March 4, 2021 • 38 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon react to a pair of huge games in the NBA, including James Harden's return to Houston. Joel Embiid has solidified his case for MVP. FS1 NBA Insider Ric Bucher joins the guys to discuss the huge Wednesday night slate and dive into recent officiating issues across the league. Plus, the guys give an update on the investigation into Tiger Woods' crash.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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We are Farmers. Well, they didn't retire a jersey tonight,
but James Harden's return to Houston has just gone final
and it was a very successful one. Tonight's a big
night in the NBA. We have NBA records being set.
(01:05):
We have the m v P of the first half
planning his flag and saying, forget about all these other guys,
I'm the real guy, but clearly Mike Harmon. James Harden
tonight showed back up in Houston. Day after Tillman Fertita said, yeah,
we're gonna retire his jersey. He drops twenty nine and
fourteen assists the Nets keep rolling. All Rockets fans have
to sit back and sit there and go, we don't
(01:27):
have Hardened, we don't have what. We don't have Hopkins,
We're not gonna have Watson at some point, and this guy,
our owner is still gonna retire that number. We got
to watch Harden try. I mean, he played well all
the way through. He didn't give up because he wanted out,
and we had to watch this tonight. This is a
bitter pill to swallow for the Rockets fans in Harden's
(01:48):
return again twenty nine and fourteen in a one thirteen victory. Uh,
this is the kind of night it was for James Harden.
Harden now front court three on the way, James Harden
with the three, He's got twenty seven and Houston needs
a time out. That's radio network. Yeah, that that could
(02:08):
I think that last phrase could go for the Rockets,
for the entire for the entire city of Houston, for
the last year. Houston needs a time out. Houston, really,
they need to talk. In the words of Marv Albert,
they need to talk it over and not just in
the NBA. Yeah, it was everything you would expect. The
Rocket showed some hard though, because they could have just quit.
(02:30):
They didn't battled. Yes, it's an eighteen point defeat, but
they got it back to ten. At one point everybody said,
oh no, here we go. They're gonna choke it away,
and and the crowd, the couple of thousand people that
were there got excited. Uh twenty nine, ten boards, fourteen
assists in the game. He did have a turnovers, but
(02:52):
still a plus seventeen on the night, ten of fifteen
shooting um look in the in the end, he wanted
out it so how much? How much bad? How bad
do you feel? You don't you just take you take
your lumps. You know this is a lost season at
this point. You maybe give him the too old to
rock and roll, too young to die hand gesture, Ray Lomas.
(03:15):
Look it up on Twitter or or the Google machine
as you need to. I won't describe it in full detail.
Maybe you give him one or two of those during
the course of the game. But beyond that, you know,
you just celebrate the eight years that you had with him.
All the highs in the video montage, they should have
shown a couple of lows. Here's where you were gassed
(03:36):
and really couldn't compete in the fourth quarters. We don't
miss that, dudey fans, No, we don't miss that. May
try to make it an antagonistic thing. Once you go down, that,
I guess, But then you just have to dust yourself
off and move on. No, no, no, you can move
on later. It's time to still be antagonistic and the
wounds are too fresh. Okay, If I'm in the w
W E and I'm in the ring and I'm holding
(03:56):
your hand up and hey, this could be a new
tag team, and then you hit me over the head
with a chair, that starts a big feud. I'm not
suddenly just gonna be your friend and help you the
next time that happens. There's gotta be sometimes gotta go by.
I need to sit back, I need to be mad,
I need to vent, I need to do these things.
People Remember how James Harden just quit and decided, Hey,
I'm gonna better myself by quitting, And really, I mean
(04:17):
that's the Homer Simpson philosophy, better yourself by quitting. Hey,
James Harden didn't. No, I'm okay to be mad for
a while. If I'm the Rocket, I'm really I'm really
okay to be mad at James Harden. And here's the
other big thing. Okay, look, James Harden got he had
mixed reviews. When he came back tonight, there were booze,
there were some cheers. It was kind of hardened. Uh,
(04:38):
kind of like when I walk into a room, I
get that, I get something, and I get some even
in your own home. Yeah, I get Yeah, Sometimes I
get hey and sometimes I get uh Like, it depends
if I like today, when I came back from uh
running errands with with two um U st Patrick's day
shakes from from McDonald's, dad came back with the shaiks,
(05:00):
if I just came back from if I just came
back from Marrin's enohing, they would go, okay, all right,
that's that's what it was for me. Well, I mean
that's the different levels of excitement. But by the way,
they've also been stuck with you for a year, so
really you're leaving the house for eight minutes I'm not
really gonna have a lot of excitement. Yeah, but again,
but I am Mr Excitement. I mean I am I
(05:20):
am Mr Excitement. I mean, if you want, you want
to be trapped with me, and because it's fun. I mean,
I'm not one of those you use. The term trapped
tells me everything you need to know about the experience. Hey,
how's your day to day in quarantine? That's nice, that's nice.
Let's watch another television show. No, No, I am Mr Excited.
I'm I'm Mr Fun. I am fun. I am I
(05:43):
like that Mr Excitement. I kind of I'm gonna nickname
myself that, although I think Ron Flockhart was Mr. Excitement
back in the nineties for the Flyers, But I'm gonna
go with Mr. I kind of like the trade market.
If not, let's see if Mr Excitement dot Com is available. Oh,
I don't. I think Mr Excitement dot com. It's probably
something what we're talking about. It's owned by somebody, but
(06:04):
it is not built okay, and it's okay, alright, alright,
it is. We can get it for six d bucks.
It's owned by it says vivid something Vivid Vivid. I
I don't, okay, but here's the other thing, right, because
we we get to you know, a cuple bunch of
big games night in the NBA. Uh, what do we
say with the with the Brooklyn Nets sitting where they are?
(06:24):
Their defense is terrible, right, and here are the Rockets.
They're a terrible team. They put up one four team.
But take a look at what the starting backcourt did.
John Wallen, Victorola Deepo go for thirty six and thirty
three apiece in this game. So clearly the Nets while
they're winning, they look the Nets are regular season good?
Now their regular season tough? Are they playoff tough? That's
(06:46):
the big thing that I don't know that I can't
say they are their regular season great? All right, their
regular season great? But are they playoff tough? I see
nights like this where hey, look, well at all a
deep or really good players. Don't get me wrong, but
this is not a star studded team. You know, this
team that's loses two out of every three games. And
when you're allowing the backcourt where you allow teams to
put up big numbers and defeat this is what happens
(07:07):
when the team get the teams get better as the
season goes on, and the and you're playing different teams
in the playoffs, the Nets, so they could just hit
fast forward to the playoffs. Now it doesn't matter. We're
waiting for the conference semis in the conference final because
that's when the Nets are gonna get tested, and that's
when we find out if they're for real their regular
season for real? Now are they are? They playoff real?
Nobody can say that yet because this is how they
(07:29):
play defense. Well, I'm gonna take this one with a
grain of salt because while they were bludgeoning the Rockets
for a good chunk in this game, So I take
I take a little a little bit of this. When
it's an eighteen twenty point margin for most of the
game as like, and it finishes at eighteen, you're you're
trying to push away saying they didn't pay any defense, Like, well,
(07:52):
they still won by you know, three touchdowns almost uh.
And you know, because I gotta give the text and
some hope that there's some positive of we gotta cross
over their sports as best we can uh to find
a little bit of of of light. But look, everybody stinks.
You've got six good teams and everybody else is. But
that's it. But it's like right now, when when you
(08:14):
get down to it and you look at the Nets
and we we've talked about the Eastern Conference and even
the teams that are up there with them as the
best of the conference, do you have great confidence that
they're going to finish as strongly as they played to
this point. I mean, you look at Embiid and Ben Simmons.
Has it ever worked for a full season? Right? We
(08:38):
haven't had an injury scary yet, we haven't had any
big shake ups or terrible weeks or months, and maybe
maybe they've finally grown and this is it and this
is where it changes, right and beat it's the big
shot today to extend the game and everything else there
there are these monster moments and breakthrough moments, and maybe
we're in the midst of seeing one, but we haven't
seen it historically with the Nets. There's still a lot
(08:59):
of activity, or at least some activity to come in
terms of player buyouts and trades. We talked to Kurt
healand last night he wasn't bullish that we're gonna see
a ton of moves. Why because everybody's near to five hundred.
