July 15, 2025 • 34 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon react to LeBron James being awkward in front of Rob Pelinka and his Lakers teammates at tonight's summer league game in Las Vegas.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Ever give us you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Greetings, Welcome inside final hour tonight The Jason Smith Show
with my bes friend Mike Harmon. We're into the sixties, man,
I'll tell you. I know they only play forty minutes.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
I know this, but there's a minute to go in
the fourth quarter of the Lakers Clippers Summer League game
and the score is sixty one to fifty eight. What
do we always say, It doesn't have to be great,
it just needs to be closed late, dude.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
In forty minutes, an NBA team has not even scored
sixty points.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Last I look, the Lakers were shooting under thirty three. Same.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Come on, man, it's not like the Clippers shooting hell
of a lot o. They at least had a for it.
It started sixty sixty one to fifty eight with a
minute let the go.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
This is like a low scoring college game. Yeah, this
is like you know this getting after you? I mean
this really it's I mean, little nohen Richardson't getting after you.
This is just insane. I mean, this is the score
sixty three to fifty eight with forty seconds left, Bronny
(01:33):
with seventeen five and five, three of four from three
point range, six and nine from the field. I mean,
let's go.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Look, two big things to say, right, first thing on
first thing is Brownie because then we get to Lebron
and the interaction that happened with him and Rob Polinka tonight.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Uh. This we talked about the pressure on Bronnie, right,
and I'm being serious. This could be Bronni's last chance
to prove he can be a player with the Lakers,
because at some point Lebron's gonna be gone after the
the the end of this year, regardless, probably gonna happen
before that. How much loyalty do they have to developing
Bronnie James as a player, right, He was someone that
was drafted obviously, did the favor for Lebron, brought him
(02:10):
in and he is having so far a pretty good
Summer League. This has been his best game he's got
now in the preseason to show he can be a
rotation player or that's gonna be it. The pressure Bronny
is under right now is insane because he's looking at hey,
my NBA future right here, because no one's gonna give
him as much of a shot as the Lakers are
right now, with whatever loyalty they have left to lebron
(02:33):
keeping him here, keeping everybody happy, there is no better
chance he's going to have to break into the rotation
because that's really what he's going to be as an
NBA player. Can he be a rotation player? Can he
be the seventh, eighth, ninth guy off, the ninth guy
on the team, on the first unit, off the bench.
Can he be that player? The pressure on him is
absolutely immense right now, and so far, so good for him.
(02:56):
He's he's been pretty he's been pretty good in the summer.
He held his own against Cooper Flagg, having his best
game tonight, showing that maybe he can be that guy
in earnest spot in the rotation, because if he doesn't
do it now, this is his last chance with the Lakers. Yeah,
it's a world beating but you've seen signs of improvement.
You've seen more assertiveness in terms of his offensive game,
(03:17):
putting up shots and with more makes. Right, we had
that long streak last summer where it was how many
games will it be before he hits a three point shot.
Here he's going and confidently stepping into the line, making shots,
making plays and playing and maximizing his minutes. And that's
not to say he's anywhere near a finished product, but
(03:38):
be a certainty to make it to your point, A
men's pressure, loyalty to a point from the team because
of the whatever the relationship is ongoing with Lebron, But
you want to see him succeed because you don't want
to say all right and feed into the media narrative
that all it was was a favor to Lebron, as
(03:59):
it had been characterized all the way through that you
thought over time, remember he did have a heart issue
before last year and all of that coming through that,
he's still we talk about the ages of these players
coming into the NBA, that still a young guy trying
to make his way. It's not like he's suddenly gonna
have a six inch growth spur or any of that stuff.
(04:19):
But playing solid defense, showing ability to keep the basketball
moving and actually score with some regularity. Taken with the
grain of salt at summer league. But this is the
only thing you can evaluate, right you look at who's
on the schedule, what's on the schedule, and putting your
best foot forward. So I'm at least impressed for that. Right.
(04:40):
The guy is rising to the moment. Whether it's enough,
only time will tell. But for the moment, he's taking
care of his business. Now, speaking of taking care of business,
we have the latest with Lebron James. Okay, this is a.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Weekend in which we watched Rich Paul say, hey, I've
gotten calls from four teams about Lebron James, including the
Mavericks and the Clippers. Four teams have called me about Lebron.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
That's shy about saying who they are either, No, But
the other thing is, does he know that the league's
not going to touch him? And I know he's powerful
and he's got some big stars led by Lebron James.
And you talk about their whole catalog of players across
all sports that are under Clutch management as well as
media members. Is this like a double bird to Adam
Silver because that's not Hey, they contacted the Lakers like, eh,
(05:29):
we all know what talks, and these talks happen because
he did it during the draft. Yeah, hey, you know, Eshba,
don't don't make this move because here's what I'm gonna
make happen for Warriors, Cavaliers on right, these teams. So
you had Rich Paul say, hey, these teams have contacted me.
And over the weekend at the Lakers Summer League, when
Dave mcmanham and ESPN reporter who he and he and
(05:49):
Lebron have a you know, relationship that they go back
a while with, he said, hey, do you want to
talk about your future with the Lakers? And his response
was I don't got nothing to talk about. Okay. So now,
knowing full well this is going to get out. If
he could have just said no, thank you, I appreciate it,
but I'm not going to talk right out. Instead, I
got nothing to talk about. You know, the mcmnuman is
(06:10):
going to put that out there. This is the escalation
that the Lakers and Lebron have had with each other
over the past few months, where the Lakers are daring
Lebron to ask for a trade and Lebron's want the
Lebron wants the Lakers to say we're gonna trade you
or buy you out, one of the He wants one
of those things that this is just a continued escalation
(06:30):
from Hey, when we trade Luca, when we sell the team,
We're not gonna let you know we're selling the team.
We're not gonna let you know we're trading Anthony.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Davis and Lebron is wearing a welcome home hat in
Cleveland but saying, oh, this.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Is just a company I haven't done. Welcome home is
not a big deal.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Hey, why are you working out at the Cavaliers facility
on the fourth of July.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Oh no, No, they're just back here working up. It's
an escalation.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
They're fighting this in the media now because this is
what each side wants, right, Lakers want Lebron to ask
for a trade. Lebron wants Lakers say okay, where do
you want to go? Or we'll buy you out?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Right. These are the thing. This what each side is
escalating towards. And now you have what happened tonight. Lebron
at Summer League, walking with his family on the court,
says hello to all the Laker officials and gives a
quick handshake and a little hug to Rob Polinka. Okay,
now people are watching. I already see this on social media.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
It's oh Lebron doesn't look happy with Rob Polinka, or
oh look see these guys.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Are fine well and depending on how your angle, right, Oh,
he's looking away, he's looking through him that he's not
even acknowledging him. It's like the the forest end of
game handshake, where I'm looking somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
This is this is what you call a big nothing
burger because Lebron's not going with his family in tow
only one of his kid's hands. He's not gonna go
look like a jerk and not say hi to the coaches,
not say hi to Rob Polinka. Right again, each side
wants to win this war. They each want to win.
The Lakers don't want to feel like, hey, we're gonna
(07:56):
suffer backlash from our fans, from our team because we
push Lebron out. Lebron doesn't want to look like a
guy who's saying, oh, you're not cow tewing to me.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I want out.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
This is physical Lebron and the Lakers. Now, this is
not the battle being fought on social media and through
their agents with hey, this is happening here. This is
now Lebron and the Lakers. So yeah, here's a handshake.
Everything is cool. This is a nothing burger. It means
this is zero impact on the battle going on right
now between Lebron and the Lakers about what the next
(08:27):
move is going to be.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Now. To be fair, I think if you did a
pole of a couple million Laker fans saying that Lebron
wasn't on the roster for twenty twenty five, there might
be a shrug from a lot of them, or hey,
it was a good run, thanks for twenty twenty. We'll
see you down the road. We'll see you when someone
decides to pay for a statue or you pay for
(08:49):
your own. But it is the curiosity, right because you've
got the trade rumors that are out there, and certainly
you can find odds on Lebron's next team. Those are
certainly there. Lakers minus seven hundred, so what is that
about an eighty eight percent implied probability? Cavaliers are next
plus six hundred. They get really interesting because you're at
(09:10):
in the second apron, so you can't do the compositive.
