Steve Hartman and Rich Ohrnberger talk WNBA and NBA Finals!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio living Thetory once again
here on another fabulous sports Sunday, Fox Sports Sunday. We're
broadcasting live from the ti raq dot Com studios.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
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should be. All right now, Rich, before we get into
all the big sports stories that we're gonna be covering
on the show today, just heard from Dan Bayer on

(00:35):
his summer wish list of things to do, and he
said one thing that he has never done that he
wants to do is smoke a brisket.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Now, I ask you, a man that has done pretty
much everything in the culinary world, have you smoked a brisket? Absolutely? Yeah,
That's what I told him. I said, if anyone would
know how to go out this talk to Rich.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
I'm so glad you pointed him in my direction, because
this is actually something that was a little bit of
a chore learning how to do. I wasn't very good
the first two times I attempted a brisket, and what
I started doing is realizing this isn't a one day
process for me. This really kind of extends into a

(01:23):
two day process because I really like a long, low
smoke on a brisket. I mean, I've talked to barbecue
experts about this. Myron Mixing, a champion pitmaster from Georgia.
I've had him on a couple of different shows where
I've asked him what his style when it comes to
brisket and he goes, Listen, He's like, we're going fast

(01:46):
and we're going hot, and you know, he's he doesn't
even really keep a thermometer in the meat, like he
just goes and he like I said, he's a championship
winning pitmaster, so he has his way and it works
for him. But I found low and slow controlling the
temperature of the meat and then finishing it in this
is gonna sound crazy, but wrapped up in towels in

(02:06):
a cooler. So you once you finish smoking the meat,
you wrap it up, you insulate it really well in towels,
and then you put into a cooler that you're by
the way, it has to be a cooler that you're
not gonna you're not gonna be bothered by its smelling
like meat. For the rest of the time. You own it,
and you stuff it down in this cooler and you
let it just continue to cook in its own juices.

(02:28):
And when you bust that sucker out, man, oh man,
it's gonna be the most tender piece of meat you
ever slipped in your mouth. And it is. It is
the the Ornberger way. We haven't done it every ever,
ever since I discovered this new recipe, we haven't done
it any any different ever since.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Here's the thing about brisket. When it's done right.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Oh, there are a few things that are more tasty,
But when it's not done right, nothing is more ordinary
than brisket.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
You know what, Like you eat some brisk you know
like this is nothing. This is just meet I mean,
there's nothing. So that's the advice. I know Dan headed
out here. I'm sure he's listening right now. So Dan,
if you're going to do this, smoke the brisket, listen
to Rich. You got to go the extra mile to
get it right.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Steve, we're on the doorsteps of the summer. Yes, I
think on my Instagram account where right now? And I'll
pin it to the top of my profile. For now.
But there's uh, there's my ribs, my six hour smoked ribs.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Oh, they are so unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
I did those Memorial Day weekends. I'll pin those to
the pro at Rich Hornberger on Instagram. Dan, if you're listening, buddy,
I'm going to do an instructional video on my brisket
and h and we'll bring you to Providence. Brother.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Well, this is such great timing, too, Rich, because you know,
I'm so excited.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
You know, game one of the NBA Finals.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
To not today, no, no, no, tomorrow, tomorrow, but.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Wednesday.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Get it closer. That's like NBA Finals Eve.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Okay, this is the most.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
You think about. Think about all the momentum that the
NBA lost here. First of all, they had the ultimate
nightmare when both the Knicks and the Nuggets lost Game
sevens at home.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
The Knicks are far more attractive as a matchup against
the Celtics than the Pacers were, and the Nuggets were
certainly a much more as defending champions attractive opponent for
Dallas than the t Wolves. And then you end up
with the Pacers and t Wolves no showing in the
conference finals. So after some you know, decently competitive series
in the first couple of rounds. Where's the NBA been

(04:39):
now for two weeks? Like nowhere? Blowouts in the conference finals?
Nowhere you have to lay off more time. How many
people are going to get the Thursday to me like
Thursday night, all of a sudden, they'll be flipping through.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Oh I forgot Game one of the NBA Finals. Oh
I missed the game. I just do not understand this league.
I want to bring up a quick point here.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Mark Medina, our NBA insider, actually did a show full
show with UH with Dan yesterday and uh. They were
doing a little questionnaire Q and a NBA questionnaire UH,
and Chris Chrispopherred here was asking Mark a question. Now
that the NFL has said, you know, screw you, NBA,

(05:20):
We're gonna have games on Christmas Day, so we own
that day.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Now, he goes, and so Chris says, you know what.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
What day can the NBA lake claim to like Saint
Patrick's Day? And Mark Medina said it best. He said this,
the NFL owns the NBA three hundred and sixty five
days a year.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (05:38):
Wow, I would like this is Austin Celtics play on
Saint Patti's day.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Okay, well, I would be actually pretty amazing.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
That would be very cool. Like Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
It would not matter because it doesn't matter if there's
seemingly nothing happening in the NFL. Mark Madina's right, the
NFL trump's the NBA three hundred and sixty five days
a year. So the idea that you're already swimming upstream,
but now you're making it worse.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
By pushing off this.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Celtics will have been off ten days, Dallas will have
been off seven days, and honestly, out of sight, out
of mind in terms of the NBA.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
So listen, he's one hundred percent right. And this sounds
super biased when it's coming from a former NFL player,
but I promise you I'm not saying this out of bias,
because there are a lot of things that I think
the NFL does that I think are a little bit
clumsy and boneheaded. But one thing that they do that
is better than any of the other league's Major League

(06:40):
Baseball NBA certainly, is they market themselves every single month
of the year, every single month on the calendar. There
is something important that the or excuse me, that the
NFL has scheduled that is going to steal attention from
other sports. And as a matter of fact, sometimes during
the highest points of these other sports where they're going

(07:02):
head to head with playoff times or majors in golf,
and you're stealing attention away from the most important times
in these other sports in the off season of the NFL.
So they've done a tremendous job dominating the twelve month calendar.
The NBA, their their fault is I think personally, they

(07:23):
have spent way too much time trying to attract an
international audience and they've really lost sight on gaining the
favor of the American audience. I feel like they're a
mile wide and an inch deep. I feel like the
NFL understands like, Okay, we need to capture the American audience.

(07:45):
We need to dig that well well as deep as
we possibly can and find new water and refresh it
and find new reservoirs inside of our you know, our
biggest pool of fans and viewers. And that's what they've
done such a great job of. And then now as
a result, it feels like when the NFL sprinkles a
game in London or sprinkles a game in Mexico City,

(08:07):
or sprinkles a game in South Powall, Brazil, or sprinkles
a game in Germany. People are clamoring for it because
they see how much Americans love the sport. That's the
problem with the NBA. They are a mile wide and
an inch deep, and I don't think it is a
great way to promote your league, at least in the
United States. Americans want to feel like they are the

(08:29):
stars of the show, that you are paying full focus,
full attention to them, and I don't think the NBA
does that. It doesn't scratch out a itch for a
lot of Americans.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Now, I will take exception one thing you said, and
that is America loves his sport. Yes, they do love football.
They just don't love the UFL. The UFL continues to
limp along, and I keep watching it because on the
weekends here we'll have one of our TVs on again.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
They love college football though, in college football.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
But the UFL has proven as did the USFL.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
And with all the other like the AF it is XFL.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
Is it possible to actually play the game of football
and not have people watching, And the UFL once again
has proven well.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
Yeah, you know why it's impossible. Why it's up there. Wow,
it's much like horse racing. You see it up there? Well,
what's on the score? Bug, Steve? You can see it? Yeah,
you can see the over under yeah, and you can
see the points sprout.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
They they're literally on the watching what's on TV right today?

Speaker 2 (09:26):
Football? What's not on TV today? Basketball?

Speaker 5 (09:29):
That is.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Whoa, whoa, whoa?

Speaker 3 (09:32):
What's happening?

Speaker 1 (09:33):
Hold on on the other side, we we might I
want to get out early because I got something very
deep coming up in the next segment. Here show Well,
the NBA is trumped three hundred and sixty five days
a year by the NFL. There's one sport that can
stand up to the NFL. That's right, one sport they

(09:53):
can stand up to the NFL.

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(11:02):
So we're talking about the dilemma for the NBA exasperated
by the fact that they have held off for the
start of these NBA finals where by the time they'll start,
we forgot there was even a season, like oh, I'm sorry,
they's still playing. So we can see the fact here
Ridge that the NFL trump's the NBA three hundred and
sixty five days a year. But there is one sport
that does not get trumped every single day by the NFL.

(11:27):
And that's in full effect today we're talking the w NBA.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
The w NBA more than has held its own today
head to head against the NFL because of dare we
say physical play? Something about physical play. I mean, I
don't know if you got to see any of the
highlights of this Fever Sky game that went on yesterday,
but I mean this was old school bad Boys of Detroit.

(11:55):
I mean, where's Bill Lambier when you need him. Kennedy Carter,
she absolutely put Caitlin Clark down, and earlier in the game,
Caitlin Clark's longtime adversary, Angel Reese put an elbow into her.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
I mean, this is.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
Good stuff right now.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
So the WNBA is realizing that the best way to
get noticed is to put your biggest star on the ground.
You put her down, you give him a And by
the way, the Kennedy Carter knockdown was literally right in
front of the official, and she was only called for

(12:34):
a regular foul.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yep, I mean there was no flagrant.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
I mean this was an unprovoked attack of a player,
not just a player, the player of your league, and
the official looking right at the play just called a
regular foul. So I'm trying to figure out what is
the what is the WNBA strategy right now to again
take advantage of their moment that they're having right now

(13:00):
with the spotlight on Caitlin Clark.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
Well, here here's one thing I will say about all this.
We're talking about it, yes, so I I hate to
say it, but if they're smart enough to capitalize, and
I think they are, I hope their public relations teams
are aware of how good this is for them. Regardless

(13:27):
of whether or not it's a negative storyline. It's keeping
the w NBA in the thoughts of the general public.
Caitlin Clark's name remains in the zeitgeist. Every single week
there's been some sort of storyline, her early struggles, now
physical play she's receiving. There were other w NBA stars

(13:49):
chirping about how all of a sudden, you know, a
straight white girl from Iowa is getting all the attention,
whereas there have been so many black gay women who
have been stars for a long time in this league
who haven't gotten nearly the amount of coverage. I mean,
these may all sound like negative things, and to a

(14:12):
greater or lesser extent they are. However, it's keeping the
WNBA front of mind. We're talking about it. We're listen, Steve,
we've been working together for part of a decade, I
mean close to a decade. Now. How often have we
spoken about the WNBA before Caitlin Clark Well.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
None zero. I mean, let's not overstate this. By the way,
it's interesting about Caitlin Clark, right, they were trying to
make the point she's the first rookie in w NBA
history in her first ten games to have at least
one hundred and fifty points fifty rebounds of fifty.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
As says something along those lines.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
So I wanted to do a little research on exactly
what she's doing because the high bund Caitlin Clark as
we've never seen a woman and shoot the way she shoots. Right,
And so, there are forty two w NBA players that
have enough field goal attempts to qualify for the field
goal percentage title.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
You have to have so many attempts, right, forty two.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
She is currently thirty seventh with a thirty seven point
six percent shooting percentage. Now, the three pointer, that's her,
that's where she really blows everybody.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
You know, she blows that.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
There are thirty five WNBA players that have had enough
three point attempts to qualify. She's thirty first, and by
the way, she's third in the league in attempts and
thirty first in the league in percentage barely thirty percent shooting.
So right now you've got a problem if you're the WNBA,

(15:45):
because the hype was she's Steph Curry, right, She's she's
this incredible shooter, when if you really examine her numbers
at Iowa, she wasn't that high percentage shooter.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
She was a volume shooter.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
She shot a lot of shots, and she made a
lot of shots. But right now, for the WNBA, the
reality is in ten games, in no game that she
has played so far has she been the best player
on the court. No, there's not one game that she
has played so far in which she was the best
player on the court.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
She is the most popular name, she is.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
The biggest star in the court. Ever, but howdie keep
that star going?

Speaker 3 (16:24):
Well?

Speaker 1 (16:25):
One way to do it is this, apparently not think
about this. She gets put on the ground by you know,
Kennedy Carter.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
Right. Where were her teammates to defend her? None?

Speaker 1 (16:38):
None, no one helped her up. I mean, I'm like,
are you kidding me? You would know how this is.
If there was that flagrant of a foul in the NBA,
you got guys grabbing each other, you certainly help your
teammate up. Her own teammates didn't even help her up.
So there is like a league wide animosity jealous See

(17:00):
it's calling for what it is toward Caitlin Clark.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
It's it's a real thing. It's envy, it's it's jealousy.
It's a thought process that we've been here, we've been
doing the work. You're not even that good, and you're
getting all this attention. We've been here, We've been on
the buses, we've been taking the commercial flights. You come
in here and we get private planes. We've been here,

(17:27):
we've been doing all the hard work. We've been trying.
We've been begging for more quality prime time television slots.
You come in here and we get it. Are you
kidding me? Like? Like, what have we been doing wrong? Now?
That's the feeling that the WNBA players. I shouldn't say
I'm generalizing. I'm sure there are plenty of WNBA players

(17:48):
who can see the forests before the trees. You know,
they're not getting caught up in the moment. They're seeing
the bigger picture, which is holy cow, she is going
to all boats rise with the tide. If our numbers
are better, our ratings are better, our salaries will get better,
our endorsement opportunities will get better. Whether or not Caitlyn

(18:08):
Clark is feasting and we're just getting table scraps, it's
still more than we got prior to Kaitlyn Clark entering
this league. So there're certain players who are absolutely riding
the coattails of this story and they're thrilled about it. However,
the reality is jealousy is a very very human trait,

(18:30):
and whether you're an opponent or a teammate of Caitlyn Clark's,
if you've been doing this grind for a while and
you've been trying to schlep your wares to the general
public of the United States or anywhere else for that matter,
and people just haven't been interested, and then all of
a sudden, this phenom Hawkey comes in first overall draft

(18:53):
pick and kind of stinks, And she's the one who's
getting all of the attention on Sports Center and all
the attention from sports writers and everybody's showing up to
her locker again. Even if you share a locker room
with her, even if you like her, there might be
that tinge of envy inside your heart saying where has
this been this whole time?

