February 22, 2021 • 34 mins
On today’s episode, Jason kicks things off by sharing his thoughts on a recent study that lists Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry is the most polarizing player in the NBA. Steph has a persona and a style of play that resonates with the younger generation, so on the on surface, it would seem odd to suggest that he’d be anything other than the well-liked. But if you dig a little deeper, you’ll notice that some sports fans started to turn on him back in 2015 after he 'jumped the line' and became the Face of the League almost overnight. Next thing you knew even his peers like LeBron James, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook developed a healthy disdain for the skinny kid with the sweet jump shot. What's more, Producer Rob G argues that the biggest reason for the 'Steph Curry Slander' is that members of the media elevated Curry to an all-time status without ever fully acknowledging the context surrounding his meteoric rise to superstardom (a point that Jason vehemently disagrees with). Later, Jason uses a viral video featuring a teenage boy berating Cam Newton at a football camp as a teaching moment for the youth of America. Say what you want about Cam's abilities as a pocket passer, but to call him anything other than an NFL success story is blasphemous. He's made his share of his mistakes both in college and the pros, for sure, but he's also won a Heisman Trophy and an NFL MVP. Kudos to Cam for keeping his head and teaching that kid a lesson.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. Happy Monday, everybody,
It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight Fire for February twenties. Second
Hope everybody had a splendid weekend. Mine was rather uneventful.
Did watch a little bit of sports on Sunday Saturday,
hanging with the fam as we returned from our little
(00:27):
ski trip. Now, I don't know if you guys could tell,
but I had a different audio vibe last week we
were out of town skiing. But of course I love working,
so I brought the podcast equipment, wrote a couple of
pieces for Fox Sports on gambling. Um, so a working
vacation if you will. But um, you know, Rob G
is a great producer because he will find some stuff
(00:49):
that is just so damn thought provoking. And you know,
Sunday afternoon, I'm sitting around getting ready to do Undisputed
all week on Monday morning, and I'm, you know, want
to sense some topic ideas to the producers of the show.
And Rob G sends this this crazy link that said
there was a study done on NBA players who received
(01:13):
the most negative and the most positive reactions on Twitter. Now,
it only sampled about three thousand tweets a small window
um from October to January. And first of all, I
don't know why this study was done. I don't know
why they picked this small window after the bubble in
the middle of football season, but such is life. And
(01:36):
the results were kind of shocking because the big takeaway
is that the most polarizing player in the NBA is
not Lebron James. The most polarizing player is not Kevin Durant.
The most polarizing player in the NBA is Steph Curry. Yes,
(01:56):
the most they're calling it the most trolled NBA player.
Percent of his tweets were negative, the highest of any
player in the league. Now, this is a small sample size.
Russell Westbrook, not that shocking, was the second most negative tweets.
Joel Embiid was third. Ato. I know, I know you're surprised.
(02:17):
Where's Lebron. Lebron's the most hated. That's not the reality
that That's the funny thing. Everybody thinks Lebron is the
most hated because small vocal minority is always chirping at Lebron.
That's incorrect. He was after and beat four k d fifth,
Kyrie Irving sixth, and you know, it's weird that current
(02:40):
Curry had so many haters but also the second most
positive number of tweets, and and it really comes back
to a story. I've talked about this for a couple
of years on my Fox Sports radio show. I've brought
it up on this podcast with Broussard. I think a
couple other guys, but folks, for whatever reason, Steph Curry,
(03:01):
people just don't like him. I'm not even just talking
about fans. I'm talking about other players in the league.
There is a rampant jealousy of Steph Curry because he
quote unquote jump the line. Okay, there is this line
that you're supposed to be and just like at your job,
right you started as an entry level staffer, then you
kick up to the next level, and then next level,
(03:21):
and then you're the VP blah blah blah in newspapers,
which I got the hell out of early when I
saw this garbage line. Um, this pecking order you have
to go through. You have to start as a preps
writer covering high schools, and then after a few years,
you get to the college and then you graduate to
the pro beat. It's like, I don't want to wait
around for that I want to jump the line. So
what did I do? I went out and started a website. Um,
(03:44):
I left high school reporting after two or three years.
I kind of took a divergent path, and I've alreadys
recommended this to everybody. You know, Um, what's the quote.
The elevator to success is out of order. You know,
you gotta find your own path. And I went and
did some newspapers. I left newspapers from magazines and I
would do like celebrity stuff, and then I built a
(04:05):
website on the side, and next thing, you know, boom,
I went. I didn't have to write about college or
write about pro sports. I just started talking about it
on TV and radio. So I kind of jumped the line. So, yeah,
there are people who do not like me in the
industry because I didn't quote unquote pay my dues. Well,
Steph Curry didn't pay his dues, right. He came to
(04:26):
Golden State and he was okay, had some ankle injuries,
and then seemingly overnight, the Warriors were the best team
in the West, Like it happened fast. And then the
year after that they win seventy three games, and then
they get Kevin Durant and it's like, WHOA Curry. I mean,
Steph Curry hit the NBA like a comment. Essentially, that's
what happened, all of a sudden, in like a quick
(04:47):
two or three year span, he became the most popular
player in the league in terms of jersey sales. You
go to any NBA game around in that window and
the majority you have. The Lower Bowl had a bunch
of kids in the suburbs wearing Steph curry jersey's. He
was cool. He made the NBA cool. A six ft three,
skinny kid who went to Davidson did not have a
(05:10):
high major offer at the college level, and um, you
know the guy Seth Greenberg at ESPN. He's an analyst.
He was coaching at Virginia Tech at the time, and
Steph Curry's dad, Del Curry, went to Virginia Tech. Seth
Greenberg hates when I bring this up. We used to
be friendly and now he just text me angry stuff
anytime I reference this. Um, Steph Curry could not get
(05:35):
an offer from Seth Greenberg coming out of high school.
Greenberg said, hey, man, we can make you a preferred
walk on. You know, like you're not gonna get a
Scollie and we'll give you a chance to make the team.
And he was like, no, I'm gonna go to Davidson.
And of course Steph Curry dominates at the college level. UM.
And Seth greenbergs in the booth now, um, But people
(05:57):
don't like Curry. I'm talking like Russell Westbrook does not
like Kim Chris Paul does not like him. And this
is not just me saying this. There was an avalanche
of evidence. I'm not going through it, all of pro
players and even Lebron. If you look back at the
finals in he had a moment with Curry, and when
the first year they got Durant, Lebron and Curry also
(06:19):
at a moment in the finals, like there is dislike there.
I mean, if you remember, really remember it in the
mid two thousand tens, I think that's how you say
that decade. Chris Paul and Lob City had next. They
were supposed to take the baton from Kobe in the West. Remember,
lob City was everything Blake Griffin, Chris Paul. The league
(06:41):
had blocked Chris Paul from going to the Lakers. He
winds up with the Clippers. Um. DeAndre Jordan is sending
Brandon Knight into oblivion with that incredible dunk, and Lob
City was everything, and they kept getting hurt in the postseason,
and Steph Curry and the Warriors just, you know, flip
the switch. Realized it was a math equation. Threes are
(07:01):
worth more than two's, and they became the biggest deal
in the NBA, and Curry went back to back m
v P Awards was unanimous m v P. So there
are a lot of people out there, and I don't
want to make this too racial, but listen, there is
a racial component to it. Um. We're talking about a
light skinned guy who is six ft three plays below
(07:22):
the rim. And the NBA is perceived as a city game.
