June 25, 2024 • 37 mins
Doug Gottlieb fills in for Colin and explains why he loves what he heard from JJ Redick at his introductory press conference as the new head coach of the Lakers. He also compares the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Final to the WNBA and which fan base has the more hostile fan base. Plus, NBA insider Mark Medina joins the show to look at the biggest potential moves ahead of free agency and where Bronny James could be drafted.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
What up, Doug gottliebe in for the Herd. Wherever you
may be listening, however you may be taking part in
the show, Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Doug
gottlieb in for Colin Calder. You are listening to Fox
Sports Radio. Hey, this story is a good one. Heard
to be good. We're a dayway from the NBA Draft,
(00:50):
which I gotta be honest, as a basketball guy my
entire life, this is a hard one to sell you on.
We'll discuss why it's so difficult and what exactly has
happened that's allowed us to get to this point where
the NBA Draft used to be the draft it did
(01:10):
and now they're breaking into two days and I mean,
obviously the Brownie James thing is going to cause people
to watch. I guess in day two, but good luck
in naming a lot of these guys that are drafted
in day one. We'll talk about that throughout the show.
Got some Dallas Cowboys chattered to discuss, especially with Stop.
You've heard this before, but apparently the head coach thinks
(01:30):
the owner might be meddling a little bit too much.
We'll get to that. Also waiting on Jordan Love and
the likely contract extension. That's part of the discussion. Maybe
a little baseball, a little hockey with a hockey champion
being crowned last night in South Florida, the Edmonton Oilers.
You talking about classic old school hockey, go back traditionally
(01:55):
right Edmonton, Alberta. They marched down to South Florida after
erasing a three to none series lead and then they
lose in what like was exciting. It's not the most
exciting moment in the sports calendar, but exciting. The juxtaposition
of that with, for example, the WNBA will get to
(02:17):
a little bit later on. This is my first time
filling in for Colin since I was named the head
coach of Wisconsin Green Bay. Where we just go by
Green Bay, the Phoenix, so I'm actually broadcast now live
from my office. We already had practice this morning as
part of our four hours. We can practice with the
guys during the week. And so there's no better person
(02:38):
in the history of sports radio to speak on a
topic that I'm gonna speak on, which just happened to
happen yesterday. Officially in Los Angeles, JJ Redick is new
head coach of the Los Angeles Slackers. And look, it's
a different approach to hire a guy who's never been
a coach. As much as I've never been a paid
(03:01):
head coach, I have coach teams that have played overseas.
I've run my own AU program in southern California. I
coach for my dad's program with the same program back
when he was alive. I've been a consultant at different places.
I've interviewed for a lot of jobs. So I would
say there's a little bit more experience, actually a lot
(03:22):
more experience than what JJ has. But JJ has more
of the experience that actually matters. He played in the NBA,
So look, there's no one else who can tell you
what I know now, which is the coaching. And granted
I haven't coached a game Yet as far as college basketball,
I understand that it's going to be way more difficult
(03:43):
than coaching in AAU and coaching overseas in many ways
because teams will have at the end of the season
thirty games of film. They'll know everything you do and
you've got to find a way to still put your
players in the best position. But can it be done, Yeah,
they can be done. It's being done, and it's been
(04:03):
done in the NBA. I mean Jason Kidges coaching the
NBA Finals. Granted, I don't think it went great in Brooklyn,
but he got that job fresh out of playing, didn't
even have a year or two to kind of catch
his breath. Steve Curry never coached a day in his life.
He seems to have worked out okay. Freda. Hoiberg hadn't
coached and then became the head coach of the Iowa
State Cyclones, his alma mater, and was great. He was
(04:26):
okay in the NBA. Some of that's more personnel driven.
He's been very good at at Nebraska. And we could
go through the Bill Russell was a player coach, Magic
Johnson was a coach, hadn't coached before. That did not
work out, Well, we've seen both sides do it. But
I thought there was a lot of the answers and
a way in which he presented the answers which tells
(04:48):
you kind of the real story. First, I don't know
why JJ insists on saying this. I don't know why
the Lakers continue to promote this idea. But JJ was
asked about Lebron James role in the hiring process. Here
was his response, This is advice to you throughout this
whole coaching search process.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
He didn't provide any advice. Lebron and I did not
talk about the Lakers job until Thursday afternoon, about thirty
minutes after I was offered the job, and that was
very intentional on both our parts.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Okay, there's somebody in the background that said what we're
all thinking. He's like, ah, come on, you didn't talk
once about the job. Like look, I think Rob Polinka
he not. Everybody loves Rob Polink in the NBA. He's
always been straight up with me. Again, full disclosure, I
(05:47):
coached Rob Polinka's son for two years. Is that Southern
names Durham. Great kid, okay, great kid, left handed, can
really shoot make shots. Not a great mover. But a
great shooter. I've never known Rob to to not do
something that has a lot of thought in it. Right,
(06:08):
there is purpose in the things he says and things
he does. If you think for one second that any
of us are buying that JJ Reddick didn't take the
job that Lebron James wanted him to have, and I
get it, like this is kind of Lebron's thing, which
is he he feels like he wants to be like
the Godfather and people just doing things for him without
(06:30):
him asking them to be done. But one, The Godfather
was a book and then an epic movie. Two, I
don't believe he's actually ever read the book, and I'm
not sure he's totally watched the movie because he can't
pick out his favorite quote. But three, that's just a
movie and a book. The reality is everyone knows and
why wouldn't you, Why wouldn't you discuss with your best player,
(06:54):
what's it look like? Why wouldn't you understand what you're
walking into, or if you're making the job, are you
going to be here? And I think most everybody knows
Lebron James is going to be there. You know, his
agent can throw out whatever he wants about him being
a free agent, about him potentially leaving, about there's no
(07:16):
ties to Tobronny. He can say all these things. The
reality is that Lebron is not leaving his daughter in
elementary schooler's son and other son in high school. The
reality is he's trying to leverage the fact that he
could be a free agent to get them to get
them to draft Bronnie. And the fact is that in
order to make sure that he while he opts out
(07:39):
of his contract, he signs the new one. You gotta
do the best you can to make him happy. And
there isn't outside of TYLERO. Tell me somebody else you
can go. That guy's going to work with Lebron James.
Do we know if JJ's good enough. We have no idea.
We don't. But in order to command the respect of
an NBA locker room, usually you have to have played
(08:02):
in the NBA, And in order to coach in the NBA,
you have to have the respect of the locker room.
In order to have the respect of locker room, you
have to have coached in the NBA, played the NBA.
It's a little bit of catch twenty two. Here's JJ
when he was asked about the Lakers pursuing Danny Hurley.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
I was getting ready to call Game one of the
NBA Finals when the Dan Hurley news broke and Rob
was quick to call me. We had a great conversation
during that whole four day period, like, at no point
was my ego or feelings hurt or bruised in any way.
Dan Hurley is a two time national champion at Yukon.
(08:42):
I am a two time fifty five Swiss League champion
in the third and fourth grade division.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Like I understood.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Paul yachert, so only one. You can't approach it by
the way. That's the way I got this job. No,
this job was open a year ago actually in February,
and a coach named Sundance Wicks came and got the job.
And Sonny had been a head coach previously at Northern State.
He had worked with my boss Josh Moon there. And
(09:14):
when Josh called me and said, hey, listen, I mean
you're my one bee, but Sundance Wicks is going to
take the job, going to offer the job, going to
take the job. Had I not handled it the way
that JJ handled it, I wouldn't have gotten the job.
