October 15, 2021 • 45 mins
Jason Smith and Aaron Torres, in for Mike Harmon, explain why the Brooklyn Nets don't even need Kyrie Irving. The guys react to the evolving story surrounding the investigation into the Washington Football Team. The guys look at the Buccaneers position in the NFL after another win on Thursday night. Plus, the guys react live to the Dodgers beating the Giants with a wild ending.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmen podcast. Be sure to catch us
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Eastern seven to eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio.
Find your local station for The Jason Smith Show with
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by searching fs R. This is the best of the
(00:22):
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
Something really interesting happened last night into today, and I
even the most the biggest of skeptics has to agree.
The Nets have moved on from Kyrie Irving. Right. We
told you this two nights ago on the show, because
(00:44):
you know, we're ahead of the curve at that. That's
a big thing. You know, two nights ago it was
Look when when the Nets came out, and even a
week ago, the way they had acted towards Kyrie Irving,
who did not want to get vaccinated for COVID nineteen,
so he's not gonna be able to play for the
Nets until he does, you could tell they were done
and any situation that would have involved them wanting him back,
(01:06):
they would have worked harder, and they would have wanted
to get him back, they would have tried to figure
out different ways. No, we need Kyrie, we need him.
Instead it was I don't want to get vaccinated. Okay, great,
well you can't come here until you can. We're ready
to move on. And just seeing how they've acted and
reacted over the course of the past few days, you
had the Sham's Trani report that Kyrie wasn't gonna be
(01:27):
off to new contract from the Nets, and then today
Steve Nash said, look, I'm done talking about Kyrie. I'm
talking about the team all right now. So so much
for Hey. We we have Kyrie's back, he's our guy. No,
I'm done talking about him. We're moving on. They have
moved on from Kyrie Irving right that they are no
longer want to be in the Kyrie Irving business. And
that rambling instagram in interview session that he had last
(01:48):
night just didn't answer anything other than Yep, Kyrie's gonna
Kyrie didn't really see any incredibly uh in depth answers
as to why he doesn't want to get vaccinated, just
you know, kind of just rambles for the few minutes
he was on I g live saying, oh, you think
I don't want to play. Of course I want to play.
I'm not anti vax, I'm not pro vacs. Then what
(02:09):
are you doing? All right? So, still, this is Kyrie Irving.
He's a wild card. He does whatever he wants to do,
and it's maddening, but this is kind of who he is.
But the next part of this conversation eighteen that this
is the interesting parts. I'm gonna hit you with something
and you give me agreed, disagree, and give me your reasons.
Is that I've set from the beginning when the Nets
grabbed their Big three and it was boy, this is
(02:31):
just gonna be very difficult. And certainly when these three
guys are on the floor together, it's it's very difficult
to beat them, right, you see, they win every game one,
forty two, one, ten, and it's like, yeah, kd at
thirty five and Harden's got twenty eight and ten and
Guy Ree's twenty five and seven, and they're very difficult.
But the Nets are going to be absolutely fine without
(02:51):
Kyrie Irving. They will steamroll through the regular season. And
mainly the reason I like this is because they have clarity.
Clarity is very underrated in sports. When you are a
team that has goals and has ambitions, you want to
know who you are, what your identity is going to be.
And the Nets wondering when Kyrie is going to play,
when he's going to leave the team, when he's gonna
(03:13):
come back, if he's gonna be healthy, is he not
gonna be healthy? That can really wear on you. And
it was only last season, but it can really wear
on you. And you could tell that, Look, Katie has done,
you know. Katy says, well, I think he's gonna play,
but I don't know. James Harden says, I had talked
to to Kyrie since the decision came down. He wasn't
gonna play with us. All of this stuff, they're all done,
(03:33):
but now they have clarity, Brooklyn knows their roles. Their
role players can now step up. Joe Harris is a
big shooter, Patty Mills is a huge key. He's gonna
be able to take up all those great point guard
minutes in relief off the bench. However, it winds up
going as good a player as Kyrie Irving is, the
Nets are talented enough to make up for that, and
having that clarity going forward of this is Kad and
(03:55):
James Harden's team, and everything fills in from there, and
we're not worried about where ky Re shows up. When
he's not what he's going to do, what he's not
going to do, They'll be able to figure it out.
Does this mean they're a better team? They they they're
more talented without Kyrie. No, because Kyrie is a really
talented dude, one of the great finishers in the NBA.
But are they really going to miss him? They're not.
(04:15):
They're able to take up whatever he brings, his points,
his assists, his floor, general leadership. You're just gonna give
the ball to James Harden more. And I really, I
really look at the nets going. They're gonna be just
as fine without them. They're gonna start the regular season
on a roll. They're gonna beat the crap out of teams,
and we're gonna go. Boy. Guy said, really didn't need
Kyrie Irving for a while, all right, So I'll give
you that now A three or disagree? Um for the
(04:38):
most part. I agree. I mean, listen, I was on
Fox Sports Radio on these airwaves with Arnie Spanier when
Kevin Durance, uh you know, toe was on the half
inch line of hitting a game winner and his best
I remembers, Kyrie was in street clothes and James Harden
was playing on one leg. And and so they win
that game. They go to the Eastern Conference Finals against
Trey Young and the Hawks. They blow them out probably
(04:59):
in four were games. And they go to the finals
where they play the Phoenix Suns. And so the fact
that they were already at that point without Kyrie, yes,
it makes me believe that they will be fine going forward. Um,
And I guess what I would say is, I don't know,
Like you said, I don't know if it makes them better,
but it gives them clarity. And the one thing I
will say, Um, Kyrie, out of all these guys, is
(05:22):
just the total wild card. He used the word wild card,
the wild card to end all wild cards, because I
think we all think of these guys all in the
same vein of load management. This take a night off here,
blah blah blah blah blah. No, Kyrie Irving was just
taken nights off to take nights off. Last year, Okay,
he wasn't showing up. If you remember, he was on
the zoom meeting for some school board or zoning board
(05:43):
or whatever. And you know, do you remember that, by
the way, Cynthia makes it from Sex in the City,
he he wanted to make sure he showed his support
for her running for mayor of New York Cities rather
than playing a game. That's what I mean. I gotta
be on the zoom instead of playing in the game. Yes,
And so to your point, I mean, look, they're gonna
be nights where Katie because he's thirty whatever years old,
coming off Achilles injury last year. Um, he's gonna take
(06:06):
a night off, but he's gonna be in the arena,
cheering Yon ready to go in street clothes. James Harden,
we can criticize him a lot, but when he's healthy
enough to play, he's usually on the court. And so
I bring it up because Kyrie has always been that
wild card, dating back pretty much forever. And so like
you said, I think the way that you put it
is the best way to put it, Jason. It does
give them clarity going forward. Now I'm curious what happens
(06:27):
if the vaccine passport rules get changed or whatever. What
does it all mean. I don't know, But as you said,
you gotta go to war with the guys that you know,
the guys that you have, the guys that are available,
and at least now they know, at least now they
don't have to worry. And in some ways I credit
the organization for saying, listen, you can't play in home games.
We're not bringing you on the road, uh to to wherever.
(06:47):
And so I'm actually with you. I don't think it's
that crazy of a take in any way, shape or formanal. Now,
let let me give you this because you you bring
up the next part of this Jason Smith Arrant torres
here on Fox Sports Radio. Let's say Kyrie doesn't play, right, like,
he doesn't play, he's not getting the vaccine, he sits
out for a month. Right, Let's say he's not doing it,
and the Nets start playing, and just you know, play
(07:08):
this out with me. They start the season, they start
the season, well, it really doesn't matter how they start
the season. They start the season. They're playing without him.
And then for December one, or maybe January onet, the
city is doing so well with COVID, they relax the
restrictions and Kyrie no longer has to get vaccinated to play.
(07:29):
Do they still let him back on the team because
I don't think they do. That's that's where things are
gonna get really interesting because he has made his decision.
I'm not going to play right he and the entire time,
all the stuff on Instagram Live, it's been me me,
I'm doing what's best for me, Me me, me, me,
and you keep saying that that's great. But the people
you don't need to be beholding to me don't mean
(07:50):
to beholden to you. Anybody in the media, nobody else
but your teammates here, me me, me, me me, and
all those teammates here is I got vaccinated because I
want to win. Katie's going. I and to win a
bleep in championship another one, and James Harden's going. I
want to win because you know, my goodness, if I
got one, it would be great. That night at the
strip club would be legendary, many nights at the strip
club following. But so he would he would just move
(08:11):
in there. You did just have a strip club built
and that would be his mansion. That's where he would live. Uh.
That's gonna be the big thing, is that do they
let him back if this is something that gets relaxed.
I don't know that they do. They've moved on without him,
and I wouldn't be surprised at this. We're gonna figure
out some kind of situation where either you're traded or
we're gonna buy you out. And it's a lot of
(08:31):
money they own, it's a lot of money. But you're
already figuring out you're not gonna be with him anyway. Uh,
that's gonna be the thing, because I don't know that
suddenly it's just hey, great, Kyrie's back and he's gonna
come play. As reluctantly as I could, they would probably
figure out a way if they, if they, if they,
even if they say he comes back, it would be
for a very short amount of time and they find
(08:52):
a way to move on, and it would be just
an awkward few games while they figure out their future.
But that's gonna be the next big question. If things
get relaxed, does he come back. I don't hope the
Nets bring him back. I wouldn't be surprised in the Nets. Gay, Yeah,
we're good and we're gonna figure something else out. You
know that you're not paying him while he's sitting out,
so we'll pay you for a little while while we
figure out what we want to do with you. Well,
I was gonna be the next big part. Yeah, I
(09:12):
was gonna say. I'd say two quick things. I know
we gotta get definitly. Um One. The only thing that
complicates this I don't think there's a trade market for Kyrie.
I mean he said I'm not playing. I'm not playing
for anybody else. You trade me, I'm retiring, So that
would complicate it from there. But I would also say,
on the flip side, maybe this is the wake up
call that Kyrie Irving needs. I mean, you know, listen,
I love this sport, I love the NBA. But you know, Kyrie, um,
(09:36):
you know, has been able to get away with all
of this because there is a next landing spot for him.
Burn bridges with the Celtics, Burn bridges with Lebron, Burn
bridges with Brad Stevens, Burn Bridges with uh Doc. You
you go on and on down the list. I mean,
there's not many people that are still in his corner.
And so I bring it up only to say, maybe
this is the lesson that he needs because there is
(09:56):
gonna be no trade market, there is gonna be no
soft landing spot he actually wants to be and so
maybe this goes on for a week, ten days, two weeks,
and he realizes exactly what you just said, Jason, you
know what, this team is doing fine without me. I
got nowhere else to go. I've burned every bridge in
this league. Maybe it's time for me to get my
my you know, get get get done what needs to
(10:17):
get done, and get back on the court. See I
I see it more. I can. I can in a vacuum.
I could see that with Kyrie. Maybe he get has
that moment of clarity. Do we talk about clarity and
it's well, I really gotta straighten up and fly right.
My goodness, No, I see it more as if the
Nets say, listen, this clearly isn't working out all of this.
