July 4, 2025 • 44 mins
Best of The Odd Couple 🎙️ – Rob Parker is joined by Martin Weiss, filling in for Kevin Washington. The duo kicks things off by asking: How old is too old for athletes? They explore the extended careers of LeBron James and other aging stars. Then, it’s a hot debate: Would Shohei Ohtani still be MVP-worthy if he weren’t pitching? They break down whether the Dodgers’ two-way sensation is still meeting his sky-high standards. Finally, Rob and Martin dive into the NBA’s second apron rule and debate whether the league should aim for more parity—like the NFL. Don’t miss this jam-packed highlight reel! 🔥🎧
EP: Producer Shay (Shayan Moghangard)
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Odd Couple podcasts.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday from seven
pm to ten pm Eastern four to seven Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for the Odd
Couple at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You're listening to the best of the Odd Couple.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
That's right, Come on in. I know it's the fourth
of July. This is a live show.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
I am here in living color, and with that password,
you now have.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Full access to this very fine radio program for the
next three hours, not two, not three, thank you, not.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Five, No matter how you're listening Fox Sports Radio, Foxsports
Radio dot Com, the iHeartRadio app, or Sirius XM channel
eighty three.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Say my name Rob Parker, his name Martin, Martin Weiss.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
That's right, and we are indeed the Odd Couple.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Rob park and Martin Weis's in for Kelvin Washington on
this fourth of July. And you will need our phone
number because we are, with our question, the most listener
friendly national sports talk radio show on the planet, even.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
If we don't have Ben Mallo. That's I'm about to
say I'm gonna snitch. That's all right. Ben Malind's gonna
find out about this soon.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
But at least if you said Ben Maller when people
are still awake. So there you go, all right, write
it down. Committed to memory eight seven, seven ninety nine
on Fox eight seven seven nine nine six sixty three
sixty nine.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Why do you like to do new stuff whenever I'm here?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
That's okay, it's all right.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
I feel like you just you're making me look bad
to that.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
No, no, no, you're all good, all right. And as always, remember.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
The Odd Couple was filmed in front of a live audience.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
All right, let's go big show and let me welcome
in colds for today, mister Martin Weiss. Mister Martin Weiss,
how are you doing well? Working for my financial independence?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
On? Is that what you're doing? I'm doing something all right? July?
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Did you guys grill barbecue? Do anything for lunch or
just hanging out today?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Went for a nice walk.
Speaker 6 (02:32):
That's about it, is that your fourth walk to the
coffee shop, came back home, read some stuff on the SPN,
got ready for work, all right, you know that's about it.
Very effestive for the delight. Yes, you know what I'm doing,
and I'm going to see a movie in a cemetery tonight.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Okay, that's real nice?
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Is that your fiance that's romantic in the cemetery.
Speaker 6 (02:51):
Hollywood Cemetery they have these like basically outdoor movie showings, and.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
So she likes to go. Okay, so there we go.
Is it an old movie or something new relatively old?
Speaker 6 (03:01):
I think it's I think it actually might be Top Gun,
the first Top gunka so new to you but old
to everybody else.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I've seen Top Gun. Really, Yes, that's surprising. It came
out in the eighties, right, Yeah, I was.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I went on a date and took somebody's they.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Used to be there.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Used to be like dates when you used to go
to the movies or I don't know if people do
that anymore, but I actually I can remember so many
movies where you know that that back in those days,
you would go out to movies.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Now now you just watch The Golden Girls or Perry Mason.
There you either one.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
All right, let's welcome into the Odd Couple crew, because
we wouldn't be able to do this fine radio program
without him.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Shae is off producer, Shaye, what's happening? Thanks for joining
us here on the holiday. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Steve de Sager is at the anchor desk. He'll keep
us updated throughout the program. And Saga is our social
media guru. He covers social media, uh as he always does.
He does a great job. And on the ones and twos,
(04:10):
there you go, and Mary, of course, our engineer, do
want to give a quick little shout out.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Devin Henderson is with us.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
He is uh just graduated from ASU interning at the
La Daily News.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
That's right, and that's why Shay right your school.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
And yes, indeed, so he's just hanging out with us
and hanging out for the radio business. But he's a
writer and has a bright future in the business. All right, Hey, Martin,
let's do this start with the NBA.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
And I know this is.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
July fourth, and we do want you to get involved
on the show. And if you're driving around, I know
a lot of people having barbecues, hanging out with their
families and whatnot, but there are people in the car, sure,
and we would love to hear from you. So when
you know, when that time comes, please join us. But
I'm wondering about a shelf life for players. And Lebron's
(05:08):
been in the news, of course, with the idea that
he took his money almost fifty three.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Million dollars, And then.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Rich Paul came out and said, he's about winning, and
he's gonna monitor the Lakers and what they're doing, and
this could be his last year with the Lakers and
he could go somewhere else if he wanted to continue
to play, especially if it looks like the Lakers are
going to, you know, build a team around Luca. But
my thing is, I'm starting to see a lot of
(05:37):
comments from people about, you know, Lebron fatigue. Can he
just retire now? You know, stuff like that, like a
big volume. And I thought to myself, is there a
shelf life? Can people get tired of players and players
get to play longer?
Speaker 3 (05:56):
You know, when you look at players like Larry Bird or.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Isaiah Thomas, you know those guys played thirteen years. They
didn't play a long time. Michael Jordan thirteen. Lebron's in it.
What is this twenty first season coming up? And Tom
Brady played twenty one or twenty two seasons, Like you start.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
To look at that. Aaron Rodgers I believe is this
twenty one coming up?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
This is twenty right now, twenty I mean, you know
people are now twenty where guys played thirteen years, they're playing,
you know, a third of the time more than guys
played in the past. And I think that's where you
wind up where people start to take aim at you
because you can stick around too long and people get
(06:41):
tired of you or don't want to hear enough with
the Lebron the stories, I know people got tired of
Tom Brady.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
No matter how great he was.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
There would have detractors who wish he would have retired,
you know, and then every year was like, he's gonna
play again, He's gonna come back. Remember that we had
that with Brett Favre, the same kind of thing, but
it just got tiring. And I feel that way with
Aaron Rodgers. I think there are a lot of people
who would rather him just retire and not play. And
I think he will retire. I do believe that after
this season with Pittsburgh, so that'll probably be the end
(07:11):
of it.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
But where are you on players having a shelf life
and fans tired of Lebron Do you think most fans
want to see Lebron continue to play as long as
he can, or would most rather him bow out.
Speaker 6 (07:28):
I don't think that players have a shelf life in
terms of Darren like, your shelf life is when you
can no longer compete at a high level. To me,
the thing that gets you with Lebron or a Brady
or a Rogers in that it's the dance up. Am
I playing this year? Am I coming back this year?
We got to improve the team build around me. That
(07:51):
general attitude, Like for Steph, like no one is saying
that Steph Curry is overstayed, is welcome. He's just as
old as these guys, Like no one is saying that
about Steph.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
How many years does he plays? Has it been twenty?
Hasn't been?
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Steph curse thirty six years old? So I mean he's right,
but he's not. Lebron's forty going to be forty one, right, right?
Rogers my point, But I think there comes a time
like Steph's not there yet, right If he started at
twenty two, he's got fourteen years, fifteen years something like that,
So we not.
Speaker 6 (08:22):
It's about how you act. It's about how you act,
and it's how you interact with the media. It's about
how you interact with your teammates, about how you interact
with everybody else the other. Tim Duncan, I'm not exactly
sure how long his career was, but when it was
time for him to go and he and he retired,
nobody that year was like, man, if we don't Tim
Duncan's just got to get out of the league. That
wasn't the case. But like the idea that Lebron right
(08:44):
now is kind of being disingenuous, like you locked in
for this fifty one point three or whatever point six
million dollars option and now are playing basically the same playbook.
It feels at least it could be the same paybook
that we've seen several times throughout his career, and at
a certain point in time, there's an annoyance of dude,
(09:06):
sometimes only the top of the guys at the top
can do this, and I'd say Lebron is no longer
necessarily at the top. But you also have to understand
the market around you, where if you're the Lakers, you're
one hundred percent about to build around Luca Doncons who
you just traded for.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Like guys only twenty five years Oh right, you had
the Anthony Davis Lebron era.
Speaker 6 (09:29):
You traded away one of those pieces, and just even
if it wasn't Luca, if it wasn't five times all NBA,
if it wasn't a finals appearance before twenty six years old,
if it wasn't that you broke up the pairing that
you built to win championships to bring in somebody else. Generally,
you're gonna build around the new piece unless you're unless
you're just you know, tanking to try to get a
new draft pick.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I think Lebron also hurts himself the longer he plays
and doesn't win. I do because you start to look
at the years piling up and you still have the
four chanceampionships and you start looking around and you say, well,
Steph has that, you know, like it's not special, Like
if he plays twenty four or twenty five years, right,
I don't know, could he play two more years but
he got twenty.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
Yeah, but that still doesn't take away to me the
way he was able to play at his prime.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, but it's not the same prime. And I'm gonna
say this because people talk about his numbers. Look at
his plus minus. He was like one of the worst players.
So I get it. It's easier to score in the
NBA than ever before. So when you look at his numbers,
they're inflated. They're not like real numbers to me, because
everybody can score and you can't play defense against people.
(10:36):
You can't touch people. So Lebron is able to score.
I don't have that issue. But if you're looking at
plus minus and what he does on the last year,
he was like one of the worst players in the league,
even in the playoffs. I think he was minus fifty
three when he was on the court. So what is
his real impact? Not just looking at raw numbers you
think he's the same players he was ten years ago.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
No, but that's not what I said.
