July 9, 2026 • 37 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon give you the team with the best chance of upsetting their way into the World Cup semis. And longtime NBA Insider Ric Bucher hopped to talk all things LeBron James!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
If you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Hello, Welcome in side our two Jason Smith's Show with
my bes friend Mike Harmon. Hoo, don't forget if you
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(00:50):
a review. Again. Just search Jason Smith and Mike Harmon
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and a best of version posted right after we get
off the air. So on a day with no soccer,
which seems really weird, right, how much we've we've come
to embrace the World Cup and every day soccer. And
for big soccer fans, you know, it's great for the
(01:12):
average soccer fan it's awesome. Middle of the day we
get we get soccer all the time. No soccer today, No,
I felt like.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
You needed violins behind you.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
And then it was a full vo on a day
with no soccer.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
On a day with no soccer, as lots On would say,
a day with no soccer is like a day with
no Laton.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
It's fair.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
It should not happen. No, it should not happen. I mean,
did they have a two hours Latons show just because today?
I mean because I I've come to expect there he
is what I expect. Like, do you turn on Fox
like nude? No, it's just him in front of the
camera and he goes and now, because there is no
soccer today, here's every one of Laton's goals in his career.
(01:49):
Then it's just like.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
And then he just does produced, written and directed by.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
The way, up and down. That's all that. That's what
you get. All his credits, that's all the clips that
they put together of his goodbye to teams has been
the funniest. Oh yeah, yeah yeah, here's the flag USA.
And then he's got some pithy commentary for Germany. It
was go back, be sad and drink your sad beer. Yeah. Yeah,
(02:18):
it's almost like the like thee I could feel in
the meeting. Hey, we want to do something like the
gone fishing thing for for TNT and now they do
it in an ESPN. Can we do that? Yes, I
will say goodbye to all of the all of the countries.
I'll say goodbye to all of them. Oh okay, great,
all right, great and he runs his line. Yeah, but
some some have been borederline where you're like, that probably
didn't pass. Yeah, so in honor of his law of time. Yeah,
(02:41):
here's a hot take coming off of the World Cup.
The last twenty four hours you have seen especially on
social media and now you're seeing a lot of former players,
a lot of analysts talk about this that the downfall
of the United States men's team is because of youth soccer,
travel sports being responsible for not getting the kids up
(03:06):
to speed enough where by the time they turn professional
they can be amongst the best in the world. Right,
And the big article on ESPN about this, a lot
of hosts talking about this, a lot of yeah, you know,
the youth sports, the travel uh sports with soccer is
a problem. Now, what are they pointing out, Well, that
the main thing is that clubs exist in youth travel sports.
They're expensive. They exist to win games, which is good
(03:30):
for the club to get the kids to college, which
is also good for the club, also good for the
kid to.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Get took out.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
But overall development is bad. Right that that this is,
this is the reason why we have not caught up
to the rest world. Of the rest of the world
has academies. We you know, we we have we have
travel sports. And it's all because of that, all of
those reasons. It's too expensive, the the club is out
for themselves, and and and it doesn't develop the player. Now,
(03:56):
I want to tell you this. Whoever says that that
is the laziest take you could ever possibly want to
listen to. That is so lazy that I mean, it
sounds like fun because you hear it once in a while. Oh,
youth sports are bad, and what is it? Generally it's
comments from people that didn't have a great youth sports experience,
did have a great club experience, And which happens, right,
(04:17):
club experience experience in sports is sometimes you have a
good experience when you're a kid in sports, sometimes you don't.
Sometimes you have a really good experience when you're in
your team. Sometimes you don't. But this blaming travel is
the laziest take possible. And anybody who does it, you know,
is lazy. And everybody that I've seen, especially are people
in the media that are pushing this, not not former athletes,
but when I speak to that, I know, yeah, because
(04:39):
you're a lazy host, You're a lazy TV host, you're
a lazy radio host. Because I'll tell you exactly why
this is a ridiculous statement. To make travel sports travel sports, right,
it's expense all these different things. We have travel sports
in this country for everything, right, we have travel sports.
There's travel basketball. Okay, travel basketball. Uh, problems with travel bad?
Travel basketball is expensive?
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Oh, we're not getting the players ready for what they
should be doing in college. And we've heard stories that
maybe they should be more developed. They're worried about getting
scholarships to college. But you know, those are the problems.
Pretty sure, we produce the best basketball players in the world,
and we have done so for the better part of
sixty years. Okay, do we you have to talk about football?
(05:22):
We have the best football players in the World's not
even close. I didn't have to go but football is expensive.
Football is expensive. Yes, there's a lot of camps, a
lot of things you go to, but we produce the
best football players in the world. Travel baseball, travel baseball expensive, lot,
lots of travel, lots of games, play more games travel
baseball than anything. Pretty sure that we are at the
top of the list in the world, along with a
(05:44):
couple of other country Dominican Republic very good as well,
producing the best baseball players on the planet. Okay, so
if you're telling me and everything I have read and
heard people talk about, yes, this is the problem with
youth sports, it's well pretty sure that basketball finds a
way to have the best athletes, baseball finds a way
to have the best athletes, and football finds a way
(06:06):
to have the best athletes, but soccer can't. Oh so,
basically it's a soccer issue. Okay, well, well, well, okay, okay,
you want to tell me it's a soccer issue.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Fired.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Okay, let me just say this, and this is where
I win. We have men's and women's soccer in this country.
We have travel soccer and club soccer for girls in
this country. Your daughter has played club soccer for the
better part of the last decades, he's going to college
to play soccer. All the problems that exist for soccer exist, right,
(06:38):
It's expensive, it's not developing the players, it's worrying more
about the club. It's the coaches leaving and getting new gigs.
It's you know, just getting a player ready to go
to college. All these are problems. Yet somehow the women's
program is the pre eminent program in the world and
(06:58):
has been the number one prom in the world for
the better part of thirty years. So you tell me
exactly how all the other sports, including women's soccer, can
get to the top of the food chain or stay
at the top of the food chain. But oh, it's
it's it's specifically boys soccer and how club is done.
That's absolutely ridiculous. Every sport finds a way, even soccer.
(07:20):
You want to look, there's problems, right, there's obvious problems. Right,
you want to look into it. But don't sit here
and blame you sports. Well that's the most that's the stupidest,
laziest thing that I've seen yet. As as far as
what people want to do as signing blame for why
the United States laws, well, it's absolutely absurd, right, And look,
as one who's been in that system. Yeah, it's expensive.
There's a lot of lessons learned along the way, and
(07:43):
the gratitude and the buy in from your kid is
part of it as they go through. I think with
the women's side, just from the us w NT is
the fact that the United States, based on different protocols, policies,
proceed laws, invested in the area on a national level
(08:04):
far earlier than other nations did. Right, So competitive advantage first,
mover advantage, whatever. But all of that to say, the
sports that we're talking about here, basketball and soccer and
baseball primarily, right, we'll put football off and it's American football,
and it's other category is there's no barrier to entry,
(08:24):
there's no huge cost to just go play, right, ayso
still exists and is still very large in this and
that costs you what fifty bucks just to keep you
honest that you're on a romster. That's all it is, right,
that's it, And so that they can give the officials
a couple of bucks, right, That's all it comes down to. Otherwise,
a lot of volunteer hours, a lot of man hours
(08:46):
trying to find facilities, and I get that, trying to
find fields is certainly an issue that all clubs have
where no matter where you live, like that is it's
like getting ice time if your kid plays hockey. You
want to talk about expensive barriers to entry, there you go.
