April 26, 2022 • 36 mins
Jason Smith and filling in for Mike Harmon – Steve DeSaegher react to the Brooklyn Nets being swept in the first round of the NBA Playoffs by the Boston Celtics and the Utah Jazz continuing their struggles against the Dallas Mavericks. How much of the Nets’ woes is on Kyrie Irving or is it more on Ben Simmons...or is it more on Kevin Durant? Answer to this and much more here on The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Hello, Welcome inside the
Mets Show tonight with Jason Smith and Steve to Say.
You're in from Mike Harmon. Where Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets,
approaching the NBA protesting and and and and the draft
and the draft. Are you gonna try to change yourself
(00:45):
to the basketball stations to try the super glued to
my wrist and trying to gain continue. Watch out for
that second row security guard following you in very quick.
Congratulations in Minnesota. If you didn't see that clip this week,
I'll tell you, man, something something's different about the Mets
this year's Yeah, they're winning games. Somethings different, dude, But
(01:12):
it is a big night for the Mets. It's also
a big night in the NBA. Right now, Mavericks and
the Jazz uh fifty six thirty nine. The Mavericks have
the lead early in the third quarter. They have been
out big. Luca don Chech has seventeen, Jalen Brunson's got thirteen.
And right now there is a fight on the court
(01:33):
between Brunson and Mitchell who are fighting over a Knick's jersey.
Hang on, I'm watching right now. Whoever gets it goes
there next year in free agent. Hang on a second,
Hang on, whoa Mitchell with a Haymaker he wants it?
I think Mitchell wants out Worth Steve hanging Yeah, yeah,
say one out of Utah. We talked about how this
didn't work, you know, maybe as a fantasy team, but
(01:53):
nothing else with Brooklyn. This is not working with Utah,
right we all agree here. It's now fifty thirty nine Dallas.
They're ready to go up three games to two in
this first round series and we just started the second half.
Utah has had some good regular seasons, nearly fifty wins
this year. I'm not the first to say this just
isn't working. Right now, Leon Rose is actually on the
(02:14):
floor giving Donovan Mitchell his business card. Uh that I
did not see that coming. No. Look, and they think
he's a protester and he has been tackled with every
passing day. Donna and Mitchell just wants out right, you know,
you know what's gonna happen. They were upset. The Mavericks
were upset that the Nick sent a big contingent to
the game over the weekend. Uh, when you know Jalen
(02:36):
Brunson also is gonna make a lot of money this
offseason and free agency, and Brunson is a big Knicks target,
especially as Mitchell. Yeah, and then there and everybody said,
while you got what, we can come to the games
and watch it. We bought a tampering tampering we can
come to the games and just watch. But seriously, of
this happening right now. Uh, this is gonna be a
(02:56):
blow up the Jazz year. If they lose this. If
they go out in the first round this series to
a team that didn't have Luca for the first three
games and they lost two out of the first three,
that's embarrassing. That's a mix that just isn't working. And yeah,
maybe go Bet would be the easier guy to trade.
And you because you look don and Mitchell is so
bleep and exciting, but he's gonna be the guy that
(03:18):
wants out. He's the guy okay, okay, no, no, no,
He's the one that you can see how bad as
body language is, after every bad play. He's gonna be
the guy that says, listen, I want out. And then
it's gonna be a huge feeding frenzy in the off
season saying hey, we could put together a nice little
trade package for Donovan Mitchell. Look, the Knicks have have
eight They're they're deep with like eight pretty good players.
They could send three pretty good players for one really
(03:40):
terrific player. That can happen that way, Steve, I'm telling you.
And then Quinn Snyder goes to the Lakers and everybody's happy. No, yeah,
I don't. I don't know what would the Lakers be
happy with Quinn Snyder. I don't know. Well, at least
they actually see the value of the coach just that
much more than Kyrie and the Nets. Do you know what?
It doesn't, but it's what Lebron wants. Lebron's gonna want
Mark Jackson. I I don't. I don't think he's gonna
(04:01):
want Quinn Snyder. You know, isn't the same Clutch sports.
Of course, they're the agents of almost every other star
in the league. Isn't there some way, just some Lebron
type of way they'll they'll shoehorn Ben Simmons into the
Laker ross and it will include even worse next year
than it did this year. Right, let's go get Ben Simmons. Yeah,
(04:24):
so we could not play for us? Uh? Yeah, look
what more on this game? Obviously at Dallas with a
huge lead over you, and again it's it's still a
lot of time left Luca Donge. It's nineteen ten and
four helpers right now, he's having a big, big night
three pointer for Dallas. It's sixty three to forty two.
Can we can we just call it now? Wait? Spike
(04:46):
Lee has just ran onto the court and is and
is jumping into Donovan Mitchell's arms and is actually escorting
him off. There's a private jet in blue and orange
colors waiting to take Donovan Mitchell away, throwing the towel already.
Not all the recincts are reporting. But let's just give
game five to Dallas here. They'll go up three games
to two in this first rounder. This Utah team, be careful.
(05:10):
You were going to give that to nothing game to
the Cardinals in the ninth inning against the Mets, and
what happened. I didn't give it, just like I didn't
give it to the Mets when the took them out
in the bottom of the nine. But that's a different thing.
Does everyone remember when Carl Malone used to play for
the Utah Jazz? That's like five years ago now. In
(05:31):
these last twenty five years, the Utah Jazz have won
a second round series once literally one time. And these
last six years they've been a really good team in
the Western Conference, about a six hundred winning percentage this year.
They've had three other years with over a six hundred
winning percentage. Last year was a seven twenty two winning percentage.
(05:55):
And where are they going with all of this? You'd
think you would have it because you've got the score
who's not you know, not a post player, and you've
got the defensive player of the year three times in
Rudy Gobert not working. This is going to be a
couple of teams are gonna get broken up depending on
how this playoff run ends. Because now suddenly it's a
(06:18):
it's it's an it's nerve racking in Philadelphia with Philadelphia
blowing a three oh lead, and now Toronto wins without
Fred van Vleet, and that's a big city. You could
see a lot. Dad, Doc Rivers never blows the lead
in the postseason. What are you talking about. It's not
my fault. You can't blame me. It's not my fault.
We had the game plan out there. It's not you
cannot blame me. It's not me, not me, James fault. No,
(06:42):
it's not me. It's it's it's not my fault. No.
I can't blame James because I I put out the
the the I put out the call. I put up
one pop posters for James Harden to find him because
we didn't know where he was. The guy he had
nine points that he was terrible. I don't know what's
going on. By the way, that was the samed Doc
Rivers voice and the j Bie Fox impersonation, not Mike's faul.
Have you seen Blake Griffin and the Planet, Well, we
(07:02):
won't see him anymore. The nets just got swept tonight.
But when he played the last game, he was completely gassed.
And I looked at the box court, the guy played
eight minutes. He was toast on the court after eight minutes,
and he got eighteen minutes off the bench for the Nets.
Tonight Blake Griffin and was oh of three, scoreless, and
(07:23):
he took two threes and he missed you. I mean,
he could take a charge. Still, We'll give him that.
He took a three with about two and a half
minutes left to go. Where I'm saying, what the hell
is going on here? Why is Blake Griffin taking that?
Aside from Curry, nobody was shooting well from outside anyway.
So yeah, he's seen this team. He's thinking the Nets
(07:45):
are such a mess. Right, we talked about at last hour.
There's always something going on with them, right, You can't
trust them. They're they're always filled with negativity and controversy
all the time. You can't And the Ben Simmons saga
of it, which which overshadowed and hung over the team
and still hangs over the team, is just as bad. Right.
(08:06):
He was supposed to come back and play, and according
to reports today, the team was very exasperated with the
fact that he suffered a back injury and wasn't going
to be able to play in Game four and I
believe those reports like from woes, because that's not what
you were getting from coach Steve Nash's press conference, not
in the least. No, No, And and then after there
was some digging in it was a combination of physical
(08:29):
and mental issues for Ben Simmons, Clutch sports, having him
still Clutch sports, having a meeting with the Nets, brass
saying listen, it's mental and physical for Ben Simmons. And
you know, we we this is why he's not on
the floor. And I'll tell you know, there's the obvious
things you've heard all day the last dames with stuff
for the last few months about Ben Simmons, How dedicated
(08:50):
is he? Does he really want to play? All of
these things? Um, I'm gonna say two things about him,
and and and and one was you know, I hate
to say I told you so, but when Ben Simmons
got traded to the Nets, I'll find the tweet and
put it back out there. I I said, this is
not the life preserver that you think it is. All
right getting out of Philadelphia, yes that I had to
(09:11):
get out of there. It was awful for him. But
he's not gonna find his answers with the nets on
a team where you need to be beholding to Kevin
Durant and Kyrie Irving, guys who are are are subpar
leaders on their best days. And you have now hit
a situation where there was so much controversy and negativity.