Speaker 6 (10:59):
I said, what's happening right now doesn't invalidate ten years ago.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I'm not validating any conference on lock. Well, he had
no other everybody else was on his team.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
Who was it in the way he was in the
Eastern Conference finals for a decade like he had the
Eastern Conference on lock. That doesn't change what's happening right now,
doesn't change that to me, at least, it doesn't invalidate that.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
To me, I'm not I didn't say validate anything. I'm
just saying, I don't think he's the same player.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
He's not ten years old. That's not expecting him to
be the same.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
I know what, people look at the numbers and they
keep saying twenty five and eight, you know, like Kelvin
and I argue all the time.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Kelvin doesn't look at anything else other than those.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Numbers, and he says, oh, well, Lebron is one of
I think he said, one of the top ten players
in the league.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
I don't think he is.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
Well, he's definitely not one of the worst players in
the league with what you said, and he's not probably
not one of the top seven players in the league.
I can hear an argument for ten, but the idea
where he's like one of the worst players I can't
get with. That is the issue is now, it's the
fifty one million dollars. Ron was playing for fourteen million
dollars the mid level exception, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, I just I think Lebron probably should have bowed
out already. But I get it with the son, he
wanted to hang around for that and that was one
of his reasonings. And now as you go forward, it
just seems weird to me that you would want to
stick around and then, you know, take all the money.
(12:27):
And I'm just saying he's entitled to whatever he wants,
but what is the motivation?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
What is he playing for? If you don't have a
chance to win and you're.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
That age and the idea is more than anything, you
were chasing this Michael Jordan ghost of trying to get
to six championships.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
That's what I don't understand.
Speaker 6 (12:46):
Well, he's playing for the fifty one million dollars that
would be enough to get me to lay some up
one more time to make one.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
But I'm talking about the playing without would you want
to have a chance to win? Like at this age
he's a billionaire, I'm not pulling the money. Anybody else
I would tell you should always take the money and
play for it. But when you get to this level,
to me, it can't be just oh, I want a
fifty one million dollar payroll because payday. Here's the other thing.
(13:13):
Nobody in the league is interested in Lebron James. Despite
his numbers, No one's at that at that figure.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
Yeah, that's the figure that's you said, despite his numbers,
The number that matters is the fifty one million if
lebron that's kind of where it gets to the all right,
Rich Paul, you come up with this statement, all right,
roll my eyes at this, because you could have opted out,
and sure, nobody has massive cap space. Nobody was gonna
sign him for fifty one million dollars. But there's plenty
a mid level of mid level exceptions out there, both
(13:44):
taxpayer and non taxpayer, that.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
He could be on a different team right now if
he wanted to be. Yeah, yeah, just it's surprise. Tag.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Absolutely, people would have taken him for a decent price.
But I see where he I don't see him going anywhere.
I don't see how he could possibly be anywhere but
the Lakers because of that price.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Tag. So do you think this just gut, is this
his last year?
Speaker 6 (14:07):
I' no, I don't, okay, just gut reaction. I'm not
no lean know anything. I don't think it's his last
year unless they go on like some magical run.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
If I put it like this, if he's not a Laker,
it's definitely not his last year, Okay, all right?
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox eight seven seven
nine nine six sixty three sixty nine. Are you tired
of Lebron, Like, seriously, athletes, do you like it when
they hang on and play as long as they can?
Are you from that school, the old school of they
got to rip the uniform off of me? Or do
you think that there's a time and you should know
(14:47):
when it's time to bow out? To get tired of
the same stories, tired of talking about somebody you know?
For two decades, we're still talking about the same guy.
And I remember when Tom Brady retired as far as
the media, it was great, like can we move on
to somebody else now and talk about somebody else? It
had gotten to the point where it's absolutely ridiculous. I
(15:08):
feel the same here with Lebron. But all right, eight seven,
seven ninety nine on Fox, we want to hear from you.
Where are you Lebron players sticking around too long? Should
they know when it's time to bounce out or not?
It is the odd couple On a Funky Flashback Friday,
Rob Parker Martin Wei's inn for Kelvin Washington right here
(15:29):
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 7 (15:30):
Stick and stay unless you aren't tired of Lebron. James
and honestly, everyone that's tired of Lebron James in the USA.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Rob Parker and kelvin Washington weekdays at seven pm Eastern,
four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 8 (15:49):
Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben
Maller with me and a lot to have you join
us on our weekly auditory journey dress What in God's
name is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a
spinoff that Ben Mather show, cult hit overnights on FSR.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Why should you listen?
Speaker 8 (16:05):
Picture if you will, a world where we chat with
captains of industry in media, sports, and more every week
explore some amazing facts about human nature and more. Listen
to The Fifth Hour with Ben Mather or the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yes, sir, it is a fourth of July here on
Fox Sports Radio The Odd Couple, Rob Parker, Martin Weiss
our number two, and be sure to check out the
Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Matter of Fact.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Tomorrow Inside the Parker drops nine am Eastern six am Pacific.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
What am I saying? What's today? Is today? Friday? Today?
Definitely Sorriday. It dropped already, it drops today. I'm thinking
tomorrow's Friday.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yes, So just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube and
you'll see a whole bunch of video highlights from our shows.
Be sure to subscribe so that you never miss our
very best Fox Sports Radio videos on YouTube. Coming up
in about twenty eight minutes, Dana Scott from the Arizona Republic.
He covers the Suns. We'll talk to him about what's
(17:12):
going on. Bradley Beal. There's a lot of talk about that,
Kevin Durant is no longer there, and what else is
going on? Devin Booker and just to you know, what's
happening with the Sun. So we'll catch up with him
as well. Our number two want to talk about baseball.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
This is like the.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Unofficial halfway point of the Major League Baseball season, fourth
of July and you start talking about the MVP race.
Aaron Judge in the American League, not that Cole Raley
(17:47):
isn't there as well. For the Mariners, Martin Witt is
what two more home runs?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Today? Got thirty five? Judge has thirty two.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
But Judge is batting three sixty something, you know, and
having an unbelievable year.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
At the play. So it's not just home runs.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
You know, he's also hitting for average, and we're seeing
average and power and all the other stuff that goes
there where Riley is just Kyle. Riley is pounding the
ball up thirty five home runs at the halfway point,
and we still got about a week or so before
the actual All Star Game.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Could he get the forty or almost? Which is incredible.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
But anyway, I want to talk about the show hal
Tani and the National League MVP, And there was a
recent poll done and when it came to the American
League MVP MLB experts, there were forty three of the
Martin and thirty five gave Aaron Judge the first place vote.
(18:50):
Thirty five of the forty three. When it came to
the American League show, Hay actually got third nine of
the first place votes. Okay, And I'm not so sure
he's having that type of season. And what I mean
(19:10):
by that is last year was so incredible. He batted
three ten fifty, had over fifty home runs, fifty stolen bases.
Nobody had ever done that, knocked in one hundred and
thirty runs, and I just wonder, like when it comes
to show Hey, have we jumped the shark? And he's
(19:32):
gonna get it every year. Remember last year he did
not pitch, but he had a ridiculous year and the
fifty stolen bases is the one that added a new
dimension to what he does. Is it fair to just
every year say he's gonna be the MVP because now
this year he's pitching. Because he pitches and he hits,
(19:54):
and should other people be in the mix? Or because
he does both he automatically is his to lose every year?
Because that's what it feels like. He's batting two eighty
four fifty six RBIs. RBIs are down, batting averages down.
I don't know, he doesn't.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
He doesn't. He doesn't feel like the player that he
was a year ago. I mean, that's fine.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
He also is the best player in the National League
right now, like he's Lesion Allen Homers slugging ops run scored,
and I think the RBI is more of a function
of the back of the Dodgers lineup, and in fact, he's
hitting leadoff.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Think about it, He's hit thirty leadoff one time in
the game.
Speaker 6 (20:36):
Okay, but the back of the lineup, the seven eight,
nine hitters are obviously not if he was hitting fourth
in front of if he's hitting behind Mookie Betts, Will
Smith and Freddie Freeman, he'd have way more rbs. But
he's got a hitting behind Tommy Edmond and uh well,
last year.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
He did that and they had he had one hundred
and thirty RBIs.
Speaker 6 (20:55):
It's also halfway through the year right now, so he's
got fifty six.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
He's got fifty.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
But like so because we're past the eighty one mark, right,
but well, I would not blink twice if show your
tiny finished with over one hundred RBI. He's got thirty
home runs in fifty six RBI to be like, that's
like he's.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Which is ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
That means that most of his home runs are solo
home run, right, So listen to me. That's a function
of the people in front of him being on base
less the actual what he's doing. If he's on pace,
he's got how many I've said thirty a bunch of
times now it's actually, yeah, thirty.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
So he's on pace. Toy hit what fifty seven home runs?
Like if he has fifty seven home runs and hits
two seventy two, seventy five.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Seventy to eighty two seventy Yeah, because he was.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Three ten last year. He doesn't have how many stolen bases.
I'm just saying it at the last year was a mode.
I'm looking at who else? Am I looking at Pete
Carl Armstrong, Kyle Tucker?
Speaker 3 (21:52):
But I'm Cubs.
Speaker 6 (21:53):
I'm not looking at you one of those guys in
terms of like, first of all, they kind of still
votes from each other.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
But I'm not looking at what they're doing about Juan Sota.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
If he's turned it up in the second half, is
it possible. I'm just asking if the Mets make a run,
he's got twenty one home runs.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Yeah, well if if. But also it's the most valuable
player for the whole season.
Speaker 6 (22:11):
Juan Soda was a mystery man for the first what
twenty five games of the year. But that's why it's
that's why El Tany is far and away the NL favorite.
