September 4, 2025 • 39 mins
Big Ben talks about the accusations that Steve Ballmer and the Clippers paid Kawhi Leonard under the table to circumvent the salary cap, the uproar over the NFL adding commercials to the RedZone channel, Maller to the Third Degree, #AskBen, and more!
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Call it a pay to not play situation. Say why man,
We'll get to the bottom of it. Welcome in the
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our lead this hour is from pro Bouncy Ball. That's
right now. We got NFL football coming up on a
Thursday night in the Delaware Valley and the story that
(02:04):
everyone's been yapping about. I thought somebody had died. When
I woke up, I was like, oh my god, was
Ott Groggy? You ever do that? You grab your phone,
you old groggy, and you get a lot of messages.
I said, well, either I lost my job, someone died.
Something bad happened, And I was like, looking around, it's
not that bad. Yeah. Then I rolled over on the pillow.
But the scandal, the scandal of the day in the NBA.
(02:30):
If you have not seen this, maybe not the Clippers,
the people's team and the richest man in all of sport,
Steve Balmer. That's the guy that owns the team, although
they don't call him owners because they're woke over there
at the NBA. They call them governors, but everyone else
calls them owners because they're it's ridiculous anyway. The Clippers
and owner Steve Balmer have been accused of giving a
(02:53):
star Kawhi Leonard, a nineteen nineties sopranos HBO style job,
twenty eight million dollars for a no show job. Where
do I sign up for that? My god? All of
this said to be in an effort, a covert effort
to circumvent the salary cap rules of the NBA. Now,
(03:18):
Pablo Torre detailed the accusations on the podcast He's got
this fledgling podcast, which has about you know, I don't
know five people listening to it. But he claims he
has a direct legal documentation. He's got a deep throat
who used to work for this company, and he laid
(03:39):
it all out, laid all of it out in an
effort to get clicks and become famous and make a
lot of money and all that stuff. So he says
that Kawhi Leonard was paid seven million dollars a year,
but a total twenty eight million through a company, a
tree planning service. That's right, man, that's a lot of
(04:00):
money to plant trees. The companies now bankrupt. Hard to believe,
and he's accusing The podcast guy is accusing Balmer of
paying paying Kawhi Leonard more than his current contract, which
would go against the NBA rules. Now, this guy, Pablo Toy,
(04:21):
never found evidence that Leonard marketed or endorsed the company
that you've never heard of. Even more telling, he claimed
they found a clause that stated that Kawhi Leonard would
only be paid the money if he remained a member
of the People's team. The Clippers now a former a
former employee. Of course, the company's long around, so they're
(04:43):
all former employees, but somebody used to work for the
company claim that the agreement between the tree planting service
in Leonard was done to circumvent the salary cap a
real cloak and Dagri mission of the NBA has said
they have opened up in investigation. The Keystone Cops are
on it. Don't worry, They're good to go. Keystone Cops.
(05:06):
It is named after an old old beer company and
the Clippers. The Clippers have denied any wrongdoing in a
letter that was vetted by an army of very wealthy
people that passed through the bar and have become lawyers.
So let us discuss the question how much trouble. How
much trouble are the Clippers and owner Steve Balmer in
(05:32):
with this situation now the Kawhi Leonard no show job report,
how much trouble are they in? So I've got ruffles, butterball, turkey,
and samurai sword and we will combine all of these
things together and we are going to make a delicious
pastrami sandwich, one of the great sandwiches we have in
(05:55):
this world. Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy. So a on the Malor
scale of the trouble, the Malor scale of trouble, which
is the measuring tool that we use to determine what
is good and what is bad. So, on the Malar
scale of trouble one to ten, with ten being real bad,
this is a seven. I'm at a seven on the
(06:16):
Malar scale of trouble. Not quite a sentence to the dungeon.
You're not being sent to the dungeon. But we are
talking about the reason. I'm at a seven. This is
a full blown pr inferno, burn baby burn. The damage
is done. The headline is out, and we know that
(06:38):
the people are dumb and they only react to the headline.
And that's it. The headline's out and you get into
the mind, and that's what people go with. Right, people
react to the headline. I do the same thing. People
send me a story. How often do I not even
click on the story? Somebody will send me It happens
a lot. And there's been research done that most people
don't even bother clicking on the story. So I did
(06:59):
read these stories. But this is a bag of ruffles,
is what this is. There was a visceral reaction to
the oven baked ruffles, and it was baked right into
the discourse. Here. This is a Wolf of Wall Street
meets load management situation. You've got Steve Baumer playing the
role of Jordan Belfort, except instead of tossing dwarfs at
(07:22):
the bullseye, he is apparently tossing allegedly millions and millions
at a guy who hasn't posted a single social media
comment or ad for or even a picture with a
tree for this company. No billboards, no commercials, no collab,
(07:43):
none of that. Just a clause, a clause that says
you get paid if you stay a clipper. That's not
an endorsement deal. I actually have had, believe it or not.
Some endorsement deals. That's normally how they don't go. That's
a retention bonus with a big leaf attached to it. Now,
even if Balmer didn't know the fine, the optics see
(08:05):
the reason I'm going to seven. The optics are pretty brutal.
You can't be the face of green innovation and end
up looking like you used a bankrupt tree company to
pay your superstar under the table. Now the Clippers are saying, hey,
they're clean. Did you expect them to say you got us? Ah? Man, boy,
(08:25):
We thought we could get away with it, but you
know what, we're guilty on all charges. They're claiming that
they didn't know that. They just wanted to help out
some tree hugging company and do good things. And it's
when good intentions come with a twenty eight million dollar
writer's that's tied to your roster. You're not planting trees.
(08:48):
You're planting red flags, is what you're doing at this point. Now,
the other part of this is we turn the page. Here,
page two. Former Mavericks owner and noted woke gasbag Mark
Cuban has come to the defense the Brotherhood of Owners.
So Mark Cuban has come to the defense of Steve
(09:08):
Bamber pushing back. Push it back, now, push it back.
Pushing back on these claims made by the fledgling podcaster
Pablo Torre of salary camp manipulation. So Cuban said, quote
Steve Balmer, isn't that dumb? He said, if he did
try to feed Kawhi money knowing what was at stake
(09:30):
for him personally and his team, do you think, Cuban said,
do you think he meeting Balmer? Do you think that
Balmer would have let that company go bankrupt knowing all
creditors would be visible to the world. Now, Formerly of
the Shark Tank, Mark Cuban argued that the scandal actually
(09:50):
points to the Tree Company's fraud, not Steve Balmer doing
any anything that wasn't kosher. He said, they got scammed.
That's what this is, Mark Cuban saying they got scammed
by this company along with many others. Cuban wrote on
a long wordy social media post the crimes for which
(10:11):
they pleaded guilty last week, scammers do scammy things. It's
the quote right there that says the default assumption that
Balmer was at fault is going to backfire, going to backfire,
says Mark Cuban. All right, that's a good jumping off point.
So thumbs up or thumbs down. Thumbs up or thumbs
(10:32):
down on Mark Cuban's defense the Mavericks former owner who
now has a bit part of the teams, like a
cheerleader for the Mavericks, Mark Cuban's defense of Clippers owner
Steve Bamber thumbs uper thumbs down. So, just on face value,
Cuban tossed a haymaker of logic into what has become
a tornado of speculation, just a swirling storm of speculation,
(10:57):
and we're going to give him the big old thumbs up.