Speaker 2 (19:14):
And think about this Kennedy Carter.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
So now they rule it was a flagrant, even though
the official that was staring literally right at the play
called a normal foul, no fine, no fine for Carter.

Speaker 5 (19:25):
Not.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
In fact, the only fine that came out of this
game was Angel Reese didn't meet with the media after
the game. She gets fined one thousand dollars. So I
know the WNBA is it's got a fine line here.
In other words, we want to make sure, I mean,
you have a foul like that, where the worse you're
gonna get calls for a flagrant. Somebody's gonna do it again,
and maybe she gets hurt or she misses time. It

(19:49):
is not a long season, and you know they're filling
up arenas wherever she shows up. But at the same time,
you don't want to look like, all right, we have
a certain set of rules for her and another set
of rules for everyone else. Then you have a feel
full mutiny in your league. I'll be honest with you
if this continues. If I was representing Kaitlin Clark, the

(20:14):
WNBA needs her way more than she needs the WNBA.
Oh yeah, Kaylin Clark does not need the WNBA. I
agree at all they need her. And if you're not
going to do anything to protect me, if you're going
to allow it to be open season on me, eventually,

(20:35):
I could get hurt here, seriously hurt, and I do
not want to have to happen, I would just walk.
I would say, if this is the way it's going
to be, see you later, WNBA.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
You can.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
You can have back your sixty thousand dollars salary. I'm
making millions. I don't need you. And if I were
advising Kaitlin Clark, if this continues and the WA doesn't
WNBA doesn't take any real action against these incidents, I
would just pack up and say I'm leaving, bye bye.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
I will I will say this, and I'm I listen.
I'm not even embarrassed to mention this, because I really
I pay zero attention or I have paid zero attention
to women's college basketball or women's professional basketball in its
entirety forever. I've never been interested in it until now,

(21:28):
and so I'm going to I'm going to point out
the fact that you mentioned Kennedy Carter at the top
of this show, and I knew exactly who you were
talking about. I before this moment, I had no idea
who Kennedy Carter is. So again, another effective strategy by
these other players in the WNBA to have their fifteen

(21:51):
minutes as well rub up against the sun. Yeah, you
may get a little burned, but you're also gonna feel
the warmth and you're gonna be in the glow of sunlight.
Little bit. Kennedy Carter, her clips are going viral now
across x dot com and across Instagram. Reels and TikTok
about how she ain't answering any Kaitlin Clark questions.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
Well, think about this.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
Would we have known adri Reese no if they hadn't
had that tit for ten two years ago. And that's
my point, and ange Reese is making a point to
her own teammates. As soon as Carter put Kaylin Clark down,
the first person to jump off the bench was Angel Reese.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
She was sitting out there. She jumped up. Yay, good job.
Now people are gonna know who you are.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
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All right, let's find out what's trending right now. I

(22:56):
do have a question from Monci who has been working
around on the clock.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
And that's as issues. But we talked a little bit
about this before and just.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
Women in general, and again I you know, I'm the
furthest thing from all right, So okay, but this idea
that not even her own teammates rallied to her defense
when she was knocked to the floor. Normally we see
this in an NBA game guys with you know, start
grabbing guys or you certainly a teammate would help his
teammate off the floor.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
That did not happen.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
So when we talk about jealousy, can you give us
a little perspective of how it might be different in
the w NBA as opposed to let's just say the NBA.

Speaker 8 (23:43):
You know, that moment where her teammates did not go
to help her was super disappointing. I think everybody can
agree to that. I've said since the beginning, since Diana
Tarossi's comments, that this stems from jealousy and envy.

Speaker 9 (23:56):
Just like Rich said, these women.

Speaker 8 (23:58):
Have been trying for a year years to put the
league on the map, get any sort of attention. So
I think it is very natural feeling that these women
are experiencing.

Speaker 9 (24:08):
As this girl who wasn't the chosen one.

Speaker 8 (24:12):
It wasn't like we heard about her five years ago,
six years ago, that she was gonna come up and
be this thing.

Speaker 9 (24:17):
She was a lightning in a bottle two years ago.

Speaker 8 (24:19):
So it came out of nowhere, and so everything Rich said,
I totally agree. The jealousy, the enviousness that we see here,
I think is a little different than the typical jealousy
among women. Women are very we're very jealous, and not
of other men. We're jealous of other women. Like women
empowering and women is not a real thing. This is

(24:40):
not a real thing.

Speaker 9 (24:41):
Women don't like women who maybe.

Speaker 8 (24:44):
Give them a challenge, you know, in certain situations. And
but I think this thing that's happening in the WNBA
is a little bit different because I kind of understand
why they're so jealous. I said to Dan Bayer a
couple of weeks ago talking about this, because we.

Speaker 9 (24:59):
Have I'm talking about the WNBA, which is really great.
I agree, it's really great that I just hope.

Speaker 8 (25:05):
This doesn't last too long, because there's already fans that
are like, I'm not gonna keep watching the WNBA.

Speaker 9 (25:11):
If this is all this is.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
Well that and that's the very point.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
In other words, I'm watching because of Kaitlin Clark, right,
and you're allowing your league to mistreat right, that's the novelce.
So what the person is only watching because Kaitlin Clark
is playing and you're letting the league get away with this.
You are really turning me off. Yeah about whatever this
WNBA thing.

Speaker 9 (25:33):
Is, and this didn't happen just from last night.

Speaker 8 (25:35):
That has been already a sentiment that I have been
reading the last couple of you know, days, few weeks
that people that are just jumping into the WNBA, they're like,
I'm not gonna make it if this is all this
is about, Like, if we're just gonna be watching this
type of game I don't want to watch.

Speaker 9 (25:49):
So I'm just I was hoping that this jealousy.

Speaker 8 (25:52):
The envy, all of this would go away sooner rather
than later, and that everyone would just, you know, enjoy
what's happening in the league. Kennedy Carter is obviously still
trending along with Caitlin Clark. Their Bleacher Report has a
tweet out. I went to her page. She may have
deleted it, but basically she responded to somebody who posted

(26:12):
a picture of her and Camilla Cordoso following last yesterday's game,
and she responded to it and said, besides three point shooting,
what does she bring to the table? Man?

Speaker 9 (26:24):
And that's not good. I went to her page. It's
not there.

Speaker 8 (26:28):
That doesn't mean you didn't delete it. Nobody seems to
be saying that this is fake. There's other articles referring
to this response, like that's not good, that's not a
good coo.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
I'm telling you you are.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
Instead of turning people onto the WNBA, you're turning people off.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
I don't know, I don't know. Listen, I hear what
you're saying, and I'm not saying it rich No, no, no, no,
I'm I'm with you like, I think that the w
NBA is having their moment man there. And even though
even though this is negative, I'm telling you and it
is negative, I'm not saying that there's no positives, there's

(27:04):
no silver linings from the standpoint of the teammates didn't
help her out, Kennedy Carter what she did on the court. Uh,
the camera catchers are saying something profane to her before
she body checks her. It was a flagrant et cetera,
et cetera, et cetera. But the w n b A
right now is trending worldwide on Twitter. When's the last
time that's happened.

Speaker 9 (27:24):
You're one hundred percent right, I think.

Speaker 8 (27:26):
What's what Steve and I what we're thinking is like,
this is a very small window of opportunity and you
don't want to lose it.

Speaker 9 (27:33):
Yeah, right, Like there's already people being turned off.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
The narrative started that they're gonna get this generational talent
that's gonna light up the scoreboard like we've never seen before,
and now ten games in her career, all we're talking
about is how much this league hates her.

Speaker 9 (27:50):
No, it's not good, it's not no. No.

Speaker 8 (27:55):
In fact, to Fellas, Let's let's move away from the
no and thank you Chris.

Speaker 9 (27:59):
Let's start this over here.

Speaker 8 (28:01):
We've got a lot of baseball going on, fellas, up
and down, up and down between the Twins and the Astros.
And it looks like Minnesota just tied the game. In Houston,
three to three, top of the sixth inning. All Red
Sox so far against the Tigers, three zero bottom of
the fourth, Braves holding on to that RBI single by
Matt Olsen in the first inning. They're beating the A's
one zero. Bottom of the fifth inning. Gunner Henderson with

(28:23):
his nineteenth homer of this season.

Speaker 9 (28:25):
I think he's like twenty one. He's so young.

Speaker 8 (28:28):
Orioles beating the race to zero bottom of the fourth inning.

Speaker 9 (28:31):
Pirates in the.

Speaker 8 (28:31):
Blue Jays tied out win apiece. Bottom of the third.
Diamondbacks were up, but the Mets have tied it. It's
three to three bottom of the third. In New York,
Rangers blanking the Marlins three zero.

Speaker 9 (28:40):
Bottom of the fourth.

Speaker 8 (28:41):
The Nationals still up on the Guardians Cleveland officially on
the scoreboard, but Nationals up four to top of the
fourth inning, White Sox blanking the Verse two zero.

Speaker 9 (28:50):
They just got going on and they're.

Speaker 8 (28:51):
About to start the second inning at the RBC Canadian Opened.
The leader Robert McIntyre has not teed off just yet, but.

Speaker 9 (28:59):
He should any minute. He is fourteen hunder part overall.

Speaker 8 (29:02):
Ryan Fox has jumped up to number two, three shots back,
and Tom Kim is now four shots back and he
is alongside Mackenzie Hughes and Ben Griffin.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
Back to you guys, all right, Motzie, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
As always, once again, this is Fox Sports Sunday, Steve
Hartban and Rich Ornberger with you.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
I've been a little.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
Sometimes you have a question in your head that you're
looking for an answer for and the answer ends up
being so obvious you're like, duh, And I have such
a situation right now, Rich, So I've been sitting here
with this long delay of the Lakers announcing who their
next head coach is going to be. I mean, this

(29:47):
is I mean, how long has it been now since
they fired darvinham was right after the playoffs they lost
in the first round. We're in the NBA Finals, they
still don't have a coach, and I'm like, duh. JJ
is part of the ABC announcing crew for the NBA Finals.
They would have to literally buy him out of his
contract in order to wrestle him away. I'm sure the

(30:09):
NBA is telling the Lakers, look, if you want JJ Reddick,
It's not like everyone's tripping over themselves to hire JJ Reddick.
You guys seem to be the only one interested in him.
Or dare I say Lebron once him as the head coach?
Can you at least hold off till he finishes the
work he was hired to do. I mean, you got
rid of Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gunny and hired

(30:31):
JJ Reddick, who literally be in that seat for one
year because he will be the next coach of the Lakers.
I don't know why I didn't think about this until today.
I was like, what is the delay here? But it's
obvious Jj Reddick, Doris Burke, they're the commentators with Mike
Breen to call the NBA Finals, and so they just
got to wait. I'm sure the league is telling him wait,
not like you're gonna lose him to anybody else. Nobody

(30:53):
else thinks that JJ raikes a head coach. You guys
do go for it, but can you at least wait
until the NBA Finals are over?

Speaker 10 (30:59):
Then?

Speaker 2 (30:59):
You can hire this guy, right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
That makes sense to me. Also, I mean, if we're
being perfectly honest, Lebron James is the NBA. I mean
he's as important oh yeah, oh yeah. And he's as
important a mouthpiece and sounding board for these owners, whether
they're speaking to him directly or through communicating through their

(31:22):
commissioner or through his agent to him as Adam Silver himself.
I mean, Lebron is the de facto general manager of
the Lakers. He's the de facto head coach of the Lakers.
He's the superstar of the second biggest market basketball team
in the in the country. He's he's the de facto

(31:44):
assistant commissioner to the NBA. He's the biggest face of
this league and has been for two decades, or the
better part of two decades.

Speaker 11 (31:52):
You know.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
Obviously he and Kobe overlapped and there were times where
Shack was able to steal spotlights from from uh Lebron James.
But he he's been a story. So I agree with you.
I think that they're going to They're going to allow
JJ Reddick to have all of the buzz continue on

(32:12):
through the finals and then whenever you know, that final
whistle blows. Probably a day or two later, they're going
to make the announcement. Look, JJ Reddick, if you've been
paying attention to this storyline, the Canarian the coal mine
was the ty Lou contract with the Clippers.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yes, fourteen millionaire.

Speaker 3 (32:29):
As soon as Tylu signed his big extension with the Clippers,
you knew that the Lakers were going to hire JJ
Rahick Reddick. And that's because ty Lou was he was
put in a holding pattern by Lebron and Rich Paul
and the team over at Clutch and said, listen, we're
trying to decide whether or not we think this Reddick

(32:51):
thing is a good idea. We're we're sort of soft
pitching it on social media, where we're letting this come
out and little media drips. People are gonna get some
sourced reports here pretty soon, and we're gonna see what
the reaction is and if it's favorable amongst Lebron fans
and Lakers fans, well then we're gonna pull the trigger.

