Plank and Spanier: 02/18/2018

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. I think we just
had an earthquake in Oklahoma. These are regular round here now, Arnie, Welcome,
Welcome to the Fox Sports Radio Studios, brought to you
by Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or
more on car insurance. Visit gey dot com for a
free rate. Quote. Oh, a Cinderella story unlike anything we've

(00:22):
ever seen. I mean there was gosh, who was that
team that made the run of the Final Four a
couple of years ago that nobody had heard of before
they had the old coach. I even UKN went in
a national championship. All kinds of Cinderella stories. But Team
Steph being in this mix right now with Team Lebron, Arnie,
no one gave this battling group of underdogs and opportunity

(00:45):
and look where we are right all right, pipe down.
But let me tell you something. I've actually enjoyed it
a little bit more this year than they have in
the last two or three years. Has actually been a
little bit more enjoyable. They're playing a little bit more defense. Uh,
they're calling foul so I I've been though the halftime
shows a whole another story and the uh, and and
all that stuff we'll get into before the pregame. But

(01:07):
but at least the game has been a little bit better.
This is right up there with one of the great
underdogs stories. Don't you shush me on this one, Arnie, everyone,
Barry Teams, Steph Oh did he pick blindfolded? What was
he thinking? Is he taking it to Lebron? And look
what's happening right now? I do have the exact score.
I haven't. Last night's prediction was one in favor of

(01:29):
Team Lebron. Who who picks the All Star Game? Anyway?
Welcome in tonight. We have a surprisingly busy show. I'm
gonna try to talk NASCAR, though they could tank our ratings.
I'm so excited about today. Yeah, I got tons of
NFL stuff to get to. Will debate whether or not
this has been a good first half of the NBA season,

(01:49):
borderline great first half for like three quarters. Well that's
that's a great point too, because everyone gets caught up
with thinking all Star breaks in every sport but football.
All right, like the midway point of the season, well
breaking news, it's it's not and it's not even close
to the n p A. As you know, we're more
than three h whoa way way past halfway if I
can speak English tonight. But the thing that's interesting to me, Arnie,

(02:13):
is what we saw to start this thing out. You know,
I think to myself, we sit here every Sunday night
and we'll dog officials right because we know that if
you wanted to, you could be a better official than
officials out there. Pretty sure you got a better jumper
than most of the NBA players based on the way
you've portrayed. Don't be crazy, Just you crush some coaches,

(02:37):
so you could be a better coach. The big question
on everyone's mind tonight, could Arnie span your perform the
national anthem better than Fergie and put on a better
halftime show than whatever that was we were subjected to tonight. Wow,
I don't know better, because you know, I'm not quite
the singer, but I gotta tell you it wasn't as
bad as Roseanne bar or anything like that. I I'm

(02:57):
not gonna put it in that category. WI is that
is that where Pep we Gwitter pretty good? Right now?
Grizzler was. I just will say this much. I um,
I kind of tap out on All Star weekend. I mean,
I know that that's not what like sports guys are
supposed to do. Maybe part of it is because there
hasn't been a Laker worthy in a while. Maybe maybe
it's a little bitterness, but All Star Weekend really isn't

(03:17):
my thing. You know, the the dunk contest. Whenever I
was younger and growing up, Oh, it was awesome, the
three points showdown when you had Hodges and Larry going
at it, And now you know it's it's not It's
not the same to me, and it actually kind of
makes me mad. With that said, I decided tonight I
was gonna take it in because, like you, I dug
the way they picked the teams this year. I thought

(03:38):
it was cool. I liked putting it in the players hands.
And as I locked onto Twitter, the only thing I
saw was people grinching and moaning about the performance of
the national anthem, and everyone laughing at Raymond Green's face
whenever he was showing on T and T while the
anthem was being performed. So I think, Arnie, that's the
biggest story from what's happened so far in tonight's game,

(03:59):
according to social media. Well, and and that halftime show.
I I I actually sat in my chair watching this
and and I'm like, Wow. I'm like, I guess I'm
not that demographic. I just I couldn't get into the music,
and I didn't know when one song end. I don't know.
I just the whole thing was a little just I

(04:20):
I'll stick with the super Bowl halftime show. How about that? Well,
the good news on both fronts for me. Number One,
we were on the air during the super Bowl halftime show,
so we just got to sit here and talk about
the first half of the super Bowl. And secondly, I
was driving to work during halftime of the NBA All
Star Game, so I missed it all But Arnie, as
far as just everyone always tries to fix all star games.

(04:41):
What's the one constant in our profession? And then it's
sports fans in generals. If it's the Major League Baseball
All Star Game, if it's the NBA All Star Game,
if it's the Pro Bowl, if it's even the NHL
All Star Game, what does everyone want to do? They
want to fix it. Oh gosh, we gotta fix it.
I I gotta admit I've kind of been sucked in.

(05:02):
I'm kind of digging this right now. I think it's
been fun overall. It's been enjoyable to watch tonight. It
has because they're trying a little bit harder. It's not
one dunk after another, throwing it off the backboard, no defense,
clowning around. I mean, there's been a little bit, but
I mean most of the most of the part. And
you saw this early in the game. There was more
fouls call. They played a little bit of defense. They

(05:23):
they tried a little bit. That's all that we were asking.
We didn't want to just you know, have an exhibition
out there, give us a little bit of a game.
So let me pose this question that if there is
anyone paying attention in Oklahoma and Oklahoma City and Tulsa tonight,
they will not be happy with this. But Arnie, can
we bury the Durant Westbrook feud now? Has? Has that?

(05:43):
I mean, I'm sure fans are still gonna get caught
up with their cupcake talk and and still boo Kevin Durant,
even though he was pretty quintessential to Oklahoma City becoming
a viable NBA franchise, Is this feud now becoming a
little bit in the past seeing them get along se
him kind of laughing joke a bit. First of all,
why do you act like there's if there's a feud,

(06:05):
that's something bad. Magic and Larry had a feud going
on that wasn't all bad. Like Kobe and Shack run
the same dam had a feud going on. Why was
that bad? Why is it bad if you have feuds?
I mean, look at the Trade Pistons, bad boy. Everybody
hated them. Everybody was feuding with them. We love that
whole stuff. So I don't know why it's so bad
to have a little bit of a feud to drive

(06:26):
somebody out there. Did you just ask if the Kobe
Shack feud was a bad thing. It kind of set
the Lakers back for a few years when they chose Kobe.
It took the Grizzlies handing us palgasol in order to
end up where they were hearing. Hearing you right, is
there another Shock Kobe combination. I'm not thinking about that
bunch of bunch of championships in my aeron. You're right,

(06:47):
you're it all. Stop. You're telling me that the Kobe
Shack feud was a good thing, that it worked out
in the end. It was a bad thing. You wish
it never happened for a few years. Sure, Kobe and
Shack would have been unstoppable if they would have stayed together.
You're telling me that them splitting up and Shack winning
titles in Miami and the Lakers going on the swoon

(07:10):
they did for a while. You're telling me that if
they would have been able to work out their differences
and get along, that it would have been a dominating
force in the NBA for years. I was I was
talking about when they were together. That's what I'm saying.
What how many championships did you want them to win
every year when they're together? You can't win every year?
Why not? Patriots are pretty much in position to do it?

(07:30):
Why not? Why not? Here's here's why this is a
little bit different. I think though, because I agree with
you a hundred percent. Aren'tie feuds are good? Everyone? Uh,
It's always okay to have someone wear the black hat
and be the bad guy. It's okay to have people
not like each other. This has seemed to take on
a little bit of a different life form, so to speak,
because russ Is has constantly shot down any conversations about it.

(07:54):
You kind of feel like Durrand has grown a little bit.
Maybe it's a bigger deal to people in Oklahoma than
it is to any one else on the planet right now.
But I gotta admit, with with so many other kind
of cool little feuds going on in the NBA right now,
I kind of dig that you're seeing Durant and Russ
work things out a little bit, because, honestly, I think
we've had a blast here in the first three quarters

(08:16):
in the NBA season so far. I think it's been
a great run. You know what, though, I love that
everybody's already saying, oh well, Cleveland's back two two games.
They're back. They're back two games, two games, Chris. I
love that they go already had to be one of
the best teams in the NBA after making all those trades.
I think that's the whole laughable thing about the Cavalier

(08:37):
fans out there. Eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox.
We'll get into that tonight, uh and you can jump
in if you'd like at eight seven seven six three
six nine as always the best way to get in
touch with the show throughout the evening. His Twitter at
Stinking Genius one. That's Arnie s t I and k
I N Genius in the number one I'm at plank
Show and uh Arnie, I I guess I missed it

(08:59):
last I was Was there something that happened during the
slam Dunk competition that had you set off? Was was
there someone were they? Were they burning some trees? Aren't
you while you were trying to watch you listen? Are
you that offended by someone smoking weed? AREN'TI? No? I
was during the Celebrity Game, which I believe was on Friday.

(09:20):
And the reason I brought it up is because I
think it was what Bobby Brown and the rapper the game.
I'm sure you have his eight tracks in your car
right now, Chris. And the only reason I bring it
up is because there's video going around social media of
Bobby Brown passing what looked like a marijuana cigarette to

(09:40):
the game and him taking a hint of it and
passing it back. And my only thing is there's kids
at the event. Okay, there's kids watching on TV and
and stopped before you tell me it's legal, it's legal.
I think, yeah, it's legal, But that doesn't mean you
could you could start drinking beers and do it shots
on the sideline eater at smoke in heaters, I just

(10:03):
didn't think couldn't you wait, look, smoke your guts out
before the game after the game? Did have to be
during the game? Yes, yes, I'm not knocking what you're saying. One,
a marijuana cigarette makes you it just dated you. And
two is Chris Brown not Brown Chris Brown whatever, that's

(10:28):
a major big difference. I'm sorry, Chris, that's like calling
you Jonas knocks like it just going to be better
Chris Brown. But my whole thing is, why why do
that on TV? Why doing it during the game? Why not,
you know, do it before the game, after the game
when they're a halftime that they could have taken time

(10:49):
out ten minutes smoke break. I don't understand why I
had to be right there and then because it's legal, man.
Yeah so but but Chris, so what are you telling me?
Because let's start breaking out the beer saying, hey, can
well shot? I want to get Chellas shots for the
whole team. Come on, what's wrong with you? Guys? I'm
not saying I'm not knocking you, but you just sound

(11:11):
like somebody's out of time, bro, Like it's it's literally
legal out here now. I'm not saying I'm with you, No,
don't put it all on TV to let my My
son is literally in the studio with me right now.
I'm not trying to have it all up in his face. No,
I I agree with you on that. There's a lot
of kids there. That's all I'm saying. How long is

(11:33):
the game? It's an hour long? For crying out loud,
you got all you have to do is go an hour.
But that goes back to their argument is simply gonna
be It's legal, yes, but I keep telling you so
is beer, so is a cheeseburger. But I wouldn't say
break out the cheeseburgers while you're sitting there on the bench.
But you see them eating, you see them drinking liquor

(11:55):
on TV shows like you know, actually commercials. You're not
allowed to see people drinking year that. I think that's
pretty much true on that. Really. Yeah. I had to
laugh last night because when I was listening to Arnie,
I was I was cracking up because I'll be honest
with you, I didn't even notice it. And then the
more I thought about it, I was like, Wow, that's
a that's kind of a that's kind of a bullsy

(12:15):
move by one Bob Brown get out by prerogative out
there in the middle of the All Star break. Oh,
it's Clutch City from Russ Westbrook Team Lebron. Oh wait,
did you just see that he gave a high five
to Kevin Durant. What is going on with this world?
Dogs and cats living together? Do you know I may

(12:37):
get the exact score of this game? Congratulations, you're on fire.
I am. I'm no longer the kiss of that. How
about that? Though? Again, I would say picking an All
Star game, I guess you gotta keep that momentum going
in some patients. What would be a team does Kevin
Hard play for? I'm just curious. I think I still
love the fact that he showed up hammered at the

(12:59):
at the Tropy presentation at the Super Bowl and his
wife was even like, yo, yo, you probably don't need
to go up there, and He's like, I'm going up there.
I'm Kevin Hart And the next thing you knew, he
was escorted out. But the dudes everywhere I'm jealous. All right,
So a great finish coming up. I can't believe I
just said that involving the All Star Game. We'll go
more in depth with it next and tons on the NFL,

(13:19):
even the Olympics. Arnie and Plank on Fox Sports Sunday,
It's a final. It's a final, Arnie, a final Lebron
Cinderella story. Wait, what am I talking about? Become the
Alive and the Geico Fox Sports radio studios every single
Sunday night. What did you mean when Geico says just

(13:41):
fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on
car insurance? Well, it means you probably should have gone
to Geico dot com fifteen minutes ago. We'll get some
of these tweets here in just a bit. It's a final.
Team Lebron wins, and it it was. It was. It
was Katie to Russ to give Team Lebron the three

(14:02):
point lead, and Arnie dare I say a defensive stop
at the end of the NBA All Star Games? Say,
and by the way, I nailed the exact score. I was.
I was right? What a prediction. I'm really good at
this stuff. All right, what's the over under, Irab? How
long will we hear about Arnie hitting the All Star

(14:22):
Games score? Right? That's pretty good, though, one year, two years?
Does this go up there? Like with the pick of
of uh what, who'd you pick Golden State. Oh, you
pick Cleveland to rally from three one? Yes, but of
course keep in mind, I think you've picked against Golden
State every playoff. He will, he will, definitely, he'll definitely

(14:43):
use this pick about an exhibition game to outweigh the
numerous bad picks about pretty important games. So it's he
might put in his Twitter bio the person who picked
the correct score of the NBA All Star Game. I'm
just saying, Arnie, you have You've had some bad ones,
but this a good one. Honestly, I'll give you the collaps.
You got it right, got it? It was an exhibition

(15:04):
game in the end. So and by the way, team
uh the women's the USA hockey team up? What nothing?
You know? Hey, if the Kiss of Death comes back
now for national priority, we might just cut you off
for the rest finals. This is a semifinals, so this
is a live game. I believe Team Lebron one, team
Steph one forty five will. I don't know if they've

