Mark Willard & Ephraim Salaam React to a Historic NBA Trade, Knicks Hiring Mike Brown & More!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You don't listening to Fox Sports Radio. I wonder if
you can get this right, my man. From first of all,
been a couple of weeks since you and I have
gotten a chance to wrap it up and do this
dank thing. So how you been, my man?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
I'm good like so let me just people hitting me like,
oh but did you get fired and all that.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Listen, listen.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
So June for me is everything everything, So in a
ten day period, it's my birthday, my anniversary, my son's birthday.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
And my wife's birthday.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
All in June, and so it's it's one of those
things where number one, it's a very expensive month. Number two,
I try to dedicate that time to them because I
work year round NonStop.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
So as you should, I try to, you know, do things.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
And most of the time it's okay, But occasionally those
days fall squarely on a Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, there's no you don't need to explain yourself for
any of these, but maybe I can make you feel
better with regard to the expense that you reference there
here in the month of June.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
Even though now it's the month of July.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yes, I would like to congratulate you on having that
very expensive month be halfway to the holiday season, because
I have the exact same month that you have here
in June. I have it in January and February. Wow, okay,
no joke, no joke. From like January sixth to about

(01:49):
February fifth is my birthday. Actually, if we extend it
even further, in February, it's my birthday, it's both of
my son's birthdays, it's my daughter's birthirthday, it's my girl's birthday,
and it's my girl's girl's birthday, all in about forty days. Whoa,
and it comes right after the holidays when your boys

(02:09):
got nothing left.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
I got no more.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
I got no more room to be wrapping anything done
in January and February. So good job on you to
do it halfway through the year.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Well yeah, yeah, you know, it's that's just well thought out.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Anyway. Could have talked to you, my man to talk
to you. Missed you last week?

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, I know, I know. It was kind of.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
And I was a short notice when Scott got mad
at me, because I was like, oh he did, yeah,
oh yeah, you got mad at me. I was like,
you know, Scott be going on vacation. None of us vacation,
but Scott be going and no, I shout out to Scott.
He's great. Uh that's the best. Yeah he is, he
really is. And I was like, oh my gosh, I
for my wife's birthday is on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
And I was like, oh oh oh, and that thing
I have planned.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
There is not a three hour chunk that I could
excuse myself and then.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Just pop back up right right. So I hit him.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Mom was like, look, man, I know this is late,
but I please. I was like, I'll call someone. You
don't he's on vacay. I'm like, you don't have to
worry about it. I'll call it and make the arrangements.
He was like, no, I got it. Just give me
a heads.

Speaker 4 (03:27):
Up, little heads up next time.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
And then and then you followed that up by admitting
on the radio that you forgot it was your wife's birthday.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
I forgot it was on I had already been planning.
I forgot it was on the Sunday. Oh see, like
I forgot I had to work.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Dad.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
I didn't forget the birthday.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
No, Now you just admitted something else. Now, you know,
you want to know how you know when somebody is
successful in life, When they don't know what day it is.
That's when you know. That's what I believe me. I
got you, I feel you. But my parents they've done
well for themselves. They're retired and they do that. Every
time we talk. They're like, you know, we're gonna We're

(04:06):
gonna see you next week and I'm like.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
Well, I will say, I don't know you schedule.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
They tend to run together, especially in the summer when
the kids are in school. At least them being in
school keeps me on on track. But you know, I
was just every day is at the day in the summer,
you know, So every day.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Is that, That's what it is. What's today?

Speaker 3 (04:28):
It's today, It's today.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
That's that's what today is. Really good. Well, and again,
welcome back, glad to wrap with you for an evening.
And I got a real thing that I need to
talk out with you because I think I've I think
I've kind of reached I don't want to say the
end of my rope.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
That makes it sound like I'm all frustrated and annoyed.
I'm not not that.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
I just think something has expired here and I need
to talk it out with you. This is kind of
like why a rocket scientist is not real popular at
a party because when the rocket scientist gets in the
corner and you get a drink in your right hand,
you get a little snack there on the left, and
they start talking to you. I don't know what you're saying.

(05:09):
I don't understand what you're saying. That's not a rip
on you, it's a rip on me. I don't know
what you're saying. And in this analogy, the rocket scientist
is the NBA.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
Oh, I've had it. What are you doing?

Speaker 5 (05:25):
What?

Speaker 6 (05:26):
Seven team trade and this team has this bird right,
and that team has this exception and the money does match,
but it doesn't have to match in.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
This particular case. And you could take fifty cents on
the dollar in that trade. But in that trade over there,
this team's taking money back. What are you all doing?
You've just confused us and all of our aprons. I'm
tired of it. When I see a trade in the
NFL or Major League Baseball, I get it. I'm like, oh,
this team gave up those players, and that team gave

(05:59):
up the these players. But in the NBA, it's like no, no, no,
I know it looks like they didn't get anything.

Speaker 4 (06:05):
Back.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
But you know what they got. They got a trade exception. Okay,
explain that to me. Well, see now here. What we
mean by that is at some point over the next
two Good lord, my brain hurts. The NBA's got to
do something about this.

Speaker 4 (06:18):
Man.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
They went and gave everything to their CBA and this
thing got so damn complex. There's two people in the world.
One of them's name is Bobby Marks, the other one's
name is Eric Pinks. And then pretty much after that,
you have to be a GM of a team to
understand this stuff. And so you're gonna tell me that
Kevin Durant, who got traded three weeks ago, actually now

(06:39):
we're gonna welcome five more teams to the party, list
a bunch of assets and names that none of us
have ever heard of, and tell us that that is how.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
This deal came together. I don't know, man, I'm out.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
The NBA and its off season is starting to feel
like reading a really really long book. It has no
pictures in it.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
Oh that's the worst, you know. Well, for me, I
have a cheat.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
I have a super producer, uh and his name is
Ian and I'm going to bring him in and he's
going to explain it to me like I'm six.

Speaker 7 (07:12):
Okay, well my six year old hosts here. Let's see,
Phoenix will be receiving Jalen Green, Dylan Brooks, come on, Maluak,
Kobe Brea, Rasher Fleming, d Kwon Plowden, and a second
round pick Houston.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
I knew who two of those players were. Stood the
second round pick part lost to me with the other
guys lst of it was a bunch of consonants.

Speaker 7 (07:36):
And that's just one team. So yeah, Houston receives Kevin
Durant and Clint Capella. So a lot of those guys.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
Uh that that's six players for two right so far and.

Speaker 8 (07:46):
A pick Lakers receive.

Speaker 7 (07:49):
I apologize to the player, I'm pronouncing his name wrong,
but it's I do. Thiero Tierro Atlanta receives David Roddy
good last name, second round swap and cash. Minnesota receives
Rocko Zakarski two second round picks, Yeah, mad and generated
two k generated. Uh Warriors receive Alex Touwey and jemimshok

(08:14):
My shock Uh and Brooklyn receives two second round picks.
And that is the total details of the trader.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Now do you know why other people had to be
involved in all of that.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
No, I couldn't tell you.

Speaker 8 (08:26):
I'll tell you all that, Okay, just that they were.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
I'm going to take a shot at it. It's so
much money, right, It's so much money that people have
to clear, move, receive. Then you have to start throwing
a bunch of antillary stuff in. And now why the
need for five other teams to make that happen is

(08:54):
crazy to me. It's like, you know, playing in the
bottle when you're in high school and everybody gets a
spind right, it's just no telling who's going into the
closet for ten seconds or whatever the rules of that is.
But it can be a bit daunting, especially when you're

(09:15):
moving assets people haven't ever heard of, right. Like it's
almost like in baseball when you when they do a
trade and you got three minor league players that no
one has ever heard of for you know, this picture
or this left fielder. It gets convoluted when you don't

(09:40):
have the greatest thing. And it was very shocking. But
the greatest thing about the Laker Dallas Mavericks trade was
it was like, we're gonna give you Luca right for
Anthony Davis and uh, Christy right, and then it was

(10:03):
like good and you're good.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
I'm good good.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
Picking or something like that.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
Somebody got a pick maybe or I don't know, but yeah,
like I understood.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
It, like that is trade for the layman, like like
that is like, oh, okay, I understand that this good
player goes for that good player because this player is
younger and is a really good player. We're gonna sweeten
it with that player and this thing over here that
may or may not turn it into anything. Now when
you add five other teams to that negotiation money, because

(10:35):
there is like money involved, and then there's second round
picks and there's just pick swap, and then they're these
guys who.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
You know to it's it's a lot, and you're right,
it's a lot.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Well, and then can I add something further to it,
Like let's take one of those names out of the
three hundred and fourteen that Ian just said to us,
one of them is Clint Capella. Now, I was told
a week ago that Clint Capella signed a free agent
contract with the Houston Rockets.

Speaker 4 (11:11):
That's what I was told. That's not what happened.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Now, Now, Clint Capella is a part of a trade
to the Houston Rockets. So and and yes, in the
most layman's terms, I can say, why are you adding
all of these other teams and players and assets in?
It is, quite frankly, so that owners don't have to
spend more money. It's it's to make all of the

(11:36):
money add up and make sense so that everybody can
fit this under their cap or their apron or their
luxury tax threshold or whatever, which is another aspect that
you and I have already talked about that people don't understand.
And and so that's all that I'm getting at. I
don't even know how to assess these deals anymore. Like

(11:58):
if Ian went all of that again, do you know
what most people, if someone went, Okay, i's gonna read
all that to you. Now, spit it out back to me.
What happened in this trade? Ninety eight percent of America
would go the Rockets got Kevin Durant.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yes, that's the trade.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
The Rockets got Kevin Durant. Then there was a bunch
of other words exactly. And so I just it's not
that there's a problem with the deal. There's just a
problem with the translation right now. And I think that
the NBA offseason July fourth used to be really fun.
You remember, remember, like there would be news breaking constantly.

Speaker 4 (12:39):
And people were I mean speaking to Kevin Durant.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
Remember when he like signed with the Warriors and people
were like, WHOA, Kevin Durant signed with the Warriors. I'm like,
I understood that that was a sentence. I could go
to work the next day and be like, Kevin Durant
signed with the Warriors. Now, what on earth is going seven?
This is a quarter of the league that it's involved
in this deal. On some level, I just think that

(13:05):
this so many unintended consequences with what has happened with
the CBA, and one of them is that this stuff
is now operating over the heads of the majority of
the fans.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
Yeah, that's another way that they can alienate the fan
base perfect fairly watch the finals.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
So yeah, there's that part.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
I mean, we're in the Fox Sports radio studios, and
I mean, I'll tell you another thing or two why
this is kind of it's so dangerous with regard to
the way this is all being translated to actual fans.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
We'll get into this.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
The Lebron thing I really want to ask you about
because I don't even know exactly what the Lebron thing is.
I mean, you notice that there's like this tone that's
just on the internet. It's like Lebron, that might happen,
and a half the league is like, yeah, Lebron, And
I'm like, what what does this mean? Like he picked

(14:09):
up his option, but he doesn't want to be there.
Maybe he does want to be there. We got a
lot to get to and my man, are we at
Is it at sixty three days? Is that right now? Yeah?
Nine Sundays, nine Sundays. Beautiful? All right, let's hang out
here on a Sunday afternoons, last evening. That's e from Salama,
Mark Weather. This is Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 9 (14:33):
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Would mean a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey. You'd ask, what in God's name
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Speaker 3 (14:49):
Picture if you will?

Speaker 4 (14:50):
A world will?

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We chat with captains of industry in media, sports, and
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Speaker 10 (15:03):
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Speaker 1 (15:15):
All right here in the Foxsports Radio studios. Mark Willard
and he from salom Be sure to check out the
Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel. Ton of great videos from
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(15:37):
Fox Sports Radio videos on YouTube.

Speaker 4 (15:40):
He from this probably doesn't land at your doorstep.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
I'm not sure. Maybe it does, but I'll tell you what,
as someone who does local radio Monday through Friday, and
there's one team in particular therefore that gets followed a lot.
In my particular case, it's the Golden State Warriors. But
it doesn't matter in any team what I hear because

(16:03):
of the lack of understanding amongst fans with what actually
goes on in an NBA off season. Do you notice
that every single fan base thinks they're getting Yannis. Of course,
I don't know if you've noticed this, but it is
simply and I don't blame the fans for this anymore.
Fans are lined up to not only hope and call

(16:28):
for their team to do a certain thing, but then
get angry when they don't. They are lined up and
they've been to their trade machine or something, and they've
decided that their team better go big this offseason. They
better go big, and if they don't, they're cowardly. And

(16:49):
I'm sitting here listening to this constantly on loop, and
I'm thinking to myself, do eighty percent of you fans
realize the team you're talking about couldn't.

