Best of the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon

Jason and Mike update Game 5 of the NBA Finals. The NY Mets stay undefeated in the Grimace Era. And NFL Insider Jason La Canfora joins the show for all the latest news from around the league. Plus, a visit from Ric Bucher to recap the NBA Finals!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmon 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
Harmon at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is the best of the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Greetings and welcome inside the Grimma Show with my basesfriend
Hamburglar Heil out live fromthtirag dot com studios, tirec dot
com help you get there, an unmatched selection, fast free shipping,
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Speaker 3 (00:51):
Well.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Let it be known that beginning last week, we can
have the official day at some point. Yeah, we are
now officially in the Grimmath era of sports.

Speaker 4 (01:01):
Well it's it's it's a national mascot Day. Yes, shouldn't
he stage a bloodless coup and take over for mister
and missus Mett Listen, I mean, wouldn't the fans vote
right now to get that power couple removed once.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
It put out over the weekends.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Pature for the past. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, It goes
mister Matt. We don't need to wait.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Whoa, whoa whoa wa tysher tye, I goes the missus.
Now now I know the weekend that Alex Teyscher must have.
He's already resorting to violence.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Oh he doubled up.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Hey, I thank mister and missus met for the last
near sixty years of service.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Run.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Your time is dumb. Now Grimace is here. It's the
Grimace era, a.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
Man who's been laying in weight low these many years, underutilized, forgotten,
taken off of all packaging and merch. Although there is
a Grimace shake that is making its way to Canada.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah yeah, yeah, it has not made its way stateside
just yet. No, but it will.

Speaker 4 (01:52):
It will after this glorious run by your New York Mets.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Mike, what if I were to tell you Jason actually
has one out his house, one of those shit he
brought me nothing? What if I were to tell you that,
You know, hey, I like the blue and orange. But
if the Mets want to be purple. Now they could be.
I'm triple Grimace's grim grimmat Grimace greater than Harmon. I mean,
I'm sorry, it's Grimace. Grimace is greater.

Speaker 4 (02:17):
I don't have quite the shelf life that Grimace had.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Shake weights. Yes, the Grimace era, because the Mets, who
have not lost since Grimace threw out the first ball,
they're beating the Rangers twelve to two right now.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
In the sixth inning.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Uh not nearly the only game tonight where you want
to say, don't have damn tod right, I really we
need Duke from Rocky four to go.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Don't to damn toe because yes.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Well we could talk about the Grimace era. Nine minutes
to go on the third quarter and the Boston Celtics
lead the Dallas Mavericks seventy eight to fifty two. The
Celtics going for the closer, and it was an un
believable first half by Boston, punctuated with Peyton Pritchard hitting
a three at the buzzer from just outside of half court.

(03:08):
Luca goes in for a layup and an end one
that okay, it'll cut it to seventeen, but still the
Celtics are gonna win. Now Peyton Pritchard comes and hits
a three to make it a twenty one point lead.
TD garden erupts.

Speaker 4 (03:19):
Chaseon Tatum almost took him out when he went to
do the giant chess bump.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
He came flying at him.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
It looked like something straight out of the WWE, like
taking this guy how through the ropes and into the crowd.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Hey, I want to be the MVP. Okay, not you.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
I know you're playing less than a minute and you
hit that three, But I want to be the after a.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
Slow start, Tatum with a big half, I mean to
tie it all together though, I mean it is a
big night since we do have the WWE on our minds.
It is Randy Savage's the anniversary of his debut with
the WWF going back to nineteen eighty five, and the
Mats playing at Globe Life Field tonight. It's the sixty
second different stadium that they've played in in m Major

(03:58):
League Baseball as a franch guys, going all the way
back to nineteen sixty two. But it is stadium one
different of City Field of the Grimace era, the only
stadium two overall first visiting stadium of the Grimace so
like I'm gonna spend the rest of rest of my
night just drawing Grimace images and putting him in Uh,

(04:19):
you know, sports.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Look, this is not unexpected what we're seeing tonight. In
Game five of the NBA Finals, we thought the Celtics, look,
we told you last last week Game four, they waited
to see how the Mavericks were gonna come out. The
Mavericks came out saying we want to get one. We're
gonna play hard here in Game four. The Celtics said, okay,
we'll put it away for Game five on Monday night,
and clearly that turned out to be a decision that's

(04:43):
working out for them because they have been. It's been
a steady blowout of Dallas from the midway point of
the first quarter and a twenty six point lead. Really,
the only question left right now is who's going to
be the NBA Finals MVM, because right now you have
three choices. It's down to three. Now Porzingis is playing tonight,
but not quite the Porzingis of Game one. You have

(05:06):
Larry Bird, Kevin McHale yep, and Chief Robert Parrish.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Always got to include the Chief. I never forget the Chief.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Look, it's Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, and Drew Holliday, because
you could make a great case for all three of them. Now,
first of all, Jalen Brown, who we thought was the
leader coming out of the first four games. It's not
then Jalen Brown stacular, but he had been the most
solid of all the Celtics throughout the first four games.

(05:33):
I didn't have any wide swings and games. He was
the most solid guy. Jason Tatum has had some incredible
moments in this series, and it's like, hey, I want
to be the big score here in Game five and
maybe I walk away with the MVP. Oh, you have
the guy that should win my pick at sixty six
to one, because remember I told you before the NBA Finals,

(05:55):
this is who I'd bet to win MVP. Drew Holliday,
who has had a terrific series. Tonight, he's thirteen six
and four. And what did I say? The other big
thing was gonna be the big through line was gonna
be Kyrie Irving in the NBA Finals, and so far
Kyrie has had one game. Every other game he has
shot poorly. Drew Holliday has been the main defender, but

(06:15):
the Celtics have thrown different looks. I'm not gonna say
it's just been Drew Holliday, but they have thrown different
looks at him, whether it's white on him, even Horford's
on him. A little bit of time. And here's Kyrie
Tonight back in Boston, his House of Horrors where he
is two for ten from the floor. So you're looking
at three guys. Obviously, I'm partial to Drew Holliday because
he had a terrific series all the way through, was
game high scorer in game two, he had the one

(06:37):
signature Drew Holiday game. And defensively, what they're doing on
Kyrie Irving, I'm sitting here going, oh man, sixty six
to one when I picked he even s found places where.

Speaker 5 (06:46):
He was one hundred.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
He was, yeah, oh man, if I could have spent
all of the money we had on that, maybe I.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
Could all the money we had carrying.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
I could have got bought out by uh you know,
because I wouldn't have gone all the way to again,
would have said, listen, you want to buy me out,
now buy me out.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
You flushed it. I don't know how much you know.

Speaker 4 (07:03):
They might have bought you out Simpsons style, But as
of a half hour ago, and you mentioned, you know,
with Jalen Brown, with with your holiday, et cetera.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
A lot of the great miked up.

Speaker 4 (07:14):
Moments Jalen Brown today, the going up to Missoula and
talking defensive strategies like you know, if Luca gives the
ball up, he ain't getting it back, and he just
kind of looked at him like, oh, all right, you're
feeling it today.