But the cost of travel boll because what it tells
me is that you're trying to excuse. And this is
(09:09):
the triple underscore, and this goes for any ex soccer player,
an anybody any talking again, is that you're you're absolving
the federation, its officials and those who are tasked to
go find the talent. You're allowing them to be lazy
and not get off their ass to go find the talent. Right,
that's where where the bigger problem lies for me. Right
(09:31):
you could say, okay, this pay pay to play, travel
and these academy things whatever. Okay, I'll hear it to
a point, but that's a choice. Families make the sacrifices
they make. You've had a number of guys on the
men's national team talking about what their parents did, Robin
Peter to pay Paul and all of those things to
(09:52):
make sure that the fee was and everybody's done that,
and you decide that it's worth it right for the
values for the teamwork for all the responsibility, and hopefully
your kid takes that back into the rest of their lives,
into the classroom, how they treat other people, how they
deal with you, and everything else those lessons learn. But
what insenses me is the fact that you're absolving the
(10:14):
men's national team and its structure from any responsibility from
going and finding these other players that are in the
ayso that may be on a field, in leagues organized
within communities. You gotta go, get off your ass, go
pay a couple of bucks for gas, and if you're
not in California, it's cheaper there you go.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I saved the dollars, but go and go find these people.
Don't leave it to well.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
I mean, look, this is what we go because we
go to these big academy functions, and I mean the
players aren't good enough. No, you're not working hard enough
or finding them early enough to where you at the
turn whatever it is twelve thirteen fourteen. You want to
go a little bit earlier and figure out the whole
academy system that needs to be burnt down right, like
(11:00):
we talked with Keith Hernandez Burt, burn burnt and restructure
it to where you're finding these kids early enough to
where if there's an inadequacy in their play, their attitude,
whatever else. I mean, Polisic called out because of the
sprained ankle.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I just need some rest. Like if you want to
call out, you know, like that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
If you want to go and find these guys, you
got to do it, and don't blame the system saying well,
this is what they turned to us when they turned eighteen.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
That's all we got. No, that's bs what.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
You What you're telling me is, Okay, there's about five
million kids that play travel sports in the United States,
about five million. A million of them play soccer, and
I don't know the breakdown, but boys and girls, but
about a million of them play soccer. Let's just say
for argument's sake, five hundred thousand of the of the
(11:52):
of them, the boys, five hundred thousand of the more girls. Right,
let's say. So, what you're telling me is is that
the five hundred thousand who were girls are getting coached
well enough and everything is going well. But all five
hundred thousand boys are all getting coach badly. They're all
getting coach badly at the youth level. And that's why
they're not good here, all five hundred thousand, because you
look at a guy like Christian Polisic, who, Okay, coming
(12:14):
into this, was he America's best player? Yes? Is he
still America's best player? No, Baaligan, Tillman, Freeman, those are
your three studs. But Polisic would be on Belgium maybe
their fourth best player, fifth best player. On France, wid
be their ninth best player. Okay. So what you're telling
me is that this is youth sports fault, that they
couldn't get any of these guys, any of these kids,
(12:36):
all five hundred thousand of them, there's nobody good enough
to be not just the best player in the United States,
but one of the best players in the world. I'm
not saying you had to go find the next Messi
or the next or the next Ronaldo, right, because look
at what happened. Would you ever think that, hey, the
next great striker in the world, where's he coming from? Norway?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Okay, So that's a little bit of luck, right, there's
a little bit of luck that Norway's got the best
striker in the world. But you're telling me that it's
youth sports fault, that all five hundred thousand kids that
are playing that continue to roll through it. It's new
five and one thousand new kids every every year, all
of them. It's youth sports fault. They're not being coached
the right way, and that's why we can't get at
least a couple of players to play at the top
(13:16):
of the world class level. That's a load of crap.
And honestly, I'm embarrassed because but most of the people
saying this are you know a lot of people just
pay attention to soccer a little bit. But to overall
to have this conversation go, yeah, it's youth sports. No,
either you're lazy or you have an extra grind because
your your club sport isn't going how you thought it
would go well, or at the sub layer of laziness
(13:37):
of well, all our best athletes go play football and basketball,
go watch some of these matches across these suspect clubs
and travel sports. Yeah, they can all go pound saying
what an awful, specious, pathetic argument. That is such a
load of crap. That's such a load of crap. Exit
(13:58):
about a Fresca exit swollen dome. Jason Smith Mike Carmon
Live from The Fox Sports Radio studios. Coming up next
Fox Sports won NBA Insider Extraordinary. Rick Buker stops by.
Where is Lebron James going? What could be the next
big domino to fall this offseason? All the big NBA
news next right here, Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon. So,
the Jalen Brunson Game one NBA Finals jersey that has
been up for auction at Sotheby's for the past few days,
Uh huh has been sold?
Speaker 3 (14:44):
What did I tell you?
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Someone has purchased this mm HM for one point oh
two million dollars just over, not one point two one
point oh two. Someone's spent a million dollars for Jalen
Brunson's Game one NBA Finals.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
It'll be one point too once you add that buyer's premium.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
So I all right, that's not built in No, oh
really that's the price, and then you pay the real price. Well,
joining us now? The hotline is the man who bought
that jersey. Wow, it's Fox Sports one NBA insider extraordinary,
Rick Buker, Rick, what credit card did you use to
buy that Brunson jersey? Uh?
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Oh Cokay, can I have the miles?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
She's the one who got the nil money. So I'm like, hey, yeah,
here you go.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Okay, very good.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
One basketball from one basketball love silo to another. Well,
let's get this done. We. By the way, I will
say this, first of all, it's way past July one,
so I don't know if we should be having this conversation.
But that said, and Mike hate me for saying this.
(16:02):
We really, and I'm gonna talk about this on my
on my podcast coming out to by tomorrow at the latest.
We we really have not talked about Jalen Brunson enough
in terms of how he represents something so different from
(16:22):
what the NBA has become and how gratifying it is
to see someone like Jalen Brunson rewarded the man. The
man left one hundred million dollars on the table just
I believe it was that something like that big figure
just for the opportunity to play for a championship, not
(16:44):
knowing whether he would get it, but just to give
himself an opportunity, and he ultimately got that reward. And
I just let's go back through time and think about
in the NBA the last player to do that. We
can think of the Tom Brady's. I mean, maybe Tim
Duncan had opportunity to push the end envelope, but as
(17:09):
far as the NBA concerned, Jalen Brunson deserves to be
in the Tom Brad Brady category of guys that did
not put their pocketbooks ahead of their aspirations. And I
just don't you know, in this day and age, I
feel like we need to give that more attention than
we have.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
So I'm going to well, he's going to make up
for it because he's getting a grand per photo at
Fanatics Fest. That's not even adding an autograph, that's just
standing there and kind kind of looking in the camera's
general direction, right, And it sold out in minutes.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
I got to say, with the general demeanor of Jalen Brunson,
like I love the man and I love watching him play,
I really don't need a photo of him Like he
looks perpetually grumpy and mildly interested. Why would I want
to know of that.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
You know, I paid one thousand dollars and I stood
in line for three hours for him to just share.
