The King Still Reigns!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Locked and Loaded. Lots
going on on this Thanksgiving Eve, National Basketball Association Front
and Center, Little college basketball. In case you missed, and
maybe you were stuck in traffic. I don't know. Maybe
you had to work on Wednesday and hadn't been quite
released from your duties. You might have missed a Number

(00:45):
one Versus Number three showdown. We'll get to that in
about fifteen minutes from now. Welcome into the Geico Fox
Sports Radio Studios. Fifteen minutes can save you or more
on your car insurance. Head on over to Geico dot com.
Get yourself a free rate quote. As the Big Voice
man told you, Jason Smith out to night. So sitting
to my left, my buddy Aaron Torres steps in and

(01:07):
a perfect night to have you in with college basketball
as one of our appetizers for this big Thanksgiving weekend. Yeah,
this is becoming a little bit of a tradition for us. Mike.
You know, families have Thanksgiving traditions, but Mike, Carmen and
I have traditions. Jason Smith, as we learned last year
at home, got that Christmas eggnog ahead of time. I

(01:29):
seem to remember him having a tough three days while
I was filling in for him. So now this has
become our tradition. You're my family on this thanks tanks body. Yeah,
I'll bring in some kind of food stuffs tomorrow and
I'll glutton eyes just like everybody else. See if we
can get a trip to fan induced coma of our
own as the show goes. Hey, you know what, you
gotta never be ashamed to pile it on after we

(01:50):
go off air. We can't fall asleep mid show. While
we wouldn't fall asleep, I mean it just might be
take us into weird places and and on a holiday night.
Why not everybody's going No, not, everybody's got Look the
naptastrophe patent pending. That's a harm and family term, uh
does come in. It's the unintended nap that may have
dire consequences in your house. Why how can a nap

(02:12):
be a catastrophe? By definition, the nap once you hit,
once you get past about eleven years old, maybe not
even eleven, like eight, the nap is the greatest thing
that you know, The nap is a beautiful thing. The
problem is, depending on who's in your domicile at that point,
bad things could happen to you. I mean, you may
miss around of whatever, the desert of choices, and they

(02:34):
didn't save you any again, my mo, I'm looking at
my my family right. If you didn't have fast hand,
you know, you didn't get any or perhaps you got
bitten when you try to be raised by wolves. Well
you know what the three growing boys I mean, so
it was the battle for who could who could dominate
the table. But the other thing, I mean, you don't
know if they're gonna draw a fake mustache on you.

(02:54):
You don't know if suddenly you're tied to a chair.
I mean, bad things happen. See, I feel like the
fake mustache isn't really a nap though. But if you
fall asleep, but that's not it opens the door. That's
not a naptastrophe. That's a I had too many beverages
and I'm passed out and I'm drooling on myself. Well,
but that's part two of the naptastrophy definition is that
it could have been caused by over indulgence in food

(03:17):
or booze. I guess yeah, we won't do that until
after the show to hope. So of course at Aaron
Underscore Tours is where you find him. Reminder, you just
put out on Twitter. You in for three hours, you're
here that fourth There is a fourth hour. Now we
get those fours up, uh and the slide over Baby Hour.
Alex tishert Justin Frostberg, Deb Carson, the team all assembled

(03:40):
and ready to roll. Here on this Thanksgiving Eve, we
are watching Cleveland and the Lakers, the Return of the
King as it was called dubbed, and you know what.
The introduction a lot of questions. Once again, can they
harbor great bitterness and hatred upon a second exit? Let's
give it another sat forward from St. Vincent St. Marry

(04:03):
High School. Welcome home. Mabrawn sees overwhelmingly positive. I told you, Michael,
you were right. I did not hear one boot for you.
I might have booed Lakers Radio on the call Lebron

(04:24):
James in twenties seven minutes, thus far twenty one points
of fifteen shooting. What's interesting is you've got Cleveland up
one on the Lakers eight seven. Now for the night,
Cleveland shooting thirty eight point five percent from the field
with a one point lead. Can I just jump in?
Did anyone really expect booze like? I mean, I figured
you'd still get a couple of drunkards together. Just bash

(04:46):
him for leaving it? Well, listen, I mean, first of all,
if if the internet has taught us everything, no one
agrees on everything. But I mean, like when he came back,
we I don't even think I'm like breaking news here.
I think this is so obvious. I can't even believe
that I have to repeat it. But I do think
you're right. Is like, like when he came back, there
was kind of this explicit understanding, I have to deliver

(05:07):
you a championship. Once he does that, it's gravy. Then,
by the way, when he leaves, we see how quickly
the organization falls apart without him. We're now debating can
duke the Calves? Maybe? Now can Gonzaga beat the calves.
But the point is is, like this guy did everything
that he was supposed to do. The organization is a mess,
and I just I'm surprised that it became a thing.

(05:31):
Will Cavs fans boom, as you said, somebody's always going
to but it was so obvious everything that he did
for them and under the circumstances that he left. Now
to take a longer view picture of this, so this is,
you know, going into the capology and roster building part
of the process. I think they could still hate Lebron
James for what he left them because a lot of
this was his hand that orchestrated the roster that they're watching,

(05:53):
and that a third of the seats are empty on
most nights, Well yeah, I think that's totally fair. But
I also think what's the alternative. You don't get to
bring in the guys that you want, and then if
you don't do that, then you have a built an
excuse for like he's leaving regardless, and now it's either
I get what I want and we take one last
run on it before. I don't believe that he was

(06:14):
planning on leaving when he came back, though, but he
just he came because you know, he wrote that long
letter and this is where I want. I don't remember
the exact quotes. Now you already just play a violin
for the long letter. I could do pr spin too. Listen.
I know I saw you bring your violin in, so
if you want to play while I speak here more
look at like that was good? That was good. He's
been practicing. Um so No, I just I just think

(06:37):
that I understand the concept of that. The roster, some
of the contracts that they're under, they were Lebron's doing,
but it was they came at the sake of making
four straight finals and winning that title in I guess
it was. And I think most Cleveland fans would admit
that it's all worth No, they'll trade for that, And

(06:58):
that was it. It was the that was the social contract,
as it were, of you've you've got to deliver one,
you're gonna bring this, I'm coming home, and all the
hype and and everything. But as it got closer and
the way contracts are structured for your superstars, now you
always got one eye over on the horizon, whether it
was gonna be New York or certainly here in l
a And given all of the off the court projects

(07:22):
that have been announced one after the other. I mean,
how long did they stay on that one shot of
Maverick Carter. We didn't hear the voice over here and
the guy go Fox Sports Radio Studios Aaron Torres in
for Jason Smith on Mike Carmen. Welcome into the Jason
Smith with Mike Carmen Show here on Fox Sports Radio.
But we didn't get to hear what the voiceover right,
what the announcers were saying. But I don't know that

(07:42):
I've seen random agent business guy focused on nearly as
much as Maverick Carter got in that run. He's probably
like one of the five most influential people in Hollywood
right now, believe it or not. Like I don't think
that's crazy to say because all those listen. I don't know,
a lot of guys lost their cloud in the last
years from the stre That's very true. There are some

(08:03):
people that are no longer working in Hollywood. But no,
I I just think that I do think it's totally
fair as far as while lebron came what he wants
to do, I do think, by the way, it will
be interesting to see does this become a distraction. The
guys before us, Chris and Rob were debating has k
D on the court surpassed Lebron? Now I tend to
lean to We always have the conversation with Lebron Is

(08:26):
he fading? Is he taking a step back this time
of year. He always picks it up in April, May, June.
But I also think this year he's got more distractions
off the court than ever before, with all these Hollywood
projects that he's apart. Certainly, and when you get to
your sixteen, of any of these professional sports, held your
sixteen and any job that you do, certainly you're not

(08:46):
going to be at the the ability to dominate forty minutes.
And and certainly for the NBA season, if we just
take it straight, there an eighty two games season. There's
you look at the minutes he played last year. It
was absurd payed every level, what was it thirty seven?
While he he did that to prove a point, right,
I think that was the blank you back to all
the critics because as much as he claims he doesn't

(09:09):
hear anything in social media or what radio and TV
personality say, I believe there's a long corridor with each
tweet and and each little sound bite playing in the
Lebron James manner, so he knows what's going on. But
he answered the bell there and certainly what was becoming
an issue for the NBA of star players taking nights

(09:30):
off in big televised games. I would have liked to
have been on that conference call, think about that Adam
Silver with White about twelve influential players to be like, guys,
you're killings because we're gonna have to do make goods
on all of these games. We're gonna have to do
a lot for our sponsors and for our advertising business.
So we've got to nip this in the bud now

(09:50):
otherwise it's gonna become a big problem. So Lebron James
then plays a d two games, plays a ridiculous amount
of minutes, and now you go to Los Angeles where
the money starts flowing once a in. Yeah. No, I
also think he played a lot last year to prove
the point. Every year, he's never really in the m
v P discussion because, in all fairness, his legacy, as
I know you and Jason have probably talked about every

(10:12):
June night for the past eight years, is defined in
the playoffs. In the Finals, But I do think he
was trying to prove a point, like, oh, you really
think James Harden is better than me? You really think
Russell Westbrook's better than me. I'll show you a little
bit what you did. Lest I've always just wondered how
much those awards matter to a guy. I mean, certainly
the ego is there, but everybody knows for Michael Jordan's

(10:34):
run because that's let's face it, that's where the comparisons
aren't win every year because voters if he become tired,
there's the fatigue of all right, we're gonna vote him.
We know he's the best, Now forget it, just put
him aside. He doesn't count unless something really ridiculous happens.
But Lebron James, I've got to think in terms of
the large s and the trophy man, you know, trophy

(10:54):
uh lists and everything else he's got. That winning another
m v P doesn't quite hold the same because that's
not where his legacy is. Maybe maybe that makes him
feel better in the moment, but for NBA history, you
can break down every advanced metric you want. You lose
in the rings you've lost at least for the next

(11:14):
fifteen to twenty years until all of the writers and
people that watch Michael Jordan's play are no longer out
there carrying the torches because then the because I mean
you look at Bill Russell, right, obviously tons of rings,
but doesn't get the same love. Right the Reem Abdul Jabbar,
he's an also ran and greatest of all time conversation,

(11:35):
even though we go back and we watch some of
those tapes, he was an unstoppable force, but doesn't get
the same run because it's before the YouTube generation. Yeah.
I also just think part of it is that you
always reflect fondly on things that are no longer available
to you, if that makes sense. Like we look back
on on some of these things and in all of

(11:56):
sports history and oh, it was so much better back
in those days. No really, Well, look at the people
that were piste on Monday night because it was NFL game,
I like defense, I shut it off. Oh yeah, no,
And and and it's the same thing, right, like we
have this Jordan's nostalgia in basketball. I went back and
looked up some of those runs. There was a lot

(12:16):
of one in the finals, and you would think that
every game was played at the most masterful level ever
perfect all that, and and clearly people have a little
bit of revisionist history with m J which in turn
in time will become revisionist history on Lebron. In the end,
you got six for six. Lebron will never be able

(12:37):
to claim that and beating up on a bad East
for a lot of years. Look, you play the schedule
that's in front, and you make your business decisions. Now
in year sixteen goes to the West, maybe the opportunity
is there. We shall see, But we know one thing
for sure, this roster will not go down through the
stretch run as constituted. One. UH seventy nine was the

(12:59):
score coming down towards the end of the third UH update.
Now nighties seven, seven thirty one in the fourth quarter,
Cleveland with your lead Lebron still at one on the night.
Coming up next, we did have some college basketball you
may have missed. It was played out in Maui very
early this afternoon. Aaron Torres and I had that breakdown

(13:20):
for you. Why because it a couple of heavyweights and
we learned some things about this early college basketball season.
That's next, Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen on Fox
Sports Radio. Feeling the love as you get to your
family and friends over this holiday weekend. Drive safely and
we appreciate you taking a few minutes with us here
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen. Coming here from
the Geico Studios. Aaron Torres tonight in for Jason Smith.

(13:42):
Jason uh Off scheduling, I think more soccer formations for
his daughter's team as they go to the playoffs. A
bit obsessive as he goes. Reminder. Jason Smith Show with
Mike Carmen brought to you by Discover. Get your free
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and include your Ico credit score and checking your scorecard
won't hurt your credit. Learn more at discover dot com.

(14:05):
Slash credit scorecard limitations do apply. You can find me
on Twitter at Swallow and find Aaron at Aaron Underscore.
Torres in tonight with Jason out. We're talking about the NBA.
You've got the Calves with a five point lead over
the Lakers with about three and a half minutes left.
Lebron James starting to do his best Clyde Drexler impression,

(14:26):
which means he's gonna drive to the lane with his
head down like a train coming down the tracks, looking
for contact and looking for falls. But earlier today treated
in the college basketball world, Aaron, one of the things
we bemoan the existence of in the college football worlds
like don't play anybody that matters because it may come
back to bite you. On the short schedule in college basketball,

(14:49):
we love these types of matchups. And we got Duke
and Gonzaga earlier tonight. The Duke, he's on the wrong
side area crossover, it goes down the lane, he's hammer.
No foul called, and that's the game. You've gotta be kidding.
How is there no foul call there? He got hit
by three different guys and Gonzago wins the Malley Invitational. Wow.

(15:09):
Duke Radio on the call, was that the was that
the student call? I mean that guy sounded you know
you're not supposed to a little homer. Now you're employed
by the school. It's all I guess, yeah, I guess.
You know you're employed. If you're not employed by the
like the league broadcast have at it right that the
national game, you're employed by the team. You know what

(15:30):
you're your that's your your audience, that's who you're appealing to,
So he used the phrasing of hammer. He got hammered.
Three different guys hit him. They were twenty of twenty
six from the file line tonight we're duke. They shot
from the field, and we're given the gift of eight
miss fall shots by Gonzaga, including four in the final
minutes seventeen. So you got your opportunities, you didn't take

(15:54):
advantage of them. This highly touted, highly recruited team, which
is funny and I on that. We come in here
and we're talking about the Cavaliers, uh and the Lakers
right now, because the Cavaliers, over the course of the week,
how many times did you see it referenced this duke
team could beat X y Z and they'd bring up
a couple of NBA teams and it was just let's
take the take the bat to the pinata that is

(16:17):
the Cleveland Cavaliers, and then Gonzaga comes in and beats him.
I don't think the only downside to this was that
this game started at one in the afternoon. Well, it
was to make way for Lebron's return to Cleveland, and
it was the more entertaining game. I would say, um, yeah,
First of all, I mean, look, I I don't know
where you and Jason have gone with it. I can
take a guess, but any talk of that Duke team

(16:39):
beating an NBA team is ridiculous. Um I would say
to the better team one today, regardless of of that
late call. By the way, I hate to brag. I
have Ruby hotche Moore as my national preseason Player of
the Year. He was by far the best player in
What kind of odds did you get when you laid
down money in Vegas? I didn't lay down money. I
just put it on my Twitter feed for all the
world to see. You. When all of America was saying r. J.

(17:01):
Barrett's the best player in college best said, you know
this guy Ruby had some more is pretty good too,
so shout out to me. But I dig the fact
that you have no problem just locating your shoulder just
twenty four minutes into our broadcast tonight. Well, listen, you're
gonna play hurt the rest of the night if you
if you had teed me, if you had tied me
up on Gonzaga and minute one, I would have patted
myself on my shoulder and minute one. No, No, I

(17:23):
needed to wait I should have waited longer. You should,
because now I'm gonna watch your screaming agony over the
course of the night over that contortionist trick you just
tried to pull. I'm gonna scream in agony over how
right I was about how good these Aggs are. But
the point is the better team one tonight, Duke, They're
gonna get better. I would argue with you on one point, though, Harmon,
is that Look, first of all, I think you're right

(17:43):
about college football versus college basketball. With college basketball, you
can take a loss like this, you can schedule these
tough games. But I do think this is also the
argument that people make about college basketball kind of in
the national consciousness. The reason that guys like you, Jason Smith,
me my show on Saturday is that we don't talk
about it is because ultimately none of the games really

(18:05):
matter all that much. Until march As opposed college football. Well,
with this, they matter in the day, in the moment, right,
and we take it as a microcosm of what's going
to happen because we get a couple of these basketball classics,
be it in Hawaii or wherever they're being played, and
we get some great matchups, we get some entertaining basketball,
and we can celebrate it in the moment, but then

(18:26):
you have the rest of the non conference and you
got about a month before you get into conference, and
then then we'll start paying attention again. But but also
you're looking at the NFL playoffs, you look at the
Super Bowl run, you're looking at the All Star Game
and trade deadline for the NBA. So things start to
start to a line that we'll push basketball off because

(18:47):
let's face it, we're not gonna be treated to one
three with great regular So we give it a little
bit of love, and we give it and we celebrate
it today that it exists for college football, we immediately go,
this is great that we get these big teams battling
and whatever kickoff Classic, whoever the sponsor is, and then that, unfortunately,
that one loss can come back and absolutely debt decimate

(19:10):
everything else you've done for the entirety. When you look
at Michigan right now, right coming into this game against
Ohio State, and as much as their heavy favorites and
the expectation is that they roll, historically that has not
worked so well. Urban Meyer, after the histrionics and performance
that he put on last week in that game against Maryland.

(19:30):
You know they'll be rallying and ready for this game.
But now the potential is there that that early season
lost when they were a shell of what they are now,
that lost to Notre Dame looms so large on the
grand scale of the college football playoffs. Well, and that's
that's where it gets really interesting. I think that's the
most important point, is like if Michigan, even if they

(19:52):
went out, I mean, there's a chance they could get
left out. I mean, I think personally, and I don't
think many people agree with me, if Notre Dame were
to lose to us see it. I know USC is
not playing well. I think most people feel like Michigan
would jump them because Michigan, people said, would have a
better body work. I think it'd be an interesting debate
of Notre Dame versus Michigan, and then of course of
Alabama to lose in the SEC championship game. But it

(20:14):
does bring up the point that you're getting at, which
is Michigan is still being punished three months later for
a loss on opening night on the road by a
touchdown to what is now the number three team in
the country and still hasn't lost. So it's interesting there's
two different sports with two different playoff structures. But I
do I do feel like that while we love these

(20:36):
college basketball games, the argument against them is they don't
really matter in the way that a big early season
college book. No, that's it. I mean, it's two different things.
When you're talking about a thirty two game, thirty four game,
whatever it breaks out to for certain teams depending on
exhibitions college basketball schedule. This is a game where we
celebrate it. We got to see a lot of top
notch players, your guy Chamora coming up with the huge game.

