Steve Hartman & Martin Weiss Break Down the NBA Conference Finals, Talk Shai Winning MVP & More!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio E living the
dream once again here on a fully loaded Sports Saturday.
This is Fox Sports Saturday and we're broadcasting live from
the Fox Sports Radio studios. Now I understand this. I
am not co hosting the show with just anybody. I

(00:21):
am co hosting a show with someone that does more
than anyone else in the Fox Sports Radio family.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Martin Weiss is a man that is so big.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
That one of our steam bosses, Scott Shapiro, texted me saying,
you and Martin again this week. He once again will
be playing the dual role. And I responded by saying,
the three of us will have a phenomenal show today.
So once again, the pressure of holding down the multitude
of jobs that you have here at Fox Sports Radio,

(00:55):
how do you continue to do this week after week,
month after month, year after year.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
The great Martin wise.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
You know, Steve challenges make champions and I'm undefeated.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
You are undefeated. So there you go, Yeah, you're undefeated.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Right now, we have a ring baby, and I will
not reveal unlike other hosts here, which you do behind
the seats. See, I like, I like to allow you
privacy and your private endeavors that are separate from anything
you actually do on air.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Hear yes, Fox, what I'm doing honestly, Steven, it may
translate to on air soon.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
I'm cooking up some stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Okay, one I am working on. You want to talk
about it, then we'll talk about it.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Thank you. Okay, That's that's how.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
We do this.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Uh. Coming up, we're gonna have Adam Kaplan joining us,
our NFL insider.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
He will join us in about seventeen minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Coming up in the next hour, Mark Madeena, our NBA insider,
we'll be talking, of course, nbas We get ready for
Game three of the Western Conference Finals, Okase now on
the road against the Timberwolves, and then tomorrow will resume
the Eastern Conference Finals. Or the Anyana Pacers continue to
be the NBA's worst nightmare as they are taking down

(02:05):
the one team that the NBA desperately needed to get
to the NBA Finals, That would be the New York Knicks.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Chances of them getting.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
There are next to zero, which brings up this point
I wanted to start off with today, Martin. We talk
about the NBA right now in the midst of their
Final fourd and as I mentioned, he got one big
market team, obviously, the Knicks trying to you know, claim
an NBA championship for the first name since Richard Nixon
was president. And then he got the small markets. Let's
see Indiana Pacers, zero NBA championships. They did win in

(02:35):
the ABA, not in the NBA. You've got the Minnesota Timberwolves,
zero NBA championships.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
And then you have Oklahoma City.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
They have won when they were the Seattle SuperSonics back
in nineteen seventy nine. And yes I'm old enough to
actually remember when they beat the Washington Bullets in the
NBA Final back.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
In the day.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
But the problem is you have not just the idea
of smaller markets, you know, which is always an night
Mara when it comes to a television audience. But here
here's something I want to I want to do all
identity stuff with you right now, Martin at the top
of the show. Okay, all right, So we have in
this series between OKAC and Minnesota two of the great

(03:15):
young stars of this league and Shake Guildess Alexander and Ant. Okay,
so we'll just use the names. So we got SGA
and we got Ant. So if you're an NBA fan.
Obviously you know these guys, Anthony Edwards, Shake Guild. Does
Alexander have emerged as two of the right young stars
of this league? No argument there, okay, So let me

(03:36):
let me ask you this question. If I were to
show a photo of either Shake Guildess Alexander and Anthony
Edwards just to the average American person, and opposite their
photo would be a photo of Angel Reese, do you
think more people would identify who Angel Reese is than

(03:59):
an or SGA.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
I think that it would go in order of Angel
Reese than Anthony Edwards then SGA. But I think that
the people that know who Angel Reese is and Anthony
Edwards the.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
VENN diagram there would be a circle.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Okay, So but you agree, does this person has a
better chance. I'm not even gonna throw the name of
Kaitlyn Clark, who probably is more identifiable transcendent than any
NBA player outside of maybe Lebron and Steele.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
I'd say she she she transcends any NBA player under
the age of roughly thirty that I could think, like,
that's so many of the ones that like that eliminates
the Lebron, the staffs that Kevin Durantz. The guys we've
seen now for fifteen twenty years. Those guys I think
still got Kaitlyn Clark. But outside of that, I tak
you like this, you need the top ten most popular
basketball players. She's not below five.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Right, I mean she is.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
She is identifiable, which is what you want. This is
the problem with the NBA has right now when people
talk about, well, isn't it great that we have such parody?

Speaker 2 (05:02):
We're gonna have.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Our seventh different NBA champion over the next last seven years.
That's what we're looking at. Regardless of which of these
four teams wins the NBA Championship, it will be a
seventh different NBA champion. You start with Toronto, you had
the Lakers, you had Milwaukee, you had Golden State, you
had Denver, you had Boston and whoever wins this year.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Seven different champions in seven years.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Are like, isn't that great? Isn't great to have parody? No,
it sucks. It sucks for the league because you lose
an identity. How did Steph and Lebron become so identifiable?

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Oh, I don't know. They faced each.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Other year after year after year after year in the
NBA Finals, on the biggest stage, right.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
But it takes time.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
You have to like Stephan Lebron at one point played
for the first time, like, but you need to get
back there.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Giannis was was the guy at the moment, right Milwaukee
was it and then all of a sudden he's gone.
And the next thing you have, you have the joker.
You have Jason Tatums heard this postseason?

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Have you not enjoyed this?

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Not talking about the last two or three There was
a lot of blowups last year or three playoffs.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
We'll talk about this one. We are fair game here. Look,
and I've been following the I was I literally was.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
Watching today with my son a replay of the fourth
quarter of Game seven of the nineteen sixty nine NBA Finals,
Bill Russell against Wilt Chamberlain. He was enamored, and I
was thinking, I was in fifth grade watching this. So
that's how long I've been watching the NBA. So to
ask me, do I enjoy the playoffs?

Speaker 4 (06:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (06:31):
I love seeing the Knicks lose. I mean I love
what Tyre's Halliburton and the Pacers are doing. I appreciate
that I have context of what they are doing. Do
I enjoy how good OKAC is Finally Okase is Now
remember what we said about OKAC before the playoffs, right,
the idea that, well, they are a young team, they
haven't been there. They're gonna run into veteran teams that
have been there, done that. Well, Okase's past that now.

(06:55):
Now they all of a sudden have realized, Yeah, we
are this good, we can play this well, and I
fully expect OKAC to take over the rest of the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
And win an NBA championship.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
May not happen, but I think that's their destiny right now,
because they are the best team in the NBA. You
win sixty eight games by an average of thirteen points
a game, you're the best team.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
But where the NBA is missing.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Out right now, Martin is they're not doing an effective
job of marketing their stars. And part of the problem
is it's just a revolving door. It seems like one
year we're talking about I mean, it's just like this year.
I mean, shay Gil just Alexander League MVP. You know,
he may be hoisting the O'Brien trophy, he may be
a Finals MVP, and everyone will say there he is,

(07:39):
He's final the face of the league.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
And then all of a sudden next year it's somebody else.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
But all right, so, but where does the door start
to evolve? Because this SGA do all the things you
just said about, say, guilders, Alexander, I'll agree with you
because you said nothing about officiating.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Now, but I'll agree with you about all the things
that you just said about SGC.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
By the way, after accepting that MVP trophy, did did
he get the MVP treatment in game two?

Speaker 2 (08:02):
What do you think?

Speaker 3 (08:02):
Oh god, that's a different topic for about ten minutes
fromn hour whenever we get to it. But okay, so
we're looking at the two guys right now that are
in the Western Conference final, one of them back to back,
the other one the league MVP, right you know who
they both went through, the guy who would have been
the face of the league.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
The fact of the matter is what we have right
now at the.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Top of the NBA over the last five years, I
would say, is a true vacuum of power, game of
throne style. We don't know who is coming out to
become the next Very much like when Kobe Bryant and
Shaq and those teams had stopped running the NBA. It
wasn't like we had I know, there's only been like

(08:43):
what eight or nine franchises to win titles, but it
wasn't the consecutive can this team three, Peter, this is
seems gonna get four and five years and then all
of a sudden you have the dynasties of are you
saying the Warriors and the Cavs and now we're in
a period where we are waiting. We just talked about
how Caitlin Clark is like, you know what, somewhere between
four and eight most popular player, and I'm just you know,

(09:07):
we're just with the caveat being Lebron and Steph and
Kevin Durant. Those guys are the guys above her, Right,
that's what we said. Those guys are phasing out. And
guess what, right now we are building the legends of
like the first time. Like right now we're looking at
Tyree's Halliburton on an all time postseason run. Right if
he continues this, right, like, that's the type of thing

(09:27):
that maybe in a wide open Eastern Conference, why can't
the Pacers continue what they're doing and back to back
Eastern Conference?

Speaker 1 (09:34):
But you have to build on him, and that's the
whole point. We're just talking flavor of the month, okay.
And and this is the problem when you have parody,
when you have a revolving door of champions, just when
people start to identify with a team.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Or there is the problem all the focus about is
the one champion.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
If you look, if you strap played out to just
the final four, the Boston Celtics made the Eastern Conference finals.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
What is, off the top of my.

