Best of the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon

Hour 1 + Hr2 Seg2 (Ric Bucher)  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern,
7 to 11 p.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find
your local station for the Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon at foxsportsradio.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):
Hello, welcome inside. Happy Wednesday, unless you're a Clipper fan.
Another slow news day. The Jason Smith Show with my
best friend, Mike Harmon.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Well-dressed hobo.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Be sure to check out our YouTube channel for the show.
Just search Jason Smith Show within YouTube. Again, that's Jason
Smith Show. Hit the subscribe button, then tap the thumbs
up icon. Comment away whether you agree or disagree. Let
us know what you think. Again, just search Jason Smith
Show on YouTube and subscribe. So you know what they
say in the world of sports? This is a record

(01:01):
that will never be broken.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Right? Never be broken. Like Cy Young's 512 career wins.
That's never going to be broken. Right? Never be broken.
Johnny Vandermeer, back-to-back no-hitters. No one's going to pitch back-to-back-to-back no-hitters.
That will never be broken. You're never going to get
to go through a complete game. No. Let alone two.
Come on. I mean, three complete games in a row.

(01:23):
I don't know that you'll ever see that again. Really?
When's the last time someone's pitched three complete games in
a row? It has been a long time. Just give
me back-to-back. Probably Cy Young. When's back-to-back complete games in
a row? I mean, really, it's never going to happen, right?
I think we're probably going back to, what, Noah and
Ryan 35 years ago, maybe? So, in that vein, understand
that last night... the biggest sports story in the world

(01:47):
was the Angels. Today, the biggest sports story in the
world is the Clippers. There's no way three days in
a row it's that we're ever going to get Angels, Clippers,
and one of those teams again being the top story
in sports. Like the Ducks aren't going to be the
top story in sports tomorrow. That would be something. Not
going to happen. What the hell would have to happen

(02:07):
for that to happen? This is, I mean, it's, it's,
it's Haley's Comet, man.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
It is.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Hey, it's the Mets won in 86. We saw Haley's
Comet in 86. Okay. We're not seeing that for 76
more years. We are never seeing two nights in a row.
And again, last night were the top two stories. Yeah, exactly.
Because it was clipper tangential. But that was kind of,
that was okay. Cause that was Ralph Lawler and he's
getting loose on, on, on Twitter. But this is like
the two biggest stories, two days in a row, are

(02:32):
the Clippers and the Angels. That's never going to be broken.
We'll never see this tied again, let alone be broken.
It's strange, right? Because we're in that time of year
where normally we start shifting towards, all right, who are
the Dodgers going to beat in the World Series? And
they're struggling.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
Right?

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Hitters, there's RBI droughts for Shohei Otani. They had to
shove back his potential starting pitching, return to the rotation,
all of these things. Yeah, they get Will Smith back.
I mean, there's some good news. But overall, like, those
struggles would be the back page, the front page, and
everything in between, except for crime rates here in Los Angeles.
And right now it's, nope, let's talk all about the Clippers. And, yeah,

(03:13):
it's absolute chaos. Today, the bombshell drops. Apparently there was evidence.
We were led to believe last week that the NBA
had no evidence, right? The ESPN insiders and the investigative reporters.
NBA has got no evidence on the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard.
And did they circumvent the salary cap by giving a
fake job planting trees? NBA has got no evidence today.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Oh, no.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
There was evidence. Oh, yeah. The NBA has punished the
Clippers after their Kawhi Leonard investigation again last Rumors for
a while that they circumvented the salary cap by giving
Kawhi Leonard extra money for a fake job, fake endorsement,
planting trees. This was a very big topic over a
long period of time. We didn't know, would the Kawhi

(03:57):
Leonard trade to the Raptors go through? Because we're waiting
for the NBA to come up with some sort of
ruling on this. And the ruling came in today, and wow!
A year-long investigation. The Clippers will get a $ 30 million fine.
$ 30 million fine. Remember back when Spygate happened and Goodell said, ah,
a million dollar fine, that's the most I can give
to the Patriots. Oh, wow, big deal. Different rules of engagement.

(04:20):
$ 30 million fine. Mm-hmm. A year suspension for owner Steve Ballmer.
You're not going to see him waving at games and
going crazy on the wall. Developers, developers, developers.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
No.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
Plus a suspension for the team president one year and
the president of basketball operations, Lawrence Frank, six months without pay. Also,
the Clippers are forfeiting not one, not two, not three,
not four, but five first-round picks. 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032,
and 2033. This is the penalty for.

(05:03):
Kawhi Gate. Pablo Torre apparently found out. Remember, you know, hey, listen,
the only hardware the Clippers are going to wind up
winning is Pablo Torre's award. So thank you, Isaac Lohencroft.
The Pulitzer. That's the only hardware. How about that? Like
Balmer and Kawhi get to hold a Pulitzer up. Yeah,
we won this. This is our shiny hardware. It's not
the Larry O'Brien trophy, but we won that. Ilo gave

(05:24):
me that before he came in. That's pretty good. This
is the penalty tonight. It is severe. It is shocking.
And I admit... Not a lot really, really surprises me
from a take-my-breath-away standpoint. There's certain things in sports all
the time that are unpredictable, that wow, they're a surprise.
But overall, something makes me sit back and go, whoa.
Because that was my reaction when I got up today

(05:45):
and I saw this decision come in. I said, whoa,
this is really excessive. I know the Clippers had to
get punished, but wow, this is really excessive for... Something
that happened that needed a penalty, but you're ruining or
you're potentially ruining the future of this team without five

(06:08):
first-round picks. Okay, you can win without picks, but... Are
free agents going to sign there now? Because, well, what
kind of future do we have? The owner's not here
for a year. Like, this is a decision that can
absolutely ruin a franchise. And was the Kawhi Leonard thing something?
Was that a franchise-ruinable decision? No, hey, we found a
way for Kawhi to take less money. Okay, like other teams,

