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March 5, 2021 • 36 mins

Jason and Mike react to Ben Roethlisberger signing for another year with the Steelers at a reduced salary but the guys expect him to be the worst QB in the division. Baker Mayfield says he saw a UFO last night which leads to a lot of questions from Jason. Plus, the guys give their impressions from the first half of the NBA season.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmen podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from ten pm to two a m.
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 Radio dot com, or stream
us live every night on the I Heart Radio app
by searching fs R. This is the best of the

(00:22):
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
We'll get to Baker Mayfield in the UFO. We'll get
We're gonna get there because that has been my favorite
story all day and actually came out less. Oh there
is this is audio Baker Mayfield meeting an alien. There

(00:43):
it was, that was it right there? We actually got
the audio for it. Did a baby dinosaur coum out
of the alien ship? Well this was pretty cool because yeah, clearly, look,
the Baker Mayfield UFO stories is just too good. But uh,

(01:04):
big news today we got we got a couple of
rare and hot takes coming. You're here for the biggest
story in the NFL today, and that was that Ben
Roethlisberger will officially return to this Stealers this year for
one more season and that's it, for one more season
as Dealers quarterback. They have agreed to reduce his pay

(01:26):
to fourteen million from nineteen million the final year of
his contract. That lowers the team's salary cap hit by
more than fifteen million dollars. And of course Roethlisberger is
trying to make it seem like he's leading the way.
Of course, I'll take less money. I've made money. I
want to win. Yeah, when the reality was, you're not
coming back at one millions, we're not doing it. No,
no but's but but but but it's gonna be my idea.

(01:48):
Uh we thought Roethlisberger was coming back. And before we
get into two hot takes, I just want to say
this once again. Think about this. You're an NFL team.
If a quarterback your start in quarterback returning to the
team to start hinges on him taking less money, is
he still really your guy? Alright, your quarterback? If it

(02:10):
hinges on him taking less money, and then he can
come back and start. If not, we're gonna start over.
This is not we're letting a defensive back go because
he makes too much money, or we're letting a middle
linebacker go, or we're gonna let a right guard go. No,
you could you say, hey, you coming back? You gotta
take less money, you have to take it or you're
not coming back. Um, is he really the guy? Is

(02:33):
he really the guy? Uh So, just know that that
that's one thing when you realize where we're going with
these with these next couple of things. As far as
Roethlisberger and the Steelers, he's got about a thirty percent
chance to finish the season as starter. They have Dwayne Haskins.
They'll go get one more quarterback. You know that's going
to happen because they're there. There's a chance to get
guys now in free agency and via trade. They're not

(02:53):
gonna wait. And if Roethlisberger stinks during the season, then
they will go to that next quarterback, whether it's Haskins
or somebody else. But I will tell you this this season,
here's hot take number one. Got you got the flames ready?
Get flames ready? Get ready, gets flames ready. Here's a
hot take number one. Ben Roethlisberger will be the worst
quarterback in his division this season. Lamar Jackson, of course,

(03:21):
will be better. Baker Mayfield's already better. Joe Burrow will
show hey, this is why in the number one pick,
I'm better. Roethlisberger will be the worst quarterback or the
fourth best, however you want to say it, depending on
how you want to look at life and look at football.
He's either the worst or the fourth best quarterback in
the a f C North. He clearly is someone that

(03:42):
lost a lot towards the end of last year and
to think that suddenly he's gonna come back and be better.
They could. The Steelers really couldn't throw the football more
than five yards downfield the last month of the season.
All the big plays they made were because they're athletic.
Wide receivers are able to get the ball five or
seven yards, pass a line of scrimmage, and fight their
way downfield for another eight or ten yards. Because the

(04:03):
Steelers wide outs are no joke man. They are incredibly talented.
Once a game, you'd throw the ball thirty yards at
Deonte Johnson or Chase Claypool and that was about it.
This season, he will be the fourth best quarterback in
the a f C North. It'll go Lamar Baker, Burrow,
and then Roethlisberger. That's how it's gonna go coming off
a thirty three touchdown ten interception season which he completed

(04:27):
nearly sixty six percent of his past his thirty eight
hundred yards while throwing on the surgically repaired right pin.
I mean he didn't get the Winter Soldier's arm. I
mean Rocket is still working on that in the Marvel series,
but maybe a year removed. I see. I still say,

