May 2, 2024 • 34 mins
On today’s episode, Jason discusses why he had a problem with the Deion Sanders taking shots at disgruntled former University of Colorado football players, how the egos of Deion and his son Shedeur could impact their respective NFL futures and why it’s clear that Russell Westbrook is hurting the Los Angeles Clippers more than he’s helping than against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. Finally, Jason closes the show with his Best Bets for the Thursday night slate of NBA Playoffs games.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up straight Fire? Sam, It's me Jason McIntyre,
Straight Fire or Thursday May second. We had another winner
in the NBA last night, easy winner, almost to the
point that we're not going to open the show with
the NBA MAVs win by a billion. Celtics win by
a billion. That Parlay cashed easily. I mean you could
(00:32):
have go hopefully he went to bed early. I actually
went out for a drink with Cowherd last night. You
know his usual spot. He I'll just say this, he's
an interesting character, such a nice guy. People always coming
up to Oh, Cowhard loved the show and he does
pick up a good tab. I'll give him now. I'll
give him credit for that, but not much to see.
(00:53):
We were looking for a MAVs Clippers thriller. In the
MAVs role in the second half, my guy Luka Doncic,
Kyrie Irving. I mean, Kyrie wasn't amazing, but he had
a couple of nice plays. It was the Luka Donca
show and the other guys delivered. We'll talk about him
in a secon, but I do want to start. We
haven't talked about football really all weeks since the draft.
And again this is like off season brush fire. Not
(01:14):
a huge deal, but interesting to me. So the Colorado Buffaloes,
obviously Dion Sanders and his son should Door Sanders had
a huge splash last year, won their season opener. We're
getting record ratings and they end up four and eight whatever.
They don't have a ton of guys on the team,
they had an injury to the kid Hunter. They're two
way star. But Colorado was a story and now they're
(01:36):
a bigger story. They hit to transfer Portal hard. And
one of the big stories of the Buffaloes is how
Dion Sanders was essentially telling kids, yo, sorry, you're not
gonna cut it. You're not built for this program. We're
gonna recruit over your head. You should transfer. And most
of them were like, damn, that's cold. Okay, I'll transfer,
but not all of them, and one of them decided
to stay behind and give it a shot. And essentially
(01:59):
he went and talked to the athletic about being marginalized
and kind of it was a punching bag and nothing special.
And the story came out on Wednesday, and of course,
being the grown up that he is, deon Sanders decided
to then take shots at this young man, this college
kid okay, not even a college star, a college kid
(02:21):
who's a football player. And Shadoor Sanders then piles on
and he's like, oh, yeah, I don't remember him. He
was Hella mid or whatever he said. And it's like, okay,
what are we doing here. You're the Colorado Buffaloes. You're
Deon Sanders, a Hall of Famer, your son, Shadoor Sanders
is making millions in nil, he's probably going to be
(02:41):
a first round pick, probably a top five pick. Why
are you taking jabs at a guy who doesn't matter?
And then like another Colorado Buffalo player chimes in with
off the top rope, with like an elbow unnecessary shit,
And of course then everybody looks up who this guy
is coming off the top rope and he's like, oh,
you had six catches, bro, you what do you even
talking about? And it just becomes this thing where it
(03:04):
almost feels like Colorado with Shadur and Dion have decided
we don't care. We're not gonna be nice guys, We're
not gonna be politically correct. We're gonna say whatever's on
our mind, even if it's not friendly, not nice, unnecessary aggressive.
We're just gonna do it. We're gonna be the villains.
And we've talked about this before with other athletes. You
(03:26):
know what Lebron did the decision. It was cold, it
was dirty. Cleveland was heartbroken, and Lebron leaned into being
a villain. He goes to Miami. We're not gonna win one,
not one, not two, not three, not four. He just
was like all about it, and it caught up with
him pretty quickly in the finals against JJ Burrey in
the mass ended up getting two titles in Miami. Whatever,
But you have to make a conscious decision. Do you
(03:48):
want to be the villain? Not everybody's built for that.
After Tiger Woods went through his goodness gracious strippers, porn stars, dancers,
after we went through that disaster ruining his marriage. By
the way, a side note that doesn't matter at all.
His ex wife is now married to the older brother
(04:10):
of someone I know, And it was like, okay, you
married Tiger's ex wife. Okay, all right, interesting, I talked
to the older brother who married Elan. But I just
found that odd and I just tossed that out there. Anyways,
Tiger Woods could have easily gone the villain route and
been like, yeah, I screwed up. What do you want
(04:30):
from me? I'm not perfect. He just did. He wasn't
built for that. He could not do that. I'm here
to tell you Dion Sanders is built for that. He
does not care. He's got enough money in the bank,
he's got enough accolades. Fine, Shadoor Sanders, though, what are
you doing, bro' You're a college quarterback hoping to build
(04:55):
off last year's impressive Division one start for you? Remember
he was where was he Jackson State before? I think
something like that. Rob can find that out. But essentially
he had a solid year, good numbers. But you want
to be an NFL pick, You've got to build on
your game. He's not a dead lock top five pick.
I mean, folks, this time, what three years ago, Spencer
(05:17):
Ratler was like number top five in all NFL draft boards.
We saw how that worked out. Okay, so Chador is
not a lock to go top five. We all think
he's going to, but he's not a lock, and so
for him to be act like this, it's just I
don't know that that's a great look. It almost has
like a Baker Mayfield vibe and yeah, Baker Mayfield still
(05:38):
went one, but he's now on his third or fourth team,
and yeah he got Peyton a little bit. And I
just do you want? Is that what you want? You
want to be Baker Mayfield? You want to be Tom Brady,
it will be Peyton Manning. You want to be Patrick Mahomes.
Who do you want to be? If you want to
be Baker, fine, go for it, rock out, good luck.
But I just I don't know, Rob. Maybe I'm being
(05:59):
an old guy yelling in a cloud or whatever. That
Simpson's thing is. I didn't love it when I saw it,
But basically they said, you know what, we don't care.
I'm Shador Sanders, I'm gonna be in the NFL next year,
and I'm Dion I'm probably taking an NFL head coaching
john next year. So I don't care.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yeah, the whole thing just it's very unsavory to me,
especially coming from a program that finished last in the
Pac twelve and finished the season with six straight losses.
You know, they got all excited and high and mighty,
started feeling themselves that they started out three and zero,
and then they go ahead and lose eight of their
last nine games, I'm gonna start off with Shad Door
(06:34):
Sanders first. I'm going heed to DEANEA. I think Dion's
a bigger story, but Shador Sanders I think he's a
very good quarterback. I think he's gonna be a good
NFL prospect. Unlike Dion and Dion I'm sure knows more
football and it's forgotten, more football than I'll ever care
to know. But he's also a father. So when Dion
(06:54):
Sanders goes publicly on record on Twitter, especially on Wednesday,
when somebody tweeted him, say, hey, tell your son to
stop thinking he's the coldest one. Their team went four
and eight last year, and his response was something to
the effect of, yeah, well, my son's going to be
in the top five NFL draft. What's your son going
to be doing? Lol?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Like, you know, that's funny.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
But at the same time, again, Shador is a legitimate
NFL prospect. However, this is not all that dissimilar from
LaVar Ball because LaVar Ball, I like Lonzo Ball that
it was good NBA prospect, But the way that his
dad spoke about him number one, it made in public
(07:35):
enemy number one and number two, it was just not realistic,
like saying, I'm gonna like Lonzo Ball can be Michael
Jordan one on one and his prime is just crazy.