Speaker 3 (09:59):
Head nine of the last twelve seasons like that, they
were in the Eastern Conference for finals for nine of
the last twelve season or maybe eight of the last
twelve seasons. But the longest short of it is they
were running the Eastern Conference final up until this, like
when Lebron was running the East.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
You know what a team that was like black no,
so like so.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
But seriously, though, when we talk about parody and all
of this, like there's only.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
A handful of teams that can win well, the NBA
is gonna suffer until they can get a dominant player,
dominant team and they go hand in hand. You know, Steph,
as great a player as he was, he would not
be the star he was if they were winning championships.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Same thing with Lebron.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
I mean, you have to be on the biggest showcase
because a lot of people. Again, we're talking as guys
that literally live in Breeze Sports twenty four to seven,
three hundred and sixty five days year. We're covering all
the sports. We're aware of everything. I'm talking about the
average sports fan, the peripheral sports fan. It's like, oh,
NBA Finals come up, who's playing? And you throw out

(10:58):
a couple of teams. Who's on that team?

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Oh? Okay? And then you watch it like, Wow, this
guy's amazing. This guy, I can't wait to see what
he does next.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
And then the next year comes at somebody else and
it's like you hit the reset button over and over
and over again.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
It is not healthy for the NBA.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
I just disagree, Like, I just fundamentally disagree with this
because I think that you have to have some level
of I wouldn't even call it peaks and valleys because
I don't necessarily think that. When we're watching Calves Warriors
Part four, like it's a fast, interfurious movie that everybody
wants to see it, I think that you know, that's
honestly what happens after two or three years.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
Look at those four finals. I mean, they far exceeded
anything we've seen.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
Since, Steve, not even close.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
I don't even know anybody that as cable and I'm
thirty five years old.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
TV ratings to me is not the end all be
all of what matters here. Well, and advertisers, I.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
Don't when I get into bed with the NBA and
I'm selling them.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
Ads, That's what I'll care about that.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
But the NFL is obliterating in the NBA on Christmas
Day and everything else.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
NBA NBA.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
What was the deal the NBA designed for the TV
deal for Amazon, some seventy six billion dollars.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
I think they'll be fine.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
All right.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
So but again I'm not just talking about the amount
of money being poored in the league obviously about the rating.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Steve, Oh my goodness, how could they ever wank?

Speaker 1 (12:18):
Talking about the general public and their interest in the
NBA in terms of where we were when Stephan and
Lebron were showing up in the finals every year, Steve.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
And what I'm saying is, I think when you look
at metrics that are not necessarily rating, you look at
social media impressions, you look at individual follower accounts of
star players. When you look at the conversation on different
platforms as these games are occurring, I think the NBA
is in a like right now. I think the NBA
is in a truly healthy place because you're going to
have and honestly, you guys want to talk about that.

(12:53):
One of the bigger problems I think, more than any
of this, is that the last few champions have been
guys who have not necessarily been in uh spotlight heavy
guys like Giannis is kind of like that, but he's
a dad jokey, kind of corny guy. Jo has no
interest in being in the spotlight or the sunlight, it
feels like sometimes for that matter.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
Adam has no interest in the spotlight. Again, a golf
so very corporated me has an interesting look at light.
Tyres Haliburton has no problem being a start to show.
Same with Jalen Brunson and Anthony Edwards would sign up
for it every day twice on Sunday. Which gets me
back to Angelie. She wants to be in the spotlight.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
So shake Gildess, Alexandre.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
So when I look at the NBA where it is today,
I'll look at the NBA like, all right, let's do it.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
We're in a good spot.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
The idea of making any comparison of a w NBA
player's identity to an NBA player just never occurred to
anybody for good reason until now.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
So that is the problem.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
The NBA has got to do a better job of
marketing these great young players that they do have, and
we're going to see a showdown of that coming up
later on today OKC in Minnesota and taking on s G.
All right, coming up on the other side, we're going
to get into some NFL talk, which is always relevant,
including the idea that the NFL may be giving us

(14:10):
a sneak peek into the future of the league. Are
you ready for flag football? Adam Kaplan or Insider will
join us. This is Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 5 (14:23):
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 1 (14:35):
Steve Harvin Martin wise here Fox Sports Saturday. Once again,
We're coming you live from the Fox Sports Radio studios,
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Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube, you see a
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(14:57):
our Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
Videos on e well every week.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
This man is gracious enough to share the airwaves with
us to give us the inside of what's happened around
the National Football League. He is the great Adam Kaplan,
all right. So Adam I told that everyone a week
ago when asked about whether or not the NFL owners
would approve the idea of NFL players participating in the

(15:21):
flag football Olympics in twenty twenty eight, I said, it'll
be unanimous.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
And it was. I mean it was. This was the
lock of locks.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
And so I'm trying to figure this out because now
they're not just talking about letting players participate in twenty
twenty eight. They want a dream team. They want to
assemble a similar dream team like the NBA did the
nineteen ninety two Olympics. So we if you've been watching
NFL football for the last couple of years, you constantly
see promotion for flag football.

Speaker 4 (15:52):
There's a reason we'll get out. I want to.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Get into that reason because, yeah, I mean the idea
that you know, the NFL has been a lot of scrutiny.
Obviously it was CTE and everything else and the dangers.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
Of the game is the NBA. Is the NFL almost
trying to prepare us.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
It may not be ten years from now, it may
not be twenty years from now, but are they preparing
us for a different look for the NFL many years
down the road.

Speaker 6 (16:18):
Well, what it is is they want a situation where
you have you could have flag football. By the way,
there's no contact, Okay, I actually you don't see You
probably don't know this. I used to work for the
American Flag Football League, so I know flag probably better
on most people. But the thing that you folks don't
understand is most former NFL players are not good at flag.
They don't understand the nuances and there's a way to

(16:39):
pull the flag. And now you know a lot of
flag leagues players go both ways. They play offensive defense.
But they're not gonna be asking them to do that.
Obviously in twenty twenty eight. So the league has been
on the flag football, I would say for about four
years now, and it's they want to they want an
alternative because they I'll say this, they've been on the

(17:02):
flag part of it with kids for many, many years
now as far as pushing NFL players to it last
four years now, but they've been in They've had NFL
flag for years for kids, so it's nothing new to them.
But they've been pushing this agenda. And I'm not saying
it's wrong.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
I like it.

Speaker 7 (17:18):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (17:18):
They've wanted to do this for years and again it's
it's there's no contact with it. And I can tell
you from Colony's game for three years for that league,
it is incredibly athletic. Now that league's seven on seven,
this one is going to be five on five for
the Olympics.

Speaker 4 (17:33):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (17:33):
And it's a passing game. There's there's very little running.
It's all about passing athleticism. And the best flag team
in the world is actually from here from New Orleans,
the Fighting Cancer team.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
That's the one with the quarterback that said that he
would be able to Yeah, who said who said he'd
be Uh, he would be better than at quarterback and flag.

Speaker 6 (17:55):
Well that's ridiculous. But but what I will tell you
talk to Michael Vick about it. Michael Vick was with
us in the a f f L. Chase Levon, who
was a friend of mine who played offensive defense. He
was gassed. I remember asking him. He said he was
so tired. Terrorl Owans did it the first year. You
could talk. By the way, Dion Sanders loved it. Prime
loved it. A couple of years ago, actually three years ago,

(18:15):
he was on he was on Twitter going crazy with it.

Speaker 4 (18:18):
Uh so, yeah, it's a big deal, guys.

Speaker 6 (18:20):
It's as you know, soccer for kids, soccer and flag
football are huge in our country.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Don't be surprised how the future could change dramatically for football.

Speaker 6 (18:31):
I mean, but what it's tackle, So you're not gonna
stop tackling. So what do we talk about here, Steve?

Speaker 1 (18:38):
Just maybe not in your life, maybe not in my
lifetime or even Martin's lifetime, but I'm telling you right now,
I mean there is there have been enough people getting
behind the idea banning tackle football, certainly at the high
school level.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
They caused it.

Speaker 4 (18:55):
Not gonna happen in our lifetime.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
Brother, Well, in the long future it might.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
Texas will secede from the Union before.

Speaker 4 (19:01):
They I know where Steve's going here.

Speaker 6 (19:05):
There's a reason why they're doing this, Okay, Yeah, it's
an alternative to tackling. There's no doubt, but there's one
hundred percent Martin, I'm telling you.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
And it's part of their motivation. It's a big part
of it.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
And if you get the greatest players in the world
out of the NFL to showcase how great this sport
can be, you're going I get it on an a
venue like the Olympics.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, it's gonna be saying, Wow, I.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Had no idea flag football, which my kids have been
playing for years, could be so uh watchable.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
Let's put it that way. All right, let's I'm telling crazy.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
I don't know you're going to that. That was interesting.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
I'm asking the next question because let's go back to
like what Adam, Uh, you know, we saw the push
from this from a few offensive line that I'm not
asking necessarily about the push push, but the new award
giving out the most Valuable Protector Dion Dawkins I argued
for Andrew Whitworth argued for it. If Steve has his way,

(20:03):
it'll be gone before they ever award it because we
were playing five football next season. But just talk about
how this impacts offensive linemen and kind of like their
quote unquote legacies going forward.

Speaker 6 (20:15):
Yeah, it won't have anything to do with our contracts
because that that's the AP Award and all everything if
they hand out.

Speaker 4 (20:21):
But now it's great.