When they circled back to me after Sonny left to
take the Wyoming job. And you could be as bitter
as you want, but you got to realize, especially an
(09:35):
hour position. And when I say our, I know I
didn't play as much, or as well or as long
as JJ Reddick. But the idea is still the same, right,
former player becomes broadcaster, gets a head coaching job without
being an assistant coach. It's a different path than other people.
It's the same path as each other, which can be
is like super bitter Betty, that a guy didn't want
to go all in on his career when he had
(09:56):
somebody who similar level of energy and and excitement created
at least for me. And oh yeah, by the way,
he'd been a head coach and he'd had a resume
and had worked with the athletic director before. Who am
I to criticized? The same could go for Danny Hurley, Like,
if you're JJ Reddick, what are you going to be
critical of? No, Danny hasn't coached to play in the NBA,
(10:18):
but Danny has been as good at the college levels
as anyone has ever been in short order here in
the last couple of years. So of course I see
some parallels. Do I think it'll work, Well, look, here's
why it has a great chance of working. Here's what
I have is a great chance of working. He's got
the buy in of his best player. If the most
(10:41):
important you are in basketball, who your best player is,
Your best player is engaged in the whole process. He
bought into who you are. And like, look, Lebron can
sit here and try and separate himself from JJ. I
didn't have anything to do with it. Whatever he knows,
he's forever tied to JJ Reddick. He's sworn JJ Reddick's
(11:01):
intelligence as a basketball guy. So if JJ Reddick doesn't
have it, it is on Lebron. And when Lebron wants
to make something work, he usually makes it work. So
we can sit here and say they didn't talk about it. Whatever,
we can act like Lebron doesn't have anything to do
with the hiring, or that that doesn't mean that he'll
(11:25):
be back. We know Lebron will be back. We know
he has something to do with the hiring, and even
if it's more perception than reality, he's got to make
this thing work. Otherwise, this is Lebron's handpick guy. This
is the guy who did the podcast with Lebron. If
it doesn't work with him, it won't work with anybody,
all right. Coming up next time, Doug Gotliep feeling in
(11:45):
for Colin. This is the Herd. The Dallas Cowboys have
had quite the offseason.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
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FS one and the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
What we saw last night was the NHL Super Bowl.
The moment. Now, I didn't have overtime, because you know,
you always get guy nothing better than overtime hockey like eh,
but still game seven and it had been I think
seventy three years since we had a comeback from three
(12:23):
games to none down, but still like historical type of
potential comeback with Edmonton fighting off elimination three consecutive times,
forcing a Game seven and ultimately you have a Panther's
victory to one win in a best of seven series.
And I was just struck by the fact that here
the NHL is and I think that was the most
(12:48):
I've watched a hockey game since nineteen ninety three, I
tell you so. Damn Is it that long ago? Is
that thirty one years ago. Guys, that is thirty one
years ago. And here's how I know that nineteen ninety
three means something if you're from southern California. Jason Stewart's
(13:09):
from breat California, from Orange and went to high school
in Tustin. But we're oc guys. Nineteen ninety three j
stew coincided with what.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
Wow, So many things happened in nineteen ninety three. It
was a crazy time to live in LA But one
of the things that happened was that hockey became very
relevant in a city that largely didn't care about hockey.
And that was because of Wayne Gretzky leading the Kings
to the Sane Cup Finals.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Correct. And I mean, like, listen, I have no recall
over anything hockey except Game one Marty Mcsorily Curvestick correct,
which it was one of those I was, however, many
days old at that point in time when I learned
that you couldn't have there was a proper and an
improper way to have a curve stick in hockey. It
(14:02):
made total sense, but I just didn't even know and
didn't know they would check it during the Stanley Cup Finals,
but they did. That's the last time I watched that
much hockey. But you know what I didn't hear from
hockey Guy yesterday and today. Now. Part of it is
I'm not gonna sit here and try and break down
the hockey match and the rotations, and boy, that that
that final unit for you know, the final unit there
(14:24):
for the Oilers. They were really gassed. Yeah, you know
they were gassed. Like, no, I don't know enough, so
I don't speak on things that I don't know. I
was entertained. It was exciting, you know, and then of
course you have a two to one lead. There was
a there was a moment in time there like two
minutes ago where Edmonton had a shot, had a shot
(14:47):
on goal. I couldn't and there's just bodies upon bodies
in front of in front of the net, and you're like,
well that was it. That was the last shot. So
it was exciting. But I didn't hear from hockey Guy
the bitterness you hear in the WNBA, like you didn't
pay attention to us last twenty five years. We didn't care.
(15:08):
And what happens is and I don't think. I don't
know if it's because of women's sports or the way
in which women's sports have been treated. I think that's
kind of what it is, like there's an amountain of
entitlement because I do think that broadcast networks, most specifically ESPN,
has done a great job of treating women's sports as
(15:30):
something much greater than they actually are in terms of
the ratings. Right, this isn't show friends, this is show business.
Sports have come and gone from National TV Fox. Remember
remember they used to have the NHL and they were
the ones that had that. It was like the glowstick thing.
(15:50):
You had the tracer on the puck so you could
see where the puck is and look, there was a
logic to it. They asked people like, what holds you
back from watching hockey? Like I can't. I don't know
where the puck is. So like, okay, problem solved. We'll
put a little tracer on the truck, just like you
have the tracer on the on the golf ball. And
people and hockey guy hated it, and the rest of
(16:11):
us are like, I kind of like that I could
actually see where the puck is. Point is that there's
this level of entitlement with the WNBA that has dragged
down even this incredible story, Make no mistake about it.
Caitlin Clark making the WNBA watchable is a parallel to
(16:35):
Zion Williamson when he was a duke yep making making
duke likable to everybody, like I can't believe. I mean
this weekend when Chicago played the Fever and I'll grant
you there's nothing else on. But you always used to
watch baseball, and now at least two and a half
million of you were like, you know what, I'll watch
(16:55):
Caitlin Clark are in Chicago? Why not? It's an un
believable story. But what are we caught up in? Well,
you didn't cover us for twenty sixteen years because nobody cared.
Why does she get a shoe deal in? This woman
doesn't get it because she's popular. That's why. That's why
(17:15):
she should be on the Olympic team. I said this.
Today was announced that there was that she wasn't on
the Olympic team. The women's Olympic team is far more
dominant than the men. They've won the last seven Olympic
gold medals. Did you know that? No? You know why?
Because you don't watch the women play in the Olympics.
(17:37):
She brings attention to a great story. Instead, now you're
sitting there going like why would I watch? You know
they're gonna win. They clearly don't like her, and all
she's doing is help grow the game, like why would I?
Why would I watch? You know, Not once in the
(17:59):
last four eight hours as people started to talk about
hockey that never talk about hockey. Not one single time
was there a way in which we were made to
feel bad about not paying attention to hockey. At least
I wasn't. But every time I turn on a WNBA game,
I'm made to feel bad that you missed this last
(18:20):
twenty six years twenty seven Like I don't. I didn't
miss anything. I didn't care until now I care, and
now I watch. You don't need to lecture me on
what happened previously, you know, I don't need. I mean,
everybody knows. We like you go into a you go
if you're gonna watch Dune you know, and you didn't
(18:41):
watch Doune one, and you're watching Dune two unless you ask,
you don't need somebody to go like, well, I'll see
what happened in Dune one was I didn't care about
Done one. I'm watching Done too now it is helpful
to watch Doon one before he watched June too. Just
like again, little Fyi, I've actually watched both. I haven't
read the I haven't read the book. Nothing is annoying
(19:03):
as I read the book. Guy, Oh this is different
than the book. Sorry, man, this is not the book.