Where do you want to go? We will work out
(10:38):
whatever kind of trade do you want. We don't yet,
And the Nets say, we don't even need assets back.
We'll take expiring contracts, will send you somewhere where someone
can say we'll take a chance on you for the
next year and a half and then maybe it'll work,
maybe it won't. But you tell us where you want
to go and whoever you want to get traded to. Okay,
you gotta think that if this is where Kyrie wants
(10:59):
to go, he's gonna give you a good effort for
at least a calendar year before it's okay, this is done,
we're moving on from Kyrie Irving. So that's more how
I say, hey, listen, it's not gonna even though it's
kind of adversarial now, when it comes time to it,
they know they just can't just sit in without a
cut a large check. So I think it would come, listen,
let's do something here. We've decided to go forward with this.
(11:19):
Where do you want to go? Where can we send you?
And as long as they're okay with not getting a
lot of assets back and getting expiring contracts or something else, Yes,
I could see somebody taking a big shot at it.
That might not be able to get a guy like
Kyrie Irving. Ever, maybe where he might want to go. Look,
the guys played in Cleveland, guys played in Boston, he's
played now in in Brooklyn. That's kind of that's kind
of where I I would I would see the initial
(11:42):
conversations going. And now how Kyrie reacts, I mean, who knows,
because you know what's Kyrie. I would just say I
I don't know where he would want to go. I mean,
we we just laid it out. He was on a
championship team in Cleveland, wasn't good enough want to be
traded with maybe the best coach in front office at
the time in the NBA in Boston, wasn't happy, wanted out,
goes to Brooklyn because he wants to play with Kadie.
As you said, Kadi has probably turned on him in perpetuity,
(12:05):
and so like, like where who else wants what Kyrie
Irving brings? And on top of that, and I know
it's it's a well discussed point. I'm not breaking any
news by saying this, But on top of the fact
that while he's insanely talented, he's aloof he's a wild card,
as you said, and he gets hurt a lot, and
so yes, maybe there is some team that is willing
to take a chance on him. My question is what
(12:27):
team that is willing to take a chance on him
that he actually wants to go to, because imagine being
a contender, a team that is capable of making a run,
and maybe he's potentially the piece to put you over
the top. But on the flip side, you get him
and you never know when he's gonna show up. If
he's gonna play, what the next thing is that is
going to trigger him, that's gonna make him say, you
know what, I'm out for a week, ten days, two weeks.
(12:48):
I need my personal time, I need my my my
days off. I just I don't see where that trade
market is, at least relative to somewhere that he'd want
to go and not actually retire and leave leave basketball.
You just made you just made the it's so incredibly upset.
They just took a whole bunch of pepto business. Yeah, Tauris,
it's not gonna be easy to just look, it's not
gonna be easy. I'm not saying this is gonna be
(13:09):
something where, hey, I can make a phone call at
twelve o'clock and at twelve twenty it's done. They're faxing
the paperwork, we're all gonna go to lunch. But that
that's kind of where it has to go. Kyrie's played
a bunch of places. Maybe there's someplace else, maybe maybe
you never know who might decide, hey, we can take
Kyrie's been a wild card in this for a little
while and see if it works. You know, we're only
on the hook for one with then we're out of
(13:29):
that contract. We can do whether crazy things can happen.
A month in the NBA's a long time, maritauris long.
I will tell you, you know. I I was on
air again with Arnie Spaniard. We started yelling and screaming
about James Harden. I said, I don't think this market
is that big blah blah blah blah. Who's actually gonna
take him? Not that he's not talented, but you know whatever.
Day later he was in Brooklyn, So, uh, you know,
(13:52):
we always think it's a lot harder than it is.
But if but again, I think part of the factor
in this is Kyrie Irving. I don't know whether he's
officially set a publicly, but it is well known that
if he gets traded to a team that he does
not want to get traded to, he does not plan
on on on reporting and he might just retire. So
it's going if they decide that this is just not
(14:12):
working for them, they're either gonna have to buy a mountain,
pay him a lot of money, or it is going
to be a process, as you just said, to find
a landing spot that he's happy with. And that is
actually willing to take him. Be sure to catch live
editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays
at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio and the I Heart Radio app. A big story
(14:34):
out of the National Football League, and this is why
I said, uh, last night and the last couple of
nights at that. Look, the NFL is never going to
release these emails that everybody wants to see part of
the investigation of the Washington football team. Are they going
to be able to get the information the six fifty
(14:56):
thousand back and forth about bad behave from the NFL
whatever else is is under wrap? Sup? Poor John Gruden?
Oh boy, the guy can't be racist and misogynistic and
homophobic colog He winds up getting out, getting found out. Um,
the last couple of tels, you Look, the NFL is
never going to release these emails because what is in there,
(15:17):
I'm sure is so incredibly damaging. In the NFL. The
one thing they have done for twenty years now under
Roger Goodell is they have been able to say, here's
a scandal, We're throwing cold water on it when we can.
And sometimes stuff gets out and we have to deal
with it. But for the most part, when we can
stop a scandal, we stop it. And this is why
they're never gonna release these emails because this story tonight
(15:39):
from the New York Times. Jeff Pass. You've probably heard
his name, maybe you know who he is, but if
you haven't, it's okay. He is the one of the
top lawyers in the National Football League, right, it's been
around a long time. He is their executive vice president
general counsel, So basically that means he's a big deal.
Emails have been surfaced, have been put out by The
New York Times about what Jeff Pass has emailed back
(16:03):
and forth with Bruce Allen with others over the course
of the eight year investigation that the NFL was looking
at emails too in their investigation of the Washington football
team and their culture that they had when they were
when they had women bring charges against them for UH
bad behavior and what happened is Jeff Pass. Now it's
found out by the by the New York Times that
(16:25):
he had a cozy relationship with Bruce Allen, president Washington
Football Team, UH, that he and Alan helped broker penalties,
discussed a cheerleading scandal arranged Perks and had some disparaging
remarks when it came to latinos Um. One of the
big statements out there was was in regards to UM
(16:46):
music or the national anthem being attracting Latino fans, and
he responded an email by his telling Bruce Allen, I
don't think this song or or these songs you're gonna
put out to try to attack Platino fans. I don't
think they'll be his popular after the wall gets built,
referring to President Trump's wall that he wanted to build
between the United States and Mexico. So this is why
(17:07):
we're not going to get anything out, because this is
how embarrassing this is gonna be for the NFL. And
if you think it's just like one story or two stories,
it's hundreds of stories. Like you would we if you
got six emails, we wouldn't be able to keep them
all straight because there would be so many things we'd
find out, all the dirty launder the National Football League,
And I guarantee the NFL is on all kinds of
(17:28):
damage control right now trying to get Okay, we gotta
stop this. Who how is the how is the New
York Times getting all this, How do they have this?
We gotta we gotta throw this down right now. Uh.
This this is why the NFL is not gonna release
this because this is the kind of trouble that you're
gonna see and it's stuff the NFL. It's the worst
things for the NFL to get to come out, Hey,
that there were cozy relationships that help broker penalties between
(17:52):
the league and and and and executive. Oh, I'm not
down with that. Weight you're disparaging latinos in an email.
Oh I'm not down with that. Uh, you you are.
We're looking at hiring practices. Oh, I'm not down with that.
This is this is a far cry from Hey, so
and so is mad that they got fined two grand
for this and we told them to you know, beat it. Uh.
These are moral values and moral situations that you're finding.
(18:16):
The NFL is going to be found corrupt in and
and and morally bankrupt. Uh. That's why they're not going
to come out with us, because something like this, even
though you don't know Jeff Pasha's name, doesn't matter. Well,
it was really funny the way that you framed it
about you know, just the tip of the iceberg. I
made this analogy yesterday is uh going back. You know,
everybody knows I love college hoops. You know that FBI
(18:37):
schanal that happened three four five years ago. Uh, the
FBI got on this podium and made this big speech
about you know, we're coming for you, we have your playbook,
and it all kind of just disappeared. And you know,
the speculation is that some pretty powerful people got involved
because if the FBI really did go after everybody in
college basketball, uh, college basketball basically wouldn't exist anymore, if
(18:57):
if they really went after everybody. And that's end of
what I feel like with this email situation is you
talk about six hundred fifty thousand emails over the course
of a decade plus. There's a lot of important people
that have correspondence in there that are not gonna make
them look good. So I'm with you. I don't think
this gets released. But but I've said since the day
(19:18):
all this started back on Monday night. Now you know,
I know it started Friday, but Monday night was when
stuff went crazy. If you thought John Gruden was the
only one talk in that way, if you thought John
Gruden was sending those emails out into the ether without
getting responses very similar to them. And now obviously we
have some pretty highly ranked officials that you know, came
out this this evening. As you said, it's just the
(19:39):
tip of the iceberg. It's only gonna get crazier. And
I'll be curious if we ever find out where this
leak came from, and if we don't, how many more
leaks there are over the course of the coming weeks.
You know, I wonder and look, this is this is
now there's a lot of nervous people who are like
a lot of I email Bruce Allen, you know, over
the course of this seven years, because look, Bruce Allen
(20:00):
is not somebody that had the greatest relationship with a
lot of people, you know he was. It wasn't like, oh,
he was a great NFL executive and people loved him.
Bruce Allen had had a very uh polarizing reputation as
as a GM in the league. And how many people
now are going, oh, man, now that it looks like
Bruce Allen's is the focus of this because it's emails
(20:22):
to him that have done in John Gruden. It's emails
to him that is gonna wind up doing in Jeff
Pash because look, he's gonna wind up being fired uh
as as NFL's lead counsel. So there'll be an opening
for that. If you have a law degree, uh, send
your application in the NFL. So now clearly it's becoming okay,
it's the communication that we've had with Bruce Allen. He's
(20:43):
the guy that you gotta worry about. So if you
said anything bad to Bruce Allen in a seven year
period there, uh, that's that's the people that really have
to worry. And I guarantee you there are so many
people who are worried. And now it's just a matter
of do you roll the dice and hope that this
is something that doesn't get out, or do you try
to get in front of it. It's really really difficult
(21:03):
because you have to feel that, Okay, if the Bruce
Allen emails or what people have, do they have mine,
do they have this? Do they feel that this was
relevant enough to go forward with. That's a really big deal.
And I wonder just how how they're gonna go forward,
because once you decide to go down the road of okay,
I'm just gonna hope that nothing gets out. Well, that's
(21:24):
a long time to sit around and go and get
on your email every day and go anything happen, Anything happened,
anything happened. That's a that's a tough way to live life. Well,
I'm telling you, there's just I can't even imagine the
number of people. I mean, dozens of like very important
people in the NFL. Names we know, probably owners, probably gms,
probably coaches, maybe who knows six emails the course of
(21:48):
a decade. The number of people that are sitting around
right now just thinking man, oh man, oh man. And
I would also go back and say this, Uh, you know,
I know it sounded like a great idea when the
NFL said we're gonna conduct this big investigation. I understand
why they did. I understand what was going on behind
the scenes with the Washington football team. But you know,
you think you're not gonna you think you're gonna do
a thorough investigation that involves ten years worth of scrubbing
(22:12):
emails and looking through them email by email, and you're
not gonna come up with some some some sketchy stuff.