(06:30):
they would like to do that. I don't know that
the punishment fit the crime in this. If this was,
Ballmer's going to get six months, right? They're going to
fine him $ 10 million, right? They lose a draft pick
or two. That's pretty good. That's pretty substantial. Wow, losing
two first-round picks are okay, man. We got to do
some creative stuff to get around to get first-round picks

(06:50):
back to figure out our structure of our team going forward.
This is just– this is like death penalty. This is
like SMU in the A's type stuff. This is like–
First thought, right? This is Pony Express death penalty stuff
that you are getting from the Clippers. It is really,
really excessive. Yeah, you go over the $ 30 million and
everybody fixates on that and says, well, you know, Ballmer

(07:14):
won't feel that. Well, it's $ 30 million. And I guess
the corresponding argument, well, then he probably could have missed
that $ 30 to $ 60 million in this fraud situation. of
a company without missing it either if someone else signed
off on it. So you got that. But not being
around the team, not being active, you talk about the levels,

(07:36):
and now I want the rest of the details, right,
in terms of what's in all of these reports that
they go through. And obviously we got everything from Pablo Torre,
but in terms of how the NBA comes down with
this decision, how much backlash did they get from what
looked like several weeks ago was going to be nothing, right?

(07:57):
Still ongoing, but nothing to see here, more or less.
I mean, how much did you get from other NBA franchises?
How much was that back and forth? Because remember, they
clapped back on the ESPN reporting a few weeks back.
It was like, no, no, no, hey, hey, hey, it's
not done. It's not done yet. It's like, so did
you feel like you had to really come over the

(08:19):
top afterwards? And the question I have for America and
for you, Kawhi Leonard, $ 700, 000 and the dismissal of anything.
I mean, his statement, he might as well have just
put in blinking letters. Yeah. Uncle Dan has got a
lot of cool stuff. Well, this is how it works
in college football. The kid doesn't get penalty for getting

(08:40):
the car and the money. I'm not saying the Clippers
don't end up getting hammered again. There's no arbitration here.
The Clippers, with a lack of institutional control, that's going
on right now. But that's what they ruled.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
Sure.

Speaker 5 (08:53):
Right.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
So can they fight and maybe get one or two
of those draft picks back? We'll see. But Kawhi slides
out the back door, slides back across the bar. See
you guys. See you. 700 grand. This isn't this isn't
fabric of the game stuff. Like these are penalties that
are reserved for. Out-and-out cheating. This is reserved for breaking

(09:16):
the rules of play on the field. Like, this is
Spygate-type stuff, where this is Michigan football. Hey, we have
a legal sign. Like, this is the type of penalties
you get. This was, hey, we circumvented the salary cap.

Speaker 6 (09:29):
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
OK, like it deserves to be penalized. But wow, this
isn't this should be a this should be something a
little bit less like this. I mean, I don't know
if they can recover the next decade. Yeah, I understand
the dollars and cents of it all. And part of us,
we get to look with the rearview mirror of what
the Kawhi Leonard, Paul George streetlights over spotlights era ended

(09:52):
up becoming. Meanwhile, you got everybody bringing up the old trade, right,
and showing pictures of Shea Gildas Alexander. holding trophies. But
it's the hampering the team going on for the next
half a decade. We talked a lot the last few
nights talking about the propping up the opportunity on each

(10:15):
coast of these major metropolises uh having a great run
with stan cronky buying you know from arty moreno and
on all of these things and now you have the
clippers franchise and and yes should there be punishment does
it need a five five first round draft picks uh

(10:35):
punishment to it like i get it dollars there's only
so much you can do there And does he get
different treatment because he is worth so much money? Like,
that's the thing. Like, if this is another owner, and
obviously it's not. It's the Clippers for the second straight
owner that you've got, like, a lot of questions. Obviously,

(10:56):
much different circumstances and everything. But it's still the— this was
a— you' ve got the Intuit Dome. You've got this new— world
order of, in theory, prosperous times for the Clippers, and
now you're back into this difficult space of, all right,
you've now just cut the legs out from this organization.

(11:17):
You still allow the trade to go through. Yeah. So
he doesn't pay for it. But now Ballmer's away for
a year, and you've taken one of your franchises in
a major marketplace, and you've cut their viability entirely. Again,
it's so excessive for this. Seeing this shocking news, we're

(11:40):
always about helping people as well.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
We are.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
No, that's what we do. We're problem solvers. Someone who
needs our help right now. As soon as I heard
this story, I said, someone's going to need a wellness check.
So let's perform a wellness check right now here on
the biggest Clipper fan that I know, Monty Bolaños. Are
you okay after the news today knowing full well that
you playing center for the Clippers next year might be

(12:05):
an option? Are you okay? You can't even speak? She's
been rendered speechless. You can't even speak? Wow, Monty can't
even speak. She's crying right now. I mean, head in
her hands, absolutely crying right now, like the end of
a sad movie. Like, absolutely crying. I can't believe this.
Is this when the violin starts playing and then it
says fiend? Yeah. Oh, yeah. And then the credits start

(12:28):
to roll. Are you okay now?

Speaker 3 (12:30):
I am okay. I am okay.

Speaker 7 (12:33):
You sure?

Speaker 1 (12:34):
I think you're in shock.

Speaker 6 (12:36):
You know, your wellness check came after a lot of
other people's wellness check.

Speaker 7 (12:41):
I'm just going to throw that out there. Where was
my text? Of, are you okay, Montse? Are you okay?

Speaker 2 (12:45):
No.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
I've done that with people before, and then they get
mad at me. It's like, well, do you think that's
going to do it?

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Hang on.

Speaker 7 (12:51):
Well, those people sound like they're not fun at parties.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
After Ralph Lawler decided to get extemporaneous on Twitter last night,
I called you to make sure you were okay. You
did check on me. I was the first wellness check.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
You know what?

Speaker 7 (13:01):
You did check on me with Ralph Lawler.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
You did.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
I was the first one. You did. You forgot about that.

