NBA Finals Preview. Omahogs Choke, and Ringzz

Andrew Zimmel fills in for Mike and Mark. Arkansas chokes against LSU, NBA Finals Game 6 is tonight and LeBron doesn't care about RINGZZZ

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good morning Austin, Texas, Fluggerville, Round Rock, Silsby, h Town,
Big Dallas, San Antonio. And I got to give a
shout out to the Cowboy Capital the World Bandera Texas
where I am from. It's Andrew Zimmel hanging out with
you as Hardball Harch and Mark Henry and Marcus Spears
the entire show off today. So you get me Andrew Zimmel,

(00:23):
you get our incredible producer, Isa or Te's behind the
ones and two's, and boy was in a good day
in sports yesterday and I was amazed. I was shocked.
I was awed by the College World Series. We'll get
into Coast of Carolina getting back to the championship game.
We will get into the Bus family who is leaving

(00:45):
NBA ownership kind of and they've sold the Lakers for
the most money any team has ever gone for one
billion dollars, mister Powers, one billion dollars?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Can you believe that? Talk about that.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
We will also talk about rings culture as the Panthers
hurt the Stanley Cup. You can't do that, guys, you
can't break the cup, and Lebron you move the goalpost again.
We'll get into all of that, but we got to
start here with the curse. Now, you've heard it a
bunch of different ways, right, it was the Curse of
the Bambino, The Red Sox can't win a title because
they trade bab Ruth. You've heard the curse of the

(01:22):
Billy Goat. The Cups can't win a World Series because
they kicked out a guy in his pet goat. Well,
now we have the Curse of the Omahawks, the Curse
of the Arkansas Razorbacks. And I can't imagine being a
fan of Arkansas this Thursday morning after watching your team
collapse and then we go a bunch of different ways.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
You can call it a.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Choke job, you could call it a complete collapse, you
could call it dad luck.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
I'm gonna call it curse.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
I'm gonna call it the Curse of the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Because this team was primed to beat LSU yesterday, are
up five to three in the top of the ninth,
They're finally on the doorstep to get to that College
World Series final. And LSU does what LSU has continued

(02:13):
to do, and that is just power through. But it
came down to two big plays. The first one, of course,
was the I don't know what the shortstop was thinking,
or the shortstop was thinking going to third base, could
have had an inning ending double playing in the ninth inning.
Instead goes to third one out and then a ball
hit to left field.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
This is what it sounded like.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
This ball is hooked to left field and a bad read.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
It goes off of the left fielders and downl On
both RUMs are gonna come in and we are tied again.
Oh my goodness, he slipped and it looked like it
went op.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Body and we are tied at five.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Now that tied it up five a piece in the
bottom of the ninth and then LSU again, a team
that won the championship just two years ago, a team
that is set with good pitching, that is set with
timely hitting. Well, they got a big break on this
walk off Brown.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
He is the winning run hitch.

Speaker 4 (03:21):
Off the glove of the second basement and here comes hernandus.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
LSU is on to the finals.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
They pitched to Jones that it bounced off the glove
of cam Kozel and the Tigers are going back to
the finals.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Now, now you get the Chanta Clears, who won their
twenty six straight game yesterday versus the Tigers, who are
the pre eminent champions of college baseball. Right, Okay, Tennessee
wins it last year. But I have felt for the
last decade it has been LSU's decade, whether it be
baseball or football, not so much basketball, but they have

(04:05):
been the team that is on everybody's mind. And you
got to give it up for Jones in that spot.
It's been an incredible turnaround for him. Jared Jones, he
started off this series, he struck out five times and
the Tigers five to four win against Arkansas in the
College World Series opener. In the past two games, get this,

(04:27):
five for nine, six RBIs and two home runs. Can
you say elfuego? Can you say on fire? Can you
say championship pedigree? Because that's what LSU has right now.
They are on the war path to get back to
this spot. But you got to talk about Arkansas when
you talked about this game. A six to five win
for the Tigers against the Razorbacks. And let's hear it

(04:50):
from our man Hardball.

Speaker 5 (04:51):
Hartch congratulations to LSU, harp off victory, battled all the
way through it. Well, let's be one hundred percent say honest, Arkansas,
you let them win that game. Grab all the shortstop,
double play, you go to third, flyball to left field.

(05:13):
Tough play, but.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
You gotta make that play at this level.

Speaker 5 (05:17):
I'm firmly believed that Arkansas is cursed when it comes
to going to the College World. LSU advances Coastal Carolina.
But wow, wow, wow wow, a lot of questionable moves.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, and I agree with Hardball. Hard's there the Razorbacks.
You gotta get out the garlic, you gotta get out
the prayer candles, you gotta get out the vinegar. I
don't know what you gotta do, but you gotta exercise
these demons because the curse is on for the Omahawks.
Gut wrenching losses in Nebraska are not new to Arkansas.
For those of you that have not been keeping up

(05:57):
with Razorback baseball. There were one out of way from
winning the title in twenty eighteen in the second game
of the finals against Oregon State. What should have been
a game ending pop foul drop between three Arkansas fielders
in that game, and then Organstein went on to win
that game and take the title. This was Arkansas's twelfth
appearance eight under coach Van Horn and the Razorbacks are

(06:20):
tied with Clemson in North Carolina for the second most
trips to Omaha without winning the title. Can you believe
that those are the stats that you do not want
to hear? If you're an Arkansas Razorback fan, you know
you don't want to see. You don't want to see
the odds of winning, though you know they do the
live odds during the game. At one point in that

(06:40):
ninth inning, Arkansas was a ninety eight percent favorite to
win that game. And then you wake up on Thursday
morning and you say, where do we go from here?
I thought last year's loss that A and M took
to Tennessee, Tennessee was a great team. A and M
had a good team. I thought last year's loss was

(07:01):
hurt A and M fans, obviously, and then they lose
their head coach, and I thought, there's no way that
you're going to have a loss in the College World Series.
That's worse than that you lose the national championship and
then your head coach leaves, Well, how about being on
the precipice of getting back to the title. Because I'll
be honest with you, Arkansas beats LSU yesterday. I'm talking
about the Razorbacks as a favorite to win this whole thing.

(07:22):
I'm talking about Arkansas as a team that, oh yeah,
seat Deaclears won twenty six games, and we'll get to
them here in a second. They won twenty six games.
I don't care. Arkansas goes through that tough SEC, they
get to Omaha, they come through, they beat LSU, a
team that has championship pedigree, this is their year. And
then you choke it all away. And then you see
guys on the radio, gas Backs of the radio, it's

(07:43):
saying that it's a choke job and it's a curse,
and you've been to Omaha the second most time without
winning a title. I could not imagine being an Arkansas
fan today. And it's tough because I know some Arkansas
fans and I thought about texting them last night, and
I said, you know what, I'm gonna give them a
little bit of peace. I'm not going to be the
guy that's texting you after your favorite team, your alma

(08:05):
mater blows a World Series game.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
I'm not gonna do it. I refuse to be that guy.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
But I will text Florida State fans today who have
the most appearances in the College World Series without winning
a title. That's twenty four So Arkansas fans, at least
you're not Florida State fans today, right like, at least
you're not Florida State. That's all I have to say. Now,
let's talk Sean to Clears, Let's talk Coast to Carolina,
because this has been the team, a mid major program

(08:30):
who won the championship in twenty seventeen, and they're back there.
This is how the game ended yesterday.

