Colin’s top takes of the week!
He explains why the on-air chemistry of Inside The NBA is so good and so rare that NBC needs to be extremely careful to ensure the crew stays together (2:00)
Then he’s joined by Jason Timpf, host of “Hoops Tonight” to debate whether Anthony Edwards could become the next “face of the league” (6:30) make their projections for Caitlin Clark in the WNBA (16:30) and address what offseason moves the Phoenix Suns need to make after getting swept in the first round (25:00).
Then, Colin is joined by Nick Wright, host of “First Things First” on FS1!
They address the backlash to Colin’s “backwards hat” take from J.J. Reddick and LeBron James (31:00). They talk about the history of the take, why it’s become a running bit, and why it shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Colin argues that the Bengals are one more Joe Burrow injury away from needing to draft an early round quarterback (37:30) and Nick explains why he won’t be playing any violins for Kirk Cousins (40:00)
They give their reactions to the Roast of Tom Brady (46:00 and Nick shares a story of the time when he participated in a roast… and it backfired spectacularly (53:00)
Finally, they push back on Austin Rivers’ comment that 30 NBA players could play in the NFL and they list the much shorter list of players that actually could make the jump to football (55:00).
Don’t forget to check back for part two of the conversation with Nick!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
This week on Prime Cuts, Jason timpf on ant can
he become the face of the League? Nick right on
a bunch of stuff and my top takes of the week.
So I've been reading about NBC attacking NBA basketball negotiations
(00:25):
and if they took them from TNT, what would they
do with the inside the NBA crew. Well, first of all,
the inside the NBA crew sometimes is better than the
actual games, especially in the regular season. I think it
would be a huge mistake to break him up. Now
Ernie Johnson, who is the host, the affable host, the
beloved host who you know, he just moves the pieces around,
(00:46):
he gets out of the way. He is perfect. I
do believe you could find another host. You never replace
Ernie in terms of just how the players feel about Ernie.
You'd have to get a host that the player voted on.
You couldn't just insert somebody from another network and say
make it work. Ernie has so much respect and admiration
(01:07):
from the crew. Now, Barkley obviously drives the number, and
Ernie Johnson will be the first to admit that Shack
and Charles really have you know, some knights. They're feuding
other Knights. They're hysterical laughing at each other. Kenny Smith
more of the straight man. But it reminds me a
little bit of the Fox broadcasting crew on Sundays, where
you know Bradshaw was the funny guy. Howie's this straight man.
(01:30):
Jimmy Johnson's the coach, and he really is a coach
in real life and on the set he kind of
runs it all. Then Kurt Man, if he knows when
to jump in, push the buttons, poking the ribs, move out.
Then you have Strahan Jay Glazer, but there are there's
usually a star of a show, a straight man, and
Ernie provides hosting capabilities that the respect and the admiration
(01:50):
he has from the guys is kind of you won't
find another Ernie, but it is led by Charles, and
I think when you lose in Ernie, and that's losing something,
then you have to take all of them. As great
as Charles Barkley is. The chemistry is a big part
of this. And in my years of doing radio and TV,
(02:10):
and I've been doing this now thirty years, it's the
one thing that the really good executives of olwa's understood
and the average executives overlook is chemistry. I've had multiple
partners radio TV, but yet I've had one or two
shows that chemistry was outstanding. It's hard to explain, it's
hard to foster. There's just like you know it, it
(02:34):
just works. Maybe there's a mutual respect, you have something
in common, somebody finishes your sentences. But if you're gonna
lose Ernie, who has reportedly said, hey, I'm staying with
TNT and your NBC, and you're going to bring that
crew over if they did in fact win the rights,
you've got to lean on that crew and they've got
to make that higher. They've they've got to have run
(02:56):
through after run through because the idea you can just
insert an NBC guy in to that and it's gonna work.
That would be an executive that doesn't understand fit. And
I think a lot of times, you know the Fox
crew or the inside the NBA crew, it's hard. Chemistry
is hard on these shows. I mean Steven A. Smith
at ESPN, you know he and Max Kellerman. At some
(03:18):
point stephen A went public and said, yet this just
doesn't work. Skipping Shannon worked for a while, then it
didn't work. Mike and the band Dog in New York.
I listened to them for years. I thought it was
really good. I could tell on the air when they
got tired of each other. They got real snippy at
each other, very impatient with each other. You could just
feel it. It was like you're driving in the car
(03:39):
on the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut. I'm driving, you know,
going to the city or coming out, and I'm listening
for an hour and a half. I got a long
listen and I'm like, I'm I'm not sure this sounds right,
and I just I think. My overall point on this
is inside. The NBA works. Yes, Charles is the star,
but it works because of chemistry. It's terrific. They all
like each other, they all respect each other. And it's
(04:01):
like an NBA locker room. It takes one turd to
ruin it because it's a you're flying together, you're eating together,
you're hanging out. It's not like an NFL locker room.
Offense goes here, defense goes there. Baseball, you know, during
the game, a third of the roster is down in
the bullpen. Man you get you get these crews. You
got four or five guys, one bad fit blows it up,
(04:25):
blows it up, and I think they've done such a
good job. It is to me. During the regular season,
I generally like the show more than the games. Now,
once the playoffs start, I'm into the games. But I
think you can't. People are gonna watch the NFL regardless
of how good or bad the shows are. But the
NBA is different. It's a long regular season. Even the players.
There's a lot of apathy inside. The NBA, in my lifetime,
(04:48):
is very unique. We're all stick around for that. I mean,
I can think Fox does a great job at NBC
in the NFL is not quite as good. But I'm
watching the games. That's that's not the case inside the
NBA gets me to a TV during the regular season
when sometimes I'm not sure the players even care. All right,
(05:08):
NBA playoffs in full swing. Jason Timp, host of Hoops Tonight,
is joining us. If you look Jason that the face
of the league right now is really Tatum's personality. He
really is a giver. He's never a taker. You almost
have to push him, nudge him to take, so he doesn't.
He looks like to me, he loves being an All star,
(05:30):
making good money and winning games. He doesn't have any
real agenda to be the face of the league. Jokic
mostly European guys are not interested. So like it's open
for Ann Wenby's not there yet, Jokic isn't interested. You know,
Giannis has never really moved the needle in terms of
like ratings and beads. Not healthy. So as I'm watching
him first half, he was insane, and then and then
(05:53):
he was very quiet in the third. But as I'm
watching him, I'm like, you know, Jordan had these dead quarters.
I mean, Michael was classic for when his head would steam,
You're like, okay, Michael's on one. And then Michael really
got it. Was like a great baseball pitcher that he
knew the twelve pitches he had to get people out,
like Michael knew gearshift. Lebron's gotten very good at that.
Like Lebron's always hoping his teammates get the game going,
(06:16):
and if they don't, then he steps in and then
at the seven minute mark they get him out. But
I watched Aunt and I'm like, don't be too critical
of him. Twenty five points in an NBA game and
a half is a lot of work. That's a lot
of energy and then in the second half you're like, uh,
first of all, dumb tech talk about that all day.
But my take was my take was kind of like,
(06:37):
it's there for the taking. It feels like Denver's not
equipped on the bench. You know, they could die to
have a six man who could play twenty minutes of defense.
This may be the moment. All these great stars have moments.
It took Jordan years and years. The difference is Jordan
had like iconic teams pissed and Celtics in front of him.
(06:57):
Denver hasn't risen that. So as good as the is Jason,
it feels like this is the moment to seize it.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
It's absolutely there for the taking. Again, I still think
Denver is going to win this series. I certainly think
it's way too early to just to bail on them entirely.
An important element to that game too, as they spotted
Minnesota in eighteen to four. Lead and Michael Molow talked
after the game. Jamal Murray didn't practice all week because
of his calf. Kcp's got a bad ankle, So like
they are easing their way into the series in a.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Lot of ways.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Also generally just a little brief story, like, I play
a lot of pick up basketball, but then during the summer,
a lot of the college kids around town and the
old guys who play overseas, they come home and I
work out with them, And there's always like an adjustment
for me going from lower level competition to higher level competition.
And there's no doubt that Minnesota is a much higher
(07:46):
level defense than the Lakers were. And so there's gonna
be a little bit of like a oh, that pass,
I need to put a little more on it. I
need to be more accurate. I can't be as sloppy
with my handle. This shot that I got off against Reeves,
I won't be able to get off against Jade McDaniels.
Like all these there's gonna be an adjustment period for
Denver in this series to kind of get used to
(08:07):
that offense. That said, as far as Aunt goes like it,
it's there's still so much room for him to improve
because that quiet third quarter ain't got tired. You could
tell Ant got tired in that game. Yes, So there's
gonna be an energy management piece that he figures out.
There's gonna be like a reading the floor better piece
that he figures out. There's like there's a little bully
ball possession on Reggie Jackson where he just walked It
(08:29):
was the play he got the tech. He walked him
right underneath the rim and put it in. It was
the easiest bucket he got all night. Like, there's gonna
be a point where he realizes all these guards can't
guard him and he starts destroying people even closer to
the rim, and so this guy's the limit for him.
I got in trouble with Celtics fans for comparing the
two of them. It was a mail bag question. But
then I started thinking about it and I'm like, no,
this is a real thing here. This is who's the
(08:51):
next great American player? Because there is something to be
said about being the best American player in the NBA
from a marketability standpoint, right sure, Like there's a reason
why huge portion of my listeners are overseas. It's because
the best players in the league are all from overseas,
and so they've got these huge fan bases from Serbia
and in the Philippines and things like that. There's all
these guys that are that are supporting these players, and
(09:12):
we need an American star that can come up and
kind of take the mantle and to your point, like
Jason Tatum has, he just doesn't quite have the personality
for it. But the biggest piece and the main reason
why I think Ant is better than him, has to
do with the athleticism piece. Ant can have Bradley Beal
on the wing and just utterly blow by him off
(09:33):
the dribble and then dunk on Kevin Durant like he's
not even there. And then it's not to say that
Jason Tatum hasn't had big dunks in his career because
he's got great size, but his first step is not
nearly as dynamic as Anthony Edwards is, and so when
he faces a really good defender in a late game situation,
he can struggle to get to his spots. Sometimes. Aunt
(09:55):
never struggles getting to his spot like he's gonna get
a good look up. It's just a question of whether
or not he can make it. And to his credit,
the two big things that he's figured out that have
been his inflection between the dominique and MJ kind of
like fork in the road, the split for him has
been he's been better at reading the floor. He was
the guy who got Nasriy going last night. It was
the banked in three that was a kickout from Ant
(10:16):
when his man helped the driving, and one on the
baseline that was the skip pass from Ant when he
was reading a pick and roll coverage. And then the
second piece of it is that jump shooting piece. He
is deadly in that fourteen to eighteen foot range, and
so he has a shot he can go to where
it's like this is going to go in a majority
of the time. It gives him like a certain level
of resilience in the playoffs, and so I just think
(10:39):
I think he's just better. I think he's the best
American player in the league of that generation, and I
think he has a chance to take that mantle well.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
To be the best player. It's like being the best
country Western star. It's not just your songs are popular
and easy to dance to. There's often something that really
touches people. If you look at the faces of the league.
I don't know if he was a face of a league,
but the first player that caught my attention in the
seventies was Doctor j Nobody played like that, right, Nobody
(11:08):
played like that his hand size, and then after that
was Magic Johnson, We'd never had a six eight and
a half point guard. And then it was Larry Bird
alongside Magic. We never had a forward easily be the
best shooter and passer in the league. Like he didn't
play he played like a two guard. And then you
go into Shack. Okay, that's there's nothing been that powerful.
(11:30):
Big guys don't run the floor. And then you know
and before him, it's Michael the greatest player of all
time with great flair. Kobe was never already the face
of the league, but was like Michael Light. Then you
go into Lebron, arguably the greatest player, the great Swiss
army knife that does everything differently. So all those players
were like to some degree, a little bit of unicorns athletically,
(11:51):
or they had a dimension to their game. They still
show Doctor Jay's dunk against Michael Cooper. It's still the
greatest dunk in the history in a game. It's the seventies,
it's fifty years ago with all these athletes. So with
ant skit, I've watched Jason Tatum live three times. I've
watched them a hundred times. He's very good. It's not
historically unique looking. He's just really clever and really smooth,
(12:13):
good two way player. Ant does stuff and you're like, okay,
sorry to put the drink down. Let's I got to
watch the replay on that, like whole Even NBA guys
are like whoa, whoa. You see him come off the bench.
