July 11, 2026 • 30 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon tell you exactly when they think LeBron’s decision is coming. Plus, way more on Tyler Herro getting punched in the FACE by Bam Adebayo!
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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 (00:33):
Greetings, Welcome inside final hour tonight The Jason Smith Show
with my bab friend Mike Harmon. Oh, Alex, I should
always getting loose on a Friday night. I'm not wrong, No, No,
I'm just saying I've got if I did it, I don't,
I don't. You don't play that drop anywhere else but
(00:55):
a Friday night. That's the only time we hear it
on Friday. Uh, speaking of getting loose, okay, speaking to
get loose, slip, get into We'll get into the bat
We'll get to the bam out of bam. We'll get
to the bam out of bio story in a minute.
So I'm starting to see the potential that a Lebron
James free agent decision will come sometime in the next
(01:17):
few days. Right, I'm telling you in line with the
odyssey we talked about, he's not the least day. He's
not gonna share the spotlight with anybody. Not He's not
gonna share with Matt Damon and Robert Pattinson. Is not
gonna happen. No, they've already done their premieres.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
A lot of talk about whatever the hell it is
that Zendea was wearing.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I mean, there's a lot going on now. We talked
about it earlier this week. We sorry, when's it gonna happen?
Right Monday night, we talked about this, when Lebron feels
like he's gotten the most amount of love he is
gonna get from a team that wants and he'll make
his decision. And I feel like now in the last
twenty four hours, we've been on a heater with Lebron stories,
(02:02):
right like Rich Paul's done podcasts. He threw out in
the podcast today that hey, you know the Warriors that
would be the best fit. Warriors could be the best fit.
I don't know, you not that he's gone, but I
don't know Warriors could be the best fit. Brian Windhorse
said he's hearing more about Miami potentially happening. Right. You've
heard people say, Oh, I hear it's done. He's going
to Cleveland, Oh he's going to Denver, Miami.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
But there's a lot of smoke around right now. And
I don't think that and Lebron, who's always been calculated
about his plans and what happens, I don't think we
get this much smoke and quotes from Steph Curry and
Rich Paul on his podcast Heater and the other guys
talking about it win Horse, and I don't think we're
(02:46):
getting that unless we are closing in on a decision
for Lebron James sometime in the next week. Like we
were told today, he's on vacation. Okay, I don't expect
to see a decision this weekend. But now we're really
starting to get into the end game where teams are
gonna want to know a little bit going in. We're
already in the summer League and and look, teams absolutely
(03:08):
don't don't have to wait because they're either gonna add
Lebron or they're not. Like nobody's waiting around for Lebron
before they make a big move. You know, most of
the players they wanted to get are already already gone.
So but just seeing this, like I feel like the
machine is moving now and we're moving towards it where
we could get a Lebron decision like Monday or Tuesday. Like,
I don't think we're more than five days away from
(03:31):
a Lebron James decision.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Well, I mean, if he's gonna do it Monday or Tuesday,
and then that better mean he's showing up to either
hit a home run or throw out a first pitch
at the All Star Game. See I theorize that two peal.
So we've covered all our bases. We've either got the
odyssey for he's going home to Cleveland, or he shows
up and makes himself the center of attention at the
All Star Game like Joe LMB did when he was
(03:54):
shagging a home run derby that time.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
And throwing out the first pitch at the All Game.
New New York nick player, Lebron.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Jay, you made him a nick I thought, you know,
in Philadelphia, ring a bell or something. I don't know,
but yeah, it does seem like there's a lot more
chirping going on and we're getting closer to an end game,
which which is good for all of us.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, the machine is firing on this for sure, Like, okay,
it's it's started it, it's it's warming up now over
the course of the past past twenty four hours, where
now we're not gonna get these stories and then it
goes away.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Either then or both Shams and Windy are forced to
talk about it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Oh just for volume.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Hey, you know you're going to do another hit. I
know there was the hero at a biofight. God, can
you say something about Lebron.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So again again within the next five days. I think
we'll have a Lebron Maybe it's gonna be the day
after the All Star Game. I could see that, Like,
you know, we're waiting to get back to the day
after the All Stars the All Star Game is what
the fourteenth? Yeah? Yeah, like or maybe it's a maybe yeah,
maybe it's Wednesday the fifteenth, Right, that'll put five days. Yeah,
I could see that, because you know Thursday off back
to work, back to playing. I could see that. I
(05:11):
could see a Thursday for Lebron James.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, I mean previous screenings are July sixteenth for The Odyssey.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
So okay, dude, it's not have anything to do with
the Odyssey. It's not going there.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
No.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Here he is superimposed over the body of me demon.
I don't think that's Lebron James. Why because I don't
think Lebron James is five to eight. Oh no, you're right,
that is. It is very short. That is very short.
Uh so, yes, Lebron decision could be coming soon. But
one thing that we already saw the decision on. It
(05:47):
was Bam Adebio by Tkou, the story that you woke
up to this morning going wow, here's a people say
that nothing happens in Vegas Summer League. No, no, no.
Former teammates Bama to Bio and Tyler Herro had a
physical confrontation today in a hotel gym, stemming from Tyler
Herro's comments on social media over the past few days.
(06:09):
I remember Hero and other players were traded to the
Milwaukee Bucks for Jannison Kakunpo. It was been, you know,
ending the seven years that Hero and Bam were teammates.
They went to the NBA Finals together, and they seem
to have each other's back. There's big audio that's come
out from them a few years ago going yeah, if
there was a fight, I would have your back, I'd
have yours. Well, now, there was a fight and they
(06:30):
fought each other. So this was spawned by Tyler Herro
putting a post up on social media about the ten
worst players mid range jumpers percentage wise in the NBA
last year. And on this list, Giannis was number one
and Bam was number ten. All right, so he puts
this list out there. Okay, all right, let's see.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Then be sure to catch live editions of The Jason
Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm e
seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
He dms a fan over the course of a few
weeks months who really just goes after him on social media,
telling these guys are friends, Like this guy said, Hey,
you know, I'm not a big fan of his, but
we just go back and forth on social media, and
for some reason, Tyler Harrow DMed him stuff ripping Bam
(07:26):
out of Bio. This is when these guys are teammates,
and it's all about defensively Bam, and you know how
great of a player Bam at a Bio is defensively
and Hero talks about the contract that Bam should get, like,
you don't get sixty million dollars me in that kind
of player, and this gets out over the course of
the past few days. Well, Bam ade Bio decided in
(07:46):
summer league, I'm gonna go talk to my former teammate,
approached him in the gym. Apparently there were some words
said back and forth, and Bam just socked Tyler Herroll.