Speaker 5 (07:24):
All right.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
As of a half hour ago, and this goes from
the Fan Duel Sports book, Tatum and Brown were now
the co leaders at minus one twenty Lucas still at
forty forty three in one hundred plus forty three hundreds
for forty three to one holiday holiday holiday sitting at
twenty six to one now.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
One of the other.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
But you know, more importantly, for people that were looking
to make wagers on game five, his over under for
points was thirteen and a half. So right on the
cuss for you right now if you bet that line
this evening.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
Now, it is funny because I I don't know why,
but it is funny because I do have a funny
story for you. So Frostburg, you know, we flushed it down,
We fleshed right. Today was the first day. No no, no, no, no, no,
got him excited. I I actually I flushed drugs down
the toilet today. Really, I felt like I was in
a movie so great.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
So these were expired or it was ones that you
had to get rid of after an oral surgery or something.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
So you're no, no, no, stop, come on stop wow.
Uh so you know you need to have an intervention.
You're going to London in a couple of weeks. You're
flying back then we're going to London. Works.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
And so I called the empty the suitcase. So I
called my.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Doctor and I said, hey, I said, all right, uh,
you know flying, this is gonna be flight. I'm gonna
need some anti anxiety for flying. You know, I can't
stand to fly. And I get the you know, the
equivalent of zen the greatest thing in the world. Stop
because you're not in control exactly. Yeah right, I want
to be. I like to be in control of things.
I don't want to be flying the plane. If the
if a plane would fly like just like twenty feet
over the ground, I'd be fine. But they gotta fly

(09:00):
called the dinosaur rod. Yeah, no, you got it. If
they could just fly like oh, even a couple of
hundred feet off the ground.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
I'd be fine with you go to the carnivals that's
set up in mall parking lots.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
You going that one. I'm good here, I'm gonna sit.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
I don't trust the look and put this one together.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
So I so I called my doctor the other day
and I said, hey, you know I can can you
get me? She goes, yeah, I just need you know,
I need to see you in a in a visit
because it is technically a controlled substance that I'm prescribing
for it. So yeah, that's right. But she's prescribed for
me in the past, a real doctor and uh yeah,
real doctor Nick Riviera. So doctor Nick was going back
in a box and uh, you know, I only get
like ten pills at a time. And it turns out
like the last time she gave she prescribed for me

(09:36):
was like three years ago, right, because I I don't
use them. I just use them on the flight. So
when we finished, and now she goes, okay, I'm gonna
get you. I'm gonna get you new and I'll get
you ten more. Uh, don't worry about you know, tell
me what you can take everything. I was all right, great,
she was now what's the expiration date on on the
On the other the it was the generic form of
is annex. I said, oh, this says like twenty like

(09:56):
July twenty twenty two. She goes, throw those away better, Yeah,
flush them down the toilet. I said what. She goes
flush them down the toilet, and I'm like really, and
she goes yes. And I said, what would be like
a movie like I've seen it done a thousand times
in the movies when the cops are coming.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
So I was like, okay. So I hung up and Yellobama.

Speaker 4 (10:13):
I go bam, I gotta flutch of drugs down the toilet, quick, quick, quick.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
She said, what are you talking about. I run in,
I open up the cabinet, I take the pills out.
There is like five or six. I put them in
a toilet and I flushed. She goes, what's going I go,
I had to flutch of drugs down the toilet. The
doctor told me too, I don't know what's gonna happen.
I think they're coming, and she goes.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
What the hell is? What the hell is?

Speaker 5 (10:33):
What?

Speaker 4 (10:33):
I don't know that that's generally the way they get
rid of it, but it makes it entertaining well, she
told me. And then now you're canna have a bunch
of blinky the three eyed fish or mutant gaiters running around.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
Pam actually said to me, he said, I don't think
you're supposed to do that. I said, but that's what
my doctor said. She goes, I don't think that's good
for the pipes. I go, I think you're the doctor
for the pipes. It's not good for the pipes. Okay,
this is the first time.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
This is the old.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Okay, you know, I think it's fine. I I got
to live out the bucket list fantasy what it was like.
And to man, the cups come, just start.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
Fucking mash them up first, so they were powder for
them to really get the I did the whole Fule
scenario underway. I did the run and I took and
I opened it and me tenderized her and I flushed
him and I watched them, you know, go down the toilet.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
It's like I'm in a movie.

Speaker 5 (11:21):
Now.

Speaker 4 (11:21):
Did you play some Clapton in the background, get the
piano going.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
It's like it was like I was in blow Black
Betty Brandon, Lamb Black, Betty Lamb Bad.

Speaker 4 (11:30):
Where do you start playing Batman by Jethrow Toll while
some guy runs around with poppers and there's Alfred Molina
and a robe in his underpants, tell you how great
things are gonna be.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
Got rid of them all, got a gun and this
guy's throwing, you know, the little noisemakers they got.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Flush him down, flush him down. And I said, how
I gotta, I gotta even, I gotta. I gotta rinse
out the uh the pill case so they can't get
any residue in it. So she goes, are you having
fun doing this? And yes, yes, yes I am actually
and I.

Speaker 4 (11:58):
Got Jethrow Tolls fat man. And it wasn't forced at all.
It was actually part of my Conversation's just like it's
in the movie. Well black man, m lamb who.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
Lambdam.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
That might be the most entertained you've made yourself.

Speaker 4 (12:16):
It was, and the most excited you've been recounting a
story from your weekend in a long time.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
And the thing is Benny doesn't know what's going on.
So he's running around like like why is dad jumping
around like this? Why is he going crazy?

Speaker 3 (12:28):
What? Why is he?

Speaker 1 (12:29):
What's going on? Like he's looking, what's what's happening. Whyt
to be part of this? What's happening? What's happening? This
is some next love the toilet man.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
Yeah, I get, and that's not recommended to do. Not
listen to. This is what my doctor held me to do.

Speaker 4 (12:40):
This touch so you might end up forcing her to
lose your license. Then you'll have to go to someone else.
To go and get pills from somebody else.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
No, what she told me to do. She goes a
she said, because they're toxic. If you wind up taking
expired medications sometimes though, it's toxic, so you want to
get rid of it. You don't want to leave any.

Speaker 4 (12:59):
Trades that back to a pharmacy or something. Isn't that
that how they advise?

Speaker 1 (13:02):
I think I return it. It's it's not a used
textbook at the end of term. Hey, you can't get no, no, no,
you don't do that. You wait for the next sucker
that has to buy that edition.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
I paid fifty dollars for this book. I only get
nine bucks back at.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
The being so mad about that, and remember being so mad.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
Proven this book has been in a bathroom, but that
you know, But then I get the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
I said, Well, I paid fifty dollars for this book
and I only get like nine dollars back. And the
person by says, well, figure it this way, you had
to have money cost you money to rent that book
for the last six months. I said, oh, okay, that
kind of makes sense a little bit.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
Can I get a little more on trade in?

Speaker 1 (13:35):
But I but I should get my kept I kept
it in pretty good shape, like I should a little
bit more back.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, no, nine dollars.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
See now it's a more efficient marketplace. You'd get more
from a sucker taking it next semester.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
I remember riding the lightning when I had to take
a biology in college. You had to take the one
science class and the book was like one of those
like six hundred page books, and it was like one
hundred and five dollars, And I said, you know what,
I'm not going to buy it. I'm just going to
use the testing materials and everything else and the the
different materials you get at recitation.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
I go, I'm because am I.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Really going to crack open a five?

Speaker 3 (14:05):
What do you do with? The book was like six
hundred pages. I'm like, I don't need this.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
I could get a C without buying this book and
I'll save one hundred and five dollars. So I didn't,
and man was I nervous the entire but I wound
up getting a b I was really happy without his head.

Speaker 3 (14:20):
Didn't even buy the book. I mean, your teacher sucks.

Speaker 4 (14:22):
I didn't buy the book, and I gotta be on
principle I'd be taking stuff directly from that book.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
You would not know otherwise.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
That was the best right now. A twenty point lead
for the Celtics over the Mavericks. We are counting down
to crowning the Boston Celtics NBA champions of the twenty
twenty three twenty twenty four season. We'll have more on
that coming up, but straight ahead, Hey, we got some
big time NFL stuff to get into. Where in the
world is Aaron Rodgers and is one of the best

(14:50):
wide receivers?

