Steve Hartman and Bucky Brooks react to the Lakers win and NFL schedule!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Please, you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Oh yeah, living the dream once again here on a
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(00:26):
tire buying should be. Are the Lakers actually in the
Western Conference Finals? The Lakers are in the Western Conference Finals.
I'm trying to digest that this morning here, Bucky. I
know what I saw last night, a blowout win to
wrap up their series against the defending champion Golden State Warriors.

(00:48):
But the idea that a team with eleven games to
go in the regular season was sitting in the eleven
seed in the Western Conference suddenly finds themselves one step
away from the NBA Finals. How does that sit with you?

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Bucky? I mean, this is great with me. I'm really excited.
I'm excited for what the playoffs have brought us. I'm
excited that the Lakers were able to kind of take
care of business against the Warriors. It's great to see
Lebron and Ad play well all those things, because it's
always better when you have like the Lakers in the mix,
and then you get a chance to see the Lakers
take on the dinnerent Nuggets. And Joker, who I need

(01:27):
to apologize to you. I think maybe three or four
weeks ago, maybe it might be five weeks ago now,
we had a little thing where we were talking about MVP,
and I talked about Joel Embiid and I think I
may have also talked about James Harden or whatever, and
you were adamant that Jokers should be well on his way,
that there should be a no contest Nolo can tendre

(01:47):
when it came to who should be the MVP, and
I was like, no, no, no, But these playoffs have
been a revelation to me, Joker, without question should have
been the MVP. Watching him and Joe and be play
like back to back, watching the Sixers and the Nuggets
will follow. To me, he wasn't close.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
When you talk about Jokicic and I'm glad you mentioned
him because with all due respect to all the other
great players that have gotten their teams as far as
they're going so far in these playoffs, he has dominated
these posts this postseason and he and he shows you
all the skills that make you want to look back
on that draft when he was a second round pick, like,

(02:27):
how many people could have been wrong about this guy.
We're gonna break this down as the Lakers get ready
to take on the Nuggets. That series will start on Tuesday,
the Western Conference Finals. We still have to figure out
one more team in the Eastern Conference Finals. Who's going
to take on the eighth seed. Miami Heat will be
the Celtics will be the sixers. They will play Game
seven tomorrow in Boston. But just staying with Jokic for

(02:50):
a second here, the fact that when I watched this
guy play, and to be honest, how many times do
we get to see Yokic play? It's not like not often, right,
The Nuggets aren't not exactly a TNT fought. I mean,
we don't get to see the Denver Nuggets all that
often for a team that was a number one seed
in the Western Conference. But when you watch this guy

(03:10):
play basketball, when we talk about fundamentals, when we talk
about you know, basketball, IQ, you know what he does
better than any big man currently in the in the NBA.
When he is around the basket. He does not miss. No,
I don't care what the angles are. He could be
an awkward angle. His touch around the basket is by

(03:34):
far the best of any big man in the Nby.
You don't see this guy dunk very often. He doesn't
really jump. But what he does do is that he
has court awareness. Where am I on the court, If
I'm at a weird angle, if I'm on the side
in the front, it doesn't seem to matter to this guy.
He gets the ball inside without jumping, without really any theatrics.

(03:57):
He gets the ball in the hole. Plus he's the
best pass big man in the league, and he's going
to get his twelve rebounds a game on top of
all that. So yeah, this is a guy who had
what twenty nine triple doubles this year. And with all
due respect Embiid and I liked him, beads you emotional
speech when he got his MVP award with the kid
that was all great stuff and Beads a great player,

(04:17):
But he doesn't do as much for his team as
Nicola Jokic does for the Denver Nuggets.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
No, and there different levels of dominance. When I see
Embiid play and I think it was important to remember,
is whatever the game that when Joker went for fifty,
and so you had an opportunity to see mb because
they played the game before and he's in jump shots
and he's doing his little thing, and it's a different
way to play for a big man. You know, it's

(04:41):
far more finesse. It's not physical. It's not like the
shock dominance that we've seen. But when you're watching Joker,
Joker kind of blends like some of the old school
dominants that you used to see from big men of
yesteryear with Oh, if I need to step out out
and shoot from the deep water, I can do that.
I can pass to every I can get everyone involved.
I can put it on the floor and give you

(05:03):
a variety of moves that are very much like Hachem
Elijah on back in the day. And so it's just
a different look and field and the appreciation because it
slows down in the playoffs, like you just have one game.
You don't have all these games that you're trying to navigate,
like you see everyone is watching that. So to me,
that's where the dominance was appearing, and the difference between

(05:24):
Jokies and the rest of it, Like he's in my mind,
head and shoulders above the other big men in the league,
and so he's well, he should have been deserving of
that third MVP, but maybe you get a finals MVP.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well he might get an finals MVP, sort of reminiscent
of Giannis a couple of years ago, where he had
won back to back MVPs. But they're like, well, what
has he done in the postseason? Then he leads the
Bucks to an NBA championship that answer that question. Maybe
it's Jokic's year, but they're going to have to get
through the Los Angeles Lakers. You know, there's always this
endless debate of the goat, and the conversation always wittles

(06:00):
down to two in the NBA. Either you're on the
side of Lebron James or you're on the side of
Michael Jordan. I mean, there's other great players. I mean
Bill Russell was the greatest winner. Kareem Abdul Jabbar, his
resume speaks for itself. There are a lot of guys
that could lay claim to some recognition as the goat,
but it usually comes down to Jordan and Lebron. So

(06:22):
I'm gonna give you a stat that people don't ever
talk about. So whenever it comes down to a Jordan
supporter over Lebron, they say, and I saw Shack absolutely
destroy our dear friend Ryan Hollins on TV a couple
of years ago when he was siding with the Lebron argument,
and Shaq's like, remind me again, what was what was
Michael in the finals? Six and zero? What's uh, what's

(06:46):
a litt Lebron four and six?

Speaker 3 (06:48):
Right? Yeah? But to me, like, I think that's just
the weird thing because if it comes down to like
that part of because that's always been the argument, Oh
he's six and oh this Now, I was like, okay,
so if we're doing championships, then how can why isn't
Bill Russell ever included in the conversation?

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Now he won eleven?

Speaker 3 (07:03):
He won eleven? Yeah, and so that well, that's not
it. It's a different time. We can't just keep cherry picking
all these different arguments. And I'm saying this as a
Tario recognizing all of Jordan's greatness, having lived through all
of that greatness, but there's a different level of appreciation
that you have to give for Lebron. James longevity has
made it where he's going to be. I mean, he's

(07:24):
the all time leader in scoring, he's going to be
one the top two or three and assists and all
the other stuff that he's been able to do. But man,
he's done it three different teams. He has titles. If
he wins this one, if he wins one, now, I
mean what, we're gonna run out of things to be
able to disparage and when it comes to being the greatest.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
Well, let me give you a stat if you're a
supporter of Lebron for all time. So we again, six
and zero for Jordan, four and six Earl Lebron in
the NBA finals. How about conference finals records? Michael Jordan
is six and two in conference finals. He lost consecutive
years of the Pistons before they rode through and won
six in a row. You know what Lebron's record of

(08:02):
conference finals is? How about ten and one? The only
loss ever for him in a conference final was when
the Cleveland Cavaliers got upset by Orlando, remember that in
nine Since then, he has won nine consecutive conference finals
in the league. Though I was no it was his
fifth sixth year in the little but I mean that

(08:24):
was an upset. But in these conference finals, remember he
got to the NBA finals eight straight years, four in Miami,
four in his return to Cleveland, and obviously the Laker
run in twenty twenty. By the way, if the Celtics
win tomorrow, the final four this year is exactly the
same final four that we had in the Bubble three
years ago. Lakers, Denver, Boston, Miami.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
How about that?

Speaker 2 (08:49):
Is that a little weird?

Speaker 4 (08:50):
All right?

Speaker 2 (08:50):
That's a Boston and they should win tomorrow. But who
knows in that series. But Lebron again showed yesterday points
only fourteen shots he took in the game, a near
triple bull. I think it was thirty nine to nine
for a thirty eight year old in his twentieth season
in the NBA. And he established early in that game

(09:14):
he got AD. He knows I can't do it without Ad.
Eighties got to play big for us. In fact booky,
we said this before the playoffs. I said this before
the season began. If the Lakers are going to have
a bounce back from last year's nightmare thirty three and
forty nine A, they obviously have to have their two
biggest stars healthy when it counts and they have them

(09:35):
healthy right now, and it's all on Anthony Davis. Anthony
Davis has to stay healthy and play big at both
ends of the court. We talked about Jokic and everything
he's done offensively. Anthony Davis has been the most valuable
defensive player I think, across the league so far in
this postseason. Now he's got to stay on the court.

(09:57):
But it was important early in that game for Lebron
On to get eighty going in the offense. We had
obvious mismatches. When I say we, that's what the Lakers
thoughts were going into this game. We got to take
advantage of it. We have a size advantage over the
Golden State Warriors, and they took full advantage. So these
are the reasons why. And again it's not disrespectful to

(10:18):
Michael Jordan or any other great player. There is no
player in the history of this NBA that can match
the resumey of Lebron James. He checks more boxes than
any other player that ever played this game. And I
like the person. I don't always agree with his politics,

(10:39):
but I like the person. I like the way he's
a family guy. He's never in any kind of trouble
or anything else. I like it. I like the way
Lebron conducts business. I like his seriousness. He was very
emotional after the game yesterday. This was big for him
because when you got Steph Curry on the other side,
these have been the two dominant forces in this game

(10:59):
for the better part of a decade, and this time
he got the best of it when a lot of
people thought he would never even get that opportunity again
to get this far in the postseason. So hats off
to Lebron and what he's done with that Lakers team.
And yeah, I am on the side of Goat Lebron James.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
You should be understided the goat like I understand it.
I get it. You're right. He was in More Star.
I think he understood like this is a Lexi. And
also when it came to having to knock off Steph,
because there were conversations that were beginning to percolate about
Steph Curry maybe being the player of the era because
of all of his success doing this Lebron thing, and

(11:40):
so by dispatching the Warriors, he now can kind of
squash that argument for now and not have old Steph
Curry's better than Lebron. I mean, it's always something we
always like to create all these things.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
So yeah, well you know, don't give me side look
at Steph Curry is the greatest outside shooter. But as
we saw last night with him and Klay Thompson clanking
up one brick after another, when you live by the three,
you can die by the three. And with the offense
that the Lakers were working with Lebron ad and their

(12:12):
supporting cast is less likely to fail than the idea
that you got a bunch of three pointers dropping or
not dropping. And so Lakers went out. They move on
to the Western Conference. We'll break down that matchup against
the Denver Nuggets a little bit later on. By the way,
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(12:33):
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NFL schedule was released. Why does it matter? We'll tell you.
This is Fox Sports Saturday. Hey, I'm Doug Gottlieb. The
podcast is called All Ball.

Speaker 5 (12:52):
We usually talk all basketball all the time, but it's
more about the stories about what made these people love
their sport and all the interesting interactions along the way.
We talked to coaches, we talked to players, We tell
you stories. You download it, you listen to it. I
think you like it. Listen to All Ball with Doug
Gottlieb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

(13:15):
get your podcasts.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live. Steve Harvin, Bucky Brooks.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
This is Fox Sports Saturday and we are coming alive
from the Tairaq dot com studios. I need to acknowledge
a couple of friends of mine that have recently passed.
Mark Rita was a long time television sports producer in Arizona.
If you're a Diamondbacks fan, if you're in that Arizona area,

(13:51):
you certainly knew of the name of Mark Rita. Mark
and I were actually college roommates for three years back
in our UCLA days. Die very suddenly, very unexpected at
the very young age of sixty five, and just one
of those really really super guys and I just spoke
to him about six weeks before he passed, so it
was it was very sad. They're having a celebration of

(14:11):
his life coming up next month, so any of people
listening in the Arizona area is certainly a name you're
familiar with. And then I just found out that Chris Roberts,
the longtime voice of UCLA, passed away yesterday. I had
a chance to be part of the broadcast team for
UCLA football one year as a sideline guy, one years
the color analyst, working along with again one of the

(14:34):
super nice people ever and a guy had a lot
of fun with on the road, no question about that,
back covering UCLA. So yeah, two guys that really dedicated
their life to this business. And you know, if you
know how it is, Bucky, if you are a sports person,

(14:54):
and you know my thinking all along and getting into
sports coming out of college where I I just wanted
to be involved in anyway. It didn't matter what I did.
I didn't have any designs on me in a broadcaster.
That sort of happened out of fate. But you know
it is. I mean, you obviously were an athlete, you
did it on the field, but those that dedicate their
life to sports if you don't understand it, and during

(15:18):
the pandemic, I really address this when we are all
on shutdown for those several months that I don't know
about you, Bucky, but when I look at a calendar,
I don't necessarily look at the months in terms of
the name of the month. I turned to the season,
like you know, it's all right, April means start a
baseball or you know June's going to be NBA Finals
or March Madness, yes, or baseball All Star Game in

(15:41):
July or you know, obviously the kickoff of the football
season September. That's how we operate our calendar. If sports
is the circle of your world.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
Always, I mean the way I've always thought about it,
it coincides with a major event. So you funny you
talked about April. Always think about the culmination of March Madness.
The Championship game is always the first weekend or that
first Monday in April. You think about the NFL Draft
in April May. To me, mini camps, OTAs and those things.