This is the movie. But am I wrong? Jason? You especially,
you know, why can't I just appreciate the sport that
I'm watching for the sport that I'm watching, and not
be told and not be lectured about how, oh my gosh,
you guys missed it. The last five years have been incredible, Like,
(19:24):
I just don't. I don't care, and we're, for whatever reason,
we're made to feel bad about even saying I didn't care.
It's so funny now because she's brought attention to the league.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
I mean, we talk about this all the time on
the Doug Gottlieb Show, airing three pm Eastern across the network.
That hockey not unlike the UFL. Remember a couple of
weeks ago, the UFL had the championship game, and I'm
sure it was watched by some people, But what we
appreciated about the UFL was that it happened we didn't
watch it, we didn't care about it, and no one
(19:59):
made us feel bad but not watching it. No one
was calling us a racist for not watching that. No
one was calling us a sexist for not watching that.
It was just a sport that knows its niche a cousin,
knows its place in the world. And the WNBA, for
whatever reason, comes with all this guilt. I'm not sure.
I'm not sure why that is. I guess you said
(20:19):
it's a sense of entitlement.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
I don't feel any guilt about it.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
It.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Actually I agree with you. It's like, if people want
to make you feel guilty, I want to make you
feel like you're a sexist. I'm not a sexist. I
just and I love basketball. I just have never really
gotten into the WNBA. I'm not and again, and then
(20:45):
the other parts too. It is then we start to
cover it and we understand it's very, very unique. You know,
for example, the woman who fouled Caitlin Clark from Chicago
right hip checkter, she's dating one of the teammates of
Caitlin Clark with the fever.
Speaker 5 (21:07):
Check that the guard from the Connecticut team. Was it
Dejiandjana something or another? Is dating Melissa Smith, who was
a Caitlin Clark's teammate.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Okay, my bad, so it wasn't the one who fouled
her heart.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Of WNBA occurrences.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
And sorry, this is why I don't get into WNBA
talk because I don't really know what I'm talking about.
But something I have known because I have friends that
have been head coaches in the WNBA, and they've told me, like,
look like, once you get under the hood, like, this
league is very, very different from any other league because
you do you have women dating teammates, dating opponents, and
(21:46):
then they break up, and then of course you have
straight women and you have heterosexual women, and they they
don't always form a great team. Like, there's a lot
to it. And we consider and go, well, we want
you want us to cover us your way, like or
we want to cover what's interesting. Caitlin Clark's interesting. I
(22:10):
think that dynamic of it is interesting, just is. But
there's the the uh, the basketball shaming of the WNBA.
It pushes me away, you know, pushes me away. Look,
I feel bad. I didn't like fish when I was
(22:30):
a kid, But I realized I didn't like fish when
I was a kid. It was a part of it
was the way my mom made it. Did anybody like fishing?
They're a kid like my kids, like I don't like fish,
Like what do we have to do tonight? Just making fish?
Like oh gosh, oh oh really, Oh, don't worry. I
poached the salmon, like oh this just who told you
(22:52):
that was a good idea? Like the fact that my mom.
I lived under my mom's roof for what was it,
eighteen years and not one time and she'd go like, hey,
I'm gonna put a little molasses on it and cook
it on the grill, because I would have gotten down
with some salmon then instead she poaching, like uh, I
mean Brussels sprouts. Brust If your mom told you she
was making Brussels sprouts, you knew two things. One, it
(23:14):
was gonna be a tough dinner. In two, your your
house was gonna smell like somebody well, somebody couldn't stop farting.
Now my kids asked for Brussels sprouts. Now, A good
portion of it is that I make it in the oven.
I'm pretty awesome at it right where I get the
olive oil on it. I don't do the balsamic glaze.
I just do olive oil. Cut them up really thin
(23:35):
pieces olive oil on a cookie sheet with some aluminum foil,
and then throw some salt, little pepper, maybe a little
lemon brown it. My children ask for Brussels sprouts. I mean,
Brussels sprouts is the greatest culinary turnaround in the history
of culinary turnarounds. But the fact is that, I mean,
(24:00):
I don't feel bad about the fact that I went
forty years without understanding brussel spouts could be an edible thing.
And somehow with the WNBA, I'm just told I'm a
bad person. And yeah, there's all these other things that
you get labeled because I didn't watch it. I didn't
like it, I didn't follow it. I didn't and now
(24:21):
I do. Now I like it a lot. So that's
I watched last night. I watched more hockey than I
have watched in years, and I still didn't really know
the players, didn't really understand love of the substitutions and
rotations or any other thing. I was just entertained. So
(24:41):
high level sport, high intensity. Everything was magnified, the crowd
was intense, and the best celebration in sports, without any question,
is when you win the Stanley Cup and everybody gets
a chance to skate around with the Santa C Like
I now that I've watched many a year, which is
just tell me it's over and I'll flip it on
because I want to see these guys skate with the cup?
(25:03):
Like how cool? Is that? Very cool? I'm Doug gollibe
in for Colin Calherd. Is anyone gonna have a real
conversation with lebron about Bronnie? We'll try next in.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
The Herd One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four
hours a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio
app Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you.
Speaker 6 (25:26):
Like, Hey, what's up everybody? It's me three time pro
bowler LeVar Arrington and I couldn't be more excited to
announce a podcast called Up on Game? What is up
on Game?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
You ask?
Speaker 6 (25:37):
Along with my fellow pro bowler TJ. Hutschman, Zada and
Super Bowl champion Yep, that's right, Plexico Burris. You can
only name a show with that type of talent on it.
Up on Game. We're going to be sharing our real
life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen to up on
Game with me LeVar Arrington, TJ. Hutschman Zada and plex
(26:00):
Cope burr Is on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or
wherever you get your podcast from.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Let's welcome in Mark, Medina, we call the Funky Cole
Madina on the Doug Gottlieb Show here on Fox Sports
Radio in the Herd and Mark, what are your thoughts
on JJ's press conference yesterday?
Speaker 7 (26:21):
Yeah, Well, in regards to JJ's f bombs, I think
my laugh was pretty loud. I found it amusing. I
think after the fact, I wondered wasn't really necessary. But
besides that, I thought that he wanted the press conference.
He hit on all the right notes and conceding the
challenges ahead of him, but embracing the fact that he's
(26:42):
got to be innovative, acknowledging the fact that he has
no head coaching experience, but he's going to lean on
the work ethic, relationship equity, you know, mentors with Mike
Krzyzewsky most notably to overcome that. But you know the
reality is going to be in the results, and the
Lakers have a lot lot of different buckets of objectives
(27:02):
that are you know, pretty challenging when you're looking at
trying to maximize Lebron James's remaining nears, making Anthony Davis
become more of the focal point developing role players. Yeah,
it's it's gonna be a pretty interesting dynamic, to say
the least.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Yeah, I think it'll be a fascinating, fascinating dynamic. H
let me let me ask you this. Uh, I agree
with you on the F bombs. I like the idea
of and I said this at my press conference, right
there's and he kind of alluded to this, there's nothing
you can really say at a press conference that's going
to prove to people you can coach and so like
(27:38):
I can get out of the whiteboard and be like, okay,
so here's what we're gonna do. Okay, we're gonna run
pistol action, and then like this is where we're gonna
put Lebron, and here's where we're gonna put Anthony Davis
Like people like, that's not the point, okay. So I
love the idea of you can't care what people think
that you want the job, that you go forward doing
the job. What about the staffing the staffing plan right,
(28:01):
because apparently it's one of the things that turned Danny
Hurley off was that they wanted to plan his staff
for him. They didn't do it with Darvin Hamm and
that was by all accounts an abject disaster. What is
the staffing plan with the Lakers?