Speaker 6 (08:36):
Dominic Carboto one, I'm the crowd at Barego who backs.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
Up gloves Carbo for Tuglas Coast wins it. The teal
is for real, twenty six in a row, and the
Shots will see you Saturday in the Championship Series.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Now I love that.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
First off, a lot of people were rolling their eyes
when Carlo Ravage and that crew got to call the
World Series games. A lot of people were upset by
the fact that it wasn't our everyday, run of the
mill commentators that we had for college baseball throughout the year.
And I said to myself, that's fine. You know, I'm
okay with the announcers. I'm not going after these guys.
But last Yesterday's calls were some of the best.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
I thought.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
I thought that yesterday's games listening to him, the announcers
were on point, the commentary was on point, and the
teal is for real.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
That made me excited.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Now the Shots have won twenty six games, the longest
streak ever entering a national championship game. Twenty six wins
to get to this point, and I think to myself,
what can't Coast of Carolina do. This is a program
who won the title in twenty seventeen, joined the Sunbelt Conference.
I watched them come to San Marcus that following year

(09:53):
with the big bats that they had. I think Texas
State TOI two out of three, but no big deal.
But the Shot that Clears have been real all year.
This entire season, I've been saying to people, do not
sleep on the beach Chickens, do not sleep on Coast
to Carolina. They know how to win in Omaha. They've
done it before, and now they're back in that spot

(10:13):
and they look like the better team. They put six
runs up in the first inning. Bye bye, good night, Louisville.
That is all it took. And at this point I
was going back and forth with people. I was saying
are the shot to Clearers? Is Coast to Carolina the
best mid major baseball program that we have seen in
the past decade, And I said maybe the past twenty years,

(10:35):
maybe the past thirty years. People are throwing cal Fulton
out there, which I understand, I'll take that, but Coastal
Carolina over the past decade, in my mind, for my money,
has been the best mid major program. So now we
have two Titans. We have a team that won the
title a few years ago in LSU. We have the celebrity.
We see Livy Gunn in the stands, we see Paul

(10:56):
Skins in the stands, we have all the LSU alumni
who are in the media chattering and talking about it.
And then we have Coast Carolina, the plucky underdog who's
not a real underdog because they've won twenty six games
to get to this point. And I am in heaven
when it comes to college baseball because these are two
teams that it does not matter if who wins, I'm

(11:17):
gonna be excited. I've always been a closet LSU fan.
I've always been in the SEC before Texas got there.
I've always kind of rooted for LSU because they weren't
big bad Alabama, they weren't big bad Florida, so they
were the again kind of the forgotten team. Now they've
won a couple of national titles since then in football,
and they've lost some of that underdog mentality, I think,

(11:37):
But for my money, there's still sometimes forgotten about in
that mix. This is before Texas got there, obviously, and
then for Coast Carolina. I'm rooting for a team that's
a mid major program. You know, as a proud Texas
State alum, you gotta root for the team that's in
the subdelt, right, So I am in a win win
scenario here. If LSU wins the national championship, I'm clapping

(11:59):
my hands.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
I'm happy.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Hey, this is the team I've watched for a long time,
and they are in college baseball royalty. If they're not
already in that upper tier room with the USC's and
Arizona States and Texas's of the world, then they're getting there.
And if Colson Carolina wins, hey, the mid major team wins,
it's a win win for me, and it's gonna be
a win win for you when the College World Series

(12:22):
begins again in the Championship Series on Saturday. All right,
when we come back Pacers and Thunder tonight Game six?
Is this the night that the Thunder win their franchise
is first championship? Okay, the Pacers fors to Game seven.
We'll talk about next on the Morning Kick on AM
thirteen hundred The Zone, The Morning Kick on sports Radio

(12:53):
AM thirteen hundred The Zone. Andrews I will sitting in
with you this Thursday morning, getting you excited your day.
If you woke up this morning and you looked at
the college baseball scores and you're shocked to see LSU
on top, don't worry. You're not alone. Arkansas fans are
shocked as well. Six to five win yesterday for the

(13:14):
Tigers to advance to the National Championship game against the
Coastal Carolina shot to clears. But tonight is potentially the
most important night in Oklahoma City Thunder history. Since the
team moved to Hooma City from Seattle, there's not been
a bigger night. It is Game six. The game is

(13:34):
in Indiana, obviously, but tonight could be the night that
the Thunder finally win their first championship in organizational history.
Now you gotta remember they have separated themselves, divorced themselves
from the history of the Sonics. They left everything in Seattle,
the retired Jerseys, Seattle, the championship they won to seventy
nine in Seattle. This is a brand new franchise. Everybody

(13:56):
likes to pretend, Oh, you know, they've won a title. No,
they've never done it before. This city has never won
a championship before. And when you go through the cities
that have recently won their first title, you go to Milwaukee, right, well,
I should say their first title in fifty years in Milwaukee,
and then Denver won their championship. Every time that one
of these cities gets it done, it is magical. This

(14:19):
is like Disney World at a different level for these people,
and I respect that.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
I can get behind that.

Speaker 6 (14:24):
Now.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
I'm out rooting for the Thunder. By no means am
I hoping that it gets done.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
Tonight.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
I won a Game seven, I went tyres haliburt and
playing on a sore left calf. Tonight to come out
and absolutely bombard the Oklahoma City Thunder. That's what I'm
hoping for tonight. But part of me is excited to
see what it will look like when the Thunder get
it done. Because if I was to tell you, you gave
me a little bit of truth. Serum, you said, Zimbo,

(14:49):
what do you think tonight's outcome will be? I would
grudgingly would tell you that's probably over that the NBA
season ends tonight in Indiana, when the Thunder win.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
Look back at this series.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
And yes, SGA has been a dominating for us in
these games. And yes, Tyres Halliburn, when he's healthy, has
done everything that you expected him to do. You're expecting
him to continue to do that voodoo magic that he
had throughout these playoffs. You're telling me the guy who
I had picked to be the I don't know, somewhere
between eleventh and fifteenth best player in the league continues

(15:23):
to play like the best player in the league. You're
telling me that guy has gotten this team with a
Pascal Siakam core of, with Miles Turner who's on the
trade block every single year, like this team is in
the NBA Finals. It's because of Tyres Halliburn. And that
is why tonight I'm kind of disappointed. I'm kind of
I'm excited for Thunder fans because I want them to

(15:44):
get their first title. I want those fans to have
the ecstatic, the ecstasy of winning their first title, because
we've done it in San Antonio a couple of times,
you know, five times, no big deal, and every single
time we do it, it is the best thing in
the world. And I'll be honest with you, it's been
seven years since the Spurs won their title. Actually, no,

(16:05):
it's been eleven years since the Spurs one their time.
It's twenty fourteen, and I've been walking around. I've been
doing a lot of community service recently, and I'm noticing
more and more kids named Tim and Tony and one
kid he goes by his full name is Milan's Richard,
but his first name is Kawhi, which threw me.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
I was like, Okay, so you can.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
See that people in San Antonio obviously like their Spurs,
and I can imagine that they're gonna be kids in
Oklahoma whose nickname is Chet, whose first name might be Jalen.
After Tonight's win, I go through these finals that I
think to myself, did anything go different than what I
pegged it for?

Speaker 2 (16:41):
Immediately?

Speaker 1 (16:42):
Did anything kind of skew away from what I was expecting?
I said that the thunder were gonna win, for they
were the most dominating team, They had the MVP, the
scoring leader, and SGA had been playing like the best
guard in the league. So when the Indiana Pacers tied
the series at two apiece, I was like, Okay, this

(17:02):
isn't bad. This is kind of what I was expecting.
This is what I was hoping for, at least not
what I was expecting what I was hoping for him.
And then in Game five, Jealen Williams played out of
his mind. And every finals we get one of these
storylines where a guy completely like goes off and we're
a little bit surprised. We knew it was in you,
but we were surprised we were seeing it so soon.

(17:24):
Kobe in the two thousand finals when he comes out
and explodes, when Shack foils out. We knew it was
in Kobe, but we were kind of surprised to see it.
Tony Parker in the five finals. You know, I knew
Tony was going to be a good guard, and I
didn't expect him to be the best guard on a
court in some points.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
Okay, I'll take that.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
Lebron getting his team to the finals and seven, I
knew it was in Lebron, but I was kind of
surprised that he did it this early. Jalen Williams, I
knew he was it was in him. I knew that
he had that capability, But for him to put forty
points up in a finals game tells me that Thunder,
who I assumed at some point were going to be
turned into a dynasty after they traded Paul George got

(18:06):
all those picks SGA. I knew he was going to
be good from his time at Kentucky. I knew he
was going to be good. Didn't know he was gonna
be the MVP of the league at one point, but
I knew he was gonna be good, and I knew
they had all these picks. I knew that the Thunder
were going to turn into something. But I'm surprised that
Jalen Williams had a forty point game in the NBA Finals.
And I saw a lot of people comparing him to

(18:27):
Scottie Pippen, And I thought to myself, man, am I
ahead of the curve, Because when he was putting forty
points up, I was saying to myself, he looks like
Scotty a little bit like I see the face the
way he moves the body. And if that is the case,
if SGA has the best guard season since Michael Jordan
in nineteen ninety one, to get his team to the
NBA Finals, to win the MVP, to win the scoring title,

(18:50):
to win Finals MVP eventually, and then Jay dub Is
putting forty points up in the NBA Finals, then is
it out of the realm of possibility? And I hate
when people do this, but I'm gonna do it anyway.
Is it possible to say that the Thunder could turn
into the Chicago Bulls of the nineties? Is it out
of the realm of possibility? I understand with the salary

(19:11):
cap and the double apron and everything else, with the money.
Is I get all that, But hear me out. You
have the best guard in the league in SGA, and
you have one of the best wings in the league
in Galen Williams. And I'm gonna set the president here.
If they win their first title tonight, then I'm putting
them on Dynasty Watch. I'm putting them on the Hey,

(19:33):
the West is good. The Bus family just sold the
team for ten billion dollars. The Lakers is gonna have
more money. The Nuggets have Gyokis, who might be the
best player on the planet. Right the Spurs have winby
the West is not going to be an easy path,
but neither was the East in the nineties.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
Neither was the.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
East when Michael's having to go through the Pistons and
the Celtics and the Heat and the Knicks and all
these teams and the magic.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
Is the world possibility? Am I off my rocker?

