June 21, 2025 • 32 mins
Rob and Kelvin debate whether LeBron James’ anti-Rings Culture sentiment is legitimate or just something he says to help boost his own legacy, tell us if it’s fair to compare Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams to Scottie Pippen, and tell us if it’s imperative for sports figures and organizations like the Los Angeles Dodgers to speak up on social and political issues.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
You're listening to the best of the Odd Couple.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
By this time next week, we will have a new champion.
We will have a new member of the Rings Club
in basketball history. Rings culture, of course, has been pervasive
throughout sports media for about a decade at least, maybe
even longer than that, and Lebron James, in the latest
episode of The Mind the Game podcast with Steve Nash,
(00:46):
was taking some listener questions on the show. One of
them was, Hey, Lebron, you got four rings, why don't
you tell us your thoughts on rings culture?
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Take a listen?
Speaker 5 (00:55):
Funny. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know why I've
discussed so much in our sport and why is all
be all of everything? You can sit here and you
tell me, you know, Alan Iverson and Charles Barkley and
Steve Nash, you know, you know, wasn't unbelievable, Like, oh,
(01:15):
they can't be talked about or discussed with these guys
is because this guy won one ring or won two
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.
They don't never discuss that in the sport or telling
me that Dan Marino is not the greatest slinger of
all time, or he can't be in the room with
(01:37):
those guys because he didn't win a championship. They don't
discuss those things.
Speaker 6 (01:42):
Once again, if he had enough rings to be considered
the greatest, it would be.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Okay, this is a typical Lebron.
Speaker 6 (01:49):
He doesn't feel like he's going to get there and
that's going to be held against him, so now he's
going to down play the ring. If it wasn't about that, Lebron,
and if Steve Nash had any kind of us okay, no,
if he had anything, then I would have said, Lebron,
why did you leave Cleveland and go to Miami chasing rings?
Speaker 4 (02:12):
You're the one who did it. You're the one away
who ran away.
Speaker 6 (02:15):
You're the one who put together a super team so
that you could win rings.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
You would have wanted to were afraid not to win.
Speaker 6 (02:21):
A championship as great as you were as a player.
That's right now he's saying, and he's talking about being
a great winning rings because that's what he wanted to win.
Such a phony. I'm so tired of hearing this. On
one hand, he talking about I don't know what we
(02:44):
talking about rings or whatever. He's the one, Calvin that
wasn't somebody imitating him. He's the one talking up about
seven rings. He's the one who left Cleveland's hometown and
went to go chase rings in Miami.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
He's one who keeps leaving and came.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
To LA to chase rings because he looked at Michael Jordan.
And if you look at Michael Jordan's career and you
think it's just about rings, got you're mistaken. Michael Jordan
was a great player, led the league in score in
ten times. I could go over and over the all
time leading scorer in the postseason.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
It was more than just a six rings. This whole notion.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
And if Steve Nash had anything, he could have said,
you know, Lebron Payton did win two championship. Well Payne
only got one exactly. But my point is this is
total garbage on Lebron's.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Point on part the.
Speaker 6 (03:43):
Only reason if Lebron had eight or ten rings, you
think he would be talking about the number of rings
people counting.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Of course he would not. Such a phony.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
I'm so tired of hearing guys make an excuse when
it doesn't fit their narrative. He has to be able
to talk about longevity and all this other stuff to
be able to beget sit a great It's not that
you have to win a ring to be great. Okay,
you can be a great player. I'll sit here and
tell you Charles Walkley was a great player. Steve Nash
(04:15):
won two MVPs. No one's gonna say he won't a
great player in the NBA.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
But when you talk.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
About the greatest of all time, I don't know if
anybody who's the greatest of anything who didn't win at
some point in their life.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Dan Marino was a hell of a quarterback.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
I'm a city here and tell you he's the best
quarterback ever and he never won. Come on, man, nobody,
how many times you have to bring up Marv Levy.
He went the four straight Super Bowls of the coach
three four. Not one time I've ever heard anybody say
Marv Levy's the greatest coach in NFL history.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
You know why, because he didn't win.
Speaker 6 (04:50):
That's why we keep score, That's why we hand out trophies.
It does matter. Stop trying to say that winning doesn't matter.
It does matter. When you're talking about putting somebody ahead
of everybody in saying they're the greatest that ever did something,
that's all I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
I actually, I actually agree with that last statement. I
think when you're talking about the pantheons, right, I got
I gotta start to nitpick Lebron a Kobe Kree, I
gotta start bringing those things up.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
But I want to I'm gonna reverse it here.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
So then let me let me reverse and start from
the beginning here, from where you just ended it. I
do believe there was a genesis. I do believe there
was a point when something kind of changed. And I
think when you just mentioned Lebron leaving, I think a
large part of why he was leaving was this. I
think Lebron we knew the talent was there. He's MVPs,
(05:40):
he's going he went to the finals in seven, but
he loses, and I think all he starts to hear
because this, remember, this modern era is an advent of
de bait shows daily every single day, the advent of
social media. This is a hearing of things, these conversations
daily daily, daily, daily, daily, and we all know Lebron
gets in the league, he becomes the hot topic. Lebron
the Cowboys and the Lakers or Yankees. You know, make
(06:00):
sure you watch Rinse repeat say that every week, every day,
the greatest hits. And so I think when he starts
to hear, oh, he's not a Kobe, Well he scores
more than Kobe, he's a better passing coache. Well he's
not a Kobe because Kobe won. Well he can't be
Jordan because Jordan won. And I think what starts to
happen with him was with shoot. I can be MVPs.
(06:20):
I can be in the finals and lose. I can
be an All Star. My team can win fifty five
sixty games. But if I don't win, people are gonna
never put me on this place. So I have to
go to find a win. Because Cleveland obviously didn't put
anything around him at that time. So I think he
jumps ship and I think that same thing happened to
Kevin Durant. Well, dang, I'm starting balling out. I'm an
All Star, second best player in the league. For all
these years, I've been to the finals, you know, with
(06:42):
the back in what was it twenty eleven, but twenty twelve.
But no one's gonna say anything about this unless I win.
I think we started to have with these guys were
so worried about if I don't win, and I started
to freak out because I do believe the ring culture
started to be a conversation when we were back in
back in the day. Just somebody who said Will Chamberlain
(07:03):
was the best player in the league ever. Best you
know what, the best player ever was Will Chamberlain. He
had a ring. Russell had eleven, but they felt Will
Chamberlain was more Dominiqu's best player in the league. Somebody said, no,
Larry hold On, you talk for quite a bit. Larry
Bird was the best player in the ever to them.
A lot of people, well, he had one, then he
had two, then he had three, and for them that
was what they saw. I remember Larry Reggie Miller being
(07:25):
that guy. He could have been your favorite player, and
people would been like, oh, that's your favorite player.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Okay, cool, I know, may Michael Jordan be given to him.
But the end conversation was never always rings.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I do think we've gotten obsessed with rings over the
last of teen years. We've gotten lazy with our contextualizing things.
We've gotten lazy with our analysis, where you go, Shack
can't even get something for chuckle. But let me tell you,
I got four rings. You don't have any, And he
becomes lazy everything. Who he's got five rings? Who he's
got six rings, Well he's got three rings. He hadn't
(07:54):
won a ring. That's the laziest thing. So I do believe,
I agree that is a massive part of the equation.
