05-15-23 Line Change - Jerrold Colton

Jerrold Colton joins the show to talk #Sixers future, Embiid, Harden, and more.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
I did not know this about ournext guest. It was about to join
us in the Gambler hot line FoxSports The Gambler. Tune into the line,
Chaine, my name is John Janson. Follow me. Yeah, It's
j Janson thirty four. I alsofollow us on socials Fox Sports, to
Gambler on YouTube at Fox Pho Gambleron Twitter. I knew our next guest,
Gerald Coulton, would be upsets.I wasn't sure. We're kind of

(00:25):
upset, like the pressed, upset, angry, red hot rage. But
I also didn't know he was liveat TD Garden watching the game and watching
Boston fans celebrate, so a littlebit of extra herd. So I gotta
ask how he's doing. Joining usright now on the Gambler hot Line is

(00:45):
Gerald Colton? Gerald, how youfeeling after that bad Game seven, bad
performance? How you feeling well?The major emotion I have, and it
kind of overrides everything right now,John, I'm just angry. I'm really
mad and and and I'm mad ortoday that I was witnessing it yesterday,
I said, it's just it's justsettled in. I'm mad, and I'm

(01:07):
also feeling pretty hopeless about the futureholds for this club, and why why
do I do? Why I do? You do? You do? We
love sports and we love this teamand we keep hoping against hope that something'll
come through, and you know,I always feel cheated. Look, they
had a chance on Thursday night toput this thing away at home, just

(01:30):
a gold opportunity. And then whatdo you do for that? As a
fan? You get to play theMiami he in the Eastern Conference Finals with
home coore Vanas and maybe the chanceto go the NBA Final. We get
cheated out of that. We deservethat. It's been twenty two years since
we've had that in Philadelphia at all, and forty years since a championship,
and just so much, so muchunfulfilled promise. But there's so many things
about this team that had gotten meso angry. You know, you've heard

(01:55):
me enough times and we talked enoughore of the years. I hated the
process from the start, and Idon't want to be right about how much
of a failure that I always thoughtit would be, and how the besketball
got to be against us and thelosing culture would bite us, and people
overrated Joel and being all through thiswhole thing including it. It's very deserved
MVP season and right now I'm justI'm just man, you know. And

(02:20):
our owner now owns the Commanders aswell. It's just the organization has not
treated us very well and we deservebetter. So and all those things come
up as another season goes by,as another golden opportunity, maybe the best
of all opportunities. We had achance at home to go to the conference
finals goes by, and now wheredo you go from here? And you

(02:42):
know Joel's not going to get betterfrom here, and there's no other teachers
on this team to give you ahope that we're really going to win a
championship. And we have no draftpicks because we went all in for James
Harden with a guy who should havebeen given the teacher franchise in Baryl Worried.
So I can keep going on andon just to make to be the
colossal other failure of an organization thatwas epitomized by yesterday the bacle in Boston

(03:04):
at a huge game where the wholeworld wat. Yeah, I expected to
just ask one question and get toget a lot out of that. So
I look, I was gonna followup with what do you most mad at.
I think I can tell it's probablyembed another Game seven performance, another
Game seven failure. He doesn't comeup at the big moments. Um,
what what does need the change inthe beat? Is there anything? Because

(03:27):
I think you're right. He sayshe needs to get better. How much
better is he going to get?He won the MVP, he's been the
scoring leader over the past couple ofseasons. He has been great. You
know what, I don't know whatcan get better? So I think the
most you would be mad at hisembeed. But what needs to happen here
with Himpum? What are the sixers? Because obviously there I had to say

(03:49):
stuck with him. He's a greatplayer, But just what do you do
with him? Around him? Howdo you make it so and potentially can
get better? Because that's all thehope, that's where your hope lies.
Which it's it's kind of a deeperissue with me that as I see it,
it's like you know when you seethe kid who's a bad kid in
school and acting, now you knowwhat's the reason for you when you go

(04:10):
back to the Paris and he'll goa bunch of Carl Hobo and all the
all the things he did that werenever corrected at the time occurred. And
that's how I see Joel and bidJoe obid is He's an all time physical
presence and talent. I've never seenanybody be able to step on a basketball
court and score forty points as thesealaders as he does every time he steps
on the floor. The Sixers havea really good chance to win just because