(16:12):
June are the official mini camps within football goes away.
In July is training camp starts, and so I always
have associated the months on the calendar with whatever events
should be going. And so you talk about the broad
scope of the sports calendar. Yeah, like there are things
that are annual events. You know exactly when it is
and where it is, and you know when the calendar flips.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, I mean, I know that the majority of our
listeners will listen because they're sports fans. That's why you
listen to us. And so we got a lot of
sports news that we have to get to, including the
announcement of the NFL schedule. We knew the Kansas City
Chiefs would open up the first game. That is a
tradition now that the defending Super Bowl champions get to

(16:54):
host the first game. But a lot of people are
taken back when they selected the Detroit Lions, and I'm
excited about it. You know, the Lions a year ago,
to be honest, at the end of the year were
a better team than the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings had
a thirteen and four record and they were outscored by

(17:14):
three points over the course of the season. This miracle year,
they were eleven to zero games decided by one score
or less. Well, when you watch that Lions knocking out
the Packers. You know, with the death blow for the
Packers at the end, there was no doubt in my
mind that if this team gets some defense. There are
only two teams in the NFC that scored more points
than the Lions last year. That was the Eagles and

(17:36):
the Cowboys, so offensively were set. But as we look
at this matchup, obviously they believe that attention should be
called to the Lions, who are favored by many to
win the NFC North this year. But from what you've
observed in Detroit and now coming off their draft and
other offseason moves they made, are we reading too much

(17:58):
into a franchise it's been so miserable so long? Or
are they legit? Are they a legit draw to take
on the Super Bowl champion Chiefs in that opening game?

Speaker 3 (18:10):
They're a legit draw. And this is an exciting time
for Detroit Lions fans. This really should be an exciting
time for Dan Campbell. Dan Campbell gets an opportunity to
play a what we call a measuring stick game to
start the season, meaning he gets an opportunity to face
the defending champs. He gets a chance to see how
good is my team in comparison? To the team that
is the best team in football, and regardless of whether

(18:32):
they win or lose, he is able to take that
information and then put together a plan to help them
when they have the next measuring stick game or milestone
moment throughout the course of the season. It puts them
on a national stage. Everyone has an opportunity to see
them and appreciate the work that he has done in
rebuilding the franchise. And if they win, Man, you talked
about something that could be a launching pad for a

(18:54):
great season. Remember the last time we saw the Detroit Lions,
they were knocking out the Green Bay Packers. It's created
a lot of buzz about the Lions going into the offseason,
a lot of momentum being built. So if they can
now book in that with another strong performance against the
team that is defending world champs, you have a lot
of confidence and momentum built, which would not only lead

(19:16):
to success on the field, but off the field. Now
you talked about tickets and all the other stuff.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
I really thought a year ago, and I've said this
that Jared Goff should have been the comeback player of
the Year, with all due respect to Geno Smith, who
had maybe the breakout year of the career. But when
I think comeback, what exactly was Geno Smith coming back from?
At what point? Was he a great player? We know
that Jared Goff had led a team to a Super Bowl,

(19:41):
he had made back to back Pro Bowls. He had
two outstanding years of the Rams before things went sideways,
and then we saw this guy return to form. Are
you a golf fan? Was this an aberration? We talked
a lot about Geno Smith and whether what we saw
this past season with Smith and the Seahawks can he
duplicate that is golf back? I mean, where are you

(20:03):
right now with Jared Goff leading this Lions team.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
I like Jered Goff. I've always liked Jared Goff as
a player. To me, what he did last year under
Ben Johnson offensive coordinated for Detroit Lions, we saw Jered
Goff at his best. Ben Johnson was able to protect
Jared Goff but while also expanding their playbook and pushing
him to do more stuff than he was able to
do with the Rams. They have weapons, but I can't
say that this is a top five offense in terms

(20:28):
of the weapons and the personnel they have around him.
So we got a chance to see Jery Goff kind
of drive the offense and be the force. Because remember
back in LA it was Sean McVay is using Jared
Goff as the joystick. It's the wizardry of Sean mcvay's
creative and innovative schemes and having a manager Jery Goff
kind of execute those things on the fly. Well, now

(20:49):
we kind of have to leave that narrative alone and
talking about Jered Goff being a top ten player at
the position and if he is able to continue to
take another step forward in his development, and now you
begin to talk about the Detroit Lions being serious contenders
in the NFC.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
All right, So despite all their offensive exploits a year ago,
you say he still didn't have enough surrounding talent. Then
they draft Gibbs, which obviously raised a few eyebrowsers a
twelfth overall pick, But if you look at what he
did in college, he's a very versatile back. I mean,
he's can do a lot of different things. Are they
going to regret that pick or are people going to

(21:24):
regret questioning that pick when it's all said and done.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
They regret questioning to pick when it's all said none.
And the reason why they'll regret it is because when
you think about the running back position, because we have
the analyticus communities debunking the importance of running back, particularly
when it comes to taking one high. You can take
a running back high and get all of the return
on investment that you want if he's an integral part

(21:47):
of the passing game. When you look at the last
handful of backs that were selected within the top ten,
the only one who has flopped and you can't really
say that he flopped completely, would be Leonard Fournett. But
Christian McCaffrey was everything that they thought it would be.
Todd Gurley was everything that people thought he would be
as a top pick. Like even if you go all
the way back to Ezekiel Ellie, Ezekiel Ellie was a

(22:09):
two time rushing champ, so it had all his work
is just at in today's game where you're throwing it
so much. He has to be an integral part of
the passing game. And when you look at Jamior Gibbs,
he is a wide receiver in the backfield. He is
terrific coming out of it. He has the ability to
do some of that Christian McCaffrey stuff, li liken them
to Alvin Kamara. And so this will only help Jerry

(22:30):
Goff because remember if you go back and look at
his numbers when he had Todd Gurley, when he had
a marquee back behind him or with him that he
could utilized in a bunch of different ways, it only
elevated his game. And so this is a nice move
by those guys making sure that they protect their quarterback.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, a little play action works with him, it works
for most quarterbacks when he got a threat of a
run to freeze that defense a little bit and open
up some receivers. All right, let's find out what is
trending right now. And this is unbelievable. Months who I
don't expect to see on a Saturday, I see her
on Sundays. But I'm glad you hear because look who's here.
The first time is made in voyage in the new studio.

Speaker 6 (23:09):
Oh it's your first Dan the news studio.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
How exciting, You're exciting, You're exciting. So you can see
we can see him on semw right. It's not just
a voice in the back, it's another voice from heaven.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Definitely not from heaven.

Speaker 6 (23:22):
That is more sure. There's a lot of baseball going
on right now, guys. And the Twins have come out
hot against the Cubs, I mean their dh Alex Kulov
started the bottom of the first inning with the home run,
and then in the third inning hit another home run,
and then Joey Gallo hit a three run home run.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
So right now, the.

Speaker 6 (23:41):
Twins are shutting out the Cubs five zero top of
the fourth inning.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
At home.

Speaker 6 (23:45):
Marcell Ozuna hit a home run for the Braves, but
the Blue Jays are on the scoreboard, so Atlanta is
up two to one bottom of the fifth inning, Nationals
beating the Mets one zero bottom of the second inning.
The Rangers up on the A's one zero bottom of
the second inning as well well, and the Red Sox
have scored first against the Cardinals.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
One zero top of the second inning.

Speaker 6 (24:05):
The Yankees, they were down six zero to the Rays
in the fifth inning after a grand slam by Yandy Diaz,
but the Yankees responded with a couple of home runs,
including back to back home runs from Aaron Judge, and
the Yankees ended up with a nine to eight comeback win.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
At home.

Speaker 6 (24:20):
The Mariners shut out the Tigers in Detroit five zero. Yesterday,
left fielder Jake Fraley homer twice for the Reds. He
hit the tie breaking shot. They beat the Marlins yesterday
seven to four. Today he hits a three year run.
Homer has a total of four RBIs and the Reds
top the Marlins again six to five. A little NFL news,

(24:41):
The Dallas Cowboys opened their rookie camp on Thursday, and
according to ESPN head coach Mike McCarthy's in person introduction
to this rookie class, we'll have to wait because of
a back procedure that was performed last week. He's been
taking place in virtual meetings. But the only on field
portion of mining camp was to day and it was
for a little more than an hour. Obviously, Jerry Jones

(25:04):
was there to talk to the players, but Mike McCarthy
not there yet.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Back to you guys, all right, mon see, thank you
so much, and once again we are coming you live
from the ti iraq dot com studios. Talk a little
bit about this NFL schedule that was released. You know,
I always find it interesting again when people start breaking
down a schedule, it's like the draft, you know, grading
out the draft before they've actually played a game. Same

(25:28):
thing with the schedule. You know, they said, well, this
is the toughest schedule, the easiest schedule, that's based on
what happened a year ago. Let me ask you this,
how many people would have predicted a year ago at
this time or after the Seattle Seahawks traded Russell Wilson
to the Denver Broncos, that not only would Seattle have

(25:48):
a better record than the Broncos that season, but it
wouldn't even be close. I mean, Seattle goes nine to
eight and got into the playoffs and the Denver Broncos
are five and twelve. Who anybody predict that? If you
claim you did your lying, nobody you know, and maybe
you're rooting for it, but I mean the idea that

(26:10):
that was gonna happen. So you know how this works, Bucky.
There are always every single season, there are four or
five teams that way underperform preseason predictions, and there are
four or five teams that way overperform preseason predictions. So
when the release of the NFL schedule comes out and

(26:31):
we already know in advanced who's playing who and where
they're playing, is just the date of the games. What
significance is there, if any, with the announcement of the
NFL schedule.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
The significance is being able to hype up what has
been I guess the biggest marketing machine that we have
in this National Football League and everything that they touch
is a great opportunity for us to speculate on the
things that you talk about. We talk about hardest schedule,
easiest schedule without knowing the teams that we're talking about
because we haven't seen them. Every team TA is different
because you have the draft, free agency, we have new

(27:03):
people swapping teams and so you just don't know. But
I love we love pulling out the predictor and saying,
oh this team is tenn and seven. It just for
ten and seven based on our theories. The great thing
about the schedule release as a former player, their handful
of things that I look at. First One, when is
the bye week? When is the break in the season.
How long is the marathon before you get a chance

(27:25):
to kind of dip out for a week, reset and recharge.
That's important bye week. Secondly, what is the stretch run
like we have seen in the last couple of years,
the first half of the years. It put yourself in
pole position to make a playoff push down the stretch, Well,
who do you have on your schedule the last four
to six games that really matters? Or the division games
or on the road home? Do you have an advantage?

(27:46):
Do you finish with cupcakes? All those things? And then
the final part of it is where are my division
games and win? Do we play the division games early?
Are they late? Do we play on the road earlier?
We had to finish on the road. All of those
things matter because as you're a coach and as you're
a player, you're trying to logistically put things to bed.

(28:08):
You're trying to get everything set in your mind. How
am I gonna have to play this season? What am
I going to need to do to get myself ready
to be at my best when we need it, particularly
down in the stretch and in the postseason.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Well, do you detect any bias when you see schedules
come out for some of the reasons that you gave
where it seems like certain franchises get the benefit of
having certain games either earlier or later in the season.
Have you detected anything, because you know fans will always say,
what the heck is going on here? How do we
get look at our schedule, Are you kidding me? Look

(28:40):
at our division rival they got to How do you
ever believe there's any bias? Because it really is a
jigsaw puzzle because again, all you know is based on
the previous year, who you're going to be playing and
where you're going to be playing, But the order of
the games. I can't imagine how they actually figure it out.
I mean, do they sit in a room so they

(29:01):
just throw it in a computer and randomly spin it out.
Because if human decision is involved in the process, then
you are open and susceptible to some sort of bias.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
Yeah, you have to think that there's some bias that
could be baked in there. I'm sure they use a
lot of computer simulations to kind of run it. You
then have to get with the networks. Please remember this
year is the first year where the network's unnecessarily tied
to a conference. In the past, we always had Fox
that deal with the NFC, CBS dealt with the AFC,
and that's how those games went well. Now every game

(29:34):
is a la carte and so we will see different things.
So we used to tune it in to see Tony
Romo talking about a certain team. We won't see that
this year, and so this would be fun and it'd
be fun to see how the computers see if the
computer got it right, per se. So I think there's
a stretch for the New York Giants, for instance, seven

(29:55):
road games in nine weeks, not really conducid for them
going back to the postseason.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
Now, what would they do?

Speaker 3 (30:01):
That is just a hard road? Yeah, maybe a computer
just spit it out that you have all of these
road games there. So you have situations like that that
kind of make you raise an eyebroute, like, man, that's weird.
That's a really tough schedule based on what But that's
not a kicky frumble.

Speaker 4 (30:18):
All right.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
And obviously with all the money it's being paid out
by the various networks and platforms that are presenting NFL football,
they obviously want to have the best games each week.
They hate to be stuck with games that, even if
it looked like a really good matchup early on, suddenly
becomes a really bad matchup. How are you feeling about
this flexing? The vote is expected later this month to

(30:41):
officially approve the idea of flexing now Thursday night games.
How much of a challenge. Would that be for teams
to have to flex into a Thursday night game that
was originally not on the schedule.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
They give you three weeks. I think they have to
give you three weeks to prepare for that. But it's
I mean, it's a challenge. It obviously is not on
the thing. And for guys who love a routine, if
you can imagine, you've been around enough coaches to know
coaches like their routine. I think even in college, Nick Saban,
it's the same thing every day. It's a little salid,
little Debbie oatmeal ka. I mean that's that's that's the
environment that you're talking about. So you can imagine knocking

(31:18):
to a coach, coach, I know you used to us
playing on Sunday, but we got to play on Thursday,
and how that changes things. And so you have to
be adapted. All the coaches have had to prepare their
teams on short weeks. But it's definitely not a thing
that you like to do on the fly. I remember
last year talking to Doug Peterson when they were trying
to sort out, you know, the finale at the end

(31:40):
of the year. They decided to move the Titans game
from a Sunday to a Saturday night, and they were
coming off a late I think it was a late
Sunday game, so short travel couldn't get it in. Teams
ahead of it the Titans that played on Thursday night,
so they had a little bit of an advantage and
just the annoyance that they may have, but ultimately, you

(32:01):
suck it up, you figure out a way to do it.
This is what we have, this is how we have
to get it done.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
Yeah, it's going to happen, by the way, I promise
you that the official vote will come later on this
month that they're gonna have flexing look at that. As
you said, they're no longer tied to commitments from the networks,
so expect to see a lot of shenanigans. And it's
even going to get more so down the road, Bucket,
because we do know that they eventually the NFL will
expand to an eighteen game schedule and most likely spread

(32:28):
it out over twenty weeks where you have two bye weeks.
When you talk about bye weeks, if you were to
just pick a week, like you had your choice of
a week to have the BUYE, what week would you choose?

