July 3, 2025 • 40 mins
Jason Fitz and Buck Reising (in for Jonas and LaVar) open hour 1 of the show with their thoughts and reactions to the Knicks hiring Mike Brown as their next head coach. Do they see him as an upgrade over Tom Thibodeau? Then they get into the Lakers signing DeAndre Ayton... how will he fit with the existing pieces? Plus, why fireworks are overrated!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, thanks for listening to the Two Pros and a
Cup of Joe Podcast with LaVar Arrington, Brady Quinn, and
myself Jonas Knox. Make sure you catch us live weekdays
six to nine am Eastern Time three to six am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. You can find your local
station for the Two Pros and a Cup of Joe
show over at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us
(00:22):
live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Give this you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I have at times been lightly accused by Buck Rising
being anti Nicks. I've been lightly accused at times of
maybe finding too much negative around positive for the Knicks.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
So I say that knowing full well that this doesn't
sound very pro.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
But I'm just wondering, after all the weight, after all
the time, after sitting around for weeks wondering.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Who the head coach would be, we really feeling.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
A static over Mike Brown's fucking fits hanging out with
the on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
It's just coming straight out in New York.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
As we start on a third of July edition, He's
Buck Rising, I'm Jason Fitz. He's smiling at me as
I even started this because all al acquies, you know,
the nixt law, they win in the second round and
they change the name of streets and they parade, and
I and Bucket and I were hanging out at the
time and we were on radio, and I said, I
just don't get it.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
They don't raise banners for second round wins.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
And you know, it felt looking back at it felt
like maybe I was a little harsh for the Knicks
against the Knicks. So buck I've been, you know, sitting
here trying to figure out am I polishing a pig
or am I doing the opposite? Here, Like after weeks
of wondering who the next head coach would be, Mike
Brown is the next sid coach. And that's fine, that's fine,
But it's just fine, right Like, you're not doing cartwheels
(01:57):
in the street. If you're a Knicks fan today, are you?
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Look at you? I imagine that the New York radio audience.
Speaker 6 (02:05):
Is waking up to enjoy potentially a holiday for some,
potentially a drive to work for others, and they're thinking, Okay,
I'm going to get to hear about my new head
coach on Fox Sports Radio, and then they're greeted with
that smug. I can hear even if I wasn't looking
at you on FaceTime, you in Connecticut and me and
(02:26):
Nashville today, I could hear the smugness in your tone.
I could hear the smile on your face knowing that
you got to wake up and bother the Knicks fans.
Here's the thing, though Mike Brown may be too good
for the Knicks, based on the way that the Knicks
have gone about this thing. Uh, it's it has to
(02:46):
be irritating. And we've talked about this fitci. I'm a
Pacers fan, all right, So there's no love loss between
me and the New York market and my sports fandom.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
I am not in a position to throw rocks from
a glass house.
Speaker 6 (02:58):
Because I would argue that the Indiana Pacers have one
of the worst ownership groups in the league, and that's
just because they're cheap, not just because they're incompetent. But
to fire Tom Thibodeau the way that they did, and
I I couldn't make it make sense. I could make
it make sense because I understand who that coach is.
I have seen situations in covering professional sports teams for
(03:21):
my entire career.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
You doing the same.
Speaker 6 (03:24):
We have both seen situations where you think a coach
has a ceiling and though they may have, you know,
excelled in a certain year and been successful over a
period of time, and in the case of Tibbs it
was five years in New York, you might understand, Okay,
there's more that this thing has to give, but you
have to have a plan. You have to have a
(03:46):
plan to be able to maximize this thing, especially when
you are dealing with something as fragile as the New
York sports fan psyche. And I cannot imagine that news
broke in the middle of my local show here in
Nashville yesterday was probably sometime during the eleven o'clock Central hour,
and I just made a face like I smelled something bad,
and then immediately realized, God, it must be so easy
(04:08):
to do New York's sports talk radio today because all
you have to do sit back, open up the phone lines,
and let people vent because New York cannot be happy.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
Not with Mike Brown. Mike Brown, to your point.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
Is fine, but with their organization for wasting this much
time firing a successful coach just to turn around and
hire somebody who is fine.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
It for me, the big kick in the no no
places out of this is that frankly, what we all
want is hope when your team gets eliminated and it
doesn't end in a championship. As a fan of a
team that stinks, what I want is I want to
have a little bit of hope going into next season.
And it's hard for me to find just cratuitous, overflowing
(04:51):
hope for Mike Brown.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Not because he's not good.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
I mean, obviously he's been a Coach of the Year twice, right,
But in the NBA that feels like that's a common thing.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
I don't know why.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
It feels like you can be Coach of the Year
one year and you're just you're on the trash curb
the next month and it doesn't That's.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Kind of the thing in the NFL too.
Speaker 6 (05:07):
I don't know, if you've looked at the latest Coach
of the year, what happens to them after the fact?
Speaker 5 (05:11):
Shot out Brian day Boll, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
That you aren't wrong, and it's but there's this moment
for me where you got to have a plan and
this is why.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
You cannot react emotionally.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
And the hardest part of all of this is that
at the end of the season when you lose in
the playoffs, but it was a great run. How do
you compartmentalize all of that? And I don't have the
answer for this, right Like I honestly don't have the
answer of how you sit back and you make sure
that you're reacting logically and not emotionally when frankly, you
(05:41):
own these teams and you become so emotionally invested. But
this is the problem with an emotional rejerk, knee jerk reaction,
because the minute you make that if you're firing your
coach without a clear, succinct plan on how you're going
to bring in somebody that's better, and you just can't
tell me that that was this Like they've been denied
too many interviews from other two and from other people.
(06:01):
They just couldn't get any interest anywhere. And I don't
understand how they didn't organizationally know that. That's the fatal
flaw on the hire to me is that you had
to know you've got your own people.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Your own channels that you can work, your own phones
that you can work. You've got to have.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
A better idea the minute you fired Tims on exactly
who you can talk to and who's interested. You don't
wait a month and then give everybody Mike Brown, because
he's the only person you could even talk to, the
only person you talk to twice. Like, all of this
just feels like settling buck. And that's that's a loss
from the minute it.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
Starts, and it's it's compounded because of what you just said.
Who they hired to be this franchise as president. Are
you're familiar with Leon Rose?
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (06:44):
Leon Rose, for people who don't know, is a former
sports agent.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
He worked for a.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
Behemoth called CIA Creative Artist Agency.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
If you don't know what CIA is in.
Speaker 6 (06:53):
The general public, they basically run your sports and entertainment world.
If you see Peyton Manning, Chick fil A, and Coca
Cola all in a Super Bowl commercial together, although I
suppose that would be conflicting brands, even if even so,
you understand that those brands and those individuals are all represented.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
By CIA, and CIA put.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
Together your Super Bowl commercials, right, This is what Leon Rose.
Leon Rose was hired as somebody who should have the
inside track on these things, right, who should be able
to maximize those connections, who should be able to take
advantage of industry connections to make sure, all right, if
we make a move like firing a coach who we
feel like didn't have quite enough, even though he got
(07:34):
us to our first conference finals for the first time
in twenty five damn years.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
I was six years old the.
Speaker 6 (07:41):
Last time the New York Knicks played in an Eastern
Conference finals. Fits okay, Not in my cognizance sports lifetime
have the Knicks mattered as much as they did in
this most recent postseason. And like I said, that's fine,
if you have a plan, you hire Leon Rose, who's
been in this position for several years now, to have
(08:02):
a plan. And the fact that they still couldn't get
it right and still got turned down interview after interview,
and still got blocked for the ability to interview other teams,
candidates and things like that, just to end up with
Mike Brown. That has to be the most disheartening part
of this. You thought that you were in a position
and had the right people in place to be able
(08:22):
to take advantage of a window like this, and now
you're looking around shrugging your shoulders. And again I want
to reiterate, it's not to me about Mike Brown.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
Mike Brown is a fine.
Speaker 6 (08:34):
Basketball coach, he's a completely competent professional NBA basketball coach.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
Nobody would dispute this.
Speaker 6 (08:40):
And by the way, he's somebody who's familiar with pressure,
though this is a different kind of pressure that he
is getting ready to step into because immediately, I don't know,
and you might be able to tell me, or hell,
I know, we don't you and I don't typically do
phone calls, but maybe we do this morning on Fox
Sports Radio eight seven seven nine nine six sixty three
sixty nine. It's eight seven seven nine nine six sixty
(09:02):
three sixty nine. If you want a way in on
the situation with the New York Knicks hiring Mike Brown.
By the way, not yet official, so there's still time
for him to look around and be like, I don't.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
Know about all this.
Speaker 6 (09:15):
This feels different because immediately fits what happens. He is
walking into a job where his entire fan base is
already knives out.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
He gets no grace period.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
He is walking in to an absolute buzzsaw.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
He's walking into a situation that the last guy got
fired for not winning a championship. I mean, there's just.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
No the last guy got fired for not making it
to the NBA Finals. We'll say it at least that
for a team that hasn't made it to the NBA
Finals in a very long time. So what what you
immediately find out is that, Okay, you're coming in for
the expectators better be better than Tibbs. Right, you got
to be better than Tibbs for all of this to matter.
