Steve Hartman and Rich Ohrnberger talk NBA Playoffs!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Living the dream once again here on a fabulous a
Sports Sunday. It is Fox Sports Sunday, and we are
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way tire buying should be. It's an emotional reunion today.

(00:27):
I was thinking about this, Rich, This is the longest
I have gone without speaking to you in I don't know,
seven years, maybe, yeah, I mean, I mean, I'm really
thinking about this. So Rich has been off the last
two Sundays. Yeah, we haven't spoken off air, and I

(00:50):
was just thinking about the fact that how long has
it been where we had gone two full weeks plus
without speaking to each other.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
I'm gonna guess, I'm gonna guess. Yeah, it's gotta be
it's more than five years ago. Oh yeah, I mean it's.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
I mean, when did you when did you start broadcasting
in San Diego?

Speaker 1 (01:15):
That was twenty sixteen, I think that summer.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, So I mean it's been over seven years. Yeah,
oh yeah, anything going on in your life, anything I
you know, catch me up on you have any more kids,
anything else like that, or no more kids?

Speaker 1 (01:28):
No more kids, we're out of the baby making business. Yeah,
I've been. I've been making some delectable recipes.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Hold on, I have to stop for a second. Hear
speaking of recipes. So you're you're in San Diego's Uniting
studio here, but I brought in for Sam and for
Bow and for Montcy. Denise made some banana chocolate chip cake.
Oh yeah, bread, the banana bread with the chocolate chips

(01:59):
and yeah yeah, moist and you know, and has anybody
partaken yet? Everyone's sort of holding off right now?

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Wow? Wow, I would not be holding off.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
And they're in individual little boxes, so she really wrapped
them up nice for them.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
See. That's that's the Those are the touches that Denise
puts on her baked goods. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
So it makes it really good.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
It puts it over the top.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Okay, so there's the first bike comes from Sam. Sam.
How's that first bite?

Speaker 1 (02:26):
How's that?

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Oh? Oh yeah, exactly aphoria. Yeah indescribable, isn't it. Yeah,
I mean you can't talk and eat at the same
time I don't want to eating on the air is
a big faux pot. Yeah, big faux pot.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
I mean that was incredible, incredible, all right, very very good.
Uh So that's where we're going today. We got a
lot of things to cover here today. By the way,
I heard you yesterday on your Saturday show here on
the vast Fox Sports Radio network. Yeah, and you know
it's like a gambling show, and.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
I we'll talk some gambling. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, we're gonna talk about a wager that you recommended
on the air. I won't say now, but later on,
I'm gonna surprise you because I was listening. I was thinking, hmmm,
I like what you're saying there. But that'll be a
little bit later on. Here's the thing about the NBA plus.
And by the way, yesterday Bucky Brooks and I broke
into a lot of NFL draft stuff because well that's

(03:27):
what Bucky does, right, he has his mock drafts, And
the overwhelming majority of the people were enjoying. We were
breaking down the AFC West teams, the NFC West teams
and who they wanted to are, what they're looking for
and their draft and picks and everything else. And the
overwhelming majority of the people are like, oh, thank you know,
we're less than two weeks away from the draft. You

(03:47):
know my team is this blah blah blah. There was
one holdout, one holdout. Oh come on now, NBA playoffs, man,
we got to talk NBA playoffs. Okay, Well here was
the problem yesterday for us. So we had had the
Sixers blowout win and we are in the midst of
the Celtics blowout. I mean, two series that are really
going nowhere but rich when you think about these NBA

(04:10):
players and what's our angle on these endless playoffs, they'll
be going for the next two months. This is why
I was thinking. If you look at the Eastern Conference,
the top three seeds Milwaukee, Boston, Philadelphia, everyone believes that
one of those three teams ultimately will make it to
the NBA Finals. Whereas in the Western Conference the top

(04:34):
three seeds Denver, Memphis, and Sacramento. Nobody believes any of
those teams will be in the NBA Finals. You know,
it's either going to be Phoenix because of Kevin Durant,
It's going to be Golden State because well there are
the Warriors defending NBA champions, or it's gonna be the
Lakers because hey, Lebron ad maybe they still have the magic.

(04:55):
It's just weird. I can't think of a year where
we've had a conference, in this case, the Western Conference,
where nobody is picking any of the top three seeds
to ultimately make it to the NBA Finals.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
It's a strange year, and I think it's actually a
bad sign for the NBA because what you're finding with
the superstars, you know, Kevin Durant or Lebron, any of them. Frankly,
I mean, it is becoming very clear that seeding isn't
all that important now being in the play and round.

(05:34):
I'm sure if Lebron James and Anthony Davis had their brothers,
they would not have had to play into the Western
Conference playoff bracket because you get to save your legs
a little bit. But when you really think about it,
they after getting that win against the Wolves, their next
appointment isn't until Sunday or excuse me, yeah, Sunday, and

(05:54):
then after that Wednesday, so they get long rest waiting
for their first playoff game, and they get long rest
before their second playoff game. So it's just it's one
of those things. Man, where if you're the better team
in your round in the postseason, especially since in the
NBA postseason there are no buys, like you're not rewarded

(06:16):
for having a top seed. It doesn't matter where you see,
because everybody's playing the same number of games, presumably, and
the better team wins because you play seven game series.
It's just it's a lot. It's a lot of postseason basketball.
And so these stars, these guys who have been around
the game for a long time, you know, the Chris

(06:36):
Paul's and the Kevin Durants and the Anthony Davis and
the Lebron James. Just folks say on the West right now,
like these guys know that they really need to save
themselves for the postseason. And that's the reason why some
of the better teams in the West are outside of
the top three.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yesterday, it was a prime example in this first game
between the Warriors and the Kings. Right, so everyone's like,
come on, Sacaman, Oh, they hadn't been in the playoffs
wherever the Warriors of the war and they'll just flip
the switch, right, they'll flip the switch. You got Steph,
you got Clay, you got Draymond.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
They you know, Pool.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
I mean, Wiggins is back, they'll they'll prevail in the series.
And yet the one stat that apparently everyone was missing
the Warriors this year on the road were eleven and thirty.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah, they were really bad.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
I mean, I mean it's one thing to be you know,
you know, sixteen and twenty five something like that. Eleven
and thirty that's not just bad, that's like historically bad
on the road. And so despite the fact that you
had a full cast of characters for the Warriors, they
on the road and they lose to the Sacramento Kings.

(07:48):
And so this is this is where when you have
young players like the Kings had with a Fox or Sabonis.
I mean, how about Monk class Night with thirty two points?
Are you kidding me? And the Lakers got nothing out
of this guy year ago. Anyway, that's where you sort
of have to prove yourself in the postseason. I was
talking to a Bucky yesterday, and you don't know this

(08:10):
as well. When we talk about experience and that when
you get to the postseason, experience is a major factor
in which team will ultimately prevail. And we've seen examples
of this over the years, Like you sort of have
to pay your dues. Like if you think back to
Michael Jordan the Bulls, I mean it was seven years

(08:33):
in the playoffs before they actually broke through the Pistons,
the Celtics first and the Pistons to get into the
NBA Finals. But sometimes a young team can just sort
of click immediately. Yes, once they hit the postseason. I
know it was only one game, Sabonis had allowsy shooting night,
and still Sacramento prevails. But I mean, how much different

(08:55):
is it and how much does experience really count when
it comes to playoffs, whatever the sport may be, How
much of a factor is that.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Oh it's a huge factor. It is an enormous factor.
You want guys who understand the grind of the postseason
if you want to win a championship. And that's the
reason why a lot of general managers, and not just
in the NBA, but in all sports, NFL, major League Baseball,
they look for select veteran players to sort of be

(09:26):
those sherpas. You know, to compare this to mountain climbing,
like when you go up Everest, you don't go up
by yourself. There's Nepalese peoples who climb these mountains who
don't get as much acclaim as like the foreigners who
go over there and conquer Everest. They're up and down
that mountain all the time. They're used to the altitude.
They know where the base camps are, they know exactly
where the way points are, they know how treacherous certain

(09:49):
areas are. You have these mountain sherpas who help these
mountaineers make it to the top of Everest. Well, you
need those veteran those select veteran players in your locker
room or in your clubhouse to be your shurpas. And
there are points of diminishing returns. You know, if you
have too old of a team and you don't have

(10:11):
enough of that youthful vigor and enthusiasm. You know, guys
can get tired and fresh legs, and guys who are
early in their career and have that charisma and that
want to and that desire that matters also. But veteran experience,
you can't replicate it, you know, it's not like you're
born with it, like like being tall or jumping high,

(10:33):
and certain physical attributes that some guys have and other
guys just don't. Like, you have to earn it, and
so those guys who have been through it as many
times as many of the players on the Golden State Warriors.
That's going to aid them here in this series. Have
they never been down one in a series before? You know,
they have. They've done it many times and they've found

(10:55):
ways to win series like that. Have they never been
against a team that really want to beat them because
they were young and upstart going against a grizzled veteran squad.
They have Thompson and Curry and Green, They've been through
the wars. They know exactly what this is. Now. You
look on the other side of the docket here at
the Sacramento Kings, for example, Fox and Malik Monk. I

(11:19):
mean they went off. You know, they score thirty plus
points every night. They're gonna win this series. I don't
know if they can sustain that. This was this was
the first playoff appearance for Sacramento in seventeen years. This
is their first playoff win in that much time as well.
That place was going absolutely bonkers. But this is a

(11:40):
long series and veteran experience may really aid the Warriors here.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
Well, think about this. Two years ago, of course, Warriors
were eliminated in the play in that's not the playoffs.
The last six times that the Warriors have been in
the playoffs admitted to the NBA Final. So until pretty
good track, right, I mean that's a trend. Okay. So
the last six times the Warriors were in the playoffs, yeah,

(12:04):
they made it to the finals. So you're right, this
series is far from over coming. Up on the other side,
the first playoff game coming up today, the Lakers on
the road against the Grizzlies, and why anyone picking the
Lakers may take a pause before they lay down the
money on this series. This is Fox Sports Sunday.

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Speaker 4 (12:35):
What do you get when you combine a three time
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Writer of the Year.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
It's the Book of Joe podcast.

Speaker 4 (12:44):
Hey, this is Tom Ferducci from Fox Sports, MLB Networking
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Speaker 2 (12:49):
And I'm Joe Madden, and we're going to be around
to talk a little bit about managerial decisions, playoff games
and what may have occurred to the dugout. Maybe in
the nineteen eighties. I can't wait for this, Joe.

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Baseball, cars, wind whatever else we want to talk about.

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Listen to the Book of Joe podcast on the iHeartRadio app,
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Speaker 2 (13:12):
Steve Harbin, Rich Armberger here Fox Sports Sunday and we
are alive from the tyraq dot com studios. All right,
so Sam ate all of his quickly. Yeah, that was
the best banana bread I've ever had.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
I killed. I am so jealous right now.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah, you tell her, tell him about that little crust,
that sugar crust. There was like an elbow of it
that had this like sugary crust on it, and it
was it just topped it. Now. Bo is not a
big chocolate.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Guy, never has been, never has been.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
And with Bo's notorious for this, and there were chocolate
chips in there. Bo, did that just kill the taste
or what?

Speaker 5 (13:55):
No, it doesn't kill it. It's very good. We appreciate
it very much. It's not a not a I don't
search out chocolate when I'm looking for I'm.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Not a chocolate guy myself. I'm not a huge chocolate guy.

Speaker 5 (14:08):
It's actually a cause of contention at my home.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
Rich like chocolate, I know that well, I.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
Like everything, the unfortunate reality. I am like a walking
trash cap. Now that's okay, that's okay. You have a good,
good taste. All right, let's talk a little bit about
this game coming up here. We're about a little over
an hour and a half away tip off of the
series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Memphis Grizzlies.

(14:34):
And again Memphis, very much like Sacramento, is a bit
of an unknown quantity in the playoffs, although we have
seen Jamorant in the playoffs and he played really well. O.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yes he did, so we've already remember last year. He
was literally the most talked about guy at the beginning
of the playoffs a year ago. Everyone wanted to hear.
He couldn't get enough of Jah Morant. So, you know,
much as people ignored, apparently the idea that the Warriors
were eleven and thirty on the road this year, the
Memphis Grizzlies at home this year thirty five and six.

(15:12):
I don't know how you can ignore that, right, thirty
five and six. It's pretty good at home, and obviously
they're at home for these first two games against a
Laker team that is healthy, which is a big part
of it. I mean, we've said if you have a
healthy Lebron James and a healthy Anthony Davis, I dare

(15:35):
say that is still the best duo in this league
when they're playing their a game, right, which we've seen
from both at times this season. That being said, it's
also about matchups, and when I look at the Grizzlies
and their strengths, they don't bode well necessarily for the Lakers.

(15:59):
Let's start with Jared Jackson going against a d Jackson
is as big, he is a finalist for Defensive Player
of the Year. He's younger, he's fresher, he's a little
more sturdy. I don't think that's necessarily a good matchup
for the Lakers in the series. And then let's just

(16:19):
push Ja Moran against anybody on the Lakers, because the
Lakers have no interior defense. And one thing we've seen
about Jah Moran, I mean, he can do it from
anywhere on the court, but when he goes to the hole,
there's going to be no one there to stop him,
and he's going to take full advantage of that. So
I'm not saying, and you know I've been a lifelong
Laker fan, I'm not saying Lakers have no chance in

(16:42):
this series. But the idea that well, because you have
Lebron and AD, you're going to beat the Memphis Grizzlies,
I say, sh put the brakes on that, because look
at this Grizzlies team, what they've done at home this year,
and just how good Ja Moran and Jared Jackson are.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
No, I get it, and Lebron is in who he
was when he was with the Calves. He certainly isn't
even who he was when the Lakers won their most
recent championship with him during the pandemic. He's much older.
He's looking older in terms of his injuries. I don't

(17:20):
think when he's healthy he looks like he can't do
it anymore. I mean, the proof is in the pudding.
You watch. You watch what he's done this season. I mean,
he's turned in another unbelievable season for anybody in the NBA,
let alone a man of his age. He just hasn't
played very much this season. So you look at the
averages and they look great. You look at the durability

(17:41):
and that's a concern. But if Lebron's healthy, Lebron James,
I think at this point where there's fatigue, there's fatigue
with this greatness, Like there's a lot of people who
forget that. Just the same way you discussed genre driving
the lane. When Lebron James drives the lane, nobody can

(18:04):
stop him. Yeah, yeah, I mean so, I don't get
me wrong, I I completely agree with your assessment the
Jackson A D. I think that's a great matchup Jeah Lebron.
You're gonna have to find a way to stop Lebron though, too.
Like on the other side of that card, if we
were gonna compare this to like a heavyweight boxing match,
you've got a power puncher in the arguably the greatest

(18:29):
basketball players ever walked the earth in Lebron James, who,
if healthy, is going to be in my mind, the
X factor in this series.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Darvin Ham is a first year head coach and he
is the kind of guy when I listen to his
postgame press conferences anytime he's being interviewed, I'm impressed. Yeah,
I mean he's he's impressive. But then I watch the games,
and he's not impressive, like he makes coaching to says
or the lack of coaching decisions during the course of

(19:03):
a game. He has this habit of sort of standing
there with his hands in his pockets, standing on the
sideline when bad things are happening on the court, and
not really doing anything about it. So he's a little deceiving.
I want to believe Darvin Ham is a good coach
because when I hear him speaking, it's coach talk, which

(19:23):
I like.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
He says all the right thing.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
He says the right things in the right and I've
covered so many coaches over the years, but it's not
translating on the court. This team should be better than
it is. The should be a lot better. When I
watch that play in game against Minnesota and they're without Gobert,
I mean they're without players. This should be an absolute

(19:49):
blowout game, and they're struggling in this game, and I'm
just like, they're not making any real adjustments defensively. This
is sort of being there. You know, they're they're strength.
They still seemed to look for combinations. Well, you know
since the All Star right, they have the best rocker
in the Western Conference, I'm going eyeball test here. Okay,

(20:09):
I'm not looking at the wins and losses. Something isn't
right and the coach isn't making any better, So we'll see.
I mean, again, we talk about experience in the postseason, Well,
you have experience with Lebron and Ad obviously, but this
coach's never done a playoff game, and that play in
game was not a ringing endorsement that Darvin Ham is

(20:31):
ready for the big show. So I'm going to be
very curious because if the Lakers have a chance to
me to win this series, they have to win today.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
Yeah, but Lebron James is a king maker, you know,
in terms of head coaches. Spolstra, I don't believe he
had been to the playoffs yet without Lebron James.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
I don't think he'd have been there one year before
Lebron showed up.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
But that go ahead, Tyron Lou Yeah, I mean, what
championship has he won before Lebron and since? Yeah, you know,
I just I just think about.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
He got Frank Vogel fire, Yeah, yeah, I get it.
If they're winning a championship in the bubble.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
And by the way, and vocal like we wouldn't know
Frank Vogel's name if it weren't for Lebron James.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
So my point being, we still don't know Frank Vogels.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
We're yeah, we're actually I think I saw him on
the side of milk carton. Yeah. My point being, like
I want to be there right with you, because normally
in most sports, I would say coaching matter is a
great deal in the postseason. The NBA is a very
odd outlier. You know, major League Baseball. You could talk

(21:39):
about the analytics departments, the the quants and the number
crunchers upstairs along with the manager making the decisions dur
in game, and those can have profound impacts. I mean,
we don't even need to talk about NFL College football, obviously,
coaching matters a great deal college basketball. Coaching is every

(22:00):
thing in college basketball. In the NBA, boy, it really
doesn't matter that much. It really doesn't. I mean, outside
of say Steve Kerr, who is fortunate enough to have
the star player on his roster, really give him the
power to be a decision maker, because let's be honest,
Steph Curry, if he wanted to, he could run that team.

