Steve Hartman and Ryan Hollins talk Nuggets and Kyrie!

Steve Hartman and Ryan Hollins talk about the likely NBA Finals match-up of the Denver Nuggets and the Miami Heat, the Lakers shortcomings, FSR MLB insider Jon Paul Morosi joins the show, the possibility of Kyrie Irving joining the Lakers in the offseason, the difficult job of being an NBA head coach, and much more! 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Please don't listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Yes, living the dream once again here on a fully
loaded Sunday in the sports world. This is Fox Sports
Sunday and we are broadcasting live from the tire rack
dot Com studios. Tire rack dot Com. We're gonna help
get you there, and I'm at selection, fast reshipping, free
roadhats of protection, over ten thousand recommended installers, tire rack
dot com, the way tire buying should be. And who

(00:25):
should be with me today? My fellow Bruin Ryan Hollins
joining us today. Ryan, how are you on this Sunday?

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I'm doing good? How you doing? Man? Been some time?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
It has been some time. It's great to get back
hooked up with you. We got a lot things going
on right now. We're about an hour and a half
away from the leaders team off at the final round
of the PGA Golf Championship. We'll keep you updated on that.
We're gonna have John Paul Morosi joining us here in
about fifteen minutes. Catch up on some MLB news, also
give a little insight in the final four in the

(00:58):
NHL playoffs. But of course, Ryan, you and I been
watching some basketball over the last couple of Days, And
you know, I want to get right to it because
the NBA, when the final four had been settled on,
was looking at the potential of your dream matchup the
two most hollowed franchises in the history of the association,

(01:21):
the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, And unless
a miracle miracle happens, we're going to get the Miami
Heat going up against the Denver Nuggets. I want to
get to this right now because I was listening to
Mike and Dan talking about the whole ratings idea that wow.
I mean, like the Celtics Lakers are a dream matchup

(01:42):
and like your worst possible nightmare would be the Nuggets
and the Heat. And I fight back on that idea
because when it comes to a playoff series, to me,
you could say, well, there's not a lot of hike
going in. But let's be realistic. Ryan, if you're let's
say thirty years old, how much relevance does the Bird

(02:08):
Magic Days have in your life. The last time those
two guys faced off in the NBA Finals was in
nineteen eighty seven, which to be long before a thirty
year old was even born. Now there's old guys like me,
Like you know, I watched the entire you know, unfolding
of Bird Magic and I was even their court side
in two thousand and eight for Game one of the

(02:29):
NBA Finals, first time in twenty one years that the
Lakers and Celtics had played, and Bill Russell was there
and Bird and Magic. I mean, it was like this reunion.
But in twenty twenty three, how much relevance do you
believe a Lakers Celtics NBA's final matchup would have had.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
I think I think current day it will still be
box office. You don't know why. It's a simple reason, Steven,
I know you understand this. Grandpa was a big time
Laker fan. Son ends up growing up big time Laker fan.
Now grandson is what Laker fan Boston Celtics same on

(03:10):
the other side. So listen, I'm thirty eight, so I'm
eight years older. So I think by mass of fan base,
of TV coverage, I think there's still the there's enough
numbers there in the fan base where he would do numbers.
And you know, with all due respect, teams like the
Heat and the Nuggets, and unfortunately, you know, most of

(03:32):
the league, they don't have that same history. So the
history comes over well because you get the different generations
that are buying in to watch this series. And Steve,
with all due respect your generation, in my generation, we
still like to watch games on TV, so we'll actually
sit there and watch the game. Well, the younger generation
wants to highlights. With all due respect, they want it

(03:53):
quick fast, and maybe that's the better way. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Well, I look at it this way because and again,
you know me, I like to do historical references. The
nineteen ninety one World Series was between two upstar teams,
the Atlanta Brays and the Minnesota Twins. You know, not
huge markets at the time. The Braves were complete unknown
Maddox wasn't even on the staff at that time. They
had young pitchers like Tom Glavin and John Smoltz to

(04:19):
Steve Avery. The Twins had won a World Series four
years earlier. They had Kirby Puckett and not much else.
Jack Morris had joined the team that year, and so
the prediction was two teams that actually had finished last
in their divisions the year before had suddenly catapulted themselves
in a single year to get to the World Series.
Not a lot of fanfare going in but it turned

(04:41):
out to be one of the most epic World series
of all time, culminated with a one to nothing Game seven,
Jack Morris out dueling John Smoltz, and to this day
it is the highest rated World series of all time,
highest rated of all time, not Dodgers, Yankees, Braves. Why

(05:02):
because it was a compelling series. And so when we
look at the playoffs so far this year, and there's
been some great individual performances, the two most dominant players
in this year's playoffs have been Jimmy Butler and Nicoleokic.
Those have been the two most dominant forces to get
their teams to where they are in the cusp of

(05:23):
a matchup in the NBA Finals. So I look at
it this way. There might be it might be a
tough sell as far as Heat Nuggets in an NBA Finals,
but I'm expecting a great series with that matchup because obviously,
the Nuggets have never even been to the NBA Finals,
much less won an NBA championship. And if you look

(05:45):
at the Heat, obviously they had their run with Lebron
and Dwayne and Chris Bosh back in the day, but
since then they had, you know, one trip to the
finals in the bubble that nobody watched. You know, it
was up against the NBA in twenty NFL in twenty twenty.
So I think that potentially this matchup could be a

(06:05):
great matchup, very competitive, both teams sort of fighting for
an identity led by two players that, in my opinion
so far, have really been the dominant forces in these
NBA playoffs.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Well, you're right, what would be the big name? And
the reason that we're doing this is both teams are
hard down bad right now. Okay, we're talking historical comebacks
for both the Lakers and Boston. And I saw the
Lakers one coming, Steve. I'm sure we'll get to that later.
I didn't see the Boston one coming. This was this

(06:39):
was it. It doesn't just super surprise me because Steve,
you know what his analyst, it's very hard to say
what Jimmy Butler is or isn't, or to say who's
gonna win when Jimmy Butler's evolved, you have no idea.
This was a team, let's keep this in context, that
lost their first playing game, right, teams that.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Look lost they played, they lost.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
It and their potential. They're up three to zero, gonna
be NBA champs. So I say that to say you
need the fireworks. Jimmy Butler seems to be one of
the He's the gift that keeps on giving. Right now,
he's talking trash, he's having these big moments, he's backing
it up. I told every I said this, I said
this round one. I said this when he was going

(07:18):
against Milwaukee. I said he can turn into Michael Jeffrey
Jordan on any given night. So we get that. Jimmy
Butler's gonna drive those ratings. I don't know a scuffle.
And at the end of the day, Steve as basketball officionados, okay, right,
whatever you wanna call us, right, we just want to
see a good game. I don't have a horse in
a race. My rockets are are not there, man. I

(07:38):
just want to see a good game at this point,
and whether it's Lebron involved or the Boston Celtics and
Barry Bird and the whole steak behind it, I just
want to see a good competitive basketball game. You know.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
I found it comical late in that game three yesterday
between the Lakers and the Nuggets, when it was clear
that the Nuggets we're the better team and they eventually
would go on to win this game and take that
commanding three to zero series lead. And they showed a
quick shot of Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA, with
Bob Iger, the head of Disney, which of course oversees

(08:11):
ESPN and everything else, and Silver's just talking his ear off,
you know, trying. I imagine you're saying, no, no, this
is good. I'm telling you, this is good. This is
good for us. Man, It's good to have Denver and
not the Lakers, and I as just staring at him,
like we're here at Crypto dot Com Arena. And the
reason we're here with every other celebrity in town, the

(08:33):
bandwagon is in full force. We haven't seen some of
these celebrities, starting with Jack Nicholson in years, and suddenly
they're showing up in force for these big games and
it gives us see Silver, of course it helps. And
so by the way, but when people talk about ratings,
revenue and how much interest is in the NBA, understand

(08:53):
this about the NBA and the finances of this league.
China pours in over five billion dollars a year into
the NBA. Over five billion dollars of revenue is generated
through China into the NBA. So when you're talking about
these ratings and they look minuscule, and it's it's been ugly.

(09:17):
I mean, you know, the Warriors Lebron, I wontly Receie calfs,
but when they had four consecutive finals, those are those
are good ratings. I mean, the Warriors good ratings. But Ryan,
you remember back in the day, anytime the Spurs were
in the NBA finals, it was a catastrophe. Ratings wise,
it was amazing. You would put, you know, a great

(09:39):
team led by a great coach, hall of famers all
over the place, but they wouldn't generate numbers. It doesn't
matter because the NBA is financed globally. Most importantly, they're
pouring in five billion dollars a year into the league
just from China. So the NBA is going to be fine.
It doesn't matter. And and honestly, the ratings will be

(10:00):
driven by the product that we see. Whatever teams end
up in the NBA finals right now, most likely the
Heat and the Nuggets. And that's the way I look
at it. I don't know again, how much relevance is
a Lakers Celtic matchup. I mean, for us that have
some historical perspective, Ryan, it would seem to have more.

(10:20):
It was like, wow, I mean, look, they could possibly
have Lakers Celtics, but the NBA is not gonna fold
if it's a Nuggets heat final.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Not no, not even close. It hits the reality. Yeah,
from a number standpoint, that would do much more. Hey,
if you get some fireworks, you get some fun basketball
going to it may be different. But in terms of
this overall playoff, the Lakers in Knicks, I'm not sure.

(10:52):
Numbers wise, I'm just throwing it in the air. I
would be intriguing. So let me ask better than make
a statement just that Lakers and Nick and making it
to a second round that's big. Oh yeah, and a
conference fight like that. So I don't know where the
numbers generate as they bulk together. But this is the

(11:12):
best NBA playoffs I have seen in a very long time.
And even if you don't, Steve, I don't know if
you agree. If you don't get the Star Park, look
you got you had big brother and little Brother. You
had Golden State and and the Kings duking it out.
You had the Knicks and Kings might had first time
in the playoffs ever and it very excuse me, in

(11:33):
a very very long time, not ever, but in a
very long time. And then you had Curry Lebron in
the second round. I mean, from a number standpoint, I
think the league may be going even if this ain't
the box office matchup, and we're we're just we're just
talking hypothetical. We're not talking point shaving and making this
team or fraive the NBA. We're by no means are

(11:55):
we saying that. But you do look back and go, wow, Okay,
this will be a more must sy TV. But the
league as a whole, the playoffs as a whole seat,
would you agree that this was just I mean, there
were storylines all over the place.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Well, I look it right. It's the same thing with UCLA. Okay,
when UCLA is relevant and has a chance to at
least get to the second week of the tournament, I
don't even give UCLA credit for being in the nca
Basketball Tournament list that makes Sweet sixteen. I don't even
check the box unless they get to at least the
sweet sixteen. But you know my attitude saying with Lakers, Look,

(12:28):
it's no secret I'm a lifetime Laker fan. I mean,
I go back to when Will Chamberlain was acquired from
the Philadelphia seventy six ers. So I've been watching it
all the way through, and so I agree with you.
I have watched it. It's not even close how much
over the last decade, because the outside of the bubble
year the Lakers have been not even part of the
playoffs that I've watched way more play off basketball, and

(12:50):
it's been wildly entertaining and we've had some insane individual performances.
So we'll see how this all plays out. Will have
much more of this coming up a little bit later on,
including any possibility of the Celtics overcoming two home losses
to come back to win the Best of the seventh series,
and of course, teams down three to zero in any
playoff series in the history of the NBA oh and

(13:13):
one hundred and forty nine, but even some of the
Lakers are hinting, yeah, why not make history. So we'll
talk about those possibilities later on in the show. On
the other side, though, we're going to catch up on
a little MLB talk, also a look at the final
four in the Stanley Cup playoffs. John Paul Morosi JP
will join us coming up next.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
Hey, I'm Doug Gottlieb. The podcast is called All Ball.
We usually talk all basketball all the time, but it's
more about the stories about what made these people love
their sport and all the interesting interactions along the way.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
To coaches, we talked to players, We tell you stories.

Speaker 4 (14:03):
You download it, you listen to it.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
I think you like it.

Speaker 4 (14:07):
Listen to All Ball with Doug Gottlieb on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 3 (14:15):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
Steve Harbin, Ryan Hollands, this is Fox Sports Sunday and
we are live from the tire Raq dot com studios.
All right, we'll keep our eye again on this fine
round the PJA Golf Championship. A lot more NBA playoffs
to talk about down the road, but first, Johnny is
right now with his insight on Major League Baseball, and yes,

(14:50):
the NHL Playoffs is the one, the only, the great
John Paul Morosi, JP, how are you on this Sunday.

Speaker 5 (14:56):
Steve and Ryan? I am outstanding, my friends. And how
about this beginning to the Stanley Cup Semifinal round, three games,
three overtime games. You've got Florida who looks unbeatable even
on the road. Just an extraordinary way that they're playing
right now. So it's been a lot of fun to
watch this hockey.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
I wanted to ask you this the longtime evolution of
the National Hockey League. I mean, you got four teams remaining, Florida, Carolina, Vegas,
and Dallas. I mean nothing screams ice hockey like those
regions of the United States. It's now thirty years since
the last Canadian based team won the Stanley Cup Championship.

(15:37):
I remember it well because we were the whole of
the Kings, the old sixth ninety and nineteen ninety three,
when Gretzki and company had a chance to take down
the Canadians and the curve stick controversy and everything else.
But what is this meant to the evolution of the NHL.
The fact that we have gone such a prolonged period

(15:57):
of time with our crowning as Stanley Cup champion based
in Canada.

Speaker 5 (16:03):
Well, that's a great question, and a couple things stand
out to me. Number One, in a cap league, and
when you think about the pressures that go into building
a team, if you are an organization in a place
where there's extreme pressure to win and compete every year,
it is as if, and I'll make up a basketball

(16:24):
comparison here, it is as if every Canadian franchise is
in some way or another like the New York Knicks,
to where the Knicks fans would not say, hey, yeah,
it's okay, you can take that four or five year
rebuild and we'll be really good after five years. You
can't really say that in New York, and you can't

(16:47):
really say that in hockey anywhere in Canada. And this
is the result most of the teams that you see,
and I would actually say all of the teams in
Vegas sort of in its own category because it's an
expansion team. But these are all to varying degrees bottom
up rebuilds, teams that have benefited in some way from

(17:08):
having high picks or just recycling their their rosters over
a period of time and and that have the latitude,
in the case of the Florida Panthers, to make a
really bold trade and bring in Matthew could Chuck last
summer and to nurture a really talented superstar player like
Sasha Barkoff was finally not getting the recognition that he deserves.

(17:31):
I think that it's it's a testament to whatever the
sport is, and maybe the Tampa Bay raise our evidence
of this in Major League Baseball, when when you have
really smart front offices who can make decisions based solely
on what they think is the best for the long
term of the of the organization and not what appeases

(17:54):
the columnist and the major newspaper in the morning and
all and the local talk radio that's so intense about
this team. It's kind of amazing what happens when when
you've got really good front officers who just do their
jobs and don't worry so much about public opinion, because,
to be honest, it's while there's passion for all of
these markets, you're not necessarily going to get a two

(18:16):
game losing streak in November will not necessarily carry four
to five hours of talk radio in the next morning
in the way that it would in Toronto or Montreal,
or Winnipeg or Vancouver. It's just it's just different. I'm
not saying one's better and the other one's better. It's
just different. And I think that that's one of the
reasons why you've seen really strong front offices have a
lot of success in places like Florida, Carolina, Dallas, in Vegas.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
All Right, JP, I need your help with this one.
I was a little bit split, but I think I'm
leaning one way and I want to know the real
story behind it. So in baseball, there's some questionable strikeouts,
and I'm sure this has been from the beginning of time,
and the first time I think I hear this, I
think integrity of the game. Man, keep the umpire do

(19:00):
what they do. They're calling for robots or computers to
help validate these strikeouts in the ninth inning, now is
a play, I'm going maybe you get it right. How
close is this to happening where the talks with it
and is this just an angry fan base? Would this
make the game better?

Speaker 5 (19:19):
Well? Right, it's a very fair question, and certainly you're
probably referencing yesterday's game. Of course, ending on a very
controversial moment of monkey bet at the plate, and truth
be told, when it ends up being a superstar player,
future Hall of Famer like Mookie playing for the Dodgers,
it tends to get attention and it really accentuates what's
been an ongoing conversation about the automated strike zone as

(19:42):
it is known in some of the different minor leagues
where it's being utilized. I think that it's it does
have a future in this game. Is it five years out?
Is it ten years out? I tend to think that
within five or six years that we will see it
in major League Baseball because it works at the low levels,
and to your point, it's a really good system if

(20:05):
if you only use it on a challenge basis, and
the reason why I think it's a good system on
the challenge basis, if you only use it for maybe
three calls a game, is that preserves the notion of
what the umpire represents, the human element of the game
and the fabric in the tradition of baseball, and also

(20:25):
avoids having really skewed ideas of what a strike is.
There have been times where, for example, if you've got
let's imagine a left handed batter up at the plate
and the catcher is set up on the inside corner
to a lefty, and all of a sudden, the pitcher
totally batches the execution of the pitch and it ends

(20:46):
up being on the opposite corner of the plate. The
catcher has to lunge and reach for it. Even if
that ball clips the strike zone, that has almost never
been a strike because you miss it by so much.
And there there would be in that instance some hitters
who say, oh my gosh, I can't believe that's a strike,
And we can't have that going off as a strike

(21:08):
all game long.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
Now.