It's it's a lack of competition.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Do you think though, I still think that it has
more to do with him being the dual threat and
they don't even look. And I'm not saying he's not
doing anything, Don't get me wrong, That's not what I'm saying,
I think that because he pitches and hits, people just
think he's the MVP regardless. I mean the way it
just feels like that not based off and it shouldn't
(22:43):
be a fourgone conclusion that because he's gonna win the
MVP the next ten years in a row if he
does both or next eight in a row. I just
I find that to be I think there's gotta be
something where you look at.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
His numbers from year to year. Was it good as good?
Was it worse? You know what I mean? Obviously the
other players got to be a ball. That's what I'm saying.
He's not eating against himself for MVP.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
It's not is this show heal Tony's best year is
shoe hel Tany the best player in the National League.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
But I'll give you a valuable player in the National League.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
And I'll give you a perfect example. What year wasn't
Michael Jordan the MVP in the NBA. I mean, his
numbers couldn't have been more consistent. And that's all I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (23:23):
So I think guys got it wrong, Like the same
reason I think Lebron having the numbers of MVPs he
has is laughable as well.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
I think guys got it wrong. You think Lebron should
have how many?
Speaker 6 (23:34):
I think for the last when Lebron was not the
last few years, No, No, when Lebron the end of
his first Cleveland run to through Miami to back to Cleveland.
I don't think there was a better player in the NBA.
So if your argument is should the best player and
always win the MVP, there you got. I would say,
I think guys got it wrong, like I think they
got it wrong with they got it wrong with Lebron.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
See that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
In those situations, great players, Michael didn't win it every
year even though he would. I don't know who is
better during his run. Maybe somebody had a great year.
And that's what I'm trying to say is with the show, Hey,
it doesn't matter what anybody else is doing, or if
his numbers are as good as it was the year before. Whatever,
they look at it and tell me if I'm wrong
(24:18):
eight seven seven ninety nine Fox. But I just get
the feeling like it doesn't matter what he does, he pitches,
he hits, he's gonna get my vote for MVP because
nobody he's a unicorn because nobody does it.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
I don't think that's fair to the rest of the players.
I really problem is school he may be a unicorn.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
What about tark skoobl and the year is having or
a Schemes who's not hitting gookins.
Speaker 6 (24:42):
That's the thing, though, That's the thing, you know what
I mean? Or a picture of that, but the thing.
That's the thing though. Okay, so somebody who's dominating and pitching. Yes,
if he's pitching, and we'll see o Tiny ramp it
up down the stretch, and if he's pitching X y
Z better than otany and like Otiny's numbers on the
offensive side of the ball are worthy, which they obviously are.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
What he does, he get hurt if he doesn't pitch, Well,
say he loses a few games, he gets knocked around.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Yeah, well you think that if.
Speaker 6 (25:08):
He plays worse than he shouldn't be atop the NL
MVP odds.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
But I agree. But if his offense.
Speaker 6 (25:15):
Is is like, if he's leading the National League in
several offensive categories and the other people in consideration aren't close,
he's got like thirteen more home runs than Tucker and
Armstrong like, he's not Crow Armstrong like, he's not close
in that regard. And on top of that, he is
warming up to pitch. If he turns out and gets
knocked around, it has an ERA of seven and is
(25:36):
zero for five for the Dodgers, then I don't think
his pitching would quantify in that counting.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
But he's the hitting still.
Speaker 6 (25:42):
Should and right now, even if he decided never to
pitch again this season, I think he has a strong
argument to.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Be the MVP.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
I think if he doesn't pitch that people would be
more apt to look at other people. I think as
long as he pitches, he'll always be award to win,
and and somebody would have to beat him out. I
don't believe that, and I don't think that that's I
don't think it should I don't think it should be
like that.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
I don't I don't think it should be like that.
I think you should look at.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Every year individually and not we understand he's a great player,
and and if he stays healthy and continues on his
path a Hall of Famer and all that other stuff.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
That is not my argument eight seven seven ninety nine.
On Fox.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
My argument is, is it just a foregone conclusion. You
know that he's gonna be the MVP because he does
two things and nobody else does that.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
And is that fair? Do you feel like that's fair
to everybody else?
Speaker 1 (26:41):
There's nobody else doing that, So is he automatically the MVP?
That's that's what that's the That's what I'm trying to
get because that's what it feels like to me now,
is like there's no way to unseat him if he's
doing both.
Speaker 6 (26:57):
His offense is enough. He doesn't need to do bow like.
His offense isn't nothing.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
I think if he's not pitching it, Martin, it would
be it would be up more, up more up to
debate if he if he wasn't.
Speaker 6 (27:10):
Pitching's first in ops, first in home run, second in triples,
Like he's just hitting the cover off of the ball.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
He's not first in RBS's not first in batting average.
Speaker 6 (27:20):
There's all the stag But if you're first in home
runs and second in triples, whose fault is it? If
you're like he's clearing the bases, He's cleared the base
is nearly forty times in at bats.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
That to me is what is his batting average? Runners
in scoring position, because that's a more accurate. When people
say it's the bottom of the order. You got to
act like he's never up with anybody on base, or
is he just hitting home runs?
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Are there more to challenge him when there's nobody on base.
Speaker 6 (27:46):
I'll have his numbers in running and scoring position when
we come back from the break.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
But I know this the number for home runs atop
the NL.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
The numbers for triples right there, So if it's runners
of scoring position, they're not there.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Forty eight bats he's clear the basis eight seven, seven
ninety nine. On Fox? Is it fair? Shay? I know?
Is it? Thinks it's fair? Right?
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Show he should be MVP every year. I'm not with it.
I think it should be not just based on him
being a unicorn. It's gotta be based on how he
performs that year.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
It's not a.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Lifetime achievement award. Come on, man. I'm not saying he
doesn't deserve it this year if he plays better, but
I'm just saying it shouldn't be automatic. And that's what
it feels like to me. If I'm wrong, I want
to hear from you. It is the odd couple on
a funky flashback Friday, Rob Parker, Martin weiss In for
(28:41):
Kelvin Washington right here on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Two eighty six with runners on. Okay, that's not that impressive.
Speaker 7 (28:47):
Stick and stay unless you're a show heo tany hater
in the USA.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington weekdays at seven pm
Eastern four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Yes, it's my pleasure to be here to entertain the
masses on a fourth of July. I wouldn't miss it
for the world. Shae, don't roll your eyes at me.
I'm dead serious. It is The Odd Couple. We are live.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
You hear this? Mike, Yes?
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Is this on?
Speaker 3 (29:24):
It is on?
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Rob Parker, Martin weiss In for Kelvin Washington, Kelvin Off
with the Family, Rob g Off, Alex Off, everybody off.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
That's okay. Right after.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Right after the show, our podcast will be going up.
And if you missed any of today's show, be sure
to listen to the podcast. Just search Odd Couple wherever
you get your podcasts, and uh be sure to follow
and review the podcast and rate it at least five Stars.
You know why, Shay, cause we'll white it's right five
(30:00):
stars again. Just search Odd Couple wherever you get your
podcasts and you'll find today's show and the best of
version posted right after we get off the air.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Coming up in about twenty seven minutes.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
It's Mark Funky Cole Madina, of course, a Fox Sports
Radio NBA insider. He joins us and also last call
in case you can't get in or you haven't been
able to get in, you'll have a chance at the
very end of the show to be the last call
on this very program. And Martin Weiss, the show is
(30:35):
flying by on this holiday.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Which is cool. I never.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
I've never been against working on the holidays. Actually, I
think it's easier to work on the holidays.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Depends on which holiday he is and what I at
which one.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, to me, it's it's all about that if I
don't have anything going on, I'm working on a holiday
because it doesn't make sense for me to just sit
on the couch today, even though they would have paid me.
Now I can work easier to get here, you know,
less stuff going on, and then I get a comp
day to go do something when I really want to
use it.
Speaker 6 (31:11):
So this is what I'll pull back the curtain for
everybody who's not familiar with Rob Parker's strategy. Christmas got
no use for it, Thanksgiving, no time for it. Fourth
of July is about the last because this is when
the baseball tour starts. All these comp days, and so
that way I can go, or he could go to
(31:31):
watch the Reds in Cincinnati, then the Tigers in Detroit,
then the Twins in Minneapolis, and then what's another team
of the Rockies in Denver, and then the Diamondbacks in
Arizona and then up the you know from San Diego
to watch the Padres, Angels, Dodgers, all the way up
to the Giants of the Mariners in fourteen days.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
It's because he works for all the holidays.
Speaker 6 (31:52):
He uses all the comp days, so that way he
could take off, you know August fourth, Oh.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
He's gonna be going the whole entire August.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Yeah, I know this August is going to be.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah, between the NABJ National Association of Black Journalists and
I have so much time. Last year they forced me
to take off because they said I was going to
lose the time. So I'm going to take off in August,
right before we get ready for football season and whatnot.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
And I'm thinking in.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
August August August August.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Was like two and a half a world tour basically,
and boy and the other thing too.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
The last thing is before we get into our topic,
do you think Martin, I'll be able to do this.
I want to go dark for three days. I want
to go to Hawaii. I'm going to plug my phone in,
turn it off, just let it charge, talk to my
family and friends, and say, anybody that really needs me,
(32:50):
call the hotel. Here's a hotel number. If there's an emergency,
you call. But other than that, I will have no
outside content.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Who are you? Okay by myself, I'm just gonna go.
Speaker 6 (33:03):
But I don't even know if a hotel even has
that apparatus in place anymore. What what somebody could call
you like to take, like to take and deliver a message? No,
but I mean if I have a blinking light on
the phone said like A.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
I don't know. I've stayed in a hotel, yes, a
couple of days. I don't even think.