(15:25):
named the m v P. It was kind of interesting
to think about the the Los Angeles born players with
DeMar de Rose and Paul George, James Hard and Russell
Westbrook and kind of what was viewed as four guys
that really wanted to win the All Star Game m
v P in their hometown. But Lebron really showed out
tonight twenty nine points. Uh. DeMar de Rosen did have
twenty one points. But we'll see who gets the m

(15:47):
v P coming up here in mirror moments the meeting,
you want to hit some of these tweets real quicks
to put a mostly well, they are, but it's with
some really skewed logic. Like our man Terry. I'll just
try to clean this up a little bit. Even though
we're in a safe zone. He says, having relations is legal,
but we don't need that during the game either. I'm

(16:09):
with you, Arnie. Actually, actually, Terry, having relations in public
like that is not legal. It would be called public
indecency or whatever, so that would be illegal. There's a
lot of you UH lawyers out there like I am
right now that wanted to point out that you can't
actually imbibe uh in in public. And then I like
this from Sandman. I have to read this in my

(16:31):
in my Twitter jerk voice. I hope you don't take attention,
sand Mon five ten, but right, it's not legal to
smoke in public, and there's something called second hand smingo ingo,
my god. They were on the court like fifty yards
from anyone of the stands. Anyway, point is and then
Jordan points out public consumption in marijuana is not legal,

(16:52):
same with public drunkenness. I actually read up on this
because I didn't see this and didn't hear about it
until actually you had mentioned it, uh the last night
that it was all over social media. It's not back
there like I was. I was trying to dig it
up or something like that. I kind of think you were.
I kind of think you found something talking about the
marijuana cigarettes and decided to make a big deal. But
it really was caught by some random dudes Instagram post, right,

(17:16):
and then it just kind of took off from there.
But anyway, think of it what you want really not,
I guess something that will lose our minds too much,
because again it doesn't involve a player on an active roster.
And if you want to get upset about it with
your kids, uh, I don't have a conversation with him
about the wrongness of doing the drugs. A lot of
people were commenting on it, Chrissy, Well, they just again,

(17:40):
you know, you could do as much as you want
before the game and after the game. It didn't have
to be right there. And then that's that was the
whole logic of the thing. I mean, why it's not
that you have to be against it Ford or whatever.
You just didn't have to do it at that certain time.
I mean, it's it's it's a hip Hop All Star Game.
I mean, it's not like we're watching the Sixers stereotype
hip hop. Ow I guess there you go, Okay, I will.

(18:03):
I don't think I have the stereotype, but I listen
and watch enough videos to know that it's kind of
part of the culture. With that in mind, here's a
couple of other tweets. Um I I do, like JD
points out, except it was during the Hip Hop All
Star Game, which wasn't on TV. This was their own
event and was also outside. Hashtag no but yes it

(18:23):
was outside, but the kids were attending the event. Though
multiple Sports is confirmed. Stinking Genius try to get a
cop trip to l A and get into parties with
NBA stars and celebrities, but was rejected by the bus.
Did Scott Shapiro shoot you down trying to come out
to l A and cover the All Star Game. I
won't confirm or deny that. Uh. Now, are you into this? Is?

(18:46):
Are you ready for the hackiest, most common question that's
brought up on sports talk radio over the last week
and a half. I'll go ahead and and I'll feed
into it as we come d live from the Geico
Fox Sports Radio studios because at my core, UM, I'm
a hack. But arey how into the Olympics are you
right now? Is it something you've been following? Being up

(19:07):
in the Northeast A lot of athletes from around your area.
Are you all in on the Olympics? Are you kind
of like me catching it every now and then? I'm
probably more like you catching it every now and then,
though I did go out of my way when I
saw that the women's team was playing tonight, uh in
the semifinals I believe against Finland. I'm like, Okay, I'll
do it. I'll have it on my screen as we're
doing the show like it was. Usually we don't have

(19:29):
too much live events going on when we're on Sunday Night,
so maybe the end of like the Sunday Night Baseball
or something like that. So I'm like this is gonna
be good. You know, you win this, you have a
chance to go get the gold. So I have it
on right now paying attention to it. But I'm more
like you, where I was probably more like a six
out of ted or or five out of ten. You
know what I realized is, um, I'm really a sucker

(19:51):
for the backstory. Yeah, and I know that I'm not
alone with this. But again, I heard Jason Smith and
I listening to his podcast, which you guys can get
all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com
on our podcasts, and he talked about how this entire
Winner Olympics lacks a true superstar. You know, you always

(20:12):
had guys during the this. I mean, I'm a big
Summer Olympics fan, which is odd I'm not a big
Winner Olympics fan. But you always had the Michael Phelps
and you had the NBA NBA players, and you had gosh,
you're gonna go back. And I can remember when I
was a kid watching Matt BEYONDI you try to win
gold medal and swimming, you have these guys that draw
you to the game. And I was kind of trying

(20:34):
to argue in my head with Jason Smith because I thought,
it's the Olympics. Do we really need that big of
a name to truly draw us in? And I realized, Darnie,
maybe we do maybe to get that broader appeal. And
maybe you're seeing it now a little bit more with
Lindsay Vaughan and we're getting into her final event coming up.
Maybe you're seeing it or saw it with the flying
tomato and and what Sean, why did and what and

(20:55):
what the future potential of Chloe Kim is. So I
don't know. I wanted to argue with at but is
Jason onto something with maybe needing more star power in
these Olympic Games? You know, if the men's hockey team, uh,
and they still have a chance to you know, do something,
we'll see what happens, like the quarterfinals or something like that.
But if they were doing real well it had a

(21:16):
chance to win the gold, you better believe there'd be
all kinds of back drops and stories and everybody. They'd
be the heroes of the Olympics for us. There don't
remember what it was like back your miracle on ice.
We still haven't, you know, forgotten about that. We'd I've
I wouldn't say the same thing, but we'd be enjoying
close to something like that. By the way, my buddy
Brandon Jack's just tweeted us and said, um, Thursday was

(21:38):
the thirty eighth anniversary Thursday coming up of the shocking
win over the Russians in nineteen eighty. You know, again,
it's a different time because in nineteen eighty you kind
of look back and you realize that we found out
on the ticker for the most part, and that that happened,
that wasn't anything that you were necessarily watched. That wasn't
for the gold medal either, now exactly, it was in

(21:59):
one of the uh uh in the semifinal games. So
I don't know if if you'll look at two thousand
and eighteen and we'll have memories like that, but it's
unfortunate to be I'm not saying Brandon is doing this,
but I do this a lot of times too. I'll
hold everything against one of the greatest moments of all time.
I mean, you're not gonna have your events live up
to your expectations, aren't you if you're always comparing them

(22:20):
to the greatest maybe moment that we've ever seen in
Winter Olympic history. Right. Let me take something. You know,
Lake Placid's only like about an hour from me, and
I've been down to that rink. It still gives you
chills just just to walk around there. Chris. You you
still get a little teary eyed when you see the
pictures on the wall and stuff like that. I can't
argue with that, so good point. I mean again, I

(22:41):
I don't really know where to go with Olympic talk,
kind of when I bring up Nascar, I don't really
know where to go with it except to say I'm intrigued,
and I guess from that perspective, I'm intrigued to kind
of see where the rest of the Winter Olympics go.
Do the men's Olympic hockey team they find a way
to to get in the mix, as Annie met and
we're watching the U S and Finland right now on

(23:02):
women's hockey where we lead one zero. Uh, do you
have something big happen for Lindsey Vaughan. So I I'm
kind of intrigued to see what happens, but it's not
one of those must see moments for me here in
teen Alright, we come to live from the Geico Fox
Sports Radio Studios. Ladies and gentlemen. Mr Olympic himself Steve
de Sager in the house to get us caught up
on everything we're missing, including the big win tonight for

(23:23):
Team Lebron. What's going on Steve and Lebron's the game
m v P. We will get to that in a
moment to us. Women's hockey is leading one nothing mid
first period of its semifinal at the Olympics in South Korea. Guys,
the stunning announcement to me tonight is that they announced
that the next women's hockey tournament four years from now,
when the Winter Games are in Beijing, China, instead of
eight teams in the tournament, it will have ten. They

(23:45):
don't have eight good women's teams. Now, I don't get this.
I mean, look at South Korea, for example. They're the
host country, so you get to enter every sport whether
your team is good or not. It's kind of like
when South Africa hosted World Cup soccer, South Africa in automatically,
they didn't have to try and qualify. Have you seen,
for example, South Korea unified team with women's hockey. They've lost.

(24:08):
They've lost eight nothing twice and actually two of the
reasons given tonight. Why they're expanding the women's field at
the next winner Olympics is because no team scored more
than eight in a game in this tournament, and because
Japan actually won a game, so oh, it must be
a deep field more than eight. There's three groups, so

(24:29):
that would make twelve. And by the way, the USA
men's team could be out the next game could be
out tomorrow night. If they lose to Slovakia, they're done.
Whoever wins those games tomorrow night go on to the quarterfinal.
A team like Canada is good enough they get to
skip the next round and just wait for an opponent
in the quarterfinal this coming week. As far as the

(24:50):
NBA All Star Game, it's over in l A second
half began close to ten ten pm Eastern time. By
the way, it finally ended, Team Lebron plays defense at
the end as cure of victory over Team Staff one
eight to one forty five. The game m v P
Lebron James twenty nine points, ten rebounds, eight assists. That's
Lebron's third All Star Game. M v P Michael Jordan

(25:13):
had three, Shock had three. Oscar Robertson had three m vps.
In the All Star Game. The record is four Kobe
Bryant and Bob Pettit back in the old days team
Lebron with Durant and Westbrook and George and Kyrie and
all the injured players they were missing. By the way,
that was a lot of talent going again, you mentioned
the roster early they were missing Porzingis and Love and

(25:34):
John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins still with d At the end,
they beat Steph Curry. In fact, Curry started oh of
six shooting in this game. Tonight eventually had six turnovers
and Curry couldn't get a shot off in the final seconds.
His team loses by three. College basketball which toss State
one at number five Cincinnati, Michigan at home beat number
eight Ohio State. Austin Dillon won the Daytona five hundred

(25:56):
and Bubba Watson took the golf event in l A,
oh By the way, Hugh Ston Texans will release linebacker
Bran Pushing prior to the new league year, which starts.
We'll go to the Patriots somehow, you at it starts
in mid March. Wherever he goes, I dare him to
play sixteen games in a season. Hasn't happened in a while.
Thanks to Seger, we come to the Alive and the
Geico Fox Sports radio studios. It's easy to say fift

(26:18):
cent or more on car insurance with the Geico good
a guy who dot com are called eight nine four
seven Otto. The only hard part figuring out which way
is easier. You know, it's interesting, Arnie that we haven't
heard as much buzz about Gronk since the Super Bowl.
And I don't know. You're you're in You're in the
Northeast area, You're in Patriot Country, You're around all the
people where if they can't find good news, they'll just

(26:40):
make it up. So, so where are we right now
with Rob Gronkowski in his future with the Patriots? You think?
I thought I saw a story just recently that what
the w w E was going to ahead and make
a serious push it. So I was leading more that
he's like in retirement. That's you know, not based on
any information. But if I have him and the surgery

(27:02):
he's gone through and this is the last year, he
could definitely be on the patios because after this year
he becomes a a turrible cap casualty. He's certainly not
CAP friendly, So Um, I'm not even jury wants to
deal with it all over again, to be honest with you.
And then there's talking about maybe getting Jimmy Graham out here,
and I'm laughing at that. Um So look, if I

(27:23):
think guests, I think grons for the call at quins
and retire and not come back for another year. Arnie
mentioned the contract that Gronkowski has. You might remember that
he signed a six year, fifty four million dollar extension
just what two seasons ago, and that runs basically through
twenty nineteen. Now, as Arnie mentioned, he does have an
out after next season, but uh, this year against the cap,

(27:48):
let's see their Wow, their cap hit this year for
Grenkowski's deal is ten point nine million dollars. I said
that potential out is after eighteen. The ptential out is
this year. So if they wanted to move on, if
he wanted to move on, Arnie, he could move on
now and it would only cost him four million dollars

(28:08):
against the cap. If they keep him, they're gonna have
to keep him for two more years because it would
cost him twenty two million combined in those two seasons
against the cap. So it kind of makes sense. And
that's all according to sport are ac dot Com, it
kind of makes sense that they're having this conversation now,
And to be honest, you know, j Sagar brought that
up with Brian Cushing. Hey, I challenge you to play
sixteen games as much of a difference maker as Grenkowski

(28:32):
still is he? No, he doesn't. And from everything, I
don't know Rob Gronkowski. I know the guys who recruited
him to Arizona, but I don't know Rob. He's been
really smart with his money. He's got a lot of
different irons in the fire, so to speak, and I
think he truly cares about his long term health. And

(28:52):
if that's the case, then heck, what's I mean? What
is he is twenty seven years old, He's gonna be
twenty eight next year, of me young, But but yeah,
I think it's gonna be an interesting decision to follow
over the next couple of weeks, which which gives me
to my other NFL question for this segment before we
get back to the NBA to wrap up our number one?