(22:23):
He doesn't want to. He likes having Steve Kerr. He
wants Steve Kerr to make the decisions, and that's the
reason why he has become who he is in the NBA.
I'm not saying he doesn't have talent, and I'm not
saying I'm actually not saying Darvin Ham or Frank volg
or a Tyron lou or Eric Spolstra, I'm not saying
that they don't have talent, But I'm saying, when you're

(22:44):
working with Lebron James, it's best if you just stay
out of the way. It's best if you just keep
your hands in your pockets. It's best if you let
the king do his work, because if you are the
guy who starts getting in his way, start having too
many opinions, start expressing too many of those opinions to
the front office or to the media, you're gonna find
yourself looking for a job. So Darvin Ham is doing

(23:05):
what what Lebron coaches do. He's letting Lebron run the team,
and he is answering questions in a very pragmatic, very
coach speak, to use the term you used earlier way,
and that's probably best for his career. To be honest,
all right.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Let's find out what it is trending right now. By
the way, on the other side, the rich prediction that
I just was blown away by that, I really think
is good. But Moncey is here.

Speaker 6 (23:32):
Hi man, Hi guys, happy kay?

Speaker 2 (23:34):
All right, So Moncey came in with her ice coffee.

Speaker 6 (23:39):
I had actually a shaken espresso today.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
Did you really was that's what Denise drinks, the brown
sugar shaken.

Speaker 7 (23:47):
Yeah, exactly, the toasted vanilla vanilla.

Speaker 6 (23:51):
Yes, that's the one I went with. I usually you're right,
do just to playing black ice coffee.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
Yeah, this is the order we usually get for her.
It's the Grande Ice Brown Shake Express, so with the
one pomp of brown sugar and light ice.

Speaker 6 (24:03):
Yeah nice, that's nice.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
So you haven't engaged yet in the I did, no, no, no.

Speaker 7 (24:07):
I went to get a four because you know, I'm
wearing lipstick, so I wanted to be coffee.

Speaker 6 (24:11):
So I just tried it. It is really good.

Speaker 7 (24:13):
Sam was right, that like layer of like I don't know,
like is it brown sugar that's like crusted at the end.
Super good. Super And yeah, right when I put my
fork in it, I could tell it was gonna be good.
You know, like you could tell right when I put
the fork in it.

Speaker 6 (24:30):
I was like, oh no, no, no, so delicious.

Speaker 7 (24:32):
It's so good and it's perfect to have with coffee,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
That's why I saw it. When you said the coffee,
It's like you have the perfect comedy.

Speaker 6 (24:39):
Perfect combo. It's so good. So thank you, Denise. Yeah,
because I can't.

Speaker 7 (24:43):
My baking skills are by the cookie dough already made
and put it in the oven and.

Speaker 6 (24:50):
Hope for the best.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
Really a plus, I can exactly.

Speaker 6 (24:54):
No, Yeah, yeah, for sure, I think you know.

Speaker 7 (24:58):
Dear and Fox's performance last night for the Sacramento Kings
was pretty a plus if you ask me. They took
down the Warriors final game of Saturday's NBA Playoffs, one
twenty six to one twenty three. The Warriors had two
chances to get a three in and it didn't work out.
Sacramento came out on top.

Speaker 6 (25:17):
This is what Steve.

Speaker 7 (25:18):
Kerr had to say after the game, head coach of
the Warriors.

Speaker 5 (25:21):
The issue was the offensive boards.

Speaker 8 (25:23):
He had seventeen of them, a lot of them in
the second half when we had built that ten point lead,
and that allowed their shooters to get open you know,
late third they made their run they had I think
they got several buckets off of offensive boards and that
really hurt our momentum.

Speaker 6 (25:42):
I mean, it's true, but it was a close game
the whole way. The whole way was a very close.

Speaker 7 (25:47):
Exciting game. Although yes, seventeen offensive boards is no bueno.
Another thing that's super funny. I don't know if you
guys have seen this.

Speaker 6 (25:54):
JR.

Speaker 7 (25:54):
Smith was recently on The Old Man in the Sea
with JJ Reddick, his podcast, and he was taught about
guarding Steph Curry and he brought up that in twenty
fifteen Matthew Della Dova. He was like, I love Deli,
I really do, but Deli almost died trying to guard
Steph Curry.

Speaker 6 (26:12):
This is what Daron Fox said last night.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
Did y'all see that clip with j R. Smith, you know,
talking about Deli. Did y'all see that clip? Real? It's real?
I mean, obviously, you know I didn't guard Steph the
entire game, but like most of the first quarter, most
of the fourth quarter, I guarded him.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Uh yeah, that's that clip is real.

Speaker 7 (26:33):
Because you're just running around, you're just chasing Curry. Is
he doesn't stop moving. Curry, if you watch him, does
not stop moving on the court. He just keeps going.
The playoff action today starts at three pm Eastern time.

Speaker 6 (26:46):
You guys were just talking about it. Memphis is gonna
host the Lakers. Three pm is when it all starts.

Speaker 7 (26:51):
A little baseball news, Yankees have placed gion Carlos Stanton,
who had a good start to the season. He was
hitting well ten day Angelius with the strain hamstring that
he suffered yesterday against Twins. And an NFL news, the
Dolphins've signed wide receiver Chosen Anderson to.

Speaker 6 (27:04):
A one year contract. Chosen and chosen, chosen, yeh chosen.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
The artist formerly known as Robbie exactly.

Speaker 6 (27:12):
Thank you me chosen one, the chosen one.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Yeah, very very good.

Speaker 6 (27:17):
Thanks to you guys.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
All right, Monsie, thank you very much. Once again. We
were brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling
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protection one place. Bundle and say at Progressive dot com.
So yesterday morning, I was on my way to the

(27:38):
gym and I'm listening to you, okay, and it was
right at the end of the show, and you're making
some bets, best bets for the NBA playoffs.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
That's right, that's right.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
And you had a long shot bet that just resonated
with me, and he said, put some money down on this.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
I really like this bet a lot.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
And this bet is that the Phoenix Suns will sweep
the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the playoffs.
What were the odds on that was like plus thirty
eight hundred.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
Or yeah, I want to say it was plus three
eighty and then that's me eighty. Right, I like the
Suns to win it all, which is plus five sixty
something like that. Last I looked at the futures odd
for the NBA Championships.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
All right, So let's take a look at this series
because again there's so many X factors. Both of these
teams are loaded with talent, loaded with talent, but we
have a lot of unknowns. But let's start with Phoenix
and Kevin Durant. So Kevin Durant, since being acquired by
the Suns, has played only eight games. The Suns have

(28:56):
won all eight of those games. And not only is
the averaging twenty six points a game and fifty seven
percent from the field. His three point shooting as a
Phoenix Sun is fifty three percent. Now, he concedes the
fact that chemistry is a big part of it, and
he hasn't played a lot obviously with Chris Paul and

(29:17):
Devin Booker and DeAndre Aid and they haven't been together
very much. But he says, we'll figure it out. And
I got to believe that because one thing about Kevin Durant,
we have seen over the course of his career, as
great as he's been, one of the all time greats,
he can take at a next level in the postseason.

(29:39):
And I believe that the motivation is there. I think
that sometimes again you go through all the motions and
Durant says, yeah, you know, I've played a lot of games.
Maybe I needed to rest up for the playoffs. I
think we're going to see Aggie way off the charts
Kevin Durant in this postseason. So I agree with you say.

(29:59):
And then on the other side, just quickly on the Clippers,
we don't know about Paul George. In fact, it was
reported that Paul George, who we know, won't be playing
today at least with the knee that he apparently was
out there. He won't be on the court till he's
one hundred percent. Well, who's on hundred percent?

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Not a good sign.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
That's not a good when you say, well until what
you mean at ninety five percent, you're not going to
be on the court because without Paul George going against
this son's lineup, the Clippers have no chance. Kawhi doesn't
even matter, and they got it. Look, I like Zubot's
Norman Powell. I mean, we don't know what's going to
go on with Russell Westbrook, but to him, they have players,

(30:38):
but it's not gonna be enough. So I love your
prediction of a Phoenix Suns sweep of this first round
series against the Clippers.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, look, I uh, I just don't. I don't love
how the Clippers are constructed. It just doesn't. It made
sense to me when they put these pieces together. Don't
get me wrong, kawhim George, I was like, whoa, look
out the Western Conference. It felt like a gravitational shift.
But after watching years of this, and I know Kawhi

(31:11):
had the knee injury, and I know that they haven't
played a ton of basketball together, and sure we could
say the same thing about Katie and Booker on the
other side of this matchup. But I when I look
at this Clippers team, there's just something off chemistry, gameplay.
I don't know if Pig and Kawhi's games really match
up quite as well as Kevin Durance and Devin Bookers

(31:34):
when and frankly, this is more of a credit to
Durant than it is to Booker. Think about Kevin Durant,
everything everybody said before he joined the Warriors, how are
they going to make room for KD? How are they
going to have two guys or three guys if you
count Klay Thompson, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant share one
basketball How is this ever gonna work out? Well? KD

(31:56):
was willing to take a back seat sometimes if there
were hotter hands, if the Splash Brothers were going off,
he he would disappear, and he was fine with it.
He didn't care about the box score. He cared about
winning championships. That's why he left the Thunder in the
first place. That's why he sacrificed all of the social

(32:17):
media backlash and the fan base backlash from Oklahoma City
in order to join a winner and then help them
to two championships. And when you talk about motivation, when
you talk about what team has turned up the heat
on the rest of the West, it's not the Clippers.
The Clippers have literally limped into this postseason and it
sort of feels like just because they are who they are,

(32:39):
they have the stars in place. What they're gonna win?
I don't buy it.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
Hold on second, here we have somebody that's ready to
walk out of the building right down.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
I know who it is, and I can't believe I
forgot about it.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
He is the ultimate Clippers fan. Maas is absolutely so
irate right now. And what is going on or in
the show.

Speaker 7 (33:01):
Rude dude, is why you are oh, no, sweep for
a sweep. Listen, I'm not saying the Clippers are gonna win,
but a sweep is what you're calling. Here we go, Rich,
I cannot with you right now. You know I enjoyed
you talking about all the meat and animals you eat. No,
I will outstand for it now. Not only are you
talking about my Clippers, now, I hope that all you

(33:23):
eat for the rest of your life is broccoli.

Speaker 6 (33:25):
Because this is just so a sweep. A sweep?

Speaker 1 (33:29):
Okay, Okay, okay, let okay. Paul George is hurt, so
you're without arguably your best player. Now, Kauai obviously is
very talented, and we know Kawhi in the postseason. Yeah
he can be magic, but you're one of your best players.
If not your best player is hurt. You have Kevin
Durant on the court. The Sons are eight and oh
when when Durant's healthy? I mean now, he's had his

(33:51):
issues with injury. He rolled his ankle in the layup line.
He had been out for a long time. But the
Sons are in my mind, Mancy, they're the hungrier team.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
I sort of feel like the Clippers. Clippers gotta be.

Speaker 7 (34:06):
You're right, there's more pressure on Kevin Durant and the
Suns because we've lost Paul George. But if Kawhi I
think is our best player, and right now he has
played back to backs, he is playing the best basketball
he's played in a hot second. If he wants to
shut Kevin Durant down, he can just focus on defense
and shut him down. Now, Devin Booker obviously can step

(34:27):
and I understand that, but we can we can do damage.
I don't I I don't think we're gonna win the series.
And that's me being realistic here. I just do not
not once did I think the Suns would sweep the Clippers.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
Wait.

Speaker 5 (34:39):
Wait, Kawhi Leonard cannot shut down Kevin Durrant.

Speaker 6 (34:42):
If he focuses just on defense.

Speaker 7 (34:44):
I can't expect Kawhi to play defense and then go
offensively as hard as he can, so that if he
just focuses on defense, then the scoring has to come
from other people.

Speaker 6 (34:54):
Can I know that.

Speaker 5 (34:55):
Kevin Durant had one leg? What was that five years ago?
And he gave Kawhi the business? He had like eleven
points in five minutes or something like that on Hi
before is a kill.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
And he gives up so much high to him MANSI,
I mean mid rage jumper. There's there's only so much
you can do if you're giving up half a foot
to another human being.

Speaker 5 (35:13):
And if Kawhi is going to go spend all his
energy on offense or are you saying that Russell Westbrook
is gonna have to I mean defense, Harry or yeah,
I'm defense. I'm sorry, Like Kawhi has to do everything.

Speaker 6 (35:24):
But Kawhi doesn't.

Speaker 7 (35:25):
If he if he can make Kevin Durant uncomfortable and
drop fifteen points, not thirty, not forty, and the other
Clippers Zubac does what he does in the center. And
you know, Nick Batoum is really streaky. But let's say
he has a good game. I just don't I don't.

Speaker 6 (35:41):
See a sweep. The Suns will probably win, but I
do not see.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
Sorry, I didn't want a mutiny here. This was the key.
Everybody's got to air it out. Short rebuttal, short rebuttal.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
Look, And this is just to defend the statement about
being the hungrier team, because you're the one who commented, like,
how are the Clippers not the hungrier team? Just think
about what's happened to the Suns recently. They made the
NBA Finals in twenty one, all right, they had the
best record in the NBA sixty four and eighteen and
twenty two, right, they get knocked out in the second round.
This team has been a burgeoning success. They I mean,

(36:15):
they went toe to toe with the champs two years
ago and they were the best team in the regular season. Again,
no rewards for being the best team in the regular
season last year, and.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Then they went all in this trade deadline.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
They said, you know, what, the hell with it.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
We're tired of being the bridesmaids.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
We need to be the ones walking back down the
altar with the grand prize, like, we have to get
the job done. So they went out and they leveraged
their future, bringing Kevin Durant, and I look again, those
things are meaningful being that close for that long. You know,
Chris Paul, you know, you throw so many other storylines.
That's meaningful stuff. Kevin Durant, this is a legacy making

(36:54):
move for him. If he doesn't win a championship with
the Suns, everybody's going to talk about his career and
lawed his career because he's one of the greatest basketball
he's ever played. But when you think about it, they're
gonna say, yeah, but his championships were bought. He needed
to go to the Warriors and ride cottails to win
his championships. If he wins this one with the Suns,

(37:16):
he's the reason why the Sons win the championships. So
this to me again, just to defend the point, the
Sons are the hungrier team here, all right.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
I thought it was a good back and forth on
that one. We haven't even started that series yet. All right,
all right, we got a lot of stars obviously in
these NBA playoffs. Who is the most Valuable Player in
the NBA? We've got the answer. This is Fox Sports Sunday.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Are you hungry?

Speaker 2 (37:50):
Steve Harman and a Rich Arnberger. This is Fox Sports Sunday.
We're live from the Tyraq dot Com studios. So the
votes are already in for MVP is voted on the
regular season. We could have an argument all day of
whether or not a chicolu the playoffs. That's why, to
me and a lot of people, NBA Playoffs, NBA Finals
MVP maybe is a much more significant award than the

(38:13):
regular season MVP. But it's been back and forth, Rich,
you know, is it going to be Embiid, It's going
to be jokicch And what people have to remember is
the most valuable player in this league, as great as
those two are, is Yiannis. You know, Jannis went back
to back MVPs, and what we have seen in this

(38:35):
MVP voting over the years, like how is it that
Lebron James has not won an MVP awards since twenty fourteen?
He won four out of five and they just thought,
ah enough same they had with Michael Jordan. I mean,
Jordan literally should have been MVP every year. You could
make the same argument with Lebron James that he was

(38:55):
the best player in the league. They wanted to give
it to Stepford years. Let's give one to Duran. How
about Westboard Harden, he needs one. He hasn't won one yet,
and we're seeing it again. If you if I had
a lineup and I could choose between Embiid, Jokic and Yannis,

(39:16):
I'm taking you. Honis that to me is the best
player in the NBA.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
He's certainly one of the most efficient basketball players we've
ever seen. It feels like there's no wasted steps, there's
no wasted moments with the honest defensively, offensively, I mean,
freak is the appropriate nickname for a player of his
caliber athletically being gifted like he is. But then just

(39:42):
from the standpoint of his ability to ball handle, his
ability to work off ball, his ability to create space
for himself and drain shots and finish at the rim,
and yeah, he just does all the things, man, and
I love watching his game and I agree with you,
I think, And this is the reason Steve and I
know we have this to the debate because it's important

(40:04):
to you, and it's important to a lot of people.
But this is the reason why NBA All Stars and
MVPs and Hall of Fames all that stuff doesn't really
matter to me because it's subjective and it's usually wrong
in my very subjective opinion.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah, by the way, people say, wow, he's not a
great three point shooter. Neither was Michael Jordan, Right, I
mean the bottomlight is he does more in the court
than any other player in this league. Hey, the draft,
the NFL Draft less than two weeks away. We're gonna
break down the latest news. This is Fox Sports Sunday.