(04:33):
he is there, except in thebiggest games. And the part of it
that really gets me about him andwhere my anger is more directed at Joel
specifically, is the lack of accountabilitythis guy takes for his own failures.
After Game six where Tatum steps up, Tatum had a just an absolutely atrocious

(04:56):
game on the Sixers court where theSixers can close him out. And I
heard him after the game and said, I talked to myself, there's a
third quarter when I have three pointsthat I've got twelve minutes more to do
something. That's enough time. Andonce you do over those next twelve minutes,
they ob score is the entire teamsixteen to thirteen puts the Celtics on
the back and carries them to thevictory. And then once you come out,
you get puts fifty one more pointson yesterday. So over the past

(05:18):
five quarters, the guy scored overthe sixty sixty seven points while Harden and
and Be combined for between the two, I'm gonna say twenty four point like
it's it was such a joke.And when you look through the history of
the NBA, and we can gothrough recent history or you're all history,

(05:38):
it's always a superstar coming through forthe championship club. If you just go
back last year, steph carry teamgets the leads to go and say words
year before Yannis twenty twenty, it'sLebron and Davis nineteen or twenty nineteen.
Kauai eighteen is Stephan Duran seventeen seven, Duran sixteen Lebron. You just keep
going back, John, players dothe best act the biggest times, and

(06:02):
that is just not Joel. Andthen what does Joel do In his post
Kade press compence after game five orsix, he says, I didn't touch
the ball the last four minutes,I mean. And then yesterday after scoring
just fifteen points and one of themwriter was like Corford fifteen to two.
He goes, he goes to hispress comps and says James and I can't

(06:23):
do it alone. James and Iscored twenty four points. Both of you
guys were It wasn't that you weren'tgood enough. You guys sucked. Sucked.
You couldn't get shots off against AlHorford and James Harden was throwing testes
into the first row. John,So I am. I am disappointed.

(06:46):
It hard into some extent because Idon't know what I saw him harding yesterday.
It wasn't a declining, feeding veteran. That was unbelievably guy who couldn't
even like handle the ball. Oneof the best ball hunters I've ever seen
a guy who scored a combination ofninety points in two games to lead a
sixers of victory and hit a gamewhen he three pointers to buzzer or win
another like, I can't believe thatyou can have that kind of dichotomy within

(07:11):
a series, So that one's perplexing. But Joel's lack of taking the accountability
and always deflecting the pointing fingers,it's so irritated to me, and it's
been permitted from this organization. Kylewent from the start to go on all
this time, and that's yeah,and I did because you mentioned that,

(07:32):
and I did mention that to Dictoriartithat he's always talked about the Sixers a
front runners in game. So whenthings are going well in a game,
you know, they they you know, pile things on, they look great,
everything's amazing. But once they startto face a little bit of adversity,
once they go down a little bit, they completely falter. And I
think we've seen that many examples ofthat, And I feel like that is

(07:53):
a go ahead. That's Thursday night. That's Thursday night. Yes, Thursday
night. For sure. We're upthree into two and every is going good,
and then it starts starts going theother way, and they just don't
stop at the wheels, just comecompletely off. Like I can agree more
with that. Yeah, And Ifeel like that is an organization thing at
the top, and that's been thatway for a very long time. So
you mentioned coddling him. I thinkthe Sixers always wanted to do with the

(08:15):
process the easy way, and insteadof doing the hard thing and trying to
evaluate players and try instead of tryingto develop players, they wanted to do
the easy thing. Get top players, you know, get number one overall
picks. Get number three overall picksand make it easy, and in turn,
they just wanted to make things easyfor embead. I feel like this
has been an environment since the processwas started that was always made to make

(08:37):
things easy and when things got hard, like the Sixers, even it got
hard after the process to try andfind players around embed and they couldn't develop
players, they couldn't evaluate players,that they just faltered. It seems like
this is an organization thing from thetop all the way down. Yeah,
I completely agree with everything you justsaid, and it is organization top down,
starting with the ownership group that feltthe process was a good theory.