Here's five salaries and we may still owe Keith van
Horn some money, so throw his as well. He can't
do that, so it could require a lot of creativity
for a trade. His NBA minimum veterans minimum is three
(09:30):
point three million for the year, if you were to
go down that path of what he could play for
reasonably the lowest common denominator of it all. But yeah,
the buyout trade market, Yeah, there's a little bit of
a standoff certainly going there and Rich Paul and you know,
flexing every chance he gets league wide or even in
(09:50):
this case of here's all the teams contacting. By the way,
it would appear that mcmhimon has now defeated Windhorst as
the Lebron James guy. Yeah, yeah, long gone. Yeah, he's
the guy. So he's the guy. So you know, you
have your relationships. We understand how the insider game works.
But this is what you're gonna get. You're gonna get
(10:11):
fed from from their side of how happy, unhappy or
nebulous comments like this interpreted how you will, and then
Lebron sits on social media waiting to see which way
the wind blows. But look, here's why trade's gonna happen. Okay,
because it come. It comes back down to this. It
comes down to this. Lebron has always been the most
alpha of alpha males in the NBA. He has been
(10:33):
the straw that stirred the drink. Now for over twenty years,
he has been shunted aside by the Lakers in favor
of Luka. Doncis right, even when when Lebron opted into
his contract, Rich Paul even said, we understand you're building
around Luca, but Lebron wants to win. But he knows
his statement was the most asinine thing. He has been
shunted to the side. Do you really think after all
(10:56):
of this that's gone on, the continued escalation of of
the battle with Lebron and the Lakers, where both sides
would like to move on from the other, do you
really think Lebron after all of this, can come back
and play for the Lakers in the fall?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Do you after all that's going on, he's gonna say, yes,
I'm gonna come and be an afterthought and play the
last year on my contract and have an expiring deal
and be a guy that doesn't even not even in
a loop on things. When the team is sold, we're
making trades. You're gonna take Luca out to dinner. You're
gonna build a run. I'm not gonna stand there while
you do this to me. You are going to a
(11:32):
give the horrible optic for me that I don't matter
and be really show that I don't matter.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
These things are not Lebron positive. He's not going to
go through that.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
So eventually it's gonna get to a point where the
rubber's gonna hit the road. But right now, it's okay
to have this escalation between Lebron wanting a trade, wanting
to say where do you want to go?
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Oral buy you out? And the Lakers saying we're gonna
keep doing this until you demand a trade. Like one
of those things is going to break sometime in the
next few weeks and we're gonna and again, Cleveland's the
only real place he can go. It's the only real
place he can go back. And if the Cavaliers want
to make it work, and I'm sure they will because
there'll be a whole bunch of teams getting involved to
make it work money wise, like it's going to happen.
(12:15):
Could it get to a point where Lebron is so
desperate he goes someplace other than Cleveland. Yeah, but boy,
I really don't see that because if he goes someplace
else and doesn't win, he hurts his image, he hurts
his legacy. Oh look, Lebron tried to go to the
Mavericks and win didn't app He tried to go to
the Knicks and win didn't happen. Tried to go to
the Warriors and team up with Steph and it didn't happen.
But if it gets desperate enough, I can see him
(12:36):
doing it. But that is not an option right now.
It's Cleveland because I can go back home and if
I lose, Okay, I still went home for the end
of my career.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
I finished at home. I had a big tour, I
wave goodbye to everybody. I helped the Donovan, Mitchell and
everybody as much as I could. But it really but
it doesn't matter because I'm finishing at home for my career.
The trade, I'm telling you, the trade is gonna happen. Yeah,
I still don't think he'd win that one. The other
is as I sold my daughters with some.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Of the classes that they hate for school or people
in work scenarios right the time of the year where
stuff gets really busy, this too shall pass. You can
do anything for a couple of months. Right, you may
not like that chemistry class, but again, eventually you're gonna
take the final and it's going to be in the
rear view mirror. Now, if you're choosing a path where
there's gonna be another chemistry class, then you might want
(13:23):
to reconsider those things. But or the job. Eventually you
got to say, well, maybe this isn't for me, or
the relationship, or go all the way through it. You
can do anything for a little stretch of time. And
Lebron like, look at how quickly they had to do
reverse course and put out the damage control because it
was a bad narrative that Lebron hadn't been notified of
(13:44):
the Lakers sale to Mark Walter. Oh they told Luca,
but they didn't tell you. Well, no, they eventually they
top to yeah, he had been informed. But it made
for a nice narrative to get everybody all up in
arms and mad. It's curious to see.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, but the whole thing is like, obviously he wasn't
told before it happened. He wasn't told first. He was
told at some point, oh yeah, yeah, we're selling. To
make sure you call Lebron, I don't worry about I'll
tell them whatever.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Just go back in the phone list and decide where
you were on the chain call list, like back when
they had to tell you practice was canceled when you
were in Little league. Hey, why am I biting behind
the Shotie on this list? I'm a better player than him.
But the Dallas thing is interesting. Just we talk about
Cooper Flag a lot, and you've got his old buddies
Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving up in there, so that
(14:32):
would be an interesting run. But at this point, I
don't know. You've got the Lebron sick of fans, and
you got the people that hate him, and then you
got a bunch of us in the middle, just kind
of going all right, figure it out and go play basketball.
I like watching you play basketball. The rest of this
this stuff, I'll watch Love Island or some other bed
soap opera on television instead.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Exit about a Fresca. Exit swallen, doome ignore all of
these signs at your own peril. Telling you just they're
daring each other right now, and the anti gets upped
every single day.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Send to a walk. You're the one that's making the rounds. Now,
what do we got Lebron standing with his teammates? Then
he was hanging out with DeAndre Ayton, right he actually
met him? Now?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Oh, hey, dear do hey John, I'll send you that
text right now. Hey, welcome to the team, DeAndre, I'll
send you that text. Exit up bouta Fresca, Exit swollen Dome.
Jason Smith Mike Harmon Live from the Fox Sports Radio studios.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
We got a big NFL story coming up next to
Super Bowl winning quarterback is being defended by his head
coach for being overrated. Wait, what that's next? Right here,
Jason Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Hey it's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
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(16:17):
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Speaker 3 (16:23):
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon. Yeah, buddy, hell, Look I always say
I said a few minutes ago, I want to be fair.
I want to be fair. I want to be fair, right.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I said the the Lebron James coming to Summer lead time. Look,
I told you a few minutes ago, he's getting traded, right,
It's happening. It's gonna happen. The Lakers are shunting him inside.
Everything that's going on right now is just to continued
escalation from both sides. The Lakers want Lebron to ask
for a trade so they can trade him. Lebron wants
the Lakers to say where do you want to go?
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Or will buy you? Out right?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Every bit has been an escalation since the Lakers got
Luka Doncic. So I wanted to say, hey, listen, okay,
may not mean anything. Lebron at the game tonight, with
his kids holding their hands, says hi to all the
Lakers coaches and then gives a quick dap and hug
to Rob Polenka. I don't think there's anything incredibly awkward there.
(17:15):
I don't think there's anything incredibly controversy you can read into.