Speaker 3 (14:51):
Really on the trademarket?

Speaker 5 (14:53):
Now?

Speaker 1 (14:53):
Keep right here. That's next Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith's
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
Hey, it's me Rob Parker.

Speaker 6 (15:11):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast Inside the Parker for
twenty two minutes of pipe in hot baseball talk featuring
the biggest names of newsmakers in the sport. Whether you
believe in analytics or the Ie test, We've got all
the bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday, So do
yourself a favor and listen to Inside the Parker with

(15:33):
Rob Parker on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get
your podcast.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
If you had a mariachi band doing creeds higher at
the Mets Rangers game tonight while you win.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
They've got a lot of screen time tonight because it's
a twelve two bear.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah, we are in the Grimace era and it is glorious.
It is glorious. Meanwhile, closing in on the end of
the third quarter in Boston, it is still a twenty
one point lead for the Celtics eighty six to sixty five.
If very slowly coming back from every time out, JJ
Reddick's outfit would change into purple and gold colors. I

(16:08):
think that'd be a pretty cool way to end up.

Speaker 4 (16:09):
Like he's a sports Flicks card. You don't know what
you're gonna say. Start with the start with the.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
Pocket square a tie, then dyed go tee, then finally
shirt jacket, hat and all of a sudden, the end
purple and gold like I like to see.

Speaker 4 (16:20):
It looks like Grimmas, because it'd be all purple. He'd
fully embrace the grimmest moment.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
Is one of the.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Best wide receivers about to get dealt. Where in the
world is Aaron Rodgers. Nobody better to talk to then
longtime NFL insider. You can hear him and see him
on Odyssey watching him post one oh five seven the
fan in Baltimore. He's on Twitter at Jason Locking for
It is Jason Locking for what's happening, Bud?

Speaker 3 (16:45):
How are you ew?

Speaker 5 (16:47):
I'm doing I'm doing well. I'm doing well. I was
just thinking maybe even better than the wardrobe thing would
be like in Every Time Out they shave another little
piece like from from Reddick's chair and he ends up
looking like Landing Don and except where that chunk is
it's just says La Lakers signed right like you've finished

(17:09):
shaving out that chunk of the head and it's Lakers.
Good thing here.

Speaker 4 (17:13):
That was probably the most disturbing thing. And look in
a timeline where you've got a lot of people you
follow a lot of media sources and news organizations. Jason
Lockett for that might have been the most disturbing thing
I saw all day.

Speaker 5 (17:25):
It was rough, It was rough, all right, but you
know it was a good match at least, right I
was in studio work and so I'm guessing that was
that before Austria France. Yeah, that was a good match.
I was watching that while I was on air. I
didn't get to hear him, but saw enough.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
That's the way to kick off Euro Right, that's alright,
it must see TV.

Speaker 5 (17:47):
I had again stop that with a crazier haircut than
any of you drunken pools could ever come up.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
And hey, I wanted to say, because you know, I'm
about helping people about but like, I know, if you're
worried a little bit about the Orioles a little mid
season swoon, just adopt a McDonald's mascot. You can't have
Grimace obviously, because we have him, but you could take
like Mayor mccheese or or like sure, yeah yeah, officer
big Mac. Throw out the first bitch. You're off to
the races.

Speaker 5 (18:17):
You know, it's definitely working for the Mets. Well, I'll
be up that way, not in not in Mets Country,
but we will be in the Bronx Wednesday and Thursday
for Orioles Yankees. So I'm very excited about that. And
you know what, I don't think we're gonna need help
from Ronald McDonald or any of his buddies.

Speaker 4 (18:36):
From any of his any of his buddies, like he's
got a game that old crew like yeah, any of them, like.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
Like the Outsiders, you got pony Boy, and we don't
need Bob's Big Boy, and we don't need what is
he just called the King?

Speaker 5 (18:50):
I guess Burger King?

Speaker 3 (18:52):
The King?

Speaker 1 (18:52):
Yeah yeah, remember when he the yeah what t o
doing push ups in the in the in the driveway
and they put the King in those things? All right,
so letsten but let's start here because this is one
of those stories where you knew there was smoke, maybe
not this much smoke. Brandon I puts on social media
today a conversation he has with Jayden Daniels and the commanders.
They don't want me back in San Francisco. Now we

(19:14):
know that he wanted a new contract. San Francisco drafted
a wide receiver in the first round. Is he making
this happen? Are we going to see a Brandon I
you've trade at some point in the next couple of months.

Speaker 5 (19:24):
I'm surprised to be still there, guys. I thought that
the forty nine ers would have conceded that they can't
win every negotiation, they can't get everybody at their price
all the time, and I thought they would have traded
him before the draft because this certainly had the potential
to get uglier. I'm sure they feel like they can
squad on them for a year. You know, he would

(19:46):
only hold out so long and he's not going to
do anything that would basically cause his contract a toll.
And they're probably right. But you know, when you're in
super bowler bus mode and you're trying to evaluate your
quarterback one last time to figure out if you do
have to give him sixty million dollars a year or
at least fifty five, right that's the going rate, then yeah,

(20:10):
I mean, ideally you wouldn't be dealing with this. But
we've seen what's happened at that position, and it's it's
been skyrocketing for a while, and we've seen no shortage
of teams going back to Diggs the first time. You know,
he was dealt and Tyreek Hill, Like, what if you
don't want to pay them, then generally you can find.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
Somebody else who will.

Speaker 5 (20:34):
And you might not get everything you want for them,
but the headache will be over. You'll have the draft capital,
and you'll have a ton of cat space at your
disposal that would have otherwise gone to them. And now
that we've seen thirty five become the new norm there,
it's taking it to another stratosphere. And he's not that
he's not Jefferson or Chase, but he's close enough to

(20:55):
tail off of that and start, you know, thinking thirty
twenty eight. And I don't think they have any inclination
to ever go there. So I think, look that the
whole league has looked at this a certain way since November,
which was by next year's trade deadline, one of these
two are gone. Are they going to deal with it,
you know, sort of head away like right away and

(21:19):
make this go away this offseason or are they going
to drag it into the season. And even if they
drag it into the season, I don't.

Speaker 7 (21:25):
Think one of them are going to be traded by nine.

Speaker 4 (21:28):
Is he showing up in either of the bigger opponents
for the Ravens there in the AFC North, as rumored
quite a bit between the Browns and the Steelers.

Speaker 5 (21:40):
I don't know about the Browns taking on another salary
like that. I just you know, I don't know that
Asum's still there. I mean, I think you know, it's
time for that quarterback he gave all that money to
to put up or shut up. Like they're, you know,
doing the dance with Amark Cooper like I mean, yeah,
you's younger. But I don't know, man, I don't think

(22:00):
it's them Pittsburgh. I mean again, these wide receiver salaries
are nuts now, but Pittsburgh's going to get a wide
receiver of significant caliber at some point between now and
the deadline, as his demands are anywhere around thirty. It
might not be hint, but they'll certainly be in on

(22:21):
the discussions of anybody again, any established, you know, solid
to really get wide receiver who could be moved. I
can't imagine the Steward is not having at least conversations
about that.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
Jason Locking for our guest, The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Carmen Live the tyrec dot Com Studios. All right,
from Brandon, I you to we all wonder where in
the world Aaron Rodgers is. Maybe it's not a Guascar retreat.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
Maybe not. I understand the optic of this.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
And look, look, there's a lot of things I can
say about him if he makes you difficult guy to
root for. But I sit here and go he was
at all the OTAs. The team doesn't see even think
it's a big deal. The teammates don't seem to think
it's a big deal. Guys are missing OTAs now. So okay,
this is going to be forgotten in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 5 (23:11):
Remember a week ago, last Monday, when you're trying to
get me pumped up about a son, Reddick, and I said,
just wait, we got so much with your quarterback, nor
to sell me, Reddick hold back. No one's going to
remember that in thirty seconds, let alone thirty weeks from now, Like, please,
you've got such bigger fish to fry your quarterback to Lonington,