(09:01):
And listen, it always bothered mebecause I think good basketball teams and good
basketball general managers and talent valuers cando it without attentionally losing. And the
intentional losing doesn't guarantee you the highestpick. But they put in charge a
guy means Sam Hankey, who alot of value to an organization, just

(09:22):
shouldn't be a general manager. He'sa guy who should be in a cubicle
and not deal with other people becauseyou can't. And the general manager has
a lot of roles, but it'smostly a leader as well. As a
talent evaluator, and Sam had agood philosophy, but you don't give the
whole franchise for that guy. Andthey needed a coach to execute that strategy
who's willing to attention, lose andthen stand up in front of the cameras
that's like, oh, we're tryingour hardest. And Brett Brown. So

(09:45):
when they finally got good, thisJim Rout of a coach who should never
be more than a third assistant,was given a chance to win because he
probably deserved it because he lied forthese owners would put him in acquisition for
four years, but he had nobusiness then being given the ultimate decision making
when it came to guys, wellJimmy Butler, who challenged that at allready
it knew that he wasn't up tobeing an NBA head coach. And then

(10:07):
when it came time as because wetalked about the easy rout, so Jim
Nicky did an unbelievable job. Thiswas a goal to assemble those draft assets.
No, of course, the firstmove where I always look at,
which really put the whole thing emotion, was getting rid of Drew Holliday,
who right now is still better thanany point guard. It came after him,
which included a sixth pick in MichaelCarter Williams and two first picks,

(10:28):
one of which they trade up forit, and Markel Faults and Ben Simmon.
They He'd still rather have Drew Hollidaythan any of those guys. But
but when Sam Hankey and accumulated thoseassets finally had have to make choices,
he was incapable of doing it,which is why you want to put emil
Oka for us, which totally trashesthe whole process of trying to lose,

(10:50):
because if you don't execute once youtry to, then you're not going to
be good anyhow. And what youpurpose do you serve? And then the
league got made him. So thenJerry Clayser comes in, hire sys Brian
who has a burner phone as wellas makes the false trade and some other
stuff. But it just it wasjust on and on, and then Bead
comes in and when we talk abouteasily it doesn't play for two years,

(11:11):
plays thirty one games his third yearsand then gets a huge hundred fifty one
dollars contract and from there it's allover um and it goes on. John
I went back, you know,because I'm a historian, and a lot
of this stuff I remember from mychildhood. After over fifty years, I'm
like, well, did I rememberthat correctly? And I went to check
this. You know, everyone's like, you know, Joel's hurt, and

(11:33):
he's always hurt, and I alwaysthink he's fake. He hurt because he
wants an excuse when he doesn't comethrough. You know what. You could
say, I wasn't helping. That'swhy I went back and I checked some
stuff, you know, because andI've got people, people, some of
which are going to be in thePro Football Hall of Fame. That host
who shows with that, I couldn'tdisagree more about the rating of Joel and
bad who goes people in the city, and especially who haven't watched a lot

(11:56):
of history historical basketball. I thinkthat Joel and bead is the best center
of all time. Not only isnot the best center of all time,
he's not the best center in theNBA right now. That guy's in Denver,
and he's certainly far from the bestcenter in six Ers history, which
is Will Chamberlain and Moses Malone atleast, and not even close to the
best center of all time. ButI went back to check some stuff which
was in its entire time with theToildal seventy six ers, Will Chamberlain,

(12:20):
did it miss a game? Didit miss a game? And it's just
the days when they had commercial traveland it was. And then in the
playoffs series and the playoffs of twoof nineteen sixty seven, which is the
only time anybody beat the Boston Celticsduring that entire decade, and six was
won their champion of their first championship, Will Chamberlain came out for one minute

(12:41):
of the entire playoffs and that' becausethey were beating Boston in Game five and
they want to give him stay innovation. I just point that out because we
coddle this guy and these guys somuch, and people like, oh no,
you know he's playing for you,benuf damn. The great players played
forty minutes to the playoffs forty minutesplus Jayalin Broke today come up with the
other day, and I know itcould be different for a big man,

(13:03):
but it's just when you say easy, they have been so easy on these
guys. It's so of the fanswho have chanted MDP for years when he
didn't deserve it, and their ownershiphath and the media has and it's just
do you like sound angry? Yeah, a little bit, a little bit,
I can. I can hear itbreak down anything I just said,
because if I'm out a lot,I have a little emotual today. No,

(13:26):
and like, now I'm going toask this question and hopefully you can
not be emotional about the assessment movingforward, because I'm emotional too. After
that, after game seven, Ican emit. There's a thought in my
head that said, look, what'sthe reason of even moving forward with anybody
on the sixers roster? You know, anybody like I had to do the