(21:00):
You look at Barrett was nine at points, right on
his season average for scoring. Zion Williamson always gets his love.
Everybody wants to make sure they celebrate everything he does.
Eight of seventeen of twenty two points and ten boards
for the night, so filling up the statueet. Everybody got
what they wanted in that regard. And it's a close
game and for Duke, you get that loss. So now

(21:21):
the all the the next eight word columns start and
and Gonzaga is going to get their run a little
bit here, which is great because if it's just Duke
and everybody else. It makes for a pretty boring run.
Later on in the show, we'll be talking about Marquelle
Folts and all his problems. Remember you and I doing
shows last week? What are last year? I should say?
As the college basketball season really started to pick up,

(21:44):
we had a lot of love of Marquelle Foults and no, no, no.
But because of the points scoring, it was a story
to follow right whether you liked the game overall, it
was something that people clung to from college basketball because
we were looking at forty point nights. It matter that
there's the fake news media was trying to convince us

(22:05):
that he was the best player in the draft, and
your boy, Aeron Torres never bought into that. I always said,
Jayson Tatum, you can you can go back and listen
to the audio. I don't I don't need four hours
of you patting yourself on the book. We'll discuss this
one as we roll on a little bit tonight. Uh.
Coming up next, we're gonna dive out to the National
Football League. Adam Kaplan is gonna stop by and answer
all the big questions coming into Week twelve of your

(22:27):
NFL season. Rubber three games tomorrow, including a quarterback banged up.
But first we're gonna step out to deb Carson. She's
gonna fill us in on what's trending. Agents Well taking
a peek at Cleveland, Lebron James and the Lakers visiting
his old team. Nance guarded by Alonzo loses it stolen
by called Well Pope k c p bounce past to
Lebron two handed, jumped at the rim nine six one

(22:52):
time out Cleveland Lakers TV from Spectrum Store Sports is
a lot closer than that right now though, one oh
four one o'too lee for the Lakers over the Cavaliers,
thirty three seconds to go. Lakers with the ball and
the shot cock down to about five right now Raptors
when their fifteenth of the season, they're fifteen and four
being the Hawks in Atlanta one o eight Knicks wanted

(23:15):
Boston one seventeen one oh nine just the fifth win
of the season for the Knicks. Bowls beat the Sons
sixteen and right now Rockets with a nineteen lead over
the Pistons just nine seconds to go in the game.
Online car shopping can be confusing, not anymore. With true
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(23:36):
and True Car to enjoy a more confident car buying experience.
Speaking of confusion, Manny Machado wanted to clarify a comment
that he made, of course, when the Dodgers were in
the NLCS against the Brewers. He responded to criticism for
not running out the ground ball by saying he's not
the type of player that's going to be quote Johnny
hustle end quote and run down the line and slide

(23:57):
the first base. While he told MLB dot Com in clarification,
as he becomes a free agent and likely soon on
the receiving end from a ginormous contract, what he meant
by the contract was or by the comment was quote,
There's a difference between fake hustle for show and being
someone who tries hard to win. I've always been the
guy who does whatever he can to win for his

(24:19):
team end quote, meaning pay me more money and I'll
be a team player. Exactly. We'll all jump on board that.
Thanks Step you bet for a company alive from the
Geico Fox Sports Radio studios. It's easy to say or
more on car insurance with Geico, but a guy go
dot com call seven Otto. The only heart part figuring

(24:39):
out which way is easier. Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen.
Aaron Torres in for Jason Smith this evening. Let's go
out to the hotline joining us now our body serious
x M NFL Radio, longtime NFL insider At Kaplan NFL
on Twitter, Adam Kaplan, Are you ready? Are you ready
for Chase Day? Yeah? You know? How about that? So

(25:01):
Chase Daniel will start for the first time in three years,
and you could expect, guys, a scaled back game plan
in terms of passing it. You could expect a lot
of running inside with the Lions and the Bears on Thursday,
as that is the first game of the three on
Thursday afternoon. Adam to follow that, I know what, It's
not gonna happen schedule wise with any regularity, but having

(25:25):
been flexed into the Sunday night game and then having
a nine thirty Thursday kickoff, I gotta think the Union
wasn't too thrilled about that, Yeah, I said. In fact,
the Bears have actually said that that they were not
happy having to do this. Now, playing in you know,
really two games in ninety hours. It's crazy it's just
not that league does a real good job of scheduling

(25:45):
this one. They that this should have not happened the
way that this is going to be scheduled here. So
but look, it's a short flight. They're not gonna have
mit su Biscuit as a starter. They signed Tyler Bray
off the practice squad. Matt Naggie, the head coach or
the Bears, had Bray and he also had Chase Januel
in Kansas City, so he knows the quarterbacks that there
will be the two quarterbacks that will address the Lions. Now,

(26:05):
they're still trying to hang in the wild card hunt,
but barely at four and six, really quickly, I want
to switch gears to that Redskins Cowboys game. I was
thinking about it today. It feels a little too kind
of on the nose for the Cowboys. They're playing so
well Redskins with a backup quarterback. It feels too obvious
for the Cowboys to just go out and dominate this
game like everybody expects. Do you kind of feel the

(26:26):
same way going to this one? Yeah? Yeah, But the
thing is Colton McCoy talking to the Redskins. I mean,
I remember a coaching source telling me what the Redskins at.
He thought that Colt McCoy could execute the offense just
as well as Kirk Cousins. Now I said that, that
coach said, wait a minute, you don't think he's as
good he goes No, I didn't say that. I said
he could run our offense just as sufficiently the talent

(26:47):
and more talent quarterback would be Kirk Cousins. So now
we flipped the script here. Alex Smith will not come
back this season no matter what happens. Even if they
made the Super Bowl, he wouldn't be able to play.
So it's gonna be Cult McCoy the rest of the way.
And the red Skins absolutely love this guy. That's why
they keep bringing him back. And remember what his record
is against the Cowboys, and it's a limited plame time.
So this is a game where he's probably gonna be

(27:08):
all hyped up team that he knew growing up very well,
being from that area, went to UT I certainly give
him a chance to win. But yeah, the Cowboys are
playing really good football. They really played very well in Philly,
played well last week. They've they've even up their record
at five and five, and I can't even believe I'm
saying this. The Cowboys actually might be the favorite doing
the NFC least. How about that? Yeah, well we will

(27:30):
stay in the division. Then. I mean the Eagles decimated
in the secondary of four start, four starters right, not
practicing once again as we get ready for this next week.
You know, how do they right the ship? Is it?
Is it help that the it's the Giants coming in
or do you look at Eli Manning as a little
bit of a renewed source with with him in O'Dell

(27:50):
Beckham and the whole one and oh each week mantra, Yeah, yeah,
no doubt guys. The the problem at cornerback for the
Eagles is four out of their top five corners are
are are on the injury report. That this is hard
to believe. Uh, they've been decimating in their secondary. The
free safeties out for the season. So I gave the
Giants a punch of chance here that look the last
two weeks, their offenses look great. You could say, oh
you want about the bad competition, but Eli Manning really

(28:13):
played well against the Niners who played well last week.
Pat Shermers dialed him up that he has a pretty
good feel now for the offensive took him a little
bit of time, but he's doing a good job there
and sa Kwan Barkley unbelievable last week. So they've got
it going on here. And now in the first game
where the Eagles beat the Giants pretty badly the Meadowlands,
I would say this Kwon Barkley destroyed the Eagles. That

(28:36):
was the first game that the Eagles really struggled against
the running back. And now they've got some injury has
been They're middle linebacker During Hicks won't play with a
calf strain. So this really sets up well here for
the Giants to hang in and possibly steal one in Philly.
That team that Philly lost to over the weekend, New Orleans.
Is there any slow in this team down because they
beat the Rams at the super Dome, you think maybe

(28:57):
they have a drop off dominate against the Bengals, do
manate against the Eagles and they're rolling into tomorrow night. Yeah,
I don't. I don't see it. I think not only
we headed for a realistic chance of seeing the Saints
and Rams meet in the NFC Championship game. I think
that when you really look at it, I mean, the
Eagles were certainly very good last season and made the

(29:18):
Super Bowl and won it and in one of the
best Super Bowls we've ever seen. But I did not
know the same defense, and they their first game of
the season wasn't very good. But they've really turned around.
Down to Salon doing a great job again. He should
be on the head coaching lists come January. Uh, he's
a decordiner, has done a really good job. I don't
know if that anyone could sell them down because when
you when you watch and and and also read that

(29:40):
article that Peter King wrote for Embassy sports dot com
and and Sean Payton gave him great accel excess last
week to see what the game plan would be against
the Eagles. It's really incredible detail there. I just don't
think the way that Sham Payne's calling plays now, I
don't think there's any way because you know, defenses are
at a disadvantage anyway because the rules and the spacing,
and I just think Sean Payton is in the league

(30:02):
of his own as a play caller right now. Black
Sports Radio Jason Spitz Show with Mike Carmen Aaron Torres
in for Jason Smith this evening on the Hotline with
us hears x M, NFL Radio, NFL Inside, or our
buddy Adam Kaplan. You can find him on Twitter at
Kaplan NFL and find out all his latest greatest tweets
as well as where you can find him over the
course of the week. And had him staying in that
game for a moment. Remember when the Atlanta Falcons were

(30:24):
one of the NFC favorites and now they're a two
touchdown underdog, showing how different uh, and this league starts
to separate as the season rolls on. Oh, look, they
played a tough game in Philly. Then they suffered a
spade of injuries on defense. Matt ryan'squote off lately. Uh,
they lost Devantie Freeman obviously, who could maybe at the
earliest return in Week sixteen. But yeah, they they they

(30:47):
had a nice three game winning streak, but they've fallen
off here. Dion Jones will not play their middle linebacker
though they they took him off i R two weeks ago.
He's not going to play that. That's a problem because
the way that mark Ingram has been running the football
the last two weeks and Shampaigne's been dialing up everything
with the running backs with Kamara I don't see. I mean,
I totally get it. The Saints are the Vegas favorite. Now,

(31:07):
I mean they're gonna I would I expect most weeks
they're gonna be high single digit or certainly into double
digits against weaker opponents. Earlier today, Jamis Winston kind of
made some commentary just about how basically he readily admitted
that the Bucks don't seem to be ready to commit
to him long term, which frankly, I think is pretty understandable. Uh,

(31:28):
what what happens with this organization going forward? Just because
it's one of those deals it feels like everybody in
the league has their guy, and Tampa Bay is obviously
turning in the wrong direction that way. As much as
you know from my talks with the Bucks, as much
as they like Jamis, the last off the field issue
where he wasn't totally telling the truth, I think that
that bothered some people. Um they've stood by him every

(31:50):
step of the way, UM, their front office and their
coach of staff, and he's disappointed them. Um, there's no
question about it. Then he comes off to suspension. Uh,
and then you know he's been benched at least once
that we know of. You could say it's been twice,
but the fact the matter is, um they don't know
who their quarterback is going to be, and they have
a decision to make on his contract. If he's on

(32:11):
the roster in the middle of March, his base salary
for over twenty million becomes fully guaranteed. It's guaranteed for
injury right now. And you know, when they roll their
fifth year option over, they thought he'd be their future quarterback.
But you know, the Bucks have been very quiet about it.
And also we have to see it would be any
changes you come January with the coaching staff because that

(32:32):
that's that's the one A lot of people in the
league has been talking about what will happen there, and
we don't want anyone to be fired. We want Dirk
Cutter to keep his job. But when you don't make
the playoffs, and you know, they spent a lot of
money in free agency, they're gonna be certainly, they're certainly
gonna be questions come January if they don't get this
turn around and they'll play going forward with out O J.
Howard More Cameron brad For you fantasy owners out there, right,
ADM Well, yeah, see it's funny Jamis told me I

(32:54):
remember talking to him, actually more than once about bread.
He loves them. Their chemistry has been incredible. Um Brate
signed a big contract earlier this year and this it's
incredible though. Two weeks ago at home against the Redskins
that they throw for over four in our yards but
only have three points, even when you say, you know, yes,
they have numbers. Wise, they have one of the best

(33:16):
passing offenses. But man, everything that's just going wrong with
his football team. It's really disappointing. A lot of people
thought they would be pushing for a wild card spot
this season, but that's certainly not going to happen. We'll
see how the final weeks play out for Jamis Winston.
He's Adam Kaplan Sirius x M, NFL Radio, NFL Insider.
Follow him on Twitter at Kaplan NFL. As we roll

(33:36):
through Week twelve, Adam is always buddy, Thanks so much.
Have a good holiday. Okay you two guys, Thanks Thanks
Adam uh Adam Caplan with us here Fox Sports Radio
my Carmen Aaron Torres in for Jason Smith. Has we
come to you from the Geico Studios. Coming up next,
we'll break down that early morning game, all the love
for Chase Daniel, and we'll tell you how the Lakers
and Cavaliers finished off to night. That's next on Fox.

(34:00):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart
Radio lap Fox Sports Radio. Getting the beat going as
you're out and about ready for the holiday weekend. We
appreciate you taking a few minutes with us at Jason
Smith Show with Mike Harmon. Here for the Geico Studios

(34:21):
Aaron Torres in for Jason Smith tonight. There it will
be with me for the rest of the week. Will
be eating turkey and the side dishes and watching football
and breaking it down tomorrow and then breaking down more
football and more college basketball, more NBA on Friday, taking
you into your holiday weekend, uh and all your look,
We're we're the best Black Friday deal You're gonna get,

(34:43):
oh four hours of brilliant I like Hill her to post,
no question about it now top date at the NBA,
right quick, Aaron. The Lakers came back and won the
game at Cleveland one O nine, one O five. Lebron
thirty and seven. We will get or to that guy's
pretty good. Yeah he does. Okay, right, we'll get into

(35:05):
that in full income in ten minutes from now, and
then Eric Pinkas will join us. Uh NBA describe to
get into that in the nbas all as well. We've
got the thunder and Warriors early first quarter eight six
Oklahoma City. We'll see if we can get Kevin Durant
to either yell at anybody for he and Draymond Green

(35:26):
to come to blows. Torres and I are trying to
figure out how we can get to a mole positioned
inside the stadium near the baseline to see if we
can't make that happen. We could We could just taunt
him by saying, you don't even like Jason Jason Smith
and Mike Harmon or something something like that. Somebody hate us.
Oh no, he I'm sure he knows what we've said
about the show. Like he's got rabbit ears. Like if

(35:48):
Lebron James is sensitive and I think we can agree
that he's sensitive to criticism Kevin Durant that that's where
we start going to factorials and we go exponential. Right,
this is Ron James when I rolled my eyes. It
wasn't at you. It was Kevin Durant being super lame
and I'm not afraid to say it. And when that
thing came out the other night, and I know that

(36:09):
you guys probably talked about it with the when he
was swearing at the fans. Look, you know, real quick,
I know we gotta get some football here, But what
where do you stand on the fan player interaction? Because
to me, if the fan doesn't come into the court
of play, if they don't throw something at you, I
think they have a right to say whatever they want.

(36:30):
And you're the highly paid millionaire slash entertainer, I think
you gotta keep your mouth shut. I know a lot
of people disagree, but that's where I stand on it.
For me, it becomes unless he's going after you know,
his family or spewing profanity, and we're you know, making
it an uncomfortable environment in that regard, because look, there
is stuff on your ticket and you know the agreement

(36:53):
that you come in and you're not harassing and whateverlse
but literally is going on a cupcake, like if that's
the thing that's gonna get you to walk up? I mean,
and the fact that the NBA, and I made this
point yesterday. If they only find him twenty five dollars,
you can go and be menacing towards a paying fan
and more or less threaten him and then five. Whereas

(37:14):
if you punt the basketball into the crowd because you're
mad you lost, you're basically looking at a similar Fine. Yeah,
it's just an asinine when I know, obviously superstar rules
and everything else, but Kevin Durant, just time and time again,
we're seeing that. Look, people are going to take their shot.
You're the second best basketball player in the game. That's

(37:34):
where you're at right now. And for some they'll argue
that he's Eclipse the Lebron for the moment, let's just
say he's on the metal stand, and if you want
to reorder him, have at it. You know you want
to take your little Lego figures or McFarland figures and
change how they situate. I don't much care. The fact is,
with great power you go to the Spider Man. You know,
we commemorated and the life of stan Lee is passing

(37:57):
this past week. The Spider Man. With great power and
great adulation comes great responsibility. Get over it. I mean,
you wore the cupcakes shirt is part of your celebration,
and now someone says it again and you're gonna be
all mad and angry, like take it out with Draymond
if you need to fight someone. Don't fight Draymond and
be done with it, and don't get your ass kicked

(38:18):
bike Draymond and then come back and talk to me.
There you go. No, I totally feel that way. And
that's the other thing too. Is beyond just the fact
that it was just out online to call with the
fans like that. The other thing is Katie fake tough
guy in front of the fan as if anything is
going to happen. But then God forbid, a reporter asked
him about the interaction that led to his teammate being suspended,

(38:38):
and don't ask me that question again. Don't ask me
that question. Really, I mean, that's that's kind of our
that's kind of our job. When at Mark Medina, we
were really hoping for a Spartacus moment that the next
guy would say ask the same question and they you know,
get the clown question or whatever Katie would say, or
he'd get up to leave. He could bowling Lebron James
where you're short and then put your bag on and

(38:59):
walk out. There's a lot of moves you can do.
Let's get into the NFL right quick. The Detroit Lions,
Chicago Bears, live Ford Field. This starts at nine thirty
Pacific at your fantasy picks in early. For this one,
there will be no Mitchell Trabisky shoulder injury. We talked
a little bit about the schedule with Adam Kaplan, a
an unfortunate convergence of things when you looking at the

(39:22):
Thanksgiving schedule and flexing to Sunday night, and of course
you want to see the Bears and Vikings. That's great,
but now it's Chase Daniel familiarity with this coaching staff.
I don't know that they pull the reins back quite
so much because I think there's opportunities for big plays there.
Detroit has no carry On Johnson, no Marvin Jones, and
they've been erratic and certainly still trying to find that

(39:43):
missing piece. After trading Golden Tape, he got more theo Rittic,
but it still hasn't been that efficient and offense with
Matthew Stafford. No, I totally agree. That's been a point
that I've hammered home on my Saturday night show is
you'll I think they lost a little bit of the
locker room from a mental tactical standpoint when you get
rid of Golden Tate. I do worry about the short

(40:05):
turnaround for Chicago, though, I worry about the by the
way Lions at four and six, they're kind of sword
in the wild card picture. I think we get a
good performance from them tomorrow against the Bears. I'm gonna
call for the Bears defense. This is not Chicago Homerism,
but we've seen the offensive line play for the Lions
has been absolutely atrocious to little mac Hicks. They'll be

(40:25):
feasting on the morning. They'll get the Golden Gobbler or
whatever award that we can get. Maybe we can send
him a pie. I'm not sure Aaron will find something.
But you saw Matthew Stafford a couple of weeks ago
on his backside what ten times officially, and then another
fifteen hits or thereabouts in the game. I just don't
think offensively that line holds up. Bears minus four and