Speaker 4 (17:00):
Do that if they wanted to.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
Couldn't do it.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
They couldn't do that if they wanted to, unless you
are an advocate. And I know you're not supposed to
care about someone else's money, but if you're an advocate
of your team A blowing up the next ten years
of its existence or B, and sometimes it's not even
or B, it's and B and calling for your owners

(17:25):
to essentially spend one hundred dollars on every dollar. So like,
I'm gonna go sign y'all, it's for fifty million. It's
actually gonna cost our team five hundred million dollars. But
fans are like, great, it's worth it. Whoo partay, Like
this is not your friend's backyard Fourth of July party.

(17:49):
People are out here running businesses and the rules prevent
them from doing what feels like at least three quarters
of what I hear fans call for. And it's the
fans fault. It's again that the NBA is operating in
a space that no one.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
Understands, and that's I think that's the thing. Everybody thinks
Yannis number one wants to come to their franchise, Yep
number two, that they can make that happen their franchise,
and it's just not possible. But we're lost in the
weeds because of all the rigamarole that we talked about
in the first segment, the language and that this has

(18:27):
to do this Jannis can get to Golden State if
we had a nineteen trade and.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
You move, it's just I mean, it's it's a lot.
It's a lot.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
And you know, Jannis hasn't even said he wanted to
be traded yet, right, So there's that. Now, if he
does leave, you know, where does Jiannis go? Where would
be a good fit for Jannis in your opinion?

Speaker 1 (18:56):
In my OPINIONAI, how about that Miami Heat. And I'm
kind of pulling that out of my wahoo. But for
multiple reasons. One, I hear that a lot because that's
a team that I think from a financial perspective, I

(19:18):
know they don't have cap space. There's only one team
that's got a ton of cap space, but they probably
have some things I think that make it maneuverable, and
so there's a way to make it fit. Number Two,
we know that Miami is one of about five or
six NBA Star Destination cities. Number Three, it's the Eastern Conference.

(19:41):
If I'm honest, like hell, I'm going to the West.
I don't care what team name you want to spit
out my answers, No, I don't know why I would
do that if my goal is to get to the
NBA Finals. I don't know that it's ever been easier
out of one conference versus the other than it is
right now in the Eastern Conference. I mean, honestly, who's

(20:03):
winning that conference next year?

Speaker 4 (20:05):
Who do you like?

Speaker 1 (20:05):
Who?

Speaker 4 (20:06):
I mean, who do you like? Like? Any team right now.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
H exactly, No, I was, it's so much uncertainty and
so many pieces that are missing that it truly is
wide open. Totally truly is wide open. Now, you know,
we know who's not gonna win it the Pacers.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
It's not gonna be the Pacers. It's not gonna be
the Celtics.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
It's gonna be the Celtics.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
And if you're honest, we're to leave. It's not gonna
be the Bock.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
Not gonna be the Bucks, not even if he doesn't leave,
I don't think so, right.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
Not gonna be the Wizards.

Speaker 4 (20:50):
No, you could eliminate most of them.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
It's not gonna be Yeah, it's not gonna be the Hornets,
it's not gonna be the Nets. Not gonna be the Raptors. Yeah,
I mean Cleveland is I guess. I guess they're kind
of bringing their people back.

Speaker 3 (21:02):
Yeah, I think Cleveland has a shot.

Speaker 4 (21:04):
You know, the Knicks.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
I think the Knicks, although I would scratch them off
the list with the hiring of Mike Brown.

Speaker 5 (21:10):
Oh ooh, I'd love to hear more about that, Okay,
I'd love to give you a little bit of that
after we get a little oh well, a lot of
bit of this, because that's what I've been missing these
two weeks.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
Not you, I know, but this man, smooth jowls disagre.

Speaker 8 (21:31):
That's who jowls. Actually. US men's soccer is playing Mexico
from Houston in the Gold Cup Final right now on
Fox TV. The Americans scored early. It's now one one.
They are in the sixty third minutes. Mexico answered with
a goal in the twenty seventh minute. Mexico has sixty
five percent of the possession, is out shooting the young

(21:53):
American squad nine to four so far. Game has tied
one one in the second half. This is our regional
Champion Chip game in the WNBA. We already had wins
for Las Vegas and Seattle, and right now Minnesota with
a record of sixteen and two leeds at home sixty
two fifty eight over Chicago was seven minutes to go.
NASCAR Chicago Street Race went to Shane Van Gisberg and

(22:16):
Scott Dixon took the IndyCar Race at mid Ohio. At Wimbledon,
number one seed Arena Sablenca won our fourth round match
on the PGA Tour. Brian Campbell won in a playoff
Live Golf was off. It'll be in Spain next weekend.
As for Major League Baseball, they did announce the All
Star reserves and pitchers. They include an injured pitcher from
the Braves, Chris Sale. If anybody, I'll just say this

(22:39):
in advance, if anybody saying, ah, that pitcher should have
made the All Star team, hold on. They're going to
be spots open. Not every pitcher that was selected today
is actually going to suit up and take the field
come a week from Tuesday. We've got Cardinals at Cubs
in the Sunday night ball game. The Cubs are leading
three to nothing over Saint Louis in the bottom of
the third. Starting up in a half an hour, it's

(23:01):
the Padres hosting Texas. San Diego pitcher you Darvish is
due to make his season debut on Monday after a
bad elbow, and there is an even later game for
this Sunday night, the A's hosting the Giants ten pm
Eastern time. Why are the A's playing the Giants at
ten pm Eastern time? Well, if you've been in Sacramento
in the summer, you might have an answer to that.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
Oh yeah, it is a.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
Nightcad hoping that the players don't die. That's why.

Speaker 8 (23:26):
So I'm sure it was in the nineties there again
today and no no day game there. And by the way,
that makes me think in advance, when the A's in
three years, we assume move on to Las Vegas.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
Much cooler there.

Speaker 8 (23:38):
Yeah, it'll be much cooler. It's a much better market
to go to. They have recently broken ground on a
new ballpark on the Las Vegas Strips.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Gotta be inside right, absolutely, yes, possibly, which is.

Speaker 8 (23:50):
Of course increasing the cost of the whole thing. It's
only supposed to seat thirty three thousand fans and cost
one point seventy five billion dollars, but it is expected
to be finished in time for the twenty twenty eight season.
It's where the Tropicana used to be, across from MGM.
They've imploded the Tropicana, so literally it's on the strip.
You could walk from there across the street not only

(24:11):
to MGM, but the other way to the hockey Arena.
The ballpark is getting some assistance in construction, of course,
from the state of Nevada and the county. They've already
approved up to three hundred and eighty million in public
funds for that project. The interesting part to me is
air conditioning in the new place in Vegas is going
to be distributed through the seats instead of through a

(24:32):
centralized system. So let's see how that works. The Washington
Nationals are saying this is not working, so they fired
manager Dave Martinez and GM Mike Rizzo. The Nationals are
last in the NL East, thirty seven and fifty three.
In fact, the Nats lost at home six to four
to Boston. Houston beat the Dodgers in LA again five
to one. Wins for Kansas City Seattle, and Colorado defeated

(24:55):
the Chicago White Sox six to four. It still counts
as a win. The White Sox on the road are
eleven and thirty six. Colorado at home now ten and
thirty six.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
Back to you, let's go. Hey, by the way, can
we circle back for a minute to where you started.
Ian and I were talking about this during a break
earlier this hour, and I'd love for you to re explain,
seeing as this is being played again during our show.
Soccer Yeah, re explain, yees, soccer re explain why America

(25:26):
being tied in the second half of a championship round
does not actually mean that the US men's national team
is good.

Speaker 8 (25:36):
They're using not all their veteran players, Guys that were
good enough to be based in Europe play for clubs
over there, and people like the star the captain, Christian
Polisics said, you know what, I've had a long season.
I'm not going to play here this summer. Not all
fans took kindly to that, but he's got the summer off. Congratulations.
So some of the veterans are not on this US team,

(25:57):
which for a new coach is probably just fine. He
needs to find pieces for the roster for next summer
when the US does host the World Cup. The thing
that was scaring US fans is with the new coach.
They had lost four straight games this year, all at
home until this tournament run, and people are thinking, this
is great, we got to host the World Cup. This
is going to be an embarrassment. This might as well

(26:19):
be South Africa Katar hosting the World Cup next summer.
We're not going to get a single w We'll see.
The roster is yet to be set. What is notable
about tonight's game not just that it's the regional championship game,
and by the way, compared to the rest of the world.
This region is not that good. The championship game is
usually US against Mexico. But notable that US and Mexico
are co hosting the World Cup next year with Canada,

(26:41):
which means they get in automatically, which means tonight's game
is literally the last game of any actual meaning that
these two teams will play until next summer. It's just
exhibitions and setting your roster between now and next summer.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
Okay, So and he from last week while you were out,
we were talking about this and we sort of likened it.
It's not a perfect comp but the United States winning
the Gold Cup would be kind of like when the
Patriots used to win the AFC East.

Speaker 3 (27:12):
Yes, yeah, that makes sense, Yeah that is perfect.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Yeah yeah, so that's what might happen tonight. Like, yeah,
Ian was like, what's going on? I thought like, we
weren't any good and I'm like, this would be like
when the Patriots won the AFC East and he goes,
never mind, that's good, We're moving on.

Speaker 8 (27:28):
I guess the bad news is there's no first round
by coming out of this.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
That's too bad. That's too bad, except for there kind
of is because we get to automatically be in the World.

Speaker 8 (27:38):
Cup well as hosts.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
Yes.

Speaker 8 (27:40):
And by the way, looking ahead the next summer, it's
it's all NFL stadiums, of course, with the size that
we're going to be using next summer, including the one
that's being used tonight Houston, Texas, which is great because
people have been complaining about the summer weather over here
and playing soccer outdoors at noon. This is an indoor
football stadium. Of course, they have to put a grass

(28:01):
field down on all of these NFL stadiums, whether it's
La Philadelphia wherever, and they're gonna have to put it
down way in advance, because that's another complaint. This summer
is safe, excellent. You guys have kind of rushed putting
the grass down and it's not really set, and we
don't like the field and we don't like the bounce
of the ball. Hopefully all of these things will get
set by next time.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
Okay, fantastic. So let's preview a discussion that we're now
all going to have next year.

Speaker 4 (28:28):
Then, So once the NFL season is.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
Completed and there are literally zero torn a cls right
that part and the whole year, then what are the
owners going to say, what are they going to say
when they're like, well, actually, there's zero evidence that having
them play on concrete is any worse. And I know
it's different now than the turf that you used to

(28:51):
play on, right, I bet you got some stories.

Speaker 8 (28:55):
Unfortunately, the only concrete that's getting replaced is like at
the Ram Stadium in the corners of the lower bowl.
Since the soccer field is wiser, wider, they had to
replace the risers like you would have the bleachers in
your high school gym that can be rolled back. Yeah,
for a little more space for soccer is what they're
having to do. And at the Jets Giant Stadium, which
is going to be hosting the World Cup final, widen

(29:17):
the field accommodate soccer.

Speaker 1 (29:20):
Well that Jets Giant stadiums like the worst one, isn't.

Speaker 8 (29:23):
It as far as space.

Speaker 4 (29:25):
That's torn acl field.

Speaker 8 (29:26):
Oh yeah, well taller. All of these next summer will
have grass on top.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
I love it.

Speaker 8 (29:33):
FIFA World Cup is always on grass.

Speaker 4 (29:34):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
This is sort of the opposite of what they did
in Brazil when they just like built stadiums in the
middle of nowhere for a billion dollars and they're like, yeah, no,
this makes total financial sense.

Speaker 8 (29:46):
There's an indoor place, of course for the Atlanta Falcons,
grass field, all of them, Foxborough next summer, This Houston Place, Philly, Seattle,
La Ram Stadium, they'll all have grass fields. I'm not
saying for the NFL season, but certainly for next summer.
Else you can't host the world.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
I didn't know this got to put in early.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
I like that. I like it a lot.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
And now you see why we love the bottom of
the hour so much.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Every hour we get wiser what you call him, smooth
on jowls.