Bam just bamdam bam, like Emerald Bam. And that was it.
That was the fight, and it was broken up. And
Tyler Herroll actually went on and did interviews after. He's
got like a contusion whatever it is under his eye.
(08:06):
But the fight between Bam and Tyler Herro, I don't
think anybody knew that this was the Vegas Summer League
story we were getting, but it's the Vegas Summer League
story we deserve. And you know, the first thing I
want to say about this, Mike, and this is just
it's stunning to me because this is what stands out
is that Tyler Hero is an NBA player, guy that
(08:29):
was six Man of the Year, making a lot of money,
and he decided he wanted to be more beholden and
DM a complete stranger on social media criticizing his teammate.
How stupid can you be? To do that. I mean, really,
how stupid can you be to do that? I don't,
I really, I it baffles me that he decides to
(08:52):
do that that I'm gonna I'm gonna completely do this
and not knowing anything of what's gonna happen, I'm gonna
say this and everything is fine at social media and
I love social media because you know, look, gen Z
has grown up with social media. How do you not
think that this is gonna be something this guy saves
and decides to put out there whenever he feels like it.
And that's what the guy said was I felt the
world needed to know this. Oh that's not great, and
(09:14):
now you get punched in the face because of it.
Like I really, there's decisions, there's bad decisions, and there's
just being stupid. And that's what this was. Who dms
somebody you don't even know something where you're criticizing one
of your teammates that that is going that if this
gets out, would be embarrassing to you, to them, to
the team. I mean, this is just beyond stupid. If
(09:36):
I'm the Bucks, I go to Tyler, I go, okay,
just so you understand, we know, you know you're not
gonna do anything stupid like this again, right, because this
was really stupid. I mean, this is one hundred percent stupid, stupid, stupid.
You're not gonna do this anymore?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Right?
Speaker 1 (09:46):
And I said stupid a lot in the last thirty
few days. But you're not gonna do this anymore, are you?
Because that's what the I really I am. I when
I saw this part and I said, that can't be real.
I mean, no one would do something like that. Nope,
that's what happened.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah, I wondering if I mean, because look, Tyler Hero
is not a kid anymore. He is in terms of
the larger end of an end of your life kind
of tail. Right, He's got a lot of years under
still to go. But from an NBA perspective, been in
since twenty nineteen, so he's seen it all. Should have
(10:19):
known it was going to surface, And maybe that's part
of the thing, right, He's been long rumored in trades
for a couple of years now, so perhaps he figured
if nothing else, it was gonna maybe push it to
its end because maybe Bam with his deal would be
able to say I need that guy out of here,
and that he'd you know, wasn't just seen as a
(10:39):
throw in or throwaway kind of guy, but either way
decided he'd had enough and was gonna say his peace,
figuring the world of social media, be like, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah I said it. What are you gonna do?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Because he doesn't he strike he as a guy that
would be like, yeah, I said it, She'll be it.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Oh yeah, and for better or for worse for you
and me. It's the wow.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
You know, you guys have to coexist in some way,
shape or form, at least for a little while longer.
Uh that this would just you know, wouldn't have a
long gestation period. Nope, it's gonna go from one social
media guy in into into the ether. Uh No, you know,
into the the larger atmosphere for us to consume.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
And then let's see how you respond, right, And I
guess that that level of thinking, I don't know. Uh,
if you're a player, you still got to inhabit locker rooms.
And even if you're no longer with bam Adebayou, that
that's gonna stick with you. That you're a guy that
tells tales out of school and that's not good. Right,
(11:41):
So it might help you in the immediacy of all right,
you cut ties and this maybe helps force your exit,
uh if it's a him or me kind of process.
But also, now you got guys in your own, your
new locker room that are gonna be looking at you sideways.
So I don't I don't know that, you know, for
your longevity, this is necessarily a help, even if it
(12:03):
gave you that initial juice and thrust to move on
from that situation.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Now, the one thing I like about this is that
this whole spark, this whole candle got lit because Tyler
Hero decided. I want to make sure people know who's
got the worst mid range jumpers in the NBA. Who
can't make a mid range jumper? Like that's not like, hey,
who's you know, stat padding, who's you know, not treating
(12:31):
their teammates the right way? Who's not a great guy? No, no, no, no,
I want you to see the mid range jump shot percentage. Well, yeah,
these guys that are playing again.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Now, I mean, if you're bat out of bio, you
mean you could have done a lot of damage going yeah,
well here you are in the bottom of the defensive rankings.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Unlike me.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, because that's the other thing is he was trying
to take shots at you know, you know, oh great,
your defensive ratings are great, but look at all this.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Let's rite guys who wear bucket hats. Okay, we got Gilligan,
we have Tyler Hero where'd he lift a guy bucket hat?
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Jim Conway Senior wore a bucking hat in a lot
of episodes of his shows. Henry Blake wearing the oh
nicely done. Yeah right, that's a good pull. Right there,
we talk about all these soccer ratings. You never gonna
touch mash Let you know.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
That of it? Man, I love that now. And the
other part is this because now I figured out a
movie that AI could write. Okay, oh yeah, it is
my best part. Okay, this is an AI movie that
I get because I saw like that whole big thing
a few weeks ago where someone said, oh, here's a
three hundred million dollar movie starring Jake Paul That is
that AI did in an hour or something crazy like that.
But like, so he puts out this list of the
(13:43):
ten worst you know, field goal percentages, mid range jumpers.