But if I still knowing I don't have Kevin Durant
and I can still put up a hundred thirty two.
I'm feeling all right. I'm feeling like things will work
(09:21):
themselves out. I have far more confidence of them coming
together than banking on the fact that the Clippers will
as that on the other No, you're good, man, but
there's six teams. There's six teams. Everybody else's everybody else
is the Knicks. You've got six teams and everybody else man,
everybody else ten minutes in and now it's got to
(09:41):
be the Knicks. Everybody's the Knicks? Did it? Did it?
Did it? Twitter? At how about a fresca? Mike gets
swollen on the Jason Smith's or with Mike Carmen live
from the Farmer's Insurance Studios called Farmers Today for a quote. Now,
one of the other big games that just finished tonight,
you talk about NBA Finals preview, You're saying, wait a minute, wait,
and if Finals p the Lakers didn't play tonight, who
(10:01):
are the Clippers playing? No NBA Finals potential preview tonight?
And boy was it a fun one and overtime and
the seventies Sixers pull out the win thanks to Joel
Embiad and his forty points. Tobias Harris to embead and
beat is pushed by Bogdanovitch. Nine seconds ago, googles be
on the arc, fake to three, shoot the three. It's
up head good five point nine ago and beat us
(10:23):
tied it at one. There it is Sixers Radio Network
and Beat ties the game part of his forty point
nineteen rebound night. And it is clear right now. And
I can't be more clearer than this, And I don't
even know that there's there's a way to dispute this.
Right now, we're getting to the halfway point of the NBA.
The next few nights, we're gonna talk about all different
(10:44):
things at the halfway point. Here's the NBA All Star
Break is coming. Everybody finishes up tomorrow night. They finished
the first half. The m v P in the NBA
right now is Joel Embiad and there's nobody else that's close.
Joel Embiid has withstood all the challengers because he has
been great from the opening game two now, right, Lebron
(11:05):
James had a nice run and then he took a dovetail,
and James Harden had a really rough beginning, and he's
been great the last month. But nobody's been better from
the beginning of the season until now, besides Joel Embiid.
I mean, nobody has been this good. He has taken
this year and and the the jump that we thought
we would get from him at some point, because you know,
(11:26):
you look back and and Shaquille O'Neil really, uh, when
we think about this, it's something that's become a thing.
To compare it to now, is it. Look, Shaq got
halfway through his career, right, he was having fun making
movies and and and making songs. He was Kazam and
he's on TV shows man, and then he decided, you
know what, I really gotta start winning at some point. So,
you know, I gotta get out of Orlando. I gotta
(11:47):
get to the Lakers. He gets the Lakers, he wins
three championships, he wins a fourth with the Heat, and
now the Mercer legacy is secure, the Shaquille O'Neil legacy
is secure. He got to that point where he knew,
I need to start winning. I have to get more
serious about my career. Joel Embiid, the exact same thing
has happened. Right. He's always been a terrific player. But
him and Ben Simmons have been having fun the last
(12:09):
few years when they're a nice fifty win team year
after year and they lose in the second round of
the playoffs at best and they go home, and that's
kind of what it is. And you're waiting, and I
was waiting for m B to take this next step
because he is that dominant and this year he has
done it. I mean, he has played with with a
new sense of now I know what my legacy needs
(12:31):
to be. Right. The guy's thirty and twelve. You know
this season he is having a fantastic year. And it
was it was something that happened right from beginning. I
gotta give Doc Rivers a lot of credit because he
got it out of him and looked. The first couple
of years with Doc Rivers, We've said this many times,
have always been the best years, uh, in Doc Rivers
years as being a head coach. It's the later years
are struggling. But and beat tonight and me tonight is
(12:54):
showing you putting the exclamation point on the first half,
going I am the m v P in this league,
and really there's nobody else, looks Steph Curry had a
nice week and a half run of always scoring thirty
five a game. No, Joel embiads the m v P. Yeah,
I know he's been amazing all the way through. I
mean another forty nineteen night tonight and overtime. Uh, we're
(13:14):
gonna have to effort the sound Downovan Mitchell going off
on officials as he was ejected. H much like Devin
Booker was last night. I don't know giving them early
exits to the to the half halftime break here of
the season and the All Star break, I'm not quite
sure what the the pushes. But for for Joel embiid
we as you said, it's been years in the waiting, right,
(13:37):
this is already year five, which is amazing how time flies.
By far. His point per game production is up rebounds
on par with his career Average's best was in where
he averaged thirteen point six. He's at eleven point three.
Free throw percentage is at a career best. When those
(14:00):
guys that four straight years, you're you're seeing an increase
and in in that aptitude and in that in his
field goal percentage of career high, like everything just breaking through,
and we know there's you're always looking for a new narrative.
So the big thing is for the Sixers. He's got
to stay healthy quite obviously, but they they need to
keep a top the the Eastern Conference, and I think
(14:22):
he breaks through, right. Likable guy, pretty good with the media.
Remember him shagging fly balls at the the All Star
Game from Major League Baseball. I mean that was just unfair,
those big mits going out and catching catching baseballs, and
everybody's just got to get out of the way. But
he's the guy that's the the new kid on the block,
(14:44):
as it were, even in the year five. You know
what we talk about all of these stars and what
they've done hardens a fun story. How many guys are
gonna hold his wanting out of Houston against him, right,
because that's the other factor, right, that's perspective to made
his way. But yeah, the personality thing may may hit
him there. I'm not saying it's right and wrong. I'm
(15:05):
just saying it's human nature and humans are voting on it,
which means, all, right, positivity, where's the positivity. If they
win it, that's great, but you have to vote before
that's decided. As for Joel Embiid, you know, Sixers trying
to trying to make some noise, which means we would
get more video of Moses Malone and maybe some more
(15:27):
Alan Iverson appreciation. So I'm all good with that. Uh.
And we didn't even get a chance to get to
the fact that Donovan Mitchell gets toss in overtime. Another
ridiculous ejection on the heels of the Devin Booker one
from a night ago. But that's okay. We got Rick
Buker stopping by with us coming up next. All the latest.
Who's his m v P for the first half, who's
his coach of the Year for the first half? There's
(15:48):
only one choice. All the big NBA news and reaction.
You need a big night tonight, keep it right here.
Jason Smith, Mike Harmon. You are listening to Fox Sports Radio,
be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smiths
Show with Mike Harman weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart
Radio app. Hey, what's up, everybody? It's me three time
(16:10):
pro bowler La Warrington, and I couldn't be more excited
to announce a new podcast called Up on Game? What
is up on Game? You asked, along with my fellow
pro bowler, t J. Hushman's OTTA and Super Bowl champion.
That's right, Plexico Birds. You can only name a show
with that type of talent. On it. Up on Game
We're going to be sharing our real life experiences loaded
(16:34):
with teachable moments. Listen to Up on Game with Me
LaVar Arrington, t J. Hutchman's OTTA, and Plexico Birds on
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you
get your podcast from. Joining us now on the hotline,
will he agree or disagree with my NBA m v
P call for the first half? It is Fox sports
(16:56):
one Insider Extraordinary, Rick Duker. You can follow on Twitter
at Rick Buker. Rick. What's happening man? I've been busy tonight.
We've had a lot of games of interest to me.
They haven't all been exciting, but they've been revealing. So
let's have at it alright. So first, and don't worry,
I'm not going to give you a nick thing. First.
You're not gonna say Julius rope. But there will be
(17:18):
there wi there has to be all. I can feel
it in the air. I also know that even if
there isn't a knick thing, there will be a Knicks
thing on this show. Alright, First things first, like you said,
a huge night tonight. In the end, baby watched Philadelphia
beat Utah and over time they win at one three.
Obviously that Donovan Mitchell ejection will get to in a second,
(17:40):
but Joel Embiid ties the game late in the fourth quarter.
In the final seconds he goes for forty and nineteen.
I'm telling you, Rick, we we talk a lot about
m v P so far. There's nobody who's been more
consistent from the beginning of the year to where we
are now than m beat Lebron had his moment and
then he kind of dovetailed. James Harden was lost, then
(18:01):
he's now He's been playing well for a month. I
really can't see there being anybody else but embiad for
m v P right now. Yeah, Harden has been consistent
since he's gotten to Brooklyn. He certainly wasn't everything was
at the very start with Houston and then and then
had his down period. I don't have a problem with
m B being the m v P for the first
(18:21):
half of the season. They certainly have the record for it.
