Deadline Drama

Episode Transcript
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Today is the NBA trade deadline. It comes down right
at three o'clock Eastern, so we have got let me
do the math live math on the air. Is is

(01:05):
always a disaster right at nine hours if I'm not mistaken,
right at nine hours until the trade deadline is officially here.
As we start off at six am Eastern on the
Thursday show, and people in the NBA are starting to
come undone, particularly the players. We got a couple of

(01:26):
different audios of you that I'm gonna play, Um, but
I got a theory for you off the top here,
and we're gonna talk to Chris Mannix covers the NBA.
He's gonna be on with us next segment and I'll
hit him with some of these theories. I got a
theory for you. I think the New Orleans Pelicans we're
so upset by the way that Anthony Davis handled his

(01:49):
impending free agency that they decided, you know what we're
gonna do. We're just gonna blow up the Lakers franchise
this year. And you know how they decided to do
it by doing absolutely nothing at all. Because everything that
Anthony Davis and Rich Paul and Lebron James tried to

(02:10):
manufacture was about Anthony Davis forcing a trade to the
Lakers this year. Rich Paul and Lebron James thought they
were chess grand masters, and they thought by going public
with this Anthony Davis demand, it would put so much
pressure on the Pelicans that it would force the Pelicans
to deal Anthony Davis, and you know what's happened. Instead,

(02:33):
the Pelicans basically laughed at him, engaged in negotiations that
only went one way, with the Lakers obsessively offering basically
every player on their roster in exchange for Anthony Davis,
and then they just cut off all contact. Reports are
the Pelicans haven't responded to the Lakers in multiple days now,

(02:57):
and if you watched the Pacers beat the Lakers by
forty two points, you tell me that in the process,
the Lakers haven't blown up their entire season because if
they're unable to make any big deal, and it looks
like that is probably likely with about nine hours to
go till the trade deadline, It's three am on the

(03:19):
West Coast right now, and the Lakers have been unable
to do anything to grab Anthony Davis. Meanwhile, the Pelicans
are saying, so what, We'll just wait until the end
of the year, and then if we decide to trade
Anthony Davis will be able to talk with every single
team in the n b A. And we're not going

(03:40):
to allow Lebron James and Rich Paul to dictate to
us what should we should be doing and as a result,
instead of making his team better. I think there's a
strong argument that Lebron James has blown up the Lakers.
I really do. I think it's very hard to go
back into the locker room and argue, hey, you guys

(04:01):
should listen to me and believe in me if you're
Lebron James, when you know that entire roster was basically
on the shopping block and Lebron was doing everything he
could to get rid of everybody. It's hard to trust
Lebron James after that. And most relationships, especially in sports,
are founded on trust. I think Lebron James has fundamentally

(04:24):
lost the trust of his teammates in the Lakers locker room.
And Lebron now is kind of like, uh, gone off
on this strange soliloquy where he got on Instagram all
up in his feelings and it doesn't make any sense
what he was saying. Did you see all the Lebron

(04:46):
quotes that he put out there? Um, this was a
lead headline and now I see that it's that it's vanished.
But Lebron got on the got on the Instagram machine
and he decided to tweet all about out the trade
of Harrison Barnes last night that took place while the
game was actually going on. And the Lebron Instagram post,

(05:09):
which I'm gonna read to you basically basically had to
do with the fact that players somebody send me that
link right now. Um, I want to read that Lebron Uh,
the Lebron Instagram post. But first, everybody's kind of coming
undone as the NBA trade deadline gets closer and closer,

(05:31):
and in particular in particular here's the challenge. The NBA
itself on the court doesn't provide any real drama because
the Warriors are by far the best team in the league,
and as a result, all of the media is forced
to cover all of the free agent and trade news
because that's what the fans actually care about. And so

(05:54):
now Kevin Durant is mad about speculation that he might
go join the Knicks, and in a pretty extraordinary postgame
press conference, he went off on the media for speculating
about where he might go. If you haven't heard, this
had happened late last night after the Warriors beat uh,
the Spurs pretty soundly. Kevin Durant hadn't talked to the

(06:16):
media for a couple of days. Here's what he had
to say. You've obviously been around the noise for so
long as it's bothering you. More of this year? Is
it louder this year? It is unnecessary. You gotta do
ethan Strouss who come in here and just give his
whole opinion on stuff and make it seem like it's
coming from me, and he just walking around here, don't
talk to nobody, just walking here and survey and then

(06:39):
write something like that. And now y'are piling on me
because I don't want to talk to you about that.
I have nothing to do with the Knicks. I don't
know who traded porzingis. They got nothing to do with me.
I'm trying to play basketball. Y'all come in here every day,
asked me about free agency, asked my teammates, my coaches,
who rilled up the fans about it. Let us play
basketb BO. That's all I'm saying. And now when I

(07:02):
want to talk to you all as a problem with me,
come on, man, grow up, Come on, bro. I come
in and go to work every day. I don't cause
no problems. I played it right way. I try to
play it right way. I try to be the best
player I can be every possession. What's the problem? What
am I doing here? We're talking? So who are you?

(07:23):
Why do I got to talk to you? Tell me?
Is that is that gonna help me do my job better?
N I didn't feel like talking. In all honesty, the
players have created this situation in the NBA, and now
they're upset that the media is following this situation in
the NBA. It's much more interesting to the average NBA

(07:47):
fan whether Kevin Durant is gonna leave and join the
Knicks than it is talking about the Warriors winning their
third championship in four years. Because they have a super team.
It's much more interesting for Laker fans, I think, to
talk about who might be joining the team than it
is to talk about this year's team. The NBA has

(08:09):
traded on court drama for off court drama, and the
players can't then get upset when the media is following
the narrative that they have already set. Lebron James last
night on on Instagram, as Harrison Barnes was traded to
Sacramento for Justin Jackson and Zach Randolph. While the game

(08:32):
was going on, he took to Instagram and said, so,
let me guess this is cool because they had to
do what was best for the franchise, right traded this
man while he was literally playing in the game and
had zero idea. I'm not knocking who traded him, because
it's a business and you have to do what you
feel it's best. But I just want this narrative to
start to get real change all caps and not when

(08:55):
a player wants to be traded or leaves a franchise
that he's a selfish, ungrateful player. But when they trade you, release, wave, cut, etcetera,
it's best for them. I'm okay with bos On both honestly, truly,
am just call a spade a spade. Well, these aren't
similar situations Lebron and I don't know if Lebron doesn't
see this or if he's been an intentionally uh daft here.

(09:18):
And by the way, Anthony Davis liked this Instagram post.
When a team trades a player or releases him or
cuts him, it's about the team trying to get better.
If you are a fan of that team, you might
not agree with that move, but you know that your

(09:38):
executive has the same goal that you do, i e.
They want that team to become better. When a player
like Anthony Davis says trade me, I don't want to
be here anymore, Anthony Davis is making the team that
you care about worse. So those aren't a spade a

(09:59):
spade lebron Ja games. Those are completely different situations. Now,
I don't begrudge a player for deciding to do what
he thinks is better than him or better for him,
I should say, but it isn't the same, and you
shouldn't expect fans to react the same way, because the
team trading for a player or trading away a player,

(10:21):
or cutting or releasing him is about the team trying
to get better, and fans root for teams. A player
saying I don't want to play for your team anymore
is not the same. Now, a player can make a
business decision like a team can make a business decision.

(10:43):
That's fine, but don't expect fans to react to those
in the same way. Because the fan is rooting most
of the time for the name on the front of
the jersey, not the name on the back of the jersey.
A player has to take care of the name on
the back of the jersey more than he does the
name on the front of the jersey. Those are not

(11:04):
similar situations. But I do find this amazing that the
two best players probably in the NBA, Durant and Lebron,
are both starting to crack under the pressure of the
situation that they have created. They created the idea that
what matters in the n b A isn't what happens

(11:26):
during the season, it's the drama that happens off the
court during the off season. Lebron created this situation with
decision one, decision two, and decision three point oh. Kevin
Durant created the speculation that he might go to the
Knicks by the decision that he made in his decision
one point oh when he went to the Warriors. Players

(11:49):
jumping all over and across the country when they become
unrestricted free agents is a huge topic that the media
wants to care about. Think about it. If you're a
Warrior's in right now, do you care what Kevin Durant
has to say about the game they just wont against
the Spurs, Or do you care whether or not he
might be interested in going to New York And that's

(12:11):
why they're trading all of those players at the end
of the season. It's not even close. You can't blame
the media for covering what fans want to hear and
talk about, And you certainly can't blame the media when
you are the one who helped to create this situation.
The NBA free agency is frankly, a lot more interesting

(12:35):
than the NBA regular season right now. So I don't
know how you blame the NBA media for covering something
that you created. I'm gonna ask Chris Mannix about this,
see what he thinks about these stories. He's gonna join
us next. He is a reporter who covers the NBA.
And obviously, as we tick down the hours until with

(12:55):
free agency is officially here, I'm sorry, until the trade
deadline is officially here in nine hours, we'll see what
ends up actually happening there. In the meantime, you know
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(13:16):
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(13:39):
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you know inside the little heart box with all the

(14:00):
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(14:47):
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(15:52):
don't blow it up. Next, it's Chris Mannox. This is
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Chris Mannox joins us now does a great job covering
the NBA. Chris, what's gonna happen? Your best prediction between

(16:59):
now and trade deadline hitting at three eastern? Well, I
still think there's a handful of significant deals that could
get done. Um Ultimately, I think Memphis is going to
auction off Mike Conley, Uh, Marcusol deal gets done that.
They've made it pretty clear that that they want to

(17:19):
to kind of reboot this whole thing, so they're gonna
move off both those guys. Uh. An interesting team I'm
watching is Orlando. They're another team that outside of more
Bomba and Jonathan Isaac to their young players, they've made
it pretty clear everybody else is available and there's some
pretty good talents on that roster. And I guess the
you know, the non in the non Anthony Davis division.

(17:42):
It's kind of what's Philadelphia gonna do with Marquet? Folks? Uh,
you're not gonna get dollar for dollar value back from folks.
You're not gonna get a draft pick that's that's commensurate
with with what Folks was. But you may be able
to get a rotation player who can help you in
the playoffs. And you know, the way the Sixers team
is kind of being built right now, that could be

(18:04):
a pretty valuable asset to them. Um, did or have
the Pelicans intentionally blown up the Lakers pursuit of Anthony
Davis to blow up their team in the process, because
if you've seen the team chemistry with the Lakers right now,
it's certainly kind of feels that way. Do you think
that was intentional? I don't know if it was intentional,

(18:27):
the way it all kind of shook out. I've said,
Clay for days, I didn't think the Pelicans had any
intention of trading Anthony Davis, at least not before the
trade deadline. I mean, there are legitimate reasons for not
doing it. Um, you know, the draft lottery being unknown,
and who has that number one pick. More importantly, Boston's

(18:50):
ability to get into the mix and make a deal
that is more significant than what anybody could do. And
and look, this is going to be and should be
the most substant ancial trade in NBA history. You should
get back the most assets for you and it's a
chance to rebuild your entire franchise on the fly. But
I do think there was a more personal aspect to it,

(19:11):
and looked at the the from on and I was
talking with some in New Orleans last night. I don't
know that they necessarily blame the Lakers, but they do
blame Rich Paul and and they they they know that
this season was this is probably gonna be Davis's last season,
Like they expected that come July Davis would reject their

(19:32):
contract extension and they'd have kind of what san Antonio
had a few weeks to two piece deals together and
and make one this trade request. The public tradelness of
the trade request and the obviousness that this was connected
to desperation to get him to the Lakers, that really rattled,
you know, people in influential positions in that front office.

