July 16, 2026 • 53 mins
On this edition of The Best of Stugotz and Company LIVE!: Dan Beyer and Monse Bolanos filling in for Stu and the guys as they discuss the lengths Lebron James is going to to make us eagerly wait for his decision. Dan and Monse discuss the latest obnoxious antics of Caitlin Clark. Monse has a big problem with something NBA CJ McCollum said.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of Stegotson Company Live podcast.
Find your local station for Stug Gottson Company Live at
Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day
on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
This is the best of Stu Gotson Company Live on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
I'm in a good mood. I had my cinnamon rolls
this morning as the Open Championship is well underway. But Monci,
it is a Thursday. We are still waiting on the
word from one Lebron James. It is officially Lebron Watched
twenty twenty six back in effect.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Does Lebron Watch twenty twenty six ever end? And I'm you, guys,
I don't know if it's gonna end.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
It hasn't stopped since Lebron watched twenty twenty five, as
I'm saying, And we do have new imaging that we
will unveil if you haven't heard it before for Lebron
Watched twenty twenty But we are on full blown Lebron Watch.
No matter how much you hate it or how much
you loathe it.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
I thought you're gonna say love it. So there's no
love here? Is it just hate? Loathe annoyance.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Isn't that where you're.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
A I'm so there, I'm so there. We're gonna get
into it.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
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Speaker 3 (01:32):
Just checking in with Iowa, Sam, Sam? What is the
ETA on our new Lebron Watch twenty twenty six? Drop?
Do we have an ETA on that Lebron Watch twenty
twenty six? Drop? What are we thinking about?
Speaker 6 (01:45):
I have it?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
I think I have it? Here? Oh? Three seconds? Ow?
Okay three seconds two one?
Speaker 4 (01:53):
The Watch twenty twenty six were watch?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
All right? We're on the Lebron Watch twenty six for
a variety of reasons that. Don't be fooled by Monsey's
smile and laugh. She's just annoyed as anybody else. Absolutely,
you heard Isaac g Lowincron played in the update, But
if you happen to miss it, here's some of the
exchange that Lebron James had at the Fanatics Fest with
Tyrese Aliburton earlier today at Fanatics Fest.
Speaker 7 (02:22):
Speaking is still doing this? Is there a decision that
has to be made?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
We want to talk about this? I don't know.
Speaker 8 (02:33):
I don't know if you want to do this. Okay, hilarious,
practice hilarious, The practiced it right.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
If you thought you knew comedy, that was that was
top of the line. Step aside, Chappelle, step aside. There's
a new there's a new tag team in town. There's more.
There's more from Tyrese, Haliburton, and Lebron.
Speaker 9 (03:00):
So how do I feel about free agency? Obviously I
said it's a big decision. This is the third time
in my career that I've been a free agan I
think three. Yeah, So that's a big decision for not
only myself, but for my family as well, and just
for the last part of my career on where I
want to spend the last few years, or the last
year or the last two years of you know, my
NBA career. So wherever I go elon, I will make
(03:22):
my stable on just I'm a.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Natural born leader.
Speaker 9 (03:27):
You know, I'm gonna trying to fit into whatever team
I'm going into. But also, you know, give them all
the tools and give them all the knowledge that I've
been able to, you know, grasp over the last twenty
three years. I know the game. I know the ins
and out about the game of basketball. Oh, I appreciate it, man,
you far too kind.
Speaker 10 (03:46):
Man.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
You also where I land.
Speaker 9 (03:49):
I hope that you that you support me and I
can continue to inspire you.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
All right, I appreciate it. Oh man. That by the way,
the part that you didn't hear was when the eleven
year old who's name? I believe it is a line
that Lebron James reference. Lebron did one of the some
of you media members could learn how to ask questions
like eleven year old lawn.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
He sure did so.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
This completely wasn't planted. This kid was not utilized or
taking advantage of by any means. There was none of that.
And that is full sarcasm. Manty, I know you're you're annoyed.
I am.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
It's just Lebron like that question and without hearing the question,
it sounds even worse when he just pats himself on
the back on you know, knowing basketball and being a
leader wherever he goes. But as you said, the kid,
the question was how do you feel about free agency,
How are you going to make the team better that
(04:42):
you join or something like that, And so I'm with you.
I fully believe that was absolutely scripted. What is what
just drives me is like, I know this is Lebron.
We've we go through this with Lebron throughout his entire
twenty three year career. But I sit here and I'm like, Lebron,
when you wonder why it is that.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
People don't just love you because.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
You've been great on the court, Like there's no denying
the greatness that it is to be playing in the
NBA for twenty three years. And I still do think
he plays at a high level. I do believe that.
But he sits and he wonders why he's not just
universally loved.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
This is why Lebron, all of.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
This, this is we're living in the exact simulation of
why we don't love you. Why I can't separate what
you do on the court with what you do off
the court. Like, to me, this overshadows the greatness that
it is on the court for Lebron James, Like, it's
just like you're playing.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
With us, and you know it.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
You're playing with people that are genuinely waiting for you
to speak, waiting for you to announce where you're going.
Who do love you? There are Lebron stands, but that's
not a lot. I don't know if there's a lot
of people who universally just love Lebron and just whatever
he does is great, and it's like, no, most people
are just annoyed. And this is why, because you're you're
playing with us, you're playing with the fans, you're playing
(06:02):
with the people sitting there listening to you. Tyre's Halliburn
yesterday tweeting it's time Lebron yesterday where it's like time
for what.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
To play golf? Like I was, like, are you implying
he's gonna go?
Speaker 5 (06:10):
It's just so many things to play with us every
single time, and it's so annoying, and everyone's talking about it,
including us, including us, because there's so many clips of like, oh,
what did he say here? Let's dissect here even in
this answer, you like how he said, however many years
I have or one year or two years?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Are all of that still not even making up his mind?
Speaker 5 (06:30):
No, but he knows that's all things, even really knows
where he's going.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
The word you're used in there are people who genuinely care.
And that is the part of this that just Lebron
isn't He isn't being genuine He's being disingenuous. This is
all a ruge. This is to have Tyrese Haliburton have
the misstep of the question that was set up. You
(06:56):
don't believe me that the kid asked the question. We
do have the audio of that. This is how it
sounded as well with Lebron, how do you feel.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
About being a free agency and what do you want
to do in your next team?
Speaker 4 (07:12):
And how do you want to develop it happen?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Take some noise for that question right there. They're not
planned at all, not at all. First of all, that
the hell of a question.
Speaker 9 (07:24):
Yeah, And some of the immediate people in the enterprise
will learn from a young fellow.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Oh you hear that, mac ten, You hear that, Brian
Wyndhorse and everybody else shams Chris Haynes. They should learn
from eleven year old to Lawn who was planted by
Lebron's people, which, by the way, if I'm an eleven
year old, yeah, I'll take it. Yeah, sign me up.
But that's also the part of us. Yeah, but he's
also using people right, and he's using people for his advantage.
And some say that the trade is good, the trade
(07:51):
off is good. There's a spotlight of knowing Lebron and
being with Lebron. There's this there's in a way, it's
this exchange of goods that just doesn't seem like it's
on the up and up. And it seems sometimes that
Lebron is maybe taking a little bit more than what
he would give. And here he's taking advantage of everybody.
He's taking advantage of all the reporters that are in attendance.
That I have to go to this thing knowing full
(08:13):
well that to your point, the decision has been made.
And yeah, it's another reason why people don't like Lebron.
It's just the fact that he's feeling like he's used.
And when you're trying to find out, you pose the question,
how many people truly love Lebron anymore? Well, the Heat
fans really didn't love him from the way that he left.
The Laker fans never really had embraced him. I still
(08:33):
think that there are Lebron stands from throughout time, and
I think he'll always have a home in Cleveland. But
outside of that, I'm wondering myself and today I don't
think one any more fans except maybe eleven year old Alan,
who was used as a pawn in the scheme to
try to make Lebron James again feel more like a
relatable character and to your point, very unrelatable in in
(08:56):
a way used all of us today.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Used all of us. And you don't need to do that.
You you, out of.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
So many athletes in the world, you don't need to
do that. And it's mind boggling how it's so. It's
just shocking for somebody of Lebron's status to still need
so much approval day in and day out. It's just
it's it's incredible to me because again, Lebron, you were great.
Nobody anybody who says Lebron is not great. It's like, okay,
(09:24):
well you're lying, but you can also you're annoying as well.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
And that's like, I'm just like, Lebron, why are we
doing this again? When was it that he It was
last free agency right.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Where he was like, I'm gonna make an announcement about something,
and then it was a promotion for liquor.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Oh yeah, remember that, And everybody waited. Everyone waited. We're like, Oh,
he's gonna do it.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
He's gonna the decision two point zero, and then it
was it was an advertisement for liquor, and you're just
like this, why are you doing this? And like you said,
everybody is recording every second of this interview hoping he's
gonna say something, knowing damn well, he's not gonna say anything.
He's not gonna say anything, And yet we have to
those reporters. Those people are there some hoping maybe is
(10:05):
there a slight chance that he actually proves us wrong,
that he's not going to do the same play he
does every single time, which is bring us in to
tell us absolutely nothing. Oh no, he does it again.
We're the stupid ones, but we have to pay attention
because it's Lebron James. Like, I'm tired. I'm tired, but
I cannot pay attention to Lebron James.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
I would rather have started with the Open Championship today
and talk about how disappointing it was to see Justin
Rose shoot five over par. But we can't because Lebron
and Tyrese Halliburton have a fake podcast at Fanatics Fest.
Jason Stewart's our executive producer.
Speaker 7 (10:34):
Dan, you insinuated that the kid what's his name, eleven
year old lawn, Yeah, that maybe he was planted, that
maybe this was set up.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (10:45):
I would even go a step further and say maybe
it was a child actor. And we haven't seen worst
child acting since Tuesday night when those kids on the
bikes rode into the ballpark and acted like organic kids
getting autographs from their We haven't seen bad acting like
that in at least twenty four hours.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
My review on Sandalot, by the way, would be Sandlot
leaves a lot to be desired. I texted you guys,
that's great earlier today, but back to but back to Lebron.
It's such a ploy as well, and it feels like
we're being grumpy old people of Lebron.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Get off my line.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
You actually hear the question that they honned off to
this kid. I guarantee the insiders and reporters have asked
Lebron the same exact question at some point. He just
wanted to take his shot at the reporters that were
in attendance. And it's also a crappy thing to do,
(11:44):
knowing that on a mid July day and maybe they
have air conditioning inside so it's better to be inside
than it is outside, or having to deal with the
Canadian wildfire smoke. Maybe the smoke is cleared. It's the
point of all of those people had to show up
today and in case something happened, And so not only
(12:05):
does he bring them into the arena. And I know
no one has any empathy for NBA writers or covering
the league, but it's the point of how Lebron is
using everyone, and in this instance, he not only uses
them for his gain. By using this eleven year old kid,
he also takes an opportunity to take a shot at
some of the people in attendance, who, by the way,
(12:25):
have asked the same generic question to him through time
and time again. If you just do we have the
question again, Jason, just take a listen.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
How do you feel about being a free agency? And oh,
what do you want to do in your next team?
And how do you want to development?
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Could you imagine asking Lebron three questions at once at
a press conference? And again, I'm not piling on the
eleven old year old kid. We've just been there enough
where you know where if you were to ask a
subject three questions, Manci if you asked me question right now,
I'll be like, okay, let me start from the last one.
And here Lebron is in his own way, and I
trying to rain on the parade of reporters by saying,
(13:10):
this is the kid, this kid's this kid's done it
when he's a plant. If it was a random kid
that came up and he said, you know what, great question, kid,
that's awesome, much more genuine than all of this.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
And you could hear it because there's so many videos.
You know, everybody is there recording. There's videos of this interview,
and there's like a family nearby. Now this kid is
is in a separate section, an area that seems that
some people are able to walk through. It looks like
a like a right. And then there's the rest of
the fans. So he's already in a separate area.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Oh my good, it's not just a random fan, right.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
And then there's like a family. You can hear in
one of the videos because I was listening in the family,
he's like, can he ask the next question? It's his birthday?