(13:46):
whole you know, completely blow itup. Yeah, there's a thought in
my head of why the heck not? You know, it's they're stuck.
I never feel like they're gonna getout of being stuck. But there's also
a part of me now a daylater that goes, all right, well,
maybe as something can break your wayat some point, being you know,
going game seven in the second roundover and over again with teams that
eventually get to the finals. Whenthe finals, it's not the worst place

(14:09):
to be in before the process,they didn't even have a chance to beat
those teams. Now they at leasthave a chance. They still haven't,
so I'm not saying the process workedor anything like that, because they still
haven't been able to do that.But they're darn close, and they're close
enough that it feels like you justkind of stick with what you got,
and you're stuck with what you gotand hopefully at some point fortune changes your
way and you can eventually get passedone of those teams. Where are you

(14:31):
at in how the Sixers should bemoving forward and what the what the future
essentially looks like? John, there, you nail it. I mean,
you're betwicked in between. I thinkthat's the expression. But the problem is
when you say blow it up,blowing look obviously hardened to a significant piece

(14:52):
of this team, and you knowwhere they go with him. Nobody would
really care and seven at this pointif he's not here anymore. At the
bottom line is the whole team isJoel Ebe. I don't want to discredit
Maxi and some of the other pieces, but it's just Joel Embid. So
blowing up means getting rid of JoelEmbid, and there is no shot this
group gets rid of Joe Embib becausethe second you get rid of Joel embed

(15:15):
the six has become irrelevant again.Like you said before the process, they
didn't win and they're not going tobe able to get anything in return.
It keeps them as relevant, whichis one of the sex yar franchise is
one of the biggest draws. Winfifty four games, go to the second
round to build it wells far andevery day every game, right, I
mean, that's so unfortunately, eventhough the goal for us and most people

(15:39):
should be a championship from an organizationalstandpoint, and these owners, the bottom
line of dollars and relevance carries alot of weight, and I would think
they're going to push that ball downthe line and keep Joel embiad as long
as he keeps them relevant, whichI expect to be another few years in
the East. So I don't think. I don't think they blow it up
in that context, then we'reout gettingrid of jone b. All you're doing

(16:03):
is tweaking it, which is whatall we've been doing. So I don't
see I don't see any major changeand a strength course. Also, I
didn't love the heart and acquisition,and you know I railed against it at
the time as they were thinking ofhim, because I thought they could have
gotten Haliburn and Yield and some draftpicks and Sacramento. Instead we gave away.
We gave away some draft picks andday bringing hard and so I thought,

(16:26):
boy, you've you've accumulated these draftkicks over the years, and now
you're finally going all in and it'swith Hardened. And if this doesn't work
out soon, now we're going tobe back to square one. And I
think that's where we are because youdon't you get eliminated, and you know
that you're just not good enough nomatter what. We're just not good right
now. And now how do youget better? Well, you don't have

(16:47):
draft picks to get better, andso you don't really have trade being So
we're in a situation that's been putthere through the organization for over a decade,
but in my opinion, in alarge part in the way through years
by the guy at the hell ofwhat I think is a complete fraud.
So you know, I think it'sreally hard to going here from there.

(17:07):
And that's why I fully expect numbertwenty one to be jumping center as long
as he doesn't get an injury inthe next huge exhibition season come to start
the next season, so there isthere have been some interesting developments with the
guys who just mentioned James Harden andDoc Rivers. I'm not sure if there
are fans that want both of themback. It seems like if you were
to pull the majority of six Ersfans, they would be frustrated with both

(17:30):
and be fine moving on with both. But I think we're sort of getting
to the bottom why James Harden andthe Houston rumors and reports seemed to be
getting more and more steams. Sothis was according to Ramona Shelburne, I
think on NBA Live. So shesaid, behind the scenes, from what
I'm told, one person said tome, it would be hard for me
to see James wanting to come backand play for Doc Rivers again. So
obviously those comments Sunday of my relationships, Okay, what Doc Rivers. We

(17:55):
kind of knew what that meant,and it does seem like it means that
he is not a fan of DocRivers. What do you make of all
of that? And would you wantto see either James or Doc Rivers back?
Is it even worth bringing James Hardenback if that means firing Doc Rivers?
Let's take him one at a time, Okay, Doc Rivers. Now
I will admit to being disappointed tothe coach that Doc Rivers turned out to

(18:19):
be here when he became available,because I was so happy we had probably
gotten rid of Griff Brown. Icould not stand Grip Brown at your head
case. I just couldn't stand it. And I knew as we had Grip
Brown, we weren't going anywhere becausebecause Grip Brown on the heels of when
we had Jimmy Butler, it wasso intimidated and he just he just was
not the guy to take him tothe next level. And he was the