And if you're the Knicks, you were sitting right on
(09:55):
the precipice. It feels like of you know, you've got
something that is working for Whenever a new coach comes in,
book the other part of it, and you've lived through,
You've worked through multiple coaching changes in the NFL level,
working around the Titans is what's the first thing.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
A new coach does when they come in in any sport.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
They bring in their guys, right, Like they start to
figure out how to If I'm gonna run a bakery,
then I want to hire chefs that I know, And
I think that's pretty common in most businesses. Like if
I'm gonna work in radio, I'm gonna work with people
I like in people I know. If if somebody works
at a stockbrokers firm and they change firms, what's the
first thing that they do They try and bring all
of their usual team and their assistants and their junior
(10:32):
brokers over with them, because you want to work with people,
you know, this is a business.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
One oh one.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Well, now Mike Brown, who again was hired because Tibbs
apparently just wasn't good enough because he didn't go to
the NBA Finals, I'm still stunned by the firing. If
you're Mike Brown, you're coming into a situation where you
want to bring in your own which is gonna be
a little of an adjustment, but you don't.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Have an adjustment period.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Like all of this just feels chaotic to me, and
everything since TIB's got fired feels as you know, frantic,
as the pace that he plays with.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Right, It's just it all.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Feels like it's just rolled downhill faster than the Knicks
organization was prepared for. And I love your Leon rose
Point because we saw Rich Paul in the news this week.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
We saw everybody.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Talking about Rich Paul making a phone call to the
Sun's owner about trying to maneuver the draft, and people
were freaking out like this whole thing's rigged. No, that's
what agents do, Like, that's what the best agents do,
is they're constantly on the phones, and they're constantly trying
to work out to get.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Their guys where they want their guys or girls to be.
Like this is one O one.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I'm a little stunned that between the value the money
of James Dolan, the reputation of the Knicks, between Leon
Rose and the connections that he has, when you just
look at everything, the Knicks shouldn't be the guy stuck
at the party just sort of settling for whoever's there
at three am.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
And that just that feels like what's happened.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
It feels like the Knicks have looked around and said,
you know what, at the beginning of the night, we
weren't really all that into Mike Brown. But they're playing
closing time. It's three in the morning.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Gotta do something.
Speaker 6 (12:00):
Well this one, God, that's so relatable.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
One of us list. In Nashville, the bars are at
least opened until three am.
Speaker 6 (12:14):
Oh well, you know, we try, we try to get
home anymore by two am, Fitzy, just for the sake
of I'm in my thirties now I.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Need my beauty sleep.
Speaker 6 (12:22):
But damn, damn if that one didn't hit home a
little harder here recently. But I sympathize, I really do,
and I'm rare for me to have pity on New
York sports fans, but like today has to be so
disappointing because you're riding that high of what they were
able to accomplish, and you were very dismissive of them,
(12:42):
And I told you that you were very dismissive of
them when they beat the Celtics and a Celtics team
that was on literally one bad leg with an injured
superstar in Jason Tatum and a coach who I feel
is completely incompetent in Joe Missoula. For as bad as
the strategy and the lack of adjustment in that postseason
series was, but like they they felt like they had momentum,
(13:04):
did they not? That's the most That's the hardest thing
to quantify or or to wrap your hands around momentum, right,
But it's something that you can look at be like,
all right, the Knicks have an infrastructure, They have a
roster that you think is going to be able to
at least compete at a reasonably high level in an
East that's wide open. I mean, look, when mentioning Boston,
(13:24):
they're done for the year. They just blew it up.
If you're not paying attention to the NBA free agency
period and the trades that have taken place in the
last couple of weeks. Indiana is going to be I
think a non factor in the East next year because
of the situation with Tyrese Haliburt and they let Miles
Turner go to the Bucks.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
That's fine.
Speaker 6 (13:42):
Cleveland's looking around and be like, hey, are we going
to win the East by default? Just because we are
returning as many good players as we as anybody at
this point in time, And we just got hurt in
the first round of the postseason or leading into the postseason,
so we lost steam as a team that looked like
an absolute wagon for the majority of the regular season.
The opportunity was there for the Knicks to just reach
(14:04):
out and take it, and instead the Knicks fans just
have to be throwing their hands up in the air,
be like, what the hell, man, come on, just let
us enjoy this for a period of time.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
At least, let me.
Speaker 6 (14:15):
Have an off season of hope nobody loses the off season.
That's the beauty of the off season. We're in the
middle of the NFL offseason right now, not a single
fan base, even Browns fans whose management seems to be
completely incompetent top to bottom with their quarterback strategy and things.
Speaker 5 (14:30):
Of that nature.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
Even Browns fans have a little bit of optimism in
the off season.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Knicks fans have to be in an unrelenting hell.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
We are just getting rolling.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
We'll take the unrelenting hell coast to coast because for
all the conversation about the.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Knicks, what do we think of the Lakers today?
Speaker 3 (14:46):
We'll get into it. It's a big day on Entreprenmo
for everybody. We're just gonna be smoking everybody. We're throwing
fireworks out.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
That's what we're doing. We're throwing fireworks out everywhere. It's
a two day takeover.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
So Buckett, I will be here today and tomorrow for
all of you. Two pros and a cup of Joe fun.
But we will get into the Lakers big.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Moves, questionable moves.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
We'll figure out what they're doing in La next these
buck Rising on Jason Fitzber Hanging out with you on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 7 (15:13):
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Would mean a lot to have you join us on
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Speaker 4 (15:19):
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Speaker 4 (15:57):
It's a third of.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
July edition of Two Pros and a Cup Joe, and
it's a Bucking Fits takeover all At the same time,
he's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz hanging out with you
as we will be all day today, all day tomorrow,
celebrating America.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
It's a good time, Buck Rising.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
We're just popping to the music here before we get
into more Lakers basketball.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
We got a lot we're going to get into this morning.
Got some steelers.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Thoughts got plenty, that's on the plate. But are you
Are you a pro fireworks guy or a profile Oh.
Speaker 6 (16:30):
You really want to start this fight in the second segment.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
I just wondered if you were like a fireworks guy.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
No, but see see what he did to me? Ian Mary.
Speaker 6 (16:37):
You're back in the studio in Los Angeles. You're running
on god knows how how few hours of sleep at
this point.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
In time, you're delirious.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
True to go against me?
Speaker 6 (16:44):
Yeah? No, no, because you you have positioned yourself right
out of the gate to put the audience against me.
Because what did you do? You said, we're here to
celebrate America. You said, you know you basically you might
as well have had the American flag tattooed onto your forehead,
which is all well and good, but you've painted yourself
into this corner as mister patriotic.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
And then you ask me how do I feel.
Speaker 6 (17:05):
About fireworks, knowing damn well that I don't want anything
to do with fireworks. I hate fireworks. I think they're
a giant paint in the ass. I think that there
is not a more overweighted, overrated way of celebrating in
this world than the shooting off of fireworks, and so
You've already put me in a position where I'm going
to come off as the bad guy and you look
(17:26):
like you look like Captain America today, I won't have it.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
It's because I am married.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
It's because I am I mean, the fireworksorks there is.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
What okay, why do you love them? Why?
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Bro? They're cool? They blow up and then they like
have super cool colors.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
Bro.
Speaker 6 (17:47):
It takes me two hours to get in a situation
for me to properly see the fireworks, especially in the city,
like I don't know what Los Angeles is. Celebration for
the Fourth of July is like all right, But in Nashville,
obviously it's not as city, but there is Lower Broadway
where they will cray them about six hundred thousand people
onto a street packed with about two hundred and fifty bars.
(18:08):
They'll have a giant concert stage at the end of
Lower Broadway right in front of the riverfront, and they
will then execute one of the largest firework displays in
the country, which is all lovely if you are somebody
who's into fireworks and country music in America and all
those other things. Of course, we are all down to celebrate.
Isn't this the two hundred and fifty years this year?
Isn't that you don't know? Look at you, miss Captain America.
(18:31):
You don't know America's birth. They eat it fits. It
is such a pain in the ass for like seven
minutes of actual payoff and then for you to have
to weasele your way out of Lower Broadway or whatever
traffic situation. You're like, it's just juice is not worth
to squeeze on the fireway.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Wow, you just hate the celebration of the fact that's
a bunch of people.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Your anger is misdirected right now.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
No, no, no, it's properly directed because the fireworks are
the source of the gathering. And then it allows me
to then hate both the fireworks and the people that
are in my way.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
You just hate beautiful stuff. Yes, I mean that is
on the road of It's see.
Speaker 6 (19:08):
It's taking my therapist thirty one years to try and
get to the root of that, Barry, and you just
did it in two seconds.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
If you know, buck Buck was so busy thinking that
I was setting them up.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
I'll be honest, I think fireworks kind of overrated.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Like I'll be honest, Like everything you just said, it's
really the sweaty crowds. Like there's just a lot of
bunch of sweating throughout the course of this, like especially
down in the South.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Where everybody's it's just hot and humid and like in fact,
and just yeah, there's a lot of that. And again
anger is misdirected. Yeah, I don't think you guys actually
hate fireworks.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
It sounds like you just hate crowds of sweaty people
and you hate the hassle of going to watch them.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
I don't hate fireworks.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
But I'll say this if I'm at like you know,
up here there's the Hartford Yardgoat, so the minor league
baseball team, great beautiful stadium, one of the best in
the country, wins a bunch of awards.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
They do firework nights all the time.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Like, if they're doing firework nights, all I'm thinking is, yeah, man,
if I right away, I can beat the traffic, Like
I'm not.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
I'm not. I'm not one to sit there and stick
around for the power.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
And then and now fireworks have gotten kind of weird,
Like I saw display I think it was last year
they started doing this whole Star Wars thing in the
middle of the fourth of July fireworks, and I'm like, what,
what why Why do I have Star Wars fireworks up.