Can he ask the next question?
Speaker 5 (13:49):
And there was the video I could just hear this
family being like, it's his birthday, can you do?
Speaker 4 (13:52):
And it's like, no, girl, this ain't real. This ain't real.
They're not gonna make you.
Speaker 5 (13:56):
Lebron even came and sat down at the edge of
the stage to get the.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Question from the kid, like absolutely not. This is completely scripted. Now,
I don't I don't want to again. It sounds like
we're piling on the kid. It's not it. It's just
this whole orchestrated usage. Yes, it's his usage, this whole
orchestrated event to tell us nothing once again, once again.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
And like he says, like there's a there's a slight
percent chance, right then maybe he would have said something,
there's three percent chance, and that three percent causes all
of this, all of this, and it's just like Lebron,
come on, come on, you're gonna you're gonna do this
to us for the next three years.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Well, this is the point, manzi, this is the point.
This is why, like I think like we ended up
focusing on the reporter because the start of the press
conference or the start of the podcast, the fake exchange
of we talked about this in the back mm hmm okay, okay, okay,
I'll leave it at that. That's scripted as well. But
from everything that you said at the beginning of the
(14:58):
lengths that Lebron is gone and maybe why people don't
embrace him the way that he wants to be embraced
in Loved is because he's willing to use an eleven
year old kid as a ploy to try to make
himself look better and in this case also make other
people look worse because of the questions that they would
be asking. I'm not here to defend NBA media. They
(15:21):
just happen to be a part of the target for Lebron.
It's more about Lebron's people thought, let's have a kid
ask this, let's do it this sort of way, then
we could control the message even more. And again for
the kid who has an opportunity to meet Lebron James
and shake his hand, it's well worth it. You know.
If someone going to come out, hey, we want your
(15:41):
son to ask this athlete, would he be able to
do it and get a picture taken? Sure, But here
Lebron is using that for his own message, which goes
to the bigger point of what you're saying is because
all of this is manufactured, even what is supposed to
be a genuine moment between you and a young fan
still can't be believed is real.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
And he knows you, guys, he knows what he's doing.
There's no way he doesn't know. That's why he's enjoying
this because I feel that if Lebron truly didn't know, how.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Could you have so much fun with these answers?
Speaker 5 (16:17):
Right, there's no way if you didn't know what you
were about to do with your career and you were
truly in a dilemma, there's no way you can enjoy
this interview, you can enjoy this atmosphere, you can enjoy
any of this.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
I have a hard time believing that. So he has
to know. But what is he waiting for?
Speaker 5 (16:34):
He just wants us to be like this for how
many more days? How many more weeks?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
So there was some news that was leaked and I'm
not sure if it's news some news, I'm not sure
if it's an error. But there are two pieces of
information that had Lebron maybe linked to going to Golden State.
Number one was a Steve Kerr video where I think
he was joking with fans who yelled at him, hey
go get Lebron, and he's like, oh, we got him
go put that on Twitter. I thought that that was
(16:59):
very in jest. But then there's this other piece of
information on a PTI podcast on ESPN that ended up
being mislabeled. Is that correct?
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Correct? I saw yesterday myself.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
After I ran through it, I came across a tweet
and I was like, there's no way, So I wanted
to go look at it myself, and they had just
posted the podcast for part of the interruption and the
title said, and I have it in front of me
because I took a screenshop Steph Curry behind Lebron's stunning
Warriors decision, Kawhi is Back, and that was the title.
So then I clicked on it and I went to
(17:32):
the transcript, and through the transcript you can search keywords.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
So I was like, maybe I did this with Rob
g during the Auto couple, because I was like, do
you think this is a mistake? Do you think this
was planning? Like what is this?
Speaker 5 (17:42):
And we went through the transcript and searched keywords like
Curry or Lebron and nothing came up. In that episode,
it was a lot of World Cup because Argentina did
once again what they've done in the last couple of
knockout games that they come back from behind and win
their match. So it was all about the World Cup.
Nothing came up about in this transcript. Three hours ish
(18:03):
later it was fixed, Don dun done.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Yeah, I think their coincidences, That's what I think. Do
I think that ESPN would be in on the Lebron decision?
Probably not.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
I agree with you. Why would they know?
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, but it is odd that there's two pieces of information.
Jason Stewart, do you see any connection between the Kerr
line and this PTI podcast mishap?
Speaker 7 (18:27):
I had not thought of this until I heard you
guys just talked this out over the last ten minutes.
But if we are to believe that this kid was
planted and that whole Haliburton exchange was fabricated and scripted,
and also everything else this week, from Draymond going on
his podcast putting in his pitch, to that Steph Curry
thing yesterday on Good Morning America, all the I think
(18:49):
all the sixers reached out to him, and that was
leaked that they had all reached out to him, all
this hubbub. Would you be surprised if that all that
thing with Steve Kurr yesterday was also planted like it
was a member of the Warriors staff or NBA staff,
and they wanted like to me. It's like I think
Lebron and rich Paul had these conversations, and rich Paul
(19:11):
probably asked him what Moncey just asked five minutes ago,
what are you waiting for? And Lebron's answer probably is
I haven't gotten enough love this. I just haven't gotten
enough attention. Like do something to drum up the attention
on this thing.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Eh, I don't know. I you can't put it past him,
but I don't think that Steve Kerr would want to
be a ploy.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
I agree, I agree. I know it's simple enough.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
But and by the way, I know this is not
your hot take. You're just hypothesizing on why these things good, possible,
and how ridiculous this whole thing is. Yes, I also
thought about it like this. If your PTI, why not
try to make your own buck off of it? Why
don't we do it? Today? Our podcast is going to
be called Lebron Heads back to Cleveland. Okay, even though
(19:59):
it's about fanatics, fast just label it Lebron Heads back
to Cleveland, because why not? If Lebron is trying to
use everyone else, why not use it for their own good.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
That's a really good point.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
In an hour two halves acquire Kevin Durant from Rockets.
We'll try that one as well. Why not, let's just
throw it out there. Steph Curry also says, I need
to go back to the land.
Speaker 5 (20:20):
Well, okay, all right, maybe not as much.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
I just that's what I thought of like PTI, because
it has Mancy, it has producers, it has fans scrubbing
this podcast. This download of that episode probably the highest
they've ever gotten, right, just from a mistake, and honestly
it's dirty pool. But they're using the people just as
much as Lebron is like at FanFest, So they're like,
(20:45):
how do we make ourselves? How can we get that's
I don't know if that's what happened. I have no
idea why the mistake was made, but I wouldn't put
it past anybody to try to benefit from their.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Own selves to lean into what he's doing.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Isaac Low and Crowns at the desk.
Speaker 11 (21:01):
I hate to add to this discussion with yet another tidbit,
but they're having Jannis's introductory press conference right now in
Miami moments ago, in reference to Yannis pat Riley and
the press conference, said we landed the plane, and then
a beat later he said, there's another one we have
to land.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
You see, like, okay, come on, pat Riley, don't do
this to us.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
The heat are just going to be all forwards. That's
all they're going to be. It's gonna be bam. Bobby
Portis Janis Lebron, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Probably wants to be a point guard.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
It's just everybody. Everybody's six nine and above. That's that's
what it is.
Speaker 9 (21:47):
This.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
I am shocked that it has gone on to July sixteenth, right,
because at some point I felt that he would think
that the Prons people would think that there's just a
saturation of this, But apparently.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
Not, especially because if you were waiting for moments where
you're not competing with other things going on in sports,
there have been several days in between World Cup games,
you could have done this several games.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
I said last week, Joe I eighth.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Yeah, it was a week ago, more than a week ago.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
And I didn't think we'd be here a week later.
Mike shawtweets in Dan and Monci are such Lebron haters.
It's hilarious.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Hashtag slow news day. I don't hate Lebron. I don't either,
but I'll tell you what this is news. This isn't
slow news. This is a lot of news of Lebron
James refusing to let us know where he is going
and then ends up using everybody as there as a
ploy in this, as a pawn in this, in Jason's
world of chess. That's what these pieces are, and that's
(22:45):
what it really felt like Lebron was doing today.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
Well, you know, the real underscore English going by. Chris
tweeted and said, you're one hundred percent right. He knows
he's been hearing for two days. I've been hearing for
two days that he signed with Golden Say, and I
kind of believe it.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
You can find us on ex at Manzi Belana, So
you can find me at Dan Byer on Fox. Isaac
Lohencron is here, as is Jason Stewart and Iowa Sam.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
The Watch twenty twenty six watch.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Be sure to catch live editions of Stu Godson Company
live weekdays at three pm Eastern twelve pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Happy Thursday to you, play wrapping up at Royal Birkdale.
So one day in the books and our final golf
major of the year. You know I'm interested in that.
I'm also interested in going on vacation.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Yeah, so close, so cool, so close, but you need
to pack.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
So close by the way an hour in. No one
hears wished me a happy half birthday.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
Yet oh happy at birthday, that's right.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
I mean I knew it was coming. I said it
two days ago.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Sor my wife forgot. She called me on my way
into work today. No, no, I sorry this morning and
I left the house by and then she's like, oh
my gosh, I forgot it's your half birthday because she
married the one person in the world who still talks
about half birthdays well into their forties, well into their fortes.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
So you better celebrate her half birthday.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Yes, okay it is. It was in May.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Okay, all right, there we go.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
Stu Gotson Company is sponsored by Fee and dou A.
Go tofanduel dot com slash Stu Gotts to find out
more about how to get in on all the summer
soccer action. Let there be goals this summer on FanDuel.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
All right, if you want to reach us eight seven
seven nine nine on Fox. That's eight seven seven nine
nine six six three sixty nine. But like Lebron James,
we're only going to take questions from planted eleven year
old kids. So those are the only calls that we
are taking today. Jason Stewart, it is my half birthday.
How are you?
Speaker 7 (24:43):
No? I knew it was your half birthday. I've been
planning on this. This is why I wanted to take
you golfing today. So today after the show, we're going
to play golf for your half birthday. He did say,
your plans for the entire time.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Golf and we may play half of eighteen holes because
it is so freaking.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Hodays are crazy.
Speaker 7 (24:58):
It's nine holes.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
But but it's hot everywhere. Yeah, it is hot. And it
was hot last night at gain Bridge field House, or
at least somebody was hot. And that's one. Caitlyn Clark,
boy was she mad? Mancy Belanos and that game against
the Golden State Valkyries. In fact, Caitlin Clark talked about
(25:21):
the exchange after the game that she had with the
referee that went viral on social media.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Killy Gaye, take me through that second quarter play with
stakes that did you have said?
Speaker 8 (25:31):
And the claude like that hurts like the rev campus that,
and then I have to play with a contusion in
my life the rest of the game. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Campus Colsi. Okay, No, I don't shoot the messenger because
whenever we talk about Caitlin Clark, the messenger is always attacked.
But remember a couple of weeks ago when the whole
Alsa Thomas situation came out and we did a clip,
(25:58):
like many clips on Fox Sports were, when you talk
about Kaitlyn Clark, it grabs a lot of attention. But
my point was that Caitlin Clark isn't innocent in all
of this, and what happened last night in what you
saw last night in that clip was one of the
things that I was talking about in all this.
Speaker 6 (26:19):
Now.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
The other part was the taunting on the free throw
miss and other things and just players going after players,
and you'd get a lot of comments of, well, a
fist to the neck isn't the same as taunting. Someone agreed,
agreed with that, but don't make it seem like Caitlyn
Clark is little miss Angel done nothing wrong. This has
(26:42):
actually been an issue with Kitlin Clark throughout her career
so much so I think ESPN had a special camera
just for her dad, because he would be telling her
during games, calm down, let it go, stop complaining, that
sort of thing. And last night wasn't a great look
for Kaitlin Clark.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
It really was not. I love Kaitlin Clark.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
I think she is great, and I do believe that
she has had a rough time in the WNBA and
that it's been unfair.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Treatment of Kaitlin Clark one hundred percent.