That's where the best basketball players came out of New
York City and tough streets of Chicago and Oakland and
all these great inner cities producing amazing basketball players for
the longest time. And Curry and the jump shooters started
to make it what Phil Jackson derisively referred to as
(07:46):
a suburban league. And I'll never forget I heard the
Jackson quote. He was with the Bulls, I'm fairly certain,
and or maybe it was the Lakers. Bulls are Lakers.
Phillip Jackson was coaching and somebody brought up a jump
shooting team or player, and I'll never forget I saw
the interview, but I googled around I couldn't find it.
Phil Jackson said he's got a nice suburban game, or
(08:09):
they have a nice suburban game, and it was just
one of these like, oh, they're soft, they shoot jumpers,
they do their fundamental as well, but at the end
of the day, when the chips are down, the suburban
kid is not going to beat the city kid. It's
just not gonna happen. They're too soft, They're not mentally
tough enough. The kids in the cities have overcome a
lot to get here and they're not gonna lose to
the kids from the suburbs. And there is this perception,
(08:32):
you know how golf is a country club sport and
tennis is like a country club sport. NBA is supposed
to be an inner city sport. And the Warriors with
Clay Thompson now was uh dad was a former Laker,
Michael Thompson. Curry's dad was a former NBA player. Um,
and they're jump shooters, you know, they're not attacking the
glass and getting to the rim and dunk it on
you and all that stuff, and me, muggan, they're not
(08:53):
doing that. Um, And there is pushback against that. I
personally disagree with all of it. But I'm talking. You're
talking about a guy who was born in the city, uh,
New York, but grew up in the suburbs. And um,
it's funny because you know, I started playing pick up
out here in l A. I had played pickup basketball
in some leagues in Pennsylvania, but after college I was
(09:18):
playing in the New York City League and you know,
there's like twenty seven leagues. I think I've talked about
this on the podcast. And you know, it was me
and a bunch of guys. You know, we're okay players,
and we played like middle tier, like it was like
level thirteen, fourteen somewhere around there. And then we got
I think a good player or two, and we like
(09:38):
really good player, and we upgraded to like level seven
or eight, okay, And this was you know, a bunch
of D three players and stuff, and you better bring
it in that level and you better play physical. And
I could play the physical brand. I obviously didn't have
to skill level, but I wasn't gonna back down from anybody. Um,
And I brought that same level to Pennsylvania or a
(10:01):
bunch of suburban guys. And now these are not like
soft suburban guys. They're a little tougher suburban guys. And
I would play physical basketball and they would call this stuff.
I'm like, why are you calling this? These weak fouses?
I got too physical? Come on, and I'm like, I
just didn't get it. So I came out here to
l A and again, l A, you know a lot
of suburban kids playing in the gym. However, you find
(10:23):
some games that it's a little more physical, and you know,
I'm into the physical brand of basketball, preferably on defense.
I'm not driving into lane getting clobered. Okay, that's just
not fun for me. Um. But I understand why people
pushed back against Curry. I just didn't really like it.
I didn't think it was fair. And I can this
thing that Rob g found was just incredible, and I'm
(10:45):
all over the place with this topic, but it's just
to me, it feels a little disrespectful, like what does
he have to do to get that credibility? Like Reggie
Miller wasn't not to be you know, harsh to Reggie.
He wasn't half the player Steph Currey is. Reggie Miller
couldn't create his own his own offense. He was simply
(11:05):
a catch and shoot guy. He was a great catch
and shoot guy. He was a clutch player. But he
talked trash to Spike Lee and Madison Square Garden multiple times.
And Reggie Miller's I think he threw a punch of
Jordan and got in some beef, so he wasn't perceived
as a suburban player. I don't I don't know, like
I don't know what the rules are here on this.
It feels kind of willy nilly, like, oh, we like
(11:26):
that guy or we don't like that guy. It feels
like BS to me. I don't know. I'm personally a
little bit surprised that Steph Curry is the most trilled
player according to this um you know this survey that
was taken within the last four months. Now. Now, Rob
g who found it, is not a huge Curry guy.
As a matter of fact, he really doesn't like Steph Curry.
(11:48):
You could just admit it, Rob, It's fine, you don't
like Steph Curry. Were you surprised by this? Survey. Not
at all, not not even a little bit. And it's
not like I don't like Steph Curry. I just think that, Yeah,
the Steph Curry fall is going to be glorious and
I'm looking forward to it. Wait a wait, time, out
time and what do you need this Steph Curry fall
in this offseason? You predicted? You know, this season is
(12:08):
going to be an indictment of step Canny. Carry them, dude,
He's having a ridiculous season's top five in the m
v P and he's carrying them to what a seventh seed?
I'm supposed to be impressed by that. That's him. He's
playing right, yeah, exactly. Russell Westbrook average of trouble double
and they got like the sixth seed and got bounced.
And look what you said about Russell Westbrook and Steph
Curry's not even averaging a triple double. He's about to
(12:30):
go to the seventh seed again. I'm my bad. Russell
Westbrook had Victor Oladipo on that team that he carried,
and Steph Curry is playing with who a bunch of
guys from the G League, Michael Toscato Anderson. Like I
thought that was an appetizer at Applebee's. I don't know half.
I don't know half the guys on this roster. Kelly
might be their second best player. Kelly Ubray has never
(12:51):
been an All Star. Okay, they have Draymond Green, but
come on, I don't know Rob. I just let me
just say this. Continue to bash Curry, go ahead. I'm
in a bashi. But the reason why I believe that
I wasn't surprised by the study results is because of
guys like you, Guys like Chris Russar, who I work
with five days a week. You guys have been so
(13:13):
quick to anoint Steph Curry as if not the best thing.
You have him as the best, and he could. Chris
has him as the second best point guard in NBA. Okay,
you both have them second best, and you're quick to
point out two time m v P. Look what he's
been to the finals. He's he's you know, he's three
time champion. And that's true. But I feel like every
(13:35):
time guys like you bring up Steph Curry and discussed
Steph Curry, guys with the big voices on TV and radio,
there's a lack of context that gets applied to it
and This is what I mean Number one. When he
won his first championship. You recall that nobody talks about
this anymore. Every single point guard he was supposed to
(13:58):
go against in the playoffs was hurt. Every single starting
point guard was hurt. So by the time he got
to the finals, it was supposed to be Kyrie and Stephan.
Kyrie gets hurt of think in game one, so we
never even got to see that. So it was Lebron,
Matthew Delavadova and a bunch of guys against the Warriors.
So you know, but he wanted cruise name. Whatever they lose,
(14:20):
they blow the seventy three win season, which for most
people should be I'm not saying Lebron James, Dallas Mavericks slander,
but it should be really high up there for longer
than what it was. Okay, so you okay, Okay, he
blew the three one le Bron James, Okay, it sounds
(14:42):
like they blew it. To Dirk Navitski, you don't get
to call yourself the best team of all time and
then blow a three one lead. So that's number two,
Number three. As soon as Kevin Durant got there, he
was their best player. And it wasn't close. Now you
can argue, and I would argue, actually in his Curry's favor,
he was more im for than than Katie because of
what he did for their team specifically. But as soon
(15:05):
as Kevin Durant put on a Golden State Warriors uniform,
there was no question who was the best player. Yeah,
I wouldn't, I don't. So then why is it, with
those three points in mind, why is it that he
is anointed immediately ahead of guys like Isaiah Thomas or
or John Stockton or whoever, whatever, whoever your favorite point
(15:29):
guard is. Why is he automatically elevated that quickly when
if you look at things with a microscope, you can
poke holes in a lot of it. When when he
goes against Lebron James in the finals, who's the guy
who gets hunted on defense almost every single play? It's
Steph Curry. This season, he finally doesn't have a super
(15:50):
team for the first time in four years. Okay, three
years if you want to, We'll say three years super team.