(19:52):
So again, I don't know if it's it's a Laker
centric thing as much that to do with Davis's representatives
and how they've chaveed the Pelicans front office. The Rich
Paul and Lebron James think they're playing chess, and in reality,
they're actually playing checkers. Because to me, their entire movements
here have been conducted as if they think they're moving

(20:13):
from a position of power, and the reality is they
don't have that much power. And I think this entire
process has blown up on them. Do you agree or disagree? Oh?
I agree, because you know, unless something changes dramatically in
the next seven or eight hours, you know, Davis is
gonna be on the Pelicans and it's going to be
an incredibly uncomfortable a few months for him as he

(20:35):
tries to play and the Pelicans sort of decide what
to do with him. Uh. The fans support obviously just vanished. Uh.
And if you know anything about Anthony Davis, it's the
last thing he wants, like, you know, he he you know,
up until this point, he not only has not made
any public trade request, he hasn't even grumbled, Like there
hasn't even been this kind of sourced reporting of Davis's

(20:56):
unhappiness and that this was a strategic play on the
part of his representatives. That that I think, and I'm
just sort of speculating here, but I think he was
talked into and and here and here we are where
you know, it all kinda fell flattened. If we've learned
anything over the last few years, you know, a player
with one year left under contract can can force a trade,

(21:19):
but he can't force where he's gonna get traded too.
So you know, just like Kauai went to Toronto and
Paul George went to Oklahoma City, there's a realistic chance
that even if it's not Boss, it's somewhere else that
Davis winds up and then he's gonna have to make
a decision. Do you go to Los Angeles with the
thirty six year old Lebron James and play alongside him
in and and that that's that could be an even

(21:41):
tougher call. Yeah, and that's what I've been saying from
the get go. Chris, I'm surprised more people in media
haven't pointed this out. I understand completely why Lebron wants
Anthony Davis. I don't understand at all why Anthony Davis
wants Lebron. Yeah. Look, it's it's a very fair point,
and it makes even less sense when you know, you
and I both know what public statements don't always mean everything.

(22:02):
What a guy says publicly and privately are oftentimes two
very different things. But the trade demand, you know, his
agent statement said he wants to go somewhere we can
consistently win and beyond a championship contender. His media gaggle
after the trade request, he said, it's my time. I
want to win all these these kind of things in
in what world like just putting a push put of

(22:23):
the Celtis and Lakers on the table. No one can
legitimately say that a trade to Boston is not better
than a trade to Los Angeles. It's just not. I mean,
you can we can quibble about, you know, what's the
deal with Kyrie Irving. I don't think anybody really knows
out there, but the Celtics are pretty well stacked right now.
And the Lakers, if they make this Anthony Davis trade,

(22:44):
it's Anthony Davis, you know, thirty five year old Lebron James,
and god knows who else. And I think that's so
well said. We're talking to Chris Mannix. So what if
this Lebron James said yesterday everybody needs to stay off
social media during the trade deadline. You know, these young guys,
they spend too much time there. And then what does
Lebron do. He gets on social media and sends out
a Instagram post that doesn't really make any sense, but

(23:07):
I guess he thinks it does about Harrison Barnes getting traded.
How does Lebron right now? So, with the Lakers sitting
at twenty seven and twenty seven and likely to lose
their next two frankly against the Celtics and the seventies
Sixers rebuild this team, it feels like to me like
the Lakers have pretty much blown up in his face
if they aren't able to make a trade, and it

(23:27):
doesn't seem like they're going to be because why would
these guys ever trust him? And can you imagine? I mean,
I'll be at the game in Boston tonight and you
know Celtics fans who who will declare victory that Davis
didn't get traded, Like that'll be their victory and they'll
they'll declare a Laker's loss with all the animosity that
exists between Boston and later begin with that the Pacers

(23:48):
fans set the blueprint, and I think the selfiss fans
will take it to like the the the extreme level
with some of the chance they're gonna make when um
you know, guys like Ingram and Kuzman whoever, are at
the free throw and here's the problem with that, Lebron
is going to encounter. And I talked to someone close
to that team about this just the other night. You know,

(24:08):
the young players on that team, they're gonna look at
Lebron as the guy because Lebron's agent, like you can't.
It's reasonable to assume that that Lebron's agent and Aunton
David's agent, that they have this discussion with Lebron James.
It's reasonable to assume that that you can say that
Lebron comes in, talks about, you know, playing with these
young guys and within you know, half a season, is

(24:31):
basically orchestrating their trade out of town. Now you can
say Lebron doesn't know who the Lakers are gonna trade.
He certainly knows that to get Anthony Davis, it's gonna
take every viable young talent on that roster. So Ingram Kuzma,
a Lonzo ball who already saw do the goofy thing
of uh take all his Laker stuff office social media,
and LaVar his mirror miraculous resurfaced in the last week

(24:53):
like these guys is gonna be on Undisputed with Skip
Baylis this morning. Here we go, So what's gonna happen here?
And here it comes like and you know, I tell
you this much, and I talked to a GM about
this during the week. It reminds people that if you're
trading for Alonzo ball, you get the LaVar ball experience too.
When everybody knows how distracting he was in the first

(25:14):
half of last season. All right, we're talking to Chris Mannix.
Kevin Durant goes off on the media last night in
Golden uh, Golden State after their win over the Spurs.
But haven't Lebron James and Kevin Durant created this situation
in the NBA where there is no drama right now
on the court. Right I think everybody would be stunned
if the Warriors don't win the championship again. And so

(25:37):
as a result, all of the drama comes off the
court when you do the decision like Lebron did one
point oh, two point oh, three point oh, and when
Kevin Durant made the decision already one point oh to
leave okay, see like he did. They have created this
system whereby the players off the court decisions are a
lot more interesting in the NBA than the on court product,

(25:58):
and therefore I think it's hypocritical of them to say
dly say to the media, why are you guys covering
this so much? Well, because you created this. You made
it fertile. There is no franchise tag like in the NFL,
which would restrict player movement. This story is by far
more interesting than who's gonna win the championship, which is
how most other sports are covered. Absolutely, and I think

(26:20):
more importantly, Lebron and Kevin Durant have created this by
you know, bucking the system and only signing short term deals.
You know, if Kevin Durant was under a four year deal,
we wouldn't be having this conversation. We're not having any
conversation about Lebron's future because he signed a four year deal.
There are plenty of advantages to signing short term contracts.

(26:42):
The power you gain within an organization by signing a
short term contract is significant, but this is the fallout, Like,
this is what you get when a team like the Knicks,
which you know, God help them if if they did
this without any kind of head not Kevin Durant. I
mean they they've been the gang that and shoot straight
for the better part of the last two decades. If
they did it again, um, you know there should be

(27:04):
a storming of the garden. But this they're doing this.
They're doing this because they believe that they're going to
get Kevin Durant, and because Kevin Durant keep signing these
one year deals. This is what happened. So it's you
can't have what the good that comes with the short
term deal and the bad, and you can avoid all
the bad. Outstanding stuff is always what's your I always
like this from a process point because I think there's

(27:26):
a lot of people out there driving into school and work.
They think, oh, I'd like to work in sports media someday.
What will today be like for you? And what has
the past several days been like for you as a
guy covering the NBA. How many hours a day are
you working right now? It's it's most of them. How
many hours are you working? It's most of them. It's
hard to it's hard to keep track half the time.

(27:47):
I mean the Tobias Harris straight kind of. I've never
experienced that where it's it's two am and a major
deal goes down on the East Coast, but it's like
it's it's a lot of texting and guys don't want
to be bothered most of the time with phone calls.
I will say this, though, there is there's a lot
of people that are grumbling nowadays, especially involved with the
like the Lakers, as you know the last few years

(28:09):
didn't really piss some teams off, like it's you know,
Kauai wants to go, and it wasn't a lot of
Lakers necessarily, but they were part of it. It's Paul
George and now here we have Anthony Davis. Like there
are teams that are their teams out there with gms
that feel like they have built their teams the right way.
They've done it through the draft, they've done it through
shrewd maneuvering, and then they see the Lakers out there
who were just like dangling like Manhattan Beach and saying like,

(28:32):
come play for us, because you know you might have
like our lifestyle better that you wouldn't. You'd be surprised
how and know how many teams that really annoys going
into days like this. Do you think it's possible the Clippers,
by the way, have outplayed the Lakers quietly and free
agency and getting ready for the off season. I think
they've I don't know how successful they're going to be,

(28:53):
but they are in a much better position. Yes, the
Lakers have Lebron James, but the Clippers got two first
round draft picks for a guy they weren't going to
resign anyway, And it takes them out of the playoff mix.
But they get to keep their draft pick if they're
out of the playoff mix. Otherwise it transfers over to Boston.
They've done a very good job in Los Angeles in
an organizationally preparing for free agency. Last question for you,

(29:14):
I know how busy you are. I appreciate you coming
on with this. Chris Mannix, he kills it. Go follow
him on Twitter. Lakers, let's say, don't make a move here.
What can they do in the off season to make
themselves substantially better by next year? Because I'm starting to
look at it and say, Okay, if Duran's gonna go
to New York, like, who is the what is the
addition that's going to make the Lakers infinitely better? Who

(29:35):
were they going to be in the running for If
Anthony Davis ultimately doesn't come there. Who's the guy what changes?
I don't know that there is one Clay, to be
honest with you, that you know, when you canvas the
league at a top free agent level, I haven't really
encountered anybody, and I'm trying to think, Yeah, I haven't
encounted anybody that says put the Lakers in their top
choice or that that list the Lakers high up there.

(29:57):
I mean, you know, the Clippers have been all in
on Kauai from Jump. Yeah, that's the guy that they're
going after. Jimmy Butler. He's gonna go where the money is,
But I don't know that it's gonna be in Los Angeles.
Kemba Walker, I don't think that's happening either. You know,
Durance is not gonna play with Lebron James like for
no other reason. He's trying to chase championships and eclipse
Lebron James. I think they're in trouble. I really do.

(30:19):
I don't think there's a guy out there that could
be make a significant difference with them that next season.
Outstanding stuff has always get some sleep in a couple
of days, but until then, nine more hours and kill it.
My man, you gotta click. That is Chris Mannox. That
was fantastic. Appreciate him coming on early with US Live
this morning. Is the NBA trade deadline gets closer? Uh,
Eddie Garcia, what you got for me? My man? Well, first,

(30:41):
let's tell you that this report is brought to you
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buying experience. On the court. Last night and the NBA,
the Box get their league best forty win of the
year and being the Wizards. One goes to Kopa forty

(31:01):
three points for Milwaukee Warriors, the top team in the West,
had no trouble beating the Spurs one to one oh two.
Golden State now thirty eight and fifteen on the year,
Rockets over the Kings on to one oh one, James
Harden thirty six points. It's twenty eight consecutive games now
for Harden scoring thirty or more. College basketball highest ranked
team in action was number six Nevada, who beat Carladro
State eighty two wolfpackery two and one now on the

(31:24):
year wins for number fourteen in Villanova, nineteenth ranked Wisconsin,
number twenty one l s U and number twenty four Maryland.
Will be back to OutKick the coverage in ten seconds.
But first a word from farmers. From a dog accidentally
flooding a living room to a dog taking a joy ride,
we've covered it. Talk to farmers. We know a thing
or two. Because we've seen a thing or two. We
are farmers under written my farmers truck fire insurance, exchanges

(31:47):
and affiliates products unavailable in every state. Now back to
Clay Travis and the Guico outkicked the coverage studio when
we come back. Is panic setting in in the City
of Angels. You just heard Chris Mannix say maybe there
is no grand plan for Lebron, James and Chris Paul
and maybe everything has blown up in their face. Are
the Lakers even gonna make the playoffs? They're on the

(32:08):
road tonight against the Celtics. What happens. I'll bring in
the crew in l A. We will discuss. I'll also
open up the phone lines eight seven, seven, six, three
six nine. Hope you all are having a great Thursday morning.
This is Outkicked the Coverage on Fox Sports Radio. Be
sure to catch live editions of Outkicked the Coverage with
Clay Travis weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific.

(32:29):
Welcome back, I go Outkicks Studios. I hope all of
you are having fantastic Thursday mornings. Let me go ahead
and roll into the studio Laker fans hitting the panic button.
I thought it was really interesting that conversation we just
had with Chris Mannix. Where As we approach again live

(32:51):
math always a challenge for me right now, but as
we approach I believe it's eight hours until the NBA
trade deadline. I think everything has blown up in Lebron
James and Rich Paul's face. I think there's a decent chance,
a high probability chance, that the Lakers are not going
to be able to make any major moves at all,
and that they're not really going to be able to

(33:12):
make any major moves in the off season either, and
that Lebron James may have wetted himself to this group
of young Lakers that now have zero trust in him
because they know he was trying to immediately get rid
of them. And effectively ask act as the GM for
this team. Justin Cooper, are you, as a Laker fan,

(33:34):
nervous about how this process is playing out? I mean yes,
but not not because of you know, any of this
talk like oh, they've lost the you know, he's lost
the locker room and Lebron's destroying the franchise. I mean,
I feel like we hear these kind of stories of

(33:55):
about Lebron every year, like, you know, the same thing
happened in Cleveland, like he's trading away everybody is he is?
You know, does everybody hate him in Cleveland? And then
he would get to the NBA finals anyway. So I'm
nervous just because I get nervous about my team and
I want them to do well and they're not doing
well right now. And you know, Chris Mannix, he's a

(34:15):
he's a great NBA writer and report everything. He's awesome.
But he's also a Boston homer. I mean, he he
went to Boston College. He'd hosts on w e I
all the time. He loves the Celtics, and so, I mean,
I don't know, I take it with a grain of salt.
I don't think that I don't think the Celtics package
is that much significantly better than what the Lakers can

(34:39):
and have offered allegedly? How much? How many points would
I have to give you to bet on the Lakers
tonight on the road against Boston? Uh? Ten? Not enough?
Not enough. I don't know what this line is right now.
I haven't even checked, but I already know unlock it in.