(23:33):
and he ain't all about football, even though he likes
to pretend and talk about being all about football. So
I mean, is it a big deal? I don't know, dude.
There's one weekend you have to be there. You don't
have to be at ot like there's one weekend you're
supposed to be there by contract. He knows what it is.
He's knowing what it is. He's had a pretty good
idea of when that date's going to be. That she

(23:53):
became a New York yet, I mean, you're either really
a leader or you're not. Like he made a whole
lot of money last year to rehab an injury and
be a freak sideshow distraction and his response to that
was the double down on it with antics like this.
So you know, whatever, man, it was, it was a

(24:15):
disaster before it happened. It had nothing but disaster potential.
And you factor in that franchise and that player, in
that media market and expectations that are now out of control.
And I don't know, man, I don't care about spring football,
but I think the bare minimum is just to you know,

(24:35):
be there a couple of times and that weekend that
you know, that's the one we're supposed to be there for.
So whatever, man, good luck with this guy. You're not
and it's gonna be so much more trouble than it's worth.

(24:55):
And I'm not a big Mark Murphy guy. Uh. And
there's a lot of things the Packers do that don't
always rub me the right way. But they've got to
be sitting there on the lake right now, smoking some
big cigars, puffing away, saying, can you believe we palm
this off on those idiots O the like? And we
we got out of that horrific contract we got ourselves

(25:16):
into and we get value for it. And we've got
Jordan low like, and can you like, we've got a
legitimate stud quarterback in his prime who actually the only
thing we talk about with him is him playing football.
It's unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (25:32):
You've left Smith speechless. He's I'm not saying he didn't
make any good points. I just gotta wait till we
go fourteen and three. I just have to wait for that.
It's all I gotta wait for.

Speaker 5 (25:43):
Bring the colonel like, And you should look, if you're
a Jets fan, you got nothing to do but hope
against hope.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
But you know, I like that, But good luck with that.

Speaker 5 (25:56):
But yeah, you're nine months away from having a new quarterback,
a new head coach, a new offensive coordinator. I don't know,
maybe they could defensive coordinator around, but yeah, you're starting over.

Speaker 4 (26:08):
Let me rewind a couple of days. The tampering fines
and whatever levied against the Falcons. Wouldn't every team now
just drive a giant bus with a digital billboard in
front of perspective free agents houses days and weeks in
advance to let them know of their interests. I mean,
this is absurd. Round picking two hundred and fifty grand

(26:30):
here's our guys.

Speaker 5 (26:32):
Yeah, I mean I think that really is a lesson.
Here is just you know, he could like be smart
about this stuff, you know, be careful who's involved, don't
leave paper trail, don't make us you know, coming after you.
But the whole I just when we get when the

(26:54):
stands over, Like, who are we kidding? You know what
I mean? It's one thing if you're distracting a guy
in season or you know, truly sort of tampering right
while he still has some value to that team, But
painting free agents, I just you know what I mean,
I have a hard time getting worked up about it,
Like whatever you do, Like, should you like be meeting

(27:16):
with them on a yacht you know, people around, Like
that's probably stupid, right, Like you'll probably get yourself cooked.
But there's so many other ways to do this, and
you just have to be a wee bit sort of
smart and discreet about it. But if that guy doesn't
have any term left on his deal, what are we

(27:38):
really talking about? You know what I mean? Like? What what? What?
What is this an affront to you know, like a
lingering part of his contract that he's not even being
paid for anymore. Right, he's already got his last game check?
Like what? I who cares?

Speaker 1 (27:55):
He's on Twitter at Jason lock and for that is
at Jason lock and for and Big News justin he
will be presenting Aaron Rodgers at his Hall of Fame
induction in six years. Just right there you go.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
That's some next level inside.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
Hey, j log, thanks as much as always. Enjoy your
trip to New York. When you see Grimace, I will, Jason.
I think Grimace is already in the mascots. He's got
to be the problem. Well, now he's got to go
in the sports wing. Right, he was in the entertainment,

(28:30):
he was in the food wing. Now he gets to
go in the sports wings. Yeah, but will he choose
a hat other than a Mets hat? No? What are
you gonna wear? He's got I got no logo on
half McDonald's hat, half Mets at Carman already has him
in a purple Cats Ount Cats. It's one of those
hatches both teams, it says, it's like the the Aaron Judge.

Speaker 3 (28:52):
It's one side of the m and then it's n
y on them is.

Speaker 4 (28:55):
Going to be bigger though, right like no Judge, you know.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
You're going into as I know the Mets is bigger
because you're going into the sports wing of the Mascot
Hall of Fame.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
Now, no chance.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon
Live from the tirag dot Com Studios. Yes, we'll have
more on this game as we get down to it.
About six minutes left to go, but straight ahead, people
love to go absolutely crazy about certain stories that maybe
it's not where you go crazy about. That's next right here,

(29:27):
Jason and Mike.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with My best Friend
Mike Harmon. Jason Tatum now with thirty one points eleven
in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
He's playing hard as hard now with the.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
Twenty one point lead as he had the entire series
because he can smell, I can be.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
The m Yeah. We talked about hard.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
Yeah, let me keep going hard here.

Speaker 4 (29:55):
That the odds had evened up between he and Jalen Brown,
although they did a nice feature in the broadcast on
your guy Drew Holiday. And I'm seeing a lot of
people come up, I got a bet on Holiday.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
God, I got a bet on it eleven? What are
you at? Fifteen?

Speaker 4 (30:08):
So he got the over on his points fifteen, eleven,
and four. And then a random factory that he's got
a seven to twenty nine winning percentage in the regular
season over the last four years.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
What the hell?

Speaker 1 (30:20):
Yeah, but here's Tatum running around after every loose ball
like it's a one point game. A little bit embarrassing
that dude. Come on, man, it's a twenty five point lead.
It's over. Yeah, but he's flexing and he's running around
saving this ball.

Speaker 4 (30:34):
But he said he didn't care about the MVP. He
said he didn't care that he was only worried about
winning the title. So we'll have more in this game
coming up in a few minutes. Again, just under four
minutes left to go. There's gonna be.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
A big timeout TV timeout coming up, and uh, probably
gonna have a running clock the rest of the way.
It's a one oh five to eighty lead for the Celtics.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
Yeah, but your Syracuse guy's gonna get into close.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeahsha percent's going to get in man C's in the
finals again.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
He might have the ball as the zero. How about that.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
But the Caitlin Clark Angel Reese drama from this weekend
just continues to mushroom. And this is where Isaac, would
you think I'm gonna Zach because all of this conversation
we've seen the last forty eight hours, it's it's gotten
the racial tinge to it. It's gotten the it's gotten
the furthering my agenda. And Angel Reese is the villain,

(31:27):
and and and Caitlyn Clark is the good guy, and
it's a it's so out of control. But let me
just tell you this weekend, the I I get why
the flagrant foul is a big deal from Angel Reese
and Caitlin Clark. I understand that, like I get it.
It's a flagrant foul.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
It's just like else.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
It's why we told you two months ago, Angel Reese
is going to be Draymond when she comes in and
congratulates to everybody else was taken that in the last
two weeks, two months ago. I got receipts for that.
This is who she is, right, She's hard knows players,
she's a leader. She's not a great offensive player, but
she rebounds and she is able to get out and
is full of energy. She's someone that doesn't back down