So I'm just so fascinated where this goes. Because the
leaks continue to come, more names get involved. I mean again,
we we've talked about it, but Gruten on Monday Shift
or yesterday, this guy today, This thing is just gonna
keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going until, as
(22:33):
you said, unless the NFL plugs leak or something. And
I'm just fascinated, who's gonna be next Twitter At? How
about AFRISCA Aaron and Aaron Underscore Torres The Jason Smith
Show of Aaron Torres in for Mike Harmon. Again, this
is a brand new, breaking story that Brian Finley brought
us about thirty minutes ago. And we'll continue to have
more on this throughout the night because now suddenly this
(22:54):
is taking the direction of away from John Gruden. Now okay,
now we're gonna go get other people. Apparently, as long
as you send an email to Bruce Allen. If you've
not send an email to Bruce Allen in the last
ten years, I think you're okay. Eighteen did you ever
send an email to Bruce Allen? And in the last Well,
I'll tell you what's funny is I'm not as plugged
it in the NFL as I am in other circles,
other sports circles. I had that thought this week of like,
(23:15):
do I know and is there any way an email
I sent got to someone in the NFL that got
to the red the former Redskins now football team. To
answer your question, I don't believe that I've ever emailed
Bruce Allen. But if you never hear me on these
air waves again, if my mike gets cut here in
the next couple of hours, we'll find the answer to that.
I'm just saying. I mean, all right, I don't think so,
(23:35):
I could say with certainty, but listen, we sent a
lot of emails to a lot of random people, and
we work in sports, so I think I'm safe, Jason Smith,
But I don't really know that I am, to be honest,
Alex Tisher, are you okay? Did you send an email
to Bruce Allen in the last ten years? I think
I might have asked him if he wanted guacamola when
he ordered a burrito once when I was working somewhere,
(23:55):
But I think that's it. Well, he definitely responded inappropriate
to that one. There's no doubt about that. Oh my goodness.
Uh so, yeah, big big deal right now in the
National Football League. Be sure to catch live editions of
the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten
pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. He's my Carmen, I'm Dan Buyer. Do.
(24:17):
We have a brand new fantasy football podcast called I
Want Your Flex. Twice a week, every Tuesday and Friday,
we come up with new episodes to not only look
back at what happened, what you need to do at
that minute, and also look ahead of what's coming up
in the fantasy football world. That's right, Dan. Every week
we're gonna scour the waiver wire to find the pickups
(24:38):
to turbo boost your fantasy lineup six starts, fantasy football
players rankings to get you ready to dominate the competition.
Listen to I Want Your Flex with Mike Carmen and
me Dan Buyer on the I Heart Radio app, Apple
Podcast and wherever you get your podcasts. Look, Tom Brady
gets a lot of attention, and we got a little
bit more on him because now Brady says I could
(24:58):
play the lot fifty or fifty five. I've uh it.
We'll get to that. But what is not being said
enough about the Bucks. Look, it's hard. It's hard to
talk about this person because he's not a great dude.
And you know he's had trouble and he's still in trouble. Uh,
but you can't deny that maybe the most important weapon,
and I know the most important weapon that Tom Brady
(25:20):
has in the Bucks this year is Antonio Brown because
when he started picking it up midway through last year,
member Bruce Arian said, oh, we're never gonna have this
guy on our team. Oh, Tom Brady wants him. So, oh,
Tom Brady is gonna He's gonna be on our team. Uh.
You knew that he was Brady's preferred wide receiver because
like I was staying at his house and he was
looking to keep him. Antonio Brown has just been that talented.
(25:43):
And he goes through the entire offseason drama with the Raiders,
he gets released, he plays one game with the Patriots,
he gets released, He's got all kinds of legal trouble.
And again, he's a tough guy to talk about because
he's not a good guy. But his impact on the
Buccaneers now has turned them in to a team. And
he's the reason why it is so difficult to defeat
(26:05):
the Buccaneers because what he's able to do now, he
is almost back to being the Antonio Brown best receiver
in the NFL where he was before he wound up
leaving the Steelers for the Raiders, and and and his
then his career went haywire. I mean tonight he was
nine in a touchdown. He had thirteen targets tonight. All right,
that's double the next closest player with Tampa Bay. Right,
(26:27):
And it's triple what you're getting for Godwin and Evans,
who are the other two big wide receivers. As good
as Chris Godwin is as good as Mike Evans is.
Antonio Brown is Brady's preferred receiver, and he's the reason
why this offense goes. Right. You want to compare the
Bucks to the Chiefs, Right, Why do the Bucks keep
winning and the Chiefs have trouble? The Chief's weapons are
(26:49):
weapons you can control. Right, Tyree Kill is a great player.
He's one guy. Travis Kelsey is a great player. He's
one guy you can figure out a safety over the
top with. With ty Rekill, you can figure out help
in the middle of the field. Who else is gonna
beat you? There's nobody else that chief It's not like
years ago that Chiefs still have a guy like Sammy Watkins,
who is able to, you know, have a big game
(27:10):
now and again that you need to be responsible for
because even though he's not the stud that he was
at Clemson, he's still, you know, a good enough wide
receiver that he can make havoc in the middle of
the field. Now, the Chiefs don't have that, right, It's
it's Hill and it's Kelsey and there's nobody else that
scares you. It's why they signed Josh Gordon. We're throwing
hail Mary's now to somebody else to help jump start
this offense. Now Edwards Hilaria is out, it's gonna be
(27:33):
difficult for them running the football. And this is why
the Chiefs struggle. And now when you compare that to
the Buccaneers and you look at their offense, where any
night they can say, well, it could be for Net
or Ronald Jones running the football for us. Right, we
don't need them to be great, We just need them
to do their thing. And tonight for Net was eight
yards and two touchdowns. He did his thing. But the
(27:54):
weapons they have outside, whether it's Brown and Godwin and
Evans and now O. J. Howard, who had a big
night tonight with six catches and a touchdown even with
Gronk not playing, how are you going to control these guys?
You don't have enough defensive depth to be able to
cover these guys. But clearly it's about Antonio Brown because
now you're talking about your third cornerback is gonna be
(28:17):
matched up against either a b or Godwin or Evans,
whether you want to play the guy in the slot
or not. And that's a big mismatch and you're able
to get and Bradys are good enough quarterback to find
that mismatch really really fast. The difference in this Bucks
team from last year this year and suddenly why the
offense is so good because last year it took him
a long time to get going. Uh, this is Antonio
(28:37):
Brown being almost back to what Antonio Brown was. He's
not quite there because again he is older, he's and
you know how you're talking about being thirty three, thirty
four years old. But he's the big difference and and
he's close to being what he was, and that makes
this Buccaneers team nearly unbeatable, you know, nearly unbeatable. I
don't know, that feels like a stretch. There's certainly the
(28:58):
toughest I would argue to cover in football. I'm with
you in that the Chiefs, you know, and I think
we might be talking about them at some point throughout
the show tonight, Jason. But uh, the Chiefs have taken
a step back. They do not scare teams like they
used to. Um, you know, I do think this is
probably the most explosive offense. I do think they're super dynamic.
I do worry about a little bit with the defense,
(29:18):
and I do worry to a degree with what you
were talking about a minute ago of the overall health.
Can all these older players stay healthy? The one thing
I can't fight you on, Jason. You start to look
at all those weapons and the maestro that Tom Brady is. Um,
you know, it is scary. It is scary because I
don't even think they played very well tonight. And this
was a team that was up twenty one seven going
(29:40):
into the into halftime, twenty eight seven going into the
fourth quarter, in complete control. They were able to score
will the last few weeks, you know, last week, excuse me,
against the Dolphins. So I just bring it up to say, um,
you know, scary, Yes, dynamic, Yes, you know, unstoppable. I'm
not sure yet. I'm not sold that They are definitively
the best team in the NFC, the best team in football, whatever.
(30:02):
But when they get it rolling, they really are scary.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart
Radio app Fox Sports Radio. Welcome inside the final hour
of The Jason Smith Show of Aaron Tore is in
from Mike Harmon, where Max Scherzer has his shirt off
(30:25):
celebrating with Dodger fans after the Dodgers to one win
over the Giants. You know, you know who Max Scherzer
is a t okay. Max Scherzer is to try to
relate to someone you would know you ever go to
a party or you know, when you were a kid,
but it was an adult party where the kids get
(30:45):
to go and it's a pool party in the summer
and parents start, you know, drinking over the course of
the entire day. And there's the dad with his shirt
off that's yelling and screaming the whole time, and he's
jumping into the water with cannon balls and he's you know,
spraying things. That's kind of who Max Shres's accept he's,
you know, one of the best pitchers in baseball and
a multi multimillionaire. Say he makes funny in the bank
(31:09):
or whatever it is. Yeah, but that that's kind of who.
When I see him doing that, I'm like, Yeah, he's
like the dad at the pool party. That's like, oh man,
he's a cool dad. Man. Look he's out of control.
He's having a lot of fun running around there. That's
kind of who were pushing people over when when they're
laying on the float they don't want to go in
the water, but they'll push him in the water. That's
kind of who. Well I was gonna say, yeah, he's
the guy that you show up at the party and
(31:30):
you're like, oh, you know, you meet the wife at
the door and you say, oh, yeah, you know, I
brought this lovely cheese blatter and oh there's your husband
in the back with his shirt off and it's eight
thirty in the morning. So yeah, he's that guy. Yeah, Like, bro,
the game ended five The game literally ended like seven
minutes ago. You can't be drunk. You must be the
(31:50):
lightest lightweight that ever there was, or or you're just
I don't know, but so Max Shres is one of
the heroes. Uh certainly home played Umpire. Doug Endings also
one of the heroes of the game tonight. First base
first Blase Umpire also one of the heroes tonight game
morales as Wilma Flores called out on a really bad
(32:13):
check swing, Um mean, well the bad or before Wade
called out on a called strike three, that's not a strike.
Look the Giants, I get how upset they are. It
should not have ended this way. Those were awful. They
were brutal calls. But as we've talked about it, Look,
the odds of the Giants winning that game are really low, right,
you know, they're really low, and that that's that's where
(32:34):
we're at at this point. It's not like the bases
were loaded. It was a three and two count and
if that pitches called a ball, that brings in the
tying run, Right, did you never run around scoring position?
Sherzer was pitching really well. The inning should have been
over already, except justin Turner biffs the grounder to him
that you should have made that. He makes a play
on ninet times out of a hundred. So it's not
like there was a real big chance for the Giants
(32:56):
when I get it, took it away from it. And
but most more than lee, it's a one in two count.
The outcome is Max Scherzer wins that battle against Wilmer Flores.
