Playing hurt, Warriors, World Cup, Raiders, & Anthony Davis

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
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Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on
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(00:27):
may be, however you may be listening. We are live iHeartRadio,
Fox Sports Radio, not on TV. This week. It's been
so much fun. We are doing a radio only week.
I barely shaved and I'm not wearing pants. It's a great,
great feeling this morning. Next week I'm off unless the

(00:50):
NBA Finals go seven. Then I'll work Monday, but I'm
gonna hang out, go to Zoos Enter two with my son,
multiple zoos in or two with my son hiking, biking,
Gonna have a great next week. I take one week,
big week off in the summer. Now, that's gonna be
it next week, but I have to wait, and I
always take it. After the finals and before free agency,

(01:13):
there's like ten days where you can take a vacation.
If you're a sports gaster, now I do miss the draft,
but I'll you know, I can live with that. There's
three guys in the whole draft they hear about. I
want to start with this bunch of stories. Now, Warriors
are terrible. Kevin Durant wasn't anywhere close to one percent.
Oh my god, Oh look at the Warriors. This is irresponsible.

(01:37):
Oh this is unbelievable, folks. The Warriors are not overly
likable to begin with, and now we're piling on. Let's
be upfront about this. Their head coach, Steve Kerr, is
very political. The owner Joe Lacob is arrogant. Another owner
pushed a player. They recruited Kevin Durant to a team
that was already loaded. And they represent Silicon Valley, which,

(01:58):
like Hollywood, tends to lean laughed and most sports fans don't.
So the minute people can pile on the Warriors, they
are not going to hesitate. And there's some piling on happening.
Are we forgetting that boogie? Clay Looney an kd. None
of them are really healthy and all of them have

(02:18):
played hurt, Folks. Pro athletes return early from injuries always,
you're never one hundred percent healthy. How many times have
I seen Aaron Rodgers gimpie and limping around the field.
We love that about Aaron Rodgers. He plays hurt. Tiger
Woods kept entering tournaments for five years. His back was

(02:40):
a mess. He had to withdraw, but we love the fight.
Kurt Gibson's home run does not happen the Dodgers. I
can't believe what I just saw. That does not happen
if an athlete doesn't push of physical envelope. Kurt Schilling

(03:02):
in the bloody sock, MJ's flu game to Super Bowl
with a broken leg. We have a game final seven
Game Final Nights seven, Stanley Cup Final, Game seven. Boston's
best defenseman is playing with a broken face. Dan right,
he's playing. He's a hockey player. He needs to play right.

(03:23):
Many of the most dramatic sports moments ever injured players
overcoming health, the flu, ligaments. Yet one Kevin Durant backfires.
Oh my god, this is outrageous. Folks. Don't be an
investor or an athlete if you're not willing to lose

(03:45):
big when every when any time a guy brags about, yeah,
I've never lost money in an investment, you don't have
much hutzpah. You're not really an investor. Rupert Murdock's an investor.
He's eaten it a couple of times. And you're not
really an athlete if you've never played hurt, because that

(04:06):
means you're on teams that don't matter. If you're on
teams that matter, Bama football, Clemson football, Patriot football, Philadelphia
Eagle Football, Warrior Basketball, Rockets basketball, you play hurt. It's
part of the deal. Steve Kerr was upset read a
story this morning disbelief. He could not believe he was

(04:27):
told Kevin Durant could only tweak the injury. Well, the
doctors were right. He didn't retweak the calf. It's a
new injury, the Achilles. Nobody loves the poker player who
plays it safe. They make movies about poker players who
put all their chips in the middle of the table.

(04:49):
The movies were called dirty Harry, not swell Harry. That's
who we are. Sports is a goal for it business.
Some businesses, you play safe. Accounting got to get the
numbers right, but Katie playing hurt was a go for
it moment. Don't like risk, being accountant like risk, tolerate risk,

(05:11):
being an athlete or an investor. We absolutely crushed Jay
Cutler years ago in the twenty ten NFC Championship because
he wouldn't play hurt. We crushed him. We crushed Ladanian
Tomlinson because he wouldn't play hurt. And yet we said,
but Philip Rivers is able to play with a ripped

(05:32):
up shoulder. Stop being hypocrites. Stop being hypocrites. You put
your arms around the broken down athlete that returns early risks,
career ending injuries and plays and now one backfires and
you're freaking out how the whole Warrior rosters a mess physically?
Should Boogie really be playing Clay just popped a hammy?

(05:55):
Should he really be playing Kavon Looney? Whatever he's going through,
Good God, he looks like he's in pain. Should he
really be playing? No? No, nos, the answer to all
of them. But when you're on teams that matter, you
got to play through stuff and you are rewarded for
it financially, you are rewarded for it with your legacy.

(06:16):
Just part of the business. Don't tell me you get
goose bumps with Kurt Gibson's home run and then tell
me you're outraged with Kevin Durant playing hurt. Can't have
one without the other. Let me talk about something I
don't very often, sucker. Right now, we've got the World
Cup going on. The United States women's national team beat

(06:39):
Thailand thirteen nothing. Oh, and people did not like it.
The favored United States women's national team beat Thailand thirteen
nothing and celebrated even after the seventh, eighth, ninth goal.
Here are some Canadian broadcasters, former players a getting after it.
If you were going to blow away a team, do

(07:00):
it with humility, and they did not. Megan Rippino has
scored countless goals on the international stage. She was celebrating
like she had her first. When you're Alex Morgan two
and you're counting out your goals, it was just unacceptable.
All I understand there's a goal differential race in this tournament.
I understand they're nervous about drawing Sweden later in the tournament,
but this was disgraceful from the United States. I would

(07:21):
have hoped they could have won with humility and grace,
but celebrating goals eight, nine, ten, the way they were
doing is really unnecessary. Oh, it's just terrible. By the way, Canada,
congrats on the raptors. But your fans cheered Kevin Durant's injury.
Not very graceful, folks. This is the price and the
burden of power. It's the price and the burden of

(07:43):
being the United States is scrutiny. First of all, let
me defend the United States women's national team. Soccer only
allows three substitutions per game. You're trapped. It's not like basketball,
not like football, not like base can't go to a bench.
You're only allowed three subs per game. Number two is

(08:04):
gold differential does matter in soccer and World Cubs. Number three,
how do we know Thailand was not just honored to
be on the same field. The United States women's national
team is the team of the century. In Jamaica, they
said Jamaica was just happy to be on the field
against Brazil. Remember that? And are we patronizing women like

(08:29):
they can't handle this? By the way, in nineteen ninety two,
NBA Dream Team beat Angola by seventy there was very
little sympathy for Angola. The women from Thailand are tough,
They can handle it. They got their ass kicked. You
know what. It galvanizes teams. It gives your reality check
of who you are. I play tennis every other day.

(08:50):
I play a college player. He beats me six love
six love. Yesterday he beat me and apologized for a
great shot. I said, what are you apologizing for. I
don't want your sympathy. You're a barometer on how bad
I am. Yesterday it took him an hour five to
beat me two sets. It used to be an hour
five to beat me in three. I'm getting better and

(09:12):
I appreciate him not taking it easy on me. The
women from Thailand ask yourself this. If you flip the
score and Thailand beat US thirteen nothing and celebrated, there
would not be this outrage. People would say, how embarrassing.

(09:34):
The United States women with all that talent were humiliated.
They deserved it. Well, come on, it's the biggest win
in the history of Thailand's women's soccer federation. Of course
they're going to celebrate. It was a little over the top,
but let's put our arms around. This is the price
and the burden of power and greatness scrutiny. Tony Blair's

(09:55):
the former Prime Minister of Great Britain. He was asked
on a talk show once about the global hate. This
was like ten years ago. Obama was the president, and
he was asked about all the global hate for the
United States, and he said, people are jealous of the
best looking, richest guy who walks into a room. Much
of it is based in jealousy, animosity, and fear. If

(10:20):
a small country beat US thirteen to nothing and danced
in their eight ninth goal, Thailand, we would not be
criticizing Thailand. We'd be ripping our women for allowing that
to happen. Because our women are awesome, and they're the
face of women's soccer globally, and they're smart and well coached,

(10:40):
and they kick butt, and they have the best players
and some of the most iconic women's soccer players ever
there ares mi ahem, Americans. This is the price of
great the downside, the power. I'll live with that. I'll
take that downside to live in the unit at It

(11:00):
states to the world's leading democracy, the world's leading women's
soccer power, the world's leading economy. Yes, we're the country
people call when the fit hits the sham somewhere else,
and we pick up the bills. Just flip the score
thirteen nothing Thailand over Us, they celebrated. They wouldn't be

(11:24):
getting the outrage our women are. We would be going
good for them. They came prepared, biggest when in their
country's women's soccer federation kicked our butt. Our girls deserve it.
They you know what, you should be humiliated. I hope
this sticks. I hope it galvan I I hope it
shows how arrogant you were for it. They should be,

(11:45):
you know exactly, that's exactly what would have been happening.
This isn't about classlessness. That's not what this is about.
It's about power and the burden of it, the burden
of being Alabama football. If you beat somebody sixty two nothing,
you're jerks. But if you lost sixty two nothing, Bam,
it's still get the criticism. Not prepared and arrogant ladies

(12:12):
dance all night. That wasn't just about the goals thirteen.
Nothing was about the time you have put in over
the last ten years that enables you to dominate people.
I'm not gonna blame kids at my age, kids in
their twenties for getting a little gassed up for having

(12:35):
the greatest day historically in the history of United States
women's national soccer goals. Wise, it's the price of being powerful. Scrutiny, criticism.
So Woes is just dropping more bombs, this one about
ad Lebron and the Lakers, and that's around the corner.

(12:57):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays
and nun Eastern Nini Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS
one and the iHeartRadio app. Good to have you in
summer sizzles. Feel like they're cooking in your clothes. Get
Tommy John's new cool cotton fabric. It's like your own
on body air condition or code heard for twenty percent

(13:18):
off your first order Tommy john dot com. I'm wearing
it today. So Adrian Warzanowski Woes is a very good
NBA reporter. This is one of those Colin Rights Colin
wrong situations. His headline Lakers need second star via trade,
top free agents unlikely to join where Colin was right. Yeah,

(13:39):
the Nicks and the Lakers are struggling to land free
agents because they're both poorly run and both with this
fake false notion they're logo matters. Lakers. You got to
land Anthony Davis, and it's eight days until the draft
and you have the number four pick. Use it now.

(14:00):
Picks not as valuable after the draft because you may
draft a guy. The Pelicans don't like the Lakers and
the Knicks right now. One's an utter disaster for two decades.
The Knicks one's been bad, about to be a disaster
if they don't land a d Both of their selling
points to free agents are non basketball. The Knicks are saying, hey,

(14:22):
you'll play at the garden. The Lakers are saying, it's
sunny here and we've won seventeen titles, most a long
time ago. But their rosters, owners, recent teams, records, front
offices not great. An agent's job is to protect his client.
I have one. He's not going to send me into

(14:45):
a team or a business with bad ownership. It's why
I chose the Murdocks and Fox they get broadcasting. My
agent would never send me to a company with bad management.
And the Lakers right now it's a jigsaw puzzle of
owners former agents acting as GM's magic quit. The Rambus

(15:09):
is involved. I'm told nobody likes Rob Polinka. I can't
confirm it, but he's Kobe's friend to jigsaw puzzle, and
the Lakers are in jeopardy of becoming the Knicks if
they don't land Anthony Davis Lebron's going to be a
year older. Lonzo and Brandon Ingram talented but can't stay healthy.
Next year's free agent class not spectacular, and it's actually

(15:33):
all lining up to get Anthony Davis. Here's the moment, Lakers,
you got about five days, six seven, Maybe make a deal.
Lebron's agent is Anthony Davis's agent. That's perfect. Lebron's former
GM is the Pelicans GM, so this is a friendly deal.