Speaker 3 (32:42):
Right in the middle. So if it's a seventeen game season,
week nine, week ten, somewhere there, because it's a long
time to go. If you go later week thirteen, you're
talking about you've done all the training camps. Training camp
is like six weeks, so you have six weeks on
top of the number of games that you played. Ten
push your sixteen weeks of steady work without a break.

(33:04):
That's ideal to have the breaking in to be able
to reset. If it goes later, man, that's a long grind.
And if he goes too early, now you got to
finish with the grind. And so it's the sweet spot
is right in the middle.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
So my younger son is a huge Chargers fan. There
are a lot of real Chargers fans out there, but
he's a big Chargers fan. And we like to look
at some prime time game that we're going to go to,
and the one prime dame game that just jumped out
at us, a Monday night game at home against the
Dallas Cowboys, by the way, coming off a week five bye,

(33:36):
so think about this, this is not exactly a favorite
of the Chargers. So you get a bye week the
first possible week where you get a bye meaning that
you're gonna have twelve straight games after that or thirteen.
I can't do the math, but you're gonna have a
home game in which, oh, I don't know, ninety percent
of the crowd is gonna be with the Dallas Cowboys.

(33:57):
I mean, you know as well as I do, how
many Cowboy fans reside here in southern California. It is
gonna be all Cowboys fans. Not exactly a favorable situation.
So we're gonna get more into the NFL schedule. Also,
another NFL story that's come out about enticement, and the
question is what exactly are you trying to entice people

(34:18):
with to get what you want? We'll tell you. This
is Fox Sports Saturday, Steve Harvin, Bucky Brooks, this is
Fox Sports Saturday. We're coming alive from the tairaq dot
com studios. Coming up a little bit later on Adam
Kaplan Are NFL Insider is gonna be joining us who've
been talking about the NFL schedule. We'll also plenty more

(34:40):
on these NBA playoffs. One more game to decide the
final piece missing in the final four. Can you believe
the Lakers are in the conference finals? They'll take on
Denver and then the Miami Heat, an eight seed, a
team that actually lost a playing game, is in the
Eastern Conference Finals, and they'll play the winner of tomorrow's
game between the Celtics and the Sixers. I got to

(35:02):
get to this story though. This agent, David Canter, is
under investigation by the NFL Players Association for offering, you know,
some kind of inducements to draft his clients. And apparently
the inducement, allegedly, and again this guy is denying any wrongdoing,

(35:23):
is the use of vacation properties. Okay, let's now you've
been on that executive side of the NFL. You've been
in a position where your recommendation could well determine who
a player, what players are drafted. So you know this
all about. So if somebody, if an agent actually came

(35:44):
in and said, hey, Bucky, you know I got this
guy here in I'm telling you he's a pretty good player. Now,
I don't know where he stands in your board, but
let's just put it this way. Let's say you guys
take him. I'll give you a chance to have a
little vacation time in one of my properties. Can you
imagine any person who is dependent on their recommendations for

(36:12):
a job in the National Football League to take an enticement.
I mean, money is one thing, but the idea that
you could have some vacation time in Hawaii. Could you
imagine any NFL person saying, Oh, yeah, I'm gonna risk
my job in the NFL and I'm gonna take your
player even though we don't like it, so I can
have some vacation time, any sense at all?

Speaker 3 (36:36):
A little vacation time, vacation look, R and R is important,
a little work life balance to be able to get it.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
And cause you're talking, I have never vacations.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
Ago ahead like for some of those guys. Yeah, to
be able to go home, be like, babe, got a spot,
we can go vacation. You become like man of the Year,
and so I can see the enticement. Look, I have
a hard time believing that people followed through on this.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
But remind me again, what would you say the average
salary is of a general manager in the National Football League?

Speaker 3 (37:05):
Oh, they're up there now, Yeah, like millions, millions.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
Of dollars if you're a general manager. And of course
a lot of teams like Jerry Jones of Dallas and
going back to the day of my my former mentor,
there Al Davis. Some owners actually make final picks, so
they're really not dependent on general managers. But I yeah,
I I don't. I don't know how you could fix
a pick like that. It doesn't even make sense to me.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
No, that is a that's an interesting deal. Like I
I don't know how you can fix it.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
I mean, even if it was true, why would any
NFL agent has any experience at all in the process
think that he could offer, Hey, you want to use
my vacation property draft this guy?

Speaker 3 (37:48):
Come on, and if that was the case, why would
it be documented? Right?

Speaker 7 (37:54):
Like?

Speaker 1 (37:55):
What?

Speaker 3 (37:55):
Like?

Speaker 7 (37:55):
Why would it be documented? Why wouldn't you handle that
in a phone call? It doesn't make any sense to
me at all. I mean I was laughing when I
saw this story. Again, the guy's denying it, but I'm like,
come on, uh, he's.

Speaker 3 (38:06):
Been a long time, He's been age for a long time. Yeah,
I mean, I know the name. I know, David. David
has been aging for a long time.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
So you know this guy does he seem like the
kind of guy that wouldn't restart To.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
Me, I don't think he hasked to do that. He's
a good agent. He's been a good age, he's been
in the league for a long time. He's deal with
a lot of big time contracts. It doesn't seem Here's
what I would say. Let's say to take one of
his guys.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
All right, Let's say you have a client and you
want him to sneak into the first round, not you know,
about half of the first round, you know, and obviously
he's going to benefit financially if that guy. You know,
the difference between let's say, being an end of a
second round pick and first round pick is substantial in
terms of the money that's not going only into the
player's pocket, but the agent's pocket.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
Yeah. But the other thing with that, I think everyone
here's where you can't miss. The guy has to be
a good player. Well, so that's the thing. Is one
thing too. I want to entice him that there's another
thing to say. He needs to be a good player
to be worthy of being taken in the first in
the first round. It's just not a thing that you just, oh,

(39:09):
we're just going to throw away a pick.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
Although first round picks, I know you we've seen many
drafts over the years. Bucky were like, how the hell
was that guy picked in the first round.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
Yeah, we have, but everyone thinks differently. That's it. Yeah,
it still is a lot to think that a general
manager is going to take on all this stuff that
comes to my first round pick, the money that the
owner is paying to the first round, or the expectations
that come with the player for uh four days and

(39:42):
three nights.

Speaker 4 (39:46):
I mean, it's just a lot.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
I mean, he had some time share that you want
to know, what's the deal? It just it just seems
like it seems like a lot. I know, there's a
lot of crazy things going on all right. Coming up
in the next hour, we're gonna have much more of
the NFL news going on. We got some MLB we're
gonna get to. We're also gonna be focused on these
NBA playoffs and tomorrow is a Game seven between the

(40:12):
Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia seventy six Ers. Philly had
a chance to close it out at home and the
Sixers Celtics came through. Who's gonna win that Game seven matchup?
We're gonna break it all down, keep it right here.
This is Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
dot Com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
Rolling along here on another busy Saturday in the sports world.
This is Fox Sports Saturday, and we are broadcasting live
from the tiraq dot com studios. Tyrat dot com. We're
gonna help get you there and on match selection, fastree shipping,
free road haas for protection over ten thousand recommend it
installers tyrack dot com. The way tire buying should be

(41:00):
coming up a little bit later on, we'll have Adam Kaplan,
our Fox Sports Radio NFL Insider is going to be
joining us. We got much more obviously on what's happening
around the NFL with the schedule release, little MLB to
get to, and of course plenty of talk about these
NBA playoffs. Three of the four slots are filled. As
far as the final four is concern a seven seed.

(41:21):
The Lakers are in an eight seed, the Miami Heat
are in. Now the question is who will join them
and the Denver Nuggets in the final four. Tomorrow, Bucky
we get Game seven Boston and Philadelphia, big time rivals.
Philadelphia had that huge win Game five in Boston, a
lot of people thought, all right, they're gonna come home
and win it, and Boston took it away from them late,

(41:44):
so now they will go back to Boston. I think
it's a toss up game. I remember again you mentioned
this earlier. We were talking about our MVP ballot a
couple of weeks ago. How you fill it out and
you had James Harden on your ballot. Yes, and James
Harden didn't any recognition in the MVP voting. He wasn't
on the All NBA team, although he want you look

(42:05):
at his numbers, double digits assist average for the season,
averaged twenty points a game. Not the scoring machine that
he used to be. But you look at this series.
Game one, the forty five point outburst, which was a
win on the road without embiid, and then that huge
Game four that he had when he had forty two
points after they had lost Game three at home. Philly

(42:26):
needed that win at home and they pulled it out
when he knocked down the game winner. But then you
saw Game six where Harden was awful. I mean, he's
four sixteen shooting, missed every three point shot he took.
Dare I say that the deciding factor in Game seven,
if you're the Philadelphia seventy six ers, is going to

(42:49):
be the performance of James Harden. It's not going to
be about Embiid, it's not going to be about Max,
It's not going to be about anybody other than James Harden.
And if you're Doc Rivers right now getting ready for
the Celtics, how can you ensure yourself that Harden is
going to have the kind of game that they're gonna
need from him to come out on top on the road.

Speaker 3 (43:11):
So the thing that you have to do when you're
Doc Rivers and you understand the Stars, and the thing
is you want to get the stars off and going.
And if you have someone that may be a little
more temperamental, more a little more streaky, you want to
make sure early in the game you get them going.
You saw Lebron tried to make sure that Ad was
comfortable early in the game so he can get him
off to that fast start because he knew that that confidence,

(43:32):
that momentum would sustain itself well for James Harden. If
you're Doc Rivers, you want to maybe call a few
things and let James get buckets early so he can
stay engaged. Sometimes it's hard for guys to even at
the pro level, to stay engaged when they either haven't
touched it, they haven't shot it, they haven't seen the
ball going the hoop a couple of times. You have
to know your players, and this is where coaching matters.

(43:53):
You have to know what your players need to be
at their best, and sometimes it may require you to
to get outside of your comfort zone to set the
game plan to allow you guys to have success right away.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Well, if you saw Harden in his heyday with the Rockets,
you know he's at his best when he's ball dominant.
And we saw that in Game one, and we saw
that in Game four when he gets that confidence to
go to the hoop draw fouls, that's James Harden at
his best. If I'm doc Rivers, look I embiid is embid,

(44:26):
I get it. Here's your MVP. But he's not the
guy that's going to decide this game. This game is
going to be decided by James Harden. I'm gonna let
Harden monopolize the basketball as much as humanly possible early
in this game. He's got to get himself into the game.
You know that first game without you know, when he
knew I'm gonna have to do more obviously with him

(44:46):
beat out and it was brilliant. I mean, that was
as good as you're ever going to see James Harden.
Same thing in Game four. So I I would imagine
Doc Rivers. Although it is Doc Rivers, right, I mean,
Doc is not a exactly got a glowing postseason record
to be This Game six loss at home was a

(45:07):
reminder again of so many failed opportunities in the postseason
by Doc Rivers. Everyone loves Doc, He's the most likable
coach in the NBA. He is a reporter's dream.

Speaker 4 (45:21):
He is.

Speaker 2 (45:21):
He will sit there and talk to everybody. He always
has fans in the media. But his postseason record, yikes.
He's blown more three to one series leads than any
coach in the history of the NBA. And for the
Sixers to lose that game at home after winning on
the road Game five was a reminder again that Doc
Rivers when it comes to postseason basketball, is not a

(45:43):
coach he can count on.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
Is that him though? Or is that a boy breaker
some of the guys?

Speaker 2 (45:48):
Every time you say that, but him, what is he
there for? I means millions of dollars. If it has
absolutely nothing to do with the coach, then why do
we have a coach at all?

Speaker 3 (45:59):
I mean Kyrie and Kate he said you didn't need
to coach in Brooklyn. Well exactly, they said, you don't
need to coach.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
Till Russell was a player coach his last few years
and they won championships.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
They did so, so we're putting all of that that
happened in game six on. We're putting that on Doc.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
We're saying to Doc, well look at late in that game.
How about the late in the game. So Philadelphia, first
of all, you were fortunate that Tatum goes oh for
ten shooty in the first half, and somehow the Celtics
get credit for that.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
Maybe did a good job of.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
Well you had a fourth quarter lead at home, how
did it slip away?

Speaker 3 (46:32):
I mean he didn't turn the ball over?

Speaker 2 (46:34):
Then what is he there for that? That is every
time when somebody makes excuses, well he didn't trouble the ball,
he didn't shoot the ball. Then what is his purpose?

Speaker 3 (46:44):
His purpose is to put together the game plan and
keep the guys there, manage the personalities, make sure they
have all the tools that they need to be successful
and more times than not, the team with the better
players ends up winning. But what he really needs, he
needs the stars to play like stars. Well, I agree, Martin,
Joel Embiid, and I would say timer, those guys have
to play like stars. If those three play like stars,

(47:06):
they'll be the Celtics. If they don't, it won't because
it comes down to two those two guys, James Hard
and Joel Embiid, dealing with Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum,
who out plays them and then is one random guy.
It's a rando that's gonna really make a handful of shots.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
All right, So I'm glad you mentioned Jason Tatum and
Jaylen Brown. So Tatum makes first Team All NBA for
the second consecutive year, Jayalen Brown made second Team All
NBA for the first time.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
We gotta pay him.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
Which one of those two guys. If you're the Celtics,
do you want to have take the big shots for you?

Speaker 3 (47:44):
Well, I mean they want Jason Tatum to take the
big shots because they view him as a franchise guy.

Speaker 2 (47:48):
Is he If you want to look at the numbers
and break down the consistency of Jalen Brown versus Jason Tatum.
It's almost night and day. I you know, I mean,
I don't know if Jalen Brown is comfortably in the
shadows of a Jason Tatum. Kenny gets a lot of
hype when when you really break down the numbers though,

(48:10):
it's really not even close.

