April 16, 2026 • 40 mins
Big Ben talks about the Warriors mounting a 4th quarter comeback to defeat and eliminate the Clippers from the NBA Play-In, Joel Embiid refusing to play for the 76ers in their win against the Magic, Maller to the Third Degree, #AskBen, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
So we are at it. Start out a little playing
la la land basketball and it's not easy for the
trolls because when you have no expectations, you can't really
bust balls. Some of you were trying to bust balls,
which I appreciate the effort. The effort was made, but
we have playing action and for many it was a
(00:54):
whooped damn do so just start sending those emails. You
know I liked your show, but why are you talking
about basketball? Okay, just relax, relax, Okay, he wants to
just talk football year round. Hey, Patrick Mahomes took a
back today. Let's break that down. What do you say? No,
there's other stuff going on. So the Warriors and the
(01:16):
Clippers the focus and I don't know if you're watching,
probably not probably not well. Stephen Curry, he was playing,
and he had a throwback game thirty five points, but
twenty seven of those thirty five in the second half.
I did not play in the NBA. I am told
that is pretty good an average. Al Al Horford hit
(01:39):
not one, not two, not three, four three pointers, the
Clips daring him to make the three pointers, which he did.
As Golden State storm back down the stretch in the
fourth quarter to get the win. They advance a five
point win. They out down by thirteen in the fourth,
outscored and one by eight eighteen from that point forward,
(02:02):
and they have advanced to the next rung of the
Fugasei NBA playing tournament, while the Clippers n Da da
da go by. They're out see you later done, eliminated
electric chair all that. The Warriors, who also suck, by
(02:24):
the way, it's not like they're good. The Warriors will
travel to face Phoenix, who also blows. That'll be on Friday,
and that is a night we are not at the watchtower,
so let me know what happens in that game. The
winner will move along to face the reigning champions, led
by former Clipper Shaye Jogis, Alexander and Oklahoma City in
(02:45):
the first round. Now, immediately after the Clipper Warrior game,
there was a ton of fawning over Golden State. And
I'm not just talking your regular Hey, we like these
guys because they're stars. We no, this was a bubble
(03:06):
bath Hawktua, Manny Petty all of that. So it's a
good jomping up.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Point.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Let us discuss the question the Warriors. The Golden State
Warriors here rallying from thirteen points down in the fourth
quarter to beat the Clippers. Now the media claiming that
it's because of Steph Curry and the championship pedigree, the
DNA there are you buying this? So I've got appetizers,
(03:36):
wires crossed, and muppet and we will combine all of
these things together and we will make a bee line
out the door like the Clippers are doing. Now, before
I answer the question, I would like to present to
you Tylu, the current coach for now. I don't think
(03:57):
he's been fired yet of the Clipper, but here is
a ty Lou. He added on he was asked about
the Golden State Warriors and their experience. Take a list.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
You can feel that you know you could feel that,
you know, when we increase the lead. They never, they never,
you know, wavered with the confidence. And they executed. And
they've been together for a while and they've run good stuff,
you know, and so I want to execute at a
high level, and you know, you make some mistakes, they're
gonna make you pay, like we talked about before the game.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
And he was able to do that, right, So that's
a cop out. Uh, look look in the mirror, dude,
what are you doing? Seriously, what are you doing. The
answer to the question did the game turn because of
the championship pedigree of Golden State, The answer is a
hard no. I'd fire Ty Lou if I was Steve
Balmer for that answer. The answer is no. We sucked
(04:46):
at a time you can't suck. That's the answer. Spare
me the bedtime story about championship DNA shoving up you
tuck us that mystical pedigree. I want to puke in
my mouth. It's fluff. It's absolute fluff. This was in
about Steph Curry and Golden State rising up. This was
textbook the Clippers handing over the keys, saying take whatever
(05:07):
you want, take whatever you want. You're up by thirteen
points in the fourth and you end up giving forty
three points in twelve minutes. Forty three points in twelve minutes.
For those of you a little slow in the back round,
Yeah yeah, that's not pressure, that's a disappearing at Golden State.
Shot seventy five percent from the floor and over seventy
(05:31):
percent for three point range in the fourth quarter. Those
are video game numbers, the kind you get when nobody
is guarding you. Do you understand that the Clippers defended
like they had allergies, They were allergic to the very
concept of playing defense. In the fourth quarter. There was
no resistance, no urgency, no stops at all. That is
(05:54):
what's known as malpractice. And either Tylo's coaching it or
he's allowing it to happen. No, no backbone, no backbone,
Lou Tyleru coach Lou. There might as well have served
appetizers some nice art of choke dip at the end
of the third quarter start of the fourth quarter. The
whole team went into a food coma, and all that
(06:16):
matters is what you do in the moment, and they froze.
That wasn't a comeback, That was a tax deductible charitable situation.
Hy you just their donation with the scoreboard. Yet again,
another great moment where the Clippers choke so bad it
belongs to the Smithsonia. Now this is not one of
the all time great chokes because both these teams blow
(06:40):
and it was playing. This shouldn't even exist. Neither one
of these teams should even be in the playoffs. If
you can't finish in the top eight of your conference,
you don't deserve your go to the pluffs. Just another
embarrassment that Adam Silver added to the NBA. This fugasey
playing thing. It's so stupid and no one likes it.
(07:00):
I don't anyone that thinks this is a good idea.
It's dumb. The NBA is sticking to it, and for
years and years they were able to play. They had
this playing tournament. Was an eighty two game playing tournament.
Amazing concept called the regular season and the top eight
and each conference got to the playoffs. Adams Sir was like, no, no, no, no, no,
we need to add an extra couple of teams and
(07:20):
then they can play for it, and we'll actually penalize
the teams to finish seventh and eighth. It's ridiculous, all right. Now,
the other storyline, one of the other storylines for this
game was Kawhi Leonard, who had one more basket than
you had and I had in the fourth quarter. Very
quiet night, quiet night for Kawhi. He was missing in
(07:45):
action during the fourth quarter. Kawhi was held scoreless in
the fourth until the final sixteen seconds of the fourth quarters.
I mean, you can't make this up. You cannot make
this up. So of course that land to the knee
pads getting out for Draymond Green. Because there's one guy
that certainly has a you know, he doesn't have an
(08:06):
ego problem, so it's always great when the media fluffs
him up a little bit. So the question, was this
great defense by Draymond Green of Golden State in the
fourth quarter or is this just bad offense by Kawhi
Leonard down the stretch? So please, the arrow on this
one is pointing directly at the claw, the claw machine.
(08:31):
Kawhi is supposed to be matchup proof. Do you understand
what matchup proof means? Do you understand the concept of
matchup proof? It doesn't matter who's guarding him. He's so good,
he's so wonderful that he just goes out there and
get gets her done. That's it. He's a human cheat code.
When he's cooking, you can throw multiple defenders at him.
(08:54):
It's kind of like throwing paper towels at a flood.
It doesn't really work. You ever try to go out
there's a hurricane. Let me go out there. I got
a roll of paper towels and I am going to
stop the water. Okay, that sounds good. I'm sure that
will work. Just oh the just just licking, licking, licking
and stop. Everyone's given Draymond a tongue back. Even Steph
(09:20):
Curry postgame was laying it on thick for his teammate.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
Draymond and defense uncle while all night two big steels.
That's why I'd love to see him thankful that we
had an opportunity just to come out and.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Just win one game. Now we gotta do it again,
all right? Well, the main sin the credited Draymond with
a steel, which was just Matherin should be sent back
to Canada for that was horrible basketball. The end bound
play late in the fourth quarter, My god, what are
you a dingle berry? What are you doing your mama?
(09:57):
Luke uh? As far as though back to the point
Kawhi Leonard in the fourth quarter, he was frazzled, bedraggled,
and completely zoned. Now why was he frazzled, bedraggled and
completely song Eleven minutes into the fourth quarter, he had
no points, so he didn't play the entire fourth quarter,
but no points until there were sixteen seconds left. It
(10:18):
was essentially out there doing cardio and what's going on?
