July 9, 2026 • 29 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon weigh in on the latest in the LeBron sweepstakes.
Jason Smith: "LeBron James is going to sign when he feels loved the most from the team that wants to sign him... To me, it's going to be Cleveland!"
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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
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon. Be sure to check out our YouTube
channel for the show. Just search Jason Smith Show within YouTube. Again,
that's Jason Smith's show. Hit the subscribe button. If you've
done that, tap the thumbs icon, comment away, whether you
agree or disagree, let us know what you think. Again,
(00:49):
just search Jason Smith's show on YouTube and subscribe. So
big day. The Emmy Awards nominations being announced today. We
talked about Widow was Bay last.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Hour a little disappointed?
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Oh no, dude, Widows Bay was fantastic.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Eh, you know, ending was kind of mad.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
The ending was a little man. I agree with that,
but I but again, sometimes that's a byproduct of boy.
The show was really good. How are you going to end? It.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
No, don't give me that.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
We are there more dragons. I think what happened was widows,
more dragons, widows, baby case less house they knew. Oh
House of Dragon is so boring. No, it's better now,
but come on, so many dragons.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
There's a lot of dragons, only a couple of houses.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Last dragons.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
It really was, he's a.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
That or they're really trying to get me to watch
it because I load the app and it starts to
do the auto play, trying to tease, hey, get in
on this.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
It's always a different.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
Dragon, a lot of dragons. Now the dragons are the
main characters. They've killed all the humans.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Do they all speak to each other?
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Now?
Speaker 5 (01:49):
You said too much house, not dragons. Now there's barely
any houses, all dragons. Okay, all right, all right, it's
really good. Okay, all right, but Widows Bay was mad.
All right, no, no, the on the edding.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
But I feel like Widows Bay was this show, Hey,
we're gonna do it, and we're gonna have a season.
And as they were doing it and they realized, we
know this is going to be a hit. It's testing. Well,
it's all this, how do we end it? Where we're
setting up a second season, and so sometimes the setup
isn't as great because Widows Bay clearly looks to me
like in Look eighteen Nominations, it was just so well done.
(02:19):
It deals with a lot of horror movie tropes. It's scary,
it's funny. But I feel like that's that's one of
those shows where we had one season planned and it's fantastic.
We have all the like many shows where hey, we
have the first season planned, we're gonna do X, Y
and Z. Then we're gonna do A, B and C,
a little bit of D, E and F, A no,
and any question I have the answer to. But then
(02:40):
what about the second season if it gets renewed, Oh,
we got a lot of ideas, and they really don't
have ideas.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Or we picked you up for six episodes, and then
all of a sudden, it's like, hey, we want to extend, so.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
We need to end it in such a we need
to end it in such a way where we can
get to a second season if we're renewed, where it
also seems like it's the ending. So I think that's
sometimes what happens. So I'm not gonna go gonna kill
the ending of Widow's Bay too much real just because
of that. Yeah, no, because I get it where hey,
this became a big sensation and now how do we
we got to get to the next season? So it's
a little awkward at the end.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Did you see it?
Speaker 5 (03:10):
Harmon?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
I don't see it yet.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
No, that's that's that's on my list next that and
Slow Horse.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Is I gonna go pick back?
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Okay, I won't spawn anything. I just feel like it
was such a build up to just like that's how
you're gonna end it. You're just gonna ride it off
and just be like, Okay, that's all it was.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
It was.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
It was more of a like, for example, right.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
But it's more of like, what what just happened at
the end?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Remember Cabin in the Woods? How much you loved it?
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Right?
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Like it gave me that feel at the end, and
I was like, really like, that's what we're building up for.
And then there's the random mechanic guy, really like, that's
what we're gonna do. It just seems so mad.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
It was.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, it did. Like I said, I'm with you, it
did not end great. But I think that's part of
it is that we had a great idea for season one,
and I'm sure if they wanted to do it all
encapsulated in one season, they had a hell of an ending.
But now we got to leave it open. So what
do we do. Well, we'll do the best weekend.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
Yeah, it's just they did such a good job. They
at least should have just ended it and then do
something else if you want to.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
The one I'm worried about. Honestly, I worry more about Pluribus.
I mean, eighteen nominations and plurals fantastic television. But it
was just there were times where where it was a
last episode and now we all DIEU is that the
first Well they killed the whole line. You know, it's
the first Vince Gilligan show since Breaking Bad, and it
(04:27):
was done so well and it grabs you right away,
and it's a very Vince Gilligan style. But I don't
know that there was enough plot for the number of
episodes they had. I felt like that there was times
where I said, Okay, it's dragging a little bit here,
and I got that sense a little bit with better
call Saul, like in like the third season, I'm like, Okay,
they're kind of dragging a little bit, but overall I
(04:47):
love Plurbis, can't wait to see what's next. They ended
great on a big upswing. Okay, this is what we're
gonna get now. But overall for Plurbus, I thought, yeah this,
You know, I don't think some of this slow revealed
tension is landing like it did with Better Call Solar
Breaking Bad because look, the whole the whole plot of
Pluribus is you know, uh, Kim Wexler from Better Call Salt, Uh,
(05:10):
she's the last woman left on Earth. You think after
this big alien plague comes in and everybody's getting controlled
by these Aliensah the hi've mine right? Yeah, exactly, so
Ria Seahorn Kim Wexler. So Ria Sea Horn is the
last person and trying to figure out this mystery. And
when you want to play slow scenes wide angles in
(05:31):
Breaking Bed and Better Call Soul at work, because there
could be a scene where Walter White is just making
eggs for forty five seconds and I'm going, what's gonna happen,
What's gonna Oh my god, something's gonna happen. Something's gonna happen.
Like that was the kind of tension that you had
because of the show it was this is more it's
a mystery. So if you have a minute and a
half scene of her watching something on a VCR that
(05:52):
she's just making notes on, I'm going, okay, I'm this
is not building any tension towards me. I'm just kind
of watching her notes on after she's watching something in
the VCR. Something I could get after ten seconds. I
don't need another forty seconds of her watching and making
a note and watching making it like it just didn't
because it's a different show. It's a different feel. It's
(06:13):
more of a mystery and a slower build where better
call Saul and breaking bed. Okay, you know what's happening,
and there's a lot of tension. I think because of that,
it was slow. It was a little bit slow for me.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Okay, yeah, I feel like the way you describe. I'm
gonna go back and watch the original v The Invasion
from NBC.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
All those years on VHS, on v that too.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
But like recognizing how much TV I've watched and how
much I've missed. By the Emmy nomination is coming out,
It's like, Wow, I watched that show, watch that. Wow,
I'm watching way too much TV. Because you combine that
with the amount of hours spent watching random games to
prep for the show and do content.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I'm like, boy, I really need to get outside more.