(33:12):
So Tylu, you hold tight, You hold tight, don't sign
anything with the Clippers yet. But as soon as he
did to me, that was the bat signal went up.
Or I should say the Reddick symbol went up downtown LA,
and it means that JJ's got the job.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
Yeah, And the other duh is that Bronnie James will
be a Laker. Correct, one hundred percent will be a
LA as soon as Rich Paul represents obviously longtime friend
of Lebron now representing Bronnie made it clear to the NBA,
do not draft him unless you are going to give
him a guaranteed roster spot, which of course is not
guaranteed to do any second round pick in the NBA.

(33:48):
So in other words, avoid him, will sign immediately with
the Lakers, Bronni will be a Laker. That's when Lebron
will announce his extension on his deal to be a Laker,
and JJ Ridy will be the head coach. So that's
enough about them. On the other side, I do want
to talk about the passing of an all time basketball legend,
speaking of Bill Walton and his impact not just on basketball,

(34:10):
but what he presented to our business of broadcasting.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
This is Fox Sports Sunday.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
Steve Harvey, rich Ronberger, Fox Sports Sunday. It was very
sad to hear about the passing of a true basketball legend,
Bill Walton, but dare I say, Rich a broadcasting legend
very quickly, I want to sort of recap how it
is that Walton became a broadcaster. After he retired from
the Boston Celtics after the eighty seven season, he was

(34:39):
a little lost, as most athletes are, like what do
I do now with the rest of my life? And
he ran into Ralph Lawler, the longtime legendary voice of
the Clippers, who of course had broadcasts games for the
Clippers when Bill was playing for the Clippers, and Ralph
suggested that he get into broadcasting, which seemed like a
far fetched idea because at the time Bill Walton had
a noticeable stuttering problem. But that encouragement worked a long way,

(35:03):
and Bill worked with Marty Glickman, a legendary tutor to
a lot of the announcers for years that you would
see on national TV, and he got a job with
the Clippers as their TV analysts.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
At the same time.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
Rich is when we launched six ninety, the first all
sports station on the West Coast, and so Bill, we
were based out of San Diego, that's Bill Walton's home
always has been, and he basically begged us to put
him on shows so that he could sort of work
on his craft. So that's how I got to know Bill,
is that we would co host some shows. And again

(35:36):
he just wanted to get as much airtime as possible,
just sort of smooth as technique out and become a broadcaster.
But the one thing great about Ralph Lawler and Dave
Pass of course for years was his broadcast partner at ESPN.
They were so good with him because they let be Bill.
And I've always said this about Bill Walton. What you

(35:57):
saw is exactly.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
Who he was. That is Bill Walton, has always been
Bill Walton.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
Many times the term original is way overused, and if
you find out, well, that's not really original. Believe me,
there was never anyone like Bill Walton. There never will
be anyone like him. Again, a true original. Whether he
liked his style or didn't like his style, he presented
something that was entirely different than anybody else. He was

(36:26):
a wonderful man. He was a guy that lit up
the room. Richie, you're in the room with Bill Walton.
He loved to make people smile, which is a great thing.
And he will be sorely missed. I know he had
had colon cancer and he had been suffering. He didn't
want to call attention to it. I guess he did
his last broadcast in February and then obviously died peacefully

(36:49):
with his family surrounding him. He was an amazing person,
even more so than a basketball player.

Speaker 3 (36:56):
Yeah, this caught me off guard. And I can't say
that Bill Walton and I are friends. It's not somebody
who you know, I would call up and ask him
if you know, he wants to grab a bite to eat.
But me and him, obviously, like you, Steve, we were
in the same circles in San Diego, and so at events,

(37:18):
you know, baseball games, different things that I got invited
to do. I would bump into Bill all the time,
and he had a great memory, and so we would
pick up right where we left off, and he would
ask me questions about my broadcast career and the new
things that were happening with me, and you know, we
would talk about my former playing career. But the majority

(37:40):
of the time I spent with Bill, I spent listening
because if he, if he was anything, it was a
storyteller and long winded. So so I would sit down
and I would lock it in. I remember one time
this was a real fun, fun time. Actually, both of
the people I'm gonna mention here have passed away unfortunately.
But Peter Sidler, the former owner of the San Diego Padres,

(38:03):
invited me to his box to watch a game, and
Bill Walton was there, and so I can tell you
every single thing that me and Bill spoke about for
that entire game because I was fixated. I was locked in.
I promise you, I have no idea who the Padres
played against that day. I barely remember what time of

(38:24):
day it was, and I don't I don't ask me
what happened during the course of that game. We spoke
unbroken for three and a half hours, and I think
I said hey, Bill, and that was it. It was incredible.
But that's the type of person he was. He had
a lot to say. He had a lot of wisdom,
you know, because not only did he have this amazing

(38:45):
broadcast career that you were talking about, Steve, but his
two time NBA champ. He's a two time national championship
with the UCLA Bruins. He was a first overall draft pick.
He played for the then well the now former San
Diego Clippers. So he had all these interesting stories about that.
He played for the Portland Trailblazers. He won a championship

(39:06):
with the Boston Celtics when the Celtics were you know well,
I mean they still are kind of a super team
now with Jalen and Jason Tatum. But you get the point. Anyways,
his life it's almost like Forrest Gump, like he can
tell you his life story and every single aspect of
it was entertaining and interesting. So, yeah, as you said, Steve,

(39:28):
rest in peace, he was a great one. He will
be remembered that way.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Bill Walton, Yeah, I mean ESPNI just did this thirty
for thirty the Luckiest Guy.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
In the World, and that was the story of Bill Walton.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
I don't know if I don't know how early that
he had found out about this cancer situation, but it
almost now looks like it was a planned piece, you know,
to sort of tell his story before he passed out.
I also found it interesting because he'sed to always pop up
the Pac twelve Conference of champions and the final ever

(39:58):
Pack twelve event was the National was the conference baseball
championship game between USC and Arizona. Yeah, and two days later,
Bill Walton passes away. I mean it just it's some
of the things, you know, timing of crazy. But yeah,
Bill Walton was a very special person and uh and
even more so than than his basketball career, which was

(40:20):
really a source of frustration for him because he just
never really got to show his stuff only for brief
moments because of the injuries in his NBA career. All right, well,
on the other side, we're gonna get to these NBA
Finals whenever they actually do start, Celtics Mavericks. We're gonna
break it down for you. Which way are we leaning?
Keep it right here? This is Fox Sports Sunday, rather

(40:43):
than along on another.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
I'm not gonna say busy. I'm not gonna say that
it's slightly busy. Slightly busy. He could could be a
lot busier, let's put it that way.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
But we are here once again getting you ready for
the NBA Finals that eventually will start.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Once again.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
We're broadcasting live from the tire rack dot Com studios
tire rack dot Com.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
We're gonna have get you there and.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
I matched selection fast ree shipping, free road as a
protection over ten thousand recommended installers. Tire rack dot Com
The way tire buy and should be well here here's
the good news. The good news is we have a
really good matchup in the NBA Finals. I mean, the
Celtics obviously have dominated this season YEP sixty four and

(41:30):
eighteen regular season by far the best record in the NBA.
They've lost two games in the postseason, both at home.
By the way, they haven't lost a road game yet
in this postseason. And then you have the Dallas Mavericks
a five seed. Now the Rockets once were a six
seed to win the NBA Championship, but a five seed
to the NBA Finals. I know last year, I remember

(41:50):
we had an eight seed Miami get all the way
to the NBA Finals, but.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
A five seed out of the West to get there.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
A lot of things have to go right, and it's
inter what we've seen in recent years. So either one
of these teams win rich, we're gonna have our six
different NBA champion over the last six seasons. So it's
sort of about a revolving door. But think back this.
You know, Jannis had you know, a couple of MVP awards,

(42:19):
and then after that he wins a championship, and then
he had the joker same thing where he had won
a couple of regular season MVPs, then the next year
he ends up winning a championship. Now, Luka danch just
hasn't been MVP, but he's certainly been an emerging star
in this league. And you wonder if if he's going
to suffer the same fate as a lot of legendary

(42:39):
players like a Karl Malone or a Charles Barkley and
dominant players that never win a championship because they run
up against, you know, better teams. But we don't have
a Michael Jordan right now. We don't have a Shaq
and Kobe. We don't have any of that kind of
dominance in this league anymore. It's almost like the mantle

(42:59):
of best players the league is being passed on from
player to player, and right now the best player in
the world is Luka Doncic. Yeah, and he is at
the top of his game. And you have a coach there,
Jason Kidd, who was a Hall of Fame player, been there,
done that, who somehow was the right voice in the

(43:20):
head of Kyrie irving to convince him that this can work.
Because you've been a ball dominant player. You were never
comfortable with Lebron, you were not comfortable with Kevin Durant,
you will be comfortable with Luka Doncic even though he's
the most dominant ball dominant player in this league. And somehow,

(43:41):
some way he got Kyrie to buy in. And so
now you have two superstar players, superstar talents in Doncichen
Irving playing at the highest level, and that's going to
be a tough duo to beat in this NBA finals.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
Rich I agree. So you said a lot there, but
to focus on two of the points he made, Luka
Doncic is the best player in the league this year.
And I understand Jokic won the MVP, and that's fine,
and Jokich is a generational talent. He's an amazing big man,
and I'm not taking anything away from his game. But
at the most important part of the year, which is

(44:18):
the playoffs, Luka leads the league in points, rebounds, assists, steals,
field goals made, three pointers made, and free throws made.
He has dominated, and he has been consistently dominate, dominant
through these playoffs for the MAVs, and he is the
reason they've reached the finals. However, I say that, and

(44:39):
I do want to couch it with something else. That's
entirely important for the Mavericks to be where they are,
and that is the evolution and maturity of Kyrie Irving.
He went from being a first round draft pick with
the Cavs to playing second banana to Lebron. James could

(45:00):
not stand it, wanted out, wanted to strike off on
his own and be a superstar, and he did so.
And I believe his first op was the Boston Celtics,
didn't work out, and has tried in a couple of
different iterations to get his career going back on track,
and this is the first time it really feels like
he's he's playing a role that he truly belongs in,

(45:22):
which is back being a sidekick to a superhero. Having
his moment when Lebron and Kyrie were together together in
Cleveland and he played Batman to or excuse me, Kyrie
played Robin to Lebron's Batman. That was the best form
of Kyrie and he's doing it again. And that maturity

(45:43):
I give Jason Kidd a lot of credit for, but
I give Kyrie Irving a tremendous amount of credit for.
Because he's a much older player than Luca. He's been
around the block, many more times than Luca, and he's
allowing Luca to cook, and he's allowing Luca to take
all the bows, and he's truly playing that role that

(46:04):
he was destined for that maybe he wasn't comfortable with
earlier in his career.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
Yeah, and also he's the guy that hit the game
winner in Game seven for the Cleveland Cavaliers and knock
out the greatest regular season team of all time, the
Golden State Warriors. So it's working for Dallas, and yet
you look at the Celtics and there's every reason to
say the Celtics should win the series because the reason
the Celtics should win this series is that their star

(46:32):
players are two way players. They get it done at
both ends of the court. They obviously have a much
better defense than the Dallas Mavericks. But here's the problem
with that, And when people try to trump up the
fact that, you know, Jaylen Brown Jason Tatum are better
two way players maybe than Kyrie and Luca. Here's one
thing I know, and this is true of any sport.

(46:56):
When you have a great offense and they are locked in, yep,
there is no defense. There is no defense.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
In other words, you know you can try Luka Doncic.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
Every game he plays, teams will try different strategies to
stop him. He was the league's leading scorer thirty four
points a game, right so he is used to the
idea that I'm going to get different looks every single game.
But when he's locked in. Remember early in these playoffs
when he played against the Clippers, he was not playing
all that great. But right now the guy's locked in. Yeah,

(47:35):
And so when it's like, you know, a great hitter
is in the zone, it doesn't matter what pitchers on
the mountain, he's going to hit him. You know, it
doesn't matter when when an offense in football is clicking
and a quarterback is red hot and in rhythm, it
doesn't matter what defense you're going to play, you're not
going to stop him. And so this is the problem

(47:57):
for the Celtics right now. Yeah, technically they have better
defense is Drew Holliday, Derek They've got great defenders. But
when you have two players, two players, not just one,
but two players in the zone the way Luca and
Kyrie are right now, it's not gonna matter.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
You will not stop them.

Speaker 3 (48:16):
I will say this Boston right now, for good reason,
They're prohibitive favorites to win the championship. I think the
reason is and I said this before the playoffs began,
and I'll repeat it again today. I really do feel
like the West was a more talented side of the bracket,

(48:37):
and I really do feel like not the best Western
team emerged. I don't think it was the Wolves. I
think it was the Nuggets. I think the nuggets biggest
problem was playoff Jamal never showed up. That's been a
consistency for the Nuggets that really wasn't there this season.

(48:57):
And when one of your superstars is not playing to
his level of superstardom during the most important part of
the season, that's when things get real tough, because then
the defense can put the clamps on Jokic. And that's
what happened in the Timberwolve series, and we saw what
happened as a result. So I really I don't think
the best Western Conference team is in the final, so

(49:20):
I'll say that, but I will say that the Western
Conference was a more talented conference to start the playoff bracket.
Now in the East, the Celtics, I don't feel like
they've been tested all that well. I feel like the
Celtics had an easy time because it is a less
talented side of the bracket, and they were a dominant
team and kind of had their way leading up to

(49:42):
the final. And I remember I was working with Brian
no yesterday and he said something that I didn't have
time to react to, but I will hear. He mentioned
the fact that, well, the Celtics did struggle at times,
and yeah, you know, look, sometimes I play with my
food too. I really feel like they didn't show their
best yet through these playoffs and they may get punched

(50:06):
in the mouth here against the Mavericks, but I think
the Celtics have a whole different level that they have
yet to unveil because they haven't needed to through the
Eastern Conference playoffs.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Well, let's face it, Jason Tatum has something to prove.
Oh yeah, So you have now two perennial First Team
All NBA a ors in Lucadon and Jason Tatum. Luca's
been first team five straight years, Tatum in the last
three years. But for Jason Tatum, especially wearing that Celtic uniform.