Speaker 6 (20:17):
Here with like the drones because we do the drone
the drones in the middle of the fireworks too, which by.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
The way, is kind of cool. Listen.
Speaker 6 (20:23):
I think I think Ian and Mary have identified the
root clause of our issue, which is we are we
are getting old fits and we don't like crowds. No.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I will say though, that the the drone light shows
are pretty cool though, and I would take those over
five over fireworks. Let me ask you this, buck, if
I had on Lower Broad, all right, I had a
a driver that was going to take you down to
the Lower Broad for.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
A rooftop area, I have one of them.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
You have a sectioned off commanda, right, so I forgot
you got your business card, you got a sectioned off cammanda.
You and tend of your friends. You don't have to
worry about anybody else's buck crack sweat Like. You get
all of the space that you possibly want on the rooftop.
You're gonna have to hang out for a couple hours afterwards,
because you know the crowd's got to disperse.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
You've got sort of a private watching area on a rooftop.
Would you would you go, oh.
Speaker 6 (21:17):
Yeah, no, as long as I can have exclusivity, then yeah,
I just.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
I don't it's not comped. No, it's not comped. It's reasonable.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
No, that's fine.
Speaker 6 (21:25):
I'm at a point in my life where I will
pay to not be inconvenienced. Like, I don't care. Money
is not an object. Speak give me. Give me a
private space, or at least a space that's sectioned off
so I can take these things. And I have no
issue being unrelatable. This has not been a problem for
me ever in my life. Nor elitist, no, nor a snob,
no matter what you lobb at me today, I'm good
(21:48):
with it because I do not want to be inconvenienced
by you.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Yeah, this is He's buck Rising. By the way, I'm
Jason Vitz.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Good morning.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
This is I threw us all under the bush.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
We got We'll talk plenty of hot talk getting contests
tomorrow too, because I have more experience.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
See, you know that's nasty. I need to hate that. Okay.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
I was the sideline reporter on it for three years
for ESPN. I'm telling you, whatever you think it is,
it's worse. That's just a tease for tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Mary.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
You don't understand the noises he was making to describe
it on the Local show. He came on the Local
Show yesterday and I'm pretty sure it's it's not safe
for work. I think we had to scrub the entire thing.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
So well it is. I think you guys should hate that.
It's a fireworks.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
That's the real thing.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. We'll do that tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Before we get to the Lakers, Let's first get to
the little bit of La love.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Let's let's cue it up here. It's time for the
ti Iraq Play of the Day.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
For over forty years, Tyrack's been helping customers find the
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tire I Play of the.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Day one two pitch, strike three.
Speaker 8 (23:05):
Card is he cut him with a slider strike out
number three thousand for Clayton Kershaw history at Dodgers Stadium.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Clayton Kershaw making history.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Buck, I'll also troll the world and tell you that
I'm a lifelong diehard Dodgers.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Fan, and a lot of people don't know that.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
And by lifelong diehard, I mean since they won the
World Series last year. I never grew up with a
favorite baseball team, and I decided that last year I
really got into it, like the playoffs, first time in
my entire life.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
I am forty eight years old.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
The first time in my entire life that I ever
really got sucked into.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Major League Baseball was the playoffs last year.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Because a good friend of mine GEO, lifelong diehard Dodgers fan,
and there's a little tiny dive bar in Connecticut.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
Where he liked to watch all the games. So I
would like we would just go to this dive.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Bar and sit there and just watching his sheer, just
absolute joy. I decided, if I'm going to pick a
baseball team, at least until you know, Vegas gets one,
if I'm going to pick a baseball team, I might
as well pick the best baseball team possible. So as
a lifelong diehard Dodgers fan of like six months, I
appreciated Clinton Kershaw's a big moment last night.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
So it's a big moment for me, he's a fan.
Speaker 6 (24:17):
If you were a lifelong Dodgers fan, then you would
recognize the opportunity to pay tribute to AM five seventy
Dodgers Radio. As Ian just gently reminded us, bad job
out of you fits courtesy of the calling.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Look who's taking out the producers and the first and everybody.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
You feel about that crew? I don't feel about that.
Now they're on my side.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Oh, this is what we're gonna do. I'll take it.
I'll take the bullet. I should have whispered it in
his ear while he the play was going on.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Tell me, Ian, did you at any point actually tell
me where the call had come from?
Speaker 5 (24:51):
Noah, Noah, I didn't.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
Yeah, that's a he's off the hook. There's no Iron team,
but there's an Emmy dammit. All right, I'm just letting
you know.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
The worst I am the wor like we are not
off to a good start to being lovable and likable
as we usually are when we hang out. While while
we're in the spirit of that, By the way, Lakers
DeAndre Ayton, I mean, so it's funny to me, Buck
because for anyone that didn't see this, Lakers signed DeAndre
eight into a two year deal, and this is after
Lebron opted in on his contract. It should be noted
(25:22):
opting in on his contract doesn't mean that he's.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
Necessarily going to stay a Laker.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
It just means that he's going to get his fifty
something million dollars over the course of this year, no
matter what, because that's the way contracts work. So in
the NBA, everything is fully guaranteed.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
So once he.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Opted in, what he really did was assured himself of
the money that he was going to get. And I
just I struggle with this one because what we keep
hearing from different Sometimes we hear Lebron's happy, and sometimes
we hear Lebron's not happy, and sometimes we hear Lebron
just wants to win a championship. Well, like, I don't know,
can you really have your cake and eat it too,
Because if you genuinely, if the only thing in the
(25:57):
world that Lebron cared about was getting a champion ship
this year, I would argue he didn't have to opt in.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
He could have put himself out on the street and
he could have taken whatever.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
I mean, not that anybody wants to play for less
than their worse, But you don't get to tell.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
Me that you did. The most important thing is I
want to be a champion.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Now, the most important thing was you want to be
a champion and get paid, right like, Because frankly, he
could take the mid level exception anywhere he wanted and
go play somewhere if he really just he could go
play for pennies on the dollar and just try and
win a chip. But that's not what happens. So now
you have a very highly paid Lebron around the Lakers.
Seemed that he may or may not see the light
on with DeAndre Ayton and Luka Doncics together, like, it
(26:36):
feels like the Lakers are trapped in this I don't
know what we are spot where they're trying to figure
out how to build for the future while also dealing
with the drama that comes with doing that because Lebron
wants to win.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
Now, that's exactly what's happened here.
Speaker 6 (26:48):
But the confusing part of this and there's there's moves
that will make you scratch your head each year and
in any any pro sports free agency process. Right but
DeAndre Ayton he'd been on the Bucks for what now
two years, since he got traded from the Suns in
that Damian Lillard deal. He's only played ninety five games
in two years. He's not been available whatsoever, And there
(27:13):
have always been questions around, all right, how much does
he actually love this and how much is he willing
to go above and beyond? And I don't think I'm
speaking out a turn there where where a lot of
times I think people can assume too much. That's been
a part of DeAndre eighton storyline, I think since he
came out Arizona. But the difficulty in balancing this is
(27:36):
to your point about Lebron. Once an athlete wins a championship,
then their primary focus. And I don't think this is
to a man or to a woman, but the vast
majority of the time, once you win that ring, now
you're concerned about your money. Now Lebron is operating in
a different sphere than your average NBA player or NFL
(27:59):
player who might win their first championship and then is like,
all right, I've got my ring, now let me go
get my contract. Lebron is going to have to be
able to balance both here, and the Lakers are going
to have to be able to.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
Balance both here.
Speaker 6 (28:12):
But the roster building strategy does not equate to a
championship caliber roster around Lebron James. And I don't know
that you should be Should you be building this is
the more interesting question, and not that your initial question
wasn't interesting Fitzing, Oh my god, can should you be
building around Lebron James in twenty twenty five or twenty
twenty five into twenty twenty six, Like, is there still
(28:37):
a world where it makes sense with Luka Doncic on
the roster where you should be still acquiescing your personnel
decisions around Lebron James beyond the fact that Lebron clearly
has to say in what goes down there and should
be respected, his opinions should be valued and continues to
play at a high level into age forty plus. I
(28:58):
don't know that you should be deaf deferential though, as
far as your roster construction, And I don't know what
even even if you were trying to build around Luca
like that, your big ticket acquisition right now is DeAndre eight,
and that doesn't make any damn sense to me at all.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
I think the hard part is that you can't sit
in the middle of all of it and try and
figure it out. To your point, should you be building
a brown Lebron Now, No, and that this has got
to be difficult for everybody. If we're being real for
a second, it's got to be difficult for the Lakers
to look at one of, if not the depending on
where you fall on this argument, greatest NBA player of
(29:31):
all time. Fine, So I like to put everything in
shelves instead of rankings. So like the top shelf of
NBA players of all time, you walk into a bar
and you say, oh my god, I want top shelf vodka. Okay,
whatever the top shelf is of NBA players of all time.
Lebron is on that top shelf of NBA players of
all time. So now you have one of the greatest
of all time sitting on your roster. But you also
(29:53):
know that that's not sustainable. And you also know that
you have already acquired the person that is going to
be the He's star for the next generation.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
And guess what Lebron knows that too.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Like we talk a lot about Lebron in the way
he's seen and blah blah blah blah blah, but the
overall basketball and business acumen of Lebron James is fairly unquestionable, right, Like,
he looks around that locker room and realizes that he
is no longer the building block. Right he has to
look around that locker room and realize that they are
not sitting down every single day saying, well, oh my god,
(30:26):
if Lebron's not happy, we're screwed.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Like that's not that's not real.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
He has Yeah, I smart, he's a smart guy.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
He's yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
No.