When all the Warriors super team with with Kevin Durant,
even without duran were they a super team? No, they
were a very good team. Okay, so you take away
as soon as he doesn't have another All Star next
(16:11):
to him, as soon as he has to deal with
what Dame Lillard gets every season. Russell Westbrook had to
deal with for four or five seasons. Um, whoever else,
I don't whoever else you want to name, you know,
pick your guy. But those are the two that comes
out to be first. Oh they're a seven seed. Oh
maybe Steph Curry isn't the greatest point guard of all time.
(16:33):
Oh you know, maybe this this unanimous m v P
in the league that featured Lebron James, Shaquille O'Neal, Michael
Jordan's will Chamber, and that some of the most dominant
individual seasons ever and none of them got unanimous m
v P, but Steph Curry did. That's why it's easy
for people not to like him. All right, there's a
lot here. I didn't know that we would be debating
(16:56):
the merits of Steph Curry, but here we are. And
I just just for kicks. I looked up playoff points
per game, Michael Jordan's first, averaging thirty three a game,
Iverson Shocking Lee second, nine, Kevin Durant fourth, Lebron fifth,
Oh look, there's Steph Curry, prime time clutch playoff performer,
(17:19):
twenty six points per game. I had of a lajah
one I had of your favorite player of all time,
Kobe Bryant, ahead of Dirk Dvinsky, Russell Westbrook, Dame every
ahead of Karl Malone, who's in the ploffs like every year,
ahead of Jabbar, ahead of Shock. What Curry has done
regular season playoffs is to me absurd, And I really
(17:39):
do bacon expectations to where players are. Okay, we knew
Michael Jordan was gonna be great. We knew Lebron was
gonna be great. We knew Shack was gonna be great.
Did anybody think Steph Curry out of Davidson, drafted after
two point guards named Ricky Rubio and Johnny Flynn? Did
(18:00):
anybody think Steph Curry would win all these would win
two m vps, a bunch of titles, First Team All NBA,
blah blah bla did And no, He's come out of nowhere,
And I love this. I looked up the MVP voting
when Curry was unanimous. Okay, he got every single first
place vote. He he led the NBA in wind shares
(18:23):
and it wasn't close. Seventeen point nine. Nobody else even
had fifteen. Okay, he shot from the field forty five
from three from the line fifty ninety. That's obscene, Okay.
Kawhi Leonard finished second in the voting. He was with
(18:44):
the Spurs. Lebron was third. Westbrook and okay, so Westbrook
and Durant kind of split. Four five. Chris Paul, who
everybody loves, Chris Paul the point God, I'm so over
Chris Paul. Honestly, I'm just so sick of this guy.
Is he a good player? Yeah? What happens every year
in the playoffs. He's a bust every year in the playoffs,
rob g. Chris Paul somehow finds a way to vomit
(19:07):
over himself get injured while celebrating in Steph Curry's face.
That's what he does. I mean, at some point, we
know you're great. He's a really, really good point guard,
but can you win a damn clutch game in the postseason?
And I gotta ask John Stockton, like you mentioned him
one of the greatest point guards ever? Yes, no doubt,
was he ever the best player on his team? I
(19:28):
don't even know that. How many first place m VP
votes did John Stockton have while playing in the league
for like seventeen years. I would guess it was over
under one and a half first place votes. Curry got
all of them one year. And like I like Isaiah Thomas.
He's a real tough gauge because we never saw him
without a great team and we never saw him without
(19:49):
a really good coach. The Bad Boy Pistons were one
of the best teams of the nineteen eighties and early nineties.
I think they went to the finals four years in
a row. Um Or it would have been for if
they didn't choke it away when Larry Bird stole the
ball in like Game six, Piston Celtics Birds all the ball?
You know whatever that was, um, Like I said, Thoma's
really good at six ft one, amazing, tough inner city
(20:12):
Chicago kid who would take no ship from anybody. Um what.
The only guy really to defeat Michael Jordan had to
add more than loose to him, and it orked Jordan's
so much that Jordan's snubbed the hell out of him
going forward. But like I say, it's up there. I
maybe I'm being a little biased towards the current NBA.
(20:33):
But Rob, I'll close on this. In every sport, the
evolution of player, the evolution of athlete skill level is
improved for whatever reason in the NBA. And I don't
know the answer to this. If I could sit down
with lebron Um, this is a question, I would ask
him why do we not do it in the NBA.
(20:55):
It's for whatever reason. The players from previous decades were better.
I say it was better than Curry. Yeah, of course,
Really are we sure about that Steph Curry? I mean,
I could make an argument that Damian Lillard is starting
to build a case to be one of the top
ten point guards in NBA history, and I'm sure the
audience will say he's not even a point guard. Well,
(21:17):
I mean he's not a point guard because of the
traditional rules. Like the NBA has evolved. Okay, middle relief
matters immensely now in Major League Baseball. Starters don't go seven, eight,
nine innings in the NBA. You want a ball handler,
you want to wing, and you want to big Like
I just, I really think I can't say Curry's underrated.
(21:39):
But to me this, I don't know what kind of
person sends angry tweets to Steph Curry like he is
every time I go with my son. You know, we
I coach him and I coach my daughter. And the
first practice I always ask every player, who's your favorite player?
A lot of Kobe here in l A. But Steph
(22:01):
Curry is number two almost every single team I've coached.
The kids love him, And I just robbed you. I
just don't get the hate. We need to spread more
love and positivity out there, unless, of course we're talking
about Chris Paula Russell Westbrook. All right, rob G, I'll
let you have the file, lets you have the final word. Um,
are you surprised that Lebron was not first? Yes? Actually,
(22:24):
and it has everything to do with two things, the
Jordan Lebron debate and Lebron's social and political commentary. I
feel like people latch onto those two things add nauseum
with Lebron James so much so that it clouds them
from accepting how good of a basketball player that he is.
(22:45):
And he is at worst the second best player in
NBA history. But again, because he's very outspoken and because
he had the audacity to call himself the chosen one.
And then you know, I'm not going to he did
this run himself. When he did say in an interview
that made me the best player of all time and
he put his name on it. That my that I
(23:07):
kind of count see now why Jordan guys were not
like that. But no, I mean I honestly expected it
was gonna be Lebron in the landslide. So to see
that it wasn't him, that was shocking. Alright. The only
other huge story I thought there was in sports over
the weekend, and this was again, we have a young
audience here on the podcast, but we do have a
segment obviously that listen to you know, the older crowd
(23:29):
like my dad who listens, and like my mom who
posted on social media so her friends gonna listen. Um, yes,
that's a real thing. By the way, Um, there was
a video that circulated Sunday morning about Cam Newton and
I don't have a lot of context, rob g, so
maybe you can fill in some of the blanks. So
(23:49):
this video did I believe four and a half million
views in less than twelve hours. Okay, it went up
early Sunday morning and it was it's a crazy video.
So Cam Newton is it's some football camp and he's
walking the sidelines. I couldn't tell if it was a
camp of practice or what. And there's you know, a
(24:11):
bunch of middle school players behind him, and this one kid,
this jerk, this little twerp starts yelling to Cam Newton,
you're a free agent. You're a free agent, like derisively,
like he's mocking Cam Newton. Some you know snot nos
twelve year old, maybe he was fourteen. Who knows. All
(24:34):
he would say is you're a free You're only a
free agent. You're like nobody wants your free That's all
he would say. And Cam Newton, you know, to his credit,
didn't take a swing at the little kid, obviously because
Cam Newton is worth a lot of money. But he
looked pretty pissed as as of course, naturally, who would
not be. And I there were just so many things
here on this video you felt it was a little
(24:55):
uncomfortable to watch. And I will be the first to
say I have not been on the Cam Newton band.