Speaker 7 (13:05):
Well, you know, Ralph Lawler was one thing. This is
another thing.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
I mean, that was fun.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
That was fun. I gave you an anticipatory wellness check,
but now it doesn't matter. It doesn't.

Speaker 6 (13:15):
You're right.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Okay, no, now forget it. No, no, no, whatever. Cover mic.

Speaker 7 (13:17):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
No, no.

Speaker 7 (13:20):
Yeah, no, this really, really sucks for a lot of reasons.

Speaker 6 (13:24):
It's frustrating because I agree with you that the punishment
seems really, really harsh.

Speaker 7 (13:30):
Like, it's like, okay. But obviously— Something was done that
they didn't have to do.

Speaker 6 (13:36):
And what frustrates me about this is when you hear
the story and you hear Uncle Dennis, a guy who
has such a bad reputation within the league of already
doing bad business or attempting to do bad business, it
frustrates me that.

Speaker 7 (13:48):
Steve Ballmer and the Clippers... would fall for this. It's like,
aren't you the con man? Aren't you the billionaire? You
got conned?

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Aren't you the con man? Well, but that's the thing.
He keeps telling everybody he was duped. At this point,
we can't.

Speaker 7 (14:01):
Then, again, you let people dupe you as a billionaire.
I can't with that. So that frustrates me. This is embarrassing.
Clipper's going to clip.

Speaker 6 (14:09):
You know, like, that's just what I should say. Clipper's
going to clip because nothing has been truer. Death, taxes,
and Clipper's going to clip.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
That's where we're at.

Speaker 7 (14:19):
News for you though i do have good news what
is the good news.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
It's gonna cost you like 15 bucks to sit behind
the bench at.

Speaker 4 (14:25):
A game next year you know what's so funny i
literally said that i literally said that i spent the
day at dodger stadium today because we had a busy
day with tours and i got a lot of texts
and i got a lot of people coming up to
me and i'm like well at least i'm.

Speaker 6 (14:36):
Able to go to like a game and sit in
the 100 level for 12 bucks like that's gonna.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Be nice yeah But this seems a.

Speaker 7 (14:43):
Very harsh punishment, especially, like, for the fans. Like, it
seems like it hits the fans the most.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
I think just rooting for the Clippers hits the fans
the most. Well, but the worst of it is they
did all this, and they won nothing.

Speaker 7 (14:54):
And that's like, you know— At least if.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
You had a title, you could be like, all right.

Speaker 7 (14:58):
Something.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Just something.

Speaker 8 (14:59):
Like, it was— it just seems— it' s, like, really on the Clippers.
And not to say, but it's like, the Clippers, like,
this is where you put the hammer down? Okay, like,
I can't be mad at— that the punishment is so
severe because obviously they were stupid and did something.

Speaker 7 (15:14):
Take a picture of you planting one tree.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
One picture of you planting a tree. It also could
have been our fault because all we've done is mock us.
the commissioners office for so many years this is gonna
maybe it just finally all right i'm gonna do this
i go bigger than that this is gonna set any
kind of save the planet initiative back because now planting
trees is bad right like now you have the planting

(15:37):
tree that's bad that's bad no we don't know planting
trees is still good just make sure it's not circumventing
salary cap but yeah i mean that negative connotation planting
trees that no plant more trees you need more trees
yeah I hope you're okay, Monsey.

Speaker 6 (15:50):
You know, it's all right.

Speaker 7 (15:51):
Clippers don't clip.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
I know. No, it's all right. He'll buy you a
coffee drink to make you feel better. Oh, that's a
good idea. Hey, Tysher, do you want to toast some
verse tonight? You know what, Jay?

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
In honor of Kawhi getting off of this so easy,
let's toast to him. Let's do it. Let's do it.
And make sure Monsey's is filled with extra tears. Ah. Yeah, okay.
Very good. All right.

Speaker 7 (16:09):
I got no tears left to cry in the words
of Rihanna. Cold foam?

Speaker 1 (16:13):
Cold foam on mine. Extra tears for Monty.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
Got it.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
That's a lead analysis from Alex. How is Kawhi not
suspended at all?

Speaker 7 (16:19):
Dude, I don't, I'm, that's like, I just, all of
this doesn't make sense.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
He literally got to skip across the border. I know.
Skip across the border? He's like Aaron Paul at the
end of Breaking Bad. Sorry, spoiler. But it's under 2%
of what he allegedly got extra that he gets by.
And that Pacers pick. Yeah. The Pacers pick. Now it's
nobody's pick.

Speaker 6 (16:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
No.

Speaker 7 (16:39):
I was told that I could be a fan for
five years of another team. That's what I was allowed
to do by somebody.

Speaker 6 (16:43):
At the Dodgers, they were like, you could be a
fan for five years of someone else. Ephraim Salam texted me,
and he told me, come join our side.

Speaker 7 (16:50):
He met the Lakers side. I said, absolutely not.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Never.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, you can't do that. No, you can't do that. Never.

Speaker 7 (16:54):
Lob City all day, baby.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
OK?

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Lob City all day. No, it's OK. You have a
Brunson t-shirt, don't you?

Speaker 7 (17:00):
I could do a Brunson t-shirt.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
There's plenty of room. Plenty of room for Brunson. Very good.
All right. See, we started with tears. Now we're ending
with tears. Pacers? No.

Speaker 5 (17:07):
No.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
No.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
No.

Speaker 7 (17:09):
Give me back Avicii Zubats.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
Like Back to the Future 4? Not happening. Not happening
with the Pacers. I'm just saying. It just can't be
the Lakers. And why join up forces with you? You're evil. Okay,
no coffee for you. Very nice. No coffee for you.
You could have a Bulls coffee, which means you think
it's going to be good, but it's really going to
be bad. I get one year, and it's going to
be an MVP year, and then that's it. Worry about

(17:33):
the other Caleb, okay? Caleb Wilson, no. Caleb Williams, that's
your Caleb to worry about. We got one Caleb per
city to worry about. I got two that I have
to worry about this year. Come on. The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios.
Coming up next, hey, the biggest story of the day.
There is someone, unbelievably and shockingly, who deserves a lot

(17:53):
of credit. Someone I never credit for anything who deserves
a lot of credit. That's next. Jason and Mike, Fox
Sports Radio. Hey, it's Covino and Rich from Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 5 (18:04):
Now, in addition to hearing us live weekdays from 5
to 7 p.m. Eastern, 2 to 4 Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio, we're excited to announce a brand new YouTube
channel for the show.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yup, that's right.