(50:41):
See there's the Dallas Bagers have won one NBA championship
in their team's history. The Celtics have won seventeen. So
when you are a star player for a franchise like
the Celtics, much like the Lakers, the bar has been set.
You need to win a championship. No one cares about

(51:03):
how many regular season games you win. No one cares
about getting to the NBA finals. It's about winning championships.
It's about Bill Russell, It's about John Halchek, It's about
Dave Cowen's, it's about Larry Byrd, it's about Kevin McGale,
it's even about Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
You gotta win a championship. And Tatum's had opportunities.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
Six times in the last eight years, the Celtics have
made it to at least the Eastern Conference Finals. And
when you look back at Tatum, how bad he played
against the Warriors in the finals a couple years ago.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
He played bad. Yeah, he played really bad.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
And then last year the Celtics almost became the first
team in NBA history to overcome a three to zero deficit.
They were at home game seven. Rich Remember we were
talking about this is unbelievable. It's finally gonna happen. No
way they're going to.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
Lose the eighth seed eat at home and he gets hurt.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
Sort of yeah, and then it was like that Game
seven and it just got away from them.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
And then afterwards they blamed it on Tatum again.

Speaker 3 (52:06):
Ye, he needs if he's gonna be.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
Considered a legit Celtic legend. Got to happen in the series.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
I forget who asked the question, but I remember, and
everybody remembers who was paying attention to the series. A
reporter asking Anthony Edwards and Carl Anthony Towns about whether
or not the Timberwolves need to face more heartache before
they can truly win a final and accomplish and you know,

(52:38):
a deep run in the postseason, et cetera, et cetera,
and Carl Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards, I mean, and
it was a hysterical sound clip, but they basically laughed
this guy out of the room. They're like they were like, damn,
like what do we gotta do? Like we lost in
the playoffs last year? Like that isn't that bad enough?
Doesn't that qualify? And and I understand the reason why

(52:59):
the question was asked, because what you're talking about is
a hunger Steve. That only exists inside of an athlete
when they've failed at a higher level than the Timberwolves
have failed at when you have a taste of what
it might be. When the confetti falls for a different
team and you're on the losing end of a Super Bowl,

(53:21):
when the Larry O'Brien is being hoisted and you're across
the hardwood from the team enjoying that moment and you've
given all you could for whatever it was, five game,
six game, seven games, and it's not you, it's them
being exalted. When a Stanley Cup is being you know,
lapped around the ice and you're on the other side

(53:41):
of the glass. Those moments they build character. Now, for
some people, they can destroy you, and it can put
you in a shell, and it can make you a
different player, and you may be gun shy and all
those things. But for other players, I think Jason Tatum
is one of these guys. It builds a fire inside
of you and on your shoulder that until you get there,

(54:03):
until you get to experience that the work's not done.
And I kind of feel like this is Jason Tatum's year.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
Will the Celtics get back In the conversation by winning
a championship. We're gonna talk about where their place is
currently in the world of sports.

Speaker 2 (54:21):

Speaker 1 (54:23):
Steve Harbin and Rich Arnberger Fox Sports Sunday. We are
live from the tire rack dot Com studios.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
Now Dan Bayer of all people, Rich set me off yesterday.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
Oh wow, what do he do?

Speaker 2 (54:37):
So Dan's doing the show with Mark Medina leading into
the show I was doing with Monsey yesterday.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
Uh huh, Moncey and I got a couple bonus hours yesterday.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
Okay, how many? How many hours were you in Moncy.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
On four hours instead of our normal too.

Speaker 3 (54:50):
There you go, Sony.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
I'm listening to Dan and Mark beforehand, and Dan comes
out and his question was a tease, was do the
Celtics have any cachet anymore?

Speaker 2 (55:04):
And so I'm anxious to hear what he had to
say about this.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
So he's talking about the Celtics brand isn't what he
used to be and I'm like, yeah, I agree with
you on that, and he goes, but the Laker brand
is stronger than ever and I'm like, what I'm losing
it here?

Speaker 2 (55:20):
And so then I started thinking about this. Why is
it that a certain team or a certain.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
Individuals suddenly becomes the it factor team or individual in sports.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
And we're learning this right now with Caitlin Clark.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
I mean, there was just something about Caitlin Clark's game
that set in motion where we stand today. Even though
she's obviously not even an elite WNBA player, she is
the star by far of that league. So I'm thinking
about this, and I kept saying it this way. The
Celtics were stars not because of Bill Russell, not because

(55:58):
of Larry Bird. They were star because of Redd Ourbach.
He was a very polarizing figure the Lakers. Was it
about Magic? Was it about Kareem? Was it about Kobe? No,
it was about Jerry Buss. He set the whole tone
for show Time. If you watch that show Winning Time,
By the way, there was a guy that did the

(56:18):
talk show hosts on there that was he was just outstanding. Actually,
I got three more residual chicks, two for eight dollars, one.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
For six, and excellent right to the bank with those.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
But if you watch that show, the one thing it
did well is represent just the power of Redd Ourbach
and Jerry Boss. They were the stars. They had to
figure out a way to sort of set the temperament,
the personality of their franchises and then find the right
players to fit well well.

Speaker 3 (56:50):
Hang on, time out those two and I do understand
they were integral pieces of what made the Laker and
Celtics brands go. They were not. In fact, what they
did is what any good team owner or great should do,
and that's make the players the superstars. Think about what

(57:13):
red Auerbach did during his time in charge of the Celtics.
Think about what bust Doctor Bus did with the Lakers.
He made sure Doctor Buss in the case of the Lakers,
he made sure that Magic Johnson was the guy. He
was the guy, he was the thing, you know, and

(57:34):
he surrounded him with superstars and he made the pieces
fit as best he can. And I know that you
know the biopic, the Winning Time biopic that you were in,
did you know maybe some greater justice or maybe diminished
him at different times, depending on what part of his
life they were focusing on. But what was true to

(57:56):
form as it was in reality in the television show
was he was a great understanding of what people were
showing up to the arena for. They were showing up
for entertainment value. They were showing up for stardom. They
were showing up to be seen at a scene, especially
in a city like la And so he got it.

(58:18):
And to be perfectly honest with you, and I know,
there's a lot that can be said about Genie Buss
and the way she's managed the Lakers from an ownership standpoints,
and she's taken over. She gets it too, because she
attracted the biggest star the NBA has in his waning
years to come to Los Angeles and to lead this

(58:39):
three ring circus, and she somehow kept him involved and
interested and he may end up retiring a Laker as
a result of it.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
All right, So the question is this, and maybe my perspective,
certainly on red auerback's a little different than yours, because
you know, I'm that era. I mean, believe me that
Cigar was the annoyance of the league.

Speaker 3 (59:04):
I got it.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
I mean he was a polarizing figure. I mean the Celtics.
Here's the thing, you know, and you played with a
franchise that had that cachet for two decades, the New
England Patriots. Either you're all in, are you're all against?
I mean, no one's on the fence. I mean, you know,
during the Tom Brady era in New England, no one
had no opinion. Either you were like, I love them

(59:27):
or I hate them. And that's the way the Celtics
always were, and that's how the Lakers were. He've had
two franchises each win seventeen championships. I mean, they've completely
dominated the history of the NBA. But both of them
have been an idol for a long time. Red Auerbach
passed away in two thousand and six. The Celtics have
won one championships since Jerry Buss passed away in twenty thirteen.

(59:49):
They won one Bubble championship. Since they haven't.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
Been that great.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
There are other teams that have far but the Lakers.
I would agree with you on this. The reason the
Lakers have had more attention than the Celtics is one person,
Lebron James, of course, and Genie Buss. And I will
say this for Genie Bus. She's a smart business person.
I'm a big fan of Genie. I know how she operates.
The fact is, even though the Lakers in her eleven

(01:00:15):
years as the owner of this team have missed the
playoffs entirely seven times, twice have been eliminated in the
first round. Once got to Western Conference Finals where they
got blown out in fours ray games, and they won
a Bubble championship. And they have far greater value today
than they did to the day her father passed away.
So from a business standpoint, things are good. I'm just

(01:00:37):
thinking from a fans standpoint. I mean, we talk about
this with the Dallas Cowboys all the time. Why are
the Dallas Cowboys a team that's not only not won
a Super Bowl, they haven't been to a conference championship
game since the ninety five season. Relevant Jerry Jones, He's
a lightning rod. People have an interest in Jerry Jones.
They had an interest in Al Davis. There are certain
people in that you know, that have that kind of

(01:01:01):
cloud that even are not participating. Look, I understand the
players make the games, but every once saw George Steinbrenner
the Yankees, I mean, the Yankees haven't won a serious
since ow Night.

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
Is there as much buzz about the Yankees to day?

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
Right now, they have the best record in the Americle
League than there was during the George Steinbrenner era.

Speaker 3 (01:01:19):
No way, No.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
And so these owners or they there's certain owners that
are lightning rods, and and That's why, in my opinion,
the Lakers and the Celtics do not both of them.
I agreed to when Dan when he was talking about
the Celtics, but I thought the Lakers aren't where they.

Speaker 3 (01:01:37):
Used to be. Oh no, no, Well, listen, it is
very easy to look at a situation like the Cowboys
and draw a comparison to Red Auerbach and say, Jerry
Jones is a star. Yeah, there's no question about it.
But during Jerry Jones' ownership of the Cowboys, he's had
em At Smith and Troy Aikman. He's had Tony Romo,

(01:02:01):
and he's had Dez Bryan and Michael Irvin and Dak
Prescott and Zeke Elliott and you know the Ceedee Lamb
is a recent star on his team. You know, he's
had these Micah Parsons, Sean Lee. You know, there have
been great defenders, great offensive players throughout the course of
time where he's been the I'm and I'm forgetting I'm blaming.

(01:02:23):
I'm there's a dozens more that have been superstars. The
consistency is the fact that he understands how to get
people under the circus tent, and so does Jeanie Buss.
And Doctor Buss before her, and so do the Celtics
as well. Now, don't get me wrong, I do think
that the Celtics brand has been diminished some and maybe

(01:02:44):
more so than the Lakers. But it's because the Lakers
win and did something after the Lonzo Ball fiasco where
Magic Johnson was back in the fold as a player
talent evaluator and Rob Polinka was cutting his teeth as
a general manager after relinquishing his role as a sports
agent in the league, and you have LeVar Ball all

(01:03:06):
over televisions, trumpeting and showcasing his children to the world.
I mean, once they got through that and they moved
on to Lebron James, things stabilized and from a business standpoint,
you can definitely see how things have benefited the Lakers.
They are the tippy top over the past couple of
years in terms of merchandise sales team wide and then
specifically because of Lebron James. And then, like I said,

(01:03:30):
eventually he is going to retire and that is going
to be the number one story in all of sports
whenever he does his farewell tour. But in the meantime,
the Celtics have been good. They haven't been great. They've
been very good. Though, the problem is they don't have
a Lebron James. The problem is they don't have a
Luka or a Yannis. They don't have a novitzkya Nikola Jokic.

(01:03:57):
They don't have a superstar? Are that Leam Tatum who's.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
Been All NBA First Team the last three years in
a row. On the other side, I want to get
into that what is missing? What is missing that doesn't
allow Tatum to be in that conversation. But first let's
find out what is trending right now. And you know,
Manzi was thinking about you, Rich, Yeah, what's up? Well,
I mean, she brought in some breakfast food. She she's

(01:04:22):
never sure if you're going to actually physically be here.

Speaker 3 (01:04:24):
I know I'll be home, I know, so.

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
Even though it'll be a couple of days old. You
want to mail that to him?

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
Actually yeah, no, no, no, no, Mazies, get a ziploc.

Speaker 8 (01:04:36):
Bag, okay, okay, and then.

Speaker 3 (01:04:38):
I will text you my address because the last time
I gave my address out on on over there, that
was a mistake, and uh, it was a big mistake.
Had a lot of visitors, a lot of very kind people,
a lot of great, Papa, stop out the door. But
I will uh and then and then I will uh,
and then I'll eat it a couple of days from now.
You just make sure you're sending the by the way,

(01:04:59):
I've seen it.

Speaker 8 (01:05:00):
Just send me your address and I'll uber eats you
a fresh burrito, no problem, no problem, because let's be real,
you know somebody will eat the burrito here if I
have an extra one.

Speaker 3 (01:05:10):
That's actually a very good point.

Speaker 9 (01:05:11):
We don't have to worry about it going to waste,
that is for sure.

Speaker 8 (01:05:14):
But I would feel very I would feel terrible if
I brought something you were here and I didn't bring
you one. So I always think you're coming and then
I'll figure out who eats it later.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
You know, you never knows.

Speaker 5 (01:05:24):
And say hey, I call you sometimes text BOXI yeah, yeah,
this is This is probably a little on me because
I see Monci at the end of the my shift
on Saturday.

Speaker 4 (01:05:35):
But I always in the morning ask Rich, hey are
you going to be in La or San Diego today?
And I never I need to start relaying that to Mansi.

Speaker 9 (01:05:44):
It would be great.

Speaker 3 (01:05:46):
I mean, I've said practice sport and I'll say it again.
It's all Chris's faults.

Speaker 12 (01:05:51):
I blame blame I blame him as well, even though
his Detroit Tigers have just come alive.

