The Best Of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon

Mike Harmon and Rich Ohrnberger talk USC and UCLA’s move to the Big Ten, Pete Fiutak joins the show, and Mark Medina joins the show.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with My Carmen Podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from ten pm to two a m.
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 I Heart Radio app
by searching fs R. This is the best of the

(00:22):
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
Now they always stuff better than that introduction. I feel
like I should be in a glittery robe walking down
the aisle, ready to get into the squared circle and
kick some ass. Is the news dump time and again
that we got earlier today? I thought, all right, we're

(00:44):
gonna have to talk a little Deshaun Watson. We're gonna
have some grabass of those weeks ahead of training camp.
Now we can still do that tomorrow, but no one
news heavyweight blow after the next. And I'm grateful, honored,
welcome a man, Jason Smith off tonight, off tomorrow so
we get a double take of our guy, rich Or Burger. Yes, yeah,

(01:10):
how's it going, Mikey live down there in San Diego,
where I'm sure a lot of tongues are wagon But
we got plenty of time to get into all the
ramifications of today's news. But what's going on, buddy, Well,
i'll tell you what. Um. We are headlong into preparations
for a busy Fourth of July weekend, Happy fourth that everybody.
We're gonna be doing this tonight tomorrow, like you mentioned,

(01:31):
But along the way, while we're passing along and walking
through some of the breaking news of the day, the hour,
the moment, the minute, we're also gonna be talking about
I don't know how to how to make the perfect burger, right, Uh,
maybe maybe the perfect execution of a smoked rack of ribs,
who knows. Maybe I did a nice pork shoulder today.

(01:54):
It was my daughter's birthday, a nice eleven hours and
and both nobody was fed, uh and gut it up.
And the guys enjoyed a little bit of the bunt
cakes because instead of the traditional I just want a
large cake with all sorts of decorations, she goes, just
get something small, and so you know, here we are
and if you had come in, well you could have
had some instead. Uh, well, somebody else catches a right.

(02:17):
Not just kidding. We we we had plenty for it
to go around. But uh, good to have you with
because obviously some seismic moves in our sporting universe today. Uh,
get in on the program as you will. At Swollen
Dome is where you find me. You can find Rich
when he's not yelling about whatever Steve Hartman is up
to next. And I gotta imagine you had nine thousand

(02:39):
texts from him today. Uh you find him on Twitter
at Orne Burger. That's o h R N Burger b
E R G e R. Welcome in. We appreciate you
making us part of your holiday travels. Be safe, we
make you laugh, we make your outrage. Still keep hands
attending to keep your eyes on the road, to hand
upon the wheel, all that stuff like you learned so

(03:00):
long ago. Today, Rich, we we have two glorious stories
that are the uh I guess the heavyweight battles. Right.
If we were building a pay per view card like
money in the bank for the w w E later
on this weekend, these would be the two stories that
would be at the top. And then we've got a
lot of other things that are interesting, kind of funny,
kind of entertaining, and that will get to but USC

(03:23):
U c l A getting ready to join our conference,
the Big Ten Conference, starting in four uh. A piece
of news. Wilner had it this morning. I saw our
our colleague, Colin Coward, had done a tweet that just
had the zipped lips emoji, and at that point you

(03:43):
weren't connected the dots because all the mentions were wondering
which of the Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports one colleagues.
He was upset with. Yeah, so I mean that that
was kind of fun watching people, you know, at that volleyball, Right,
I need to say something incendiary so my name at
least gets in those mentioned because that's a lot of them.
But then Wilner came back over the top. Right. The

(04:04):
first tweet was, Hey, the world's about to change, and
then later on's like, oh, by the way, here you
go the to California. Southern California squads are looking to exit,
and as we find out later on tonight, Big Tent says, hey,
welcome in, Come on in if you will uh and
Mike Bone. Ultimately, the Big Tent is the best home
for USC and Trojan Athletics as we move into the

(04:26):
new world of collegiate sports. We're excited that our values,
aligned with the league's member institutions, will benefit from the
stability and strength of the conference. Um, Larry Scott, that
was two big middle fingers, maybe middle foam fingers to
make sure you don't miss the point. The athletic caliber
of Big ten institutions that's waving at everybody at the

(04:48):
bottom of the conference. The increased visibility, exposure, and resources
the conference will bring. In other words, they got the
media package right, they got ahead of it early, and
now they're over a billion dollars uh in terms of
their rights each year. So yeah, it's it's time for
usc U c l A. We've already seen it with

(05:09):
Oklahoma and Texas Rich. So it's just a matter of
time before the next uh shift, you know, in the
quest for global domination of college football. Yeah. Well, and
you know what, here's the deal. First of all, all
parties satisfied here, right. This is one of those negotiations
where everybody walks away from the table, you know, smiling,

(05:29):
after handshakes are made, right or zoom calls are are wrapped.
This is uh, this is good for everybody who's who's
on the inside of this show. Those on the outside though, Like,
for example, if you're the rest of the Pack twelve
who has now been reduced back down to the PAC ten,
come you're thinking to yourself, Okay, where do we turn next?