(04:48):
if you've got something left in the tank. And the
thing I don't want to agree with is the financials
of it. Of Hey, let's spread this out over a
couple of years. It's like, if you're going to take
the medicine, you don't take half the spoon now and
then say, you know what, I'll come back three or
four hours later. The idea is you're taking that dosage,
which means if you're in for Ben Roethlisberger, then you

(05:08):
know what, take your castor oil and and and get
what you need to right now. Uh, and don't hamper
yourself for when he truly is gone and done from
playing with your squad. So I can't say that that
move necessarily worked. As for your is he the worst
quarterback in the division. He's talking off an injury and

(05:30):
he's still going to get bludgeoned behind a bad offensive line.
So uh, while he may be more exciting with a
better arm to wing the ball down field, I'll still say, uh,
number one Joe is behind him at Banker Mayfield. We
don't know what the events of yet the last couple
of days are gonna do his resolve potential for greatness.
I mean, we'll get into it in full, because I

(05:52):
mean everybody's chiming in and there's a great conspiracy theory
coming out of that one. Uh now wait, yeah, do
you think like something happened like space jam, where you know,
these aliens are coming down and they meant to go
get Tom Brady, but somehow they grab Baker Mayfield's Now
someone has his talent on another planet and Baker Mayfield's
walking around with an alien's body. All I'm saying is

(06:14):
it's no coincidence that Tom Brady raised his hand on
social media and say, well, you know, how do you
know I haven't seen any aliens in response to Colin
Cowherd's rant a little bit earlier today. It's like, you know,
I said, you know he named all the greats and said, well,
they never said anything, and Brady was like, well, how
do you know I didn't see any It's like, so,
I mean there there might be a whole alien thing

(06:35):
on top of TV twelve already going down about that
hot take fear for you now. But but Joe Burrow,
you can't throw from your ass. Uh. And unless they
rapidly uh in improved that offensive line, he's fourth. Uh.
You know what, the team was really bad last year
and he was fantastic. So I'm gonna buy that as

(06:55):
the team will be a little bit better this year.
I mean, he was terrific last year. I mean, we
forget how good he was. He had. He had a
four hundred yard game, he had five yard games. He
was fantastic last year until he got hurt. His quarterback
rating was really good, especially what you know, once once
he got a couple of games into his uh into
a system, he was fantastic. You know, had a better

(07:15):
quarterback rating the old guy you say, can't throw booke
that okay? That was that was last year and and
Roethlisberger clearly was awful at the he was diminished. Question, Joe,
he's not done yet. I think he's done. I think
you're you're gonna see it. Look, he was done the
end of last year, and only because he had this

(07:36):
money due to him is the only reason he is back.
If he was not do any money, if it was
the last year of his contract, the Steelers would have said, thanks,
if you want to try to play one more year,
some place cls you could go. They would easily have
done that. That The only reason he's back is because
he had that extra year in his contract. And this
is why he's back one more season for Pittsburgh. You see, Yeah, No,

(07:59):
I don't. If it's loyalty is more of it's like,
oh man, if we had just signed him for one
less year, things would have been fantastic. Now they want
to move on from him, they do. They told listen,
these are the these are the the things you need
to be okay with if you're going to come back
and play for us this year. And he had to
abide by all of them. They're already stocking to replace him.

(08:20):
And And if you think it's at throw when you're
thirty nine, you're coming off the end of a bad
season with a lot of weapons, and you're gonna come
back to a team that maybe doesn't have as many weapons.
Uh next year, you're gonna be better. Yeah, I don't
see it. I I don't see that for Ben Roethlisberger
at all. Uh time has come for him. We saw
it the last six weeks of the season. You will

(08:41):
see it into this year. And Joe Burrow will clear clearly,
but he made he may jump over Baker Mayfield this year.
As far as quarterbacks in that division go, the Lamar
is still gonna be the gold standard because he's that good.
Baker Mayfield had a really good year. Man, I mean
they they have they have found their quarterback. Whether he
sees UFOs or not. Man, he is their guy. And
maybe he got some extra power in his arm. And

(09:02):
then you know, the alien he saw last night was
able to give him some kind of power. Who knows,
maybe maybe Baby Game and Infinity Stone and he came
out handed to him. And that's why Why is Baker
wearing that glove on his left hand? Why does he
have that yellow stone in the middle? Is that legal? Well?
Oh Nell, how to watch last year? We could do this.
Baker was terrific last year and he clearly has become
the right head of the snake for the Cleveland Browns.

