Mark Willard & Aaron Torres Talk Kings Of The Mountain, The JJ Redick Factor, Caitlin Clark's Notoriety, and More!!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
I mean, I'm just sitting here thinking about what makes
a star. And then the next thing I know, Aaron
Torres is sitting next to me. For what first time
since six years? Seven years, eight years? I feel like Lebron,
not six, not seven, not eight. How long has it
been since we've gotten a chance to do this? My man?

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Well?

Speaker 4 (00:26):
Well, first of all, I did fill in for you
on the night of the NFC Championship game when Dan
Campbell was melting down. Me and Kyle Rudolph had a ball. Yes,
I dude, I think we did one show together. Randomly.
I feel like there was a Sunday Night Josh Allen
game and I don't. Maybe I'm losing my mind. Maybe
the maast year. I mean, he's been playing Sunday night

(00:48):
games for a few years.

Speaker 5 (00:49):
How anyway, you.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
Let you know, speaking of Lebron, you were like Lebron
in Cleveland. You left for a few years and you
came back. I think it was on the back end
of you coming back.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I didn't I did. I didn't. I didn't sing I'm
coming home or anything like that. I just know I didn't.
I just I just I just came back. I just
turned the microphone on and came back. Uh, no fanfare
at all, but but here we are, dude, and I'm yeah,
it's great to be with you. Man.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
I'm glad you're here tonight. Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
We're broadcast alive from the tirag dot com studios. Tyrek
dot com will help you get there an unmatched election,
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buying should be. Speaking of stars, you heard Steve Disager
just say moments ago, Scottisheffler's won another golf tournament. And

(01:42):
I bet that the collective yawn that came across all
of our listeners, as.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
He said it was palpable.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
And and here's what I'm getting at, Like, I don't
mean to ask stupid questions. I get why Tiger Woods
and Scottie Scheffler are different.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
I'm not stupid. I totally understand.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
But I think this is something that keeps coming to
the forefront in our sports discussion right now, in many
different areas of our landscape. Scotty Scheffler is having the
best year right now since the heyday of tiger Woods
two thousand and nine, the last time somebody won six
times in a PGA Tour season, and there's a long

(02:27):
way to go, so stands to good reason that Scotty
is going to fly right by this. We've even had
something salacious happened. Aaron the Man got arrested on his
way to a golf tournament at one.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Point, so we've got all these things going.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
I feel like this is adjacent to the WNBA conversation
that we've been having in terms of all the WNBA
establishment being why are you suddenly paying attention to us
now now that Caitlin's here? Yep, We've been doing this
for a long time. So the question is when somebody
is fantastic at what they do and it grabs America's attention,

(03:07):
and then someone else is equally fantastic and it doesn't
grab America's tension in the same way, what's going on there?

Speaker 3 (03:16):
What's the making of a star?

Speaker 4 (03:17):
It's so no, It's so interesting because we actually did
a variation of this last night on My Saturday show,
and it's like, it feels like the WNBA is trying
so hard to shove a Leah Boston not a Leah
Asia Wilson, excuse me about our throats, And I said
it to Jason Martin. I said, listen, Tim Duncan was

(03:38):
a great player. We just didn't care about him like
we did Kobe, you know, we just didn't care about
Kareem like we did Magic. And so this is something
That's been going on for as long as I've been
a sports fan, as long as there have been sports probably,
and I knew we were gonna lead with this, and
it's just such a great question, and it's one that, like,
I don't think there's an obvious answer now. I do

(03:59):
think think that Caitlin Clark a lot like Tiger Woods,
a lot like Bryce Harper when he came up, a
lot like Lebron with that famous Sports Illustrated cover the
King and all that stuff. I think it kind of
like it's it's it feels hard to create a star
once they're already at that spot, right Tiger won all

(04:23):
those US Junior Amateurs into the US Amateurs, then all
of a sudden, by the time he got to the
PJA Tour, it was like we had known about him
for four or five years. Bryce Harper's on the cover
of Sports illustrated at sixteen Venus Williams and Serena were
playing professionally at thirteen, so by the time they blew
up at sixteen seventeen eighteen, they had kind of been
in our consciousness. But I don't really have a great answer, Willard,

(04:45):
And I'm actually curious for your perspective because I guess
I'm sitting there saying all that. But then you have
a guy like Steph Curry, who I guess he had
his moment at Davidson, but it was really not until
he was really in the NBA that he became a
bona fide dude, a guy that you cover on a
day in, day out basis. So that was like a
four minute rambling response. That isn't really an answer. But

(05:08):
I'm curious if you feel like there's something defined. Yeah,
I'm curious.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Well we can yeah, we can bet this around a
little bit. I think if it's sometimes like this. Now,
now you host a podcast, correct Aaron Tarres pod, you
own a media company, I bet you've seen this in
the podcast world.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
Sometimes it just takes off.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Sure, and and there are podcasts, and I've watched people
who have podcasts and they don't even know what's going on.
They've got the analytics page up on their pod, and
all of a sudden, it's firing through the roof like overseas,
or or it's a specific episode of the pod where
something was said, or a certain guest was there, or

(05:51):
what have you. All of these things happen and it
just takes off and you can't always really explain it.
The best way I can say it because you just asked,
is there a definition? I don't think there's one that
you can put in black and white in like seven
words or less. But here's what I would say. It's

(06:11):
no different than any television show. Remember television shows anyway,
It's no different than any television show where you're like
certain characters just kind of like they rise to the
top and they're the ones that you gravitate to and
the other ones are just supporting pieces.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
And unfortunately we take that as a slight.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
You know the WNBA right now, there are a lot
of ladies, a lot of people are taking this as
a slight. I didn't sign up to be best supporting actress.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
I'm great at what I do.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
I might even be better or certainly more experienced than
Caitlin Clark at what we do. But what is Kitlyn Clark?
What is Tiger Woods? What is Steph Curry that some
of the people around them are not is that they
are tremendous television characters, and each one of them has

(07:09):
something unique that they can outwardly, not necessarily inwardly, because
I think everybody's got something unique inwardly, but that outwardly
you can see Steph Curry. Is this on a basketball court,
this tiny little guy that with a flick of a
wrist can shoot a three from half court?

Speaker 3 (07:28):
Tiger Woods. I don't need to explain.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
This to you.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
That's different.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Caitlin Clark shoots the ball kind of almost alas Steph,
like no woman we've ever seen before. I also think
timing is a huge part of what makes someone a
television or a digital character. Those people that we're talking about,
Asia Wilson and Scottie Scheffler, unfortunately for them, and I

(07:55):
don't mean it as a slight what is it? What
is it about you where we can flip the TV
on and go, oh oh, that's different. I mean Scotty
Scheffler is classically not different. It looks exactly like every
other dude out there he's got this like unbalanced swing.

(08:16):
Oh we like, well, that's I'm sorry, it's just that's
not gonna do it for us. So to me, I
think too many people take offense to this stuff as
if our viewership and our interest is something where equal
time and equality is going to be given, and it's
just not the case. There's a reason people with the

(08:36):
last name Kardashian have gotten ratings for years.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
I don't think I need to explain that.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
One. Either you have to have something that that I
can just I can look and it pops.

Speaker 4 (08:48):
It's so true, and it's funny because I was thinking
about this even just on the car right over the
studio here, and it's like, again, there's a difference between
just being insanely talented like a Scotti Scheffler, and being
a star, being marketable, being somebody that people that that's
outside of the diehards. Right So, like in the NBA

(09:08):
right now, like Nikola Jokich is incredibly skilled, but one
he's interesting because I don't know that he wants to
be a star. But two it's like he's incredibly skilled.
But unless you're just a basketball nerd, you're just not
going out of your way to watch him, whereas it's
kind of the opposite with like a jah Morant Anthony

(09:30):
Edwards type, like and Anthony Edwards, I think is a
more evolved player, seems to be more mature. We know
that joh obviously had an injury, but even prior to that,
he obviously had his off the court things that had happened.
But it's like what you just said is so accurate
because it's like even Jahn Morant, right, never won an
NBA title, never won an MVP, but like man, when
he is on that court and and you know, it's

(09:51):
like you can't take your eyes off him. It's kind
of the same with Anthony Edwards, and it's just not
the same with other guys. And I think, you know,
it's really interesting because the WNBA seems to be the
only sport that I can think of, the only league
that I can think of where like there's an offense
to the most talented not being a star. Like you know,

(10:12):
I don't even know if there was sports talk radio
in the early two thousands or what I know there was,
but I don't I don't know if yeah, I know,
I know, I don't mean to date you there but like,
I don't know if it was like a big like
debate of like why isn't Tim Duncan crossing over into
the mainstream, And it's like some guys and some girls

(10:33):
just don't have it. Some guys like it's just it's
hard to explain. But what I think is interesting is
that the w NBA seems to be the first league
or sport or whatever that has taken an offense that
we as the general public are not interested.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
You know.

Speaker 4 (10:51):
It's like I don't I don't see like Jay Monahan
like on TV, Like I mean, if you don't appreciate
Scotti Show, don't even show up to our events if
you don't. And it's kind of what the WNBA's done
the last couple couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
You know, it's a great point. In fact, take it
over to baseball for a second. The name that was
popping in my head while you were talking was Mike Trout,
like baseball a handful of years ago before all of
his lower body injuries and may he rest in peace,
kept comparing him to Willie Mays. They're like, if this
guy does this for seventeen, eighteen, nineteen years, he's going

(11:26):
to match those numbers.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
He's got that kind of talent. And after a.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
Certain point, what did we get after a decade of
Mike Trout that worked on social media?

Speaker 3 (11:37):
Remember, I guarantee you've.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Seen the video he hit the ball over the fence
at Top Golf one time, and the stupid thing has
been replayed on social media a billion times. You know what,
I don't see him playing baseball. Why because nobody even
knows what the guy sounds like. He's never done or
said something that's interesting. Somewhere in this whole conversation is

(12:02):
probably like a negative thing to say about society, but
it's just the way we are, Like, there's gotta be
something that pops for uh, for for you to kind
of be that that TV character. And and so, yeah,
you're right. The w n b A is squawking about
it right now. I don't hear Scotty Scheffler squad. He

(12:24):
doesn't care. But then again, he's made more money in
the last seven months than the whole w NBA, uh,
you know, players Union combined, And so maybe that's why
he's like, I don't I don't have an axe to
grind here.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
It's fair now, it's it's fair. It's just it is interesting.
And I know there's plenty of time to talk WNBA.
Obviously we had fever you know, you know, Indiana, Chicago
today all that, But that that to me is is
the interesting part about, like I said, is that this
seems to be the first time that there is like
an affront to the fact that the diehards who cover it,

(12:58):
the people who have been embedded in it are you know,
and maybe there's been other examples, you know, now that
I'm thinking about it, you know, it feels like that's
how soccer fans have been is like I mean, if
you're I mean, if you don't appreciate you know, uh
whoever from whatever, I mean, you just you just don't
get sports and you we just and but it's like,
I don't know, I just I do think it is

(13:20):
a fascinating question why some people translate into the mainstream
and some people don't. Some people will taste longer, some
people never do. By the way, I think there's something
to be said about the Boston Celtics winning an NBA
title this week, Like Jason Tatum Jaylen Brown are incredibly skilled,
but there was just something missing about like that run

(13:44):
and it's like, you know, like Kyrie was more interesting
than anything going on with the Celtics. Anthony Edwards in
the playoffs was more interesting the next war. I think
even the Pacers kind of had a moment where they
were kind of interesting where it was just like Boston,
it was just what's the old saying, there's no there there,
and it's like we enjoyed it, we appreciate.

Speaker 5 (14:03):
It, but it's just it's not it. It's just not
capturing people.

Speaker 4 (14:08):
And again, I think it's just we're saying the same
thing about different athletes and different sports. But it is
interesting how some people, teams, etc. Breakthrough to the mainstream
and some just don't.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
Well I love that.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
Let's take it from the WNBA just over to the
NBA because I do think there's a conversation there with
regard to sort of how we made our way through
the NBA playoffs this year. And while Boston is fantastic, yeah,
these playoffs and maybe this is just the city I
live in, but these playoffs, I'm sorry, they felt like

(14:42):
they were missing something.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
So we can get into that.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
Coming up next, Aaron Torres is in for Ephraim Mark
Willard with you on a Sunday night. Whatever you're doing,
thank you for doing it with us. Let's go for
the ride here on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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listen live.

Speaker 5 (15:08):
Hey, it's me Rob Parker.

Speaker 6 (15:11):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
twenty two minutes of piping hot baseball talk featuring the
biggest names of newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe
in analytics or the I test, We've got all the
bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday, So do your
solfa favor and listen to Inside the Parker with Rob

(15:33):
Parker on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
Okay, let's ride.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
Mark Willard Aaron Torres is in free from tyrag dot
com Studios.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
You brought up the Celtics.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
It's obvious when you get to the end of an
NBA Finals and we're all sitting here looking at each other, like, so,
who's the MVP. That's not a good thing. David Stern
worked real long and hard to market individuals in the
NBA more so than teams. It's why the Spurs bored

(16:10):
the living hell out of us for years despite their greatness.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
No star parks, right, there's nothing.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
We can And even the ones you mentioned him, like
even the ones that were stars, they were that kind
of star, super quiet, Tim Duncan, Kawhi Leonard.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
And you know when you laugh.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
For like the first time in a decade and it
becomes something that's replayed every day in the history of
sports talk radio, it means it means you don't normally
make noise, I think, is what it means, and that's
that's not great for marketability. So so where does it
leave the NBA Because I look at that that playoff

(16:52):
and I just felt like Lebron James and Steph Curry
from a ratings perspective, from a just a driving eyeballs perspective,
we are really starting to be missed.