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Am I out of my mind to say that the
way the SGA has played these playoffs and these finals
kind of reminiscent of that, like two guard who could
kind of do a little bit of everything. Now, I
understand I'm not comparing him to Michael Jordan. There's still
a long way to go. But I'm comparing this team,
this core of guys who have all grown up together

(20:24):
at this point, and the Thunder are unlike any other
team in the league because when they win the title tonight,
they're going to have more resources in the bank than
anybody else.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
They have picks on top of picks on top of picks.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
They've got plenty of money, all these guys around really
cheap contracts. Yes, the second apron comes for all of
us at some point, Yes, Oklahoma City will have to
dish out money to pay for Gileen Williams and Chad
and SGA and go.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
Down the list.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
But they have Alex Caruzzo coming off the bench giving
it twenty points, and.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
He's had a contract for two more years.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
So is it out of the roll possibility for me
to say that this team is gonna go win multiple titles.
They're winning the title tonight in Game six in Indiana.
I wish it wasn't gonna happen. I wish that we
got a Game seven, but Halliburn has its store calf
and I don't trust Pascal Siakam. This guy was supposed
to be the man in Toronto after Kawhi left. He
comes down to Indiana. He's been a good number two.

(21:20):
But let's be honest here. He is what he is.
He's not carrying the Pacers to a Game six win.
It's just not gonna happen. So when the Thunder win
the title night, SGA holds up the trophy, j deb
has another thirty point game. We're talking Friday morning about
the Thunder winning their first title in their franchise's history.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
I need everybody to agree.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
That when I say that they're gonna win the title
in twenty twenty six as well.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
You're not gonna look at me crazy? All right? We
come back.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
The Ravens sign a corner, the rich get richer, and
Shadoor is he fast tracking his way to QB number
one or to TMZ. I'll tell you what I mean
next coming up on the morning Kick on Sports Radio
AM thirteen hundred Zone from the.

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Texans will have both their rookies and vats report to
training camp July seventeenth. Pacers Ho's the thunder Tonight, Game
six of the Finals, where OKC will look to clinch
their first title in franchise history.

Speaker 7 (26:18):
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A lot more.

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Plus what kind of a summer are you having this year?
In a new episode of Voice Sover, We're hearing listeners
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Join the Voice of the Texas Longhorns, Craig Way, each
day from two to five d app for The Craigway Show.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
On Sports Radio A. I'm thirteen hundred The Zone.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
The Morning Kick Sports Radio Am thirteen hundred the Zone
Andrew zim will hanging out with you this Thursday, Happy Juneteenth.
And the power of friendship is what a lot of
NFL teams are trying to build their franchises on now.
The relationship between Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce has gotten
the Kansay Chiefs multiple championships, So why not go into

(27:47):
free agency and try to bring in some friends. Maybe
it's a former wide receiver. Maybe it's a guy who
played college ball with your quarterback, or maybe it's or
JayR Alexander who played with your quarterback Lamar Jackson back
at Louisville. The one year deal that Alexander sign is
worth a maximum of six million, includes two million dollars

(28:09):
in incentives. And this is how you make your quarterback happy.
Lamar Jackson had his wish granted. He said to everybody
in mini camp that he wanted. He wanted Alexander. He said,
go get him. To the general manager Eric to Costco,
he says, I love all my corners, don't get me wrong,
but go get him Eric.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
According to reports, and this is what you want now.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
I have been a fan of JayR Alexander for a
long time, even though he played for the rival Green
Bay Packers. I always like a corner that's a little feisty.
I liked Josh Norman. I liked Richard Sherman. I like
Derell Reeves. I like cornerbacks who aren't afraid of the
task of trying to shut down the other team's best
wide receiver. And in the NFC North, the best wide

(28:54):
receiver is Justin Jefferson. And yeah, Alexander had a couple
of games where he was able to shut him down,
and Eefferson had his games where he blew him out.
But for the most part, it was a pretty good
rivalry between corner and wide receiver. And for the Ravens,
they already have a really good secondary. I like what
they've been able to do in the draft. I like

(29:15):
what they've been able to do in free agency. And
this is essentially an addition of friendship. This is an
addition of my quarterback wants to this guy, We're gonna
go get him. And oh, by the way, Alexander is
one of the best corners in the league. Twenty eight
years old, he was released by the Packers after two
straight injury field seasons. Don't let that concern you all

(29:38):
pro in twenty twenty and twenty twenty two, he played
thirty four of sixty eight games. Since the start of
twenty twenty one, the Green Bay Packers are looking to
move off of him because he had a price tag
of seventeen and a half a million dollars connected to him.
It's not because he couldn't play, because when he did play,
he was lights out.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
He was very good.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
And I do think some of it too, at twenty
eight years old, Alexander did he duck Justin Jefferson? Did
he duck some of those Lions wide receivers? And you
could make the case, but I'm always going to look
at it, especially from an NFL point of view. Those
contracts are so hard to come by and it is
so difficult to get your money that if you have

(30:18):
the ability to stretch your career even two or three
more years, you shouldn't probably play on injuries that could
lead to your career ending sooner. And I think Alexander
had that in mind when he was taking some games off.
Fans don't love it, ownership doesn't love it. But if
you think of the selfish player, or not even the
selfish player, just in the player's mind. Hey, I have

(30:39):
a chance to extend my career. If I'm not playing
on a bum ankle or a hurt knee, you wouldn't
do it too, you understand.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
So I like this a lot.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
I also like the fact that he joins a cornerback
room of Marlon Humphrey and Nate Wiggins and safety Kyle Hamilton,
who might be the best safety in the league, and
the league starks. The Ravens will line Alexander and Wiggins
on the outside, Humphrey as a slot cornerback. Let's go
through the teams in the AFC. Let's think about this critically.
Will be the Chiefs had one of the worst wide

(31:09):
receiver rooms and won the Super Bowl, and then last
year they still had a so so wide receiver room.
The Ravens lost the Bills last year in the Divisional
round not because they didn't have a high powered offense.
They had Derek Henry and Lamar Jackson. They lost because
the Bills had wide receivers who could get open. The
Bills had a game plan that they could scheme and

(31:30):
get into the sauce spots of the defense. You're giving
me another former All Pro in the secondary.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
And Field Gates for ESPN spoke about the signing yesterday,
and you're saying that, Hey, this is the type of
signing that you make when you already you're good at
all your positions, that you feel pretty comfortable with, and
this is the extra ingredient.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
This is the extra ingredient to it, Dyree Alexander.