And if he's starting it picking if I'm talking about Steph,
I'm talking about Kareem, I'm talking about King, you gotta
start having those conversations right the little bit. Okay, he's
better here, he has more rings. That's a part of
the equation. But I do believe there are some people
that close their eyes blindly and go who he's got
(08:15):
more rings? Who he's got more rings, because that's all
they've heard from debate shows that's all they've heard on
social media for last fifteen to twenty years. Yawn is
so boring, and there's no ability to can sexualize or
have a conversation with nuanced conversation.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
I absolutely strongly believe that people have done that.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
And my last point and I think this is a
compliment to somebody in particular. I think this is a
compliment to Kobe Bryant. You say how, I'll tell you how.
Kobe Bryant was the first real person that we saw
that you could legitimately have a conversation. Is he on
par with Jordan? Harold Minor, Baby, get out of here,
Gret Hill, He's the next Jordan? Heck of a player?
Not that Alan Ivers said no, he's heck of a player.
(08:53):
Not that Kobe Bryant was the first person you started
to go look like him, talk like him, sound like him,
to gum like him, same size, shoot like him, fade
away like him. Oh shoot, he just won three straight rings,
just like him. And it was the first time we
started to have a conversation of could he be the
next door, could he be as good?
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Could he be better?
Speaker 1 (09:13):
He's even younger, he because he came straight out of
high school, and immediately we start saying, no, I can't
because Jordan had six. Okay, well let Kobe keep going.
Then he gets four, then he gets five. Well he's
already lost a couple sides, so he can never be
dr and it started that conversation. Then Lebron comes, is
he better than Kobe? No, because Kobe had five, And
that's when it started. Because Kobe was so good to
great that we started a question, dang, is he better
(09:35):
than mine?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
In it?
Speaker 4 (09:35):
And we had to hurry up and rationalized while he
couldn't be to me.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I agree that it's a part of the conversation for sure,
but people have gotten lazy rob and make it the end.
Speaker 6 (09:45):
I disagree. I disagree. I think it fits people's narrative.
If Lebron was ten and zero in the finals, there's
no way he'd sit here and tell you about rings.
The reason that wil Chamberlain never really got the credit
that he deserves and and broke all the records and
them is because he didn't win enough. Not that he
didn't win, he didn't win enough to dominate as much
(10:06):
as he did. People thought he should have won more,
and that's what helped hurt him. When you're talking about
the greatest. This is not a conversation of whether somebody's good.
Nobody's gonna question whether Charles Barkley was a great player
or Steve Nash's two m vps. It's about the greatest
of all That is the conversation. What I'm saying, that's
(10:29):
the only time that you take everything into consideration, and
you nippick.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
When you want to crown somebody. But it was not about.
Speaker 6 (10:40):
No, it's not just that's the only thing that matters,
because that's not true.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
No, I'm actually with you on that last part. When
I am talking about the greatest of the great, I
have to do that.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
I want to somebody the greatest of all time.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
But I don't think that's the overall context of what
was being said here. I think what we're doing is
immediately dismissing Chris Paul is one of the best points.
He didn't win a ring. He didn't and that so
not the greatest. I agree with you in the greatest
count because now I have to nitpick, Okay, well how
many of this or how many that, because it's we're
talking to.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Other greatest players. It's not that Chris Paul isn't a
great player.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
But I'm gonna look at I'm serious, I'm gonna discount
Isaiah Thomas for Chris Paul. When Isaiah Thomas won championships,
didn't have another top fifty player.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
I mean like like, there's more to it.
Speaker 6 (11:27):
It ain't just that Isaiah one two, Okay, It's a
lot more than that. And that's what's lazy is when
people talk about player, it ain't just that.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
But that's what I'm saying about a lot of people
do that now, Rob And that's the culture now.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
For twenty years and they started, that's when it started.
It was no and that is not all it was.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
We never sat there and just because what conversation would
there really be if it's just about if it's just
about when, what conversation would we have?
Speaker 1 (12:01):
You've done these shows, Joe, And that's what I'm saying.
They do that because it goes out. Will he get
more rings? Will he get more ring?
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Who?
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Does he need to win another ring? Ring? Ring? Ring?
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Let me ask you this who? And this is a
genuine like a genuine question is in an abating question.
I'm not trying to set you. I'm really asking your opinion.
This Who's who's better? Who would you rather have? Kevin
Garnett or Charles Barkley. There's no wrong. I'm literally just
asking so this ain't a set up or nothing. Charles Barkley,
who didn't win a ring? Do you know how many
people would never say that? I don't because but what
(12:34):
I'm saying, Roger, you feel me? They would say, never
say that because their media default, because they've been trained
and wired. They've been trained and wired the last fifteen
years ago. You don't have any rings, Kevin Garnett, Why
because he got a ring? Dirk or Charles Barkley? Dirk
why he wanted just see a run a ring?
Speaker 5 (12:49):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
And like, man, you must have. I never saw Charles
Barkley play in life. That's and that's where we've gotten.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
I know. That's the kind of say.
Speaker 6 (12:56):
What you're doing is you're letting lebron off the hook,
which is if this ring thing was in his favor,
I swear to you he would not be on it
on that talking about the ring that rings don't matter.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
This is because he's lost.
Speaker 6 (13:11):
So many and in a lot of people's mind he
lost too many.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
He's lost more than he's won.
Speaker 6 (13:17):
And if that wasn't the case, and if Lebron was
also six and zero and the all time leading scorer
and whatnot, he would not be trying to discount the rings.
He only discounts it because it doesn't work for his narrative.
That's why would you want that to count when you've
lost six times?
Speaker 1 (13:35):
I think that's where we'll disagree. I think he's saying
it's going to that becoming the end all be all,
not that it doesn't matter. He's been trying to win
him to the tune of what ten eleven.
Speaker 6 (13:44):
That's why he's got a suitcase next to his basketball.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I think been it's the we have become blinded and
can't contextualize and have a good conversation.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
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Speaker 3 (14:05):
Jalen Wims of course a big wing, defensive minded wing,
and he's clearly the number two behind the superstar player
in SGA, so naturally the comparison has always been, well,
he could be Scotty to SGA's Michael.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
That's gonna be the comparison.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
For his part, Jalen Wims was asked about He's a
very flattered, you know, kind of downplayed it a little
bit when they asked Scotty directly, though, in credit to
ESPN forgetting him on the record, Here's what he said.
He is pretty special. I'm enjoying watching him. I see
a lot of me and him, for sure. I see
a guy rising to be one of the top players
in this league. He's definitely a player that is capable
of being able to lead the franchise to multiple championships,
(14:41):
him and Shay and I don't even want to put
a cap on him to say that he's going to
be me, because I see him being greater.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
So first off, I want to say shot out to
Pippen for not being just a naturally defensive person although
he was on the court to be like, oh, well,
you know, I mean he got he He I don't
know he can be me, but I see he's pretty good.
Like the idea that he could possibly be better than me.
Him saying that is really you know, refreshing to here.
He has a long way to go because Pippin did
(15:10):
it for a very long time and obviously, Jay Louias,
I'm glad you know that's a bald statement and we'll see.