(09:32):
Like I mentioned, this is not gonna be the place
for you. This is not the place. You had to
jump into a bigger market with a bunch of superstars
who have a big national profile, and you're the missing piece.
He doesn't need to go somewhere where hey, he's the
missing piece. He needed to go someplace like Golden State,
where dude, we gotta just come and be yourself. Man.
(09:52):
We have a we have a great atmosphere here, everybody
loves playing here. Just come here and be yourself. It's
all good. The for him to go someplace where now
you're replacing James Harden and now we're counting on you
for a lot of things. I said it at the time,
this is not gonna be the life preserver you think
it is, because the things are not gonna suddenly get better,
and things never got better to the point where you
(10:14):
hear that he's dominating in scrimmages and he shows up
on on on court side, and he's and you know
he's dressed up, but you don't want everybody to see
him on this but no, no, but I can't come play.
And now look where it is. After this entire season
goes by, he doesn't play, and you wonder how injured
he is, and you wonder what's going on. This was
not the place for him to go. He had to
(10:34):
go where Where's a great place where I can fit in,
where there's a great structure, And that's a place like
Golden State and and that had you know, there's other
places with great structure, but the Golden States where you
look at that's the that's the Shangri law of of
structure in the NBA, and that's where a place like
that is where he needed to go. Instead, he goes
to the absolute dumpster fire, that's the nets. This is
(10:54):
not surprising that this is how it's ending for Ben Simmons.
I saw it a long time ago that it was
gonna go kind of like this. This was not gonna
be the deliverance that he was open for. And this
is yet another story that goes literally the whole season
and still not resolve. Can we just as fans at
halftime on one of these playoff games, get a one
on one of Ben Simmons against Zion Williamson, because they're
(11:17):
apparently doing very well in practice, and we've seen Zion
with the windmill dunks and so forth. Can we at
least see them on the court against each other, if
not in competition. I will give kd this that he
did get up to thirty nine points, granted in another
close loss, and their seasons over. But what we mentioned
the first hour about the opponent needs to be repeated
(11:38):
for all the stories that are quite valid to talk
about the Nets. It's a good Boston team that's advancing
into Round two, the two seed in the East, and
a team that plays defense and your best score, your
superstar Tatum. When he was the primary defender against Durant
in the series, Kevin Durant was four of seventeen with
nine turnovers. Now, Durant played forty seven minutes tonight, seven
(12:02):
of the forty eight, So yeah, you had thirty nine points.
Look a little closer. He was thirteen of thirty one
shooting from the floor. So in the first three games,
Durant was limited to nineteen of fifty two from the floor,
nineteen baskets, seventeen turnovers for Kevin Durant in the first
three games he was taken down and the nets they
(12:24):
deserved to be swept by a superior team in Boston.
And I'll tell you what you know. You mentioned Kevin Durant,
and and we'll get to him coming up in a
few minutes, because there's one thing that that that we
have to kind of get where we're at a new
phase of Kevin Durant's career. But you know, like tonight,
it's hard to put tonight on Kevin Durant, except when
you look at the end of the game and he
(12:45):
missed a big free throw, and he had a couple
of times where Boston got offensive rebounds in the last
two minutes where it almost as if, Okay, Kevin Durant,
I felt like you wanted to win, hit that big
one legged jumper, and you watched Marcus Smart go damn
right after. But it's it's a it's a different Kevin Durant.
It's not completely different. It's just now you have to
(13:08):
view him differently than we have up until this point
in his career, because up until now it's been Hey,
Kadi one of the top three players in the game,
and look at he's two time finals m v P.
They probably would have done it again if he didn't
need even tear as achilles. But now it's different and
and and everything you look at him is different because
(13:29):
he now is a player that, as good as he is,
he's one of the he's a player that now the
next sentences Kevin Durant and he needs help. It was
never hey, Kevin Durant needs help. Before it was hey,
Kevin Durant's got a lot of talents around him. He's
good in Oklahoma City, he's good in Golden State. Oh,
we think he's got a lot of talent around him,
and in Brooklyn because he's got Kyrie and he's gonna
get James Harden. But now that first statement is Kevin
(13:51):
Durant needs some help because he's He can still give
you those spurts where he scores a ton of points
and plays great, but he's just not quite that get
on my back guy that he was because he, you know,
the first two games of this series was absolutely terrible.
We're a couple of shots here and there, and maybe
it's a series, but he was he was just god
awful those first couple of games and couldn't buy a shot.
(14:11):
He's a different player now to where he's into that, Hey,
I'm nearing the end of my career. Now I need
some He's in that Lebron James phase of Hey, as
great as he is, he still needs help around him.
And Boston is a team you would have been playing
Forget that they're out in the first round. You would
have had to play them at some point and their
defense completely shut you down. And remember, as far as
career trajectories, how Carmelo Anthony would have these super regular
(14:35):
seasons and always losing the first round. Kevin Durant had
one first round series nine straight. So tonight he loses
in the first round for the first time since with
Oklahoma City, which was the first playoff series of his career.
So now we move on to thinking in the East
about Philadelphia and their lead is now three games to
(14:55):
two after losing it home to Toronto. Doc Rivers has
now lost seven of his late last eight opportunities to
close out a series. The item from ESPN stats in
info coach Doc Rivers has thirty one such losses in
closeouts already, the most by any coach in the history
of the NBA. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten
(15:18):
pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
the I Heart Radio app Fox Sports Radio The Jason
Smith Show with special delivery Steve de Sager in for
Mike Harmon. Where the nets are going home the seventies
six ers, maybe on the cusp of giving away a
three games to non lead, and Spike Lee is now
(15:39):
coaching the Jazz. As the Mavericks lead this seventy forty six.
Donovan Mitchell is wearing a Patrick Ewing jersey on the
court for the Jazz. I'm sorry make it seventy six.
A thirty three point lead with three minutes ago on
the third quarter for the Mavericks over the Jazz. This
series tied to two. Um, if they win by forty,
(16:00):
you should give them it should be worth right? How
extring would that be? In the playoffs? If you win
a game by fifty, accounts for two games, Well, I
keep them playing. That would be pretty cool, right, Hey,
we'll keep they went by fifty, it counts counts for
two games and the big two games the Utah Jazz.
In this quarter they've scored ten points in about ten
minutes and for the night from three point range, Utah
(16:21):
is three for three. Oh boy, yeah, I'll tell you
this is This is not a night where it's going
to be kind to Donovan Mitchell and Rudy go Bears. Hey,
they gotta be saying, hey, don't talk about the NETS law.
They got swept about that. We just lost a game.
Didn't worry about us where Hey, the Sixers are blowing
the three games. That's what I would say if I
(16:42):
was Quinn Snyder in the postgame press conference. Hey, you
guys know that the Sixers were up three zip and
now it's three What is that called the wagon dog?
Where you try and make people pay attention to something
else so they don't pay attention to your bad something
else going on? Did you see that? Did you see
that Nets game? Man? What's going with them? Hey? And guys,
I know, but the Mets were down to zip in
(17:04):
the ninth inning with two outs and scored five runs
and one is that true? Is that? Can someone tell me? What?
Can you get me the play by play of the
ninth inning? I'm sure the Utah Jazz coach. That's the
first thing out of his mouth the Mets game. At
the post game. Hey, he's looking for any The PR
guy is stopping him, going, Okay, ask about this. You
can talk about Elon Musk buying Twitter. Ask about that yet?
(17:26):
And then then when ten minutes of RUP, we'll get
you off stage. All right, we'll do that for you.
Do we have a triple A team? Does utah? I
have a triple A? Didn't they play tonight? Anything? You
gotta score something? Black Hawks? Black Hawks play tonight? But
I bet money on these games. I bet lots of money.
Oh you wanna talk about talking about our gambling Sandle? Yeah? Greg,
(17:47):
Greg Gregor Uh yeah. This is the kind of night
it is for the Jazz, And this is the kind
of night in the NBA where there's three big games
and three incredibly large storylines to talk about. Um, but
I want to get to this for a few minutes
because this is this is a really big uh. I
would say, part of the playoffs, but it's also part
(18:08):
of the NBA mentality that really separate some of the
stars from one another. Right now, we've talked a lot
about Durant and Kyrie tonight and why the Nets have failed?