Speaker 5 (21:09):
If it's if there's an egregious miss like yesterday with
Mookie in the ninth inning, no umpire wants a blown
call it or decide the game, And so they don't
want themselves to be the number one story on this
radio program the next day. And so if there's a
way to correct that with a quick video review, the
beauty in that is unlike a tag play at second

(21:32):
base or a really controversial play at first base where
it's a bang bang play. If it's a miss like
last night and the ball does not even come into
that zone, it is literally a two second review for
any one of us. Yep, that's the ball that's outside,
and that's all it will take. And actually, I really

(21:54):
think the time that that would require over the way
in which you would become minimly obtrusive to the game itself.
I think it is a clear win for that new
part of the game going forward. And I expect again
that within the next five or six years, as long
as the players Union likes it and as long as
the umpires Union likes it, which are two big gifts,
I think we will see it be part of Major.

Speaker 6 (22:15):
League Baseball, all right.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
I always like to single out a team in our conversations. Today,
I want to talk about the Baltimore Orioles. This is
a team that from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty one
very similar to how bad the Astros were a decade before.
That's how bad this Orioles team was. I mean, just
a couple of years ago. This team lost one hundred
and ten games. They had the breakout year last year

(22:38):
they got to thirty one game improvement, and now they're
sitting at thirty and sixteen. How did they put the
pieces back together in what has been a very proud
franchise ever since their move. You remember it, I remember
it from Saint Louis as the Browns to Baltimore back
in the day. But how have they been able to
turn this franchise back into a winner.

Speaker 5 (23:00):
They've done exceptionally well in the draft. And you reference
to the Houston Astros connection, It's no accident. Michae Elias
was the Astros scouting director for a lot of those drafts.
He drafted Bregman, drafted Korea, McCullers and that group. And
Mike is now the GM of the Orioles, and he's
a really good executive, really good executive, and I think

(23:24):
he's made a lot of great choices, whether it's Rutchman
and what he has meant in coming in Mountcastle and
his arrival to the organization and now becoming a mainstay player.
Also some really good moves around the Margins, Anthony Santandre,
Austin Hayes, Cedric Mullins. This is a really, really well
conceived and balanced roster with a lot of youth, and

(23:48):
I think that they have been extraordinarily patient, And this,
to me is the story of a team that did
not rush the process. Last year, there was some pressure
on Mike to to be boulder at the deadline. I
think that in general they actually were sellers of the
deadline and still made a pretty good run of things
in the second half. In general, I really like the

(24:09):
way he has run the team. It's one of the
younger groups in the game, but that is a good thing.
With the pitch timer now and how quickly the game moves,
you want to have a rhythmic, athletic, young, excited, energetic team.
Those are the kind of clubs that have success, whether
it's Tampa, Baltimore, Atlanta to an extent, youth works right now,

(24:34):
and Gunnar Henderson is another example. They've called it Grayson Rodriguez,
who's had some success their bullpen you near Cano. My goodness,
what a story he has become for them in the
bullpen they're setting up for Felix Bautista. So I just
think that they have got a really good collection of
young talent, the right veterans peppered into to the rotation

(24:55):
and the lineup as well. I just I like their balance,
and we don't talk about them as much as we
talk talk about the Red Sox and the Yankees and
even the Blue Jays. In the same division. But at
some point in time, Steve and Ryan, we're gonna be
talking about the Orioles a lot, because I believe they're
going to be a very dangerous team in the postseason.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
Man, good stuff there, JP. Okay, how about these Dodgers, Man, No,
Dustin may know who Leo you Rias? You got two
rookies coming in. Do you think that the Dodgers organization
is going to make some moves that bolster they're pitching.
Is that something they're going to have to do to
be competitive moving forward? Are they starting to get antsy

(25:32):
or they're gonna, you know, give these guys an evaluation
period to kind of see what they have.

Speaker 5 (25:36):
Yes, they will. I believe Ryan that we will see
the Dodgers make a move for a starting pitcher at
the deadline. We're still two months away from that happening
in terms of when the deadline falls, and obviously a
lot can happen a lot and change in the next
couple of months. But I don't see the Dodgers being
a World Series team this year without an infusion of

(25:58):
at least one impact starting pitcher. And I would have
said that even if Julio Rios was not just placed
on the injury list over the weekend. That to me
is a massive concern when you talk about someone who
at his best as a cy young candidate type arm
Dustin may likely out for weeks and maybe longer with
his flex restrain and his elbow. So you've now got

(26:21):
your arguably number one or number two starters out. Walker Bueler,
who was also in that category, is still out until September,
and I think it would be a little foolish to
count on him for a certain number of starts because
he's trying to get back way ahead of schedule. So
there's just not enough consistency there for the Dodgers, and
they're in a division where the Diamondbacks, and how youthful

(26:44):
and exciting they are, they're one more team I'd mentioned
is really benefiting from this youth movement in the game Arizona.
So I'm with you, Ryan, whether it's Lucas Chilito, who
of course has some connections there to La or Eduardo
Rodriguez with the Tigers, there are enough good arms out
there on teams that are probably going to be sellers
to where I do expect the Dodgers to make a

(27:07):
move and we have to wait and see as we
get a little closer to August first, who that picture
is going to be?

Speaker 2 (27:13):
Well, JP, with Rich out today, I'll save the catastrophe
that has been the Sandego Padre season so far for
another week. JP. Enjoy your sports Sunday as always. Thanks
so much for joining.

Speaker 5 (27:25):
Us, Stephen, Ryan all the best, My friends. Love the conversation,
whether it's about baseball, hockey, hoops. Such a great time
of year. And yes, I suspect the podres will still
give us plenty of storyline to discuss one week for today.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Wow, they have been a disaster, I JP, thanks so much,
Thank you. That's John Paul Morosi joining us. There are
MLB and Slash NHL insider. Hey, let's find out what
is trending right now. As I look over this is
the great thing about our new studios, Ryan, I can
actually see months, yes, which was never the case in Zach.

(28:02):
I'll be honest with you. Before Montci became a regular
here on Sundays, we we sort of had a revolving
door of people sort of filling in right. And so
because I many times would sit in the studio, I
can't see I would be literally looking like the right right, right, Yeah,

(28:23):
you look around.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
He's such a professional. You don't want to disrespect anybody.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
I don't want to say the wrong name.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
Hello.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
And of course you know Sam's never looking at me,
so it's like I.

Speaker 7 (28:35):
Get it and see.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
But that is no longer the case.

Speaker 6 (28:37):
No, Now you know exactly who's here, and I am
typically here on Sundays hanging out with you guys. What
it's trending is Darvin Ham in many different directions. Some
people want him fired and others don't want him fired.
It's very split, really down the middle on how the
fan base is feeling after the Lakers lost last night.

(28:58):
But somebody literally you're smoking crack if you think firing
Darvin Ham is the right answer.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
Well, I've said this yesterday. We have some interesting coaches
and we talked about the Lakers sales. You have two
rookie coaches, yes, and it's it's like any job. You
start to learn on the job, and coaching in the
playoffs is very different than coaching in the regular season.
And both of them and made some rookie mistakes.

Speaker 6 (29:24):
And also I think coaching Lebron James is also an entirely.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
We'll get into that, right, Yes, I got plenty to
say about Lebron Japs, right, but that.

Speaker 6 (29:34):
That is what's trending right now, guys. The PGA Championship,
the final round underway. I mean, the top seven are
all names, big names. Bricks Koepka is at the top
of the leader board, six under part overall, one shot
ahead of Corey Connors and Victor Hovlin, but in seventh
places Rory McElroy and then Scotti Scheffler.

Speaker 7 (29:53):
Just all the top seven, which they're.

Speaker 6 (29:55):
All going to start teen off around two pm into
two thirty pm, so we'll see how this one ends.

Speaker 7 (30:00):
But right now, Brooks Koepka is at the top of
the leader board.

Speaker 6 (30:03):
You guys were just talking to JP about pitching and
the Dodgers will m all beyond.

Speaker 7 (30:07):
Fox just tweeted that the Dodgers are calling up their.

Speaker 6 (30:10):
Top pitching prospect, Bobby Miller, to start on Tuesday against
the Braves.

Speaker 7 (30:15):
The Braves are starting Spencer Streider.

Speaker 6 (30:17):
Now, if you don't anything about Bobby Miller, he's twenty
four years old, he's six ' five, he was a
first round pick out of the University of the University
of Louisville, so the Dodgers are calling him up Tuesday
against the Braves. It is official. The Yankees are the
only game going on right now. But we're about to
have a lot of baseball happening. But it's the Yankees
that are beating the Reds four to one. It's about

(30:38):
to be the bottom of the eighth inning. It was
a two run homer by Harrison Bader, and Glaber Torres
hit a solo shot. And so that's the only game
going on. But the next hour I'm going to be
telling you a bunch of baseball updates.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
Back to you guys, all right, Monsie, thank you very much.
Once again, we're brought to you by Progressive Insurance. PROGRESSA
makes fund ling easy and affordable. Get a multi policy
discount by coombining our motorcycle RV, vote ATV and more
all you protection one place bundle and say at Progressive
dot Com. I don't want to dive into the Lebron
stuff quite yet, because I got a lot to talk

(31:10):
about with you Ryan on the whole dynamic of the
Lakers moving forward. But I do want to mention this,
and I mentioned this at the top of the show
yesterday with Bucky Brooks about the passing to Jim Brown,
and a very complicated legacy with Jim who I had
a chance to work with several times Ryan back in
our six ninety days. He did shows with us, you know,

(31:33):
when I was doing Sports Central with the CBS affiliate
here Television with Jim Hill. We had Jim and studio.
He was an extremely interesting man. Rarely talked football. I mean,
he was one of those guys that love to get
in conversation just about anything. Very intelligent man. But it's
complicated because inexcusable the instances of the domestic violence charges

(31:58):
leveled against him. He didn't deny them, he took responsibility
for them. But I want to just get your thoughts
here about an era of sports heroes, whether Jim Brown,
Kareem Abdul Jabbar, actually young Luel Cindar as he was
at the time at UCLA, of Bill Russell, obviously a
Muhammad Ali during the civil rights movement of the nineteen sixties,

(32:21):
and how very much involved they were in that. And
then we transitioned to the likes of a Michael Jordan
of at Tiger Woods, who made the conscious decision to
steer free of that controversy. And I never blamed him
for it. I said, hey, everyone has choices. And then
we saw the Black Lives Matter movement that was prevalent

(32:41):
during the shutdown in twenty twenty. And then Lebron James, who,
by the way, had some very endearing thoughts about Jim Brown.
He used him as a role model in his own
involvement in civil rights. Where are we right now and
how do you believe the evolution of today's athlete in

(33:04):
terms of social issues political issues has evolved from the
days of Jim Brown and the civil rights movement back
in the nineteen sixties.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
I think it's in good hands. And when you bring
up those other names, I think what people have to
understand as a former athlete myself is you can't try
to be something that you're not. It's it's natural for
Lebron to speak up. And I hate the notion that

(33:33):
people scoff at Michael Jordan, and obviously it's Michael, so
he gets that, Well, Michael's not doing too much. He
has to do what feels natural to him. And I'm
also among the the I guess maybe similar in the
sense of like when I do a good actor, I
do a good a good deed. I don't need everybody

(33:56):
to know what I've done and why I've done it.
And Michael Jordan does a lot that you don't see.
Some things you made question, but he's never just going
to be in the spotlight letting you know, Hey, I'm
doing this, this and this. So I think we do
need to keep in context before we judge people. But
I think at the end of the day, you got

(34:16):
to be yourself. And I think one thing that we've
seen and we appreciate Lebron for whether he's right or wrong.
I don't think he's perfect by any measure, nor does
he try to be. But when he goes out and
says things, man, he makes things happen. And when you
have the main guy, the guy speaking out and like
I said, I'm not trying to get a Lebron fight

(34:36):
with anybody or saying and he's perfect, but when something's
going on wrong, he can speak, and he can, you know,
try to adjugate himself as best he can and get
behind a certain cause or so. So personally, hats off
to Lebron. I like what he's doing and I think,
like I said, you, I don't think it's fair to
judge what somebody else should or should not be doing

(34:59):
with issue. And you know, the reality of it is,
when you're playing sports, you're not going to congress meetings
and sitting behind things and rallying with people. You know.
I think sometimes even that argument or fight with be
and Steve. You've seen it with Kyrie of well, hey
are you playing basketball? You're are you going out and
being activist? And I judge neither choices, but it is

(35:19):
tough sometimes to be in between.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
Oh, no doubt. And obviously it was a different financial stakes.
And I understand this about Jim Brown he left the NFL.
It wasn't It was a situation where he had to
make a choice forced upon him by the owner of
the Browns at the time, Art Modell, about his commitment
to coming to training camp and shooting a movie. And

(35:44):
to be honest with you, he finally decided, I've done
everything I can possibly do playing the game of football.
It's time for a new chapter in life. I will
always say this about Jim Brown and my conversations with him.
He didn't just talk to talk, he walked the walk,
and for that he is to be commended. Some of
the other things not so much. But that he is
to be commended, all right. On the other side, we

(36:04):
do have this major golf championship going on right now.
The leaders are still about forty five minutes away from
teeing off the relevance of this sport in the absence
once again of Tiger Woods. This is Fox Sports Sunday,
Steve Harvin, Ryan Hollis, this is Fox Sports Sunday. We
are live from the tay Iraq dot Com studios. Yesterday, Ryan,

(36:25):
I got a tweet Twitter response to our show, someone like,
are you are you actually talking golf?

Speaker 1 (36:37):
Like?

Speaker 2 (36:38):
And okay, So for someone like me, Ryan, look, I
have been falling golf before Tiger Woods was even born,
So I mean, you know, there's there's a little, you know,
reference there, But you know, I look at sports in
general and always what is the best thing that can
happen to a sport? Now, when we look back to
the NBA, obviously the Bird Magic matchup in the eighties

(37:02):
was huge, but that was nothing compared to the emergence
of Michael Jordan in the nineties, and the NBA has
never seen anything since. The numbers on those NBA finals
with Jordan's presence will never be matched I mean, there's
never going to be another Michael Jordan in terms of
generating interest in a sport beyond those that are already

(37:22):
interested in that sport. And same with Tiger Woods. You know,
four years ago he culminated this miraculous comeback, one of
the greatest in sports history, by winning the Masters, and
I remember post tournament he was warning everybody that, you know,
how many things had to go right for this to happen.

(37:44):
But immediately everyone was like jumping back on the Tiger
band way, Oh, he's going to break Nicholas's record, He's
going to rattle off all these majors. Obviously that did
not happen. Then the car accident pretty much put an
end to it. But there is a chance for golf
to get back into the spotline, not to the level
of a Tiger Woods, but in terms of controversy with competition.

(38:06):
So Brooks Kopka is leading this PGA Golf Championship. He's
won a couple of US Opens, a couple of PGA
Championships in the past, Ryan, but it's different now because
he's now part of this live golf tour. And if
a live golfer wins a major, there's going to be
controversy to say the league.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
Explain what a live golfer is. For those who well.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Live, is this rival golf league in which they're paying
out hundreds of millions of dollars are offered hundreds of
millions of dollars to some of the biggest names cash
up front. And imagine this again, Ryan. Let's say let's
say somebody is looking for your services as an analyst,
all right, and they say, Ryan, here, here is our

(38:50):
offer to you. We're going to offer you an opportunity
to do half as much work as you're doing right now,
and we will triple your pay. Are you And You're like,
am I hearing you right? So let me get this raight.
I work half as many hours and you're gonna triple
my pay. Yes. Well, a lot of golfers took that

(39:11):
to heart. And whether it was Brooks kept Goa, Brice
and Shamba or Dustin Johnson, these guys took the money.
And I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but some
people thought it was crazy because it's not what the
spirit of the sport is. However, if one of these
golfers and right now Kepka is in the league wins
a major golf championship, there's gonna be buzz about that,

(39:34):
good or bad. And I think for golf they need
something right now because Tiger ain't coming back. There's no
more Tiger Woods. That's over, So they need something right now.
So I actually think this could be a benefit to
a sport like golf that desperately needs to, you know,
have some to talk about beyond the golf pages.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
No, you're you're right, you do. It is time to
shake things up. And I think in terms of golf
off it's a storyline, it's a name, you know, Tiger
Woods having you know, mixed ethnicity I think obviously was huge.
It threw you off. You gotta have, you know, something different.
But yet you're right, this live golf deal shaking things up.

(40:18):
It's only good for the sport. It is. And we
talked about baseball earlier and said, hey, do you like
the old old The old ways are going out the window.
The NBA is growing because they're moving with the trends.
Adam Silver gets it, and I think this would be
good for golf. This would give you something and give
the fans something to get behind, because in all reality
there's a whole new demographic of fans and if you

(40:40):
don't reach them, you lose them.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah, I controversy is good for any sport, believe me.
Speaking about controversy, the future of the Lakers coming up,
This is Fox Sports Sunday, rolling along here on another
huge sports day, Fox Sports Sunday. We're broadcasting live from
the tyrag dot com studios. Tyrag dot com gonna help
get you there, and I'm Matt's selection fast free shipping
free road has some protection over ten thousand recommended installers

(41:06):
tierrach dot com. The way tire buying should be. One
quick note on this PGA Championship when we're still about
a half an hour away from the leader's tee and off.
But this, this has been a pretty amazing story. This
Michael Block, who is a club pro. The PGA Championship
allows twenty club pros. These are not full time PGA golfers,

(41:30):
they're club pros and they qualify twenty slots. Most of them,
almost all of them missed the cut. It's more symbolic
than anything else. But they have one of a Michael
Block who's actually been in this PGA Championship several times.
Before he never made the cut. He not only made
the cut, he's tied for eighth and he's actually teen

(41:50):
off with Rory McElroy right now. So this guy and
he's great, Like he's been waving to the fans. This
guy's like a clubfoar here in so Southern California's he's
forty six years old. You know, he's dedicated his life
to golf. Obviously he can play, but he's had three
straight rounds of seventy even par seventy. And I mean

(42:10):
to put it this way, if he were to finish
tied for fourth or better, he actually qualifies for the Masters.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
We're talking about the guy.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
That you know, gives lessons to people like a club
pro right to make your game better. And he's never
made the cut before, tied for eighth, and he gets
to play in appairing with Rory McElroy. So it's something
they're teen off right now. So it'll be a lot
of fun watching this, all right, Ryan, I want to
I want to get to the Lakers situation right now.