I really think this is something. And if someone wants
to do this, take take this idea and do I
really like to see the answer is that at the
when we get the nominees for the Oscars, right, for
the main categories, the four main categories, right or the
six main categories film Director, Actor, Actress, Best Supporting Actor,
(07:16):
Best Supporting Actress, look at all the movies that are
represented and tell me how many of those you've seen
versus let's take the tech Let's say there's twenty movies
represented in those in those categories. Right, have to say
there's twenty movies represented, and you take the top twenty
television shows nominated for Emmys. I guarantee you the average
(07:37):
entertainment subscriber imbiber watcher will have watched more of the
television shows and it's not going to be close versus
the number of movies that were that they watch it
were nominated twenty TV shows versus the top twenty movies.
When it comes to Emmy and Oscar nominations. Way more
people will have seen more of the television shows than
(07:58):
of the Oscars. Well, I'm getting ready to go watch
more on on Friday, so let's go. I'm gonna get that.
Oscar season started early. Speaking of a season, according to
Shams Tarania, the Lebron James sweepstakes are down three teams,
not one, not to three teams, and the Golden State
Warriors isn't one of them? Still have the second on
(08:18):
the Calci Yeah, the Warriors. It's kind of it's an idea.
It's fun for five minutes, and I'm sure it was,
you know, like I like to say, when you're walking
down a mall hallway and someone should, you know, flying
one of those little toy helicopters. You go, well, that's
fun for five minutes, and you buy it and you
fly it and it crashes once it doesn't work anymore.
So it's something fun for five minutes. I think it
was fun for five minutes to think, oh, hey, me
(08:40):
and Ad with Steph and Draymond boy a traveling road show.
That'd be fun. But then after five minutes and you realize, okay,
we're not getting Ad in a trade, and it's where
you know we're now be three guys that are forty
years old. We're gonna get our asses kicked every single night.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
No, I'm not going to Golden State. Right, But the
three finalists, the Cavaliers, seventy six Ers and the Heat.
The Heat, I think are oh I swear, I think
the Heat are only on the list just because Lebron
says I want to put them out there just to
make pat Riley sweat. Well, it is a TV just
to make him sweat that I might have to come
back and he's got to kiss my ass again after
(09:17):
all the bad stuff when he got so mad when
I left all those years ago. Right, I get that Jannison,
he and bam Adebayo that has a little bit of
intrigue for him. But I really think I just want
met pat Riley to sweat. Is he gonna go to
the Sixers? Sixers are really intriguing because they're building their
team kind of like the Knicks. We're building a great
starting five and we're paying them a lot of money.
(09:37):
The big trade for Jalen Brown, which was fantastic, but
Lebron would be go to the seventy six Ers and
if he failed there the end of his career would
be a downer. I've said from the beginning, he's going
to the Catholic set of a year ago, the only
place where he can go where he can potentially win.
But if he doesn't, the safety net of I went
home is the way it ends for him. Right, That's
(09:59):
what And again I go back to he wouldn't let
the Cavaliers be one of the final three being widely
reported if he was just going to jilt them again, right,
they're He's not gonna do that. If the Cavaliers weren't
going to be the destination, you would not hear them mention.
You would hear Shams would say Cavaliers are not in play.
It's gonna be the Warriors. But the fact that it's
(10:21):
either Cleveland or seventy six ers, or that he tells
me he's going he's going to Cleveland. He's just waiting again.
And when he's going to sign, I'll tell you when
he'll sign when he feels like the team he wants
to sign with has shown him enough love. Right Like
Rick Bucker. We talked about it with him last hour
on the show, and he said, look, look, Lebron likes
the attention. We know this, But when he feels like
(10:44):
the Cavaliers have shown him enough love, that's what he'll say.
He's returning and donno and Mitchell showed him a lot
of love yesterday by saying, Hey, I'll re up this year,
not wait till next year. I'll shoe eighty million dollars
Lebron to show you that we are a you away
from winning the title. Come home. Lebron will come play
for a couple years, most likely still got a lot
left in the tank. So hey, this is what we're
building for. So there was a big eighty million dollar
(11:06):
I'll re up now, just so you know I'm gonna
be here. We're gonna contend, and I'm gonna be here.
But Lebron will wait. And and maybe it's it's the
seventy six ers starting five showing up at his house
building an addition, like it's an episode of Extreme Makeover,
you know where it's trading spaces and now we're gonna
build this and it's gonna be a seventy six ers
room and seventy six ers colors and all this stuff.
When that team shows him the love and he's gotten
(11:28):
the most love, he's going to get That's when he
will say, this is where I'm coming, and it's gonna
be Cleveland. Well, I mean I joked about it yesterday.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
We've got the the Odyssey and the Road Home, so
you got that for Cleveland. So that's all finding good.
How about throwing out the first pitch at this year's
All Star Game, Welcome New Philadelphia seventy six ers. That was, yeah,
you know the last time I remember something like that happening,
(11:57):
the opening pitch, Like my memory is.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Right, is that when I remember working. I was working
on Sports Center that night as a PA when Michael
Jordan came out to throw out the first pitch at
a White Sox game, and the story had broke right
basically right before the game began that he was retiring,
right the first retirement, and he was whisked off the
(12:19):
mound and didn't say anything or talk to anybody, And
this became the story Michael Jordan's retiring from the NBA
because I remember seeing I think there's mane him throwing
out the first pitch and then boom, like at that
point everybody in the ballpark knew he's retiring. Was that
and it was zoom? He was just gone, and I
was like, okay, so that that would be the whole
thing with Lebron James. Can you imagine Lebron throwing out
the first pitch, not at the seventy six Ers game,
(12:40):
but throwing out the first pitch at a Guardians game
and then being announced new seventy six Ers Lebron James.
Can you imagine that? I like it. I like the chaos, Dan,
and I don't know what you got in Miami.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
If the World Cup Final was there, he could have
been the guy to present the ball. Oh say, that's
New York, New Jersey, so it doesn't work. But I
almost had that triumvirate right there. Look, he knows at.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
This point he can only go so long before he
has to make a decision, keep people going, and eventually,
while no one is you know, we've talked about this too,
no one is waiting on Lebron to go make another move,
so he can take as long as he's either these
teams are either gonna add Lebron or they're not gonna
add Lebron. Right, that's how it's gonna go. And that's
why when he wants to sign, I want to sign
(13:26):
with a finished product, not that oh, I'm gonna sign
here because you promised to go get these other guys.