(34:59):
My biggest bet of the night is gonna be on
on completely for the Celtics to go out and just obliterate.
That's gonna that's gonna be your Yeah, my biggest bet
of the nights are right now, Boston is only a
six and a half point favorite. Lakers will Lakers are
gonna lose by twenty tonight. They're not. It's a rivalry

(35:20):
game and none of the none of the young guys
are gonna be traded, so they're gonna be happy to
be on the team. Still, No, it's a disaster. It's
gonna be a disaster, Roberto, Are you willing to acknowledge
that Lebron James may have created a situation that is
in total and epic disaster for the Yeah, there's no
question about it is a disaster right now. But I
think once everything settles down and and the players are

(35:43):
the guys that were suppose they're gonna be traded are
still on the team. I think I think the Lakers
are gonna be alright. Some of these young some of
these young guys, guys like a Kuzma Ingram, they're just
as good as a Jason Tatum. The numbers, the numbers
say that that he that they are. These players are good.
I think these are these are gonna settle down. The
Clippers already putting The Clippers already put it on their season.

(36:04):
They're the eight seed right now currently, so they're gonna
fall off, so that eight seas gonna be there for
the Lakers, eight or seventh seed at least, so they
can get drilled in the first round of the playoffs.
And then not necessarily, if the if the Nuggets, if
the Nuggets finished number one and the Warriors finished number two,
the Lakers playing the Nuggets in the first round, I'll
think the Lakers over the Nuggets in the first round,
and that happens. I don't think that would happen. First

(36:26):
of all, the Lakers wouldn't win that series. Dub is
this evidence that Lebron James always thinks that he's being
really smart, and clearly this is all manufactured and maneuvered
and created by his relationship with Rich Paul. And basically
everything that they have done has blown up in their
face so far. They thought by going public, we're gonna

(36:46):
put the pressure on the Lakers, They're gonna have to
make a move. They didn't factor in at all the
way the Pelicans would respond, which is to say, we'll
just wait till the end of the season. In the process,
Anthony Davis blows up his relationship with everybody in New Orleans.
Lebron James blows up his relationship with everybody in the
Laker locker room, and now neither guy is getting what

(37:09):
they wanted, and nothing is changing except that both guys
are in an infinitely worse position than they were before
this story broke last week. Yeah, I think you said
it well earlier when you were talking to Chris Mannix.
They tried to outsmart everyone in the room, but they
just ended up kind of outsmarting themselves. And now they're
in a nice little hole that they need to somehow

(37:30):
dig out of, and they're not gonna be able to
dig out of it. In the next you know, eight
hours more or less. It is pretty wild to think
about the mess that the Lakers have created for themselves.
I mean it is. It is a huge Now, maybe
things are going to change. Maybe suddenly they'll trade everybody
for Anthony Davis and Lebron will at least be freed
from the locker room that all hates him. But right

(37:52):
now I think that this could not remember earlier this week.
I started off the show saying, who advises you as
a big deal When you're somebody like Anthony Davis, you
need somebody who's not looking out for your next year.
You need somebody who's looking out for your next five years.
And Anthony Davis, at the age of twenty six, all
he had to do was finish out this season and

(38:14):
then he could have gone public if he wanted to
after the season was over, say hey, I've loved my
time in New Orleans. I just don't think it's the
right fit for me going forward. I would like to
be traded, but I would also like for the Pelicans
to get a good trade for me in exchange, and
if that happens, I'd just like to thank the people
in New Orleans for the time that I spent here,

(38:36):
and people in New Orleans wouldn't have been happy, but
they would have been like, Okay, at least he's being
straightforward with us. And honestly, the best thing Anthony Davis
should have done, even if he's unhappy in New Orleans,
was just play out the entirety of his contract and
then go through free agency like Kevin Durant did, like
Lebron James did three different times, so he could go
wherever in the in the country he wanted to go.

(38:58):
That made the most sense from basketball perspective. Instead, he
has handcuffed himself, created not very many good options, blown
up all of his relationships in New Orleans, and in
the process, Lebron James has done the exact same thing
in l A. And I think there's a possibility that
the Lakers in this offseason, even with salary cap a room,

(39:20):
are not gonna be able to find anybody that fundamentally
alters their standing in the Western Conference in the NBA. Now,
maybe they can get lucky and Kevin Durant is gonna
leave and go back to New York. Maybe some of
the guys on the Warriors will break up that team
and some of the talent will disperse in a way
that makes them elevated a little bit in the West

(39:42):
just because the Warriors come down. But this is a
big time mess, all right. I'm gonna open up phone
lines and let everybody react to this. Also, we start
off hour two. I'm gonna dive into signing Day um
and everything that took place yesterday. The in the college
football signing classes are now complete. I'll tell you who
the winners and the losers were, and we'll run through

(40:03):
the overall breakdown there. I believe we're scheduled to be
joined by Jeff Schwartz an hour too. And obviously we
will continue to track and follow all that is taking
place in the NBA as the trade deadline inches closer
and closer. Today it will be at three Eastern. All
of that still to come. I appreciate you guys spending
your Thursday morning with us much to discuss. We'll dive

(40:26):
in for a moment to college football and all the
signing classes that happened yesterday. When we return. This is
outkicked the coverage NBA Trade Deadline edition on Fox Sports Radio.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports
Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio apps.

(40:47):
Search f s R to listen live. Welcome in Geico
OutKick Studios our number two Thursday edition. I hope you
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Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. NBA trade
deadline now eight hours away. But there was actual sporting
news that took place yesterday. If you weren't paying attention,
College basketball is a college basketball. College football is actually

(41:32):
getting a a little bit confusing in the sense that
there are now two signing days, and we talked about
this yesterday, UM in terms of the fact that they
have the early signing Day that goes on in December
and now they have the late Signing Day that goes
on in uh in February, which is when the traditional
signing day was And so as a result, all signing

(41:55):
Day classes were completed yesterday and we can now start
to dive in and say, oh, who were the winners
and losers. And the winner, not surprisingly, as it has
been almost every year since Nick Saban got to Alabama,
is Alabama. And Alabama put together one of the greatest
classes of talent that has ever existed in the history

(42:16):
of college football. In fact, yesterday we had Barton simmons
on and I believe I am correct that one this
is the best class that Alabama has ever signed. And two,
the class is so incredible that it's the second best
class that has ever been signed by any team ever.

(42:37):
And you know it's really good when you look at
Alabama and they got twenty seven commitments. Three of them
were five stars, twenty three of them were four stars,
which is unheard of, and they had only one three
star and that was a kicker. So Alabama is has
put together the class class the likes of which we

(42:59):
have literally never are nearly seen in the history of
college football. And right behind them was Georgia. Georgia and
Kirby Smart running a mini Alabama out of Athens, Georgia.
Second best class in America, Texas Longhorns Tom Herman puts
together a really solid class, slide in at the number
three spot, and then it's more SEC A and M

(43:23):
in the four, n L s U in the five.
And by the way, I'm using the seven Sports Composite
recruiting class rankings, so that's where they averaged together all
of the major recruiting class in disease and come up
with a composite ranking so that you can't argue one
side is biased or one particular organization is biased towards

(43:44):
the team. We've never seen that level of dominance by
a conference before. By the way, four of the top
five classes in America all from the SEC. Then Oklahoma
recruiting well under Lincoln Riley, Oregon really good class US
under Mario Cristal Ball sliding in at the seven spot,
Michigan at eight, Florida had a really good clothes under

(44:08):
Dan Mullen to finish in the top ten. Clemson with
a relatively mediocre class for Clemson, UH down at the
ten spot even though they signed twenty nine players. Auburn
sliding in at eleven UM and Tennessee at twelve. So
as you break down the overall top twelve, you've got seven.

(44:30):
I believe I'm doing the math correctly. Seven SEC schools
in the top twelve in the nation. By the way,
Tennessee with two really big editions late, a five star
in a four star late on the afternoon to put
their class up to number twelve overall. Penn State James
Franklin doing a pretty good job, sliding in at thirteen.

(44:51):
Ohio State only had seventeen players this year in their class,
they finish in the fourteen spot. Notre Dame drops back
a decent bit. They been recruiting a really high level.
Fifteen Florida State. I think you have to be a
little bit underwhelmed with the class that Willie Taggert put together,
given that he came to Florida State with the idea

(45:11):
that he was gonna be a phenomenal recruiter. Washington one
of the best classes that Chris Peterson has ever put together,
sliding in at seventeen USC. Bad class for the Trojans.
Not surprising given all the staff turnover and given that
a lot of people don't have very much faith in
Clay Hilton, South Carolina in at the nineteen spot, which

(45:33):
means they are good for nineteenth overall in the nation,
but they are only good enough for eight in the SEC. Nebraska.
That first class from Scott Frost, I would say mediocre.
Now he may have the ability to recruit to his
system and be able to develop him like he did
at UCF, but only six four stars. Not that high

(45:55):
of a recruiting class for Nebraska given that it's Scott
Frost first year Stanford David Shaw continues to do an
incredible job with the tree out there. Posting the twenty
one best class in the nation. Ole miss sounds good right.
Twenty two overall, particularly given all the turmoil that has

(46:16):
existed there. That's ninth best in the SEC. Arkansas fans
were really excited about their recruiting class, considering they were
following the worst year in program history. They went to
in ten in the first year of Chad Morris. They
got the number twenty three overall class. Problem is that's
only good enough for barely top ten in the SEC.

(46:40):
Mississippi State sliding in at twenty four and then Jeff
bram In per Due at that is your college football breakdown. UM,
I'll write about this later today probably one of the
big takeaways, and I haven't put all the data together yet,
But every year at this time I write an article
where I break down the fact that if you don't

(47:02):
have at least two top ten recruiting classes in the
four years before the year UH is about to be played,
you have no chance to win a national championship. And
a data point for you going all the way back
to UH I think is the year. Now I'll have
to go look at my all my data going all

(47:23):
the way back to The only team to ever win
a national championship in college football without at least two
top ten recruiting classes in the prior four years was
Oklahoma in two thousand. So that kind of puts into
perspective how much recruiting matters, because there's always the people
out there who say, oh, recruiting is overrated, it doesn't matter. Well, basically,

(47:47):
in the last twenty five years plus, if you want
to win a national championship, With the exception of Oklahoma
in two thousand, every team that has won a national
championship has at least to top ten recruiting classes in
the proceeding four years, and frankly, most of the time
they have had three or more often than that, four

(48:11):
top ten recruiting classes in a row. So that's worth
factoring in if you're one of the skeptics out there
who doesn't believe that recruiting actually matters. All right, that
is what's going on in college football. That all happened yesterday.
We continue to have a lot of drama in the
NBA as we come up on the trade deadline. The

(48:32):
Lakers in severe trouble. We'll see what happens they play
against the Celtics tonight if they can't make a trade.
Lebron James coming off the worst defeat of his career.
I think we are scheduled to be joined by Jeff Schwartz,
but I haven't heard from him yet this morning, so
if he's not gonna be with us, I will open
up the phone lines right now. We'll take some of
your calls eight seven seven six three six nine. You

(48:56):
can react to college football recruiting, or you can react
to the NBA ad drama as it inches closer. Also,
our good friend Jamal hill I can talk about this
is once more in the line of fire. So to
speak after she sent out a tweet suggesting uh that
perhaps Donald Trump should be assassinated during the State of
the Union. She was trying to make a joke. It

(49:18):
didn't go off very well. I'll talk about that, um
unbelievable situation going on there. Um that is just thoroughly insane.
All that and more still to come. But I can
see many of you right now. You're brushing your teeth.
You got your toothbrush in your hand while you're listening
to me. I am telepathic in that way. I can