Speaker 19 (31:54):
The best part of this deal, in my opinion, is
the fact that there's a one year deal. This is
a motivated player who over the past four seasons four
has been just as field as he is off the field.
So Jaya Alexander has a chance to play for a
team that has Super Bowl aspirations. Does not need to
be a starter, because the Ravens field really good about
their starting trio of Nate Wiggins, their first round pick
last year, of course, Marlon Humphrey, and also Toadobi, a

(32:16):
woozie who they signed this offseason after he was released
by the Titans. But the kind of move that the
Baltimore Ravens can make in June, they can sort of
be like a finishing ingredient for a team that feels
like it has the recipe to be a Super Bowl champion.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
This year, Lewis, we'll see. I am firmly on the
side of the Buffalo Bills. I think this is their year.
But if there ever was a team to win it,
you got to go with the two time MVP Lamar
Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens. It's going to be a
very tough division. And speaking of tough divisions, let's talk
about the AFC North, and let's talk about QB four

(32:49):
right now and maybe the most talked about backup quarterback
since Tim Tebow, Shador Sanders. So we've seen the media
coverage of Shador to the World's Strongest band, Mark Henry
about this at length. I am firmly on the side
of the Sanders. Stanley, I am all in. I've decided
I was on the fence. I'm in on Shador. I'm

(33:11):
gonna be a Shador guy. I got the jersey in
the closet, I got the roll ucks on my wrist.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
I'm ready to go. I'm all in on Shador.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
He's making it really hard for him because he was
cited by police on Tuesday morning for driving one hundred
and one miles per hour. Yeah, the officer from Strongville,
Ohio Police Department stop Shador at twelve twenty four AM okay,
so not the PM, not the suns up, Sun's down
for forty one miles over the posted sixty mile per

(33:42):
hour speed limit. I like taco bell as a bunch
of the next guy. I am very much the let's
go get the fast food, get back to the house
and relax. I'm all about that. But sixty miles per
hour that's probably good speed. One hundred miles per hour
driving back, especially in the truck that he was driving,
a Dodge TRX, that could be a problem. And I

(34:05):
understand twenty three years old, you're gonna make mistakes and
that's fine, and it's a speeding ticket at the most part, right,
you get cited for that. I mean, whom amongst us
hasn't run a red lighter gone a couple miles over
the speed limit. So I'm not gonna really hound on Shador.
But you're giving everybody red meat like the water. Why
are we We're throwing bloody steaks in a shark infested

(34:29):
pool When it comes to the talk about Shador standards,
I want to root for the guy. Like I said,
I'm team Shador. I'm not team forty one miles per
hour of the speed limit. We gotta find a happy
medium because the quarterback room in Cleveland is dysfunctional, right
Like it is a quarterback room that has a Sean
Watson in it they drafted to like Gabriel, you know

(34:51):
Joe Flatco's in that room. There's just crazy headaches. So
you could fast track your way to being QB number
one if you just keep your head down. If you
just keep your head down. You were a first round
graded quarterback who went way later because of all the
off the field stuff because of the media reports and

(35:12):
because of the bad interviews, and because of just everything
that's out of your control, honestly. So you gotta take
control of the things you can control, which is the
foot of the gas. You can't have a concrete foot
flying around. When Shador gets pulled over. The officer when
he gets that license, he goes, this is a pretty
nice truck. Hey, you're going way too fast. And then

(35:35):
I get the license and it says s Sanders. I'm like, oh,
I'm gonna be front page news. This is like TMZ
hotline bling boom. That's the first call. You can't give
people anything when you are shad or Sanders. You can't
give anything when you're the backup quarterback. The best player,

(35:57):
or I should say the best backup quarterbacks are the
guys that you.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
Don't know until they walk on the field.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
The only people who know who the backup quarterback are
normally are the die hard fans and the guys who
were in the booth.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
I would tell you that most Cowboys fans aren't rolling
in to Jerry World thinking who's the backup quarterback? Well,
maybe they are now because they're yelling for Dak to
get benched every other week, But for the most part,
people don't know who the backup quarterback is.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
I'll be honest.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
I'm a Bikings fan, die hard Vikings fan, and every
year I have to learn the backup quarterbacks name because
our quarterback goes down.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
All right, I.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
Couldn't tell you who the QB number two is right
now on the roster. I know JJ is a starter,
but I can tell you what the backup is. Sdorg
Sanders is the most famous backup quarterback in the NFL.
So when you're the most famous backup quarterback, you can't
give anybody anything otherwise you become a distraction. And distractions
end up in the UFL. That's just how it goes.

(36:53):
Right when we come back, we will wrap up our
number one of the Morning Kick and keep you excited
more to talk about all coming up next on the
Morning Kick on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone.
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone. The Morning Kickoff

(37:16):
continues as we wrap up our number one of the program.
If you missed any of it, go back and listen
on the free iHeartRadio app where you can catch the
podcast every single day. Are incredible producers make sure that
if you miss anything, No you didn't, you can go
back and listen to it. Yesterday, late last night, the
Bus family did the unthinkable.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
Here's ESPN's Sean Sharami.

Speaker 20 (37:41):
The Los Angeles Lakers Bus family is entering an agreement
to sell the iconic seventeen time champion Los Angeles Lakers
to Mark Walter, the Dodgers current owner, for evaluation of
approximately ten billion dollars.

Speaker 7 (37:58):
Yes, that's ten billion dollars.

Speaker 20 (37:59):
That's the largest sale of a sports franchise.

Speaker 7 (38:02):
Ever in the world globally, so.

Speaker 20 (38:05):
This is a historic ten billion figure for a franchise.

Speaker 7 (38:08):
Jerry Bus, the late.

Speaker 20 (38:09):
Jerry Bus acquired in nineteen seventy nine for sixty seven
point five million dollars.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Number So I did the math. So you heard that
sixty five million. He bought the team for give or
take ten billion they're selling in for that is a
return on investment of almost fourteen thousand percent. Okay, that
is an incredible return on investment. Now, obviously you got
to factor in the price of inflation, what it cost

(38:35):
in twenty twenty five, all that.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
And that's not as much fun.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
The return on investment from the Bus family is one
of the largest in the history of media or I
should say sports, let alone maybe the world. This return
on investment is incredible. This would be like if you
bought stock and Apple when Steve Jobs was born, like
before even when IPO, this guy is like buying stock
on Apple. That is the type of return on investment

(38:58):
the Bus family has. And on top of that, when
you remember that the Cuban when Mark Cuban sold the Mavericks,
remember that they had that handshake deal will all be
the governor of the team for the next five years.
And then the NBA stepped in was like, actually, you
can't really do that. That's not how this works. So
Cuban was essentially exiled from the Mavericks and then you

(39:18):
end up with a lukadotic trade. Ironically, as the Lakers
of the team now sell or selling, Genie Bus will
be the governor of this team, like it's already been approved.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
By the NBA.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
She will continue to help run the team after the sale.
So yeah, the Bus family isn't the owner and operator
anymore of their small, spunky family business. Okay, they are
now the governors of one of the most lucrative companies
in the world, the Los Angeles Lakers. And I got

(39:53):
a tip my hat because a as somebody who enjoys fashion,
as somebody who enjoys jerseys, Laker fan, but I've rocked
the Laker jersey before. I think we all have had
a Kobe Bryant jersey in our closet. Maybe akareem a
magic jersey in our closet at some point, right. I
like the idea that we're gonna get a Dodgers Lakers
collab because it's the two most famous brands in LA.

(40:15):
When it comes to sports, they've lost so many football teams.
Football teams have come and gone. It has been a
staple of LA Sports, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los
Angeles Lakers, and now the guy who owns the Dodgers
also owns the Lakers. We're gonna get some Kobe Bryant gear.
We're gonna get some cool show heyl Tony gear. That's

(40:35):
immediately the first thing that I thought of. Oh and then,
by the way, the Lakers now have an owner that
has unlimited pockets. Across the street, Steve Bamber said, I'll
build my stadium, all buy my players, all pay a
luxury tax.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
I don't care.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
I'm bringing a championship to the Clippers organization. The Lakers said,
you know what, where a mom and pop business. You know,
our pockets are deeper than most other NBA pockets.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
But we need to go a little bit deeper.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
So let's sell the team to a guy who has
essentially unlimited funds and we're probably gonna be fine. And
now Luka Daschik is tweeting how much he loves the
bus family and how he loves LA and any question
you had before, Oh, could Luca leave, could he come
back to the Mavericks, could he go somewhere else? Go
to the Nuggets? Those are gone, it's done, it's over.
Because he's gonna get a MAX extension. The Lakers are

(41:25):
gonna play luxury taxes like I don't even know. It's
not gonna matter. They have more money than God. Now, oh,
by the way, ten billion dollars is a like a
legendary number. It is the all time highest sale of
any professional sports team ever. So I'd go through the
list that I think to myself, could the Dallas Cowboys?