And there are more than a handful of NFL scouts
and quarterback coaches that I know and that I've conversed
with and have even gone public on Twitter that said, yeah,
we think Shador can be a good NFL quarterback. We
(07:57):
also of concerned about his arm strength. We have concerned
about the way he reads the defense because that's why
he takes so many sacks. We have concerned about his
lack of athleticism. And that's all before you get to
the biggest red flag, which you alluded to, is the
quote unquote character issues. He has a lot of Baker
Mayfield in him, whether it's calling out Mike Norval from
(08:19):
Colorado State, whether it's calling out Matt Ruhle in Nebraska,
whether it's flashing the Rolex watch at a bunch of fans,
you know, in the middle of a touchdown celebration when
you're down by three scorers, like, he is not above
getting into the mix, and usually at the quarterback position,
you want that guy to be above it all. And unfortunately,
(08:44):
it's not surprising that This is the persona that he's
taken on, because that's exactly who his dad is. His
dad is a grown ass man with a full on
gray beard. I've seen the videos, I've seen the photos,
and yet he decides to take time out of his
day on Wednesday to fire shots off at a fifth
(09:06):
string defensive back that used to play for Colorado, like
you have to be the bigger man. Your role as
a football coach, whether it's in Pop Warner high school,
college or the NFL, is to be a leader of men.
There is nothing about the way he responded Deon Sanders
(09:30):
on Wednesday on social media that suggests that he is
a strong leader of men. It says that he is immature,
It says that he is full of himself, and it
says that he has a problem reading the room. Because
everything that that article said about Dion Sanders in the
(09:51):
Colorado Buffalo program suggests that Dion specifically doesn't care about
any that's outside of his inner circle of players. That's
that's him, that's his sons, that's the five or six
you know, four and five star guys, and everyone else
is kind of disposable. And what do you see in
(10:14):
the twenty four hour fallout. Since that article came out,
Dion Sanders publicly illustrating every single allegation and point that
was made about him in that article. I do not
understand why there is a segment of this country and
a segment of sports fans that have decided they're going
to ride with this guy no matter what. Given, oh,
(10:37):
come on, given that the on field product is so
to quote shad or Standers Mid, I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
But it's like it's like John Moran, I don't get
why all these people love him. What's what's his encore product?
I mean, he hasn't won anything, he hasn't been in
the conference final. People love him. He's his shoe seller,
his jersey seller. I mean, I don't get it. Rob
People want to rock with the bad asses who were fearless.
You know. It's like I told my kids this story. Well,
(11:07):
I was driving my son and his buddy's style volleyball
and they were talking about there was a fight at school,
and I was like, I only remember one fight in
seventh grade, and there was this bad ass in my
grade named Mike Bailey. He was like early maturing guy puberty,
probably in sixth grade seventh grade. He was full blown,
like mustache and all that. And we had a school
rob that was seventh through twelfth. So sometimes the twelfth
(11:28):
graders came down our hall and you know, seventh graders
in the same hall as twelfth graders, I come on silly.
And occasionally there'd be like a guy from the other
end eleven twelfth grade, ten eleven walk through and like
act all tough and bump into kids, and you know, well,
one of them bumped into Mike Bailey, this big white guy,
and I was within ten feet, so I witnessed this
(11:49):
and I'll never it is a core memory, as I say,
And you know, this guy with his friends bumps into
Mike and is like acting like an asshole, and Mike
is not backing down, and Mike's like, you want to go,
like what's up? And he like basically drops his literally
drops his books and gets the fists up, and I
was like, oh, okay. And this guy, you know, thinks
(12:11):
he's like, oh, it's his seventh grade or what's he
gonna do? And Mike hits him with like a one
two three combo that was so fast, right, the guy
didn't even have time to react and do anything, and
it's instantly his face like nose and lips start bleeding
on three punches, like all connected, and I was like,
I've never seen anything. Oh my gosh, what just happened?
Like people were freaking out, and the kid instantly was like, oh,
(12:33):
I maybe I'm I picked on the wrong I tried
to act like a tough guy in the wrong spot
and he got his stuff and I'll never forget it now.
I don't know what happened to Mike Bailey. I don't
even think he I don't even know if he graduated
with us. But it was like one of the toughest
things I've ever seen. And you know, you can act
tough and talk tough, and for whatever reason these days,
(12:55):
you don't need to back it up. You just don't.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
People.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
It's all about the jawjacking on. How much social media
stuff do we see rob where guys are just preening
and acting tough and nobody, nobody can back up anything.
You see guys challenging NBA players courtside, right, you see
that lady who said something to Lebron this week and
then he flinched, And of course, I mean, it's just
(13:19):
people love to talk and listen. I'm not one where
you know, li like listen. I will say some stuff
straight up opinions based on sports, and I'm not I'm
trying not to be harsh. Sometimes I am whatever, but
I'm trying to act like listen. I would say this
to this guy if he were on the set, and
now some of it probably would not go over well
(13:41):
and I would get you know, mocked or whatever. But
I try to keep it real and and I just
feel like on social media, people just saying you know,
a lot of guys are anonymous, they say whatever. So
on some level, I respect Dion for saying that, but Rob,
he can only do that because he knows I'm not
long for college football, right Like, I don't think the
NFL cares. If he's a prick win football games, that's it,
(14:07):
you know, like Devid Tepper owns a parent Panthers. I'm
sure you saw the video Rob where he wanted to
a restaurant because somebody said don't let the GM pick.
He goes into the restaurant. It's like puts up with
the sign. You can't hear the audio, but you can
see it. The guy's wearing I think a Pittsburgh Steelers
hat temper. So Ballsy takes the hat off the guy's head.
The guy doesn't flinch, I guess because he realizes, oh
my gosh, there's a billionaire being an ass to me.
(14:29):
And it was like he doesn't care. He threw a
drink on a fan at the stadium, he's reprimanded, he
doesn't care. He's got more money than God done. Probably not,
but people just we're in crazy days right now. And
I don't know, Rob, I just I don't think I'm
with you. I don't think this is a great look
as a leader of men. But when the Cowboys run
(14:51):
off McCarthy and they're sifting through the candidate, So do
we want Belichick? Do we want Dion Sanders? You don't
think Dion's gonna be in the mix for jobs.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
If he's in the mix for jobs only because he's
deon Sanders, because we have seen absolutely nothing at the college.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I mean, if you.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Jackson State, sure, if you want to play that card,
but the jump from Jackson State to Colorado, even that
is a big jump, and then jump from Colorado to
the NFL is like monumental. And what we've seen from
Dion at Colorado is all bark, no bite, all sizzle,
no steak. They can talk and talk and talk and
be flashy and all these social media clips and you
(15:29):
know what have you, but when they get on the
football field, they get blasted by Oregon. They got blasted
by usc Hell. My UCLA Bruins took it to him
without much of anything going right for them in that game,
and they still wasn't even competitive. You know, Stanford had
a kid go for a buck eighty in the second
half alone against them, and a comeback win on a Friday.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Night like that.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
There is nothing about Dion Sanders, the college football coach
that we've seen at Colorado that will lead me to
believe that any NFL franchise would put up with all
the other sideshow stuff like you can be a dick
and be an asshole and be an NFL coach as
long as you win. Shout out, Bill Belichick. You can
do that all day long if you produce, And unfortunately
(16:15):
for Colorado, they have not produced at all to warrant
the level of trash talk that comes out of that program.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Speaking of mouthy, Steve Balmer and the Clippers went back
home for Game five on Wednesday night. They were underdogs,
which should have told you something. And essentially the Clippers,
the mouthy Clippers led by Russell Westbrook. Oh my, wait
till you hear the Russell Westbrook stats. Oh my gosh,
(16:42):
James Harden big game James? Can we call him that?