(49:38):
see all around the country, all around the world, at
the number of you right now that are standing with
toothbrushes in your hand. And you know what, I know
nine of you are not gonna brush long enough, and
you are gonna be war using those old, worn out
toothbrushes with bristles that aren't good enough to protect your teeth.
Do you know how I know that because the dentist
have told me. Did old experts, eight thousand of them

(50:01):
have been saying, you know what you need to do.
You need to get equip electric toothbrush. You get equip
electric toothbrush. We've got one now. They had to had
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much time you're spending on your teeth. You ever stand
there brush your teeth and then realize that you've been

(50:23):
on the same side of your mouth for too long
or used to lose track of your thought, and you
spend too much time, you're not evenly brushing, and as
a result, you're not getting an even clean happens to
all of us. And you also have all those issues
with other electric toothbrush where maybe you come in, you're
getting ready to brush your teeth and you haven't charged it.
Quip is great because it runs on one charge for

(50:44):
three months, so you don't even have to think about
charging your toothbrush for three months an entire football season.
Almost You can just brush your teeth one time without
having to charge it at all, one time every day,
hopefully two times every day. You only have to charge
at once every three months, and it's very affordable. In fact,
right now, if you go to get quip dot com

(51:06):
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(51:27):
about it. Your teeth will thank you. And while you're
brushing your teeth, you can start off your day listening
to me and thinking about me, and you'll be thinking,
my God, thank goodness for Clay Travis. He's made sure
that my teeth are perfect. This is outkicked the Coverage.
G E T q U I P slash Clay, get
it today, up next, maybe Jeff Shorts, if not tons

(51:51):
of stories, NBA Trade deadline, college football, your calls, and
Jamal Hill suggests that maybe the President should be assassinated
during the State of the Union address. It's unbelievable. This
is OutKick the Coverage on Fox Sports Radio. Be sure
to catch live editions of OutKick the Coverage with Clay
Travis week days at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio. A

(52:15):
welcome back I Go out Kick Studios. Car Shopping and
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enjoy a more confident car buying experience. Jeff Schwortz just
texted me and he said, Man, I usually come on Friday.

(52:35):
Is that right? I can't keep up with what days
I've set people to come on as guests. So evidently
Jeff Shorts usually joins us on Friday now, so he'll
be with us tomorrow. In the meantime, there are major
stories out there as we come up on seven hours
remaining in the NBA tread trade deadline. About seven and
a half hours remaining in the NBA trade deadline. Two

(52:55):
stories that are going on right now. One Kevin Durant
night went off on the media for being uh interested
in whether or not he's going to join the Knicks.
Here is Durant talking to the media after the Warriors
defeated the Spurs last night. You've obviously been around the
noise for so long as it's bothering you more of
this year? Is it louder this year? It's unnecessary. You

(53:18):
gotta do ethan Strouss who come in here and just
give his whole opinion on stuff and make it seem
like it's coming from me, and he just walking around here,
don't talk to nobody, just walking here and survey and
then write something like that. And now you're piling on
me because I don't want to talk to you about that.
I have nothing to do with the Knicks. I don't

(53:38):
know who traded porzingis. They got nothing to do with me.
I'm trying to play basketball. Y'all come in here every day,
who rilled up the fans about it. Let us play basketball,
That's all I'm saying. And now when I don't want
to talk to y'all as a problem with me, come on, man,
grow up, mom bro. I come in and go to

(53:59):
work every day. I don't cause no problems. I played
it right away. I try to play it right way.
I try to be the best player I can be
every possession. What's the problem? What am I doing here?
We're talking? So who are you? Why do I gotta
talk to you. Tell me? Does that is that gonna
help me do my job better? No? I didn't like talking.

(54:24):
So Kevin Durant, who helped to create the storyline that
all that matters in the NBA is where superstars decide
to play, is upset that the media is covering the
story of where superstars might decide to play. The irony
is mind boggling. Here. Lebron James also all up in
his feelings as his team rebels against him, and it

(54:46):
appears that his attempt to play chess has ended up
looking like checkers and blown up in his face. He
got on Instagram. Now. The funny thing about Lebron James
getting on Instagram is yesterday Lebron said, guys have got
to stay off of social media. Do we have that audio?
Do we have the audio from yesterday? The way I
think we played that on the show? Yesterday after they
got beat by forty two, Lebron James, talking to the

(55:09):
media said, well, guys have just got to get off
social media. Do we have that audio from yesterday? Anybody
know where that? I don't even know what happens to
audio A day after. We'll see if we can find it.
Literally Lebron James yesterday was saying, well, one of the
big problems with the NBA trade deadline approaching is a
lot of the young guys spend too much time on
social media. And then Lebron today late last night, a

(55:33):
day after he said guys got to get off social
media and stop spending so much time there, gets on
social media and says as follows on Instagram about the
trading of Harrison Barnes during while he was being on
the game. But first, here's Lebron yesterday saying, guys gotta
get off social media. We have a lot of guys
who's been in trade talks the last couple of weeks

(55:54):
and that's never been in that position before. So you
have the xcels guys, and um, you know how they're
dealing with it. I don't. I can't. You can't really
ask me. I've never been a part of that, but
I've been a part of teammates, you know, I know
it has to be tough on a lot of our guys,
especially our young guys. Uh, you know right now, they've
just never been a part of it, and um, you know,
and they're here every single day. The worst thing that

(56:16):
you can do right now to be on social media.
And I know all young guys love social media, so um,
you know that definitely can't help. Social media definitely can't help.
The worst thing you can do right now is be
on social media. So what does Lebron do? He goes
on social media. Well within and within twenty four hours
of telling everybody, hey, guys gotta get off social media,

(56:36):
and decides to put his fields out there on Instagram.
So let me guess this is cool because they had
to do what was best for the franchise, right traded
this man while he was literally playing in the game
and had zero idea. I'm not knocking who traded him,
because it's a business and you have to do what
you feel what's best. But I just want this narrative
to get real. Slash change all caps and not when

(56:58):
a player wants to be traded or leaves a franchise
that he's a selfish, ungrateful player. But when they trade you,
release wave cut, etcetera, it's best for them. I'm okay
with both, honestly, truly, am just call a spade a spade.
These are not the similar things Lebron every time Lebron
tries to make analogies, he fails because he doesn't really
have a sophisticated line of thinking. Here's the truth. Fans

(57:21):
get upset when players say they do not want to
play for the team that fans have been supporting. They've
been buying your jersey. They've been paying lots of money
to go to ticket to go to games. They've been
paying lots of money for concessions at the game. They've
been investing their time and energy in rooting for you
and the franchise. So when a team decides to trade

(57:43):
a player, fans buy and large unless they have decided
to turn on the executives who are running the franchise,
support the idea that the team is trying to get better.
So when you decide to trade Harrison Barnes, it's about
trying to make the team better. You might like Harrison Barnes,
but when he leaves, you're gonna continue to root for

(58:04):
the name on the front of the jersey. When a
player says, I don't want to be on this team anymore,
I don't know what Lebron expects to happen. Do you
expect for the play All the fans that have spent
all the time and money and energy and effort rooting
for this guy as a part of the team to
feel like that's fair, to feel like they're supposed to

(58:26):
be happy about that. These are not remotely similar situations.
A spade is not a spade here. Now, if you're
trying to call out the media everybody is in the
business of covering the business of sports, then yeah, maybe
that's fair. The players got to look out for himself,
just like the franchise has got to look out for

(58:47):
itself from a purely business perspective. But sports is not
purely business. It's about loyalty and connection to franchise and
a belief in the team that you have chosen to
root for, and by chosen to root for, a lot
of you don't even remember when you chose to root
for a team. It just happened organically, because that's how

(59:10):
you become a fan. So exxpecting or or anticipating that
you can make that analogy and that it's similar and
that you need to call a spade a spade is ludicrous. Moreover,
how about the fact that Lebron couldn't follow his own
advice for twenty four hours? Do we have that cut again,
Lebron says, just can we clip the very in there?

(59:32):
We need to save it. Lebron is unbelievable how often
he is insanely hypocritical during this trade deadline time. You
just gotta stay off social media. You can't spend any time.
By the way, Anthony Davis liked Lebron James's post, which
means Anthony Davis is also sitting around watching social media
all day too. But Lebron says, hey, get off social media.

(59:55):
There's nothing good that can come of it. Don't stay there.
And then Lebron, let's into this. This is what Lebron
has given advice, and he can't even follow his own advice.
Here's Lebron's advice. The worst thing that you can do
right now to be on social media. And I know
all young guys who love social media, so um, you
know that definitely can't help. That definitely can't help. And

(01:00:16):
then he gets on social media. I gotta tell you,
we are trending towards seven and a half hours till
the NBA trade deadline. Lebron James blowing up this entire
season in his face. It's like Lebron was trying to
create in his chemistry lab, this great killer app that

(01:00:36):
was going to make the Lakers competitive in some way
with the Warriors, that was gonna guarantee they made the playoffs.
That was going to set them for the next couple
of years, the final few years of his franchise run
with the Lakers. Instead, I think he and Chris Paul, sorry,
he and Rich Paul, his agent, they thought they were

(01:00:58):
playing checkers, and I blew this analogy. I'm sounding like
Lebron right now. Lebron James and Rich Paul thought they
were playing chess. Last week Anthony Davis too, when they
announced that Anthony Davis wasn't gonna resign with the Pelicans.
They thought they were painting the Pelicans into a corner

(01:01:19):
and they would be forced to deal with the Lakers
and make a trade. They really did. They surveyed the landscape,
and they thought they had more power than they actually did.
If you remember and listen to this show immediately live
on the air, I said, I don't buy into this
idea that somehow Anthony Davis has created a great deal

(01:01:41):
of leverage and is going to force the team to
deal him to the Lakers. Said, it just doesn't make sense.
He's got the rest of this year to play it out,
and then the Pelicans can survey the entire landscape, wait
and see how the NBA Draft lottery lottery happens, wait
and see who has what draft pick, and then they

(01:02:01):
can make a decision about where they can get the
most value for Anthony Davis. It doesn't make any sense
for them to do a fire cell right now, but
Lebron and Rich Paul thought they were going to be
able to pull this off. They thought they could paint
the Pelicans into a corner and go snag Anthony Davis
for this year's playoff run. Instead, the Pelicans basically laughed

(01:02:26):
at the Lakers. They have allowed Lebron James to poison
his relationship with everybody else on the team. You saw
that picture near the end of the Pacers game with
Lebron James sitting all by himself. You heard the taunts
from all of the Pacer fans. Imagine what the response
is gonna be tonight in Boston after the trade deadline,

(01:02:50):
when all these guys are left behind, it appears, and
nobody is able to make a massive trade, and Lebron
James is gonna look like the robber who went into
the bank grabbed all the cash right and then thought, man,
I made an incredible move here. And then he opens
up the bag to see what's inside, and boom, the

(01:03:11):
cash explodes because they have the paint die in there.
You know how that happens. Like guy goes into bank
robbery and he's like, man, I just got so much money,
and he runs out with this big sack of cash
and then when he goes to open it up, there's
a die in there and it explodes and all the
money gets gets died and he can't use it anymore.

(01:03:32):
Lebron thought he was pulling off a heist. He thought,
we're gonna get Anthony Davis for almost no cost. We're
gonna steal him away. We're gonna guarantee ourselves years of
the future with Anthony Davis. We're gonna leak this information
and if everything goes well, we're gonna build around me
and Anthony Davis for the rest of this year, and
we're gonna be able to make a run in the

(01:03:54):
Western Conference and come next year we're gonna be set
up to contend for a championship. Instead. Blew up on him,
blew up on him, and the result is now his
own teammates don't trust him, and one of the most
valuable parts of any relationship when it comes to athletics,

(01:04:15):
or marriage or any other significant relationship that was built
on his trust. And now the Lakers teammates don't trust
Lebron James because they know he was willing to move
them and get rid of them because he didn't think
they were good enough. And these young guys are not

(01:04:35):
gonna rebound as quickly as veterans would because they're all
up in their feelings too. You got Wonzo Ball taking
every Laker reference off of his off of his uh
Instagram and off of his Twitter and everything else because
he thought he was gonna be traded. You got LaVar
Ball suddenly emerging out of nowhere. He's going on FS
one this morning. There's no telling what craziness he's gonna say.