(09:23):
But Joe Burrow I mean this guy right away, you
could tell how special he was. Man, he'll be back
and the Bengals will be better. And whenever you have
a franchise quarterback, everything gets better pretty easy. Watch out.
Joe Burrow may wind up being the second best, but
I know he'll be ahead of Roethlisberger, and Roethlisberger will
be at the bottom. And I got news for you.
Here's another hot take. Steelers could finish last in that

(09:45):
division next year. As good as they've been for the
longest time, they don't finish under five their team. Look,
they were eleven and oh this year they were thirteen
and three. They could take a big fall behind all
of those teams for next year because when your quarterback
camp play, you're not gonna win games. And I already
know how good that the Ravens and the Browns are
gonna be. They're gonna be better than the Steelers. So
it's really just the Steelers are gonna be fighting the

(10:07):
Bengals to stay out of the seller in the a
f C North. Steelers could finish last next year. That
is a real possibility that Steelers fans gotta be getting
ready with because that day is coming, you know. It's
been been. You have had the fast lane now for
thirty years, you know, being able to finish over five,
winning and winning. Uh, it may come. They could turn
into a big, ugly mess really fast this year because

(10:30):
they're gonna losing free agency. They already know they're not
bringing back Juju Smith Schuster, and so how are they
going to figure things out? How are they bring somebody
in when clearly everybody knows that team is gonna be
starting over a quarterback and who knows who that's going
to be. Good luck there, I'll tell him you Bengals fans,
I'll never have to pay for a drink in Cincinnati again.
You'll finish ahead of the Steelers next year, Steelers finished

(10:51):
last in the a f C North. I just really
enjoy this because you're clearly a man scorned because you
picked the Steelers to go to the Super Bowl and
this is all just pent up read going on back
to their elimination from consideration. Then you tried to hitch
to my bandwagon. Oh I didn't know they were my
Steelers until they weren't. No, listen, this is what I do.

(11:12):
You're my team until I want to drop you. And
then then I'm onto something else. Then I'm not. Hey
if you don't, If you look, I'll back you up.
But the minute you stopped backing me up, I'm gone. Man,
I'm going. I'm going to somebody else. You obviously don't
care about me. The Steelers didn't care about me. I
picked them to go to the super Bowl. They started
eleven and othern they started losing, losing, losing. You don't care.
I mean, I'm going to somebody else. That's just how

(11:33):
it works, man. I don't have time for teams that
don't play well. I don't have time for people that
don't live up to the lofty expectations I placed on them.
If you can't live up to that, I'm moving on.
That's why I put very low expectations on the Knicks,
because they can then leap over it. But a team
like the Steelers, I mean, it's the Steelers. You expect
them to be, you know, with twelve thirteen games, no, no, no,
time has come for the Steelers. This is gonna be
a year where they go, wow, we it's now it's

(11:55):
time for us to completely restart and and and and
hit the reset button, because are gonna behind all other
the other three teams in the division this season. Joe Burrow, Baby,
Joe Burrow. Boot begins. Hey, I got nothing against Joe Burrow.
I just always caution folks, you know, against burying a
guy too fast, especially coming off a thirty three and

(12:19):
ten season. Okay, a lot of that stuff was in
the first eleven twelve weeks, A lot of that stuff
with that funny they lost several guys on their defense
that couldn't hold up either. Jason, you're conveniently forgetting that
part of the equation. Go ahead, bring up the guy
you always bring up. Bring up the guy you always
bring up. Bring bring him up. Go ahead. I don't

(12:39):
want to run. I'm nervous that pounce he retired. Look
I'm nervous for because well, which guy do I always
bring up? Don't got nothing to do with the Steelers.
I don't want to. I don't want to ruin it
for you. I don't want to rut if didn't. All right,
we'll wait wall wait, It's okay, Well we'll wait. I
want where do you always bring them up? What? The
two linebackers? That's yeah, Come on, you bring u bud

(13:02):
dupree all the time. Come on, the player. You bring
him up all the time. But for you to say
bud Dupree, now, I thought you were going Costanzo and
I was gonna check your sanity as to what team
we were talking about. That's why I wanted to do
a reset asking about the Steelers. You're gonna bring up
right there? We always bring you always bring up bud Dupree.
Bud Dupree is like and Devin Bush were gone. That