(41:46):
Could Jerry Jones at some point sell the Cowboys. That's
the only team that would come close to ten billion dollars.
I look at the Premier League, I look at the
soccer clubs across the pond. I don't think any of
those are going for ten billion USD. And it's wild
to think about. And you know the graphic that they
put up, of course Magic and Kareem, Shaq and Kobe,

(42:07):
and then they slip Lebron's singular ring in there as well,
and they say, like, oh, you know, this organization is
won seventeen banners they have. You're right, they won eleven
of them in LA. That's still a pretty good number.
I'm not gonna take anything away from him, but don't
steal my Minneapolis Laker titles away from me, George Mike
and is rolling his grady. He won those titles in Minneapolis,
don't steal those, but eleven titles under the Bus Realm

(42:30):
puts them in another unique conversation as one of the
greatest ownership groups of all time. The Bus Family, Jerry Buss,
Doctor Bus in particular, finding a way to get Magic Johnson,
to keep Magic Johnson happy, which is always a very
difficult thing to do when you have a star like that,
To go get Shaquille O'Neal, to bring in Jerry West

(42:52):
to run your team, to go trade for Kobe to
keep Kobe happy. There's so many things that this family's done.
And then the Bus family, also, by the way, found
a way to get the greatest player of all time
to put on their uniform. And you bring in a
guy like Lebron the same way you bring in a
guy like Will Chamberlain. Will Chamberlain was already an accomplished
star when he joined the Lakers. He was chasing that ring.

(43:13):
Lebron was already accomplished star when he joined the Lakers.
But the Lakers knew we are going to bring in
Lebron James. Yeah, he's gonna help us win a title.
We'll make some trades, we'll get an ad, we'll win
a championship. But at the same time, they knew we're
gonna keep him happy because when he breaks all these
all time records, the scoring record, the assists, the rebound
all this games played, minutes played, everything, they know that

(43:35):
in the history books, you might remember the Miami Heat,
you might remember the Cleveland Cavaliers, you will remember Lebron
in this Laker jersey. Lebron's already played the Lakers seven years.
That's three more years than Miami, in four less years
than Cleveland, and we think of him as a cav
not anymore. It's gonna be a Laker in the realms
of history. He will go down as a Laker. Boss

(43:56):
family sells us for ten billion. Only team is gonna
come close is when Jerry Jones finally decides to sell
the Cowboys as if all right, when we come back,
College World Series is set. It's shot to Clears versus Taigas.
We'll bring it more to you. Hour two of the
Morning Kickoff continues on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone.
Marcus All off today. They'll be back in the chair tomorrow.

(44:20):
And yesterday, oh Man, own man. Talk about some good games,
and we start here with Arkansas.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
It's the curse of the Omahawks.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
It's up there with the Bambino, and it's up there
with the Billy Goat. It's up there now with the
Razorbacks when they go to Omaha. Yesterday, Arkansas was in
a prime position to get back to the championship game,
to take on ls OR, to take on a coastal
Carolina who punched their ticket earlier in the day and

(44:54):
now couldn't get the job done. They let at one
point five to three, and then the that will live
in the nightmares of Razorback fans for maybe eternity at
this point it happens. So let's start here. Jerry Jones
from LSU. He had one of the best hits of

(45:16):
the game. He had a walk off, which we'll hear
here in a little bit. But he comes on bass
after maybe the worst play of the College World Series.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
Let's hear it.

Speaker 4 (45:29):
This ball is hooked to left field and a bad
reader that goes off of the left fielders and Davil
on both arms are gonna come in and we are
tied again. Oh my goodness, he slipped and it looked
like it went a body and we are tied at five.

Speaker 3 (45:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
No, that slip will go down in the history books.
It will go down in the books for Arkansas in
the world, in the College World Series. This is again
an organization, a program who has been there plenty of times.
We talked about a little bit earlier in the show
twelve appearance at this College World Series. They were an

(46:14):
out away from winning the World Series in twenty eighteen,
ended up losing to Oregon State. And it does not
get easier than this. With a runner on base, Jared
Jones steps up, hits a liner off the glove, turns
into the winning run.

Speaker 4 (46:31):
Brown, he is the winning run, a hitch off the
glove of the second basement head, here come turnus.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
LSU is on.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
To the finals. They pitched to Jones that it bounced
off the glove of cam Closual and the Tigers are
going back.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
To the finals.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
Now, if it was a run of the mill team,
like let's say Arkansas loses to UCLA, or Arkansas loses
to Arizona State, or Arkansas loses any of these other
teams who are legendary programs in college baseball. Yeah, it hurts, obviously,
but it really stings. That's an SEC rival. And you
heard on the call from Carl Ravish on ESPN that

(47:15):
they decided to pitch to Jones. Well, here's why that's
a big deal. In since he struck out five times
in a Tiger win against Arkansas and their opener the
last two games, five for nine, six RBIs and two
home runs. The dude is on fire. So to put
him in that spot, to give him a pitch that
he could get bad on ball, it's tough. Now, the

(47:37):
pitcher did throw him multiple breaking ball pitches, and yeah,
they were trying to get him off his game a
little bit. But a game winning hit for Jared Jones
sends LSU back to the title game and it doesn't
get worse for Arkansas. I've been saying back and forth
that yeah, you know, LSU wins this game. They were
able to come back, but Arkansas lost it. And we

(47:59):
hear from our guy Hardball.

Speaker 5 (48:00):
Harsh congratulations to LSU. Harpoff victory, battled all the way
through it. But let's be one honest, Arkansas. You let
them win that game ground all the shortstop double play,
you go to third flyball to left field. Tough play,

(48:23):
but you got to make that play at this level,
I firmly believed that Arkansas has cursed when it comes
to going to the College World LSU advances Coastal Carolina.
But wow, wow, wow wow, A lot of yeah, a

(48:44):
lot to think about, a lot to go over.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
And I agree with Hardball that Arkansas has cursed. And
I've been going over it in my head since the
game last night. How do you end up in that spot?
And Steven Millam, who grounded a short and way Alloy
opted to get the lead runner at third insto going
for the game ending double play for Arkansas. By the way,
I've been going over my head, how do you prevent

(49:08):
this from happening? Because I always look at other people's mistakes.
I look at other people's situations and I say, what
can I learn from this? This is the difference between
people who make mistakes and learn from other people's mistakes. Right, Arkansas,
how do you learn from this?

Speaker 2 (49:21):
Well?

Speaker 1 (49:21):
First off, if you are a parent, if you are
a guardian, if you are a coach who is listening
to the program this morning, thank you a for listening
and b start talking to your kids on the field,
because what happened in this game is it was just
not a heads up play by the shortstop. You have
to be saying and talking, Hey, double play situation, double

(49:42):
play situation, double play situation.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
It sounds dumb.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
And I know, who are you to be telling college
ballplayers what to do? Well, I'm a guy who knew
to go to second base to end the game on
a double play.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
That's the difference here.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
You got to talk on the infield and Arkansas is
going to go through their entire offseason, gonna go through
the entire non conference schedule, They're gonna go through the
entire SEC slate again, and they're gonna the entire year
next year. Be saying we got to talk in the
middle infield. We have to conversate on the infield to
know what the heads of plays. Because the sliding play

(50:17):
in left field, Yeah, was it a play that could
have been made? Is the play that should have been made?

Speaker 18 (50:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (50:22):
Maybe?

Speaker 1 (50:23):
And if you're an Arkansas fan this morning and you're
pointing the finger and you want to point it at
the equipment manager for not having better cleats on your
left fielder, you know, shout out, that's on you. You
can do whatever you want. I'm looking at it from
the standpoint of, yeah, we're just cursed. So this comes
up to my second option here. There's a lot of
very good witch doctors on Etsy. You gotta find a

(50:44):
way to get the Ohafia boys because the Omahawks are
a problem in Omaha. The Razorbacks when they go to
Omaha continue to struggle. And we talked a little earlier.
This is a gut ranching loss. It's nothing new for
the fans. They woke up this morning the rest of
my saying, Wow, what a game, What a choke job,
what a shot by LSU to get back to the championship.