And it was not Draymond Green building alcatraz. I'm sorry
to burst your bubble. This was Kawhi putting himself on
airplane mode. We shouldn't do that, Kwai. You shouldn't put
yourself on airplane mode. There was no urgency, no aggression,
no pulse, dribbling into traffic, settling for junk, playing like
(10:41):
he had a tea time waiting. I don't even know
if he plays golf. Casa Kwai there in San Diego,
get back there and hang out. So I have a
Mallard theory on what happened. As I was making my
way into the studio, I came up with the malory.
The mala theory is that Kawhi got his wires crossed
and thought he had a shift at the tree planting
(11:03):
service because that was a you know, obviously a no
show job. And he showed up like it was a
no show job when it mattered soft slow and sloppy, soft,
slow and sloppy. And the moment knocked and Kawhi said,
you know what I'm doing. I'm gonna channel Phil Jackson,
the zen Master, and I'm gonna turn out the lights
(11:25):
and meditate. So you turn out the lights. The party's over. Yeah,
it was over. Now it's over for this season? Is
it over? Over? To the last word? We go and
the HeLa monster in the room. Kawhi was asked he's
heading into his lame duck season with the Clips one
year left on his contract. He was asked whether or
(11:45):
not he would like to renegotiate the contract and stick around.
And did he a answer that question by saying, yes, I
love it here. They have protected me. They've allowed me
to be a slug and not perform. They've allowed me
to be lazy and paid me a lot of money
to not work most of my contract. I love it here.
(12:06):
Did he say that? B Did he say I want
to leave or see? Did he deflect and not answer? Well?
The answer was he deflected and he didn't answer. He
claimed he was so broken up by the loss that
he needed time to process it. He refused to answer,
which is funny because he didn't play like he was
going to be broken up by the loss. Otherwise they
(12:26):
would have won the game. So he refused to answer.
Kawhi Leonard whether he wants a new deal with the Clippers,
and it's likely irrelevant because there's an investigation. The question,
what are the odds that this was Kawhi Leonard's last
game wearing that iconic Clippers uniform. So the Mallard sports
(12:47):
book odds, the Malord sports Book odds are at minus
four hundred that he becomes a full blown muppet, which
muppet Gonzo finished. It means there's an eighty percent chance
that this partnership comes to an end. And whether that's
(13:07):
because the NBA steps in to mandate it or the
Clippers quietly repackage him like a discontinued product line, that's it.
And I was talking to somebody the other day about this,
and they explained the situation, like the punishment there is
precedent if the Clippers and you know, there's a lot
of evidence. Who knows what actually happened there's some podcast
(13:30):
guy trying to get famous on this. Good luck. But
generally speaking, if this was a salarycap violation, the president
is to take away draft picks. The problem is the
Clippers don't have any draft picks. They treated them all away,
So it creates a problem because then you just end
up finding the Clippers, and Steve Balmer is richer than
(13:52):
rich so who cares about that? So you don't end
up punishing them. The next couple of draft picks the
Clippers have that are gonna be any value are years
and years down the line, so the breakup either way
is overdue. The spark died several years ago, and everyone's
just tiptoeing around here like it. It was taboo to
(14:14):
admit the obvious the Kawhi era, while you would do
it again because everyone wanted this guy. You allowed him
to play GM and he f you over twice. Not
only did he show up and not want to play,
he also wanted to play with Paul George, which tells
you he knows nothing about basketball in terms of player
(14:37):
roster building and all that. And so it was a
science experiment that never produced the proper result. There was
a final four appearance, but Kawhi got hurt that year.
It was a lab project with no conclusions, no breakthroughs,
just endless, inconclusive, stamped across the report. That's it. And
then the Clippers they just didn't just get unlucky that
(14:59):
this the way it turned out. In many ways, they
got catfish because the Kawhi Leonard that was in Toronto
was not the guy that showed up into La. They
bought the myth, the mystique, the promise, and he'd tease you,
he'd show you some signs of being great and play
very well for a couple of games, and even this year.
He played most of this year, Yet in these playoff
(15:21):
opportunities he did not deliver when it matter. This is
even a playoff game. This is not a playoff game
or a regular season game. This is something else. It's
in bizarro world. And so instead the Clippers, instead of
getting the Raptors version or the Spurs version, they got
a ghost who appeared only in these short, unpredictable bursts.
(15:43):
So the era it would appear is over and Clippers
don't seem like they want to go full suck, which
is good. I saw the graphic on the broadcast there
with Kevin Harlan. The Clippers have the third top record
in the NBA since twenty fourteen. Only the Celtics and
(16:04):
the Warriors have won more regular season games, and the
Clippers have in that time. So it's gonna try to win.
They'll just change the furniture around. The goal is the same.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meler
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Check us out on YouTube and subscribe. And we are
back at it, hanging out here in the audio dojo
and the lead. This hour we get the pro bouncy
ball again. And if we were with this last hour,
we were covered up in some locations it was all
about the Warriors Clippers game, which is incorrectly being reported
(17:14):
that Golden State had this amazing performance when it was
a total choke job by the Clippers. That's the story, Mike,
What are you doing? Is it gotten that soft? The
ball washing of the team that wins rather than going
full throttle on the team that blows the game? My god,
what are we doing? Well? Our lead this hour is
from the early game on the card in this fugasey
(17:36):
play in nonsense in the NBA would go to Philadelphia,
the birthplace of our freedom, where Tyrese Maxi put up
thirty one points.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
VJ.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Edgecomb added nineteen points, eleven rebounds, and the seventy six
Ers by the hair on their chinny chin Chin got
past the Orlando Magic. So they get the number seven
seed in the Eastern Conference, and so that means we
get the Class sixers matchup with the Celtics. The first
round will begin on Sunday in Boston. Desmond Bain the
(18:10):
star for Orlando, but he could not get her done
in the Magic. They're not done yet. They will play Charlotte.
They'll host to Charlotte on Friday night. The winner of
that game we'll get the number eight seed in the
Eastern Conference. They will play Detroit. Now, the game was
close and all that, and fine. The talking point on
(18:34):
this one is the subplot. And if you know, you know,
you might not know. So there's a story that's been
bouncing all over the echo chamber, and it's up for
debate how accurate it is. Joelle enbi did not play
for the Sixers. He was in street clothes. He was
just like Anthony Davis. So Joelle Ebid, the report is
(18:55):
he refused to play for the Sixers in this game.
Now skip baitless we know it? Or two about skip.
He's claiming that Embiid was medically cleared. He had had
emergency at emergency appendectomy last week. He had been medically
cleared to play in the game, however, and Eid said,
I'm not playing. I know that you're cleared me, but
(19:15):
I'm just not gonna play. That's it. I'm out. And
so this has ruffled some feathers. The fact that somebody
leaked it out would indicate that someone's not real happy
with Joel Embiid. So that's a good jumping off point.
Let us discuss the question. A former MVP Joel Embiid
reportedly refuse to play for the Sixers despite being healthy
(19:37):
enough to do so. So what do you read into
this my observations. I have field trip, Sandy Beach and
art installation, and we will combine all of these things
together and we're going to eat the clock and prolong
the agony, is what we're going to do. We always
(19:58):
say when we begin our we said, well, it's our two,
but it's really our number number. So Joel Embiid is
not managing an injury. He's managing an off ramp, is
what he's doing here. This is the loudest I'm done
with Philly bat signal ever sent to the heavens without
(20:19):
holding a news conference. Now, let's call it what it is,
a soft launch on a mutiny on the Sixers bounty.
If this is accurate and Embiid, we'll find out when
Embiid's traded somewhere after this ends here for the Sixers
and Beiid took a field trip down to Independence Hall
there in Philadelphia and he filed his own declaration of
(20:43):
independence from trust. The process to the process is civil war.
That's the process. And here's the twist of the knife.
If you will. It is true the Sixers won the game,
and that's great and all that for them. I guess
it hits harder though, that Joe ellen Beiide is doing
this now. It's worse for the Sixers then the Ben
(21:06):
Simmons saga. As I rhapsodized about this, and the reason
it's worse is because Ben Simmons had a glitch. He
couldn't get it done. There was something wrong there. This
is the franchise cornerstone, for better or worse. This is
the MVP face of the franchise, pulling the ripcord. It
would appear so when the guy you built the whole
(21:30):
thing of a jig around the whole empire, and that
guy starts no showing while allegedly healthy, a healthy scratch,
if you will, That is not maintenance. That is self sabotage.