(13:23):
those are two pretty big misses in your defense. But
do what your team was for the back end of
that schedule. He's the new Trey Burton. As much as
you bring up bud Dupree. Now, look he hopefully he's
ready for training camp. The Steelers did lose, guys. But
when your quarterback has trouble making plays, guess what, You're
not gonna win games. You're not gonna win games. That
that's you can have a lot of things around. You

(13:44):
can surround your team a lot when your quarterback has trouble.
And Roethlisberger, we have seen it. He is at the end.
You know, I I feel pretty comfortable with this because
it's it's only really one team. Well can they can
they get up over the Bengals. Why do I like
the Bengals Because I like Joe Burrow. I like the
Bengals going as being a team on the rise and
and potentially you could see him being a huge take

(14:05):
a huge leap at quarterback this year. I don't see
Roethlisberger taking a big leap. Steelers won a lot of
those games last year there by the skin of their teeth,
like where they're more talented than this. What's happening here?
Telling you when your quarterback can't do it? And if
they have to change quarterbacks middle of the season, something
else happens. I mean, if the Steelers can turn into
a really big mess very soon. But do pre you're

(14:26):
not Trey Burton or not? Trey Burton's got nothing to
do with him. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon 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 Pro Bowl Little Warrington, and I couldn't

(14:47):
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, Zada 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 with teachable moments. Listen to Up on

(15:12):
Game with Me, LaVar Arrington, t J. Hudgeman's Out of
and Plexico Birds on the I Heart Radio app, Apple
podcast or wherever you get your podcast from. It's time
to get to Baker Mayfield and the UFO. Let's go
a story that first. There it is, there's the audio

(15:33):
that's Baker. It's Baker, meet in the UFO that came
out kangan kotos uh. Last night, Baker Mayfield was returning
from dinner with his wife Emily when he says he
and his wife saw a UFO. Uh. Here's what Baker
Mayfield tweeted out. Almost, m and I just saw a
UFO drop straight out of the sky on our way

(15:54):
home from dinner. We stopped and looked at each other
and asked if either of us saw it, very bright
ball of light going eight down out of the sky
towards Lake Travis. Anybody else witnessed this? All right? So
that was Baker Mayfield's tweet. His wife, in support of
this tweeted out, I won't lie. I'm not typically someone
who buys into UFO talk. But all I know is
I saw something tonight that I have never seen, and

(16:15):
I'm a little thrown off. Now. She went on to
talk about it more in her Instagram story. But they
said it was the same thing, a big bright light
going straight from the sky down to the ground. I
got home. They were confused, and they wanted to put
it out there to see if anybody else had seen
this UFO. Uh Now, listen, there are many different ways
we can go with this conversation in Baker Mayfield. But

(16:36):
let's let's go the most important conversation. Let's let's let's
deal with this and talk about UFOs. Because according to
the New York Post, data from the National UFO Reporting
Center shows that UFO sightings are up fifty percent since
the COVID nineteen pandemic began last March. I mean maybe
you could say, well, more people at home staring out
the windows, we're seeing more UFOs. I just have some questions,

(16:59):
all right, I'm going to ask some questions here. We're
gonna break down. I think that's the best way to
go with this. First one is this, why are UFOs
only seen by one or two people at a time?
I mean, in the history of our world, how come
not one UFO has come down like at a concert
or where there's more than there's more than like two people. Why? Why?
Why have you? Why have in the history of the

(17:20):
world every UFO was so incredibly advanced that that they
find a way to only be seen by one or
two people at a time. I find it hard to believe.
I got to think at some point there's one UFO
sutting where it's like, you know, I was at the
Toby Keith concert and then he was getting ready to
do that song about I Love this bar, and then
up there was a huge UFOs. But we all saw it,

(17:40):
all fifteen thousand of us. I mean, I don't know
why Why has that not been one story about that?
Why is it only seen by one or two people?
And they're always near a lake or they're they're they're
not in the area where is heavily populated. I mean,
I just you would think one time, one time since
we've been tracking UFOs, that they would be seen by
more than one people or at some point we get

(18:01):
UFOs on video. Right, We've got camera every the same
time something happens. Now everything's on a camera phone, cameras
out cameras. How come UFOs aren't our camera phones? UFOs No,
specifically when they're over the sky. Hey, we gotta we
gotta go fast. You know how when the TV shows
that the cops can trace a call after a certain
amount of times, you gotta hang up the phone. We
gotta get out of here before someone takes the seven
point four seconds to get their phone, slide it off