Speaker 6 (33:25):
There was I'm trying to remember there was even if
there was a phone in the room, there was.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
A phone I just had them call me to wake
me up make sure I miss my flight. Like they
still do the wake up calls, they still give you messages.
My point is, do you think I'm gonna be able
to survive for three days without any contact on social media, phone, three.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
Hours on the show, without being on your phone.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
I could do it easily, without a doubt, without a doubt. Shay,
you can too.
Speaker 9 (33:53):
Yeah, No, easy, easy, especially if I'm on vacation. Easy.
Speaker 6 (33:59):
I have not not I say I would have anxiety
knowing I had somewhere to be or something.
Speaker 9 (34:03):
Yeah, Like if I'm at work, then I'm gonna be like, oh,
I'm gonna check my phone. But if I'm like gone
on vacation, I got nowhere to be. I'm chilling like
I don't want to look at my phone.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
It's easy. You'll have a good time. You don't even
think about your phone.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Well, see, and everybody gets on me about my phone.
But I'm getting information and knowledge.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
I'm not.
Speaker 7 (34:21):
I'm not talking to you, know, dang well you're texting
Lady's stop it.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
It's just it's just knowledge, all right, Mar We're gonna
finish up this final hour to program.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
You feel like Okay, I got it. I got it.
Speaker 6 (34:36):
So Grant Williams was on a podcast. Uh you know
what what is it called? It's done by actually one
of my USC cohort, like one of my classmates, and
I've randomly saw her posters on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Well, now you're a USC guy, not a Michigan guy.
Does does the master trump the underground?
Speaker 6 (34:56):
I'm just asking, no, the connection that I had with
one of Lachelle's Smith as I met her at us C. No,
I'm just asking I got the football team I root
for the answers Michigan. If you asked me where I
went to college and met Michelle Smith at the us C.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
What school? When you talk to people, what school do
you say you went to? Miss where I went to school?
I'm not you.
Speaker 6 (35:14):
I don't do that dance of like, oh my more
impressive quote unquote.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
School you're talking about? Undergrad is where you went to school?
I'm a undergrad? Is where you went to see I'm
a Southern Connecticut guy. What are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Exactly exactly, I'm not at Southern Connecticut State University in
New Haven, Connecticut.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
Where'd you get your undergrad?
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Though? That's why I got onto that.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
So when people ask you where'd you go to school,
you say that.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
I went to Missouri.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
No, no, no, I say I went to Southern Connecticut
and Columbia.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Those are the two schools I went to. All right,
you're ready. Yes.
Speaker 6 (35:47):
So Lachelle Smith had Grant Williams on her podcast, and
on this podcast, Grant Williams said, you know, basically, all
this conversation has been the players have been getting taken
to the cleaners in this new CBA, this new second apron.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Well, who signed, who signed that agreement the CBA, He's
one of the people. That's what I'm saying that I'm
just I'm setting it just kills me, like the union,
you agree to this, go ahead.
Speaker 6 (36:14):
So he's saying that basically, and he goes and brings
up a talking point that I've heard Adam Silver say
several times across like different places. And to me, this
shows that the nf the NBA Players Association, the Players Union,
which is one of the stronger ones in professional sports,
got taken to the cleaners. For sure, because I first
(36:37):
heard Adam Silver say this on breakfast Ball, the show
on that FS one.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
I never missed breakfast Ball.
Speaker 6 (36:42):
If we're going to have a Super Bowl and it's
Packers verse Deelers.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
You guys will celebrate that.
Speaker 6 (36:48):
No one would talk about Pittsburgh being a small market
or green Bay being a small market. It's been intentional
to create a CBA that allows more teams to compete.
Grant then said this is from breakfast a month and
a half ago. Grant Williams said yesterday on this podcast
that you know between the second apron being the way
(37:09):
it is, and between the second apron being the way
it is and parody being the way it is, that
it's easier now for NFL. Like the NFL parody is
the reason why people are locked in, and now the
NBA is gonna have more parody because of it, and
also saying that these taxes help benefit basketball because if
you look at baseball, baseball pays there. You know, they
(37:30):
can just pay for whatever they're looking for. Right in
terms of the Dodgers, Yankees, whoever, the highest paid teams
of the teams that end up in the World Series
are the ones that are the most successful. And my
whole thing is why if you are basketball, are you
trying to be like any other like you should not
be like baseball? You should not be like football. The
thing that why baseball works the way it does is
(37:51):
because in the the big one hundred and sixty two
inventory of the regular season, you have to have these
big event feeling type of moments where you have five
three all stars on one side, three all stars on
the other side. Let's watch them play a weekend series.
When the Dodgers play the Yankees, people are locked in.
When the Dodgers go play the Padres, people are locked
(38:13):
in because those are big names, big series. Might lose
a little bit on the on the Rockies the Rockies
White Sox game today, but the reality is that's the
way baseball is going to have to be.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
In football, it's.
Speaker 6 (38:26):
The scarcity of games is the reason why it matters,
because you could be seven and five or five and
seven and still make a run because you're only playing
seventeen games. The NBA needs to find its own way
instead of trying to copy what made other sports popular.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
And it's just it's just whacked to me.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
I didn't buy his comparison because under breakfast ball, I
don't know what they said or follow up the small market.
He could say, the Packers, what do you say the Packers.
And so those are two storied franchises, okay, like Story.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
OKC and Indiana. They haven't won anything.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Like it's not a fair comparison to look at the
markets and say, well it was those teams playing, you
wouldn't think anything of it.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Well, there's a big difference.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
And in the NBA's history, would you call the Spurs
a great organization?
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Right?
Speaker 1 (39:19):
They won five championship in twenty tes okay, and they
have three of the lowest rated NBA finals. Why why
could they weren't a good team? No, it's small markets
matter in the NBA. We just watched the lowest rated
NBA finals since the since the COVID. But I don't
even I disagree with that premise because when so like
(39:41):
you think about this, I'm thirty five, okay, so that
for the majority of my life I should have said
the majority I said a third of my life. Cleveland
was the epicenter of the NBA, and nobody was crying
for Cleveland.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
But nobody was saying.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Oh my god, got get if you have an old
you have an all time you have an all time
great because I can.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Get because no point on it. If you have an
all time great and a small well.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Most people don't have an all time I'm just saying
the market size does matter. I'll give you a better one.
The New Jersey Nets went to two finals. They're part
of the worst rated finals too when they played. The
reason is that they're in New Jersey, but they were
considered a small market because they don't have a television
market Martin.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
They don't have a big enough fan base. So they
got to the finals.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
They had an exciting team, carried kittles, all the stuff,
and they still didn't rate.
Speaker 6 (40:33):
Right because they didn't have an all time great or
sustained period.
Speaker 3 (40:38):
Because I'm talking about the market size.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
The Cleveland was different from the standpoint, but Lebron left
there because he felt he couldn't get anybody to come
supposedly to Cleveland, right, and that wasments.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
But that's not what they're talking about.
Speaker 6 (40:53):
They're talking about people having the ability to compete because
of parody, not because like, oh you can't get this
guy to come here. You are in this point the
ratings are so low, Like if you have the stars,
if you have people who deem to be the best
in this sport, and those stars are also charismatic, I
think that's the biggest problem that's come across the NBA
(41:15):
in the last five years. Giannis is the most decently charismatic,
but Jokic is boring and has no interest in being
on television and being an entertainer.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
Like Steph Curry.
Speaker 6 (41:24):
You know, he's as an entertaining style of play, but
I would not say he is an entertaining personality. He's
I would I'm not calling Steph an entertaining personality.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
He's boring. Yeah, his style of play is not boring.
Speaker 6 (41:37):
But in terms of the personality, Anthony Edwards to me,
he has a ton of personality and an exciting style
of play.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
And but you look at the Packers.
Speaker 6 (41:45):
What made the Packers the packers for Adam Silver or
what makes the small market franchises that are pillars in
the NFL the pillars that they are.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
It's historically they had the success.
Speaker 6 (41:55):
The first two MVPs were from Green Bell, the first
two Super Bowls were won in green and they have
been a contender.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Like oh, but that's not the point that I'm making
built But to the point, that's what built them up.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
You know what I'm saying, right, but you can't.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
But you can't look at Indiana that's never won anything,
or or okay, see that's a new franchise, and put
them on par with the Steelers and with the Packers,
and saying just going by markets because it's not just that.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Uh they thought that.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
A perfect example is Jacksonville was supposed to be the Packers.
Oh you're able to do it in green Bay, right,
with a small market, So let's go put a team
in Jacksonville. Has it been as successful. No, that's why
they played three of their games in Europe every year
because they can't sell tickets, and and it's it's a
small market and they haven't won, and they haven't been
(42:46):
able to sustain success.
Speaker 9 (42:49):
Wait you think that they the only reason they're in
Europe is because they can't sell tickets.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Oh, that's part of it. It's a big reason. No,
it's it is that they picked them. But the owner
also to London. Oh yeah, I get that.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
No, no, no, but I'm saying for them to have three games,
they've had way more than anybody because they don't sell
they don't do well there. Yeah, that's all I'm saying.
In Jacksonville, right, that was a model. Green Bay was
supposed to be the model for why Jacksonville would work.
And I bet you if you told them if they
could move somewhere else, they probably would at this point.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
All right?
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox eight seven seven
nine nine.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Six sixty three sixty nine.
Speaker 6 (43:30):
Your your question is should the should the NBA try
to be more like the NFL or like Major League
Baseball and in that trying to enhance the parody like
the NFL has are trying to eliminate some of these
for Peter taxes and luxury taxes that exist are make
those peniments so punitive that you don't see the stars
(43:54):
lining up. You look at the Dodgers, they have five
All Stars or six All Stars.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
The NBA says that's a bad thing. Do you agree?