And it certainly feels like a point of no return. Again,
we'll find out how accurate this is. Bouncing all over
(21:50):
the place. It's supposed he started with Skip Bayles. There's
other people saying it's true. Others are saying it's not true.
The marriage, though, would be cooked if that's it. The
dishes are broken and both sides are already calling those
divorce lawyers. It's also a referendum on a Sixers culture
that has been built on excuses doing the bare minimum.
(22:13):
It's really what they deserve in Philadelphia. They do this
whole fraud of an era of Sixers basketball which has
gone on from multiple executives and all the tanking that
took place, and now here you get to the very
end of it and Joel and beads like, I ain't playing.
I ain't playing unless I am I. It certainly seems
(22:34):
like this is the revenge when he wanted to play
in the regular season and he had a bit of
a kerfluffle, said I want to play, and they said
you can't play. Well, I want to play. Well, we're
not going to play it. And then he went public
with it, and now here's his payback, medically cleared, and
he's like, I'm not playing. I anticipate. He did not
believe they were going to win the game without him.
(22:54):
They won the game without him, and so now we'll
see whether he shows up for the real playoff festivities.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Now.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Meanwhile, to uptown Charlotte Mallor Show follow up, Mallor Show
follow Up, Hornet's guard LaMelo Ball. The punishment is in.
The punishment is in this. On the feedback I got,
I pointed out the overreaction to LaMelo Ball and the
oh my god.
Speaker 7 (23:21):
I must suspend him. Please suspend Lamello the dirtiest thing
I've ever seen as you clutch your pearls. So the punishment.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
They must have suspended LaMelo for the rest of the playoffs, right,
or at least several games for what he did to
Bam out of Bio, you would think, right, No, LaMelo
Ball has been fined thirty five thousand dollars for tripping
Bam out of Bio and twenty five thousand dollars is
saying a knotty word and he has to wash his
(23:55):
mouth out with soap and water postgame. That last part
might have been added on for effect. The foul was
upgraded to a flagrant foul post mortem. So despite the hullabaloo,
LaMelo Ball will be available for Friday nights playing matchup
to make the playoffs against the Orlando Magic, who lost
(24:17):
to the Sixers. So the question what message is the
NBA sending by fining, not not suspending Hornet's Guard LaMelo
Ball for his trip heard round the basketball world. So
on this one, it backs up our hot take. And
(24:39):
you always love when in the industrial complex of the
hot take. You always love when your hot take is stamped, sealed,
and validated. In this case, the NBA stamped it. They
sealed the envelope, and they validated it. And it was
a notary came in there and notarized this was a misdemeanor.
(25:00):
It was always a misdemeanor. It was not a felony.
And the punishment is proportional. It's proportional punishment in a
league that usually overreacts out of an abundance of caution
to try to keep the appearances up. They didn't do
that here, So good job by them. A rare win
for the NBA who just told outrage machine. They said,
you know, listen out major machine. We hear you. We're good.
(25:24):
We're good, Yes we are. It was the sandy beach plan.
What does that mean? So the suspension, if you had
suspended lamellow ball, you would have hurt the product. A
fine is like going down to a sandy beach taking
a red party cup plastic red cup, and you fill
(25:46):
that up with sand and you leave the beach and
you say I've cleared the beach of saying, well, well,
no you have. You have a number. LaMelo makes so
much money he won't even feel the suspension. It's the
classic slash on ball if you will, and enough to
say something was done. We take this very seriously. Something
(26:08):
was done, not enough to actually matter, just the old
wink and a nod and hey, don't do it again.
I'll see on Friday, though, make sure you show up
on time. The subtext star power does get deodorized, not benched.
And the NBA New TV partners here and they sold
this ridiculous product, this play and slop to their broadcast partners,
(26:33):
and so they're protecting the inventory for the product. And
your anger has been received. It was filed and completely ignored,
completely ignored. Yeah, all right, Now to golf we go.
Amid reports that the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund might
(26:55):
be saying that's all she wrote, boys, get out. I'm
out on the They're probably on the verge of removing
all their funding for that ridiculous golf thing that they
started a couple of years ago. Live Golf CEO Scott O'Neill.
He sent out an email to the staff on Wednesday,
(27:15):
the guy that runs Live Golf and said that the
season will go on as quote, as planned, as planned, uninterrupted,
and at full throttle close quote. Keep in mind, the
email did not directly address reports that PIFF the Public
Investment Fund might stop investing in the underground circuit after
(27:43):
spending already more than five billion dollars to line up
the bank accounts of these golfers who sold out these
They've spent over five billion dollars since twenty twenty two. Man,
that's wild, all right. So no mention of that or
whether the league will continue competitions beyond this season. So
(28:07):
the question this, despite reports of the end being near
the doomsday clock on the Public Investment Fund, the CEO
of Live Golf says twenty twenty six is full throttle.
So where does this leave things now? Well, if everything
(28:29):
is full throttle, why does it sound like the pilot
announcing that the left engine just not only stop working,
it detached from the plane. Now, having worked in corporate
media my entire adult life, let me tell you something.
When they say that they send out an email saying
everything's fine. That's where you go update your resume. That's
(28:50):
where you update your resume and start making calls to people. Hey,
you know anything open over there? You got a gig guy?
I might need a gig guy. In fact, I do
need a gig. Yeah. How many times can a league
say we're fine, We're fine before it turns into the
sports version of again, you know, my marriage is great?
Why do you ask all that stuff? This always it
(29:11):
felt like a fad, not a trend, a lavish midlife
crisis funded by the ridiculous oil money the Saudi Arabian
government has in this public investment fund with no endgame.
There was no exit strategy, right, There was no exit
strategy so live it was like they had so much money,
(29:31):
They're like, ah, let's mess around here. Well, just they
could have taken it down the NFL, I'm telling you
right now, they could have started a pro football league,
which is the most popular sport in America. If they
have so much money, and they could have started that,
and you would have seen multiple huge name NFL players
void their contracts and run off to take that money
(29:52):
from the sugar daddy at the public investment fund. They
chose golf because golf's more of an international sport. People
around the world don't really care that much about it.
American football and Live was not about competition. It was
not about competition. It was like a five billion dollar,
five billion dollar just this this this art installation. That's it.
(30:15):
It's like put some art out here, you know. Fine,
it's a little piece of art in the middle of nowhere.
Five billion dollars and proving that everyone can be bought
and sold. All these golfers were bought. That's it. You know,
everyone's got a price. I remember, I've told the story
a million times. There's a book. It was a terrible movie,
but they made a book called The Magic Christian. Not
a religious book, just a bored billionaire that wanted to
(30:36):
see what he could do get people to do who
didn't want to do certain things. But everyone has a price,
and these professional golfers sold out to get all that money.
And good for them. Congratulations. I'm sure they're great grandchildren
will appreciate the fact that they never have to work, and
they'll be spoiled ratty punk trust fund babies. I'm sure
they're very happy about that. Great. And so it's like
(30:57):
they said, wait, well we'll see everyone's got a price,
and let's see what happens when you give golfers unlimited
money and no consequences and da da here we are.
So if the money slows, I'm telling you right now,
there won't even be a farewell tour. It's just turned
out the ladds, the parties over in the middle of around.
(31:19):
That's it. Pay your way back, there's no money for
the plane fare. And you watch the media pivot. Certain
factions of the media. The same folks who hyped it
up will suddenly develop amnesia, just like the people ignored
Diana Russini's story until they couldn't ignore it anymore when
she was canoodling in the hot tub and all that.
So what's the endgame with Mike Rabel? What's the endgame?
(31:41):
So a quiet return to the PGA Tour for these
guys and a lot of well, this was always my
plan and I just went over there for a little bit.
I always wanted to go back to the PGA Tour.