And there's so many issues with this team, but the
biggest one I can point to is why have the
(18:28):
Nets failed? This is a team that was an NBA
preseason favorite to win the finals didn't win a playoff game.
I mean, that's how big of a collapse. This was
the biggest issue is I can I can watch this
team play and I can say how much do Kevin
Durant and Kyrie Irving care about winning a title? How
invested are they in basketball? How invested are they and
(18:51):
how good the team is on the court, or are
they more invested in we play for a high profile team.
We can play basketball and still sue other things outside
of the sport and and really commit to the sport
when we feel like at the NBA season is long.
Uh KD can fight with people on social media from
his burner accounts whenever he wants to. Kyrie can play
(19:13):
in a game, not playing a game, playing a game,
not playing a game, use my status as an NBA
star to to get into other uh facets of my life,
which is great. But the thing is, you're getting paid
to play basketball. You're getting paid forty million dollars a
year and the Nets are a big deal and they
mean a lot to a lot of people. And I
watched these two guys play, and I go, I don't
(19:34):
know how big of a deal. I don't know how
much they care about winning. I really don't. I I
watched them, and I go, they didn't come to Brooklyn
to win championships. They came to Brooklyn to be Okay,
now we're we're gonna try to put the culture we
want out there where we're kind of in charge of
things and we can do whatever we want to. I
don't want to have to answer to another player like
Draymond Green. I don't want to have to or or
Lebron James. I don't want to have to answer to anybody.
(19:56):
I want to be able to do our own thing.
I don't want have to worry about what a coach
is doing. Its I want to kind of go and
create our own atmosphere and our own a sort of
bubble that we can have. And that's kind of what
they've done, right, Everything going on to this, this is
what the Nets have built this themselves. Everything they've done
is because this is what Katie wants. This is what
(20:17):
Kyrie Irving wants, right, Kyrie Irving has spent just as
much time not playing for the Nets as he has
playing for the Nets, And Kevin Durant is not singularly
obsessed with winning. He thinks I've done enough winning, Right,
What did he need to Why did he go to
the Warriors? I want people to stop asking me why
can't win a championship? So I'm gonna go there for
a couple of years, win a couple of championships, and
(20:38):
then it's done. Then I can spend the back half
of my career doing whatever the hell I want to. Right.
So he goes to the Warriors, he wins a couple
of titles, and now I'm at the Nets, and I'm
gonna do whatever I want. And if I win, great,
and if I don't, I don't as long as people
understand and we can remind them once in a while
that I'm still a great player. In Kyrie, are still
great players, because that's kind of what the Nets do.
Once in a while, they'll give you a couple of
(20:59):
games in a row and they'll win by thirty and
you sit back and go, oh man, when they put
it together, they're just so good. But then something happens
and they're not motivated. And I watched Kyrie Irving have
a really bad series in which he's only motivated for
a couple of games, and Kevin Durant have a series
in which he's awful for the first couple of games,
and then you know, accent different towards the end of
the game on defense with a couple of really big possessions. Um,
(21:20):
I don't know how much they care about winning. I
think they just care about how whatever atmosphere we want
to play basketball in, that's what we want, and that's
never gonna win. So by that perspective, I'm not surprised
at all that they failed. I didn't think they failed
this badly. I didn't think they would set the flame
out in the first round. And but yeah, but that's
(21:41):
exactly what the whole season was leading was leading towards it.
They couldn't get along with James Harden, and James Harden
has to be dealt, and they bring in Ben Simmons,
who doesn't get to play for the team at all,
and the team's barely uh qualifies for the playoffs. They
win a couple of games in the playing round, and
then now look at the nets and now now the
nets are gone and it's like they were never there.
These are the guys, These are the two guys that
(22:03):
that have the the fortunes of the franchise on their shoulders,
and they've decided, Yeah, winning is kind of secondary. We
just want to kind of play whatever we want and
not have to worry about dealing with with so many
issues that we don't want to deal with anymore. I
don't have to worry about teammates who are on my
case coaching. That's the nets. That's Kyrie Irving, that's Kevin Durant.
Kyrie is Then the nets are allowing kye Ierny do
(22:25):
whatever he wanted to do. Right, I'm I'm missing the games.
What we like you to play? Now? I'm missing the games? Okay?
I don't want to get vaccinated. Boy, Okay, we'd like
you to play. We're paying a lot of money. Yeah No,
I don't want to Okay. And now he comes back
after tonight's game. He sets us up to him and
k D and and and the ownership to run and
manage the franchise. Who. Man, that's a lot of guts
(22:46):
to say something like that. Man, that's a lot of
guts to after he doesn't show up as long as
he does to say yeah, yeah, you know, it's up
to me, k D owner and GM, not Steve Nash
because you know he's gonna get fired. It's up to
the four of us to basically run this franchise. Let's
hear the the Kyrie Irving quote. Let's have it right now.
I hope the basketball that that's a call back to
(23:09):
the first hour of the show. Yeah, it's very good
call back. All right, So apparently we only have the
raw footage. Yeah yeah, and he sounds like Bob Knight,
so that's yeah. Uh so here it is. Here's Kyrie
Irving with that quote. I was just telling me about
in terms of my extension, man, I don't really plan
on going anywhere. So this added motivation for our franchise
to be at the top of the league for the
(23:30):
next few years. And you know, I'm just looking forward
to the summer and just building with our guys here.
When I say I'm here with keV, I think that
it really entails us, you know, managing this franchise together
alongside Joe and Sean and just our our group of
family members that we have in our locker room in
our in our organization. Um, it's not just about me
and keV. I don't want to make it just about
(23:52):
that we're cornerstones here, but you know we have been.
We have a few other guys that don't contract, and
I think we just got to make some moves this offseason,
really talk about it and um, really be intentional about
what we're building and have some fun with it, make
enjoyable and you know, hopefully we get to start from
day one just as a squad and as a family,
and we just really worry about us together as as
(24:13):
a squad. I just think we need to be you
need to be tougher mentally, just more honest about what
we want to accomplish, and just stick to the goal,
stick to the mission. Kyrie Irving again, Kyrie Irving, who
has played what had eligible for just over two d
NETS games, Steve anything about half of it? Right? Played
(24:33):
about This is a guy that played in twenty nine
games this year, nine games and now he's talking about yeah,
you know, me having ownership of this franchise now us
figuring out the way so you don't get it again.
It's basically what what we're saying. Can we just hope
that as fans this year where the Nets and those
power to fail spectacularly and Lebron running the Lakers fails
(24:57):
even more spectacularly. Can we hope as fans that it's
better for us, better for the product, better for the league,
that players are never given this much power before. I
even thought years ago, when it seems like every coach
I were higher, they were becoming the head of the
front office as well. I hated that because those are
two separate jobs. Certainly the player should not have that
(25:19):
much influence on running a roster. It's a separate job.
Please throw that out in the out the window once
and for all. And you mentioned Durant. Wasn't he the
guy that once said to the media when he felt
somewhat slided, like you know who I am? Right, Yeah, okay,
we've seen it. We didn't see it this this series
(25:40):
against that defense. But you know what's happened. You talk
about maybe not caring. How else do you get down,
aside from being an inferior team, how else do you
get down by double digits every game and then make
a run and make make it close and then lose
every game. The Celtics were leading tonight and guess what.
(26:02):
Nets made a push, They get within three, Jayson Tatum
fouls out and then Nets still lose four games to none.
Brooklyn seasons over. This is as bad a failure as
you can have. And then to hear Kyrie Irving talk
the way he is, I'm I'm ready for the summer, dude. Again.
You played in twenty nine games, man, and that's like now,
(26:25):
suddenly at the end of the year, now that it's over, Now,
now I want to take a big role in the team.
Go oh, now you want to take a big role?
And that Nick, really really, now you wanna take a
big role? Seriously, that now is when you want to
do it. Now, after after the lack of you showing
up all season long has taken its toll on the team.