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Eight seven seven ninety nine On Fox, It is the
couple Rob Parker Martin Weiss on a funky flashback Friday.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
Right here on Fox Sports Radio, Stick and Stay America
Thanks for listening to the best of the Odd Couple podcasts.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday from seven
pm to ten pm Eastern four to seven Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for the Odd
Couple at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You're listening to the best of the Odd Couple.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
That's right, Come on in. I know it's the fourth
of July. This is a live show.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
I am here in living color, and with that password,
you now have.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Full access to this very fine radio program for the
next three hours, not two, not three, thank you, not.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Five, No matter how you're listening Fox Sports Radio, Foxsports
Radio dot Com, the iHeartRadio app, or Sirius XM channel
eighty three.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Say my name Rob Parker, his name Martin, Martin Weiss.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
That's right, and we are indeed the Odd Couple.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Rob park and Martin Weis's in for Kelvin Washington on
this fourth of July. And you will need our phone
number because we are, with our question, the most listener
friendly national sports talk radio show on the planet, even.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
If we don't have Ben Mallo. That's I'm about to
say I'm gonna snitch. That's all right. Ben Malind's gonna
find out about this soon.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
But at least if you said Ben Maller when people
are still awake. So there you go, all right, write
it down. Committed to memory eight seven, seven ninety nine
on Fox eight seven seven nine nine six sixty three
sixty nine.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Why do you like to do new stuff whenever I'm here?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
That's okay, it's all right.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
I feel like you just you're making me look bad
to that.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
No, no, no, you're all good, all right. And as always, remember.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
The Odd Couple was filmed in front of a live audience.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
All right, let's go big show and let me welcome
in colds for today, mister Martin Weiss. Mister Martin Weiss,
how are you doing well? Working for my financial independence?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
On? Is that what you're doing? I'm doing something all right? July?
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Did you guys grill barbecue? Do anything for lunch or
just hanging out today?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Went for a nice walk.
Speaker 6 (02:32):
That's about it, is that your fourth walk to the
coffee shop, came back home, read some stuff on the SPN,
got ready for work, all right, you know that's about it.
Very effestive for the delight. Yes, you know what I'm doing,
and I'm going to see a movie in a cemetery tonight.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Okay, that's real nice?
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Is that your fiance that's romantic in the cemetery.
Speaker 6 (02:51):
Hollywood Cemetery they have these like basically outdoor movie showings, and.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
So she likes to go. Okay, so there we go.
Is it an old movie or something new relatively old?
Speaker 6 (03:01):
I think it's I think it actually might be Top Gun,
the first Top gunka so new to you but old
to everybody else.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I've seen Top Gun. Really, Yes, that's surprising. It came
out in the eighties, right, Yeah, I was.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I went on a date and took somebody's they.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Used to be there.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Used to be like dates when you used to go
to the movies or I don't know if people do
that anymore, but I actually I can remember so many
movies where you know that that back in those days,
you would go out to movies.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Now now you just watch The Golden Girls or Perry Mason.
There you either one.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
All right, let's welcome into the Odd Couple crew, because
we wouldn't be able to do this fine radio program
without him.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Shae is off producer, Shaye, what's happening? Thanks for joining
us here on the holiday. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Steve de Sager is at the anchor desk. He'll keep
us updated throughout the program. And Saga is our social
media guru. He covers social media, uh as he always does.
He does a great job. And on the ones and twos,
(04:10):
there you go, and Mary, of course, our engineer, do
want to give a quick little shout out.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Devin Henderson is with us.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
He is uh just graduated from ASU interning at the
La Daily News.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
That's right, and that's why Shay right your school.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
And yes, indeed, so he's just hanging out with us
and hanging out for the radio business. But he's a
writer and has a bright future in the business. All right, Hey, Martin,
let's do this start with the NBA.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
And I know this is.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
July fourth, and we do want you to get involved
on the show. And if you're driving around, I know
a lot of people having barbecues, hanging out with their
families and whatnot, but there are people in the car, sure,
and we would love to hear from you. So when
you know, when that time comes, please join us. But
I'm wondering about a shelf life for players. And Lebron's
(05:08):
been in the news, of course, with the idea that
he took his money almost fifty three.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Million dollars, And then.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Rich Paul came out and said, he's about winning, and
he's gonna monitor the Lakers and what they're doing, and
this could be his last year with the Lakers and
he could go somewhere else if he wanted to continue
to play, especially if it looks like the Lakers are
going to, you know, build a team around Luca. But
my thing is, I'm starting to see a lot of
(05:37):
comments from people about, you know, Lebron fatigue. Can he
just retire now? You know, stuff like that, like a
big volume. And I thought to myself, is there a
shelf life? Can people get tired of players and players
get to play longer?
Speaker 3 (05:56):
You know, when you look at players like Larry Bird or.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Isaiah Thomas, you know those guys played thirteen years. They
didn't play a long time. Michael Jordan thirteen. Lebron's in it.
What is this twenty first season coming up? And Tom
Brady played twenty one or twenty two seasons, Like you start.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
To look at that. Aaron Rodgers I believe is this
twenty one coming up?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
This is twenty right now, twenty I mean, you know
people are now twenty where guys played thirteen years, they're playing,
you know, a third of the time more than guys
played in the past. And I think that's where you
wind up where people start to take aim at you
because you can stick around too long and people get
(06:41):
tired of you or don't want to hear enough with
the Lebron the stories, I know people got tired of
Tom Brady.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
No matter how great he was.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
There would have detractors who wish he would have retired,
you know, and then every year was like, he's gonna
play again, He's gonna come back. Remember that we had
that with Brett Favre, the same kind of thing, but
it just got tiring. And I feel that way with
Aaron Rodgers. I think there are a lot of people
who would rather him just retire and not play. And
I think he will retire. I do believe that after
this season with Pittsburgh, so that'll probably be the end
(07:11):
of it.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
But where are you on players having a shelf life
and fans tired of Lebron Do you think most fans
want to see Lebron continue to play as long as
he can, or would most rather him bow out.
Speaker 6 (07:28):
I don't think that players have a shelf life in
terms of Darren like, your shelf life is when you
can no longer compete at a high level. To me,
the thing that gets you with Lebron or a Brady
or a Rogers in that it's the dance up. Am
I playing this year? Am I coming back this year?
We got to improve the team build around me. That
(07:51):
general attitude, Like for Steph, like no one is saying
that Steph Curry is overstayed, is welcome. He's just as
old as these guys, Like no one is saying that
about Steph.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
How many years does he plays? Has it been twenty?
Hasn't been?
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Steph curse thirty six years old? So I mean he's right,
but he's not. Lebron's forty going to be forty one, right, right?
Rogers my point, But I think there comes a time
like Steph's not there yet, right If he started at
twenty two, he's got fourteen years, fifteen years something like that,
So we not.
Speaker 6 (08:22):
It's about how you act. It's about how you act,
and it's how you interact with the media. It's about
how you interact with your teammates, about how you interact
with everybody else the other. Tim Duncan, I'm not exactly
sure how long his career was, but when it was
time for him to go and he and he retired,
nobody that year was like, man, if we don't Tim
Duncan's just got to get out of the league. That
wasn't the case. But like the idea that Lebron right
(08:44):
now is kind of being disingenuous, like you locked in
for this fifty one point three or whatever point six
million dollars option and now are playing basically the same playbook.
It feels at least it could be the same paybook
that we've seen several times throughout his career, and at
a certain point in time, there's an annoyance of dude,
(09:06):
sometimes only the top of the guys at the top
can do this, and I'd say Lebron is no longer
necessarily at the top. But you also have to understand
the market around you, where if you're the Lakers, you're
one hundred percent about to build around Luca Doncons who
you just traded for.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Like guys only twenty five years Oh right, you had
the Anthony Davis Lebron era.
Speaker 6 (09:29):
You traded away one of those pieces, and just even
if it wasn't Luca, if it wasn't five times all NBA,
if it wasn't a finals appearance before twenty six years old,
if it wasn't that you broke up the pairing that
you built to win championships to bring in somebody else. Generally,
you're gonna build around the new piece unless you're unless
you're just you know, tanking to try to get a
new draft pick.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I think Lebron also hurts himself the longer he plays
and doesn't win. I do because you start to look
at the years piling up and you still have the
four chanceampionships and you start looking around and you say, well,
Steph has that, you know, like it's not special, Like
if he plays twenty four or twenty five years, right,
I don't know, could he play two more years but
he got twenty.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
Yeah, but that still doesn't take away to me the
way he was able to play at his prime.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, but it's not the same prime. And I'm gonna
say this because people talk about his numbers. Look at
his plus minus. He was like one of the worst players.
So I get it. It's easier to score in the
NBA than ever before. So when you look at his numbers,
they're inflated. They're not like real numbers to me, because
everybody can score and you can't play defense against people.
(10:36):
You can't touch people. So Lebron is able to score.
I don't have that issue. But if you're looking at
plus minus and what he does on the last year,
he was like one of the worst players in the league,
even in the playoffs. I think he was minus fifty
three when he was on the court. So what is
his real impact? Not just looking at raw numbers you
think he's the same players he was ten years ago.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
No, but that's not what I said.