(40:47):
a half take Chicago on the road in the short week.
We'll get into the other games of Thursday. As the
show rolls on, Curious Uh, we'll talk more of Washington, Dallas, Atlanta,
New Orleans. New Orleans a fourteen point favorite against what
was a presumptive Super Bowl contender to start the season.
But we'll get more into Lebron James. The Night that

(41:07):
Was The King returns to Cleveland. Coming up next here
a Fox Sports Radio locked and loaded our two of
the program. Come on in if you will. The Jason
Spits Young with Mike rm in here from The Guy
Goes Studios. Aaron Torres in for Jason Smith tonight, working
on his formations for a Y s O soccer while

(41:28):
eating giant turkey legs as if he's at a Renaissance fair.
At least that's how I imagine it is. He that
big into coaching. I had no idea. You know, it's
obsessive and it's frightening. You just look at Frostberg's face,
in Ty Shirt's face, yes, shaking his head. The number
of tales that we've had about coaching exploits and the
political games being played. No, it's like I've only been

(41:51):
exposed to someone. I don't coach my kid's team, but
I hear all about it. It's uh, it's a whole
other World Man. So Jason is the coach. Yeah, I
feel like he's been thrown out of at least like
three games. I wouldn't be surprised he's been exiled. I
mean the way that you know he he and and
I love him, But the way he runs his mouth.
I mean, he talks for a living, and even for

(42:13):
someone who talks for a living, he talks a lot.
And I could just see him kind of that Jim
Calhoun just pacing the sidelines, hand behind his back, just chirp,
chirping until he says something that crosses the line. I
could see that. I have no doubt that that's happened.
I've thought occasionally of maybe I'd go watch a game
and hatch and then I thought I got a better

(42:34):
things to do with my time. That would be not
in the top one thousand of things. No, no offense
to his daughter and her teammates. I'm not I'm not
spending any part of my Saturday. I could also feel
like he'd pull a Katie and just start yelling at
people in the stands. I could see that, Yeah, we
certainly have Well we've experienced some of that, haven't we thought?
Tyser just laughs like Yeah, it's a nily thing. And

(42:56):
then you guys decide how much we allow that to
fester over the course of the evening. We're watching some
NBA action. Now, Oklahoma City eighteen sixteen lead over Golden
State with about two minutes left here in the first quarter.
No Draymond Green. Third straight game that he has missed.
Remember he showed up for that Clipper game and really
had missed time before. That hasn't really been around before since, right,

(43:19):
So it's just he popped up, caused some problems, and
now he's back in a suit on the sideline. So
we'll keep an eye on that game as it rolls.
But tonight was all about Lebron James and the Lakers
against the Cavaliers. The return of the King was the
headline put all across the sporting universe, and the Cavaliers

(43:41):
fans remember the first time, the burning of jerseys and
all that nonsense when he left, like you spent a
hundred bucks, figure out someone to get to get a
double sawbuck for it, and go buy yourself a couple
of beers to drown your sorrows. Go burn the thing.
But he comes back home and then after winning a title,
and leading them to a bunch of Envy A Finals appearances.
He leaves again so upon arriving here with his Laker teammates,

(44:05):
and to how would the crowd respond? And forward from St.
Fencin St. Mary High School, Welcome home three Milebrawn sees
two overwhelmingly positive. I told you, Michael, you were right.

(44:26):
I did not hear one boom. Yeah, there had to
be a guy back there. You say boo earns n. No,
I swear, I said Lebron it was kidding. But by
the way I'm looking at the box score right now,
doesn't this kind of prove while Lebron left, I mean
a Lonzo fifteen seven and six, Ingram fourteen points, Kuzma

(44:49):
twelve points. I know he wanted to get to l
A for all the off the court opportunities and to
to kind of begin his post basketball career, but there
were actual Basq Your Bowl reasons too for him to
come to l A. And it looks that much smarter
after he gets the winning Cleveland well, bit by bit,
as you look at what that Cleveland roster is, and
as we talked about in the first hour of the

(45:09):
show tonight, errand I mean part of it his doing
the roster that he wanted those veteran players that stick
around now Cleveland O j R. Smith. I was really
sad to not see him on the court tonight. We
celebrate his entire catalog here on the shows. You know, yeah,
though there's a lot of stuff, uh, legacy of j R. Smith,
but not part of the squad. No channing cry. He
didn't play. You're you're looking at decent balance. Clarkson had

(45:33):
twenty six of eighteen though from the field, and that's
the thing you circle in terms of one game is
that the Cavaliers shot thirty eight percent from the field
and still had this to the final minute of the
game where the Lakers went on a big run towards
the end of the game to finish things off. Calves
lad much of the way, but Lebron James finishing with

(45:55):
thirty two on the night, eleven of twenty from the field,
eight of twelve from the line, fourteen boards, seven assists,
and at times took over. You mentioned a Lonzo ball.
We were watching the game here in the Geico studios,
uh as we were waiting for the show to begin,
and there was about a four minute stretch that we
might have seen the best ball in and court awareness

(46:16):
that we've seen a Alonzo ball as a professional player.
Just I mean, and obviously playing with Lebron is gonna
ease things up in terms of what your opportunities are
because he is looking to push the ball up the court,
and with all eyes on him, you're gonna have opportunity.
But for Alonzo ball seems like he's at least in
this game today found a stretch where he knew his

(46:37):
role and he accepted that role and and shined, if
only for a little while. Yeah, and I still think.
I know he's had a couple of bad games here
leading into tonight, but I still think long term he's
gonna be a very, very valuable piece, whether it's for
the Lakers if in theory he went somewhere else. There
was obviously all those trade talks coming into the season,
but he's really good at what he does now. I

(47:00):
always thought, and I think you and I discussed a
little bit before we came on air here, it was
I thought completely unfair for Magic Johnson to kind of
put throw the gauntlet down in those opening press conferences
of oh, I expect you to break all my records
and and the pressure that was obviously put on him
by his family, by outside uh people and entities. But
for him to now have Lebron James on his team,

(47:21):
he doesn't have to be the star, he doesn't have
to be the savior of the franchise. And as you said, Mike,
I think he's found a nice little niche and I
think he's gonna continue to get better. We forget, these
guys come into the league at such a young age.
It takes two, three or four years for them to
get their sea legs, and I think he's slowly starting
to do that well. And I think one of the
large things, and we talked about it a lot last year,
Aaron was getting into the league with that hype with

(47:43):
Magic Johnson and the Rafters, the fact that his dad
was running his mouth a mile a minute, like I
thought he was just a p. T. Barnum. I didn't
think it was necessary. I thought he was more destructive
to his other kids like that, and that there's no
there's no defending a lot of those decisions that were
made for the family business. But with Lonzo Ball, it
was just a lot of hot air and a cheerleader

(48:04):
dad on the sideline right, and but Lebron James comes in,
it's a different way of doing things right, It's a
different there's actually you know, you know, the leader of
a team. Last year, you didn't have leaders you had
he had a squad. Luke Walton did his best, got
thirty five wins out of that squad. Give him credit
for what he had, but you didn't have someone to
step up and run that squad. This year, you're looking

(48:27):
at Lebron James coming in. It's obviously his team. He's
gonna mold it as he wants and overtime they'll find
the right combinations and if guys don't fit, We've seen it.
He did it in Cleveland. He's got no problem booting
people to the side. And we've seen the veterans take
on take some pride in what their role is expected
to be. You know, we may not see playoff Rondo

(48:49):
in terms of minutes, but he's actually a mentor and
much more of a team And that's one of the
things that's always curious to watch, right media portrayal and
narratives of a guy versus team teammates and ex teammates.
And no, no, he was the best studier room, and
he was the guy that was in the film, So
there's a lot there. It's just a question of do
you get along with him well enough, do you ask

(49:11):
the right questions? Are you availing yourself to him as
much as he to you to get some of that
knowledge passed on. But for Alonzo Ball, he doesn't have
to be the lead guy. Kyle Whosa past him as
a player last year, right at least from the publicity
and where we were in terms of Kuzma's effectiveness and
where he was drafted everything else. So when you come

(49:34):
into this year, plus you had Brandon Inger, you're looking
at the fourth, fourth guy. And that's not even including
all the veterans who get their runs right, yeah, and
a heart obviously getting run now. But just from those
media pagan orders of where they're going for their stories,
Alonzo is not at the top of the list. So
he can go and whatever is going on in his

(49:55):
personal life and drama. You know, there's tabloid places that
will pick that up that's not showing up in the
NBA media. No, totally agree, and I think it's been
good for a Lonzo and somebody who covers college basketball.
I mean that kind of exposure. I mean that had
had been going on for believe it or not, two
three four years before you even got to the Lakers,
dating back to his time at u C. L A,

(50:17):
his time at Chino Hills High School. So I do
think this is kind of a breath of fresh air
for him. He seems to be playing looser. But I'll
say this, man, you know, these guys are are years old.
I think Brandon Ingram just turned one, uh sometime within
the last like month or so, And so we forget
how young these guys are sometimes, and we forget by
the way that they've never had this kind of veteran

(50:42):
presence around them. They were kind of figuring things out
on their own. Now, like you said, Rondo maybe not
always the best leader by example on the court, but
off the court, I know, you guys have all kinds
of NBA people on I talked to people, uh, you know,
and what I do, I really have a respect for
what Rondo does off the court. Obviously, there isn't anybody
maybe in the history of the NBA that prepares better

(51:04):
than Lebron physically, mentally, takes care of his body. I
think this is gonna gonna be a great trickle down
effect for these young guys. And I know it's early.
I know the Lakers haven't been great all year, but
I really think when this team starts to take form
in April and May, they're gonna be a really, really
tough out and a really interesting team come playoffs. Well,
and that's just day when you look at the Western Conference,
and we've talked a lot about it, Jason and I

(51:26):
over the course of well going back to the preseason
and how these teams were constituted even then, was Okay,
this isn't a finished product by any means, and it's
a question of is it two guys, I mean they
already orchestrated that bogus Shenanigans moved by which Tyson Chandler
became a member of the Lakers. The fact that the
league did nothing there once again Adam Silver sitting on

(51:47):
his hands. What does he do? By the way, I
got into this argument with somebody. Everyone thinks he's this great,
this great, you know that, But sometimes the best thing
to do is get out of the way if the
business is growing, and that's exactly what he's doing. But
ratings were down the last couple of years. I haven't
seen this year, but the ratings were down. Uh. Tanking
was uh uh what not? Disparity what's the word parody?

(52:11):
Parody was as bad as it's ever been. I made
this argument Kevin Durant going to the Warriors was the
worst thing that ever happened to NBA, to the NBA,
but Lebron going west was the best thing because now
Toronto has up their game, Now Philly is up their game. Boston,
we know what they're doing. But the point is Adam
Silver had nothing to do with any of this. He
just gets a lot of credit for I don't really

(52:31):
know what he does. Well. They just keep the machine running, right,
as long as the money is still printing. TV ratings aside,
those are gonna ebb and flow. As we talked about
a lot with the NFL, right, Oh, the NFL is dying. No,
the NFL was dying. You have ups and downs, and
they came down from their ridiculous highs and then they
were still the highest rated show in every one of

(52:54):
their their slots going across the board, and they still
kicked the live in But Jesus, out of all of
primetime network programming, I mean, it's still the best the
best thing is live sports in that spot. And you're
seeing the NFL ratings back again. And there's lots of
reasons that people want to attribute. Bottom line is this,

(53:15):
You've got a lot of points being scored and games
coming down to the wire. I mean this week you
had what eleven of the games decided by three points
or fewer. Means people are gonna stick around in the
fourth quarter because it still matters. NBA historically you've had
the when do I show up fourth quarter, I tap in,
I see where it's at, and then I leave. Well,
not only that, but I mean you look at it

(53:36):
the Eastern Conference. Unless you're a die hard, you're not
tuning in to watch Toronto, to watch Philly, maybe Boston.
But the point is not only when do you tune in,
not till the fourth quarter, not till the fourth quarter
of the West Coast game when the Warriors are the
Lakers are playing well now, and that's it, right, as
much as you want to push the Bucks or whomever
else right well by by body Dann buy or my

(53:57):
partner on Sundays. But but the just the idea is
that you have a rising team and You're trying to
give him a push, but the public takes a while
to get that over the top. Aaron torres in for
Jason Smith on Mike Carmen. This is the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmen. Company from the Getico Fox Sports
Radio Studios. Fifteen minutes. Canna save you fift cent or
more on car insurance, so head on over to Geico

(54:18):
dot com get yourself a free rate quote. We continue
to talk NBA. One of our buddies, lead Lakers writer
from Bleacher Report, Eric Pinkus, stops on by what did
he see and what's he's seen from this team thus far?
We give you an update on Fox next Welcome back
in Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen.
Aaron tarres in for Jason Smith to night reminder. We're

(54:40):
brought to you by Discover. Get your free credit scorecard today,
even if you're not a discovered customer and include your
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Learn more at discover dot com. Slash credit scorecard limitations
do apply. Sometimes road trips are a little bit difficult.
Sometimes it takes a little longer to get to your objective.

(55:01):
I want your Lebron James and the Lakers. It doesn't
matter as long as you get the W four point
Laker lead. Here Sexton running straight down the floor gives
it right side to Clarkson. Clarkson's three pointer, No good rebound, KCP.
They're not gonna fail him. And that's it. The Lakers
get out of Cleveland with a victory and finish this

(55:22):
road trip with a record of two and one. Lakers
Radio on the call, and the Lakers get to win
one O nine, one O five. Lebron James thirty two
points on the night, as Calipari once told us, succeed
and proceed erin, let's go out to the hot line,
bringing friend of the show, NBA capologists for Basketball Insiders

(55:46):
NBA TV, and the lead Lakers writer for Bleacher Report,
our buddy, Eric Piccas, following on Twitter at Eric Piccas
didn't have to be pretty, just needed the W right, Eric. Yeah.
You know when you go to Miami and you spend
a couple of days in Miami, the next game after that,
usually you don't do so well because the Miami nightlife,
you know how, it's got a reputation, and it seemed
like the Lakers were a little bit, uh, you know,

(56:08):
a little tired and struggled, and then at some point
they did what championship level teams do. I'm not to
say the Lakers are that, but you're gonna get your
best punch from those teams that are not very good,
and you just got to close them out and last
two or three minutes they turned it on and it's
impressive win. I mean that Miami night life. That's a
tough one. By the way, I was gonna say. I
one time asked Gary Payton the best All Star weekend

(56:30):
he ever had. He said it was Cleveland. So I
want to know what the heck happened there? That has
nothing to do with anything other than that the Lakers
were in Cleveland today. I want to ask you, though,
So Lakers now ten and seven. Lebron whenever he goes
someplace knew they always start slowed. Happened in Miami, happened
his return to Cleveland. What is the buzz inside that
building in terms of where they are right now and

(56:52):
how much further they can get as the season progresses. Well,
for one, you see, the Warriors are not where they're
supposed to be yet, and I guess everyone assumes that
they'll work out their problems with Draymond Green and Kevin
Durant and the Rockets are certain win games, but they're
not where they're supposed to be in it. If you
kind of looked at the season, you know, if you're
even if you're the Lakers, you look at the season,

(57:13):
you say, we're probably fighting to be third behind the
Warriors and the Rockets. Uh. Now it's like, well, you know,
maybe those teams aren't as good and maybe the Lakers
are a little better, and maybe the West is kind
of wide open. So I think they you know, they
had a rough start because as you said, it's it's
always sort of traditionally playing with Lebron James is a

(57:33):
good thing, right, but it doesn't start out where it's
just easy because he demands so much attention. You have
to change the way that you play the game. However
the Lakers played last year is not gonna be the
way you can play this year because last year you
didn't have Lebron James, and losing Ingram to that uh
suspension after the Rockets fight and Rondo, I think sort
of set them back a little bit. So um, they're

(57:54):
they're sort of humming along, and I think the team
is pretty confident in in the direction they're headed. Well,
so only the in season edition came a little bit
earlier than I think we expected, where we get Tyson
Chandler shows up now nineteen minutes of defensive stopper and
a guy you know that you can have that veteran
leadership to uh, not that they didn't add veterans, but

(58:14):
perhaps not as volatile as the other veterans that they'd
added the season. Eric Well, you know, JaVale McGee has a,
you know, a reputation for being kind of um, I
don't know, like you know, he's the shacks and the
full guy, and he came into this league with just tremendous,
tremendous athletic potential, which he still has. But he went

(58:35):
to the Wizards and it was like a bad time
for the Wizards. They would he had like Gilbert Arenas
and uh Nick Young and it was kind of like
a ridiculous team, ridiculous situation. They were going through coaches,
and his career didn't really go as well as he
had hoped. He got hurt a little bit. He went
to Denver and there were moments of explosive, you know,
Javail being Javail, but they would also be these ridiculous

(58:57):
mistakes that he would make. But he's matured a lot,
spent two years with the Warriors, winning winning championships, and
he's been absolutely phenomenal for the Lakers team. I mean,
they are not anywhere close to what they are at
ten and seven without Javail. And then Rondo has a
big personality, no question, but he his goal, one of
his goals is to be a coach, and he's really

(59:18):
taking it seriously. So they've got somebody who is in
the video room with the young guys teaching. So as
far as big personalities, yeah, Lance Stevenson he's that too,
and Luke Wallum's using him really well. When Lance is cooking,
they let him go to work and when he's dribbling
behind his back and dancing around and shooting up an
airball and he sits his butt on the bench. Only

(59:41):
the only one who isn't really fitting yet on the
court is Michael Beasley. But yeah know, Tyson doesn't. Tyson
channel has been great. He doesn't have that same big personality.
But man, what I mean that was a huge gift
for them that they didn't have a backup center and
now they can run real centers for forty eight minutes,
or if they want to go small, they can go
small instead of only being able to go sma all.
It's a big difference. Alonzo ball really good nights and

(01:00:03):
night fifteen point seven board, six assists. He's obviously been
up and down a little bit this year, but how
do you see him kind of growing into the role
where he doesn't have to be the face of the
franchise as opposed to a guy that just contributes every
single night. But what's that number two pick? There's sort
of something you attached to you that you're supposed to be.
Uh And as people usually think scoring and they think, oh,

(01:00:26):
you've got to be this. You know, he's got an
average twenty points a game. He's and that that's something
that like Magic put on Brandon Ingram last year. He
wanted Ingram he would be disappointed if he's not game score, etcetera.
That that's just not who Lonzo is. And if you
watched him, U c l A. I'm a bruin. Of
course I watched him. That's not what he was there
And certainly you could score a lot, But the magic
of who he is is that he helps the game

(01:00:48):
in just about every area. He's a much better defender
than I ever expected in the NBA. He's got great hands,
he's got great anticipation, great at deflections. Uh. He accelerates
the team. Just putting him on the team, the team
plays faster. Uh. There was a late game play here
where they look like they were doing what they've been doing,
which is a boring isolation play for Lebron and out

(01:01:12):
on the perimeter, and and he's been settling sometimes for
these late three's. Instead he passed the ball to Alonzo.
Alonso gave a quick pass to McGee and they got
the basket. So Lakers are improving and Alonso is a
big part of that. But the thing is is that
Alonzo is so just chill. It doesn't matter what's going on.
He just doesn't have a lot of personality that comes out,
and so he just doesn't look like he cares. And

(01:01:35):
that was something that people felt it at times as
U c l A. But um, he's just never gonna
be this big demonstrative guy. But if he can keep
his motor up, because sometimes he sort of disappears a
little bit, and that energy kind of isn't there. As
long as that energy is there and he shoots a
decent percentage from outside, he's going to help this team.