Giannie is number one, and Bam out of Bio is
number ten. Right, Okay, that starts the whole thing O
would say, you have the social media part of it,
that's let's ignore that part. So bam Adebio, who had
the tenth worst mid range jumper percentage, comes after Tyler
Harrow socks him in the face and and and we
have to move on. What if this is like a
(14:05):
John Wick movie where slowly we start from the guy
who comes in tenth and they all pursue him and
try to find him and fight him, right, and you
get all the way to one and one is Giannis right,
like like when John Wick had the bounty put out
on him and everybody was coming after him and he said,
you don't Ruby Rose and everybody else, y uh Like
what what like? Could that be a movie where you know, hey,
(14:27):
it's it's it's a bam Adebio number ten And then
then you look at nine toilus and eight and seven
at six and five and it ends with Giannis is
the guy coming at him. At the end, they have
some kind of epic fight like with all sorts of weapons,
like like they got they got katana blades like in.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Like kill Bill two right, sure, and you can do
some of it animated like kill Bill oh right, Like
I don't know if you've seen these.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Start firing rocket launch shoulder rocket launches at each other.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Wait, prove man, Yeah you get the movie. Yeah, I think.
I think what we can do with this, you can
sell it as series.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Wait wait, Tyler heroin mid Range Jumper. Right, that's pretty good.
They see all the guys clanking mid range jumpers. Then
they get all met in their training and there's some
sort of training montage. All got the weapons ready going
after Tyler Heroes. Just walking down the street, mid Range Jumper.
Will the next brick take you out? Oh it's good.
(15:23):
That's good, My god, that's good.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
It's an eleven part limited series, can be sold to
any streamer, so you gotta have one. That's the intro
of it all. And then we got the list of
ten trying to take down Tyler Hero.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah, yeah, I know. That's perfect. Right there like at
each other. What episode was your favorite episode?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Five?
Speaker 1 (15:42):
That was a Kyle Kuzma episode. Oh, that was a
great one. He's always on the move.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
So we can steal bits from the seventies Classic, the
early eighties The Incredible Hulk, including maybe we can get
rights to the sad music at the end as Tyler
Hero comes down the road after.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Oh that was the way at the end. Yeah, you'd
have to vanquish yianni Is to get into next year, right,
But that's it. No, that's it. Oh see. I like
the second Last Day. I'd like the Jimmy Butler episode.
That was my favorite. This is good.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
He tries to sell him a twenty dollars cup of
coffee and he says beat.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
It, and then he splashed him in the face with
the coffee starts the fight. Yeah, okay, now see they
they had started enter Coffee card. If AI is listening
to the show, I'm sure they have half the movie
written already. This is pretty good. I like this.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I think there's a lot to it. The animated sequences
will be crazy. We can do some manga cards coming
out of it, like they do in some of the
card issues that are out there.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
No, this is good. I dig this exit out about
a Fresca exit swallowing down the Jason Smith Show with
my best friend Mike car But we got more NBA
on the way, plus a big hot take over one
of the more stunning NBA stories of the day. Coming
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Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
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(18:12):
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.
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listen to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app,
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Speaker 1 (18:47):
Or wherever you get your podcasts Fox Sports Radio. The
Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon, I've
had sex with him like fifty sixty times on camera,
on camera. I'm gonna eat that ass up, so I'll mean, yeah,
we are in safe harbor. Uh so a big story
(19:13):
earlier today happened here on Fox Sports Radio. Uh Dan
Patrick at the Big Lake Tahoe Golf Tournament, like he
is every year, broadcast live from there as all the
best athletes and coaches and personalities stop buy interviews. Like
it's a great time, you know, middle of the summer.
Everybody is loose and telling great stories. Big story today
(19:33):
because he was scheduled to have Kathy Engelbert on, commissioner
of the WNBA, and somehow before the interview, he was
told that she canceled. Now, whether she canceled the WNBA,
they canceled her interview. And I love the fact. First,
I love the fact that, you know, because the show
was televised. I love the fact that while they're talking
(19:55):
about it, they're showing video of her warming up to
go play around, like like she couldn't do the interview,
but here she is, you know, changing clubs out practicing
chipping a little bit right, Like I thought that was genius,
Like that, let's show her warming up while he's not
here for the interview. That was straight out of Kirby
your enthusiasm. That was awesome, Like I spend to here, Dan, go, hey, hey,
you want to come on, Cafy, Cathy, come here.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
All of a sudden, he's pulling out the markers and
has a giant sign.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
It's like, get your time. Seat's empty, like it's a
like it's a pit stop in a Nascar here's a
pit now. Pitt now. Interview now, interview now. And Dan
went on and it made a great point about how
he said, this is a situation where you know you're
gonna get tough questions, but you need to talk about
(20:45):
what's been going on. It's been a horrible last few
weeks in the WNBA because it's all been about is
Caitlin Clark getting targeted? Right? Why is she being officiated
the way she is? What you know, what is is
what's going on here? Official? Do you have the right officials?
Or why is there so much hatred? Why the optics
of the hate for Caitlin Clark? And you see the
(21:07):
players being physical like the league is out of control?
And Dan said, look, I know you're gonna get tough questions,
but you know this is a fair space. And Dan's
always been a fair interviewer. Rights I mean, that's you know,
Dan's on the mount Rushmore of sports interviewers like, you
know what he does, what he gets out of people,
and the questions he's able to ask. He's nothing if
not fair. Now he's going to ask you the tough questions,
(21:28):
but you kind of have to and if you're the
commission of the WNBA, you should be ready to answer
these questions. But so all of a sudden her getting
this interview or canceling this interview is really weird. And
like I said, Dan makes a great point about how
you need to be able to be visible and talk
about this because this is a really tough thing. But
I'm gonna take this a step further because it doesn't
(21:49):
make sense. I mean, Kathy Engelbert's got to know, she's
got to know eight months ago the questions are going
to be about Caitlin Clark and her treatment and do
players hate her? And why does the league seem to
hate her? Why is the optic you don't want er around? Right?
You know you're gonna get these questions, and all of
a sudden it's canceled. Right, So I'm going, Okay, what
makes sense? And you think about how invisible she has
(22:10):
been over the course of the past since the season's begun,
and it's been Caitlin Clark's come back, and and and
everywhere you look on social media and the conversation about
Caitlin Clark. I mean, yes, it's great that we're talking WNBA,
but boy, it's really just the W has been taking
a beating about how it's run and what we're doing
and can you really run it like a like a
(22:32):
big league franchise. And what I kept coming back to
today was I wonder if she's still gonna be the
w commissioner in a week or in a month right now.
I don't know. I don't know anything. I'm not saying
I know anything, but I'm just trying to read the
tea leaves here because, as you know me sports detective,
why would you not have your commissioner in the in
(22:54):
the most friendly setting you could possibly have to talk
about what's going on in the W. Right, You're at
a golf tournament, it's Dan show, it's a relaxed atmosphere.