(42:39):
You and I are in lockstep when it comes to
the legacy of Lebron James. You've said it, I've said it.
He is the goat. There is There is no comparison
of resumes to Lebron James in NBA history. And this
is no disrespect to Michael Jordan or Kareem Abdul Jabbar
or Bird Magic or anyone else that's played this game.

(42:59):
There have been the lot of great superstars, but I'm sorry,
nobody's resume is close to that of Lebron James, and
he only adds to that with his unprecedented play at
this point of his career. I know you're in court
with that here.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
I'm with you.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
You know, I know you need to wait for it. Hey,
you know me, my man, I know that. I know that,
and I know you've been you know, there's been pushback
because you've been very strong in your opinions about Lebron's
legacy as well. So we're on your court on that.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Here.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
Here's here's where I'm having a problem right now. So
you have a rookie coach in Darvinham And after Game two,
when Lebron went to zero for six and three point land,
extending a streak of nineteen consecutive three point misses in
the fourth quarter during the playoffs, he was asked about
Lebron taking those shots, and his response was, he's the

(43:52):
all time leading scorer in NBA history and he's got
open looks, so take the shot.

Speaker 5 (43:59):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
Meanwhile, you got a guy Austin Reeves who's shooting fifty
seven percent threes in these playoffs in this playoff series,
or the rest of the team is shooting twenty five percent.
I guess my question here, because obviously you know this
a lot better than I do, Ryan, is when you
have a player of the stature of Lebron James, a
guy you and I both recognize as the goat, how

(44:22):
exactly do you coach a guy like that where you
say to him, all right, I understand that mentally you're
still one hundred percent there, but maybe physically twenty years
in the NBA, I mean the equivalent of three added
seasons just with playoff games over the course of your career,
that it's understandable if you're not one hundred percent physically

(44:45):
ready to take on some of the burdens and then
you have to maybe distribute the ball to those that
maybe can deliver some big shots at the end of
the game. How challenging is that for especially a rookie
coach like Darvin Ham to convey those thoughts to someone
of the stature of Lebron James.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
Well, I mean it would be difficult, but you know,
with Darvin. You know what's interesting. I don't consider Darvin
a rookie coach. Now he is technically a rookie head coach.
He's been in the league as a player as an
assistant win championship, so this is his first time at
the helm. But I think he's an excellent job understanding it.
If I will say something though, I think with Darvin's

(45:26):
job to do right now, when I'm sure what he'll
do when he gets back and watch his film, and
this is just kind of a roster deal, we're getting
to the strategic part, the nitty gritty here, I think
you have to save Lebron from himself. The reason that
he's not able to hit those three point shots from
what I'm singing Game two, his legs were gone. Now

(45:46):
what did he have to slide over and do? He
had to go and guard Nikola Jokic because Anthony Davis
could not guard. He couldn't guard him to save his life.
That was the big struggle there in game one. And
now when I'm asking Lebron to defend score playmke there's
some element of his game that's gonna suffer. I'd save

(46:07):
that for Lebron to a fourth quarter or when we
really need it. And I'm saying, Ruiy Hatchamura, you're gonna
guard him, Van Doll, You're gonna guard him. But Lebron,
I gotta hide you. You're doing too many other things.
So those possessions where Lebron has to show on a
pick and roll and move his feed and guard and
and and even if he's not guarding Yokich, you gotta

(46:28):
give you gotta give them for credit. Man, there's a
whole lot of motion in that offense where Lebron there. Listen,
Mike Malone knows it, and he is making Lebron work.
He's chasing guys off screens. There's back doors, transition defense,
all those things take Lebron's legs away, and Steve, you
know it, when your legs go, what happens the three
ball go. So I think he's got to do a

(46:48):
better job of hiding Lebron. And it's tough because he
can do so many things that we know, Steve, so
you gotta just be quite you know, vigilant of hey,
what's going on, how does look? And normally the idea
is wait until these moments and then let him rip,
let him go, let him do what he needs to do.

(47:09):
But I just think it was too much for him
to be able to, you know, kind of come back from.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
All right, one of the guys, and I really want
to get into this Slaker thing moving forward with you.
So one of the guys they acquired of the trade
deadline was D'Angelo Russell, who is a former All Star
in this league. After a shaky start with the Laker organization,
you know, found his place, made his spot in the
NBA return with some fanfare, and had some really good games.

(47:39):
In this series, he's been a catastrophe. I mean, he's
had three horrific games, both ends. Jamal Murray. I'm not
putting all the blame on Jamar Murray going off on
D'Angel Russell, but he hasn't helped the cause. Let's put
it that way. And the reason I mentioned D'Angel Russell
is if you're looking at the makeup of this Lakers team,

(48:00):
and it was a turnar mind with how Tramura, the
emergence of Reeves obviously you got to figure out a
way to sign both those guys. There's no relief money
wise in terms of the contracts with Lebron James and
Anthony Davis. Should Laker fans ryan be looking at this
run even if it were to end in four straight
games possibly or even five games or at some point

(48:22):
it most likely? And although I thought it was great,
with the most one of the most idiotic questions I
ever heard postgame of Lebron James yesterday, someone asked him
literally this saying, how significant would it be for you
if you came back to win this series? And Lebron
gave the pause, like, that's really an incredibly stupid question,
and his question and his answer was it would be significant.

(48:45):
I mean, okay, but assuming the Lakers lose this series,
should Laker fans look at this run as a sign
that the Lakers are back? You know? I mean, prior
to this year, they had missed the playoffs seven of
nine years, have been eliminated in the first round playoffs once,
and won a championship in the Bubble in an abbreviated season.

(49:08):
That's what their previous nine years had. Do you look
at the makeup of this Laker roster right now with
the guys they acquired to the trade deadline, saying, all right,
so they didn't get the job done now, but give
us another full season and the Lakers are absolutely in
the mix to return to championship level. Do you look
at this team in those terms?

Speaker 1 (49:30):
I don't, but I also don't rule it out. Here's
the variables here, Rob Andlink is gonna have to earn
his money, which which I think he's done an excellent job.
He should have been in that running for general manager
of the year. You know, the moves he made, they
were going to miss the playoffs. Okay, now, maybe it
held against them because they're saying the moves you made
also had the team out of the playoffs. You know,

(49:52):
that was the strike.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
I always loved that when someone is like coach of
the year, like you coached the year before when they
are bad. Yeah yeah, and now asonder you're honored when
they're you're you're the coach of both these teams.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
God yeah. But he's gonna have to make moves with Reeves,
D'Angelo Russell. If I'm not mistaken, I think Vandal might
be a free agent also. But there's a number of
free agents that he's got to try a way to
hold on to. And I think the Lakers need and
if if it is Reeves, I'm not mad at it.

(50:23):
He Reeves is not good enough yet, but he's shown
enough where it's like, man, he could be a guy.
They need someone who can be a third option and
on any given night first option put the basketball in
my hand.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
Well, they thought D'anngel Russell was going to be that,
he's not. It's Austin Reeves. Reeves has been twenty three
twenty twenty three points in three games in this series.
Should you have fifty threes in this series?

Speaker 1 (50:51):
Well, D'Angel brings a lot to the table, but in
series like this, man, you he you're not putting the
basketball in his hands enough scoring wise to say, I
don't mind what you don't do defensively. And I thought
that he was honestly the key to this series because
of that, because he can run the pick and roll,
he can hit it a three off the pick and roll,

(51:15):
and you make Nicola Yolkicic have to cover. No one's
forcing Nicola Yolkis to have to play any type of defense,
and that is the weakness in the Nuggets. So if
this was Damian Lillard, he'd be having a field day.
The Nuggets couldn't guard him. Why because Jokic would be
trying to guard him in a pick and roll and
it'd be pick your poison. You're giving up three or
you're giving up layup. And that's the way part of

(51:37):
the reason why a lot of people didn't have the
same faith in the Nuggets that you would have thought.
So I think that missing d'angelo's contributions are big, But
you can go back to the Golden State series and say, man,
that game got tight and he had the ball in
his hands and he went and made things happen. Just
Denver is a much more. This is the most complete

(51:57):
team that we've seen from Denver ever. I mean, they
are good. So if you can't play or you're not
you know, serviceable on both ends, you can take an
advantage of Man.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
There are other storylines I want to get to out
of this series. On the other side, we'll talk about
the continuing inconsistencies from Anthony Davis. Why is he so
good one game and disappears the next And Jamal Murray
He's already done something that's never been done in the
history of the NBA. Why isn't he getting more recognition?

(52:28):
We'll break it down. This is Fox Sports Sunday.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
Steve Harvin O.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Ryan Hollins Fox Sports Sunday once again live from the
Tyraq dot Com studios, talking a little bit about these
Denver Nuggets right now, rolling along one game away from
their first ever trip to the NBA Finals. Nuggets, of course,
emerged out of the ashes of the ABA back in
the mid seventies, led by the legend David Thompson. They

(52:54):
also had a legendary coach named Larry Brown back in
those days. Yes, Ryan, I can remember those remember this.
I was sports editor of the Daily Bruin Ryan, the
year we hired Wow, Larry Brown as the head coach
and got us all the way to the championship, being
out the late great Denny Crumb in Louisville that year.
I can still remember walking into Larry Brown's office introducing myself.

(53:17):
I think he was thirty eight thirty nine years old,
and thinking, why would you leave the NBA for this job?
He was so thrilled. He's a Carolina guy. Though, you know,
it was like it was a weird fits. But that's
where the Nuggets are and a big part of that.
First of all, people most people don't know anything about
the Denver Nuggets. We don't see the Nuggets. Like people
are like watching Jokic, like wow, this guy really is

(53:39):
like an MVP. And it's like, because I was making
the argument, with all due respect to Embiid, Yogic should
have been the MVP this year. I mean his numbers,
like head to head against Embiid, he beat him in
almost every category including how about twenty nine triple doubles
to one? I mean, you know, I get it and
beads a score and everything else. But now people are
watching Jokic like this guy is good, but the other

(54:02):
guy's Jamal Murray. I got to ask about Jamal Murray.
So we remember he had a one and done at Kentucky,
had a phenomenal freshman year at Kentucky, seventh overall picking
the draft back in twenty sixteen. And this guy has
gotten better and better and better. He came off the
torn ACL he was out for eighteen months, better than ever,
and we're seeing how good he is right now. It's amazing.

(54:23):
He's never not only has he never made an All
Star team. Not only has he never made an All
NBA team. He's never received a single vote for All NBA,
not one including this yet, he has never gotten even
a third team vote for All NBA. And now all

(54:45):
of a sudden, people are like, damn, this guy is good.
He's already had four games in the postseason. He's had
twenty or more points in a fourth quarter, which over
the last twenty five years is twice as many as
the likes of A Michael Jordan and Alan Iverson. So
I want, I want to get your thoughts about Jamal
Murray right now and whether or not this run he's

(55:05):
averaging thirty five points a game in this series against
the Lakers will suddenly catapult him into that conversation of like, yeah,
this guy is a star in terms of when the
games on the line, who do you want the ball?
Whose hands you want to have on the ball, And

(55:25):
suddenly Jamal Murray's in that conversation. Could this be that
kind of run for a player like Jamal?

Speaker 1 (55:33):
It for sure is for one. But I want to
give you some context of my relationship with Jamal Murray.
So I played in the Pan American Games and the
Pan American Gamesapan American right, all the Americas in South America, Canada,
you know, the United States, all right, And what they
did is they wanted some NBA guys, but you had

(55:55):
to be a free agent. So I fit right in.
At the time, I was towards the end of my
career and we're playing against Canada and we're scrimmaging Canada,
just kind of a friendly to get ready, and there
were these two kids just running their mouth. Man, I'm like,
who are these dudes? You know? So some of these
guys are college guys. A lot of our college guys

(56:15):
some of the teams, and the reason we're there, they
normally wouldn't have the pros. They just sent the college
guys over the college. Our college guys were getting blasted
because you're playing Brazil. They've got grown men. They got
thirty eight, thirty six, forty year old guys just blasting
our young guys. Right, So they said, we're gonna bring
about four or five of our older guys to kind
of beat this thing up. So we're playing against Canada
and these two kids are just running their mouth. These

(56:38):
two college kids are running their mouth. They're talking trash
or this, this and this, and they we're like, who
are these guys talking? Right? And we go to look
up and they're kind of they start to back up
their trash talking. We're like, man, they ain't that bad
and they are running their mouths. Man. Come to find
out it was Dylan Brook. Anthony Bennett was quiet, he

(57:03):
wasn't rent in his mouth, but he was extremely athletic.
And then it was Jamal Murray. Come to find out,
they were not college kids. Jamal Murray was about sixteen
or seventeen years old at the time, right, So I
had an idea that this guy was gonna be really
good in the NBA. Now, to answer your question why

(57:24):
he hasn't gotten the respect that seems to be deserved,
is Denver wasn't that good when he blew up. It
was in the bubble. What happened after he blew up
and went off for those that big fifty ball, because
it's apparently everybody scored fifty in the bubble, right, No
one has respect like bubble basketball was just like like
rec league basketball. For some odd reason, it wasn an
NBA ball, right. What happened after he got injured? So

(57:47):
this is the first time we're seeing Jamal Murray healthy,
But I bring that up to say, is not only
did we play him in a scrimmage, we played them
in a medal in the metal game to go on
to compete right before the semi final, before the gold medal,
and with about five five or six minutes left in
the ball game, Jamal Murray went off and beat our

(58:08):
United States team full of NBA players and top collegiate players.
And I mean it was in the same fashion I'm
getting PTSD that he went off against the Lakers, got
the ball in hand, pull up three off the bounts three.
This is just Jamal Murray's DNA. So this fourth quarter cooking.
He's been doing this since high school.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
He is amazing. I mean his ability to create a
shot and you know it's always subtle because you've got
to give yourself space, right, he does what I call
the subtle pushoff to create space. He's very adept to this.
And most great scores are the idea of you know,

(58:50):
you got someone on you and how do you move
them off you? And it could be very subtle with
a forearm or you know how it is. And he
does it as well as any and I've seen because
again it's not flagrant right. He just he very subtly
is be able to push off. They don't blow the whistle.
He creates space and then he can His repertoire of

(59:13):
shots is as good as he gets. I mean he
can go outside, inside, post up. I mean he really
is good, like really good, and obviously makes this Denver
team that much more dangerous. You know, I dare say,
and I said this before the playoffs. In fact, I
said it even before the season when healthy, when playing

(59:37):
their a game. Lebron and ad are the best do
in this league still, and we saw glimpses of it,
rarely on the same night, but glimpses of it during
the course of the season. I'm not so sure that's
the case. Watching Jokic and Murray because they have such
unique offensive skills and I'm talking just offense here, and

(01:00:00):
they complimented each other so well. You know, two games ago,
when Murray in Game two went off for twenty three
in that fourth quarter, Yogic didn't make a field goal
in the fourth quarter. I think he had three free throws.
But that recognition, this is we talk about a team
right where Yogic is recognizing, hey, he's got the hot hand.

(01:00:21):
I don't need to get mine. Let him take over.
That is the kind of mutual respect that makes great teams,
where you recognize, all right, this guy's got the hot end,
let him go for it. I don't know if this
duo now playing their a game which we've seen, isn't
the best duo or the most challenging duo to defend

(01:00:45):
because of their unique offensive skills.

Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
You know, right right now, I think they are. But
I played for coach Mike Malone and the one thing
that he's always forced onto their team that they're finally getting,
and it's the defense. He knew, Jamalcus Score, he knew.
The only thing with Nicolea is he just had to
be more aggressive. Yeah, there's several times where he just

(01:01:09):
making you. Just brought it up, Steve, great point. He
always makes the right play, but with him to have
the overall success, he had to be aggressive. He had
improved defensively so well coach Mike Malone, who'd been given
an opportunity to take his lumps there in defender in Denver.
They just kept getting better and better and working and

(01:01:30):
finally you're seeing it come into fruition. So those guys
I don't want to say they didn't deserve their notoriety,
but they weren't what they are now, if that makes sense.
They weren't what they are now. That's something that developed,
that's something that came about. So they have become a
really really good basketball team and you're seeing it now
on display. But the inner workings were there, but it's

(01:01:53):
now coming in full circle all the way around.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
They're the better team. The better team is winning the
series right now. Team I stress team better team right now.
The Denver Nuggets up with three to zero in their
series against the Lakers. On the other side, I want
to get into Ad and not only his present but
his future with the Laker organization. But first let's find
out what is trending right now. By the way, I

(01:02:19):
like your jacket today, thank you.

Speaker 6 (01:02:21):
I like to call it my Martin McFly jacket.

Speaker 1 (01:02:24):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
It's like the silver shiny jacket going on. By the way,
is Ryan well aware of your one allegiance to the
Clippers organization?

Speaker 7 (01:02:35):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (01:02:36):
In fact, the minute I met Ryan, I took a
picture of him because when I was like, right, Hollid
the former Clipper ride Halt, That's exactly what I thought.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
Before we get into what's trending right now. Ryan, what
can you tell her about the future of her franchise.

Speaker 7 (01:02:51):
Yes, tell me.