Speaker 8 (01:05:58):
They are now beating the Red Sox Chris to three
after being down three runs.

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
It's the bottom of the seventh inning.

Speaker 8 (01:06:03):
The Twins have retaken the lead thanks to Hose Miranda's
go ahead RBI double. They're beating the Astros four to
three in Houston. Bottom of the eighth inning. The A's
have now tied the games, Zach Yeloff with a tying
home run. They are tied with the Braves in Atlanta
one at piece. Bottom of the seventh. I don't know
if I said Did I just say that right, bo
ge Off? Yes, okay, great. I always ask Poe how

(01:06:24):
to say things, because you know, names are hard.

Speaker 9 (01:06:27):
The Orioles are still beating the Race three to two.
Bottom of the seventh. The Blue Jays beating the Pirates
four to three.

Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
Top of the sixth inning.

Speaker 8 (01:06:34):
Mets still on top of New York against the Diamondbacks
four to three. Top of the seventh. The Range are
still blanking the Marlins four zero. Top of the eighth.

Speaker 9 (01:06:41):
The Nationals are beating the Guardians five two, top of.

Speaker 12 (01:06:44):
The eighth, and the White Sox and Brewers have been
back and forth, with Milwaukee back on top four to
three bottom of the fifth, The Padres Royals tied out
one apiece top of the sixth, and the Reds all
over the Cubs, blanking them five zero bottom of the fifth.
The fourth round at the Canadian Open continues. We're American
and Tyre back in the lead, all alone fourteen hunderd
par overall, but but Kenzie Hughes was tied with him

(01:07:05):
is now one shot back, Ryan Fox, Ben Griffin two
shots back from the lead and in the WNBA. Of course,
we're still talking about the Chicago and the Indiana Fever
game last night. Kennedy Carter's foul that was committed away
from the ball against Caitlin Clark, the league announced today
that after review, they are going to upgrade it from a.

Speaker 9 (01:07:24):
Common found to a flagrant foul.

Speaker 8 (01:07:26):
Carter will not be fine, but Angel Reese will be
fined one thousand dollars for Chicago for failing to make
herself available to the media.

Speaker 9 (01:07:32):
They're also finding the Chicago organization five.

Speaker 8 (01:07:35):
Thousand dollars for failing to comply with the league media
policies back to you, guys.

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
I still when.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
You watch that play, Yeah, how is she not fine?

Speaker 6 (01:07:45):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
I mean seriously, I mean Kayla Clark is literally blindsided
like Carter who puts her on the ground.

Speaker 2 (01:07:54):
Yeah, in front of an official.

Speaker 9 (01:07:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:07:57):
And then that shot of her just staring at her
look like Jason.

Speaker 9 (01:08:00):
Momola and that meme he's like going to prance on.

Speaker 1 (01:08:03):
Some right, And then you got Angel rees on the
bench jumping up, cheering it on. I'm like, really, yeah,
I mean there's you would not get away with that
in the NBA.

Speaker 8 (01:08:14):
No, you would not.

Speaker 2 (01:08:15):
No, No, you would be false.

Speaker 3 (01:08:18):
Also a star like I mean, think about I guess
a comparable star Lebron James, you would sell the flop
like I mean, like Lebron James. He would be writhing
around on the ground. O melbow. Oh, he would be
looking at the officials like, I mean, are you gonna
call this? I mean, I look at me, look at me.
I can bear me boo.

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
And earlier Reeves got away with a full on, deliberate
elbow to the gut of Kaylen Clark.

Speaker 13 (01:08:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
I just I don't know what the wm A is
gonna have to figure this out.

Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
Real, real soon.

Speaker 1 (01:08:49):
All right, once again, Steve Hartman Rich Ornberger Fox Sports
Sunday were live from the tire rack dot Com studios.
I would I want to detour just briefly away from
the NBA for a moment, to steer to the NFL,
since the NFL does own the w the NBA, not
the WNBA, the NBA, three hundred and sixty five days
a year. Tampering is on the table this week, Rich,

(01:09:11):
that's right. So the Atlanta Falcons are accused of tampering
in the Kirk Cousins situation and the Eagles. That's right, Bo,
your Eagles tampering in the Saquon Barkley situation. Now, remember
we've had Remember the Dolphins forfeited a first round pick.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
Remember there was all that talk about tampering.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
With Tom Brady and Sean Payton and they ended up
forfeiting a first and a third. Chiefs back in the
day had to give up a third and a sixth
tampering on Jeremy Macklin back of the day. I just
I want to get your thought on this whole tampering.
I'm trying to figure this whole thing out. We know

(01:09:52):
that agents talk. What is allowable here? Can you explain
this to us when we talk about tampering if if
it the team is having conversations with an agent or
a friend of a friend. I'm trying to figure out
where exactly do you draw the line where you say
they've crossed that line?

Speaker 3 (01:10:13):
All right, So, essentially my understanding of tampering rules in
the NFL are if a player is under contract, basically
any way you reach out to them is illegal. If
you are a sports franchise, a general manager, an owner,

(01:10:34):
a coach with a different team in the NFL, you
are not allowed to speak to a player who's currently
under contract with a different franchise. Now, obviously we know
there's gray area to this rule that everybody to a
greater or lesser extent exploits. You know, maybe there are
some chance encounters that come up, Maybe there are some

(01:10:55):
conversations with a player's agent, Like Saquon Barkley's agent doesn't
only represent Saquon Barkley. He also represents other players on
the Philadelphia Eagles, for example. So if somebody's reaching out
to Saquon Barkley's agent to speak to him about Saquon Barkley, illegal,
no good he's a New York Giant. However, if they're

(01:11:18):
reaching out to Saquon Barkley's agent to speak to them
about a different player, maybe a player they currently have
on their roster, then that's completely within the rules. And oh,
by the way, if something should come up, like, hey,
by the way, wink wink, if there are any other
players you know have interested wink wink in playing for
the Philadelphia Eagles, wink wink, you make sure you let

(01:11:40):
us know. Okay, bye bye, Like those conversations obviously happen,
And there's gray area there where you break the rules
is when you do it ostentatiously, meaning when there is
public proof that a owner, a coach, a general manager,
a player personnel director has stepped outside of the normal

(01:12:03):
gray area to court a player to their team. That's
when you get in trouble. And that's the reason why
the Atlanta Falcons and the Philadelphia Eagles got dinged.

Speaker 1 (01:12:13):
Yeah, and they're gonna come down with something this week.
I mean that's pretty steep. I mean the Dolphins again
lost a first and a third. Yeah, and for people
they didn't even get Yeah, Tom Brady.

Speaker 3 (01:12:25):
And Shot baydon I mean you talk about double Wabbie at.

Speaker 1 (01:12:27):
Least Atlanta got Kirk Cousins at least, you know, so,
I mean this this is I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
Sometimes the NFL does things.

Speaker 1 (01:12:36):
I can't understand why certain infractions are so serious.

Speaker 2 (01:12:39):
It's like the gambling thing.

Speaker 1 (01:12:41):
Yeah, I mean a year long suspension for players because
they they pen on an NBA game on the premises,
I mean, what are we talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:12:51):
Some of these rules just never makes sense to me.

Speaker 3 (01:12:54):
Here here's what's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:12:55):
Four game suspension of Tom Brady for what to flate gate.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
I mean, are you kidding?

Speaker 3 (01:13:00):
If you don't make these these fines and these penalties significant,
then it would be open season. And now we haven't
seen this yet, but it can happen. Like we've seen
draft picks obviously, you know a team will get doctor
draft picks and that can be that's a hefty cost
to pay. We've seen fines which are kind of like
a drop of water in the ocean when you really

(01:13:22):
think about how much money all these NFL teams make.
So the fines aren't really that bad in terms of,
you know, the the discipline. But how about this, this
is something that can happen in validation of a contract
so you can actually have a situation where the league,
if there is enough support around how outside the lines

(01:13:45):
a team colored, you could have a situation where the
league decides that we are going to invalidate the trade
or the signing of the free agent contract between the
Falcons and the and the quarterback you know, Kirk Cousins,
or the trade between the Giants and or the signing
of the free agent between Saquon Barkley and the and

(01:14:08):
the Philadelphia Eagles. And you may have a situation where
you gotta you've gotta go start from scratch with your backfield,
or you know, I guess in the case of the
of the h the Atlanta Falcons, you're gonna have to
hustle up and start your rookie quarterback who you drafted
eighth or ninth overall. So it is a situation where
there there is that that side of the coin where

(01:14:31):
if you step too far outside the lines, they can
really hurt you. It hasn't happened, at least not in
recent memory. So my guess is the Eagles and the
Falcons are going to be docked a couple of draft
picks apiece, and then they're gonna move on all.

Speaker 1 (01:14:46):
Right, speaking and moving on, a lot of teams around
the NFL are trying to move on a quarterback. But
are we showing too much of a spotlight on these
guys even before they take the field in an actual game.

Speaker 2 (01:14:58):
We'll break it down.

Speaker 1 (01:14:58):
This is Fox Sports soun Steve Harvey and rich Oronberger
here Fox Sports Sunday Live from the tai Iraq dot
Com studios. So, three years ago, in the twenty twenty
one NFL Draft, five quarterbacks taken in the first fifteen picks.

Speaker 2 (01:15:13):
Four of those five quarterbacks are no longer with the
teams that drafted them. Three years later got correct. So
how did the NFL react this year?

Speaker 1 (01:15:21):
How about six quarterbacks in the first twelve picks never
happened before. I mean they've gone, They've doubled down and
then some in terms of using the highest picks possible
to take a quarterback that they hope, hope is going
to be that guy.

Speaker 2 (01:15:38):
It's going to be the next Patrick Mahomes.

Speaker 1 (01:15:41):
So the Chicago Bears had the number one overall pick
and they took Caleb Williams, no surprise there, and then
he went out and OTA's had a really bad practice.

Speaker 2 (01:15:51):
Everybody was talking about this horrible like he was just interceptions.
He didn't have a clue of what he was doing.
It was big news. I'll tell you what was in
big news.

Speaker 1 (01:16:03):
Friday, they had a practice where he went up against
the bears number one defense. He was thirteen to fifteen
passing and one of the incompletions, by the way, was
a pass.

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
Interference call against the defense.

Speaker 1 (01:16:15):
I'm anxious to see how this is going to play
out now that it's been determined the Bears are going
to be on hard knocks and understand again about the
quarterback position for the Bears. The greatest Bears quarterback ever
was sid Luckman played in the nineteen forties, led him
to four NFL championships.

Speaker 2 (01:16:34):
Jim McMahon had a moment. He just couldn't stay healthy.

Speaker 3 (01:16:37):
That's it. That's it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:39):
The one thing they're talking about early on with Caleb
Williams right now is that he has this tendency to
hang onto the ball too long.

Speaker 2 (01:16:47):
That sounds like Justin Fields. That's the same that Justin
Fields had a problem with. That's why he got sacks
so many times. He didn't get rid of the ball.

Speaker 1 (01:16:54):
But I just wanted to bring up a bigger point here,
idea of these quarterbacks and the intense spotlight and the
scrutiny that every single day brings out of the National
Football League, over analyzing over you know, the takes are
just insane based on a small sample size. I just

(01:17:17):
I can't imagine what it be like. And I know
there's some people say, well, what do they care they're
making millions millions, Eh.

Speaker 2 (01:17:25):
No, you're human.

Speaker 1 (01:17:28):
I mean, it doesn't matter how many zeros are in
your bank account because you're on the field, you're trying
to do things. I can't imagine rich what it's like
now for these quarterbacks. And every year it gets worse
and worse, the scrutiny gets more and more and more
because there's just so much at stake to eventually be
that guy, especially when you have the bar set so high,

(01:17:49):
first with the Tom Brady and now that guy is
Patrick Mahomes, and I just can't imagine what a guy
like Caleb Williams, especially with the added spotlight coming up
with the hard knocks.

Speaker 3 (01:18:00):
Well, listen, it's it's difficult. And I experienced this to
a very minimal level comparatively, but when you have attention
on you as a professional athlete and you're scrutinized before
you even step onto a football field. It's a weird
feeling because you're like, wait a second, Like why am

(01:18:22):
I being blamed because somebody else thinks that somebody should
have been drafted instead of me? Like, I mean, and
that's a real thing. It happened with me as a
fourth rounder. It certainly will happen with a first of
all draft pick. People will hate you before you even
take the field. So it's it's a strange thing. You know.

(01:18:43):
Somebody might say, well, you know, I mean, gosh, we
should have we shouldn't have taken Caleb Williams, we should
have taken one of these other It's like, well, okay, yeah,
you could have and the organization didn't. But does that
mean that Caleb Williams needs or deserves to be criticized
or scrutinized unfairly before he throws a football for the franchise? No,

(01:19:06):
but that's not how fans react, and every person handles
that differently. For me, I just ignored it completely. You know,
I never read comments. I never I never thought about it.
I just moved on with my day. For quarterback, it's
a lot more difficult because you are obviously the face

(01:19:29):
of an organization when you're the starting quarterback. So maybe
to a greater or lesser extent, he can't avoid seeing
some of this stuff. But that would be my advice
to any quarterback or any rookie who's going through this.
You've got to find a way to ignore the noise
and concentrate on keeping the main thing, the main thing,
which is playing football to the highest ability you're capable of.

Speaker 1 (01:19:49):
I think Kaylea Williams is that guy. He seems to
have the right temperament. Now, Drake may in New England,
he's also getting ripped by his own coach.

Speaker 3 (01:19:57):
Yeah, Dre Mayo is.

Speaker 2 (01:19:59):
Like, yeah, he's got a long way to go. He
got a long way. Well that doesn't help.