(05:50):
What schools are available for us to poach and bring
it to our league, to you know, re establish some
sort of foothold in southern California, you know, San Diego
State comes to mind. And where do you go from there?
You know, are you gonna go back up to twelve teams?
Is Oregon looking to leave? Is is Washington looking to leave?
You know? Could you have a situation like the Big

(06:11):
twelve where there's a month or two where you're not
sure if you're even gonna have enough teams to field
the conference in a couple of years based on what
shaky ground you're on. And then you look at these
other conferences, like, you know, if I'm the A C
C right now, I'm shaking in my boots because the
Big twelve has been picked over by the SEC, the
PAC twelve has been picked over by the Big ten.

(06:33):
If I'm the A C C, I'm like, we're next,
you know, So I don't know what the next move
will be. But here's what I can guarantee you, Mikey,
just based on the recent trends. It's coming soon. We're
not done yet. We're nowhere near done yet. And the
Big Ten had to answer the Big Ten obviously huge
fox product here. Uh, we we have a lot of

(06:55):
those games, and and we're proud of it, right that
the Big Ten, the Big Ten had to return fire
on this. He's you're gonna get oh you in Texas.
We'll check this out. Now we have the biggest schools
out of southern California in terms of enrollment. Yeah, consolidation.
We've been talking about it for years, rich you me.

(07:15):
I know. Hartman has been standing on a street corner
with a megaphone. Okay, that's him just yelling, but talking
about super conferences and and such forever. And now you
wait for the next dominoes to fall. Right. Oregon is
the obvious elephant in the room, as is the always
independent except for every other sport notre dame, right, because

(07:36):
that that's the team that always made sense for the
Big Ten. Maintain independence for the revenue sports everything else
like okay, cool whatever. Uh And and there they have
their feet in multiple conferences as you go. So it's
it's now a are they forced to make a decision
and aligne here? Uh and look the luster and the

(07:59):
the show line of the those helmets and those wins
all those years ago. I mean, that's a lot of
years ago. And that's one thing, you know, and when
they had the first mover advantage and made that big
deal with NBC, it's like, okay, that's all fine, good. However,
you still have to read the room of where you
are and where you're trying to go and where the

(08:19):
landscape of of college football is headed. So you have that.
You mentioned San Diego State first thing I thought of, right,
new stadium, all of those things. Try to keep in
it in Southern California. Obviously on the radar these last
couple of years, probably because you're broadcasting for the team,
you know, bringing that expertise going down in the trenches.
Maybe played a couple of reps. I don't know. Uh,

(08:41):
you know, you got quiet a couple of times in
the booth this last year. But it's it's that kind
of thing where you know, we're we're all just trying
to you follow the money. Is the old rule of
thumb in everything go back to you know, all all
the uh what is it? All the President's men and
and go on down the line, and all mob movies.
You've watched everything else. Uh, And certainly right now in

(09:02):
our global economic state, it's you know, trying to figure out,
you know, what's leading you to the next rise, and
etiquette has been thrown out the window. Like you know
there there's for years and years and years on the
sports scene. I think you you would have had a
lot of sports fans balk at the level of greed.

(09:23):
You know, you you would expect more contrition from the
parties involved in these sort of you know, massive moves, right,
but sports fans have gotten used to this. You know.
You look at the NBA. The players basically run that league.
I mean, there is no loyalty to a city or
a name on the front of a jersey. It's who's
got the most money or who's got the best chance
to win a championship, depending on what stage of career

(09:45):
the player we're talking about. In you know, you look
at Major League Baseball contracts, fully guaranteed money flying around
in free agency. Even though you have owners who are
crying like their poppers, they're not poor people. They have
more money than anybody in this country, and they spend it.
They spend it in free agency. And then you look
at the NFL this recent contract to Deshaun Watson, who

(10:08):
I mean may not even play a full season this
upcoming season. We'll see what happens after arbitration. He's getting
chunked off with a huge contract in the amid controversy.
And then you look at head coaching in college football
for years now, these guys will you know, jump ship
on a team that has an opportunity to play in
an important bowl game, you know, in order to chase

(10:29):
the money for a new for a new job. Now
it's just happening at the actual conference level. And because
of all of the preludes to that, I was just discussing,
nobody really, nobody really has a problem with it. I mean,
look at the PGA, the PGA Tour. You have a
big name after big name hitting the ejector button and

(10:51):
going to Live Golf, and controversy be damn. These guys
are chasing you know, hundred million and two hundred million
dollars signing buses to go play, uh for the Lived
Golf Tours. So to me, I think the gloves are off.
I think as a society we reached a point where
it's decadence and we're all okay with it, like we

