July 9, 2025 • 34 mins
Something in MLB that we have never seen before. Jason pulls back the curtain on LeBron's 'The Decision.'
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Give you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
To Seger, Fox Sports Radio, Welcome inside Final Hour. Tonight
the Jason Smith Show was special Delivery Steve to Sager,
who is Mike Harmon? Who is a hobo? No, it's
a non Hobo Knight, Non Hobo Night to so not
Hobo Week Harmon on vacation to Saga in non Hobo Week.
Hey Steve, howdy?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Now, before we I can I can really pull the
curtain back on the decision. You know, it turns fifteen
today Lebron deciding he's taking his talents to South Beach
to go play for the Miami Heat. But first we
have to because this is starting to gain a lot
of attention. You know, Jason Stark is a guy that
you know, I quote this, I don't know that I
quote anybody that I've spoken to professionally more than I
(01:11):
quote this from Jason Stark, longtime baseball insider and writer,
who says they've been playing baseball for a hundred He
said it so long ago that he used to have
gone from one hundred and twenty five years to now
to one hundred and fifty years. That's how long ago
he said. And it's still true. They've been playing baseball
for one hundred and fifty years and still regularly every
season you see something and go, well, I've never seen
(01:33):
that before, right, one hundred and fifty years of been
like you've seen everything in the NFL and the NBA,
I've never seen that before. So the Phillies are trying
to close out a three to one win over the Giants, and.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
It would keep the Phillies a game ahead of the
Mets in the NL East because the Mets had a
big comeback and one in ten tonight.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And I'd like to say that I did my part
in this, because when you first brought this up to say, hey,
big out your final game going on tonight Major League Baseball,
the Phillies are up three to one in the night,
I said, yeah, yeah, great, whatever thanks a lot.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And then a couple minutes later you say, wait a minute, Uh,
the Giants just win on a walk off. Well, okay,
we've seen walk offs before.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
We've seen guy, I see the celebration, the reruns tackling
each other on the field. They said, Wow, that's a
pretty impressive way to.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Win for that. Okay, so we said, okay, wait, they
win walk off three run homer by Patrick Bailey. The
catcher who was hitting. What was he in like one
one oh four up to one four.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
He's a great defense and not defense first defense only catcher.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Yeah, so the ninth batter in the order hits a
walk off, again, something we've seen before. But this is
something we had not seen in Major League Baseball in
almost one hundred years, because the last time a catcher
had a walk off inside the park home run in
(02:51):
Major League Baseball was back in nineteen twenty six inside
the park walk off home run. And here's how it
sounded on Giants TV.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
On my drive right right fl the brick, it's Ginnas time,
Families on the road, Family's on the road.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
The arm.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
So there was on Giants TV the ball I think
the ball hit the brick, Yes, hit the hit.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
The hard wall where there's kind of a corner near
center field.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, so so you both outfielders are getting back to
try to get the.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Going, over ran it and then really had to chase.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, the ball hits the brick and bounces straight to
the left along the warning track by the left fielder
who's got to run and chase it down. It's not
even close at home play, and it's a catcher running it.
It's not even close at home plate, by the way,
John Radio with Dave Fleming, who we're familiar with.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Amazing bib again, and that doesn't describe all of what
we're talking about. I mean, it hits the brick and
flies out and the incredible excitement you can hear it
there again Baseball one hundred and fifty five.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Now, Barently in the.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Old days we had two catchers with walk off inside
the park homers, and it was in nineteen twenty six
and nineteen oh seven, so Ben, according to Jeff Passing
the ESPN, Patrick Bailey the first inside the park, inside
the park walk off home run from a catcher since
Benny Tait on August eleven, sure nineteen twenty six. Benny Tate, Yeah,
(04:46):
I streamed him in Fantasy that day, so it worked.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah here, yeah, I mean, I mean Baseball Reference is.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
The other game that we had in the Bay Area,
you know, they don't play in Oakland anymore, but in
a home game in Sacramento for the A's, and they
let off with an inside the park home run from
Lawrence Butler, which means, this is the first day at
MLB history we've had a walk off inside the parker
(05:12):
and a lead off inside the parker on the same night.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
So that's never happened before, never lead a walk off
home inside the park home run to lead off the
game and on the same day, a walk off inside
the inside the parker.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
And it was both the Northern California team and both
at home the.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Same Just the A's. It's just the A's. They have
no home.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Yes, they're not the Oakland Age, they're not the West
Sacramento a it's just the they're not yet the Las
Vegas A's.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
No, no, no, but it's coming to everybod keeps it.
Don't worry, don't worry to worry. It's gonna happen. It's
gonna happen. They've broken ground. So look, today's been a
big day. We spent a lot of time talking about
the decision. Turning fifteen today when Lebron James sat in
front of Jim Gray and said, I'm taking my talents
to South Beach to go play for the Miami Heat.
The look the biggest event in basketball for the last
twenty five years, right, What the effect it's had on
(05:58):
the game, the effect it's had. It made the basketball
world stop. It was for three weeks, what's going to happen?
How's it going to go? But you know, to talk
about how the Lebron decision changed people's careers, I want
to pull back the curtain for you on this a
little bit because this is what it was like. Because
I was on this one. I was at ESPN and
I was doing all night, and there were so many
(06:21):
reports of what could happen. It was hard to keep straight, Like, oh,
the right now, the two favorites for Lebron are the
Cavaliers and the Knicks, And the next day it would
be the Knicks seem to be out, the Cavaliers are
a strong front runner. And so many different insiders had
so many different things. And this is the new league
year has just started. It's early July. It's summer.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Nobody's actually going to NBA arenas for game time and
you know, talking to the coach and cornering the general
manager daily, None of that's happening.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
It's July. Yeah. Every day for like two weeks, there
was a new leader, there was a new team, a
new insider that said they had the story. Now this
is where he's going. This where he's going. So every
day when we would come in, when I would come
in and get ready, okay, what are we reporting? Is
there anything ESPN is reported? Because again that's how big
this story was. This was an entire shows, entire sports centers,
(07:12):
entire radio shows, four hours of all night. This is
what it was. It'll be okay, well here's what we
have from today. So and so is saying this, so
and so is saying this. So every time we talked
about it, we would say something like, you know, Asian
Wojanerowski is saying that the team in the lead right
now or the Dallas matt I'm just throwing this out there.
The team in the lead right now is the Dallas Mavericks.
(07:33):
So that would be the talking point. Well, if it's
the Mavericks, what does it mean? What are the odds?
It really could be the Mavericks, all this stuff, Clippers,
of course, many a star. So about a day and
a half before the special, this is Stephen A. Smith,
not nearly the personality he was is now when he
was basketball insider, starting to make that push to being
(07:57):
a personality doing first take. But that's where he came up.
And you know, Stephen A. Smith was an NBA insider
for a long time. That he left ESPN and he
came back. It was his rise at ESPN is on
the way he.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Worked after he left DESPN and I wonder why that
didn't work out or why why he didn't stay there longer.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I'm gonna put a pin in that one. We'll we'll
circle back to that. So I vividly remember this is
that he reported it's the heat, and this is a
day and a half before, and he kept and and
and the thing he kept telling everybody ESPN, I got it, No,
I got it, it's gonna be the heat. I got
this story. But we were never reporting it as a network.
Where think about that now, where when Jay Glazer has
(08:38):
a report, Hey, Jay Glazer says that the Jets are
signing justin Fields. That's the story. It's a breaking story,
and it's Glazer. It's a luck and he's calling us
her tweeting, and that's that. Adam Schefter is reporting that
Sam Darnold's going to the forty nine going to the
Seahawks or three years hundred million. That's the story, right,
there's no ESPN's reporting this, and we have to confirm it.