Speaker 6 (20:22):
I mean, Lane Johnson is a guy that'll be recognized
and all the great linemen. It's too bad that they
didn't start doing this years ago with all the great
linemen that Steve and I grew up with, of course
of the seventies and eighties and nineties. But look, it's good. Yeah,
this just came out. This just came about the Protector Award.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
I like it.

Speaker 4 (20:42):
I think it's a I think it's a good thing.

Speaker 6 (20:45):
And you know that's these awards could be nuanced, like
it would be nice, like the best safety in the
national food We don't recognize.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
That like a Pro Football Writer Association, right, which I
vote for. It's the BYO.

Speaker 6 (20:56):
And it's not a criticism of the AP Award because
that's some one that's recking nuts for contracts.

Speaker 4 (21:01):
But we're way more detailed.

Speaker 6 (21:02):
We go into so many different categories, but we don't
sub it in like okay, best cornerback, best Safety.

Speaker 4 (21:09):
I love to vote for that. I wish there'd be
something like that, but there really isn't.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
All right, so I'm gonna give you a little history
lesson here about the AP Awards. They started in nineteen
fifty seven, and they had a Most Valuable Player award
and they had Back of the Year.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Linemen of the Year.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
So the first three years it was an MVP, Back
of the Year Lineman of the Year. Interesting, and then
they didn't have any awards in nineteen sixty. When they
resumed in sixty one, they just had the MVP, and
eventually they introduced the Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
But you know, I mean, you.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Know, for college football, they've had the Outland Trophy forever,
so I don't see why they don't have some kind
of lineman awards.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
Steve, I agree, I don't know why they don't do it.

Speaker 3 (21:49):
Steve, who'd you vote for in fifty seven?

Speaker 2 (21:51):
Well, actually I was born in fifty eight, So there
you go. They know, Adam, I'm to ask you.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
I saw Sean Payton talking about this, and it's just
an interesting thing to me. With the state of college football,
the transfer portal, it seemed as if, well Sean said,
it's not by accident. There's some coincidences, but in the overview,
not by accident. That they seem to avoid drafting guys
who had transferred a bunch of times are transferred at all,

(22:20):
what's the thought process there?

Speaker 4 (22:21):
Yeah, so what happened?

Speaker 6 (22:23):
Look, first of all, if a guy is going to
get money to transfer, that that there's nothing wrong with that.
But guys who transferred transfer transfer transfer just to get money, because.

Speaker 4 (22:34):
They're going to look at like, what do you love football?

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Do you love money?

Speaker 6 (22:36):
Because that doesn't matter when teams put in scouting reports,
like the scout will know what's more important. He better
know by the way, he better know about the football character.
That's the term because if you can't trust the player,
if the players all about money. I'll give you an example.
Remember Isaiah Wilson was the first round pick for the Titans. Okay,
didn't love football like the money that afforded him, and

(22:57):
he flamed out. He actually was a total bush. That
was Now, I know the Titans were shocked by it.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
They didn't. They didn't.

Speaker 6 (23:04):
They obviously missed on that pick. They should have known it.
But those are the kind of guys that you want
to avoid. Guys who clearly don't love football want the
money and if they continue because of the money. Now
it's in college football with a transport with nil. That's
the other thing is guys is like they're gonna a
lot of these guys are second or third up picks.

Speaker 4 (23:23):
May stay, you know.

Speaker 6 (23:23):
That's the big thing now is these guys may stay
in college, but they might transfer to get more money.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
It's a problem, all right. Final thing I want to
ask about Jim Rsay. His father, Robert Rsay, was one
of the most despicable human beings.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
That ever walked the face of the earth. Jim, by
all accounts, was a really good guy. Yeah, well loved Unfortunately,
he had demons that ultimately shortened his life. But just
talk a little bit about how Jim Rsay, you know,
his brother passed, you know, his sister had passed aways
he sort of fell into this, you know, after the
passing of his father, and how he was able to

(23:58):
take all the naggat activity that Robert Ursay had, you know,
abandoning Baltimore, moving to Indianapolis, and how Jim Ursay was
able to not just really put a positive light on
the Coals but making one of the most successful franchises
in the league.

Speaker 6 (24:13):
Yeah, Steve, I think what the coolest thing is you
mentioned in passing there the things he's done out of
football or off the field. For In fact, there's a
there's a really good thread from Eric Burkhardt, who is
a veteran NFL agent. He's got a lot of top players,
and there's a story that Eric put up there on
Twitter a couple of days ago, right after Jim passed

(24:34):
a couple of hours later, where I mean, he went
out of his way to provide his jet and for
a family that needed it, and he didn't want anyone
to know. He didn't want it out there. He's given
away so much money and you know he asked the
families not to say anything. I mean got this was
a great steve. I'm glad you mentioned it. He's done

(24:56):
a great a lot of great things in his life.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Demons.

Speaker 6 (25:00):
Yes, it's been well documented. You know, this is an
interesting fact. Most people don't know this. In fact, unless
you're a diehard Calfin, you probably don't know. He was
once a general manager for many years before Bill Pollion.
And and you know, I'm glad that they got the ring.
I'm so glad that they got that. You know, with
Peyton Manning that was a big thing. Hiring Tony Dungee
and Bill pollion.

Speaker 4 (25:20):
That was big, uh.

Speaker 6 (25:22):
And yeah, he was a very supportive owner.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
Definitely different. I've talked to.

Speaker 6 (25:27):
People I've interviewed with him, sort of a mercurial guy,
a little different, but.

Speaker 4 (25:32):
Good, really good heart.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (25:34):
Yeah, that's all really it matters at this point is
that he did so many great things for people. And
I'm so glad you brought that up, because that's the
thing people forget when they try to do a bio
on people.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
Oh they got to mention this and that. I get that.

Speaker 6 (25:44):
But the best part about him is the quality human being.
That that's most important.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah, the polar opposite of his father, which is a
good thing for Jim Orsay.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
He will be missed. Great stuff is always out of way.
Appreciate it so much.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
And well, Mart and I are going to get back
to we're on fire today.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
That's all I can say. You just like to poke
the bear. I don't poke the bear.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
You don't even rile me up that much. It's just
that all of America can hear us right now.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
I know, And this is podcasting for forever. It could
it could go into the Library of Congress one day.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
Steve as what sports radio is you know, for fifty
a million years from now when there is no more
NFL because you've had your way.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
Well, I mean it's talking sports, but that's a personal
preference on my part.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Adam, great stuff. We'll talk to you next week. There
he goes, the great Adam Kaplan.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
All right now, So I mentioned at the very top
of the show, a man that wears many hats. Let's
find out what is trending right now, and here he
is once again, Martin Weiss.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
You know, Steve, I think it's I think it is
telling that I also played the role of news anchor
on this show, the guy who's delivering the news and
the facts.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, and just give us the facts. That's the key.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
Yeah, Okay, there's time for commentary and then sometimes you
just need the facts.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
On top of the eighth inning, the Reds extending their
lead on the Cubs six to two. Top of the
ninth inning, the Braves extending their lead on the Padres
seven to one, Astros two to one over the Mariners,
and the bottom of the eighth. Bottom of the sixth
the White Sox coming from behind to take a eight
to four lead over the Rangers, and the Yankees thirteen
to one over the Rockies, Aaron Judge hit a home

(27:24):
run and that when this is eighteenth.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
Of the year.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
Earlier today, the Red Sox came from behind and beat
the Orioles in a double header game one.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
That's when we rescheduled from yesterday.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
They'll play the second one in just the bid Royals
and the Twins. Minnesota with the five to four win.
Cardinals beat the Diamondbacks six to five, Pirates double up
the Brewers two to one, and the Nationals take a
three nothing win over the Giants and the WNBA. The
Atlanta Dream beat the Dallas Wings eighty three to seventy five.
The New York Liberty beat the Indiana Fever ninety to

(27:54):
eighty eight. Unkleill Jones with twenty six points, Sabrina e
and st twenty three. Caitlin Clark finished with eighteen. And
we are nearing puck drop and tip off for two
different game threes at that Stanley Cup Champion Panthers leading
the Carolina Hurricanes two to nothing, and the champion what
do they call the guy the team that was the

(28:14):
best in the Western Conference, the one seed? The one seed?
Is that a regular season champion?

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah? Regular season champion? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (28:20):
Western Conference regular season champion Oklahoma City Thunder. I don't
like the way it sounded as I thought about it.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
No, they're the one seed.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
The winner of this series gets that trophy as conference champions.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Yeah, nyah, I like that bet all right? The one seed.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
Uh, they're up to nothing on Minnesota Game three tonight
in Minnesota. They're a two and a half point favorite.
Steve pop quiz. What is their Thunders record against the
spread as a favorite in their last five games?

Speaker 1 (28:51):
I would say five games against the spread?

Speaker 2 (28:55):
Five and zero. They didn't They didn't cover the spread
in these last couple of games.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
I thought, I'm pretty sure I saw the tweet' about
to double check you.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
But in a second they won double They were more
than double digit favorites against the t Wolves.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Let me double check they were. Okay, No, that's what
I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
They didn't. They're oh and five. They didn't not cover.
They weren't.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
They were double digit favors and didn't cover.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
They didn't cover. What was the final scores that I see?
The problem was the games were getting such blowouts. In
Game one and two of the series, as the Thunder
were pulling away, I wasn't really paying.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
Attention to final scores. I'm not a gambler.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
So yeah, thunder, oh this was the key on the
road thunder as in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
And you ask the right question and five five that
makes sense, all right. So what you're saying is bet
your life savings on the t Wolves tonight. The dogs
are the tea Walls dogs at home and a half
point five.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
Al right, so there you go.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
I mean I could make my life savings back in
about an hour doing radio, So that's not it. And
that's not a reflection on the pay here.

