The Big Lead with Jason McIntyre: 06/02/2018

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Good morning America. I
am your fearless leader, Jason McIntyre here, coming to you
live from the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios. Fifteen minutes
could save you fift cent or more on car insurance.
Visit Geico dot com for a free rate quote. WHOA

(00:25):
got an NBA Hall of Famer on the show today? Oh? Boys,
strap in, ladies and gentlemen. I'm feeling it. I am.
I feel like I'm in the zone, and not a
net like j R. Smith zone, which is kind of like,
what's going on? What am I supposed to do? Uh?
We are gonna be on Brian Coangelo watch today. Uh,

(00:45):
the seventies sixers president expected to get fired. I can't
wait till we talk about that story later in the show. Um,
what a buffoon, you know. I mean, that story is fantastic.
It was just a great week for weird NBA stories. Yeah,
Brian Cohan is low j R. Smith. Uh, we're gonna
talk about j R. Smith just so you know. I
covered him in high school and I nearly wrote a

(01:08):
book on him. I was in with his family. I
know him well. I'll tell some stories from that time
and Uh, in a way, I feel bad for him,
But I'll get into that later. But what I really
want to talk to you guys about today, this is
a big picture story. You know, we often talk on
this show about seeing the forest through the trees. Yes,
we're gonna talk about j R. Smith. Yes, we're gonna

(01:29):
talk about that referee block charge call. Yeah, we're gonna
talk about how bad Kevin Durant was in Game one. Yes, yes,
I see you all over my Twitter. So Jason, who's
better Durant or Lebron. We're gonna get to all that stuff.
But big picture, one thing happened in Game one of
the Finals near the end, and I was shocked at

(01:50):
nobody talked about it yesterday on radio or TV. It
was kind of glossed over. Um, and that's Lebron James
and what happened with him and Steph Curry near the
end of the game. If you saw that and you
watch it, and I put it on my Instagram page,
if you guys want to go check it out. I
watched it at least fifty times. It was a weird

(02:10):
encounter and it speaks volumes about why Lebron is definitely
leaving Cleveland one month from now, and you can't blame him,
not even the people of Cleveland can blame him. All
his fans. When he leaves, you can look at that
Curry moment that happened at the end of the game
and say, ah, I got it, Yes, I understand now.

(02:33):
So I'll set the scene for you. The Warriors are
up eleven and overtime. The game is over, right, there's
forty seconds left, and Steph Curry drives in for a layoup.
Lebron as he is want to do sores out of
nowhere and just swatch the shot against the backboard. Uh,
and the Calves go down up court. But there's thirty

(02:53):
five seconds left. The game is over, okay, and Curry,
after getting a shot block, turns around and looks at
Lebron jokingly and says something to the effect of, man, Lebron,
you couldn't even give me that one layup, you know,
at the end of a blow you know, blow out
over time, you couldn't even give me that one. You
could see Curry smiling. He's got a happy go lucky

(03:13):
as you might say to a friend, and pick up
basketball even if you're losing. You know, man, you couldn't
even give me that one cheese. Hey we're millionaires, Okay,
life is good. We're having fun. Lebron was having none
of it. At the end of that game one. Lebron

(03:34):
and Curry, this moment, it should be talked about more,
because you know everybody likes to say, oh, the NBA
players are too they're too closest friends. Now everybody's chummy.
They're all joining super teams. They don't hate each other, Folks,
Chris Paul, Lebron, James Russell Westbrook, these guys dislike Stephen

(03:54):
Curry a lot. They hate Steph Curry. Okay, they they're
looking at this below the rim player, which is what
Steph Curry is absolutely dominating the league. He's being worshiped
by fans. Did you guys know Steph Curry had the
best selling jersey in the NBA for the last three years.

(04:15):
How is this happening? Why is this happening? And Lebron
after blocking that shot of Curry's, and Curry said, oh,
you couldn't give me something. You couldn't just give me
that basket, like laughing, and you can see the video
he is smiling. Lebron turns to him and basically says,
get that week bleep out of here, m F blah

(04:36):
blah blah, and and Lebron just shut it down quickly
and you can even see his head kind of snap
the way his head did back in twenty Uh No,
I'm sorry when Lebron block Curry shot during the comeback
from down three one and Cleveland one wild that time,
but this was in Golden State. Not a lot of
people paid attention to this moment. But for Lebron to

(04:58):
shout back curse words at Steph Curry in an eleven
point game, it was to me, it was shocking. And
when you look at that, Curry's reaction is what his
eyes almost pop. He's like, what are you seriously doing
saying that right now? Like, really, are we really going
to go there right now? Curry is genuinely puzzled that

(05:19):
Lebron is cursing at him with thirty five seconds left
in and overtime blowout. So what happens? So Clay Thompson
sees it, he's nearby. Clay Thompson comes over and just
before Clay grabs Steph Curry, Lebron shoves Curry with his
forearm as if to say, get out of here, Get
out of my face, Get that weak stuff out of here.

(05:40):
And I joked at the time that this looked like Thanos.
If you saw the Avengers movie, this looks like Thanos
just dispatching one of the Avengers. Get out of here.
And then Clay Thompson he's having none of that. So
you now got Clay and Curry joining at Lebron. And
what this set the scene for you? If you know,
if you're not near a computer to see the video,

(06:00):
Lebron is on an island by himself, battling the Splash Brothers.
Now think big picture, man, the refs took this game
from me. If you're Lebron, you're saying the revs took
this game for me. J R. Smith screwed it up,
George Hill can't make a free throw, and we got
dusted in overtime. Lebron was angry. I've never seen Lebron

(06:22):
in a postgame press conference as angry as he was.
Remember he walked out at the end when the questions
kept coming about j R. Smith. And what's so weird
is Curry and Lebron used to be friends. Lebron famously
went to one of Steph Curry's games when he was
at Davidson. He was like, yeah, I like this little guy.
He's a great story. But Steph Curry's not. He's not

(06:44):
a plucky underdog story anymore. Okay, Steph Curry was never
on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the Chosen One, He's
got next, none of that. Steph Curry was barely recruited
to Davidson. Virginia Tech, where his dad played, wouldn't even
offer him a scholarship. Oh yeah, you could walk on.
No nobody. Steph Curry is not a known factor coming

(07:07):
out of high school. So he goes to college. He
was a good story. You know. They drafted two dudes
ahead of Curry who were out of the league in
like no time flat, Hashim fabeat Johnny Flynn. People have
been disrespecting Steph Curry forever, but Lebron liked him for
a while. Hey man, Lebron, Lebron is a nice guy.

(07:28):
He's accepting Steph Curry in because yeah, he's a He's
a plucky underdog. But not anymore. Right now, everybody, Steph
Curry is a legitimate threat to Lebron because he's gotten
in the way of Lebron's legacy, and you could see
that encapsulated in at twenty five or thirty second incident
at the end of Game one. Curry is now a threat.

(07:50):
Lebron has talked about I'm chasing Michael Jordan's ghost. I'm
gonna pass Jordan's in every statistical category that matters, because,
I mean, Bron has been ridiculous. He's doing stuff in
his fifteenth year we've never seen before. He's having the
greatest postseason in NBA history. The stats say that, So
in stats, Lebron's gonna pass Jordan's. But he'll never catch

(08:11):
those six rings. And you know why, Steph Curry got
in the way. This little skinny six ft three kid
got in the way of Lebron's legacy. And and and
to me, the look that Curry gives him, like, dude, really,
we're we're having fun. We're playing basketball, Bob. But Curry
knows his future is secure. He's the highest paid player

(08:34):
in the league. He was drafted by Golden State. He
don't need to leave. They built around Steph Curry. Curry
is such a good player that Kevin Durant, who was
gonna be the heir apparent to Lebron, Kevin Duran wanted
to play with Curry, and now Steph Curry is threatening
Lebron's legacy. Folks. You can see it in the eyes

(08:56):
of Clay and Steph Curry. They know they've got this series. Lebron, Man,
that was a hell of an effort. That was maybe
the best performance in a losing effort in NBA Finals history.
Jerry West had an incredible Game seven. I believe it
was nine triple double in Game seven and they lost.
He was m VP of the Finals. But Lebron just
hung fifty one on the Warriors and they couldn't win.

(09:21):
He knows what he's up against. Man, think about this.
Lebron left Cleveland originally, why why, guys, because Boston had
created a superteam. Boston created a super team. Lebron gets
outsted by them twice and says, man, you know what,
forget this, I'm gonna make my own superteam. So he

(09:43):
calls up Church boss. They go joined Dwayne Wade in Miami. Ah. Yeah,
two titles in four years. But and this is an
aspect people really don't talk about. When Lebron was leaving
the Miami Heat to go back to Cleveland, guys, think
about it. Golden State wasn't even on the radar. They
had just lost in the first round to the Clippers.

(10:03):
It was like, oh, they're they're a nice story, but yeah,
they're not a threat. Chris Paul and Blake Griffin were
a threat. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were a threat.
The Spurs were aging. But I'm telling Golden State was
not on the radar. When Lebron left Miami to go
back to Cleveland, and then in a heartbeat, like nobody
saw this coming, Steph Curry boom, sixty seven wins m

(10:25):
v P. Holy cow. Now Lebron didn't have Kyrie and
Kevin Love in that first series against against the Warriors
in the finals. I don't think Lebron was really nervous.
But then the next season is when the crescendo built. Wow,
Steph Curry first unanimous m v P in NBA history.

(10:46):
Lebron will never admit this. Do you know how much
that has to eat at King James. That's Steph Curry,
not Michael Jordan's not Shock, not Lebron. Little Steph Curry
was the first unanimous m v P in league history,
and the Jersey sales and the media adulation. Lebron had
gone back to Cleveland to win titles, and Steph Curry's

(11:11):
getting in the way. So Lebron gets lucky when the
Draymond Green suspension happens and he does get a title.
And remember after that, Lebron started trolling Curry in the Warriors.
They had the Halloween party where they had Steph Curry's
corpse and they stepped over it. Lebron still didn't respect Curry,
and then a black Swan event hit. Kevin Durant leaves

(11:34):
to join the Warriors, and you could see Lebron last year.
I mean, I mean, had Kyrie Kevin Love, they had
no chance, no chance. They got dusted for one and
now it's all building Lebron no more Kyrie. Kyrie wanted out.
He said, I'm out sea you Lebron, Kevin Love, who's

(11:55):
like a B player, and then a bunch of c
players against a team of superstars in their prime. Lebron's
had enough and you could see it at the end
of Game one when he cursed out Steph Curry. I'm
not having none of that. This is fun. I'm here
chasing Michael Jordan's ghost and you're in the way, folks.
We are setting up. We're totally setting up for Lebron

(12:19):
to create a super team to rival what the Warriors
have built. That's gotta happen. If you're Lebron, you can
pass Jordan in every statistical category points, rebounds, assists, UH,
playoff wins, UH, appearances in the finals. Rings is what
Lebron's after. And Steph Curry got in the way. And

(12:40):
this little runt, this little six ft three shooter, He's
gonna win two m v P titles. He's gonna have
the best selling jersey in the NBA. He's gonna win
three titles in four years, Folks. In a week's time,
Steph Curry is gonna have his many championships as Lebron James.
That's gonna eat at Lebron for the rest of this

(13:02):
month until free agency hits and he's got his next
super team and the n B A oh, it really
is fantastic, folks. We have such a good show today.
I'm so geeked. I could talk about this Lebron, Steph Curry.
What do we want to call it? I need a word.
Producer Rob Iowa Sam has suggested rift I don't. I

(13:26):
think it's deeper than that, because I think there is
some jealousy. Right, Steph Curry is the most popular player
in the NBA. I think there is some anger at
how Curry is so dominant. Now we'll dive deep into that.
We're also gonna do the top five point guards in
NBA history. A lot of debate about that because people
love Chris Paul. Hey, newsflash, Chris Paul's not top five

(13:51):
point guard in NBA history. I'll just give that out
right now. Sorry, he's not top five. He's probably not
top six or seven either. Um. We're gonna talk stories
about JR. Smith and uh coming up next here on
the Big Lead Fox Sports Radio Listen. I'm gonna bash
j R. Smith. You have to, But at the same time,
he's not the only person to blame. Don't pin it

(14:13):
all on j R. Smith. And I'll tell you why.
That's next. Iowa Sam dropping some drake early in the show.
What hat is that? By the way, I was Sam,
it is the new l A Football Club. Uh So
they have an mL A new MLS team to join
the Galaxy in l A. So it's the boy should

(14:35):
tell you more about this. He knows what he has
a hat the same. It looks sharp. I need to
up my hat game. This is gonna sound so lame.
You need to get some l A F C. Hat.
I think that's well. I've seen that though. So here's
a funny story quickly. Um, So, you know, I take
my kids to school a few days a week and
I'll drop them off, and I'm always wearing a hat
because it's early in the morning. And like one of

(14:56):
the dads told my wife, Hey, I saw your husband,
you know, on TV, and She's like, yeah, he always
wears these cool hats when he drops his kid off here.
And I was like, really, I need to step up
my hat game. You know, I've only got like five hats.
You seem to have a lot of good hats. So
I don't know if you are obscure, which is good,
always good. I don't know if you need to your

(15:17):
hat game. Your hat games. Your hat game seems to
be at an eight plus level. Oh thank you, I
was saying, just saying, yeah, we worked together on the
Dan Patrick Show last Monday. Had a lot of fun
back here on the Big Lead Fox Sports Radio. What
does it mean when Geico says just fifteen minutes could
save you fift or more on car insurance I made.

