April 7, 2023 • 44 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon kick off the show talking about the NBA MVP race that is over according to Doc Rivers. Sergio Garcia has a testy media session at the Masters. The guys dive into the ‘butt-ugly- Houston comments made by the Governor of Connecticut after the time he spent there watching his Huskies. Then, NBA Insider & Writer Mark Medina joins the show to talk about Jalen Brunson’s MVP caliber season, The Dallas Mavericks woes, and much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmen podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from ten pm to two am Eastern
seven to eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find
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(00:21):
This is the best of the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmen on Fox Sports Radio. Greetings and welcome inside
The Jason Smith Show with my bas friend Mike Harmon
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(00:45):
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I have a big question, Mike Harman. I have a
really big question to start the show with tonight. So
very very big question, very very big question. Is it
have anything to do with which of our teams lost today? No, no, no,
that's not that No, No, that's just me. Yeah, no
that's you. No, no, get them a lot of runs
these days. Yeah, no, how many hits you give up today?
(01:07):
Like thirty five? That's a lot. Yeah, we count a lot.
It's a veritable gas how gas house guerrillas kind of situation.
Go what you lose? Like twenty to six today? Was
that the always sixteen? But oh sixteen? Okay, all right, okay,
just wanted to make sure, okay, thank yeah, and uh yeah,
how many? How many? Oh twenty hits? Wow? Wow, you
(01:27):
gave up twenty Oh yeah, no, it's not it's not good.
O my goodness. Already a lot of hand ringing going
on in the Great City of Chicago, and like clockwork,
Elloy Jimenez already on the d L. No, man, I'm sorry,
I'm sorry. Injured list Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't want
to get that wrong, so I don't infuritate anybody off
(01:48):
the camp here. Yeah, I know, but I have a
very big question because okay, but this goes into the
one of the big discussions that's been going on the
last few days when it comes to NBA MVP. Okay,
let's get about okay now tonight in the NBA's I
got a couple of big games going on Oklahoma City
in Utah big one. We got Denver and Phoenix just
(02:09):
about to tip, which is gonna be an awesome game.
This could be in Western Conference Finals preview. But now
I want to I want to get to MVP cause
the Sixers played tonight and Joel Embiid only scored twenty
one points slacker and the Sixers lost by twenty eight.
So was the MVP race over again? And now he
(02:29):
can't win because he was bad tonight he only had
twenty one, But I mean it was over the other
night when he had fifty, it was over. But the
nights when he's not that great and they lose by
twenty eight, I mean, he doesn't not have to eliminate him,
right He could win it the other night, but now
he's eliminated from winning it right now. Yeah, I mean,
we really rock back and forth on a very large
pendulum and you're just hoping to hold on. It's gotta
(02:50):
like when Jack Sparrow and they had that giant ball
of twine where they were trying to get out as
like and then it was like a Family Guy episode
where they're just trying to steal five minutes of film
because they had nothing else to say. How long can
we make this bit go on sure, and so that
that's it, and that's what we're riding with. This Joel
embiid MVP candidacy, which I think he's disqualified automatically by
(03:14):
begging for it. Well, I mean he'd have to be
disqualified for the last three years. Every couple of days,
it's I, why am I not the MVP? Why am
I not the MV? Why am not? I'll give you
the word. I'll print out a plaque. Hell, I'll get
you a replica championship belt if that's gonna make you
feel better. If God man, if you hooked him up
to a lie detector, I guarantee you going up to
(03:35):
a lie detector and said Joel, I can wave a
magic wand and I can guarantee you one of two things. Okay,
sounds like a Disney villain coming. I can give you
one of two things. Yes, suddenly I'm the shout of
the Devil. I don't know what's on the other I'm Gaston,
I got I can do it. I can give you
one of two things. I can give you a unanimous
(03:55):
MVP you will win unanimous YEA. Yes, I'll give you
unanimous MVP award unanimous or or I can give you
an NBA championship, what do you pick? And he wouldn't
take more than one second before he said, MVP, give me,
the unanimous MVP give me. He talks about the v
(04:18):
doesn't talk about winning championship, talks about winning the MVP,
and yes, I get it, lots of players want to
win the MVP. Of course they do. Of course, when
you're really, really good, it's a big heart desire for you.
But just like people, just like stars learn, there's things
you really want to do that you keep to yourself,
and there's things that you can say out loud. But
when he continues to be overly so about it, he's
(04:39):
the only guy that talks more about the Nobody else
talks about the MVP, like Joel Embiat and his teammates too,
and Doc R. Yeah, I'm the I'm the m I
don't know why I'm not the MVP. I'm the MVP.
I'm the MVP. I'm the MVP. All that. He is
obsessed with being the MVP, and he's one of those
guys that every day but looks at his stats, looks
at what people did the night before and go, oh,
I should win the MVP. Really, my MVP tracker and
(05:01):
the Jowell embat in my house on my laptop, MVP tracker,
I'm the MVP. I don't know why I'm not the MVP.
I'm gonna have a fake ceremony at the end of
the year. Don't give myself the MVP if I don't
get it, and I'll invite some players around the league
to come in. Hey, be here, because I'm the real MVP.
So I'm gonna have my own ceremony and I'm going
to crown myself the MVP, because obviously, if the voters
(05:23):
don't give it to me, I gotta give it to myself. Well,
you know, he's a big WWE fan, and in the
past he's done the degeneration X crotch chop, for which
he was fined, so he'll move on to something else.
And at this point he's really just crying and begging
for the undisputed heavyweight champion to just give him the
microphone and yell acknowledge me. Dad. He just wants everybody
(05:48):
to just say, you know what, I can't help what
Harden does. I can't help that Doc can't coach uside
of a playoff round. But I'm dominant. I'm the man. See,
I'd like to hear that. Though it's not my fault.
Doc can't coach in the playoffs. What do you want
from me? I mean, I cut you, I cut you
the chase. I mean these words and opinions express may
(06:09):
not exactly be those held by Joel m Need, but
I'm projecting here. I'm projecting from my perch here at
Fox Sports Radio as they get drum one twenty nine
one oh one my heat once again, I'm jumping on
I'm jumping on that wagon again, them and the Kings.
Let's go see. I'll tell you. I'm sorry. I don't
(06:30):
know what to do, but you gave me, Doc Rivers.
This is what if. That's why I'm not winning MVP.
I completely understand. But he's trying to be a good
hype man for him. You gotta give credit for that.
Oh yeah, yeah, sure, sure, he knows it's all going
down in flames in the playoffs. Oh he's getting ahead
of it right now. That's my guy. Oh there, he's
the best going today. So I see what you're doing.
(06:51):
So because he knows, Hey, listen, something's gonna happen. I'm
gonna screw up in the playoffs and we're not gonna win.
So let me at least get on board with Joel
being the MVP. I'm hundred percent, but okay, I'm I'm
with you. It's a let's talk this up to high
heavens and just tell everybody how great he is, because
that way, when it goes bad, can't blame Doc, can't
blame Doc. You know, listen, in about a month, you're
(07:14):
gonna be blaming me for everything. So let me get
this out now. Joel's the MVP and less if you
disagree with me, and a month to everybody's gonna hate me.
It's gonna be my fault, and I'm just gonna blame
Ben Simmons. So right now, I'll get all the good
publicity and you guys can let me go. So who's
got the MVP questions? I got him right now? What
do you want to know? Harden should be second, Yes,
it should be Joel, it should be Hardened, and then
it should be Iverson's that's how you go. And then
(07:35):
and then of course KG and Perkins and ray Allen,
my big group from Boston that never lost even though
we traded everybody away because we couldn't win with him.
So yeah, so I'm sorry, did I go? Did I
getting too far ahead of myself? Ask your next question?
I like that. Yeah, residual, doc effect and residual Ben Simmons,
what's left there? Doc? Twitter and out about a fresca.
(07:58):
Mike gets swollen down the Jason Smiths with with him
Carman again. Huge game in the NBA going on right now,
Denver and Phoenix early in the first quarter. Denver's up
by a point six five. Will keep you posted on
this one. Meanwhile, today was day one of the Masters. Yea,
And you know, today was a day of what I
like to call missed opportunities when you are the PGA
(08:20):
Tour and you don't understand that while this has been
very difficult, you have been given a gift because what's
been the topic for the last ten years? How do
we move on past the Tiger Woods era? How do
we do it right? I don't know how Tiger's not
really winning when he's in tournaments. Great people watch, it's great.
How do we move on? We don't know? And then
the Live Tour shows up and they start taking some
(08:42):
great golfers and then suddenly, wait, golf is getting a
lot of headlines, and people are up to people are
paying attention to golf. People are mad at the guys
who were leading in the PGA Tour is saying, well, hey,
they want to come back and play. They got to
do certain things, and it's a big back and forth.
We're getting a lot of relevancy and here's a PGA
Tour and their ratings are up a little bit and
there purses are up a little bit with players leaving
(09:04):
I And this was gonna be where you just stoked
that fire and everything just came out of a cauldron
a flame. This was day one of the Masters where
the PGA Tour golfers and the live golfers had to
live together after Freddie Couples was lighting Phil Mickelson on
fire and Sergio Garcia on fire, and the live tour
(09:25):
is nervous because no one's watching and they're wondering how
long are we gonna be around? This was something you
should have leaned into, and live golf should lean into this.
Lean into a battle, lean into a dilemma, lean into
something that keeps people watching what you're doing and watching
what's going on. You got to lean into this. But instead,
(09:46):
it's like both sides have decided we're gonna take the
high road. Now, yeah, we had a couple of things
being said, but now we're here, when now okay, and
everybody's watching out what's gonna happen. I want to see
fingers in people's faces, and I want to see someone
walk up to Sergio Garcia and say something. And I
want to see Freddie Couples, you know what, was chasing
Phil Michelson around with his nine iron, and there was
none of that today. It was just let's back off,
(10:06):
let's back off, let's back off. In fact, here's Sergio
Garcia when he's asked about live golf and what's going
on and is is are they going to continue to play?
And then there's all kinds of legality things happening, and
Sergio Garcia wanted no part of what was happening. How
normal did it feel coming back here? I'm playing and
just comes to training your game and totally normal? Guys,
(10:30):
You guys need to stop it. I mean, you guys
are making a big deal out of these and it's
you guys, Yes it is. I mean I've had nothing
but great things from every single player that I've talked to,
so just please stop it and just talk about the Masters.