Speaker 1 (01:02:53):
Well, the last time we talked, it didn't go so
well because everyone was bashing the Clippers. I tried to
stay neutral. It wren't too positive. Listen, listen, hey rude,
hey man, get go, get back to the drawing table,
get healthy and work things out. Look at look at Denver.

(01:03:16):
If only Denver hold on, hold on, Mazzi, if Denver quit, right, yeah,
you would never be saying as Michael Porter Junr was
drafted after back surgery. Jamal Murray had acl surgery. So
this is a team that's finally healthy.

Speaker 6 (01:03:29):
If only health was something we could control, that's what sucks.

Speaker 7 (01:03:34):
But you're right, I mean the Jamal Murray is a
perfect example. You can come back from an injury.

Speaker 6 (01:03:41):
And be amazing eighteen months out. Eighteen months out. He
didn't rush back, he didn't do any of that. Like
he is proof that you can't come back. But yeah,
I know, I know we have to be healthy.

Speaker 5 (01:03:52):
I know.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
Yeah, we'll deal with that little later. Yeah, guys.

Speaker 6 (01:03:58):
Brooks Kopka is getting ready to tee off for the
final round of the PGA Championship. He is at the
top at six under par. Corey Connor's Victor Hovlin one
shot right behind him. And you know, Rory McElroy started
with a birdie for his first hole, but he's now
back down at one under par. He went up, he
went down, So we'll see how this one goes. Plenty

(01:04:19):
of golf left. And then I told you I was
gonna have a lot of scores for you in baseball,
and I do. The Nationals are beating the Tigers four
to one. Bottom of the third inning. The Braves and
the Mariners were tied, but not anymore. Atlanta is up
two to one. Bottom of the fourth inning. Diamondbacks have
retaken the lead over the Pirates two to one.

Speaker 7 (01:04:37):
Top of the fourth. The Orioles are now on top
of the Blue Jays.

Speaker 6 (01:04:40):
The blue Jays were just winning, not anymore two to one.
They're about to start the bottom of the third inning
and the Brewers have added some more runs.

Speaker 7 (01:04:47):
But how crazy is this?

Speaker 6 (01:04:48):
Two years ago to the day, shortstop Willia Dams was
traded from the Rays to the Brewers and he hit
a solo shot to start the game. That's how it
started for the Brewers and now they're beating the race
three zero top the fourth inning. Royals have already scored
against the White Sox two zero top of the second inning,
and it was official. The Yankees did beat the Reds.
Four to one was the final score. Head Harrison Vader

(01:05:10):
a two run shot, Labor Torres a solo shot in
that victory.

Speaker 7 (01:05:14):
And I just read, guys, I can't get over this.

Speaker 6 (01:05:16):
But apparently James there is an appetite for James Harden
in the NBA outside of the seventy six ers.

Speaker 7 (01:05:22):
He wants a four year deal. He wants a lot
of money.

Speaker 6 (01:05:26):
And ESPN Bleacher Report, they're reporting that there is an
appetite for James Harden and not just.

Speaker 7 (01:05:33):
For the Rockets. Back to you, guys, what you got
to say about that mister Rocket over there.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
Surprised per day.

Speaker 7 (01:05:41):
I'm not disrespecting it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
That is literally like the way you said it.

Speaker 7 (01:05:45):
I mean, like, apparently there's interest, and I am surprised.

Speaker 6 (01:05:51):
I wouldn't give him that much money for four years.

Speaker 7 (01:05:54):
I wouldn't give him that much money.

Speaker 1 (01:05:56):
I was playing real nice when it came to the Clipper.
I was playing real nice.

Speaker 6 (01:06:00):
Now, So what she did in this aside from Game
one when m B did not play, you were happy
with what Harden did?

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
Absolutely, absolutely not, absolutely no.

Speaker 7 (01:06:16):
Fine, I okay, but you're.

Speaker 6 (01:06:20):
To the point where you can't ask for as much
money as you want when you're not as good as.

Speaker 5 (01:06:25):
You used to be.

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
About going on.

Speaker 7 (01:06:30):
Okay, problems, I'm not making James Harden problems. Apparently there's
an appetite what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
Yeah, she's still she's still upset when they she found
out from Clippers management that you want to double down
and extend the contracts of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:06:49):
Absolutely no, absolutely not beyond, way beyond.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
You have your heart later, all right, monsy uh, we'll
talk a little bit later on so much, all right.
Talking about hitching your wagons, you know, your future to
a player, the Lakers did that with Anthony Davis. When
they made the Anthony Davis deal. They basically forfeited all
their future drafts and everything else to get a player

(01:07:15):
that obviously went healthy on the court can dominate, and
he has shown that even in his short run with
the Lakers. However, staying on the court's been a question,
and consistency has been a question. You have followed his game,
you know his name a game, there's so much frustration.

(01:07:36):
You know, first game of the series, goes off for forty,
the next game he's four for fifteen shooting. Comes back
yesterday twenty eight and eighteen.

Speaker 1 (01:07:44):
Two.

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
Full question here, Ryan, I mean one is why the
inconsistencies and post Lebron Whenever that does happen and the
franchise is handed to Anthony Davis, is he a guy
that can lead a team as the guy to a championship?

(01:08:05):
Because in Lakerville there's only two greats. Kobe used to
remind me of that all the time. It's either a
or f Either you win a championship or you don't.
There's no hey, we got to the NBA Finals or
we made a run of the conference finals. Anything short
of a championship is a failure. So why the inconsistencies

(01:08:29):
for AD? And should Laker fans naming my son Garrett
who lives and breeze Laker basketball be comfortable with the
idea that this franchise will revolve around Anthony Davis post Lebron.

Speaker 1 (01:08:43):
AD is a finisher. So, to answer your question, the
inconsistencies come is because he's a finisher. So he's a finisher,
which means what he needs someone to get him the basketball.
So because AD needs someone to get him the ball,
he's gonna have a level of inconsistencies. Okay, So a

(01:09:03):
playmaker is a guy who just goes and scores ball
is in his hands. It is the toughest position or
role in basketball. AD is a finisher, which means, hey,
he needs someone to get him the ball. So if
no one's getting him the ball, you're gonna see his
numbers fluctuate up and down because then it's left a chance.
He's got to go and get the ball off the rim.

(01:09:24):
And it's not like he's you know, old school, you
know and two thousand, you know, aneteen ninety nine shack
where you couldn't box somebody, you couldn't do those things.
But he's a very skilled, long rangeye versatile player and
he can play at a very high level. But Anthony
Davis needs to be a part of a very good team.
He's not a guy listened to Pelicans with all due respect,

(01:09:47):
they weren't just you know, dominant, you know, making the
Western Conference finals when he was there. They were a
solid basketball team. So you have to put the right
pieces around Anthony Davis and he can flourish and everybody
loves a great finish. So that's where he and Lebron James,
you know, in moments, mesh so well together. The problem
is in today's NBA they're so similar in a position

(01:10:07):
where a lot of teams would just go out and
switch those screens if you got two formidable defenders in
that situation. But Anthony Davis plays off of Lebron. Not
Anthony Davis take the basketball and go to work. That's
not a highly super efficient play. Can he do it? Yes?
So moving forward, yes, he can be a piece, a

(01:10:30):
big piece, but you need to have to have someone
to get him the basketball. If that is making any
sense at all. To answer your question, I think in short,
what you're saying, is it worth keeping them? Do you
want to trade them? Do you want to move forward? No,
you want to keep Anthony Davis because as maybe whatever
struggles he's had with health, whatever you want to trade to,
you know, put on him. Anthony Davis is still one

(01:10:53):
of a kid. There's not many guys out there with
his skill set and versatility on both ends. This series
right now, that you're looking at is just a horrible
matchup because any of it will shoot any team with
a dominant big. And fortunate for Adal, there's not a
lot of dominant post players in the NBA. He's not
going to run into those same problems.

Speaker 2 (01:11:12):
Yeah. One of the things that people don't understand about
why he's struggling against Jokic in this series. Defensively, if
you go back three years ago, he didn't cover Jokic.
JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard were covering Jokich. They were
the bigs on that championship Lakers team and Ad was
at the power forward slot. Because a lot was made

(01:11:35):
of you know, this matchup, like wow, I mean, you know,
through the first couple of rounds, arguably he was the
best defensive player in these playoffs. But against the why
is it that the matchup against Jokich has been such
a challenge for Ad.

Speaker 1 (01:11:53):
He's a thinner player. He's more comfortable in space and
on the perimeter. If you remember the game that Denver
actually won, walked him down under the basket and shut
a game winner over Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis isn't strong,
He can't hold his ground, you know, he's a finesse player.
So you know if you're playing against the Golden State
that any team that doesn't have a traditional post or

(01:12:14):
you know, a bruising player Anthony Davis is going to
be fine. So I guess you know against Joelle Embiid,
he's going to struggle. I mean, you just name those
elite players and understand that he's not going to be
having those dominant knights, of those dominant performances. It doesn't
mean that he's any less of a player. This is

(01:12:35):
just a horrible matchup, Steve. Honestly, I thought the Lakers
would be down twenty every single game in this series.
I know we didn't get a chance to talk about it,
but I did not like la here. This is a
horrible matchup. They don't have anybody guard Jokic. They don't
even have someone just to pretend to go over and
guard him.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
Yeah. And by the way, on the other side, I
want to get into this again, the idea of the
Lakers are back regardless would have the Lakers or back.
So much of what happens in these playoffs. And you know,
it's interesting we talk about it with the nca Basketball Tournament,
which course is a one and done tournament where you
get a bad matchup gone. I mean it just maybe

(01:13:15):
whatever that team had, you didn't have the answer for it.
This run for the Lakers ran really because of matchups.
We'll explain. This is Fox Sports Sunday, Steve Harvin, Ryan Hollins.
This is Fox Sports Sunday, and we are live from
the Tyraq dot com studios. All right, so all the

(01:13:39):
leaders have teed off. Rooks Kopka just parted the first hole.
He maintains his lead at the PGA Golf Championship. We've
been talking a little bit of NBA playoffs in this hour,
and I just want to talk again about the Lakers
path to the Western Conference Finals and how things really
played in their hands the first round matchup against Memphis.

(01:14:03):
Memphis already had some injuries going into the series. They
weren't one hundred percent. They were inexperience, and it showed
and they folded. We can get into the whole of
Sha Morant situation down the line. And then I remember
a lot of people were asking me, who, if you're
a Lakers, who would you rather face in the second round,
Sacramento or the Warriors. And I'd said, Warriors all day long,

(01:14:30):
because a lot of the challenges that the Lakers face
with aging stars, the Warriors are even more extreme. And
that was in full effect. You talked earlier, Ryan about
legs going. You know, when I watched Klay Thompson just
clanking up like crazy in that series and from three
point Land, it's obvious that you know, it's the evolution

(01:14:54):
of your career. You're coming along and it's not as
easy when you're thirty four as it was when you're
twenty four to down those shots. So I think a
lot Again, I'm not buying into this Laker team yet
and this is from a lifelong Laker fan. Wow, I
just think that certain things happened. It was like a
perfect storm to get this far, and now essentially they've

(01:15:18):
been exposed in a series against a team that just
better than them with younger stars. You know, they had
a twenty seven year old Yoks, a twenty five year old.
This is a young team, you know, Michael Porter's what
twenty twenty four? I mean, this is a young team
emerging as opposed to another team that is much as

(01:15:39):
the Warriors last year. You know, winning we're gonna as
I knew we were talking about last year, like, Wow,
the Warriors won another championship. Now, to me, that's even
a bigger miracle, Like somehow, some way the basketball guid said,
we're gonna give you one more because in retrospect, I'm
not quite sure how they did it a year ago.

(01:15:59):
But I feel like it's the same thing with the Lakers.
I think a lot of people are going to be
very excited going to the next year, even if they
retain some of the guys they picked up at the
trade deadline. And I hate to say this, but I
think they're going to be bitterly disappointed.

Speaker 1 (01:16:13):
Well, their success didn't surprise me. The reason I say
this is, for one, it was the health of Anthony Davis,
and you knew the difference that he would make. Now,
for two, this is not a fair assessment what we're
about to see or indicator on their entire season. For
one reason, it's a horrific matchup. If this was at

(01:16:34):
Laker team that had if Mobamba was healthy or Thomas
Bryant may still be on the roster, would be able
to compete better. They just don't have a chance to
match up with Jokic. So now guess what Normally would
Jamal Murray, you'd be able to double team him. You
see the way they played Steph Curry just getting the
ball out of his hands, had one man dedicated to him.

(01:16:54):
You can never guard Murray like that? Why because you
got jokicch This is a team that's still a very
good basketball team. But here's the problem. The problem is
they just do not have enough. There wasn't enough time
and you know it. It's a horrible matchup with Yokich.

(01:17:16):
And here's the thing. Culture wise, those guys play hard.
Guess what the Nuggets are not gonna make a mistake.
And the biggest thing, Steve, I don't know if you
feel this way too. There is a mental toughness that
Mike Malone has. And I played for Mike Malone. I
know the things he's saying in the locker room that
he has instilled in the Nuggets that it is just

(01:17:36):
making them go absolutely berserk.

Speaker 2 (01:17:40):
All right, I want to ask you this right because
I mean, when he is talking about disrespec and you know,
screaming out at the media, you're only talking about Lakers
ignoring what we've been doing and what we have done.
I mean, I get it. You know, locker room, you know,
billboard stuff, all that kind of stuff. Why is it working?
Why is it?

Speaker 1 (01:17:58):
Because?

Speaker 2 (01:17:58):
I mean, you feel like last night you figured the
Lakers home crowds, slubs are out, bandwagoners are back, and
they're gonna come out on fire. Instead you look up there,
down fourteen, down twelve at the end of the first quarter.
It was the Nuggets that came out on fire, not
the Lakers yesterday. So why are the I mean to me,

(01:18:19):
it's just you know, come on, it's who's buying into it.
Why are the Nuggets buying into this idea of this
you know, perpetual chip on your shoulder, we're out against
the world. Why does it resonate with this team?

Speaker 1 (01:18:32):
Well, it resonates because Mike Malone knows. Mike Malone knows
one thing from his guys, and this is a guarantee.
He knows Nikola jokicch can become extremely uninterested in basketball
and Jamal Murray can be concerned with just scoring, and
he knows it's to tell of two halves. So what
he's doing is keeping his guys motivated by all costs.

(01:18:57):
He's making sure they're motivated, they're they're focused and they're
locked in on what they need to do. That is
all right Now Mike Malone cares about is them being
focused and we're seeing that payoff. He's keeping them focus
and he's keeping them locked in, and he's got a
group of high, high motor guys. Think about the guys

(01:19:19):
and the Nuggets KCP high motor guy, all right, Jeff Green,
high motor guy, Brown, high high motor guy.

Speaker 5 (01:19:26):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:19:27):
So he's keeping his guys who can be uninterested surrounded
by guys who are focused. So hats off also to
the front office there in Denver understanding who they have
as a team.

Speaker 2 (01:19:38):
You realize when you say superstar players lose interest, there's
a lot of people listening right now, Ryan, Like, are
you kidding me? You're being paid tens of millions of dollars, supposedly,
you're all playing for a championship. Could how could a
superstar player lose interest for even a second in the

(01:20:00):
midst of the playoffs?

Speaker 1 (01:20:01):
Well, better yet, I'd say lose focus. Playing in the
NBA playoffs is probably one of the most strenuous things
that you'll ever do in your entire life, So it's
easy to lose focus. It's easy to get caught up,
it's easy to complain, So that is essentially the big
part of it.

Speaker 2 (01:20:18):
Yeah, I look at what Denver's doing and again Malone
playing the mind game. And like I said, I was
laughing when he was taken off on the media, but
it definitely resonated. What they did to start that game
three yesterday against the Lakers was impressive. All right, there's
one team remaining in these NBA playoffs that's gone old school?
Is it working? We got the latest. This is Fox

(01:20:38):
Sports Sunday. Oh yes, we are enjoying yet another beautiful
Sunday full of sports here on Fox Sports Sunday, broadcasting
live from the tire rag dot com studios tyerraq dot com.
We're gonna help get you there, and I'm matched selection
fast free shipping, free road has a protection over ten
thousand recommend an installers tire rag dot com the way

(01:20:59):
tire buy should be all right, So a couple of
things happening here. By the way, Uh, Dan Byer. There's
very few people around here that really fallow any golf
other than what they have to, and Dan obviously is
one of those guys. And I walked in today as
Dan and Michael finished in their show, I said, watch

(01:21:19):
brooks Koepka just run away in this final round. I
don't think he's intimidated by Victor Hovland and already a
birdie on number two and he's got a short cut
for another birdy at three. So yeah, something we talked
about a little bit earlier, Ryan, if a guy that's
playing the Live Golf Tour wins a major golf championship

(01:21:42):
could be a game changer, and right now Brooks Hepka
is definitely Yeah. And he's one of those guys again
that seems totally disinterested in any tournaments other than majors.
He doesn't have like a you know, a glowing record
of like dominating the actual tour, but he shows up
at majors. He has four wins, four runner ups. I mean,

(01:22:02):
he's always seems to be in contention. Uh and maybe
adding you know, another piece on his Hall of Fame resume.
So we'll keep our eye on some of the golf today.
One one quick story. I want to get to Bob Benson,
and our producer just threw something out of me and
I didn't have this on my agenda, but now that
he's throwing it out at me. So he's he's been

(01:22:24):
following a lot of sources around the NBA. Ryan and
more and more these insiders are saying, it's like, get ready,
Kyrie Irving is going to be a Laker. D'Angel Russell
doesn't have a future with the Lakers. They'll sign him,

(01:22:45):
but he's not going to be the guy. The guy
is Kyrie Irving. Uh And we know obviously about him
and Lebron back in the Jays. All right, So if
you were Rob Polinka and you were concerned about job security,
do you think it would be a good thing for
the Lakers moving forward to add Kyrie Irving to their roster.