(40:38):
Oh yes, rolling on on this beautiful Sunday. NBA playoffs
are underway, we've got Major League Baseball. We're gonna get
some conversation in on where we stand with the MLB,
and we got the NFL Draft less than two weeks way.
Once again, we are broadcasting live from the ti rag
dot com studios Tyraq dot com. We're gonna help get

(40:59):
you there and I'm Matt's Selection. Fast reshipping, free road
hats or protection. Over ten thousand recommended installers. Tire rack
dot com, The Way tire Buying should be all right.
So while the NBA playoffs are the start of they're endless.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
I mean again, we're gonna be doing this for two months.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
I have two months, and you know, one thing about
the I'm not you know, Lebron really set it after
the Lakers survived, They're playing game against Minnesota, his total
disdain for this playing and ultimately the seven and eight
seeds both got into the playoffs. So you know, just
wasted time is basically what it is, wasted energy to

(41:40):
get more people to watch.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
I guess.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
I mean everything's money related, I understand that, but I
know you're a big proponent of in terms of playoffs,
less is more. Oh yeah, and imagine if the opening
round of the NBA playoffs or like they used to
be three out of five or really go back in
the day, people, you really have to go back in history.
But in nineteen eighty eighty one, Magic Johnson's second season,

(42:07):
so the Lakers obviously won the championship his rookie year,
his famous forty two point fifteen rebound, seven assist night
when Kareem was on the bench to win the Lakers
the championship. The next year, they play the Houston Rockets
with Moses Malone in the first round, it's two out
of three, two out of three. Lakers lose the first
game at home. Wow, wake up call. They go to Houston,

(42:29):
they win, all right, order is restored, Lakers come home, lose.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
Yep, gone, yep.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
You had to imagine a first round of the playoffs.
I like baseball sort of escalates things, don't they. Right?
You know, it's like, you know, two out of three,
three out of five, four out of seven. You don't
get four out of seven in baseball until you actually
get two the league championship series. Yeah, why can't you
do the same thing in the NBA first round?

Speaker 1 (42:56):
So long?

Speaker 2 (42:57):
How about first round? Two out of three, round three
out of five? Now you got the conference championships. Fine,
four out of seven, NBA Finals four out of seven.
But imagine how on the edge of our seat we
would be, how important every game would be in these
opening rounds. If you're saying, all right, one seed versus
an eight shouldn't have a problem, right, two out of

(43:18):
three that are not stumbled. That's why I'm the Lakers
in eighty eighty one. It could happen now to me,
It would make these playoffs so much better.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
Why why are the NFL playoff ratings and viewership numbers
so high year after year after year. Do you really
think it's because all of a sudden there's a ton
more Philadelphia Eagles fans, or a ton more San Francisco
forty nine Ers fans, or Bills fans or Chiefs fans
or Bucks fans. Now, it's because there's urgency. Look, I

(43:53):
mean I get swept up in college basketball for a
month and a half every single college bat basketball season. Now, look,
I follow a team, and that team, especially being as
successful as they've been, it makes it a lot more
fun to follow college basketball. But I really start dialing
it up when the when March madness hits. Why because

(44:16):
it's single elimination. Because it's fun watching watching teams play
for their proverbial playoff lives and existence. That's fun. I
don't know any of the stars in college basketball outside
of the select handful who really are going to be
impact players potentially at the next level. I mean, just

(44:37):
like everyone else, I'm there because when something's urgent, when
you know something's going to be talked about the next day,
regardless of whether you're a sports talk radio show host
or if you're working off the back of a trash truck,
like it's going to be talked about the next day.
It's going to be all over the papers. People are
interested in urgency the NBA playoffs, and for the most part,

(44:58):
Major League Baseball's playoff has a real lacked urgency for
a long time. I love the rule changes in the MLB.
I mean that stuff has made the opening rounds of
their postseason way more interesting. The NBA needs to do
the same thing.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
By the way, you go back to your third season
in the NFL when your Patriots lose to a nine
and seven Giants team that was actually outscored that season. Yep,
if that's a two out of three, I'm betting on
the Patriots.

Speaker 1 (45:26):
Oh yeah, of course you would.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
I mean, if that had been a two out of
three and you lose that first game, you probably demolish
them in the next couple of games. Like, Okay, we
got the wake up goal.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
We were a much better team. We had some injuries,
don't get me wrong, but like back in twenty twelve,
like you know, this was among the better Patriots teams
ever fielded. It just doesn't matter though, when you're playing
one game. Guess what. Mario Manningham made an unbelievable catch,

(45:57):
Wes Welkler dropped a really important ball, Gronx ankle was hurt.
We had some you know, mix ups on the offensive line.
Things happen when you're playing one game for all the marbles.
It makes it so much more enjoyable for the fans.
And yeah, I mean to your point, these NBA playoffs,
like we're excited because they've started. And don't get me wrong,

(46:17):
there's teams that I'm really high on. I can't wait
to see the Suns tonight. I'm really excited to see
what the Grizzlies can do. I'm really excited to see
what the Bucks can do. You know, So I'm either conference.
I have teams that I'm really excited to watch. But
I again, this is such a long process that there
are times during the NBA postseason where you kind of
lose the scent where you're like, geez, where are we

(46:40):
Like what what round are we in?

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Well, I mean, this is what's gonna happen. We get
here next week, we're gonna be like, oh, these series
are still going on. So these all these series that
are starting this weekend. We're still gonna be talking about
it next week and that's the first round of four.
So we got a long way. We'll pace ourselves through
these NBA playoffs. One thing that is a little more
urgent right now is the NFL Draft. We are now

(47:04):
eleven days away from the NFL Draft. I love this
time because there's so much speculation about this guy's going here.
It's a lot of noise and for people that work
for these NFL teams and how this operates with NFL
teams at this point, so you put up your own board.

(47:27):
Every team has their own board. They've ranked every one
of these players simultaneously, they're having to figure out what
everybody else is going to do. The only team that
knows that they have one hundred percent choice of everyone
on the board right now, it is in Carolina Panthers
because they have the first overall pick. That's the only
that's the only pick in the draft where you don't

(47:48):
have to worry about anybody else, because even the Texans
that two have to worry about when Carolina is going
to do at number one. What if the you know
you're trying, are they going to take Stroud? Are they
gonna take young and if they take the guy that
we don't want, are we going to trade out of
the spot. So there's so much working behind the scenes,
not only in how you prepare your board and which

(48:09):
players you like in order, but all the other teams
how you know, because if that guy's taking off the board,
what's our plan? B CD. There's so much of this
going on behind the scenes. I love it. It's really crazy. Yeah,
but always, but always, it comes down to quarterbacks, right,
And we see it every single year in the NFL Draft,

(48:31):
where at the last second a team in need of
a quarterback panics and they make a bold move to
move up in the draft. Chicago Bears Trubisky. I mean,
we can go through so many of these instances where
teams say, yeah, we'll sit and then all of a
sudden they hit the panic button. And so if you're

(48:53):
Houston at too, and remember they also have the twelfth
pick in this draft, if you're Arizona three in the
at four, your phone is ringing off the hook of
teams trying to move up to get Anthony Richardson Will Levis.
I don't get it. These these are these these two

(49:16):
quarterbacks in particular are pure speculation quarterbacks you got, you know,
and then that's that's like who's ready now and who
do we believe like five years amow, it's really gonna
be good?

Speaker 1 (49:28):
I know, but we say this a lot about a
lot of quarterbacks. Hang on.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
It happens every year. I I I.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
Understand, I hear what you're saying, and I really, I
really do enjoy this debate that happens annually around this time,
you know, where we start talking about certain quarterbacks like, well,
we know they're gonna work at the next level, so
let's look at the tier down whoa whoa, whoa whoa
not so fast? How many people said that Sam Darnold

(49:57):
was going to be winning championships a lot? You know,
how many people really like Josh Rosen coming out of UCLA.
You know, I'm just saying, it's very easy for people
to start overlooking the fact that the NFL is a
very different beast in college football. And sometimes it's the
guy who you least expect who's going to have the

(50:18):
most success. And sometimes it's because he got drafted into
a better environment. You know, he got to develop more
slowly around better players, around better coaching. I mean, whoever
goes to Carolina. Don't get me wrong, I have a
lot of respect for Frank Reich, but they're going to
one of the worst football teams in football last year.

(50:39):
Whoever goes to the Houston Texans is going to be
joining forces with a guy who's never done it at
head coach before. And the reason is because the Houston
Texans were dreadful last season. So as much as we
want to say and a lot of it's true about
c J. Stroud or Bryce Young, you know, the is

(51:00):
it's such a double edged sword being drafted number one
or number two overall, because you are inheriting a mess.
You're going someplace that needs you desperately to be the
reason why they're not a mess anymore. And that's really
difficult to do when you're one player, first of all,

(51:22):
on a football team, which we know is the ultimate
team sport. And second of all, it's really difficult when
you're a rookie and you're learning this all for the
first time. You're going through this all for the first
time and again sometimes with brand new head coaches, Sometimes
with brand new head coaches in new environments. In the
case of Frank Reich, he's not a brand new head coach,
but he's brand new to the Carolina Panthers. He doesn't

(51:43):
know that roster yet, not as well as he did
the Colts or the Philadelphia Eagles before that. So there's
a lot of learning that's going on in these organizations.
And then you're gonna insert one of these two players
and just assume they're NFL ready. I got news for you.
One of these two guys, per the statistic, is going
to suck. That's the reality of the situation. It's like
a forty forty five percent hit rate in the first

(52:07):
round with quarterbacks. It's the reality of the sport. And
it's not their fault. They're great college players, but c J. Stroud,
Bryce Young, if they go one and two, one of
them's gonna stink. I mean, that's just per the odds.
I don't know which one. Nobody knows. And by the way,
go further down the list to Will leviv Will Levis

(52:28):
or Anthony Richardson. When you start talking about those guys,
one of those two guys most likely is gonna be good.
If we're just comparing the two, one of those two
guys is going to be a franchise player. We just
I mean again, we're just talking about probability and statistics.
We're talking about analyzing drafts for you know, decades at
a time. That's how this all works. So I get it.

(52:50):
It seems all very bizarre on draft day, the decision
some of these teams make. But you also got to remember,
just because you're choosing, you know, whatever it is last
year's draft, who was the first overall pick. I'm blanking,
But just because you're picking first in the draft doesn't
mean that you're getting a franchise transforming player.

Speaker 2 (53:12):
And just because you're picking last week two years ago,
he had Trevor Lawrence one, well, this was the he
had quarterbacks won two three, Trevor Lawrence, who looks like
he will be good as advertised, followed by Zach Wilson
and Trey Lance. I mean, Zach Wilson is already out
and Trey Lance has been replaced by the last pick

(53:32):
in the draft from a year ago.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
And that's that's a perfect example. That's a perfect example
of how Brock Purdy was an afterthought.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
That was two years ago. How about three years ago?
Remember the Green Bay Packers moved up in this draft
So this was the draft again as far as quarterbacks
were concerned, where he had Joe Burrow going number one overall,
lived up to the hype. Fifth overall pick Tua and
you know he looks better after last season. Herbert was
the very next pick, and then later in the first round,

(54:02):
the Packers move up to get Jordan Love. Yep, guess
who was taken twenty seven picks later in the second round,
Jalen Hurts. Exactly. You could have had Jalen Hurts, but
you moved up to get Jordan Love.

Speaker 1 (54:14):
But who knows.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
Maybe Jordan Love is going to be as good as advertised.
We haven't really seen him play yet. He's going to
finally get his opportunity with the Packers, all right. On
the other side, I want to get to one team
in particular when it comes to a quarterback situation and
do they have it right? They think they do, but
maybe there could be yet another twist. Which team is it?

(54:37):
We'll tell you. This is Fox Sports Sunday, Steve Harbin
and Rich Arnberger on a beautiful Sunday. Once again, this
is Fox Sports Sunday. We're alive from the Tirak dot
Com studio. So last week you had Easter celebration, rich
Zach correct hanging out with the family.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
And then the sunday before that, you were off.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
Yeah. The sunday before that, I was a late ad
to a theme park visit. And let me tell you something,
there's nothing better than going to theme park with a
four year old who refuses to be in a stroller. Yeah,
because that means dad's carrying him at some point for
a long time.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
Now, you don't want to carry them, although you have
to be careful. So I had a situation once when
my boys were let's see four and a half and three, yeah,
and my daughter was literally one month old.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
Uh huh.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
Our buddy, Ralph Ervin had his wedding at Disneyland.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Oh there you go.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
Yeah, And so we went to this wedding with a
one month old and the four year old. And so
obviously mom is full time with a one month old
leaving dad, you know, with the four and a half
year old and the three year old that's in a
ridiculously crowded Disneyland. And I had that one panic moment

(56:03):
oh yeah, yeah, where the boys got separated slightly, and
so as I'm reaching for one, I turn and for
a split second, the other one's missing.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
Panic worst.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
Unfortunately, I've quickly found out where he was and I'm like,
don't you ever leave my side again? The pressure was, amit?
So I understand that. Well, I'm glad you're back here.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
Because one team, it's a really interesting team going into
this NFL draft. The San Francisco forty nine Ers do
not have a first or second round pick. No they don't,
but they have three compensatory picks that they picked up
because a couple of teams hired people from their front

(56:53):
office and you get a compensatory pick for that. Also,
minority hirings, you got an extra pick when they hired
you know a certain you know there's ways to pick
up extra picks. So this is a team that I
look at the forty nine ers, and if you save quarterback,
I dare say there isn't a better roster in the NFL.

(57:16):
There might be some equally as good, but I'm talking
about impact guys on both sides of the ball. The
forty nine er roster, save quarterback, is as good as
any roster in the league. That being said, the quarterback
position to me is still a huge question mark. You've
got Trey Lance, who you you know, trade it up

(57:36):
to get at third overall a couple of years ago,
just two years ago, and it seems like he's been
beaten out by a guy Brock Purdy who doesn't do
anything really wrong. But I don't still know if he's
the right guy. And then they made a really interesting
addition in Sam Darnold. I say that because you say, well,

(57:57):
why why would the forty nine ers pick up Sam Darnold?
Very simple because a few years ago, back in that
twenty nineteen draft, when the argument was is that Baker
Mayfield is gonna be Sam Donald, who's the best quarterback
in this draft? Obviously John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan thought
that Sam Donald was the guy. So you know, you
never forget that. I've seen this many times, teams that

(58:20):
fall in love with guy one year and it's only
four years ago. It's not like ten years ago. It's
only four years ago. They're like, the problem with Sam
Donald was he's been in the wrong place at the
wrong time. Let's let's see what we got here. Maybe
there's nothing, but maybe we've got something here. This is
still wide open. I mean wide open in my opinion,

(58:41):
by the end of this twenty twenty three season, I'm
not quite sure who the quarterback of this team is
going to be. And there are options. You can still
try to convince Tom Brady to come out of retirement.
You could have been in the bidding maybe for Aaron Rodgers,
although doubtful the Packers would do any deal. Obvious see
with the forty nine ers, and there is a Lamar

(59:02):
Jackson that's floating out there right for the taking, although
they don't have any one picks this year. But I
just find it interesting that the forty nine Ers, a
team that seemingly has everything else, is good at quarterback.
Is that just because they really believe in these quarterbacks?
Or is it because Kyle Shanahan has the mindset that
I can pretty much put any quarterback into my system

(59:24):
he'll be successful.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
Well, I think what forty nine Er fans are people
who care how deep they go into this year's postseason
need to focus on is what this signing of Sam
Donald says about Trey Lance. Look, if Trey Lance was
who the forty nine Ers thought he should be, they
would have never signed Sam Donald. They just wouldn't have

(59:50):
like Trey Lance obviously is not working. This is my assessment.
I'm not basing this on anything other than just reading
the tea leaves, just based on what we've seen with
with Sam Donald signing. I mean, think about it, Trey
Lance got hurt early in the season. I mean, his
ankle's fine, unless unless we're not getting reports on how

(01:00:12):
bad his ankle is. Like maybe maybe that's the reason why.
And I'm gonna leave it there. There's plausible there's a
plausible situation where Sam Donald's or excuse me, where Trey
Lance's ankle still is in all the way healed and
it was almost an insurance signing bringing in Sam Donald. Okay,
there's a possibility where that's the case. But most likely

(01:00:34):
what's happened here is they have some belief and they
have some trust because you have a a half season
with Brock Purdy and you watched him in the postseason.
He didn't look amazing, but he looked sturdy. He looked
like he could handle it. And I'm sure there's some
belief in Brock Purdy at this point. What I'm positive of,

(01:00:54):
if Trey lance is healthy, they do not have any
belief in Trey Lance. That Sam Donald signing means so yeah,
I mean they are unsettled at quarterback because the person
who they would most want to be their starting quarterback
is injured with an elbow and the person who they
drafted traded up to draft in the top of the
first round to be their quarterback of the future in

(01:01:18):
their view, can't play the position at this level. Otherwise
you would never sign Sam Darnald. The reason why Sam
Donald's there is just in case Brock Purdy can't go
at first. Trey Lance is a problem for the forty
nine ers. Trey Lance. Every single day. John Lynch shows
up at his office every single day, Kyle Shannan shows
up at his office and they start talking about the

(01:01:39):
roster and they get to Trey both of them, I
guarantee it, they have a sinking feeling in their stomach
and they think, wow, yeah, we missed on that one,
and then they move on to the next guy on
the roster because they did. Because if Trey Lance was
the guy, we wouldn't be having a discussion about Brock
Purdy right now. Brock Purdy would be a placeholder for

(01:02:00):
Treya Wance. If Trey Lance was the guy, we wouldn't
even be having a conversation about Sam Donald because Trey
Lance would be the guy. He's not the guy. So
unfortunately for the forty nine Ers, they're gonna need to
find a way to have Brock Purdy if healthy, or
Sam Darnald to start the season. Before Brock Purdy is healthy,
they're gonna have to find a way to get him

(01:02:20):
involved in the offense. So Trey Lance, I promise you,
this is how the season is gonna go. You can
mark my words. They're gonna have packages where Trey Lance
comes onto the field. They're gonna have packages where Trey
Lance is down at the goal line or on short yardage,
and they're gonna show off Trey Lance, although he's not
gonna get a lot of playing time because you don't
want to expose Trey Lance, and they're gonna try to
trade him for the maximum value they could get back

(01:02:42):
fro him because they need to move on from Trey Lance.
He's not working in the forty nine ers system. You
don't sign Sam Darnald if he was, because otherwise you'd
be all set at quarterback. Right now, We've got Trey
Lance coming off the ankle, but he's gonna be fine
in time for the end of OTAs, and he's gonna
be our starting quarterback until Brock comes back, and then
maybe we have a quarterback competition unless Trey Lance is

(01:03:02):
playing well enough to be our starting quarterback. That's that's
the reason why they signed Sam Darnold. It has nothing
to do with Brock Party. It has everything to do
with Trey Wanz.

Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
I'll tell you one thing he has to do with
Brock Party. He makes eight hundred and seventy thousand dollars
a show that helps eight hundred and seventy thousand. And
by the way, that's non negotiable, so agreement between the
players union and the league. He will make eight seventy's.
There's no there's nothing he can do about it. There's
nothing the team will do about it, even if they
wanted to pay him more money. So, when you're starting quarterback,

(01:03:34):
assuming Party will be healthy, is making eight hundred and
seventy thousand dollars when you have other quarterbacks in this
league making more than forty million dollars, Boy, that gives
you a little flexibility to address some other needs on
your team. All right, let's find out what is trending
right now, and Moncey don't is Moncey's still here? I

(01:03:55):
mean after the I came back change, I came back.
She by the way, Rich, as soon as we finished
that segment, I mean, she came storming into the student.
Oh the thing she said about you. I was trying
to distance myself, like you know, I was just no,
I was just throwing it out there when we were talking.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
I mean, I'm one hundred and twenty miles away from
Monty right now. I felt the heat. I mean I
had I had to take the headphones off out of
point because that was like.

Speaker 6 (01:04:23):
Oh yeah, yeah, No. I was not happy with what
you said, which is why I stopped listening to you.
So I don't know what you've said. Ever since then,
I only listen to Steve.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
Now.

Speaker 8 (01:04:32):
That's it.

Speaker 6 (01:04:32):
I don't know anything you've said. I can't I can't
take you seriously anymore.

Speaker 7 (01:04:37):
Anyway, guys, the NBA Action were about thirty minutes away
from the playoffs continuing.

Speaker 6 (01:04:43):
It all starts with.

Speaker 7 (01:04:43):
The Lakers and the Grizzlies at three pm Eastern Time,
followed by the heat in the Bucks.

Speaker 6 (01:04:48):
But there are four games in total.

Speaker 7 (01:04:49):
Today, one of which Rich things my Clippers are gonna
get swept by the Suns. But when I gonna talk
about that, that is at eight pm Eastern time. Let's
talk about baseball because we've got a lot going on.

Speaker 9 (01:05:00):
Oh.

Speaker 7 (01:05:00):
I just read that the Dodgers have placed catcher Will
Smith on the seven day concussion list, and there is
no report as to where he suffered when he suffered,
but he is on the seven day concussion list. Catcher
Will Smith for the Dodgers. The Yankees have placed young
Carlos Stand on the ten day injured list with a
strange hamstring that he suffered yesterday against the Twins. Right now,
the Yankees are beating the Twins one zero. They're about

(01:05:22):
to start the bottom of the fourth inning. The Guardians
have taken the lead over the Nationals for three. Bottom
of the fourth inning as well, and the Red Sox
have taken the lead over the Angels. Former Dodger Justin
Turner hit a home run and the Red Sox are
up two to one top.

Speaker 6 (01:05:35):
Of the fifth inning.

Speaker 7 (01:05:36):
The Rays, who we thought maybe we're gonna break the
record to fourteen start fourteen wins.

Speaker 6 (01:05:42):
To start the season.

Speaker 7 (01:05:43):
They lost the last two games, but right now they
are beating the Blue Jays three to one. Bottom of
the third inning. Phillies up on the Reds two zero.
Top of the first Diamondbacks up on the Marlins one zero.

Speaker 6 (01:05:53):
They're about to start the fifth.

Speaker 7 (01:05:54):
Inning, and the Pirates and the Cardinals are tied at
one apiece.

Speaker 6 (01:05:58):
Top of the second inn. Mean back to you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
Night mon see, thank you very much. I was thinking
about something here, Rich, if you have a sun who
has wait.

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
Wait wait, are we talking like the Phoenix Suns who
are going to sweep togother?

Speaker 9 (01:06:17):
You?

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
He was, so I say I set him up for
that as well. By the way, it'll be interesting where
we are in that series a week from today. Yes, yes, now,
if Rich's prediction is right, I think they would be.
In fact, I'd have to check the schedule of that series.

Speaker 6 (01:06:38):
Let's see, Game four would be on Thursday.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
Game four would be on Thursday, so we could be
sitting here really wait a second.

Speaker 7 (01:06:45):
Yeah, Thursday, for sure, play Thursday, because I'm planning to
go to Disneyland.

Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
And I was like, oh man, they can't be Game
four already, No, it can it can't be. No, it might.

Speaker 6 (01:06:55):
Be game one, but for sure they played Thursday.

Speaker 7 (01:06:56):
Because I looked into it looked possibly going on here.

Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
Here's let's see the schedule. Here we go. So the
Clippers Sun series we got today Tuesday, Thursday's game.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
Three, Saturday would be game four.

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
So if Rich is right, we will be sitting here
and that series will be over right today. Now if
that is, I don't know, you may you might you
know Rich, you know took off a couple of Sundays.
We may not see you next Sunday. If the Clippers
go out and force.

Speaker 6 (01:07:23):
If Rich is here, I'll be here.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
Oh you'll be there? Okay, all right, right boy, So
that's that's where will be a week from now.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
Will either be like I told you so or are.

Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
Or how about how about if the Clippers where to
sweep the Suns.

Speaker 7 (01:07:39):
Well, I mean, let's not get crazy, let's.

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
Shuts down ad and yeah, all right, how about this
if if the Clippers, if the Clippers sweep the Suns, uh,
MONTI has to to cook me a steak.

Speaker 7 (01:07:58):
If the Clippers sweep this, sons, I have to cook
you a steak.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
Wait, no, no, I have to cook you a broccoli.

Speaker 6 (01:08:05):
No, I want an eggplant, egg.

Speaker 2 (01:08:08):
Plant, okay, eggs all right, I'm making my I would
you use your flamethrower on eggplant?

Speaker 1 (01:08:16):
Yeah? Oh I could do that. Yeah, I got no
problem with that. I'll bring the flame throw up to
the parking lot. We'll have ourself aparty. And then if Mansey,
if the if the sun sweep the Clippers, then you
have to flamethrow a steak for me. I'll show you
how to use it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
Fine, all right, so steak versus egg plant sweep only
on either side.

Speaker 7 (01:08:38):
You know, even though I never said the Clippers were
gonna sweep a fine?

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
Yeah, done deal, Hi, mind seeing you can't wait for that?

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
All right?

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
So there we go. Well know, bye, next Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:08:49):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:08:49):
I was thinking about this for a second. If you
have a son is an.

Speaker 1 (01:08:52):
S O N son, got it?

Speaker 2 (01:08:54):
Got it, and they have some kind of athletic aptitude,
And as a parent, you're like, all right, what sports
should I direct my son towards? Football? Baseball, basketball? I say,
none of the above. It's got to be golf. I
was looking at golf. I don't know if you saw this.

(01:09:16):
So in answer to the Live Golf Tour, the PGA
Tours Top Players led by the Way by Rory McElroy
had this deal now where the top golfers have to
play in so many events during the course of the year,
meaning not just the majors, but other events, can get
all the top names together and this week get the Heritage,

(01:09:38):
which is going on right now. You got all the
top names there. I mean John Ram's there after winning
the Master of the whole thing. McElroy was not there.
He got fined three million dollars. How many times does
the sports do you hear about a player getting fined
three million dollars for not showing up an event. The
reason he was fined three million is that he was

(01:10:00):
the guy behind the agreement that said you had to
play in certain events. He had already missed one. You
were only allowed to miss one. He misses the second.
We still don't know why. Maybe he still bummed out
about his dreadful Master's performance, but he could swallow three
million dollars, yeah, quite easily. So I was looking at
this rich about the Live Tour, and this is the

(01:10:21):
money that was earned last year. The first year Lived Tour,
they only had eight tournaments. Eight tournaments and none of
them over fifty four holes. Right, that's the whole idea
of Live l IV fifty four Uh huh. Dustin Johnson
on the first year of the Live Tour made this
is salard, this is individual, team and bonus thirty five

(01:10:44):
point six million dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
Not a bad haul.

Speaker 2 (01:10:47):
Brandon Grace, could you pick him out of a lineup?

Speaker 1 (01:10:51):
Have no idea who that man is?

Speaker 2 (01:10:52):
Sixteen point six million.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
That's decent.

Speaker 2 (01:10:59):
And then I was looking at like this local kid
in La named Matthew Woolf. He went to high school
with my kids. He decided to a young player, right,
he decided, Hey, I'm gonna jump on that lane. He
played it four point two million. The amount of money
these golfers are making is so mind blowing with little

(01:11:19):
wear and tear in the body. And by the way,
you can continue to play this sport because you get
the revival when you're fifty on that senior turn to
make more millions. I just don't understand why, if you
have the ability to play this game, why you would
want to have any other living What could possibly be

(01:11:40):
better in terms of making a living than golf? Because
the difference now is you say, wow, ye had to
earn your money. If you don't make the cut. I
understand that, but if you can get on this live tour,
oh my, I mean it's unbelievable how much money these
guys are making.

Speaker 1 (01:11:56):
I will say this, I mean you, yeah, you have
to you have to admit that the Live Tour for
all the negativity it received in the before it's launched,
you know, in the sort of preamble to its launch, uh,
and then all the negativity it received when it launched,

(01:12:17):
and all the negativity that these golfers who have jumped
ship on the PGA to join the Live Tour had
had garnered when it launched. Really, what we're down to
is the only golfer who's still sort of carrying the
banner as the villain of all this is Phil Mickelson.
Phil Mickelson, Really, I mean, nobody talks about Brooks Kopka anymore.

(01:12:40):
I mean they do, but not in nearly the negative
light that they were when he left the PGA for
the the Live Golf Tour in the first place. Same
thing with d Chambeau, Same thing same thing with uh,
what's the other big name that I'm blanking on right now?
Another young golfer, But Phil Mickelson. I think it's both

(01:13:02):
based off of his comments in the you know, the
the the biography that was written about him, and then
kind of the way that he's handled some of the
pr since has really led to him being the villain,
the face of all this, and so it's continued to
follow him to a certain extent, but it's not a
much lower roar. So I guess what I'm trying to

(01:13:24):
say is you've had a lot of these golfers who
have sort of weathered the storm, and on the other
side of it, you know what, they are rich. They
are wealthy beyond their wildest dreams, and they were before
they joined livetour, but now they've made even more generationally
enhancing wealth. And so I look, I get it. There's

(01:13:46):
a lot of people are upset the way the Live
golf tour is funded, and I completely understand why those
concerns would be so valid. But the reality of is
it's not going away, at least not for now. And
sports we do this all the time. Like there are
a lot of soccer fans right there are a lot

(01:14:07):
of soccer fans across the entire world. There's a lot
of soccer fans in the United States. There's a lot
of really shady, corrupt things that happen in the world
of soccer. Right there's a lot of these pros who
are funded by really bad people, and that still remains
one of the most popular sports on the planet. I
guess what I'm trying to say is like there really is.

(01:14:30):
There is no reason in my mind why the Live
Tour won't work as long as it stays funded and
continues to push the PGA to make either good or
bad decisions. I think this is an example of a
bad decision. I think the idea of them paying their
players more in prize perses for the tournaments that they
participate in already, that's probably a good decision. That's something

(01:14:51):
that's going to encourage more golfers to want to play
for the PGA Tour. But if you're going to choose
between the coward and the stick right now, and you know,
oh what the stick is, it's a three million dollar
fine to go on the PGA Tour if you miss
one of these events that you're supposed to play in,
like Rory just got, Man, that's a pretty steep penalty. Steve,

(01:15:11):
I don't think that's the right move for the PGA
right now.

Speaker 2 (01:15:14):
Well, it's something he agreed upon though, that he was
one of the leaders in putting this whole thing in place,
more of the top golfers and more tournaments. By the way,
interesting at the Masters that two guys that were considered done,
Phil Mickelson and Brooks Kopka finished live golfers tied for second.
Amazing how that all happened?

Speaker 1 (01:15:34):
All right?

Speaker 2 (01:15:34):
Coming up on the other side, Major League Baseball off
and running, and some major changes have happened this season.
So what's the update. We'll tell you. This is Fox
Sports Sunday, Steve Harvin, rich Ornberger, Fox Sports Sunday or
Alive from the tire rag dot Com studios. I was
just talking to Iowa Sam Rich. Yeah, and brought this

(01:15:56):
up to Bow as well, one of our favorite eat
places in San Diego Loopes.

Speaker 1 (01:16:03):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2 (01:16:04):
Yeah, yeah, I was sharing the idea of a burrito
from this place. Like you know how it is with
a burrito, like that first bite is all tortilla. Oh,
I know, and usually the last bite's like all look,
unless you go to this place, that first bite is
fully loaded. And by the way, it's the only place
I've ever seen Rich eat where he actually gets the

(01:16:26):
extra bite in before he's actually swallowed the previous bite.
I've never the double like the double bite. Yeah, you bite,
you're chewing, and before he actually swallowed the first bite,
you're already bitten in a second time. Oh yeah, And
yet they've never been there. So I'm like, well, if
you go down to San Diego, you should go down
there once, because once you go down there.

Speaker 1 (01:16:49):
Yeah, I double up on the bite because I think
I don't want any gap in the enjoyment, you know,
Like you know how sometimes like you take a bite
and you're like, oh my god, that's delicious, and then
as it's kind of making its way back to the esophagus,
you're like, now I'm sad because the flavor is no
longer in my mouth. Well you know what incoming, here's

(01:17:11):
the next one for you. So yeah, it's uh.

Speaker 2 (01:17:14):
I've eaten many metals. Are Rich a lot of great place.
I've never seen the double bike quite like that chewing
your food.

Speaker 1 (01:17:20):
Rich.

Speaker 2 (01:17:20):
You know, he was chewing, but he untill he actually
swallowed the bite. He already had bitten in his Where
are you gonna choke?

Speaker 5 (01:17:27):
I would love to do a segment with Rich where
we like talked about the places that I've eaten in
San Diego to see what he thinks of them, because oh.

Speaker 2 (01:17:34):
Yeah, yeah, he's been down. How long you've been living
in San Diego? Ten years? Yeah, came to the Chargers
in twenty thirteen, that's right, so ten years actually ten years.

Speaker 1 (01:17:44):
This spring, by the way, is the ten year anniversary,
because we moved in during OTAs well.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
We when we were doing our show together, we were
sampling places. We were getting recommendations, you got to go
to this place, gotta go this place. So yeah, bo,
I mean we we pretty much which have covered the
gamut when it comes to San Diego eateries, but you
feel like you know them all.

Speaker 5 (01:18:05):
Well, no, it's just you know, there are places that
I've been, like I've I've been to hodads of that
Burger spoat that everybody likes, Yeah, nomenal, and I've heard
different opinions on that. So I'm always curious to hear
what local people actually think about.

Speaker 2 (01:18:16):
Foot Rich as a rundown. Is there Rich? Seriously, is
there a single eatery that you've heard about that you
not engage with yet in San Diego?

Speaker 1 (01:18:27):
I don't think so. I think I've been to every
single one of them.

Speaker 2 (01:18:33):
Every one of them.

Speaker 5 (01:18:34):
Yeah, restaurants that haven't even opened yet, right.

Speaker 1 (01:18:37):
Actually, I've made it a point to wait outside of
restaurants on opening day, like I treat it like it's
opening day in Major League Baseball. For me, it would
be like, oh my god, gods, there's a new speakeasy
and they serve lobster fondue, and then yeah, I'll be
right there with a fork and a knife.

Speaker 2 (01:18:56):
And what was that place when we got these loaded tots?
Oh my gosh, And of course rich BBQ, well that
pic was that the one. No, it was a different place.
It was one where you had him twice baking because
there was so much on the loaded tots that you
have to have the extra strength of the tots, so
really crispy on the outside, still warm and soft inside,

(01:19:19):
but to hold up under the weight of everything. On
top of those times.

Speaker 1 (01:19:23):
I tell people this all the time. If you're gonna
get loaded fries of any sort, you know, the cheese fries,
you know, I mean, like any any kind of tot
that has like a you know, sort of like a
buffalo dress link, whatever it is, you want to get
them twice fried because you want the consistency of the
fry to hold up against all of the necessary ingredients

(01:19:45):
or in kucha mal to create the delicious bite that
you're looking for. Yeah, so twice fried, twice fried A
remember the.

Speaker 2 (01:19:53):
Yeah, so this some mean bo you're gonna have to
engage with with rich all right, So you're gonna have
to look at his list, because again, if you haven't
been to the place I already just mentioned, then you
really haven't been to the best or one of the best.
Yeah in the San Diego area, speaking of the best.
Major League Baseball made some of the best moves of

(01:20:14):
any sport in history. Other sports need to take note.
We'll tell you why. This is Fox Sports Sunday. Bring
it to you on this Sunday. This is Fox Sports Sunday,
and we are broadcasting live from the ti iraq dot
com studios ty rack dot com. We're gonna help get
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(01:20:39):
com the way tire buying should be. All Right, We're
ready to tip off this matchup between the Lakers and
the Memphis Grizzlies. I know, last year during the playoffs,
Richie and I were just in gaga about Ja Morant.
You know, Ja Brant had this suspension by his team
after engaging activity. That was a bad look for him,

(01:21:00):
bad look for the NBA, bad look for the organization.
I applaud the Grizzlies, by the way for telling him
you're gonna sit for a while. Uh, He's not sitting now.
And he has played well since he was returned. And again,
he's one of those guys that you want to see.
I mean, obviously he got the Lebron's, he got the Durance,
he got Steph Curries, he got like that. But of

(01:21:21):
all these young players, the one guy you want to
see in action, especially in a game that matters, is
Ja Moran.