And you know, I think actually in defense, I think
actually was thinking, it's just you haven't had as many
reps as sometimes you normally would. How did you feel
(10:51):
coming playing this golf course? Because no, I don't think
amend that, but I did. I did play one, two, three, four,
I played by tournament's coming in here, So that's pretty good.
So no, no, no, no, no, that's not what you meant.
That's I saw it in your eyes and you stared
at me and you wouldn't even look me in the
(11:12):
eye when you ask that question because you were scared.
Let's back away. Let's no, let's just talk about Masters. No,
that's not what you should do, because right now, the
PGA Tour and the Live Golf are battling with each
other for relevancy, for purses, for eyeballs, for everything, and
this is something where both sides need to realize, Hey,
this is kind of good for the sport because we're
(11:34):
talking golf and shows on TV and radio and they
talk about golf when when stuff is going on. Because
Rory McElroy is making headlines when he's talking about the
Live Tour and Greg Norman's making headlines, and there's gifts
and all kinds of memes that are out here with
Greg Norman looking upset over people's shoulders, and they just
want to back away from this. I'm going, yeah, I
get it. I get a golf being a gentleman's sport.
(11:56):
I completely understand it. But you're looking for something that
what's going to keep eyeballs on you, what's going to
keep interest up? You need to play. You need to
embrace this and and tell your golfers, hey, say whatever
the hell you want to say. It doesn't matter. Say
whatever the hell you want to say, however you feel.
If you're mad at the Live Gut, go ahead, say
what you want to say about him. And I'd say
the same thing to live golfers. You're mad, then everybody
(12:17):
hates you and you're going and you're chasing. Hey, you
say whatever you want to say, because this is something
that needs that needs to continue to be fostered. Because
feuds work, right. I hate to say that we're getting
down to a bit of a you know, getting down
to an elemental aspect, but hey, big feuds work. We
pay attention to feuds in sports, right, Nobody knows who
the hell Dylan Brooks is. But when he trends on
Twitter because Iman Clay Thompson or somebody else gets mad
(12:40):
about stuff, Hey, this works, feuds work, and if it's
back and forth and stuff, that keeps people's tongues wagon.
And like I said, Freddie, couple's just blistering Phil Mickelson
and search Jo guarth Sea saying, if you want to
pay Phil Michelson a hundred million dollars to shoot seventy four, hey,
knock yourself out. That's hilarious, Right, that's hilarious, good stuff.
Absolutely need to lean into this and not walk away
(13:01):
from it because if you because right now, interest level
of the matters we get what did I get after
one day? Well, Tiger Woods is just okay? And you
know a couple of guys at the top of the
leaderboard and yeah, did anybody say anything of it? No? Okay?
And it's going to be that kind of masters It's
not when it could be a master's at Hey, we're
talking about two different ideals about golf and about life,
and and they're together for the first time, all of them,
(13:23):
since we've really had time to sit back and think
about it. I mean, you need to embrace this a
little bit. Again. It's weird that I'm saying, hey, but
I'm just talking about this back and forth in this
feud and this Hey, this is why we think we're
right and why why we want our tour to live,
and this is why we want our tour to live.
But when you back off and it's like, this is
like the biggest thing that golf has going for it.
I mean, we had we had kepkaand schamboat for like,
(13:46):
you know, a good year and a half and then
and then poom, we segued into this and now I
feel like, oh, they're doing their best to make it
go away, and I'm like, I don't know that it
needs to go away. I think you try to lean
into the heat. We've talked a lot about this week
about reason Caitlin Clark and everything going on NC double
A women's tournament. We can't get a ton of coming
(14:06):
off the men's tournament. Not a lot of heat, great effort,
great victories from Yukon and a spectacular effort on Monday night,
but there's not a lot of staying power going into
the week. No, the AO, John Cena, you can't see
me and white House, invitations extended rejected and everything else
and nil deals and all that that wins the day.
(14:28):
It's controversial, it gets tongues wagon. Sure, it's got a
dirty underbelly of it because some of it gets into
our deep rooted division when it comes to race and
those type of discussions. But they are discussions that need
to be had, that should be had. And folks, I
can't tell you how to feel right here. It's it's golf,
(14:50):
and you decide which side you'll line up on. You
might as well do your best shoot interview and try
to hype up your spot. Tiger Woods is tied for fifty,
he's plus two. If you're a golf fan, then yeah,
Hovland and Rom and Kepka up top. That excites you,
casual fan. He ain't around on Saturday or Sunday, and
that's and that's fine in general. But you're trying to
(15:14):
jump off with your biggest tournament. You're trying to get
people fired up for the Masters and the tradition and
Jim Nance and everything else going on. So yeah, I
wish guys would lean in a little bit instead of
because because here's Sergioy he not only just bet he
didn't just back away with it. He tried to swat
at the reporter. No, that's not what you meant. You
(15:36):
didn't need to do that, right, Either embrace the villainy
or then you have to let it go by if
you're not going to address it and cast dispersions on
the reporters because they're still asking. And even if all
the other golfers are walking around on tour and their
civil ish we know what's underlying underneath, there's still a
(15:57):
lot of rivalry, a lot of angst, and for the
outside world, we just want more more information of what's
going on, and you can't just keep it buried. Right.
It's a very real divide in the golf world. Whether
you want to acknowledge it or not. It's yield. You're
in office politics. You just have to decide whether you're
playing the game or not. Twitter At, how about a fresca?
(16:19):
Mike gets swallen down The Jason Smith Show with My
best friend Mike Harmon. 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 iHeartRadio app live from the ti irac dot
com studios. Tirect dot com will help you get there
an unmatched selection, fast free shipping. Free road has a
(16:42):
protection over ten thousand recommended installers. Tirerac dot com. The
way tire buying should be well. A couple of big
things to get to. I always like when there's a
big political beef involving governors and mayors of cities that
have basketball and football and baseball games against. Do you
have any bets with bad bets of food stuffs? I'm
(17:06):
going to bet that the governor of this one state
is never gonna be able to go to this other
state again. How about that? Do you think he wants
to after what he said? Probably not? Okay, I don't
think so. But when anybody if he walked down the street,
when anybody know who the hell he was? No? Probably not.
(17:27):
When you say any street, I mean there's some streets.
I mean you can go down Bad Street, USA, and
I mean you're gonna get a fight pick no matter
who you are. Where do you live. I'm on Bad
Street US. You know you like the way I got
the fabulous freebirds in here at the top of the
hour two we just celebrated Michael Hayes's birthday just the
other day, and my brother met him at a house
show out there in Chicago. I mean, all good things,
(17:50):
all good things, all good things. But before we get
to that, you know, now, tonight's one of those nights
where I said, you know, I hate baseball. I hate baseball.
Your team didn't he been playing? I know, I know,
I know because because I hate baseball, like and you
know how much I love baseball and I love about
my whole life and the love it. Ft I hate
baseball right now. I hate it. I hated it when
(18:11):
Bob Euker was not to get up, get out of here,
and oh it's a walk off again. I hated Bob
Uker last body, damn the pitch. How about you get up,
get out of here, and get gone. How about that, Bob?
You'm The thing we didn't highlight too much, though, was
(18:31):
the fact that in his postgame press conference, in a
little interview on the field, that she was talking about
how something good always happens when his wife doesn't attend
the game. She got his mentions and got on Twitter saying,
say that to my face. Yeah, yeah, that's great. Yeah,
all all fun stuff that happens when yeah, that's great,
no tonight, because this just happened a few moments ago,
(18:54):
and this has me just a tiny bit depressed. It
was ayo, ready to run on contact two, bitch, and
there's a bun after center field down for a base hid.
Here comes Eddie, Here comes the through playing the plane Braves.
What oh walk off? Base Hip Braves Radio Network on
(19:14):
the call. They went on a walk off. They beat
the Padres there six and one already. I feel like
the Braves are in there. We're only gonna lose one
game a week mode and we're gonna walk off at
least twice a week. And that depresses me, Like at
least it was last year, it was the middle of
the year, or they decided, hey, you know, the Mets
are in the first place. You know, we know they're
gonna collapse. Let's get our heads on straight. And they
(19:35):
went on and they won the division. Didn't work. Didn't
work for them in the playoffs, expending so much energy.
They were flattened in their in their round of the playoffs.
So now let's make sure that doesn't happen to us
this year. And now they're already out wearing the invincible
armor of Yes, we will walk off when we feel
like it. We'll lose one game a week, and everybody
will will bow at our feet as the season goes on.
I'm afraid that this is what's gonna happen. How does
(19:56):
that make you feel? When Max not good at I
feel not great, Bob, not great, not not great, Bob,
not great, not great, No, no, not great, not great, Bob,
it's not great, not great. No, it's not doesn't mean,
doesn't mean. It doesn't depress me that I feel like
the National League race is over already, and it's you know,
it's a sow you conceding already. It's April sixth, quicker,
(20:20):
and I'm watching the Braves just like like it was
the middle of last year. Hey, yeah, we're just gonna
keep winning. It's gonna win it that. Yeah, it help
when you play the Nationals in you know, the first
week of the season. Okay, I get that, but you know,
here it is, it's like this exactly how the Braves
would do it all last year. And I can't stand it,
and I can't stand it. I feel like it's over.
I love that you're losing your mind over for everybody. Listen.
(20:40):
Is it as a Mets fan, I'm very calm and
level headed and cool, and this is this is kind
of a hallmark of Mets fans. You know, we don't panic,
We don't we don't overrate things. We don't say things
I don't know without thinking about them a lot. You
know that we don't ride the lightning. And every win
is a World Series win. Every loss is getting eliminated. No,
we're very calm and cooler, collected. No, it's how I've
(21:01):
always right now, it's how I viewed you my entire life. Really,
come on now, yeah yeah no, just watch, just watch,
just watch my carment, just watch watch. I mean you've
already ruined the seasons for our friends. And in Seattle,
what hey, hey, hey, hey hey, I picked the Mariners
to go to the World Series. It's early normally that
(21:22):
they used to be excited. Look, national guy gets on board.
It's picked us. It's okay, right, it's all right, everything
is fine, and everything you stand for them. It's early
for me, it's late because we got to sit here
and watch the braces and look how good we are.
(21:43):
We signed all our players because they signed bad deals.
They signed twenty year contracts for one hundred billion dollars
and so listen this with pay and we don't have
to look how smart we are. Oh, I can't stand it.
