January 15, 2026 • 41 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon welcomed NBA Analyst Ric Bucher to show to talk all things LeBron James/Rich Paul, Giannis’ future in Milwaukee and Ja Morant’s trade market.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 1 (00:32):
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(00:55):
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Speaker 3 (01:01):
Take a look.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
If you miss stuff again our YouTube channel, just search
Jason Smith Show. Mike and I love putting this content
out for you every single night. So uh, the Knicks
are getting worked by the Kings right now.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
But it's fine. You can't stop him. You can only
hope to contain them.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
It's gonna be a five or six point game in
the fourth quarter. The Knicks will take over in the
final four minutes. That's what's gonna happen tonight. I'd just
like every Knicks game, every Knicks game, right, you don't
out execute the Knicks in the final four minutes of
the game, everything is fine.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Just like the theory that you punch yourself out a right,
if you're in a boxing ra it's like, keep going,
keep swinging. There a tough ger, sure, and then you
get ready for the knockout blow in the final round.
Is that what you're doing now?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
If you thought the Ja Moran stuff was fun, well,
the drama with Lebron James the last twenty four hours
has been It's been even for Lebron. It's been over
the top. And that's saying something right for Lebron, who
loves controversy, loves it being about him all that this
(02:06):
is even over the top. Now. This manifests itself from
a podcast that Rich Paul did a few days ago
talking about what the Lakers should do with the trade
deadline and what Rich Paul again clutch Sports, Lebron's agent.
It's synonymous with Lebron James. Rich Paul's idea was to hey,
(02:28):
Lakers got to make a big trade at the deadline.
How about if it's Scottie Pippen. How about if they
trade the new number two guy? What if they trade
Austin Reeves.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
First of all, if you watch the show, this was
a hypothetical conversation we were having if I was running
a team, not this is what's gonna happen, etc.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Secondly, I believe it's very.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Complementary two Ar because he's on a team with two
future Hall of famers and he happens to be as
set Right. Here's what I will say, and this is
complimentary to Ar. If you were sitting here and you said, Rich,
you take this one, I'll take that one. I'm not
saying an equal players. But what I am saying is,
(03:14):
however you want me to start to then build the
rest of my team, I'm fine either way.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
With Luca or Austin.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
I can build a team either way. Now you're talking
about hypotheticals. This does not mean you want somebody to
be traded. And there's some insider information in the locker
room and this is not a Lebron thing.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Uh Yeah, of course not. You know, here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
If I thought this was his first day doing a
podcast or talking about something or running clutch sports, I
would tell okay, But no, he knows what he's saying,
and Lebron did no favors when he was asked about
this last night following the Lakers game, by saying, Hey, Rich,
Paul's his own guy. That's his own opinion. I love ar.
(03:56):
He knows how I feel about him. This is such
an absolute mess. I almost feel like Lebron is now
sabotaging the Lakers. Like seriously, I'm not saying like like
I feel like he's sabotaged. How do I get back
at the Lakers for making me go through this miserable
season where I'm the third option and they can't wait
to get me out?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
What do I do?
Speaker 6 (04:15):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I know my agent's gonna go out there and the
guy running the agency that I'm he's gonna say they
should trade that guy that's keeping me from being Luca's
buddy and going forward and having this great status with
the team. They want to push me out because everybody
loves at Austin Reeves is the number two guy with
with Luka Doncic. Everybody knows what they're saying. Rich Paul
(04:38):
knows what he's saying. Lebron James knows what he's saying
when he says, what do you want me to say?
He's his own guy. Right. This is Lebron again, and
part of he's done this throughout his career, choosing his
friends and his business partner over his teammate. Right. Because
I don't care if you hate the media and you
think the media is doing something to you, your team
(05:00):
mates need you to talk about this publicly and say, hey,
I don't know what Rich is saying. I love Austin Reeves,
We're going for a championship. We're great right where you
Whatever you believe behind closed doors is one thing, But
publicly you say, hey, I don't want my guy traded. No, no, no, no,
you called Rich pugre Dude, you can't do that. Man,
you can't say that. You know that's gonna come back
(05:20):
and blow back on me. The only reason that said
is if Lebron's got his blessing, and it's got Lebron's blessing,
it's okay that he said that. Because Lebron wants to
sabotage the Lakers. I mean it because why else would
you have that go out there at a time when
things aren't going great. You've kind of hit the skids
after a strong start. Why are you doing that, right, Lebron?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Really?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I don't know if Lebron wants to try to find
a way to get traded, he wants to try to
find a way off the Lakers. He's just mad the
Lakers to do it, But I feel like he's sabotaging
them with this. What would happen if Austin Reeves said, Hey,
you know what, I'm doing a podcast, Yeah, maybe we
should trade Lebron?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Like, what would happen? What happen if that? If that happened?
What if you what if his agent went on and.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Say, y, hey, what what if you know, hypothetically, just hypothetically,
you know, since you know what if we traded Lebron
to Cleveland and we got what?
Speaker 7 (06:07):
Like?
Speaker 3 (06:08):
How do you think that would go?
Speaker 8 (06:09):
Man?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
First off, it would be great to watch all the
national media sycophants come to his defense. How dare you
talk about trading Lebron? Lebron?
Speaker 4 (06:21):
James is mad that he's currently in lebron spot on
the Metal stand uh, you know how much I love
the movie. The other guys, Uh huh, Right, I'm a
peacock captain. You gotta let me fly, don't go chase
and water all sorts of quotes. The best was from
Samuel Jackson where he says, I'm gonna take my fist
dot dot dot and I'm gonna work him off like
(06:42):
a puppet. That's kind of what we got here. Lebron James,
no matter how much he does protest that he's not
part of this. This is like going back to when
Luca got traded there and they tried to sell the
whole thing. If Lebron had no knowledge this was gonna
go down. Nobody on that then. Okay, some of those
that want to just take everything that Lebron says and
(07:07):
does as gospel and the greatest because they don't want
to lose access, right, they don't want to be seen
as the the against the foes of the Lebron James
hype experience. But you know, from the twenty three patch,
that's fine, that's a deal with tops and fanatics. Folks
just have to get over that forty six games. He's
gonna wear this patch about his career. But this whole thing, right,
(07:30):
The agent's actually got together, right Rich Paul and Austin
Reeves agent For a couple of minutes they were seen
having a bit of an animated discussion, so they clearly
did not take it as a he's his own man
on a podcast just throwing out hypotheticals.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
No, nobody buys.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
That for a second, that it's not a calculated ploy to.
I don't know if they're trying to get JJ reddicks
the head to explode like he's in Scanners. There you go,
eighties movie, Go watch that horror movie. That's a great
one star look at him twitch. Maybe maybe it's to
try to help you. Maybe you're the Svengali of it
all because it gets JJ Reddick to not hate you
(08:07):
for a minute.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
I mean, really, JJ, on the least of your problems. Man,
You guys got you gotta start. This is I mean
really it is. It's like sabotage. It's okay again. And
I told you would be awkward because Lebron is not
gonna be happy playing this whole season as the third week.
He chose it, right, But it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
He's not good.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
This is the reality. He still chose it. He doesn't care.
He's not gonna go back and go, well, I chose you.
I gotta keep my mouth shut. No, he wants everything, folks,
he wants all of it. Right, but Lebron doesn't care.
He has remember and now what do I do? We
said it was going to be awkward, we said it
was gonna be really, it was gonna be difficult. I
don't know how Lebron finishes the season on the Lakers.
I don't know how this happens. But this is I
(08:49):
mean the Lakers. We've already heard how upset they are. Yeah,
they should be pissed that the agent of a guy
that you know doesn't say anything or have things said
unless it's been talked about. And the fact that Lebron
didn't say whoa, whoa, whoa, This is not right. This
is not true. He needed to be stronger standing up
to do that publicly, and he didn't.
Speaker 8 (09:06):
Right.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
This is I mean really?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I mean I feel like it's we want to push
the guy out that's taking his taking his spots as
the other guy with Luca. I can be okay being
Luca's other guy. I'm okay with that, but now that
I'm the third guy. And as I've come back, it's
not my team and I'm not it's not nearly close
to me, and people can't wait for me to go.
How do I grease the skids on this?
Speaker 6 (09:25):
Right?
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I feel like now he's moving, he's trying to find
a way to get traded at the deadline?
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Where?
Speaker 1 (09:29):
How?
Speaker 7 (09:29):
Where?
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Because now now, how tenable is it for Lebron to
stay on this team and play with Austin Reeves when
his agency I would trade him. I don't care, it
doesn't matter. Oh, this is in some sort of you know,
in an absolute world. It's not not what I would do. No,
you know what you're doing when you say trade Austin
reed you know exactly what you're doing and what you're
trying to get out.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
The Babe of the Woods thing doesn't work. You've been
around for twenty three years, You've been the business partner
in and a mouthpiece all these years, and just own it, right,
you put it out there if this is what I
would do. Well. A couple of years ago, I think
we all believed, and I think we were right and
assuming so that Lebron James was in charge of everything
(10:10):
and Clutch Sports ran the operation Rob Polinka and everybody there.