(15:55):
Anthony Davis chose the Lakers initially and says they're one
of two teams he'll play for now. The Lakers actually
have They've drafted fairly well, they haven't had a bust.
They've got the most tradeable assets, far more than the
next or Brooklyn. This is the moment. Okay, if the

(16:15):
Lakers don't win a d this franchise is going to
be in a free fall for a long time. This
is the New York Giants passing on Sam Darnold. You
end up the following year reaching on quarterbacks, overpaying for people,
being in utter disarray, and being mocked even by your
local Forget the national media, like woe was just saying

(16:36):
free agents are not choosing the Lakers. This is something
we have been on all since the trading deadline. I
keep saying this where Colin was very right, Yes, this
is not where an agent. An agent has a responsibility
to send his client to a well run organization. That
doesn't mean my agent would sell send me to a

(16:58):
perfect company. He my agent sent me to a Fox
Sports one, which was a fledgling network, but it was
owned by the Murdocks, who had a history of Fox
h News, Fox Business Channel, the NFL, the Simpson's twentieth Century,
the movies. You know, they had a history of working
and winning and being successful Wall Street Journal like like right,

(17:22):
FS one was young, it was fledgling, it wasn't complete,
it was it's still building. But but the agents don't
send players to James Dolan and the current Laker front office.
They just don't. That's that's that's being I mean, that's
really frankly, how an agent gets fired that a client
ends up and goes God, it's worse than I thought,

(17:42):
and I thought it was bad. So you got to
make a trade on this. It's right in front of you.
Where Colin was so right, it's getting annoyed. I didn't
had that one veteran newsman John Gouley turned on a
new This is the herd Line news. So, sticking with

(18:05):
rich Paul Colin, we can officially put to bed any
chance that the Celtics trade for Anthony Davis. This is
what Rich Paul told Sports Illustrated quote. They can trade
for him, but it'll be for one year. I mean,
if the Celtics traded for Anthony Davis, we would go
there and we would abide by our contractual obligations and
we would go into free agency in twenty twenty. I've

(18:27):
stated that to them. But in the event that he
decides to walk away and you give away assets, don't
blame Rich Paul. Right, this is a conversation. I think
that happens a lot behind the scenes. Any issue with
him making that. Listen, here's the thing, because Rich Paul's
Lebron's friend. We're very critical of Rich Paul. Correct me

(18:51):
if I'm wrong. David Folk was the most powerful agent
in America, and I'm counting Hollywood twenty five years ago.
He ran the NBA with David Stern. I mean, he ran,
He had Michael Jordan, he ran the league. We didn't
have a problem with it. He was kind of worshiped,
and he was imperfect. I mean, he's a super smart guy.

(19:13):
But why are we so bothered that Rich Paul's like, Hey,
I got Lebron and a d I'd like him to
play together. And by the way, Rich Paul's primary job
right now is not making Lebron happy. It's actually making
Anthony Davis happy. And Anthony Davis has said, I want
to play in New York or LA primarily LA one better.
At least they told the better. Worst situation for the Celtics,
you trade for him, and then he tells you after

(19:34):
the fact he'll By the way, I'm not going to
stay here. Here's the other thing. Rich Paul and Anthony
Davis have all the leverage here. Yea, they have, now
they didn't they got crushed. Well, they've eliminated all the
other teams. That's right. It was only the Lakers and Nick.
So if I'm the Lakers, you're negotiating against yourself here.
Do not give up Lonzo Kuzma, brandon Ingram, Josh Hart.
I would give you one of the two forwards, the

(19:55):
number four pick, the number one pick, and then I'd say,
want to keep either Kuzma, Ingram or Lonzo. I don't
like the idea of giving up Lonzo. I really don't.
He played very well with Lebron last year in limited
action and by the way, one Celtics note, Kyrie officially
opted out his contract. Celtics were not surprised by that. Yeah,

(20:16):
I've been told. I was told last week by an
NBA player that knows Kyrie seventy seventy five percent in Brooklyn.
It's pretty solid he's going to Brooklyn. Speaking of free agency,
While we haven't gotten any updates in the last couple
of days regarding Kawhi Leonard in the Toronto real estate market, yeah,
one of our very analysts is saying Kawai is a
still a one in done in Toronto. This is what

(20:39):
Rick Bucker told Doug Gottlieb yesterday. The latest that I've
heard is that he's going to be elsewhere. Would like
to win a championship, will give that to the Toronto
Raptors as a parting gift, but ultimately this wasn't his
decision to go there. Appreciates what they've done to get
him through this season, but as long as he can
be assured that he is going to be treated the

(21:02):
same way the next place that he goes, as far
as the proverbial load management and how they handle him physically,
then he'll be playing elsewhere next year. Now this comes
after remember a couple of days ago Kauai, maybe he's
made a mistake saying he hadn't bought a house in
Toronto yet implying that he would in the future. Do

(21:23):
you believe Buker that he's still a one and done? Yeah,
I mean, I do think the Raptors are the Canadian
version of the Clippers. Some good veteran players, excellent chemistry,
well coached, great front office, and if it's a coin flip,
I think he'd probably go to Los Angeles. I will
tell you though, that I watching the Toronto fans and

(21:44):
watching a fan base, I've grown fond of the organization,
and it kind of stinks that if he does leave,
they're going to be in a rebuild mold. I mean,
if they went a title, I don't think they would
even care. I know, you remember the Royals went all
in and won a title and then they've been terrible.
Sense I think they're kind of just like yet whatever.

(22:06):
But you know what, I've always believed I root for
people who deeply care. Like in the South, they love
college football. Sure, so I like to see the set
teams win because it really does mean a lot more
to them than it does to a UCLA football fan. Sure,
they got the Mountains, the Beach, the sports, the Lakers,
but in the SEC it means more that Toronto fan base.

(22:28):
This team is everything to them and I it's special.
By the way, Rick will be on with us in
about forty five minutes, so we can ask them about that.
And finally, NFL fans got their wish yesterday it was
announced officially that the Oakland Raiders will be on HBO's
Hard Knocks this summer. No shortage of storylines. Their head

(22:49):
coach is a TV star, their GM is a former
TV analysts. They're going to Vegas. They have Antonio Brown,
they have Richie Incognito. When you compare that to the
storylines of the other teams that were technically eligible for
Hard Knocks, the Lions, oh god, the Redskins, boring, the
forty nine ers, I want to be interesting. I bet

(23:10):
Kyle shanahand doesn't talk much. Well. Yeah, and also I
don't want the forty nine ers on Hard Knocks because
I think they can win the Super Bowl. I don't
want to the Raiders can't. I put somebody on there
that's got no chance to be great, right, and then
the Giants, those are the other god teams, Pat Sherman
and Eli Manning. That would be like, those are two
of the three most boring people in the league. Right,
So I'm fair to assume you are excited for this

(23:32):
year's hard Yeah. No, I mean I think it's marketing.
I think at this point the Raiders are like, would
do it? I mean, I think Antonio Brown goes against
everything they showed you in the first year. They didn't
want stars, they wanted to get draft college kids that
were good chemistry guys. They get Antonio Brown. They're trying
to sell tickets. That's what Antonio Brown is. They're trying
to sell tickets, not only in Oakland but in Las Vegas.

(23:52):
So they come in with thirty five thousand season they
get holders. Ye veteran news man John Goulay, Well, that's
the news and thirdline news. All right, Let's bring in
my buddy Nick Wright. First Thing's first call host. He's
on a phone in New York and because we're on
radio this week, so Nick I said to start my show,

(24:13):
you can't tell me you get goosebumps watching Kurt Gibson's
home run and then you're outraged by Kevin Durant. Many
of the great idyllic sports moments in American history TiO
Super Bowl, broken leg MJ flew game. I mean, Kurt Gibson,
Tiger Woods came back five six straight years having to

(24:33):
withdraw from tournaments. Nobody likes a poker player who plays
it safe. We like a guy with a cowboy hat
that pushes the chips to the middle of the table.
Is that the entire this is who we are. Don't
be an investor or an athlete if you're not willing
to deal with risk. And I feel everybody's beaten up
on the Warriors because they're not very likable. But I mean,
are you mad at the Warriors? Well, I'm not mad

(24:57):
at the Warriors, And I do feel for Kevin Durant
enormously because he was in the ultimate no wins situation.
If he doesn't play in the finals and they win
a championship. You got guys such as myself who would
get on TV and say, I told you he's a luxury,

(25:19):
not a necessity. And while you would hope the athlete
doesn't care what people like me say, we know Kevin
Durant cares deeply. Where I do think he got boxed
thin was with the reports over the last ninety six
hours preceding his injury that coaches and or players on
the team were questioning how hard he was trying to

(25:42):
come back. We're questioning that if this injury would have
kept play Thompson or andre Iguidala out as long as
they had kept Durant out. So now, on one side,
he's got the media if they lose, if they win
without him, are gonna say, see, they didn't need you.
On the other side, he's got anonymous people than the
organization that if they lose, they're gonna say it's your

(26:03):
fault you didn't come back. He had one solution here,
which was come back, be awesome, either lead him to
a championship, or just clearly show how much of a
difference maker you are, and it ended sports wise tragically.
I will say this, though you guys were just talking
about Rich Paul, that it is the job of good

(26:24):
representation to grab the guy and say, Katie, we're twenty
days away from hundreds of millions of dollars on and
off the court. Your body is not ready. Do not
succumb to the pressure. And that didn't happen. Katie forced
his way out there. And it wasn't just supposed to

(26:47):
be for a game five. The idea was playing the
game five, two days later, playing the game six, two
days later, playing the game seven. Now, none of that
seems practical. Yeah, you know, I've all the years of
moving around the country. I've had to buy some homes
and sell some homes because I moved to new cities.
And one of the rules of real estate is your

(27:08):
first offer is generally your best offer. And the Pelicans
first offer from the Lakers was glorious. I believe this
morning that Chris Paul and Anthony Davis have all the leverage.
I don't think they have to give up the farm
to get Anthony Davis. What do you think about that, Well,

(27:29):
I think that that would be a very dangerous game
of poker in that And keep in mind, I think
one of the reasons the Pelicans didn't take that initial
offer was the draft pick, which ended up being the
fourth overall pick. Obviously becomes somewhere in the twenties if
you have Lebron and the Anthony Davis for half a
season together. But yeah, the Lakers could say, who are

(27:51):
we bidding against? We're not going to bid against ourselves,
And the Pelicans could say, okay, we will strike out
in free agency and didn't see your level of desperation.
I think this land's pretty simply on Lonzo Ingram, the
number four pick and filler. I know you think that's
a price a little bit too much, But as you

(28:12):
guys were discussing right before I came on, if you
win a title, nothing is too much. And if you
have Lebron for the next four years and Anthony Davis
for the next ten, you'll be competing for titles for
the next decade. I wouldn't you you to use your
house analogy. If you have a house you love and
you make do you make an offer five percent under

(28:35):
ask just because you think you'll probably get it, or
do you say, screw it, I'll offer the full boat
because I don't want to lose it. Yeah, and maybe
overpay a little bit. Yeah, that's that. When Steve Ballmer
bought the Clippers, everybody said you overpaid, and he said, hey,
I bought it cash and b I'm not selling it.
What do I care what the price is. In the end,
it's gonna be worth ten billion dollars in twenty years.

(28:58):
And I just wanted the clippers. So it's a very
good point. If you want something, go get something. Jerry
Jones said that once he goes off, I look back
at my life, he goes, I've only been burned when
I tried to go cheap. If you if you overspend
for something great, you almost always go. You know, it
was expensive. It hurt for a couple of years, like
Carson Wentz's contract, It'll hurt for a year. But it's

(29:19):
the right to your point. It's a very good point.
It's the right way to go. I want to ask
you this is that and I would never generally ask
about this topic, but I defended the United States women's
national team yesterday for this reason that with great power
comes great scrutiny. Twitter is a great example. You could
be an overnight DJ, overnight sports talk show host on

(29:40):
any network say something nobody cares. If you know, if
you know a Dan Patrick or a Me or a
Bob Costas or somebody that's known says something, we can
get attack for it when the more powerful, the more scrutiny,
the more heat. So the United States women's national team,
had they lost thirteen nothing and Taylon would have celebrated it,
the USA would still be getting crush this morning because

(30:03):
they were arrogant. They overlooked Thailand, and we're going to
support Thailand acting outrageously because it's the biggest win in
the history of the country's federation, and good for them
for not being arrogant or fearful and dancing on our
women's soccer graves. Is that the reality is the Americans
we don't want We want them to win, but we

(30:24):
don't like them to win too much, and we don't
like them to celebrate, and soccer doesn't have liberal substitutions.
They were It was a complete utter mismatch. That's how
I fell on it. That's how I land on it.
How do you land on it? I land that the
faul outrage over our women's national team running up the

(30:44):
score in an event where goal differential is the first
tiebreaker so it matters, and then the full outrage over
act like you've been there before when it's an event
that takes two and a half times a decade. Is
one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. It

(31:07):
is just the perfect quinsistential example of people who aren't
actually mad but want to pretend to be mad, and
on Twitter think the best way to show how classy
you are is to show outrage at someone else's lack
of class. No one is actually bothered by it. This
is the type of thing where what you're going to

(31:28):
hear is, well, it doesn't bother me, but for those
that it does. Oh for the kids watching zip it.
Tell your kids when they play in a World Cup
they can do whatever they want. But still then don't
taunt Johnny at nine am on the soccer fields at
the park. This is so stupid. I can't I can't
believe people are actually mad at these, at these men

(31:52):
or women. It's the World Cup. You score a goal,
it is the greatest moment of your entire life. And oh, guys, guys,
come on, show some dignity. By the way, thanks to
the Internet, I was brought to my attention. Then, evidently
Indonesia must have a really poor women's soccer team, because

(32:13):
Thailand beat them thirteen nothing into the run up into
the tournament. So get up the match against Indonesia. We'll
beat them. We'll do transitive Property one hundred and sixty
nine zip and you'll see actual celebration. But until then,
everyone needs to calm down. Only got a minute left.
I gotta go back to Kevin Durant. I just saw
to something. Yeah, are the Knicks still viable? Because with

(32:38):
this injury, it does Kevin Durant want to go there hurt.
He's already not gonna get Zion chances, already doesn't get Kyrie.
Are the Knicks gonna swing and miss on all free agents?
I'd be shocked if Katie doesn't go to the Knicks.
The idea that he's going to opt in and spend
a year rehabbing around an organization when there were whispered