Speaker 6 (30:35):
I mean the smartest people in the world that you
know can also lack self awareness. Like, I just you
are assuming something about a professional athlete, especially one who's
been at the height of his professional heights for twenty
years at this point in time. I just don't think
that's a safe assumption.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
Well and if that, my god, that makes it even
trickier for me.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
I mean, if he's walking around said he thinks he's
still like he's still the point and focus of the
franchise for the next, you know, a couple of.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
Years, then he's delusional. And I don't know what you
do with that.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
If you're the Lakers, you really can't care and like
you want to be you want to be as humane
as possible in this process, So you want to be
as deferential, to use the words you used earlier as
possible in this process to Lebron out of respect for
how much he means to the game.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
And blah blah blah blah, all these things. But also
at the end.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Of the day, like at some level, we're all numbers
on a spreadsheet, no matter where we work. Like, if
you're the Lakers and you're looking at the spreadsheet right now,
Luca is a much more important piece of the spreadsheet.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Than Lebron is, and you have to honor that if
you're the Lakers.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Now is DeAndre Ayton is suddenly gonna make the Lakers
better than Oklahoma City?
Speaker 4 (31:45):
Like that's the part of this. Like we've talked about this.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Before, but I think what gets twisted here is everybody
wants to find the one name and be like, oh man,
Katie's going here. It's gonna mean something, you know we're
gonna get We're gonna find this superstar and put him
on this team. Like, Okay, if you want to be
the best team in the West, you got to be
better than Okay see, and you got to be ten deep.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
I mean, DeAndre Ayton ain't doing that.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Like Lebron DeAndre and Luka doncis ain't doing Like sure,
you're putting yourself in a situation where the OKAC gets
riddled by injuries like Cleveland did, or take some unprecedented
step back, then maybe you've got a shot.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
But like all of these moves just.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Continue to remind me that the way that Oklahoma City
did it was right and better for the next several years,
like they they are sitting on the cusp of something
that everybody else is envy hisself and there isn't one
transaction this summer that's going to change that.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
In the West, it could have been I think for
the Lakers it could have been Miles Turner. Now I
think the Bucks surprised a lot of people by going
out and picking him up after the Indiana Pacers contend
to let him walk, which, you know, Frank.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Kicking ehaws to you though, as a Piecers fan, like
just what a good old like, you know, the horse
turned around and just back ended right into your special spot.
Speaker 6 (32:56):
Just yeah, see, that's what they are, like the Pacer Honestly,
they that ownership group is terrible. It might, honest to God,
be the worst in the NBA because they don't, they
don't get into the luxury tax, they don't maximize their
their their potential. And like this year, it seems that
they've been given an out more than any other year.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
Because Tyrese Haliburton has hurt.
Speaker 6 (33:20):
So not the we don't wen't we don't need to
sidetrack this into a PACER's conversation. But like I was
not surprised at all. And Miles Turner is not my
favorite player by any stretch of the imagination. He's been
on that roster for basically a decade, and I have
mixed feelings about it, but there's no question that he
played himself into a situation where he was a valuable
piece of a of a championship contending team. Now how
(33:43):
how even how close the Pacers actually are to okay
see when okay see is right? Because think about this, FITZI,
they just got a.
Speaker 5 (33:49):
Taste of this.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
They they're gonna keep that roster together. They're going to
find ways to continue to build on that. Okay s
He's not going anywhere. They're they're what the third youngest
team in basketball or something ridiculous. They are here to stay,
and they were just now getting their feet wet as
far as, oh, we're in a big spot here, We're
in a championship series.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
We need to be able to handle ourselves.
Speaker 6 (34:10):
And I think you even saw that in Game seven
after Halliburton went down, because it took them a while
to kind of step on the next of a team
that was, respectfully to my pacers inferior, clearly and obviously
inferior in that moment. But like for the Lakers, Lakers
fans have to be looking around and be like, we
could have done so much more after they benched Jackson
Hayes in that series against Minnesota, who had been playing
(34:31):
center for them for a period of time, and looking
around and seeing like DeAndre Ayton out there.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
I guess it's almost.
Speaker 6 (34:40):
Like the same version of a different version of the
same conversation we were having in the first segment of
the hour, which is Mike.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
Brown and the Knicks.
Speaker 6 (34:47):
Right, You're looking around and be like, yeah, Mike Brown
is a fine coach, but what could we have gotten
had we had an actual plan here?
Speaker 5 (34:53):
And I feel similarly about this Buck.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
You have said something that raises a philosophical question. We'll
get to it next. These Buck risings fits. My question
is why do.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
So many owners simply stink at their job across all sports?
We'll figure it out. Next Two Pros and Cup of Joe.
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz hanging out with you
on the third of July on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Not that you asked about my frozen grape consumption, but
chat nor.
Speaker 5 (35:31):
Your frozen watermelon consumption. But we got that anywhere.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
Frozen watermelon is a delight.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Chat Ept has changed my life in the last like
two weeks. Okay, so I'll admit that I am over obsessed.
My friends are tired of hearing about it at this point,
Like I ask everything of chat ept at this point,
like it is the way I live every I had
a very successful smart friend of mine say to me
last month, Hey, if you're not trying to use it
as a as a person to get better at everything
(35:58):
that you do, then you or not using every tool
that you have. So I really took that in my
brain right and you know that I eat pretty clean anyway,
but it is amazing. I just go into it and
I plug in the macros and I was like, this
is what I'm trying to eat today, make me meals.
Speaker 4 (36:12):
And so I actually had it make me meals. I
had it make me a shopping list.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
I told at the grocery stores I shop in and
the area I live in, and it separated the list
of where to shop to get the best prices on
what I needed.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
I told it I wanted to buy bulks so that
I got.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
The most affordable, cost effective way to eat clean under
these macros, and it built it all for me.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
And then every day, like if I miss a meal,
I just.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Go into that same chat and I'm like, hey, I
missed meal three, so now give me a different meal
using the same ingredients for meals two and.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
Four can buy so that I get the same macro.
It does everything. I don't have to think anymore. Buck like,
this is amazing. It's electric.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
It tells me what to do, and I'm so good
at just doing exactly what I'm told.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Ah, it's a delight.
Speaker 6 (36:53):
I think that if I tried that, it would then
try and talk me out of doing things like order
an eighteen dollar coffee on Uber Eats because it's the
only thing I want. I don't want it a breakfast sandwich.
I don't want you know, tater tots or something like that.
I just want my coffee. And if it cost me
eighteen dollars, then fine, It'll cost me eighteen dollars. I
don't want chat GPT to rob me of that joy.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
We are so different, like just the concept the concept.
Like I was looking at my.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Credit card transactions and there was a dash pass transaction
on there. I don't pay for dash pass at all,
and like I literally spent twenty minutes on hold with
the credit card company to contest a ten dollars dash
pass is I'm not paying ten bucks for Like I'm
not no, no, and you're out here getting eighteen dollar
coffee like I'm I'm sitting here and I'm like doing
a cost analysis of it.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
Can I make my own tea?
Speaker 3 (37:39):
And how much is when I bought my iced coffee maker,
I sat down and I did the price per cup
of a currig versus a pot versus like how much
the maker would cost versus how much how many cups.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
Of coffee I would get? Like I'm cheap.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Dude, I am to my core cheap so that I
don't have to be cheap when I don't want to
be cheap. You are out here getting eighteen dollars cups
of coffee.
Speaker 6 (38:00):
You have Chad GPT, I have a financial advisor. So
if I say, hey, I spend eighteen dollars on a
cup of coffee last month, and he said, yeah, you
probably shouldn't do that again.
Speaker 5 (38:09):
And be like, okay, that's fine.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
To be fair, if I had had any money to
have a financial advisor when I was your age, I
wouldn't have to be cheap when I'm my age. I
eventually we all pay the cost to the consequence comes
through everywhere.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
Question for you, why do owners stink? All right?
Speaker 3 (38:25):
I just want to start this conversation with you because
you mentioned the Pacers Ownership group and terrible. I just
I hear this constantly with fan bases. We talked earlier
about the Knicks and you know James Dolan and coming
around and getting Mike Brown as the head coach, and
you just look across the landscape.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
How many owners? How many fans right now?
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Do you think actually look around and say, man, I
love my favorite team's owner, they do a great job.
It just feels like there are more bad than good
owners across the landscape of sports.
Speaker 5 (38:52):
It just depends on what you mean by bad.
