Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
If you're listening to Fox Sports Radio hour.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Two tonight, The Jason Smith Show with my bass friend Mike.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Harmon, Moo sho hobo lot from.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
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Speaker 2 (00:47):
Jason, question for you, that guy, what you got that out?
You didn't come see me on Valentine's.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Day because I stayed with my wife instead.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Not a good answer.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
How is it not a good answer?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Because you should come where your family's at.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Jason, I I I exactly did that. I stayed. I
stayed with my family. You mean my work family. I
mean you guys are my work family. You've been my
work family.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Okay, did I or did I not buy food.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Earlier this week? What do you mean I did not?
What would mean you'd think elo just gets delivered because
people say, Hey, I think they're working hard at Fox
Sports Radio, let's bring them free food. You think that happens, Yeah,
they don't.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
We're entertaining America.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
It's true.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
We are providing an invaluable service to the hearts and
minds of America and the globe on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
You sound like that video that was viral a few
years ago of the the woman who put this up
of her husband who like they just got married, and
he didn't understand, but he loved it, how like, you know,
his dirty clothes in the laundry and then like you know,
a few days later, everything was folded on the on
the table, like, hey, who's doing the laundry? Well like, hey,
(01:58):
this is great, Well how does this happen? But I
don'nder sad like he didn't understand that she was doing
then his laundry and folding stuff.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Well, I mean, look a sweet victory. He never assumed
that that was going to happen. It was never discussed.
And then lo and behold, you had this this, this
new service that that came into play, Like, wait, how
does that happen?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Well, somebody's guys, can't somebody else do it? Stealing from
the Simpsons exit out a bout a Fresca Exit Swallen Dome,
Jason Smith, Mike Carman coming up in about twenty minutes,
you got Mark Stein stopping by NBA Insider. All the
latest on All Star weekend. What to expect going forward?
Will Luka Doncic ever really get in shape? Are the
(02:42):
Mavericks really better off without him? Big visit from Mark
Stein coming up? But since this is the five, that's
the end of Super Bowl week, right. We had the
Eagles parade today and just some things to think about
going ahead to next year coming off of the Super Bowl.
And one of the big headlines this week post Super
Bowl was Dak Prescott saying how excited he is, how
(03:05):
close he feels the Cowboys are because of how they've
played against the Eagles. Right, the feel we've decided, I
feel we've done well against them the last years, and
they've been they've I think they're five hundred the last
few years against against the Eagles. So okay, you know, hey,
I feel good about that, and I feel good. I
feel we're close. And he got a lot of of
derision and people laughing at him, and I said, you
(03:27):
know what, I gotta be honest with you. If I'm
any team in the NFC, I'm really excited, and I
think I'm close. Because the NFC blows the AFC away.
You are now only thinking about getting out of your
conference because the AFC teams they look like they are
completely vulnerable. Now, yes, the AFC has the quarterbacks, right,
(03:49):
are the best quarterbacks in the league. The AFC's got
got four of them, right, They got Mahomes, it's got Allen,
it's got Lamar Jackson, it's got Joe Burrow. The NFC
has Jaden Daniels right and Jalen Hurts. But wow, these
guys have put all kinds of points on the board.
Do it. The AFC's got the quarterbacks, NFC's got the
better teams, right, NFC top to bottom. So now, if
you're the NFC, you are thinking we get out of
(04:10):
our Hey, we get to the playoffs, win a couple
of games, and that Super Bowl is therefore something You've
cut your competition of the league in half because you
no longer think, hey, it's out of here, and then boy,
do we have a really tough team. Conversely, if you're
the AFC, you're like, hey, we gotta get out of
Oh you gotta get past all these quarterbacks, then we
probably get the best team in the NFL. We got
to play to win the Super Bowl. Like that. That's
(04:31):
how the balance of power is shifted. Right now, to
make this a more interesting conversation, to illustrate how good
the NFC is, I joked around earlier this week that
if I was doing power rankings for the NFL playoff
teams at the end of the playoffs, I would say,
to your top five teams Philadelphia, the Rams, Washington, Detroit,
(04:54):
and then you're at KC in Buffalo. Right, the way
these teams played in the playoffs, how good they are overall?
You can go three four NFC teams before you hit
an AFC team. Right, how well they've played, what they
were able to do that, the level of competition they
played at. You could do that, right, you go fower rankings,
but instead let's do an NFL. Let's do an AFC
(05:17):
NFC challenge right the old you know, the ACC big
ten challenge. Right, let let's do the seedings of the
playoffs and how teams went. You tell me who you
think would win each game? You ready? Sure? All right?