(11:14):
we don't care, you know. So if if there's money
to be offered, if there's greener pastures to be offered,
whether that means having the majority of a conference's teams
in the northeast and midwest of this country and just
having two randos, but are big brands in the other
opposite corner of the country, by all means, let's play ball,

(11:34):
because the gloves are off. Mikey, Yeah, it's and it's
been as you said, it's been a gradual change. I
mean I always go back to your Penn State Nitney
Lyons coming into the Big Ten. At the time, I
didn't know how I feel bad. I was in the
middle of school. It's like, you know, they were always
this mythical and you get a mythical program out there,
Joe Pon everything going on, and all of a sudden, like, well,

(11:56):
they're coming to the the conference. There was excitement. There was
also a right, what are we doing now? Now we're eleven? Now,
now this shuffles up and where does it go from there?
And Obviously, here we are some thirty what two years later,
and you're seeing the dramatic realignment, but a lot of
it becomes the pageantry and tradition got scrapped a lot right,

(12:21):
adding the playoff teams for for college football, which meant
the bowl games didn't have the same heavyweight status they did,
like even the lesser ones had meaning once upon a time.
And don't tell me you didn't bet the Blue Gray
game on Christmas morning. Let's still miss it each and
every day. There's so much to unpack with this rich

(12:41):
we we kind of threw a bunch of it out. Obviously,
the Kevin Durant being photoshopped into Lakers jerseys all over
my internet today I'm in hell. But as well as
the fact that while living in Los Angeles, that meant
almost anybody I know that is a Laker fans, like,
here comes Lebron's get this guy. So we'll approach that

(13:01):
from about thirty five different angles over the course of
the night as well. Uh, cooking tips if you have
them again at orne Berger at Swollen Dome, What what
are you grilling? I don't know that we're gonna do
a lot on air with it, but I'll learn something
and maybe I'll give you some tips on my own.
Uh so as we go. But we know we're gonna
bring Pete few Tech into the mix here. Next, rich
to talk about the changing landscape when it means on

(13:25):
the whole in college football. Hey, Pac twelve, does it survive?
I think that's probably the first question we'll ask. He's
Rich Warin Burger and for Jason Smith on Mike Armen.
Welcome into the Jason Smith Show with Mike Armen on
Fox Sports Radio. 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

(13:46):
the I Heart Radio app club is open here already
has a holiday weekend. Gets under whale. Let's be safe
out there, look after each other, celebrate the good things.
There are still plenty of good things. Find those wins.
Go on to know each and every day. My Carmen
alongside rich ardan Berger Jason Smith off tonight here on
Fox Sports Radio. Lots to talk about Rich in terms

(14:07):
of this seismic college football move, nobody better than to
bring in our guy coming from the Midwest. Well, so
it's only appropriate because he's getting ready to welcome those
Southern California teams to town. And he and I'll be
ships passing in the night as I go to Chicago
next week and he comes out here, it's Pete fu
Tech College Football News dot Com at Pete few Tech

(14:29):
on Twitter. What's gonna beat? Yeah, I want the other deal.
I like going out there. I'm ready. I am. I'm
ready to be on the Big Ten, going to the
l A side of things as as opposed to the
flip side of this. And every medium member who's ever
covered the Big Ten right now is like, yeah, I'll
take that, you know, troop to l A for USC

(14:51):
versus you know, Rutgers or whatever it's gonna be. They're
gonna love this, every one of them. Trying to write
the column to say, because if the schedule ends up
working like these other conferences are doing, can I be
one of their three rivals? Meaning Ohio State, Michigan? Can
I be one of those? I? First of all, I
do think that they're not done. I mean everything, every point,

(15:14):
everything points to Okay, USC and U C l A
were the big guys, and I would kind of think
that Oregon and you don't do that without also thinking
Oregon and Washington are there. To expand the footprint even
more and get those two markets and expand the up
to the Pacific Northwest and they get to eighteen and

(15:34):
have two divisions of nine and make it so traveled
a little easier for the Olympic sports, uh, for you know,
at least you're going up the coast as opposed to
across the other part of the country. But I would
think there's gonna be a way to do this where
you're not gonna see USC and u c l A
play a whole lot of teams from the eastern part

(15:54):
of the country. It would be more of like the
Iowa's in Nebraska, SA. It's a little bit more manageable
a plane trip. Hey, Pete, you know, we're just discussing
what this means for the very near future and say
the next decade. Okay, if we're gonna say near future,
the next twelve to twenty four months, and then expand
the aperture to the next ten years, what do you

(16:18):
think college football looks like in that near term and
that long term? Well, the thing about this question is, Okay,
what does it look like now? And you talk as
we as we're talking at the moment, I can pretty
much guarantee I will see if you give me let's say, oh,
I don't know Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, and I'll give