(01:04:59):
You gotta go on the road against the Celtics tonight,
and then you gotta play on Saturday against the Sixers.
You may well get drubbed in both those games. As
the All Star Break gets closer, I think the Lakers
are insignificant trouble. Eddie Garcia, what you got for me,
give me the latest you got A guy goes scoreboard
from the NBA where the Bucks beat the Wizards one

(01:05:20):
nine kumpo forty three points for Milwaukee is here the
first team in the league. You get the forty win
mark now forty and thirteen Warriors, no trouble beating the
Spurs one to one oh two. Golden State best in
the West at thirty eight and fifteen Rockets over the
Kings on one oh one. James Harden thirty six points,
twenty eight consecutive game now for Harden scoring thirty points

(01:05:40):
or more nets knocked off the Nuggets one thirty one
thirty and the Pelicans, still without Anthony Davis, still beat
the Bulls two one twenty College basketball number six Nevada
and proves the two and one with a two one
over Colorado State. Also wins in college troops for number
fourteen Pillanoah nineteenth rank Wisconsin, number twenty one l s
U and number twenty four or Maryland. In the NHL,

(01:06:01):
the Calgary Flames will host the Sandity Sharks did at
ninetiester time. It's our discover card key matchup at your
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the coverage in ten seconds, but first a word from farmers.

(01:06:21):
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the Geico Outkicks studios, where it's easy to say fift

(01:06:44):
or more on car insurance with Geico to Geico dot
com or call eight nine four seven auto. The only
hard part figuring out which way is easier. I'm honestly
of the opinion I want to bring in the Laker
crew here. What Let's assume that doesn't happen, and that
Anthony Davis gets traded for which seems very likely, because
it seems like the Pelicans have basically laughed at Lebron

(01:07:07):
and Rich Paul and Anthony Davis and their demands. And
they're gonna wait till the offseason, wait and see what
happens with the draft lottery. Uh, and also see what
other teams can offer them, including the Celtics, will see
what happens with every kind of moving part. What is
the play here if you're the Lakers, like I, I I

(01:07:28):
think that the Clippers have outplayed the Lakers. I think
that certainly there's a strong argument that the Pelicans are
gonna end up out playing the Lakers. I think, certainly
if you look at what Danny Ainge has done historically,
I feel like the Celtics are going to end up
out playing the Lakers. I feel like everything is blowing
up on Lebron and the Lakers. So let's assume right now,

(01:07:50):
which I think is fair, that they're not going to
be able to make a move by the NBA trade deadline.
What is the solution here? You are pretend you are
Magic Johnson and Rob Polinka right now, you're both men
rolled into one. You are Ebony and Ivory incarnate Justin Cooper.
What do the Lakers do right now? You play out

(01:08:15):
the season with the with the group that you have,
you you trust that the best player in the world
is going to be able to get it done like
he has done his whole career. And I'm sure that's
what they're they're banking on. And then when the off
season comes, there are a whole lot of nice, like
great free agent players available this offseason. But it doesn't

(01:08:37):
seem like you heard Chris Mannix. And we're gonna play
Chris Mannix for you again an hour three for those
of you just waking up right now, because we wanted
to get an NBA expert on the show bright and
early this morning. So if you didn't hear him an
hour one, we're gonna play him an hour three. But
you heard him say right now, the number of guys
that they are potentially into running for, so he said

(01:08:59):
Kevin Durant out the window right Kevin Durant, he said,
does not want to play with Lebron, so that possibility
is unlikely. Maybe Kevin Durant is gonna go to the Knicks,
or he might re up with the Warriors, in which
case there's not reason for a lot of drama there. Um,
it doesn't appear likely. I don't think you may disagree
that Kyrie Irving is going to re up with Lebron

(01:09:22):
James again. Maybe that could happen, but that doesn't seem
very likely based on their past relationship and what happened
and what went down at Cleveland. Well, but now they're
all buddy buddy again, tagging each other in rap songs,
and I understand, I understand that argument, but I think
that's unlikely. Moreover, I'm not sure that Kyrie Irving suddenly
back on the Lakers is going to fundamentally change anything.

(01:09:44):
I mean, arguably, is that much of a better team
than they had with the Calves that was nowhere near
good enough for the Warriors. I think the best case
scenario for the Lakers is clearly that Kevin Durant leaves
the Warriors, um and uh, and that the Warriors are
then wounded by that loss. But I just start to
look around the landscape of available free agents and say, man,

(01:10:04):
if Anthony Davis gets traded, let's say to the Celtics.
I still think Kyrie Irving is likely to resign with
the Celtics. That's my personal opinion, because I think that's
the best place for him to be if he wants
to win championships. I just don't know what the Lakers
are gonna do to get to a level where they're
able to compete for a championship. And I think that

(01:10:25):
was clearly the plan of Lebron James from the get go.
I just don't think his plan here is that good.
And I think this starts to pollute Lebron. I think
there's gonna be whispers out there around the NBA where
people are like, wait a minute, Lebron's thirty five. Now,
why would I go play with Lebron James when he
may be on the downside of his career. We saw

(01:10:48):
the injury to his growing. Who knows whether Lebron is
actually that healthy. He continues to take these rest breaks.
We'll see how they look tonight against the Celtics. But
to me, Lebron James trying to play chess with Rich
Paul and they got checkmated. The Pelicans checkmated him, called
their bluff and it was not a very sophisticated chess

(01:11:11):
play by Lebron James and Rich Paul. I think it
also made things worse for Anthony Davis. Certainly, it made
it worse for him in New Orleans. I think it
just created a big cluster bomb of stupidity. That's why
I like that analogy of you think you're robbing the

(01:11:31):
bank and that you've outsmarted the system, and you walk
out with that big bag of cash, and then you
open it and the bank die explodes and all your
money's worthless. I think Lebron James starting to find out
all his money is worthless because he can't find people
to play with him right now in l a and
his grand plan of building a championship with the Lakers

(01:11:52):
is starting to blow up in his face in a
big way. As we come closer and closer to the
NBA trade deadline, will continue to discuss this. I gotta
hit you with what Jamal Hill did. Used to be
the head of Woke Center on ESPN. They fired her.
Now she's out on her own, and she had some
unbelievable comments during the State of the Union address of
Donald Trump. I'll tell you what they were next. On

(01:12:14):
Fox Sports Radio, be sure to catch live editions about
kick the Coverage with Clay Travis week days at six
am Eastern, three am Pacific. Is this what Kevin Durant
is rocking everywhere? He goes around San Francisco right now,
probably rocking it everywhere he goes, getting ready for that
trip to New York. Welcome back, I go out kick studios.

(01:12:35):
Not happy if you ask him about it right now though,
So this is a crazy story. Um. State of the
Union was Tuesday night. Donald Trump spoke in the House
of Representatives, as president always does, and uh, you know,
I thought he did a pretty good job relatively speaking. Um.
I always enjoy watching the State of the Union, and
I know it's crazy. I root for all presidents, whether

(01:12:57):
they are Democrats, Republicans, or whatnot, to be successful. I
know that's rare in our country today, to be like, Hey,
I want Barack Obama to do well. I want George W.
Bush to do well. I wanted Bill Clinton to do well.
I wanted Ronald Reagan to do well. Wanted George W. Bush,
George H. W. Bush to do well. And I want
Donald Trump to do well because I think rooting against
the president kind of a bad look if you live

(01:13:20):
in America. Because the president does poorly, country probably does poorly. Oh,
there's disagree. There's a lot of people out there in
the resistance. No matter what happens they're gonna resist. Jamal
Hill is in the resistance. At ESPN, they put her
in charge of Wokes Center, Remember the ESPN Sports Center
show that tanked collapsed ratings. They fired her. Eventually she

(01:13:42):
was a disaster. One of the reasons she was a
disaster was she took to Twitter during Monday night football
and decided to call the president a white supremacist. Turned
into a whole big thing. Eventually ESPN had to fire her.
You would think maybe you'd be a little bit nervous
about tweeting about the president if you had previously called
him a white supremacist and you've been fired as a

(01:14:02):
result of the fact that you're bad at your job.
But oh no, that's not enough for Jamal Hill. Jamal
Hill had a chance. I like Jamal it's really funny smart.
I thought she had a chance to be the next Oprah. Instead,
I think social media turned her into the next Al Sharpton.
That's fine if you want to be the next Al Sharpton.
Al Sharpton ain't doing that well. Grand scheme of things.

(01:14:25):
You get a choice between being Oprah or you get
a choice between being Al Sharpton. Even Al Sharpton would
be like, yeah, I wish I was Oprah. Anybody in
media you get the option to be Oprah or anyone else.
You take Oprah right right now. You told me, Hey,
Clay Travis, maybe Howard Stern, Maybe Howard Sterner. Oprah's a
tough call. Just about everybody else you get the chance

(01:14:46):
to be the equal of Oprah. You follow Oprah's career path,
appeal to everybody, do a good job, have your own
television show, become a billionaire. That's a pretty good career path.
Al Sharpton follow that career path. Frankly, you turned into
a race baiting loser. Well, Jamal Hills turned into a
race baiting loser. And during the State of the Union

(01:15:07):
last night Tuesday night, Sorry she made a joke. I
think she was trying to make a joke. She said
that Representative Alexandria A Casio Cortes. I'm not sure exactly
how you pronounce her name. I've only seen it written.
I don't spend a lot of time watching television news
aoc as. They call her good looking young congresswoman from

(01:15:30):
uh New York. She should have shouted out, uh, she's
gotta yell, get your hand out of my pocket, Hill
sent in a tweet, Well, I don't about you, guys,
I wasn't aware. I don't I don't follow Jamal Hill
has me blocked on Twitter, so I don't see anything
she says. But turns out that was the phrase that

(01:15:50):
was yelled. That was yelled right before Malcolm X was assassinated,
so that there would be a distraction and Malcolm X
wouldn't see his assassin. Now, I'm not an expert in
Twitter humor, but I would think at least I would
be smart enough while the president is talking during the

(01:16:13):
State of the Union not to send out a tweet
suggesting that a member of Congress should yell what was
said right before Malcolm X was shot, Because your next
implication there is somebody should shoo, should shoot Trump? Right
if you scream out somebody, what's the phrase again? Um? Uh,

(01:16:39):
the the phrase right before Malcolm X was shot, get
your hands out of my pocket, which is what was
yelled right before Malcolm X was shot. And you already
have a negative relationship with the president, you have called
a white supremacist. It's not a surprise that everybody else
is gonna immediately think, oh crap. Jamal is in some

(01:17:00):
way advocating for the President to be shot, or at
least making a joke that would imply that the punch
line is the president gets shot. Well, this is wild.
The Secret Service has now issued a response. While the
Secret Service is aware of the subject's comments, we cannot

(01:17:21):
confirm or comment on the absence or existence of specific investigations.
We can say, however, the Secret Service investigates all threats
related to our protectees. So based on that quote, you
know you've done gone and screwed up in a big
way when the Secret Service is investigating you. Jamal Hill

(01:17:47):
not employed by ESPN anymore. She's now employed by the
Atlantic Magazine. I don't know what the Atlantic magazine standard
is for writers, but I would think when a Secret
Service investigation comes as a result of things you have written,
it's probably not a good sign. Right now, Jamal Hill

(01:18:08):
has responded and said, oh, I was trying to make
a joke. She said, let me be clear, I have
often disagreed. She deleted all the tweets and she said,
let me be clear, I have often disagreed with many
of the President's policies, his behavior and rhetoric, but I
would never call for violence against him or any person.
I apologize for breathing life into such an absurd assumption.

(01:18:33):
So she has apologized for the tweet. I'm actually curious
what you guys think about this. I'm gonna open up
the phone lines for the top of our three to
hear what you guys think about this. In general, I
don't think well one of the channel say this. One
of the challenges in general with social media is tone.