Speaker 3 (48:12):
And maybe that's some of the frustration you sense from
Jalen Brown when he's at the podium right talking about
he has been mandated to be the number two guy,
and in his mind he said, I could be the
number one. I am the number one. And it's hard
sometimes to check your ego at the door because also
you get to remember, Jason Tatum is a look, he's

(48:33):
one of the Kobe generation, you know, like they these
I wan't see bad shots, but difficult shots. Tough shot makers.
I think that's what we call them. They take tough shots, yeah,
tough shots, one leg fade away, yea, falling out of
bounds in those things. And so they Updanny on degree
of difficulty and sometimes they're able to make it, but
when it's not falling, it makes for a very long game.

(48:56):
Then other thing is he hit three bang bang bang
in the fourth course.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
He did after his historically bad first half, yes, but
oh for ten one point. I'm looking at demos all
ast the game seven, all right, it is I cannot
wait for this matchup tomorrow. Right, Game seven Celtics six.
There's a lot of history there. But in the end,

(49:21):
if it is one of those games that comes down
to a final shot and it's the Celtics with an
opportunity to get it done, Tatum is going to most
likely take that shot. I'm not so sure he should
be the guy that should take that he is.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
Most likely, Yeah, he is taking the shot, taking it.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
I mean, this is the way it was with Kobe
back in the day. I used to sit there and
Laker fans really get upset with me because you know,
I was part of the Laker station and I would
break down these numbers of Kobe in the clutch and
they were ugly. He took by far the most shots
of any player with the game on the line in
the fourth court. Or you wouldn't allow anybody else to
take this shot. No, but if you compare to the

(50:03):
numbers like Mike Carmelo, Anthony's percentage shooting the same shots
was fifteen percent higher than Kobe Bryant, and yet Kobe
was deemed as like, Oh, he's the guy, and a
guy like Melow was not.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
Because it's our fault. It's hot take culture, it's media
stuff where we talked about the best player always has
to take the last shot, and so we grew up
in a time where all these guys listen to that,
and so they begin to feel like that's what you're
at because it's been defined by us, the guys behind
the mike. Hey, best player has to take that shot.
You got to be clutched, to clutch factor, all of

(50:38):
that other stuff, and so those things impacted. So you
have all these guys they grew up saying, I have
to take the shot. If I'm the best player, I
have to take it where it used to be make
the best basketball play.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
The Warriors are out after winning their fourth NBA championship
a year ago in the Steph Curry era, coming off
the embarrassing loss yesterday. What does the future hold for
the proud Golden State Warriors franchise and what kind of
moves can they make in the offseason to get back
on top. We'll break it down. This is Fox Sports Saturday.

(51:11):
Steve Harvin, Bucky Brooks, You're listening to Fox Sports Saturday.
We're coming alive from the Tyraq dot Com studios watching
a baseball game here Oakland, A's hosting the Texas Rangers.
There's like fifteen people at the game in Oakland. I mean,
I mean, I get it, it's a Saturday day game,

(51:32):
but I mean it is empty, empty there in Oakland. Understandably,
this team is historically bad. Horrific Vegas. Do you want
the ac and down? I didn't think so. I mean, seriously,
you know, if you're a city and you're like, hey,
we'd love to have a major league baseball team right now,

(51:52):
this is not a major League baseball team, not even
close to a major League baseball team.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
So yeah, it's unfortunate. Having lived in a Bay having
gone to a bunch of games there, I just bad
when they're not good. Man, you're just so used to
seeing day. He's not that they were competing, but they
were always like the underdog that you know, could could
find a way to stand in mix u.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
He wasn't that long ago. With Bob Melvin as their manager,
they had back to back ninety seven win seasons. I
mean that was within the last seven or eight years.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
Yeah, because he about did he go San Diego?

Speaker 2 (52:24):
Yeah, lotteries now Yeah, Yeah, he's the hell of a manager.

Speaker 8 (52:28):
All right.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
I want to talk about another Bay Area team. That
would be the Golden State Warriors, who went down to
defeat in ugly fashion yesterday as Klay Thompson missed everything
and Steph wasn't that far behind their two superstar splash
brothers had a horrific shooting day and that was it.
And honestly, when you looked at this series, Bucky, over

(52:51):
six games, the better team won. Yeah, the Lakers are
a better team right now than the Golden State Warriors,
and better team one. But I'm looking like, all right,
so the Warriors regroup, rebuild, Not so fast. The Warriors
this year had the second highest payroll in the entire NBA,
and everybody is on payroll for next year, everybody. Jordan

(53:17):
Poole got paid three point nine million this year. You
know what his salary is next year? Twenty eight point
seven million. How about that first half? Twelve minutes, zero
points four fouls. Howd he look there? Steph Curry is
on the hook for fifty two million guaranteed in salary
next year. Klay Thompson guaranteed forty three point two million

(53:39):
next year. Wigans twenty four point three million. Draymond Green's
got a player option, Think he's gonna take it? Twenty
eight million dollars, Gary Payton Looney. They're all under contract.
They have over two hundred million dollars in guaranteed money
a year from now. They don't have any moving parts.
They have no one leaving the franchise to open up

(54:00):
any room. Their record, by the way, Bucky over the
last four regular seasons combined is one fifty one and
one fifty. So if you look back at a year
ago as a three seed to emerge his NBA champions,
it was a great crowning achievement for the Big Three.
They could do it without Kevin Durant and Hack Narhat.

(54:20):
But really a lot of things had to happen right
for them to do what they did a year ago,
and it did. Everything broke, everything broke their way. I'm
if you're a Warriors fan, I know they're a lot
out there. I'm sorry. It's gonna get worse before it
gets better. There's no way out of this. And I
think what we clearly saw. I think in this series,
a lot of people were concerned about maybe a decline

(54:43):
with the Lakers. It was a decline in the Warriors.
They looked old, they looked tired, and that three point
shooting isn't what it was. I think they shot less
than thirty percent over the last five games of the series.
So I don't think we're going to see any more
of the Warriors challenging for an NBA championship.

Speaker 3 (55:02):
With this group, it'll be tough because West is only
gonna get better. You have to think that Memphis is
going to be better. The Nuggets are there, The Lakers
have suddenly flipped a team where they're young enough to
be in contention another year with this group growing. Sacramento Yeah,
sack sax Town like the Beam Like, so yeah, this

(55:22):
is it's gonna be tough. Like right now we're talking
about them the go to state Warriors. They got in
as a sixth seed. So if we're already talking about that,
we're now talking discussing maybe being a play in candidate
and then you got to win and you're in and
all that other stuff. Are they built for that? Also,
I think one more year left with Steve Kerr, they
have to make a decision on where they're gon to

(55:43):
do an extension. Bob Myers could be out a whole
new time in debate double tax.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
Yeah, I mean, they're just gonna have to They're just
gonna They're just gonna have to play out the string.
They don't have any moving pieces, so everybody's gonna be back.
And I don't know. I mean this this goes back
to the old load management situation. One thing about when
you have guys that are three point shooters, uh and
can do it at the alarming rate that Obviously Steph

(56:11):
and Clay have done it in their peak years. But man,
I mean they were I'm watching Steph Curry last night.
Granted the game was, you know, they were down twenty
seven to ten to start the game, so it was
almost desperation time early. But he was just taking some wild,
ugly shots and I know, occasionally hits one of these,
You're like, whoa man Radish shooter of all time? Yeah,

(56:31):
but he missed six in a row before that one,
And Clay Thompson was just as air balling shots.

Speaker 3 (56:37):
Pressure man, pressure changes everything.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
Like pressure's on a team. The story got four rings
in the bank. The pressure was on the Lakers'.

Speaker 3 (56:46):
Still elimination game. He's fighting for your lives, desperation, trying
to figure it out. Now you go home like they
went home. You don't want that, and trying to avoid it,
trying to stave it off.

Speaker 2 (56:56):
Okay, so let's just assume that we've seen the last
of the Warriors as a championship contender. In other words,
their legacy is now complete. And that's a dynasty. You
make six trips to the NBA Finals, you win four championships,
you got guys are gonna be in the Hall of Fame,
no question about that. A coach that's going to be

(57:17):
in the Hall of Fame. So when we think about
other dynasties that we've seen over the years, like the
Spurs in their heyday, are certainly the Lakers or the
Bulls or get anty than the Celtics. Obviously, where where
does this Warriors legacy stand with you? And what kind
of impact, good or bad did it have on the
rest of the league?

Speaker 3 (57:38):
Huge impact on the rest of the league in terms
of a few things. Style of play. After the Warriors
kind of made the change and went from like a
plotting team to a running gun team up and down.
Everyone thought it was fun it was fun to watch,
It was entertain They had a big a bunch of
fans tune in. Steph was given the freedom of the lane.
He can just now and dribble, drive and do all

(58:00):
this hale glow trigger tricks and do that. Klay Thompson
was a perfect compliment Draymond Green. Whatever role he had
to play, he was solid. So all those guys will
be recognizing, all those guys will be viewed as Hall
of famers because of the team's success. Steve Kerr will
be viewed as an all time great based on his success,

(58:20):
you know. So, I think you'll see a lot of
You'll see and hear a lot of the conversation about
super teams and those things. But really, to me, it
was being able to lean and tap into some of
those AAU conversations, those connections to make it right. And
they were able to do that when Draymond picked up

(58:41):
a phone called KD and so well, we'll see, but
you have a Hall of Fame squad. Four out of
six is great, excellent, But I don't know if they're
the way they play the game will be long lasting
because I think we're beginning to see teams already kind
of shift back to using the mid range game, layups
in those.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
Things, all right. Legacy of the Warriors also include some
kind of mention obviously of Kevin Durant. So he was
there for three years, they got to the finals all
three years they won the first two. Last year he
got hurt, they lose to Toronto, and since then it
hasn't been great for the Warriors, although they had this
one breakout run where they win a championship. And for

(59:18):
Kevin Durant, he hasn't won jack since he left town,
and that was on full display with that embarrassing home
playoff blowout lost to Denver the other night, where he
even conceded it wasn't good. And by the way, he
was a big part of it because he couldn't shoot
the ball straight. So when you talk about the Warriors legacy,

(59:39):
how is your inclusion of Kevin Durant in the importance
of that to that legacy.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
I mean, it's very important because he got them over
to hump only because of the way he entered. He
entered in the midst of this team, being dispatched after
losing a three to one after going up three.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
Yeah, coming off of seventy three wins season.

Speaker 3 (01:00:02):
Couldn't finish it. So Draymond everyone just document. Jerrymond calls
him crime from car Katie, we need you to come.
He comes and fixes it, plays, he roll saves today
and does his thing. So he gets full credit for
being able to be the guy to get him over
to Hump. But because he didn't last there, like it's

(01:00:22):
gonna be tough, it's gonna be individual versus teams.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
Well, where does Kevin Durant stand now since his post
Warrior days?

Speaker 3 (01:00:29):
Oh, it has been great at all. I mean I
don't know if he's won as one series. I don't
know if they want anything since he since he nothing
moved on.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
I just again, we always talk in terms of legacy,
whether it's on a team basis or an individual basis,
what is their legacy and we always tie it to winning. Right, Well,
Kevin Durant won two rings. He was an NBA Finals
MVP twice. He was the dominant force for the Warriors
in those victories over the Cavaliers, but they had already

(01:00:59):
beaten the cab without him, and they had a stunning
loss the year before he arrived to the Cavaliers.

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
I just he would have to be. He had to
have a stunning you know, a super.

Speaker 4 (01:01:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Well that's my point is, is Durant on your off
ten top players of all Time list?

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
I think he has to be somewhere there. I can't
you think. I think so he has.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
To be up to Would he be ahead of Steph?

Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
Steph's rings and pedigree, So.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
You would rank Steph ahead of Kevin Durant.

Speaker 3 (01:01:33):
I think we have to.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
I would have to based on the amount of stuff
Chack and Kobe ahead of him.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
M M, nice combo. I mean, yes, well.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
They both they won championships without each other, right, yeah, yeah,
oh yes, I've put him ahead. Okay, well that's three already.
I haven't gotten to a lot of other names. I don't.
I don't see Durant in my top ten anymore. I
might have put him there five years ago, but post Warriors.

Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
Katie, not top five, No, not tough time all time Greek.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
I mean, there's been a lot of great scores in
the NBA over the years.

Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
You remember the Iceman back in the day, George Gerbon
I did. I had to poster oh Man a nice
silver ball.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
I mean, there's you talk about a forgotten superstar. Of
the game. There's one.

Speaker 3 (01:02:16):
He was a four time scoring champion. I know, I
kind of reminds me of you talking about posters. Was
that Truck Robinson back then?

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
Trock Robinson rebounding machine from Phoenix? Yeah, truck and get
all the way back they go. We can go all
the way back. All right, Let's find out what's trending
right now. I'll look at Manci talk about all time legends.
Just having anyone here on his Saturday monster just brightons
our day.

Speaker 6 (01:02:40):
Thanks guys. Yeah, I mean, at least it's you here
on a Saturday. And I like you because I have
to work on my days off. But people I don't
like it would be awful. But hold on a second,
mister Hartman, did you just say because Bucky said that
he's on your top five? I think you said he
wasn't in your top ten?

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
Kevin Durant all time? No, he's not in my not
even in your top ten?

Speaker 4 (01:03:04):
What what? Why are you?

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
My players there have been in an NBA history. Let's
just start with the Biggs who. I'll give you a
guy right off the bat who I would rank clearly
ahead of him, a Keema Lage one. Okay, Kim olaj
One right there. Okay, all right, that's a Keem Olaje
one who's probably the fifth greatest center of all time.
So you got Russell Wilt Kareem, you got shot. So

(01:03:27):
that's five centers alone that I have ahead of him.
Now you want to go to the guards. I know
Michael Jordan. You rank Michael Jordan ahead of him, Kobe Bryant,
Tim Duncan, five time champion. I'm already at eight, listen,
and I barely straight the service. I don't even know
if you bigs top fifteen at this point. Grazy yeah,
I mean, you see, this is the thing about like

(01:03:49):
not having perspective on the history of the sport. You're
like in the now. But even now, would he be
would he be one of the ten best players in
the NBA right now?