Speaker 8 (30:14):
Jowls, that's not incredible, all right, just like one of
those cartoon Bassett hounds.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
You know, Yeah that works. Uh, something tells me at
a later hour tonight, Steve, the three of us are
going to chat out the All Star Game rosters and
the people who are on him and the people who
are not on them. Pretty interesting one.

Speaker 8 (30:40):
Soo is still getting paid. I'll just say that it
regardless of whether he was selected tonight, weird.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Weird Wanza, what do you make of that? He from
one Soto and Mookie bets Man. The players did not
put those two guys high enough on their ballots. Was
about the fans. It was the players.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
I would have to probably say it was because I
know Mookie has missed substantial time.

Speaker 4 (31:09):
He did miss some time. That's a good point.

Speaker 8 (31:11):
A Western batting average moving to short stuff this year.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Yeah, so it's I understand that, you know, he's battled
through some things. And the way I see it is,
I'm sure it may bother him, but you know, repeating
as Woolseies champions, I think would eradicate any feeling of

(31:34):
not making the weekday All Star Game.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
I hear you. And it's not like the two names,
Like I always do that when people scream about a
name and they're like, why didn't he make it? And
it's like, well, who did you know?

Speaker 3 (31:48):
Right, that's exactly that says.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
It's shortstop. Now the two names who did get in Francisco,
Lindor and Elie de la Cruz.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
Pretty hard to say they don't deserve.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
Right, right, and and pretty hard to say that that
not who fans want to see. Also, it's also like,
you know, all the other Dodgers didn't make it, so
like right, well, there you go, like Clayton, Clayton Kershaw.
I get that. What they call a legend commission. So

(32:18):
this is kind of like when Cal Ripken hit that
for Cocta home run years ago in his last year.

Speaker 8 (32:23):
It would be like if the NBA commissioner could pick
Kareem in his last year, right, right.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
So if there's already do you think Kershaw is going
to start?

Speaker 3 (32:32):
They probably come in play inning and get on about
it there, right.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
Yeah, and they may have him start. So the first
three batters for the American League have to agree to
like swing really early, yes and miss and just get
them on out of there. I got no problem with
it. It's an All Star game.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
Yeah, nine pitch, three outs, Yeah, move on.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
I want to hear why you think that Mike brown
Hire is such a bad one. I really want to
hear about that, so you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah,
let's uh, let's get into that. Coming up next, we're
live in the Fox Sports Radio studios. You can stream
the show and everything on Fox Sports Radio Live twenty
four to seven in the new and improved iHeartRadio app.
Just search Fox Sports Radio in the app you stream

(33:14):
us live. One of the newest features in the app
is that you can select Fox Sports Radios one of
your presets.

Speaker 4 (33:18):
Just like the presets on a radio dial. So do that.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
Be sure to preset Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio
app and it will always pop up right there at
the top of your screen.

Speaker 4 (33:27):
With me from Salama, Mark Willard.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
This is Fox Sports Radio. You're listening to Fox Sports
Radio Radio, sitting here live in the Fox Sports Radio
studios on a holiday Sunday weekend, Happy fourth of July.
And hope everybody was safe and didn't lose any fingers

(33:53):
or anything like that out in their streets and enjoyed
the sunshine and some time and whatever as you did
with your week and your weekend. We appreciate you. A
from Salam Mark Wellard here with you on Fox Sports Radio.
All right, so the Knicks are about to hire Mike Brown.
What's wrong with that?

Speaker 3 (34:16):
Do you think Mike Brown is a good coach?

Speaker 4 (34:18):
Do I think Mike Brown's a good coach? I do
think he's a good coach.

Speaker 3 (34:22):
Do you think he's a good head coach?

Speaker 1 (34:23):
Excuse me, good job semantics? So in certain situations, yes,
not in all situations.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
So Mike Brown lost me back in the Cleveland days.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
Okay, when you know he was at a press conference
and they were asking him, you know what adjustments did
you make? And how did you come back and do this?
And YadA, YadA, YadA. His reply was a I just
got gave Lebron the ball and I just got out
of the way, and I said, what right?

Speaker 3 (35:00):
Like even if that were the case as a heck,
would you say that?

Speaker 1 (35:06):
Mm hmm, not unless I was really really frustrated, like
and because right, we know what the.

Speaker 4 (35:15):
Thought is, how true it is? Whatnot?

Speaker 1 (35:18):
But the thought is when Lebron James is on the team,
he runs everything.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
Right, like, so I'm like, oh, okay, so he's just
that in itself, was like, oh, what's happening here?

Speaker 1 (35:29):
Yeah, I hear you.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
But then you know, when he came to the Lakers,
I got a chance to really you know, watching and.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
Terrible.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
She's not good, not very good. But what part adjustments?

Speaker 3 (35:47):
Yeah? Up here.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
My biggest thing for coaching is adjustments, right, because the
game is forever Some of the greatest coaches on the
planet in all sports make real life game time adjustments.
Bio Belichick is arguably the greatest football NFL football coach.
Because of that, you can play against the New England
Patriots and be dominating in the first half and come

(36:12):
out and you're playing against a whole nother scheme, a
whole nother team. Just it just I mean, it's unreal, right,
And so Greg Popovich is another Phil Jackson Like these
are you know, Steve Kerr the adjustments in the things

(36:32):
that you have to make.

Speaker 3 (36:36):
In real time, so.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
You know it.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
For me, it's like, do I want to hand the
keys to someone who drives the car from the passenger
side with no driver?

Speaker 4 (36:54):
I hear you.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
Here's the thing about it. I do when I say
situational because I feel exactly where you're coming and from
when it comes to the two more high profile situations
where we've gotten know Mike Brown through the years. Where
I did think he did his best job though, was
in Sacramento, and I thought it was clunky at least
unfair at worst with regard to how they moved on

(37:17):
from him. But that's what Sacramento does. Yes, what I
think Mike is really good at. I think Mike is
good on defense much more so than offense. And I
think Mike is pretty good with getting accountability to be
a part of the culture. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
Now I think defensively, yeah, when he's the head coach
that area of the team suffers when he's the head coach.
When he's the head coach, interesting and so outside of
the Golden State Warriors, when he's the assistant coach, he

(37:58):
hasn't been that defensive star Wars. But we know why
Golden State is good defensively, and it's less Mike Brown
and more Draymond Green.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
That's probably fair too, and their philosophy that's probably fair too.
And I mean, did you didn't you see a little
bit for a moment, right for a moment, the Sacramento
Kings had an actual squad, a team that that got
the three seed. I know that was a little circumstantial,
but got the three seed two years ago. And why

(38:32):
I get it. I know they lost, they lost in
seven games in the first round.

Speaker 4 (38:36):
I understand all that.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
But you got to make it and that, right, that's
when the magnifying glass is.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
It's on you.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
Right. But look at what he's taking over right now,
And I would argue that it's a little bit of
a hybrid. There's some pieces of what you're talking about
that I think are going to be a struggle. But
there's some pieces of what I'm talking about that I
think are going to be his cup of tea, and
maybe it suffers because he's the head coach and not
going to be an assistant. But that New York squad

(39:09):
needs to do some different things on defense. And I
would also argue that their stars need to care a
little bit more about all parts of the game and
and Mike, Mike will demand that. I don't know if
the guys will listen, but but he has had some
success with that in the past.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
Yeah, I think, so you're gonna get Cat to play defense.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
I mean again, it's not so much is Kat gonna
suddenly become a great defensive player. It's our Jalen Brunton
and Karl Anthony Towns going to become those kinds of
players where they start demanding the things that are necessary
of the people around them, like the aforementioned Draymond Green.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
I don't know, man, It's an accountability issue for me.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
Yeah, I agree, I agree, and it's I don't see
this going well and maybe I'm hopefully I'm wrong. And
I don't have any problem with Mike Brown personally. It's
just I just don't think he's a good head coach.

Speaker 4 (40:19):
Well, I mean, you've got some evidence on your side,
there's no doubt.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
All right, great stuff, Mark Willerty from salam Let's talk
about that Dolphin Steelers trade next, No Fox Sports. Hey,
I wanted to get into a little bit of NFL
with everybody, not only about what I just said we
were gonna get into, but Ephram I just saw something
else and something else.

Speaker 4 (40:42):
I think it's gonna.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
Sit you on fire a little bit. Did you see
what Cam Newton recently said about Jayden Daniels.

Speaker 4 (40:50):
Did you see this?

Speaker 3 (40:53):
No?

Speaker 1 (40:53):
What?

Speaker 4 (40:54):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (40:54):
Good?

Speaker 1 (40:55):
Good?

Speaker 4 (40:55):
Just hold it right then. I'm gonna get to it
in a little bit.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
We're broadcasting live from the Fox Sports radio studios, circling
back to kind of where I started. Even though this
was a weird trade this week between the Dolphins and
the Steelers because it involved Darren Waller, and.

Speaker 4 (41:12):
Everyone was like, well, you're not allowed to do that.
You can be trading people who don't even play.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
But turns out yeah you can if they say they
are going to play, and so you have some names switching.
I understand that Darren Waller wasn't really technically a part
of the trade, but they're bringing him in.

Speaker 4 (41:31):
That's why they prayed the trade.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
John us Smith, Jalen Ramsey, Minka Fitzpatrick, the other ones
involved in the deal. But do you kind of seem
by looking at this NFL deal what I'm getting at
with the complications of the NBA, The Dolphins and the
Steelers made a trade and the teams were like, we're
going to give up this and you're going to give

(41:54):
up that, and that's it. No trade machine, no salaries,
no exceptions, no aprons, know none of that. I don't
know how the NBA undoes what it's already done, but
I really wish it would. I don't even quite frankly,
I mean, I understand this is a soft cap league.
Why do the salaries have to match? Explain this to me.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
So someone doesn't take advantage of someone else?

Speaker 4 (42:22):
Well, let people take advantage of someone else. That's life.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Yeah, Well, I mean within the competition committee and the
fairness and then it's just.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
I mean, you like the Dodgers, Does this look fair
to you?

Speaker 3 (42:38):
No, guys, you know they're exploiting that loophole right right, And.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
They also have all kinds of resources that a lot
of the other teams don't have.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
The Lakers.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
You like the Lakers, You like the Dodgers. This isn't
about fairness. Why are we doing fairness?

Speaker 2 (42:55):
But if I was the GM of a team and
we weren't having a great year, are a great couple
of years and you as close as we are, or
a GM of another team are owner of another team.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
Let's say owners.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
And you were a piece away and I had that
piece on my team and I traded that piece to you.
I'm talking about Luca caliber, the piece for a second
round draft pick and compensation. The league would ebrupt. And

(43:35):
that's why things like this are put in place, because it's.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
You get their friends.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
These owners are friends, right, So if I if I
knew that, I could start operating like that, there's no.
I mean it's no. And then I'll give you the wink.
I'll get you on the next one, right Like, so
now you gotta the other owners are like, well, I

(44:01):
don't know Mark and I don't know em, so how
come I can't get that. The biggest complaint about the
Luca A d deal was well, you didn't let us
know Luca was available available. That was the biggest complaint,
Like you didn't know, You didn't let us know he

(44:23):
was available, because we would have done this and that
wasn't one of you got to remember, uh, Rob, Polinka
and Nico are close, sure, extremely close. So who But

(44:44):
when you're doing it on an ownership level, there's some
owners much wealthier than others, and so you can blur
that line like no one's business which doing. Yeah, but
if there weren't things in place, imagine what we'd be
looking at.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
But in the NFL, we've already had a case go
in front of arbitration just recently with regard to collusion.
In there, there are text messages between owners ad owners
sitting there talking to each other about, well, it was
a good thing that we kept this dollar down and
we're not gonna let Cleveland mess this up. For everybody,

(45:25):
this is all in there, and when they come out,
they came out and they said, you had no collusion,
There's no problem here. I get mad at that you
want to give me a like I give you a
really like, bare bones, dumb down, silly example of what
I'm talking about. If i'm because I know you play,
and we're getting close to time where people are gonna

(45:46):
get together for fantasy football drafts and everything. If your
league does this stupid thing where if there's a trade,
then everybody else in the league's got to approve it.
Stop that.

Speaker 3 (46:02):
Yeah, that's that's yeah, that's I.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
Don't care if Team eight and Team nine like the
trade that I just made with Team twelve. I don't care.