But I will say, Rob, it's one of those things
where if I told you this skinny kid who you
know was a three pick would be the greatest of
all time for North Carolina, and then it happens, Right,
if I told you this other skinny kid would be
drafted at seventeen years old and would be the closest
thing to Michael Jordan and Kobe Yeah, right, a high
(15:32):
school kid. So it does happen where you kind of go,
I don't know about that, And then it can potentially
be he has the makings. He's defensive minded, he's team oriented,
he doesn't mind that. I know for sure, I have
the guy that's better than me in front of me,
and I'm okay with that, and he comes out and
he can score, so to me, he has the making.
(15:52):
And this is also partly why I said it the
other day, if they're able to stick together for a
handful of years, when you get too defensive minded wing
who can score like this, we've seen kind of the
formula and Jordan and Pippin and Lebron and d Wade
and Lebron and Kyrie of guys who can Klay Thompson
and stuff. When you get two wings like this who
can lock in together and are that dynamic, you can
(16:13):
have a run Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum where you
can have a run of a successful five, six, seven,
eight years. And so they have the making for that. Again,
a long way to go, but physically, attitude wise and
want and will power.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I think Jaylen Williams has to do that.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
And that's what makes his Oklahoma City Thunder team scary
because you always there's a bunch of stars and talented
guys and SGA looks like gonna be AMVP candidate for
five six, seven years. But when you have that second
guy that's locked in and is that good and only
getting better and entering into his prime here in a
little bit, that's a scary combination.
Speaker 6 (16:47):
I just have just an issue with them. It's just
way premature. It's just I get it. I do you
want something to talk about or throw it out there?
And I always bring up the Devin Bookers, Kobe Bryant,
and Chris Paul is uh in the top three now
point guards And he just passed like that was a
real conversation, right, Senator.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Okay with the CP than the Booker. No, but but
the Book of One was there? Am I right? Was
that not the conversation? Yeah? People just trying to project yeah.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
Yeah, like he oh no, he's the next Kobe and
what really? Like like seriously, and I get it. You
want to make comparisons, try to throw it out there,
be the first one to say it, you know, but
you got to be careful with that kind of stuff. Uh.
We know Chris on this radio show that Patrick Mahomes
was Jordan esque.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
I don't.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
I don't know if he could really after last year's
lost or whatever, do you know what I mean? But
but does he feel the same as he did off
his first three years?
Speaker 4 (17:44):
I don't think he does. Is that fair?
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Is it's fair? Because only it rob Super Bowl? So
I get That's why I said. I get he's not
putting up forty fifty times. That's what the first three
years want to say. Jordan's the numbers match the winning.
The numbers don't match the winning. Now do you see
what I'm saying? So I'm not taking anything away from him.
He also got his butt kicked in the Super Bowl,
(18:10):
like like there it's starting. Michael Jordan never got his
butt kicked. I'm just saying. So that's the one thing
about Mike this is gonna be hard, is that he
never literally never lost, and he wasn't even in Game seven.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
And that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
The early start of that was that he was Jordanesque,
and I just don't think that that applies.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
As time is going on and there's some chinks in
the armor, I still think he's jordan Esque.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Has said heavy on the esque, just because it's the style,
it's the way, it's the kind of the Bravado doing.
Speaker 6 (18:42):
So.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
I mean he's throwing no look pastes, he's doing behind
the backpack. He just left hand, right hand. That's not
that's not Jordan, but that's was Jordan. The first little bit.
Remember the first Jordan was flying through the airtie doing
stuff sixty three winning, And then it became so he
kind of did the opposite where he started with the
winning and had the flat and now he's in the
Jordan fadera era where it's just gonna be in a
(19:03):
fishing thirty. And I might not had the crazy flying
through the air stuff like I did. You might get
mid rains for the rest, you know, in your face
all night. I really want to see what like it
could be.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Don't bring up the nine year gap. Jumping doesn't win again.
You lucky.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
You had to start to segment with love and peace
because otherwise I'll jump over this table on you right now.
Speaker 5 (19:24):
All right?
Speaker 4 (19:26):
But and uh so the conversation too, is I just preamature.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Yeah, that's fair, But I think quick last point I
think while we got here is because there was a point,
especially if you all we all recall we're all sitting
home during quarantine watching the last Dance where everyone acknowledged,
including the Pistons who they had a hard time to
get past. They were like, oh, once Scottie Pipping became
Scottie Pipping, we knew it was a rap because the
(19:53):
first couple of years we played the bulls, we knew,
all right, Mike, go Mike, as long as we put
our Jordan rules on him and we'll win. And I
think that's what we're witnessing. Where now the arrival of
Jalen Williams, which is why this conversation became warranted because
he has arrived and he's a beast.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Twenty five?
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Was it twenty seven forty and who knows what he's
gonna do here in the next twenty minutes or so.
And that's why we got to this point where he oh,
it's pipping like, oh, he has he arrived now where
I got my solidified Robin, y'all better buckle up. And
I think that's why we're here. And the conversation becomes,
can he become one of the best twos?
Speaker 4 (20:28):
The number two?
Speaker 1 (20:29):
We got to solidify one and sga Can he be
the best number two? And who are those lists of
best number twos?
Speaker 4 (20:35):
You know?
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Is it Lebron and Kyrie? Because I think we both
agree Shaq and Kobe. Once Kobe became Kobe, he was
one A one B. That was he wasn't quite no
such thing. Somebody's gotta be a B. I'm sorry, you
mean the two, Yeah, somebody gotta be Yeah, there's no
one A O one b.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Oh. That might be the one time. I don't know, Rob,
I disagree. I was allowed to deal with. Shaq was unstoppable.
Ain't no question.
Speaker 6 (20:56):
You can say whatever you want to be no question
in that Shaq was unstoppable at that time.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live guys.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
As you know here in LA and across the country,
social media has been buzzing both positively and negatively with
regards to these ICE rays have been going on in
all of basically all the major cities, but especially here
in Los Angeles where we do our show from and
earlier on Thursday, after days of silence, basically the Los
Angeles Dodgers finally, I guess engaged because they announced on
(21:38):
their social media that ICE agents attempted to enter Dodger
Stadium for reasons that are still unknown up to this point,
and Dodger security said no, they blocked them. Since then,
Department of Homeland Security and ICE representatives in LA have
said that that is not true. We did not have
anybody stationed there, even though there is video and photographic
(21:59):
evidence as shows there are some ICE Border Patrol individuals
right there.
Speaker 6 (22:05):
They're just killing them to this thing, yeah you know
what I mean, Like, oh no, that we didn't do that,
and then they got the video of it, like like
like this is why you need the media every time
people talk about seriously like like that. This is why,
because if you just go by a government's recollection, that's
what they would tell you. And you got to this
is where the difference between this country and so many others.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
Never press yes, oh that never happened or whatever.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
This is why you hope and pray for you know,
fair and impartial news. Just still give me straight back.
I'm not trying to lean your left right up down.
I'm just telling you what it what it is.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
So, guys, the Dodgers are expected at some point today,
I don't think we've seen it yet, to announce a
plan to assist the immigration community impacted by these raids
going on here in Los Angeles. And as a result,
if you look at the Dodgers' social media pages, there
is a war going on, for lack of a better term,
between two sides. Those that are saying thank you Dodgers
(23:01):
for getting involved and finally standing up for your community
you're in Los Angeles, and those that are Dodger fans
when I were saying, we are former Dodger fans because
you are stepping yourselves into a social political issue.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
It has happened through the from the beginning of time.