And they are popping bubbly on the PGA Tour. They're like, okay, challenge,
we had a threat, we survived, and they're this close,
(32:03):
this close, and uh yeah, not gonna apparely happen. During
the twenty twenty six season. But before you know it,
it'll be twenty twenty seven, and then this thing will
be gone, and that'll be that, and there'll be some documentaries.
There'll be a Netflix docu series on it about how
amazing it was and all the money they burned. That'll
be There be a lot of that kind of thing,
(32:25):
a lot of that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
How about that to the third Decrea, this is one
big event gets grilled all right.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Cool reports indicate that Deshaun Watson should be considered the
favorite to win the Browns quarterback job. However, RG three
is reporting that players in the Browns locker room don't
believe they can win with Watson. Ben, who do you
think monkn will go with to start the season.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Well, this just into Fox Sports Radio. It doesn't matter
who plays quarterback for the Browns. They all blow and
those that don't blow suck, so they're not gonna win.
It doesn't matter. It's irrelevant. We'll talk about it. I'm
sure I'll do monologues on it. Todd munkin what he
ought to do is borrow the penny from Benny versus
the penny and flip it in the air and see
what happens. It doesn't matter. They'd like to play Deshaan Watson,
(33:11):
then maybe trade him. That would be the best plan,
but the good luck Next Giants.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
GM Joe Shane was recently asked about some of the
top prospects the team could consider with the number five pick.
Shane called former Notre Dame running back Jeremiah Love an
offensive weapon, not just.
Speaker 6 (33:25):
A running back.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Oh okay, yeah, Ben.
Speaker 6 (33:27):
Do you think Love can have like a Christian McCaffrey
type impact?
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Can he? Yes? But I'm in the show me state
of mind. I am numb to draft type. I am
numb to draft type. I want to see it to
believe it. Next.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Panthers have used the first round pick on a wide
receiver the last two seasons in a row, and this
week GM Dan Morgan was asked if those players would
prevent them from doing the same thing again this year.
He said, there's no rule against picking a wide receiver
three years in a row, and they'll just select the
best player available.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Benefica.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
If the best player available to a wide receiver should
they pull the trigger.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Yes, that was a non answer. By the way, Coop,
when you say best player available, that's a non answer.
He gave a non answer. How do we do so?
Speaker 7 (34:04):
When I won?
Speaker 1 (34:05):
When I win, I win a.
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.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
The image. All right, time for Harry. Harry ask bad,
Twitter said us your questions on Twitter. Now, all right,
here we go. It's time now for ask Ben. Your
questions are answers for the arrest of the hour. These
are actual questions by actual listeners to the show. And
(34:43):
let's get the party started. The reading of the questions
over to the Coop hell Loop, or as Dick and
Dayton calls you. What does he call you, Coop don
loop or something like that. Yeah, uh, Dick and Dayton,
Yeah he doesn't call you Coop a loop, he calls
you something like that.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
But yeah, let's start off with a question from Ray.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Hi.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Ray, Ray would like to know what's the best and
worst investment you've ever made.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
The best investment I ever made. I bought a little
bit of apple stock when it was relatively early. That
turned out to be pretty good. I have a relative
who fed a lot on apple in one amount, one
a good amount. The worst thing I've ever done I've
talked about on the radio. I had someone early on
in bitcoin at a Mexican restaurant while eating chips in salsa.
(35:37):
Spent about thirty minutes trying to get me to buy
bitcoin when it was very cheap, and I spent most
of the time mocking this person, ridiculing this person about
how stupid the investment was, and yeah, how much is
bitcoin worth now? I don't want too much. That's the worst.
That's yeah, what about you, Lelena?
Speaker 8 (35:56):
Yeah, electric cars and ethereum have taken all my money
I still haven't got any of it back yet, so.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
You're still waiting on me.
Speaker 7 (36:04):
Regret that.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
And also I forgot blind Scott when he was known
as Bline Scott recommended a weed company, the only one
that went out of this the only so license to
print money when you're in weed. He picked a one
company that couldn't sell weed. You know how hard it
is not to sell weed. He picked the one company
that couldn't sell weed.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Cool, I would say, My best investment would be Apple
and and my house. And then the worst investment was
this pharmaceutical company that shot up and it was great
and I should have sold.
Speaker 6 (36:42):
I would have made a ton of money and I didn't.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Sell, and it's worth nothing now.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Oh no, not even a penny stock. What is? What
is next? Year? It's asked Ben. Your questions are answers
to the rest. I'll be our hashtag ask man. If
you like this bit, we do it every week. If
you don't like it, we only do it once a week,
So who cares?
Speaker 6 (37:05):
Shane and des moines Hi. Shane would like to know.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Do you wash your car by hand or do you
go to a car wash?
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Yeah? So for years I washed my car car by hand.
The wife decided that we needed to go to a
There's a car wash like right down the street, and
you get one car wash a day if you pay
like a flat rate. So I try to go four
times a week. My car only needs to be washed
like once every two weeks, but since I'm paying for it,
I go like three or four times a week. What
about you, Lorraine my hand or do you wash? You
(37:35):
go to the car wash?
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Oh gosh.
Speaker 8 (37:37):
I used to try to do my hand when I
got my new car, but it's just too much work.
So I do like a drive through car wash, and
then I make sure to do the hand drying and
the waxing by myself.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Okay, cool.
Speaker 6 (37:50):
I've never attempted to wash my car by hand.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Never, Why would you? That's something everyone does when they
get a car. Yes, everyone who gets a car the
first time. But back in my day, you're like, love
the car. You're like, okay, this is great.
Speaker 6 (38:06):
I do love the car, and I pay somebody else
to wash it by hand.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
I don't trust people.
Speaker 6 (38:11):
Well, you should trust people.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
It's better than driving doing one of those drive through
car washes that'll damage your paint over time, that's what
they say.
Speaker 6 (38:18):
But I don't know. I had pretty good luck anyway.
I pay somebody to come to my to my house
and wash the car. Oh you fancy what is next to?
Speaker 1 (38:27):
What do we got?
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Okay, we're gonna start off. We're gonna do a question
now from the King Rory.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Hi, King Rory. He's in Wisconsin. Now.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
I think what he means by that. He says, have
you ever been summoned for jury duty? And I imagine
everybody's been summoned for jury duty. But have I guess,
have you ever been selected? Is what he's asking.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
No, So I I did come close. I was on
I was on standby on the call list for a
federal jury. How great would that have been? I was excited.
I was like, this is cool. I I don't know
what it was. It was a federal case and I
I didn't even know I was on this list. I
guess we're all on the list, and I wanted to
do it. I was like, that would be cool. It'd
(39:07):
be a fun story to say I was on a
federal jury and I didn't get picked.
Speaker 6 (39:11):
So I got a new one coming up.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Oh you do?
Speaker 8 (39:15):
Yeah, May eleventh, I have selected for jury duty. So
it'll be my first one that if I actually go to.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
So I'm excited, all right, what about you?
Speaker 3 (39:26):
At the risk of incriminating myself, I've never responded, I've
never Yeah, you know, I'm just never.
Speaker 6 (39:37):
That's not my thing.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Nothing's ever happened, you know, No, of.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Course not nothing, nothing ever will happen unless somebody listen
to this right now.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
It's like those tickets that you know, they just put
a bunch of cameras in La those red you know,
the speeding cameras. Like if I don't think you actually
have to pay them, because there's no cop that cited you,
you know what I mean, who actually saw you? Like
only people pay them? Like it's okay, then get that
dumb money.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Next late night drug Tester would like to know what
is the last documentary you watched.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Yeah, I've been I've been laxed on my documentaries. I
was what was the name of it was on Netflix?
It was like a food documentary? Uh, couple, I forget
the name of it though.
Speaker 8 (40:20):
What was the last Oates documentary?
Speaker 1 (40:24):
All right, I want to watch that Jerry West document.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Good document I think the last one I watched was
a red Hot Chili Pepper's documentary on netwilit.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
All right, I gotta check that Jerry West thing out.
I'll watch this. And there's a UFO one I want
to watch.
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 Benmalers Show at Foxsports Radio dot com.