They were empty suits. And now the power has shifted
with Luka Donctz coming to town, and it's a new
world order. You got a new ownership group, you got
a new everything that has come in to run this
organization into the next phase, which means Lebron James, you're there.
(10:31):
You still put asses in seats, you still drive ticket sales,
but beyond that, you're a jag. Right, you're number three,
number four. On some nights, you don't play defense. And
then everybody immediately shifted from this conversation. Right, it got
a very small, compartmentalized thing in his time because it
immediately became a let's talk about how great you were
(10:53):
against the Hawks. I lookt the Hawks.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
If Ron James stays on the team past the deadline,
the Lakers season will spiral. Right, It's already starting to
spire a little bit now because they had no problems.
Now Lebron James been back for two or three weeks.
Guess guess what they got problems? Right, they got problems.
They were winning lots of games against good teams because
the Lakers had had their team. This is how we
want to play with Lucas our number one. Also reasons
(11:20):
are Scottie Pippen everybody else fit into their role. Really
like that everything was awesome. Now Lebron came back. He's
still getting his but now the Lakers are hit the skins.
If they hold on to him past the deadline, this
season is going to spiral and fall apart. It's almost
like he's daring again. He was daring them to trade
him in the offseason, daring them for different things. I
don't see how the Lakers can hold on to him
(11:42):
past the deadline. Well, we cannot find a way to
move on and just get whatever you even if it's
just salary cap relief. At this point, let's find something
and make a different trade to bring in whatever you
feel you need to build around Luca. But I don't
know how he stays on the team after.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
That because the other piece that it has to be
just said, those that haven't watched the Lakers up and down,
you haven't seen Austin Reeves since Christmas, right, So he's
not there and you're having these issues, and eventually when
he gets reintegrated, guess what Lebron's shots the standing around
the getting him subbed out in minutes, because you can't
(12:16):
have two defensive liabilities of that magnitude on the court.
Right when you talk about Luca, who, let's face it,
oftentimes it doesn't even look like he's pretending to play defense,
and Lebron doesn't come back on defense on a number
of possessions. So all of that just begets bigger and
bigger problems, particularly as you get closer to the end
(12:37):
of the regular season you start playing those meaningful games,
whether it's proceeding to avoid the play in to be
in the playoff picture at the end.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Of it all. And they're in.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Good spot now, but it's still a long season, right,
You still got to navigate injuries like Luca getting extra treatment,
question night to night of what's going on with his squad,
Lebron and what you gotta manage it. One year, one
day he was telling you how old he was, uh,
and he wasn't gonna play the back to back, and
then he's he's pumping his fist and losing his mind
(13:08):
against Atlanta yesterday. So day to day you're trying to
navigate that. And now Rich Paul throws this out there, Hey,
when this guy comes back, maybe.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
He should go back, maybe he should be traded.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
I mean, I wow, man, I mean really just I
mean I I I even That's why this even surprised
me for Lebron, that he would get to this point
where that rich Paul throws it out there and Lebron
doesn't really pour cold water on it. She's like, well,
he's his own guy. He says what he wants, like, dude,
stand up for your teammate. Man, stand up for your teammate. Hey,
I'm not a puppet, dude. It's a long thing.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Dude.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Like he just kept going and circling back to he's
his own man. You think I control everything?
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Yes? Yeah, kind of dude.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
He is daring him to try and again. At this point,
the Lakers have to or there. This is how bad
the season's going to get. This is how much it
will spiral if he stays a Laker past it that.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Lebron James Man, Thanks Lebron, uh Content.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Creator Exit, how to Fresca Exit, Swollen Dome Jason Smith,
Mike Carbon Cleveland, come knock on the door, whatever it is,
Somebody come and get him.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Because the Lakers keep trying to put it back in Cleveland.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
I think they want to stuff back Lebron James.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
We got more NBA on the way, but coming up next.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
You want a great NFL story that's gonna make you
feel sad, wistful, but also with a dash of a
hot take. Oh oh yeah, yeah, that's next right here,
Jason and Mike Fox Sports.
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that NFL story coming up in a few minutes because
(16:45):
we got a hot route coming, gonna talk NBA and
boy is there a lot of big stuff to get to.
Nobody better than FS one insider extraordinaire Rick Buker. He's
on Twitter at Rick Buker, check out the On the
Ball podcast. Asked as well, we got John Morant potentially
on the trading block. We have Lebron James maybe trying
(17:06):
to force his way out by sabotaging the Lakers. We
have a lot of stuff to get to, but we'll
start with the Ja Moran thing.
Speaker 7 (17:12):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
We talked about this last hour a little bit, and
and now that he's on the trade block, you know,
Rick Buker dropped that with us dropped that in our
lap last week on Wednesday night saying, hey, when Trey
Young got traded, there wasn't a lot of interest obviously,
you know my you know his his preferredation was the Wizards.
Nobody's preferred destiny Wizards. But Rick told us, hey, it
(17:33):
is Crickets on the John Morant trade situation on the
trade front.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Here we are now and we've heard the last couple
of days many teams have ben't been in contact for
John Morant. But are they really with us now? In
the hotline is Rick Buker, Rick, thanks for last week.
You're ahead of the curve with the whole John Moran stuff.
Have things changed the last week or teams actually calling
like having interest in John morancs boy, I have a
(17:59):
hard time believe that any team's going to want to
sign up for a couple of years a in.
Speaker 7 (18:05):
Yeah, I have not heard of anything that is actually
anywhere close to happening.
Speaker 9 (18:13):
Certainly there's going to be some teams that are.
Speaker 7 (18:15):
Kicking the tires.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
The question is going to be.
Speaker 7 (18:19):
The Grizzlies have to give number one? Do they have
to give up something in addition to John Morant in
order to make it happen, as in some sort of picks.
It's fallen to that point. But this is the change,
at least when it comes to the tray Young move,
is that the price for tray Young was so low that.
Speaker 9 (18:42):
It may put John Morant in.
Speaker 7 (18:44):
A place where a team like say Minnesota or Houston
that is looking for that has established stars, has a
established culture, is thinking, well, we don't really have to
give up anything, and he could possibly be a plus,
(19:07):
you know, give us something that we don't have at
this point as we try to make a run for
the title. I could see them, I could see them
exploring it. I have not heard that to this point.
And and to be clear, like John Moran, going back
to last year, the Memphis Grizzlies were open to doing business.
This to me is just an indicator that they're now
(19:28):
ready to get something done sooner rather than later, that
they're they're.
Speaker 9 (19:32):
They're ready to push the envelope and even if.
Speaker 7 (19:34):
It means taking less in order to move him on
that they're looking at his addition by subtraction.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
All right, Rick, let's move on to the meaty topic here.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Los Angeles and Rich Paul appearing on podcasts.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Yeah, and Lebron James. Hey, he's his own man.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
I don't know anything about this, but is he a
saboteur trying to make JJ REDDICKX, it's that much harder.
Speaker 7 (20:01):
You know what's funny is that Lebron talked about how.
Speaker 9 (20:06):
Like in terms of his people loving him or hating him,
but you.
Speaker 7 (20:11):
Know, it's just the people that are closest to him
that they're the ones that matter the most to.
Speaker 9 (20:15):
Him, and those are the ones that he's always going.
Speaker 7 (20:17):
To be loyal to because they've always been there with him.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
You know.
Speaker 9 (20:20):
Rich Paul is one of those guys. So this idea,
it just kind of tickles me.
Speaker 7 (20:27):
Like I see Lebron James is distancing himself from Rich Paul.
Speaker 9 (20:31):
That's not possible. They're surgically tied at the hip, I
do believe. And the idea that.
Speaker 7 (20:39):
That Lebron would say, hey, just because Rich Paul says
something doesn't mean that I think that if do, we
need to go through the history of Lebron James and
the moves that have been made and how they've mirrored
the perspective of Rich Paul, and Rich Paul has always
been sort of the hint in terms of getting those
(21:02):
things done.
Speaker 9 (21:03):
So I just the idea I find it.
Speaker 7 (21:06):
Galling that Lebron James would say to us, Hey, just
because Rich Paul said something doesn't mean that I believe
in it or that I knew anything about it. First
of all, even if that was somehow the case that
rich Paul was talking out of turn, Lebron shouldn't be
looking at it as Hey, just want to be clear,
(21:27):
you know how I feel about Austin Reeves, et cetera,
et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 9 (21:30):
It would be you know.
Speaker 7 (21:32):
What, I need to have a talk with my agent
because this is out of line what he said, as
opposed to, Hey, I.
Speaker 9 (21:39):
Don't know, you know, he's his own man or whatever it.
Speaker 7 (21:43):
Lebron should be holding Rich Paul accountable because there's no
question that this is does not do anything positive for
the Lakers and their chemistry. In fact, I don't know
if you guys saw it, But because Rich Paul's podcast
is under the umbrella of Bill Simmons, who is a
(22:07):
noted Boston Celtics fan, die hard Boston Celtics fan, and
thereby a arch enemy of the Lakers, the feeling is
that this is all the conspiracy theory is that this
is all a plot by Bill Simmons knowing that Rich
Paul is going to talk out of turn, and that's
going to screw up the Lakers, and that's better for
the boiself.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Well, Rick, I gotta I got a different path. I'm
gonna throw this by you tell me the tell tell
me the probably you think this is what it is? Right?