(32:09):
from a challenge. She she likes to trash talk. She's
probably gonna have her own podcast, all of this stuff.
And she gets upset after not liking how the whistles
were blown in the game against the Fever that the
Fever won on Saturday. All of this is fine. Even
the flagrant foul is fine, because what do we say
was the big deal act for the Kennedy Carter one

(32:30):
against against Caitlin Clar a couple weeks ago. You just
have to referee it properly and everything else is fine.
Everything else, Hey, you want to make Caitlyn Clark earn
it on the floor and there's a rivalry and it's
we're going to be physical, All of that is fine.
You just have to make sure that it's officiated the
right way. And when you look at the Kennedy Carter
play and I sit there and go, what the hell

(32:50):
is that red because a lot of this is sprung
up just because that official just called it a common
foul when that was not and it should have been
looked at, it should have been reviewed, and it should
have been amped up.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
Just like this was.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
This was a flagrant foul. So you look them in
the dictionary. Yeah, it's a flagrant foul. Whether she was
going for the ball or not. She misses and hits
Caitlin Clark in the head, it's a flagrant one. That's
what it is, and it was adjudicated as such. And
you know what's gonna happen is over time, those fouls
are gonna stop because coach are gonna tell their teams
stop bleeping doing that because we're not winning games. You're
costing us chances to come back. You're giving them free throws.

(33:22):
Let's not do it. Let's let's make sure that we
are doing it a little bit better than that, and
you take some of this, some of this rivalry and
step back a little bit because it's costing us on
the floor. As long as it's officiated properly, it's fine.
And this was officiated properly. She got the flagrant foul done.
Game ended fever one. That's how it goes. You know

(33:42):
what that was this weekend? That was basketball and we
saw basketball.

Speaker 4 (33:45):
Yeah, in the end, I mean there's a ton of
flagrant falls, there's a lot of contact. Anybody that's actually
watched the game would agree to that. And that's I
guess the bigger issue. And everybody's watching the clips that
end up on social media and then having they're grandiose
reactions to it. Right, it's performative at this point. It's
like relaying back to politics lots of other things. My

(34:09):
daughters come back and they'll start talking about their friends
and they'll shake their head. It's like it's I don't
even think she's really mad about this, dad. I think
it's all in performance and that's all. This is like
one after another. Let me suit up, boot up, and
have some big opinion because I watched a thirty second
clip on social media.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
Look, the numbers don't lie.

Speaker 4 (34:28):
While they've had growth and there's more interest in the game,
predominantly folks still don't care.

Speaker 3 (34:33):
But here it's.

Speaker 4 (34:34):
Got to be the biggest thing in the world with
all sorts of these social tentacles to it. Now to
her point. You know, Caitlin Clark's done a good job.
She's good pr and she does everything to throw the
flowers at Angel Reese and anybody else that gets mentioned
talking about, you know, building her fan base and how
good a player she is and everything else. Angel rees
could lean into that a little bit every once in

(34:54):
a while for the league as a whole. But if
that's the thing to play the villain and folks want
to portray her that way, that's fine. I like the
shoe game though, Joe with Jos I'm really the against
that was gonna be dancing on the top of the
steps in New York when she comes to play the Liberty.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
He's going down there. Let me get to see this
game again next Sunday.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
Coming up next next time you hear our voice says,
we are gonna have an NBA champion and an NBA
Finals MVP.

Speaker 3 (35:22):
Make it true.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
Holiday Fox. Jason Tatum celebrates and puts a signature stamp
on his career with his first NBA title. The party
is on in Boston.

Speaker 4 (35:33):
As soon as they went on that big run at
the end of the first quarter, Right first thing you
and I said to each other, boy Dallas can't finish
a quarter for anything, right, battle back, right, Celtics get
out to a lead early time out from Jason Kidd.
They battled back, and then in the final two minutes
of the first quarter all the work they did completely

(35:54):
unraveled some wide open three point shots. And then in
the second quarter it gets worth same thing down the street.
You had that Pritchard three pointer at the buzzer where
Tatum then nearly takes him out going to chess bumping.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
And then that was it.

Speaker 4 (36:08):
It was just a matter of what was gonna be
the margin of victory, did you hit any of your
individual prop bets, and who was going to fight to
stay on the court long enough to be the MVP.
Lots of video running around of Jaylen Brown if Lucas
stays on, I'm on, you know that kind of thing,
and Tatum taking over offensively, crying at the end when
he finally comes out of the game, just a ton

(36:31):
of emotion as the confetti falls. And I love that
you immediately had to point out what poor Zingis was
doing because psychological, psychologically, you're still just scaring.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
No, I'm fine with Porzingis win. I'm fine.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
No, Nick knew he was going to win. I picked
the Celtics who win because I knew they were gonna
win the title.

Speaker 3 (36:48):
I knew what was happening.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
It's okay, And Jason Tatum is screaming right now on
espn iole maybe one of those Kevin Gartnett.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
Anything is possible.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
He's screaming doing his interview right now, And I gotta say,
you know, Jason Tatum gets a lot of flack, But
when you're up twenty five and you are still going
into the stands for loose balls because you want to
win NBA Finals MVP.

Speaker 3 (37:11):
About that, jos He was lewisch holdess. He didn't care
about the MV. Everybody else is at three quarter speed.
It's a twenty five point game. He's still running around
the floor.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Like he's a rookie trying to make a team out
of camp.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
Hey look at me. I could be the MVP.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
And we're still waiting on word as to who the
MVP is. But here in the clinching game, Tatum does
have the biggest game thirty one eight and eleven man
Tatum Brown Drew Holliday, Boy, I stumped for Drew Holliday.
He was my pick before the series began, he would
be a worthy MVP. But hey, now we get to
see how much do people really like or dislike Jason Tatum.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
Can we really not vote him the MVP?

Speaker 4 (37:50):
Perfect from the fall line, a lot of twenty four
from the field, the only thing you can criticize for.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
He was only one of seven for three point range.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
Hey, speaking of criticisan for three point range, We'll get
to Luca, We'll get to.

Speaker 4 (38:01):
We'll get to Jalen Brown seven to twenty three tonight.
Holiday was seven of fourteen with what he finished with
fifteen eleven and four plus twenty one on the night.

Speaker 3 (38:11):
I like that.

Speaker 4 (38:11):
I do believe though, that the only people that actually
wagered on Jalen Brown or really, I'm sorry I Drew
Holliday were people in the media, because I'm seeing a
lot of folks going, man, I really want to.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
Catch because I heard I said Drew Holliday.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
And people take up on the analysis. Was was good? Right?

Speaker 4 (38:29):
Two guys will punch each other out and then maybe
Holiday steps up and here we go all three worthy candidates.
But I mean Tatum will the acceptance will be done
by his son?

Speaker 1 (38:40):
I think so, yes, hugging his kid. You know as
the confetti falls. It's a fun scene right now in Boston.
They're all hugging their first title. You're going back to
for the Celtics Baco eight. No, hey, I think the
eight team would beat this team. I'm just saying. I
mean I had all of famers. I mean, you know,
I was that was my best job coach guy, you know.
But here's the thing. I mean that was where look,

(39:03):
my team would win, but we didn't have as good
players as they did, so it was really a lot
of me.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
It was really me.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
I mean, look, it's not enough that I threw Damian
Lillard under the bus this weekend about how he hasn't
didn't show up and everything else. I don't watch you
to blame me, But yeah, I think the twenty eighteen
better coached, better coach team in two thousand and now.

Speaker 4 (39:19):
There's a story that we did a little bit Ryan
Hollins and I over the weekend trying to wonder if
Doc was playing a little dirty pool there or what
he was trying to do. You can find it wherever
you get your podcasts, as well as this show Fox
Sports Radio, and then take us with you wherever you go. Evangelize.
But yeah, for DOCA, that two thousand and eight goes away.