Speaker 1 (01:23:06):
Yeah. I don't think you can pass on that type
of talent. I think the question would be, you know,
would Kyrie you know, accept less money? I don't know
what money. Here's the thing, Austin Reeves is the focus, right,
there's no question that in free agency. Now after that,
I don't I don't know where Kyrie fits in and
what money he'd be willing to take. Obviously, in LA

(01:23:28):
outside of his contract, he could, you know, make up
for that. But I think what's tough is that a
player is it's not with those superstar players. It's not
necessarily about the money. It's when I make a certain
amount of money, you have to respect me. And I
think that if you come in for less, you get
treated like less. That number goes down. So if you're Kyrie,

(01:23:50):
that's more so the question of what amount of money
would he be willing to take to come to LA
Is this just I want to reunite with Lebron. This
is my guy. He had good times, and you know what,
I want to be a part of what's going on here.
So I'm intrigued to see what that means. And we
just talked about the Lakers needing scoring the biggest the

(01:24:10):
biggest fault, the Lakers final way to defend. They do
a lot of uh, the core of the team is
substantially better, but the thing is, hey, there are moments
where they just cannot score the ball. I thought, like
I said, everybody's extremely crucial of Lebron, and I thought
he just ran out out of juice. Man, he did

(01:24:31):
not have the legs moving forward.

Speaker 2 (01:24:34):
I ask you this, if you were representing Austin Reeves,
who obviously is an undrafted rookie, you made what about
one point six This year, free agent offers are going
to come everywhere. I mean, there have been wild rumors
that the Cavaliers are ready to throw everything out to
get Austin Reeves. And that's a good young team. I mean,
they got a core of young players heading in the

(01:24:55):
right direction. Obviously, the addition of Mitchell they hope we're
going to do in the playoffs didn't quite happen, but
they seem to be a team on the rise. But
if you were representing Austin Reeves, what kind of deal
are you looking for? And are you willing to take
less to stay a Laker or are you just simply saying, hey,
whoever puts the most money on the table, boom, that's

(01:25:17):
where we're going.

Speaker 1 (01:25:19):
If you're Austin Reeves, for one, you got to get paid.
And if you're gonna take less money here, you're gonna
have to get a certain handshake deal, like, hey, you're
gonna be a Laker for life. We're gonna take care
of you, We're gonna market you, we're gonna push you.
So if I am going to take fifty million and
let's say Sacramento per se or our Lando calls, you

(01:25:41):
know what we got eighty We got ninety million dollars
for you, Austin Reeves. We believe in you that much.
You're going to have to sit back and say, man, Lakers,
where do you match this off the court? How do
you market me? Does he want to stay with the Lakers? Absolutely?
If you're Austin Reeves, there's no question there there is
a there's a bond, there, there's a there's a tie

(01:26:03):
to the organization. They're the ones who believed in me
when nobody else believed in me. And you see yourself
having a chance to go out and really build something.
And I think the even bigger nod is when the
trade for Kyrie was available, the name that came up
and it fell through and said I didn't do it
because Rob Polinka said I'm not doing this because I
ain't letting Austin Reeves go. And now he looks like

(01:26:26):
a genius. Where first was what you're on hold on
Austin Reeves is like, no, Rob, we understand what you
were talking about, not leveraging your future. And this young
man who's a baller for Kyrie Irving, So now essentially
you know you got to pay him. So this may
mean trading someone making some type of moves, you know,

(01:26:47):
getting off some some other contracts. I'm not sure what
they are, but trying to make the money work to
get Austin Reeves. He seems to be targeting number one.
And hey, man, keep in mind, Ruey Hotcha Murv's a
free agent. Ruey Hotch Murrah has been playing career basketball,
So you're gonna just let RUI go.

Speaker 2 (01:27:04):
Well, I mean, he has a qualifying offer on his deal.
So I'm looking at some of these contracts right now
with the Lakers under contract next year are Jared Vanderbilt
at four point seven million, Mobamba under contract next year
ten point three million. And then I look at the
D'Angel Russell number this year thirty one point four million.

(01:27:30):
And again, I'm going to get back to this, D'Angel
Russell's he you want to put forty million dollars a
year down for the next five years for D'Angelo Russell,
Is that the right move?

Speaker 1 (01:27:42):
Well, listen, the way he's playing this series, you may
say no. The way he played against Golden State, you
might have said, yeah, I think what Dangel has shown
you is at this stage's career, he is who he
is and if you need scoring, and the Lakers needs
scoring desperately, D'Angel Russell's guy. He can make things happen.
He's a huge part.

Speaker 2 (01:28:03):
Well, why hasn't he made it happen in this series?
I mean you just said scoring, he was one of it.
He made his first shot. I was like, all right, boy,
that's a good sign. Didn't make another shot the rest
of the game.

Speaker 1 (01:28:13):
Let me let me give you a big key, a
big strategy in the NBA, because that's an excellent question.
Excellent question. Right, Sometimes your best defense is against the
guys is your offense. And they have broken their Mike
Malone knows D'Angel Russell can beat you. He watched the film.
He has broken his game plan to make sure D'Angel

(01:28:35):
Russell does not become a factor. And Lebron James has
to work a whole lot more than he has to work.
Lebron James is out there working and sweat and doing
all this stuff. Why Because D'Angel Russell has been taken
out of this series. They have made him a main
focus and they are attacking him at all costs. So

(01:28:56):
those who are critical of D'Angel Russell, he's become a
fucal point. So is he the superstar? No, but he's
a big star.

Speaker 2 (01:29:08):
It's a jigsaw hustle, right, I mean, you know it's
funny when you talk about MBA and they have a
cap and if you're willing to pay that extra price.
Of course, if you're a guy like Steve Baumer, what
does he care? Right, He's worth ninety billion dollars, So
you're gonna charge me, I don't know, you know, one
hundreds of millions of dollars. I'll pay it. You know,
the team that's really up against it right now is

(01:29:29):
the Golden State Warriors. They have no relief already. Their
payroll is over two hundred million next year. They have
everybody under contract. Can you believe that contract they gave
Jordan Poole. You know who really despises Jordan Poole is
Michael Thompson. So you know, Michael and I worked together

(01:29:49):
for years and I first met Clay when he was
fourteen years old and his younger brother Trace when he's thirteen.
Took him to a Tigers game back when we were
at the NBA F Finals back in four when the
Lakers embarrassed themselves against the Pistons, and Michael despises Pool
because he's a Warriors guy, because of Clay obviously on

(01:30:10):
that team. And you look at the Warriors right now.
That was that was the longest week of my life,
the Old Palace there, when the Lakers just got blown
out by a team that should never have blown him out.
But you look at their deals. I mean, Draymond's got
a player option, he'll obviously say yes. Twenty seven and

(01:30:33):
a half million, Wiggans twenty four million, Klay Thompson forty
three million, Step fifty two million. They have no relief.
There's no way out of this deal. Jordan Poole goes
from three point nine million to twenty eight point seven
starting next season.

Speaker 1 (01:30:49):
Let me let me give you. I'll give you something.
You'll like this one. Yikes, I'll give you.

Speaker 2 (01:30:53):
I hear Bob Myers once out like he's ready to
abandon a sinking ship in Golden State.

Speaker 1 (01:30:58):
Well you'll like this one, yeah. Jordan Poole is the
first Austin Reeves. Those two are very similar in the
sense of they won the championship. Well was their number
one thing signed Jordan Poole. Jordan is the future. And
I'm not saying that Austin Reeves is Jordan Poole. But
how quickly all of a sudden, Jordan Poole can't play

(01:31:19):
basketball when he was the number one guy, got to
sign Jordan Poole. He's the next Curry, He's the young
up and coming, you know, to the splash brother. So
you know, you have a situation there with Poole where
people forget like he was the guy. He just he
had a bad series. Maybe things went to that, hey
he's just young man, and you're going, you're looking at

(01:31:41):
that contract going, oh my gosh, we got to get
rid of it. And I'm not saying this is going
to happen by any stretch with Austin Reeves, but you
do have a similar situation where Austin Reeves is playing great,
but now when I pay you, the pressures on, the
pressure will be there. That's the tough thing going into

(01:32:02):
these free agent scenarios and yeah, you loaded up on
Jordan pull and you're going, man, that that money did
not pay for itself.

Speaker 2 (01:32:10):
The NBA has changed, it has evolved, let's put it
that way, over the years in terms of the power
of the player. And I'm always a proponent of players
having more say in their own well being. I mean
to me, the draft is illegal. I still don't understand
how sports gets away with drafts. I mean it, just

(01:32:30):
what other business does this? Imagine if I came out
of college, you you've been drafted to work for a
paper in Des Moines. What I don't want to work
in des Moines?

Speaker 1 (01:32:42):
Oh, you have no joints.

Speaker 2 (01:32:43):
That's the only place they're going to be able to
What are you kidding me? No, not going to de mooin.
My sister lives in Iowa. On the other side, though,
there is one organization still very much alive in these
playoffs that still does it the old school way. We'll
explain this is Fox Sports Sunday, Steve Harvin, Ryan Hollins,

(01:33:04):
Fox Sports Sunday, and we are coming to you live
from the ti rak dot com studios. Brooks Kapka Bertie
Birdie Birdie at two, three and four. He's now nine under.
Hoblind did match as Bertie at number four, but brooks
Skopka has a three shot lead and is in firm

(01:33:28):
control of his game. How is your golf game these days?

Speaker 1 (01:33:31):
Ryan?

Speaker 2 (01:33:31):
Do you get to play much golf?

Speaker 1 (01:33:33):
I have not played in years and Steve, you'd understand this.
So I'm seven feet tall, so I had to put
extenders on my clubs. And the problem is where they
put the extenders on is exactly where I hold the clubs.
So after some time I busted my club. So I
over in Houston. I need to go and find somewhere

(01:33:53):
shout out to anybody in Houston and knows the golf
world and get those extenders put back so I can
go get on the course.

Speaker 2 (01:33:59):
Man, I've always felt sorry for people like you in
terms of some of the inconveniences of being as tall
as you are. I will never forget this. Michael Thompson,
who is all legs. By the way, like Michael who
is listed at six ' ten, we would sit next
to each other. We almost look like the same height.

(01:34:21):
I'm five to eleven, he's six ' ten. Then he
would stand up. I mean he's all legs. So we
had a show we did together at Disneyland years ago
where we had offered an opportunity for our listeners to
be part of the reopening of Space Mountain. It had
been redesigned, had been shut down for a couple of years.

(01:34:41):
Those big you know, Space Mountain one of the big
rides obviously at Disneyland, and we were all excited because
we were going to be able to get on Space
Mountain before anybody else. So there was probably about thirty
of our listeners, Michael and I and so Michael tries
to get in to the ride and essentially what he
had to do is sort of fold his legs to

(01:35:02):
the side, and they came over and they said no, no, no,
you're you're you can't ride this right for your safety sake.
And I will never forget this because I wasn't going
to pass up on my opportunity to right. Oh no you.

Speaker 1 (01:35:20):
Didn't, so you so not you didn't see so not all.

Speaker 2 (01:35:26):
So not only did Michael have to get off the ride,
he had what I call the walk of shame. Well everybody,
I mean, I was trying to make an argument for him, saying, look,
you can still put the bar down just because his
legs are to the side. They're like, no, I can't
do that. And I said, and I'm Michael's looking at
me and I'm like, I'm sorry, mikeel I got to
ride this right, but you have a good walk home.

(01:35:50):
It was it was the walk of shame. By the way,
who is who would you say is the best seven
foot golfer that you've seen? Is there any golf first
that are something tall?

Speaker 1 (01:36:02):
You know? He used to go out a lot that
like loved it, and like I used to ask him,
like how, like what about the clubs, like just bend over,
just just just lean over, excuse me, and figured it
out right, Uh, Nazi Muhammad really Nazi Muhammad will he
would just rent the clubs and he'd be hunched over
and he would just be smacking that thing.

Speaker 2 (01:36:23):
I mean like hunting alone, you know, or you're so old.

Speaker 1 (01:36:27):
Well, the pudding is fine, it's the when you go
up the tee because they're like, well, keep your head
down this and that, and then you're you know, you're
you're stretching your back a little lower. So just pretty much, Steve,
go out and get a kids club and then try
to hit.

Speaker 2 (01:36:41):
It doesn't matter what club I put in my hands.
Now I'm like you. I played for the first time
rich and I went out to play with our producer
in San Diego, first time I had actually played in
seven years, and the only thing that helped me was
my double shot Bloody Mary. Once I drank that thing.
I started loosening up and just sort of let it flow.

(01:37:02):
And it wasn't terrible. I mean, we were playing like
a legitimate course. This wasn't just out of the driving range.
We're out at some night's course. So you know when
I when you start thinking about things, that's when it
gets rough. But right now, there's no thinking about it.
Brooks Koepka, it looks like he may run away with
this PGA championship. Right I want to ask you about
the evolution of the NBA because so much noise has

(01:37:24):
been made about the power of the players now to
dictate how much they play, who they play for. You know,
these coaches that have won NBA championships being shown the
door that it is a completely players run league now,
And I say, okay, for many franchises, maybe the power

(01:37:48):
of the player is at a whack. Whether there's one
franchise that maintains control, that's the Miami Heat with pat
Riley and Eric Spolstra. Bolster was a homegrown product. By
the way, I was kidding about this yesterday. If the
Van Gundy brothers seem annoying to you, blamed pat Riley
because you would never have heard of the Van Gundy

(01:38:09):
brothers had it not been for pat Riley. He has
mentored a lot of people that have emerged as prominent
names in the NBA. And Eric Spolster was a guy
that was hired to be a video guy. That's how
Eric Sposter started in the Miami Heat organization. And then
pat Riley not only handed them the reins as coach,
but he did so with Lebron's arrival. Remember that first

(01:38:32):
season and people are like, wow, pat Riley get backed
out on the court. There's no way this Eric Spolster
guy can handle this star team. And pat Riley said,
oh no, he will be the coach and the next thing,
you know, four straight trips to the finals, couple of championships.
But the Heat run an operation similar to the Spurs

(01:38:52):
where the organization has a way of doing things and
either you fit or you don't fit, and if you fit,
you stay, if you don't fit, you're gone. How much
can can can other organizations take note of that? Or
is this just something that once the Riley spoils to
era is over, it's over. Once the Pop era is

(01:39:14):
over in San Antonio, it's over. Can any organization the
NBA have that kind of organizational control where they pretty
much map the course for the organization and the players don't.

Speaker 1 (01:39:31):
I believe they can. But at the end of the day,
make no mistake, I think Jimmy Butler is everything that's
going He's just excuse me, I'll say, Jimmy Butler is
as equal of what's going on down there of you know,
pat In Spoll. Now also give credit that Jimmy Butler said,
you know what, I don't like the lack of organization

(01:39:54):
here in Philly. I don't like that everybody's not about it.
And Noah, you know, I'm on a or an agenda.
You know, Hey, you ride it out toughness, you know, toughness, culture,
all that. And and he said, you know what, I'm
going to Miami knowing this is what it's about down there.
And when when it became too much for Dwayne Wade,
Dwayne Wade you know, went went elsewhere, you know, and

(01:40:17):
then said, man, I made a mistake, came back and
played his you know, his best basketball. So I say
that to say, I think it's I think it's equal.
It's still a player's league. This is still Jimmy Butler
making the buckets. Is still him making things happen. But
you have the players put around Jimmy Butler that are
allowing Jimmy Butler to beat Jimmy Butler.

Speaker 2 (01:40:36):
Well, I understand, but I mean it's the same thing
back in the day. You know, Tim Duncan never really
got the recognition he deserved as the greatest power for
it in the history of the game because he was
deemed sort of like a house guy, like an extension
of pop. But it was a it was a system
that he Tim Duncan was comfortable with Jimmy Butler. I

(01:40:59):
what is there not to like about Jimmy Butler. I mean,
the thing about Jimmy Butler is he's gonna get his
but there are very few players. There's a lot of
players that can accumulate stats. Okay, there's so much talent
in this league, but how many guys really raise the
level of play of the teammates. Jimmy Butler is that guy.

(01:41:23):
The way he plays the game at both ends, you
can just see it. It's an eyeball test. I don't
know what it is. Well, when you watch Jimmy Butler
takeover games seemingly and it just you can see that
and I always say this about a leader. The definition
of a leader is someone that inspires others to follow.

(01:41:44):
Can you make a leader? I don't believe you can.
There's just something about certain individuals where their presence commands it.
And that's what I see in Jimmy Butler. That's why
it's the perfect fit. Jimmy Butler likes the structure, he
likes a certain con nudy and an organization, and obviously
on the receiving end, that he get one of those

(01:42:05):
very few players that is a true leader on the court.

Speaker 1 (01:42:09):
Yeah. No, you're right, And I think to answer your question,
I think what can happen is you're right. You're either
born a leader or not. But I think that you
can bring the leader out of somebody that you that
maybe did not see that that's what they are, you know.
I think that that's something that can definitely happen. I've

(01:42:30):
heard guys that you know, ended up being head coaches
that said, man, I had no interest in coaching. I
wasn't going to coach. It wasn't that ain't me. And
when they're even told, hey, you're gonna be a coach
one day, we're like, no, I'm running for the Hills,
So I think that's a part of it. So you
are you aren't, but I agree it is a match

(01:42:50):
with Jimmy Butler there, and I think it shows I
think the one thing because before the Heat were you know,
I mean, they were always winning at a high level,
but before they were they were they weren't willing to
bend to bring players in, and it's like, if you
come here, we're about winning, and we not just win,
we win like this. So I think that's a huge factor.