Big game? James? And Robb G's guy Palmdale p slash
pandemic P called George. They playoff fee, Yes, that's the
best one. Listen. They were very good in Game four
in stealing one in Dallas, and they were the opposite
of that in Game five. Rob Some of these numbers
(17:02):
are just bonkers for how bad the Clippers were. I
think at one point they missed seventeen straight threes. They
shot thirty seven percent against the Mavericks. Now, remember the
Mavericks down the stretch had the best defense in the
league for like the last twenty five games or whatever.
It hasn't shown up at all times. It showed up
last night in La in a what was a massively
boring game. The Clippers run away and hide in the
(17:26):
third quarter. Maxi Kleeber hit like four threes in the
third and the Clippers lose by thirty. Kyrie Irving plus
thirty five, and he didn't even have a great game.
One of seven from deep. It was the Luka Dancicccho.
Luca has not had a great series. There's a lot
of concern about his k e. And then he proceeded
to drop thirty five, ten and seven on their head
(17:47):
and he got help from Maxi, who had five threes.
Derek Lively had a really good game. It makes you
wonder why Jason kiddn' play him down the stretch. In
Game four, he had twelve and seven. It didn't miss
a shot in twenty five five minutes. Derek Jones was good. PJ.
Washington couldn't really make shots, but it didn't matter. And
the MAVs role and folks, this is the James Harden
(18:09):
I expect to show up in big spots in the postseason.
James Harden two of twelve. I don't have the official
count rob on his floaters, but remember how he was
money on the floaters late in Game four with no
Dereck Lively on the floor. He was the opposite of that,
and none of the floaters went in the first half.
Lively played a lot of minutes. Harden finishes with seven
(18:30):
points in thirty three minutes. Paul George oh Harden won
last at four turnovers, two baskets. Paul George had fifteen
and eleven sounds. Decent, right, No, he was four of
thirteen shooting. He looked passive. I don't. It was very bizarre,
but I saved my best for Russell Westbrook. So Russell
Westbrook actually was good in game one when they want
(18:51):
to get thirteen points. Since game one, Russell Westbrook has
six baskets and six turnovers. He is shooting, and this
is a real stat. Six for thirty five from the field.
He's made six baskets and miss twenty nine from three,
and the MAVs are not even challenging him. They're just
(19:12):
basically giving him the ola. You're with us, go ahead,
shoot it. We don't care. From three. Since game one,
he is two for twelve. The guy is in his
own head. He cannot shoot. He's a liability right now,
Russell Westbrook, that's what he is. And folks, the line
(19:32):
came out right after the game last night. The MAVs
are eight point favorites. I guess the markets saying the
Clippers are dogs and they're done. I don't see a
path to victory for them. I don't know the MAVs
are going to cover, but I think the MAVs close
them out. And now we get MAVs okasee and that,
my friends, rob that game five MAVs is the MAVs
I expected to see all series. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
And you know a lot of people will say that, well,
you know, this game was close there until the second
half when things kind of fell off your a favor.
I know the box score doesn't always tell the whole story,
but just look at the quarter by quarter log. Okay,
first quarter, Dallas wins by one. Second quarter they win
by nine, third by ten, fourth by ten. So basically
(20:16):
from the second quarter on it was a domination. This
wasn't just a spurt. It wasn't just you know, a
long run that took place in the kind of the
game was at end, like what happens to the Lakers
and the Nuggets. Seemingly every game in that series rest
in peace of my Lakers, like Dallas took it to
him and it wasn't really competitive. And unfortunately hashtag former
(20:38):
Laker Russell Westbrook, everything that Laker fans hated about the
Russell Westbrook experience has been put on full display in
this postseason. Now, when he first got to the Clippers,
I mean get the might have said on this podcast
actually that I like the move for them specifically because
(20:59):
he could be Russell Westbrook and have the requisite shooting
around him where it would mask his own deficiencies. Because
when Russ has the ball, you know, he's a whirling dervish.
He might throw a couple of turnovers, but he also
can get you eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve assists to
go along with twenty plus points and just being in
attack mote at all times. When James Harden arrives. However,
(21:22):
James Harden gets the ball, James Harden is now the
Luka Doncics of that team, where everything that they do
revolves around James Harden. That might work in the regular season,
that might work here and there in the playoffs, and
up until Game five it was working because we got
good James Harden for the first four games of the series.
(21:45):
James Harden had kind of turned back the clock, so
to speak. The problem with that, though, is that number one,
it doesn't allow Paul George and Kawhi Leonard went healthy
to be the best versions of them because They also
like to have the ball, you know, as much as possible.
Maybe not as much as Russ and Harden, but they
(22:05):
like to you know, feel a rhythm, so to speak.
They don't get to do that. But Russell Westbrook, when
you ask him to play off the ball and Laker
fans getting says to this, you have him to stand
in the corner, you ask him to you know, spread
the floor. He cannot do that at all.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I'm good at that. I love doing that.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
I mean, you've read off the stats. Here are a
couple of more so in the series, he's averaging six
five and two, which is bad. But this is this
is the worst part. His shooting splits a robust twenty
five twenty five sixty, to quote the great Jason McIntyre.
(22:47):
The MAVs are playing that. He's with us defense on it, like,
we're just gonna stand nine feet away from you unless
you do whatever it is you do, because you're not
gonna hit a shot. You're no threat whatsoever outside of
the restricted area. Go ahead, do you, Russ? Let Russ
cook and he is burning down the kitchen right now
with the clippers.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Yeah, so real quick, we'll probably harp on this more
Monday after the Clippers are eliminated. But we've been doing
this with a lot of teams, the Calves and Mitchell
and possibly Mobilely. You look at Kevin, Kevin Durant, and Phoenix.
I am just curious. Kawhi is signed for the paper
clips for the new arena. Paul George has not signed yet.
(23:27):
Now I don't know if he doesn't like the deal.
Are they negotiating? Is he ready to move on? But
like I mean, Paul George hits the market. Let me
just let's just keep it one thousand percent here, Okay,
I just need to google Paul George's age because this
is gonna this is gonna hurt some people when I
say it. But Paul George is turning Oh he's not
(23:50):
that young. He's turning thirty. Oh my gosh, today's birthday. Wow,
Paul George happy thirty fifth birthday. So I was, yeah,
I think he's a little older than I thought. I
was gonna say, Rob, who would you pursue more? Kevin
Durant via trade or Paul George, because I don't know that.
(24:13):
It's definitely Kevin Durant, obviously, Kevin Durant an all NBA
player this year. But Paul George is really good, and
it depends the role he's in. But I'm looking specifically
at Philadelphia and New York. I mean, would Paul George
want to be the two to Jalen Brunson, I think
that's a that's a great two. Would Paul George want
to be the two to Maxie or Embiid? I don't know.
(24:36):
He Embiid still seems to think he's a one. But like,
if I'm the Knicks, I mean, are you backing up
the brinks for Kevin Durant or Paul George. I mean,
I don't know at this point that there's a huge
difference between them. I think Paul George is a better defender.
I think Kevin Durant a little bit of a better scorer.
But Paul George also over a about a year and
(24:59):
a half younger, I think, has less of an injury history,
although he did have the one gruesome injury, I don't
know it to me. For me, it's close. I don't
think it's a lock that I would pursue kd Over
over Paul George. Obviously, price point matters the most. Paul
George this year forty seven percent, shooting forty one percent
from three, which is a career high ninety percent from
(25:20):
the line. Not bad twenty two to five and three.
But again, he's playing alongside Kawhi and James Harden and
Russell Westbrook. You know, things change a little when it's
just like, oh, it's Jalen Brunson and then Paul.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
George, right, And Paul George is great. He is a
fantastic talent. There's a reason why guys like Brandon Miller
and that generation say that Paul George is the goat.