(18:41):
king of cobbling and beated and BenSimmons. So I just couldn't stand.
He wasn't a head coaching material andI didn't want to have good assistance around
him because I felt he was toothin skinned and insecure. So I was
so happy I got rid of him. Im him one Monday in one of
my hits with sew em braceon andDaily Ticket and Doc Rivers gets fired by
and my first I could hire himimmediately, and they did, and they

(19:03):
went out and they give him theSixers coach before the week was over,
and I just thought he went fromBrent Brown who should have never been head
coach to a long time head coachwith an NBA championship, and they've been
a long time point guard, smartplayer in the league. And you know,
just the portfolio Doctor Rivers is reallygood. Now the actual doctors turned
out to not to be as goodas I thought it was. But what

(19:26):
he did do with that question waschanged the culture of the seventy six Ers.
He really did. He cleaned outthe craft that Brett Brown and Sam
Hackey had left behind and clan slow, and he turned it around in a
lot of ways and made it justa much more professional organization. He's got
a I know he got to criticizedfor some for the X and those,
but he's got a real good staffand I actually don't think the Sixers lost

(19:49):
this year the series and excellence knowsextraos even though Austin why not making any
good adjustment changing the structural lineup andwe didn't necessarily make injustice but create a
big culture. However, I've beendisappointed by so much of what Doc says,
which is and I felt like theSaturday Cash conferences he was already making

(20:11):
excuses expecting to lose on Sunday,and I was really the whole attitude,
and he says weird stuff such as, well, you know, you know
you don't go into Game seven needingto win. You're just happy to be
there play basketball and have fun.What are you talking about? Like it's
it's it's way too soft. Imean, man, at the end,
we'll get a participation trophy. Whatare we talking about it? That's why,

(20:32):
that's how you said. I usedto actually be harder on eight years
soccer players than I coached. SoI was really disappointed in doc Rivers say
instead of it just seemed lack ofcommitment to win and to and to taking
this team to a higher level.And I didn't think he would be going.
I felt along he would be going, he would still be back next

(20:55):
year. And then Thursday happened andI started even maybe, and then this
weekend happened and I looked over thatbench yesterday when I'm a TV guard and
I'm like, I'm watching it,got coaches say tours for the last game.
I don't. It just came overme that they're going to move on
from him now. I don't haveanything the base at all. Other than
a feeling. But I think theymight feel it's time that you know,
because because they make it teaches forJoel Embed and because they're not get rid

(21:18):
of Joel embid, what are youunder when you get rid of him?
And if it's Daryl Martin still runningthe franchise, Daryl's not fired himself,
even though I would love to do'llbe half of everybody, So I don't
think we'll be back now. Thetie Doc and James Harding together. Those
kind of from James Harden were alittle curious to me because it didn't seem
to me ever that they had abad relationship. But he sure didn't seem

(21:41):
like he was endorsing and said coach. And I also heard and I also
heard John this weekend that on Saturdaythere was an internal fight amongst several players
of practice. I might have hadIndeed and Harden on one side and maybe
Maxi and Harris on the other ormaybe and I don't I don't have the
details, and I have it fourthhand, so I don't want to quote

(22:03):
it on it, but there wassome turmoil that's at your practice, and
I think when you see him beatingit, the comments he made postgame actually
gave credence to the formation. Soum so with all that stuff going on,
what kind of rain does the headcoach have as you're preparing for the
biggest game that the franchise is goingto play. So I don't know it

(22:26):
needs it needs major change. Idon't. I don't mind not seeing Harden
anymore because I just don't think he'sgoing to help us get to where they
need to get if they ever could. But I also don't necessarily see someone
else coming in it's going to dobetter, and we can't. We can't
forget the year this guy has,and we can't forget the good things you
did in a series. I've justnever seen the extremes. But it kind

(22:47):
of want us three games? Youknow, Yeah he did, and that's
I mean, who can do that? Not many? But the thing is
who could also win them three gamesand also be a big break reason why
they lose the other four. It'sjust so he had such an odd,
odd series that I don't know whatto think about him. John as odd

(23:07):
as I've ever seen. I havenever seen again the dichotomy of good and
bad and one player encapsulated in sucha short period of time. I've never
seen it, but you know,if Embied wants Hardened back and Hardened.
Like I said, I didn't likethe move in the first place, but
we were all in him, Harden, and we have no draft picks because