We're a part of a society. You can't just sit
by and act like well, an act like nothing's going on.
This has happened forever. And I do believe that your responsibility,
(23:36):
no matter what you are, is as a human being first,
and if something really affects you and the people around
you and you have some sort of influence. I'll tell
you a story. Willie Horton story in Detroit with the
riots going on. He was a popular player, black player.
(24:01):
Riots break out in Detroit. He goes out there to
try to calm people in his Tiger uniform.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Because he was so popular.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
People were worried about how you're gonna get hurt out there, whatever,
But he felt that he had to try to do
something that compelled to try to help the community that
was going through something at that point, you know what
I mean. And I think that that's important. People can
do whatever they want. I hear it all the time,
and I'm just gonna be straight up. When people don't
(24:32):
hear what they want to hear, they'll say athletes shouldn't
say anything, they should just whatever. But then when they
invite athletes who are saying what they want to hear,
it they put those athletes on and they don't have
any issue with it, or those entertainers.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Right, you know what I mean? Like, so which one
is it? So nobody?
Speaker 6 (24:53):
So you shouldn't put athletes on who are pro whatever
your spiel is and then be negative towards the other
one who are saying something that you don't believe in.
I mean, that's my biggest issue. I think we all
have a responsibility. Uh yeah, I'll give you an example
of what you're just talking about. Blue lives matter, Blue
lives matter, storm the state capital Injure, you know, and
(25:14):
abuse and end up lives being taken at the state capital.
Blue lives no matter now because you're beating up all
the hundreds of police who were there.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
So it's you know, blue lives matter, Blue lives matter,
storing the capitol. We beat up to the capitol police.
So it happens all the time, all right. So for me,
I think this is always an interesting conversation because it
becomes where does a business, an organization, and athlete and
entertainer responsibility lie. Because you have some entertainers, Mancis Michael Jordan.
(25:43):
We know privately he's given some money to folks and
try to help out all the criticize because he was
not publicly standing up for this, standing up for that,
speaking up for this.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Nobody wants you to be.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
Speaking on every situation, and that comes on and I
don't in a rupt I do want to say this
Tiger Woods when he's at the Masters where they had
no black members to what.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
In nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 6 (26:09):
That's where Tiger Woods should voice, Hey, if you can't,
I'm black, okay, no matter what he called itself. If
you won't allow black members here, I don't think I'm
going to skip the Masters.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
That's how you force change.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Couple with that, you and I have talked about this
off air, knowing what he went through walking into clubhouses.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
You're not allowed to be in here, don't.
Speaker 6 (26:31):
You remember it wasn't fuzzy Zeller said they'd got fried
chicken and collar greens, watermelon, serv This is what was So,
knowing what you.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Dealt with, you would think you would have this this
ambition to speak up and be a part of change.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
Which is why.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
But here's the why some people don't rob and ultimately
why they become heralded in praise later. Everybody loves a
fuzzy warm story of Muhammad Ali. Do you know it
wasn't like that. He went through hell standing on business.
He went through hell, standing on what he believed in,
standing up for his community, telling y'all want me to
go and you know, injury and kill black, brock and
(27:08):
brown people in Vietnam when I can't get treated my
people can't get treated right here fairly. People hated him,
bashed him. Who's the thing is all this death threats?
And then yes, twenty thirty years, oh we love Moham
really happens all the time. He lived the Olympic torch.
He lit the Olympic torch in ninety six. Bill Russell
stood on business. People hated him to his death. He
(27:29):
had a hate love hate relationship with the city of Boston,
not the Celtics. He loved his team, but he said
way they treated the way that city treated him coming
home the feast, he spread all over his house, house,
broken in death threats to his family in the city
of Boston. He never loved the city of Boston. He
loved his Celtic He was very adamant about that. My
point is, so you have people who speak up, who
(27:51):
stand up, and there are oftentimes sacrifices that come with it,
penalties that come with it, which scare some people, the
loss of money, the loss of fame, they losso notoriety,
the you know, and just feeling as if they, you know,
I'm a death threats I have to go through this.
But then you get the other side of people who say, uh,
I'm just gonna, you know, go out there and play it.
(28:12):
And I can understand feeling like why do I have
to speak up? And oftentimes what happens in these big
issues and these big matters, especially here in the States,
it always falls on the black athlete to have to
speak up. Hey Kareem Louiel Sander in sixty eight, Hey
Bill Russell, Hey.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
I understand that because we're the minorities and the majority
is never going to why do they need to speak
up when they're not involved, they're not being depreved.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
But because do you know what I mean the first
thing you said, they're humans first, and your teammates.
Speaker 6 (28:45):
I agree, But I'm saying you not looking for them
to do it, is what I'm saying. You're gonna have
to And there are some people can say whatever they
want about Aaron Rodgers at the time when the controversy
went on about Colin Kaepernan, he was the first white quarterback.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
I heard said, what wasn't about uh the military? It
wasn't you know what I mean? Like like he said something,
and that's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
So when you say, of course, it's always incumbent upon
I'm just saying what I'm saying. As you you always
tell me if I was in that room as the media,
I would ask. If I was in that room, I
would say, Hey, Peyton Manning, why aren't you speaking up
on blah blah blah, Hey Tom Tom Brady.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
Yeah, as I'm not familiar with, I don't really know. Yeah,
the teammates you kneeled and Tom Brady act.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
So my point is it always? And then I asked
I had a chance to ask Kareem Abdul Jabbar this
a few years ago. Uh, when we was live it
was during George Floyd summer and the protests and then
it turns the you know, chaos here in Los Angeles,
and we had him live on there and I asked him, said,
why was it always coming upon you? Why was it
always coming upon other black athletes and no one else
ever has to do it? And he said that was
just a burden, that was honest, and we had to
(29:49):
do it. But this is where organizations, what's your ethos,
what matters to you, what's your role in the community.
And thankfully there are a lot of organizations who stand up,
who speak up, who are part of the community, who
are willing to take the heat for a little bit.
You know, people are gonna be honest, who are willing
to you know, have a certain part of the fan
base that might be upset with you. But when you
(30:12):
stand on what your team, your organization is about, what
your organization believes in, ultimately, I think things work out
for you and you become endeared and beloved in your
city and your community, in your town.
Speaker 6 (30:24):
There were there were teams, you know, when Jackie Robinson
broke into baseball that just what no part, no part
of it, and their fans and all that kind of stuff,
and the Dodgers still went along with it. And I'm
not saying that the Dodgers were.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Strictly because they were.
Speaker 6 (30:41):
This uh uh franchise, right Morley Wright uh Brench Rickey
saw all these black people in Brooklyn walking past the
stadium and not buying tickets, you know, what I mean,
And I'm not mad at him.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
He's a businessman, right, and sometimes it takes a spark.
Sometimes hey, sometimes it is a business that turns to
doing the right thing that changes the game. But yeah,
you you definitely want at some point organizations, people athletes
would do what's right to speak up for the committee,
for the community, because for humanity. And like I said,
that's why I gave examples of Muhammad Ali. He did
(31:16):
it when it wasn't popular, uh lebron to his credit
and now he jumps in everything.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
But to this credit, you don't want to do that.