Speaker 4 (46:11):
If you like it, you don't get a vote. You're
not involved, Like, why do we do this?

Speaker 2 (46:16):
I think, and I anviolate the commissioner as the only vote.

Speaker 4 (46:21):
I don't even think the commissioner should get a vote.

Speaker 3 (46:23):
Adult I agree.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
If one person wants to do something and someone else wants.

Speaker 3 (46:27):
To do it to you, I'll say this and like.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
Check with everybody to make sure that anything we do
is okay.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
And some of the leagues, they're family members, like my
wife and I were in the same league together. Well,
and if no, no, no, this is a real thing, okay.
If it's not, no, no, no no. What Look if
you open if you open Pandora's box, you can't say
what comes out.

Speaker 4 (46:50):
Listen, I'm fine with it.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
So what I what I'm saying is my wife and
I and I was in position to have the number
one seed and she wasn't even gonna make the playoffs
and she had, like you know, a stud quarterback that
would have clearly put me over.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
The top, right, And the commissioner was like, yeah, no,
we're not doing that. Right.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
So if you don't have well any rules in place,
that means one person two people are essentially drafting for
one team.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
Okay, But the example stash that.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
Guy there, said, stash that there, and then when whoever
has the better record, will offload and dump and give
them a chance to win.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
But the example you just gave me is that your
wife is sitting there in December going like, my team's
not going anywhere. I don't care if you go win
the league, and I'll plan our next vacation.

Speaker 4 (47:49):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
That that would never hop it in the real world
because in theory, the team that's out of it is
still incentivized to run their business correctly. Maybe they'll take
future assets in exchange for a now asset, but that
kind of a deal is as old as dirt that
that already happens all the time, do you know what

(48:12):
I mean?

Speaker 2 (48:12):
Like, yeah, but there's gotta be some type of transparency there,
and that's what the rules are for.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
I just I don't like, I get what you're saying,
but I'm much more wild wild West about this. You
and I were on the air three weeks ago when
the Raffie Devers trade happened. Yes, now I don't know.
Now Devers has actually struggled a little bit. He's kind
of dinged up whatever. But the bottom line is, there
wasn't one human being on planet Earth that I heard

(48:39):
after that deal. Go man, Red Sox got a nice return.
No one said happened nobody, But did Major League Baseball
step in and go hold on second? Looks a little unfair?
Giants got a really good player, Red Sox got a
mediocre player in three pups. Not fair? No adults wanted

(49:00):
to make a trade, So adults made a trade.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
You know.

Speaker 4 (49:02):
Nobody else gets to weigh in on this.

Speaker 3 (49:06):
Why, to be fair, it is baseball? Well, I mean,
let's I mean, okay, and you like baseball. I have
an affinity for you know, but he does the same
thing football.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
One of the reasons that the football thing that that
happened this week is interesting is because it's actually a
player for player trade, right, and we don't usually get that.
Usually some stud changes teams solely for the right to
maybe throw a flyer on somebody else next year. There's
never been. Like you want to talk about unfair deals.

(49:43):
Football teams are giving up stars in exchange for here
you can have number sixteen next year. On the we
have no idea board and and people didn't even blink
at it. They're just like, okay, and we don't have
any problem with that whatsoever. But in the NBA, we
got to get a quarter of the league to call

(50:05):
each other start grabbing players from Europe and sending cash places.
Also that it looks like it's even yep. I mean,
let me ask you, that trade look even to you.
I saw one team got Kevin Durant, six other teams got.
I have no clue what.

Speaker 4 (50:23):
Why does it need to be fair?

Speaker 2 (50:25):
The money is even sort of I'm hiding for somebody.
You need five other teams?

Speaker 1 (50:33):
Yeah, the money only needs to be even kind of
like one time the pie however you want.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
Yeah, But the thing you have to realize with ownership
like that, like everybody's trying to get rid of something,
and every trying everybody's trying to obtain something. So if
you you can make a sweet deal, if you have
something that you're trying to get rid of and and
that others want, and you know, that's going to help

(50:59):
you in the long run. That's what all of the
rigamarole is about. That's what I'm saying, though I'm dumping
like you're picking up.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
Why couldn't Why couldn't Phoenix in Houston just trade jaythen
Green for Kevin Durant?

Speaker 3 (51:18):
The money doesn't work?

Speaker 1 (51:19):
So what so what Phoenix is rebooting and rebuilding? They
want the young asset Houston wants to.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
Now asset awful trade good lord, as.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
If the one they did isn't awful, it's awful already.
They got Jalen Green, and what we've been read the
particulars of this trade eighteen times, we still couldn't name
what else Phoenix got. So still so nobody thinks, oh,
Phoenix got a good return for Kevin. Nobody thinks that

(51:50):
because no one expects anything out of Phoenix, right, So
just let adults trade what they want to trade, Like,
whatever you want to do for dinner after the show,
do it. I don't have opinion, it doesn't matter. You're
an adult. You wanna take yourself, go go get yourself

(52:10):
a big burger with two thousand calories. Do it? Yeah, right,
smash burger, go get one.

Speaker 4 (52:21):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
Listen, I know there's so many complexities that make what
I'm saying completely inoperable. But I don't understand why we
had to go down this route. No other sport does
it at all. I mean, what did the Giants take
on for Raffie Devers almost three hundred million dollars? What

(52:42):
they send out like twelve twelve or whatever. Nobody's got
anything to say about it. But in the NBA, we
all got to go to the internet start matching up
eight assets from I mean, it just I just think
they've they've blown by their audience. You know this, You
write scripts. You don't want to write a script that

(53:05):
people don't understand. That is not what you want, do
you know? I mean, what was that? Uh? What was
that movie about? All the Dreams? And you know what
I mean, if stuff's happening in an alternate universe and
then you.

Speaker 3 (53:20):
Follow out a half later that you're like, what was it?
Cloud Atlas? What's that Cloud Atlas?

Speaker 4 (53:29):
Maybe I don't I mean.

Speaker 3 (53:31):
With Holly Berry and Tom Hanks.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
I'm like, I don't know, I don't know what just happened.
But if but and then you know, the critics, Oh,
abstractly wonder. No, I don't know what happened. I don't understand.
Oh man, I just want to understand. I just want
to know. Man, Just tell me what happened and then

(53:55):
I can know. Supposed right, try to be all up
over my head. That's what the NBA's come. I'm glad
we got to this. This is an abstract movie by
Oliver Stone. It's like, I just tell me what happened.
Give me Dolphins and Steelers Jalen Ramsey and john Us

(54:15):
Smith for Minka Fitzpatrick Boom package, tight wrap tape good,
got it good? All right? I actually love to know
what you think about that deal too, which we can
do here in just a moment. Coming up next with
me from Slama. Mark Willard's Fox Sports Radio. These are

(54:39):
the Fox Sports Radio studios never forget. Each weekend for
the best pregame show, be sure to tune into Fox
Sports Radios Countdown presented by Bet MGM every Saturday Sunday
morning from nine to noon Eastern from six to nine
in the West, We'll count you down to all of
the biggest games. Tune into Countdown presented by Bett MGM

(55:02):
every Saturday and Sunday morning right here on Fox Sports
Radio and the I Heart Radio app with Ephraim Salaam.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
I'm Mark Willard.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
So what did you think, By the way, the Steelers
have been one of the more sort of interesting or
some might say head scratching teams this offseason. They've now
got Jalen Ramsey and John Newsmith. They already had Pat Fryarmouth.
They give up Mika Fitzpatrick, a really good pro. Hmm.

(55:34):
What'd you think?

Speaker 3 (55:38):
You know?

Speaker 2 (55:39):
When I saw the trade, I was like, uh, okay,
I mean it's I didn't see them getting better. They
got another piece for Aaron Rodgers. They swapped out one

(56:01):
o dB for another. Yeah, and so you know what
Jayla rams at with about two more years as a
corner and then goes to safety probably. But I mean,
if you're worried about Cincinnati and being able to match

(56:22):
up with them defensively, okay, but Cincinnati didn't make the playoffs,
you know, and so you should be worried about the Ravens.
I mean, you know it's and you know they still
have issues in terms of.

Speaker 3 (56:45):
TJ. Watt.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
Yeah, and what's gonna happen there? And look, they may
know something we don't know, of course they may be
talking and close to a deal and right before camp
it happens in YadA, YadA YadA. But to me, if
they think Aaron Rodgers gets them a playoff win, then

(57:12):
you know, what do you need to do to get
yourself too playoff wins? Because they're not going to be
the favorite to win the division. I mean they were.
They were on fire well last year and then until
they weren't quirky fire, yeah, like they were. They were

(57:35):
leading the division well into the second half of the year.

Speaker 1 (57:39):
Like non sustainable fire. Yes, and you knew it walloween.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
You knew it was going to just flicker out, yes, sir.
And so if they're building off like, look, we had it,
if we had more stability at the quarterback position, then
this is a different and story. Like if they think
they're one or two pieces away, like I think the

(58:06):
world sees it differently than they do, perhaps sure, And
if that's how they feel, then this might be the
one or two more I know, getting Aaron Rodgers they
feel is that thing that can get them to the

(58:29):
you know, over the hump of not winning a playoff game.

Speaker 3 (58:32):
And you know what, was it a long time a
long time.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
I mean, I don't mind brash behavior. I don't mind big, big,
big personalities in sports.

Speaker 4 (58:45):
I think it's a wonderful thing.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
I do take a look at what the Steelers have
done in the last handful of weeks and wonder about
what I think is a characteristic that's kind of known
to be a steel Deers thing. Like the Steelers kind
of ooze that blue collar on defense. It's a professional group.

(59:10):
I'm not saying they've never had personalities, but right this
is a little bit of a Bill Belichick do your
job thing, even without Bill Belichick being there. Let's run
the ball, let's play defense, Let's be about Pittsburgh. And
then you're going and let's add in Aaron Rodgers and
Jalen Ramsey.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
You're like, now, the dkpiece helps, DK helps, it helps.
That gives you a legitimate receiver with without the you
know for sure will.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
But like if I'm okay, here i am. I'm Mike Tomlin.
And over the last seven years, I've worked my way
out of Antonio Brown, I've worked my way out of
George Pickens. I turned that into DK Metcalf and then
I go Aaron Rodgers and Jalen Ramsey, I just like, Okay,
it might be fine.

Speaker 3 (01:00:05):
It might be fine, like putting a house on the house.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
Yeah, totally, totally. Do you remember this deal, Like this
is kind of in the weeds baseball, but like two
three years ago, the Colorado Rockies were held bent on
trading Nolan Aernado. And this is right after they had
signed into one of those mega deals mega deal, And

(01:00:28):
then like a year later, they're like, we're trading him,
and they did. They traded Nolan Aernado to the Saint
Louis Cardinals, and so the signal was, yeah, you know,
we're kind of like, I get it, it was a
great player, but we were over our skis were going
to reboot this thing financially, so let's get picks, let's

(01:00:51):
kind of build from the ground up again. And then
like a couple months later, they signed Chris Bryant in
the offseason to like one hundred and eighty million dollar deal,
and Chris Bryant has been not even flirting with the
idea of healthy since then, and the Rockies have not

(01:01:12):
even flirted with the idea of winning more than two
games in a week since then, And so that's I
guess that's an example of what I'm talking about. It.
It's like, dude, you guys got to pick a direction here,
tell us who you are. That's fine, stick with it
as opposed to this is who we are, and then
next week except for now, we're going to go the

(01:01:35):
other way. And then we're going to go the other way.
And that's what I feel about the Steelers offseason.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
I get it, but the only way we should go
is to Steve the Seger because he is our That's true.

Speaker 8 (01:01:48):
By the way. Yeah, after that comment, I had to
look up the Chris Bryant salary. He still do another
twenty seven million dollars per year for your next three years.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
There it is, there, it is. I mean, he's had
what like three four bats a year since they got him.

Speaker 8 (01:02:03):
He's played less than one hundred and sixty two games
total I think the last three or four years.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
Oh wow, like the Joe l Embiid of baseball. Except
for that, he's a nice guy and everyone's life down.

Speaker 8 (01:02:13):
Yeah, and he was on a championship team not too comes.

Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
Yes, yes, yikes.