I'm going thumbs up on this. Here's why. Let me
make my picture. Cuban's defense was rather straightforward. Now, you
say he's biased because he actually is part of the
ownership fraternity, and that is true. But it's not just
a character witness. It is a forensic takedown of the narrative.
It makes a lot of sense here. Steve isn't that dumb,
(11:20):
he wrote, And even if he is that dumb, he's
got enough money where he can hire smart people that
will not allow this to happen. It's not just some
kind of billionaire bro code which do they have a
billionaire bro code. I don't know. I'm not a billionaire.
I couldn't tell you. So Steve Balmer would have to
have the IQ in order for this to go the
way it's going right now, the IQ of a butterball
(11:41):
turkey to have this happen. A reminder that Steve Balmer
makes per year one billion dollars that is just off
Microsoft dividends. He doesn't have to do anything. He can
sit there and pick buggers out of his nose for
an entire year. He gets a billion dollars. He owns
(12:03):
four percent still of Microsoft. He doesn't need to play
salary cap twister with a shell company that just pled
guilty to fraud. And he could have spent the money
to keep the company going if it was a sham company.
He didn't do that. He chose not to do that.
If Balmer wanted to pay Kawhi, here's the other thing.
If Balmer wanted to pay Kawhi Leonard under the table.
(12:25):
And I'm certainly not going to sit here and say
that that kind of stuff doesn't happen. It probably does
happen all the time in all of professional sports. And
there were rumors going back years ago where Robert Kraft
was taking care of Tom Brady under the table. Whether
that ever actually happened or not, the chatter was out
that you know, you scratch my back, all scratch your back.
But just staying with his story. So if Balmer wanted
(12:48):
to take care of Kawhi Leonard under the table, he
wouldn't need the bankrupt tree hugging company to do it.
He could just venmo him from the dark wat you know,
get some kind of burner account to do the crypto thing.
Get a crypto wallet, name it load management, and there
you go. Yeah. I do find it amusing if the
(13:09):
story is actually true, and I'm skeptical that it's true
the way it was initially reported, But if it is,
that would mean Kawhi Leonard actually has two no show jobs,
because I consider the job he has with the Clippers
a no show job because when they didn't the most
he doesn't show up. He rarely plays. So, man, you
talk about cashing in the chips now the last word here,
(13:33):
So what did you think of the media covers There
was a Kawhi Leonard feeding frenzy like piranha with blood
in the water there over the accusations of a no
show job against Kawhi Leonard. So this was a full scale,
like a metaphorical military operation claw down. We'll call it.
(13:55):
Why because make no mistake, Kawhi's different and all the
other NBA stars, the NBA media elites, the very top
of the NBA media world are buddy buddy with these guys.
They are right, and they they activated the same media
elites in the NBA. They activated their grudge missiles and
(14:16):
they locked on to Kawhi Leonard kind of like he
was the last slice of free pizza in the press
box dining room. And Kawhi Leonard is the silent basketball introvert,
the man who treats the postgame interview like dental surgery.
He would rather have a root canal. He's not in
the banana boat brotherhood. He's not in that right. He's
(14:39):
not trading memes with Lebron or doing a cheeseball podcast
with Draymond Green. You think he's grabbing omelets with Michael
Wilbon at the Ritz. No, you think he's tossing back
vodka tonics with Steven A at the Four Seasons in
Milwaukee talking about the culture of basketball. No, Kawhi is
probably eating a protein are with the lights off in
(15:01):
his hotel room somewhere, muttering gibberishes what he's doing here.
Because of that, like the media has got their samurai
swords out. They don't just want him criticized, they want
him totally erased, which means that this is a coordinated
airstrike on Kawhi doesn't curry favor. He's the last lone
(15:22):
wolf for better or worse, and the media lap dogs
don't like and it may not be one of the
cool kids, but he doesn't seem to care too much.
Although if there's truth in this story, then Kawhi will
his contract will be voided. There'll be all kinds of
punishment that will come down. It is the Ban Mahlor Show.
(15:44):
You want to comment on this or the upcoming NFL season,
It is on the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles.
They're gonna have some fun a partey if you will.
Here for the Cowboys and the Eagles as they thank
it up a couple of notches on a Thursday night,
which is we always get excited for Week one of
the NFL and regularly about ninety eight percent of the
(16:08):
game blow. They're just terrible because the starters don't play
much in the exhibition season and it normally takes about
a month for things to really settle in. But yet
we will try to remain somewhat optimistic as the season
is about to kick off in the NFL.
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That's Covino and Rich of the zone is now spotted.
It is a spotted zone. Welcome in the beginning of
another hour of the Ben Malor Show. We are in
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(17:47):
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This hour is from Television Land, one of the most popular,
one of the most popular shows in all of sport. Well,
it's being sullied, it's being dirty, it is losing its virginity.
If you didn't hear about this, possibly not. We have
(18:56):
learned that the rumors that have been going on for
a while now have turned to reality. The NFL's signature
TV show, the Red Zone, is being swallowed up by commercials.
Capital C Commercials YEP. NFL network host Scott Hanson I
(19:16):
was like Andrew Siciliani Moore, but Scott Hansen confirming that
the NFL's Red Zone will feature commercials during the twenty
twenty five season. Rather than using the traditional tagline seven
hours of commercial free football starts Now, Hanson said the
new slogan each Sunday will be seven hours of Red
(19:36):
Zone Football starts now Now. This has led to an
online uprising, a rebellion people, an open revolt open revolt.
Here torches lit, the pitchforks have been sharpened from annoyed
television consumers. So let us discuss the question do the
(19:58):
fans have a right to be upset with the NFL
for adding commercials to this red zone? Now my observations
on this, I've got dunder Mifflin, tom Petty and Ohio State,
and we will combine all of these things together and
we are going to make all of these ingredients. We're
(20:20):
gonna make your Babushka's favorite tomato bisk is what we're
gonna make. So number I said, number one, the NFL
is pulling a bait and switch on its signature show.
And there is absolutely room for angst. There is absolutely
(20:41):
room for aanks. For over a decade, Scott Hansen has
been the pied piper. He had some competition with Andrews Scilleana,
but he's the pied piper for football junkies. Right Sunday
sermon seven hours of commercial free football starts. Now, that line,
for many was the holy scripture of the Pigskin Tabernac,
(21:05):
but not anymore now they've ripped it away. Like the
iconic scene from the cartoon where Lucy yanked away the
football from Charlie Brown. But this is the sports version.
What's gonna happen to this show? The Red Zone Show
is what happened to the office when Steve Carill left right.
Dunder Mifflin was never the same. The whole mission statement,
(21:28):
as I understand it, the whole mission statement of this
Red Zone Show was simple, no commercials, period, stop watch
football with no commercials. That was the secret sauce. The
old family recipe passed down from generations, and now the
NFL wants you to pay a premium price for commercials.
They want you to pay so you can be the
(21:49):
product and get the commercial. So it's like going to
a steakhouse and this old family runs steakhouse. You order
the ribbi. You used to always get the ribbi. It
was a great ribby, loved it. So they still serve
the rabbi, but they changed it out. They say it's
ribi on the menu, but they're now giving you a
salisbury steak right out of a Hungry Man TV dinner box.
(22:09):
But you wanted a ribbi. It says ribi on the menu.
You're paying the ribbi price, but they just exchange that
for a salisbury steak right out of a TV dinner box. Now,
page two, is there an expiration date on the madness?
Is there an expiration date on the madness ending on
(22:30):
these these hostile sports TV takeovers like this? So it's
it's only going to get worse. As a distant relative
of Nostradamas and friend of Nostradinas, he lives in Seattle.