That's that's he does.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
But he stood up when he at the peak, and
people would be like, wow, I'm shocked this guy would
do that. Like we said when Tiger Woods wouldn' when
Michael Jordan wouldn't often.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
Billy Jane King.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
You know, there's just people who have been about standing
on things that matter, standing for the good of humanity,
standing for the good of people.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
And you love to see it because it costs people.
It's gonna cost you something.
Speaker 6 (31:42):
You got that, but that's life like that, that's there's
a sacrifice you have to give to get I've said
a million times people don't understand that the oppressors are
not gonna just go oh, you know what, we just
figured it out.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
Man, weird, this is wrong.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
Here you go.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
No, and you gotta pre space all tires. How they
get their big deal dealer and we want to deal. Yeah, no,
we want to deal. No, no yet, okay you know what,
no World series and okay, now what they get They
got a deal.
Speaker 6 (32:08):
Now they have the best union. NFL doesn't have a
good union. You know why, because they refused to stop
the money they like, you have to have a sacrifice.
Thanks for listening to the best of the Odd Couple podcasts.
Be sure to check us out live every weekday from
four to seven pm Pacific seven to ten pm Eastern
on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for The
Odd Couple on Fox Sports Radio dot Com, or stream
us every day on the iHeartRadio by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
You're listening to the best of the Odd Couple.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
By this time next week, we will have a new champion.
We will have a new member of the Rings Club
in basketball history. Rings culture, of course, has been pervasive
throughout sports media for about a decade at least, maybe
even longer than that, and Lebron James, in the latest
episode of The Mind the Game podcast with Steve Nash,
(00:46):
was taking some listener questions on the show. One of
them was, Hey, Lebron, you got four rings, why don't
you tell us your thoughts on rings culture?
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Take a listen?
Speaker 5 (00:55):
Funny. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know why I've
discussed so much in our sport and why is all
be all of everything? You can sit here and you
tell me, you know, Alan Iverson and Charles Barkley and
Steve Nash, you know, you know, wasn't unbelievable, Like, oh,
(01:15):
they can't be talked about or discussed with these guys
is because this guy won one ring or won two
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.
They don't never discuss that in the sport or telling
me that Dan Marino is not the greatest slinger of
all time, or he can't be in the room with
(01:37):
those guys because he didn't win a championship. They don't
discuss those things.
Speaker 6 (01:42):
Once again, if he had enough rings to be considered
the greatest, it would be.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Okay, this is a typical Lebron.
Speaker 6 (01:49):
He doesn't feel like he's going to get there and
that's going to be held against him, so now he's
going to down play the ring. If it wasn't about that, Lebron,
and if Steve Nash had any kind of us okay, no,
if he had anything, then I would have said, Lebron,
why did you leave Cleveland and go to Miami chasing rings?
Speaker 4 (02:12):
You're the one who did it. You're the one away
who ran away.
Speaker 6 (02:15):
You're the one who put together a super team so
that you could win rings.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
You would have wanted to were afraid not to win.
Speaker 6 (02:21):
A championship as great as you were as a player.
That's right now he's saying, and he's talking about being
a great winning rings because that's what he wanted to win.
Such a phony. I'm so tired of hearing this. On
one hand, he talking about I don't know what we
(02:44):
talking about rings or whatever. He's the one, Calvin that
wasn't somebody imitating him. He's the one talking up about
seven rings. He's the one who left Cleveland's hometown and
went to go chase rings in Miami.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
He's one who keeps leaving and came.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
To LA to chase rings because he looked at Michael Jordan.
And if you look at Michael Jordan's career and you
think it's just about rings, got you're mistaken. Michael Jordan
was a great player, led the league in score in
ten times. I could go over and over the all
time leading scorer in the postseason.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
It was more than just a six rings. This whole notion.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
And if Steve Nash had anything, he could have said,
you know, Lebron Payton did win two championship. Well Payne
only got one exactly. But my point is this is
total garbage on Lebron's.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Point on part the.
Speaker 6 (03:43):
Only reason if Lebron had eight or ten rings, you
think he would be talking about the number of rings
people counting.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Of course he would not. Such a phony.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
I'm so tired of hearing guys make an excuse when
it doesn't fit their narrative. He has to be able
to talk about longevity and all this other stuff to
be able to beget sit a great It's not that
you have to win a ring to be great. Okay,
you can be a great player. I'll sit here and
tell you Charles Walkley was a great player. Steve Nash
(04:15):
won two MVPs. No one's gonna say he won't a
great player in the NBA.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
But when you talk.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
About the greatest of all time, I don't know if
anybody who's the greatest of anything who didn't win at
some point in their life.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Dan Marino was a hell of a quarterback.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
I'm a city here and tell you he's the best
quarterback ever and he never won. Come on, man, nobody,
how many times you have to bring up Marv Levy.
He went the four straight Super Bowls of the coach
three four. Not one time I've ever heard anybody say
Marv Levy's the greatest coach in NFL history.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
You know why, because he didn't win.
Speaker 6 (04:50):
That's why we keep score, That's why we hand out trophies.
It does matter. Stop trying to say that winning doesn't matter.
It does matter. When you're talking about putting somebody ahead
of everybody in saying they're the greatest that ever did something,
that's all I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
I actually, I actually agree with that last statement. I
think when you're talking about the pantheons, right, I got
I gotta start to nitpick Lebron a Kobe Kree, I
gotta start bringing those things up.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
But I want to I'm gonna reverse it here.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
So then let me let me reverse and start from
the beginning here, from where you just ended it. I
do believe there was a genesis. I do believe there
was a point when something kind of changed. And I
think when you just mentioned Lebron leaving, I think a
large part of why he was leaving was this. I
think Lebron we knew the talent was there. He's MVPs,
(05:40):
he's going he went to the finals in seven, but
he loses, and I think all he starts to hear
because this, remember, this modern era is an advent of
de bait shows daily every single day, the advent of
social media. This is a hearing of things, these conversations
daily daily, daily, daily, daily, and we all know Lebron
gets in the league, he becomes the hot topic. Lebron
the Cowboys and the Lakers or Yankees. You know, make
(06:00):
sure you watch Rinse repeat say that every week, every day,
the greatest hits. And so I think when he starts
to hear, oh, he's not a Kobe, Well he scores
more than Kobe, he's a better passing coache. Well he's
not a Kobe because Kobe won. Well he can't be
Jordan because Jordan won. And I think what starts to
happen with him was with shoot. I can be MVPs.
(06:20):
I can be in the finals and lose. I can
be an All Star. My team can win fifty five
sixty games. But if I don't win, people are gonna
never put me on this place. So I have to
go to find a win. Because Cleveland obviously didn't put
anything around him at that time. So I think he
jumps ship and I think that same thing happened to
Kevin Durant. Well, dang, I'm starting balling out. I'm an
All Star, second best player in the league. For all
these years, I've been to the finals, you know, with
(06:42):
the back in what was it twenty eleven, but twenty twelve.
But no one's gonna say anything about this unless I win.
I think we started to have with these guys were
so worried about if I don't win, and I started
to freak out because I do believe the ring culture
started to be a conversation when we were back in
back in the day. Just somebody who said Will Chamberlain
(07:03):
was the best player in the league ever. Best you
know what, the best player ever was Will Chamberlain. He
had a ring. Russell had eleven, but they felt Will
Chamberlain was more Dominiqu's best player in the league. Somebody said, no,
Larry hold On, you talk for quite a bit. Larry
Bird was the best player in the ever to them.