(16:39):
you the field. What are you taking? You know what?
Who's the who's who you're taken for the You know,
there's there's three your college football playoff teams and the
other one the lamb for the slaughter. So like as
as we as it speaks, now, we already kind of
have a two conference system. Oh yeah, basically have a
one conference system with a couple of good teams. So
these just kind of expand things a little more to

(17:02):
make it more interesting for the Pac twelve former Pac
twelve types for getting l A involved. But I do
think where this goes is expand you've got to expand
the college football playoffs. You don't do moves like this
and keep things as is. It's just unsustainable. So I
think you you do these moves, you have these big
power conferences to get all the money, and then you

(17:23):
throw everyone a cookie into all right, all the power
five conference champions get into a playoff will give you
something to whatever These group of five programs are now
and then everything else goes to the big boys. So
you have a twelve team playoff with you know, maybe
three teams from the Big Ten, three teams from the SEC,
and everyone else gets something and chrome in there. And

(17:45):
I think that's how you you expand this going forward.
And once the ball gets kicked off, everyone's gonna still
watch the games that they watched before. I do enjoy
the tweet you put out about a half hour ago,
retweeting that now. It was the statement from Ohio State.
I'll spare everybody the text the video is just a
Christmas story and a beat down. Yeah, if you're if
you're a house state right now, basically you're just kind

(18:07):
of saying, all right, you can welcome in, you know,
come and get your beating, you know, come get your
take your beating. And and here here's an extra fifty
to seventy million dollars a year in media rites money.
Then you'll like it. Well, the thing that gets lost here.
And first of all, the bank talks all business. It's
all that matter. It's all about markets. It's all about
the Big ten network now being able to claim it

(18:28):
as New York, Chicago and l A it's just about
the business side of sports. But the sports side you're
only talking about between these two programs, one of the
last thirteen actual championships, you know, between them. I mean,
it's not like they lose an organ in the Utah
at the moment when it comes to who is the
real power in those conferences, obviously it's about the change.

(18:49):
Obviously US he's about to become a super power and
you know, you say he's big on basketball and it's
u c l A. And the other part of this
thing too that we that nobody gets really talks about,
but it matters the academics automatically. U c l A
is the number choose, the second best academic institution in
the Big Ten behind Northwestern. I mean you're talking, yeah,

(19:13):
you're talking about you know, and USC is obviously amazing
right there with Michigan. So you're talking about two superpower
world class you know, academic institution which bitch which it's
just all of a sudden you up the profile of
the Big Ten that much more for all your member
institutions for the highop states of the world, you know,
who kind of are just you know, cleaning out to

(19:34):
the Northwestern and everywhere else, bigger landscape, shifting story, the
conference realignments we are seeing recently with Texas and O
you jumping to the SEC and now U se U,
s LA go on the big ten or name, image
and likeness. What do you think has the biggest effect
on how college football looks as we carry on here

(19:57):
into you know, the future of of what is amateur
athletics or what used to be amateur athletics. Well, again,
you're you're assuming that all of a sudden, oh wow,
college players are getting paid like that's like that's not
happened before, Like that has been you know, Derrick Dickerson
didn't get a trans am from Texas A and M,

(20:17):
which he still denies. And you know, it's basically it's
the N I L stuff is gonna just work itself out.
It's splashy, and we're gonna see tweets with you know,
Bijan Robert Robinson representing the local Austin Lamborghini dealership and
things like that. But really that's just doesn't change anything.
I mean, really, what's happening is all that happened with

(20:37):
Reggie Bush and the two thousand five is USC teams
now is kosher and it's just business as usual. The
Conference of Realignment is really everything because that speaks to
how the media deals are gonna happen, where we're gonna
be watching these games. I mean, now that you have
an NFL that you're gonna watch a couple of these
games on streaming services and Amazon Prime and things like that.

(20:59):
We'll go went forward the big ten network. You know,
you're always gonna have you know, USC versus Ohio State's
gonna be on the biggest of the big network. But
U c L A versus p DO. Yeah, that'll be
a you know, it's you know, three thirty start on
the big on BTN. You know. So this really helps
out the in house conference network for the SEC two
and I think the ECC and it's starts to figure

(21:20):
out what it's doing. It's funny when I read aloud
as we started the show, Pete, the statement from Mike Bone,
It's almost like he was standing there with two giant
middle middle finger, you know, the foam fingers really extended
back to Larry Scott. God that Lord Larry Scott today,
you know, man. But it's not bad because it's like, say, okay, well,

(21:42):
if we had better business, the open place. I don't
know what media or business deals with text well could
have had that's better than this, you know, because you're
you're again for the THIGU about what USC USC. Obviously
it's massive, Obviously you U c l A. You know
you're talking about I get two of the hottest roles academically.
I mean, it's it's insane. If you look at the
academics of this rank USC, it's something like a hundred

(22:05):
and fifty applicants this year. I mean, places are crazy.
And now they've just up their profile even more nationally
where you know USC, you know in U c l
A get into you know, Chicago, in Indianapolis and Minneapolis.
Not like everybody from the Midwest doesn't want to go
to those schools anyway, but it's just ups their profile
that much more. And to combine with your other thought

(22:27):
about name image to enlightness, Well, if you are you
know a Jordanai Addison or Caleb Williams, or you're someone
who has got some marketing dealing on in l A, well,
now your l A ads are gonna play nationally a
whole lot better. So it makes those schools even better
and stronger when it comes to the new world of
college athletics. Hey, Pete, what happens to the group of five?