Speaker 5 (27:14):
But last night, the way she reacted after that was
just like, girl, you cannot do that. I understand that
life has been unfair for you in the WNBA. I
understand that they have missed call after call after call.
I understand that the officiating in the WNBA is a joke.
(27:35):
I understand that you feel like you have a target
on your back. I understand all that. But with great
power comes great responsibility, and your responsibility in that moment
is to keep your cool and not act like that.
And that was I think an extreme built up frustration
for her, letting it out righte like it's spilled over.
She had been try to maybe hold it in this
(27:57):
entire time. I really get all that. I feel bad
because she looks so bad in that clip. She looked
like such a brat. There's no way to deny it
in that clip. And it's just kind of like it's
unfair that you are now going to be criticized. I
get all that, but it's because of what comes with
the power that you have as Caitlin Clark.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
You can't act like that.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
You almost have to be you almost have to always
always be on your best behavior, even there, even though
there are times that it is justified for you to
act out.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
And I don't disagree with that, and I would say
that in this specific instance, Manzi, instead of being on twelve,
turn it down to five, right, like the referee showed
magnificent restraint in not teeing her up. And I actually,
if we want to get to the real nuts and
bolts of it, the look is awful and you're one
(28:53):
hundred percent right. I think the worst part is the
doubling down in the postgame press conference. There's already this
process of the WNBA and the referees being poor, and
when you double down the way that you do and
say what you said and that yeah, I got needed
in the thigh. How could you miss that? Reffs miss
(29:13):
a lot of calls, that's probably why they missed it.
And if you would have seen the way that she
responded and at one point she wasn't trying to headbutt,
but she moved her head forward in a aggressive nature
toward the official that if you were in the NBA
automatic tea possibly being tossed and she didn't get anything
(29:34):
for this, and so like in this instance, not only
is she wrong, like we actually have to give the
WNBA official credit for understanding the situation and holding back,
because then if you tear up, then it becomes another
complete different fire.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
Story, right right, And that's almost worse for Caitlin Clark
the fact that the ref didn't do that, because now
everybody so yes, because I think now that everybody wants
to criticize Kitlin Clark, they can say she gets to
be a brat and they didn't give her a technical
you get that angle of it is gonna come out.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Sure, Yeah, I can see that. I can see that.
I don't I think there's more on what the I
just I just I give the official credit and like
in the terms that you're saying it, like maybe I
shouldn't have given the official credit. But in a way
of everybody saying that Caitlin Clark is being you know,
(30:30):
ruled or officiated unfairly, here's an instance where it's only
about Caitlin Clark, right, it's not about anybody else. And
they were like, okay, well we didn't tee you up,
so like in that sort of way, I understand the
firestorm that would build up as well. But there's more
to it. There's I know, Jason Stewart wants to get
to the lip reading aspect of it in what exactly
Caitlin Clark said, but Iowa, Sam you want in.
Speaker 10 (30:52):
I totally agree with you guys, Like the ref in
this instance is like allowing the toddler to have the
the go ahead and just have your melt down, Like
I'm not gonna make it any worse. The ref took
the high road and just let her have that awful
look on her face, screaming in her face. So yeah,
the ref looks like the one who took the high road,
and she looks like the one who had the toddler meltdown.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
And Caitlin Clark was very above line, above counter, above board.
If you would to say, kept it cleaning the postgame,
but it was anything but clean. What she was saying
to the ref, Jason.
Speaker 7 (31:23):
It's like amateur whip reading and this is all over Twitter.
But give me an give me an effinge call, is
what she said. And she's two feet from her nose,
right f I got fouled five f in times. That's
what she said at the top of her voice, seemingly.
And then as to your point, Dan, when she was
(31:43):
given a chance to like own it, you know, I
lost my cool. Maybe I shouldn't have been so forceful
or violent. She doubled down and said, yeah, you got
to give me the call on that, Like that was
like classless. You go back ten days. Remember it took
her a week to speak on camera in the wake
of the Alissa Thomas thing. And then everyone gave her
(32:04):
credit for everything she said, and in one of the
things that she said was we all have to do better.
We all have to do better in treating the officials.
The officials need to do better, the league needs to
do better in supporting the officials. And then this check
gets up and two inches from the from the ref's face,
give me an effing call and makes makes her look
(32:27):
like a fool. And to your point, the referee showed
amazing restraint in this moment.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
I think. And it's Amanzi's point, which I think is fair,
and I hadn't really thought of that. If she, you know,
she has given the technical, then the backlash is enormous.
But I don't I don't know how it wouldn't be
warranted exactly. And so and then this ends up being
every single Caitlin Clark discussion that ever happens, is it
goes to the polar opposites of one side saying one
(32:57):
thing and one side saying another, and not actual issue
at hand. But this is something that Caitlyn Clark not,
to Jason's point, doubling down when we bring up again,
she has not figured out a way to control her emotions.
So then last month again when I say that Kitlyn
Clark isn't innocent in all of this, I'm sorry. People
don't love cry babies when it calls, we hate it,
(33:20):
we can't stand it. Yeah, we hate floppers. I'm not
saying that Caitlin Clark is flopping, but these are things
that can get under your skin when you're watching the
sport of basketball and if somebody's complaining to the ref
every single time, not only is it probably annoying to
the rough, it's annoying to those who watch the sport
as well.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
Bo Knows chimes in and said, was it a ticky
techie foul or a foul? This not calling major fouls
needs to stop. I have no issue with her overreacting,
and it's it's kind of just like it's unfortunately for
Kitlyn Clark.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
Is she's on a different on a different platform.
Speaker 5 (33:55):
The way I am going to look and criticize Caitlin
Clark is different than.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
The way I look at other WNBA players. And that's
what I mean.
Speaker 5 (34:01):
With the power that she has, she has a lot
of responsibility and in that moment, she has to know like,
as frustrated as she is, she can't act like that
because it's not going to help her in any way,
shape or form. Like I get it, it is not fair,
I understand, but Kitlyn Clark, girl, like I need you
to go get a bat behind closed doors and smash
(34:22):
some dishes. After that happens, like let it out in
a different way, because that is not going to help you.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
I do think that if the ref would have given
her a tech.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
It would have been one of those rare incidences where
the conversation about Kaitlin Clark is not polarizing because everybody
would have been like, Yeah, she deserved it.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
I don't think so. I think I think it would
have just and I think that in the normal world
it would. But to her point, people only hear, guess what,
Kaitlyn Clark's been needing the quad five times? All right,
She's been needing the quad five times. The third time
I would have gone off on the ref she waited.
That's how the argument ends up dissolving into what most
(34:59):
Caitlyn Clark. There's always a reason on why something is justified,
no matter on what side that you're on or isn't justified.
That's what I think it ultimately would come down to,
and it's why, like the official in the matter, I
don't want to say, is in a no win situation.
But you know, in a way of not calling that foul,
(35:22):
I think it's more beneficial or calling that a technical foul,
it's more beneficial for what the referees are going through
at this time. Yes, in the weird way of something
that should obviously be a technical foul. The ref doesn't
make the right call and calling it but that actually works.
That's the sort of bizarre world that we are now
(35:43):
dealing with in the WNBA.
Speaker 5 (35:45):
Her not calling the foul is really good for the
officiating argument, really bad for the discussion of Caitlin Clark
and her antics against not getting the calls.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
I think it's the opposite. I think her not calling
the technical foul shows well, what if you're not going
to call her give her a tech on that? Who
are you giving text to Like? That's like, who are
you going to give a technical to you? If a
player runs up to you uses the F word five times,
I think that would be the overall discussion about the WNBA.
(36:18):
But if she gave it technical last night, I think
you have more of a hubbub about it. So I
think she did the right thing and just swallowing the
whistle and taking it. But ultimately that's probably not if
you're if you're by the book official and you're a ref.
I don't think that she followed it, but I think
that she made the right decision. I know it's a
little bit confusing, but I just by not calling it,
(36:40):
if she called it, to your point, I think it
would have been a bigger deal. But you almost now
every other player in the WNBA is like, well, she
and we go up to an official and say the
F word five times, they're better not give us a
tea because they share as heck than Caitlin Clark.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
That's that's that's another good point. What's up, Samding?
Speaker 10 (36:57):
So the way you guys are discussing this, it's like
you're creating outrage fuel, like on either side whether it's
called or not called, or like, you can be outraged
that it wasn't called. You can be outraged that if
it was called. And I don't think this would even
matter that much. People wouldn't be talking about it if
she just wasn't like she's struggling, she's struggling to score.
She's not been a factor for the team. When she's
(37:17):
on the court. They end up I think losing more
than they do win. And like they're at home against
the Valkyries. I don't know if I can't remember if
they were a favored or not, but if she was
hitting five out of eight threes instead of one out
of eight and scoring twenty plus points, I can't remember
last time she said over twenty points, she's a non factor.
She's spinning her wheels this summer, and then this stuff
happens and it just makes.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Everything look worse. I want to say this, and Sam,
you are exactly right, and I think Manzi, you and
I inadvertently started to go down the slippery slope of
what ends up happening to Sam's point of saying, and
it's totally fine in discussing it. The real point here,
honestly is Jason Stewart. The real point in all of
(37:59):
this is Jason Stewart, who watched the WNBA with great
passion when she came into the league in her rookie year,
and everything that has happened to that point is now
basically turns you off of the game. Is that correct?
Like you're not as interested or rooting for Caitlin Clark.
It's now become not as enjoyable for you. Is that fair?
Speaker 7 (38:22):
I would say it's really She makes it very difficult
to root for her nowadays, all the stuff, this attitude
in the antics. I loved about her in college because
she was just kicking ass and not taking names, and
she was like putting her fist in the air and
getting an opponent's faces. All this attitude stuff was so
appealing to her, and I think that's what kind of
(38:44):
created this popularity. Now she just looks like a whiney
ass little player and it's hard to root. And Sam's
point about her not being good, I'll go one more step.
She's not the phenom, she's not the star. What's the
appeal of Caitlin Clark's game right now? She doesn't have
those moments where you're like, oh man, that's that's different
(39:08):
than anything I've ever seen in women's mouth.
Speaker 10 (39:10):
She has some nifty passes, and she'll do some spectacular
things during the game, but scoring and especially shooting threes
has really hit this.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
You know. It's really those local trees were what put
her on the.
Speaker 10 (39:21):
Map, I know, And that's that's absent right now. And
again people would probably just ignore this. This officiating, you know,
her bumping heads to the officials. If she was scoring
twenty five a game, she's not. She's she's chipping in seven, ten,
twelve points a game. She's got she's always got like
a she's got a minus, a lot in the plus minus.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
She's got a lot of turnilvers. Isn't like this? The
point of it is that if all of these arguments
end up going down the slippery slope, and that we
aren't like we're not talking about we're talking again of
how Caitlin Clark is being treated compared to other players
in the NBA or how refs treat them, and we
aren't just talking about this, right. That's because the problem
(40:01):
is everything can turn into something. But the fact is
that if she isn't playing well and isn't as exciting
to watch anymore, to Jason's point, that's not good for
the WNBA. And I think all the other stuff that
had happened, whether it be her injuries, whether what happened
to her the first year that she played in the WNBA,
all of those are reasons on why she or why
(40:22):
this league isn't following that rocket ship that it had
when she entered the league two plus years ago. And
I think that's like probably the biggest issue. And I
don't know if we'll ever be able to talk about
it like that. I have no idea when we had
the Aaron Judge argument not to bring that up and
saying that I'm right or wrong about who's more popular.