Speaker 5 (18:15):
You can now watch Covino & Rich live on YouTube
every day. All you gotta do, search Covino & Rich
FSR on YouTube. Again, go to YouTube, search Covino &
Rich FSR. Check us out on YouTube, subscribe, hit that
thumbs up icon, and comment away.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
Fox Sports Radio. There you go. From the Billy the
Kid soundtrack, it's Jason Smith. Jason Smith. And Bob Dolan.
My best friend, Mike Harmon. Who's Bob Dolan? You came
back over the top. Hi, I'm Bob Dolan. Come on
down to Dolan Chevrolet and make sure you get all
our best September deals. Move the brain as you came

(19:03):
back over the top. We're getting rid of the 26s
and getting ready for 27. I'm Bob Dolan. Now, when
they go in legally, and this is the question I
have to ask. When they go in legally, they could say,
what did this really get us? Yeah, no, it got
you nowhere. You got one appearance in the conference finals,
and that was it. Because really, think about the Kawhi

(19:24):
Leonard era with the Clippers. After the penalties today, again,
the biggest story in sports today, Steve Ballmer gets a
year-long suspension, Lawrence Frank gets a six-month suspension, and the
Clippers lose five first-round draft picks, all for their part
in TreeGate as Kawhi Leonard was signed and circumvented the

(19:44):
salary cap to give more money out to other players.
This Kawhi Leonard era... I mean, you have to think
and say, There may not be a worse era revolving
around a star player maybe I've ever seen in the NBA.
Because not only did you not win, you kept giving
Kawhi Leonard money. You didn't win, which is bad enough.

(20:06):
But not only that, he leaves without any penalty and
you may be dead for the next 10 years. Well,
and as we mentioned in the open... You also had
the trade that he forced to bring Paul George in
for your streetlights over spotlights campaign to go up against
the Lakers, which cost you several draft picks and Shea

(20:27):
Gildress Alexander. Now, did you think he'd become the player
he did?

Speaker 2 (20:31):
No, but.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
History is what it is. Hindsight's 20-20. And he's a
guy that's in position as one of the favorites for
this new season to perhaps win more hardware. I mean, really,
outside of Pablo Torres Pulitzer, that's the only hardware being won. Well, no,
that's the Clippers hardware. The rest of the league still operates.
Are they all going to hold it up like Brunson

(20:53):
and Cat, you know, holding up the Larry O'Brien together,
the confetti coming down? They're all going to hold it up?
Are they going to have that at the team practice
facilities that you can go take a picture with it?
Like they do the road show with the World Series
trophy or whatever. Hey, come take a post with a
picture for a picture with the Pulitzer Prize. I mean,

(21:13):
what is it in that? Was it just a plaque?
I don't think it's a trophy. I think it's probably
a plaque. For writers, it's like, hey, it's a plaque.
We don't hold up trophies. We're writers. Here's a plaque.
It looks like a tablet. It's a plaque. That's what
it is. It looks like a tablet. Here is your
Kindle Award for Achievement and Excellence. And I got to
say this. Your Achievement and Excellence. There you go. I

(21:35):
just want to say this. If Pablo Torre finds out
whatever about the Knicks, I don't care. We won. I
don't care.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
We won.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Not like he's going to, but I don't care. We won. Well,
I don't care. Hope that he waits until the banner
goes up. Once the banner goes up, don't come back down, man.
Title's in the books. I mean, just think about that, man.
That's how bad the Kawhi Leonard era is going to
wind up being looked back at. You didn't win. You
spent a ton of money. You didn't play a lot

(22:04):
for several of those seasons. Usually when bad eras end,
it's okay. It's over. It sucked. We're moving on from
that guy. No, no, no. This is now, hey, we're
going to be worse off than we were when we
had you. Another five years. And he gets to run
off across the border back to Toronto. $ 700, 000 lighter money

(22:26):
out of the percentages. Because really, I mean, if you
invested that even in the most conservative of funds over
these couple of years, I mean, you made more than
$ 700, 000 in interest. I mean, I got to tell you, man,
for a Kawhi getting no penalty on this is like, wow, really?
I didn't think the players union was that powerful.

Speaker 9 (22:43):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
This is because, you know, the guy, the guy knows
what he's doing. You know what he's getting, you know
what he's involved in. And wait, he doesn't get anything.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
Do we get the tapes of whatever conversations he had
with the league? It's like, yeah. He just goes, Dennis.
Now you know why the Clippers were saying, hey, we
want the Raptors to take any penalty that comes down. Wait,
you want us to lose five first round picks? Come on, man.
We're not doing that. That's it. Now we don't get

(23:11):
any of those video shots of Balmer. Does this mean
the hot dog gun never comes into fruition? Oh, there's
no more hot dogs. They're not going to serve food.
They don't have any money. They're going to allow you
to bring your own food into the arena next year. Yeah,
just make sure it checks. I went to the movies
the other day. You know how they're usually pretty militant about, hey,
no outside food?

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
Guys came in with like a full satchel of In-N-Out
and then passed out double cheeseburgers to the whole room.
Where's mine, man? Well, if you do that, I mean,
if you're passing them out, I'm sure. I got nothing.
Don't you think the person taking tickets, their price would
probably be one burger?