(22:48):
Because we're hearing most of the news about the Power five.
I mean, could you see more of these group of
five teams get absorbed by a PAC ten or a
PAC twelve whatever they're going to call themselves into the future.
What's next for the group of five? Yeah, it's hard
because there's just aren't a lot of good ones left.
I mean, you know what you got. I mean the

(23:08):
one whale out there, I think at the moment. And
it's the problem is it's not a Tier one research university,
but the Big ten was able to get past that
with Nebraska San Diego State. Now, if you're the PAC twelve,
how you don't grabbed that school now? Because Sandiego obviously
doesn't have an NFL team, and now you don't have

(23:30):
PAC twelve, doesn't have a presence in southern California. You know,
what's your southernmost you know, California team is it's technically
cal I mean they go Stanford. I mean, I guess
it would be geographically mean like where's your you know,
where's your California presence? At this point, I would think
that's a no brainer. I would think the other one
to watch out for, which doesn't seem like it makes

(23:51):
any sense, but it does. Un l V. They're awful
with football, but you know Big Ten cook Rutgers, not
because Rutgers is winning national champion and chips, but George
has wanted to make lots of Vegas sort of the
you know what Atlanta is, the SEC in Indianapolis is
to the Big Ten. They want to make Vegas that
for the Pack twelve. So getting UNLV in that market

(24:13):
would be something. Getting San Diego State helps and you
have some money balls, that's your way up on this.
I mean, you just lost Jobby and Damon. You can't
replace them, but you can get a bunch of lawer
programs like that. I would think, you know, not group
of five. I would think Kansas is a great fit
for market basketball and things like that. So there are
things that Pack Fells to do. But it's better act

(24:35):
quick because if we're getting Washington are up next here
for the big things, then all of a sudden, the
big swell is going to be like hey, Arizona, Arizona State,
Utah in Colorado, you know, come joining come join the
fun over here now, all right, last one from me,
pete uh. The oos obvious giant school is is Notre Dame. Right,
you've got your a CEC except independence for football and

(25:00):
ice hockey. They're already members of the Big ten. So
if you know already have their feet in there a
little bit, does this move the needle or do they
continue to just say, all right, you love our reputation
from fifty years ago, keep paying us. Yeah, you know
that the problem is now if you're the big Ted,
you s got uc in USC and U c l A,
You're you're not giving the Ore Dame anything, you know,

(25:20):
Notre Dame junking any special deal. If you know how
State would come in screaming saying you know, why why
are you giving Notre Dame anything? We want the better,
We want the better deal with anybody here. So if
you're the Big Ken, you're not really looking at Notre
Dame and for anything more than just saying, hey, come
join the fun. And if you're Notre Dame, you you're

(25:41):
gonna you don't want to be left without a chair
when the music stops here because there's so much money
about to be happening here. If you're the Path twelve,
you do throw a Hail Mary out there to Notre
Dame and just be like, hey, look, you want you
want to do this, you want to be you want
to be the big star of our conference and see
if that works. But still Notre Dame still national, you know,

(26:03):
international powerhouse is still you know everything about that. I
just don't think that's going to be next up for
the Big Ten without something really crazy happening. Because if
they do, if they were to happen to get Notre
Dame or the big dream is North Carolina, but that's
not happening because they're granted Bright Seals. But they were
to get Notre Dame and let's say Oregon, Wow, that

(26:24):
would that changes you know everything when it comes to
who the real powerhouse in college football is. Chaos has
found us today in college football. College Football News dot
Com is where you find in Pete Futech. He'll be
up all night drinking lots of coffee while thinking that
he's gonna come see the Cubs out here in Los
Angeles when he visits. I probably will. Actually, yeah, I'm

(26:47):
ready to come out and you're gonna come out here
and see what white Sox, White White Sox Tigers, and
then the Orients visit the Cubs after that series against
the Dodgers. Jeez, why don't you like yourself? Like, don't
I'm gonna see my brothers and get drunk in Chicago.
I think I'll be okay. You know, you actually have
to do what we do. We don't actually go to
come games. We go around. Just go to the neighborhood.

(27:10):
It is a beautiful neighborhood. Go get grab something to eat,
and sit on that nice lawn out there. It's pretty good. Exactly.
That's what you do. You actually go see the game,
all right. I may still go watch it just to
see the Orioles for a couple of minutes because they're
actually my kind of entertaining. But it's baseball, it's not Pete.

