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Episode Transcript

(00:28):
Hello, sports fans. My nameis Richard Harris, and today I'm going
to talk to you about the worldof sports. And my block today is
about or my rant today is aboutmy beef with Sports World today. I
have two central issues with sports Worldtoday, and I'll try to cover it

(00:51):
as fast as I can. Myfirst beef is with ESPN. I don't
like the fact that ESPN decided totell me, as an urban night what
I like. ESPN used to bethe worldwide leader in sports, and they
used to cover football, basketball,baseball, hockey, golf, tennis,
boxing, and surfing, anything thathad to do with sports, and they

(01:18):
do to some extent still today,but their central focus today is on two
sports, football and basketball year round. They bore us with issues about Lebron,
about the Dallas Cowboys, Kyrie Irving, Aaron Rodgers, and it's just
tedious and unnecessary. What makes memad about it is, as a person

(01:41):
who loves all sports, ESPN thathas decided to centralize my sports enjoyment.
Now. Months ago, Mookie Bettscame on a Dodgers telecast and was talking
about how when he looks into thestands, he doesn't see anyone that he
read organizes. I blame that onTV show like First Take and all the

(02:07):
other shows that they have on Foxwith Skip and Shannon, and but Marcellus
was on speak for Yourself and stufflike that, because no one talks about
baseball number one and number two.For some reason, baseball feels that it
needs to make it to the scienceexperiment or a scientific experiment instead of being

(02:28):
the simple game that it is.And so ESPN said, you know what,
we don't want to hit that nonsensesix days a week, so we'll
just funnel it to one day onSunday. And the other sports, hockey
will funnel that to one day.Maybe it will be on Wednesday, maybe
it won't be. But the othersports now, and it bothers me because

(02:51):
I follow everything, and I don'tlike being told that as a black man,
what black men like or with blackpeople, we like other sports too.
Yes, we understand the scientific natureof baseball and the things they're talking
about in other sports. We justdon't like it. I just don't like.
I'm gonna speak for everybody else,I just don't like it. Baseball

(03:13):
is a simple game. You seeit, you hit it, you try
to catch it, you try tothrow it by somebody. I don't care
about the spin rate. I don'tcare about war. I don't care about
anything other than the simple facts thatthe way you win is you score more
runs than I do. These newchanges are ridiculous, but that'll be another

(03:34):
blog at another time. But Idon't like the fact that ESPN has taken
away my ability to watch them,watch their network and enjoy baseball game like
I did as a child. Ithink one of the biggest reasons why I
like baseball as a child because ofthey had black people talking about baseball.
They had Joe Morgan, they hadHoward Reynolds, they had Doug Glanville,

(04:00):
and I learned a lot. Butnow I have to turn over to Baseball
Network and they have a guy XavierShrugs, so they bring up to ESPN
to help out, and I've neverheard of him. He played, apparently,
but I've never heard of him.Chris Young. I heard of Cliff
Floyd played for my Mets. Iget it, but that's found not on
ESPN. That's on the Baseball Network. My second beef is the major beef,

(04:28):
and that beef is I'm so tiredof every day turning on television hearing
discussions about the goats. First ofall, in the last twenty five years,
there's only been one goat, andthat goat is Ussein Bolt, not
Serena, not Tiger, and notLebron, not even Kobe. It's only

(04:50):
been Usin Bolt. And the reasonwhy he is the only goat is that
he won what three straight Olympics,three different events. Nobody does that.
Yes, Katie Ladecki, she swimsgreat, but she lost to Australian girl
and they kind of now starting alittle bit of a rivalry. But Kayla

(05:13):
she friend, you know, shewins races, but she didn't do anything
in the Olympics. Simone Biles,she does great in gymnastics, but couldn't
do anything in the Olympics. Comeon, it's bold, that's it.
And it's not a fun discussion becauseit's a tedious one because you keep doing
the same thing every single day.And let me give an example of what

(05:34):
I mean. For example, youtalk about Lebron, you say Lebron is
the greatest basketball player. All theseyoung broadcasters coming up, all these young
players coming up, and I sayto myself, how could he be the
greatest basketball player? Well, thefirst thing they say, is he's the
greatest scorer of all time. Well, let's address that. Michael Jordan retired