Speaker 3 (23:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
And you can bring it in? Yeah, I don't even
think he cared. I think he just smiled and said,
thanks for coming to the movies. Bring your own food
to Clipper Games next year. They're going to allow them in.
They're going to allow it in. Not just water. Whatever
you want, just bring it in. We don't really care.
Park wherever you want to. We're not even going to
charge you. Whatever. You just come on it. Just please
keep coming to the games. Isn't it like a hundred bucks?
Please keep coming. Just please keep coming to the games.
That's a lot of revenue, man. But please keep showing up.

(24:06):
I do have to give credit to someone that I
never give credit to. And of this story, this stands
out to me the most. Okay. Is that Adam Silver
decided to do something so incredibly over the top that
that pissed off an owner and potentially could ruin a team.
I didn't think he had it in him. I say

(24:28):
it all the time. He never wants to do anything.
He never wants owners to get mad at him. He
doesn't want the players to get mad at him. He
wants to do nothing. Whenever there's an idea, it's let's
float it out there. Let's see what the response to
it is, and then we'll go forward, right? That's always Adam.
So while we're thinking about this, let's see what people think. Oh,
too many people don't like it, right? It's like the
companies that are just beholden to what people say on

(24:50):
social media. Oh, I don't think social media likes this.
I never, ever. ever, for a minute, thought he would
come down, even with the evidence that this would be
something he would do. I give him all the credit
in the world for standing up and making a really
strong statement. Now, obviously, I think it was way too much,
but I give him credit for having a spine, because

(25:11):
I didn't know the guy had a spine. I think
if you gave him an x-ray before today, can't find
the spine. No, you mean spleen. No, no, spine. Can't
find the spine. Look, he's like an amoeba. He just, like,
rolls right through, right? He's got no backbone. He can
go under a door like a rat. right like let's
just go under the door come out look at that
man right just right i think you've now just uh
figured out a new uh superhero or super villain ah

(25:32):
rat man i am rat man you mean batman no
rat man is batman's arch enemy rat man well there
was a rat in the whole uh justice i didn't
think he had a spine i didn't think he would
do something like this but he did and i i
again His palms had to be so sweaty and nervous
about doing something like this. The evidence must be unbelievably

(25:56):
overwhelming for this to be the penalty because what you
risk in a big penalty like this is... is eventually
we're going to find out what it is. Eventually stuff
will get disseminated and it will get out to us.
And we'll go, oh, wow, this is what the penalty was?
That's why Roger Goodell destroyed all the tape from Spygate.
We don't know. So the evidence must be unbelievably overwhelming
for Adam Silver to make this decision. Not Roger Goodell.

(26:20):
Roger Goodell, I'd be like, boy, the guy got off
light with Goodell. Only five first-round picks. But this is
Adam Silver. Again, the guy never wants to upset anybody.
And here he is throwing haymakers around. at the Clippers
for this. I give him the credit for standing up
and making a really difficult decision that I thought... Six
days a week and twice on Sunday. He would say, yeah,

(26:41):
we can't really find anything. We're moving on. Kawhi's trade
goes through. We're going to find Balmer a million dollars,
something crazy or stupid like that. We're going to dock
him a second round pick, something that doesn't matter. No,
this is incredibly strong and over the top, and I
can't believe he did it. Well, once you get government
involvement and independent information, investigation to it all that it's

(27:03):
not just a under the purview of what the NBA
can do I guess that maybe puts a bit more
pressure on him and leans on him to make a
decision that it came to this level yeah I mean
what else because Pablo Torre kind of Teased that there
was more there.

Speaker 3 (27:20):
Right.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
When we had that little back and forth between the
league and ESPN a few weeks ago. And again, the
NBA saying, hey, this isn't done yet. And they come
back over the top now where it gets really chaotic
and chaotic. The next level of piquing my interest is,
as Ballmer says, they're going to explore every legal remedy.

(27:44):
They issued that very strong statement calling it, you know,
basically a malicious prosecution to summarize a two-page missive. It
was about 900 words or thereabouts in terms of attacking
in his open letter to Adam Silver. as to how
this was processed and how much they had opportunity to

(28:09):
comment and go back and forth in terms of this investigation.
But for Ballmer on the other side, and I saw
Mark Cuban congratulating Pablo Torre and we go through the owners,
like how much is Ballmer looking around going, all right,
I know how the sausage is made and all these
other things. other locker rooms, all these other boardrooms. And

(28:32):
that's what the next power play becomes, right? Of going
contract to contract and where guys landed or stayed on
what seemed like sweetheart altruistic deals. Sorry, buddy. You know,
that means looking over in New York or wherever else
and that Adam Silver is now going to suddenly have

(28:54):
a lot more work on his plate. But in the
short term, It went from sloughing it off to, all right,
he laid the hammer down.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
Fox Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend,
Mike Harmon. You miss any of today's show, be sure
to catch the podcast. Just search Jason Smith and Mike
Harmon wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the podcast, rated
five stars, provide a review again. Just search Jason Smith
and Mike Harmon wherever you get your podcasts. You'll find
today's full show and a best of version posted right

(29:35):
after we get off the air. So outside of, and
maybe this is why the Raiders, you know, pick today
to do it. Hey, we know that Clippers news is
coming down. There's been some big quarterback news next hour.
We got the whole Jalen Hurts craziness that happened and
JJ McCarthy, but officially Kirk Cousins is your winner. And
I put winner in parentheses because in the end, he's

(29:56):
really playing quarterback for the Raiders. So how much can
you win? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Over under five
and a half for the year. I think it's also
over under five and a half for picks in game one. Oh. Oh,
too soon? Is it too soon for these? No, no.
All right, all right. No, look who they're playing. Come on.
What are you doing? That's true. It's not going to
get any easier. No, if there's ever one to set

(30:18):
on a tee, here you go. I don't know what
the Raiders are doing, but they did what we thought
they were going to do in the beginning. Kirk Cousins
is officially QB1 for the Raiders to begin the season. Now,
the Raiders butchered the entire process on this. We draft

(30:39):
Fernando Mendoza. Great. Number one overall pick in the game. Yep,
you want to go get a veteran to come in
that can take some snaps in camp, potentially be a
veteran backup, but first overall pick, he generally starts right away.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Nope.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
Not only are we going to get Kirk Cousins, we're
going to give him all kinds of money that we
didn't need to give him, and we're going to give
him a complicated contract that rolls past this year. What
are we doing? What's going on? What are we doing?
So the time goes on. All right, well, I disagree,
but okay, this is how the Raiders want to do it.
But then camp starts. Fernando Mendoza starts playing. Well, the

(31:12):
door is open for him to become the starting quarterback. Okay. Well,
maybe this is how it's working.