(40:43):
But this was part of the conversation as well, of
does Caitlin Clark. Is she just flash in the pan
for that excitement of what she did in college? Would
she be able to keep that longevity? Aaron Judge is
injured now, not a great example, but I still think
that we would say that Aaron Judges kept the longevity
of being that face of baseball or one of the
faces of baseball. And now right now with Caitlyn Clark,
(41:06):
it's kind of iffy, right she's the face of the
face of controversy, and Kareem came, you know, out and
had the comments that he made whether she is or
isn't the face, but she was the face of the
NBA when she came into the league. And now there's
just everything that's been around it, and so that that
fandom and craziness about here. Again, she's not innocent in
(41:29):
all of this, and the last night is a reason
why that maybe it's not as big as it once was.
Speaker 4 (41:34):
Nothing with Caitlin Clark is logical.
Speaker 5 (41:36):
It's it's nothing of it ever since she stepped into
the WNBA.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
And it sucks.
Speaker 5 (41:41):
But like Sam just said, it's one side or the other,
and it's never the stuff that matters, which is the
logical stuff of how she's playing. She's not playing well.
Does it have to do with injuries? Does it have
to do because she's beat up? Maybe, but she's not
playing well and she can you can see the frustration
on the court with her, And even if things seem
(42:02):
easy to discuss with her, it's never going to be
like that. I don't know if that's going to change.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
I don't think it is. I don't think it is.
Speaker 7 (42:11):
Are you too?
Speaker 3 (42:12):
You too?
Speaker 7 (42:12):
You and Sam are the noted Caitlyn Clark fans in
this building. Are you really big fans of her? Still?
Do you gravitate to her like you always have or
some of the stuff even kind of worn on your fandom?
Speaker 10 (42:27):
I'd say yes, yeah, I mean I'm still I still
look at her cumulative career and I'm like, wow, she
is amazing, And I still think she's battling for better officiating.
But when you have moments like that where you're so
frustrated that you cannot control like an ugly, you know,
appearance to come out, it's just hard.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
It's hard.
Speaker 10 (42:44):
And I don't want to be like a blind Caitlin
Clark fan, because, like Dan says, she's not innocent in
all this and she she needs to work on herself.
She needs to work on playing better, shooting better, and
keeping her composure on the court. Well, yeah, I'm like
with you, Sam, I think she. I think she her
career's not settled. Her career's not settled. I just feel
(43:06):
like this third season is like this weird dream of
like her first three seasons sort of just combined and
it's like she just spinning her wheels this summer.
Speaker 5 (43:14):
My opinion of her hasn't changed, but I am definitely
like wondering how the game's gonna go. I'm like, oh,
fever playing Let's see what Kayln Clark, Okayark this game.
Speaker 10 (43:24):
She could have twenty five and nine assists, or she
could have like eight points and six ASSISTSM just not
be like an impact at all on the on the
on the game.
Speaker 5 (43:32):
But as Sam to wrap this up, because it is
only her third year and there is some feeling where
it doesn't feel like a thirty year. It kind of
feels clouded like it's been Yeah, more than this ons changed,
but it feels like partificiating.
Speaker 10 (43:45):
People hate her or they love her, it's just the
same thing for three seasons now.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
I think she still is so early that she can
turn this around.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (43:53):
This isn't it's not changing my opinion completely of her.
That I was wrong on Kaylen Clark, that's not it.
But and it is like I watch now games a
little bit like, please.
Speaker 4 (44:03):
Don't act the full, Please don't do this, Caitlin.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
I would also say that your opinion is different because
you're not Iowa Mont.
Speaker 4 (44:10):
I am not Iowa Mont because you're Iowa Sam.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
There's always going to be something that you hold near
and dear.
Speaker 10 (44:16):
But again, I don't want to beat sugarcoat things when
she is being a brat, like I just don't ever,
that's just how I don't want to approach sports that
way because I think that's like too super fandom, and
so you have to be somewhat objective. She's being a
brat one day. That's something she needs to work on.
And I've seen her numbers. They're not good this year.
They've slipped a lot since the first like ten games.
She's in a really bad stretch right now.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Yeah, it was a bad look last night.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Be sure to catch live editions of Stu Godson Company
Live weekdays at three pm Eastern twelve pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
Now this was last week, but Jerry Rice isn't in
the main coverage of this, so this wasn't It's not
like you saw this on NBC or Peacock wherever it aired.
But someone had the video phone behind the tea box
and you could hear the voice in the background on
the on the t shot and yeah, Jerry. It wasn't
like Jerry went five yards. He went like forty to
fifty yards to track this guy down. It was I
(45:09):
love that, Yeah, it was it was them. It was
I give him credit because a lot of people who
go to golf tournaments are idiots. I'm just saying, And
some people who talk about how money is spent in
the NBA are idiots.
Speaker 4 (45:23):
Oh oh so.
Speaker 5 (45:23):
Much, so much so. And it's not even just the NBA.
I feel like there's other just athletes that have been
talking about money Dan and I don't get what type
of sentiment they think they're gonna get.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
CJ. McCollum was on speaking with Forbes about his advice
and the life of spending money in the NBA. Here's
what the veteran guard had to say.
Speaker 6 (45:50):
Let's say I was making two million dollars aff attaxes
you know, let's call it nine to fifty ninety seventy
agency fees, you know, four percent, marketing, fifteen percent. Like
those checks were like I was living off of like
an energy drink deal. I was living off Like I
had a twelve thousand dollars deal like to just like
get some post off and I lived off of that.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
So that's CJ. McCollum explaining, complaining on how some people
and players when they get to the NBA don't understand
everything that costs and how CJ. McCollum was able to
work around the drastic, drastic withdraws or how do I
say it, the cuts with taxes and whatnot expenses that
(46:32):
these NBA players have to have to endure with their
NBA contracts. And one NBA player was not having it.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
One NBA player was not having it.
Speaker 5 (46:40):
But just to add to who else is saying, Odell
Beckham Junior was on the Pivot podcast.
Speaker 4 (46:46):
He had an appearance and he basically broke down how.
Speaker 5 (46:48):
One hundred million dollar contract really is only eight million
for him per year.
Speaker 4 (46:54):
So it's not just one athlete.
Speaker 5 (46:56):
It seems like a lot of athletes want to talk
about the money and how It's really not what it
sounds like.
Speaker 4 (47:02):
And I'm just like, who is this for? Is this for?
Speaker 9 (47:05):
You?
Speaker 5 (47:05):
Guys should have your own little meetings with your own
athletes because the rest of us have no idea what
you're talking about. Twelve thousand dollars? Are you making that
a month? I wish I could make twelve thousand dollars
a month. I'd be chilling if I was making twelve
thousand dollars a month. You know what I'm saying, who
is this for? And then there's somebody who I like
have kind of critiqued over the years on his fashion decisions,
(47:27):
mister Kyle Kuzma, who clearly likes to spend a little
bit of money because those fashion decisions that he makes
are terrible, but there doesn't mean that they're cheap. He
goes to fashion shows, he does the whole thing. Yesterday
he tweeted this not gonna lie. It's exhausting hearing athletes
break down how they're millions aren't really millions after taxes
and fees. Forty million after taxes is still forty million.
(47:47):
The real issue isn't the system, it's lifestyle creep. Nobody
told you to live like a king, buy five cars
or move with a ten person entourage.
Speaker 4 (47:55):
Modest is allowed. Yes, Kyle Kuzma, thank you so much.
Who is this for? This breakdown of the money? Who
is it for?
Speaker 5 (48:04):
You're not helping me figure out how to break down
my money that I'm making because you and I live different.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
Lives, So who is this for?
Speaker 5 (48:09):
And it's just kind of like, I can't I can't
believe so many of these athletes. I feel like even
Jalen Brown recently was talking about money and and agents
and how much they get and all that, and it's like,
the way athletes make money is like so it is
a very small percentage of people that understand this. So
when you tell me that your millions aren't millions, I'm
(48:30):
gonna throw up.
Speaker 3 (48:31):
I remember the first time that I got a paycheck
and I had the same reaction, and it was obviously
not forty million dollars. But I think anybody at any
level that doesn't understand the process is going to have
that reaction. That's why it's so crucial that veteran players,
and you see this a lot more with the with
the NFL. I would assume that the NBA does it
(48:54):
to let these players know and give them a heads up. Now,
if they want to hear the message and not listen
and then do their own thing, that's their own problem.
But like this, this happens to everybody in not realizing
what actually happens when you sign up and are working,
whether it be at the NBA or whether it be
at the ironworks factory that I started working at in
(49:15):
high school summers and seeing, oh my goodness, or at
the truck stop, Oh wait a sec, I worked forty
hours last week? How do I only like, that's the
realization of when your paycheck is cut in half, then
throw onto it all of the cars and the parties
and the staff that Kyle Kuzma is talking about.
Speaker 4 (49:33):
That you don't have to do.
Speaker 3 (49:34):
You don't have to do it. But I don't think
that people know. And that's why it's that's why it's
important for those other NBA players and those other NFL
players to let in Major League Baseball, to let these
people know exactly where your money is going to go
when you're having those rookie symposiums and whatnot. But yeah,
I'm sick of hearing people complain. Gronk Kid talked about
(49:59):
how throughout his life, never played off, never spent a
dollar of his salary because he had endorsement deals. But
guess what not everybody has endorsement deals right now. Everybody
has endorsement deals like CJ. McCollum has. There are guys
who this is honestly, They're gonna get three mega years
of a paycheck in their career and that's probably it.
Like the NFL lifespan of playing in the NFL is
(50:20):
three to four years. So how do you take that
contract and not live three to four years? How do
you take that contract and live the next ten years
or fifteen years after that? And that's the other problem
that I don't think people understand.
Speaker 5 (50:32):
Sure, but it's like you being an athlete pursuing this,
if you came from nothing and you got a major contract,
you have to prep for the future. You can't go
in there thinking like I'm invincible and now I'm gonna
I have an infinite amount of money. And I don't
understand the logic in that because even like you just said,
we all experienced our paycheck being not what we thought.
(50:53):
Because what is a Rachel saying, friends, who's Fika? Why
does he get all my money?
Speaker 3 (50:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (50:58):
Like I get that, why is so, why does somebody.
Speaker 5 (51:00):
Else get all my money? But to say I'm not
over here over spending because of the money that I have.
And so I feel like Kyle Kuzma really just put
it in a perspective where it's like, nobody told you
to do all of these extravagant things. To say that
you cannot live a great life with a great lifestyle
would be a lie. You don't have to move the
way that Who are you moving like that for? With
(51:23):
your yachts and your cars and all of this. Trust mean,
you you have several nice cars, but who are you
trying to impress?
Speaker 3 (51:30):
Well, your buddies great.
Speaker 4 (51:33):
Are they gonna help you when you don't have money
in five years?
Speaker 3 (51:35):
No, that's but that's who I'm talking That's what I'm
talking about. These like the athletes need the leadership from
other athletes to understand the process. There's there are athletes
who will sign their rookie deal and feel that they're
going to get paid that amount for the next fifteen years.
I don't worry about twenty years done long. They're eighteen
and nineteen. They have no idea on what it's like
(51:55):
and it's just the point of even if you're twenty
one and twenty two and entering the National Football League,
you could get to the age of twenty six and
the biggest paychecks of your life are now gone. They're
in the rear view mirror. And if you have nothing
to show for that or for those three years that
you gave up your body to do what you did, Yeah,
guy's got to be smarter. It's I'm glad Kuzma spoke
(52:18):
up because not everybody is like CJ.
Speaker 4 (52:19):
McCollum.
Speaker 3 (52:21):
And he's on Forbes talking about how he made his
money and how he was able to maneuver it and
be smart about it. But I think that he's more
of the exception, especially when it comes to being able
to live on outside endorsements and other things. If you
are trying to live that modest life that Kyle Kusma's
talking about.
Speaker 4 (52:38):
And the modest life the KYLEA. Kusma's talking about is
not a.
Speaker 3 (52:40):
Modest life, no, correct, he's you know.
Speaker 5 (52:43):
What I'm saying, Like he's using that word, but in reality,
it's like you are living better than most people, and
he's just saying you could live that type of modest life,
but it's not really a modest life.