Speaker 1 (29:59):
More of the By the way, are you going to
once again a reminder? We're coming to live from the
Fox Sports Radio studios and you can stream the show
all of our Fox Sports Radio shows live twenty four
to seven and the new and improved iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
Just search Fox Sports Radio and the app to stream
its live.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
And one of the newest features in the app is
he can select Fox Sports Radio is one of your presets,
just like the presets on a radio. Dob, be sure
to preset Fox Sports Radio in the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
You'll always see it pop up at the top of
your screen.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
All right, So you were accusing me accurately that I
like to poke the bear. Okay, just it's I'm an
antagonist by nature, Okay, So I like to do that.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
And when I feel like it's going to give.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
A spark, especially to someone as outspoken as you are, Martin,
I'm going to take full advantage of that.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
Speaking of poking the bear.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
With all this attention that Belichick has been getting with
his now young fiance, apparently it.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
Depends on who he asks.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
If you ask her, apparently apparently I saw they did
change the name of the boat.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
But the thing about it is this entire unfolding of
this relationship with Belichick and Jordan Hudson. To me, is
a guy that you talk about poking the bear. Belichick
is the old timer.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
You remember that video that came out of nowhere a
couple of years ago where he walked out of some
building shirtless.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Do you remember that? Sure? Remember that?

Speaker 4 (31:27):
It was like.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
Belichick, you know, you know, the walk of shame. Right,
This doesn't happen by accident. Belichick is the consummate individual
that loves to poke the bear. He loves to play
games of the media. Who knows what the real relationship
is going on between he and Jordan Hudson. Really I

(31:49):
could care less, but he makes it intriguing. So while
everyone keeps looking at her as some kind of instigator
at all, look at her, She's say, you know, gold digger,
whatever her motivation is to get the attention. I think
it's just the polar opposite. I think it's Belichick orchestrating
this entire charaye. Why he's doing it, I don't know.

(32:10):
I think he gets a laugh out of it. We
never see the guy smile, but behind closed doors, he
is laughing his ass right now that people are paying
so much attention to that. That is my take on
what's happening with Belichick and his girlfriend or fiance, if
she is.

Speaker 3 (32:25):
I just think that tracks in exact opposite of what
we have known from Bill Belichick in his public persona
over the last twenty years. Like everybody always said that
he was a jokester and always had fun, and you
actually meet Bill, he's got a lot of charisma. But like,
wasn't Bill's way of playing with the media just going

(32:45):
throwing to Cincinnati?

Speaker 2 (32:47):
Well, I mean that, yeah exactly.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
Wasn't his way of like putting fifty three players questionable
on an injury report like, was it that like this?
To me, honestly sounds like if I was in Belichick's family.
I let's just say it like this. I'm not in
Belick's family. I'm not going to pretend I am as
someone who observed Bill Belichick with a close eye of

(33:10):
the National Football League for the last twenty I say,
twenty years of my life from fifteen to now this,
I keep a pretty.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
Close hye on things.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
Bill Belichick has always been no distractions, do your job,
so on and so forth. If Bill Belichick is the
Patriots coach, was walking in to watch Bill Belichick the
North Carolina coach. If Bill Belichick three Super Bowls in,
saw Bill Belichick now in North Carolina, he'd be like, Bill,
what the hell has happened to you?

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Well, here's the reality of Bill Belichick.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
And maybe he grew up. Maybe maybe No, I'm not
saying you grew up, dude. I didn't mean grow up
in a way of like which, you know, like midlife,
quarter life crisis, whatever they call that. You know, maybe
this was his version of getting a motorcycle.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
Here is the fact of Belichick's record in the National
Football League as a head coach in the eleven years
that he coached in the NFL where Tom Brady was
not his quarterback. That would be his five years in Cleveland,
his first year in New England, the year that Brady
got hurt in the very first game, and then the

(34:15):
last four years in New England. In those eleven years
without Tom Brady as his quarterback, he won one playoff
game one and that was with Cleveland. So think about that,
without Tom Brady he won one playoff game in eleven years.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
It's hard to be Tom Brady quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
Do you believe that Belichick will actually coach at North Carolina?

Speaker 2 (34:44):
I do? I do? If not, then why, like I
should I put it like this?

Speaker 1 (34:50):
I remember there's a buyout on June first for one
million dollars. Now they would also have to pay off
all the assistance he hired because they're under contract as well.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
But the buyout goes June first to go where If I.

Speaker 3 (35:02):
Put it like this, if he doesn't coach North Carolina,
I think he doesn't.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Coach every Well, I'm not talking about him making the decision.
I'm talking about North Carolina saying you know what, this
is not what we signed up for.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
Well, May that very well, maybe that very well.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
It depends on how deep like without being Pablo Torre
and knowing the exact ins and outs of all the Hudson,
BELICHICKI and whatever, right, without just reading the reports as
they come out, which get weirder and weirder by the day.
I don't know if the weirdest one has come out yet,
So I am not going to plant my flag or
what North Carolina will do. I've always approached this situation

(35:37):
from the idea that North Carolina is at face value,
on board with everything that is going on now. If
that changes, then sure. But if Bill Belichick does not
coach in North Carolina this season, he'll never coach another
game again. I just don't The other side of the
conspiracy theory doesn't make enough sense to me. If you
told me that there was Matt NFL teams signing up

(35:58):
to the hire Bill Belichick, if each on me that
Brian Schottenheimer had was on the way out the door
instead of on the way in the door in Dallas
and Jerry was on the phone with Old Billy, I
have a different opinion about this.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
But the phone ain't ringing for Belichick. The only thing
ringing is the ring camera that was the camera that
caught him shortless Steve, the ring camera.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
Yeah, exactly, And that's just by accident, right, just just
by accident.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
That ring camera just happened to be there. And oh
how did that video actually get out? Okay, just remember that.
On the other side, we're going to talk about the.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
Biggest Major League Baseball story that nobody is talking about
except us.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
This is Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio, Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
Steve Harvey, Martin Weiss with you. We are live from the.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
Fox Sports Radio studios, coming out at about ooh how
and half Buffalo over an hour and a half Game
three Western Conference Finals t Wolves Home Dog against OKAC
Martin RRII told you bet the bank on the t.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
Wolves the piggy bank. Maybe the piggy bank.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
All right, So we learned earlier Martin about your infatuation
with the parody in the NBA. There's a lot of
parody in sports these days, almost across the board.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
MLB is certainly no exception.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
So if I were to, I'm gonna give you some
names for the people listening out there, and I'm gonna
ask you if any of these names register with you, okay.
I'm gonna give you four names, okay, and they happen
to be teammates. Do not jump in, Martin, because I
know you'll know the answer. But I'm just gonna throw
these out. Casey Mize, Rhys Olsen, Carrie Carpenter, Riley Green, anybody, anybody,

(38:01):
Riley Green, Carrie Carpenter, Reese Olsen, Casey Mice.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
I know what they all have in common.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
Well tell the world, because most people listening right now
have no clue who thosemates. You got to give people more,
I mean, come on, oh really.

Speaker 3 (38:23):
I mean Casey mis was number one overall pick in
the draft a few years back.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
People do not follow the MLB draft, You know that, right?

Speaker 3 (38:31):
All of these guys were all of them, I believe
were first round picks in the Major League Baseball.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
How many people follow the Major League Baseball.

Speaker 3 (38:39):
Well, I'm not saying they had to follow the Major
League Baseball draft, but if they followed the best team
in the American League at any point this season, they
would have knowledge of all three of them. And if
they followed the surprise darlings of last year after the
Midsummer Classic, you would have seen Reese Oulsen and Riley
Green and who else you say, Jimmy Mice and one.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
More, whould you say I have Riley Green, Carrie Carpenter,
carry Carpenter for Spencer Torkleson last year had blasting ball
since and mind you torkle since back.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
And now all of those people they should know who
Hovey Bay is is, who has somehow came back from
the dead for the best team in the American League.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
If they can only get rid of Jack Flaherty. Have
we not seen enough of Jack Flherty? He's sitting there
with a record of two and six on a team
with the best record in the American League. Just take
that two and six off the ledger. Imagine where they
would be right now. But in Casey Mice, seven games,
seven starts, six and one, that's where he is right
now with a two fifty three e r A. You're
right about Casey Mice. This is a guy that's going

(39:38):
to be a future star, just like you know Trek
Scooball sort of came out of nowhere for a lot
of people a year ago to win the American League
Triple Crown of Pitching.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yeah, who knows heard well?

Speaker 4 (39:49):
Now?