Just not just because Max schers is a great picture
and Wilmer Flori is a is an average player. But
this is how, this is what the odds of success
are in Major League baseball because you fail more often
than not. You know you fail, you know two and
(33:18):
a half you do, you succeed two and a half
times out of ten. That's Wilmer Flores. So how is
he going to succeed when it's a one in two
count against Max shar is one of the best pictures
in baseball. The chance they have to win that game
at that point is so low, And that's what I'd say,
not the Giants fans shouldn't complain, because they should because
those are two still too really bad calls. But it
makes it a little bit easier to take that boy
(33:40):
that that check swing by Flores. It's not like you
were just one one tick away, one hair away from
tying that game or winning the game. You were still
a long ways away from winning well, And it's really
funny because you know, I think Gabe Kepler somewhere in
between finishing off that game and walking back to the
press room, I think he might have been listening to
Jason Smith and Aaron Torres, because here is what he
(34:02):
said in the postgame press conference. He said, you know,
there's other people to blame. I'm trying to find the
exact quote here, but essentially he said, there are other
reasons that we lost other than the umpires. You know,
a series comes down to a lot of different things,
and so the exact quotes among many where you've got
to tip your cap to the work that they did.
There are other reasons we didn't win tonight's game, and
(34:22):
those are the things that we talked about last segment.
Jason is you know, you can criticize the refs or
the umps excuse me, you can criticize this. You can
criticize that the Giants were up two to one in
this series. The Giants were at home in game five,
um and they had a million chances, and they got
a great performance to start the game from logan Web.
They had all the opportunities in the world. This this series,
(34:42):
this game did not come down to one play did
not come down to one pitch. I think Gabe Kapler
accepts that. I think Giants fans on social media got
accepted as well. Twitter write, how about a Fresca Aaron
at Aaron underscore Torres. Uh, you want to hear just
how bad bad call is though, because it was. This
is the call from a M five seventy Dodger flagship
(35:03):
station here in Los Angeles. Uh, listen to Charlie Steiner
play by play guy. Listen to how surprised he is
that that call is strike three. Sure, sir, to Floren's
outside a ring around stright three gamelos the first base
far the Dodgers are going to the National League Championship Series.
(35:26):
I mean, I mean, I mean he went around. I
mean I mean no, I mean it's straight three. Like
Charlie's already got his next comment ready say everything. Oh no, no,
it's over strike three. It's the games over, the games over.
The Dodgers win. That that's amazing, Dodgers win. Not nobody
thought that he went around. Nobody did, but yet that
was the call by game Morales. By the way, I
(35:47):
just I just want to say, um, the biggest Dodgers
fan in Los Angeles has just chimed in Lebron James
tweeting moving on, congrats Dodgers keep going. So we got
to l about ten minutes ago, biggest Dodgers fan going.
So so great to have the support of Lebron James
behind this team. I know it's what everybody was waiting for.
So thank you to Lebron for for for signing off,
(36:08):
for giving his seal of approval. What do you expect
the Yankees are out? That's his real team? So when
the when the Indians? When when the Cleveland team isn't
playing because he's from Cleveland. I mean, I can I'm
old enough to see that. There's a lot of young
people listening that probably aren't even old enough to remember.
I remember when it was a controversy when he showed
up to a Cleveland Indians playoff game with with a
yank Was it with the Yankees? Had I believe it
(36:30):
was with the Yankees, had or he had been a
Yankees fan, but he said he was rooting for Cleveland. So, uh, Lebron,
I'm just teasing. I'm just teasing. Lebron stands. Everybody calmed down. No, no, no,
it's okay. Why do you think Lebron's gonna call Lebron's
gonna call LaVar Ball of our ball is gonna come
get mad at you? Is that what's gonna happen. Oh,
he's not calling the bar, but I don't think the
Ball family is very uh fond of of Lebron. When
Lebron got the whole team traded a year and a
(36:51):
half ago. So it worked out well for a lonzo.
He's making a lot of money in Chicago. But by
the way, very random. I I did get a kick
out of this summer when they were trying to bust
the Bulls for tampering with a Lonzo, even though Russell
Westbrook was talking about a meeting with Anthony Davis and
Lebron James at Lebron's house in l a. So I
(37:12):
don't know what made me the well, I know what
made me think of it. But yes, Lebron has chimed in.
Lebron has given his his blessing. So now we can
start the NLCS. Very exciting stuff. Uh. Now, meanwhile, let's
go back a little bit because I want to say
something about a player who gives me a Derek Jeter
vibe to the point where there's times I say, you know,
(37:33):
we talk a lot about Mike Trout and different players
like that, where this guy is the best player of
the last five years, all around player in Major League baseball. Uh,
here's how the Dodgers got their first run. It's not
the guy who hit the ball. It's a guy who
scored the run. The two oh fine drive left field
over the head of Longoria in the score is Rookie
(37:55):
Betts on the r V I single by Singer who
stretches it into it and the Dodgers Charlie Steiner again
am five seventy with the call. Mookie Bets four for
four tonight for the Dodgers in their win over the Giants.
He had four of the dodgers eight hits. He comes
(38:16):
around to score the first run after a single and
stealing second base. All Right, when I watched Derek Jeter play,
and you know, when I was in my early twenties,
when Jeter comes up and so I've gotten to see
his whole career from the long lens of look, I
understand what's going on. I'm not in some kind of
you know, alcohol induced hayes. When I'm twenty years old,
(38:37):
going He's fantastic. There are times when I looked at
Derek Jeter and said, he's the best baseball player I've
ever seen because of what he does in clutch moments.
He always makes the right play right. He always made,
whether it was on defense, whether it was him getting
a flare for a base hit to drive in a run.
(38:58):
Sometimes it was a home run. Sometimes it's taking an
extra base on a on a pass ball that doesn't
get far enough away from the catcher, but he still
is able to do it. He always found a way
to make the right play and the biggest clutch play
at the right time. And certainly we have a lot
of postseason of Derek Jeter to look back on and go, yeah,
all these different things he's done. I get that same
(39:19):
vibe out of Mookie Bets is that whenever something big
is happening, whether it's Red Sox Dodgers, he's the guy
that comes up with the right play. And sometimes it's
a home run. Sometimes it's a great defensive play. I'm
diving to prevent a double that would have brought in
two runs. Sometimes it's I'm gonna steal second base and
that way I come around to score. On Corey seekers
not get stuck at third and have to hope for
(39:41):
another hit. There's so many times when I see him
do that and I go, man, this guy is really
the best all around player in baseball. And it's it's
not just about his stats, because the stats are good,
but they pale in comparison to other guys. Because look,
you say, the guys who more home runs, knocking more runs,
their war is still pretty good. But this is a guy,
Mookie Bett. It's his war is up at six seven nine,
(40:03):
and he's he's a thirty two and eighty guy. He steals,
you know, anywhere between ten and thirty bases a year.
He hits three hundred, He makes all the clutch plays.
He is that kind of guy. He gives me that
Derek Jeter Viban if you said, back, okay, who's the
best baseball player the past five years? I would go, man, yeah,
Mike Trout is great. Mike Trout hasn't been in the postseason,
(40:25):
and Mookie Betts has a couple of World Series and
he and he could be on his way to getting
another one. And he's made so many big plays in
all of both of those World Series that he's one.
Uh yeah, I'm sorry. There's times when I go, maybe
Mookie Betts is the best player in Major League, but
the best all around player, And I think that's part
of it, right, And I understand, you know, Mike Trout there,
(40:46):
you're limited by your teammates and this is a team
sport has been Baseball more than maybe any other. But
at the same time, uh, what you just said is right, Jason.
I mean, think about it. First of all, he's with
the Red Sox franchise player, comes up with the organization,
leads him to a World Series Reeason whatever it was nineteen,
then goes to a franchise in the Dodgers, and we all,
(41:06):
anyone who's watched baseball at all over the last decade knows,
great organization. They want a million straight division titles until
this year. But the point that I'm trying to get
to is he gets to the Dodgers and four years
they're right on the cusp. And and you know, it's
so funny. You mentioned you've been in l A for
about ten years. I've been in l A for about
ten years. I got here in two thousand twelve, and
that first division title and it was playoff, playoff, playoff,
(41:29):
can't get over the hump. Can't get over the hump.
Don't trust Kershaw. It's this. It's that get to the
World Series, lose to the Astros, get to the World Series,
lose to the Red Sox, lose to the Nationals in
the first round, and we think, is this dynasty that
that never even got started starting to crumble? He comes in.
He is the difference. He is the guy that put
them over the top. I made the analogy earlier in
the show that you know Lebron in l a. People
(41:53):
can argue with me, they could disagree. I know I
was just teasing about Lebron a minute ago. But he
is a mercenary. He came here for a reason other
than wanting to be a Laker. We all know that
he had interest off the court, which is his prerogative.
He's absolutely allowed to. But when the Lakers won the
championship last year, they weren't channing Lebron, Lebron, Lebron in
the streets. They were chanting unfortunately Kobe. After the passing
(42:14):
of Kobe. I only bring that up to say when
the Dodgers won the World Series, everyone rallied around Mookie
Bets because he was the missing piece. He will always
be that icon in Los Angeles for putting them over
the top. And now the question becomes, I don't think
it's gonna be just one by the time Mookie Bets
has done because as you said, Jason, he is a
guy that just continues to make plays, continues to put
(42:36):
this organization on their back. And they are once again
in the NLCS. An amazing night for the Dodgers to win.
And again remember I said Dodgers in five and it
kind of happened that way, so really kind of made
it that way. Uh yeah, Look, Bets is a guy.
Look he didn't he only played in a hundred twenty
games this year, but you look back at his body
of work, and we talk about the all around player
(42:58):
and that's kind of hit the wall in the last
few years in baseball just because we like the big stats.
We like what we like what Bryce Harper does and
what Jose bray you can do. But that all around
player that that continue to play well in the field
because look, as I said, Jeter would make great plays
in the field too. You know, it's not just the
flip against the A's, it's you know, it's other big things.
Going to the stands for a ball against the Red
(43:20):
Sox in a in a game that wound up getting
no more traded because of Jeter's effort in that game.
There's so many things on both sides of the ball,
and Mookie Betts kind of is that guy. And and
when you get to do it on a big stage
in the playoffs, yeah, I'm sorry that that matters more
than being able to do it over the course the
regular season. And your team doesn't get to the playoffs.
(43:40):
It's not your fault they don't get to the playoffs.
But I can't take away from Bets. And you know
and say, okay, well, I gotta throw it out what
he can do compared to what Trout can do, because
Trout's not in the playoffs. Uh No, I kind of
gotta give Mookie Bets credit because this is this is
what you're paying the guy for you pay You're paying
the guy thirty million dollars a year for night's exactly
like this one, exactly like this, and he comes through
(44:04):
all the time. I mean it, I think the last
five years he's the best player in baseball now. And
I think that's totally fair. And and you know, listen
to the sport of baseball has become so analytically driven.
I think all sports have a Baseball more than any other, like,
wins and losses still matter. And again I get it's
a team sport. I get that a team, a player,
an individual player in baseball can't put an entire organization
(44:25):
on his back. Uh. And you know, if the if
the talent isn't there around him. But winning does matter
and in winning time, Uh, he is great. And as
you said, I don't think it's a coincidence that everywhere
he goes they have success. Won a World Series in Boston,
comes to l A, they immediately win a World Series.