He was at the Vegas Meet and greet. This is
the line from Tom Petty's The Last DJ Song Brought
to Life, and that line is the suits upstairs want
(22:51):
to see how much you'll pay for what you used
to get for free. Now there's some debate about why
this is happening. Now everyone's pointing fingers is that everyone
else ESPN's fingerprints are all over this. They're denying it. However,
it does reek of corporate synergy. You might remember ESPN
is in business with the NFL. Now they're partners with
(23:13):
the NFL. They agreed to a deal for NFL programming
with the NFL state propaganda arm. So they're in bed
with the NFL. And the theory I was starting to
I was texting someone about this, and the theory is
that ESPN's got this deal and they're pointing the finger
at the NFL, say, well, we're not in charge yet,
(23:34):
it's the NFL, so they're having the NFL do this
so then they have plausible deniability when really they're this
is their plan all along, and everyone's denying it pointing
at the other person there, and that's how it's going.
But just wait until they get their mids on inside
the NBA. That is going to be destroyed. Charles Barkley
will be replaced by an AI version of Charles Barkley
(23:56):
selling you garbage. It's a hostile takeover of the show show,
and any show that's popular ends up getting bastardized and
turned into a Mickey Mouse operation. I'd say, well, if
people like this, let's ruin it. How can we screw
this show up? Okay, we'll figure it out, all right,
that good idea. We'll do the one thing the show
says it's not about. We'll do it done. And someday,
(24:20):
someday your kids will ask dad, what was commercial free
football like and you'll tell some story. Well, back in
the day, yeah, we used to want seven hours nothing
but highlights. And now I for years have always done
my own red zone. So I've been preparing for this.
I just flip around and I go, I've got my
phone on and I'm like, who's in the red zone.
(24:40):
I do my own thing. I'm engaged. I bounce around
and that's how I do things right. And so that's
the way it goes. But Scott Hansen should just be
honest here and the people over at the red zone.
The new slogan should be seven hours of commercial filled
football starts right now. That's right. The NFL doesn't care.
(25:02):
The NFL and all these people, they know that the
core audience is an addict. They know you're addicted. You
will do whatever it takes to get your hands on it,
meaning beg, borrow and steel if you have to. And
they got you by the balls. They're the benevolent overlords
and you're going to take your hit. And that is
(25:24):
just the way it is. It is more of the
erosion of quality we've seen across the board. Standards standards
are broadcasting and it's part of it's the streaming thing,
and just companies are cheap and that's how it goes.
But everything has gone down in value while the price
has gone up. Right, nothing is sacred and look back
(25:45):
and they'll write about this and say, well, what was
the downfall of the red zone. This was once the
crown jewel, right, the crown jewel, and now it's been
tossed into the bargain bin. So what the heck? Hap
what are you doing? All right? Now? Final point? So
Charles Barkley, of all people, the round mound of rebound
(26:06):
back when he played. Now he's the l gas bag.
So Barkley entered the chat. He recently criticized the NBA
for its mega rights deal. It's an eleven year, seventy
seven billion dollar deal with ESPN, Amazon, NBC, and there
are also some games streamed exclusively on Prime Video and
(26:32):
Peacock that are not available on the other avenues. Now, Barkley,
Charles Barkley said the league simply took the deal that
offered them the largest payday without thinking about the fan experience. Quote.
I think it's a big deal, Barkley said, because they
just took the money from all three networks for the
next eleven years and they don't give a blank about
(26:56):
the fans. Barkley said, close. Quote all right on this one,
where are you at? On? Charles Barkley saying the NBA
does not care about the fans. They do not care
about about the fans. So Charles Barkley on this one
put him in the Ohio State Marching band, and he
(27:16):
because he dotted the I at the Ohio State Marching Band. There.
The NBA obviously doesn't care about the fans, but they're
not alone. They're I think the NFL is really worried
about the fans. They just added commercials to the red zone.
You think if they were looking after the fans, that's
what they would have done. No, of course not. Now
it's rather obvious that every business is going to take
a deal based on the most money. It's always about
(27:37):
the money. When they say it's not about the money,
it is especially about the money. We know that anyone
has got any kind of street smarts or just has
lived their life. You know, it's always about the money,
and it's not about whether or not the fan is
the consumer of the product is happy that they care
(27:58):
about turning the public into a herd of compliant sheep.
And you just got to be a part of the
herd of sheep. And you know you'll complain. Some of
you'll complain, and that's fine. You'll you'll be upset about
miss layups or load management or two hundred dollars jerseys
(28:18):
stitch together with paper mache there and some sweatshop somewhere overseas.
But the sheep will be obedient and you'll sign up
for one, two, three, four, five, six seven. How many
streaming services are there? So for seventy seven billion, and
(28:40):
Barkley ripped the NBA, But the NBA will give its
customer base a monthly scavenger hunt. You will get to
be part of a scavenger hunt if you are a
law abiding citizen, to try to figure out where that
night's game, Like there's a nick game, but is it
on is it on NBC? Is it on Amazon? Maybe
it's on on ESPN. I don't know, third base Peacock
(29:04):
might be on Peacock. I have no idea. So it's
a scavenger hunt for all this. And so you get
the cable over here, you get the streaming over there,
and then there's some kind of free trial that thing
of a jig. You got to click on that, but
then if you don't decline it after a couple of days,
you get charged fifteen dollars after seven days. So you
(29:25):
got to make sure to unfollow that. But if you don't, again,
if you don't unfollow it, they just automatically they ding
your credit card fifteen dollars and all that. So the
NBA has become a traveling circus filled with snake oil.
You know, snake oil salesman, it's a carnival in sneakers.
Step right up right these Fngali effect in high tops.
(29:46):
Even though the regular season for that product has gone real,
real low on the must see TV department, it's just
not the same. The players don't care, and the fans know.
The players don't care, The coaches don't care. The fans
know the players and coaches don't care, and so it's
an issue. But they think they've hypnotized you and then hey,
(30:06):
you'll at least watch the highlights, and then maybe you'll
watch some of the big games here and they'll drain
your wallet and they'll get you here, there and everywhere
with those monthly subscriptions. This dingya, little ding here, little
ding there, and ding ding ding ding ding ding ding
ding ding. Now. The great thing about Charles Barkley, Charles
Barkley can afford to bark arf arf. He's like Andrea's
(30:28):
dog willis he can afford to bark And the reason
Barkley can afford to bark is he is at the
very top of the food chain. He is. He's had
so much money, he's got so much power he can
mf the NBA and on live TV or radio and
go home and get his ass kissed both cheeks by
TV executives. It's just the way it is now. If
(30:51):
some low level sideline reporter for the NBA said the
NBA doesn't care about fans, they don't care about that
particular per would be sent to sit Berrier, all right.
And so the NBA has made Fendom a toll road.
It's a toll road, and you better have paid your
(31:11):
bill otherwise you're gonna get a ticket. And so Charles
Barker listening, he just points out the obvious. They decided
the road can be paved with your money, money, money, money.
And if you don't like it, if you have a problem, right,
if you have a problem, there's a turnpike right over there.