Speaker 6 (10:59):
I said, what's happening right now doesn't invalidate ten years ago.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I'm not validating any conference on lock. Well, he had
no other everybody else was on his team.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
Who was it in the way he was in the
Eastern Conference finals for a decade like he had the
Eastern Conference on lock. That doesn't change what's happening right now,
doesn't change that to me, at least, it doesn't invalidate that.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
To me, I'm not I didn't say validate anything. I'm
just saying, I don't think he's the same player.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
He's not ten years old. That's not expecting him to
be the same.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
I know what, people look at the numbers and they
keep saying twenty five and eight, you know, like Kelvin
and I argue all the time.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Kelvin doesn't look at anything else other than those.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Numbers, and he says, oh, well, Lebron is one of
I think he said, one of the top ten players
in the league.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
I don't think he is.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
Well, he's definitely not one of the worst players in
the league with what you said, and he's not probably
not one of the top seven players in the league.
I can hear an argument for ten, but the idea
where he's like one of the worst players I can't
get with. That is the issue is now, it's the
fifty one million dollars. Ron was playing for fourteen million
dollars the mid level exception, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, I just I think Lebron probably should have bowed
out already. But I get it with the son, he
wanted to hang around for that and that was one
of his reasonings. And now as you go forward, it
just seems weird to me that you would want to
stick around and then, you know, take all the money.
(12:27):
And I'm just saying he's entitled to whatever he wants,
but what is the motivation?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
What is he playing for? If you don't have a
chance to win and you're.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
That age and the idea is more than anything, you
were chasing this Michael Jordan ghost of trying to get
to six championships.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
That's what I don't understand.
Speaker 6 (12:46):
Well, he's playing for the fifty one million dollars that
would be enough to get me to lay some up
one more time to make one.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
But I'm talking about the playing without would you want
to have a chance to win? Like at this age
he's a billionaire, I'm not pulling the money. Anybody else
I would tell you should always take the money and
play for it. But when you get to this level,
to me, it can't be just oh, I want a
fifty one million dollar payroll because payday. Here's the other thing.
(13:13):
Nobody in the league is interested in Lebron James. Despite
his numbers, No one's at that at that figure.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
Yeah, that's the figure that's you said, despite his numbers,
The number that matters is the fifty one million if
lebron that's kind of where it gets to the all right,
Rich Paul, you come up with this statement, all right,
roll my eyes at this, because you could have opted out,
and sure, nobody has massive cap space. Nobody was gonna
sign him for fifty one million dollars. But there's plenty
a mid level of mid level exceptions out there, both
(13:44):
taxpayer and non taxpayer, that.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
He could be on a different team right now if
he wanted to be. Yeah, yeah, just it's surprise. Tag.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Absolutely, people would have taken him for a decent price.
But I see where he I don't see him going anywhere.
I don't see how he could possibly be anywhere but
the Lakers because of that price.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Tag. So do you think this just gut, is this
his last year?
Speaker 6 (14:07):
I' no, I don't, okay, just gut reaction. I'm not
no lean know anything. I don't think it's his last
year unless they go on like some magical run.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
If I put it like this, if he's not a Laker,
it's definitely not his last year, Okay, all right?
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox eight seven seven
nine nine six sixty three sixty nine. Are you tired
of Lebron, Like, seriously, athletes, do you like it when
they hang on and play as long as they can?
Are you from that school, the old school of they
got to rip the uniform off of me? Or do
you think that there's a time and you should know
(14:47):
when it's time to bow out? To get tired of
the same stories, tired of talking about somebody you know?
For two decades, we're still talking about the same guy.
And I remember when Tom Brady retired as far as
the media, it was great, like can we move on
to somebody else now and talk about somebody else? It
had gotten to the point where it's absolutely ridiculous. I
(15:08):
feel the same here with Lebron. But all right, eight seven,
seven ninety nine on Fox, we want to hear from you.
Where are you Lebron players sticking around too long? Should
they know when it's time to bounce out or not?
It is the odd couple On a Funky Flashback Friday,
Rob Parker Martin Wei's inn for Kelvin Washington right here
(15:29):
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 7 (15:30):
Stick and stay unless you aren't tired of Lebron. James
and honestly, everyone that's tired of Lebron James in the USA.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Rob Parker and kelvin Washington weekdays at seven pm Eastern,
four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 8 (15:49):
Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben
Maller with me and a lot to have you join
us on our weekly auditory journey dress What in God's
name is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a
spinoff that Ben Mather show, cult hit overnights on FSR.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Why should you listen?
Speaker 8 (16:05):
Picture if you will, a world where we chat with
captains of industry in media, sports, and more every week
explore some amazing facts about human nature and more. Listen
to The Fifth Hour with Ben Mather or the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yes, sir, it is a fourth of July here on
Fox Sports Radio The Odd Couple, Rob Parker, Martin Weiss
our number two, and be sure to check out the
Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Matter of Fact.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Tomorrow Inside the Parker drops nine am Eastern six am Pacific.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
What am I saying? What's today? Is today? Friday? Today?
Definitely Sorriday. It dropped already, it drops today. I'm thinking
tomorrow's Friday.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yes, So just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube and
you'll see a whole bunch of video highlights from our shows.
Be sure to subscribe so that you never miss our
very best Fox Sports Radio videos on YouTube. Coming up
in about twenty eight minutes, Dana Scott from the Arizona Republic.
He covers the Suns. We'll talk to him about what's
(17:12):
going on. Bradley Beal. There's a lot of talk about that,
Kevin Durant is no longer there, and what else is
going on? Devin Booker and just to you know, what's
happening with the Sun. So we'll catch up with him
as well. Our number two want to talk about baseball.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
This is like the.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Unofficial halfway point of the Major League Baseball season, fourth
of July and you start talking about the MVP race.
Aaron Judge in the American League, not that Cole Raley
(17:47):
isn't there as well. For the Mariners, Martin Witt is
what two more home runs?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Today? Got thirty five? Judge has thirty two.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
But Judge is batting three sixty something, you know, and
having an unbelievable year.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
At the play. So it's not just home runs.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
You know, he's also hitting for average, and we're seeing
average and power and all the other stuff that goes
there where Riley is just Kyle. Riley is pounding the
ball up thirty five home runs at the halfway point,
and we still got about a week or so before
the actual All Star Game.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Could he get the forty or almost? Which is incredible.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
But anyway, I want to talk about the show hal
Tani and the National League MVP, And there was a
recent poll done and when it came to the American
League MVP MLB experts, there were forty three of the
Martin and thirty five gave Aaron Judge the first place vote.
(18:50):
Thirty five of the forty three. When it came to
the American League show, Hay actually got third nine of
the first place votes. Okay, And I'm not so sure
he's having that type of season. And what I mean
(19:10):
by that is last year was so incredible. He batted
three ten fifty, had over fifty home runs, fifty stolen bases.
Nobody had ever done that, knocked in one hundred and
thirty runs, and I just wonder, like when it comes
to show Hey, have we jumped the shark? And he's
(19:32):
gonna get it every year. Remember last year he did
not pitch, but he had a ridiculous year and the
fifty stolen bases is the one that added a new
dimension to what he does. Is it fair to just
every year say he's gonna be the MVP because now
this year he's pitching. Because he pitches and he hits,
(19:54):
and should other people be in the mix? Or because
he does both he automatically is his to lose every year?
Because that's what it feels like. He's batting two eighty
four fifty six RBIs. RBIs are down, batting averages down.
I don't know, he doesn't.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
He doesn't. He doesn't feel like the player that he
was a year ago. I mean, that's fine.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
He also is the best player in the National League
right now, like he's Lesion Allen Homers slugging ops run scored,
and I think the RBI is more of a function
of the back of the Dodgers lineup, and in fact, he's
hitting leadoff.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Think about it, He's hit thirty leadoff one time in
the game.
Speaker 6 (20:36):
Okay, but the back of the lineup, the seven eight,
nine hitters are obviously not if he was hitting fourth
in front of if he's hitting behind Mookie Betts, Will
Smith and Freddie Freeman, he'd have way more rbs. But
he's got a hitting behind Tommy Edmond and uh well,
last year.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
He did that and they had he had one hundred
and thirty RBIs.
Speaker 6 (20:55):
It's also halfway through the year right now, so he's
got fifty six.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
He's got fifty.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
But like so because we're past the eighty one mark, right,
but well, I would not blink twice if show your
tiny finished with over one hundred RBI. He's got thirty
home runs in fifty six RBI to be like, that's
like he's.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Which is ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
That means that most of his home runs are solo
home run, right, So listen to me. That's a function
of the people in front of him being on base
less the actual what he's doing. If he's on pace,
he's got how many I've said thirty a bunch of
times now it's actually, yeah, thirty.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
So he's on pace. Toy hit what fifty seven home runs?
Like if he has fifty seven home runs and hits
two seventy two, seventy five.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Seventy to eighty two seventy Yeah, because he was.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Three ten last year. He doesn't have how many stolen bases.
I'm just saying it at the last year was a mode.
I'm looking at who else? Am I looking at Pete
Carl Armstrong, Kyle Tucker?
Speaker 3 (21:52):
But I'm Cubs.
Speaker 6 (21:53):
I'm not looking at you one of those guys in
terms of like, first of all, they kind of still
votes from each other.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
But I'm not looking at what they're doing about Juan Sota.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
If he's turned it up in the second half, is
it possible. I'm just asking if the Mets make a run,
he's got twenty one home runs.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Yeah, well if if. But also it's the most valuable
player for the whole season.
Speaker 6 (22:11):
Juan Soda was a mystery man for the first what
twenty five games of the year. But that's why it's
that's why El Tany is far and away the NL favorite.
It's it's a lack of competition.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Do you think though, I still think that it has
more to do with him being the dual threat and
they don't even look. And I'm not saying he's not
doing anything, Don't get me wrong, That's not what I'm saying,
I think that because he pitches and hits, people just
think he's the MVP regardless. I mean the way it
just feels like that not based off and it shouldn't
(22:43):
be a fourgone conclusion that because he's gonna win the
MVP the next ten years in a row if he
does both or next eight in a row. I just
I find that to be I think there's gotta be
something where you look at.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
His numbers from year to year. Was it good as good?