(08:59):
When when these guys report something, it's a done deal, right,
That's how it's. That's how it is now. Can you
imagine that hey, so and so supports, but we're not
reporting this as officially. We're gonna say if it happens,
if it's this. But that's the way it was. And
I remember Stephen that he was kind of frustrated because,
like I kept telling everybody, I got it, I got it,
I got it. So when we talked about it the
(09:21):
day and a half going in, I remember saying, how
are we doing this? They're saying, well, you're saying, ESPN
Steven A. Smith is reporting that the Miami Heat is
going to be the best of Okay, but no one
really took it as gospel. No one took it as
this is where he's going so the entire lead up
for those two days was, Oh, Stephen A. Smith says,
it's it's the it's the heat. If it is the heat,
(09:42):
and that's kind of how we we we all dealt
with it on the radio and on television, and.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
We're gonna find out on live TV. It's not just
this will be confirmed by some other newspaper reporter.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
And then obviously the heat was correct and he had it.
Now obviously he's not hurting right now with his status
and in radio and television everywhere.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, no, I guess he's an expert in every area
of life.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yes, he is whatever?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Wrong? What?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah? Right?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Because he knows every roster of every team.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Hey, you want to you want to know how to
win a solitaire, you call Stephen A. Smith. He will
tell you how to win a game. In the middle
of the NBA Finals, They'll tell you how to win
a game.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
But can you imagine that would have been the biggest
He would have gone down having the biggest scoop of
all time Lebron because it was shocking enough that Lebron
was going to the heat. But imagine if he had it,
if he had that story, Like if we look back
now and say.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Be the biggest scoop since the gretz Get trade.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Put it down. Yeah, and and probably the biggest scoop
we've seen since then probably is Schefter reporting that Andrew
luck was retiring in the middle of that the preseason game. Well,
like we look back and say, that's been the big done.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Since last year. None of us believed it initially, Lakers,
there's half hour.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I didn't know what was going on. I called Frotzburg.
After a half hour, he goes, what's up.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
We got there's no question what's But like that would
be I mean the Andrew Lucking, we would say, boy,
that's the second biggest scoop of all time, because Stephen A.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Smith having lebron to the heat was the biggest scoop. Now.
I don't know if now Here's the thing is, I
don't remember at the time thinking we weren't reporting it
for any other reason other than there's so many different insights,
people saying things we're not sure or if it was hey,
we're not reporting this because he's coming on TV, He's
(11:29):
gonna be on ESPN's air and we were asked not
to report it. Like I don't I'm just saying there's
one of two things.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
A good question. But they come back to that is
this really wasn't an ESPN show. It aired on their network,
but I don't believe they produced it. They certainly didn't
have the profit that the Boys and Girls clubs locally
had from it was an agent engineered thing with Jim
Gray who didn't work for ESPN and.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
I don't do that, and being an ESPN and understanding
how things work. If they did that, they risk upsetting
Lebron James for the rest of his career and then
suddenly access to Lebron James, which happen.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Career, then we'll all be spent in Miami, right because
as soon as he goes there.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
But I mean no, because they want access to Lebron James, right.
They want to have access. They don't want to be
absolutely they want to be able to have a good
relationship with Lebron James. So clearly, if that.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Was there to kill and televise eight finals.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
In a row with the guy, he would have held
the cards into saying or his people say, hey, listen,
we're gonna hold on you. Guys are going to hold
on to this and not report this because we have
a big special coming up, and may I could see
where ESPN would have said, yeah, we're not going to
do it now. I don't know. I'm just saying there's
two things that happened. One at the time when I thought, okay,
there's just been so much information and who knows what's true,
(12:47):
that's why we're not reporting it. But also that could
have been that very well could have been.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I don't think it would have come from the commissioner then,
because he always liked to be in control, not lebron
So I'm sure he would have loved to think, go, yeah,
reported blow up lebron Zeller. Great, he's still gonna play
in my league. Everybody's bluaying tickets, everybody's gonna watch. What
do I can't right, I mean, David Sterr was very
(13:11):
much the man in control.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Oh yeah, yeah, And and and.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Maybe it could be very sour in the hallways by
the way to his own people. And you know, sure
he ran things his way, Oh yeah, but sure.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
But but David Stern could have made that phone call
too and said, you know, this is a big thing
for the end. Just think about it. From David search
this is a big thing for the end. I understand
he was always a great big picture guy, right, David Stern.
Always he could have calls, Hey, listen, we have this
going on, you and me kind of like this. You
want to have a great relationship. Now it's not just Lebron,
it's me that you're dealing with, and and and who know,
(13:44):
you don't want this to go poorly. We don't want
to have a great relationship here. I mean, I can't
throw it out that that that didn't happen. I mean,
I'm not saying it did, but one of two things
why we didn't why it wasn't reported and and and
clearly I didn't think about that until just the last
few years.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
By the way, as we before we close out on
on the NBA this segment, there's been so much great
baseball going on. We haven't mentioned hoops, but two items
especially and then summer league stuff. But the two items
the report today that Anthony Davis with the Mavericks had
eye surgery this offseason for a detached retina, but he's
(14:17):
due to be healthy for training camp in September.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
And then the.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Two little summer leagues before Vegas wound up tonight, there
were two games of Salt Lake City two games in
the Bay Area, and the late game for San Francisco
was a Lakers win eighty nine eighty eight against the Spurs.
Starty starter Brownie James, I have to emphasize, was one
of five shooting with three turnovers in fifteen minutes on
the court. And it had been a really bad weekend
(14:42):
of three point attempts for Dalton Connect to the Lakers
and a bad start to tonight's game. He had back
to back threes late he wound up getting him the
win and Dalton Connect had twenty five points in that game?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Was it?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Daris Basley had the big put back that won the
game right and wound up three.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
And wound up with twenty seven in this game. Miami
won at Golden State earlier, and the Salt Lake Summer
League ended tonight with Utah's home win against Oklahoma City
eighty nine to eighty two. Kyle Philipowski with eighteen points
and fifteen rebounds and Walter Clayton, we just saw with
so many postseason games with the Gators had twenty points.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
But there's a guy then I'm excited. When's the next
Salt Lake because I just got my Salt Lake City
Summer League te shirt. When's the next game? That would
be next? Jo Lone, thank you.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
There's a guy that was drafted by Oklahoma City and
then sat out last year with injury named Nicola Tapicch
and people are winning a hey point god her the
future this is he has been horrendous this past weekend,
including the finale in Salt Lake for that team tonight.
He was three of twelve shooting from three point range,
oh five, eight turnovers in the game eight And he
(15:49):
had a game I think with eight fowls?
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Did he not? I mean, it's just eight I will
what to say, and we don't care.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Well, it's testically bad weekending.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
It none even count, So I'm just saying I had
a good start. He clearly had a year off.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
The other note is a basketball player that nobody in
the country's familiar with, somebody named Judah Mins from Syracuse.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
You mean nobody is I'm familiar? He left? He was
exactly one guy is I wish he had stayed.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Twenty six points, seventy six ers, ninety one ninety over
the Grizzlies. Now, the Las Vegas Summer League will start Thursday,
and people are overpaying for their first Dallas.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I mean, people, what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Okay? I want to see him play too, but I'm
not spending one thousand dollars, sure, are you?
Speaker 1 (16:31):
People?
Speaker 3 (16:32):
July tenth through twentieth for the Vegas Summer League, and
the Wizards traded Kelly Olynnock already to the Spurs. Washington
had just picked him up from New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
So there you go. We got more NBA coming up.
On the way, you talked about the the David Stern
treating people tak people always. I actually have a David
Stern story. Oh and I will tell by all mean
we got that end. Might the best player in the
NBA be angling for trade? It's coming up next right here.