He's holding his kids hands. He's not going to be
a jerk, He's not whatever it is, where's our body
language experts. I'm here saying hi right now. So I
want to say that going into what Frosburg brought up
a few moments ago, because this picture was just put
(17:36):
up by the Lakers about a half hour ago. This
is from tonight's game in Vegas, and again Lebron was
there with his whole family.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
After the game.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Lakers players, not the players playing in the summer League,
you know, real live Lakers players were going to be
playing on the team this fall. They pose for a
picture on the court. DeAndre Ayton is all the way
screen right, and there's six of them in the picture. Sure,
there's five Lakers teammates who are close together, shoulder to shoulder,
putting their fingers up. He signed hey if thing and
(18:09):
and and then a little bit to the side with
his hands around his daughter. Is Lebron James. He is
very obviously not shoulder to shoulder with his teammates. He's
standing off to the side.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
With his daughter. It's incredibly awkward. Does this mean anything, No,
but it doesn't mean it's not incredibly awkward. Hitting he's
dead eye into the camera. Yeah, and he looks like
he's been photoshopped in. Yeah, yeah it does.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
It does look like, Hey, we're gonna photo shop Lebron
and drop him in over here.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
I mean, it is.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
It is really awkward. It is a it is typically
a Lebron picture eye. I can see him just not
being shouldered to shoulder with his teammates.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
I get it. But after everything going on.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
He is he is very definitively a step and a
half to the side of the five players.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
It's really kind of interesting. It's so awkward. Look look
at the look on his face.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I know I don't want it. It was like, I don't
want to be in the picture. Whatever, I need to
do this, you made me be here. Everybody else is
smiling for the camera. Hey, I'm very excited, you know,
given the peace sign, everything is cool.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Yeah, that's great now Lebron.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Okay, And he's got the bucket hat down like over
his head, like there could be a bucket hat off
between him and Tyler Hero to see who wins that.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
That'll be a tough one man the bucket, the bucket
had head off, and also maybe bucket heead the guitarist
could be in it, but he actually wears a real
but he's the gun in his head.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Yea yeah, but I mean really, I mean, look it
could I want to tell you what stuff means stuff
and what doesn't Lebron and Rich Paul saying, four teams
have called me about Lebron. Why would he be saying
that if Lebron is a Laker, right, why would he
be saying that over the weekend, four teams have called me?
Why would that happen? There's no reason.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Why would Lebron say I got nothing to talk about
what he's asked, Hey, you want to talk about your
role with the Lakers, all you have to do is
say I'm a Laker looking forward to the season, but
this weekend, that's who you said to Dave McManaman. Those
are things to see, those are things to take stuff
away from. Right.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Why the Lakers don't tell Lebron things, why they're building
around Luca, Why they're not going out to get a
center until they trade for Luca. When Lebron had been saying, hey,
get me a center for the last couple of years.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
This could not mean this.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I'm not gonna sit here and say and and slant
stuff one way or the other.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
One.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
I said this this handshake that that he did before
the game. Yeah, that was fine. There could be nothing
about this picture at all except wow, it's really awkward.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
No, it's at least a good uh thought piece. This
is one you print off and bring to the put
up alongside the water corner and ask for coming.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
It's like during COVID when the one person the pictures like,
I don't want to be too close because you never know.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
I'm gonna be off to the side. I'll be in
the picture with you, but I'll be off to the side.
There's a lot of photos that you can now date.
Yeah this is without the metadata, but you can date
it for them for that process. Here is that you
might think there's Lebron there's like, yeah, yea dearly doesn't
want to be in the picture, and I'm with my
Lakers teammates. But I'm not really with my Lakers teammates.
(20:57):
Let's see. They want Broun to be shoulder to shoulder
with his teammate while his daughter holds his hand down
he's staying a Laker while you like it, whether you
like it or not. Zuried to the Lakers.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Confirmed again, you can read whatever you want to into
this picture. You have it the comments handshake right, but
in the end, okay, the handshake was fine. This is
somebody cropped him out and just said here, let me
just fix that. In response to the Lakers putting up
squad showing out and Las Vegas just going on down,
(21:29):
do you think Lebron texted Deondre eight and all the
way from that side of the picture, welcome to the team.
He sent a text here, hey's gonna tell dude, you could.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Just tell me. We're like, you're only like eight feet away. Hey,
welcome to the team. Is that Lebron James poker face?
It's again, it's just staring at because poker's been in
the news, right, you got the World Series of Poker.
You got that guy that got thrown out because he
wouldn't shut up everybody. You got thrown out. He got bad. Yeah,
indefinite uh run for screaming and causing a ruckus along
(22:00):
the way. But yeah, just the responses to this or
just I can't read half of them, but that's that's
pretty good stuff.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
So again, nothing to see here, nothing to see here.
Lebron is very happy to be a Laker.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Eddie's gonna stay well because you got plenty of folks
going wow, I thought Lebron hated his teammates. Like, you've
been serious. There's no sarcasm. Font We'll get to the
big football story coming up in ninety seconds.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
But first, a guy who's been called the Lebron James
of Fox Sports Radio because when he poses for pictures
he likes to stand to the side and not be
shouldered to shoulder with anyone.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
It is Steve de Sager with what's trending? I got
nothing to say. We'll get to the baseball news and
the cow rally win at the home run.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
When he's asked about his future, he's got nothing to say.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
In the late Summer league game in Vegas tonight, the
Lakers lost sixty seven to fifty eight to the Clippers.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Brady played all four quarters. Right, they didn't stop.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
School games, and somebody's losing by fifty now. Bronni James
had seventeen points, five rebounds, five assists. Dalton connect has
not had a great summer to this point three of
fifteen shooting for the Lakers tonight, including one of eight
from three point range. Among the other games, the Hawks
won in overtime against Houston, Jacob topp in twelve points
in fourteen minutes, but he left with a hip injury.
(23:19):
The Rockets reed Shephard was shut down after playing two games.
Cooper Flag of Dallas shut down after two games this summer.
He did score thirty one of their sixty nine points
on Saturday. The team only scored sixty nine tonight against Charlotte,
losing as Charlotte first rounder Khan Kinnepel had sixteen. The
NBA Summer League was seven more games tomorrow. It goes
(23:40):
till July. The twentieth spur center Victor wimban Yama is
cleared to return after the blood cloud at his shoulder
last season. The seventy six ers Paul George had Arthur
scopikknee surgery after an injury in a recent workout. The
Cavaliers gave team president Kobe Altman an extension through twenty
thirty in the WNBA. Minnesota is now nineteen and four
after winning at chio Icago ninety one, seventy eight and
(24:01):
AFISA Collier twenty nine points. She's one of the All
Star Game captains along with Caitlin Clark. The WNBA All
Star Game is this Saturday in Indianapolis, Atlanta All Star
Ryan Howard out for the rest of the month with
a knee injury. For Chicago Tonight, All Star reserve Angel
Reese had twenty two points, ten rebounds, five turnovers. Phoenix
is fifteen and six after winning on a last second
(24:23):
free throw seventy eight seventy seven at Expansion Golden State.
As for the NFL news, the Jets gave wide receiver
Garrett Wilson a four year extension. The Jets were five
and twelve last year. He had one hundred and one receptions.
Chargers wide receiver Mike Williams will start training camp on
the pup list physically unable to perform. The Florida Panthers
will raise their second straight Stanley Cup banner after starting
(24:46):
the NHL season October seventh against Chicago. The rest of
the league's schedule comes out on Wednesday, and this will
be the NHL's last eighty two game regular season before
going to eighty four games as part of the new CBA.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Because we need more games in the NA and more
give you the NBA.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Two.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
Let's get to ninety ninety five. Let's get there, and
then you'll have your hundred million dollar player. If the
NHL plays one thousand games a year, we might have
a hundred million dollar player in that sport.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Well, I don't know. St if you see some of
those big salaries in the NHL, not what they.
Speaker 5 (25:17):
Were, certainly not. Meanwhile, cal Rally won a million dollars.
Just tonight, the Mariners catcher, a switch hitter, won the
home run Derby in Atlanta, first catcher to win this.
He beat Tampa Bay's Junior Camonaro eighteen fifteen in the
final dhhow Hey Otania. The Dodgers will lead off in
the National League and Tuesday Nights All Star Game. Atlanta's
own Ronald Acunya will bat second for the American League lineup.
(25:40):
Aaron Judge will bat third tomorrow than cal Raley fourth.