(15:38):
You probably should have gone to Geico dot com fifteen
minutes ago. It's probably too early in the morning to
take shots at Chris Paul, right, I don't want to
go to much off the reservation. Just so you know, um,
Chris Paul, I get some thoughts on him and James
Harden crumbling in the Western Conference Finals. One quick stat
before we get to j R. Smith. This is mind boggling.

(16:01):
This is These are the number of dribbles in Game
seven of the Western Conference Finals. I'm not even making
this up. James Harden six hundred, Eric Gordon two, rest
of the Rockets a D seventy nine. I'm serious. James
Hardens six hundred dribbles in Game seven. The rest of

(16:24):
the team didn't have four. I mean, folks, that's crazy. Gods,
the Rockets imploded. All right, let's get back to j R. Smith. Um, listen,
So everybody's blaming JR. Smith the last hours. Well, he's
the reason they lost. He's screwed up. Yes, he's not
the reason they lost. Hey, here's here's some truth serum

(16:47):
for you. Early on a Saturday morning, where's the blame
for Tyler? Did he prepare his team going to the
foul line. Hey, guys, we have one time out. You
could have notified your players. You could also could have
notified the referees the second. Jr. Smith grabbed that Tyler
could have run to the referees face and said time out,
time out, time out. You know, hey, I know. Lebron

(17:10):
had a tremendous game, amazing performance eight and eight. He
was ridiculous. He lit up Kevin Durant like a Christmas tree.
Fun little fact. Lebron shot ten of fifteen when Kad
was guarding him ten of fifteen. That's insane. Uh why
didn't Lebron call time out? He was at half court? Jr.

(17:31):
Smith grabs the rebound. Lebron. All you gotta do is
turn to the ref and say, can I get a
time out? Let's get a time out. You had one.
There were four point seven seconds left. I know everybody
was shocked at a free throw shooter missed it. But guys,
let's keep it real here. Tyler could have easily called
time out. Lebron could have easily called time out. And yes,

(17:51):
I do understand j R. Smith is a fourteen year
veteran making thirteen points seven million dollars. He should know
time and score. I understand that, and he's an easy target. UM.
J R. Smith, by the way, is not going anywhere.
He's set to make thirty million dollars over the next
two years. UH started out some quick backstory. I think

(18:12):
I've talked about this before on j R. Smith. I
know him and his family pretty well. I kind of
knew them. So he was in high school and I
was covering the high school sports and Jersey UM, and
there was this loaded a AU team called the Tim
Thomas Players. Do you guys remember Tim Thomas NBA player?
He sponsored the team and they were going to Vegas

(18:34):
and they could win this tournament or whatever it was.
So I tagged along with them. The newspaper put me up.
This was the newspapers mattered, and we're willing to spend
money on sports. So I traveled to Vegas with the
team and wrote about them. And j R. Smith didn't
live exactly in the area of Jersey where we were.
He was more South Jersey and I hadn't really seen

(18:55):
him before. And he was on the team and right
like in the first game in vague. You could tell,
holy cow, this is the best player on the team.
And they were loaded. They had like all big East
a CC type players. Uh. They had one guy go
to Villanova, Syracuse, Seaton Hall, all the good schools. And
j R. Smith was lights out, I mean electrifying. He

(19:16):
had range that was like so Steph Curry range but
in high school. And I'm not making this up, dude,
the guy had the flick of the risk going on
and he was doing these nasty dunks, like, holy cow,
this guy is amazing and that was like the summer
he kind of blew up. But as I'm watching these games,
j R. Smith's parents both traveled. Now, I know a
lot of the kids, you know, uh, come from tough areas,

(19:37):
not a lot of their parents are on the trip.
J R. Smith's both of his parents came and his
dad had a good construction business. He's a you know, smart,
intelligent guy. Mom was super nice. And I got in
with them because I'm going all their games, and you know,
they start talking up Jr. And I'm like, maybe there's
a book here. They're like yeah, and the a UK
was like sure. But of course that season, JR. Smith

(19:59):
trans first to St. Benedict's, which was coached by Danny
Hurley who's now uh the Yukon coach, and j R.
Smith is utterly dominant. I start going to his games.
He's doing he was wearing twenty three, and j R.
Smith would do these baseline Jordan type dunks and it
was just insane. It was like, how doing more people
not know about this guy? But this was this was

(20:21):
like two thousand three four, so again there was no Twitter,
you know, all this stuff wasn't popping on social media.
And all of a sudden, it comes to the end
of the season and j R. Smith is a McDonald's
All American and what happens. J R. Smith has twenty
five points in the All McDonald's All American Game, shares
MVP honors with Dwight Howard and next thing you know,

(20:42):
j R. Smith is going to the NBA. He's not
going to UNC And right at this point it started
to be a little more difficult for me to talk
to j R. Smith and his parents, as you can imagine.
And I'll never forget this. He went to I Believe
the Magic Roundball Classic and after he played in the game,
he flew on a i'vant jet with b J. Armstrong,

(21:04):
who was I believe in the Chicago Bulls front office.
And you know, as they told as the parents ended
up telling me, yeah, once once he talked to these
NBA people, they were like, there's no shot that he's
gonna go to U n C. And I like Jarresmon.
He was a nice, down to earth kid, a bit
of a space cadet, but a ridiculously good player. And
the problem is he was never able to shake that

(21:26):
space cadet label. I'm telling you he was a nice kid,
not as heavily tattered in high school. And this guy
goes to New Orleans and he clashed with Byron Scott
and then he goes to Denver and him and George
Carl had beef. I mean, this is a guy who
tried to untie somebody's shoe at the foul line. Like

(21:47):
you want to like j R. Smith and he's good
for internet memes, but man, I do feel a little
bad for him. Folks. That's not a blunder that's easy
to overcome. Chris Webber had the time out stuck with
him forever. It's not going away. This is Chris Webber
level madness. And j R. Smith is not gonna be

(22:08):
able to shake this. Now. I know that you could argue, well,
j R. Smith precisely because of who he is, a
knucklehead of space cadet. He could shake this off and
drop four threes in the first quarter in Game two,
and you'd be like, oh, there's just j R. Smith.
The big problem is all these people want to say, Oh,
I wouldn't play j R. Smith. I bench him. Somebody

(22:29):
told me Stephen A. Smith said you gotta bench j R. Smith. Bro,
Come on, Stephen, Hey, what are you talking about? You
know the NBA, who are they gonna run with its
shooting guard that they trust ceddi Asoman Rodney Hood didn't
get off the bench in game one, You as sure
as hell can't go with Jordan Clarkson. I mean, listen, Rob,
you are a Jordan Clarkson guy. I liked Jordan Clarkson

(22:52):
with the Lakers. Jordan Clarkson looks so out of his
element here, uh stepping up in class in the NBA Final.
I mean, did you see Game one? He was came
off the bench chucking. Jodan clarks has never met a
shy in like that's going back even the Lakers. You
can't do that when you play with Lebron. I mean,
like you could see the exasperation on Lebron's face when

(23:13):
Jordan Clarkson just came in and was just jacking shots.
So this idea that they can bench j R. Smith
is lunacy. You can't. This is not happening. Um. I
wish JR. Smith the best I know. You could argue,
who cares. The guy's filthy rich, He's set for life,
He's got generational wealth. It looks like he's made over
fifty eight million dollars in his career. He's got another

(23:34):
thirty million come in the next two years. He'll shake
it off. Um, but I just want some perspective, Like
it's easy to dog these guys out and say, oh man, jeez, yes,
with what a buffoon. But I'm telling you, Tyler could
have easily signaled we need a time out. Everybody lost
their minds on that play, including Lebron, including Tyler, and

(23:55):
I know Lebron did, with like seven tenths of a
second realize, oh we should call time out. Uh hey,
we've got a couple of callers. We're gonna try to
get in next If that's okay with you, Producer Rob
thirty minutes. We've got Hall of Famer Oscar robertson coming up.
We got my man Brian win Horse coming up. Anthony
Slater who uh probably covers The Warrior as well as anybody. Um,

(24:16):
it's gonna be. It's just a loaded show today, coming
up next year on the Big Lead Fox Sports Radio.
We haven't said enough great things about Lebron yet thirty
minutes into the show, but he is having the greatest
postseason ever, better than Magic Michael, way, better than anything
Kobe's ever done. We'll talk about that next, but first

(24:38):
let's go to Deb Carson for the latest and sports. Hey,
Jason Well, The Dodgers of places Clayton Kershaw on the
ten day d L with a lower back strain. Manager
Dave Roberts confirmed Kershaw did receive an anti inflammatory injection
for the injury could be out just that ten days,
but Robert said that kursh could miss a month of action.
Last night, the Dodgers wanted Colorado eleven to eight, l

(25:01):
Peak four for five with a homer. Rockies leading the
n L West is now just a half game over Arizona,
as the Diamondbacks maul of the Marlins nine to one.
Mariners walked off the Rays four three and thirteen innings.
Seattle is a game behind Houston for the a L
Wes lead. Astros also winners. They beat the Red Sox
seven to three. Boston's leading the a L East is

(25:22):
now just a half. Came out with the Yankees, who
won at Baltimore four to one. Atlanta leads the NL
East by a game and a half over Washington after
the Brave shut out the Nationals. For zip and online
car shopping can be confusing, not anymore. With True Price
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enjoy a more confident car buying experience. Finally taking a

(25:43):
look at the Memorial In Dublin, Ohio, Tiger Woods will
tee off at about eleven twenty Eastern this morning, starting
the third round five underpar. That's six behind the current leaders.
Phil Michaelson will start the day at four under Parkyt's
off at about eleven and Jason Rory McElroy making up
some ground today. He started the day even par three
birdies and an eagle later. Rory is five under par

(26:05):
through Tan Holes. Thank you, deb you bet Back here
on the Big Lead Fox Sports Radio, I'm your host,
Jason McEntire. Fine Saturday morning out here in Los Angeles,
Sonny could start to the weekend. I hope you've got
some big plans. I'm coming to you live from the

(26:25):
Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios. Fifteen minutes could save you
fiftent or more on car insurance. Visit Geico dot com
for a free rate quote. Before I start to wax
poetic about the greatness that is Lebron James Rob, let's
take these two callers real quick. We've got Darryl in Austin, Texas.
He wants to talk about my Curry Lebron. Open, Darryl,

(26:47):
what's going on? Hey, what's up? Um? Yeah, I heard
you guys were talking about Curry, how he's disrespected coming
out of college. The thing with Curry is he worked
for what he got. You know, when he came out
of college, he was doing me. He had a good jumper,
but he every year he worked on at his dribbling,
off the dribbling creating space. I mean, you know, it

(27:07):
was just an amazing work ethic. So, um, everybody doesn't
have the ability like you know, Kobe Lebron and Michael
Jordan with that natural you know, athletic build. It's a
great point. Yeah. I mean some of these guys came
in thanks for the call, Daryl, Kobe came in as
he's gonna be great. Lebron was the chosen one at sixteen, right.
We all knew Kevin Durant was a unicorn. Some of

(27:28):
these guys were anointed. I mean, heck, Chris Paul was
a top number four pick. Overall people knew he was
gonna be a great point guard. Russell Westbrook top five pick.
All these top five picks were ticketed for greatness pretty much.
Not Clay Thompson and not Steph Curry. Uh, let's go
with one more quick caller, not in Richmond that you
want to talk Lebron, Steph Curry go Yeah, I think Lebron. Uh,

(27:52):
Lebron's legacies all Lebron vote and poised. Uh. And in
strategy meaning last night, you would ever see a Kobe
or Jordan's throw tantrums like they did. I mean Kobe
the direct Adam, they go direct with the refereens and

(28:13):
and explain, but he throws It looks like a tantrum,
and then strategy wise, he's chased everybody away, I mean,
from Kyrie to different coaches. The thing about the others
is that they knew which coach would make them excel,
and they were coached themselves on the floor. I don't
think the King is King Lee and how he's poised

(28:35):
and coaches everybody up and his conduct, So that's my fault. Interesting,
thanks for the calling that. Uh listen, I can't come
down hard on Lebron. This is a guy. When you're
on the cover of Sports Illustrated sixteen, you're essentially a
child star. Go look at Hollywood and see how many
of those child stars ran afoul of the law or

(28:56):
it got to their head or what have you. Lebron's
never had any of that drama in terms of arrests
or problems with the law enforcement, none of that devoid
of scandals. So you gotta give Lebron some props for that.
While we're talking about Lebron, I think it bears noting
that one of the reasons that he has earned my

(29:18):
adulation and everyone else is really, this is a guy.
Remember people, not me, other media people mocked Lebron last year.
Oh he never plays eighty two games. Jordan played eighty two.
Lebron needs all this rest. To me, it was smart
for Lebron not to play eighty two games. Who cares
about the regular season, But Lebron heard it. He's got

(29:41):
those rabbit ears. Lebron comes out, plays eighty two games
and oh yeah, leads the league in minutes per game.
That's ridiculous. This is insane. And then to win Game
seven in Boston with no Kevin Love that was impressive.
Gets to the Finals without Kyrie also impressive, And and