You can find it there or stream us live every
night 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 (00:32):
So we are at it. Start out a little playing
la la land basketball and it's not easy for the
trolls because when you have no expectations, you can't really
bust balls. Some of you were trying to bust balls,
which I appreciate the effort. The effort was made, but
we have playing action and for many it was a
(00:54):
whooped damn do so just start sending those emails. You
know I liked your show, but why are you talking
about basketball? Okay, just relax, relax, Okay, he wants to
just talk football year round. Hey, Patrick Mahomes took a
back today. Let's break that down. What do you say? No,
there's other stuff going on. So the Warriors and the
(01:16):
Clippers the focus and I don't know if you're watching,
probably not probably not well. Stephen Curry, he was playing,
and he had a throwback game thirty five points, but
twenty seven of those thirty five in the second half.
I did not play in the NBA. I am told
that is pretty good an average. Al Al Horford hit
(01:39):
not one, not two, not three, four three pointers, the
Clips daring him to make the three pointers, which he did.
As Golden State storm back down the stretch in the
fourth quarter to get the win. They advance a five
point win. They out down by thirteen in the fourth,
outscored and one by eight eighteen from that point forward,
(02:02):
and they have advanced to the next rung of the
Fugasei NBA playing tournament, while the Clippers n Da da
da go by. They're out see you later done, eliminated
electric chair all that. The Warriors, who also suck, by
(02:24):
the way, it's not like they're good. The Warriors will
travel to face Phoenix, who also blows. That'll be on Friday,
and that is a night we are not at the watchtower,
so let me know what happens in that game. The
winner will move along to face the reigning champions, led
by former Clipper Shaye Jogis, Alexander and Oklahoma City in
(02:45):
the first round. Now, immediately after the Clipper Warrior game,
there was a ton of fawning over Golden State. And
I'm not just talking your regular Hey, we like these
guys because they're stars. We no, this was a bubble
(03:06):
bath Hawktua, Manny Petty all of that. So it's a
good jomping up.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Point.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Let us discuss the question the Warriors. The Golden State
Warriors here rallying from thirteen points down in the fourth
quarter to beat the Clippers. Now the media claiming that
it's because of Steph Curry and the championship pedigree, the
DNA there are you buying this? So I've got appetizers,
(03:36):
wires crossed, and muppet and we will combine all of
these things together and we will make a bee line
out the door like the Clippers are doing. Now, before
I answer the question, I would like to present to
you Tylu, the current coach for now. I don't think
(03:57):
he's been fired yet of the Clipper, but here is
a ty Lou. He added on he was asked about
the Golden State Warriors and their experience. Take a list.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
You can feel that you know you could feel that,
you know, when we increase the lead. They never, they never,
you know, wavered with the confidence. And they executed. And
they've been together for a while and they've run good stuff,
you know, and so I want to execute at a
high level, and you know, you make some mistakes, they're
gonna make you pay, like we talked about before the game.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
And he was able to do that, right, So that's
a cop out. Uh, look look in the mirror, dude,
what are you doing? Seriously, what are you doing. The
answer to the question did the game turn because of
the championship pedigree of Golden State, The answer is a
hard no. I'd fire Ty Lou if I was Steve
Balmer for that answer. The answer is no. We sucked
(04:46):
at a time you can't suck. That's the answer. Spare
me the bedtime story about championship DNA shoving up you
tuck us that mystical pedigree. I want to puke in
my mouth. It's fluff. It's absolute fluff. This was in
about Steph Curry and Golden State rising up. This was
textbook the Clippers handing over the keys, saying take whatever
(05:07):
you want, take whatever you want. You're up by thirteen
points in the fourth and you end up giving forty
three points in twelve minutes. Forty three points in twelve minutes.
For those of you a little slow in the back round,
Yeah yeah, that's not pressure, that's a disappearing at Golden State.
Shot seventy five percent from the floor and over seventy
(05:31):
percent for three point range in the fourth quarter. Those
are video game numbers, the kind you get when nobody
is guarding you. Do you understand that the Clippers defended
like they had allergies, They were allergic to the very
concept of playing defense. In the fourth quarter. There was
no resistance, no urgency, no stops at all. That is
(05:54):
what's known as malpractice. And either Tylo's coaching it or
he's allowing it to happen. No, no backbone, no backbone,
Lou Tyleru coach Lou. There might as well have served
appetizers some nice art of choke dip at the end
of the third quarter start of the fourth quarter. The
whole team went into a food coma, and all that
(06:16):
matters is what you do in the moment, and they froze.
That wasn't a comeback, That was a tax deductible charitable situation.
Hy you just their donation with the scoreboard. Yet again,
another great moment where the Clippers choke so bad it
belongs to the Smithsonia. Now this is not one of
the all time great chokes because both these teams blow
(06:40):
and it was playing. This shouldn't even exist. Neither one
of these teams should even be in the playoffs. If
you can't finish in the top eight of your conference,
you don't deserve your go to the pluffs. Just another
embarrassment that Adam Silver added to the NBA. This fugasey
playing thing. It's so stupid and no one likes it.
(07:00):
I don't anyone that thinks this is a good idea.
It's dumb. The NBA is sticking to it, and for
years and years they were able to play. They had
this playing tournament. Was an eighty two game playing tournament.
Amazing concept called the regular season and the top eight
and each conference got to the playoffs. Adams Sir was like, no, no, no, no, no,
we need to add an extra couple of teams and
(07:20):
then they can play for it, and we'll actually penalize
the teams to finish seventh and eighth. It's ridiculous, all right. Now,
the other storyline, one of the other storylines for this
game was Kawhi Leonard, who had one more basket than
you had and I had in the fourth quarter. Very
quiet night, quiet night for Kawhi. He was missing in
(07:45):
action during the fourth quarter. Kawhi was held scoreless in
the fourth until the final sixteen seconds of the fourth quarters.
I mean, you can't make this up. You cannot make
this up. So of course that land to the knee
pads getting out for Draymond Green. Because there's one guy
that certainly has a you know, he doesn't have an
(08:06):
ego problem, so it's always great when the media fluffs
him up a little bit. So the question, was this
great defense by Draymond Green of Golden State in the
fourth quarter or is this just bad offense by Kawhi
Leonard down the stretch? So please, the arrow on this
one is pointing directly at the claw, the claw machine.
(08:31):
Kawhi is supposed to be matchup proof. Do you understand
what matchup proof means? Do you understand the concept of
matchup proof? It doesn't matter who's guarding him. He's so good,
he's so wonderful that he just goes out there and
get gets her done. That's it. He's a human cheat code.
When he's cooking, you can throw multiple defenders at him.
(08:54):
It's kind of like throwing paper towels at a flood.
It doesn't really work. You ever try to go out
there's a hurricane. Let me go out there. I got
a roll of paper towels and I am going to
stop the water. Okay, that sounds good. I'm sure that
will work. Just oh the just just licking, licking, licking
and stop. Everyone's given Draymond a tongue back. Even Steph
(09:20):
Curry postgame was laying it on thick for his teammate.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
Draymond and defense uncle while all night two big steels.
That's why I'd love to see him thankful that we
had an opportunity just to come out and.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Just win one game. Now we gotta do it again,
all right? Well, the main sin the credited Draymond with
a steel, which was just Matherin should be sent back
to Canada for that was horrible basketball. The end bound
play late in the fourth quarter, My god, what are
you a dingle berry? What are you doing your mama?
(09:57):
Luke uh? As far as though back to the point
Kawhi Leonard in the fourth quarter, he was frazzled, bedraggled,
and completely zoned. Now why was he frazzled, bedraggled and
completely song Eleven minutes into the fourth quarter, he had
no points, so he didn't play the entire fourth quarter,
but no points until there were sixteen seconds left. It
(10:18):
was essentially out there doing cardio and what's going on?
And it was not Draymond Green building alcatraz. I'm sorry
to burst your bubble. This was Kawhi putting himself on
airplane mode. We shouldn't do that, Kwai. You shouldn't put
yourself on airplane mode. There was no urgency, no aggression,
no pulse, dribbling into traffic, settling for junk, playing like
(10:41):
he had a tea time waiting. I don't even know
if he plays golf. Casa Kwai there in San Diego,
get back there and hang out. So I have a
Mallard theory on what happened. As I was making my
way into the studio, I came up with the malory.