Speaker 7 (22:36):
So, Rich Paul, is this a shocker that we're getting this? No?
Speaker 3 (22:39):
No, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 9 (22:42):
Oh. I have a different path.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
No no, this has nothing to do with the Nicks,
nothing to do with it.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
It actually doesn't doesn't want to Rick, I don't think
unless he's changed his mind.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Rich Rich Paul knows what he's doing when he goes
on a podcast and posits trading Austin Reeves Lebron James
knows what he's doing when he doesn't come out and say, hey,
Rich Paul, I don't know what he's saying. I love
Austin Reeves. He's here, I'm here, We're winning a championship.
They both know what they're doing when they're not saying that.
I knew this year was going to be awkward, with
Lebron coming back and the Lakers shunting him to the side.
(23:12):
I knew it would be awkward, But this is almost
to the point where Lebron's kind of sabotaging the Lakers, right,
I don't know how he stays on the team following
this where, yeah, my agent, who you know, we are close,
is throwing out there trading a guy who was kind
of usurped me as being the number two guy on
the roster. And I wonder if this is Lebron just
continuing to do this to to just dare the Lakers
(23:35):
and make them trade him at the deadline or get
him somewhere else where. He doesn't look like he's got
to be the bad guy because this doesn't make any
There's no star that would ever had their agent say, yeah,
another guy in the team has to get traded. Everybody
knows what they're doing in this situation, and it just
seems like Lebron is sabotaging the Lakers to get out.
Speaker 7 (23:53):
Well it's not. I mean, if it's getting out, it
would be we're just letting you go. He's not going
to get traded because no one's given up fifty million
plus worth of assets in order to get Lebron James
at this point that for for a rental.
Speaker 9 (24:12):
So, but is there the possibility that.
Speaker 7 (24:16):
You know that he just doesn't like being Essentially, if
Austin Reeds is healthy, he's the third He's the third option.
He's the third wheel. There's a couple of different ways
to go.
Speaker 8 (24:26):
One.
Speaker 7 (24:27):
I'll give you some plausibility.
Speaker 9 (24:28):
There in terms of this is just so uncomfortable.
Speaker 7 (24:31):
I don't know that it's necessarily the once he like
he's intentionally wants out as much as he just doesn't
like being in this position, so he's going to act
this way. But let's say that there is intention behind it,
and the idea is that that he wants out. I
would imagine know that Lebron James could simply go to
the Lakers and say, hey, I'm done with this, release me,
(24:51):
and and they would I would. I would think the
other option or possibility here, for if we're just spitballing,
is that there's no chance if the Lakers retain Austin
Reeves and sign Austin Reeves, there's no possible way that
you're bringing Lebron James back on almost any kind of
(25:14):
contract and certainly not want anything anywhere close to what
he's making now. So unless they move Austin Reeves for
something that is going to open up more cap flexibility.
Then the writing is already on the wall that this
is it for Lebron and he's going to go out,
and he's going to go out.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
As as the.
Speaker 7 (25:35):
Third wheel, that's another possibility here, but in any case,
it doesn't look.
Speaker 9 (25:44):
Good for someone.
Speaker 7 (25:45):
It feels like we're at odds here because on one hand,
the NBA is created the patch that is now on
his uniform about the twenty three seasons, and and there's
talk about how they're going to involve him in the
All Star Game or All Star Weekend even if he
isn't voted or chosen to be part of the team,
(26:05):
which is which is a good possibility at this point.
And yet on the other hand, it's it's he's going
out and being a malecontent on the Lakers. It's just
you're trying to celebrate someone and at the same time
there they're being petty. That's not a good look and
it and it muddies the waters as far as Lebron
(26:28):
James going out the right way based on the kind
of career that he's had.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
F s one NBA analyst on the Ball podcast host
It's our Guy, Rick Buker, George is each it every
week here the Jason Smith Show with Me, Mike Armin
here Fox Sports Radio, at Rick Buker, where you find
him in the twitter verse. Okay, Rick, how did you
respond when Yannis started booing the home fans in a
blowout lost yesterday?
Speaker 1 (26:51):
I loved it.
Speaker 7 (26:52):
I mean, you never know, you never know what you're
gonna get from Yannis. But if this is what is
interesting to me, If Yanni's truly wanted out of Milwaukee,
like he could use this as the perfect forum to say, see,
this is why, you know, maybe it's time for me
to move on, would be really easy for him to
do that.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
But he's not.
Speaker 7 (27:13):
He's not approaching it that way. He's he's enjoying it.
He's having fun with it, you know, booing the fans
back and the way he's talked about like, I mean,
the one clip that I saw was, uh that you
know that he kind of enjoys the fans being up
about the team not playing as well as they are.
(27:35):
I guess the person that I keep thinking about is Humps,
because Shams is as practically staked to his reputation on no, no, no,
don't no, matter what Yannis says or the Bucks say
or doc Rivers say, or anybody says like, no, you know,
Jannest wants out. And Jannis has repeatedly said I've never
asked for that, and and and he's being given every
(27:58):
opportunity to publicly say, hey, I want out. If the
fans don't think I'm good enough or we're not good enough,
then maybe it is.
Speaker 9 (28:06):
Time for me to go on.
Speaker 7 (28:08):
When you boo the fans, you're not you're not saying
that you're You're just you're engaging them. And so I
feel like I just I feel for chance, all right.
So at this at this point, at this point, I
feel like he's just got to take you.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Hell, all right.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
So so let's let's finish here. Then one word answer
the last two topics you talked about. Let's use the trade.
Let's use the trade deadline as as are as our
mark after the trade deadline. Lebron James is where the
Lakers after the trade deadline? Giannis is where.
Speaker 9 (28:50):
Milwaukee.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
All right, there we go. I'm not leaving, that's it
just just just that, I mean, let's just have Lakers,
right If.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
I mean Rix, you gotta be chesty too, because he's
the last guy in the division that has his head coach,
this is true, have his NFL team?
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Yeah yeah, well yeah, congratulations Rick on Zach Taylor being
the last man standing in the AFC North.
Speaker 9 (29:12):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 7 (29:16):
That's a whole other story.
Speaker 9 (29:17):
Man.
Speaker 7 (29:18):
You guys gotta you gotta hit me with that at
the start.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
He's on Twitter, right, Rick Buker, Hey, hit him up
on Twitter. Congratulate him on the fact that Zach Taylor
is the only coach right now in the AFC North.
Speaker 9 (29:30):
Is this what it's like to be a Jets fan?
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Yes, every day.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
What you just went through in the last thirty seconds,
but every day, exactly every day.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
If you and he had a guy go back to
college to avoid them, come on, tell you an easy buddy.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
We'll talk to you next week. Rick, There goes Rick Buker.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
I really, it's it's the honest stuff is so we look,
we got into this a lot at the end of
the show last night. But like if you're at the
point where you're booing fans like are you really gonna stay?
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (29:59):
And no, I got it, but but are you really
gonna kid let me talk about yesterday?
Speaker 3 (30:04):
It's like that big kid and it's like, oh, you
gonna boom me yeah, yeah, boo boo.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
I mean, really, how much longer can you stay when
that's the case forever?
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Maybe?
Speaker 4 (30:16):
I mean, he become the anti hero that people clabor to.
Oh he's booing us, look at that. I'm a bigger
Yannish fan than I ever was. Now Doc rivers, they
can get rid of him, and the rest of the
team stinks. Yannis, he gets it.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Time out of fun out what's trending in the wide
world of sports with someone who's been called the Yannis
of Fox Sports Radio. So a few minutes ago, sitting
down on the update booth booing all of us here
at Fox Sports.
Speaker 8 (30:40):
Radio, it's uh, you know, Yannis, Anto tokomp and I
are really not that alike, considering how tall is he
and how tall am I?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Oh yeah, he's yeah. I mean it would be like
one in one and a half of you for one
of him.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
You're right as a measuring yeah half boss like not yeah.
Speaker 8 (31:05):
And also I would not be booing you. I would
be using a different finger, yeah you know.
Speaker 6 (31:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (31:12):
Of course. Course in the NBA, guys, let's get started here.
Speaker 10 (31:16):
Uh.
Speaker 8 (31:16):
I mentioned that Cooper Flagg hurt himself in the second
quarter did come back, how he sprained his ankle. He
was ruled out for the second half completely. The Mavericks
are losing right now to the Nuggets at home, one
oh one to eighty five Jamal Murray twenty seven points.
Also a good news for Nuggets fans because apparently Nikola
Jokic has resumed on court workouts still early in the
(31:36):
third quarter, but the Kings are rolling past the Knicks.
Sixty nine to forty eight is the score there. Late
in the second quarter where the Clippers are up on
the Wizard sixty eight to fifty one, James Harden leading
the way with sixteen points, while the Bulls edged the
Jazz at home one twenty eight to one twenty six.