So now we watched Philadelphia b Kansas City. So okay,
so that happened, Uh, Washington and Buffalo? Who would you
take in that one? Washington and Buffalo?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Let's see based on twenty twenty four, I said that, Uh,
I was like the guy and the bad guy in
the Archie comics.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
What we've seen, what we've seen this season in the playoffs,
Washington Buffalo.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
I just don't know that they're they're finishing a game
against Buffalo. How about that? Why they win close? They're
gonna quitting the third quarter? No, but it was a
season of uh not necessarily convincing wins the circle.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Washington. But if you Washington Buffalo, who do you have?
Washington Buffalo? I'll still take the Bills, Okay, because I
agree with you. I think that I think I think
that's the only one the the AFC gets right. I
think it's it's close. But I'll take Buffalo there. Now,
you want to go Detroit, Baltimore. Detroit just changed out
(06:29):
there and tire coaching staff, what we just saw, what
we just saw this year, what we just not not
about what we just really you're taking Baltimore for the Lions. Really, Okay,
you're just being anti because I'm gonna trying to prove
I'm telling you the truth of where I'm at with Detroit.
I'll take Lamar Henry and that squad assembled against Detroit
(06:50):
new coordinators jared'soff. Okay, all right, Detroit would win that
game by twenty Lamar Jacks would put up a lot
of points, right, put up a lot of points. They
might score twenty twenty eight. The Lions would score forty
five like that. The Lions that they had a bad game.
They had a couple of turnovers early. They never got
past that against the Commanders, right again, pulling the string anymore? Right,
(07:13):
had to say no. But what I'm saying is, but
you're saying, that's just gonna transfer forward what we just
saw the teams. We've just had, what we saw over
the course of this season and the play last year,
and it's what we just saw less than two weeks ago.
If we're going on this what we just saw this
year with the teams, how good they are? All Right,
(07:35):
you're gonna do you get it? I mean, I I
didn't think this was I didn't think there's I'm just
saying it doesn't matter anymore. Those are gone, those those
teams are dead. An hour ago, New Year, it's now.
It's now the happy New Year. An hour ago you
thought Undisputed wasn't even a show? Okay, just it's not
that was that used to be a show? Why it
(07:57):
wasn't in my purview and in my prain anymore. If
you're making these teams with the play what we saw,
forget about the everybody's gonna change, obviously over the course
of the next few months. But what did we just
see that just concluded five days ago? Right the playoffs?
We saw that still the last couple of weeks. Forget
about who's left, who's going somewhere? Everything is changing. You're
going by what we saw. These teams are going. Now,
(08:19):
then you're gonna go to Rams and the Texans. Who
are you taking in that one? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:24):
I don't trust Bobby Slowik and the Texans. Okay, so
he's been fired, So I'll play your game.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Okay, Well, because that's the game. That's the game. It's
it's it's that's what it is. That's why I wanted
to make it easy. We're not talking about changes and
what we've seen the teams that we saw, what they
had over the course of the past few months. Right,
that's what we're doing, all right. Vikings and the Chargers
punt Okay, Vikings of the Vikings, what the Vikings were
at the end, what we saw from Sam Darnold at
(08:52):
the end. The Chargers couldn't score, Yes, so I would.
I might take the under on that game, but I
still think the Vikings.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
I'll take the Vikings based on more talent, but I
don't think it's a very very good game.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Bucks and the Steelers. All the Bucks, Bucks, Packers and
the Broncos. Broncos is the way they were playing down
the stretch. They played well down the stretch. They did Packers.
I think that's close. I'll still give that to the Packers.
I think they're the better team. But you look at
in the if we're doing these matchups, they really favor
(09:30):
the NFC, right, Like the the NFC has more of
a Hey, we know we are building complete teams. Not
that it's different strategies, but just the way the AFC
goes it's, Hey, we have teams that put a lot
of points on the board, right. The Bengals can score,
the Bills can score, the Chiefs can score. All these
teams can score. When it comes to playing complete football
(09:51):
games and win, it's you look at the rosters of
these teams in the NFC, and they're just better than
the teams in the AFC, right, Like, I mean, if
you want to say, the AFC's gon the quarterbacks and
the NFC has the better teams, Like, that's a huge
trend that I don't know that that changes, and even
in a couple of years, because yeah, you're still gonna
have the great quarterbacks, right, Josh Allen still gonna score
a lot of points. Lamar Jackson is still gonna put
(10:12):
up a lot of points. But hey, the Ravens defense
not great, Bill's defense not great. Hey, the Chiefs defense
was pretty good. Offense was okay, they got boat raced
in the Super Bowl. Right. All these teams in the
AFC are really flawed, right, and the teams in the Enday,
look look at these teams that have been put together
in the NFC. How solid the Commanders are offensively and defensively?