Speaker 7 (28:14):
Yeah, well, JJ Reddick and rop Link and didn't get
it into names, but they said it's about getting experienced
head coaches around them so that he can use them
as a sounding board. And to your point, it's not
surprising that Dan Early did not like that. Ty Lude
didn't like that arrangement either. Frank Vogel was okay with
it when they had Jason Kidd. But you know, it
(28:35):
is an interesting era because usually head coaches had complete
and full autonomy historically on how to assemble their coaching staffs,
and front office would say, hey, whatever sistance you want,
we'll just evaluate you all on the results. But in
this modern era, front offices want to have input almost
as a way to you know, fulfill what their vision
(28:58):
of success is. But I think think regardless with JJ Reddick,
the fact that he hasn't been a head coach, it's
obvious that he'll need, you know, veteran assistance around him.
I think The challenging part here, Doug is you know
very well is you know, finding the right of a
veteran assistant coaches, but that don't also have aspirations to
be head coaches because there if there is a candidate
(29:19):
that has that, there is always the politic you of, Okay,
is this head coach have my best interests? Or is
he inevitably just going to be replacing me when things
don't go well? But I think you know that idea
obviously works in theory. Now will see how they execute it.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
No, I listen, so I actually I understand what you're saying.
I actually disagree on some level with that idea. First
thing is, whoever you hire, the number one trait they
have to have is loyalty. M Are there any fissures
within it? Like when and you know this from what
you do Mark Ritin as our guests by the way,
(29:54):
he's our NBA insider from Fox Sports Radio, Like the
way we get all this chatter from coaches coach like
coaches like to bes on the phone and talk and
if they're talking about their own coach and their own
you know, their own staff, like that's a dysfunctional unit.
So the first thing is you got to have loyalty.
I actually want guys that want to be head coaches,
right because one of the problems with hiring former head
(30:17):
coaches is I'm not saying they're lazy, but they've had
things done for them that now they have to do,
and it's a really hard backpedal to get into. You know,
if you've been a head coach, like you're not used
to grinding and doing whatever the head coach wants, that's
a really difficult thing to do. Whereas if you've been
(30:38):
an assistant coach, it's a lot easier for you to
transition to being an assistant coach. So there's a kind
of a healthy sort of mix there, right that you
want guys with head coaching experiences, but you want them
still to be driven like back when they were an assistant.
An assistant coach, you don't want a guy who just
I'm gonna give you advice, but I'm gonna mail it
in terms of the day to day because you're constantly
(30:59):
at the NBA level, you're constantly managing all of these
personalities while you know they have and the Lakers are
a very streamline organization as you know, like they don't
have a deep advanced scouting analytics sort of division. They
don't and they don't have an assistant GM. They don't
have lots of the layers other people have. So you've
(31:19):
got to do that. You're you've got to have a
staff that does all the things that you don't do.
And I think it's going to be interesting to see
who they choose from, because they did not choose well
at times with some of these previous stabs, and sometimes
they have and there's not a huge pool of people
at this late late a day and time.
Speaker 7 (31:38):
Yeah, Doug, I mean, you outline the fascinating angle to it,
and it really illustrates kind of the gray area in
the wiggle room with how they maneuver with finding the
right coaching staff. And I think to your point about
with Dan early of him way and autonomy, that's where
another gray area is in play, where you know, if
there's not prior relationships with a previous person and the
(32:01):
front office is saying, well, hey, how about this guy,
how about that guy, that's where some of that trust
isn't always there.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
But I mean, look at it, look no different than Phoenix.
Ya Hey, Phoenix, that Frank Vogel have autonomy with one
exception Kevin Young, and that was a complete poop show,
m right, because you had Frank was trusted him to
run the offense, and he's let others run the offense.
But there is this and this is what you're talking about.
Kevin wanted the job, almost got the job, They paid
(32:29):
him more than any insist in the NBA to not
get the job and being and it didn't work. And
Katie never liked the offense, and Book liked the offense.
But Frank Vogel was a little tentative about coaching him
because he felt like he was playing for Kevin Young,
like that doesn't work, doesn't So it's a really interesting one.
The thing he has going for him is there's obviously
a connection with Lebron James. Did anyone in that room
(32:53):
believe that they didn't talk about the job until after
he took.
Speaker 7 (32:57):
The job, Well, Doug, I mean as naive, but I
actually do believe it. But I only believe it because
it's to the letter of the law. You know where
Rob Plinka is saying Lebron was supportive but wasn't heavily
involved in the coaching search. I believe that, but just
from the literal letter of the law. Same thing with
JJ Reddicks saying we didn't talk during the coaching search,
(33:20):
but no doubt Lebron James has an influence merely because
he exists number one, and also number two. They know
his temperature based off of his actions, what his relationships
are with JJ Reddicks. They have a podcast as well
as you know his social media activity and the messages
that he sends out there, so he doesn't have to
have direct conversations and lay it out bluntly with either person.
(33:44):
But Rob Polink and JJ Reddick fully know well how
Lebron James feels about this. I think what was also
fascinating is that Rob Blink was mentioned that Anthony Davis
was heavily involved here, and I think that that is
notable for two reasons. One, AJJ Reddick was hot lighting
the idea that they wanted him to become what he
(34:04):
called more of a hub type of center, where you know,
there's more of a mobility of being a stretch five
as opposed to back to the basket big. But the
other thing is they're really trying to pave the way
for Anthony Davis to become the leader of the team.
And you know, in fairness, Lebron's been saying this from
day one, but it's been Lebron's team. But now that
(34:27):
he's entering the final years of his career, presuming that
he opts out and signs a new deal, it's very
much an emphasis to try to make it so that
there is a somewhat seamless passing the baton. But again,
that sounds good in theory, but harder to execute in reality.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Okay, so who do they add? Because you're not you're
not getting rid of Boston Reeves. You got those three.
What's the plan on who they add?
Speaker 7 (34:55):
Yeah, well, I take what Rob polinkuld plan it as
real taling sign that it seems like they're going to
use these draft picks to hold on than to actually
pull off a trade, and it's about as flawed as
their roster is. Try to hope that there's enough marginal
improvement as well as enough marginal improvement with JJ Reddick's
(35:18):
knowledge of the game, I mean, for all his inexperience,
that might be a challenge. One thing that they're very
confident on is that he can make better in game
adjustment and manage rotations better than what darbin Ham did.
But that sounds nice, But again, we're talking about the Lakers,
We're talking about Lebron James. He still wants to feel
(35:39):
like he has some chance, no matter how slim, to
compete for a title. So these marginal improvements, it's great,
but you know, it's nothing. It's not going to make
any greater difference than you're a competitive playoff team that
could be a roadbump in the first round. So that's
the fascinating part with this franchise, and they never ceased
(35:59):
to be interesting with the.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
Are they going to draft Ronnie?
Speaker 7 (36:04):
I think they will, Doug, but I think it's more
going to be because of circumstance and convenience than any
plan about trying to appease Lebron or any fascination with
Brownie's game. I think they're going to draft him because
they have the fifty fifth pick and he'll be available
and he'll mostly spend his time in the G League.
But you know, you know, Doug, you and I have
(36:24):
talked on your radio show that this idea that teams,
whether it's the Lakers or other teams that are drafting
Bronny with the hopes that this means Lebron definitely either
stays with the Lakers or goes elsewhere. Is just a
foolish argument. The expectation is Lebron's staying with the Lakers
and Bronnie you know, he's a nice team guy and
(36:47):
plays the right way, but he doesn't have a definitive
skill set and isn't expected to be drafted at all,
and if so, it's late second round. So I think
with all that the Lakers will draft him, but it's
not because of kind of the larger forces in play.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
All right, you're the best, Mark, I love, love your
insight and input. Thanks so much for joining us here
in
Speaker 7 (37:08):
The hurd, Doug, appreciate you and right back at it, Jeff,
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to
noon Pacific. Find your local station for the Herd at
Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio
or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
What up, Doug gottliebe in for the Herd. Wherever you
may be listening, however you may be taking part in
the show, Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Doug
gottlieb in for Colin Calder. You are listening to Fox
Sports Radio. Hey, this story is a good one. Heard
to be good. We're a dayway from the NBA Draft,
(00:50):
which I gotta be honest, as a basketball guy my
entire life, this is a hard one to sell you on.