Speaker 3 (01:04:01):
You don't think he's top ten right right now?

Speaker 4 (01:04:02):
Of course he is.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
He's he's I mean, his name on any NBA list
this year.

Speaker 4 (01:04:07):
He was her.

Speaker 6 (01:04:08):
He had problems, he had drama, but when he did plan,
he wanted to score, he scored.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
Who would you rather have right now in the moment,
Kevin Durant or Lebron James.

Speaker 9 (01:04:18):
I mean, Lebron James.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
How about how about Kevin Durant or Anthony Davis. Yeah,
that one's easy. I'll take Kevin Durant really Okay, how
about Kevin Durant or mb I right, take Kevin Durant
to be honest.

Speaker 7 (01:04:34):
For MBA, I would really take Wow, did you miss
all his bricks in this latest sis?

Speaker 4 (01:04:41):
He was a brick after brick?

Speaker 6 (01:04:42):
I agree, no, yeah, but that was that is a
small sample of what I think Kevin Durant truly is.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
That's what I'm mark.

Speaker 4 (01:04:49):
You had a Durad.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
It's a great he's an all time great player. But
you said Tom he said, and then Buck, He's like.

Speaker 9 (01:04:55):
He's not your top.

Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
Just barely scrape the service with the first A.

Speaker 6 (01:05:00):
We don't have enough time to discuss this with mister Hartman,
because you'll bring up all the years of basketball we
can do.

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
I'll start breaking out George, Mike and Bob Goods. You
don't stop me.

Speaker 6 (01:05:12):
There is no basketball today. The NBA playoffs will continue tomorrow,
but the Stanley Cup Playoffs continue tonight one game. The
Dallas Stars are going to try to close out the
series on the road against the Kraken puck is set.

Speaker 2 (01:05:24):
To drop at seven pm Eastern time.

Speaker 6 (01:05:26):
In Major League Baseball, it really has been all Twins
against the Cubs.

Speaker 4 (01:05:29):
It still is.

Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
They're playing in Minnesota.

Speaker 6 (01:05:31):
After a rain delay, Twins are up seven to one
bottom of the seventh inning. The Braves and the Blue
Jays were tied, not anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
The Blue Jays are up four to two.

Speaker 6 (01:05:39):
Top of the eighth inning, but Ronald Acunya, Junior of
the Braves has stolen two bases in this game, ringing
his total to seventeen for the season, which leads the
National League. The Nationals are beating the Mets one zero
top of the third inning, but they've been on rain
delay for almost an hour now. The Rangers up on
the ace three to zero bottom of the sixth inning,
and the Red Sox are beating the Cardinals, who have

(01:06:01):
not been good this year, three zero bottom of the
six inning as well. And some fun NFL news, Jalen
Hurts got his master's degree yesterday from Oklahoma in human relations.
And then the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just tweeted a video
their head coach, Todd Boles has officially completed his college
degree as well. So yay back to you guys.

Speaker 4 (01:06:23):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
I'm glad you mentioned these stories, because if I have
a recurring dream after all these years that usually ends
up poorly, it's always me suddenly back in college. And
it always is a dream where somehow I got this
idea of going back to school, okay, but I didn't

(01:06:43):
actually go to school okay, and then showing up on
a campus that I am completely unfamiliar with, and then
walking into a room to take a test in which
I don't even know what the subject is I had.
I've literally had this dream many times. Really when I
when I look at I got my degree? Did you

(01:07:05):
get a degree in college? Do you have a college degree?
You you have that diploma you graduated from school, congraduation.
I still have my diploma. It's on a plaque. It's
still like in a wrapper, and it's in a box,
you know, from UCLA. But every time I hear these
stories about people going back to school and getting their

(01:07:26):
degrees or finishing their degrees because maybe they you know,
I left school a year early, because which is all.
It's really commendable, but I can't imagine doing it myself.
I just literally the idea of going back to school
and it's it's a recurring that's so weird. And it's

(01:07:46):
always it's the same situation where I end up back
on campus and I'm usually at a campus I'm unfamiliar with,
it's not U C.

Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
L A.

Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
And I'm wandering around trying to find a room and
then walk into a room where not only am I
not prepared for the final, I don't even know what
the class is.

Speaker 9 (01:08:09):
I mean, it's just.

Speaker 4 (01:08:10):
As weird because what was that time here in school?

Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
Because I have recurring nightmares, like I graduated UCLA in
nineteen eighty one, right, Like I.

Speaker 6 (01:08:18):
Have recurring work nightmares where I am here at this
anchor desk and my internet goes out and then you
cut to me and I'm like, I.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
Don't know, Oh I have a yeah, like that's what
I have.

Speaker 4 (01:08:31):
But you know it's it's.

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
Current by the way. You know who speaking of work dreams,
you know what was in my dream last night? Mark Willard? Oh,
I'm not kidding you. I have a problem.

Speaker 3 (01:08:41):
Do you guys remember your dreams?

Speaker 4 (01:08:43):
Are you?

Speaker 2 (01:08:43):
Are you people who remember dreams? I remember my dreams
like vividly, like literally every single morning, and I was
I walked in and there was Willard and he's doing
the play by play of a baseball game and the
score is thirty three to thirty two. And I commented
to him, I said, I looked at the score, thought
you were doing a football game, and you're telling me

(01:09:04):
it was a baseball game. And I mean, how are
you a big dream guy, Bucky?

Speaker 3 (01:09:10):
Some not? Not? Not Often do I remember what I'm
dreaming about.

Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
Oh, I'm in like I'm in full full.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
Break you break, your breaking down your dreams.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
And no, it's just they always I usually wake up
where I'm like, all right, I'm tired of the stream.

Speaker 3 (01:09:25):
This stream is just lame.

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
Noah, I don't remember my dreams a lot. Sometimes they
have to be bad in order for me to remember them.

Speaker 6 (01:09:32):
I feel like significant, like significant, and it's usually not
fun stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:09:37):
It's usually don't I don't have like nightmarar, nothing like that.
No one, no one's harmed or anything.

Speaker 3 (01:09:44):
Used to be somehow playing in the final four. Don't
ask me why, but playing basketball, playing basket on the
final four, in the final four, like even having to
be the inbounder or something that's a high pressure situation.

Speaker 2 (01:09:57):
How did you play in your dream?

Speaker 5 (01:09:59):
You?

Speaker 3 (01:10:00):
You know, I tended to wake up with the dream.
If it tended to go bad, Yeah, going bad, but
it was good. I stayed and I got a chance
to yeah cut the nets down or whatever. So how
are your dreams these days?

Speaker 10 (01:10:12):
I also have a lot of anxiety and dreams that
involve going back to school, even so much as going
as far back to elementary school. Okay, it's Billie Madison.
Are you like a bit a kid again? No, I'm
an adult and I'm like, what am I doing here?
Why do I have to go through fourth grade again?
This is a waste of my time. And then I

(01:10:32):
wake up and I'm like, oh, I went to college.
Thank goodness is silver?

Speaker 2 (01:10:35):
Oh no, I've had many times I remind myself I
actually graduated, Like I did graduate.

Speaker 10 (01:10:42):
A nice feeling when you wake up and you're like, oh,
I don't Yeah, this is all about dream. Yeah, I
actually did get my degree. Like I'm in high school
and I'm in my thirties. And then they're like, you
need sixty more credits, and so I have to go
hang out in this classroom and everyone's like, who's this
old man here?

Speaker 3 (01:10:56):
But you don't have to do that now, guys, I
don't know if you guys haven't been paying attention, but
you know, we're in a virtual world.

Speaker 2 (01:11:01):
I hate so a lot of it.

Speaker 3 (01:11:02):
You can do it virtually.

Speaker 10 (01:11:04):
It's not available on the dream I have to. It's
not like these athletes are going actually to a class.

Speaker 3 (01:11:08):
You don't have to. You don't have to do those things.
And like if you do want to go, like just
take the pe class lot already dancing.

Speaker 2 (01:11:16):
Matt Liner, ballroom dancing.

Speaker 3 (01:11:18):
Is we did a stage fighting at North Carolina stage fighting.
Stage fighting.

Speaker 2 (01:11:24):
That's fine, I'll come in handle to fight. No, I
look at it. I think it's great. They go back
and get their degree, you know, and especially when you
got tens of millions of dollars in your bank account,
what exactly is drawing you to go back to school?
And the fact that some of these guys do Okay,
finish I am yeah, that's good. That's what dragged me

(01:11:46):
across the finish line at u c l A. Is like,
all right, I'm in this far along. I got to
get to the finish line.

Speaker 3 (01:11:51):
You gotta finish it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:52):
Yeah, absolutely, thank you. Mind see yeah, yeah, reminding us
again about all these dreams out there. Okay, getting back
to the NBA and we talked about the Warriors situation.
The one thing I didn't address and that I wanted
to get to though, was the legacy of the Warriors
style of play. And I'm just wondering if, because we've

(01:12:13):
seen a reversal in how Major League Baseball is played
these days, mentioned Ronald Acuna, all of a sudden, it
is stealing bases where the stolen bases Backbucket. I know
you and I are both old school fans of the
stolen base and what it brings to the game of baseball.
But now that the Warriors run is seemingly over and
on full display of what can happen when the team

(01:12:35):
depends on a three and falls by the three, could
we see an altering in the style of play that
we've adopted over the last ten years. Well, you've got
seven footers camped out at the three point line? Are
we going to see an inside, outside game that, at
least for me personally, maybe it's not everyone's cup of tea,
but for me esthetically, it's a better form of basketball.

(01:12:58):
I enjoy walking watching eighties basketball. Nineties got maybe a
little too physical. I'll even acknowledge that, But that brand
of basketball, for me, was way more entertaining than what
we see just wild chuck up threes all game that
to me, is not an appealing style of basketball. Could
the demise of the Warriors finally lead us to get

(01:13:20):
the NBA in a different direction.

Speaker 3 (01:13:22):
Could as we begin to see more teams utilize different
parts of the game, mid mid range layups, persistence in
the paint, those things will kind of force people to
do sevenx gamination. The thing that was always crazy about
the way the Warriors played. They had two of the
best shooters, two of the greatest shooters that we've seen
in Klay Thompson and Steph Curry knocking it down. But

(01:13:45):
if you don't have those shooters, why are you shooting
so many threes? I mean, you have guys who are
shooting threes, who are like high twenties, low thirties shooters.
Why are you taking.

Speaker 2 (01:13:57):
This This Lakers team that now in the Western Conference
Finals early in the season, they're taking all these threes
and bricking them. And Darbnham was like, well, you know
we hit them in practice. Oh that's great. Yeah, I
can hit a three point shot with my home hoop.

Speaker 3 (01:14:13):
Yeah, but you.

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
Don't have Steph Curry on this team. You don't have
Klay Thompson on this team. Stop taking threes. And honestly,
if you look at this Laker team now, every time
I see Anthony Davis shoot like a seventeen footer, it's
like money in the bank. Take it, take it, take
the mid range.

Speaker 3 (01:14:31):
And I understood the bonus point of the three point shot,
but it went too far and so it bounces it out.
You have teams taking fifty three point shots in a game. Crazy,
I mean, I mean fifty in a game. The problem is, though,
when they're hitting, it's a significant margin that they're gonna
beat you by.

Speaker 2 (01:14:47):
But when they're not hitting, like the Warriors last night,
the game got out a handcuick.

Speaker 3 (01:14:52):
Yeah it did, I mean quick.

Speaker 2 (01:14:54):
I felt so bad for Clay again, I know them
since he was fourteen years old. I mean that air
They a chance to cut it from seven to four.
He air balls it, and Steph tried to put up
a follow up that got blocked, and then Reeves hits
the half court shots, so instead of being down four,
they're down ten. Game over.

Speaker 3 (01:15:13):
That was huge. It was a huge play because they
were coming. They worked their claw their way back into
the game that double digit league one and a half
with significance.

Speaker 2 (01:15:19):
Yeah, divis Angel. He was the guy, the only guy
hitting any shots on the other side. All right, coming
up on the other side, we got more NBA news.
The Jets are being highlighted as one of the teams
to watch early in the NFL schedule. What are we
gonna see? What are we gonna see from the Jets?
Is thereon Rogers really gonna lead them back into prominence?

(01:15:40):
Are they a team you need to see? Want to see?
Or break it down with Bucky. This is Fox Sports Saturday,
Steve Harvin, Bucky Brooks, Fox Sports Saturday. We're coming alive
from the Tyraq dot Com studios. By the way, coming
up in the next hour, Adam Kaplan are Fox Sports rader?
NFL Insider is gonna join us. I'm gonna throw something
out there, but right now. I rarely promote my Twitter

(01:16:02):
account at Cannon Hartman, say long Twitter handle at Cannon Hartman,
very long, very long. And I don't tweet a lot, ok,
I haven't, So I actually have followers. I have a
lot of followers.

Speaker 3 (01:16:20):
We just want to follow you, don't You don't shed
light into your world?

Speaker 2 (01:16:24):
Well, I put it this way. I've been on Twitter
for what twelve years, you know, pretty much since it started,
and at the top it says how many tweets or
retweets you've had over the duration of your account. My
number is at five hundred and two in twelve years.

Speaker 3 (01:16:40):
Special moments yeespecially.

Speaker 2 (01:16:42):
Usually though, I when I do put out a tweet,
it gets a lot of likes, so some you know,
you know, less is more. I'm into that and the
people they just tweet all day long and get like
five likes and that kind of stuff. But I do
want to get because in the next hour, I want
to find out before we get into it, if we
get into it at all. Because this is how misinformed

(01:17:02):
I was a week ago. Last week, I was actually
promoting that the XFL Championship Game was last week, when
in reality it was still a week away, and nobody
called me out on it. Nobody called me out on it. Nobody.
I mean, we're obviously tonight. We totally missed it the
big event. Nobody called me out on it because apparently

(01:17:26):
no one's paying attention. Right, So this XFL Championship Game
is tonight. That is one hundred percent official I want
to know, and you can send me a tweet at
Cannon Hartman if there's a single person listening out there
that forget even caring about the XFL has literally seen

(01:17:48):
one second of XFL football this season. Because we're now
at the championship game. By the way, one of the
two teams has a losing record. That's great, right, you
get to the championship game. They had a ten game season,
they had a four and sixteen make it to the
championship game. If we can find evidence that there is
literally any interest at all in the XFL any then

(01:18:14):
we'll mention some okay, but that I need to find
that out. So you know, you just say yes absolutely,
you know, yeah, break it down or maybe you got
some insight you could share with us on this championship
game at Cannon Hartman.