Oh now that sounds blastmants on his head, But when
you just look at his ability, like he is really
an NBA two K created player. You know, he's like
six ' nine, he's rangy. He can do everything. He
(25:54):
can handle. He can rebound, he can defend, he can pass,
he can score. Like anything that you want an NBA
player to do, he can do at a reasonably high level.
And there is a reason I'm glad he brought up
the sixers because, interestingly enough, on a recent ESPN podcast,
Ramona Shelburne, one of the most plugged in LA based
(26:15):
NBA reporters out there, reported that there are two teams
who are aggressively targeting Paul Georgian free agency. One of
them is the Orlando Magic, which I don't think anyone
thinks is realistic. The other one, You're a Philadelphia seventy
six ers, so you are onto something right there? My friend?
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Wait, what's wrong with your Leontari?
Speaker 3 (26:37):
I don't think any player in the free agency wants
to go to the Orlando Magic.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Let's say they beat the Cavs in this series and
then they push the Celtics to six and loose. You
don't think what I mean. I think you got a
good chance in the East to do some damage. The
West is just too tough. Let's just be real. Too
many young players, too many good ascending studs. I don't know.
I mean, okay, fine, let's cross off Orlando Knicks or Sixers.
(27:03):
Just who do you think Paul georgioul rather?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
I think he would tim He would rather play for
the Sixers. I don't think I think most players would
prefer not to play for Tom Timber. And we saw
that in the player pol because he runs them into
the ground. A lot of NBA players are, you know,
kind of Prima Donna ish. They're so rich. They have
so many yes men around them that to have a
guy like Tibbs barking in your ear twenty two hours
(27:28):
a day is not ideal, not fun. Shout out Tims,
though I like tis Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
The guy wins, and we'll talk about the Knicks tonight
in a minute. All right, let's get to the Celtics
heat snoozer.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live. The only thing better than sitting on your
couch watching the game. He's making money while you do it.
(28:02):
Here's your best bet.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
We don't need to do anything with the nightcap. The
Celtics take a twenty point lead over the just diminished Heat.
There's so many injuries and in the first quarter Celtics
golle twenty and that's a wrap. I think I watched
like thirty seconds of the second half. It was not competitive.
Celtics win in five outside of a fluky heat three
point barrage in Game two. This was not a series.
(28:27):
So Boston now gets extra time to rest. Helping porzingis
obviously leading up to the Orlando or Cleveland series, and
I'm not ready to say that Orlando is definitely dead
here now. Cleveland getting an extra day is nice. They
will resume that series on Friday night. I you know,
(28:53):
I don't know. I like to think the Calves are
gonna do the damn thing. But I did bet Orlando
minus three a bit of a juiced three. That's up
to four and a half. Now. I just I'm off
the Cleveland trade. After those first two games, they were
so bad, like, Okay, you're gonna lose one at home,
Oh sorry, you're gonna lose one on the road. Game three,
you're probably gonna drop. But then to come out and
(29:13):
get destroyed in the second half of Game four is embarrassing.
And I don't know, we'll see what's up with Jared
Allen and that injury. And you know, Orlando hasn't had
a lot of playoff games in a while. They're gonna
be juiced up down there. I don't even know what
they call that arena, but I think Orlando wins Game
six forty game seven, which is just music to Boston's ears.
Neither of those teams will push the Celtics. Maybe Boston
(29:33):
loses one. But yeah, I think for sure the Celtics
are in really, really good shape going forward, which leads
us into best bets for Thursday night's action And folks,
I gotta plead ignorance. I don't know what to do
with this Philly Sixers series. I just don't. I was
able to hit first quarter and first half on Tuesday
(29:56):
straight cash, homie. Will that be the case again? Now?
I I want to go Knicks. They're going to come
out angry and fired up, and I'm sure they're going
to have a good crowd in the Lower Bowl. Yes
if you, and real quick on the tickets. So anybody arguing,
what why? Why are Philadelphia fans selling their ticket their
season ticket holders in the lower Bowl? Why are they
(30:16):
selling to Knicks fans? Guys? Are you aware of how
much money you can make to pay for the entire
season by selling a couple of playoff game tickets? It
really is insane. One of my good buddies is a
Lakers season ticket holder, and you know you can easily
make up the ground, especially for Knicks fans. You jack
those prices up. Knicks fans can't afford the Lower Bowl
(30:39):
to the guard. They cannot but take a train down
to Philly not that bad, or drive ninety minutes and
then you know, pay five, six hundred, seven hundred dollars
for a couple of tickets with a couple buddies. That's
nothing compared to the Garden, where it's going to be thousands.
So I think there could be a good Knicks crowd.
I will go again back to the well. I will
go Knicks first quarter, Knicks first half, knicker by the way,
(31:03):
five and zero against the spread, and first halves in
the series. I don't know what Embid's gonna have. I'm
surprised if Sixers are three and a half point favorites
as we record this right now here on Thursday morning.
I just I don't totally know what the Sixers are
gonna have in the take. When it comes to Embid,
we know Maxi's gonna show and Tobias Harris probably has
some good stuff left. But I think Nick's first half,
(31:24):
first quarter, first half, and then I haven't decided on
the full game yet. I'm a little nervous for the Knicks.
Just what if they run it. I guess three guys
playing over fifteen minutes come on the other one is
Pacers Bucks. We're still waiting to see on Giannis and Dame.
Obviously that's a big TBD. It would suck if the
Bucks decided, hey, let's play Giannis and then he gets
hurt and it's a significant That would be terrible for
(31:46):
a game six in Indiana. Pacers have played really strong
at home. I think the Pacers will probably decide, but
eight and a half is a little rich, So I
guess I would go for maybe a parlay of Pacers
and Nick's getting three and a half since all those
games are close. But I don't love that because I
don't I love the Knicks, but I don't know that
(32:07):
I trust him. It's a tough one. You don't have
to bet every night. Guys, remember live to fight another
day and again. Friday you can come back on the
MAVs for sure, right and Friday you could come Hopefully
you got an Orlando ticket already, So Friday and then
Saturday and we'll talk about it tomorrow. I haven't really
been able to dig into Timberwolves Nuggets. That is going
to be the I believe Saturday Night. Saturday Night's main event.
(32:30):
Anthony Edwards versus Yokich everybody's kind of excited for that.
And I'll just wrap with this. I don't know who
started it, but I'm getting fed the algorithm that says
Michael Jordan allegedly had a lot of affairs when he
was in Chicago, and Anthony Edwards was born right around
(32:51):
that time, and Anthony Edwards' it doesn't have a relationship
with his father. And again it seems very silly and
far fetched. And then they put the faces up, like
half of Anthony Edwards's face and half of Jordan's face,
and they kind of look alike, you know, the body
frame and the way they move and the swag, And
I know it's silly. I don't really buy into it,
but you can definitely understand why people are super into it,
(33:16):
Like everybody wants there to be another Jordan. We know
there won't be another Steph Curry. You just won't see
a guy that size banging threes and shaping the game
the way he has. There won't be another Lebron six
eight two sixty freight train speed. That just isn't gonna happen.
We've already seen a carbon copy of Jordan. Kobe Bryant
(33:37):
studied it sixty six similar frames. I mean the clips
of Kobe mimicking all of Jordan's moves that it looks
like him. You just you won't see another Lebron because
you're not gonna see anyone that size. Like We've never
seen someone with the speed and power of Lebron at
six ' eight. Karl Malone was a tank. Lebron was
(33:58):
about as big as him wise and he was a
blower john Wall john Wall type speed. That's what Lebron was.