It's called indifference, and then it intersects with apathy. And
(31:32):
if enough people go down that turnpike and indifference and apathy,
then things will change. They play the numbers game. There's
some manipulation going on, as we've talked about here with
the micro blogging world, and so you've got what is real,
what is not real, what is real? Engagement was not
real engagement, what is legit? What is not legit? And
(31:53):
it's a lot of fusing around with numbers and some
fuzzy math over here. There's a lot of that going on.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
It's Mallard. How about that to the third degree.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
This is one big Ben gets grilled.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Kobolo.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
The Ravens and the Bills have developed a bit of
a rivalry, as Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson have squared
off four times in the regular season and twice in
the playoffs. They'll face each other again Sunday night. Two
quarterbacks were in the same draft class, with Allen going
eleventh and Jackson going thirty second. If you were to
redo the twenty eighteen draft bend, would you still take
Alan before Jackson? Uh?
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Well, obviously not. Neither one's won a Super Bowl, neither one.
I mean, Alan's been his numbers are good in the playoffs,
but they found ways to choke the Bills. And Lamar
Jackson is one of the great regular season players in
NFL history. So yeah, I was wrong about both those guys.
But the Patriots had a chance. I remember I was
doing a draft show that night. I had a chance
to draft Lamar Jackson, and they obviously f that up.
(32:57):
But Lamar clearly is you know, he's the better regular
season player than Josh Allen.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
Next, Kevin Cash of the Tampa Bay Rays is the
longest tenured manager in Major League Baseball, having been at
the Helm since twenty fourteen. However, Tampa may be on
its way to missing the playoffs for the third season
in a row. Ben, do you think Cash is safe
in Tampa?
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yes, they play in a minor league ballpark. They don't
even sell it out. It's a joke franchise. It's a
Franken signed franchise. I know they changed ownership, so you say, well,
they're gonna get a new you know they're gonna get
some more money and they owner's gonna watch back. I
say he's safe until they find a permanent solution to
that ballpark where they've got to build something next.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
Clemson coach Dabo Sweeney came to the defense of Texas
quarterback Arch Manning this week, saying, quote, He's gonna be
a freaking superstar, and people that don't believe that, they're
just stupid. But are people being too harsh on Manning
or is he being given unrealistic expectations?
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Well, my first thought is a lot of people think
Dabo's stupid. He's been stupid for a couple of years
at Clemson. What happened to the Clemson Tiger football program?
It used to be for a couple of years they
were one of the tops in football. But no, Arch
Manning deserves all the criticism. It's part of the gig.
That's how it works. How do we do you pass?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live. It's now time for time for Horry, Horry
Honey Wait.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Ask bad Twitter said, is.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Your questions on Twitter now?
Speaker 1 (34:30):
And it is the reading of the questions. Ask man
your questions are answers? Well, our ask to the hour
and let's get over to be true blot for the
reading of the questions.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
All right, we're gonna start off with a question from
Cowboy Killer.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Hi cow he's working the day shift. Hi cowboy Killer.
That's right.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
He wants to know. Did you ever sneak out as
a teenager?
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (34:53):
You know that was pretty good? Yeah, there were times.
I meant a couple of times. I didn't do it
all the time. My older brother did a lot more
than I did sneaking out of the house. I didn't
really have too many friends, so I didn't have anywhere
to go, so not too often. What about you, Lorena.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
Yeah, times I had older brothers who had friends who
had crushes on so you know, we were sneaking out.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
All the time.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Uh, living life in a small town in Oregon. What
about you Cool?
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Yes, I would go into my backyard and hop the
wall in the backyard because I was too nervous that
the front door would be too loud.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Wow, you're all you're a coke and dagger type. That's right,
Jewish and I had Yeah, I'm back when I'm old,
I guess. But when I grew up, my mom would
just like get out of the house and just come
back when the sun goes down, so I was like sunset,
I had to get back in the house. That was it.
But you know, at night, not too much. There wasn't
like going on in the town I grew up in.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
Next all right, Ferg Dog would like to know, high
Ferg Dog, are you a fast or slow eater?
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Well, I am a slow eater compared to my but
I consider myself a fast eater, So I guess it
depends what the company you're in the room with is.
I don't think I'm a fast eat I think I'm
kind of the middle of the road. I'm not slow.
I'm not fast. I like to enjoy the food, so
somewhere in the middle of My wife is a fast eater, though,
and she'll get upset that she says I eat too slow.
(36:19):
But I don't think i'm eating slow.
Speaker 5 (36:20):
What about you, Lorena, Yeah, I'm a I'm one of
the slowest eaters I know.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Yeah, you're more of a grazier, right, Nibbler, You're a nibbler.
Roger Goodell's a nibbler. You're a nibbler too, What about you? Hello?
What about you? Koop?
Speaker 4 (36:38):
I am a fast eater for sure, probably too fast.
He's like a two byte person.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
It's gone, bites, that's it.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Yeah, he's done. It's gone.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Yeah, leave that joke aside. What is next year? To ask?
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Ben?
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Your questions are answers for the rest of the hour. Amazing.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Bobby in Florida would like body, since it's back to
school season. Did you take the bus, drive or walk
to high school? Uh?
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Yeah? So I uh I when high school. I took
the bus in elementary school. By the time I got
to high school, I my mom would drop me off
and then I started driving, So I guess you know,
sometimes I would walk, but mostly mostly got dropped off
or drove myself. What about you, Loraina?
Speaker 5 (37:27):
Yeah, my dad didn't like driving us to school and
we only lived fifteen minutes from the school. So rain
or shine, your girl was walking. There was one day
I had my hair super cute styled and it started
downpouring rain on the walk in. I got like I
got straight out of the shower. It did by the
time you get to school, you, I sure do love Oregon.
Miss those rainy days.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Yeah, we don't have those in La. What about you,
Cooper Loop, My.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
Mom dropped me off until senior year when I could drive. Myself.
You pampered child.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Well, he was the breadwinner in the family. All right,
what is next to hear, coop? What do we have here?
Speaker 4 (38:06):
Donkey sausage fight Donkey for some reason would like to
know how much do you recycle?
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Well, my wife loves recycling. I tell her that a
lot of recycling is a scam and she does gets
upset when I bring that up. So we have a
lot of recycling. She does most of it, but I
put it in the right bin. So there's a lot
of recycling. What about you, Larna, Yeah, I think.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
Our trash people do that. That's what my cousin says.
Everything goes in one and then they sort of Yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Think where you live. I used to live out here
where you live now, So yeah, I think they do that.
Speaker 4 (38:39):
What about you, Coop, Yeah, we recycle and there's a
lot because we have bottled water and then also my
diet doctor Pepper's so yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Yeah, they've done research that a lot of the stuff
that you send to recycled never actually gets turned into
like recycling.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
That's true. And in fact, you can look on out yes,
yeah
Speaker 1 (39:00):
H you can look online cooping right into a brick
wall
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your local
station for the Benmatherershow at Foxsports Radio dot Com. You
can find it there or stream us live every night
(00:20):
on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Call it a pay to not play situation. Say why man,
We'll get to the bottom of it. Welcome in the
beat gaining of another night of the Ben Mahlor Show.
We are in the air everywhere as we are driveling
(00:59):
and trying to Chillax coast the coast, border to border
and beyond. On the mast and universally powerful microphones of
fs are the circus is underway, ammnating live from the
ride the Bumpity Bumpity Ride on the Rocky Rocky Road
(01:19):
from the world famous Fox Sports Radio Studios, as approved
by the Cowboy Killer now working in the dreaded day
Shift and this portion of the Ben Maller Show on
Fox made possible in part by our friends at Tire
Rack For over forty years, ty Iraq has been helping
customers find the right tires for how, what and where
they drive, ship fast and free back by free road
(01:42):
hazard protection with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation
ti iraq dot Com The Way Tire Buying showb So
our lead this hour is from pro Bouncy Ball. That's
right now. We got NFL football coming up on a
Thursday night in the Delaware Valley and the story that
(02:04):
everyone's been yapping about. I thought somebody had died. When
I woke up, I was like, oh my god, was
Ott Groggy? You ever do that? You grab your phone,
you old groggy, and you get a lot of messages.