Speaker 6 (31:16):
All right.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
Well, then he plays bad in a couple of games.
You're thinking, okay, well now they'll go back to Kirk cousins. Nope. Nope.
We're keeping this competition open. Oh, okay. So now the
guy's not ready and you're still keeping the competition open
for at least another week. Okay. And now it's all
said and done. And we are where we are from
the very beginning, which is Kirk Cousins will start week

(31:38):
one for the Raiders, not Fernando Mendoza.

Speaker 5 (31:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
I can't say that Kubiak did a great job in
terms of messaging, but this lines up with everything we'd
heard along the way. And I think the, Hey, let's
keep it open. I don't know if he just wanted
people to write about the Raiders or what, but I mean,
they signed Kirk Cousins almost a full month before the draft.
So he was already in place. For this year, most

(32:01):
of the money is being paid by the Falcons. Not
a lot of deal. Money's out of the Raiders' coffers here.
And then you have the structure, if everything goes to hell, that, yeah,
or it goes really well. And all of a sudden,
the Raiders are viable under Kirk Cousins, that he can
hang around another year.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
But.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
for what we'd heard all along was tom brady and
the brass they wanted it to to be a slow
play in terms of getting mendoza there right first year
learning under center all of those things uh that we've
talked about for a couple of weeks now you just
make it official all right we finally have to talk
about it so here it is he's on the promo

(32:39):
you like that see you sunday So where are we now,
now that officially Cousins is the No. 1 quarterback and
Mendoza is not starting? Again, first quarterback in eight years
to be taken No. 1 overall and not start. Only
the third quarterback in the last 20 years to be
taken No. 1 overall and not start week one. This

(33:00):
now tells you that you need to temper your expectations
as to how good a quarterback he can be. Because
when you're the number one overall pick, you're a quarterback,
you come in, if you can't win the job right away,
that's a big warning sign. You can't win a job
that is fixed for you to win, or you can't
beat out Kirk Cousins. You're the number one pick. The

(33:21):
fact that they took him and still said, we got
to go get somebody else to protect this guy. They
already had him. They already had signed Cousins, and then
they decided, all right, let's build to the future. Yeah,
but you knew you were taking Mendoza number one. When
you signed Cousins, you knew where you were. But he's
the perfect buddy. The stepbrothers posters and everything. For me now,

(33:44):
for Mendoza, if he turns out to be a league
average quarterback, I think that's his ceiling. See, that's all
I ever thought he was. That's his league average quarterback.
Even with the number one tag on, Number one overall pick.
You take a guy number one overall, you're expecting multi-Pro Bowls,
and just not actually playing, just now named to the
Pro Bowl. You're expecting multiple Pro Bowls and someone who
is in the top third of the league overall. generally

(34:08):
every year sometime maybe you have a top three year
sometimes you have a top eight year maybe a top
10 maybe a top 12 year but then you're back
to a top five year like that's what you should
be getting out of a quarterback you take number one
overall but the fact that he can't win the job
he couldn't win the job out of camp when they
open the door for him to do it even after
a bad second preseason game clint kubiak said no no

(34:29):
no we'll leave it open for you he still couldn't
win it and he still played poorly if he is
a league average quarterback That's kind of where I expect
his ceiling to be now. Not any more than that.
If he's a league average guy, that's him. No, come on.
Ken Stabler was terrific. The holy roller, the forward fumble.
Come on, man. Fantastic. Come on. Jim Plunkett's got Super Bowls.

(34:52):
Come on, man. No, no, no. Mark Wilson had the
big game against the Cowboys in the 80s. Second Mark
Wilson reference. Jeff Hostetler? He had the best mustache. Yeah,
you had mustache guys and everything. Derek Carr was going
to be the MVP before it was broke. I know,
poor Derek Carr. Remember that? The year of living dangerously.
They've had no games lost due to injury. Oh, no,

(35:13):
there goes the quarterback. There may not be a year
that set a team back in the NFL more than
Derek Carr's injury. They were going to go to the
Super Bowl that year. We could go through the litany
of opening day starters for the Raiders, and he had
a nice run. But you look at it here, if
he can be a league average guy and they have...
the aptitude and fortitude and smarts in the front office

(35:34):
to draft well. And they've got some pieces around him, right?
That offensive line, it's about three-fifths. And you keep building
that if he's league average and they become league average,
he's a hero. They'll build a statue to him. Because
they haven't done anything, except for, again, that one year
before Derek Carr got hurt, since Rich Gannon was under center.

(35:55):
All right, we're going back to old man Rice and
Tim Brown, old Charlie Garner, and Rich Gannon. How about that?
League average. If he's a jag, that's kind of where
you're at. Yeah, but if you can get him to
play for eight to ten years, it's more stability than
you've had outside of Derek Carr. But again, that's where

(36:17):
if you get a guy, but number one overall, these
are not stakes where, hey, we got a guy, we
surprised him. I told you, he was the tallest guy,
that's why. He was the tallest guy. You've got to
listen to the whole show. Who's the tallest player? It's
Fernando Mendoza. We'll take him number one. That's great. That's
what we're going to do. He was the guy that
kept coming forward in the quarterback derby when all the

(36:37):
guys that were supposed to be good dropped off. Coming
up next, we've got more NFL on the way, and
we get back into the biggest story of the day.
Keep it right here. Jason and Mike Fox, Sports Radio.
Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show, with my best friend,
Mike Harmon. Nothing bigger today than what happened to the Clippers.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
Yay.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
The Kawhi Leonard Tree Gate penalty has come through. Apparently
the NBA did find a lot of evidence. They ruled
that Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers circumvented the salary cap
by giving him some crazy-ass tree-planting job that did not
pass muster. Pablo Torre found out, won a Pulitzer. And

(37:22):
now we know that the Clippers will not have the
services of Steve Ballmer for a year. He has been suspended.
He has been fined $ 30 million. Other front office members
also got suspended. And they lose not one, not two,
not three, not four, but five first-round picks. Can the

(37:43):
Clippers franchise ever recover? Hell no. Joining us now on
the hotline, nobody better to break it all down than
Fox Sports 1 NBA insider extraordinaire Rick Buecher. Rick, man,
big day for the Clippers. What's your reaction to this penalty?