Jason Smith Steve de Sagarin for Harmon. This is Fox
(17:02):
Sports Radio, not a Hobo.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
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 (17:18):
Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon
Steve the Sagarin for Harmon. I don't know, it's a
non hobo night. It's a non hobo knight. Ty shirt
the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon Steve De Sagarin
for Mike Harmon tonight.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Not a hobo.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
There we go. So we'll get to the big Nikola
Yoka story coming up in a minute. But you know,
we talked about the decision a few minutes ago, and
we talked about David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA,
and you said, he, you know, heard that, you know,
not not the greatest sometimes the people in the hallway
and everything else. Oh heard it from an employee in
the hallways. Yes, okay, so I actually have a David Stern,
(17:57):
but it's not when you said, and I said, oh, well,
this is my David Stern story.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
So I remember he got mad at somebody interviewing him
on the phone.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Here.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
He just he just wouldn't take the assertion that was
being said over the phone. And you know, he all
but called the guy a name on live radio. I'm
not hiding, hey, you blankety blank. He wasn't just crusty
at the end of his life.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
It's what I'm saying. So this is this is when
I was. I was at ESPN and I was hosting
All Night and it was one of those weeks where
a couple of times a year I would go back
and do shows from Bristol because I did show some
mere in La the entire time. We'd get back into
shows from Bristol once a week, once a couple of
times a year to meet with my managers, get FaceTime
with everybody. And you know, I just did that. So
(18:38):
I park in the parking lot and I'm walking into
work and it's a night that David Stern is doing
what they call the car wash at ESPN, meaning that
he's doing he's he's there for whatever reason he was
there forever publicity was doing, and he was doing all
these shows. They call it the car wash because you
go here, you do this TV show, then you do this,
you tape this radio making the round, you tape this
rad yeah, this, so they called it the car wash.
(18:59):
So the last thing I knew from my producer was that, hey,
if you come in early, we can get David Stern
to tay if you want to take an interview with
David Stern before he leaves, it's his end of the
end of the day. I said, okay, great, what time
should I get this all. We'll get there for I
think it was like nine o'clock or something like that.
He's not going to do it live at ten or
eleven at night. No, no, no, and this is all night.
When I was on, I would go on at one
o'clock in the morning, so normally I would go in.
(19:22):
You're in the east here, so normally I would go
in like, you know, ten eleven o'clock. But because David
Stern was I was like, yeah, I'm here to work,
so yeah, I'll come in at like not eight thirty
or nine of tape David Stern's interview. So I'm walking in,
the last thing I know is that I'm coming taping interview. Okay, great.
So I'm walking in and I passed by this big
limousine that's near the entrance to ESPN, and I'm the
(19:42):
only one walking in because it's nine o'clock. Not many
people are leaving at nine o'clock an ever people come out.
I'm coming in. So I'm walking in. I got my
you know, I'm checking my phone and I got my
backpack everything, and all of a sudden, the limo driver
gets out and he goes, excuse me, do you work here?
And I said, uh, yeah, I do. Why he goes, oh, okay,
I'm here. I'm here to take Commissioner Stern. Can you
(20:03):
go inside and get him for me? And I looked
at him and I said, I'm sorry. What He goes,
can you get Commissioner Stern for me? Can you go inside?
It's time for him to go? And I said, yeah,
I'll see what I can do about that. And I
just I just walked. I didn't tell anybody anything. I'm like, blank,
that guy, man, I'm not kidding, who's he? Just like,
do you work here? Go get him for me? I
was like forgot, he's done with me. But yeah, I'm like,
(20:23):
you forget it. I'm gonna go. Hey, maybe after I
interview him and I'll find out that they'll tell him, Oh, hey,
you're your limo driver's waiting for you. So I walked
in like a limo driver was from New Jersey. Apparently
that's kind of how he sounded. He says, hey, do
you work it yet? Can you go get him for me?
And he second time not please not and not not
even ask him please say can you get him for me? Like, hey,
any guy walking by, I can I can tell to
(20:44):
go in? And I'm like like that I'm not gonna go.
So I walk in. I go, well, forget it. Maybe
I'll say after interview David Stern. And so I'm like okay.
So I come in and I set up and I
sit down, and I asked my producer what's going on?
He goes, okay, we'll know when a couple of minutes
be ready to go. Okay, great. I sit down and
have my headphones on. I got my questions ready already,
all see. He comes in and goes, oh uh, commissioners
not not coming in. We didn't get him. I'm so sorry.
(21:07):
What do you mean I came in two hours early. Again,
I'm sorry, if you want to leave whatever. I soa
what happened? He goes, I know, apparently he was running
late and and somebody told him was time to go.
So so he apparently told somebody else going in and
they knew the dirty work. Did tell Commissioner Stern. So
I go, So for me not finding it, Like if
I had gone and found him and said, hey, you
(21:28):
do my interview and then you can leave, I would
have had the interview with David Stern. But because I
was like blank, that guy, so he just found somebody
else to go in and tell. So Commissioner Stern walked out.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
So who knows what news would have been made when
Jason Smith had a chance to corner the all powerful
NBA commissioner in his last interview the.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Day who had just said live, I've been talking to
everybody else, all right.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
He'd be so sick of things exactly.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Asked me anything you want hey the eighty five draft? Oh,
completely frozen envelope, completely frozen. I knew it right when
I grabbed it. I knew the we knew the next
we're getting youing for months months we knew this answer.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh thanks, I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Commission So round Ball Rock your idea? Yes, actually yeah.
I don't take credit for this, but decades from now
people will be clamoring to have that be the musical
theme of my league.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
I said to John Tesh, No, you want d D
give something a little bit bigger off the top? Come on? Can?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I mentioned, as we just this has been a great show.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
But so what do you see, John? Do you see?
John Tesh so excited? Can't wait for round Ball Rocks.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
It's going to be part of the new coverage next year.
I mentioned this.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
He's like, that's when the check start clearing, right, when
when you actually start that's what I get paid again, Right.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Let's be honest. There had to be an agreement, I mean,
like a formal, written in pen business agreement for that theme,
which was the theme we all heard for NBA broadcasts
in the nineties when NBC had it to come back
and be part of NBC broadcast starting next season because
as people know, TNT doesn't have the NBA no more
(23:02):
NBC does, and Peacock and so they're gonna run it
into the ground, I'm sure. And there's gonna be Amazon
with NBA games as well. No, I'm not kidding. There's
gonna be Sunday Night basketball. There's gonna be Monday Night basketball.
You thought it was just like Wednesday Friday there during
Sunday Night football, that's gonna be the theme. They're gonna
take that out and play round ball rock.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
The theory is that NBC, since they already have Sunday
Night Football and now Sunday Night Basketball, you know what's
up forbid at the moment is Sunday Night baseball because
the ESPN opted.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Out of that.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Nobody has Sunday Night Baseball starting next season. Yet, so
I am expecting an announcement one way or another, because
we got the All Star.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Game coming up.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
That's a perfect place to make News's gonna have Sunday
Night Baseball just here.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Marv Albert and Lamets welcome the Phillies in the City Field,
the Baltimore Orioles. Not what they had in mind, that
Gucas and Mike for Tello on the call of this one.
We go now live to City Field at Grimace's seat.
The Colorado Rockies twenty one up and seventy one down.
(24:12):
Not often eighteen fifty games under five hundred is on
Sunday Night Baseball, but they take on the Yankees and Aaron.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Judge and Sunday Night Baseball has been getting very good
ratings tonight, by the way, the best they've had in years,
and ESPN says, no, no, we don't want to pay
that for that, and then they get an audience. And
by the way, part of the package that's leaving is
not just Sunday Night Baseball. ESPN carries the first week
of the playoffs. ESPN carries the home run Derby. Next year,
somebody new is going to have the home run derby.
(24:42):
Perhaps maybe that will be part of the announcement next week.
There's no date for such an announcement. I'm just saying,
you're just thinking that would be perfect for their SO programming.
Note as we switch paragraphs. The Women's Euro Soccer Championship
started last Wednesday. Fox has the rights so FS one.
Tomorrow it's England against Netherlands and then France plays on
Fox TV tomorrow against Wales. Spain is the defending Women's
(25:05):
World Cup champ Of course it's a Euro tournament, so
they're in it and they're still great. They won yesterday
six to two against Belgium, outshot them thirty three to
four in the game, and then we had a lopsided
Germany win, at least on the stat sheet. It was
Germany over Denmark two to one and a big crowd
in Switzerland thirty four thousand for this Germany outshot them
(25:25):
twenty seven to five. And also at the Eurosweden three
nothing against windless Poland. We have the FIFA Club World
Cup semifinals that started in New Jersey at the Jets
Giant Stadium today. It was three o'clock on a Tuesday
and they had over seventy thousand people there to watch
Chelsea win. Same stadium on Wednesday, and it's going to
(25:46):
be Real Madrid against Paris and Jermont, and the final
will be Sunday in New Jersey, the same stadium that's
going to have the World Cup final next summer. By
the way, Chelsea, just by making the final of this
FIFA Club World Cup, they're guaranteed it ly eighty eight
million dollars to split among themselves.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Pretty good.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
That's a pretty good, astounding amount of money once they
expanded this into a regular tournament. Real Madrid just won
its quarterfinal on Saturday in New Jersey with seventy six
thousand people there, and Paris and German had eliminated Bayern Munich.