So Wemby has some of that. Wemby could block eight
blocks a game, you know, I mean, he could have
a stretch like nobody looks like that. So I do
think Ant's advantage is there's a lot of wow stuff.
(12:35):
I mean, I remember when Shack came in the league,
Jerry Tarkani and I covered him at YOUNLV. He told
me when Shaq was a sophomore, I was at a
place called the Late Jerry Tarkani and I covered him
in Vegas at a place called Sharks or Tarks or Sharks,
And we were sitting at a bar and me and
a guy named John Henderson, a retired sports writer now
in Italy, and he said, there's a kid named Shaquille
(12:55):
O'Neil at Elshu and he goes, I know you've seen highlights.
He's going to be the greatest past ketball player you've
ever seen when he plays. And you know, Jerry was
a very good recruiter, and you know, and he just said,
there's never been anything like him, and that's kind of
the sentence for the faces of the league. There's never
been anything like him. And my take is he's a
(13:19):
little Dominique, a little Michael. I mean, what's his comp
that feels like the right comps.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
He's bigger and stronger than the other two guards that
came before him too, Like he's got a little bit
of like the downhill force that you saw from Dwayne Wade,
but he's bigger and a better shooter. Right, He's got
a lot of He's got some of the like the
footwork stuff from the mid to high post. But again,
like he's he's got like a strength and a power
(13:48):
element to his game that even MJ and Kobe didn't have.
So like, in a weird way, this is the beautiful
thing about basketball history is every player it's very rare
to have a guy like Kobe who's like almost almost
the spitting image of the guy he was trying to
be like. Right, Like Kobe and MJ were so similar,
Ant's kind of got his own unique flair on it.
It's like it's like Dwayne Wade meets better jump shooting
(14:10):
meets the body of a middle linebacker in the NFL. Like,
it's it's it's it's hard, it's hard to describe, but like,
and then again, the big piece of it is like
this guy's going to Kevin Durant and he's like, yeah,
you're my favorite player, but you know I'm busting your ass.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Right.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
It's like this weird like shit talking mixed with respectful
mixed with like incredible aggression. But he's also just got
this huge personality and that to me is a big
part of the marketability element, where like I could see
him being a superstar in the league for decades.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
All right, Caitlin Clark topic, So, and this is just
off the top of my head, but if you look
at players who have missed and I don't watch enough
WNBA to have a strong opinion, but if you look
at basketball in general, on players that miss college to
pro h, it's a lot of bigs, a lot of
injury issues. Sometimes biggs come into the league and they
(14:59):
just they just they're a little old school. It's new school.
They get pushed around, teammates, coaches, lose confidence, generally point guards.
I mean, I mean, listen, if you're quick, if you distribute,
you can shoot a little bit. It's hard to bust.
You can find a space for a guy maybe in rotation.
So and I always feel that way with shooters. If
you're quick and you can get a good shot and
(15:20):
you can shoot that, the leagues just need. It's not
a lot of guys that can really shoot that have
been busts. They'll find a way. Even if you're an
awful defensive player, they'll bring you off the bench, they'll
put you in patterns so you're not having to guard
the best defensive players. So like Caitlin Clark, there's this
sense is, oh, she's going to be a can't miss
well even in the NFL, there is no camp miss
there are no camp misses. My take on her though,
(15:43):
is she is really quick, she has tremendous quart awareness,
so players are going to like playing with her. Like
in Iowa, you know, she makes great passes people can't
finish like people now can finish in the WNBA. So
and also she gets a shot and she's a devastating shooter.
So I do see her transforming the league. I don't
think we've seen a shooter like that in the league.
(16:03):
And I also think again her court awareness. Playing with
better finishers, people are gonna want to play with her.
Even if she struggles, she'll get other people involved. Then
she'll draw so much attention. What is your guess on
what kind of player she is? Is she a first
team All WNBA, because I just don't I don't have
You know, the length is much different in the WNBA,
(16:26):
like six six sixty seven is. Everybody's got those level players,
so you don't get the freebies down bow. You know,
in college you can get some real cheap baskets men's
and women's. I think she's going to be a star,
but I have no nothing to judge it on. I mean,
you're I mean Cheryl Miller was bigger, taller. I mean
there's certain times you don't get athletes and you just
(16:47):
go Candas Parker. That's gonna work. But a shooting guard
from Iowa, I don't know what do we.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Make of it.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
So I actually view the college game as more challenging
to score than people think. And there's a bunch of
reasons for that one, Like look at that Iowa team.
There are a lot of girls on that team that
could shoot right. So like the spacing isn't as good.
One of the things that's interesting to me about college
hoops is the athleticism is always much further along than
(17:15):
the offensive skill development, so like it's actually like a
lot of and then the coaching is really good, and
the level of intensity on a game to game basis
is really really high. So it's actually really difficult to
score at the college level. And to your actually one
hundred percent agree with you on your take on like
the safety of a player, like the the like an
(17:35):
offensively skilled player being kind of bust proof in the
sense that like the vast majority of players that demonstrated
they could score at the college level get into the
NBA and they're able to score, and it's because there's a.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Gr for Debt was a very small player by NBA standard.
She's not, I mean, so there are people that just
can't defend at all. She's not small. She's not you know,
Caitlin's got some size st her as well. You kind
of push her around either. She's a feisty player.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Yeah, absolutely, And like I thought that was one of
the first things that first of all, such a statement
to me about just the type of phenomenon that Caitlin
Clark is that Like I was covering a game that day.
I think it was I think it was the it
might've been the the Nuggets Wolves game. I can't remember.
I was watching a game for my job that day
(18:22):
and I literally got my phone up and downloaded the
WNBA app and I watched it. I was like, I
texted my wife. My wife was at the airport flying
home from Chicago, and I texted her and I was like, hey, like,
Caitlin Clark's playing on the WNBA app right now. She
stopped everything she was doing and she downloaded the app
and she watched the game, which just goes to show
you the like, the type of phenomenon that she is.
But like, as I was watching, like she can get
(18:43):
separation from these girls. And in addition to that, like
everyone always focuses on like, oh, the athleticism goes up
a level, all this gets more difficult. But basketball doesn't
work like that. You're not just playing one on one
all game long, Like you're running sets. You're doing things
that are designed to generate openings, and she has the
skill to make shots in those openings. And so there
was it was such a I don't know what it
(19:05):
is about Caitlin and maybe it is her fame, but
there seems to be this like segment that's almost like
rooting for her to fail. It's kind of it's kind
of bizarre to me. I don't understand it. But the
truth of the matter is is like she might have
certain matchups, like she might run into specific defenders at
the WNBA that give her some issues. She's gonna have
off shooting nights. She's gonna have because she's new at this.
(19:28):
She's gonna have stretches where it doesn't look as pretty.
But to me, it's a pretty safe bet that she's
gonna score a lot of baskets in the WNBA for
a long time.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
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Speaker 2 (21:07):
You live in Arizona, and we've talked about this is
that you can get more for Booker. But remember Phoenix
was not good pre Chris Paul, so he's not a
leader guy and he can't carry a franchise, and then
you disappointed this year with Durant and Beale around Booker.
Booker's your classic, you know, cat shoot. I don't think
(21:28):
he's a great athlete. He's just a he's a dependable
twenty five twenty six a night. He can be really
streaky and get into the thirty five for long stretches,
like he's a crazy streak shooter. But I think you
make the mistake if you like in Orlando, if Orlando
made a move Boncaro's you're one to me, it feels
like and Booker comes in is a really good two.
(21:48):
But I want another score with the forward, you know,
another some size, some length. So like if you're Phoenix
now Biale and Kevin Durant, well, if you get rid
of Booker, I got to get some young players over here,
because those guys are going to miss some spots, although
Durant played a ton this year. So my take is,
your Phoenix, you can bring it all back, but there
are issues. You don't have a classic point guard, you
(22:10):
don't have much of a bench, so those are real issues.
You can keep bringing stuff back, but it's like at
some point you have holes. Right, we see like Milwaukee,
you can bring it all back, and they may have
to because they don't have they don't have a lot
of assets, and this is an old roster. They're all
locked up. I don't think that many people want I
think Dame, you could move and you honest, but they
don't want to move those two. So my takeaway is
(22:30):
you watch a lot of Suns basketball, who would you move?
Where would you move them? Because it feels like to me,
people are gonna make They're going to get more phone
calls than any team in the league because there's a
lot of New York Knicks in Orlando's out there looking
at Phoenix thinking.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
It ended poorly.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
You know, they they want to get out of stuff.
They don't want to say it publicly. Phoenix is saying, hey,
we're bringing the band back together, but it's a flawed team.
Vocal likes bigs.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
They don't.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
It's not built for him. What would you do.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
You have to say that to You can't be like, yeah,
oh yeah, fire sale this summer, you come and get them.
But like the as far as far as I'm concerned,
so much of this comes down to how you viewed Booker,
and a lot of Suns fans view him as like
a bona fide franchise cornerstone. And the point, the thing
they point to there is the twenty twenty one season.
But it's like, Okay, hold on a second, let's let's
filter through that. The conference finalists out West was a
(23:22):
team led by Paul George. Okay, without without Kawhi Leonard
and uh Trey Young made the conference finals out East,
like it was they won. The Bucks won that series
with Gianni said in a hyper extended knee over the
last couple of games. So like, really that was the
weird COVID season where all the good teams got hurt.
All the good teams got hurt, The Lakers got hurt,
the Nuggets got hurt, the mime he got hurt, Like
(23:43):
everyone was hurt yep in that season. So like it
was kind of this gap year, totally legitimate championship for
the Bucks, but like the Suns, getting to the finals,
I think got them to believe in Devin Booker as
this like franchise cornerstone. I look at Devin Booker more
as like the Kyrie Irving type of archetype. If I
could put him next to a real a franchise player
(24:03):
and he can just focus on being a late game
shot maker, slash guy that can spell your star for
stretches and run the offense. That's the kind of fit
that I like. And so when I look at the
Sun situation, Bradley Beal, I think is a really good player,
but his trade value is low because he's older, injury prone,
and on a long term deal that pays him a
shit ton of money. Right, Kevin Durant, really good player,
but old and just in a situation where like he
(24:25):
doesn't have as much value around the league. Devin Booker
is a guy that you can trade and get a
haul and so all yeah, And so what I was
pitching is like, embrace, like have the self awareness to
embrace the fact that Devin Booker's not going to be
your franchise cornerstone and then be like Okay, well, how
do we turn this situation into something more fun? I
would call Orlando and I'd be like, Hey, you got
(24:47):
dev you got Palo Bancaro, but you just lost a
series to the Calves because nobody can create a shot
other than Palo, and no one can make jumpers. So
like you need somebody that can come in and just
be like a skill guard next to Palamonkaro. And so
if I would call them and I'd be like, I
want Jalen Suggs, I want Jonathan Isaac, and I want
Wendell Carter Junior.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
That's a lot.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
That is a haul.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Those are three really good.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Hey, Jus was viewed as a bust six months ago.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Exactly into Suggs's credit, He's turned himself into one of
the best permitter defenders in the league and a good
three point shooter, right, Like, he's a very valuable archetype.
So now if I'm the Suns, I'm looking at it.
And by the way, you might be able to even
coax Orlando and to throwing you a draft pick or
two in that deal, who knows, depending on how that
conversation would go. But then I look at it and
I'm like, Okay, Now I've got I've got Jalen Suggs,
(25:35):
an elite point of attack defender, something Phoenix did not
have last year. I've got Bradley Beal Steele is still
a high powered number two. I've got Kevin Durant Jonathan Isaac,
two really rangy long wings that can do a lot defensively.