Why um, I thought he was a t He's a
tremendous football player, a great talent. You want an m
VP award, he want a national title at Auburn. This
guy's I mean his I don't need to rattle off
his credentials. Cam Newton was a great NFL quarterback. He's
near the end of his career now. Um he's had
(25:18):
a couple of soldiers shoulder surgeries that have taken its toll.
And just kind of watching him react, and you know,
there were some other kids laughing. It was just uncomfortable
because Rob, I know you've been there, Like Cam ended
up saying where's this guy's dad? Where's your father? And
I will tell you this guys. Um, I was the
(25:39):
kid who when I screwed up badly, my parents would
take me by the ear and I would have to
go apologize. I had parents like that, and it makes
you a better person. You stop being a dick when, uh,
you know your parents are gonna get on your case.
So I'll just quickly mentioned two of them. Um, one
time I was kind of uh, unless you all right,
(26:03):
let me I was. I was best buddies with the
guy mostly through elementary school, and then you know, we
get to middle school and we kind of got a
part and I got new friends and he got new friends.
And then for whatever reason, we were futing and he
lived near me. So one night I had to sleep
over some buddy's and we snuck out in t P
and egged the guy's house and it was I guess,
you know, it's not clear. I guess somebody in our
group was you know, talking about it, and it was
(26:25):
pretty clear it was us and my old buddies mom
the guys who got tped an egg. I'm she called
my mom. I was like, you know, blah blah blah
blah blah, and my mom was pissed and I had
to go to the front door and apologize and all
this stuff. I think I might have had to write
(26:46):
a letter or something, you know, a handwritten thing, and
that was my lesson. I you know, like, come on,
you can't do that stuff. And there was a moment
in high school and this one really hurt me. Um,
I believe it or not. It was a bit of
a troublemaker in high school a little bit. And I
had this one teacher who you could just steamroll, you
could just goof off or whatever. She just never could
(27:07):
quiet the class. And um, I had to tell my
kids this because you know, I need to get them
in line, and you know, the teacher would be like Jason,
time to focus. I'm like, okay, yeah, sir, because I could,
I could easily get by, you know, I was I
was as good. I was a good student, so I
knew what I was doing. But I would just talk
and goof around with my friends. And one day I
(27:30):
walk into class and people the class starts to fill up.
It was one of those trailer classes where it was
like outside the school. And as the class fills up,
my mom walks in the classroom and you know, of
course my friends like, Jason, your mom's in the class.
(27:51):
I was like, oh gosh, this is mortifying. And my
mom sat in the back of the classroom. The teacher
could not get through to me, so she called my mom,
who was like on the p t A, you know,
she was involved, and said, you know how Jason C's
not really focused. Could you maybe come in and just
watch or say something to him? And I was humiliated, mortified.
(28:14):
I never screwed up again after that. I got in line. Um.
It was humiliating, and like, if I'm the father of
this kid who's getting on Cam Newton's case and this
video and I see that's my kid, I'm grabbing him.
And if we can't find people connected to Cam Newton.
(28:35):
I'm making this kid produce a video apologizing profusely to
Cam Newton because this is not how you behave okay
as a as a young kid, you're a punk. You're
trying to go viral. Kind of have your moment. Think
about this for a second. A college football national champion,
who's the number one overall pick, who makes millions of dollars,
(28:58):
who wins an m v P award, who goes to
a Super Bowl, is at your football camp. You can
pick his brain, be a sponge around him, learn about
what it takes to be a professional. Learn from Cam's mistakes,
because he'll tell you about his mistakes at Florida. Okay,
he got kicked out of the school basically, and how
(29:18):
Cam got on the right track and got to be
at the top of his profession. You can learn that
stuff as a teenager. If Cam Newton's at your football camp,
you sit around him. You don't really speak, You just
listen and maybe ask some good, smart questions. That's your opportunity.
You're not gonna be around a lot of former NFL
m v P s. You think Pat Mahomes is just
(29:40):
gonna wander into this kid's life. You know, Aaron Rodgers,
Tom Brady, this is your chance around Cam Newton and
this is how you behave. This is the decision you make.
I'm gonna ras him. I'm gonna talk trash to Cam Newton.
That's what I'm gonna do. I'm just stunned. It's sad. Uh.
(30:01):
You know, you don't want to make a sweeping statement. Um,
but this is an embarrassment. This kid should be embarrassed
his parents. UM. I don't want to say get out
the belt, but listen, man, this kid needs to be
taught a lesson by his parents. Like, you cannot act
like this. This is like the worst thing you could
do the I mean, of all the choices you make,
that's the one I don't know, Rob, it made me
(30:23):
viscerally upset watching this video on Sunday. Yeah, no, I
would agree with you. And UM, kudos to Cam. I
mean I know that video that you're talking about, the
one that went viral, but there was another video that
came out a couple of hours later where Cam went
up to that kid privately and uh, well, I mean
there are other kids around it, but Cam made a
point to go when that kid was by was away
(30:45):
from the action. He had a couple of friends around
him and he just talked to him and he kind of,
I want to say, said him straight. But it was
just like you mentioned, Cam is a guy who's if
you're gonna give me the opportunity to talk to you,
he's gonna be the bigger man. So so kudos to him.
But as part of the big her you know story
that you're talking about. I mean, I coached high school
(31:05):
football at IT when I was in college, you know,
I graduated from my school, was in school, I was
only working part time, and my old coach and hey,
we need help coaching the freshman kids. You know, was
you willing to help. It's a couple of hours a week. Sure.
And when I tell you, even back then, kids were assholes,
and that was you know, the internet was, you know,
(31:25):
not what it is now with social media. But there
was a kid who thought it was funny when he
was doing some conditioning drill. He ran next to me
and lifted his leg and farted just because he thought
that was like a funny thing to do. And thankfully
I knew his dad a little bit, and his dad's like, hey,
if he does anything like that, again, you have my
(31:45):
uh permission to do whatever you want to him. I
wasn't gonna hit him or anything like that, even though
we're the same height, but I could have and so well,
ultimately it ended up doing like a bunch of cardio
or the kid almost act. But whatever um kids now
of days, especially you know, and and and it happens
in sports too, you know, the a a utification of
(32:07):
athletes or the travel ball baseball or what. I don't
know what the level is for football, but the same
kind of thing where these kids feel so entitled, they
feel like they're owed something. They feel like if you're
in the n b A or if you're in the
NFL and you're not Odell Beckham Jr. You're not Tom Brady,
(32:31):
you're not Patrick Mahomes, then you suck because you're not
winning my fantasy team for me. And it's unfortunate that
Cam Newton who took time out of his schedule. I'm
sure he'd rather be doing other things than going to
some football camp, you know, I'm sure he just like
the kid mentioned he's he's a free agent. He wants
(32:51):
to impress other teams as much as possible. And for
him to go down there, give his time and his
energy to to spend time with the youth of America.
For a kid to respond like that was really disappointing,
and so kudos to cam for number one keeping his
head when that kid was talking the way he was talking,
but number two not giving up on him and saying,
(33:12):
I'm gonna go and talk to this kid privately. If
he accepts what I'm saying, great, If he doesn't, at
least I did my part. So I wish that more
athletes responded the way cam Ne even responded. I mean, listen,
for those of you who have not seen it, Cam
doesn't come off great like his initial response, which I'm
sure he was shocked and a little embarrassed that people
are laughing at. I mean, he's a former m v
(33:33):
P and his first response is like, I'm rich. You know,
I'm rich, I got money, and you know he's right.