Why would you not want to do that unless something
is going on? And honestly, they need a new commissioner.
(23:15):
They have needed it, Like they figured out that the CBA,
that's all done and now here's Kathy Engelbert who has
done nothing, who has been absolutely mia throughout this entire
situation where it feels like the topic is everything is
going off the rails. So I wonder if the machinations
are moving on getting that new commissioner in there, that's
(23:37):
going to be someone that can take the W from
where they are now to get them to a higher place. Right,
because where the W is now. We always talk about
how when Caitlyn Clark came in, she was Magic and
Larry when she came in, and this is now the
league at this start. Well, I think the W can
take a lot of lessons from the NBA because when
David Stern comes in as commissioner, Okay, he comes in
and Magic Johnson and Larry Burder in it. This is
(23:59):
an unpressed at a time for the NBA. They are
made for television superstars, They're made for TV rivalry. It's
two of the most heritage based franchises in the in
the world, and the Lakers and the and and and
the Celtics, and it's like, okay, you have it, but
you didn't have the leadership. Right again, you go back
to what David Stern took over. The NBA finals were
on tape delay. Well, David Stern proved that I'm the
(24:22):
guy with the vision, with the focus, with the ability
to run a big business. And look at where he
has the NBA now right He's on the mount rushmore
all time of NBA commissioners because of what he did
to the league. Yes, Michael Jordan also showed up around
the same time, and that help. But still this is
where I knew Magic and Larry are in. We know
we know how to take advantage of these guys. Where
(24:43):
we're promoting the league and business wise we're doing well,
and I'm gonna make tough decisions that i have to
because I'm the commissioner. I know about growth. Now. Kathy
Engelbert's done a fine job up until now, But since
Caitlin Clark's come in, is she's shown that she's really
the person to lead the WNBA. No, it's kind of
just been shepherded through here a little bit. And I
(25:05):
wonder if that's what the w's doing right now. They're going, Okay,
we can't wait till the offseason. We can't. We need
to do something now. It's still early enough in the year.
We need leadership. We can have these headlines every other night.
Be look at what Look at the treatment Caitlin Clark
is having. Why is this going on? We need somebody
that can take what we' are right now, that can
handle our success and augment us. And I wonder if
(25:26):
that's what's going on, because that would make sense. Why
you wouldn't have your commissioner say anything, not just at
the at the Lake Tahoe, but even before now, like
why would you why would you not want to have
her out there at least showing you, hey, there's adults
in the room and we can we can, we can
handle whatever's going on now, don't worry about this. But again,
you haven't heard from her at all. This this discourse
(25:47):
has gone off the rails, So why would you not
have it unless you don't want her out there because
you're looking to replace her and it's coming somewhat soon
again in a week, in a month, I don't know,
but that's what would make sense. Again, I don't know anything.
I'm just trying to figure out why you would not
have this happen outside of just well I don't feel
like doing it, but because this is a long time
(26:08):
now for this discourse to go to the lengths it
has where there's got to be something going on behind
closed doors that we don't know about. No, And that's
the thing.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Right earlier I equated kind of tongue in cheek, kind
of talking Adam Silver, Right, he had one huge moment
right when everything went down with Donald Sterling. Otherwise he
is generally ineffective and slow to act. Hence we're talking
about what goes on with Kawhi Leonard ten months after
(26:40):
Pablo Tori found out, Right, it's still all these months later,
it's like, all right, you got an off season that's
kind of being held up for these squads and what
they're gonna do and adjudicating that, and who knows how
many other deals and decisions were made with that kind
of just sitting there, unless Kawhi only had eyes for Toronto.
(27:01):
But all of that to say for the current WNBA commissioner,
she's presided over some pretty good times. Now, how much
of that was her doing versus you know, a wave,
the arrival of Caitlin Clark, a surge, and look, it
takes nothing away from the rest of the league. They've
been operating in better circumstances for a couple of years
(27:25):
before Caitlin Clark came on the scene, and you've got
your eleven year, two point two billion dollar rights deal. Okay,
that's good, that was signed two years ago. That's a checkbox.
You've got the All Star Game in two weeks where
they're hoping to hide her for another two weeks when
doing no press and only the occasional press release, you know,
(27:48):
where you had a group of governmental actors coming up
saying no, we need we got problems here and you
need to look like Okay, you got the Alisa Thomas
converse with Caitlin Clark, But what came out of that
in terms of disparaging racist comments. You got a statement
from the Commissioner's office. Yet she's out here chipping golf
(28:10):
balls and having a blast. That's fine. I don't begrudge
you your leisure time and your ability to be seen
on these kind of stages. But part of the idea
of being a leader, whatever you're doing in your life,
whether it's parenting, whether you're in the classroom, whatever job
you have, sometimes there's gonna have to be a hard
(28:31):
conversation to be had and you're gonna have to answer
hard questions. Talk to any parent, hard questions talk to
anybody at any level of involvement as a productive member
of society. You might not handle them all great, but
at some point you have to have them. And right now.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
She's just isesheeing the opportunity.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
And Dan, while he's not gonna be a soft landing spot,
he's gonna be a fair one. You're gonna get asked
hard and you know what questions are coming. That's the
other part of this, right it's canceled by pr okay.
This is where you hire someone, whether it be you,
me or any long standing member of the media or anything,
(29:14):
you know what questions are coming. There are no surprises here.
There are no surprises like the league. How do you
officiate Caitlin Clark? How do you better officiating across the league?
Because I think as a group, if we watched Game one,
whether it involves Caitlin Clark or just it's another two teams.
In the WNBA, officiating has been awful this season and
(29:38):
there's no two ways about it. And I know we've
done that with the NBA, We've done that with this
FIFA World Cup tournament in a number of circumstances.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
But for the WNBA to.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
A player we could pull fifteen clips from stars to
people that just had the Game of the year, and
they're like, yeah, we gotta do something about these refs,
Like we could do a super cut, and it's pretty
much everybody that you've ever heard of in the league.
And so to stay radio silent on this while your
league is trying to be recognized amongst these other heavyweights
(30:14):
and to be taken seriously in a larger base, your
commissioner going a wall and chipping golf balls doesn't help.