Speaker 1 (01:21:30):
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, look, the NBA, well, every sports
league needs mussy players. Ja Moran has quickly become one
of those musty players in the NBA. You know, you
think about baseball, there's been this weird gap in some
like in a in a true star. I think they've

(01:21:51):
been trying for years to convince Mike Trout to be
that guy and it just hasn't really worked, you know.
And then Fernando Tatist Junior looked like he was gaining
in that space and then got popped for performance enhancing drugs.
So that really affected the ability for Major League Baseball
to wrap their arms around him. And you think about
the NFL. You got Tom Brady for two decades, and

(01:22:14):
now that light is starting to flicker. But you have
this new crop of quarterbacks that are becoming star players,
like the Patrick Mahomes of the world, or the Josh Allens,
or now the Jalen Hurts. You know, throw his name
into the mix. It's Joe Burrow, justin Herbert. You know,
the list goes on. In the NBA, it's been Lebron

(01:22:34):
James for so long, it's just been a lot of
Lebron James. It feels like Giannis his time has arrived,
and Jokich is probably, like Lebron, closer to being finished
with his career than starting his career. So a Jah
Morant last year in the postseason, when I turned on
his games, I was like, oh my god. I was like,
this is it. This is a no brainer. Like the

(01:22:57):
NBA is going to be fine in terms of star power.
Like Jean Moran is the next era, He's the next
generation of like highlight reel basketball from now for the
next who knows, twelve, fifteen years, maybe twenty, who knows.
And then we've had all these issues with John Moran
off the court. You know the Instagram live where he's

(01:23:19):
brandishing a weapon this countersuit now that's been launched regarding
a seventeen year old who came to his house and
they got into some alleged altercation which ended with him
apparently or allegedly bringing out another firearm or maybe the
same one, who knows. I mean, it just sort of

(01:23:40):
feels like I want to, with every inch of my
sports viewing soul wrap my arms around John Moran because
of the talent he is on the court. However, if
this stuff keeps happening, if things off the court pile up,
I mean, eventually it's gonna have an effect on him
on the court. Already has this season, Steve, he got

(01:24:02):
suspended for eight games.

Speaker 2 (01:24:04):
Here's the thing about the NBA, though, while we highlight
a guy like Jean Morant, overall, the NBA needs to
look what Major League Baseball did this season. So major
League Baseball had a big problem. And I am a
traditionalist to the core, as you know, Rich And I'm
not really all that big on change because just change

(01:24:25):
alone doesn't necessarily make things better, right, But I will
tell you this, The changes that Major League Baseball made
in this offseason spearheaded, by the way, by well, the
guy that pretty much created this mess. And you know
who I'm talking about, of course, the former general manager

(01:24:46):
of the Red Sox, former general manager of the Cubs,
and who started his baseball career with the Sandego Padres,
theo Epstein now working for Major League Baseball because his analytics.

Speaker 1 (01:25:00):
It created the.

Speaker 2 (01:25:00):
Game that we saw as recently as last season, and
it wasn't satisfying to the eyeball. So he knew how
to undo it. And so they introduced the pitch clock.
They did away with the shift. They limited the number
of throws to first base to hold on a runner.
All basic changes made the bases a little bit bigger.
They made changes, and it's all working. The average game

(01:25:26):
is now a half hour shorter than it was a
year ago. At this time, run scoring is up, stolen
bases are up. The other day, I saw the Milwaukee
Brewers against the Padres had three homers and six stolen
bases in a game. Yeah, guys are running the bases.
There's action on the scene, and even more so than

(01:25:48):
at the ballpark. It's working on television. It's easy now
to go through a two and a half hour game
then a game that goes three to zero five. Major
League Baseball made the change. Look what the Philly did
here in the first inning against the Reds today, ray
for This is the first inning home run, single walk, walk,
single out, single double, single out, single, double out, nine

(01:26:12):
runs on eight hits, first inning. This is what people
want to see. They want to see action, they want
to see runs. They want to see guys running around
the bases. You know what I didn't see, and that
after the opening home run another home run, not guys
swinging for the fences, singles, doubles, walks, guys stealing bases,
moving around the basis. That is why baseball can work.

(01:26:35):
It presented in the proper way.

Speaker 1 (01:26:36):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:26:37):
I say that looking at the NBA because I'm watching
the NBA and after the breakout of the Golden State
Warriors and the proliferation of threes, when I don't know,
you have two of the best three point shooters in
the history of the game, and Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.
Everyone try to emulate that style, but they don't have
Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. So you have a bunch

(01:26:59):
of people stay at the three point line, shooting threes
and bricking. It's not good basketball. I don't know how
the NBA can make any kind of changes to make
the game more watchable, but Baseball figured it out, and
if they can do it, I think the NBA can
as well.

Speaker 1 (01:27:17):
Yeah, yeah, listen, I think that change, like you said
to start this, and I think I well, actually, I know,
I completely agree with you, is difficult. Even good changes
are difficult. How about this, Like you move into a
better place, a better neighborhood, a better school system, everything's better.
Maybe it's because you got a better job. It doesn't

(01:27:40):
mean it's easy. I mean it's necessary. Change is always necessary.
It's a part of life. We all know that. But
it doesn't mean it's easy. Getting acclimated to even a
better job is still difficulty. Getting acclimated to new neighbors
and a new neighborhood, even if it's a better, safer,
cleaner neighborhood, is difficult. Getting acclimated for your kids to

(01:28:00):
a new school environment. It's tough. It's tough, you know,
even if the people that they're going to be surrounding
themselves with are better people, better character, better parents. Right,
it's difficult. It's difficult. Change is tough. And when you
look through the lens of shortsightedness, like a lot of
baseball writers were, like a lot of baseball players were

(01:28:24):
the resistance to these changes in Major League Baseball. I
thought was ridiculous. I thought everybody who defended the romance
of three or four hour baseball games sounded silly. They
sounded like they were pearl clutching. They sounded like they
were almost being purest for the sake of being purist.

(01:28:46):
It's like, hey, in order to be in this club,
you've got to subscribe to this newsletter. It's like, well,
you know what, that's great until all the people who
subscribe to that newsletter disappear, and then what happens, It
goes away. Major League Baseball is approaching the intersection of
an existential crisis. Okay, the game has gotten really flaccid,

(01:29:08):
it's gotten really boring. It's not attracting new fans. It's
hanging on with it for dear life. To its old fans,
but they needed to make changes, and thank goodness they did,
because now there's a reinvigoration. There's a lot more people
talking about baseball all of a sudden, There's a lot
more interest in baseball all of a sudden. The WBC
has never seen better numbers than it did this year.

(01:29:30):
The fact that all of a sudden, there was this
talk about the changes during spring training to the pitch
clock and the changes on the base path, how many
more stolen bases people were seeing in spring training. There
was actually excitement in a way that I haven't felt
in a decade or better for major League Baseball to
come back. So I think these changes were not only good,

(01:29:50):
and I've been saying that since I've heard about these changes.
I think they were necessary and I think it's about time.
It's probably I'm not gonna say too late. I'm not
going to say too late because I can't tell you
what the future holds for major League Baseball. But it
was probably later than it should have been. These changes
should have come sooner because baseball needed a shot in

(01:30:10):
the arm, and they tried all these other things Steve
like juicing the baseballs. They tried all these things, Like
for a while they were allowing for teams And trust
me when I tell you this, the Major League Baseball
was aware of the technology being used to steal signs.
They were allowing that to go on for a long
time before writing memos and then finally hitting the Astros

(01:30:34):
with the suspensions and the bands and you know all
the things.

Speaker 2 (01:30:37):
How about the spider tack. The spider tack, They allowed
that good to go on. They knew about it for years,
they knew about it. But yeah, this these changes were necessary.
They were good changes, and I'm glad that they made
those changes. To ask you a question based off your
your thought process here, what changes should the NBA make
in order to make their game better? Well that's a

(01:30:59):
great lead in because let's see this, let's think about
this for a second here, right, So, you watch NBA,
especially regular season basketball, and seriously, for me, the only
reason I'm watching NBA games usually is there what Charles
Barkley has to say on TNT in the regular season.
That's my sole reason is to be in whatever he

(01:31:21):
has going on with Ernie and Kenny and Shaq is
way more entertaining the game itself. So what changes can
the NBA make to make the game more appealing on
the court, we'll discuss. This is Fox Sports Sunday, Steve
Harbin and or Rich Arnberger Here Fox Sports Sunday, and

(01:31:46):
we are live from the ti raq dot Com studios.
All right, off and running here. The Grizzlies and Lakers
tied at eleven, got a timeout seven and a half
minutes ago in the first quarter, and we're seeing, well
we normally see an NBA games, bunch of guys taking
three point shots. Lakers are one for five and the
Grizzlies have missed theirs. You know, I'm thinking about the

(01:32:11):
evolution of this game. So there are many people out
there listening that will steadfastly maintain that Michael Jordan is
the greatest player in NBA history, and there's plenty of
ammunition to make that argument. In nineteen eighty eight, he
won his first MVP award, played all eighty two games,

(01:32:33):
which you don't see anymore. Obviously. He averaged thirty five
points a game that year. Three point shooting.

Speaker 1 (01:32:43):
You're ready for this, Rich, let me hear it.

Speaker 2 (01:32:45):
So in nineteen eighty eight, averaging thirty five points a
game for the season, eighty two games his three point shooting,
he was seven for fifty three. That's thirteen point two percent.
He made seven three point shots in eighty two games

(01:33:06):
and still averaged thirty five points a game. Wow, So
I mean, try, I'm just how's that possible? How could
you possibly average thirty five points a game when he
only made seven threes the entire year and shot thirteen percent?
How great could he be if he only made thirteen
percent of his three Well, obviously it was a much

(01:33:28):
different game. So if you're unaware of how the NBA
was played back in those days, that's not the way
the offenses were set up with a man in the post.
And when one season was this against thineteen eighty eight,
there's here's what I'll give to you though.

Speaker 1 (01:33:45):
Yeah, what was that number again that he hit.

Speaker 2 (01:33:48):
In eighty two games, played every game that year? He
made seven out of fifty three to three pointers for
the season.

Speaker 1 (01:33:54):
Okay, In nineteen eighty eight, the league average for field
goal or excuse me, three pointers made was thirty two percent.
So I mean, I I just went he shot thirteen percent. Yeah, yeah,
I went back just to double check, like what the
league average was, because now obviously that's ballooned. It's thirty
six percent this past season. It was thirty five percent

(01:34:17):
thirty five and a half last season. The year before
that thirty six percent, almost thirty seven percent. So it
has gone up league wide by about five percent points
since eighty eight. But still he was dreadfully below the
league average.

Speaker 2 (01:34:31):
And yet nobody argued, no, it was not even a factor.
Obviously when they were voting on MVP because he was
the Most Valuable Player that year, Nobody even thought about
it. It was like an afterthought. So let's just start with
the three point shooting and the proliferation of it. And
I remember the analytics. The Rockets were big on this
with James Harden, and they were trying to do the analytics.

(01:34:53):
I mean, I remember Harden would just camp at the
three point line, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble. I mean he
they actually, I don't know who is in charge this
when you know you're low man on the totem pole,
when you're in charge of counting dribbles during an NBA game,
There actually was a stat and James Harden had more
dribbles than any player in the league by forty percent. Yeah,

(01:35:16):
and the analytics that the Rockets had determined was is
that Harden camps at the three point line, dribbling and
shoots the ball. It's going to be much more proficient,
more efficient in terms of scoring than it would be
if he was driving the lane or you know, and
plus he was always picking up fouls as well as

(01:35:37):
the potential of four point play. All of that's great.
It was the same kind of analytics that took baseball
in a different direction. But standing there watching somebody just
dribble a basketball until the clock winds down and then
casting off a three, whether it goes in or not,
is not compelling.

Speaker 1 (01:35:56):
It's not.

Speaker 2 (01:35:57):
If you want to go back YouTube it, watch Michael
Jordan highlights from nineteen eighty eight, not just Jordan, but
how everybody else was playing the game. And you tell
me if that brand of basketball wasn't better and more
entertaining than what we see thirty five years later.

Speaker 1 (01:36:16):
Well, listen, I am the type of person who tries
to look at things objectively. You know, what did we game?
Would we lose? You know, there is a part of
me that really yearns for the way the NFL used
to be played. Right from the standpoint of all the
big hits you saw and all of the drama that

(01:36:42):
was created when you had a really tough nosed wide
receiver who would go over the middle to catch a
football and he didn't alligator armit, he didn't body catch it.
He reached out, stretch his arms out, and he took
the hit and found a way to keep it in
his grasp, like those guys, those Warriors who played in
the slot back when the NFL could actually could actually

(01:37:05):
hit a receiver and time it up with the football
arriving and sometimes honestly, the defense got a little bit
of latitude there. Tho. Those were days where, like you
really enjoyed football for the physicality, not just at the
offensive line and defensive line and the linebacker and running

(01:37:25):
back position, but also from the wide receiver standpoint. But
the games evolved, you know, the games evolved player safety.
We've become way more aware of what those big hits
do to the players now than then we had any
idea of back then. Back then, I mean, and this
is standard practice. This was still being discussed when I
was playing football, and it was recent. It was reason

(01:37:47):
my last year was twenty fourteen. Used to just say, hey,
your bell got wrong, and then you just got back
in there. You kind of shrugged it off. You shook
it off, like we just know so much now that
the game had to change. Basketball. Back then, it was
way more physical than it is now. We complain about

(01:38:07):
players getting injured now because then it obviously dilutes the
the ability for the league to promote its stars, and
it dilutes the the success of teams because without a
star like a Paul George for the Clippers, by by example,
the Clippers are going to be without PG for the
opening round of the postseason against the Suns, and I

(01:38:28):
just predicted that the Suns would sweep this series. So
you know, there's that. But getting back to the point,
it really does, I mean, it hampers the ability for
these teams or these these these this league to have success.
Like so, I mean, it's it's kind of like you
take it or leave it, like Steve, I mean, would
you prefer the physical physicality to return but not maybe

(01:38:50):
get to see Lebron James perform as well as he
has to almost his forties.

Speaker 2 (01:38:55):
Okay, So here's the point. Okay, you mentioned the physicality
of the game. That's same Michael Jordan, and he was
getting racked every game. Right, He's going against that Piston's team.
They're pummeling this guy in Michael Jordan's last season two
thousand and two, two thousand and three season with Washing Wizards,

(01:39:15):
and we're carrying a few extra lbs at that point
of his career. Out of eighty two games and a year,
by the way, he turned forty during that season over
than Lebron James is right now, out of eighty two games,
he played eighty two games. He didn't miss a single
game that year, not one. Let me give you another

(01:39:36):
stat as far as games played. Talk about making the
NBA better. John Stockton played nineteen seasons of the Utah Jazz.
He played every single game in seventeen of those nineteen years.
His teammate Karl Malone big Man, in his eighteen seasons
of the Utah Jazz, never missed more than two games

(01:39:56):
in any year. So when we talk about making the
NBA better, part of it is something that Kevin Durant
mentioned having played just eight games with his Phoenix Suns teammates.
It's called chemistry. We get better basketball when we have
guys on the court that are familiar with each other.
If you go back to the glory days of a

(01:40:17):
lot of great teams in the past, whereas the Lakers,
the Celtics, the Bulls, whatever team you want to choose
in the past. One thing about the box scores of
those games. They were amazingly consistent. Everyone had a defined role.
You could pretty much they were interchangeable. You knew how
many assist a guy would have, rebounds, points, and everything else.
That's based on guys playing together. When you have these

(01:40:38):
disjointed teams where guys are in and out of the
lineup constantly, guess what you don't have. No, I get mistry, listen,
and that lack of chemistry is a big deficiency. I
think right now in what we're seeing in NBA basketball.

Speaker 1 (01:40:54):
I'm not disagreeing with you. I think the NBA needs
to make changes. I think that the NBA is going
the way baseball was going before they decided to make
some changes to the size of the bases, the pitch clock,
banning of the shift in the infield, et cetera, et cetera.
You know, those were good changes. Baseball needed to make

(01:41:14):
those changes. However, I will say this, if we're going
to compare eras if we're gonna pair like you know
how you just did Jordan against Lebron for example. You
know Jordan, And again this is kind of getting away
from the topic at hand. I'm going to give you
some solutions in my mind that would fix the NBA,

(01:41:34):
and it would fix it real quick.

Speaker 2 (01:41:37):
I will hang on to it. On the other side,
I got Jordan.

Speaker 1 (01:41:40):
On the other side, Jordan, though he had four years
off before he turned in the performance you were just disgusting.
He had one year of minor league baseball where he
didn't have the wear tear of an NBA season, and
then he had three years of retirement before coming back
with the win.

Speaker 2 (01:41:55):
Okay, what about Stockton? Them alone?

Speaker 1 (01:41:57):
Okay, I made him miss any seasons and they didn't.
I'm saying exceptions don't prove the rule. But we're talking
about exceptional players, and when we're comparing Stockton and Malone,
they're not even the conversation with Lebron James all right,
I would never say either one of them are the
greatest of all.

Speaker 2 (01:42:11):
Load management is a major problem for this league, no question,
and it's not been addressed. We have a commissioner that's
afraid of the players apparently to say anything negative, saying
he sees no negatives. You know, revenue is amazing, because
you know, again, where's the money coming from. I don't
want to get into that. The bottom line here is
I'm watching basketball that is disjointed. There's a lack of

(01:42:34):
chemistry on the court, and that has to do with
guys sitting out a multitude of games. All right, we'll
get more into this on the other side, but first,
let's find out what's trending right now. And let's ask
you Monsi. So, Manzi, you are a diehard Clippers fan.
How happy are you that once again this year? I
look and Kawhi Leonard missed thirty games this year and

(01:42:56):
Paul George miss twenty six games this year. You traded
every draft pick you have for the next decade to
get Paul George who wouldn't have been there, And Kawhi
Leonard said he was going to join the Clippers unless
you get me Paul George. Yeah, how's that working for you? No?