Speaker 8 (01:02:19):
That's wow. That's well baseball contracts, that's a whole another story. Well,
US soccer mens soccer has just lost the Gold Cup
final two to one to Mexico. Was one to one
in Houston at the half. Mexico was the better team
in the tournament and a better team in this game tonight.
The American's only goal came in the fourth minute. They
could not tally after that. The go ahead goal for

(01:02:41):
Mexico came in the seventy seventh minute. The winners had
sixty percent of the possession tonight. They outshot the US
sixteen to six. Corner kicks Mexico had twelve in the game.
The US had zero corner kicks in this came. Attendance
in Houston was seventy one thousand. By the way, the
FIFA Club World Cup is going on and yesterday in Atlanta,

(01:03:02):
indoors on grass yesterday attending sixty seven thousand. It's parisandermin
eliminated Bayern Munich so Wednesday in a semifinal It's going
to be parisanjer Man Messi's old team against Real Madrid.
Madrid won its quarterfinal on Saturday in New Jersey. Attended
seventy six thousand for that one. WNBA wins for Las Vegas,

(01:03:24):
Seattle and Minnesota, which is seventeen and two after beating
Chicago eighty to seventy five. NASCAR Chicago Street Race today
went to Shane ving Gisbergen and Scott Dixon won the
IndyCar Race at mid Ohio to Major League Baseball Cubs eleven,
Cardinals nothing, and it's only top of the sixth inning.

(01:03:44):
The starting pitcher for the Cubs tonight is a guy
that was just added by Major League Baseball to the
NL All Star roster. Tonight, Matthew Boyd went five scoreless
innings with nine strikeouts eleven nothing. The Cubs lead at
home even though they've only hit one homer at Wrigley. Today,
underway at San Diego, it is thanks to an early
Corey Seeger RBI double Rangers won nothing over the Padres

(01:04:07):
in the bottom of the first and in a half
an hour. The A's in West Sacramento will be hosting
the San Francisco Giants. By the way, San Diego pitcher
you Darvish is due to make his season debut on Monday.
After a bad elbow, Milwaukee's brand Granted Woodriff finally got
back on a mound after injury, made his season debut
and got the win. Brewers won three to one at
Miami Woodrift six innings, eight strikeouts, no walks. And then

(01:04:31):
there was the pitching performance of Zach Wheeler in Philadelphia.
The Phils beat Cincinnati three to one. Wheeler the winner,
a complete game, one hitter, no walks, twelve strikeouts. He's
nine to three eer two point one seven. Yes, he's
an All Star. Brysonstatt two run homer in the bottom
of the eighth. Boston won six to four at Washington.

(01:04:52):
The Nationals, the last place team in the NLS, fired
manager Dave Martinez and GM Mike Rizzo. Baltimore sent Atlanta
to a fourth straight loss, two to one. Jackson Holliday,
whose dad Matt Holliday, used to be a star with
the Colorado Rockies. Jackson had four for four day, including
a two run homer in the Baltimore win. Toronto, though,
won its eighth straight game, three to two over the Angels.

(01:05:15):
The Blue Jays are the first place team in the
AL E still three games over the Yankees and Tampa Bay.
Yankees won six to four at the Mets, Aaron Judge
his thirty third homer, and Tampa Bay won in ten
innings seven to five at Minnesota Houston beat the Dodgers
in LA again, five to one. Houston has won nineteen
of its last twenty four games, victories for Kansas City, Seattle,

(01:05:37):
and Colorado, which beat the White Sox six to four.
And finally, the All Star Game reserves and pitchers were
announced tonight. They do include injured Braves pitcher Chris Sale.
The game will be in Atlanta week from Tuesday on
Fox TV. Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw was named as the
Commissioner's Legend selection. Kershaw's now an eleven time All Star
and at age thirty seventy is four and oh. This year,

(01:06:00):
the Dodgers lead all teams with five All Stars in
the AL, four All Star players each for Detroit having
a great year and for Seattle, nineteen different players get
their first career All Star nod. You know in baseball,
all thirty teams have to have at least one player named.
One of those guys that's going to be in the
All Star Game is Washington rookie outfielder James Wood. At

(01:06:22):
age twenty two, he is the youngest All Star on
either roster. He'll also be in the Home Run Derby
and the a shortstop Jacob Wilson is one of two
rookies on the rosters this year. He was voted by
the fans as a starter. And final note, there are
twenty three internationally born players on this year's All Star
rosters in Major League Baseball. That's just over thirty percent

(01:06:43):
of the teams. That includes eight men from the Dominican Republic.

Speaker 3 (01:06:46):
Pick to you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:47):
Yeah, speaking of Juan Soto and not being on the team,
and James wood Is once traded for one another, Washington
did pretty well. As it turns out with that deal.

Speaker 8 (01:06:59):
You got to cure Mackenzie Gore, as I recall from
the Padres, who was named an All Star.

Speaker 1 (01:07:03):
Sure did, Sure did so. Steve great stuff is always
appreciate this. And then here thanks yep, Steve may want
to stay for this because this is when all of
you people who root for the Dodgers get mad at me.
This is just a quick aside, but this is my
controversial take that I know is never going to land well.
But it's what I just wish for you. It's okay,
it doesn't bother me, but I wish this for you.

(01:07:24):
I really do, all of you. Let the Astros thing go.
Let it go. It's a while ago now with the.

Speaker 3 (01:07:32):
Trash Cans let it go.

Speaker 8 (01:07:34):
I think as long as L two V's on the Rustle,
I know, because.

Speaker 3 (01:07:38):
He's the last one left. And as long as he's there.

Speaker 4 (01:07:41):
I know, I know. But he what he like?

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
You know what I mean the more y'all show up
at Dodger Stadium, scream at him and yell at him
and two for four with a sixteenth home run. I mean,
he crushed the entire series. The Astros sweep the Dodgers.
It just every year I watch it and like, I
see the series and I watch all of my people,

(01:08:04):
family and friends who are Dodger fans, and their blood pressure.

Speaker 4 (01:08:07):
Just goes flying through the roof because.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
Of the Castros. You know what part of it is
is I'm a Giants fan, and I'm like, you're supposed
to get that way when you play the Giants, not
the Astros. Like that's just like it was a thing,
it happened. There are plenty of people on the other
side of the world who are looking at the Dodgers going,
y'all realize Mookie Betts was on the Red Sox when
they were doing this too.

Speaker 8 (01:08:29):
Right, quite the same thing.

Speaker 3 (01:08:31):
No, No, it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
Didn't work as well, but like honestly.

Speaker 8 (01:08:36):
Well they didn't use electronics.

Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
Just dar, I just want all of you to have
your blood pressure go down.

Speaker 8 (01:08:44):
Well, you should have been speaking to our Steve Hartman, who,
after he finished his radio show here yesterday, went on
local TV and gave a diet tribe of why I
will never forget thank Houston Astros at it and I
love hearing the booze. And by the way, the Yankees
feel about the same about l Twove and the Astros
because they were prevented from getting to the World Series

(01:09:05):
in their opinion. I would fault Major League Baseball partly
for this, no doubt, because they had the power to
take away the World Trophy. They shouldn't have given it
to the Dodgers or anyone else, in my opinion, vacated
the year after your findings proved cheating in twenty seventeen.
You have the power to at least remove the trophy.

Speaker 1 (01:09:24):
You did. You did, and they could have, and I
get it, and if I would probably feel the same
way if if I had been rooting for the team
that lost the World Series that year. However, however, the
whole thing at a certain point it's like, okay, you know,

(01:09:47):
just like right this, we all have a few of these.
We've all got a few of these where you look
back and you're like, we got host. You have to
have some of those. They built character, you know, go,
this is for you. You gotta let it go.

Speaker 3 (01:10:05):
Rest of all, this isn't frozen.

Speaker 4 (01:10:06):
Okay, time to let it go.

Speaker 3 (01:10:09):
Let it go, Let it go go.

Speaker 1 (01:10:11):
You know, Steve Hartman's never going to forgive the Astros,
Like I mean, come on.

Speaker 8 (01:10:19):
Yeah, I repeat. There would be more closure for the
fans that were booing at Dodger Stadium this weekend if
Major League Baseball had done a better job.

Speaker 3 (01:10:28):
Just take it away.

Speaker 8 (01:10:29):
And that means specifically the commissioner.

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
Then again, you guys also know college sports real well
and vacating wins. I've always looked at and been like,
you can't tell me it didn't happen.

Speaker 4 (01:10:45):
I watched it.

Speaker 8 (01:10:46):
Can you imagine if USC had beaten Texas.

Speaker 1 (01:10:49):
Right like I was the Steve knows this. I was
the sideline reporter while Reggie Bush won the Heisman. Don't
tell me it didn't happen. I watched it from the field.
He saw those touchdowns. They happened. You can't tell me
he didn't win the Heisman and now he did it,
win it again. Now they give it back to him.
So I just tided to devacate, vacated anything he doesn't

(01:11:12):
really work.

Speaker 4 (01:11:15):
Happened. Sorry that it hurt that it happened.

Speaker 3 (01:11:19):
All right, giants?

Speaker 8 (01:11:22):
You know, I do notice that when the Detroit manager,
I mean, then that's a great team. He happens to
be the guy who was Houston manager that didn't stop
the cheating in twenty seventeen. He lost his job because
of it. And nobody, I mean nobody connects the cheating
with Detroit or Detroit's visit and him getting booed at

(01:11:43):
other states that doesn't happen at all, which I find odd.
I'm not saying it should happen, but you're booing al Tuve,
I guess just because he's a player on the field
and therefore more of a known face.

Speaker 1 (01:11:54):
But Steve, do you know if Steve Hartman voted for
Reggie Bush for the Heisman question?

Speaker 4 (01:12:02):
That's that's what I would like to hear.

Speaker 8 (01:12:03):
He has a Heisman vote vote.

Speaker 3 (01:12:05):
You know what, guys, I heard that same thing.

Speaker 1 (01:12:07):
I wonder if he voted for Reggie Bush if he uh,
if he wanted it vacated or not. He is a
UCLA fan, so that might cloud the whole thing too.

Speaker 8 (01:12:19):
And I'm guessing, you know, Steve for the vote, probably
didn't you know, have a relative get a free house
or anything like that.

Speaker 1 (01:12:27):
But we don't know that for sure.

Speaker 8 (01:12:29):
No, but I think if ya who had investigated, we
would have found out he.

Speaker 1 (01:12:32):
Does spend a lot of time in San Diego and
San Diego and La and San Diego and La. Anyway,
all right, uh, Fox Sports Radio Studios best pregame show
every single weekend, make sure you tune into Fox Sports
Radios Countdown, presented by Bett MGM. All Right, Like, I
gotta throw this at you because it just came across

(01:12:55):
uh my line a short time ago. Cam Newton thinks
maybe that Jay Daniels is a one hit wonder. I'd
like to get your response to that, so we'll do
that next with you from Salama Mark Wellard.

Speaker 4 (01:13:06):
This is Fox Sports Radio with me from.

Speaker 1 (01:13:12):
Salam Mark Willard, Fox Sports Radio Independence Day weekend. Hope
everybody is out and about staying safe doing the darn thing,
and thank you for finishing up the weekend with us.

Speaker 4 (01:13:28):
We very very much appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:33):
Cam Newton's been an interesting guy since he kind of
left the game and sort of kind of maybe became
a part of the media. I can't track Cam. I
can't figure out where he is, what he's doing, what
he's all about. I do know, though, that when his
name kind of pops up, it's usually because he doesn't

(01:13:58):
think a current quarterback who's really good is actually good.
That's kind of what I've noticed about Cam, and I
find that to be an unbecoming characteristic. I'm not into it.
I don't dig former quarterbacks who seemingly only show up
to tell you about current quarterbacks who are not as

(01:14:21):
good as you think they are, or as their numbers
suggest they are. He's done this a lot with anybody
who's put on a Panther's uniform. He's done this with
Brock Purdy. Now he's doing it with jade and Daniels.
Now this is a tough nut to crack. Jadeen Daniels,
he believes has similarities to RG three and might be

(01:14:42):
a one hit. Wonder, what's your reaction to that?

Speaker 2 (01:14:45):
That sounds ridiculous. Is as ridiculous as those triple shirt tie.

Speaker 3 (01:14:51):
Heads. Hey, right, look, I mean media now is.