(01:18:54):
Is somebody being serious? Are they joking? Are they being
stark astic? Are they being uh, you know, like, are
they mocking something? Are that? It's very difficult to tell tone.
So my assumption is here, she's trying to make a joke.
Is making a joke that is connected to the assassination

(01:19:18):
of a prominent political figure, a good decision during the
State of the Union address by a president that you
have previously called a white supremacist. It's a really bad look.
I think oftentimes when I'm tweeting, is this joke good
enough to be worth the risk? And look, I'll defend

(01:19:40):
comedians to the end of the earth. I think anybody
who protest a clear joke in a comedy club needs
to get a life. But in this day and age
where it's hard to tell what tone is. This seems
to me to be a bad decision. If something is
screamed as a distraction to allow Malcolm X to be assassinated,

(01:20:01):
maybe don't tweet it while the president is speaking, especially
if it's a president that a lot of people know
you don't like, because the implication of your comment is
that somebody should then shoot the president. Fairer foul. I
want to get your guy's reaction. Secret Service now investigating this.
Eight seven seven six three six nine. We're here live

(01:20:25):
starting off your morning on Fox Sports Radio, continuing to
break down NBA free agency as it takes closer and closer.
We are now seven hours away from the start end
of free a sorry into the trade deadline up next.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports

(01:20:47):
Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app.
Search f s R to listen live why from the
Geico Altkick Studios Thursday edition eight o'clock on the East coast,
five o'clock am on the West coast. In between, it's
a different time, and we are seven hours from the
official NBA trade deadline ending UH it's three o'clock eastern

(01:21:10):
noon Pacific. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or
more on car insurance. Visit Geico for a free rate quote,
and we're brought to you by True Car. When it
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(01:21:31):
been talking a lot about the NBA trade deadline. We're
gonna have Chris Mannox. We had Chris Mannox on our
one of this show for all the latest on the
NBA trade situation, where you're gonna have him on again
in our three. I will replay that interview for those
of you just waking up across the country who have
not gotten the latest on the NBA trade deadline and

(01:21:54):
what we should expect for the Lakers, what we should
expect for uh Lebron James, for Anthony Davis, for all
of the moving parts there that is still to come.
It should be a fun day. As we tracked that,
Kevin Durant also went off on the media if you're
just waking up on the West coast after the win
over the Spurs last night, I want to play this

(01:22:16):
audio for you. Kevin Durant coming a little bit undone
over all the speculation that he might be going to
New York in the off season. This is what he
had to say. You've obviously been around the noise for
so long as it's bothering you more this year? Is
it louder this year? It is unnecessary. You gotta do
Ethan Strouss, who come in here and just give his

(01:22:36):
whole opinion on stuff and make it seem like it's
coming from me, and he just walking around here, don't
talk to nobody, just walking here and surveying there. Write
something like that, And now y'are piling on me because
I don't want to talk to you about that. I
have nothing to do with the Knicks. I don't know
who traded porzingis. They got nothing to do with me.
I'm trying to play basketball. Yeah, come in here every day,

(01:22:59):
who rile up the fans about it. Let us play basketball.
That's all I'm saying. And now when I want to
talk to y'all as a problem with me. Come on, man,
grow up, com Bro. I come in and go to
work every day. I don't cause no problems. I played
it right way. I try to play it right way.

(01:23:19):
I try to be the best player I can be
at every possession. What's the problem? What am I doing
to you? We're talking? So who are you? Why do
I got to talk to you? Tell me? Does that
is that gonna help me do my job better? No?
I didn't feel like talking. Lebron James all up in

(01:23:40):
his fields as well. He took to Instagram to comment,
Anthony Davis is liking things. It's all a mess, and
it's all a mess because the NBA players have created
a situation where the NBA on court product is not
as interesting as the NBA off court product. So you
can't get it upset at fans and media for being
more interest STD in free agency than they are the

(01:24:02):
actual season. When we all know how it's gonna end.
The Warriors are gonna win the championship again. Unlike the
Major League Baseball, NHL or NFL playoffs, where anybody can
theoretically win a championship, the Warriors are by far the
best team. They are gonna win a championship, So it's
natural for fans and media to move on to the
next question of where are the superstar players gonna go,

(01:24:24):
particularly when free agency has become such a prominent part
of the story of Kevin Durant and Lebron James, the
two best players in the NBA right now. But we
will talk about all that with Chris Mannox coming up
here shortly. In the meantime, Jamal Hill is being investigated, potentially,
it sounds like by the Secret Service for her tweet,

(01:24:45):
which implied at least partly that Donald Trump should be assassinated.
She has apologized for the tweet and deleted it. I
want to get the opinions of the crew, and then
I'm gonna take your phone calls on this eight seven
seven n six three six nine. A lot of people
lined up and wanting to talk about it. Uh, Coop,
what are your thoughts on Jamal Hill's tweet and the

(01:25:06):
subsequent Secret Service investigation? My general perspective is, if the
Secret Service is investigating one of your tweets because they
think you might have threatened to assassinate the president of
the United States or been rooting for it to happen,
You probably done did something you shouldn't have done. Is
that a fair approximation of it? Yeah? I mean, and

(01:25:26):
and you know, and and most of the listeners know.
I'm not a fan of Donald Trump by any means,
but that's that's just stupid. Like, I mean, of all
the jokes, there's so many other things that you could
say to get your point across, Like what was what's
the joke? They're like, the only punch line on the
joke is that somebody's gonna kill the president, right, I mean,

(01:25:50):
that's the only possible punchline you could have. When you
use the phrase that Malcolm X that was yelled out
before Malcolm X got assassinated, then the only punchline which
people can fill in is ha ha, Trump's gonna get
assassinated too. Like, I don't even understand the thought process.
I mean, I think it's an attempt to make a joke.
Maybe there's a joke angle here that I'm just not getting.

(01:26:12):
I'm not an expert in Jamal Hills joke thought processes,
But if you have to deconstruct the joke to the
point where you're like, oh, the assassination is the joke like,
probably not a good play, right That's that's a joke
that you make to your friends that are sitting with
you in the living room, not something that you put
on Twitter. And I don't even know that it's a
joke you make to your friends sitting in the well
if I mean if for her, like if that's like

(01:26:34):
that's the thing that popped into her head and she thought, oh,
like this is funny. But then where how did that
go to? Let me post this to my you know,
million Twitter falls what? It's such a stupid thought to
to to go with. And I think about this all
the time because the line between what's going to be
accepted as funny and what's not going to be accepted

(01:26:55):
as funny is a fine one, right, Like you don't
in this day and age, people get offended by things
all that time. But I think assassination humor while the
president is speaking probably not a direction you want to go.
What about you, Roberto? I mean, are you, like, what's
your thought when you see this? Yeah, it's stupid. I
totally agree with the Coop what he's saying. I'm not
a big Trump fan either, but that's just something you

(01:27:16):
don't something you don't you don't do on social media.
I mean, it's it's stupid and and like you say,
the the what what what's the punch line? Like you say,
the punch line is that I guess of what, someone's
gonna shoot Donald Trump. I mean, it's it's so stupid.
And also to do the flip side. Can you imagine
if the same joke had been made, Like if I,
as a white guy, am sitting down and I decide

(01:27:38):
I'm gonna make a Barack Obama assassination joke, they would
immediately have taken away my radio show. I wouldn't be
allowed to be on television. I would be the most
racist human being that's ever walked the planet if I
made the joke. So she's a black woman and she
makes the joke with the white guy as a punchline,
and people are like, oh well, I mean a lot
of people are defending, or some people are defending, or

(01:27:58):
maybe not a lot of people, but some people. But
if I made that same joke while Barack Obama was
doing the State of the Union, I would lose my
radio show. I would have lost my television show. I
would be like a social media Pariah and the Secret
Service would have shown up on my door twenty minutes
after I sent that tweet, Dub, What do you think

(01:28:19):
she could possibly have been thinking, Well, I think what
she was thinking is making that joke that implies assassinating
the president, And in terms of jokes you could you
should not tell when you have millions of Twitter followers
that may top the list. Especially it's not even a
joke that it's while he was doing the State of
the Union, so he she's literally sitting watching the State

(01:28:43):
of the Union and she decided to make an assassination joke.
And again, I'm not the joke police. I don't ever
think people should get fired for what they put on
Twitter for like one individual tweet or one individual Facebook post,
even if it's like really bad, because my thought is
we shouldn't ever judge somebody solely based on the worst

(01:29:05):
thing they put on social media, and a lot of
people do that, so I'm not saying she needs to
be fired. Differently, if it was this was a comedian
who did it and not Jamal Hill, I would still
think it was dumb. But the comedian, like I think
it's where it's made matters to me. On some level,
Like I will defend a comedian to the end of
the earth. If a comedian is on a stage in

(01:29:25):
a comedy club and he makes a joke that seems
insensitive later when like somebody in the comedy club records
it and they put it out and people are like,
oh my god, I can't believe that comedian said this. Well,
it's like their laboratory, right, if you are a comedian
and you're up on the stage, they're testing out humor,
they're figuring out what was To me, that is like

(01:29:45):
that that is their place to be able to test things.
But it's different like when what was it Kathy Griffin
or whatever like held up the severed head of Donald
Trump and a photograph and I was like, well, when
you're posing for a photograph you like this, you have
a lot of time to think. Maybe it's not a
good idea to pose with the severed head of the president,

(01:30:07):
no matter who the president is, Like that seems like
a little bit of an exaggerated move, you know, Like,
so I would even that this is not as bad
as that, right, because when you're posing for a photo,
you have a lot of time to think about what
you're doing, and Twitter is very spur of the moment.
But and and I I think, what's what's the update? Well,
so I was, I was looking at her her Twitter

(01:30:29):
account and she's she sent this out about thirteen hours ago.
She said, so f y, I I literally have used
get your hand out of my pocket a bunch of
other times on Twitter, and always in a manner where
you want to escape or distract from a situation, never
in a way that was harmful or melissis malicious. And
she posted a screenshot. I understand, I understand that, But
I have said before a to brute right like, I

(01:30:50):
have used that phrase. It's a famous phrase that was
said when Julius Caesar was assassinated. The way that you
use a phrase matters. If I say to you right now, Coop,
I'm gonna kill you, like, people will be like ha ha,
because because they disagree, because I disagree with your opinion.
If I had Donald Trump on the radio and I
was interviewing him and I said I'm going to kill you,

(01:31:13):
that would be at the same phrase, right like, So
I don't necessarily buy into I saw that she had
put out that tweets. Oh, I've used this phrase before, Well, yeah,
so what like the way that you use a phrase matters,
Like if I say to my wife, hey want to
f that's different than me saying F you right, or
you know, like the way that you use phrases matters.

(01:31:34):
I'm gonna kill you, coop ha ha, You're an idiot.
For what you're saying about the Lakers is different than
saying it while I've got the president or while the
president is speaking, right, So I understand she's trying to
make that distinction. Now I don't think that's a good
distinction to make. Well, I think then, I think what
it proves is that it's a phrase that she's used
in different situations and then she's just using it again

(01:31:54):
and was too like I don't know, you're gonna say stupid,
And I think there's a fair and that's a position
to make, Like you can't say that same again if
I said a too brute and like I put a
picture of myself like holding a knife alongside of a
photo of Donald Trump, right, that would be different that
if I said a too brute and I'm performing in

(01:32:16):
a play of Julius Caesar and uh and I've just
been killed, right, Like the way that you use phrases matters,
and if you don't understand that, then I think you
failed one of the most basic and important parts of
being a writer and someone who makes a living with
your words. Right. I just think that's bad. We've got
a lot of calls of people who want to weigh in.