Speaker 3 (01:18:27):
All right, Sore you go there, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:18:29):
So I'm looking at the schedule here, Bucky, the Jets
have five prime time games. Not only do they have
five prime time games, they get the opening Monday night
football game against the Bills at home m big time. Now,
that's that's quite a run for a team that has
the longest streak without making the playoffs. Of any current
NFL team by five years. So this is all based

(01:18:51):
on the you know, the presence of one person, obviously,
Aaron Rodgers. All right, so now you've had enough time
to digest the arrival of Aaron Rodgers. You know their
roster extremely well, you saw what they did in the draft.
But they're going to be highlighted at least this season
as a team to watch in prime time and by
the way, three of their five prime time games, their

(01:19:14):
first three games are all at home, so that's usually
reserved for the teams that have earned that based on
wins in previous seasons. This is based solely on the
presence of Aaron Rodgers. So now that you've had a
little time to digest what they've done, how good are
the Jets going to be this season?

Speaker 3 (01:19:32):
The potentially be one of the top teams. The thing
that we have to look at is how quickly can
the young guys grow up and adapt to Aaron Rodgers
be In the quarterback Garrett Wilson, you have Eric Allen
Lazard who you brought over. How quick candidate? But then
really the test is how good is Robert solid as
a head coach and manager? And he managed a game

(01:19:54):
and put the team in a position and win games.
We ultimately will see how good he is. Less about
Aaron Rodgers, more of our rub us out.

Speaker 2 (01:20:00):
So who do you like in that opening Monday night
matchup Jets home against the Bills.

Speaker 3 (01:20:05):
Oh? I like the Bulls in that one. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:20:06):
So if the Bills annihilate them.

Speaker 3 (01:20:08):
No, no, no, I think it'd be close. But I think
I like the Bills.

Speaker 2 (01:20:10):
All Right, we're gonna find out if there are any
XFL fans and Adam Kaplan joining us. This is Fox
Sports Saturday.

Speaker 1 (01:20:16):
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 2 (01:20:28):
An unexpected turn here on Fox Sports Saturday that we
will get to once again. We are broadcasting live from
the ti rack dot com studios tyrack dot com. We're
gonna help get you there in unmatched selection, fast ree
shipping free roadhas a protection over ten thousand recommended installers.
Tire raq dot com the way tire buying should be.

(01:20:49):
All Right, I'm going to notify you right now. We
are less than two hours away of kickoff of the
XFL Championship game between the Arlington Renegades and the DC Defenders.
And the reason I am saying this at all is
I put it out there on my Twitter account, which
I rarely call attention to at Canon Hartman, to see

(01:21:12):
if there's any interest at all in this XFL Championship game.
And I'm getting flooded with tweets right now. I am
in stun disbelief. Just a couple of samplings. Here's one
I've seen about ten minutes of the XFL. Here's I've
watched several games, actually really like it. How about this

(01:21:35):
heading to the game right now at the al of Dome, Alamodome.
I haven't watched a second, but I am honestly curious.
Let's see here. Didn't know it was even I love
some of these right now, didn't even know there was
an XFL zero points, zero interest, but we got others

(01:21:59):
like Bernie. Bernie came out, he said Steve. The XFL's
replay process is novel, completely transparent. Viewers get to see
the angles and overhear the internal conversations between the officials,
Blendino and the booth with the NFL involvement to something
like that, talking point that we could talk about. Here's Pam.
She says, Yes, I watch XFL and know the championship

(01:22:20):
is tonight. Note I am a DC Defenders fan. There's
another one. I'm pretty sure I saw a couple of
seconds of an XFL game when I was slipping through
the channels. All right, So way more response than I
could have anticipated as far as this XFL championship game.
And I guess the bigger question is with the XFL

(01:22:41):
and the USFL, which obviously just started their season, where
is their place right now? Bucky, as someone that makes
a living working around the National Football League as every
single level and management media as a player, what place,
if and he does the XFL and the USFL have

(01:23:03):
in terms of professional football in this country.

Speaker 3 (01:23:07):
It's a solid place. I think people understand what it
is from a league standpoint. National Football League. It's viewed
as a developmental league. It's another league that gives you
an opportunity to see young players to be players that
are just on the outskirts of the National Football League
play and through watching them play, you see them get better.
You see them take those reps and sharpen their skills

(01:23:28):
and give themselves an opportunity to play potentially in the
National Football League. So it's a great league. Now when
it comes to can it compete head ahead with the NFL, No,
it shouldn't be viewed as that, but it's a nice alternative.
Whereas baseball has minor leagues to develop their players that
aren't quite ready for the big leagues, the National Football
League doesn't have that. The only thing they have are

(01:23:49):
what the colleges produced. So this is a chance for
guys to play professional football, to get paid, and to
develop skills that might help them have an opportunity to
play in the league.

Speaker 2 (01:23:59):
All Right, Twitter accounts a very small sampling, but I mean,
right now, I'm getting a run on a lot of
people that say, I mean, let's here's another one. It's
an entertaining league. The four and sixteen got significantly better
after trading for a new qb XFL is better officiating,
believe it or not, which is also cool. The one
thing about these leagues, and our buddy Rich Ornberger was

(01:24:20):
involved in that Alliance of American Football, which was ill fate.
It didn't even survive its first season, but it is
a great testing ground to do other things that eventually
could be adopted in the National Football League. I do
like that, but we also know that run of the
reasons that so many of these leagues fail is just
the quality of the play. I mean, when you go

(01:24:42):
from the super Bowl to the XFL, you need a
side adjustment, right. I mean, we saw this incredible Super
Bowl matchup between the Eagles and the Chiefs, and a
week later, all of a sudden, you're kicking off a
season in the XFL and you're like, Okay, what am
I watching here? But and again, this is a very
small sample size, but at least those that are responding

(01:25:03):
right now are giving us a pretty positive input. We're
all because I know, obviously they're football fans, and I
get it. There are NFL fans out there that don't
give a crap about the NBA or Major League Baseball
or anything other than football. I get it. We do
cover all that, and I know we're miss with our

(01:25:24):
NHL coverage, and I apologize for that, But you know,
I just wonder, because we've seen so many of these
leagues come and go over the years, whether we're at
a point now where one or both these leagues right
now can actually survive.

Speaker 3 (01:25:41):
Yeah, I mean both of them can survive. I think
one thing that we'll talk about with the XFL and
the USFL the innovations that will be stolen from those
leagues and implemented into the National Football League. So years
ago when the XFL came, like the investment man version,
whether they used to take all off and run for
the ball in the middle of the field, think about

(01:26:02):
some of the innovations that we stole from that. Remember,
prior to that, we didn't have the cameras on the field,
like the overhand camera that we see from the back.
We didn't see the people run on and off the
field behind the play. Those things are new innovations when
it comes to gameplay. Look, they're doing a creative thing
where they have three options for your extra point from

(01:26:23):
the two yard line. I think is one point to five,
is two to ten, is three. That is cool. What
they're doing with the kickoffs. I know the National Football
League has looked at some of that stuff, the on
side kick or the fourth and fifteen play that they're doing.
So there's some cool things that might be sole and
so it's a developmental league, but it's also a great
league not only developing new innovations and players. But how

(01:26:46):
about some of these coaches that are having an opportunity
to coach, Like we've seen an all star roster with
Rob Woodson and Terrence it's Arel buck Lee and Anthony
Beck my guy, Reggie Barlow, who's the head of the
DC Defenders. Those guys are coaching, so they have an
opportunity to lead teams where they weren't given those opportunities elsewhere.

Speaker 2 (01:27:04):
Well, the coach of the Arlington Renegades is certainly Bob Stoops,
you know, the College Football Hall of Fame coach at Oklahoma.
By the way, they got into the championship game of
the four and six rhetick, there's eight teams in the
XFL top two teams in each division played each other
and they beat the one seed Houston to get into
this championship game. DC Defenders obviously are big favorites tonight

(01:27:27):
in this championship game. But yeah, a guy like Bob Stoops,
who's you know again, he's already in the College Football
Hall of Fame after his amazing run at Oklahoma. It
would just seem curious of why he's there and whether
or not what he's doing with the Arlington Renegades. Would
catch the eye of any NFL organization, saying, wait, his predecessor,

(01:27:51):
one of his predecessors, Barry Switzer, who was long removed
from coaching, when he got hired by his good buddy
Jerry Jones. He led the Cowboys to a Super Bowl championship.
So now I like the opportunity. My question is, though
I don't know how much of this XFL or USFL
you're watching. When you talk about the idea that it's

(01:28:13):
sort of a free scouting ground for are they are
they sending NFL scouts to these games? Are they actually
looking at these players? I mean, what level of talent
is there? I mean, how many of these players will
even get a sniff of the NFL in the future.

Speaker 3 (01:28:31):
Some of these guys get sniffed. So every NFL team
has someone assigned to pay attention to the XFL. You
do that, You do that with the Canadian Football League,
the XFIL, the USFL, any of the alternate leagues you.

Speaker 2 (01:28:42):
Will for years, they had the European Football Hold on
a second, we got Chris here, by the way, Chris,
who's taken over for Io with Sam on the board,
is our resident XFL expert. Would you say that, Chris,
I keep up with it. I'm a football fan.

Speaker 8 (01:28:57):
I mean, you know, I cover the Lions, so this
is kind of, yeah, my vacation away from it. But
I do know some guys in the XFL has already
gotten tryouts, they said the Lions. One of the Lions,
I think they gave a tryout and he was in
rookie minie camp.

Speaker 2 (01:29:10):
I think he was a wide receiver.

Speaker 8 (01:29:11):
I'm trying to remember off the top of my head
right now, but I believe he played for like San
Antonio or someone. So like, these these leagues are very
good for post post development. I think we had it
was a Dearanis Johnson. I think was an XFL or
USFL product as well. Like it happens, Oh yeah, I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:29:28):
Look at that. These these leagues do produce players that
eventually confine their way to the National Football League. They're
not making a lot of money, and that was the
one thing I was thinking about, is you if you're
a veteran and you've been on the outskirts and you're
getting paid very little, and by the way, the punishment
that you physically take in the XFL is the same

(01:29:48):
as the NFL. Is it worth it. I mean, could
you ever see yourself if your NFL career has come
and gone to latch onto a professional league where you're
being paid very very very little money for the same
level of punishment that you put your body through. I mean,
you got to really love the game, bucket.

Speaker 3 (01:30:07):
If you're gonna do that, you have to love the game.
I will say, at the end of my last year
with the Raiders, the phone wasn't ringing, I got a
phone call from the Saskatchewan rough Riders to go work out,
and I considered going up there. Now sight unseen, I
didn't know much about the CFL. I know a lot
more about it now having done some stuff with the
Hamlin and tie your cats. But it's one of those

(01:30:28):
situations where it's not for the money you do it
that one those are really for the love of the
game opportunities like you're doing it for that like because
you're not getting rich off of the money that you make.
You just want to continue to play. You want to
give yourself another opportunity to play a game that you
deeply enjoy. Think about Josh Gordon. Josh Gordon still out
there playing running around, making plays, doing what he's been

(01:30:50):
able to do. And so for these guys, some of them, look,
it's kind of like being able to write the final
chapters in your football journey. And some guys would rather
just continue to play the game until they can't play
it anymore, rather than just walk away from the NFL
and say, yeah, that was it, I'm done.

Speaker 2 (01:31:05):
That was aj.

Speaker 8 (01:31:05):
Mccerren's whole thing too, is like he could have been
kept being a QB two in the NFL, but he
wanted to play, start and play because he had kids.
He wanted them to see him play, and that's why
he chose to play with the BattleHawks.

Speaker 2 (01:31:17):
Yeah, so I salute XFL fans out there. Renegade's defenders
less than two hours away a kickoff at the Alamodome
to determine XFL champion for this season. On the other side,
we'll go back to that other league, the NFL, and
our NFL insider Adam Kaplan will join us. Coming up next,

(01:31:39):
Steve Harman, Bucky Brooks. This is Fox Sports Saturday. We're
coming alive from the tai Iraq dot Com studios. All right,
we're coming down from our XFL high reverting back to
the National Football League. Join us, right now he is
the man. He's the man that carries the shield. He
is our Fox Sports NFL insider. Adam Kaplam is joining

(01:32:03):
us right now. Adam, how much are you anticipating this
XFL showdown between the Renegades and the Defenders, which is
going to kick off in less than an hour and
forty minutes.

Speaker 11 (01:32:15):
Well, you know, I'm so glad you remind me, Steve,
I'll turn it in.

Speaker 2 (01:32:20):
That's what I thought, all right, So what is your
takeaway when the NFL announces it's schedule? What are you
looking for? As some of the follows, this league is
invested in your life into this league. What significance on
the day in which they announced the NFL schedule?

Speaker 11 (01:32:35):
Yeah, so I know from talking to coaches the first
thing look is when's the bye week? Because you really
don't want to have it very early. You don't want
to have it very late. So there's some of the
things I look for. I look for scheduled advantages and
scheduled disadvantages. Like the scheduled disadvantages. The Giants have seven
of the first eleven games away away, folks, including two
of the first three. Then weeks ninth through eleven, that

(01:32:57):
they have three games away. It's just understand the Giant
schedule to be honest with it, because you know you can,
you're allowed. Every team turns in things they want to
have to avoid and things that they'll accept and so forth.

Speaker 4 (01:33:12):
Every year they do.