(10:33):
With the Rams are able to do continuing to reinvent
their team. The Lions are a little bit more balanced
on a little bit more offensive than defensively, but Lions
had a lot of injuries, and offensively, Detroit's the best
offense in the NFL, so you kind of have to say,
all right, I'll give him a pass on that one.
But overall, for these teams in the end, even Tampa
Bay has become such a solid team now in Mayfield
(10:54):
is throwing forty touchdowns this year. Like all these teams
all have a much better found of how to win
any kind of game then the teams in the AFC do.
Where it's basically when it comes down to it in
the playoffs, it's Patrick go win it, or Josh go
win it, or Lamar go win it, or Burrow go
win it. Like that. That's kind of the way the
(11:14):
philosophy is for those teams, because they we're gonna ride
these quarterbacks and the rest of the team is going
to suffer. We're paying these guys a ton of money
and we're just going to try to try to outscore
you and and try to get past the deficiencies of
our team and try to hide them with a big
napkin and if we can great, and if we can't,
well we'll try to get back at it next year.
Sweep it under the rug.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Look, it always goes back to Pumping Iron nineteen seventy
seven classic with Arnold Schwartzeneger. The general philosophy always work
for balance and definition, And so what did we have
in a lot of these cases on the NFC side,
We certainly saw it from what the Eagles were, even
if you caveaut them out right. Balance, great in offensive line,
(11:58):
great defensive line. The Rams verse wins the Rookie of
the Year, and you watched how that was reinvented, and
even with Cooper Cup not being the same guy and
Pukinakua missing time, eventually down the stretch playing some really
good football maker, Bayfield did his damage. McMillan rises up.
Bucky Irving's great Chris Godwin was on a record setting
(12:20):
pace before he got destroyed and was lost for the year.
Whether he comes back curiosity for twenty five. But playing
to this, yeah, I mean I would agree with you.
The the NFC balance and you know the shifting right Kansas.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
City, I don't.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
I don't know what they are at this point, what
what what is their identity other than winning? It's a
nice identity to have, don't I love to identity of
the winner. I'd love exactly. You're a winner, You're a winner.
But how would you describe them?
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Well, I don't know. Mahomes had a couple of big games.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Kelsey's stats all came in four, but they were pretty impressive.
This happened, that happened, defense played well, Mahomes gave away
fourteen points to the Eagles in the Super Bowl and
away we go. But yeah, once you have to pay
the monster deal out to the quarterbacks, it really does
kind of shuffle the construction of rosters.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
And let's face it, I.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Mean it goes back to the general rule of thumb.
You and I have have had talking on the show
as long as we have about organizational structure, stability, and
a cohesion versus what most organizations do.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
The Bears do they now have a direction.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Maybe maybe Kevin warns that guy, maybe Ryan Poles is
his whether he's legit or a puppet. Maybe they've got
a direction there. But historically you're looking at San Francisco
has had vision, Baltimore has had vision. Right, A couple
of blips on the radar with bad seasons, but otherwise, okay, Pittsburgh.
The vision is we're gonna be good enough to not go.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Under five hundred.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
We're not gonna really be relevant thereafter, But damn it,
we're getting to nine to eight or eight eight and one.
I guess all the way through Kansas City has been
that Green Bay. They got to figure out how to
get these guys to not drop the ball. Go go
give a note to Lester Hayes. Get some you know,
newly redefined. Stick them along the way. Add one or
(14:14):
two more for giggles. But I mean it's it's few,
like what the Rams are doing.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
We add them. Otherwise it's a lot of chaos, turnover,
coaching changes, GM changes to you know, it's always the alright,
we overcorrect, right, the we fired the coach. What are
we gonna do.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
We're gonna go get the hyper you know, over the
top offensive guy. Why well, we had a defensive guy.