Players have been burned with that in the past. Now
these are finished products. I can either go there or
I won't go there. They're not waiting for him, They're
not waiting for him to do something else. But for Lebron,
he knows that I can only keep this going so long.
So when I know that I've gotten it at the eight,
Like when you have a player in fantasy who has
(13:46):
come out of nowhere, had a couple of big weeks,
and you want to make a trade, you go, I
gotta trade him now, because I'm trading him now at
his highest value, right like the highest value Lebron has.
That's when he will make his decision that he will go.
And it's gonna be Cleveland again. All the reasons we've
talked about. I'd be absolutely stunned if it was someplace else.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. Yep,
and just got to say goodbye to our longtime editor
and producer Ian Roddy, who says, last night with us
here at Fox Sports Radio, got a new gig at
NFL Network. I think he's running programming. Yeah, he's taking
over of NFL Network. Yeah, he's gonna put he's gonna
the Jets fan like me. He's gonna put all Jets
(14:35):
games on during the day at a full time. So
that's what's gonna Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Well he had to put up with me a lot
because he did the Fantasy podcast the last couple of years.
A lot of screaming, a lot of yelling, a lot
of extra takes, whatever. So yeah, great, great guy to
work with. We wish him the best and as he
takes over the world. Yeah, no, there's not another Jets
fan here.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Well, I mean there's still plenty of line in the weeds. Yeah,
I know. But still like I you know, you get
to take all the fall now.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
I mean, I get I guess misery loves Company. Is
that all it comes back to? I mean yeah, I
mean the Knicks still one. Yeah, No, in the end,
that's what it all comes I mean, you'll be alone
and crying in your beer yourself a little bit more
with me pointing and laughing.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah. Like like I'm been envisioning myself, like watching the news,
and it's like, and we have credible evidence the world
is going to end at midnight. But the Knicks won
the championship, and okay, we're gonna roll out with some
of the best of Jalen Brunson as the world cracks
apart down the middle. The last thing I'll watch is
his box of cooking wem beyond that layup three two,
(15:38):
there's the og tip in the world. And the last
thing the world heard was Mike Breen say, fifty three
years New York. It's real. You go ahead and cry.
Oh man, I tell you you just I could see
you overcome with emotion just I mean for Ian leaving obviously, right,
(16:01):
but yes, no, I mean just overwhelmed. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
can hardly contain yourself. Yeah, Like I like I told
my wife when she I said, you know, people always
pick the music they wanted their funeral and everything else
and all that. I said, Oh, no, I want you
to play the last the last five minutes of game four. Actually,
if it's a long service, go from go from right
(16:21):
when Wemby gets the flagrant, and take it from there.
All the way to the end.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Yeah, I've got this pretty well choreographed. I mean, the
playlist for the uh the waight continues to evolve over time,
all right, but yeah, the playlist is the few big
highlights in my sports world because over forty years, I
got about three and a half minutes that you just
put on a loop.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
If you could all be seated, Jason's ceremony is going
to take place right now. No one's going to speak. Instead,
we're going to watch Game four, the final seventeen minutes
from the nine to forty three mark of the third quarter,
when Victor wembin Yama picks up his flagrant foul. We
joined Mike Bring with the call already in progress.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Notice that you've all been seated next to a cardboard
cutout of a celebrity, as if we were back in
the COVID baseball era.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
If you are seated next to the cardboard cutout of
og and Unobi, you want a prize, come see us
at the end for said prize. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
The seat between Marishka Hargite and Anne Hathaway is reserved,
oh by the way, for Jason, so do not sit there.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And let's because spirit is with us. He will be
in that seat. Speaking of Emmys, yeah, we talked about
the nominations. Marishka Hargatee. He just named your Emmy host. Yeah.
This is the Knicks continuing to give because she is
not hosting the Emmys without the Knicks, without the push
that the Knicks gave her. No, absolutely in her Q
(17:45):
rating over the past couple of months, because you can't
tell me. Well, but season twenty one of SVU that
told us she needs to host the Emmys. The other
twenty seasons, No, no, no, I'll tell you what I thought.
The Knicks got hear that, gig man. The Knicks keep winning.
She really was great in season twenty which.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
As a man who has consumed more hours of the
law and Order of franchise across all even the Dinofrio
one that started with Jeff Goldbloom, I've been there.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
I have the stats. You saw forty seven case of
season twenty one, at all time high, more than the
forty four cases sold back in season fourteen. She put
Purpse away at a big rate, an unprecedented rate, an
average of fourteen minutes from a rest until Purp goes
to prison. That also breaks the record initially said in
season seven back in two thousand and five.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
She also broke protocol more frequently in these episodes. In
any season passed, you went outside the lines again.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Benson eventually he kily listened to your boss is so long.
I iman the IDGAF five. The old man doesn't know
what he's talking about. In my SVU career. I'm in
the SVU IDGAF portion of it right now. Just so
you know. That's but speaking of the IDGAF port of
your career, anybody in the last day, and we've seen
(19:05):
this very popular when it comes to people talking about
why the US men's national team can't win, can't beat Belgium,
can't beat the best teams in the world in the
World Cup, one of the big.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Trendy arguments has been made by players, former players, talking
heads people on the radio that it is club sports
and club soccer at the youth level which is to
blame for the United States not being able to be
great in soccer. Basically, this is when you know your
kid identifies as a pretty good player, they go play club.
(19:51):
Your daughter played club for a long time, just playing
soccer in college. Next year you go play club. It
costs money and you play for a few years. And
this is where playing with the club you ostensibly are
supposed to get better, potentially get a scholarship to college.
This is what clubs are about. But you see the
argument made in the last day and a half that
(20:12):
this is what is wrong with soccer, and this is
why the men's team stinks. Is because when players go
to club, they it's too expensive for some people, so
they can't go to club. Oh, by the way, you
can still play, ay, so you can still play in
high school, still play everywhere, Still get your tape outs,
they'll get people will see you. But it's too expensive,
so some people can't afford it. Right, I get it.
(20:34):
But travel sports are expensive. They go there and coaches leave.