(33:00):
he wasn't trying hard enough to get back. I find
that to be ridiculous, and I think Katie is gonna say, hey,
it's the Eastern Conference, those signs call it Kimball Walker
to go along with him. Hopefully he gets back in
eight to nine months. They are at the time thirty
and thirty five. He can push him into the playoffs
and see what happens. But either way, months like Lebron

(33:21):
with the Lakers. It was a lifetime. It was not
a decision just for the contract, but for the rest
of his life. There would be a decision for Katie
to been the next decade in New York. So I
still think the knicks of the leading contender real quick
before I go, I do want to let you know
the first time, and I think the last time I
was on the radio with you where it's you hosting

(33:42):
and me being on a phone call was in two
thousand and seven when I was a caller and you
were arguing with John Goulay. I believe it was about
what television rating dice came Mat Suzaka's first start with
the Red Sox would get. I stayed on hold forty
eight minutes so I could tell you I disagreed with you,
I agree with Ulay and ended up being proven out

(34:03):
right months later. This is an amazing sense of day
ja vu, and what a difference twelve years makes. Thanks
for having me on as an actual guest instead of
someone has to be on hold this time. College God,
I gotta love it. Was I rude to you or nice?
You offered me an internship if I won the bet,
if I was right. I did win the bet. I
called back to try to get the internship and never

(34:25):
got through. Touch is my life. I love you all right? Nick? Right?
Say how do you say? How are your family for me?
Isn't that amazing? I was too scared as a kid
to call talk show host. I always hear stories like
that where people like call a talk show host, and
I was just like I would is no way. I

(34:45):
can't imagine today you could go on Twitter and talk
to Jay Z. I can't imagine in my day going
on Twitter and taking a shot at Johnny Carson. I'd
be like, it's Johnny Carson. My dad would grab my
phone and thrown it into the ocean. Don't be disrespectful
to Johnny Carson. I mean, you can literally make fun
of the president on Twitter. If my parents saw me
grab a phone and mock the president, I would be

(35:06):
grounded for a summer. I already got grounded for one summer.
I started a fire in the garage. It was small,
but whatever. Never play with oil and matches AnyWho. We'll
take a break coming up next. Why is Boston so
damn good in all their sports? They could win their
thirteenth title in nineteen years. Tonight that's next. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon

(35:27):
Easter nine am Pacific. Tonight is Game seven NHL Stanley
Cup Finals. I will be watching tonight, and if Boston wins,
it will be like their twelve titles since two thousand
and one of thirteenth for the city of Boston, and
they'll have three reigning champs. If the Bruins win tonight,
NFL has the Patriots, hockey would have the Bruins, and

(35:49):
baseball has the Red Sox and the Celtics, that should
be noted, are very very good and well run. And
I think the reason for all this is actually very explainable.
The New England Patriots have forced Boston teams to be smarter,
more dedicated, and better run. And when you get into

(36:12):
one of these cities like Boston that loves its sports
that it used to be a Red Sox town, and
then the Red Sox stumbled and were inconsistent. They were good,
not good, average, good, great, not good, and New England
was great every year. And if you listen to Boston
Sports radio, it is a sixty forty Red Sock disadvantage.

(36:35):
It used to be a ninety ten you turn on
sports radio, open to sports page, it was ninety ten
Red Sox. It's now a fifty fifty split or a
sixty forty Patriots town. And don't kid yourself. I'll give
you an example. I get I last year I had
three hundred thirty one million views on Facebook, almost all

(36:55):
NFL and NBA. You don't think baseball like some of
that free publicity. When an NFL team comes into a
passionate sports market, or any major sports market, if they're good,
they own the media. The La Rams come to La,
usc football and UCLA basketball have disappeared. College football in

(37:17):
La has disappeared since the Ram showed up. The Lakers
feel smaller, the Angels have disappeared with Mike Trout. A
dominant NFL team will dominate sports radio, will dominate the
sports section, and will dominate sports bar viewing. Why do
you think the Phillies went out and spent for Bryce Harper?
Why because the Eagles now are so well run and

(37:38):
so captivating. It used to be you turn on Philadelphia
sports radio and the Phillies would get fifty percent of
the love. Now it's seventy five percent. Eagles talk and
don't kid yourself. The owners and the gms of those
other teams, they pay attention to that stuff. The Dallas
Cowboys cast a shadow over every other Dallas Pro sports franchise.

(37:58):
If the Chicago Bears winning divisions, that becomes a massive
Bears town, and the Bulls and the Blackhawks could disappear.
I grew up in Seattle. Once the Seahawks and Russell
Wilson got big, the Huskies shrink, the Mariners disappear. The
Sonics left it a dominating NFL franchise. For you get

(38:21):
a Hall of Fame quarterback and you win your division
seven out of ten years, it shrinks everybody else in
the market. And Ram's coming to Los Angeles and being
good has made USC and UCLA football much less discussed.
When the last time I talk USC football, I used
to talk about it all the time. Rams just cast
a shadow over it. So I think by the Patriots

(38:44):
coming in for twenty years and being dominant, the owners
of those other teams realize, we gotta be good. We
gotta spend money, we gotta be all in, we gotta
hire the best gms, we gotta pay for prayers and
free agents, or it's all patriot talk and don't kick yourself.
That's just free publicity. You know how many he shirts
an owner and a GM can sell in a marketing
department cell. When you're on sports radio and in the

(39:05):
newspaper and on the blogs and in the bars and
on the televisions, it's a big, big deal. I remember
I was in a I work out every day at
little club, you know, And about Februarary, mid February, I
go in and Lebron and the Lakers. He had come
back and he was playing, and I don't remember when

(39:26):
it was, it was sometime he got Did he come
back from the injury at all? He came back? He
was injured. He came back a couple of games. Yeah,
he came back. And it was one of the games
he came back, and it was on television and nobody
in the sports bar was watching. And the very next
day I walked into my staff meeting and I said, guys,
Lakers are no longer in the regular season A viable topic.

(39:48):
People in LA don't care. If people in LA don't care,
and I'm doing a national show, nobody cares. So you
get an NFL team like the Rams in Los Angeles
or the Eagles in Philadelphia, or what's happening with the
Bear or now San Francisco with the forty nine ers.
If Garoppolo and Kyle Shanahan start winning nine, ten eleven
games every year, the San Francisco Giants will disappear quickly.

(40:10):
They'll they'll and if the Warriors don't keep kd and
Steph gets hurt. That's just the reality of the NFL.
The Patriots have completely It used to be thought of.
Boston was impenetrable. It was a baseball town. I mean
that was just it was John you grew up near there.
It was a baseball town period. Patriots were irrelevant. Patriots
were and then the Patriots got Craft, Belichick, Brady. It

(40:32):
is now a Patriots town more than fifty percent. You
listen to sports talk radio, the leading morning shows, it's
a lot of hockey, it's a lot of basketball. It's
it's not as much Red Sox as it used to be,
and it's a lot of Patriots. Our two next one
more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd

(40:53):
to listen live or on demand whenever you like. Then
is the herd Our two in La wherever you may
be and however you may be listening. iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio,
have our podcast today? Are we doing anything on Twitter

(41:13):
or anything like that today? Do we have any video
at all today? I'm gonna send on Twitter now tomorrow.
I believe these cameras around you are recording. So hey,
so tomorrow we're in Sherman Oaks right next two days,
so I'll be driving to Sherman Oaks tomorrow. You guys
got to give me directions on that. I don't want
to end up in the boonies. I was wandering around
in Sherman Oaks. Building is right where two major highways intersects.

(41:35):
So if you're in the boonies, you've really missed. Hey,
you've been driving with me. I've been lost a lot.
I have no sense of direction. It's it's really a
huge I think it's Purbank one day and you ended
up in like Pasadena or something. Helped me out. No
sense of direction. Listen. Whatever Christopher Columbus was, I'm the opposite.
I would have not hit Plymouth Rock. I would have

(41:55):
just I would have been down into the keys and
I would be like, oh, I hit America. To be fair,
he was going in the other direction too. Yeah, he
went the wrong way for a few things. When I
go in, When I go in to a hotel room,
and you know, ten times a year I'm in a
hotel room, I come down the hallway, I go in,

(42:16):
I put my luggage away and brush your teeth whatever,
and then you leave. Nine out of ten times, I
will go the opposite way of where the elevator is,
and I'll be like, I'm staring at a staircase. I
have no sense of direction. You put me in a city,
say go west, no idea. I am just can do it.

(42:36):
By the way, that the Kevin Durant injury, he's probably
not going to play next year. And you know when
I look at leagues, I tend to look at him
as a business. Right, Let's just I that's how I
look at sports. I try to be an emotional I
try to look at it like a like a business.
The NFL is the best business in the country, and
it's not really close. The downside to build around star

(43:00):
players like the NBA, is Kevin Durant's going to be
out next year, or that Lebron James is not in
the playoffs and the ratings go down twenty percent. The
NFL is a next man up league and it's not
beholden to a handful of star players. The NFL has
also got three things really really working for it. Number One,
legalize gambling. Football's the sport in America. We bet and

(43:24):
legalize gambling is growing state by state faster than anybody thought.
Number two is and this is a huge bonus for
the NFL going forward. And it's the opposite problem in
the NBA. By adapting all these college football offenses in
the NFL, college quarterbacks can now come into the NFL
like Baker Mayfield and they're good day one. They can

(43:46):
play day one. So whereas in the NBA, a guy
comes into the NBA, unless he's like Zion, they disappear
for like four years. I mean Anthony Davis one playoff
win in six years, and he was the next great thing.
The other thing the NFL's got going forward is that
starr backs now because a diets in nutrition, they're just
lasting longer. I mean Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson,
Big Ben. These guys are going to play in to

(44:07):
their forties, whereas the NBA has got two or three
things working against at number one is three your top brands,
The Bulls, the Knicks, and the Lakers are not well run. Lebron,
Katie and Staff are getting older, all had injuries, and
eighty percent of the stars are on the West. It's
kind of an uneven conference where the West is way
interesting and the East is sort of interesting. I do

(44:30):
think the good news is Jimmy Butler will stay in Philly,
but Kawhi is another star who's going to head West,
and I think that's a problem. Where's the NFC in
the AFC? Feel more even There's a ton of interesting
teams in the NFC, the Packers, the Cowboys, the Eagles,
and there's a ton of interesting teams out in the AFC,
which is the Patriots and the Steelers. How the Browns
are interesting Kansas City. So I you know, it's a

(44:54):
landscape of the NBA. Next year is gonna be fuzzy.
The best player could be in Milwaukee. Kyrie is gonna
go to Brooklyn and disappear. Zion ends up going not
to New York but New Orleans. Katie will miss the season,
The Warriors won't be nearly as dominant or as interesting
without him, And what if Lebron doesn't land a number two.
I think he will, but what if he doesn't. So,

(45:15):
you know, it has always been a little bit of
the downside of the NBA business, and the NBA privately
will tell you is that free agency is bigger than
the regular season. It's a soap opera and I like it.
I think it's fun and it does my radio and
TV business very well. I do a lot of NBA.
But next year, you know, we thought a bunch of

(45:38):
stuff was gonna happen. Katie's gonna win a title, gonna
go to the next, Zion's gonna go to the next,
Kyrie's gonna work in Boston, Lebron's gonna land Jimmy Butler
and no, no, no, no, no, no, no interesting. Next year,
I want to throw this out. I gotta just you know,
when I'm on radio, I can, you know, kind of
fish around and have some fun on some topics that

(45:59):
would necessarily do if I was simulcasting. The US Open
starts tomorrow and it's going to be a really good
US Open. Tiger's plan well Brooks Keepska's dominant Dustin Johnson,
Phil Mikinson, Rory just won a tournament. It's gonna be
a good US Opens, a really good weekend on Fox.
But it's a really good weekend for golf. Just think
about this. Sometimes you become a victim of your own success.

(46:21):
Tiger woods last US Open win was eleven years ago,
So let's take the last eleven years since the US
Open title. We won't count that. So the minute he
won the US Open from that day forward, those are
Tigers down years. Those are Tigers reboot years in his

(46:47):
down period, in his slump period, Tiger has been named
Player of the Year twice. He's won a major, and
then fourteen other PGA wins for fifteen total. That's Fred
Couple's career, and Fred's a Hall of Famer. Tiger was
so good it's like Lebron goes twenty eight, eight and

(47:08):
eight and we're banging on him. That's a That's a
great year for virtually every single player in the NBA,
including Kauai twenty eight, eight and eight. That Marcomira has
two majors, Colin Montgomery has none, Davis Love has one,
Fred Couples has one. Four for four, they're all in
the Golf Hall of Fame. Tigers down decade, fifteen total wins,

(47:34):
one major, two time Player of the Year. Those are
his down years. That's a Hall of Fame. That's Marcomira's career.
That's Fred Couple's career in the rebuilding, rebooting, emotionally distressed,
back fused Tiger era that he was kind of off.