He didn't work out so great, So let's let's lean
heavy the other way.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
It's almost like we're you know, voting for local elections
or something. But it's just that idea of you've got
very few teams that actually formulate something and stay true
to a structure as opposed to you know, the reactive
and then you got the cowboys who do nothing. So
all of that to say, Yeah, I like this exercise.
(15:03):
It was fun. I can't wait to do it again
next year. Trying to figure out what the tea leads
are as we go forward, Exit out about a Fresca
exit Swallen Dome, Jason Smith, Mike Harmon live from.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
The ti Raq dot com studios. We got more NFL
on the way, but coming up next is the second
half of the season for Luca gonna be amazing or
Wily really does not be in shape? Which of the
big teams that made deals are gonna take off when
we resume play? What about All Star Weekend? Mark Stein,
NBA Insider Extraordinary stops by with us next. Keep it
(15:36):
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Speaker 2 (16:41):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with My biss
friend Mike Harmon Live from the tirerac dot Com studio
where NBA All Star Weekend in full effects, got the
run TMC games going on right now, Winter get to
move on to play on Sunday. Kind of fun, fun
stuff and speaking of fun stuff, joining us now in
(17:14):
the hotline for all the latest longtime NBA insider check
them out on substack on Twitter at the Steinline. It
is Mark Stein, Mark, what's happening, Buddy? Happy All Star Weekend?
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Wow, it's hone lo intro.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
I've arrived you well, look you know, I mean longtime
front of the show you are. If you just tell
us what song you wants your walk up music, we'll
play it for you every time.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
I'm gonna ponder that, I'm gonna think about what is
the most appropriate song. But hey, Valentine's Day Friday night,
Valentine's Day lands on a Friday night, what could be
better than talking to Jason Smith and his best friend
Mike Harmon. I mean, it doesn't It doesn't get much
more romantic than that.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Well, I figured it'd be. It'd give you a nice
break from going through when Anthony Davis is going to
play again for the Mavericks. So I thought, you know,
this might be a nice break for you.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Yeah, Now, all jokes aside it is there is not
much joking in the city where I reside, of Dallas, Texas.
It has been an absolute It's been two weeks unlike
any other in my nearly three decades here. And I
mean one of the craziest aspects of the whole thing
is the team has been playing great. I mean they
(18:29):
are they are. They are three or four bad fable
final seconds against Sacramento on Monday night from taking a
five game winning streak into the All Star right even
though they have no centers the last two games. They
started Kessler Edwards, a two way contract swingman at center,
and they've managed to beat both Golden State and Miami.
(18:52):
But that is not going to map the pain for
very long because there really isn't much clarity when it
comes to win. They're going to see Anthony Davis and
obviously with the direction they chose, this is a team
that has to win yesterday. And I mean they have
a short window here. Can they win a championship this
(19:12):
season next season? Can they stretch that window to three seasons?
But they've got to win one somehow, and they just
have so many injuries this season. It's hard to see
how that could happen this June. So yeah, not a jokey,
happy romantic time here in the two one four.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Well, here listen, since it is Valentine's Day, I'll give
you something full of sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. Look the
last few nights, yes, and they've beaten good teams, right.
They started the streak by beating the Celtics. They you know,
they beat the Rockets, Like, okay, maybe this can work.
Kyrie looks like he's back saying, hey, I'm happy to
being the number one player on the team again. Ad
gets healthy. But Mark, I keep going back to you know,
(19:55):
and I get that it's still a shocking deal. But
you know, something we've said on the show since trade
was me eight is that the MAVs made this trade
for a reason. They didn't wake up one day and
just decide we're trading Luca. Like like, they made this
deal for a reason. There's lots of stuff that whether
you talk about the relationships both sides had, or you know,
is Luca going to be in shape? You got to
give them three hundred and thirty million dollars the end
(20:15):
of this year, Like there was a reason why they
traded him. And you know, I watched it when the
Lakers played two nights ago, and you know, and Luca
had a tough time getting up and down the court,
and he said after the game he's looking forward to
a break. He's played two games since December. He needs
a break. Like you know, I remember the Mavericks made
the move for a reason, and maybe things could wind
up being okay.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
I could not disagree with you more louder, stronger. I'm
trying to stay cool here. I mean, listen, you know
this is not the first time I've used this line.
It will not be the last time I use this
line on this show. I don't care at his worst.
It's supposed unfittest. It unfittest, is angriest that the reference
(21:00):
ease Luka Doncic at age twenty five never wakes up
as anything lower than the third best player in the world.