(01:01:55):
Black Sports Radio Jason Spit Show with Mike Armin Aaron
Torres in for Jason's fifth as we come to you
from the Geico Studios, I'm a hotline with us capologist
for Basketball Insiders, NBA TV. Lead Lakers rider for Bleacher Report,
Eric Pacas joins us on the hotline at Eric Piccas
on Twitter as you can follow his latest Eric, if
I can step outside the Lakers for a moment, one

(01:02:16):
of the other big NBA stories, uh, the Washington Wizards
and disharmony and anger and vitriol. H do the cap
hits that would a team would undertake prohibit the potential
for a deal of either Wall or Beal here Well,
I wrote on this about I don't know, almost two
weeks ago actually on Bleacher Report. It's kind of come

(01:02:37):
to head since there's an issue with John Wall. John
Wall is making a ridiculous amount of money. He's getting
this designated what they called the supermass retention, and he
has acent trade bonus. So if he's traded now he
can waive that. But if you're John Wall, why why right?

(01:02:58):
So the us is that a trade bonus can't pay
you more than the maximum salary. And he's not making
the maximum this year. Next year he is because it
was supermax. So if they trade John Wall and they
wait till July, that trade bonus doesn't apply anymore because
he's making over the max. So the trade bonuses zero
versus now where it's like twenty ish million, which is

(01:03:19):
you know, zero slashes million. I'm thinking most teams, including
the Wizards, they gonna prefer zero, right, I mean right, yeah,
So I think that's kind of the delay. And now
now it's it's certainly possible that John Wall is unhappy
where he wants to be and he has an opportunity
to go somewhere else, so much so that he'd be

(01:03:40):
willing to waive that. I mean maybe so, um, I
don't know. But in the case of Beal, no, he
he makes million roughly a year, and I think at
the age of that's a reasonable number. It's a solid contract,
and if they really put him on the block, I
think they would get good offers. I think you can

(01:04:00):
certainly argue. I don't know if I even agree with
it that the Lakers should make a run at him.
But given that they have all this cat money next year,
if they were to make a run at Bradley Beale
now would probably get in the way of the making
the run at someone like Kevin Durant later. And I
don't know if Magic Johnson is willing to give up
on that last one. For me, again, a little bit
off the Lakers here, I'm just curious for your take

(01:04:21):
on the latest on Mark ll Faults athletic reporting tonight
that it may be a risk now and that he
may be looking for a fresh start somewhere else. Yeah,
there's something missing from this puzzle, and it's going back
to last year. I mean the shoulder injury. The the
Sixers are basically acted or said that they don't really

(01:04:43):
know that he's hurt. Uh, they didn't know about this
risk injury. They didn't know he Somewhere along the line
is the communication between MARKL. Faults and his people. It's
just not in sync with the Sixers. And I don't
know what's going on with Philadelphia with their situation, but man,
every time they draft the first round pick, you lose
them bead for a year, you lose Simmons. Uh with it?

(01:05:06):
Tyree Thomas is is that the one who they lost her?
Maybe getting him confused with someone else on Detroit, But
basically they lose a rookie every year. Something isn't right
with false and I hope they figured it out because
if you watch, just go YouTube or look up, you know,
google Marquel Folks free throw and look at that. I
don't know what the heck is going on there. I

(01:05:28):
just was practicing practicing free throws with my daughter who's eleven,
and she shoots way better than that guy in her
hands about four or five times before she put it
up or no, no, she she can shoot, but man,
she's got I don't know what he's doing over there,
and I think he needs some time off. I think
he needs a new start. I think he needs to
be in a place where they've got coaches that are

(01:05:49):
used to coaching young players who can fail on the
floor without any expectation. He needs to like he was
in I don't know, Cleveland right now, Atlanta, somewhere where
he can go and be a young kid and learn
how to play with a lot of minutes and no pressure.
I think that's what's needed to kind of break them
out of whatever this is going on. Well in the interim,
will send you to break the voodoo going on there

(01:06:10):
in Philadelphia. Our buddy Eric Pacas, lead Lakers writer from
Bleacher Report, Capologists, Basketball Insiders, NBA TV at Eric Pinkasa Twitter, Eric, Happy,
Thanksgiving to you. Thanks for taking some time with us tonight.
He got happy. Thanks appreciate everybody. Good stuff. We will
continue talking Marquelle Foltz and the demons that have taken

(01:06:31):
over there in Philadelphia. Lots to unwrap there, but first
we're gonna step out to Deb Carson get an update
on the NBA action on this Thanksgiving Eve, debb Well, guys,
after losing three straight in Texas, the Golden State Warriors
not faring much better now that they're back at home
Oklahoma City. With a fifty to thirty seven lead over
the Warriors with about four minutes to go in the

(01:06:51):
second quarter. It's just gone final at Salt Lake City
Kings with a one win over Utah. Lebron James and
the Lakers were at Cleveland. Lebron three assists, shy of
a triple double as the Lakers beat the Cavaliers one
oh nine one oh five in Wednesday's NHL Discover Card
key matchup New York yank New York Rangers. I should

(01:07:13):
say shut out the Islanders five zip underway now. The
Avalanche lead the King's to one late first period at
Staples Center, Ducks have a two one edge on the
visiting Vancouver Canucks late second period at Hottess Center, and
the Flames are ripping the Jets five one s to
go second period in Calgary. Now, speaking of matchups, become
a new Card member and Discover Card will match all

(01:07:33):
the cash back you've earned dollar for dollar at the
end of your first year. Learn more at Discover dot com.
Slash match limitations apply. A couple of notes regarding tomorrow's
NFL games. Cowboys have ruled out receiver Tavon Austin and
linebacker Shawn Lee for the matchup against the Redskins. Colt
McCoy will start for Washington quarterback after Alex Smith's gruesome

(01:07:54):
leg injury last week. There's officially listed quarterback Mitchell Trabinsky
is doubtful for Thursday's game against the Lions. It's expected
to be Chase Daniel starting at quarterback and uh the
Lions have ruled out receiver Marvin Jones and running back
carry On Johnson. Quick note regarding the Falcon Saints game,
Atlanta has ruled out linebacker Dion Jones for the matchup.

(01:08:15):
Thanks de appreciate your comedy Alive. From the Geico Fox
Sports Radio Studios. It's easy to say fifty per cent
or more on car insurance with Geico So good Geico
dot Com call it under nine four seven Auto Hilly
Harpark figuring out which way is easier. Mike Garmon alongside
Aaron Torres. This is the Jason Smith Show with Mike
Carmen on Fox Sports Radio Company. From the Geico Studios.

(01:08:35):
We're watching the Auburn game going on here right Auburn Arizona.
Bill Walton and Jason Bennetti on the call, living their
best life. Jason Bonetti the voice of the Chicago White Sox,
so I love watching him get after it. He and
and anybody gets to work with Bill Walton. It's in
education on broadcasting, as we've chronicled through the years here. Jason,

(01:09:00):
I was just thinking when I was watching the game
the other night, I mean it's obvious that Bill Wallon
says some stuff that that no one else could say,
But I mean, he really says some stuff that nobody
else can say. Um, let's just say the other night
I was watching he was talking about whale breeding habits
in Hawaii, which was very educational, and then he kind

(01:09:20):
of started talking about his own breeding habits on air,
which I will People can look up the quote if
they want to. But the point is is that this
man says some truly insane things. And we live in
a world where we have to talk for three in
your case, four hours a night. But the things that
he gets away with our unbelievable. Well, there's certain things
you know, FCC compliancy and uh fear uh for our jobs.

(01:09:46):
Our livelihoods are families up. Bill Walton's lived a nice
long life, made a lot of money both as a
broadcaster and as a pro basketball player. He's also been
to the depths of hell with his health, as he's
chronicled through the years, and so now living his best life,
getting the broadcast again, feeling better, right the backs, feeling better,
and he gives us gems like this, I have milked

(01:10:08):
the cow before, and I have been mild. You like
that laws pause, Right, he's there you go now. The
other night he um he was talking about the breeding

(01:10:29):
patterns of a of a male you know, of the
of the whales in the harbor in Hawaii, and you
know he's talking about, yeah, they only they only breed
once every however many months. He goes, you know, me,
I like to breed year round. And I was like,
could you imagine like Kirk Herb Street saying, or like
Joel Klatt saying that in the middle of a football
broadcaster Troy Aikman like, I mean, I I know, I

(01:10:52):
know he's Bill Walton. And as Harmon said, he kind
of because of his wealth due to his playing days,
he can kind of get away with some stuff. He
works for ESPN because he wants to, not because he
has to. But man, oh man, does he say some
crazy Well, like you said, though, I mean, you live
in the best life if you've been to the depths,
and I mean he's crossing that that. You know, you're
just saying, I'm happy that I've got another day, I

(01:11:13):
get to go broadcast. I'm hanging out in Hawaii. We've
seen him in canoes and doing all sorts of crazy stuff.
We've gotten some great sound drops through the years because
of it. I can't wait to see when all of
those other broadcasters get to that point Jason and I
on a given night, I mean, there's at least fifteen
to twenty drop worthy comments like that shirt will tell
you that sometimes you know, they might get towards a line.

(01:11:36):
I mean, Alex, do you have any examples of Jason
or I perhaps going to a Bill Walton like line,
you know, where where as Aaron says, I don't know
that the other guys would say that or get away
with it, but something like Jason or or you got
that that was Jason? Yeah, wow, that's that's that's the

(01:11:57):
youth soccer coach. He's this is the man that is
impacting the future of America a huge boner. Ye listen,
he's coaching children, is there? No? You know, Draymond Green
doesn't put his thing on real tight and the thing
falls out and there you have him. I mean, there's
a hat trick right there, and he's just getting warmed up.

(01:12:19):
I mean, the the number we got a gigabyte between
Jason drops and and some from mine as you roll through.
But you know, sometimes it gets a little fast and loose,
and in the first one he was quoting Mike Tomlin
and getting doing a dramatic reenactment of a Mike Tomlin. Okay, so,
so is it a firable offense if you're just re
quoting someone else. No, it's not well, I mean it's

(01:12:41):
not fireble. I mean that was not non FCC compliant.
I mean, that wasn't something that was just so over
the top that would get us get us fired. I mean,
you might hit the dump button. I mean, Frostberg might
get a little angry. He might call us liars, like
last night was the show of record of calling everyone
a liar. You came up with a theory about anything

(01:13:02):
you were lying between guests, between Jason myself, ty Shirt.
It became a very interesting proposition. Coming up next, we'll
get into Marquel, folks, We'll get into the shot doctor
that's needed, the exorcism, whatever it is. As this former
topic struggles, and let's face it, the newest teammate there
in Philadelphia not exactly a fan of trying to bring

(01:13:25):
young players along who aren't on their game. Perhaps that
contributes to what we're going to talk about next. Aara
Torres it for Jason Smith Jameson Smith Show with Mike
Carmen here on Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harman
weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific, brought to
you by Progressive Insurance. We'll compare rates for you so

(01:13:48):
you get a great deal even if it's not with
us saving you time and money. Now that's Progressive Caller
Click today. Greetings, Welcome back in The Jason Smith Show
with Mike Carmen. Coming to you from the Getic Studios.
Aaron Torres in for Jason Smith tonight. Smith off gluttonizing,
perhaps building his grid for the A Y s O playoffs,

(01:14:11):
watching tape, breaking down, breaking down film. I know he's
got his moles out there. He's been battling the powers
that be either way off for the rest of the week.
Eron Torres will be in with me. Uh college basketball
on the horizon over the course of the next few days.
We've got some big matchups. We had a huge one
earlier tonight. We talked about it near the top of
the show where you have Duke and Gonzaga Duke that

(01:14:35):
everybody wanted to play an exhibition game against the Cavaliers
or an undetermined NBA team to say, look how good they're. Well,
they lost to the Zac and the Zags get it
done despite missing eight free throws, four in the final minute,
seventeen two point victory. We'll get into that game and
all of the college world a little bit more as
the show goes on. We've got Lebron James and about

(01:14:57):
twelve minutes we'll hear from him after the one oh
nine oh five victory by the Lakers over the Cavaliers
and James's returned to Cleveland. But one story that has
really been kind of spiraling in the NBA. Uh, And
we'll get into the Warriors because well that's the other
one is Mark hell Foltz and his future in Philadelphia.

(01:15:17):
Obviously well chronicled the shot problems that he's had, both
from the field and recently from the free throw line.
I don't know that there's a sports fan that follows
things tangentially and and just occasionally that hasn't seen the
double clutch footage used as a meme in some other
capacity in their lives. Uh. Difficult proposition. You look at

(01:15:38):
him over his career right now, shooting uh not the
breakdown and and the returns of a player so heralded
coming out of college, whether it's the hype should have
been real or imagined. There were a lot of games
where his team got boat raced, put up some empty statuets. Right.
We talked about coaches at times, at least I do,

(01:16:01):
being an empty suit where they have no no business
and it's the superstar running things as you go through
and and they're rolling out the ball. Uh. In this
particular case, you had folds at times where the statuet Uh.
Folks going box score reading like you do in an
NFL game if you don't watch how a game plays out.
You look at the final box where he says the
guy through for three yards and and you know, two touchdowns,

(01:16:24):
two picks you might get there, right? Look at you,
you and you and Rob Parker conspiring to blow my mind.
We'll watch a little bit of Matt Stafford tomorrow as
the Lions host the bear Bears. But you look at
Marquelle Foults. Now there's the discussion, often an article from
the Athletic talking about injuries and risk injuries that might

(01:16:46):
be a cause of this and and keeping him out
and he's withdrawn from the team. He's gonna go see
specialists not affiliated with the team. There's there's just a
lot of layers here. And as it it turns out,
when Jimmy butt arrived in Philadelphia, that was the one
thing I was concerned, and I didn't think it would
happen quite this quickly, but that there'd be potential for

(01:17:08):
Mark elle Folds to be lost and he was already
struggling on the court. But Jimmy Butler having gone after
the young players Wiggins and Karl Anthony Towns in terms
of work ethic on the practice court and everything else
in Minnesota before departing that perhaps you'd have another problem
here with markul Folds in his preparation and where he

(01:17:29):
is mentally that bringing Jimmy Butler in might not be
the thing to help that cure That. Totally agree, And
I've been saying this since Folts was at Washington. You know,
my my kind of personal theory on this is that, look,
this was a kid that he uh kind of blew
up really late during his high school career, really wasn't
a known entity until probably the middle to the end

(01:17:50):
of his junior year. I mean, this wasn't a kid
that was identified at twelve thirteen years old as can't miss,
and so spotlight came on him late. And then, as
you mentioned Mike, when he got to Washington, it felt
like everybody was going on their way to to make
excuses for him. And I'm a guy, you know, I
cover college basketball, I cover the NBA draft. I felt
like I was on an island. I was the only

(01:18:11):
one willing to call out Mark. Help. But well, everyone's, oh,
he doesn't have the right teammates, he doesn't do this.
He wasn't good at Washington, So I think he was
kind of hidden from that criticism, from the media spotlight.
He gets to the NBA, he has struggles. It's a
little physical, it's now become a lot mental. And when
I hear now he's going to a shoulder specialist. Now

(01:18:33):
he's saying his wrist is a problem. He wants to
be traded. This is a guy to me that I
don't think he's comfortable with the criticism, comfortable with the spotlight. Uh.
And it's showing right now with him and in the
latest report, well, the fresh start, as you allude to,
that's part of the athletic articles that unnamed sources saying
perhaps he'd like a fresh start and that would be
the thing to cure all else. When you go to

(01:18:54):
Philadelphia and you're a top pick, as we were talking
about a little bit with Eric finkas is, they've had
so any problems and though some of those players became stars,
yet in Philadelphia somewhere else. You look at Joel Embiid,
you look at the injuries in the history, so the
expectation was, all right, what's gonna happen to this guy, Well,
he's the next in the line. No. But the other
thing too, with folks specifically, that's got to be weighing

(01:19:15):
on him. The guys that were drafted after him are
playing well. Jayson Tatum is an emerging superstar. We talked
about Alonzo. He's had his ups and downs, but I mean,
this was a guy that had a couple of triple
doubles last year. I know folks had one triple double.
So but but Dennis Smith is playing well, Dearon Fox
is playing well. Obviously, Donovan Mitchell, I think all of
this is weighing on him. And he's a guy by
the way that probably to his own detriment. It seems

(01:19:38):
pretty clear, spends time on social media, sends a lot
of kind of subtle messages out on his Twitter and
his Instagram. This guy just needs to get away from
social media. And I don't know that a fresh start's
gonna save him. I think he just needs to kind
of get out of his own head and get back
to just playing basketball well now. And that's the largest
largest part of this, right, is that you did have
the comparisons to all of that draft class, it's particularly

(01:20:00):
Anzo is the one that that stands out. And as
we we've chronicled over the course of the last couple
of weeks, you've had two or three great games from
a Lonzo. He had a great spot tonight seven. But
that's the thing is that you can at least say
there's a roller coaster to be on here. It's just
been an absolute free fall from Markuell Foults. You saw
maybe a couple of glimpses last year. You mentioned the

(01:20:21):
triple double game, and there there were times where like,
all right, maybe he's gonna finally become one that's willing
to shoot and that and that goes back to look
at his teammate Jimmy Butler. How long before he goes
after Ben Simmons for not wanting to shoot and just
being a body. And he's a you know, a great decoy,
but if he's not in the flow, you know, you
could set him up for open shots all day long.

(01:20:43):
He's not willing to take, forget the three pointers, He's
not willing to take anything that is a potential layup
or a dunk. At this point, how soon does that
great on Butler to where he's calling him out and
where there's potential, potentially a divorce that needs to happen
here with markuelle Faults, you're already in the water white
hot spotlight of the Philadelphia seventies sixers. Melton Brand makes

(01:21:06):
the deal to bring in Jimmy Butler, and so all
of your troubles now that it's Jimmy Butler's first game
here first getting like it's all chronicled on a whole
different level than it was even last year, because you
still had other stories that would trump it throughout the year.
Now it's early in the NBA, it's Lebron James, it's
the drama in Golden State, and it's what Jimmy Butler

(01:21:28):
is doing. Either potentially breaking up with the t Wolves,
and now hey he's with the Sixers. They can make
a push unless they start in fighting. I don't disagree
with any of that. I just don't think that a
change of scener He is gonna do anything until he
gets off social media and starts worrying about himself, his health,
his mental health, and not what everyone's saying on social media.

