy joins Nothing Personal for a Samson Sit-Down. Dan’s newest book ‘Wish It Lasted Forever’ chronicles the Larry Bird era of the Boston Celtics. We talk the Celtics, Larry Bird, Celtics-Lakers rivalry, best stories from the Bird era, and more!

You can buy Dan's new book here: https://www.amazon.com/Wish-Lasted-Forever-Larry-Celtics/dp/1982169974/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=larry+bird+wish+it&qid=1637278813&sr=8-1

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Today’s word of the day is ‘West Palm Beach’ as in area of south Florida as in the home of the Houston Astros Spring Training facility as in Justin Verlander has signed a 1-year, $25M deal with the Astros with a $25M player-option. WHAT?! Verlander will be 39 years old; Verlander has not pitched since ONE GAME in July, 2020. Did I miss something? (11:45) The MLB owners meetings in Chicago have been taking place. What goes on at these meetings? Are they just a big snooze fest? The Tampa Bay Rays are still trying. Trying their best to get the two city path finished. Why is the Montreal/Tampa idea still happening? (32:20) Review: Titane. (35:10) The Fenway Sports Group is ready to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins. What is FSG? John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox, is a large-market hawk. FSG owns the Red Sox, Liverpool FC, Roush Racing, and NESN. (39:55) NPPOD. (44:10) Chinese Peng Shuai is missing in China. Technically, Chinese authorities say she is not missing, but she hasn’t been seen. What is happening here?

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Today’s word of the day is ‘desperation’ as in rash or extreme behavior as Arte Moreno is throwing money at anything because he’s desperate. The Los Angeles Angels gave Noah Syndergaard a $21.5M deal. Thor has threw 26 pitches last year! That’s it. Was it Ohtani’s comments? Was it making one postseason game with Trout? (10:05) The Toronto Blue Jays paid big money for Jose Berrios. A 7-year, $131M deal. That’s a lot of money, but the Blue Jays are trying to separate themselves in the AL East. (20:05) The Ben Simmons saga with the Philadelphia 76ers has gotten to the point where we have no idea what will happen. Simmons hasn’t played, Simmons is claiming mental health, Simmons is being fined by the team, Simmons is mad about the fines. Where is the truth in all this? (30:55) Review: Shang-Chi & The Legend of the 10 Rings. (35:50) So You Wanna Talk To Samson!? Someone asked me about the Green Bay Packers sale. They wanted to know if they should buy some stock! Let’s own a team! (44:45) NPPOD.

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Today’s word of the day is ‘82’ as in Happy 82nd Birthday to my dad. This is the first one without him, and I’m not sure how to feel. (3:00) The Minnesota Timberwolves were fined $250K. Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore held a team dinner and that broke some rules. Let’s explain why this simple mistake is part of the problem. (15:50) The New York Mets have offered Billy Eppler its GM job. Who is Eppler? Where did he come from? Did Steve Cohen panic? (22:30) So what about Billy Eppler’s old team? The Los Angeles Angels have a problem again because Shohei Ohtani is tired of losing. Uh oh. Mike Trout chose to stay in the mess. Ohtani shouldn’t have too. (30:15) Review: Love Hard (34:15) The Cleveland Guardians are a step closer to being complete. But the whole lead up has been a mess. Now the owner wants to sell part of the team, the store wasn’t ready to sell merchandise, but at least the settlement was reached for the team name. (45:30) NPPOD.

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Today’s word of the day is ‘justification’ as in justified as in Jon Gurden is suing the NFL after being fired by the Las Vegas Raiders for emails that were leaked. The statement released by Gruden’s attorney alleges that there was no explanation or justification for why Gruden’s emails were the only of the 650,000 emails leaked. Did we think this was going to happen? Nope. Is it a major surprise? Yup. Let’s talk about what happens next. (18:45) Stan Kroenke is the owner of the Los Angeles Rams and he’s going to need to open up his check book for St. Louis. He offered $100M to settle. They said no. What about $150M? No. What about $200M? Maybe. (29:15) Review: Red Notice. (31:45) The Detroit Tigers have landed Eduardo Rodriguez on a 5-year, $77M deal. The Boston Red Sox offered him the qualifying offer and he turned it down. Was this a mistake by the Red Sox? (38:40) Why would players sign before a lockout? Are we going to see the run of shortstops sign big deals in the next few weeks? The CBA is about to expire! (44:15) NPPOD (45:50) Rookie of the Year picks