(30:04):
and I gotta say I know that two weeks ago
I said Kevin Durant was the best player in the NBA,
and I'd said it since last June when Durant murdered
Lebron in the finals, just crushed him in the fourth quarter.
I gave you the stats. I can give them to
you again if you need him. I thought Kevin Durant
was the best player on the planet. It was a
torch passing series because I didn't think Lebron could do

(30:25):
it at thirty three. And then Lebron comes out and
has this season, and I'm like, okay, well, Lebron's definitely
not done yet. Or close to it, and then Lebron
tears through the East and then you can say, all right,
well he beat up on you know, Buyon Bugdanovich and
o g Ana Nobi. Those guys could not sniff Lebron's jock. Okay,

(30:47):
I mean, hey, come on, they're not on his level.
So okay, let me see he's got the finals. And
then he comes out and drops fifty one in as
good of her performance as you'll ever see in the
NBA Finals. Lebron was the best player on the court
in Game one and it's not close. There was no
doubt about that. And actually Steph Curry was second. Kevin

(31:08):
Durant had a bad game. I mean that's that's really
like Draymond Green had a better game than Kevin Durant.
I mean Kevin Durant. I don't know. Maybe I gassed
him up too much, and uh, I don't know. Maybe
after those first two games against Houston, Membory had like
seventy five points in two games, and Katie's like, you know,

(31:29):
I'm good, I'm good, and or people started to figure
him out. Hey, we'll give him the IO against a guard.
You know, we'd prefer that than him floating around the
perimeter getting wide open threes. So you know, Lebron has
had an incredible postseason. Um, I'm just gonna how about this?
Is this fair, Robin sam If? What if I just

(31:51):
when you say so, Jason, who's the best player in
the NBA right now? Well, the best player on the
court in Game one was Lebron James and we move on.
Is that that fair to say? You never want to
judge a quarterback on one performance. You know, some quarterback
comes in and wins. Nick Foles went to Super Bowl,
So what all of a sudden, Now Nick Foles is
like a top ten quarterback in the league. Come on,

(32:14):
you body of work batters. Now Lebron has an insane
body of work this postseason. Um again, he's got ten
of fifteen and guarded by Durant, dude. Is a Lebron's
averaging thirty four, nine and seven in the playoffs. That's otherworldly.
That is Fano's type. I mean, that's what he's doing.

(32:36):
Think about what Lebron went through. Real briefly, Derrick Rows
abandoned the team. Tyler needs a leave of absence for
medical reasons. J R. Smith throws soup at somebody half
the team gets traded. Kevin Love, who's your second best player, says,
I'm having panic attacks like Lebron has been through so
much and to keep delivering like this, I'm in awe.

(32:59):
You can't blame Braun because his shoe to his shooters
and he's creating all these great passes for him. Shot
six of twenty on uncontested three pointers. That's an actual number,
six of twenty. Say, I'm gun to your head. If
I was a what walked right now to an open gym,
could I make six of twenty NBA three pointers? Yes,

(33:23):
of course that should. You didn't even have to think
about that, Kyle Korver, Kevin Love, these guys are missing
open threes. I mean two, two or three more of
those fall and the Warriors probably go down. They were
close to stealing one game one, and let me wrap
up just by you know, I haven't probably having hammered
Kevin duran enough. So Dirette comes back in the game

(33:44):
in the fourth quarter. He sees Lebron is erupting like
a volcano. I charted with Kevin Durant. Did he missed
the three? He missed a three? He made one of
two free throws, he missed a three that was an airball,
he missed another shot, and then he made two free throws.
I mean, he had a bad fourth quarter, and it
was clear to me, Rob. I don't know if it's
clear to you, but Lebron and Durant. You can tell

(34:06):
Durant wants to do this again. And he's watching Lebron.
He says, Chucks, I'm not gonna be the finals m
v P unless I turn up. And you know he
was just awful. Well, Jason, I told you this week
that I heard from a little birdie that Kevin Durant
is a little bit unhappy in a situation in Golden State,
and I think in the last well, especially in Game one,

(34:26):
but in game six, in Game seven against Houston, you
can see it in his body language. Something. He doesn't
look comfortable right now at all. He looks unsure of himself.
He looks like he's kind of forcing the issues at time.
Like you said, there's something going on with Kevin Durant.
It's gonna being masked by this this championship glow that
the way still happening. I know I know where you're

(34:47):
going with this. We gotta go to break. I know
where you're going with this. We may have to work
that into the show. Okay, let's just tear up our
number three and get something because I see where Rob's
going with this. This is why he's one of the
best in the business. Folks. Coming up next here on
the Big Lead Sports Radio. Oh boy, we got a
dead man walking. I'll tell you who that is. Next

(35:07):
back here on the Big Lead Fox Sports Radio. Great news.
There's a quick way you could save money. Switch to Geico.
Go to Geico dot com and in fifteen minutes you
could say fift or more on car insurance. Oscar Robertson
Hall of Fame point Guard, Perfect day to rank the
top five point guards in NBA history. Right, you have

(35:30):
on one of the Hall of famers who played point guard.
Does Oscar Robertson crack the top five? That's tough. We'll
reveal that right after the interview. UM. Oh, let me
just squeeze in this quick quick Chris Paul note, Okay,
because I just want to get it off. I want
to fire it off. So Chris Paul got hurt obviously
missed Game six and seven, UM, and the Rockets lost.

(35:52):
I know what you're saying, I can hear it now. Well,
if they have Chris Paul, Jason Rockets win yeah maybe,
Well if the Warriors have Andrea Gudala, the Warriors win
that series in five because we saw them easily win
two of the first three with Agudala. So just a
note on Chris Paul's toughness. So I'm listening to uh
this podcast about Navy Seals because you know, I like

(36:17):
to think I'm tough, and then you listen to these
Navy seal guys talking to like damn. So they were
talking about what you go through to become a Navy
Seal and there's something called a bud's training Basic Underwater
Demolition Seal team stuff, six months training course. The first
phase you go through. Are you tough enough? Can you

(36:39):
withstand pain? Is there no quid in you? A lot
of people give up. And I'm not taking a shot
at Chris Paul because of a hamstring injury, but we've
seen this now several times, Chris Paul keeps getting hurt.
At what point does Chris Paul need to look him

(37:00):
off in the mirror and say, I'm gonna make this
the off season where I get myself in shape, and
I'm not five or ten pounds overweight carrying that extra
pudge in the middle, and I'm gonna get my body
in tiptop shape. Lebron has never missed a playoff game
in his career. Everybody ever, I know, Okay, Lebron's unicorn. Fine,
he just never get hurt. Chris Paul's like best friends

(37:21):
with Lebron. Dude, is it that hard to go to
your best buddy and say, can I work out with
you this summer? I'll do whatever you're doing. I want
a title like Chris Paul. Come on, man, listen to
a Navy Seals podcast like I did. Get Tough. I
won't even go to the second and third phase because
you know, Chris Paul's gotta pass the first one. And

(37:42):
I know if you got a named Jason, if you
ever had a hamstring injury, yeah, it sucks. You can't
do Jack Squad. Get your body in a place where
you won't get these injuries. How do you prevent injuries?
You know, training matters? And look at Chris Paul. Has
he ever come in and tiptop shape? Oh? I just
got this, You don't, Paul reminds me of Ben. Roethlisberger

(38:02):
comes into the season immensely talented, but always like man.
He's not He's not trim, he's not like Aaron Rodgers.
He's just that you can stand to lose five or ten.
Chris Paul could always stand to lose five or ten,
and he's a great point guard. But dude, let's try
to stay healthy, all right, quickly? The dead man walking
Brian co Angelo Colangelo, Dude's gotta get fired. I think

(38:24):
today you can't let this fester. The NBA drafted in
less than three weeks NBA free agency, the most pivotal
one in Sixers history, where they could get Lebron or
they could get Kawhi Leonard to to join forces with
Simmons and Embiide. You gotta get rid of coll Angelo.

(38:45):
I don't want to hear the excuse that it was
his wife maybe sending all these tweets. You know, ignorance
is not a legitimate excuse here. Oh well, it was
my wife. It wasn't me, dude. How did your wife
have all that in medical information on ocal for? How
did your wife have all that medical information? Unembed your

(39:06):
wife knows who Meek Mill is. I just I don't
believe it. I don't buy it. I don't care if
if it was a family membery, his kid, his wife, whoever.
You can't sit behind, sit back and say, well, I
just had no idea my wife was doing this or
my kid was doing this. They were plus, I just
don't buy that. You know, if you look closely at

(39:27):
the tweets that this account was sending, they had the
tone of frustration. And I don't think when col Angelo
took this job he knew how beloved the process and
Sam Hanky were and he's never he's never been loved
in Philly. Everybody looked at him as like, oh wait,
your dad is who oh he oh yeah, I got it.

(39:50):
The nepotism, that's how you got this job. And they
never really accepted Bryan col Angelo. And then he goes
and does that markuell Fuls trade, which from like two
weeks into this season started to look like an unmitigated disaster,
and like, why is an NBA president who is filthy,
ridiculously rich trying to convince dudes on Twitter eggs on

(40:14):
Twitter that you're like awesome, Like come on, man, get
a life. Who cares what these gibrones think I mean,
I I think you gotta fire Colangelo asap. And yeah,
that David Griffin Lebron stuff is coming up next. That's funny.
Ha ha ha. You know that's following it up all right.
Coming up next here on the Big Lead Fox Sports Radio,

(40:34):
Oscar Robertson Hall of Fame point guard joins the show.
Is he gonna say nice things about Steph Curry? Our
number two here on the Big Lead Fox Sports Radio.
Good morning, everybody. I am your fearless leader, Jason McIntyre
coming to you live from the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios.

(40:58):
Fifteen minutes could save you fifth team percent or more
on car insurance. Visit Geico dot com for a free
rate quote. Game two of the NBA Finals tomorrow night,
another big point spread here. Warriors heavily favored. I just
for some reason. And I was talking with producer Rob

(41:19):
about this during the break. You just don't see that
fire from the Warriors the way you saw it last
postseason when they went sixteen and one. You just don't
see that. And I know it's very difficult to keep
up with that for many years as you're going to
the championship every year, and now this is their fourth year.

(41:39):
You know, when you add up the playoff runs from
your one to three and this fourth, you're looking at
another entire season of games for the Golden State Warriors.
That's why it's tough as heck to create and keep
and maintain a dynasty. And I've got a great stat
for you before Game two, and don't first of all,
don't hand the war Years this series. Okay, this status phenomenal.

(42:03):
No team in modern NBA history, modern NBA history has
gone to five straight finals. Magic's Lakers could not do it.
Larry Bird Celtics could not do it, Shock and Kobe
could not do it. Lebron's Miami Heat only did four.
The Spurs did not do it. I'm telling you, folks,

(42:24):
five straight finals for a team is nearly impossible. The
Warriors are the team that could possibly do it because
their stars are young, Kevin Durance Clay and Draymond Curry's
only thirty. But they're definitely gonna have to refurbish the bench.
And we will get back to that topic, don't hand
the dynasty everything yet. We will get back to that

(42:46):
topic later in the show, but right now, we want
to welcome in one of the all time greats in
NBA history, Hall of Famer, NBA Champion, former NBA m
v P. Oscar Robertson joins the show. Good morning, Oscar,
how are you? How are you doing today? I'm excellent.
You know, I'm a lot better than j R. Smith.
Let's put it that way, Oscar. I gotta ask. I'm

(43:07):
sure you saw Game one of the finals, you know,
I just want your thoughts on um on the JR.
Smith brain lock. Have you seen anything like that that
you can recall in such a big spot in the
NBA playoffs? No, but things happen when you get un
the pressure, you know, uh, you know, when you feel
like you defeated, you know, you just you might do

(43:28):
a lot of crazy things, but it's just difficult this
way to get this way the game is played today,
you know, I mean, Warriors are but very very dominant,
and I guess I guess Jr. Felt it is that
something you can bounce back from easily, because it was
pretty clear in the postgame press conference Lebron was angry.
Uh he even jawed with Steph Curry on the court

(43:49):
after that. It's just one of the they had this
game as double digit underdogs, on the road, you steal
game one and it's series on Oscar. How do the
how do the Calves bounce back from this loss? Well,
you know, you got to understand that go to the
States there they're the champ so that you think you
gotta have to beat them. You know, it's a lot

(44:09):
of there's a lot of talk about basketball, but not
it doesn't matter who comes to play. You got the talent,
you don't, they play well together, you're gonna win. I
don't say I know Cleveland's great, that Clevelands in the finals,
but right now, I don't like they have a talent
right now that Golden State has. You would agree to that,
I would certainly agree. I mean, you're looking at one
of the greatest teams, you know that the NBA scene

(44:31):
in the modern era, right you got four All Stars
guys in their prime and you know, led by to
two of the best players in the league and Steph Curry,
Kevin Durant Oscar Robertson. Let me ask you this, who
who do you think is more important to the Warrior's success?
You know, point guard Steph Curry or or they're small
forward Kevin Durant. Well, no, I've made a timent to

(44:51):
one of the executives of the Golden State that I said,
you know, I said, uh, tween Houston and all those things.
I said, as long as courage in the game. Said uh,
And he's playing a gift hard and I said, gold
they's gonna win. Terry is a very intelligent player. He's
not that rough and tough, tough and bumble type player.
He uses his hand in every situation. And when you
do that, you know he knows when the past, knows

(45:13):
when the shoot. He knows how to move the bob
and down the court. That's tough to be. I'm talking
with Oscar Robertson Hall of Famer. Uh played with the
Cincinnati Royals in the NBA Milwaukee Bucks won an m
v P in nineteen sixty four. Oscar, when you look
at Steph Curry, uh, you know you said he's an
intelligent player. He's got two MVP awards. He's looking at

(45:35):
his third title in four years. There's some talk, hey,
maybe this guy could catch Magic Johnson. Maybe is the
best point guard in NBA history. Do you think Currey
can ascend to that greatness? Who said Magic down was
a great at guard in in NBA history. I think
with you know, five titles three m v p S
three has nothing to do he's greatest. I mean, you

(45:59):
know this, this is what it's really, really really gets
some Scar I played guard and I thought I was
a great guard. Bob Bob Cozy played guard. He thought
it was a great guard. Walt Fraser. I mean, this
is what happens if people get there and they see
what have goods on television. I think was a great
players with a great team, but there were some other
great guards as well. In basketball, prayers are very good

(46:22):
in this day and age. The way they played a game,
the way the game is played today carries tops. Yeah,
it's tough to make an extent, but you know, but
and you know at that time of the players that
were great players, you know there's something about what's going
on today. Isaiah Thomas, John Stockton, I mean we we've
I guess the game has changed significantly from your era,

(46:42):
even to the Magic era to now. Do you think
it's for better or for worse than we're seeing all
these three pointers being taken by point guards, because again
in the eighties and nineties, you know Magic John Stockton,
these were past first point guards. Right now we're seeing
the Damian Lillards, the Steph Curries, the Kyrie Irvings. They're
scoring point guards. Well, they're scoring because we have to score.