(01:21:49):
Gotta go find that shot doctor, figure out who that is,
Go find that psychologist. Maybe maybe it's Lebron James. Maybe
he just needs to whisper in his ear much or
blown his or like Land Stevenson. We'll see, we'll hear
from Lebron James of the Victorious Lakers. Coming up next,
Jason Smith Show with Mike Armen, Fox Greetings and welcome
in our three, The Jason Smith Show with Mike Armen.

(01:22:11):
Comingy from the Geico Studios. Aaron Torres is in for
Jason Smith this evening. As we watched some college hoops
Auburn and Arizona nineteen eleven early first half. We'll get
to that. We've got NBA action, the Warriors, no Curry,
no Draymond Green getting boat raised by the thunder Lebron James,
the man of the Hour tomorrow, a full feast of

(01:22:33):
NFL action. Aaron Torres, good to have you in. It's
good to be here. As I said an Hour number
one last year, I spent the night before Thanksgiving with you.
Thanksgiving in Black Friday. Everyone has their Thanksgiving traditions. I
have one too. It's called Mike Carmen. I like to
be people's, you know, Thanksgiving tradition. I've got the quads

(01:22:54):
and the calves that you know might be uh something
to really just jump on my back and let me
carry get a greatness. Listen, I'm gonna let you carry
me to a trip to fan induced coma tomorrow. I
hear there's some good food coming in. You're cooking a
turkey and bringing it in. I don't know that we'll
go full bird, but we'll certainly have some tube stuffs
that find their way to the Geico studios. I've got
to make sure I take care of tie shirt right,

(01:23:17):
and I've got to make sure. I don't know what,
I'm gonna come smoke some meat. I may smoke some
meat smokes. You never know, but we're gonna come up
with something. We've gotta take care of our crew when
we're in here all in a holiday. We appreciate you
listening wherever you are you're traveling, be safe, Thanks for
having a laugh with us and and letting us entertain
you for a little bit this evening as you go
see your friends and family and uh, our best wishes

(01:23:39):
and thanks for being part of what we do here
at Fox Sports Radio. We appreciate the interaction on Twitter.
You find Aaron at Aaron underscore Torres find me, it's
Will and come you want to curse out Smith at
How about a Fresco is where you can do that
for him as well? Well, there's that. I mean, you
may want to get a couple of those in. I
don't know, But the fact is we we do truly

(01:24:00):
appreciate the interaction with each and every one of you
and for you take it a few minutes with us. Uh.
As we get to this holiday season, you know, you
gotta you gotta get thanks, you gotta you gotta stand down. Uh,
And certainly I will I will make sure to feed
our our massive crew here tomorrow as we break down
NFL games. But other than Duke and Gonzaga, which we
had earlier today, one versus three duke, everybody waiting for

(01:24:25):
them to go on the run of perfection into the
n C Double A tournament. That's what we want, right.
You can see a team and you get a pipe
player like Zion Williamson. He's not but but it's just so.
But it's that's the hype machine that that goes off
the rails. And and we look at Barrett, he had
a tough shooting night tonight or this afternoon. Nine of

(01:24:48):
twenty two points are twenty three, right in line with
the two point eight season scoring average. But when you've
got a guy like Zion Williamson that goes above the
rim and you can run a highlight on a loop
on a loop on a loop and make it your
that's what's gonna take over. Yeah. I kind of like
that Zion has uh r J. Barrett with him because
the last couple of years in college troops, I haven't
liked this trend where we just pick one guy and

(01:25:10):
we decide that the entire sport is going to center
around him and we're not gonna talk about anything else.
Last year, it was Trey Young. Year before it was Alonzo.
Year before that, it was Ben Simmons, I just think
it's a lot of it's a lot, it's a lot
of a burden to put on an eighteen nineteen year
old kid, so Zion, As you said, he is still

(01:25:32):
the star, he is still the headliner. He is still
the guy that everyone's gonna tune in to see. But
then you tune in, you realize, oh, this R. J.
Barrett character is pretty good too, and you read the
mock drafts and you realize that that's got that's the
guy that's probably actually gonna end up being the number
one picking this upcoming draft. We're coming to Alive from
the getic Fox Sports Radio studios fifteen minutes. Can say
have you fiftent or more? On car insurance? Is a

(01:25:54):
Geico dot Com for every rate quote. So on this
particular day, we had Duke and Gonzaga as the undercard,
the headliner, the name on the marquee, the fans clamoring
for Lebron James and his return to Cleveland forward from St.
Fenc St. Mary High School. Welcome home. Macrawn sees me

(01:26:21):
overwhelmingly positive. Michael, you were right. I did not hear
one boot Lakers Radio on the call of the introduction,
electrifying the crowd noise. They're excited because scalpers made money tonight.
Everybody got got paid. The people working concessions made made
a couple of tip dollars, the parkers outside the valets, everything,

(01:26:45):
everybody got paid because there was actually a reason to
come watch the Cleveland count It's true, buddy, they've been
playing straight finals. Is anybody showing up now? Capacity most nights?
Tris Thompson, he's you know, he's worth being the price
of well? Is Chloe coming? I have been watching the

(01:27:07):
Kardashians with him on there? Yeah, how's that working out
for you? Better for me than him? It's it's been
a tough couple's run, no question. Yeah probably Uh. That
whole uh cheating on your pregnant girlfriend right before she's
about going to labor makes for good TV. I don't
know if it made for a good personal life for him,
but come on, I mean, he's kind of good. He's
worth kind of tuning into, right. Collin Sexton, he's interesting.

(01:27:30):
But I didn't even have j R. Smith to wonder
if he was going to do something crazy or trying
to fight someone. I mean, they got nothing, so they're
playing at less than capacity. They're going to the old
Clippers model of hey, look who's coming to town by
your five pack now, so you've got that process. But
Lebron James comes in and even though they struggled, even
though it was back and forth and all the poison

(01:27:50):
pens were out uh into the deep into the fourth quarter,
Lebron James and company finished the job. Four point Laker lead.
Here's Sexton running straight down the floor. It gives it
right side to Clark Clarkson's three pointer. No good rebound,
k CP. They're not gonna foul him. And that's it.
The Lakers get out of Cleveland with a victory and

(01:28:11):
finish this road trip with a record of two and one.
Lakers Radio on the call, one oh nine, one oh five,
Your final. James thirty two points, fourteen boards, seven assists,
four turnovers plus nine. On the night, he was eleven
of twenty from the field, six Lakers in double figures,
including a Lonzo ball. He was seven of eleven plus

(01:28:33):
sixteen in his work tonight. So some fantastic ball movements.
You saw Lebron James leading the break a number of times.
Alonzo ball, good spacing, good court awareness. One of his
brighter moments in his two years in the NBA learning
to work with Lebron James. But you could see the
sigh of relief as Lebron James left the court. You

(01:28:54):
saw the giant smile before he started walking down, a
lot of hugs and and a lot of alright, me,
let me have a conversation with you. He did it
with Tristan Thompson. Just go on down. But one ohne
one oh five, your final Lakers escape, succeed and proceed
to go to the college world. Aaron, Yeah, it was.
It was a solid night for the Lakers, and I mean,

(01:29:14):
I think it does kind of show just how quickly
the calves have fallen here because they had to lead
for the entire game, and it felt like the Lakers
just flipped the switch in the last couple of minutes
and we're able to win. But again, as we've talked
about throughout this show, as much as Lebron moving to
Los Angeles was for the entertainment opportunities, for the opportunities

(01:29:35):
off the court, it's also because there's a lot of really,
really good young players on this roster, and as you said,
six guys and double figures. Alonzo Ball one of the
two or three probably best games that he's played this season,
as he finished with fifteen points, seven rebounds, six assists.
And I'll say this, we talked about a little bit
with Eric Pinks today, between the Warriors struggling, between the

(01:29:55):
Rockets struggling. You look at the the Western Conference standings.
I know that Golden State's gonna get right by the
time the playoffs start. And even if they don't get right,
they're so talented that they can probably flip a switch.
But I mean, come on, Western Conference standings as of tonight,
Memphis Grizzlies in first place, Portlands and second. But the

(01:30:16):
point is, if you're a Lakers fan, you gotta feel
good that as this group continues to grow, competition in
the West isn't what we thought it would be. Well,
we we watched it last year right as the Lakers
with their thirty five wins. But you had the Warriors,
you had the Rockets, and then you had what about
nine teams that were within five games of each other.
So assuming you're able to jump past a few of those,

(01:30:38):
and you had uh of Minnesota Timberwolves team that had
played well, Jimmy Butler got hurt, so they might have
been a three or four instead there at the back end,
and now he's gone figuring out what they are the Clippers.
Can they sustain their early seasons success? Not sure, but
certainly you also know Lebron James, the GM's not done you.

(01:31:00):
I was gonna ask Eric that I know, obviously the
Tyson Chandler acquisition was the big one, but at some
point he's gonna get antsy and he's gonna want to
make a move. I'm curious what that next move will be,
because these young guys are starting to play well, now
starting to jell a bit. You get a little more
of the second unit giving you more of a push.
And that's kind of where we've been in a lot
of the discussion Jason and I have had on the show.

(01:31:22):
Aaron is with Ingram and with Lonzo as they get
comfortable one second unit to run out there right to
where you just open up the game and let it go.
And and now he's just trying to figure out how
you mix and match those pieces. You get a gift
in Tyson Chandler. Again, I have to wonder how the
NBA hasn't at least raised their hand and pretend that

(01:31:42):
they're going to investigate how that happens, and that buy
out with James Jones, uh allowing him to leave happens.
But that's that's just me talking. But Lebron James thankful
for the crowd reaction today, Uh, and is return home
to Cleveland a victorious one the run from the moment
that you walked out and heard the crowd to the

(01:32:03):
end of the game and winning that fashion. What's going
through your mind on a return home like this? Um?
You know they started off great. I got an opportunity
as soon as I started today going down to my school,
uh see my kids and uh, you know, great one welcome,
you know, to see them the day before Thanksgiving. So
and I was already you know, blessed and thankful for
that moment right there. And um to come here tonight

(01:32:24):
and you know, go out and here the uh fans reception.
You know my eleven years playing here. Um, you know,
I just try to do um, you know, be the
best you know basketball player, be the bus rolled out,
the best leader I could be both on and off
the floor, league by example for this franchise, and uh,
you know, and they showed their appreciation, and I really
uh you know from now on for myself, with my

(01:32:46):
friends and family. I were at the game tonight. Um,
it was just it was great on that fourth quarter,
down eight with about five minutes left. What's most important
is you're trying to close out a game like that.
You gotta get stops. You get stops and uh I
get to the free throw line be able to stop
the clock, and he was able to execute both of those.
How did you focus on the basketball at that point
just with everything, like you said going on emotionally and

(01:33:06):
how how does that go through your head? I mean,
because I mean that's my that's my safe haven right there. Um,
you know, that's my sanctuary. Once I said out on
the floor, Um, you know the main thing is the
main thing, and as to try to go and execute
offensively and defensively and try to get a win. At
that moment, you know where you acknowledge the crowd and
with your hand, what were you feeling at that moment? Um?
You know, I appreciate you know these fans, um, just

(01:33:28):
as much as they appreciated me. You know every single
night we stepped out on the floor. Um, they always
showed the appreciation to know only myself with my teammates
for those eleven years, um, especially you know, even you
know those last four years, those championship runs that we
were making. Um, you know, so you know, that was
just my salute to them, um of them appreciate what
I was able to complish with my teammates and coaches
staff all in those four years. The whole video I

(01:33:50):
did not. I did not. I've seen a little bit
of the last part. Uh Luke was actually drawing up
a place, so I had to pay attention slightly. I
didn't want to miss that and mess up the you know,
mess up the play coming out of time out. But
I was able to catching my You've walked in as
a visitor before different tonight. Did you feel any different
walking in coming into the locker room? UM? I think
I just felt different from the time we landed yesterday.

(01:34:12):
From the time we landed yesterday. You know, you know,
I just felt a different way. I'm a different person.
We're all different, you know, from from eight years ago.
I think, you know, both good and bad, but you know,
more important of this experience has been been great. So um,
you know, it's all about growth, and we all had grown,
you know from that, you know, from that moment eight
years ago. So you know, I kind of need to
pass in the past and I always focus on a

(01:34:34):
on on the present, and uh, I see what happens
in the future. We know he didn't listen to the
play being drawn up by Lukewall and he was watching.
You might have had a popcorn, uh, and it was
excited about that. I want to know if the last
frame was of him gesturing to j R. Smith in
last year's finals, if they went that far, this is
where we knew it was over. I'm still mad about that.

(01:34:56):
Too soon. I'm just mad too soon. You know what
I'm really mad about is the play before that, Kevin
Kevin Durant. There was a block charge call that went
Katie's way, and if that doesn't happen, it doesn't even
set up Jared. By the way, I'm still on the
not that it matters now, but j R got way
too much blame for that, and you gotta have a

(01:35:17):
fall guy. I've heard that before. I don't know who
said it, and I don't I don't want to know
because because that might be bad. But it's just Chris Carter. Okay, okay,
if we could say it, don't we just saying it's
out there. It's people can google it. You know that.
But did you have any inkling at any point that
the people asking questions where either Luke Walton or Phil Jackson,

(01:35:40):
but really deep voices coming in. Oh yeah, it was
almost like Phil would come out the amount of retirement
looks like, yeah, when that video montage was going on,
did you were you paying attention what was going on
that on that clipboard? Er? He didn't need to. He's
Lebron James, he's the coach, and it's exactly one on nine,
one five, your final Lakers. We'll talk more Lebron James

(01:36:02):
in his return. Break that down a little bit more.
Auburn Arizona coming down to the end of the first
halfeen Auburn six point lead, and of course the other
game we're monitoring. No Steph Curry, no Draymond Green, but
the Warriors making a game of an Oklahoma City up
seven four minutes left in the third in that one.

(01:36:22):
Coming up next, we'll step out to the National but
Ball League. And you think you like wins at this
time of year, if you're a bottom feer, know you
made a lot of trades for draft picks. But one
quarterback says, I'm not done yet. We get into that
next to Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen here on
Fox Sports Radio. Greetings, Welcome back in the Jason Smith

(01:36:42):
Show with Mike Carmen here from the Geico Studios. Jason
Smith out tonight and from him in for him, our
buddy Aaron Torres. You read him on Twitter at Aaron
Underscore Torres college basketball guru guy. We looked to as
the season progresses, and certainly tonight. We had a big
game right earlier this afternoon, and that is but Duke Gonzaga.

(01:37:05):
We'll get into that in about ten minutes from now.
But we turned our attention to the n f L
and a lot has been made about the Oakland Raiders
and there, well, they're they're race to tanking, let's call
it what it is, and reconstituting their roster, shuttling off
pieces and making business decisions which have to this point
turned out very well for the other members of those trades.

(01:37:28):
You look at the Bears, and you look at Khalil
Mack and what he's meant when healthy to that defense
for Vic Fangio, and how disruptive he has been we'll
see that at nine thirty a m. Pacific time, as
the Bears traveled to Detroit. No Mitch Drabinsky, Mitchell Rubinsky,
Chase Daniel under center, Tyler Bray at the backup. But
you also look at the other trade. I'm sorry, Cooper

(01:37:50):
gets traded out of Oakland, goes to Dallas. What's Dallas
doing right now, Aaron Torres, you predicted them to win
the NFC East, and all of a sudden the dominoes
are falling. I did it before. It was cool. They
have won back to back games since that debacle against
Tennessee on Monday night. People are saying they are going
to get into first place by the end of the

(01:38:10):
day tomorrow. I'm not totally sold it's gonna happen. Adam
Caplan in the first hour told us that Colt McCoy
very suited to run that offense, even an Alex Smith's absence.
But neither here nor there the point you were trying
to get to. Amari Cooper fitting in very nicely with
the Cowboys. Maybe not a number one receiver, but at
least gives you a threat which opens things up for
some of those other guys. Well, that's just day, Dak

(01:38:32):
Prescott actually pushing the ball down field a bit more
and Cole Beasley open up under underneath in the slot.
You're seeing more efficiency there, obviously Ezekiel Elliott getting his
But the defensive side of the ball, they've been good
all year long, especially against the past for Washington, Ken
Dallas surmount a pass rush. They've got no offensive line.

(01:38:52):
So if you can get after Colt McCoy, you have
an opportunity to do great things. But Derek Carr still saying, hey,
you know what, I want to mess up the draft.
I don't want the first pick, he told Michael Gelkin
of the Las Vegas Review Journal, doing everything he can
after that win over Arizona to try to say, hey,
we could salvage a couple of games here, which is

(01:39:13):
all fine and good, except that it's gonna move where
those draft picks potentially are. You look at the Bear
while at least there's you look at the Bears pick
every game they win. The trade for Khalil Mack gets
a bit worse. Add the production on the other side,
and you watch a guy who's gonna be a Hall
of Famer at this rate that you gave away hoping

(01:39:36):
that you can hit on all year draft picks. And
we've already beaten up John Gruden enough for this, the
way he took a baseball bat to Reggie Mackenzie for
the last couple of draft classes. But Derek Carr is
also very savvy in this is that he's got to
put stuff on tape because he might be the next
domino in the John Gruden I'm reconstituting and remaking, reshaping
this team. And he's got several years left on a

(01:39:58):
deal that's fairly friendly at today's quarterback rates, So the
potential still is there that he gets shuffled out. Well,
I think it's funny that the Raiders beat the Cardinals
and all of a sudden, Derek carrs on his winning
high horse, like, bro, let's win a game or two
before you start getting too far ahead of yourself. But
kind of the flip side is one, what do you

(01:40:19):
expect the guy to say? As you alluded to Harmon,
he is a pseudo veteran, he's an established guy, he
has he personally certainly has no incentive to tank. But
then also, kind of you are the franchise quarterback, Like
I think it'd be kind of a bad look. Even
if you look, we all know what the Raiders are
trying to do, even if you know you think that

(01:40:40):
your days are limited, I still think it'd be kind
of a bad look if he said anything other than
I'm out here trying to leave my team. No, And
that's just it is that for NFL players, right, there's
not the huge guarantees that you have. We've been talking
about contracts in the NBA, right, we were talking about
Bradley Beale talking about John Walls contracts and how that
becomes a ficult proposition in terms of, all, right, you're

(01:41:02):
not happy here, the team is struggling, you're cursing out
the coach. What's trade you? Well, no, Economically, in the NBA,
it's a much different piece because of the size of
the contracts and the guarantees, trade kickers, the way it
all works. For the NFL, we don't see a ton
of trades, although it's changed the last year or two
we're seeing more and more, and the Raiders have certainly

(01:41:22):
been wheeling a dealing. But players don't get long term
deals with giant novelty checks. Right. You get a couple
of years, you get a giant signing bonus and then
you have to prove yourself. So it's not the players
that are tanking, it's she. It's the We build a
roster that isn't quite as good, so we have an
A list guy versus the beatless, bless guy is suddenly

(01:41:44):
the starter. This guy's got an injury. There's a lot
of ways you can mask it and characterize it. And
when we look at the Raiders with the move to
Las Vegas coming, John Gruden trying to build a roster
of his guys that you have a season like you
do here in No Man's Land. But Derek carrs words
here to me, at least if I were trying to

(01:42:04):
strip controversy and oh I am is that they're a
big flip the bird to John Gruden to say, we
still have work to do here. The season's not over.
That I don't care about your draft picks because he's
not well, I don't because he's because he's not dumb.
He doesn't want the number one pick because it also
reflects on him and his aptitude as a quarterback, and
it also reflects on the fact that if they end
up with the number one pick, they might they might

(01:42:26):
draft his replacement. But now, yeah, I don't I don't
know that it's a huge f you to Jon Cruden.
I just think it's one of those deals where he's
got a job to do. Look where any of these sports,
even in the NBA, even when the Sixers were terrible
and Nerland's Noel was sitting and Joe l Embiid was sitting,
even the guys on the court, they might not have
been very good, but they were trying to win games,

(01:42:48):
and so it was a it was interesting that they
asked him, Like I said, I feel like you gotta
win more than two games, one against the Cardinals, one
against the Browns in overtime before you can get on
your high horse about winning games. But we'll see. Yeah,
all those guys are playing for next contracts. Is more
on the point, right, is that you're only as good
as your tape, which means you're still trying as a team.