(51:05):
Razorback stands. Fans says, hey, this is just a normal
Thursday for me. The heartbreak I've suffered. They were one
out of way from winning the title in twenty eighteen.
The second game in the final against Oregon State, it
should have been a game ending pop fly. It dropped
between not one, not two, but three razorbackfielders and then
Oregon State went on to win that game and then

(51:26):
to take the title.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
It's just tough.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
It's a tough, tough road to hoe for Arkansas, And
again I say, if it was anybody else, if this
was a Arkansas loss to any other team, you're probably
not feeling as bad.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
But it's LSU.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
But you gotta tip your cat to LSU because LSU
is a team that has built a pedigree, They've built
a history. And I've said for a long time, before
Texas got to the SEC, that was my SEC team.
I was rooting for LSU in these games because I
like them. I feel like they sometimes get overlooked. After
you talk about Alabama, Georgia, Florida. LSU was always kind

(52:02):
of just there, right and then they started getting good
at football and people stopped forgetting about him as nearly
as much. But their baseball program has sent guys to
the league year after year after year after year. If
you haven't been paying attention, I don't know what to
tell you. But now they face off against a team
that I also have a soft spot for.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
The Coast Carolina Shot.

Speaker 6 (52:20):
Clears, Dominic Carboso, one on the crowd at Barego, who backs.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
Up Gloves, Carbon Tuglas, Coastal Wimswick. The Teal is for real,
twenty six in a row and the Shots will see
you Saturday in the Championship Series.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
The longest winning streak going into a championship series in
College World Series history, a twenty six game winning streak.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
For the Beach Chickens.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
The teal is real, and I love me a good
mid major program. I love me a good mid major program.
The sun Belt stands up. The sun Belt will rise
in Coast of Carolina. Who won the title in twenty seventeen,
joins the Sunbelt the next year. And they look great.
They have won games that they need to win. Their
rank thirteenth in the country. They beat Louisville yesterday, putting

(53:12):
up six runs in the first inning. And I was
watching the game here at the station. I got the
game on. I see them come up. I get up
to get a drink.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
I come back. Oh it's two to zer. I look
at my computer. I look up. It's four to zero.
I look away, it's six. This is great. You put
up six runs in that first inning.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
You give your pitchers a little bit of relief, You
give your hitters they can relax. You're not the team
on your heels anymore. And now you're in a position
where it is college Baseball Royalty in lsu A team
that won the title two years ago. They're trying to
go their second title in three seasons, and a team
like Coast to Carolina that is an underdog, they're spunky.
They are a very good mid major program, and I

(53:51):
was talking about it over the past couple days. I
think that they might be one of the best mid
majors we've seen in the last decade let alone. Ever,
I think they're cementing themselves in that conversation. And as
you hear about Texas State going to the Pac twelve
and you hear about these other conference realignments, if there
was a baseball conference for Coastal Carolina to jump into,
I'm not saying I'm just saying I think that they

(54:13):
would fit in with like the ACC. I think they
would fit in with the Big Ten if you made
them go play baseball over there, and they might win
those conferences too. That's how good they have been over
the past couple of years. They are a legitimate baseball program.
And now I am in a unavigable position between picking
which one of my children I love the most. Do
I pick on LSU, a team that I've been rooting

(54:34):
for in the background for the past couple of years,
who has the celebrity endorsements of every media member, who
has Livy Dunn and Paul Schemes, And I know Shock
is going to show up to one of these games
and a quadruple Excel Tigers Jersey. Or do I root
for the upstart Sun Belt team the Coast Carolina Chata
clear is the tea is real? A team that has

(54:54):
twenty six straight wins? And is it even more impressive now?
If Coastal can come into this World Series, win the
games that they've won, play as dominantly as they've played,
and then knock off LSU. I'm stuck. I'm in the middle.
I have a couple of hours. Obviously games start on Saturday,
but I have to make a decision here. Maybe I

(55:15):
go out and I get a Teal and LSU Jersey
split down the middle could be the move. I know
some good seamstresses will make it happen. It's exciting. I'm
very pumped for the College World Series. If you haven't
been paying attention, this is when you should be locking in.
Is this weekend? And Arkansas fans again, I say my
heart goes out to you. I don't know what you

(55:35):
need to do. The voodoo dolls clearly are not working.
The equipment manager needs to sharpen the spikes. I guess
the pitching staff did everything that they could to keep
Courts Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone The Morning Kick
The Morning Kickoff continues Andrews. I will fill in for
Hardball Heart and the World's Strongest Man Mark Henry. They

(55:56):
will be back again tomorrow. If you miss them, you
can go back and listen to you yesterday's show War.
You can listen tomorrow's show live on the iHeartRadio app.
Make us your number one preset. We are killing the
preset numbers. I got the numbers back the other day
and they were like, hey, AM thirteen oh, the Zone
is doing a really good job. So thank you guys
to continue to help build the brand, the flagship for

(56:18):
the University of Texas. Okay, So, Lebron James has been
the most scrutinized athlete for the better part of twenty years.
He has been a guy who's under the spotlight, under
the microscope. He gets talked about a lot, and he
gets compared to maybe the most prestigious individual in the
history of sport. A perfect six to zero finals record
for Michael Jordan. Lebron, on the other hand, he's got

(56:41):
a couple losses under his belt. But on Mine the
Game with Steve Nash, their podcast where they kind of
break down analytics, they'll break down x's and o's. It's
one of those podcasts that you got to watch because
they put a lot of stuff up on the screen.
If you just listen to it, you're not gonna get
the full the full deep dive. It's a really good
show though, if you want to get smarter about basketball too,
smartest minds. But they got on the topic of ring culture,

(57:04):
something that we've talked about at length over here for
a while. And this is Lebron talking to Steve Nash
about rings.

Speaker 21 (57:12):
I don't know why I've discussed so much in our
sport and why it's the all be all of everything.
You sit here and you tell me, you know, Alan
Iverson and Charles Barkley and Steve Nash, you know, unbelievable, like, oh,
they can't be talked about or discussed with these guys
is because this guy one one ring or one two

(57:34):
rings or one like it's just it's just weird to me.
It's like Sam Peyton Manning can't be in the same
room with Brady or Mahomes because he only has one ring.

Speaker 20 (57:43):
They don't never.

Speaker 21 (57:43):
Discuss that in these sport or telling me that Dan
Marino is not the greatest time, or he can't be
in the room with those guys because he didn't win
a championship, they don't discuss those things.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
I love Lebron. He's one of my favorite players maybe ever.
I've watched him his entire career. He is so wrong
about that. He's never been more wrong about a taken
in his life. And that's saying something He's been wrong before.
But this is by far has been the most off base.
And I look again, this isn't coming from a personal standpoint.
This isn't coming from me being like a Lebron hater

(58:15):
because he's my guy.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
But what are we doing here?

Speaker 1 (58:19):
Like obviously we talk about rings in other sports. We
talk about rings at the quarterback position at nauseum. You
think that we would call Tom Brady, a six round
quarterback who ran one of the slowest combine times for
a quarterback in NFL history, who looked like the Pillsbury
dope boy when he took his shirt pictures at the combine.
You think we would call that guy the greatest of
all time when you compare him to the other guys

(58:41):
if he didn't have seven rings.

Speaker 2 (58:43):
Put the z's at the end of it. Rings.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
No, it's the rings that matter. Now, we don't do
that with running backs. We don't do that with defensive ends.
It is a quarterback driven sport, obviously, so we compare
those quarterbacks, and especially because the quarterback can help you
win a game. Right, it's not the most it is
the most important position in sports, point blank period. And yeah,
there's guys like Trent Delpher whoever ring and everybody says, well,

(59:07):
if he has a ring, and you know Joe Montana
has four of or if Trent Dilpher has a ring
but Dan Marino has none, does that mean bil for better? No,
you do, fiss No, But we know that we can.
We have the ability to comprehend that Lebrons saying that
rings don't matter, that like, oh, you're not saying that
Charles Barkley and Al l Iverson aren't great.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
Nobody said that.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
They're MVPs, they're Hall of famers, They're guys who we
put into very high regard but I always bring it
back to the table the Dais. When you get invited
to the Champions Club, there's different tables. At the top
of the room. On the stage, there's only so many chairs,
and it's Michael Jordan's sitting front and center, a perfect

(59:50):
six and zero. To his left is Kareem Abdul Jabbar
who has six rings as well. To his right is
maybe the winningest player in the sport, Bill Russell, who
has eleven. That is the Dais, and then you kind
of spread out from there. Kobe Bryant has five, Shaquille
has four, Lebron has four. Lebron, you're invited to the club, Buddy,
you're in. We're letting you sin at the Dais. You're