(47:05):
You know, in the days going by, you had inside teams.
You had great centers and great forwards. So therefore, but
you don't have that today. You don't have who's who's
on the Who's on the Golden State team inside? I mean,
you know they're good players, but but but that they
can't they could could. They cannot carry a team offensively,
So you need to have Durant and carry and Thompson

(47:26):
and whoever they have out they're doing a great job
for them. And when you're watching these games and there's
no inside play whatsoever. Just your thoughts on where the
league is today with the heavy three point shooting, you
think the league's in a better place than it was,
say two decades ago, when you had a La Juan
and Shock and Ewing and centers were the alpha's versus

(47:49):
now where you know, the center is better, Lou how
to shoot three pointers or they're not gonna play well.
The game has devolved a certain point. You know, it's
not that centers have to shoot three pointers. If you're
a great center, you're a great center. It If you're
not a great center, you do whatever you can't extand
the ball games you have to shoot three pointers or
shoot does or whatever. I mean you look at you
look at the game today. There are no great centers

(48:10):
in the game of basketball to day. Who are the
great centers you have? I guess I'm doing an All
Star game. They don't English centers anymore. No, not really.
I mean it's Rudy Gobert. Anthony Davis doesn't want to
be a center. He wants the power forward label. He's
not Davis has don said anyone. I think he played
guard when he was coming up. Just just people like

(48:35):
to see, uh, three point shots and a little speaking
and to get people. A lot of coaches and general
manager saying three point shots, but at any kind of shot.
But you go down to stretch with golden steak, what
did they do? They wouldn't start to duram, didn't they? Yeah,
And you know the post up game, which you could
argue didn't work well against Houston, and you know had

(48:55):
mixed results in Game one against the Cavs. We're talking
with Oscar robertson legendary point guard, maybe the best point
card in NBA history, Oscar, I gotta ask you, finally,
these super teams that we're seeing, Um, you know, the
Warriors have four all stars. We saw you know, Cleveland
last year with Kyrie, Kevin Love, Lebron. Minnesota is trying

(49:17):
to create a superteam. Houston doing the same. Just your
thoughts on super teams and where we're headed with them,
because we know Lebron is gonna be a free agent
to saw season and as you even alluded to, his
supporting cast is not there. He needs a super team. Well, everybody,
everybody needs help. I mean, I'm sure, I'm sure when

(49:37):
Kevin Duran went to Golden State he thought about this.
But you know, you know, curity, it's it's a it's
a it's a wonderful to talk about great teams, but
if they don't want to, I'm gonna come together. Very
often in the history, I mean, yeah, Golden States come together.
They got Thompson carried, and they got let's see Duran,
and they got some green as well, Dream agreed, and

(50:01):
then they got a couple of kids coming off the
bench playing well for them. That's how that's how you win.
They come together and played together, and they have talent.
But in this in this day and age that we're
looking at today, when you're talking about twenty and thirty
million dollars this from this guy and that guy. Hey,
money changes a lot of things for people. They did.
Some people have to win a couple of championships. They

(50:21):
don't want they don't want to hate sacrifice hi where
they want to go out elsewhere to make more money.
They never know how that's gonna happen. But right now
I would just they accept it and try to win
another championship. And hey, and that's where it's going to be.
Because people like people like to see how the carriage
shoot those three pointers. We're about to see durand On
Thompson shoot three pointers. But you know, it's like it's

(50:41):
talk about Houston. If you don't make them, what happens,
You're losing? All right? Oscar Robertson will let you out
of here on this one. It would be remiss of
me to not ask about Lebron James Michael Jordan's I
know a lot of people hate that debate, but Lebron
is having one of the greatest postseasons in NBA history. Uh,
has he caught Jordan's in your eyes? Is the greatest

(51:02):
player of all time? Will he? Or can he not
be because he doesn't have the rings? So here here
again this thing about that Jordan's was the best. You know,
some people say what was the best? Someone say I
was the best. Someone will say Bill Russell was the best,
Jerry West was the best. You know, there's no way
to tell you. If you look at the teams that
Jordan played with, Chicago had a better, better supporting staff

(51:26):
than than than Leron has. Right now, there's no doubt
about it. But even here again, different times mark Jordan's
for the tremendous furniture a great basketball player. Lebron is
outside with the ball what he's doing a great job.
And if if all these states make se those shots
they were taking, it might be a different situation that
we're talking about today. But it didn't happen. So so Oscar,

(51:50):
who who would you say, is your from your eyes,
the best player you've ever seen in NBA history? Is
it not Jordan or Lebron? You know, I'm first of all,
I didn't play gets those guys, so I'm just sitting
there played maybe there's a diluted talent they're playing against. Uh,
diluted Oscar Well transtance, Um you've got, you got Lebron. Well,

(52:15):
they've been he's been doing this, I guess guys for
fourteen years. They haven't figured it out yet, have they.
That's a fair point. But I mean you you think
the talent is not as good as it was. I'm
not not here we go, here we go. No, I didn't.
I said, maybe maybe Jordan who Who's Who's Garden? Jordan,
Who's Garden? Lebron? You know, maybe maybe that's a diluted talent.

(52:38):
When I said, dilttle talent, and may may be the
DEFENSI situation deficiency. When I don't, I don't think. I
don't think. When you talk all these players playing today,
if you said you had eight teams, you'd be surprised
you wouldn't be playing. You every every player you see
playing today. Uh, to me, I'm not great players. This

(52:58):
is why you see some of these teams to win
fifteen games, twenty games and lose sixty or something. That
that if they were, if they were better, you see
if you see a closer, closer tabulation of the games
and whatnot. No, no, no, I think that a lot
of that. You've got thirty or seven team, everyone's not
not as good as the other players. Why Gold States

(53:18):
winning all the time? Huh okay, interesting, Now you played
at the time, I guess. I guess it was fourteen
teams in the league late sixties, so we saw a
lot of Hall of Famers in your time. Yeah, I
guess you've got a decent argument. I would obviously disagree,
but Oscar Robertson, the great Hall of Famer, thank you
very disagree with that. I mean, I mean, look at it.
See what pick a team, pick a team and said, okay,

(53:41):
look Levons team, Look who's helping him res who's helping
carrying durant On going and State? Look Look who's on
Houston team, And who's helping those those shooters outside. That's
that's where you have that louted count. If if they
if they were great great helping helping out with the gun.

(54:03):
The great Oscar Robertson, everybody, thank you very much, Oscar Robertson,
Hall of Famer, Enjoy the rest of the finals. Oscar,
thank you very much for joining the show. All right,
Oh boy, oh boy, who oh boy, Oscar Robertson dropping

(54:24):
Bob's left and right. I mean we're should we just
I think we have to uh take a pause here.
Obviously we're gonna go to break. Oscar Robertson just laid
a lot on us from who says Michael Jordan's the
best player of all time? Two? Uh, Steph Curry not
the second best boy gard Magic not the best current

(54:46):
diluted talent. Oscar Robertson. Wow, powerful stuff. Uh. I think
we'll be hearing a little more about this interview, so
we'll come back after, come back after this, probably talking
about the top five point cards in NBA history, but
a lot of the focus is gonna be on Oscar Robertson.
Thanks back here on the Big Lead Fox Sports Radio.

(55:11):
I'm still in awe of some of the stuff Oscar
Robertson just told us. I mean, listen, I know he's
an all time great, there's no doubt about it. Is
is Stat's gonna be go read up on him. Oscar
Robertson had a ridiculous career, but this insinuation that who

(55:33):
says Magic Johnson is the greatest point guard of all time?
Who says Michael Jordan's disagreed. I mean, I don't know,
you know, maybe because I grew up in those eras.
I'm just in shock hearing that. But there's I guess
there's other people who who would agree. I get maybe
great news. There's a quick way, you could say, money

(55:55):
switched to Geico. Go to Geico dot com and in
fifteen minutes you could save fifty percent or more on
car insurance. I mean, Oscar Robertson knows the game of
basketball really well. I mean, his career was incredible, But
I gotta be honest. I was drawing up a top
five point cards list of all time, and I guess

(56:16):
it depends on how what you how you define greatness.
I mean, if it's titles while the supporting cast of matters,
And that's one thing Oscar Robertson was leaning heavily on
because he kept coming back to the supporting cast. And
then you look at Oscar Robertson and you know, he

(56:37):
won one title in seventy one near the end of
his career. He wasn't the best player on the team.
He led the NBA and assists seven times. He averaged
a triple double. Now it was in Nino. That's not
to diminish what Oscar roberts has done. But there were
nine teams in the NBA. It, I mean, come on,

(57:01):
there was nine teams in the NBA, the Syracuse Nationals,
the Cincinnati Royals where where Oscar played St. Louis Hawks.
I mean nine teams in the NBA. I don't I
just don't see how go ahead and Jason Um. You
know those teams most of them probably looked like me
five nine. Yeah, Oscar Robertson was a six five point guard.

(57:23):
He was dominant in nineteen sixty two. Could you argue
he was the best player in the league and ninety
of course they wont an m VP award. He was
First Team All NBA eleven times. But and this is
where it gets weird. So Jerry West and Oscar Robertson
played the exact same fourteen years in the league. Seventy four,

(57:45):
Jerry West won a Finals MVP while losing the series.
Oscar Robertson won a League MVP. Jerry West was First
Team All Defense four times. Robertson led the league and
assist six times. It's like you go back and forth.
But the reason why I and more people. Many people
say Michael Jordan's the best because he went to the
finals six times and won six. Now, eventually Lebron is

(58:09):
gonna go to the finals like eleven times or whatever.
Jerry West was one in eight in the finals. Oscar
Robertson went there once. I just don't see how accomplishing
reaching the finals matters a ton, And to some people
like Oscar Robertson, individual talent matters more. I get that,
but how good is your individual talent if you're not

(58:31):
going to the finals. And ultimately this is probably why
I'm gonna have to come back off. Duran is the
best player back to Lebron because of what Lebron has
done in this postseason. I know it was against inferior
competition in the East, but Lebron has been on fire
these last few games when it matters most. I mean,

(58:52):
fifty one in in defeat and elevating your teammates matters.
So for me, j Red West is ahead of Oscar
Robertson on the point guard list. Nick, I don't would
you agree? It's really splitting hairs. I mean, they're nearly identical,
but when you go to the finals nine times, yeah,
I mean I'm a Lakers fan, so I'm still a

(59:13):
little biased by I gotta give it, Jerry West. But
like you said, it's it's just one A and one B,
Well this would be five A and four like it's
just that. So my point guard list, and again Oscar
Robertson disagreed at the top heavily my point guards all time.
I go Magic number one, and I laid it out

(59:34):
for Oscar Robertson. I said, well, won five championships, he
was the MVP of the league three times, he won
finals MVP three times. And Oscar Robertson counter was, well, yeah,
he had Kareem Abdul Jabbar. I mean, so did Oscar
Robertson when he want his title. Um, I just Magic's greatness. This,
I mean, this is where, like this is the stuff

(59:55):
dreams are made of. Magic as a rookie, it was
a point guard and filled in at center in Game
six of the finals for Jabbar. In that series, Jabbar
had averaged thirty three a game. Magic had forty two,
fifteen and seven as a rookie in Game six of
the finals. I think, I mean that's unfathomable. Now, that

(01:00:18):
would be like if Jordan's Bell. Well, Jordan Bell wasn't
the number was the number one overall pick. But Jordan
Bell is a rookie and he fills in for Durant
and drops forty two and fifteen Like, that's not that's on,
Come on, nobody can Jason Tatum, he's not doing that
would have been a cold Jason Tatum if I'm forty
two and fifteen and seven on Lebron and games seven. No,

(01:00:41):
he's a rookie. Rookies don't do that. So magic for
me is number one. And then when I said Steph
Curry's number the second best point guard NBA history, oscars like, well,
who you know who's saying magic? Number one? Curry two
and and Curry's accomplishments to me two titles gonna be
three shortly, two MVP Awards. He's only thirty. Step Curry

(01:01:06):
is looking three or four more years of greatness. And
in a way that gives it to be for Curry,
he's a transformational player. The guy is shooting from the logo.
Nobody's done that before. He's stretching defenses, becoming one of
the most efficient players in NBA history. So magic change

(01:01:27):
the point guard position because of his height six nine,
Steph Curry has literally changed the point guard position with
his deep shooting. These are facts. Curry has had a
magic like impact on the NBA. Magic never led the
NBA and scoring. Curry led the league in scoring. So

(01:01:48):
for me, it goes Magic Steph Curry. After that, it's
a bit of a log jam. I'll tell you where
I went. I went Isaiah Thomas three. But I'll say this,
Isaiah never finished fourth or higher, fourth or better in
m v P voting. He was never He had one
first place m v P vote in his career, Isaiah Thomas.