But the US is hosting this and it's kind of
a dry run before the us CO hosts the World
Cup next summer.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
So we'll have more on Nikola Jokic coming up in
about ninety seconds. There's your big appetizer into what's trending
in the wide world of sports. So Steve de Seger
has more details on that now, including inside the park,
walk off home runs and more.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Steve can't believe how that ended by the way labor
piece for the NHL and its players Union, they have
officially ratified a new four year CBA through twenty thirty.
One seed Arena Sablenca won her Wimbledon quarter final in
three sets, and an American, Amanda an Asimova, also won.
The men's number two Carlos Alcarez wins again. He advanced
and next up on Friday, American number five seed Taylor
(26:59):
Fritz As has won twenty three straight matches this year.
Novak Djokovic plays his quarterfinal on Wednesday, as does number
one Yanick Sinner, who is battling an elbow injury. How
the game ended at San Francisco tonight a three run
homer inside the park job by the number nine hitter
who was batting under two hundred giants for to three
(27:21):
over the Phillies, and that means the Mets are now
tied for first in the NL East with the Phills.
The Mets came back to win in ten at Baltimore
seven to six. Mets scored four times in the eighth
to tie it on a couple of homers and then
Juan Soto and the tenth at the go ahead single.
He had three hits. There was about an hour rain
to lay at the start. There rain playing a part
in a lot of these games tonight, But Mike Goodness,
(27:43):
such good baseball on the Tuesday schedule this evening. Cleveland
won on a tenth inning Grand Slam at Houston, off
All Star closer Josh Hader ten to six. Jose Ramirez
had hit a two run homer in the first. This
is a Guardian's team that had lost ten in a
row until yesterday's win at Houston. The Astros offen with
runners in scoring position two for twenty one.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Tonight.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Texas won thirteen to one at the Angels, the win
to Nathan Valde A's ten to one over Atlanta, which
has lost five in a row. A's All Star shortstop
Jacob Wilson did leave hit by a pitch early on
the hand. It is called a bruce speaking to all Stars.
The Pirates O'Neal Cruz will be in next week's home
runner be any homer Tonight at Kansas City, but with
(28:23):
a run bottom of the night, the Royals beat the
Pirates four to three. Pittsburgh has lost five straight. San
Diego won nothing over Arizona on a seventh inning home run.
It was Saint Louis four to two over Washington. Long
rang to lay of over two hours at the start,
Milwaukee sent the Dodgers to a fifth straight loss, three
to one, lead off homer from shohe Otana. He has
thirty one home runs to lead the National League. But
(28:45):
then the starter Jacob Mazarowski, in six innings, struck out
twelve and they beat the Dodgers in Clayton Kershaw, who
had been four and oh allowed two runs in six innings.
By the way, the Dodgers called up former Reds closer
Alexis Diaz.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
They could use arms, to say the least.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Unfortunately, this year in the majors and minors, Diaz, in
about twenty five innings has allowed twenty two runs. Dodger
pitcher Tyler glassnow, who's been injured, will start Wednesday afternoon.
Minnesota beat the Cubs eight to one. Toronto won its
tenth straight game, six to one at the White Sox.
That game was called due to rain in the seventh.
The Blue Jays first in the AL East, still three
(29:22):
and a half games over the Yankees, who won ten
to three against Seattle. Cal Rawley did hit his thirty
sixth home run, but Aaron Judge had his thirty fourth
for the Yanks, and Hincarlo Stanton hit a three run
shot by the way. The Yankees moved Jazz Chisholm back
to second base rain delay in the fifth inning.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
In New York.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Yankees were only up one to nothing in the sixth,
and ten to three was the final. Detroit wins on
a two run homer in the seventh, four to two
over Tampa Bay. Tigers have won five straight. Colt Keith
the hero. He had two hits three RBIs. The rest
of the Tigers went two for twenty three, but it's
another win, and the Rays have lost seven of ten.
Miami won again twelve two at Cincinnati, and the Red
(29:58):
Sox won their fifth straight, ten two over Colorado, a
complete game with ten strikeats for Brian Bao. The loss
to Kyle Freeland. He's one in ten and the Rockies
record now twenty one and seventy one. Final notes from
the WNBA. They had the team captains for this month's
All Star Games select draft their rosters. Team Caitlin Clark
(30:19):
includes her fever teammate Aliah Boston, also Sabrina Yenescu and
Asia Wilson, who did leave her game for Vegas in
the first half with a wrist injury. Tonight, New York
beat the Las Vegas Aces eighty seven seventy eight. Yunescue
with twenty eight points, although from three point range she
was one of nine, and Washington Beach Chicago eighty one
seventy nine Chicago five and thirteen. Angel Reese did have
(30:42):
a good game with twenty two points fifteen rebounds.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
No.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Angel Rees was not selected to be on Caitlin Clark's team.
She was one of the reserves on the NAFISA Collier team.
Indianapolis will host WNBA All Star Game July nineteenth.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
I will have more on this story coming up in
a few minutes, but really quick on NICOLEA Jokic. Right,
this story comes up today and there's two angles on it.
Jokicic could have signed a contract extension with the Nuggets
this summer, except he has said that no, he's going
to delay that until next summer. Now there's the school
of thought of hey, he wants to see if the
Nuggets are still really good, and maybe this turns into
(31:17):
a Yannis Buck situation where hey, I'm looking at other
options because maybe my future is not with the Nuggets
because the team winning a championship, we have gone into disrepair,
which is kind of what's happened to the Bucks. But
the other part of it is this A lot of
it could be financially motivated for Yokics because he can
sign a much bigger extension if he waits a year. Now,
(31:38):
he's got three years left on the contract he signed
in twenty twenty two. The last year of his contract
is set. Now he's set to make sixty two million
dollars in two years. Okay, son, we say that again
out loud, sixty two million dollars in twenty twenty seven
to twenty eight. If he signs this extension next off season,
that salary goes up to seven seven million dollars for
(32:02):
the last year of his deal. So he signs his
contract extension, two years from there, he goes to seventy
seven million. And this I feel so good about the
bull prediction I made like two years ago. I said, Listen,
by the time we get to twenty thirty, someone in
the NBA or the NFL is going to be making
one hundred million dollars a year. And it's more than
(32:22):
likely now going to be the NBA than the NFL.
I don't know that the quarterback is going to get
there because things seem to be going a little bit
more arithmetically and not geometrically. But if Yokich waits until
next offseason, all of a sudden, now we're at somebody
making seventy seven million dollars a year. So say you
wait two years after that and another it goes up
another fifteen million. Somebody's making ninety million a year. By
(32:46):
twenty thirty, somebody in the NBA is making one hundred
million dollars a year, and it's probably Wemby. If you
saying who's it going to be, it's probably gonna be
Wemby making one hundred million dollars a year and twenty
thirty one, ming Hell, sure, we are on PA And
that might be the greatest Bowl prediction I've ever made.
By twenty thirty, someone's making one hundred million dollars a year.
We can have that. By twenty we are on pace
(33:07):
to that, especially if this happens with Jokic next offseason.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
These are the kind of numbers that we used to
discuss in years past, like Messi or Ronaldo if you
include all their endorsements, or Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson
if you include all their endorsements. This is the kind
of money they pulled down last year. We're talking salary
from the team, actual checks with taxes taken out of them,
(33:30):
payroll checks, because remember there was the huge SuperMac extension
recently that Oklahoma City gave the MVP Shay Gilgas Alexander.
This is a concrete number, not a guess. In twenty thirty,
he is making seventy million dollars for an eighty two
game seasons.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Who's to say he plays all eighty two. He might
be playing.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
Seventy games for seventy million dollars in twenty thirty.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Sixty games, fifty five games. That's how it goes down.