I don't know that you know that that's something you
want to lead with. But uh, I don't know, man, Um,
Yeah we do. We do end up talking about, you know,
youth sports and kids on this podcast probably at least
once a week, So I don't know, man. If I
(33:54):
would just recommend anybody out there, show that video to
your kid and say, never do anything like this. Like
this is an embarrassment. This is the worst thing you
could do. Learn from it. Um, yeah, I would recommend that.
But anyways, all right, everybody, this has been a little
longer than I thought it would be. We have a
special guest coming up tomorrow. You guys are gonna love him.
Um former athlete. You know his name, everybody knows his name,
(34:18):
and I can't wait to uh unveil that one to
you tomorrow. We'll talk to you that
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. Happy Monday, everybody,
It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight Fire for February twenties. Second
Hope everybody had a splendid weekend. Mine was rather uneventful.
Did watch a little bit of sports on Sunday Saturday,
hanging with the fam as we returned from our little
(00:27):
ski trip. Now, I don't know if you guys could tell,
but I had a different audio vibe last week we
were out of town skiing. But of course I love working,
so I brought the podcast equipment, wrote a couple of
pieces for Fox Sports on gambling. Um, so a working
vacation if you will. But um, you know, Rob G
is a great producer because he will find some stuff
(00:49):
that is just so damn thought provoking. And you know,
Sunday afternoon, I'm sitting around getting ready to do Undisputed
all week on Monday morning, and I'm, you know, want
to sense some topic ideas to the producers of the show.
And Rob G sends this this crazy link that said
there was a study done on NBA players who received
(01:13):
the most negative and the most positive reactions on Twitter. Now,
it only sampled about three thousand tweets a small window
um from October to January. And first of all, I
don't know why this study was done. I don't know
why they picked this small window after the bubble in
the middle of football season, but such is life. And
(01:36):
the results were kind of shocking because the big takeaway
is that the most polarizing player in the NBA is
not Lebron James. The most polarizing player is not Kevin Durant.
The most polarizing player in the NBA is Steph Curry. Yes,
(01:56):
the most they're calling it the most trolled NBA player.
Percent of his tweets were negative, the highest of any
player in the league. Now, this is a small sample size.
Russell Westbrook, not that shocking, was the second most negative tweets.
Joel Embiid was third. Ato. I know, I know you're surprised.
(02:17):
Where's Lebron. Lebron's the most hated. That's not the reality
that That's the funny thing. Everybody thinks Lebron is the
most hated because small vocal minority is always chirping at Lebron.
That's incorrect. He was after and beat four k d fifth,
Kyrie Irving sixth, and you know, it's weird that current
(02:40):
Curry had so many haters but also the second most
positive number of tweets, and and it really comes back
to a story. I've talked about this for a couple
of years on my Fox Sports radio show. I've brought
it up on this podcast with Broussard. I think a
couple other guys, but folks, for whatever reason, Steph Curry,
(03:01):
people just don't like him. I'm not even just talking
about fans. I'm talking about other players in the league.
There is a rampant jealousy of Steph Curry because he
quote unquote jump the line. Okay, there is this line
that you're supposed to be and just like at your job,
right you started as an entry level staffer, then you
kick up to the next level, and then next level,
(03:21):
and then you're the VP blah blah blah in newspapers,
which I got the hell out of early when I
saw this garbage line. Um, this pecking order you have
to go through. You have to start as a preps
writer covering high schools, and then after a few years,
you get to the college and then you graduate to
the pro beat. It's like, I don't want to wait
around for that I want to jump the line. So
what did I do? I went out and started a website. Um,
(03:44):
I left high school reporting after two or three years.
I kind of took a divergent path, and I've alreadys
recommended this to everybody. You know, Um, what's the quote.
The elevator to success is out of order. You know,
you gotta find your own path. And I went and
did some newspapers. I left newspapers from magazines and I
would do like celebrity stuff, and then I built a
(04:05):
website on the side, and next thing, you know, boom,
I went. I didn't have to write about college or
write about pro sports. I just started talking about it
on TV and radio. So I kind of jumped the line. So, yeah,
there are people who do not like me in the
industry because I didn't quote unquote pay my dues. Well,
Steph Curry didn't pay his dues, right. He came to
(04:26):
Golden State and he was okay, had some ankle injuries,
and then seemingly overnight, the Warriors were the best team
in the West, Like it happened fast. And then the
year after that they win seventy three games, and then
they get Kevin Durant and it's like, WHOA Curry. I mean,
Steph Curry hit the NBA like a comment. Essentially, that's
what happened, all of a sudden, in like a quick
(04:47):
two or three year span, he became the most popular
player in the league in terms of jersey sales. You
go to any NBA game around in that window and
the majority you have. The Lower Bowl had a bunch
of kids in the suburbs wearing Steph curry jersey's. He
was cool. He made the NBA cool. A six ft three,
skinny kid who went to Davidson did not have a
(05:10):
high major offer at the college level, and um, you
know the guy Seth Greenberg at ESPN. He's an analyst.
He was coaching at Virginia Tech at the time, and
Steph Curry's dad, Del Curry, went to Virginia Tech. Seth
Greenberg hates when I bring this up. We used to
be friendly and now he just text me angry stuff
anytime I reference this. Um, Steph Curry could not get
(05:35):
an offer from Seth Greenberg coming out of high school.
Greenberg said, hey, man, we can make you a preferred
walk on. You know, like you're not gonna get a
Scollie and we'll give you a chance to make the team.
And he was like, no, I'm gonna go to Davidson.
And of course Steph Curry dominates at the college level. UM.
And Seth greenbergs in the booth now, um, But people
(05:57):
don't like Curry. I'm talking like Russell Westbrook does not
like Kim Chris Paul does not like him. And this
is not just me saying this. There was an avalanche
of evidence. I'm not going through it, all of pro
players and even Lebron. If you look back at the
finals in he had a moment with Curry, and when
the first year they got Durant, Lebron and Curry also
(06:19):
at a moment in the finals, like there is dislike there.
I mean, if you remember, really remember it in the
mid two thousand tens, I think that's how you say
that decade. Chris Paul and Lob City had next. They
were supposed to take the baton from Kobe in the West. Remember,
lob City was everything Blake Griffin, Chris Paul. The league
(06:41):
had blocked Chris Paul from going to the Lakers. He
winds up with the Clippers. Um. DeAndre Jordan is sending
Brandon Knight into oblivion with that incredible dunk, and Lob
City was everything, and they kept getting hurt in the postseason,
and Steph Curry and the Warriors just, you know, flip
the switch. Realized it was a math equation. Threes are
(07:01):
worth more than two's, and they became the biggest deal
in the NBA, and Curry went back to back m
v P Awards was unanimous m v P. So there
are a lot of people out there, and I don't
want to make this too racial, but listen, there is
a racial component to it. Um. We're talking about a
light skinned guy who is six ft three plays below
(07:22):
the rim. And the NBA is perceived as a city game.
That's where the best basketball players came out of New
York City and tough streets of Chicago and Oakland and
all these great inner cities producing amazing basketball players for
the longest time. And Curry and the jump shooters started
to make it what Phil Jackson derisively referred to as
(07:46):
a suburban league. And I'll never forget I heard the
Jackson quote. He was with the Bulls, I'm fairly certain,
and or maybe it was the Lakers. Bulls are Lakers.
Phillip Jackson was coaching and somebody brought up a jump
shooting team or player, and I'll never forget I saw
the interview, but I googled around I couldn't find it.