It's just it's insane. What he is is a physical
specimen and you know the Anthony Edward Jordan stuff. Listen
in the league would love that you guys know this.
But we'll talk more about that game tomorrow. But that's
it for now. Talk to you then.
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up straight Fire? Sam, It's me Jason McIntyre,
Straight Fire or Thursday May second. We had another winner
in the NBA last night, easy winner, almost to the
point that we're not going to open the show with
the NBA MAVs win by a billion. Celtics win by
a billion. That Parlay cashed easily. I mean you could
(00:32):
have go hopefully he went to bed early. I actually
went out for a drink with Cowherd last night. You
know his usual spot. He I'll just say this, he's
an interesting character, such a nice guy. People always coming
up to Oh, Cowhard loved the show and he does
pick up a good tab. I'll give him now. I'll
give him credit for that, but not much to see.
(00:53):
We were looking for a MAVs Clippers thriller. In the
MAVs role in the second half, my guy Luka Doncic,
Kyrie Irving. I mean, Kyrie wasn't amazing, but he had
a couple of nice plays. It was the Luka Donca
show and the other guys delivered. We'll talk about him
in a secon, but I do want to start. We
haven't talked about football really all weeks since the draft.
And again this is like off season brush fire. Not
(01:14):
a huge deal, but interesting to me. So the Colorado Buffaloes,
obviously Dion Sanders and his son should Door Sanders had
a huge splash last year, won their season opener. We're
getting record ratings and they end up four and eight whatever.
They don't have a ton of guys on the team,
they had an injury to the kid Hunter. They're two
way star. But Colorado was a story and now they're
(01:36):
a bigger story. They hit to transfer Portal hard. And
one of the big stories of the Buffaloes is how
Dion Sanders was essentially telling kids, yo, sorry, you're not
gonna cut it. You're not built for this program. We're
gonna recruit over your head. You should transfer. And most
of them were like, damn, that's cold. Okay, I'll transfer,
but not all of them, and one of them decided
to stay behind and give it a shot. And essentially
(01:59):
he went and talked to the athletic about being marginalized
and kind of it was a punching bag and nothing special.
And the story came out on Wednesday, and of course,
being the grown up that he is, deon Sanders decided
to then take shots at this young man, this college
kid okay, not even a college star, a college kid
(02:21):
who's a football player. And Shadoor Sanders then piles on
and he's like, oh, yeah, I don't remember him. He
was Hella mid or whatever he said. And it's like, okay,
what are we doing here. You're the Colorado Buffaloes. You're
Deon Sanders, a Hall of Famer, your son, Shadoor Sanders
is making millions in nil, he's probably going to be
(02:41):
a first round pick, probably a top five pick. Why
are you taking jabs at a guy who doesn't matter?
And then like another Colorado Buffalo player chimes in with
off the top rope, with like an elbow unnecessary shit,
And of course then everybody looks up who this guy
is coming off the top rope and he's like, oh,
you had six catches, bro, you what do you even
talking about? And it just becomes this thing where it
(03:04):
almost feels like Colorado with Shadur and Dion have decided
we don't care. We're not gonna be nice guys, We're
not gonna be politically correct. We're gonna say whatever's on
our mind, even if it's not friendly, not nice, unnecessary aggressive.
We're just gonna do it. We're gonna be the villains.
And we've talked about this before with other athletes. You
(03:26):
know what Lebron did the decision. It was cold, it
was dirty. Cleveland was heartbroken, and Lebron leaned into being
a villain. He goes to Miami. We're not gonna win one,
not one, not two, not three, not four. He just
was like all about it, and it caught up with
him pretty quickly in the finals against JJ Burrey in
the mass ended up getting two titles in Miami. Whatever,
But you have to make a conscious decision. Do you
(03:48):
want to be the villain? Not everybody's built for that.
After Tiger Woods went through his goodness gracious strippers, porn stars, dancers,
after we went through that disaster ruining his marriage. By
the way, a side note that doesn't matter at all.
His ex wife is now married to the older brother
(04:10):
of someone I know, And it was like, okay, you
married Tiger's ex wife. Okay, all right, interesting, I talked
to the older brother who married Elan. But I just
found that odd and I just tossed that out there. Anyways,
Tiger Woods could have easily gone the villain route and
been like, yeah, I screwed up. What do you want
(04:30):
from me? I'm not perfect. He just did. He wasn't
built for that. He could not do that. I'm here
to tell you Dion Sanders is built for that. He
does not care. He's got enough money in the bank,
he's got enough accolades. Fine, Shadoor Sanders, though, what are
you doing, bro' You're a college quarterback hoping to build
(04:55):
off last year's impressive Division one start for you? Remember
he was where was he Jackson State before? I think
something like that. Rob can find that out. But essentially
he had a solid year, good numbers. But you want
to be an NFL pick, You've got to build on
your game. He's not a dead lock top five pick.
I mean, folks, this time, what three years ago, Spencer
(05:17):
Ratler was like number top five in all NFL draft boards.
We saw how that worked out. Okay, so Chador is
not a lock to go top five. We all think
he's going to, but he's not a lock, and so
for him to be act like this, it's just I
don't know that that's a great look. It almost has
like a Baker Mayfield vibe and yeah, Baker Mayfield still
(05:38):
went one, but he's now on his third or fourth team,
and yeah he got Peyton a little bit. And I
just do you want? Is that what you want? You
want to be Baker Mayfield? You want to be Tom Brady,
it will be Peyton Manning. You want to be Patrick Mahomes.
Who do you want to be? If you want to
be Baker, fine, go for it, rock out, good luck.
But I just I don't know, Rob. Maybe I'm being
(05:59):
an old guy yelling in a cloud or whatever. That
Simpson's thing is. I didn't love it when I saw it,
But basically they said, you know what, we don't care.
I'm Shador Sanders, I'm gonna be in the NFL next year,
and I'm Dion I'm probably taking an NFL head coaching
john next year. So I don't care.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yeah, the whole thing just it's very unsavory to me,
especially coming from a program that finished last in the
Pac twelve and finished the season with six straight losses.
You know, they got all excited and high and mighty,
started feeling themselves that they started out three and zero,
and then they go ahead and lose eight of their
last nine games, I'm gonna start off with Shad Door
(06:34):
Sanders first. I'm going heed to DEANEA. I think Dion's
a bigger story, but Shador Sanders I think he's a
very good quarterback. I think he's gonna be a good
NFL prospect. Unlike Dion and Dion I'm sure knows more
football and it's forgotten, more football than I'll ever care
to know. But he's also a father. So when Dion
(06:54):
Sanders goes publicly on record on Twitter, especially on Wednesday,
when somebody tweeted him, say, hey, tell your son to
stop thinking he's the coldest one. Their team went four
and eight last year, and his response was something to
the effect of, yeah, well, my son's going to be
in the top five NFL draft. What's your son going
to be doing? Lol?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Like, you know, that's funny.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
But at the same time, again, Shador is a legitimate
NFL prospect. However, this is not all that dissimilar from
LaVar Ball because LaVar Ball, I like Lonzo Ball that
it was good NBA prospect, But the way that his
dad spoke about him number one, it made in public
(07:35):
enemy number one and number two, it was just not realistic,
like saying, I'm gonna like Lonzo Ball can be Michael
Jordan one on one and his prime is just crazy.