Speaker 3 (38:00):
Well, at first I was like, wow.

Speaker 9 (38:03):
The second part was, wait a minute, wasn't Kawhi Leonard involved?

Speaker 3 (38:08):
I mean, he.

Speaker 9 (38:08):
Basically got a free pass.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
$ 700, 000 is a.

Speaker 9 (38:19):
Slap on the wrist when it comes to him. You know,
initially I thought, oh my goodness, this is not good
for the Clippers. And then I started breaking it down
and comparing it to what the Minnesota Timberwolves, one, were penalized,
and two, how they, how they responded to it. Cause
at that time they were penalized for trying to sign

(38:43):
or signing Joe Smith to a, a short-term deal, but
negotiating a longer term deal. Once they had his bird rights,
something that happens pretty routinely. Now, if you look around
the league, but at the, but at the time they
smacked the Minnesota Timberwolves originally five first round picks suspension
of Glenn Taylor and a fine of $ 3. 5 million, and

(39:10):
it was considered, and Kevin McHale suspended for a year,
the GM, it was considered a death sentence. Well, the
Minnesota Timberwolves had gone to four consecutive playoffs, lost in
the first round every year, but they'd gone to four
consecutive playoffs, made the playoffs. After that penalty came down,

(39:30):
they went to four more playoffs, and the last one
they went to the conference finals. They got two of
the picks back, so it was only three first-round picks
that they lost. But essentially, it was not a death
sentence for them. And when I broke.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
Down the money.

Speaker 9 (39:49):
Glenn Taylor, paying $ 3. 5 million at that time, he was
worth $ 1. 2 billion, I believe, at the time.

Speaker 3 (39:58):
It was under two, certainly. Steve Ballmer is worth $ 152.

Speaker 6 (40:03):
7 billion.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
$ 30 million to him is.

Speaker 9 (40:04):
15 times, or let's put it the other way, Glenn
Taylor paying $ 3. 5 million is 15 times more punishment for

(40:25):
somebody who is worth $ 1. 2 billion than the $ 30 billion
is for Ballmer. So all in all, it comes off
as being incredibly harsh. But when I look at it overall,
I just don't think it's as dramatic as as it
initially turns out to be. And as one GM said

(40:46):
to me, as we were talking about what this came down,
when it came down, he said, you know, not penalizing
Kawhi Leonard means that future players are going to ask
for all the same things.

Speaker 5 (41:01):
Exactly.

Speaker 9 (41:03):
And teams are going to look at it and say,
do you think we, well, if we, if we don't
do it, it means we're not going to get him.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
Maybe we should try to get him. Let's see if
we can do it.

Speaker 9 (41:13):
So I just think that the initial blush is holy cow.
The NBA came down. The Adam Silver showed his iron
fist and all that. But I think at the end
of the day, it's.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
Just not as.

Speaker 9 (41:30):
Drastic, draconian, as the numbers would initially suggest.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
See, here's the thing, Rick, is I get you on
the money, and it doesn't matter what you find a multi-billionaire.
It's not about the money. But now you have no
front office people running the team for a year. You
have everybody new that's in. However you're going to get
around that, but still, this is the penalty. And five
first round picks are gone. Whether they're players you are taking,
there's no assets. How do the Clippers be a destination?

(41:59):
I don't know how they get out of this in
the next five or 10 years where they become a
place where suddenly, hey, we're still going to be good.
Because is Ballmer going to go into the second apron
when he comes back? Is he going to sign all
these guys and spend all this money? Like, I don't
know how you get out from that. Not having those
assets and not having leadership from a year, free agents
are going to go, yeah, I don't know that it's
safe to go to the Clippers just quite yet. It

(42:20):
might be a few years.

Speaker 9 (42:22):
See, short of, are we going to find a soundproof
booth and lock Lawrence Frank and Steve Ballmer in it?
I don't know that they won't be somehow, some way,
they can't have proxies. And they can't find a way

(42:43):
to still direct the team or at least have somebody
running it. And I think the assistant GM is Trent Redden.
And he has a pretty good track record. Has a
long-term relationship with Ty Lue. I assume that he would
be taking over. And so, again, I just, it didn't
get in the way of Glenn Taylor being suspended for

(43:05):
a year and Kevin McHale being suspended for a year.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
For the Minnesota Timberwolves to do business as usual. Now,
they did.

Speaker 9 (43:14):
Have a player in Kevin Garnett that solved a lot
of problems, and they weren't dealing with the level of
a hard.

Speaker 3 (43:20):
Cap that we have today.

Speaker 9 (43:22):
So I do think that overall, if we're talking about
the Clippers vying for a title, yeah, not having the
picks with a hard cap, the first-round picks allows you
to get cheaper labor than it would otherwise cost you
allows it allows you to get great talent on a,

(43:43):
on a rookie salary.

Speaker 3 (43:44):
You're that's a win.

Speaker 9 (43:46):
And they're, and they're exempted for that other than the
fact that they are getting to are still probably going
to get to, or should get to first round picks
from Toronto.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
So there are, there are ways for them to pick
up picks. They just won't be necessarily their own and
where they are. So again, I, I hear you.