(01:43:10):
You have your philosophy, and you may be fielding an
inferior fifty three on your road to losses. But those
guys are still and those are coaches, the assistant coaches,
they're still busting asked, trying to get the job done.
You look at the Raiders down the stretch at Baltimore.
We get to see some more Lamar Jackson. You've got
a home game against the Chiefs, then a home game

(01:43:31):
against the Steelers, on the road against the Bengals, a
home game against the Broncos down out of the road
against the Chiefs. There's not a lot of wins on
that slate. Well, that was the other reason why I
thought it was funny that he, oh, you know, we're
trying to win games here. Yeah, I mean sure, but
you just played the Cardinals relaxed, buddy like, like, let
me see you do it against Pittsburgh or Case or

(01:43:54):
even Denver. To just get on my face there came
over like it. That's a beautiful thing. We'll watch the
games of week twelve. We'll see more Lamar Jackson. There
were brought to you by Geico. Everybody's got it to do.
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(01:44:15):
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be the most rewarding to do that you do today.
Coming up next, we dive back into the world of
college basketball. Aaron and I talk about Duke Ginzaga and
all the greatness of these kickoff classics or tip off

(01:44:36):
classics more appropriately for the basketball world. But first we're
gonna step out to deb Carson. We're gonna find out
what's going on in the greater sporting Universe. Well, the
Golden State Warriors are now within six of the Oklahoma
City Thunder. It's an eighty nine three lead for the
Thunder of the Warriors ten thirty three to go in
the fourth quarter. Of course, Golden State coming off a
three game loss, all three losses at uh the diff

(01:45:00):
into Texas Arenas. They lost to the Rockets, the MAVs,
and the Spurs and their respective cities. The Hornets with
a one one oh nine win over the Pacers tonight,
Raptors beat the Hawks one four, one oh eight, Lebron
James and near triple double as the Lakers beat the
Cavaliers one oh nine, one oh five in Cleveland, and
he got a nice applause rather than any booze when

(01:45:21):
he returned to his home arena. There Bulls with six
win over the Sun's Rockets beat the Pistons one one
twenty four. Online car shopping can be confusing, not anymore.
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Of course, we've got a full slate of NFL action

(01:45:43):
on Thanksgiving, as we always do. Among the injury updates,
the Falcons have ruled outlinebacker Dion Jones for Thursday's game
against the Saints. The Lions ruled out receiver and Marvin
Jones and running back carry On Johnson. Of course. For
the Bears, Mitchell true Bisky is doubtful because of his
shoulder injuries. It's likely to be Chased Daniel starting at
quarterback in the Cowboys Redskins matchup. Dallas has ruled out

(01:46:06):
receiver Tavon Austin. Linebacker Shawn Lee also out for Dallas.
Colt McCoy of course, is going to get the start
at quarterback for Washington following Alex Smith's injury, and guys
Jerry Jones. Of course one to overstate sometimes, but he
did make a comparison of the edition of Amari Cooper.
He compared him to Michael Irvin back in the day. Yes,

(01:46:28):
he said that Michael Irvin's presence, of course, freed up
the middle to allow Emmett Smith some freedom, allow Troy
Aikman some movement. Of course he hadn't j Nova check
to target as well. But Jerry Jones says that adding
Amari Cooper has gotten the defense to back off. They
have to respect him down the field. He told this
to Good Morning Football earlier today on NFL Network. He

(01:46:50):
says that gives Zeke some room to have the kind
of days we want him to have as a running back.
So it's a balance kind of thing. It always has been.
I did that, Thanks Jet, Jerry. Joe One's doing a
lot of chirping as well, saying he turned down the
l A market as well. But it flows in. You've
got touchdowns for Dak Prescott on the ground for the
last five games. Eze killed Elliott. We were talking about

(01:47:12):
it a little bit earlier. We'll get back into that
game in about fifteen minutes eron, but we're Dak Prescott
and those Dallas Cowboys. Suddenly there's a little bit of hype.
So why not add an extra layer to it if
you're the greatest mouthpiece that the team has. I was
gonna say, imagine being like Jerry Jones's grandkid or something like.
You go to it, you have like a choir recital.

(01:47:34):
Oh you are the great you are the next Mariah
like because think about it, Amari Cooper's Michael Irvin. He
says he's gonna give Dac an extension. This was when
Dac wasn't even playing well. Jason Garrett has been living
on borrowed time for three years and it's just collecting paychecks.
It's gotta it's gotta be great to be in in
Jerry Jones's orbit. I just feel like he's the kind

(01:47:55):
of guy you walk in the room and makes you
feel good about yourself. And I think he's at the
point where he generally, he genuinely believes the things that
he says, which makes it all the I go back
to a shrine game practice on the Stanford campus many
many years ago where Jerry Jones ended up standing next
to me with a roster in his hand, and I
had one. I was working at Yago at the time,

(01:48:16):
but not doing media stuff. I was helping build and
put all the messaging together for the sports and fantasy sites,
and he asked me who I liked. So I was
helping Jerry Jones at the Shrine game. So it's kind
of a big deal. So, I mean Brandon Weed was
his guy as well when he brought him in, because again,
hype machine, you make it play. Uh So, Troy Aikman

(01:48:38):
was the guy you compared him to as he wanted
to draft Paxton Lynch. He wanted to draft Johnny Manzel.
I mean maybe his quarterback evaluation isn't and tebows just
go all the way down. I mean, he wanted all
these guys, well, Paxton Lynch was the one. I mean,
was that the year they wanted to trade back into
the first round or were they going to take him
in the top two? I can't remember. I just know

(01:49:00):
are Jones big Paxton Lynch guy? Well, I think there
were a lot of guys that had it, at least
in the moment, but certainly nobody went up and grabbed him.
And that's why we keep questioning the the acumen, the
draft acumen of our our guy, John Elway as well
as you go through the process case Keenum has been
good in spots for them, But what's the long term future.

(01:49:21):
Are they gonna bringing Joe Flacco? Are they going to
go and make another move? See if they can move things? Well,
we think about it. Division might complicate that, but certainly
all bets are off. You say, John Gruden doesn't seem
to care. No, he'll he'll deal with anybody I've got. Uh,
We're gonna go to a swap meet together, I think
any day. Now. We're Comedy Alive from the Geico Fox

(01:49:41):
Sports Radio studios. It's easy to say fiftent more on
car insurance with Geico, So go to Geico dot com
or call eight seven Auto. The only heart part figuring
out which way is easier. Aaron Torres in for Jason Smith.
This is the Jason Smith Show with me Mike Carmen
in these Geico studios. We're watching the Warriors and the Thunder. Uh.

(01:50:01):
Interesting in terms of roster overhaul, you got injured guys
in suits. Steph Curry still out, Draymond Green still out. Uh.
And we've talked a lot about the Lakers bringing in
a guy like JaVale McGee. So the depth of Golden
State at times being tested, uh in these road trips
and now return home to to Oakland where the Thunder

(01:50:23):
having eleven point lead. Yeah, I mean you start looking
through the guys that are playing for the Warriors tonight.
I mean, obviously look the big names, Katie Iguadala, Clay
Thompson in the starting lineup, but Quinn Cook in the
starting lineup, Damien Jones, who uh didn't play all that
much prior to this season. I know he's been getting
some burned this year, but this was a guy that

(01:50:45):
only played in fifteen games total last season. He got
um Damien Lee coming off the bench. Ironically, Damien Lee,
I believe is Steph Curry's brother in law. He's married
to Steph Curry's sister. How about that that'll get you
applaying That's what I was gonna say. That's about his
only qualification to be on this team. But thirty eight
point nine coming into night. Yeah, but yeah, you mentioned

(01:51:08):
you mentioned Igdala, you mentioned Sean Livingston. Two guys that
are in what year in the National Basketball Association. Good
in limited minutes, but if you've got to stretch them out.
That's not gonna bode well for April. Yeah, And and
that was kind of the thing. And our buddy Doug Gotlieb,
who obviously hosts on this network as well, kind of
brought this up on Twitter, which kind of piqued my interest.

(01:51:29):
But you know, when the Warriors won that first title
and they played the Calves tough down the stretch, I mean,
what was so incredible about that team was that was
the original small ball position list team, right, I mean
they had all those guys Festus Zeally, Um, I'm blanket
on who was on that roster now, but every guy
could pass, dribble, shoot, just do unbelievable things with the ball. Uh.

(01:51:53):
It was an interchangeable team and everybody had so much value.
When he assigned Kevin Durant lose so many of those guys,
and we're seeing the ripple effects of it now. So look,
the Warriors. I think once they get healthy, they're going
to be fine. When Steph Curry comes back, they'll be fine.
But I do think it's fair to say, besides the
off the court stuff, I think on the court, it's

(01:52:14):
fair to ask whether they're the same team they were
even a year ago. Well, we will discuss. We'll get
into Duke and Gonzaga here coming up in about five minutes.
But let's continue on this thought as you you have
the Kevin Durant and a Draymond Green issue. Now they
claim at least Durant saying, hey, it's fine, and I
think that's more the pr Let's just leave me alone

(01:52:35):
so that nobody asks about it, Say, Kevin Durant refuses
to answer questions about it. But yeah, but but now
he makes a statement about it, saying, hey, we're good,
We'll moving forward. It's a long season. Oh, it's a
long season, and this is gonna fester festus is ze.
It was one of my guys. He was one of
one of my heroes during the title runs. But the
fact is that you've you've got just a different stress

(01:52:58):
to this because is this is it for Kevin Durant,
It's this season and a big decision, right. The decision
for En is does he stay? Does he go to
New York? Does he find another home? And if he stays,
does that necessarily mean that these guys all co exist?
Because Draymond Green has only got one more year left

(01:53:19):
on his deal as it's currently stands. Is he the
glue guy he once was? Is he the he doesn't score?
Is not the same? I think it's changed, especially when
you've got to play kate egos right that now, if
he disrupts Durant enough, the rest kind of top and
Steph Curry might be able to be the guy to

(01:53:40):
come in and stabilize it once he's back on the court.
But we've seen enough incidences and we've cited them of
Durant off the court. Is that enough in the locker
room coming out of that? And they haven't played well
and he hasn't and Draymond hasn't been on the court
right He's missed three straight games, so they haven't had
to try to coexist on the court here. So saying
it's done well, I want to see it play out

(01:54:02):
on the next road trip for the next ten games,
like where they're back on the court together, because it's
one thing if Draymond sitting in a suit watching the action.
It's a whole other thing if we get into more
game situations where he refuses to defer to Durant and
give up the ball and tries to do i mean,
go outside of his of his pay grade, which is

(01:54:22):
get the ball to the guys who actually had the ball,
and the one thing that no one's talking about. And
I get this. This Draymond k D thing has taken
out a life of its own, especially with Steph Curry out,
and he's kind of the mediator. He's kind of that
middle ground that even Steven kind of guy something no
one's talking about. There's some guy named Boogie Cousins on
the sidelines in a suit right now. And when that
guy comes back, not only does he have an ego,

(01:54:45):
not only is he playing for a big contract. Steve's
car has already said we hope that he is able
to were able to get him out and get him
that big payday. But he doesn't fit in at all
with what they do. I think that's gonna be so fascinating. Way. Well,
but that's that's part of the two. There's another guy
with a history, there's another guy with a reputation gonna
get along. Do you want them? And especially if he

(01:55:07):
checks out healthy earlier rather than later, does he make
Draymond Green expendable? But I think it's no. I was
gonna say, well, I don't know if he makes him expendable,
but but I do think from beyond the court chemistry,
and we'll be diplomatic about what we say about those two,
but they they are troublemakers, sometimes for the other team,
but sometimes for their own teams too. I just think

(01:55:29):
that's another component that nobody's talking about. I mean, this
has been the core group that can't get along right now,
and now you're gonna throw in another guy who, again
will be diplomatic, let's just call him a little bit
disruptive through his years in the NBA. I like that term,
disruptive force and and really just brings it to a head, right,
And if you're trying to do the sales pitch to
Kevin Durant, you're doing whatever you can to placate him.

(01:55:52):
And it's the devil you know and the devil you don't,
because if you want him long term, maybe Draymond is
the guy that has to go. Yeah, well we'll continue
we'll continue that coming up in about twenty minutes from now.
But coming up next, we'll talk Duke and Zaga college
basketball giving us top notch games here as we go
to the Thanksgiving break. Hopefully you got to see it

(01:56:13):
and weren't stuck in a car. We'll discuss that next
to Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen here 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 the I
Heart Radio lapp. Listen to those horns The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmen here in the Geico Fox Sports

(01:56:35):
Radio Studios, Aaron torres in for Jason Smith to night
reminder of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen. Get
your shopping season roll and get the gifts that give
gifts at the Hellsburg Diamonds Black Friday event now through Sunday.
Spend six or more on jewelry for her and get
a free forty and Visio Smart TV for the whole family.

(01:56:59):
Check it out at Hellsburg Diamonds. That is a big
time promotion. I dig that I need a new TV Diamonds.
I needed a new diamond like six months ago. I
mean we could have gone now, you know, we'll figure
it out. Well, we'll find somebody that maybe prosperg wants
to wear some diamond earrings. We could take care of him.

(01:57:19):
He's a Diamond Aaron kind of guy. I could see
that he's gonna take him straight out of Keenan Allen's
locker as if it was levand I was just gonna
he's gonna borrow him just for a good look for
this holiday holiday holiday weekend. We appreciate you taking a
few minutes with us here take the moment as we can. Uh.
For Alex, for Justin, deb Aaron, and myself. We thank

(01:57:42):
you for listening to us this evening as you're on
the highways and byways celebrating with family and friends. Be
safe out there. Uh and thanks for making Fox Sports
Radio part of your celebration. We truly do appreciate you
being part of the team. Scary moment. We've been watching
this Oklahoma City Golden State game, which is really turned
into a blowout situation one four eight nine under three

(01:58:05):
minutes remaining. Uh Hammadu Diallo, the rookie out of Kentucky,
stretchered off, landed awkwardly on a rebound. It could be,
it could be not to have Derek Carr doing predictions
that way, but yeah, definitely a scary moment. The crowd
gave him, you know, it's support. Air casted and stretchered

(01:58:27):
out a few minutes ago. We'll give you a word
as that comes down. But the Warriors getting blown out.
We were going into the roster and some problems, uh
and discussing the Boogie Cousins drama, Hunt Green, Kevin Durant triangle.
We'll get back into that in about ten minutes from now.
But Aarons as we were talking about a little bit
earlier in the show and and celebrating college basketball getting

(01:58:50):
one of those moments, right, the Maui invitation always get
some run and people get excited. You see some of
these luxury matchups, for lack of a better term, the
things were hoping to find in the Elite eight, the
Final four when we get to March. But we got
Duke and Gonzaga earlier today, Duke being compared to all
the great teams after an early great start. Barrett Zion

(01:59:11):
Williamson has become the poster boy for college basketball. But
like even though we we knew there were holes in
the game for a while, everybody ran with Mark hill
Folds a couple of years ago because for Young last year,
Trey Young last year, right, he was one of the
stories that cut through even in the middle of football season. Hey,
pay attention to this guy over here. Right, So when
we're looking at Duke and Gonzaga today, Duke falls by two,

(01:59:37):
uh and a little bit of controversy at the end
of the game. Barrett to crossover, it goes down the lane,
he's hammer no foul call and that's the game. You've
gotta be kidding. How is there no foul call there?
He got hit by three different guys and Gonzago wins
the Malley Invitational. I love it, Duke radio on the call,
It almost sounds like hawk Harrolson. You have got to

(01:59:58):
be kidding me. Yeah, I mean, controversial is a tough way.
There was just a call that could have gone either way.
By the way, Duke had a huge advantage in fouls,
had a huge advantage in foul shots. No, no one's
crying a river of tears here for Duke that they
got somehow major. Yeah. Yeah to to the Duke broadcaster,

(02:00:19):
put your blanket away and grow up and be a
big boy. Your team lost the better team one today.
Gonzaga gave you every opportunity as well, missing four free
throws in the final minute. Seventeen missed layups, miss shots
at point blank range. Let's hear all it sounded on
Gonzaga sn drilling out top, gets around Perkins, drives shot
block from behind and that'll do it. The Godzaga Bulldogs

(02:00:42):
when their second Maui Invitational championship and with it get
their first ever win over a number one ranked team.
From Zag's radio right there, that is a professional. Did
you hear that? He there was no controversial whining about
it was it's the clean block and the game was

(02:01:03):
but it was a clean block what they want. Of course,
of course he's not gonna say, oh he got away
with one. Look at he's like he's bloodied at the baseline,
but it doesn't matter you eat. What he's doing was
that Zion Williamson's dad that was on the Duke call.
I mean, he might as well have just been wearing
a jersey on the sidelines. Grew up and be a
big boy Duke guy, blank, Duke home home, you know,

(02:01:28):
radio guy. He's trying to embrace all of those Duke
fans and tell them exactly, and we got jobbed. We
didn't get beaten, so we got screwed. Fans totally like
unbiased fair practical journalism. That's what fans like, you're really
I'm crazy now. Of course that's the next level right there.
I like that. That's sarcasm on the side right there.