Speaker 6 (01:43:12):
No, no, the Clipper curse is alive and well, well wait.

Speaker 2 (01:43:15):
A second, is it curs because you have your star
player Kawhi Leonard, who's the is the face of load manager, right, he.

Speaker 7 (01:43:21):
Definitely started it all years ago, you know, Yes, thirty
games this year. Yes, I meanted more of Paul George
getting injured this late in the season, that the Clipper
curse is alive and well, but we definitely, you know,
experienced that load management like nobody else with both of them,
which totally sucks. This load management is getting out of hand.
And yes, Kawhi started it before he was a raptor.

(01:43:44):
It all started with the Spurs. You know, he definitely
took that on. Even though nobody really talks about it.

Speaker 2 (01:43:48):
It was Spurs talked about it. That's why they got it.

Speaker 7 (01:43:51):
But at the time it wasn't looked at as load
management like that term didn't come when Kawhi wasn't playing,
you know what I'm saying now, that's what we referred
to it.

Speaker 6 (01:43:59):
But he definitely was.

Speaker 7 (01:44:01):
The leader in that, and yes, Pop and at the time,
the players definitely addressed the fact that he seemed fine
to play and he didn't want to play, that he
wasn't ready to play. So it's it's a very frustrating thing.
It's happening across the NBA. And what's crazy is that
a couple maybe like a week two ago, NBA released
the numbers, and like, the numbers for the NBA in

(01:44:21):
attendance and like viewership were higher.

Speaker 6 (01:44:24):
Than last year. Despite this load management, fans are still
going to these games. That's what's crazy. I don't know.

Speaker 7 (01:44:32):
I was shocked to see those numbers a week or
two ago that the NBA released, Like it's like, really,
fans are still going because it's hard. It's hard to
go to a game not knowing who you're gonna watch. Yeah,
it's it's very difficult to buy tickets, like at the
end of the season, you know, maybe the last game
I suppose, but it is hard to buy tickets not
knowing who you are going to watch.

Speaker 1 (01:44:51):
I will say this from a fan attendant arena. The
play in the playing tournament has helped encourage, yes, tea
to stay alive longer.

Speaker 6 (01:45:02):
Yes, you know, so where that has been a positive.

Speaker 1 (01:45:05):
Yeah, you used to have like maybe really I mean
realistically the bottom twelve teams maybe even more, maybe the
bottom half of the league kind of bowing out by
the end of the regular season.

Speaker 2 (01:45:17):
Now there's actually a little.

Speaker 1 (01:45:19):
Bit of like want to left in a lot of
these teams to buy for that seventh and eighth.

Speaker 6 (01:45:23):
Spot for sure.

Speaker 7 (01:45:24):
I agree the playing tournament has been successful. I think
it has been successful in helping people not bow out,
so earlier teams not bow out.

Speaker 2 (01:45:32):
Le Bron's not a fan, that's for sure.

Speaker 6 (01:45:34):
Exactly well, but it's fun.

Speaker 7 (01:45:37):
The games have been fun, they've been exciting, so it
has worked out, Lebron. James, though, right now has two points,
so be quiet, Lebron.

Speaker 6 (01:45:44):
It's Anthony Davis who's been pretty hot right now for
the Lakers.

Speaker 7 (01:45:47):
He actually has eight points, three blocks, five rebounds, and
we're just about to end the first quarter. LA does
have a three point lead over the Memphis Grizzlies. Thirty
to twenty seven is the score for the Grizzlies. Aaron
Jackson Junior leading all scores. He also has eight points,
so he and ad are definitely battling it out.

Speaker 6 (01:46:06):
But yeah, guys, this is this load management.

Speaker 2 (01:46:08):
It's crap.

Speaker 6 (01:46:09):
Let's move on to Major League baseball. You know it's
not crap. The Phillies. The Phillies scored.

Speaker 7 (01:46:13):
Nine runs in the first inning, top of the first inning,
and they're beating the Reds ten to one top of
the fourth inning. Ah, that's crazy. I don't know who
was pitching, but no Bueno. Braves are beating the Royals
four to one. They're about to start the bottom of
the six inning with the Pirates still up on the
Cardinals by one run, two to one. Top of the
six inning, Yankees still beating the Twins by two runs,
two zero.

Speaker 6 (01:46:31):
Bottom of the eighth inning.

Speaker 7 (01:46:33):
The Rays have come back to life after losing the
last two games to the Blue Jays. They're up seven
to one bottom of the sixth inning, and the Guardians
have taken the lead over the Nationals six to five,
top of the eighth inning. And this was a crazy
stat that ESPN just posted about Lebron and the Grizzlies.
Lebron has played in two hundred and sixty six postseason games.

Speaker 6 (01:46:53):
Lebron James alone two.

Speaker 7 (01:46:55):
Hundred and sixty six, the Grizzlies as a team, two
hundred and fifteen.

Speaker 6 (01:47:00):
As it's so experienced, Well, just.

Speaker 2 (01:47:01):
What allows when you get to the NBA Finals eight
straight years?

Speaker 6 (01:47:05):
Yes, ever so many years?

Speaker 7 (01:47:06):
So by himself two hundred and sixty six the Grizzlies
two hundred and fifteen.

Speaker 2 (01:47:10):
Back to you, guys, hi, mind see well, I just
getting back to this whole load management thing. So they're
talking about the new collective bargaining agreement the players Union
and the league about you know, setting certain minimum requirements
in games play to qualify for postseason awards. Now it's interesting.
So the Dallas Mavericks just got hammered by the NBA

(01:47:33):
for sitting all those players in that last game that
still they were still in the mix to possibly get
into the play in round, and they made a decision
as an organization. By the way, can you imagine Jason
Kidds still having a job when he called out the
organization before the game. Before the game, He's like, by

(01:47:53):
the way, the organization has made a decision, we're going
to sick Kyrie half the team. And then Daunton's played
twelve minutes that night, and they lose the game to
obviously give themselves a better chance at a high lottery pick.
And I love this. The NBA said, well, we're finding
them fear because it's detrimental to the league. I'm like, okay,
teams have been doing this a lot recently. But I

(01:48:16):
thought it was interesting because Chris Paul, of course, one
of the big leaders of the players union, said and
I think this is legitimate that a lot of these
decisions about load management are not made by the player.
They're play made by the team, which was pointed out
in this decision by the Mavericks organization that sit all
those players in that last game. He said, a lot

(01:48:39):
of the teams now are making the decision that trying
to keep their players healthy, that they are telling the
players you're gonna sit yeah. And if a team makes
a decision to sit me, And by the way, a
lot of these postseason honors, whether it's All NBA or

(01:49:01):
any kind of awards, are usually tied to some kind
of incentive pay for the players. Then all of a sudden,
you're skating on thin ice, right, you got a situation
where the team says, well, do we really want to
pay those extra money? We're gonna sit you an extra game. Yeah,
but now I can't make the All NBA t ah. Yeah, yeah,
but we're more important have you healthy for the playoffs.
So I'm not a big fan of that. I'm really

(01:49:24):
not a big fan about limiting how many games you
have to play or a certain threshold for you to
qualify for postseason awards, because ultimately it's the teams that
are paying out these postseason award bonuses, and they could
just sit a guy saying, eh, we don't want to
pay that money. I'm looking for an answer here, and

(01:49:46):
I can't figure it out quite yet.

Speaker 1 (01:49:49):
Look, the answer to this question is simple, and I'll
actually give you one answer to this question that I
could see feasibly happening, and the other one will not.
I'll start with the won't happen. The NBA needs to
shorten its season. It desperately needs to play less games.

(01:50:10):
Eighty two games is simply too many. The players don't
want to do it, the fans don't want to watch it.
Like we were talking about in our last segment, here
steve the physicality of the game and the interest in
players to play every single game and be iron men
and you know, be on the court for their teammates
and have that camaraderie and have that chemistry heading into

(01:50:32):
the postseason. It used to matter to players. It doesn't
matter to players anymore because guess what, what's incentivising them
to stay on the court. Nothing. If they're allowed to
take off twenty five percent to thirty percent of their
season and still gain access to the postseason. Because the
role players are good enough to float them during that
time off, why would they be on the court If

(01:50:53):
their pay is going to be the same, why would
they be on the court. They've lost control of this
and the players, frankly have it's foolish. So if you
played say sixty games or fifty five games instead of
eighty two, well, obviously fifty five is fifty six games.
If you played less games and you had the opportunity

(01:51:17):
for fans in a very limited or i should say
more limited supply get to see these games, the demand
would be higher.

Speaker 2 (01:51:28):
You also understand, playing less games means less revenue coming in,
both in the arenas and in television revenue, and that
means salaries come down. Are the players willing to take
a pay cut?

Speaker 1 (01:51:39):
Well, so that's the problem, that side of the argument.
That's how you fix this. But it'll never happen because
players won't be interested in taking a pay cut. Here's
a sneaky way you could get this done. How about
instead of twelve minute quarters you play ten minute quarters.
Does the game really change? No? No, not really. You're
still playing a two of them, But you figure you're

(01:52:02):
shaving off eight minutes every single game. You know, by
the third game, you've already basically saved yourself a half.
By the sixth game, every sixth game you're resting a
full game. Now extrapolate that over a season, you're shaving

(01:52:24):
off a significant amount of the season. You're still selling
the same product to the to the networks. These players
are getting the rest that they apparently require, and you're
making it so that there's no longer an excuse to
take twenty percent or thirty percent of the season off.
And as a result of this, you could say, hey, look,
we're gonna pay you the same salaries. Okay, we're selling

(01:52:46):
the same product to these advertisers, to these networks, so
we're gonna make this. We're gonna yield the same amount
of profits. But now we have to put a rule
in place. We met you halfway, Actually we met you
more than halfway, because the entire our league is going
to get to enjoy this, not just star players who
decide to sit out twenty five percent of the league year.

(01:53:06):
Every player gets to sit out something close to or
above twenty five percent of the league year by reducing
the quarters to ten minute quarters. Now, as a result
of that, you have to put into every NBA contract.
This is going to be baked into it. If you
miss more than x y percentage of the season, whether
it's due to your health or otherwise, you're going to

(01:53:28):
sacrifice a certain and it could be a significant portion
of your salary. Now, to me, that's fair to me.
That's meeting the players where they're at, and it's meeting
the owners where they're at. You're still appeasing the networks,
You're still giving the advertisers what they want.

Speaker 2 (01:53:43):
What do you think of that solution? I like that solution.
I like that as a possibility. There's one other rule
I like to see changed in the NBA that works
for basketball on a different level. And to get to that,
by the way, the Lake right now lead the Grizzlies
thirty five, thirty one, ten forty to go in the

(01:54:04):
second quarter, and the guy that's been knocking down shots
Austin Reeves. Austin Reeves making some shots there, and moransof
to a fairly slow start, although the dynamic matchup between
Jaron Jackson and Anthony Davis is playing out all right,
We'll continue on just finding ways to make the NBA
a little more watchable. This is Fox Sports. Sunday and

(01:54:26):
bounce past the curry.

Speaker 9 (01:54:27):
He turns, he wheels, he fires, he misses bones with
a redounds and Sacramento has won game number one. After
seventeen years without a playoff experience, they have.

Speaker 1 (01:54:40):
Risen to the occasions.

Speaker 2 (01:54:43):
KHTK Kings Radio Network, Sacramento celebrating their first playoff game,
playoff winning seventeen years taking out the raigning world champion
Warriors yesterday. That's our Progressive play of the day, brought
to you by Progressive Insurance Regrets. What makes buddling e
and affordable. Get a multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat,

(01:55:04):
ATV and more all your protection to one place. Bundle
and save at Progressive dot Com. Welcome back. This is
Fox Sports Sunday and we are live from the Tyraq
dot com studios keeping our eye on this NBA matchup
here first game of the day, Lakers taking on the Grizzlies.
And the Lakers look really good right now, forty two

(01:55:25):
to thirty five against again a Grizzlies team that had
the best home record of any team not just this
year in the NBA, best record at home by any
NBA team in the last six years. So we talked
earlier about having experienced. By the way, Lebron is two
of seven, he's not doing much. It has only four
points in this game, but Hatchamurro has come off the

(01:55:47):
benches at eight points. So they're getting production throughout this lineup.
And the good thing for Lakers is they are healthy
right now, so we'll see what kind of damage they
can do. But so far, a good start for the Lakers.
On the road against the Grizzlies. We're just talking about
ways of making the NBA better, and here's one thing
you were talking about. I love this idea of reducing

(01:56:07):
the quarters from twelve to ten minutes. College basketball games
are forty minutes, not forty eight minutes, and they're divided
into halves and not quarters. Yep, I love that. The
one thing I love about having two halves instead of
four quarters is momentum in a game. It also has,
you know, bench timing guys in and out of the lineup.

(01:56:29):
But imagine if we had an MBA where the games
were not forty eight minutes but forty minutes and there
were no quarters and just halves. I think it's a
better game because I think when a team gets a
little momentum. Sometimes you get to the quarter break and
it breaks. I think you can sustain it. I think
you sustain the audience as well. They don't go anywhere,

(01:56:49):
games still going on, sort of like hockey, right, they're periods.
You know. The great thing about hockey is you got
these twenty minute periods and they just it's NonStop and boom,
you know, you get the break. The other thing I
would love to see in the NBA that they have
in the college game is the one in one rule.
I don't understand why the NBA doesn't do this. Yeah,
I love this because it suddenly puts pressure, especially in

(01:57:12):
late game, late half situations, of making the first free
throw in order to get the second free throw. These
are two things that I think in the college game work.
You put it at an NBA level, I think it's
even better. Those are the things I would like to see.

Speaker 1 (01:57:31):
All right. I agree with the one in one. I
disagree with the taking the quarters out of the NBA.
I'd actually prefer it if you put quarters into college basketball.
And I know that's a little bit sacrilegious because of
how well college basketball works, but I actually do like

(01:57:52):
the quarter break. I do like the fact that you know,
and don't get me wrong, I'm not I'm not thrilled
with how much average and gets jammed into these quarter
breaks on an NBA during the course of an NBA game.
But I do like that third to fourth quarter break
because there are certain teams that we've come to know

(01:58:13):
as fourth quarter teams. You know, teams that can overcome
a deficit and they're aware of the sec the situation
and the circumstances and they find a way. I kind
of like that. That also, that statistical category like fourth
quarter scoring and you know, fourth quarter free throw percentage.

(01:58:34):
I think that I think that creates a lot of
drama in the NBA that's actually kind of lacking in
college basketball. But I do agree with the foul shooting.
I do think that's you're onto something there absolutely at
the NBA level.

Speaker 2 (01:58:45):
Yeah, I just again, when we watch the collegiate game
in terms of overall talent, there's just it's night and
date with the NBA. I mean, as you know, when
we look at the college All American teams every year,
you never heard these guys. Again, some of these guys,
the guys that are successful at the NBA level barely

(01:59:06):
have a cup of coffee. At the collegiate level, most
of these guys are one and dones. I'm mean to
look at the project. I've seen some of the mocked
NBA drafts. I don't see anything other than freshman overseas guys,
G league guys out of the top fifteen. So I
just think those things will make and the idea of
the two halves as opposed to the four quarters again
is sustaining the audience. You know, a lot of times

(01:59:28):
I'm watching an NBA game and it's just a dreadful
first quarter, they go to a break. I'm like, I'll
tune in later in the fourth quarter. It just it's
an excuse for me to turn off the game for
a while. Whereas if you have continuous action for the
entire half, now you got me locked in until halftime.
It's assuming things are happening on the court. So that's

(01:59:48):
where it's going back and forth. By the way, I'm
going to get back to a little Major league baseball
coming up on our next hour. We're not gonna have
John Palm Morosi. I think he's in London. Oh yeah,
JP's in London. But that doesn't mean we got a
lot to talk about, including a historic day yesterday and
why it's more important than ever for the MLB. This
is Fox Sports Sunday, rolling along Hair on this big,

(02:00:10):
big Sunday, we got NBA Playoffs underway, Major League Baseball
rolling along. There's a lot of things happening in the
world of sports, and we're covering it all right here
on Fox Sports Sunday, broadcasting live from the tire rach
dot com studios tirerach dot com. We're gonna help get
you there on a match selection, fast free shipping, free
road hats or protection over ten thousand recommended installers tireraq

(02:00:32):
dot com the way tire buying should be. And I
know sometimes circumstances prevent people from being in certain places
at certain times, but I can't have you taken off
multiple Sundays. Hey, I need my fix. Yeah, you know,
I need my rich fix.

Speaker 1 (02:00:50):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (02:00:51):
That's on me, Doug, Yeah, that's on me, because you
know I'm never here. I mean a lot of people
are like, why don't you ever take it? I mean, seriously,
take a day. I'm like, no, I can't. It's it's
been a weird time for me, you know, because I
don't have right now, like a Monday through Friday gig. Yeah,
and I'm finding things to do to keep myself busy.

(02:01:12):
But you know me, Rich, I gotta work off.

Speaker 1 (02:01:15):
Well. Yeah, you are the classic workaholic. It fuels you,
it is, it is what you wake up. I look,
I'm we at one point in our time working together,
we worked seven days a week together. Yeah, And there
was a point where I remember thinking to myself, like,
all right, we've been doing this for about two weeks

(02:01:35):
and there's no end in sight.