Speaker 2 (01:15:05):
You know everybody has a hot take. Like when you
have a podcast, you have to generate value for yourself.
The difference between radio terrestrial radio Serious XM and a
podcast is once you are on, like you you've built

(01:15:27):
up an audience a traditional way in terms of like
Serious XM was here when iHeart was here. Before we
got here. We came, we brought fans, we brought energy,
we brought our takes. But when you're doing a podcast,
you're starting from zero, and so you have to how

(01:15:50):
do I get people to pay attention to this?

Speaker 3 (01:15:55):
What can I do for people to mention it?

Speaker 2 (01:16:00):
Whether it be good or bad. That's that's the thing,
whether it's good or bad. As long as they're mentioning it,
you got a shot to increase value. So if you
know that people are going to talk about your hot

(01:16:22):
takes or your hot fashion, then you'll double down and
triple down and that'll just become what it is.

Speaker 10 (01:16:32):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:16:33):
We had a colleague here who who did that, Clay
Travis mm hmm. And I've worked with Clay, you have,
we all have. And then he became something else and

(01:16:54):
I was like, wait, what what did they say. We've
had a couple of colleagues like that, indeed, And so
you go, where do you feel you can increase your
value whether you believe some of the stuff you're saying
or not.

Speaker 3 (01:17:14):
And that's what.

Speaker 2 (01:17:16):
That's what podcasts allow you to do, because you can
get a very lucrative podcast deal being that guy, are
being different, are not conforming? You become the non conforming conformist. No, no, no,
I'm different. I don't do that, but then I do it,

(01:17:36):
but I do it my way, not their way. Nothing
about Jaden Daniel's rookie season could lead you to saying
that he's a one hit wonder or like RG three.

Speaker 3 (01:17:56):
Nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:17:58):
I'm talking about zero, his approach to the game, his abilities,
his leadership zero. And for you to say that, then
you're on brand. But the brand you created you already

(01:18:19):
talked about earlier that this is what he does, this is.

Speaker 4 (01:18:23):
What he does.

Speaker 1 (01:18:25):
You should type in Cam Newton into Google and do
a news search right now. First story, Cam Newton says
that Shador Sanders will always be hated. Third story, Cam
Newton calls out Geno Smith. Fifth story, former NFL MVP
questions if Jaden Daniels will be a one hit wonder.

(01:18:46):
It's simply a list of all of the quarterbacks that
Cam Newton is taking shots at. And so, I mean,
I think it's I don't know if this is what's
actually going on, but this is what a lot of
people think.

Speaker 4 (01:18:58):
Is what it feels like when you read all of this.

Speaker 1 (01:19:01):
It's just like Cam does not like how the world
views him, so he's trying to bring everybody else down
to what he right where he sits at least in
his own mind.

Speaker 2 (01:19:13):
Yeah, I mean, he feels that he didn't get his
just due. But we all watched his career play out
in front of our eyes and then the almost well,
I guess we're trying to resurgence of his career. It
just was dead, and so now you can have a
pretty lucrative career being that guy. What's it called? What's it?

Speaker 3 (01:19:39):
What's the name of the podcast?

Speaker 1 (01:19:41):
Oh, I don't even know. I don't even know, some
sort of something. You know, A lot of it is, yeah,
a lot of it is him joining other people's podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:19:50):
Yes, but that's the thing that you're that guy, So
they book you for that.

Speaker 1 (01:19:53):
Yep, yep, yep, little little little LeVar Ball thing going on.

Speaker 2 (01:19:58):
Yeah, so anyway, that's how I feel about it.

Speaker 1 (01:20:03):
Hey, I haven't asked you about DeAndre Aid and yet
we still got an hour ago and I'm just now
asking you about Aiden. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio. Yeah.
Off we go into the Sunday evening live from the
Fox Sports Radio studios, and we've spent quite a bit
of time tonight talking about how the NBA maybe has

(01:20:27):
gotten a little ahead of itself with how it's doing
its off season, the trades, the signings, the aprons, the
luxury tax, how the heck is a fan supposed to follow?
This One thing I did appreciate this week from DeAndre
Aiden to the Lakers that I got. The Blazers were like, yeah,
no thanks, please leave, And the Lakers were like, we

(01:20:48):
need someone tall, how about if you come here? And
so they did. But it is obviously not without question
and not without intrigue.

Speaker 4 (01:20:58):
Yes, the Lakers needed.

Speaker 1 (01:21:01):
Yes, he is a double double machine, however, not a
floor spacer, not gonna shoot from the outside. Questions about
his own motivation through the years, which to me is
always the biggest head scratcher of them all. I can't
wait to hear what you think about DeAndre Ayton on
the Lakers.

Speaker 2 (01:21:22):
I think we needed somebody to be a lot presence.
I think he gives you that. We need somebody to rebound.
I think he gives you that. And I think playing
with greatness elevates players. It's hard to be selfish and
uninspired when you have greatness on your team. And you know,

(01:21:44):
the Lakers are player led locker room, so we know
JJ Reddick will get under your skin, and so I
don't think the motivating factor will be a problem when
you look at their starting lineup is pretty good with

(01:22:05):
look at the one Austin Reeves, Lebron James, Rory Hashimorro
and uh DeAndre Ayton. I mean that's not a bad
starting five at all. Can everybody stay healthy? And you know,
does Lebron have another year like he had last year?

(01:22:27):
In and so it's promising because we needed and he
got the jackson A's coming off the bench at the
backup center, need a little bit more depth at different positions.
Tell you what Bronnie James looks like a different person
in summer league? Good lord, you did you see him
play today?

Speaker 3 (01:22:48):
Goodness?

Speaker 1 (01:22:49):
Like yes, but a from me if I had a
dollar for all the people who showed out in summer.

Speaker 3 (01:22:55):
Ly, Yeah, I get it, I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:58):
But all I'm talking about the thing I look for
in the second year players in some league. Have you
been working on the things you needed to work on
in your time off? That's all I can grade you.

Speaker 1 (01:23:11):
That's all you can do.

Speaker 3 (01:23:12):
That's all I do. And so.

Speaker 2 (01:23:17):
You know, I like, you know, Dalton connects aggressiveness. I
think he can take better shots. I like Bronnie's James
running the point and handling the ball and attacking the rim.

Speaker 3 (01:23:31):
And so.

Speaker 2 (01:23:33):
I'm an optimist when it comes to the team. But
you know how long an NBA season is, So it's like,
you know, you can start out on fire. And you know,
do I think they have enough to make it to
the playoffs? I do, if everybody's healthy, plus you know,
whatever pieces they add trade deadline and so on and

(01:23:55):
so forth and the rest of this offseason.

Speaker 3 (01:23:59):
But I think that's a good big. I mean, it wasn't.

Speaker 2 (01:24:03):
There weren't a lot of bigs out there left and
so and even you know they were talking about Brook Lopez.
I mean, he's not the big you would need with
a Luca and a lebron He's not setting the high
screen and rolling and catching the lob. He's gonna run
over to the short corner and hang out. All right,

(01:24:25):
He's gonna trail. He's gonna he's gonna be at the
top for the trail three. I don't know if LA
needs that big as a floor spacer. I need somebody
a free throw line extended, and who's gonna play above
the rim?

Speaker 3 (01:24:40):
That's that's what you need, yea.

Speaker 4 (01:24:42):
I feel you.

Speaker 1 (01:24:43):
I wonder if the football player in you ever thinks
about this though. And again I don't know these players personally,
but I do know this. If I ever hear the
idea that a player has a hard time, I'm you know, trying.
I'm just out, like I don't even want to. I

(01:25:06):
don't want to mess with that person. I don't want
my team to be the team that's like we can
fix him.

Speaker 4 (01:25:12):
I'm like, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:25:15):
And so there's certain players around the league I don't
I don't want to go with just oh, what do
people say. I like to look at what people do.
So this is something that came up this week. For example,
when the Washington Wizards included Jordan Poole in a trade
that brought them CJ McCollum, and people go, oh, Washington

(01:25:36):
wanted CJ. McCollum, and I'm like, no, they didn't. They
wanted a contract that expired sooner rather than later.

Speaker 4 (01:25:42):
That's all they wanted.

Speaker 1 (01:25:43):
And it's the same thing the Warriors did when they
got Chris Paul for Jordan Poole. You notice Jordan keeps
getting traded for older players. Why is that because their
contract's about to expire. What that tells me is two
NBA franchises have now decided the exact exact same thing.
We'd rather have the salary slot than Jordan. And now

(01:26:05):
two NBA franchises, even though one of them is a
moronic franchise, two NBA franchises have been like, I think
we'd rather if this DeAndre Ayton guy just wasn't here,
That's what we'd rather. And that's what concerns me. Does
he get tucked into a culture because of who's there. Maybe? Maybe,

(01:26:27):
But at the same time that would bother me that
two teams have been like, yeah, we just don't want
him on the team.

Speaker 3 (01:26:34):
Yeah, but look at those teams. Though he came into
the League of the Suns.

Speaker 1 (01:26:37):
Right, Well, that's why I said one of them, Yeah,
one of the teams.

Speaker 2 (01:26:40):
And the Chris Paul Sons, Like Chris Paul's robbed everybody
the wrong way, sure, including his friends. And then you
go to Siberia and Portland. I mean, and all you
did was average a double double while you were there.
So you get to the point where and look, and
I agree with you in terms of you show up,
you show out. You're a professional athlete. But hell, I mean,

(01:27:03):
you wouldn't be engaged either in those places.

Speaker 4 (01:27:09):
Maybe not, but I like, I don't know, fans don't.

Speaker 3 (01:27:12):
But you can't come here and do that. And yeah,
and everybody know that.

Speaker 1 (01:27:16):
And and by the way, that Son's team, okay, Chris
Paul rubbed me the wrong way, Like, I don't know,
is that an excuse. No, that Son's team early on
was actually trying to do something.

Speaker 2 (01:27:27):
They were But you know, you got to remember DeAndre
Aiden was a young player, and there's certain ways you
had to deal with young players, and so.

Speaker 3 (01:27:38):
You know, Chris Paul was.

Speaker 2 (01:27:40):
And beyond the old player, and he wanted things to
happen now, and you know a lot of young players
have been ruined by that level of you got you
should know this, and eh, how though he was a
teenager and guys who want to win now don't have

(01:28:00):
a lot of time for growth on the roster are
learning curves.

Speaker 4 (01:28:09):
No doubt.

Speaker 1 (01:28:10):
I mean, you literally just described the Jonathan kaminga situation
in Golden just described it in two yences. That's it.

Speaker 3 (01:28:20):
He's a phenomenal talent.

Speaker 2 (01:28:21):
They didn't have, They had no designs on waiting for
that to come to fruition.

Speaker 4 (01:28:26):
No, they still don't.

Speaker 1 (01:28:27):
Still they still don't, and actually.

Speaker 3 (01:28:29):
Give us I will take him good.

Speaker 4 (01:28:31):
Well, yeah, no, he's a very very talented guy.

Speaker 1 (01:28:34):
But at the same time, what I see in a
lot and I actually think there's some overlap here with
what Lebron's going through and however he's feeling. When you're
looking at a team and a player and they have
at least a little bit of competing interests, you have
a problem. You have a problem, and people get all

(01:28:55):
bent out of shape to get mad at the player
or they get mad at the team and they go,
you can't do this, do that, And I'm looking at
the whole thing going I kind of I'm not trying
to be flip floppy I understand where both sides are
coming from here. I'm not bothered by the fact that
Jonathan Kaminga wants to be a star. He wants to
be a star, he wants to be paid like a star.

(01:29:16):
He wants an opportunity to do that. Meantime, the Warriors
are like, that role is taken here, give the ball up.

Speaker 4 (01:29:23):
We have Steph Curry.

Speaker 3 (01:29:24):
On this team, and Jimmy Butler and.

Speaker 1 (01:29:27):
Jimmy Butler and Lebron. Is the same thing here where
the Lakers are like, dude, you're eighty years old. We
need to start thinking about the future. And He's like,
you totally do. At the same time, I'm still Lebron,
I'm still good and I still want.

Speaker 2 (01:29:41):
To win when I'm glad he just picked up his
player option because now we know there's an end date
on that thing there is, right, he gonna make a
run for it this year and then you know, God
bless him, whatever he decides to do, go do it.

Speaker 4 (01:29:59):
Is that what you think is going to happen?

Speaker 1 (01:30:02):
You think that I think they play on the Lakers
this year?

Speaker 3 (01:30:06):
This year? Oh yes, huh, yeah, I do.

Speaker 4 (01:30:13):
You're probably right.