Speaker 4 (17:05):
So it's funny, you know, I was thinking about this,
and listen, I know, I'm the college hoops guy, so
you know, whatever. But you know those NCAA tournaments where
like you get all the great upsets in round one
and like the first two days are like off the
walls and everything's crazy. But then you look up and
it's like Florida Atlantic and Craton in the Elite eight,
and you're like, oh, like even even me Torres the

(17:29):
College Oops guys like, yeah, I I don't really know
my I don't really have much for you on Florida Atlantic.
You're gonna have to do that one. You're on your
own on that one. That's kind of how I felt
about the NBA Playoffs was like that that first like
those first few rounds, there was so much juice. Uh,
you know, Anthony Edwards kind of has his moment against Phoenix,
and then you know, we get that great Timberwolves nugget

(17:50):
series and then we just you know, by the way
the Knicks was a really cool story.

Speaker 5 (17:55):
We get seven games there.

Speaker 4 (17:58):
Uh you know, I hate say it, but Steven walking
into the garden for Game seven given a pep talk.

Speaker 5 (18:02):
You could like it, you can hate it whatever, But
like there was real juice.

Speaker 4 (18:07):
And then all of a sudden, we get to the
Conference finals and it's just like, you know, Minnesota wasn't
ready for the stage. Boston was clearly so much better
than Indiana, and then obviously in the finals, Boston was
so much better than Dallas and so I think there
certainly is something too end Listen, I don't think this

(18:28):
is a new take. I'm sure you and Epham have
talked about this throughout the playoffs, but like, I don't
think the NBA, for whatever reason, and again it goes
to the conversation we had in the first segment, is like,
for whatever reason, other guys just haven't really broken through it,
and certainly not consistently. Guys have had their moments. Yanna's

(18:49):
had that moment in twenty twenty one where we're like, Okay,
it's Giannis's time now. No, it really hasn't been, you know,
And it's just like it just feels like the NBA.
I think they have done a disservice to the league
in general, because what you said about David Stern is correct.
He built this league around stars, and they just have

(19:10):
not been able to generate that next group of guys
behind Steph and Lebron into a smaller degree. KD And
I think we really felt it in these playoffs.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
This yere Willie Well, I think feel it. You can
also hear it. This is how I can hear it.
I hear it when it sounds like after every series
sports media is begging for something to happen that hasn't
happened yet happened at the watch Denver Nuggets going to

(19:40):
round two, and we're already like, oh, the Nuggets are
probably gonna win this thing, and I think we might
have a dynasty in the making, and Nicola Jokics is
the best player on the planet. Halfway through the next series,
Minnesota is gonna win the title and Anthony Edwards is
the next Michael Jordan. Then Denver comes back and we go,

(20:01):
never mind, let's go back to what we had said
two weeks ago. Now that's true again. Then they gag
on their home floor with a big lead in Game seven. No, no, no,
we were right, Yeah, Minnesota, Minnesota is gonna win the title.
A week and a half later, Kyrie and Luca are
the greatest backcourt that the NBA has ever seen. That's

(20:28):
where we were, and I'm like, I mean, apologies for
sitting here in the Bay Area. I'm like, you, guys,
they're not even the best backcourt of the last ten years.

Speaker 3 (20:37):
So just chill, like achieve something for a second.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
And then flash forward a week later and Boston is
absolutely ripping Luca apart and now the new narrative is
the Mavericks is a franchise or at the end of
the rope, and Luca needs to find a new way
to play basketball. But we're over here left with the
Celtics and we're like, we think we know who the

(21:05):
best player is on the team, We're not totally sure,
and we're just like great team, nobody knows what to
do with it.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
And then the very next day after they win, I.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
See every debate show in America going can they be
a dynasty?

Speaker 3 (21:21):
I'm like, oh my god, are we really are we
doing that?

Speaker 2 (21:25):
You have to you have to at least win two
before you're allowed to use that word. If I were
President of sports, I'd pass that law right now.

Speaker 4 (21:33):
It's so funny. I was gonna say so two things.
First of all, my two favorite narratives from the NBA
playoffs were the I'm not saying Anthony Edwards is Michael Jordan,
but you know, and kind of to when you're president
of sports, you know you can't start doing the dynasty
talk until you have two.

Speaker 5 (21:54):
How about this, you.

Speaker 4 (21:56):
Don't get to compare any Let's get to three before
we start comparing anybody to Michael Jordan. Okay, like, at
least Lebron has this for at least Kobe got his five.
Like can Anthony Edwards maybe making NBA finals before we
start before we start putt? You know, compared to number
twenty three? So that was one of my favorite narratives.
My other favorite was like, wow, k Kyrie is just

(22:16):
such a changed man. It's like, literally a year ago
he demanded a trade when his team was in fourth
place and in position to have home court advantage and potentially,
you know, make a run in the finals playing with
his best friend. So like, can we stop with the
Kyrie is is you know, a Man of the Year?
Like can we pump the brakes on that one?

Speaker 5 (22:35):
As well?

Speaker 4 (22:35):
He's matured a little bit, Okay, whatever, So I bring
all that up to say, you're so right. It felt
everything felt so forced, and you know what's kind of crazy,
you know what. The most interesting conversations about the Celtics
were pre they might be a dynasty. The most interesting
conversations were, well, they haven't lost yet, but what if

(22:57):
they do? That was the first one, right because it
was like, well, I mean they lost the game at
home to Miami, and I mean, let me tell you know,
later on in the playoffs and it's like, never really happened. Well,
but then you know that Cleveland took a game and
you know, you just got it.

Speaker 5 (23:12):
Whatever.

Speaker 4 (23:13):
And then they get to the finals and they're destroying Dallas,
and then what becomes the conversation Willard, Well, you know,
I mean, just just thank god they didn't get Denver
because that Denver wasn't the matchup that they wanted.

Speaker 5 (23:24):
It's like, what are we even.

Speaker 4 (23:26):
Talking about, like, Willard, Like, you've watched a bunch of
championships with the Golden State Warriors in whatever, pick a year,
twenty fifteen. I mean, I guess when we got to
the finals there was no KYRIEO Kevin Love, but nobody
was like, well, you know, I mean if the Warriors
had faced the you know, the whoever, like, I mean,
it'd be a different It's like, no, those aren't the

(23:47):
conversations that we have, and so maybe I just think,
you know, what I think is the only thing I
think of with this NBA situation is everything you know historically,
and when I say historically the last fifteen twenty years, right,
it just does kind of feel like we go from
at least you know, I don't want to use the

(24:07):
d word, the dynasty word, but you know, we went
from the Bulls six in eight, which, by the way,
and I tell this story all the time, bull six
and eight right into the Shaq and Kobe Lakers. And
I'll be honest, like when I was a kid, like
the idea of a three peat, I just thought that
was what teams did, Like they just got good and.

Speaker 5 (24:26):
Then they won three in a row and then you
figure it out from there.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
But then we kind of got, you know, a year
or two, but then we had the Heat, and then
we had a year or two, but then we had
the Warriors. And so maybe that's what it is with
the NBAS. We just don't know how to contextualize that.
There isn't that team that's atop the mountain top that
is so obvious and other people have to knock them
off and you have to build your team to beat
that team because it is kind of this weird space

(24:51):
that we're in where Milwaukee got one. Obviously the Warriors
are the exception of twenty two, but Milwaukee got one,
then Denver got one. Now BAS has one, Minnesota's not
going anywhere, Oklahoma City is not going anywhere, And it's
just one of those things where I do think it's
kind of hard to contextualize because to your point, Boston

(25:11):
certainly is not a dynasty, but they were really dominant.
But like, they don't have the historically great players, so
we can't do the weird MJ.

Speaker 5 (25:20):
Lebron.

Speaker 4 (25:20):
It's just we're in a weird time in the NBA.
I guess that was an eight minute monologue to explain
that we're in a weird time.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
No, we we are. We are, we absolutely are. And
there's more to say on that, so we will in
a second. But I'm glad you brought up the idea
of Kyrie as a changed man, because I feel like
a changed man every time I hear Steve di Seger talk.
It really does. It affects me that deeply. Steve, And
good evening, and hello.

Speaker 7 (25:44):
Good evening, thank you, and a couple things for you. Well,
first off, it's official JJ Reddick will be introduced as
new Laker head coach tomorrow four thirty eastern, one point
thirty at the Laker practice facility. Two, I think you've
stumbled on something here for if you're doing a show
during the MLB All Star break, which is traditionally when
hosts run out of ideas and say, if you were

(26:06):
on a deserted island, what for? You know that kind
of thing. If you were president of sports, you know,
there's a segment at maybe an hour in that because A,
I'd vote for you, b if you were president of sports.
Two things, and I mentioned this on one of the
Saturday shows. Get golf reporters to stop calling Saturday moving

(26:26):
day as if there's no movement in the standings any
other day.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Yes, yes, I'm pretty sure all of the strokes count
all four days.

Speaker 3 (26:37):
That's my understanding of the rules.

Speaker 7 (26:39):
And for those who say, yeah, but it's like, you know,
people move on.

Speaker 5 (26:42):
People move on other days, not just Saturday. Thank you
Where that came from? That oh it's moving day?

Speaker 3 (26:50):
Cute?

Speaker 7 (26:50):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (26:51):
I will say I have teenagers and some days in
the summer they don't move. They're like, so oh them,
I'm be like, so it's moving day. You're gonna have
to get up and go some Well.

Speaker 7 (27:03):
The other thing is get an ASCAR to stop calling
the Daytona five hundred our super Bowl. If I hear
one more time, you know that's our super Bowl. I
think you don't understand the concept of what a super
Bowl is. It doesn't mean big event people. It's a
big event because it decides the champion. Do I have
to actually say that out loud? So if those two

(27:25):
things you could just get them to stop permanently, you'll
have my vote. Every four years, I will put those
on the platform.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
We're gonna put a team together and we're gonna do this.
I love the title President of sports.

Speaker 4 (27:40):
Man to say, clear your nine pm hour next Saturday,
because I think we did stumble upon something.

Speaker 7 (27:48):
Meanwhile, US man soccer was playing at the Dallas Cowboys
Stadium Tonight's and in Arlington. The US shutout Bolivia two
nothing the final. Christian Polisics scored in the third minute,
got an assist late first half. Dominant offensive first half
for the Americans, in fact, eighteen touches inside the attacking
penalty area compared to none for Bolivia in the first half. Polisic,

(28:10):
the young US star, in about two and a half
minutes into the game, scored fastest American goal against the
South American opponents in thirty four competitive matches all time,
curled to rf foot shot just packs the fingertips of
the goalie and into the upper right corner. So that's
thirty international goals for Polisic in only sixty nine games,

(28:31):
with the US fastest to thirty goals of any American.
The US next in Copa America will be playing in
Atlanta on Thursday against Panama. Panama starts in a half
an hour in Miami on Fox TV against Uruguay. Bolivia.
Let's just say it out loud is not good. Ranked
eighty fourth in the world. So for the US to
win two nothing, yes, a victory is expected. Could have

(28:53):
been more. Bolivia has lost thirteen straight matches in the
Copa America tournament, dating back to twenty eight fifteen. Tomorrow
night on FS one Brazil against Costa Rica in La
Argentina plays Tuesday night in New Jersey against Chile. The
tournament started this past Thursday with an Argentina win in
Atlanta over a million viewers on FS one for that

(29:14):
At the Euro Soccer Tournament Germany, the host country tied
Switzerland one to one with a late goal. Scotland was eliminated,
losing one nothing to Hungary on a goal in the
one hundredth minute. Christopher Bell took tonight's NASCAR race at
New Hampshire. Chase Briscoe finished second. WNBA Chicago defeated Indiana
eighty eight eighty seven. Angel reached twenty five points sixteen rebounds.

(29:36):
Caitlin clark In defeats seventeen points, thirteen assists. At the
College World Series. Number one Tennessee forced a game three tomorrow,
beating number four ranked Texas A and M four to one.
In tonight's MLB game bottom of the fifth at Wrigley Field,
the Mets are shutting out the Cubs for nothing, and
Texas won its fourth straight for nothing over Kansas City.
The winning pitcher was Max schurz Are going five innings

(29:59):
in his season debut. And you mentioned Scotti Scheffler. Yes,
he won the Travelers in a playoff in Connecticut, his
sixth victory already this season. Tom Kim finished second. Cameron
Young shot sixty six and tied for ninth place after
a fifty nine on Saturday.

Speaker 5 (30:15):
Some call it moving day. Sorry, sorry, I do it.
I had to do it.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
I didn't move far off.

Speaker 7 (30:20):
Yeah, moved right up and then right back down. The
amazing figures. He shot fifty nine. That wasn't even the
course record. There Jim Furrick shot his fifty eight, the
tour record there in twenty sixteen. By the way, Storming
the eighteenth green today, while the tournament leaders were lining
up putts were six climate protesters, delaying the finish for
about five minutes. An activist group with a history of

(30:43):
disrupting events around the world, claim responsibility, and in a
statement said, golf, more than other events, is heavily reliant
on good weather. Golf fans should therefore understand better than
most the need for strong, immediate climate action. End quote
back to you.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
Okay, thank you for doing that.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
Because as I heard about this earlier, and I immediately
wanted to and I mean this in all seriousness, I
wanted to pull the protesters aside and say, look, you
guys got to rework how.