I mean he and the thing is, he believes all
this stuff. He believes all the stuff that he says,
(26:47):
and and and and that's what's most infuriating about it,
because you know, nobody else is. And it's hard to
call him out on it because, like I said, you're
paying him forty million dollars a year, and and and
Katie is there and has his back, and it's it's
really really hard hard. But man, I'm glad Kyrie doesn't
play for my team because I would never want to
have to rely on him. I can't believe we have
conversations about Kyrie like we do about other great, great
(27:10):
players in the NBA, because because you know, we talk
about him like always one of the top five players. Again,
if I have to win a game in the playoffs,
he's one of the last guys on my list that
I would say I can count on you to have
a big game, one of the last guys. Tonight. It's
three zip, right, this is let's throw it all out there,
Let's let's let's go, let's let's do it. And I
watched Kevin Durant at least be aggressive for the majority
(27:32):
of the game until he decided he was done in
the last couple of minutes. And I watched Kyre Irving
not really step up and be aggressive until the final
three minutes of the game. There was an item from
stat Muse tonight, Kyrie Irvan's record in the playoffs in
his career with Lebron James. Kyrie is thirty nine and thirteen.
Career playoff record without Lebron James eleven and eleven. That
(27:56):
is life for the Brooklyn Nets. Then that problem one
up a problem. Ben Simmons didn't play again tonight. No, no,
well you never thought Ben Ben Ben Simmons was kept
only saying oh I might play and might play just
to get people off his back. I don't think there
was a problem. I don't mean literally. I mean, hey,
you know, people think I'm gonna make my debut and
(28:16):
I'm just not ready to play. Whether it's mentally, physically,
whatever reason. Now, I'm not ready. I'm not ready. But
I'll say that maybe I could come back, so at
least people think I'm trying to come back. Because to
to bottom line Ben Simmons for a second, now, he's spent.
We did Kyrie, we did, we did Kevin durant Um.
Ben Simmons is a guy that if it was just
(28:37):
him being hurt, we wouldn't be here. It would be
he's hurt, can't play all right, He's missed all season,
can't play back. But the fact that we're getting all
of these stories of it's partly his back. It's partly
his his his his mental issues that he's been having.
It's the Nets being exasperated with him not being able
to play. You wonder how legit his injury is and
(28:58):
where he's at. And this is not surprising, right, This
is why I can't trust when players tell me they're hurt.
When players say I'm hurt and can't play, Are you
really hurt or you just don't want to play for
whatever reason, because there's a lot of guys that just
don't want to play that have been good. Jamal Murray,
don't talk about him enough of the Nuggets. Hey, dude,
you are clear to play, man. Every they wanted to
get you in the end of the regular season. No, no no,
(29:20):
I'm not red. What do you mean you're not ready? Man?
You are clear to play. You are not playing. A
lot of guys only play when they want to. So
when I hear these injuries, now I wonder, I go,
how trust is? How hurt is a guy really gonna be?
Ben Simmons is gonna rut it for guys that that
we know are, Hey, legitimately hurt. I can't get out there.
I want to. I want to play. But now they're
gonna get lumped in because Ben Simmons. There's so much
going on. You know, where there's smoke, there's fire, and
(29:42):
so this is this is gonna make it worse for
other players down the road, and let's just say that
it is entirely his back and nothing else. My second question, then,
as a fan, is wait a minute. You've had all
this time off since last summer with your former team.
How did you not take your craft seriously and keep
yourself in shape? That just trying to ramp it up
(30:04):
to get back on the court. In this league, you
get injured, you're not taking care of yourself. That he had,
He sat on no planes for road trips during the
regular season, so the back wasn't a problem there. He
wasn't going, you know, playing forty five minutes in certain
nights or back to that. None of this was a
factor this year. And you still okay, let's buy in.
(30:24):
Let's say it's just the back problem. How how is
that happening? How are you not taking your career seriously.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific. Hey, it's me Rob Parker. Check out my
weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for twenty two minutes
(30:47):
of pipe and hot baseball talk featuring the biggest name
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New episodes drop every Thursday, so do yourself of favor
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(31:08):
podcast Fox Sports Radio. That Jason Smith show was Steve
de Sager in for Mike Harmon Tonight. Tonight show brought
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Learn more at Discovered dot com. Slash rewards limitations they do.
Applaud Jason. We got two things to update. Hassan Whiteside
has just been kicked out of Utah's eventual loss at
Dallas tonight. There's only about five and a half minutes
to go. Kind of a hard foul on Donsitch driving
the lane and then the shoving afterwards also the next way,
so he just got ejected. Gected. Hassan Whiteside got ejected,
(31:53):
just got arrested. No, no, just just kicked out. At
least we're not involved. The Mets with the five runs
in the ninth gotta win at St. Louis tonight. Mets
have announced that picture Jacob deGrom underwent an m r
I and a CT scan, which quote revealed considerable healing
of the stress reaction in his scapula. He'll start strengthening
(32:14):
the shoulder and undergo another m r I in about
three weeks. Everything's coming up, Mats. I'm rolling the Dicen's
coming up, Mets. Let me see that. Seven eleven, seven eleven,
seven eleven, everything's coming up, Mats team. To say so,
half the All Star team is gonna be Mets this
summer Dodger Stadium already, it's half Mets and half Dodgers.
(32:36):
That's what it's gonna be. Half Mets and haft Dodgers.
And we're gonna play the NLCS right after. We're gonna
go right from there second week of July to the NLC.
By the way, the NLCS m v P from last year.
Atlanta's Eddie Rosario has been awful at the plate this season.
Three for matting O sixty eight and now the Athletic
reports that Rosario is scheduled for a laser procedure later
(32:59):
this week to erect blurred vision and swelling in the
right eye, and that he saw a retinal specialist today.
Atlanta is gonna make a roster move tomorrow. All right,
We'll have more on these stories coming up. And right
now again, Dallas with a big lead over Utah. It's
a it's a twenty five point lead with five and
a half minutes left to go. We'll have more on
this as well. But you know, we're seeing today the
(33:22):
big news in the world. Elon Musk is gonna buy Twitter. Right.
We saw this as forty three billion dollar offer has
been accepted and he's going to buy. He wants to
transform Twitter. Um. Elon Musk has been someone who has
been a very much what he is called like a
free speech proponent, like he wants to open up Twitter
and and do a lot of different things to it.
(33:43):
And clearly all the talk today was just being President
Trump is gonna be back on Twitter and all this stuff,
and Trump says, no, I'll tell you what it means
for sports, right, I'll tell you what Twitter means for sports,
because as I said, uh, Elon musk Is is very
much pro Hey, let's open things up. Like if as
if Twitter wasn't the wild Wild West to begin with, UM,
it's gonna be even more so. And sports and athletes
(34:03):
apparently will be going on rockets to space, right and
they're going up and coming back. They're going up and
coming back. That that's all they're doing. Uh, get in line, Kyrie.
But I'll tell you what's gonna happen is that players
are already they've already had it with fans and their
behavior at games. They've had it with fans and their
behavior online because fans can be pretty brutal on on Twitter. Look,
(34:27):
Twitter is is. Look, it's it's difficult, man. Like I said,
Twitter is a hard place to be sometimes. If it
gets to the point where everybody can just really lose
a lot of restrictions and and and speech that that
UM players really don't like is going to be allowed,
they're gonna leave Twitter, and mass and and all the
athletes are gonna leave Twitter, and they're all gonna go
(34:48):
to Instagram or someplace else and get their message out
and they will leave because you know, people get there,
there's a lot of negativity there's a lot of hate
for everybody on Twitter. And and now if it's f
it's the rules and regulations are relaxed even more. I
think you're gonna see athletes are gonna say, yeah, I'm
not doing it. It's not I'll go to Instagram. I'll
go to Instagram and I'll be able to post and
put pictures up. I'll do something else. And I think
(35:10):
you're gonna find that that that's gonna be the the
first outcome if those changes are made of Twitter. Now
correct me if I'm wrong. Everybody thought this was gonna
happen a few weeks ago, right that he was going
to be at least on the board of Twitter. And
my question is is Twitter that profitable a thing or
does he really care about that aspect? No, Twitter is
pretty profitable. You see they put games on Twitter. There's
lots of things happening. I mean, he wants to unlock
(35:33):
the potential of Twitter, which, okay, I wonder what that's
gonna be and how he's gonna transform it. Um, but look,
it's just like when you're buying a when when you're
buying a piece of memorabilia, how much is that honus
Wagner card worth. Well, if I want to pay a
million dollars, it's worth If I want to pay five million,
it's worth five millions. If I want to spend forty
four billion dollars on Twitter, then that's what it's worth.
(35:54):
Forty four billion dollars to share whatever it was today exactly.