In men's college hoops, Texas handed number ten Vanderbilt their
(31:57):
first loss of this season, coming out on top eighty
to sixty four. So there are three unbeaten teams left
in men's college hoops Miami, Ohio, Nebraska, and Arizona. Number
one Arizona right now losing to Arizona State thirty nine
to thirty eight at halftime. Number four Michigan, who just
suffered their first loss not long ago, is up on
(32:19):
Washington at halftime thirty nine to thirty and late in
the first half, Number six Duke is up on cal ninth,
California nineteen to eighteen. In the NHL, the Golden Knights
got a goal, so they're up on the Kings one
zero late in the second period. When it comes to
the NFL, Texans wide receiver Nico Collins, who was in
concussion protocol, was not seen at practice on Wednesday. Houston
(32:41):
takes on New England in the AFC Divisional Round on Sunday.
Former ravenside coach John Harbaugh met in person with the
Giants today, while The Athletic reports that he is set
to meet with the Titans on Thursday. And as Harmon mentioned,
he doesn't want to be a Jet or maybe a Raider,
so quarterback Aaron Or Oregon quarterback Dante Oregon quarterback Dante
(33:05):
More announced that he's going to return to the Ducks
next season.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
I don't know if that's a good idea.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
No, it's not.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
It doesn't seem like what.
Speaker 8 (33:13):
Is Dylan Riyola gonna do?
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Uh hate him out for the job. Hit that portal again.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Man, You can't shot if you can't do the mahomes,
cause play in a green uniform.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
You gotta go, you gotta go red uniform.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Then you have a Christmas coloring.
Speaker 10 (33:28):
Okay, already the clause, Sandy, clause exactly, Sandy, exactly.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Speaking of college football, now the two teams are left standing,
be sure to check out the updated leader board for
the Fox Sports Radio dot com College Football Playoff Bracket Challenge.
Eight listeners in the Bracket Challenge with a perfect bracket
heading into the championship game. One lucky listener is gonna
win a thousand bucks for the best bracket. Leading the
host standings right now, Carrie Rhoades and Andy Furman, who
I've each made only one incorrect pick. I'm sorry for
(34:02):
picking Oregon. I'll never do it again. Visit Fox Sports
Radio dot com to check out the standings. That's Foxsports
Radio dot Com.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Well.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Coming up next, we have that big NFL story on
the way, a story that is about heartache and tears
that also has got a little bit of a hot
take to it as well.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Fox Sports Radio the Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon. So, uh, the end of season Hard
Knocks brought us something pretty fun, pretty fun with Jalen
Hurts and Nick Sirianni. And it's a weird Uh it's
(34:50):
watching this today was really really strange because it was
just such an awkward back and forth. But you're gonna
hear it, and then we're gonna break it down because yeah,
there's I got a big hot take coming off this,
so Hard Knocks ends, uh, you know this year talking
(35:10):
and the final scene is Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni
in the in the end of season meeting they have
in a big empty room, uh, talking about next year, right,
and here's Hurts and Sirianni and here's the quick exchange
they had. This ended Hard Knocks was the end of it,
Like obviously the champs go out. What's gonna you know what,
what's the future. There's all this talk that Sirianni and
(35:31):
Hurts and aj Brown who likes each other, who doesn't?
And here's the exchange the two of them had with
each other.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
That was actually the terminator.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
They said, Sarah Connor, well, yes it's me ah, I'll
be back. You really think a sixty year old woman
is Sarah Connor? Come on, man, dude, come on advancements
and technology of terminators. Uh, that was such an awkward
exchange with Jalen Hurts standing there, Nick Sirianni sitting in
the in the in the the the auditorium, and Jalen
(36:08):
Hurt saying we'll be back, and Sirianni looking at him saying,
I have no doubt that it was such an awkward moment.
I know that it's trying to be pushed as oh,
it's an optimistic exchange. No, it was just so awkward.
It was like, and I go back to this all
the time in the wire and a spoiler alert, but
that's okay. Like Avon and Stringer were business partners the
(36:29):
entire time, right running the corners, running their drug business,
everything else, and at the end you knew they they
were they were even though they were still tight all
growing everything else, you knew they each wanted to get
the other one because they both had different ideas of
how they wanted to run things. And there was a
big scene of them on a on a on a
balcony where they're talking about growing up and everything else,
(36:51):
and like what's being not said there is that I'm
trying to kill you, You're trying to kill me. You know, yes,
we're you know we were brothers, gwing up and everything else,
and we were tight. But this is business or this
is the this is the life. And then you know,
it goes out one of them in case you haven't
seen him, won't spoil it. One of them winds up
getting killed and one of them wins. And I kind
(37:11):
of thought about that with Sirianni and Hurts like they're
Hurts isn't even looking at him, and Sirianni steering at him, going,
I have no doubt we will, and I go. These
two absolutely hate each other. These two can't stand to
be around each other, whether A. J. Brown is in
how much he's involved, and Sirianni hates him. Like you
can just see how palpable it was, how awkward this
situation is where the quarterback and the head coach of
(37:34):
the champs that did themselves in because they couldn't figure
stuff out this year, they couldn't get their their stuff
in order, and they're going home because of that. That
it's it's just so it was it was uneasy watching him, like,
is something gonna happen in this?
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Like what what?
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Like I feel like I'm watching a fictional television show,
Like what's gonna happen here between these two guys?
Speaker 4 (37:53):
Well, as we talked about, you know, all the different
missteps over the course of the season, Patulo gets his
walking paper the video of this just to pull it out.
Just like they did in terms of how they frame
this is that you get a shot of the meeting room,
the mini auditorium, and they've got the power point as
(38:13):
the twenty twenty five end of Year team meeting with
the Eagles logo, and it's hurt standing there and Sirianni's
sitting down, so not sitting together, not standing together, just
you're trying to talk about power dynamics and you know,
you got Sirianni look at Oh, I've got no I
(38:35):
got no doubt. And that's it seven words of this exchange.
Like what the hell else was said? Why are you
cutting it off? There is there an extra bonus episode,
like everybody thought there was gonna be of stranger things
the end of year meeting extra bonus feature, but you
pull back and those they're the only two guys in
the room and.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
It's so it's such an awkward scene, and it made
me think that, Okay, the first domino that fell was
Kevin Patullo is fired as offensive coordinator, reassign, They're gonna
have somebody else new in there, Okay, and maybe it's
not this offseason, and because maybe it's gonna be, We're
gonna try it one more year with a new OC
and new offensive system to probably move on from aj Brown,
(39:19):
which I think is a fade accomplete at this point.
They're gonna try something new. Maybe Saquon Barkley will bounce back,
because you know, coming off a five hundred touch year,
you knew it wasn't gonna be a great year for him.
But I gotta be honest. The next domino that will
fall for the Eagles if it doesn't go better next
year is Jalen Hurts will get traded just because of
you think, well, the coach is gonna get fired. The
(39:39):
fire Siriani. Well, you've heard reports teammates don't really like
Jalen Hurts all that much. Jalen Hurts is regressed. He
signed the big contract where he was last year at
this time, coming off the Super Bowl and looking like
he's one of the top five to six quarterbacks in
the NFL to where he is now, where you keep
him in the pocket and he struggles downfield, couldn't throw
the football, miss the open receivers down the stretch. One
(40:03):
more year. If it goes like this, that's the guy
that's gonna go. That's gonna be a big trade. It's
gonna be a big shocking move that another team will
feel like, hey, Jalen Hurts needs a fresh start. We
got him here, We've seen him win super Bowl winning
quarterbacks still on the right side of thirty. Yes, make
a move for him. But the next big domino to
fall if things don't get better this time next year,
we're talking about Jalen Hurts getting traded.
Speaker 4 (40:24):
You attempted nearly one hundred more passes this year. They
went away from the run game early, which to some degree,
you're like, Okay, you'll be judicious with the use of
Saquon Barkley, but it's not like you went and decided, hey,
let's stick with what works and has worked in the past.
You went acquired Tanks Bigsby and then put him on
moth balls. Yeah, Like, if you're not gonna go to
(40:46):
the twenty to twenty five touches, which is what we've
seen Barkley in that run game dominate with. Then okay,
then fine, use him sixteen times. But why isn't Bigsby
seen at ten to twelve right and keeping that offense
moving in the same direction and hurts the air yards
and attempted air yards. We talked about it a lot,
the complete opposite of what Aaron Rodger was. It was
(41:09):
working downfield, It was betrayed routinely by his receivers. Think
there's a bounce back to be had there, They'll be back.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
I have no doubt.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Get ready this time next year, we're talking about Jalen
Hurts getting traded, right, clip it, write it down things.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
Don't get it down and write it good. You went,
Dusty Rhodes.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Now coming up next, it looks like the first coaching
domino and the NFL cycle is going to fall. We
have a coach and a destination that's next.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
Fox
Thanks for listening to the Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
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iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Greetings, Welcome in side hour to the Jason Smith Show
with my bass friend Mike Harmon hobo live from the
Fox Sports Radio studios. Be sure to check out our
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Smith Show on YouTube. Again, that's Jason Smith Show. If
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(00:55):
it out, comment away, let us know what you think.