You know what, we haven't him honestly. You know, we
haven't talked about enough, right because I agree with you
on Jalen Brunson, of course, because we've.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Talked a lot about him. Here rick the case.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
After the finals, the Knicks had a Jalen Brunson lookalike contest. Yes,
and the thirty people who were there for it, it
was like it was like into the Spider Verse where
all the different Spider Men show up and like all
these people that looks somewhat like Jeff. Here's an older
Jailing Brunt. Here's here's a shorter Jaialen Brunson. This is
(18:37):
a taller, heavier Jailing Brunson. Like all of those people,
like I want a thirty for thirty on all of
those people like there was That's something that visual is amazing.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
It's scary how many people actually look like Jalen Bronson.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Ye see, he is our every man.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
So maybe like five guys would show up, but you
see there's like fifty people up and down they that
could be Brunson, that could be Bruns.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
But now the more important question.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
The grandmother who looked like jal was the scary one.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Well, you know full range, but I mean, how badly
does this wrist injury push the Knicks back in their
quest to repeat?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I had to do that for my guy Smith over here.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, here's the thing, Rick, I got a deal for you.
You want a deal, here's a deal for you. Here's
a deal for it.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
We will never I.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
Don't even get to answer no.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
You can say yes or no.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
No.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Here's the thing.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
You can or no.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
You can say yes or no.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
No.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I don't want your deal, all right, I guess no deal.
I won't give Rick Buker any of that money.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Okay, Jason, Jason, what's your deal?
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Here's a dream. We will never talk about the Knicks
again on the air.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
You and I.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
On your end, you have to have every single person
who showed up at the Jalen Brunson lookalike contest. Every
week you have one person as a guest on your
on the Ball podcast. So for forty weeks in a row,
you have one of those guys, and you got an
interview him for ten minutes. Oh and we'll never talk
(20:12):
about the Knicks again, that's a book. There you go.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
You know how long it's taken me to build the
audience for my podcast. I am not wasted merely on
the ability to not have you talk about the next
So no, no, I'm sorry. I appreciate the offer. I
genuinely do, and clearly you gave it a lot of
thought and it's a sacrifice on your part. Now, But
(20:37):
I will, I will, I will politely pass.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Okay. Actually, I just had a lot of coffee tonight
and the idea just came to me. But I just
wonder what happens if the sixth person comes on and goes.
I just happened to be walking through. I don't even
know it was a contest, all right. Ex So to
the business of the off season, the long the decision,
and we see the money is flowing in in the
Mark make a Place. How soon is Lebron James announcing
(21:03):
his Cleveland cavalieredom.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Wait what money is flowing into.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
The There's a seventy five million dollar Calshie market on
where he ends up, Oh about fifty It is on
Cleveland and it's all on Rick's daughter's credit card.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
I don't know that Giannis has any money put in there.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
But there you go, right, I look, I I don't
know that there's a first of all, that it's three
it's down to three Eastern Conference teams. Is no surprise
at all, right, because he doesn't he doesn't want to
play in the West. I don't know that there's a
team in the West outside of Golden State. I think genuinely,
mistakenly would probably go down that road because they're still
(21:42):
chasing the dragon Philadelphia. I think what's the tricky part
for me is I mean, bottom line is Cleveland still
makes without question the most sense, both for the Cavaliers,
but maybe more importantly for Lebron James because while you
we can talk about him going back to Miami, the
(22:02):
fact of the matter is, and I think pat Riley
would would have him back if it makes them a
better team and gives them a better chance of winning.
He's going to go in there with guys that are
establish established in their own right. I mean, there's no
question that he is going to be the third wheel
(22:23):
and treated as such, with bam Adebayo the established star there,
and Janni Santetcumpo, neither of whom have any prior sort
of relationship or deference toward toward Lebron in Philadelphia, sort
of the same thing. They got Jalen Brown there, they
got the young guns. Like I'm sure that they would
(22:45):
be respectful of him, but again, there's a lot of
mouths to feed, and he's going to be He's going
to be down the chain of command just by virtue
of the talent that they have there. Cleveland makes the
most sense because it's a homecoming, because of there's no
personality bigger than him there at this point, and I
(23:11):
do like their chances you add him to Cleveland. Yes,
they got swept and none of the games were close
with the Knicks, and I don't know that I would
certainly I wouldn't think of Cleveland as the favorite if
he went there, But I think there's a world in
which he makes them better. And maybe more important, it's
(23:31):
the sentimental him going back to Cleveland. He's going to
have a stature that he wouldn't have in Philadelphia, and
I really don't think under the current structure of the
Miami Heat that he would that he would have it there.
So for all those reasons, Cleveland really only makes makes
(23:53):
sense to me, and I think that that's and talking
to people in the league, that's generally what they've said
is that that that makes sense from both ends, and
that this waiting game is simply because Lebron loves the
intention and loves the attention. He loves the intrigue. He
loves everybody talking about him on a daily basis saying
(24:14):
where's he gonna go? You know who's I take exception
with Sham's. You know, he's sifting through his offers. I mean,
what are we doing here? At least at least he
should say he's sifting through his offers. According to Rich
Paul and Lebron James, let it please, let's give it
(24:35):
that context because we're talking. I mean, Philadelphia signed Dean
Wade to a four year, thirty million dollar deal. They
only have minimum money to offer Lebron at this stage,
and they do have two roster spots open in Philadelphia,
so they could take on Lebron and Bronny. But it's
(24:56):
not like anybody's waiting for him. They continue to build
out their rosters and sign people, and they have their
cores intact. So would any one of these three teams
could they see, you know, adding Lebron and him making
them better. Sure, but this idea that he's in the
same place that he was the summer of Lebron in
(25:19):
twenty ten, or at any prior point in his career
when he had the option of being a free agent,
is just you know, delusional. And I get why Rich
is presenting it this way. Why he did the Grease
sport and you know, had the whatever number of teams
and how he fit into the roster and the starting
(25:43):
lineup and all of that, But that's Rich Paul trying
to create leverage out of nothing. It's not the reality
of these teams are you know, with baited breath waiting
for Lebron to tell them that they're the chosen one
that happened in twenty ten. For sure, that's not happening now.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
See for me, it's it's pretty simple, Rick, is that
I've said Cleveland for a year because if you're looking
at how his end game is going, and it'll probably
be a couple of years wherever he signs, he's still
got a couple of years left playing at this We've
never seen a guy at forty one in any sport
play at this higher level. Ever. I mean, just to
give him credit, for what's going on here. But number one,
(26:22):
it's the softest landing for him because if he doesn't win,
instead of getting made fun of and people laughing, and
you know how much he likes that, he has the
soft landing of well, it's my goodbye and I went home.
I'm just a kid from Akron, I could say goodbye.
But the other part of it is that is Lebron
really going to very publicly have this down to three
teams and the Cavaliers be one of them. And at
(26:43):
the end he says, no, I'm not going home, Like
I just can't believe at this point, Like I think
if if that was a possibility, there would be no
talk about the Cavaliers or they would have been ruled
out by now.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
So the fact that time can I break hearts?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Let me see.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Right? Like like what I mean, if you're a Cleveland fan,
you're like, Lebron, what the hell did we ever do
to you? Like? How many times are you going to
do this to us? No? I think I think there's
a lot of I think there's a lot of truth
to that. And and ultimately, look, wherever he goes, I
don't see them winning a championship and and at this point,
(27:20):
you know how much of an impact that he can
he can have, Like like the Lakers, the Lakers exceeded expectations,
but let's not ignore the fact that they were at
their best when Luka, Doncic and Austin Reeves were healthy
and and Lebron was accepting of the being the third option.
(27:45):
Like that's what this is about. It's like, how can
he exit gracefully? And And to your point, I, you know,
I would take a page from Klay Thompson's experience in Dallas,
Like I always said, Golden, You know, Clay should have
bit the bullet and stayed with the Warriors because of
all of the goodwill that he had engendered from being
(28:08):
part of all those championships. You go someplace else and
they go, Okay, what are you doing for us now?