Phil Jackson said he's got a nice suburban game, or
(08:09):
they have a nice suburban game, and it was just
one of these like, oh, they're soft, they shoot jumpers,
they do their fundamental as well, but at the end
of the day, when the chips are down, the suburban
kid is not going to beat the city kid. It's
just not gonna happen. They're too soft, They're not mentally
tough enough. The kids in the cities have overcome a
lot to get here and they're not gonna lose to
the kids from the suburbs. And there is this perception,
(08:32):
you know how golf is a country club sport and
tennis is like a country club sport. NBA is supposed
to be an inner city sport. And the Warriors with
Clay Thompson now was uh dad was a former Laker,
Michael Thompson. Curry's dad was a former NBA player. Um,
and they're jump shooters, you know, they're not attacking the
glass and getting to the rim and dunk it on
you and all that stuff, and me, muggan, they're not
(08:53):
doing that. Um, And there is pushback against that. I
personally disagree with all of it. But I'm talking. You're
talking about a guy who was born in the city, uh,
New York, but grew up in the suburbs. And um,
it's funny because you know, I started playing pick up
out here in l A. I had played pickup basketball
in some leagues in Pennsylvania, but after college I was
(09:18):
playing in the New York City League and you know,
there's like twenty seven leagues. I think I've talked about
this on the podcast. And you know, it was me
and a bunch of guys. You know, we're okay players,
and we played like middle tier, like it was like
level thirteen, fourteen somewhere around there. And then we got
I think a good player or two, and we like
(09:38):
really good player, and we upgraded to like level seven
or eight, okay, And this was you know, a bunch
of D three players and stuff, and you better bring
it in that level and you better play physical. And
I could play the physical brand. I obviously didn't have
to skill level, but I wasn't gonna back down from anybody. Um,
And I brought that same level to Pennsylvania or a
(10:01):
bunch of suburban guys. And now these are not like
soft suburban guys. They're a little tougher suburban guys. And
I would play physical basketball and they would call this stuff.
I'm like, why are you calling this? These weak fouses?
I got too physical? Come on, and I'm like, I
just didn't get it. So I came out here to
l A and again, l A, you know a lot
of suburban kids playing in the gym. However, you find
(10:23):
some games that it's a little more physical, and you know,
I'm into the physical brand of basketball, preferably on defense.
I'm not driving into lane getting clobered. Okay, that's just
not fun for me. Um. But I understand why people
pushed back against Curry. I just didn't really like it.
I didn't think it was fair. And I can this
thing that Rob g found was just incredible, and I'm
(10:45):
all over the place with this topic, but it's just
to me, it feels a little disrespectful, like what does
he have to do to get that credibility? Like Reggie
Miller wasn't not to be you know, harsh to Reggie.
He wasn't half the player Steph Currey is. Reggie Miller
couldn't create his own his own offense. He was simply
(11:05):
a catch and shoot guy. He was a great catch
and shoot guy. He was a clutch player. But he
talked trash to Spike Lee and Madison Square Garden multiple times.
And Reggie Miller's I think he threw a punch of
Jordan and got in some beef, so he wasn't perceived
as a suburban player. I don't I don't know, like
I don't know what the rules are here on this.
It feels kind of willy nilly, like, oh, we like
(11:26):
that guy or we don't like that guy. It feels
like BS to me. I don't know. I'm personally a
little bit surprised that Steph Curry is the most trilled
player according to this um you know this survey that
was taken within the last four months. Now. Now, Rob
g who found it, is not a huge Curry guy.
As a matter of fact, he really doesn't like Steph Curry.
(11:48):
You could just admit it, Rob, It's fine, you don't
like Steph Curry. Were you surprised by this? Survey. Not
at all, not not even a little bit. And it's
not like I don't like Steph Curry. I just think that, Yeah,
the Steph Curry fall is going to be glorious and
I'm looking forward to it. Wait a wait, time, out
time and what do you need this Steph Curry fall
in this offseason? You predicted? You know, this season is
(12:08):
going to be an indictment of step Canny. Carry them, dude,
He's having a ridiculous season's top five in the m
v P and he's carrying them to what a seventh seed?
I'm supposed to be impressed by that. That's him. He's
playing right, yeah, exactly. Russell Westbrook average of trouble double
and they got like the sixth seed and got bounced.
And look what you said about Russell Westbrook and Steph
Curry's not even averaging a triple double. He's about to
(12:30):
go to the seventh seed again. I'm my bad. Russell
Westbrook had Victor Oladipo on that team that he carried,
and Steph Curry is playing with who a bunch of
guys from the G League, Michael Toscato Anderson. Like I
thought that was an appetizer at Applebee's. I don't know half.
I don't know half the guys on this roster. Kelly
might be their second best player. Kelly Ubray has never
(12:51):
been an All Star. Okay, they have Draymond Green, but
come on, I don't know Rob. I just let me
just say this. Continue to bash Curry, go ahead. I'm
in a bashi. But the reason why I believe that
I wasn't surprised by the study results is because of
guys like you, Guys like Chris Russar, who I work
with five days a week. You guys have been so
(13:13):
quick to anoint Steph Curry as if not the best thing.
You have him as the best, and he could. Chris
has him as the second best point guard in NBA. Okay,
you both have them second best, and you're quick to
point out two time m v P. Look what he's
been to the finals. He's he's you know, he's three
time champion. And that's true. But I feel like every
(13:35):
time guys like you bring up Steph Curry and discussed
Steph Curry, guys with the big voices on TV and radio,
there's a lack of context that gets applied to it
and This is what I mean Number one. When he
won his first championship. You recall that nobody talks about
this anymore. Every single point guard he was supposed to
(13:58):
go against in the playoffs was hurt. Every single starting
point guard was hurt. So by the time he got
to the finals, it was supposed to be Kyrie and Stephan.
Kyrie gets hurt of think in game one, so we
never even got to see that. So it was Lebron,
Matthew Delavadova and a bunch of guys against the Warriors.
So you know, but he wanted cruise name. Whatever they lose,
(14:20):
they blow the seventy three win season, which for most
people should be I'm not saying Lebron James, Dallas Mavericks slander,
but it should be really high up there for longer
than what it was. Okay, so you okay, Okay, he
blew the three one le Bron James, Okay, it sounds
(14:42):
like they blew it. To Dirk Navitski, you don't get
to call yourself the best team of all time and
then blow a three one lead. So that's number two,
Number three. As soon as Kevin Durant got there, he
was their best player. And it wasn't close. Now you
can argue, and I would argue, actually in his Curry's favor,
he was more im for than than Katie because of
what he did for their team specifically. But as soon
(15:05):
as Kevin Durant put on a Golden State Warriors uniform,
there was no question who was the best player. Yeah,
I wouldn't, I don't. So then why is it, with
those three points in mind, why is it that he
is anointed immediately ahead of guys like Isaiah Thomas or
or John Stockton or whoever, whatever, whoever your favorite point
(15:29):
guard is. Why is he automatically elevated that quickly when
if you look at things with a microscope, you can
poke holes in a lot of it. When when he
goes against Lebron James in the finals, who's the guy
who gets hunted on defense almost every single play? It's
Steph Curry. This season, he finally doesn't have a super
(15:50):
team for the first time in four years. Okay, three
years if you want to, We'll say three years super team.
When all the Warriors super team with with Kevin Durant,
even without duran were they a super team? No, they
were a very good team. Okay, so you take away
as soon as he doesn't have another All Star next
(16:11):
to him, as soon as he has to deal with
what Dame Lillard gets every season. Russell Westbrook had to
deal with for four or five seasons. Um, whoever else,
I don't whoever else you want to name, you know,
pick your guy. But those are the two that comes
out to be first. Oh they're a seven seed. Oh
maybe Steph Curry isn't the greatest point guard of all time.