Speaker 1 (01:20:05):
Come on, man, I just showed up and already you're
putting doubt in the mind of our Patriots fans. So
it's gonna be It's gonna be interesting, as it always
is every single year. You gotta believe of these six quarterbacks, one, yep,
one at least.

Speaker 2 (01:20:24):
Is going to be that guy.

Speaker 1 (01:20:26):
We just have to figure out which one that is
going to be all right. Coming up on the other side.
We've got much more NFL news. Obviously, we're getting ready
for the NBA Finals, and we're gonna check in with
the legend himself, John Paul Morosi.

Speaker 2 (01:20:38):

Speaker 1 (01:20:40):
Having plenty of fun here on this Sunday, even if
we're still a long long ways away from Game one
of the NBA Finals. Once again broadcasting live from the
tire rack dot Com studios.

Speaker 2 (01:20:51):
Tyre rack dot Com.

Speaker 1 (01:20:52):
We're gonna help get you there, and I'm Matt Selection
Fast free shipping, free road ASID protection, over ten thousand
recommended installers, tire rack dot com The way tire buying
should be John Paul Morosi or Fox Sports Radio. M
Weillbnsider will be Johnny's coming up here in about about
twenty minutes or so, and also he'll give us the

(01:21:12):
latest on the Stanley Cup playoffs that are going on
right now as they get ready for the Stanley Cup Finals.
It's the NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Final.

Speaker 2 (01:21:24):
And I think I've had this conversation with you Rich.

Speaker 1 (01:21:28):
Yeah, when you think about it, Stanley Cup final makes
sense because there's only one final, right, But you say, well, no,
the NBA Finals means there's multiple games. So if you
were to have to make the ultimate decision and labeling
it the final versus finals, which way would you lean?

Speaker 3 (01:21:54):
Boy? I mean, in the realm of things that I
really don't care about, this ranks softully high. But if
I guess, I guess considering the semantics, I lean.

Speaker 2 (01:22:06):
I figure you're like a wordsmith.

Speaker 3 (01:22:08):
No I but I'm not a I'm not a grammar
whether they call it grammar police guy. So I guess
I guess I would lean towards It makes more sense
if you say it's the final, because really it's just
shortening the phrase it's the final series, it's the NBA
Final series because the playoff bracket is built up of

(01:22:28):
the seven game series. So you know, so in the
Stanley Cup Final, you're just shortening. You know what, we
got to move on. I got crossing.

Speaker 1 (01:22:37):
Well, the reason I was giving you a ridiculous question
is I'm still going over this ridiculous NBA Finals schedule.

Speaker 3 (01:22:46):
Yeah, okay, here, let me hear it.

Speaker 1 (01:22:47):
So Game one, after what is going to be a
ten day layoff for the Celtics and a seven day
layoff for.

Speaker 3 (01:22:55):
The Mavericks, Well, they need their rest, we'll finally.

Speaker 1 (01:22:58):
Get underway in Boston on So you would think, all right,
so you got game one, take a day off, Game
two on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (01:23:05):
No, Game two is on Sunday, so there's.

Speaker 1 (01:23:09):
No travel day. So you've waited that long to play
a game, and then you have to take the next
two days off, and so then you play game two
on Sunday. Yeah, now you wait two more days off.
Game three is on Wednesday. Now the only games where

(01:23:29):
there's only one day in between is between games three
and four. Both those games are in Dallas. Then you
got another two days off before a game, another two
days off before a game, another two days off. I
mean this, this final potentially today is June second. The
NBA Finals Game seven is scheduled for June twenty third.

(01:23:52):
Let me ask you this, what are the odds that
you and I will be sitting here three weeks from
now still talking about the NBA Finals.

Speaker 3 (01:24:02):
I mean, it's possible, because let's put it this way,
I think the Mavericks probably need to come out the
gates hot in order for that to be the case.
I don't think this is gonna be a situation where
the Mavericks are gonna be able to survive going down,
you know, two to zero, you know, and then battling back.
So I think it would. It would really have to

(01:24:24):
be because Dallas roared out the gates and then the
Celtics got caught on the heels and they're fighting out
of their corner a little bit. But yeah, I would
give it at this point because I do think that
Boston's gonna handle the Mavericks. I would. I would give
it about a thirty percent probability. In three weeks we're
still talking about the NBA Final.

Speaker 1 (01:24:45):
I agree with you, by the way, and you know,
as you know, Moncey Belagno's our own. Moncey a month ago,
not a week ago, not two weeks ago, not three
weeks ago, four weeks ago picked the Dallas Mavericks to
win the NBA Championship after they eliminated her Los Angeles Clippers. Wow,

(01:25:06):
So I mean you talk about no sterudamis unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (01:25:10):
Now she owns a crystal.

Speaker 2 (01:25:11):
Now I've helped her along the way.

Speaker 1 (01:25:14):
So she was forcing me a couple of weeks ago
as we were getting ready for the game seven that
night between the Tea Wolves and the Nuggets to go
on the record, who are you picking to win the
NBA Championship?

Speaker 2 (01:25:26):
I said, well, it will be the Denver Nuggets.

Speaker 1 (01:25:30):
Okay, the Nuggets are going to go back to back,
and then they proceeded to blow a twenty point lead
at home in the third quarter in a Game seven,
and so they were eliminated. So you know how I
can just eliminate people. So yesterday we also made our predictions.
She has the Mavericks in six and I picked the
Celtics in seven, clearing the way for her to.

Speaker 2 (01:25:55):
Be correct in her prediction. But think about this.

Speaker 1 (01:25:58):
The Celtics in their open series against the Heat lost
Game two at home. They did the exact same thing
against the Cavs, and they should have lost Game one
at home against the Pacers.

Speaker 2 (01:26:11):
The Pacers had that game.

Speaker 1 (01:26:13):
Oh yeah, So you really got to look at this
first game in Boston and I would say the odds
are very much in the favor of the Mavericks in
Game one. I just got to believe ten days off,
how these coaches prepare. You don't have ten days off
at any point of the season, not during the All
Star break if you're coaching the Celtics right now.

Speaker 2 (01:26:37):
Because I've always told that story.

Speaker 1 (01:26:39):
What happened to the Lakers back in nineteen eighty nine
they were going for a three peat. Michael Thompson was
on the team at that time, and he said what
happened was the Lakers swept through all three rounds before
they got to the NBA Finals. They were getting ready
for a rematch against the Pistons, and pat Rolly wanted
a panic mode and they had like this ten day layoff,
and so he basically put him through boot camp, and

(01:27:01):
guess what happened, Magic got hurt, Piring got hurt, and
the Lakers ended up getting swept by the Pistons.

Speaker 2 (01:27:07):
So if you're coaching the Celtics.

Speaker 1 (01:27:10):
Right now, because they had the three extra days, how
are you handling a ten day layoff to get ready
for a critical game one at.

Speaker 2 (01:27:20):
Home at the NBA Finals.

Speaker 3 (01:27:22):
Well, I'm not changing as much as you'd think. I'm
definitely going to give them time off their feet, and
they may have already had some of that while they're
waiting to see who their next opponent was going to
be out of the West.

Speaker 2 (01:27:35):
Well, they've already been off for six days.

Speaker 3 (01:27:37):
But I will say that the way I would handle
it is I'd simulate a couple of games interspersed throughout
the couple or the week and a half layoff. I
would have certain practices where we would get prepared closer
to how we would get prepared for an actual game,
and then we'd scrimmage. Now, again, you're not looking to

(01:27:59):
get anybody hurt, so we're not going to have a
scrimmage that's going to you know, completely replicate game speed,
and we're not going to look to get too physical
with our star players and things like that and will
limit the amount of time that they have on their legs.
But we're we're gonna give them some good hard looks.

(01:28:20):
We're gonna we're gonna do some of the things that
the Mavericks are going to do with the Scout team
or with you know, a mixed scrimmage where you have
some of the guys playing for you know, you split
up your stars at times, you know, you have some
of the guys playing with the twos, some of the
guys playing with the ones, and you actually have like
a lively game like practice where you can replicate some

(01:28:43):
of what you're gonna see when the series, when the
series gets underway. That's the only way to break up
the monotony of a long layoff is actually playing the
sport and playing the sport at a high level, at
least in moments, because if you don't, you're gonna be
so completely rusty by the time Game one tips off.

(01:29:05):
You're gonna have guys who I'm not gonna say are complacent,
because I don't really believe in that. I don't think
a lot of athletes take their foot completely off the accelerator.
If some do, but the majority don't. But what can
happen is you've been you've been out of game shape
for so long that you forget what it feels like.
You don't want that to creep in. You don't want

(01:29:27):
riga mortis to creep in. You want to stay flexible,
and you want to start game one of this series
just like you finished, you know, game five of the
last series. Yeah, here were Game four because they swept
in the in the uster Cream Conference Final. Well, you don't.

Speaker 2 (01:29:42):
If you're the Celtics, game one is critical.

Speaker 1 (01:29:45):
If you lose Game one A, you obviously lose home
court advantage, but you're allowing the Mavericks to sort of
build on the momentum they've already carried as a five
seed to get to the NBA Finals. If you're the Celtics,
you've got to win Game one. You could even lose
Game two, but I am I think psychologically for the Celtics,

(01:30:08):
Game one is a far more critical game.

Speaker 2 (01:30:11):
They need to win this game, and if they.

Speaker 1 (01:30:13):
Do, then I think, you know, I think the series
is going seven, and I'm not going to guarantee that
just because Game seven is going to go to the Celtics,
although I did pick the Celtics. You know, as far
as rooting interests, I just root for a good NBA
Finals when you don't have a horse, I just want
competitive games. I want us every Sunday from this point on,

(01:30:35):
whether it's one Sunday, two Sundays, or all three Sundays,
to a Game seven where we're like talking.

Speaker 2 (01:30:41):
About this series.

Speaker 3 (01:30:42):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's.

Speaker 2 (01:30:43):
What you want.

Speaker 1 (01:30:43):
You want your stars to play big. Jason Tatum needs
to show up unlike what he did against Golden State.
Doncic and Jaylen Brown and Kyrie the stars need to
show up and that's what we hope for, all right.
Speaking of a star on the other side, which you're
going to be joined, why one of the biggest stars
in our industry is our Fox Sports Radio MLB Insider.

(01:31:07):
He'll also give his thoughts on the upcomingly Stanley Cup Final.
The Great John Paul Morosi coming up. This is Fox
Sports Sunday, Steve Harvey, Rich Oberger, Fox Sports Sunday. We
are live from the Tyraq dot com studios. Is that
Mookie Betts hitting a leadoff home run? Does he do

(01:31:27):
that like every game for the Dodgers?

Speaker 3 (01:31:29):
Pretty good?

Speaker 1 (01:31:30):
He's pretty good at doing that leadoff home run. Dodgers
one nothing lead over the Rockies. Johnny is right now
an honor of privilege for us to welcome in a
true legend. He will never say that, but we will
for him. It is deserved. Fox Sports Radio MLB Insider.
The Great John Paul Morosi is Johnniest right now.

Speaker 2 (01:31:51):
Now, JP, you know me.

Speaker 1 (01:31:52):
I want to jump on a little hockey talk to
get things started today. The Panthers eliminated the Rangers, so
once again, the team of the best regular season record
falls short of winning the Stanley Cup. It'll be the
Panthers versus the Stars or the Oilers. Game six, Edmonton
with a chance to close out this series. Which way

(01:32:14):
you're leaning tonight, what do we look in as we
move ahead to the possible matchups for the Stanley Cup final.

Speaker 10 (01:32:21):
Well, good afternoon, gentlemen. I always appreciate the chance to
talk about both hockey and baseball with both of you.
I think Edmonton closes it out today. Now. It's gonna
be a challenge, though, because they've got all the anxiety
and anticipation of the city of Edmonton and to a
larger extent, all of Canada riding on this because for

(01:32:43):
anybody that's not quite aware, they have not won a
Stanley Cup for any Canadian based team in thirty one years,
and that weight is heavy on all of those franchises
in Canada to bring the Cup back home, so to speak.
Edmonton I really believe at the moment has the best
chance of any Canadian team in recent memory to do it.

(01:33:05):
That they do not have necessarily that the shutdown goaltending
all those Skinner's been really good of late. They do, however,
have two of the very best talents in the entire
world in McDavid and dry Sidle. So for a lot
of reasons, I like Edmonston here. I think they put
together a very complete sixty minute game. Probably their best
playoff game of the entire run was Game five of

(01:33:26):
this Western Conference Final, So I think Edmonton has the
edge there, but I really believe that the favorite in
a larger sense to actually win the Cup is Florida,
because you're right, they were not as good as New
York during the regular season, but playoff hockey is different.
They remade their team in the last couple of years
to be tougher to play against as this time of year,

(01:33:47):
they've gone it. Paul Maurice is an excellent coach. Babrovski
has been very good in goal. They've gotten some big,
i think huge goals, scoring at the right times. Londell's
been clutched for them, Kachuck has had a great playoff
Barkoff is one of my favorite players to watch. So
for all those reasons, I've got the Panthers winning the
Cup regardless of who they play.

Speaker 3 (01:34:06):
Love it, Love it NHL arguably the best playoff we
have in this country, and understand obviously Canadian interest in
the sport is high, and it's for a good reason.
It's cold up there. They got plenty of ice to
skate around on a sport that's nowhere near its postseason,
but definitely heating up as we head to the summer months.