(02:01:50):
Fans want the homerism whatever, But there was there. It
was a clean block. The better team won. My national
preseason player that you're y hutching more everyone else's Tony.
I mean, you got a tattoo starting on the right
cap there. I saw it. Well, I gotta get a
tattoo that across my you know, my whole torso here
with his stat Lenny Fish with I think so twenty

(02:02:12):
seven five and three blocks. I don't even enough skin
on my my body to get that stell and he
was unbelievable. Yeah, twenty seven five three blocks, uh seven
or fourteen from the from the field. I mean, that's
a beautiful run, no question for the National Player of
the Year for your guy seven year final. Coming up next,

(02:02:33):
we get back into the NBA. Okay see Golden State
and Warriors drama. The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen
tours in for Smith. We continue with that next locked
in loaded final hour of the show. Thanks for jumping
a boar at the Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen
coming here from the Geico Studios. Aaron Torres in for
Jason Smith. A big day. I am the Sporting Universe.

(02:02:55):
We had some NBA action, We've talked some Duke and Zaga,
more college bad ketball going out with the greatness of
Bill Walton on display. He and Jason Bennetti taking you deep.
You got the King's getting absolutely blown out at home.
Fans leaving their seats and booing them. Yeah, that's happening
at Staples Center. There's just the l A Kings. There's

(02:03:17):
just so much going on, and then we have the Warriors,
and the Warriors are done eron Torres, it's a final.
First of all, I was gonna say, I like the intro.
One guy is from Chicago, one guys from New York.
If we did that with my radio partner on Saturday,
Ernie Spaniard would be one guy is from Earth, one
guy is from I have nowhere, no idea where, so

(02:03:38):
he's insane. But the Warriors, they do not look very
good right now. Someone is calling Kevin Duransom names in
the postgame locker room because that was embarrassing. They're bad.
The post the post game is gonna be very interesting,
right from Mark Medina. He had the first four game
losing streak in the Steve Kerr Era. A couple more
home games this week against Portland and Sacramento. The aforementioned Kings,

(02:04:02):
as just a brush said, make sure it's the l
A Kings in the Hockey Land losing six one to
the Avalanche. No, the Sacramento Kings playing some good basketball
surprise earlier this season. So not an easy couple of
games for a team that looks disjointed and at parts
looks very old, as if they got old overnight. You're
looking at the Warrior squads, still without Steph Curry, still

(02:04:25):
without Draymond Green. He's missed most of the last two weeks.
The only time he really played any significant minutes was
the loss of the Clippers. That ended up being the
beginning of maybe someone punching the button, pulling the lever
to blow up things from the Death Star. So you've
got all sorts of chaos there and you're trying to
cobble together minutes from other players. Tonight they just get

(02:04:48):
absolutely blown out by the thunder. You look at Paul
George finishes with Steven Adams with twenty on nine of
fourteen shooting. Uh, you look look at all the way
down the roster. You've got Westbrook, he finishes only eleven points,
but he's got a triple double with his eleven and eleven.

(02:05:08):
So I mean, you've got good balance going across and
just an absolute beat down and the Warriors had no
response for any of these runs. You've got Durant out
there as a one man band, essentially the way this
roster is currently constituted. So you look at Igodala twenty
five minutes, he's all for all of six points. Damian
Jones goes twenty one minutes, only takes two shots play.

(02:05:32):
Thompson has twenty seven out of ten of twenty two.
But as a team, they only shoot from the field,
and you you commit seventeen turnovers, you give away this
game and the thunder come in and blow them out
on their home court. So do you think this is
the beginning of or do you think this is the
middle of the end. I mean, look, we we do
this in sports sometimes. We did this with Lebron every

(02:05:53):
year he was in Cleveland. Now, granted they didn't end
up winning the championship, but we would sit there in
November to Semer and say, oh, this is it. There's
no way he's done. They're not getting back. And then
every June they get back to the finals. I know
the reaction is they've lost four straight, there's disharmony in
the locker room, everybody hates everybody. But I do feel

(02:06:13):
like between one um the fact that the West is down,
no one has really emerged, and to the Warriors aren't healthy,
Steph Curry isn't here, Draymond Green isn't on the court,
I still feel like, I know it's the easy reaction,
Oh they're all, they're done. I just don't see it.
I just like the hot take theater. Oh of course,
there's no question about it. But yes, Steph Curry the

(02:06:36):
glue guy that brings it back, and everybody will be happier.
Perhaps they play and they go back to their roles,
but we don't know what happens when Draymond Green gets
back on the court. And eventually you're gonna integrate Boogie Cousins,
as we were talking about a little bit earlier, and
you're trying to figure out depth wise. Right, that's the
other question, right, because let's face it, a lot of
your bench players that you're banking on for minutes. We

(02:06:58):
talked about living Steel, we talk about Ego. Those are
the two that stand out the most. But but the
two guys that stand out from from an age if
you're gonna need to buy minutes from them, because last
year it was all jokes and let's have some fun here.
You have the clipboard, you draw up some plays. I'm
gonna sit down, and we've just got to get to
the end of April a right, Steve Kerr getting himself

(02:07:20):
thrown out of preseason games. It's all a big joke.
All of a sudden, you got a little bit of
chaos going on here. Kevin Durant showing signs that all
is not right in terms of how he's dealing with media,
how he's dealing with fans, whatever is going on with Draymond.
He's trying to say, hey, we're good, but you're not
on the court together. Draymond showing up twenty minutes before

(02:07:40):
he has to putting on a suit and sitting down.
He didn't have to involved in an offensive or defensive schematics.
So eventually he's got to get back on the court.
And we've got to see if those two truly have
let bygones be bygones. But right now you've got a
chemistry that's not working and you're getting run out, run
out of the gym on your home court. And I

(02:08:02):
get it. Road trips, you're back, you're in Texas, you
had problems, you lost to the Mavericks, that's where the
Durant incident occurred. But right now, it doesn't look like
you've got a team that that wants any part of
each other. And Steph Curry, what are they two and
five without him? I think was the stat right now?
And the offense not flowing play Thompson shooting sub seven

(02:08:25):
points looks good, but that's that's box score reading. That's
not watching the game. There was no flow, and you
watched the thunder do whatever they wanted offensively in the
second half. But I just I get all that, But
I also just feel like you talked about chaos. Remember
last year the Cavaliers the middle of the season, j R.
Smith was throwing soup, but it had no reflection on

(02:08:51):
the season, and all everyone's saying, oh, look at that,
they're a mass lebron this They still go to Boston,
they still win Game seven, They're still in the finals,
and so to me, like I know, the overreaction is
uh to say that they're done. I don't see it,
but I do agree with you the process to figure
out how it all plays out is going to be interesting,

(02:09:12):
as you mentioned, incorporating Draymond greenback in the lineup, incorporating
DeMarcus Cousins, the drama of Katie and his impending free agency.
By the way, I didn't really think Draymond Green was
all that off base with a lot of stuff that
he said, because at the end of the day, Katie
could have squashed all this just by all he's gonna
do is just say I'm not taking any questions about this.

(02:09:35):
There is no comment, there is no decision. Uh. And
he hasn't done that. He's kind of let the free
agency thing linger. And I don't blame Draymond in that. Well,
I think to some degree you have to just say, look,
it's not a decision I'm making. Now have your summary statement,
and in theory it should be done. In theory, but
then you have Draymond Green. While he didn't say anything wrong,
at some point you shouldn't be talking out of school

(02:09:57):
about and and bringing this if that's a locker room
think you two want to get after. As soon as
it's on the court, it's now fit for public consumption.
And now you've let us in and you've let the
media in, and now you have to explain it because
especially if you're gonna start going into funks like this,
are you losing to the Mavericks. Come on, Lucayah, that's great,

(02:10:17):
that's fantastic. But the fact of the matter is you're
you're on a four game skid. But that got out
of the locker room, right. You might have your your misgivings,
you may have your feelings about well, but he it
was on the court some of it, right, dropping a
bunch of hey, you're a bee and whatever else, and
some of that that discussion played out on the court,

(02:10:39):
and that disharmony and then wordly gets out that it
continues in the locker room, and ultimately they sided with
Kevin Durant. Right, that's the thing a team did in
very emphatic fashion. You've said a terrible precedent and you've
already told him he doesn't matter. So now Draymond Green,
who's a volatile guy who's had his incidents. You've told
him he doesn't matter and he's second fiddle to dram.

(02:11:02):
While that may be true, you think his ego is
gonna be good with that for another six months. I
don't think all of a sudden, everybody's holding hands and
dancing in a circle. Again. I think this continues the
faster I was gonna say. I know that you and
Jason have probably talked about it at nauseum, but I
just personally I didn't like that move by the Warriors
because one, you are saying that one guy is wrong

(02:11:24):
and one guy is right, and I think there's a
little more gray area than just one guy is wrong
one guy's right. But too, like you said one, you're
all to one three whatever. Math was never my strong
super But we won't hire you as an analytics guru. Yeah,
I'm not joining our Fox Sports Research stat department. So

(02:11:45):
um No. I just I think that this is who
Draymond is. It's who he's always been. He's tough, he's
rough around the edges, he says something. Look, there's been
all kinds of things written about the epic yelling dreaming
matches that he's gotten into with Steve Kerr in the practice, facility,
and things of that nature. So one, I think you're

(02:12:06):
you're telling Draymond, don't be Draymond, don't be the guy
that got you here, that got us here. But then two,
you're also saying, like you said Mike, that that k
d is more important. Now. I understand the idea that
you want to keep Kadie long term, but at what cost,
At what cost, with chemistry, at what costs, with a
lot of things. It was a move. I know it's

(02:12:26):
a week gold now, but it was a move that
I didn't like, finding dream or suspending Draymand. Well, the
thing that flows out of that is with Draymond Green,
you want the fire, you want the competitiveness. And he
in his statement right when he sat and he held
court as he was getting his shoes laced up and
ready to go through a little bit of a practice,

(02:12:46):
said that's who I am, That's the way I do things.
The problem is you can do that with everybody else.
You can go yell at Steve Kerr. Steve Kerr is
gonna shrug your should He got punch of the face
by Michael Jordan's. He doesn't care what Draymond Green has
to say to him, Kevin j Ant. They you're dealing
with a different guy and a fragile psyche in terms
of handling criticism. If you're gonna go after a guy

(02:13:08):
on the baseline who calls you a cupcake and start
walking towards him, if you're gonna go after Mark Medina
or a guy when he's asking you a question about
your relationship with Draymond and you give him the death stare.
Don't talk about that, you know, don't ask me that question.
Oh that like you're doing a the fake tough guy,
but you're showing, you're showing your hand and sow for

(02:13:28):
the Warriors organization. This was as bad as precedent as
it said. It's also a please don't do this to
Kevin Durant because we can't afford to lose him for
the next six months. But isn't that something you could
do behind closed doors without the public act. I think
you should have. You should have. I know, no question
about it. I think it was a terrible, terrible move

(02:13:49):
to make, and you have to sit down try to
quell it there. Whether it works or not, that's a
whole other thing. I wouldn't have banked that. It would
just go away either. But now you've got a jest
dating for another week and you're losing games on top
of it. Right, you had that become this big moment,
and Steph Curry is not there to diffuse it. He's

(02:14:10):
in a suit, he's not part of the game, and
that and that that specific incident not there, But you
don't have him on the court to kind of get
the offense flowing and get that gel back right where
where we get the Warriors symphony of basketball as much
as they can because again, the the bench and the

(02:14:30):
secondary players, that's gonna be a problem as you go forward,
as much as the Western Conference may not be a
bunch of heavyweights, and maybe the balance of power in
terms of depth and where better basketball will be one day,
maybe it's in the East. Now, I don't know, you're right.
I mean maybe we we talked about parity and mediocrity
that kind of thing. Right, We're talking about the Celtics

(02:14:52):
and and we were watching with our guy will or
Intern and he was cursing out the Celtics as they
were losing to the Knicks earlier, uh, and all those
kind of things. But it's just like the idea that
if you're you're gearing up for one last run. You
need Durant's buy it, whether you're looking at a short
term or long term. You need to allay any of

(02:15:14):
his misgivings about where he stands with everybody and for
Draymond Green. But Draymond Green can't be Draymond Green to him.
It would appear. But if you're suspending Draymond Green. But
but you said if you're trying to gear it for
one more run. But by by suspending Draymond Green, I
don't think you're gearing up for one more run. I
think you're trying to keep Kevin Durant there for the

(02:15:35):
long term. I want to get your opinion. I know
it's been a super hot button issue, but I do
want to get your opinion on what you think the
next step is for Katie, because I think this thing
made it obvious that this idea, that it was just
a foregone conclusion that he might resign in Golden State.
I think it's clearly become a lot more complicated than that. Hey,
you know what we'll do that next good teaser and

(02:15:55):
torres Jason Smith to Jason spent Show with Mike Armen
Company Alive from the Guy Go Fox Sports Radio Studios.
Fifteen minutes can save you or more on car insure,
So head over the guy Go dot com. Get yourself
a free rate quote. What uniforms K do you wearing?
We'll talk about it next here on Fox. Let the
ural gluttony begin The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen. Yeah.

(02:16:20):
Here from the Geico Studios. Eron Torres is in for
Jason Smith. We're brought to you by Discover Card. We
treat you like you treat you. Thanks to Discover for
being part of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen.
As we get ready for the holiday weekend, whether you're
brining a bird, seasoning a giant prime rib, eating some

(02:16:43):
commute or kale, I'm not sure, whatever the case is,
whatever your delicacies are, however you celebrate with whomever you celebrate,
We thank you for being part of our extended family.
And that's what we all consider it. Here, brothers and
sisters yelling at each other time into time again, and
we'll continue to yell at this moment about the demise

(02:17:04):
of the Golden State Warriors. Done, absolutely finished after tonight.
Now the losses of the fourth straight Steve Kerr and
company is the longest losing streak of his tenure with
the Warriors and dysfunctional. It's starting to creep in both
on the court and off when we look at what
Draymond Green and the flap with Kevin Durant could mean

(02:17:27):
for decisions, and Kevin Durant trying to squash that saying, oh,
it's got no impact on free agency. Uh, maybe it does,
maybe it doesn't. It's a nice SoundBite for the moment
to try to get people to move on to the
next shiny object and keep losing games. People will be
more concerned about that, although eventually with Kevin Durant, because

(02:17:47):
they know they can get a rise out of the
reporters are still gonna ask about that, and particularly with
no Draymond Green on the floor a third strade game.
He's missed Steph Curry seventh straight. Uh stat, seventh games
since Steph Curry went down. This comes from Anthony Slater
Anthony V. Slater on Twitter. From three point range, the
Warriors shooting clay is seventeen of sixty and KD four,

(02:18:15):
so that is falling off the cliff. And then you
look at your defensive rotations. Your substitutions got guys long
and long in the teeth, and guys that don't necessarily
fit the level and style of play to keep flowing.
And when you got your marksman not shooting well, it

(02:18:35):
all spirals out. And you watch that happen tonight against
the thunder. A lot of standing around, a lot of
stale possessions, uh, and certainly not much of a fight
in that fourth quarter. Remember when they were like the
most fun team like that that was the big thing, right,
They were so fun and they had fun and they
were fun to watch, and Steph and Clay and Katie's

(02:18:56):
kind of just a black cloud now, Like I just
I just feel like he's sucked all the fun out
of what they do, who they are now. I know
it's tough, right, everyone's gonna everyone blames Katie for everything.
But when he came, it no longer was fun. It
was We're a seventy to win team that just added
the seventy three win team that just added the second
best player on the planet. And I just see them now.

(02:19:19):
I just think back to those days when I would
Clay have claytime's like forty one in a quarter, and
he's sitting threes and everyone's hugging, and Steph is doing
that this and that that, and it's just it's just
so different to just watch them. Well, but it's new
and exciting, right, And we we talked about this in
sports all the time. Now there are those tried and
true programs. We talked about Duke Gonzaga a little bit

(02:19:42):
earlier in the show and that showdown right, everybody loves
to watch dukelues, Yeah right, and they not do. I mean,
obviously you have your Duke fans, those who have adopted Duke.
My theories on adopting a college team, we'll get into
that you can't if there's no cash and and no
family pull there, you don't get to just randomly adopt

(02:20:04):
a college game. I'm not I'm not one of those guys.
I have no problem with it as long as you're
not the Duke basketball and Notre Dame football fan, and
then you're a Laker fan and that, yeah, yeah, go
all the way through. But the the idea being that
there are teams and programs throughout all our sports that
you're just tired of seeing, right, You You may not
care necessarily how well or poorly. Tom Brady and the

(02:20:26):
Patriots are playing on a weekly week basis, but you're
tired of seeing them in the playoffs running towards the
super Bowl. It's the new blood theory. And I think
with the Warriors they were the shiny new toy for
about two years, maybe a little more than two years,
where Steph was the fresh faced guy, didn't look like
he belonged on the court, and yet he's reigning threes
from fifteen feet beyond the arc, like Thompson comes in

(02:20:48):
Graymond Green's a little nutty, reminds you, you know, well,
you remind you of Dennis Robbin from all those years
ago with just a little better at the time offensive game.
So they're they're shiny and new, and then they do
it again, and then they go go for the Bulls
single season win record and then get beaten in the
finals because Draymond can't not be Draymond. That's part of

(02:21:10):
the equation there. And then they go add Kevin Durant.
I was like, all right, you're already really good, and
then you you added this, so now you stacked the deck.
So you're no longer fun and cute. Now you're the
bully well, that's what and that's what I think it
is too. It's not just that tired people got tired
of watching them. You just use the term harmon is
they stacked the deck. And that's been my argument with
the Warriors for the last two years is that sports,

(02:21:34):
at the end of the day, is about competition. And
so people always say, are you tired of watching Alabama
football dominator? The Patriots dominate? No, because the Patriots every
once in a while, they'll lose because there's competition. Alabama
lost two years, go to Deshaun Watson, They've lost to
Ohio State, They've lost to Auburn in the regular season.

(02:21:55):
But Golden State, I've said this on my my Saturday
show over the last you know, the last year, is
that there has never been a run statistically in the
playoffs as dominant as Golden State has had in the
last two years coming into this year. Obviously, now now look,
is it gonna extend to this year? Who knows? It

(02:22:16):
remains to be seen. I'm still not sold that anybody
is anywhere close to being able to beat them. But
I do think that's the thing with the Warriors is
it's not that they're winning games it's not that they've
won for so long that we're tired of them. It's
that everyone feels like they have taken the competitive balance
out of the sport. That is what I have argued,
and I'll say this. I think, to me, that's why

(02:22:38):
I'm enjoying watching this Warrior's downfall. One because I don't
like how they puff out their chess and last year
during the finals, that drove me crazy. Oh, we've been
through so much adversity, guys, one like, you didn't have
it down. You threw up your hands and just said,
you know what, we're not playing for the regular season. Yeah.