I hate baseball. Maybe they build a culture that says
I want to stay around. I like it here. I
want to be a member of this fraternity for a
long time. Yeah, maybe they signed a blood tag. I
(22:05):
don't know. I know, just wait until the Braves they
gets off. But then, like in a couple of years,
Ronald Kuna says, hey, I'm not I'm not coming to
spring training for ten million dollars a year, not doing
that anymore. And I know I signed a ten year deal,
but not doing it. I need a new deal. I
need more money. So I know that's coming. So there
is that, But until then, it's gonna be three four
years of Oh the good Brave. It isn't. Oh he knew,
(22:26):
let's getting young talent with so good with the Braves. H.
I love the Braves of the nineties because somebody was
beating the Pirates. It wasn't us, but somebody was beating them.
They were fun. Now it's like, oh, look, we're so
great with the Braves. Remember the Braves won all those
division titles and then they sucked. Yeah you know when
it mattered they couldn't win. Uh yeah, I know, I know.
(22:48):
I got you know, happy thoughts Mets home. Hey, it
goes back to that whole conversation we were having the
other day about blue Bloods and Yukon of the last
twenty five years and their five titles five King Kong, Bundy,
five count. You'll take the lulls, you'll take the dips
from five five titles. Would you rather win in division
every year and then watch your deem gacket in the playoffs. No,
(23:12):
I don't think you would. I think you would, Bob so.
But tomorrow was Mets home opening day, so there is that.
It's very exciting. I'm very excited to watch them lose
six nothing very No, I mean, I mean a bit.
But as I said, to get past this, let's talk
about somebody else who put their foot in their mouth. Yukon,
(23:34):
your national champion in college basketball. Great, right. You know
normally when you hear about the governors of states, you know,
playing in the final four and natural champion gaps, there's
a bet and if you win, you get a side
of beef and if you would get a bunch of
cheese or you know, something insane like that. There's a
controversy now involving Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont who traveled to
(23:56):
Houston and was on hand Monday night to watch Yukon
win the National Championship. Okay, so he's in Houston for
the Final four, and he went on a w p
l R FM's Chatz an AJ show and talked about
what his visit to Houston, the city of Houston was like. Now,
remember Yukon wasn't playing Houston, right, Yukon was playing San
(24:17):
Diego State, but the Final Four was held in Houston.
And this is what Governor ned Lamont had to say
on the radio about his visit to Houston. Walks not
much there. That's gonna be tweeted, Houston, we have a problem.
You walk around chas well. I don't know why. One
(24:39):
of them's AJ, one of them's chats Uh. You walk
around downtown Houston, which is but ugly, there's not much.
How do you really feel? Wow, dude, oh my god.
First of all, I gotta say this about the city
of Houston. It is human. So there is that I
understand that. I am Yeah, but it's only mark Man
right now, it's damp right now. And Houston. I have
(25:01):
a soft spot for Houston because that was the first
city and the first place I ever had Quiznos in
and I don't know that that was gonna start my lifelong.
Hey it's not like I owte to Quiznos all the time,
but I like Quiznos, and I'm like, okay, I kind
of like the hot subs and man, And when I
was in Houston covering the playoffs with the Lakers, like
you know, twenty years ago, Uh yeah, I was like, Hey,
(25:22):
I'm gonna go to Quiznos. Is my place now, it's
gonna it's gonna be my base of operations. Now here's Quiznos, right,
Here's where don't go. And so it's always been a
soft spot because I like Quiznos and now and that
was the first place I ever had it was in Houston. See.
I always liked their demented commercials, would like that sock
puppet or whatever the hell that thing was Quiznos shops.
How how do you say that about another city? And
(25:45):
then of course his defenses, I was just joking. I
was I was only joking. Come on, I was only joking.
Just just say you aligned with Charles Barkley and his
feelings of San Antonio and you just extended it to
the planet Houston. It's okay, I was only joking about
it being but okay, they don't get to vote for you.
What does he care? I mean, but how do you
(26:08):
how do you say that you're a governor of a state.
How do you say that about a city that just
hosted you. Hey, we're here for the final hosted you
and you'r we cad. We took what we wanted and
here's our parting shot. You're but ugly. No, here's Houston Mayo.
Sylvester Turner responding to when he heard uh Ned Lamont
(26:30):
say that about his city. No, no, hell no, we're
not going feet you Dan, you host you? How is
you and you gonna go back and talk about but ugly?
Which him was he looking from? Oh? Wow, Oh, SHOT's fine.
Which end are you looking from? That's pretty good line.
(26:53):
Did they pay for their accombinations and stuff? Then he
can say what he wants. But but if he is
literally looking the gift horse in the mouth and we
got a problem. Oh if he's if he's doing that
to the city that just gave you a bunch of stuff. Yeah,
that's a problem, that's it. Yeah, it's like, hey, we
were just down here, but yeah, thanks for nothing, but
(27:14):
the national championship. We walked away. We're taking going home.
Like wait, wait, like I like that, Yeah that is
I did that. You know that was that was you know,
that was a great one to hear that. Uh, you
know to hear I got my answer all ready to
go on you now here, which edwy looking out from.
And even Lamont's apology that he made today wasn't a
real apology because he said, we had a ball in
(27:36):
Houston during the Final four. The people there were incredibly
gracious and welcoming for us, and the basketball game was
pretty darn good as well. That's not quite the apology.
That's not quite by hey, you called my city but
ugly man, what the hell I mean? It's not it's
just like, hey, we had a good time. I mean
what what what is? What is wrong with you? You know,
you know how you saw this with you getting the ring?
(27:57):
Oh yeah yeah yeah, I think you you hell it us. Cell.
Maybe you get split open like Baalor did the other night.
Maybe it's just the octagon. I don't know, let's go No,
you know what we need to do. You know when
when certain places do the whole the one day a
week when your trade jobs and your trade jobs for
a day and go, oh, here, here's what it's like
to do my job. Here's like to do your job undercover. Boss. Yeah. Yeah,
(28:21):
I want the governor of Connecticut to go be the
mayor of Houston for a day and you have to
do all kinds of public appearances and talk about the
city and certain things and take questions from the media
and people who live in the city. I want that
to happen. That's how it should go. Hey, you come
and be the mayor down here for a day. I would.
I was just kidding. I would. And then there's a
(28:41):
plant in the middle of it, right, he was like undercover.
It's like, you know, there was a guy from Connecticut
that had some choice words about us. What do you
say to him? And they're all inching forward? Oh man,
have you thought Jill Biden was in a bit of
a hot water when she said, hey, let's have Iowa
to the wife house. Here's a governor saying a city
(29:02):
is but ugly, and there's not much there. What is it?
I mean, I don't understand, you know, man, I don't know.
Sometimes sometimes when politicians say things, I feel like the
toughest job. Because I'm a big fan of Veep. Right,
Veep is one of the funniest shows in the last
ten years, and I so identified with Anna Klumsky's role
because she was the PR person and wanted, you know,
(29:23):
was always in charge of the image of the office
and and and and stripes. Will always say that the
worst things, the most inappropriate things, and you could just
see it on her face and pains are going. How
do you not think more before you say it? Obviously
this is for comic effect because it's a television show.
This is real life. I mean, if you're if you're
one of those PR staffers and you're going and then
(29:45):
suddenly it's at someone's yell at you going, Where the
hell were you when the governor said this on the radio?
Oh you know, sorry, not my turn to watch. It's
your job. The governor is a grown person. Interview What
what do you what did you want me to do?
You tell him, hey, make sure you don't say the
city is but ugly that that's where I feel like
that's if I came back, if I was reincarnated, You'd say,
(30:07):
what would hell be? It would be working for a
politician that would say things like that, and I'd have
to worry about cleaning it up and sit there and go, no,
it's not with them. And why would you say that?
Why would you? I don't know, I don't know. I
just decided to say it just because, just because, just because, no, no,
no, no no, why why? Why why do you do this?
Why do you do this? Why? That's the most thankless
job in the world. I'm thankful I don't have it,
(30:27):
which means I'm gonna wind up doing it one day. Well,
I mean that you always said you'd be great to
be able to give pr support to folks. Yeah, yeah, no,
you know it's gonna have they really need it. Here's
what's gonna happen. In a few years. We're gonna find
different platforms to run for office on and Alex Tishert's
gonna run on on the health food platform, and it's
gonna be Hey, follow me. I don't know a lot
(30:49):
about taxes or education or budget anything, but if you
follow me, you'll all live an extra fifty years. Well,
you know what. Yeah, that mean he actually knows something,
because then the other people don't know that crappy. Ye
eat eat the foods I eat, and you'll live another
fifty years. Everybody's gonna vote for him, and he's gonna say, Jay,
you know, listen, I know you're really smart. I need
you to be my pr guy here and and craft
(31:10):
My mess would be the be the the White House
a press secretary would be that. I'd say, Okay, I
have to worry about clean up stuff, where he would
say like, what do you mean? What do you mean?
I didn't know what. I didn't know there were other
people in charge of the countries. I didn't know that
that would be the best response to anything. I didn't
know there was someone to charge of Canada. I thought
it was just part of us, like like we ruled them,
(31:32):
like we've the United States and Canada's can I didn't
know that, Jay, can you fix that form here? I'm
gonna go play Fortnite? Yes, yes, yes, mister president. Oh
that's the best I'll go. I'll go fix that. Between
Biden and Trump and everybody else, they've they've done the
walk off. I'm not answering that question I'm just getting
ignore you and I'm gonna walk to the helicopter or
behind this door TiSER, just standing going what do you mean?
What even that? Really coming back at the interviewer and
(31:55):
they make them really explain their point. What are you
asking me? Come to the Jays? Where are you telling me?
This is really going on? I think you're lying because
this is news to me. Is this is this true?
Is is really? Is this really happening? Is this true?
I heard Cuba it's really close to the United States?
Is this true? I did not, Jason. Do you know
(32:15):
that they're not? It is Cuba that play moving closer, Jason.
And that's why I've been a part of us this
whole time. So when I fly to Hawaii, I'm still
in the United States. Yes, what do you mean, I'm water?
I guess you told I'm gonna go to a last
cops Still in the United States. Oh God, I can't
(32:35):
have that too. I'm flying over an entire country. How
do I do? What do you mean? What do you mean?
You better not even get me started on Canada. Okay,
that's what's gonna happen. Tariffs on maple syrup and Jason
Smith walked in the ocean to die today after the
latest calf by President Alexier Dan a good run. Jason
(33:00):
couldn't swim. What do you mean? What do you mean?