Speaker 3 (52:52):
If you missed any of today's show, be sure to
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Speaker 2 (00:14):
This is the best of Stu Gotson Company Live on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
I'm in a good mood. I had my cinnamon rolls
this morning as the Open Championship is well underway. But Monci,
it is a Thursday. We are still waiting on the
word from one Lebron James. It is officially Lebron Watched
twenty twenty six back in effect.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Does Lebron Watch twenty twenty six ever end? And I'm you, guys,
I don't know if it's gonna end.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
It hasn't stopped since Lebron watched twenty twenty five, as
I'm saying, And we do have new imaging that we
will unveil if you haven't heard it before for Lebron
Watched twenty twenty But we are on full blown Lebron Watch.
No matter how much you hate it or how much
you loathe it.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
I thought you're gonna say love it. So there's no
love here? Is it just hate? Loathe annoyance.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Isn't that where you're.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
A I'm so there, I'm so there. We're gonna get
into it.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
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Speaker 4 (01:31):
The way tire buying should be.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Just checking in with Iowa, Sam, Sam? What is the
ETA on our new Lebron Watch twenty twenty six? Drop?
Do we have an ETA on that Lebron Watch twenty
twenty six? Drop? What are we thinking about?
Speaker 6 (01:45):
I have it?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
I think I have it? Here? Oh? Three seconds? Ow?
Okay three seconds two one?
Speaker 4 (01:53):
The Watch twenty twenty six were watch?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
All right? We're on the Lebron Watch twenty six for
a variety of reasons that. Don't be fooled by Monsey's
smile and laugh. She's just annoyed as anybody else. Absolutely,
you heard Isaac g Lowincron played in the update, But
if you happen to miss it, here's some of the
exchange that Lebron James had at the Fanatics Fest with
Tyrese Aliburton earlier today at Fanatics Fest.
Speaker 7 (02:22):
Speaking is still doing this? Is there a decision that
has to be made?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
We want to talk about this? I don't know.
Speaker 8 (02:33):
I don't know if you want to do this. Okay, hilarious,
practice hilarious, The practiced it right.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
If you thought you knew comedy, that was that was
top of the line. Step aside, Chappelle, step aside. There's
a new there's a new tag team in town. There's more.
There's more from Tyrese, Haliburton, and Lebron.
Speaker 9 (03:00):
So how do I feel about free agency? Obviously I
said it's a big decision. This is the third time
in my career that I've been a free agan I
think three. Yeah, So that's a big decision for not
only myself, but for my family as well, and just
for the last part of my career on where I
want to spend the last few years, or the last
year or the last two years of you know, my
NBA career. So wherever I go elon, I will make
(03:22):
my stable on just I'm a.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Natural born leader.
Speaker 9 (03:27):
You know, I'm gonna trying to fit into whatever team
I'm going into. But also, you know, give them all
the tools and give them all the knowledge that I've
been able to, you know, grasp over the last twenty
three years. I know the game. I know the ins
and out about the game of basketball. Oh, I appreciate it, man,
you far too kind.
Speaker 10 (03:46):
Man.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
You also where I land.
Speaker 9 (03:49):
I hope that you that you support me and I
can continue to inspire you.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
All right, I appreciate it. Oh man. That by the way,
the part that you didn't hear was when the eleven
year old who's name? I believe it is a line
that Lebron James reference. Lebron did one of the some
of you media members could learn how to ask questions
like eleven year old lawn.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
He sure did so.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
This completely wasn't planted. This kid was not utilized or
taking advantage of by any means. There was none of that.
And that is full sarcasm. Manty, I know you're you're annoyed.
I am.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
It's just Lebron like that question and without hearing the question,
it sounds even worse when he just pats himself on
the back on you know, knowing basketball and being a
leader wherever he goes. But as you said, the kid,
the question was how do you feel about free agency,
How are you going to make the team better that
(04:42):
you join or something like that, And so I'm with you.
I fully believe that was absolutely scripted. What is what
just drives me is like, I know this is Lebron.
We've we go through this with Lebron throughout his entire
twenty three year career. But I sit here and I'm like, Lebron,
when you wonder why it is that.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
People don't just love you because.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
You've been great on the court, Like there's no denying
the greatness that it is to be playing in the
NBA for twenty three years. And I still do think
he plays at a high level. I do believe that.
But he sits and he wonders why he's not just
universally loved.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
This is why Lebron, all of.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
This, this is we're living in the exact simulation of
why we don't love you. Why I can't separate what
you do on the court with what you do off
the court. Like, to me, this overshadows the greatness that
it is on the court for Lebron James, Like, it's
just like you're playing.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
With us, and you know it.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
You're playing with people that are genuinely waiting for you
to speak, waiting for you to announce where you're going.
Who do love you? There are Lebron stands, but that's
not a lot. I don't know if there's a lot
of people who universally just love Lebron and just whatever
he does is great, and it's like, no, most people
are just annoyed. And this is why, because you're you're
playing with us, you're playing with the fans, you're playing
(06:02):
with the people sitting there listening to you. Tyre's Halliburn
yesterday tweeting it's time Lebron yesterday where it's like time
for what.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
To play golf? Like I was, like, are you implying
he's gonna go?
Speaker 5 (06:10):
It's just so many things to play with us every
single time, and it's so annoying, and everyone's talking about it,
including us, including us, because there's so many clips of like, oh,
what did he say here? Let's dissect here even in
this answer, you like how he said, however many years
I have or one year or two years?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Are all of that still not even making up his mind?
Speaker 5 (06:30):
No, but he knows that's all things, even really knows
where he's going.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
The word you're used in there are people who genuinely care.
And that is the part of this that just Lebron
isn't He isn't being genuine He's being disingenuous. This is
all a ruge. This is to have Tyrese Haliburton have
the misstep of the question that was set up. You
(06:56):
don't believe me that the kid asked the question. We
do have the audio of that. This is how it
sounded as well with Lebron, how do you feel.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
About being a free agency and what do you want
to do in your next team?
Speaker 4 (07:12):
And how do you want to develop it happen?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Take some noise for that question right there. They're not
planned at all, not at all. First of all, that
the hell of a question.
Speaker 9 (07:24):
Yeah, And some of the immediate people in the enterprise
will learn from a young fellow.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Oh you hear that, mac ten, You hear that, Brian
Wyndhorse and everybody else shams Chris Haynes. They should learn
from eleven year old to Lawn who was planted by
Lebron's people, which, by the way, if I'm an eleven
year old, yeah, I'll take it. Yeah, sign me up.
But that's also the part of us. Yeah, but he's
also using people right, and he's using people for his advantage.
And some say that the trade is good, the trade
(07:51):
off is good. There's a spotlight of knowing Lebron and
being with Lebron. There's this there's in a way, it's
this exchange of goods that just doesn't seem like it's
on the up and up. And it seems sometimes that
Lebron is maybe taking a little bit more than what
he would give. And here he's taking advantage of everybody.
He's taking advantage of all the reporters that are in attendance.
That I have to go to this thing knowing full
(08:13):
well that to your point, the decision has been made.
And yeah, it's another reason why people don't like Lebron.
It's just the fact that he's feeling like he's used.
And when you're trying to find out, you pose the question,
how many people truly love Lebron anymore? Well, the Heat
fans really didn't love him from the way that he left.
The Laker fans never really had embraced him. I still
(08:33):
think that there are Lebron stands from throughout time, and
I think he'll always have a home in Cleveland. But
outside of that, I'm wondering myself and today I don't
think one any more fans except maybe eleven year old Alan,
who was used as a pawn in the scheme to
try to make Lebron James again feel more like a
relatable character and to your point, very unrelatable in in
(08:56):
a way used all of us today.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Used all of us. And you don't need to do that.
You you, out of.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
So many athletes in the world, you don't need to
do that. And it's mind boggling how it's so. It's
just shocking for somebody of Lebron's status to still need
so much approval day in and day out. It's just
it's it's incredible to me because again, Lebron, you were great.
Nobody anybody who says Lebron is not great. It's like, okay,
(09:24):
well you're lying, but you can also you're annoying as well.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
And that's like, I'm just like, Lebron, why are we
doing this again? When was it that he It was
last free agency right.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Where he was like, I'm gonna make an announcement about something,
and then it was a promotion for liquor.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Oh yeah, remember that, And everybody waited. Everyone waited. We're like, Oh,
he's gonna do it.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
He's gonna the decision two point zero, and then it
was it was an advertisement for liquor, and you're just
like this, why are you doing this? And like you said,
everybody is recording every second of this interview hoping he's
gonna say something, knowing damn well, he's not gonna say anything.
He's not gonna say anything, And yet we have to
those reporters. Those people are there some hoping maybe is
(10:05):
there a slight chance that he actually proves us wrong,
that he's not going to do the same play he
does every single time, which is bring us in to
tell us absolutely nothing. Oh no, he does it again.
We're the stupid ones, but we have to pay attention
because it's Lebron James. Like, I'm tired. I'm tired, but
I cannot pay attention to Lebron James.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
I would rather have started with the Open Championship today
and talk about how disappointing it was to see Justin
Rose shoot five over par. But we can't because Lebron
and Tyrese Halliburton have a fake podcast at Fanatics Fest.
Jason Stewart's our executive producer.
Speaker 7 (10:34):
Dan, you insinuated that the kid what's his name, eleven
year old lawn, Yeah, that maybe he was planted, that
maybe this was set up.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (10:45):
I would even go a step further and say maybe
it was a child actor. And we haven't seen worst
child acting since Tuesday night when those kids on the
bikes rode into the ballpark and acted like organic kids
getting autographs from their We haven't seen bad acting like
that in at least twenty four hours.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
My review on Sandalot, by the way, would be Sandlot
leaves a lot to be desired. I texted you guys,
that's great earlier today, but back to but back to Lebron.
It's such a ploy as well, and it feels like
we're being grumpy old people of Lebron.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Get off my line.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
You actually hear the question that they honned off to
this kid. I guarantee the insiders and reporters have asked
Lebron the same exact question at some point. He just
wanted to take his shot at the reporters that were
in attendance. And it's also a crappy thing to do,
(11:44):
knowing that on a mid July day and maybe they
have air conditioning inside so it's better to be inside
than it is outside, or having to deal with the
Canadian wildfire smoke. Maybe the smoke is cleared. It's the
point of all of those people had to show up
today and in case something happened, And so not only
(12:05):
does he bring them into the arena. And I know
no one has any empathy for NBA writers or covering
the league, but it's the point of how Lebron is
using everyone, and in this instance, he not only uses
them for his gain. By using this eleven year old kid,
he also takes an opportunity to take a shot at
some of the people in attendance, who, by the way,
(12:25):
have asked the same generic question to him through time
and time again. If you just do we have the
question again, Jason, just take a listen.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
How do you feel about being a free agency? And oh,
what do you want to do in your next team?
And how do you want to development?
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Could you imagine asking Lebron three questions at once at
a press conference? And again, I'm not piling on the
eleven old year old kid. We've just been there enough
where you know where if you were to ask a
subject three questions, Manci if you asked me question right now,
I'll be like, okay, let me start from the last one.
And here Lebron is in his own way, and I
trying to rain on the parade of reporters by saying,
(13:10):
this is the kid, this kid's this kid's done it
when he's a plant. If it was a random kid
that came up and he said, you know what, great question, kid,
that's awesome, much more genuine than all of this.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
And you could hear it because there's so many videos.
You know, everybody is there recording. There's videos of this interview,
and there's like a family nearby. Now this kid is
is in a separate section, an area that seems that
some people are able to walk through. It looks like
a like a right. And then there's the rest of
the fans. So he's already in a separate area.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Oh my good, it's not just a random fan, right.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
And then there's like a family. You can hear in
one of the videos because I was listening in the family,
he's like, can he ask the next question? It's his birthday?
Can he ask the next question?
Speaker 5 (13:49):
And there was the video I could just hear this
family being like, it's his birthday, can you do?
Speaker 4 (13:52):
And it's like, no, girl, this ain't real. This ain't real.