Raleigh of Seattle committed to play for Team USA and
next year's World Baseball Classic. The team's captain is Aaron
Judge of the Yankees. The Americans are due to play
games in March in Houston and Miami. The MLB Draft
finished today. Twenty rounds total. The Tampa Bay Rays will
be sold, according to the Athletic, for one point seven
(26:01):
billion dollars. The buyers are led by a Florida based developer.
Former Blue Jays pitcher Jim Clancy died at age sixty nine.
He was an All Star in nineteen eighty two. Major
League Baseball's regular season games resume on Friday. Reminder, Fox
TV has Tuesday nights All Star Game.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Back to You, Thank You, Steve O, The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmen live from the Fox Sports Radio studios.
So insiders, coaches, front office members, scouts all were asked
very big column on ESPN dot com TA. They got
(26:38):
a lot of attention early on in the day. I
was like, Wow, this has got a big deal because
they were all asked to rank the NFL quarterbacks one
to thirty two. Right, best quarterbacks in the NFL. Rank
them one to thirty two. Right again, scouts, coaches, insiders,
personnel people, are we doing the bottom ten? I tried
to pitch the bottom ten earlier today. You never acknowledge
(26:58):
my note. No, they were all asked, all asked to
rank the top quarterbacks in the game. One to thirty two. Again, coaches,
multiple coaches, scouts, multiple scouts, insiders, multiple insiders, front office,
multiple people, and they came up with the top five.
(27:20):
That is the exact same list I gave you in
January when I told you who the best quarterbacks in
the NFL were. Because in January I said, listen, there's
four great quarterbacks in the NFL. Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson,
Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes. Sure is what makes a great quarterback.
You win, You win games, your team win games because
of you, and you make everybody around you better. Right,
(27:42):
those three things, those are your four best quarterbacks. Right.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
If Matthew Staffords a little younger, maybe he would be
in that list. But win games, win games by yourself,
make everybody better. Four guys, Burrow, Lamar, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes.
And our topic that night was you have to now
add Jayden Daniels to this list because he is that good.
One year rookie doesn't matter. Those are the five best
quarterbacks in the NFL. What list does ESPN put out today?
(28:09):
Five best quarterbacks? Mahomes, Alan Lamar, Jackson, Joe Burrow, Jayden Daniels.
There's your list. We did the work of however, many
countless people six months ago, by these are the best
guys in the league.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
What what do you need this for? Why you got
the tiebreaker by an eighth of an inch because because
I had five and six flop, but we still got to.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
The same time. These are the guys, These are the guys.
These are the guys. Like I did the work of.
I can now not only be an insider, but I
could apparently be a coach. I could be front office,
I could be a scout, the pr guy.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
I know.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
And you're saving money with me because I could do
all of these jobs apparently because this way all of
the information everybody you looked at it. Oh, and I said,
these are the five guys, these are the best quarterbacks,
and tada, these are the top five guys on the list.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
It's funny that we get to that endgame so quickly.
With Daniels obviously massive rookie season can't be understated how
how special he was, and even though he played hurt
for a good chunk of the year, which limited the
you know, Hail Mary pass that will live in infamy
(29:17):
in Chicago was the one that he couldn't get it
to the end zone because he was still dealing with
the after effects of that. And so you know, four
to five the offensive line, maybe he'll run a little
less and keep himself out of harm's way. But all
of that to say that he had a massive year
and for once in a Kingsbury led offense, there was
no second half letdown and so Jade Daniels is special
(29:41):
just because of that. Now, to take it a step further.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
After the Super Bowl, I said, look, he's not quite
top five guy, but Jalen Hurts his number six and
what he did in the playoffs and specifically the Super Bowl,
which is one of the great all time performances by
a quarterback, blew out the Chiefs great defense. He did
everything in this game, throwing the football, running the football.
Jalen Hurts his number six. Now, maybe he doesn't quite
(30:08):
have the resume doing quite as much as some of
these other guys, but right below that top five that's
Jalen Hurts, which is ridiculous today when we saw the
story that Nick Siriani has had to defend Jalen Hurts
that he was along for the ride for the Eagles
team that won the Super Bowl last year, he said,
that's a bunch of bs. I can't believe people are
saying that about Jalen Hurts. And you know what, I
(30:29):
don't always agree with Nick Sirianni. In fact, as many
times I don't, but I am complete with him on this.
Jalen Hurts is fantastic. Again, He's the sixth best quarterback
in the league. I put him by himself on that
second rung of you know guys, right below the five
elite players because he has done it with really good weapons.
He has done it without good weapons. Is he quite
(30:51):
as dynamic as some of these other courts? No, but
still you have to account all of his offense, not
just throwing the football, but what he does running the
football as well.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
You can't.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Well, eighteen touchdowns and five picks, no, no count the
rushing Touchdowns't they count for everybody? Now you're at to
thirty two to thirty three touchdowns and five picks last year.
The off he butt's out there over thirty five hundred yards.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
But Sakuon Barkley, Okay, Yes, Saquon Barkley had a great year,
had it phenomenally one of the great years of all
time by a running back, So, yeah, he's gonna get
three hundred and fifty carries last year. There's only so
many offensive plays, So yeah, when you're running the ball
that well, you're clearly not gonna throw it as much.
But oh, by the way, they still threw it. No,
by the way, who also had a good year running
(31:32):
the football for the Eagles? Oh, Jalen Hurts. And when
it got to the playoffs and Barkley slowed down at
Big Trember, we said, this is the biggest thing for
the Eagles in the playoffs. It's a long season. He's
getting up closer to thirty. What's he gonna have left
in the playoffs? He wasn't nearly the same dynamic running back.
Doesn't matter who took over Jalen Hurts and they won
the Super Bowl and he had he had three phenomenal
(31:54):
games capping it off for his best in the Super Bowl.
Jalen Hurts is that good? I don't get any Jalen
Hurts hate at this point in his career. Well, he's
the guy that's gonna get lumped in with so many
others that have been great in team sports, where where
you kind of diminished it a little bit as you
talk about the surrounding cast. You look at those old
(32:15):
forty nine er teams, Joe Montana, Steve Young were fantastic.
But you had Rice, you had Taylor, you had Rathman,
you had Roger Craig, you had a lot of all starts,
and you had guys on the defense. And Bill Walshrudz said, well,
he helped me. He stir the drink and I had
a fight with him at a fantasy thing long long ago.
(32:36):
So he's always on my mind. But all of that
to say, you know Troy Aikman's career with the Cowboys
three Super Bowls, but because he didn't throw it for
forty five hundred yards and thirty five touchdowns, he never
gets put into the categories of all time greats. Right.
Look at Terry Bradshaw, look at his run. He's he's
an also ran. Because you have all those guys that
(32:58):
get to the Hall of Fame. You know, Purdy doing
great things, He's mister irrelevant no matter what he does.
For Jalen Hurts because you have the offensive and defensive lines,
the glowing reports on the front office of how they've
assembled the team, and all of that. Jalen Hurts gets
pushed away. How many times do you think he rushed
the ball last years? Push aside, push that off to
(33:19):
the side. Four straight years of double digit rushing touchdowns.
How many times you think he ran the ball? One
hundred and twenty? He's at one hundred and fifty last year. Yeah,
that's about where he's averaging over the last four years.
So it's not just Saquon Barkley's running the ball three
hundred times. He's running the ball, yeah, one hundred and
fifty times a year. So you know, you've got to
look at it in totality. The guy's a winner, and
(33:41):
last year he put up nearly sixty eight percent completion rate.