Speaker 6 (38:55):
Right ownership, I think is a reflection of us as fans,
Like I think I think sometimes when we get emotional
about things that our teams do, and we get irrational
about things that our teams do, I think that's the
exact same thing that happens to owners, especially these ones
in smaller markets who operate their franchises like mom and
(39:19):
pop shops that paid you know, twenty million dollars for
them back in nineteen sixty five or something like that,
but now they're billion dollar franchises and they're being run
by the same mom and pop style. So I think
it's one of those things whereas fans, we look in
the mirror, we look at them, and we see a
little bit of what they see as far as the
irrational fandom, and we're like, I don't necessarily like the
(39:41):
way that that looks, even though that's probably the behavior
that fans can identify with the most.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
It's wild to me because there's this element of I
see it all the time on like bar rescue. You'll
see somebody go in and buy a bar, and then
they'll say, well six, I've got five successful businesses. And
John Tapper will ask if you ever run a bar, No,
and you're surprised your bar is failing. I think the
same applies to sports. We'll keep breaking it down. He's
buck rising. I'm Jason fitz On, two pros and a
cup of Joe
Hey, thanks for listening to the Two Pros and a
Cup of Joe Podcast with LaVar Arrington, Brady Quinn, and
myself Jonas Knox. Make sure you catch us live weekdays
six to nine am Eastern Time three to six am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. You can find your local
station for the Two Pros and a Cup of Joe
show over at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us
(00:22):
live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Give this you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I have at times been lightly accused by Buck Rising
being anti Nicks. I've been lightly accused at times of
maybe finding too much negative around positive for the Knicks.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
So I say that knowing full well that this doesn't
sound very pro.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
But I'm just wondering, after all the weight, after all
the time, after sitting around for weeks wondering.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Who the head coach would be, we really feeling.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
A static over Mike Brown's fucking fits hanging out with
the on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
It's just coming straight out in New York.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
As we start on a third of July edition, He's
Buck Rising, I'm Jason Fitz. He's smiling at me as
I even started this because all al acquies, you know,
the nixt law, they win in the second round and
they change the name of streets and they parade, and
I and Bucket and I were hanging out at the
time and we were on radio, and I said, I
just don't get it.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
They don't raise banners for second round wins.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
And you know, it felt looking back at it felt
like maybe I was a little harsh for the Knicks
against the Knicks. So buck I've been, you know, sitting
here trying to figure out am I polishing a pig
or am I doing the opposite? Here, Like after weeks
of wondering who the next head coach would be, Mike
Brown is the next sid coach. And that's fine, that's fine,
But it's just fine, right Like, you're not doing cartwheels
(01:57):
in the street. If you're a Knicks fan today, are you?
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Look at you? I imagine that the New York radio audience.
Speaker 6 (02:05):
Is waking up to enjoy potentially a holiday for some,
potentially a drive to work for others, and they're thinking, Okay,
I'm going to get to hear about my new head
coach on Fox Sports Radio, and then they're greeted with
that smug. I can hear even if I wasn't looking
at you on FaceTime, you in Connecticut and me and
(02:26):
Nashville today, I could hear the smugness in your tone.
I could hear the smile on your face knowing that
you got to wake up and bother the Knicks fans.
Here's the thing, though Mike Brown may be too good
for the Knicks, based on the way that the Knicks
have gone about this thing. Uh, it's it has to
(02:46):
be irritating. And we've talked about this fitci. I'm a
Pacers fan, all right, So there's no love loss between
me and the New York market and my sports fandom.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
I am not in a position to throw rocks from
a glass house.
Speaker 6 (02:58):
Because I would argue that the Indiana Pacers have one
of the worst ownership groups in the league, and that's
just because they're cheap, not just because they're incompetent. But
to fire Tom Thibodeau the way that they did, and
I I couldn't make it make sense. I could make
it make sense because I understand who that coach is.
I have seen situations in covering professional sports teams for
(03:21):
my entire career.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
You doing the same.
Speaker 6 (03:24):
We have both seen situations where you think a coach
has a ceiling and though they may have, you know,
excelled in a certain year and been successful over a
period of time, and in the case of Tibbs it
was five years in New York, you might understand, Okay,
there's more that this thing has to give, but you
have to have a plan. You have to have a
(03:46):
plan to be able to maximize this thing, especially when
you are dealing with something as fragile as the New
York sports fan psyche. And I cannot imagine that news
broke in the middle of my local show here in
Nashville yesterday was probably sometime during the eleven o'clock Central hour,
and I just made a face like I smelled something bad,
and then immediately realized, God, it must be so easy
(04:08):
to do New York's sports talk radio today because all
you have to do sit back, open up the phone lines,
and let people vent because New York cannot be happy.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
Not with Mike Brown. Mike Brown, to your point.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
Is fine, but with their organization for wasting this much
time firing a successful coach just to turn around and
hire somebody who is fine.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
It for me, the big kick in the no no
places out of this is that frankly, what we all
want is hope when your team gets eliminated and it
doesn't end in a championship. As a fan of a
team that stinks, what I want is I want to
have a little bit of hope going into next season.
And it's hard for me to find just cratuitous, overflowing
(04:51):
hope for Mike Brown.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Not because he's not good.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
I mean, obviously he's been a Coach of the Year twice, right,
But in the NBA that feels like that's a common thing.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
I don't know why.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
It feels like you can be Coach of the Year
one year and you're just you're on the trash curb
the next month and it doesn't That's.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Kind of the thing in the NFL too.
Speaker 6 (05:07):
I don't know, if you've looked at the latest Coach
of the year, what happens to them after the fact?
Speaker 5 (05:11):
Shot out Brian day Boll, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
That you aren't wrong, and it's but there's this moment
for me where you got to have a plan and
this is why.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
You cannot react emotionally.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
And the hardest part of all of this is that
at the end of the season when you lose in
the playoffs, but it was a great run. How do
you compartmentalize all of that? And I don't have the
answer for this, right Like I honestly don't have the
answer of how you sit back and you make sure
that you're reacting logically and not emotionally when frankly, you
(05:41):
own these teams and you become so emotionally invested. But
this is the problem with an emotional rejerk, knee jerk reaction,
because the minute you make that if you're firing your
coach without a clear, succinct plan on how you're going
to bring in somebody that's better, and you just can't
tell me that that was this Like they've been denied
too many interviews from other two and from other people.
(06:01):
They just couldn't get any interest anywhere. And I don't
understand how they didn't organizationally know that. That's the fatal
flaw on the hire to me is that you had
to know you've got your own people.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Your own channels that you can work, your own phones
that you can work. You've got to have.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
A better idea the minute you fired Tims on exactly
who you can talk to and who's interested. You don't
wait a month and then give everybody Mike Brown, because
he's the only person you could even talk to, the
only person you talk to twice. Like, all of this
just feels like settling buck. And that's that's a loss
from the minute it.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
Starts, and it's it's compounded because of what you just said.
Who they hired to be this franchise as president. Are
you're familiar with Leon Rose?
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (06:44):
Leon Rose, for people who don't know, is a former
sports agent.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
He worked for a.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
Behemoth called CIA Creative Artist Agency.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
If you don't know what CIA is in.
Speaker 6 (06:53):
The general public, they basically run your sports and entertainment world.
If you see Peyton Manning, Chick fil A, and Coca
Cola all in a Super Bowl commercial together, although I
suppose that would be conflicting brands, even if even so,
you understand that those brands and those individuals are all represented.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
By CIA, and CIA put.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
Together your Super Bowl commercials, right, This is what Leon Rose.
Leon Rose was hired as somebody who should have the
inside track on these things, right, who should be able
to maximize those connections, who should be able to take
advantage of industry connections to make sure, all right, if
we make a move like firing a coach who we
feel like didn't have quite enough, even though he got
(07:34):
us to our first conference finals for the first time
in twenty five damn years.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
I was six years old the.
Speaker 6 (07:41):
Last time the New York Knicks played in an Eastern
Conference finals. Fits okay, Not in my cognizance sports lifetime
have the Knicks mattered as much as they did in
this most recent postseason. And like I said, that's fine,
if you have a plan, you hire Leon Rose, who's
been in this position for several years now, to have
(08:02):
a plan. And the fact that they still couldn't get
it right and still got turned down interview after interview,
and still got blocked for the ability to interview other teams,
candidates and things like that, just to end up with
Mike Brown. That has to be the most disheartening part
of this. You thought that you were in a position
and had the right people in place to be able
(08:22):
to take advantage of a window like this, and now
you're looking around shrugging your shoulders. And again I want
to reiterate, it's not to me about Mike Brown.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
Mike Brown is a fine.
Speaker 6 (08:34):
Basketball coach, he's a completely competent professional NBA basketball coach.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
Nobody would dispute this.
Speaker 6 (08:40):
And by the way, he's somebody who's familiar with pressure,
though this is a different kind of pressure that he
is getting ready to step into because immediately, I don't know,
and you might be able to tell me, or hell,
I know, we don't you and I don't typically do
phone calls, but maybe we do this morning on Fox
Sports Radio eight seven seven nine nine six sixty three
sixty nine. It's eight seven seven nine nine six sixty
(09:02):
three sixty nine. If you want a way in on
the situation with the New York Knicks hiring Mike Brown.
By the way, not yet official, so there's still time
for him to look around and be like, I don't.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
Know about all this.
Speaker 6 (09:15):
This feels different because immediately fits what happens. He is
walking into a job where his entire fan base is
already knives out.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
He gets no grace period.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
He is walking in to an absolute buzzsaw.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
He's walking into a situation that the last guy got
fired for not winning a championship. I mean, there's just.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
No the last guy got fired for not making it
to the NBA Finals. We'll say it at least that
for a team that hasn't made it to the NBA
Finals in a very long time. So what what you
immediately find out is that, Okay, you're coming in for
the expectators better be better than Tibbs. Right, you got
to be better than Tibbs for all of this to matter.