(01:00:13):
one of the greatest winners of all time. You've been
to the finals more than any of the player in
your generation. But guys like Charles Barkley, who made it
to one finals. In a sport that's driven by one player,
we've seen very good players get their teams in the finals.
Look at Tyrus Aliburn and the Pacers Halliburn's playing in
the NBA finals. Him and Charles Barkley have the same

(01:00:34):
amount of finals appearances, and I had to go on
a limb, I'd say probably going to finish with the
same amount of Finals appearances with The reason that basketball
cares about rings is because you can dominate a game
unlike any other sport. In baseball, because he goes on
to compare himself to Barry ba or compare some of
those players to Barry Bonds. Hey is, Barry Bonds is

(01:00:54):
the greatest hitter of all time. He doesn't have his
World Series ring. What does that mean? Well, there's eight
other guys in the lineup Lebron and there's also five
other pitchers, and every one of these series it comes
down to a rubber match, honestly in October. So it
doesn't matter that Barry Bonds hit seven hundred home runs.
What matters is those other eight guys around him didn't
hit in the World Series and his pitching staff struggled

(01:01:15):
against the A's or against the Angels like that is
the reason why we don't talk about rings in baseball. Also,
on top of that, I'm gonna get really nerdy here,
another reason we don't care about rings in baseball is
because for the longest time they didn't have the playoffs.
It was the World Series or bust. There was the
winner of the pennant in the regular season. Then they
glow and play the World Series, and then if you

(01:01:36):
have a bad seven games stretch, you're done. It's over
one hundred and sixty games or one hundred and fourteen games,
doesn't matter because you lost the pennant. You can win
one hundred games and still lose the pennant because we'd
have playoffs at certain points.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
We just had the World Series.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
That's why we don't care about rings like that in baseball,
but football we have one thousand percent talk about rings.
In hockey, Connor mcgavid is the best player on the
ice any given night. He loses in two Stanley Cup Finals,
and I'm telling him to ask for a trade or
ask for ownership to get him a better team, because
rings matter in that sport too. I understand where Lebron's

(01:02:12):
coming from. Hey, it shouldn't be the end all be all. Yes,
I agree with you. It isn't the end all be all.
But when we are complaring resumes, it matters. It just does.
If I went into a program director's office and I
showed him my resume and I have all my accolades
on there and he says to me like, hey, you're
very good, Zimmo. We like you around here. But the

(01:02:33):
other guy you're competing against, he has the number one
rank show in the country.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
I'm not getting the job. The books tell the difference.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Okay, if you go into your boss's office and one
guy has an MBA and the other guy got a
community college degree, you both might be great. But one
of those guys has an NBA one of those guys
has a ring. When I'm comparing Charles Barkley Scotty Pippen,
hey look, Scotty's the greatest number two of all time.
He's got six championships, but he does play a little

(01:03:03):
bit more because he helped win rings. It's just a
tough spot to be in, especially you have to think
about the conversation he's having it with. If Lebron's sitting
across from Derek Fisher, who has five championships, this conversation
probably doesn't go that way. But he's talking to a
two time MVP who never went to an NBA finals
in Steve Nash, who got his championships as an executive

(01:03:24):
or a player assistant coach type of deal.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
In the front office for the Warriors.

Speaker 1 (01:03:28):
He's talking to a guy who helped coach one of
the greatest flameouts of a super team in NBA history,
the Brooklyn Nets. If the conversations between two guys who
have won before, I don't know if we go down
this road or if Lebron is just talking to talk
because he's talking in front of Steve Nash. But the
s loose on the Internet dug up audio from Lebron

(01:03:50):
back in twenty thirteen, and the take really hasn't changed
that much.

Speaker 21 (01:03:54):
I don't think at the end of the day, RINGS
doesn't always define someone's career. If that's the case, then
and you know, I will sit up here and say
I would take Russell over Jordan, but I wouldn't. I
wouldn't take Russell over Jordan. Russell has eleven run he
Jordan has six. Well I take I don't know. I
take Robert Orri over Kobe. I wouldn't do that. So,
but it's your own personal opinion. RINGS does not define

(01:04:16):
someone's career.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
You look, I could not agree more.

Speaker 1 (01:04:20):
And it's funny because Lebron says that, and I use
that argument all the time to talk about Lebron. I
say rings doesn't define somebody's career, because if it did,
then yeah in putting Robert Oriy ahead of Kobe and
Michael and all everybody else. So we are on the
same page. But the idea that you don't have a ring,
you're still fine, you're invited to the champions Club is insane.
Shaquille' neial does it best on inside the NBA. There's

(01:04:42):
a lot of stuff that Shaq doesn't do right, but
he talks about that G fourteen classification that he's won
a championship before that he knows what it takes to win.
He went to the NBA Finals and lost to a keeam,
got swept, and then goes to the finals again with
the Lakers and knows the difference. I was listening to
talking on his podcast and he's saying that, you know,
the only time I really disagree with Charles is when
Charles says this is what it takes to win, and yeah,

(01:05:05):
we roll our eyes sometimes when he puts up his
four fingers and he was looking for four of these, I've
won four championships, We roll our eyes a little bit
of that. But he's not wrong, like he has four
of them. He knows what it takes to win. He
knows that when he goes to the finals, he has
to do X y Z. And that's why I think
tonight's game between the Pacers and Thunder are so interesting

(01:05:26):
because it's two teams who haven't won before. It's two
teams who are looking to get that G fourteen classification,
to get that ring. And I will say, am I
going to completely throw away a guy's career if he
doesn't get a ring? No, Chris Paul is one of
the greatest point guards of all time, right, Steve Nash
is one of the greatest point guards of all time.

(01:05:46):
We're not throwing away the entire career. But Lebron saying
rings don't matter, it just isn't true. It just is
not true, and it doesn't make a ton of sense
to me. Also doesn't make a lot of sense. How
much money the Lakers got sold for. We'll talk about
that next ten billion dollars. What does that mean for
the NBA? All Coming up next on The Morning Kickoff

(01:06:07):
on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone. Sports Radio
AM thirteen hundred The Zone. The Morning Kickoff rolls on
Andrews and Will sitting in for Mike Harballharg and Mark
Henry this Thursday, June Team. Have a very happy June
team to you guys. The Lakers got sold yesterday in

(01:06:28):
what was unthinkable in many people's minds. Sean Shrini from
ESPN broke the news. This is what he had to
say about the sale.

Speaker 7 (01:06:38):
The Bus family is entering an agreement.

Speaker 20 (01:06:40):
To sell the iconic seventeen time champion Los Angeles Lakers
to Mark Walter, the Dodgers current owner, for evaluation of
approximately ten billion dollars.

Speaker 7 (01:06:52):
Yes, that's ten billion dollars.

Speaker 20 (01:06:54):
That's the largest sale of a sports franchise ever in
the world globally, so this is a his historic ten
billion figure for a franchise. Jerry Bus, the late Jerry Bus,
acquired in nineteen seventy nine for sixty seven point five
million dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
Number sixty seven point five million dollars in nineteen seventy nine.
They won eleven championships in the forty six years that
the Bus family owned the organization, which makes them one
of the greatest ownership groups in the history of professional sports.
They sold sixty six percent majority steak in the Lakers
for approximately you know just the slight work of ten

(01:07:33):
billion dollars. And I have been getting into the math.
I'm a math whiz. My minored in business admin. No
big deal. Sixty seven million dollars turning into ten billion
dollars is a return on investment of fourteen thousand, seven
hundred and fourteen point a one percent, fourteen thousand percent

(01:07:56):
return on investment. You can't get better than that. I
don't think there's a possibility that the Lakers could have
sold for more. Now let's think back. The Celtics sold
for six billion dollars. Okay, the Lakers just sold for
ten billion dollars, and there's conversation now about hey, are
these expansion teams, how much are they worth? What are

(01:08:18):
they going to be worth? Originally it was going to
be around two to four. But if the Lakers are
selling for ten and the Celtics are selling for six, well, congratulations.
Las Vegas Ownership Group have fun buying an organization for
six billion dollars because that's what this expansion is going
to cost. The new ownership absolutely the same. And it's
cool that this is they're selling to a guy who

(01:08:40):
was already kind of in the bus family. Yeah, a
little bit right, Jason, You're selling to a guy who
bought thirty three percent of the organization in twenty twenty one,
and you trust him, which I think is very big
for Lakers fans because we've seen this happen now a
couple of different times where ownership groups, and if you're

(01:09:01):
a sports fan, I don't really care how much the
organization sells for. I don't really even care if the
owner is, you know, a hedge fund guy or a
guy who's like, you know, building, you know, because the
Bus family, Let's be honest, it's real estate to LA.
It's gonna have a little bit of shady stuff to it.
That's fine. What I care about is a sports fan
is are you willing to spend money. The Clippers fans

(01:09:24):
got Steve Bomber, who has the deepest pockets in NBA ownership.
He says, I'm gonna buy you a stadium, I'm gonna
buy you a team. I'm gonna go pay the luxury tax,
I'm gonna go mortgage all of this future.