(23:29):
of going in for hard and givethe guy one more shot while he's still
like able to walk, which I'mnot sure how much were it. I
mean, there were times you certainlycan't jump, but I don't know.
I just don't know where you go. I'm more than happy to see him
go. You got to bring somebodyeither run this offense. Yeah, somebody's

(23:49):
got to be the ball hander andpoint guard. And that was one of
the faults of the Cities was itwas only Harden, and so when Hardened
was bad, you didn't really haveanybody else. But yeah, and then
it's not Look, I love Maxie, but I don't love him as much
as everybody else does. And Maxieis not a point guard. Oh,
he's a He's definitely. He's aflawed player, good player, I think,

(24:11):
a great player in some areas,but a very flawed one. But
if he's more than your third orfourth guy, that's not a championship team.
It's just not. I mean notagainst the Boston helper to a Kadom
and Brown, and then their nexttwo guys are bogged in and Smart,
and then all the other pieces theyhave Max. People love MAXI for a
lot of reasons, and I getthem. I mean, he's he's so

(24:33):
like the ball he's he plays withsuch energy and a smile and he's everything
he gives you and he plays toughbut not its scars. But he's not
that good, not in the leagueto have the Devin Bookers a too hard
and stuff like he's far He's farfrom that guy. And when we say
flawed exactly, he's he can't createfor anybody else. He's good to create
his own shots, great, it'sfinished. He's great in the open floor

(24:56):
um. And he's not good defensivelyeither and that so so you know,
people don't want to see Max.He's gone, but he might be our
most tradable piece. Yeah. Well, looking at those scenarios, I don't
even know what you trade, whatyou move, if it's even worth doing
it. Because it felt like thissix Ers team was the best team,
and Beat has been on and hasaround him. They were tops in offensive

(25:18):
rating. You know, I thinkthird and offensive rating. There were a
regular season and top ten defensive rating, and they were. It felt like
they were the all around great teamthat I think was championship caliber, and
they end up falling short again.So I have no John. Our best
team was the twoth album nine teampiece. So he's only together for a
few months. Well, Hi,say yes. And the only reason why

(25:41):
because I don't even think JJ Reddickwas that good at the time, and
Harris wasn't playing well. The onlyreason why was because Jimmy Butler's I think
better than we made him out toBay and at least I didn't. At
least I made him out for mebecause he's thinking another team to an Eastern
Conference final and maybe another final.But I'm want to like go back four
years and apply, and only mybrain could be cloudy. But then Simmons

(26:03):
was an All Star and all leaddefender on that female. He didn't come
through in that playoff series against Atlanta, but he really had a very good
season, was still trending in theright direction. And then Adam Tobias.
Harris was a fourth option on thatteam, maybe even fifth, which is
what he should have been, nevera max player, and JJ Reddick,
although flawed as well, was aheck of a shooter. I mean he

(26:25):
was every bit that in his roleas good as Max he is on this
team. And then and then youhad to Jimmy Butler park. So I
just think that that team was farfar superior with some decent bench players from
this team. This team's death,I mean, it's just not good.
Jeregi Yang is one of our leadingguys on the bench, and I know
you love Melton and what was ussome good stuff, but you know,

(26:45):
we got seventeen points of the firstone and but but then after that he
just dropped. In the series,he shot well it's a total one sixteen
to thirty six. Yeah, hisdefensive contributions were good, but his offensively
he was. I mean INPT itwas sixteen forty six and that was with
the six or tending game once hewas ten for thirty six after after game,

(27:07):
that's terrible. No, and youand you'd be in a team that
starts PJ. Tucker even though youshouldn't start, like who's going to give
you the points? Who's going togive you that left and they just don't
have them and that and that tome falls squarely at the hands of Daryl
Morey, who to me is stillbe number one guy that I would give
her. Oh, I wish.I don't think that's going to happen,

(27:30):
but it's yeah. I would liketo see you. I would like to
see some changes made. I don'tknow what the changes are, but you
gotta try something new. I don'tknow what that is, but I don't
like trying anything new with this show. I like getting on our great guest
because they always do well, especiallyyou Gerald. Thank you for coming on.
Always appreciate it. I'm sorry aboutmy anger today. No, it
was needed. I think I thinkwe needed to hear that because I'm not

(27:51):
an angry person. I don't getangry. Um, I just I want
to I want to assess the situationand what happened. But no, this
show needed anger. So I'm gladand let me taking through the week I
had, of course, which isI have a friend take me up near
jet is a nice way to goto Okay, it's not bad, not
bad with my son Skyland, andthey had this amazing victory in Boston Garden

(28:11):
our biggest victory in Boston Gardens innineteen eighty two. I dare set and
and then so we're coming home andwe only got to win this one home
game against the Boston team that looksin disarray. It looks stupid in this
coach and looked at times on Thursdaynight ready to quit. And we didn't
put them away on our own court. And so I still out of dedication.