(01:02:12):
So I had Isaiah Thomas three. Now we're gonna pause
there because we've got Anthony Slater coming up from the Athletic.
He covers the Warriors. I wonder if you'll agree or
disagree with some of these Oscar Robertson thoughts. Again, we're
gonna have the audio for you shortly on Oscar Robertson,
just to recap. He thinks the jury is still out

(01:02:33):
on the greatest player in NBA history, and that goes
for the greatest point guard in NBA history as well.
So we'll have that audio Big Show Today coming up
next you know, I have to ask Anthony Slater this
because he covers the Warriors. Is there a Kevin Durant
problem on the Warriors? But first let's go to Deb

(01:02:54):
Carson for the latest sport Well. Jason Rory McElroy started
the day at even par, six birdies and an eagle later.
He's now eight underpar through fourteen third round holes at
the Memorial, just three off the lead, which is currently
eleven under par. Ricky Fowler also looking good at a
three under on the day, six under overall through eight
third round holes. Tiger Woods will start the day five

(01:03:15):
under par. Heat's off momentarily there. In Dublin, Ohio, Bill
Michelson currently three under par through two third round holes.
At the French Open, Maria Scherrapova cruise to a straight
sets upset Winever number six ladies seed Carlina Plashkova and
Raw Fael and at all the clay court King number
one seed. On the men's side, he was a straight
sets winner in his third round match against countrymen or

(01:03:37):
Richard Gasquay. Meanwhile, some action on the diamond to let
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Just correct myself, of course. Spain is where raw Fael
Nadal is from. Richard is French. Feel good moment of

(01:03:59):
the night, though, came with the White Sox Brewers game.
Chicago beat Milwaukee eight to three, but White Sox pitcher
Danny Farquhar, who suffered a brain hemorrhage during a game
back in April, throughout the first pitch, beautiful thing to watch.
His doctors have allowed him, of course, to leave the
hospital and continuous rehab outside, but they're not going to
clear him this season because they say he needs to rest.

(01:04:20):
But that was nice to see you last night. Nice
to see him with his family thrown out the first pitch.
Thank you, deb you bet. Jason back here on the
Big Lead, Fox Sports Radio, coming to you live from
the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios. Fifteen minutes could save
you or more on car insurance. Visit Geico dot com

(01:04:40):
for a free rate quote. Joining the show now, He's
been a guest many times. He covers the Warriors probably
better than anyone else in the league. Anthony Slater of
The Athletic Anthony, good morning, How are you good? How
do you know I'd be a lot better if Oscar
Robertson didn't just throw off our whole show. Earlier I

(01:05:01):
asked him about the Magic Johnson versus Steph Curry, you know,
greatest point guard of all time? And he's like, wow,
who says Magic is the best point guard ever? You know,
I just it just rattled me, Anthony, So listen. I
firmly believe Steph Curry is such a transformational player. The
way he performed in Game one was phenomenal. People like

(01:05:22):
to ding him, Oh he's not great in the finals.
Well the numbers say otherwise, Anthony, Can you talk about
Curry's important to this team? He was their guy there
in the fourth Corter and overtime. Yeah, I mean, well,
Kevin Durant called him their system before, and that's basically
what he is. I mean, it's just mostly it's for gravity.
He just stretches the defense so far out there to

(01:05:43):
thirty feet and if they don't come out to thirty feet,
hitting thirty footers, uh. And you know his passing is
probably underrated. I thought he had the assisted the night
to living soon and overtime. Um, he's the way he
can kind of wiggle and he's finished. He's finishing really
well in these class I thought in the Houston series
that was maybe the key of the series was remember
how much like Capella and they Nay, even at the

(01:06:03):
beginning of the series when he was playing them, pushing
out on those switches all the way to thirty ft,
you just started going to the rim. We're talking about
a guy during the regular season, I think he only
made about like two point five shots at the rim
basically per game. He was making like seven per game
against Houston. And that's just you know, he's smart. He's
a smart player, which people don't talk about. And he's
adjusting the defenses. And I think in this calv series

(01:06:25):
he saw a little bit the other day. But they're
playing they're trying to play the Warriors like Houston. They
don't have it as going to a personnel to do it,
but they're trying in and Steph going to the rim.
I thought still a little bit more, and um, I
think he'll finally, you know, if the warriorship pull this
off and if Lebron doesn't go fifty fifty fifty. Basically,
I think he'll finally get his finals MVP and and

(01:06:48):
then I'll maybe cut that narrative that you're talking about.
To Anthony Slater of The Athletic Anthony, I don't know
how close you were to the court for Game one,
but there was a moment that I thought was fascinating
at the end of the game in overtime, there was
like thirty five seconds left and Lebron blocked a Curry
lay up um and it seemed as if Curry said

(01:07:09):
something to the effect of, all, you couldn't just give
me a layup at the end of the game. It's over,
And he was smiling, seemed to be joking, and Lebron,
you know, basically m f him and and Curry looked
at him like what are you serious? And you know,
Lebron shoves him and play got involved. You know, first
of all, did you see the encounter? You know, would
anybody talked about what happened, because afterwards Lebron would say nothing,

(01:07:32):
Curry said nothing, and and you know, big picture, what's
that is there still some disrespect from Lebron Chris Paul
Russell Westbrook about Steph Curry and his place in this league. Yeah,
I think so, And you know Lebron particularly because I
think Lebron, do you know how Lebron is about guys
who want m vps. He thinks he should do the
m v P every year, and like I kind of

(01:07:54):
understand it because he is the best player, and he's
been the best player every year. But at the same time,
like look at m VPS or the regular season m VP,
and he's not had like terrific regular seasons like Harden
deserved this year. Curry obviously deserved it his the seventies
three win season, but Lebron kind of grumbles when other
guys went m vps, and it kind of reminded me
of the moment number in the h I think it

(01:08:16):
was two finals ago where Lebron had to block Stephen
he kind of had to look back at him. Uh.
It reminded me of that, But it just seemed like
a weird time because at least that one, it was
like at the end of a good calves to win.
This is that you know, they were down ten and
over time at that point. But I will say, um,
it was kind of with moment I think Lebron recognized
that it was maybe a little bit disrespectful, because then

(01:08:37):
the Tristan Thompson thing happens literally like one possession later. Uh,
And while the stoppage is going on in the rest
are reviewing all that happened, Lebron and Curry went over.
They were talking to each other, and they were doing
it with like jerseys over their mouths. So it's clearly
like a like a pretty like professional talk or what
however you want to call it, where they didn't want

(01:08:58):
their lips to be read, and it looked I don't
know if Lebron was apologizing or what, but they're kind
of discussing this thing. So it's interesting if cameras didn't
pick that up, did it? I'm not sure. I tweeted
about it, and I know I saw a few others
tweeting out like, hey, looks like they're having a pretty
cordial conversation. Nobody could obviously read their lips because they
were purposely doing Yeah, but it seemed it seemed more respectful,

(01:09:20):
a lot more respectful than the first one. Do you
think Anthony, there is and I know this is gonna
sound weird, but do you think there's some jealousy from
Lebron toward Curry, like Steph Curry is interrupting Lebron's legacy.
Lebron came back to Cleveland to to you know, win
a bunch of titles, and and out of nowhere came
Curry in the Warriors. And then they get Durant and

(01:09:42):
now you know, Lebron, man, I'm killing it. And Curry's
got the best selling jersey in the league. The media
gives him unanimous m v P and and shucks, you know,
I'm I don't, I don't do you just do you
think jealousy maybe is a word that applies here at all?
I think maybe a few it was because I think
there was still kind of a sense a few years

(01:10:02):
ago there was a gimmick what staff was doing and
it came out of nowhere. Uh, you know, everyone's like
I felt like there was respect for step because where
he got to with them, when it got to the
point it was like, okay, they were like putting him
on the panty on level of like a top five
players in the league. Uh, there was a bit of
like a fight back. But to me, now he's doing
he's been doing it about five years running. Um, and

(01:10:23):
just the Warriors. I mean that they're established, so you
know so much that, uh, I think that's gone a
little bit on it. I mean, listen, Chris Paul, I
mean from yeah, because I mean I just just to
him the other day, you know, going up to him
and do him what I'm talking about. I think there's
all just say. I just think there's a higher level

(01:10:44):
of respect for Lebron to step because, uh, he kind
of recognizes like extended greatness more than just like a
spurt great name. So I think it's gonna be getting
better now, you know. At the same time, he's probably
pretty frustrated these Warriors had to come a long, like
he said when he was should be piling up titles,
and he's obviously piling up East titles, but he wants

(01:11:05):
the NBA title. Yeah, well maybe do we asked fine
Chris Paul. You know, he's the guy who was supposed
to be next, remember him and Blake Griffin and DeAndre
lob City, Like they knocked off the Warriors the summer
that Lebron went to went back to Cleveland, so Chris
Paul supposedly had next, and of course he never really
had it. And then when he hit that shimmy on Curry. Like, listen,

(01:11:28):
I know people say Curry's a front runner, but Anthony,
you've watched Curry. He never disrespects people in their eye
like that. He does it like at the other end
of the court, or does he do it in their face?
And I don't see it, you know, I don't know.
He sometimes when he hits big shots, he does it
a little bit and he would say fine, because you
know what, I thought. He had a great quote in
that series like if I'm gonna shim me around, like
I need to be able to take shimmy when when

(01:11:51):
I'm not playing well, ever, when somebody's doing it to me.
So um yeah, I mean Chris Paul kind of has
that history, and I mean he's kind of laid out,
you know, the fact that Chris Paul was supposed to
be next, supposed to be over the top, and Chris
Paul has this like burning competitiveness he does kind of
adds to that pettiness like he'd say, and uh, yeah,
I'm sure there's a little bit of you know, jealousy

(01:12:12):
or whatever you want with Steph. But the truth is,
I think when these guys go home and I think
can grumble about it a little bit, but like I mean,
like step is not a bad human like in any
aspect of his life, So it's not like they can
really not like to imagine if Chris Paul had that
burning desire to work out in the off season and
come in and shape. You know, No, that's a that's

(01:12:33):
a that's a below the belt shot. All right, Anthony,
let me get you out of here on this. There's
a Kevin Durant situation. You know, former players are talking
whispering about it that Durant seems unhappy, doesn't look as
like he's having a joyful postseason he had last year.
And listen, we know he can potentially opt out. And
this is a tough one, Anthony, but is there any

(01:12:55):
chance Kevin Durant leaves the Warriors this offseason? And what
are your thoughts on just his demeanor, his look, And
I gotta be honest, the last couple of games of
the Rocket series didn't really seem that locked in. Uh,
Steph Curry was the better player, and then in Game
one he felt like he was trying to go to Lebron, like, oh,
Lebron's got fifty one. I gotta match him. Yeah, um,

(01:13:18):
as far as you know, percent of a chance he
let leaves. I think it was March that he literally
went on the record with me saying he was a
dent coming back and said that like he's helpful to
sign a long term deal to take into the you know,
San Francisco arena. Um, but you know, I wouldn't maybe
necessarily labeled a hundred, but I would probably put it

(01:13:38):
in the high nine. He's coming back, I mean just
because look, I've covered this guy in the past where
I thought he was coming you know, I covered the Thunder.
I thought he was coming back. And he's got he's
got a bit of unpredictability to him. Uh. And the
season has been weird, uh think all the yeah, but
you know, with all the injuries and especially late in
the year with Steph one out, they struggled without Steff

(01:13:59):
and uh, you know, he really kind of dragged himself
back into like the isolation thing, and uh, just how
poorly the defense and everyone was playing around him. It
just it was like an unhappy time around the franchise.
And then the playoffs started and I thought he kind
of got his rhythm back and he played well in
the Spurs series. He had that weird game three into Orleans,
but right after that he really closed that series strong. Uh.