And if you're the Knicks, you were sitting right on
(09:55):
the precipice. It feels like of you know, you've got
something that is working for Whenever a new coach comes in,
book the other part of it, and you've lived through,
You've worked through multiple coaching changes in the NFL level,
working around the Titans is what's the first thing.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
A new coach does when they come in in any sport.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
They bring in their guys, right, Like they start to
figure out how to If I'm gonna run a bakery,
then I want to hire chefs that I know, And
I think that's pretty common in most businesses. Like if
I'm gonna work in radio, I'm gonna work with people
I like in people I know. If if somebody works
at a stockbrokers firm and they change firms, what's the
first thing that they do They try and bring all
of their usual team and their assistants and their junior
(10:32):
brokers over with them, because you want to work with people,
you know, this is a business.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
One oh one.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Well, now Mike Brown, who again was hired because Tibbs
apparently just wasn't good enough because he didn't go to
the NBA Finals, I'm still stunned by the firing. If
you're Mike Brown, you're coming into a situation where you
want to bring in your own which is gonna be
a little of an adjustment, but you don't.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Have an adjustment period.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Like all of this just feels chaotic to me, and
everything since TIB's got fired feels as you know, frantic,
as the pace that he plays with.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Right, It's just it all.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Feels like it's just rolled downhill faster than the Knicks
organization was prepared for. And I love your Leon rose
Point because we saw Rich Paul in the news this week.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
We saw everybody.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Talking about Rich Paul making a phone call to the
Sun's owner about trying to maneuver the draft, and people
were freaking out like this whole thing's rigged. No, that's
what agents do, Like, that's what the best agents do,
is they're constantly on the phones, and they're constantly trying
to work out to get.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Their guys where they want their guys or girls to be.
Like this is one O one.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I'm a little stunned that between the value the money
of James Dolan, the reputation of the Knicks, between Leon
Rose and the connections that he has, when you just
look at everything, the Knicks shouldn't be the guy stuck
at the party just sort of settling for whoever's there
at three am.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
And that just that feels like what's happened.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
It feels like the Knicks have looked around and said,
you know what, at the beginning of the night, we
weren't really all that into Mike Brown. But they're playing
closing time. It's three in the morning.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Gotta do something.
Speaker 6 (12:00):
Well this one, God, that's so relatable.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
One of us list. In Nashville, the bars are at
least opened until three am.
Speaker 6 (12:14):
Oh well, you know, we try, we try to get
home anymore by two am, Fitzy, just for the sake
of I'm in my thirties now I.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Need my beauty sleep.
Speaker 6 (12:22):
But damn, damn if that one didn't hit home a
little harder here recently. But I sympathize, I really do,
and I'm rare for me to have pity on New
York sports fans, but like today has to be so
disappointing because you're riding that high of what they were
able to accomplish, and you were very dismissive of them,
(12:42):
And I told you that you were very dismissive of
them when they beat the Celtics and a Celtics team
that was on literally one bad leg with an injured
superstar in Jason Tatum and a coach who I feel
is completely incompetent in Joe Missoula. For as bad as
the strategy and the lack of adjustment in that postseason
series was, but like they they felt like they had momentum,
(13:04):
did they not? That's the most That's the hardest thing
to quantify or or to wrap your hands around momentum, right,
But it's something that you can look at be like,
all right, the Knicks have an infrastructure, They have a
roster that you think is going to be able to
at least compete at a reasonably high level in an
East that's wide open. I mean, look, when mentioning Boston,
(13:24):
they're done for the year. They just blew it up.
If you're not paying attention to the NBA free agency
period and the trades that have taken place in the
last couple of weeks. Indiana is going to be I
think a non factor in the East next year because
of the situation with Tyrese Haliburt and they let Miles
Turner go to the Bucks.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
That's fine.
Speaker 6 (13:42):
Cleveland's looking around and be like, hey, are we going
to win the East by default? Just because we are
returning as many good players as we as anybody at
this point in time, And we just got hurt in
the first round of the postseason or leading into the postseason,
so we lost steam as a team that looked like
an absolute wagon for the majority of the regular season.
The opportunity was there for the Knicks to just reach
(14:04):
out and take it, and instead the Knicks fans just
have to be throwing their hands up in the air,
be like, what the hell, man, come on, just let
us enjoy this for a period of time.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
At least, let me.
Speaker 6 (14:15):
Have an off season of hope nobody loses the off season.
That's the beauty of the off season. We're in the
middle of the NFL offseason right now, not a single
fan base, even Browns fans whose management seems to be
completely incompetent top to bottom with their quarterback strategy and things.
Speaker 5 (14:30):
Of that nature.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
Even Browns fans have a little bit of optimism in
the off season.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Knicks fans have to be in an unrelenting hell.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
We are just getting rolling.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
We'll take the unrelenting hell coast to coast because for
all the conversation about the.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Knicks, what do we think of the Lakers today?
Speaker 3 (14:46):
We'll get into it. It's a big day on Entreprenmo
for everybody. We're just gonna be smoking everybody. We're throwing
fireworks out.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
That's what we're doing. We're throwing fireworks out everywhere. It's
a two day takeover.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
So Buckett, I will be here today and tomorrow for
all of you. Two pros and a cup of Joe fun.
But we will get into the Lakers big.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Moves, questionable moves.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
We'll figure out what they're doing in La next these
buck Rising on Jason Fitzber Hanging out with you on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 7 (15:13):
Hey, it's Ben, host of the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller.
Would mean a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
You're asking, what in God's name is the Fifth Hour.
Speaker 7 (15:22):
I'll tell you it's a spin off of the Ben
Maler Show, a cult hit overnights on FSR.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Why should you listen? Picture if you will a world will.
Speaker 7 (15:30):
We chat with captains of industry in media, sports, and
more every week explore some amazing.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Facts about human nature and more.
Speaker 7 (15:37):
Listen to The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio App.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
It's a third of.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
July edition of Two Pros and a Cup Joe, and
it's a Bucking Fits takeover all At the same time,
he's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz hanging out with you
as we will be all day today, all day tomorrow,
celebrating America.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
It's a good time, Buck Rising.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
We're just popping to the music here before we get
into more Lakers basketball.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
We got a lot we're going to get into this morning.
Got some steelers.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Thoughts got plenty, that's on the plate. But are you
Are you a pro fireworks guy or a profile Oh.
Speaker 6 (16:30):
You really want to start this fight in the second segment.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
I just wondered if you were like a fireworks guy.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
No, but see see what he did to me? Ian Mary.
Speaker 6 (16:37):
You're back in the studio in Los Angeles. You're running
on god knows how how few hours of sleep at
this point.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
In time, you're delirious.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
True to go against me?
Speaker 6 (16:44):
Yeah? No, no, because you you have positioned yourself right
out of the gate to put the audience against me.
Because what did you do? You said, we're here to
celebrate America. You said, you know you basically you might
as well have had the American flag tattooed onto your forehead,
which is all well and good, but you've painted yourself
into this corner as mister patriotic.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
And then you ask me how do I feel.
Speaker 6 (17:05):
About fireworks, knowing damn well that I don't want anything
to do with fireworks. I hate fireworks. I think they're
a giant paint in the ass. I think that there
is not a more overweighted, overrated way of celebrating in
this world than the shooting off of fireworks, and so
You've already put me in a position where I'm going
to come off as the bad guy and you look
(17:26):
like you look like Captain America today, I won't have it.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
It's because I am married.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
It's because I am I mean, the fireworksorks there is.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
What okay, why do you love them? Why?
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Bro? They're cool? They blow up and then they like
have super cool colors.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
Bro.
Speaker 6 (17:47):
It takes me two hours to get in a situation
for me to properly see the fireworks, especially in the city,
like I don't know what Los Angeles is. Celebration for
the Fourth of July is like all right, But in Nashville,
obviously it's not as city, but there is Lower Broadway
where they will cray them about six hundred thousand people
onto a street packed with about two hundred and fifty bars.
(18:08):
They'll have a giant concert stage at the end of
Lower Broadway right in front of the riverfront, and they
will then execute one of the largest firework displays in
the country, which is all lovely if you are somebody
who's into fireworks and country music in America and all
those other things. Of course, we are all down to celebrate.
Isn't this the two hundred and fifty years this year?
Isn't that you don't know? Look at you, miss Captain America.
(18:31):
You don't know America's birth. They eat it fits. It
is such a pain in the ass for like seven
minutes of actual payoff and then for you to have
to weasele your way out of Lower Broadway or whatever
traffic situation. You're like, it's just juice is not worth
to squeeze on the fireway.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Wow, you just hate the celebration of the fact that's
a bunch of people.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Your anger is misdirected right now.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
No, no, no, it's properly directed because the fireworks are
the source of the gathering. And then it allows me
to then hate both the fireworks and the people that
are in my way.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
You just hate beautiful stuff. Yes, I mean that is
on the road of It's see.
Speaker 6 (19:08):
It's taking my therapist thirty one years to try and
get to the root of that, Barry, and you just
did it in two seconds.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
If you know, buck Buck was so busy thinking that
I was setting them up.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
I'll be honest, I think fireworks kind of overrated.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Like I'll be honest, Like everything you just said, it's
really the sweaty crowds. Like there's just a lot of
bunch of sweating throughout the course of this, like especially
down in the South.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Where everybody's it's just hot and humid and like in fact,
and just yeah, there's a lot of that. And again
anger is misdirected. Yeah, I don't think you guys actually
hate fireworks.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
It sounds like you just hate crowds of sweaty people
and you hate the hassle of going to watch them.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
I don't hate fireworks.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
But I'll say this if I'm at like you know,
up here there's the Hartford Yardgoat, so the minor league
baseball team, great beautiful stadium, one of the best in
the country, wins a bunch of awards.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
They do firework nights all the time.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Like, if they're doing firework nights, all I'm thinking is, yeah, man,
if I right away, I can beat the traffic, Like
I'm not.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
I'm not. I'm not one to sit there and stick
around for the power.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
And then and now fireworks have gotten kind of weird,
Like I saw display I think it was last year
they started doing this whole Star Wars thing in the
middle of the fourth of July fireworks, and I'm like, what,
what why Why do I have Star Wars fireworks up.