And I'm going from Yusuf Nurkic an old, a slow
footed big center, to Wendell Carter Junior, who is a big, strong,
athletic young center who can shoot the three ball. And
(25:57):
so it kind of creates like a more fun Phoenix
Suns team. And it's just an acknowledgment of the reality
that you weren't going to be able to rebuild around
Booker and then go into these series with him as
the best player, because like, if you go into a
series Devin Booker is your best player, or into a
playoff run, you're going to run into a lot of
teams that are better players than Devin Booker. You just are.
And so that's that problem is not going away. And
(26:18):
if I'm Orlando, I'm looking at it like follow is
a franchise cornerstone. But clearly, this clearly this build where
it's like we're big and strong and athletic, but nobody
can shoot.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
No one can dribble, no one can they can't shoot.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
That's not working either, And so I look at that
as like, we'll figure out the rest later. Give me
Devin Booker at age twenty seven. Yeah, next to next
to my young star who just averaged twenty seven points
per game in a seven game series against an elite
defense when no one else on his team could make
anything and he had to do everything. It was a
really impressive series from Pallad. He's got a lot of that,
(26:52):
like physical imposition on the game that is super valuable.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
We bring in my buddy Nick, right, we chop it
up on a variety of topics. I mus as well
start with a very serious topic, which is near and
dear to me.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
How do you feel about this, that this is what
you're going to be known for, honest to god, how
do you feel about it? I mean, it's now gotten
to you know Lebron and shout out, Well, I'll let
you set it up at your podcast. You set it up,
but go ahead.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Well Lebron reacted to it, and JJ Reddick reacted to it.
So This started years ago. I think it was Tony Romo.
I was at the other place, ESPN, and Tony Romo
was doing something at the podium. And it's always been
about the weekly Wednesday podium. When you're a franchise quarterback,
I don't care if you're any other position. I don't
care about offseason. I care about the quarterback face of
the franchise on a Wednesday podium, looking like you know,
(27:45):
you're the face of the franchise because you are the
coach on the field and the highest paid player usually.
And so I said something about it. And Steve Spurrier
was the college coach at South Carolina, and in his
weekly media session he literally said, in his southern voice,
Now I was listening to a radio host, Colin Coward,
say something here, Dan. I really agreed with him, and
(28:07):
you know, he went on about it. He said, I
kind of liked it, and I kind of agreed with it,
and so I thought, see, I'm not that crazy. That's
not a bad idea. So and I did it a
couple more times. Now it's gotten a life of its own,
and I think most people now, well, I shouldn't say that.
I think a big chunk of people sort of get
I'm being theatrical and my outrage is somewhat manufactured.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
I don't, but but it comes from a real opinion. Yeah, yeah,
you have, you have. The further along it's gone, the more,
I don't want to say ridiculous, but you you, it's
become a thing I'm totally here for. But the and
we we've talked with this once before, and I'm going
(28:52):
to reiterate the point and actually tie it back to
today's thing, which is, even if people vehement disagree with
you on the specifics of backwards hat for forwards hat, everyone,
if they're being honest, should be able to admit we
(29:13):
all have a backwards hat thing that makes us judge
people like there is there. So it can be as
simple as, oh that person who I thought was like
a big time, you know, powerbroker, Oh he doesn't match
(29:35):
his belt to his shoes, like, oh, he's not as
sophisticated as I thought. Or again, I'm just making that up.
So here's what I found so funny about today. I
don't really give a shit that JJ Reddick was wearing
a backwards hat at all. You know what, you know
what happened today though, that gave me another piece of
evidence that said I would not hire JJ Reddick right
(29:58):
now to be the head coach of Los Angeles. That
he responded to the clip that to me was far
more damning than his hat. It's like, buddy, you can't
Three days ago I saw you on the Internet arguing
with a San Francisco radio producer. Now you're watching clips
(30:19):
of Howard talking about you loling it like I just
I don't think you're going to go from that level
of internet engagement, maybe even searching your own name all
that stuff that people do, by the way, and I'm
not judging them for it, but I don't think it'd
be healthy to do as the head coach of the
Los Angeles Lakers. And I don't think you'd turn it
(30:41):
off in a week. So I don't care about the hat.
I care that he reacted to the clip, like I
really do, and by the way, I wouldn't care at
all if it was like a broadcaster like just in
his current job react to whatever you want, but a
different job we're talking about now, which again, I don't
think you would care about the backwards hat if it's
just he he's the NBA announcer. But if it's like, oh,
(31:02):
you're gonna be the head coach of my team, So
I get it. I actually get it.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Well. I mean, if you don't think appearance matters, your
daughter's on the emergency table in a hospital and a
surgeon came in in a suit and they put his
white or a blue robe over it, or a backwards hat,
what would you prefer? Or your pilot on a plane
(31:27):
came in or he has hat backwards, which would I prefer?
A turbulent night?
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Well and so, and I also think, you know, Lebron
responded with two pictures and I wasn't sure who the
first guy was because the second guy's Jason Kid, and
it's like, oh, he's done a great job, and it's like, yeah,
but Jason Kidd also JJ has this going for him
as well, like you know, former athlete, former athlete turned
(31:53):
coaches a little different, which is where I think JJ
probably has more of a you know, margin Ferrera here.
But the other guy, I was like, who is that?
And then we figured it out it's the guy who
owns the Jazz. Well. At some point, you like you
succeed out of like now, all of a sudden, you
(32:14):
never have to wear a suit. Like I don't know
if you watched the show Billions, but the may I
know it's fictional, but the main character Bobby Axelrod, who
was the billionaire he'd go to work, everyone's wearing a suit.
He's wearing a Metallica T shirt. Because it's like, eh,
I own the place. I kind of can like, yes,
there is that element to it, but but I love it.
(32:35):
I think it is my I mean, it is so
funny that four times a year, I know, I'm like, oh, well,
half of Colin's show is taking care of for no reason.
And because there's always new people in the ecosystem, there
are people who this is their first experience with you
(32:55):
and backwards hat and so they don't get any of that,
not that it's a joke, but that this has been
a twenty year thing. And those people replying are the best.
They're like this guy you got, I mean, it is
the best, and you don't have to explain the joke.
Just let him go. It's it's the best.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
I do think one more injury and the Bengals have
to draft another quarterback near the top first, second, third round.
I think that's becoming a reality. This is why I
defended I said this today about Michael Pennix. Last year,
the Falcons had no good quarterbacks and couldn't win a
bad division. This year, they'll have the two best quarterbacks,
(33:37):
and you're complaining about it, like sixty six quarterbacks played.
We're getting to it. We're getting to a point with
Burrow that it's a real discussion you've got to have
at least a b backup. Now, Brady didn't like it
because he never got hurt with Garoppolo and big Ben. Similarly, Hey,
I'm still I can still chug along. My injuries are fine.
(33:58):
But I think Burrow is gonna have to own Hey,
this team needs a backup and not a sixth rounder,
maybe a third rounder when we have other needs. So
I think that's a real discussion that Joe and the
Bengals have to have.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
For sure that you mentioned Pinnix. So I'm glad you
mentioned that because I want to talk about both those
quarterbacks for a moment. I have not understood the tiny
violins for Kirk Cousins that have been out. Yeah or
do I here's the deal, man, And this is gonna
sound shitty, and I don't mean it too. But it's honest,
Kirk Cousins is not good enough to get everything he wants.
(34:38):
That's the thing. If Kirk Cousins is good, he is
not good enough to get so do I. I want
to play in the worst division in football, no problem.
I want to play in a dome. We can do that.
I want to have another massive payday with one hundred
million guaranteed. Okay, we can do that too. I want
to have a lot of weapons. You know what We've
got that. I don't want to have any competition whatsoever. Sorry,
(35:00):
can't give you that one. That's like you don't like
the He is good enough to get a lot, but
not everything. And when you are something of a football mercenary,
if you will, you have taken the money and moved whatever.
And to his credit, there's a trade off and everything
in life. One of those things is you haven't built
(35:21):
up the equity within the organization for them to be like,
oh man, he's gonna hate this. They just met you
like sorry, like the there's and the person I feel
for in this is Pinnix. That like the the if
if if sports broadcasting worked the way the NFL does,
(35:46):
And I'm coming out of Syracuse and I'm considered one
of the three or four best in the world. And
I'm like, oh man, there's this spot in this radio
station in Las Vegas that might pick me, that has
openings all over the place. There's a radio station in
Denver that might pick me, that has openings all over
the place. And then all of a sudden, I get
(36:07):
picked by a radio station in Atlanta and they're like, Buddy,
all our shows are filled up, but we think in
two years maybe you'll have one. Be like, you gotta
be kidding me. All these other places wanted me to play,
like I'm by the way, I went to grad school,
I'm old, Like you're talking about me, like I'm not
gonna get on the air till I'm twenty six. Like
(36:27):
this sucks. And so I everyone was like, oh man,
Kirk so disappointed. And I was sitting there thinking, like
I get that he gets the money or whatever, but
pinnis that differge for me to being the eighth pick
and the thirteenth pick is not a ton of money.
He was gonna be getting first round guaranteed money no
matter what, and now he's gotta sit so and again,
(36:49):
maybe it ends up being good for him, and he's
in a dome and he has the weapons. But if
we're gonna feel badly for either of these two quarterbacks,
it's not the guy who just left his team got
a hundred million bucks coming off in Achilles. It's not
him that I feel badly for.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, I mean, I would say Kirk Cousins, and there's
people like this in every industry, has monetized his position
to the highest possible level. Yes, Brady took pay cuts,
Tim Duncan took pay cuts. Yeah, in the history of football,
Kirk Cousins has monetized his talent to the greatest level
(37:27):
and deserves great respect for that. But to your point, Kirk,
there's a trading. Yeah. Tom Brady can say Bruce arians
go upstairs. Yeah, Kirk Cousins isn't going to say that
to a coach, right.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
That's the thing is, you don't. If you the only
people who get everything they want in their work life
are the absolute apex best, And if you are the
(38:03):
if you are the very best in your field, you
can kind of write the contract. If you are, that's
still super valuable. But there's seven or eight people better
than you, then you're gonna get most of what you want,
but not all of it. And I just think that's normal,
Like I it doesn't. I didn't. And I'm an empathetic person.
(38:27):
I can I can cry at the good enough tweet,
you know. I don't know if somebody put out a
tweet the other day. It was like my dad wrote
me these letters every morning before school growing up. I
read it. I teared up. I'm like, oh my god,
Like I really think I'm an empathetic person, but I
didn't feel a moment where I'm like, oh, poor Kirk Cousins.
It's like, what because you don't want to, because you
(38:48):
deserve to not have to compete, and you're not even
really competing, Like it's your job. You're really gonna have
to screw up to not have it be your job.
I don't get it. I just don't get it.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Hey everyone, it's Jason Timp, host of Hoops Tonight. Make
sure you check us out live after games on the
Hoops Tonight YouTube channel as we provide instant reaction and
analysis of all the big NBA playoff games. Again, that's
the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel and wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
So I'm divorced and my ex wife and I have
a fine relationship. We don't talk much anymore, but it
was always very or respectful.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Sure, so.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
I totally get that it's a roast. I totally get it,
but I do hear the Giselle jokes and I think,
to myself, that's a little rough for me.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Like I thought about this, I couldn't believe we signed
up for it.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Yeah, I thought if somebody wanted to roast me, the
first thing I would think about is I got to
protect my kids. Right, That's the first thing I would say.
That's almost the first thing I think about always is
how is this going to land for my kids? And
(40:18):
when I listened to the jokes, I thought a lot
of it was hilarious. But I think I would have said, hey, don't,
I don't want you going after my kids.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
But then right, but that's but that's so here's the
thing that but it's a roast. So I don't watch
this is a I'm sure there's a word for it.
I I don't watch roasts because there's a level of
like that secondhand embarrassment thing is like something I really
(40:52):
don't deal with. Well, Like there are certain times like
that we were talking about Curb earlier. There would be
certain moments in Curb where like I literally like I
turn away, like I'm like, oh, I feel so even
though it's make believe and it's someone else, I get
something internally. I feel uncomfortable with so a roast where
(41:12):
And it's not that I don't watch roast because I'm
offended by the jokes. It's because there are certain things
where I feel so badly for the person involved that
it makes me feel uncomfortable. It's why I was shocked
it existed. It's I just was shot. Like I get
why comedians do it to comedians, and I get why
(41:35):
fringe I don't want to be rude. I get why
Pete Rose would sign up for long like yeah, you
know what I mean, I'm in the spotlight. It's a check,
you know what I mean, Like, I get those things
I don't under like I was shocked that Tom signed
up for it because it just feels like there's so
many landmines and so much like you were saying, I didn't,
(41:59):
I thought, yeah, there were a lot of people that
seems like and I'm not really an expert to talk
about this because again, like I didn't. I've seen some clips,
so I didn't watch it because I just don't enjoy that.