(01:34:27):
Major League Baseball, specifically, Aaron Judge, he had the hottest
May of any player, fourteen homers, twelve doubles, twenty seven RBIs.
I mean, when you frame this in history, it's difficult,
right because when you're a New York Yankee, there are
so many greats who you're contending with. But this is
the best month by a hitter since Joe Demagio, So

(01:34:51):
lending that perspective is is pretty impressive. Aaron Judge. Now, listen,
it's one month. He's a tremendous player, He's tremendous seasons.
He may be an MVP this year. But when his
career is said and done, where do you think we're
going to rank him in terms of the greats who
have done the pinstripes in New York JP?

Speaker 11 (01:35:13):
Like?

Speaker 3 (01:35:14):
Is he Is he going to be spoken in the
same reverence as a Ruth than a Demagio and a
Mantle or is he going to be somewhere further down
the list?

Speaker 10 (01:35:23):
Well, it's a great question, and I think that the
part of it is to an extent out of his control,
which is winning the World Series Championship. Now, part of
that is certainly within his control his a bats, but
a larger sense, we view Derek Jeter the way that
we do because for a generation, every October we'd turn
on our TV and he'd be there. And I think

(01:35:45):
that the judge now needs to have that same permanence
at that time of year, and I think he's certainly
capable of doing that. And by the way, that's why
he signed with the Yankees when he had his choice
of any team to sign with. Seems like the Podreys
and Giants may actually have ended up offering more on
a per year basis for a long period of time
during that courtship, but he wanted to be a Yankee.

(01:36:06):
I now we're seeing why he did that, because you
have that chance to build your legacy and be regarded
as one of the great players to ever don that uniform.
I think there's a certain way that maybe we regard
the heroes of yesteryear, as you mentioned, whether it's Ruth
Gerrig DiMaggio, Mantle, Reggie Jackson to an extent, but I

(01:36:27):
think those heroes for some of those games they were
played on black and white TV or in the memories
of our grandfathers. It's almost difficult to think about how
you compare a player today to Ruth in those years.
But I do think that Judge could have a Jeter
esque reputation and legacy if there are some World Series

(01:36:48):
titles to go along with it, I think, and it
maybe isn't fair to him, but we all know how
legacies are viewed, and championships ultimately are part of it.
Certainly he's got a chance to do it this year.
And one of my favorite notes too is remember how
much he quote unquote struggled in April and what was
being said about him at the end of April, literally

(01:37:08):
a month ago before he had this month for the Ages. Well,
we shouldn't, I guess, have been surprised that he was
getting criticism because it's part of the part of New
York and then playing there. But also we shouldn't be
surprised that he totally reversed that narrative with what he
did in May, because he has been, to your point,
one of the greatest Yankee hitters ever over the span

(01:37:30):
of a month, and he's already got the Yankee home
run record anyway, so we shouldn't be surprised when number
ninety nine goes and does something historic.

Speaker 1 (01:37:37):
Well, he may be on his way to an MVP season.
One guy that's not is Ronald o'cunya Junior. Another season
ending injury. You know, I was thinking about this with
Mike Trout the other day, JP, with all the injuries
he's had in recent years. I mean, right now, Trott
only has sixteen hundred hits in his career, right, you know,

(01:37:59):
we we have certain standards when we term of Hall
of Fame, and You've been a Hall of Fame voter for.

Speaker 2 (01:38:05):
Quite a while now, and I'm wondering.

Speaker 1 (01:38:07):
If we have to readjust things and when we're never
gonna have another three hundred game winner, those days are over.

Speaker 2 (01:38:14):
The way the games played these.

Speaker 1 (01:38:15):
Days, the injuries that we have on these superstar players,
I don't know, they just seem I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:38:21):
You know, back in the days of Mazon.

Speaker 1 (01:38:23):
Aaron, they didn't have these season ending injuries all the time.

Speaker 6 (01:38:27):
It was rare.

Speaker 2 (01:38:28):
When did this happen back in the day.

Speaker 1 (01:38:30):
Now it's almost commonplace that some of these star pitchers
or star hitters go down with season ending injuries, and
all of a sudden, it's going to knock down some
of those season numbers. I'm one of those people that
really talks about dominance over just accumulating stats. I mean,
I mean, I said this about Don Sutton, who won
three hundred and twenty four games of his career. At

(01:38:51):
what point was he a dominant pitcher? He was a
good pitcher, really good pitcher. Burt Blylev another guy like that,
really good pitcher for a long.

Speaker 2 (01:38:59):
Time, Philneker.

Speaker 1 (01:39:00):
Well, but just because you play forever and accumulates stats,
does that mean they're I mean, look at Johannes Santana.
Why is an he not on the Hall of Fame?
He dominated with the Minnesota Twins. You want two Scions,
he go to one, three and four side guys. He
was so dominated, but his career was cut short due
to injuries.

Speaker 3 (01:39:16):
How do you judge it?

Speaker 10 (01:39:18):
Well, I think that you're you're raising a lot A
really good point, Steve, And as a Hall of Fame voter,
you have to think about those things. And that's one
of the.

Speaker 11 (01:39:24):
Reasons why we have what we call the Era Committees.

Speaker 10 (01:39:26):
The Veterans Committee is what it's been called over time,
because there are players who I think we miss and
who for whom we need to think about different ways
of conceptualizing their careers. I'll mention a couple of names
we haven't gotten into yet, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, who
they didn't have because of injuries or other elements. They
didn't have the longevity, but they were brilliant, one of

(01:39:50):
the best players in the league for a period of time.
And it's so interesting that you mentioned whether it's Sutton
or others that are in the Hall of Fame, Necros
and other one that when you consider.

Speaker 11 (01:40:00):
The career, like whose career would you rather have?

Speaker 10 (01:40:04):
Would you rather have their careers or perhaps the career
of a Bernie Williams or a Juare Posada multiple World
championships but maybe didn't get into the Hall of Fame.
I think that the ballot was so crowded for such
a long period of time that I do think a
lot of deserving players Jeff Kenth, for example, didn't get
the consideration that they deserved. I mean, you're raising a

(01:40:25):
lot of really good points, and I think it also
talks about the peak of the player trout for me,
and I was interested to hear how many hits he
had just when you mentioned that for me, I feel
as though he already belongs because there was a period
of time four or five years where he was the
best player in the game period, end of story. And

(01:40:46):
I have a hard time thinking about somebody who's who
had won that many MVPs or finished second in a
number of occasions as he did, not being in a
Hall of fame. But you're right, you'd like him to
at least get to around two thousand hits something like that,
just to sort of affirm the resume. And that's where, honestly,
I look at a player like I've been banging the
drum in the last month or so talking about what

(01:41:08):
Salbotur Peaz has done for Kansas City. The catching position
is different, and because of that, Perez is different, yadi
Are Molina is different, and maybe we should take a
second look at someone like oh rightful sad. There's a
lot of different elements there of players and position players
at unique thoughts in the diamond that probably deserve more
consideration than they've been given.

Speaker 11 (01:41:28):
But you're right.

Speaker 10 (01:41:28):
It concerns me as a as a baseball person that
Trout and Acunya, with time missed, are almost starting to
fit in that same category where Acuna Is last season,
forty home or seventy solen bases is completely ridiculous. But
you start to wonder if he can't do it year
after year, or at least put together quality year after year,
what does that does that eventually mean? And all I

(01:41:50):
can say is we as voters have to keep open
minds and continue to evolve with the quality of the
resumes that were being given because it's not all going
to look the same. Joe Mauer, by the way, getting
intos the catcher, his resume does not look like Johnny
Bench's resume. And from where I sit, that's okay. He
still belongs, in my opinion, in the Hall of Fame.

Speaker 1 (01:42:12):
Well unique in the fact that he was the only
catcher to win three batting titles. Okay, and he did
win an MVP Award. It's going to be interesting with
Buster Posey, whose career is identical to Thurman Munson, literally identical.
He has the exact same numbers, played the same career,
multiple World Series championships. Munson never got a sniff, and

(01:42:32):
they're talking about Buster Posey is a first ballot.

Speaker 2 (01:42:34):
Guy, same same resume, identical.

Speaker 1 (01:42:38):
Yeah, well, it's like and one guy's career was cut
short because of a premature death, and yet Munsey gets
no push for the Hall of Fame, and they're talking
to Buster Posey's going to be first ballot right well, And.

Speaker 10 (01:42:51):
I think that one of the other things that's unique
is that these two different bodies that vote on the candidates.
Whether it's the writer's ballot, that's us so as speaking
as a baseball writer, we have our own criteria the
way we look at it. And there's the Veterans Committee.
The Era Committee is comprised of historians, people who are
in the Hall of Fame executive. It's a small group

(01:43:14):
of sixteen that is definitionally looking at different things than
the writers do, and that creates a lot of inconsistencies
and some I'm surprises Harold Bains got in, Lee Smith
got it. I'm thrilled for both of them. But I
agree with those who say that maybe if they're in,
there are some others with similar resumes that also deserve
to be in.

Speaker 11 (01:43:34):
I fully understand that. But this is why here we
are in the early days of June.

Speaker 10 (01:43:39):
The election happens in the before the end of the year.
The announcement in January. It reminds us that baseball does
have the best Hall of Fame, just as it also
has the best All Star Game, which is coming up
in about a month. I'm not sure if it's got
the best playoffs, because I think that probably belongs to
the Stanley Cup playoffs. But it is between my two sports,
I can claim a lot of the best of a

(01:43:59):
lot of All right.

Speaker 1 (01:44:00):
I got to stop right now, you know, Rich, I'm sorry.
I just you know, you know how I am. I
get on this stuff. I get on my soapbox. JP
always great the conversation. I wish we could always make
it longer. One of these we're just gonna have to
start earlier. We're just gonna have to start early.

Speaker 11 (01:44:15):
Yeah, we'll start earlier.

Speaker 10 (01:44:16):
And one of these times, I got to make sure
I line up my schedule. I will whenever I'm traveling
to La on a Sunday, San Diego on a Sunday,
and to make sure I get out and so I
can actually see you guys in person on the day.
I've obviously been with both you guys in person that
have great conversation, but now we got to make sure
we do the whole roundtable in person together.

Speaker 1 (01:44:36):
That'll be perfect. JP always a pleasure. We'll talk to
you next week.

Speaker 11 (01:44:39):
Have a great week, guys. I'll the best things.

Speaker 1 (01:44:40):
John Paul Morosi, Johnny is there go the best, the best.

Speaker 2 (01:44:47):
He's got it all covered.

Speaker 1 (01:44:48):
Speaking of the best, let's find out what is trending
right now is Moncey Wow?

Speaker 2 (01:44:54):
I mean, what a schedule she keeps? What a schedule?

Speaker 3 (01:44:57):
Right?

Speaker 9 (01:44:58):
You know, thank pizza to for keeping me alive.

Speaker 3 (01:45:01):
She's fueled, well, she's fueled by cheese, pizza, yep, and
uh an occasional tequila you know Repisada.

Speaker 8 (01:45:11):
You know, Yeah, I guld sip on a ripple, so
I guess more. I am a blanco gal. But no,
I'm not going to give me.

Speaker 1 (01:45:20):
At some point, at some point, didn't you promise Manzi
some kind of food multiple years ago?

Speaker 8 (01:45:27):
He delivered it just was Remember he owed me an
egg plant, like a parmesan eggplant sandwich, and then he
delivered it but on a pizza.

Speaker 1 (01:45:35):
When I'm talking about I'm talking about something that he
he made.

Speaker 9 (01:45:39):
Yes, the thing.

Speaker 1 (01:45:40):
About is he makes stuff that has meat.

Speaker 9 (01:45:44):
No, but I think that's yeah. I actually think you're
you're right.

Speaker 8 (01:45:46):
I think it was he was supposed to make me
egg plant parmesan. That's right, and then it was going
to become like a sandwich, and now I got it
on a pizza and no regrets.

Speaker 3 (01:45:54):
Yeah yeah. What what ended up happening was I started
putting together all the ingredients for this, I'm like, how
the hell am I gonna make this at Fox Sports
Radio studios. So then I panicked and I just called
the pizza restaurant down the block, and it ended up
being a really nice little party we had.

Speaker 8 (01:46:12):
It was it was And this was after he said,
I wasn't it that you said the Clippers were not
gonna win a single game after we had all those
injuries last year turned the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (01:46:20):
That's correct, and then we did and you were like, man,
that was.

Speaker 3 (01:46:23):
Like, yeah, did not work out.

Speaker 9 (01:46:25):
It worked in general, though we got pizza.

Speaker 3 (01:46:27):
That's good point.

Speaker 8 (01:46:28):
Yeah, we all benefited from it, that's right, all right,
Fellas we went to extra Indians in Boston.

Speaker 9 (01:46:35):
Between the Red Sox and the Tigers tied at four.
Detroit has added.

Speaker 8 (01:46:38):
Four runs in the tenth innings, so they're on top
eight to four. See if Red Sox can do something
about that. In the bottom of the tenth inning. The
Blue Jay is still on top of the Pirates five three.

Speaker 3 (01:46:47):
Top of the ninth.

Speaker 8 (01:46:48):
In Toronto, the Brewers have added some more runs, so
they're beating the White Sox six to three and they're
about to start the ninth inning. In Milwaukee, the Padres
have also added a couple more runs. They're beating the
Royals three to one and about to start the ninth.
The Reds holding onto their lead over the Cops five
to two. Top of the ninth. Juan Soto with a
solo shot puts the Yankees on the scoreboard first against
the Giants one zero, bottom of the second, and Mookie

(01:47:11):
Betts did have a leadoff homer. Then Freddie Freeman homered.
Bo Benson may have been critical of Freddie Freeman. I
told him he heard you. He heard you, Bo, Freddie
Freeman heard you. Came back hit a home run. Dodgers
are beating the Rockies two zero. Top of the second inning.
The Twins, they edged the Astros four to three. Host
Sam Miranda had the tine homer and the go ahead
RBI double to secure the win for Minnesota. The Braves

(01:47:33):
held on to beat the A's three to one. The
Rays came back to beat the.