They're not gonna make you.
Speaker 5 (13:56):
Lebron even came and sat down at the edge of
the stage to get the.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Question from the kid, like absolutely not. This is completely scripted. Now,
I don't I don't want to again. It sounds like
we're piling on the kid. It's not it. It's just
this whole orchestrated usage. Yes, it's his usage, this whole
orchestrated event to tell us nothing once again, once again.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
And like he says, like there's a there's a slight
percent chance, right then maybe he would have said something,
there's three percent chance, and that three percent causes all
of this, all of this, and it's just like Lebron,
come on, come on, you're gonna you're gonna do this
to us for the next three years.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Well, this is the point, manzi, this is the point.
This is why, like I think like we ended up
focusing on the reporter because the start of the press
conference or the start of the podcast, the fake exchange
of we talked about this in the back mm hmm okay, okay, okay,
I'll leave it at that. That's scripted as well. But
from everything that you said at the beginning of the
(14:58):
lengths that Lebron is gone and maybe why people don't
embrace him the way that he wants to be embraced
in Loved is because he's willing to use an eleven
year old kid as a ploy to try to make
himself look better and in this case also make other
people look worse because of the questions that they would
be asking. I'm not here to defend NBA media. They
(15:21):
just happen to be a part of the target for Lebron.
It's more about Lebron's people thought, let's have a kid
ask this, let's do it this sort of way, then
we could control the message even more. And again for
the kid who has an opportunity to meet Lebron James
and shake his hand, it's well worth it. You know.
If someone going to come out, hey, we want your
(15:41):
son to ask this athlete, would he be able to
do it and get a picture taken? Sure, But here
Lebron is using that for his own message, which goes
to the bigger point of what you're saying is because
all of this is manufactured, even what is supposed to
be a genuine moment between you and a young fan
still can't be believed is real.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
And he knows you, guys, he knows what he's doing.
There's no way he doesn't know. That's why he's enjoying
this because I feel that if Lebron truly didn't know, how.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Could you have so much fun with these answers?
Speaker 5 (16:17):
Right, there's no way if you didn't know what you
were about to do with your career and you were
truly in a dilemma, there's no way you can enjoy
this interview, you can enjoy this atmosphere, you can enjoy
any of this.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
I have a hard time believing that. So he has
to know. But what is he waiting for?
Speaker 5 (16:34):
He just wants us to be like this for how
many more days? How many more weeks?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
So there was some news that was leaked and I'm
not sure if it's news some news, I'm not sure
if it's an error. But there are two pieces of
information that had Lebron maybe linked to going to Golden State.
Number one was a Steve Kerr video where I think
he was joking with fans who yelled at him, hey
go get Lebron, and he's like, oh, we got him
go put that on Twitter. I thought that that was
(16:59):
very in jest. But then there's this other piece of
information on a PTI podcast on ESPN that ended up
being mislabeled. Is that correct?
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Correct? I saw yesterday myself.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
After I ran through it, I came across a tweet
and I was like, there's no way, So I wanted
to go look at it myself, and they had just
posted the podcast for part of the interruption and the
title said, and I have it in front of me
because I took a screenshop Steph Curry behind Lebron's stunning
Warriors decision, Kawhi is Back, and that was the title.
So then I clicked on it and I went to
(17:32):
the transcript, and through the transcript you can search keywords.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
So I was like, maybe I did this with Rob
g during the Auto couple, because I was like, do
you think this is a mistake? Do you think this
was planning? Like what is this?
Speaker 5 (17:42):
And we went through the transcript and searched keywords like
Curry or Lebron and nothing came up. In that episode,
it was a lot of World Cup because Argentina did
once again what they've done in the last couple of
knockout games that they come back from behind and win
their match. So it was all about the World Cup.
Nothing came up about in this transcript. Three hours ish
(18:03):
later it was fixed, Don dun done.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Yeah, I think their coincidences, That's what I think. Do
I think that ESPN would be in on the Lebron decision?
Probably not.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
I agree with you. Why would they know?
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, but it is odd that there's two pieces of information.
Jason Stewart, do you see any connection between the Kerr
line and this PTI podcast mishap?
Speaker 7 (18:27):
I had not thought of this until I heard you
guys just talked this out over the last ten minutes.
But if we are to believe that this kid was
planted and that whole Haliburton exchange was fabricated and scripted,
and also everything else this week, from Draymond going on
his podcast putting in his pitch, to that Steph Curry
thing yesterday on Good Morning America, all the I think
(18:49):
all the sixers reached out to him, and that was
leaked that they had all reached out to him, all
this hubbub. Would you be surprised if that all that
thing with Steve Kurr yesterday was also planted like it
was a member of the Warriors staff or NBA staff,
and they wanted like to me. It's like I think
Lebron and rich Paul had these conversations, and rich Paul
(19:11):
probably asked him what Moncey just asked five minutes ago,
what are you waiting for? And Lebron's answer probably is
I haven't gotten enough love this. I just haven't gotten
enough attention. Like do something to drum up the attention
on this thing.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Eh, I don't know. I you can't put it past him,
but I don't think that Steve Kerr would want to
be a ploy.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
I agree, I agree. I know it's simple enough.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
But and by the way, I know this is not
your hot take. You're just hypothesizing on why these things good, possible,
and how ridiculous this whole thing is. Yes, I also
thought about it like this. If your PTI, why not
try to make your own buck off of it? Why
don't we do it? Today? Our podcast is going to
be called Lebron Heads back to Cleveland. Okay, even though
(19:59):
it's about fanatics, fast just label it Lebron Heads back
to Cleveland, because why not? If Lebron is trying to
use everyone else, why not use it for their own good.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
That's a really good point.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
In an hour two halves acquire Kevin Durant from Rockets.
We'll try that one as well. Why not, let's just
throw it out there. Steph Curry also says, I need
to go back to the land.
Speaker 5 (20:20):
Well, okay, all right, maybe not as much.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
I just that's what I thought of like PTI, because
it has Mancy, it has producers, it has fans scrubbing
this podcast. This download of that episode probably the highest
they've ever gotten, right, just from a mistake, and honestly
it's dirty pool. But they're using the people just as
much as Lebron is like at FanFest, So they're like,
(20:45):
how do we make ourselves? How can we get that's
I don't know if that's what happened. I have no
idea why the mistake was made, but I wouldn't put
it past anybody to try to benefit from their.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Own selves to lean into what he's doing.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Isaac Low and Crowns at the desk.
Speaker 11 (21:01):
I hate to add to this discussion with yet another tidbit,
but they're having Jannis's introductory press conference right now in
Miami moments ago, in reference to Yannis pat Riley and
the press conference, said we landed the plane, and then
a beat later he said, there's another one we have
to land.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
You see, like, okay, come on, pat Riley, don't do
this to us.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
The heat are just going to be all forwards. That's
all they're going to be. It's gonna be bam. Bobby
Portis Janis Lebron, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Probably wants to be a point guard.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
It's just everybody. Everybody's six nine and above. That's that's
what it is.
Speaker 9 (21:47):
This.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
I am shocked that it has gone on to July sixteenth, right,
because at some point I felt that he would think
that the Prons people would think that there's just a
saturation of this, But apparently.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
Not, especially because if you were waiting for moments where
you're not competing with other things going on in sports,
there have been several days in between World Cup games,
you could have done this several games.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
I said last week, Joe I eighth.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Yeah, it was a week ago, more than a week ago.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
And I didn't think we'd be here a week later.
Mike shawtweets in Dan and Monci are such Lebron haters.
It's hilarious.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Hashtag slow news day. I don't hate Lebron. I don't either,
but I'll tell you what this is news. This isn't
slow news. This is a lot of news of Lebron
James refusing to let us know where he is going
and then ends up using everybody as there as a
ploy in this, as a pawn in this, in Jason's
world of chess. That's what these pieces are, and that's
(22:45):
what it really felt like Lebron was doing today.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
Well, you know, the real underscore English going by. Chris
tweeted and said, you're one hundred percent right. He knows
he's been hearing for two days. I've been hearing for
two days that he signed with Golden Say, and I
kind of believe it.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
You can find us on ex at Manzi Belana, So
you can find me at Dan Byer on Fox. Isaac
Lohencron is here, as is Jason Stewart and Iowa Sam.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
The Watch twenty twenty six watch.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Be sure to catch live editions of Stu Godson Company
live weekdays at three pm Eastern twelve pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Happy Thursday to you, play wrapping up at Royal Birkdale.
So one day in the books and our final golf
major of the year. You know I'm interested in that.
I'm also interested in going on vacation.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Yeah, so close, so cool, so close, but you need
to pack.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
So close by the way an hour in. No one
hears wished me a happy half birthday.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
Yet oh happy at birthday, that's right.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
I mean I knew it was coming. I said it
two days ago.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Sor my wife forgot. She called me on my way
into work today. No, no, I sorry this morning and
I left the house by and then she's like, oh
my gosh, I forgot it's your half birthday because she
married the one person in the world who still talks
about half birthdays well into their forties, well into their fortes.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
So you better celebrate her half birthday.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Yes, okay it is. It was in May.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Okay, all right, there we go.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
Stu Gotson Company is sponsored by Fee and dou A.
Go tofanduel dot com slash Stu Gotts to find out
more about how to get in on all the summer
soccer action. Let there be goals this summer on FanDuel.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
All right, if you want to reach us eight seven
seven nine nine on Fox. That's eight seven seven nine
nine six six three sixty nine. But like Lebron James,
we're only going to take questions from planted eleven year
old kids. So those are the only calls that we
are taking today. Jason Stewart, it is my half birthday.
How are you?
Speaker 7 (24:43):
No? I knew it was your half birthday. I've been
planning on this. This is why I wanted to take
you golfing today. So today after the show, we're going
to play golf for your half birthday. He did say,
your plans for the entire time.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Golf and we may play half of eighteen holes because
it is so freaking.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Hodays are crazy.
Speaker 7 (24:58):
It's nine holes.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
But but it's hot everywhere. Yeah, it is hot. And it
was hot last night at gain Bridge field House, or
at least somebody was hot. And that's one. Caitlyn Clark,
boy was she mad? Mancy Belanos and that game against
the Golden State Valkyries. In fact, Caitlin Clark talked about
(25:21):
the exchange after the game that she had with the
referee that went viral on social media.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Killy Gaye, take me through that second quarter play with
stakes that did you have said?
Speaker 8 (25:31):
And the claude like that hurts like the rev campus that,
and then I have to play with a contusion in
my life the rest of the game. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Campus Colsi. Okay, No, I don't shoot the messenger because
whenever we talk about Caitlin Clark, the messenger is always attacked.
But remember a couple of weeks ago when the whole
Alsa Thomas situation came out and we did a clip,
(25:58):
like many clips on Fox Sports were, when you talk
about Kaitlyn Clark, it grabs a lot of attention. But
my point was that Caitlin Clark isn't innocent in all
of this, and what happened last night in what you
saw last night in that clip was one of the
things that I was talking about in all this.
Speaker 6 (26:19):
Now.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
The other part was the taunting on the free throw
miss and other things and just players going after players,
and you'd get a lot of comments of, well, a
fist to the neck isn't the same as taunting. Someone agreed,
agreed with that, but don't make it seem like Caitlyn
Clark is little miss Angel done nothing wrong. This has
(26:42):
actually been an issue with Kitlin Clark throughout her career
so much so I think ESPN had a special camera
just for her dad, because he would be telling her
during games, calm down, let it go, stop complaining, that
sort of thing. And last night wasn't a great look
for Kaitlin Clark.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
It really was not. I love Kaitlin Clark.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
I think she is great, and I do believe that
she has had a rough time in the WNBA and
that it's been unfair.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Treatment of Kaitlin Clark one hundred percent.
Speaker 5 (27:14):
But last night, the way she reacted after that was
just like, girl, you cannot do that. I understand that
life has been unfair for you in the WNBA. I
understand that they have missed call after call after call.
I understand that the officiating in the WNBA is a joke.