Speaker 3 (31:08):
You're doing things. Nobody knows what you protest.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
It's kind of like that really really funny commercial that
someone tells you about and you're like, what was it for.

Speaker 3 (31:17):
They're like, I don't know, but it was hilarious.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
I'm like that it was a terrible ad, Like you
got to you gotta let us know what you're mad
about before you storm the tower.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
So that so climate protesters.

Speaker 7 (31:29):
Yeah, see this, when you run for president of sports,
we will actually have placard signs on the corner. We'll
be more specific in what we're desiring.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Thank you, thank you, and I and also as the
President of Sports, I'm in favor of climate. Yeah, I
think we should have one. I really do for all
the sports. I think all of them should have their
own client.

Speaker 7 (31:49):
Pretty good, even indoors.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
You say, oh, basketball, you know a little more wiggle room,
but but they're right, golf needs climate.

Speaker 7 (31:56):
So I oh, speaking of indoors, can I bring up
one thing that Aaron and I were talking about last night.
Did you hear the announcement of the LA Olympic organizers
that the swimming competition in twenty twenty eight at the
Summer Games is going to be at the La Rams
Football Stadium.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
I didn't.

Speaker 7 (32:13):
The original idea is maybe we can put a pool
on top of the USC baseball field. And then they've
seen what's going on this week with the Olympic swim
trials at the Colt Stadium. They built a temporary pool
over the concrete floor, put one of those big black
curtains over the fifty yard line and they're having twenty
two thousand people at a swim meet using half the arena.

Speaker 3 (32:33):
Yeah, so they're going to do this at SOFI Stadium.

Speaker 7 (32:35):
That is correct, twenty twenty eight.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
And they specifically said it would be at the Rams Stadium.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
That's how they announced it.

Speaker 7 (32:42):
No, that's how I announced it because o'kay. Good, that's
what built.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
That's what it is. Yeah, no, I know that's what
it is. I just I just like it. I like
it when the Chargers are just left out of things.
I just enjoy it.

Speaker 7 (32:53):
Well, let's just say it. Honestly, the Chargers got lucky
with this building, just like the Raiders got lucky with
a building. Nevada is paying most of the Raiders building.
It's not the Raiders Stadium. It's the State of Nevada Stadium.
So across the street from the Rams Stadium. You're aware
that the Clippers are da again. Their money is being built,
and that's going to host Olympic basketball.

Speaker 3 (33:14):
In San Diego. Don't call them Los Angeles Chargers.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
The only team in sports that plays all that not
true on the road.

Speaker 7 (33:22):
Not yeah you say that, No, it's not close to truth.

Speaker 3 (33:27):
All all of they play all road games.

Speaker 7 (33:29):
No, actually, never having attended literally every Charger home game
since they moved to Los Angeles. You get exactly what
you used to get in San Diego when it's a
national team like the Steelers or Cowboys or Raiders, complete
takeover of the stadium. When it's the Bengals or Arizona,
very loud pro Charger crowd.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
All right, that's not as fun.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
If I'm president of Sports all Charger games.

Speaker 7 (33:56):
Careful, careful, you're risking my vote, Mark Willard.

Speaker 4 (33:59):
Willard, How I know that we actually worked together at
one point, because now there was one point we were
on either right after one of the forty nine Ers
games where they took over Sofi Stadium. I vividly remember
this because I had a buddy like, why is every
rams forty nine Ers game in Los Angeles in.

Speaker 5 (34:20):
Percent forty nine Ers?

Speaker 2 (34:22):
Well?

Speaker 5 (34:23):
And even like I know you were just like I
talk about this every single day.

Speaker 7 (34:26):
Even the NFC title game had so many forty nine
I think it might have been Yes, sorry sir.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
Yeah, I tell you what, I don't know what happened
to that fan base within the last six or seven years.
They take over almost every bill I'm not kidding. It's
like it's way worse in LA for sure. But I'm
telling you, man, that has been and I have data.

(34:51):
Now this isn't just me making it up. That has
been the best traveling NFL fan base in America, which
is odd, like you know what I mean, because it's
not that kind of market. It's not Pittsburgh, it's not
Green Bay, but they are just maybe there's too much
money in Bay Area. I don't know, but people are
buying plane tickets every damn week in the NFL season.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
It's wild.

Speaker 5 (35:14):
I just I remember.

Speaker 4 (35:15):
I think it was right after the NFC Championship game,
not like that night, but a week or two after
or whenever they played in the end.

Speaker 5 (35:22):
I think it was.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
It must have been the year the Rams went to
the Super Bowl at the Tart dropped interception.

Speaker 5 (35:27):
Whatever, we need to relitigate.

Speaker 4 (35:29):
And I think maybe I was working the weekend between.
Maybe we filled it. Maybe I don't think you haven't
filled it on any saturdays. I just know that I
asked you that because I had other people ask me,
because it was I think it was after the NFC
Championship game, like, and people were looking at it as
more of a slight to the Rams of like, how
can you not sell out in such anyway. I know,
we gotta get come back and talk about what we

(35:51):
got to talk about. But I just remember us having
that conversation.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
I'm yeah, now you're you're actually jogging some memories here
for sure. But uh but yeah, well we'll get into
all of that. And by the way, not done yet
with this this NBA conversation about where things sort of
stand in terms of attention, and with a JJ Reddick
news conference coming up now at one thirty Pacific tomorrow afternoon.

(36:17):
I think there's some things we need to get into there,
and we will. We're in the tiraq dot com studios.
Aeron Tours is in for e from on Mark Willard.
This is Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (36:28):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
All right, Aaron Torres is in forree from Mark Willard.
Aarontors with you live ti raq dot com Studios. Maybe
it's not industry rule number four thousand and eighty, but
reminder number four thousand and eighty.

Speaker 3 (36:53):
Yes you do like dynasties, Yes you do.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
Like the same day team over and over don't show
up to that Super Bowl party and say I'm so
suck of Tom Brady. No you're not, No you're not.
And the ratings prove this over and over and over again.
It's one of the funny things in sports fandom is
fans will say, gos, I'm so sick of Team X.

Speaker 3 (37:19):
I really love parody.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
I love it when everybody, all these different teams have
a shot every year. Well, our behavior repeatedly suggests otherwise.
And I do think that's what the NBA is suffering
from right now through these playoffs. And when I say suffering,
it's not like something is awful or or or not fixable.

(37:42):
But you said it a handful of minutes ago. Bub
when you're like, look, they just don't they don't have
that team. And if you don't have that team, sometimes
we sort of just feel like we're a wayward ship.
Like we don't know what we're comparing this that or
the other two. We don't know what our measuring stick is.
So this takes nothing away from Boston or their style.

Speaker 3 (38:05):
They're the best team. They were the best team the
whole time.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
Somehow they quietly just meandered their way through this whole
thing as like clearly the dominant team, but this idea
that every year it could be Denver and then there's
Boston and Milwaukee got one and now Jannis doesn't even
get out of.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
The first round.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
We're sort of just like aimless without having that team.
So that that's what the NBN. There's no like, there's
no way to just like snap your fingers and do this. However,
I do think this is a very interesting offseason that's
about to unfold because we've got a lot of big
names that could be changing places, and the NBA would

(38:49):
benefit if they had that sex appeal team that everyone
wanted to compare themselves to.

Speaker 4 (38:56):
All I'll say that really quick is what's interesting about
that is you look at the Celtics, you look at
the Nuggets, you look at the Warriors last three NBA champions,
all their best players were internal and home grown. I mean,
you know, Stephan Clay and I'm sure we'll talk about
Clay at some point. Steph Clay Draymond were all drafted
by the Warriors, Yo Kitchen Murray were drafted by the Nuggets,

(39:17):
and of course, obviously Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum were
drafted by Boston. And by the way, credit to Brad
Stevens for bringing in to Derek White, bringing into Porzingis, etc.
But the core is basically, you know, developed, and so
I think that's a really interesting thing. Something is going
to happen this offseason. And all of NBA twitters go,

(39:38):
oh my goodness, Bradley Beale didn't really do much. The
Sager and me and Jay mart were talking about this
last night is like, we got so crazy about the
Dame Lillard trade.

Speaker 5 (39:51):
It was Drew Holliday going the other way. That was
the X factor in that trade.

Speaker 4 (39:55):
So we're gonna get excited and maybe it'll make something
more interesting. But the last couple your show us that
you got to build it from within continuity. That's what
wins in the NBA is teams that have been together.
And yes, you can drop a key piece like a
Drew Holiday in, but I agree with you, like, normally
when we get this this team that is built with

(40:16):
puzzle pieces in the off season, dude, it doesn't work.

Speaker 3 (40:20):
It Just like we've got a bunch.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
Of those examples now, over and over and over again.
So all right, much more on that. You mentioned Clay
Clay is coming up. But coming up next, let's get
to JJ Reddick, because not only is there oppressor tomorrow,
but what did he call you?

Speaker 5 (40:37):
We?

Speaker 3 (40:38):
That's right, Aaron's in for e from the night.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
We're broadcasting live from the Tirak dot com studios. Tyrek
dot com will help you get there an unmatched selection, fast,
free shipping, free road hazard protection in over ten thousand
recommended installers tyrack dot com. The way tire buying should be.
I mean, I rolled around all week long. I'm like,
we're gonna need to talk about the Lakers, the state

(41:02):
of the Lakers, the head coaching situation, and JJ Reddick.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
We're gonna have to talk about this this weekend.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
And then I come to find out that maybe JJ
Redick means even a little something.

Speaker 3 (41:16):
More to you than the average bear.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
Please please do set this up on what's going on
with you and JJ Redick.

Speaker 4 (41:22):
Hey, Okay, I you know I feel bad for Disager
and Mary who heard this whole story yesterday. But I'll
try to be brief. I'll try to be as brief
as I can be. But twenty twenty two NCAA Tournament. Okay,
so listen I'm a college oops guy, Okay, yes, end
of the day. I understand it's a niche sport. A
couple of months a year, you know, a couple of
weeks a year. Excuse me, not even a couple months

(41:43):
unless you're a diehard. Okay, that's fine. Elite eight game
Villanova versus Houston that was still when Jay Wright was
at Villanova, and it was kind of one of these like.

Speaker 5 (41:52):
Low scoring, really physical games.

Speaker 4 (41:56):
And I get it wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing game, okay,
and so, but it was also one of those games
where all the NBA fans came, they parachuted in and
spent the whole time complaining about how awful the product.
Oh my god, it's such a bad product. Blah blah
blah blah blah, this and that and so. So you know,

(42:20):
it wasn't a great game, but part of it was
Houston and Villanova at the time were two of the
most physical teams, and bluntly, the rules of college basketball
just allow you to play defense differently than you can
in the NBA. Like, I don't think most people wouldn't
debate that. Stan Van Gundy said in the NCAA Tournament
this year. He couldn't believe the physicality that's allowed in

(42:43):
college basketball. That's a decision by the NBA took out
the hand check whatever. So I'm watching the game, I'm
seeing everybody criticize, and I put out a pretty harmless
tweet March twenty six, twenty twenty two.

Speaker 5 (42:55):
I said, I love all.

Speaker 4 (42:57):
The arguments I'm seeing today about the quality of play
in college hoops or the product or whatever. Trust me,
of NBA teams played forty eight minutes of defense like
Houston and Villanova are tonight, We'd see a lot of
games in the seventies and eighties in that league too,
And so I bring it up. You know, listen, some
people use social media in different ways. I just kind

(43:18):
of use it as a stream of consciousness. I say
what I'm thinking at the time. Well, NBA Twitter gets
a hold of that, and oh my goodness, the audacity
to imagine a world where a team scores in the
seventies and eighties. By the way, Mark Willard, the losing
team in three of five finals games scored in the
eighties this year. But that's neither here nor there. So
NBA Twitter is coming after me. And then the King

(43:40):
of NBA Twitter decides that he wants to chime in.
That would be current Lakers head coach JJ Reddick says,
and he just tweets tell me. He quote tweets me,
tell me you don't watch the NBA without telling me
you don't watch the NBA. And so I kind of
try to be diplomatic about and say, I think you're

(44:00):
misunderstanding what I said. It basically got nowhere. He was
being an arrogant whatever and whatever. I moved past it.
I don't really care people, you know, come after me
for all sorts of weird stuff.

Speaker 5 (44:10):
It's fine.

Speaker 4 (44:11):
So about two three weeks later, I'm sitting there doing work.
The tournament is over, this is long since past, and
my phone starts blowing up and everybody's like, Torres, did
you see what JJ Reddick said on his podcast about you?
And I was like, JJ, why would JJ Reddick be
talking about me on his podcast? While I get sent

(44:34):
the clip. This is from the old man in the
three podcasts. By the way, Kevin Durant was his guest,
and this is what he had to say about your buddy, Torres.

Speaker 5 (44:43):
I had this tweet the other day.

Speaker 8 (44:45):
Some knucklehead said if NBA teams played defense as hard
as college kids. I bet you the scores would be
in the seventies and eighties. Two, First of all, I
mean it's just math. First of all, the shot clocks longer,
so there's gonna be more possessions in NBA game and
there's eight more minutes of basketball.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
So Heed, that's not possible.