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Today’s word of the day is ‘WAR’ as in what is it good for? As in Wins Above Replacement as in the what in the world is MLB trying to say by recommending that arbitration prices be set from a players WAR on fangraphs. (26:55) Review: No Time to Die. (33:14) What is going on with the New York Knicks? After a week they were the talk of the town. First place in the eastern conference. Now? They can’t win at The Garden! Tom Thibodeau actually benched his entire starting unit against the Bucks in the 4th quarter. It’s what Thibodeau said after the game that we need to discuss. (40:50) NPPOD. (43:20) More and more details have been released in the Henry Ruggs case. Yesterday his lawyer tried to blame first responders for not getting to the scene quick enough. It’s such a BS claim, it’s a shame, and it just adds to more of the tragedy this was.

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Happy Veteran’s Day. Every day we should be thinking about them. Every day we should be supporting them. Not just on Veteran’s Day.

Today’s word of the day is ‘rotten eggs’ as in the Easter Bunny delivering rotten eggs as in what in the world has Scott Boras said now. Boras held his media scrum at the MLB Winter Meetings and he felt like giving Nothing Personal quotes. He talked tanking, World Series tanking, tanking for draft picks, tanking and trading, tanking tanking tanking. Perfect. (25:20) Andrew Heaney is the biggest move being made so far at the Winter Meetings. The Dodgers gave him $8.5M… what? Asked the Yankees how worked out. (30:15) Review: Coming Home. (32:40) Let’s discuss the Dalvin Cook situation. There are two sides of this story… leaks are happening… rumors are swirling. What should the Vikings do? (42:35) NPPOD. (44:50) Let’s end today talking about Boras again. We have to. He had some things to say about JD Martinez and the Boston Red Sox. 

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Today’s word of the day is ‘reluctance’ as in the New York Mets still have no president of baseball ops, they still have no GM, but Sandy Alderson knows why… family reasons or the ‘reticence’ to work on the big stage of New York City. I mean… what are we doing? (11:15) The Green Bay Packers were fined $300K, Aaron Rodgers and Allen Lazard were fined $15K each. The NFL investigated the Packers and finally had to admit they broke COVID protocols. Interesting. The NFL said it was over a Halloween party, but Twitter investigators saw more and more instances of Rodgers breaking protocols. (17:15) Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver is under investigation for workplace misconduct and his wife has his back. Penny Sarver has decided to text employees, which they claim to have taken as threats. This is exactly what Robert Sarver does not need. (29:55) Review: Fitch. (32:10) NPPOD. (33:15) The Oakland Athletics are having a fire sale right now. GM David Forst said the Athletics are cash-strapped and need to cut payroll. Fans are not going to be happy about this. (40:15) MLB announced finalists for the awards. Let’s take a look at the awards and let’s tell some stories.

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Today’s word of the day is ‘resources’ as in the Las Vegas Raiders are a walking Human Resources violation as in the Raiders resources are not in a great place right now. We know about Jon Gruden getting fired over his emails. We know about Henry Ruggs III being released for his road accident that killed a young woman. Now the Raiders have Damon Anette who was released after a video of him making death threats with a machine gun. Disaster. (13:10) The Portland Trailblazers acknowledged that the NBA would be conducting an investigation into president of basketball ops Neil Olshey for misconduct. This is the 2nd investigation that is being conducted in the NBA for workplace misconduct. What is going on? (22:55) So You Wanna Talk To Samson!? Someone asked me about players publicly asking to stay with a team when they become a free agent. They wanted to know if this were a positive move. (35:15) Review: Who Killed Garrett Philips. (44:15) NPPOD. 

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Today’s word of the day is ‘adrenaline’ as in running the New York City Marathon as in that’s what was done yesterday as in a runner’s high as in I normally can’t go to sleep, but last night I really couldn’t sleep. (12:00) Gold Glove winners were announced by MLB. Did you see it? Probably not because MLB decided Sunday night during NFL game was the best time for it. Just baseball being baseball. (16:20) MLB qualifying offers are out there. The list is full of some premier talents like Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, Jon Gray, Alex Wood, Noah Syndergaard, Marcus Semien, and Carlos Correa. (28:20) Review: Superstar. (30:55) Carlos Correa was offered a deal by the Houston Astros. It was a 5-year, $160M deal. Is this something that Correa would accept? No chance. (38:20) NPPOD. (40:15) Aaron Rodgers went on the Pat McAfee show and expressed his feelings. Aaron Rodgers said some things that just didn’t make a whole lot of sense. The Packers looked bad news bears against the Chiefs with Jordan Love at QB. Now what?

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