The mala theory is that Kawhi got his wires crossed
and thought he had a shift at the tree planting
(11:03):
service because that was a you know, obviously a no
show job. And he showed up like it was a
no show job when it mattered soft slow and sloppy, soft,
slow and sloppy. And the moment knocked and Kawhi said,
you know what I'm doing. I'm gonna channel Phil Jackson,
the zen Master, and I'm gonna turn out the lights
(11:25):
and meditate. So you turn out the lights. The party's over. Yeah,
it was over. Now it's over for this season? Is
it over? Over? To the last word? We go and
the HeLa monster in the room. Kawhi was asked he's
heading into his lame duck season with the Clips one
year left on his contract. He was asked whether or
(11:45):
not he would like to renegotiate the contract and stick around.
And did he a answer that question by saying, yes, I
love it here. They have protected me. They've allowed me
to be a slug and not perform. They've allowed me
to be lazy and paid me a lot of money
to not work most of my contract. I love it here.
(12:06):
Did he say that? B Did he say I want
to leave or see? Did he deflect and not answer? Well?
The answer was he deflected and he didn't answer. He
claimed he was so broken up by the loss that
he needed time to process it. He refused to answer,
which is funny because he didn't play like he was
going to be broken up by the loss. Otherwise they
(12:26):
would have won the game. So he refused to answer.
Kawhi Leonard whether he wants a new deal with the Clippers,
and it's likely irrelevant because there's an investigation. The question,
what are the odds that this was Kawhi Leonard's last
game wearing that iconic Clippers uniform. So the Mallard sports
(12:47):
book odds, the Malord sports Book odds are at minus
four hundred that he becomes a full blown muppet, which
muppet Gonzo finished. It means there's an eighty percent chance
that this partnership comes to an end. And whether that's
(13:07):
because the NBA steps in to mandate it or the
Clippers quietly repackage him like a discontinued product line, that's it.
And I was talking to somebody the other day about this,
and they explained the situation, like the punishment there is
precedent if the Clippers and you know, there's a lot
of evidence. Who knows what actually happened there's some podcast
(13:30):
guy trying to get famous on this. Good luck. But
generally speaking, if this was a salarycap violation, the president
is to take away draft picks. The problem is the
Clippers don't have any draft picks. They treated them all away,
So it creates a problem because then you just end
up finding the Clippers, and Steve Balmer is richer than
(13:52):
rich so who cares about that? So you don't end
up punishing them. The next couple of draft picks the
Clippers have that are gonna be any value are years
and years down the line, so the breakup either way
is overdue. The spark died several years ago, and everyone's
just tiptoeing around here like it. It was taboo to
(14:14):
admit the obvious the Kawhi era, while you would do
it again because everyone wanted this guy. You allowed him
to play GM and he f you over twice. Not
only did he show up and not want to play,
he also wanted to play with Paul George, which tells
you he knows nothing about basketball in terms of player
(14:37):
roster building and all that. And so it was a
science experiment that never produced the proper result. There was
a final four appearance, but Kawhi got hurt that year.
It was a lab project with no conclusions, no breakthroughs,
just endless, inconclusive, stamped across the report. That's it. And
then the Clippers they just didn't just get unlucky that
(14:59):
this the way it turned out. In many ways, they
got catfish because the Kawhi Leonard that was in Toronto
was not the guy that showed up into La. They
bought the myth, the mystique, the promise, and he'd tease you,
he'd show you some signs of being great and play
very well for a couple of games, and even this year.
He played most of this year, Yet in these playoff
(15:21):
opportunities he did not deliver when it matter. This is
even a playoff game. This is not a playoff game
or a regular season game. This is something else. It's
in bizarro world. And so instead the Clippers, instead of
getting the Raptors version or the Spurs version, they got
a ghost who appeared only in these short, unpredictable bursts.
(15:43):
So the era it would appear is over and Clippers
don't seem like they want to go full suck, which
is good. I saw the graphic on the broadcast there
with Kevin Harlan. The Clippers have the third top record
in the NBA since twenty fourteen. Only the Celtics and
(16:04):
the Warriors have won more regular season games, and the
Clippers have in that time. So it's gonna try to win.
They'll just change the furniture around. The goal is the same.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Hey, it's Rob Parker and Calvin Washington from The Odd
Couple on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
And in addition to hearing us live weeknights from seven
to ten pm Eastern on Fox Sports Radio, we are
excited to announce brand.
Speaker 6 (16:36):
New YouTube channel for the show.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
That's right, you can now watch The Odd Couple live
on YouTube every day.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
All you gotta do search Odd Couple FSR on YouTube
again YouTube, Just search Odd Couple FSR.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Check us out on YouTube and subscribe. And we are
back at it, hanging out here in the audio dojo
and the lead. This hour we get the pro bouncy
ball again. And if we were with this last hour,
we were covered up in some locations it was all
about the Warriors Clippers game, which is incorrectly being reported
(17:14):
that Golden State had this amazing performance when it was
a total choke job by the Clippers. That's the story, Mike,
What are you doing? Is it gotten that soft? The
ball washing of the team that wins rather than going
full throttle on the team that blows the game? My god,
what are we doing? Well? Our lead this hour is
from the early game on the card in this fugasey
(17:36):
play in nonsense in the NBA would go to Philadelphia,
the birthplace of our freedom, where Tyrese Maxi put up
thirty one points.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
VJ.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Edgecomb added nineteen points, eleven rebounds, and the seventy six
Ers by the hair on their chinny chin Chin got
past the Orlando Magic. So they get the number seven
seed in the Eastern Conference, and so that means we
get the Class sixers matchup with the Celtics. The first
round will begin on Sunday in Boston. Desmond Bain the
(18:10):
star for Orlando, but he could not get her done
in the Magic. They're not done yet. They will play Charlotte.
They'll host to Charlotte on Friday night. The winner of
that game we'll get the number eight seed in the
Eastern Conference. They will play Detroit. Now, the game was
close and all that, and fine. The talking point on
(18:34):
this one is the subplot. And if you know, you know,
you might not know. So there's a story that's been
bouncing all over the echo chamber, and it's up for
debate how accurate it is. Joelle enbi did not play
for the Sixers. He was in street clothes. He was
just like Anthony Davis. So Joelle Ebid, the report is
(18:55):
he refused to play for the Sixers in this game.
Now skip baitless we know it? Or two about skip.
He's claiming that Embiid was medically cleared. He had had
emergency at emergency appendectomy last week. He had been medically
cleared to play in the game, however, and Eid said,
I'm not playing. I know that you're cleared me, but
(19:15):
I'm just not gonna play. That's it. I'm out. And
so this has ruffled some feathers. The fact that somebody
leaked it out would indicate that someone's not real happy
with Joel Embiid. So that's a good jumping off point.
Let us discuss the question. A former MVP Joel Embiid
reportedly refuse to play for the Sixers despite being healthy
(19:37):
enough to do so. So what do you read into
this my observations. I have field trip, Sandy Beach and
art installation, and we will combine all of these things
together and we're going to eat the clock and prolong
the agony, is what we're going to do. We always
(19:58):
say when we begin our we said, well, it's our two,
but it's really our number number. So Joel Embiid is
not managing an injury. He's managing an off ramp, is
what he's doing here. This is the loudest I'm done
with Philly bat signal ever sent to the heavens without
(20:19):
holding a news conference. Now, let's call it what it is,
a soft launch on a mutiny on the Sixers bounty.
If this is accurate and Embiid, we'll find out when
Embiid's traded somewhere after this ends here for the Sixers
and Beiid took a field trip down to Independence Hall
there in Philadelphia and he filed his own declaration of
(20:43):
independence from trust. The process to the process is civil war.
That's the process. And here's the twist of the knife.