It's only getting more efficient and better. He is.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
I don't get it. He is that good exit? How
about a Fresco exit swollen dome. Jason Smith Mike Harmon
Live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios. Coming up next,
our big final thoughts on the home run Derby, the
big Dumper controversy, and what you can fix on the
home run Derby.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
That's a easy fix. That's next Fox, What about Being Fixed.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific,
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 (00:22):
Ever give us you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Greetings, Welcome inside final hour tonight The Jason Smith Show
with my bes friend Mike Harmon. We're into the sixties, man,
I'll tell you. I know they only play forty minutes.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
I know this, but there's a minute to go in
the fourth quarter of the Lakers Clippers Summer League game
and the score is sixty one to fifty eight. What
do we always say, It doesn't have to be great,
it just needs to be closed late, dude.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
In forty minutes, an NBA team has not even scored
sixty points.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Last I look, the Lakers were shooting under thirty three. Same.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Come on, man, it's not like the Clippers shooting hell
of a lot o. They at least had a for it.
It started sixty sixty one to fifty eight with a
minute let the go.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
This is like a low scoring college game. Yeah, this
is like you know this getting after you? I mean
this really it's I mean, little nohen Richardson't getting after you.
This is just insane. I mean, this is the score
sixty three to fifty eight with forty seconds left, Bronny
(01:33):
with seventeen five and five, three of four from three
point range, six and nine from the field. I mean,
let's go.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Look, two big things to say, right, first thing on
first thing is Brownie because then we get to Lebron
and the interaction that happened with him and Rob Polinka tonight.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Uh. This we talked about the pressure on Bronnie, right,
and I'm being serious. This could be Bronni's last chance
to prove he can be a player with the Lakers,
because at some point Lebron's gonna be gone after the
the the end of this year, regardless, probably gonna happen
before that. How much loyalty do they have to developing
Bronnie James as a player, right, He was someone that
was drafted obviously, did the favor for Lebron, brought him
(02:10):
in and he is having so far a pretty good
Summer League. This has been his best game he's got
now in the preseason to show he can be a
rotation player or that's gonna be it. The pressure Bronny
is under right now is insane because he's looking at hey,
my NBA future right here, because no one's gonna give
him as much of a shot as the Lakers are
right now, with whatever loyalty they have left to lebron
(02:33):
keeping him here, keeping everybody happy, there is no better
chance he's going to have to break into the rotation
because that's really what he's going to be as an
NBA player. Can he be a rotation player? Can he
be the seventh, eighth, ninth guy off, the ninth guy
on the team, on the first unit, off the bench.
Can he be that player? The pressure on him is
absolutely immense right now, and so far, so good for him.
(02:56):
He's he's been pretty he's been pretty good in the summer.
He held his own against Cooper Flagg, having his best
game tonight, showing that maybe he can be that guy
in earnest spot in the rotation, because if he doesn't
do it now, this is his last chance with the Lakers. Yeah,
it's a world beating but you've seen signs of improvement.
You've seen more assertiveness in terms of his offensive game,
(03:17):
putting up shots and with more makes. Right, we had
that long streak last summer where it was how many
games will it be before he hits a three point shot.
Here he's going and confidently stepping into the line, making shots,
making plays and playing and maximizing his minutes. And that's
not to say he's anywhere near a finished product, but
(03:38):
be a certainty to make it to your point, A
men's pressure, loyalty to a point from the team because
of the whatever the relationship is ongoing with Lebron, But
you want to see him succeed because you don't want
to say all right and feed into the media narrative
that all it was was a favor to Lebron, as
(03:59):
it had been characterized all the way through that you
thought over time, remember he did have a heart issue
before last year and all of that coming through that,
he's still we talk about the ages of these players
coming into the NBA, that still a young guy trying
to make his way. It's not like he's suddenly gonna
have a six inch growth spur or any of that stuff.
(04:19):
But playing solid defense, showing ability to keep the basketball
moving and actually score with some regularity. Taken with the
grain of salt at summer league. But this is the
only thing you can evaluate, right you look at who's
on the schedule, what's on the schedule, and putting your
best foot forward. So I'm at least impressed for that. Right.
(04:40):
The guy is rising to the moment. Whether it's enough,
only time will tell. But for the moment, he's taking
care of his business. Now, speaking of taking care of business,
we have the latest with Lebron James. Okay, this is a.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Weekend in which we watched Rich Paul say, hey, I've
gotten calls from four teams about Lebron James, including the
Mavericks and the Clippers. Four teams have called me about Lebron.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
That's shy about saying who they are either, No, But
the other thing is, does he know that the league's
not going to touch him? And I know he's powerful
and he's got some big stars led by Lebron James.
And you talk about their whole catalog of players across
all sports that are under Clutch management as well as
media members. Is this like a double bird to Adam
Silver because that's not Hey, they contacted the Lakers like, eh,
(05:29):
we all know what talks, and these talks happen because
he did it during the draft. Yeah, hey, you know, Eshba,
don't don't make this move because here's what I'm gonna
make happen for Warriors, Cavaliers on right, these teams. So
you had Rich Paul say, hey, these teams have contacted me.
And over the weekend at the Lakers Summer League, when
Dave mcmanham and ESPN reporter who he and he and
(05:49):
Lebron have a you know, relationship that they go back
a while with, he said, hey, do you want to
talk about your future with the Lakers? And his response
was I don't got nothing to talk about. Okay. So now,
knowing full well this is going to get out. If
he could have just said no, thank you, I appreciate it,
but I'm not going to talk right out. Instead, I
got nothing to talk about. You know, the mcmnuman is
(06:10):
going to put that out there. This is the escalation
that the Lakers and Lebron have had with each other
over the past few months, where the Lakers are daring
Lebron to ask for a trade and Lebron's want the
Lebron wants the Lakers to say we're gonna trade you
or buy you out, one of the He wants one
of those things that this is just a continued escalation
(06:30):
from Hey, when we trade Luca, when we sell the team,
We're not gonna let you know we're selling the team.
We're not gonna let you know we're trading Anthony.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Davis and Lebron is wearing a welcome home hat in
Cleveland but saying, oh, this.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Is just a company I haven't done. Welcome home is
not a big deal.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Hey, why are you working out at the Cavaliers facility
on the fourth of July.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Oh no, No, they're just back here working up. It's
an escalation.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
They're fighting this in the media now because this is
what each side wants, right, Lakers want Lebron to ask
for a trade. Lebron wants Lakers say okay, where do
you want to go? Or we'll buy you out?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Right. These are the thing. This what each side is
escalating towards. And now you have what happened tonight. Lebron
at Summer League, walking with his family on the court,
says hello to all the Laker officials and gives a
quick handshake and a little hug to Rob Polinka. Okay,
now people are watching. I already see this on social media.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
It's oh Lebron doesn't look happy with Rob Polinka, or
oh look see these guys.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Are fine well and depending on how your angle, right, Oh,
he's looking away, he's looking through him that he's not
even acknowledging him. It's like the the forest end of
game handshake, where I'm looking somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
This is this is what you call a big nothing
burger because Lebron's not going with his family in tow
only one of his kid's hands. He's not gonna go
look like a jerk and not say hi to the coaches,
not say hi to Rob Polinka. Right again, each side
wants to win this war. They each want to win.
The Lakers don't want to feel like, hey, we're gonna
(07:56):
suffer backlash from our fans, from our team because we
push Lebron out. Lebron doesn't want to look like a
guy who's saying, oh, you're not cow tewing to me.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I want out.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
This is physical Lebron and the Lakers. Now, this is
not the battle being fought on social media and through
their agents with hey, this is happening here. This is
now Lebron and the Lakers. So yeah, here's a handshake.
Everything is cool. This is a nothing burger. It means
this is zero impact on the battle going on right
now between Lebron and the Lakers about what the next
(08:27):
move is going to be.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Now. To be fair, I think if you did a
pole of a couple million Laker fans saying that Lebron
wasn't on the roster for twenty twenty five, there might
be a shrug from a lot of them, or hey,
it was a good run, thanks for twenty twenty. We'll
see you down the road. We'll see you when someone
decides to pay for a statue or you pay for
(08:49):
your own. But it is the curiosity, right because you've
got the trade rumors that are out there, and certainly
you can find odds on Lebron's next team. Those are
certainly there. Lakers minus seven hundred, so what is that
about an eighty eight percent implied probability? Cavaliers are next
plus six hundred. They get really interesting because you're at
(09:10):
in the second apron, so you can't do the compositive.