By the way Donovan Mitchell has limped off at the
Utah Jazz game, why he was in the game up
twenty eight with five minutes to go, I'll never know,
oh boy, Jason Smith, Steve Disager, Twitter, and how about
a Fresco phone number eight seven seven ninety nine On Fox,
Back into the biggest story of the night coming up
(36:15):
next Fox
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Hello, Welcome inside the
Mets Show tonight with Jason Smith and Steve to Say.
You're in from Mike Harmon. Where Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets,
approaching the NBA protesting and and and and the draft
and the draft. Are you gonna try to change yourself
(00:45):
to the basketball stations to try the super glued to
my wrist and trying to gain continue. Watch out for
that second row security guard following you in very quick.
Congratulations in Minnesota. If you didn't see that clip this week,
I'll tell you, man, something something's different about the Mets
this year's Yeah, they're winning games. Somethings different, dude, But
(01:12):
it is a big night for the Mets. It's also
a big night in the NBA. Right now, Mavericks and
the Jazz uh fifty six thirty nine. The Mavericks have
the lead early in the third quarter. They have been
out big. Luca don Chech has seventeen, Jalen Brunson's got thirteen.
And right now there is a fight on the court
(01:33):
between Brunson and Mitchell who are fighting over a Knick's jersey.
Hang on, I'm watching right now. Whoever gets it goes
there next year in free agent. Hang on a second,
Hang on, whoa Mitchell with a Haymaker he wants it?
I think Mitchell wants out Worth Steve hanging Yeah, yeah,
say one out of Utah. We talked about how this
didn't work, you know, maybe as a fantasy team, but
(01:53):
nothing else with Brooklyn. This is not working with Utah,
right we all agree here. It's now fifty thirty nine Dallas.
They're ready to go up three games to two in
this first round series and we just started the second half.
Utah has had some good regular seasons, nearly fifty wins
this year. I'm not the first to say this just
isn't working. Right now, Leon Rose is actually on the
(02:14):
floor giving Donovan Mitchell his business card. Uh that I
did not see that coming. No. Look, and they think
he's a protester and he has been tackled with every
passing day. Donna and Mitchell just wants out right, you know,
you know what's gonna happen. They were upset. The Mavericks
were upset that the Nick sent a big contingent to
the game over the weekend. Uh, when you know Jalen
(02:36):
Brunson also is gonna make a lot of money this
offseason and free agency, and Brunson is a big Knicks target,
especially as Mitchell. Yeah, and then there and everybody said,
while you got what, we can come to the games
and watch it. We bought a tampering tampering we can
come to the games and just watch. But seriously, of
this happening right now. Uh, this is gonna be a
(02:56):
blow up the Jazz year. If they lose this. If
they go out in the first round this series to
a team that didn't have Luca for the first three
games and they lost two out of the first three,
that's embarrassing. That's a mix that just isn't working. And yeah,
maybe go Bet would be the easier guy to trade.
And you because you look don and Mitchell is so
bleep and exciting, but he's gonna be the guy that
(03:18):
wants out. He's the guy okay, okay, no, no, no,
He's the one that you can see how bad as
body language is, after every bad play. He's gonna be
the guy that says, listen, I want out. And then
it's gonna be a huge feeding frenzy in the off
season saying hey, we could put together a nice little
trade package for Donovan Mitchell. Look, the Knicks have have
eight They're they're deep with like eight pretty good players.
They could send three pretty good players for one really
(03:40):
terrific player. That can happen that way, Steve, I'm telling you.
And then Quinn Snyder goes to the Lakers and everybody's happy. No, yeah,
I don't. I don't know what would the Lakers be
happy with Quinn Snyder. I don't know. Well, at least
they actually see the value of the coach just that
much more than Kyrie and the Nets. Do you know what?
It doesn't, but it's what Lebron wants. Lebron's gonna want
Mark Jackson. I I don't. I don't think he's gonna
(04:01):
want Quinn Snyder. You know, isn't the same Clutch sports.
Of course, they're the agents of almost every other star
in the league. Isn't there some way, just some Lebron
type of way they'll they'll shoehorn Ben Simmons into the
Laker ross and it will include even worse next year
than it did this year. Right, let's go get Ben Simmons. Yeah,
(04:24):
so we could not play for us? Uh? Yeah, look
what more on this game? Obviously at Dallas with a
huge lead over you, and again it's it's still a
lot of time left Luca Donge. It's nineteen ten and
four helpers right now, he's having a big, big night
three pointer for Dallas. It's sixty three to forty two.
Can we can we just call it now? Wait? Spike
(04:46):
Lee has just ran onto the court and is and
is jumping into Donovan Mitchell's arms and is actually escorting
him off. There's a private jet in blue and orange
colors waiting to take Donovan Mitchell away, throwing the towel already.
Not all the recincts are reporting. But let's just give
game five to Dallas here. They'll go up three games
to two in this first rounder. This Utah team, be careful.
(05:10):
You were going to give that to nothing game to
the Cardinals in the ninth inning against the Mets, and
what happened. I didn't give it, just like I didn't
give it to the Mets when the took them out
in the bottom of the nine. But that's a different thing.
Does everyone remember when Carl Malone used to play for
the Utah Jazz? That's like five years ago now. In
(05:31):
these last twenty five years, the Utah Jazz have won
a second round series once literally one time. And these
last six years they've been a really good team in
the Western Conference, about a six hundred winning percentage this year.
They've had three other years with over a six hundred
winning percentage. Last year was a seven twenty two winning percentage.
(05:55):
And where are they going with all of this? You'd
think you would have it because you've got the score
who's not you know, not a post player, and you've
got the defensive player of the year three times in
Rudy Gobert not working. This is going to be a
couple of teams are gonna get broken up depending on
how this playoff run ends. Because now suddenly it's a
(06:18):
it's it's an it's nerve racking in Philadelphia with Philadelphia
blowing a three oh lead, and now Toronto wins without
Fred van Vleet, and that's a big city. You could
see a lot. Dad, Doc Rivers never blows the lead
in the postseason. What are you talking about. It's not
my fault. You can't blame me. It's not my fault.
We had the game plan out there. It's not you
cannot blame me. It's not me, not me, James fault. No,
(06:42):
it's not me. It's it's it's not my fault. No.
I can't blame James because I I put out the
the the I put out the call. I put up
one pop posters for James Harden to find him because
we didn't know where he was. The guy he had
nine points that he was terrible. I don't know what's
going on. By the way, that was the samed Doc
Rivers voice and the j Bie Fox impersonation, not Mike's faul.
Have you seen Blake Griffin and the Planet, Well, we
(07:02):
won't see him anymore. The nets just got swept tonight.
But when he played the last game, he was completely gassed.
And I looked at the box court, the guy played
eight minutes. He was toast on the court after eight minutes,
and he got eighteen minutes off the bench for the Nets.
Tonight Blake Griffin and was oh of three, scoreless, and
(07:23):
he took two threes and he missed you. I mean,
he could take a charge. Still, We'll give him that.
He took a three with about two and a half
minutes left to go. Where I'm saying, what the hell
is going on here? Why is Blake Griffin taking that?
Aside from Curry, nobody was shooting well from outside anyway.
So yeah, he's seen this team. He's thinking the Nets
(07:45):
are such a mess. Right, we talked about at last hour.
There's always something going on with them, right, You can't
trust them. They're they're always filled with negativity and controversy
all the time. You can't And the Ben Simmons saga
of it, which which overshadowed and hung over the team
and still hangs over the team, is just as bad. Right.
(08:06):
He was supposed to come back and play, and according
to reports today, the team was very exasperated with the
fact that he suffered a back injury and wasn't going
to be able to play in Game four and I
believe those reports like from woes, because that's not what
you were getting from coach Steve Nash's press conference, not
in the least. No, No, And and then after there
was some digging in it was a combination of physical
(08:29):
and mental issues for Ben Simmons, Clutch sports, having him
still Clutch sports, having a meeting with the Nets, brass
saying listen, it's mental and physical for Ben Simmons. And
you know, we we this is why he's not on
the floor. And I'll tell you know, there's the obvious
things you've heard all day the last dames with stuff
for the last few months about Ben Simmons, How dedicated
(08:50):
is he? Does he really want to play? All of
these things? Um, I'm gonna say two things about him,
and and and and one was you know, I hate
to say I told you so, but when Ben Simmons
got traded to the Nets, I'll find the tweet and
put it back out there. I I said, this is
not the life preserver that you think it is. All
right getting out of Philadelphia, yes that I had to
(09:11):
get out of there. It was awful for him. But
he's not gonna find his answers with the nets on
a team where you need to be beholding to Kevin
Durant and Kyrie Irving, guys who are are are subpar
leaders on their best days. And you have now hit
a situation where there was so much controversy and negativity.