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Like what like we.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
Find you won those championship for somebody else. You had
those great years for somebody else, Like what are you
doing for us? If he goes to Philadelphia or he
goes back to Miami, I think there is more of that.
In fact, I don't even know why we're talking about Philadelphia. Really,
Miami's probably in the second spot in terms of teams
that I could see it being understandable. But again to
(28:41):
your point, if he chooses Miami over Cleveland again, oh
my god, it's just I just at least, at the
very least, he's got to go back to Greenwich and
have another sit down and go, yeah, I'm taking my
talents to South Beach again.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
There you go real quick for you. I know you're
at Summer League. What's got tongues wagon? What are you
most excited to see?
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Actually I'm not there yet. I will be their first
thing in the morning. But I think I think in general,
it's simply.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
To see the top picks.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
You know, see see Darren Darren Peterson. We've seen some
of him in the in the Salt Lake Summer League,
but a number. I mean, this is such an intriguing.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Draft and.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Darius Acuff like, is he the real deal? And how
does he match up against some of the other guys
that were picked around him? Caleb Love, I can't wait
to see what he looks like with Chicago because I
think that he could be the dark horse. And I mean,
just go down the line. There are so many guys
(29:53):
that were so highly touted, and I'm not sure that
we got them in the right order, And for me,
this is all always the first opportunity to see the
guys where you go ooh, that guy is better than
people thought that he was and against pro talent, and
that guy might struggle at this level because he doesn't
(30:14):
have the same physical advantage that he had at the
collegiate level. So I think that that really these first
couple of days at least, because that's you know, after
that they usually shut down the top guys. I think
these first couple of days is really going to be
about measuring those five, six, seven top picks and who
comes out of Summer League carrying the mantle of these
(30:36):
are guys that are actually going to have an impact
as rookies.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
You can fall him on Twitter at Rick Buker, That
is at Rick Buker. You can see him at Summer
League play this week. Yeah. He begins the first of
forty interviews with all the Jalen Brunson lookalike jud.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Cree Jungle Dreams made up.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Rick is always buddy appreciated man. We'll talk to you.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
Have fine money, Jim Greg, Jim Gray Yo.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with My best friend
Mike Harmon Harry Cane. So, no soccer today, but the
quarterfinals get going tomorrow. Is USA Iaco? Yeah, they played
the night game tomorrow. Soon they play with the Mets. Yes,
(31:30):
the Mets are favored. Actually, if you know that or not,
it's the toilet Bowl. So the top four teams overall
in the World Cup are still alive. And as we've said,
it feels like this is a collision course of England
and Argentina, France and Spain, which would be a Titanic,
(31:53):
a massive, a massive final four in the World Cup.
Like this would be the matchups that if you could
write it down outside again in the United States, and
who would you want in the world this would be
if you're writing the script and helping things along to
get to a fantastic finish.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Absolutely, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Mean the only thing you could say is, boy, I
kind of like to see maybe Argentina and France or England,
because you know, you know, England making the final would
clearly be you know, any England in France, but you
have the best final four. You can now if you're
telling me who's the one team that most likely could
throw a wrench into this and win their quarterfinal game
(32:33):
and win their way into the final four, I'm going
to tell you who I told you before the tournament
that I told you as my dark horse team to
get to the final fo Twitter you can see that. No, no, no, no, no,
really be honest, No, who did I say? Who did
I say was the team?
Speaker 4 (32:52):
What?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Everybody's gonna gonna take a look at this team and
they're gonna see their big superstar that everybody across soccer knows,
all the big soccer fans know, but now the average
fan is gonna see him and he's gonna take over
this tournament. And what has happened exactly that has happened
this team, this striker has taken over the tournament. He
is now the number one star. People talk about him
(33:14):
the most, the gifts are out about him the most.
He is rapping on social media, posted he puts out
there and I said it before the tournament. You want
to say my dark horse team, Alex Tischer, Who did
I tell you? Curlling Hollen meets the World Chop, The
World Chop meats Soling Holland, Norway and Earling Holland because
(33:36):
the matchup is most favorable to them. Now, not that,
not that the you know England, England is terrific, but
England is also beatable because defensively they're a little loose. Right,
you watch them play over the course of the tournament,
and while their attack is fantastic, Kine is in his
best form, Bellingham is fantastic, they're gettable. Defensively, they get
(34:00):
a little loose and you're able to make some hay
against them. No, obviously Mexico's able to do it when
England's down to ten men, but overall England has played
a little loose defensively. This is the worst matchup for them,
for any team, because if they were playing Spain, they
would say, hey, we're gonna eventually break through and get
that goal, right, We're gonna break through and get that goal.
But because Holland is so good and again he's the
(34:22):
best striker in the world and he's proven showed you
nothing but that over the course of this tournament. Yeah,
can I see him another brace and beating England two
to one because he can individually, he can do it
and look this is Norway's golden generation too. We taught
the United States had all the had the market cornered on,
this is our golden generation. We turns out it's not.
The Golden generation is not good. But this is Norway
(34:44):
is proving Hey, this is their golden generation as well.
And here's Holland at twenty five. Yeah, that's the team
that can break through. I'm sticking with the team I
said from the beginning, but obviously as this tournament has
gone on, they have the best match up. If they
were playing Spain, I would say, wow, this is gonna
be really tough. It is a really tough for Holland
to find space. If they're playing France would be a
France can come back, and they have the firepower to
(35:05):
I mean, Holland and Pappe come on. Argentina the same way,
right Argentina. Oh my goodness, Argentina. You talk about firepower,
but England and their bit of a looseness defensively, Yeah,
that's the team that can do it.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Who's gonna stand in and check him? That's all I
want to know.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Look, France in their matchup, they're the biggest favorite, followed
by Argentina and Spain are about the same, and then
you have England about a fifty four percent implied odds
to win this match against Doroy and I like and
we've talked about him a lot, from the idea of
how much he's embraced American culture, recognizing there's a giant
(35:43):
pot of gold at the end of that, but also
just the downplaying their chances, under selling it. So every
time they come out and they win another match, like
I look at the little engine that could led by
the six or five bookhemoth that goes gets it and
he doesn't move a ton, right, We've we've talked about
it the entire tournament and all leading up to it.
(36:06):
You watch him for Man City, and I think that
was one of my favorites. That's circling in the background
of all of this, just like we have a generation
of Cowboys, forty nine ers, Lakers and Yankee fans. Suddenly
a lot of folks are gonna be running around with
those baby blues of Man City because of Earling Holland
coming out of all of this. But he doesn't need
(36:26):
to do a ton, doesn't need to move a ton,
but when he does, it's decisive, and he's gonna run
through you to get to the ball, as we've seen
time and again.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
So him versus Harry Kane. Let's go, guys. He drinks
his milk.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Raw yeah yeah, yeah yeah. I think he actually just
picks up the cow and just drink and squeezes it
out of He goes straight to the organic farm that
Larry David had. Yeah, you don't need to worry about it.
Nothing getting into the milk, No preservatives, no anything else.
Row the vote. Wait is there a gift out there
of him and the cows? Are they all rowing together?
Speaker 4 (36:59):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah, learn together.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
Very good.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Exit out bout of Fresca, Exit swollen dome. Coming up next,
we get back into a huge story of the day
out of the NBA. This is Fox Sports Radio.