Here's five salaries and we may still owe Keith van
Horn some money, so throw his as well. He can't
do that, so it could require a lot of creativity
for a trade. His NBA minimum veterans minimum is three
(09:30):
point three million for the year, if you were to
go down that path of what he could play for
reasonably the lowest common denominator of it all. But yeah,
the buyout trade market, Yeah, there's a little bit of
a standoff certainly going there and Rich Paul and you know,
flexing every chance he gets league wide or even in
(09:50):
this case of here's all the teams contacting. By the way,
it would appear that mcmhimon has now defeated Windhorst as
the Lebron James guy. Yeah, yeah, long gone. Yeah, he's
the guy. So he's the guy. So you know, you
have your relationships. We understand how the insider game works.
But this is what you're gonna get. You're gonna get
(10:11):
fed from from their side of how happy, unhappy or
nebulous comments like this interpreted how you will, and then
Lebron sits on social media waiting to see which way
the wind blows. But look, here's why trade's gonna happen. Okay,
because it come. It comes back down to this. It
comes down to this. Lebron has always been the most
alpha of alpha males in the NBA. He has been
(10:33):
the straw that stirred the drink. Now for over twenty years,
he has been shunted aside by the Lakers in favor
of Luka. Doncis right, even when when Lebron opted into
his contract, Rich Paul even said, we understand you're building
around Luca, but Lebron wants to win. But he knows
his statement was the most asinine thing. He has been
shunted to the side. Do you really think after all
(10:56):
of this that's gone on, the continued escalation of of
the battle with Lebron and the Lakers, where both sides
would like to move on from the other, do you
really think Lebron after all of this, can come back
and play for the Lakers in the fall?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Do you after all that's going on, he's gonna say, yes,
I'm gonna come and be an afterthought and play the
last year on my contract and have an expiring deal
and be a guy that doesn't even not even in
a loop on things. When the team is sold, we're
making trades. You're gonna take Luca out to dinner. You're
gonna build a run. I'm not gonna stand there while
you do this to me. You are going to a
(11:32):
give the horrible optic for me that I don't matter
and be really show that I don't matter.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
These things are not Lebron positive. He's not going to
go through that.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
So eventually it's gonna get to a point where the
rubber's gonna hit the road. But right now, it's okay
to have this escalation between Lebron wanting a trade, wanting
to say where do you want to go?
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Oral buy you out? And the Lakers saying we're gonna
keep doing this until you demand a trade. Like one
of those things is going to break sometime in the
next few weeks and we're gonna and again, Cleveland's the
only real place he can go. It's the only real
place he can go back. And if the Cavaliers want
to make it work, and I'm sure they will because
there'll be a whole bunch of teams getting involved to
make it work money wise, like it's going to happen.
(12:15):
Could it get to a point where Lebron is so
desperate he goes someplace other than Cleveland. Yeah, but boy,
I really don't see that because if he goes someplace
else and doesn't win, he hurts his image, he hurts
his legacy. Oh look, Lebron tried to go to the
Mavericks and win didn't app He tried to go to
the Knicks and win didn't happen. Tried to go to
the Warriors and team up with Steph and it didn't happen.
But if it gets desperate enough, I can see him
(12:36):
doing it. But that is not an option right now.
It's Cleveland because I can go back home and if
I lose, Okay, I still went home for the end
of my career.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
I finished at home. I had a big tour, I
wave goodbye to everybody. I helped the Donovan, Mitchell and
everybody as much as I could. But it really but
it doesn't matter because I'm finishing at home for my career.
The trade, I'm telling you, the trade is gonna happen. Yeah,
I still don't think he'd win that one. The other
is as I sold my daughters with some.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Of the classes that they hate for school or people
in work scenarios right the time of the year where
stuff gets really busy, this too shall pass. You can
do anything for a couple of months. Right, you may
not like that chemistry class, but again, eventually you're gonna
take the final and it's going to be in the
rear view mirror. Now, if you're choosing a path where
there's gonna be another chemistry class, then you might want
(13:23):
to reconsider those things. But or the job. Eventually you
got to say, well, maybe this isn't for me, or
the relationship, or go all the way through it. You
can do anything for a little stretch of time. And
Lebron like, look at how quickly they had to do
reverse course and put out the damage control because it
was a bad narrative that Lebron hadn't been notified of
(13:44):
the Lakers sale to Mark Walter. Oh they told Luca,
but they didn't tell you. Well, no, they eventually they
top to yeah, he had been informed. But it made
for a nice narrative to get everybody all up in
arms and mad. It's curious to see.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, but the whole thing is like, obviously he wasn't
told before it happened. He wasn't told first. He was
told at some point, oh yeah, yeah, we're selling. To
make sure you call Lebron, I don't worry about I'll
tell them whatever.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Just go back in the phone list and decide where
you were on the chain call list, like back when
they had to tell you practice was canceled when you
were in Little league. Hey, why am I biting behind
the Shotie on this list? I'm a better player than him.
But the Dallas thing is interesting. Just we talk about
Cooper Flag a lot, and you've got his old buddies
Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving up in there, so that
(14:32):
would be an interesting run. But at this point, I
don't know. You've got the Lebron sick of fans, and
you got the people that hate him, and then you
got a bunch of us in the middle, just kind
of going all right, figure it out and go play basketball.
I like watching you play basketball. The rest of this
this stuff, I'll watch Love Island or some other bed
soap opera on television instead.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Exit about a Fresca. Exit swallen, doome ignore all of
these signs at your own peril. Telling you just they're
daring each other right now, and the anti gets upped
every single day.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Send to a walk. You're the one that's making the rounds. Now,
what do we got Lebron standing with his teammates? Then
he was hanging out with DeAndre Ayton, right he actually
met him? Now?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Oh, hey, dear do hey John, I'll send you that
text right now. Hey, welcome to the team, DeAndre, I'll
send you that text. Exit up bouta Fresca, Exit swollen Dome.
Jason Smith Mike Harmon Live from the Fox Sports Radio studios.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
We got a big NFL story coming up next to
Super Bowl winning quarterback is being defended by his head
coach for being overrated. Wait, what that's next? Right here,
Jason Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Hey it's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
twenty two minutes of pipe in hot baseball talk, featuring
the biggest names the newsmakers in the sport. Whether you
believe in analytics or the eye test, We've got all
the bases covered. New episodes dropped every Thursday, So do
yourself a favor and listen to Inside the Partner with
(16:17):
Rob Parker on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you
get your podcast.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon. Yeah, buddy, hell, Look I always say
I said a few minutes ago, I want to be fair.
I want to be fair. I want to be fair, right.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I said the the Lebron James coming to Summer lead time. Look,
I told you a few minutes ago, he's getting traded, right,
It's happening. It's gonna happen. The Lakers are shunting him inside.
Everything that's going on right now is just to continued
escalation from both sides. The Lakers want Lebron to ask
for a trade so they can trade him. Lebron wants
the Lakers to say where do you want to go?
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Or will buy you? Out right?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Every bit has been an escalation since the Lakers got
Luka Doncic. So I wanted to say, hey, listen, okay,
may not mean anything. Lebron at the game tonight, with
his kids holding their hands, says hi to all the
Lakers coaches and then gives a quick dap and hug
to Rob Polenka. I don't think there's anything incredibly awkward there.
(17:15):
I don't think there's anything incredibly controversy you can read into.