Speaker 4 (45:05):
That was your current Lakers head coach JJ Reddick to
two quick side things. One, there is a happy ending
if your team tour is on this because what ended
up happening Mark Willard. So, I'm from the East Coast,
grew up in Connecticut, and you know, we have an
old saying where I come from, we don't start fights,
but we finish him. Well, what ended up happening was
in the weirdest twist of fate ever for a basketball

(45:28):
novice like me. Once we got to the playoffs and
the defense ramped up that year, we started seeing a
lot of games where teams ended up scoring in the
seventies or eighties. So I just wanted to make sure
my buddy JJ knew every single time, just in case
he missed it. Because it's a math equation, f head,
it's common sense there's eight more minutes. I mean, teams

(45:49):
don't score in the seventies and eighties, so I kind
of just made it a priority, you know, every time
the Suns played the Nets. Oh hey, JJ, just quick
ends up. Did you see the score of the Sun
Nets game? The Nets only scored eighty nine. Just wanted
to make sure you saw that, JJ, And so I
kept doing that, probably did it ten twelve times. Then
people who listen to my show and kind of were

(46:10):
aware of the interaction.

Speaker 5 (46:11):
They started tweeting JJ. So eventually he blocked me.

Speaker 4 (46:16):
And oh, by the way, as I said, oh yeah,
so so yes, I'm blocked by the Lakers current head coach,
and as I said, three of the NBA Finals games.
And by the way, I forget who was on the
call for the NBA Finals Mike Breen, Doris Burke. I
can't you know, I'm blanking on who the third person
was in the booth. Three of those games ended with
a team scoring in the eighties. So I feel like,
you know, listen, I'm I'm not the next pat Riley

(46:39):
according to the Lakers, but I think it's uh Torres one,
JJ Reddick.

Speaker 5 (46:43):
Nothing. Despite the derogatory verbiage used against me.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
So are you going to the press conference tomorrow?

Speaker 3 (46:53):
Bleephead.

Speaker 4 (46:54):
So it's really funny you say that because I was
talking to somebody in office and they were like, if
you just because I don't cover the NBA, I don't
have any contacts at the Lakers, And somebody was just like,
if you just ask so and so, and I'm not
saying I won't say who it is, if you just
ask so and so, like he can get you a
press pass and I and I really want to because

(47:14):
I just want to, you know, ask a question. Some
of the effect of hey, coach, you know, congrats on
the new gig.

Speaker 5 (47:20):
Was just curious.

Speaker 4 (47:22):
You once said that it's impossible for teams to score
fewer than ninety points because quote, it's a math equation,
f head, and just curious what that says kind of
about the defensive philosophy whatever.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
But I thine amazing, what would be amazing?

Speaker 2 (47:38):
Please do it?

Speaker 5 (47:39):
Aaron, come on, okay, so the rest of us okay.

Speaker 4 (47:42):
So if I if I try to get a press
pass and it says Fox Sports on it, I don't
want to be the guy that embarrasses the company.

Speaker 5 (47:50):
So you're giving me permission the ball.

Speaker 4 (47:52):
If the boss has come to me and say, tours
you started a scene at JJ Reddicks press conference. I'm saying, well,
Mark Willard, do you let me fill in with them
that one time? And he said that I had to
be there for journalistic purposes.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
I think you should even go instead of saying because
maybe this will keep it on the down low.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
Instead of having the words Aaron.

Speaker 5 (48:12):
Torres on your control.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
You should have it say foxhead, fox.

Speaker 5 (48:18):
Head, Yeah, that's kind of what he said.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
Foxhead.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
Yeah, yeah, go there, and please asked that question, and yeah,
don't don't call him go don't call him coach, So
don't call him coach, like like call him by the
name that you guys give each other. You should do that.

Speaker 4 (48:38):
I should let me ask you a question though, And
I'm not trying to make this about me, but whatever,
I kind of I've hijacked this segment. I tried to
push on J Mart last night. I know that at
that point he had no idea that he was obviously
ever going to be a head coach. But I did
say to J Mart, I was like, would Doc Rivers
ever even on a podcast? Would Doc Rivers ever talk

(48:58):
like that? Would Eric Spolstrev talk like that, and Jmart
wasn't ready to say that it's some indictment on who
he is, right, But I do kind of think like,
I don't know, I don't know, I'm probably being too
sensitive about it.

Speaker 5 (49:12):
What I actually really don't care, But I just I
don't know.

Speaker 4 (49:15):
I just you know, it's only And jmar brought up
the good point of like it's kind of like, you know,
we're at the point now where like you're smart enough
to know you don't put something dumb on social media
because it might not impact you today, but five years
from now you might be interviewing for a job and
your future boss might say, hey, Mark Willard, hey errator,
is that thing that you tweeted out in twenty twenty four.

(49:37):
I don't know if that's the best representation of this company.
And it just feels like I don't just felt like,
I don't know, I'm probably being too sensitive. But to me,
I think it just speaks to the kind of guy
he is, the arrogance and you know, besides the basketball
acumen that clearly might not be there.

Speaker 5 (49:52):
I don't know, I think, yeah, it's not anyway.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
Well, Okay, here's what I would actually say about this,
and and I'm gonna maybe run the risk of having
one leg on each side of the fence your team.

Speaker 5 (50:05):
Jay, No, no, no, no, no, no, not at all, not at all.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
But but but with regard to the idea that JJ
doesn't fit the mold, you know, do the Lakers want
a head coach who's speaking to people this way on
social media? During Depending on where you were listening, you
may or may not have heard our last commercial stop
set where there's audio of Dan Patrick talking about I

(50:31):
don't want my head coach with a podcast and a
backwards hat. Colin Cowherd has done this for years. I
don't want I want my quarterbacks to be quarterback you know,
I don't want guys to have a backwards hat.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
Listen, here's what I would say about that.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
I do think that when that becomes a thing for you,
it's a little bit more about you than it is
about them. In other words, it's usually more about your
age than anything else. And I'm not some spring chicken either,
But if you've got a problem with a quarterback having

(51:09):
a backwards hat, that's because of when you were born,
Like you'd have no data that suggests that means there's
a problem at the position because the quarterback's got a
backward hat. Here's what I mean by this. I'm not
saying JJ is a great hire. I do think there's
a lot to discuss about this, and we will. But

(51:32):
I do also think we've got to start breaking down
some of our barriers. We've got to open our mind
to what a leader looks like, sounds like, feels like.
It doesn't have to fit.

Speaker 3 (51:49):
In a box.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
I think it's really an underlying theme of a lot
of things we talk about right now. It doesn't need
to fit in a box. The WNBA is selling out arenas.
It doesn't need to fit in your old style box.
So if JJ reddick, you know, look, coaches are wearing

(52:11):
sweatsuits now, sure on the sideline, so this is already
it's gonna look different. I think these are two different subjects,
and I don't think that's what you were getting at
at all. But I know that there's that piece of this,
which is that JJ doesn't fit the mold. I don't
really have an issue with that because I don't know

(52:32):
what the mold is anymore, and I don't know why
it exists.

Speaker 4 (52:36):
Sure, and I will say like in JJ's defense, Wait,
am I team JJ?

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Now?

Speaker 5 (52:41):
Did I turn on myself? No, I'm kidding.

Speaker 4 (52:44):
But like, I think that's part of why they hired him, right,
is that you know, it isn't just the retread guy
who made the finals fifteen years ago. That sounds like
at Doc Rivers.

Speaker 5 (52:56):
It's not.

Speaker 4 (52:57):
It's just that was the hypothetical there. Like he's young,
he's new. I mean even in kind of the reporting
after he got hired, you know, he embraces analytics, but
he's not paralyzed by them. And so I will say
in his defense, independent of what he said about anybody
and how he's spoken on any podcast, you know, I
think that is part of why the Lakers did hire him.

(53:19):
And and you know, again, I know we're gonna have
plenty more time to talk about the higher and his
relationship with Lebron and all that stuff, but I do
think there is something to that. Is like you said,
the mold is quickly changing, and let's be honest. You know,
if this works out, JJ Reddick is going to be
with the organization post Lebron James. You know, there's gonna

(53:41):
be some younger guys from a younger generation. He can
probably relate to him better. So I actually do think
that is a fair counterpoint by you, Mark, which is
that you know, we've we've tried with the Lakers the
Frank Vogel type and it obviously it resulted in a championship.

Speaker 5 (53:57):
But part of the reason why I JJ.

Speaker 4 (54:00):
Reddick was hired was so in demand, not just from
the Lakers, from other people, is because because he doesn't
fit that old school mold. And as you said, that
that old school mold doesn't even exist anymore.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
Okay, but what does this all say about the state
of the Lakers franchise. I happen to think that that's
a different question and answer. We'll get to that coming
up next. Glad you're with us tonight, whatever it is
you're doing. Bleeped Torres is in fray from Salam along
with Yes, sorry, I mean that's your name, So along

(54:34):
with me, Mark Waller.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
This is Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
Sores Mark Wheler on Sunday Night Fox Sports Radio, and
we are live in the tyrack dot Com studios.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
Here's where I'm coming from on JJ Reddick.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
And it's not even really that much about JJ Reddick,
because one thing that I don't really love to do.
I don't mind if others do, but I'm not going
to tell you that this is a bad hire until
I know it's a bad hire, and it's not yet.
Because the Lakers might win the next twelve championships in

(55:11):
a row. I don't know if they did that, being
pretty credible, but like I personally, and I know you're
a huge college sports guy, so I'd love your perspective
on this too. Let's go back to what I said
first hour. When I'm president of sports, you know what
else I'm going to do away with? Ready for it?

Speaker 5 (55:29):
You're ready, I can guess.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
Go ahead, give me a guess.

Speaker 5 (55:34):
Grading coaching hires well close.

Speaker 3 (55:39):
Draft grades?

Speaker 5 (55:41):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, gone.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
You will never again in the history of your life
have to deal with waking up the morning after the
NFL Draft to find that your team gotta be minus.

Speaker 4 (55:55):
You know, it's actually worse than draft grades. What in
my opinion, it's the redraft. It's like, oh, well, if
we were doing this draft over, Philadelphia would have taken you,
honest and he'd be paired with Joelle. And it's like,
but it's that didn't happen, so why are we It's

(56:16):
the weirdest thing. And I guess people are click those articles.
I just think it's the dumbest thing. So you can
you could get your rid of your draft grades. Redrafts
are dead when I am sports commissioner or sports president
or whatever.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
Perfectly, Yeah, that's I'm into it because that's essentially just
ranking the players. That's just a different way of being Like,
so here's how it actually worked out. Like, if you
want to do draft grades, I do them that way. Okay,
it's twenty twenty four. Go back and tell me what
grade my team got in twenty twenty one. Tell me

(56:52):
that I don't need a redraft. Tell me now how
they did. That would be at least, I don't know,
somewhat useful. But the whole thing of deciding this is
good or bad the second that it happens, you actually
don't know yet.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
And I'm not here to be anti content.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
I get it, mock draft grades whatever, not gonna win
that battle. But here's my takeaway from what we just
watched happen over the last three weeks, because this is
something that I can already comment on because I do know,
and that is is that something's wrong with the Laker organization.
Something is wrong and I can't I can't even sit

(57:34):
here and tell you exactly who, or why or what.
But the bottom line is this is as clunky of
a process as I have ever seen. And for the
fact that it's the Lakers, the freaking Lakers, Aaron, I
don't know why more people who cover that organization and

(57:57):
are fans of that organization aren't sounding along. How long
ago would it have been if I had said this
to you Laker fans, you'd have lost your damn minds.
Lakers need a new coach. And here's what's gonna happen.
We're gonna get nationwide rumors of somebody who how how

(58:20):
old is JJ? How old is JJ? You know off
the top of.

Speaker 5 (58:23):
Your head, thirty nine to forty one?

Speaker 2 (58:25):
Okay, yeah, yeah, okay, all right. So we're gonna get
nationwide rumors two weeks ahead of time that a potentially
not even forty year old podcast hosts who made his
name mainly with the Clippers is your main target. And
then all of the sudden, we're gonna do an about face.

(58:49):
We are going to target I don't care how accomplished
he is a college coach.

Speaker 3 (58:55):
That college coach.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Is gonna take us on a week and a half
journey where we climb a staircase, talk about money, know
his every move every five hours for an entire week
and a half climb all the way to the top,
where he sits in a chair and says to us,
I'll tell you tomorrow, and then comes out tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (59:18):
To go, nah, I'm good.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
And then we pivot back to almost forty year old
podcast hosts and hire him, who may or may not
have been the quote unquote real target all along. I
don't care who you hire, but this is messy, disorganized public,

(59:50):
and not the way you drew it up, no matter
how many times you tell me, this is how you
drew it up. And I've never known, no matter good, bad,
or of or otherwise in terms of their higher I've
never known the Laker operation to be so clunky as
it was over the last month of our lives.