You do not trade that player when he's twenty five,
and when he has an asked out and the Mavericks
to prove me wrong, and to prove the zillions of
(21:20):
people who are questioning this trade, they're not only going
to have to win a championship themselves in the near term.
I mean, they need Luka Doncic to not go on
to greatness in Los Angeles, which I fully expect him
to do. I don't think the Lakers as currently constructed
are a title contender right now. But the Lakers have
(21:41):
a ten year runway that they didn't have three weeks ago.
Give them, you know, they've already pulled off the seemingly
impossible by getting Luka Doncic. If I'm looking at this
through Lakers goggled, I'm giving them a little bit more
time to figure out the rest. Give me Luka Doncic
and I will figure out the rest. But uh, you know, again,
(22:05):
there are certainly reasons being cited, but me agreeing with
them is a separate matter.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Of course, the Lakers thirty two and twenty eight and
two their final ten. Luca plays those couple of games. Yeah,
they take the loss to the Jazz, but the Williams
trade being rescinded, connect comes back. Look, he's gonna get
to play against Lebron and on Sunday. I guess in
this one, we.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Talk about that, We talk about that for a second.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yeah, what do you what do you think of all
this we've been talking about when All Star in construction
and everything else, but then we watched this mess and
trying to figure out exactly what it means.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Yeah. Look, I wanted to get your guy check on
this because I tweeted this earlier tonight. And you know,
I am a child of the seventies and eighties. In
the eighties, it was a twenty three team NBA. The
All Star rosters were twelve in each conference more years
than I care to admit. Later, there are thirty teams
in the NBA and All Star rosters are still at twelve.
(23:03):
The NBA does not want to expand All Star rosters
to fourteen and fifteen, which is fine, we can debate.
There are certainly things I wouldn't like about it either.
I mean, it does you know, hilt history or to
stort history a little bit more if all of a sudden,
fifteen guys can make All Star in each conference every
season compared to twelve. However, the format that they have
(23:24):
chosen to save the All Star Games, this does it
make any sense that on All Stars Sunday, the night's
winning team and the Rising Stars competition is playing on
All Stars Sunday. Does that make any sense?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
I would say no.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Yeah, we're theorizing mark the idea of, you know, expand
the rosters and then maybe if these guys are only
going to play a few minutes each as opposed to
you know, where we're at, where they don't even want
to go that by expanding the roster, Yes, we could
talk about what it means for season whatever else, but
maybe you actually can get guys to buy in for
(24:03):
shorter durations if they're not gonna have to play, you know,
twenty five minutes in this game.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
You're just throwing stuff up against the wall to try
to make it all make sense.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Oh my bad, My bad, My bad, I hit I
hit the wrong button. That was my fault.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Okay, you started, you were cursing about Luca, and then
you had to get that out in that age. What
was your fault?
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Yeah, I said, I said somewhere. I said somewhere that
don't meet SCC specification. So it was pryly good that
I'm muting myself. I am not in the camp that
says that the All Star Game has to be this
ultra competitive, unforgettable game, Like, seriously, how many All Star
(24:43):
Games in your lifetime, do you truly remember? I mean,
you know, obviously Magic Johnson coming back in Orlando and
playing in that game, and like I remember in the eighties,
like I can still see Rolando Blackman making those free
throws to force overtime, and then I got to know
him in Dallas and when I see him to this day,
I just love the mouth compete, you know, confidence, baby, confidence,
(25:04):
Like you was yelling at the ball to make it drop.
Like there are some moments that just stick with you.
But it's pretty rare. It's the All Star Game, I
mean it. And I think in the NFL and the
NHL they've already figured this out. The reality is in
the modern day, in twenty twenty five, these guys are
in our lives hourly. In the NBA maybe even more,
(25:29):
we are so connected to the superstars. It's not like
when we were kids and the All Star Game would
be one of the few chances you got to see
Jana Santetokumpo unless you lived in Milwaukee. Like these got
the minute these guys do anything, it goes viral in seconds.
Any amazing play that they make, we see it every
(25:50):
single night. So I mean The reality about the All
Star Game is everybody wants to be picked, everybody wants
All Star status on their resume. But All Star weekend
is a convention. And now it is a convention. It
is a place where the whole league gathers in the
you know, in the middle of February to celebrate the
league and to you know, but it's like the game itself.