And there are more than a handful of NFL scouts
and quarterback coaches that I know and that I've conversed
with and have even gone public on Twitter that said, yeah,
we think Shador can be a good NFL quarterback. We
(07:57):
also of concerned about his arm strength. We have concerned
about the way he reads the defense because that's why
he takes so many sacks. We have concerned about his
lack of athleticism. And that's all before you get to
the biggest red flag, which you alluded to, is the
quote unquote character issues. He has a lot of Baker
Mayfield in him, whether it's calling out Mike Norval from
(08:19):
Colorado State, whether it's calling out Matt Ruhle in Nebraska,
whether it's flashing the Rolex watch at a bunch of fans,
you know, in the middle of a touchdown celebration when
you're down by three scorers, like, he is not above
getting into the mix, and usually at the quarterback position,
you want that guy to be above it all. And unfortunately,
(08:44):
it's not surprising that This is the persona that he's
taken on, because that's exactly who his dad is. His
dad is a grown ass man with a full on
gray beard. I've seen the videos, I've seen the photos,
and yet he decides to take time out of his
day on Wednesday to fire shots off at a fifth
(09:06):
string defensive back that used to play for Colorado, like
you have to be the bigger man. Your role as
a football coach, whether it's in Pop Warner high school,
college or the NFL, is to be a leader of men.
There is nothing about the way he responded Deon Sanders
(09:30):
on Wednesday on social media that suggests that he is
a strong leader of men. It says that he is immature,
It says that he is full of himself, and it
says that he has a problem reading the room. Because
everything that that article said about Dion Sanders in the
(09:51):
Colorado Buffalo program suggests that Dion specifically doesn't care about
any that's outside of his inner circle of players. That's
that's him, that's his sons, that's the five or six
you know, four and five star guys, and everyone else
is kind of disposable. And what do you see in
(10:14):
the twenty four hour fallout. Since that article came out,
Dion Sanders publicly illustrating every single allegation and point that
was made about him in that article. I do not
understand why there is a segment of this country and
a segment of sports fans that have decided they're going
to ride with this guy no matter what. Given, oh,
(10:37):
come on, given that the on field product is so
to quote shad or Standers Mid, I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
But it's like it's like John Moran, I don't get
why all these people love him. What's what's his encore product?
I mean, he hasn't won anything, he hasn't been in
the conference final. People love him. He's his shoe seller,
his jersey seller. I mean, I don't get it. Rob
People want to rock with the bad asses who were fearless.
You know. It's like I told my kids this story. Well,
(11:07):
I was driving my son and his buddy's style volleyball
and they were talking about there was a fight at school,
and I was like, I only remember one fight in
seventh grade, and there was this bad ass in my
grade named Mike Bailey. He was like early maturing guy puberty,
probably in sixth grade seventh grade. He was full blown,
like mustache and all that. And we had a school
rob that was seventh through twelfth. So sometimes the twelfth
(11:28):
graders came down our hall and you know, seventh graders
in the same hall as twelfth graders, I come on silly.
And occasionally there'd be like a guy from the other
end eleven twelfth grade, ten eleven walk through and like
act all tough and bump into kids, and you know, well,
one of them bumped into Mike Bailey, this big white guy,
and I was within ten feet, so I witnessed this
(11:49):
and I'll never it is a core memory, as I say,
And you know, this guy with his friends bumps into
Mike and is like acting like an asshole, and Mike
is not backing down, and Mike's like, you want to go,
like what's up? And he like basically drops his literally
drops his books and gets the fists up, and I
was like, oh, okay. And this guy, you know, thinks
(12:11):
he's like, oh, it's his seventh grade or what's he
gonna do? And Mike hits him with like a one
two three combo that was so fast, right, the guy
didn't even have time to react and do anything, and
it's instantly his face like nose and lips start bleeding
on three punches, like all connected, and I was like,
I've never seen anything. Oh my gosh, what just happened?
Like people were freaking out, and the kid instantly was like, oh,
(12:33):
I maybe I'm I picked on the wrong I tried
to act like a tough guy in the wrong spot
and he got his stuff and I'll never forget it now.
I don't know what happened to Mike Bailey. I don't
even think he I don't even know if he graduated
with us. But it was like one of the toughest
things I've ever seen. And you know, you can act
tough and talk tough, and for whatever reason these days,
(12:55):
you don't need to back it up. You just don't.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
People.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
It's all about the jawjacking on. How much social media
stuff do we see rob where guys are just preening
and acting tough and nobody, nobody can back up anything.
You see guys challenging NBA players courtside, right, you see
that lady who said something to Lebron this week and
then he flinched, And of course, I mean, it's just
(13:19):
people love to talk and listen. I'm not one where
you know, li like listen. I will say some stuff
straight up opinions based on sports, and I'm not I'm
trying not to be harsh. Sometimes I am whatever, but
I'm trying to act like listen. I would say this
to this guy if he were on the set, and
now some of it probably would not go over well
(13:41):
and I would get you know, mocked or whatever. But
I try to keep it real and and I just
feel like on social media, people just saying you know,
a lot of guys are anonymous, they say whatever. So
on some level, I respect Dion for saying that, but Rob,
he can only do that because he knows I'm not
long for college football, right Like, I don't think the
NFL cares. If he's a prick win football games, that's it,
(14:07):
you know, like Devid Tepper owns a parent Panthers. I'm
sure you saw the video Rob where he wanted to
a restaurant because somebody said don't let the GM pick.
He goes into the restaurant. It's like puts up with
the sign. You can't hear the audio, but you can
see it. The guy's wearing I think a Pittsburgh Steelers
hat temper. So Ballsy takes the hat off the guy's head.
The guy doesn't flinch, I guess because he realizes, oh
my gosh, there's a billionaire being an ass to me.
(14:29):
And it was like he doesn't care. He threw a
drink on a fan at the stadium, he's reprimanded, he
doesn't care. He's got more money than God done. Probably not,
but people just we're in crazy days right now. And
I don't know, Rob, I just I don't think I'm
with you. I don't think this is a great look
as a leader of men. But when the Cowboys run
(14:51):
off McCarthy and they're sifting through the candidate, So do
we want Belichick? Do we want Dion Sanders? You don't
think Dion's gonna be in the mix for jobs.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
If he's in the mix for jobs only because he's
deon Sanders, because we have seen absolutely nothing at the college.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I mean, if you.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Jackson State, sure, if you want to play that card,
but the jump from Jackson State to Colorado, even that
is a big jump, and then jump from Colorado to
the NFL is like monumental. And what we've seen from
Dion at Colorado is all bark, no bite, all sizzle,
no steak. They can talk and talk and talk and
be flashy and all these social media clips and you
(15:29):
know what have you, but when they get on the
football field, they get blasted by Oregon. They got blasted
by usc Hell. My UCLA Bruins took it to him
without much of anything going right for them in that game,
and they still wasn't even competitive. You know, Stanford had
a kid go for a buck eighty in the second
half alone against them, and a comeback win on a Friday.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Night like that.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
There is nothing about Dion Sanders, the college football coach
that we've seen at Colorado that will lead me to
believe that any NFL franchise would put up with all
the other sideshow stuff like you can be a dick
and be an asshole and be an NFL coach as
long as you win. Shout out, Bill Belichick. You can
do that all day long if you produce, And unfortunately
(16:15):
for Colorado, they have not produced at all to warrant
the level of trash talk that comes out of that program.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Speaking of mouthy, Steve Balmer and the Clippers went back
home for Game five on Wednesday night. They were underdogs,
which should have told you something. And essentially the Clippers,
the mouthy Clippers led by Russell Westbrook. Oh my, wait
till you hear the Russell Westbrook stats. Oh my gosh,
(16:42):
James Harden big game James? Can we call him that?
Big game? James? And Robb G's guy Palmdale p slash
pandemic P called George. They playoff fee, Yes, that's the
best one. Listen. They were very good in Game four
in stealing one in Dallas, and they were the opposite
of that in Game five. Rob Some of these numbers
(17:02):
are just bonkers for how bad the Clippers were. I
think at one point they missed seventeen straight threes. They
shot thirty seven percent against the Mavericks. Now, remember the
Mavericks down the stretch had the best defense in the
league for like the last twenty five games or whatever.