(01:32:38):
Did I get the opinion of Dub or did we
end up talking over Dub. Let's get to these callers
opinions we got. We got about ten callers lined up here,
that one one to hop on. All right, let's do it.
Joel in Virginia. What you got for me? Solid? Start
by the callers, Dub. What's shaken with the callers? Are
is ours our call screen? Or not working again? No,

(01:33:00):
it's working. We got Rama in North Carolina? All right?
Joel started off with a big, big with Rama and
North Carolina. What's up? Uh? Hi? Um? I think it's
about time people should be held accountable for their words. Um.
Just like Madonna, she wanted to blow up the White House.
Nothing happened to her from secret didn't do anything. So

(01:33:21):
it's not Jamal Hill. It's time to hold people accountable
and not just you know, hide behind First Amendment and
just like you pointed out. And if it was Barack Obama,
she'd probably be in the slammer by now. And why
is it a double standard? He's still the president. Elections
are over, Get over it, move on. You know, there's

(01:33:41):
the process. Deal with it, not you know, trending everybody
every day. Thank you very much, thanks for the call.
And by the way, it's not just Jamal Hill who
said stupid stuff like this. Johnny Depp said that maybe
it was a time remember this quote, like where Johnny
Depp said, maybe it's time for another actor to kill
the president, like implying that John Wilkes Booth, who killed

(01:34:02):
obviously Abraham Lincoln, that another actor meaning himself for somebody
else needed to kill Trump. I mean, so there's been
a lot of people who I think have this what's
called Trump derangement syndrome where they hate Trump so much
that they end up being even more ridiculous than Trump,
which is oftentimes even tough to pull off. But Trump's
most hated critics are making him seem sane, which is

(01:34:24):
which is ultimately playing into his benefit, which is uh
the worst thing that I would imagine somebody like Jamal
Hill or or in the back in the day when
he did this, I think it was the last year
Johnny Depp would have liked Daniel in Indiana. What's up, Daniel?
You know what's going on? Gleg living the dream man? Man.
I think I'll being a little too hard about this

(01:34:46):
one man. Let her have her social media and say
what she wants, because he says what he wants, and
everybody in the world says what they want. Sticks and
stones can break your bones, but what can words due
to you? Is not like it was a threat from isis.
She's already been fired from ESPN, is you already lost
their jobs, So I stop. If she doesn't like him,

(01:35:08):
she don't like him, Yeah, but you understand, you understand
there's a difference between not liking somebody and tweeting out
assassination jokes. Right, But she didn't say I want to
assassinate him. She was subliminable by what she said, and
she said it out of a jokingly manner. Now, if
everyone wants to take that so serious, why he says
this and he says that, and then Daniel, what do

(01:35:30):
you think? What do you think of? What hold on? Daniel?
What do you think would have happened to me. If
I had jokingly said that Barack Obama should be assassinated
during the State of the Union would have been I
would have been listening to your radio station and I
would have laughed and fell over. And I am a
black man, so I would appreciate that. If you're standard,
I appreciate that. Thanks. If your standard is the exact same,

(01:35:52):
that's all I ask. Right treat What I try to
do on this show every single day, it's treat everybody
the exact same, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation,
anything else. I try to treat everybody the exact same.
Now you might say I don't treat people that well,
or you might say, man, that guy Clay Drivis, he

(01:36:12):
could be a real a whole. Sometimes all those things
can be accurate. But I try and treat everybody the
exact same. That's the best that I can do. Eddie
in Texas. What's up, Eddie? So if Daniel wants to
treat everybody the exact same, I appreciate that. I respect that, Eddie.
What's up? Y? Good morning? Hey? Uh this real quickly.
I'm in the education business and I try to teach
kids besides the textbook. Every day, before you open your mouth,

(01:36:33):
make sure you can accept the responsibility after you spirit
your words out there. Yeah, so when when when you want?
Everybody needs to whether it's ad Joe was social, I
don't care where it is, think about it before you
make a comment. It's also the situation. And she's watching
the speech. I mean, there's all kinds of factors that
come into this place. She's I mean, I've watched her
before on television. I kinda, I mean, I'll like her.

(01:36:55):
She's okay, but she's highly educated and she should know
better than what she's doing. And and I do have
an expression that I'm gonna use now, and it comes
after I heard her say this, and everybody's whatever. What
she knew what she was doing, and she chose to
do it, So she now has to accept the responsibility. Again,

(01:37:16):
that's all of us. When you choose to do something,
be able to accept responsibility not It doesn't make a
difference what I say, you say the guy that just called,
But you better because you know what. I had a
friend in the UH Secret Service, and you have to
see what them guys go through to protect the president. Oh,
I don't know it at all. And that's I mean,
it's a it's a serious it's serious business, you know

(01:37:37):
what I'm saying. Yeah, here in Texas with and here
in Texas with I mean, I tell kids all the
time when you do stupid things with your mouth, I'm
gonna call you catfish, all mouth, no brains. That's a
good line what I've always said when I tell my
kids now, even though they're young, freedom of speech doesn't
mean you have freedom from consequence. It's an important lesson

(01:37:57):
to learn. Also, I had to learn this with what
I do. I talk for a living, three hours every
morning hour on television. I write. Sometimes you have to
think is the jokes payoff worth the joke? Right when
I'm sitting there with Twitter open and I'm thinking, oh,
this would be a funny line, is the jokes payoff

(01:38:20):
worth the risk of the joke? Because Twitter, I think
Jim Rome said this a while back. Twitter is like
a loaded handgun. When you go out there and you
pop something off, you don't control where that goes and
how people respond to it. Your intent is lost. Like
I said earlier, you don't see sarcasm. There's no joke font,

(01:38:41):
there's no uh there's no sign for when somebody is
being serious or when they're not being serious. Dan in Indiana,
what's up? Dan Jamal Hill is basically a highly educated
person who walks on and playing yoke bomb with that.
And that's that's the problem in I'm a thirty three
year old male who's a registered Republican who opposed Donald
Trump in the in the primary, who opposed himong the general.

(01:39:04):
But the problem is the media leans the left way,
so there's very little repercussions for things they say. So
I've actually been turned on more to Donald Trump and
the party because of how the kid, the Covington Catholic
kids recovered, how the how Cavan always traveled. Those things
have brought me back to more center or Republicans because

(01:39:25):
there is no consequence what people because people have the
same belief that she has in media and especially sports media,
there is no repercussions for what they do and that
that to me is where and this when she gets
she gets her hand called in the cookie jar because
the thirty other times she tweeted about him, she says
negative things and people there's never a consequence because people

(01:39:45):
have tend to agree with her stance most of the time. Yeah,
I think that's true. That's why I say I try
to treat like situations likely right, Um, And maybe that's
the lawyer in me who has studied for years the
importance of precedent. When you respond one way to a story,
I want to ensure that I'm responding the same way,
so I'm not a hypocrite. I'll give you an example

(01:40:06):
when I worked on Capitol Hill when I was in
college during the Bill Clinton impeachment trial, I did not
believe Bill Clinton should be impeached for a private sexual misconduct.
I still believe that's the correct standard for the president,
but I certainly don't believe that Donald Trump should then
get impeached because of some relationship he might have had
with a porn star a decade ago. Similarly, on the

(01:40:28):
Brett Kavanaugh story, you've been paying attention to what's going
on in Virginia right now. You had the guy in
black face who's the governor. You had the lieutenant governor
who comes out and may have been guilty of sexual assault,
at least it's been alleged. And then you got the
attorney general who also did black face. I mean, all
three of the dudes at the top of Virginia right now,
the white guys and the black guys are all falling apart.

(01:40:50):
But when it comes to that lieutenant governor's allegation, my
standard is the same as it was on Kavanaugh. Just
because one woman says that she was sexually assaulted or
treated inappropriately without corroborating evidence doesn't mean you have to
believe it. And that's the warrior in me. So my
standard is the same for Cavanaids it would be for
a lieutenant governor of Virginia. The race doesn't matter, the

(01:41:13):
party doesn't matter. You gotta treat people to say so
I try to do Bryce and Roanoke. You're in Virginia
in the center part of that insanity, right. I just
wanted to say, man like uh at the end of
the day. I was always taught that there is some
truth in jest, you know. And Jamal Hill can go
out and say or backtrack her way into saying that

(01:41:34):
this was a joke. But like the previous caller said,
the Supreme Court already ruled a hundred years ago. You know,
you cannot use your words to incite violence and to
incite a riot, and it's just one of these things
that you're sitting here and going, you know, what in
the hell were you thinking, lady, And it's just the shame.
It's an absolute shame. And the problem is that if

(01:41:56):
at the end of the day, if Trump killed over
to day, she wouldn't she would hear it, you know,
most of these people would share it. The problem that
I have is that all of these little wink and
NodD jokes that they make for me is just them saying,
I really do wish something would happen to this man,
but I'm just too I'm I'm not enough of a

(01:42:16):
person to do it myself. So I just kind of
wish I could toss it into the ether and maybe something,
you know, maybe something will happen, and then we can
just joke about it later. Yeah. I think that's the
problem is she's got a history of not liking Trump,
so when you put out an implication of an assassination,
it's like, well, we clearly know you don't like the president,

(01:42:37):
so we're not assuming that this is a joke standing alone. Uh,
Donnie and Richmond, what's up? Donnie? Okay, Claire, welcome to
our state of denial about our politics. I believe my
kindergartens principle is up next to be the government. It
might be you. I don't know how they will fared
out the list they're gonna go. Might be you the
next governor. Lord. I hope not. We'd all be in well.

(01:43:00):
But in all honest Jamale's Hill, open your mouth again
and stuck your foot in it. It wasn't funny, it
wasn't cute, And I'd like to know when somebody's gonna
look at this for what it is. It's a racist issue.
Getti the president is what it is. If this was
said about Obama, you'd have been a handcuffs Clay and
I wouldn't be listening to the show today. I think
there's some treat to that, like me a couple of
more quickly, Alan, New Mexico, what's up? Hey? I think

(01:43:22):
everybody's taking this, uh just totally the wrong way. I
think Jamal put it's just striving to get the nomination
for the Kathy Griffin Uh idiot uh two thousand nineteen
idiot Award. I'm out. Yeah, there's no doubt. Robert in
Kentucky with Robert Ay, You've had a couple of callers
on their cover pretty much everything I needed to say.
But uh, I think you know, if I'd wrote a

(01:43:45):
letter to the President Britain and his wife, even though
just be in my eyes and someone else decides that
would have seen a letter, I would have been in
jail the next day. Yeah, I think she deserved about
thirty days in jail. That would be wild, That would
be wild to see happened. All right, let's go ahead,
let me go ahead and get the update. Uh while
actually we need to go to break. We gonna go
to break. Then we're gonna break down the NBA free
agency mess as we come up on the deadline. This

(01:44:08):
is out Kick the Coverage on Fox Sports Radio. Be
sure to catch live editions of out Kicked the Coverage
with Clay Travis weekdays at six am Eastern three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio
Whip Welcome Back, I Go. Out Kick Studios were brought
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(01:44:30):
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Let me go ahead and bring in my guy, Eddie Garcia.
NBA trade deadline now six and a half hours. I
believe left what you got for me on the latest,
Eddie Garcia. Well, nothing new to report as far as
trades go. But on the court last night we had
the Bucks beating the Wizards twenty nine Milwaukee first team

(01:44:51):
in the NBA to hit the forty win mark now
forty and forty three points in the win, Warriors of
the top team in the West. They beating up on
the Spurs one O two Golden State now thirty eight
and fifteen on the season, Rockets over the Kings to
one oh one. James Harden thirties six points in the
win for Houston at his twenty eight consecutive game scoring
thirty or more points nets over the Nuggets one thirty

(01:45:13):
one thirty and the Pelicans, still without Anthony Davis, beat
the Bulls one twenty College Basketball six right Nevada highest
ranked team and actually be colored a state to improve
the twenty two and one on the year. Also wins
for number fourteen Villanova, Nuber nineteen Wisconsin, number twenty one
l s U, and number twenty four Maryland. In the NHL,
the Calgary Flames will host the Santasy Sharks tonight at
nine Eastern. It's our Discovered Card key matchup. Get your

(01:45:34):
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It includes your Vico credit score and checking your scorecard
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credit scorecard limitations. Supply will be back to out the
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From a dog accidentally flooding a living room to a
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We know a thing or two because we've seen a

(01:45:54):
thing or two. We are farmers under written my farmers
rock Fire insurance exchanges and affiliates products not available in
every state. Now back to Clay Travis and the Geico
outkicked the coverage studios. We are delus right now with
reaction from everybody wanting to weigh in on. The Secret
Service now investigating Jamal Hill, former ESPN Sports Center Woke

(01:46:16):
Center anchor, for the tweet that she sent out during
the State of the Union address. But it is also
I wanted to hit this um. The NBA trade deadline,
and we are going to be talking with Chris Mannix
in the final segment of the show. And before we
do that, I want to tell you about the guys
I was supposed to hit with at the backside here.

(01:46:37):
Uh my guys at M drive, are you tired right now?
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(01:47:00):
get hooked up at M drive four men dot com
right now, that's M Drive four men. The number four
men dot com. Mike promo code is clay off. If
you use my name, Cee l a y rEFInd your
prime with M drive And I'm curious. I want to
bring in the l A crew now. As we get
closer and closer to the trade deadline, do you believe

(01:47:22):
the Lakers will make the playoffs? That is the question
that I think is fair to ask, because I think
the Lakers are gonna lose tonight to the Celtics, and
I think it's gonna be ugly. I think they're gonna
lose Saturday to the seventies sixers, and I think that's
gonna be ugly. Maybe they bounce back. I think they
probably will and beat the Atlanta Hawks. So I think
there'll be one game under five hundred and they will

(01:47:43):
be live. Math on the radio is always difficult for me.
They've played fifty four games now, they will have played
uh fifty seven games at the deadline, and they'll be
under five hundred. Do you think they'll make the playoffs quickly?
Coupe if Lebron doesn't get hurt again and he's playing
one percent without a doubt. All Right, we're gonna ask
Chris Mannix that same question when we come back. Will

(01:48:06):
play Chris Mannix. He will break down all of the
latest on the NBA trade deadline looming now about six
and a half hours away. If you don't know the latest,
will make sure that you have the latest as you
start off your morning. This is outkicked the coverage. Make
sure you go download the podcast. Don't ever miss it.
Don't ever miss the podcast. Millions of you are downloading

(01:48:27):
it be glad that you got the opportunity to go
grab it up. Next, we're gonna be joined by Chris Mannox.
We're breaking down everything in the world of the NBA
trade deadline and beyond. My name is Clay Travis, and
I gotta tell you again download the podcast, just trust me.
Go download it right now. Search out the term out kick.
You'll be glad that you did. This is Outkicked the Coverage.