But it seems like there were a lot of people
that were not there that feel like that was not
fun for me or my family, you know what I mean,
(42:19):
all of it, and so I don't. I also was
kind of shocks. I was like, did Tom admit to
to flategate in this thing? Was that? Like, like what,
I didn't understand a lot of it, but he listen,
he I mean he the What didn't surprise me from
the coverage of it was that Belichick came off great.
(42:43):
What didn't surprise me is that people said, you know
what I mean, that he came off great and did
a great job. That that sound that checks out to me.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
Yeah, And I'm not I'm not blaming anybody for the
Gazelle jokes. I just thought, ooh that I would.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
I would. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
That was the one where I was like, eh, God,
I don't. And I'm like you, I think Jeffrey Ross
and Nikki Glazer are great at what they do. I
I can't believe you have secondhand embarrassment. I suffer from
the same thing. Like I don't like to see people
bullied or hugely embarrassed.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
I would rather. I know this sounds absurd. I so
I take the subway every day, and you from when
I pick up my daughter from school, I take subway home,
and the subway platform you go downstairs busy platform. As
insane as this sounds, I would rather slip and fall
(43:44):
on the subway stairs then have the person in front
of me slip and fall on the subway stairs, because
like when I like, I don't really care, like I
don't like I'm I'm not embarrassed easily for myself, Like
that's okay, Like people saw me fall, I don't care.
But for some reason the thing of like, oh that
person now thinks I was looking at him. They are embarrassed.
(44:06):
I really really it makes me feel super uncomfortable. The
second had embarrassment thing, and so it's just yeah, so
I just don't enjoy I appreciate that. Now. I will
tell you this, this is an unbelievable anecdote that I'm
about to give you. So Jamal Charles, who's gonna end
(44:28):
up being one of the greatest running backs ever to
not make the Hall of Fame. So you got totally
screwed by the Chiefs while he was there. It's just
an all time player. He's from Port Arthur, Texas and
was my favorite player when I was covering the Chiefs
in the early twenty tens, and I was really associated
(44:49):
with him because basically every time the Chiefs lost, I'd
be like, I don't know about you guys. I would
have given the ball to Jamal Drells, Moore, Brody Froyle
is the quarterback, handed off to the guy who's getting
seven yards of carry you idiots. So when I was
in Houston after Kansas City, Jamal was being inducted to
the Port Arthur Sports Hall of Fame and they said, hey, Nick,
(45:09):
will you host it? Will you be the host of
the event? Like, yeah, of course, and be honest, this
is great. And the guy put it on, He's like,
it's a roast. I'm like, it's a roast. They're like, yes,
it's a roast. But again I'm even though I said
I don't watch them, this is I'm like, Okay, there's
(45:30):
no comedians here, but Andy Reid is there. Earl Thomas
from Texas is there. So his teammates are there. Whatever
it is, and they're like, yes, it's a roast, like, okay,
so I'll, you know, write eight minutes of jokes is unbelievable.
I don't think I've ever told the story publicly. There's
(45:51):
a video somewhere. So I get up there and I am,
I think telling great jokes, like one of them was
God damn man, don't you I'm telling you this. Do
not isolate this and put this on social media, I said.
I turned to Andy Reid and I said something about
how I'm not going to tell the exact joke, but
(46:13):
how his clock management style reminded me of my sex
life in college. There was something. There was a joke there.
You people can figure it out. It was a good joke.
He didn't like it. I said something about Earl Thomas
and the Legion of Boom whatever it is, and nobody's
really laughing that much, but these are good jokes. And
then every other person that came up there did not
(46:36):
get the memo this was a roast. They got the
memo that this was a toast, and no one told
me jokes and everyone just talked about it, right Carl,
So I just looked like the biggest asshole in the world.
I started the thing. I'm just I'm just killing everybody.
(46:57):
Then everyone's like, here's how Jamal's changed my life. If
no joke's nothing, I'm like, you've gotta be kidding me.
You have got to be kidding me. And the guy
who did it, the guy who set it up, I'm like,
I didn't get like misread the email, was like no, man,
He's like, I'm sorry, Like I told everyone it was
a roast, but whatever, they didn't go with it. So
I just looked like the worst guy ever. Like Andy
(47:19):
I think was legitimately Matt because Andy's and Andy and
I are really cool now. But Andy, when I then
introduced him after the joke, he came over and maybe
it's just how he shakes hands and he is a
big guy, but it was not like a firm handshake.
It was like, I'm gonna hurt your hand with this handshake,
you smart ass kid making fun of my clock management.
(47:42):
So maybe that's why I don't like roasts, because one
of the most embarrassing nights of my life was me
thinking I was at a roast and it was actually
a toast and I just looked like a bad guy.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
That is an all time story.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
You can include that. See I know, I said, don't
put it on social media. You can do whatever you want.
Just maybe try to clip out the sex life in
college thing. I have an image to uphold. But go ahead,
But yeah, that is a real story. That's a true story.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Austin Rivers came out and said I could pick thirty
NBA players and play in the NFL. JJ Watt fired back,
and I said, today there are sports, and the NBA
is included in this. Tennis, golf, baseball, basketball. There is
a skill level that erodes very quickly if you don't
stay on it. Don't If you don't hit a baseball
(48:30):
for two months, you're cooked. You're cooked. Basketball. When I
was playing high school basketball in the college every day.
If I took a week off, my ball handling wasn't
quite as good. And NFL is the one sport where
you don't have to play college and you can be
a Hall of Famer Antonio Gates. It's not a repetitive sport.
(48:50):
Some some instances mechanics for quarterback yes, sure, kicking yes,
But a lot of it is strength, brutality, physicality, instincts
at raw more yea more than any other sport football,
which is why so many of us play high school football,
and so many people participate. You can be big, you
don't have to be fast. You can be a guard.
(49:12):
You can only be able to kick. You can be
a punter, right, Like, there's a bunch of different stuff
that said, I don't think basketball players have any idea
how much getting tackled hurts. If you ever go to
the sideline of an NFL game and watch Christian McCaffrey
get hit, you cannot believe he can get up. You
(49:35):
cannot believe he's not severely injured. It is a car
wreck on every tackle.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
So you should watch. You. I mean, well, you obviously
know these guys, Howie Long's kids. You know, Chris and
Jake Long. You know, so they have a podcast green Light,
and you, by the way, you own a podcast business
or an audio business. Like, I think I think they
(50:02):
are great. I think Chris is Chris did He tweeted,
he said, emergency rant coming on Austin Rivers and Colin.
When I tell you this is some of my favorite
ten minutes of media in the last month. You have
to listen to it because his entire take is that
(50:22):
not that guys couldn't do it, but like because they're
not good enough at football, but I mean and I'm
gonna not do it justice. He's like, Oh, okay, Austin Rivers.
You think you guys can come play football. Well, here's
the deal. We got fifty three guys on the team.
There's three massage therapists. Oh your body hurts well, the
massuse available at four o'clock. Why don't you get a
lift in and shut up? Like you're used to that
(50:44):
in the NBA. He's like, Oh, in the NBA, your
coach is how do they talk to you? Because my
coaches mf me and then tell me to go lay
in a queen size bedit training camp with another guy
in my room. He's like, he does a whole thing.
He's like, what's your flights like? Because for forty of us,
we're in the coach seats on a plane. When's the
last time you His whole take was not you wouldn't
be good enough, but that our lives are just different.
(51:06):
Our coaches coach us, Our practices are hard. He was like,
what happens in the NBA when somebody gets hurt? Do
they cancel shoot around? Because in the NFL they move
the drill. They just move they're like guys getting carted off.
It is a great rant. With that said, I came
up with eight guys. I want to know. I didn't
(51:26):
know you're going to talk about this. I came up
with eight guys and their position. I guess it's seven guys,
all right. So Anthony Edwards could play running backer safety.
I am certain of it. I am certain Anthony Edwards
could do it. Young Lebron would be the greatest tight
end in NFL history. I know, I know it's true.
(51:49):
Westbrook could play in the NFL. I'm not sure the position.
Maybe ad drusher, maybe safety. Josh Hart I think can
be a wide receiver, just based on his rebound. Unding
this playoffs, Chris Long said he I'm just gonna trust
him on this because I never would have thought of it,
but he played the position. He was like, I've been
(52:10):
watching the playoffs. I could make Jalen Brown a pass rusher.
I'm like, okay, I believe you. He was like, he
was like he has great bend. He seems a little mean.
He's like, I could do it. And then and this
is gonna sound mean, and I am not being mean.
I am simply saying he would have to put on weight,
which I think he can, and then all of a
(52:31):
sudden it would be a benefit. He has great feet,
great athleticism. I think Zion could potentially be an a
an awesome lineman. He's six ' six, he obvious, you
know what I mean, can carry it big like Jason
Peters was a tight end that went to it. So
I do think where I think Austin Rivers had a
kernel of accuracy is there are certainly more NBA guys
(52:53):
that the There are probably five NBA guys that could
be good NFL players, like good, like hey, give me
a year to train be a good NFL player. And
I don't know that there's any NFL guys that could
be really good NBA players because, like you said, your
(53:14):
skill has atrophied and if you're not over six ' six,
it's all about skill, it's you know what I mean.
And there's nobody that's six ' ten in the NFL
to begin with.
Speaker 2 (53:24):
So I think the list you made would be shorter.
But to give you an example, I think because football
players are so thick, we forget how big they are.
Go look at the video of Micah Parsons without his
shirt on this week. He makes Aunt Edwards look like me.
(53:46):
He is so big. I'll give you an example. There's
an old photo of Michael Jordan standing next to Barry Bombs.
He looks like a straw. Is that Remember Michael playing baseball?
He looked like he was so stimciated.
Speaker 1 (54:06):
Now that's that. That part's fair, that part. Yeah, These
NFL guys they regularly leg press five hundred and fifty pounds.
That is when you watch Micah Parsons without a shirt on.
My take is and there are times he is engulfed
(54:26):
by Trent Williams, just engulfed by it. No, that so
that part, So people do we all have a like
our brain doesn't process how big NFL guys are and
how tall NBA guys are. Our brain doesn't accept it. Like, yeah,
I mean you see around the office occasionally, I assume
my son because he works on the lot. You've seen
(54:48):
him there. He is almost always the biggest guy in
the room. He's you know, he's six three and a half,
you know, probably two hundred pounds, maybe one ninety and
in a room of regular people, he's an imposing cuts,
an imposing figure. He is the exact same height and
about ten pounds lighter than Steph Curry, and Steph Curry
(55:12):
in the NBA looks like a little guy, and it's like, no, actually,
Steph Curry's the size of a bouncer at a decent nightclub.
It's like, you know what I mean, Like the and
so everybody forgets how tall NBA guys actually are. That
the guys in the when you're watching the basketball game
and a guy looks like he's average height, he's six
(55:32):
seven and if you worked with someone who was six ' seven,
you would gawk at them. And you're right about how
just the raw strength of the average NFL player, that
part is unquestioned.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
When just the and of the Long Brothers pointed out
the physical and mental toughness to just get tackled by
the strongest people in the country over and.
Speaker 1 (55:59):
Over and over, well that what he said. He said,
he was just talking about guys who because who would
just get folded he said, he was naming NBA guys.
He's like, you get folded up by like one of
those camping tables, like, oh, you're seven feet tall, well
to you're four feet tall now because he just got
folded in half. It's a great rant it is shout
(56:22):
out to him. Man. I know you and I are
two people, two of the ten people in the world
who appreciate a great rant as much as anybody. And
this was a great rant by Chris Long. I highly
enjoyed it. I do think there are a few though.
I think there are a few guys who could do it.