(28:33):
And I went from lear jet todragging with a friend in a jeep
yesterday. And that's not bad eitherthough you're still in a jeep. I
mean, that's not It's not badtransportation. It was a nice ride we
got We got door to door inless than five hours, but you know
each way, and it was itwas great and fortun the Sixers to carry
me with tickets and there I am, and it's great setting. And there's

(28:56):
nothing better as a sports stand thanwinning a big game on the road.
You feel like it's your own personalprivate secret. You again, you against
twenty two thousand people in Green youknow, it's it was, it's it's
it really is a special feeling whenyou when you win. I had to
throw that on Tuesday night and thenthe ague me last night. I just
you know, getting yelled at allgames as they rubbed it in my face

(29:17):
because we had nothing to cheer abouthim entire second here, I mean,
John, that's funny. Is asgood as it is to be there when
your team on the road wins abig game, but being there when they
lose is the worst feeling. AndI've been in both situations, and it's
stick, it is. And whenyou know you got to drive five hours
after that, Oh yeah yeah,But listen, I knew, I knew

(29:40):
it's along second because I knew ourchampions thirds that night. But I still
I still have that hope. Ithink that's what this team and Joel he
gives you because every time he stepson the floor, he can do it.
And you're saying, is this theday that he steps up in the
game seven, stopped the team backand proves he's the best big man and
maybe the best player on the planetin scores fifteen points fourth or sixteen shooting

(30:02):
and points fingers at other people andjust and I told you, you know,
I'm checked some stuff and starically becauseI always want to make sure that
my memory as a kid who wasaccurate all these years later. Bill Russell,
Bill Russell, Now I'm not goingto compare Joel and beating with Bill
Russell when people think built that Joelso good, Bill Russell was ten and
L ten and L in game sevenand average nineteen points and get this thirty

(30:30):
nine Rebus or twenty nine Rebus twentynine and nineteen points twenty nine game seven
and Joe and b Now it's onlythree game sevens. Yeah, there was
somebody I follow on Twitter, DavisDavid Dennis Junior does a really good job
with the ESPN. He was actuallyposting a lot of records for coaches and
athletes in game sevens, and thereis seems to be a pretty good correlation
in game seven records and also greatplayers like obviously Steve Kerr's records very good

(30:52):
in those circumstances, and other greatplayers. Yeah, I found that interesting
that you know, there is abit of correlation too, because look,
all these series are tough, Allthese series are you know, a few
great teams going against each other arelikely going to go seven, and some
of the great players get it done, and players maybe like indeed just don't.
So I think it is well whenyou talk about what to do,

(31:15):
okay, and I don't. I'mnot going to rank players one through ten
year league or whatever. Joel certainly, and there is the NDPA this season.
I don't think he's quite as highas people might have him here in
Philadelphia in general. But but he'sone of those guys. And before yesterday,
if I ask you, when youtrade him beat the team? No?
Yeah, right, most people todo it. But then, but

(31:37):
who's the guy steps up in thebiggest moment of win? And then how
do you really evaluate a player?So that's what it's all about, right,
And that's and that's where it reallyis tough to know what to do
here because you could never get areturn for Joel. Indeed, people mean
I will all walking down something likesaid that you get out of bio hero
in a couple of draft picks.No, you can't tread a franchise superstar

(32:01):
player, and even at his worsthe is that, even at his worst,
you can't tread one without getting oneback. And every time you do
it in history, it doesn't workout. In the six Ers, history
was Will Chamberlain for Darrylin Hoop,Archie Clark and Jerry Chambers, or Charles
Barkley for Jeff horniec Andrew Lang andTim Parry, or Moses Malone for Jeff
Rowland and Terry Cat like he's You'llnever and that's where the franchise falls apart.