A lot of people, well, he had one, then he
had two, then he had three, and for them that
was what they saw. I remember Larry Reggie Miller being
(07:25):
that guy. He could have been your favorite player, and
people would been like, oh, that's your favorite player.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Okay, cool, I know, may Michael Jordan be given to him.
But the end conversation was never always rings.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I do think we've gotten obsessed with rings over the
last of teen years. We've gotten lazy with our contextualizing things.
We've gotten lazy with our analysis, where you go, Shack
can't even get something for chuckle. But let me tell you,
I got four rings. You don't have any, And he
becomes lazy everything. Who he's got five rings? Who he's
got six rings, Well he's got three rings. He hadn't
(07:54):
won a ring. That's the laziest thing. So I do believe,
I agree that is a massive part of the equation.
And if he's starting it picking if I'm talking about Steph,
I'm talking about Kareem, I'm talking about King, you gotta
start having those conversations right the little bit. Okay, he's
better here, he has more rings. That's a part of
the equation. But I do believe there are some people
that close their eyes blindly and go who he's got
(08:15):
more rings? Who he's got more rings, because that's all
they've heard from debate shows that's all they've heard on
social media for last fifteen to twenty years. Yawn is
so boring, and there's no ability to can sexualize or
have a conversation with nuanced conversation.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
I absolutely strongly believe that people have done that.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
And my last point and I think this is a
compliment to somebody in particular. I think this is a
compliment to Kobe Bryant. You say how, I'll tell you how.
Kobe Bryant was the first real person that we saw
that you could legitimately have a conversation. Is he on
par with Jordan? Harold Minor, Baby, get out of here,
Gret Hill, He's the next Jordan? Heck of a player?
Not that Alan Ivers said no, he's heck of a player.
(08:53):
Not that Kobe Bryant was the first person you started
to go look like him, talk like him, sound like him,
to gum like him, same size, shoot like him, fade
away like him. Oh shoot, he just won three straight rings,
just like him. And it was the first time we
started to have a conversation of could he be the
next door, could he be as good?
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Could he be better?
Speaker 1 (09:13):
He's even younger, he because he came straight out of
high school, and immediately we start saying, no, I can't
because Jordan had six. Okay, well let Kobe keep going.
Then he gets four, then he gets five. Well he's
already lost a couple sides, so he can never be
dr and it started that conversation. Then Lebron comes, is
he better than Kobe? No, because Kobe had five, And
that's when it started. Because Kobe was so good to
great that we started a question, dang, is he better
(09:35):
than mine?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
In it?
Speaker 4 (09:35):
And we had to hurry up and rationalized while he
couldn't be to me.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I agree that it's a part of the conversation for sure,
but people have gotten lazy rob and make it the end.
Speaker 6 (09:45):
I disagree. I disagree. I think it fits people's narrative.
If Lebron was ten and zero in the finals, there's
no way he'd sit here and tell you about rings.
The reason that wil Chamberlain never really got the credit
that he deserves and and broke all the records and
them is because he didn't win enough. Not that he
didn't win, he didn't win enough to dominate as much
(10:06):
as he did. People thought he should have won more,
and that's what helped hurt him. When you're talking about
the greatest. This is not a conversation of whether somebody's good.
Nobody's gonna question whether Charles Barkley was a great player
or Steve Nash's two m vps. It's about the greatest
of all That is the conversation. What I'm saying, that's
(10:29):
the only time that you take everything into consideration, and
you nippick.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
When you want to crown somebody. But it was not about.
Speaker 6 (10:40):
No, it's not just that's the only thing that matters,
because that's not true.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
No, I'm actually with you on that last part. When
I am talking about the greatest of the great, I
have to do that.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
I want to somebody the greatest of all time.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
But I don't think that's the overall context of what
was being said here. I think what we're doing is
immediately dismissing Chris Paul is one of the best points.
He didn't win a ring. He didn't and that so
not the greatest. I agree with you in the greatest
count because now I have to nitpick, Okay, well how
many of this or how many that, because it's we're
talking to.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Other greatest players. It's not that Chris Paul isn't a
great player.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
But I'm gonna look at I'm serious, I'm gonna discount
Isaiah Thomas for Chris Paul. When Isaiah Thomas won championships,
didn't have another top fifty player.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
I mean like like, there's more to it.
Speaker 6 (11:27):
It ain't just that Isaiah one two, Okay, It's a
lot more than that. And that's what's lazy is when
people talk about player, it ain't just that.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
But that's what I'm saying about a lot of people
do that now, Rob And that's the culture now.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
For twenty years and they started, that's when it started.
It was no and that is not all it was.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
We never sat there and just because what conversation would
there really be if it's just about if it's just
about when, what conversation would we have?
Speaker 1 (12:01):
You've done these shows, Joe, And that's what I'm saying.
They do that because it goes out. Will he get
more rings? Will he get more ring?
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Who?
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Does he need to win another ring? Ring? Ring? Ring?
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Let me ask you this who? And this is a
genuine like a genuine question is in an abating question.
I'm not trying to set you. I'm really asking your opinion.
This Who's who's better? Who would you rather have? Kevin
Garnett or Charles Barkley. There's no wrong. I'm literally just
asking so this ain't a set up or nothing. Charles Barkley,
who didn't win a ring? Do you know how many
people would never say that? I don't because but what
(12:34):
I'm saying, Roger, you feel me? They would say, never
say that because their media default, because they've been trained
and wired. They've been trained and wired the last fifteen
years ago. You don't have any rings, Kevin Garnett, Why
because he got a ring? Dirk or Charles Barkley? Dirk
why he wanted just see a run a ring?
Speaker 5 (12:49):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
And like, man, you must have. I never saw Charles
Barkley play in life. That's and that's where we've gotten.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
I know. That's the kind of say.
Speaker 6 (12:56):
What you're doing is you're letting lebron off the hook,
which is if this ring thing was in his favor,
I swear to you he would not be on it
on that talking about the ring that rings don't matter.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
This is because he's lost.
Speaker 6 (13:11):
So many and in a lot of people's mind he
lost too many.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
He's lost more than he's won.
Speaker 6 (13:17):
And if that wasn't the case, and if Lebron was
also six and zero and the all time leading scorer
and whatnot, he would not be trying to discount the rings.
He only discounts it because it doesn't work for his narrative.
That's why would you want that to count when you've
lost six times?
Speaker 1 (13:35):
I think that's where we'll disagree. I think he's saying
it's going to that becoming the end all be all,
not that it doesn't matter. He's been trying to win
him to the tune of what ten eleven.
Speaker 6 (13:44):
That's why he's got a suitcase next to his basketball.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I think been it's the we have become blinded and
can't contextualize and have a good conversation.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington week days at seven
pm Eastern four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Jalen Wims of course a big wing, defensive minded wing,
and he's clearly the number two behind the superstar player
in SGA, so naturally the comparison has always been, well,
he could be Scotty to SGA's Michael.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
That's gonna be the comparison.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
For his part, Jalen Wims was asked about He's a
very flattered, you know, kind of downplayed it a little
bit when they asked Scotty directly, though, in credit to
ESPN forgetting him on the record, Here's what he said.