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Greetings, Welcome inside final hour tonight The Jason Smith Show
with my bab friend Mike Harmon. Oh, Alex, I should
always getting loose on a Friday night. I'm not wrong, No, No,
I'm just saying I've got if I did it, I don't,
I don't. You don't play that drop anywhere else but
(00:55):
a Friday night. That's the only time we hear it
on Friday. Uh, speaking of getting loose, okay, speaking to
get loose, slip, get into We'll get into the bat
We'll get to the bam out of bam. We'll get
to the bam out of bio story in a minute.
So I'm starting to see the potential that a Lebron
James free agent decision will come sometime in the next
(01:17):
few days. Right, I'm telling you in line with the
odyssey we talked about, he's not the least day. He's
not gonna share the spotlight with anybody. Not He's not
gonna share with Matt Damon and Robert Pattinson. Is not
gonna happen. No, they've already done their premieres.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
A lot of talk about whatever the hell it is
that Zendea was wearing.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I mean, there's a lot going on now. We talked
about it earlier this week. We sorry, when's it gonna happen?
Right Monday night, we talked about this, when Lebron feels
like he's gotten the most amount of love he is
gonna get from a team that wants and he'll make
his decision. And I feel like now in the last
twenty four hours, we've been on a heater with Lebron stories,
(02:02):
right like Rich Paul's done podcasts. He threw out in
the podcast today that hey, you know the Warriors that
would be the best fit. Warriors could be the best fit.
I don't know, you not that he's gone, but I
don't know Warriors could be the best fit. Brian Windhorse
said he's hearing more about Miami potentially happening. Right. You've
heard people say, Oh, I hear it's done. He's going
to Cleveland, Oh he's going to Denver, Miami.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
But there's a lot of smoke around right now. And
I don't think that and Lebron, who's always been calculated
about his plans and what happens, I don't think we
get this much smoke and quotes from Steph Curry and
Rich Paul on his podcast Heater and the other guys
talking about it win Horse, and I don't think we're
(02:46):
getting that unless we are closing in on a decision
for Lebron James sometime in the next week. Like we
were told today, he's on vacation. Okay, I don't expect
to see a decision this weekend. But now we're really
starting to get into the end game where teams are
gonna want to know a little bit going in. We're
already in the summer League and and look, teams absolutely
(03:08):
don't don't have to wait because they're either gonna add
Lebron or they're not. Like nobody's waiting around for Lebron
before they make a big move. You know, most of
the players they wanted to get are already already gone.
So but just seeing this, like I feel like the
machine is moving now and we're moving towards it where
we could get a Lebron decision like Monday or Tuesday. Like,
I don't think we're more than five days away from
(03:31):
a Lebron James decision.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Well, I mean, if he's gonna do it Monday or Tuesday,
and then that better mean he's showing up to either
hit a home run or throw out a first pitch
at the All Star Game. See I theorize that two peal.
So we've covered all our bases. We've either got the
odyssey for he's going home to Cleveland, or he shows
up and makes himself the center of attention at the
All Star Game like Joe LMB did when he was
(03:54):
shagging a home run derby that time.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
And throwing out the first pitch at the All Game.
New New York nick player, Lebron.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Jay, you made him a nick I thought, you know,
in Philadelphia, ring a bell or something. I don't know,
but yeah, it does seem like there's a lot more
chirping going on and we're getting closer to an end game,
which which is good for all of us.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, the machine is firing on this for sure, Like, okay,
it's it's started it, it's it's warming up now over
the course of the past past twenty four hours, where
now we're not gonna get these stories and then it
goes away.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Either then or both Shams and Windy are forced to
talk about it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Oh just for volume.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Hey, you know you're going to do another hit. I
know there was the hero at a biofight. God, can
you say something about Lebron.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So again again within the next five days. I think
we'll have a Lebron Maybe it's gonna be the day
after the All Star Game. I could see that, Like,
you know, we're waiting to get back to the day
after the All Stars the All Star Game is what
the fourteenth? Yeah? Yeah, like or maybe it's a maybe yeah,
maybe it's Wednesday the fifteenth, Right, that'll put five days. Yeah,
I could see that, because you know Thursday off back
to work, back to playing. I could see that. I
(05:11):
could see a Thursday for Lebron James.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, I mean previous screenings are July sixteenth for The Odyssey.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
So okay, dude, it's not have anything to do with
the Odyssey. It's not going there.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
No.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Here he is superimposed over the body of me demon.
I don't think that's Lebron James. Why because I don't
think Lebron James is five to eight. Oh no, you're right,
that is. It is very short. That is very short.
Uh so, yes, Lebron decision could be coming soon. But
one thing that we already saw the decision on. It
(05:47):
was Bam Adebio by Tkou, the story that you woke
up to this morning going wow, here's a people say
that nothing happens in Vegas Summer League. No, no, no.
Former teammates Bama to Bio and Tyler Herro had a
physical confrontation today in a hotel gym, stemming from Tyler
Herro's comments on social media over the past few days.
(06:09):
I remember Hero and other players were traded to the
Milwaukee Bucks for Jannison Kakunpo. It was been, you know,
ending the seven years that Hero and Bam were teammates.
They went to the NBA Finals together, and they seem
to have each other's back. There's big audio that's come
out from them a few years ago going yeah, if
there was a fight, I would have your back, I'd
have yours. Well, now, there was a fight and they
(06:30):
fought each other. So this was spawned by Tyler Herro
putting a post up on social media about the ten
worst players mid range jumpers percentage wise in the NBA
last year. And on this list, Giannis was number one
and Bam was number ten. All right, so he puts
this list out there. Okay, all right, let's see.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Then be sure to catch live editions of The Jason
Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm e
seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
He dms a fan over the course of a few
weeks months who really just goes after him on social media,
telling these guys are friends, Like this guy said, Hey,
you know, I'm not a big fan of his, but
we just go back and forth on social media, and
for some reason, Tyler Harrow DMed him stuff ripping Bam
(07:26):
out of Bio. This is when these guys are teammates,
and it's all about defensively Bam, and you know how
great of a player Bam at a Bio is defensively
and Hero talks about the contract that Bam should get, like,
you don't get sixty million dollars me in that kind
of player, and this gets out over the course of
the past few days. Well, Bam ade Bio decided in
(07:46):
summer league, I'm gonna go talk to my former teammate,
approached him in the gym. Apparently there were some words
said back and forth, and Bam just socked Tyler Herroll.