(09:32):
Like I mentioned, this is not gonna be the place
for you. This is not the place. You had to
jump into a bigger market with a bunch of superstars
who have a big national profile, and you're the missing piece.
He doesn't need to go somewhere where hey, he's the
missing piece. He needed to go someplace like Golden State,
where dude, we gotta just come and be yourself. Man.
(09:52):
We have a we have a great atmosphere here, everybody
loves playing here. Just come here and be yourself. It's
all good. The for him to go someplace where now
you're replacing James Harden and now we're counting on you
for a lot of things. I said it at the time,
this is not gonna be the life preserver you think
it is, because the things are not gonna suddenly get better,
and things never got better to the point where you
(10:14):
hear that he's dominating in scrimmages and he shows up
on on on court side, and he's and you know
he's dressed up, but you don't want everybody to see
him on this but no, no, but I can't come play.
And now look where it is. After this entire season
goes by, he doesn't play, and you wonder how injured
he is, and you wonder what's going on. This was
not the place for him to go. He had to
(10:34):
go where Where's a great place where I can fit in,
where there's a great structure, And that's a place like
Golden State and and that had you know, there's other
places with great structure, but the Golden States where you
look at that's the that's the Shangri law of of
structure in the NBA, and that's where a place like
that is where he needed to go. Instead, he goes
to the absolute dumpster fire, that's the nets. This is
(10:54):
not surprising that this is how it's ending for Ben Simmons.
I saw it a long time ago that it was
gonna go kind of like this. This was not gonna
be the deliverance that he was open for. And this
is yet another story that goes literally the whole season
and still not resolve. Can we just as fans at
halftime on one of these playoff games, get a one
on one of Ben Simmons against Zion Williamson, because they're
(11:17):
apparently doing very well in practice, and we've seen Zion
with the windmill dunks and so forth. Can we at
least see them on the court against each other, if
not in competition. I will give kd this that he
did get up to thirty nine points, granted in another
close loss, and their seasons over. But what we mentioned
the first hour about the opponent needs to be repeated
(11:38):
for all the stories that are quite valid to talk
about the Nets. It's a good Boston team that's advancing
into Round two, the two seed in the East, and
a team that plays defense and your best score, your
superstar Tatum. When he was the primary defender against Durant
in the series, Kevin Durant was four of seventeen with
nine turnovers. Now, Durant played forty seven minutes tonight, seven
(12:02):
of the forty eight, So yeah, you had thirty nine points.
Look a little closer. He was thirteen of thirty one
shooting from the floor. So in the first three games,
Durant was limited to nineteen of fifty two from the floor,
nineteen baskets, seventeen turnovers for Kevin Durant in the first
three games he was taken down and the nets they
(12:24):
deserved to be swept by a superior team in Boston.
And I'll tell you what you know. You mentioned Kevin Durant,
and and we'll get to him coming up in a
few minutes, because there's one thing that that that we
have to kind of get where we're at a new
phase of Kevin Durant's career. But you know, like tonight,
it's hard to put tonight on Kevin Durant, except when
you look at the end of the game and he
(12:45):
missed a big free throw, and he had a couple
of times where Boston got offensive rebounds in the last
two minutes where it almost as if, Okay, Kevin Durant,
I felt like you wanted to win, hit that big
one legged jumper, and you watched Marcus Smart go damn
right after. But it's it's a it's a different Kevin Durant.
It's not completely different. It's just now you have to
(13:08):
view him differently than we have up until this point
in his career, because up until now it's been Hey,
Kadi one of the top three players in the game,
and look at he's two time finals m v P.
They probably would have done it again if he didn't
need even tear as achilles. But now it's different and
and and everything you look at him is different because
(13:29):
he now is a player that, as good as he is,
he's one of the he's a player that now the
next sentences Kevin Durant and he needs help. It was
never hey, Kevin Durant needs help. Before it was hey,
Kevin Durant's got a lot of talents around him. He's
good in Oklahoma City, he's good in Golden State. Oh,
we think he's got a lot of talent around him,
and in Brooklyn because he's got Kyrie and he's gonna
get James Harden. But now that first statement is Kevin
(13:51):
Durant needs some help because he's He can still give
you those spurts where he scores a ton of points
and plays great, but he's just not quite that get
on my back guy that he was because he, you know,
the first two games of this series was absolutely terrible.
We're a couple of shots here and there, and maybe
it's a series, but he was he was just god
awful those first couple of games and couldn't buy a shot.
(14:11):
He's a different player now to where he's into that, Hey,
I'm nearing the end of my career. Now I need
some He's in that Lebron James phase of Hey, as
great as he is, he still needs help around him.
And Boston is a team you would have been playing
Forget that they're out in the first round. You would
have had to play them at some point and their
defense completely shut you down. And remember, as far as
career trajectories, how Carmelo Anthony would have these super regular
(14:35):
seasons and always losing the first round. Kevin Durant had
one first round series nine straight. So tonight he loses
in the first round for the first time since with
Oklahoma City, which was the first playoff series of his career.
So now we move on to thinking in the East
about Philadelphia and their lead is now three games to
(14:55):
two after losing it home to Toronto. Doc Rivers has
now lost seven of his late last eight opportunities to
close out a series. The item from ESPN stats in
info coach Doc Rivers has thirty one such losses in
closeouts already, the most by any coach in the history
of the NBA. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten
(15:18):
pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
the I Heart Radio app Fox Sports Radio The Jason
Smith Show with special delivery Steve de Sager in for
Mike Harmon. Where the nets are going home the seventies
six ers, maybe on the cusp of giving away a
three games to non lead, and Spike Lee is now
(15:39):
coaching the Jazz. As the Mavericks lead this seventy forty six.
Donovan Mitchell is wearing a Patrick Ewing jersey on the
court for the Jazz. I'm sorry make it seventy six.
A thirty three point lead with three minutes ago on
the third quarter for the Mavericks over the Jazz. This
series tied to two. Um, if they win by forty,
(16:00):
you should give them it should be worth right? How
extring would that be? In the playoffs? If you win
a game by fifty, accounts for two games, Well, I
keep them playing. That would be pretty cool, right, Hey,
we'll keep they went by fifty, it counts counts for
two games and the big two games the Utah Jazz.
In this quarter they've scored ten points in about ten
minutes and for the night from three point range, Utah
(16:21):
is three for three. Oh boy, yeah, I'll tell you
this is This is not a night where it's going
to be kind to Donovan Mitchell and Rudy go Bears. Hey,
they gotta be saying, hey, don't talk about the NETS law.
They got swept about that. We just lost a game.
Didn't worry about us where Hey, the Sixers are blowing
the three games. That's what I would say if I
(16:42):
was Quinn Snyder in the postgame press conference. Hey, you
guys know that the Sixers were up three zip and
now it's three What is that called the wagon dog?
Where you try and make people pay attention to something
else so they don't pay attention to your bad something
else going on? Did you see that? Did you see
that Nets game? Man? What's going with them? Hey? And guys,
I know, but the Mets were down to zip in
(17:04):
the ninth inning with two outs and scored five runs
and one is that true? Is that? Can someone tell me? What?
Can you get me the play by play of the
ninth inning? I'm sure the Utah Jazz coach. That's the
first thing out of his mouth the Mets game. At
the post game. Hey, he's looking for any The PR
guy is stopping him, going, Okay, ask about this. You
can talk about Elon Musk buying Twitter. Ask about that yet?
(17:26):
And then then when ten minutes of RUP, we'll get
you off stage. All right, we'll do that for you.
Do we have a triple A team? Does utah? I
have a triple A? Didn't they play tonight? Anything? You
gotta score something? Black Hawks? Black Hawks play tonight? But
I bet money on these games. I bet lots of money.
Oh you wanna talk about talking about our gambling Sandle? Yeah? Greg,
(17:47):
Greg Gregor Uh yeah. This is the kind of night
it is for the Jazz, And this is the kind
of night in the NBA where there's three big games
and three incredibly large storylines to talk about. Um, but
I want to get to this for a few minutes
because this is this is a really big uh. I
would say, part of the playoffs, but it's also part
(18:08):
of the NBA mentality that really separate some of the
stars from one another. Right now, we've talked a lot
about Durant and Kyrie tonight and why the Nets have failed?
And there's so many issues with this team, but the
biggest one I can point to is why have the
(18:28):
Nets failed? This is a team that was an NBA
preseason favorite to win the finals didn't win a playoff game.