(16:33):
Oh you know, maybe this this unanimous m v P
in the league that featured Lebron James, Shaquille O'Neal, Michael
Jordan's will Chamber, and that some of the most dominant
individual seasons ever and none of them got unanimous m
v P, but Steph Curry did. That's why it's easy
for people not to like him. All right, there's a
lot here. I didn't know that we would be debating
(16:56):
the merits of Steph Curry, but here we are. And
I just just for kicks. I looked up playoff points
per game, Michael Jordan's first, averaging thirty three a game,
Iverson Shocking Lee second, nine, Kevin Durant fourth, Lebron fifth,
Oh look, there's Steph Curry, prime time clutch playoff performer,
(17:19):
twenty six points per game. I had of a lajah
one I had of your favorite player of all time,
Kobe Bryant, ahead of Dirk Dvinsky, Russell Westbrook, Dame every
ahead of Karl Malone, who's in the ploffs like every year,
ahead of Jabbar, ahead of Shock. What Curry has done
regular season playoffs is to me absurd, And I really
(17:39):
do bacon expectations to where players are. Okay, we knew
Michael Jordan was gonna be great. We knew Lebron was
gonna be great. We knew Shack was gonna be great.
Did anybody think Steph Curry out of Davidson, drafted after
two point guards named Ricky Rubio and Johnny Flynn? Did
(18:00):
anybody think Steph Curry would win all these would win
two m vps, a bunch of titles, First Team All NBA,
blah blah bla did And no, He's come out of nowhere,
And I love this. I looked up the MVP voting
when Curry was unanimous. Okay, he got every single first
place vote. He he led the NBA in wind shares
(18:23):
and it wasn't close. Seventeen point nine. Nobody else even
had fifteen. Okay, he shot from the field forty five
from three from the line fifty ninety. That's obscene, Okay.
Kawhi Leonard finished second in the voting. He was with
(18:44):
the Spurs. Lebron was third. Westbrook and okay, so Westbrook
and Durant kind of split. Four five. Chris Paul, who
everybody loves, Chris Paul the point God, I'm so over
Chris Paul. Honestly, I'm just so sick of this guy.
Is he a good player? Yeah? What happens every year
in the playoffs. He's a bust every year in the playoffs,
rob g. Chris Paul somehow finds a way to vomit
(19:07):
over himself get injured while celebrating in Steph Curry's face.
That's what he does. I mean, at some point, we
know you're great. He's a really, really good point guard,
but can you win a damn clutch game in the postseason?
And I gotta ask John Stockton, like you mentioned him
one of the greatest point guards ever? Yes, no doubt,
was he ever the best player on his team? I
(19:28):
don't even know that. How many first place m VP
votes did John Stockton have while playing in the league
for like seventeen years. I would guess it was over
under one and a half first place votes. Curry got
all of them one year. And like I like Isaiah Thomas.
He's a real tough gauge because we never saw him
without a great team and we never saw him without
(19:49):
a really good coach. The Bad Boy Pistons were one
of the best teams of the nineteen eighties and early nineties.
I think they went to the finals four years in
a row. Um Or it would have been for if
they didn't choke it away when Larry Bird stole the
ball in like Game six, Piston Celtics Birds all the ball?
You know whatever that was, um, Like I said, Thoma's
really good at six ft one, amazing, tough inner city
(20:12):
Chicago kid who would take no ship from anybody. Um what.
The only guy really to defeat Michael Jordan had to
add more than loose to him, and it orked Jordan's
so much that Jordan's snubbed the hell out of him
going forward. But like I say, it's up there. I
maybe I'm being a little biased towards the current NBA.
(20:33):
But Rob, I'll close on this. In every sport, the
evolution of player, the evolution of athlete skill level is
improved for whatever reason in the NBA. And I don't
know the answer to this. If I could sit down
with lebron Um, this is a question, I would ask
him why do we not do it in the NBA.
(20:55):
It's for whatever reason. The players from previous decades were better.
I say it was better than Curry. Yeah, of course,
Really are we sure about that Steph Curry? I mean,
I could make an argument that Damian Lillard is starting
to build a case to be one of the top
ten point guards in NBA history, and I'm sure the
audience will say he's not even a point guard. Well,
(21:17):
I mean he's not a point guard because of the
traditional rules. Like the NBA has evolved. Okay, middle relief
matters immensely now in Major League Baseball. Starters don't go seven, eight,
nine innings in the NBA. You want a ball handler,
you want to wing, and you want to big Like
I just, I really think I can't say Curry's underrated.
(21:39):
But to me this, I don't know what kind of
person sends angry tweets to Steph Curry like he is
every time I go with my son. You know, we
I coach him and I coach my daughter. And the
first practice I always ask every player, who's your favorite player?
A lot of Kobe here in l A. But Steph
(22:01):
Curry is number two almost every single team I've coached.
The kids love him, And I just robbed you. I
just don't get the hate. We need to spread more
love and positivity out there, unless, of course we're talking
about Chris Paula Russell Westbrook. All right, rob G, I'll
let you have the file, lets you have the final word. Um,
are you surprised that Lebron was not first? Yes? Actually,
(22:24):
and it has everything to do with two things, the
Jordan Lebron debate and Lebron's social and political commentary. I
feel like people latch onto those two things add nauseum
with Lebron James so much so that it clouds them
from accepting how good of a basketball player that he is.
(22:45):
And he is at worst the second best player in
NBA history. But again, because he's very outspoken and because
he had the audacity to call himself the chosen one.
And then you know, I'm not going to he did
this run himself. When he did say in an interview
that made me the best player of all time and
he put his name on it. That my that I
(23:07):
kind of count see now why Jordan guys were not
like that. But no, I mean I honestly expected it
was gonna be Lebron in the landslide. So to see
that it wasn't him, that was shocking. Alright. The only
other huge story I thought there was in sports over
the weekend, and this was again, we have a young
audience here on the podcast, but we do have a
segment obviously that listen to you know, the older crowd
(23:29):
like my dad who listens, and like my mom who
posted on social media so her friends gonna listen. Um, yes,
that's a real thing. By the way, Um, there was
a video that circulated Sunday morning about Cam Newton and
I don't have a lot of context, rob g, so
maybe you can fill in some of the blanks. So
(23:49):
this video did I believe four and a half million
views in less than twelve hours. Okay, it went up
early Sunday morning and it was it's a crazy video.
So Cam Newton is it's some football camp and he's
walking the sidelines. I couldn't tell if it was a
camp of practice or what. And there's you know, a
(24:11):
bunch of middle school players behind him, and this one kid,
this jerk, this little twerp starts yelling to Cam Newton,
you're a free agent. You're a free agent, like derisively,
like he's mocking Cam Newton. Some you know snot nos
twelve year old, maybe he was fourteen. Who knows. All
(24:34):
he would say is you're a free You're only a
free agent. You're like nobody wants your free That's all
he would say. And Cam Newton, you know, to his credit,
didn't take a swing at the little kid, obviously because
Cam Newton is worth a lot of money. But he
looked pretty pissed as as of course, naturally, who would
not be. And I there were just so many things
here on this video you felt it was a little
(24:55):
uncomfortable to watch. And I will be the first to
say I have not been on the Cam Newton band.
Why um, I thought he was a t He's a
tremendous football player, a great talent. You want an m
VP award, he want a national title at Auburn. This
guy's I mean his I don't need to rattle off
his credentials. Cam Newton was a great NFL quarterback. He's
near the end of his career now. Um he's had
(25:18):
a couple of soldiers shoulder surgeries that have taken its toll.