(47:58):
That just shows you how great he is. That's Lebron
last year, twenty eight, eight and eight. Man. He is
no good. Lebron is at worst still the second best
player in the NBA. For one year, Janis or Lebron?
Who would you take? I'd take Lebron for one year,
Lebron Kawhi? Who would you take Lebron? The only gun
in the league I'd take over him was KD, and

(48:19):
now I wouldn't because he's out next year. Lebron would
still be for a year to two years the player
you would take if you had two years and you
had to win and you're starting a franchise. You're not
thinking Joel Embiide. You're not taking Anthony Davis. You're not
thinking KD. You're not thinking Kahi. You're taking Lebron twenty eight,
eight and eight his bad year. Goodevian, Rick Buker, Bucky

(48:42):
Brooks joining us today. Man, I was I was so
bummed out yesterday when Rashad Phillips came on the show
and told me John Rant should go number one and
not Zion. I almost pouted all day yesterday. It was
it was just I didn't even know what to make

(49:02):
of it. I was just beside myself yesterday. This is
Rashad Phillips, by the way, a friend of Kobe Baron,
great great basketball player, best player never drafted. Kobe Bryant
calls him saying he's taking John Morant over Zion if
he could John Morant Murray state, he's dynamic, fantastic as
a point guard. Let's look at it like football point

(49:25):
guards are like superstar quarterbacks. Okay, the Trey Youngs, the
John Morants, those guys are like Patrick Mahomes. When you
take the bigs like Zion Williamson and DeAndre eight and
they're like, they're like defensive ends. So do you want
a guy that can throw fifty touchdown passes or a
guy that maybe can get you fifteen sacks. Here's where
I pushed back on that. I almost always believe if

(49:45):
I love two players. Take the bigger, stronger one. They
just last longer. The NBA draft is eight days away.
I would take Zion number one, and he's just bigger
and stronger. And point guards do have the ball more,
the usage rate is higher. I would not deny that,
but I don't think you can compare point guards to
quarterbacks because in the NFL, the quarterback always handles the ball,

(50:08):
but in the NBA, your point guard's not always your
primary ball handler. I mean Kobe Bryant big games, he'd
get the ball and it was his ball in the
half court set, and Lebron is handling the ball in
the half court set for the Lakers if they need
a basket, whereas the quarterback always handles the ball. So

(50:29):
I got nothing against John Morant, but he's six three
and one eighty five. Zion six seven to eighty five.
And if if you look at men who have dominated
the NBA, MJ. Magic, Duncan, Shack Bird, Kobe, Doctor, j Wilt, Kareem,
Akeem Bill Russell, kd right Now, Kawhi, Jannis MVP, they're

(50:51):
large men and I think Zion, over eighty two games,
is going to get a lot of easy points. He's
gonna bulldoze his way to a lot of easy points.
And I think when six two and a half one
hundred and seventy five pounds, you don't get easy points.
They're flashy, they're fun, they're brilliant. But I mean Toronto
is winning the championship right now on length and size
and health. They just got a bunch of big dudes.

(51:13):
And the NBA seasons eighty two games plus twenty playoff games.
I'm always gonna air on the side of bigger, stronger
guy if everything else is even. I mean Bill Parcels
used to talk about that in his Rebuild Shoulders ankles hips,
but I want big dudes. College football coaches I've talked
to I've talked to virtually every major college football coach

(51:34):
about this. They're looking at ankles hips, thighs, what's dad
looked like like? They want they want big people because
over the course of four years of college football, you'll
be more durable, you'll last longer and be able to
take the hits. So I mean, I'm not saying John
Morant's not great, but if you look at NBA history,
we do love flashy, small guys. They shall they sell

(51:56):
a ton of shoes. Little guys have always sold more
shoes than than big guys because a kid can see
himself being d Rose or Iver center staff. A little
kid doesn't think he's ever going to be Shack or
Yao Ming. He's not gonna be seven feet tall. But
they don't. Point guards aren't really quarterbacks. There are some similarities,
but in the NBA now everybody outside of a back

(52:17):
to the basket center. There's about three of those. I
mean in Denver Jokich, the joker handles the ball. He's
handling the ball. Lebroad handles the ball. So Ben Simmons
handles a ball. They don't even like him as a
point people think he should be a point forward. So
I think Zion has a magnetism. Now. I do think

(52:39):
David Griffin, who runs the Pelicans, is a smart guy,
and I think he wants Lonzo Ball in that trade
with the Lakers, and I think that's the rub. I
think you'd have a deal done today if he said
give me the four pick two first rounders and Brandon Ingram,
Deal's done. I think Lonzo's the rub because I think
the Laker know how well Lebron and Lonzo played together

(53:02):
plus minus. And I think they put a lot of
time into Lonzo, and they think he's marketable, and they
think he's really good in getting better. And I think
the Pelicans know, David Griffin knows Zion is going to
be a better player if Lonzo balls feeding in the ball.
And Lonzo in a football market like New Orleans is
a pretty marketable kid. So might gut feeling on that

(53:24):
whole lak er Ad thing is it is? It comes
down to can they get somebody like Lonzo to feed
Zion the ball? But I like Zion a lot. I
like him a lot. I think he's got He's part Magic,
part Barkley, part Blake Griffin, John Morant's great. But you're
giving me six two and a half, six three eighty
four and six seven two seventy five. I'm gonna generally

(53:47):
take the big guy size manners. One more Herd. The
Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a
week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd to listen live
or on demand whenever you like. One of my favorite guys,
Rick Buker's in studio, Bucky Brooks later this hour. All right,
let me talk about this because I think it's a
pile on culture. The Warriors are not likable. Steve Kers political,

(54:09):
the owner's arrogant. Another owner pushed a player. Katie joined
a super team. They represent Silicon Valley, which is financially
above all of us. They're not likable, and therefore now
it's pile on time. It's like when America gets beat
on a global stage. We don't get beat much. People
like pile on. So here's Golden State. Now everybody's saying
k D they knew more. Let me ask this, Yeah,

(54:31):
didn't we all get goosebumps on Kurt Gibson's home run? Yes?
Didn't we brag about the courage of TiO playing with
a broken leg in the Super Bowl? Don't we love
when Aaron Rodgers plays hurt? And we're pissed when Jay
Cutler sat there and wouldn't go in. This is sports.
We like poker players who get the chips and go
all in. We don't like poker players who play it safe.

(54:55):
Bloody sock MJ flew game TiO Super Bowl. Listen the
whole Warriors teams at sixty percent. Yes, all that said,
and by the way, I don't I can't go so far.
We always hate whoever's on top, especially if they show
a certain amount of dominance and then they show arrogance.
The ownership has showed arrogance. Yes. One of the secret

(55:17):
sauces for the Warriors is that the players themselves have
shown a tremendous amount of humility, yeah, all along the way,
which I think makes them more likable than most teams
that have gone to the finals five years in a row.
We didn't like the Calves. We don't like Lebron because
there's just a little too much, don't you know who
I am right, I've never gotten that sense with the Warriors.

(55:39):
All that said, we also like when guys compete and
they finish. Yeah, like the bloody sock Terrell Owens, but
they got to play. It hurts a little bit more
when the guy rolls out there and I'm gonna make
the valiant effort and then he breaks down before you
ever get to the finish. Anywhere, it hurts. But we

(56:02):
would have banged on kd if we would have seen
him a week after losing the finals at a restaurant,
no doubt, with an arm around a girl having fun
and laugh, and we're like godlaying the game. I get that.
I get that, and so for the story for the Warriors,
for the Warriors fans, I probably shouldn't share this, but
it's like a truth serum when I come on this show,

(56:23):
no kidding is I got a text from somebody who
shared something that the own, one of the owners, one
of the part owners of the Warriors, and he was
waxing eloquent about this show, by the Warriors and by KD.
And I still it makes me feel it's a little
off for me to hear Joe Lacob and it wasn't.

(56:45):
He wasn't the owner that I got this soliloquy from.
But it bothers me a little bit where we really
respect that Kadi went out there and did what he did,
and you know, he fell on the sword. He do've
won the grenade and he got us a game six,
because I think everybody would say, even though he only
got to the second quarter that start, anyway, he made

(57:05):
him feel Yeah, he got him there. It's still a
tragedy for KD because the price we're not paying it now,
We're going to pay it next year. Because whether KD
re ups with the Warriors or not, he's not going
to be in the league, and the fact that he's
not going to be with the Warriors means that the
Warriors are just another team now and the Knicks won't

(57:27):
have him. It's interesting. I wish I said this right
before you came on Zion going to the Knicks and
New Orleans and Jimmy Butler's gonna move and he probably won't,
and Kyrie will disappear in Brooklyn by himself, and Katie
won't play, and the Warriors won't be as fascinating. There's
a possibility it won't be a great year next year
for the league. Right No, because parody does not work

(57:48):
in the NBA, never has it works in the NFL. Awesome,
it's great, But in the NBA you need to have
that stocking horse. You need to have that great team
that everybody is gunning for. Who's that going to be
next year? We're looking at the prospect of a Milwaukee
Clippers finals. Does that gets you excited? Well? And not
knowing until we get there that we've got Milwaukee and

(58:10):
the Clippers, there's I'll ask you, Colin, all things equal,
so Katie's out, Kawhi leaves Toronto, who's the team to
beat Who's at the top of the Who's at the
top of the Golden State by an inch? But again,
Steph's had multiple injuries. Um, Sean Livingston's gonna retire. They're not,

(58:33):
you know, I mean, listen, they'll have no size because
Katie's gone, bo gets done and Boogie's leaving, so they'll
have once again. One something that's never talked about by
fans but is by every executive is length. Yeah, we
love the Hampton's five. They look small without Kadi length
and depth. This is what's kind of shifted. We're still

(58:54):
in love with the idea that you have superstars, that
you need to have that nucleus and then you just
fill in around them. Well, look at the Toronto Raptors.
Is that the model for them? No, their model is depth.
The Warriors and the way they dominated over the last
couple of years it was depth. It's not now, which

(59:16):
is why they're coming to the end of their run
and the depth they do have is all hurt exactly.
Because here's the thing again, and we got into this
with with load management and people say that like it's
a dirty word. Oh, it's load management. Basically, like guys
are just taking time off they just don't want to
play eighty two games. They don't want to have to

(59:37):
work that hard. It's not that the game is played
at a speed with a number of possessions at a
level of athleticism never been played like this. The bodies
aren't are still catching up with the speed of the game.
So you're going to have guys breakdown unless you look

(59:57):
at it and say, you know what, we can't play
at this crazy I have somebody to play at this
crazy speed. Two nights in a row just doesn't make sense.
You're going to break down. Yeah, Rick Bucker joining us
so woe says Lakers are not a top free agent destination.
My feeling is the draft is eight days away next Thursday,
and I think they have to make a deal within

(01:00:19):
that time, the Lakers, because I don't think they're getting
free agents. And I do think you lose leverage once
you draft a player because the Pelicans may not like
the player you draft. So I think the Lakers are
going to make a move in a week your thoughts,
I would expect that, I would expect. Everything that I'm
hearing is that Anthony Davis is the move that they
will make. They'll wind up getting Anthony Davis with the
Lakers large and at least in part because the market

(01:00:42):
for Anthony Davis is not what everybody makes it out
to be. Because what I've heard is, no matter where
he goes, he's not re upping right now. He wants
to get to whether it's the Lakers, whether it's New York,
wherever he might go. I want to get I want
to look down the Bay earral a free agency. I
want to see what the options are. The Knicks, for example,

(01:01:04):
aren't going to break the bank to try to get
a D at this point, because they're looking at it saying,
you know what, it was a good chance. He goes
to the Lakers and it's a mess, and he gets
the next summer, and he says, let me take a
look at the Knicks, and the Knicks could get him
for free. And meanwhile, they've if their plan gotten KD,
they can retain all of the pieces that they have. RJ.