Speaker 11 (01:33:13):
That and usually the NFL, the the schedule makers try
to commodate the best that they can.

Speaker 4 (01:33:18):
It just boggles my mind.

Speaker 11 (01:33:20):
They have the schedules just ridiculous in terms of continuity.

Speaker 4 (01:33:24):
And you know, a team that over achieved.

Speaker 11 (01:33:26):
Last year, like the Giants, you want to try to
You just want to try to take advantage of what
you can. And I'm very surprised that they have a
schedule like that.

Speaker 3 (01:33:33):
They do. Adam any surprise about the Detroit Lions being
included in the marquee or the first Prome time matchup
against Kancay the Chiefs.

Speaker 11 (01:33:41):
All right, So Bucky I listened to I was on
the conference call with with the schedule makers, Mike North
and a couple other people from the NFL office who
put it together. An Ee, Bos's the other guy. And
hear them talk about it, Bucky, you knew was coming
up because you know historically the NFL will not put
them on prime time time and just to look at it,

(01:34:02):
I mean you could push me over with a feather.
When when it got out that it was when the
Chiefs put it out there that they were going to
host the Lions of the first game the season, a
lot of people thought it would be the Eagles. Well, no,
it's it's going to be it's going to be the Lions.
And that tells you a lot. Look, I know, the
league was very happy with hard Docks, with the Lions

(01:34:24):
and Dan Campbell, and they were they really should have
gotten the playoff. Seahawks should not have gotten the playoff.
Seahawks got the benefit some really bad calls and then
that last game against the Rams, the Lions should have
gotten in. But nevertheless, the league really feels good about
the Lions. I mean again, they open up the first
game of the season at Kansas City. It's a Thursday
night game. They play a Green Bay on Monday night.

(01:34:45):
They play the Raiders on Monday night. They also have
the Saturday game, which is an eight to fifteen game
in week seventeen. And also another nugget for you with
the flex scheduling, so the most the old was you
kindly get five prime time games at most. Then last
year they switched it to six. You could actually get
seven if you're flexed. So they're not. The league is

(01:35:09):
not putting it out that they can't get it. They're
just basically saying, hey, if you've got six and we
have a reason, the networks want to take one of
your games and put it at night, they can do.

Speaker 2 (01:35:20):
That, all right. So a team that has the longest
current streak of not being in the postseason got five
primetime games doesn't make a lot of sense. Of course,
the arrival of Aaron Rodgers changed all that for the
New York Jets. They even get the first Monday night
game at home, although it's against the Buffalo Bills. What
is your anticipation I asked this of Bucky earlier, But

(01:35:42):
what is your anticipation of this upcoming season for the Jets?

Speaker 11 (01:35:46):
Yeah, it's Look, they now have a quarterback. They had
an excellent defense last season. The problems the Quarterbacksac Wilson
was clearly not ready to play. He took a big
step back, and he needs to take one now because
the thing he just has to learn and grow up
a little bit and mature as quarterback and getting Rogers
in there. This was their number one priority for the season.
That's why they didn't look. They talked to Derek Carr.

(01:36:09):
He knew what the deal was. He knew they wanted
Aaron Rodgers. Wasn't a secret, and they got Rogers. My
expectations is they should be a playoff team.

Speaker 4 (01:36:16):
Now.

Speaker 11 (01:36:17):
I think they'll push the Bills. The Bill still would
be the favorite. The Bills obviously did not go as
far as they expected last season, running into a Buzzsall
and Patrick Mahomes. You know, it's always going to be
a challenge. But I think in the end for the Bills,
they just have to take the next step. But the
Jets here with their schedule, and by the way, look

(01:36:37):
who the Jets have to play, the Bills, as you mentioned,
at Dallas, home against New England, and then home against
the Chiefs. So that's not an easy four games.

Speaker 3 (01:36:45):
Adam, Just based on your conversations with hey coaches and
general managers around the league, is there a preference to
play young quarterbacks immediately Would they rather let them sit
for a few weeks before they kind of throw them
in their rookie season.

Speaker 11 (01:36:58):
Oh, you're talking about the teams that have these quarterbacks yeah,
I think it's just kind of more often than not
they liked him to sit a little bit, but it
just depends on their learning. Look, you remember when Russell Wilson.
I remember talking to the Seahawks when they had Matt Flynn,
and the thought process was, again, he was a third
round pick. He was so good, it was so obvious.
There was no reason not to play him like that
was the way that they saw it. Like with with

(01:37:20):
Richardson Gonna, they know kind of what the deal is
with him. They know he's the only start of one year.
He needs time. But they're also these teams will tell
you if they see something that is not what they expect,
and it's very positive, they just roll with it. But
they don't want to rush a guy. I could tell
you years ago, the thoughts presses was they're just not gonna.

Speaker 4 (01:37:40):
Teams are just not going to push the quarterback.

Speaker 11 (01:37:42):
But there's a little bit more pressure Bucky, to be
honest with you, that's you hear it. They don't want
to sit the kids now unless they really feel like
they need to.

Speaker 4 (01:37:49):
That's the way I'd probably sum it.

Speaker 2 (01:37:50):
Up, Adam. I know, right after Seattle traded Russell Wilson
a year ago March to Denver. I that day, that
day predicted Seattle would go nine to eight and Demo
go five and twelve. It was unbelievable that I was
that accurate. Actually, not only did I not make that prediction,
nobody made that prediction. So when we look at NFL

(01:38:11):
schedules trying to say, well, who got a really favorable
schedule or unfavorable schedule, this is completely unknown. It's very
similar to the draft. Had he grade it until we
actually see how the plays out. Because every year, three
or four or five teams underperform wildly from what we
predict in the preseason, and then four or five teams
exceed expectations. So if there's a team right now that

(01:38:34):
you're a little bit m on the bubble with of
like what you're going to see from them in twenty
twenty three, which team would that be?

Speaker 4 (01:38:45):
Probably the Chargers. Again, you just don't know from year
to year.

Speaker 11 (01:38:48):
I mean they got in, they had a huge lead
against Jacksonville and then they they blew it. That's a
team that it just you shake your head, just the disappointment.
They're always talented and something seems to happen that's a team.
And then also, you know, here's another thing with brock Party.
I know the Niners talking to them, they're pretty confident
that brock Party is gonna be ready for the season.

(01:39:10):
But it's not so much that he was the last
pick in the draft last year. And there's a word,
you know, with with with scouts and scouting people. The
real Rock Party is going to come. He's going to
come to the surface. Like you're asking this guy to
start a half a season. Okay, that was a great story,
but let's see it. Let's see him do it for
a full season. That probably to me when we do

(01:39:33):
storylines for training camp, that is my top one of
my top five.

Speaker 4 (01:39:37):
Can brock Party repeat his success over a full.

Speaker 2 (01:39:39):
Is he going to be Nick Foles repeated? Yeah, yeah,
I mean Nick twenty seven touchdowns, two picks, led the
NFL and passer rating looks like the steal of the
lifetime for the Eagles, and then all of a sudden
he got exposed.

Speaker 11 (01:39:54):
Yeah, Nick was a third round pick. But what happened
there was there was a gimmick offense with Chip Kelly
and the league figured out amount we're here. Perty He's
very accurate and the one thing I'll say which is
very positive. He's a great leader. They being talking to people,
have been around him. You just kind of know it.
But there is that feeling that you go through the
schedule does that on a very good arm. You can

(01:40:16):
only ask this guy to do so much and that's
could be as downfall. So we'll keep an eye on that,
but that would be one of them. And then obviously
Tampa Bay they got in last year with an eight
nine record without Tom Brady. That quarterback situation to me,
is very much up in the air. It doesn't look good.
I don't see any way that they win that division.

Speaker 3 (01:40:35):
The Washington Commanders officially do the sale, Josh Harris takes
over as the owner. What does that mean for Ron River?
What do you think it means for this franchise going forward?

Speaker 11 (01:40:45):
Yeah, and by the way, it has to be approved
by the league and we'll know more within two weeks
when they got the spring meeting in Minneapolis.

Speaker 4 (01:40:52):
But it's going to get passed.

Speaker 11 (01:40:53):
There's no question that the league wants the egelsenid are
out that Josh Harris is a a good owner, talking
to people work for him, whether it's with Philly, the
the hockey team, the Devils, and now with Washington Bucket.
Answer your question, typically, what happens is there's there's a
this it'll be one year grace period where Josh Harris

(01:41:15):
and his group will evaluate Rivera and the coaches and Ron.
By the way, it's personnel control, and they'll see what happens.
And Josh Harris is a guy from that area. This
is this is all of his ownership and everything that
he has. This one's really important him because he grew
up as a Washington fan. And that's that's the thing
is with Ron. Ron has had enough time to get
this thing turned around, and he's not gotten right at quarterback.

Speaker 4 (01:41:35):
And Josh Josh Harris is a sportsman.

Speaker 11 (01:41:38):
He loves sports, and he understands he grew up as
a Washington fan. They haven't had They have not gotten
the quarterback right in a long time.

Speaker 2 (01:41:47):
One other aspect in this schedule making in the NFL
now that they're no longer absolutely tied to one network
carrying in the NFC or AFC is basically where we
have a free agency of the NFL schedule. I mean,
where are we going with this? I mean we talk
about flexing out games in prime time and everything else.
But are we going eventually to a full scale free

(01:42:08):
agency where like marquee games go to the highest bidder.
How's this going to work down the road?

Speaker 4 (01:42:14):
All right, So here's what the NFL said.

Speaker 11 (01:42:16):
I was on the call this week, so it is
true what you said, but there are two caveats each
because they're still yes, the games are free agents, but
they're two things here, Like the CBS could still protect
one game a week.

Speaker 4 (01:42:32):
Fox can protect one game a week.

Speaker 11 (01:42:34):
And also half of the NFC games will go to Fox,
half the other half will go to CBS.

Speaker 4 (01:42:41):
So it's not like all.

Speaker 11 (01:42:42):
It's not like all will go to one and not
the others. There's gonna they said, around a fifty to
fifty split. But it's definitely weird because growing up as
we did, Steve, you and I are probably a little
bit older than Bucky. I remember when all the NBC
games were on We're AFC. In fact, we would get
the Raider game as a late here in phillyate at
for Eastern and that was like really cool. And CBS

(01:43:06):
had the NFC. Remember the old old NFL Today show
with mus Burger and Phillis George and Irv Cross and
Jimmy the Greek and that's what I grew up on
and now it's a total it's just really weird the
way they're doing it now. I did not hear why
they're doing it. That's that's the only thing is like
they didn't really discuss that. They said, hey, this is
what we're doing. And yes, in a way that they're

(01:43:28):
free agency with this, but the thing that they really
they also want before we get out of the schedule
stuff and the reason why flex scheduling has done so well.
They want the best games late in the season and
for everyone to see them in primetime. So that's why
they do it.

Speaker 3 (01:43:44):
We have like a week away before everyone starts their OTAs.
What's the biggest storyline headed into OTA's that we need
to keep an eye on.

Speaker 11 (01:43:51):
Well, obviously the quarterbacks, Anthony Richardson, how well he does
because Gardner Minchew I'm told sign there because he thought
that there was a possible ability that he'd plays some
this year and he was thinking that Richardson might go
there and Minshew, as I understand it, has some incentives
in his contract for playing. So that just these quarterbacks
and also with the Todd Monkin running the offense now,

(01:44:14):
which is going to be completely different from Greg Romans,
and Lamar Jackson is in there getting him in. I
know they wanted him in if possible, to be in
their off season program to work on this new offense.
He's got to learn the terminology and get used to
his new teammates. I think that's also big. I don't
think there's any question about it. The Baltimore situation and
getting Lamar got his deal, but he's got to get

(01:44:35):
back to where he was. And not only that, he's
got to become a better pastor because we've seen him.
We've seen him when he looks like an elite passer
they don't live. But again, with Greg Roman they weren't
going to throw the ball out. They were running it great.
That to me, that changed in philosophy. Not that they're
not going to run a lot, They'll run a plenty,
but Todd Monkin's known for being a passing game guy,
so I'm really interested see what happens there.

Speaker 2 (01:44:56):
By the way, you'll love this. I remember a conversation
the late great Chip four and I had back at
the Super Bowl nineteen ninety three, the first one where
the Cowboys blew out the Bills with Dick eversol when
NBC dumped the NFL, saying it was the best decision
he ever made.

Speaker 4 (01:45:12):
Well, they got back.

Speaker 2 (01:45:13):
They did get it back in a big way, no
question about it. Yeah, he was trying to explain to
us why the NFL was a loser. But that's okay, hey,
but he was a big fan of that XFL. All right,
great stuff is always Adam, will check in with you
next week, Thanks so much. That's Adam Kaplan or Fox
Sports Radio NFL Insider. Now, let's find out what is

(01:45:35):
trending as monthsy balons months Ablanas.

Speaker 6 (01:45:40):
You know, I hate when I have to tell a
story that involves ken Lee Jensen dropping the ball.

Speaker 3 (01:45:47):
What happened?

Speaker 6 (01:45:48):
So the Red Sox were beating the Cardinals, who have
not been good this season, going into the ninth inning
by two runs. The score Red Sox three Cardinals one.
Chris Sale pitched eight innings, only gave up one run,
struck out nine and then ken Lee Jensen had the
bases loaded, they hit the ball, throwing error. Now the

(01:46:08):
Cardinals are beating the Red Sox four to three. Bottom
of the ninth inning, The Red Sox have a man
on first base, but they're down to their final out
after Kenley Jensen just had his four hundredth career save,
like a couple.

Speaker 4 (01:46:21):
Of days ago.

Speaker 2 (01:46:22):
Kenley Jensen, like Dodger fans, hate with the guys.

Speaker 4 (01:46:25):
They really did.

Speaker 6 (01:46:26):
It was hard, it hate.

Speaker 2 (01:46:29):
It really had some really good moments and then some,
unfortunately on the biggest stage, some really some bad ones.

Speaker 6 (01:46:35):
Yeah yeah, and so unfortunately, yes against the Cardinals have
not done so hot.