Speaker 9 (44:08):
And as far as, you know, the title hopes, but
let's face it, they were, they went and got Kawhi
Leonard and Paul George, and they were spending a gazillion money,
a gazillion dollars.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
You, you went, we got it. You just went Nixon
Dan house and spending the monies.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
Rick Buecher, everybody. Yeah.

Speaker 9 (44:28):
Outside of the cat, like they just spent a gazillion
dollars and it didn't get them any closer to a,
to a, to a championship.

Speaker 3 (44:37):
I think it's going to be business as usual.

Speaker 9 (44:39):
The Clippers are going to clip.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
They're going to disappoint, but are they going to fall
to the bottom of the well? Based on what.

Speaker 9 (44:47):
Happened with Minnesota, I don't think it's as dire as
people want to predict it. I know that kind of
deflates the balloon, but I think there's a way for
them to get around it and still be competitive.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
So with Kawhi Leonard, he gets fined, well, nothing. If
you do the math, it's. 002 % of the money
that he made as a Clipper.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
Well, not only as a Clipper, but like.

Speaker 9 (45:17):
I want to know how they got the $ 700, 000 figure
because based on all the outside deals that he had,
he made more off of the side hustle than.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
$ 700, 000. Yeah, I only went to where the money we're
aware of, right? Plus add the other 40 or 60
or 200. But is Kawhi Leonard's run and all that
it cost you, what did it cost you? Everything. Is
it the worst run for a superstar acquisition in the
history of basketball? because not only here's the thing rick

(45:50):
as we talked about that not only did he come
in they paid him a lot of money a couple
of times they didn't win they never got close but
usually when that era ends there's a bright light and
the new era begins now he could have sunk the
franchise another 10 years after this and shea gilchrist alexander
and what that cost you man.

Speaker 9 (46:12):
Yeah, but look, there's a lot that happened. Well, here's
the problem. The way you're framing it would suggest that
it's Kawhi Leonard's fault. And I don't necessarily look at
it that way. Those decisions were made by the Clippers
to trade what turned out to be a Shea Gilgis Alexander,
to get Paul George, to satisfy Kawhi Leonard, to do

(46:35):
all the things that they did. I'm going to put
that Honestly, I'm going to put it on the Clippers.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
I mean, quite Leonard got to go home. He made
a gazillion dollars. He didn't play a whole lot.

Speaker 9 (46:45):
He had to pay a $ 700, 000 tax.

Speaker 3 (46:47):
He gets to go back to Toronto. Like, I don't know.

Speaker 9 (46:53):
I think Kawhi Leonard probably played this as well as
you can play it.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
Oh, no, no, no. I'm not saying for him. No,
I'm just saying the Kawhi Leonard era for the Clippers.
Could it have gone any worse? He foisted Paul George
and Uncle Dennis on you. You had this scandal. You
had all the trade components that you had to go
to get Paul George. He got a lot of your money.

(47:17):
Didn't play a lot, and you didn't win. And now
you're hamstrung for another five years, at least in theory.

Speaker 9 (47:23):
Well, like, again, you know, the hamstrung part, I mean,
if the trade goes through, they get Brandon Ingram. He's
not Kawhi Leonard. He's not a guy that I would
build around. But Brandon Ingram, you have Darius Garland there.

Speaker 3 (47:38):
Like, you have... You have a couple of pieces.

Speaker 9 (47:40):
You have two first round picks coming. I just, I
don't think the cupboard, honestly, I don't think the cupboard
is bare now from based on where the expectations were
when they acquired Kawhi Leonard.

Speaker 3 (47:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (47:51):
They, they underachieved massively when they got Kawhi and they
got Paul George, it was, Oh, the Clippers are taking
over LA and that in spite of all the failings
of the Lakers, that, that never transpired. But again, I
look at, the one thing I will say is getting

(48:12):
Kawhi Leonard and the level of respectability that they had,
I think was germane to them being able to build
the Intuit Dome, to build their own arena.

Speaker 3 (48:26):
They did have some cachet. And so, look, was it,
did it, Was it way below what the expectations were?
Did it come anywhere close to meeting expectations? Absolutely not.

Speaker 9 (48:41):
Is there another instance where you paid as much as
you did for a superstar and had it fail this spectacularly?

Speaker 3 (48:52):
I got to think about that.

Speaker 9 (48:53):
I can't, I'm not, I'm not one comes to mind,
but let's circle back on that one. But are they
like in a complete disastrous hole?

Speaker 3 (49:04):
I'm not willing to say that.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
He's on Twitter at Rick Buecher. That is at Rick Buecher,
Fox sports, one NBA insider, the on the ball podcast
with all of the Jalen Brunson impersonators coming up soon.
Is that going to be your season kickoff podcast, Rick?

Speaker 9 (49:18):
Well, of course that's going to, but I mean, I
was probably the first month of the season.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
Oh, okay. Very good. All right. Nice.

Speaker 9 (49:25):
We're just going to play it on, play it on repeat.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
All right. Oh, and Hey, I want to wish you
a way, way, way music down, tight music down. Hey Rick,
happy anniversary. It's been 80 days since the Knicks won
the title. So happy anniversary on that.

Speaker 3 (49:37):
Happy anniversary.

Speaker 9 (49:40):
Is there something behind 80 days? Or is 81 going
to be the 81st anniversary?

Speaker 1 (49:45):
No, no, no. We celebrate every day. Every day is
an anniversary. You know, the T-shirt that I got him
right after they won literally showed up on Saturday. Yeah,
that's how it goes. A lot of T-shirts to put in.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
Mike, you're doing God's work right.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
Now, my friend. I try, you know. I got big shoulders, though, Rick.
I'm ready for it.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
Boy.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
Rick, see you, buddy.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
May not be big enough.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
I'll get back in the gym. We'll talk to you
next week. Have a great one.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
See you, buddy.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
There goes Rick Buecher. I can't skip leg day. No, no, no.
The world needs me. Around the world in 80 days.
Around the championship in 80 days. 80 days ago, June 13th.