Speaker 4 (01:00:10):
Well, I really do think that this month exactly the
timeframe that you laid out. Maybe it's because I live
in LA you know, maybe it's because working at Fox
Sports Radio we have a ton of Lakers fans behind
the scenes working here. I think this was just like
exposure at how like, I have known how messy this

(01:00:32):
organization was, and it's funny to go back to the
Dan Hurley thing. And I've said this many times on
these airwaves, so forgive me if you've heard me say
this audience out there. But not only am my college guy,
but I actually went to Yukon. So anytime I say anything,
it's oh, you're you're a Yukon homer. But when Dan
Hurley went through that process, I was blown away by
the number of people that were like, well, I mean,

(01:00:55):
tore you just you don't turn down the Lakers. And
I was like, really, you don't. You don't turn down
the Lakers because two of their last three head coaches
were Darvin Ham who had never had a head coaching job,
Luke Walton, who had basically never had a head coaching job.
It's like, people turn down the Lakers all the time.
But what I do think that Dan Hurley thing opened

(01:01:15):
people's eyes to is just exactly this how dysfunctional it is.

Speaker 5 (01:01:21):
And it kind of blows me away.

Speaker 4 (01:01:23):
Is that really if you take away like like if
Lebron James, and we can debate who he is now
in his career whatever, if Lebron James hadn't decided I
want to live in LA for reasons other than basketball.
I mean, we're talking about a decade plus of just incompetence.

(01:01:44):
I mean, when was Kobe's last game? Twenty fourteen, twenty sixteen,
so whatever it is. Then you go through the huge rebuild.
You draft D'Angelo Russell, you draft Julius Randall, you draft
Lonzo Ball, you draft Brandon Ingram, and then Lebron decides
he wants to come and oh, by the way, I'm
the de facto GM. I'll make sure Anthony Davis comes
along with me at some point. And it's just like,

(01:02:05):
I was actually surprised that there weren't more people that
were aware of how dysfunctional this thing is. And by
the way, it's sort of a credit to Lebron that
even at forty years old, he's still covering this up
because they made the Western Conference finals last year and
of course won the Bubble title in twenty twenty. So
this has been I think an eye opening thing for

(01:02:27):
America because to your point, and I do actually agree
with you, is I was the guy that the second
guy was hired or a girl was hired or whatever.

Speaker 5 (01:02:36):
Oh home run knock it and it's like you just
don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:02:42):
But independent of that, even if JJ Reddick is the
next pat Riley as they're now trying to leak out,
like the dysfunction in that organization is kind of crazy.
And like I said, I think from the Dan Hurley
thing on, I think America got a ro seat to
just that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Okay, very well said, plenty more to say on it,
and we will. But again, when I talk home run highers,
I like to look at hires that have already happened
and paid dividends, like Steve Desager. That was a home
run higher. Welcome back to the show, Steve Hi.

Speaker 5 (01:03:20):
Hello.

Speaker 7 (01:03:21):
And as far as Lakers history, they haven't won fifty
games or had a six hundred winning percentage regular season
but once since twenty eleven, twenty twelve. Actually, so yeah,
we're going back a while. And yes, for those who
didn't hear, the Lakers will introduce JJ Redick as head
coach tomorrow. Four WNBA games today, including a shock Chicago

(01:03:44):
win over Indiana eighty eight to eighty seven. Angel reached
twenty five points, sixteen rebounds, Caitlin Clark seventeen points, thirteen
assists in defeat, and seattlebeat Connecticut seventy two to sixty one.
Connecticut was thirteen and two wins for New York and Washington.
Christopher Bell took the NASCAR race at New Hampshire. US
men's soccer defeated Bolivia too nothing and it's a Copo

(01:04:06):
America opener in Arlington, Texas. The Americans had sixty percent
of the possession. Christian Polisics scored in the third minute.
The Americans will play Panama on Thursday in Atlanta. At
Panama is down one nothing to Uruguay after thirty minutes
in Miami on Fox TV right now. At the Euro
Soccer Tournament Germany, the host tied Switzerland one to one
with a late goals. Scotland was eliminated today losing late.

(01:04:29):
At the College World Series, Number one Tennessee forced to
game three tomorrow, beating number four ranked Texas A and
M four to one. The Met's lead is now four
to two at Chicago over the Cubs in the bottom
of the seventh The Yankees Gencarlo Stanton was placed on
the injured list today with stray hamstring, could miss a month.
The Yankees acquired JD. Davis from Oakland in New York. Today,

(01:04:50):
Atlanta beat the Yanks three to one, winning pitcher Max
Fried seven to three. Elsewhere, Cleveland won again six '
five over Toronto. The Blue Jays have lost six in
a row. Guardians closer Emmanuel Class with his twenty fourth
save and his ERA is zero point seven to two
Saint Louis closer Ryan Helsley with his twenty sixth save.

(01:05:10):
Cardinals beat the Giants again, five to three. They've won
three in a row, including the game in Birmingham this
past week against San Francisco. Giants have lost five straight.
The Dodgers and Angels were off today. Houston won its
fifth in a row, eight to one over the Baltimore
Orioles from Ravaldez. With the win and a win for
Max Scherzer in his season debut, he went five innings

(01:05:30):
in Texas Rangers four nothing over Kansas City. Texas has
won four in a row. Stanley Cup Game seven is Monday,
Edmonton at Florida. The Panthers have lost three straight. They
led three games to none and haven't held a lead
in any game since, and road teams have won each
of the past three game sevens in the history of

(01:05:50):
the final. Home teams used to dominate in this in
the final, not recently, and Florida will be home to
Edmonton on Monday. Scottie Scheffler took the Trackler's in a
playoff in Connecticut, his sixth victory this season. Tom Kim
finished second. This is the first time anyone has won
six times on the PGA Tour before July since Arnold
Palmer in nineteen sixty two. And yes, there is a

(01:06:14):
payout to discuss. It's a pretty healthy one for a
guy who's used to healthy payouts. This year, Scheffler earns
three point six million dollars for this weekend's work. And
then there's the Live Golf Tour in Nashville. Terrell Hatton
won by six strokes. He gets the usual four million
dollars for a live golf victory, and on top of that,

(01:06:36):
he was part of the team that won the team title.
He and three others on his team will split three
million dollars. Final note women's PGA was this weekend. Amy
Yang wins by three strokes, year into spot on South
Korea's Olympic golf team for the third time. Yang, age
thirty four, is the oldest major winner on the LPGA

(01:06:57):
Tour since twenty eighteen. This was Yang's seventy fifth career major.
Start back to you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:02):
Okay, wait, so Scheffler wins his sixth time this year
three point six million Travelers Championship. Where if you're going
to call yourself Travelers Championship, all days should be moving days.
But but uh, you're telling me that Terrell Hatton made
almost five MILI today for winning the three day tournament

(01:07:24):
that none of us could name.

Speaker 7 (01:07:26):
Yeah, it's three rounds worth in live golf.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Correct, four million for the win, seven hundred and fifty
grand for the team win.

Speaker 7 (01:07:34):
Yeah, he split with John Rahm and two others on
his team. Yeah, so their purse is lower the live
golf perse or actually for this weekend, their purses were
the exact same. It's just the winner gets more in
live golf, and the field is shorter and the tournament
is shorter.

Speaker 5 (01:07:50):
Hey, Willard, can I ask a question really quick?

Speaker 3 (01:07:53):
Of course?

Speaker 4 (01:07:53):
So we open the show by saying, what makes a star?
Scottie Scheffler really is a star? So we obviously basically
virtually everyone that would be deemed a star in golf,
if such a thing exists outside of Tiger Woods. Rory
McElroy and Scotty Scheffler has basically gone to live at

(01:08:16):
this point and nobody cares. So could you argue the
star of golf is actually the PGA Tour, as in,
like the player the no player right now now that
Tiger Woods isn't what he was at his apex, is
actually a star.

Speaker 7 (01:08:33):
Well Scheffler, They have these signature events with the big
payouts here he's won seven of the eight. So if
that doesn't get you, you know, scream this is the
star of the sport. What will Well No?

Speaker 5 (01:08:45):
It's like, but yeah, go ahead, will No.

Speaker 2 (01:08:47):
I was just gonna say, like I think people and
I you know, just for people who miss that beginning conversation,
people know who Scotty Scheffler is. I don't think people
are aware of what Scotty's doing right now. He's got
a shot for this to be the best here that
anyone has ever had ever and so that's kind of
what I'm getting at. But to your question, I guess

(01:09:08):
i'd answer that if you say, is the star the
tour itself? My answer would be not if it's going well,
because it it will always have it's golfer fan base
like it always did. It did it did prior to
Tiger Woods. But if you want to really grow, if

(01:09:31):
you want to get the casual eyeballs, if you want
to go through something like what the WNBA is experiencing
right now, then no, then there needs to be people
that we want to sit down and follow.

Speaker 7 (01:09:45):
Casual fan is what you mentioned, because this is my
observation as an outsider. They do fine in TV and
they have people with money that watch their tournaments. Yes,
so they succeed as a professional enterprise. By the way,
Scheffler has passed twenty seven million dollars in earnings this year.
That's just on the course stuff. That's ridiculous and really quick.

Speaker 5 (01:10:07):
Willard.

Speaker 4 (01:10:07):
The opposite of the WNBA with Caitlin Clark is what
we talked about with the NBA, which is that the
Celtics just don't seem to have that if factor that
make people want to tune in. And unfortunately because of
some of the way the playoffs shook out, Like you
said earlier, and I don't want to put words in
your mouth, but it felt like there was a big

(01:10:27):
lebron steph void in these playoffs.

Speaker 5 (01:10:30):
I know we're talking about doubt.

Speaker 2 (01:10:31):
Yeah, I would argue, and this is just by having
rabbit ears and big eyeballs and nothing else. They have
no data in front of me. But my bet would
be calendar year twenty twenty four the most talked about
basketball player in this country as a woman. I agree,

(01:10:52):
I agree, And that's not a bad thing. But it's
not great for the NBA. It's not great for the
NBA that that there there's nobody. There's nobody that's sort
of got people buzzing. And and I sort of made
my point about all the silly narratives that we've brought
up through the playoffs, because it feels to me like

(01:11:14):
people are searching for that and when they can't find it,
you sort of just make it up. They're like, yeah,
Anthony Edwards is Michael Jordan. And then you're like, okay,
hang on a second. Take two three two, Luca Dowja
Chkyrie is the best backcourd of all time.

Speaker 3 (01:11:31):
Okay, take three three two?

Speaker 2 (01:11:34):
Yeah, no, sorry, we're out of what's July first here
anytime soon?

Speaker 5 (01:11:39):
That's get James hardened? Is he demanded a trade?

Speaker 3 (01:11:42):
By the way, She's always demanding a trade I'll see.

Speaker 4 (01:11:45):
I actually had the thought on Kaitlyn Clark, and I
haven't put pen to paper, so this is just part
of the moment. Is she the most famous basketball player?
Like under the age of I again, whether it's twenty
five whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:11:58):
Under the age of twenty five?

Speaker 5 (01:12:00):
Yeah, I mean she probably is.

Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
Right, well, it's famous since you since you phrased it
that way, I think so.

Speaker 5 (01:12:08):
I think so.

Speaker 3 (01:12:10):
I think so. If Anthony Edwards.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
And Caitlin Clark walk through a mall together kids, remember
they used to have these things called malls, never mind
walk through a mall together in a city that's not
their home city, take it to be la Anthony Edwards
and Caitlin Clark walk through the grove.

Speaker 3 (01:12:34):
Who's got a bigger crowd?

Speaker 5 (01:12:37):
No, I think it's totally fair.

Speaker 4 (01:12:39):
And again I haven't totally put pen to paper of Okay,
what is the official under twenty five crowd?

Speaker 2 (01:12:46):
In the end?

Speaker 4 (01:12:46):
Like who is in the NBA that's under twenty five?
But it's like, you know, I know this is the
cliche thing to do. Oh does my grandma, does my mom?
Does my wife?

Speaker 1 (01:12:54):
Like?

Speaker 4 (01:12:55):
My wife knows you Kate and Clark is like she
didn't know Anthony Davis's ye and I Anthony Edwards.

Speaker 3 (01:13:01):
Either of them.

Speaker 4 (01:13:02):
Yes, she doesn't know who Jamal Murray is. You know
whoever those guys would be. I think it's an interesting
conversation when.

Speaker 2 (01:13:10):
The tyrak dot Com studios and not done with your
Laker comments that you just made.

Speaker 3 (01:13:16):
We'll do that coming up next top of the hour.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
How to sort of maybe say goodbye to a star
even when you kind of want to but can't say
that you want to. We'll tell you who we're talking
about around the band as well. Aaron Torres is in
for Ephraim. It's Mark whilerd and Aaron Torres. It's Fox
Sports Radio Okay with Aaron Torres, Mark Willard Live Tyraq

(01:13:44):
dot com Studios. You were getting it together on the
Lakers and the dysfunction that you see, and you said,
if Lebron James had not decided that he wanted to
live in California, who knows where this all would have
gone over the last ten, twelve, fifteen years.

Speaker 3 (01:14:08):
And I think it's really really well put.

Speaker 2 (01:14:11):
I used to have issues with what the Lakers would
do anytime they needed something, if it wasn't going well,
if they needed a new coach. They would immediately pick
up the nineteen eighty five team photo.

Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
And they'd be like, all right, who do we hire?

Speaker 5 (01:14:32):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (01:14:34):
And so I was often critical of the Lakers for
being a little bit too attached to their own history.

Speaker 3 (01:14:43):
Somewhat understandable.

Speaker 2 (01:14:45):
It's a great history, but if you're not getting better,
you're getting worse. All of that, and then sort of
now I feel like they.

Speaker 3 (01:14:56):
Did start to move through that.