Back in the NLCS, Uh, win a hundred six games
(44:45):
in the regular season. I'm not I'm with you. I
think he's the best player in baseball. Yeah, I get
the trout stuff. I don't care about the analytics. Get
to the playoffs. Do something there. Mookie Bets does it,
year in year out. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays ten
pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmen podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every week night from ten pm to two a m.
Eastern seven to eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio.
Find your local station for The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream
us live every night on the I Heart Radio app
by searching fs R. This is the best of the
(00:22):
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
Something really interesting happened last night into today, and I
even the most the biggest of skeptics has to agree.
The Nets have moved on from Kyrie Irving. Right. We
told you this two nights ago on the show, because
(00:44):
you know, we're ahead of the curve at that. That's
a big thing. You know, two nights ago it was
Look when when the Nets came out, and even a
week ago, the way they had acted towards Kyrie Irving,
who did not want to get vaccinated for COVID nineteen,
so he's not gonna be able to play for the
Nets until he does, you could tell they were done
and any situation that would have involved them wanting him back,
(01:06):
they would have worked harder, and they would have wanted
to get him back, they would have tried to figure
out different ways. No, we need Kyrie, we need him.
Instead it was I don't want to get vaccinated. Okay, great,
well you can't come here until you can. We're ready
to move on. And just seeing how they've acted and
reacted over the course of the past few days, you
had the Sham's Trani report that Kyrie wasn't gonna be
(01:27):
off to new contract from the Nets, and then today
Steve Nash said, look, I'm done talking about Kyrie. I'm
talking about the team all right now. So so much
for Hey. We we have Kyrie's back, he's our guy. No,
I'm done talking about him. We're moving on. They have
moved on from Kyrie Irving right that they are no
longer want to be in the Kyrie Irving business. And
that rambling instagram in interview session that he had last
(01:48):
night just didn't answer anything other than Yep, Kyrie's gonna
Kyrie didn't really see any incredibly uh in depth answers
as to why he doesn't want to get vaccinated, just
you know, kind of just rambles for the few minutes
he was on I g live saying, oh, you think
I don't want to play. Of course I want to play.
I'm not anti vax, I'm not pro vacs. Then what
(02:09):
are you doing? All right? So, still, this is Kyrie Irving.
He's a wild card. He does whatever he wants to do,
and it's maddening, but this is kind of who he is.
But the next part of this conversation eighteen that this
is the interesting parts. I'm gonna hit you with something
and you give me agreed, disagree, and give me your reasons.
Is that I've set from the beginning when the Nets
grabbed their Big three and it was boy, this is
(02:31):
just gonna be very difficult. And certainly when these three
guys are on the floor together, it's it's very difficult
to beat them, right, you see, they win every game one,
forty two, one, ten, and it's like, yeah, kd at
thirty five and Harden's got twenty eight and ten and
Guy Ree's twenty five and seven, and they're very difficult.
But the Nets are going to be absolutely fine without
(02:51):
Kyrie Irving. They will steamroll through the regular season. And
mainly the reason I like this is because they have clarity.
Clarity is very underrated in sports. When you are a
team that has goals and has ambitions, you want to
know who you are, what your identity is going to be.
And the Nets wondering when Kyrie is going to play,
when he's going to leave the team, when he's gonna
(03:13):
come back, if he's gonna be healthy, is he not
gonna be healthy? That can really wear on you. And
it was only last season, but it can really wear
on you. And you could tell that, Look, Katie has done,
you know. Katy says, well, I think he's gonna play,
but I don't know. James Harden says, I had talked
to to Kyrie since the decision came down. He wasn't
gonna play with us. All of this stuff, they're all done,
(03:33):
but now they have clarity, Brooklyn knows their roles. Their
role players can now step up. Joe Harris is a
big shooter, Patty Mills is a huge key. He's gonna
be able to take up all those great point guard
minutes in relief off the bench. However, it winds up
going as good a player as Kyrie Irving is, the
Nets are talented enough to make up for that, and
having that clarity going forward of this is Kad and
(03:55):
James Harden's team, and everything fills in from there, and
we're not worried about where ky Re shows up. When
he's not what he's going to do, what he's not
going to do, They'll be able to figure it out.
Does this mean they're a better team? They they they're
more talented without Kyrie. No, because Kyrie is a really
talented dude, one of the great finishers in the NBA.
But are they really going to miss him? They're not.
(04:15):
They're able to take up whatever he brings, his points,
his assists, his floor, general leadership. You're just gonna give
the ball to James Harden more. And I really, I
really look at the nets going. They're gonna be just
as fine without them. They're gonna start the regular season
on a roll. They're gonna beat the crap out of teams,
and we're gonna go. Boy. Guy said, really didn't need
Kyrie Irving for a while, all right, So I'll give
you that now A three or disagree? Um for the
(04:38):
most part. I agree. I mean, listen, I was on
Fox Sports Radio on these airwaves with Arnie Spanier when
Kevin Durance, uh you know, toe was on the half
inch line of hitting a game winner and his best
I remembers, Kyrie was in street clothes and James Harden
was playing on one leg. And and so they win
that game. They go to the Eastern Conference Finals against
Trey Young and the Hawks. They blow them out probably
(04:59):
in four were games. And they go to the finals
where they play the Phoenix Suns. And so the fact
that they were already at that point without Kyrie, yes,
it makes me believe that they will be fine going forward. Um,
And I guess what I would say is, I don't know,
Like you said, I don't know if it makes them better,
but it gives them clarity. And the one thing I
will say, Um, Kyrie, out of all these guys, is
(05:22):
just the total wild card. He used the word wild card,
the wild card to end all wild cards, because I
think we all think of these guys all in the
same vein of load management. This take a night off here,
blah blah blah blah blah. No, Kyrie Irving was just
taken nights off to take nights off. Last year, Okay,
he wasn't showing up. If you remember, he was on
the zoom meeting for some school board or zoning board
(05:43):
or whatever. And you know, do you remember that, by
the way, Cynthia makes it from Sex in the City,
he he wanted to make sure he showed his support
for her running for mayor of New York Cities rather
than playing a game. That's what I mean. I gotta
be on the zoom instead of playing in the game. Yes,
And so to your point, I mean, look, they're gonna
be nights where Katie because he's thirty whatever years old,
coming off Achilles injury last year. Um, he's gonna take
(06:06):
a night off, but he's gonna be in the arena,
cheering Yon ready to go in street clothes. James Harden,
we can criticize him a lot, but when he's healthy
enough to play, he's usually on the court. And so
I bring it up because Kyrie has always been that
wild card, dating back pretty much forever. And so like
you said, I think the way that you put it
is the best way to put it, Jason. It does
give them clarity going forward. Now I'm curious what happens
(06:27):
if the vaccine passport rules get changed or whatever. What
does it all mean. I don't know, But as you said,
you gotta go to war with the guys that you know,
the guys that you have, the guys that are available,
and at least now they know, at least now they
don't have to worry. And in some ways I credit
the organization for saying, listen, you can't play in home games.
We're not bringing you on the road, uh to to wherever.
(06:47):
And so I'm actually with you. I don't think it's
that crazy of a take in any way, shape or formanal. Now,
let let me give you this because you you bring
up the next part of this Jason Smith Arrant torres
here on Fox Sports Radio. Let's say Kyrie doesn't play, right, like,
he doesn't play, he's not getting the vaccine, he sits
out for a month. Right, Let's say he's not doing it,
and the Nets start playing, and just you know, play
(07:08):
this out with me. They start the season, they start
the season, well, it really doesn't matter how they start
the season. They start the season. They're playing without him.
And then for December one, or maybe January onet, the
city is doing so well with COVID, they relax the
restrictions and Kyrie no longer has to get vaccinated to play.
(07:29):
Do they still let him back on the team because
I don't think they do. That's that's where things are
gonna get really interesting because he has made his decision.
I'm not going to play right he and the entire time,
all the stuff on Instagram Live, it's been me me,
I'm doing what's best for me, Me me, me, me,
and you keep saying that that's great. But the people
you don't need to be beholding to me don't mean
(07:50):
to beholden to you. Anybody in the media, nobody else
but your teammates here, me me, me, me me, and
all those teammates here is I got vaccinated because I
want to win. Katie's going. I and to win a
bleep in championship another one, and James Harden's going. I
want to win because you know, my goodness, if I
got one, it would be great. That night at the
strip club would be legendary, many nights at the strip
club following. But so he would he would just move
(08:11):
in there. You did just have a strip club built
and that would be his mansion. That's where he would live. Uh.
That's gonna be the big thing, is that do they
let him back if this is something that gets relaxed.
I don't know that they do. They've moved on without him,
and I wouldn't be surprised at this. We're gonna figure
out some kind of situation where either you're traded or
we're gonna buy you out. And it's a lot of
(08:31):
money they own, it's a lot of money. But you're
already figuring out you're not gonna be with him anyway. Uh,
that's gonna be the thing, because I don't know that
suddenly it's just hey, great, Kyrie's back and he's gonna
come play. As reluctantly as I could, they would probably
figure out a way if they, if they, if they,
even if they say he comes back, it would be
for a very short amount of time and they find
(08:52):
a way to move on, and it would be just
an awkward few games while they figure out their future.
But that's gonna be the next big question. If things
get relaxed, does he come back. I don't hope the
Nets bring him back. I wouldn't be surprised in the Nets. Gay, Yeah,
we're good and we're gonna figure something else out. You
know that you're not paying him while he's sitting out,
so we'll pay you for a little while while we
figure out what we want to do with you. Well,
I was gonna be the next big part. Yeah, I
(09:12):
was gonna say. I'd say two quick things. I know
we gotta get definitly. Um One. The only thing that
complicates this I don't think there's a trade market for Kyrie.
I mean he said I'm not playing. I'm not playing
for anybody else. You trade me, I'm retiring, So that
would complicate it from there. But I would also say,
on the flip side, maybe this is the wake up
call that Kyrie Irving needs. I mean, you know, listen,
I love this sport, I love the NBA. But you know, Kyrie, um,
(09:36):
you know, has been able to get away with all
of this because there is a next landing spot for him.
Burn bridges with the Celtics, Burn bridges with Lebron, Burn
bridges with Brad Stevens, Burn Bridges with uh Doc. You
you go on and on down the list. I mean,
there's not many people that are still in his corner.
And so I bring it up only to say, maybe
this is the lesson that he needs because there is
(09:56):
gonna be no trade market, there is gonna be no
soft landing spot he actually wants to be and so
maybe this goes on for a week, ten days, two weeks,
and he realizes exactly what you just said, Jason, you
know what, this team is doing fine without me. I
got nowhere else to go. I've burned every bridge in
this league. Maybe it's time for me to get my
my you know, get get get done what needs to
(10:17):
get done, and get back on the court. See I
I see it more. I can. I can in a vacuum.
I could see that with Kyrie. Maybe he get has
that moment of clarity. Do we talk about clarity and
it's well, I really gotta straighten up and fly right.
My goodness, No, I see it more as if the
Nets say, listen, this clearly isn't working out all of this.
Where do you want to go? We will work out
(10:38):
whatever kind of trade do you want. We don't yet,
And the Nets say, we don't even need assets back.