(01:01:27):
Barrett gets a year, Mitchell Robinson, Kevin Knox, you can
go down the line and then we don't have to
trade for a D. We can get him for free. Indeed,
if we look better, and he's looking at the prospect
of k D and the whole package could look infinitely
better than the Lakers right now. Yeah, you know you
gotta be careful on that move because if a D
gives you twenty six and Lebron gives you twenty eight,

(01:01:48):
that's fifty four points. You need another sixty three. Because
the NBA right now Milwaukee average one eighteen, Toronto one fifteen,
Golden State one eighteen three best teams. Again, it's all
about depth, God is and this is the great loss
for the Lakers. They're not going to get eighty for free.
That was the whole idea. Oh, we got all these
nice little pieces. I'd play, I'd play a little. I

(01:02:10):
mean there, listen, I think the Lakers have leverage. I
think Lonzo's the piece because I think the Lakers are
saying take our four, will give you a one and
take one of the forwards, and the phone hangs up,
and I think Pelicans are saying, add Lonzo because Lonzo
plus his ion that sells tickets. Lonzo Ball's got some
marketing to him. And you can play Drew Holiday and

(01:02:31):
Lonzo together, and the length and defensive ability that you
would have in the backcourt. The whole problem with Lonzo
Ball is that LaVar and Magic oversold him right out
of the gate. He was supposed to have his jersey
retired as a Laker. He's a fine player. He's if
if you had, if they had been reasonable in their expectations,

(01:02:52):
you would appreciate that Lonzo's shot has improved. He's he's
I mean, the injuries have been an issue, but defensively
he's a plus, A little better defender than I thought. Also,
great vision also started finishing at the rim. He got
more aggressive in his last twelve games with Lebron. Yeah,
you would appreciate the pluses rather than just comparing him
to what he was supposed to be and saying, well

(01:03:13):
he's not that. Okay, I am deeply disappointed. What with
what you're about to say? I love Zion Williams and
you don't like him. It's not what's not the love?
I just this is Lonzo Ball too. We've already made
him a Hall of Famer. He is going to be

(01:03:34):
twenty six a game fast, Okay, on what so you
don't take six a game? Well, no, no no, no, he'll
be twenty one and a half a game after the
All Star break. So he may average seventeen for the
year because he starts slow. I think he's gonna be
I think it's gonna I mean, listen, the NBA's fast.
It takes got college kids thirty games to cash after
the speed of him. They all tell you that. It's
like the NFL corners say, like everybody runs fast, even

(01:03:57):
the tight ends run fast. Is he taking is he
taking Pelicans to the playoffs? Well, that's a whole different argument. No,
it's not. Because we're talking about him as if he
is a generational player. Yes, but Lebron generational player. Lebron
didn't the first year Carmelo Anthony did. Carmelo Anthony came
out of school out of Syracuse as a better player

(01:04:19):
than Lebron James, a more complete player than Lebron James.
That's my issue with Zion. He is a phenomenal athletic talent.
But as we know in the NBA, look, people are
way more excited about Zion Williamson than they are about
Luka Donsitch. Is that fair? No question, Luca Donsitch was

(01:04:41):
far more prepared to play in the NBA than Zion Williamson,
not because of the athleticism, because of the ability because
of the skills, Zion doesn't show me the requisite toolbox
to say he can come in and do everything. The athleticism.
This is why I generally don't I'm I generally don't

(01:05:02):
try to make up my mind about guys as pros
based on watching them in college until I see them
in summer league. And even summer league is a lot
of guys that are marginal, but the athleticism there, and
you're you're not in a your collegiate system that was
built for you. And if you are a player at

(01:05:24):
Duke or one of these great schools, you've got not
only are you probably better than ninety eight percent of
the guys that you play against, the guys around you
are are better than nine eight percent of the guys
that they're matched up. So you have a built in
advantage that is taken away in summer league. Now it's
a wide open game. Now the athleticism is right. Now

(01:05:48):
you're playing against pros. You guys who have the the
physical ability to play in the NBA. Now I need
to see your game because Zion can just beast guys.
He doesn't have to do anything other than jump over them,
and he can. It's not gonna be so easy in
the NBA. It's hurtful. I don't like crushing dreams. I
really don't, but I love him so much. I find

(01:06:12):
him so I think he's like he's magic, he's joyful,
He's Barkley, He's Blake Griffin. He's just I can't. I
I sat and watched Okay, so why don't do games
this year? Great example. Blake Griffin, who I think the
world of as well, comes in as a phenomenal athlete, personality, everything.

(01:06:34):
It took him a while, he until he developed a job.
I don't think he has. I don't think Blake runs.
I don't think he's the passer. He has a broken shot.
I think Blake is Zion's a passer. Blake's handel and
his court vision very under. Its gonna be very sad

(01:06:56):
when you're totally wrong on this. I am so excited
for him. He said he's such a great kid. I
love what he said. I broke my shoe. I'm coming back.
I may come back for another year. There's I just
love that about him, No, his person I love everything.
I wish him great success, and in some ways it's
good that he went to New Orleans It's may not
be bad for the end. It's bad for the NBA

(01:07:18):
because you'd like to have him in a big market. Yeah,
it's good for him because the pressure won't be the
same there. There are no expectations for the Pelicans, even
with Zion and Drew and all that. If he's in
New York, he would have had to carry them to
the playoffs. That that that roster's bad. They need twenty
four a night like Day one. That's a bad roster.

(01:07:41):
That's not a horrific Dennis Smith Junior. Nobody wants to
play with him. He's our most talented guy. Yeah, and
I'm least guys want to play with Lonzo. Guys want
to play with Ingland Kuzma. They like him. You got r. J.
Barrett coming in. He got Mitchell Robinson there. Who's going
to be the next Pascal siakam Oh, let's slow down
on that, all right, we gotta go Bukes, Rick Buker.

(01:08:03):
Let's go to veteran newsman John Gouley. No, no, this
is the herd line news colin. The NBA said that
Toronto Raptors Marcusol should have been given two free throws
with forty nine seconds left. In Game five, Gasol was
fouled by DeMarcus Cousins on the drive. You know what
said this your favorite thing about the NBA, the last

(01:08:26):
two minute report. It's why would you like to take
this time to hate on the two minute report? Why
in the world you know, in our business, it's well known.
If I'm on the air and radio, want to make
a mistake, don't go back and draw attention to it.
Just you screwed up. It's an imperfect business. It's a
volume business, not a precision business. The NBA officiating is
not a precision business you'd like it to be. It's
a volume business. You've got a zillion calls. It felt

(01:08:50):
like the NFL, where you're in the wrong zone and
you're off sides and you're in most every single NBA
call is pass interference. If every NFL call was pass interference,
you're not in the precision business. Lay Mark Cuban for this.
He tried to make refereeing and an analytics job. It's not.
It's not. It's a management. It's it's you. If you're
hitting seventy five percent as an official, god, you're doing

(01:09:12):
a hell of a job well. And also the most
egregious call. Most people thought was that travel by Kawhi
that didn't get called. But it's not in the last
two minutes, so therefore what it didn't Matt, it didn't happen.
It's it's a weird things good point. According to Adrian
Rojanowski of ESPN, there are three teams quote very interested
in Kemba Walker. Those teams would be the Knicks, the MAVs,

(01:09:34):
and the Los Angeles Lakers. Or if he goes to
the MAVs, well that's porzingis. I got Luca and I
got Kemba. That's one hundred and seventeen a game. You're
walking to the arena every night, you're getting points that
that is a fun team to watch. Well, now, the
Hornets can still offer him a MAX deal, and because
he made third Team All NBA, that can be five years,
two hundred and twenty one. Michael Jordan's not going to

(01:09:55):
pay him that right the Lake, the most of the
other teams could offer him would be four years, a
hundred and forty. Is he the consolation prize or do
you actually think the Lakers would want new Kimba Walker. No,
I think I think they're gonna get Anthony Davis and
then keep as much as they can and let that
grow for a year. Kimba's fine. I think he plays
in New York, played at Yukon. I think he's more

(01:10:16):
on New York. From New York. He feels like, I mean,
people out west don't know who Kemba Walker is, but
out in the East you can. You can put him
on the Celtics, or you could, they won't, but you
can put him on the Knicks and he plays you
know a lot of Yukon people in New York. The
question would be would he be insulted if you gave
him more than one hundred and sixty but less than
the Superman? I don't know. If he didn't have that

(01:10:37):
kind of ego, He's Charlotte might still be able to
keep him, which but that's to your point. He's irrelevant
out west because he plays in Charlotte. So it seems
like if you're why not go and try to Knicks
and Charlotte are the best places for him, So he
should pick one of those two. And finally, Forbes put
out the twenty nineteen Rakings for the one hundred highest
paid athletes. Yeah, it's a compilation of prize money, salaries

(01:11:00):
and bonuses. It's between June one of last year and
June one of this year, and Tom Brady is the
fifth highest paid athlete that plays in Boston. Can you
guess the four Boston athletes that make more money than
the six time Super Bowl Martinez? Nope? David Price, David Price, yes,

(01:11:21):
keep mind. David Price also at least one a title.
Gordon Hayward correct, Kyrie Irving correct? Is there another red Sock?
There's not another Red sockotot No, No other Patriot makes
more money than Tom Brady. Who is the other one?
Al Horford? Oh god, he does? Yeah. Yeah, So I'd

(01:11:44):
like to point out that three of the four higher
than him are on the one team in Boston that's
not going to be champions. Well, you know it's timing.
Timing was very good for Gordon, He's very good for him.
Better a newsman, John Goulet. Well, that's the news, and
thanks for stopping the Herd line, NFL Scout, NFL Network,

(01:12:05):
NFL dot Com. Bucky Brooks next the Herd. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon
Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one
and the iHeart Radio app. Bucky Brooks, NFL defensive back
for years, former NFL Scout, Panthers and Seahawk. Let's start
with US Raiders. Hard knocks. It doesn't bother me because
A they are entertaining and B I don't think they're

(01:12:27):
a championship level team, So I don't think this is
getting in the way of wins. I think they're I
think they're trying to sell tickets in Vegas. That's why.
That's why they want to play in Canada London. Hard knocks.
It's why they acquired Antonio Brown. I can sell tickets. Oh,
they certainly have a brand, and I think it only
strengthens the brand. You talk about them playing in Winnipeg
in the preseason, going to Vegas in a year or so.

(01:12:49):
This gives them an opportunity to kind of let people
see behind the curtains. And also you have John Gruten
is very comfortable on TV. He kind of understands how
to player for the cameras. The general manager, Mike Mayott
comes from a TV background, so the TV cameras shouldn't
be a major deal because they kind of know how
to play to that. The thing that you have to

(01:13:10):
worry about. And we saw this last year with Cleveland
when the cameras are rolling and some of that footage
kind of makes it to the show. If it's unbecoming,
it creates a narrative that is really really hard for
the team and two players to shake. Yeah, no it does.
I think they're in a tough division now, and I
do think. I mean I went to Vegas not long

(01:13:31):
ago and I saw that stadium and I thought they
got to sell tickets. And John's assured a job for
a decade. So Mark Davis, Silton, listen, just these first
two years, let's sell some tickets. Because I've been I've
been owning this team in Oakland. We can't sell the
upper deck. I don't want to go to Vegas and
have an empty upper deck. So I kind of get
what the writers are doing. Let me ask you. So
Carson went signs early with the Eagles. That's a good

(01:13:53):
smart move. It'll hurt for a year, but in two
years when Mahome signs for two hundred million, you'll feel
pretty good. I think they also made the move to
force the Cowboys and say, hey, we set the market
because dak on paper has beaten Wentz three out of
four games. Yeah, Dak never gets hurt. Dak's won the division.
It's gonna force Dallas to pay Dak thirty two million bucks.

(01:14:16):
The Dallas Cowboys have kind of mismanaged this by waiting.
And I know on the outside we all, oh, you
can't pay him twenty two or twenty I think twent
to four. When I came, we talked about twenty two million,
twenty three million, when now the price is thirty two
million dollars that they'll have to pay him annually, no
matter how you slice it, love him or hate him,
that's where the market is set. Carson Wentz comes in

(01:14:38):
at that number. Dak Prescott has a solid argument to say,
I at least deserve what he makes based on what
we've done. Kirk Cousins is making twenty nine Yeah, there
is no argument Daks worth more than that. That's not
even a debate. No, it's not. And so the longer
the Cowboys wait, the higher the price tag they would.

(01:14:58):
It would have been in their best entry to try
to get this deal done about a year ago. Yes,
try and get it done early. Because he was not
drafted in the first round. He was a fourth round pick.
And look, I know the thought of Dak Prescott getting
the amount of money that is going to put him
into Aaron Rodgers category is going to make some people nauseous. However,

(01:15:19):
they got him on the cheap for four years. So
during that free yeah, during that time, that is when
you build up the rest of your roster. Because you
have him on a super discount. You can't expect him
to nail give you another hometown discount when he's won games.
It doesn't happen. And so the Dallas Cowboys have to
get this figured out. But he's in the catburst seat

(01:15:42):
because if he doesn't sign a deal, he signs the
franchise tag, and then when the CBA expires, who knows
what quarterbacks are going to make. So it's in the
best interest of the Cowboys to hurry up and get
this deal done before the price tag continues to kick up.
So I'm watching the Todd Gurley story. Now I never
understood when they signed him because they signed him a

(01:16:03):
year early. But I know less sneed. I gave the
Rams this. They just moved to LA. They wanted to
make sure star running back. Let's get him under contract.
Aaron Donald, They want. They signed Brandon Cooks. They were
trying to sell PSLs. They wanted to get guys locked in,
so they signed Todd Gurley a year before they had to.

(01:16:24):
Now there's our thriatus of the knee. Do you think
and they just drafted a running back out of college.
Do you think the Rams wake up this morning and
think we should have waited? No, No, I don't think so.
I think the reason you pay Todd Gurley is when
you look at the Rams, and I think it was
very evident in the Super Bowl, Todd Gurley is to
straw to make the stirs to drink. As much as
we love Jerry Goff and I think Jerry Goff is

(01:16:45):
going to be a really, really good quarter back, but
Todd Gurley is the guy that kind of sessed the
table for that offense. And so they were trying to
reward to our Gurley for doing all the things. And
at the time that they signed him, you didn't know
what Levy and Bill was going to get. You still
didn't know Ezekiel Elliott was going to do it. So
you're trying to get ahead of the market if the
market got crazy for Lem. Now the thing that we

(01:17:07):
have to do is not overreact to what has come
out in the off season, because this really is in
basketball a load management deal. When we're doing the OTA
practices in training camp, the Rams are going to try
and be a little smarter when it comes to a
less not waste the reps on the practice field less.
Make sure that we get them in December in January

(01:17:30):
at the highest level in terms of being healthy, being
ready to go. We saw at the end of the
year his usage rate, how much they had put on him.
He wore down, and because he wore down, he wasn't
available to give them the juice that they needed at
the postseason. This is a move to try and make
sure that when we get into the stretch run when

(01:17:51):
you really need your running backs December January, he's available.
Look at what the Patriots were able to get with
Sony Michelle. Sony Michelle in December in January was the
best offensive player. They're trying to do the same thing
for the Rings. Patriots have been masters at this. They'll
just take James White out for two weeks, He'll have
twelve catches. Two weeks later, he's not in the field.