It's hard to keep coaches. Well, okay, coaches leave. I
understand that they're not taught the game at the level
they need to be taught at, like is being taught
in academies in Germany and Brazil and Spain and England
and the main function of clubs is to make money
(20:55):
and to get the kids college scholarship, because that's what
keeps people coming around. This is what is at fault
according to a lot of people now, for why the
United States men's team couldn't win in the World Cup
and went out against Belgium. Anybody who says this is
misinformed and lazy. It's such a lazy take to blame
(21:16):
youth sports when anybody who wants to do that is
either someone who didn't have a great experience in club
and youth sports. I've seen many people I was in
club sports for a long time, this is what's wrong
with my club? Well, okay, or it's someone lazy because
it sounds like a great argument. Oh there's gotta be
some reason why we're not playing, So yeah, it's everything
wrong at the club level. I'm not just gonna tell
(21:39):
you it's stupid and people are lazy. And you know
who I'm because the people that are coming out with this,
I know that the laziest people in TV and radio,
the absolute laziest. And the reason why is because you
want to blame travel sports and those are your reasons, right,
rise and costs. They're not taught the right way. They're
only taught to get scholarships. They're not taught at level
they need to be taught at. Travel sports is pretty
(22:01):
popular in the United States. Travel baseball is really popular,
more expensive than travel soccer. Pretty sure we have the
world's best talent at the top of the world in
baseball right the United States, Dominican Republic. You know, I'm
not going to say we're all alone at the top,
but Japan, we are at the top. We produce the
best players in the world in baseball, football. It's not
(22:24):
even a conversation. We produce the best players in the
world in football, and it's not even close. Basketball. Travel basketball,
big deal. Also costs money right there. You've heard all
the talk about how all the AAU and travel ball
doesn't prepare players for college basketball, and that doesn't prepare
players as well for the NBA. Yet I am pretty
sure now for the past fifty years, we are a
(22:45):
mile and a half better than any other country when
it comes to basketball. When you're talking about putting the
best of the country out there, the best baseball, the
best football, the best basketball, whatever you want to say,
of the main sports, the main travel sports. We wipe
the floor up with everybody. So how is it a problem?
How is it a travel problem unique to soccer? Okay,
(23:07):
and I'll tackle that too. It's a problem unique to soccer. Okay.
We have men's and women's travel soccer, we have club
soccer for women. Oh, by the way, same same thing,
you worry about, the same problems. But the United States
women's soccer is the best in the world and they've
been the best team in the world for the better
part of thirty years. But it's also but it's a
(23:28):
men's it's a men's thing that the men aren't being treated, right,
that's just stupid, right when you realize that all the
club sports all face the same problems, money development, coaches leaving.
Every other sport has figured it out, every other sport,
even soccer has figured it out. Soccer for girls has
figured it out. Women has figured it out. But the
men that, no, you can't do that. That's a lazy
(23:50):
take and it has no bearing in reality, because what
you're telling me is the the million players right there's
five million youth sports kids right now that are playing
travel ball some way, shape or form. A million of
them are playing soccer. So fully one fifth of all
the travel sports. A million players are playing soccer. Let's
just say five hundred thousand of them are men, right,
(24:13):
say five hundred thousand or women five hundred thousand of men. Apparently,
the five hundred thousand that are playing travel sports. For women,
everything is taught right. But for the five hundred thousand kids,
the boys, that they're all taught wrong. All five hundred
thousand people are taught wrong. And that's why we can't
get one world class player. They're all be Every single
one of those kids is being taught wrong. Look, there's problems,
(24:34):
but don't sit here and tell me you're gonna blame
youth sports for it. And travel It sounds like I
want to complain about that. Travel sports is too much money,
It takes up too much time. I didn't have a
great experience because I didn't play enough, or I didn't
play the position I wanted to play. You just sound lazy,
or you sound upset with an axe to grind against
against youth sports. You can't sit here and tell me
we couldn't. We couldn't. We couldn't get one play, We
(24:55):
couldn't get ten players out of five hundred thousand A
year that to find a way to make them the
men's World Cup team, that's just dumb.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Well, it's fun because you look at the overall let's
go in the old pie chart and try to analyze
it and decide where we're at in terms of how.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Big a sliver it is.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Okay, maybe we can get into the youth sports and
barriers to entry whatever, But we talk about all these sports, basketball, baseball,
and soccer don't really cost a lot of money to
get just on a field and start to play, right,
there's not really a buryer burier to entry. Literally, soccer
you need a ball and an open field. Basketball you
(25:36):
need some semblance of a hoop. You don't need a net,
and you need a ball. And then some people baseball,
bat ball, maybe a glove, maybe not, and away we go.
But it's the construct look from the women's side, they
do have the fact that between laws, policies, procedures for years,
there's been more investment and a first mover advantage over
(25:59):
the rest of the world that frankly didn't want came
along kicking and screaming in many of the nations to
actually field women's teams. So they're playing ketchup just like
we are on the men's side to the rest of
the world, if you want to point the finger to anybody,
And certainly a lot of the former US men's national
team players have had no problem going up barking up
(26:20):
this tree in the past, so I don't know why
they're going after youth sports.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Now.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
Is how you actually run your United States men's national
team process from finding players, evaluating players, and bringing them
through from an academy level, defining when in the process
is the right time to go and evaluate players. Because
if you're just saying, well, you know what, we show
(26:45):
up at these big events, and if that's all you're doing,
whether it's at the IMG Academy or you're heading to
the larger club competitions wherever the state may be, sometimes
in California here, sometimes in Texas, sometimes out in Missouri,
whatever the case is, if that's where you're going, then
you're already too late in terms of that process. Right
(27:08):
are you spending the time and resources or do you
just have a number of layers of middle management that
you're wasting one hundreds of thousands of dollars a year
on salaries where they're not actually getting out to find
the talent, because that's it, right, talent identification process. If
that means you collaborate with more of these clubs to where, Hey,
this is how we want this taught. This is how
(27:30):
we want goalkeeping taught. This is how we want set
pieces taught. Hey, don't guard the grass. Actually find a
man so much he's thirty eight. Well you learn those
habits somewhere. But all that I'm saying is that, like
it's the easy way to say, the boogeyman is the
(27:51):
the horrible people that are profiting off soccer, Like Okay,
it's a business like everything else.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
And and do you do you really think that people
who say this, oh, it's it's it's about you soccer,
like it's something new, like it's something brand new, like
this hasn't if this was something this isn't something that
US soccer would have tried to figure out years and
years And they're not gonna. Why are the other countries
better than us? So look at the academies running, how
are they teaching it? We want to get all our
clubs teach it that way, right.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
Strip it down to the starts and you go to
it that until now we go around and we figure
out who the best affords are they are still playing soccer,
or anybody that we can go and sway from. I
don't know a guy that wants to shoot three pointers,
but he's pretty tall. Maybe we could get him to
go to me our back line or play goalie. I mean,
they were not doing that. They wouldn't have figured it
(28:39):
out before. Now if that was, like, if that's what
it was, that's really what it was. There's something brand Hey,
I never thought Ernie Stewart's walking around going hey, I
never thought about Now.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Wait a minute, it's about you. Oh okay, let me
have a meeting with some a YSL and youth coaches
and club coaches. Now let me do it, Like, come on,
that's just just again, it's lazy. It's a lazy, lazy, terrible, terrible,
terrible and really really bad
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon. Be sure to check out our YouTube
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(00:49):
just search Jason Smith's show on YouTube and subscribe. So
big day. The Emmy Awards nominations being announced today. We
talked about Widow was Bay last.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Hour a little disappointed?