Speaker 2 (39:49):
They all know about him, but that'll that'll happen. So
scoop school ball, Schoobal School school School. Oh it's too balloo.
I've never heard of get Terrek School.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
Uh, all right, so I want it on the record
right now, Martin, are you are you now picking as
you mentioned, the team currently with the best record in
the America League coming off of sort of a breakout
season a year ago.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
Now are they going to be America? Start to see this.
We'd love to get your answer, but keep it here, don't.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
Listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio rolling along here on
another fully loaded Sports Saturday. This is Fox Sports Saturday,
and we are broadcasting live from the Fox Sports Radio
studios Smart bendin our NBA Insider's going to be joining
us coming up here in about twenty minutes. By the way,

(40:39):
I have now determined that shake Gilgess Alexander is the
smartest player in the NBA. I mean, you could say, oh,
he's MVP, might be the best player, You're obviously great
score everything else.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
No, no, no, no, he is.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
The smartest player in the league. And he proved that
this past February. What did he do this past February?
He fired his agent said, I don't need an agent.
I'll represent myself. And because of that and the fact
that he is now the league MVP, he has put

(41:20):
himself in line for the first ever five year, three
hundred and eighty million dollar contract, which, by the way,
let me break down the salaries for you, starting in
the twenty seven to twenty eight season, this would be
fully guaranteed money. By the way, that year, he'll make
sixty five point seven million. In the twenty eight twenty
nine season, he'll make seventy point nine million, In the

(41:43):
twenty nine thirty season, he'll make seventy six point two million,
and yes, in the thirty thirty one season, he'll be
the first player to make more than eighty million a
year eighty one point four million, and he will have
zero to you offer to his agent. I've never understood
why these guys are handling any percentage of these contracts

(42:06):
the agents, when basically these contracts right themselves.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
I think that they right themselves when you were at
the top of the.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
Market, right, I think means you don't need an agent.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
I think it rightes But think some of this the
no trade clause and so on, So when you're in
the top of the market. I agree with that, but
I think the problem is that more people think that
they're top of the market than actually are top of
the market. Like Shea just won an MVP, and it's like,
you know he was a well he.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
Fired him in February, so he wasn't guaranteed the MVP.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
He was on his way, but even in years past
to finished what second or third and MVP those second
last few years three years, so he was in the
in the conversation of this is one of the top
five players in the league.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
This is a rubber stamp deal.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
But if I'm if I'm anywhere guy from who ranks
like five to anywhere else in the NBA, I need
an agent, bro I need o man.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Look at some of it. No, no, no, no, no, Steve, look
at some of the deals with some of these guys.

Speaker 3 (43:03):
Get you think Bradley bil gets all that money in
the no trade clause. Bradley Beal's a smart guy. I
would say, Bradley Beal capol this look.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
I have been a friend of Lee Steinberg forever, so
long ago that Lee Steinberg when both my sons were
born back in the nineteen nineties, he sent me a
bottle of champagne for each of them, with a note saying,
justin case their future NFL quarterbacks. Okay, when he came
along and became the first real agent representing Steve Barkowski,

(43:34):
his Berkeley classmate back in nineteen seventy five, you needed
an agent.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
You had no leverage.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
There was no way that you could know as a
player to sit down across from a general manager or
an owner and negotiated deal. But basically, the way the
collective bargain agreement is, you already have the guidelines of
what you're entitled to make.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
It's already there in black and white. So yeah, you could.

Speaker 1 (43:58):
Talk about an SCA the top of the mountain, but
I would say most of these players really do not
need In Asia. Now, he will retain someone that will
handle off court stuff, you know, commercial stuff like that.
That's a whole different thing. It's like a manager, you know,
that's sort of traditional exactly, and basically you don't need
an agent to negotiate it. You might have a friend

(44:20):
that's an attorney sort of look over the contract, you know,
some of the terminology.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
The SGA probably don't have much to actly negotiate but
I think if you again, like if I'm a Devin
Booker type, like like, that's the thing about the NBA,
the way the CBA is, You're right, like it's all
slated on salary and how much you can.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
And if you make an All NBA team and everything else,
then you're escalators.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
And so on and so forth.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
But the thing that I think, and I honestly will
be interesting to see what happens with this, because I
think that Luca Dochets got traded for the most simple
reason of the Mavericks and not want to pay him
nearly a million dollars a game. Evan Mobley winning the
Defensive Player of the Year just put the Cleveland Cavaliers
in a potential world of hurt because now that he's

(45:08):
eligible for much more than he would have been had
he not won that award. And he won that award
because Victor Winn Benyama got hurt, right, So he's not
like he's exactly exactly. Now, does that mean he's a
bad defender, of course not. But do you want to
pay a guy who might be the second or third

(45:28):
or fourth defender in the league on a yearly basis
the money that he would if he was the best
defender in the league every year, because that money's the same.
So when you get to these spots, like in the postseason,
a lot of the times, look at some of these
teams in their contracts, it's a lot of times how
the books are balanced, Tyrese, Haliburton, Miles Turner. They're signed

(45:49):
up for long term deals. Jalen Brunson took less money
than he could have than Nicks had flexibility to bring
in Bridges and town like you know what I'm saying,
Like some of that matters in that So I think
an agent actually does in a different way than it
does at football.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
I love how you mentioned the fact that it's really
how you structure the contracts. One of the reasons that
the San Antonio Spurs under Popovich had such sustain success
over like twenty years is that when you look at
the breakdown of the salaries they were paying, you know,
to Tim Duncan and Jenobilee and Tony Parker and then

(46:24):
the rest of the team, everything look right like He's like, okay,
that makes sense. That may there was no salary, like
you're really paying that guy that much. Like that kind
of thing, because almost every team does that. I'll tell
you a team that really has structured things very well
right now to keep an eye on is the team
currently sitting in the Western Conference Finals, the Minnesota Timberwolves.

(46:44):
So they got this Rudy Gobert contract, but he's actually
making eight million less next year, so it's not an
escalating salary.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
It's actually going down.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
So over the next three years they basically have control
over go bit at a lower price tag. Obviously, they
got Anthony Edwards all set for the next four or
five years. Jana McDaniels has got his money set, and
then you have to make decisions on like a Julius Randall.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
I mean, by the way, what happened in that with
that game.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
But to the to your point, the Timberwolves, and we've
seen some other teams make good moves, and I didn't
gloss over what happened there, but they were going to
owe a ton of money to calling Anthony Towns right
trade him for Julius Randall expired track that they had
traded just prior for that big as Rudy Gobert contract.

(47:34):
And now to your point that that contract de escalating
right to Julius Randall if he plays, well, he'll have
to have another half like he did, you know, maybe
a game like he had in the first half of
Game one. If he can continue that throughout the you
know Ford, I say, restart that in games three through however,

(47:55):
the long list series goes, and maybe you want to
bring him back on a deal that's a little bit
more than you would even he would, you know what
I mean, you could pay them a little bit more
because of the fact you were gonna cat that much.
You move on, and then you get go bear same
way the Pacers traded for Haliburton. They traded for these
guys who were all long term deals and then brought
them in.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Here's the insidious thing that's very frustrating. So you get
all this money, right with the new cbay all this
money for all the teams, and then all of a sudden,
some teams don't even know how to spend that money.
And then all of a sudden you're almost forced to
have to spend money and hand money to players that
are getting way overpaid, way overpaid. And you know, good

(48:39):
for them, you know, I mean, who wants to not
be way overpaid?

Speaker 2 (48:42):
Right?

Speaker 1 (48:42):
Anyone would sign up for that deal. But it does
then potentially put you into predicament down the road. I mean,
just again, reminder, team that had the highest payroll in
the NBA this year did not even make the playing round,
and that would be the Phoenix Suns.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
Steve, before we go to break, I have a question
talked to him. Aaron Judge hit his eighteenth home run today. Yes,
in the first ning. Yeah, he's having a judging in
type season.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
He's right on the cusp of four hundred.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
The Colorado Rockies have nine wins. There are nine and
forty three, So.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
It means if you just bet on nine and forty three. Yes, yeah,
If you bet.

Speaker 3 (49:22):
On Aaron Judge to hit a home run every day
and you bet on the Colorado Rockies to win every day,
you've still lost money regardless. Yeah, but you've lost way
less betting on Aaron Judge.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
As this season progresses for the Colorado Rockies. Did you,
by the way, hear about the fan that sued the Rockies. Yes,
so he gets hit in the face with a ball,
so he wasn't paying attention, and he blamed the fact
that the team is so bad that it's hard to watch.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
So if you're at the game, you're.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
Really not watching because the home team's so bad and
that is why he got hit in the face with
a foul ball. He is literally suing the rock Yes
for being bad.

Speaker 3 (50:01):
I think and Discovery that have to find out who
was at bat, because if it was, if it was
the opposing team at bat, you better wake up. The
ball jumped out thirteen times, I mean, Aaron Judge hit
the first one out. But I wonder who will have
more by the end of the year. Will there be
more Aaron Judge home runs easy or Colorado Rocky wins.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
Oh, it's not even going to be close.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
You figure that Aaron Judge is probably going to hit
somewhere in the fifty range. We'll say, I mean, I'm
just low balling, but they, let's say somewhere between fifty
and sixty home runs. Right now, the Rockies are on
pace to lose one hundred and thirty five games. That
would be thirty twenty seven wins. So look, it's not
even close. I mean the idea, first of all, let's

(50:44):
say they give win fifty games. That's fifty and one
hundred and twelve. They're gonna have to get y up
to get to fifty wins.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
This year, witn have to get right wits Last year, right,
the White Sox were the team that.

Speaker 1 (50:54):
We all for forty.