We'll take expiring contracts, will send you somewhere where someone
can say we'll take a chance on you for the
next year and a half and then maybe it'll work,
maybe it won't. But you tell us where you want
to go and whoever you want to get traded to. Okay,
you gotta think that if this is where Kyrie wants
(10:59):
to go, he's gonna give you a good effort for
at least a calendar year before it's okay, this is done,
we're moving on from Kyrie Irving. So that's more how
I say, hey, listen, it's not gonna even though it's
kind of adversarial now, when it comes time to it,
they know they just can't just sit in without a
cut a large check. So I think it would come, listen,
let's do something here. We've decided to go forward with this.
(11:19):
Where do you want to go? Where can we send you?
And as long as they're okay with not getting a
lot of assets back and getting expiring contracts or something else, Yes,
I could see somebody taking a big shot at it.
That might not be able to get a guy like
Kyrie Irving. Ever, maybe where he might want to go. Look,
the guys played in Cleveland, guys played in Boston, he's
played now in in Brooklyn. That's kind of that's kind
of where I I would I would see the initial
(11:42):
conversations going. And now how Kyrie reacts, I mean, who knows,
because you know what's Kyrie. I would just say I
I don't know where he would want to go. I mean,
we we just laid it out. He was on a
championship team in Cleveland, wasn't good enough want to be
traded with maybe the best coach in front office at
the time in the NBA in Boston, wasn't happy, wanted out,
goes to Brooklyn because he wants to play with Kadie.
As you said, Kadi has probably turned on him in perpetuity,
(12:05):
and so like, like where who else wants what Kyrie
Irving brings? And on top of that, and I know
it's it's a well discussed point. I'm not breaking any
news by saying this, But on top of the fact
that while he's insanely talented, he's aloof he's a wild card,
as you said, and he gets hurt a lot, and
so yes, maybe there is some team that is willing
to take a chance on him. My question is what
(12:27):
team that is willing to take a chance on him
that he actually wants to go to, because imagine being
a contender, a team that is capable of making a run,
and maybe he's potentially the piece to put you over
the top. But on the flip side, you get him
and you never know when he's gonna show up. If
he's gonna play, what the next thing is that is
going to trigger him, that's gonna make him say, you
know what, I'm out for a week, ten days, two weeks.
(12:48):
I need my personal time, I need my my my
days off. I just I don't see where that trade
market is, at least relative to somewhere that he'd want
to go and not actually retire and leave leave basketball.
You just made you just made the it's so incredibly upset.
They just took a whole bunch of pepto business. Yeah, Tauris,
it's not gonna be easy to just look, it's not
gonna be easy. I'm not saying this is gonna be
(13:09):
something where, hey, I can make a phone call at
twelve o'clock and at twelve twenty it's done. They're faxing
the paperwork, we're all gonna go to lunch. But that
that's kind of where it has to go. Kyrie's played
a bunch of places. Maybe there's someplace else, maybe maybe
you never know who might decide, hey, we can take
Kyrie's been a wild card in this for a little
while and see if it works. You know, we're only
on the hook for one with then we're out of
(13:29):
that contract. We can do whether crazy things can happen.
A month in the NBA's a long time, maritauris long.
I will tell you, you know. I I was on
air again with Arnie Spaniard. We started yelling and screaming
about James Harden. I said, I don't think this market
is that big blah blah blah blah. Who's actually gonna
take him? Not that he's not talented, but you know whatever.
Day later he was in Brooklyn, So, uh, you know,
(13:52):
we always think it's a lot harder than it is.
But if but again, I think part of the factor
in this is Kyrie Irving. I don't know whether he's
officially set a publicly, but it is well known that
if he gets traded to a team that he does
not want to get traded to, he does not plan
on on on reporting and he might just retire. So
it's going if they decide that this is just not
(14:12):
working for them, they're either gonna have to buy a mountain,
pay him a lot of money, or it is going
to be a process, as you just said, to find
a landing spot that he's happy with. And that is
actually willing to take him. Be sure to catch live
editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays
at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio and the I Heart Radio app. A big story
(14:34):
out of the National Football League, and this is why
I said, uh, last night and the last couple of
nights at that. Look, the NFL is never going to
release these emails that everybody wants to see part of
the investigation of the Washington football team. Are they going
to be able to get the information the six fifty
(14:56):
thousand back and forth about bad behave from the NFL
whatever else is is under wrap? Sup? Poor John Gruden?
Oh boy, the guy can't be racist and misogynistic and
homophobic colog He winds up getting out, getting found out. Um,
the last couple of tels, you Look, the NFL is
never going to release these emails because what is in there,
(15:17):
I'm sure is so incredibly damaging. In the NFL. The
one thing they have done for twenty years now under
Roger Goodell is they have been able to say, here's
a scandal, We're throwing cold water on it when we can.
And sometimes stuff gets out and we have to deal
with it. But for the most part, when we can
stop a scandal, we stop it. And this is why
they're never gonna release these emails because this story tonight
(15:39):
from the New York Times. Jeff Pass. You've probably heard
his name, maybe you know who he is, but if
you haven't, it's okay. He is the one of the
top lawyers in the National Football League, right, it's been
around a long time. He is their executive vice president
general counsel, So basically that means he's a big deal.
Emails have been surfaced, have been put out by The
New York Times about what Jeff Pass has emailed back
(16:03):
and forth with Bruce Allen with others over the course
of the eight year investigation that the NFL was looking
at emails too in their investigation of the Washington football
team and their culture that they had when they were
when they had women bring charges against them for UH
bad behavior and what happened is Jeff Pass. Now it's
found out by the by the New York Times that
(16:25):
he had a cozy relationship with Bruce Allen, president Washington
Football Team, UH, that he and Alan helped broker penalties,
discussed a cheerleading scandal arranged Perks and had some disparaging
remarks when it came to latinos Um. One of the
big statements out there was was in regards to UM
(16:46):
music or the national anthem being attracting Latino fans, and
he responded an email by his telling Bruce Allen, I
don't think this song or or these songs you're gonna
put out to try to attack Platino fans. I don't
think they'll be his popular after the wall gets built,
referring to President Trump's wall that he wanted to build
between the United States and Mexico. So this is why
(17:07):
we're not going to get anything out, because this is
how embarrassing this is gonna be for the NFL. And
if you think it's just like one story or two stories,
it's hundreds of stories. Like you would we if you
got six emails, we wouldn't be able to keep them
all straight because there would be so many things we'd
find out, all the dirty launder the National Football League,
And I guarantee the NFL is on all kinds of
(17:28):
damage control right now trying to get Okay, we gotta
stop this. Who how is the how is the New
York Times getting all this, How do they have this?
We gotta we gotta throw this down right now. Uh.
This this is why the NFL is not gonna release
this because this is the kind of trouble that you're
gonna see and it's stuff the NFL. It's the worst
things for the NFL to get to come out, Hey,
that there were cozy relationships that help broker penalties between
(17:52):
the league and and and and executive. Oh, I'm not
down with that. Weight you're disparaging latinos in an email.
Oh I'm not down with that. Uh, you you are.
We're looking at hiring practices. Oh, I'm not down with that.
This is this is a far cry from Hey, so
and so is mad that they got fined two grand
for this and we told them to you know, beat it. Uh.
These are moral values and moral situations that you're finding.
(18:16):
The NFL is going to be found corrupt in and
and and morally bankrupt. Uh. That's why they're not going
to come out with us, because something like this, even
though you don't know Jeff Pasha's name, doesn't matter. Well,
it was really funny the way that you framed it
about you know, just the tip of the iceberg. I
made this analogy yesterday is uh going back. You know,
everybody knows I love college hoops. You know that FBI
(18:37):
schanal that happened three four five years ago. Uh, the
FBI got on this podium and made this big speech
about you know, we're coming for you, we have your playbook,
and it all kind of just disappeared. And you know,
the speculation is that some pretty powerful people got involved
because if the FBI really did go after everybody in
college basketball, uh, college basketball basically wouldn't exist anymore, if
(18:57):
if they really went after everybody. And that's end of
what I feel like with this email situation is you
talk about six hundred fifty thousand emails over the course
of a decade plus. There's a lot of important people
that have correspondence in there that are not gonna make
them look good. So I'm with you. I don't think
this gets released. But but I've said since the day
(19:18):
all this started back on Monday night. Now you know,
I know it started Friday, but Monday night was when
stuff went crazy. If you thought John Gruden was the
only one talk in that way, if you thought John
Gruden was sending those emails out into the ether without
getting responses very similar to them. And now obviously we
have some pretty highly ranked officials that you know, came
out this this evening. As you said, it's just the
(19:39):
tip of the iceberg. It's only gonna get crazier. And
I'll be curious if we ever find out where this
leak came from, and if we don't, how many more
leaks there are over the course of the coming weeks.
You know, I wonder and look, this is this is
now there's a lot of nervous people who are like
a lot of I email Bruce Allen, you know, over
the course of this seven years, because look, Bruce Allen
(20:00):
is not somebody that had the greatest relationship with a
lot of people, you know he was. It wasn't like, oh,
he was a great NFL executive and people loved him.
Bruce Allen had had a very uh polarizing reputation as
as a GM in the league. And how many people
now are going, oh, man, now that it looks like
Bruce Allen's is the focus of this because it's emails
(20:22):
to him that have done in John Gruden. It's emails
to him that is gonna wind up doing in Jeff
Pash because look, he's gonna wind up being fired uh
as as NFL's lead counsel. So there'll be an opening
for that. If you have a law degree, uh, send
your application in the NFL. So now clearly it's becoming okay,
it's the communication that we've had with Bruce Allen. He's
(20:43):
the guy that you gotta worry about. So if you
said anything bad to Bruce Allen in a seven year
period there, uh, that's that's the people that really have
to worry. And I guarantee you there are so many
people who are worried. And now it's just a matter
of do you roll the dice and hope that this
is something that doesn't get out, or do you try
to get in front of it. It's really really difficult
(21:03):
because you have to feel that, Okay, if the Bruce
Allen emails or what people have, do they have mine,
do they have this? Do they feel that this was
relevant enough to go forward with. That's a really big deal.
And I wonder just how how they're gonna go forward,
because once you decide to go down the road of okay,
I'm just gonna hope that nothing gets out. Well, that's
(21:24):
a long time to sit around and go and get
on your email every day and go anything happen, Anything happened,
anything happened. That's a that's a tough way to live life. Well,
I'm telling you, there's just I can't even imagine the
number of people. I mean, dozens of like very important
people in the NFL. Names we know, probably owners, probably gms,
probably coaches, maybe who knows six emails the course of
(21:48):
a decade. The number of people that are sitting around
right now just thinking man, oh man, oh man. And
I would also go back and say this, Uh, you know,
I know it sounded like a great idea when the
NFL said we're gonna conduct this big investigation. I understand
why they did. I understand what was going on behind
the scenes with the Washington football team. But you know,
you think you're not gonna you think you're gonna do
a thorough investigation that involves ten years worth of scrubbing
(22:12):
emails and looking through them email by email, and you're
not gonna come up with some some some sketchy stuff.