(56:42):
I think I do think Anthony Awards could play safety
because I don't think safeties are at the size of MICHAEH.
Parsons is flying around like a missile. I think he
could do He's twenty two years old. I think you
play safety. The Chiefs just drafted a get in the
first roundway its one hundred and sixty pounds. That guy
don't see Anthony Edwards coming over the middle. Just doesn't.
Speaker 2 (57:02):
I'll give you Lebron. We'll stop right there, Okay, Nick Wright,
as always, buddy, it's great.
Speaker 1 (57:08):
Absolutely talk to you soon. Conby the volume.
Speaker 2 (57:13):
Thanks so much for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast,
take a moment, rate and review
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
This week on Prime Cuts, Jason timpf on ant can
he become the face of the League? Nick right on
a bunch of stuff and my top takes of the week.
So I've been reading about NBC attacking NBA basketball negotiations
(00:25):
and if they took them from TNT, what would they
do with the inside the NBA crew. Well, first of all,
the inside the NBA crew sometimes is better than the
actual games, especially in the regular season. I think it
would be a huge mistake to break him up. Now
Ernie Johnson, who is the host, the affable host, the
beloved host who you know, he just moves the pieces around,
(00:46):
he gets out of the way. He is perfect. I
do believe you could find another host. You never replace
Ernie in terms of just how the players feel about Ernie.
You'd have to get a host that the player voted on.
You couldn't just insert somebody from another network and say
make it work. Ernie has so much respect and admiration
(01:07):
from the crew. Now, Barkley obviously drives the number, and
Ernie Johnson will be the first to admit that Shack
and Charles really have you know, some knights. They're feuding
other Knights. They're hysterical laughing at each other. Kenny Smith
more of the straight man. But it reminds me a
little bit of the Fox broadcasting crew on Sundays, where
you know Bradshaw was the funny guy. Howie's this straight man.
(01:30):
Jimmy Johnson's the coach, and he really is a coach
in real life and on the set he kind of
runs it all. Then Kurt Man, if he knows when
to jump in, push the buttons, poking the ribs, move out.
Then you have Strahan Jay Glazer, but there are there's
usually a star of a show, a straight man, and
Ernie provides hosting capabilities that the respect and the admiration
(01:50):
he has from the guys is kind of you won't
find another Ernie, but it is led by Charles, and
I think when you lose in Ernie, and that's losing something,
then you have to take all of them. As great
as Charles Barkley is. The chemistry is a big part
of this. And in my years of doing radio and TV,
(02:10):
and I've been doing this now thirty years, it's the
one thing that the really good executives of olwa's understood
and the average executives overlook is chemistry. I've had multiple
partners radio TV, but yet I've had one or two
shows that chemistry was outstanding. It's hard to explain, it's
hard to foster. There's just like you know it, it
(02:34):
just works. Maybe there's a mutual respect, you have something
in common, somebody finishes your sentences. But if you're gonna
lose Ernie, who has reportedly said, hey, I'm staying with
TNT and your NBC, and you're going to bring that
crew over if they did in fact win the rights,
you've got to lean on that crew and they've got
to make that higher. They've they've got to have run
(02:56):
through after run through because the idea you can just
insert an NBC guy in to that and it's gonna work.
That would be an executive that doesn't understand fit. And
I think a lot of times, you know the Fox
crew or the inside the NBA crew, it's hard. Chemistry
is hard on these shows. I mean Steven A. Smith
at ESPN, you know he and Max Kellerman. At some
(03:18):
point stephen A went public and said, yet this just
doesn't work. Skipping Shannon worked for a while, then it
didn't work. Mike and the band Dog in New York.
I listened to them for years. I thought it was
really good. I could tell on the air when they
got tired of each other. They got real snippy at
each other, very impatient with each other. You could just
feel it. It was like you're driving in the car
(03:39):
on the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut. I'm driving, you know,
going to the city or coming out, and I'm listening
for an hour and a half. I got a long
listen and I'm like, I'm I'm not sure this sounds right,
and I just I think. My overall point on this
is inside. The NBA works. Yes, Charles is the star,
but it works because of chemistry. It's terrific. They all
like each other, they all respect each other. And it's
(04:01):
like an NBA locker room. It takes one turd to
ruin it because it's a you're flying together, you're eating together,
you're hanging out. It's not like an NFL locker room.
Offense goes here, defense goes there. Baseball, you know, during
the game, a third of the roster is down in
the bullpen. Man you get you get these crews. You
got four or five guys, one bad fit blows it up,
(04:25):
blows it up, and I think they've done such a
good job. It is to me. During the regular season,
I generally like the show more than the games. Now,
once the playoffs start, I'm into the games. But I
think you can't. People are gonna watch the NFL regardless
of how good or bad the shows are. But the
NBA is different. It's a long regular season. Even the players.
There's a lot of apathy inside. The NBA, in my lifetime,
(04:48):
is very unique. We're all stick around for that. I mean,
I can think Fox does a great job at NBC
in the NFL is not quite as good. But I'm
watching the games. That's that's not the case inside the
NBA gets me to a TV during the regular season
when sometimes I'm not sure the players even care. All right,
(05:08):
NBA playoffs in full swing. Jason Timp, host of Hoops Tonight,
is joining us. If you look Jason that the face
of the league right now is really Tatum's personality. He
really is a giver. He's never a taker. You almost
have to push him, nudge him to take, so he doesn't.
He looks like to me, he loves being an All star,
(05:30):
making good money and winning games. He doesn't have any
real agenda to be the face of the league. Jokic
mostly European guys are not interested. So like it's open
for Ann Wenby's not there yet, Jokic isn't interested. You know,
Giannis has never really moved the needle in terms of
like ratings and beads. Not healthy. So as I'm watching
him first half, he was insane, and then and then
(05:53):
he was very quiet in the third. But as I'm
watching him, I'm like, you know, Jordan had these dead quarters.
I mean, Michael was classic for when his head would steam,
You're like, okay, Michael's on one. And then Michael really
got it. Was like a great baseball pitcher that he
knew the twelve pitches he had to get people out,
like Michael knew gearshift. Lebron's gotten very good at that.
Like Lebron's always hoping his teammates get the game going,
(06:16):
and if they don't, then he steps in and then
at the seven minute mark they get him out. But
I watched Aunt and I'm like, don't be too critical
of him. Twenty five points in an NBA game and
a half is a lot of work. That's a lot
of energy and then in the second half you're like, uh,
first of all, dumb tech talk about that all day.
But my take was my take was kind of like,
(06:37):
it's there for the taking. It feels like Denver's not
equipped on the bench. You know, they could die to
have a six man who could play twenty minutes of defense.
This may be the moment. All these great stars have moments.
It took Jordan years and years. The difference is Jordan
had like iconic teams pissed and Celtics in front of him.
(06:57):
Denver hasn't risen that. So as good as the is Jason,
it feels like this is the moment to seize it.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
It's absolutely there for the taking. Again, I still think
Denver is going to win this series. I certainly think
it's way too early to just to bail on them entirely.
An important element to that game too, as they spotted
Minnesota in eighteen to four. Lead and Michael Molow talked
after the game. Jamal Murray didn't practice all week because
of his calf. Kcp's got a bad ankle, So like
they are easing their way into the series in a.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Lot of ways.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Also generally just a little brief story, like, I play
a lot of pick up basketball, but then during the summer,
a lot of the college kids around town and the
old guys who play overseas, they come home and I
work out with them, And there's always like an adjustment
for me going from lower level competition to higher level competition.
And there's no doubt that Minnesota is a much higher
(07:46):
level defense than the Lakers were. And so there's gonna
be a little bit of like a oh, that pass,
I need to put a little more on it. I
need to be more accurate. I can't be as sloppy
with my handle. This shot that I got off against Reeves,
I won't be able to get off against Jade McDaniels.
Like all these there's gonna be an adjustment period for
Denver in this series to kind of get used to
(08:07):
that offense. That said, as far as Aunt goes like it,
it's there's still so much room for him to improve
because that quiet third quarter ain't got tired. You could
tell Ant got tired in that game. Yes, So there's
gonna be an energy management piece that he figures out.
There's gonna be like a reading the floor better piece
that he figures out. There's like there's a little bully
ball possession on Reggie Jackson where he just walked It
(08:29):
was the play he got the tech. He walked him
right underneath the rim and put it in. It was
the easiest bucket he got all night. Like, there's gonna
be a point where he realizes all these guards can't
guard him and he starts destroying people even closer to
the rim, and so this guy's the limit for him.
I got in trouble with Celtics fans for comparing the
two of them. It was a mail bag question. But
then I started thinking about it and I'm like, no,
this is a real thing here. This is who's the
(08:51):
next great American player? Because there is something to be
said about being the best American player in the NBA
from a marketability standpoint, right sure, Like there's a reason
why huge portion of my listeners are overseas. It's because
the best players in the league are all from overseas,
and so they've got these huge fan bases from Serbia
and in the Philippines and things like that. There's all
these guys that are that are supporting these players, and
(09:12):
we need an American star that can come up and
kind of take the mantle and to your point, like
Jason Tatum has, he just doesn't quite have the personality
for it. But the biggest piece and the main reason
why I think Ant is better than him, has to
do with the athleticism piece. Ant can have Bradley Beal
on the wing and just utterly blow by him off
(09:33):
the dribble and then dunk on Kevin Durant like he's
not even there. And then it's not to say that
Jason Tatum hasn't had big dunks in his career because
he's got great size, but his first step is not
nearly as dynamic as Anthony Edwards is, and so when
he faces a really good defender in a late game situation,
he can struggle to get to his spots. Sometimes. Aunt
(09:55):
never struggles getting to his spot like he's gonna get
a good look up. It's just a question of whether
or not he can make it. And to his credit,
the two big things that he's figured out that have
been his inflection between the dominique and MJ kind of
like fork in the road, the split for him has
been he's been better at reading the floor. He was
the guy who got Nasriy going last night. It was
the banked in three that was a kickout from Ant
(10:16):
when his man helped the driving, and one on the
baseline that was the skip pass from Ant when he
was reading a pick and roll coverage. And then the
second piece of it is that jump shooting piece. He
is deadly in that fourteen to eighteen foot range, and
so he has a shot he can go to where
it's like this is going to go in a majority
of the time. It gives him like a certain level
of resilience in the playoffs, and so I just think
(10:39):
I think he's just better. I think he's the best
American player in the league of that generation, and I
think he has a chance to take that mantle well.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
To be the best player. It's like being the best
country Western star. It's not just your songs are popular
and easy to dance to. There's often something that really
touches people. If you look at the faces of the league.
I don't know if he was a face of a league,
but the first player that caught my attention in the
seventies was Doctor j Nobody played like that, right, Nobody
(11:08):
played like that his hand size, and then after that
was Magic Johnson, We'd never had a six eight and
a half point guard. And then it was Larry Bird
alongside Magic. We never had a forward easily be the
best shooter and passer in the league. Like he didn't
play he played like a two guard. And then you
go into Shack. Okay, that's there's nothing been that powerful.
(11:30):
Big guys don't run the floor. And then you know
and before him, it's Michael the greatest player of all
time with great flair. Kobe was never already the face
of the league, but was like Michael Light. Then you
go into Lebron, arguably the greatest player, the great Swiss
army knife that does everything differently. So all those players
were like to some degree, a little bit of unicorns athletically,
(11:51):
or they had a dimension to their game. They still
show Doctor Jay's dunk against Michael Cooper. It's still the
greatest dunk in the history in a game. It's the seventies,
it's fifty years ago with all these athletes. So with
ant skit, I've watched Jason Tatum live three times. I've
watched them a hundred times. He's very good. It's not
historically unique looking. He's just really clever and really smooth,
(12:13):
good two way player. Ant does stuff and you're like, okay,
sorry to put the drink down. Let's I got to
watch the replay on that, like whole Even NBA guys
are like whoa, whoa. You see him come off the bench.
So Wemby has some of that. Wemby could block eight
blocks a game, you know, I mean, he could have
a stretch like nobody looks like that. So I do
think Ant's advantage is there's a lot of wow stuff.