We'll discuss why it's so difficult and what exactly has
happened that's allowed us to get to this point where
the NBA Draft used to be the draft it did
(01:10):
and now they're breaking into two days and I mean,
obviously the Brownie James thing is going to cause people
to watch. I guess in day two, but good luck
in naming a lot of these guys that are drafted
in day one. We'll talk about that throughout the show.
Got some Dallas Cowboys chattered to discuss, especially with Stop.
You've heard this before, but apparently the head coach thinks
(01:30):
the owner might be meddling a little bit too much.
We'll get to that. Also waiting on Jordan Love and
the likely contract extension. That's part of the discussion. Maybe
a little baseball, a little hockey with a hockey champion
being crowned last night in South Florida, the Edmonton Oilers.
You talking about classic old school hockey, go back traditionally
(01:55):
right Edmonton, Alberta. They marched down to South Florida after
erasing a three to none series lead and then they
lose in what like was exciting. It's not the most
exciting moment in the sports calendar, but exciting. The juxtaposition
of that with, for example, the WNBA will get to
(02:17):
a little bit later on. This is my first time
filling in for Colin since I was named the head
coach of Wisconsin Green Bay. Where we just go by
Green Bay, the Phoenix, so I'm actually broadcast now live
from my office. We already had practice this morning as
part of our four hours. We can practice with the
guys during the week. And so there's no better person
(02:38):
in the history of sports radio to speak on a
topic that I'm gonna speak on, which just happened to
happen yesterday. Officially in Los Angeles, JJ Redick is new
head coach of the Los Angeles Slackers. And look, it's
a different approach to hire a guy who's never been
a coach. As much as I've never been a paid
(03:01):
head coach, I have coach teams that have played overseas.
I've run my own AU program in southern California. I
coach for my dad's program with the same program back
when he was alive. I've been a consultant at different places.
I've interviewed for a lot of jobs. So I would
say there's a little bit more experience, actually a lot
(03:22):
more experience than what JJ has. But JJ has more
of the experience that actually matters. He played in the NBA,
So look, there's no one else who can tell you
what I know now, which is the coaching. And granted
I haven't coached a game Yet as far as college basketball,
I understand that it's going to be way more difficult
(03:43):
than coaching in AAU and coaching overseas in many ways
because teams will have at the end of the season
thirty games of film. They'll know everything you do and
you've got to find a way to still put your
players in the best position. But can it be done, Yeah,
they can be done. It's being done, and it's been
(04:03):
done in the NBA. I mean Jason Kidges coaching the
NBA Finals. Granted, I don't think it went great in Brooklyn,
but he got that job fresh out of playing, didn't
even have a year or two to kind of catch
his breath. Steve Curry never coached a day in his life.
He seems to have worked out okay. Freda. Hoiberg hadn't
coached and then became the head coach of the Iowa
State Cyclones, his alma mater, and was great. He was
(04:26):
okay in the NBA. Some of that's more personnel driven.
He's been very good at at Nebraska. And we could
go through the Bill Russell was a player coach, Magic
Johnson was a coach, hadn't coached before. That did not
work out, Well, we've seen both sides do it. But
I thought there was a lot of the answers and
a way in which he presented the answers which tells
(04:48):
you kind of the real story. First, I don't know
why JJ insists on saying this. I don't know why
the Lakers continue to promote this idea. But JJ was
asked about Lebron James role in the hiring process. Here
was his response, This is advice to you throughout this
whole coaching search process.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
He didn't provide any advice. Lebron and I did not
talk about the Lakers job until Thursday afternoon, about thirty
minutes after I was offered the job, and that was
very intentional on both our parts.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Okay, there's somebody in the background that said what we're
all thinking. He's like, ah, come on, you didn't talk
once about the job. Like look, I think Rob Polinka
he not. Everybody loves Rob Polink in the NBA. He's
always been straight up with me. Again, full disclosure, I
(05:47):
coached Rob Polinka's son for two years. Is that Southern
names Durham. Great kid, okay, great kid, left handed, can
really shoot make shots. Not a great mover. But a
great shooter. I've never known Rob to to not do
something that has a lot of thought in it. Right,
(06:08):
there is purpose in the things he says and things
he does. If you think for one second that any
of us are buying that JJ Reddick didn't take the
job that Lebron James wanted him to have, and I
get it, like this is kind of Lebron's thing, which
is he he feels like he wants to be like
the Godfather and people just doing things for him without
(06:30):
him asking them to be done. But one, The Godfather
was a book and then an epic movie. Two, I
don't believe he's actually ever read the book, and I'm
not sure he's totally watched the movie because he can't
pick out his favorite quote. But three, that's just a
movie and a book. The reality is everyone knows and
why wouldn't you, Why wouldn't you discuss with your best player,
(06:54):
what's it look like? Why wouldn't you understand what you're
walking into, or if you're making the job, are you
going to be here? And I think most everybody knows
Lebron James is going to be there. You know, his
agent can throw out whatever he wants about him being
a free agent, about him potentially leaving, about there's no
(07:16):
ties to Tobronny. He can say all these things. The
reality is that Lebron is not leaving his daughter in
elementary schooler's son and other son in high school. The
reality is he's trying to leverage the fact that he
could be a free agent to get them to get
them to draft Bronnie. And the fact is that in
order to make sure that he while he opts out
(07:39):
of his contract, he signs the new one. You gotta
do the best you can to make him happy. And
there isn't outside of TYLERO. Tell me somebody else you
can go. That guy's going to work with Lebron James.
Do we know if JJ's good enough. We have no idea.
We don't. But in order to command the respect of
an NBA locker room, usually you have to have played
(08:02):
in the NBA, And in order to coach in the NBA,
you have to have the respect of the locker room.
In order to have the respect of locker room, you
have to have coached in the NBA, played the NBA.
It's a little bit of catch twenty two. Here's JJ
when he was asked about the Lakers pursuing Danny Hurley.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
I was getting ready to call Game one of the
NBA Finals when the Dan Hurley news broke and Rob
was quick to call me. We had a great conversation
during that whole four day period, like, at no point
was my ego or feelings hurt or bruised in any way.
Dan Hurley is a two time national champion at Yukon.
(08:42):
I am a two time fifty five Swiss League champion
in the third and fourth grade division.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Like I understood.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Paul yachert, so only one. You can't approach it by
the way. That's the way I got this job. No,
this job was open a year ago actually in February,
and a coach named Sundance Wicks came and got the job.
And Sonny had been a head coach previously at Northern State.
He had worked with my boss Josh Moon there. And
(09:14):
when Josh called me and said, hey, listen, I mean
you're my one bee, but Sundance Wicks is going to
take the job, going to offer the job, going to
take the job. Had I not handled it the way
that JJ handled it, I wouldn't have gotten the job.
When they circled back to me after Sonny left to
take the Wyoming job. And you could be as bitter
as you want, but you got to realize, especially an
(09:35):
hour position. And when I say our, I know I
didn't play as much, or as well or as long
as JJ Reddick. But the idea is still the same, right,
former player becomes broadcaster, gets a head coaching job without
being an assistant coach. It's a different path than other people.