(39:41):
They finally win another title, only in the second since
nineteen eighty six, great balance definition and for the Mavericks
after that colossal Game four, an absolute no show in
this one.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
What do you got, Frostburg? How does it make you
feel that Porzingis basically made Willis Reed irrelevant? Porzingis had
one Willis Reed he is I'm I'm fine. It was
three teams ago. It was three teams ago.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
Six minutes tonight points, a rebound, two falls, and a
plus eight.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
Boy, if the voters really wanted to stick it to Tatum,
they would vote for Zengis. Well, I mean the series
is over after that game. It was over after that game,
right there, we're voting for the.

Speaker 4 (40:24):
Running the highlight of Tatum passing him the ball that
plush junk.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Now, look when you when you try to sum up
the NBA season here twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four,
there's a school of thought. Everybody likes close games if
the games are blow outs. I don't watch I like
blowouts because I like when teams can assert dominance. I
like storylines that don't have a lot of interpretation to

(40:49):
and I kind of like that one, so I don't
need every game to be oh if this had happened
or this.

Speaker 5 (40:53):
No.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Sometimes I like the storyline, like the dominance. This is
one of the easiest NBA seasons and finals to explain
this to the I mean, if I could have gone
back in the beginning of October said this, and it
would have saved everybody the entire season, right, because what
did we see this season? The best team front to back,
top to bottom, beginning of the season to the end

(41:14):
of the season wins the title because they were deeper
than everybody else they played, and that was on display
in the finals. That's it. It's that simple. They were
the best team all season long. They were deeper than
everybody else. Look at the teams they played in the
playoffs with that had injuries or were coming off a
series where they beat somebody that had big injuries, and

(41:35):
they were much deeper than the Dallas Mavericks. And the
Mavericks had one player who was able to really dent
the scoreboard in Luka Doncic. Really didn't have anybody else
the Celtics, whether you had Tatum, whether you had Brown,
whether you had Drew Holliday all over the box score.
You had White with fourteen points a game. You had
Porzingis in game one. You had the big Peyton Pritchard

(41:55):
three as only points of the series tonight a season
to only points a game. Five ton hits it right
before halftime. You had Horford with some Knights where he
was big. I mean, this was a great supporting cast
and this is why they went Sometimes it's that simple.
They were the best team all season long. Everybody. You
heard a lot of people in the media try to
dismiss them. They don't do this right, they don't do
this right, they don't do this right. They were the

(42:17):
best team and they put it on display in the
playoffs and they won the title. They're deeper than everybody
else and you have to respect that.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (42:24):
I think with a lot of the Celtics discussion, it
was you're trying to sell the alternate right, the alternate universe,
and say, well, if then, but right, the one game
loss here, the one game loss there, the series against
Indiana where you had three games where they came and
took victory away from the Pacers, which ninety percent winning

(42:50):
probability rates in three games and the Celtics went and
took them.

Speaker 3 (42:53):
All right, they play.

Speaker 4 (42:55):
With their food. Those are all narratives built up into
a degree. Bought it just saying all right, let's see
what happens, you know, fully formed and when we get
to the finals. And instead they just said, all right,
you guys ready, and Missoula van Gundy, Sam Cassel, all
the assistants rallied them. And this is what you saw,

(43:16):
absolute dominance from pillar to post. I'm really happy for
Al Horford. He's a guy I've long admired the game,
and any guy that stays in the game as long
as he does, he's got to be a pretty he's
got to be a hell of a teammate and a
guy that you know can still give you some positive
contributions on the floor. But yeah, it was a lot
of all right, they're the favorite, so we have to

(43:37):
find other discussion points. Part of the reason that you know,
we when we make picks a lot of times it's
all right, no chalk, Well, that's when you got a
larger field when it comes to brass tacks. Here was wishing, wanting,
hoping that you'd find, you know, lightning in the bottle
for the Mavericks to make it a series, to be
able to perhaps rally it to a deeper series and

(43:58):
really test him. But the Celtics had an answer for everything,
and they certainly had an answer for Kyrie and Luka
Doncis at every turn you look at the depth, and
for Joe Missoula, a guy that a lot of people
wanted fired. For Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum after last year,
what was the lot of the narrative? And they've gone
as far as they're going to go. Instead, you get Holiday.

(44:18):
The Blazers received Malcolm Brogn and Robert Williams always Robert
Williams twenty twenty four first round pick of the Warriors
and a twenty twenty nine unprotected first round pick when
they got rid of Marcus Smart. The sky was falling,
everything was wrong, and instead you see what Brad Stevens
and that squad put together.

Speaker 3 (44:40):
Time and again.

Speaker 4 (44:41):
And yeah, they caught a break now and again, but
guess what, it's also a testimony and had a testament
to the training staff and everybody if these guys were
ready to play right, that you didn't lose twenty games
to an injury. Yes, Porzingis got hurt down the stretch,
but you had the luxury where he was the fourth.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
Guy force it back. Do we need them Nope.

Speaker 4 (45:02):
The schedule also gives us an extra two weeks off,
so it doesn't matter.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
Give them time. He helped you in one game.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Look, and we say this phrase a lot, and when
you hear at other places, you know it originated here.
Is the Celtics one because they're the deepest team in
the NBA. There is not a lot of drop off
in the production you get sometimes from Tatum to White
what Drew Holliday gives you. They're incredibly deep. They play

(45:28):
eight nine guys and you don't miss a lot. This
is why they win. When you have that talented a roster,
sometimes you have to do what the Celtics did, and
that is they out talent the other teams.

Speaker 5 (45:43):
Right.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
I say that all the time. The Celtics are out
talenting other teams. And that gets dismissed because it's not
some system. It's not Steve Kirk coming in saying, Hey,
we're gonna do a lot of motion, We're gonna hit
a lot of threees, We're gonna set the NBA at
its ear. Is Joe Mizula even coaching. I don't even
know if the Celtics practice. But when you have that
kind the talent, you're not gonna be able to say, Okay,
all you guys are going to buy into a system.

(46:04):
You can't do that. You can't give because everybody has
their own different set of what they do. Well, it's
not well, I'm building this team, and Jason Tatum's our
guy that does this, so now we have to go
get somebody who does this and someone who does this
and team to try to.

Speaker 3 (46:17):
Build like that.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
It's very difficult because you're trying to do a lot
of pieces. It's what the Lakers are doing. The Celtics says, Okay,
we have Tatum, he does this great, and Jalen Brown
does this great and sometimes a little bit similar. Okay,
what do we need other guys that do great things?
Let's bring him in true holiday, great defender, great point guard,
great Chris tops Porzingis was a number one guy, was
a number two guy, now at number four guy. Do
they all fit together perfectly?

Speaker 7 (46:37):
No?

Speaker 1 (46:38):
They all hit threes, they play defense pretty well. Sometimes
when you have that gaggle of talent, the best thing
you can do is just Hey, let's get you guys
to play together, and you're all going to be the
best version of yourselves you can be, and we're gonna
out talent the other teams and other teams that come
in with systems and different tries that things. That's what
we do here, what we like to do. Yeah, that

(46:59):
works a lot, and you have an overall level of talent,
You're not gonna get teams to say, Okay, hey, Jason Tatum,
we want you to not do this and do this instead.
This will make you fit into what we do. I'm
not as good a player, and that doesn't make sense.
People don't buy in, and you lose team. You lose
players a lot easier and a lot quicker that way.
Whereas Joe Mizzula has taken over when the team was
in a pretty good shape under Ema Udoka, he's come

(47:21):
in and said, Okay, we're gonna do a little bit
of tweaking with a roster and the guys go out
and they play, and that's kind of what they do.
They have a lot of individual stars, they hit threes,
they play good defense, and look at what they do
to teams. They did this all season, even when teams
were healthy, they get to the playoffs. Yes, they had
a great draw. They had a great draw with players
who were hurt and not making it out this year.