A funny? And he was buoyant. He why me do
a whole party. I pushed him out a Marine one.
I thought he was gonna be fine, and he realized
Marine one. We were an Air Force one, so we're
not over water. I didn't know that. I didn't know.
I thought Marine one. I didn't know he was a
fan of top Gun. I thought he could swim. Twitter,
(33:20):
how about a fresca Mike and swollen Do be sure
to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harman weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeart Radio app. It
is Mark Medina. Follow him on Twitter at Mark g
Underscore Medina, who has promised on Twitter with hot takes tonight.
(33:43):
But I gotta tell you, Mark, Jalen Brunson MVP isn't
quite as hot as it was. I've been driving the bandwagon.
I'm glad people are on board with that now. Well, Jason, uh,
you know what I might have to add to the resume.
Is that my awards ballot? It's just a straight thicket
all Nick baby, Oh wow, look at that. See he
jumped in on the political talk. I love it. Six
(34:06):
Man of the Year, MVP, every the defensive Player of
the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, most improved player,
all the way through. Nick's everywhere down the road. Yeah.
And you know what, if only they could have Owner
of the Year, James Dolan would get that vote. Get
wow forgetting the hell out of the way. You're right, Hey,
that's a skill. Sometimes being an owners is the best
(34:28):
thing to do is to do nothing. Back up and
go play with your band. Yeah. Look, getting out of
the way. Unless you're a lawyer that's in litigation and
that case, he'll send people to spy on you. Oh okay,
and that is true. Yeah wow, that's I'll tell you what.
Now that Now that's a you know, Mark, that's a
great like undercover assignment for you, is following the spies
(34:50):
that are spying. See, that's a thing. I think that's
a thing you can do. And like you have your
own thirty for thirty on it. I'll forget about the
NBA playoffs. I'll just spend the next few months doing
this assignment here all right, So here we are, and
and every every night it seems like we have different
arguments for MVP Jewel embiid. Oh, he thinks he's the
(35:11):
MVP after the other night. Doc Rivers says he's the MVP.
So with twenty one points tonight and they lost by
twenty eight, is he not the MVP after tonight because
they got boat racing and have a big game, Like
if he wanted the other night, can he not win
it tonight? Is that how it goes? Yeah? I think
you know, with presidential polls, right, it's always by the day.
Guess we'll have to do the same thing with MVP.
(35:32):
And I think to extend that political election analogy, I'm
getting calls from people from different teams, you know, representing
the different MVP candidates, trying to pitch their case. It's
really amusing. But the bottom line is heay, really you are.
You're getting phone calls, but really it's like, are you
getting the robot calls? You answer yours. It's not a
(35:56):
robot call, it's an actual live person. But it's amusing.
It's like, all right, like stay your case beyond the
obvious that that players, what's your team? It is funny though,
but the bottom line is there's no such thing as
a wrong vote this year. You know Yannis, Joel Embiid,
Yoki Starley, Joe Brunson. But it's among those three and
(36:17):
all seriousness. They all have their own case. And you know,
I guess if you want to microanalyze things, there's things
against them, like, hey, Yokich's defense, the Nuggets inconsistent play
as of late. You know, Joel Embiid, injuries per usual. Yannis,
he had some injuries and defense isn't as strong as Embid.
(36:39):
But the bottom line is, I think that the conversation
needs to be more about what these players have been
during really well, like Yokich is a triple double machine MB.
Not only is he a dominant defensive player and post player,
he's a great facilitator. Now Jannis um, you know, when
he's been healthy for the most part, he's expanded his
offensive game, he's route defensively. So as far as where
(37:02):
I'm leaning with my vote, it's changed. I mean, at
first it was that it was Embiid. Lately it's been honest. Thankfully,
I still have a few days left to honor all
this while I pour through all the analytical data and
field robo calls are actual calls for a month some
of the team executives. So I don't know where I'm leaning,
but yeah, it's it's a tough one to say the
(37:24):
list as Jason. How many times Jason texted you? You know,
I always have to keep the sourcing anonymous, So I'll
plead the fifth. All right, he's usually logged in on
Twitter here, so I'll just look. I'll just look here
from the studio and try to suss that out for you. Mark,
(37:45):
all right. Last night Clippers Lakers sense of Urgency. I
talked about the fact that Davis and James were kind
of shamed into being on the court in the back
to back we got the odds schedule. I don't really
take much away from the game other than it was
fun to watch watch and see people in the LA
get excited. How about you. Yeah, I was glad that,
you know, we actually saw a team where they fielded
(38:07):
their players instead of doing load management. But I think
to your point, it would have been totally understandable if
they did sit, because you know, second night of back
to back, end of a long trip, look, I'm usually
on the league side of this, but if they're trying
to address all these availability concerns, like they shouldn't schedule
(38:30):
mark quee games on the second haight of a back
to back after a long trip. But I digress. I'm
glad that they play. I think that they're very competitive,
even even through the obvious sluggishness. It did scratch my
head that, you know, while the Clippers have been known
to give up double digit leads in the final minutes,
that they were still on the floor with like a
minute left. At some point it got to pull the cord.
(38:51):
But I think it was encouraging that they're still competing.
But that being said, I think it can also be
on the flip side that as much as we've been
impressed with how the Lakers have played as of late,
they have their limitations. Maybe it's premature to think they're
all of a sudden a championship contender. I've always thought
from the beginning that they are obviously a dangerous out
if they're fully healthy. But I think that that's the ceiling.
(39:13):
There are dangers out to maybe win in the first round,
but nothing beyond the second. I think this week kind
of encapsulated, even though in the playoffs you have more
rest days in between. I think the war of attrition
will eventually catch up to the Lakers, and hence they
won't be able to really beat teams significantly once the
playoffs start. NBA Inside or NBA dot Com, Mark Medina
(39:37):
our guest here. All right, So from the Lakers, let's
go to the Warriors, because for the longest time it
was the Warriors got looked. They can't win on the road,
they're limited to but they win a couple of games
on the road at the end of the year and
suddenly everybody's du look at the Warriors. So where are
you on what their play they're likely playoff path, and
how far can they go? Well, I guess you never
(39:58):
rule anything out because they're the defending champs. They got
Steph Curry and Draymond Green. But I think the bigger
thing is that Jared Gary Payton the second and now
Andrew wigginspected to come back. He's not playing the final
two regular season games. It remains to be seeing what
the ramp up is going to look like and what
his minutes restriction is going to be. So I do
anticipate some rustiness, But I think that Andrew Wiggins can
(40:20):
become the defensive player that he was during last season's
championship running. They're gonna need it because Klay Thompson, he's
improved as a score, but still not the same defender
pre injury. And you know, I don't take too much
stock of the you know, strong disparity between the Home
and Roads splits, but I do take stock that the
Warriors are in the middle of the pack defensively this season,
(40:42):
and when you look at their championship years, they're always
at the top of the league level in terms of
team rankings, and so I think that there is a
window for them to improve substantially, But there's also an unknown.
I think they can defend a title now that Andrew
Wiggins is back. If he wasn't back, I couldn't see
any scenario. But it's all going to depend on how
seamless that you know, Roadmap is to return, because I
(41:06):
anticipate there's at least going to be some hiccups in
the initial stages. Mark lass one for you real quick.
I have to pound the table a little bit for
the Road Warriors, Sacramento. They're the only team with a
great record on the road in the Western Conference. Let's go. Yeah, Look,
Kings are the real deal. One of the best offenses
in the NBA. They're not afraid. They got a good
(41:26):
guy to young and veteran talent, great head coach at
Mike Brown. I think though, that eventually their poor defense
is going to catch up to them. I think so
far they've shown during the regular season and today's NBA
doesn't matter if you don't defend well because if you
have a productive offense, you can make up for that.
But in the playoffs, I think it's a different story.
I think I can't win a playoff series, but I
(41:47):
think it's second round at best because of defense and
the inexperience will eventually catch up to them. And before
we let you go, Mark one more, because you mentioned
you know, being able to score is great in defense
in the playoffs. So let me ask you about the
Dallas Mavericks and everything going on the last few days,
and Mark Cuban missus Jalen Brunson is blaming Rick Brunson
for this, and Luca says, we blew it when you
(42:08):
watch the Mavericks free fall through the standings right now
after getting Kyrie Irving. Is this on Luca? Is this
on Kyrie? Is it on both of them? Is it
on none of them? What do you seized as how
all of a sudden the Mavericks went from boy, they
can be an NBA Finals contenders. They're lucky if they
make it into the plane. Yeah. Well, anytime there's a
train wrecord on NBA team, no one's blameless, but percentage
(42:31):
of the blame high. It starts with roster construction number one.
Before the Kyrie Irving trade, they didn't have you know,
I don't want to say scrubs, they had decent role players,
so they didn't have you know, dependable depth alongside Luca
Dodgers and still the same story, they gave up some
of that depth to get Kyrie Irving. I think Kyrie,
you know, from what I've been told, even through all
(42:51):
shendet against, he asked it a positive locker room presence.
The problem is he and Luca have not formed enough
offensive chemistry. And then Luca great player, but I think
his complaining and how he handles adversity has had a
trickle down effect. But I think the bottom line is
this The main sources of the Dallas maverage problems point too,
(43:12):
how they've constructed the roster, and so when you look
at this offseason, you know it's not necessarily a bad
thing that Kyrie Irving's probably gonna leave. They're not going
to agree to long term deal. But when they made
that deal, they thought, on the back of their mind, hey,
if this doesn't work out, at least we have cap space.
But you know what, there's a lot of folks around
the NBA and differ enough front offices that say, well,
it doesn't matter if the MAVs have cap space because
(43:33):
in past years they haven't used it wisely. So it
could be another turbulent offseason, to say the least for them.
You can find them on Twitter at mark g underscore Medina.
That's had Mark g underscore Medina, NBA dot com. Longtime
NBA insider who is now about to go to the movies.
You're going to see air right? Is that what you says?
How are you're doing right now? Yeah? I gotta see
(43:53):
learn more about Michael Jordan's greatness. If we haven't heard enough, Yeah, listen.
Apparently they had a shoe that was made for him
that he wore that became very popular WHOA. I wonder
if that shoe is worn by a lot of NBA
players today. I'll guess I'll find out. Yeah, Hey, I
think we need I think yeah. We definitely report back
after and find out if that's the case, because I
(44:15):
don't know they'll be wearing New Balance like Kawai's. Thanks
a bunch, Buddy, Mark. We'll touch appreciate you guys. I'll
provide a movie review next week. Appreciate it, outstanding, born
to it.