Speaker 6 (20:17):
Here with like the drones because we do the drone
the drones in the middle of the fireworks too, which by.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
The way, is kind of cool. Listen.
Speaker 6 (20:23):
I think I think Ian and Mary have identified the
root clause of our issue, which is we are we
are getting old fits and we don't like crowds. No.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I will say though, that the the drone light shows
are pretty cool though, and I would take those over
five over fireworks. Let me ask you this, buck, if
I had on Lower Broad, all right, I had a
a driver that was going to take you down to
the Lower Broad for.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
A rooftop area, I have one of them.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
You have a sectioned off commanda, right, so I forgot
you got your business card, you got a sectioned off cammanda.
You and tend of your friends. You don't have to
worry about anybody else's buck crack sweat Like. You get
all of the space that you possibly want on the rooftop.
You're gonna have to hang out for a couple hours afterwards,
because you know the crowd's got to disperse.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
You've got sort of a private watching area on a rooftop.
Would you would you go, oh.
Speaker 6 (21:17):
Yeah, no, as long as I can have exclusivity, then yeah,
I just.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
I don't it's not comped. No, it's not comped. It's reasonable.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
No, that's fine.
Speaker 6 (21:25):
I'm at a point in my life where I will
pay to not be inconvenienced. Like, I don't care. Money
is not an object. Speak give me. Give me a
private space, or at least a space that's sectioned off
so I can take these things. And I have no
issue being unrelatable. This has not been a problem for
me ever in my life. Nor elitist, no, nor a snob,
no matter what you lobb at me today, I'm good
(21:48):
with it because I do not want to be inconvenienced
by you.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Yeah, this is He's buck Rising. By the way, I'm
Jason Vitz.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Good morning.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
This is I threw us all under the bush.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
We got We'll talk plenty of hot talk getting contests
tomorrow too, because I have more experience.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
See, you know that's nasty. I need to hate that. Okay.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
I was the sideline reporter on it for three years
for ESPN. I'm telling you, whatever you think it is,
it's worse. That's just a tease for tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Mary.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
You don't understand the noises he was making to describe
it on the Local show. He came on the Local
Show yesterday and I'm pretty sure it's it's not safe
for work. I think we had to scrub the entire thing.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
So well it is. I think you guys should hate that.
It's a fireworks.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
That's the real thing.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. We'll do that tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Before we get to the Lakers, Let's first get to
the little bit of La love.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Let's let's cue it up here. It's time for the
ti Iraq Play of the Day.
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Speaker 4 (23:03):
Day one two pitch, strike three.
Speaker 8 (23:05):
Card is he cut him with a slider strike out
number three thousand for Clayton Kershaw history at Dodgers Stadium.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Clayton Kershaw making history.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Buck, I'll also troll the world and tell you that
I'm a lifelong diehard Dodgers.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Fan, and a lot of people don't know that.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
And by lifelong diehard, I mean since they won the
World Series last year. I never grew up with a
favorite baseball team, and I decided that last year I
really got into it, like the playoffs, first time in
my entire life.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
I am forty eight years old.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
The first time in my entire life that I ever
really got sucked into.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Major League Baseball was the playoffs last year.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Because a good friend of mine GEO, lifelong diehard Dodgers fan,
and there's a little tiny dive bar in Connecticut.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
Where he liked to watch all the games. So I
would like we would just go to this dive.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Bar and sit there and just watching his sheer, just
absolute joy. I decided, if I'm going to pick a
baseball team, at least until you know, Vegas gets one,
if I'm going to pick a baseball team, I might
as well pick the best baseball team possible. So as
a lifelong diehard Dodgers fan of like six months, I
appreciated Clinton Kershaw's a big moment last night.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
So it's a big moment for me, he's a fan.
Speaker 6 (24:17):
If you were a lifelong Dodgers fan, then you would
recognize the opportunity to pay tribute to AM five seventy
Dodgers Radio. As Ian just gently reminded us, bad job
out of you fits courtesy of the calling.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Look who's taking out the producers and the first and everybody.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
You feel about that crew? I don't feel about that.
Now they're on my side.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Oh, this is what we're gonna do. I'll take it.
I'll take the bullet. I should have whispered it in
his ear while he the play was going on.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Tell me, Ian, did you at any point actually tell
me where the call had come from?
Speaker 5 (24:51):
Noah, Noah, I didn't.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
Yeah, that's a he's off the hook. There's no Iron team,
but there's an Emmy dammit. All right, I'm just letting
you know.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
The worst I am the wor like we are not
off to a good start to being lovable and likable
as we usually are when we hang out. While while
we're in the spirit of that, By the way, Lakers
DeAndre Ayton, I mean, so it's funny to me, Buck
because for anyone that didn't see this, Lakers signed DeAndre
eight into a two year deal, and this is after
Lebron opted in on his contract. It should be noted
(25:22):
opting in on his contract doesn't mean that he's.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
Necessarily going to stay a Laker.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
It just means that he's going to get his fifty
something million dollars over the course of this year, no
matter what, because that's the way contracts work. So in
the NBA, everything is fully guaranteed.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
So once he.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Opted in, what he really did was assured himself of
the money that he was going to get. And I
just I struggle with this one because what we keep
hearing from different Sometimes we hear Lebron's happy, and sometimes
we hear Lebron's not happy, and sometimes we hear Lebron
just wants to win a championship. Well, like, I don't know,
can you really have your cake and eat it too,
Because if you genuinely, if the only thing in the
(25:57):
world that Lebron cared about was getting a champion ship
this year, I would argue he didn't have to opt in.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
He could have put himself out on the street and
he could have taken whatever.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
I mean, not that anybody wants to play for less
than their worse, But you don't get to tell.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
Me that you did. The most important thing is I
want to be a champion.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Now, the most important thing was you want to be
a champion and get paid, right like, Because frankly, he
could take the mid level exception anywhere he wanted and
go play somewhere if he really just he could go
play for pennies on the dollar and just try and
win a chip. But that's not what happens. So now
you have a very highly paid Lebron around the Lakers.
Seemed that he may or may not see the light
on with DeAndre Ayton and Luka Doncics together, like, it
(26:36):
feels like the Lakers are trapped in this I don't
know what we are spot where they're trying to figure
out how to build for the future while also dealing
with the drama that comes with doing that because Lebron
wants to win.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
Now, that's exactly what's happened here.
Speaker 6 (26:48):
But the confusing part of this and there's there's moves
that will make you scratch your head each year and
in any any pro sports free agency process. Right but
DeAndre Ayton he'd been on the Bucks for what now
two years, since he got traded from the Suns in
that Damian Lillard deal. He's only played ninety five games
in two years. He's not been available whatsoever, And there
(27:13):
have always been questions around, all right, how much does
he actually love this and how much is he willing
to go above and beyond? And I don't think I'm
speaking out a turn there where where a lot of
times I think people can assume too much. That's been
a part of DeAndre eighton storyline, I think since he
came out Arizona. But the difficulty in balancing this is
(27:36):
to your point about Lebron. Once an athlete wins a championship,
then their primary focus. And I don't think this is
to a man or to a woman, but the vast
majority of the time, once you win that ring, now
you're concerned about your money. Now Lebron is operating in
a different sphere than your average NBA player or NFL
(27:59):
player who might win their first championship and then is like,
all right, I've got my ring, now let me go
get my contract. Lebron is going to have to be
able to balance both here, and the Lakers are going
to have to be able to.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
Balance both here.
Speaker 6 (28:12):
But the roster building strategy does not equate to a
championship caliber roster around Lebron James. And I don't know
that you should be Should you be building this is
the more interesting question, and not that your initial question
wasn't interesting Fitzing, Oh my god, can should you be
building around Lebron James in twenty twenty five or twenty
twenty five into twenty twenty six, Like, is there still
(28:37):
a world where it makes sense with Luka Doncic on
the roster where you should be still acquiescing your personnel
decisions around Lebron James beyond the fact that Lebron clearly
has to say in what goes down there and should
be respected, his opinions should be valued and continues to
play at a high level into age forty plus. I
(28:58):
don't know that you should be deaf deferential though, as
far as your roster construction, And I don't know what
even even if you were trying to build around Luca
like that, your big ticket acquisition right now is DeAndre eight,
and that doesn't make any damn sense to me at all.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
I think the hard part is that you can't sit
in the middle of all of it and try and
figure it out. To your point, should you be building
a brown Lebron Now, No, and that this has got
to be difficult for everybody. If we're being real for
a second, it's got to be difficult for the Lakers
to look at one of, if not the depending on
where you fall on this argument, greatest NBA player of
(29:31):
all time. Fine, So I like to put everything in
shelves instead of rankings. So like the top shelf of
NBA players of all time, you walk into a bar
and you say, oh my god, I want top shelf vodka. Okay,
whatever the top shelf is of NBA players of all time.
Lebron is on that top shelf of NBA players of
all time. So now you have one of the greatest
of all time sitting on your roster. But you also
(29:53):
know that that's not sustainable. And you also know that
you have already acquired the person that is going to
be the He's star for the next generation.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
And guess what Lebron knows that too.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Like we talk a lot about Lebron in the way
he's seen and blah blah blah blah blah, but the
overall basketball and business acumen of Lebron James is fairly unquestionable, right, Like,
he looks around that locker room and realizes that he
is no longer the building block. Right he has to
look around that locker room and realize that they are
not sitting down every single day saying, well, oh my god,
(30:26):
if Lebron's not happy, we're screwed.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Like that's not that's not real.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
He has Yeah, I smart, he's a smart guy.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
He's yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
No.