Steve Stound one hundred million by twenty thirty. Get ready
for it to be wemby
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 Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every night on
the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Give you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
To Seger, Fox Sports Radio, Welcome inside Final Hour. Tonight
the Jason Smith Show was special Delivery Steve to Sager,
who is Mike Harmon? Who is a hobo? No, it's
a non Hobo Knight, Non Hobo Night to so not
Hobo Week Harmon on vacation to Saga in non Hobo Week.
Hey Steve, howdy?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Now, before we I can I can really pull the
curtain back on the decision. You know, it turns fifteen
today Lebron deciding he's taking his talents to South Beach
to go play for the Miami Heat. But first we
have to because this is starting to gain a lot
of attention. You know, Jason Stark is a guy that
you know, I quote this, I don't know that I
quote anybody that I've spoken to professionally more than I
(01:11):
quote this from Jason Stark, longtime baseball insider and writer,
who says they've been playing baseball for a hundred He
said it so long ago that he used to have
gone from one hundred and twenty five years to now
to one hundred and fifty years. That's how long ago
he said. And it's still true. They've been playing baseball
for one hundred and fifty years and still regularly every
season you see something and go, well, I've never seen
(01:33):
that before, right, one hundred and fifty years of been
like you've seen everything in the NFL and the NBA,
I've never seen that before. So the Phillies are trying
to close out a three to one win over the Giants, and.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
It would keep the Phillies a game ahead of the
Mets in the NL East because the Mets had a
big comeback and one in ten tonight.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And I'd like to say that I did my part
in this, because when you first brought this up to say, hey,
big out your final game going on tonight Major League Baseball,
the Phillies are up three to one in the night,
I said, yeah, yeah, great, whatever thanks a lot.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And then a couple minutes later you say, wait a minute, Uh,
the Giants just win on a walk off. Well, okay,
we've seen walk offs before.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
We've seen guy, I see the celebration, the reruns tackling
each other on the field. They said, Wow, that's a
pretty impressive way to.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Win for that. Okay, so we said, okay, wait, they
win walk off three run homer by Patrick Bailey. The
catcher who was hitting. What was he in like one
one oh four up to one four.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
He's a great defense and not defense first defense only catcher.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Yeah, so the ninth batter in the order hits a
walk off, again, something we've seen before. But this is
something we had not seen in Major League Baseball in
almost one hundred years, because the last time a catcher
had a walk off inside the park home run in
(02:51):
Major League Baseball was back in nineteen twenty six inside
the park walk off home run. And here's how it
sounded on Giants TV.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
On my drive right right fl the brick, it's Ginnas time,
Families on the road, Family's on the road.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
The arm.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
So there was on Giants TV the ball I think
the ball hit the brick, Yes, hit the hit.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
The hard wall where there's kind of a corner near
center field.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, so so you both outfielders are getting back to
try to get the.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Going, over ran it and then really had to chase.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, the ball hits the brick and bounces straight to
the left along the warning track by the left fielder
who's got to run and chase it down. It's not
even close at home play, and it's a catcher running it.
It's not even close at home plate, by the way,
John Radio with Dave Fleming, who we're familiar with.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Amazing bib again, and that doesn't describe all of what
we're talking about. I mean, it hits the brick and
flies out and the incredible excitement you can hear it
there again Baseball one hundred and fifty five.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Now, Barently in the.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Old days we had two catchers with walk off inside
the park homers, and it was in nineteen twenty six
and nineteen oh seven, so Ben, according to Jeff Passing
the ESPN, Patrick Bailey the first inside the park, inside
the park walk off home run from a catcher since
Benny Tait on August eleven, sure nineteen twenty six. Benny Tate, Yeah,
(04:46):
I streamed him in Fantasy that day, so it worked.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah here, yeah, I mean, I mean Baseball Reference is.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
The other game that we had in the Bay Area,
you know, they don't play in Oakland anymore, but in
a home game in Sacramento for the A's, and they
let off with an inside the park home run from
Lawrence Butler, which means, this is the first day at
MLB history we've had a walk off inside the parker
(05:12):
and a lead off inside the parker on the same night.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
So that's never happened before, never lead a walk off
home inside the park home run to lead off the
game and on the same day, a walk off inside
the inside the parker.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
And it was both the Northern California team and both
at home the.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Same Just the A's. It's just the A's. They have
no home.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Yes, they're not the Oakland Age, they're not the West
Sacramento a it's just the they're not yet the Las
Vegas A's.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
No, no, no, but it's coming to everybod keeps it.
Don't worry, don't worry to worry. It's gonna happen. It's
gonna happen. They've broken ground. So look, today's been a
big day. We spent a lot of time talking about
the decision. Turning fifteen today when Lebron James sat in
front of Jim Gray and said, I'm taking my talents
to South Beach to go play for the Miami Heat.
The look the biggest event in basketball for the last
twenty five years, right, What the effect it's had on
(05:58):
the game, the effect it's had. It made the basketball
world stop. It was for three weeks, what's going to happen?
How's it going to go? But you know, to talk
about how the Lebron decision changed people's careers, I want
to pull back the curtain for you on this a
little bit because this is what it was like. Because
I was on this one. I was at ESPN and
I was doing all night, and there were so many
(06:21):
reports of what could happen. It was hard to keep straight, Like, oh,
the right now, the two favorites for Lebron are the
Cavaliers and the Knicks, And the next day it would
be the Knicks seem to be out, the Cavaliers are
a strong front runner. And so many different insiders had
so many different things. And this is the new league
year has just started. It's early July. It's summer.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Nobody's actually going to NBA arenas for game time and
you know, talking to the coach and cornering the general
manager daily, None of that's happening.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
It's July. Yeah. Every day for like two weeks, there
was a new leader, there was a new team, a
new insider that said they had the story. Now this
is where he's going. This where he's going. So every
day when we would come in, when I would come
in and get ready, okay, what are we reporting? Is
there anything ESPN is reported? Because again that's how big
this story was. This was an entire shows, entire sports centers,
(07:12):
entire radio shows, four hours of all night. This is
what it was. It'll be okay, well here's what we
have from today. So and so is saying this, so
and so is saying this. So every time we talked
about it, we would say something like, you know, Asian
Wojanerowski is saying that the team in the lead right
now or the Dallas matt I'm just throwing this out there.
The team in the lead right now is the Dallas Mavericks.
(07:33):
So that would be the talking point. Well, if it's
the Mavericks, what does it mean? What are the odds?
It really could be the Mavericks, all this stuff, Clippers,
of course, many a star. So about a day and
a half before the special, this is Stephen A. Smith,
not nearly the personality he was is now when he
was basketball insider, starting to make that push to being
(07:57):
a personality doing first take. But that's where he came up.
And you know, Stephen A. Smith was an NBA insider
for a long time. That he left ESPN and he
came back. It was his rise at ESPN is on
the way he.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Worked after he left DESPN and I wonder why that
didn't work out or why why he didn't stay there longer.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I'm gonna put a pin in that one. We'll we'll
circle back to that. So I vividly remember this is
that he reported it's the heat, and this is a
day and a half before, and he kept and and
and the thing he kept telling everybody ESPN, I got it, No,
I got it, it's gonna be the heat. I got
this story. But we were never reporting it as a network.
Where think about that now, where when Jay Glazer has
(08:38):
a report, Hey, Jay Glazer says that the Jets are
signing justin Fields. That's the story. It's a breaking story,
and it's Glazer. It's a luck and he's calling us
her tweeting, and that's that. Adam Schefter is reporting that
Sam Darnold's going to the forty nine going to the
Seahawks or three years hundred million. That's the story, right,
there's no ESPN's reporting this, and we have to confirm it.
(08:59):
When when these guys report something, it's a done deal, right,
That's how it's. That's how it is now. Can you
imagine that hey, so and so supports, but we're not
reporting this as officially. We're gonna say if it happens,
if it's this. But that's the way it was. And
I remember Stephen that he was kind of frustrated because,
like I kept telling everybody, I got it, I got it,
I got it. So when we talked about it the
(09:21):
day and a half going in, I remember saying, how
are we doing this? They're saying, well, you're saying, ESPN
Steven A. Smith is reporting that the Miami Heat is
going to be the best of Okay, but no one
really took it as gospel. No one took it as
this is where he's going so the entire lead up
for those two days was, Oh, Stephen A. Smith says,
it's it's the it's the heat. If it is the heat,
(09:42):
and that's kind of how we we we all dealt
with it on the radio and on television, and.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
We're gonna find out on live TV. It's not just
this will be confirmed by some other newspaper reporter.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
And then obviously the heat was correct and he had it.