(12:35):
I mean, I remember when Shack came in the league,
Jerry Tarkani and I covered him at YOUNLV. He told
me when Shaq was a sophomore, I was at a
place called the Late Jerry Tarkani and I covered him
in Vegas at a place called Sharks or Tarks or Sharks,
And we were sitting at a bar and me and
a guy named John Henderson, a retired sports writer now
in Italy, and he said, there's a kid named Shaquille
(12:55):
O'Neil at Elshu and he goes, I know you've seen highlights.
He's going to be the greatest past ketball player you've
ever seen when he plays. And you know, Jerry was
a very good recruiter, and you know, and he just said,
there's never been anything like him, and that's kind of
the sentence for the faces of the league. There's never
been anything like him. And my take is he's a
(13:19):
little Dominique, a little Michael. I mean, what's his comp
that feels like the right comps.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
He's bigger and stronger than the other two guards that
came before him too, Like he's got a little bit
of like the downhill force that you saw from Dwayne Wade,
but he's bigger and a better shooter. Right, He's got
a lot of He's got some of the like the
footwork stuff from the mid to high post. But again,
like he's he's got like a strength and a power
(13:48):
element to his game that even MJ and Kobe didn't have.
So like, in a weird way, this is the beautiful
thing about basketball history is every player it's very rare
to have a guy like Kobe who's like almost almost
the spitting image of the guy he was trying to
be like. Right, Like Kobe and MJ were so similar,
Ant's kind of got his own unique flair on it.
It's like it's like Dwayne Wade meets better jump shooting
(14:10):
meets the body of a middle linebacker in the NFL. Like,
it's it's it's it's hard, it's hard to describe, but like,
and then again, the big piece of it is like
this guy's going to Kevin Durant and he's like, yeah,
you're my favorite player, but you know I'm busting your ass.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Right.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
It's like this weird like shit talking mixed with respectful
mixed with like incredible aggression. But he's also just got
this huge personality and that to me is a big
part of the marketability element, where like I could see
him being a superstar in the league for decades.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
All right, Caitlin Clark topic, So, and this is just
off the top of my head, but if you look
at players who have missed and I don't watch enough
WNBA to have a strong opinion, but if you look
at basketball in general, on players that miss college to
pro h, it's a lot of bigs, a lot of
injury issues. Sometimes biggs come into the league and they
(14:59):
just they just they're a little old school. It's new school.
They get pushed around, teammates, coaches, lose confidence, generally point guards.
I mean, I mean, listen, if you're quick, if you distribute,
you can shoot a little bit. It's hard to bust.
You can find a space for a guy maybe in rotation.
So and I always feel that way with shooters. If
you're quick and you can get a good shot and
(15:20):
you can shoot that, the leagues just need. It's not
a lot of guys that can really shoot that have
been busts. They'll find a way. Even if you're an
awful defensive player, they'll bring you off the bench, they'll
put you in patterns so you're not having to guard
the best defensive players. So like Caitlin Clark, there's this
sense is, oh, she's going to be a can't miss
well even in the NFL, there is no camp miss
there are no camp misses. My take on her though,
(15:43):
is she is really quick, she has tremendous quart awareness,
so players are going to like playing with her. Like
in Iowa, you know, she makes great passes people can't
finish like people now can finish in the WNBA. So
and also she gets a shot and she's a devastating shooter.
So I do see her transforming the league. I don't
think we've seen a shooter like that in the league.
(16:03):
And I also think again her court awareness. Playing with
better finishers, people are gonna want to play with her.
Even if she struggles, she'll get other people involved. Then
she'll draw so much attention. What is your guess on
what kind of player she is? Is she a first
team All WNBA, because I just don't I don't have
You know, the length is much different in the WNBA,
(16:26):
like six six sixty seven is. Everybody's got those level players,
so you don't get the freebies down bow. You know,
in college you can get some real cheap baskets men's
and women's. I think she's going to be a star,
but I have no nothing to judge it on. I mean,
you're I mean Cheryl Miller was bigger, taller. I mean
there's certain times you don't get athletes and you just
(16:47):
go Candas Parker. That's gonna work. But a shooting guard
from Iowa, I don't know what do we.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Make of it.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
So I actually view the college game as more challenging
to score than people think. And there's a bunch of
reasons for that one, Like look at that Iowa team.
There are a lot of girls on that team that
could shoot right. So like the spacing isn't as good.
One of the things that's interesting to me about college
hoops is the athleticism is always much further along than
(17:15):
the offensive skill development, so like it's actually like a
lot of and then the coaching is really good, and
the level of intensity on a game to game basis
is really really high. So it's actually really difficult to
score at the college level. And to your actually one
hundred percent agree with you on your take on like
the safety of a player, like the the like an
(17:35):
offensively skilled player being kind of bust proof in the
sense that like the vast majority of players that demonstrated
they could score at the college level get into the
NBA and they're able to score, and it's because there's a.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Gr for Debt was a very small player by NBA standard.
She's not, I mean, so there are people that just
can't defend at all. She's not small. She's not you know,
Caitlin's got some size st her as well. You kind
of push her around either. She's a feisty player.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Yeah, absolutely, And like I thought that was one of
the first things that first of all, such a statement
to me about just the type of phenomenon that Caitlin
Clark is that Like I was covering a game that day.
I think it was I think it was the it
might've been the the Nuggets Wolves game. I can't remember.
I was watching a game for my job that day
(18:22):
and I literally got my phone up and downloaded the
WNBA app and I watched it. I was like, I
texted my wife. My wife was at the airport flying
home from Chicago, and I texted her and I was like, hey, like,
Caitlin Clark's playing on the WNBA app right now. She
stopped everything she was doing and she downloaded the app
and she watched the game, which just goes to show
you the like, the type of phenomenon that she is.
But like, as I was watching, like she can get
(18:43):
separation from these girls. And in addition to that, like
everyone always focuses on like, oh, the athleticism goes up
a level, all this gets more difficult. But basketball doesn't
work like that. You're not just playing one on one
all game long, Like you're running sets. You're doing things
that are designed to generate openings, and she has the
skill to make shots in those openings. And so there
was it was such a I don't know what it
(19:05):
is about Caitlin and maybe it is her fame, but
there seems to be this like segment that's almost like
rooting for her to fail. It's kind of it's kind
of bizarre to me. I don't understand it. But the
truth of the matter is is like she might have
certain matchups, like she might run into specific defenders at
the WNBA that give her some issues. She's gonna have
off shooting nights. She's gonna have because she's new at this.
(19:28):
She's gonna have stretches where it doesn't look as pretty.
But to me, it's a pretty safe bet that she's
gonna score a lot of baskets in the WNBA for
a long time.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
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Speaker 2 (21:07):
You live in Arizona, and we've talked about this is
that you can get more for Booker. But remember Phoenix
was not good pre Chris Paul, so he's not a
leader guy and he can't carry a franchise, and then
you disappointed this year with Durant and Beale around Booker.
Booker's your classic, you know, cat shoot. I don't think
(21:28):
he's a great athlete. He's just a he's a dependable
twenty five twenty six a night. He can be really
streaky and get into the thirty five for long stretches,
like he's a crazy streak shooter. But I think you
make the mistake if you like in Orlando, if Orlando
made a move Boncaro's you're one to me, it feels
like and Booker comes in is a really good two.
(21:48):
But I want another score with the forward, you know,
another some size, some length. So like if you're Phoenix
now Biale and Kevin Durant, well, if you get rid
of Booker, I got to get some young players over here,
because those guys are going to miss some spots, although
Durant played a ton this year. So my take is,
your Phoenix, you can bring it all back, but there
are issues. You don't have a classic point guard, you
(22:10):
don't have much of a bench, so those are real issues.
You can keep bringing stuff back, but it's like at
some point you have holes. Right, we see like Milwaukee,
you can bring it all back, and they may have
to because they don't have they don't have a lot
of assets, and this is an old roster. They're all
locked up. I don't think that many people want I
think Dame, you could move and you honest, but they
don't want to move those two. So my takeaway is
(22:30):
you watch a lot of Suns basketball, who would you move?
Where would you move them? Because it feels like to me,
people are gonna make They're going to get more phone
calls than any team in the league because there's a
lot of New York Knicks in Orlando's out there looking
at Phoenix thinking.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
It ended poorly.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
You know, they they want to get out of stuff.
They don't want to say it publicly. Phoenix is saying, hey,
we're bringing the band back together, but it's a flawed team.
Vocal likes bigs.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
They don't.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
It's not built for him. What would you do.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
You have to say that to You can't be like, yeah,
oh yeah, fire sale this summer, you come and get them.
But like the as far as far as I'm concerned,
so much of this comes down to how you viewed Booker,
and a lot of Suns fans view him as like
a bona fide franchise cornerstone. And the point, the thing
they point to there is the twenty twenty one season.
But it's like, Okay, hold on a second, let's let's
filter through that. The conference finalists out West was a
(23:22):
team led by Paul George. Okay, without without Kawhi Leonard
and uh Trey Young made the conference finals out East,
like it was they won. The Bucks won that series
with Gianni said in a hyper extended knee over the
last couple of games. So like, really that was the
weird COVID season where all the good teams got hurt.
All the good teams got hurt, The Lakers got hurt,
the Nuggets got hurt, the mime he got hurt, Like
(23:43):
everyone was hurt yep in that season. So like it
was kind of this gap year, totally legitimate championship for
the Bucks, but like the Suns, getting to the finals,
I think got them to believe in Devin Booker as
this like franchise cornerstone. I look at Devin Booker more
as like the Kyrie Irving type of archetype. If I
could put him next to a real a franchise player
(24:03):
and he can just focus on being a late game
shot maker, slash guy that can spell your star for
stretches and run the offense. That's the kind of fit
that I like. And so when I look at the
Sun situation, Bradley Beal, I think is a really good player,
but his trade value is low because he's older, injury prone,
and on a long term deal that pays him a
shit ton of money. Right, Kevin Durant, really good player,
but old and just in a situation where like he
(24:25):
doesn't have as much value around the league. Devin Booker
is a guy that you can trade and get a
haul and so all yeah, And so what I was
pitching is like, embrace, like have the self awareness to
embrace the fact that Devin Booker's not going to be
your franchise cornerstone and then be like Okay, well, how
do we turn this situation into something more fun? I
would call Orlando and I'd be like, Hey, you got
(24:47):
dev you got Palo Bancaro, but you just lost a
series to the Calves because nobody can create a shot
other than Palo, and no one can make jumpers. So
like you need somebody that can come in and just
be like a skill guard next to Palamonkaro. And so
if I would call them and I'd be like, I
want Jalen Suggs, I want Jonathan Isaac, and I want
Wendell Carter Junior.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
That's a lot.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
That is a haul.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Those are three really good.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Hey, Jus was viewed as a bust six months ago.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Exactly into Suggs's credit, He's turned himself into one of
the best permitter defenders in the league and a good
three point shooter, right, Like, he's a very valuable archetype.
So now if I'm the Suns, I'm looking at it.
And by the way, you might be able to even
coax Orlando and to throwing you a draft pick or
two in that deal, who knows, depending on how that
conversation would go. But then I look at it and
I'm like, Okay, Now I've got I've got Jalen Suggs,
(25:35):
an elite point of attack defender, something Phoenix did not
have last year. I've got Bradley Beal Steele is still
a high powered number two. I've got Kevin Durant Jonathan Isaac,
two really rangy long wings that can do a lot defensively.
And I'm going from Yusuf Nurkic an old, a slow
footed big center, to Wendell Carter Junior, who is a big, strong,
athletic young center who can shoot the three ball. And
(25:57):
so it kind of creates like a more fun Phoenix
Suns team. And it's just an acknowledgment of the reality
that you weren't going to be able to rebuild around
Booker and then go into these series with him as
the best player, because like, if you go into a
series Devin Booker is your best player, or into a
playoff run, you're going to run into a lot of
teams that are better players than Devin Booker. You just are.