Speaker 3 (50:57):
One wins, right, right, and the year before was as
I just had it, you know, but uh, you know,
just these terrible, terrible teams that you know, just are
you know, the laughing Stocks the as the year before
the Age won fifty games.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
You can bet the bank that Aaron Judge will have
more home runs than the Rockies will have wins this year.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
That's not even gonna be close. Okay, not even close.
I think we should keep I think I have you
keep an eye.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
I don't think honestly, at no point, I mean, right now,
the difference is nine.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
Right, yeah, he's got a nine.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
He's got a nine once that difference because we're still
in May. Okay, but let's say let's say by July
he has at least a ten ten lead. All right,
let's say he's got okay, you know, thirty five home
runs to twenty five wins or something like that.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Right, at no point will they get within ten, No.

Speaker 3 (51:50):
Chance, At no point when they get within.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
Ten once once we get past July first, at no point, well,
the Rockies win total get within ten of how how
many home runs Aaron Judge has for the rest of
the year.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Oh, we gotta keep tracking. This is gonna be fun.
I like that. All right?

Speaker 1 (52:05):
You turned up On the other side, We get ready
for Western Conference Finals Game three tonight, Game three between
the Pacers and Knicks tomorrow on the Eastern Conference. Mark Medina,
our NBA insider, will join us. This is Fox Sports Saturday.
Fox Sports Saturday. Steve Hart and Martin Weiss with you
once again, live from the Fox Sports Radio studios for the.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
Best pregame show every weekend.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
Be sure to tune into Fox Sports Radio's Countdown, presented
by bet MGM, every Saturday and Sunday morning from nine
am to noon Eastern six to nine am Pacific. We're
gonna caunt you down to all the biggest games, no
better plays to prime you for the playoff games we
got going on right now. Tune into Countdown, presented by
bet MGM, every Saturday and Sunday morning right here on

(52:52):
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. All right, we
are a little more than an hour away tip off
Game three of the Western Conference Finals between the te
Wolves and the Thunder And of course tomorrow Knicks Pacers
Game three with the Pacers up two to oh after
two wins at the Guard and join us right now
our NBA insider Mark Medina. So let's start with what

(53:13):
is happening in the East right now. I can only
say that I would guess the majority of people in
the NBA office are praying for a miracle comeback from
the Knicks in this series. The idea of Indiana versus
OKC or Minnesota in the smaller markets is not exactly
a dream matchup. I would imagine for the NBA, they
need the Knicks. Can the Knicks come back? I know

(53:36):
it's only what sixteams ever in conference finals who have
lost the first two games have actually come back to
win it. I don't know if any have lost the
first two on the road or at home and come
back to win it. But what do you think the
Knicks chance is, if any, to come back in the
series against the Pacers.

Speaker 7 (53:52):
Well, Steve, I think it's zero because there have been
exactly zero teams that have come back down to when
it's losing their first two games at home. They're going
to be competitive, the Knicks are going to be resilient,
They're going to be scrappy. But I think what we've
seen here against the Pacers is a they don't have
the same kind of depth. The Pacers have an eleven

(54:13):
ten manter rotation. The Knicks have starting lineup and maybe
six or seven, you know, two bench players. SA's number one,
number two. Even though the Knicks starting lineup is better,
Karl Anthon Towns hasn't been consistent. It's really just been
Jalen Brunson, and then when you look at the Pacers,
it's been Tyreez Talburn being a great playmaker and clutch score,

(54:34):
Pascal Siakam being a great complimentary star, and then you
know guys like er Andrew neth Some hitting open shots.
So it's been a tough combination. But to the earlier
point that you made or right on the money, it's
out of conspiracy theory. The NBA says it once parody,
but they also like when big market teams do well,

(54:54):
and the Knicks haven't been to the finals of the nineties,
so they would definitely love for that to happen again.
But I don't think they'll go mark.

Speaker 3 (55:01):
Should the league even bother playing the remainder of the playoffs,
seeing as the only big market team left is New York.
I mean, I just I'm old enough to remember when
the epicenter of the NBA universe was Cleveland, Ohio, and
San Francisco, California. San Francisco obviously much bigger, but Cleveland,
you know, that's exactly where everybody's going to vacation and

(55:22):
can't wait to sign.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
Up to be should they even keep playing?

Speaker 4 (55:26):
Or or or is it?

Speaker 3 (55:28):
Honestly, and almost in my opinion, in the NBA's better
interest to have these electric personalities like Tyrese Halibert and
Anthony Edwards, Shake Gildensanleson are not so much, but those
two in particular in these markets that are not necessarily
deemed to be NBA hotbeds.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
And then you still have teams. Are still have the Lakers.

Speaker 3 (55:48):
And the Knicks in the conversation at.

Speaker 7 (55:50):
Least, Yeah, I think it's more of the latter. I mean,
even though I was saying to my earlier point that
internally the NBA would definitely love the next to be
in the finals because they're market teams, their legacy franchise.
You know, Adam Silver, not only with rhetoric but with
actions with the CBA. He wants there to be parody
and competition between large and small markets. I think it's

(56:13):
just a matter of like finding the sweet spot that
you want to have a league where there's good competition,
anyone has a chance. There's not always a runaway favor,
but you do have those sustained dynasties, you do have
those enduring superstars. And that's what's really challenging here, because
it's not just because of better competition increased parody. To

(56:37):
explain why there hasn't been a repeat champion since the
Golden State Warriors in twenty seventeen twenty eighteen, it's because
these second apron and stringent spending restrictions have potentially been
attaxed for teams and a bailout for ownership that even
if they want to spend money, they don't go past

(56:58):
it because it inhibits their ross building. So the last
few years you've seen teams make decisions that aren't great
basketball decisions, but it helps them fall under the second Apron.
It's made them made it more challenging to retain free agents,
increase pressure for them to really do well in the draft.

(57:18):
And I think if that's all fine, but the margin
for error is so slim, So maybe they fine tune
a little bit. They always are in discussions with the
players Union and the Competition Committee about it, but right
now it's setting up teams to have a very low
margin for air and if they win, you know, they
don't have a lot of runaway to be able to

(57:39):
repeat it now.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
But Mark, I hear that, and maybe repeat in the.

Speaker 3 (57:43):
Grand sense of win a championship, But I think of
when I hear this seven championships in the last seven years,
there's been one constant player in the final four for
those seven years, and you know they all held ten prior.
The Boston Celtics is the I feel like the Boston
Celtics inability to get over the hump in the Eastern
Conference is part of the reason why.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
We have this parody.

Speaker 3 (58:06):
And I feel like maybe it's because Jason Tatum towards
acl and towards Achilles and people thought they would be
back in this spot right now. But like the last
eight years of the Boston Celtics is why we have
seven championships in seven different years.

Speaker 7 (58:19):
That definitely explains part of the story. And I'll give
you credit here. I mean with the Celtics specifically, yes, there.
They did not make it past the Eastern Conference finals,
partly because Lebron James was in the East. Now when
he went west, they had an opportunity, but the Jalen
Brown and Jason Tatum were still too young to figure
out their dynamics. They finally went over the hump. But

(58:41):
to the earlier point that you made, that the Jason
Tatum injury, and that should be excuse. I'm with you
one hundred Yes, that's a game changer, but they were
down two oh before that injury happened against the Knicks,
and so the Celtics haven't faced that challenge yet. As
far as the second Apron concerns, second Apron concerns are

(59:04):
because they had their core in their prime under contract here.
But this summer they're going to start having to make
decisions that aren't in their best interest. Basso wise, I
think carssps things is going to get trauded. I think
Drew Holliday is going to get traded.

Speaker 4 (59:18):
Now.

Speaker 7 (59:18):
Partly you know that is because they fell short in
the playoffs, but even if they went to the finals
as were expected, they would still do that because their
current payroll is just untenable at this point.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
All right, So.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
We Martin and I were talking about this, we're on
opposite sides when we talk about the identity sort of
the face of the NBA right now, Still the biggest
names are Lebron's Steph and to me a lessers to
extent Kevin Durant only because he keeps changing teams constantly
sort of hurts his identity. But still Lebron in step

(59:53):
both made by the Way second team All NBA, so
they still have game, and they're still the by far,
the two most recognizable faces in the NBA. And it
seems like not only have we had a revolving door
of NBA champions over the last seven years, it's like
a revolving door of who's the next face of the NBA.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
You know, is it gonna be honest? Is it going
to be the Joker?

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
Is it going to be Shay Gildess Alexander, Is it
gonna be ant Is? You know, every single year we
seem to have the next it guy. So look into
your crystal ball right now, Mark and tell us five
years from now, you know when Shay Gildas Alexander is
going to be making eighty million a year. Look at
your crystal ball five years from now, who is going

(01:00:36):
to be the face of the NBA From a player standpoint,
who will be the face of this league?

Speaker 7 (01:00:42):
I think it's going to be Uh, let's see. I
think it's gonna be a co head role between Shay
Gildas Alexander because of his MVP play, he's gonna be
winning championships, and also Jalen Brunson because he's a star player.
He plays on a high, big market team with the Knicks.
I don't know where his championship fortunes are going to be,

(01:01:04):
but he represents everything you want to start player, clutch player,
very competitive in a big market.

Speaker 6 (01:01:10):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (01:01:11):
You know, he makes his teammates better. What we've seen
with this young core, there's a lot of good cameos,
a lot of good options to make a really fun show,
but there isn't that leading actor that can take the mantle.
So when you're looking at guys like Nikola Jokic, Victor
Weinbin Yamo Luka, doctor Jannis Kumpo, we go down the

(01:01:33):
line with Anthony Edward, Jason Tatum, They're all great guys,
but I don't look at any of them as faces
in the league. And even with Shay and Jalen Brunson,
I think you know that none of them can handle
the sole role with that, so maybe it's just back
and forth. At this point in time, I think the
honor goes to them.

Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
I want to ask to Tyree Halliburton, who I think
most people, all.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
Right, the most overrated things.

Speaker 3 (01:02:00):
He's got a lot of play, but when you count down,
like your top I don't know seven NBA players or
eight NBA player.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
You know what I mean, it's like he's kind of
not in that list, but he probably not.

Speaker 3 (01:02:09):
The worst player in the league, which is a lot
what most overrated sounds like to a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
But where he's.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
Having a run right now this postseason that I think
that if you can continue this type of run, where
do you think he'll fall in the hierarchy of.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
You know, the young the NBA stars with no gray hair.

Speaker 7 (01:02:28):
Club, Yeah, the players that aren't watched so to speak, right,
I think that he would be probably the second best
point guard in the NBA and top six overall in
the league. He's already the best passing point guard in
the NBA. He has taken his game to another level
as far as a clutch performer. He's never going to

(01:02:50):
be seen as the top score in the NBA, and
that's okay only because he thinks passed first. He wants
to have good offensive depths. But one of the things
is that he has shown some struggles with then lately.
Some growth is how to be aggressive consistently, and I
think that's part of the reason why he was getting
that overrated attack from some of the players that he

(01:03:12):
wasn't always scoring a high level. I think there also
may have been some professional jealousy that he's on the Olympics,
but then they exactly play. But we have to keep
in mind that, you know, the Olympics, it's a whole
roster hall fame players. There's always going to be one
or two guys that fall out. I think the other
thing is that even though he's a great player, people

(01:03:33):
around him have to consistently push him to be aggressive
all the time. I was talking with his trainer, Drew
Hanlin a few weeks ago now is very telling that
Game seven last year against the Knicks. He was texting
asking him, hey, like, how many words of wisdom or
things to motivate man. Drew's response was, if you need
me to motivate you on a Game seven at the garden,

(01:03:53):
there's something wrong with you, but I'll give you some
gems here. So he's always in his ear. You got
to be consistently aggressive because some times the most felfish
thing you can do is to be unselfish with thinking
past first too much. But I think he's round a
core in these playoffs and it's not about scoring, but
he's going to be more consistent with his aggressiveness moving forward.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
All right, final word? Is it all said?

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
Is it going to be okase against the Pacers? Is
that what we're looking at for the NBA Finals.

Speaker 7 (01:04:21):
I think that's what it's going to be. But I
think the Knicks pacer seater, it's so going to be competitive,
it's just going to be over in five or six games.
I think a Thunder Wolve series it's either going to
be a sweep or five games, but the games won't
be as closed. I mean, that's how much separation the
Thunder have with the Wolves and Steve. If you don't
mind me fitting in here, I was just doing CBS

(01:04:43):
a Jim Hill he passes along his regards and he
was talking about how amazing off a memory you have
with every single thing so much that he said that
the elephants come to you when they forgot that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
Well, thank you, Jim for the very kind words and
the fact that you're sitting in that seat that I sat.
Can you imagine for twelve straight years, me and Jim Hill,
twelve straight years every Saturday Insider, way back in the day,
doing a great job. As always, Mark, we appreciate the time.
We'll talk to you next week.

Speaker 7 (01:05:16):
I appreciate you guys with that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:18):
That is a Mark Madina r NBA Insider. All right,
good stuff there as we get ready. But in the meantime,
let's find out what's trending right now. Let's welcome in
Martin Weiss to give us an update on everything in
the world of sports.

Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
Do you know, Steve, you're the guy who's been doing
this for Like you said, you had twelve straight years
of working with Jim Hill. I've barely had twelve straight
years of a career. But I'm going to sound like
the old man right now.

Speaker 1 (01:05:45):
You have thirty years from now you'll be having a
very similar conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:05:49):
Believe men, Well, thirty years from now, I'll still have
this same take. These some of these shitty connect jerseys
are so just a bombing nation. Yes, it's just disgusting.
Like I'm looking at the Arizona Diamondbacks where the Dodgers
gotta be.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
Right now, it's the New York Mets wearing purple. They're awful.
The Mets wear like, what are we?

Speaker 5 (01:06:10):
Like?

Speaker 3 (01:06:10):
What are we doing? All of this is made up?
Do people understand that that all of this is made up?
The idea that the Dodgers is a nickname or the
Mets is a nickname. It's all made up. It's all
fun and games. When you start taking on it too much,
it all could fall apart. I don't like it, Steve,
it makes me uncomfortable.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
Well, it's a similar when they paint the courts during
the so called embry A Cup and it's unwatchable on television.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
Like, what, buddy, do you do? What makes a pacer
yellow and blue?

Speaker 3 (01:06:36):
Because forty fifty years ago somebody decided we're going to
make the pacers yellow and blue.

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
Stick with it, just stick with it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
I can't even tell who was playing on this is,
you know, the big inning screen watching four games at
a time.

Speaker 2 (01:06:48):
Who the hell is that?

Speaker 3 (01:06:50):
Anyway, Dodgers and the Mets game on Fox. Scoreless right
now on top of the first top of the second
inning with the Mets wearing just terrible jersey, the a
little alone team named the Tigers. Top of the Als.
You know, Steve's never heard of most of them. Bottom
of the first inning for them, they have won nothing
lead over the Guardians with the bases loaded, Matt Veeling,

(01:07:12):
Oh never mind, he bases loaded. Tigers threatened, but do
not add to their lead. To paraphrase Dan Dickerson, three
nothing Rays over Blue Jay's top of the second inning
and the top of the fifth inning. Game two of
doublehead between the Oils and the Red Sox scoreless there.
Boston walked off Baltimore earlier today in a comfortable behind
win in ten innings six to five. Twins beat the

(01:07:35):
Royals five to four, Cardinals over the Diamondbacks six to five,
Pirates two to one over the Brewers, Nationals blank the
Giants three to nothing, Reds six to four over the Cubs,
and the Braves beat the Padre seven to one. White
Sox got a rare win ten to five. They beat
the Rangers, seventeenth win on the year. Yankees thirteen, Rockies one,

(01:07:56):
Aaron Judge. We talked about it earlier. Eighteen home runs
for Aaron Judge, nine wins for the Rockies. It is
a race to see who gets more me and Steve Harman.
I'm on the Rockies.

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
No, no, I know it won't even be close.

Speaker 1 (01:08:11):
I tell you, whatever the margin the difference is on
July first, which I anticipate will more. He said to
be more than ten. It will be more than ten. Okay,
it's nine now, so it'll be more than ten. And
it will never get closer than that. I guarantee you
by seasons and Aaron Judge will have at least ten
more home runs than the Rockies will have.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
Victim. We're really see. I'm not saying that you're wrong.
I'm not even saying it's a hot take. I'll just
ask the question. I'm fascinating last.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
Year he had seventeen more home runs than the White
Sox had wins seventeen.

Speaker 3 (01:08:45):
Okay, And I will say this, I have seen the
Rockies play not a single ending of baseball all year.

Speaker 1 (01:08:50):
They are as bad as their record indicates, and by
the way, firing Bud Black was not the answer to
change their fortunes. By the way, coming to you live
from the Fox Sports Radio studios here on Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 2 (01:09:01):
Don't forget after the show.

Speaker 1 (01:09:02):
The podcast is going up, So if you miss any
of today's show, check out the podcast. Just search Fox
Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts, and follow review
the podcast, give it a big five star rating, and
then just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts,
and you see today's show posted right after we get
off the air.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
I love your rant about these uniforms.

Speaker 1 (01:09:22):
You know what's interesting about generations and how you're perceived
when you're critical. Okay, so someone in your age bracket, Martin,
when you're critical, you're touring, you're sir, deemed as edgy edgy?

Speaker 2 (01:09:36):
Is that so edgy? Edgy?

Speaker 1 (01:09:38):
When you're in my stage of life and your critical bitter,
it's bitter. So it's like you're like edgy, And if
I make the same criticism, it's like, ah that old
guys just bitter.

Speaker 3 (01:09:53):
You know, it's funny because I'm transitioning to that stage
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:09:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:09:58):
Watching Game two of this Western Conference Finals, Shake Gilders,
Alexander did something in the RAF.

Speaker 1 (01:10:04):
First of all, he was handed an MVP Trophy, which
automatically gives him MB MVP status according to the officials.

Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
Right, well, apparently so.

Speaker 3 (01:10:14):
But there was the one play in particular, down the
stretch of a game that was it was, it wasn't
even in question anymore, and they were just playing out
the string. Yeah, and Shake gets fouled and he turns
he thinks he gets fouled and turns to the No. No,
he commits a foul and turns to the ref and
has the nerve to complain.

Speaker 2 (01:10:33):
And I've sent it.

Speaker 3 (01:10:34):
In a group text and I was like, Shake, Guilds, Alexander,
the only thing he should ever do is tell the
refs thank you very much for the trophy. I was
being facetious, but the point remains he have a little
self awareness here and that I get that you're drawing
all these fouls, but those don't like. You don't get
to complaint when a foul gets called on you. You
don't get ain't no fun when the Rabbits got the gun.

Speaker 4 (01:10:56):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
Irvan Magic Johnson, Irv as I ever heard him over
the years, one of my all time favorite basketball players. Right,
he would drive the lane. It'd be like the party
in the red seat.