Speaker 2 (01:30:14):
You gotta remember it's just not Lebron here. So he's
having the time of his life playing with his son
like that is a real thing for sure, v here

(01:30:34):
where he lives, where his daughter is going to school.

Speaker 4 (01:30:37):
And I get it.

Speaker 1 (01:30:38):
But there's also like, I mean, how many years left
are there?

Speaker 2 (01:30:42):
No, I mean this may be his last year. I'm
sure it'll be one more after this.

Speaker 1 (01:30:46):
Probably he's going to advertise it when he goes well.

Speaker 2 (01:30:49):
Yeah, and then he'll be he'll pick and choose a situation.

Speaker 3 (01:30:55):
That he wants.

Speaker 2 (01:30:56):
Didd'll try to get him to see what well Lebron
James can't afford to do and his legacy conversation in
the goat conversation, and I'll get into that. My uh my,
my cousin came over. My first cousin's son came over.

Speaker 3 (01:31:12):
He's in town.

Speaker 2 (01:31:13):
He's from Maryland, had an internship out here, and he's
twenty one years old. Him and his roommate came over.
And you know, you know, talking to kids about about
greatness and sports in today's society is almost like talking
to a bot of water.

Speaker 3 (01:31:30):
But we'll get there.

Speaker 2 (01:31:31):
And I told him I'm going to talk about you
live the air.

Speaker 1 (01:31:35):
Oh you know, I love this.

Speaker 2 (01:31:38):
Yeah, that's my cousin his story time about about cousin Ethan.

Speaker 4 (01:31:42):
We usually we usually don't get story time in the
in the in the last.

Speaker 3 (01:31:46):
Time story time.

Speaker 1 (01:31:47):
Oh this is exciting. It's very very exciting. Okay, everybody freeze,
but don't go anywhere, because it's storytime. I'm here in
the Fox Sports radios s with e from Salama, Mark Willard,
and Storytime with the from is coming up next on
Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 4 (01:32:10):
Okay, these right here are the Fox Sports.

Speaker 1 (01:32:13):
Radio studios, and we have been told that story Time
with the from Salami is about to happen. I mean,
I literally got people on Twitter coming at me, going yay,
this is what we love. We don't get it every week,
but when we do, we sit back, you crack a drink,

(01:32:34):
maybe get a snack, and maybe you learn something or
maybe you're entertained by something, maybe both. There's only one
way to find out. Hearing these Fox Sports Radio studios. First,
allow me to remind you that the best pregame show
every weekend happens right here on Fox Sports Radio. It's
called Countingdown, presented by bet MGM. It is every Saturday

(01:32:56):
and Sunday, nine to noon in the East six to
nine in the West count Down to all of the
biggest games. Please tune in the Countdown presented by MGM
every Saturday and Sunday right here on Fox Sports Radio
and the iHeartRadio app. And now we give you storytime
with you from.

Speaker 3 (01:33:13):
Salam So over the weekend. You know, of course it's
July fourth.

Speaker 2 (01:33:20):
We wake up and we were just we we didn't
have any plans, so it was kind of impromptu where
we like, hey, let's you know, my cousin my nephews
called and it was like, hey, what.

Speaker 3 (01:33:31):
Are you guys doing? Can we come over? And can
I bring my girlfriend?

Speaker 8 (01:33:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:33:34):
And so you know, lo and behold my.

Speaker 2 (01:33:37):
Neighbor Jack Great, I came Jack great guy came over.
And then my cousins are here from from Maryland and
he has an internship out here.

Speaker 3 (01:33:53):
You know, twenty one years old, got to.

Speaker 2 (01:33:56):
World by the hairs. Yep, he knows everything about everything
and knows nothing about anything all at the same time.
Perfect and so which you know, what did they say that, Yeah,
the youth is wasted on the young indeed, yes, and
so we were.

Speaker 3 (01:34:17):
It was. It was a great day now.

Speaker 2 (01:34:19):
In basketball in the basketball tournament in the backyard, we
got pool, we got the barbecue.

Speaker 3 (01:34:24):
It was a nice impromptu situation. And so the.

Speaker 2 (01:34:28):
Evening was winding down and we're in the kitchen and
we're talking about basketball and I walk in in my
ten year old eleven year old now was like, hey, Dad,
who do you think Ethan thinks is the greatest player
of all time?

Speaker 3 (01:34:46):
I was like, I don't know who. And he was
like Lebron James.

Speaker 2 (01:34:51):
And I said, okay, why And the first thing he
led with was well, he's the all time leading scorer.
And I said, let me stop you right there. I said,
if that's what you're starting with, then you've lost the argument.

(01:35:13):
For what are you talking about? I said, because a
year and a half ago, we before Lebron James broke
that record, we weren't talking about Kareem Abdul Jabbar being
the greatest player of all time.

Speaker 3 (01:35:30):
Nope, we were saying it was Michael Jordan. And so.

Speaker 2 (01:35:36):
Just on the basis of that, if that's where you
want to start your campaign, then you're absolutely wrong. And
he was like what I said, Yeah, do you understand
that correlation? Like you started with a metric that we've
never used for anyone else like, that's not why we

(01:36:02):
say Michael Jordan is the greatest of all time. That's
why that's why we don't say Kareem is the greatest
of all time. And so he was kind of befuddled
a little bit, and then we proceed to go on
this down this journey of him not fully understanding the

(01:36:28):
scope of knowledge I have about basketball.

Speaker 3 (01:36:32):
And so.

Speaker 2 (01:36:34):
When I was explaining him the reason I believe and
I'm a Laker guy, I'm a Magic, a Kobe, you know,
a Kareem, I'm a Laker guy. Even Lebron as a Laker,
I said, but the reason Michael Jordan, in my opinion,
is the greatest basketball player of all time is because

(01:36:56):
Number one, he's never had Game seven in the finals.

Speaker 3 (01:36:58):
He's six and zero.

Speaker 2 (01:37:00):
Number two, it's only happened four times where a player
was uh, MVP of the league, led the league in scoring, defensive,
Player of the Year, Finals, MVP, and champion. I mean,
it's only happened four times, and he's done all four.

(01:37:21):
And so the most glaring thing for me is when
Michael Jordan won his first championship, he stopped a generation
of great players from winning theirs. Yep, I said, how
many players have won championships in the Lebron James era.

Speaker 1 (01:37:46):
That's a good question, like all of them.

Speaker 2 (01:37:50):
So by that metric, for me, Michael Jordan is the
greatest of all time because we literally saw one of
the greatest point guard power for duos be stop cold.
We literally saw teams with the fiftieth greatest, seventy five

(01:38:13):
greatest player, not Charles Barkley, everybody because of Michael Jordan.
And he proceeded to turn to me and say, oh,
you just don't know basketball.

Speaker 3 (01:38:25):
Oh oh, oh.

Speaker 2 (01:38:28):
No, man, I said, I said, I said what now,
Oh you just don't know basketball? I said, Ethan, how
old are you? I'm old enough, old enough for what
I'm twenty one, I said. Do you know I've been
in media and have had my own sports TV and
radio show for over twenty five years.

Speaker 3 (01:38:47):
You weren't alive, Ethan. You weren't even alive when I've
been live on the air.

Speaker 2 (01:38:56):
Talking about basketball, football, baseball, hockey and everything in between.
And you're telling me if my kitchen that I don't
know basketball. And I can probably promise you don't even
watch whole basketball games, do you?

Speaker 3 (01:39:16):
Well?

Speaker 2 (01:39:18):
You know when they start making the boxing id like
a horse. Exactly, sit down, man, eat your pie, and relax.

(01:39:42):
I just you know, you know LEBRONA Like, it's easy
to just throw out a name, I said, But the
thing about it, I said, in forty eight hours, I'll
be live on the radio and I'll be talking about
this very moment. Well, I should call in. I said, hey, man,
you don't want that level of smoke. And you know,
because people are relentless, you'll have to deal with it

(01:40:06):
every single day because if you were on the air,
I'd give out your information in terms of your socials
so they can reach out to you and have a
spirited debate. I said, so just slow down, young fella.

Speaker 3 (01:40:20):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:40:21):
You're young, you're twenty one, you're tall, you're handsome, you
got the world by the by the chest hairs. But
you don't know nothing about this man. You don't know
anything about this. And I was like, he was like,
Lebron's not even my favorite player. And I was like,
I don't know if that makes it worse or better.

Speaker 1 (01:40:40):
Yeah, I don't know what to do with the favorite.

Speaker 2 (01:40:42):
I said, who's part of the conversation, I said, who's
your favorite player? Who's Kevin Durant. I said, Okay, I
can't even argue with that, But having Lebron James in
my opinion, as the greatest basketball player to ever live,
I just don't tend finals four wins. That's failing you.

(01:41:03):
That's forty.

Speaker 1 (01:41:05):
Listen. If debate class assigned me Lebron James, I could
make the argument yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I could do
it like it did.

Speaker 4 (01:41:16):
I could do it.

Speaker 1 (01:41:17):
I wouldn't have used any of the things that he did.
I could do it. I think I'd lose, but I
could try. I do like where you came from. Where
when we go through the history of basketball and every
sport has these these best players who never want to ring,
Like it feels like about eighty five percent of the

(01:41:39):
names all played against Jordan. It's Parkley, and it's Reggie Miller,
and it's Patrick Ewing, and it's stocked in him alone.

Speaker 4 (01:41:49):
I mean, we could just.

Speaker 3 (01:41:50):
Go on and on and on.

Speaker 1 (01:41:53):
They all played against Lebron. They all played against Lebron.

Speaker 2 (01:41:57):
And so I'm like, Steph Curry and I mean Michael
Jordan by the way, Oh yeah right, I got you again.
Steph Curry and Derk Novitzki and Kawhi Leonard and like,
it's I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:42:13):
Tim dunk your kids, Tim Duncan, Jason Tate.

Speaker 1 (01:42:16):
I'm je Gies Alexander.

Speaker 2 (01:42:20):
I'm like, has Lebron ever dominated a decade of basketball?
And by dominated, I mean win championships more than he's
lost in the decade. The nineties belonged to the Chicago Bulls,

(01:42:41):
the eighties belonged to the Lakers, seventies Boston, Like, where
are we what was it two thousand to tens Golden
State Warriors? Right, so what we're where is the the

(01:43:01):
Lebron decade? Miami two two championships, one in Cleveland, one
with the Lakers? Like where's the dominance over an extended
period of time? And don't talk to me about going
to the finals. That's not what we're measuring this thing
for going to the finals. No one considers the early

(01:43:26):
the Bills team that went to four straight Super Bowls. No,
No one doesn't one of the greatest teams ever, which
it was, because that's hard to do.

Speaker 3 (01:43:36):
But we don't even talk about that.

Speaker 1 (01:43:37):
No, of course not was. The young man's name was Ethan. Yes,
I wonder if you had said to him, Ethan, I
know what extended dominance looks like better than anyone because
I work with Steve to.

Speaker 3 (01:43:53):
Say, I have a Steve to say, Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:43:55):
That's guys. By the way, Mark, if you got assigned
in debate class, the sentence Kareem is the greatest basketball
player in the history of the sport, you could make
a really good.

Speaker 4 (01:44:08):
Absolutely good.

Speaker 1 (01:44:09):
My good friend Michael Thompson, who I did a show
with for years, would get mad. Now obviously he's biased,
played for the Lakers.

Speaker 4 (01:44:16):
Whatnot?

Speaker 1 (01:44:17):
The members are there, Yeah, everything is there, every everything
is there. The barbershop would start screaming about Lebron and
Michael and and and Thompson would just sit there and
be like, how come nobody ever brings up Kareem?

Speaker 4 (01:44:30):
And then he would get mad and that would be
the end of the argument.

Speaker 8 (01:44:34):
And he was eighty eight and two in college three years,
three national championships, three times, the national Player of the Year.
And then even he with Milwaukee beat the Celtics for
the championship before he ever got to the Lakers. On
and on and on, six NBA titles, same as Jordan.