(01:18:11):
That's what they do. They make sure they look, they
were very healthy by the Super Bowl. They understand the
long play. So people overreact to the Patriots losing games,
and they know they can get it to the tournament.
They really don't matter. It doesn't matter what seat they are.
They know they can win it either way. But they're
gonna have their guys ready when it's time. Did you
see who the Patriots drafted. They didn't need another running back,

(01:18:32):
they didn't need another corner, and they got one. They're
looking around at the Mahomes and the Locks and they're like,
I mean, New England right now has got five corners
that can play. Yeah, and four running backs that can play.
Because what that telling you? Tom's getting older? I can't.
We can't be in shootouts. We got to keep the
score down. We need great corners and a lot of
help in the backfield. The Patriots already's one step ahead

(01:18:53):
of the posse. So everyone is talking about the passing
game and throwing it and whatever. Bill Belichick is already
looking and saying everything is cyclical. In the eighties, it
was about the ground game and the running backs. The
Patriots won the Super Bowl last year because they ran
the ball that can control the clock, that could manage
the game. And also, as your quarterback gets older, you
need a supporting cast to be able to do more well.

(01:19:16):
They can do that by running the ball with a
variety of running backs. They are setting the table to
be the old school Patriots team. So the team that
won it in two thousand and one, two thousand and three,
two thousand and four, that random ball with Antoine Smith
and Corey Dillon. We're going to see that version of
the Patriots this year, not the version that was high
flying with Randy Moss and West Walker. What'd you make

(01:19:38):
about Durant playing hurt? You know, it's tough because I
think this is the toughest time to be an athlete
because you have so many outside voices that can get
to you. Twitter speaks loud, you have people questioning your toughness,
and you have to do this because we've created this thing.
Kevin Durant has to do this if he wants to
be on the level of le Bron James. I think
what's tough about it is every athlete wants to be

(01:20:00):
a part of a championship team. And so when you're
in this and you're looking at your players and you
know how good you are. You know how good the
team is when you play man. If I can go
and take some of the pressure off Steph and Clay,
I can help him go to the next level. This
is very similar to what to did in the Super
Bowl in two thousand and four when look he had
broken his leg. He comes back, plays and is the

(01:20:22):
best offensive player for the Eagles. Is something that you're
trying to guard players against themselves, but you want to win,
so in the team you're kind of an alert because
this is my guy. We're a much better player when
we have him. Do I sacrifice long term for the
short term? They tried to roll the dice. It just
didn't work out for him. By the way, Daniel Jeremiah

(01:20:43):
your podcast buddy as I just love him and he's
his name's getting thrown out there for front office jobs.
You could absolutely go off TV. You probably get offered
a job every year somewhere. Oh. I don't get off,
but I get I guess some sniffs everybody. I have
no problem. I think there's people on TV that talk
football that could get a job in the front office.
I'm not bothered by the mcshaye, Daniel Jeremiah, Bucky Brooks

(01:21:05):
if you came on, No, here's what I was twenty
seconds go for Here's what I say. The advantage of
coming from the TV world to going in you now
get an opportunity to go to other teams and see
how other teams do it. So now you have a
broadened perspective rather than just it in your one room.
This is the way that you do it. You go
other places and you can take bits and pieces to
make you a better play. Good seeing you, buddy, hour

(01:21:25):
or three next one more Herd. The Herd streams twenty
four hours a day, seven days a week. Within the
iHeart Radio app, search Herd to listen live or on
demand whenever you like. Ah, this is the Herd hour
at three in La wherever you may be and however

(01:21:45):
you may be, listen or an iHeartRadio on Foxports Radio.
You know, I'm just looking at Bill Gates microsoft his
Twitter account, and he's talking about how disappointed he is
that the disconnect between what we see in the news
and the reality of the world around us, How the
media spends so much time talking about terrorism and in reality, cancer,

(01:22:11):
heart disease, and automobile accidents are the leading causes of
death in America. And I've talked about this many times,
how our media has become very fear based. And I
and I don't talk a ton, but I'll talk once
or twice a year to college students, once or twice
a year to high school students. It's always fun. I

(01:22:32):
love doing that. And I and I say all the time,
don't don't. Don't produce your show through Twitter. Twitter's not
real life. Twenty percent of Americans are on Twitter, six
percent are super users, mostly Hollywood. In the media, Twitter's
a bunch of nonsense. It just don't even look at
it when you're producer Joe. It's not reality. And yesterday
it was so laughable to watch people freaking out because

(01:22:54):
the United States women's national team beat Thailand thirteen to nothing.
And everybody was freaked out because our women sell celebrated
a little after they scored goal eight, goal nine. Nobody
was upset with that. It had no impact in the world.
Nobody in my you know how many doors I would
have had to knock on in my neighborhood to find
somebody it was mad about that. Nobody cared. It just

(01:23:15):
played big on Twitter. And Nick Wright came on earlier
and I was glad to hear he thought it was
the outrage over we celebrated too much was laughable. The
foul outrage over our women's national team running up the
score in an event where goal differential is the first tiebreakers,

(01:23:37):
so it matters. Act like you've been there before when
it's an event that takes place two and a half
times a decade. Is one of the most ridiculous things
I've ever seen. It is just the perfect quintistential example
of people who aren't actually mad but want to pretend
to be mad. No one is actually bothered by this.

(01:24:00):
It's the World Cup. You score a goal, it is
the greatest moment of your entire life. By the way, Indonesia,
let's have a really poor women's soccer team, because Thailand
beat them thirteen nothing into the run up into the tournament,
beginn of the machigans. Indonesia will beat them. We'll do
transitive property one hundred and sixty nine ZIP and you'll

(01:24:23):
see actual celebrating. But until then, everyone needs to calm down.
The other thing is it's not that they want, it's
how they celebrated. So what if Brazil or Germany the
men's team beat the United States thirteen nothing and celebrated.
Would we take them to task? I think some of
it's patronizing women, like the Thailand team. The women can't
handle the humiliation. Yeah they can. Women athletes that make

(01:24:46):
the Olympics, World Cup, they are tough. You don't make
the LPGA, you don't make the women's tennis too, or
you don't make the World Cup, you don't make the Olympics,
regardless of gender, you are tough. You put your life
on hold to be a professional athlete. It's a stop patronizing,
like a women's team can't take a thrashing. A butt

(01:25:10):
kicking once in a while is not a bad thing
for a boxer, a soccer team, a baseball team, or
a football team. And if you're gonna go compete in
the World Cup, you know, don't make the scoreboard. Your god,
how do you know Thailand didn't wasn't honored to be
on the same pitch? And we don't know that, I
mean a good god. The United States men's national team
can't even make the World Cup. Thailand made the women's

(01:25:31):
World Cup. Maybe that was they were honored. We don't know, so,
I just it's the classic example. You know, listen to the
the place I used to work at. Their management a
couple of years ago was running their management through Twitter,
and it's like mistake, that's don't run your business through Twitter.
What Twitter likes is not what Middle America likes. And

(01:25:53):
they've since corrected, but you know, nobody's upset about this.
And again, if you flip the score and the United
States women lost thirteen nothing, who would we be ripping
still the United States Women? We'd be calling them arrogant.
They overlooked Thailand. They deserve to get drilled and mocked.

(01:26:14):
So listen, the downside the greatness dominance in power is scrutiny.
Popular people get criticized. A great president gets criticized more
than a lousy senator. The downside to power dominance, success

(01:26:36):
is scrutiny. And the United States women's national team is incredible.
It is the face of the sport. They're the dream team.
They're the face of the sport. And because they celebrated,
you know, scoring goals in the World Cup, we're taking
them to task. And if Thailand would have won thirteen nothing,
you and I know, here's exactly what we'd be talking about. Though,

(01:26:58):
US women deserve to be mocked. That kind of talent,
that kind of arrogance to lose thirteen nothing. You can't
win if you're dominant. We've had we've had very effective presidents,
but they're presidents. They get whacked. That's that's the burden
of power scrutiny. By the way, So the Raiders are

(01:27:19):
going to be a hard knocks and they should be.
It's it's the most interesting team. And I think they're
just doing it for sales. I think they brought in
Antonio Brown for sales in Vegas. I don't think it's
I think they're planning in Canada. They'll they'll tell the NFL,
will plan London. They're just trying to build their brand.
It's been down for ten years and John Gruden is
safe for a decade. He's going into year two of
a ten year contract. So Gruden's got nothing to worry

(01:27:40):
about the bottom line. He and the owner run the franchise,
and the owners told him, hey, listen, don't worry about
this year. We're gonna bring in Antonio Brown. We're gonna
go play in Canada, We'll play in London. We'll do
hard Knocks. We gotta sell eight thousand and twelve thousand,
twenty two thousand season tickets in Vegas, and that's what
they're doing this for. But it's funny the three teams

(01:28:01):
they're getting all the attention in the NFC, in the
NFL this year of this offseason for free agent moves
or Oakland, Cleveland, and the Jets. All three are in
the AFC. And would it shock anybody if Oakland, Cleveland,
and the Jets all become dumpster fires by the end
of the year. Oakland's got drama everywhere in the toughest
schedule in the league. Cleveland's got a rookie head coach

(01:28:21):
and a combustible superstar receiver. The Jets have a bad
old line, a young quarterback and a new coach and
a GM. And the top of the AFC is crowded.
Belichick and Brady Andy Reid, Mahomes Andrew Locke, a great GM,
the best offensive line in football, Frank Reich so New England,
Kansas City and INDI are loaded. And the Charger, Steelers,
Ravens and Texas are all really talented. And I'm supposed

(01:28:44):
to believe Oakland, Cleveland and the Jets in the AFC
are gonna make waves by the way Oakland, Cleveland and
the Jets. Last year, we're fifteen thirty two and one.
Do you know what they were against winning teams? The Raiders,
the Jets, and the Browns against winning teams last year

(01:29:05):
were three and twenty with a tie, three and twenty.
And you think they're gonna take over? Oakland's head coach
and GM were TV stars. Yes they're interesting, Cleveland ob
Jan Baker, Yes they're interesting. Lavian Belle to the Jets,
Yes they're interesting. I don't think any of them are

(01:29:27):
making the playoffs. Cleveland's got the most talent. I don't
think to make the playoffs. I think they'll be in
the fight for it Week fourteen, fifteen sixteen. But you
know it's tell me the teams that get the most
publicity in the off season in the NFL, are they
ever good? Ever? Seriously? Oakland, Cleveland, the Jets, it's all

(01:29:51):
anybody's talking about. Rams play in Los Angeles. You can't
find the players they were in the Super you can't
find them. They're hide I've never seen an NFL franchise
in the city. You can't find Ram players, you can't
find Charger players. Those two organizations made the playoffs. They're hiding.
They don't want anything, they don't want to be near

(01:30:13):
a television camera. Cleveland Jets, Oakland, you know, they're like
reality shows. Good to have you in. Katino mobilis around today.
I got an interesting story. I really feel proud to
be an American after that thirteen nothing thrashing. I know

(01:30:33):
I'm gonna get a lot of heat for that, but
I am so proud of our United States women's national team.
You girls dance all night. One't just about the goals.
It was about putting in the time enabling you to
score thirteen goals. Celebrate. You know, we want our teams
to win, but by not too much, and we want
them to celebrate but not too much. And I'm like,

(01:30:54):
it's the Olympics. You're qualified, my your ineptitude is not
my problem. Katino Mobile around the corner. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter
nine am Pacific. Good to have you in. Go further
than ever Discover at Miles card. They matched the miles
you earn end of the first year, thirty five thousand

(01:31:16):
become seventy thousand. Limitations apply. Go to Discover dot com
slash travel Katino Mobile over a decade in the NBA.
So you're watching all these injuries, and my takeaway was,
this is why we love Kurt Gibson, This is why
we like Michael Jordan in the flute game. This is
why we criticize Jay Cutler for not going into a
game like it's the heroism, the alpha of being a

(01:31:39):
pro athlete. And you guys are just different. I mean,
you were hurt. How many times were you healthy by June?
But I mean, seriously, in the NBA, it's normal. It's
it's definitely normal. I mean, you look at Kobe Bryant.
Kobe dislocated his finger. You know, the trainer popped it
back in, He went back out there, He walked off
the core from a tourism Achilles shot his free throws.