Now obviously he's not hurting right now with his status
and in radio and television everywhere.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, no, I guess he's an expert in every area
of life.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yes, he is whatever?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Wrong? What?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah? Right?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Because he knows every roster of every team.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Hey, you want to you want to know how to
win a solitaire, you call Stephen A. Smith. He will
tell you how to win a game. In the middle
of the NBA Finals, They'll tell you how to win
a game.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
But can you imagine that would have been the biggest
He would have gone down having the biggest scoop of
all time Lebron because it was shocking enough that Lebron
was going to the heat. But imagine if he had it,
if he had that story, Like if we look back
now and say.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Be the biggest scoop since the gretz Get trade.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Put it down. Yeah, and and probably the biggest scoop
we've seen since then probably is Schefter reporting that Andrew
luck was retiring in the middle of that the preseason game. Well,
like we look back and say, that's been the big done.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Since last year. None of us believed it initially, Lakers,
there's half hour.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I didn't know what was going on. I called Frotzburg.
After a half hour, he goes, what's up.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
We got there's no question what's But like that would
be I mean the Andrew Lucking, we would say, boy,
that's the second biggest scoop of all time, because Stephen A.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Smith having lebron to the heat was the biggest scoop. Now.
I don't know if now Here's the thing is, I
don't remember at the time thinking we weren't reporting it
for any other reason other than there's so many different insights,
people saying things we're not sure or if it was hey,
we're not reporting this because he's coming on TV, He's
(11:29):
gonna be on ESPN's air and we were asked not
to report it. Like I don't I'm just saying there's
one of two things.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
A good question. But they come back to that is
this really wasn't an ESPN show. It aired on their network,
but I don't believe they produced it. They certainly didn't
have the profit that the Boys and Girls clubs locally
had from it was an agent engineered thing with Jim
Gray who didn't work for ESPN and.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
I don't do that, and being an ESPN and understanding
how things work. If they did that, they risk upsetting
Lebron James for the rest of his career and then
suddenly access to Lebron James, which happen.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Career, then we'll all be spent in Miami, right because
as soon as he goes there.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
But I mean no, because they want access to Lebron James, right.
They want to have access. They don't want to be
absolutely they want to be able to have a good
relationship with Lebron James. So clearly, if that.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Was there to kill and televise eight finals.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
In a row with the guy, he would have held
the cards into saying or his people say, hey, listen,
we're gonna hold on you. Guys are going to hold
on to this and not report this because we have
a big special coming up, and may I could see
where ESPN would have said, yeah, we're not going to
do it now. I don't know. I'm just saying there's
two things that happened. One at the time when I thought, okay,
there's just been so much information and who knows what's true,
(12:47):
that's why we're not reporting it. But also that could
have been that very well could have been.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I don't think it would have come from the commissioner then,
because he always liked to be in control, not lebron
So I'm sure he would have loved to think, go, yeah,
reported blow up lebron Zeller. Great, he's still gonna play
in my league. Everybody's bluaying tickets, everybody's gonna watch. What
do I can't right, I mean, David Sterr was very
(13:11):
much the man in control.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Oh yeah, yeah, And and and.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Maybe it could be very sour in the hallways by
the way to his own people. And you know, sure
he ran things his way, Oh yeah, but sure.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
But but David Stern could have made that phone call
too and said, you know, this is a big thing
for the end. Just think about it. From David search
this is a big thing for the end. I understand
he was always a great big picture guy, right, David Stern.
Always he could have calls, Hey, listen, we have this
going on, you and me kind of like this. You
want to have a great relationship. Now it's not just Lebron,
it's me that you're dealing with, and and and who know,
(13:44):
you don't want this to go poorly. We don't want
to have a great relationship here. I mean, I can't
throw it out that that that didn't happen. I mean,
I'm not saying it did, but one of two things
why we didn't why it wasn't reported and and and
clearly I didn't think about that until just the last
few years.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
By the way, as we before we close out on
on the NBA this segment, there's been so much great
baseball going on. We haven't mentioned hoops, but two items
especially and then summer league stuff. But the two items
the report today that Anthony Davis with the Mavericks had
eye surgery this offseason for a detached retina, but he's
(14:17):
due to be healthy for training camp in September.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
And then the.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Two little summer leagues before Vegas wound up tonight, there
were two games of Salt Lake City two games in
the Bay Area, and the late game for San Francisco
was a Lakers win eighty nine eighty eight against the Spurs.
Starty starter Brownie James, I have to emphasize, was one
of five shooting with three turnovers in fifteen minutes on
the court. And it had been a really bad weekend
(14:42):
of three point attempts for Dalton Connect to the Lakers
and a bad start to tonight's game. He had back
to back threes late he wound up getting him the
win and Dalton Connect had twenty five points in that game?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Was it?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Daris Basley had the big put back that won the
game right and wound up three.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
And wound up with twenty seven in this game. Miami
won at Golden State earlier, and the Salt Lake Summer
League ended tonight with Utah's home win against Oklahoma City
eighty nine to eighty two. Kyle Philipowski with eighteen points
and fifteen rebounds and Walter Clayton, we just saw with
so many postseason games with the Gators had twenty points.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
But there's a guy then I'm excited. When's the next
Salt Lake because I just got my Salt Lake City
Summer League te shirt. When's the next game? That would
be next? Jo Lone, thank you.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
There's a guy that was drafted by Oklahoma City and
then sat out last year with injury named Nicola Tapicch
and people are winning a hey point god her the
future this is he has been horrendous this past weekend,
including the finale in Salt Lake for that team tonight.
He was three of twelve shooting from three point range,
oh five, eight turnovers in the game eight And he
(15:49):
had a game I think with eight fowls?
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Did he not? I mean, it's just eight I will
what to say, and we don't care.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Well, it's testically bad weekending.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
It none even count, So I'm just saying I had
a good start. He clearly had a year off.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
The other note is a basketball player that nobody in
the country's familiar with, somebody named Judah Mins from Syracuse.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
You mean nobody is I'm familiar? He left? He was
exactly one guy is I wish he had stayed.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Twenty six points, seventy six ers, ninety one ninety over
the Grizzlies. Now, the Las Vegas Summer League will start Thursday,
and people are overpaying for their first Dallas.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I mean, people, what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Okay? I want to see him play too, but I'm
not spending one thousand dollars, sure, are you?
Speaker 1 (16:31):
People?
Speaker 3 (16:32):
July tenth through twentieth for the Vegas Summer League, and
the Wizards traded Kelly Olynnock already to the Spurs. Washington
had just picked him up from New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
So there you go. We got more NBA coming up.
On the way, you talked about the the David Stern
treating people tak people always. I actually have a David
Stern story. Oh and I will tell by all mean
we got that end. Might the best player in the
NBA be angling for trade? It's coming up next right here.
Jason Smith Steve de Sagarin for Harmon. This is Fox
(17:02):
Sports Radio, not a Hobo.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
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 (17:18):
Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon
Steve the Sagarin for Harmon. I don't know, it's a
non hobo night. It's a non hobo knight. Ty shirt
the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon Steve De Sagarin
for Mike Harmon tonight.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Not a hobo.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
There we go. So we'll get to the big Nikola
Yoka story coming up in a minute. But you know,
we talked about the decision a few minutes ago, and
we talked about David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA,
and you said, he, you know, heard that, you know,
not not the greatest sometimes the people in the hallway
and everything else. Oh heard it from an employee in
the hallways. Yes, okay, so I actually have a David Stern,
(17:57):
but it's not when you said, and I said, oh, well,
this is my David Stern story.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
So I remember he got mad at somebody interviewing him
on the phone.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Here.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
He just he just wouldn't take the assertion that was
being said over the phone. And you know, he all
but called the guy a name on live radio. I'm
not hiding, hey, you blankety blank. He wasn't just crusty
at the end of his life.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
It's what I'm saying. So this is this is when
I was. I was at ESPN and I was hosting
All Night and it was one of those weeks where
a couple of times a year I would go back
and do shows from Bristol because I did show some
mere in La the entire time. We'd get back into
shows from Bristol once a week, once a couple of
times a year to meet with my managers, get FaceTime
with everybody. And you know, I just did that. So
(18:38):
I park in the parking lot and I'm walking into
work and it's a night that David Stern is doing
what they call the car wash at ESPN, meaning that
he's doing he's he's there for whatever reason he was
there forever publicity was doing, and he was doing all
these shows. They call it the car wash because you
go here, you do this TV show, then you do this,
you tape this radio making the round, you tape this
rad yeah, this, so they called it the car wash.