(01:14:20):
And then the Houston series comes after he goes thirty
eight points thirty seven points the first two games in
Houston series. Uh. The only problem with that is that
he was so effective in isolation in that series early
on that I think he kind of got a bit
kind of obsessed with it and Kurt was really going
to it, and then the offense got really jacked up
because a Reason started playing it well and Houston was

(01:14:41):
really switching well and playing really physical and pushing the
rent out. Uh. And then he suddenly became inefficient. And
the one thing that it's been weirder honors that the
fan base is kind of I don't want to say
against Katie's, but like they're just so they're so adoring
of Steps and criticized Katie. Uh, and just through that

(01:15:02):
whole series, he got criticism kind of rained on him quickly,
and I think it kind of jacked his head up
a little bit where he seems a bit out of
it now. And you know, he pulled him he pulled
himself out of it a key moment, like I thought
he was really good in Game seven induced and he
kind of closed that. Yeah, yeah, and I think he
had three biggest shots in the fourth over Gordon to
kind of close that series. Uh, and you know, bad

(01:15:24):
game one for him, and then obviously the box out
that everyone missed box out on j R. Smith that
he got saved on, and he you know, he's had
weird defensive moments, so I kind of think, you know,
he's a little not necessarily disengaged, but it's just I
don't know, he's floating around out there at times, but
then he also pulls himself back and he's still going
to score this you know, thirty basically, but it's been weird.

(01:15:46):
But I I still would be shocked if he left.
I'll just say that because they're probably gonna win the
type of what I mean, you could say what you want,
but it's gonna be going in an off season. And
I just got back to that title. The thing you
said that was most interesting was, you know, Steff is
so beloved there that he's Durant's never gonna be on
that level. Does he want to go somewhere where he's loved.
I don't know that that place exists. Maybe Washington, d C.

(01:16:08):
But no, there's a place. There's a place that exists.
So don't say, Okay, see, well I don't he's I
don't think he should go back there. No, I'm not
saying you should go back there. I'm not even saying
he should have stayed there. But if his goal was
just to be as absolutely beloved as possible by a
fan base, that's that he had that and he left
it willingly, and it's fine. And he wants to Stuffs franchise.
He was never gonna come and own Stuffs, right, Alright,

(01:16:30):
great stuff, Anthony. Anthony's later from The Athletic and uh,
we love your coverage. Anthony enjoyed the rest of the series.
Appreciate it. That's smart stuff about Kevin Durred. It seems
like there could be something there. Maybe we're reaching, all right,
coming up next to here on the big lead Fox
Sports Radio, we're gonna replay that Oscar Robertson some of
that stuff from that interview earlier this hour. Pretty phenomenal.

(01:16:52):
And I know you're going to disagree, because who says
Jordan's not the best player in NBA history? Oscar Robertson
that too. We'll do the next back here on the
Big Lead Fox Sports Radio. Oh boy, oh boy, I
just I don't want to. I don't want to come

(01:17:13):
off hammering Oscar Robertson. But because Rob, you you've known
him for a while. Like when I said, you know,
Magic greatest point guard of all time? He like cut
me off and was like, wait a minute, Wait a minute,
wait a minute. Who says Magic Johnson is the greatest
point guard of all time? I mean, is I didn't
know there was any discussion about that, Rob, Were you

(01:17:35):
aware that was on the table. I thought some things
were locked in as certainties. Tom Brady greatest quarterback of
all time? Check? Well, I mean you're thinking about what
the media and people like you know, I'm thinking human beings.
You watch basketball. You found this out just last week
or even earlier this week. Everyone's talking about Jordan versus Lebron.

(01:17:57):
Who's the best player? You know what Kobe says, Hey,
don't forget my fine. Stop these guys. When you're at
that level, they all think they're the best, and that's
why they are as good as they are. You don't
think Kobe's in the Lebron. You that Kobe believes that
he that's fine, and that's why Oscar Robertson. I guarantee

(01:18:21):
you thinks, Hey, I'm better than Magic. John's okay. Fine,
if you want to give him a pass for asking
about Magic, fine, Oscar is a point guard. Fine. Can
we play the part where I asked him about Lebron
for Jordans because what's the argument there? I mean, Oscar
Robertson was a very good player. There were nine teams
in the NBA. Okay, So this is Oscar Robertson, very smart,

(01:18:47):
intelligent former NBA players, an all time great Hall of Famer.
Here's what happened when I asked him about the greatest
players of all time? So, Oscar, who who would you say?
Is your from your eyes, the best player you've ever
seen an NBA history? Is it not Jordan or Lebron?
You know? I mean, first of all, I didn't play
against those guys, so I'm just sitting and played. Maybe

(01:19:08):
that's a diluted talent their plan against uh, diluted talent.
Oscar Well, transtance, Um, you've got you got Lebron. Well,
they've been he's been doing this, I guess, guys for
fourteen years. They haven't figured it out yet have they?
That's a fair point. But I mean you you think

(01:19:29):
the talent is not as good as it was not?
Here we go, Here we go. No, I didn't. I said,
maybe maybe Jordan's who Who's Who's Garden? Jordan, Who's Garden Lebron,
You know, maybe maybe that's a diluted talent. When I
said diluting talent and may may be defens situation deficiency.
When I don't, I don't think. I don't think when

(01:19:51):
you talk all these players playing today, if you say,
if you had eight teams, you'd be surprised you wouldn't
be playing. You every every player you see play end
of the the day. Uh, to me, I'm not great players.
This is why you see some of these teams to
win fifteen games, twenty games and lose sixty or some
of that. If they were if they were better, you

(01:20:11):
see if you see a closer, closer tabulation of the
games and whatnot. No, no, no, I think that a
lot of that thirty seven teams, everyone is not not
as other players. Why states winning all the time? Okay?
So Oscar Robertson his contention is, oh, thirty teams in

(01:20:32):
the NBA there's a lot of garbage out there. But
when I played the insinuation nineteen sixty one, there was
nine teams. I'm looking at the All Star Game and yeah,
you've got legends, Oscar Robertson, Bob Pettitt, Elgin, Baylor, Jury West.
That's an All Star team. And then you look at
the other team and there's guys like I've never heard of. Again,

(01:20:54):
this is nineteen sixty one, Larry Costello, Richie Guerin. I mean,
you look at the end of the bench of the
NBA All Star Game this past season, and you've got like, really, really,
really good players. I mean, is DeMar de Rosen Hall
of Famer? I don't think so. But to insinuate that
a guy like DeMar Derosen couldn't play in I mean,

(01:21:16):
DeMar de Rosa might have been like the fourth best
player back then and he's nothing special now. I mean,
I love this Oscar Robertson stuff. We're gonna have to
come back to it coming up next year. On the
Big League Fox Sports Radio, I got some bad news
for Warriors fans unfortunately. High noon on the East Coast.
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I am your host Jason

(01:21:39):
McIntyre coming to you live from the Geico Fox Sports
Radio studios. It's easy to say or more on car
insurance with Geico, go to Geico dot com call one
nine four seven Auto. The only hard part figuring out
which way is easier. Great two hours in the books,

(01:22:00):
It doesn't feel like it's been two hours, does it, Rob.
I mean I looked up at the clock. I'm like, dang,
We've only only got an hour left. I might be
the only weekend sports radio host in the country who
wants more time, Like, I just got so much to say,
probably too much, uh, and that gets gets me in troublesometimes. Um.
But you know, we had an interesting interview with Oscar

(01:22:23):
robertson UH in the last hour. We'll play some of
that back for you shortly, but I do want to
quickly talk about what I opened the show with. And
it was a moment at the end of Game one
of the Finals in overtime, a moment between Lebron and
Steph Curry. And we talked about this with Anthony Slater
of The Athletic. He was in the building covering the
game and Lebron had swatted a Steph Curry shot and

(01:22:45):
you know, the Warriors are up eleven, and Curry kind
of joked to him, Hey, he couldn't even give me
one layup, man, you know, smiling, laughing, he's having fun.
These guys are millionaires playing basketball having fun, like what
a life? And Lebron kind of was like, don't bring
that bleep bleep bleep in here. MF blah blah blah,

(01:23:05):
and it was like whoa Curry was? I mean, chef.
Curry looked at him like with the white eyes, like
are you serious? Are you being serious right now? And
Clay Thompson stepped in and then Lebron shoved Curry and
it was just one of those moments where listen, I
know j R. Smith, the refereeing, all that stuff is important,

(01:23:26):
but to me, the big picture I saw that. I
was like, dang, Lebron's talked about chasing ghosts. He ain't
even trying to give up layups. He's not trying to
be friends with nobody on the court now. Anthony Slater
of The Athletic, who was in the building, said that
what was not shown on ABC cameras was that, like,

(01:23:47):
you know, on the next possession, when Tristan Thompson and
Draymond got into it. Curry and Lebron were kind of
off to the side, and Lebron picked up his jersey
and covered his mouth and was talking to Curry and
Anthony Slater as it may have been some sort of apology,
Hey man, I didn't mean to f bomb you or
whatever a moment ago, and it could have been, but

(01:24:07):
the players refused to talk about it afterwards. I think
it just speaks to the larger volume, the bigger picture
of where Lebron is in his career. Now. He wants
to catch Jordan's and win six titles. We know he's
gonna pass Jordan and every fathomable stat but he's he's

(01:24:28):
not gonna get six rings because of Steph Curry. Remember
Lebron went to Miami, won two titles in four years,
and then he said, I've got some unfinished business in Cleveland.
Let me go back there. And at the time, this
is what the league looked like. Okay, the East was
ripe for the taking because wherever Lebron went, they were

(01:24:49):
going to run the show. And in the West you
had the Spurs were getting old man who was thirty six.
Tim Duncan was thirty seven, Okay, you had the up
and coming Clippers Lobs City at the time, and you
had k D and Russell Westbrook. So Lebron leaves the
heat for Cleveland folks. Steph Curry's Warriors were not on

(01:25:10):
the radar. They just lost to the Clippers in the
first round. Nobody knew that Steph Curry was gonna do
this and the Warriors were gonna make this run. Remember
the Warriors have just like fired Mark Jackson. They were
like fifty games fired Mark Jackson. Huh, and then Steve

(01:25:30):
Kerr almost took the next job, went to the Warriors,
and I guess the rest is history because they've gotten
in Lebron's way. They are an impediment to Lebron's legacy.
And so I don't know if jealousy is the right word,
but there is certainly some anger from Lebron James towards

(01:25:52):
Steph Curry and Wood. He's accomplished this little runt, this
little six three skinny guy jack and three pointers. Hey,
that was a nice little story. But now you're in
my way of catching greatness. And I think Lebron is angry,
and I think Lebron's gonna lose this series. Despite what's
probably gonna be another record setting performance when you look

(01:26:14):
at his numbers. He averaged a triple double last year
and they lost. Of course, last year, Kevin Durant was tremendous,
average thirty five a game. He was lights out. Um
let's pivot to Kevin Durant, you know, off the Lebron
Curry beef and and you know, I will say Rob
producer Rob pointed this out at the end of the

(01:26:34):
Rockets series. Something seemed off about during first two games
against Ustity at seventy five points, you know, he was cementing,
I'm the best player in the league. I won the
finals MVP last year, I'm unguardable, were a juggernaut and
and something happened. I don't know if it was off
the court, but Durant didn't look like the same player

(01:26:55):
the rest of the series. Now, he did still average
thirty points a game, so let's not scoff and say
he was garbage like that's silly. But something seemed off
in the final two games for Durant. He wasn't there Alpha.
It was Steph Curry. In game seven, they were down
eleven at the half and they stormed back. I was

(01:27:16):
panicking at the half, by the way, I had to
go outside and shoot. I was so nervous for the Warriors,
and then Curry goes off. Curry led the charge in
the third. Durant then amplified it. He made a bunch
of big shots and he was big in the fourth.
He was good. But that was a Steph Curry game.
Where was it not Nick? That was a I'll remember
Game seven as seven mysteries for the Rockets, and Steph

(01:27:38):
Curry took over in the third. And in Game one,
as Lebron goes on his tear, Durant's kind of struggling.
He's forced some bad shots. He was eight of twenty two.
He made some nice places. I think he had six assists.
But for Kevin Durant, it was not an amazing game.
Not when you look across the court and Lebron's got

(01:27:59):
fifty one and he's playing with you know, George Hill, okay,
and he's playing with uh, Larry Nance and Jordan Clarkson.
So I think that what's going on is Lebron is
in Durant's head a little bit. And that's why when
producer Rob says, Hey, you know, I wonder if Durant leaves.

(01:28:25):
I think that's a that's a reasonable question. I don't
think it will happen. I think it's a reasonable question
to ask, because how can you be the best player
in the league, or if you want to call him
the second best, buying whatever, and not be the best
player on your own team or beloved by your fan base.