Speaker 2 (02:01:37):
None.

Speaker 1 (02:01:37):
And I was thinking like, oh, I should probably I
should probably take a day off because I'm going to
strangle them. And then I talked to you about it.
I think we had this conversation on air and you went, oh,
I just I was just really enjoying it.

Speaker 2 (02:01:51):
Yes, a lot of people I get this a lot.
They go, you know, dude, you talk so much. I mean,
I meion, are you like in lovely your own voice?
And the answers yes, yeah, I mean nothing energizes me
like listening to myself talking good and Rich knows out
of a lot of frustration. Many times he'll say things

(02:02:11):
I haven't heard a word, he said, not a single word,
because I'm so enamored by the next thing I'm going
to say. By the way, quite a turnaround this Lakers
Grizzlies game. Big run by the grizz and suddenly they're
up fifty four to fifty in this game. So Grizzlies
turning it on and again. This is a team that
was an amazing thirty five and six in home games

(02:02:33):
this year. We're talking earlier about Major League Baseball making
some wholesale changes. By the way, you're down in the
San Diego area, Padres obviously getting a little hype before
the season began. It's been a little uneven so far.
What's the buzz down there in San Diego with the
Padres right now?

Speaker 1 (02:02:52):
Well, look, i mean it's early in the season. Ye,
so what you're seeing is pretty typical of an opening
day for any baseball team. There's a huge pop, everybody's
excited to get down to the ballpark, and then you know,
you start you start really sinking your teeth into the
baseball season and realizing, hey, this is a marathon, not
a sprint, and you know, they're just above even in

(02:03:16):
terms of their record, and it's it's it's really everybody
waiting with baited breath for Fernando Tatis Junior to get
back to the club.

Speaker 2 (02:03:27):
So he had three home runs in a minor league
game the other day.

Speaker 1 (02:03:29):
Fernando Tatis Junior, and I understand this is triple A.
This is not major league baseball, but has been absolutely
tearing the sweet living cover off of the baseball I'm
gonna give you some quick stats on what we know
to be one of the rising stars, if not a
star in major league baseball. Seven games, he's gone fifteen

(02:03:52):
for twenty eight. That's a five point thirty six batting average,
six home runs, eight extra base hits, fourteen RBI, six walks,
two strikeouts, only two stolen bases, and an OPS of
one point or excuse me, one thousand, eight hundred and
sixty eight. Yes, okay, So look I again, it's it's

(02:04:16):
triple A. It's minor league baseball. He is an absolute
star at the major league baseball level, but he hasn't
been healthy for a long time, so there were a
lot of people who were very concerned with how he
was going to look. He also had been put on
this performance enhancing drug suspension. A lot of people were
talking about what does that mean? You know, is he

(02:04:36):
going to perform somewhere less than what he has been
because maybe he's been on performance enhancing drugs this whole time,
or you know, maybe he's going to be lacking for
confidence if there was even a brief interlude with peds.
It appears none of that is the case. He is
exactly where he had left off in terms of being

(02:04:59):
a baseball player, and we're going to see a lot
of him here at the major league level on the twentieth,
which is when his suspension ends, because I would assume
with a long ramp up at Triple An, he's going
to be placed directly into the lineup, and we're going
to see Fernando Tatis Junior as soon as he's available.

Speaker 2 (02:05:19):
Well, and they need him back. I mean, this is
a guy who we haven't seen in a major league
game since twenty twenty one, and this is a guy
that was being touted by Major League Baseball to be
the face of the sport. It will be interesting. Obviously,
there was a lot of fallout when he was about.
You and I were covering this. We're all counting down,

(02:05:39):
all right, Fernando's finally coming back and then literally days
before he's about to return, Bam gets busted yep for
the ped so and he's admitted it. I mean he's
he's taken responsibility and understands that a lot of damage
was done and whether he can get it back that
star power, we'll see. One way get star power back

(02:06:01):
is to perform at the level we've seen him in
his young major league career. Yesterday was Jackie Robinson Day
in Major League Baseball. April fifteenth is the anniversary of
his first major league game back in nineteen forty seven.
I'm always amazed his wife, Rachel, is one hundred years old.

(02:06:22):
She'll be one hundred and one in July. I met
this woman about ten years ago when I think she
was ninety at the time. She didn't look a day
over sixty five. I was like, this is an amazing woman,
beautiful lady, and just so full of life and everything else.
Just absolutely amazing, really carrying on the legacy of her

(02:06:42):
late husband. Unfortunately, because he suffered from diabetes, he died
of a heart attack at age fifty three. I mean,
he was gone young. But it also is a reminder
again to me in watching all the players wear forty two,
and I love the Major League Baseball has done this
in honor of a person whose legacy to me is

(02:07:06):
grown over the years, and to try to put perspective
on what he did and how much he meant, not
just a Major League Baseball or the world of sports
to our country. I mean, you know, Brown versus the
Board of Education was seven years after Jackie Robinson broke
into a Major league baseball. You know, this is before
the civil rights movement with doctor King. I mean, was

(02:07:28):
there were so many things that happened after Jackie Robinson
and again putting in perspective where major League Baseball was
in nineteen forty seven. No one's talking NFL. There wasn't
even an MBA. And basically in nineteen forty seven, it
was Major League baseball. It was college football, it was boxing,
it was horse racing. I mean, those are like the

(02:07:50):
major sports in America in nineteen forty seven. So the
spotlight on Major League Baseball was so much. And you know,
I thought this yesterday talking about greatest athletes of all
time and we get in that conversation with a Muhammad
al Li was it, Michael Jordan, If you want to
go old school guy like Jim Thorpe, you know, guys

(02:08:10):
like this and Jackie Robinson. When he attended UCLA played
four sports. I mean, he was on the basketball team, football,
led the nation of punt returns, track star. His worst
sport by far was baseball. When you're in college, he
had under one hundred and that then he served in
the military during World War Two. He comes out, plays

(02:08:30):
one year of Negro league baseball, one year of minor
league baseball after he signs with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and
then he's in the majors and he's Rookie of the
Year and fifth in the MVP voting as a rookie.
It's just amazing to me what this guy did. So
his legend has sort of like superseded a lot of
other things that he did. How great a baseball player
he actually was. But to do what he did under

(02:08:51):
the pressures that he felt, especially in the New York market, Wow,
I just I'm more marvel every single year when we
celebrate this Jackie Robinson day of who this man was
and what it is he actually accomplished.

Speaker 1 (02:09:07):
Yeah, and you know what, I bet you. You know,
there's a lot of people who don't realize the cultural
impact that Jackie Robinson has had because the stars that
they have fallen in love with, who are people of color,
like a Michael Jordan in my time as a kid,
or you know Tiger Woods also, you know, cut his

(02:09:31):
teeth on the PGA tour when I was a kid
in the nineties, or Lebron James. Now, you know, these
people are trailblazers. You know, the torch that Jackie Robinson
lit was carried on by Michael Jordan, who became the
face of a shoe company. You know, I just saw

(02:09:51):
that movie air and we spoke recently on this show
Steve to Sonny Vaccaro, and you know his belief that
mj was gonna be who he became before any of
us knew who Michael Jordan was outside of his you know,
dominance at UNC. He couldn't do what he did without
Jackie Robinson. Tiger Woods couldn't do what he did without

(02:10:14):
Jackie Robinson. And when you think about how impactful those
two especially have been to their sports because golf, I
mean that was a segregated game. Even when Tiger Woods
was teeing off in the nineties, I mean he was
winning tournaments at places that didn't even allow black people
to be members. It's pretty amazing and pretty special what

(02:10:37):
Jackie Robinson was as a player, aside from what he
was dealing with as a man in the society he
lived in during that time. It's pretty remarkable, and I
think it's important for anybody who cares about sports, especially
for people who care about baseball, to go back and
take a look at the historical impact that jack Robinson

(02:11:00):
had on the game, and not only on the game
of baseball, but obviously in sports in total. And then
when when you really sort of widen the aperture and
you include culture and you include you know, society. I mean,
he had an enormous impact on a lot of things.

Speaker 2 (02:11:19):
I dare say I think one of the most significant
persons of the twentieth century, without question, in any realm.
By the way, watching this game right now, almost halftime.
Grizzlies lead the Lakers sixty three to fifty nine. But
the big story here Anthony Davis was let out the court.
But what's going on with Ad? What's happening there? Where's both.

Speaker 1 (02:11:42):
Bo?

Speaker 2 (02:11:43):
What's happening with Ad?

Speaker 5 (02:11:44):
Sorry, I'm distraught over here. I know the same thing
that always happens. Some freak injury is gonna end up
being like a torn muscle or something like that. It
looked like he it looked like he locked arms with
Jared Jackson Junior. But it could be his shoulder too.
He's in a locker.

Speaker 2 (02:12:00):
By the way, right down. Unbelievable again, Jean Morant went
right down the court with just seconds remaining in the
half and just knocked down a little jump shot. So
it's halftime now. Grizzly is lead by a score of
sixty five to fifty nine. Jared Jackson, by the way,
has nineteen points in this game. We mentioned the fact

(02:12:24):
that this is a tough matchup for ad Anthony Davis
out right now. By the way, Davis five block shots
in the first half. Right now, the Lakers trailing by
a score of sixty five to fifty nine.

Speaker 1 (02:12:36):
All right.

Speaker 2 (02:12:37):
On the other side, you mentioned the movie Air. I
want to get your thoughts on that movie. If you
haven't seen it, you should. And we'll continue covering these
NBA playoffs. Who will ultimately show the biggest upset of
the first round. We'll tell you this is Fox Sports Sunday,
Steve Harbin and Rich Hornberger here Fox Sports Sunday, and
we are live from the tyrack dot Com studio. So halftime,

(02:13:01):
Memphis leading the Lakers by a score of sixty five
to fifty nine. We are a waiting word on this
injury to Anthony Davis. When it happened, he literally you
could see him saying, I can't feel my arm.

Speaker 1 (02:13:14):
Yeah. Yeah, I've been watching this video.

Speaker 2 (02:13:17):
Now, you know injuries here, So if you have a stinger,
I'm trying to figure that out. Where suddenly you know,
something like that is at a stinger. I'm not familiar
with this stuff. What would have him actually literally utter
the words I can't feel my arm?

Speaker 1 (02:13:32):
Yeah? I mean maybe, And I think I'm giving probably
more credit than is potentially deserved here based off what
video footage we have to look at. Maybe Jackson quite
literally struck a nerve on Anthony Davis on his way

(02:13:53):
down from fighting for a rebound. Look, there was a
misshot Davis came from beyond the three point arc. He
got a hand on it his left hand. His right
hand was sort of hip checking or you know, just
kind of boxing out in air Jaron Jackson as he
was coming down with the basketball. Jackson made another final
attempt at swatting away the ball before falling out of bounds,

(02:14:17):
and then Anthony Davis walks away holding his shoulder and
like you said, was mouthing the words I can't feel
my arm. I can't move my arm. Maybe it is
what it was. Anyways, if you watch this video, I
mean again, unless something absolutely freakish happened here, like maybe
due to that minimal contact, his shoulder separated, or he

(02:14:40):
broke his humorous which is that upper armbone, or you know,
or maybe it was like a stinger or you know,
a pinch nerve. This looks like Anthony Davis is gonna
be fine for the second half.

Speaker 2 (02:14:54):
By the way, you mentioned the fact that you saw
the movie Air. It's interesting. All the years that I
knew Sonny, I used to say his name is Sonny Vicaro,
and then all of a sudden I heard him say
his own name, and it's Sonny Viccaro. I'm watching the
movie Air and Matt Damon playing Sonny, says, my name

(02:15:16):
is Sonny Vaccaro. But in the movie, Viola Davis, who
plays Michael Jordan's mother, calls him Sonny Vaccaro. It's really
in the movie, so she refers him Sonny Vacaro the
entire movie, and he say in his own name, says
it like Sonny does Sonny Viccaro. Well, whether it's Sonny
Viccaro or Sonny Vaccaro, it really doesn't matter. The movie

(02:15:39):
is unbelievable. I mean, this movie still on Rotten Tomatoes,
ninety one percent from the critics, ninety eight percent from
the audience. I love this, and says Ben Affleck in
a terrific cast score with Air, which is much more
entertaining than any movie about a long ago business deal
has a right to be. This is just a really
good movie about you. But it was an entertaining movie

(02:16:02):
even if you knew nothing about Nike and Sonny and Air,
Jordan's and everything else. It's just a good movie. I
did get to go to the Red Carpet to see Sonny.
We mentioned that that it was going to be. The
Red Carpet was in Westwood. I took my son Drake
down there. We saw Sonny there. He was there with
Ed O'Bannon. I got pictures with Sonny and his wife Pam,

(02:16:24):
and with Ed as well. But it's you know, I'm
reminded again having known Sonny for thirty plus years that
this guy's impact on his sport is immerasiable. Not only
Woul the air Jordans, he introduced the first ever national
high school basketball game back in the sixties. That led

(02:16:46):
to a lot of these kids that otherwise would not
have gotten that kind of notoriety to get attention from
universities and eventually into the NBA, and then of course
teaming with Ed O'Bannon in the case against the NCAA
which they want one, which opened the door to what
we have now with the name, image and likeness. By
the way, I was talking to Ed and I said,
you realize that this nil thing doesn't happen without you. Ed,

(02:17:09):
any chance you get a little kickback, you know, from
some of these deals.

Speaker 1 (02:17:12):
He just laughed.

Speaker 2 (02:17:14):
He goes, you know what, I'm okay, But yeah, I'm
happy that these kids are now finally getting paid the
money that was due them years ago. But all this
around Sonny Vicaro or Sonny Vakara, whichever way you want
to pronounce his name, and to me, when we talk
about halls of fame, and you know I'm into him
and you're not. But when we talk about halls of fame,

(02:17:35):
the question is can you write the history of a
sport without mentioning a name. I don't know how you
can talk about the history of basketball without mentioning Sony Vikara.
I don't know how you.

Speaker 1 (02:17:44):
Can do it.

Speaker 2 (02:17:44):
He belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Speaker 1 (02:17:46):
Yeah, I look, I can't disagree with that. I think
that there are, like we know, role players on the
outside of the sport who have just as much influenced
as you know, owners or the players themselves. In certain cases. Look,

(02:18:06):
the sport's played by the players, and that takes away
nothing from the story of Michael Jordan. But but the
fact that he became a cultural phenomenon is as much
due to Sonny Vocaro's his his dogged pursuit of bringing
him in as a Nike athlete as anything else. I mean,

(02:18:29):
there's no doubt that he would have signed with a
shoe company, likely Converse or Adidas at the time. Who
he wore I guess when he was off the court,
even though he wore Converse when he was on the
court at UNC. It's just it's just one of those
things where you need somebody to recognize greatness before everybody else.

(02:18:52):
Is somebody who's ahead of the Curve and that's who
he was. Here's here's the thing. I knew a lot
about this story, and I was still surprised by this story.
So I'm going to reserve talking about like the Michael
Jordan Sonny Vacaro path and what they created together so
that people can go and be surprised watching the movie
on their own. But what I will say about the

(02:19:14):
movie Air is I'm into documentaries, and I was blown
away by how well this was done because it's not
necessarily documentary style. It's a biopic. Ye, it's a movie
made to entertain you. I think Ben Affleck played the perfect,
you know, comical representation of Phil Knight. I thought Matt

(02:19:36):
Damon acted as pants off, and I thought that the
whole cast really supported what this movie was about, which
it really wasn't about mj was. It was about Nike,
and it was about somebody taking risks and somebody taking chances,
and sports they're kinda That's kind of the thing with

(02:19:57):
sports is everybody's risk takers. That's how you end up
in a professional sport in the first place. So anyways,
great movie, well, awesome, awesome acting performances all around.

Speaker 2 (02:20:07):
Any good movie has one thing. All good movies have
one thing in common, and that is character development. You
get to know Michael Jordan's mom because of Viola Davis.
I mean, Jason Bateman, who's one of the Nike executives
that sort of oversees a little bit. The son of
a Caro character outstanding. I mean, you get to know

(02:20:29):
the people in the movie, the guy that created the
air Jordan's shoe dynamic, great stuff. I mean, that's how
you make a good movie. At the end, you have
to understand who each of the characters are. Whether they're
living people or fictional doesn't matter. Definition of character, and
they do it beautifully in this movie. Air Ben Affleck
tremendous job. By the way, he was at the red carpet,

(02:20:49):
as was Matt Damon. J Loo was there with her
husband Ben, and she wanted to stay in the background.
This was like his night. You know, a lot of
people obviously to see j Loo. She looked great. And
then of course Matt was there with his entire family,
so we had a lot of fun out there. Was
good to see them, but especially great to see Son.
He was, by the way we heard him, you know,

(02:21:09):
eighty three years young. What a tremendous interview. Gets still
a lot of feedback about our Sonny Vikara interview, and
he's as sharp as he's ever been, no light up
at all. In fact, he was classic working at red carpet.
Just do an interview after interview after interview after interview.
By the way, did you notice at the end of
the movie they did not show his face at the
end of the credits, you know, they were just sort

(02:21:31):
of updating where everybody is? He asked purposely. There's one
scene where you see his back from a shot, you know,
back in nineteen eighty whatever, mid eighties. But he requested not.
I don't know why. I love Sonny and it looks great.
Let's find out what's frending right now. I don't know
if she's seen them. Let's find out. Moncey Belonda is
Monse Have you seen the movie Air?

Speaker 6 (02:21:51):
I have not seen it yet.

Speaker 2 (02:21:53):
Okay, So if you want to see a good movie, yes,
just a good movie that you'll walk out saying that
was that was a good movie. Yeah, go see Air.
I will promise you.