(05:57):
three times. They never say thaton television. He retired three times.
Kareem scored all his points. Heis by far, you know, if
not the best, he is oneof the top two players of all time.
But we don't give credit to bigmen because we say they're bigger than
everybody, they should be able toscore. That's why people criticize Jim Brown

(06:19):
in football because they say Jim Brownwas as big as the defensive lineman,
big as the linebackers, and thereforeall his achievements are somewhat tanked it,
which is stupid because eleven guys weretrying to tackle him. But Lebron is
a great player. And when youtalk about goats, that's the one thing

(06:41):
that I don't like about the discussionbecause you have to disrespect the good the
great player. He's a great player, but he's not better than Kobe,
and he's not better than Michael.You're not better than Magic, and he's
definitely not better than Kareem. Nowpeople will say, well, that's in
your view. No, it's ifyou watch a game, you can see
that. I mean you want totalk statistical things, well, talk factual

(07:08):
things. Talk about things that arerelevant. For example, there's only one
person in the history of professional basketballthat won the scoring title and defensive Player
of the Year in the same year. Think about that for one second.
The best offensive player and the bestdefensive player. It's the one person,

(07:30):
miss Michael Jordan. Not only didhe do that, he was First Team
All Defense four times in his MVPseasons in championship seasons. No one's ever
done that once but him. Andso that's the bar. I mean,

(07:50):
you want to talk about bars,that's the bar. The guy is the
best offensive player and defensive player period. Now this era of sport goes crazy
overhelp side defense, so that ifyou come out of nowhere and block somebody
shot, you're a great defensive player, or you get steals. You know,

(08:11):
Stephen A. Smith the other daytalking about Chris Paul's the top five
point card in the history of thegame. Really top five over who magic,
Oscar Robertson, Iverson, Gary Payton, Hasaiah Thomas, Steph Curry,
Steve Nash with two MVPs, WaltFrazier, Come on, he's better than

(08:35):
those players, Tony Parker, JohnStocked, and they brought up and they're
like, oh, John Stocked andin his screen and roll that come on,
we talk about that. Him andJJ Reddick had a nice laugh.
Really, what has Chris Paul donethat he keeps getting all this credit as
a Clipper player? He missed somany free throws down the stretching games that

(08:58):
cost us games. He was amember of the team that we're up three
to one against Houston and we lostfor three straight games. He was afraid
to shoot. He went to hisNBA first final recently, they're up two
oh lost the next four games,and he's always hurt. So explain to

(09:20):
me how he's one of the topfive point guards at all time. You're
not better than Dennis Johnson, notbetter than Maurice Cheeks. Your break.
Now. There are other discussions inthe goat conversation that are good ones.
The tennis one in terms of themen and the women. People will automatically
say it's Serena because she's won twentythree major championships out of her seven and

(09:43):
the eight wins, which is incredible, and she played that she was forty
one, then she had a baby. Well, People don't remember that Margaret
Court had two babies while she wasplaying, and she's an all time leader
in that category. But people sayshe didn't play against everybody because not every
one of the best players could affordto go to the competitions in Australia or

(10:07):
in Europe. Fair enough, butSerena he won seventy eight tournaments. Now
my numbers could be wrong, butI saw someone with Steffi Graff wre like
one hundred and nine and Martina wonone hundred and seventy something and Margaret Court
won one hundred and ninety something tournaments. That's mind boggling. I mean at

(10:28):
least one one hundred tournaments to bementioned as the greatest. I mean,
yeah, you know, major championshipsapparently are the standards. But to me,
I'm a Steffy guy. I sawMartina play at Steffie play and their
primes. That have been interesting tosee Serena go up against them, because
Serena would have played harder and serious. As we all know. Serena,

(10:50):
for some reason, when she playedagainst her friends or against people that she
kind of knew she would beat,she didn't try. She didn't want to
dominate. And so she had alot of la but Stephie would have been
no nonsense. And when it isgone right out and yes, people bring
up with Monica. Sell started tobeat Steffie, and Rancho Santaez Riccario started