And just kind of watching him react, and you know,
there were some other kids laughing. It was just uncomfortable
because Rob, I know you've been there, Like Cam ended
up saying where's this guy's dad? Where's your father? And
I will tell you this guys. Um, I was the
(25:39):
kid who when I screwed up badly, my parents would
take me by the ear and I would have to
go apologize. I had parents like that, and it makes
you a better person. You stop being a dick when, uh,
you know your parents are gonna get on your case.
So I'll just quickly mentioned two of them. Um, one
time I was kind of uh, unless you all right,
(26:03):
let me I was. I was best buddies with the
guy mostly through elementary school, and then you know, we
get to middle school and we kind of got a
part and I got new friends and he got new friends.
And then for whatever reason, we were futing and he
lived near me. So one night I had to sleep
over some buddy's and we snuck out in t P
and egged the guy's house and it was I guess,
you know, it's not clear. I guess somebody in our
group was you know, talking about it, and it was
(26:25):
pretty clear it was us and my old buddies mom
the guys who got tped an egg. I'm she called
my mom. I was like, you know, blah blah blah
blah blah, and my mom was pissed and I had
to go to the front door and apologize and all
this stuff. I think I might have had to write
(26:46):
a letter or something, you know, a handwritten thing, and
that was my lesson. I you know, like, come on,
you can't do that stuff. And there was a moment
in high school and this one really hurt me. Um,
I believe it or not. It was a bit of
a troublemaker in high school a little bit. And I
had this one teacher who you could just steamroll, you
could just goof off or whatever. She just never could
(27:07):
quiet the class. And um, I had to tell my
kids this because you know, I need to get them
in line, and you know, the teacher would be like Jason,
time to focus. I'm like, okay, yeah, sir, because I could,
I could easily get by, you know, I was I
was as good. I was a good student, so I
knew what I was doing. But I would just talk
and goof around with my friends. And one day I
(27:30):
walk into class and people the class starts to fill up.
It was one of those trailer classes where it was
like outside the school. And as the class fills up,
my mom walks in the classroom and you know, of
course my friends like, Jason, your mom's in the class.
(27:51):
I was like, oh gosh, this is mortifying. And my
mom sat in the back of the classroom. The teacher
could not get through to me, so she called my mom,
who was like on the p t A, you know,
she was involved, and said, you know how Jason C's
not really focused. Could you maybe come in and just
watch or say something to him? And I was humiliated, mortified.
(28:14):
I never screwed up again after that. I got in line. Um.
It was humiliating, and like, if I'm the father of
this kid who's getting on Cam Newton's case and this
video and I see that's my kid, I'm grabbing him.
And if we can't find people connected to Cam Newton.
(28:35):
I'm making this kid produce a video apologizing profusely to
Cam Newton because this is not how you behave okay
as a as a young kid, you're a punk. You're
trying to go viral. Kind of have your moment. Think
about this for a second. A college football national champion,
who's the number one overall pick, who makes millions of dollars,
(28:58):
who wins an m v P award, who goes to
a Super Bowl, is at your football camp. You can
pick his brain, be a sponge around him, learn about
what it takes to be a professional. Learn from Cam's mistakes,
because he'll tell you about his mistakes at Florida. Okay,
he got kicked out of the school basically, and how
(29:18):
Cam got on the right track and got to be
at the top of his profession. You can learn that
stuff as a teenager. If Cam Newton's at your football camp,
you sit around him. You don't really speak, You just
listen and maybe ask some good, smart questions. That's your opportunity.
You're not gonna be around a lot of former NFL
m v P s. You think Pat Mahomes is just
(29:40):
gonna wander into this kid's life. You know, Aaron Rodgers,
Tom Brady, this is your chance around Cam Newton and
this is how you behave. This is the decision you make.
I'm gonna ras him. I'm gonna talk trash to Cam Newton.
That's what I'm gonna do. I'm just stunned. It's sad. Uh.
(30:01):
You know, you don't want to make a sweeping statement. Um,
but this is an embarrassment. This kid should be embarrassed
his parents. UM. I don't want to say get out
the belt, but listen, man, this kid needs to be
taught a lesson by his parents. Like, you cannot act
like this. This is like the worst thing you could
do the I mean, of all the choices you make,
that's the one I don't know, Rob, it made me
(30:23):
viscerally upset watching this video on Sunday. Yeah, no, I
would agree with you. And UM, kudos to Cam. I
mean I know that video that you're talking about, the
one that went viral, but there was another video that
came out a couple of hours later where Cam went
up to that kid privately and uh, well, I mean
there are other kids around it, but Cam made a
point to go when that kid was by was away
(30:45):
from the action. He had a couple of friends around
him and he just talked to him and he kind of,
I want to say, said him straight. But it was
just like you mentioned, Cam is a guy who's if
you're gonna give me the opportunity to talk to you,
he's gonna be the bigger man. So so kudos to him.
But as part of the big her you know story
that you're talking about. I mean, I coached high school
(31:05):
football at IT when I was in college, you know,
I graduated from my school, was in school, I was
only working part time, and my old coach and hey,
we need help coaching the freshman kids. You know, was
you willing to help. It's a couple of hours a week. Sure.
And when I tell you, even back then, kids were assholes,
and that was you know, the internet was, you know,
(31:25):
not what it is now with social media. But there
was a kid who thought it was funny when he
was doing some conditioning drill. He ran next to me
and lifted his leg and farted just because he thought
that was like a funny thing to do. And thankfully
I knew his dad a little bit, and his dad's like, hey,
if he does anything like that, again, you have my
(31:45):
uh permission to do whatever you want to him. I
wasn't gonna hit him or anything like that, even though
we're the same height, but I could have and so well,
ultimately it ended up doing like a bunch of cardio
or the kid almost act. But whatever um kids now
of days, especially you know, and and and it happens
in sports too, you know, the a a utification of
(32:07):
athletes or the travel ball baseball or what. I don't
know what the level is for football, but the same
kind of thing where these kids feel so entitled, they
feel like they're owed something. They feel like if you're
in the n b A or if you're in the
NFL and you're not Odell Beckham Jr. You're not Tom Brady,
(32:31):
you're not Patrick Mahomes, then you suck because you're not
winning my fantasy team for me. And it's unfortunate that
Cam Newton who took time out of his schedule. I'm
sure he'd rather be doing other things than going to
some football camp, you know, I'm sure he just like
the kid mentioned he's he's a free agent. He wants
(32:51):
to impress other teams as much as possible. And for
him to go down there, give his time and his
energy to to spend time with the youth of America.
For a kid to respond like that was really disappointing,
and so kudos to cam for number one keeping his
head when that kid was talking the way he was talking,
but number two not giving up on him and saying,
(33:12):
I'm gonna go and talk to this kid privately. If
he accepts what I'm saying, great, If he doesn't, at
least I did my part. So I wish that more
athletes responded the way cam Ne even responded. I mean, listen,
for those of you who have not seen it, Cam
doesn't come off great like his initial response, which I'm
sure he was shocked and a little embarrassed that people
are laughing at. I mean, he's a former m v
(33:33):
P and his first response is like, I'm rich. You know,
I'm rich, I got money, and you know he's right.
I don't know that you know that that's something you
want to lead with. But uh, I don't know, man, Um,
Yeah we do. We do end up talking about, you know,
youth sports and kids on this podcast probably at least
once a week, So I don't know, man. If I
(33:54):
would just recommend anybody out there, show that video to
your kid and say, never do anything like this. Like
this is an embarrassment. This is the worst thing you
could do. Learn from it. Um, yeah, I would recommend that.
But anyways, all right, everybody, this has been a little
longer than I thought it would be. We have a
special guest coming up tomorrow. You guys are gonna love him.
Um former athlete. You know his name, everybody knows his name,
(34:18):
and I can't wait to uh unveil that one to
you tomorrow. We'll talk to you that
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