(29:12):
Is this going to become a common theme over the
next couple of years. You think a guy that maybe
we don't consider during the season suddenly as we start
to head down week fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen, the concern is, oh,
will he retire like Ben Roethlisberger last year and then
you you had that rash of forty nine or is
that retired early like Patrick Willis among others. Is this

(29:34):
now that you heard what Brett Farve had to say
and you see some backlash against the sport, are we
going to consistently see guys walking away from the game,
maybe well before are in the middle of their prime.
Depends how much money they're gonna have to leave on
the table. You know that that eventually speaks volumes. I mean,
did they get frontloaded? Did they get the big signing
bonus which obviously a lot didn't count against the cap,

(29:57):
so I mean a lot. And by the way, what
is the early potential outside of football for Grondkowski? It's
through the roof. I think there's more for Grondkowski than
just about any NFL player. Maybe Peyton Manning obviously is
different because he owns pizza places and stuff like that,
But I'm talking strictly TV entertainment movies. Um, you know,
I gotta think it's pretty high for Grondkowski. Yeah, and again, uh,

(30:20):
he was the one that brought it up, you know.
I but he also said that, uh, whenever he was
asked about retirement, rumors said, I don't know how you
heard about that, whenever he was even asked about it.
So the fact that he was kind of that open
leads you to believe that, Okay, maybe there's a little
bit more there, but it would be intriguing. You see

(30:42):
what New England would do. You know, you and I
have questioned, all right, has this been the beginning of
the end for the dynasty with the battles between Bellich
alleged battles between Belichick, Brady and Robert Krafft. Now you
start seeing some guys that might move on consistently though
they've just reloaded. And when you say I like Jimmy Graham,
suddenly I think, oh, bleep. So he'll go to New

(31:03):
England and resurrect his career. ALA, they're not gonna give
him enough money, you know how the Patriots are. They'll
pay you, they're gonna pay you significantly less. And the
way Jimmy Graham was the way, Remember he wanted to
be paid as one of the top about wide receivers,
which is one of the reasons he ended up getting traded,
so I don't see that being a match. But what
what the heck do I know? You know? This was

(31:24):
a note, just real quick to put a put a
rap on the Rob Gronkowski conversation, which will re visit
coming up next hour as I get into some of
the offseason priorities. Are you gonna only talk draft tonight?
Are we way too early for me to be able
to do that? What do you think it's within ten months?
So I figured to go, I'm the guy who wants
to talk about next year's draft after this year's draft. Rap.

(31:47):
So I can't put the kabbass on everything. I can't
put the kabass on pictures and catchers. By the way,
what does it say pictures and catchers report and then
the rest of the slubs. I don't know how that
works out, you know what I mean? You know what
I've I've never really understood getting too caught up in
base ball unless there's an injury to talk about early on,
or you're giving a guy two million dollars to come
play for a franchise that's not going to win anything.

(32:08):
Love your padres though, um here here was the line
by the way, from uh the article that Jeff Darlington
had and it was linked at Boston dot com. Quote
weeks before the a f C Championship game, Gronkowski was
telling people around him the toll on his body was
making him lead towards the potential that this was his
last season. This is a very serious thing for Rock

(32:29):
at this point. He will certainly continue to contemplate retirement.
Darlington said earlier today that the situation isn't an emotional
approach to the loss of the Super Bowl or an
emotional response to the concussion. And yeah, oh, by the way,
he might have an opportunity to make a lot of
money in the w w E. But I don't know
if you guys have watched the wrestler or have followed

(32:50):
this league for a while. Wrestling puts a little toll
on your body as well too, unless you're just gonna
be a manager. So we'll see exactly what plays out
the next like half year contracts, will playing the home
games something like that. Yeah, I'm laughing, but there's a
part of me that when I start thinking about the

(33:11):
future of the NFL and you're looking at one of
the I mean, come on, I mean I don't think
I'm I'm blowing this out of proportion. But you're looking
at one of the marquee playmakers on the Patriots, right
the best tight end in the game right now, and
he's looking to hang it up before he's thirty. I mean,
my goodness, what's you're You're right? Arnie? Maybe all right,
listen to rock. How about we give you an eight

(33:33):
game contract, just play the home games and then we'll
add to it whenever we get to the playoffs. Or
how about we just maybe that's the future as far
as uh eight seven seven on Fox? All right, when
we come back to the guy, call Fox Sports Radio Studios,
what have we learned in the first half and then

(33:53):
some of the NBA season. That's next with Arnie and
Plank on a Fox Sports Sunday. Great news is a
quick way you could save money? Switch to get good
a guy dot com and in fifteen minutes you that's
right you. Arenie Spaniard could say fifteent or more on
car insurance. Let's talking over the words. Stop. This is

(34:14):
all music tonight. Can I say this, Bobo? Can I
promote I was losing this on my cassette on the
way in Yeah, it's all music from the Black Panther soundtrack,
so kind of a cool little trivia tonight, just f y.
I check it out. Great movie, incredible soundtrack. Good call tonight, Bobo, Arnie.
We'll get to the tweets coming up, unless there's any

(34:35):
instantaneous tweets you feel we need to give attention to.
I will say I think Eddie has taken a shot
at me here. Uh, he goes, is it time to
talk about the big tin football sketch. I think that's
a shot at me Eddie and my college and pro
football addiction. Though he did add I heard Gronk wanted
to sign a contract with Glow not w W E

(34:56):
Arnie and local and the local whose guy is just
realizing that I'm on nationally and goes, wow, I can't believe.
I hope you've been in Fox. I'm like like six
years we go. I think we're going on our seventh
year together. That's okay. You know it's not okay. I
say it on my radio show Wokeley. Every time you know,
we're on like a we reach like a quarter of
a billion people per month. You know that joke number

(35:19):
grows every single week. Do you know what glow is.
Do you get Eddie's joke when I have no idea
what I saw the joke, but I have no idea
what it meant. But I last that I chuckle like no, no, no,
because it's it's good and wrestling dorks like me getting
I have no idea what he was talking about. Glow
was the gorgeous ladies of wrestling. It was all women wrestling.

(35:40):
I know, right, it's old school. It was actually on
there's a I don't want to say it's a documentary.
I think it's like a mini series that's on Netflix.
So I don't know if it's worth your time or not,
but just figured i'd fit in my wrestling talk here
from the Gutko Fox Sports Radio marks Proud here tonight, Arnie,
has this been a good first three quarter of the

(36:00):
NBA season so far? And before? Because we don't have
a ton of time here in our final segment of
our one, I want to talk about some of the
on the court stuff coming up next hour, and hell,
maybe we need to spend more time on the off
the court stuff, but let's just start specifically, or as
my four year old says, pacifically about some of the

(36:22):
political issues and how you've seen guys like Lebron, James
and the Kevin Durance and the James Harden's of the world.
And again this all starts with Lebron, but that haven't
been afraid to kind of get down in the trenches.
And obviously we've had a major issue with the Loria
Ingram stuff. That's that's kind of blown up over the
weekend after her take and then Lebron fire and back.

(36:43):
Just from that perspective and the political activists and that
you're seeing from some of these players. Is this good?
Has this been good for the league throughout the first
half the season? You know what, Look, I forget about.
If it's good for the league, it's good for the
United States of America, it's good for the country. Um
what what Laura Ingram said? And you know, I was surprised.
Actually I gave her the benefit of the doubt because

(37:06):
I didn't even need to say who she was. And
a lot of people were texting me like, who is
this person? You know, what are you talking about? Um,
she's how would you say? Has our own TV show
on Fox News. Also, I guess was more famous for
her radio show. But I thought it was completely out
of line what you said to Lebron. I mean, the
nerve of her to just say just shut up and dribble,

(37:27):
I felt completely across the line was insulting and I'm
glad Lebron came back, and uh, I, you know, to
be honest with you, I kind of wish you would
have hit back a little bit harder, um and really
would have given it to her. But he was more polite,
more of a gentleman, just kind of you know, you know,
took some shots back, but I really would have liked
him to get tough. But I thought he did a

(37:48):
great job. And uh, I can't believe she would go
out and make a comment like that when it was
all said and done, Chris, I think in the end
that's I think a lot of times we say stupid
s to get a respects from people, and I think
of her saying that was to get a response. So
there is a part of me that says she won.
But I do like I can always remember when Tiger

(38:12):
first burst onto the scene, what was the knock on
Tiger and and Jim Brown called him out forward Kobe
would get questioned for this. They're not as involved in
social issues as they should be. They need to speak up,
they need to need to be more involved. And you
know that was a major concern for a while, and
now I think you've seen and again I know you

(38:32):
were anti Kaepernick's protest antie, but I think that's opened
the doors for a lot of professional athletes. And it's
been majorly in the NBA, which is why I brought
it up to feel more comfortable. And they have the support,
it seems, of their commissioner, and they have the support
of their teams right now. So I think it's been
good to see guys get active in what they believe
right now. That's a different time also, and I mean

(38:53):
Michael Jordan's back then there was no Twitter. There was
you know, no Facebook, No, you know, none of that
stuff exists that where you can get ripped on social media.
I mean sports talk was just in its beginning. Uh,
you know, you didn't have to deal with anything like that.
It's a whole different world we live in now and
then we did years ago. Well, and and let's face it,
I mean I'm not trying to be too captain obvious here,

(39:15):
but we are in a gotcha society. We're we're waiting
for someone to say something stupid. We're waiting for someone
to make a comment that we can be outraged about.
We're a community where a we're a public that is
waiting to be outraged about something. So there's always someone
out there trying to get you. With that in mind,

(39:37):
I love what we're seeing from the NBA guys off
the court earlier on this season. And uh, with with
that said Arnie, before we get to the on the
court saga, also off the court, I think some of
the ways we're presenting the games this year on TV,
they've they had a few new angles that they've used.
You've seen these players only broadcasts that they've used on
T and T. You have a lot of media savvy

(40:00):
eyes that are using social media some wisely others not.
But I kind of digged away that the game is
being presented, what it's doing on TV and numbers wise
right now too. Mean overall four for the NBA, sure, yeah, absolutely,
if you take overall though, I was looking at the Olympics.
The Olympics dwarfs with the NBA and everybody else combined.

(40:21):
I mean it's not even close. Yeah, but it's a
different animal. I mean, I know that. I know that.
I even looking it's done better, but I I still
always thought that the NBA underperformed when it comes to ratings.
I thought there was so much more they can do too,
especially with times of starts of games and all that. Well,
when we come back to the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios,
let's debate whether or not it's been a good first

(40:41):
half of the season on the court. Next with Arnie
and Plank on Fox. All right, our two Ardian playing
from the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios. Fifteen minutes could
save you fifteen per cent or more on car insurance.
Visit Geico dot com for a free rate quote. By

(41:03):
the way, speaking about cars, I didn't get the sake
about a Tennica Patrick and her racing career. Phenomenal, career, phenomenal.
I get your tongue in cheek, no, no, no, tug
and cheek, all those great winds, and I see what
you're doing here, I see what you're doing here. She

(41:24):
did win a race in the I R L. Oh
you got me? Then? Oh, well, the yeah, I think
race in the I R L two. I'm sure you did.
But you know it was interesting because I'm kind of
like you, I wasn't a big fan, but I always
was intrigued by her story to see if she could
get it done. And I mean give her credit. She

(41:45):
was able to maintain a sponsor, she was able to
get a good ride. Uh. She was named NASCAR's most
popular driver in two thousand and twelve. So even though
she even though, even though she managed seven top tens
in sixty one races in the Exfinity Series and seven
seven top tens in the NASCAR what was Sprint Cup

(42:07):
and now was the Monster Energy Series. It wasn't the
most spectacular thing, but I you know, she she did
well for I think women whoa whoa? You are gonna
say that, were you that she did well for women
in racing? Open the door? That she did well for
a woman? Oh no, no, no, I said she did
well for women. Who are you? My dad? Sounds like

(42:29):
something my dad would say whenever he's breaking things down.
But no, yeah, no, she had opened so many doors.
So I think it's, uh, you are You're right? She
deserves to maybe be ridiculed by some because she didn't
have a lot of success. But I'm telling you right now, Arnie,
this might be NASCAR Homer Plank coming out in me.
This might be the one guy who on Friday night

(42:49):
was watching the Truck series, who on Saturday was watching
the Exfinity race, that was watching the Monster Energy Series. Hell,
yes I did. Um. I found out to myself thinking
that NASCAR is making a bit of a turn. I
think with some of your younger drivers, I think with
some of their storylines, I think was some of the

(43:10):
um um and maybe it's rivalries that are developing. I
think that I think they've got a chance to turn
the corner now. They're never gonna equal their success that
they had in the era, but I think they're about
ready to turn things around. Now, let me bring everyone
back that I chased away talking about NASCAR to get
to our biggest story to day. Geez, well, thanks for
giving me one second. I'm I'm waiting for the hate

(43:32):
tweets now. Really, NASCAR, it is the day of their
biggest race. I know I'm gonna get crushed for it.
I can. I can handle it. Johnny Sawder won the
truck race, by the way. Um, I want to get
to some NFL here in just a bit, but I
want to follow up. I want to wrap up our
conversation that we were having about the n b A.
If you're just tuning in team Lebron one tonight, Lebron
won the m v P, so none of the l

(43:53):
A guys won, just A just a future Laker ended
up pulling it out as the m v P tonight
eighty two games series. Uh the most part, we're what
fifties seven games in for the teams that, uh that
have played, so we're well beyond the half. Chris can
I just one one quick comment, and I know this,
but I've gotten a few tweets about it, so I
just want to clear it up. Like Jonathan said, hey,

(44:14):
um and he he sends us to me and you
and work and everybody get his hands on. Well, I
don't agree with what or Ingram said. Her shut up
and dribble comment was a direct reference to our book
shut Up and Sing, which was written fifteen years ago.
And I know that's her tagline, shut up in this,
shut up in that, and she has a book on that.
I do know that, but that that's not a concern

(44:37):
to me. Chris, that you know, if you're gonna use
that tagline, well, you know, I don't care if you're
gonna use it to sell books. That that's not a
concern to mine. Well, and it doesn't mean that it's
incredibly condescending exactly. I mean, my gosh, and some would
even say borderline racist. I again, that's I didn't think so,
but that's not really for me to judge. I guess uh, yeah,

(45:00):
I thought it was just her kind of sounding like
a jerk. But again, that's that's her m o. And
that's worked for her. She's made a lot of money
being that way. Um. So with that said, we are
talking about the NBA and the question relates to whether
or not we've had a great first half of the
season and then some here's just some of the different
storylines I wrote down, Arnie. We have a battle in

(45:20):
the West between Houston and Golden State. The drama in
Cleveland where you saw it obviously a major trade not work,
and Cleveland hit the reset button. Well, beyond the halfway
point of the season, you've seen the emergence I think
of some new superstars and Janice Anta Compo and Donovan
Mitchell in Utah. Uh, the seventies sixers are finally fun

(45:42):
again and Ben Simmons looks to be a guy for
the future, as does Joel Embiad, who might be a
guy for the now and help. They've developed one of
the funnest rivalries with Joe l Embiid versus Russell Westbrook
and this thunder Sixers thing that unfortunately is done for
this season. We've had huge trades that have already gone down,
with Blake Griffin going to the Detroit Pistons. You've had