And so that's that problem is not going away. And
(26:18):
if I'm Orlando, I'm looking at it like follow is
a franchise cornerstone. But clearly, this clearly this build where
it's like we're big and strong and athletic, but nobody
can shoot.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
No one can dribble, no one can they can't shoot.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
That's not working either, And so I look at that
as like, we'll figure out the rest later. Give me
Devin Booker at age twenty seven. Yeah, next to next
to my young star who just averaged twenty seven points
per game in a seven game series against an elite
defense when no one else on his team could make
anything and he had to do everything. It was a
really impressive series from Pallad. He's got a lot of that,
(26:52):
like physical imposition on the game that is super valuable.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
We bring in my buddy Nick, right, we chop it
up on a variety of topics. I mus as well
start with a very serious topic, which is near and
dear to me.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
How do you feel about this, that this is what
you're going to be known for, honest to god, how
do you feel about it? I mean, it's now gotten
to you know Lebron and shout out, Well, I'll let
you set it up at your podcast. You set it up,
but go ahead.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Well Lebron reacted to it, and JJ Reddick reacted to it.
So This started years ago. I think it was Tony Romo.
I was at the other place, ESPN, and Tony Romo
was doing something at the podium. And it's always been
about the weekly Wednesday podium. When you're a franchise quarterback,
I don't care if you're any other position. I don't
care about offseason. I care about the quarterback face of
the franchise on a Wednesday podium, looking like you know,
(27:45):
you're the face of the franchise because you are the
coach on the field and the highest paid player usually.
And so I said something about it. And Steve Spurrier
was the college coach at South Carolina, and in his
weekly media session he literally said, in his southern voice,
Now I was listening to a radio host, Colin Coward,
say something here, Dan. I really agreed with him, and
(28:07):
you know, he went on about it. He said, I
kind of liked it, and I kind of agreed with it,
and so I thought, see, I'm not that crazy. That's
not a bad idea. So and I did it a
couple more times. Now it's gotten a life of its own,
and I think most people now, well, I shouldn't say that.
I think a big chunk of people sort of get
I'm being theatrical and my outrage is somewhat manufactured.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
I don't, but but it comes from a real opinion. Yeah, yeah,
you have, you have. The further along it's gone, the more,
I don't want to say ridiculous, but you you, it's
become a thing I'm totally here for. But the and
we we've talked with this once before, and I'm going
(28:52):
to reiterate the point and actually tie it back to
today's thing, which is, even if people vehement disagree with
you on the specifics of backwards hat for forwards hat, everyone,
if they're being honest, should be able to admit we
(29:13):
all have a backwards hat thing that makes us judge
people like there is there. So it can be as
simple as, oh that person who I thought was like
a big time, you know, powerbroker, Oh he doesn't match
(29:35):
his belt to his shoes, like, oh, he's not as
sophisticated as I thought. Or again, I'm just making that up.
So here's what I found so funny about today. I
don't really give a shit that JJ Reddick was wearing
a backwards hat at all. You know what, you know
what happened today though, that gave me another piece of
evidence that said I would not hire JJ Reddick right
(29:58):
now to be the head coach of Los Angeles. That
he responded to the clip that to me was far
more damning than his hat. It's like, buddy, you can't
Three days ago I saw you on the Internet arguing
with a San Francisco radio producer. Now you're watching clips
(30:19):
of Howard talking about you loling it like I just
I don't think you're going to go from that level
of internet engagement, maybe even searching your own name all
that stuff that people do, by the way, and I'm
not judging them for it, but I don't think it'd
be healthy to do as the head coach of the
Los Angeles Lakers. And I don't think you'd turn it
(30:41):
off in a week. So I don't care about the hat.
I care that he reacted to the clip, like I
really do, and by the way, I wouldn't care at
all if it was like a broadcaster like just in
his current job react to whatever you want, but a
different job we're talking about now, which again, I don't
think you would care about the backwards hat if it's
just he he's the NBA announcer. But if it's like, oh,
(31:02):
you're gonna be the head coach of my team, So
I get it. I actually get it.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Well. I mean, if you don't think appearance matters, your
daughter's on the emergency table in a hospital and a
surgeon came in in a suit and they put his
white or a blue robe over it, or a backwards hat,
what would you prefer? Or your pilot on a plane
(31:27):
came in or he has hat backwards, which would I prefer?
A turbulent night?
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Well and so, and I also think, you know, Lebron
responded with two pictures and I wasn't sure who the
first guy was because the second guy's Jason Kid, and
it's like, oh, he's done a great job, and it's like, yeah,
but Jason Kidd also JJ has this going for him
as well, like you know, former athlete, former athlete turned
(31:53):
coaches a little different, which is where I think JJ
probably has more of a you know, margin Ferrera here.
But the other guy, I was like, who is that?
And then we figured it out it's the guy who
owns the Jazz. Well. At some point, you like you
succeed out of like now, all of a sudden, you
(32:14):
never have to wear a suit. Like I don't know
if you watched the show Billions, but the may I
know it's fictional, but the main character Bobby Axelrod, who
was the billionaire he'd go to work, everyone's wearing a suit.
He's wearing a Metallica T shirt. Because it's like, eh,
I own the place. I kind of can like, yes,
there is that element to it, but but I love it.
(32:35):
I think it is my I mean, it is so
funny that four times a year, I know, I'm like, oh, well,
half of Colin's show is taking care of for no reason.
And because there's always new people in the ecosystem, there
are people who this is their first experience with you
(32:55):
and backwards hat and so they don't get any of that,
not that it's a joke, but that this has been
a twenty year thing. And those people replying are the best.
They're like this guy you got, I mean, it is
the best, and you don't have to explain the joke.
Just let him go. It's it's the best.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
I do think one more injury and the Bengals have
to draft another quarterback near the top first, second, third round.
I think that's becoming a reality. This is why I
defended I said this today about Michael Pennix. Last year,
the Falcons had no good quarterbacks and couldn't win a
bad division. This year, they'll have the two best quarterbacks,
(33:37):
and you're complaining about it, like sixty six quarterbacks played.
We're getting to it. We're getting to a point with
Burrow that it's a real discussion you've got to have
at least a b backup. Now, Brady didn't like it
because he never got hurt with Garoppolo and big Ben. Similarly, Hey,
I'm still I can still chug along. My injuries are fine.
(33:58):
But I think Burrow is gonna have to own Hey,
this team needs a backup and not a sixth rounder,
maybe a third rounder when we have other needs. So
I think that's a real discussion that Joe and the
Bengals have to have.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
For sure that you mentioned Pinnix. So I'm glad you
mentioned that because I want to talk about both those
quarterbacks for a moment. I have not understood the tiny
violins for Kirk Cousins that have been out. Yeah or
do I here's the deal, man, And this is gonna
sound shitty, and I don't mean it too. But it's honest,
Kirk Cousins is not good enough to get everything he wants.
(34:38):
That's the thing. If Kirk Cousins is good, he is
not good enough to get so do I. I want
to play in the worst division in football, no problem.
I want to play in a dome. We can do that.
I want to have another massive payday with one hundred
million guaranteed. Okay, we can do that too. I want
to have a lot of weapons. You know what We've
got that. I don't want to have any competition whatsoever. Sorry,
(35:00):
can't give you that one. That's like you don't like
the He is good enough to get a lot, but
not everything. And when you are something of a football mercenary,
if you will, you have taken the money and moved whatever.
And to his credit, there's a trade off and everything
in life. One of those things is you haven't built
(35:21):
up the equity within the organization for them to be like,
oh man, he's gonna hate this. They just met you
like sorry, like the there's and the person I feel
for in this is Pinnix. That like the the if
if if sports broadcasting worked the way the NFL does,
(35:46):
And I'm coming out of Syracuse and I'm considered one
of the three or four best in the world. And
I'm like, oh man, there's this spot in this radio
station in Las Vegas that might pick me, that has
openings all over the place. There's a radio station in
Denver that might pick me, that has openings all over
the place. And then all of a sudden, I get
(36:07):
picked by a radio station in Atlanta and they're like, Buddy,
all our shows are filled up, but we think in
two years maybe you'll have one. Be like, you gotta
be kidding me. All these other places wanted me to play,
like I'm by the way, I went to grad school,
I'm old, Like you're talking about me, like I'm not
gonna get on the air till I'm twenty six. Like
(36:27):
this sucks. And so I everyone was like, oh man,
Kirk so disappointed. And I was sitting there thinking, like
I get that he gets the money or whatever, but
pinnis that differge for me to being the eighth pick
and the thirteenth pick is not a ton of money.
He was gonna be getting first round guaranteed money no
matter what, and now he's gotta sit so and again,
(36:49):
maybe it ends up being good for him, and he's
in a dome and he has the weapons. But if
we're gonna feel badly for either of these two quarterbacks,
it's not the guy who just left his team got
a hundred million bucks coming off in Achilles. It's not
him that I feel badly for.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, I mean, I would say Kirk Cousins, and there's
people like this in every industry, has monetized his position
to the highest possible level. Yes, Brady took pay cuts,
Tim Duncan took pay cuts. Yeah, in the history of football,
Kirk Cousins has monetized his talent to the greatest level
(37:27):
and deserves great respect for that. But to your point, Kirk,
there's a trading. Yeah. Tom Brady can say Bruce arians
go upstairs. Yeah, Kirk Cousins isn't going to say that
to a coach, right.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
That's the thing is, you don't. If you the only
people who get everything they want in their work life
are the absolute apex best, And if you are the
(38:03):
if you are the very best in your field, you
can kind of write the contract. If you are, that's
still super valuable. But there's seven or eight people better
than you, then you're gonna get most of what you want,
but not all of it. And I just think that's normal,
Like I it doesn't. I didn't. And I'm an empathetic person.
(38:27):
I can I can cry at the good enough tweet,
you know. I don't know if somebody put out a
tweet the other day. It was like my dad wrote
me these letters every morning before school growing up. I
read it. I teared up. I'm like, oh my god,
Like I really think I'm an empathetic person, but I
didn't feel a moment where I'm like, oh, poor Kirk Cousins.
It's like, what because you don't want to, because you
(38:48):
deserve to not have to compete, and you're not even
really competing, Like it's your job. You're really gonna have
to screw up to not have it be your job.
I don't get it. I just don't get it.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Hey everyone, it's Jason Timp, host of Hoops Tonight. Make
sure you check us out live after games on the
Hoops Tonight YouTube channel as we provide instant reaction and
analysis of all the big NBA playoff games. Again, that's
the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel and wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
So I'm divorced and my ex wife and I have
a fine relationship. We don't talk much anymore, but it
was always very or respectful.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Sure, so.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
I totally get that it's a roast. I totally get it,
but I do hear the Giselle jokes and I think,
to myself, that's a little rough for me.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Like I thought about this, I couldn't believe we signed
up for it.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Yeah, I thought if somebody wanted to roast me, the
first thing I would think about is I got to
protect my kids. Right, That's the first thing I would say.
That's almost the first thing I think about always is
how is this going to land for my kids? And
(40:18):
when I listened to the jokes, I thought a lot
of it was hilarious. But I think I would have said, hey, don't,
I don't want you going after my kids.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
But then right, but that's but that's so here's the
thing that but it's a roast. So I don't watch
this is a I'm sure there's a word for it.
I I don't watch roasts because there's a level of
like that secondhand embarrassment thing is like something I really
(40:52):
don't deal with. Well, Like there are certain times like
that we were talking about Curb earlier. There would be
certain moments in Curb where like I literally like I
turn away, like I'm like, oh, I feel so even
though it's make believe and it's someone else, I get
something internally. I feel uncomfortable with so a roast where
(41:12):
And it's not that I don't watch roast because I'm
offended by the jokes. It's because there are certain things
where I feel so badly for the person involved that
it makes me feel uncomfortable. It's why I was shocked
it existed. It's I just was shot. Like I get
why comedians do it to comedians, and I get why
(41:35):
fringe I don't want to be rude. I get why
Pete Rose would sign up for long like yeah, you
know what I mean, I'm in the spotlight. It's a check,
you know what I mean, Like, I get those things
I don't under like I was shocked that Tom signed
up for it because it just feels like there's so
many landmines and so much like you were saying, I didn't,
(41:59):
I thought, yeah, there were a lot of people that
seems like and I'm not really an expert to talk
about this because again, like I didn't. I've seen some clips,
so I didn't watch it because I just don't enjoy that.