(18:59):
So the last thing I knew from my producer was that, hey,
if you come in early, we can get David Stern
to tay if you want to take an interview with
David Stern before he leaves, it's his end of the
end of the day. I said, okay, great, what time
should I get this all. We'll get there for I
think it was like nine o'clock or something like that.
He's not going to do it live at ten or
eleven at night. No, no, no, and this is all night.
When I was on, I would go on at one
o'clock in the morning, so normally I would go in.
(19:22):
You're in the east here, so normally I would go
in like, you know, ten eleven o'clock. But because David
Stern was I was like, yeah, I'm here to work,
so yeah, I'll come in at like not eight thirty
or nine of tape David Stern's interview. So I'm walking in,
the last thing I know is that I'm coming taping interview. Okay, great.
So I'm walking in and I passed by this big
limousine that's near the entrance to ESPN, and I'm the
(19:42):
only one walking in because it's nine o'clock. Not many
people are leaving at nine o'clock an ever people come out.
I'm coming in. So I'm walking in. I got my
you know, I'm checking my phone and I got my
backpack everything, and all of a sudden, the limo driver
gets out and he goes, excuse me, do you work here?
And I said, uh, yeah, I do. Why he goes, oh, okay,
I'm here. I'm here to take Commissioner Stern. Can you
(20:03):
go inside and get him for me? And I looked
at him and I said, I'm sorry. What He goes,
can you get Commissioner Stern for me? Can you go inside?
It's time for him to go? And I said, yeah,
I'll see what I can do about that. And I
just I just walked. I didn't tell anybody anything. I'm like, blank,
that guy, man, I'm not kidding, who's he? Just like,
do you work here? Go get him for me? I
was like forgot, he's done with me. But yeah, I'm like,
(20:23):
you forget it. I'm gonna go. Hey, maybe after I
interview him and I'll find out that they'll tell him, Oh, hey,
you're your limo driver's waiting for you. So I walked
in like a limo driver was from New Jersey. Apparently
that's kind of how he sounded. He says, hey, do
you work it yet? Can you go get him for me?
And he second time not please not and not not
even ask him please say can you get him for me? Like, hey,
any guy walking by, I can I can tell to
(20:44):
go in? And I'm like like that I'm not gonna go.
So I walk in. I go, well, forget it. Maybe
I'll say after interview David Stern. And so I'm like okay.
So I come in and I set up and I
sit down, and I asked my producer what's going on?
He goes, okay, we'll know when a couple of minutes
be ready to go. Okay, great. I sit down and
have my headphones on. I got my questions ready already,
all see. He comes in and goes, oh uh, commissioners
not not coming in. We didn't get him. I'm so sorry.
(21:07):
What do you mean I came in two hours early. Again,
I'm sorry, if you want to leave whatever. I soa
what happened? He goes, I know, apparently he was running
late and and somebody told him was time to go.
So so he apparently told somebody else going in and
they knew the dirty work. Did tell Commissioner Stern. So
I go, So for me not finding it, Like if
I had gone and found him and said, hey, you
(21:28):
do my interview and then you can leave, I would
have had the interview with David Stern. But because I
was like blank, that guy, so he just found somebody
else to go in and tell. So Commissioner Stern walked out.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
So who knows what news would have been made when
Jason Smith had a chance to corner the all powerful
NBA commissioner in his last interview the.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Day who had just said live, I've been talking to
everybody else, all right.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
He'd be so sick of things exactly.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Asked me anything you want hey the eighty five draft? Oh,
completely frozen envelope, completely frozen. I knew it right when
I grabbed it. I knew the we knew the next
we're getting youing for months months we knew this answer.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh thanks, I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Commission So round Ball Rock your idea? Yes, actually yeah.
I don't take credit for this, but decades from now
people will be clamoring to have that be the musical
theme of my league.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
I said to John Tesh, No, you want d D
give something a little bit bigger off the top? Come on? Can?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I mentioned, as we just this has been a great show.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
But so what do you see, John? Do you see?
John Tesh so excited? Can't wait for round Ball Rocks.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
It's going to be part of the new coverage next year.
I mentioned this.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
He's like, that's when the check start clearing, right, when
when you actually start that's what I get paid again, Right.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Let's be honest. There had to be an agreement, I mean,
like a formal, written in pen business agreement for that theme,
which was the theme we all heard for NBA broadcasts
in the nineties when NBC had it to come back
and be part of NBC broadcast starting next season because
as people know, TNT doesn't have the NBA no more
(23:02):
NBC does, and Peacock and so they're gonna run it
into the ground, I'm sure. And there's gonna be Amazon
with NBA games as well. No, I'm not kidding. There's
gonna be Sunday Night basketball. There's gonna be Monday Night basketball.
You thought it was just like Wednesday Friday there during
Sunday Night football, that's gonna be the theme. They're gonna
take that out and play round ball rock.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
The theory is that NBC, since they already have Sunday
Night Football and now Sunday Night Basketball, you know what's
up forbid at the moment is Sunday Night baseball because
the ESPN opted.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Out of that.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Nobody has Sunday Night Baseball starting next season. Yet, so
I am expecting an announcement one way or another, because
we got the All Star.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Game coming up.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
That's a perfect place to make News's gonna have Sunday
Night Baseball just here.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Marv Albert and Lamets welcome the Phillies in the City Field,
the Baltimore Orioles. Not what they had in mind, that
Gucas and Mike for Tello on the call of this one.
We go now live to City Field at Grimace's seat.
The Colorado Rockies twenty one up and seventy one down.
(24:12):
Not often eighteen fifty games under five hundred is on
Sunday Night Baseball, but they take on the Yankees and Aaron.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Judge and Sunday Night Baseball has been getting very good
ratings tonight, by the way, the best they've had in years,
and ESPN says, no, no, we don't want to pay
that for that, and then they get an audience. And
by the way, part of the package that's leaving is
not just Sunday Night Baseball. ESPN carries the first week
of the playoffs. ESPN carries the home run Derby. Next year,
somebody new is going to have the home run derby.
(24:42):
Perhaps maybe that will be part of the announcement next week.
There's no date for such an announcement. I'm just saying,
you're just thinking that would be perfect for their SO programming.
Note as we switch paragraphs. The Women's Euro Soccer Championship
started last Wednesday. Fox has the rights so FS one.
Tomorrow it's England against Netherlands and then France plays on
Fox TV tomorrow against Wales. Spain is the defending Women's
(25:05):
World Cup champ Of course it's a Euro tournament, so
they're in it and they're still great. They won yesterday
six to two against Belgium, outshot them thirty three to
four in the game, and then we had a lopsided
Germany win, at least on the stat sheet. It was
Germany over Denmark two to one and a big crowd
in Switzerland thirty four thousand for this Germany outshot them
(25:25):
twenty seven to five. And also at the Eurosweden three
nothing against windless Poland. We have the FIFA Club World
Cup semifinals that started in New Jersey at the Jets
Giant Stadium today. It was three o'clock on a Tuesday
and they had over seventy thousand people there to watch
Chelsea win. Same stadium on Wednesday, and it's going to
(25:46):
be Real Madrid against Paris and Jermont, and the final
will be Sunday in New Jersey, the same stadium that's
going to have the World Cup final next summer. By
the way, Chelsea, just by making the final of this
FIFA Club World Cup, they're guaranteed it ly eighty eight
million dollars to split among themselves.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Pretty good.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
That's a pretty good, astounding amount of money once they
expanded this into a regular tournament. Real Madrid just won
its quarterfinal on Saturday in New Jersey with seventy six
thousand people there, and Paris and German had eliminated Bayern Munich.