(46:04):
a little donny Brook between the players and the refs
so far this year. I don't know, man, it's just
a handful of things, but I think we've had a
damn good first half of the season for the NBA. Real. Yeah,
I couldn't disagree with you more. I I is there
another NBA you're talking about, Because when I see the
Eastern Conference, I see Toronto again that nobody's gonna pay
attention to because they have the best record in the

(46:26):
Eastern Conference. Nobody's giving the Celtics a chance. They've hit
a wall. A matter of fact, when they got back
from London. They've been like a five undred team and
everybody's putting Cleveland in the finals. There's really nobody else
in the Eastern Conference that's gonna go ahead and make
a run at this thing, and even with the Wizards
on down, so you can forget about that. I don't
think it's been very intriguing at all. Uh if you
take a look at what's going on in the East

(46:47):
and as what the Cleveland Cavaliers did by getting rid
of their whole team, well you know what, They're gonna
win it by the fall, probably because unless the Celtics
pick it back up, I don't know who else is
gonna take it from them. As for the West, yeah,
it was it's a good race. Who do you like,
Rockets or Golden State? But everybody after that is just
also rans. Even the San Antonio Spurs Oklahoma City. We

(47:10):
don't give them a chance. It's a two team race.
It's the Rockets and Warriors. But does it only matter?
I don't know what you're thinking about, but yeah, does
it only matter to you from the entertainment of a
season or even a league, who wins the championship or
he plays for the title. Is that all that matters?
Because I would disagree whole heart on. I just want
to have a chance to win it, like in the

(47:31):
n C Double A Tournament. I'm more than ever excited
about it this year because I think anybody outside the
top I think teams outside the top twenty five couldn't
make it into the final four. I think any game
could have an upset. Um I don't have I think
there's like four teams that could win the NBA Championship. Yeah,
but you're you're comparing apples to oranges. College but some

(47:52):
people like fruit salad. Okay, that's good. That's better than
shopping in the fruit dial. I'll take that. But you're
talking about a seven game series versus one game, so
I mean, it's it's kind of hard. And I would
even debate that if you want to say, well, I
don't think it's been fun because it's still just the
Warriors and everybody else and Lebron and the Calves are
still gonna get in. But damn, I love watching the Timberwolves.

(48:14):
I like watching Jimmy Butler, and I like what they're
doing and I and I don't care if it's taken
a while for things to get going with Oklahoma City,
but I think they're fun. Heck, what's going on in
Portland right now is very interesting with McCullough and and uh,
what Damon Lillard has been a Damon Lillard has been
able to do. I mean again, maybe I'm a little
bit too all in right now. And I'll take your

(48:35):
heat at Plank Show and Annie wal too. It's stinking
genius one. Regardless of how you think the playoffs are
going to play out, I think this has been a
hell of a first half of the season for the NBA.
On the court, Well, now, where but another twenty two
plus left, give or take a game or so. And
all those other teams you mentioned, Oh, you better enjoy
them now because they're not going to be around after
the first round of the playoffs. I promise you that.

(48:57):
So what I mean that doesn't mean that it was
a bad season and we'd see what are we giving
on participation medals? Here are Oh, it's a great season.
If you're losing the first round of the playoffs, what
are you talking about? Well, I think if you're a
team like well, let's just say hypothetically New Orleans and
you get in, you lost one of your best players
to a ruptured achilles. If you play the one seat

(49:18):
and let's say you win a couple of games, if
you'll get great games, I mean, I don't care. I'm
not a Pelicans fan, aren't he? I want to see
good basketball. Why do they have to win in order
for it to be entertaining? I couldn't care less if
the Timberwolves are out after one series. I like watching
him play now. But again, if you're gonna base it

(49:39):
on that level of well, I don't give a damn
about you unless you're advancing to the playoffs. And yeah,
you're gonna be pretty miserable watching just about any sport,
aren't you. That's why That's why I love the n
c Double A tournament. That's I lived for that. I mean, really,
you saw the upsets? What was it on Saturday that?
I mean, it was one after another, every team in
the top bowing out, and it was great to see
stuff like that. Obviously, I'm not gonna be able to

(50:01):
sell you on the excitement of the first half of
the NBA season, But I'll add this to wrap it up,
and then we'll get to college basketball coming up here
in just a second. I did get a kick one
of the storylines this weekend, Paul George and whether or
not he's going to Los Angeles. What's kind of the
story with whether or not he's gonna end up staying
with Oklahoma City. He didn't necessarily shut the door on

(50:22):
on leaving Okay See, but he did say he doesn't
want to bounce around too much. And I can't help
but think with the way things ended in Indianapolis with
the Pacers and how Indiana was given heads up that
he wasn't going to come back. Do you think he's
already let the thunder know that he's not going anywhere
based on kind of how Westbrooks acting and how they
haven't really been actively shopping him or are talking offers

(50:46):
leading up to the trade deadline, Well, doesn't he have
to let the owner of the Lakers No, First, I'm
talking about Kobe Bryant. Um, my goodness, if if that
that little speech like Kobe gave you didn't chase them away.
I don't know if anything he's going to do. But
how about Kobe, Like, this is Laker mistique and if
we have to recruit you, then you're not the guy
for Los Angeles because of what you know Magic and

(51:09):
I and I'm like, oh stop it. There's no more
Laker mistique, just like there's no more Celthing mistique or
New York Nick's mystique or even Yankee mistique. Those days
are long long gone, Chris, I gotta be honest with you.
And by the way, Bobo are a DJ on the
show and I we're are die hard Lakers fan. I can't.

(51:30):
I thought it was awesome and I know we disagree
on this, Arnie, but I loved it. I think someone
needed to say it. Uh. This was the quote if
you missed it over the weekend. As you might imagine
with the NBA All Star Game in Los Angeles, there
there isn't a single relevant Laker player right now, at
least in the All Star mindset. But when Kobe Bryant

(51:51):
was asked about, you know, trying to help recruit stars
to l A, here's what he said. This is what
Arnie's referring to. You know, the thing about this franchise
is that you shouldn't need recruiting to come in it.
He takes a special person to want to play for
this franchise and take the pressure that comes with playing
for this franchise, the pressure of following Magic's footsteps, myself

(52:12):
and the dynasty that we've had. It takes a special person.
And if I need to convention to come here, to
carry that legacy forward, then you ain't the one to
be it. Okay, Kobe, Actually I have to agree with
stop it. Would you say the same thing about the Knicks. No,
I just said that there's no more New York Knicks mystique,

(52:34):
or the Boston Celtics, or the New York Yankees or
even the Dallas Cowboys. No. Here's the thing. Unfortunately, the
reality of it is we're not even in an era
anymore to where this is this exists, right, I mean
with the way players are coddled from the day that

(52:54):
they realize that they're really good, Hey you basketball and
on through college and then and I mean you're you're
wound at every single turn and aren't who really when
did this really start? In free agency? The decision that
you had the Lakers, Woo and Dwight and Carmelo went
through a free agency stage and there were I I
don't know what several others I'm sure in between there

(53:16):
that we have. But it's it's unfortunately, it's kind of
the lay of the land anymore. In the NBA. It's
almost like college recruity. You gotta put on your best
sales job for you. I don't know, Paul George was
so damn good to be bending over backwards for this guy.
It's not even necessarily that he's that good. And what
you were saying just a second ago, Chris, it's it's

(53:37):
funny because back in the day, people wanted to go
to franchises, you know what I mean. You went to
the Lakers, you went to the Celtics, you went to
the Nicks, you went to the seventies. Six years during
the seventies are when Alan Averson played, you know what
I mean. Like now, it's people go to their friends
like they go to like to the homie, you know
what I mean, Chris Paul went to the homie. H
James aren't telling me I should come here. I'm gonna go,

(53:58):
you know what I mean. Whoever's on Banana Pope, that's
where they go pretty much. Duwayne Wade went to be
with this guy, realized it didn't work out. He's like, all,
I want to go back and hang out over here. Now.
Not in every situation you get to kind of hit reset.
But already listen, I love it from Kobe, but I mean,
in the end, you're right, I mean, these situations don't

(54:19):
exist anymore to where you say I am coming to
play for the Knicks because I love New York and
it just the same thing with the Lake Kirds. It
just doesn't because I love World Fraser and Earl Monroe
and Dave the Busher and Bill Bradley, Bill Jackson knows
nostalgic areas. It's funny because we and I know we're

(54:39):
late for a break, But this is a regular conversation
in places like Tuscaloosa, Norman, Oklahoma, even the diehard college
football fans in l A. You're not selling people on
mystique anymore. You're not selling these kids on well, we
have seven national championships are however many Alabama claims they

(55:00):
have one? Now, you know, I mean that doesn't matter
to a kid. What matters? Hey, you canna give me
the pros? Yeah? What kind of stuff? What kind of
gear do I get from jump Man? You got alternate jerseys,
We got a new facility. It's a much different world
than it ever was before. All right, when we come
back to the guy called Fox Sports Radio Studios, Oh,
I got football to get to. I've got Drew Brees
talked to get to. But we'll play crown him or

(55:20):
crush him next It's our version of buy or Sell
with Arnie and Plank on a Fox Sports Sunday did
you you see this tweet from at Rich Sodo said
Arnie still has the kiss of death and miss Steve. Wow,
what does that mean? We just love the mistake about you,
like the like the mix should and the Lakers should.

(55:43):
Someone pointed out that gen Carlos Stanton did want to
go to the Yankees. Matt, you are right, but that
was still a trade and they had to work their
way through and that was because of the money. By
the way, a goal USA now for nothing. Oh I
have it. I have eight tabs open during any point
of our Sunday night show, and I every so often
forget to check the score. Last I checked, it was

(56:06):
to zero and that was just before was to break.
Oh man, what does it mean when Geico says just
fifteen minutes could save you fifteen or more on car insurance?
It means you probably should have gone to Geico dot
com fifteen minutes ago, quickly before we hit the fancy
production to kick off, crown him or crush him. Um.
I saw our biggest fan, the Mason Waller at Glenn

(56:29):
from Mason sin Us the story about JJ Reddick. Um
J J is apologizing for using what he called a
slip of the tongue, and if you watch the video
you can see it's kind of a brain fart moment.
But uh, he had dropped a derogatory term towards Chinese
people whenever he was celebrating the Chinese New Year and

(56:50):
they were making a video. So are you are you
buying Reddick's apology or was this obviously a situation where
he just got caught trying to be funny and and
being overtly racist. Um, you know what, it could could
be a little bit of both, because I they asked
him to do the video changed, I guess, and I
was just reading it the way the apology came in

(57:12):
and the words he changed it to, um didn't have
that word in it, Chris, So I was a little
confused to what exactly was said at the time, you
know what I mean? So now that I know the word,
but I mean, it sounded like he was it was
just trying to go off the cuff. And I'm not
even sure how it even made it that far, to
be honest with you, well that the use of that

(57:33):
term in not even a derogatory way got a dude
fired from the four Letter a couple of years ago.
Jeremy Lynn um it came out just moments ago and
said I truly believe he didn't say a racial racial
slur and that he has had a great deal of
respect towards Chinese people. Lynn said he also reached out

(57:54):
to Adam Silver and David Shoemaker. Everyone knows that this
word should never be used in referring to Chinese people,
and everyone is committed to Chinese fans being treated with
the equality in respect that they deserve. A couple of us,
a couple of y'all have sent us that, So I
just wanted to address it real quick, which gets us
to Crownamer crush them, aarty, Let's do it. Let's get

(58:15):
after it, Crownamer, crush them. Maybe I'll start here. I'm
shocked that Bobbo didn't have the music ready. I'm just shocked.
I can't believe doubt. Listen, it's partially my fault because
I got caught up hearing the breaks and I didn't
let him done. Now it's time to crown him or

(58:36):
crushing do it now? Now it's that too late, arety.
It's never too late, all right, Crownamer crushing, I'm sorry, No,
it's okay. I do want to put a twisty tie
on this just so we can be clear. And we're
talking about the product on the court, the entertainment of
the games, uh, and the intrigue of the league. Crownamer crushing. Marny,

(59:00):
you're saying the NBA hasn't been that great in the
first half of the season. Correct, No, it really hasn't
been that great. Matter of fact, the proofs in the
pudding because of Cleveland's the best team in the Eastern Conference.
Lebron had to make wholesale changes. Uh, just do you
don't get to that point? And how can you make
wholesale changes and be the best team in the Eastern
Conference like that if the Eastern Conference was not very weak?

(59:23):
So I'm not enjoyed. The Celtics got up to a
great start, but like I said, they hit the wall
after their trip out to London, and you know, Toronto
is gonna end up losing in the first second round
or second round like like they always do. Little choke
along the way. Uh, Drake can't carry that team by himself.
So you know, when it's all said and done. It's

(59:43):
it's gonna be Cleveland and Boston pushing and rubbing for
a chance to go to the championship. But you say
Boston hit a wall. They're still forty and nine team. Yeah,
but their start was unbelievable. They've been five d ever
since that. London sure al right, Crownham a crush him.
Lebron James is the early leader the clubhouse for the
m v P and teen with James Harden to close second,

(01:00:06):
I would wow, you know what, it's a top debate man. Yeah,
I would probably go with Hardened right now, only because
he plays in the harder conference and going up against
Golden State and what the record was, and obviously he's
got a lot of help around them. But I think
I'm gonna have to give it to Harden this time.
As if you haven't been keeping track, Russ won at
last year, Curry had wanted the two previous years, Kevin

(01:00:29):
Durant one in thirteen four. Team Lebron James hasn't won
the m v P since the back to back wins
in two thousand eleven and in two thousand and twelve.
Here's what's crazy. So you've had Westbrook Curry twice, Durant
James twice, and then you know who was the sandwich
between James the other two m v P wins already

(01:00:50):
Terrick Rose, get out of here one in two thousand
and elevel or they'll just give that thing away to anybody.
Huh I I guess so Crowdimer crush him any the winner.
Olympics have been incredibly entertaining. How do you define incredibly?
How about this, let's just let's minimize has been entertaining.

(01:01:11):
It's caught your eye. How do you have define entertaining?
You know that. Look, Look, I'll be honest with you.
Whatever I'm watching, I don't know if i'm watching live
or something that was replayed, and and I really don't
care because even if you gave me the score and
who won the gold medal, I'm not gonna remember five
minutes from now anyway, So you know I'm watching it.