(47:42):
We told you the Celtics had to win. But the
Celtics did everything they needed to do this season. It
was pretty it was pretty simple. And that's a strategy that,
again you have to give Celtics a lot of credit for,
is that instead of trying to shoehorn these people in
to play this one way, it's we're gonna do this
and as long as you put our guys out there,
our top eight are going to be better than your

(48:03):
top eight and we're gonna win a lot of games.
And that's a way to go.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
Whatever.

Speaker 4 (48:06):
You get guys to commit to defense, right you, as
a Knicks fan, know this me. Once upon a time
in Chicago, one of the the greatest and often most
unstated things about those Bulls squads were that they played defense.
You had guys, even if they were KG veterans, that
knew their space on that side of the ball. Never

(48:27):
mind the second three pat when you had Dennis Rodman
corraling every rebound that was out there.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
But for the Celtics, that was the dirty little secret.

Speaker 4 (48:35):
To all of it is that guys would man up,
and in this series that's.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
What Missoula called cop.

Speaker 4 (48:41):
He's one of the most fascinating guys in our sporting
universe right now from some of the interviews that players
have given with a little bit of insight in some
of his interview responses. Can't wait to see what he's
got for us after the uh, you know, the final
piece of confetti falls exit?

Speaker 1 (48:57):
How about a fresca exit? Swalling down the Jason's Show
with my best friend Mike Carmon just the beginning of
our breakdown of the NBA Finals again one of the
simplest seasons you can break down at his time to
give the Celtics credit, to give them all their flowers
for what they were able to accomplish and thankfully did
because if they didn't win, I would never pick them
to win anything again in my life. Coming up next,

(49:19):
we get into Luca and the series that he had
and the biggest thing he needs to do in the offseason,
plus the NBA Finals MVP was just announced. Was Jason
Tatum's near triple double enough.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
For him to win?

Speaker 1 (49:35):
We'll tie you inn next. Jason and Mike Fox.

Speaker 8 (49:39):
All the sacrifice handling the enormous weight of massive expectations
ends tonight. Here Hicks over time to save again Boston.
Anything's possible. Batter number eighteen that's been secured. The Celtics
are NBA champions.

Speaker 4 (50:03):
One down to twenty three to one entering today. So
I mean that's pretty good.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
Yeah, maybe yeah, because I think I think I made
it happen more because the Celtics actually won, not my fault.
Dan Campbell decides, well, we're gonna go for it here
and do this here.

Speaker 4 (50:19):
I mean they still felt it cute though, Yeah. Yeah,
in the end, you still got to make place.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
Yeah, No, you're right.

Speaker 4 (50:24):
The Lions failed to like because a couple of those
I mean, we're actually makeable. And I think you right,
you gotta catch you as passes. You gotta find where
the sticks are. I mean all of those things. But
the thing is, I can only do so much. Eventually,
something else.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
I can get you eighty eighty five percent of the
way there, but someone's gotta take the last fifteen. I'm
like a starting pitcher. I'm gonna go give you one
hundred and ten pitches. I'm a strikeout fifteen. But someone's
got to take care of the last inning inning and
a half. I mean, come on, I'll get you as
close as I can. And then suddenly they're bringing it
Edwin Diaz and suddenly it's ah, come on, man, it's
not working. As soon as the trumpet starts, it's done.

(50:57):
Although maybe you should come in to hire by the
Mario ban They should take that out of the planet,
take that out of Texas and bring that back to
New York. And always remember that the Boston Celtics have
won the first championship of the Grimace era.

Speaker 4 (51:12):
Yeah, here in the world sports kind of crazy. You know,
it's seventeen years to the day, right of winning the
last one.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
Thirty year anniversary of the OJ Chase, thirty years of
the Ojhase.

Speaker 4 (51:26):
Thirty if someone put up the twenty minutes that you
didn't get to see because they were doing coverage of
the thirty years.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
I mean, and I remember that.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
I remember it like it was yesterday, I really, because
it was look, it was the it was the Nixon
and the Rockets and the Knicks needed to win, and
it was a big game. And suddenly O. J. Simpson
because I remember I was faunting and the font no,
the font I was fonting for ESPN for Sports Center,
and they called me up and said, hey, get up,
we're going live right now for a while. Okay, great,
And I had two TVs in front of me, one

(51:56):
with the Knicks and one with the O. J.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
Simpson car chase.

Speaker 5 (51:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
So we're up there were working and it was insane.
I remember the whole time was going back and forth going,
I wonder, we're gonna lead the show with tonight. When
we're gonna leave the show with tonight, it's gonna be
the Finals? Is it gonna be because the Knicks win?
Of course, you know that the one went away that
Nicks is gonna be OJ And then my boss come
gonna go. Everybody jumped into their programming to show the ojchase.
I think we're gonna lead with OJA. I'm like, oh, okay.

Speaker 4 (52:21):
I just remember I was between my junior and senior
year at Northwestern and they cut to the chase and
I said, I don't keep a rats ass about this.
Put the NBA Finals back on. Man.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
We'll have more on that aspect of it in the
anniversary in a few minutes. But joining us now on
the hot line, nobody better and I say that the
legend nobody better than FS one insider extraordinary Rick Buker.
He's on Twitter at Rick Buker and he is stunned
that the MVP award in the NBA Finals did not

(52:52):
go to Jalen Brunson. Rick, how do you feel about that?

Speaker 7 (52:59):
I said, I am somewhat done. I just if I
look at if I look at how things generally go,
guy with the best stat who has the biggest close
out game, that's where the voting goes. So I get
where they might have gone with Dalen Brown. I don't know,

(53:20):
it's it's not it's not full on andre iguidala ish,
but it feels like Dalen was credited for hitting some
key shots along the way. I think shooting a slightly
better overall percentage and and then and then defending either

(53:41):
Kyrie or Luca for the better part of the series,
although I mean they constantly hunted mismatches, so how much
time he actually spent on him is debatable. And I
thought that on the flip side, Adam ends up leading
in assists, points, rebounds, had to carry a much bigger
play making role in the schemes in Boston, scheme and

(54:04):
defensively ended up having to defend Biggs because of Christoph
Forzingis's of absence. So I just overall, I don't you know.

Speaker 5 (54:15):
I'm just done.

Speaker 7 (54:16):
I mean, I just I thought everything was set for
the way this ended, that this was gonna be the
redemption song for Jason Tatum.

Speaker 5 (54:23):
And when it was, and when they said Dalen Brown won.

Speaker 7 (54:28):
I thought, you know what, did the voters did they
hear Tatum say, you know, I don't really care whether
they win? Where they were like, let's see how much
you don't care. Okay, let's just see.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
See see what. Here's where I completely disagree, right because
you saw how hard he's going in the final six
minutes of a twenty five point game.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
He looked like he was a walk on getting his
first action.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
In college basketball. He's diving for loose balls into the stands.
I'm setting up plays, I'm roaring in for dunk's like, hey,
I could taste the NBA Finals MVP every he was
a three quarter speed. The game is over, the series over. No, No,
Jason Tatum is going just lights out with six minutes
to go.