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Oh no, dude, Widows Bay was fantastic.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Eh, you know, ending was kind of mad.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
The ending was a little man. I agree with that,
but I but again, sometimes that's a byproduct of boy.
The show was really good. How are you going to end? It.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
No, don't give me that.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
We are there more dragons. I think what happened was widows,
more dragons, widows, baby case less house they knew. Oh
House of Dragon is so boring. No, it's better now,
but come on, so many dragons.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
There's a lot of dragons, only a couple of houses.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Last dragons.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
It really was, he's a.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
That or they're really trying to get me to watch
it because I load the app and it starts to
do the auto play, trying to tease, hey, get in
on this.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
It's always a different.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
Dragon, a lot of dragons. Now the dragons are the
main characters. They've killed all the humans.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Do they all speak to each other?
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Now?
Speaker 5 (01:49):
You said too much house, not dragons. Now there's barely
any houses, all dragons. Okay, all right, all right, it's
really good. Okay, all right, but Widows Bay was mad.
All right, no, no, the on the edding.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
But I feel like Widows Bay was this show, Hey,
we're gonna do it, and we're gonna have a season.
And as they were doing it and they realized, we
know this is going to be a hit. It's testing. Well,
it's all this, how do we end it? Where we're
setting up a second season, and so sometimes the setup
isn't as great because Widows Bay clearly looks to me
like in Look eighteen Nominations, it was just so well done.
(02:19):
It deals with a lot of horror movie tropes. It's scary,
it's funny. But I feel like that's that's one of
those shows where we had one season planned and it's fantastic.
We have all the like many shows where hey, we
have the first season planned, we're gonna do X, Y
and Z. Then we're gonna do A, B and C,
a little bit of D, E and F, A no,
and any question I have the answer to. But then
(02:40):
what about the second season if it gets renewed, Oh,
we got a lot of ideas, and they really don't
have ideas.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Or we picked you up for six episodes, and then
all of a sudden, it's like, hey, we want to extend, so.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
We need to end it in such a we need
to end it in such a way where we can
get to a second season if we're renewed, where it
also seems like it's the ending. So I think that's
sometimes what happens. So I'm not gonna go gonna kill
the ending of Widow's Bay too much real just because
of that. Yeah, no, because I get it where hey,
this became a big sensation and now how do we
we got to get to the next season? So it's
a little awkward at the end.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Did you see it?
Speaker 5 (03:10):
Harmon?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
I don't see it yet.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
No, that's that's that's on my list next that and
Slow Horse.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Is I gonna go pick back?
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Okay, I won't spawn anything. I just feel like it
was such a build up to just like that's how
you're gonna end it. You're just gonna ride it off
and just be like, Okay, that's all it was.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
It was.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
It was more of a like, for example, right.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
But it's more of like, what what just happened at
the end?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Remember Cabin in the Woods? How much you loved it?
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Right?
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Like it gave me that feel at the end, and
I was like, really like, that's what we're building up for.
And then there's the random mechanic guy, really like, that's
what we're gonna do. It just seems so mad.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
It was.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, it did. Like I said, I'm with you, it
did not end great. But I think that's part of
it is that we had a great idea for season one,
and I'm sure if they wanted to do it all
encapsulated in one season, they had a hell of an ending.
But now we got to leave it open. So what
do we do. Well, we'll do the best weekend.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
Yeah, it's just they did such a good job. They
at least should have just ended it and then do
something else if you want to.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
The one I'm worried about. Honestly, I worry more about Pluribus.
I mean, eighteen nominations and plurals fantastic television. But it
was just there were times where where it was a
last episode and now we all DIEU is that the
first Well they killed the whole line. You know, it's
the first Vince Gilligan show since Breaking Bad, and it
(04:27):
was done so well and it grabs you right away,
and it's a very Vince Gilligan style. But I don't
know that there was enough plot for the number of
episodes they had. I felt like that there was times
where I said, Okay, it's dragging a little bit here,
and I got that sense a little bit with better
call Saul, like in like the third season, I'm like, Okay,
they're kind of dragging a little bit, but overall I
(04:47):
love Plurbis, can't wait to see what's next. They ended
great on a big upswing. Okay, this is what we're
gonna get now. But overall for Plurbus, I thought, yeah this,
You know, I don't think some of this slow revealed
tension is landing like it did with Better Call Solar
Breaking Bad because look, the whole the whole plot of
Pluribus is you know, uh, Kim Wexler from Better Call Salt, Uh,
(05:10):
she's the last woman left on Earth. You think after
this big alien plague comes in and everybody's getting controlled
by these Aliensah the hi've mine right? Yeah, exactly, so
Ria Seahorn Kim Wexler. So Ria Sea Horn is the
last person and trying to figure out this mystery. And
when you want to play slow scenes wide angles in
(05:31):
Breaking Bed and Better Call Soul at work, because there
could be a scene where Walter White is just making
eggs for forty five seconds and I'm going, what's gonna happen,
What's gonna Oh my god, something's gonna happen. Something's gonna happen.
Like that was the kind of tension that you had
because of the show it was this is more it's
a mystery. So if you have a minute and a
half scene of her watching something on a VCR that
(05:52):
she's just making notes on, I'm going, okay, I'm this
is not building any tension towards me. I'm just kind
of watching her notes on after she's watching something in
the VCR. Something I could get after ten seconds. I
don't need another forty seconds of her watching and making
a note and watching making it like it just didn't
because it's a different show. It's a different feel. It's
(06:13):
more of a mystery and a slower build where better
call Saul and breaking bed. Okay, you know what's happening,
and there's a lot of tension. I think because of that,
it was slow. It was a little bit slow for me.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Okay, yeah, I feel like the way you describe. I'm
gonna go back and watch the original v The Invasion
from NBC.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
All those years on VHS, on v that too.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
But like recognizing how much TV I've watched and how
much I've missed. By the Emmy nomination is coming out,
It's like, Wow, I watched that show, watch that. Wow,
I'm watching way too much TV. Because you combine that
with the amount of hours spent watching random games to
prep for the show and do content.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I'm like, boy, I really need to get outside more.