(02:22:58):
So I think that's one reason why I've enjoyed watching
them struggle a little bit. But the other thing is
it feels like there's a chance. When we were in break,
we're talking with the guys in the back ty shirt
and Frostburg about like, Okay, could it be the Raptors,
Could it be the Lakers? Could it be maybe the
Celtics if they get back on track. It feels like
this year there's actual competent. Now. I still think the

(02:23:20):
Warriors are gonna win. I don't even think anybody's particularly close.
But the point is you see a path for other teams,
and I think that's what fans are enjoying, right, looking
at a little bit of unrest. Right last year, as
we went through the season, as the regular season towards
the finals, it was the Warriors will win. They will
likely play the Calves unless or the Celtics. Right, those

(02:23:41):
were the two teams that you would say coming out
of the East, and assuming always that Lebron James finds
a way when he was with the Cavaliers that he's
gonna represent. Fine, let's enjoy some of the other stories
along the way. Here's the Rise of Janice and tent
to Coompo. Fine things to distract you from what really matters,
which is who's gonna win. But that's just it, right,

(02:24:03):
it became the all right, here's the ride, and let's
prop up all these other stories. Let's find some great guys.
They're not gonna win, but you know what, they're gonna
give you a good highlight film each night. They're gonna
give you some big performances that we could puff out. Hell.
The early part of this season right now, we're figuring
out whatever the level of unrest is and how deep

(02:24:24):
they are. You referenced Doug Gottlieb's tweets. Go follow him
at Doug Gottlieb's He broke this down in a series
of tweets in terms of what the roster it looks like,
much like we've been talking about here on the show.
Is that there there's openings just bath the depth isn't
there that was there two to three years ago. So
you get one more guy hurt or maybe Steph Curry

(02:24:44):
doesn't come back. Well there's that you No, no, not
too soon. It's it's potential there or Boogie Cousins comes
back and you've got a problem, whatever the case may be,
that you've got at least a little bit of drama
and the rest of the web. I mean, the Rockets
are a mess. The Lakers were not sure where they're
at yet, and that's the disappointing part is it? This

(02:25:07):
is how I feel. But to me watching the downfall
is because I've been Mr Anti Warriors. People have complained
on my social media too, anti Warriors. Well, we're the
home of the Steph Curry is the system quarterback take Okay,
I love it, I love it, um, But the thing
that's making me not be able to enjoy this as

(02:25:28):
much is I still don't see who that team is,
right and it was supposed to be the Rockets, and
now maybe that Mellow's gone, maybe they'll they'll kind of
step up, but who, Like I still don't I don't
think the Raptors are that team, and so that's making
a little bit less enjoyable. Like if I was sitting
here right now and the Rockets were sixteen and one
and I I just saw that four game beat down

(02:25:52):
sweep coming, it would make me feel that much better.
I still think when it comes to June, even if
they're the four seed, the three seed, the seventh seed, whatever,
they being, the Warriors, They're still gonna cruise to another time.
That's the thing who rises up the Raptors the Celtics,
is there's someone in the East that you feel excited
about because the West right now it's a muddled mess,
just like it was a year ago, except you don't

(02:26:13):
have that layer between Houston and those next six seven
teams coming up. Next, we go into the game that
preceded this one, the return of Lebron James to Cleveland
and his excitement at being in front of his old crowd.
But first we step out to Deb Carson and we
find out what else is trending in this sporting universe.
High deb Hello trending is the Warriors lose again down

(02:26:36):
the lane to the Remblays and I'll plays it in.
There's the triple double, Russ's first this season. He's average
of triple double in back to back seasons has eleven points,
eleven boards, and twelve assists off the slithering left hand
back shot. Russell Westbrook eleven points, e eleven rebounds, thirteen assists.
On the Thunder Radio Network, Oklahoma City beat the Warriors one,
So that is the seventh loss of the season for

(02:26:58):
Golden State. They fall to twelve and even Oklahoma City
improves to eleven and six Kings with a one nineteen
one ten win at Utah, Lebron James and the Lakers
beat the Cavaliers one oh nine at one oh five,
and his return to Cleveland, Bulls took down the Suns
one one, sixteen Nuggets one at Minnesota one oh three,

(02:27:18):
one oh one on the ice. It was a five
zip win for the Rangers over the Islanders. Avalanche ripped
the King seven to three. Golden Knights with a three
to overtime win over the Coyotes, and that Discover Card
key match was was matchup was that Battle of New
York the Islanders at the Rangers. And speaking of matchups,
you can become a new Card member and Discover Card
will match all the cash bag you've earned dollar for

(02:27:39):
dollar at the end of your first year. Learn more
at discover dot com. Slash match limitations apply. Some notes
from the NFL. The Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco skip practice
again today because of his hip injury. Cowboys have ruled
out receiver Tavon Austin and linebacker Shawn Lee for Thanksgivings
game against the Redskins. Colton mccoyle will get to start
for Washington after Alex Smith's leg injury. Bears of officially

(02:28:04):
listed quarterback Mitchell Trabinsky is doubtful for Thursday against the Lions.
Chase Daniel is expected to start, and the Lines have
ruled out receiver Marvin Jones and running back carry On Johnson. Also,
the Falcons have ruled out linebacker Dion Jones for Thursday's
game against the Saints. Guys, thanks to appreciate that you
bet have yourself a good night. Thank you you too, Happy,

(02:28:24):
Happy Thanksgiving Giving to everybody out there from our crew
here at Fox Sports Radio. Hopefully you get to sleep
in a little bit. Remember of those fantasy lineups need
to be set. Bears Lions kicks off twelve thirty Eastern.
Not that if you have family coming, they're gonna let
you sleep. And if you want true gluttony at a

(02:28:44):
good time and then enough to rally for leftovers, and
you gotta be up in pacing. But twelve thirty p m. Eastern,
and you know, everybody gets up and watches a parade
along the way. I don't. Oh, no, I gotta. I
gotta say, in my thirties, what am I gonna get
up to watch the parade for? I might get up
to look at some point spreads for uh, I might

(02:29:04):
make a parade to my favorite online sports. I like
the way you're thinking. I'm just saying, um, you know,
or you we're gonna say, for the purposes of legality,
you're gonna go cross them to that of border. Yes,
that's what I'm hearing in you're gonna take care of
it there. No, I just said I'm gonna browse my
online Oh oh okay, just so I know when I
get to Vegas, which is four hours away, for the

(02:29:25):
casual drive that I'll make on a on a you know,
typical Sunday morning, that I know what I'm looking at.
I like the way you think we're going to be
alive from the guy. Go Fox Sports Radio Studios. It's
easy to say. Or more on car insures with Geico,
go to commer call eight nine seven Auto. The only
heart part figuring out which way is easier. The Jason
Smith Show with Mike Carmen. Jason's off for the rest

(02:29:46):
of the week. Aaron Torres riding shotgun with me, taking
you through into the holiday weekend. We appreciate you stepping
on in and and having some fun with us Tonight,
a lot of NBA action. Tomorrow, full slate, well, three
NFL games that will keep us excited, three divisional games,
and we'll talk about that in about ten minutes, because
I think this is what we're talking about. This is

(02:30:08):
what's good and right about the Thanksgiving slate this year.
But first we step back out to Cleveland where Lebron
James and the Los Angeles Lakers take care of business.
One oh nine, one oh five for Lebron James the return,
and a lot of people questioning exactly how the crowd
would respond and forward from St. Vincent St. Mary High School,

(02:30:33):
welcome home, Mabrawn sees overwhelmingly positive. I told you, Michael,
you were right. I did not hear one boom. I'm
not gonna lie. I wanted to see a lot of
hatred and derision and signs condemning him for leaving once again,

(02:30:54):
saying why why don't you come back a third time?
Let's do it one more time. But the crowd obviously excited,
they had gotten past their ills and excited about the championship.
They came in and they filled the seats, put money
in the pockets of the owners and the ushers and
concessionaires and everybody else. So it was a good time

(02:31:14):
had by all, except for the final score as Lebron
James and the Lakers breathe a sigh of relief and
escaped with a four point win. Yeah. I was surprised
that there was a narrative coming in that the fans
would do anything other than really just cheer and embrace Lebron. Now, look,
I know in that call, we we didn't hear. We

(02:31:36):
heard the broadcasters say we didn't see hear a single boo.
I'm sure there were some by that type purbile. It's
Lakers Radio, so you know there's there's that, Yes, I
just I always thought that, like Lebron promised a championship
to Cleveland, he brought that. We now know even more
than we already did, how dysfunctional that ownership group is.

(02:31:57):
I mean, there was the big article this week about
how the Kyrie Irving trade went down, and you know
Dan Gilbert's involvement in basketball related decisions, and so I
don't know. I think I think Cleveland fans have always,
at least since the last time Lebron came back, always
understood how things were, how things were gonna go down,

(02:32:18):
and what he did for that organization in the city.
So I was surprised that there was a narrative even
coming in like oh, you know, are they gonna boo him?
And then I saw these people on social media, Oh
what a great reaction, so much class. It's like, well,
that's kind of what. I'm not surprised. This guy did
the job for eleven years, got you a title, got
you a lot of trips to NBA finals, uh, and

(02:32:40):
big time moments made Cleveland sports relevant and brought a
title there. Uh and you you look at it's it's
the breakdown of ownership and players, right, the chasm that
was there and and Lebron James and Gilbert and not
seeing on I nobody ever thought that it was a
happy second marriage. No, right when he came back, that

(02:33:01):
everything had been squashed. No, they've figured out, let's do this,
and we're businessmen and we're pragmatic. Let's figure out how
to make this work. Everybody makes a bunch of money,
everybody's reputation. For Lebron James, it was a big deal,
right because just like we were talking about Kevin Durant
Golden going to Golden State, you had Lebron going to Miami.
Were the Big three assemble and they promised not to

(02:33:24):
not three, not four whatever. But that didn't go over
favorably and he was painted as a villain, which he
bristled at and hated and sulked him out right. I mean, no,
you you formed a super team, whether you like it
or not. You went and you joined the super Friends.
So all you needed was gleep uh and the Wonder Twins.
So really quick on back to Kevin Durant for a second,

(02:33:45):
because we're still gonna We're gonna spend the next six months,
nine months, whatever it is, talking about where his next
stop is. I think he has to be very calculated
if he leaves Golden State, because I don't think to
that point again, Lebron super team Miami, Katie super duper
team in Golden State. And I'm hearing this old maybe

(02:34:05):
Katie will come play with Lebron in l A. I
don't think you can do it. If you're Katie, I
think you gotta go to the Clippers, you gotta go
to the Knicks. You gotta go somewhere to start fresh.
I just I don't buy that. I don't think he
can stay in Golden State with the way things are.
I don't think you come to la always in Lebron's shadow.
I don't think he's gonna embrace it and just show
that's what I mean. Lebron James post game, talking about

(02:34:27):
the reaction of the Cleveland fans and being back in
the land, messed a few times tonight, and he was
talking earlier today about how important it was for him
last year to try and earn your respect. How did
he do that by showing up on time every single day,
putting into work every single day, and being a professional
every single day. Um. Jettie is one of my favorite

(02:34:50):
guys that I played with. You know, it's only a year, Um,
but he's a sponge and you can see that he
has a love of a game. So UM, and my
relationship has h grown even stronger with Jetty. You know,
I've been you know, on on another coast, but I've
been keeping up with him, you know, throughout the season
for him. Um. And Uh, the best thing I told
him tonight, I said, Uh, you finally took my advice.

(02:35:13):
You started wearing nikes. Do you feel for your friends
of the camp, especially the guys you wanted the title
with the this is right now? Absolutely? I mean listen,
I mean, anytime you got a group of guys that
you spent so much time with both on and off
the floor, you know they're going through what they're going
through right now, you definitely feel for that. You know,
some championship, you know, champions over there. These guys have

(02:35:35):
been to the you know, to the finals. Um. A
lot of guys have worked at their tails out to
get to the way are in their career, and uh,
you never want to see your friends be in a
situation that they in. But you know, as professionals, Um,
they're still giving all they got as they show tonight.
So UM, see what happens outside of post game. I
had promised earlier the day. Didn't get to do any
things but home. Yeah, I went home. I went to

(02:35:59):
my home, you know, I went to my home after
I you know, went to my school. Today. I went home.
Was able to you know, eat some eat, pregame, get
a nappy, and just be around my house. Um, and
it just felt very comfortable. So you know that was
good for me. Kids were coming and did not Today
was actual it was grandparents day to day at the school,

(02:36:20):
so we kept it that way. We didn't to a
none of the kids until I actually walked into all
six of the classrooms individually. Uh. I spent a you
know deal amount of time with those classrooms. Uh, you know,
my third and fourth graders, and uh, it was it
was great. It's it's it's a good way to go
into Thanksgiving. Um, you know, all of us being thankful,
you know, um of the great um you know lives
that we have. Well there you go talking about being

(02:36:43):
able to go to the school having a good relationship
with the former teammates whispering in their ears. I'm sorry,
I got you into this situation and then I left.
We'll get into the NFL slate a little bit. Uh.
You know, about five minutes from now, We've got two
more games to discussed. We did Lions and Bears. We've
got Washington Dallas. We've got New Orleans heavy favorites against Atlanta.

(02:37:06):
Do they have a puncher's chance? Aaron Torres and I
will tell you next The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmen here on Fox Sports Training. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon
weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Uh. Yeah,
I get the bubbly flowing, Happy holiday to you, Happy Thanksgiving.

(02:37:27):
We will be back with you, Aaron Torres and I
tomorrow The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen On Mike
Carmen Jason Smith off. For the rest of the week,
we'll be with you breaking down the three NFL games,
the good, the bad, the ugly. We'll play some holiday
fun uh and talk about how much gluttony and what
we consumed and I've got to figure out what I'm
bringing tie shirt for his portion of the Thanksgiving feast.

(02:37:51):
I'm simple, buddy, whatever you got, you're simple. Yeah, I
don't need anything lavish, no, but but I'm all about
showing the love and appreciation because you and I, look,
we're family here. We spend an awful lot of time
staring at each I was gonna say, he's simple. As
long as it's vegan, non sugar, non car meat, no
animal products, it's simple. Every everything I consume is animal products,

(02:38:14):
including water. Somehow I don't know how, but that's an
animal product. I have animal products in my coffee every morning.
So anyways, and yeah, yeah, we're the Felix and Oscar
of Fox Sports Radio here. But it's okay. Guy show
in front of us already stole that. Oh that's right.

(02:38:34):
Maybe that's where I heard it advertisements during the Yeah,
they already took that. Me and me and Tyche were just,
oh no, we can't come up with another guy, and
they may come back here and kick your butt. I'll
see Rob Parker in the morning. He'll be here, see
him bright and early. No question tweeting about that Lions game.
I have no doubt well, he's gonna say something about
mice and the stadium. That's my prediction. Aaron understore are as. Yes,

(02:39:00):
they Rob Parker h Rob Parker fs one on Twitter.
If you want to go see that tweet, I'll find
me over at Swollen Dome. We already talked Bears and
Lions earlier. Some principles, some big time names out in
this one. Carry on Johnson, no Marvin Jones, and obviously
for the Bears, no Mitchell Trabiskie. It's the Chase Daniel world. Uh,

(02:39:21):
and we're just living part of it. Can Can I say?
Really quickly I looked this up. Yeah, Chase Daniel I
hasn't thrown more than four passes. I believe since like
two thousand fourteen, made fourteen million dollars over that stretch.
I will say, I'm a you kind of lum former,
you kind of lum Danilovsky he was the pre eminent
clipboard holder in the NFL for years. I always said

(02:39:43):
he had the best job in the world. Just showed
up to the facility every day, did what he had
to do, getting paid millions. Chase Daniel has taking that
mantel in retirement. Daniel or Sky, Sage Rosenfell's Jim Sorghi
back in the day, remember, because he has the heck
of him Mount Rushmore that didn't they can think well,
but they they helped prepare teams right. And Sergey always

(02:40:04):
had to come in in week sixteen and seventeen when
they do operations shut down for the Colts. So he
would take a couple of hits. Who was the guy
because he was a backup for Payton for years and
then he went and he he was with the Giants
and he was he lies backup. But none of those
guys took days off, so pretty good for him. Who
was it? Scott Tolziene? Was that the guy that holds
that backed up Payton there for a while? That came

(02:40:25):
in during that Andrew Lucky? I know where Lovsky got
some reps there too, No sure, So I mean look
backups and and look, I don't begrudge any man any
woman their money get paid. And if you can get
paid by a team, will will blast the team perhaps
that the money doesn't work out. But I never go
after any player. I'll go after Levy on Bell for
giving up fifteen million dollars because that that's a curious
decision for me, and I hope he sleeps well at

(02:40:47):
night and that's it. But beyond that, you know, I
don't get in between a man a woman and their paycheck. Yeah,
I I I agree. You know. It's funny we had
on Eric Pinkis a few hours ago talking about would
John Wall be a consideration for the Lakers. I love
John Wall, I wrote a boo about him and be
perfectly honest, but what I would say is he's gonna
make like forty seven million next year. That's a guy

(02:41:09):
you need a little bit more leadership out of a
guy that's making close to half of a hundred million. Unfortunately,
leadership wasn't one of the clauses in terms of how
that deal was signed. All right, Washington at Dallas. Dallas
seven and a half point favorites over under this one
a paltry forty point five. Colt McCoy and Mark Sanchez
your quarterbacks for the Washington Redskins behind a beaten down

(02:41:33):
offensive line. Adrian Peterson back in the news talking about
how he's still spanking his children's social media running running
with that one right now? Dallas playing better football since
Marii Cooper showed up, Prescott working downfield, and the defense
has been solid against opposing passers. Here's the thing, Dallas,
Oh and seven, the last seven, thanksgivings against the number

(02:41:54):
there you go to me. This one just feels a
little too on the nose right. Dallas playing well. They're
in perfect shape to get back into a tie for
first place in the NFC East. The red Skins breaking
in the backup quarterback. But as our guests told us earlier,
Colte McCoy runs this offense, knows this offense. I am

(02:42:15):
calling for the upset in Big D. The Redskins go
on the road and at the win I dig that
I'm gonna take Dallas to win the game. But Washington
plus the points. The nightcap Atlanta at New Orleans. Atlanta
was a super Bowl favorite in the preseason. They enter
tomorrow Night's game is thirteen point five point underdogs, the

(02:42:36):
over under sitting at sixty one. The Saints are rolling
trade Kwon Smith your new star emerging alongside Camara and
mark Ingram and of course Michael Thomas. Give me the Saints.
But I'm still gonna take Atlanta with two touchdowns. I'll
make this quick. Mike does does new Orleans still have
Drew Breese. Yeah, he's still quarterback in and the plan

(02:42:56):
at home. Yes, sir, I like the Saints to win
big and Bear is the Felton over under on number
of X is thrown up on touchdowns? Go seven seven over? Wow?
How about that? We're getting forty nine out of New Orleans.
Aratres back with me tomorrow, Right to Jason smit Schell
with Mike Carmen Ben Maller our buddy coming up next

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