I said, well, either I lost my job, someone died.
Something bad happened, And I was like, looking around, it's
not that bad. Yeah. Then I rolled over on the pillow.
But the scandal, the scandal of the day in the NBA.
(02:30):
If you have not seen this, maybe not the Clippers,
the people's team and the richest man in all of sport,
Steve Balmer. That's the guy that owns the team, although
they don't call him owners because they're woke over there
at the NBA. They call them governors, but everyone else
calls them owners because they're it's ridiculous anyway. The Clippers
and owner Steve Balmer have been accused of giving a
(02:53):
star Kawhi Leonard, a nineteen nineties sopranos HBO style job,
twenty eight million dollars for a no show job. Where
do I sign up for that? My god? All of
this said to be in an effort, a covert effort
to circumvent the salary cap rules of the NBA. Now,
(03:18):
Pablo Torre detailed the accusations on the podcast He's got
this fledgling podcast, which has about you know, I don't
know five people listening to it. But he claims he
has a direct legal documentation. He's got a deep throat
who used to work for this company, and he laid
(03:39):
it all out, laid all of it out in an
effort to get clicks and become famous and make a
lot of money and all that stuff. So he says
that Kawhi Leonard was paid seven million dollars a year,
but a total twenty eight million through a company, a
tree planning service. That's right, man, that's a lot of
(04:00):
money to plant trees. The companies now bankrupt. Hard to believe,
and he's accusing The podcast guy is accusing Balmer of
paying paying Kawhi Leonard more than his current contract, which
would go against the NBA rules. Now, this guy, Pablo Toy,
(04:21):
never found evidence that Leonard marketed or endorsed the company
that you've never heard of. Even more telling, he claimed
they found a clause that stated that Kawhi Leonard would
only be paid the money if he remained a member
of the People's team. The Clippers now a former a
former employee. Of course, the company's long around, so they're
(04:43):
all former employees, but somebody used to work for the
company claim that the agreement between the tree planting service
in Leonard was done to circumvent the salary cap a
real cloak and Dagri mission of the NBA has said
they have opened up in investigation. The Keystone Cops are
on it. Don't worry, They're good to go. Keystone Cops.
(05:06):
It is named after an old old beer company and
the Clippers. The Clippers have denied any wrongdoing in a
letter that was vetted by an army of very wealthy
people that passed through the bar and have become lawyers.
So let us discuss the question how much trouble. How
much trouble are the Clippers and owner Steve Balmer in
(05:32):
with this situation now the Kawhi Leonard no show job report,
how much trouble are they in? So I've got ruffles, butterball, turkey,
and samurai sword and we will combine all of these
things together and we are going to make a delicious
pastrami sandwich, one of the great sandwiches we have in
(05:55):
this world. Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy. So a on the Malor
scale of the trouble, the Malor scale of trouble, which
is the measuring tool that we use to determine what
is good and what is bad. So, on the Malar
scale of trouble one to ten, with ten being real bad,
this is a seven. I'm at a seven on the
(06:16):
Malar scale of trouble. Not quite a sentence to the dungeon.
You're not being sent to the dungeon. But we are
talking about the reason. I'm at a seven. This is
a full blown pr inferno, burn baby burn. The damage
is done. The headline is out, and we know that
(06:38):
the people are dumb and they only react to the headline.
And that's it. The headline's out and you get into
the mind, and that's what people go with. Right, people
react to the headline. I do the same thing. People
send me a story. How often do I not even
click on the story? Somebody will send me It happens
a lot. And there's been research done that most people
don't even bother clicking on the story. So I did
(06:59):
read these stories. But this is a bag of ruffles,
is what this is. There was a visceral reaction to
the oven baked ruffles, and it was baked right into
the discourse. Here. This is a Wolf of Wall Street
meets load management situation. You've got Steve Baumer playing the
role of Jordan Belfort, except instead of tossing dwarfs at
(07:22):
the bullseye, he is apparently tossing allegedly millions and millions
at a guy who hasn't posted a single social media
comment or ad for or even a picture with a
tree for this company. No billboards, no commercials, no collab,
(07:43):
none of that. Just a clause, a clause that says
you get paid if you stay a clipper. That's not
an endorsement deal. I actually have had, believe it or not.
Some endorsement deals. That's normally how they don't go. That's
a retention bonus with a big leaf attached to it. Now,
even if Balmer didn't know the fine, the optics see
(08:05):
the reason I'm going to seven. The optics are pretty brutal.
You can't be the face of green innovation and end
up looking like you used a bankrupt tree company to
pay your superstar under the table. Now the Clippers are saying, hey,
they're clean. Did you expect them to say you got us? Ah? Man, boy,
(08:25):
We thought we could get away with it, but you
know what, we're guilty on all charges. They're claiming that
they didn't know that. They just wanted to help out
some tree hugging company and do good things. And it's
when good intentions come with a twenty eight million dollar
writer's that's tied to your roster. You're not planting trees.
(08:48):
You're planting red flags, is what you're doing at this point. Now,
the other part of this is we turn the page. Here,
page two. Former Mavericks owner and noted woke gasbag Mark
Cuban has come to the defense the Brotherhood of Owners.
So Mark Cuban has come to the defense of Steve
(09:08):
Bamber pushing back. Push it back, now, push it back.
Pushing back on these claims made by the fledgling podcaster
Pablo Torre of salary camp manipulation. So Cuban said, quote
Steve Balmer, isn't that dumb? He said, if he did
try to feed Kawhi money knowing what was at stake
(09:30):
for him personally and his team, do you think, Cuban said,
do you think he meeting Balmer? Do you think that
Balmer would have let that company go bankrupt knowing all
creditors would be visible to the world. Now, Formerly of
the Shark Tank, Mark Cuban argued that the scandal actually
(09:50):
points to the Tree Company's fraud, not Steve Balmer doing
any anything that wasn't kosher. He said, they got scammed.
That's what this is, Mark Cuban saying they got scammed
by this company along with many others. Cuban wrote on
a long wordy social media post the crimes for which
(10:11):
they pleaded guilty last week, scammers do scammy things. It's
the quote right there that says the default assumption that
Balmer was at fault is going to backfire, going to backfire,
says Mark Cuban. All right, that's a good jumping off point.
So thumbs up or thumbs down. Thumbs up or thumbs
(10:32):
down on Mark Cuban's defense the Mavericks former owner who
now has a bit part of the teams, like a
cheerleader for the Mavericks, Mark Cuban's defense of Clippers owner
Steve Bamber thumbs uper thumbs down. So, just on face value,
Cuban tossed a haymaker of logic into what has become
a tornado of speculation, just a swirling storm of speculation,
(10:57):
and we're going to give him the big old thumbs up.
I'm going thumbs up on this. Here's why. Let me
make my picture. Cuban's defense was rather straightforward. Now, you
say he's biased because he actually is part of the
ownership fraternity, and that is true. But it's not just
a character witness. It is a forensic takedown of the narrative.
It makes a lot of sense here. Steve isn't that dumb,
(11:20):
he wrote, And even if he is that dumb, he's
got enough money where he can hire smart people that
will not allow this to happen. It's not just some
kind of billionaire bro code which do they have a
billionaire bro code. I don't know. I'm not a billionaire.