(01:32:00):
I mean, it's just what we do. I've dislocated my fingers,
I've pulled my growing and still played in the Big
Three Championship. I pulled my growing on in the semifinals,
still play. We won, got treatment the whole week and
literally played in the championship, and we won the championship.
Perkins told me he ripped a growing ligament and played

(01:32:20):
the entire playoffs and okay, sick. Yeah, they just numbed it. Yeah,
that's just what we do. It's just what we do.
Like I said, you know during a break, like you're
a professional. There's that's what separates you from everyone else. Right,
You're just as immortal as we are because you fight
through That's the reason why you're successful. And I think
when you when you're at a younger age and you're
fighting through threings, adversity, different things like that, it becomes

(01:32:43):
a norm to you. So you don't get sick. It's
a lot of stuff is mental. You don't get sick,
you don't feel the pain. You don't do this, you
don't do that. Now when things get drastic like the
Michaels are in the flu, war torn Achilles, like Kobe,
or dislocated finger, whether myself, Cobe or growing or whatever
it is, Yeah, okay, but we still fight through so
much pain. Well, the whole roster of the Warriors, Boogie's

(01:33:03):
sixty percent y looks like he's in pain and rids
Clay Thompson pops a hammy. He's four days later he's
playing Like I think there's just an overreaction. Kevin Durant,
I'm told just tuned out people that didn't tell him
what he wanted to hear, which is you could re

(01:33:25):
injure stuff. And he's like, I feel good and he
had to, by the way, he had to work out
before the game. Look good. He was very good. The
twelve minute team was in the game, very good. In fact,
it was like, dude, scale it back, slow down. Yeah,
so I I don't that's how you feel like. I
popped my calf three different times in a game and games.

(01:33:45):
I popped my calf and it cost us the Clippers.
My second year with the Clippers, that cost us the playoffs,
we were going to beat a seat and I think
Golden State got in safe seat and did that miraculous
kind of you know, beat Dallas or Utah or whatever
it was. I'm not really sure exactly a team, but
they were Stephen Jackson and Baron Davis. It was Dallas

(01:34:05):
and Stephen Jackson and Baron Davis. They looked amazing. And
I that's the year I popped my calf and I
was out five games when he needed one game to
win and we could. We didn't win that one game,
but you know it coming back from it. It took
me about a month and a half, two months because
the scar tissue inside the calf it's so sensitive. And

(01:34:25):
I was kind of puzzled when I saw Katie Duncan
and it's already thirty something days, you know, post the injury.
I'm like, wow, that's great, Like I can't believe that.
I mean, I wouldn't play because I know you'll feel
good for twenty minutes, twenty five minutes, thirty minutes. I
didn't before, you know it, the muscles if fatigues and
then boom, it just it's gone, just like that. But

(01:34:48):
you know, I just hope he recovers fast. And uh,
you know, it's it's funny. I'm looking at all these
free agents. If I represented you, I'm your agent. There's
app absolutely no way I can tell you. You know
that max money, I don't worry about it. And by
the way, I'm gonna send you to the next who

(01:35:09):
have a historically bad owner. My job is to protect
Katino Mobile. I'm your agent. How does Kevin Durant's agent
say go from the best ownership group to maybe the worst.
I gotta be honest with you. I'm Kawhi Leonard I've
been beat up my whole career. I'm not giving up
thirty five large Kawai Leonards brilliant, right, I mean he

(01:35:31):
just showed it like I'm going First of all, I'm
I'm getting a second opinion. I'm not going to play,
you know, Kawhi Leonard. And it's kind of a different injury,
but it kind of reminded me of one of my
teammates back when I was a rookie, Michael Dickerson. He
played for Arizona. Remember he was an amazing athlete. He
was he was going to be a great shooting guard.
He tore his growing and back then you couldn't have two, three,

(01:35:54):
four opinions. So when he tore it, Mike was done
after that. I think he was playing for Vancouver at
the time. He was done after that. It's like, Kawhi whatever,
whether there's a thigh, whether it's growing, whatever it was,
you had a second opinion. You didn't feel good after
those eight games in San Antonio. You sat yourself down.
If I'm Kevin, I'm my own brand. I'm saying to
myself like, no, I don't, Yeah, I want to play

(01:36:16):
because he's a hooper, you know, he's from Beast, from Maryland,
He's you know, he's DC, He's all that East Coast.
It's in him and I understand that. But you know,
the situation has happened. You never know, he could have
came and had forty. You know the other day, nobody
would have said anything. But I just feel bad for
him because I know how bad he wanted to play
and help his team. Length is something that scouts talk

(01:36:39):
about and fans in the media don't. Toronto looks just
too big. And with Boogie Kd's length out Looney out
Boogie sixty percent, I think the series is over. Yeah.
You know what I don't think that. The thing is
with Toronto is what I've been looking at is Toronto
has seven guys who can defend, literally can defend. You know,

(01:37:02):
Van Vleet come off the Bens. Defending Pale gives you
energy defending. Uh. Then you have the starts from Kawhi
Leonard to Danny Green to Siyakum to a Player of
Defensive Year, Defensive Player of the Year Danny Green, Marcus
all Oh he was and Danny Green and made an
All NBA Defensive Team year. People forget People think he's
a shooter. He made All NBA Defense and then Kawhi

(01:37:24):
Leonard Defensive Player of the Year. So you have so
many defensive players to year that can play one on
one defense, that can switch and play anybody defensively. That's
what gives Golden State a problem. And you're not You're
not healthy. But when Kevin Durant's there, you can start
him at the five. So now Marcus Al you're in trouble.
So the series changed then, Yeah, I mean I keep
saying to people, this is nothing against Toronto, but if

(01:37:46):
Michael Jordan was out of the finals, it's a different finals.
Kevin Durant's emergence, Kevin Durant came back for a quarter,
was the best quarter of the Warriors playing in this series. Yeah,
I mean he changes all the matchups, right, He definitely changed.
He forces marcusol to one out and guard a significantly
better athlete exactly. So now you have a massive defensive
hole instead of a strength against Andrew Bogan or Boogie

(01:38:08):
that can't move. It's a game changer. Yeah, Katino Mobile's
joining us, all right, So yesterday I had Rashad Phillipson.
Rashad's an interesting dude. He played very Kobe Bryant calls
him the best player never drafted. He was a two
time Horizon player, went over to like Latvia Italy, dominant
scoring record player. And now Rashad does some scouting. He

(01:38:29):
has his own YouTube staff, his own podcast. And last
year so I bring him off for the draft. And
last year he was just like Colin Trey Young's gonna
light this league up, Luca don just gonna be really good.
And I'm like, yeah, we'll see. He was right. So
yesterday he's not on Zion like me. He likes John Morant.
Here's what he said, John Morant, Murray State, He's dynamic,
fantastic as a point guards. Let's look at it like football.

(01:38:51):
Point guards are like superstar quarterbacks. Okay, the Trey Youngs,
the John Morants, those guys are like Patrick Mahons. When
you take the bigs like Zion Williamson and DeAndre eight
and they're like, they're like defensive ends. So do you
want a guy that can throw fifty touchdown passes or
a guy that maybe can get you fifteen sacks? I
don't know if I make the point guard quarterback correlation perfectly.

(01:39:13):
My rule is I love that I like bigger athletes
zions two eighty eighty two games, eight preseason, twenty two
playoffs on sixty three hundred ninety pound guy or six
seven and a half to eighty pound guy. Cary has
been throwing pretty well doing it, I know, But Curry
has been hurt a lot too. This league has been
dominated by big men k D Yet magic doctor Jay

(01:39:38):
Will the prototype now is more so at six seven,
six eight the wing guy right right, But Trey Young
is special like Luca Dons a sixty eight point guard
special right, and that job Marian kid super special. He's
a pro before he came to the pros. He's amazing
at the pick and roll. He's a lockdown defen He's long,

(01:40:01):
he's athletic. I mean, he has a pro game. And
I think with him being six four six five like,
he's pretty good. No, No, I think he's I think
he's a all star year two now, I think he's
really good. I think he's actually you know, we talked
about this. Westbrook was a great athlete, but was not
a five star recruit. Was not I've never felt like

(01:40:22):
he's a perfectly refined basketball player. He may be the
best athlete in the game. John Morant's a better basketball
talent than Westbrook, that is much more refined passers. I
think he's actually he's a better shooter today. So it's weird.
Like to say that John Morants better than Westbrook, you
get pushback. I think a year and a John Morant,
you're gonna go he's the next thing. Well, I'm gonna

(01:40:45):
say this to you. And the reason why I agree
with Phillips is this, when you're playing basketball, if I
have even a smaller guard, I can dictate the game.
If I have an okay big, If I have a
really good big and I have an okay guard, it's hard.
That's Memphis. It's it's hard. It's very hard, right because

(01:41:09):
that big is as good as you are. Anthony Davis. Right,
you need somebody to bring that ball up. You need
someone to really dominate. You're not controlling control in the game.
And that's what you look at the really great teams.
The guards control the game, not the bigs. You know, Contino.
It's funny everybody romanticizes the old NBA, and I'm always like, listen,

(01:41:31):
those Nick teams. Four guys couldn't shoot a jumper. I
mean I love Charles Anthony May John Starks couldn't shoot,
and I'm like, he was so streaky tonight. If you
look at the NBA tomorrow night, almost Mark Gassault can
hit a three outside of Bogue. Everybody that'll play can
hit a three. So you forced me. I gotta go

(01:41:51):
out and guard you. I used to be able to
bow Outlaw. You wouldn't even look at him today, Chris Dudley, Right,
I mean the we romanticize the past. It is a
guard wing shooters league, it is. Do you think Zion
will be able to shoot? I think he'll be able
to shoot. But to me, he's like, he's like Blake
Griffin to me right now. And that's not disrespectful because

(01:42:13):
Blake Griffin is amazing. I love Blake, but he came
in raw. He came in raw, and I think Zion
is the same to me as Blake. Because the evolution
of basketball, right when you start getting six seven, six
eight coaches, they're not telling you work on your post
up game. They say't work on your jump shot, work
on your ball handling. Right, that's what they're telling you now.
Back in the day, it was totally different. This Blake

(01:42:35):
came in. He's already knew he already knew how to
dribble really well with three balls. Doing three ball dribbles,
he was just self conscious with his jump shot. When
Zion gets that, he'll be even better. But I don't
think he'll have that impact like a Joan Morant or
a Trey Young because they're guards. They control the whole game.
I think the Pelicans, I think they want lonzol Ball

(01:42:58):
in that trade with Lake. Who'd beautiful Lonzo, That'd be beautiful.
That's where I think Zion. Whereas John Morant may not
have a finisher for his great passes in Memphis, Zion
will have a great distributor for his So to me,
that's I think that's the Robin that deal. I think
it would be done today. But the Pelicans want Lonzo.

(01:43:21):
Lakers are like, you can take one of our forwards,
take our number four pick. Have the Lakers don't want
to give up Lonzo Lazo special Well, Colin, I promise you,
I'm telling you. This kid. To me, it's like a Jason.
He's so good and he's tall, he's big, he's Lonzo.
I stood next to him one time. He's six five
and a half he's a long, long, long, six five

(01:43:42):
and a half and his little brother's even taller. Yeah,
it's ridiculous. Good scening, Catino. Don't skip meals. Drink Soilent
complete meal on a bottle. Plant protein essential nutrients twenty
percent off your first case if you go to soilent
dot com and put in the code Herd two, HERD
twenty veteran newsman John Goulet, No, no, this is the

(01:44:02):
Herd line news Colin Rams. Running Back Todd Gurley's knee
was one of the major storylines of last year's playoffs.
In Super Bowl, he kept suiting up to play, but
he was basically ineffective and they were just giving the
ball to C. J. Anderson more than him. Many people,
including you, thought it's a pretty big issue. Todd Gurley
does not see it that way. He said, quote, I

(01:44:23):
had bigger problems to worry about coming out of college.
This is small? Is he downplaying the potential issue here?
You got a running back with knee problems at his age. Well,
they did draft in the third round a really, really
good running back, and I think what Bucky Brooks said,
I think you'd go into a season and say we're
not going to have him in the OTA's not gonna
do much camp, not gonna play preseason. And you say, listen,

(01:44:46):
we'd like to give him twelve carries and two catches,
sixteen touches and stead of twenty four and if he
has to take like the Patriots due you know, second
week of October, third week in November. You said it. So,
I think they drafted a back to take off about
thirty percent of his workload. This is what New England's
been doing for years. James wide Lap, twelve catches. The

(01:45:07):
next two weeks he's not on the roster. I mean,
they just they decide not to play him. So I
think in the NFL now Zeke is a is a rarity.
I think you need two running backs. I think that's
what the league's becoming. It was funny it it felt
like it was trending that way in the NFL for
a while to go back to two and then all
of a sudden, Girly and Zeke made, oh no, you don't.
I think that was maybe a mistake because I'm sure

(01:45:29):
the Cowboys like the gives and carries the other other
running backs too. So with the success of the Raptors
in the playoffs, a lot of people started thinking Kawhi
Leonard would stay in Toronto after this season, but FS
one MBA analyst Rick Buker said with Doug Gottlieb yesterday
that probably is not going to happen. The latest that
I've heard is that he's going to be elsewhere. We'd

(01:45:53):
like to win a championship, will give that to the
Toronto Raptors as a parting gift, but ultimately this wasn't
his decision to go there. Appreciates what they've done to
get him through this season. As long as he can
be assured that he is going to be treated the
same way the next place that he goes, as far
as the proverbial load management and how they handle him physically,

(01:46:15):
then he if he'll be playing elsewhere next year. It's
an interesting point that Buker brings up that he didn't
choose to go to Toronto, so as much as he
might be enjoying it, he might have thought in his
head like there's no there's nothing that could happen that
would make you want to stay here. I mean, you
can't get a read on the guy. He doesn't have
any emotions. He's not human. I mean, do you think

(01:46:36):
do you think it? Let me ask you this, do
you think the outcome of the series changes his mind?
And Kawhi Leon I think. I think Kawhis has made
his mind up. I think he knows and like it
matters if they wouldn't, I don't. I never bought into
that narrative. I think if you make your mind that,
listen to the fact he got him to the championship.