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmen podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from 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
Harman at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
(00:21):
This is the best of the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmen on Fox Sports Radio. Greetings and welcome inside
The Jason Smith Show with my bas friend Mike Harmon
bat live from the tirerac dot com studios. Tiract dot
com will help you get there an unmatched selection, fast,
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(00:45):
recommended installers. Tirerac dot com the way tire buying should be. Well.
I have a big question, Mike Harman. I have a
really big question to start the show with tonight. So
very very big question, very very big question. Is it
have anything to do with which of our teams lost today? No, no, no,
that's not that No, No, that's just me. Yeah, no
that's you. No, no, get them a lot of runs
these days. Yeah, no, how many hits you give up today?
(01:07):
Like thirty five? That's a lot. Yeah, we count a lot.
It's a veritable gas how gas house guerrillas kind of situation.
Go what you lose? Like twenty to six today? Was
that the always sixteen? But oh sixteen? Okay, all right, okay,
just wanted to make sure, okay, thank yeah, and uh yeah,
how many? How many? Oh twenty hits? Wow? Wow, you
(01:27):
gave up twenty Oh yeah, no, it's not it's not good.
O my goodness. Already a lot of hand ringing going
on in the Great City of Chicago, and like clockwork,
Elloy Jimenez already on the d L. No, man, I'm sorry,
I'm sorry. Injured list Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't want
to get that wrong, so I don't infuritate anybody off
(01:48):
the camp here. Yeah, I know, but I have a
very big question because okay, but this goes into the
one of the big discussions that's been going on the
last few days when it comes to NBA MVP. Okay,
let's get about okay now tonight in the NBA's I
got a couple of big games going on Oklahoma City
in Utah big one. We got Denver and Phoenix just
(02:09):
about to tip, which is gonna be an awesome game.
This could be in Western Conference Finals preview. But now
I want to I want to get to MVP cause
the Sixers played tonight and Joel Embiid only scored twenty
one points slacker and the Sixers lost by twenty eight.
So was the MVP race over again? And now he
(02:29):
can't win because he was bad tonight he only had
twenty one, But I mean it was over the other
night when he had fifty, it was over. But the
nights when he's not that great and they lose by
twenty eight, I mean, he doesn't not have to eliminate him,
right He could win it the other night, but now
he's eliminated from winning it right now. Yeah, I mean,
we really rock back and forth on a very large
pendulum and you're just hoping to hold on. It's gotta
(02:50):
like when Jack Sparrow and they had that giant ball
of twine where they were trying to get out as
like and then it was like a Family Guy episode
where they're just trying to steal five minutes of film
because they had nothing else to say. How long can
we make this bit go on sure, and so that
that's it, and that's what we're riding with. This Joel
embiid MVP candidacy, which I think he's disqualified automatically by
(03:14):
begging for it. Well, I mean he'd have to be
disqualified for the last three years. Every couple of days,
it's I, why am I not the MVP? Why am
I not the MV? Why am not? I'll give you
the word. I'll print out a plaque. Hell, I'll get
you a replica championship belt if that's gonna make you
feel better. If God man, if you hooked him up
to a lie detector, I guarantee you going up to
(03:35):
a lie detector and said Joel, I can wave a
magic wand and I can guarantee you one of two things. Okay,
sounds like a Disney villain coming. I can give you
one of two things. Yes, suddenly I'm the shout of
the Devil. I don't know what's on the other I'm Gaston,
I got I can do it. I can give you
one of two things. I can give you a unanimous
(03:55):
MVP you will win unanimous YEA. Yes, I'll give you
unanimous MVP award unanimous or or I can give you
an NBA championship, what do you pick? And he wouldn't
take more than one second before he said, MVP, give me,
the unanimous MVP give me. He talks about the v
(04:18):
doesn't talk about winning championship, talks about winning the MVP,
and yes, I get it, lots of players want to
win the MVP. Of course they do. Of course, when
you're really, really good, it's a big heart desire for you.
But just like people, just like stars learn, there's things
you really want to do that you keep to yourself,
and there's things that you can say out loud. But
when he continues to be overly so about it, he's
(04:39):
the only guy that talks more about the Nobody else
talks about the MVP, like Joel Embiat and his teammates too,
and Doc R. Yeah, I'm the I'm the m I
don't know why I'm not the MVP. I'm the MVP.
I'm the MVP. I'm the MVP. All that. He is
obsessed with being the MVP, and he's one of those
guys that every day but looks at his stats, looks
at what people did the night before and go, oh,
I should win the MVP. Really, my MVP tracker and
(05:01):
the Jowell embat in my house on my laptop, MVP tracker,
I'm the MVP. I don't know why I'm not the MVP.
I'm gonna have a fake ceremony at the end of
the year. Don't give myself the MVP if I don't
get it, and I'll invite some players around the league
to come in. Hey, be here, because I'm the real MVP.
So I'm gonna have my own ceremony and I'm going
to crown myself the MVP, because obviously, if the voters
(05:23):
don't give it to me, I gotta give it to myself. Well,
you know, he's a big WWE fan, and in the
past he's done the degeneration X crotch chop, for which
he was fined, so he'll move on to something else.
And at this point he's really just crying and begging
for the undisputed heavyweight champion to just give him the
microphone and yell acknowledge me. Dad. He just wants everybody
(05:48):
to just say, you know what, I can't help what
Harden does. I can't help that Doc can't coach uside
of a playoff round. But I'm dominant. I'm the man. See,
I'd like to hear that. Though it's not my fault.
Doc can't coach in the playoffs. What do you want
from me? I mean, I cut you, I cut you
the chase. I mean these words and opinions express may
(06:09):
not exactly be those held by Joel m Need, but
I'm projecting here. I'm projecting from my perch here at
Fox Sports Radio as they get drum one twenty nine
one oh one my heat once again, I'm jumping on
I'm jumping on that wagon again, them and the Kings.
Let's go see. I'll tell you. I'm sorry. I don't
(06:30):
know what to do, but you gave me, Doc Rivers.
This is what if. That's why I'm not winning MVP.
I completely understand. But he's trying to be a good
hype man for him. You gotta give credit for that.
Oh yeah, yeah, sure, sure, he knows it's all going
down in flames in the playoffs. Oh he's getting ahead
of it right now. That's my guy. Oh there, he's
the best going today. So I see what you're doing.
(06:51):
So because he knows, Hey, listen, something's gonna happen. I'm
gonna screw up in the playoffs and we're not gonna win.
So let me at least get on board with Joel
being the MVP. I'm hundred percent, but okay, I'm I'm
with you. It's a let's talk this up to high
heavens and just tell everybody how great he is, because
that way, when it goes bad, can't blame Doc, can't
blame Doc. You know, listen, in about a month, you're
(07:14):
gonna be blaming me for everything. So let me get
this out now. Joel's the MVP and less if you
disagree with me, and a month to everybody's gonna hate me.
It's gonna be my fault, and I'm just gonna blame
Ben Simmons. So right now, I'll get all the good
publicity and you guys can let me go. So who's
got the MVP questions? I got him right now? What
do you want to know? Harden should be second, Yes,
it should be Joel, it should be Hardened, and then
it should be Iverson's that's how you go. And then
(07:35):
and then of course KG and Perkins and ray Allen,
my big group from Boston that never lost even though
we traded everybody away because we couldn't win with him.
So yeah, so I'm sorry, did I go? Did I
getting too far ahead of myself? Ask your next question?
I like that. Yeah, residual, doc effect and residual Ben Simmons,
what's left there? Doc? Twitter and out about a fresca.
(07:58):
Mike gets swollen down the Jason Smiths with with him
Carman again. Huge game in the NBA going on right now,
Denver and Phoenix early in the first quarter. Denver's up
by a point six five. Will keep you posted on
this one. Meanwhile, today was day one of the Masters. Yea,
And you know, today was a day of what I
like to call missed opportunities when you are the PGA
(08:20):
Tour and you don't understand that while this has been
very difficult, you have been given a gift because what's
been the topic for the last ten years? How do
we move on past the Tiger Woods era? How do
we do it right? I don't know how Tiger's not
really winning when he's in tournaments. Great people watch, it's great.
How do we move on? We don't know? And then
the Live Tour shows up and they start taking some
(08:42):
great golfers and then suddenly, wait, golf is getting a
lot of headlines, and people are up to people are
paying attention to golf. People are mad at the guys
who were leading in the PGA Tour is saying, well, hey,
they want to come back and play. They got to
do certain things, and it's a big back and forth.
We're getting a lot of relevancy and here's a PGA
Tour and their ratings are up a little bit and
there purses are up a little bit with players leaving
(09:04):
I And this was gonna be where you just stoked
that fire and everything just came out of a cauldron
a flame. This was day one of the Masters where
the PGA Tour golfers and the live golfers had to
live together after Freddie Couples was lighting Phil Mickelson on
fire and Sergio Garcia on fire, and the live tour
(09:25):
is nervous because no one's watching and they're wondering how
long are we gonna be around? This was something you
should have leaned into, and live golf should lean into this.
Lean into a battle, lean into a dilemma, lean into
something that keeps people watching what you're doing and watching
what's going on. You got to lean into this. But instead,
(09:46):
it's like both sides have decided we're gonna take the
high road. Now, yeah, we had a couple of things
being said, but now we're here, when now okay, and
everybody's watching out what's gonna happen. I want to see
fingers in people's faces, and I want to see someone
walk up to Sergio Garcia and say something. And I
want to see Freddie Couples, you know what, was chasing
Phil Michelson around with his nine iron, and there was
none of that today. It was just let's back off,
(10:06):
let's back off, let's back off. In fact, here's Sergio
Garcia when he's asked about live golf and what's going
on and is is are they going to continue to play?
And then there's all kinds of legality things happening, and
Sergio Garcia wanted no part of what was happening. How
normal did it feel coming back here? I'm playing and
just comes to training your game and totally normal? Guys,
(10:30):
You guys need to stop it. I mean, you guys
are making a big deal out of these and it's
you guys, Yes it is. I mean I've had nothing
but great things from every single player that I've talked to,
so just please stop it and just talk about the Masters.
And you know, I think actually in defense, I think
actually was thinking, it's just you haven't had as many
reps as sometimes you normally would. How did you feel
(10:51):
coming playing this golf course? Because no, I don't think
amend that, but I did. I did play one, two, three, four,
I played by tournament's coming in here, So that's pretty good.