(18:24):
of lock, punching their code, press it up, press the
button and get us on video. Okay, we have to
make sure we get out by that time. I'm just wondering,
like what want, Like why that stuff? Why we haven't
seen any of that in the past few years. Alright,
So number one, the video jams it up. I mean,
their technology allows it to obscure your feeble camera and
the oka of our time. I asked for the group thing. No,

(18:47):
you have to place yourself in situations to where you're
only seen by a few. You're not going over you know,
a Rose Bowl. You're not going over Texas Stadium. No, no, no, no, no, no.
This is so they have like heat sensor type stuff
where they can see, hey, only a couple of people
are gonna see us. Well again, I mean they they
have their version of a telescope. I'm sure, so they

(19:10):
know where there's not a concentration of people. But you
need to be talked about. You need people to believe
that there's more out there, and that's part of the
bigger conversation. But maybe you're not ready to engage fully yet,
or if you're preparing for war, what are you doing,
you're doing recon and what do you do You get
two people to tell your story, because why that's not
millions telling the story. Millions tell the story. Now it's

(19:31):
all right, you really got to take it seriously. Now
Here everybody's taken their their pot shots at Baker Mayfield
and his wife and making fun of him. Tom Brady
has to come over the top and say, well, what
what makes you think I haven't seen any and then
Baker Mayfield made a boomer joke. I mean, there's all
sorts of greatness to it, but it becomes comedic fodder
instead of wow, is there really something else out there?

(19:53):
And then it remains an enigma. No, I think it's
perfectly orchestrated. This is good planning. And I lost money
when I bet on the Browns. Here's what I'm going
to do. We're going to reveal ourselves the Baker Mayfield.
He will tweet about it. It will be a sort
of embarrassment. I will laugh and have revenge. Up pop pop.
I mean that Jason goes back and starts watching the

(20:16):
cone Heads again. Why why and why why are you are?
Why are they always so advanced? Why can't they be
just like us? Why can't they be worse than us?
Why do why do they always have to be so advanced? UFO?
All time they're coming for another place? Okay, they could
be just like us. We send people to the moon
and at different places all the time they were on
the moon. God with fun. We're bringing soccer balls, we're
bringing a bunch of different things we're having. I mean,

(20:37):
I don't understand, Well, why always have to be so smart?
Why can't they be just as smart as we are,
not as smart as we are? Why can't they do that? Well?
Your question in and of itself, you know that is
the answer. Uh So. Colin Cowherd took to it, Joe Montana,
Troy Aikman, Terry Bradshaw, Tom Brady have never seen aliens.

(20:58):
I would prefer my guys don't talk about it. Tom
Brady replied with, how do you know, I've never seen aliens?
Colin and Baker. Mayfield replied with three laughing crying emojis.
At your age, you've probably seen a bunch. But this
lends to the conspiracy theory that Tom Brady has in
fact had conversations with aliens, thereby allowing him to play

(21:22):
at a high level at age forty three and bring
home another Super Bowl. It's not a method. Maybe he
is an alien. Maybe it is like a real life exactly.
And at some point when he got between his first
year in the NFL and the second year, he was
kidnapped by aliens and replaced with whatever he's got, and
now the real Tom Brady's on the planet somewhere. I mean,

(21:43):
that would explain things why Brady is the only guy
to be playing this well at at age forty three
in the history of the game. Explain a lot. I'll
tell you, there's just so much to it, like you
can't possibly fathom smith, you know, and I want to
know this too. And here here's the other thing too,
about about ufls. He's another one to Jason and my
twitter at, how about a fresco Mike and swollen Um.

(22:03):
Do I believe aliens exist? Sure? I believe there's other
life forms that exist. Because to think that it's just
us in an infinite galaxy, I tell you, I'm talk
about stuff that scared. What do you think about that
the galaxy is infinite, that it's just keeps going, keeps
going and going, and there's no end to it. It
really gets scary and spooky when you think about that
there's just nothing that's stopping and going out there. Dude,

(22:26):
we live near the ocean. Just go stand and stare
at the ocean for two minutes. If that doesn't do
it for you, then you're you're already yet problems. But
if I go out on the ocean, I can I
can get in a boat and I could go someplace
and I can find land. If I keep going straight
out into space, I'm just gonna keep going into It's
gonna be like like in an ant Man, except instead
of you know, going in the atomizer and just continuing