But it seems like there were a lot of people
that were not there that feel like that was not
fun for me or my family, you know what I mean,
(42:19):
all of it, and so I don't. I also was
kind of shocks. I was like, did Tom admit to
to flategate in this thing? Was that? Like, like what,
I didn't understand a lot of it, but he listen,
he I mean he the What didn't surprise me from
the coverage of it was that Belichick came off great.
(42:43):
What didn't surprise me is that people said, you know
what I mean, that he came off great and did
a great job. That that sound that checks out to me.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
Yeah, And I'm not I'm not blaming anybody for the
Gazelle jokes. I just thought, ooh that I would.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
I would. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
That was the one where I was like, eh, God,
I don't. And I'm like you, I think Jeffrey Ross
and Nikki Glazer are great at what they do. I
I can't believe you have secondhand embarrassment. I suffer from
the same thing. Like I don't like to see people
bullied or hugely embarrassed.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
I would rather. I know this sounds absurd. I so
I take the subway every day, and you from when
I pick up my daughter from school, I take subway home,
and the subway platform you go downstairs busy platform. As
insane as this sounds, I would rather slip and fall
(43:44):
on the subway stairs then have the person in front
of me slip and fall on the subway stairs, because
like when I like, I don't really care, like I
don't like I'm I'm not embarrassed easily for myself, Like
that's okay, Like people saw me fall, I don't care.
But for some reason the thing of like, oh that
person now thinks I was looking at him. They are embarrassed.
(44:06):
I really really it makes me feel super uncomfortable. The
second had embarrassment thing, and so it's just yeah, so
I just don't enjoy I appreciate that. Now. I will
tell you this, this is an unbelievable anecdote that I'm
about to give you. So Jamal Charles, who's gonna end
(44:28):
up being one of the greatest running backs ever to
not make the Hall of Fame. So you got totally
screwed by the Chiefs while he was there. It's just
an all time player. He's from Port Arthur, Texas and
was my favorite player when I was covering the Chiefs
in the early twenty tens, and I was really associated
(44:49):
with him because basically every time the Chiefs lost, I'd
be like, I don't know about you guys. I would
have given the ball to Jamal Drells, Moore, Brody Froyle
is the quarterback, handed off to the guy who's getting
seven yards of carry you idiots. So when I was
in Houston after Kansas City, Jamal was being inducted to
the Port Arthur Sports Hall of Fame and they said, hey, Nick,
(45:09):
will you host it? Will you be the host of
the event? Like, yeah, of course, and be honest, this
is great. And the guy put it on, He's like,
it's a roast. I'm like, it's a roast. They're like, yes,
it's a roast. But again I'm even though I said
I don't watch them, this is I'm like, Okay, there's
(45:30):
no comedians here, but Andy Reid is there. Earl Thomas
from Texas is there. So his teammates are there. Whatever
it is, and they're like, yes, it's a roast, like, okay,
so I'll, you know, write eight minutes of jokes is unbelievable.
I don't think I've ever told the story publicly. There's
(45:51):
a video somewhere. So I get up there and I am,
I think telling great jokes, like one of them was
God damn man, don't you I'm telling you this. Do
not isolate this and put this on social media, I said.
I turned to Andy Reid and I said something about
how I'm not going to tell the exact joke, but
(46:13):
how his clock management style reminded me of my sex
life in college. There was something. There was a joke there.
You people can figure it out. It was a good joke.
He didn't like it. I said something about Earl Thomas
and the Legion of Boom whatever it is, and nobody's
really laughing that much, but these are good jokes. And
then every other person that came up there did not
(46:36):
get the memo this was a roast. They got the
memo that this was a toast, and no one told
me jokes and everyone just talked about it, right Carl,
So I just looked like the biggest asshole in the world.
I started the thing. I'm just I'm just killing everybody.
(46:57):
Then everyone's like, here's how Jamal's changed my life. If
no joke's nothing, I'm like, you've gotta be kidding me.
You have got to be kidding me. And the guy
who did it, the guy who set it up, I'm like,
I didn't get like misread the email, was like no, man,
He's like, I'm sorry, Like I told everyone it was
a roast, but whatever, they didn't go with it. So
I just looked like the worst guy ever. Like Andy
(47:19):
I think was legitimately Matt because Andy's and Andy and
I are really cool now. But Andy, when I then
introduced him after the joke, he came over and maybe
it's just how he shakes hands and he is a
big guy, but it was not like a firm handshake.
It was like, I'm gonna hurt your hand with this handshake,
you smart ass kid making fun of my clock management.
(47:42):
So maybe that's why I don't like roasts, because one
of the most embarrassing nights of my life was me
thinking I was at a roast and it was actually
a toast and I just looked like a bad guy.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
That is an all time story.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
You can include that. See I know, I said, don't
put it on social media. You can do whatever you want.
Just maybe try to clip out the sex life in
college thing. I have an image to uphold. But go ahead,
But yeah, that is a real story. That's a true story.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Austin Rivers came out and said I could pick thirty
NBA players and play in the NFL. JJ Watt fired back,
and I said, today there are sports, and the NBA
is included in this. Tennis, golf, baseball, basketball. There is
a skill level that erodes very quickly if you don't
stay on it. Don't If you don't hit a baseball
(48:30):
for two months, you're cooked. You're cooked. Basketball. When I
was playing high school basketball in the college every day.
If I took a week off, my ball handling wasn't
quite as good. And NFL is the one sport where
you don't have to play college and you can be
a Hall of Famer Antonio Gates. It's not a repetitive sport.
(48:50):
Some some instances mechanics for quarterback yes, sure, kicking yes,
But a lot of it is strength, brutality, physicality, instincts
at raw more yea more than any other sport football,
which is why so many of us play high school football,
and so many people participate. You can be big, you
don't have to be fast. You can be a guard.
(49:12):
You can only be able to kick. You can be
a punter, right, Like, there's a bunch of different stuff
that said, I don't think basketball players have any idea
how much getting tackled hurts. If you ever go to
the sideline of an NFL game and watch Christian McCaffrey
get hit, you cannot believe he can get up. You
(49:35):
cannot believe he's not severely injured. It is a car
wreck on every tackle.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
So you should watch. You. I mean, well, you obviously
know these guys, Howie Long's kids. You know, Chris and
Jake Long. You know, so they have a podcast green Light,
and you, by the way, you own a podcast business
or an audio business. Like, I think I think they
(50:02):
are great. I think Chris is Chris did He tweeted,
he said, emergency rant coming on Austin Rivers and Colin.
When I tell you this is some of my favorite
ten minutes of media in the last month. You have
to listen to it because his entire take is that
(50:22):
not that guys couldn't do it, but like because they're
not good enough at football, but I mean and I'm
gonna not do it justice. He's like, Oh, okay, Austin Rivers.
You think you guys can come play football. Well, here's
the deal. We got fifty three guys on the team.
There's three massage therapists. Oh your body hurts well, the
massuse available at four o'clock. Why don't you get a
lift in and shut up? Like you're used to that
(50:44):
in the NBA. He's like, Oh, in the NBA, your
coach is how do they talk to you? Because my
coaches mf me and then tell me to go lay
in a queen size bedit training camp with another guy
in my room. He's like, he does a whole thing.
He's like, what's your flights like? Because for forty of us,
we're in the coach seats on a plane. When's the
last time you His whole take was not you wouldn't
be good enough, but that our lives are just different.
(51:06):
Our coaches coach us, Our practices are hard. He was like,
what happens in the NBA when somebody gets hurt? Do
they cancel shoot around? Because in the NFL they move
the drill. They just move they're like guys getting carted off.
It is a great rant. With that said, I came
up with eight guys. I want to know. I didn't
(51:26):
know you're going to talk about this. I came up
with eight guys and their position. I guess it's seven guys,
all right. So Anthony Edwards could play running backer safety.
I am certain of it. I am certain Anthony Edwards
could do it. Young Lebron would be the greatest tight
end in NFL history. I know, I know it's true.
(51:49):
Westbrook could play in the NFL. I'm not sure the position.
Maybe ad drusher, maybe safety. Josh Hart I think can
be a wide receiver, just based on his rebound. Unding
this playoffs, Chris Long said he I'm just gonna trust
him on this because I never would have thought of it,
but he played the position. He was like, I've been
(52:10):
watching the playoffs. I could make Jalen Brown a pass rusher.
I'm like, okay, I believe you. He was like, he
was like he has great bend. He seems a little mean.
He's like, I could do it. And then and this
is gonna sound mean, and I am not being mean.
I am simply saying he would have to put on weight,
which I think he can, and then all of a
(52:31):
sudden it would be a benefit. He has great feet,
great athleticism. I think Zion could potentially be an a
an awesome lineman. He's six ' six, he obvious, you
know what I mean, can carry it big like Jason
Peters was a tight end that went to it. So
I do think where I think Austin Rivers had a
kernel of accuracy is there are certainly more NBA guys
(52:53):
that the There are probably five NBA guys that could
be good NFL players, like good, like hey, give me
a year to train be a good NFL player. And
I don't know that there's any NFL guys that could
be really good NBA players because, like you said, your
(53:14):
skill has atrophied and if you're not over six ' six,
it's all about skill, it's you know what I mean.
And there's nobody that's six ' ten in the NFL
to begin with.
Speaker 2 (53:24):
So I think the list you made would be shorter.
But to give you an example, I think because football
players are so thick, we forget how big they are.
Go look at the video of Micah Parsons without his
shirt on this week. He makes Aunt Edwards look like me.
(53:46):
He is so big. I'll give you an example. There's
an old photo of Michael Jordan standing next to Barry Bombs.
He looks like a straw. Is that Remember Michael playing baseball?
He looked like he was so stimciated.
Speaker 1 (54:06):
Now that's that. That part's fair, that part. Yeah, These
NFL guys they regularly leg press five hundred and fifty pounds.
That is when you watch Micah Parsons without a shirt on.
My take is and there are times he is engulfed
(54:26):
by Trent Williams, just engulfed by it. No, that so
that part, So people do we all have a like
our brain doesn't process how big NFL guys are and
how tall NBA guys are. Our brain doesn't accept it. Like, yeah,
I mean you see around the office occasionally, I assume
my son because he works on the lot. You've seen
(54:48):
him there. He is almost always the biggest guy in
the room. He's you know, he's six three and a half,
you know, probably two hundred pounds, maybe one ninety and
in a room of regular people, he's an imposing cuts,
an imposing figure. He is the exact same height and
about ten pounds lighter than Steph Curry, and Steph Curry
(55:12):
in the NBA looks like a little guy, and it's like, no, actually,
Steph Curry's the size of a bouncer at a decent nightclub.
It's like, you know what I mean, Like the and
so everybody forgets how tall NBA guys actually are. That
the guys in the when you're watching the basketball game
and a guy looks like he's average height, he's six
(55:32):
seven and if you worked with someone who was six ' seven,
you would gawk at them. And you're right about how
just the raw strength of the average NFL player, that
part is unquestioned.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
When just the and of the Long Brothers pointed out
the physical and mental toughness to just get tackled by
the strongest people in the country over and.
Speaker 1 (55:59):
Over and over, well that what he said. He said,
he was just talking about guys who because who would
just get folded he said, he was naming NBA guys.
He's like, you get folded up by like one of
those camping tables, like, oh, you're seven feet tall, well
to you're four feet tall now because he just got
folded in half. It's a great rant it is shout
(56:22):
out to him. Man. I know you and I are
two people, two of the ten people in the world
who appreciate a great rant as much as anybody. And
this was a great rant by Chris Long. I highly
enjoyed it. I do think there are a few though.
I think there are a few guys who could do it.
(56:42):
I think I do think Anthony Awards could play safety
because I don't think safeties are at the size of MICHAEH.
Parsons is flying around like a missile. I think he
could do He's twenty two years old. I think you
play safety. The Chiefs just drafted a get in the
first roundway its one hundred and sixty pounds. That guy
don't see Anthony Edwards coming over the middle. Just doesn't.
Speaker 2 (57:02):
I'll give you Lebron. We'll stop right there, Okay, Nick Wright,
as always, buddy, it's great.
Speaker 1 (57:08):
Absolutely talk to you soon. Conby the volume.
Speaker 2 (57:13):
Thanks so much for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast,
take a moment, rate and review
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