(01:01:32):
I got the sound down. I'm watching the women's because
the women's hockey, because obviously it's getting to the good
part of it now. But overall, you know, if we're
talking about intrigue, I'm probably given about a C C plus. Uh,
not a lot of great storylines. Chris. Then I want
to circle back. I usually try to stay in a
certain order. That's called professionalism. But I forgot to mention

(01:01:54):
this because I think it's a key point from tonight's
game chrowning or crushing morning. The NBA's hit on something
with having their two leading vote getters picked the All
Star teams and who they want on their team. Yeah,
I think they did. The last three years, I've not
enjoyed the NBA All Star Game. I was actually thoroughly
entertained and enjoyed it like that. There was a little

(01:02:15):
bit of defense. I don't know if I enjoying it
more because it was a little bit of defense. Is
that all of toke or because maybe there was more
pride or were they playing for the extra grand I
don't know, but either way, I I enjoyed it a
little bit more. And maybe they'll televise the draft next
There you go. That's what I was gonna say. We
know that all professional leagues love one thing more than

(01:02:36):
anything else, and that's money. There has to be a
ton of money tied up in the possibility of getting
that televised, because even lebron In Stepp said after it
was over that we should have televised this. What what
did we find out that the last two picks were Aldridge?
I think was one of them that they brought up.

(01:02:56):
My favorite thing involving the draft is how everyone and
had told Westbrook he was the last pick, and the
media had to tell him that it was alphabetical order.
Like his teammates were gigging him and say, dude, you
were the last pick, and they finally said no, no no, no,
you were listed in alphabetical order. So I thought that
was kind of By the way, can you see this
coming up in the future, Uh, Lebron, let's just take

(01:03:17):
the team or Bron team step. Lebron does the first
four picks, so now there's five people on the team,
and then the viewers get the vote on the next one.
How about that the viewers get to pick who's gonna
be on teamore Broad in the team step and then
they don't like to pick them out of themselves. They
give you like a multiple I say multiple choice, like

(01:03:38):
a poll, and you can pick whoever's gonna be that.
I like it. I like it all right. When we
come back to the Geico Fox Sports radio studios, it's
not like we're leaving because the saga is sliding right in.
I have one more chronmer crush him from the NBA
All Star Game. See I tried to jump to the Olympics,
but Arnie, I have one from the NBA All Star
Game that isn't being talked about enough. We'll get to it. Here.

(01:03:58):
You can see that Olympic I don't know what they
call it where they're racing, uh like the it's like
cross country ski. That came down to the very end.
They both dived like kind of dived across the finish line.
It was incredible. Well, that's not what I'm teasing here,
but we'll talk and no, no, you'll see coming up
here in just a bit. I do want to say
here to slide in and save me. So Steve, you
are talking about biathlon and it's the first boot that

(01:04:21):
that gets across. That was incredible. Apparently this is two
Olympics in a row. It finished like that by athlon,
which I think it was Jerry Seinfeld years ago said
this is the sport that would be at the beginning
of the James Bond moving. It's the skiing and it's
the shooting the gun. It's quite the combination that finished.
Was something I've never seen like that before except for

(01:04:42):
four years ago at the end. And by the way,
our beloved border operator who you throw under the bus
five minutes ago, just bought food for everybody here in
the studio. So that's so cool. I bought food for
everybody in the studio. He's not taking credit for it,
is he. I am sure that if you were here
in studio with us, he would not have done that.
So thank you, pizza, We go ahead. Lebron James was

(01:05:05):
game m v p is. His team won the NBA
All Star Game in Los Angeles tonight over Team Steph
and at the postgame press conference, Lebron was asked about
his weekend in Los Angeles. He said, I think l
A is a perfect place to host All Star weekend.
L A can accommodate all this. It's built for stars,
it's built for entertainment, built for cameras and bright lights.

(01:05:26):
A great place for it. I hope everyone had a
great weekend. I know I did. My family did great weekend.
So Laker fans already are trying to read you go.
It's over. Second period, nearly over. In the semifinal of
women's hockey at the Winter Olympics. Right now, US up
for nothing on Finland. The US women, by the way,
have never lost to Finland in regulation all time in

(01:05:49):
or out of the Olympics. No, this would be twenty
three wins and one tie now and one overtime loss.
The Americans outshot him in the first period eleven to two.
Again their seconds away from ending the second period up
for nothing on the scoreboard. And this is against a
good goalie. US struggled against Finland and the opener of
this tournament last week. The goalie for Finland was a

(01:06:10):
superstar goalie at the University of Minnesota, in fact, two
national championships, including an undefeated forty one and oh team.
And this is hardly her first Olympics, but they've got
four goals offer tonight. Has got to grow out her
team forty four years old, that's right, And she scored
earlier in this tournament to yes, so by all means
expand the tournament from eight teams to tend yes very deep.

(01:06:32):
Canada has its semi final early Monday against Russia's who
are all expecting a US Canada gold medal final Yet again,
that would be Wednesday night. Norway leads the overall medal
count at these Winter Olympics, with twenty six coming into tonight.
The US has ten, including five gold precious little medals
given away tonight our time, that's Monday, South Korea time.

(01:06:53):
All they have is a team ski jumping two man
Bob's lad for the gold and the speed skating men's
five hundred. That's it. Even ice dancing doesn't finish till
tomorrow night, so not a lot in the way of
medals being given out tonight. As far as the Daytona
five hundred, a man took the lead on the last
lap wins at Austin Dylon. He bumped Eric Almarola out

(01:07:15):
of the way at the end and took the checkered flag.
Dylan wanted in the number three card twenty years after
Dale Earnhardt senior. One there in the number three. Dylan
drives for Richard Childress, his grandfather. You mentioned Danni ka
Patrick earlier. Her last NASCAR race, she finished thirty five,
got caught up in a wreck, so no wins in
one starts in her NASCAR career. Bubba Bubba Watson took

(01:07:37):
the golf event in l A by two strokes and
the first full squad. Spring training workouts happened tomorrow for
most ball clubs. Pictures and catchers started this past week.
Major league exhibitions began this Friday. Wow, hey, did you
get that tournament thing? You thought I was b asking
what I told you? I had a tournament, crony tournament

(01:07:58):
in a couple of weeks. You had one participating? Is
my question? You just showed us that there was a schedule.
I didn't know if you were actually playing. Well, it's
it's on the Saturday, I think, in the first round
of the tournament. But it's it's only for like six hours.
Are you playing or are you not? Question? I'm thinking
about it. I have a team that these guys always
recruited because, as we know, it takes athletes to curl.

(01:08:21):
These guys are recruiting me because they know I'm very
good at curling. By the way, the amazing story just tonight, guys,
is that Reuters has confirmed it we do have a
case of doping at these Winter Olympics, and it's somebody
from curling. I haven't doped up yet, so I don't
know if I'm not surprising. It's somebody from Russia. By
the way, one bronze with his wife as his teammate

(01:08:43):
this past week and mixed doubles curling, and he tests
positive for meldonium, which just became banned a couple of
years ago, and tons of Russians have run afoul of it.
That's what Maria scherre Poma gets, whatever that is, to
help you along, because you know, there's no actual Russia
in these Olympics, and there's a flag, no anthem, no
Russian officials. Even the teams are just called Olympic athletes

(01:09:05):
from Russia. It's individuals who had to petition to get
into these games. You know what you think, I bs
and now I'm going to enter the tournament. Now I
feel like I can wake my make my way to
the Olympics. So you got the stones as it were, like, yeah,
I'm here for the punts all night long to Sager,
that's good stuff. By the way, we come to you
live from the Guy go Fox Sports Radio Studios every

(01:09:27):
Sunday night and Holliday here on Fox Sports Radio. It's
easy to say fifer more. On car insurance with g
dot com are called eight seven Auto. The only hard
part figuring out which way is easier. You still subscribe
to the Clay Travis School of Curling. Right, absolutely, take
a year and you can be an Olympic. He said,
four years. I don't think you need that much. And

(01:09:48):
I really, I'm really gonna enter that tournament. I I
they asked me all the time. I think I may
have to do it this year because I have to
make room for that. It looks very easy one. As
we get back from curling to the hoops of Team
Lebron beats Team step tonight Lebron wins the m v P.
We've talked about the fun of the game. We've talked
about the fund of the first half, even though it's

(01:10:10):
beyond that of the NBA season, even though Arnie hates it,
talked about Kobe, but there was one storyline from this
weekend that Arnie, if you rewind too, I think last
year when we did the show, and the year before
and the year before that has been a fairly constant conversation,
and Adam Silver offered it up once again as a possibility,

(01:10:31):
so to kind of put a little rap on crowning
our crush him tonight. Adam Silver suggested today that the
NBA continue to take the eight best teams in each
conference for the playoffs, but seed them one for six
one through sixteen or one for sixteen like my high
school batting average one through sixteen, based on record, no

(01:10:52):
matter what conference they play in. Real quick, here here's
what Silver said, because I'm intrigued by this. You also
would like to have format where your two best teams
are ultimately going to meet in the finals. You could
have a situation where the top two teams in the
league are meeting in the conference finals or somewhere else.
So we're going to continue to look at it. I

(01:11:14):
it's still my hope that we're going to figure out ways.
What do you think? Um? You know, at first, I
was kind of against it, and I'm like, you can't
not have the Western Conference against the Eastern Conference? How
dare you go ahead and mix that up? But the
more I think about it, and the more I hear
the ideas and I look at the matchups, the more

(01:11:35):
I warm up to it more that it's probably better
for the NBA and gives us better first round matchups
and maybe is the ultimate goals get the two top
teams into the finals. So you know, if that's gonna
be the way we're waiting so damn long for the
Eastern Conference to catch up. It's get ridiculous right now.
So maybe this is something we've got to do. I'm
I'll put to it. I'm a lot more warm to

(01:11:57):
it than I was last year, that's for sure, Chris.
You know, it's kind of crazy because your one six
team matchup would still be a Western Conference team playing
each other, but your two fifteen could be Golden State
in Philadelphia, Toronto versus Portlands in the first round, Boston
in the Nuggets cleep, whoe is that? Would that be right?

(01:12:18):
Cleveland could play Oklahoma City in the first round of
the playoffs again. All this could change as time goes on,
and it's not happening this year. But I don't know.
You know, I'm kind of intrigued by it, and I
think you hit it on the head. I've been a
firm believer in my whole life that everything in sports
is sick cyclical. If if I could speak tonight, we'd
have a good show cyclical. So it's just a matter

(01:12:39):
of time before we're complaining about the West being a
little bit weak in the East being on fire, kind
of like we always complain about certain divisions that suck
in the NFC or the a f C and football,
and the same thing in baseball. But you're right on it.
It's taken a while now, It's been a while since
the East has been down, hasn't it. That's right. I
want to make dramatic changes in this and I want

(01:12:59):
to give the East a little bit of a chance
to kind of catch up. And it was one that
long ago with the Eastern Conference was the better conference
between the two. Um. But I mean they can't continue
like this. We've we've got to do something. And you
know what, I wonder if that means that television ratings
would go up? If that if if if that was
one of the reasons why we went through sixteen. So
any think that's gonna help the ratings go up? You know,

(01:13:20):
I'm all for and to get more interest, but I'm
I don't know if that's really gonna make a bunch
of a difference. Um. And by the way, I didn't
want to add this. I think it was my favorite
quote from the night, Uh Hike D'Antoni on what the
huddles were like tonight they're in the NBA All Star Game.
He said, quote the Golden State guys kept taking my
clipboard and trying to draw a place, and I had

(01:13:42):
to fight them. Well played, Mike D'Antoni. Well beyond Mike D'Antonio,
well played all right. When we come back to the
Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios, we welcome back Steve de Seger.
There's a lot going on today beyond just the NBA
All Star Game and the Olympics. De Seger has all
the side stories next with Arnie and Plank on a
Fox Sports Sunday. It's already in Plank on Fox Sports

(01:14:05):
Sunday eight seven, seven and six, six three six nine,
eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox. I have so
much football for next hour. I'll I have waited to
talk any football, and I'm saving it all up for
the final hour. I mean, there's only so much change.
J McCarron, we could talk about well, I mean, you've
already sked all over all of our NBA talk. I mean, thinking,

(01:14:28):
what do you want to talk about? College basketball? College
basketball doesn't matter. Do we get to the tournament anyway?
That's that's my bitterness. You're just better because because Oklahoma
is on a losing streak five in a row. Man.
Not looking good going into Kansas tomorrow night either, but
looking good at Steve the Sager sliding into studio to
get us caught up on everything else that we've missed
in the world of sports. What's going on, Steve good

(01:14:50):
evening chance. Once again, not much going on in the
way of the Winter Olympics tonight, although as we mentioned,
US women's hockey is winning at semifinal four nothing after
two periods against Finland. There is a note about michaela Schiffrin,
US skier giant slalom champ. Her boyfriend apparently is a
French skier at the Games, and he has been sent
home by the French Federation for comments he made after

(01:15:12):
his own men's race about the French team this weekend.
So have a nice uh. I'll just say it doesn't
come through the translation as being controversial. He was talking
about the group collective you got me, but for disciplinary
reasons he has been sent home, so he's not going
to see her race in person. This week. Lebron James

(01:15:34):
was Game m v P for the third time in
his career All Star Game m v P. I should
say Team Lebron beat Team Steph in l A one
did you see the defense at the end? I loved it.
It was like Steph Curry got the ball with about
ten seconds or left or less left, and they chased
him around eventually double team and to cour the corner.

(01:15:56):
They couldn't get a shot off at all in the
final seconds and lost by three. Curry had started over
six shooting tonight. Eventually four for fourteen was six turnovers.
That was the NBA Finals Game seven. We'll be ripping
him like crazy. Yeah, probably so. Actually, James Harden from
three point land two of thirteen, he did have eight assists.
Damian Lillard twenty one points off the bench in their lost.