(01:43:13):
There's literally everything that we're seeing going on there with
the Heat right now is they're doing it their way.
But you attracted a guy like Jimmy Butler that turned
down other offers. You know. I'm sure Lebron and everybody
was willing to say, hey, Jimmy, come play with me.
Come play with me, he said, And I think everybody
was shocked when he went to Miami. But because they
did it the right way, things worked out there.

Speaker 2 (01:43:35):
All right, Rigging, fixing. These these are terms that have
been thrown around the NBA by those people that say
the only reason that happened was it was already pre ordain.
We'll explain why people are still screaming that. But first,

(01:43:56):
once again we find out what is trending right now.
It looks like a two golfer chase right down the
PGA A.

Speaker 6 (01:44:04):
Little bit, A little bit, yeah, I mean it's going
really well for brooks Kopka.

Speaker 8 (01:44:09):
Yes, wipes off his putter face. Putter now in behind
the golf ball. Putter goes back, strikes the putt, working
towards the.

Speaker 9 (01:44:15):
Cup, working towards the cup and into the bottom. That
ball straightened out At the end, brooks Kopka three in
a row of the birdie here at about four takes
him to nine under.

Speaker 6 (01:44:25):
Serious x MPGA Tour Championship Radio, he is at the
top of the leaderboard, nine under. Part but you're right,
Victor Hoblin has kind of answered with two birdies of
his own, and he is just two strokes back. Corey
Connors started his final round tied for second place with
Victor Hoblin, and instead of birdie's, he's got a couple
of bogies.

Speaker 7 (01:44:45):
So now he's dropped. He is four under.

Speaker 2 (01:44:48):
By the way, Monci, you've played that golf announcer, So
this is something I would never be able to do.

Speaker 7 (01:44:55):
Never I have been.

Speaker 2 (01:44:56):
I have been literally I have covered golf tournaments, like
celebrity golf tournaments like up at Lake Tahoe, and there
was a marshall like the first fairway was. I was
in the driving range area in the broadcast and the
guy has the quiet sign as guys are teen off
and I see this old guy and he's walking toward me.

(01:45:16):
Yeah right, And he didn't say a word. He just
literally threw the sign in my face. Whyet? I Also,
the late great Payne Stewart was playing out at Riviera
and I was on this balcony. I know, Ryan if
you've been out at Riviera country Club, but the first
he is an elevated tea down onto the first fairway

(01:45:40):
and there's a balcony area where a lot of people stand,
you know, VIPs and everything. And I was off to
the side. I couldn't I didn't have a sight line
to the actual tea box. And I was in a
commercial and we're coming out of commercial like walk come back,
and he goes, oh, and apparently Payne Stewart was in
mid swing when I opened my mouth and he duck

(01:46:01):
hooked it.

Speaker 1 (01:46:02):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (01:46:03):
And I get all these people turning to me like instantly,
like shut.

Speaker 6 (01:46:07):
Up, yes, I feel like I cannot be at a
golf event. Can I have a cocktail? Like?

Speaker 7 (01:46:15):
Can I drink and watch this? Do they have alcohol?

Speaker 2 (01:46:18):
Air? Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:46:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:46:19):
Okay, see see that's bad. So you want me to
have alcohol and then be quiet and like not cheer
and like not. I could not. I would not do
well there, Ye voice not serve me.

Speaker 1 (01:46:32):
I believe that.

Speaker 6 (01:46:32):
I believe that things are also going well for the
Stars on the ice. This is Game two of the
Western Conference Finals. It's the Dallas Stars and the Golden Knights,
and the Stars needed about three minutes to score in
the first period, so they're currently beating Vegas one zero.
Vegas does lead the series one zero, though, and then baseball.

(01:46:52):
A lot of baseball going on. Diamondbacks have taken the
lead over the Pirates four to three, top of the
seventh inning. Oriels still up on the Blue Jays I
one run to one top of the seventh inning. The
Brewers were tied with the Rays not anymore. Birers on
top six to three, bottom of the seventh. The Guardians
and the Mets have a double header today. Game one
is going on right now, and the Mets are shutting
them out three zero. It's the bottom of the seventh inning.

(01:47:15):
The White Sox have taken the lead over the Royals
three to two bottom of the fifth Astros Boo have
scored first against the A's one zero top of the
sixth inning Dodgers on the scoreboard, but the Cardinals are
still up four to one bottom of the fourth inning,
and the Rangers are shutting off the Rockies five zero
bottom of the third inning. With the Nationals still beating
the Tigers six to three bottom of the sixth inning,

(01:47:35):
and the Braves beating the Mariners three to two, they're
about to start the ninth inning. And yes, Jimmy Butler,
it's the X factor.

Speaker 7 (01:47:43):
You can't like explain it, but it's an.

Speaker 2 (01:47:45):
X factor that he has a right ball test.

Speaker 7 (01:47:47):
Man, it is an eyeball test. Agreed, Like you can't.
I can't explain it to you, but he has it.
He has it, and he's been amazing this whole time.

Speaker 6 (01:47:55):
I said it weeks ago, bo and I've been talking
about Jimmy for weeks.

Speaker 7 (01:47:58):
He's the best player in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (01:48:01):
Yeah, And like I said earlier, even though as it
now appears that we're going to get a heat Nuggets,
NBA finals very exciting. Uh, And it's not like we're
going to bring out archive films legendary matchups between the
Heat and Nuggets, loking with with the Lakers Celtics. I
think so many people are opening their eyes to a

(01:48:22):
Jokic you at Jamal Murray, to a Jimmy Butler saying
why don't we hear more about these guys?

Speaker 6 (01:48:28):
And Jimmy isn't new, He's been around. We see him,
you know, thirties. It's gonna be him and Jamal Murray
going at it. It would be such a fun series
to watch.

Speaker 2 (01:48:40):
I'm looking forward to. I really am. Jimmy Monsey. Thank
you so much. Once again, we're brought to you by
Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes funly easy and affordable. Get a
multi policy discount by combinding your motorcycle, RB, boat, ATV
and more all your protection in one place, Bundle and
save at Progressive dot Com. I got so caught up
in the golf, sort of lost my train of thought,

(01:49:02):
like where we were going? What did I tease again?
What was I Where was I going with this conversation?
All right, So just getting back again when we talk
about these organizations and the powers of the players and
everything else just in general. With the NBA, Ryan right now,

(01:49:23):
you know, this is a league that I feel like,
you know, we talked about I talked about this early
with Major League Baseball. Major League Baseball had a big problem,
uh and that was the length of the games. And
they made some sweeping changes this year. I mean they
introduced the pitch clock and limited the number of throws,

(01:49:43):
the hold runners on base. They did away with the
shift to you know, create some more uh you know, offense.
And it's worked. And I'm a traditionalist, like you know
a lot of these I'm like, when I went to
Dodger Stadium and saw a clock at a baseball game, Wow,
are you kidding me? I mean, this is a sport
known is the sport that doesn't have a clock. But

(01:50:07):
when you go to a game and it's not three
point fifteen and it's two thirty, yeah, it's working. The
game's moving along. And I look at the NBA right
now because the Golden State Warriors emergence in such a
copycat league, and this is true of all sports, where
they looked at the proliferation of the three point shot

(01:50:28):
and teams decided this is the way to go not
realizing that not every team has a Steph Curry and
Klay Thompson. And I'm just wondering the next evolution of
the game, because all sports evolved the game that I
see to me, even though these playoffs have overperformed in
my opinion, But are we going to see any kind

(01:50:54):
of changes to change the landscape of the game we see?
I mean in the terms of the style, the proliferation
of three point clankers. I like to say, you know,
just one after another, even for players of your stature.
Are we going to continue this or do you see

(01:51:15):
maybe a different path for the NBA?

Speaker 1 (01:51:19):
Well, the league is gonna trend towards whoever wins the championship.
It's a you know, monkey see, monkey do type of league.
You know, when when Curry won a championship, the ideology
was that, you know, I can out rebound your threes.
Live by the three, die by the three. You can't
shoot well enough in the fourth quarter, We're gonna wear
your legs out and those three pointers won't fall. And

(01:51:41):
Stephan Clay showed you those three pointers are going to
keep falling. And if you don't close out or you
don't adjust, we're gonna beat you. You know it consistently.
So now everybody goes at to three point shooting. If
Nikola Jokicic wins the championship, everybody's going to invest into
the post and into a center, into a big guy
who can play in multiple places. Doesn't matter how slow

(01:52:02):
he is, how much he can't jump. You're gonna be
looking for the next Yolkic. If Embiid won it, you'd
be looking for the next Embiid. Kevin Durant wins it,
you're gonna be investing into the next tall, lanky, shooting
wing power forward hybrid in that scenario. So ultimately, at
the end of the day, whoever wins this championship, you're

(01:52:23):
gonna do it. You'd be looking for that a. If
Jimmy Butler wins it, you're gonna be looking for the
next the toughest team possible. Everyone's like Miami Heat. They're
gonna be saying we're gonna be tough and we're gonna
shoot threes. So that's the trend. That's how people go
out for the most part in the league and try
to win.

Speaker 2 (01:52:41):
All right, So this brings up where I was gonna go,
and that is the idea of fixing in the NBA.
And of course, I everyone almost knew in advance of
the lottery that san Antonio was gonna get the number
one overall pick. I mean, I just said, not gonna
be Houston, is not gonna be Detroit. And as soon
as it became clear that the Spurs are going to

(01:53:02):
get this one Bunyama kid, the seven foot five kid
that is going to be, you know, the biggest prospects
since Lebron James, it would appear that the Spurs were
going to get him, and they did get him. I'm
curious and want and sort of morphed into what we
were just talking about as far as big guys are concerned.
Great Popovich is now going to get this kid that

(01:53:24):
and I've seen highlights of his skill set. He reminds
me of a young Ralph Sampson who was, you know,
seven to four, and it was really ahead of his
time because Samson had a perimeter game when Biggs just
didn't do that. He was a face the basket type
big guy. And unfortunately, injuries started to derail what could
have been a really great NBA career. How do you

(01:53:48):
think pop is going to handle this young guy. I mean,
you got the old school pop who obviously was there
with the David Robinsons and the Tim Duncans of the world,
and now he's handed a unique talent that is coming
with unbelievable hype. How do you think he's gonna handle

(01:54:08):
the development of this young player.

Speaker 1 (01:54:12):
Well, for one, they're gonna assess him in every He's
gonna be dissected like a lab experiment. You know, they're
gonna be making sure his balances is correct, you know,
nutrition plan. I mean he's gonna get I mean the
whole mile. You're gonna see Tim Duncan assume you'd see
Tim Duncan come around. You're gonna you're gonna see decades

(01:54:34):
of spur basketball pouring into this young man. But I
think more basketball centric what you're asking. You'll see versatility
from wim bin Yama. You'll see him posting up, You'll
see him bringing the ball up the court. You're gonna
see him defensively, maybe some zones where he's at the
top of the zone and maybe a little one three
one action where he gets to match up and kind

(01:54:55):
of follow guys. You're gonna see Victor win Binyama used
in an array ways. And I think even in San
Antonio where they've kind of gone young and blown up
their roster, they're gonna go out and get guys who
not only maybe possibly speak the language, who can uh,
you know, attract to him in a in a world

(01:55:15):
type European aspect, French aspect. You're gonna see guys. You're
gonna see veterans brought in to protect him. So if
win Binyana Yama struggles with strength, they may bring in
a big man who's strong, who can you know, take
those matchups where teams or guys try to bully him.
You're gonna see, you know, guys who can get him
the basketball. You're gonna see playmakers built around him. So

(01:55:36):
I think that you're gonna see a real commitment to
getting him where he needs to be because he is
that important. Where think about back in the day, you know,
Alan Iverson had what Eric snow he had the the bigger,
defensive minded point guard who passed the ball and then
guarded the other teams. Uh, guys who can kind of

(01:55:57):
fit around him. So he's that good.

Speaker 6 (01:55:59):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:56:00):
With Shaquille O'Neill, the Lakers went out and what they
get they got Robert Horry, they got all these shooting
forwards who could play from the at that time, from
the high post, to know that Shaq was going to
be dominating inside, and Horace Grant was a guy who
can hit that twenty foot shot, because you know Shaq
was going to take up all the real estate down low.
So I think what you do is you're going to
see a roster built around wim Bin Yama, and you're

(01:56:23):
going to try to take away from his weaknesses. And
I don't think Wimby will just be sitting out on
the perimeter and doing crossovers through the legs to answer
that question, but I do think that will be an
element of his game. You'll see his versatility all right.

Speaker 2 (01:56:39):
On the other side, I'm going to have you answer
my actual initial question.

Speaker 1 (01:56:43):
Keep it right here.

Speaker 2 (01:56:44):
This is Sunday Steve Harvey, Ryan Hollins, Fox Sports Sunday
Live from the tire Rag dot Com Studios. Oh not over, Yeah,
Cap got just bogie that brutal sixth hole. It's the
hardest scoring hole in PGA tournament history, I mean, or
championship history. He bogeyed Hoblin Pard so kepka's lead is

(01:57:07):
down to one, so Victor Hoblin hanging in there, there's
still clear of anyone else. The Shamba O'Connor's at minus four.
All right, I want to get back to this question
I had for you earlier, Ryan about the fix being in,
because now this goes back to the very first draft
lottery when David Stern pulled out the New York Knicks

(01:57:28):
envelope that they had back in the day to allow
them to get Patrick Ewing with the number one pick
in the draft. And there were all kinds of conspiracy
theories that the there was like this container, you know,
where he's pulling these envelopes out and then would pull
a card out with the name of the team, that
there was one that was a frozen envelope and that

(01:57:49):
was the New York Knicks, so that he could go
down there and sort of put his hand in and
feel like, oh, there's the cold one. I'll leave that
for last. But the fact that I mean, I mean, look,
I'm reading the Life's right. Fans are accusing the NBA
of rigging the lottery. What do you make of that?
It just why certain teams always seem to have the

(01:58:10):
chips fall their way. When it comes to draft picks
or you know, deals getting done. I mean, is there
anything to that?

Speaker 1 (01:58:20):
Do you believe? No? I mean, here's the thing. If
Adam Silver wanted to just reward the spurs or to
choose who, he just come out and say this is
where I want the draft picks to go. You know what,
It's not random, We're just gonna do it. There's enough
money with the league where if he wanted to make

(01:58:41):
it be that and just set it up and say
this is the system, he would just go ahead and
do it. Man, It's a part of the game. And
then you could argue, hey, man, why did some of
these picks go where they went. It's not always ideal.
It's not always some story. There's some you know, number
one picks that don't always just end up with the
I guess where it should go. It just happened to

(01:59:02):
be that this time around. I don't think there's a
rhyme or reason. And if you had gone through and
shout out to the Houston Rockets, man, my guys, there
is a draft simulator and you can go and you
can simulate this yourself, and you never know where these
picks are going to show up. And it's it's just
a part of it. But is it rigged? I mean,

(01:59:25):
you gotta be Kidney man.

Speaker 2 (01:59:26):
Well, I mean here's the deal. So they had a
fourteen percent chance of getting the number one pick, fourteen
percent and somebody said, no, it's not fixed. Look, the
Spurs have been in the lottery seven times, they've only
won three times. Yeah, but they won the year of
David Robinson, they won the year of Tim Duncan, and
now they get the kids out of France. I mean,

(01:59:47):
it's what I mean. Not every lottery is equal, you know,
in terms of what's available. And it just so happens
when the you know, generational, dominant big men are available,
the Spurs and up winning the Lotteryie.

Speaker 1 (02:00:03):
It just it just coins just happened to be, man,
That's how the cookie crumbled. Don't be salty because he
didn't go to your team, because that could be salty
because he's not a rocket. But I'm living with it.

Speaker 2 (02:00:12):
The Lakers got a few benefits along the way in
the lottery as well. They just didn't always make the
right pick. Yeah yeah, Lonzo Ball over Jason Tatum. But anyway,
that's it. Speaking of Jason Tatum, the Bulls. The excuse me,
the Celtics. Can they come back in the series against
the Heat. We'll find out. This is Fox Sports Sunday,
Oh huge Sunday. Indeed, in the sports world, we got

(02:00:34):
it all covered here. This is Fox Sports Sunday, and
we are broadcasting live from the tire rack dot Com studios.
Tire rack dot com. We're gonna help get you there
and unmatched selection fast ree shipping free road has a
protection over ten thousand recommended installers. Tire rack dot Com.
The way tire buying should be. Keepka with a one
shot lead over Hoblin. Right now they're on the seventh green,

(02:00:56):
a long way to go. Scottie Scheffler, the world number two,
has moved into sole possession of third place. He's at
four under, but right now it still looks like a
two man showdown between Koepka and Hovelin. We get ready
for Game three of the Eastern Conference Finals tonight, Celtics
and the Heat and Ryan. Unlike the Lakers, who returned

(02:01:18):
home after losing two on the road, the Celtics hit
the road after losing two at home against the Miami Heat,
and one of the problems for the Celtics and those
two losses, is that their number one score first Team
All NBA or NBA or Jason Tatum. He he scored

(02:01:40):
a combined zero baskets in the fourth quarter of those
two games, did not make a single field goal in
the fourth quarter of either Game one or Game two
at home. Jason Tatum is we saw what fifty one
in Game seven against Philadelphia. He's a great talent. How

(02:02:05):
to he explain his complete disappearing act on his home
court in games one and two of these Eastern Conference Finals.