(01:48:48):
We are hanging with you NBA trade Deadline, the latest
up next with Chris Mannox with you right now on
Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch live editions of
Outkicked the Coverage with Clay Travis week days at six
am Eastern three am Pacific. We're here in the Geico
Outkicks Studios and we had Chris Mannox on the very
first segment, just about of the show to break down

(01:49:10):
the latest in the NBA free agency mess. We bring
him back now and the first question I think you
gotta ask is are the Pelicans playing the Lakers here? Chris?
Do you think they're intentionally letting the Lakers blow themselves
up in the way that they've responded to this trade demand.
I don't know if it was intentional the way it
all kind of shook out. I've said, Clay for days,

(01:49:35):
I didn't think the Pelicans had any intention of trading
Anthony Davis, at least not before the trade deadline. I mean,
there are legitimate reasons for not doing it. Um you know,
the draft lottery being unknown, and who has that number
one pick. More importantly, Boston's ability to get into the
mix and make a deal that is more significant than

(01:49:58):
what anybody could do. And and look, this is going
to be and should be the most substantial trade in
NBA history. You should get back the most assets for you,
and it's a chance to rebuild your entire franchise on
the fly. But I do think there was a more
personal aspect to it. And looked at the the from
one and I was talking with something in New Orleans

(01:50:18):
last night. I don't know that they necessarily blame the Lakers,
but they do blame Rich Paul and and they they
they know that this season was this is probably gonna
be Davis's last season, Like they expected that come July
Davis would reject their contract extension and they'd have kind
of what San Antonio had a few weeks to two

(01:50:40):
piece deals together and and make one this trade request.
The public tradelness of the trade request and the obviousness
that this was connected to desperation to get him to
the Lakers that really rattled, you know, people in influential
positions in that front office. So again, I don't know
if it's it's a Laker centric thing, as much has

(01:51:00):
to do with Davis's representatives and how they've chafed the
Pelicans front office. The rich Paul and Lebron James think
they're playing chess and in reality they're actually playing checkers.
Because to me, their entire movements here have been conducted
as if they think they're moving from a position of power,
and the reality is they don't have that much power.

(01:51:21):
And I think this entire process has blown up on them.
Do you agree or disagree? Oh? I agree, because you know,
unless something changes dramatically in the next seven or eight hours,
you know, Davis is gonna be on the Pelicans and
it's going to be an incredibly uncomfortable a few months
for him as he tries to play and the Pelicans
sort of decide what to do with him. Uh. The

(01:51:42):
fans support obviously just vanished. Uh. And if you know,
anything about Anthony Davis. It's the last thing he wants,
like you know, he he know, up until this point,
he not only has not made any public trade request,
he hasn't even grumbled, Like there hasn't even been this
kind of sourced reporting of Davis is on the happiness
and that this was a strategic play on the part

(01:52:03):
of his representatives. That that I think, and I'm just
sort of speculating here, but I think he was talked
into and and here and here we are where you know,
it all kinda fell flattened. If we've learned anything over
the last few years, you know, a player with one
year left under contract can can force a trade, but
he can't force where he's gonna get traded too. So

(01:52:25):
you know, just like Kauai went to Toronto and Paul
George went to Oklahoma City, there's a realistic chance that
even if it's not Boss, it's somewhere else that Davis
winds up and then he's gonna have to make a
decision do you go to Los Angeles with the thirty
six year old Lebron James and play alongside him in
and and that that's that could be an even tougher call. Yeah,

(01:52:45):
and that's what I've been saying from the get go. Chris,
I'm surprised more people in media haven't pointed this out.
I understand completely why Lebron wants Anthony Davis. I don't
understand at all why Anthony Davis wants Lebron. Yeah. Look,
it's it's a very fair point, and it makes even
less sense when you know, you and I both know what.
Public statements don't always mean everything. What a guy says

(01:53:06):
publicly and privately are often times two very different things.
But the trade demand, you know, his agent statement said
he wants to go somewhere we can consistently win and
beyond a championship contender. His media gaggle after the trade request,
he said, it's my time. I want to win all
these these kind of things in in what world like
just putting a push put of the Celtis and Lakers

(01:53:27):
on the table. No one can legitimately say that a
trade to Boston is not better than a trade to
Los Angeles. It's just not. I mean, you can we
can quibble about, you know, what's the deal with Kyrie Irving.
I don't think anybody really knows out there, but the
Celtics are pretty well stacked right now, and the Lakers
if they make this Anthony Davis trade, it's Anthony Davis,

(01:53:49):
you know, thirty five year old Lebron James, and god
knows who else. And I think that's so well said.
We're talking to Chris Mannix. So what if this Lebron
James said yesterday everybody needs to stay off social media
during the trade deadline, you know, these young guys, they
spend too much time there. And then what does Lebron do?
He gets on social media and sends out a Instagram
post that doesn't really make any sense, but I guess

(01:54:10):
he thinks it does about Harrison Barnes getting traded. How
does Lebron right now? So, with the Lakers sitting at
twenty seven and twenty seven and likely to lose their
next two frankly against the Celtics and the seventies sixers
rebuild this team, it feels like to me like the
Lakers have pretty much blown up in his face if
they aren't able to make a trade, and it doesn't

(01:54:31):
seem like they're going to be, because why would these
guys ever trust him? And can you imagine, I mean,
I'll be at the game in Boston tonight, and you
know Celtics fans who who will declare victory that Davis
didn't get traded, like that'll be their victory and they'll
they'll declare a Laker's loss with all the animosity that
exists between Boston and later begin with that. The Pacers

(01:54:51):
fans set the blueprint, and I think the Celtis fans
will take it to like the the the extreme level
with some of the chances they're gonna make when um,
you know, guys Gingraham and Kuzma and whoever, or at
the free throw line. Here's the problem with that Lebron
is gonna encounter And I talked to someone close to
that team about this, uh just the other night. You know,

(01:55:11):
the young players on that team, they're gonna look at
Lebron as the guy because Lebron's agent, like you can't
it's reasonable to assume that that Lebron's agent and Aunton
David's agent that they have this discussion with Lebron James.
It's reasonable to assume that that you can say that
Lebron comes in talks about, you know, playing with these
young guys, and within you know, half a season, is

(01:55:34):
basically orchestrating their trade out of town. Now you can
say Lebron doesn't know who the Lakers are gonna trade.
He certainly knows that to get Anthony Davis, it's gonna
take every viable young talent on that roster, so Ingram Kuzma,
a Lonzo Ball who already saw do the goofy thing
of uh, take all his Laker stuff off his social media,
and LaVar his mirror miraculous resurfaced in the last week,

(01:55:56):
like these guys is gonna be on Undisputed with Skip
Bayliss this morning, go, so, what's gonna happen here? And
here it comes like and you know, I tell you
this much, and I talked to a GM about this
during the week. It reminds people that if you're trading
for Alonzo Ball, you get the LaVar Ball experience too.
When everybody knows how distract he was in the first

(01:56:17):
half of last season. Alright, we're talking to Chris Mannix.
Kevin Durant goes off on the media last night in
Golden uh, Golden State after their win over the Spurs.
But haven't Lebron James and Kevin Durant created this situation
in the NBA where there is no drama right now
on the court, right I think everybody would be stunned
if the Warriors don't win the championship again, and so

(01:56:40):
as a result, all of the drama comes off the court.
When you do the decision like Lebron did one point oh,
two point oh, three point oh, and when Kevin Durant
made the decision already one point oh to leave Okay
se like he did. They have created this system whereby
the players off the court decisions are a lot more
interesting in the NBA than the on court product, and therefore,

(01:57:01):
I think it's hypocritical of them to suddenly say to
the media, why are you guys covering this so much? Well,
because you created this. You made it fertile. There is
no franchise tag like in the NFL, which would restrict
player movement. This story is by far more interesting than
who's gonna win the championship, which is how most other
sports are covered. Absolutely, and I think more importantly, Lebron

(01:57:25):
and Kevin Durant have created this by you know, bucking
the system and only signing short term deals. You know,
if Kevin Durant was under a four year deal. We
wouldn't be having this conversation. We're not having any conversation
about Lebron's future because he signed a four year deal.
There are plenty of advantages to signing short term contracts.

(01:57:46):
The power you gain within an organization by signing a
short term contract is significant. But this is a fallout,
Like this is what you get when a team like
the Knicks, which you know, God help them if if
they did this without they kind of head not Kevin Durant.
I mean, they they've been the gang that can't shoot
straight for the better part of the last two decades.
If they did it again, um, you know, there should

(01:58:07):
be a storming of the garden. But this they're doing this.
They're doing this because they believe that they're going to
get Kevin Durant, and because Kevin Durant keep signing these
one year deals. This is what happened. So it's you
can't have what the good that comes with the short
term deal and the bad, and you can avoid all
the bad. Outstanding stuff is always what's your I always

(01:58:27):
like this from a process point because I think there's
a lot of people out there driving into school and
work they think, oh, I'd like to work in sports
media someday. What will today be like for you and
what has the past several days been like for you
as a guy covering the NBA. How many hours a
day are you working right now? It's it's most of them.
How many hours are you working? It's most of them.

(01:58:48):
It's hard to it's hard to keep track half the time.
I mean, the Tobias Harris straight kind of. I've never
experienced that where it's it's two am and a major
deal goes down on the East Coast. But it's it's
it's a lot of texting and guys don't want to
be bothered most of the time with phone calls. I
will say this, though, there is there's a lot of
people that are grumbling nowadays, especially involved with the like

(01:59:10):
the Lakers, as you know, the last few years didn't
really piss some teams off, like it's you know, Kauai
wants to go, and it wasn't a lot of Lakers necessarily,
but they were part of it. It's Paul George and
now here we have Anthony Davis, Like there are teams
that are their teams out there with gms that feel
like they have built their teams the right way. They've
done it through the draft, They've done it through shrewd maneuvering.

(01:59:30):
And then they see the Lakers out there who were
just like dangling like Manhattan Beach and saying like, come
play for us, because you know you might like our
lifestyle better that you would. You'd be surprised, how and
know how many teams that really annoys going into days
like this. Do you think it's possible? The Clippers, by
the way, have outplayed the Lakers quietly and free agency
and getting ready for the off season. I think they've

(01:59:54):
I don't know how successful they're going to be, but
they are in a much better position. Yes, the Lakers
have Lebron James, but the Clippers got two first round
draft picks for a guy they weren't gonna resign anyway.
And it takes them out of the playoff mix, but
they get to keep their draft pick if they're out
of the playoff mix, otherwise it transfers over to Boston.
They've done a very good job in Los Angeles in
an organizationally preparing for free agency. That's Chris Mannox and

(02:00:19):
uh that is the latest. Appreciate him coming on with us.
That is the absolute latest in free agency. We will
start our show. I would be shocked if we don't.
With the fallout from the NBA trade deadline tomorrow morning,
will continue to unpack signings, and we'll deal with Laker
fans calling in and eulogizing their team because they are

(02:00:39):
gonna get lobotomized tonight by the Boston Celtics. It ain't
gonna be close. Put every spare dollar you have, I'm
telling you in advance, unlock it in. I'm going big
on the Celtics tonight. I think it's gonna be a
boat race. Ain't gonna be close. Celtics big over Lebron's
just like the round team that's gonna be all in
their feel legs. Everybody curled up on social media so

(02:01:03):
sad because Lebron can't make a trade. We'll talk to
you tomorrow. This has been out kicked the coverage. We
always have fun. I hope you guys did as well.
Don't threaten the president, don't follow Jamal Hill's league. This
is outkicked the coverage on Fox Sports Radio.

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