He has been a factor at both ends. He's also
a reflection of like you know, people say the big
man is back, I'd say the three point shooting big
man is back. If you're if you can't hit threes,
then you're a liability no matter what position that you play.
(18:42):
But with Mbiad and Nicola Yokich in Denver, both of
the guys, both of those guys are capable of that.
And I believe that Embiid I think you saw it
against Gobert Um. There there's a physicality, uh, and there
is a grit to m b that those two other bigs,
Gobert and Yo kids do not have and it makes
(19:06):
him dangerous. They won the game because of Tobias Harris
and the weakness that I see in the Utah Jazz
that I believe will be exposed in the postseason, which
is why I'm not really buying them as a legit
title contender. Uh. They were able to go at Bob
Danovitch with Tobias Harris, you got plenty of wings quality
wings in uh. In in the Western Conference that teams
(19:28):
are gonna be able to do the same thing in
crunch time. And and that's the that's the Achilles heel
between Joe Ingalls and Bogdanovitch, There's always going to be
somebody that they can attack and uh, and that's exactly
what Philly did. I was interested in this game just
because I thought it was the It's the two teams
that not only have big men, but they play big
(19:49):
and I wanted to see who was the best between them.
Philadelphia demonstrated clearly, even though that the game went to overtime,
that they are the better big man team. Other m
VP candidate. You mentioned James Harden and how well he's played.
How much does the human factor play in of Hey,
he forced his way out of here and reflects uh
(20:12):
negatively in terms of m v P voting. But I
thought that they should have just put the jersey up
in the rafters tonight with the tribute video and everything else.
Just get it out of the way and put all
of the the bad juju. Just push it out right
now and it's gone. Just go straight to James Harden today.
I'm not there, although I get I don't know because
(20:33):
not having fans in the stands and doing it now, Okay, maybe,
but I think as soon as you have fans in
the stands, there be somebody there with a BB gun
shooting that thing down. M I the it's too close,
and I think the feelings for Rockets fans is still
too raw. Uh you don't have to go to immediately
(20:54):
he was so great and he because he was and
he had a great run with the rocket. But uh,
I just don't believe that Rockets fans have forgotten how
he forced his way out and whether it's a video tribute. Okay,
and and the video tribute was really an effort because
they showed some of his humanitarian stuff in Houston. I
(21:15):
thought it was a real effort to remind people like
James Harden is a person too. He's and he's a
good person. I never doubted that. But look, he turned
his back on the organization, and I fought the organization
in part because he told him during the summer I
don't want to be here, and they dragged their feet
and finally he acted out in order to make it happen.
(21:35):
But there's there. He still could have been more professional
about it. I don't have a problem with recognizing him.
I don't have a problem with acknowledging him. I don't
have a problem with retiring his number. I just don't
know that you do it right away, and you immediately
you're you're you are far more forgiving than I am.
I would have waited. I would have let this settle
(21:56):
a little bit and then come back to it. I'll
tell you and tell you this to Rick. The reason
I also wanted done because if he wins the title
and then he's got to come back by the way
he forced his way out on a title he was
near and dear to your hearts once upon a time,
a new champion. That's that's fair. If he wins the title.
(22:16):
I mean maybe maybe he wins the title. Then maybe
Tilman takes it back and goes, you know, on second thought,
you already got you got what you needed. Uh, you
just get that banner up in here. We're not we're
not gonna put your number up up there either, which
which which, frankly, how good would that be? Good would
that be? He gets his ring. Finally, he wins it
for the nets and the rockets go yeah. I'm second thought, Uh,
(22:38):
we thought you're gonna bring that here, and since he
demonstrated that you could do it, but you didn't do
it here, um let's x NA on the uniform retirement ray.
Um so I I love I love that idea that
if he gets hit and you look you make there's
not gonna be any time. People aren't going to feel
(23:01):
sore about it. It's the same with you know, k
D leaving Golden State and forgot to say he brought
them two rings, and people were still upset that he bailed. So,
I mean, I think that happens. I just I don't know.
You know, this is months after he basically said, uh
to everyone in Houston, I love you, but you're just
not good enough to get me where I want to go.
(23:23):
And and here's the other thing. If I'm an owner, UM,
and and you're you know, you're you're trying to avoid
UH stars working their way out of organizations. UH, and
you want to take back some of that empowerment. UM.
The immediate forgiveness for doing what he did really doesn't.
(23:46):
It doesn't dissuade anybody from doing It's like, yeah, I
got my way, I acted badly. Oh and you're still
going to retire my jersey and you're still going to
do a video tribute what exactly did I it was
a bout behaving bath Rick Bucker with us the Jason
Smith Shows, Mike Harmon live from the Farmer's Insurance Studios.
(24:07):
All right, now I'm with you on harden Rick. Now,
let let's see where you are on this. And we
mentioned it. We kind of came back to it. Uh
here for a second. Uh in the MBAD game, you
know you had a huge game. Donovan Mitchell gets thrown
out in overtime with with a technical. We watch Devin
Booker get thrown out of the game last night for
reasons passing understanding. You know where are you on these
(24:28):
big calls the last couple of nights Because I'll tell
you what, Adam Silver's inbox is full from complaints about
what's been going on. It's not just the last couple
of nights for me. It's been the officiating all year long,
and it's made it impossible. I just I look at
the the three point shots that are being rewarded um
for fouls. When you have shooters that are throwing themselves
(24:51):
into the defender, it's made it impossible defend. And without
the training camp and a variety of reasons, the deep
hasn't been good anyway and then, but the the officiating
has only made it far, far more difficult. And I
don't blame the officials because essentially they're doing what the
league wants them to do. I don't know where and
(25:14):
when they became so frightened of physicality or that they
try or trying to make basketball a non contact sport,
but it is a contact sport. There is physicality in it,
and it's just makes it hard to watch. And I
the seeing key players uh tossed for what seems to
(25:37):
be like when you're when you're watching it. Some of this,
obviously is because we don't have fans in the stands
and we don't have the broadcasters in the stand and
so when somebody gets tossed, and you've got to figure out, Okay,
so why why did that guy get tossed? Because we
can't demonstrably see it, then uh, it raises a question
about the validity of the guy being officiated. Normally, you know,
(26:00):
it's either it's it's obvious and I am struggling with it,
but I've struggled with it all year long. I do
not think the product is very good right now, and
the way the league is approaching, we're just we're not
gonna allow any contact, We're not gonna allow any motion,
We're not gonna allow any reaction. Uh. Look, that has
(26:23):
been uh an important part of the fiber of the
NBA and basketball forever. And when you legislate that out,
I think that it really affects the integrity of the game,
and it's certainly affects the entertainment value alright, one that
the players aren't excited to go. But here we are
(26:44):
All Star weekend. Other than the rest, what are you
looking for to get a win out of this weekend? Oh?
My goodness, I don't know that nobody gets hurt and
that you know, we we see some sort of competition,
But I mean, I'm I'm interested to see I'm interested
in season three point shooting contest, Devin Booker versus Steph Curry.
(27:06):
I am interested in Oh, I'm interested in Anthony Simmons
from Portland. Uh can he win the dunk contest? Uh?
And kind of put his name out there because I
think he's a really special player that people don't really
know about. And that is probably about it. The selection
of the teams and where that goes might provide a
(27:31):
little fodder, but beyond that, I mean, that's that's kind
of it. The only reason that they're having the All
Star Game is because it's tied into a lot of
corporate packages and so they have to maintain that for
the for the integrity of those packages. But beyond that,
I just you know, having the dunk contest at halftime
of the game. It's just they are just trying to
(27:54):
squeeze this thing anything in somehow, some way. And uh, look,
I just hope we get to Monday and nobody's suffered
any serious injury. Well, see, I thought you were going
to kind of jump the fence when they say, what
are you most looking forward to the All Star Break weekend?
And you're gonna say, no, forget about that. Tomorrow night,
the Nicks could finish the first half over five hundred.