Speaker 1 (02:02:15):
Well, think about jt He wants to go out and
get easy looks. He hadn't been able to get easy looks,
and that's something Joe Mazzola really pushed to do. And
when the Celtics are best, they have a free flowing offense. Okay,
And that's good because guess what teams can't focus in
on Jason Tatum and when he wanted to, he's able
to just turn it on. But they're a team that
doesn't like to just rely on one guy. Okay, because

(02:02:38):
winning an NBA does not always necessarily work like that.
But the problem is when you want to turn it on,
when you need Jason Tatum to be Jason Tatum. You
don't really know what looks to go to. And that's
where Tatum has struggled. That's where their team has struggled,
and that's what you're saying. But they were having success
early in the ballgame. He was a ball handler in

(02:02:59):
the pick and all up top and you had to
pick your poison. Robert Williams was doing good in the
late doing good diving, he was hitting guys for open looks.
But when it turned on, it was just him versus
Jimmy Butler, and he versus Jimmy Butler just did not
work out. It was lopsided in Butler's stance. And that's
why you know everyone's looking at Joe Missoula with all

(02:03:21):
due respect and look, trust me, I couldn't do any
better myself, and just saying, how do you get him
open looks? How do you get him shots? How do
you adjust to what the heater doing. They're still manufacturing
points and guys, we have the better team. This does
not make sense.

Speaker 2 (02:03:34):
Joe here, I had been saying throughout the playoffs that
the Celtics are the best team, and I say that
because of the presence of Tatum, and Jalen Brown, Marcus
Smart obviously, and then of course the addition of Brogden,
who was six Man of the Year. It just seems
like all the pieces are in place. Even if Tatum
is not performing offensively. You figure, all right, well we

(02:03:57):
got Jalen Brown. How bad was he in Game two?
Let's put it this way. The Heat won the game
by six. He was a negative twenty four in his
thirty eight minutes in that game. He was an atrocious
seven to twenty three. Even if Tatum wasn't hitting down
the stretch of figure Jayalen Brown would pick up the slack.

(02:04:17):
He didn't. He had a nice cold fourth quarter minus
twenty four. I'm asking, is this something that is self induced?
Or is are the Heat just doing something that the
Celtics didn't anticipate, because the idea of both Tatum and

(02:04:38):
Brown coming up empty offensively on their home court in
a game of this magnitude just seems impossible. So what
happened here? I mean, are the Heat doing something defensively
to counter these two superstars of the Celtics on the
offensive end?

Speaker 1 (02:04:55):
No, I said, it's common. We've seen these guys go
hide and cold. They're loading up their defense. They're they're
trying to you know, uh, they're playing against the other
team's best, the Heat's best defender, defenders, and and that's
you know that, that's normal. It takes a team to win.
But at the end of the day, Uh, they're just tougher.
The Heat are just tougher, and and it's winning out

(02:05:18):
and they're fearless, and it's it's the role players of
Boston that has to step up. But here's the thing.
You go from being free flowing, you know, whoever gets
the shot takes the shot. Let you know, let's let's
play team basketball to hey, we need a bucket. I
don't think Boston has that we need a bucket play
this is what we're going to go to. And then

(02:05:39):
there's the mind game behind it, behind it we're talking
about like Steve, we're doing all this x's and o's talk.
At the end of the day when you get that far.
And I've been in the playoffs, I've played these scenarios.
X's and o's go down the window. It's about Jimmy's
and Joel's, not the ex'es and o's. You get what
I'm saying. I remember one of the Hall of Fame
coach told me, I forget who it was on if
as Larry Brown was said, and I'm gonna say it again,

(02:06:00):
it ain't about the the exes and oles. It's about
the Jimmy's and those. It's me versus you. This is
uh Jimmy Butler. Okay, right, the Jimmy and the Joe.
Jimmy's one of them going out and taking over against
Jason Tatum, who's still younger, hadn't been there is with
all due respect me saying Jason Tatum or Jamber ain't

(02:06:23):
as tough as Jimmy Butler. That's not a knock to them.
And hats off to Grant Williams for trying his wah.

Speaker 2 (02:06:28):
I wanted to bring up Grant Williams. What was he thinking?

Speaker 1 (02:06:32):
He was trying to get That's what Grant Williams had
been doing all season alone.

Speaker 2 (02:06:35):
But why would Jimmy Butler Grant Williams, I mean, pick
your boys. I mean the last thing I want to
do is poke the bear?

Speaker 1 (02:06:44):
Right he Grant?

Speaker 2 (02:06:48):
I remember with Jimmy Butler after the game said he
loved it. Of course he loved it.

Speaker 1 (02:06:52):
He did, But Grant Williams had done that all season long,
and they've been backing it up all season long. It's
just this, This ain't the Miami Heat team that the
NBA has seen all seas alone. That's the difference. He
Trent Williams has been doing that all season long.

Speaker 2 (02:07:11):
Didn't work. Obviously, it didn't work. Okay, okay, okay, right, Well, well,
and we talk about I say this about the NHL
the playoffs. The brand of hockey they play in the
playoffs is not even the same sport as what they
do in the regular season. We saw it again this year.
The Boston Bruins, you know, set the all time records, wins, points,

(02:07:31):
the whole shebang, boom gone gone in the playoffs. And
of course I followed a couple of La Kings teams.
One was an eight seed, one was a sixth seed
that went on to win the Stanley Cup. So they
were a team built for playoff hockey as opposed to
regular season hockey. Is it that much of a difference.
I mean, we understand the intensity, yes, but the style

(02:07:54):
of play in the playoffs is as profound a difference
as we see in the NHL as opposed to the
brand of basketball you played during the regular season.

Speaker 1 (02:08:03):
Yes, and I'll tell you why. Okay. So when I'm
playing you in the regular season, right, very likely, I
have one or two days to play against you, right
to game plan for you. We have a walk through
in the mornings, maybe if at all, a practice the
day before, depending on travel and all those things. So
when I come out, I'm just trying to be the

(02:08:25):
best version of myself that I can be. I'm looking
at your last five games, how you've played, and you're
gonna try to do your best job. But you can't
really game plan. So I'm gonna date myself, Steve. So
when I played in the playoffs, we would get a
we would get a booklet. We get a pamphlet, right, pamphlet, Yes,

(02:08:45):
and it was. It was as thick as an encyclopedia.
And the kids are probably going encyclopedia, What is that? Okay?
And we get that, Steve. And we knew every point
you scored in the season. We knew if you like
to go left, we knew if you like to go right.
You knew and studied, Hey, these are the plays that you.

(02:09:08):
I knew the people who really study for the most part, right,
I knew everything about you that there could be known,
and then as we played, we watched. You'd watch hours
of film, so you watch film to find out everything
that could be known about player X. Right. So now
at the end of the day, where you know, hey,
you'll run a zoom action or a floppy action or

(02:09:31):
whatever to get Jason Tatum going right. I know your plays.
I know all your plays that you are running, and
I know every look. So guess what when when it
gets to that level, it's it's it's rare that strategy
is gonna get you open. It's the Jimmies and Joes
over the xes and os. So you gotta beat me.

(02:09:52):
And then guess what, you gotta be a cold Manmagemi, Steve,
you want to know why because you're beating my best.
When I I know that you go right and you
pull up going to your right hand sixty percent of
the time when you go left, you're gonna take it
all the way to the hole and look for contact.
And I'm playing you with the perfect defense. And then
you have a counter for every calendar, for every counter.

Speaker 2 (02:10:13):
You are a bad man.

Speaker 1 (02:10:15):
And that's what it comes down to in the playoffs.
So that's why we Steve, we go out and we
credit these guys. We credit these Michael Jordan's and these
Lebron James and these guys who go out and beat
you and say, man, I can't do anything to stop them.
I just gotta contain them. And then not just is
me playing you. It's a team defense constructed to go
out and stop you. So you have to adjust. So

(02:10:38):
right now, the game plan may be, say, hey, man,
Brock didn't gotta beat us, Hey man, Marcus Smart gotta
beat us. It ain't gonna be Tatum and Brown. So
I'm gonna load up off the weak side, which means
I'm gonna lean over a couple steps closer to you.
So when you go drive the basketball, there's two and
three guys standing in front of you. So it's a
team game at the end of the day. But some
of them boys, even with the man stead in front

(02:11:00):
of you, even knowing a guy's tendency, you can stop
Jimmy Butler when he decides to be Jimmy Butler.

Speaker 2 (02:11:07):
All right. On the other side, I want to get
to this Ryan because I've been meaning to ask you
and someone that knows just the importance level of coaches
in the NBA, with all the firings that we have
seen are very prominent names, coaches that have championships on
their resume. When do we really know when a coach
is absolutely necessary? This is Fox Sports Sunday, Steve Harbin

(02:11:32):
and Ryan Hollins. This is Fox Sports Sunday. We're coming
you live from the tire rech dot Com studios. Brooks
Keopka still has the one shot lead over Victor Hovelin. However,
are they teed off at number nine? Hoblin's in the
fairway and Keepka pulled his drive. Not a good place
to be. Ryan is in the rough there at Oak Hill.
It is deep, it is rough. You need to hit

(02:11:54):
the ball straight. So we definitely got a battle going
on at the PGA Championship, all right, So let me
let me, let me click off these names. Nick Nurse,
NBA champion in twenty nineteen, fired, Frank Vogel, NBA champion,
twenty twenty he was fired, twenty twenty one NBA champion,

(02:12:14):
My Gudenholzer he was fired, twenty twenty two NBA Coach
of the Irmanni Williams he was fired, and then the
worst playoff coach in the history of the NBA Doc
Rivers was also fired. Those are some big names. I

(02:12:35):
kid about Doc Rivers, think about Doc West.

Speaker 1 (02:12:37):
I was going to let you finish me.

Speaker 2 (02:12:40):
Here's the thing about Doc, I get it. You know,
I was doing you know, I've had you know, spurts
in my broadcast career where I'm on site more often
than not, and I was doing a lot of live
shots for my TV station at the time that Doc
came to the Clippers, when Mike D'Antoni had taken over

(02:13:00):
for Mike Brown as the coach of Lakers. D'Antoni was
the worst. I mean, he was just awful, and Doc
was the best. I mean Doc, you talk about a
guy that knows how to charm the pants off of
members of the media. Look at Doc Rivers. He's a
charming guy. He'll answer all your questions. He's great. And
d'antonia was the worst. But I mean, the bottom line

(02:13:24):
is the man's lost seven He's lost ten game sevens
in series clinching games. He's lost twice as many games
as he's won. See, that's the only thing I can
go with with coaches because I'm not a player, So
when I'm judging coaches, it's a very simple. They have
one stats, winning and losing. If you win more games

(02:13:45):
than you lose, you should be able to keep your job.
But I'm giving you guys. All of these guys, with
the exception obviously of Monti Williams, have won a championship
and Monty Williams led the Suns to the finals and
then followed up with an incredible reg season in which
he won the Coach the Year and they're all gone.

Speaker 1 (02:14:06):
So what is going on?

Speaker 2 (02:14:06):
Because we've never seen this kind of carnage with big
name coaches as we've seen Vocal was a year ago,
but I mean, certainly this season, we've never seen anything
like this. So what exactly is happening here? And is
it safe to say that if you're looking for any
kind of job security, NBA head coach should not be

(02:14:29):
a job you apply for.

Speaker 1 (02:14:31):
Yeah, well, first off, it's it's a players league. And
I'll give you an example. After the Milwaukee Bucks lost,
the Milwaukee ownership is not going Hey man, we got
to get Yannis out of the coople the heck out
of here. It's gotta be.

Speaker 2 (02:14:46):
Well and Janni's but didn't exactly put up a fight
for Budenholzer did.

Speaker 1 (02:14:50):
He I don't know personally.

Speaker 2 (02:14:52):
Well, I mean if even though if he was upset,
I oh, he would have heard something, we didn't hear
anything about him.

Speaker 1 (02:14:57):
No, don't do. It doesn't mean just because of a
player keeps something you know, quiet or behind the scenes
or within his agent or with he in the front office.
That's the way it's supposed to be. We should We
don't know every argument between you know, a husband and wife.
You know what happens when it hits the mainstream, but
you don't know everything behind the scenes. So we'll say

(02:15:17):
that we don't know. Secondly, the probably I guess the
I don't want to say the worst job to have
is it be an NBA head coach. But yeah, yeah,
you're gonna be the guy that's going to get the blame.
Now in terms of how would I put this in
terms of the in terms of whose fault it is,

(02:15:41):
it's always going to be the coach's fault. Now. Also,
what we see going on today's NBA is I can't
get rid of my star. But if I fire the coach,
I wake him up. So what I mean by wake
him up and put him on alert, you go, oh, snap,
the coach just got fired. I got a step that's

(02:16:01):
a big shot. And then you do what you please
your fan base. So your fan base is the people
who pay those bills, right, So you go, fan base, Look,
we did something. We got we could get rid of
our players, but we got rid of our coach. We
did something to the fan base feel somewhat pleased that
something went on and happened. And then at the end
of the day, what we're seeing this year, I believe Steve,

(02:16:23):
and I don't know if you agree with me on
this or not. What I feel like we see now
is teams are going, dang, we get a chance to
look like we did something, and then we can just
play musical chairs. So Nick Nurse can come over here,
Doc can come over here. At least this coach and
this coach and this coach can come over here. So
I think we're gonna see a whole lot of just

(02:16:46):
musical chairs going on right now, and I would not
be surprised. So coaches are going, well, we didn't well, hey,
we don't want to fire coach X, because if we
fire him, what else are we gonna get? Now, you go, man,
we fire coach X. We can go get the coach
of the year, you go get Mike Budenholzer a yata
hear money. Uh.

Speaker 2 (02:17:05):
One of my all time favorite NBA people is Alvin
Gentry and and he I had a great conversation with him,
and I think he's been like an interim coach or
a head coach of just about every team in the league.
He's also been an assistant with every team in the league.
And he told me just flat out, the best job
in the NBA is to be an assistant coach. That

(02:17:27):
was Alvin Gentry. He's been a head coach for a
lot of different teams. But he said, you when you're
an assistant, if you're a basketball junkie, you get to coach.
You don't have to worry about the outside noise. In
other was if what you enjoy is teaching and and
improving players, and you know, and that's what you get

(02:17:48):
to do as an assistant. When you're a head coach,
you got to face the music every single day. And
it's interesting, he said. I think after he said that
he had three more head coaching jobs. I mean it
was because Alvin is that kind of guy. But yeah,
I mean, I mean, again, when we were talking about

(02:18:10):
the difference between playoff basketball and regular season basketball?

Speaker 3 (02:18:14):
Right?

Speaker 2 (02:18:16):
And you take a look at Budenholzer these last couple
of years, and he had the team with the best
record in the NBA this year, the Milwukee Bucks, and
those last couple of games, those meltdowns, was like, what's
going on here, dude? You know, time out do something?
And he didn't seem to have any answers. So is
the real test of a coach? And let me ask

(02:18:39):
you this for coaches that you played for, were there
coaches that actually changed their coaching philosophy in the playoffs
as opposed to what you were doing in the regular season.

Speaker 1 (02:18:54):
Every coach is sometimes the lineups get tighter, sometimes the
lineups state the stame and ultimately, at the end of
the day, you're damned if you do, You're damned if
you don't. So I think what's like, what's tough for
coach Missoula is you're you're going, man. He just keeps
sharing the basketball and Jason tedam kids score. But if
they won and everybody on that that roster scored, you know,

(02:19:15):
he had twenty points, he had fifteen, he had twenty.
Now you're going, man, Joe Missoula is a genius for
what he's doing. I just think unfortunately with those names,
Jason Tatum ain't going nowhere. Guess what. It's Joe Mazula's fault.
That is just that is just part of the game
in the way that the cookie crumbles. So I think

(02:19:36):
it's just it is. It's it's extremely unfair, but that's
that's just just realistic. But again, to answer your question, yeah,
everything changes, and everything should change. And you know you
understand why it's such when I say playoff basketball and regularly,
I mean we're talking apples, apples and oranges. Man's this

(02:19:56):
is a completely different deal here. And that's that's what
it is, man. And you have to you gotta go
out and you gotta go adjust. And I say, if
you don't take anything away from what I said, if
everything I said it was gibberish. The plays that you
run don't work. It's the Jimmies and Joe's not the
x's and o's players go out and make plays. At

(02:20:17):
the end of the day, it's it's Michael Jordan versus
the guy guarding him. It's Kobe Bryant versus the guy
guarding him. You get what I'm saying, and that's what
you see with playoff basketball, and that's why you hail
these guys as the greatest. So that's why you held
these guys are the best. And then one team that
I'll say it probably does the best of just going

(02:20:38):
out and kind of mixing up making plays and executing
was the Golden State Warriors. I'd probably say they were
the team that down the stretch, they can mix in
their stars and they could go out and execute offense.
They were probably the best we've seen at being able
to do that.

Speaker 2 (02:20:56):
All right, So I have a quick question for you here, Ryan,
because I know that you had a sampling of several
teams in the NBA during your career. I like that sampling.
And I have no idea how many head coaches you
played for. I'm gonna guess, uh, quite a few. So
let me ask you this, who was the best head
coach you played for in the NBA? And why?

Speaker 6 (02:21:20):
Man?

Speaker 1 (02:21:20):
That that's tough, dude. I've seen some bad ones and
I'm not going to say any names, and I've seen
some really good ones. I have had doc I have had.
We talked about the great Larry Brown earlier. I've had
Rick Carlisle. Like I've had some great I've had Mike Malone. Okay,

(02:21:41):
like I've had I've had great coaching experiences in the NBA,
and I've I've had some that just I've just.

Speaker 2 (02:21:48):
Been So what makes them great? I mean when you
say great, I mean the difference between a Larry Brown
and somebody else. What's the difference?