So I'm just so fascinated where this goes. Because the
leaks continue to come, more names get involved. I mean again,
we we've talked about it, but Gruten on Monday Shift
or yesterday, this guy today, This thing is just gonna
keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going until, as
(22:33):
you said, unless the NFL plugs leak or something. And
I'm just fascinated, who's gonna be next Twitter At? How
about AFRISCA Aaron and Aaron Underscore Torres The Jason Smith
Show of Aaron Torres in for Mike Harmon. Again, this
is a brand new, breaking story that Brian Finley brought
us about thirty minutes ago. And we'll continue to have
more on this throughout the night because now suddenly this
(22:54):
is taking the direction of away from John Gruden. Now okay,
now we're gonna go get other people. Apparently, as long
as you send an email to Bruce Allen. If you've
not send an email to Bruce Allen in the last
ten years, I think you're okay. Eighteen did you ever
send an email to Bruce Allen? And in the last Well,
I'll tell you what's funny is I'm not as plugged
it in the NFL as I am in other circles,
other sports circles. I had that thought this week of like,
(23:15):
do I know and is there any way an email
I sent got to someone in the NFL that got
to the red the former Redskins now football team. To
answer your question, I don't believe that I've ever emailed
Bruce Allen. But if you never hear me on these
air waves again, if my mike gets cut here in
the next couple of hours, we'll find the answer to that.
I'm just saying. I mean, all right, I don't think so,
(23:35):
I could say with certainty, but listen, we sent a
lot of emails to a lot of random people, and
we work in sports, so I think I'm safe, Jason Smith,
But I don't really know that I am, to be honest,
Alex Tisher, are you okay? Did you send an email
to Bruce Allen in the last ten years? I think
I might have asked him if he wanted guacamola when
he ordered a burrito once when I was working somewhere,
(23:55):
But I think that's it. Well, he definitely responded inappropriate
to that one. There's no doubt about that. Oh my goodness.
Uh so, yeah, big big deal right now in the
National Football League. Be sure to catch live editions of
the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten
pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. He's my Carmen, I'm Dan Buyer. Do.
(24:17):
We have a brand new fantasy football podcast called I
Want Your Flex. Twice a week, every Tuesday and Friday,
we come up with new episodes to not only look
back at what happened, what you need to do at
that minute, and also look ahead of what's coming up
in the fantasy football world. That's right, Dan. Every week
we're gonna scour the waiver wire to find the pickups
(24:38):
to turbo boost your fantasy lineup six starts, fantasy football
players rankings to get you ready to dominate the competition.
Listen to I Want Your Flex with Mike Carmen and
me Dan Buyer on the I Heart Radio app, Apple
Podcast and wherever you get your podcasts. Look, Tom Brady
gets a lot of attention, and we got a little
bit more on him because now Brady says I could
(24:58):
play the lot fifty or fifty five. I've uh it.
We'll get to that. But what is not being said
enough about the Bucks. Look, it's hard. It's hard to
talk about this person because he's not a great dude.
And you know he's had trouble and he's still in trouble. Uh,
but you can't deny that maybe the most important weapon,
and I know the most important weapon that Tom Brady
(25:20):
has in the Bucks this year is Antonio Brown because
when he started picking it up midway through last year,
member Bruce Arian said, oh, we're never gonna have this
guy on our team. Oh, Tom Brady wants him. So, oh,
Tom Brady is gonna He's gonna be on our team. Uh.
You knew that he was Brady's preferred wide receiver because
like I was staying at his house and he was
looking to keep him. Antonio Brown has just been that talented.
(25:43):
And he goes through the entire offseason drama with the Raiders,
he gets released, he plays one game with the Patriots,
he gets released, He's got all kinds of legal trouble.
And again, he's a tough guy to talk about because
he's not a good guy. But his impact on the
Buccaneers now has turned them in to a team. And
he's the reason why it is so difficult to defeat
(26:05):
the Buccaneers because what he's able to do now, he
is almost back to being the Antonio Brown best receiver
in the NFL where he was before he wound up
leaving the Steelers for the Raiders, and and and his
then his career went haywire. I mean tonight he was
nine in a touchdown. He had thirteen targets tonight. All right,
that's double the next closest player with Tampa Bay. Right,
(26:27):
And it's triple what you're getting for Godwin and Evans,
who are the other two big wide receivers. As good
as Chris Godwin is as good as Mike Evans is.
Antonio Brown is Brady's preferred receiver, and he's the reason
why this offense goes. Right. You want to compare the
Bucks to the Chiefs, Right, Why do the Bucks keep
winning and the Chiefs have trouble? The Chief's weapons are
(26:49):
weapons you can control. Right, Tyree Kill is a great player.
He's one guy. Travis Kelsey is a great player. He's
one guy you can figure out a safety over the
top with. With ty Rekill, you can figure out help
in the middle of the field. Who else is gonna
beat you? There's nobody else that chief It's not like
years ago that Chiefs still have a guy like Sammy Watkins,
who is able to, you know, have a big game
(27:10):
now and again that you need to be responsible for
because even though he's not the stud that he was
at Clemson, he's still, you know, a good enough wide
receiver that he can make havoc in the middle of
the field. Now, the Chiefs don't have that, right, It's
it's Hill and it's Kelsey and there's nobody else that
scares you. It's why they signed Josh Gordon. We're throwing
hail Mary's now to somebody else to help jump start
this offense. Now Edwards Hilaria is out, it's gonna be
(27:33):
difficult for them running the football. And this is why
the Chiefs struggle. And now when you compare that to
the Buccaneers and you look at their offense, where any
night they can say, well, it could be for Net
or Ronald Jones running the football for us. Right, we
don't need them to be great, We just need them
to do their thing. And tonight for Net was eight
yards and two touchdowns. He did his thing. But the
(27:54):
weapons they have outside, whether it's Brown and Godwin and
Evans and now O. J. Howard, who had a big
night tonight with six catches and a touchdown even with
Gronk not playing, how are you going to control these guys?
You don't have enough defensive depth to be able to
cover these guys. But clearly it's about Antonio Brown because
now you're talking about your third cornerback is gonna be
(28:17):
matched up against either a b or Godwin or Evans,
whether you want to play the guy in the slot
or not. And that's a big mismatch and you're able
to get and Bradys are good enough quarterback to find
that mismatch really really fast. The difference in this Bucks
team from last year this year and suddenly why the
offense is so good because last year it took him
a long time to get going. Uh, this is Antonio
(28:37):
Brown being almost back to what Antonio Brown was. He's
not quite there because again he is older, he's and
you know how you're talking about being thirty three, thirty
four years old. But he's the big difference and and
he's close to being what he was, and that makes
this Buccaneers team nearly unbeatable, you know, nearly unbeatable. I
don't know, that feels like a stretch. There's certainly the
(28:58):
toughest I would argue to cover in football. I'm with
you in that the Chiefs, you know, and I think
we might be talking about them at some point throughout
the show tonight, Jason. But uh, the Chiefs have taken
a step back. They do not scare teams like they
used to. Um, you know, I do think this is
probably the most explosive offense. I do think they're super dynamic.
I do worry about a little bit with the defense,
(29:18):
and I do worry to a degree with what you
were talking about a minute ago of the overall health.
Can all these older players stay healthy? The one thing
I can't fight you on, Jason. You start to look
at all those weapons and the maestro that Tom Brady is. Um,
you know, it is scary. It is scary because I
don't even think they played very well tonight. And this
was a team that was up twenty one seven going
(29:40):
into the into halftime, twenty eight seven going into the
fourth quarter, in complete control. They were able to score
will the last few weeks, you know, last week, excuse me,
against the Dolphins. So I just bring it up to say, um,
you know, scary, Yes, dynamic, Yes, you know, unstoppable. I'm
not sure yet. I'm not sold that They are definitively
the best team in the NFC, the best team in football, whatever.
(30:02):
But when they get it rolling, they really are scary.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart
Radio app Fox Sports Radio. Welcome inside the final hour
of The Jason Smith Show of Aaron Tore is in
from Mike Harmon, where Max Scherzer has his shirt off
(30:25):
celebrating with Dodger fans after the Dodgers to one win
over the Giants. You know, you know who Max Scherzer
is a t okay. Max Scherzer is to try to
relate to someone you would know you ever go to
a party or you know, when you were a kid,
but it was an adult party where the kids get
(30:45):
to go and it's a pool party in the summer
and parents start, you know, drinking over the course of
the entire day. And there's the dad with his shirt
off that's yelling and screaming the whole time, and he's
jumping into the water with cannon balls and he's you know,
spraying things. That's kind of who Max Shres's accept he's,
you know, one of the best pitchers in baseball and
a multi multimillionaire. Say he makes funny in the bank
(31:09):
or whatever it is. Yeah, but that that's kind of who.
When I see him doing that, I'm like, Yeah, he's
like the dad at the pool party. That's like, oh man,
he's a cool dad. Man. Look he's out of control.
He's having a lot of fun running around there. That's
kind of who were pushing people over when when they're
laying on the float they don't want to go in
the water, but they'll push him in the water. That's
kind of who. Well I was gonna say, yeah, he's
the guy that you show up at the party and
(31:30):
you're like, oh, you know, you meet the wife at
the door and you say, oh, yeah, you know, I
brought this lovely cheese blatter and oh there's your husband
in the back with his shirt off and it's eight
thirty in the morning. So yeah, he's that guy. Yeah, Like, bro,
the game ended five The game literally ended like seven
minutes ago. You can't be drunk. You must be the
(31:50):
lightest lightweight that ever there was, or or you're just
I don't know, but so Max Shres is one of
the heroes. Uh certainly home played Umpire. Doug Endings also
one of the heroes of the game tonight. First base
first Blase Umpire also one of the heroes tonight game
morales as Wilma Flores called out on a really bad
(32:13):
check swing, Um mean, well the bad or before Wade
called out on a called strike three, that's not a strike.
Look the Giants, I get how upset they are. It
should not have ended this way. Those were awful. They
were brutal calls. But as we've talked about it, Look,
the odds of the Giants winning that game are really low, right,
you know, they're really low, and that that's that's where
(32:34):
we're at at this point. It's not like the bases
were loaded. It was a three and two count and
if that pitches called a ball, that brings in the
tying run, Right, did you never run around scoring position?
Sherzer was pitching really well. The inning should have been
over already, except justin Turner biffs the grounder to him
that you should have made that. He makes a play
on ninet times out of a hundred. So it's not
like there was a real big chance for the Giants
(32:56):
when I get it, took it away from it. And
but most more than lee, it's a one in two count.
The outcome is Max Scherzer wins that battle against Wilmer Flores.