I really think this is something. And if someone wants
to do this, take take this idea and do I
really like to see the answer is that at the
when we get the nominees for the Oscars, right, for
the main categories, the four main categories, right or the
six main categories film Director, Actor, Actress, Best Supporting Actor,
(07:16):
Best Supporting Actress, look at all the movies that are
represented and tell me how many of those you've seen
versus let's take the tech Let's say there's twenty movies
represented in those in those categories. Right, have to say
there's twenty movies represented, and you take the top twenty
television shows nominated for Emmys. I guarantee you the average
(07:37):
entertainment subscriber imbiber watcher will have watched more of the
television shows and it's not going to be close versus
the number of movies that were that they watch it
were nominated twenty TV shows versus the top twenty movies.
When it comes to Emmy and Oscar nominations. Way more
people will have seen more of the television shows than
(07:58):
of the Oscars. Well, I'm getting ready to go watch
more on on Friday, so let's go. I'm gonna get that.
Oscar season started early. Speaking of a season, according to
Shams Tarania, the Lebron James sweepstakes are down three teams,
not one, not to three teams, and the Golden State
Warriors isn't one of them? Still have the second on
(08:18):
the Calci Yeah, the Warriors. It's kind of it's an idea.
It's fun for five minutes, and I'm sure it was,
you know, like I like to say, when you're walking
down a mall hallway and someone should, you know, flying
one of those little toy helicopters. You go, well, that's
fun for five minutes, and you buy it and you
fly it and it crashes once it doesn't work anymore.
So it's something fun for five minutes. I think it
was fun for five minutes to think, oh, hey, me
(08:40):
and Ad with Steph and Draymond boy a traveling road show.
That'd be fun. But then after five minutes and you realize, okay,
we're not getting Ad in a trade, and it's where
you know we're now be three guys that are forty
years old. We're gonna get our asses kicked every single night.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
No, I'm not going to Golden State. Right, But the
three finalists, the Cavaliers, seventy six Ers and the Heat.
The Heat, I think are oh I swear, I think
the Heat are only on the list just because Lebron
says I want to put them out there just to
make pat Riley sweat. Well, it is a TV just
to make him sweat that I might have to come
back and he's got to kiss my ass again after
(09:17):
all the bad stuff when he got so mad when
I left all those years ago. Right, I get that Jannison,
he and bam Adebayo that has a little bit of
intrigue for him. But I really think I just want
met pat Riley to sweat. Is he gonna go to
the Sixers? Sixers are really intriguing because they're building their
team kind of like the Knicks. We're building a great
starting five and we're paying them a lot of money.
(09:37):
The big trade for Jalen Brown, which was fantastic, but
Lebron would be go to the seventy six Ers and
if he failed there the end of his career would
be a downer. I've said from the beginning, he's going
to the Catholic set of a year ago, the only
place where he can go where he can potentially win.
But if he doesn't, the safety net of I went
home is the way it ends for him. Right, That's
(09:59):
what And again I go back to he wouldn't let
the Cavaliers be one of the final three being widely
reported if he was just going to jilt them again, right,
they're He's not gonna do that. If the Cavaliers weren't
going to be the destination, you would not hear them mention.
You would hear Shams would say Cavaliers are not in play.
It's gonna be the Warriors. But the fact that it's
(10:21):
either Cleveland or seventy six ers, or that he tells
me he's going he's going to Cleveland. He's just waiting again.
And when he's going to sign, I'll tell you when
he'll sign when he feels like the team he wants
to sign with has shown him enough love. Right Like
Rick Bucker. We talked about it with him last hour
on the show, and he said, look, look, Lebron likes
the attention. We know this, But when he feels like
(10:44):
the Cavaliers have shown him enough love, that's what he'll say.
He's returning and donno and Mitchell showed him a lot
of love yesterday by saying, Hey, I'll re up this year,
not wait till next year. I'll shoe eighty million dollars
Lebron to show you that we are a you away
from winning the title. Come home. Lebron will come play
for a couple years, most likely still got a lot
left in the tank. So hey, this is what we're
building for. So there was a big eighty million dollar
(11:06):
I'll re up now, just so you know I'm gonna
be here. We're gonna contend, and I'm gonna be here.
But Lebron will wait. And and maybe it's it's the
seventy six ers starting five showing up at his house
building an addition, like it's an episode of Extreme Makeover,
you know where it's trading spaces and now we're gonna
build this and it's gonna be a seventy six ers
room and seventy six ers colors and all this stuff.
When that team shows him the love and he's gotten
(11:28):
the most love, he's going to get That's when he
will say, this is where I'm coming, and it's gonna
be Cleveland. Well, I mean I joked about it yesterday.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
We've got the the Odyssey and the Road Home, so
you got that for Cleveland. So that's all finding good.
How about throwing out the first pitch at this year's
All Star Game, Welcome New Philadelphia seventy six ers. That was, yeah,
you know the last time I remember something like that happening,
(11:57):
the opening pitch, Like my memory is.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Right, is that when I remember working. I was working
on Sports Center that night as a PA when Michael
Jordan came out to throw out the first pitch at
a White Sox game, and the story had broke right
basically right before the game began that he was retiring,
right the first retirement, and he was whisked off the
(12:19):
mound and didn't say anything or talk to anybody, And
this became the story Michael Jordan's retiring from the NBA
because I remember seeing I think there's mane him throwing
out the first pitch and then boom, like at that
point everybody in the ballpark knew he's retiring. Was that
and it was zoom? He was just gone, and I
was like, okay, so that that would be the whole
thing with Lebron James. Can you imagine Lebron throwing out
the first pitch, not at the seventy six Ers game,
(12:40):
but throwing out the first pitch at a Guardians game
and then being announced new seventy six Ers Lebron James.
Can you imagine that? I like it. I like the chaos, Dan,
and I don't know what you got in Miami.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
If the World Cup Final was there, he could have
been the guy to present the ball. Oh say, that's
New York, New Jersey, so it doesn't work. But I
almost had that triumvirate right there. Look, he knows at.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
This point he can only go so long before he
has to make a decision, keep people going, and eventually,
while no one is you know, we've talked about this too,
no one is waiting on Lebron to go make another move,
so he can take as long as he's either these
teams are either gonna add Lebron or they're not gonna
add Lebron. Right, that's how it's gonna go. And that's
why when he wants to sign, I want to sign
(13:26):
with a finished product, not that oh, I'm gonna sign
here because you promised to go get these other guys.
Players have been burned with that in the past. Now
these are finished products. I can either go there or
I won't go there. They're not waiting for him, They're
not waiting for him to do something else. But for Lebron,
he knows that I can only keep this going so long.