Speaker 1 (02:21:58):
All right? So Garry Brown knew was arguably the hardest,
easily the hardest working head coach that I've ever seen ever.
Larry Brown the hardest. Like that, I try to beat
the guys to the gym, and I swear to God,
he's getting at the gym at like four am. He
has no social life during the season, and he would
stay after and he would grind with you, and he
would do all the little stuff. And he just puts

(02:22:20):
you as a player in a situation where you could
be best after he mentally broke you down. We talk
about practice. Doc Rivers can drop x's and o's with
the best of them. He can relate to his players,
he can talk to talk. The players who love Doc
love Doc because he's he's just He's a grand communicator. Steve,
and I think he is pitched that earlier with him

(02:22:42):
talking to the media and shout out to Doc for
having done some media. Also, Rick Carlile was a literal genius.
He has like you know how they have like the
like the numbers in like the genius's head, like they're
going around like calculating. That is Rick Carlile, you know,
making plays. And Rick Carlo is very unique where he
can coach a championship team and he can go out

(02:23:04):
and get you wins as a rebuilding team. So Rick
carl House is certified as it comes as a coach.
And you know, forgive me Mike. Mike Malone was just
hard knows he gets it, He gets after you, he
he motivates, he understands it, and he don't give it
down whether you like him or not, you know, So
shout out coach Malone also, So there's and I don't

(02:23:27):
mean any shade to any of the other coaches that
I had. George carl I loved to coach Georgia's system,
you know, spread the floor. I think he's ahead of
a time with what he was able to do, just
hadn't won a championship. I think some of the discipline
was lacking there but he gets the system of getting
up and down and letting his players make plays. So
I think every coach brings a unique blend. But those coaches,

(02:23:51):
they just there's nothing new under the sun. And mark
my words here, y'all can dog Joe Missoula all you want.
He's going to be excellent in this league as a
head coach. I'd stick with him. I wouldn't get rid
of him. One man's trash may be another man's treasure.
And he's an absolute, absolute gem, I'll tell you that much.
But he just doesn't have the experience, and he's going
to get the experience. Mark my words.

Speaker 2 (02:24:14):
I was going to mention that my former college roommate
David Khan brought you in with the Tea Wolves and
Kurt Rambis and that was that was a tough team.

Speaker 1 (02:24:24):
Then here David Khan paid me the most money that
I have ever seen in my life. I am me
and my family are thankful to him.

Speaker 6 (02:24:30):
Man.

Speaker 2 (02:24:30):
Yes, well he was show you. I'll date myself. I
hired him as a freshman writer on the Daily Bruin.
All right, yeah, I mean, now I'm really getting back
in time. And by the way, not true. Con has
been admonished because of the Steph Curry fiasco where he
didn't draft him and took two other point guards and
said of him not fair good guy. Uh just talked

(02:24:53):
to him the other day. As a matter of fact.
All right, let's find out what's trending right now. And
Manzi has been overwhelmed by baseball scores today A little bit,
little bit, yes, and we've got actually a pretty intriguing
final round of the PGA.

Speaker 7 (02:25:08):
Go on it, agreed, Agreed.

Speaker 6 (02:25:10):
After his hot star brooks Koepka has definitely cooled down.

Speaker 7 (02:25:15):
He had back to back bogis. He now has had
back to back pars.

Speaker 6 (02:25:19):
So he's still at the top of the leader board
at seven under, just one shot ahead of Victor Hovelin,
and this is through nine holes, So brooks Kopka still there,
but he definitely cooled down versus how he started at
the PGA Championship. The Stars have scored, so they've taken
the lead on the ice against the Golden Knights in
Game two. This series is led by Vegas one zero,

(02:25:40):
but right now it's the Stars on top two to
one with about eight minutes to go in the second period.

Speaker 7 (02:25:45):
And baseball, yes, I'm telling you the eliminating.

Speaker 6 (02:25:49):
The shift has really made baseball so much more interesting
this season because now we have like scores in the
first inning, Like it used to be like, oh, we're
score in the bottom of the seventh inning, and now
it's like the first inning.

Speaker 7 (02:26:03):
And everybody's scoring.

Speaker 6 (02:26:05):
So that moving the shift, eliminating the shift has really
just made baseball so much more interesting. Orioles are beating
the Blue Jays right now in the tenth inning three
to two. They're playing in Toronto and they're about to
start the bottom of the tenth inning. White Sox who
beating the Royals five to two. Top of the ninth inning.
They are playing in Chicago. Astro is still up on
the A's two zero. Top of the ninth they are

(02:26:25):
playing in Houston. The Dodgers have scored, but the Cardinals
have scored some more so. The Cardinals are on top
seven to three. Top of the seventh inning. Rangers are
all over the Rockies. Eleven zero is the score at
top of the sixth inning. The Marlins and the Giants
are tied at one a piece. Top of the third inning.
The games that have ended Yankees over the Reds four

(02:26:46):
to one. The Phillies finally scored. Bryson Stott had a
two run homer in the seventh inning and they beat
the Cubs two to one. The Nationals ended up defeating
the Tigers six to four. The Braves took down the
Mariners three to two, the Diamondbacks the Pirates eight to three,
and the Burers took down the Very Hot Rays six
to four.

Speaker 7 (02:27:05):
The Guardians and the Mets have.

Speaker 6 (02:27:06):
A double header today, but it was the Mets who
came out on top in Game one, five to four.

Speaker 7 (02:27:10):
And how about this.

Speaker 6 (02:27:12):
Rihanna Stewart of the New York Liberty had forty five
points and thirteen rebounds in three quarters and the Liberty
beat the Fever ninety to seventy three, so she had
half of the points.

Speaker 2 (02:27:28):
There are talks of as the WNBA season just sent
away to the super teams.

Speaker 7 (02:27:33):
Yes, they're happy.

Speaker 2 (02:27:34):
They got New York. He got Vegas exactly, Cannas Parker
enjoyed a joint and they won their first game by
I believe forty.

Speaker 6 (02:27:40):
Something like that on the road, yes, correct, correct, like
super team right right, yeah, yeah, I like that.

Speaker 7 (02:27:47):
Forty five points.

Speaker 2 (02:27:48):
That's good.

Speaker 7 (02:27:48):
Brianna Stewart three quarters, she.

Speaker 2 (02:27:50):
Is an unbelievable player. Really, Uh, Monza, You're unbelievable.

Speaker 7 (02:27:54):
You're unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (02:27:55):
Stuck, You're you're still sporting that jacket.

Speaker 6 (02:27:57):
I am.

Speaker 1 (02:27:58):
I like it.

Speaker 2 (02:27:59):
I love that, Thanks Montee. Yeah, guys, let me ask you.
You know, WNBA is underway, and this is really weird
for me because Annie Myers is a friend of mine
and I've known Annie since she was at UCLA. The

(02:28:21):
very first ever collegiate women's Final Four, then under the
aia W banner before they became NCAA, was played at
poly Pavilion and UCLA, led by Annie Murray and Denise Curry.
Billy Moore was the coach. Are all in the Natesmith
Basketball Hall of Fame won that first championship and I

(02:28:42):
think back then and I think about where we are
now with the women's game. WNBA has been around a
long time. I do remember when David Stern was the
commissioner of the NBA. That was one year, I don't
know which year it was where the women of the
WNBA were complaining about the salaries they were making, and
the retort from the commissioner was, I'll put it this way,

(02:29:05):
if you continue to play for what we're paying you,
we'll have a league. If you want more, I will
pull the plug. Where are we right now in terms
of the women's game in your opinion as we launch
yet another w NBA season.

Speaker 1 (02:29:23):
I think the good part is continuing to grow. And
you know this just as well as I know this.
Personalities are so are may be more than what the
game comes to offer. And you're seeing storylines and personalities
and the WNBA players that they're speaking out like they've
never done that before. So when you go to a game,

(02:29:46):
you go, man, that's Candice Parker, that's Britney Grinder, that's
SHANEA Guomakay, that's the Goomakay sisters. You're starting to see
personalities that grows a league so much more than, unfortunately,
what you do on the court. And I love that
you're starting to see that from the ladies. The more
that they can do in that aspect, the better that

(02:30:06):
they're going to be. And they've just got to keep
that up and they got to keep moving forward and
keep grinding with that. But that's just really good stuff
from them, and like I said, man, it's helping that
they're the game. The women's game progress and you know,
we'll be honest. Is it the NBA. No, But it
can be better and it can grow. And I think

(02:30:27):
we've been able to see that from the ladies moving forward.
So hats off to the w NBA, Hats off to
our NBA sisters, women, uh or whatever you like to
call them over there moving forward and and and keep
it up. Man. And I feel like, look, you don't
have to try to pretend to be a w NBA
fan or not, but you can respect them. You can

(02:30:50):
honor them moving forward, and you can you can get
behind the product whether you choose or which you're not.
But I think what we have to do, like I said,
is respect them. But I think the league is trending
because they've become so outspoken, man. And I just think
it's great.

Speaker 2 (02:31:06):
I love this, you know, back in the day working
with Jim Hill CBS Los Angeles Sports Center, we started
this show back in nineteen ninety eight, and on occasion
we would have WNBA players in studio and first time
I ever met Cheryl Miller, who really predated the WNBA.
There are still many that believe she was the greatest

(02:31:28):
female basketball player of all time. I know Reggie her
brother would say that. But the first time we had
her on set, she and I sort of got a
little back and forth, like, you know, I don't like
opinion right, and obviously Cheryl doesn't either. And from that
point on we became big time friends. Like every time I.

Speaker 1 (02:31:46):
Saw her, you that what were you arguing about it?

Speaker 2 (02:31:48):
I don't even remember, but she said something or I
said something that just sort of got her cross eyed,
and then she had a retort. And I'm never one
to back off a good argument, and Jim was in
between us like, hello, you know, calm down a little bit.
She loved it. I loved it, and so immediately we
had sort of that spark. But my favorite evert was

(02:32:09):
Lisa Leslie. We bring Lisa Leslie in studio and you know,
and she comes in and she sits down and Jim's
introducing her and he goes, you know, the great, you know,
spark star Lisa Leslie, Lisa is so great to see you,
and she immediately says, yeah, I'd love to see you
at a game. I've never once seen you ever at

(02:32:31):
a game. If you don't know Jim, Jim is this
iconic sports anchor in Los Angeles. I almost fell out
of my seat. I'm sitting next to him. She would
right after him like, yeah, you're heaping all this, prey,
When are we actually gonna see you at a game?

Speaker 1 (02:32:47):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (02:32:49):
I mean she did not hold back. It was I
was laughing so hard. He was like, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa whoa. No, I'm happy you know that the WNBA continues.
And I think you bring up the good point. We
just we have recognizable names now, you know. I remember
when Canadas Parker was at Tennessee and I saw her

(02:33:09):
game and just who she was and everything about it.
I mean, when you're a physically attractive as well, it
never hurts. And I said, I, if you can't make
a star out of this player, you got a problem,
because she is a star, and she's proven it over years,
not only continuing to play the game, but obviously as
a commentator and everything else. So I'm excited that the

(02:33:32):
WNBA continues to build. As you say, I agree, they
are on the upward swing. All right, We're gonna get
some final predictions. Any chance that the Celtics win in
Miami tonight and can the Lakers pull the greatest miracle
in NBA history? We'll break it down. This is Fox
Sports Sunday.

Speaker 8 (02:33:52):
Brooks wipes off his putterface, put her now in behind
the golf ball. Putter goes back, strikes the putt, working
towards the.

Speaker 9 (02:33:59):
Cup, working towards a couping into the bottom. That ball
straightened out at the end. Brooks Kopka three in a
row of the birdie here at fout four takes him
to nine under.

Speaker 2 (02:34:09):
That's serious XM right there. Brooks Kopka, by the way,
now has a two shot lead through ten holes of
the final round of the PGA Championship. But he just
buried his shot. Woof lookout. Could be in trouble there
on number eleven. By the way, that's our Progressive play
the day, brought to by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundlean
easy and affordable. Get a multi policy discount by combining

(02:34:31):
your motorcycle, RV, boat, ATV and more all your protection
one place. Bundle and say at Progressive dot com. Steve Hartman,
Ryan Hollins with you. This is Fox Sports Sunday. We
are live from the tire Rack dot Com studios. Want
to thank the crew today. Chris on the board. He
is a he is a true soccer fan. Let's let's

(02:34:51):
put it that way about Chris. I mean he's he
does have a little bit of a stake in the golf. Chris,
I have a Yeah, I consider myself multi s or multiport.
The morning was by jam. Yeah, you were talking about
the expansion again of Major League Soccer to now San Diego,
hopefully for the last time. Thirty is a massive Now

(02:35:12):
they're going to get to sixty because that's the only
way they infuse money into that league. It's it's a
Ponzi scheme. Moncey was brilliant today as always and decked
out in her back to the Future gear today, so
that was really good. Uh, they didn't put your mic on.
They refused to open up your mind. Now it's on.

Speaker 7 (02:35:29):
Now it's on. I said so many things right now,
so many things of value that.

Speaker 6 (02:35:34):
Y'all missed, and I just can't see it again because
you know, it's it's only a one time thing.

Speaker 2 (02:35:40):
Oh manyyyyy have a lot of fancer, you know that.
And then there's both of course Bo Benson, our brilliant producer, who, uh,
what is your what is your preference today? In this
Sunday of sports Bow what is your or no, get.

Speaker 7 (02:36:01):
Just bird eat on the tenth hall of that, dude,
just Birdie.

Speaker 2 (02:36:04):
The heat, the heat beating the Celtics heat. That'd be ideal,
all right, So you want the Celtics to go down.
Obviously you're a Celtic hater. Yes, I have been a
Celtic hater my entire life as well. So Ryan, let's
talk a little bit. Let's start with the Lakers first though. Oh,
in one hundred and forty nine, that's the record of
teams down three to zero in a playoff series in

(02:36:26):
the NBA. Now, we had the Yankees a blow a
three to zero series lead to the Red Sox famously
in the was a two thousand and four America League
Championship series. I think it's happened in the NHL least
four times. I know the Kings did it to San
Jose on their way to eventually winning the Stanley Cup
in twenty fourteen. So you know, obviously, the the you know,

(02:36:47):
one game at a time. Well, yeah, when you're down
three to oh, the first thing you had to do
is win the next game. What do you expect from
the Lakers at home tomorrow? And if they were to
let's say this win tomorrow and then go on the
road and win Game five against Denver. Why let's put

(02:37:08):
it this way. Why has no team ever come back
from a three to zero deficit in an NBA playoffs?

Speaker 1 (02:37:14):
Now you have to expend so much energy, and then
what you also do is you have to show your
best hand. So the other team goes, okay, this is
your eight plus plus material. You think about New York.
Jalen Brunson comes out and plays forty minutes, so he's okay, cool,
you beat us. Good job. Brunson played forty minutes. Okay,

(02:37:35):
we're gonna trap him every time. We're gonna make him
pick up defensively, We're gonna we're gonna make him work
since you wanna play him forty minutes. Since, well, where
you see the other team's best hand, And now that
you're showing your best hand, you gotta win four games straight.
Of that, It's tough to happen, and for more likely
than not, if you lost three games in a row,

(02:37:58):
you just ain't as good, all right?

Speaker 2 (02:38:00):
Are they gonna go down meekly? In Game four? I
I you know a lot of this, Well, you got it.
You don't want to get eliminated on your home court.
There's pride involved. I mean, what do you expect to
see tomorrow in Game four of the Western Conference Final?

Speaker 1 (02:38:12):
Yeah, Lakers will win Game four. They're gonna come out
like gangbusters. There's no tomorrow. What else, There's no there's
no if you, if you, if you get hurt, there's
no like you know, you got the whole summer to rehab. Okay, like,
unless it's gonna be a career ending injury, these guys
are going to ride it out. You're going to see
an emotional performance and the Lakers will win on their
home court.

Speaker 2 (02:38:31):
All right. So you heard Bo he's rooting for a
heat sweep of the Celtics with his deep rooted hatred
of Boston. What do you expect in Game three? Can
we see the Celtics come back and win on the
road to Miami or two losses at home just too
much overcome?

Speaker 1 (02:38:50):
You know what? I think Boston is gonna win. Man, Wow,
I think I think they went at Miami. Uh. The
one thing Miami isn't consistent either, you know, they can
kind of have let up, and I assume that it
will be there and just the thoughts will go away
the thought. Sometimes you get into those scenarios when you're
supposed to win and you gotta win, and you just

(02:39:11):
you get in your own head. And I think you're
seeing that with the Boston Celtics, and I think they
go out and win this next game on the road,
and then in Miami will look a little more normal.
Keep in mind, there's no accident this team was a
playing team.

Speaker 2 (02:39:24):
Well this is but this is why I want to
ask about the Miami Heat. All right, So it's team
won forty four games, they sneak in as an eight seed,
they lose a playing game, and here they are two
wins away from the NBA Finals. How why are they
such a different team in the playoffs and what we
saw in the regular season.

Speaker 1 (02:39:43):
Jimmy Butler, he's the As an analyst, there's no way
to predict what's gonna happen, win, loser, draw. Jimmy Butler
is the toughest thing to predict because he has that
type of talent he is.

Speaker 2 (02:39:56):
I mean again, he and Yokch have dominated these playoffs.
They've been the two dominant and like I said, if
it comes down to a Miami Denver NBA Finals, I
would have said this a week ago, but now I'm
saying that is the best possible matchup.

Speaker 5 (02:40:09):
Ryan.

Speaker 2 (02:40:10):
Great stuff today, Man. Always great to catch.

Speaker 1 (02:40:12):
Up with you.

Speaker 2 (02:40:13):
Oh Steve YouTube brother, Keep it around Fox Sports Radio,