I mean, that's how big of a collapse. This was
the biggest issue is I can I can watch this
team play and I can say how much do Kevin
Durant and Kyrie Irving care about winning a title? How
invested are they in basketball? How invested are they and
(18:51):
how good the team is on the court, or are
they more invested in we play for a high profile team.
We can play basketball and still sue other things outside
of the sport and and really commit to the sport
when we feel like at the NBA season is long.
Uh KD can fight with people on social media from
his burner accounts whenever he wants to. Kyrie can play
(19:13):
in a game, not playing a game, playing a game,
not playing a game, use my status as an NBA
star to to get into other uh facets of my life,
which is great. But the thing is, you're getting paid
to play basketball. You're getting paid forty million dollars a
year and the Nets are a big deal and they
mean a lot to a lot of people. And I
watched these two guys play, and I go, I don't
(19:34):
know how big of a deal. I don't know how
much they care about winning. I really don't. I I
watched them, and I go, they didn't come to Brooklyn
to win championships. They came to Brooklyn to be Okay,
now we're we're gonna try to put the culture we
want out there where we're kind of in charge of
things and we can do whatever we want to. I
don't want to have to answer to another player like
Draymond Green. I don't want to have to or or
Lebron James. I don't want to have to answer to anybody.
(19:56):
I want to be able to do our own thing.
I don't want have to worry about what a coach
is doing. Its I want to kind of go and
create our own atmosphere and our own a sort of
bubble that we can have. And that's kind of what
they've done, right, Everything going on to this, this is
what the Nets have built this themselves. Everything they've done
is because this is what Katie wants. This is what
(20:17):
Kyrie Irving wants, right, Kyrie Irving has spent just as
much time not playing for the Nets as he has
playing for the Nets, And Kevin Durant is not singularly
obsessed with winning. He thinks I've done enough winning, Right,
What did he need to Why did he go to
the Warriors? I want people to stop asking me why
can't win a championship? So I'm gonna go there for
a couple of years, win a couple of championships, and
(20:38):
then it's done. Then I can spend the back half
of my career doing whatever the hell I want to. Right.
So he goes to the Warriors, he wins a couple
of titles, and now I'm at the Nets, and I'm
gonna do whatever I want. And if I win, great,
and if I don't, I don't as long as people
understand and we can remind them once in a while
that I'm still a great player. In Kyrie, are still
great players, because that's kind of what the Nets do.
Once in a while, they'll give you a couple of
(20:59):
games in a row and they'll win by thirty and
you sit back and go, oh man, when they put
it together, they're just so good. But then something happens
and they're not motivated. And I watched Kyrie Irving have
a really bad series in which he's only motivated for
a couple of games, and Kevin Durant have a series
in which he's awful for the first couple of games,
and then you know, accent different towards the end of
the game on defense with a couple of really big possessions. Um,
(21:20):
I don't know how much they care about winning. I
think they just care about how whatever atmosphere we want
to play basketball in, that's what we want, and that's
never gonna win. So by that perspective, I'm not surprised
at all that they failed. I didn't think they failed
this badly. I didn't think they would set the flame
out in the first round. And but yeah, but that's
(21:41):
exactly what the whole season was leading was leading towards it.
They couldn't get along with James Harden, and James Harden
has to be dealt, and they bring in Ben Simmons,
who doesn't get to play for the team at all,
and the team's barely uh qualifies for the playoffs. They
win a couple of games in the playing round, and
then now look at the nets and now now the
nets are gone and it's like they were never there.
These are the guys, These are the two guys that
(22:03):
that have the the fortunes of the franchise on their shoulders,
and they've decided, Yeah, winning is kind of secondary. We
just want to kind of play whatever we want and
not have to worry about dealing with with so many
issues that we don't want to deal with anymore. I
don't have to worry about teammates who are on my
case coaching. That's the nets. That's Kyrie Irving, that's Kevin Durant.
Kyrie is Then the nets are allowing kye Ierny do
(22:25):
whatever he wanted to do. Right, I'm I'm missing the games.
What we like you to play? Now? I'm missing the games? Okay?
I don't want to get vaccinated. Boy, Okay, we'd like
you to play. We're paying a lot of money. Yeah No,
I don't want to Okay. And now he comes back
after tonight's game. He sets us up to him and
k D and and and the ownership to run and
manage the franchise. Who. Man, that's a lot of guts
(22:46):
to say something like that. Man, that's a lot of
guts to after he doesn't show up as long as
he does to say yeah, yeah, you know, it's up
to me, k D owner and GM, not Steve Nash
because you know he's gonna get fired. It's up to
the four of us to basically run this franchise. Let's
hear the the Kyrie Irving quote. Let's have it right now.
I hope the basketball that that's a call back to
(23:09):
the first hour of the show. Yeah, it's very good
call back. All right, So apparently we only have the
raw footage. Yeah yeah, and he sounds like Bob Knight,
so that's yeah. Uh so here it is. Here's Kyrie
Irving with that quote. I was just telling me about
in terms of my extension, man, I don't really plan
on going anywhere. So this added motivation for our franchise
to be at the top of the league for the
(23:30):
next few years. And you know, I'm just looking forward
to the summer and just building with our guys here.
When I say I'm here with keV, I think that
it really entails us, you know, managing this franchise together
alongside Joe and Sean and just our our group of
family members that we have in our locker room in
our in our organization. Um, it's not just about me
and keV. I don't want to make it just about
(23:52):
that we're cornerstones here, but you know we have been.
We have a few other guys that don't contract, and
I think we just got to make some moves this offseason,
really talk about it and um, really be intentional about
what we're building and have some fun with it, make
enjoyable and you know, hopefully we get to start from
day one just as a squad and as a family,
and we just really worry about us together as as
(24:13):
a squad. I just think we need to be you
need to be tougher mentally, just more honest about what
we want to accomplish, and just stick to the goal,
stick to the mission. Kyrie Irving again, Kyrie Irving, who
has played what had eligible for just over two d
NETS games, Steve anything about half of it? Right? Played
(24:33):
about This is a guy that played in twenty nine
games this year, nine games and now he's talking about yeah,
you know, me having ownership of this franchise now us
figuring out the way so you don't get it again.
It's basically what what we're saying. Can we just hope
that as fans this year where the Nets and those
power to fail spectacularly and Lebron running the Lakers fails
(24:57):
even more spectacularly. Can we hope as fans that it's
better for us, better for the product, better for the league,
that players are never given this much power before. I
even thought years ago, when it seems like every coach
I were higher, they were becoming the head of the
front office as well. I hated that because those are
two separate jobs. Certainly the player should not have that
(25:19):
much influence on running a roster. It's a separate job.
Please throw that out in the out the window once
and for all. And you mentioned Durant. Wasn't he the
guy that once said to the media when he felt
somewhat slided, like you know who I am? Right, Yeah, okay,
we've seen it. We didn't see it this this series
(25:40):
against that defense. But you know what's happened. You talk
about maybe not caring. How else do you get down,
aside from being an inferior team, how else do you
get down by double digits every game and then make
a run and make make it close and then lose
every game. The Celtics were leading tonight and guess what.
(26:02):
Nets made a push, They get within three, Jayson Tatum
fouls out and then Nets still lose four games to none.
Brooklyn seasons over. This is as bad a failure as
you can have. And then to hear Kyrie Irving talk
the way he is, I'm I'm ready for the summer, dude. Again.
You played in twenty nine games, man, and that's like now,
(26:25):
suddenly at the end of the year, now that it's over, Now,
now I want to take a big role in the team.
Go oh, now you want to take a big role?
And that Nick, really really, now you wanna take a
big role? Seriously, that now is when you want to
do it. Now, after after the lack of you showing
up all season long has taken its toll on the team.
I mean he and the thing is, he believes all
this stuff. He believes all the stuff that he says,
(26:47):
and and and and that's what's most infuriating about it,
because you know, nobody else is. And it's hard to
call him out on it because, like I said, you're
paying him forty million dollars a year, and and and
Katie is there and has his back, and it's it's
really really hard hard. But man, I'm glad Kyrie doesn't
play for my team because I would never want to
have to rely on him. I can't believe we have
conversations about Kyrie like we do about other great, great
(27:10):
players in the NBA, because because you know, we talk
about him like always one of the top five players. Again,
if I have to win a game in the playoffs,
he's one of the last guys on my list that
I would say I can count on you to have
a big game, one of the last guys. Tonight. It's
three zip, right, this is let's throw it all out there,
Let's let's let's go, let's let's do it. And I
watched Kevin Durant at least be aggressive for the majority
(27:32):
of the game until he decided he was done in
the last couple of minutes. And I watched Kyre Irving
not really step up and be aggressive until the final
three minutes of the game. There was an item from
stat Muse tonight, Kyrie Irvan's record in the playoffs in
his career with Lebron James. Kyrie is thirty nine and thirteen.