(26:11):
The truth is, I just I don't think guys want
to play in that game, and I don't know that
there's anything that can be done to change it. You know,
hockey going to the to to this format has worked
really well for them. You know, I guess we need
to give this a chance before writing it off. But
like right away, I'm just wondering. Again, nothing against these
(26:32):
first and second year players who are probably beyond the hype,
you know, the group of players that won tonight and
now gets to play on Sunday. But it's like, why
are they out there with the twenty four all starts?
It just it doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Now, Well, here's the thing is that it will and
if you don't like it, just wait five minutes in
the NBA will have a new idea for next year,
because well, it's it's it's the they're at the all
All Star Games now are at the casting aspect, right,
the days, the heydays of the All Star Games that
you and I grew up on that we still remember,
whether it was the NBA or Major League Baseball. I mean,
(27:09):
it's gone now, right, that's gone. And all they're all
the leagues have to do is how do we just
keep the game going? How do we keep some kind
of interest and keep people and maybe we'll hit on
something over the course of throwing stuff up against the
wall and seeing what sticks. Hey, people like this. We
can go to this format for a little while and
we can at least bring, you know, bring a few
more people in. But the heydays of what the All
(27:30):
Star Game was, it's gone, Like they have to just hey,
let's just find the new normal, you know, and and
and see what that's gonna be. And that's gonna be
less people watching, obviously, it's gonna be less people that
really want to play hard in the game, however you
want to phrase it. And and just it's just a yearly.
Let's find a way to keep people coming in, you know,
I referenced last hour it's like the bar that has Okay, well,
(27:51):
we have Ladies Night on Wednesday and fifty cent wings
on Thursday, and then it's two for one on Friday
Happy Hour, always trying to find a way to get
people in because you know, I can't just open the
bar and have people in for all step because the
All Star weekend isn't isn't quite what it was.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
And I guess the one thing I would say in
the NBA's defense though, is look, since the seventies, it
has been a national sport for the media to ask
what's wrong with the NBA, and no league bears the
run of that more than the NBA. When you want
to criticize all start, we focus on what's wrong with
the NBA All Star Game? Is the Pro Bowl any good?
(28:28):
But it's to me from my seat, Maybe you know,
maybe NFL insiders would would dispute me on this, but
I just feel like there is so much discussion about how,
you know, the state of the NBA All Star Game
or the state of the NBA TV rating. It just
it just seems to me like it's for the last
forty plus years, there is this rush to try to
(28:51):
say what is wrong with the NBA needs to fix
a B C D. And you know what, every pro
sports league in the world has issues, has things they
need to fix, you know, has flaws. And you know, again,
I think in the grand scheme of things, you know,
the NBA just signed this slew of massive NBA TV contracts.
(29:12):
They're doing fine. So I mean, you know, we get
worked up about the All Star Game during All Star
weekend and this weekend there will be countless takes about
why this is bad, why that is bad, and then
you know, by Tuesday, it will all be.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Forgotten once we get back to the games.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
All that being said, we talked about Luca and potential
impact with the Lakers long term, short term. Outside of
that move, which one do you think has the greatest
impact the second half of the season and into the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
I mean, there were so many. I don't know that
I can narrow one down, but I have to say
I saw Golden State this week and they lost here
in Dallas, but then they bounced back and beat Houston
last night. A really tough back to back for a
team with so many older players. But I just think,
jim I, you know, Jimmy Butler to me, I am
a huge Jimmy Butler fan, and obviously the the six
(30:01):
week campaign he waged to get himself traded has probably
cost him some fans in some way. We've never seen
anyone take pat Riley on like he did, and you know,
maybe that changed the way some people think about him.
But I just think the guy is ultra competitive. He
is a proven winner, he's a proven playoff performer. And
(30:26):
I just already, since when I was around the Warriors,
there's just they've got some of their swagger back. I mean,
they are still super small, and you know, realistically, do
they have enough size to get out of a Western
conference that is, you know, so dangerous. Probably not, But
I will tell you that I don't think anybody wants
(30:48):
to see Golden State with Jimmy there, and they are
going to be a much tougher out than they were.
And like I said, I just think they already have
some of their swagger back because that's the kind of
player he is, and you know, he knows that, you know,
he has something to prove after everything that happened in
Miami this season, and that was that was part of
(31:10):
the Warriors calculus here. I mean, they looked it as
you know, we're gonna make this trade. But like Jimmy
Butler is going to come out with a vengeance to
hush the skeptic, hush the naysayers, and I you know,
I think we you know, they've only played four games
win them, but I think we've already seen some evidence
of that. And again I don't I'm not sitting here
(31:31):
saying the Warriors can win the West, but I think
they are a much more interesting team and not a
team that anybody's going to be super excited to see
in the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
He's on Twitter at the Steinline. That is, at the Steinline.