(27:31):
That's why I love you. At Pete feutech where you
find him with us each and every week during the
football season, and tonight he walked the red carpet for us.
Thanks so much, Pete. We appreciate it. Later guys, see him, buddy. Yeah,
he's actually on a plane the same day I'm leaving
for Chicago. I was trying to meet up, you know,
get him to a game or at least go have

(27:51):
a beer. And he's like, you know, and actually his
daughter is gonna start school down by you. So there
you go. There's the end. So he's gonna become a
San Diego State honk, just like the state. Dad. Yeah,
that that's how it goes these days. Look, I mean,
he's he said it. You know, it's interesting the position
this puts some of these group of five schools and

(28:11):
and and he said, the pickings getting slim. A lot
of these conferences are saying, all right, can we hold
tight to what we have or can we add? And
if the answer is add, there only maybe one, maybe
two schools U n l V as San Diego State
out west that you can really say, yeah, that makes
sense to have them join our conference. We'll see though. Yeah,

(28:32):
it is certainly a strange time. Not not what I
expected when I woke up this morning and got the
smoker going at six o'clock. No, not at all. It's
like it's gonna be a nice chill day. They're gonna
be by the pool. I'm gonna sit and have a
cup of coffee, catch up on a couple of streamings shows. Nope, Instead,
it's trying to figure out all the financials and then
watching the NBA Carousel spin as well, which will get

(28:56):
into in about twenty minutes. Be sure to catch live
editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harman weekdays
at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Hey, this is
Jason McIntyre. Join me every weekday morning on my podcast,
Straight Fired with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports
pod pushing the same tired narratives down your throat every day.

(29:17):
Straight Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest
sports headlines, accurate stats to help you win big at
the sports book, and all the best guests. Do yourself
a favor and listen to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre
on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever
you get your podcasts. I think this is the partner

(29:38):
you're supposed to hop up and down. Rich Rich Horinburger
in for Jason Smith tonight on Mike Harmen. Thanks for
hanging out with us here on your Thursday night. We
know you have a lot of options audio video streaming services,
looking at the night sky or picking up after your
dog or children. We know that, but we appreciate you
hanging out with us here. Uh, and we can't out

(30:00):
you how much, but you no other thing. If you
are a valued customer, you deserve a simple gesture of
appreciation from your credit card company. So why discover matches
all the cash back you've earned at the end of
your first year. Discover exceptionally common sense, learn more, discover
dot com slash match limitations they do apply. Rich Ord
Berger in for Jason Smith. Tonight, the NBA Silly season

(30:21):
is up and in full effect. Rich And I gotta
say I'm here for it right watching Funny Money, because
really some of the numbers are just unfathomable. And I've
never wanted to say, hey, folks, get too much cash.
You know, you you get what someone's willing to pay, right,
Just like when you go to a store or you're
buying in the collectibles market or whatever, it's like, why

(30:43):
is that worth so much money? It's like, well, someone
decided that they needed to have it for whatever reason.
In this case, it also becomes the well I want
a title, or I just want the shiny new superstar
or guy that I think could be So we won't
belabor Nick Stock tonight because well Smith isn't here, but
Jalen Brunson going to the New York Knicks. It's one
of those I saw a line and I failed to

(31:05):
note who it was saying, well, I guess tampering doesn't
extend to family members working for a team, because Rick
Brunson being part of the Knicks organization, but Jalen Brounson
leaving Dallas. I thought the interesting part of it that
people got all upset about was saying, well, the Mavericks
didn't even get a chance to talk to him, Like, well,

(31:26):
they did, They had a full run by which to
sign him, oh yeah and deal with it, and they didn't. Yeah. Yeah,
it's uh any anybody who's trying to defend the home
team for not getting the deal done. We were just
talking about the Freddie Freeman stuff, right, Yeah, Atlanta could
have kept Freeman. It's just money, and it's not our money,

(31:48):
so it's a lot easier for us to talk about it. Right.
There are ways, right, if you want to skirt the
salary cap in any sports league and spend a little
bit more on guarantee, ease and all those things that
we know are are available to front offices or ownership too,
to still keep a player happy, satisfied with his contract amount,

(32:11):
and also build around him that's available to you. It
just costs money. And look, I get it. It's not
an endless you know tree or bottomless well or whatever
you wanna call it. But there there are ways to
get that done. And if he is a current product
of yours and and available for negotiations. Yeah, you may

(32:33):
think that playing for the hometown team will tug at
the harms heartstrings, but that's getting less and less as
the days go by. I I really think that players
they're they're far more loyal and rightfully so, to the
name on the back of the jersey than they are
on the front of the jersey, especially in the NBA,