It's the same path as each other, which can be
is like super bitter Betty, that a guy didn't want
to go all in on his career when he had
(09:56):
somebody who similar level of energy and and excitement created
at least for me. And oh yeah, by the way,
he'd been a head coach and he'd had a resume
and had worked with the athletic director before. Who am
I to criticized? The same could go for Danny Hurley, Like,
if you're JJ Reddick, what are you going to be
critical of? No, Danny hasn't coached to play in the NBA,
(10:18):
but Danny has been as good at the college levels
as anyone has ever been in short order here in
the last couple of years. So of course I see
some parallels. Do I think it'll work, Well, look, here's
why it has a great chance of working. Here's what
I have is a great chance of working. He's got
the buy in of his best player. If the most
(10:41):
important you are in basketball, who your best player is,
Your best player is engaged in the whole process. He
bought into who you are. And like, look, Lebron can
sit here and try and separate himself from JJ. I
didn't have anything to do with it. Whatever he knows,
he's forever tied to JJ Reddick. He's sworn JJ Reddick's
(11:01):
intelligence as a basketball guy. So if JJ Reddick doesn't
have it, it is on Lebron. And when Lebron wants
to make something work, he usually makes it work. So
we can sit here and say they didn't talk about it. Whatever,
we can act like Lebron doesn't have anything to do
with the hiring, or that that doesn't mean that he'll
(11:25):
be back. We know Lebron will be back. We know
he has something to do with the hiring, and even
if it's more perception than reality, he's got to make
this thing work. Otherwise, this is Lebron's handpick guy. This
is the guy who did the podcast with Lebron. If
it doesn't work with him, it won't work with anybody,
all right. Coming up next time, Doug Gotliep feeling in
(11:45):
for Colin. This is the Herd. The Dallas Cowboys have
had quite the offseason.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in neonon Eastern not a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
What we saw last night was the NHL Super Bowl.
The moment. Now, I didn't have overtime, because you know,
you always get guy nothing better than overtime hockey like eh,
but still game seven and it had been I think
seventy three years since we had a comeback from three
(12:23):
games to none down, but still like historical type of
potential comeback with Edmonton fighting off elimination three consecutive times,
forcing a Game seven and ultimately you have a Panther's
victory to one win in a best of seven series.
And I was just struck by the fact that here
the NHL is and I think that was the most
(12:48):
I've watched a hockey game since nineteen ninety three, I
tell you so. Damn Is it that long ago? Is
that thirty one years ago. Guys, that is thirty one
years ago. And here's how I know that nineteen ninety
three means something if you're from southern California. Jason Stewart's
(13:09):
from breat California, from Orange and went to high school
in Tustin. But we're oc guys. Nineteen ninety three j
stew coincided with what.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
Wow, So many things happened in nineteen ninety three. It
was a crazy time to live in LA But one
of the things that happened was that hockey became very
relevant in a city that largely didn't care about hockey.
And that was because of Wayne Gretzky leading the Kings
to the Sane Cup Finals.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Correct. And I mean, like, listen, I have no recall
over anything hockey except Game one Marty Mcsorily Curvestick correct,
which it was one of those I was, however, many
days old at that point in time when I learned
that you couldn't have there was a proper and an
improper way to have a curve stick in hockey. It
(14:02):
made total sense, but I just didn't even know and
didn't know they would check it during the Stanley Cup Finals,
but they did. That's the last time I watched that
much hockey. But you know what I didn't hear from
hockey Guy yesterday and today. Now. Part of it is
I'm not gonna sit here and try and break down
the hockey match and the rotations, and boy, that that
that final unit for you know, the final unit there
(14:24):
for the Oilers. They were really gassed. Yeah, you know
they were gassed. Like, no, I don't know enough, so
I don't speak on things that I don't know. I
was entertained. It was exciting, you know, and then of
course you have a two to one lead. There was
a there was a moment in time there like two
minutes ago where Edmonton had a shot, had a shot
(14:47):
on goal. I couldn't and there's just bodies upon bodies
in front of in front of the net, and you're like,
well that was it. That was the last shot. So
it was exciting. But I didn't hear from hockey Guy
the bitterness you hear in the WNBA, like you didn't
pay attention to us last twenty five years. We didn't care.
(15:08):
And what happens is and I don't think. I don't
know if it's because of women's sports or the way
in which women's sports have been treated. I think that's
kind of what it is, like there's an amountain of
entitlement because I do think that broadcast networks, most specifically ESPN,
has done a great job of treating women's sports as
(15:30):
something much greater than they actually are in terms of
the ratings. Right, this isn't show friends, this is show business.
Sports have come and gone from National TV Fox. Remember
remember they used to have the NHL and they were
the ones that had that. It was like the glowstick thing.
(15:50):
You had the tracer on the puck so you could
see where the puck is and look, there was a
logic to it. They asked people like, what holds you
back from watching hockey? Like I can't. I don't know
where the puck is. So like, okay, problem solved. We'll
put a little tracer on the truck, just like you
have the tracer on the on the golf ball. And
people and hockey guy hated it, and the rest of
(16:11):
us are like, I kind of like that I could
actually see where the puck is. Point is that there's
this level of entitlement with the WNBA that has dragged
down even this incredible story, Make no mistake about it.
Caitlin Clark making the WNBA watchable is a parallel to
(16:35):
Zion Williamson when he was a duke yep making making
duke likable to everybody, like I can't believe. I mean
this weekend when Chicago played the Fever and I'll grant
you there's nothing else on. But you always used to
watch baseball, and now at least two and a half
million of you were like, you know what, I'll watch
(16:55):
Caitlin Clark are in Chicago? Why not? It's an un
believable story. But what are we caught up in? Well,
you didn't cover us for twenty sixteen years because nobody cared.
Why does she get a shoe deal in? This woman
doesn't get it because she's popular. That's why. That's why
(17:15):
she should be on the Olympic team. I said this.
Today was announced that there was that she wasn't on
the Olympic team. The women's Olympic team is far more
dominant than the men. They've won the last seven Olympic
gold medals. Did you know that? No? You know why?
Because you don't watch the women play in the Olympics.
(17:37):
She brings attention to a great story. Instead, now you're
sitting there going like why would I watch? You know
they're gonna win. They clearly don't like her, and all
she's doing is help grow the game, like why would I?
Why would I watch? You know, Not once in the
(17:59):
last four eight hours as people started to talk about
hockey that never talk about hockey. Not one single time
was there a way in which we were made to
feel bad about not paying attention to hockey. At least
I wasn't. But every time I turn on a WNBA game,
I'm made to feel bad that you missed this last
(18:20):
twenty six years twenty seven Like I don't. I didn't
miss anything. I didn't care until now I care, and
now I watch. You don't need to lecture me on
what happened previously, you know, I don't need. I mean,
everybody knows. We like you go into a you go
if you're gonna watch Dune you know, and you didn't
(18:41):
watch Doune one, and you're watching Dune two unless you ask,
you don't need somebody to go like, well, I'll see
what happened in Dune one was I didn't care about
Done one. I'm watching Done too now it is helpful
to watch Doon one before he watched June too. Just
like again, little Fyi, I've actually watched both. I haven't
read the I haven't read the book. Nothing is annoying
(19:03):
as I read the book. Guy, Oh this is different
than the book. Sorry, man, this is not the book.
This is the movie. But am I wrong? Jason? You especially,
you know, why can't I just appreciate the sport that
I'm watching for the sport that I'm watching, and not
be told and not be lectured about how, oh my gosh,
you guys missed it. The last five years have been incredible, Like,
(19:24):
I just don't. I don't care, and we're, for whatever reason,
we're made to feel bad about even saying I didn't care.