(28:14):
I thought that's where you were gonna go with that. Well, actually,
I you know, I am remiss. What I am looking
forward to is seeing Julius Randall when All Star m
v P. That's what I'm looking forward to. Oh, you're
my favorite. I'm tweeting that out right now from Rick
Buker Julius for m v P. Hashtag hashtag Julius for
(28:37):
m VP. Uh. You can follow them on Twitter at
Rick Buker, that is at Rick Buker. Rick as always buddy,
appreciate your time, Enjoy the rest of the week, and
we will talk to you next week. My friend, have fun,
my pleasure. Great stuff, great stuff from Rick Buker. And look,
he's been talking about how bad the NBA product is
now for a while and how bad it is this season.
(28:58):
And clearly when he and and and and he hit
it right on the head. When did the referees get
so sensitive. When did they suddenly become hey, we can't
call anything physical. The players are going to react. And
now we're we're not even gonna let you react, and
we're gonna throw you out. Almost as if the referees,
you know, had a meeting and said, hey, when there's
no fans there, people can hear the players saying stuff
(29:19):
to us. We want to be able to throw him
out because I'm not gonna sit there and have a guy,
you know, blank blanket. He blanked me all the way through. No,
no, no no, and and and of course the NBA said,
oh yeah, you know, well we'll we'll we'll cut down
on that. I get it, But that's that's part of
the game, right Guys yell stuff on the court all
the time, because you can hear stuff now and become
something that's reported, Oh you know what so and so
said to the referee. I mean, really, it's just it's
(29:41):
just crazy that this is where the NBA is. We
had the two big ejections Donovan Mitchell tonight and Devin
Booker last night that you look around and go, if
a guy's getting thrown out, it's got to be obvious,
right if a guy Because if a guy is is
is is making his case to the referee, but he's
not embarrassing the referee and he's not saying it to
his face making it look like, hey, I'm getting and
(30:01):
I'm trying to dominate you. You gotta let that go.
When someone gets talked, it's got to be obvious, and
clearly the referees are failing at that. Yeah, I think
it's just one of those circumstances where there was probably
a meeting before the season about how this was gonna
be televised, what was gonna get picked up on a
live mike. You've had some arenas because you've had a
(30:22):
live crowd, it's been easier to cover some of the
stuff up because you're getting a full reaction. Particularly, I mean,
you know how people get as soon as there's a
little bit of an altercation, everybody, ah, you know, and
start screaming like an idiot. Uh, so you might be
able to mask that a bit. Maybe for the second
half of the year, they have to go to some
(30:43):
other way of providing sounds of the game. If this
is the end we're getting out of this, because human
nature takes over, I get it, he gets salty. But
if part of the part of the charge of the
referees is to keep the squawking to a minimum us
because a potential vulgar comment gets out, man, that that's
(31:05):
just screwing up the game. And we watched it two
nights in a row. Two of the guys that we're
talking about in the m v P conversation get tossed
seemingly because they felt like it an aggressive bouncing of
the ball. Are you kidding me? Don't bounce that ball
to me? Don't you bounce that baldly? Put too much
mustard on it, man, twitter At how about a fresco
(31:27):
Mike gets swollen down the Jason Smith Show with my
bass friend Mike harmon Call one Triple eight. Farmers say,
have a bit of something something on auto insurance. Uh,
coming up, we got more NBA on the way. But
coming up next, a big update in the Tiger Wood story.
We got it for you next. I'm Jason, He's Mike.
This is Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch live
editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays
(31:49):
at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Call on Farmers
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Call one eight Farmers to get a quote. We are
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(32:10):
my best friend Mike Carmen. Just making sure it was bleeped.
Just making sure you had a bleep version. Their tight shirt.
I real fast. I was like, should I start talking?
And in case it's not bling No, no, no, I
gotta got dangerous. We got we gotta make sure that's me.
I ride the edge of the envelope, Living on the
(32:31):
edge baby. The Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Carman, Live from the Farmers Insurance Studio. It's called
Farmers Today for a quote We'll have more in the
NBA and a big story out of the NFL coming
up next because the NFL off season when it comes
to quarterbacks just change in a big way today. But
if you remember last week when we were on the
(32:52):
reaction part of the Tiger Woods car accident, I was
very stunned that initially the sheriff of Los Angeles decided
to clear Tiger Woods of wrongdoing. Alex Villanueva said that, hey,
there's you know, there's no crime going on. Tiger Woods
wasn't under the influence of anything. He you know, he
(33:13):
took a test there. Maybe he was speeding, I don't know,
but there's gonna be no charges. There's no evidence of anything.
And we raised their hand and said, uh, that's kind
of not how it's done. I mean, I get it,
but that's kind of not how it's done. And it
was really weird that suddenly he gets cleared when there's
been no investigation. And it's about doing due diligence, and
(33:34):
we use the words due diligence when you're a police
officer and there's an accident like that, you have to
do your due diligence and figure out why that accident happened.
Was it something the driver did illegally? Did they check there,
were they're on their phone? Were they speeding? All these
things could happen. You can't just tell me because you
showed up at the at the scene and hey, everything
seemed okay. Because what I thought that Alex Villanueva did
(33:56):
was he just decided I'm gonna be the guy to
stand up and protect Tiger Woods. Right, this is a
really scary story, and and it was scary for a
lot of people, and it took over for a while,
and I'm gonna be the guy to stand up and
protect him and say everything is fine, I'm protecting Tiger Woods,
when really that's not your job. If Tiger Woods is innocent,
we'll find out. If Tiger Woods didn't do anything wrong,
(34:17):
we'll find out. And then today things changed as the
deputy of the l A Sheriff's County, John Schlogal, said, Hey,
we're trying to determine if a crime was committed. They're
getting data from the black box and the SUV that's
going to tell them what the vehicle was doing at
the time, how fast it was going. And now they
are investigating this situation and I I've said from the beginning,
(34:40):
I don't want to see Tiger Woods put in jail.
I'm not saying I like, oh, let's get let's get
even with Tiger would no, But this is just kind
of how it has to be. And they even use
the words, hey, it's due diligence. And you know there
must have been some kind of power struggle because here's
your the l A County sheriff who said no charges,
and now a week later it's yeah, the de beauty
(35:00):
is saying, we're looking into charge. So you know there's
some kind of internal politics going on in the l
A County Sheriff's Department when it comes to Tiger Woods.
But and now this seems like a more normal reaction. Okay,
Now they're looking into it to see just what went
on with Tiger Woods, which is what you would expect.
And that's all I That's all I wanted, was I
expected the l A Sheriff's Department to look into it
exactly how they're saying, we don't know what's going on.
(35:22):
Maybe everything is fine and there's nothing that's going to
be a felony. If it's anything, it's probably a misdemeanor.
But we have to look into things like texting and
driving speeding around a curve because that's kind of what
we do as a police force. So I am glad
today to see this reversal from the l A County
Sheriff's Department, even though it embarrassed uh, you know, Villeneuava
(35:44):
last week. But hey, you know what, you shouldn't have
said what he said at that point. You should have waited. Well,
you react in the moment, and maybe it comberheads prevail,
more discussion, more just evidence of what's going on Tiger Woods,
you know, saying he doesn't remember driving. Okay, so that's
a whole other razor. And look, all I know about
(36:06):
policing is my dad was one and he didn't talk
about it. We didn't get into deep dives. We got
some crazy, crazy stories of people that would call because
they were lonely, and some of the stuff they would
start asking about almost as if they were the movie
line guy getting ready to read them movie showings for
the day. Can you tell me the scores and things
(36:28):
of that, just because they were bored and needed someone
to talk to. So that was part of it, in
addition to all the serious stuff. We were kind of
shielded from that. Everything else I learned on law and
order and the variations thereof. So I'm not claiming to
really know a ton, but I'm just asking, we asked
the questions. Throw a bunch of it out. You know,
black box on cars evidently have been there a while.
(36:50):
You know, we we always talked about them, and when
it comes to planes or larger things like a train
derailment or something, but you know, talking about speed breaking data, velocity,
steering input, the rates, the seatbelt status and and all
these other things airbag deployment and when and how and
(37:11):
and all sorts of other pieces of data. And I
think part of it stems from a discussion of that
area that really spawned out of this, not that it's
not a local concern, but this became an international Hey,
you know what, it's known for going with a downgrade
that gets you from forty to eighty really fast, to
which a lot of people responded, then why aren't there
(37:33):
you know, traffic signals or stop signs or whatever to
try to stop the and slow the flow over there?
So maybe maybe it spawns out of that as well.