So no, no, no, no, no, that's not what you meant.
That's I saw it in your eyes and you stared
at me and you wouldn't even look me in the
(11:12):
eye when you ask that question because you were scared.
Let's back away. Let's no, let's just talk about Masters. No,
that's not what you should do, because right now, the
PGA Tour and the Live Golf are battling with each
other for relevancy, for purses, for eyeballs, for everything, and
this is something where both sides need to realize, Hey,
this is kind of good for the sport because we're
(11:34):
talking golf and shows on TV and radio and they
talk about golf when when stuff is going on. Because
Rory McElroy is making headlines when he's talking about the
Live Tour and Greg Norman's making headlines, and there's gifts
and all kinds of memes that are out here with
Greg Norman looking upset over people's shoulders, and they just
want to back away from this. I'm going, yeah, I
get it. I get a golf being a gentleman's sport.
(11:56):
I completely understand it. But you're looking for something that
what's going to keep eyeballs on you, what's going to
keep interest up? You need to play. You need to
embrace this and and tell your golfers, hey, say whatever
the hell you want to say. It doesn't matter. Say
whatever the hell you want to say, however you feel.
If you're mad at the Live Gut, go ahead, say
what you want to say about him. And I'd say
the same thing to live golfers. You're mad, then everybody
(12:17):
hates you and you're going and you're chasing. Hey, you
say whatever you want to say, because this is something
that needs that needs to continue to be fostered. Because
feuds work, right. I hate to say that we're getting
down to a bit of a you know, getting down
to an elemental aspect, but hey, big feuds work. We
pay attention to feuds in sports, right, Nobody knows who
the hell Dylan Brooks is. But when he trends on
Twitter because Iman Clay Thompson or somebody else gets mad
(12:40):
about stuff, Hey, this works, feuds work, and if it's
back and forth and stuff, that keeps people's tongues wagon.
And like I said, Freddie, couple's just blistering Phil Mickelson
and search Jo guarth Sea saying, if you want to
pay Phil Michelson a hundred million dollars to shoot seventy four, hey,
knock yourself out. That's hilarious, Right, that's hilarious, good stuff.
Absolutely need to lean into this and not walk away
(13:01):
from it because if you because right now, interest level
of the matters we get what did I get after
one day? Well, Tiger Woods is just okay? And you
know a couple of guys at the top of the
leaderboard and yeah, did anybody say anything of it? No? Okay?
And it's going to be that kind of masters It's
not when it could be a master's at Hey, we're
talking about two different ideals about golf and about life,
and and they're together for the first time, all of them,
(13:23):
since we've really had time to sit back and think
about it. I mean, you need to embrace this a
little bit. Again. It's weird that I'm saying, hey, but
I'm just talking about this back and forth in this
feud and this Hey, this is why we think we're
right and why why we want our tour to live,
and this is why we want our tour to live.
But when you back off and it's like, this is
like the biggest thing that golf has going for it.
I mean, we had we had kepkaand schamboat for like,
(13:46):
you know, a good year and a half and then
and then poom, we segued into this and now I
feel like, oh, they're doing their best to make it
go away, and I'm like, I don't know that it
needs to go away. I think you try to lean
into the heat. We've talked a lot about this week
about reason Caitlin Clark and everything going on NC double
A women's tournament. We can't get a ton of coming
(14:06):
off the men's tournament. Not a lot of heat, great effort,
great victories from Yukon and a spectacular effort on Monday night,
but there's not a lot of staying power going into
the week. No, the AO, John Cena, you can't see
me and white House, invitations extended rejected and everything else
and nil deals and all that that wins the day.
(14:28):
It's controversial, it gets tongues wagon. Sure, it's got a
dirty underbelly of it because some of it gets into
our deep rooted division when it comes to race and
those type of discussions. But they are discussions that need
to be had, that should be had. And folks, I
can't tell you how to feel right here. It's it's golf,
(14:50):
and you decide which side you'll line up on. You
might as well do your best shoot interview and try
to hype up your spot. Tiger Woods is tied for fifty,
he's plus two. If you're a golf fan, then yeah,
Hovland and Rom and Kepka up top. That excites you,
casual fan. He ain't around on Saturday or Sunday, and
that's and that's fine in general. But you're trying to
(15:14):
jump off with your biggest tournament. You're trying to get
people fired up for the Masters and the tradition and
Jim Nance and everything else going on. So yeah, I
wish guys would lean in a little bit instead of
because because here's Sergioy he not only just bet he
didn't just back away with it. He tried to swat
at the reporter. No, that's not what you meant. You
(15:36):
didn't need to do that, right, Either embrace the villainy
or then you have to let it go by if
you're not going to address it and cast dispersions on
the reporters because they're still asking. And even if all
the other golfers are walking around on tour and their
civil ish we know what's underlying underneath, there's still a
(15:57):
lot of rivalry, a lot of angst, and for the
outside world, we just want more more information of what's
going on, and you can't just keep it buried. Right.
It's a very real divide in the golf world. Whether
you want to acknowledge it or not. It's yield. You're
in office politics. You just have to decide whether you're
playing the game or not. Twitter At, how about a fresca?
(16:19):
Mike gets swallen down The Jason Smith Show with My
best friend Mike Harmon. 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 iHeartRadio app live from the ti irac dot
com studios. Tirect dot com will help you get there
an unmatched selection, fast free shipping. Free road has a
(16:42):
protection over ten thousand recommended installers. Tirerac dot com. The
way tire buying should be well. A couple of big
things to get to. I always like when there's a
big political beef involving governors and mayors of cities that
have basketball and football and baseball games against. Do you
have any bets with bad bets of food stuffs? I'm
(17:06):
going to bet that the governor of this one state
is never gonna be able to go to this other
state again. How about that? Do you think he wants
to after what he said? Probably not? Okay, I don't
think so. But when anybody if he walked down the street,
when anybody know who the hell he was? No? Probably not.
(17:27):
When you say any street, I mean there's some streets.
I mean you can go down Bad Street, USA, and
I mean you're gonna get a fight pick no matter
who you are. Where do you live. I'm on Bad
Street US. You know you like the way I got
the fabulous freebirds in here at the top of the
hour two we just celebrated Michael Hayes's birthday just the
other day, and my brother met him at a house
show out there in Chicago. I mean, all good things,
(17:50):
all good things, all good things. But before we get
to that, you know, now, tonight's one of those nights
where I said, you know, I hate baseball. I hate baseball.
Your team didn't he been playing? I know, I know,
I know because because I hate baseball, like and you
know how much I love baseball and I love about
my whole life and the love it. Ft I hate
baseball right now. I hate it. I hated it when
(18:11):
Bob Euker was not to get up, get out of here,
and oh it's a walk off again. I hated Bob
Uker last body, damn the pitch. How about you get up,
get out of here, and get gone. How about that, Bob?
You'm The thing we didn't highlight too much, though, was
(18:31):
the fact that in his postgame press conference, in a
little interview on the field, that she was talking about
how something good always happens when his wife doesn't attend
the game. She got his mentions and got on Twitter saying,
say that to my face. Yeah, yeah, that's great. Yeah,
all all fun stuff that happens when yeah, that's great,
no tonight, because this just happened a few moments ago,
(18:54):
and this has me just a tiny bit depressed. It
was ayo, ready to run on contact two, bitch, and
there's a bun after center field down for a base hid.
Here comes Eddie, Here comes the through playing the plane Braves.
What oh walk off? Base Hip Braves Radio Network on
(19:14):
the call. They went on a walk off. They beat
the Padres there six and one already. I feel like
the Braves are in there. We're only gonna lose one
game a week mode and we're gonna walk off at
least twice a week. And that depresses me, Like at
least it was last year, it was the middle of
the year, or they decided, hey, you know, the Mets
are in the first place. You know, we know they're
gonna collapse. Let's get our heads on straight. And they
(19:35):
went on and they won the division. Didn't work. Didn't
work for them in the playoffs, expending so much energy.
They were flattened in their in their round of the playoffs.
So now let's make sure that doesn't happen to us
this year. And now they're already out wearing the invincible
armor of Yes, we will walk off when we feel
like it. We'll lose one game a week, and everybody
will will bow at our feet as the season goes on.
I'm afraid that this is what's gonna happen. How does
(19:56):
that make you feel? When Max not good at I
feel not great, Bob, not great, not not great, Bob,
not great, not great, No, no, not great, not great, Bob,
it's not great, not great. No, it's not doesn't mean,
doesn't mean. It doesn't depress me that I feel like
the National League race is over already, and it's you know,
it's a sow you conceding already. It's April sixth, quicker,
(20:20):
and I'm watching the Braves just like like it was
the middle of last year. Hey, yeah, we're just gonna
keep winning. It's gonna win it that. Yeah, it help
when you play the Nationals in you know, the first
week of the season. Okay, I get that, but you know,
here it is, it's like this exactly how the Braves
would do it all last year. And I can't stand it,
and I can't stand it. I feel like it's over.
I love that you're losing your mind over for everybody. Listen.
(20:40):
Is it as a Mets fan, I'm very calm and
level headed and cool, and this is this is kind
of a hallmark of Mets fans. You know, we don't panic,
We don't we don't overrate things. We don't say things
I don't know without thinking about them a lot. You
know that we don't ride the lightning. And every win
is a World Series win. Every loss is getting eliminated. No,
we're very calm and cooler, collected. No, it's how I've
(21:01):
always right now, it's how I viewed you my entire life. Really,
come on now, yeah yeah no, just watch, just watch,
just watch my carment, just watch watch. I mean you've
already ruined the seasons for our friends. And in Seattle,
what hey, hey, hey, hey hey, I picked the Mariners
to go to the World Series. It's early normally that
(21:22):
they used to be excited. Look, national guy gets on board.
It's picked us. It's okay, right, it's all right, everything
is fine, and everything you stand for them. It's early
for me, it's late because we got to sit here
and watch the braces and look how good we are.
(21:43):
We signed all our players because they signed bad deals.
They signed twenty year contracts for one hundred billion dollars
and so listen this with pay and we don't have
to look how smart we are. Oh, I can't stand it.