Speaker 2 (01:14:59):
But in that process, yeah, they did hand their organization
over to Lebron James in the way that we know
it has always been the organization belongs to Lebron when
he's there. The only partial exception is the Miami Heat
because pat Riley is just that way. But they did

(01:15:20):
hand that organization over to Lebron. And you absolutely can
fairly accuse the Lakers through the years of being so
desperate for any star that they sort of conducted themselves
that way, like, no matter what, we're star hunting. And

(01:15:43):
I don't think that that's necessarily a bad thing. The
fans usually love that, especially in LA But like I mean,
I had these conversations with people in that organization where
they're just like, he's out there. I know he's out there,
and they were so hell bent on getting that person,

(01:16:04):
and they struck out so many times, over and.

Speaker 3 (01:16:09):
Over and over and over again.

Speaker 2 (01:16:11):
And I don't think they even necessarily nailed Lebron with
their pitch. Lebron came because that's where Lebron wanted to live.
You don't need to pitch Lebron. Lebron tells you where
he's playing. So to your point, there is something wrong

(01:16:32):
with their internal process in the way they are building rosters, acquisitions,
and coaching staffs.

Speaker 4 (01:16:40):
There's no doubt, there's no listen, you know. And again
this goes to little bit of the Dan Hurley conversation
of I'm not saying the Yukon job is better than
the Lakers job, but it's like you're gonna give up
everything to go to a place with a forty year
old superstar, you know, if you want to call him that.
I mean, he's still a great player or whatever. But

(01:17:02):
it's just like it's a really tough situation. By the way,
we haven't even you know, hit on the elephant in
the room. Now you gotta draft his son and develop
his son into an NBA player. It's just it's a
real mess and you're right, and what I think it
speaks to to the top is just a total lack

(01:17:23):
of leadership. And it's not even just a lack of leadership,
it's a lack of confidence in the leadership, right, because
it's like, you know, be decisive.

Speaker 5 (01:17:34):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:17:35):
I just you look at Genie, I don't know on
a personal level. I know you used to live in
la Maybe you do, Mark and I don't, But it
just feels like there's just.

Speaker 5 (01:17:44):
No rhyme or reason to anything that they do there.

Speaker 4 (01:17:48):
And so again, I just think these last couple of
weeks have really exposed how dysfunctional this organization is. Is we said,
I've been wrong on a million coaching hires and draft picks,
and so maybe I'll I don't really have a strong
opinion on how JJ Redick will be. I just think
it's actually a pretty tough situation that he's walking into,
given how good the West is. But more than anything,

(01:18:08):
I think the biggest loser in this whole situation is
the Lakers, because it is so obvious to anybody that's
paying attention at all, this is just not the organization
that a lot of people think it is.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
Well, and I really do wonder who's calling shots and why.
At this point, there's always evidence when Lebron is on
a team that he's calling a lot of shots. But
if we do sort of act like this is probably
going to be his last.

Speaker 3 (01:18:33):
Year, is he playing two more years?

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
I don't know. My eyes are on the decisions they
make during that time. If you're hiring a coach because
Lebron says so, if you're using a draft pick because
that kid has the same DNA as Lebron James, if
you're doing all of those things just so Lebron can
turn around and leave a minute later, Wow, there's no

(01:18:57):
bigger picture of weakness than that.

Speaker 4 (01:19:00):
Well, and but they are though, right, I mean, you know,
I mean, because like the prudent thing, and I know
others have discussed it, is you know, he's a free agent.
I mean, I mean, if he opts in, I don't
think you can really do anything about it, but like
you could kind of let it be known, Hey, you're
not really wanted here. You didn't have to hire his guy,
you don't have to draft his son. And so just

(01:19:22):
the fact that maybe that they're moving forward with this
as the plan, knowing that there's only another year or two.
Maybe that speaks to how dysfunctional this is.

Speaker 2 (01:19:29):
I mean, I think it's a very fair point because
it's like, like based on what like, you're desperate to
keep lebron so that you can continue to be the
eight seed, you can continue to play in the play
in tournament. Like I just think if that's, if that's
what's happening, you have to be prepared to make decisions

(01:19:53):
you don't want to make.

Speaker 3 (01:19:54):
Let's flash it over to a different.

Speaker 2 (01:19:56):
Western Conference team that is also a parent and potentially
about to make a very very unpopular decision. And how
do you go about saying goodbye when goodbye is hard?
We'll get to that coming up next. Aaron Toys is
in for a from Salam and we are riding on
a Sunday night broadcasting live tyre raq dot com Studios,

(01:20:20):
tireraq dot com. We will help you get there an
unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road hazard protection in
over ten thousand recommended installers, tireraq dot com. The way
tire buying should be Aaron. We romanticize sports. It's what
we do as fans. We find a way to act
like we know these people or just fall in love

(01:20:43):
with the story. I've done this a lot, where you
ask people like, why are you such a fan? Why
do you love X? You know, fill in the name
with a sport, a team, a player. Why, And people
have a hard time answering the question. Something about community involvement,
there's something about entertainment. You don't know, just something clicks

(01:21:07):
with you and the next thing you know, you're crying
if your team or your player does well, which therefore
makes breakups really hard. But sometimes they are an absolute necessity,
and sometimes it's out of everyone's hands to sort of

(01:21:28):
have that breakup not be messy. Now I don't even
know for sure that this breakup's going to happen, but
my goodness, it feels like it is. And I can
give you some background as we discuss it. But what
is your take on everything that we've seen from Klay

(01:21:49):
Thompson and the Warriors over the last not even just
few weeks, but quite frankly all season. A reported two
year contract offer for forty eight million dollars that was
turned down before the season started, seemingly back and forth
angry relationship that led to four closed door meetings between

(01:22:12):
Klay Thompson and Steve Kerr a benching a bench role
that was given to Clay for a period of time,
and now we arrive almost to free agency and reportedly
no offer is on the table. Clay has unfollowed the
Warriors on Instagram, and also the Warriors have reportedly essentially

(01:22:37):
said to Clay, yeah, we'd love to have you back,
but we got like eight other things to figure out first,
which only resonates to Clay as to say, you're not
even close to our first priority.

Speaker 3 (01:22:50):
You're probably not second or third either.

Speaker 5 (01:22:52):
Well, it is interesting.

Speaker 4 (01:22:53):
I know there's a lot of people probably just joining
us here at the top of the hour, but we
spent a lot of the last hour talking about the
Lakers and what did we diagnosis the problem with the Lakers?
As you said, when things went bad in the you know,
twenty ten's what they do. They pulled up that nineteen
eighty five you know, NBA Championship team photo and they
tried to you know, consult with somebody, or hire somebody,

(01:23:15):
or bring back a guy that played twenty years ago.
And like so, in a lot of ways, I actually
do give the Warriors credit because they're kind of doing
the opposite of what we've kind of discussed with the Lakers.
Is the Lakers cling to their past, you know, just
a lot. I don't know the right way to put it,
but and the Warriors are kind of the exact opposite.

(01:23:39):
But to your point and to where I think you
want to get, it just shows that it's unfortunate because
there really is no way for the perfect breakup unless
and there aren't very many examples of this that I
can think of, unless the player just acknowledges I'm not
the same, dude. I understand where you're coming from. But

(01:24:00):
the problem with Klay Thompson is in free you know,
there are spots that make sense for him that there
may be a player away, a veteran away. And I'm
just using these as hypotheticals, but you know, we know
that Oklahoma City wants to get just a little bit older.
Be ironic if you played Oklahoma City given the history there,
but you know, like they traded for Alex Caruz, so
they want to get a little bit older. You know,

(01:24:21):
you hear some stuff with Orlando they want to bring
in some veteran press. So like there is still a
spot where he'll be valued. But in some ways it's
one of those where I'm not sure that either side
is wrong, and it's the Warriors basically acknowledging, you know,
kind of again the opposite of the Lakers clinging to
their past. The Warriors are like, we're not where we

(01:24:42):
need to be, but to get to where we need
to be, this window isn't closed.

Speaker 5 (01:24:47):
But to get to where we need to be.

Speaker 4 (01:24:49):
To keep this window open, you can't keep the same
role that you've had.

Speaker 5 (01:24:54):
It's tough.

Speaker 4 (01:24:54):
And again, I know we'll get into some of the
nitty gritty of it, but it just shows it's really
hard even for the great players, with the great organizations
that are part of the great runs, for things to
end in a perfect manner.

Speaker 2 (01:25:06):
Well, and it's also it's also about money. It's unfortunately
it's a lot about money. Like I look at the
Warriors situation and people will make it about Clay as
if the Warriors are like, well, yeah, you're just not
as good anymore. I think he's still plenty good. The
problem is is they have found themselves with the most

(01:25:29):
expensive roster in the sport for some time now. The
new CBA gets real punitive, real fast. If you creep,
if you keep just flying by the luxury tax and
the second apron And you and I are not going
to sit here and explain that to the audience right now,
because I don't even know how good of a job
we could do of it. It's complex and it's all

(01:25:51):
not that not that exciting. Just know that at a
certain point, if you keep doing that every year, you're
gonna end up not only paying millions upon millions of
dollars basically to air, but you're also going to start
forfeiting draft picks and things like that. So the Warriors
are like, we've got to reset the financial clock and

(01:26:12):
we've got to get better. So it's sort of as
almost like clay. You can still put on a Warrior
uniform and shoot threes for I don't know, like five
million a year, but we've got to go figure out
how to get better. And if we spend on you

(01:26:35):
what your quote unquote worth on the open market, the
only thing we ensure is that our roster is exactly
the same again next year. And that's why I compare
the Warriors to the Lakers, because I am wondering, how
intensely do you want to keep Lebron James when all
all of these names, Lebron and Ad and Clay and

(01:26:59):
Steph and everything. All of it added up to two
teams in the play in tournament. That's it. That's all
that it added up to. And for the Warriors, they
got blown out in their playing game and didn't even
make the quote unquote playoffs. So it's like, you can
sit here and get sentimental, but you're shooting yourself in
the foot pretty hard if you let that lead.

Speaker 5 (01:27:22):
The way, no doubt.

Speaker 4 (01:27:23):
And again it is why I actually give them credit
because these are tough conversations to have, and you know
it's not new to the Warriors. I mean, listen, this
happens in all sports all the time. I mean, I'm
not trying to speak disparagingly of someone we lost this week,
but like you know, the stories of Willie Mays with
the Mets are famous, you know, and they're famous for

(01:27:45):
a reason, and it's you know, you can go through
the history of sports.

Speaker 5 (01:27:48):
Patrick Ewing, where was he?

Speaker 4 (01:27:50):
The Sonics, the Orlando Magic, Hakeem Olajuan with the Raptors.
That happens for like a half a second. I can't
say I remember it. And by the way, it also,
let me be clear to the point that you just made.
I'm not saying that Clay would be the equivalent of
that in this era. I still think there's something left
in the tank, but it is the point you made

(01:28:11):
is the important one, is that he still has something
left in the tank. He still has value to a
very good team. But this is a salary cap league,
this is a Major League Baseball. You can't just sign
everybody and keep everybody and overpay for everybody. And it sucks,
but these are the tough decisions you have to make. Obviously,
you have some emerging young guys that are either on

(01:28:34):
cheap contracts or about to get paid, whatever the situation is,
and you just can't pay everybody. And it's, by the way,
we see this all the time, and it's always with
someone as as accomplished as Klay Thompson. But we see
this in the NFL all the time. You know, teams,
teams have success, everybody wants to get paid. Everybody can't
get paid. You got to make decisions on who stays

(01:28:56):
and who goes. So I don't really know, you know
what I really added beyond what you said, but this
is something that has gone on for a while. And
again it's just unfortunate because to your point, Clay still
has a lot left in the tank, but because of
some of the financial restrictions and because some of the
other things that they have to take care of, just
doesn't feel like he's much of a priority.

Speaker 2 (01:29:15):
When you're in a good relationship, you don't ever think
that that relationship is going to go south, you know,
And I like, i'd ask you you got anything going
on in your life that's like not exactly how you
envisioned it anything.

Speaker 5 (01:29:29):
Nothing terrible, but I know the point that you're getting to.

Speaker 2 (01:29:31):
Yeah, Like, I mean, I think that it's just sort
of it's something every person has to kind of go through,
which is that at some point or another, you've got
to get used to things being reality that you never
thought would be reality. And so what the Warriors are
are either letting go of or what Clay is deciding
to go do elsewhere is like the loss of a

(01:29:54):
vision that I think the organization had, he had, and
I know the thing Base had, which is those three
players being lifetime warriors hip.

Speaker 3 (01:30:06):
But what is that, you know, what is that worth?

Speaker 2 (01:30:09):
We could get into that, but the bigger thing is
is that's just something that we.

Speaker 5 (01:30:15):
Made up in our heads, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (01:30:17):
We made it up in our heads and were like,
that's the way it's gonna go. And then you arrived
at a spot like they offered him a deal at
the beginning of the year that I bet Aaron if
you got the Warriors in a quiet spot, they're pretty
damn thankful today that he said no. Sure, because if
he had said yes, that's twenty four million a year,

(01:30:40):
it's on the books and they are completely handcuffed right now.
And what they didn't know then is that that group
given a largely healthy season. I know Draymond kept getting
himself suspended, but largely a healthy season.

Speaker 3 (01:30:56):
That group wasn't even a playoff team.