We're putting videos up all the time. Now, way to
interact with the show.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Take a look.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
If you miss stuff again our YouTube channel, just search
Jason Smith Show. Mike and I love putting this content
out for you every single night. So uh, the Knicks
are getting worked by the Kings right now.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
But it's fine. You can't stop him. You can only
hope to contain them.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
It's gonna be a five or six point game in
the fourth quarter. The Knicks will take over in the
final four minutes. That's what's gonna happen tonight. I'd just
like every Knicks game, every Knicks game, right, you don't
out execute the Knicks in the final four minutes of
the game, everything is fine.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Just like the theory that you punch yourself out a right,
if you're in a boxing ra it's like, keep going,
keep swinging. There a tough ger, sure, and then you
get ready for the knockout blow in the final round.
Is that what you're doing now?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
If you thought the Ja Moran stuff was fun, well,
the drama with Lebron James the last twenty four hours
has been It's been even for Lebron. It's been over
the top. And that's saying something right for Lebron, who
loves controversy, loves it being about him all that this
(02:06):
is even over the top. Now. This manifests itself from
a podcast that Rich Paul did a few days ago
talking about what the Lakers should do with the trade
deadline and what Rich Paul again clutch Sports, Lebron's agent.
It's synonymous with Lebron James. Rich Paul's idea was to hey,
(02:28):
Lakers got to make a big trade at the deadline.
How about if it's Scottie Pippen. How about if they
trade the new number two guy? What if they trade
Austin Reeves.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
First of all, if you watch the show, this was
a hypothetical conversation we were having if I was running
a team, not this is what's gonna happen, etc.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Secondly, I believe it's very.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Complementary two Ar because he's on a team with two
future Hall of famers and he happens to be as
set Right. Here's what I will say, and this is
complimentary to Ar. If you were sitting here and you said, Rich,
you take this one, I'll take that one. I'm not
saying an equal players. But what I am saying is,
(03:14):
however you want me to start to then build the
rest of my team, I'm fine either way.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
With Luca or Austin.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
I can build a team either way. Now you're talking
about hypotheticals. This does not mean you want somebody to
be traded. And there's some insider information in the locker
room and this is not a Lebron thing.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Uh Yeah, of course not. You know, here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
If I thought this was his first day doing a
podcast or talking about something or running clutch sports, I
would tell okay, But no, he knows what he's saying,
and Lebron did no favors when he was asked about
this last night following the Lakers game, by saying, Hey, Rich,
Paul's his own guy. That's his own opinion. I love ar.
(03:56):
He knows how I feel about him. This is such
an absolute mess. I almost feel like Lebron is now
sabotaging the Lakers. Like seriously, I'm not saying like like
I feel like he's sabotaged. How do I get back
at the Lakers for making me go through this miserable
season where I'm the third option and they can't wait
to get me out?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
What do I do?
Speaker 6 (04:15):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I know my agent's gonna go out there and the
guy running the agency that I'm he's gonna say they
should trade that guy that's keeping me from being Luca's
buddy and going forward and having this great status with
the team. They want to push me out because everybody
loves at Austin Reeves is the number two guy with
with Luka Doncic. Everybody knows what they're saying. Rich Paul
(04:38):
knows what he's saying. Lebron James knows what he's saying
when he says, what do you want me to say?
He's his own guy. Right. This is Lebron again, and
part of he's done this throughout his career, choosing his
friends and his business partner over his teammate. Right. Because
I don't care if you hate the media and you
think the media is doing something to you, your team
(05:00):
mates need you to talk about this publicly and say, hey,
I don't know what Rich is saying. I love Austin Reeves,
We're going for a championship. We're great right where you
Whatever you believe behind closed doors is one thing, But
publicly you say, hey, I don't want my guy traded. No, no, no, no,
you called Rich pugre Dude, you can't do that. Man,
you can't say that. You know that's gonna come back
(05:20):
and blow back on me. The only reason that said
is if Lebron's got his blessing, and it's got Lebron's blessing,
it's okay that he said that. Because Lebron wants to
sabotage the Lakers. I mean it because why else would
you have that go out there at a time when
things aren't going great. You've kind of hit the skids
after a strong start. Why are you doing that, right, Lebron?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Really?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I don't know if Lebron wants to try to find
a way to get traded, he wants to try to
find a way off the Lakers. He's just mad the
Lakers to do it, But I feel like he's sabotaging
them with this. What would happen if Austin Reeves said, Hey,
you know what, I'm doing a podcast, Yeah, maybe we
should trade Lebron?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Like, what would happen? What happen if that? If that happened?
What if you what if his agent went on and.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Say, y, hey, what what if you know, hypothetically, just hypothetically,
you know, since you know what if we traded Lebron
to Cleveland and we got what?
Speaker 7 (06:07):
Like?
Speaker 3 (06:08):
How do you think that would go?
Speaker 8 (06:09):
Man?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
First off, it would be great to watch all the
national media sycophants come to his defense. How dare you
talk about trading Lebron? Lebron?
Speaker 4 (06:21):
James is mad that he's currently in lebron spot on
the Metal stand uh, you know how much I love
the movie. The other guys, Uh huh, Right, I'm a
peacock captain. You gotta let me fly, don't go chase
and water all sorts of quotes. The best was from
Samuel Jackson where he says, I'm gonna take my fist
dot dot dot and I'm gonna work him off like
(06:42):
a puppet. That's kind of what we got here. Lebron James,
no matter how much he does protest that he's not
part of this. This is like going back to when
Luca got traded there and they tried to sell the
whole thing. If Lebron had no knowledge this was gonna
go down. Nobody on that then. Okay, some of those
that want to just take everything that Lebron says and
(07:07):
does as gospel and the greatest because they don't want
to lose access, right, they don't want to be seen
as the the against the foes of the Lebron James
hype experience. But you know, from the twenty three patch,
that's fine, that's a deal with tops and fanatics. Folks
just have to get over that forty six games. He's
gonna wear this patch about his career. But this whole thing, right,
(07:30):
The agent's actually got together, right Rich Paul and Austin
Reeves agent For a couple of minutes they were seen
having a bit of an animated discussion, so they clearly
did not take it as a he's his own man
on a podcast just throwing out hypotheticals.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
No, nobody buys.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
That for a second, that it's not a calculated ploy to.
I don't know if they're trying to get JJ reddicks
the head to explode like he's in Scanners. There you go,
eighties movie, Go watch that horror movie. That's a great
one star look at him twitch. Maybe maybe it's to
try to help you. Maybe you're the Svengali of it
all because it gets JJ Reddick to not hate you
(08:07):
for a minute.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
I mean, really, JJ, on the least of your problems. Man,
You guys got you gotta start. This is I mean
really it is. It's like sabotage. It's okay again. And
I told you would be awkward because Lebron is not
gonna be happy playing this whole season as the third week.
He chose it, right, But it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
He's not good.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
This is the reality. He still chose it. He doesn't care.
He's not gonna go back and go, well, I chose you.
I gotta keep my mouth shut. No, he wants everything, folks,
he wants all of it. Right, but Lebron doesn't care.
He has remember and now what do I do? We
said it was going to be awkward, we said it
was gonna be really, it was gonna be difficult. I
don't know how Lebron finishes the season on the Lakers.
I don't know how this happens. But this is I
(08:49):
mean the Lakers. We've already heard how upset they are. Yeah,
they should be pissed that the agent of a guy
that you know doesn't say anything or have things said
unless it's been talked about. And the fact that Lebron
didn't say whoa, whoa, whoa, This is not right. This
is not true. He needed to be stronger standing up
to do that publicly, and he didn't.
Speaker 8 (09:06):
Right.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
This is I mean really?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I mean I feel like it's we want to push
the guy out that's taking his taking his spots as
the other guy with Luca. I can be okay being
Luca's other guy. I'm okay with that, but now that
I'm the third guy. And as I've come back, it's
not my team and I'm not it's not nearly close
to me, and people can't wait for me to go.
How do I grease the skids on this?
Speaker 6 (09:25):
Right?
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I feel like now he's moving, he's trying to find
a way to get traded at the deadline?
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Where?
Speaker 1 (09:29):
How?
Speaker 7 (09:29):
Where?
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Because now now, how tenable is it for Lebron to
stay on this team and play with Austin Reeves when
his agency I would trade him. I don't care, it
doesn't matter. Oh, this is in some sort of you know,
in an absolute world. It's not not what I would do. No,
you know what you're doing when you say trade Austin
reed you know exactly what you're doing and what you're
trying to get out.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
The Babe of the Woods thing doesn't work. You've been
around for twenty three years, You've been the business partner
in and a mouthpiece all these years, and just own it, right,
you put it out there if this is what I
would do. Well. A couple of years ago, I think
we all believed, and I think we were right and
assuming so that Lebron James was in charge of everything
(10:10):
and Clutch Sports ran the operation Rob Polinka and everybody there.
They were empty suits. And now the power has shifted
with Luka Donctz coming to town, and it's a new
world order. You got a new ownership group, you got
a new everything that has come in to run this
organization into the next phase, which means Lebron James, you're there.