Speaker 1 (01:11:11):
Everyone get out of his way lay it in boom,
they blow a whistle, or if they didn't blow a whistle,
he immediately would be screaming at the official, basically saying
without so much as saying it, you know who I am, right,
So when I drive to the lane, there has to
be a whistle, even if no one is touching me
or breathing anywhere near me. It's part of the thing.

(01:11:33):
I've got to be able to go to the line
plus one. So this is this is as old as
the NBA in the idea that the best players always
get preferential treating. May I say this is what I
Once you get to MVP level, you get that.

Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
This is what I deem to be.

Speaker 3 (01:11:49):
The difference between because I've seen the conversations.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
Kobe used to do the same thing hard did. He
used to do the same thing.

Speaker 3 (01:11:56):
The difference that people will say that James Brunson is
doing it right now, what SJA is doing to manipulate
the officials. But the difference to me is those guys
had a baseline level of I am trying to land
on my feet more often than not, I'm trying to
land square on my feet, and like you, strength to.

Speaker 2 (01:12:15):
Muscle through defenders.

Speaker 3 (01:12:17):
Shay gilis how Alexander receives the contact and does none
of the rest of it. Like he has the contact
and he goes like, sure, did he fall did he
did he get pushed? But it was no. It feels
like there is no effort on his part to like
not get pushed, right, and to me, whether the sports
should sports should work the offensive players should be trying

(01:12:39):
to attempt a shot, like if you just fall down,
then you know, get up, buddy, that's not a foul
to me.

Speaker 1 (01:12:47):
Whoever came up with the concept, I guess it was
Naysmith since he invented the game of fouls in the NBA.
Well as we know with Tim Donaghye, you can get
away with manipulating fouls for your own financial benefit and
no one even knows about it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:05):
I mean sure, well, I mean I don't think that's
happening currently. There's a lot of eyes on it, especially
with all the legal books.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
We say this every single year we watch every single game.
You have to admit they've allowed far more physical play
in these NBA playoffs than we've seen in the last
few years.

Speaker 3 (01:13:21):
Yeah, except for when Ja has the bull. Okay, but
for you know, everybody else is saying.

Speaker 1 (01:13:26):
All right, coming up on the other side of sports,
we have not talked about today at all. No, that's
not true. We have talked about this sport. But I'm
gonna give you Martin an over under, over under. I
want the tape rolling on this because I'm going to
hold you accountable and over under related to a major sport.

Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
This is Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 1 (01:13:54):
Steve Harvey, Martin Wise, Fox Sports Saturday Live from the
Fox Sports Radio. Want to thank our crew today, the
man doing updates today, Martin Weiss. You're a It's like
an echo chamber, Martin Weiss.

Speaker 2 (01:14:11):
Martin Weiss, that is.

Speaker 3 (01:14:12):
The echo Martin Weiss, Johnny two times, two times.

Speaker 1 (01:14:16):
Gracing ourselves here with the brilliance of the man pushing
all the buttons.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
Today, Alex is back in the house. Alex. We've actually
we see more of you recently, which is rare because
you know, you used to slum on weekends for many,
many years before you moved up into the big time.
That's true.

Speaker 3 (01:14:35):
Actually, yeah, that'd me doing six days Steve. Wow, poof,
I sound like a Martin schedule.

Speaker 2 (01:14:41):
Yeah, Well, I mean there's certain people they can't do without.
I don't recommend it though, m hm. And then Ian
is our young, brilliant producer. I say young. He's chronologically young,
but he's old on experience. Now do you feel like
this job is aging you at all? Yeah? Yeah, I'd
say I gain about a year every shift, I think so.

Speaker 1 (01:15:03):
Right, it's like dog ears, right, and you know once
you dog ears is a good way of putting it. Yeah,
something along those lines. All right, I want to do
a little over under with you Martin here. So the
NFL NFL, you know, we always as soon as they
announced the schedules and everything else, and all of a
sudden the over underlines get out, people get the early

(01:15:23):
bets in. And at the top of the list, four
teams listed at eleven and a half wins, all expected
Bill's Eagles Chiefs Ravens no real argument. There two teams
at ten and a half lions of course coming off
their big year. And then there's a team that was
six and eleven last year and they're over under is

(01:15:43):
ten and a half wins. That would be the San
Francisco forty nine ers who just inked the huge deal
obviously with brock Purty. So I'm going to give you
that over under forty nine ers who are touted to
have the easiest schedule in the history of the National
Football League for the upcoming season and hoping for paper
on paper. Yes, so right now, if you are a

(01:16:06):
betting man, I am Steve. I am a bet You're
about to take a huge gamble in life. That's what
life's all about. It's about gambles. Got to take some
chances at some points. Forty nine ers over under ten
and a half wins in the twenty twenty five season.

Speaker 3 (01:16:23):
To borrow a phrase from Mike francessa under under under okay,
and the reason being, well, Sao, there's the thing they
can make. The playoffs would not go nine and seven.
I don't think the NFC West is going to be
a murderer's row. When I look at it, I think
you're you are a one bad hit in Los Angeles
away from the Rams being like just out of the

(01:16:46):
picture entirely. With Matthew Stafford, who's one of the few
professional athletes older than me still profess playing professionally right.

Speaker 2 (01:16:54):
Now, Remember when you idolized him when he was the
quarterback of the hapless Detroit Lions.

Speaker 3 (01:16:58):
I never once did that, sir, But I did say
he's a lot better than you.

Speaker 2 (01:17:02):
Guys should give no credit for well, he's got one
of the great throwing armis in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:17:05):
No one argues that tough as nails too.

Speaker 2 (01:17:07):
So when I say that, I don't mean to disparage.

Speaker 3 (01:17:09):
I just mean literally the reality of the fact that
the man is closer to forty.

Speaker 1 (01:17:13):
How many of those offensive linemen that he played with
in Detroit are going to be headed to Canton, Ohio someday.

Speaker 2 (01:17:19):
Few few, maybe on a road trip.

Speaker 3 (01:17:22):
I expect the Arizona Cardinals to be better, but I've
expected the Arizona Cardinals to be better the last two
seasons and it hasn't happened. And Mike McDonald's year two
of that, let's see how that goes. Like to me,
the NFC West has a lot of question marks and
Shanahan probably the best coach from Shanahan or McVay, how
how you feel about it. But to get to nine

(01:17:42):
wins and be competing in this division makes a ton
of sense. I'm going under ten and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
Well, I'm with you.

Speaker 1 (01:17:47):
The reason I asked that I was on a show
where one of the Hosts is a die hard forty
nine er fan, die hard and just completely dismissed this
six and eleven season as a complete aberration, asisting the
Brock Party still is an MVP candidate at that Christian McCaffrey,
despite all his injuries, it's going to be healthy for
seventeen games, and reminding me they have the best tight

(01:18:09):
end in the league in George Kittle, and that Ayuka's back,
and that he of course was the favorite target of
Rock Party a couple of years ago. On that, I go,
that's all great stuff, but let's just start with Christian McCaffrey.
I think we can all agree that saying that Christian
McCaffrey is going to be healthy for seventeen games. I
hope he is because I love watching him play, but
he's not, That changes the whole dynamic of that offense completely.

Speaker 2 (01:18:33):
Well, it changes the dynamic.

Speaker 3 (01:18:35):
I would hope that you don't necessarily have an answer
for Christian McCaffrey being gone, but I would hope that
at this point San Francisco has a temporary band aid
you could put over the bullet wound of Christian McCaffrey
being going, because as soon as he left that was over.
You know you stee, I'm just looking at these over
unders real quick, I tell you eleven and like you're

(01:18:57):
looking at the Ravens, the Bills, both of those double
digit win totals. That chieves double digit win totals, it's
a good thing the NFL Isn't the NBA Baltimore, Buffalo,
Kansas City cancel it?

Speaker 2 (01:19:09):
If that's the last three, two of the best three
teams in the conference. Line you're bitter.

Speaker 1 (01:19:13):
Let me okay, Chargers, Rams both over Runner nine and
a half.

Speaker 2 (01:19:17):
Which team will have more wins this year? Chargers or Rams? Rams?

Speaker 3 (01:19:21):
Chargers are a tough division. I think you're looking at
a Rams. I think the Rams and forty nine Ers
and the Cardinals.

Speaker 2 (01:19:27):
You say the Chargers take a step back from a year.

Speaker 3 (01:19:29):
Ago, I do.

Speaker 2 (01:19:31):
I do.

Speaker 1 (01:19:32):
I think the Broncos, theyd But you know what they did.
They won every game they were supposed to win. You
have to they improve their running back position, right. I
think there are a much better team than they were
two years ago. But I think, to me, the ceiling
is lower than the floor is high. Like they will
win some games they're supposed to. But I think when
you look at it and improved Denver team. That's what

(01:19:52):
the team I expect to kind of really kind of turn.
The corner of the Raiders is going to be better.
That's going to be another thing you got to account for.
I would say the one team if I were betting that,
I would stay away from the Commanders.

Speaker 2 (01:20:06):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:20:07):
Usually when a team has a completely unexpected breakout season,
they'll take a step back, and I think before they
take a step forward, and I think step back could
be still playoffs, right, but NFC Championship is hard not
to all Right, we got a lot more coming up.
Don't go anywhere, Keep it here on Fox Sports Radio.

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