(01:16:18):
Kyle Lowry from three point land over eight, he did
have eleven assists. I counted up all the three pointers.
You know, it was a better game, clearly, and there
was defense. There were actual fouls and free throws taking place.
The losing team though from three point range seventeen of
sixty five in a forty eight minute game. In fact,
in the forty eight minutes, if you total up the

(01:16:39):
three point attempts, a hundred and twenty three three point
attempts tonight in l A and a one Final four
winning team A hundred grand each. That's right. It's not
fifty thousand each now it's a hundred. The losers still
get a mere twenty five thousand dollars. It should be
all or nothing. Uh, you know, haven't they had things?

(01:16:59):
Not in basketball? Things like that. Lebron James has now
started fourteen straight NBA All Star Games. That is the
longest streak in history, breaking a tie with Bob Couzy
as far as most overall starts. Kobe Bryant is still
one ahead, just for the record. And before this All
Star Game tonight next door in downtown l A, they
had instead of the G League All Star Game, they

(01:17:21):
had Team USA beating up Mexico in an exhibition. Now
Team USA coach by Jeff Van Gundi, trying to qualify
for next year's World Championships in China. They're using D
League players, They're not using NBA guys yet. They want
a pair of qualifiers. At the end of last year,
they got a couple coming up in Northern California and
so they have training camp going on at USC. Aaron

(01:17:42):
Harrison from Kentucky lad with thirteen points in the easy win. Here,
Terrence Jones from Kentucky's on the roster. John Stockton's son,
David Stockton, is from Gonzaga, is also on this US
team that is playing. So just for the record, that's
going on. Two NFL notes we mentioned earlier tonight, Houston
Texans will release linebacker Brian Cushing. That will happen prior

(01:18:03):
to the new league year, which starts in mid March,
and The Washington Post said quarterback Kirk Cousins will file
a grievance against the Redskins if yea, if they franchise
tag them, because they would do so with no intention
of actually paying him the franchise tag money or negotiating
a long term deal to keep him. They already have
Alex Smith's trade coming to them, so they would do

(01:18:26):
that only to prevent him from becoming a free agent,
only to force a trade, and then the Redskins would
get something in trade, some value in return, and he
would file it they took him, and we would be
on the hook for the salary. I don't see where
they get the upper hand on that. There's no way
they want to pay that salary, that's right, but it
would at least give them the option of trading. It

(01:18:47):
would put him in a corner like they absolutely have
to trade and may not get much value in return.
So I don't see why if they did that my knee,
I'm out for the year. Give me my salary. Yeah,
you would do of Roger Federer won the tennis tournament
at Holland. That's career tennis titles. He's thirty six years

(01:19:07):
old and is going to become number one ranked in
the world again starting tomorrow, five years since the last
time he was number one in the world. And as
far as Daytona. On Fox TV today, Austin Dillon, the winner,
mentioned taking the lead on the last lap. Darry Wallace Jr.
Finished second, Denny Hamlin was third. Ryan Blaney the guy
who let over a hundred laps but wound up finishing seventh.

(01:19:28):
There was, can I say, typically a crash with two
laps left, so they got overtime and eventually, you know,
it's the good old boys racing. Mr Nascar, please comment
on that. I was watching with someone who says, wait
a minute, you can just bump the first place guy
out of the way and then when the race that's
how so at least give a little credit to Eric

(01:19:51):
Calmerola who didn't lose his mind too much because in
bump drafting, that kind of stuff happens. And that's the
guy that got bumped out of the way. Yeah, Armoral
was leaving. He took over Dannikpatrick's ride. He got wrecked.
Here's what's amazing to me, though, is Ryan Blaney, whom
I love, Who is now Arnie? You probably don't even
have never heard of him. He's not my favorite driver.
Dude wrecked half the field most of the day because

(01:20:14):
he was blocking. They had a wreck at the end
of the first UH stage, they had an end at
the wreck of the second stage. They had two massive
wrecks near the end of the race. And yet again
it's almost it's almost fitting that the three car wins
and he wins by dumping the car that was in
front of him. But yeah, that's that's restrictor plane racing.
And it will be completely different world next week in Atlanta,

(01:20:36):
completely different world. Update. US women's hockey scored again right
at the start of the third period, five nothing over
Finland in the semifinals, and one college basketball note. Old
Miss hoops coach Andy Kennedy has stepped down effective immediately
Earlier in the week he was going to at the
end of the season. Now he's gone. He's done five Yeah,
and he had a great rant at the end of
his last loss, and I think old miss said, all right,

(01:20:58):
old man, we gotta get you out of here. And
is really not an old man. But when we come
back to the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios, Arnie will
give us some college basketball chat and I've got NFL
on NFL on NFL. Next our is this it our
three hours as we come to you alive from the

(01:21:18):
Fox Sports Radio Studios, which are brought to you by Geico.
Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen per cent or more
on car insurance. Visit Geico dot com for a free
rate quote. I'm getting crushed Arnie, as you like to say,
I'm getting crushed on Twitter right. Well, not this one
has a spend your quick trying to imitate Kevin Hart.
You don't have the talent, skille, creativity, ability or make

(01:21:38):
up to be a star. Uh then gets to hang
with the NBA superstars and celebrates you. Bum wow. Yeah, okay,
so you win. This guy was just getting mad at
me for talking NASCAR, but Sam kind of went with
you over the top. Grip on and you know that's cold.
Uh Johnny Rights, are you guys talking Nascar? I'm gonna

(01:22:00):
go listen to Fergie seeing the national anthem again? What's
at sacrifice today? I'm not sitting here breaking down the
points battle. It was part of that. I would love
to we can talk about the crazy finish with Elliott
Sadler on Saturday. It's literally like they tune in for
the split second that you say the word and then

(01:22:20):
they say they read to they tune back in right
as you're they're complaining about you talk about nascars like
a fraction of the show. I mean, if the day
to today or something like that, I can't understand. I'll
be honest with you. I have friends that love soccer
and I don't get it. I have friends that are
excited about spring training baseball games and I don't get it.

(01:22:41):
I love Nascar. There's different sports. I love college softball.
There's different sports for everybody. It doesn't make us wrong
unless you were the dude that was up at six
am this morning watching rugby. I'm kidding rugby guys. I
don't want to fight you. Um, I've got so much
football to get to Arnie so much foot all. But
I think and the Seger is probably number one on

(01:23:03):
the depth chart of people I like the most on
this show outside of Bobo, uh and Eric and Arnie.
But but there's a three way tie for number one there. Um.
I don't know if he gave Lebron James quote the
true spot that it deserves on the Marquis. Have you
seen this whole quote about the weekend in Los Angeles

(01:23:25):
for Lebron James. Listen, I'm not here to get carried
away as a Laker fan, but I'm gonna get carried
away right now. Here's the quote. Uh, when you look,
we're gonna get the audio so you can actually hear
Lebron and I don't do a Lebron impersonation. Right. The
question was when you look back on the weekend, what
will stand out most to you about l A All

(01:23:46):
Star Weekend. Here's what Lebron said, Arnie. I think l
A is a perfect place to host All Star Weekend,
fairly neutral there. It's one of the few cities that
we can have in our league that can accommodate all
of is still okay? He's like, ask you and when
I mean all of this. You have over two hundred
plus countries that's covering the game. You've got so many

(01:24:10):
people from all over the world coming to watch our
game and just to be a part of All Star Weekend.
And we know traffic, we understand that. But traffic is traffic,
and l A can accommodate that. First of all, there
you go. If you're not complaining about the traffic, you're
in uh more. He probably has his own helicopter padded place.

(01:24:31):
That's that's fine, that's fine. It's built for stars, Lebron continued.
It's built for entertainment. It's built for cameras and bright lights,
and it's a great place for it. I hope everyone
had a great weekend. I know I did. I know
my family did. So it was a great weekend. Oh
my god, he is so coming to l A. Chalk

(01:24:52):
it up market down it is over in the West.
How do you Oh the e r over Lakers, over
the Warriors and the Rockets next year? Maybe Oklahoma can't
wait for now. I can't wait for the lot passes one.
So to Lebron, Oh wait a minute, wait a minute,
my bad. Why wouldn't it be well? Because LaVar says

(01:25:13):
it won't be Oh shut up, LaVar. And already you
were the one that said you guaranteed that Lebron James
would be a Laker, as he is gonna be a Lake.
I told you it was gonna be a Laker. You're
just coming to the party now, just going to figure
it out. Now. I had to remind you that you
said that. I had to remind you that you made
that prediction, that you said you would cut your arms

(01:25:34):
off right. I let me tell you, I knew a
long time we always was gonna be there. You. I mean,
you've seen his house in Brett. Would you know that
his son or they go to school out there. I
there's no if and or butts about it. I just
don't know. Always gonna take with him up that Paul
George is part of this uh package that's going to
l A. Okay, here's a crazy thought. Are the Lakers

(01:25:56):
actually a little bit better than we're giving him credit for?
And again, I know the whole theory is, you need
a Lebron, you need a Paul James. But there was
an article that was I think it was an ESPN
article last week that said, hey, they don't necessarily need
Alonzo to save them. Ramona Shelburne wrote it, because they've
already got a great core and you've had Rainbow playing better. Arnie,

(01:26:19):
I think we all dig what Kuzmas game looks like. Uh,
the young kid that the big kid zoo Box started
to play and play regularly. And that's maybe a little
bit more of a reach, but it's almost as if
they're starting to put together a pretty exciting young core.
It's not championship worthy by any stretch of the imagination,
But are they taking steps in the right direction? I

(01:26:40):
say yes, absolutely, But yeah, of course they are, because
I mean there was only one way to go, and
that was up. I mean a couple of years ago,
they were so entrenched in the bottom. There was no fur,
no further place to go, there was no any place
to drop. So yeah, I mean obviously they are. They're
gonna coral that cap room, They're gonna get Lebron, and
then Lebron's gonna recruit water to guys to come with them,

(01:27:01):
and then they're gonna try to have a super team
for about two three years until Lebron really starts going downhill.
So you've got about a two or three year window
before getting bad. Stop it. They're gonna be fine. They'll
have Lebron come in, They'll have their young core. It's
Lakers from here to four. Golden State. Enjoy your nice
little run. It is oh v e er over all. Right. Anyway,

(01:27:23):
let's say let's get back after this show. We my
little pipe dream is over now. Todd Ferman makes his
triumphant return to the show in about ten minutes. So
I'm afraid if I don't get to this NFL talk,
we won't get there. And I know you love talking
a j mccaarn So. Moments ago, Peter King dropped his
Monday Morning quarterback piece and he projected a landing spot

(01:27:45):
for the top free agent quarterbacks, because if you think
about it, hypothetically, Arnie could be one of the most
impressive free agent quarterback crops that we've had in a while.
Just based on the two guys, it could be one
will be right. I mean, Kirk cous Into is going
to be available, even if he has to go Al
Davis and take Washington to court. You agree that he's

(01:28:05):
going to be available, right? And then Drew Brees, m M.
I'm not a believe that Drew Brees. What about all
those quarterbacks they have at Minnesota, And what about Nick Foles?
Is that part of the un not done? You got
case Keenum as you just mentioned, you got a J. McCarron.
Who am I talking about Bridgewater? And you're talking about

(01:28:26):
Bridgewater and Sam Bradford as well too. When you say
all those quarterbacks, there's six guys that I mentioned in
that mix that could potentially be starting quarterbacks next year.
And do you think he sticks around? No, I don't
think you'll stick with the Dolphins. So you think maybe
seventeen was enough for him to say, Hey, I'm gonna

(01:28:47):
try it one more year with somebody else. Hmm. I
wonder where Jay Cutler could. I don't even have him
on this list right now. He had a couple of really,
I mean they beat the Patriots, right, you had a
couple of nice games this season. But did he have
enough to make you say, yeah, I'll go with Cutler
over another option out there right now? Well, what you're

(01:29:07):
like the Buffalo Bills that take a rookie quarterback and
you you're not gonna have Ty Taylor and Peterman or
whatever his name is. Maybe you need a veteran until
you get groom somebody at quarterback. Well, here's here's the
projections from Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback, And you tell
me how you feel about these potential landing spots. He
has Denver making the move to get Kirk Cousins. I

(01:29:30):
think many see that as the logical landing spot. You
think that's the best fit for Cousins right now, I,
unfortunately do. I don't want him in Denver. I think
he'd do well under that system that I think they
have in place. But Cousins to Denver you like it? No,
not really. If I'm Denver and I don't know where
they're picking it in the draft, but I would try
to figure out a way to move up to get
Baker Mayfield and make him where they're five, that's plenty

(01:29:53):
enough to take him at number five. Then I'd probably
take Baker Mayfield and let him be by quarterback right
off the bed before I spend any money on Cousins. Yeah,
they're sitting right now at five overall, and the most
mock draft projections there have been talks of Baker Mayfield
or a Josh Allen going at number five. So you're saying,
if I'm Denver, I'm gonna go young. I'm not gonna

(01:30:14):
try to spend our Cousins. I like it. I will
say this. I am enamored with the love for Kirk Cousins.
And I know some people don't like to get too
caught up in in win loss records, but uh, we
realized Kirk Cousins has a losing record as a quarter
as a starting quarterback, right He's it's it's I understand

(01:30:36):
a number that a lot of people don't like to
get too caught up in because they claim that quarterback wins.
I know, our buddy Peter Bukowski is a big believer
in this. He believes quarterback wins aren't necessarily a conversation piece.
But this is a dude that's twenty six thirty and
one as a starting quarterback, and everyone's losing their minds
like he's the second coming. Same thing with a J. McCarron, who,

(01:30:58):
by the way, I'm intrigued by this. Peter King projects
a J. Karen's end up a J. McCarron, excuse me
to end up in Arizona. Cardinals need a quarterback. I
kind of like that a little bit. Arizona is sitting
uh fifteen in the draft, So you're probably not going
to get one of the elite quarterbacks, but a J.