See him on substack as well, Mark stein Mark, Thanks
a bunch, enjoy whatever we see this weekend for All
Star Weekend. We'll talk to you next week. All right, guys,
Thanks Mark, great stuff. To much more bullish on the
Warriors than I've been the last few nights. But like
I said, I like how they're building. I don't think
(32:01):
the Jimmy Butler was for this year more than it
was for Hey, let's get him in. They signed him
for two years past. Here, we're gonna get another star
player to come in and then we're really gonna make
a run the next two years out of this. So
the war I feel like, even if they fall short
this year, No, they started to build around what they're
gonna do the last couple of years of Steph being
a superstar. Yeah, I mean a lot of it.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
We're still waiting on the buy out market and what
other chips may fall, right. I mean, we talked about
the Lakers after the Williams trade gets canceled, of whether
they can find another big body, right Jackson Hayes was
gonna fill that role. He got jacked in the face,
so fortunately the All Star break comes a good healing
(32:44):
time for him at this point. But you know, they
don't have any depth at that position for the Warriors.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Intriguing.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
You know me, I've always been a big face, coffee
kind of guy. He's a curiosity and he defeated pat
Riley in this scenario. But what do they do? Can
they had another body or two to go through because
they've got a couple of guys playing in the you
know that played tonight in all the the young youthful
games including Get Out, that played at Northwestern. Yeah things,
(33:11):
you never thought you'd hear me say, a guy that
played at Northwestern was playing in an All Star activity.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Exit out bout of Fresco Exit swollen down. Jason Smith
Mike Harmon time out to find out what's trending from
a guy who's been called the Jimmy Butler of Fox
Sports Radio. It's got a lot of talent, but every
couple of years he wants to fight somebody that works here.
It's Steve Desager.
Speaker 5 (33:31):
And weird haird that comes out at Media Day. By
the way, it is yes NBA All Star Weekend in
San Francisco, the NHL with no All Star Game this year.
By comparison, this year, the NBA's national TV ratings average,
this is the national TV game so far this season,
down to one point seventy five million viewers per game.
(33:51):
USA hockey last night one point five five million viewers
for the win against Finland, and for hockey, that's actually
the largest TV audience they've had outside of playoffs for
anything NHL related in over two years. Hockey's Four Nations
faceoff continues in Montreal on Saturday. It'll be US at Canada,
(34:12):
Saturday night day game tomorrow, Finland against Sweden, and then
things shift to Boston on Monday. Each team plays three
tournament games in that round robin format. Thursday night game
will be the championship game. NHL is off for almost
two weeks. NBA's off this weekend the Rising Stars games
where tonight team Chris Mullen won it MVP Stefan Castle
(34:33):
in the final in about eight minutes on the court,
he had twelve points. His club team Chris Mullen won
the semi against team Tim Hardaway Senior with the Bay
Area Flavor Celebrity Game was tonight as well. Spurs rookie
Castle will be in the Slam Dunk Contest All Stars
Saturday night, along with two time defending champ Mac McClung
from the G League. Three Point Contests will include two
(34:55):
time defending champ Damian Lillard. Skills Challenge will start things
off tomorrow. The NBA All Star Game is Sunday night
in San Francisco and that is now a four team
mini tournament. Each team will have eight players, and the
winning team Tonight and the Rising Stars advances to be
one of the teams competing on Sunday Night. Carmelo Anthony
and Dwight Howard are finalists for the Basketball Hall of
(35:16):
Fame as our coaches Mark Few and Billy Donovan College
basketball tonight, so UCLA hold on to win at Indiana
seventy two to seventy and Sunday's Daytona five hundred TV coverage.
We'll start an hour early, do the weather forecast there.