(10:31):
You still put asses in seats, you still drive ticket sales,
but beyond that, you're a jag. Right, you're number three,
number four. On some nights, you don't play defense. And
then everybody immediately shifted from this conversation. Right, it got
a very small, compartmentalized thing in his time because it
immediately became a let's talk about how great you were
(10:53):
against the Hawks. I lookt the Hawks.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
If Ron James stays on the team past the deadline,
the Lakers season will spiral. Right, It's already starting to
spire a little bit now because they had no problems.
Now Lebron James been back for two or three weeks.
Guess guess what they got problems? Right, they got problems.
They were winning lots of games against good teams because
the Lakers had had their team. This is how we
want to play with Lucas our number one. Also reasons
(11:20):
are Scottie Pippen everybody else fit into their role. Really
like that everything was awesome. Now Lebron came back. He's
still getting his but now the Lakers are hit the skins.
If they hold on to him past the deadline, this
season is going to spiral and fall apart. It's almost
like he's daring again. He was daring them to trade
him in the offseason, daring them for different things. I
don't see how the Lakers can hold on to him
(11:42):
past the deadline. Well, we cannot find a way to
move on and just get whatever you even if it's
just salary cap relief. At this point, let's find something
and make a different trade to bring in whatever you
feel you need to build around Luca. But I don't
know how he stays on the team after.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
That because the other piece that it has to be
just said, those that haven't watched the Lakers up and down,
you haven't seen Austin Reeves since Christmas, right, So he's
not there and you're having these issues, and eventually when
he gets reintegrated, guess what Lebron's shots the standing around
the getting him subbed out in minutes, because you can't
(12:16):
have two defensive liabilities of that magnitude on the court.
Right when you talk about Luca, who, let's face it,
oftentimes it doesn't even look like he's pretending to play defense,
and Lebron doesn't come back on defense on a number
of possessions. So all of that just begets bigger and
bigger problems, particularly as you get closer to the end
(12:37):
of the regular season you start playing those meaningful games,
whether it's proceeding to avoid the play in to be
in the playoff picture at the end.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Of it all. And they're in.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Good spot now, but it's still a long season, right,
You still got to navigate injuries like Luca getting extra treatment,
question night to night of what's going on with his squad,
Lebron and what you gotta manage it. One year, one
day he was telling you how old he was, uh,
and he wasn't gonna play the back to back, and
then he's he's pumping his fist and losing his mind
(13:08):
against Atlanta yesterday. So day to day you're trying to
navigate that. And now Rich Paul throws this out there, Hey,
when this guy comes back, maybe.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
He should go back, maybe he should be traded.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
I mean, I wow, man, I mean really just I
mean I I I even That's why this even surprised
me for Lebron, that he would get to this point
where that rich Paul throws it out there and Lebron
doesn't really pour cold water on it. She's like, well,
he's his own guy. He says what he wants, like, dude,
stand up for your teammate. Man, stand up for your teammate. Hey,
I'm not a puppet, dude. It's a long thing.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Dude.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Like he just kept going and circling back to he's
his own man. You think I control everything?
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Yes? Yeah, kind of dude.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
He is daring him to try and again. At this point,
the Lakers have to or there. This is how bad
the season's going to get. This is how much it
will spiral if he stays a Laker past it that.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Lebron James Man, Thanks Lebron, uh Content.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Creator Exit, how to Fresca Exit, Swollen Dome Jason Smith,
Mike Carbon Cleveland, come knock on the door, whatever it is,
Somebody come and get him.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Because the Lakers keep trying to put it back in Cleveland.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
I think they want to stuff back Lebron James.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
We got more NBA on the way, but coming up next.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
You want a great NFL story that's gonna make you
feel sad, wistful, but also with a dash of a
hot take. Oh oh yeah, yeah, that's next right here,
Jason and Mike Fox Sports.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
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Speaker 2 (15:38):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
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Fox Sports Radio is taking over YouTube and you can
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(15:59):
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Speaker 6 (16:05):
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Speaker 1 (16:16):
Subscribe, hit that thumbs up icon and coming away.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
The Jason Smith Show with My Best friend Mike Harmon.
For over forty years, Tirerack's been open. Customers find the
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com is the way tire buying should be. We'll have
that NFL story coming up in a few minutes because
(16:45):
we got a hot route coming, gonna talk NBA and
boy is there a lot of big stuff to get to.
Nobody better than FS one insider extraordinaire Rick Buker. He's
on Twitter at Rick Buker, check out the On the
Ball podcast. Asked as well, we got John Morant potentially
on the trading block. We have Lebron James maybe trying
(17:06):
to force his way out by sabotaging the Lakers. We
have a lot of stuff to get to, but we'll
start with the Ja Moran thing.
Speaker 7 (17:12):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
We talked about this last hour a little bit, and
and now that he's on the trade block, you know,
Rick Buker dropped that with us dropped that in our
lap last week on Wednesday night saying, hey, when Trey
Young got traded, there wasn't a lot of interest obviously,
you know my you know his his preferredation was the Wizards.
Nobody's preferred destiny Wizards. But Rick told us, hey, it
(17:33):
is Crickets on the John Morant trade situation on the
trade front.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Here we are now and we've heard the last couple
of days many teams have ben't been in contact for
John Morant. But are they really with us now? In
the hotline is Rick Buker, Rick, thanks for last week.
You're ahead of the curve with the whole John Moran stuff.
Have things changed the last week or teams actually calling
like having interest in John morancs boy, I have a
(17:59):
hard time believe that any team's going to want to
sign up for a couple of years a in.
Speaker 7 (18:05):
Yeah, I have not heard of anything that is actually
anywhere close to happening.
Speaker 9 (18:13):
Certainly there's going to be some teams that are.
Speaker 7 (18:15):
Kicking the tires.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
The question is going to be.
Speaker 7 (18:19):
The Grizzlies have to give number one? Do they have
to give up something in addition to John Morant in
order to make it happen, as in some sort of picks.
It's fallen to that point. But this is the change,
at least when it comes to the tray Young move,
is that the price for tray Young was so low that.
Speaker 9 (18:42):
It may put John Morant in.
Speaker 7 (18:44):
A place where a team like say Minnesota or Houston
that is looking for that has established stars, has a
established culture, is thinking, well, we don't really have to
give up anything, and he could possibly be a plus,
(19:07):
you know, give us something that we don't have at
this point as we try to make a run for
the title. I could see them, I could see them
exploring it. I have not heard that to this point.
And and to be clear, like John Moran, going back
to last year, the Memphis Grizzlies were open to doing business.
This to me is just an indicator that they're now
(19:28):
ready to get something done sooner rather than later, that
they're they're.
Speaker 9 (19:32):
They're ready to push the envelope and even if.
Speaker 7 (19:34):
It means taking less in order to move him on
that they're looking at his addition by subtraction.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
All right, Rick, let's move on to the meaty topic here.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Los Angeles and Rich Paul appearing on podcasts.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Yeah, and Lebron James. Hey, he's his own man.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
I don't know anything about this, but is he a
saboteur trying to make JJ REDDICKX, it's that much harder.
Speaker 7 (20:01):
You know what's funny is that Lebron talked about how.
Speaker 9 (20:06):
Like in terms of his people loving him or hating him,
but you.
Speaker 7 (20:11):
Know, it's just the people that are closest to him
that they're the ones that matter the most to.
Speaker 9 (20:15):
Him, and those are the ones that he's always going.
Speaker 7 (20:17):
To be loyal to because they've always been there with him.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
You know.
Speaker 9 (20:20):
Rich Paul is one of those guys. So this idea,
it just kind of tickles me.
Speaker 7 (20:27):
Like I see Lebron James is distancing himself from Rich Paul.
Speaker 9 (20:31):
That's not possible. They're surgically tied at the hip, I
do believe. And the idea that.
Speaker 7 (20:39):
That Lebron would say, hey, just because Rich Paul says
something doesn't mean that I think that if do, we
need to go through the history of Lebron James and
the moves that have been made and how they've mirrored
the perspective of Rich Paul, and Rich Paul has always
been sort of the hint in terms of getting those
(21:02):
things done.
Speaker 9 (21:03):
So I just the idea I find it.
Speaker 7 (21:06):
Galling that Lebron James would say to us, Hey, just
because Rich Paul said something doesn't mean that I believe
in it or that I knew anything about it. First
of all, even if that was somehow the case that
rich Paul was talking out of turn, Lebron shouldn't be
looking at it as Hey, just want to be clear,
(21:27):
you know how I feel about Austin Reeves, et cetera,
et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 9 (21:30):
It would be you know.
Speaker 7 (21:32):
What, I need to have a talk with my agent
because this is out of line what he said, as
opposed to, Hey, I.
Speaker 9 (21:39):
Don't know, you know, he's his own man or whatever it.