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
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
If you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Hello, Welcome in side our two Jason Smith's Show with
my bes friend Mike Harmon. Hoo, don't forget if you
miss any of our show. Our best of podcast gets
posted right after we get off the air. Just search
our names, Jason Smith and Mike Harmon wherever you get
your podcast from. Follow the podcast rated five stars, provide
(00:50):
a review. Again. Just search Jason Smith and Mike Harmon
wherever you get your podcasts. You'll find today's full show
and a best of version posted right after we get
off the air. So on a day with no soccer,
which seems really weird, right, how much we've we've come
to embrace the World Cup and every day soccer. And
for big soccer fans, you know, it's great for the
(01:12):
average soccer fan it's awesome. Middle of the day we
get we get soccer all the time. No soccer today, No,
I felt like.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
You needed violins behind you.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
And then it was a full vo on a day
with no soccer.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
On a day with no soccer, as lots On would say,
a day with no soccer is like a day with
no Laton.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
It's fair.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
It should not happen. No, it should not happen. I mean,
did they have a two hours Latons show just because today?
I mean because I I've come to expect there he
is what I expect. Like, do you turn on Fox
like nude? No, it's just him in front of the
camera and he goes and now, because there is no
soccer today, here's every one of Laton's goals in his career.
(01:49):
Then it's just like.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
And then he just does produced, written and directed by.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
The way, up and down. That's all that. That's what
you get. All his credits, that's all the clips that
they put together of his goodbye to teams has been
the funniest. Oh yeah, yeah yeah, here's the flag USA.
And then he's got some pithy commentary for Germany. It
was go back, be sad and drink your sad beer. Yeah. Yeah,
(02:18):
it's almost like the like thee I could feel in
the meeting. Hey, we want to do something like the
gone fishing thing for for TNT and now they do
it in an ESPN. Can we do that? Yes, I
will say goodbye to all of the all of the countries.
I'll say goodbye to all of them. Oh okay, great,
all right, great and he runs his line. Yeah, but
some some have been borederline where you're like, that probably
didn't pass. Yeah, so in honor of his law of time. Yeah,
(02:41):
here's a hot take coming off of the World Cup.
The last twenty four hours you have seen especially on
social media and now you're seeing a lot of former players,
a lot of analysts talk about this that the downfall
of the United States men's team is because of youth soccer,
travel sports being responsible for not getting the kids up
(03:06):
to speed enough where by the time they turn professional
they can be amongst the best in the world. Right,
And the big article on ESPN about this, a lot
of hosts talking about this, a lot of yeah, you know,
the youth sports, the travel uh sports with soccer is
a problem. Now, what are they pointing out, Well, that
the main thing is that clubs exist in youth travel sports.
They're expensive. They exist to win games, which is good
(03:30):
for the club to get the kids to college, which
is also good for the club, also good for the
kid to.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Get took out.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
But overall development is bad. Right that that this is,
this is the reason why we have not caught up
to the rest world. Of the rest of the world
has academies. We you know, we we have we have
travel sports. And it's all because of that, all of
those reasons. It's too expensive, the the club is out
for themselves, and and and it doesn't develop the player. Now,
(03:56):
I want to tell you this. Whoever says that that
is the laziest take you could ever possibly want to
listen to. That is so lazy that I mean, it
sounds like fun because you hear it once in a while. Oh,
youth sports are bad, and what is it? Generally it's
comments from people that didn't have a great youth sports experience,
did have a great club experience, And which happens, right,
(04:17):
club experience experience in sports is sometimes you have a
good experience when you're a kid in sports, sometimes you don't.
Sometimes you have a really good experience when you're in
your team. Sometimes you don't. But this blaming travel is
the laziest take possible. And anybody who does it, you know,
is lazy. And everybody that I've seen, especially are people
in the media that are pushing this, not not former athletes,
but when I speak to that, I know, yeah, because
(04:39):
you're a lazy host, You're a lazy TV host, you're
a lazy radio host. Because I'll tell you exactly why
this is a ridiculous statement. To make travel sports travel sports, right,
it's expense all these different things. We have travel sports
in this country for everything, right, we have travel sports.
There's travel basketball. Okay, travel basketball. Uh, problems with travel bad?
Travel basketball is expensive?
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Oh, we're not getting the players ready for what they
should be doing in college. And we've heard stories that
maybe they should be more developed. They're worried about getting
scholarships to college. But you know, those are the problems.
Pretty sure, we produce the best basketball players in the world,
and we have done so for the better part of
sixty years. Okay, do we you have to talk about football?
(05:22):
We have the best football players in the World's not
even close. I didn't have to go but football is expensive.
Football is expensive. Yes, there's a lot of camps, a
lot of things you go to, but we produce the
best football players in the world. Travel baseball, travel baseball expensive, lot,
lots of travel, lots of games, play more games travel
baseball than anything. Pretty sure that we are at the
top of the list in the world, along with a
(05:44):
couple of other country Dominican Republic very good as well,
producing the best baseball players on the planet. Okay, so
if you're telling me and everything I have read and
heard people talk about, yes, this is the problem with
youth sports, it's well pretty sure that basketball finds a
way to have the best athletes, baseball finds a way
to have the best athletes, and football finds a way
(06:06):
to have the best athletes, but soccer can't. Oh so,
basically it's a soccer issue. Okay, well, well, well, okay, okay,
you want to tell me it's a soccer issue.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Fired.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Okay, let me just say this, and this is where
I win. We have men's and women's soccer in this country.
We have travel soccer and club soccer for girls in
this country. Your daughter has played club soccer for the
better part of the last decades, he's going to college
to play soccer. All the problems that exist for soccer exist, right,
(06:38):
It's expensive, it's not developing the players, it's worrying more
about the club. It's the coaches leaving and getting new gigs.
It's you know, just getting a player ready to go
to college. All these are problems. Yet somehow the women's
program is the pre eminent program in the world and
(06:58):
has been the number one prom in the world for
the better part of thirty years. So you tell me
exactly how all the other sports, including women's soccer, can
get to the top of the food chain or stay
at the top of the food chain. But oh, it's
it's it's specifically boys soccer and how club is done.
That's absolutely ridiculous. Every sport finds a way, even soccer.
(07:20):
You want to look, there's problems, right, there's obvious problems. Right,
you want to look into it. But don't sit here
and blame you sports. Well that's the most that's the stupidest,
laziest thing that I've seen yet. As as far as
what people want to do as signing blame for why
the United States laws, well, it's absolutely absurd, right, And look,
as one who's been in that system. Yeah, it's expensive.
There's a lot of lessons learned along the way, and
(07:43):
the gratitude and the buy in from your kid is
part of it as they go through. I think with
the women's side, just from the us w NT is
the fact that the United States, based on different protocols, policies,
proceed laws, invested in the area on a national level
(08:04):
far earlier than other nations did. Right, So competitive advantage first,
mover advantage, whatever. But all of that to say, the
sports that we're talking about here, basketball and soccer and
baseball primarily, right, we'll put football off and it's American football,
and it's other category is there's no barrier to entry,
(08:24):
there's no huge cost to just go play, right, ayso
still exists and is still very large in this and
that costs you what fifty bucks just to keep you
honest that you're on a romster. That's all it is, right,
that's it, And so that they can give the officials
a couple of bucks, right, That's all it comes down to. Otherwise,
a lot of volunteer hours, a lot of man hours
(08:46):
trying to find facilities, and I get that, trying to
find fields is certainly an issue that all clubs have
where no matter where you live, like that is it's
like getting ice time if your kid plays hockey. You
want to talk about expensive barriers to entry, there you go.