Speaker 4 (01:30:59):
Well, let me ask you a quote. You cover this
on a day to day basis up in the Bay Area.
I mean, wasn't this reportedly, if not outwardly. The reason
that Bob Myers kind of stepped aside. He said, you know,
I've done a lot of great things. I can leave
with my legacy intact without having to be the bad
guy because I know tough decisions are coming.

Speaker 3 (01:31:18):
I don't know if it was all about legacy.

Speaker 2 (01:31:20):
I just think that after a certain point when you've
won four championships, and these people are completely different people
than who they were twelve years ago. They're icons now,
you know, their future Hall of Famers, teammates punching one
another like it's exhausting. It's exhausting to have that much attention,

(01:31:45):
that many egos balance all of it.

Speaker 3 (01:31:48):
I just think that that's my perception.

Speaker 2 (01:31:51):
And Bob would come on our station quite a bit,
and sure, he's only going to share so much.

Speaker 3 (01:31:56):
He's going to package it in a nice light.

Speaker 2 (01:31:58):
But a guy who's not even fifty years old yet,
I think, was just like, I need a break.

Speaker 3 (01:32:04):
Sure, this is just this is just a lot.

Speaker 4 (01:32:07):
Okay, well that's fair, and but it does speak to
what you said, is that it's not twenty sixty to
fifteen anymore, twenty fifth, sixteen, twenty eighteen.

Speaker 5 (01:32:16):
It's not even twenty twenty two.

Speaker 4 (01:32:17):
And like you know, Clay, listen, it's staking, by the way,
to your point, everybody deals with adversity. Nobody's the same
as they were seven or eight years ago. And physically
he's been through a lot and he's not the same. Yeah,
and he's not the same player, not the same defender.
You know, I'm not saying that you can just find
shooting anywhere. But what made him so unique was that

(01:32:41):
two way ability. Six foot seven, six foot eight, whatever
he is, six foot six, you know, I don't know,
it's just it's just you know, what do they say
like to you know, time stops for no man, And
it's just one of those tough situations where, like I said,
to kind of lead the segment is I feel bad
because I see both.

Speaker 5 (01:33:00):
He knows that he has something left in the tank.

Speaker 4 (01:33:03):
But the organization has to do what's best for the
By the way, again, I give them credit for what's
actually doing what's best for the organization rather than what
feels like is probably the right thing to do. Good
by a guy that's won you a lot of games
many many years ago.

Speaker 2 (01:33:20):
Watch us have that conversation, and next week they'll re
sign him to twenty million a year for three years
and do absolutely nothing different. That's it wouldn't shock me.
It kind of shocked me. But anyway, Aaron Torres is
in for Ephraim Mark Wellerd Aaron Torres, and surprisingly we
both have a very similar view on what is ailing

(01:33:42):
the WNBA through this process of growth, and it's got
nothing to do really with Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese
or or trying to beat up Caitlin on the floor,
and physic has had nothing to do with any of that.
In fact, it has nothing to do with it what
happens in the games at all. We'll get to that

(01:34:04):
coming up next on Fox Sports Radio. Okay, we'll live
TYRNK dot com studios. This is completely off the map.
But you know who Scott Hansen is Red Zone Channel.

Speaker 5 (01:34:19):
Yeah, he's excellent.

Speaker 2 (01:34:20):
Yeah, he's excellent. I love Scott. I love the Red
Zone Channel. And he's been doing this every single Sunday
before our show, and it catches my eye every single time.
He tweeted it out a few hours ago, eleven Sundays away, Wow,
my friends, eleven Sundays to go. Eleven more of these shows,

(01:34:44):
and I guess now, actually we're closer to ten, ten
more of these shows, and then we're playing football.

Speaker 4 (01:34:53):
It's it's wild because all year long, like I do
look forward to, you know, June July, a little bit slower,
get away with the family, do that whole thing. But
then you get here and you're like, I kind of
miss football, and it's the double edged sort of I
think we all know what like. It's the double edged

(01:35:14):
sort of we all know once we get into it,
exactly what it entails. And basically we have no social lives.
And oh, by the way, you just get into that
routine of you know, Thursday night into you know, I
watch obviously a lot of college football because of my show,
and to Sunday and to Monday, and then you do
it all over again.

Speaker 5 (01:35:35):
But you know what you're getting into.

Speaker 4 (01:35:40):
But then you're also like eh, but then it's there
and you love it and you're busy and you feel
fulfilled every time. I don't know, it's just it's an
interesting paradox. I guess that we live as sports broadcasters here.

Speaker 2 (01:35:53):
Yeah, absolutely no question about it.

Speaker 3 (01:35:56):
So I dig that. Enjoy whatever the hell you're doing
right then.

Speaker 2 (01:36:00):
So you don't need to figure that out or apologize
for that, Aaron.

Speaker 3 (01:36:04):
Just just enjoy whatever the hell you're doing right now.

Speaker 5 (01:36:06):
I'm hanging with you. What's better than that? Forget football?

Speaker 4 (01:36:09):
I got Willard, got Willard and Angel rece What more
can I ask for?

Speaker 2 (01:36:14):
Eh, Willard, Angel Reese or the National Football League?

Speaker 3 (01:36:17):
Anyway, Yeah, let's get into it.

Speaker 2 (01:36:20):
And glad you're with us, and by the way, quick reminder,
shortly after the show, the podcast goes up, So if
you missed any of today's show with Aaron Torres here,
be sure to check out the podcast. All you have
to do is search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get
those podcasts, and be sure to also follow rate review
the pod. And again, just search Fox Sports Radio wherever

(01:36:41):
you get your podcasts. You'll see this show posted right
after we get off the air. Plenty of time left, though,
And you said something before the show we were texting
and chatting, and it felt similar to me to something
I kind of went off about last week when Angel
Reese clocked Caitlin Clark in the head during a game

(01:37:05):
and was it a basketball play. Sure, I wasn't offended
by the play, but I was much more knocked off
course by the fact that she then spent her postgame
press conference talking about how Caitlyn gets a special whistle,
and I thought to myself, Gosh.

Speaker 3 (01:37:24):
You know what's going on here.

Speaker 2 (01:37:26):
This isn't about Caitlyn getting bullied because it's a very
physical league. This isn't so much about race, sexism. All
of the things that have come up in the conversation
about the WNBA.

Speaker 3 (01:37:42):
I think this has more to do.

Speaker 2 (01:37:44):
With the fact that the WNBA is so not used
to this level of attention that you get really odd
things happening in press conferences and on social media, and
we as consumers are like, whoa, what the hell was
that all about? Like, that's not how you do it,

(01:38:05):
And so maybe there's something actually good to that. I'm
not trying for everybody to be cookie cutter, but I
do wonder if the WNBA establishment understands that's a big
piece to the puzzle. For instance, when you forearms shiver
the girl in her back, and then after the game
when someone's like, hey, what was going on with Caitlin

(01:38:28):
and your answer is no, Caitlin Clark questions, please hold
on a second. Now, you just made it eight times
bigger than it was. So this is what the WNBA.
And I really don't want this to sound snooty. Please
sound the alarm if it does. Y'all don't need to

(01:38:49):
have this social national experiment that you're all having.

Speaker 3 (01:38:54):
You just need media training.

Speaker 2 (01:38:56):
Yes, that's it.

Speaker 5 (01:38:58):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (01:38:59):
This whole thing saying would be so much less if
everybody would just kind of learn how to play the
game when the microphones and cameras, come on.

Speaker 4 (01:39:09):
You know, it's the old it's the oldest saying. I
actually think it's a Bible verse. I'm not religious, but
to whom much is given, much is expected. And it's
like not a lot has been given up until this point,
but not a lot has been expected. And so it
is interesting because it feels like, you know, there's been
this sport has existed obviously, we know for twenty eight
years whatever it's been, and it feels like there's been

(01:39:31):
a very niche audience that's like really into it. Now
it's tiny, it's MIDI school. That's not I'm not trying
to be offensive either, sound the alarms. It's just the truth.

Speaker 5 (01:39:40):
But I also think.

Speaker 4 (01:39:41):
The media that covers it has all been super invested
in it and its success and whatever. And so I
bring it up because now that you are getting the
national exposure, now that you are getting you know, even
Fox Sports, like literally, like, I'll be honest, I did

(01:40:02):
plan part of my day.

Speaker 2 (01:40:03):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:40:03):
Part of it is I knew I was working with you,
but even if I wasn't, I did, for the first
time in my life, planned part of my day to say, hey,
let's make sure you're at least sort of in front
of the TV if anything happens in this this fever
Sky game. Now nothing did. And I think that's an
interesting conversation in and of itself of are all these

(01:40:24):
shows gonna try to manufacture something tomorrow or are they
gonna talk basketball or are they not gonna talk about
it at all? But that has been the biggest eye
opener to me, Willard is I just don't think anyone
was ready for this wave of interest that has. Clearly
they've said they're ready, they've said we want you and whatever.

(01:40:47):
But it's not just the players, by the way, the
coaches don't know what they're doing. By the way, can
I ask a question, I'm not trying to be sarcastic.
I haven't heard has the commit at any point said
anything the commissioner, who has been irrelevant. Has this thing
descend upon the heavens and make the sport matter? And

(01:41:11):
it's like every day this poor girl, Kaitlyn Clark, and
I do feel bad for her she finds herself in
the middle of a controversy. Can the commissioner speak out
and say one thing about whatever?

Speaker 5 (01:41:23):
What eve you know?

Speaker 4 (01:41:25):
Even Becky Hammond is at like it's just it speaks
to they've never had this spotlight. And I don't think
I think everybody's kind of freezing except for Kaitlyn Clark.
Kaitlyn Clark's just playing basketball and some days she's good
and some day she's not. But everybody else is like
overwhelmed by the moment and it's been kind of surreal

(01:41:45):
to see for guys like you and I who cover
the NFL, the NBA, major college football, major League baseball,
where this is just kind of par for the course.

Speaker 2 (01:41:53):
Well, yeah, I and I think that's why when it
just looks like everybody's offended all the time, yep, if
I had to say it in one sentence, that's what
it is. And you don't want that. That's not enticing
to fans. You don't want to just look offended all
the time. And the reason they look offended is because

(01:42:15):
people are starting to ask probing questions and are they
perfect questions? No, there's a lot of people that aren't
used to covering the WNBA or watching it that are
new to the party. You can get mad at them
for having not been at the party for the last
twenty years, or you can say welcome to the party.
You could do this.

Speaker 3 (01:42:35):
One of two ways.

Speaker 2 (01:42:36):
So are there going to be stupid questions?

Speaker 3 (01:42:38):
Yes? Are there going to be stupid comments from fans?

Speaker 2 (01:42:41):
Yes, if you take a holier than now, I'm mad
that you said that tone. Well, now you're out casting
these people as opposed to handling it the way. For example,
I watched the NHL do this for years. Guys in
hockey locker rooms for years, we're always known as the

(01:43:04):
nicest dudes and whether you like hockey, and we almost
never talk hockey, and I'm not even the biggest hockey fan,
but when I covered hockey, I very much got the
feeling that the players were aware of. Look, that question
might be stupid, but we want you here. We want
you here. So I'm not going to now crush you

(01:43:24):
on the top of the head because you just asked
a stupid question. I'm gonna explain it to you like
your four yes, and then I'm gonna shake your hand
and say see you tomorrow. We got another game. And
so that'd be my only suggestion to the w NBA.
Stop getting mad at everybody for what we all admit

(01:43:45):
may sound stupid to you. Sorry, most of us just
got here.

Speaker 4 (01:43:51):
We did, and and sorry, I'm just blown away, Peah.
I just think the thing that I have noticed, it
doesn't feel like anybody was ready for this moment, and
I think pretty much everybody operated essentially in obscurity, and
so when nobody's paying attention, you can kind of do whatever.
The commissioner can kind of never be a public front

(01:44:12):
facing figure. You can't be that if you're Roger Goodell
or Adam Silver or Rob Manfred or even Gary Bettman.
You know these, some of these coaches, I think if
embarrassed themselves. You know, the Minnesota Lynks coach, who's the
Olympic coach, who who was liking tweets that were basically
negative about Caitlin Clark.

Speaker 5 (01:44:29):
It's just it's such a weird deal.

Speaker 4 (01:44:33):
And I'll be curious by the way, again, I know
I mentioned in a minute ago, but the sky Fever
game was pretty entertaining. Today there was Angel Reese was
awesome and she didn't say anything controversial, she didn't do
anything controversial as best as I saw, none of her
teammates than anything controversial. So I am curious, like, is
there a conversation tomorrow and does it actually revolve around

(01:44:56):
basketball because that's gonna see that's that's where there will
actually be growth in the sport. Because it has felt
like the last couple of weeks the discourse has just
gone completely off the rails so many times. But it
is interesting to think about. It's just like, I don't
think anybody was really ready for this moment. I don't
think anybody realized how just how big this was going
to be. And here we are talking WNBA.

Speaker 3 (01:45:19):
You know, I fully agree.

Speaker 2 (01:45:21):
You know who's ready for the moment though, is Steve
de Seger, always, always and forever ready for the moment?

Speaker 5 (01:45:28):
Steve, Hello, there here it is.

Speaker 7 (01:45:31):
I love your hockey analogy, by the way, because as
one who covered the NHL in the nineties when hockey
was new into the West in cities like Anaheim and
San Jose, the great one Wayne Gretzky was always very
conscious of growing the game. It didn't matter what went
on in the ice that may be bad for him.