The race will begin at two pm Eastern time on
Fox TV.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Back to you, Thank you, Steve Though The Jason Smiths
with Mike Carmen Live from thetyreck dot Com studios. Last night,
we had a real hot take about an NBA story
that I know. The reaction we got and what I
got on social media's oh come on, you're crazy. Well,
twenty four hours later, that take looks even better. That's next,
Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon. How about here. We are getting set
for NBA All Star Weekend already have the games going
on tonight, and it was last night that the NBA
on TNT decided ay, we're all taking a break from
the games as we get set for All Star weekend,
(36:25):
and Shaquille O'Neil got a little extemporaneous when he started
talking about how tired he was after having a race
around the set with Charles Barkley, which is something that
they've been doing the last few months now. Marshawn Lynch
was on the set earlier. So this is why Shaq
referenced Marshawn when he said this on television last night
(36:45):
and the words of marsh Marshall Lynch, I'm tired americawhere.
So there're Shack dropping an s bomb on the NBA
on DND and when we saw it, when I saw
this last night, we talked of this in the last
(37:05):
hour of the show and I said, you know, I'm
really done with the whole Hey all, look how awful
I feel bad for inside the NBA. Who knows if
they're gonna be able to keep going forward. And it's
been a year of just oh what are we gonna do?
We've had this great show. Yeah, you got a great
show for twenty years. But okay, I you want sympathy,
(37:26):
you want sympathy. What's what's your endgame here? You all?
We all want to stay at Turner. We all want
to do all these things. And here's Shackers of the universe. Fine,
and here's Shack last night saying blanket, we're all getting
fired anyway, right, which is really rich considering what happened today,
which was Shaquille O'Neil agreed to a fifteen million dollars
(37:46):
a year contract to stay with Turner. Now, Turner is
going to lease this show out next year when ESPN
and NBC and and streaming services take over. So they're
all staying together. They're all staying together. They all got paid,
they all got money. So all of this, oh hey,
this is awful. Feel bad for us for off. They
(38:09):
all got paid to stay so in the end, all
of this was a negotiation all of them. Feel bad
for us, feel awful. I want to know, did you
save everybody else's jobs you were all up about. Did
you say because it was all about family, right, it's
all about family and family and Turner and staying together.
Did everybody's job get saved or did you guys all
get paid? Like, because that's what it seems like right now,
is that, Oh we want we want them to wear
(38:30):
a family. We all want to stay together. All these
things feel bad for us, they moaned, and they self pitied,
and they all got what they wanted. Right, They're all
getting paid a lot of money to stay and continue
to do this show, which is great, right, It's awesome.
These guys are talented. I can't say they work hard,
but they work well on camera, Like Barkley's the first
guy to SIDEO really worked very hard, but they work
well on camera. They're fun, they're knowledgeable, they just get it.
(38:52):
It's a great show. But boy, they asked us to
really feel sorry for them for the last year, like
it was the end of Western civilization. And in the end, oh,
everybody's getting paid. And last night Shack is like, we're
getting fired. They all hate us, Ernie, Oh no today,
Oh fifteen million dollar a year contract? Like what the hell? Man?
I mean, what was was this all just a negotiation?
I mean it was the whole thing. Did you just
(39:14):
try to pull the wool over our eyes for the
better part of the last year, just wanted us to
feel bad for you, so oh hey, and we all
got money as a result of it.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
Yeah, I mean, look, we take some content, and Shack
gave us some last night and and certainly over the
years some hot take nonsense or reactions that had been
you know, part of become part of the lexicon and
part of the history as much as the games at
times with that crew. And that's great, so good they
(39:45):
offer into our sports world and consciousness. But you know,
they didn't solve it anything. I'd be curious to see
how much of the staff now gets run between NBC, Amazon,
ESPN and whoever else has a piece of the pie.
Are those folks working all over the place, how many
of them still got lost in the process to your point, Yeah,
(40:08):
I mean that was the question. Because Barkley started doing
the thing, I kept waiting for a couple of violinists
to start playing behind him, you.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
Know, And I feel like you got played. Donate now. Yeah,
I feel like everybody got played. Hey, we're gonna, we're gonna,
we're gonna couch this under the look what's going on,
and we're worried for everybody. And in the end it's like, hey,
I got paid, I got paid, I got paid, I
got paid, Barkley got paid, Shot got pay, everybody got paid.
We're gonna do the show. Oh, everything's fine again, So
tell me, tell me tell me you save people's jobs,
and I'll say, hey, awesome, awesome job you saved. You
(40:39):
saved the hundreds of of hundreds of jobs. Awesome that
that's great. But did you or did you all just
get paid? Now everybody else has to look for new gigs,
like really, like what'd you do? Exit out about a
Frescat exit? Swallen dumb coming up next. Hey, you want
a solution to fix NBA All Star weekend, Maybe we
have it and it's not about the weekend. Fox