(32:25):
And so the only way you couldever moved Joe and Beat is for
a super superstar on what team isWilliam or has a disgrunted a superstar that
they might see where that's a matchand and and they're really really rare to
rat to Finn. It could havebeen like a Kevin Durant type. Right,
Well, see how that's working outbecause Kevin Durant. Also, you
guys got some questions about Durant too. Now obviously I've always had questions about

(32:50):
Duran, but he's he's one ofthose guys. Also that is that is
an elite superstar, all time talent. So anyway, I've been to enough
to you my friend, all good, So just real quick because something that
just happen that's amazing. So youtalk about history and amazing history. I
don't know how much of an historicalfootnote this is, but just as an
historical player Otani is. He's notpitching well today, by the way,

(33:12):
three innings pitched, four earned.How much? How many times can a
pitcher make up for that by thenalso hitting a three run home run in
the same game to give you aseven to four lead. So he gave
up four, has given them backthree and the Angels are up seven to
four. It's amazing the things thatthat guy can do. It's incredibly easy.
And again, again, my loveis history. I've always felt it.

(33:34):
Babe Ruth is the best of alltime to the Booth, a sitchy
star and a hitting star. Althoughhe didn't do it at the same time,
these guys doing at the same timeone hundred years after Babe Ruth under
circum jects that are just absolutely incredible. It's the only other guy to think
you could do that would be VincePilasco, but he probably wouldn't. Yeah,
and at this d DH now he'snot batty, but hey, Vinny
is a good athlete. Some ofthe greatest plays I've seen by a pitcher

(33:58):
on a field have been by VinceAlasquez throwing with his left hand, which
he doesn't do, and then inthe outfield throwing somebody out. Uh.
Yeah, Vince is a great athlete, So I'll give him that. Tommy,
what he does, you know,I hope people appreciate because that's actually
incredible to be. I mean,he's arguably the best picture in baseball.
Yeah, certainly, he's certainly upthere, and he's certainly one of the

(34:22):
best power hitters in baseball. Andthat is it's just incomparable. So I'm
glad you. I'm glad you mentionedthat because I want everyone to appreciate that.
I spent telling my kids that allthe time. You know, it's
it's this isn't generational town. Thisis once in the history of baseball town.
Yeah, it is all right,Gerald. I hope this vetting session
was good enough for you as itwas for me. I needed some anger.

(34:43):
I needed somebody to fire me up. Did just that you did?
What do you take my assurance?No, no, no, no,
no no. These are these arefree therapy sessions. That's that's okay because
I because I need them as well. Thank you, Gerald. That is
Gerald Colton. You can follow himat Gerald Underscore Colton. And yeah,
needed some of that anger because I'mnot an angry person, but clad Gerald

(35:07):
could do that for us. Butyeah, Otani, I just want to
get back to this because he did. It's a three run home run,
so he has pitched three innings today. Gave up three hits, not bad,
but the two home runs is whereit gets bad. Four earned,
so obviously not great for Otani.So he's having this bad start through three
innings. His team trying to finda way to get the lead, get

(35:29):
back in the game, and theydo it, and then Otani not only
it, hits a home run togive them a three run lead, now
up seven to four after a threerun home run, being tied four four.
That is all incredible, but hedoesn't mashing a four hundred fifty six
foot home run, that three runhome run to give them the lead after

(35:52):
Otani has given up four runs.It goes four hundred and fifty six feet.
I can't And this is we're seeingthe bad with Otani, But why
there's so much good Like he canmake up for things in ways that no
nobody else can. It can evengive you a great Cy Young performance and

(36:13):
you don't need his bad or hispitching isn't up to par, and he
makes up for with his bat,which he's batting like over an eight hundred
ops and one of the best hittersin baseball again this season. That's just
insane to wrap your mind around.At any given day, what this guy's

(36:34):
contributions are and how much of anet positive. Over and over again he
continues to be It's just nobody providesthat kind of value the way Otani does.
And yet he's stuck on the Angels, who, by the way,
not doing horrible this season twenty oneand twenty but it's still not great and
maybe end up being five hundred again. But another incredible feed by show.
Hey Otani, speaking of baseball,do have one bet for you and I'm

(36:58):
gonna go over and next it's gonnabe a real quick segment. I went
along with Jerry Holton. I expectedit to go very long, but coming
to next, I do want togive one play for tonight and I absolutely
love it. It's my favorite playtoday and one that I have already fired
on and one that I want togive you as well. That's coming to
next on the line change