But the cost of travel boll because what it tells
me is that you're trying to excuse. And this is
(09:09):
the triple underscore, and this goes for any ex soccer player,
an anybody any talking again, is that you're you're absolving
the federation, its officials and those who are tasked to
go find the talent. You're allowing them to be lazy
and not get off their ass to go find the talent. Right,
that's where where the bigger problem lies for me. Right
(09:31):
you could say, okay, this pay pay to play, travel
and these academy things whatever. Okay, I'll hear it to
a point, but that's a choice. Families make the sacrifices
they make. You've had a number of guys on the
men's national team talking about what their parents did, Robin
Peter to pay Paul and all of those things to
(09:52):
make sure that the fee was and everybody's done that,
and you decide that it's worth it right for the
values for the teamwork for all the responsibility, and hopefully
your kid takes that back into the rest of their lives,
into the classroom, how they treat other people, how they
deal with you, and everything else those lessons learn. But
what insenses me is the fact that you're absolving the
(10:14):
men's national team and its structure from any responsibility from
going and finding these other players that are in the
ayso that may be on a field, in leagues organized
within communities. You gotta go, get off your ass, go
pay a couple of bucks for gas, and if you're
not in California, it's cheaper there you go.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I saved the dollars, but go and go find these people.
Don't leave it to well.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
I mean, look, this is what we go because we
go to these big academy functions, and I mean the
players aren't good enough. No, you're not working hard enough
or finding them early enough to where you at the
turn whatever it is twelve thirteen fourteen. You want to
go a little bit earlier and figure out the whole
academy system that needs to be burnt down right, like
(11:00):
we talked with Keith Hernandez Burt, burn burnt and restructure
it to where you're finding these kids early enough to
where if there's an inadequacy in their play, their attitude,
whatever else. I mean, Polisic called out because of the
sprained ankle.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I just need some rest. Like if you want to
call out, you know, like that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
If you want to go and find these guys, you
got to do it, and don't blame the system saying well,
this is what they turned to us when they turned eighteen.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
That's all we got. No, that's bs what.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
You What you're telling me is, Okay, there's about five
million kids that play travel sports in the United States,
about five million. A million of them play soccer, and
I don't know the breakdown, but boys and girls, but
about a million of them play soccer. Let's just say
for argument's sake, five hundred thousand of the of the
(11:52):
of them, the boys, five hundred thousand of the more girls. Right,
let's say. So, what you're telling me is is that
the five hundred thousand who were girls are getting coached
well enough and everything is going well. But all five
hundred thousand boys are all getting coach badly. They're all
getting coach badly at the youth level. And that's why
they're not good here, all five hundred thousand, because you
look at a guy like Christian Polisic, who, Okay, coming
(12:14):
into this, was he America's best player? Yes? Is he
still America's best player? No, Baaligan, Tillman, Freeman, those are
your three studs. But Polisic would be on Belgium maybe
their fourth best player, fifth best player. On France, wid
be their ninth best player. Okay. So what you're telling
me is that this is youth sports fault, that they
couldn't get any of these guys, any of these kids,
(12:36):
all five hundred thousand of them, there's nobody good enough
to be not just the best player in the United States,
but one of the best players in the world. I'm
not saying you had to go find the next Messi
or the next or the next Ronaldo, right, because look
at what happened. Would you ever think that, hey, the
next great striker in the world, where's he coming from? Norway?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Okay, So that's a little bit of luck, right, there's
a little bit of luck that Norway's got the best
striker in the world. But you're telling me that it's
youth sports fault, that all five hundred thousand kids that
are playing that continue to roll through it. It's new
five and one thousand new kids every every year, all
of them. It's youth sports fault. They're not being coached
the right way, and that's why we can't get at
least a couple of players to play at the top
(13:16):
of the world class level. That's a load of crap.
And honestly, I'm embarrassed because but most of the people
saying this are you know a lot of people just
pay attention to soccer a little bit. But to overall
to have this conversation go, yeah, it's youth sports. No,
either you're lazy or you have an extra grind because
your your club sport isn't going how you thought it
would go well, or at the sub layer of laziness
(13:37):
of well, all our best athletes go play football and basketball,
go watch some of these matches across these suspect clubs
and travel sports. Yeah, they can all go pound saying
what an awful, specious, pathetic argument. That is such a
load of crap. That's such a load of crap. Exit
(13:58):
about a Fresca exit swollen dome. Jason Smith Mike Carmon
Live from The Fox Sports Radio studios. Coming up next
Fox Sports won NBA Insider Extraordinary. Rick Buker stops by.
Where is Lebron James going? What could be the next
big domino to fall this offseason? All the big NBA
news next right here, Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon. So,
the Jalen Brunson Game one NBA Finals jersey that has
been up for auction at Sotheby's for the past few days,
Uh huh has been sold?
Speaker 3 (14:44):
What did I tell you?
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Someone has purchased this mm HM for one point oh
two million dollars just over, not one point two one
point oh two. Someone's spent a million dollars for Jalen
Brunson's Game one NBA Finals.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
It'll be one point too once you add that buyer's premium.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
So I all right, that's not built in No, oh
really that's the price, and then you pay the real price. Well,
joining us now? The hotline is the man who bought
that jersey. Wow, it's Fox Sports one NBA insider extraordinary,
Rick Buker, Rick, what credit card did you use to
buy that Brunson jersey? Uh?
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Oh Cokay, can I have the miles?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
She's the one who got the nil money. So I'm like, hey, yeah,
here you go.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Okay, very good.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
One basketball from one basketball love silo to another. Well,
let's get this done. We. By the way, I will
say this, first of all, it's way past July one,
so I don't know if we should be having this conversation.
But that said, and Mike hate me for saying this.
(16:02):
We really, and I'm gonna talk about this on my
on my podcast coming out to by tomorrow at the latest.
We we really have not talked about Jalen Brunson enough
in terms of how he represents something so different from
(16:22):
what the NBA has become and how gratifying it is
to see someone like Jalen Brunson rewarded the man. The
man left one hundred million dollars on the table just
I believe it was that something like that big figure
just for the opportunity to play for a championship, not
(16:44):
knowing whether he would get it, but just to give
himself an opportunity, and he ultimately got that reward. And
I just let's go back through time and think about
in the NBA the last player to do that. We
can think of the Tom Brady's. I mean, maybe Tim
Duncan had opportunity to push the end envelope, but as
(17:09):
far as the NBA concerned, Jalen Brunson deserves to be
in the Tom Brad Brady category of guys that did
not put their pocketbooks ahead of their aspirations. And I
just don't you know, in this day and age, I
feel like we need to give that more attention than
we have.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
So I'm going to well, he's going to make up
for it because he's getting a grand per photo at
Fanatics Fest. That's not even adding an autograph, that's just
standing there and kind kind of looking in the camera's
general direction, right, And it sold out in minutes.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
I got to say, with the general demeanor of Jalen Brunson,
like I love the man and I love watching him play,
I really don't need a photo of him Like he
looks perpetually grumpy and mildly interested. Why would I want
to know of that.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
You know, I paid one thousand dollars and I stood
in line for three hours for him to just share.