It's so funny now because she's brought attention to the league.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
I mean, we talk about this all the time on
the Doug Gottlieb Show, airing three pm Eastern across the network.
That hockey not unlike the UFL. Remember a couple of
weeks ago, the UFL had the championship game, and I'm
sure it was watched by some people, But what we
appreciated about the UFL was that it happened we didn't
watch it, we didn't care about it, and no one
(19:59):
made us feel bad but not watching it. No one
was calling us a racist for not watching that. No
one was calling us a sexist for not watching that.
It was just a sport that knows its niche a cousin,
knows its place in the world. And the WNBA, for
whatever reason, comes with all this guilt. I'm not sure.
I'm not sure why that is. I guess you said
(20:19):
it's a sense of entitlement.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
I don't feel any guilt about it.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
It.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Actually I agree with you. It's like, if people want
to make you feel guilty, I want to make you
feel like you're a sexist. I'm not a sexist. I
just and I love basketball. I just have never really
gotten into the WNBA. I'm not and again, and then
(20:45):
the other parts too. It is then we start to
cover it and we understand it's very, very unique. You know,
for example, the woman who fouled Caitlin Clark from Chicago
right hip checkter, she's dating one of the teammates of
Caitlin Clark with the fever.
Speaker 5 (21:07):
Check that the guard from the Connecticut team. Was it
Dejiandjana something or another? Is dating Melissa Smith, who was
a Caitlin Clark's teammate.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Okay, my bad, so it wasn't the one who fouled
her heart.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Of WNBA occurrences.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
And sorry, this is why I don't get into WNBA
talk because I don't really know what I'm talking about.
But something I have known because I have friends that
have been head coaches in the WNBA, and they've told me, like,
look like, once you get under the hood, like, this
league is very, very different from any other league because
you do you have women dating teammates, dating opponents, and
(21:46):
then they break up, and then of course you have
straight women and you have heterosexual women, and they they
don't always form a great team. Like, there's a lot
to it. And we consider and go, well, we want
you want us to cover us your way, like or
we want to cover what's interesting. Caitlin Clark's interesting. I
(22:10):
think that dynamic of it is interesting, just is. But
there's the the uh, the basketball shaming of the WNBA.
It pushes me away, you know, pushes me away. Look,
I feel bad. I didn't like fish when I was
(22:30):
a kid, But I realized I didn't like fish when
I was a kid. It was a part of it
was the way my mom made it. Did anybody like fishing?
They're a kid like my kids, like I don't like fish,
Like what do we have to do tonight? Just making fish?
Like oh gosh, oh oh really, Oh, don't worry. I
poached the salmon, like oh this just who told you
(22:52):
that was a good idea? Like the fact that my mom.
I lived under my mom's roof for what was it,
eighteen years and not one time and she'd go like, hey,
I'm gonna put a little molasses on it and cook
it on the grill, because I would have gotten down
with some salmon then instead she poaching, like uh, I
mean Brussels sprouts. Brust If your mom told you she
was making Brussels sprouts, you knew two things. One, it
(23:14):
was gonna be a tough dinner. In two, your your
house was gonna smell like somebody well, somebody couldn't stop farting.
Now my kids asked for Brussels sprouts. Now, A good
portion of it is that I make it in the oven.
I'm pretty awesome at it right where I get the
olive oil on it. I don't do the balsamic glaze.
I just do olive oil. Cut them up really thin
(23:35):
pieces olive oil on a cookie sheet with some aluminum foil,
and then throw some salt, little pepper, maybe a little
lemon brown it. My children ask for Brussels sprouts. I mean,
Brussels sprouts is the greatest culinary turnaround in the history
of culinary turnarounds. But the fact is that, I mean,
(24:00):
I don't feel bad about the fact that I went
forty years without understanding brussel spouts could be an edible thing.
And somehow with the WNBA, I'm just told I'm a
bad person. And yeah, there's all these other things that
you get labeled because I didn't watch it. I didn't
like it, I didn't follow it. I didn't and now
(24:21):
I do. Now I like it a lot. So that's
I watched last night. I watched more hockey than I
have watched in years, and I still didn't really know
the players, didn't really understand love of the substitutions and
rotations or any other thing. I was just entertained. So
(24:41):
high level sport, high intensity. Everything was magnified, the crowd
was intense, and the best celebration in sports, without any question,
is when you win the Stanley Cup and everybody gets
a chance to skate around with the Santa C Like
I now that I've watched many a year, which is
just tell me it's over and I'll flip it on
because I want to see these guys skate with the cup?
(25:03):
Like how cool? Is that? Very cool? I'm Doug gollibe
in for Colin Calherd. Is anyone gonna have a real
conversation with lebron about Bronnie? We'll try next in.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
The Herd One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four
hours a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio
app Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you.
Speaker 6 (25:26):
Like, Hey, what's up everybody? It's me three time pro
bowler LeVar Arrington and I couldn't be more excited to
announce a podcast called Up on Game? What is up
on Game?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
You ask?
Speaker 6 (25:37):
Along with my fellow pro bowler TJ. Hutschman, Zada and
Super Bowl champion Yep, that's right, Plexico Burris. You can
only name a show with that type of talent on it.
Up on Game. We're going to be sharing our real
life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen to up on
Game with me LeVar Arrington, TJ. Hutschman Zada and plex
(26:00):
Cope burr Is on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or
wherever you get your podcast from.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Let's welcome in Mark, Medina, we call the Funky Cole
Madina on the Doug Gottlieb Show here on Fox Sports
Radio in the Herd and Mark, what are your thoughts
on JJ's press conference yesterday?
Speaker 7 (26:21):
Yeah, Well, in regards to JJ's f bombs, I think
my laugh was pretty loud. I found it amusing. I
think after the fact, I wondered wasn't really necessary. But
besides that, I thought that he wanted the press conference.
He hit on all the right notes and conceding the
challenges ahead of him, but embracing the fact that he's
(26:42):
got to be innovative, acknowledging the fact that he has
no head coaching experience, but he's going to lean on
the work ethic, relationship equity, you know, mentors with Mike
Krzyzewsky most notably to overcome that. But you know the
reality is going to be in the results, and the
Lakers have a lot lot of different buckets of objectives
(27:02):
that are you know, pretty challenging when you're looking at
trying to maximize Lebron James's remaining nears, making Anthony Davis
become more of the focal point developing role players. Yeah,
it's it's gonna be a pretty interesting dynamic, to say
the least.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Yeah, I think it'll be a fascinating, fascinating dynamic. H
let me let me ask you this. Uh, I agree
with you on the F bombs. I like the idea
of and I said this at my press conference, right
there's and he kind of alluded to this, there's nothing
you can really say at a press conference that's going
to prove to people you can coach and so like
(27:38):
I can get out of the whiteboard and be like, okay,
so here's what we're gonna do. Okay, we're gonna run
pistol action, and then like this is where we're gonna
put Lebron, and here's where we're gonna put Anthony Davis
Like people like, that's not the point, okay. So I
love the idea of you can't care what people think
that you want the job, that you go forward doing
the job. What about the staffing the staffing plan right,
(28:01):
because apparently it's one of the things that turned Danny
Hurley off was that they wanted to plan his staff
for him. They didn't do it with Darvin Hamm and
that was by all accounts an abject disaster. What is
the staffing plan with the Lakers?