It hasn't shown up at all times. It showed up
last night in La in a what was a massively
boring game. The Clippers run away and hide in the
(17:26):
third quarter. Maxi Kleeber hit like four threes in the
third and the Clippers lose by thirty. Kyrie Irving plus
thirty five, and he didn't even have a great game.
One of seven from deep. It was the Luka Dancicccho.
Luca has not had a great series. There's a lot
of concern about his k e. And then he proceeded
to drop thirty five, ten and seven on their head
(17:47):
and he got help from Maxi, who had five threes.
Derek Lively had a really good game. It makes you
wonder why Jason kiddn' play him down the stretch. In
Game four, he had twelve and seven. It didn't miss
a shot in twenty five five minutes. Derek Jones was good. PJ.
Washington couldn't really make shots, but it didn't matter. And
the MAVs role and folks, this is the James Harden
(18:09):
I expect to show up in big spots in the postseason.
James Harden two of twelve. I don't have the official
count rob on his floaters, but remember how he was
money on the floaters late in Game four with no
Dereck Lively on the floor. He was the opposite of that,
and none of the floaters went in the first half.
Lively played a lot of minutes. Harden finishes with seven
(18:30):
points in thirty three minutes. Paul George oh Harden won
last at four turnovers, two baskets. Paul George had fifteen
and eleven sounds. Decent, right, No, he was four of
thirteen shooting. He looked passive. I don't. It was very bizarre,
but I saved my best for Russell Westbrook. So Russell
Westbrook actually was good in game one when they want
(18:51):
to get thirteen points. Since game one, Russell Westbrook has
six baskets and six turnovers. He is shooting, and this
is a real stat. Six for thirty five from the field.
He's made six baskets and miss twenty nine from three,
and the MAVs are not even challenging him. They're just
(19:12):
basically giving him the ola. You're with us, go ahead,
shoot it. We don't care. From three. Since game one,
he is two for twelve. The guy is in his
own head. He cannot shoot. He's a liability right now,
Russell Westbrook, that's what he is. And folks, the line
(19:32):
came out right after the game last night. The MAVs
are eight point favorites. I guess the markets saying the
Clippers are dogs and they're done. I don't see a
path to victory for them. I don't know the MAVs
are going to cover, but I think the MAVs close
them out. And now we get MAVs okasee and that,
my friends, rob that game five MAVs is the MAVs
I expected to see all series. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
And you know a lot of people will say that, well,
you know, this game was close there until the second
half when things kind of fell off your a favor.
I know the box score doesn't always tell the whole story,
but just look at the quarter by quarter log. Okay,
first quarter, Dallas wins by one. Second quarter they win
by nine, third by ten, fourth by ten. So basically
(20:16):
from the second quarter on it was a domination. This
wasn't just a spurt. It wasn't just you know, a
long run that took place in the kind of the
game was at end, like what happens to the Lakers
and the Nuggets. Seemingly every game in that series rest
in peace of my Lakers, like Dallas took it to
him and it wasn't really competitive. And unfortunately hashtag former
(20:38):
Laker Russell Westbrook, everything that Laker fans hated about the
Russell Westbrook experience has been put on full display in
this postseason. Now, when he first got to the Clippers,
I mean get the might have said on this podcast
actually that I like the move for them specifically because
(20:59):
he could be Russell Westbrook and have the requisite shooting
around him where it would mask his own deficiencies. Because
when Russ has the ball, you know, he's a whirling dervish.
He might throw a couple of turnovers, but he also
can get you eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve assists to
go along with twenty plus points and just being in
attack mote at all times. When James Harden arrives. However,
(21:22):
James Harden gets the ball, James Harden is now the
Luka Doncics of that team, where everything that they do
revolves around James Harden. That might work in the regular season,
that might work here and there in the playoffs, and
up until Game five it was working because we got
good James Harden for the first four games of the series.
(21:45):
James Harden had kind of turned back the clock, so
to speak. The problem with that, though, is that number one,
it doesn't allow Paul George and Kawhi Leonard went healthy
to be the best versions of them because They also
like to have the ball, you know, as much as possible.
Maybe not as much as Russ and Harden, but they
(22:05):
like to you know, feel a rhythm, so to speak.
They don't get to do that. But Russell Westbrook, when
you ask him to play off the ball and Laker
fans getting says to this, you have him to stand
in the corner, you ask him to you know, spread
the floor. He cannot do that at all.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I'm good at that. I love doing that.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
I mean, you've read off the stats. Here are a
couple of more so in the series, he's averaging six
five and two, which is bad. But this is this
is the worst part. His shooting splits a robust twenty
five twenty five sixty, to quote the great Jason McIntyre.
(22:47):
The MAVs are playing that. He's with us defense on it, like,
we're just gonna stand nine feet away from you unless
you do whatever it is you do, because you're not
gonna hit a shot. You're no threat whatsoever outside of
the restricted area. Go ahead, do you, Russ? Let Russ
cook and he is burning down the kitchen right now
with the clippers.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Yeah, so real quick, we'll probably harp on this more
Monday after the Clippers are eliminated. But we've been doing
this with a lot of teams, the Calves and Mitchell
and possibly Mobilely. You look at Kevin, Kevin Durant, and Phoenix.
I am just curious. Kawhi is signed for the paper
clips for the new arena. Paul George has not signed yet.
(23:27):
Now I don't know if he doesn't like the deal.
Are they negotiating? Is he ready to move on? But
like I mean, Paul George hits the market. Let me
just let's just keep it one thousand percent here, Okay,
I just need to google Paul George's age because this
is gonna this is gonna hurt some people when I
say it. But Paul George is turning Oh he's not
(23:50):
that young. He's turning thirty. Oh my gosh, today's birthday. Wow,
Paul George happy thirty fifth birthday. So I was, yeah,
I think he's a little older than I thought. I
was gonna say, Rob, who would you pursue more? Kevin
Durant via trade or Paul George, because I don't know that.
(24:13):
It's definitely Kevin Durant, obviously, Kevin Durant an all NBA
player this year. But Paul George is really good, and
it depends the role he's in. But I'm looking specifically
at Philadelphia and New York. I mean, would Paul George
want to be the two to Jalen Brunson, I think
that's a that's a great two. Would Paul George want
to be the two to Maxie or Embiid? I don't know.
(24:36):
He Embiid still seems to think he's a one. But like,
if I'm the Knicks, I mean, are you backing up
the brinks for Kevin Durant or Paul George. I mean,
I don't know at this point that there's a huge
difference between them. I think Paul George is a better defender.
I think Kevin Durant a little bit of a better scorer.
But Paul George also over a about a year and
(24:59):
a half younger, I think, has less of an injury history,
although he did have the one gruesome injury, I don't
know it to me. For me, it's close. I don't
think it's a lock that I would pursue kd Over
over Paul George. Obviously, price point matters the most. Paul
George this year forty seven percent, shooting forty one percent
from three, which is a career high ninety percent from
(25:20):
the line. Not bad twenty two to five and three.
But again, he's playing alongside Kawhi and James Harden and
Russell Westbrook. You know, things change a little when it's
just like, oh, it's Jalen Brunson and then Paul.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
George, right, And Paul George is great. He is a
fantastic talent. There's a reason why guys like Brandon Miller
and that generation say that Paul George is the goat.