Civic duty for research purposes but certainly we haven't heard
the end of this. No, it probably should come in
the next few days. Uh. And there's been no other
(37:54):
comment from the Sheriff's department outside of this from the
sheriff deputy earlier today. But look, this is kind of
how it's supposed to be done. And and I really
it more seems like Villeneuava just trying to protect tiger
woods when he came out with that last week Twitter
at how about a fresca Mike had swollen dome? Oh boy,
NFL offseason just changed in a big way. That's next,
(38:15):
Fox
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmen podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Fox Sports
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(00:24):
listening to Fox Sports Radio Greenings and Welcome inside The
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eight Farmers, that's one triple eight Farmers and start saving today.
We are Farmers. Well, they didn't retire a jersey tonight,
but James Harden's return to Houston has just gone final
and it was a very successful one. Tonight's a big
night in the NBA. We have NBA records being set.
(01:05):
We have the m v P of the first half
planning his flag and saying, forget about all these other guys,
I'm the real guy, but clearly Mike Harmon. James Harden
tonight showed back up in Houston. Day after Tillman Fertita said, yeah,
we're gonna retire his jersey. He drops twenty nine and
fourteen assists the Nets keep rolling. All Rockets fans have
to sit back and sit there and go, we don't
(01:27):
have Hardened, we don't have what. We don't have Hopkins,
We're not gonna have Watson at some point, and this guy,
our owner is still gonna retire that number. We got
to watch Harden try. I mean, he played well all
the way through. He didn't give up because he wanted out,
and we had to watch this tonight. This is a
bitter pill to swallow for the Rockets fans in Harden's
(01:48):
return again twenty nine and fourteen in a one thirteen victory. Uh,
this is the kind of night it was for James Harden.
Harden now front court three on the way, James Harden
with the three, He's got twenty seven and Houston needs
a time out. That's radio network. Yeah, that that could
(02:08):
I think that last phrase could go for the Rockets,
for the entire for the entire city of Houston, for
the last year. Houston needs a time out. Houston, really,
they need to talk. In the words of Marv Albert,
they need to talk it over and not just in
the NBA. Yeah, it was everything you would expect. The
Rocket showed some hard though, because they could have just quit.
(02:30):
They didn't battled. Yes, it's an eighteen point defeat, but
they got it back to ten. At one point everybody said,
oh no, here we go. They're gonna choke it away,
and and the crowd, the couple of thousand people that
were there got excited. Uh twenty nine, ten boards, fourteen
assists in the game. He did have a turnovers, but
(02:52):
still a plus seventeen on the night, ten of fifteen
shooting um look in the in the end, he wanted
out it so how much? How much bad? How bad
do you feel? You don't you just take you take
your lumps. You know this is a lost season at
this point. You maybe give him the too old to
rock and roll, too young to die hand gesture, Ray Lomas.
(03:15):
Look it up on Twitter or or the Google machine
as you need to. I won't describe it in full detail.
Maybe you give him one or two of those during
the course of the game. But beyond that, you know,
you just celebrate the eight years that you had with him.
All the highs in the video montage, they should have
shown a couple of lows. Here's where you were gassed
(03:36):
and really couldn't compete in the fourth quarters. We don't
miss that, dudey fans, No, we don't miss that. May
try to make it an antagonistic thing. Once you go down, that,
I guess, But then you just have to dust yourself
off and move on. No, no, no, you can move
on later. It's time to still be antagonistic and the
wounds are too fresh. Okay, If I'm in the w
W E and I'm in the ring and I'm holding
(03:56):
your hand up and hey, this could be a new
tag team, and then you hit me over the head
with a chair, that starts a big feud. I'm not
suddenly just gonna be your friend and help you the
next time that happens. There's gotta be sometimes gotta go by.
I need to sit back, I need to be mad,
I need to vent, I need to do these things.
People Remember how James Harden just quit and decided, Hey,
I'm gonna better myself by quitting, And really, I mean
(04:17):
that's the Homer Simpson philosophy, better yourself by quitting. Hey,
James Harden didn't. No, I'm okay to be mad for
a while. If I'm the Rocket, I'm really I'm really
okay to be mad at James Harden. And here's the
other big thing. Okay, look, James Harden got he had
mixed reviews. When he came back tonight, there were booze,
there were some cheers. It was kind of hardened. Uh,
(04:38):
kind of like when I walk into a room, I
get that, I get something, and I get some even
in your own home. Yeah, I get Yeah, Sometimes I
get hey and sometimes I get uh Like, it depends
if I like today, when I came back from uh
running errands with with two um U st Patrick's day
shakes from from McDonald's, dad came back with the shaiks,
(05:00):
if I just came back from if I just came
back from Marrin's enohing, they would go, okay, all right,
that's that's what it was for me. Well, I mean
that's the different levels of excitement. But by the way,
they've also been stuck with you for a year, so
really you're leaving the house for eight minutes I'm not
really gonna have a lot of excitement. Yeah, but again,
but I am Mr Excitement. I mean I am I
(05:20):
am Mr Excitement. I mean, if you want, you want
to be trapped with me, and because it's fun. I mean,
I'm not one of those you use. The term trapped
tells me everything you need to know about the experience. Hey,
how's your day to day in quarantine? That's nice, that's nice.
Let's watch another television show. No, No, I am Mr Excited.
I'm I'm Mr Fun. I am fun. I am I
(05:43):
like that Mr Excitement. I kind of I'm gonna nickname
myself that, although I think Ron Flockhart was Mr. Excitement
back in the nineties for the Flyers, But I'm gonna
go with Mr. I kind of like the trade market.
If not, let's see if Mr Excitement dot Com is available. Oh,
I don't. I think Mr Excitement dot com. It's probably
something what we're talking about. It's owned by somebody, but
(06:04):
it is not built okay, and it's okay, alright, alright,
it is. We can get it for six d bucks.
It's owned by it says vivid something Vivid Vivid. I
I don't, okay, but here's the other thing, right, because
we we get to you know, a cuple bunch of
big games night in the NBA. Uh, what do we
say with the with the Brooklyn Nets sitting where they are?
(06:24):
Their defense is terrible, right, and here are the Rockets.
They're a terrible team. They put up one four team.
But take a look at what the starting backcourt did.
John Wallen, Victorola Deepo go for thirty six and thirty
three apiece in this game. So clearly the Nets while
they're winning, they look the Nets are regular season good?
Now their regular season tough? Are they playoff tough? That's
(06:46):
the big thing that I don't know that I can't
say they are their regular season great? All right, their
regular season great? But are they playoff tough? I see
nights like this where hey, look, well at all a
deep or really good players. Don't get me wrong, but
this is not a star studded team. You know, this
team that's loses two out of every three games. And
when you're allowing the backcourt where you allow teams to
put up big numbers and defeat this is what happens
(07:07):
when the team get the teams get better as the
season goes on, and the and you're playing different teams
in the playoffs, the Nets, so they could just hit
fast forward to the playoffs. Now it doesn't matter. We're
waiting for the conference semis in the conference final because
that's when the Nets are gonna get tested, and that's
when we find out if they're for real their regular
season for real? Now are they are? They playoff real?
Nobody can say that yet because this is how they
(07:29):
play defense. Well, I'm gonna take this one with a
grain of salt because while they were bludgeoning the Rockets
for a good chunk in this game, So I take
I take a little a little bit of this. When
it's an eighteen twenty point margin for most of the
game as like, and it finishes at eighteen, you're you're
trying to push away saying they didn't pay any defense, Like, well,
(07:52):
they still won by you know, three touchdowns almost uh.
And you know, because I gotta give the text and
some hope that there's some positive of we gotta cross
over their sports as best we can uh to find
a little bit of of of light. But look, everybody stinks.
You've got six good teams and everybody else is. But
that's it. But it's like right now, when when you
(08:14):
get down to it and you look at the Nets
and we we've talked about the Eastern Conference and even
the teams that are up there with them as the
best of the conference, do you have great confidence that
they're going to finish as strongly as they played to
this point. I mean, you look at Embiid and Ben Simmons.
Has it ever worked for a full season? Right? We
(08:38):
haven't had an injury scary yet, we haven't had any
big shake ups or terrible weeks or months, and maybe
maybe they've finally grown and this is it and this
is where it changes, right and beat it's the big
shot today to extend the game and everything else there
there are these monster moments and breakthrough moments, and maybe
we're in the midst of seeing one, but we haven't
seen it historically with the Nets. There's still a lot
(08:59):
of activity, or at least some activity to come in
terms of player buyouts and trades. We talked to Kurt
healand last night he wasn't bullish that we're gonna see
a ton of moves. Why because everybody's near to five hundred.