Speaker 7 (21:43):
Lebron should be holding Rich Paul accountable because there's no
question that this is does not do anything positive for
the Lakers and their chemistry. In fact, I don't know
if you guys saw it, But because Rich Paul's podcast
is under the umbrella of Bill Simmons, who is a
(22:07):
noted Boston Celtics fan, die hard Boston Celtics fan, and
thereby a arch enemy of the Lakers, the feeling is
that this is all the conspiracy theory is that this
is all a plot by Bill Simmons knowing that Rich
Paul is going to talk out of turn, and that's
going to screw up the Lakers, and that's better for
the boiself.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Well, Rick, I gotta I got a different path. I'm
gonna throw this by you tell me the tell tell
me the probably you think this is what it is? Right?
Speaker 7 (22:36):
So, Rich Paul, is this a shocker that we're getting this? No?
Speaker 3 (22:39):
No, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 9 (22:42):
Oh. I have a different path.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
No no, this has nothing to do with the Nicks,
nothing to do with it.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
It actually doesn't doesn't want to Rick, I don't think
unless he's changed his mind.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Rich Rich Paul knows what he's doing when he goes
on a podcast and posits trading Austin Reeves Lebron James
knows what he's doing when he doesn't come out and say, hey,
Rich Paul, I don't know what he's saying. I love
Austin Reeves. He's here, I'm here, We're winning a championship.
They both know what they're doing when they're not saying that.
I knew this year was going to be awkward, with
Lebron coming back and the Lakers shunting him to the side.
(23:12):
I knew it would be awkward, But this is almost
to the point where Lebron's kind of sabotaging the Lakers, right,
I don't know how he stays on the team following
this where, yeah, my agent, who you know, we are close,
is throwing out there trading a guy who was kind
of usurped me as being the number two guy on
the roster. And I wonder if this is Lebron just
continuing to do this to to just dare the Lakers
(23:35):
and make them trade him at the deadline or get
him somewhere else where. He doesn't look like he's got
to be the bad guy because this doesn't make any
There's no star that would ever had their agent say, yeah,
another guy in the team has to get traded. Everybody
knows what they're doing in this situation, and it just
seems like Lebron is sabotaging the Lakers to get out.
Speaker 7 (23:53):
Well it's not. I mean, if it's getting out, it
would be we're just letting you go. He's not going
to get traded because no one's given up fifty million
plus worth of assets in order to get Lebron James
at this point that for for a rental.
Speaker 9 (24:12):
So, but is there the possibility that.
Speaker 7 (24:16):
You know that he just doesn't like being Essentially, if
Austin Reeds is healthy, he's the third He's the third option.
He's the third wheel. There's a couple of different ways
to go.
Speaker 8 (24:26):
One.
Speaker 7 (24:27):
I'll give you some plausibility.
Speaker 9 (24:28):
There in terms of this is just so uncomfortable.
Speaker 7 (24:31):
I don't know that it's necessarily the once he like
he's intentionally wants out as much as he just doesn't
like being in this position, so he's going to act
this way. But let's say that there is intention behind it,
and the idea is that that he wants out. I
would imagine know that Lebron James could simply go to
the Lakers and say, hey, I'm done with this, release me,
(24:51):
and and they would I would. I would think the
other option or possibility here, for if we're just spitballing,
is that there's no chance if the Lakers retain Austin
Reeves and sign Austin Reeves, there's no possible way that
you're bringing Lebron James back on almost any kind of
(25:14):
contract and certainly not want anything anywhere close to what
he's making now. So unless they move Austin Reeves for
something that is going to open up more cap flexibility.
Then the writing is already on the wall that this
is it for Lebron and he's going to go out,
and he's going to go out.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
As as the.
Speaker 7 (25:35):
Third wheel, that's another possibility here, but in any case,
it doesn't look.
Speaker 9 (25:44):
Good for someone.
Speaker 7 (25:45):
It feels like we're at odds here because on one hand,
the NBA is created the patch that is now on
his uniform about the twenty three seasons, and and there's
talk about how they're going to involve him in the
All Star Game or All Star Weekend even if he
isn't voted or chosen to be part of the team,
(26:05):
which is which is a good possibility at this point.
And yet on the other hand, it's it's he's going
out and being a malecontent on the Lakers. It's just
you're trying to celebrate someone and at the same time
there they're being petty. That's not a good look and
it and it muddies the waters as far as Lebron
(26:28):
James going out the right way based on the kind
of career that he's had.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
F s one NBA analyst on the Ball podcast host
It's our Guy, Rick Buker, George is each it every
week here the Jason Smith Show with Me, Mike Armin
here Fox Sports Radio, at Rick Buker, where you find
him in the twitter verse. Okay, Rick, how did you
respond when Yannis started booing the home fans in a
blowout lost yesterday?
Speaker 1 (26:51):
I loved it.
Speaker 7 (26:52):
I mean, you never know, you never know what you're
gonna get from Yannis. But if this is what is
interesting to me, If Yanni's truly wanted out of Milwaukee,
like he could use this as the perfect forum to say, see,
this is why, you know, maybe it's time for me
to move on, would be really easy for him to
do that.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
But he's not.
Speaker 7 (27:13):
He's not approaching it that way. He's he's enjoying it.
He's having fun with it, you know, booing the fans
back and the way he's talked about like, I mean,
the one clip that I saw was, uh that you
know that he kind of enjoys the fans being up
about the team not playing as well as they are.
(27:35):
I guess the person that I keep thinking about is Humps,
because Shams is as practically staked to his reputation on no, no, no,
don't no, matter what Yannis says or the Bucks say
or doc Rivers say, or anybody says like, no, you know,
Jannest wants out. And Jannis has repeatedly said I've never
asked for that, and and and he's being given every
(27:58):
opportunity to publicly say, hey, I want out. If the
fans don't think I'm good enough or we're not good enough,
then maybe it is.
Speaker 9 (28:06):
Time for me to go on.
Speaker 7 (28:08):
When you boo the fans, you're not you're not saying
that you're You're just you're engaging them. And so I
feel like I just I feel for chance, all right.
So at this at this point, at this point, I
feel like he's just got to take you.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Hell, all right.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
So so let's let's finish here. Then one word answer
the last two topics you talked about. Let's use the trade.
Let's use the trade deadline as as are as our
mark after the trade deadline. Lebron James is where the
Lakers after the trade deadline? Giannis is where.
Speaker 9 (28:50):
Milwaukee.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
All right, there we go. I'm not leaving, that's it
just just just that, I mean, let's just have Lakers,
right If.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
I mean Rix, you gotta be chesty too, because he's
the last guy in the division that has his head coach,
this is true, have his NFL team?
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Yeah yeah, well yeah, congratulations Rick on Zach Taylor being
the last man standing in the AFC North.
Speaker 9 (29:12):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 7 (29:16):
That's a whole other story.
Speaker 9 (29:17):
Man.
Speaker 7 (29:18):
You guys gotta you gotta hit me with that at
the start.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
He's on Twitter, right, Rick Buker, Hey, hit him up
on Twitter. Congratulate him on the fact that Zach Taylor
is the only coach right now in the AFC North.
Speaker 9 (29:30):
Is this what it's like to be a Jets fan?
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Yes, every day.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
What you just went through in the last thirty seconds,
but every day, exactly every day.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
If you and he had a guy go back to
college to avoid them, come on, tell you an easy buddy.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
We'll talk to you next week. Rick, There goes Rick Buker.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
I really, it's it's the honest stuff is so we look,
we got into this a lot at the end of
the show last night. But like if you're at the
point where you're booing fans like are you really gonna stay?
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (29:59):
And no, I got it, but but are you really
gonna kid let me talk about yesterday?
Speaker 3 (30:04):
It's like that big kid and it's like, oh, you
gonna boom me yeah, yeah, boo boo.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
I mean, really, how much longer can you stay when
that's the case forever?
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Maybe?
Speaker 4 (30:16):
I mean, he become the anti hero that people clabor to.
Oh he's booing us, look at that. I'm a bigger
Yannish fan than I ever was. Now Doc rivers, they
can get rid of him, and the rest of the
team stinks. Yannis, he gets it.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Time out of fun out what's trending in the wide
world of sports with someone who's been called the Yannis
of Fox Sports Radio. So a few minutes ago, sitting
down on the update booth booing all of us here
at Fox Sports.
Speaker 8 (30:40):
Radio, it's uh, you know, Yannis, Anto tokomp and I
are really not that alike, considering how tall is he
and how tall am I?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Oh yeah, he's yeah. I mean it would be like
one in one and a half of you for one
of him.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
You're right as a measuring yeah half boss like not yeah.
Speaker 8 (31:05):
And also I would not be booing you. I would
be using a different finger, yeah you know.
Speaker 6 (31:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (31:12):
Of course. Course in the NBA, guys, let's get started here.
Speaker 10 (31:16):
Uh.
Speaker 8 (31:16):
I mentioned that Cooper Flagg hurt himself in the second
quarter did come back, how he sprained his ankle. He
was ruled out for the second half completely. The Mavericks
are losing right now to the Nuggets at home, one
oh one to eighty five Jamal Murray twenty seven points.
Also a good news for Nuggets fans because apparently Nikola
Jokic has resumed on court workouts still early in the
(31:36):
third quarter, but the Kings are rolling past the Knicks.