(01:31:19):
McCarron projected to Arizona. All right, continue here, we're rolling
through quarterback landing spots. Todd Ferman coming up next second.
How about this? I do like this. Cleveland drafts draft
Sam Donald number one, but still goes out and signs
Sam Bradford to have that veteran there to kind of
help him find his groove as a young quarterback. Maybe

(01:31:41):
understand a few things. What would you think of a
Bradford Donald combo in Cleveland? Um, not too bad on that. Actually,
that kind of groom him to get ready for the year.
Don't have to throw him to the fire and you know,
make his life miserable and have him started doubting himself.
That might not be that bad at all. And then
one more as far as team, because we're looking at
a draft where you have, uh what four teams that

(01:32:04):
you would say are in desperate need right now of
a quarterback in Denver even though they just spent a
first round pick on Paxton Lynch two years ago. Denver, Arizona, Cleveland,
and the New York Jets are these are two well well,
we'll get to Buffalo in just a bit. Are they desperate?
Are they truly need the two in the first round?
Have two first round picks, two picks in the second round?

(01:32:25):
You better believe they're moving. Eric jumps in, He goes, yes,
yes they are, but real, let me get to the
Jets and all include Buffalo and there that's fine. He
has the Jets drafting Baker Mayfield and keeping around Josh
McCown for one more year. Mccowen's about a hundred and
eighties six years old. Baker's Baker would so flourish. I

(01:32:46):
think having a year to truly um, I don't want
to say learn, but just to better grasp NFL concepts. Again,
I'm a Homer, so I've got to check myself on Baker.
Why don't you read the tweet that just came in
from James said, I feel sorry Freddy team who gets
Baker Mayfield. I just see him being worse than Johnny Manzel.

(01:33:06):
That is such a lazy comparison. Wow, you are a
lazy sports fan. You are a sheep being led around
by ridiculous comparisons. Listen to what Johnny said about Baker Mayfield.
You are saying that because he's a short, white quarterback,
that is it. Baker Mayfield could not be further from

(01:33:27):
Johnny Manzel period. End of story. Now, Uh, that we've
relinquished that horrific narrative, what would you think of the combo?
And I know you're more of a giant than a
Jets guy, but I kind of like the idea of
getting that vet. You're sitting at what six where the
Jets are right now on the draft, you grab Baker
and you let him groom himself underneath a veteran quarterback

(01:33:50):
who appears to be the kind of veteran quarterbacks unlike
a Joe Montana or Brett Farv or any of the
other greats that weren't really necessarily good at grooming a
Greek quarterback. I think McCowen would welcome something like that. Yeah,
you know, but just so you know, and I could
be exact here. If the Giants somehow screw everything up
and they'll take a quarterback with the number two pick

(01:34:12):
um and for some reason Josh Rosen's left on the
open market, if fund the Jets, I go after Josh
Rosen over Baker. Yeah, I could completely understand that here's
the other projection. We've got a break, and Todd's coming
up next, But he has the Giants actually taken Josh
Allen as someone of a potential project I don't see that.

(01:34:32):
I don't necessarily buy that. And he has Buffalo making
a move to try to go get Josh Rosen. The
Giants won't do that because it's what's his face? His
first draft? What Gettleman's And uh, you don't want to
go and screw it up and be known for, oh
who did you take with your first pick? When you're
the GM, You're not gonna want to screw it up
like that with all the quarterbacks that are available. Unless

(01:34:53):
he makes a move, and unless all right, I'm sitting
here at three, let's make a move, pick up a
few more picks. Someone comes up and tries to get
the quarterback they want. Interesting perspective. We'll talk Vegas. Do
we have betting odds on the draft? Will act? Todd
Ferman next right here with Arnie and Plank on a
Fox Sports Sunday. What does it mean when Geico says

(01:35:14):
just fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more
on car insurance? It means you probably should have gone
to Geico dot com fifteen minutes ago. Bubba on the
Wheels of Steele Irav, Eric Roberts our producer Extraordinary, Steve
Di Sager on updates. He's on the Expanier on Chris Plank.
I'm gonna talk some Vegas with Todd Furman coming up

(01:35:34):
here shortly. Um from my Catamounts last night. Are they
gonna make the tournament? No, they have to win the
conference tournament to make the tournament. Oh that's pretty much
the case for most. Yeah. Yeah, I got you, um
real quick before he gets to Todd. Well, actually, Todd
Freman will love this. As we go straight to the

(01:35:54):
Geico Fox Sports Celebrity Hotline. I don't want to say
there's a report out there, but there was one All
Star who did not check in tonight and didn't play
at all, and that was Jimmy Butler. Now Chris Haynes
is reporting that all he played forty one minutes against
the Lakers, so he needed the night off. There is
a social media manager for Bleacher Report. Her name is

(01:36:16):
Meredith Minkow. She's saying that Jimmy Butler was so hungover
that he decided to just take the night off, Todd,
wo does this, Does this elevate Jimmy Butler to legend
status in your mind? You know what, I'm not sure
I'll put him in legend status. But hungover players, especially
on the ice, have definitely contributed to the Golden Nights
hot start this season, because we've seen it with a

(01:36:38):
lot of these NHL franchises. When you get away from
Canada during the winter months, you have all the lights
and the luxuries of the Las Vegas Strip. What better
way than to stay outs at three o'clock in the morning,
try and play hockey game the next day. And thankfully,
our homeboys have taken full advantage of the Vegas flu
more often than that. Now, Todd, I look, I don't
want to pry into your personal business, but I have

(01:36:59):
to assume you're going Lamborghini hunting tomorrow and you're buying
an island because everybody but everybody but the under in
the All Star Game. I mean, I'm sure you're super
rich by now. You know what, I did not dabble
on the All Star Game. So when you look at
the way these numbers moved, I mean you saw this
total come down about eight or nine points from where

(01:37:19):
it opened and the players actually held true to their word.
They were committed at the defensive end, and you saw
a level of engagement contesting shots, maybe not tenacious like
you're gonna see in the NBA Finals, but much better
than what we've seen in years past where it becomes
a glorified layoup line. And had you had that information
at the time and followed it to the window, you
were going to have a relatively easy undertake, very similar

(01:37:41):
to what you had two years ago in the Pro
Bowl o whe that total was in the mid eighties
and those players you were able to cash about. It
was like stealing Todd What what was the what was
the over the three forty? Well, it was crazy. Yeah, No,
I mean the numbers have been inflated. You've seen the
trend go in that direction. And even when you saw
the World Team tape on Team America on Friday night,

(01:38:02):
that game came in well under the total. And credit
to the NBA maybe offering a hundred thousand dollar incentives
or taking the format allowed these guys to actually go
out there and put a semblance of effort forth on
the defensive end. What kind of action is there and
are you seeing on the winner Olympics. Is there certain
events and and I know that might be more of
a well, is it more of an offshore conversation Todd Uh, Yeah,

(01:38:24):
definitely more of an off shore conversation than here in
Las Vegas. The only book that I know of in
town is the Westgates Super Book that's hung numbers on
a lot of the secondary events. You just don't get
a lot of household names with the aerial ski jumping
and the figure skating, uh, and some of the other
events that are out there. And figure skating, which might
attract some betting handle, you actually can't wag your on
because it's voted upon and graded by judges. So it's

(01:38:46):
a little bit of a different dynamic. The one sport
that really does take on a much different atmosphere given
the NHL's stipulations that players can't participate. Winter Olympic hockey
had been a big hit four years ago, and SOUCH
even with the time difference, my different scenario now we're
the only real household names are guys that are over
the hill, like a Brian Johnson for Team USA or
some of the guys on Russia that have long established

(01:39:09):
careers in the NHL. And have since elected to take
their services across the pond and playing the cage instead.
What about the women's I mean women's want tonight they'll
play for the gold Will there'll be a lot of
action on that or no, you know, USA against Canada,
knowing that there's about a forty eight hour league time,
if that should be the gold medal rematch, and I
think everybody wants to see given that to one thriller
we saw a few nights ago. You may see some

(01:39:30):
handle on it, but to say it's substantial, I'd be
lying to try and do that. That though, of all
the events that I've seen so far throughout the Winter Olympics,
we can only hope we replicate the result this time,
hopefully with the Stars and Stripes coming out on top.
Aren't aren't you anything else we need to add on
the Olympics? Or I just want to know what are
my odds of because I've got a curling tournament in
a couple of weeks. What are the odds of me

(01:39:50):
being in the Olympics. Well, I mean it all depends.
I mean, if you're gonna work with the p D
performance program that Russia's utilizing for curling, then there's a
great a chance you may be able to turn back
to found a youth and perform like Arnie Spanier twenty
six would have on the curling rank. Todd Firman is
in the house with us. Don't know if I ever
gave the proper introduction. He's all things Vegas, So I'm curious.

(01:40:13):
We were debating earlier and and I don't know, maybe
if there's a conversation to be had about what you've
seen at the window or in Vegas. But has this
been a good first half of the season and some
for the NBA? Do you feel like we're getting good basketball?
You know what, It's always tough to try and gauge
because with the eighty two games season, you get sides
like the Cleveland Cavaliers that were one of the worst

(01:40:34):
bets in the NBA historically. Through their first fifty one games,
they were fourteen and thirty seven against the spread. So
I wouldn't define that as good basketball. You look at
Golden State, I think they're going through the motions. I
guess it's interesting that we've seen the emergence of some
of these young stars that you know you're able to
flip around your League past, and maybe you want to
tune into a Bucks game one night, or you watch
the Raptors, which you wouldn't have done in years past,

(01:40:55):
or in the Western Conference the Houston Rockets. I'm just
not sure that the NBA's regular season ever does any
justice when we already know there are only three to
five teams absolute max they can hoist Hilario Brian Trophy
Team Arnie Well, I was gonna say, Tom, what are
you guys doing about the n C Double A Tournament.
I mean, you want to talk about some major value
that you can get right now before the tournament even

(01:41:16):
gets going. I mean, there was some favorites this year
that you get like one right now. There's definitely value
when you look at the top of the betting board,
the likes of Villanova and Virginia. Neither team expected to
be where they are at this point in the season.
Virginia probably the best example. If you had the foresight
to see Tony Bennett doing what he's done in Charlottesville,
the capital. Why yeah, widely available at fifty two one

(01:41:39):
before the season. When we look at the numbers now,
though I don't think it will surprise anyone. Duke right
at nine to two, Villanova at four to one, Your
beloved Arizona Wildcats, we've seen their number fall off a
little bit down to fifteen, Michigan State three and a
half to one, Virginia six to one, and there are
still a laundry list of other teams that can probably
be competitive. The one thing that I'm gonna be fast

(01:42:00):
needed buy, especially as it pertains to the Big Ten.
How will they handle that extra week off with them
sliding their conference tournament up to play at Madison Square Garden.
Will they be ready to go? Will we see more upsets?
And when you look at the likes of the Penn
State pushing everybody in the league, maybe they can get
to the sweet sixteen. The biggest follower though on this
entire list, Chris right in your backyard. Oklahoma really falling
on some hard times. They got out to twenty one,

(01:42:21):
but as we've seen teams lockdown on Trey Young, I
don't think the Sooners really should be considered a team
even to get to the second weekend. They're they're in
a tough spot right now, and again a lot of
that has to do with the poor shooting of Trey Young.
We'll see if they can turn it around. But I'm
intrigued with the Big Ten deciding to push everything up
to play their tournament in Madison Square Garden, TOD. Do

(01:42:42):
you think that will help them when we get to
the tournament or do you think it could be a
hindrance with that extra week off. I think it's all
on coaching. It's gonna be a question of how you
keep your players focused, engaged, in game ready, because it's
something they haven't had to deal with in the past.
You have seen it with some of the smaller leagues
without punch their bid that Sunday two weeks beforehand, and
it doesn't seem to affect them outside of the first
few minutes. I'd almost suggested, you know, candidly, to my

(01:43:05):
friends and conversations, if you're a Big ten coach, why
are you not looking to try and maybe get an
exhibition game with teams going to the c I t uh.
You know, the n I T or any of these
other postseason tournaments gonna be fascinating to try and watch.
I really don't think it will impact the likes of
a Michigan State as Tom is. It will get his
guys there, but don't be surprised if we see a
highly regarded Big Ten team about out, especially if they're
playing early on Thursday Friday, Todd, you're getting any future

(01:43:27):
baseball action in there. And by the way, if I
bet on the Dodgers to win the World Series, do
I have to wait for them to win it before
I cash to take it? Or once? If you're betting
on the Dodgers to win the World Series, Aren'tie? I
want to know if you know something that I don't,
who are going to be their starting pures that they're
going to trot out there behind Clayton Kershaw. You're assuming
that Alex would stays healthy Rich Hell, I think the
Dodgers have some major question marks on that rotation to

(01:43:48):
really try and sign off on them. When you look
at some of the futures regular season win totals available
at bet online dot a G, you have seen some
relatively interesting numbers different than what you saw in town.
The pits Burke Pirates actually opened at a prominent book
uh in in Nevada seventy eight and a half. You've
seen them open up off shore in that seventy three
realm uh the Padres adding Eric Costomer that added a

(01:44:10):
game to their win total from sixty eight and a
half of the sixty nine and a half. But when
you talk about the big boys in the game, the
Nationals ninety two and a half wins, the Yankees ninety
four and a half again another team that has major
question marks pitching wise, the Dodgers ninety six and a half.
The Cleveland Indians right there in the mid nineties as well.
I think it's just a question of which of these

(01:44:30):
big teams won't make it to the postseason, because we
oftentimes see one of those also rans rise up and
put together in eighty five to ninety winks I really quick.
I want to ask you, Otani, I want to bet
under on everything under batting average, home runs, r BIS,
and win total. What do you think have not seen
individual player props come out just yet, But if you
wanted to bet Otani on an over I've seen his

(01:44:53):
price about two one to lead the majors and home
runs all the same mindset as you that I think
it will take quite a bit of time for him
to adjust, especially as the Angels taker with this six
man rotation that they've announced they planned to you'd life
love it. Great stuff is always Todd. We'll talk to you, buddy.
Always a pleasure. Gents, well God firm and as we
come to your live and the guy got a good
shot the Olympics two Beijing. I'm gonna check it out.