(01:46:59):
The people that want to criticize him for leaving will
regardless of the outcome. How could you leave an NBA champ?
How could you leave us this close? And the people
that defend the player over the system, which is more
me In the NBA, I'm more it's a player's driven league,
so I support player mobility. So whatever he decides to do,
I would support the player in this because I've seen

(01:47:21):
gms and owners move off players. Why can't players move
off teams? I think the only hiccup you could see
might be are the because we all think the Clippers
are a major suitor for him, Are they cool with
the load management? I think because that's not the way
their team was this year there they wouldn't be. But
do you make an exception for a guy well talent
to take Kawhi, you'll just deal with whatever he offers. Sure,

(01:47:44):
I think the Clippers, you know, beggars, choosers, whatever they
say that sit with a Patrick Feverley guy. That I think.
I think because they got to the finals and load
management worked. I think it's an easy cell to the
locker room guys. This is the way he does it,
and it works. Listen, if you get Kawhi sixty three games,
you're happy. The Clippers are very happy with that. Sure.

(01:48:05):
And finally, yesterday, your prediction for Game six of the
NBA Finals was Raptors big. Yeah, I believe it was
what you said. Now, I don't know if you saw this.
The initial line came out at what the Warriors as
four and a half point favorites, right, It has since
been bet down to three point favorites, so some people
might be agreeing with you. Now, keep in mind the

(01:48:26):
Warriors were favored roughly the same amount in Games three
and four in Oakland and lost both of it. I
think I think the Raptors lead by eight to ten
at half and win by twenty, win by twel Well.
That leads me to my question, then, do you think
the Raptors are going to win by twenty they're getting three.
I've already made you going mortgage payment going now, I've

(01:48:47):
no I'm betting Raptors really, I think emotionally them straight up.
I am taking them straight up to win comfortably. I
think it's one of my safer bets. That's a pretty
big downer for the end of Yeah, I took it,
took clunky. I think the emotion of Durant leaving has

(01:49:07):
taken the wind out of Golden State sales. I mean,
you read all the quotes, it's all about Durants, not
about the game. Like it feels like the season and
for Golden State, nice win. Season over. And I Toronto
is one of those teams when they have a really
bad fourth quarter, they'll come back and play really well
in the first half. It feels like the Warriors can't
build a lead on them. Every time they start to

(01:49:28):
build a leady the Raptors hit a couple buckets and
keep it close. Yeah, I agree. Veteran newsman Jungle, Well,
that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the thirdline news.
By the way, I get asked this occasionally, calling it's
June calling it's July. How come you don't talk baseball?

(01:49:49):
And I always say, I wait until October. I saw
this yesterday. Mike Trout is on pace to finish the season.
I'm reading Buster Olney's Twitter with one hundred and fifty hits,
one hundred and forty seven walks, one hundred and twenty
three runs, forty four homers, seventeen steals, and an ops
of whatever. He is absolutely amazing. And the Angels have

(01:50:14):
the third worst road attendance in baseball. He has no
drawing power. The Astros just won a World Series, last
in road attendance. Cleveland in a World Series three years ago,
second last road attendance. It's not don't blame Cleveland for
that because last year the Cavaliers led the NBA and

(01:50:34):
road attendance because of Lebron the NBAS star power baseball
jest doesn't. Mike Trout is easily the best player. And
nobody goes and watches Mike Trout when he comes to
their town. And this is not a knock on baseball.
I talk about baseball in the postseason. It is because
it's a very lucrative sport. The sports never made more money.

(01:50:56):
It is a local sport. So if I was a
local host or doing local TV and radio, I would
talk about it all the time. If I lived in
Saint Louis Detroit, if I live in Philadelphia with Bryce Harper.
It's not a national business because they don't have breakthrough
national names. Mike Trout's the best player comes into your town,

(01:51:19):
Crickets Westbrook comes into your town, Lebron, Anthony Davis, Ben Simmons,
Joel Mbid, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Damian Lillard, drawing power.
So there are certain sports that are very good national topics,
NFL and NBA athletes that cut through. There are certain topics.
They are great local sports baseball and college basketball that

(01:51:42):
don't have the name power, the drawing power. But baseball's
not going away. Baseball is incredibly lucrative. It's never made
more money. It just tends to be until October, very
much a local business. But Mike Trout's on pace to
have one of the great season in the history of baseball.
He's an unbelievable kid in a great talent. Angel's third

(01:52:06):
Worst Road Attendants in Baseball Astro's World Series Worst Road
Attendants in Baseball got to have drawing power for US.
I mean, when I talk golf, who do I talk
Tiger Woods? I mean pretty simple. Right. When I talk NFL,
it's usually seven teams, Eagles, Patriots, Steelers. Now the Browns

(01:52:27):
are noteworthy. Oakland's a mess. You know. I go to
Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees in New Orleans. That's so when
people say it's just the way the business works. Baseball
is national come October, and this year the Yankees. Everybody's
hurt and they're still playing great. The Dodgers are the
best team in baseball. So if you get a Dodger

(01:52:47):
Yankee World Series, that is a that is a noteworthy
national discussion. Coming up on Best for Last, HBO just
announced A Raiders will be this year's Hard Knocks TV
show on HBO, and they have released their first promos
and I they're a little odd. Decide for yourself. That's
coming up next. Be sure to catch live editions of

(01:53:08):
The Herd Weekdays in noun Easter nine am Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app.
It's amazing. The Women's World Cup is up six percent
off the last Women's World Cup, and that's with the
worst time zone that was the Vancouver one, which perfectly
worked for our time zone. Europe doesn't. It's up fifty
three percent over twenty eleven where it wasn't a European

(01:53:32):
time zone, so it's basically doubled the ratings in eight
years of Women's World Cup soccer ratings. The soccer doubters,
I've just never understand there's just certain people that's almost
like an America. If you like soccer or you're week, well,
what about our football or football has never been stronger?
Why would you be threatened by that? Like soccer? Like

(01:53:54):
I've told you this, John, if I lined up sports
that are my favorite to watch, like the biggest game
in each sport. Number one NFL A big NFL game,
A Super Bowl is number one, Number two a great
NBA Finals game, Number three United States World Cup matches,
and number four a huge college football game. And then

(01:54:16):
number five would be, you know, be kind of like
a great baseball playoff game in October or a great
March Madness game in March. And then then also I've
watched every big US Open Masters those are big and
that's my seven kind of but I but like US
Men's and Women's World Cup. I love watching those games. Well,

(01:54:39):
it's only once every four years. I used I used
to be an Olympic fan, but the Olympics over time
had been replaced as the marquee four year event by
the World Cup. Because I'm a season ticket holder at LAFC,
so I watched soccer during the course of a year,
so segueing into an international World Cup is easy. I

(01:55:01):
don't watch luge, ever, so I find you have these
disparate sports in the Olympics. I just don't watch. So
I've got to get kind of emotionally viscerally connected to
the Olympics when I don't watch these sports. I do
to some degree, but it's much easier for me to
segue as my interest in soccer has increased over the
last decade with my stepson's watching it, and you know,

(01:55:22):
the networks I work at have more of it. It's
on more, I watch more, and being a season ticket holder,
well the best for last. Today, the Raiders were selected
for the upcoming season of HBO's Hard Knocks that is
sort of the go to NFL reality show, HBO's Hard Knocks.

(01:55:42):
Lions were eligible, Giants were eligible, forty nine ers were eligible.
Redskins were eligible, just not that interesting. This team is
built for the show. Gruden, Antonio Brown, Vontz Berfick, Bridgie, incognito,
legendary franchise, final year in Oakland. This will be the
best Hard ever. Gruden's great on TV, Antonio Brown's going

(01:56:03):
to be great on TV. So HBO has just released
their first promo. We got our hands on it for
HBO's Hard Knocks, and here it is. Coming soon from
the network that brought you the five part series Chernobyl,
comes another epic disaster, Hard Knocks, featuring the Oakland Raiders,

(01:56:23):
only on HBO. Just Chernobyl, by the way, is unbelievable. Yeah,
that's a little harsh, But now HBO does have I'm
told does have a backup promo coming soon. The legendary
Oakland Raiders begin their chase for football's ultimate title in
a series that critics are saying is like Game of

(01:56:44):
Thrones with an even sloppier ending. Hard Knocks only on HBO.
People got so Whitlock he thought he was beating me
watching Game of Thrones, and I've been telling him now
for years, Billions is better. Whitlock came around on that
and finally the other day text me and said, Billions
actually knows how to finish strong. You got you can't

(01:57:05):
have a week ending to a movie and say, oh,
that's a great when until last time you watched a
movie and said that's a terrible ending, but you love
the movie. I don't think I've ever seen that. Like
Game of Thrones was so bad at the end. I
thought it took a little of the shine off it, right,
a little? No, how would you know? You haven't watched
one second of I know I didn't watch a second,

(01:57:26):
but I just theoretically, you can't have a bad last
twelve minutes of a movie. I do watch, and yes,
it did take the luster off. At Billions has gotten greater.
Billions has been on the fair. Billions doesn't have a
sea or a series finale yet it's been very good. Oh,
we have another HBO promo on The Raiders. Oh here
it is coming soon. John Gruden, Antonio Brown, Vontes Perfect,

(01:57:51):
and Richie Incognito all star in a show that critics
are saying it's like Entourage, but with more jerks are knocks.
Raiders only on HBO. Speaking of Billions, Brian Coppelman is
scheduled to be on our Saturday morning podcast, so the

(01:58:13):
executive producer. He's the executive producer. So our Saturday Morning podcast,
we do it about forty weeks a year, and it's
this week we have one, so it will be And
I think if the Warriors win tomorrow, I think I'm
gonna work Monday, and if the Warriors don't win, I'm
just going to take the week off. It's weird because
you know, I'm kind of bummed out because I have

(01:58:35):
to schedule vacations in advance. I can't just tell you know, Fox,
I'm leaving. So I scheduled this four months ago, and
I knew I was going to miss the draft, but
I knew it was a two three player draft. I
don't care what that. But what if the Lakers make
the ad move and I'm on vacation and I think
they are and you miss the KD signing to the

(01:58:55):
Warriors was on July fourth, and you were off that day.
That's why I'll never take fourth of July off again.
You gotta be you know, It's funny because you know,
in our business, you can't take anything off Labor Day
until like February second, right, little Christmas time but you
get that, you got a borg and then in the
NBA like April, starting with like April twentieth, I've got
the NFL Draft in the NBA, so I can't miss

(01:59:16):
any time April, May June, and then the only time
you can go. And then once the season end, you
get like eight days and then all the free agents
signed for two weeks. So here I am taking I'm
gonna take a time off, and the Lakers are gonna
make this massive deal with Anthony Davis. So I'm praying
they make it tomorrow. With it, here's what I'm thinking.
The Lakers are gonna make the move. They would prefer

(01:59:39):
the champion is crowned and then they do it the
next day. So you know, you don't want to disrupt
the finals as a franchise. You want your sport to
have its kind of regal, elegant final. It's good for
the league. Then you come remember a Rod Got years ago,
right in the middle of a World Series, was talking
about trade stuff and everybody freaked out. Sports like you
to get out of the way. That's the way they

(02:00:03):
finals draft free agency. Thanks for flying United until October.
What you don't want is Lakers the morning of Game
six doing an Anthony Davis Lebron deal and everybody freaking
out and nobody's talking about the finals. So I think
I think the Lakers quite possibly in David Griffin and
those guys are thinking Adam Silver. Does Adam Silver step

(02:00:25):
in and say, guys, I know you're gonna make a trade.
Can you wait till the series is over? I mean,
if I was a commissioner, is that within your jurisdiction
to do that? Well, technically it can't go through anyway,
it would only be agreed to. So why not wait? Yeah,
Adam Silver calls it. Guys, let's stay out of the
rumor mill. Just you can't do it anyway. Let's just
let's not leak this crap till the finals are over.

(02:00:46):
I would feel as a commissioner, I'd be comfortable saying that,
maybe you can call into the show from your whitewater
rafting trip. I will, you know, I will the talk back.
Maybe I'll do it from a mountain, from a river,
from a raging river.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Playing hurt, Warriors, World Cup, Raiders, & Anthony Davis