(32:54):
because you can't trust if you're part of a team
that the other star on the roster is going to
stay loyal to the team. Right How How can how
can you wake up every morning and say, oh, yeah, okay,
you know if you're Lebron because a d s here,
it means he's not going to become dissatisfied and try
to force his way at l A at some point,

(33:14):
or Kyrie and durant in Brooklyn or James harden In
in Philadelphia. There's nothing is guaranteed in that league anymore.
So it kind of does feel like the Wild West,
where once free agency hits or the league gear ends,
just go and get yours. Let's see where what it
all looks like when the dust clears. He's r Joran Burger, Mike,

(33:36):
I'm enjoining us now on the hot line to try
to read t leaves and make it all makes sense
to us because or maybe he demands a trade too.
So oy buddy, Mark Medina NBA dot Com at Mark
g Underscore Medina NBA season is done, draft is done,
and and boom, we get right into chaos. We thought
it was gonna be a quiet day and then Katie

(33:57):
wants out. Mark, how about that? It's it's the first
off to answer your open ending question. I was able
to agree with an extential with Fox Sports Radio recently.
So I'll be here free agency and next season, and
I'm beautiful demanded trade, don't worry, I'm loyal. I appreciate you.
That's good. Well, that's that's good to get that out there.
We'll make sure to put that in print, and I'll

(34:20):
actually honor the contract and not uh you know, Shakes Tree,
Well he's in a four year deal like Kevin. Yeah,
we'll see. I mean that's open ended. Hey, you know what,
Actually that's a that's good opening to talk about what
we're just discussing. Mark the idea that loyalty in terms

(34:40):
of where a player might be next season. It's fleeting
in the NBA anymore, and I'm not sure if that's
the best thing for the league and for its fans, certainly,
but that's the way it is right now in its
current state. Is this sustainable? Is this model of doing
business in the NBA sustained? Bull or do you think

(35:00):
at some point the commissioner and the NBA p A
have to come together and figure out a way to
stabilize all this because I mean, you buy somebody's jersey
and you expect them to be there for very long.
That is a full hearty investment these days. Yeah, no,
it's not sustainable. And look like I gotta, you know,

(35:21):
pre empt my commentary saying, hey, player powerment for the
most parts good thing. Players should be able to decide
when they're a free agent what's best for them. Organizations
do that. They trade players even before their contract ends.
But this idea in Kevin Durant's case, where you know,
he legitimately might have reason to be upset, and we

(35:42):
don't know what's causing be upset. Is he upset Kyrie
Irving or with the nets? But regardless, literally last season
he agreed to a four your extension and that for
your extension doesn't even kick in until next season, So
there has to be a media of the minds. That's
one thing, uh, you know, for a superstar to you know,

(36:04):
use his petting. Free agency has leveraged, so to speak, um,
but to be demanding trades before your new contract even
kicks in, that's not good for the league. And I'm
saying this again being a pro player. Hey, every guy
has to decide what's best for them. But when you
signed a deal you know that far out, and all
of a sudden you're that unhappy like that, the league

(36:26):
has to make reforms with the p a U to
try to reduce these things from happening. Now. I don't
know how many times its showed up in your timeline,
but it goes back to me being able to buy
property on Lake Como next to Clooney for all the
times I saw Kevin Durant in the Lakers jersey in
my timeline today, there's a lot of more. I've seen

(36:48):
more of the what Kyrie would look like jersey. That
seems to be the more realistic route. I don't think that. Look,
I mean, Kevin Durant put his preferred destinations out here,
the Phoenix Suns in the Miami heat. That Nets certainly
aren't obligated to do that. But I don't think that
the Lakers want Kevin Durant, as weird as that might sound.

(37:10):
But also I don't think Kevin Durant would want to
be there. I know, just from my time in Golden State.
The sense that I got is, you know, part he
left Golden State partly to show that, hey, he can
win by being the main bus driver, as Charles Barkley
recently alluded to. And if you were to be with
the Lakers, like all the praise goes to lebron right

(37:30):
and and you know, any qualified praise would go to Durant.
So I think that, you know, beyond that, the Lakers,
it's not a guarantee that they would want Kyrie iring,
but I think they are looking at it more from
that Lens of Hey, Kyrie and Lebron have a lot
of history together. While they have question marks about his
leadership and his availability, as twenty nine other teams are,

(37:53):
they know that from a basketball standpoint, he's a much
better fit than Russell Westbrook. But we'll see. I mean,
Russ doesn't have a lot of interest around the NBA,
So even if the Lakers do want Kyrie, maybe it's
not going to happen because the Russ is that toxic
of an asset. I'm a big Tray young fan. I
think he's one of the brightest new talents in this league.