(01:28:47):
Because Stef Curry is that guy in Golden State, He's worshiped.
There was a great line in Billions where acts if
you guys watch Billions on Showtime, just a tremendous show.
Ax goes. My kids think I and fly like he
says that. Now I just start cracking up. Kids in
the Bay Area thinks Steph Curry can fly. My kids

(01:29:12):
they both got Curry and Lebron jerseys. You know, we
watch Game one, and they want to meet Steph Curry
over any athlete. Like, it's not even close. That's the guy, Dad,
Can I meet Steph Curry. I'll see what I can do. Guys,
maybe he'll come through FS one one of these days
and we'll yank you out of school because we know

(01:29:32):
what the priority is. But um, it's just a really
interesting situation with Durant. Now I don't think Durant can
leave because can you imagine the beating he would take
if he left? Go, Like where would you go? And
then you're not gonna win, Like he's not gonna win
in Washington, d C. With the Wizards. You can't go

(01:29:55):
back to Okay. See, I just that's that's that's not happening.
That's uh Nick chiming in with the Lakers and and like,
how do you think he's going to Lakers? Nick? I'm
just I don't have my future hashtag Lakers sounds drop.
But I'm every single time Jason that there's some kind

(01:30:16):
of great player that opens up, he's going to be
a future Laker. Yeah, I don't see it happening. I
have a question for Rob, Rob fire Away. Rob is
full of blowing up if my source is correct, and
I'd like to think that they are, because it's someone
who is very close to Kevin Durant. If it turns

(01:30:39):
out that he's not happy, he really is, you know,
possibly looking into leave, maybe at this offseason, but maybe
in a year or two. Does part of you feel
bad for Kadie in the sense that people's head just
that that he couldn't be satisfied by winning that he

(01:31:00):
he knew exactly what he wanted, that he knew that
if he got a championship, that it fulfilled whatever he
was missing. And it looks like he's even more angry
at the world now than he was in Well, that's
a good question, because it feels like he wants the
respect and that's just not something you're gonna get. You

(01:31:23):
gotta earn that respect. He thought he had earned it
last year in the finals, right, he outplays Lebron. He
averaged thirty five hit that shot in his eye to
win the game. I mean, Durant murdered Lebron in the
fourth quarter of that whole series. And then yet he's
got a ring, he's got a finals MVPs, a champion,
and yet the perception is he's a snake, he's not

(01:31:48):
a real champion, and I think that's wrong. And ultimately,
over time, I mean, Rob, look, we've already not forgotten about,
but the decision is a distant memory that's way in
the past. I mean, people forget this stuff. Did not
did Kobe Bryant not demand a trade from the Lakers? Nick,

(01:32:09):
you would know? I mean, we forget this stuff because
so much else happened. When you're surrounded with by Kwamie
Brown and Smush Parker, I would request the trade too,
like like Kevin Durant. Fine, let me push you back further, Nick,
Kobe shoved Shack out of town. They could have had

(01:32:30):
they could have kept their dynasty. Shack was still in
his prime. Pig lost the Pistons and oh four man
that that shouldn't have happened, and they lost badly to
that that was not lasting. H Kobe Shack was never
gonna last. And and ultimately Kobe is still beloved out here.
And and so Kobe shoved Shack out. We won't even

(01:32:50):
get into the Colorado stuff. And then he demanded a trade.
He crapped on his teammates like Mush Parker in those
guys and people still love him. And and in three
back to back to back finals with only Pauga soul
and he got to to on that. Yeah, Lamar, he
was a great player. And I guess you mentioned by

(01:33:13):
him too, who was good for a second, look, Kobe Bryant.
The disrespect that Kobe has, Jason got a break, We
got a break here. Well, Nick, we'll let Nick go
on one of his Kobe Benders this week or next
or maybe this summer um, I don't know. At some
point coming up next, we're gonna talk to Brian Windhorst.

(01:33:33):
Guy's good. He just knows his stuff. He's coming up next.
Don't change the station. Back here on the Big Lead,
Fox Sports Radio. What does it mean when Geico says
just fifteen minutes could save you or more on car insurance.
I mean you probably should have gone to Geico dot

(01:33:54):
com fifteen minutes ago. Man, guys really going at to
Oscar Robertson on social media. Listen, he's an older gentleman.
You know how the older generations are. They're very rooted
in what they believe. Oscar Robertson doesn't think Magic's the
best point guard of all time. I can't do anything
about that. He doesn't think Jordan is the greatest player

(01:34:17):
ever and Lebron like. I mean, that's just how these
older generalman gentlemen are all right joining the show now. Uh.
He covers the calves, he covers the NBA. I mean,
he's plugged in as anybody. Brian win Horse from ESPN, Brian,
good morning, how are you? Someday I'll be an older gentleman,

(01:34:39):
someday you'll be older. Happening faster. It's happening faster, and
I thought, yeah, yeah, Well, I mean, uh, covering some
of these games, man, they gotta wear you down out
here on the West Coast. Uh. Let me start here, Brian,
because you had some thoughts on a podcast yesterday regarding
the Lebron Curry moment at the end of the game
where Lebron kind of m f him after Curry was

(01:35:01):
joking around, Now, why are you laughing? Because I said,
m I just like kind of m f him. I
think it's always funny. So Anthony Slater said, there was
a moment like thirty seconds after that, during the Tristan
Thompson Draymond Green dust up, that Lebron kind of covered
his mouth with his jersey was talking to Curry, and
it appeared to be some kind of apology. Did you

(01:35:21):
see that? Do you do you buy that? Or whatever?
I saw it. I don't know if it was an apology.
I don't think that they walked away the best buddies,
but you're not expecting them to. And um, you know
it was interesting because um uh, there was a bit
of a dichotomy in the way excuse me. The two
teams saw the end of the game um either playing

(01:35:43):
hard or messing around. The Warriors were kind of messing
around a little bit, and the Calves were sort of
frustrated and still playing hard. Lebron blocking shots and at
one point they like trapped or rant and and then
you know, Tristan Thompson running out and fouloing Livingston. Like
you could just tell the cal was very frustrated, and
it was kind of like the Warriors saying, you mad, bro,

(01:36:04):
you know, so it was very The Warriors were very
much being themselves, which is sort of playful, and you
know that's fine, but you know, he got on the
Kass nerves. You could tell. Yeah, but Lebron doesn't play that,
especially when he's not chasing Michael Jordan's ghost. And I know,
I don't want to bring up Jordan's this early, but Brian,
let's be honest. When he went back to Cleveland from Miami,

(01:36:25):
Lebron the Warriors were not anywhere, They were not on
anyone's radar. They had just lost in the first round.
You know, they just fired Mark Jackson. I mean, you
could make the argument, Brian that Steph Curry is a
massive impediment. Two, h Lebron's legacy here catching Jordan's. I
know Lebron has been amazing, but Curry has been a
huge roadblock. He's about to win his third title in

(01:36:48):
four years. Yeah, the Warriors are a phenomenal team. You
could argue that they're one of the best teams of
all time without a question. And that's why. Um. One
of the things that I always try to point out
is the value of a champion and ship and um
just how damn hard it is to get your hands
on one, and um, you know, and why these players

(01:37:09):
put themselves through a lot, and why it's so important
to them, and why one should never ever be diminished.
You know, my friend Bill Simmons, he wrote up this book,
The Book of Basketball, that came out probably seven or
eight years ago, and in it he like went over
all these championships and he attached to all these asterisks.
Well this guy was heard on this one, this guy
was heard on this one, or this call happened there.

(01:37:30):
In my mind, if you're holding the trophy at the
end of the season, I don't care what anything happened.
I don't care if of the league, you know, fell
in a hole and disappeared. If you win the trophy
and you're holding at the end, it means never having
to say you're sorry. And it just the difficulty that
Lebron has had to deal with the Warriors is just
a reminder of how valuable that the tit titles that

(01:37:52):
he has are and how valuable that one, especially in
New York Times best selling author to the radio podcast
Guy at ESPN, he does it all. Brian Um, I
won't bore you with j R. Smith questions. We talked
about him earlier. I knew his family well. I nearly
wrote a book on him back in the day when
he was a high school star. But I do have

(01:38:15):
to ask, what when you when Lebron looks around at
what happened, Geez, j R. Smith screwed me, man. And
then he looks around at Jordan Clarkston and Rodney Hoods
not getting off the bench, and he looks across and
the Warriors are you juggernaut? I mean, he cannot stay
in Cleveland. There's no way he's staying in Cleveland. And Bryan,
let me add this. I looked it up. No team

(01:38:36):
in the modern era has gotten to the finals five
years in a row, not the Lakers, not Jordan's Bulls.
No team has gotten their five years in a row.
I personally think the Warriors are very vulnerable next year.
And that's why I do believe Lebron comes to the Lakers.
I don't know, I I it is what Lebron has
gone through to get this team here. It's it's it's

(01:38:57):
kind of when it makes you laugh. Um this playoff
run has been preposterous, Uh, I mean, the stuff that
has happened in these last two months and the play
that Lebron has had, um is just it's it's I
laughed because um, I I have drained of all other
emotion about it and the thing that makes me laugh

(01:39:19):
about everything. And I know it's some people, especially in Cleveland,
would find it hard to laugh. But when Lebron got
mad at Jr. He he eventually just had to turn
on and walk away. He knew that there was it
was no use in continuing to yell at him because
he's just like you know, he understood Lebron better than anybody,
completely understands his situation. He totally understands what is limited,

(01:39:41):
what his limitations are, what his team's limitations are, and
he's just he's determined, he's gonna make the best of it.
You know, sometimes you go to the kitchen for dinner
and you just don't have a lot in the fridge,
and you just make the best of it. You get
the salt and pepper out, and you do the best
you can. And um, when it comes to his future, UM,
you know, I think the difference with Queen this free
agency and others in the past is that, um, there

(01:40:03):
isn't a terrific option out there for him. All of
the options that I can see today, and remember, the
options can change. We we may see differences and things
that happen around the draft and trades and stuff. But
none of the options today are great. All of them
have a compromise, and he's gonna probably have to determine
what he wants to compromise on. Okay, well, well, Brian,
let me interrupt it. Okay, So I would agree the

(01:40:23):
options aren't great. But when you look at what he
just did in Game one with a bunch of C
or D level players around him, I mean white, if
if you put him on the Lakers, add Paul George
in that mix, that's a way better team than he
has in Cleveland right now. I don't know. I don't know.

(01:40:44):
I really the thing about is Jason Lebron teams has
to have certain facets to them. If you're gonna be
successful around Lebron, you've got to have shooting. You've got
to have great shooting, and you really need a floor
spacing big man. And this is why I stopped short

(01:41:04):
on anybody who wants to assume that he's just gonna
pencil in Philadelphia. I mean, if you're gonna play with
Lebron James and you're gonna be the big you're gonna
stand in the corner and wait for the ball. If
you don't believe me, you better go speak to Chris
Bosh and Kevin Love about that. And I maybe Joel
Embia is prepared to sign that and say, Okay, I
will go in the corner and way for the ball.

(01:41:25):
But that's not to Joel Embie that I know saying.
That's what I'm saying, like he has to make he
has to make some compromise. I mean, maybe one of
the compromises he has to make is, you know what,
maybe I need to go somewhere where I won't have
the ball all the time. Maybe I need to go
somewhere where I reduce my minutes and we change things around.
Maybe he will do that, but he's still he's still

(01:41:47):
at the top of the game. So yeah, you can't.
There's no way. I mean, the guy just dropped fifty
one and you said it. He's having the greatest postseason
in NBA history. For I can't fathom Lebron all of
a sudden taking a step back. Oh yeah, I'll take
the ball out of my hands. You know, it's just
to me, that's shocking. Bryan, all right, let me get so.
I'm talking about the Lakers. Who's gonna shoot the three? Yeah,

(01:42:09):
Kyle Kuzma, Brandan Ingram, not lots. I mean, you know,
it's that's what I'm saying. Like, let's sorry, let me
get you out of here on this one. Top five
point guards of all time. I just want your quick reaction.
I got magic one Curry to Isaiah Thomas three. Without
diving into stats and all that stuff, any major disagreement.

(01:42:29):
I mean, it sounds good to me. I mean, I mean,
I mean, Isaiah Thomas is you know right there. I'm
glad you haven't been there. Um, you know, the other
day on the court before the game, I was talking
to Isaiah and stephen A. They weren't on TV or anything,
and they were having an argument over Lebron, and I
was like, guys, can we not have an argument more?

(01:42:50):
Not even on TV? Just talked about something fun instead
of this. No. Uh, I think you know, by the
time stuff is done, who knows how many times is
gonna have Kee's of very different player than magic. Um.
You know, Lebron places point guard to how you know?
How do you how do you how do you figure
Lebron in there? Because he's essentially a point guard? That's
a great question. I don't know, all right, Brian Winhorst

(01:43:12):
and now you gotta go. Thanks for a great spot.
We'll hopefully talk to you before free agency. Take care,
j Brian Winhorst. He's good. Listen. He just made a
phenomenal point. I mean, Brian went, this is hold on,
rob Focus, guys, focus here for a second. Okay. When

(01:43:32):
Chris Bosh joined Lebron, Lebron said, goes stand in the
corner and make three. When Kevin Love came to Lebron,
Kevin Love, who was a top ten player in Minnesota
by every metric, ten, go stand in the corner make threes.
Is Joel Embiid going and standing in the corner and
taking three pointers? If Lebron goes to Philly, don't nod

(01:43:54):
your head. There's no way in hell Joel Embiid is
gonna go stand in corners and shoot three. Now, what's happening?
And we're gonna go to break here? Oh oh oh,
this is good. We talked about it last week, rob Nick. Listen,
they're gonna have to get a Lonzo out of there.
You need shooting. When Horse just broke it down, they

(01:44:16):
need rely on. Listen, this the deal. And I looked
it up on the trade machine. Alonzo dang to Milwaukee
from Middleton and Delhi, and you tossed in the Lakers
first round pick in give it to him. Give a
second round pick this year if you want to, whatever
it takes. Hey, Hey, Chris Middleton shot sixty percent on

(01:44:39):
threes against the Celtics. George Hill was a good three
point shooter too. How's that working out? I'm just saying fair.
I'm just saying I don't have a comeback prepared for that.
That's no, that's good. George Hill shot was shooting on
threes Uh, it's one thing in Sacramento to shoot threes Milwaukee,
at least as a playoff tem Damn you know, Rob,

(01:45:03):
can you get the big bosses on the phone and
lobby me for another hour? We just got too much material. Um, alright,
we're gonna do Oscar Robertson again. Did you hear how
Windworth laughed at Oscar Robertson one day. I'm going to
be an old man. I mean, that's what he sounds.
Robertson is old. All right, Well, we'll do top five

(01:45:24):
point guards, which my list is impeccable. And um, we'll
get back to Oscar Robertson, but first let's go to
Deb Carson for the latest and sporder. Jason Tiger Woods
having a great day. Another birdie now for Tiger. He
has seven underpart through five third round holes at the Memorial.
Phil Mickelson doing pretty well as well. He's six underpar

(01:45:45):
through six holes. Rory McElroy back in the clubhouse now
after finishing the round eight under par. He started the
day at even Parson quite the day for him. I mean,
while all online car shopping can be confusing, not anymore
with true Price from Truecar. Now you can know the
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Car to enjoy a more confident car buying experience. NBA

(01:46:06):
note for your Warriors coach Steve cursays Andre Iguadala is
doubtful for Sunday's Game two of the finals because of
his leg injury. NHL Game three of the Stanley Cup
finalist Tonight Caps and Golden Knights even at one game apiece.
This game is in Washington Baseball News. Red Sox placed
Mookie Bets on the ten day deal with left abdominal strain.