I couldn't tell you. So Steve Balmer would have to
have the IQ in order for this to go the
way it's going right now, the IQ of a butterball
(11:41):
turkey to have this happen. A reminder that Steve Balmer
makes per year one billion dollars that is just off
Microsoft dividends. He doesn't have to do anything. He can
sit there and pick buggers out of his nose for
an entire year. He gets a billion dollars. He owns
(12:03):
four percent still of Microsoft. He doesn't need to play
salary cap twister with a shell company that just pled
guilty to fraud. And he could have spent the money
to keep the company going if it was a sham company.
He didn't do that. He chose not to do that.
If Balmer wanted to pay Kawhi, here's the other thing.
If Balmer wanted to pay Kawhi Leonard under the table.
(12:25):
And I'm certainly not going to sit here and say
that that kind of stuff doesn't happen. It probably does
happen all the time in all of professional sports. And
there were rumors going back years ago where Robert Kraft
was taking care of Tom Brady under the table. Whether
that ever actually happened or not, the chatter was out
that you know, you scratch my back, all scratch your back.
But just staying with his story. So if Balmer wanted
(12:48):
to take care of Kawhi Leonard under the table, he
wouldn't need the bankrupt tree hugging company to do it.
He could just venmo him from the dark wat you know,
get some kind of burner account to do the crypto thing.
Get a crypto wallet, name it load management, and there
you go. Yeah. I do find it amusing if the
(13:09):
story is actually true, and I'm skeptical that it's true
the way it was initially reported, But if it is,
that would mean Kawhi Leonard actually has two no show jobs,
because I consider the job he has with the Clippers
a no show job because when they didn't the most
he doesn't show up. He rarely plays. So, man, you
talk about cashing in the chips now the last word here,
(13:33):
So what did you think of the media covers There
was a Kawhi Leonard feeding frenzy like piranha with blood
in the water there over the accusations of a no
show job against Kawhi Leonard. So this was a full scale,
like a metaphorical military operation claw down. We'll call it.
(13:55):
Why because make no mistake, Kawhi's different and all the
other NBA stars, the NBA media elites, the very top
of the NBA media world are buddy buddy with these guys.
They are right, and they they activated the same media
elites in the NBA. They activated their grudge missiles and
(14:16):
they locked on to Kawhi Leonard kind of like he
was the last slice of free pizza in the press
box dining room. And Kawhi Leonard is the silent basketball introvert,
the man who treats the postgame interview like dental surgery.
He would rather have a root canal. He's not in
the banana boat brotherhood. He's not in that right. He's
(14:39):
not trading memes with Lebron or doing a cheeseball podcast
with Draymond Green. You think he's grabbing omelets with Michael
Wilbon at the Ritz. No, you think he's tossing back
vodka tonics with Steven A at the Four Seasons in
Milwaukee talking about the culture of basketball. No, Kawhi is
probably eating a protein are with the lights off in
(15:01):
his hotel room somewhere, muttering gibberishes what he's doing here.
Because of that, like the media has got their samurai
swords out. They don't just want him criticized, they want
him totally erased, which means that this is a coordinated
airstrike on Kawhi doesn't curry favor. He's the last lone
(15:22):
wolf for better or worse, and the media lap dogs
don't like and it may not be one of the
cool kids, but he doesn't seem to care too much.
Although if there's truth in this story, then Kawhi will
his contract will be voided. There'll be all kinds of
punishment that will come down. It is the Ban Mahlor Show.
(15:44):
You want to comment on this or the upcoming NFL season,
It is on the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles.
They're gonna have some fun a partey if you will.
Here for the Cowboys and the Eagles as they thank
it up a couple of notches on a Thursday night,
which is we always get excited for Week one of
the NFL and regularly about ninety eight percent of the
(16:08):
game blow. They're just terrible because the starters don't play
much in the exhibition season and it normally takes about
a month for things to really settle in. But yet
we will try to remain somewhat optimistic as the season
is about to kick off in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Mellor
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich Davids and together we're
Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio. You could catch
us weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern two to
four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and of course the
iHeartRadio App.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Why should you listen to Cavino and Rich.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's going on
in the world. We have a lot of fun talking
about the stories behind the stories in the world of
sports and pop culture, stories that well, other shows don't
seem to have the time to discuss. And the fact
that we've been friends for the last twenty years still
work together. I mean that says something, right, So check
us out. We like to get you involved. To take
(17:05):
your phone calls chop it up. As they say, I'd
say the most interactive show on Fox Sports Radio, maybe
the most interactive show on planetar. Be sure to check
out Covino and Rich live on Fox Sports Radio and
the iHeartRadio app from five to seven pm Eastern two
to four Pacific. And if you miss any of the
live show, just search Covin on Rich wherever you get
your podcasts, and of course on social media.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
That's Covino and Rich of the zone is now spotted.
It is a spotted zone. Welcome in the beginning of
another hour of the Ben Malor Show. We are in
the air everywhere with incoherent talk as we are your
(17:47):
home skillet, coast to coast, border to border and beyond
on the vast and unfathomably powerful microphones of FSR am
moinating live from the bank. And as we speak, you're
practicing the primitive art of air bending. We are actually
bending the air with our words from the world famous
(18:10):
Fox Sports Radio Studios, as approved by Danny in Nashville,
and this portion of the Ben Maler Show on Fox
made possible in part by our friends at ty Iraq.
For over forty years, ty Iraq has been helping customers
find the right tires for how, what and where they drive,
ship fast and free back by free road hazard protection
with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation tire iraq
(18:35):
dot com. The way tire buying should be so our lead.
This hour is from Television Land, one of the most popular,
one of the most popular shows in all of sport. Well,
it's being sullied, it's being dirty, it is losing its virginity.
If you didn't hear about this, possibly not. We have
(18:56):
learned that the rumors that have been going on for
a while now have turned to reality. The NFL's signature
TV show, the Red Zone, is being swallowed up by commercials.
Capital C Commercials YEP. NFL network host Scott Hanson I
(19:16):
was like Andrew Siciliani Moore, but Scott Hansen confirming that
the NFL's Red Zone will feature commercials during the twenty
twenty five season. Rather than using the traditional tagline seven
hours of commercial free football starts Now, Hanson said the
new slogan each Sunday will be seven hours of Red
(19:36):
Zone Football starts now Now. This has led to an
online uprising, a rebellion people, an open revolt open revolt.
Here torches lit, the pitchforks have been sharpened from annoyed
television consumers. So let us discuss the question do the
(19:58):
fans have a right to be upset with the NFL
for adding commercials to this red zone? Now my observations
on this, I've got dunder Mifflin, tom Petty and Ohio State,
and we will combine all of these things together and
we are going to make all of these ingredients. We're
(20:20):
gonna make your Babushka's favorite tomato bisk is what we're
gonna make. So number I said, number one, the NFL
is pulling a bait and switch on its signature show.
And there is absolutely room for angst. There is absolutely
(20:41):
room for aanks. For over a decade, Scott Hansen has
been the pied piper. He had some competition with Andrews Scilleana,
but he's the pied piper for football junkies. Right Sunday
sermon seven hours of commercial free football starts. Now, that line,
for many was the holy scripture of the Pigskin Tabernac,
(21:05):
but not anymore now they've ripped it away. Like the
iconic scene from the cartoon where Lucy yanked away the
football from Charlie Brown. But this is the sports version.
What's gonna happen to this show? The Red Zone Show
is what happened to the office when Steve Carill left right.