Speaker 3 (01:47:37):
Orioles four to three.

Speaker 8 (01:47:38):
Jose Siri with the two RBI double in the eighth
gave them the lead. The Diamondbacks beat the Mets in
New York five for Kettle Marte. He homer twice, including
the go ahead two run shot in the ninth inning.
The Rangers blank the Marlin six to zero, and the
Nationals avoided the sweep. They beat the Guardians five to
two at the Canadian Open. Let's see Robert McIntyre. He's
been in the lead all day. He still is sixteen

(01:47:59):
under par overall. He's too under for the day through
nine holes. Tom Kim is now three shots back. In
the w n b A, we have the Connecticut son
who are a perfect seven and over the start of
the w NBA season.

Speaker 9 (01:48:12):
They're beating the Dream fifty.

Speaker 8 (01:48:13):
Seven to forty three, and they're about to start the
fourth inning or inning for the fourth quarter.

Speaker 9 (01:48:18):
You got it, You got it, guys. It's a lot
going on. It is a lot going on, and I
have not had tequila this morning. Back to you, back
to you.

Speaker 4 (01:48:26):
Fuck.

Speaker 2 (01:48:26):
It's never too late.

Speaker 9 (01:48:27):
It's never too early or too late, exactly, that's right.
That's rights.

Speaker 2 (01:48:31):
Never too early, Never too late.

Speaker 1 (01:48:33):
You know what I'm really missing, Mancy, is a dirty martini.

Speaker 8 (01:48:38):
From from mister rich Yes, I've heard about your dirty
markin filteen.

Speaker 2 (01:48:41):
It's not dirty filth, yeah, filthy.

Speaker 3 (01:48:44):
Yeah, I'm renowned.

Speaker 6 (01:48:46):
You are.

Speaker 3 (01:48:47):
You are going to experience that at some point very soon, my.

Speaker 8 (01:48:50):
Friend, I love to Yeah, I think he was talking
to you, but I'm gonna jump in on no, no.

Speaker 2 (01:48:54):
No, no no.

Speaker 3 (01:48:56):
That's why there's enough to go around. Bringing one of
those big bottles.

Speaker 1 (01:49:00):
Yeah, yeah, oh that's good stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:49:04):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:49:04):
MAT's a great job as always. I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (01:49:08):
Steve Hartbin and a rich Ornberger here, of course, this
is Fox Sports Sunday. We were talking at the very
beginning of the show today about the hit so to speak,
on Caitlin Clark Kennedy Carter sort of like a two

(01:49:28):
president name Kennedy Carter, although the Kennedy Kennedy spelled.

Speaker 3 (01:49:32):
Ch that's right. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:49:34):
So I'm trying to think of what's next for the
WNBA in this whole again, how are we going to
milk this? Because ten games into her career, I mentioned
the fact of those players that have had enough field
goal attempts to qualify for highest field goal percentage, she's

(01:49:55):
thirty seventh out of forty two, and in three point percentage,
he's thirty first out of thirty five. She's third in
field three point attempts and thirty first in percentage. She's
not a good shooter. She's a volume shooter. Now she
takes you know, way out there shots and that excites
the crowd. But the reality is setting in that Caitlin Clark,

(01:50:18):
and again she's a rookie. Things can change, but there
are a lot of players in this league already that
are much better than Caitlyn Clark, but none of them
obviously are in the same zip code. When it comes
to star power, how do you keep this thing going? Well,
we talked about it. You you suddenly have players going
out of their way to put her down on the ground.

Speaker 2 (01:50:38):
We talk about it.

Speaker 1 (01:50:40):
We have you know, people talking about why she's so
popular and talking in a negative way, bringing up race
or sexuality. I mean, they're coming up with all this different.
They're talking about her, yes, and then the question is, well,
how do you keep that going? So if you're the WNBA,

(01:51:00):
you know without I mean, are they cheering behind closed
doors right now? Like, hey, this is working? You know,
maybe she's not the player that everyone thinks she is,
but man, she's a polarizing figure and we got a
lot of players in this league. They don't like her,
and this is working for us. Do we encourage that.
I'm trying to figure out, what's your strategy if you're

(01:51:20):
in the front offices of these WNBA teams to keep
the ball rolling?

Speaker 3 (01:51:26):
Well, I'll I don't think they're that organized. To be
honest with you, I.

Speaker 2 (01:51:31):
Really never had a situation like this.

Speaker 3 (01:51:33):
No no, I And I was gonna say, and I
don't necessarily blame them, because, like you said, this is
very unique when this is the first time, Like think
how many stars since inception the NBA has experienced and
profited from and promoted so many I mean, and a

(01:51:55):
variety of different scales, you know, Shaquille O'Neill, Charles Barkley,
Lebron James Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson.
The list goes on and on. Now you have more
international flavors with Dirk Novitski and Gyao Ming before him,
and and Luka donc la Jokic and Giannis and Tentem Kumpo.

(01:52:20):
It's it so They've had so many different iterations of
so many different types of stars.

Speaker 1 (01:52:26):
The WMA, I mean Kandas Parker, Yeah, Diana Tarassi, I'm super.
I mean, there are some names to you that some
people beyond you know.

Speaker 3 (01:52:38):
You're not gonna diminish. I'm not gonna diminish any of
the names you just mentioned. They are they are all stars.
But do their names cut through at any point in
their careers, whether it be as players like we're in
a completely different stratosphere, well they have to.

Speaker 2 (01:52:59):
They better come up with some kindness. We're only ten
games into the season.

Speaker 3 (01:53:02):
And that's my point. I think it's it's gonna.

Speaker 1 (01:53:04):
Take players in this league are revolting against her, even
her own teammates.

Speaker 3 (01:53:09):
It's it's gonna take time. They don't have a strategy.
They don't have it. It's very clear they don't have
a strategy yet. I don't think that they were aware
of the level of blowback Caitlin Clark was gonna receive
for the amount of tension that she received from her
opponents and also her own teammates. I don't think they

(01:53:32):
understood the level of envy or jealousy, or animosity or
general animus she was going to face from the players
in this league as a result of some of the
changes that recently have has come and some of the
recent attention the league has garnered as a result of
Kaitlyn Clark. And also, I mean personally, look at this

(01:53:54):
through the lens of an athlete. We're talking about type
A personalities. You know, if we were talking about a
bunch of men's players, you would say a bunch of
alphas out there on the court. When you have type
A personalities, when you have aggressive, strong, motivated, competitive personalities.
And Caitlyn Clark has been crowned a superstar before even

(01:54:18):
walking onto one of these courts, before even lacing up
her own by the Way basketball shoes, she got a
multiple what would you call it, a eight figure contract
from a shoe contract. Yeah, before she even shot her
first jump shot. And some of these players in this

(01:54:39):
league have been playing good basketball for a bunch of years,
and they've been and they're hyper competitive, Like I said,
type A personalities, and they've gotten zero shine, They've gotten
zero attention from from shoe companies. Nobody in this league
has an eight figure shoe contract, Are you kidding me?
And then Kitlyn Clark walks in before she even takes

(01:55:02):
her first three pointer, before she even gets her name
mentioned as she takes the floor for the first time.
I'm telling you there is personal vendettas around this league,
and everybody's looking to take her down to Pega two.
I'm not gonna say everyone that's too that's too sweeping
of a generalization, But there are players who want to

(01:55:23):
take her down to Pegga two because they are they
are motivated by their own personal jealousies, or they're caught
up in their own personal narrative about who they are
in relationship to who Caitlin Clark is, and and that
WNBA has to do something about it.

Speaker 2 (01:55:43):
Yeah, I tell you.

Speaker 1 (01:55:44):
Right now, social media is showing that those that are
only watching the WNBA to see Caitlin Clark are not happy.
They are not happy about how their star is being treated.
All right, come on here on the other side, what
kind of week is it going to be? As we
count down the endless days to the start of the
NBA Finals, We'll tell you.

Speaker 2 (01:56:03):
This is Fox.

Speaker 1 (01:56:03):
Sports Sunday Steve Harbin and Rich Ornberger Fox Sports Sunday
Live from the tire Rack dot Com Studios want to
thank our legendary crew Monsey.

Speaker 8 (01:56:18):
Battling every day, battling, hanging out whatever, same thing.

Speaker 2 (01:56:26):
Life's a battle.

Speaker 9 (01:56:27):
Life is a battle.

Speaker 8 (01:56:27):
But I also feel like I'm just hanging out really
watching sports.

Speaker 2 (01:56:31):
Well that's what we do around here, and it's a battle.
I mean, I mean, believe me.

Speaker 1 (01:56:39):
I halfway to our our broadcast today, I lost my
UFL game.

Speaker 2 (01:56:43):
I mean then all of a sudden, I was like,
what now, what? What? What am I going to watch?

Speaker 1 (01:56:47):
Uh Bo excited because he got Mookie Bets and Freddie
Freeman hit home runs in the first inning, his beloved Dodgers.

Speaker 13 (01:56:54):
Can I make my official finals pick?

Speaker 3 (01:56:55):
Steve Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:56:56):
I would love why I was going to do that,
Chris as well. Everybody's well, we know my.

Speaker 13 (01:57:00):
Because I have the Boston Celtics winning in five games.

Speaker 2 (01:57:04):
Five games, five games, Wick Aleman, if.

Speaker 13 (01:57:07):
You watched Monzi's wonderful TikTok prior to the playoffs beginning,
I picked the Clippers to win the NBA Finals, So
the reverse Jinks is alive and well, and I predict
the Celtics are going to win five all right.

Speaker 1 (01:57:19):
So Celtics in five now, Monzi is already and with
her Mavericks in six, Chris, which way are you leaning
for these NBA Finals that will get underway?

Speaker 2 (01:57:28):
And what is it four months?

Speaker 3 (01:57:29):
Tax? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:57:30):
I feel like I feel like I'm not doing a
reverse Jinx, but I like to try to feel where
everyone's good vibes are going, because then I always assume
the opposite of that, because the world is a cruel place.

Speaker 1 (01:57:41):
So I'm saying Celtics and six, Celtics and six. It's
interesting because most of the on air people that I've
heard here, they're all going with the Mavericks.

Speaker 2 (01:57:49):
Yeah, that's what I mean. So see, it's to be
a tidal wave of Mavericks support. We got a push back,
all right, Well, I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:57:55):
On the record yesterday Celtics in seven. So it's up
to you, Rich, which way are you laning for this
NBA Finals matchup?

Speaker 3 (01:58:03):
I agree with Bo. I think it's Celtics in five. Wow.
I think that the opening game, to your point earlier, Steve,
is going to determine a lot. My expectation is the
Celtics are gonna take game one, and at some point
the Mavericks will sneak out a win, but it's gonna
be a Gentleman's sweep, and it's gonna be very similar

(01:58:24):
to how the rest of the playoffs went.

Speaker 4 (01:58:26):
I would say if it went that way at all,
I would not be upset about it. Not to stick
it to any Lakers fans around here, It's just I'm
going for my grand my late grandfather, celebration of life
here at the end of June.

Speaker 2 (01:58:37):
And I know him growing up.

Speaker 4 (01:58:39):
He was a very he played basketball in high school
in college, but he was a very big Celtics fan. Well,
he always staked up all night watching the league games
on NBA.

Speaker 1 (01:58:47):
So here's my edit, because I know a lot of
Laker fans would be upset if they lost the tie.
They finally achieved, by the way, they includes five championships
in Minneapolis, the Lakers seventeen championships.

Speaker 2 (01:59:00):
Also including the Celtics.

Speaker 4 (01:59:02):
You know, championships when it was a part time job too,
so you know you win some you.

Speaker 2 (01:59:06):
Look anyway, show, But I Bill Russell Lyne again.

Speaker 1 (01:59:10):
Yeah, but my attitude if you're a Laker fan getting
nervous about the Celtics breaking the tie is forget that.
How about winning eighteen nineteen twenty on your own? How
about is getting better I just I don't have a
lot of faith right now in the direction that the
Lakers going, since the ultimate goal is not about making money,

(01:59:33):
ultimately winning championship.

Speaker 13 (01:59:36):
Now, but then JJ Redick's going to be Steve Kerry
two point zero.

Speaker 2 (01:59:40):
Alry could be Steve Nash. The NBA is just better
when we have both.

Speaker 4 (01:59:43):
I still remember my first basketball game on the Sega
Genesis was Lakers versus Celtics at the NBA Finals.

Speaker 2 (01:59:50):
That's how this league used to sell it. That's exactly both.
It's yin and yang, I mean, and so.

Speaker 1 (01:59:57):
You know, if you're a Laker fan nervous about the
cel I'd be more nervous about the Lakers.

Speaker 2 (02:00:01):
Forget about the Celtics.

Speaker 1 (02:00:03):
They're at least putting themselves in a position to win
a championship.

Speaker 2 (02:00:06):
What are the Lakers doing well?

Speaker 3 (02:00:08):
I mean, look, the Lakers. They made it to the
Western Conference Final last year. It's like a fluke Boston Nuggets.
I mean, this year, they got they got well, they
it was competitive. It was a competitive sweep.

Speaker 2 (02:00:23):
Geez.

Speaker 1 (02:00:24):
This is why you've really lowered the bar. All right,
So we'll see how it plays out. At least we'll
have one game to talk about next Sunday, much more
coming up here, a full day of sports. There's only
one place to be, and you've already arrived. This is
Fox Sports Radio.

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.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.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 WNBA and NBA Finals!