(38:14):
How much better are the Atlanta Hawks today? Oh, They're
They're astronomically better. I think de Jon Murray is one
of those rising young talents and you might think, well,
why did the say and so Spurs allow him to walk?
There's fair question marks to be had with that because
I think that he's developing into a special player. But
I think the Spurs. You know, it wasn't a criticism

(38:36):
of the Jena It just seems like that they were
that far into a rebuilding phrase that it's like, hey,
may as well tear it down and do this the
right way, because they can't really do this rebuilding on
the fly. They missed the playoffs again this season, but
in the Hawks case, yeah, I think that Trey Young
and Degone Murray. I wouldn't say that they're the best

(38:57):
duol right now in the NBA, uh, because there's other
veteran players, but I think that they're the best young
duo in the NBA. And knowing how Travis s link
is as a GM, uh, he's just getting started with
you know, maybe they can reach out to deal with
John Collins, uh with another deal as far as the
trade goes, or keeping them a long term. But they

(39:18):
also have a pretty good supporting cast. So I think
when you look at these last two seasons, you know,
last year with the Hawks making the playoffs, this year
they didn't. It was very clear that this was much
better than it was in the past of them being
a lottery team. But how do they compete in a
crowded Eastern Conference? And now I think that you can
propel them as one of those teams that you know

(39:39):
aren't prohibitive favorites, but they have a fighter's chance and
making noise. Yeah, I mean a lot of the teams
in the East, we either have chaos like in Brooklyn,
or you have guys coming back off injuries, or you
have situations, say like Philadelphia, where you have stars, you
have a coach which who's had some uh how should
be saying less than great exits from layoffs. But now

(40:00):
James Harden frees up money, they bring in t J. Tucker,
Daniel House. How much better are they? Well, look, you
may as well call them the Philadelphia Rockets, all right.
Like Daryl Morey seems intent on reuniting with every player
there from Houston. Maybe maybe that that's the solution to
the Westbrook problem with the Lakers. They bring back Westbrook

(40:22):
and see if that experiment with James Harden works. Again,
my hunches they won't do that. But I think the
larger point is, uh Aryl Morey's bringing back a lot
more familiar faces. And I think that James Harden umn
pleasantly surprised, he was shocked. He is showing some self
awareness that someone like Russell Westbrook could show that he's
mindful that uh, you know, he's where he's at in

(40:44):
his career. His game has dropped down a peg or two,
and so he's willing to exercise some sort of discount
to make sure that Aryl Morey has more at his
disposal to have a better team. And you know, look,
they haven't agreed to a deal yet, but my understand
that he is going to meet with the Sixers this weekend,
and obviously he opted out with the idea that it

(41:05):
will be a lesser figure. So I think that, you know,
there's obviously more work to be done, but the Sixers
can be right back where they should be with giving
Joel Embiid more help than he got last season. Um,
we know that there's a host of young superstars eligible
for those rookie contract extensions, Jean Moran and the Grizzlies.

(41:26):
I'm sure they'll get that done if they haven't already
as we're speaking to each other. Um, but how about
Zion Williamson, right, hasn't played a lot of games through
his first three seasons with the Pelicans due to injury.
Where they at with Zion, Well, nothing's official yet, but
you know, I haven't heard anything but signs that hey,
they're going to agree to him with an extension. And look,

(41:48):
I'm one of those people that earlier in the season
I was learing of it because I still have this
wait and see approach about can he ever get healthy?
But I think that you know, the Pelicans have they
affirmed that, regardless of whatever criticism he's gotten for how
involved he's been with the team or whatever, um, they're
bullish that you know he's going to turn a corner

(42:10):
health wise. And you know, he's been cleared basically since
late in May to start rehabbing without any restrictions, and
I haven't heard of any stepback since then. But even
with that, I think the Pelicans are willing to make
that dive into uh committing towards Zion long term, knowing
that there's also a lot of other things that are

(42:32):
going for them well, with Brandon Ingram and C. J.
McCollum being a good veteran voice around there, Willie Green
showing that he has what it takes to be a
really good head coach in this league. And so no
doubt while the Pelicans success long term will hinge on
not only how well Zion Williamson will play, with how
healthy he can be. I think the comforting fact for

(42:54):
the Pelicans is that they have a lot of good
working pieces around the medicod culture that can help absorb
anything negative with his return, as well as putting him
in a good position succeed. Fantastic stuff. NBA writer, NBA
dot com. You can follow on Twitter at Mark g Underscore.
Medina joins us each and every week and signed his

(43:17):
contract extension. That's breaking news. Probably need the sounder for
that one. Mark, appreciate you taking some time with us.
Enjoy free agency. Look forward to talking to you again soon,
and enjoy the holiday weekend. We appreciate you guys. Happy
forth and hey, you hear it on this sound by here,
feel free to replay it over the airwaves. I'm committed
to Fox Sports Radio for however long they want me.

(43:37):
I dig that Kyree once said that on a court
in Boston, almost exactly those words. Mark, I am not
Kyrie Irvan though. That's there. You go. Appreciate your buddy,
Thanks so much. Appreciate you