(01:44:54):
And also I have said this before on the year
years ago. Sometimes you hear people coming up with their
list of these are my top ten players in the
NBA all time, and they don't mention the name Wilt Chamberlain, Like,
if that happens to you, just stopped talking. You don't
know what you're talking about. He was MVP of the
league as a rookie and then later won three MVPs

(01:45:18):
in a row and finished at thirty points a game
for his career and twenty three rebounds a game for
his career. Even his last season, Wilt, at age thirty six,
led the NBA in rebounds. I looked it up. There
were only five guys in the league that year Kareem
included that averaged over fifteen rebounds a game. Wilt led

(01:45:41):
the league at eighteen and a half rebounds a game
at age thirty six, and then set out and retired. Yes,
he's kind of in the top ten all time. To
Major League Baseball, we had three night games already. The
Cubs have won at Wrigley eleven nothing over Saint Louis.
In San Diego, it's Texas and the Padres tied up
one bottom of the fourth. San Diego pitcher You Darvish

(01:46:03):
is due to make his season debut on Monday, after
elbow problems, and in Sacramento it's the Giants over the
A's one nothing in the bottom of the second. Houston
beat the Dodgers again in LA five to one with
three late solo homers. Philadelphia three to one over the Reds,
the win to Zach Wheeler on a complete game one hitter.
Boston a six to four winner at Washington. The Nationals

(01:46:23):
fired manager Dave Martinez and GM Mike Rizzo. The Yankees
won at the Mets six to four. Aaron Judge is
thirty third homer, but Toronto won its eight straight game,
three to two against the Angels. The Blue Jays are
first in the Al East, still three games over the
Yankees and Tampa Bay, which won in ten innings at
Minnesota seven to five. Detroit won again a ten inning

(01:46:44):
win at Cleveland seven to two. The Cleveland Guardians have
lost ten in a row. The All Star reserves and
pitchers were announced tonight. They include first baseman of the
Dodgers Freddie Freeman, an All Star for the seventh straight time,
and the All Star Game is going to be in Atlanta,
where he to play. Yankee All Star pitcher Max Fried
will be there. He is a former Brave US men's

(01:47:05):
soccer lost the Gold Cup final in Houston tonight two
to one to Mexico. In the WNBA Minnesota Is seventeen
and two after beating Chicago eighty to seventy five. Angel
Reece named an All Star reserve today. In defeat, had
sixteen points seventeen rebounds. Reese had six assists six turnovers
in that loss. NASCAR Chicago Street Race went to Shane

(01:47:27):
van Gisbergen from New Zealand. He also won the Saturday
Xfinity Race there, also from pole position. Scott Dixon took
the IndyCar Race at mid Ohio and at Wimbledon, number
one seed Arena Sablenca won her fourth round match Men's
number two Carlos Alcaraz advance on the PGA Tour. Brian
Campbell won in a playoff in Illinois. He finished about

(01:47:47):
a half hour ahead of the final group, so we
went back to the clubhouse and then went back out
on the course and won on the first playoff hole.
This guy, it turns out, won the Mexico Open in
late February in a playoff. He has two victories this season,
both in playoffs. Otherwise he has finished out of the
top thirty in every tournament he's entered this year, but

(01:48:08):
apparently this one might be enough to get him into
the Open overseas, depending on how high he moves up
in the world ranking that comes out tomorrow, because that's
traditionally used as the alternate list. But each golfer this weekend,
the two that were in the playoff, Campbell and Emiliano Grezio,
they had posted identical scores all four days, and quickly
Campbell wins on the one extra hole and takes home

(01:48:31):
one point five million dollars second place, about nine hundred thousand.
So yes, the difference of one golf shot at the
end is a difference of six hundred thousand dollars. Yeah,
golf was off today. It'll be in Spain next weekend
and then in the UK in late July.

Speaker 1 (01:48:50):
Back to you, okay, Steve, great stuff, great stuff. Appreciate
you as always am. Throughout the entire evening. We are
live in the Fox Sports Radio studios, and please do
not forget. Shortly after the show the podcast will go up.
If you missed any of today's show, be sure to
check out the podcast. Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever

(01:49:11):
you get your podcasts. Be sure to follow and review
the podcast rated a five. Please that helps us makes
us feel good again. Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever
you get your podcasts. You see today's show posted right
after we get off the air. I have to be
real with you. First of all, I really really enjoyed storytime.

Speaker 4 (01:49:28):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (01:49:31):
But and I guess I shouldn't say but and and
also at the same time, whenever the Lebron Michael thing
comes up, I just kind of shut down.

Speaker 4 (01:49:44):
But especially if somebody's coming with some kind of.

Speaker 1 (01:49:47):
Take, like like your boy Ethan, Yeah, do you know? Like, again,
Steve's not wrong. There's a number of people that I
could sit here and make. Of course, yes, I could
take the case. But I've also learned and maybe this
is just us getting older, right, I can't do the
argument where I know that even if we have it

(01:50:11):
or call it a debate, even if we have it
and one side clearly wins the debate, the other side
is still going to be like, no, you did not
win the debate. I'm not changed. No, everyone's too dug in.

Speaker 3 (01:50:26):
Everyone hills right, heels or dug in.

Speaker 9 (01:50:29):
This.

Speaker 1 (01:50:30):
Lebron and MJ is like Democrats and Republicans like it
is does not matter what anybody says. Everybody's dug in
and that's where we are, period. Thank you for playing.
So it's kind of like whole conversations just kind of
a waste of time.

Speaker 2 (01:50:48):
Yeah, and it's all it's also about like it's hard
for me when when when you debate with people and
you have, you know, things to back your opinion up,
and they just go, well, that's just that's just who
I think.

Speaker 3 (01:51:07):
And I'm like, wait, what.

Speaker 1 (01:51:10):
Well, that's what I think. I don't care that what
you just said was a good point. I am going
to ignore it.

Speaker 2 (01:51:17):
I think he said some off the wall crazy thing
like like Lebron James was a bet. Yes, he did
say it. Lebron James was a better defender than Jordan
and Kobe Bryant. And I said, man, I said, Bro,
slap yourself. I said, hold out your hand. He hold
it out, I said, and I slap yourself. I said,

(01:51:40):
how many times was Kobe Bryant? No, how many times
was Kobe Bryant all defense?

Speaker 4 (01:51:45):
Man?

Speaker 3 (01:51:46):
I don't know, but it wasn't more than Lebron. I said.
And this is why.

Speaker 2 (01:51:52):
I was told by my grandmother don't argue with fools
because people from a distance can't tell who is who.
And you're sitting up here. You made a statement and
you have zero to back it, but like.

Speaker 3 (01:52:11):
You, you can't.

Speaker 2 (01:52:12):
Even Lebron James has been All Defense six times. Kobe
Bryant has been more than anyone, which is twelve times.
Twelve times, so what are we talking about? Twelve is
more than six. And I'm like you, just like when

(01:52:33):
you when you're arguing and you start your whole thing
with the point total the all time leading scorer. That's
not the metric. It's not the metric.

Speaker 1 (01:52:45):
That's not the wall well that that I would think
on which we can all agree that that's not the things.

Speaker 3 (01:52:52):
That's not it because it's never been.

Speaker 2 (01:52:56):
I said, So you can't now use it because it.

Speaker 3 (01:53:01):
Helps your point, Like no one has ever used that.

Speaker 2 (01:53:07):
To say who the all time greatest player was in
this you know era, the era that we've been alive, right,
Because then you go to Bill Russell with the championships, right,
So let's not let's Kareem was the all time leading
score for decades prior to a year and a half ago.

(01:53:32):
Does that put Michael Jordan after he did that over
I mean Lebron over Michael Jordan. After that, I think not.
A championship didn't come with it. Two more didn't come
with it.

Speaker 4 (01:53:46):
I think not. I think not.

Speaker 2 (01:53:49):
So that's all I was saying. I was like and
look like I kept saying in my opinion, but I
also backed my opinion up well.

Speaker 3 (01:53:58):
With the facts.

Speaker 2 (01:53:59):
You know why, because I've been in this business for
over twenty five years.

Speaker 1 (01:54:04):
It's also unfair fight like he's twenty one.

Speaker 3 (01:54:07):
He never even watched Jordan play, That's true.

Speaker 4 (01:54:09):
He never even watched it. Like you watch both of
them play. He didn't watch.

Speaker 2 (01:54:11):
He doesn't even watch whole basketball games. Right, these kids
are learning more about the NBA from two K. No,
it's been actually basketball.

Speaker 1 (01:54:21):
And TikTok two K and tiktokh. Yeah, he was that's
a good word, even if it wasn't a word, all right,
with a from Slama Mark Willard coming up next, I
have a quote for you that you're going to love,
and it is about the WNBA, and I think that
it is the thing. It is the thing about the

(01:54:44):
rise of this league, where it's going, what it needs
to do. Next, we'll have that coming up on Fox
Sports Radio. All right, these are the Fox Sports Radio
studios of fun, getting back, getting back on the horse.

Speaker 3 (01:55:03):
Yeah, man, it's always you know.

Speaker 4 (01:55:07):
Let me throw this at you.

Speaker 1 (01:55:10):
And this comes from an unnamed w NBA official. And
this is not like I don't know, This is not
like an expos This is not doesn't have to be
a big deal. I just think it's a moment in time,
and I think that the league would do very very
well to shine a light on this, especially with its players.

(01:55:33):
I know you you talk about this all the time,
and I wonder if you've even been a part of it.
You've ever been a part of all that the symposium
that they do with the rookies, and it like even
as a as a vet, yes, how about as a
retired player? No, okay, but but did you go through
it as a rook Oh yeah? And then you you
helped out as a vet? Yep, okay like that. I've

(01:55:55):
never been a professional athlete, but I feel like that's
a thing like that. Life is something that I don't
take lightly. And I give players a lot of space
with the idea, a lot of compassion. I know the
most fans out know, Oh G, I wonder of why
I could hear it a little five million millions of dollars, like,

(01:56:17):
don't do that this fish bowl that money if you're
not used to it, that attention, that's challenging, I think,
and I think that the WNBA across the board is
going through this right now, and it's what leads to
all the Caitlin Clark stuff, and it leads to a
lot of these awkward interactions that we're seeing between the

(01:56:40):
players and the media and the players and fans. Even
here's the quote from an unnamed WNBA official quote. Most
WNBA players have zero idea what real media exposure is.
They don't know what real coverage is. They've been shielded
at college and then they come to the w NBA

(01:57:02):
not knowing what real questions are. Frankly, our players just
don't get it. How does that grab you?

Speaker 3 (01:57:13):
I'm sure there's some truth to it.

Speaker 2 (01:57:18):
The there hasn't been a I don't care what you say,
there hasn't been a spotlight on the w NBA outside
of his inaugural season.

Speaker 3 (01:57:31):
Like it has been the last year and a half period.

Speaker 1 (01:57:35):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:57:37):
Ever, Right, and so yeah, how would you know how
to deal and manage that? How did you there was no.

Speaker 4 (01:57:49):
I don't think you would.

Speaker 3 (01:57:50):
Yeah, you don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:57:52):
I guess the point is is that I wonder if
the if most WNBA players have even so sort of
acknowledged that, and so instead of pushing against it, like
acknowledge this is different. We're in a very very different time,
We're at a different level. We probably have some things

(01:58:14):
to learn here because and I think that's what this one,
this quote is specifically talking about a lot of press
conferences where you see WNBA players and coaches get like offended,
like that question was out of line, and I'm like, no,
that was actually the only question to ask. That's exactly
the question that needs to be asked. And it's almost

(01:58:37):
like there's this pushback. There's there they're offended that there's
any probing questions. It's like, you need probing questions. Probing
questions mean people want to know, people care, people care.
There were no probing questions before because let's be real,
nobody cared, and now people care. I told you I

(01:58:58):
took the kids to a Valkyrie's game a couple weeks ago.
Is bananas.

Speaker 2 (01:59:01):
It's yeah, man, you're flying private totally. It's a bunch
of stuff going on.

Speaker 3 (01:59:08):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:59:09):
And and you need media training. You need to be
schooled and how to deal with the media now and
so and and they're gonna they're gonna get it. This
is this is literally like a rebirth of the Not
no disrespect to any of the great players, a lot
of them are friends who came before. But this is
a new w n b A. It's not the same

(01:59:31):
w n B. It's a new w n B A
as it should be. It should be a new w
n B A. The price, the contracts and and the
salary should go up. They should be flying private.

Speaker 1 (01:59:43):
Absolutely, they deserve it and they will and now they
got to learn how to deal with it. Yeah, but attention,
attention is just that, it brings attention. Great stuff, my
man always, brother, you can't wait to talk to you
again next week. UH forty from Salama Mark Willard. Keep
in lock right here to the Fox Sports Radio

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