(01:45:51):
He always, as you said, had the proper response and
gave people time. The best example is one Gretzky game
I covered in LA. They lost, couldn't score at the
end despite a six on four advantage. Final Horn sounds.
Gretzky takes his stick and pounds it over the top
of the goal until it busts in half, and takes
the remaining half a hockey stick in his hand and

(01:46:14):
hurls it up against the backboards and skates off the
ice to the locker room. Fifteen minutes later, he's standing
in front of his locker and answering literally any question
that we had for as long as we needed to
speak to him.

Speaker 2 (01:46:26):
There you go.

Speaker 7 (01:46:27):
The great one was the greatest.

Speaker 2 (01:46:29):
You have to be ready for us to be like,
so is the ice cold? And then like just be
like it is it is. I'm glad you asked that.
That's the worst question in the history of ever. But
I'm so glad you asked that, And thank you for
being here my locker. We'll see again tomorrow.

Speaker 7 (01:46:44):
And no WNBA games tomorrow. By the way, After four today,
including the Chicago win over Indiana eighty eight eighty seven,
Angel reached twenty five points sixteen rebounds. Caitlin clarke In
defeats seventeen points thirteen assists. We'd mentioned it on a
Weekend and show before the scheduling this year for the WNBA,
they're gonna have the sendoff game for Team USA before

(01:47:07):
it leaves for Paris as the All Star Game on
July the twentieth in Phoenix, WNBA All Stars against Team
USA Women, and then it's a month break for the
WNBA season. It'll resume in mid August and go till September.
Just saying MLB, the New York Mets got to win
over the Cubs in Chicago, five to two, that's not

(01:47:29):
the story. The Mets last year had a couple of
pitchers kicked out because they failed what's called a substance check.
You've seen the umpires literally grab the hands of a
pitcher to see if they're clean, or look at his glove,
something like that. Well, closer Edwin Diaz of the Mets
was thrown out tonight to start the bottom of the
ninth before he faced a hit her due to a

(01:47:51):
foreign substance on his hand, and the cable camera close
up of the hand showed that it was let's say, discolored.
Something was up.

Speaker 5 (01:48:00):
It looked weird.

Speaker 7 (01:48:00):
Yeah, yeah, this is Edwin Diaz, who was the closer
in the National League just two short years ago. Had
an EER for the full season at one point three
to one. He was a phenomenon. He had about sixty
innings pitched in almost one hundred and twenty strikeouts that year.

Speaker 2 (01:48:15):
Oh and the intro and the intro trump You don't
leave out the intro. That was the best thing I've
seen in baseball.

Speaker 7 (01:48:21):
Now he had come in. You know, Yankee fans had
their Mario on our Vera entrance for years. Mets finally
had theirs when Diaz would come into the game and
the Tommy trumpet playing. And by the way, with Mets
fan Jason Smith on tomorrow night, you might be hearing
that tune in Derision throughout the show tomorrow, that's my guess.
But Edwin Diaz didn't play at all last year due

(01:48:42):
to injury and has not been good this year. Eer
four point seven zero, So is he kind of trying something?
The umpires would say, Yes, he was kicked out for
a reason and therefore facing a ten game suspension. Tonight,
Texas beak Kansas City for nothing. Max Scherzer, who once
got an trouble for the same thing, hasn't met, made
a season debut with Texas through five innings and got

(01:49:05):
the four nothing win against the Royals. Today, Shrzer retired
the first thirteen batters. At the College World Series, Tennessee
stayed alive, beating Texas A and M four to one
to force a Game three of the best of three finals. Tomorrow.
US men's soccer defeated Bolivia two nothing in its Copa
America opener. Christian Polisics scored in the third minute. The
US will play Panama on Thursday in Atlanta. Panama is

(01:49:26):
losing late one nothing to Uruguay in Miami on Fox
TV right now. At the Euro Soccer Tournament Germany, the
host tied Switzerland won to one with a late goal.
Christopher Bell took the NASCAR Race, and Scottie Scheffler won
the Travelers in a playoff in Connecticut, his sixth victory
this season. Scheffler in the so called signature events, the

(01:49:47):
big money limited field events that the PGA Tour has now,
He's played in seven of the eighth they've had. In
those seven events, he's earned about seventeen million dollars just
in those seven turn he's won four of them. If
you include everything this year, including the Masters, it's over
twenty seven and a half million just in the on

(01:50:08):
course earnings for Scottie Scheffler back to.

Speaker 3 (01:50:11):
You great stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:50:13):
See appreciate it so much, along with Aaron Torres in
for e from Mark Willard TYRAQ dot Com Studios, Fox
Sports Radio. I'm just looking at this based on what
we've talked about a lot tonight, and I'm thinking not
just Klay Thompson. I'm also looking at Brandon Ingram and

(01:50:34):
Paul George and Kevin.

Speaker 3 (01:50:37):
Durant and boy who knows where this goes?

Speaker 2 (01:50:41):
Does it go to Joel mb Does it go to Giannis,
Jimmy Butler, Donovan Mitchell, Damar DeRozan. We could keep going
and going, Like, I'm really wondering what we're about to
encounter in terms of how this deck gets shuffled in

(01:51:05):
the NBA and if it does help sort of create
a different kind of excitement level for this season. It's
it's been a minute now that that July is one
of the most interesting months in the NBA season, even
though there are no games.

Speaker 4 (01:51:22):
No doubt, I mean what we're talking about this time.
I mean it felt like it felt like we as
a collective industry like probably dragged that Dame Lillard, you know,
trade demand. I mean, we we made like a solid
five weeks worth of content out of that. I mean,
granted they took a while to trade them, but I
just remember it was like every day there were no updates,

(01:51:42):
and it was like, oh, well, the heat haven't cold,
what does it mean, let's lead the show with it
for four straight days. You know, It's like so some years,
some years it's certainly more interesting than others. But there's
no doubt that July now and a lot of the
same way that you know, March's kind of NFL Free
agents se time, it feels like July has become NBA

(01:52:04):
hot stove season. And unfortunately I'm not the first or
one hundredth person to say this. In many ways, it
feels like that part becomes more interesting than oftentimes the
games themselves.

Speaker 2 (01:52:13):
No doubt, no doubt. By the way, with only eleven
and now ten Sundays left before we're talking red zone
before we get out of here. Coming up next, they
say they're the flagship franchise for the entire NFL. Then
why has it been so damn quiet this offseason?

Speaker 3 (01:52:33):
Let's get into that. Coming up next on Fox.

Speaker 2 (01:52:35):
Sports Radio, Okay Tyre rag dot Com Studios, Aaron tours
in for Ephraim, this has been fun tonight, man, and
I had no doubt that it would be.

Speaker 4 (01:52:44):
I was just telling Mary and Pat show flew on by,
and by the way, in June when there's not as
much to talk about, you know, you know we're having
a good sign when the show flies on by. So
I appreciate you having me. I had a blast as well.
You know, listen, I know you love working with you.
But you know, if he you know, if he ever
needs another Sunday off and you want to make call
the bullpen, your boy Toras pretty much will be ready

(01:53:07):
for the most part.

Speaker 3 (01:53:08):
So this this won't be our last show. I have
no doubt about that.

Speaker 2 (01:53:12):
Just as a conduit to a larger conversation, I want
to ask you if you know right now who is
listed as the starting running back for the Dallas Cowboys.
You know what it is.

Speaker 5 (01:53:27):
It's not Zeke Elliott?

Speaker 1 (01:53:28):
Is it?

Speaker 5 (01:53:29):
Did he?

Speaker 3 (01:53:29):
He's? It is is Ezekiel Elliott.

Speaker 5 (01:53:33):
Oh my goodness, what do I get?

Speaker 2 (01:53:35):
Maybe you you get a free trip into a conversation
about why the Cowboys offseason has looked and sounded like this.
I'm I'm scratching my head at uh at such a level. Now,
Doc Prescott is is due for an extension. Ceedee Lamb

(01:53:58):
is due for an extent. You brought Ezekiel Elliott back
to be your starting running back. While productive, he does
not have the look of a star anymore.

Speaker 5 (01:54:12):
He's a Clay Timson a football.

Speaker 3 (01:54:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:54:14):
The Dallas Cowboys have largely looked at their offseason and
seemingly not been aware that they're allowed to upgrade the roster.
And that's coming off of a year where they, along
with the Miami Dolphins, I would argue, were the biggest
paper tigers in the NFL. Good team, good team, can't
beat other good teams, but a good enough team to

(01:54:36):
beat all the teams you're supposed to beat, So good job.
I thought that this owner was always about being the flagship,
was always about getting people talking. They have had the
biggest head scratcher of an offseason of any NFL team
in the entire league.

Speaker 4 (01:54:56):
So it's interesting because we had this not argument, this
converse on My Saturday show last night. Is I actually
think there's a lot of parallels with the Lakers. The
conversation we had with the Lakers where we think because
of that star or because of the purple and gold
that the organization operates a certain way that we just

(01:55:17):
have no factual proof that it does right. Like, I mean,
just go back to the Cowboys' playoff last year. They're
at home. Great regular season, as you said, probably payper tiger,
but whatever, get get there at home and get destroyed
by the Green Bay Packers. Youngest team in the end,
I think they were the youngest team to make the

(01:55:37):
playoffs in this many years. And I only bring it
up because what was the conversation. It was like, well,
I mean, there's no way Jerry is gonna put up
with this, and Bill Belichick's available, and Pete Carroll's available,
and like that, they're kind of I mean is Belichick
And it's like have you been paying attention? Like that's
not who Jerry Jones has been for a long time now.
That doesn't fully explain what's going on this off season.

(01:56:02):
But I just don't think they are the team that
you think that they are. They've actually weirdly drafted well
historically for the most part, they've kind of overpaid guys
a lot, like the Lakers, probably more than they should.
That has not obviously been the case this offseason. I
know they're renegotiating a bunch of things. Are they going
to give Dak the extension?

Speaker 5 (01:56:21):
Are they not?

Speaker 4 (01:56:23):
I just don't think they're the organization that people think
that they are, If that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (01:56:28):
Yeah, Like, I think it's a very very fair point
right now. And does that mean resting on Laurels? Could
it be kind of looked out another way? I guess so.
But the whole thing is a head scratcher to me.
If you're not going to actively go out there and

(01:56:49):
make the team better, I think the excuses are there.
You could say, look financially, you know, Dak Prescott, Ceedee Lamb,
okay so so Dak Prescott and cdee Lamb. Like, I
don't know why it sounds like this. I live in
the Bay Area. There's not one day right now this

(01:57:11):
offseason where people aren't talking about Brandon Ayuk same draft
as Ceedee Lamb. People are talking about this every day.
Ayuk is putting stuff on Instagram. He's furious this negotiation.
That is this the final year? Are they gonna have
to drop debo after the year. Brock Perty's contract is

(01:57:31):
gonna be these extension eligible next March.

Speaker 3 (01:57:35):
That's a big deal. There's all this going on.

Speaker 2 (01:57:38):
The Cowboys have their quarterback and their receiver, the two
biggest names on their offense are sitting right here having
no clue what their future is, and the Cowboys just
have their feet up on an automan as if the
season doesn't start in ten Sundays.

Speaker 7 (01:57:56):
But it does.

Speaker 5 (01:57:58):
It's really strange.

Speaker 4 (01:58:00):
The only thing I can think of I've heard people
kind of make this argument is listen, you got you
gotta lock up CD long term, right, But a lot
of people have said, listen, Dak, you've kind of I mean,
the situations he's been put into, I mean, comes in
as a young quarterback. The old line is probably the
best in the league. You get a young zeke a
year or two later, whatever it is. And I've heard

(01:58:21):
the argument. I don't know if I really believe it
that it's kind of like, Okay, you want that extension,
go ahead and improve it this year. Prove that you belong,
that you deserve it, because we're not going to give
you every little piece to work with. Again, I don't
know that I ultimately believe that, but that's some stuff
that I've heard, just from the perspective of, like, you know,
you want that whatever, whatever the new number is. I know,

(01:58:42):
Trevor Lawrence just got two seventy five or whatever it was.
You want that forty five, fifty, fifty two, whatever the
number becomes, go ahead and improve that.

Speaker 5 (01:58:51):
You deserve it. That's the only real thing I can
think of.

Speaker 2 (01:58:54):
I mean, the teams do have more leverage than we
give them credit for, at least when you're talking about receivers.

Speaker 3 (01:59:00):
The market has gone crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:59:02):
But these guys they're gonna have to play on their
fifty year option. It doesn't help them to sit the
year out or anything like that. Quarterbacks that's a little different.
You don't have the leverage. Like if you have one,
you pay the going rate, whether it feels right or not.
Like I laugh when people are like, whis your pay

(01:59:22):
prock perty fifty? You have no choice.

Speaker 5 (01:59:25):
Of course you're.

Speaker 3 (01:59:26):
Gonna pay him fifty.

Speaker 2 (01:59:27):
Jared Goff got over fifty.

Speaker 4 (01:59:31):
I don't disagree at all. Yet it's bizarre situation in Dallas.

Speaker 3 (01:59:35):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely all right, my man. Fantastic to have you,
and I know that we're gonna do it again.

Speaker 5 (01:59:42):
Thank you for having me, man. I appreciate you absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:59:45):
For Aaron Torres, I'm Mark Willard Plank and span, you
are coming up next, Keep it locked right here.

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