Dunder Mifflin was never the same. The whole mission statement,
(21:28):
as I understand it, the whole mission statement of this
Red Zone Show was simple, no commercials, period, stop watch
football with no commercials. That was the secret sauce. The
old family recipe passed down from generations, and now the
NFL wants you to pay a premium price for commercials.
They want you to pay so you can be the
(21:49):
product and get the commercial. So it's like going to
a steakhouse and this old family runs steakhouse. You order
the ribbi. You used to always get the ribbi. It
was a great ribby, loved it. So they still serve
the rabbi, but they changed it out. They say it's
ribi on the menu, but they're now giving you a
salisbury steak right out of a Hungry Man TV dinner box.
(22:09):
But you wanted a ribbi. It says ribi on the menu.
You're paying the ribbi price, but they just exchange that
for a salisbury steak right out of a TV dinner box. Now,
page two, is there an expiration date on the madness?
Is there an expiration date on the madness ending on
(22:30):
these these hostile sports TV takeovers like this? So it's
it's only going to get worse. As a distant relative
of Nostradamas and friend of Nostradinas, he lives in Seattle.
He was at the Vegas Meet and greet. This is
the line from Tom Petty's The Last DJ Song Brought
to Life, and that line is the suits upstairs want
(22:51):
to see how much you'll pay for what you used
to get for free. Now there's some debate about why
this is happening. Now everyone's pointing fingers is that everyone
else ESPN's fingerprints are all over this. They're denying it. However,
it does reek of corporate synergy. You might remember ESPN
is in business with the NFL. Now they're partners with
(23:13):
the NFL. They agreed to a deal for NFL programming
with the NFL state propaganda arm. So they're in bed
with the NFL. And the theory I was starting to
I was texting someone about this, and the theory is
that ESPN's got this deal and they're pointing the finger
at the NFL, say, well, we're not in charge yet,
(23:34):
it's the NFL, so they're having the NFL do this
so then they have plausible deniability when really they're this
is their plan all along, and everyone's denying it pointing
at the other person there, and that's how it's going.
But just wait until they get their mids on inside
the NBA. That is going to be destroyed. Charles Barkley
will be replaced by an AI version of Charles Barkley
(23:56):
selling you garbage. It's a hostile takeover of the show show,
and any show that's popular ends up getting bastardized and
turned into a Mickey Mouse operation. I'd say, well, if
people like this, let's ruin it. How can we screw
this show up? Okay, we'll figure it out, all right,
that good idea. We'll do the one thing the show
says it's not about. We'll do it done. And someday,
(24:20):
someday your kids will ask dad, what was commercial free
football like and you'll tell some story. Well, back in
the day, yeah, we used to want seven hours nothing
but highlights. And now I for years have always done
my own red zone. So I've been preparing for this.
I just flip around and I go, I've got my
phone on and I'm like, who's in the red zone.
(24:40):
I do my own thing. I'm engaged. I bounce around
and that's how I do things right. And so that's
the way it goes. But Scott Hansen should just be
honest here and the people over at the red zone.
The new slogan should be seven hours of commercial filled
football starts right now. That's right. The NFL doesn't care.
(25:02):
The NFL and all these people, they know that the
core audience is an addict. They know you're addicted. You
will do whatever it takes to get your hands on it,
meaning beg, borrow and steel if you have to. And
they got you by the balls. They're the benevolent overlords
and you're going to take your hit. And that is
(25:24):
just the way it is. It is more of the
erosion of quality we've seen across the board. Standards standards
are broadcasting and it's part of it's the streaming thing,
and just companies are cheap and that's how it goes.
But everything has gone down in value while the price
has gone up. Right, nothing is sacred and look back
(25:45):
and they'll write about this and say, well, what was
the downfall of the red zone. This was once the
crown jewel, right, the crown jewel, and now it's been
tossed into the bargain bin. So what the heck? Hap
what are you doing? All right? Now? Final point? So
Charles Barkley, of all people, the round mound of rebound
(26:06):
back when he played. Now he's the l gas bag.
So Barkley entered the chat. He recently criticized the NBA
for its mega rights deal. It's an eleven year, seventy
seven billion dollar deal with ESPN, Amazon, NBC, and there
are also some games streamed exclusively on Prime Video and
(26:32):
Peacock that are not available on the other avenues. Now, Barkley,
Charles Barkley said the league simply took the deal that
offered them the largest payday without thinking about the fan experience. Quote.
I think it's a big deal, Barkley said, because they
just took the money from all three networks for the
next eleven years and they don't give a blank about
(26:56):
the fans. Barkley said, close. Quote all right on this one,
where are you at? On? Charles Barkley saying the NBA
does not care about the fans. They do not care
about about the fans. So Charles Barkley on this one
put him in the Ohio State Marching band, and he
(27:16):
because he dotted the I at the Ohio State Marching Band. There.
The NBA obviously doesn't care about the fans, but they're
not alone. They're I think the NFL is really worried
about the fans. They just added commercials to the red zone.
You think if they were looking after the fans, that's
what they would have done. No, of course not. Now
it's rather obvious that every business is going to take
a deal based on the most money. It's always about
(27:37):
the money. When they say it's not about the money,
it is especially about the money. We know that anyone
has got any kind of street smarts or just has
lived their life. You know, it's always about the money,
and it's not about whether or not the fan is
the consumer of the product is happy that they care
(27:58):
about turning the public into a herd of compliant sheep.
And you just got to be a part of the
herd of sheep. And you know you'll complain. Some of
you'll complain, and that's fine. You'll you'll be upset about
miss layups or load management or two hundred dollars jerseys
(28:18):
stitch together with paper mache there and some sweatshop somewhere overseas.
But the sheep will be obedient and you'll sign up
for one, two, three, four, five, six seven. How many
streaming services are there? So for seventy seven billion, and
(28:40):
Barkley ripped the NBA, But the NBA will give its
customer base a monthly scavenger hunt. You will get to
be part of a scavenger hunt if you are a
law abiding citizen, to try to figure out where that
night's game, Like there's a nick game, but is it
on is it on NBC? Is it on Amazon? Maybe
it's on on ESPN. I don't know, third base Peacock
(29:04):
might be on Peacock. I have no idea. So it's
a scavenger hunt for all this. And so you get
the cable over here, you get the streaming over there,
and then there's some kind of free trial that thing
of a jig. You got to click on that, but
then if you don't decline it after a couple of days,
you get charged fifteen dollars after seven days. So you
(29:25):
got to make sure to unfollow that. But if you don't, again,
if you don't unfollow it, they just automatically they ding
your credit card fifteen dollars and all that. So the
NBA has become a traveling circus filled with snake oil.
You know, snake oil salesman, it's a carnival in sneakers.
Step right up right these Fngali effect in high tops.
(29:46):
Even though the regular season for that product has gone real,
real low on the must see TV department, it's just
not the same. The players don't care, and the fans know.
The players don't care, The coaches don't care. The fans
know the players and coaches don't care, and so it's
an issue. But they think they've hypnotized you and then hey,
(30:06):
you'll at least watch the highlights, and then maybe you'll
watch some of the big games here and they'll drain
your wallet and they'll get you here, there and everywhere
with those monthly subscriptions. This dingya, little ding here, little
ding there, and ding ding ding ding ding ding ding
ding ding. Now. The great thing about Charles Barkley, Charles
Barkley can afford to bark arf arf. He's like Andrea's
(30:28):
dog willis he can afford to bark And the reason
Barkley can afford to bark is he is at the
very top of the food chain. He is. He's had
so much money, he's got so much power he can
mf the NBA and on live TV or radio and
go home and get his ass kissed both cheeks by
TV executives. It's just the way it is now. If
(30:51):
some low level sideline reporter for the NBA said the
NBA doesn't care about fans, they don't care about that
particular per would be sent to sit Berrier, all right.