Career playoff record without Lebron James eleven and eleven. That
(27:56):
is life for the Brooklyn Nets. Then that problem one
up a problem. Ben Simmons didn't play again tonight. No, no,
well you never thought Ben Ben Ben Simmons was kept
only saying oh I might play and might play just
to get people off his back. I don't think there
was a problem. I don't mean literally. I mean, hey,
you know, people think I'm gonna make my debut and
(28:16):
I'm just not ready to play. Whether it's mentally, physically,
whatever reason. Now, I'm not ready. I'm not ready. But
I'll say that maybe I could come back, so at
least people think I'm trying to come back. Because to
to bottom line Ben Simmons for a second, now, he's spent.
We did Kyrie, we did, we did Kevin durant Um.
Ben Simmons is a guy that if it was just
(28:37):
him being hurt, we wouldn't be here. It would be
he's hurt, can't play all right, He's missed all season,
can't play back. But the fact that we're getting all
of these stories of it's partly his back. It's partly
his his his his mental issues that he's been having.
It's the Nets being exasperated with him not being able
to play. You wonder how legit his injury is and
(28:58):
where he's at. And this is not surprising, right, This
is why I can't trust when players tell me they're hurt.
When players say I'm hurt and can't play, Are you
really hurt or you just don't want to play for
whatever reason, because there's a lot of guys that just
don't want to play that have been good. Jamal Murray,
don't talk about him enough of the Nuggets. Hey, dude,
you are clear to play, man. Every they wanted to
get you in the end of the regular season. No, no no,
(29:20):
I'm not red. What do you mean you're not ready? Man?
You are clear to play. You are not playing. A
lot of guys only play when they want to. So
when I hear these injuries, now I wonder, I go,
how trust is? How hurt is a guy really gonna be?
Ben Simmons is gonna rut it for guys that that
we know are, Hey, legitimately hurt. I can't get out there.
I want to. I want to play. But now they're
gonna get lumped in because Ben Simmons. There's so much
going on. You know, where there's smoke, there's fire, and
(29:42):
so this is this is gonna make it worse for
other players down the road, and let's just say that
it is entirely his back and nothing else. My second question, then,
as a fan, is wait a minute. You've had all
this time off since last summer with your former team.
How did you not take your craft seriously and keep
yourself in shape? That just trying to ramp it up
(30:04):
to get back on the court. In this league, you
get injured, you're not taking care of yourself. That he had,
He sat on no planes for road trips during the
regular season, so the back wasn't a problem there. He
wasn't going, you know, playing forty five minutes in certain
nights or back to that. None of this was a
factor this year. And you still okay, let's buy in.
(30:24):
Let's say it's just the back problem. How how is
that happening? How are you not taking your career seriously.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific. Hey, it's me Rob Parker. Check out my
weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for twenty two minutes
(30:47):
of pipe and hot baseball talk featuring the biggest name
to newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe in analytics
for the eye test, We've got all the bases covered.
New episodes drop every Thursday, so do yourself of favor
and listen to Inside the Partner with Rob Parker on
the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get your
(31:08):
podcast Fox Sports Radio. That Jason Smith show was Steve
de Sager in for Mike Harmon Tonight. Tonight show brought
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(31:28):
Learn more at Discovered dot com. Slash rewards limitations they do.
Applaud Jason. We got two things to update. Hassan Whiteside
has just been kicked out of Utah's eventual loss at
Dallas tonight. There's only about five and a half minutes
to go. Kind of a hard foul on Donsitch driving
the lane and then the shoving afterwards also the next way,
so he just got ejected. Gected. Hassan Whiteside got ejected,
(31:53):
just got arrested. No, no, just just kicked out. At
least we're not involved. The Mets with the five runs
in the ninth gotta win at St. Louis tonight. Mets
have announced that picture Jacob deGrom underwent an m r
I and a CT scan, which quote revealed considerable healing
of the stress reaction in his scapula. He'll start strengthening
(32:14):
the shoulder and undergo another m r I in about
three weeks. Everything's coming up, Mats. I'm rolling the Dicen's
coming up, Mets. Let me see that. Seven eleven, seven eleven,
seven eleven, everything's coming up, Mats team. To say so,
half the All Star team is gonna be Mets this
summer Dodger Stadium already, it's half Mets and half Dodgers.
(32:36):
That's what it's gonna be. Half Mets and haft Dodgers.
And we're gonna play the NLCS right after. We're gonna
go right from there second week of July to the NLC.
By the way, the NLCS m v P from last year.
Atlanta's Eddie Rosario has been awful at the plate this season.
Three for matting O sixty eight and now the Athletic
reports that Rosario is scheduled for a laser procedure later
(32:59):
this week to erect blurred vision and swelling in the
right eye, and that he saw a retinal specialist today.
Atlanta is gonna make a roster move tomorrow. All right,
We'll have more on these stories coming up. And right
now again, Dallas with a big lead over Utah. It's
a it's a twenty five point lead with five and
a half minutes left to go. We'll have more on
this as well. But you know, we're seeing today the
(33:22):
big news in the world. Elon Musk is gonna buy Twitter. Right.
We saw this as forty three billion dollar offer has
been accepted and he's going to buy. He wants to
transform Twitter. Um. Elon Musk has been someone who has
been a very much what he is called like a
free speech proponent, like he wants to open up Twitter
and and do a lot of different things to it.
(33:43):
And clearly all the talk today was just being President
Trump is gonna be back on Twitter and all this stuff,
and Trump says, no, I'll tell you what it means
for sports, right, I'll tell you what Twitter means for sports,
because as I said, uh, Elon musk Is is very
much pro Hey, let's open things up. Like if as
if Twitter wasn't the wild Wild West to begin with, UM,
it's gonna be even more so. And sports and athletes
(34:03):
apparently will be going on rockets to space, right and
they're going up and coming back. They're going up and
coming back. That that's all they're doing. Uh, get in line, Kyrie.
But I'll tell you what's gonna happen is that players
are already they've already had it with fans and their
behavior at games. They've had it with fans and their
behavior online because fans can be pretty brutal on on Twitter. Look,
(34:27):
Twitter is is. Look, it's it's difficult, man. Like I said,
Twitter is a hard place to be sometimes. If it
gets to the point where everybody can just really lose
a lot of restrictions and and and speech that that
UM players really don't like is going to be allowed,
they're gonna leave Twitter, and mass and and all the
athletes are gonna leave Twitter, and they're all gonna go
(34:48):
to Instagram or someplace else and get their message out
and they will leave because you know, people get there,
there's a lot of negativity there's a lot of hate
for everybody on Twitter. And and now if it's f
it's the rules and regulations are relaxed even more. I
think you're gonna see athletes are gonna say, yeah, I'm
not doing it. It's not I'll go to Instagram. I'll
go to Instagram and I'll be able to post and
put pictures up. I'll do something else. And I think
(35:10):
you're gonna find that that that's gonna be the the
first outcome if those changes are made of Twitter. Now
correct me if I'm wrong. Everybody thought this was gonna
happen a few weeks ago, right that he was going
to be at least on the board of Twitter. And
my question is is Twitter that profitable a thing or
does he really care about that aspect? No, Twitter is
pretty profitable. You see they put games on Twitter. There's
lots of things happening. I mean, he wants to unlock
(35:33):
the potential of Twitter, which, okay, I wonder what that's
gonna be and how he's gonna transform it. Um, but look,
it's just like when you're buying a when when you're
buying a piece of memorabilia, how much is that honus
Wagner card worth. Well, if I want to pay a
million dollars, it's worth If I want to pay five million,
it's worth five millions. If I want to spend forty
four billion dollars on Twitter, then that's what it's worth.
(35:54):
Forty four billion dollars to share whatever it was today exactly.
By the way Donovan Mitchell has limped off at the
Utah Jazz game, why he was in the game up
twenty eight with five minutes to go, I'll never know,
oh boy, Jason Smith, Steve Disager, Twitter, and how about
a Fresco phone number eight seven seven ninety nine On Fox,
Back into the biggest story of the night coming up
(36:15):
next Fox
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