But if I still knowing I don't have Kevin Durant
and I can still put up a hundred thirty two.
I'm feeling all right. I'm feeling like things will work
(09:21):
themselves out. I have far more confidence of them coming
together than banking on the fact that the Clippers will
as that on the other No, you're good, man, but
there's six teams. There's six teams. Everybody else's everybody else
is the Knicks. You've got six teams and everybody else man,
everybody else ten minutes in and now it's got to
(09:41):
be the Knicks. Everybody's the Knicks? Did it? Did it?
Did it? Twitter? At how about a fresca? Mike gets
swollen on the Jason Smith's or with Mike Carmen live
from the Farmer's Insurance Studios called Farmers Today for a quote. Now,
one of the other big games that just finished tonight,
you talk about NBA Finals preview, You're saying, wait a minute, wait,
and if Finals p the Lakers didn't play tonight, who
(10:01):
are the Clippers playing? No NBA Finals potential preview tonight?
And boy was it a fun one and overtime and
the seventies Sixers pull out the win thanks to Joel
Embiad and his forty points. Tobias Harris to embead and
beat is pushed by Bogdanovitch. Nine seconds ago, googles be
on the arc, fake to three, shoot the three. It's
up head good five point nine ago and beat us
(10:23):
tied it at one. There it is Sixers Radio Network
and Beat ties the game part of his forty point
nineteen rebound night. And it is clear right now. And
I can't be more clearer than this, And I don't
even know that there's there's a way to dispute this.
Right now, we're getting to the halfway point of the NBA.
The next few nights, we're gonna talk about all different
(10:44):
things at the halfway point. Here's the NBA All Star
Break is coming. Everybody finishes up tomorrow night. They finished
the first half. The m v P in the NBA
right now is Joel Embiad and there's nobody else that's close.
Joel Embiid has withstood all the challengers because he has
been great from the opening game two now, right, Lebron
(11:05):
James had a nice run and then he took a dovetail,
and James Harden had a really rough beginning, and he's
been great the last month. But nobody's been better from
the beginning of the season until now, besides Joel Embiid.
I mean, nobody has been this good. He has taken
this year and and the the jump that we thought
we would get from him at some point, because you know,
(11:26):
you look back and and Shaquille O'Neil really, uh, when
we think about this, it's something that's become a thing.
To compare it to now, is it. Look, Shaq got
halfway through his career, right, he was having fun making
movies and and and making songs. He was Kazam and
he's on TV shows man, and then he decided, you
know what, I really gotta start winning at some point. So,
you know, I gotta get out of Orlando. I gotta
(11:47):
get to the Lakers. He gets the Lakers, he wins
three championships, he wins a fourth with the Heat, and
now the Mercer legacy is secure, the Shaquille O'Neil legacy
is secure. He got to that point where he knew,
I need to start winning. I have to get more
serious about my career. Joel Embiid, the exact same thing
has happened. Right. He's always been a terrific player. But
him and Ben Simmons have been having fun the last
(12:09):
few years when they're a nice fifty win team year
after year and they lose in the second round of
the playoffs at best and they go home, and that's
kind of what it is. And you're waiting, and I
was waiting for m B to take this next step
because he is that dominant and this year he has
done it. I mean, he has played with with a
new sense of now I know what my legacy needs
(12:31):
to be. Right. The guy's thirty and twelve. You know
this season he is having a fantastic year. And it
was it was something that happened right from beginning. I
gotta give Doc Rivers a lot of credit because he
got it out of him and looked. The first couple
of years with Doc Rivers, We've said this many times,
have always been the best years, uh, in Doc Rivers
years as being a head coach. It's the later years
are struggling. But and beat tonight and me tonight is
(12:54):
showing you putting the exclamation point on the first half,
going I am the m v P in this league,
and really there's nobody else, looks Steph Curry had a
nice week and a half run of always scoring thirty
five a game. No, Joel embiads the m v P. Yeah,
I know he's been amazing all the way through. I
mean another forty nineteen night tonight and overtime. Uh, we're
(13:14):
gonna have to effort the sound Downovan Mitchell going off
on officials as he was ejected. H much like Devin
Booker was last night. I don't know giving them early
exits to the to the half halftime break here of
the season and the All Star break, I'm not quite
sure what the the pushes. But for for Joel embiid
we as you said, it's been years in the waiting, right,
(13:37):
this is already year five, which is amazing how time flies.
By far. His point per game production is up rebounds
on par with his career Average's best was in where
he averaged thirteen point six. He's at eleven point three.
Free throw percentage is at a career best. When those
(14:00):
guys that four straight years, you're you're seeing an increase
and in in that aptitude and in that in his
field goal percentage of career high, like everything just breaking through,
and we know there's you're always looking for a new narrative.
So the big thing is for the Sixers. He's got
to stay healthy quite obviously, but they they need to
keep a top the the Eastern Conference, and I think
(14:22):
he breaks through, right. Likable guy, pretty good with the media.
Remember him shagging fly balls at the the All Star
Game from Major League Baseball. I mean that was just unfair,
those big mits going out and catching catching baseballs, and
everybody's just got to get out of the way. But
he's the guy that's the the new kid on the block,
(14:44):
as it were, even in the year five. You know
what we talk about all of these stars and what
they've done hardens a fun story. How many guys are
gonna hold his wanting out of Houston against him, right,
because that's the other factor, right, that's perspective to made
his way. But yeah, the personality thing may may hit
him there. I'm not saying it's right and wrong. I'm
(15:05):
just saying it's human nature and humans are voting on it,
which means, all, right, positivity, where's the positivity. If they
win it, that's great, but you have to vote before
that's decided. As for Joel Embiid, you know, Sixers trying
to trying to make some noise, which means we would
get more video of Moses Malone and maybe some more
(15:27):
Alan Iverson appreciation. So I'm all good with that. Uh.
And we didn't even get a chance to get to
the fact that Donovan Mitchell gets toss in overtime. Another
ridiculous ejection on the heels of the Devin Booker one
from a night ago. But that's okay. We got Rick
Buker stopping by with us coming up next. All the latest.
Who's his m v P for the first half, who's
his coach of the Year for the first half? There's
(15:48):
only one choice. All the big NBA news and reaction.
You need a big night tonight, keep it right here.
Jason Smith, Mike Harmon. You are listening to Fox Sports Radio,
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(16:10):
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will he agree or disagree with my NBA m v
P call for the first half? It is Fox sports
(16:56):
one Insider Extraordinary, Rick Duker. You can follow on Twitter
at Rick Buker. Rick. What's happening man? I've been busy tonight.
We've had a lot of games of interest to me.
They haven't all been exciting, but they've been revealing. So
let's have at it alright. So first, and don't worry,
I'm not going to give you a nick thing. First.
You're not gonna say Julius rope. But there will be
(17:18):
there wi there has to be all. I can feel
it in the air. I also know that even if
there isn't a knick thing, there will be a Knicks
thing on this show. Alright, First things first, like you said,
a huge night tonight. In the end, baby watched Philadelphia
beat Utah and over time they win at one three.
Obviously that Donovan Mitchell ejection will get to in a second,
(17:40):
but Joel Embiid ties the game late in the fourth quarter.
In the final seconds he goes for forty and nineteen.
I'm telling you, Rick, we we talk a lot about
m v P so far. There's nobody who's been more
consistent from the beginning of the year to where we
are now than m beat Lebron had his moment and
then he kind of dovetailed. James Harden was lost, then
(18:01):
he's now He's been playing well for a month. I
really can't see there being anybody else but embiad for
m v P right now. Yeah, Harden has been consistent
since he's gotten to Brooklyn. He certainly wasn't everything was
at the very start with Houston and then and then
had his down period. I don't have a problem with
m B being the m v P for the first
(18:21):
half of the season. They certainly have the record for it.
He has been a factor at both ends. He's also
a reflection of like you know, people say the big
man is back, I'd say the three point shooting big
man is back. If you're if you can't hit threes,
then you're a liability no matter what position that you play.
(18:42):
But with Mbiad and Nicola Yokich in Denver, both of
the guys, both of those guys are capable of that.