So when I know that I've gotten it at the eight,
Like when you have a player in fantasy who has
(13:46):
come out of nowhere, had a couple of big weeks,
and you want to make a trade, you go, I
gotta trade him now, because I'm trading him now at
his highest value, right like the highest value Lebron has.
That's when he will make his decision that he will go.
And it's gonna be Cleveland again. All the reasons we've
talked about. I'd be absolutely stunned if it was someplace else.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. Yep,
and just got to say goodbye to our longtime editor
and producer Ian Roddy, who says, last night with us
here at Fox Sports Radio, got a new gig at
NFL Network. I think he's running programming. Yeah, he's taking
over of NFL Network. Yeah, he's gonna put he's gonna
the Jets fan like me. He's gonna put all Jets
(14:35):
games on during the day at a full time. So
that's what's gonna Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Well he had to put up with me a lot
because he did the Fantasy podcast the last couple of years.
A lot of screaming, a lot of yelling, a lot
of extra takes, whatever. So yeah, great, great guy to
work with. We wish him the best and as he
takes over the world. Yeah, no, there's not another Jets
fan here.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Well, I mean there's still plenty of line in the weeds. Yeah,
I know. But still like I you know, you get
to take all the fall now.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
I mean, I get I guess misery loves Company. Is
that all it comes back to? I mean yeah, I
mean the Knicks still one. Yeah, No, in the end,
that's what it all comes I mean, you'll be alone
and crying in your beer yourself a little bit more
with me pointing and laughing.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah. Like like I'm been envisioning myself, like watching the news,
and it's like, and we have credible evidence the world
is going to end at midnight. But the Knicks won
the championship, and okay, we're gonna roll out with some
of the best of Jalen Brunson as the world cracks
apart down the middle. The last thing I'll watch is
his box of cooking wem beyond that layup three two,
(15:38):
there's the og tip in the world. And the last
thing the world heard was Mike Breen say, fifty three
years New York. It's real. You go ahead and cry.
Oh man, I tell you you just I could see
you overcome with emotion just I mean for Ian leaving obviously, right,
(16:01):
but yes, no, I mean just overwhelmed. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
can hardly contain yourself. Yeah, Like I like I told
my wife when she I said, you know, people always
pick the music they wanted their funeral and everything else
and all that. I said, Oh, no, I want you
to play the last the last five minutes of game four. Actually,
if it's a long service, go from go from right
(16:21):
when Wemby gets the flagrant, and take it from there.
All the way to the end.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Yeah, I've got this pretty well choreographed. I mean, the
playlist for the uh the waight continues to evolve over time,
all right, but yeah, the playlist is the few big
highlights in my sports world because over forty years, I
got about three and a half minutes that you just
put on a loop.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
If you could all be seated, Jason's ceremony is going
to take place right now. No one's going to speak. Instead,
we're going to watch Game four, the final seventeen minutes
from the nine to forty three mark of the third quarter,
when Victor wembin Yama picks up his flagrant foul. We
joined Mike Bring with the call already in progress.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Notice that you've all been seated next to a cardboard
cutout of a celebrity, as if we were back in
the COVID baseball era.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
If you are seated next to the cardboard cutout of
og and Unobi, you want a prize, come see us
at the end for said prize. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
The seat between Marishka Hargite and Anne Hathaway is reserved,
oh by the way, for Jason, so do not sit there.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And let's because spirit is with us. He will be
in that seat. Speaking of Emmys, yeah, we talked about
the nominations. Marishka Hargatee. He just named your Emmy host. Yeah.
This is the Knicks continuing to give because she is
not hosting the Emmys without the Knicks, without the push
that the Knicks gave her. No, absolutely in her Q
(17:45):
rating over the past couple of months, because you can't
tell me. Well, but season twenty one of SVU that
told us she needs to host the Emmys. The other
twenty seasons, No, no, no, I'll tell you what I thought.
The Knicks got hear that, gig man. The Knicks keep winning.
She really was great in season twenty which.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
As a man who has consumed more hours of the
law and Order of franchise across all even the Dinofrio
one that started with Jeff Goldbloom, I've been there.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
I have the stats. You saw forty seven case of
season twenty one, at all time high, more than the
forty four cases sold back in season fourteen. She put
Purpse away at a big rate, an unprecedented rate, an
average of fourteen minutes from a rest until Purp goes
to prison. That also breaks the record initially said in
season seven back in two thousand and five.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
She also broke protocol more frequently in these episodes. In
any season passed, you went outside the lines again.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Benson eventually he kily listened to your boss is so long.
I iman the IDGAF five. The old man doesn't know
what he's talking about. In my SVU career. I'm in
the SVU IDGAF portion of it right now. Just so
you know. That's but speaking of the IDGAF port of
your career, anybody in the last day, and we've seen
(19:05):
this very popular when it comes to people talking about
why the US men's national team can't win, can't beat Belgium,
can't beat the best teams in the world in the
World Cup, one of the big.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Trendy arguments has been made by players, former players, talking
heads people on the radio that it is club sports
and club soccer at the youth level which is to
blame for the United States not being able to be
great in soccer. Basically, this is when you know your
kid identifies as a pretty good player, they go play club.
(19:51):
Your daughter played club for a long time, just playing
soccer in college. Next year you go play club. It
costs money and you play for a few years. And
this is where playing with the club you ostensibly are
supposed to get better, potentially get a scholarship to college.
This is what clubs are about. But you see the
argument made in the last day and a half that
(20:12):
this is what is wrong with soccer, and this is
why the men's team stinks. Is because when players go
to club, they it's too expensive for some people, so
they can't go to club. Oh, by the way, you
can still play, ay, so you can still play in
high school, still play everywhere, Still get your tape outs,
they'll get people will see you. But it's too expensive,
so some people can't afford it. Right, I get it.
(20:34):
But travel sports are expensive. They go there and coaches leave.