If you will. It is true the Sixers won the game,
and that's great and all that for them. I guess
it hits harder though, that Joe ellen Beiide is doing
this now. It's worse for the Sixers then the Ben
(21:06):
Simmons saga. As I rhapsodized about this, and the reason
it's worse is because Ben Simmons had a glitch. He
couldn't get it done. There was something wrong there. This
is the franchise cornerstone, for better or worse. This is
the MVP face of the franchise, pulling the ripcord. It
would appear so when the guy you built the whole
(21:30):
thing of a jig around the whole empire, and that
guy starts no showing while allegedly healthy, a healthy scratch,
if you will, That is not maintenance. That is self sabotage.
And it certainly feels like a point of no return. Again,
we'll find out how accurate this is. Bouncing all over
(21:50):
the place. It's supposed he started with Skip Bayles. There's
other people saying it's true. Others are saying it's not true.
The marriage, though, would be cooked if that's it. The
dishes are broken and both sides are already calling those
divorce lawyers. It's also a referendum on a Sixers culture
that has been built on excuses doing the bare minimum.
(22:13):
It's really what they deserve in Philadelphia. They do this
whole fraud of an era of Sixers basketball which has
gone on from multiple executives and all the tanking that
took place, and now here you get to the very
end of it and Joel and beads like, I ain't playing.
I ain't playing unless I am I. It certainly seems
(22:34):
like this is the revenge when he wanted to play
in the regular season and he had a bit of
a kerfluffle, said I want to play, and they said
you can't play. Well, I want to play. Well, we're
not going to play it. And then he went public
with it, and now here's his payback, medically cleared, and
he's like, I'm not playing. I anticipate. He did not
believe they were going to win the game without him.
(22:54):
They won the game without him, and so now we'll
see whether he shows up for the real playoff festivities.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Now.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Meanwhile, to uptown Charlotte Mallor Show follow up, Mallor Show
follow Up, Hornet's guard LaMelo Ball. The punishment is in.
The punishment is in this. On the feedback I got,
I pointed out the overreaction to LaMelo Ball and the
oh my god.
Speaker 7 (23:21):
I must suspend him. Please suspend Lamello the dirtiest thing
I've ever seen as you clutch your pearls. So the punishment.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
They must have suspended LaMelo for the rest of the playoffs, right,
or at least several games for what he did to
Bam out of Bio, you would think, right, No, LaMelo
Ball has been fined thirty five thousand dollars for tripping
Bam out of Bio and twenty five thousand dollars is
saying a knotty word and he has to wash his
(23:55):
mouth out with soap and water postgame. That last part
might have been added on for effect. The foul was
upgraded to a flagrant foul post mortem. So despite the hullabaloo,
LaMelo Ball will be available for Friday nights playing matchup
to make the playoffs against the Orlando Magic, who lost
(24:17):
to the Sixers. So the question what message is the
NBA sending by fining, not not suspending Hornet's Guard LaMelo
Ball for his trip heard round the basketball world. So
on this one, it backs up our hot take. And
(24:39):
you always love when in the industrial complex of the
hot take. You always love when your hot take is stamped, sealed,
and validated. In this case, the NBA stamped it. They
sealed the envelope, and they validated it. And it was
a notary came in there and notarized this was a misdemeanor.
(25:00):
It was always a misdemeanor. It was not a felony.
And the punishment is proportional. It's proportional punishment in a
league that usually overreacts out of an abundance of caution
to try to keep the appearances up. They didn't do
that here, So good job by them. A rare win
for the NBA who just told outrage machine. They said,
you know, listen out major machine. We hear you. We're good.
(25:24):
We're good, Yes we are. It was the sandy beach plan.
What does that mean? So the suspension, if you had
suspended lamellow ball, you would have hurt the product. A
fine is like going down to a sandy beach taking
a red party cup plastic red cup, and you fill
(25:46):
that up with sand and you leave the beach and
you say I've cleared the beach of saying, well, well,
no you have. You have a number. LaMelo makes so
much money he won't even feel the suspension. It's the
classic slash on ball if you will, and enough to
say something was done. We take this very seriously. Something
(26:08):
was done, not enough to actually matter, just the old
wink and a nod and hey, don't do it again.
I'll see on Friday, though, make sure you show up
on time. The subtext star power does get deodorized, not benched.
And the NBA New TV partners here and they sold
this ridiculous product, this play and slop to their broadcast partners,
(26:33):
and so they're protecting the inventory for the product. And
your anger has been received. It was filed and completely ignored,
completely ignored. Yeah, all right, Now to golf we go.
Amid reports that the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund might
(26:55):
be saying that's all she wrote, boys, get out. I'm
out on the They're probably on the verge of removing
all their funding for that ridiculous golf thing that they
started a couple of years ago. Live Golf CEO Scott O'Neill.
He sent out an email to the staff on Wednesday,
(27:15):
the guy that runs Live Golf and said that the
season will go on as quote, as planned, as planned, uninterrupted,
and at full throttle close quote. Keep in mind, the
email did not directly address reports that PIFF the Public
Investment Fund might stop investing in the underground circuit after
(27:43):
spending already more than five billion dollars to line up
the bank accounts of these golfers who sold out these
They've spent over five billion dollars since twenty twenty two. Man,
that's wild, all right. So no mention of that or
whether the league will continue competitions beyond this season. So
(28:07):
the question this, despite reports of the end being near
the doomsday clock on the Public Investment Fund, the CEO
of Live Golf says twenty twenty six is full throttle.
So where does this leave things now? Well, if everything
(28:29):
is full throttle, why does it sound like the pilot
announcing that the left engine just not only stop working,
it detached from the plane. Now, having worked in corporate
media my entire adult life, let me tell you something.
When they say that they send out an email saying
everything's fine. That's where you go update your resume. That's
(28:50):
where you update your resume and start making calls to people. Hey,
you know anything open over there? You got a gig guy?
I might need a gig guy. In fact, I do
need a gig. Yeah. How many times can a league
say we're fine, We're fine before it turns into the
sports version of again, you know, my marriage is great?
Why do you ask all that stuff? This always it
(29:11):
felt like a fad, not a trend, a lavish midlife
crisis funded by the ridiculous oil money the Saudi Arabian
government has in this public investment fund with no endgame.
There was no exit strategy, right, There was no exit
strategy so live it was like they had so much money,
(29:31):
They're like, ah, let's mess around here. Well, just they
could have taken it down the NFL, I'm telling you
right now, they could have started a pro football league,
which is the most popular sport in America. If they
have so much money, and they could have started that,
and you would have seen multiple huge name NFL players
void their contracts and run off to take that money
(29:52):
from the sugar daddy at the public investment fund. They
chose golf because golf's more of an international sport. People
around the world don't really care that much about it.
American football and Live was not about competition. It was
not about competition. It was like a five billion dollar,
five billion dollar just this this this art installation. That's it.
(30:15):
It's like put some art out here, you know. Fine,
it's a little piece of art in the middle of nowhere.
Five billion dollars and proving that everyone can be bought
and sold. All these golfers were bought. That's it. You know,
everyone's got a price. I remember, I've told the story
a million times. There's a book. It was a terrible movie,
but they made a book called The Magic Christian. Not
a religious book, just a bored billionaire that wanted to
(30:36):
see what he could do get people to do who
didn't want to do certain things. But everyone has a price,
and these professional golfers sold out to get all that money.
And good for them. Congratulations. I'm sure they're great grandchildren
will appreciate the fact that they never have to work, and
they'll be spoiled ratty punk trust fund babies. I'm sure
they're very happy about that. Great. And so it's like
(30:57):
they said, wait, well we'll see everyone's got a price,
and let's see what happens when you give golfers unlimited
money and no consequences and da da here we are.
So if the money slows, I'm telling you right now,
there won't even be a farewell tour. It's just turned
out the ladds, the parties over in the middle of around.
(31:19):
That's it. Pay your way back, there's no money for
the plane fare. And you watch the media pivot. Certain
factions of the media. The same folks who hyped it
up will suddenly develop amnesia, just like the people ignored
Diana Russini's story until they couldn't ignore it anymore when
she was canoodling in the hot tub and all that.
So what's the endgame with Mike Rabel? What's the endgame?
(31:41):
So a quiet return to the PGA Tour for these
guys and a lot of well, this was always my
plan and I just went over there for a little bit.
I always wanted to go back to the PGA Tour.