Speaker 7 (28:14):
Yeah, well, JJ Reddick and rop Link and didn't get
it into names, but they said it's about getting experienced
head coaches around them so that he can use them
as a sounding board. And to your point, it's not
surprising that Dan Early did not like that. Ty Lude
didn't like that arrangement either. Frank Vogel was okay with
it when they had Jason Kidd. But you know, it
(28:35):
is an interesting era because usually head coaches had complete
and full autonomy historically on how to assemble their coaching staffs,
and front office would say, hey, whatever sistance you want,
we'll just evaluate you all on the results. But in
this modern era, front offices want to have input almost
as a way to you know, fulfill what their vision
(28:58):
of success is. But I think think regardless with JJ Reddick,
the fact that he hasn't been a head coach, it's
obvious that he'll need, you know, veteran assistance around him.
I think The challenging part here, Doug is you know
very well is you know, finding the right of a
veteran assistant coaches, but that don't also have aspirations to
be head coaches because there if there is a candidate
(29:19):
that has that, there is always the politic you of, Okay,
is this head coach have my best interests? Or is
he inevitably just going to be replacing me when things
don't go well? But I think you know that idea
obviously works in theory. Now will see how they execute it.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
No, I listen, so I actually I understand what you're saying.
I actually disagree on some level with that idea. First
thing is, whoever you hire, the number one trait they
have to have is loyalty. M Are there any fissures
within it? Like when and you know this from what
you do Mark Ritin as our guests by the way,
(29:54):
he's our NBA insider from Fox Sports Radio, Like the
way we get all this chatter from coaches coach like
coaches like to bes on the phone and talk and
if they're talking about their own coach and their own
you know, their own staff, like that's a dysfunctional unit.
So the first thing is you got to have loyalty.
I actually want guys that want to be head coaches,
right because one of the problems with hiring former head
(30:17):
coaches is I'm not saying they're lazy, but they've had
things done for them that now they have to do,
and it's a really hard backpedal to get into. You know,
if you've been a head coach, like you're not used
to grinding and doing whatever the head coach wants, that's
a really difficult thing to do. Whereas if you've been
(30:38):
an assistant coach, it's a lot easier for you to
transition to being an assistant coach. So there's a kind
of a healthy sort of mix there, right that you
want guys with head coaching experiences, but you want them
still to be driven like back when they were an assistant.
An assistant coach, you don't want a guy who just
I'm gonna give you advice, but I'm gonna mail it
in terms of the day to day because you're constantly
(30:59):
at the NBA level, you're constantly managing all of these
personalities while you know they have and the Lakers are
a very streamline organization as you know, like they don't
have a deep advanced scouting analytics sort of division. They
don't and they don't have an assistant GM. They don't
have lots of the layers other people have. So you've
(31:19):
got to do that. You're you've got to have a
staff that does all the things that you don't do.
And I think it's going to be interesting to see
who they choose from, because they did not choose well
at times with some of these previous stabs, and sometimes
they have and there's not a huge pool of people
at this late late a day and time.
Speaker 7 (31:38):
Yeah, Doug, I mean, you outline the fascinating angle to it,
and it really illustrates kind of the gray area in
the wiggle room with how they maneuver with finding the
right coaching staff. And I think to your point about
with Dan early of him way and autonomy, that's where
another gray area is in play, where you know, if
there's not prior relationships with a previous person and the
(32:01):
front office is saying, well, hey, how about this guy,
how about that guy, that's where some of that trust
isn't always there.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
But I mean, look at it, look no different than Phoenix.
Ya Hey, Phoenix, that Frank Vogel have autonomy with one
exception Kevin Young, and that was a complete poop show,
m right, because you had Frank was trusted him to
run the offense, and he's let others run the offense.
But there is this and this is what you're talking about.
Kevin wanted the job, almost got the job, They paid
(32:29):
him more than any insist in the NBA to not
get the job and being and it didn't work. And
Katie never liked the offense, and Book liked the offense.
But Frank Vogel was a little tentative about coaching him
because he felt like he was playing for Kevin Young,
like that doesn't work, doesn't So it's a really interesting one.
The thing he has going for him is there's obviously
a connection with Lebron James. Did anyone in that room
(32:53):
believe that they didn't talk about the job until after
he took.
Speaker 7 (32:57):
The job, Well, Doug, I mean as naive, but I
actually do believe it. But I only believe it because
it's to the letter of the law. You know where
Rob Plinka is saying Lebron was supportive but wasn't heavily
involved in the coaching search. I believe that, but just
from the literal letter of the law. Same thing with
JJ Reddicks saying we didn't talk during the coaching search,
(33:20):
but no doubt Lebron James has an influence merely because
he exists number one, and also number two. They know
his temperature based off of his actions, what his relationships
are with JJ Reddicks. They have a podcast as well
as you know his social media activity and the messages
that he sends out there, so he doesn't have to
have direct conversations and lay it out bluntly with either person.
(33:44):
But Rob Polink and JJ Reddick fully know well how
Lebron James feels about this. I think what was also
fascinating is that Rob Blink was mentioned that Anthony Davis
was heavily involved here, and I think that that is
notable for two reasons. One, AJJ Reddick was hot lighting
the idea that they wanted him to become what he
(34:04):
called more of a hub type of center, where you know,
there's more of a mobility of being a stretch five
as opposed to back to the basket big. But the
other thing is they're really trying to pave the way
for Anthony Davis to become the leader of the team.
And you know, in fairness, Lebron's been saying this from
day one, but it's been Lebron's team. But now that
(34:27):
he's entering the final years of his career, presuming that
he opts out and signs a new deal, it's very
much an emphasis to try to make it so that
there is a somewhat seamless passing the baton. But again,
that sounds good in theory, but harder to execute in reality.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Okay, so who do they add? Because you're not you're
not getting rid of Boston Reeves. You got those three.
What's the plan on who they add?
Speaker 7 (34:55):
Yeah, well, I take what Rob polinkuld plan it as
real taling sign that it seems like they're going to
use these draft picks to hold on than to actually
pull off a trade, and it's about as flawed as
their roster is. Try to hope that there's enough marginal
improvement as well as enough marginal improvement with JJ Reddick's
(35:18):
knowledge of the game, I mean, for all his inexperience,
that might be a challenge. One thing that they're very
confident on is that he can make better in game
adjustment and manage rotations better than what darbin Ham did.
But that sounds nice, But again, we're talking about the Lakers,
We're talking about Lebron James. He still wants to feel
(35:39):
like he has some chance, no matter how slim, to
compete for a title. So these marginal improvements, it's great,
but you know, it's nothing. It's not going to make
any greater difference than you're a competitive playoff team that
could be a roadbump in the first round. So that's
the fascinating part with this franchise, and they never ceased
(35:59):
to be interesting with the.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
Are they going to draft Ronnie?
Speaker 7 (36:04):
I think they will, Doug, but I think it's more
going to be because of circumstance and convenience than any
plan about trying to appease Lebron or any fascination with
Brownie's game. I think they're going to draft him because
they have the fifty fifth pick and he'll be available
and he'll mostly spend his time in the G League.
But you know, you know, Doug, you and I have
(36:24):
talked on your radio show that this idea that teams,
whether it's the Lakers or other teams that are drafting
Bronny with the hopes that this means Lebron definitely either
stays with the Lakers or goes elsewhere. Is just a
foolish argument. The expectation is Lebron's staying with the Lakers
and Bronnie you know, he's a nice team guy and
(36:47):
plays the right way, but he doesn't have a definitive
skill set and isn't expected to be drafted at all,
and if so, it's late second round. So I think
with all that the Lakers will draft him, but it's
not because of kind of the larger forces in play.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
All right, you're the best, Mark, I love, love your
insight and input. Thanks so much for joining us here
in
Speaker 7 (37:08):
The hurd, Doug, appreciate you and right back at it, Jeff,
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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