But the US is hosting this and it's kind of
a dry run before the us CO hosts the World
Cup next summer.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
So we'll have more on Nikola Jokic coming up in
about ninety seconds. There's your big appetizer into what's trending
in the wide world of sports. So Steve de Seger
has more details on that now, including inside the park,
walk off home runs and more.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Steve can't believe how that ended by the way labor
piece for the NHL and its players Union, they have
officially ratified a new four year CBA through twenty thirty.
One seed Arena Sablenca won her Wimbledon quarter final in
three sets, and an American, Amanda an Asimova, also won.
The men's number two Carlos Alcarez wins again. He advanced
and next up on Friday, American number five seed Taylor
(26:59):
Fritz As has won twenty three straight matches this year.
Novak Djokovic plays his quarterfinal on Wednesday, as does number
one Yanick Sinner, who is battling an elbow injury. How
the game ended at San Francisco tonight a three run
homer inside the park job by the number nine hitter
who was batting under two hundred giants for to three
(27:21):
over the Phillies, and that means the Mets are now
tied for first in the NL East with the Phills.
The Mets came back to win in ten at Baltimore
seven to six. Mets scored four times in the eighth
to tie it on a couple of homers and then
Juan Soto and the tenth at the go ahead single.
He had three hits. There was about an hour rain
to lay at the start. There rain playing a part
in a lot of these games tonight, But Mike Goodness,
(27:43):
such good baseball on the Tuesday schedule this evening. Cleveland
won on a tenth inning Grand Slam at Houston, off
All Star closer Josh Hader ten to six. Jose Ramirez
had hit a two run homer in the first. This
is a Guardian's team that had lost ten in a
row until yesterday's win at Houston. The Astros offen with
runners in scoring position two for twenty one.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Tonight.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Texas won thirteen to one at the Angels, the win
to Nathan Valde A's ten to one over Atlanta, which
has lost five in a row. A's All Star shortstop
Jacob Wilson did leave hit by a pitch early on
the hand. It is called a bruce speaking to all Stars.
The Pirates O'Neal Cruz will be in next week's home
runner be any homer Tonight at Kansas City, but with
(28:23):
a run bottom of the night, the Royals beat the
Pirates four to three. Pittsburgh has lost five straight. San
Diego won nothing over Arizona on a seventh inning home run.
It was Saint Louis four to two over Washington. Long
rang to lay of over two hours at the start,
Milwaukee sent the Dodgers to a fifth straight loss, three
to one, lead off homer from shohe Otana. He has
thirty one home runs to lead the National League. But
(28:45):
then the starter Jacob Mazarowski, in six innings, struck out
twelve and they beat the Dodgers in Clayton Kershaw, who
had been four and oh allowed two runs in six innings.
By the way, the Dodgers called up former Reds closer
Alexis Diaz.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
They could use arms, to say the least.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Unfortunately, this year in the majors and minors, Diaz, in
about twenty five innings has allowed twenty two runs. Dodger
pitcher Tyler glassnow, who's been injured, will start Wednesday afternoon.
Minnesota beat the Cubs eight to one. Toronto won its
tenth straight game, six to one at the White Sox.
That game was called due to rain in the seventh.
The Blue Jays first in the AL East, still three
(29:22):
and a half games over the Yankees, who won ten
to three against Seattle. Cal Rawley did hit his thirty
sixth home run, but Aaron Judge had his thirty fourth
for the Yanks, and Hincarlo Stanton hit a three run
shot by the way. The Yankees moved Jazz Chisholm back
to second base rain delay in the fifth inning.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
In New York.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Yankees were only up one to nothing in the sixth,
and ten to three was the final. Detroit wins on
a two run homer in the seventh, four to two
over Tampa Bay. Tigers have won five straight. Colt Keith
the hero. He had two hits three RBIs. The rest
of the Tigers went two for twenty three, but it's
another win, and the Rays have lost seven of ten.
Miami won again twelve two at Cincinnati, and the Red
(29:58):
Sox won their fifth straight, ten two over Colorado, a
complete game with ten strikeats for Brian Bao. The loss
to Kyle Freeland. He's one in ten and the Rockies
record now twenty one and seventy one. Final notes from
the WNBA. They had the team captains for this month's
All Star Games select draft their rosters. Team Caitlin Clark
(30:19):
includes her fever teammate Aliah Boston, also Sabrina Yenescu and
Asia Wilson, who did leave her game for Vegas in
the first half with a wrist injury. Tonight, New York
beat the Las Vegas Aces eighty seven seventy eight. Yunescue
with twenty eight points, although from three point range she
was one of nine, and Washington Beach Chicago eighty one
seventy nine Chicago five and thirteen. Angel Reese did have
(30:42):
a good game with twenty two points fifteen rebounds.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
No.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Angel Rees was not selected to be on Caitlin Clark's team.
She was one of the reserves on the NAFISA Collier team.
Indianapolis will host WNBA All Star Game July nineteenth.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
I will have more on this story coming up in
a few minutes, but really quick on NICOLEA Jokic. Right,
this story comes up today and there's two angles on it.
Jokicic could have signed a contract extension with the Nuggets
this summer, except he has said that no, he's going
to delay that until next summer. Now there's the school
of thought of hey, he wants to see if the
Nuggets are still really good, and maybe this turns into
(31:17):
a Yannis Buck situation where hey, I'm looking at other
options because maybe my future is not with the Nuggets
because the team winning a championship, we have gone into disrepair,
which is kind of what's happened to the Bucks. But
the other part of it is this A lot of
it could be financially motivated for Yokics because he can
sign a much bigger extension if he waits a year. Now,
(31:38):
he's got three years left on the contract he signed
in twenty twenty two. The last year of his contract
is set. Now he's set to make sixty two million
dollars in two years. Okay, son, we say that again
out loud, sixty two million dollars in twenty twenty seven
to twenty eight. If he signs this extension next off season,
that salary goes up to seven seven million dollars for
(32:02):
the last year of his deal. So he signs his
contract extension, two years from there, he goes to seventy
seven million. And this I feel so good about the
bull prediction I made like two years ago. I said, Listen,
by the time we get to twenty thirty, someone in
the NBA or the NFL is going to be making
one hundred million dollars a year. And it's more than
(32:22):
likely now going to be the NBA than the NFL.
I don't know that the quarterback is going to get
there because things seem to be going a little bit
more arithmetically and not geometrically. But if Yokich waits until
next offseason, all of a sudden, now we're at somebody
making seventy seven million dollars a year. So say you
wait two years after that and another it goes up
another fifteen million. Somebody's making ninety million a year. By
(32:46):
twenty thirty, somebody in the NBA is making one hundred
million dollars a year, and it's probably Wemby. If you
saying who's it going to be, it's probably gonna be
Wemby making one hundred million dollars a year and twenty
thirty one, ming Hell, sure, we are on PA And
that might be the greatest Bowl prediction I've ever made.
By twenty thirty, someone's making one hundred million dollars a year.
We can have that. By twenty we are on pace
(33:07):
to that, especially if this happens with Jokic next offseason.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
These are the kind of numbers that we used to
discuss in years past, like Messi or Ronaldo if you
include all their endorsements, or Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson
if you include all their endorsements. This is the kind
of money they pulled down last year. We're talking salary
from the team, actual checks with taxes taken out of them,
(33:30):
payroll checks, because remember there was the huge SuperMac extension
recently that Oklahoma City gave the MVP Shay Gilgas Alexander.
This is a concrete number, not a guess. In twenty thirty,
he is making seventy million dollars for an eighty two
game seasons.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Who's to say he plays all eighty two. He might
be playing.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
Seventy games for seventy million dollars in twenty thirty.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Sixty games, fifty five games. That's how it goes down.
Steve Stound one hundred million by twenty thirty. Get ready
for it to be wemby
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Mike Harmon
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