And they are popping bubbly on the PGA Tour. They're like, okay, challenge,
we had a threat, we survived, and they're this close,
(32:03):
this close, and uh yeah, not gonna apparely happen. During
the twenty twenty six season. But before you know it,
it'll be twenty twenty seven, and then this thing will
be gone, and that'll be that, and there'll be some documentaries.
There'll be a Netflix docu series on it about how
amazing it was and all the money they burned. That'll
be There be a lot of that kind of thing,
(32:25):
a lot of that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
How about that to the third Decrea, this is one
big event gets grilled all right.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Cool reports indicate that Deshaun Watson should be considered the
favorite to win the Browns quarterback job. However, RG three
is reporting that players in the Browns locker room don't
believe they can win with Watson. Ben, who do you
think monkn will go with to start the season.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Well, this just into Fox Sports Radio. It doesn't matter
who plays quarterback for the Browns. They all blow and
those that don't blow suck, so they're not gonna win.
It doesn't matter. It's irrelevant. We'll talk about it. I'm
sure I'll do monologues on it. Todd munkin what he
ought to do is borrow the penny from Benny versus
the penny and flip it in the air and see
what happens. It doesn't matter. They'd like to play Deshaan Watson,
(33:11):
then maybe trade him. That would be the best plan,
but the good luck Next Giants.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
GM Joe Shane was recently asked about some of the
top prospects the team could consider with the number five pick.
Shane called former Notre Dame running back Jeremiah Love an
offensive weapon, not just.
Speaker 6 (33:25):
A running back.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Oh okay, yeah, Ben.
Speaker 6 (33:27):
Do you think Love can have like a Christian McCaffrey
type impact?
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Can he? Yes? But I'm in the show me state
of mind. I am numb to draft type. I am
numb to draft type. I want to see it to
believe it. Next.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Panthers have used the first round pick on a wide
receiver the last two seasons in a row, and this
week GM Dan Morgan was asked if those players would
prevent them from doing the same thing again this year.
He said, there's no rule against picking a wide receiver
three years in a row, and they'll just select the
best player available.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Benefica.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
If the best player available to a wide receiver should
they pull the trigger.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Yes, that was a non answer. By the way, Coop,
when you say best player available, that's a non answer.
He gave a non answer. How do we do so?
Speaker 7 (34:04):
When I won?
Speaker 1 (34:05):
When I win, I win a.
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.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
The image. All right, time for Harry. Harry ask bad,
Twitter said us your questions on Twitter. Now, all right,
here we go. It's time now for ask Ben. Your
questions are answers for the arrest of the hour. These
are actual questions by actual listeners to the show. And
(34:43):
let's get the party started. The reading of the questions
over to the Coop hell Loop, or as Dick and
Dayton calls you. What does he call you, Coop don
loop or something like that. Yeah, uh, Dick and Dayton,
Yeah he doesn't call you Coop a loop, he calls
you something like that.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
But yeah, let's start off with a question from Ray.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Hi.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Ray, Ray would like to know what's the best and
worst investment you've ever made.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
The best investment I ever made. I bought a little
bit of apple stock when it was relatively early. That
turned out to be pretty good. I have a relative
who fed a lot on apple in one amount, one
a good amount. The worst thing I've ever done I've
talked about on the radio. I had someone early on
in bitcoin at a Mexican restaurant while eating chips in salsa.
(35:37):
Spent about thirty minutes trying to get me to buy
bitcoin when it was very cheap, and I spent most
of the time mocking this person, ridiculing this person about
how stupid the investment was, and yeah, how much is
bitcoin worth now? I don't want too much. That's the worst.
That's yeah, what about you, Lelena?
Speaker 8 (35:56):
Yeah, electric cars and ethereum have taken all my money
I still haven't got any of it back yet, so.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
You're still waiting on me.
Speaker 7 (36:04):
Regret that.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
And also I forgot blind Scott when he was known
as Bline Scott recommended a weed company, the only one
that went out of this the only so license to
print money when you're in weed. He picked a one
company that couldn't sell weed. You know how hard it
is not to sell weed. He picked the one company
that couldn't sell weed.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Cool, I would say, My best investment would be Apple
and and my house. And then the worst investment was
this pharmaceutical company that shot up and it was great
and I should have sold.
Speaker 6 (36:42):
I would have made a ton of money and I didn't.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Sell, and it's worth nothing now.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Oh no, not even a penny stock. What is? What
is next? Year? It's asked Ben. Your questions are answers
to the rest. I'll be our hashtag ask man. If
you like this bit, we do it every week. If
you don't like it, we only do it once a week,
So who cares?
Speaker 6 (37:05):
Shane and des moines Hi. Shane would like to know.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Do you wash your car by hand or do you
go to a car wash?
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Yeah? So for years I washed my car car by hand.
The wife decided that we needed to go to a
There's a car wash like right down the street, and
you get one car wash a day if you pay
like a flat rate. So I try to go four
times a week. My car only needs to be washed
like once every two weeks, but since I'm paying for it,
I go like three or four times a week. What
about you, Lorraine my hand or do you wash? You
(37:35):
go to the car wash?
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Oh gosh.
Speaker 8 (37:37):
I used to try to do my hand when I
got my new car, but it's just too much work.
So I do like a drive through car wash, and
then I make sure to do the hand drying and
the waxing by myself.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Okay, cool.
Speaker 6 (37:50):
I've never attempted to wash my car by hand.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Never, Why would you? That's something everyone does when they
get a car. Yes, everyone who gets a car the
first time. But back in my day, you're like, love
the car. You're like, okay, this is great.
Speaker 6 (38:06):
I do love the car, and I pay somebody else
to wash it by hand.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
I don't trust people.
Speaker 6 (38:11):
Well, you should trust people.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
It's better than driving doing one of those drive through
car washes that'll damage your paint over time, that's what
they say.
Speaker 6 (38:18):
But I don't know. I had pretty good luck anyway.
I pay somebody to come to my to my house
and wash the car. Oh you fancy what is next to?
Speaker 1 (38:27):
What do we got?
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Okay, we're gonna start off. We're gonna do a question
now from the King Rory.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Hi, King Rory. He's in Wisconsin. Now.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
I think what he means by that. He says, have
you ever been summoned for jury duty? And I imagine
everybody's been summoned for jury duty. But have I guess,
have you ever been selected? Is what he's asking.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
No, So I I did come close. I was on
I was on standby on the call list for a
federal jury. How great would that have been? I was excited.
I was like, this is cool. I I don't know
what it was. It was a federal case and I
I didn't even know I was on this list. I
guess we're all on the list, and I wanted to
do it. I was like, that would be cool. It'd
(39:07):
be a fun story to say I was on a
federal jury and I didn't get picked.
Speaker 6 (39:11):
So I got a new one coming up.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Oh you do?
Speaker 8 (39:15):
Yeah, May eleventh, I have selected for jury duty. So
it'll be my first one that if I actually go to.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
So I'm excited, all right, what about you?
Speaker 3 (39:26):
At the risk of incriminating myself, I've never responded, I've
never Yeah, you know, I'm just never.
Speaker 6 (39:37):
That's not my thing.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Nothing's ever happened, you know, No, of.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Course not nothing, nothing ever will happen unless somebody listen
to this right now.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
It's like those tickets that you know, they just put
a bunch of cameras in La those red you know,
the speeding cameras. Like if I don't think you actually
have to pay them, because there's no cop that cited you,
you know what I mean, who actually saw you? Like
only people pay them? Like it's okay, then get that
dumb money.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Next late night drug Tester would like to know what
is the last documentary you watched.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Yeah, I've been I've been laxed on my documentaries. I
was what was the name of it was on Netflix?
It was like a food documentary? Uh, couple, I forget
the name of it though.
Speaker 8 (40:20):
What was the last Oates documentary?
Speaker 1 (40:24):
All right, I want to watch that Jerry West document.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Good document I think the last one I watched was
a red Hot Chili Pepper's documentary on netwilit.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
All right, I gotta check that Jerry West thing out.
I'll watch this. And there's a UFO one I want
to watch.
Host
Ben Maller
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