Bam just bamdam bam, like Emerald Bam. And that was it.
That was the fight, and it was broken up. And
Tyler Herroll actually went on and did interviews after. He's
got like a contusion whatever it is under his eye.
(08:06):
But the fight between Bam and Tyler Herro, I don't
think anybody knew that this was the Vegas Summer League
story we were getting, but it's the Vegas Summer League
story we deserve. And you know, the first thing I
want to say about this, Mike, and this is just
it's stunning to me because this is what stands out
is that Tyler Hero is an NBA player, guy that
(08:29):
was six Man of the Year, making a lot of money,
and he decided he wanted to be more beholden and
DM a complete stranger on social media criticizing his teammate.
How stupid can you be? To do that. I mean, really,
how stupid can you be to do that? I don't,
I really, I it baffles me that he decides to
(08:52):
do that that I'm gonna I'm gonna completely do this
and not knowing anything of what's gonna happen, I'm gonna
say this and everything is fine at social media and
I love social media because you know, look, gen Z
has grown up with social media. How do you not
think that this is gonna be something this guy saves
and decides to put out there whenever he feels like it.
And that's what the guy said was I felt the
world needed to know this. Oh that's not great, and
(09:14):
now you get punched in the face because of it.
Like I really, there's decisions, there's bad decisions, and there's
just being stupid. And that's what this was. Who dms
somebody you don't even know something where you're criticizing one
of your teammates that that is going that if this
gets out, would be embarrassing to you, to them, to
the team. I mean, this is just beyond stupid. If
(09:36):
I'm the Bucks, I go to Tyler, I go, okay,
just so you understand, we know, you know you're not
gonna do anything stupid like this again, right, because this
was really stupid. I mean, this is one hundred percent stupid, stupid, stupid.
You're not gonna do this anymore?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Right?
Speaker 1 (09:46):
And I said stupid a lot in the last thirty
few days. But you're not gonna do this anymore, are you?
Because that's what the I really I am. I when
I saw this part and I said, that can't be real.
I mean, no one would do something like that. Nope,
that's what happened.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah, I wondering if I mean, because look, Tyler Hero
is not a kid anymore. He is in terms of
the larger end of an end of your life kind
of tail. Right, He's got a lot of years under
still to go. But from an NBA perspective, been in
since twenty nineteen, so he's seen it all. Should have
(10:19):
known it was going to surface, And maybe that's part
of the thing, right, He's been long rumored in trades
for a couple of years now, so perhaps he figured
if nothing else, it was gonna maybe push it to
its end because maybe Bam with his deal would be
able to say I need that guy out of here,
and that he'd you know, wasn't just seen as a
(10:39):
throw in or throwaway kind of guy, but either way
decided he'd had enough and was gonna say his peace,
figuring the world of social media, be like, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah I said it. What are you gonna do?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Because he doesn't he strike he as a guy that
would be like, yeah, I said it, She'll be it.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Oh yeah, and for better or for worse for you
and me. It's the wow.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
You know, you guys have to coexist in some way,
shape or form, at least for a little while longer.
Uh that this would just you know, wouldn't have a
long gestation period. Nope, it's gonna go from one social
media guy in into into the ether. Uh No, you know,
into the the larger atmosphere for us to consume.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
And then let's see how you respond, right, And I
guess that that level of thinking, I don't know. Uh,
if you're a player, you still got to inhabit locker rooms.
And even if you're no longer with bam Adebayou, that
that's gonna stick with you. That you're a guy that
tells tales out of school and that's not good. Right,
(11:41):
So it might help you in the immediacy of all right,
you cut ties and this maybe helps force your exit,
uh if it's a him or me kind of process.
But also, now you got guys in your own, your
new locker room that are gonna be looking at you sideways.
So I don't I don't know that, you know, for
your longevity, this is necessarily a help, even if it
(12:03):
gave you that initial juice and thrust to move on
from that situation.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Now, the one thing I like about this is that
this whole spark, this whole candle got lit because Tyler
Hero decided. I want to make sure people know who's
got the worst mid range jumpers in the NBA. Who
can't make a mid range jumper? Like that's not like, hey,
who's you know, stat padding, who's you know, not treating
(12:31):
their teammates the right way? Who's not a great guy? No, no, no, no,
I want you to see the mid range jump shot percentage. Well, yeah,
these guys that are playing again.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Now, I mean, if you're bat out of bio, you
mean you could have done a lot of damage going yeah,
well here you are in the bottom of the defensive rankings.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Unlike me.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, because that's the other thing is he was trying
to take shots at you know, you know, oh great,
your defensive ratings are great, but look at all this.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Let's rite guys who wear bucket hats. Okay, we got Gilligan,
we have Tyler Hero where'd he lift a guy bucket hat?
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Jim Conway Senior wore a bucking hat in a lot
of episodes of his shows. Henry Blake wearing the oh
nicely done. Yeah right, that's a good pull. Right there,
we talk about all these soccer ratings. You never gonna
touch mash Let you know.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
That of it? Man, I love that now. And the
other part is this because now I figured out a
movie that AI could write. Okay, oh yeah, it is
my best part. Okay, this is an AI movie that
I get because I saw like that whole big thing
a few weeks ago where someone said, oh, here's a
three hundred million dollar movie starring Jake Paul That is
that AI did in an hour or something crazy like that.
But like, so he puts out this list of the
(13:43):
ten worst you know, field goal percentages, mid range jumpers.
Giannie is number one, and Bam out of Bio is
number ten. Right, Okay, that starts the whole thing O
would say, you have the social media part of it,
that's let's ignore that part. So bam Adebio, who had
the tenth worst mid range jumper percentage, comes after Tyler
Harrow socks him in the face and and and we
have to move on. What if this is like a
(14:05):
John Wick movie where slowly we start from the guy
who comes in tenth and they all pursue him and
try to find him and fight him, right, and you
get all the way to one and one is Giannis right,
like like when John Wick had the bounty put out
on him and everybody was coming after him and he said,
you don't Ruby Rose and everybody else, y uh Like
what what like? Could that be a movie where you know, hey,
(14:27):
it's it's it's a bam Adebio number ten And then
then you look at nine toilus and eight and seven
at six and five and it ends with Giannis is
the guy coming at him. At the end, they have
some kind of epic fight like with all sorts of weapons,
like like they got they got katana blades like in.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Like kill Bill two right, sure, and you can do
some of it animated like kill Bill oh right, Like
I don't know if you've seen these.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Start firing rocket launch shoulder rocket launches at each other.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Wait, prove man, Yeah you get the movie. Yeah, I think.