He is pretty special. I'm enjoying watching him. I see
a lot of me and him, for sure. I see
a guy rising to be one of the top players
in this league. He's definitely a player that is capable
of being able to lead the franchise to multiple championships,
(14:41):
him and Shay and I don't even want to put
a cap on him to say that he's going to
be me, because I see him being greater.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
So first off, I want to say shot out to
Pippen for not being just a naturally defensive person although
he was on the court to be like, oh, well,
you know, I mean he got he He I don't
know he can be me, but I see he's pretty good.
Like the idea that he could possibly be better than me.
Him saying that is really you know, refreshing to here.
He has a long way to go because Pippin did
(15:10):
it for a very long time and obviously, Jay Louias,
I'm glad you know that's a bald statement and we'll see.
But I will say, Rob, it's one of those things
where if I told you this skinny kid who you
know was a three pick would be the greatest of
all time for North Carolina, and then it happens, Right,
if I told you this other skinny kid would be
drafted at seventeen years old and would be the closest
thing to Michael Jordan and Kobe Yeah, right, a high
(15:32):
school kid. So it does happen where you kind of go,
I don't know about that, And then it can potentially
be he has the makings. He's defensive minded, he's team oriented,
he doesn't mind that. I know for sure, I have
the guy that's better than me in front of me,
and I'm okay with that, and he comes out and
he can score, so to me, he has the making.
(15:52):
And this is also partly why I said it the
other day, if they're able to stick together for a
handful of years, when you get too defensive minded wing
who can score like this, we've seen kind of the
formula and Jordan and Pippin and Lebron and d Wade
and Lebron and Kyrie of guys who can Klay Thompson
and stuff. When you get two wings like this who
can lock in together and are that dynamic, you can
(16:13):
have a run Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum where you
can have a run of a successful five, six, seven,
eight years. And so they have the making for that. Again,
a long way to go, but physically, attitude wise and
want and will power.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I think Jaylen Williams has to do that.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
And that's what makes his Oklahoma City Thunder team scary
because you always there's a bunch of stars and talented
guys and SGA looks like gonna be AMVP candidate for
five six, seven years. But when you have that second
guy that's locked in and is that good and only
getting better and entering into his prime here in a
little bit, that's a scary combination.
Speaker 6 (16:47):
I just have just an issue with them. It's just
way premature. It's just I get it. I do you
want something to talk about or throw it out there?
And I always bring up the Devin Bookers, Kobe Bryant,
and Chris Paul is uh in the top three now
point guards And he just passed like that was a
real conversation, right, Senator.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Okay with the CP than the Booker. No, but but
the Book of One was there? Am I right? Was
that not the conversation? Yeah? People just trying to project yeah.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
Yeah, like he oh no, he's the next Kobe and
what really? Like like seriously, and I get it. You
want to make comparisons, try to throw it out there,
be the first one to say it, you know, but
you got to be careful with that kind of stuff. Uh.
We know Chris on this radio show that Patrick Mahomes
was Jordan esque.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
I don't.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
I don't know if he could really after last year's
lost or whatever, do you know what I mean? But
but does he feel the same as he did off
his first three years?
Speaker 4 (17:44):
I don't think he does. Is that fair?
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Is it's fair? Because only it rob Super Bowl? So
I get That's why I said. I get he's not
putting up forty fifty times. That's what the first three
years want to say. Jordan's the numbers match the winning.
The numbers don't match the winning. Now do you see
what I'm saying? So I'm not taking anything away from him.
He also got his butt kicked in the Super Bowl,
(18:10):
like like there it's starting. Michael Jordan never got his
butt kicked. I'm just saying. So that's the one thing
about Mike this is gonna be hard, is that he
never literally never lost, and he wasn't even in Game seven.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
And that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
The early start of that was that he was Jordanesque,
and I just don't think that that applies.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
As time is going on and there's some chinks in
the armor, I still think he's jordan Esque.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Has said heavy on the esque, just because it's the style,
it's the way, it's the kind of the Bravado doing.
Speaker 6 (18:42):
So.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
I mean he's throwing no look pastes, he's doing behind
the backpack. He just left hand, right hand. That's not
that's not Jordan, but that's was Jordan. The first little bit.
Remember the first Jordan was flying through the airtie doing
stuff sixty three winning, And then it became so he
kind of did the opposite where he started with the
winning and had the flat and now he's in the
Jordan fadera era where it's just gonna be in a
(19:03):
fishing thirty. And I might not had the crazy flying
through the air stuff like I did. You might get
mid rains for the rest, you know, in your face
all night. I really want to see what like it
could be.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Don't bring up the nine year gap. Jumping doesn't win again.
You lucky.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
You had to start to segment with love and peace
because otherwise I'll jump over this table on you right now.
Speaker 5 (19:24):
All right?
Speaker 4 (19:26):
But and uh so the conversation too, is I just preamature.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Yeah, that's fair, But I think quick last point I
think while we got here is because there was a point,
especially if you all we all recall we're all sitting
home during quarantine watching the last Dance where everyone acknowledged,
including the Pistons who they had a hard time to
get past. They were like, oh, once Scottie Pipping became
Scottie Pipping, we knew it was a rap because the
(19:53):
first couple of years we played the bulls, we knew,
all right, Mike, go Mike, as long as we put
our Jordan rules on him and we'll win. And I
think that's what we're witnessing. Where now the arrival of
Jalen Williams, which is why this conversation became warranted because
he has arrived and he's a beast.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Twenty five?
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Was it twenty seven forty and who knows what he's
gonna do here in the next twenty minutes or so.
And that's why we got to this point where he oh,
it's pipping like, oh, he has he arrived now where
I got my solidified Robin, y'all better buckle up. And
I think that's why we're here. And the conversation becomes,
can he become one of the best twos?
Speaker 4 (20:28):
The number two?
Speaker 1 (20:29):
We got to solidify one and sga Can he be
the best number two? And who are those lists of
best number twos?
Speaker 4 (20:35):
You know?
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Is it Lebron and Kyrie? Because I think we both
agree Shaq and Kobe. Once Kobe became Kobe, he was
one A one B. That was he wasn't quite no
such thing. Somebody's gotta be a B. I'm sorry, you
mean the two, Yeah, somebody gotta be Yeah, there's no
one A O one b.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Oh. That might be the one time. I don't know, Rob,
I disagree. I was allowed to deal with. Shaq was unstoppable.
Ain't no question.
Speaker 6 (20:56):
You can say whatever you want to be no question
in that Shaq was unstoppable at that time.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live guys.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
As you know here in LA and across the country,
social media has been buzzing both positively and negatively with
regards to these ICE rays have been going on in
all of basically all the major cities, but especially here
in Los Angeles where we do our show from and
earlier on Thursday, after days of silence, basically the Los
Angeles Dodgers finally, I guess engaged because they announced on
(21:38):
their social media that ICE agents attempted to enter Dodger
Stadium for reasons that are still unknown up to this point,
and Dodger security said no, they blocked them. Since then,
Department of Homeland Security and ICE representatives in LA have
said that that is not true. We did not have
anybody stationed there, even though there is video and photographic
(21:59):
evidence as shows there are some ICE Border Patrol individuals
right there.