Was it worse? You know what I mean? Obviously the
other players got to be a ball. That's what I'm saying.
He's not eating against himself for MVP.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
It's not is this show heal Tony's best year is
shoe hel Tany the best player in the National League.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
But I'll give you a valuable player in the National League.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
And I'll give you a perfect example. What year wasn't
Michael Jordan the MVP in the NBA. I mean, his
numbers couldn't have been more consistent. And that's all I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (23:23):
So I think guys got it wrong, Like the same
reason I think Lebron having the numbers of MVPs he
has is laughable as well.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
I think guys got it wrong. You think Lebron should
have how many?
Speaker 6 (23:34):
I think for the last when Lebron was not the
last few years, No, No, when Lebron the end of
his first Cleveland run to through Miami to back to Cleveland.
I don't think there was a better player in the NBA.
So if your argument is should the best player and
always win the MVP, there you got. I would say,
I think guys got it wrong, like I think they
got it wrong with they got it wrong with Lebron.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
See that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
In those situations, great players, Michael didn't win it every
year even though he would. I don't know who is
better during his run. Maybe somebody had a great year.
And that's what I'm trying to say is with the show, Hey,
it doesn't matter what anybody else is doing, or if
his numbers are as good as it was the year before. Whatever,
they look at it and tell me if I'm wrong
(24:18):
eight seven seven ninety nine Fox. But I just get
the feeling like it doesn't matter what he does, he pitches,
he hits, he's gonna get my vote for MVP because
nobody he's a unicorn because nobody does it.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
I don't think that's fair to the rest of the players.
I really problem is school he may be a unicorn.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
What about tark skoobl and the year is having or
a Schemes who's not hitting gookins.
Speaker 6 (24:42):
That's the thing, though, That's the thing, you know what
I mean? Or a picture of that, but the thing.
That's the thing though. Okay, so somebody who's dominating and pitching. Yes,
if he's pitching, and we'll see o Tiny ramp it
up down the stretch, and if he's pitching X y
Z better than otany and like Otiny's numbers on the
offensive side of the ball are worthy, which they obviously are.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
What he does, he get hurt if he doesn't pitch, Well,
say he loses a few games, he gets knocked around.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Yeah, well you think that if.
Speaker 6 (25:08):
He plays worse than he shouldn't be atop the NL
MVP odds.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
But I agree. But if his offense.
Speaker 6 (25:15):
Is is like, if he's leading the National League in
several offensive categories and the other people in consideration aren't close,
he's got like thirteen more home runs than Tucker and
Armstrong like, he's not Crow Armstrong like, he's not close
in that regard. And on top of that, he is
warming up to pitch. If he turns out and gets
knocked around, it has an ERA of seven and is
(25:36):
zero for five for the Dodgers, then I don't think
his pitching would quantify in that counting.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
But he's the hitting still.
Speaker 6 (25:42):
Should and right now, even if he decided never to
pitch again this season, I think he has a strong
argument to.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Be the MVP.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
I think if he doesn't pitch that people would be
more apt to look at other people. I think as
long as he pitches, he'll always be award to win,
and and somebody would have to beat him out. I
don't believe that, and I don't think that that's I
don't think it should I don't think it should be
like that.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
I don't I don't think it should be like that.
I think you should look at.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Every year individually and not we understand he's a great player,
and and if he stays healthy and continues on his
path a Hall of Famer and all that other stuff.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
That is not my argument eight seven seven ninety nine.
On Fox.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
My argument is, is it just a foregone conclusion. You
know that he's gonna be the MVP because he does
two things and nobody else does that.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
And is that fair? Do you feel like that's fair
to everybody else?
Speaker 1 (26:41):
There's nobody else doing that, So is he automatically the MVP?
That's that's what that's the That's what I'm trying to
get because that's what it feels like to me now,
is like there's no way to unseat him if he's
doing both.
Speaker 6 (26:57):
His offense is enough. He doesn't need to do bow like.
His offense isn't nothing.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
I think if he's not pitching it, Martin, it would
be it would be up more, up more up to
debate if he if he wasn't.
Speaker 6 (27:10):
Pitching's first in ops, first in home run, second in triples,
Like he's just hitting the cover off of the ball.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
He's not first in RBS's not first in batting average.
Speaker 6 (27:20):
There's all the stag But if you're first in home
runs and second in triples, whose fault is it? If
you're like he's clearing the bases, He's cleared the base
is nearly forty times in at bats.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
That to me is what is his batting average? Runners
in scoring position, because that's a more accurate. When people
say it's the bottom of the order. You got to
act like he's never up with anybody on base, or
is he just hitting home runs?
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Are there more to challenge him when there's nobody on base.
Speaker 6 (27:46):
I'll have his numbers in running and scoring position when
we come back from the break.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
But I know this the number for home runs atop
the NL.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
The numbers for triples right there, So if it's runners
of scoring position, they're not there.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Forty eight bats he's clear the basis eight seven, seven
ninety nine. On Fox? Is it fair? Shay? I know?
Is it? Thinks it's fair? Right?
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Show he should be MVP every year. I'm not with it.
I think it should be not just based on him
being a unicorn. It's gotta be based on how he
performs that year.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
It's not a.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Lifetime achievement award. Come on, man. I'm not saying he
doesn't deserve it this year if he plays better, but
I'm just saying it shouldn't be automatic. And that's what
it feels like to me. If I'm wrong, I want
to hear from you. It is the odd couple on
a funky flashback Friday, Rob Parker, Martin weiss In for
(28:41):
Kelvin Washington right here on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Two eighty six with runners on. Okay, that's not that impressive.
Speaker 7 (28:47):
Stick and stay unless you're a show heo tany hater
in the USA.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington weekdays at seven pm
Eastern four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Yes, it's my pleasure to be here to entertain the
masses on a fourth of July. I wouldn't miss it
for the world. Shae, don't roll your eyes at me.
I'm dead serious. It is The Odd Couple. We are live.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
You hear this? Mike, Yes?
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Is this on?
Speaker 3 (29:24):
It is on?
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Rob Parker, Martin weiss In for Kelvin Washington, Kelvin Off
with the Family, Rob g Off, Alex Off, everybody off.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
That's okay. Right after.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Right after the show, our podcast will be going up.
And if you missed any of today's show, be sure
to listen to the podcast. Just search Odd Couple wherever
you get your podcasts, and uh be sure to follow
and review the podcast and rate it at least five Stars.
You know why, Shay, cause we'll white it's right five
(30:00):
stars again. Just search Odd Couple wherever you get your
podcasts and you'll find today's show and the best of
version posted right after we get off the air.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Coming up in about twenty seven minutes.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
It's Mark Funky Cole Madina, of course, a Fox Sports
Radio NBA insider. He joins us and also last call
in case you can't get in or you haven't been
able to get in, you'll have a chance at the
very end of the show to be the last call
on this very program. And Martin Weiss, the show is
(30:35):
flying by on this holiday.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Which is cool. I never.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
I've never been against working on the holidays. Actually, I
think it's easier to work on the holidays.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Depends on which holiday he is and what I at
which one.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, to me, it's it's all about that if I
don't have anything going on, I'm working on a holiday
because it doesn't make sense for me to just sit
on the couch today, even though they would have paid me.
Now I can work easier to get here, you know,
less stuff going on, and then I get a comp
day to go do something when I really want to
use it.
Speaker 6 (31:11):
So this is what I'll pull back the curtain for
everybody who's not familiar with Rob Parker's strategy. Christmas got
no use for it, Thanksgiving, no time for it. Fourth
of July is about the last because this is when
the baseball tour starts. All these comp days, and so
that way I can go, or he could go to
(31:31):
watch the Reds in Cincinnati, then the Tigers in Detroit,
then the Twins in Minneapolis, and then what's another team
of the Rockies in Denver, and then the Diamondbacks in
Arizona and then up the you know from San Diego
to watch the Padres, Angels, Dodgers, all the way up
to the Giants of the Mariners in fourteen days.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
It's because he works for all the holidays.
Speaker 6 (31:52):
He uses all the comp days, so that way he
could take off, you know August fourth, Oh.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
He's gonna be going the whole entire August.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Yeah, I know this August is going to be.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah, between the NABJ National Association of Black Journalists and
I have so much time. Last year they forced me
to take off because they said I was going to
lose the time. So I'm going to take off in August,
right before we get ready for football season and whatnot.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
And I'm thinking in.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
August August August August.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Was like two and a half a world tour basically,
and boy and the other thing too.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
The last thing is before we get into our topic,
do you think Martin, I'll be able to do this.
I want to go dark for three days. I want
to go to Hawaii. I'm going to plug my phone in,
turn it off, just let it charge, talk to my
family and friends, and say, anybody that really needs me,
(32:50):
call the hotel. Here's a hotel number. If there's an emergency,
you call. But other than that, I will have no
outside content.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Who are you? Okay by myself, I'm just gonna go.
Speaker 6 (33:03):
But I don't even know if a hotel even has
that apparatus in place anymore. What what somebody could call
you like to take, like to take and deliver a message? No,
but I mean if I have a blinking light on
the phone said like A.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
I don't know. I've stayed in a hotel, yes, a
couple of days. I don't even think.
Speaker 6 (33:25):
There was I'm trying to remember there was even if
there was a phone in the room, there was.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
A phone I just had them call me to wake
me up make sure I miss my flight. Like they
still do the wake up calls, they still give you messages.
My point is, do you think I'm gonna be able
to survive for three days without any contact on social media, phone, three.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
Hours on the show, without being on your phone.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
I could do it easily, without a doubt, without a doubt. Shay,
you can too.