I hate baseball. Maybe they build a culture that says
I want to stay around. I like it here. I
want to be a member of this fraternity for a
long time. Yeah, maybe they signed a blood tag. I
(22:05):
don't know. I know, just wait until the Braves they
gets off. But then, like in a couple of years,
Ronald Kuna says, hey, I'm not I'm not coming to
spring training for ten million dollars a year, not doing
that anymore. And I know I signed a ten year deal,
but not doing it. I need a new deal. I
need more money. So I know that's coming. So there
is that, But until then, it's gonna be three four
years of Oh the good Brave. It isn't. Oh he knew,
(22:26):
let's getting young talent with so good with the Braves. H.
I love the Braves of the nineties because somebody was
beating the Pirates. It wasn't us, but somebody was beating them.
They were fun. Now it's like, oh, look, we're so
great with the Braves. Remember the Braves won all those
division titles and then they sucked. Yeah you know when
it mattered they couldn't win. Uh yeah, I know, I know.
(22:48):
I got you know, happy thoughts Mets home. Hey, it
goes back to that whole conversation we were having the
other day about blue Bloods and Yukon of the last
twenty five years and their five titles five King Kong, Bundy,
five count. You'll take the lulls, you'll take the dips
from five five titles. Would you rather win in division
every year and then watch your deem gacket in the playoffs. No,
(23:12):
I don't think you would. I think you would, Bob so.
But tomorrow was Mets home opening day, so there is that.
It's very exciting. I'm very excited to watch them lose
six nothing very No, I mean, I mean a bit.
But as I said, to get past this, let's talk
about somebody else who put their foot in their mouth. Yukon,
(23:34):
your national champion in college basketball. Great, right. You know
normally when you hear about the governors of states, you know,
playing in the final four and natural champion gaps, there's
a bet and if you win, you get a side
of beef and if you would get a bunch of
cheese or you know, something insane like that. There's a
controversy now involving Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont who traveled to
(23:56):
Houston and was on hand Monday night to watch Yukon
win the National Championship. Okay, so he's in Houston for
the Final four, and he went on a w p
l R FM's Chatz an AJ show and talked about
what his visit to Houston, the city of Houston was like. Now,
remember Yukon wasn't playing Houston, right, Yukon was playing San
(24:17):
Diego State, but the Final Four was held in Houston.
And this is what Governor ned Lamont had to say
on the radio about his visit to Houston. Walks not
much there. That's gonna be tweeted, Houston, we have a problem.
You walk around chas well. I don't know why. One
(24:39):
of them's AJ, one of them's chats Uh. You walk
around downtown Houston, which is but ugly, there's not much.
How do you really feel? Wow, dude, oh my god.
First of all, I gotta say this about the city
of Houston. It is human. So there is that I
understand that. I am Yeah, but it's only mark Man
right now, it's damp right now. And Houston. I have
(25:01):
a soft spot for Houston because that was the first
city and the first place I ever had Quiznos in
and I don't know that that was gonna start my lifelong.
Hey it's not like I owte to Quiznos all the time,
but I like Quiznos, and I'm like, okay, I kind
of like the hot subs and man, And when I
was in Houston covering the playoffs with the Lakers, like
you know, twenty years ago, Uh yeah, I was like, Hey,
(25:22):
I'm gonna go to Quiznos. Is my place now, it's
gonna it's gonna be my base of operations. Now here's Quiznos, right,
Here's where don't go. And so it's always been a
soft spot because I like Quiznos and now and that
was the first place I ever had it was in Houston. See.
I always liked their demented commercials, would like that sock
puppet or whatever the hell that thing was Quiznos shops.
How how do you say that about another city? And
(25:45):
then of course his defenses, I was just joking. I
was I was only joking. Come on, I was only joking.
Just just say you aligned with Charles Barkley and his
feelings of San Antonio and you just extended it to
the planet Houston. It's okay, I was only joking about
it being but okay, they don't get to vote for you.
What does he care? I mean, but how do you
(26:08):
how do you say that you're a governor of a state.
How do you say that about a city that just
hosted you. Hey, we're here for the final hosted you
and you'r we cad. We took what we wanted and
here's our parting shot. You're but ugly. No, here's Houston Mayo.
Sylvester Turner responding to when he heard uh Ned Lamont
(26:30):
say that about his city. No, no, hell no, we're
not going feet you Dan, you host you? How is
you and you gonna go back and talk about but ugly?
Which him was he looking from? Oh? Wow, Oh, SHOT's fine.
Which end are you looking from? That's pretty good line.
(26:53):
Did they pay for their accombinations and stuff? Then he
can say what he wants. But but if he is
literally looking the gift horse in the mouth and we
got a problem. Oh if he's if he's doing that
to the city that just gave you a bunch of stuff. Yeah,
that's a problem, that's it. Yeah, it's like, hey, we
were just down here, but yeah, thanks for nothing, but
(27:14):
the national championship. We walked away. We're taking going home.
Like wait, wait, like I like that, Yeah that is
I did that. You know that was that was you know,
that was a great one to hear that. Uh, you
know to hear I got my answer all ready to
go on you now here, which edwy looking out from.
And even Lamont's apology that he made today wasn't a
real apology because he said, we had a ball in
(27:36):
Houston during the Final four. The people there were incredibly
gracious and welcoming for us, and the basketball game was
pretty darn good as well. That's not quite the apology.
That's not quite by hey, you called my city but
ugly man, what the hell I mean? It's not it's
just like, hey, we had a good time. I mean
what what what is? What is wrong with you? You know,
you know how you saw this with you getting the ring?
(27:57):
Oh yeah yeah yeah, I think you you hell it us. Cell.
Maybe you get split open like Baalor did the other night.
Maybe it's just the octagon. I don't know, let's go No,
you know what we need to do. You know when
when certain places do the whole the one day a
week when your trade jobs and your trade jobs for
a day and go, oh, here, here's what it's like
to do my job. Here's like to do your job undercover. Boss. Yeah. Yeah,
(28:21):
I want the governor of Connecticut to go be the
mayor of Houston for a day and you have to
do all kinds of public appearances and talk about the
city and certain things and take questions from the media
and people who live in the city. I want that
to happen. That's how it should go. Hey, you come
and be the mayor down here for a day. I would.
I was just kidding. I would. And then there's a
(28:41):
plant in the middle of it, right, he was like undercover.
It's like, you know, there was a guy from Connecticut
that had some choice words about us. What do you
say to him? And they're all inching forward? Oh man,
have you thought Jill Biden was in a bit of
a hot water when she said, hey, let's have Iowa
to the wife house. Here's a governor saying a city
(29:02):
is but ugly, and there's not much there. What is it?
I mean, I don't understand, you know, man, I don't know.
Sometimes sometimes when politicians say things, I feel like the
toughest job. Because I'm a big fan of Veep. Right,
Veep is one of the funniest shows in the last
ten years, and I so identified with Anna Klumsky's role
because she was the PR person and wanted, you know,
(29:23):
was always in charge of the image of the office
and and and and stripes. Will always say that the
worst things, the most inappropriate things, and you could just
see it on her face and pains are going. How
do you not think more before you say it? Obviously
this is for comic effect because it's a television show.
This is real life. I mean, if you're if you're
one of those PR staffers and you're going and then
(29:45):
suddenly it's at someone's yell at you going, Where the
hell were you when the governor said this on the radio?
Oh you know, sorry, not my turn to watch. It's
your job. The governor is a grown person. Interview What
what do you what did you want me to do?
You tell him, hey, make sure you don't say the
city is but ugly that that's where I feel like
that's if I came back, if I was reincarnated, You'd say,
(30:07):
what would hell be? It would be working for a
politician that would say things like that, and I'd have
to worry about cleaning it up and sit there and go, no,
it's not with them. And why would you say that?
Why would you? I don't know, I don't know. I
just decided to say it just because, just because, just because, no, no,
no, no no, why why? Why why do you do this?
Why do you do this? Why? That's the most thankless
job in the world. I'm thankful I don't have it,
(30:27):
which means I'm gonna wind up doing it one day. Well,
I mean that you always said you'd be great to
be able to give pr support to folks. Yeah, yeah, no,
you know it's gonna have they really need it. Here's
what's gonna happen. In a few years. We're gonna find
different platforms to run for office on and Alex Tishert's
gonna run on on the health food platform, and it's
gonna be Hey, follow me. I don't know a lot
(30:49):
about taxes or education or budget anything, but if you
follow me, you'll all live an extra fifty years. Well,
you know what. Yeah, that mean he actually knows something,
because then the other people don't know that crappy. Ye
eat eat the foods I eat, and you'll live another
fifty years. Everybody's gonna vote for him, and he's gonna say, Jay,
you know, listen, I know you're really smart. I need
you to be my pr guy here and and craft
(31:10):
My mess would be the be the the White House
a press secretary would be that. I'd say, Okay, I
have to worry about clean up stuff, where he would
say like, what do you mean? What do you mean?
I didn't know what. I didn't know there were other
people in charge of the countries. I didn't know that
that would be the best response to anything. I didn't
know there was someone to charge of Canada. I thought
it was just part of us, like like we ruled them,
(31:32):
like we've the United States and Canada's can I didn't
know that, Jay, can you fix that form here? I'm
gonna go play Fortnite? Yes, yes, yes, mister president. Oh
that's the best I'll go. I'll go fix that. Between
Biden and Trump and everybody else, they've they've done the
walk off. I'm not answering that question I'm just getting
ignore you and I'm gonna walk to the helicopter or
behind this door TiSER, just standing going what do you mean?
What even that? Really coming back at the interviewer and
(31:55):
they make them really explain their point. What are you
asking me? Come to the Jays? Where are you telling me?
This is really going on? I think you're lying because
this is news to me. Is this is this true?
Is is really? Is this really happening? Is this true?
I heard Cuba it's really close to the United States?
Is this true? I did not, Jason. Do you know
(32:15):
that they're not? It is Cuba that play moving closer, Jason.
And that's why I've been a part of us this
whole time. So when I fly to Hawaii, I'm still
in the United States. Yes, what do you mean, I'm water?
I guess you told I'm gonna go to a last
cops Still in the United States. Oh God, I can't
(32:35):
have that too. I'm flying over an entire country. How
do I do? What do you mean? What do you mean?
You better not even get me started on Canada. Okay,
that's what's gonna happen. Tariffs on maple syrup and Jason
Smith walked in the ocean to die today after the
latest calf by President Alexier Dan a good run. Jason
(33:00):
couldn't swim. What do you mean? What do you mean?
A funny? And he was buoyant. He why me do
a whole party. I pushed him out a Marine one.