And I believe that Embiid I think you saw it
against Gobert Um. There there's a physicality, uh, and there
is a grit to m b that those two other bigs,
Gobert and Yo kids do not have and it makes
(19:06):
him dangerous. They won the game because of Tobias Harris
and the weakness that I see in the Utah Jazz
that I believe will be exposed in the postseason, which
is why I'm not really buying them as a legit
title contender. Uh. They were able to go at Bob
Danovitch with Tobias Harris, you got plenty of wings quality
wings in uh. In in the Western Conference that teams
(19:28):
are gonna be able to do the same thing in
crunch time. And and that's the that's the Achilles heel
between Joe Ingalls and Bogdanovitch, There's always going to be
somebody that they can attack and uh, and that's exactly
what Philly did. I was interested in this game just
because I thought it was the It's the two teams
that not only have big men, but they play big
(19:49):
and I wanted to see who was the best between them.
Philadelphia demonstrated clearly, even though that the game went to overtime,
that they are the better big man team. Other m
VP candidate. You mentioned James Harden and how well he's played.
How much does the human factor play in of Hey,
he forced his way out of here and reflects uh
(20:12):
negatively in terms of m v P voting. But I
thought that they should have just put the jersey up
in the rafters tonight with the tribute video and everything else.
Just get it out of the way and put all
of the the bad juju. Just push it out right
now and it's gone. Just go straight to James Harden today.
I'm not there, although I get I don't know because
(20:33):
not having fans in the stands and doing it now, Okay, maybe,
but I think as soon as you have fans in
the stands, there be somebody there with a BB gun
shooting that thing down. M I the it's too close,
and I think the feelings for Rockets fans is still
too raw. Uh you don't have to go to immediately
(20:54):
he was so great and he because he was and
he had a great run with the rocket. But uh,
I just don't believe that Rockets fans have forgotten how
he forced his way out and whether it's a video tribute. Okay,
and and the video tribute was really an effort because
they showed some of his humanitarian stuff in Houston. I
(21:15):
thought it was a real effort to remind people like
James Harden is a person too. He's and he's a
good person. I never doubted that. But look, he turned
his back on the organization, and I fought the organization
in part because he told him during the summer I
don't want to be here, and they dragged their feet
and finally he acted out in order to make it happen.
(21:35):
But there's there. He still could have been more professional
about it. I don't have a problem with recognizing him.
I don't have a problem with acknowledging him. I don't
have a problem with retiring his number. I just don't
know that you do it right away, and you immediately
you're you're you are far more forgiving than I am.
I would have waited. I would have let this settle
(21:56):
a little bit and then come back to it. I'll
tell you and tell you this to Rick. The reason
I also wanted done because if he wins the title
and then he's got to come back by the way
he forced his way out on a title he was
near and dear to your hearts once upon a time,
a new champion. That's that's fair. If he wins the title.
(22:16):
I mean maybe maybe he wins the title. Then maybe
Tilman takes it back and goes, you know, on second thought,
you already got you got what you needed. Uh, you
just get that banner up in here. We're not we're
not gonna put your number up up there either, which
which which, frankly, how good would that be? Good would
that be? He gets his ring. Finally, he wins it
for the nets and the rockets go yeah. I'm second thought, Uh,
(22:38):
we thought you're gonna bring that here, and since he
demonstrated that you could do it, but you didn't do
it here, um let's x NA on the uniform retirement ray.
Um so I I love I love that idea that
if he gets hit and you look you make there's
not gonna be any time. People aren't going to feel
(23:01):
sore about it. It's the same with you know, k
D leaving Golden State and forgot to say he brought
them two rings, and people were still upset that he bailed. So,
I mean, I think that happens. I just I don't know.
You know, this is months after he basically said, uh
to everyone in Houston, I love you, but you're just
not good enough to get me where I want to go.
(23:23):
And and here's the other thing. If I'm an owner, UM,
and and you're you know, you're you're trying to avoid
UH stars working their way out of organizations. UH, and
you want to take back some of that empowerment. UM.
The immediate forgiveness for doing what he did really doesn't.
(23:46):
It doesn't dissuade anybody from doing It's like, yeah, I
got my way, I acted badly. Oh and you're still
going to retire my jersey and you're still going to
do a video tribute what exactly did I it was
a bout behaving bath Rick Bucker with us the Jason
Smith Shows, Mike Harmon live from the Farmer's Insurance Studios.
(24:07):
All right, now I'm with you on harden Rick. Now,
let let's see where you are on this. And we
mentioned it. We kind of came back to it. Uh
here for a second. Uh in the MBAD game, you
know you had a huge game. Donovan Mitchell gets thrown
out in overtime with with a technical. We watch Devin
Booker get thrown out of the game last night for
reasons passing understanding. You know where are you on these
(24:28):
big calls the last couple of nights Because I'll tell
you what, Adam Silver's inbox is full from complaints about
what's been going on. It's not just the last couple
of nights for me. It's been the officiating all year long,
and it's made it impossible. I just I look at
the the three point shots that are being rewarded um
for fouls. When you have shooters that are throwing themselves
(24:51):
into the defender, it's made it impossible defend. And without
the training camp and a variety of reasons, the deep
hasn't been good anyway and then, but the the officiating
has only made it far, far more difficult. And I
don't blame the officials because essentially they're doing what the
league wants them to do. I don't know where and
(25:14):
when they became so frightened of physicality or that they
try or trying to make basketball a non contact sport,
but it is a contact sport. There is physicality in it,
and it's just makes it hard to watch. And I
the seeing key players uh tossed for what seems to
(25:37):
be like when you're when you're watching it. Some of this,
obviously is because we don't have fans in the stands
and we don't have the broadcasters in the stand and
so when somebody gets tossed, and you've got to figure out, Okay,
so why why did that guy get tossed? Because we
can't demonstrably see it, then uh, it raises a question
about the validity of the guy being officiated. Normally, you know,
(26:00):
it's either it's it's obvious and I am struggling with it,
but I've struggled with it all year long. I do
not think the product is very good right now, and
the way the league is approaching, we're just we're not
gonna allow any contact, We're not gonna allow any motion,
We're not gonna allow any reaction. Uh. Look, that has
(26:23):
been uh an important part of the fiber of the
NBA and basketball forever. And when you legislate that out,
I think that it really affects the integrity of the game,
and it's certainly affects the entertainment value alright, one that
the players aren't excited to go. But here we are
(26:44):
All Star weekend. Other than the rest, what are you
looking for to get a win out of this weekend? Oh?
My goodness, I don't know that nobody gets hurt and
that you know, we we see some sort of competition,
But I mean, I'm I'm interested to see I'm interested
in season three point shooting contest, Devin Booker versus Steph Curry.
(27:06):
I am interested in Oh, I'm interested in Anthony Simmons
from Portland. Uh can he win the dunk contest? Uh?
And kind of put his name out there because I
think he's a really special player that people don't really
know about. And that is probably about it. The selection
of the teams and where that goes might provide a
(27:31):
little fodder, but beyond that, I mean, that's that's kind
of it. The only reason that they're having the All
Star Game is because it's tied into a lot of
corporate packages and so they have to maintain that for
the for the integrity of those packages. But beyond that,
I just you know, having the dunk contest at halftime
of the game. It's just they are just trying to
(27:54):
squeeze this thing anything in somehow, some way. And uh, look,
I just hope we get to Monday and nobody's suffered
any serious injury. Well, see, I thought you were going
to kind of jump the fence when they say, what
are you most looking forward to the All Star Break weekend?
And you're gonna say, no, forget about that. Tomorrow night,
the Nicks could finish the first half over five hundred.
(28:14):
I thought that's where you were gonna go with that. Well, actually,
I you know, I am remiss. What I am looking
forward to is seeing Julius Randall when All Star m
v P. That's what I'm looking forward to. Oh, you're
my favorite. I'm tweeting that out right now from Rick
Buker Julius for m v P. Hashtag hashtag Julius for
(28:37):
m VP. Uh. You can follow them on Twitter at
Rick Buker, that is at Rick Buker. Rick as always buddy,
appreciate your time, Enjoy the rest of the week, and
we will talk to you next week. My friend, have fun,
my pleasure. Great stuff, great stuff from Rick Buker. And look,
he's been talking about how bad the NBA product is
now for a while and how bad it is this season.