(11:11):
to beat Steffie later in Stephie's careernever gona prime. And that's why Federer,
to me is the greatest men's tennisplayer because in his prime, nobody
touched him. Nobody. Nadal isgreat, Djokovic will have the most wins
and slams because this era of tennesseeis good, but it's not as good

(11:35):
as it was when it was thosethree, plus Andy Murray and others.
But to me, the differences whenI see Federer play, I see something
I've never seen before. I seea style of tennis that I've never seen
before. Today everybody plays that,that style where everyone's one hundred thousand feet

(11:56):
behind the baseline and so you can'tover power of them. You gotta hit
the ball wide, or you gotto bring them towards the net. That's
the dolls stop. He wants tobring you back, then he wants to
pull you forward. Nobody could playlike Federal. I remember that one time
there was. They were having anargument about something to do with the rules

(12:16):
or something to do with amount oftournaments or something like that, and the
doll's response was Roger was like,he was all forward. And then the
doll's response was, but we're notall gifted like you. We're not all
naturals like you. That's another thingtoo, when you talk goats, if
they make your name an adjective,clearly that makes you a goat. I

(12:41):
mean, Jordan wasn't the first personto bring them posterizations in games. That
was doctor Jay And obviously posterization isnot Jordan, but to get Jordan,
it was the thing. But I'mblown away by this discussion for another reason

(13:03):
too, the questions that people sayall the time. They say, well,
Tom Brady's the goat, and thenthey go, yeah, but Aaron
Rodgers throws the best football. Yeah, but two minutes to go on the
clock. I want Joe Montana tohave the ball. I want John Elway
to have the ball. I wantJohnny Unitied to have the ball. And
I'm like, if he's the goat, then why don't they ever say Brady

(13:24):
same thing? In basketball? Oh, Lebron's the goat. Well, Lebron's
the goat. Then with two minutesto go on the clock, with thirty
seconds to go on the clock,with ten seconds to go on the clock,
who do you want to have theball? People say, everyone says
Michael, But the majority of peoplesay Michael and the majority of people other
people say Kobe, other people sayLarry, other people say Magic, very

(13:48):
few people say Lebron. And thenESPN says Lebron dreams is the all time
leading scorer with thirty points thirty secondsleft in the game, and he's had
the most games with thirty seconds leftin the game. Thirty seconds left in
the game. How about ten secondsleft in the game, how about five
seconds left in the game. Guaranteehe's not on that list. That's why

(14:13):
I don't like the discussion because theybring up so many different You say something
and you go five seconds later,No, Mike Trout's the best outfield ever.
But Willie Mays did this, KingGriffey Jr. Did that. It
makes you scratch your head personally,I just say you should leave the conversation

(14:35):
alone. Because when we were kids, there was only one coat. That
was Muhammad Ali. That was it. No one else said anything about it,
and even the great players of theeras, but always deferred to the
previous area say, I would neversay I'm better than Kareem Michael Jordan,
I'm not. He never said hewas the greatest player. He said I

(14:56):
respect people came before me. Andnow to Dine Nicola, Jokitch already put
in him in the top fifteen playersof all time. He's the greatest center
I've ever seen. He does this, that and the other thing. All
this hyperbole, and I ask myselfto simple questions about the goats and basketball

(15:20):
in particular. Could Lebron guard KobeNo? Could Lebron guard Michael No?
Can Michael gard Lebron? Yes?Could Kobe gard Lebron? Yes? Could
Jokich guard Shack No? Could heguard a la Joan No? Could he
guard Ewing, Rick Smitz, DavidRobinson, No, No, no,

(15:41):
Kareem No. Could they guard himthe way he plays? I take my
chances. I take Shack Garden him. I definitely would take a lajo On
Guarden him and David Robinson because theywere fleet or foot, Patrick Ewing or
Rich Smits go back and forth.But they're going crazy all the things.

(16:03):
This guy's doing and he's who's guardinghim. Nobody And the funniest thing at
all. Joel Mbid got MVP thisyear because he had one game. That
one game was against Denver Kitch,played in it and beat scored forty seven
points. There's nothing anybody could doabout it. Now the rematch and b

(16:29):
didn't show up, got an injury, so you never know. But he's
a great player. You don't wantto disrespect the great players, but y'all
keep having these discussions and making usdo it. I don't like it.