(22:47):
to reduce it all those what do you do? But
here's here's my point is that, Okay, so do do
other life forms as shore? I I can't believe we're
the only ones in an infinite uh uh planetary system
uh to only have to have life. But do you
really think the UFOs are coming here? I mean, the

(23:08):
Earth has been around for four and a half billion years,
a four and a half billion years, and I mean
it is an infinite systems. You have no idea how
far away that some of these places are. Are they
really coming here? They're they're that far advanced with technology
just because they're from space, while if they're from space
they might be they must be really, really smart. They

(23:28):
can build things on another planet, whatever kind of life.
It's got to be another planet like this, except with
so much better technology and life forms that are so
much more advanced that they're able to find a find
a way to build UFOs that just keep coming here
and just showing up for for a split second and leaving.
I thought, okay, and I'm leaving. Okay, Well, but if

(23:49):
they removed that fast, right instantaneously, wouldn't you come in
just to screw with the people of Earth. Well, at
some point wouldn't you be hungry and want to consume Earth? Like,
wouldn't this be the planet? Right that that maybe we
don't know what else is out there. No one else
can be something more appealing. But if they can travel
all through time to it, all through space to get here,

(24:10):
I think they can live a lot of different ways.
Why they just stop over. They watch a little Belichick
and Sabans, learn a few things, a little keeping up
with the Kardashians, maybe a little inside the NBA and
Snoop Dogg, And then they take the great music and
culture of the the globe and they take it back
to their people and they say, you know what they're
doing now they're talking on sports talk radio just about us.

(24:35):
I've always wanted to see Camden Yards again. We get
over it and just see it really fast, and Emily Night,
thank you. I'm excited. I mean, I'm like, there's so
many questions. There's so many questions that that what about
UFOs and coming here and just I mean, I'm glad
Baker Mayfield started the conversation that he felt empowered enough
to go on Twitter and say, I think I just
saw UFO and now we can have these conversations. We

(24:57):
can have the good conversations. We're not nearly done with
this conversation. There's a lot to get to on this,
but just a couple of things real fast. And you know,
I just think that you know they're coming here. They
figured out a way to come here. Why why is it?
Why do we have this vision? And this this tells
me and this I'm getting little deep on you here,
But why do we have this vision that whatever else
is out there is so much smarter and better than

(25:18):
we are. Why can't we be the best? Why can't
we be the top of the food change of everything
that you you believe as you that you're fed every
other day about the greatness of the human spirit. I
think you can see the greatness of the raiders for
a second, the aut of wind is a pirate. How
do you know, job Fascenda is not the voice of
the alien nation? You don't know? Blustering in from sea

(25:42):
where a rollicking song the UFO sweeps along, swaggering boisterously.
I mean, why, why why can't we be the best?
Why is it always? Uh, they must be so far
more technologically advanced than us. I mean, it's like very
satirical like we we gotta have we have more confidence
here that maybe we're the best. We we have the
best playing is and the best everything, and the best
air defense. I mean, maybe we have all these things.

(26:03):
A suit of armor around the world. I mean, wasn't
that our idea? A suit of armor around the world.
I believe I said that cap a suit of armor
around the world. Why can't that be us? And so
you're talking about Captain Marvel. Well, I got all these

(26:24):
other places I need to go help those other places
don't have you. It takes me a long time to
get there. Man, I'm flying like speed light. It takes
me three years just to get to another planet. Then
I missed the war. It already happened. I can't do anything.
I came back. Then I get a text from Fury.
I just left. Now I gotta turn back around and

(26:46):
come all the way back to this bleeping planet who
has all kinds of heroes and defend them. But no,
you need me to go rip through Thanos his ship,
and still he can stand. I'm so powerful, I can
rip through Thanos his ship. But when he's a guy
without the glove on his hand, I still can't fight him.
Come on, I mean what what what are my powers? Really?
I mean really a suit of armor around the world.

(27:08):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific. So tonight we saw the end of the
first half in the NBA season, and look, Phoenix has
a big win over Golden State and it has been
some kind of first half. Look, no Steph Curry tonight.
So the Sun's win easy one. And the Sun's finished

(27:31):
the first half at twenty three and eleven, and they
are sitting very pretty right now in the two spots
in the West, and there are three games behind the Jazz.
Monty Williams has done a phenomenal job with the Sons,
And look, you can argue that Chris Paul the addition
of him, I gotta I got a big hot take
on Chris Paul. We will do that tomorrow night, but
you can argue his edition. Look, Phoenix is doing terrific things.