I thought he was gonna be fine, and he realized
Marine one. We were an Air Force one, so we're
not over water. I didn't know that. I didn't know.
I thought Marine one. I didn't know he was a
fan of top Gun. I thought he could swim. Twitter,
(33:20):
how about a fresca Mike and swollen Do be sure
to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harman weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeart Radio app. It
is Mark Medina. Follow him on Twitter at Mark g
Underscore Medina, who has promised on Twitter with hot takes tonight.
(33:43):
But I gotta tell you, Mark, Jalen Brunson MVP isn't
quite as hot as it was. I've been driving the bandwagon.
I'm glad people are on board with that now. Well, Jason, uh,
you know what I might have to add to the resume.
Is that my awards ballot? It's just a straight thicket
all Nick baby, Oh wow, look at that. See he
jumped in on the political talk. I love it. Six
(34:06):
Man of the Year, MVP, every the defensive Player of
the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, most improved player,
all the way through. Nick's everywhere down the road. Yeah.
And you know what, if only they could have Owner
of the Year, James Dolan would get that vote. Get
wow forgetting the hell out of the way. You're right, Hey,
that's a skill. Sometimes being an owners is the best
(34:28):
thing to do is to do nothing. Back up and
go play with your band. Yeah. Look, getting out of
the way. Unless you're a lawyer that's in litigation and
that case, he'll send people to spy on you. Oh okay,
and that is true. Yeah wow, that's I'll tell you what.
Now that Now that's a you know, Mark, that's a
great like undercover assignment for you, is following the spies
(34:50):
that are spying. See, that's a thing. I think that's
a thing you can do. And like you have your
own thirty for thirty on it. I'll forget about the
NBA playoffs. I'll just spend the next few months doing
this assignment here all right, So here we are, and
and every every night it seems like we have different
arguments for MVP Jewel embiid. Oh, he thinks he's the
(35:11):
MVP after the other night. Doc Rivers says he's the MVP.
So with twenty one points tonight and they lost by
twenty eight, is he not the MVP after tonight because
they got boat racing and have a big game, Like
if he wanted the other night, can he not win
it tonight? Is that how it goes? Yeah? I think
you know, with presidential polls, right, it's always by the day.
Guess we'll have to do the same thing with MVP.
(35:32):
And I think to extend that political election analogy, I'm
getting calls from people from different teams, you know, representing
the different MVP candidates, trying to pitch their case. It's
really amusing. But the bottom line is heay, really you are.
You're getting phone calls, but really it's like, are you
getting the robot calls? You answer yours. It's not a
(35:56):
robot call, it's an actual live person. But it's amusing.
It's like, all right, like stay your case beyond the
obvious that that players, what's your team? It is funny though,
but the bottom line is there's no such thing as
a wrong vote this year. You know Yannis, Joel Embiid,
Yoki Starley, Joe Brunson. But it's among those three and
(36:17):
all seriousness. They all have their own case. And you know,
I guess if you want to microanalyze things, there's things
against them, like, hey, Yokich's defense, the Nuggets inconsistent play
as of late. You know, Joel Embiid, injuries per usual. Yannis,
he had some injuries and defense isn't as strong as Embid.
(36:39):
But the bottom line is, I think that the conversation
needs to be more about what these players have been
during really well, like Yokich is a triple double machine MB.
Not only is he a dominant defensive player and post player,
he's a great facilitator. Now Jannis um, you know, when
he's been healthy for the most part, he's expanded his
offensive game, he's route defensively. So as far as where
(37:02):
I'm leaning with my vote, it's changed. I mean, at
first it was that it was Embiid. Lately it's been honest. Thankfully,
I still have a few days left to honor all
this while I pour through all the analytical data and
field robo calls are actual calls for a month some
of the team executives. So I don't know where I'm leaning,
but yeah, it's it's a tough one to say the
(37:24):
list as Jason. How many times Jason texted you? You know,
I always have to keep the sourcing anonymous, So I'll
plead the fifth. All right, he's usually logged in on
Twitter here, so I'll just look. I'll just look here
from the studio and try to suss that out for you. Mark,
(37:45):
all right. Last night Clippers Lakers sense of Urgency. I
talked about the fact that Davis and James were kind
of shamed into being on the court in the back
to back we got the odds schedule. I don't really
take much away from the game other than it was
fun to watch watch and see people in the LA
get excited. How about you. Yeah, I was glad that,
you know, we actually saw a team where they fielded
(38:07):
their players instead of doing load management. But I think
to your point, it would have been totally understandable if
they did sit, because you know, second night of back
to back, end of a long trip, look, I'm usually
on the league side of this, but if they're trying
to address all these availability concerns, like they shouldn't schedule
(38:30):
mark quee games on the second haight of a back
to back after a long trip. But I digress. I'm
glad that they play. I think that they're very competitive,
even even through the obvious sluggishness. It did scratch my
head that, you know, while the Clippers have been known
to give up double digit leads in the final minutes,
that they were still on the floor with like a
minute left. At some point it got to pull the cord.
(38:51):
But I think it was encouraging that they're still competing.
But that being said, I think it can also be
on the flip side that as much as we've been
impressed with how the Lakers have played as of late,
they have their limitations. Maybe it's premature to think they're
all of a sudden a championship contender. I've always thought
from the beginning that they are obviously a dangerous out
if they're fully healthy. But I think that that's the ceiling.
(39:13):
There are dangers out to maybe win in the first round,
but nothing beyond the second. I think this week kind
of encapsulated, even though in the playoffs you have more
rest days in between. I think the war of attrition
will eventually catch up to the Lakers, and hence they
won't be able to really beat teams significantly once the
playoffs start. NBA Inside or NBA dot Com, Mark Medina
(39:37):
our guest here. All right, So from the Lakers, let's
go to the Warriors, because for the longest time it
was the Warriors got looked. They can't win on the road,
they're limited to but they win a couple of games
on the road at the end of the year and
suddenly everybody's du look at the Warriors. So where are
you on what their play they're likely playoff path, and
how far can they go? Well, I guess you never
(39:58):
rule anything out because they're the defending champs. They got
Steph Curry and Draymond Green. But I think the bigger
thing is that Jared Gary Payton the second and now
Andrew wigginspected to come back. He's not playing the final
two regular season games. It remains to be seeing what
the ramp up is going to look like and what
his minutes restriction is going to be. So I do
anticipate some rustiness, But I think that Andrew Wiggins can
(40:20):
become the defensive player that he was during last season's
championship running. They're gonna need it because Klay Thompson, he's
improved as a score, but still not the same defender
pre injury. And you know, I don't take too much
stock of the you know, strong disparity between the Home
and Roads splits, but I do take stock that the
Warriors are in the middle of the pack defensively this season,
(40:42):
and when you look at their championship years, they're always
at the top of the league level in terms of
team rankings, and so I think that there is a
window for them to improve substantially, But there's also an unknown.
I think they can defend a title now that Andrew
Wiggins is back. If he wasn't back, I couldn't see
any scenario. But it's all going to depend on how
seamless that you know, Roadmap is to return, because I
(41:06):
anticipate there's at least going to be some hiccups in
the initial stages. Mark lass one for you real quick.
I have to pound the table a little bit for
the Road Warriors, Sacramento. They're the only team with a
great record on the road in the Western Conference. Let's go. Yeah, Look,
Kings are the real deal. One of the best offenses
in the NBA. They're not afraid. They got a good
(41:26):
guy to young and veteran talent, great head coach at
Mike Brown. I think though, that eventually their poor defense
is going to catch up to them. I think so
far they've shown during the regular season and today's NBA
doesn't matter if you don't defend well because if you
have a productive offense, you can make up for that.
But in the playoffs, I think it's a different story.
I think I can't win a playoff series, but I
(41:47):
think it's second round at best because of defense and
the inexperience will eventually catch up to them. And before
we let you go, Mark one more, because you mentioned
you know, being able to score is great in defense
in the playoffs. So let me ask you about the
Dallas Mavericks and everything going on the last few days,
and Mark Cuban missus Jalen Brunson is blaming Rick Brunson
for this, and Luca says, we blew it when you
(42:08):
watch the Mavericks free fall through the standings right now
after getting Kyrie Irving. Is this on Luca? Is this
on Kyrie? Is it on both of them? Is it
on none of them? What do you seized as how
all of a sudden the Mavericks went from boy, they
can be an NBA Finals contenders. They're lucky if they
make it into the plane. Yeah. Well, anytime there's a
train wrecord on NBA team, no one's blameless, but percentage
(42:31):
of the blame high. It starts with roster construction number one.
Before the Kyrie Irving trade, they didn't have you know,
I don't want to say scrubs, they had decent role players,
so they didn't have you know, dependable depth alongside Luca
Dodgers and still the same story, they gave up some
of that depth to get Kyrie Irving. I think Kyrie,
you know, from what I've been told, even through all
(42:51):
shendet against, he asked it a positive locker room presence.
The problem is he and Luca have not formed enough
offensive chemistry. And then Luca great player, but I think
his complaining and how he handles adversity has had a
trickle down effect. But I think the bottom line is
this The main sources of the Dallas maverage problems point too,
(43:12):
how they've constructed the roster, and so when you look
at this offseason, you know it's not necessarily a bad
thing that Kyrie Irving's probably gonna leave. They're not going
to agree to long term deal. But when they made
that deal, they thought, on the back of their mind, hey,
if this doesn't work out, at least we have cap space.
But you know what, there's a lot of folks around
the NBA and differ enough front offices that say, well,
it doesn't matter if the MAVs have cap space because
(43:33):
in past years they haven't used it wisely. So it
could be another turbulent offseason, to say the least for them.
You can find them on Twitter at mark g underscore Medina.
That's had Mark g underscore Medina, NBA dot com. Longtime
NBA insider who is now about to go to the movies.
You're going to see air right? Is that what you says?
How are you're doing right now? Yeah? I gotta see
(43:53):
learn more about Michael Jordan's greatness. If we haven't heard enough, Yeah, listen.
Apparently they had a shoe that was made for him
that he wore that became very popular WHOA. I wonder
if that shoe is worn by a lot of NBA
players today. I'll guess I'll find out. Yeah, Hey, I
think we need I think yeah. We definitely report back
after and find out if that's the case, because I
(44:15):
don't know they'll be wearing New Balance like Kawai's. Thanks
a bunch, Buddy, Mark. We'll touch appreciate you guys. I'll
provide a movie review next week. Appreciate it, outstanding, born
to it.
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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