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
And I don't even care. Bring in James.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
Harden, bring in Lakawhi Leonard, bring in Russell Westbrook, bring
in James Hey, I'll go out and do what I
need to do. And as a fan, I love that.
It's not my money. Go spend money, Go go get
the highest day and free agent, Go spend a ton
of money. That's why Yankee fans love Steinbrenner and why
Red Sox fans hate John Henry because he's not spending

(01:10:00):
any money with the family Group trades. Mooie Bets gets
rid of Raphael Devers, whereas the Yankees are, Hey, who's
the biggest name free agent. We're gonna go give him
a ton of money. The Dodgers, by the way, the
guy who just bought the team, they said, let's frontload,
or I should say backload every contract. We'll default money,
We'll send it way back in the future. We'll pay
you ten million dollars in twenty forty for playing for

(01:10:24):
us today. And like I said, I'm a big fashion guy.
I think all of us have looked pretty good in
a Mattic Johnson jersey. I think gold and purple looks
pretty good on anybody. Maybe that's why I have a
soft spot for LSU. They are going to have the
greatest collapse ever. The Dodgers and Lakers, the two staple

(01:10:45):
franchises in LA. There might not be somebody who's owned
more of LA real estate. Of I'm not just talking
about physical real estate. I'm talking about real estate in
your heart, real estate in your mind. Walter is the CEO.
The guy who bought the team is Mark Walter is
the CEO and chairman of a holding company, TWG Global.

(01:11:09):
It's a shareholder of steak in the Lakers since twenty
twenty one. And you also had to write a first refusal,
which is something that is always very interesting to me.
You buy into a giant team like the Lakers, and
then when they decide to sell, you get the first call.
So now they have also interested in multiple other teams,
right They are part owner of the Dodgers, the Sparks, Chelsea.

(01:11:32):
They also are a part owner of the Women's Hockey League.
So this is a guy who cares about sports. This
is his business is sports. And like I said, there's
nobody who owns more real estate right now in LA
fans heads and hearts than the TWGN Global Group. It's
not as cool as to say the Bus family owns it.

(01:11:53):
But when it comes down to try and sign free
agents in the LUKA dochic Era. Now now that we've
turned the page, we had Magic and Kareem Shaq and Kobe,
Lebron and Anthony Davis. Now it's gonna be Lukadancik And
guess what, there's gonna be another SuperStar's name attached to it.
Because it's almost like the for the you nerds out there,
because I'm with you, it's almost like the legend of
the Sith, right, the Lakers are the evil Empire. There's

(01:12:14):
always two of them. They always have two stars. It's
Kobe and pau Gasol, It's Lebron and Anthony Davis. It's
gonna be lukadoschikin somebody else.

Speaker 2 (01:12:23):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
I really hope it's not Giannis. I really hope it's
not Joker. I really hope it's not somebody like that
that they're putting next to Luca. But it's going to
be somebody. There's gonna be some big name star and
they're gonna have to spend a ton of money.

Speaker 2 (01:12:37):
To go get them.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
And before the bus family, it's a mom and pop shop.
This is their business. This is how they make their money.
And yet it's a pretty lucrative deal. I heard Brian
Windhorse talking about how much money their regional TV contract
with Spectrum is and it allegedly, according to Brian Winnhorse,
they make more money in a week of games than
the Memphis Grizzlies made in the entire season on their

(01:12:59):
regional deal. So the Lakers are not hurting for money.
The Bus family wasn't hurting for money. But when you
look at around the league and you say, okay, the
Celtics ownership group just sold for six billion dollars, they're
gonna have deep pockets. Ishbia in Phoenix has more money
than God. Steve Bomber up the Road has deep, deep pockets.

(01:13:20):
We can't compete with that. And for the Lakers and
their fans, they are the premier crown jewel team in
the league.

Speaker 2 (01:13:29):
They are the league.

Speaker 1 (01:13:30):
The NBA revolves around the Lakers, and the logo is
a former Laker, It's Cherry West. It makes sense they
had to go out and had to sell the team
to the highest bid, or they sold to a guy
who's in the family. I understand it. And this is
going to be a franchised altering move. This is going
to be a league altering move. And Adam Silver is

(01:13:52):
probably waking up this morning smiling ear to ear. He
is so excited because a the Lakers solver ten billion,
the highest selling team ever in the history of professional sports.
He knows that his expansion teams are going to get
him at least six billion to four billion to six billion,
we'll keep it conservative, four billion dollars. And he knows

(01:14:12):
that now the Lakers have enough money to compete with
the other teams in the league, that they're going to
continue to be good. So, if you're a conspiracy theorist,
you're putting your tinfoil hat on. If you're a Mavericks
fan saying like, well, is this what the Luca trade
was all really about? There's a Reddit thread for you, right,
that's what you're going to this morning. You're saying that

(01:14:33):
the league altered all of this to make it so
that the Lakers could sell to the highest bidder ten
billion dollars. Absolutely insane. All right, when we come back,
we will wrap it up, sending to Dan Patrick, we'll
preview tonight's matchup Thunder and Pacers Game six to the
Thunder win their first title in franchise history. Will tell

(01:14:54):
you how the morning kickoff on sports radio and thirteen
hundred Zone wrapping up the morning kickoff on this June teenth.
Thank you so much for hanging out with us. Andrew
Zimmel sitting in the big chair. You can follow me
on x AT Andrew underscore a Zimmel on Twitter, and
you're gonna be wanting to follow me tonight as the

(01:15:16):
Oklahoma City Thunder lead three to two in the NBA Finals,
looking to win their organization's first championship since moving to
Oklahoma City from Seattle, and they might have a little
bit of help thanks to the injury bug.

Speaker 20 (01:15:32):
Tyres Haliburton has strained his right calf and I'm told
he will undergo an MRI to determine the.

Speaker 7 (01:15:39):
Exact sea of this strain. And remember this is.

Speaker 20 (01:15:42):
The same leg that he had ankle Sornison last week.
He was adamant after Game five that he would be
playing in Thursday's Game six of the NBA Finals. It
is the NBA Finals, but it was described to me
today that if this were the regular season, or even
the first.

Speaker 7 (01:15:56):
There's doubt that he would play.

Speaker 20 (01:15:58):
So once the Pacers and how Aliburton get the results
back on this MRI on that calf strain, they're going
to be able to identify the severity and then huddle and.

Speaker 7 (01:16:06):
Map ab out exactly what the plan will be going
into Game six.

Speaker 1 (01:16:10):
The game plan has to be that he has to play.
And I heard Kendrick Perkins. That was Sean Seranni from
ESPN giving us a breakdown on the injury. And I
heard Kendrick Perkins yesterday former Oklahoma cy thunder big Man,
talk about how he shouldn't play, that this is an injury,
a calf strain that Kevin Durant had in the NBA
Finals in twenty nineteen, that other players have suffered and

(01:16:31):
the end up becoming torn achilles. I don't necessarily think
correlation equals causation here. I imagine it might just be
a calf strain. I'm surprised it's not a backstrain with
the way that Haliburn has been carrying this team throughout
these NBA playoffs. Nevertheless, a calf strain to your best
player is a problem. And after scoring four points in

(01:16:54):
Game five, Halliburn needs to have a better game if
the Oklahoma City or if the Indiana want to win
this series, or at least force a Game seven. And
that's kind of where I'm at with this that even
if Halliburn and company can force a game seven, it
might be for not because you're telling me on a

(01:17:14):
bad leg, Walt Frazier style right like that, he's going
to come out here and give you what. He's averaging
eighteen points a game. The thunder have done an incredible
job of throwing two guys at him. He's on one leg.
I cannot imagine he's going to even get close to
his playoff averages of eighteen and nine. And I don't

(01:17:37):
see that happening tonight, which means somebody else has