I think what we can do with this, you can
sell it as series.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Wait wait, Tyler heroin mid Range Jumper. Right, that's pretty good.
They see all the guys clanking mid range jumpers. Then
they get all met in their training and there's some
sort of training montage. All got the weapons ready going
after Tyler Heroes. Just walking down the street, mid Range Jumper.
Will the next brick take you out? Oh it's good.
(15:23):
That's good, My god, that's good.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
It's an eleven part limited series, can be sold to
any streamer, so you gotta have one. That's the intro
of it all. And then we got the list of
ten trying to take down Tyler Hero.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah, yeah, I know. That's perfect. Right there like at
each other. What episode was your favorite episode?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Five?
Speaker 1 (15:42):
That was a Kyle Kuzma episode. Oh, that was a
great one. He's always on the move.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
So we can steal bits from the seventies Classic, the
early eighties The Incredible Hulk, including maybe we can get
rights to the sad music at the end as Tyler
Hero comes down the road after.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Oh that was the way at the end. Yeah, you'd
have to vanquish yianni Is to get into next year, right,
But that's it. No, that's it. Oh see. I like
the second Last Day. I'd like the Jimmy Butler episode.
That was my favorite. This is good.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
He tries to sell him a twenty dollars cup of
coffee and he says beat.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
It, and then he splashed him in the face with
the coffee starts the fight. Yeah, okay, now see they
they had started enter Coffee card. If AI is listening
to the show, I'm sure they have half the movie
written already. This is pretty good. I like this.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I think there's a lot to it. The animated sequences
will be crazy. We can do some manga cards coming
out of it, like they do in some of the
card issues that are out there.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
No, this is good. I dig this exit out about
a Fresca exit swallowing down the Jason Smith Show with
my best friend Mike car But we got more NBA
on the way, plus a big hot take over one
of the more stunning NBA stories of the day. Coming
up next, Jason to Mike Fox Sports Radio, The Cup
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Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
(18:12):
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 5 (18:22):
Join me every weekday morning on my podcast, straight Fire
with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod pushing
the same tired narratives down your throat every day. Straight
Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines,
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and all the best guests. Do yourself a favor and
(18:42):
listen to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app,
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Speaker 1 (18:47):
Or wherever you get your podcasts Fox Sports Radio. The
Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon, I've
had sex with him like fifty sixty times on camera,
on camera. I'm gonna eat that ass up, so I'll mean, yeah,
we are in safe harbor. Uh so a big story
(19:13):
earlier today happened here on Fox Sports Radio. Uh Dan
Patrick at the Big Lake Tahoe Golf Tournament, like he
is every year, broadcast live from there as all the
best athletes and coaches and personalities stop buy interviews. Like
it's a great time, you know, middle of the summer.
Everybody is loose and telling great stories. Big story today
(19:33):
because he was scheduled to have Kathy Engelbert on, commissioner
of the WNBA, and somehow before the interview, he was
told that she canceled. Now, whether she canceled the WNBA,
they canceled her interview. And I love the fact. First,
I love the fact that, you know, because the show
was televised. I love the fact that while they're talking
(19:55):
about it, they're showing video of her warming up to
go play around, like like she couldn't do the interview,
but here she is, you know, changing clubs out practicing
chipping a little bit right, Like I thought that was genius,
Like that, let's show her warming up while he's not
here for the interview. That was straight out of Kirby
your enthusiasm. That was awesome, Like I spend to here, Dan, go, hey, hey,
you want to come on, Cafy, Cathy, come here.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
All of a sudden, he's pulling out the markers and
has a giant sign.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
It's like, get your time. Seat's empty, like it's a
like it's a pit stop in a Nascar here's a
pit now. Pitt now. Interview now, interview now. And Dan
went on and it made a great point about how
he said, this is a situation where you know you're
gonna get tough questions, but you need to talk about
(20:45):
what's been going on. It's been a horrible last few
weeks in the WNBA because it's all been about is
Caitlin Clark getting targeted? Right? Why is she being officiated
the way she is? What you know, what is is
what's going on here? Official? Do you have the right officials?
Or why is there so much hatred? Why the optics
of the hate for Caitlin Clark? And you see the
(21:07):
players being physical like the league is out of control?
And Dan said, look, I know you're gonna get tough questions,
but you know this is a fair space. And Dan's
always been a fair interviewer. Rights I mean, that's you know,
Dan's on the mount Rushmore of sports interviewers like, you
know what he does, what he gets out of people,
and the questions he's able to ask. He's nothing if
not fair. Now he's going to ask you the tough questions,
(21:28):
but you kind of have to and if you're the
commission of the WNBA, you should be ready to answer
these questions. But so all of a sudden her getting
this interview or canceling this interview is really weird. And
like I said, Dan makes a great point about how
you need to be able to be visible and talk
about this because this is a really tough thing. But
I'm gonna take this a step further because it doesn't
(21:49):
make sense. I mean, Kathy Engelbert's got to know, she's
got to know eight months ago the questions are going
to be about Caitlin Clark and her treatment and do
players hate her? And why does the league seem to
hate her? Why is the optic you don't want er around? Right?
You know you're gonna get these questions, and all of
a sudden it's canceled. Right, So I'm going, Okay, what
makes sense? And you think about how invisible she has
(22:10):
been over the course of the past since the season's begun,
and it's been Caitlin Clark's come back, and and and
everywhere you look on social media and the conversation about
Caitlin Clark. I mean, yes, it's great that we're talking WNBA,
but boy, it's really just the W has been taking
a beating about how it's run and what we're doing
and can you really run it like a like a
(22:32):
big league franchise. And what I kept coming back to
today was I wonder if she's still gonna be the
w commissioner in a week or in a month right now.
I don't know. I don't know anything. I'm not saying
I know anything, but I'm just trying to read the
tea leaves here because, as you know me sports detective,
why would you not have your commissioner in the in
(22:54):
the most friendly setting you could possibly have to talk
about what's going on in the W. Right, You're at
a golf tournament, it's Dan show, it's a relaxed atmosphere.