Speaker 6 (02:22:04):
I plan on it. I'm also very easily impressed. So
I'll bring this who when na Yeah, with like movies.

Speaker 2 (02:22:10):
I feel like, what is your I mean, what's your
favorite genre of movie?

Speaker 6 (02:22:14):
Well, so I actually don't do a lot of movies.
I love scary movies. I hate when movies are three
hours long.

Speaker 7 (02:22:21):
It took me two weeks to watch Wolf of Wall
Street because it's too long. So I hate long movies,
which I feel like it's a trend now and I
hate it.

Speaker 6 (02:22:29):
So scary movies.

Speaker 7 (02:22:30):
I'm in my seat, Evil Dead Rises, I'm gonna be there.
I can't wait to watch that. It's probably gonna be
ninety minutes, no more than two hours. So I'm more
of a TV kind of girl, but I do want
to watch air.

Speaker 2 (02:22:40):
By the way, speaking of horror movies, I have a
friend of mine who on Easter watches nothing but bunny
horror movies. And I was thinking, well, how many of
these movies could there be? And they send me.

Speaker 1 (02:22:51):
This list and I'm like, there's like twenty of these.

Speaker 2 (02:22:54):
Yeah, the horror movies based on rabbits or bunnies. That's
how I did not know this.

Speaker 6 (02:23:01):
I didn't know there were that many. But that's not
what's awesome.

Speaker 2 (02:23:04):
I was like that I did not know these movies.

Speaker 7 (02:23:08):
I gotta do that next year for Easter for sure.
If you want to know what was trending, hashtag no
Ad was trending. That's not the case because Ad is
back on the floor. Reports are saying that he sustained
a nerve stinger on his right arm.

Speaker 6 (02:23:25):
I thought, yes, so he is back on the core.

Speaker 2 (02:23:27):
You know.

Speaker 7 (02:23:28):
He has twelve points for the Lakers, seven rebounds, He
get four blocks. But the Grizzlies are beating the Lakers
sixty seven to sixty three. Early in the third quarter.
Jaron Jackson Junior leads all scores. He's got twenty one
points and five rebounds.

Speaker 6 (02:23:42):
They're shooting fairly the same from.

Speaker 7 (02:23:44):
The field, the Grizzlies forty nine percent from the field,
the Lakers forty five percent.

Speaker 6 (02:23:48):
From the three point line, the.

Speaker 7 (02:23:50):
Grizzlies are shooting forty percent and the Lakers a typical
twenty six percent from beyond the arc.

Speaker 6 (02:23:56):
But that's how it's going so far. We got a
whole second half to see how this one ends.

Speaker 7 (02:24:00):
In Major League Baseball, some games have wrapped it up,
like the Red Sox thanks to Justin Turner hitting that
home run. They beat the Angels two to one. The
Nationals held on to take down the Guardian seven to six.
The Yankees DJ Lamayhew had a home run and they
beat the Twins to zero. Rays, after losing two in
a row, came back to life. Eight to one was
the final score against the Blue Jays. The Diamondback shut

(02:24:20):
out the Marlins five zero. The Bruis and the Padres
just got going. Bruis are up one zero in the
second inning. The Pirates and the Cardinals are still tied.
They are playing in Saint Louis, tied at three apiece.
Top of the ninth inning. Braves one run lead over
the Royals five to four. Bottom of the ninth inning.
They're playing in Kansas City and the Phillies that just

(02:24:41):
keep scoring against the Reds they can't stop. Twelve to
three is the score, top of the seventh inning.

Speaker 6 (02:24:46):
It's been fun, guys, back to you, except you Rich I.

Speaker 2 (02:24:49):
Was gonna say, wow, you pulled a punch on that one. Yes, yeah,
But we'll see the bets. If you haven't heard, there's
a bet on the table. There is because if there's
a sweep in this series between the Clippers and the Suns,
based on who sweeps who, and by the way, Game
four will be Saturday, so when we come back next Sunday,

(02:25:10):
the potential to sweep is there. There is a wager
going on between Moncey and Rich on one end could
be a flamed steak, on the other a flamed eggplant.

Speaker 6 (02:25:22):
That's right, Yeah, exactly, that's right.

Speaker 1 (02:25:24):
Well, and she did mention earlier in the update, she said,
you know, I am easily entertained, which falls right in
line with being a Clippers fan.

Speaker 6 (02:25:31):
I wow, like you at all?

Speaker 2 (02:25:36):
You remember the last two Sundays and Rich wasn't here.
Mon Yeah, that was lovely.

Speaker 1 (02:25:40):
I didn't mean that I did it.

Speaker 6 (02:25:42):
Where is lucky that.

Speaker 1 (02:25:44):
Slipped out?

Speaker 2 (02:25:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (02:25:46):
Sure it did?

Speaker 2 (02:25:49):
All right, mind set, we'll settle down and very very good.
By the way, she had an episode yesterday. I'm the
weirdest thing happened today. I don't know how you would
explain this, right. So I walk out of my house
to get in the smart car, and my car is
on the street, okay, on the curve, and we live
on a hill, so we're not near any marine street area,

(02:26:11):
so basically the only people heading up the hill are
people that live in the neighborhood. So I come out
to my car and there's a car parked next to
my car in the middle of the street. It's like
a white sedan and it's got tinted windows, so I
can't see actually who's in the car. So, and it's

(02:26:33):
parked literally right next to my car, but it's in
the street. So I get into my car and I figure, like, well,
this person will see me get in my car. Well,
probably like oh, maybe they stop to do something and
they're going to move on. They don't move. So I
pull out and I pull around this guy to leave.
So I immediately call the house to Denise. I said, there's

(02:26:54):
this car parked in front of our house with tinted windows.
She goes outside, sort of hangs out like he's looking
around the front of the house like something. Guy's just
sitting there, not moving, tinted windows. Now eventually he did move,
But why would I mean, if you wanted to let's
say you wanted to make a phone call, right, I mean,

(02:27:15):
there was there's curb space everywhere. You're not just gonna
stop in the middle of the street. Huh on a
street that gets almost zero traffic unless literally you live
in the neighborhood. Just curious about whoever that is. If
you're listening right now, we're watching you. It was just
the weirdest thing. I'm like, why, I mean, and because

(02:27:37):
the windows were I could see there was somebody in
the car, but I couldn't really see much because the
windows were tinted.

Speaker 1 (02:27:43):
Ever since marijuana has been legalized at the state level
in California, Steve has been seeing all sorts of stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:27:51):
I was seeing this and it was really weird. Grizzlies
are up seventy five to seventy over the Lakers right now, and.

Speaker 1 (02:27:58):
He predicted Anthony Davis. If you again, if you go
back and watch the video of the injury, the quote
unquote injury that Anthony Davis suffered at the end of
the first half, you knew he was coming back for
the second half. I mean again, unless this was one
of those absolute freak things where you know something more

(02:28:20):
happened and the video footage just can't reveal that much
to you. The contact was so mini minimal between him
and Jackson. I mean, it's I don't know, listen, Anthony Davis.
I think I think there's a little bit of Hey,
it's really difficult keeping a seven foot frame healthy for

(02:28:42):
an entire set.

Speaker 2 (02:28:42):
But he does, by the way, I'm just watching made
a nice turnaround jumper. So he had a stinger is
basically what look and that can happen.

Speaker 1 (02:28:50):
I'm not saying that it didn't happen, but there's also
there's this awareness, and I especially see this with basketball players.
There's this awareness of how the public talks about you,
and there's a certain yeah, and you see this with
a lot of guys. They'll they'll play up certain injuries
so that they get a little bit more cred for

(02:29:11):
being a tough guy, you know what I mean. Like,
and I don't know why, but it's one of those
things that irks me as a fan of sport. Maybe
it's because I played football and you don't see it
nearly as much in football there, but there are just
certain guys who they'll kind of limp around and they'll
show you how hurt they are this way in postgame
they get to tell you the first question they know

(02:29:34):
is going to be asked is like, hey, you know
the shoulder injury, Anthony, how were you able to come
back out of the locker room and still be as
effective as you were in the second half? You know,
assuming the Lakers win and helping your team to a victory.
Well you know, shoot, you know that really I thought
it was gonna be more serious than it was. But
you know, it's the playoffs and you just gotta you know,
you gotta have your your head in the game, and

(02:29:55):
nothing was going to keep me off the court man,
And it's like you can almost predict before it's actually
being sad. And so again, I mean this, this, this
is just a personal thing. I'm sure there's other people
who feel that way when they're watching basketball in the postseason.
But I promise you if we fast forward right now
to postgame, that's exactly how this is all going to

(02:30:17):
be treated and handled, and then we're going to move
on to Game two as if the shoulder never happened.

Speaker 2 (02:30:21):
Did you have one of those teammates that I mean,
everyone's hurt in the NFL, everybody there's there's you know,
and having worked for an NFL team and seeing these
guys crawl in on a Monday, it's like, how are
they going to be ready to play next week? And
miraculously they get out there for another game. But did
you ever have a teammate that would openly talk about

(02:30:41):
how banged up they were or was that completely taboo,
Like you would never no matter how hurt you were,
you would never call attention to it.

Speaker 1 (02:30:51):
Yeah, I mean there were guys like that. Yeah, of course,
and they bothered everybody, like I mean, even if they.

Speaker 2 (02:30:58):
Were like, you're liking this guy, like, yeah, I'm too.
I get it.

Speaker 1 (02:31:02):
Everybody has something and you know, and frankly, in basketball,
I mean, if you make it to the playoffs, most
likely everybody has play on the roster who's played significant minutes.
Everybody's played through something that season. I mean it's eighty
two games. How could you not have a sore hamstring
or a sore calf, or a sore shoulder, or you know,

(02:31:23):
wrench your back at some point or whatever. There's a
million things broken finger, it happens. It's the guys who
complain the most who you know, Look, they get known
by their teammates as a complainer, they get known by
the training staff as a complainer, they get known by
the coaching staff as a complainer, and everybody knows how

(02:31:43):
to deal with it. You just try not to fan
the flame because you don't want them. You don't want
them taking more time off than they actually need. So
everybody just commiserates with them. They go, oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
that really stinks. Yeah that hamstring, Yeah boy, those are
tough man. Okay, good luck, you know, and you just
sort of keep it moving because the reality is your

(02:32:05):
only even if. And again, Anthony Davis is one of
the best centers in the game. He is an unbelievable
point scorer. He had five blocks in the first half.
This guy's sensational. But when when you're a key player
on a team and you're constantly unavailable, how key of
a player are you? You know, it's it's the reality

(02:32:26):
is durability is your most important ability. And if Anthony
Davis isn't healthy for this postseason run for the Lakers,
guess what. The Lakers aren't winning a championship. Everybody knows that.
I hope Anthony Davis knows that.

Speaker 2 (02:32:42):
On the other side, college teammates taking very different directions
tell you who they are. This is Fox Sports Sunday,
Steve Harbin and Rich Hornberger Fox Sports Sunday Live from
the tire rack dot Com Studios. What a thing the
crew today? Iowa Sam who along with our brilliant producer

(02:33:08):
Bo Benson there. I think they're both gonna. Are you
guys gonna go in tandem down to loop as down
there in San Diego.

Speaker 1 (02:33:13):
I think both of you guys should get it.

Speaker 2 (02:33:15):
I want them now. Yeah, and more banana bread please.

Speaker 5 (02:33:18):
That would imply that I would voluntarily spend my free
time with Sam and.

Speaker 1 (02:33:21):
You would no.

Speaker 2 (02:33:24):
No, wow wow. By the way, if you want more
banana bread, I think that Bo has some left. Wow
now that he said that, I'm gonna take it.

Speaker 1 (02:33:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:33:31):
No, Sam can't have it. It's not that I wouldn't
want to do it. It's just that, you know, Yeah,
I get I get about sixteen hours of Sam Kinsley
each weekend, and that's more than enough for me.

Speaker 2 (02:33:40):
Yeah. But if you're sharing a burrito, it's plenty of Sam.

Speaker 1 (02:33:43):
Yeah, it's a lot of Sam.

Speaker 2 (02:33:45):
I have any I've even mentioned their chips and guac
and salts Man.

Speaker 1 (02:33:51):
They've got a salce of bar. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:33:53):
And by the way, if you eat there, you're gonna
get the beer as well on tap.

Speaker 5 (02:33:56):
So I hope they're paying Steve for this.

Speaker 2 (02:34:00):
There's no pol plug over here, and I don't even
think about it. I have no connecting to.

Speaker 1 (02:34:04):
That at all.

Speaker 5 (02:34:04):
I was like I was eating Loco and my burrito
fell apart and Steve comes in here. He's just like,
you know, that wouldn't happen.

Speaker 2 (02:34:11):
You know, Brios don't fall apart at Loop.

Speaker 1 (02:34:16):
Loo, But it was How funny would it be if
like that's how this seventy plus year radio career comes
crashing too alt.

Speaker 2 (02:34:26):
But then I get free, Loop is the rest of
my life?

Speaker 1 (02:34:29):
You know, that'd be really good?

Speaker 2 (02:34:31):
H and Manci of course, even though she is no
longer talking to you, I know, I know.

Speaker 6 (02:34:36):
Yeah, no, never again.

Speaker 1 (02:34:38):
I can't believe this is how it ends.

Speaker 6 (02:34:41):
I know.

Speaker 7 (02:34:41):
So I thought that you were going to say just
crazy things today, blasphemous things.

Speaker 1 (02:34:46):
All I said was sons and four and then I
really feel like since then you have been out of line,
and I just I don't know what to do with this.

Speaker 6 (02:35:02):
I'm out of line.

Speaker 1 (02:35:03):
This working, this work environment has all of a sudden
become very caustic, and yeah, I am mentally struggling.

Speaker 6 (02:35:12):
Good.

Speaker 2 (02:35:12):
The best part of this is we're going to have
a resolve to this next Sunday. That's right, yes, because
if if there is a sweep on either end, man, well,
we're gonna have a Sunday show next week. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yea.

Speaker 1 (02:35:25):
Hey.

Speaker 2 (02:35:25):
I want to mention about these former teammates in college
and how their careers have gone in very different directions.
And it's not football teammates, and it's not basketball teammates.
It's baseball teammates in college. And they were pitchers on
the same staff at UCLA. One of them, Garrett Cole,
today threw a two hit complete game shutout. They're great.

(02:35:49):
The only time we ever see complete games nowadays usually
when a guy has a no hitter, but he threw
a two hit shutout, struck out ten walked only one
through about like one hundred and nine pitches. That's old
school right, by the way. He's also four and oh
this year first got to get to four victories within
the VRA under one. So Garrett Cole is very much
on top of his game. His college teammate Trevor Bauer,

(02:36:13):
and we have not heard the last of Trevor Bauer.
Trevor Bauer, of course, after his three hundred and twenty
four game suspension of Major League Baseball, is now in
Japan and he made his debut for a minor league
team in Japan, and apparently even though there were only
twenty six hundred fans, very small minor league park. There

(02:36:36):
were people lined up everywhere to see him pitch, and
he pitched well. He allowed four hits, no runs, striking
out six in four innings. He's still only thirty two
years old. The Dodgers, by the way, still owe him
twenty two and a half million dollars have to release it,

(02:36:58):
and they still owe him all that money. Apparently fans
of Japan are not bothered by his past. Hundreds lined
up outside the stadium wanted to get a glimpse of
the guy. He wore number ninety six because his goal
is to have his fastball at average at ninety six.
So let me ask you this, if he continues to

(02:37:19):
pitch well over there, and again, he's only thirty two
years of age, and by the way, his last season
pitching with the Dodgers after they signed him after his
cy young year in Cincinnati in twenty twenty, he was
eight and five with a two fifty nine ERA and
seventeen starts, So obviously he's still a premier pitcher. Would
you take a shot at Trevor Bauer with all the
baggage that he will carry with him after that incident

(02:37:43):
with the woman.

Speaker 1 (02:37:44):
Well, let me tell you, and this isn't just true
of Major League Baseball, this is true of all sports
league leagues. And this is true across across many front offices.
I mean, when you can play, that is that is
the most powerful aspect of these discussions. Can Trevor Bauer

(02:38:06):
pitch well, I mean, we'll see how he does in Japan,
but it appears first out, Yeah he can. Can he
help a Major League baseball team, Oh, there's no question.
So if his name in terms of being cleared of
any suspension, if he's completely a free agent to be
signed at the end of this or this professional baseball

(02:38:27):
season in Japan, I could almost guarantee you somebody will
take the chance and sign him. Unless there is collusion,
unless every single team has agreed to secretly keeping Trevor
Bauer out of the league, and he's not accused of
him any further legal circumstances, then yeah, he's gonna pitch

(02:38:48):
him major League baseball again. He's just too talented not to.
And we all seen this happen time and time again.
Look at Deshaun Watson. Deshaun Watson had at the time
where he was traded for by the Cleveland Browns and
given a guaranteed contract that dwarfed every other contract ever
signed by a quarterback in NFL history. He had twenty

(02:39:12):
plus civil suits against him for alleged sexual assault and
sexual misconduct. So going back to Trevor Bauer, Yeah, if
he continues to pitch well, and he pitches some part
of a full major league season in Japan or an
entire pro baseball season in Japan, yeah he'll be back
in Major League Baseball.

Speaker 2 (02:39:32):
Unfortunately, every time I look up Bauer, see a picture
that reminds me of our producer. They bear a striking
resemblance down in San Diego. He spooky, very spooky. By
the way, this back and forth game between the Lakers
and the Grizzlies has suddenly swung the Lakers way. They
have a six point late with a minute ago in
the third quarter. Will it be eggplant? Will it be steak?

(02:39:55):
We'll find out next Sunday.

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Fox Sports Radio News

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Jonas Knox

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Steve Hartman and Rich Ohrnberger talk NBA Playoffs!