(27:35):
I understand that you feel like you have a target
on your back. I understand all that. But with great
power comes great responsibility, and your responsibility in that moment
is to keep your cool and not act like that.
And that was I think an extreme built up frustration
for her, letting it out righte like it's spilled over.
She had been try to maybe hold it in this
(27:57):
entire time. I really get all that. I feel bad
because she looks so bad in that clip. She looked
like such a brat. There's no way to deny it
in that clip. And it's just kind of like it's
unfair that you are now going to be criticized. I
get all that, but it's because of what comes with
the power that you have as Caitlin Clark.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
You can't act like that.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
You almost have to be you almost have to always
always be on your best behavior, even there, even though
there are times that it is justified for you to
act out.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
And I don't disagree with that, and I would say
that in this specific instance, Manzi, instead of being on twelve,
turn it down to five, right, like the referee showed
magnificent restraint in not teeing her up. And I actually,
if we want to get to the real nuts and
bolts of it, the look is awful and you're one
(28:53):
hundred percent right. I think the worst part is the
doubling down in the postgame press conference. There's already this
process of the WNBA and the referees being poor, and
when you double down the way that you do and
say what you said and that yeah, I got needed
in the thigh. How could you miss that? Reffs miss
(29:13):
a lot of calls, that's probably why they missed it.
And if you would have seen the way that she
responded and at one point she wasn't trying to headbutt,
but she moved her head forward in a aggressive nature
toward the official that if you were in the NBA
automatic tea possibly being tossed and she didn't get anything
(29:34):
for this, and so like in this instance, not only
is she wrong, like we actually have to give the
WNBA official credit for understanding the situation and holding back,
because then if you tear up, then it becomes another
complete different fire.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
Story, right right, And that's almost worse for Caitlin Clark
the fact that the ref didn't do that, because now
everybody so yes, because I think now that everybody wants
to criticize Kitlin Clark, they can say she gets to
be a brat and they didn't give her a technical
you get that angle of it is gonna come out.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Sure, Yeah, I can see that. I can see that.
I don't I think there's more on what the I
just I just I give the official credit and like
in the terms that you're saying it, like maybe I
shouldn't have given the official credit. But in a way
of everybody saying that Caitlin Clark is being you know,
(30:30):
ruled or officiated unfairly, here's an instance where it's only
about Caitlin Clark, right, it's not about anybody else. And
they were like, okay, well we didn't tee you up,
so like in that sort of way, I understand the
firestorm that would build up as well. But there's more
to it. There's I know, Jason Stewart wants to get
to the lip reading aspect of it in what exactly
Caitlin Clark said, but Iowa, Sam you want in.
Speaker 10 (30:52):
I totally agree with you guys, Like the ref in
this instance is like allowing the toddler to have the
the go ahead and just have your melt down, Like
I'm not gonna make it any worse. The ref took
the high road and just let her have that awful
look on her face, screaming in her face. So yeah,
the ref looks like the one who took the high road,
and she looks like the one who had the toddler meltdown.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
And Caitlin Clark was very above line, above counter, above board.
If you would to say, kept it cleaning the postgame,
but it was anything but clean. What she was saying
to the ref, Jason.
Speaker 7 (31:23):
It's like amateur whip reading and this is all over Twitter.
But give me an give me an effinge call, is
what she said. And she's two feet from her nose,
right f I got fouled five f in times. That's
what she said at the top of her voice, seemingly.
And then as to your point, Dan, when she was
(31:43):
given a chance to like own it, you know, I
lost my cool. Maybe I shouldn't have been so forceful
or violent. She doubled down and said, yeah, you got
to give me the call on that, Like that was
like classless. You go back ten days. Remember it took
her a week to speak on camera in the wake
of the Alissa Thomas thing. And then everyone gave her
(32:04):
credit for everything she said, and in one of the
things that she said was we all have to do better.
We all have to do better in treating the officials.
The officials need to do better, the league needs to
do better in supporting the officials. And then this check
gets up and two inches from the from the ref's face,
give me an effing call and makes makes her look
(32:27):
like a fool. And to your point, the referee showed
amazing restraint in this moment.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
I think. And it's Amanzi's point, which I think is fair,
and I hadn't really thought of that. If she, you know,
she has given the technical, then the backlash is enormous.
But I don't I don't know how it wouldn't be
warranted exactly. And so and then this ends up being
every single Caitlin Clark discussion that ever happens, is it
goes to the polar opposites of one side saying one
(32:57):
thing and one side saying another, and not actual issue
at hand. But this is something that Caitlyn Clark not,
to Jason's point, doubling down when we bring up again,
she has not figured out a way to control her emotions.
So then last month again when I say that Kitlyn
Clark isn't innocent in all of this, I'm sorry. People
don't love cry babies when it calls, we hate it,
(33:20):
we can't stand it. Yeah, we hate floppers. I'm not
saying that Caitlin Clark is flopping, but these are things
that can get under your skin when you're watching the
sport of basketball and if somebody's complaining to the ref
every single time, not only is it probably annoying to
the rough, it's annoying to those who watch the sport
as well.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
Bo Knows chimes in and said, was it a ticky
techie foul or a foul? This not calling major fouls
needs to stop. I have no issue with her overreacting,
and it's it's kind of just like it's unfortunately for
Kitlyn Clark.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
Is she's on a different on a different platform.
Speaker 5 (33:55):
The way I am going to look and criticize Caitlin
Clark is different than.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
The way I look at other WNBA players. And that's
what I mean.
Speaker 5 (34:01):
With the power that she has, she has a lot
of responsibility and in that moment, she has to know like,
as frustrated as she is, she can't act like that
because it's not going to help her in any way,
shape or form. Like I get it, it is not fair,
I understand, but Kitlyn Clark, girl, like I need you
to go get a bat behind closed doors and smash
(34:22):
some dishes. After that happens, like let it out in
a different way, because that is not going to help you.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
I do think that if the ref would have given
her a tech.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
It would have been one of those rare incidences where
the conversation about Kaitlin Clark is not polarizing because everybody
would have been like, Yeah, she deserved it.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
I don't think so. I think I think it would
have just and I think that in the normal world
it would. But to her point, people only hear, guess what,
Kaitlyn Clark's been needing the quad five times? All right,
She's been needing the quad five times. The third time
I would have gone off on the ref she waited.
That's how the argument ends up dissolving into what most
(34:59):
Caitlyn Clark. There's always a reason on why something is justified,
no matter on what side that you're on or isn't justified.
That's what I think it ultimately would come down to,
and it's why, like the official in the matter, I
don't want to say, is in a no win situation.
But you know, in a way of not calling that foul,
(35:22):
I think it's more beneficial or calling that a technical foul,
it's more beneficial for what the referees are going through
at this time. Yes, in the weird way of something
that should obviously be a technical foul. The ref doesn't
make the right call and calling it but that actually works.
That's the sort of bizarre world that we are now
(35:43):
dealing with in the WNBA.
Speaker 5 (35:45):
Her not calling the foul is really good for the
officiating argument, really bad for the discussion of Caitlin Clark
and her antics against not getting the calls.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
I think it's the opposite. I think her not calling
the technical foul shows well, what if you're not going
to call her give her a tech on that? Who
are you giving text to Like? That's like, who are
you going to give a technical to you? If a
player runs up to you uses the F word five times,
I think that would be the overall discussion about the WNBA.
(36:18):
But if she gave it technical last night, I think
you have more of a hubbub about it. So I
think she did the right thing and just swallowing the
whistle and taking it. But ultimately that's probably not if
you're if you're by the book official and you're a ref.
I don't think that she followed it, but I think
that she made the right decision. I know it's a
little bit confusing, but I just by not calling it,
(36:40):
if she called it, to your point, I think it
would have been a bigger deal. But you almost now
every other player in the WNBA is like, well, she
and we go up to an official and say the
F word five times, they're better not give us a
tea because they share as heck than Caitlin Clark.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
That's that's that's another good point. What's up, Samding?
Speaker 10 (36:57):
So the way you guys are discussing this, it's like
you're creating outrage fuel, like on either side whether it's
called or not called, or like, you can be outraged
that it wasn't called. You can be outraged that if
it was called. And I don't think this would even
matter that much. People wouldn't be talking about it if
she just wasn't like she's struggling, she's struggling to score.
She's not been a factor for the team. When she's
(37:17):
on the court. They end up I think losing more
than they do win. And like they're at home against
the Valkyries. I don't know if I can't remember if
they were a favored or not, but if she was
hitting five out of eight threes instead of one out
of eight and scoring twenty plus points, I can't remember
last time she said over twenty points, she's a non factor.
She's spinning her wheels this summer, and then this stuff
happens and it just makes.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Everything look worse. I want to say this, and Sam,
you are exactly right, and I think Manzi, you and
I inadvertently started to go down the slippery slope of
what ends up happening to Sam's point of saying, and
it's totally fine in discussing it. The real point here,
honestly is Jason Stewart. The real point in all of
(37:59):
this is Jason Stewart, who watched the WNBA with great
passion when she came into the league in her rookie year,
and everything that has happened to that point is now
basically turns you off of the game. Is that correct?
Like you're not as interested or rooting for Caitlin Clark.
It's now become not as enjoyable for you. Is that fair?
Speaker 7 (38:22):
I would say it's really She makes it very difficult
to root for her nowadays, all the stuff, this attitude
in the antics. I loved about her in college because
she was just kicking ass and not taking names, and
she was like putting her fist in the air and
getting an opponent's faces. All this attitude stuff was so
appealing to her, and I think that's what kind of
(38:44):
created this popularity. Now she just looks like a whiney
ass little player and it's hard to root. And Sam's
point about her not being good, I'll go one more step.
She's not the phenom, she's not the star. What's the
appeal of Caitlin Clark's game right now? She doesn't have
those moments where you're like, oh man, that's that's different
(39:08):
than anything I've ever seen in women's mouth.
Speaker 10 (39:10):
She has some nifty passes, and she'll do some spectacular
things during the game, but scoring and especially shooting threes
has really hit this.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
You know. It's really those local trees were what put
her on the.
Speaker 10 (39:21):
Map, I know, And that's that's absent right now. And
again people would probably just ignore this. This officiating, you know,
her bumping heads to the officials. If she was scoring
twenty five a game, she's not. She's she's chipping in seven, ten,
twelve points a game. She's got she's always got like
a she's got a minus, a lot in the plus minus.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
She's got a lot of turnilvers. Isn't like this? The
point of it is that if all of these arguments
end up going down the slippery slope, and that we
aren't like we're not talking about we're talking again of
how Caitlin Clark is being treated compared to other players
in the NBA or how refs treat them, and we
aren't just talking about this, right. That's because the problem
(40:01):
is everything can turn into something. But the fact is
that if she isn't playing well and isn't as exciting
to watch anymore, to Jason's point, that's not good for
the WNBA. And I think all the other stuff that
had happened, whether it be her injuries, whether what happened
to her the first year that she played in the WNBA,
all of those are reasons on why she or why
(40:22):
this league isn't following that rocket ship that it had
when she entered the league two plus years ago. And
I think that's like probably the biggest issue. And I
don't know if we'll ever be able to talk about
it like that. I have no idea when we had
the Aaron Judge argument not to bring that up and
saying that I'm right or wrong about who's more popular.
(40:43):
But this was part of the conversation as well, of
does Caitlin Clark. Is she just flash in the pan
for that excitement of what she did in college? Would
she be able to keep that longevity? Aaron Judge is
injured now, not a great example, but I still think
that we would say that Aaron Judges kept the longevity
of being that face of baseball or one of the
faces of baseball. And now right now with Caitlyn Clark,
(41:06):
it's kind of iffy, right she's the face of the
face of controversy, and Kareem came, you know, out and
had the comments that he made whether she is or
isn't the face, but she was the face of the
NBA when she came into the league. And now there's
just everything that's been around it, and so that that
fandom and craziness about here. Again, she's not innocent in
(41:29):
all of this, and the last night is a reason
why that maybe it's not as big as it once was.