Speaker 7 (55:06):
Well, I'm gonna have to go back and look at
just I mean, because I thought he was already having
a good game and he may have finished it off.
But last I checked, going into the fourth quarter, he
was their leading scorer. He'd racked up a bunch of assists.
So I'm not saying that he didn't see the opportunity
and said let me, let me put a stamp on it,
and he wouldn't be the first to do it, But

(55:29):
I just I don't again whether he whether he went
for it or not. The fact is that he had
a bigger closeout game than Jalen did. He had the
better stats overall over the course of the series, and
that generally wins it for you. So it's not that

(55:51):
I can't I don't see a case being made for Jalen.
It's more based on the history of who wins finals MVP.
I am surprised that what Jason did tonight didn't bring
it home for him. And I saw somebody tweeted, I
haven't double checked it. Somebody tweeted that going into the

(56:12):
fourth quarter that odds wise, betting wise that Jason Tatum
was the favorite to win it going into the fourth quarter.
So like, I don't know what happened in the fourth quarter,
they would have changed that.

Speaker 4 (56:26):
Yeah, I saw that it had evened out and both
were at minus one. Rick, that was the last odds
I had seen to that point. I did appreciate that
you went straight to discussing Jalen Brown and gave no
mind to the fact that Smith tried to set you
up with a Jalen brunts and MVP man.

Speaker 3 (56:46):
Rick, just blu right, I'm not engaging your Nicks crap.

Speaker 7 (56:52):
In anticipation of NBC get getting the NBA broadcasting rights
or a piece of them back, and the NBC or
the NBA on NBC intro music was so loud I
could not hear Jason. So what I'm suggesting is that
we do that every time.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
Okay, good, good, and you just go to the question
that it should be.

Speaker 4 (57:17):
Now, the thing that's fascinating for me, Rick is now,
I want a full off season documentary on Joe Mizzoula
because every one of his players has given us a
little glimpse of his method to his madness, as well
as some of his answers and pressers. I find him
absolutely fascinating.

Speaker 7 (57:35):
Yeah, no, I agree, and he brought it home. I mean,
I wrote a piece for Fox, just sort of a
quick take off of the game, and I felt like
there were a number of Boston Celtics who lived down
their reputations tonight and one lived up to it. And

(57:57):
Joe Missoula was one of those who lived it down.
That he was too young, he was too inexperienced, he
was two hands off. And when I look at the
what what he did in terms of attacking Luca, in
terms of studying the ship, just the matchups that he had,
how he used Christaps. I thought there was a lot

(58:17):
of death moves that he made. And and to your point,
I thought he said all the right things in terms
of keeping their focus in the right place through throughout
this series. So Joe Mizzoula, Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, even Christopsporzingis,
I would say all of those guys lived down the

(58:40):
reputations that they had certainly going into these into these playoffs.
And then the one guy who lived up to it
was Zoo Holiday, who if anybody was making a case
for him as MDT, I wouldn't have an issue with that,
even because I just thought I thought he was just
so saw. He did so many intangible things in terms
of keeping this like doing a lot of things that

(59:02):
just don't show up in the box score. That just
steadied and answered the bell when when things would get
a little rough for Boston. And I think he did
that consistently throughout this throughout this series. If you wanted
to say, if there was any one guy who was
just consistently good the entire series, I'd say the two

(59:22):
Holiday was first in that line.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
That was my That's who I picked before the series.
I could have got him at sixty plus sixty six hundred.
I could have got him at one hundred to one
in some places, because I thought the storyline of this
is how the Celtics are going to win, right, Tatum
and Brown will split votes. You know there's an anti
Tatum miss out there. And if Holiday plays consistently well
and shuts Kyrie down, that's a bit through storyline.

Speaker 3 (59:46):
But I don't know if it well.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
He was he didn't guard Kyrie enough, but all that happened,
he was great all the way through, and Kyrie was
terrible outside of one game.

Speaker 7 (59:55):
He really was. I mean to me that that was
the Houston sinks. And there was two players. Each team
had a player who had a championship ring. So you
could argue knew what it took to win a championship,
and Kyrie is still clearly battling whatever gremlins that exists
with Boston. He just the three games in Boston, it

(01:00:18):
just looked like he he just he was forcing it
at times, and some of it has just match ups.
I mean, this is where when people get in you know,
stan Van Gundy and any number of people who were
just Reggie Miller, all of them just like went bonkers
in the Minnesota Series in that you know, Kyrie Irving
is all this and all that, and he's still only

(01:00:41):
sixty one six two and I still don't put him
in the same category as as Steph Curry in terms
of his ability to manipulate a game and to utilize
in spite of his size, to be able to orchestrate
an offense. He's good and it's and his and his
individual skills. If you want to say he's got the

(01:01:03):
best handle, Okay, I'll give you he's got the best handle,
his ability to create shots, his creativity. Uh, you want
to give him an edge over step, Okay, I would
debate that. But okay, but but all of that is
well and good, but like, can you win games. Can
you can you do the simple things in terms of

(01:01:25):
decision making that win games. And that's where Kyrie is
still sort of up and down and and and it's
still at a disadvance.

Speaker 5 (01:01:36):
I mean, some of it is just ide wise. I mean,
he's being.

Speaker 7 (01:01:40):
Guarded by uh By, by Dalen Brown or Jason Tatum
or or Drew Holliday or Derek White, all of whom
have sides and and length on him. And that's going
to make everything that he does difficult. And so that's
where we just, you know, we get a little ahead

(01:02:02):
of ourselves in terms of there's one series and a
guy just is fabulous, and we don't take into account like, okay,
well where is he on the chart in terms of
priorities in stopping and is he taking advantage of that?
And I thought that Kyrie did took advantage of that
in the Minnesota series.

Speaker 4 (01:02:18):
All right, Rick, we had the confetti fall down. How
soon do we see the yellow and purple puff of
smoke to announce a new coach? And why wasn't it
jj Reddick? But while in the middle of all the ceremony, Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:02:30):
I honestly I wish I could give you an answer.
I don't think it's a matter of JJ. It's a
matter of what kind of support and assistant assistance can
they put around him in order to make this work.
This is why they came off of him when they

(01:02:51):
discovered that Dan Hurley.

Speaker 5 (01:02:52):
Was available, because they liked the idea of.

Speaker 7 (01:02:57):
JJ, because he thinks out of the box and he's
got some unique perspectives. And that's also why they're scared
as tell of having him as their head coach, because
they're like, we tell, you know, we have a set
way of doing things, and we have established you know,
protocol and people who who who are decision makers here

(01:03:17):
and how just how zany do we want to get
I mean, it's it's it's fun when you're having conversations
with someone who thinks out of the box and and
wants to move you in a different direction. But we're
working on a short timeline here with a D and Lebron.
I don't know that it's time to get super creative.
So I wish I could tell, I wish I could
give you like a definitive But but the fact is

(01:03:40):
that they came off of date. That the reporting on
this is what really cracks me up, Like everybody's saying
that Chim's took a victory lap because now we're back
to jj Reddick, because well that doesn't mean that they
were zeroing in on him before the like, do we
have any other options? Oh we do, Okay, let's go
see and then oh we can't get that. Okay, let's

(01:04:02):
go back and see if we can figure this out
with JJ. I wish I had an answer for you,
but I honestly, I don't know. I don't know where
this is because it really it has less to do
with JJ. I think they'd like to hire him and
make him their head coach, but they're not going to
do it unless they have the right assistance to put

(01:04:23):
next to him, and my understanding is that that has
been the difficulty in putting together a staff that they
feel can kind of carry him as he learns how
to be a head coach for the first time ever
in his life.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
He's on Twitter at Rick Buker, That is at Rick Buker,
Fox Sports One, NBA.

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
Inside of check out the onma Ball podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
Rick as always, Buddy, appreciate it, my friend, thanks for
joining us all season, and we'll talk to you really
really soon.

Speaker 3 (01:04:50):
My pleasure appreciate it, buddy.

Speaker 4 (01:04:52):
Off season begins tomorrow, man, you can start got new
rules about signing.

Speaker 3 (01:04:55):
Man, it's crazy soon.

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
As soon as you know who's going to take Bronnie James, well,
that's sure too,