And so the NBA has made Fendom a toll road.
It's a toll road, and you better have paid your
(31:11):
bill otherwise you're gonna get a ticket. And so Charles
Barker listening, he just points out the obvious. They decided
the road can be paved with your money, money, money, money.
And if you don't like it, if you have a problem, right,
if you have a problem, there's a turnpike right over there.
It's called indifference, and then it intersects with apathy. And
(31:32):
if enough people go down that turnpike and indifference and apathy,
then things will change. They play the numbers game. There's
some manipulation going on, as we've talked about here with
the micro blogging world, and so you've got what is real,
what is not real, what is real? Engagement was not
real engagement, what is legit? What is not legit? And
(31:53):
it's a lot of fusing around with numbers and some
fuzzy math over here. There's a lot of that going on.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
It's Mallard. How about that to the third degree.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
This is one big Ben gets grilled.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Kobolo.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
The Ravens and the Bills have developed a bit of
a rivalry, as Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson have squared
off four times in the regular season and twice in
the playoffs. They'll face each other again Sunday night. Two
quarterbacks were in the same draft class, with Allen going
eleventh and Jackson going thirty second. If you were to
redo the twenty eighteen draft bend, would you still take
Alan before Jackson? Uh?
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Well, obviously not. Neither one's won a Super Bowl, neither one.
I mean, Alan's been his numbers are good in the playoffs,
but they found ways to choke the Bills. And Lamar
Jackson is one of the great regular season players in
NFL history. So yeah, I was wrong about both those guys.
But the Patriots had a chance. I remember I was
doing a draft show that night. I had a chance
to draft Lamar Jackson, and they obviously f that up.
(32:57):
But Lamar clearly is you know, he's the better regular
season player than Josh Allen.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
Next, Kevin Cash of the Tampa Bay Rays is the
longest tenured manager in Major League Baseball, having been at
the Helm since twenty fourteen. However, Tampa may be on
its way to missing the playoffs for the third season
in a row. Ben, do you think Cash is safe
in Tampa?
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yes, they play in a minor league ballpark. They don't
even sell it out. It's a joke franchise. It's a
Franken signed franchise. I know they changed ownership, so you say, well,
they're gonna get a new you know they're gonna get
some more money and they owner's gonna watch back. I
say he's safe until they find a permanent solution to
that ballpark where they've got to build something next.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
Clemson coach Dabo Sweeney came to the defense of Texas
quarterback Arch Manning this week, saying, quote, He's gonna be
a freaking superstar, and people that don't believe that, they're
just stupid. But are people being too harsh on Manning
or is he being given unrealistic expectations?
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Well, my first thought is a lot of people think
Dabo's stupid. He's been stupid for a couple of years
at Clemson. What happened to the Clemson Tiger football program?
It used to be for a couple of years they
were one of the tops in football. But no, Arch
Manning deserves all the criticism. It's part of the gig.
That's how it works. How do we do you pass?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live. It's now time for time for Horry, Horry
Honey Wait.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Ask bad Twitter said, is.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Your questions on Twitter now?
Speaker 1 (34:30):
And it is the reading of the questions. Ask man
your questions are answers? Well, our ask to the hour
and let's get over to be true blot for the
reading of the questions.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
All right, we're gonna start off with a question from
Cowboy Killer.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Hi cow he's working the day shift. Hi cowboy Killer.
That's right.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
He wants to know. Did you ever sneak out as
a teenager?
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (34:53):
You know that was pretty good? Yeah, there were times.
I meant a couple of times. I didn't do it
all the time. My older brother did a lot more
than I did sneaking out of the house. I didn't
really have too many friends, so I didn't have anywhere
to go, so not too often. What about you, Lorena.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
Yeah, times I had older brothers who had friends who
had crushes on so you know, we were sneaking out.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
All the time.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Uh, living life in a small town in Oregon. What
about you Cool?
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Yes, I would go into my backyard and hop the
wall in the backyard because I was too nervous that
the front door would be too loud.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Wow, you're all you're a coke and dagger type. That's right,
Jewish and I had Yeah, I'm back when I'm old,
I guess. But when I grew up, my mom would
just like get out of the house and just come
back when the sun goes down, so I was like sunset,
I had to get back in the house. That was it.
But you know, at night, not too much. There wasn't
like going on in the town I grew up in.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
Next all right, Ferg Dog would like to know, high
Ferg Dog, are you a fast or slow eater?
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Well, I am a slow eater compared to my but
I consider myself a fast eater, So I guess it
depends what the company you're in the room with is.
I don't think I'm a fast eat I think I'm
kind of the middle of the road. I'm not slow.
I'm not fast. I like to enjoy the food, so
somewhere in the middle of My wife is a fast eater, though,
and she'll get upset that she says I eat too slow.
(36:19):
But I don't think i'm eating slow.
Speaker 5 (36:20):
What about you, Lorena, Yeah, I'm a I'm one of
the slowest eaters I know.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Yeah, you're more of a grazier, right, Nibbler, You're a nibbler.
Roger Goodell's a nibbler. You're a nibbler too, What about you? Hello?
What about you? Koop?
Speaker 4 (36:38):
I am a fast eater for sure, probably too fast.
He's like a two byte person.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
It's gone, bites, that's it.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Yeah, he's done. It's gone.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Yeah, leave that joke aside. What is next year? To ask?
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Ben?
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Your questions are answers for the rest of the hour. Amazing.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Bobby in Florida would like body, since it's back to
school season. Did you take the bus, drive or walk
to high school? Uh?
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Yeah? So I uh I when high school. I took
the bus in elementary school. By the time I got
to high school, I my mom would drop me off
and then I started driving, So I guess you know,
sometimes I would walk, but mostly mostly got dropped off
or drove myself. What about you, Loraina?
Speaker 5 (37:27):
Yeah, my dad didn't like driving us to school and
we only lived fifteen minutes from the school. So rain
or shine, your girl was walking. There was one day
I had my hair super cute styled and it started
downpouring rain on the walk in. I got like I
got straight out of the shower. It did by the
time you get to school, you, I sure do love Oregon.
Miss those rainy days.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Yeah, we don't have those in La. What about you,
Cooper Loop, My.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
Mom dropped me off until senior year when I could drive. Myself.
You pampered child.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Well, he was the breadwinner in the family. All right,
what is next to hear, coop? What do we have here?
Speaker 4 (38:06):
Donkey sausage fight Donkey for some reason would like to
know how much do you recycle?
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Well, my wife loves recycling. I tell her that a
lot of recycling is a scam and she does gets
upset when I bring that up. So we have a
lot of recycling. She does most of it, but I
put it in the right bin. So there's a lot
of recycling. What about you, Larna, Yeah, I think.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
Our trash people do that. That's what my cousin says.
Everything goes in one and then they sort of Yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Think where you live. I used to live out here
where you live now, So yeah, I think they do that.
Speaker 4 (38:39):
What about you, Coop, Yeah, we recycle and there's a
lot because we have bottled water and then also my
diet doctor Pepper's so yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Yeah, they've done research that a lot of the stuff
that you send to recycled never actually gets turned into
like recycling.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
That's true. And in fact, you can look on out yes,
yeah
Speaker 1 (39:00):
H you can look online cooping right into a brick
wall
Host
Ben Maller
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