Sixty nine to forty eight is the score there. Late
in the second quarter where the Clippers are up on
the Wizard sixty eight to fifty one, James Harden leading
the way with sixteen points, while the Bulls edged the
Jazz at home one twenty eight to one twenty six.
In men's college hoops, Texas handed number ten Vanderbilt their
(31:57):
first loss of this season, coming out on top eighty
to sixty four. So there are three unbeaten teams left
in men's college hoops Miami, Ohio, Nebraska, and Arizona. Number
one Arizona right now losing to Arizona State thirty nine
to thirty eight at halftime. Number four Michigan, who just
suffered their first loss not long ago, is up on
(32:19):
Washington at halftime thirty nine to thirty and late in
the first half, Number six Duke is up on cal ninth,
California nineteen to eighteen. In the NHL, the Golden Knights
got a goal, so they're up on the Kings one
zero late in the second period. When it comes to
the NFL, Texans wide receiver Nico Collins, who was in
concussion protocol, was not seen at practice on Wednesday. Houston
(32:41):
takes on New England in the AFC Divisional Round on Sunday.
Former ravenside coach John Harbaugh met in person with the
Giants today, while The Athletic reports that he is set
to meet with the Titans on Thursday. And as Harmon mentioned,
he doesn't want to be a Jet or maybe a Raider,
so quarterback Aaron Or Oregon quarterback Dante Oregon quarterback Dante
(33:05):
More announced that he's going to return to the Ducks
next season.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
I don't know if that's a good idea.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
No, it's not.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
It doesn't seem like what.
Speaker 8 (33:13):
Is Dylan Riyola gonna do?
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Uh hate him out for the job. Hit that portal again.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Man, You can't shot if you can't do the mahomes,
cause play in a green uniform.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
You gotta go, you gotta go red uniform.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Then you have a Christmas coloring.
Speaker 10 (33:28):
Okay, already the clause, Sandy, clause exactly, Sandy, exactly.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Speaking of college football, now the two teams are left standing,
be sure to check out the updated leader board for
the Fox Sports Radio dot com College Football Playoff Bracket Challenge.
Eight listeners in the Bracket Challenge with a perfect bracket
heading into the championship game. One lucky listener is gonna
win a thousand bucks for the best bracket. Leading the
host standings right now, Carrie Rhoades and Andy Furman, who
I've each made only one incorrect pick. I'm sorry for
(34:02):
picking Oregon. I'll never do it again. Visit Fox Sports
Radio dot com to check out the standings. That's Foxsports
Radio dot Com.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Well.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Coming up next, we have that big NFL story on
the way, a story that is about heartache and tears
that also has got a little bit of a hot
take to it as well.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Fox Sports Radio the Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon. So, uh, the end of season Hard
Knocks brought us something pretty fun, pretty fun with Jalen
Hurts and Nick Sirianni. And it's a weird Uh it's
(34:50):
watching this today was really really strange because it was
just such an awkward back and forth. But you're gonna
hear it, and then we're gonna break it down because yeah,
there's I got a big hot take coming off this,
so Hard Knocks ends, uh, you know this year talking
(35:10):
and the final scene is Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni
in the in the end of season meeting they have
in a big empty room, uh, talking about next year, right,
and here's Hurts and Sirianni and here's the quick exchange
they had. This ended Hard Knocks was the end of it,
Like obviously the champs go out. What's gonna you know what,
what's the future. There's all this talk that Sirianni and
(35:31):
Hurts and aj Brown who likes each other, who doesn't?
And here's the exchange the two of them had with
each other.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
That was actually the terminator.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
They said, Sarah Connor, well, yes it's me ah, I'll
be back. You really think a sixty year old woman
is Sarah Connor? Come on, man, dude, come on advancements
and technology of terminators. Uh, that was such an awkward
exchange with Jalen Hurts standing there, Nick Sirianni sitting in
the in the in the the the auditorium, and Jalen
(36:08):
Hurt saying we'll be back, and Sirianni looking at him saying,
I have no doubt that it was such an awkward moment.
I know that it's trying to be pushed as oh,
it's an optimistic exchange. No, it was just so awkward.
It was like, and I go back to this all
the time in the wire and a spoiler alert, but
that's okay. Like Avon and Stringer were business partners the
(36:29):
entire time, right running the corners, running their drug business,
everything else, and at the end you knew they they
were they were even though they were still tight all
growing everything else, you knew they each wanted to get
the other one because they both had different ideas of
how they wanted to run things. And there was a
big scene of them on a on a on a
balcony where they're talking about growing up and everything else,
(36:51):
and like what's being not said there is that I'm
trying to kill you, You're trying to kill me. You know, yes,
we're you know we were brothers, gwing up and everything else,
and we were tight. But this is business or this
is the this is the life. And then you know,
it goes out one of them in case you haven't
seen him, won't spoil it. One of them winds up
getting killed and one of them wins. And I kind
(37:11):
of thought about that with Sirianni and Hurts like they're
Hurts isn't even looking at him, and Sirianni steering at him, going,
I have no doubt we will, and I go. These
two absolutely hate each other. These two can't stand to
be around each other, whether A. J. Brown is in
how much he's involved, and Sirianni hates him. Like you
can just see how palpable it was, how awkward this
situation is where the quarterback and the head coach of
(37:34):
the champs that did themselves in because they couldn't figure
stuff out this year, they couldn't get their their stuff
in order, and they're going home because of that. That
it's it's just so it was it was uneasy watching him, like,
is something gonna happen in this?
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Like what what?
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Like I feel like I'm watching a fictional television show,
Like what's gonna happen here between these two guys?
Speaker 4 (37:53):
Well, as we talked about, you know, all the different
missteps over the course of the season, Patulo gets his
walking paper the video of this just to pull it out.
Just like they did in terms of how they frame
this is that you get a shot of the meeting room,
the mini auditorium, and they've got the power point as
(38:13):
the twenty twenty five end of Year team meeting with
the Eagles logo, and it's hurt standing there and Sirianni's
sitting down, so not sitting together, not standing together, just
you're trying to talk about power dynamics and you know,
you got Sirianni look at Oh, I've got no I
(38:35):
got no doubt. And that's it seven words of this exchange.
Like what the hell else was said? Why are you
cutting it off? There is there an extra bonus episode,
like everybody thought there was gonna be of stranger things
the end of year meeting extra bonus feature, but you
pull back and those they're the only two guys in
the room and.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
It's so it's such an awkward scene, and it made
me think that, Okay, the first domino that fell was
Kevin Patullo is fired as offensive coordinator, reassign, They're gonna
have somebody else new in there, Okay, and maybe it's
not this offseason, and because maybe it's gonna be, We're
gonna try it one more year with a new OC
and new offensive system to probably move on from aj Brown,
(39:19):
which I think is a fade accomplete at this point.
They're gonna try something new. Maybe Saquon Barkley will bounce back,
because you know, coming off a five hundred touch year,
you knew it wasn't gonna be a great year for him.
But I gotta be honest. The next domino that will
fall for the Eagles if it doesn't go better next
year is Jalen Hurts will get traded just because of
you think, well, the coach is gonna get fired. The
(39:39):
fire Siriani. Well, you've heard reports teammates don't really like
Jalen Hurts all that much. Jalen Hurts is regressed. He
signed the big contract where he was last year at
this time, coming off the Super Bowl and looking like
he's one of the top five to six quarterbacks in
the NFL to where he is now, where you keep
him in the pocket and he struggles downfield, couldn't throw
the football, miss the open receivers down the stretch. One
(40:03):
more year. If it goes like this, that's the guy
that's gonna go. That's gonna be a big trade. It's
gonna be a big shocking move that another team will
feel like, hey, Jalen Hurts needs a fresh start. We
got him here, We've seen him win super Bowl winning
quarterbacks still on the right side of thirty. Yes, make
a move for him. But the next big domino to
fall if things don't get better this time next year,
we're talking about Jalen Hurts getting traded.
Speaker 4 (40:24):
You attempted nearly one hundred more passes this year. They
went away from the run game early, which to some degree,
you're like, Okay, you'll be judicious with the use of
Saquon Barkley, but it's not like you went and decided, hey,
let's stick with what works and has worked in the past.
You went acquired Tanks Bigsby and then put him on
moth balls. Yeah, Like, if you're not gonna go to
(40:46):
the twenty to twenty five touches, which is what we've
seen Barkley in that run game dominate with. Then okay,
then fine, use him sixteen times. But why isn't Bigsby
seen at ten to twelve right and keeping that offense
moving in the same direction and hurts the air yards
and attempted air yards. We talked about it a lot,
the complete opposite of what Aaron Rodger was. It was
(41:09):
working downfield, It was betrayed routinely by his receivers. Think
there's a bounce back to be had there, They'll be back.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
I have no doubt.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Get ready this time next year, we're talking about Jalen
Hurts getting traded, right, clip it, write it down things.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
Don't get it down and write it good. You went,
Dusty Rhodes.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Now coming up next, it looks like the first coaching
domino and the NFL cycle is going to fall. We
have a coach and a destination that's next.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
Fox
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Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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