It's hard to keep coaches. Well, okay, coaches leave. I
understand that they're not taught the game at the level
they need to be taught at, like is being taught
in academies in Germany and Brazil and Spain and England
and the main function of clubs is to make money
(20:55):
and to get the kids college scholarship, because that's what
keeps people coming around. This is what is at fault
according to a lot of people now, for why the
United States men's team couldn't win in the World Cup
and went out against Belgium. Anybody who says this is
misinformed and lazy. It's such a lazy take to blame
(21:16):
youth sports when anybody who wants to do that is
either someone who didn't have a great experience in club
and youth sports. I've seen many people I was in
club sports for a long time, this is what's wrong
with my club? Well, okay, or it's someone lazy because
it sounds like a great argument. Oh there's gotta be
some reason why we're not playing, So yeah, it's everything
wrong at the club level. I'm not just gonna tell
(21:39):
you it's stupid and people are lazy. And you know
who I'm because the people that are coming out with this,
I know that the laziest people in TV and radio,
the absolute laziest. And the reason why is because you
want to blame travel sports and those are your reasons, right,
rise and costs. They're not taught the right way. They're
only taught to get scholarships. They're not taught at level
they need to be taught at. Travel sports is pretty
(22:01):
popular in the United States. Travel baseball is really popular,
more expensive than travel soccer. Pretty sure we have the
world's best talent at the top of the world in
baseball right the United States, Dominican Republic. You know, I'm
not going to say we're all alone at the top,
but Japan, we are at the top. We produce the
best players in the world in baseball, football. It's not
(22:24):
even a conversation. We produce the best players in the
world in football, and it's not even close. Basketball. Travel basketball,
big deal. Also costs money right there. You've heard all
the talk about how all the AAU and travel ball
doesn't prepare players for college basketball, and that doesn't prepare
players as well for the NBA. Yet I am pretty
sure now for the past fifty years, we are a
(22:45):
mile and a half better than any other country when
it comes to basketball. When you're talking about putting the
best of the country out there, the best baseball, the
best football, the best basketball, whatever you want to say,
of the main sports, the main travel sports. We wipe
the floor up with everybody. So how is it a problem?
How is it a travel problem unique to soccer? Okay,
(23:07):
and I'll tackle that too. It's a problem unique to soccer. Okay.
We have men's and women's travel soccer, we have club
soccer for women. Oh, by the way, same same thing,
you worry about, the same problems. But the United States
women's soccer is the best in the world and they've
been the best team in the world for the better
part of thirty years. But it's also but it's a
(23:28):
men's it's a men's thing that the men aren't being treated, right,
that's just stupid, right when you realize that all the
club sports all face the same problems, money development, coaches leaving.
Every other sport has figured it out, every other sport,
even soccer has figured it out. Soccer for girls has
figured it out. Women has figured it out. But the
men that, no, you can't do that. That's a lazy
(23:50):
take and it has no bearing in reality, because what
you're telling me is the the million players right there's
five million youth sports kids right now that are playing
travel ball some way, shape or form. A million of
them are playing soccer. So fully one fifth of all
the travel sports. A million players are playing soccer. Let's
just say five hundred thousand of them are men, right,
(24:13):
say five hundred thousand or women five hundred thousand of men. Apparently,
the five hundred thousand that are playing travel sports. For women,
everything is taught right. But for the five hundred thousand kids,
the boys, that they're all taught wrong. All five hundred
thousand people are taught wrong. And that's why we can't
get one world class player. They're all be Every single
one of those kids is being taught wrong. Look, there's problems,
(24:34):
but don't sit here and tell me you're gonna blame
youth sports for it. And travel It sounds like I
want to complain about that. Travel sports is too much money,
It takes up too much time. I didn't have a
great experience because I didn't play enough, or I didn't
play the position I wanted to play. You just sound lazy,
or you sound upset with an axe to grind against
against youth sports. You can't sit here and tell me
we couldn't. We couldn't. We couldn't get one play, We
(24:55):
couldn't get ten players out of five hundred thousand A
year that to find a way to make them the
men's World Cup team, that's just dumb.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Well, it's fun because you look at the overall let's
go in the old pie chart and try to analyze
it and decide where we're at in terms of how.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Big a sliver it is.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Okay, maybe we can get into the youth sports and
barriers to entry whatever, But we talk about all these sports, basketball, baseball,
and soccer don't really cost a lot of money to
get just on a field and start to play, right,
there's not really a buryer burier to entry. Literally, soccer
you need a ball and an open field. Basketball you
(25:36):
need some semblance of a hoop. You don't need a net,
and you need a ball. And then some people baseball,
bat ball, maybe a glove, maybe not, and away we go.
But it's the construct look from the women's side, they
do have the fact that between laws, policies, procedures for years,
there's been more investment and a first mover advantage over
(25:59):
the rest of the world that frankly didn't want came
along kicking and screaming in many of the nations to
actually field women's teams. So they're playing ketchup just like
we are on the men's side to the rest of
the world, if you want to point the finger to anybody,
And certainly a lot of the former US men's national
team players have had no problem going up barking up
(26:20):
this tree in the past, so I don't know why
they're going after youth sports.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Now.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
Is how you actually run your United States men's national
team process from finding players, evaluating players, and bringing them
through from an academy level, defining when in the process
is the right time to go and evaluate players. Because
if you're just saying, well, you know what, we show
(26:45):
up at these big events, and if that's all you're doing,
whether it's at the IMG Academy or you're heading to
the larger club competitions wherever the state may be, sometimes
in California here, sometimes in Texas, sometimes out in Missouri,
whatever the case is, if that's where you're going, then
you're already too late in terms of that process. Right
(27:08):
are you spending the time and resources or do you
just have a number of layers of middle management that
you're wasting one hundreds of thousands of dollars a year
on salaries where they're not actually getting out to find
the talent, because that's it, right, talent identification process. If
that means you collaborate with more of these clubs to where, Hey,
this is how we want this taught. This is how
(27:30):
we want goalkeeping taught. This is how we want set
pieces taught. Hey, don't guard the grass. Actually find a
man so much he's thirty eight. Well you learn those
habits somewhere. But all that I'm saying is that, like
it's the easy way to say, the boogeyman is the
(27:51):
the horrible people that are profiting off soccer, Like Okay,
it's a business like everything else.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
And and do you do you really think that people
who say this, oh, it's it's it's about you soccer,
like it's something new, like it's something brand new, like
this hasn't if this was something this isn't something that
US soccer would have tried to figure out years and
years And they're not gonna. Why are the other countries
better than us? So look at the academies running, how
are they teaching it? We want to get all our
clubs teach it that way, right.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
Strip it down to the starts and you go to
it that until now we go around and we figure
out who the best affords are they are still playing soccer,
or anybody that we can go and sway from. I
don't know a guy that wants to shoot three pointers,
but he's pretty tall. Maybe we could get him to
go to me our back line or play goalie. I mean,
they were not doing that. They wouldn't have figured it
(28:39):
out before. Now if that was, like, if that's what
it was, that's really what it was. There's something brand Hey,
I never thought Ernie Stewart's walking around going hey, I
never thought about Now.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Wait a minute, it's about you. Oh okay, let me
have a meeting with some a YSL and youth coaches
and club coaches. Now let me do it, Like, come on,
that's just just again, it's lazy. It's a lazy, lazy, terrible, terrible,
terrible and really really bad
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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