He's holding his kids hands. He's not going to be
a jerk, He's not whatever it is, where's our body
language experts. I'm here saying hi right now. So I
want to say that going into what Frosburg brought up
a few moments ago, because this picture was just put
(17:36):
up by the Lakers about a half hour ago. This
is from tonight's game in Vegas, and again Lebron was
there with his whole family.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
After the game.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Lakers players, not the players playing in the summer League,
you know, real live Lakers players were going to be
playing on the team this fall. They pose for a
picture on the court. DeAndre Ayton is all the way
screen right, and there's six of them in the picture. Sure,
there's five Lakers teammates who are close together, shoulder to shoulder,
putting their fingers up. He signed hey if thing and
(18:09):
and and then a little bit to the side with
his hands around his daughter. Is Lebron James. He is
very obviously not shoulder to shoulder with his teammates. He's
standing off to the side.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
With his daughter. It's incredibly awkward. Does this mean anything, No,
but it doesn't mean it's not incredibly awkward. Hitting he's
dead eye into the camera. Yeah, and he looks like
he's been photoshopped in. Yeah, yeah it does.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
It does look like, Hey, we're gonna photo shop Lebron
and drop him in over here.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
I mean, it is.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
It is really awkward. It is a it is typically
a Lebron picture eye. I can see him just not
being shouldered to shoulder with his teammates.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
I get it. But after everything going on.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
He is he is very definitively a step and a
half to the side of the five players.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
It's really kind of interesting. It's so awkward. Look look
at the look on his face.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I know I don't want it. It was like, I don't
want to be in the picture. Whatever, I need to
do this, you made me be here. Everybody else is
smiling for the camera. Hey, I'm very excited, you know,
given the peace sign, everything is cool.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Yeah, that's great now Lebron.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Okay, And he's got the bucket hat down like over
his head, like there could be a bucket hat off
between him and Tyler Hero to see who wins that.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
That'll be a tough one man the bucket, the bucket
had head off, and also maybe bucket heead the guitarist
could be in it, but he actually wears a real
but he's the gun in his head.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Yea yeah, but I mean really, I mean, look it
could I want to tell you what stuff means stuff
and what doesn't Lebron and Rich Paul saying, four teams
have called me about Lebron. Why would he be saying
that if Lebron is a Laker, right, why would he
be saying that over the weekend, four teams have called me?
Why would that happen? There's no reason.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Why would Lebron say I got nothing to talk about
what he's asked, Hey, you want to talk about your
role with the Lakers, all you have to do is
say I'm a Laker looking forward to the season, but
this weekend, that's who you said to Dave McManaman. Those
are things to see, those are things to take stuff
away from. Right.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Why the Lakers don't tell Lebron things, why they're building
around Luca, Why they're not going out to get a
center until they trade for Luca. When Lebron had been saying, hey,
get me a center for the last couple of years.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
This could not mean this.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I'm not gonna sit here and say and and slant
stuff one way or the other.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
One.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
I said this this handshake that that he did before
the game. Yeah, that was fine. There could be nothing
about this picture at all except wow, it's really awkward.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
No, it's at least a good uh thought piece. This
is one you print off and bring to the put
up alongside the water corner and ask for coming.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
It's like during COVID when the one person the pictures like,
I don't want to be too close because you never know.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
I'm gonna be off to the side. I'll be in
the picture with you, but I'll be off to the side.
There's a lot of photos that you can now date.
Yeah this is without the metadata, but you can date
it for them for that process. Here is that you
might think there's Lebron there's like, yeah, yea dearly doesn't
want to be in the picture, and I'm with my
Lakers teammates. But I'm not really with my Lakers teammates.
(20:57):
Let's see. They want Broun to be shoulder to shoulder
with his teammate while his daughter holds his hand down
he's staying a Laker while you like it, whether you
like it or not. Zuried to the Lakers.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Confirmed again, you can read whatever you want to into
this picture. You have it the comments handshake right, but
in the end, okay, the handshake was fine. This is
somebody cropped him out and just said here, let me
just fix that. In response to the Lakers putting up
squad showing out and Las Vegas just going on down,
(21:29):
do you think Lebron texted Deondre eight and all the
way from that side of the picture, welcome to the team.
He sent a text here, hey's gonna tell dude, you could.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Just tell me. We're like, you're only like eight feet away. Hey,
welcome to the team. Is that Lebron James poker face?
It's again, it's just staring at because poker's been in
the news, right, you got the World Series of Poker.
You got that guy that got thrown out because he
wouldn't shut up everybody. You got thrown out. He got bad. Yeah,
indefinite uh run for screaming and causing a ruckus along
(22:00):
the way. But yeah, just the responses to this or
just I can't read half of them, but that's that's
pretty good stuff.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
So again, nothing to see here, nothing to see here.
Lebron is very happy to be a Laker.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Eddie's gonna stay well because you got plenty of folks
going wow, I thought Lebron hated his teammates. Like, you've
been serious. There's no sarcasm. Font We'll get to the
big football story coming up in ninety seconds.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
But first, a guy who's been called the Lebron James
of Fox Sports Radio because when he poses for pictures
he likes to stand to the side and not be
shouldered to shoulder with anyone.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
It is Steve de Sager with what's trending? I got
nothing to say. We'll get to the baseball news and
the cow rally win at the home run.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
When he's asked about his future, he's got nothing to say.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
In the late Summer league game in Vegas tonight, the
Lakers lost sixty seven to fifty eight to the Clippers.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Brady played all four quarters. Right, they didn't stop.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
School games, and somebody's losing by fifty now. Bronni James
had seventeen points, five rebounds, five assists. Dalton connect has
not had a great summer to this point three of
fifteen shooting for the Lakers tonight, including one of eight
from three point range. Among the other games, the Hawks
won in overtime against Houston, Jacob topp in twelve points
in fourteen minutes, but he left with a hip injury.
(23:19):
The Rockets reed Shephard was shut down after playing two games.
Cooper Flag of Dallas shut down after two games this summer.
He did score thirty one of their sixty nine points
on Saturday. The team only scored sixty nine tonight against Charlotte,
losing as Charlotte first rounder Khan Kinnepel had sixteen. The
NBA Summer League was seven more games tomorrow. It goes
(23:40):
till July. The twentieth spur center Victor wimban Yama is
cleared to return after the blood cloud at his shoulder
last season. The seventy six ers Paul George had Arthur
scopikknee surgery after an injury in a recent workout. The
Cavaliers gave team president Kobe Altman an extension through twenty
thirty in the WNBA. Minnesota is now nineteen and four
after winning at chio Icago ninety one, seventy eight and
(24:01):
AFISA Collier twenty nine points. She's one of the All
Star Game captains along with Caitlin Clark. The WNBA All
Star Game is this Saturday in Indianapolis, Atlanta All Star
Ryan Howard out for the rest of the month with
a knee injury. For Chicago Tonight, All Star reserve Angel
Reese had twenty two points, ten rebounds, five turnovers. Phoenix
is fifteen and six after winning on a last second
(24:23):
free throw seventy eight seventy seven at Expansion Golden State.
As for the NFL news, the Jets gave wide receiver
Garrett Wilson a four year extension. The Jets were five
and twelve last year. He had one hundred and one receptions.
Chargers wide receiver Mike Williams will start training camp on
the pup list physically unable to perform. The Florida Panthers
will raise their second straight Stanley Cup banner after starting
(24:46):
the NHL season October seventh against Chicago. The rest of
the league's schedule comes out on Wednesday, and this will
be the NHL's last eighty two game regular season before
going to eighty four games as part of the new CBA.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Because we need more games in the NA and more
give you the NBA.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Two.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
Let's get to ninety ninety five. Let's get there, and
then you'll have your hundred million dollar player. If the
NHL plays one thousand games a year, we might have
a hundred million dollar player in that sport.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Well, I don't know. St if you see some of
those big salaries in the NHL, not what they.
Speaker 5 (25:17):
Were, certainly not. Meanwhile, cal Rally won a million dollars.
Just tonight, the Mariners catcher, a switch hitter, won the
home run Derby in Atlanta, first catcher to win this.
He beat Tampa Bay's Junior Camonaro eighteen fifteen in the
final dhhow Hey Otania. The Dodgers will lead off in
the National League and Tuesday Nights All Star Game. Atlanta's
own Ronald Acunya will bat second for the American League lineup.