(28:58):
And clearly when he and and and and he hit
it right on the head. When did the referees get
so sensitive. When did they suddenly become hey, we can't
call anything physical. The players are going to react. And
now we're we're not even gonna let you react, and
we're gonna throw you out. Almost as if the referees,
you know, had a meeting and said, hey, when there's
no fans there, people can hear the players saying stuff
(29:19):
to us. We want to be able to throw him
out because I'm not gonna sit there and have a guy,
you know, blank blanket. He blanked me all the way through. No,
no, no no, and and and of course the NBA said,
oh yeah, you know, well we'll we'll we'll cut down
on that. I get it, But that's that's part of
the game, right Guys yell stuff on the court all
the time, because you can hear stuff now and become
something that's reported, Oh you know what so and so
said to the referee. I mean, really, it's just it's
(29:41):
just crazy that this is where the NBA is. We
had the two big ejections Donovan Mitchell tonight and Devin
Booker last night that you look around and go, if
a guy's getting thrown out, it's got to be obvious,
right if a guy Because if a guy is is
is is making his case to the referee, but he's
not embarrassing the referee and he's not saying it to
his face making it look like, hey, I'm getting and
(30:01):
I'm trying to dominate you. You gotta let that go.
When someone gets talked, it's got to be obvious, and
clearly the referees are failing at that. Yeah, I think
it's just one of those circumstances where there was probably
a meeting before the season about how this was gonna
be televised, what was gonna get picked up on a
live mike. You've had some arenas because you've had a
(30:22):
live crowd, it's been easier to cover some of the
stuff up because you're getting a full reaction. Particularly, I mean,
you know how people get as soon as there's a
little bit of an altercation, everybody, ah, you know, and
start screaming like an idiot. Uh, so you might be
able to mask that a bit. Maybe for the second
half of the year, they have to go to some
(30:43):
other way of providing sounds of the game. If this
is the end we're getting out of this, because human
nature takes over, I get it, he gets salty. But
if part of the part of the charge of the
referees is to keep the squawking to a minimum us
because a potential vulgar comment gets out, man, that that's
(31:05):
just screwing up the game. And we watched it two
nights in a row. Two of the guys that we're
talking about in the m v P conversation get tossed
seemingly because they felt like it an aggressive bouncing of
the ball. Are you kidding me? Don't bounce that ball
to me? Don't you bounce that baldly? Put too much
mustard on it, man, twitter At how about a fresco
(31:27):
Mike gets swollen down the Jason Smith Show with my
bass friend Mike harmon Call one Triple eight. Farmers say,
have a bit of something something on auto insurance. Uh,
coming up, we got more NBA on the way. But
coming up next, a big update in the Tiger Wood story.
We got it for you next. I'm Jason, He's Mike.
This is Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch live
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(31:49):
at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Call on Farmers
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(32:10):
my best friend Mike Carmen. Just making sure it was bleeped.
Just making sure you had a bleep version. Their tight shirt.
I real fast. I was like, should I start talking?
And in case it's not bling No, no, no, I
gotta got dangerous. We got we gotta make sure that's me.
I ride the edge of the envelope, Living on the
(32:31):
edge baby. The Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Carman, Live from the Farmers Insurance Studio. It's called
Farmers Today for a quote We'll have more in the
NBA and a big story out of the NFL coming
up next because the NFL off season when it comes
to quarterbacks just change in a big way today. But
if you remember last week when we were on the
(32:52):
reaction part of the Tiger Woods car accident, I was
very stunned that initially the sheriff of Los Angeles decided
to clear Tiger Woods of wrongdoing. Alex Villanueva said that, hey,
there's you know, there's no crime going on. Tiger Woods
wasn't under the influence of anything. He you know, he
(33:13):
took a test there. Maybe he was speeding, I don't know,
but there's gonna be no charges. There's no evidence of anything.
And we raised their hand and said, uh, that's kind
of not how it's done. I mean, I get it,
but that's kind of not how it's done. And it
was really weird that suddenly he gets cleared when there's
been no investigation. And it's about doing due diligence, and
(33:34):
we use the words due diligence when you're a police
officer and there's an accident like that, you have to
do your due diligence and figure out why that accident happened.
Was it something the driver did illegally? Did they check there,
were they're on their phone? Were they speeding? All these
things could happen. You can't just tell me because you
showed up at the at the scene and hey, everything
seemed okay. Because what I thought that Alex Villanueva did
(33:56):
was he just decided I'm gonna be the guy to
stand up and protect Tiger Woods. Right, this is a
really scary story, and and it was scary for a
lot of people, and it took over for a while,
and I'm gonna be the guy to stand up and
protect him and say everything is fine, I'm protecting Tiger Woods,
when really that's not your job. If Tiger Woods is innocent,
we'll find out. If Tiger Woods didn't do anything wrong,
(34:17):
we'll find out. And then today things changed as the
deputy of the l A Sheriff's County, John Schlogal, said, Hey,
we're trying to determine if a crime was committed. They're
getting data from the black box and the SUV that's
going to tell them what the vehicle was doing at
the time, how fast it was going. And now they
are investigating this situation and I I've said from the beginning,
(34:40):
I don't want to see Tiger Woods put in jail.
I'm not saying I like, oh, let's get let's get
even with Tiger would no, But this is just kind
of how it has to be. And they even use
the words, hey, it's due diligence. And you know there
must have been some kind of power struggle because here's
your the l A County sheriff who said no charges,
and now a week later it's yeah, the de beauty
(35:00):
is saying, we're looking into charge. So you know there's
some kind of internal politics going on in the l
A County Sheriff's Department when it comes to Tiger Woods.
But and now this seems like a more normal reaction. Okay,
Now they're looking into it to see just what went
on with Tiger Woods, which is what you would expect.
And that's all I That's all I wanted, was I
expected the l A Sheriff's Department to look into it
exactly how they're saying, we don't know what's going on.
(35:22):
Maybe everything is fine and there's nothing that's going to
be a felony. If it's anything, it's probably a misdemeanor.
But we have to look into things like texting and
driving speeding around a curve because that's kind of what
we do as a police force. So I am glad
today to see this reversal from the l A County
Sheriff's Department, even though it embarrassed uh, you know, Villeneuava
(35:44):
last week. But hey, you know what, you shouldn't have
said what he said at that point. You should have waited. Well,
you react in the moment, and maybe it comberheads prevail,
more discussion, more just evidence of what's going on Tiger Woods,
you know, saying he doesn't remember driving. Okay, so that's
a whole other razor. And look, all I know about
(36:06):
policing is my dad was one and he didn't talk
about it. We didn't get into deep dives. We got
some crazy, crazy stories of people that would call because
they were lonely, and some of the stuff they would
start asking about almost as if they were the movie
line guy getting ready to read them movie showings for
the day. Can you tell me the scores and things
(36:28):
of that, just because they were bored and needed someone
to talk to. So that was part of it, in
addition to all the serious stuff. We were kind of
shielded from that. Everything else I learned on law and
order and the variations thereof. So I'm not claiming to
really know a ton, but I'm just asking, we asked
the questions. Throw a bunch of it out. You know,
black box on cars evidently have been there a while.
(36:50):
You know, we we always talked about them, and when
it comes to planes or larger things like a train
derailment or something, but you know, talking about speed breaking data, velocity,
steering input, the rates, the seatbelt status and and all
these other things airbag deployment and when and how and
(37:11):
and all sorts of other pieces of data. And I
think part of it stems from a discussion of that
area that really spawned out of this, not that it's
not a local concern, but this became an international Hey,
you know what, it's known for going with a downgrade
that gets you from forty to eighty really fast, to
which a lot of people responded, then why aren't there
(37:33):
you know, traffic signals or stop signs or whatever to
try to stop the and slow the flow over there?
So maybe maybe it spawns out of that as well.
Civic duty for research purposes but certainly we haven't heard
the end of this. No, it probably should come in
the next few days. Uh. And there's been no other
(37:54):
comment from the Sheriff's department outside of this from the
sheriff deputy earlier today. But look, this is kind of
how it's supposed to be done. And and I really
it more seems like Villeneuava just trying to protect tiger
woods when he came out with that last week Twitter
at how about a fresca Mike had swollen dome? Oh boy,
NFL offseason just changed in a big way. That's next,
(38:15):
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