Speaker 9 (33:53):
Yeah, No, easy, easy, especially if I'm on vacation. Easy.
Speaker 6 (33:59):
I have not not I say I would have anxiety
knowing I had somewhere to be or something.
Speaker 9 (34:03):
Yeah, Like if I'm at work, then I'm gonna be like, oh,
I'm gonna check my phone. But if I'm like gone
on vacation, I got nowhere to be. I'm chilling like
I don't want to look at my phone.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
It's easy. You'll have a good time. You don't even
think about your phone.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Well, see, and everybody gets on me about my phone.
But I'm getting information and knowledge.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
I'm not.
Speaker 7 (34:21):
I'm not talking to you, know, dang well you're texting
Lady's stop it.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
It's just it's just knowledge, all right, Mar We're gonna
finish up this final hour to program.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
You feel like Okay, I got it. I got it.
Speaker 6 (34:36):
So Grant Williams was on a podcast. Uh you know
what what is it called? It's done by actually one
of my USC cohort, like one of my classmates, and
I've randomly saw her posters on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Well, now you're a USC guy, not a Michigan guy.
Does does the master trump the underground?
Speaker 6 (34:56):
I'm just asking, no, the connection that I had with
one of Lachelle's Smith as I met her at us C. No,
I'm just asking I got the football team I root
for the answers Michigan. If you asked me where I
went to college and met Michelle Smith at the us C.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
What school? When you talk to people, what school do
you say you went to? Miss where I went to school?
I'm not you.
Speaker 6 (35:14):
I don't do that dance of like, oh my more
impressive quote unquote.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
School you're talking about? Undergrad is where you went to school?
I'm a undergrad? Is where you went to see I'm
a Southern Connecticut guy. What are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Exactly exactly, I'm not at Southern Connecticut State University in
New Haven, Connecticut.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
Where'd you get your undergrad?
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Though? That's why I got onto that.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
So when people ask you where'd you go to school,
you say that.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
I went to Missouri.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
No, no, no, I say I went to Southern Connecticut
and Columbia.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Those are the two schools I went to. All right,
you're ready. Yes.
Speaker 6 (35:47):
So Lachelle Smith had Grant Williams on her podcast, and
on this podcast, Grant Williams said, you know, basically, all
this conversation has been the players have been getting taken
to the cleaners in this new CBA, this new second apron.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Well, who signed, who signed that agreement the CBA, He's
one of the people. That's what I'm saying that I'm
just I'm setting it just kills me, like the union,
you agree to this, go ahead.
Speaker 6 (36:14):
So he's saying that basically, and he goes and brings
up a talking point that I've heard Adam Silver say
several times across like different places. And to me, this
shows that the nf the NBA Players Association, the Players Union,
which is one of the stronger ones in professional sports,
got taken to the cleaners. For sure, because I first
(36:37):
heard Adam Silver say this on breakfast Ball, the show
on that FS one.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
I never missed breakfast Ball.
Speaker 6 (36:42):
If we're going to have a Super Bowl and it's
Packers verse Deelers.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
You guys will celebrate that.
Speaker 6 (36:48):
No one would talk about Pittsburgh being a small market
or green Bay being a small market. It's been intentional
to create a CBA that allows more teams to compete.
Grant then said this is from breakfast a month and
a half ago. Grant Williams said yesterday on this podcast
that you know between the second apron being the way
(37:09):
it is, and between the second apron being the way
it is and parody being the way it is, that
it's easier now for NFL. Like the NFL parody is
the reason why people are locked in, and now the
NBA is gonna have more parody because of it, and
also saying that these taxes help benefit basketball because if
you look at baseball, baseball pays there. You know, they
(37:30):
can just pay for whatever they're looking for. Right in
terms of the Dodgers, Yankees, whoever, the highest paid teams
of the teams that end up in the World Series
are the ones that are the most successful. And my
whole thing is why if you are basketball, are you
trying to be like any other like you should not
be like baseball? You should not be like football. The
thing that why baseball works the way it does is
(37:51):
because in the the big one hundred and sixty two
inventory of the regular season, you have to have these
big event feeling type of moments where you have five
three all stars on one side, three all stars on
the other side. Let's watch them play a weekend series.
When the Dodgers play the Yankees, people are locked in.
When the Dodgers go play the Padres, people are locked
(38:13):
in because those are big names, big series. Might lose
a little bit on the on the Rockies the Rockies
White Sox game today, but the reality is that's the
way baseball is going to have to be.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
In football, it's.
Speaker 6 (38:26):
The scarcity of games is the reason why it matters,
because you could be seven and five or five and
seven and still make a run because you're only playing
seventeen games. The NBA needs to find its own way
instead of trying to copy what made other sports popular.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
And it's just it's just whacked to me.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
I didn't buy his comparison because under breakfast ball, I
don't know what they said or follow up the small market.
He could say, the Packers, what do you say the Packers.
And so those are two storied franchises, okay, like Story.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
OKC and Indiana. They haven't won anything.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Like it's not a fair comparison to look at the
markets and say, well it was those teams playing, you
wouldn't think anything of it.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Well, there's a big difference.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
And in the NBA's history, would you call the Spurs
a great organization?
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Right?
Speaker 1 (39:19):
They won five championship in twenty tes okay, and they
have three of the lowest rated NBA finals. Why why
could they weren't a good team? No, it's small markets
matter in the NBA. We just watched the lowest rated
NBA finals since the since the COVID. But I don't
even I disagree with that premise because when so like
(39:41):
you think about this, I'm thirty five, okay, so that
for the majority of my life I should have said
the majority I said a third of my life. Cleveland
was the epicenter of the NBA, and nobody was crying
for Cleveland.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
But nobody was saying.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Oh my god, got get if you have an old
you have an all time you have an all time
great because I can.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Get because no point on it. If you have an
all time great and a small well.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Most people don't have an all time I'm just saying
the market size does matter. I'll give you a better one.
The New Jersey Nets went to two finals. They're part
of the worst rated finals too when they played. The
reason is that they're in New Jersey, but they were
considered a small market because they don't have a television
market Martin.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
They don't have a big enough fan base. So they
got to the finals.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
They had an exciting team, carried kittles, all the stuff,
and they still didn't rate.
Speaker 6 (40:33):
Right because they didn't have an all time great or
sustained period.
Speaker 3 (40:38):
Because I'm talking about the market size.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
The Cleveland was different from the standpoint, but Lebron left
there because he felt he couldn't get anybody to come
supposedly to Cleveland, right, and that wasments.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
But that's not what they're talking about.
Speaker 6 (40:53):
They're talking about people having the ability to compete because
of parody, not because like, oh you can't get this
guy to come here. You are in this point the
ratings are so low, Like if you have the stars,
if you have people who deem to be the best
in this sport, and those stars are also charismatic, I
think that's the biggest problem that's come across the NBA
(41:15):
in the last five years. Giannis is the most decently charismatic,
but Jokic is boring and has no interest in being
on television and being an entertainer.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
Like Steph Curry.
Speaker 6 (41:24):
You know, he's as an entertaining style of play, but
I would not say he is an entertaining personality. He's
I would I'm not calling Steph an entertaining personality.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
He's boring. Yeah, his style of play is not boring.
Speaker 6 (41:37):
But in terms of the personality, Anthony Edwards to me,
he has a ton of personality and an exciting style
of play.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
And but you look at the Packers.
Speaker 6 (41:45):
What made the Packers the packers for Adam Silver or
what makes the small market franchises that are pillars in
the NFL the pillars that they are.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
It's historically they had the success.
Speaker 6 (41:55):
The first two MVPs were from Green Bell, the first
two Super Bowls were won in green and they have
been a contender.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Like oh, but that's not the point that I'm making
built But to the point, that's what built them up.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
You know what I'm saying, right, but you can't.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
But you can't look at Indiana that's never won anything,
or or okay, see that's a new franchise, and put
them on par with the Steelers and with the Packers,
and saying just going by markets because it's not just that.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Uh they thought that.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
A perfect example is Jacksonville was supposed to be the Packers.
Oh you're able to do it in green Bay, right,
with a small market, So let's go put a team
in Jacksonville. Has it been as successful. No, that's why
they played three of their games in Europe every year
because they can't sell tickets, and and it's it's a
small market and they haven't won, and they haven't been
(42:46):
able to sustain success.
Speaker 9 (42:49):
Wait you think that they the only reason they're in
Europe is because they can't sell tickets.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Oh, that's part of it. It's a big reason. No,
it's it is that they picked them. But the owner
also to London. Oh yeah, I get that.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
No, no, no, but I'm saying for them to have three games,
they've had way more than anybody because they don't sell
they don't do well there. Yeah, that's all I'm saying.
In Jacksonville, right, that was a model. Green Bay was
supposed to be the model for why Jacksonville would work.
And I bet you if you told them if they
could move somewhere else, they probably would at this point.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
All right?
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox eight seven seven
nine nine.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Six sixty three sixty nine.
Speaker 6 (43:30):
Your your question is should the should the NBA try
to be more like the NFL or like Major League
Baseball and in that trying to enhance the parody like
the NFL has are trying to eliminate some of these
for Peter taxes and luxury taxes that exist are make
those peniments so punitive that you don't see the stars
(43:54):
lining up. You look at the Dodgers, they have five
All Stars or six All Stars.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
The NBA says that's a bad thing. Do you agree?
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Eight seven seven ninety nine On Fox, It is the
couple Rob Parker Martin Weiss on a funky flashback Friday.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
Right here on Fox Sports Radio, Stick and Stay America
Hosts And Creators
kelvin washington
Rob Parker
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