Why would you not want to do that unless something
is going on? And honestly, they need a new commissioner.
(23:15):
They have needed it, Like they figured out that the CBA,
that's all done and now here's Kathy Engelbert who has
done nothing, who has been absolutely mia throughout this entire
situation where it feels like the topic is everything is
going off the rails. So I wonder if the machinations
are moving on getting that new commissioner in there, that's
(23:37):
going to be someone that can take the W from
where they are now to get them to a higher place. Right,
because where the W is now. We always talk about
how when Caitlyn Clark came in, she was Magic and
Larry when she came in, and this is now the
league at this start. Well, I think the W can
take a lot of lessons from the NBA because when
David Stern comes in as commissioner, Okay, he comes in
and Magic Johnson and Larry Burder in it. This is
(23:59):
an unpressed at a time for the NBA. They are
made for television superstars, They're made for TV rivalry. It's
two of the most heritage based franchises in the in
the world, and the Lakers and the and and and
the Celtics, and it's like, okay, you have it, but
you didn't have the leadership. Right again, you go back
to what David Stern took over. The NBA finals were
on tape delay. Well, David Stern proved that I'm the
(24:22):
guy with the vision, with the focus, with the ability
to run a big business. And look at where he
has the NBA now right He's on the mount rushmore
all time of NBA commissioners because of what he did
to the league. Yes, Michael Jordan also showed up around
the same time, and that help. But still this is
where I knew Magic and Larry are in. We know
we know how to take advantage of these guys. Where
(24:43):
we're promoting the league and business wise we're doing well,
and I'm gonna make tough decisions that i have to
because I'm the commissioner. I know about growth. Now. Kathy
Engelbert's done a fine job up until now, But since
Caitlin Clark's come in, is she's shown that she's really
the person to lead the WNBA. No, it's kind of
just been shepherded through here a little bit. And I
(25:05):
wonder if that's what the w's doing right now. They're going, Okay,
we can't wait till the offseason. We can't. We need
to do something now. It's still early enough in the year.
We need leadership. We can have these headlines every other night.
Be look at what Look at the treatment Caitlin Clark
is having. Why is this going on? We need somebody
that can take what we' are right now, that can
handle our success and augment us. And I wonder if
(25:26):
that's what's going on, because that would make sense. Why
you wouldn't have your commissioner say anything, not just at
the at the Lake Tahoe, but even before now, like
why would you why would you not want to have
her out there at least showing you, hey, there's adults
in the room and we can we can, we can
handle whatever's going on now, don't worry about this. But again,
you haven't heard from her at all. This this discourse
(25:47):
has gone off the rails, So why would you not
have it unless you don't want her out there because
you're looking to replace her and it's coming somewhat soon
again in a week, in a month, I don't know,
but that's what would make sense. Again, I don't know anything.
I'm just trying to figure out why you would not
have this happen outside of just well I don't feel
like doing it, but because this is a long time
(26:08):
now for this discourse to go to the lengths it
has where there's got to be something going on behind
closed doors that we don't know about. No, And that's
the thing.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Right earlier I equated kind of tongue in cheek, kind
of talking Adam Silver, Right, he had one huge moment
right when everything went down with Donald Sterling. Otherwise he
is generally ineffective and slow to act. Hence we're talking
about what goes on with Kawhi Leonard ten months after
(26:40):
Pablo Tori found out, Right, it's still all these months later,
it's like, all right, you got an off season that's
kind of being held up for these squads and what
they're gonna do and adjudicating that, and who knows how
many other deals and decisions were made with that kind
of just sitting there, unless Kawhi only had eyes for Toronto.
(27:01):
But all of that to say for the current WNBA commissioner,
she's presided over some pretty good times. Now, how much
of that was her doing versus you know, a wave,
the arrival of Caitlin Clark, a surge, and look, it
takes nothing away from the rest of the league. They've
been operating in better circumstances for a couple of years
(27:25):
before Caitlin Clark came on the scene, and you've got
your eleven year, two point two billion dollar rights deal. Okay,
that's good, that was signed two years ago. That's a checkbox.
You've got the All Star Game in two weeks where
they're hoping to hide her for another two weeks when
doing no press and only the occasional press release, you know,
(27:48):
where you had a group of governmental actors coming up
saying no, we need we got problems here and you
need to look like Okay, you got the Alisa Thomas
converse with Caitlin Clark, But what came out of that
in terms of disparaging racist comments. You got a statement
from the Commissioner's office. Yet she's out here chipping golf
(28:10):
balls and having a blast. That's fine. I don't begrudge
you your leisure time and your ability to be seen
on these kind of stages. But part of the idea
of being a leader, whatever you're doing in your life,
whether it's parenting, whether you're in the classroom, whatever job
you have, sometimes there's gonna have to be a hard
(28:31):
conversation to be had and you're gonna have to answer
hard questions. Talk to any parent, hard questions talk to
anybody at any level of involvement as a productive member
of society. You might not handle them all great, but
at some point you have to have them. And right now.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
She's just isesheeing the opportunity.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
And Dan, while he's not gonna be a soft landing spot,
he's gonna be a fair one. You're gonna get asked
hard and you know what questions are coming. That's the
other part of this, right it's canceled by pr okay.
This is where you hire someone, whether it be you,
me or any long standing member of the media or anything,
(29:14):
you know what questions are coming. There are no surprises here.
There are no surprises like the league. How do you
officiate Caitlin Clark? How do you better officiating across the league?
Because I think as a group, if we watched Game one,
whether it involves Caitlin Clark or just it's another two teams.
In the WNBA, officiating has been awful this season and
(29:38):
there's no two ways about it. And I know we've
done that with the NBA, We've done that with this
FIFA World Cup tournament in a number of circumstances.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
But for the WNBA to.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
A player we could pull fifteen clips from stars to
people that just had the Game of the year, and
they're like, yeah, we gotta do something about these refs,
Like we could do a super cut, and it's pretty
much everybody that you've ever heard of in the league.
And so to stay radio silent on this while your
league is trying to be recognized amongst these other heavyweights
(30:14):
and to be taken seriously in a larger base, your
commissioner going a wall and chipping golf balls doesn't help.
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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