You know what, we haven't him honestly. You know, we
haven't talked about enough, right because I agree with you
on Jalen Brunson, of course, because we've.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Talked a lot about him. Here rick the case.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
After the finals, the Knicks had a Jalen Brunson lookalike contest. Yes,
and the thirty people who were there for it, it
was like it was like into the Spider Verse where
all the different Spider Men show up and like all
these people that looks somewhat like Jeff. Here's an older
Jailing Brunt. Here's here's a shorter Jaialen Brunson. This is
(18:37):
a taller, heavier Jailing Brunson. Like all of those people,
like I want a thirty for thirty on all of
those people like there was That's something that visual is amazing.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
It's scary how many people actually look like Jalen Bronson.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Ye see, he is our every man.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
So maybe like five guys would show up, but you
see there's like fifty people up and down they that
could be Brunson, that could be Bruns.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
But now the more important question.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
The grandmother who looked like jal was the scary one.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Well, you know full range, but I mean, how badly
does this wrist injury push the Knicks back in their
quest to repeat?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I had to do that for my guy Smith over here.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, here's the thing, Rick, I got a deal for you.
You want a deal, here's a deal for you. Here's
a deal for it.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
We will never I.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
Don't even get to answer no.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
You can say yes or no.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
No.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Here's the thing.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
You can or no.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
You can say yes or no.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
No.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I don't want your deal, all right, I guess no deal.
I won't give Rick Buker any of that money.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Okay, Jason, Jason, what's your deal?
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Here's a dream. We will never talk about the Knicks
again on the air.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
You and I.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
On your end, you have to have every single person
who showed up at the Jalen Brunson lookalike contest. Every
week you have one person as a guest on your
on the Ball podcast. So for forty weeks in a row,
you have one of those guys, and you got an
interview him for ten minutes. Oh and we'll never talk
(20:12):
about the Knicks again, that's a book. There you go.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
You know how long it's taken me to build the
audience for my podcast. I am not wasted merely on
the ability to not have you talk about the next
So no, no, I'm sorry. I appreciate the offer. I
genuinely do, and clearly you gave it a lot of
thought and it's a sacrifice on your part. Now, But
(20:37):
I will, I will, I will politely pass.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Okay. Actually, I just had a lot of coffee tonight
and the idea just came to me. But I just
wonder what happens if the sixth person comes on and goes.
I just happened to be walking through. I don't even
know it was a contest, all right. Ex So to
the business of the off season, the long the decision,
and we see the money is flowing in in the
Mark make a Place. How soon is Lebron James announcing
(21:03):
his Cleveland cavalieredom.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Wait what money is flowing into.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
The There's a seventy five million dollar Calshie market on
where he ends up, Oh about fifty It is on
Cleveland and it's all on Rick's daughter's credit card.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
I don't know that Giannis has any money put in there.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
But there you go, right, I look, I I don't
know that there's a first of all, that it's three
it's down to three Eastern Conference teams. Is no surprise
at all, right, because he doesn't he doesn't want to
play in the West. I don't know that there's a
team in the West outside of Golden State. I think genuinely,
mistakenly would probably go down that road because they're still
(21:42):
chasing the dragon Philadelphia. I think what's the tricky part
for me is I mean, bottom line is Cleveland still
makes without question the most sense, both for the Cavaliers,
but maybe more importantly for Lebron James because while you
we can talk about him going back to Miami, the
(22:02):
fact of the matter is, and I think pat Riley
would would have him back if it makes them a
better team and gives them a better chance of winning.
He's going to go in there with guys that are
establish established in their own right. I mean, there's no
question that he is going to be the third wheel
(22:23):
and treated as such, with bam Adebayo the established star there,
and Janni Santetcumpo, neither of whom have any prior sort
of relationship or deference toward toward Lebron in Philadelphia, sort
of the same thing. They got Jalen Brown there, they
got the young guns. Like I'm sure that they would
(22:45):
be respectful of him, but again, there's a lot of
mouths to feed, and he's going to be He's going
to be down the chain of command just by virtue
of the talent that they have there. Cleveland makes the
most sense because it's a homecoming, because of there's no
personality bigger than him there at this point, and I
(23:11):
do like their chances you add him to Cleveland. Yes,
they got swept and none of the games were close
with the Knicks, and I don't know that I would
certainly I wouldn't think of Cleveland as the favorite if
he went there, But I think there's a world in
which he makes them better. And maybe more important, it's
(23:31):
the sentimental him going back to Cleveland. He's going to
have a stature that he wouldn't have in Philadelphia, and
I really don't think under the current structure of the
Miami Heat that he would that he would have it there.
So for all those reasons, Cleveland really only makes makes
(23:53):
sense to me, and I think that that's and talking
to people in the league, that's generally what they've said
is that that that makes sense from both ends, and
that this waiting game is simply because Lebron loves the
intention and loves the attention. He loves the intrigue. He
loves everybody talking about him on a daily basis saying
(24:14):
where's he gonna go? You know who's I take exception
with Sham's. You know, he's sifting through his offers. I mean,
what are we doing here? At least at least he
should say he's sifting through his offers. According to Rich
Paul and Lebron James, let it please, let's give it
(24:35):
that context because we're talking. I mean, Philadelphia signed Dean
Wade to a four year, thirty million dollar deal. They
only have minimum money to offer Lebron at this stage,
and they do have two roster spots open in Philadelphia,
so they could take on Lebron and Bronny. But it's
(24:56):
not like anybody's waiting for him. They continue to build
out their rosters and sign people, and they have their
cores intact. So would any one of these three teams
could they see, you know, adding Lebron and him making
them better. Sure, but this idea that he's in the
same place that he was the summer of Lebron in
(25:19):
twenty ten, or at any prior point in his career
when he had the option of being a free agent,
is just you know, delusional. And I get why Rich
is presenting it this way. Why he did the Grease
sport and you know, had the whatever number of teams
and how he fit into the roster and the starting
(25:43):
lineup and all of that, But that's Rich Paul trying
to create leverage out of nothing. It's not the reality
of these teams are you know, with baited breath waiting
for Lebron to tell them that they're the chosen one
that happened in twenty ten. For sure, that's not happening now.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
See for me, it's it's pretty simple, Rick, is that
I've said Cleveland for a year because if you're looking
at how his end game is going, and it'll probably
be a couple of years wherever he signs, he's still
got a couple of years left playing at this We've
never seen a guy at forty one in any sport
play at this higher level. Ever. I mean, just to
give him credit, for what's going on here. But number one,
(26:22):
it's the softest landing for him because if he doesn't win,
instead of getting made fun of and people laughing, and
you know how much he likes that, he has the
soft landing of well, it's my goodbye and I went home.
I'm just a kid from Akron, I could say goodbye.
But the other part of it is that is Lebron
really going to very publicly have this down to three
teams and the Cavaliers be one of them. And at
(26:43):
the end he says, no, I'm not going home, Like
I just can't believe at this point, Like I think
if if that was a possibility, there would be no
talk about the Cavaliers or they would have been ruled
out by now.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
So the fact that time can I break hearts?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Let me see.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Right? Like like what I mean, if you're a Cleveland fan,
you're like, Lebron, what the hell did we ever do
to you? Like? How many times are you going to
do this to us? No? I think I think there's
a lot of I think there's a lot of truth
to that. And and ultimately, look, wherever he goes, I
don't see them winning a championship and and at this point,
(27:20):
you know how much of an impact that he can
he can have, Like like the Lakers, the Lakers exceeded expectations,
but let's not ignore the fact that they were at
their best when Luka, Doncic and Austin Reeves were healthy
and and Lebron was accepting of the being the third option.