(27:54):
They're one of the three biggest surprises in the NBA
this season. The seventies Sixers finished the first half on
top in the East by a half game over the Nets.
Doc Rivers is showing up and look and bead taking
this season and jumping into being an m v P candidate,
the overall favorite. Really, as far as we go for
m v P candidates, the Sixers have become an even

(28:14):
bigger surprise because they've gone from being a team that, hey,
there are a nice team that wins around fifty games.
Maybe they win their first round of the playoffs, maybe not,
but then they go home in the second round. Now
they've become a team that's a huge competitor and one
of the six best teams in the league, one of
the few teams has a chance to win the NBA title.
So Doc Rivers clearly great job with the seventies Sixers.

(28:35):
The NBA coach of the Year for the first half
is Tom Thibodeaux. And this is not me being Jason
Smith Knicks fan Knicks Knicks Knicks, but just think about
what he's done for a second, alright, if you if
you're saying these are the three biggest surprises in the
NBA this season, uh, Doc Rivers has a couple of
all star huge All Star caliber players on the team
in one playing like an m v P. Monty Williams

(28:55):
has one has two huge All Star caliber players on
the team, Devon Bookers of the best players in the NBA.
Julius Randall is good player, he's an All Star. But
clearly the roster he has with the Knicks not nearly
what you have. And some of the other coaches have
been able to win and win big. This is a
roster that is a game over five hundred and is
in the five spot now in the East, and this

(29:17):
has surprised everybody. Look, I told you the beginning of
the season that Thiboteau is gonna have a quick path
to Coach of the Year because it's very much cut
through the clutter. If he makes the Knicks good, he's
gonna win because he's got the spotlight, he has the attention,
he has the storyline, and as much as we're talking
about the Nets and how great they have been and
their Big three, we're talking as much about the Knicks
because it's such a big surprise, and he's got them

(29:39):
doing two things. He's got them playing great defense, which
I knew was gonna happen, and he's actually winning more
than I thought he wouldn't at this point, because I
thought the first half of the season the Knicks would
have an okay record, they'd be under five hundred, but
they would be losing games close and they wouldn't be
really being a threat until later on in the season.

(30:00):
But here they are right now, They're over five hundred.
They're just as good as everybody else. I look, they're
a half game behind the Celtics, all right, and as
Celtics are could be a championship. They're a half game
behind the Celtics. They're ahead of the Heat in the standings.
All right. This is how good they've played this season
is this is where they are. And Thibodeaux has done this,
and he's identified players who can be cornerstones on this team.

(30:24):
Julius Randall, RJ. Barrett, and Manuel Quickly. I told you
he was gonna identify two or three of these guys.
You're gonna find out two of these guys could be
building blocks with the Knicks after this season. And you've
already gotten those three guys in in Barrett and Quickly
and and all Star and Julius Randall. He's the coach
of the year, all right. Other coaches are doing great jobs.
I can't slight some of the jobs they're doing. You

(30:44):
know Quinn Snyder's doing great in Utah, but come on, man,
you got Donovan Mitchel and Rudy Gobert. I mean, seriously,
you have a you have a terrific team. You are
built with two big all stars. All these teams are
built with two big all stars the Knicks, and they
have a couple of nice players and a lot of
tape and uh and and glue and and and we're
trying to cut and paste things together. Of the year
seven and three, last ten, best defense in the Eastern

(31:07):
Conference overall, it will will see how sustainable it is
as their point differential per game point five. That's right,
they average one oh four point nine points per game.
One oh four point four allowed. Good enough. Uh. And
growth from r J Barrett I think is is a
huge deal because well, remember, uh, there were a lot

(31:29):
of folks after his rookie season that we're wringing their hands, going,
so what's r J. Barrett gonna be? So that the
fact that he's had the growth that he's had in
his sophomore season, I think is immense and speaks to
the coaching staff. So yeah, I'll give you the nod there.
I obviously was banging the drum from Monnie Williams. But
beyond what he's done, you you mentioned Chris Paul and

(31:53):
that has a lot to do with it, you know,
and having another coach on the court as your leader
certainly is a big deal. You know. We we've looked
at some of the other would be contenders. They've fallen
off the pace a little bit, Doc Rivers, this is
what we expected. Like he wins the award if they
do well in the second half, right, and then they