(01:46:26):
The Dodgers place Clayton Kershaw on the ten d d
L with lower backstrain. And I haven't talked about this
guy today yet. Just an update on the Johnny Manzell
watch front. The former Heisman winner made his preseason debut
in the CFL last night. Was nine of eleven for
eighty yards in five offensive possessions. And yes, it was
reiterated by June Jones that he is just the backup

(01:46:49):
to Jeremiah as solely. So that is your man Zell
watch for the morning. Thank you, You're welcome. I was
just gonna say we didn't have any football on the show,
Dare you have it? Football? Did throw some passes north
of the border. Back here on the Big Lead Fox
Sports Radio, I'm your host, Jason McIntyre, coming to you
live from the Geico Fox Sports Radio studios. Fifteen minutes

(01:47:12):
could save you fift or more on car insurance. Visit
Geico dot com for a free rate quote. Uh, let
me quickly come out of the break with a fun
stat that I just somebody just texted me when I
was when I was joking to Windhorse that Lebron looks
around and he's got Jordan Clarkson. Okay, by the way,

(01:47:34):
Jordan Clarkson was like the sixth best guy on the Lakers.
Maybe Jordan Clarkson last six games. Try not to laugh
too hard. Eighty two minutes, zero assists, percent shooting. Listen,
I'm a Jordan Clarkson fan. He was a microwave oven

(01:47:55):
when he played for the Lakers earlier this year. He's
just not really fitting and zero all assists in eighty
two minutes. How do you is that possible? You're just
not passing the ball and you're taking bad shots. Um,
all right, I mean we're how good has the show
been today? Rob honestly, on the scale zero to ten,

(01:48:19):
this is like an eleven. I mean, Anthony Slater, listen,
I know you're working about off in there. Listen, Anthony
Slater got some people in Golden State nervous when he said,
you know, in March, Kevin Durant told me I'm coming back,
and now Anthony Slater said, it's not a hundred. Now
it's high nineties. That Listen, that's significant. So you maybe Rob.

(01:48:43):
I will say this, Rob, he's a good producer. He
knows what he's doing. He's been pushing to me, hey man,
keep an eye on Durant. Something's going on for the
last week. And I've been like, you know, because I
kind of hate that because I like the Warriors. I
kind of want them to win the title because I
think it's gonna mean Lebron definitely Lea eaves, YadA, YadA, YadA.
And now for Anthony Slater to say he's off Durant

(01:49:04):
coming back, I want to see how Durant responds in
game too. Nick, he was not very good eight two,
gave up the rebound to j R. Smith. Listen, if
the Calves had won that game, Kevin Durant would be
getting hammered. Nobody would be leading with j R. Smith,
Nobody would be leading with Lebron It would believe how

(01:49:26):
bad was Kevin durant Um. All right, let me go
back to the top five point guards of all time?
Because I tried to talk to Hall of Famer Oscar
Robertson about this and he stopped me in my tracks.
I was like, whoa, We will play the Oscar Robertson
thoughts on greatest point guard of all time in a moment,
but I just want to quickly hammer out my top
five point guards of all time. So, Rob when you

(01:49:48):
put this on social media, will people absolutely hate it
or hate it with all the hatred in the world,
because Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook are not a list,
but they're definitely gonna hate it. They're definitely. I just
don't see what's hateable about it again. Number one Magic Johnson.
I don't think there's any debate. Five titles, three MVP Awards,

(01:50:13):
three Finals, MVP Awards, nine times First Team All NBA, Magic,
Number one Steph Curry's number two, greatest shooter in NBA history,
Magic change the point guard position with his height. Curry
has done that with his deep shooting. Now he's only
two times first Team All NBA. Injuries have kind of
hurt this season, of course, but he was great, two

(01:50:36):
titles to m VP awards. He's about to get his
third title, could win an MVP Award. I think his
chances of catching magic or slim, very slim. It's possible.
Anything's possible with Curry. Number three, I have Isaiah Thomas,
three time All NBA First Team, two titles, was a
finals MVP. Here's my thing. Isaiah Thomas is behind Curry

(01:51:00):
because of this, And listen closely. His best three years
Isaiah were eight four, eight six. Larry Bird won the
m v P each of those years, So Isaiah was
not even the best player in the conference. Much that's
the league we're talking about. Steph Curry was the Most

(01:51:20):
Valuable Player in the NBA twice, So Isaiah has to
be behind Steph Curry. Now number four is where it
starts to get tricky. Honestly, this is it gets very
tough here because you've got guys like Steve Nash. Again,
Steve Nash was the m v P of the NBA twice,

(01:51:41):
and I know that they're disputed. You know, Shack was
angry that he was not the m v P. Uh.
I can understand people being a little ticked off about
Steve Nash being MVP. But I'll say this, Steve Nash
three times All NBA First Team, five times led the
league and assists and you you can counter, hey, man,

(01:52:05):
Steve Nash was not ever the best player on his team.
Well you can say that, but he was the m
v P of the league twice. Now I don't have
Nash four. I actually went Jerry West four. Now, don't
tell Oscar Robertson. Listen, Nick, his mouth is a gape here. Listen.
I have Jerry West as the fourth best point guard
of all time. He carried the Lakers to the finals

(01:52:29):
nine times. That earns my respect. You you you love
what Lebron's doing. Eight finals strips in a row. Jerry
West took his team to the finals nine times. Now,
the only one once he was the finals m v
P despite losing. The guy had a triple double in
Game seven and they lost. Jerry West ten times All

(01:52:50):
NBA First Team. I argued Jerry West and Oscar Robertson
is totally splitting hairs. They played the exact same years
in the league. Uh Oscar Robertson All NBA First Team
eleven times. So Oscar and Jerry are super close. But again,
getting to the championship is why I put West fourth

(01:53:10):
and number five. I go Steve Nash over John Stockton.
I'm sorry, I have to change my mind. I look
deep at John Stockton and I go Nash. Here's a question, Nick,
was John Stockton ever the best player on his own team? Nope?
John Stockton in his career has one first place m

(01:53:34):
v P vote. That's it. That's it. If you're not
the best player on your own team, you're not the
best player in the conference. You're not the m v P.
Steve Nash was the best player in the league twice.
So I I leave Stockton out and and I'll say this,
I have stocked in ahead of Chris Paul. Are you ready, Nick,

(01:53:57):
I know you're into this. John Stockton played eighty two
games sixteen of nineteen years. Chris Paul can barely play
seventy five games. The guy gets hurt every year. Now, Steve,
Steve Nash was not the defender Chris Paul was. Chris
Paul led the NBA and steal six times First Team
All Defense seven times. That's excellent. Yeah, Chris Paul's probably eight.

(01:54:24):
So I I would go Magic one, Curry too, Isaiah Thomas, three,
Jerry West, four, Steve Nash five. If I go six,
it would be Oscar, then Stockton, then Chris Paul. Jason
kidds up there to real quick. Okay, kids up there here. Uh.

(01:54:44):
He won a title, but was he ever the best
player on his own team? He was up there when
he was on those nets teams, probably best player on
the team. He did finish second and m v P
voting in two thousand two to Duncan. Had he won that,
maybe it's the best story, but this is what Uh,

(01:55:06):
Jason Kidd averaged in two thousand two, his best season
fourteen nine and seven. Very good, very good, fourteen nine
and seven. Nick, let's look at Alonzo. Alonzo's no no,
no Lakers. So show Jason Kidd is in there for

(01:55:26):
the second tier. But again, I go Magic, Curry, Isaiah,
Jerry West, Steve Nash, top five point guards in NBA history.
We will come back and wrap up the show with
um some more Oscar Robertson banter Man. I wonder if
the internet will blow up later this afternoon. Um, when
it's revealed that he doesn't think Jordan's the best of

(01:55:47):
all time, and he doesn't think Magic Johnson is the
best point guard in NBA history. We'll talk about that next.
Back here on the Big Lead, Fox Sports Radio, to
your boy, Jason McIntyre, coming to you live from the
Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios. What a show, A lot

(01:56:12):
of fun, lot of stuff to talk about, a lot
of interesting NBA Finals tidbits, folks. I'm gonna bring it
to you every weekend here on this show. I mean,
you know, I love the Finals. I love the NBA Draft.
Speaking of we talked Jerry West earlier. So uh, I
walk out of my yoga class yesterday. I started doing yoga,

(01:56:33):
which is very good. I know guys are gonna scoff
at it and call me names like the way Lebron
undressed Steph Carey on the court. Um, I'm telling yoga
is good mind and body. And guess who's outside my
gym yesterday. Jerry West with a contingent of Clippers Lawrence Frank,

(01:56:54):
a couple assistant coaches doing some scouting for the draft.
So I get all these little nuggets. I'm I'm sitting
on some stuff. I'm not gonna unleash it now in
the middle of the finals. Um, yes, Clippers are looking
hard to move up. That's not news. Um who their
target might be, that's another story. But um, some interesting

(01:57:19):
stuff going on. And we talked about Jerry West on
the show. We talked about Oscar Robertson, and let me
just close here because I know that you guys are
gonna keep asking me on Instagram and on Twitter, So
are you ready to say Kevin Durant's not the best
player anymore? Because like that's all you're doing. Like Lebron
has an amazing game seven? Yeah, he tort You know

(01:57:40):
the Celtics are that they're two best players. Well, he
tords the Warriors. Uh, without Andre Goudala, who is invaluable
at both ends. Is should be obvious by now to
anybody with eyes. Lebron was the best player on the
court in Game one, no doubt, by far and eight.
So now, truly everybody wants to say, oh, is Lebron

(01:58:01):
as good as Michael Jordan's So we asked Hall of
Famer Oscar Robertson. You know, he's by far one of
the top twenty five players in NBA history. That's safe
to say, right rob top twenty five year We asked
Oscar Robertson where are you on the Lebron Jordan debate.
Here's what he had to say about an hour and
a half ago. So, so, Oscar, who who would you say?

(01:58:24):
Is your from your eyes, the best player you've ever
seen in NBA history? Is it not Jordan or Lebron?
You know I'm not. First of all, I didn't play
against those guys. Yeah, so I'm just sitting and plague.
Maybe that's diluted against diluted talent. Oscar? Wow, Well, uh

(01:58:45):
you've got you got Lebron. Well he's been doing this.
I guess guys the fourteen years they have figured it
out yet, have they? It's a fair point, but I
mean you you think that talent is not as good
as it was. I'm not not not cheating. Here we go,
Here we go. No, I didn't. I said, maybe maybe
Jordan's player. Who Who's Who's Garden Jordan? Who's Garden? Levon?

(01:59:08):
You know, maybe they maybe that's a deluded talent. When
I said the little talent and they may be the
defensive to situation deficiency when I don't, I don't think.
I don't think when you talk all these players playing today,
if you're safe, you had eight teams, you'd be surprised
you wouldn't be playing. You Every every player you see
playing today, uh, to me, are not great players. This

(01:59:31):
is why you see some of these teams to win
fifteen games, twenty games and lose sixty or something that
that if if they were, if they were better, you cheer.
You see a closer, closer tabulation of the games and whatnot. No, no, no,
I think that a lot of that. You've got thirty
or seven teams. Everyone is not not this. But as
the other players, why Gold States winning all the time?

(01:59:54):
So what are we gonna call that? An old man
yelling at a cloud? Like the Simpsons moment. Let me
just and Oscar Robertson made a decent agree, But I
I just have to say this, Look at any industry
on the planet, cars, technology, football players, baseball players, in

(02:00:17):
every walk of life. Things are better than they were
years ago. You remember what phones could do fifteen years ago.
You couldn't send text messages fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years ago. Computers,
Go look at what how big a computer was in.

(02:00:42):
Go look at baseball players from the fifties to think
that talent is diluted and there there isn't the talent
that there was in nineteen sixty five. NBA versus today
Oscar Robertson, Bro, wake up, this is as good as

(02:01:02):
the basketball's ever been in NBA history. The depth of
talent is absurd. Thank you Rob, Thank you Nick Iowa, Sam,
deb Carson, Great Show podcast up later, Hartman's next Later

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Big Lead with Jason McIntyre: 06/02/2018