Speaker 2 (01:46:41):
But how about this.

Speaker 6 (01:46:42):
Imagine it's your birthday, your first at bat, you're leading off,
and you hit a home run.

Speaker 2 (01:46:50):
Happy birthday too.

Speaker 6 (01:46:51):
I want to say his last name is Mickey Mnayak
of the Angels.

Speaker 4 (01:46:56):
Happy birthday, Yeah, left fielder.

Speaker 6 (01:46:58):
You go, dude, your first bad lead off home run.

Speaker 2 (01:47:01):
It's your birthday.

Speaker 6 (01:47:01):
And the Yangels are beating the Guardians in Cleveland one zero,
bottom of the second inning Nationals and the Mets are
still on a rain delay. I was complaining to Jonas
earlier today with raindelays in baseball, Just cancel the game.
Stop making people wait all this time. You've been on
a rain delay for like two hours and it's the
third inning. Let it go. Let people go. But the
Nationals are beating the Mets. If this comes back top
of the third inning, one zero. Earlier, guy, earlier, today,

(01:47:25):
the Yankees were losing six zero, But then you know,
Aaron Judge happened. He hit two homers and the Yankees
ended up beating the Rays with the comeback win at
home nine to eight. Reds over the Marlins six to
five was the final score. Jake Frayley has been great
for the Reds. A three run homer after hitting back
to back homers. Yesterday, the Mariner shut out the Twins
five zero was the final score.

Speaker 4 (01:47:46):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 6 (01:47:47):
The Mariner shut out the Tigers five zero. In Detroit,
the Twins all over the Cubs eleven to one was
the final score. Blue Jays beat the Braves five to two.
Rangers shut out the A's five zero in front of
the fourteen people that you said were at the game.
And officially the Cardinals have beat the Red Sox four
to three. And yeah, no baseball or excuse me, no
basketball playoffs today, but the Stanley Cup playoffs are about

(01:48:10):
to begin in less than thirty minutes. The Dallas Stars
will try to close out the series on the road
against the Kraken. The puck is set to drop at
seven pm Eastern Time. It's been fun fellas.

Speaker 2 (01:48:21):
Back to you, Hi Monsey, thank you very much. By
the way, Moncey, are you a Bad Bunny fan?

Speaker 6 (01:48:26):
I do like Bad Bunny. I may not understand what
he's saying, even though I speak Spanish, you know, sometimes
he doesn't enunciate very well. But I do like Bad Bunny,
and I think it's hilarious that like I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:48:40):
I don't think he has a lot of English.

Speaker 6 (01:48:43):
Songs, but he is on English radio all the time,
so it's like, all right, Bad Bunny.

Speaker 2 (01:48:49):
Well, Bad Bunny was one of the many celebrities the
bandwagon is on with the Lakers.

Speaker 6 (01:48:53):
Oh yeah, no, no, no, for sure. I actually just
felt really bad for Devin Booker on that one. Yeah,
his ex out at the Laker game with Bad Bunny.

Speaker 3 (01:49:01):
Oh. I didn't even think, Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:49:04):
Imagine court side Bad Bunny come on, and they kind.

Speaker 2 (01:49:09):
Of look alike, like a little bit if you got
to like squid look at one side of your.

Speaker 6 (01:49:15):
Oh yeah, but I I do like me some Bad Bunny.

Speaker 2 (01:49:18):
Not gonna lie all right, thank you very much, because
I'm getting tweets about it. Oh yeah, no, he is
great music.

Speaker 6 (01:49:24):
But I just don't know if you listen to his music,
and again I barely understand.

Speaker 2 (01:49:29):
I mean, he has a great song with Drake. I'm
still listening if Frampton comes alive. Okay, you don't know
who that is, no idea. I think it's my cue
to sign out exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:49:40):
Never heard it.

Speaker 2 (01:49:41):
Thank you very much by guys. Okay, once again, we're
cover you live from the ti iraq dot com studios.

Speaker 3 (01:49:50):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:49:50):
Uh yeah, when you when you see Jack Nicholson front
and center again courtside at Laker games. Jack is now
eighty five, you know his demise was grossly overstated. He's
seemed pretty much Jack like sitting in his favorite seat,
uh court side for the game last night. But this
is what happens, you know how it is. People are saying, well,

(01:50:13):
he wasn't he wasn't feeling good. It wasn't. It wasn't
that he wasn't feeling good. The Lakers sucked. Why would
he go out to the games. There's no reason to
go there. So I'm do you have a problem with
bandwagon fans? I have no problem with bandwagon fans. I'm
always amazed by fans that show up when teams really
are bad and they consistently support their team. I have

(01:50:33):
nothing but huge admiration for fans like that. But the
idea of being a bandwagon fan, I didn't. I don't
have a problem with that.

Speaker 3 (01:50:40):
You don't have a problem with bandwagon fans, Johnny cum lately.
You know what my fare was hard work, jump in
you need how about this?

Speaker 2 (01:50:47):
So back in twenty twelve, the LA Kings hockey team
here in Los Angeles went on a run to eventually
when their first Stanley Cup, and they actually had a bus.
They came around the city and on those bus it
said band wagon and they invited us on. Like I
went on the band wagon and they welcome to open arms.

(01:51:11):
It was almost like we get it, Like you're not
a hockey fan, but you want to be associated with
the winner, and we're about to win a championship, So
jump aboard, come on, little bandwagon time.

Speaker 3 (01:51:22):
Yeah. I mean it's human different, right, I mean, it
is human nature. But like fan is short for fanatic,
and so yes, I would think that the people wh
would have problems with bandwagoners are those who have been
longtime devoted fans, who've been through the trials and tribulations,
the ups and downs of their fandom, and so you
don't want someone coming in sampling off of that, sipping
off the success that wasn't they haven't invested in. Don't

(01:51:45):
want that. That's not fun.

Speaker 2 (01:51:46):
Well, not only was Jack there, Lou Adler was there again.
I mean they've been sitting side by side. You can
go back to all the glory days of the Lakers.
The legendary record producer Lou Adler, who's even older than Jack,
I think he's like eighty nine. Now. He's the guy
that says nice to Jack, and we haven't seen them
together in a long time, but they were there together

(01:52:07):
last night. All right, So I want to break this
down with you. Bucky Lakers Nuggets series. We'll start in Tuesday. Obviously,
the Nuggets have home court advantage. Lakers have beaten two
consecutive teams in the playoffs where they had to open
up on the road. What's your gut what's your gut
feeling right now? Of this Lakers Denver Nuggets Western Conference Finals?

Speaker 3 (01:52:32):
The Nuggets are the favorite. The Nuggets have more firepower
than the Lakers, and in most instances, you would always
take the Nuggets to win this because they're the bigger,
better team, They're deeper, they have more accomplished scores, guys
that can put it in the hole. The problem is
you just worry about Lebron being able to turn back

(01:52:52):
to clock for four games. Not that he becomes the
look the score extraordinaire. But he gets everyone involved, he
manages the game, He runs the team correctly in those things.
The biggest missmatter, though, is joker on whoever the Lakers
put on him, because he's going to put them in
the blender and he's going to get buckets and and ones.
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:53:11):
So there is a name that you have not heard
in these playoffs that may actually have a presence for
the Lakers in this series. Mobamba. Now remember Mobama was
a six overall picking the draft not that long ago.
He's a big guy, tall, tall. Look, you can't have
a d on k the entire time because it would

(01:53:34):
be all consuming and would take a d out of
his offensive game, which the Lakers absolutely need. You need
another big body out there. There's who else did they have? Look,
give me anybody they can put on body up against them.

Speaker 3 (01:53:48):
You put Mobamba on him. He is going on Jo
Joker is going to go absolutely ballistic. He's too little,
he's too light. He won't make it past stander, build
him who else? Without three fouls. You have to man
him up. You have to say, hey man, you have
to put your chest out there and you have to
handle some of this year.

Speaker 2 (01:54:08):
I really want Ad to get two quick fouls in
the game game over.

Speaker 3 (01:54:11):
You have the cross match, but you're not going to
be able to do it. Or what you do is
you blitz them, you trap him, you stun him, you
make the ball go elsewhere. He can't beat you, and
you live with the other guys shooting threes.

Speaker 2 (01:54:23):
I I don't know how to look at this series
other than the fact that there is a guy named
Lebron James who all time in his career is ten
and one in conference finals, and this one as last
nine in a row. He's including three years ago against
the same Denver Nuggets team.

Speaker 3 (01:54:42):
He's thirty eight. Thirty eight is like twenty one in
dog years.

Speaker 2 (01:54:44):
Okay, but you know what we saw in the series
from him and Ad. You can take off a game,
but what we've been witnessing in these playoffs is sort
of a playoff version of load management where you may
not actually miss a game, but you sort of take
a game off. You know, you're not really playing any defense.
That was what happened in game five. Lebron just literally

(01:55:09):
stop playing defense, did not put out a lick of
effort on the defensive end to save a little gas
in the tank, and then he shows up in a
big way in the game to side a game six.

Speaker 3 (01:55:21):
Well, that's the thing. So when you have an older
team at spots, you have to pick and choose when
you go play play your guys and when you're gonna
give him, let them play maximum effort.

Speaker 2 (01:55:30):
All right, I'm making prediction right now. Whoever wins Game
one in Denver will win the series. The Lakers will
be well rested. Both teams will be well rested because
not until.

Speaker 3 (01:55:39):
Tuesday they can run them out of the gym. They're
gonna try and use the altitude and all that stuff.
I mean, you're going to see a track meet. The
Nuggets would not stop from one end to the other end.
And do the Lakers have enough discipline to avoid getting
into that kind of game?

Speaker 2 (01:55:53):
All right, Well that's my prediction. Whoever wins Game one
of the Western Conference Finals will go on to win
that series. All right, some other look ahead, some other
predictions coming up. This is Fox Sports Saturday one two,
swinging a deep shot and there it goes Cliff Field.
This one is home down, Eric Judge, He's second home run.

Speaker 4 (01:56:16):
In as many f fax.

Speaker 2 (01:56:21):
That is Yankees Radio Network, and that is our Progressive
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Want to thank the guys today, Iowa Sam was here early.

(01:56:43):
Chris our resident XFL expert, breaking it all down today,
and uh yeah we are a little over an hour way.
We found out that a lot of you are actually
EXFL fans, So enjoy the game today between the Defenders
and the Renegades.

Speaker 3 (01:57:00):
I think of that is all right.

Speaker 2 (01:57:02):
Rennygates, of course, Uh, Monci Brilliant is always on our updates.
And then there's Brandon, our producer. Who, Brandon, are you
going to be watching this XFL Championship game coming up?
Hell no, hell no, very good?

Speaker 3 (01:57:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (01:57:20):
Who watching a Game six between the Cracking and the
Stars instead.

Speaker 2 (01:57:24):
All right, I'll watch. Are we going to get a
Kracking Knights matchup the next round?

Speaker 3 (01:57:31):
What do we got?

Speaker 9 (01:57:33):
Maybe definitely in the possibility.

Speaker 4 (01:57:36):
All right?

Speaker 2 (01:57:36):
So are we at the point now where we should
start breaking out a little NHL Yes.

Speaker 4 (01:57:41):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:57:41):
The thing about it is on Sundays here, Rich and
I we have JP Morosi who is a big time
NHL guy along with the covering Major League Baseball, so
we'll get a little NHL inside from him. That'd be amazing.
Second year franchise the Kracking, of course, the Knights they
got all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in
their maiden season.

Speaker 9 (01:58:00):
I mean every team left is really interesting and intriguing. Yeah,
the Florida Panthers, the Carolina Hurricanes, Yeah, and the Knights
and the Oilers Cracking, yeah, stars all very very interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:58:13):
By the way, I was always amazed going back in
the day when the Jacksonville and Carolina got to the
conference championship games in their second year of existence? Was
that their second or third year? It was something like that, right,
Remember they both got to the conference championship games? How
is that possible? Could the NFL duplicated because the last
time we saw expansion league we saw the Texans. They

(01:58:35):
were terrible. The New Browns were awful. But when we
see the NHL, well, the Knights getting all the way
to the Stanley Cup Final. Now the Cracking making a
deep run in the second year. Is that even possible
in the NFL?

Speaker 3 (01:58:48):
So I was on that Jacksonville team that went to
the championship game in ninety six.

Speaker 2 (01:58:53):
Yeah, upside Denver in the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (01:58:55):
Yeah, I said Denver and the Buffalo Bills lost to
the Patriots. Yeah, it can happen, but like some of
those rules at the time, the expansion stuff was different
and the two teams took different pass Bill Paulium was
ahead of the Panthers. They when we're older players right now,
players on defense. So it could be good on one
side of the ball. The jacksonth Jaguars were upstarts, a

(01:59:15):
lot of young players. It could happen, but man, it
takes a coach who kind of understands how to deal
with what he's getting. I think you have to have
a management team that's been in the league for a
long time to kind of pull that off.

Speaker 2 (01:59:25):
Coughlin a Hall of Famer.

Speaker 3 (01:59:27):
Yes, because he won two Super Bowls in New York.

Speaker 2 (01:59:29):
Okay, and he beat the Patriots twice.

Speaker 3 (01:59:32):
Does it now we can argue like the resume in
terms of like real Hall of Fame.

Speaker 2 (01:59:36):
I'm see in a lot of ways, he's very similar
to coach Flores with the Raiders, who eventually I was
very happy obviously knowing the man getting into the Hall
of Fame. Your thoughts on tomorrow Celtics Sixers in Boston.
Who wins that game in advances to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Speaker 3 (01:59:50):
Well, it used to be a time that the Celtics
never would lose a Game seven at their place. You know,
you think about all those things, and I think it
applies now Jason Tatum finds a way to get it done.
I would love to see the Sixers advanced, but I
just don't think they're good enough.

Speaker 2 (02:00:05):
I've been saying all along, I think Boston's the most
talented team in this league. They haven't proven it all
that time. Hey, don't go anywhere, folks. Much more coming up.
This is Fox Sports Radio

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