(01:45:17):
Good luck, we'll be here, don't I have to win
like one qualifying tournament and that's pretty much it. I
don't think this is like dodgeball. I think and I
think it's much more than just that. But but we'll Dike,
I'm Google will help you come to your life. And
the guy Sports radio Studio Steve the Seger is in
the house with an update on everything going on. We
do have a couple of Olympic notes, not just that

(01:45:39):
the u n swimmen's hockey is into the final again,
but I mentioned earlier in the show that failed doping
test by a curler from Russia. The serious aspect of
it is now the IOC says that alone could keep
the Russian Federation from being reinstated during these games. Russia
was hoping to get its flag back and march under
it at the closing ceremonies in a week and now
that may not have up. And meanwhile, the organizing committee

(01:46:02):
in South Korea says tonight there are nearly three hundred
confirmed cases of neuro virus there at the Olympics, and
nearly fifty nearly very contagious apparently, and nearly fifty people
still in quarantine, including the father of one of the
US men's hockey players who came down with symptoms this

(01:46:23):
weekend and it had to be taken by ambulance to
the hospital. So now the officials are telling the hockey
players men's and women's for example, just fist bump each other,
don't actually shake hands because we don't want transmission of
the neuro virus. Did you see how it's described. It's
called the vomit inducing bug that is not the show

(01:46:45):
has also been described that way. We are brought to
you by Geico. Great news. There's a quick way you
can save money. Switch to Geico. Go to Geico dot
com and in fifteen minutes, you could say fIF for
center war on current current shirts, we go only with
the hits at the winner Olympics. The US women's hockey

(01:47:07):
team did win tonight five nothing in its semifinal against Finland.
The Americans had him outshot twenty three to four at
one point in this game the women's gold medal final
Wednesday night. We will assume is US against Canada again,
Canadians still a few hours away from their semi against Russia.
Bubba Watson took the golf event in l A by
two strokes. Phil Nicholson was four back, Jordan's Speef was

(01:47:30):
five back. Austin Dillon won the Daytona five hundred, taking
the lead on the last lap. NHL wins tonight for
San Jose and Pittsburgh and to the basketball Yes, as
we mentioned earlier, the game m v P Lebron James
in l A his third All Star game. M v
P tonight twenty nine points, ten rebounds, eight uses. Team
Lebron wins one one forty five over Team Steph. The

(01:47:53):
NBA regular season is off until Thursday night. And in
college basketball number five, Cincinnati had won thirty nine straight
home games lost at home to ranks Wichita State today
seventy seventy two. So the Bearcats have lost two in
a row this past week after a twenty three and
to start to the season. So Cincinnati's only one game
up on which to a state in Houston in their conference.

(01:48:15):
And how about this, a team that was ranked top
five nationally. Cincinnati against ranked teams is now oh and
three this season. You know, the top twenty teams seem
to be just about equal to the next twenty teams
in the voting the way losses have gone on. Number
six per Duo has struggled. They barely got a win
tonight at home against Penn State. Seventy three wins for

(01:48:37):
Michigan and Duke. Back to you, thanks, Steve. We come
to you alive from the Geico Fox Sports radio studios.
It's easy to say fifteen cent or more on car
insurance with Geico, go to Geico dot com or call
eight seven otto. The only hard part figuring out which
way is easier. So I'm a big fan of bracketology
this time of year, Arenie. I know that do you

(01:48:58):
follow it or or no? You know I followed more
and more obvious as we're getting to the conference tournament.
First of all, I'm not here to talk about anyone
at our competition, but could you get Joe Lenardi a
better camera? I mean, or or at least let him
know Holy smokes, they put him in a closet, give
him a camera that is basically shooting from his chin. Up.

(01:49:20):
I mean, this is this is his three weeks of fame.
This is the only time that Joe Leonardi is relevant,
and you put him in a closet somewhere and have
an iPhone that's basically at his belt shooting up at
him with that set um. Tonight. The bracketology that was
put together by Austin American Statesman writer Kevin Littel has

(01:49:41):
these four number one seats Arnie, Villanova, Virginia, Michigan State,
and Duke on their two line is two big twelve
teams with North Carolina, Kansas, Texas Tech, and Xavier. They
have Arizona as a three seeds. Uh, you like, oh,

(01:50:04):
they've got them as a three seed. Three seeds are PREDU, Cincinnati,
Auburn in Arizona. That might have changed with the Witchtaw
State win tonight, but regardless, you like Arizona as a
three seed right now. I was a little surprised, but
I've seen them as a four seed and nothing really
lower than that. I mean, they've been in consistent defensively.
I got question marks about them, but they are the favorites.

(01:50:26):
They are the class of the pack twelve. So I
guess the three seeds a good number for them. I'm
okay with that. And here are the four seeds real quick,
West Virginia, which it toss state. I like West Virginia.
I really like West Virginia. I like the way they
got screwed over by getting two foul shots to Kansas
is You're not going to get that edge going into

(01:50:47):
Allen Field House, so you just have to accept that
to two. Yeah, it happens. Come on, man, it just
did on Saturday night first time West West. I'm willing
to bet if you look at the history of Alan
Field House, you will see many instances where you have eight,
an incredibly skewed number of free throw opportunities for the opponents.

(01:51:08):
Uh for the home team as opposed to the opponents.
It is the one environment for some reason, and I
don't know why, but officials freak out. They don't know
how to call a game. I don't know if there's
I don't know if there's legitimately a fog, I don't
know if it's something in the drinking water, But they
forget that there's two teams on the court. So anyway,
you're four seegs West Virginia, which daw State, Clemson, who's

(01:51:30):
had a nice season, and Gonzaga. So there are your
would that be uh sixteen? I really question, to be
honest with you, I've got serious questions about I haven't
I haven't seen them enough this year. If you're looking
for a couple of other marquee teams, Arizona State, who
was what number two in the country, I don't think
they're gonna get tour They've got him as a seven

(01:51:51):
right now. Arizona State. Yes, um, I think there was
only gonna be four teams from the Pack twelve, and
that was gonna be Arizona, U C, a USC and Washington. Um.
I they don't have this broke down by conference. Oh
yeah they do. Actually they have three pack twelve teams
in so I guess they have Arizona, Arizona State, and
what U C L that that's impossible. Well, I'm just

(01:52:13):
telling you what he happens. Maybe you have an old one.
I mean that that's I mean Arizona State is like
in the in the middle of the conference. There's like
six teams that had of February eighteenth, of two thousand
and eighteen when this was dropped. I'm shaking my head
that I then maybe I don't know what the hell
I'm talking about it. You did the four teams I

(01:52:33):
just gave you or all worthy ahead of the Arizona State.
Who's the four you gave Arizona, Arizona USC USC on
the bubble US season? What third place or second place
in the Pack twelve US gives a bleep about the
Pack twelve. That is a weak basketball this year, Arenie,
You're not gonna get four teams in from the Pack twelve.

(01:52:54):
I think they're gonna be lucky to get three in
right now. I honestly, I can't say anything because my
Big twelve, as great as it's seems like it's been,
point my team is kind of imploded. They don't have
USC in right now. They've got Arizona, Arizona State in
U c. L a As the three and from the
Pack twelve. I don't know if I don't know if
there are p I is as impressive as your homerism
is allowing you to believe that it is. H I mean,

(01:53:16):
I'm not a USC fan, but I mean they're they're
They're easily gonna have one wins and a matter of fact,
maybe Washington could be on the outside. Look at him.
But if if that's true, they'll take Utah Arizona States
even though they're like like seventh or seventh place in
the pack twelve. And and you don't just jump teams

(01:53:38):
like that, So I'm gonna be curious how they'll get
in over teams that are higher than them. And I've
better records, uh the r p I. Let's look at
where they are in the RPI the most recent RPI projection.
The highest ranked pack twelve team in the r p
I is Arizona at sixteen. The next highest ranked team
in the r p I would you would you guess

(01:53:59):
Arizona State is at twenty nine in the r p
R right now. They moved up five spots from thirty four.
The next highest ranked pack twelve team in the r
p I is USC at forty four, with U c
l A at forty seven, Washington is fifty, and Utah
is fifty two right now. And that is when you

(01:54:21):
talk about the nitty gritty and what appears to be
the most important thing to this selection committee. There are
some teams that probably would be worthy in years past,
barn Ernie might find themselves on the outside looking in.
So I'd be really surprised if it's only three from
the pack twelve. And um, I obviously Arizona is a lot,
But I don't know how you can leave U c
l A out. I know that when uh you know,

(01:54:43):
I mean they're they're in second place and they'll have
twenty wins. Also, I know that's not a parameter anymore,
but I mean you've got to take at least the
top three teams from the pack twelve. Why what if
what if they're awful? What if it's just not a
good league this year? Um, I think they're gonna struggle
to get a fourth in. But I I could argue
for USC all day long. I think that they've had

(01:55:03):
a couple of tough losses go their way, and I
just don't know how in depth they're going to look
on that front. But yeah, some surprising notes from the
most recent bracket projections, according to the Austin American Statesman.
All right, and again we have what three weeks before
we really go in depth on this, so everything can change.
We could be sitting here talking about, oh, they deserve
five teams, uh, six teams, and if we're talking Big twelve, Barney,

(01:55:27):
by next week they could get three if Oklahoma continues
to implode. I was looking at Leonardi. Gougnardi had four
from the Patrol, but the last four in you had U, C,
U A and USC sat Right. Why are you talking
about being on the bubble. Yeah, you got a lot
of teams in the bubble right now. And look at
the American Athletic Conference what they could end up having
done having in as well from their league beyond just

(01:55:47):
witch Daw State and uh Cincinnati. Houston is right there.
You can get three from the American Athletic Conference. And
don't sleep on Tulsa, who's won five straight games as well.
Now look at you with the homerism. Ask my alma mater, baby.
All right, when we come back to the guy called
Fox Sports Radio Studios, You've waited for it, you've talked
about it, you've been wanting it. Arnie's picks, I don't

(01:56:08):
know what he's gonna pick, but their next right here
with Arnie and Plank on a Fox Sports Sunday. I
want to thank all the editors, hard workers behind the
scenes that don't get the credit they deserve, including our
buddy Bobo on the wheels of Steel, Eric Roberts producing
the show and Steve de Seger on updates. Don't go
anywhere tonight because not only are Arnie's picks coming up

(01:56:30):
in mortgaments, but big Ben Mallor and the crew they
are in tonight. As a matter of fact, we got
a tweet about Ben Maller. Did I win one of
the Betty Awards Worst fill in Talk show host? Or
did that go to Jonas? I don't know. I I
did not get to win to you. I don't even
know it did. I'm just saying that, congratulations, but host. Wow,

(01:56:57):
it's all like team and Arnie tonight. This is I've
seen the writings. Todd Furman, writes Zach Prince at the
Old Pro Right. Todd Foreman just gave credence to the
Vegas flu causing more losses for visiting teams against the
Golden Knights on Uh. He gave me credit for the show,

(01:57:19):
So I'll take it on the Plank Show. I'm sure
that could be discussed on tonight's show. Guys. I'm willing
to bet that if Ben Mallor ever opened up talking
hockey that Eddie would purely pass out and just utter
shock over what's going on right now, Like gump. Dave says,
I don't say wow in every reaction, do I? Yes, yes,

(01:57:41):
it's not. You know you you held back on saying
wow after that tweet. You know you did. So I
can guarantee you we're gonna get at least three before
the show's out. Minimum. What's the Oh wait, Chris, what's
the over under? What over it's? Are we talking about
this segment or this segment just the last four I'll say,

(01:58:04):
I'll put the over under it to wow. No, just kid,
if we had money on it, I texted him like,
say it like four times? Um. Alright, So anyway, before
we get out of here, and we appreciate not just
all the work on the show, but also all the
tweets and reactions, tonight, let's get to Arnie's picks. We
build up for two hours and fifty minutes to get here. So, Arnie,

(01:58:27):
what the hell are you picking? I had to look
long and hard, but I came up with three. Bubbo,
put me in the mood, give me a little music,
and we start with a little hockey. Olympic hockey. Because
the women's team won five nothing, they'll probably face Canada
in the finals for the gold A team they lost
to already three two in overtime. Well guess what payback?

(01:58:50):
Say you know what? And USA, USA, USA, the United
States will beat Canada, get the revenge and win four
three and get the gold. By the way, that that
game is gonna be on Wednesday, we are already looking
ahead to your picks the eisode looking ahead for this

(01:59:10):
all right. A couple of other words. One college basketball
game that I'm excited about on Wednesday. Also, but Syracuse
is gonna be at home against North Carolina, who obviously
is much better team Syracuse. I don't even think of
the top twenty five, but I'll go with the upset.
Go with the Orange to win this game at home.
And one other prediction. The Houston Rockets have a half

(01:59:32):
game lead right now over the Golden State Warriors. They
will not lose the number one seed out from here
until the playoffs start. So there you have my picks.
Two of them you please, but please remember their strictly
for entertainment purposes only, which starts Wow, Arenie going anti

(01:59:54):
Golden State rather early. Here's my favorite. I am Steve Kerr.
The I just I don't get the NBA All Star
break anymore? Do you know when we start playing games
again in the NBA, it's next month Thursday. So they
they had when when did we last play? The last
games were? What on Thursday night? You had? Y had

(02:00:17):
two games on Thursday night. So that means most teams
and most players outside of the All Star players Jimmy
Butler Thursday, uh games, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
and then they basically have a week break. It's like break.
What are you talking about? Party? Party, party, I guess
I need to celebrates on the floor of what was

(02:00:39):
your party destination for OOMA? I remember going to Hawaii
once and I remember though, I grew up in beautiful
Wood River, Illinois, Arty, so we would go to the
Lake of the Ozarks and we would go cruising the strip.
We would be what that is? But I will say this,
I am in complete nutters show every year how the

(02:01:01):
Baseball All Star Break and the NBA All Star Break
always seems to add a game and we act like, oh, okay,
well that's how it's always been. And the tweet of
the night goes to Antelope when we were talking about
whatever that virus was that striking the Olympics he goes
vomit inducing, is that the plank virus are the aunty
virus or under which is worse? I would have to

(02:01:22):
say that if you got to deal with me. Bro
A's as a vomit inducing were at six wis right now. Yeah,
we set a new record for a segment with the
most whiles. Bobo, Eric Steve. Have a great week, Arnie,
busy show coming up for you on Saturday. I know
we'll see you back here next Sunday. Have a great week,
my friend. Wow, you too, my friend, have a good week.

(02:01:45):
Don't go anywhere Big Ben Mallory's next right here on
Fox Sports Radio.

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