(32:14):
if they can win the Eastern Conference, Uh, coming out
and you know regular season obviously because of when awards
are are voted upon. But you know that would do
it because everybody else you're you're looking at going disappointment, disappointment.
That guy could get fired. That guy's a disappointment. So yeah,
you're Tom Thibodeaux. As much as I'd love to argue
against it, because well that would be fun, I can't,

(32:39):
I really can't. I mean, he's done a fantastic job
as we know, first half, getting everybody fired up. Uh,
and certainly they've bought in defensively, which in the NBA,
as we know, guys can do for a stretch. Teams
do for playoff runs. But generally the regular season, that's
not where you see top notch defense displayed for seventy

(32:59):
two games. Not that they've gotten to seventy two, but
the point being, uh that they buy in for the
regular season normally, it's a all right, let's grind this
out as like, all right, second season has begun and
basketball has played in a completely different fashion. You know,
but you do you know it's not gonna be all sunshine,
lollipops and rainbows because certain things that will happen have happened.

(33:19):
Tom Thibodeaux and in all of his stops he plays
his players way too many minutes and it gets difficult.
I mean, look, Julius Randall played every minute of a
twenty point win over the Pistons, you know, three nights ago.
What why is why is that happening? Right? You don't
need that to happen. Eventually, he does rub people the
wrong way. He's he's one of those coaches that is
he someone that stays someplace for seven or eight years. No,

(33:41):
but he's someone who stays a place for three or
four years. It gets a team going in the right direction. Yeah,
and I'll worry about those problems when they come up.
Right now, I'm just I'm just happy that the Knicks
are actually good and I can savor this for a
week and a half that they're over five hundred. I
mean it really, it was so improbable that anything like
this could happen in and to be sitting here like this,

(34:01):
it's probably the most improbable story of the first half.
That the Knicks are playing this well, everything else you
can kind of explain, you know, I mean, because at
least we knew, Okay, the Sixers and Sons were gonna
be good. You know they're gonna be this good. But
the Knicks, you look, go look at everybody's prediction. Where
are the Knicks? Lottery? Lottery, lottery, lottery all the way
through Now it is a very weird year where there
are six great teams and everybody else is the Knicks.

(34:24):
Everybody else is five hundred right throughout the league. The
next twenty teams are all at five hundred, and you
have the bottom three or four teams that are just terrible.
So it really is a big glut of teams in
the middle. But when you go from being a team
that if you had ten wins at this point, teams
would say, hey, that's not bad. Yeah, yeah, clearly NBA
Coach of the Year and anybody that had the the

(34:44):
over for Knicks wins this year, uh, and the NBA season,
you are feeling really good right now. You are feeling
awesome because the over under was I think twenty five
and the Knicks are already at nineteen. I think it
was twenty four and a half. Yeah, so you're feeling
pretty good now. The Knicks are gonna was like fifteen
in a row out of the All Star Break, but
you're feeling pretty good. If you had that bet that
that is pretty impressive. The the only other coach I

(35:09):
think I might raise my hand and say, hey, what
do you think? Uh? Is Brego in it with in
Charlotte with what they've been able to do. Right, Yes,
they're not above five like the Knicks, but now they
are right there. And that LaMelo balls come in and
been the player that he has because I don't I

(35:30):
don't think expectations. Uh, he is grossly exceeded. Like everybody
thought he could be a good player, some highlight real stuff,
but he's been far beyond that thus far. So you
got that, you got Gordon Hayward rediscovering his shot, Graham PJ.
Washington off the bench. You've got some guys that can play.

(35:50):
So I think it's curious, but you know that that's
an also ran, because, let's face it, the headlines coming
out of New York are gonna be much stronger. And
the NBA, while they may have been wringing their hands
over a lot of things, right, here's a bunch of
teams that had to do some postponements of games. Here's
a bunch of guys that missed time either due to
injuries or due to COVID protocol. And you've navigated through that.

(36:16):
Having the Knicks be back and be relevant. Come on,
there's gotta be a couple of fist bumps and and
just general excitement in the offices there in New York
until they have to talk about the the officiating from
the first half exactly. It is a nice break, because
that's what the players will all bring up over the weekend.
That they're all gonna bring that up over the weekend.
It's gonna happen
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