Speaker 4 (41:34):
Nothing with Caitlin Clark is logical.
Speaker 5 (41:36):
It's it's nothing of it ever since she stepped into
the WNBA.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
And it sucks.
Speaker 5 (41:41):
But like Sam just said, it's one side or the other,
and it's never the stuff that matters, which is the
logical stuff of how she's playing. She's not playing well.
Does it have to do with injuries? Does it have
to do because she's beat up? Maybe, but she's not
playing well and she can you can see the frustration
on the court with her, And even if things seem
(42:02):
easy to discuss with her, it's never going to be
like that. I don't know if that's going to change.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
I don't think it is. I don't think it is.
Speaker 7 (42:11):
Are you too?
Speaker 3 (42:12):
You too?
Speaker 7 (42:12):
You and Sam are the noted Caitlyn Clark fans in
this building. Are you really big fans of her? Still?
Do you gravitate to her like you always have or
some of the stuff even kind of worn on your fandom?
Speaker 10 (42:27):
I'd say yes, yeah, I mean I'm still I still
look at her cumulative career and I'm like, wow, she
is amazing, And I still think she's battling for better officiating.
But when you have moments like that where you're so
frustrated that you cannot control like an ugly, you know,
appearance to come out, it's just hard.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
It's hard.
Speaker 10 (42:44):
And I don't want to be like a blind Caitlin
Clark fan, because, like Dan says, she's not innocent in
all this and she she needs to work on herself.
She needs to work on playing better, shooting better, and
keeping her composure on the court. Well, yeah, I'm like
with you, Sam, I think she. I think she her
career's not settled. Her career's not settled. I just feel
(43:06):
like this third season is like this weird dream of
like her first three seasons sort of just combined and
it's like she just spinning her wheels this summer.
Speaker 5 (43:14):
My opinion of her hasn't changed, but I am definitely
like wondering how the game's gonna go. I'm like, oh,
fever playing Let's see what Kayln Clark, Okayark this game.
Speaker 10 (43:24):
She could have twenty five and nine assists, or she
could have like eight points and six ASSISTSM just not
be like an impact at all on the on the
on the game.
Speaker 5 (43:32):
But as Sam to wrap this up, because it is
only her third year and there is some feeling where
it doesn't feel like a thirty year. It kind of
feels clouded like it's been Yeah, more than this ons changed,
but it feels like partificiating.
Speaker 10 (43:45):
People hate her or they love her, it's just the
same thing for three seasons now.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
I think she still is so early that she can
turn this around.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (43:53):
This isn't it's not changing my opinion completely of her.
That I was wrong on Kaylen Clark, that's not it.
But and it is like I watch now games a
little bit like, please.
Speaker 4 (44:03):
Don't act the full, Please don't do this, Caitlin.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
I would also say that your opinion is different because
you're not Iowa Mont.
Speaker 4 (44:10):
I am not Iowa Mont because you're Iowa Sam.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
There's always going to be something that you hold near
and dear.
Speaker 10 (44:16):
But again, I don't want to beat sugarcoat things when
she is being a brat, like I just don't ever,
that's just how I don't want to approach sports that
way because I think that's like too super fandom, and
so you have to be somewhat objective. She's being a
brat one day. That's something she needs to work on.
And I've seen her numbers. They're not good this year.
They've slipped a lot since the first like ten games.
She's in a really bad stretch right now.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Yeah, it was a bad look last night.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Be sure to catch live editions of Stu Godson Company
Live weekdays at three pm Eastern twelve pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
Now this was last week, but Jerry Rice isn't in
the main coverage of this, so this wasn't It's not
like you saw this on NBC or Peacock wherever it aired.
But someone had the video phone behind the tea box
and you could hear the voice in the background on
the on the t shot and yeah, Jerry. It wasn't
like Jerry went five yards. He went like forty to
fifty yards to track this guy down. It was I
(45:09):
love that, Yeah, it was it was them. It was
I give him credit because a lot of people who
go to golf tournaments are idiots. I'm just saying, And
some people who talk about how money is spent in
the NBA are idiots.
Speaker 4 (45:23):
Oh oh so.
Speaker 5 (45:23):
Much, so much so. And it's not even just the NBA.
I feel like there's other just athletes that have been
talking about money Dan and I don't get what type
of sentiment they think they're gonna get.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
CJ. McCollum was on speaking with Forbes about his advice
and the life of spending money in the NBA. Here's
what the veteran guard had to say.
Speaker 6 (45:50):
Let's say I was making two million dollars aff attaxes
you know, let's call it nine to fifty ninety seventy
agency fees, you know, four percent, marketing, fifteen percent. Like
those checks were like I was living off of like
an energy drink deal. I was living off Like I
had a twelve thousand dollars deal like to just like
get some post off and I lived off of that.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
So that's CJ. McCollum explaining, complaining on how some people
and players when they get to the NBA don't understand
everything that costs and how CJ. McCollum was able to
work around the drastic, drastic withdraws or how do I
say it, the cuts with taxes and whatnot expenses that
(46:32):
these NBA players have to have to endure with their
NBA contracts. And one NBA player was not having it.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
One NBA player was not having it.
Speaker 5 (46:40):
But just to add to who else is saying, Odell
Beckham Junior was on the Pivot podcast.
Speaker 4 (46:46):
He had an appearance and he basically broke down how.
Speaker 5 (46:48):
One hundred million dollar contract really is only eight million
for him per year.
Speaker 4 (46:54):
So it's not just one athlete.
Speaker 5 (46:56):
It seems like a lot of athletes want to talk
about the money and how It's really not what it
sounds like.
Speaker 4 (47:02):
And I'm just like, who is this for? Is this for?
Speaker 9 (47:05):
You?
Speaker 5 (47:05):
Guys should have your own little meetings with your own
athletes because the rest of us have no idea what
you're talking about. Twelve thousand dollars? Are you making that
a month? I wish I could make twelve thousand dollars
a month. I'd be chilling if I was making twelve
thousand dollars a month. You know what I'm saying, who
is this for? And then there's somebody who I like
have kind of critiqued over the years on his fashion decisions,
(47:27):
mister Kyle Kuzma, who clearly likes to spend a little
bit of money because those fashion decisions that he makes
are terrible, but there doesn't mean that they're cheap. He
goes to fashion shows, he does the whole thing. Yesterday
he tweeted this not gonna lie. It's exhausting hearing athletes
break down how they're millions aren't really millions after taxes
and fees. Forty million after taxes is still forty million.
(47:47):
The real issue isn't the system, it's lifestyle creep. Nobody
told you to live like a king, buy five cars
or move with a ten person entourage.
Speaker 4 (47:55):
Modest is allowed. Yes, Kyle Kuzma, thank you so much.
Who is this for? This breakdown of the money? Who
is it for?
Speaker 5 (48:04):
You're not helping me figure out how to break down
my money that I'm making because you and I live different.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
Lives, So who is this for?
Speaker 5 (48:09):
And it's just kind of like, I can't I can't
believe so many of these athletes. I feel like even
Jalen Brown recently was talking about money and and agents
and how much they get and all that, and it's like,
the way athletes make money is like so it is
a very small percentage of people that understand this. So
when you tell me that your millions aren't millions, I'm
(48:30):
gonna throw up.
Speaker 3 (48:31):
I remember the first time that I got a paycheck
and I had the same reaction, and it was obviously
not forty million dollars. But I think anybody at any
level that doesn't understand the process is going to have
that reaction. That's why it's so crucial that veteran players,
and you see this a lot more with the with
the NFL. I would assume that the NBA does it
(48:54):
to let these players know and give them a heads up. Now,
if they want to hear the message and not listen
and then do their own thing, that's their own problem.
But like this, this happens to everybody in not realizing
what actually happens when you sign up and are working,
whether it be at the NBA or whether it be
at the ironworks factory that I started working at in
(49:15):
high school summers and seeing, oh my goodness, or at
the truck stop, Oh wait a sec, I worked forty
hours last week? How do I only like, that's the
realization of when your paycheck is cut in half, then
throw onto it all of the cars and the parties
and the staff that Kyle Kuzma is talking about.
Speaker 4 (49:33):
That you don't have to do.
Speaker 3 (49:34):
You don't have to do it. But I don't think
that people know. And that's why it's that's why it's
important for those other NBA players and those other NFL
players to let in Major League Baseball, to let these
people know exactly where your money is going to go
when you're having those rookie symposiums and whatnot. But yeah,
I'm sick of hearing people complain. Gronk Kid talked about
(49:59):
how throughout his life, never played off, never spent a
dollar of his salary because he had endorsement deals. But
guess what not everybody has endorsement deals right now. Everybody
has endorsement deals like CJ. McCollum has. There are guys
who this is honestly, They're gonna get three mega years
of a paycheck in their career and that's probably it.
Like the NFL lifespan of playing in the NFL is
(50:20):
three to four years. So how do you take that
contract and not live three to four years? How do
you take that contract and live the next ten years
or fifteen years after that? And that's the other problem
that I don't think people understand.
Speaker 5 (50:32):
Sure, but it's like you being an athlete pursuing this,
if you came from nothing and you got a major contract,
you have to prep for the future. You can't go
in there thinking like I'm invincible and now I'm gonna
I have an infinite amount of money. And I don't
understand the logic in that because even like you just said,
we all experienced our paycheck being not what we thought.
(50:53):
Because what is a Rachel saying, friends, who's Fika? Why
does he get all my money?
Speaker 3 (50:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (50:58):
Like I get that, why is so, why does somebody.
Speaker 5 (51:00):
Else get all my money? But to say I'm not
over here over spending because of the money that I have.
And so I feel like Kyle Kuzma really just put
it in a perspective where it's like, nobody told you
to do all of these extravagant things. To say that
you cannot live a great life with a great lifestyle
would be a lie. You don't have to move the
way that Who are you moving like that for? With
(51:23):
your yachts and your cars and all of this. Trust mean,
you you have several nice cars, but who are you
trying to impress?
Speaker 3 (51:30):
Well, your buddies great.
Speaker 4 (51:33):
Are they gonna help you when you don't have money
in five years?
Speaker 3 (51:35):
No, that's but that's who I'm talking That's what I'm
talking about. These like the athletes need the leadership from
other athletes to understand the process. There's there are athletes
who will sign their rookie deal and feel that they're
going to get paid that amount for the next fifteen years.
I don't worry about twenty years done long. They're eighteen
and nineteen. They have no idea on what it's like
(51:55):
and it's just the point of even if you're twenty
one and twenty two and entering the National Football League,
you could get to the age of twenty six and
the biggest paychecks of your life are now gone. They're
in the rear view mirror. And if you have nothing
to show for that or for those three years that
you gave up your body to do what you did, Yeah,
guy's got to be smarter. It's I'm glad Kuzma spoke
(52:18):
up because not everybody is like CJ.
Speaker 4 (52:19):
McCollum.
Speaker 3 (52:21):
And he's on Forbes talking about how he made his
money and how he was able to maneuver it and
be smart about it. But I think that he's more
of the exception, especially when it comes to being able
to live on outside endorsements and other things. If you
are trying to live that modest life that Kyle Kusma's
talking about.
Speaker 4 (52:38):
And the modest life the KYLEA. Kusma's talking about is
not a.
Speaker 3 (52:40):
Modest life, no, correct, he's you know.
Speaker 5 (52:43):
What I'm saying, Like he's using that word, but in reality,
it's like you are living better than most people, and
he's just saying you could live that type of modest life,
but it's not really a modest life.
Speaker 3 (52:52):
If you missed any of today's show, be sure to
catch the podcast. Just search Stu Gotz to Company Live
wherever you get your podcast Please follow the podcast rated
five stars and provide a review. Again. Just search Stu
Gotts and Company Live wherever you get your podcasts, and
you'll find today's full show and a best of version
posted right after the end of the show. And also
check out our original podcast, Stu Gotts and Company. God
Bless Football and with Stu Gotts and Hawkman
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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