(27:45):
Like that's what this is about. It's like, how can
he exit gracefully? And And to your point, I, you know,
I would take a page from Klay Thompson's experience in Dallas,
Like I always said, Golden, You know, Clay should have
bit the bullet and stayed with the Warriors because of
all of the goodwill that he had engendered from being
(28:08):
part of all those championships. You go someplace else and
they go, Okay, what are you doing for us now?
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Like what like we.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
Find you won those championship for somebody else. You had
those great years for somebody else, Like what are you
doing for us? If he goes to Philadelphia or he
goes back to Miami, I think there is more of that.
In fact, I don't even know why we're talking about Philadelphia. Really,
Miami's probably in the second spot in terms of teams
that I could see it being understandable. But again to
(28:41):
your point, if he chooses Miami over Cleveland again, oh
my god, it's just I just at least, at the
very least, he's got to go back to Greenwich and
have another sit down and go, yeah, I'm taking my
talents to South Beach again.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
There you go real quick for you. I know you're
at Summer League. What's got tongues wagon? What are you
most excited to see?
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Actually I'm not there yet. I will be their first
thing in the morning. But I think I think in general,
it's simply.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
To see the top picks.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
You know, see see Darren Darren Peterson. We've seen some
of him in the in the Salt Lake Summer League,
but a number. I mean, this is such an intriguing.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Draft and.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Darius Acuff like, is he the real deal? And how
does he match up against some of the other guys
that were picked around him? Caleb Love, I can't wait
to see what he looks like with Chicago because I
think that he could be the dark horse. And I mean,
just go down the line. There are so many guys
(29:53):
that were so highly touted, and I'm not sure that
we got them in the right order, And for me,
this is all always the first opportunity to see the
guys where you go ooh, that guy is better than
people thought that he was and against pro talent, and
that guy might struggle at this level because he doesn't
(30:14):
have the same physical advantage that he had at the
collegiate level. So I think that that really these first
couple of days at least, because that's you know, after
that they usually shut down the top guys. I think
these first couple of days is really going to be
about measuring those five, six, seven top picks and who
comes out of Summer League carrying the mantle of these
(30:36):
are guys that are actually going to have an impact
as rookies.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
You can fall him on Twitter at Rick Buker, That
is at Rick Buker. You can see him at Summer
League play this week. Yeah. He begins the first of
forty interviews with all the Jalen Brunson lookalike jud.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Cree Jungle Dreams made up.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Rick is always buddy appreciated man. We'll talk to you.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
Have fine money, Jim Greg, Jim Gray Yo.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with My best friend
Mike Harmon Harry Cane. So, no soccer today, but the
quarterfinals get going tomorrow. Is USA Iaco? Yeah, they played
the night game tomorrow. Soon they play with the Mets. Yes,
(31:30):
the Mets are favored. Actually, if you know that or not,
it's the toilet Bowl. So the top four teams overall
in the World Cup are still alive. And as we've said,
it feels like this is a collision course of England
and Argentina, France and Spain, which would be a Titanic,
(31:53):
a massive, a massive final four in the World Cup.
Like this would be the matchups that if you could
write it down outside again in the United States, and
who would you want in the world this would be
if you're writing the script and helping things along to
get to a fantastic finish.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Absolutely, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Mean the only thing you could say is, boy, I
kind of like to see maybe Argentina and France or England,
because you know, you know, England making the final would
clearly be you know, any England in France, but you
have the best final four. You can now if you're
telling me who's the one team that most likely could
throw a wrench into this and win their quarterfinal game
(32:33):
and win their way into the final four, I'm going
to tell you who I told you before the tournament
that I told you as my dark horse team to
get to the final fo Twitter you can see that. No, no, no, no, no,
really be honest, No, who did I say? Who did
I say was the team?
Speaker 4 (32:52):
What?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Everybody's gonna gonna take a look at this team and
they're gonna see their big superstar that everybody across soccer knows,
all the big soccer fans know, but now the average
fan is gonna see him and he's gonna take over
this tournament. And what has happened exactly that has happened
this team, this striker has taken over the tournament. He
is now the number one star. People talk about him
(33:14):
the most, the gifts are out about him the most.
He is rapping on social media, posted he puts out
there and I said it before the tournament. You want
to say my dark horse team, Alex Tischer, Who did
I tell you? Curlling Hollen meets the World Chop, The
World Chop meats Soling Holland, Norway and Earling Holland because
(33:36):
the matchup is most favorable to them. Now, not that,
not that the you know England, England is terrific, but
England is also beatable because defensively they're a little loose. Right,
you watch them play over the course of the tournament,
and while their attack is fantastic, Kine is in his
best form, Bellingham is fantastic, they're gettable. Defensively, they get
(34:00):
a little loose and you're able to make some hay
against them. No, obviously Mexico's able to do it when
England's down to ten men, but overall England has played
a little loose defensively. This is the worst matchup for them,
for any team, because if they were playing Spain, they
would say, hey, we're gonna eventually break through and get
that goal, right, We're gonna break through and get that goal.
But because Holland is so good and again he's the
(34:22):
best striker in the world and he's proven showed you
nothing but that over the course of this tournament. Yeah,
can I see him another brace and beating England two
to one because he can individually, he can do it
and look this is Norway's golden generation too. We taught
the United States had all the had the market cornered on,
this is our golden generation. We turns out it's not.
The Golden generation is not good. But this is Norway
(34:44):
is proving Hey, this is their golden generation as well.
And here's Holland at twenty five. Yeah, that's the team
that can break through. I'm sticking with the team I
said from the beginning, but obviously as this tournament has
gone on, they have the best match up. If they
were playing Spain, I would say, wow, this is gonna
be really tough. It is a really tough for Holland
to find space. If they're playing France would be a
France can come back, and they have the firepower to
(35:05):
I mean, Holland and Pappe come on. Argentina the same way,
right Argentina. Oh my goodness, Argentina. You talk about firepower,
but England and their bit of a looseness defensively, Yeah,
that's the team that can do it.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Who's gonna stand in and check him? That's all I
want to know.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Look, France in their matchup, they're the biggest favorite, followed
by Argentina and Spain are about the same, and then
you have England about a fifty four percent implied odds
to win this match against Doroy and I like and
we've talked about him a lot, from the idea of
how much he's embraced American culture, recognizing there's a giant
(35:43):
pot of gold at the end of that, but also
just the downplaying their chances, under selling it. So every
time they come out and they win another match, like
I look at the little engine that could led by
the six or five bookhemoth that goes gets it and
he doesn't move a ton, right, We've we've talked about
it the entire tournament and all leading up to it.
(36:06):
You watch him for Man City, and I think that
was one of my favorites. That's circling in the background
of all of this, just like we have a generation
of Cowboys, forty nine ers, Lakers and Yankee fans. Suddenly
a lot of folks are gonna be running around with
those baby blues of Man City because of Earling Holland
coming out of all of this. But he doesn't need
(36:26):
to do a ton, doesn't need to move a ton,
but when he does, it's decisive, and he's gonna run
through you to get to the ball, as we've seen
time and again.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
So him versus Harry Kane. Let's go, guys. He drinks
his milk.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Raw yeah yeah, yeah yeah. I think he actually just
picks up the cow and just drink and squeezes it
out of He goes straight to the organic farm that
Larry David had. Yeah, you don't need to worry about it.
Nothing getting into the milk, No preservatives, no anything else.
Row the vote. Wait is there a gift out there
of him and the cows? Are they all rowing together?
Speaker 4 (36:59):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah, learn together.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
Very good.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Exit out bout of Fresca, Exit swollen dome. Coming up next,
we get back into a huge story of the day
out of the NBA. This is Fox Sports Radio.
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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