Oh now that sounds blastmants on his head, But when
you just look at his ability, like he is really
an NBA two K created player. You know, he's like
six ' nine, he's rangy. He can do everything. He
(25:54):
can handle. He can rebound, he can defend, he can pass,
he can score. Like anything that you want an NBA
player to do, he can do at a reasonably high level.
And there is a reason I'm glad he brought up
the sixers because, interestingly enough, on a recent ESPN podcast,
Ramona Shelburne, one of the most plugged in LA based
(26:15):
NBA reporters out there, reported that there are two teams
who are aggressively targeting Paul Georgian free agency. One of
them is the Orlando Magic, which I don't think anyone
thinks is realistic. The other one, You're a Philadelphia seventy
six ers, so you are onto something right there? My friend?
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Wait, what's wrong with your Leontari?
Speaker 3 (26:37):
I don't think any player in the free agency wants
to go to the Orlando Magic.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Let's say they beat the Cavs in this series and
then they push the Celtics to six and loose. You
don't think what I mean. I think you got a
good chance in the East to do some damage. The
West is just too tough. Let's just be real. Too
many young players, too many good ascending studs. I don't know.
I mean, okay, fine, let's cross off Orlando Knicks or Sixers.
(27:03):
Just who do you think Paul georgioul rather?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
I think he would tim He would rather play for
the Sixers. I don't think I think most players would
prefer not to play for Tom Timber. And we saw
that in the player pol because he runs them into
the ground. A lot of NBA players are, you know,
kind of Prima Donna ish. They're so rich. They have
so many yes men around them that to have a
guy like Tibbs barking in your ear twenty two hours
(27:28):
a day is not ideal, not fun. Shout out Tims,
though I like tis Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
The guy wins, and we'll talk about the Knicks tonight
in a minute. All right, let's get to the Celtics
heat snoozer.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live. The only thing better than sitting on your
couch watching the game. He's making money while you do it.
(28:02):
Here's your best bet.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
We don't need to do anything with the nightcap. The
Celtics take a twenty point lead over the just diminished Heat.
There's so many injuries and in the first quarter Celtics
golle twenty and that's a wrap. I think I watched
like thirty seconds of the second half. It was not competitive.
Celtics win in five outside of a fluky heat three
point barrage in Game two. This was not a series.
(28:27):
So Boston now gets extra time to rest. Helping porzingis
obviously leading up to the Orlando or Cleveland series, and
I'm not ready to say that Orlando is definitely dead
here now. Cleveland getting an extra day is nice. They
will resume that series on Friday night. I you know,
(28:53):
I don't know. I like to think the Calves are
gonna do the damn thing. But I did bet Orlando
minus three a bit of a juiced three. That's up
to four and a half. Now. I just I'm off
the Cleveland trade. After those first two games, they were
so bad, like, Okay, you're gonna lose one at home,
Oh sorry, you're gonna lose one on the road. Game three,
you're probably gonna drop. But then to come out and
(29:13):
get destroyed in the second half of Game four is embarrassing.
And I don't know, we'll see what's up with Jared
Allen and that injury. And you know, Orlando hasn't had
a lot of playoff games in a while. They're gonna
be juiced up down there. I don't even know what
they call that arena, but I think Orlando wins Game
six forty game seven, which is just music to Boston's ears.
Neither of those teams will push the Celtics. Maybe Boston
(29:33):
loses one. But yeah, I think for sure the Celtics
are in really, really good shape going forward, which leads
us into best bets for Thursday night's action And folks,
I gotta plead ignorance. I don't know what to do
with this Philly Sixers series. I just don't. I was
able to hit first quarter and first half on Tuesday
(29:56):
straight cash, homie. Will that be the case again? Now?
I I want to go Knicks. They're going to come
out angry and fired up, and I'm sure they're going
to have a good crowd in the Lower Bowl. Yes
if you, and real quick on the tickets. So anybody arguing,
what why? Why are Philadelphia fans selling their ticket their
season ticket holders in the lower Bowl? Why are they
(30:16):
selling to Knicks fans? Guys? Are you aware of how
much money you can make to pay for the entire
season by selling a couple of playoff game tickets? It
really is insane. One of my good buddies is a
Lakers season ticket holder, and you know you can easily
make up the ground, especially for Knicks fans. You jack
those prices up. Knicks fans can't afford the Lower Bowl
(30:39):
to the guard. They cannot but take a train down
to Philly not that bad, or drive ninety minutes and
then you know, pay five, six hundred, seven hundred dollars
for a couple of tickets with a couple buddies. That's
nothing compared to the Garden, where it's going to be thousands.
So I think there could be a good Knicks crowd.
I will go again back to the well. I will
go Knicks first quarter, Knicks first half, knicker by the way,
(31:03):
five and zero against the spread, and first halves in
the series. I don't know what Embid's gonna have. I'm
surprised if Sixers are three and a half point favorites
as we record this right now here on Thursday morning.
I just I don't totally know what the Sixers are
gonna have in the take. When it comes to Embid,
we know Maxi's gonna show and Tobias Harris probably has
some good stuff left. But I think Nick's first half,
(31:24):
first quarter, first half, and then I haven't decided on
the full game yet. I'm a little nervous for the Knicks.
Just what if they run it. I guess three guys
playing over fifteen minutes come on the other one is
Pacers Bucks. We're still waiting to see on Giannis and Dame.
Obviously that's a big TBD. It would suck if the
Bucks decided, hey, let's play Giannis and then he gets
hurt and it's a significant That would be terrible for
(31:46):
a game six in Indiana. Pacers have played really strong
at home. I think the Pacers will probably decide, but
eight and a half is a little rich, So I
guess I would go for maybe a parlay of Pacers
and Nick's getting three and a half since all those
games are close. But I don't love that because I
don't I love the Knicks, but I don't know that
(32:07):
I trust him. It's a tough one. You don't have
to bet every night. Guys, remember live to fight another
day and again. Friday you can come back on the
MAVs for sure, right and Friday you could come Hopefully
you got an Orlando ticket already, So Friday and then
Saturday and we'll talk about it tomorrow. I haven't really
been able to dig into Timberwolves Nuggets. That is going
to be the I believe Saturday Night. Saturday Night's main event.
(32:30):
Anthony Edwards versus Yokich everybody's kind of excited for that.
And I'll just wrap with this. I don't know who
started it, but I'm getting fed the algorithm that says
Michael Jordan allegedly had a lot of affairs when he
was in Chicago, and Anthony Edwards was born right around
(32:51):
that time, and Anthony Edwards' it doesn't have a relationship
with his father. And again it seems very silly and
far fetched. And then they put the faces up, like
half of Anthony Edwards's face and half of Jordan's face,
and they kind of look alike, you know, the body
frame and the way they move and the swag, And
I know it's silly. I don't really buy into it,
but you can definitely understand why people are super into it,
(33:16):
Like everybody wants there to be another Jordan. We know
there won't be another Steph Curry. You just won't see
a guy that size banging threes and shaping the game
the way he has. There won't be another Lebron six
eight two sixty freight train speed. That just isn't gonna happen.
We've already seen a carbon copy of Jordan. Kobe Bryant
(33:37):
studied it sixty six similar frames. I mean the clips
of Kobe mimicking all of Jordan's moves that it looks
like him. You just you won't see another Lebron because
you're not gonna see anyone that size. Like We've never
seen someone with the speed and power of Lebron at
six ' eight. Karl Malone was a tank. Lebron was
(33:58):
about as big as him wise and he was a
blower john Wall john Wall type speed. That's what Lebron was.
It's just it's insane. What he is is a physical
specimen and you know the Anthony Edward Jordan stuff. Listen
in the league would love that you guys know this.
But we'll talk more about that game tomorrow. But that's
it for now. Talk to you then.
Host
Jason McIntyre
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