Stampler and Phil Naessens chat about the undermanned Spurs and nationally televised games

Remember those days from our innocent youth when Gregg Popovich used to sit perfectly healthy guys just for the hell of it instead of them out with a broken everything? Those were good times.

For whatever reason the Spurs always seem to sit Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker during nationally televised road games. Most folks think Pop did this to tweak his good pal David Stern, and while it's impossible to know whether that did indeed play any role, the acid test will come in the next few months and also next season since, presumably, he has no beef with new commissioner Adam Silver.

Obviously this season is somewhat of an anomaly because the Spurs have endured just a ridiculous spate of injuries, with Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green and Tiago Splitter all missing --and continuing to miss-- significant time, practically simultaneously, and Parker threatening to become "Le Contusión" himself.

Admittedly watching the Spurs the past six weeks hasn't been a picnic, so Phil asked me a couple of questions about how it feels as a Spurs fan to go into a game knowing they'll be at less than their best, about whether it bothers me on some  level when Pop rests guys who aren't hurt and whether his inclination to sit guys prompt network executives to schedule the Spurs for fewer nationally televised games than they would otherwise have.

I'm not sure if any of my answers were surprising or thoughtful or at all coherent, but I did buy a new mic the other day so at least my rambling will sound a bit clearer than in the past. Baby steps, people, baby steps.

Also, Zeb from Welcome to Loud City kicks off the show with Phil and he mainly spends his segment awkwardly trying to comfort and console Phil, who rants about his hated/beloved Knicks. Spoiler alert: Phil wants Mike Woodson and Carmelo Anthony to leave town on the first thing smoking.

After Zeb's segment, Phil welcomes Eric Stephen from True Blue LA to talk about the Dodgers, which makes sense as we're just about at the point where pitchers and catchers will trickle in to spring training. I'm a Giants fan, so I hope Eric spends the whole season trying to explain away losses despite his team's gigantic payroll.

Just click the play button here because it's not like you're going to hear a national program say anything nice about the Spurs anywhere else and you look like you could use some warm fuzzies. Check back next week for a new one! In case the player above doesn't work you can listen to the entire program from Phil's site located here.

Take a listen. His show is broadcast Monday thru Friday on Max Sports Channels, Talk Superstation, Armed Forces Radio Network , Kozmik Radio, First Online Radio and Baseball Podcasts You can download the show here, and subscribe to the show's podcast here.

As always, please feel free to share your thoughts of the show in the comments and offer feedback, good, bad or indifferent.