(25:40):
Aaron Judge will bat third tomorrow than cal Raley fourth.
Raleigh of Seattle committed to play for Team USA and
next year's World Baseball Classic. The team's captain is Aaron
Judge of the Yankees. The Americans are due to play
games in March in Houston and Miami. The MLB Draft
finished today. Twenty rounds total. The Tampa Bay Rays will
be sold, according to the Athletic, for one point seven
(26:01):
billion dollars. The buyers are led by a Florida based developer.
Former Blue Jays pitcher Jim Clancy died at age sixty nine.
He was an All Star in nineteen eighty two. Major
League Baseball's regular season games resume on Friday. Reminder, Fox
TV has Tuesday nights All Star Game.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Back to You, Thank You, Steve O, The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmen live from the Fox Sports Radio studios.
So insiders, coaches, front office members, scouts all were asked
very big column on ESPN dot com TA. They got
(26:38):
a lot of attention early on in the day. I
was like, Wow, this has got a big deal because
they were all asked to rank the NFL quarterbacks one
to thirty two. Right, best quarterbacks in the NFL. Rank
them one to thirty two. Right again, scouts, coaches, insiders,
personnel people, are we doing the bottom ten? I tried
to pitch the bottom ten earlier today. You never acknowledge
(26:58):
my note. No, they were all asked, all asked to
rank the top quarterbacks in the game. One to thirty two. Again, coaches,
multiple coaches, scouts, multiple scouts, insiders, multiple insiders, front office,
multiple people, and they came up with the top five.
(27:20):
That is the exact same list I gave you in
January when I told you who the best quarterbacks in
the NFL were. Because in January I said, listen, there's
four great quarterbacks in the NFL. Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson,
Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes. Sure is what makes a great quarterback.
You win, You win games, your team win games because
of you, and you make everybody around you better. Right,
(27:42):
those three things, those are your four best quarterbacks. Right.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
If Matthew Staffords a little younger, maybe he would be
in that list. But win games, win games by yourself,
make everybody better. Four guys, Burrow, Lamar, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes.
And our topic that night was you have to now
add Jayden Daniels to this list because he is that good.
One year rookie doesn't matter. Those are the five best
quarterbacks in the NFL. What list does ESPN put out today?
(28:09):
Five best quarterbacks? Mahomes, Alan Lamar, Jackson, Joe Burrow, Jayden Daniels.
There's your list. We did the work of however, many
countless people six months ago, by these are the best
guys in the league.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
What what do you need this for? Why you got
the tiebreaker by an eighth of an inch because because
I had five and six flop, but we still got to.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
The same time. These are the guys, These are the guys.
These are the guys. Like I did the work of.
I can now not only be an insider, but I
could apparently be a coach. I could be front office,
I could be a scout, the pr guy.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
I know.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
And you're saving money with me because I could do
all of these jobs apparently because this way all of
the information everybody you looked at it. Oh, and I said,
these are the five guys, these are the best quarterbacks,
and tada, these are the top five guys on the list.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
It's funny that we get to that endgame so quickly.
With Daniels obviously massive rookie season can't be understated how
how special he was, and even though he played hurt
for a good chunk of the year, which limited the
you know, Hail Mary pass that will live in infamy
(29:17):
in Chicago was the one that he couldn't get it
to the end zone because he was still dealing with
the after effects of that. And so you know, four
to five the offensive line, maybe he'll run a little
less and keep himself out of harm's way. But all
of that to say that he had a massive year
and for once in a Kingsbury led offense, there was
no second half letdown and so Jade Daniels is special
(29:41):
just because of that. Now, to take it a step further.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
After the Super Bowl, I said, look, he's not quite
top five guy, but Jalen Hurts his number six and
what he did in the playoffs and specifically the Super Bowl,
which is one of the great all time performances by
a quarterback, blew out the Chiefs great defense. He did
everything in this game, throwing the football, running the football.
Jalen Hurts his number six. Now, maybe he doesn't quite
(30:08):
have the resume doing quite as much as some of
these other guys, but right below that top five that's
Jalen Hurts, which is ridiculous today when we saw the
story that Nick Siriani has had to defend Jalen Hurts
that he was along for the ride for the Eagles
team that won the Super Bowl last year, he said,
that's a bunch of bs. I can't believe people are
saying that about Jalen Hurts. And you know what, I
(30:29):
don't always agree with Nick Sirianni. In fact, as many
times I don't, but I am complete with him on this.
Jalen Hurts is fantastic. Again, He's the sixth best quarterback
in the league. I put him by himself on that
second rung of you know guys, right below the five
elite players because he has done it with really good weapons.
He has done it without good weapons. Is he quite
(30:51):
as dynamic as some of these other courts? No, but
still you have to account all of his offense, not
just throwing the football, but what he does running the
football as well.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
You can't.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Well, eighteen touchdowns and five picks, no, no count the
rushing Touchdowns't they count for everybody? Now you're at to
thirty two to thirty three touchdowns and five picks last year.
The off he butt's out there over thirty five hundred yards.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
But Sakuon Barkley, Okay, Yes, Saquon Barkley had a great year,
had it phenomenally one of the great years of all
time by a running back, So, yeah, he's gonna get
three hundred and fifty carries last year. There's only so
many offensive plays, So yeah, when you're running the ball
that well, you're clearly not gonna throw it as much.
But oh, by the way, they still threw it. No,
by the way, who also had a good year running
(31:32):
the football for the Eagles? Oh, Jalen Hurts. And when
it got to the playoffs and Barkley slowed down at
Big Trember, we said, this is the biggest thing for
the Eagles in the playoffs. It's a long season. He's
getting up closer to thirty. What's he gonna have left
in the playoffs? He wasn't nearly the same dynamic running back.
Doesn't matter who took over Jalen Hurts and they won
the Super Bowl and he had he had three phenomenal
(31:54):
games capping it off for his best in the Super Bowl.
Jalen Hurts is that good? I don't get any Jalen
Hurts hate at this point in his career. Well, he's
the guy that's gonna get lumped in with so many
others that have been great in team sports, where where
you kind of diminished it a little bit as you
talk about the surrounding cast. You look at those old
(32:15):
forty nine er teams, Joe Montana, Steve Young were fantastic.
But you had Rice, you had Taylor, you had Rathman,
you had Roger Craig, you had a lot of all starts,
and you had guys on the defense. And Bill Walshrudz said, well,
he helped me. He stir the drink and I had
a fight with him at a fantasy thing long long ago.
(32:36):
So he's always on my mind. But all of that
to say, you know Troy Aikman's career with the Cowboys
three Super Bowls, but because he didn't throw it for
forty five hundred yards and thirty five touchdowns, he never
gets put into the categories of all time greats. Right.
Look at Terry Bradshaw, look at his run. He's he's
an also ran. Because you have all those guys that
(32:58):
get to the Hall of Fame. You know, Purdy doing
great things, He's mister irrelevant no matter what he does.
For Jalen Hurts because you have the offensive and defensive lines,
the glowing reports on the front office of how they've
assembled the team, and all of that. Jalen Hurts gets
pushed away. How many times do you think he rushed
the ball last years? Push aside, push that off to
(33:19):
the side. Four straight years of double digit rushing touchdowns.
How many times you think he ran the ball? One
hundred and twenty? He's at one hundred and fifty last year. Yeah,
that's about where he's averaging over the last four years.
So it's not just Saquon Barkley's running the ball three
hundred times. He's running the ball, yeah, one hundred and
fifty times a year. So you know, you've got to
look at it in totality. The guy's a winner, and
(33:41):
last year he put up nearly sixty eight percent completion rate.
It's only getting more efficient and better. He is.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
I don't get it. He is that good exit? How
about a Fresco exit swollen dome. Jason Smith Mike Harmon
Live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios. Coming up next,
our big final thoughts on the home run Derby, the
big Dumper controversy, and what you can fix on the
home run Derby.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
That's a easy fix. That's next Fox, What about Being Fixed.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific,
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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