Just not just because Max schers is a great picture
and Wilmer Flori is a is an average player. But
this is how, this is what the odds of success
are in Major League baseball because you fail more often
than not. You know you fail, you know two and
(33:18):
a half you do, you succeed two and a half
times out of ten. That's Wilmer Flores. So how is
he going to succeed when it's a one in two
count against Max shar is one of the best pictures
in baseball. The chance they have to win that game
at that point is so low, And that's what I'd say,
not the Giants fans shouldn't complain, because they should because
those are two still too really bad calls. But it
makes it a little bit easier to take that boy
(33:40):
that that check swing by Flores. It's not like you
were just one one tick away, one hair away from
tying that game or winning the game. You were still
a long ways away from winning well, And it's really
funny because you know, I think Gabe Kepler somewhere in
between finishing off that game and walking back to the
press room, I think he might have been listening to
Jason Smith and Aaron Torres, because here is what he
(34:02):
said in the postgame press conference. He said, you know,
there's other people to blame. I'm trying to find the
exact quote here, but essentially he said, there are other
reasons that we lost other than the umpires. You know,
a series comes down to a lot of different things,
and so the exact quotes among many where you've got
to tip your cap to the work that they did.
There are other reasons we didn't win tonight's game, and
(34:22):
those are the things that we talked about last segment.
Jason is you know, you can criticize the refs or
the umps excuse me, you can criticize this. You can
criticize that the Giants were up two to one in
this series. The Giants were at home in game five,
um and they had a million chances, and they got
a great performance to start the game from logan Web.
They had all the opportunities in the world. This this series,
(34:42):
this game did not come down to one play did
not come down to one pitch. I think Gabe Kapler
accepts that. I think Giants fans on social media got
accepted as well. Twitter write, how about a Fresca Aaron
at Aaron underscore Torres. Uh, you want to hear just
how bad bad call is though, because it was. This
is the call from a M five seventy Dodger flagship
(35:03):
station here in Los Angeles. Uh, listen to Charlie Steiner
play by play guy. Listen to how surprised he is
that that call is strike three. Sure, sir, to Floren's
outside a ring around stright three gamelos the first base
far the Dodgers are going to the National League Championship Series.
(35:26):
I mean, I mean, I mean he went around. I
mean I mean no, I mean it's straight three. Like
Charlie's already got his next comment ready say everything. Oh no, no,
it's over strike three. It's the games over, the games over.
The Dodgers win. That that's amazing, Dodgers win. Not nobody
thought that he went around. Nobody did, but yet that
was the call by game Morales. By the way, I
(35:47):
just I just want to say, um, the biggest Dodgers
fan in Los Angeles has just chimed in Lebron James
tweeting moving on, congrats Dodgers keep going. So we got
to l about ten minutes ago, biggest Dodgers fan going.
So so great to have the support of Lebron James
behind this team. I know it's what everybody was waiting for.
So thank you to Lebron for for for signing off,
(36:08):
for giving his seal of approval. What do you expect
the Yankees are out? That's his real team? So when
the when the Indians? When when the Cleveland team isn't
playing because he's from Cleveland. I mean, I can I'm
old enough to see that. There's a lot of young
people listening that probably aren't even old enough to remember.
I remember when it was a controversy when he showed
up to a Cleveland Indians playoff game with with a
yank Was it with the Yankees? Had I believe it
(36:30):
was with the Yankees, had or he had been a
Yankees fan, but he said he was rooting for Cleveland. So, uh, Lebron,
I'm just teasing. I'm just teasing. Lebron stands. Everybody calmed down. No, no, no,
it's okay. Why do you think Lebron's gonna call Lebron's
gonna call LaVar Ball of our ball is gonna come
get mad at you? Is that what's gonna happen. Oh,
he's not calling the bar, but I don't think the
Ball family is very uh fond of of Lebron. When
Lebron got the whole team traded a year and a
(36:51):
half ago. So it worked out well for a lonzo.
He's making a lot of money in Chicago. But by
the way, very random. I I did get a kick
out of this summer when they were trying to bust
the Bulls for tampering with a Lonzo, even though Russell
Westbrook was talking about a meeting with Anthony Davis and
Lebron James at Lebron's house in l a. So I
(37:12):
don't know what made me the well, I know what
made me think of it. But yes, Lebron has chimed in.
Lebron has given his his blessing. So now we can
start the NLCS. Very exciting stuff. Uh. Now, meanwhile, let's
go back a little bit because I want to say
something about a player who gives me a Derek Jeter
vibe to the point where there's times I say, you know,
(37:33):
we talk a lot about Mike Trout and different players
like that, where this guy is the best player of
the last five years, all around player in Major League baseball. Uh,
here's how the Dodgers got their first run. It's not
the guy who hit the ball. It's a guy who
scored the run. The two oh fine drive left field
over the head of Longoria in the score is Rookie
(37:55):
Betts on the r V I single by Singer who
stretches it into it and the Dodgers Charlie Steiner again
am five seventy with the call. Mookie Bets four for
four tonight for the Dodgers in their win over the Giants.
He had four of the dodgers eight hits. He comes
(38:16):
around to score the first run after a single and
stealing second base. All Right, when I watched Derek Jeter play,
and you know, when I was in my early twenties,
when Jeter comes up and so I've gotten to see
his whole career from the long lens of look, I
understand what's going on. I'm not in some kind of
you know, alcohol induced hayes. When I'm twenty years old,
(38:37):
going He's fantastic. There are times when I looked at
Derek Jeter and said, he's the best baseball player I've
ever seen because of what he does in clutch moments.
He always makes the right play right. He always made,
whether it was on defense, whether it was him getting
a flare for a base hit to drive in a run.
(38:58):
Sometimes it was a home run. Sometimes it's taking an
extra base on a on a pass ball that doesn't
get far enough away from the catcher, but he still
is able to do it. He always found a way
to make the right play and the biggest clutch play
at the right time. And certainly we have a lot
of postseason of Derek Jeter to look back on and go, yeah,
all these different things he's done. I get that same
(39:19):
vibe out of Mookie Bets is that whenever something big
is happening, whether it's Red Sox Dodgers, he's the guy
that comes up with the right play. And sometimes it's
a home run. Sometimes it's a great defensive play. I'm
diving to prevent a double that would have brought in
two runs. Sometimes it's I'm gonna steal second base and
that way I come around to score. On Corey seekers
not get stuck at third and have to hope for
(39:41):
another hit. There's so many times when I see him
do that and I go, man, this guy is really
the best all around player in baseball. And it's it's
not just about his stats, because the stats are good,
but they pale in comparison to other guys. Because look,
you say, the guys who more home runs, knocking more runs,
their war is still pretty good. But this is a guy,
Mookie Bett. It's his war is up at six seven nine,
(40:03):
and he's he's a thirty two and eighty guy. He steals,
you know, anywhere between ten and thirty bases a year.
He hits three hundred, He makes all the clutch plays.
He is that kind of guy. He gives me that
Derek Jeter Viban if you said, back, okay, who's the
best baseball player the past five years? I would go, man, yeah,
Mike Trout is great. Mike Trout hasn't been in the postseason,
(40:25):
and Mookie Betts has a couple of World Series and
he and he could be on his way to getting
another one. And he's made so many big plays in
all of both of those World Series that he's one.
Uh yeah, I'm sorry. There's times when I go, maybe
Mookie Betts is the best player in Major League, but
the best all around player, And I think that's part
of it, right, And I understand, you know, Mike Trout there,
(40:46):
you're limited by your teammates and this is a team
sport has been Baseball more than maybe any other. But
at the same time, uh, what you just said is right, Jason.
I mean, think about it. First of all, he's with
the Red Sox franchise player, comes up with the organization,
leads him to a World Series Reeason whatever it was nineteen,
then goes to a franchise in the Dodgers, and we all,
(41:06):
anyone who's watched baseball at all over the last decade knows,
great organization. They want a million straight division titles until
this year. But the point that I'm trying to get
to is he gets to the Dodgers and four years
they're right on the cusp. And and you know, it's
so funny. You mentioned you've been in l A for
about ten years. I've been in l A for about
ten years. I got here in two thousand twelve, and
that first division title and it was playoff, playoff, playoff,
(41:29):
can't get over the hump. Can't get over the hump.
Don't trust Kershaw. It's this. It's that get to the
World Series, lose to the Astros, get to the World Series,
lose to the Red Sox, lose to the Nationals in
the first round, and we think, is this dynasty that
that never even got started starting to crumble? He comes in.
He is the difference. He is the guy that put
them over the top. I made the analogy earlier in
the show that you know Lebron in l a. People
(41:53):
can argue with me, they could disagree. I know I
was just teasing about Lebron a minute ago. But he
is a mercenary. He came here for a reason other
than wanting to be a Laker. We all know that
he had interest off the court, which is his prerogative.
He's absolutely allowed to. But when the Lakers won the
championship last year, they weren't channing Lebron, Lebron, Lebron in
the streets. They were chanting unfortunately Kobe. After the passing
(42:14):
of Kobe. I only bring that up to say when
the Dodgers won the World Series, everyone rallied around Mookie
Bets because he was the missing piece. He will always
be that icon in Los Angeles for putting them over
the top. And now the question becomes, I don't think
it's gonna be just one by the time Mookie Bets
has done because as you said, Jason, he is a
guy that just continues to make plays, continues to put
(42:36):
this organization on their back. And they are once again
in the NLCS. An amazing night for the Dodgers to win.
And again remember I said Dodgers in five and it
kind of happened that way, so really kind of made
it that way. Uh yeah, Look, Bets is a guy.
Look he didn't he only played in a hundred twenty
games this year, but you look back at his body
of work, and we talk about the all around player
(42:58):
and that's kind of hit the wall in the last
few years in baseball just because we like the big stats.
We like what we like what Bryce Harper does and
what Jose bray you can do. But that all around
player that that continue to play well in the field
because look, as I said, Jeter would make great plays
in the field too. You know, it's not just the
flip against the A's, it's you know, it's other big things.
Going to the stands for a ball against the Red
(43:20):
Sox in a in a game that wound up getting
no more traded because of Jeter's effort in that game.
There's so many things on both sides of the ball,
and Mookie Betts kind of is that guy. And and
when you get to do it on a big stage
in the playoffs, yeah, I'm sorry that that matters more
than being able to do it over the course the
regular season. And your team doesn't get to the playoffs.
(43:40):
It's not your fault they don't get to the playoffs.
But I can't take away from Bets. And you know
and say, okay, well, I gotta throw it out what
he can do compared to what Trout can do, because
Trout's not in the playoffs. Uh No, I kind of
gotta give Mookie Bets credit because this is this is
what you're paying the guy for you pay You're paying
the guy thirty million dollars a year for night's exactly
like this one, exactly like this, and he comes through
(44:04):
all the time. I mean it, I think the last
five years he's the best player in baseball now. And
I think that's totally fair. And and you know, listen
to the sport of baseball has become so analytically driven.
I think all sports have a Baseball more than any other, like,
wins and losses still matter. And again I get it's
a team sport. I get that a team, a player,
an individual player in baseball can't put an entire organization
(44:25):
on his back. Uh. And you know, if the if
the talent isn't there around him. But winning does matter
and in winning time, Uh, he is great. And as
you said, I don't think it's a coincidence that everywhere
he goes they have success. Won a World Series in Boston,
comes to l A, they immediately win a World Series.
Back in the NLCS, Uh, win a hundred six games
(44:45):
in the regular season. I'm not I'm with you. I
think he's the best player in baseball. Yeah, I get
the trout stuff. I don't care about the analytics. Get
to the playoffs. Do something there. Mookie Bets does it,
year in year out. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays ten
pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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