Speaker 6 (30:35):
I mean the smartest people in the world that you
know can also lack self awareness. Like, I just you
are assuming something about a professional athlete, especially one who's
been at the height of his professional heights for twenty
years at this point in time. I just don't think
that's a safe assumption.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
Well and if that, my god, that makes it even
trickier for me.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
I mean, if he's walking around said he thinks he's
still like he's still the point and focus of the
franchise for the next, you know, a couple of.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
Years, then he's delusional. And I don't know what you
do with that.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
If you're the Lakers, you really can't care and like
you want to be you want to be as humane
as possible in this process, So you want to be
as deferential, to use the words you used earlier as
possible in this process to Lebron out of respect for
how much he means to the game.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
And blah blah blah blah, all these things. But also
at the end.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Of the day, like at some level, we're all numbers
on a spreadsheet, no matter where we work. Like, if
you're the Lakers and you're looking at the spreadsheet right now,
Luca is a much more important piece of the spreadsheet.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Than Lebron is, and you have to honor that if
you're the Lakers.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Now is DeAndre Ayton is suddenly gonna make the Lakers
better than Oklahoma City?
Speaker 4 (31:45):
Like that's the part of this. Like we've talked about this.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Before, but I think what gets twisted here is everybody
wants to find the one name and be like, oh man,
Katie's going here. It's gonna mean something, you know we're
gonna get We're gonna find this superstar and put him
on this team. Like, Okay, if you want to be
the best team in the West, you got to be
better than Okay see, and you got to be ten deep.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
I mean, DeAndre Ayton ain't doing that.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Like Lebron DeAndre and Luka doncis ain't doing Like sure,
you're putting yourself in a situation where the OKAC gets
riddled by injuries like Cleveland did, or take some unprecedented
step back, then maybe you've got a shot.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
But like all of these moves just.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Continue to remind me that the way that Oklahoma City
did it was right and better for the next several years,
like they they are sitting on the cusp of something
that everybody else is envy hisself and there isn't one
transaction this summer that's going to change that.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
In the West, it could have been I think for
the Lakers it could have been Miles Turner. Now I
think the Bucks surprised a lot of people by going
out and picking him up after the Indiana Pacers contend
to let him walk, which, you know, Frank.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Kicking ehaws to you though, as a Piecers fan, like
just what a good old like, you know, the horse
turned around and just back ended right into your special spot.
Speaker 6 (32:56):
Just yeah, see, that's what they are, like the Pacer Honestly,
they that ownership group is terrible. It might, honest to God,
be the worst in the NBA because they don't, they
don't get into the luxury tax, they don't maximize their
their their potential. And like this year, it seems that
they've been given an out more than any other year.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
Because Tyrese Haliburton has hurt.
Speaker 6 (33:20):
So not the we don't wen't we don't need to
sidetrack this into a PACER's conversation. But like I was
not surprised at all. And Miles Turner is not my
favorite player by any stretch of the imagination. He's been
on that roster for basically a decade, and I have
mixed feelings about it, but there's no question that he
played himself into a situation where he was a valuable
piece of a of a championship contending team. Now how
(33:43):
how even how close the Pacers actually are to okay
see when okay see is right? Because think about this, FITZI,
they just got a.
Speaker 5 (33:49):
Taste of this.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
They they're gonna keep that roster together. They're going to
find ways to continue to build on that. Okay s
He's not going anywhere. They're they're what the third youngest
team in basketball or something ridiculous. They are here to stay,
and they were just now getting their feet wet as
far as, oh, we're in a big spot here, We're
in a championship series.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
We need to be able to handle ourselves.
Speaker 6 (34:10):
And I think you even saw that in Game seven
after Halliburton went down, because it took them a while
to kind of step on the next of a team
that was, respectfully to my pacers inferior, clearly and obviously
inferior in that moment. But like for the Lakers, Lakers
fans have to be looking around and be like, we
could have done so much more after they benched Jackson
Hayes in that series against Minnesota, who had been playing
(34:31):
center for them for a period of time, and looking
around and seeing like DeAndre Ayton out there.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
I guess it's almost.
Speaker 6 (34:40):
Like the same version of a different version of the
same conversation we were having in the first segment of
the hour, which is Mike.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
Brown and the Knicks.
Speaker 6 (34:47):
Right, You're looking around and be like, yeah, Mike Brown
is a fine coach, but what could we have gotten
had we had an actual plan here?
Speaker 5 (34:53):
And I feel similarly about this Buck.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
You have said something that raises a philosophical question. We'll
get to it next. These Buck risings fits. My question
is why do.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
So many owners simply stink at their job across all sports?
We'll figure it out. Next Two Pros and Cup of Joe.
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz hanging out with you
on the third of July on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Not that you asked about my frozen grape consumption, but
chat nor.
Speaker 5 (35:31):
Your frozen watermelon consumption. But we got that anywhere.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
Frozen watermelon is a delight.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Chat Ept has changed my life in the last like
two weeks. Okay, so I'll admit that I am over obsessed.
My friends are tired of hearing about it at this point,
Like I ask everything of chat ept at this point,
like it is the way I live every I had
a very successful smart friend of mine say to me
last month, Hey, if you're not trying to use it
as a as a person to get better at everything
(35:58):
that you do, then you or not using every tool
that you have. So I really took that in my
brain right and you know that I eat pretty clean anyway,
but it is amazing. I just go into it and
I plug in the macros and I was like, this
is what I'm trying to eat today, make me meals.
Speaker 4 (36:12):
And so I actually had it make me meals. I
had it make me a shopping list.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
I told at the grocery stores I shop in and
the area I live in, and it separated the list
of where to shop to get the best prices on
what I needed.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
I told it I wanted to buy bulks so that
I got.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
The most affordable, cost effective way to eat clean under
these macros, and it built it all for me.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
And then every day, like if I miss a meal,
I just.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Go into that same chat and I'm like, hey, I
missed meal three, so now give me a different meal
using the same ingredients for meals two and.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
Four can buy so that I get the same macro.
It does everything. I don't have to think anymore. Buck like,
this is amazing. It's electric.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
It tells me what to do, and I'm so good
at just doing exactly what I'm told.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Ah, it's a delight.
Speaker 6 (36:53):
I think that if I tried that, it would then
try and talk me out of doing things like order
an eighteen dollar coffee on Uber Eats because it's the
only thing I want. I don't want it a breakfast sandwich.
I don't want you know, tater tots or something like that.
I just want my coffee. And if it cost me
eighteen dollars, then fine, It'll cost me eighteen dollars. I
don't want chat GPT to rob me of that joy.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
We are so different, like just the concept the concept.
Like I was looking at my.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Credit card transactions and there was a dash pass transaction
on there. I don't pay for dash pass at all,
and like I literally spent twenty minutes on hold with
the credit card company to contest a ten dollars dash
pass is I'm not paying ten bucks for Like I'm
not no, no, and you're out here getting eighteen dollar
coffee like I'm I'm sitting here and I'm like doing
a cost analysis of it.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
Can I make my own tea?
Speaker 3 (37:39):
And how much is when I bought my iced coffee maker,
I sat down and I did the price per cup
of a currig versus a pot versus like how much
the maker would cost versus how much how many cups.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
Of coffee I would get? Like I'm cheap.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Dude, I am to my core cheap so that I
don't have to be cheap when I don't want to
be cheap. You are out here getting eighteen dollars cups
of coffee.
Speaker 6 (38:00):
You have Chad GPT, I have a financial advisor. So
if I say, hey, I spend eighteen dollars on a
cup of coffee last month, and he said, yeah, you
probably shouldn't do that again.
Speaker 5 (38:09):
And be like, okay, that's fine.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
To be fair, if I had had any money to
have a financial advisor when I was your age, I
wouldn't have to be cheap when I'm my age. I
eventually we all pay the cost to the consequence comes
through everywhere.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
Question for you, why do owners stink? All right?
Speaker 3 (38:25):
I just want to start this conversation with you because
you mentioned the Pacers Ownership group and terrible. I just
I hear this constantly with fan bases. We talked earlier
about the Knicks and you know James Dolan and coming
around and getting Mike Brown as the head coach, and
you just look across the landscape.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
How many owners? How many fans right now?
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Do you think actually look around and say, man, I
love my favorite team's owner, they do a great job.
It just feels like there are more bad than good
owners across the landscape of sports.
Speaker 5 (38:52):
It just depends on what you mean by bad.
Speaker 6 (38:55):
Right ownership, I think is a reflection of us as fans,
Like I think I think sometimes when we get emotional
about things that our teams do, and we get irrational
about things that our teams do, I think that's the
exact same thing that happens to owners, especially these ones
in smaller markets who operate their franchises like mom and
(39:19):
pop shops that paid you know, twenty million dollars for
them back in nineteen sixty five or something like that,
but now they're billion dollar franchises and they're being run
by the same mom and pop style. So I think
it's one of those things whereas fans, we look in
the mirror, we look at them, and we see a
little bit of what they see as far as the
irrational fandom, and we're like, I don't necessarily like the
(39:41):
way that that looks, even though that's probably the behavior
that fans can identify with the most.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
It's wild to me because there's this element of I
see it all the time on like bar rescue. You'll
see somebody go in and buy a bar, and then
they'll say, well six, I've got five successful businesses. And
John Tapper will ask if you ever run a bar, No,
and you're surprised your bar is failing. I think the
same applies to sports. We'll keep breaking it down. He's
buck rising. I'm Jason fitz On, two pros and a
cup of Joe
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Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
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