Speaker 6 (22:05):
They're just killing them to this thing, yeah you know
what I mean, Like, oh no, that we didn't do that,
and then they got the video of it, like like
like this is why you need the media every time
people talk about seriously like like that. This is why,
because if you just go by a government's recollection, that's
what they would tell you. And you got to this
is where the difference between this country and so many others.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
Never press yes, oh that never happened or whatever.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
This is why you hope and pray for you know,
fair and impartial news. Just still give me straight back.
I'm not trying to lean your left right up down.
I'm just telling you what it what it is.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
So, guys, the Dodgers are expected at some point today,
I don't think we've seen it yet, to announce a
plan to assist the immigration community impacted by these raids
going on here in Los Angeles. And as a result,
if you look at the Dodgers' social media pages, there
is a war going on, for lack of a better term,
between two sides. Those that are saying thank you Dodgers
(23:01):
for getting involved and finally standing up for your community
you're in Los Angeles, and those that are Dodger fans
when I were saying, we are former Dodger fans because
you are stepping yourselves into a social political issue.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
It has happened through the from the beginning of time.
We're a part of a society. You can't just sit
by and act like well, an act like nothing's going on.
This has happened forever. And I do believe that your responsibility,
(23:36):
no matter what you are, is as a human being first,
and if something really affects you and the people around
you and you have some sort of influence. I'll tell
you a story. Willie Horton story in Detroit with the
riots going on. He was a popular player, black player.
(24:01):
Riots break out in Detroit. He goes out there to
try to calm people in his Tiger uniform.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Because he was so popular.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
People were worried about how you're gonna get hurt out there, whatever,
But he felt that he had to try to do
something that compelled to try to help the community that
was going through something at that point, you know what
I mean. And I think that that's important. People can
do whatever they want. I hear it all the time,
and I'm just gonna be straight up. When people don't
(24:32):
hear what they want to hear, they'll say athletes shouldn't
say anything, they should just whatever. But then when they
invite athletes who are saying what they want to hear,
it they put those athletes on and they don't have
any issue with it, or those entertainers.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Right, you know what I mean? Like, so which one
is it? So nobody?
Speaker 6 (24:53):
So you shouldn't put athletes on who are pro whatever
your spiel is and then be negative towards the other
one who are saying something that you don't believe in.
I mean, that's my biggest issue. I think we all
have a responsibility. Uh yeah, I'll give you an example
of what you're just talking about. Blue lives matter, Blue
lives matter, storm the state capital Injure, you know, and
(25:14):
abuse and end up lives being taken at the state capital.
Blue lives no matter now because you're beating up all
the hundreds of police who were there.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
So it's you know, blue lives matter, Blue lives matter,
storing the capitol. We beat up to the capitol police.
So it happens all the time, all right. So for me,
I think this is always an interesting conversation because it
becomes where does a business, an organization, and athlete and
entertainer responsibility lie. Because you have some entertainers, Mancis Michael Jordan.
(25:43):
We know privately he's given some money to folks and
try to help out all the criticize because he was
not publicly standing up for this, standing up for that,
speaking up for this.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Nobody wants you to be.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
Speaking on every situation, and that comes on and I
don't in a rupt I do want to say this
Tiger Woods when he's at the Masters where they had
no black members to what.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
In nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 6 (26:09):
That's where Tiger Woods should voice, Hey, if you can't,
I'm black, okay, no matter what he called itself. If
you won't allow black members here, I don't think I'm
going to skip the Masters.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
That's how you force change.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Couple with that, you and I have talked about this
off air, knowing what he went through walking into clubhouses.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
You're not allowed to be in here, don't.
Speaker 6 (26:31):
You remember it wasn't fuzzy Zeller said they'd got fried
chicken and collar greens, watermelon, serv This is what was So,
knowing what you.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Dealt with, you would think you would have this this
ambition to speak up and be a part of change.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
Which is why.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
But here's the why some people don't rob and ultimately
why they become heralded in praise later. Everybody loves a
fuzzy warm story of Muhammad Ali. Do you know it
wasn't like that. He went through hell standing on business.
He went through hell, standing on what he believed in,
standing up for his community, telling y'all want me to
go and you know, injury and kill black, brock and
(27:08):
brown people in Vietnam when I can't get treated my
people can't get treated right here fairly. People hated him,
bashed him. Who's the thing is all this death threats?
And then yes, twenty thirty years, oh we love Moham
really happens all the time. He lived the Olympic torch.
He lit the Olympic torch in ninety six. Bill Russell
stood on business. People hated him to his death. He
(27:29):
had a hate love hate relationship with the city of Boston,
not the Celtics. He loved his team, but he said
way they treated the way that city treated him coming
home the feast, he spread all over his house, house,
broken in death threats to his family in the city
of Boston. He never loved the city of Boston. He
loved his Celtic He was very adamant about that. My
point is, so you have people who speak up, who
(27:51):
stand up, and there are oftentimes sacrifices that come with it,
penalties that come with it, which scare some people, the
loss of money, the loss of fame, they losso notoriety,
the you know, and just feeling as if they, you know,
I'm a death threats I have to go through this.
But then you get the other side of people who say, uh,
I'm just gonna, you know, go out there and play it.
(28:12):
And I can understand feeling like why do I have
to speak up? And oftentimes what happens in these big
issues and these big matters, especially here in the States,
it always falls on the black athlete to have to
speak up. Hey Kareem Louiel Sander in sixty eight, Hey
Bill Russell, Hey.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
I understand that because we're the minorities and the majority
is never going to why do they need to speak
up when they're not involved, they're not being depreved.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
But because do you know what I mean the first
thing you said, they're humans first, and your teammates.
Speaker 6 (28:45):
I agree, But I'm saying you not looking for them
to do it, is what I'm saying. You're gonna have
to And there are some people can say whatever they
want about Aaron Rodgers at the time when the controversy
went on about Colin Kaepernan, he was the first white quarterback.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
I heard said, what wasn't about uh the military? It
wasn't you know what I mean? Like like he said something,
and that's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
So when you say, of course, it's always incumbent upon
I'm just saying what I'm saying. As you you always
tell me if I was in that room as the media,
I would ask. If I was in that room, I
would say, Hey, Peyton Manning, why aren't you speaking up
on blah blah blah, Hey Tom Tom Brady.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
Yeah, as I'm not familiar with, I don't really know. Yeah,
the teammates you kneeled and Tom Brady act.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
So my point is it always? And then I asked
I had a chance to ask Kareem Abdul Jabbar this
a few years ago. Uh, when we was live it
was during George Floyd summer and the protests and then
it turns the you know, chaos here in Los Angeles,
and we had him live on there and I asked him, said,
why was it always coming upon you? Why was it
always coming upon other black athletes and no one else
ever has to do it? And he said that was
just a burden, that was honest, and we had to
(29:49):
do it. But this is where organizations, what's your ethos,
what matters to you, what's your role in the community.
And thankfully there are a lot of organizations who stand up,
who speak up, who are part of the community, who
are willing to take the heat for a little bit.
You know, people are gonna be honest, who are willing
to you know, have a certain part of the fan
base that might be upset with you. But when you
(30:12):
stand on what your team, your organization is about, what
your organization believes in, ultimately, I think things work out
for you and you become endeared and beloved in your
city and your community, in your town.
Speaker 6 (30:24):
There were there were teams, you know, when Jackie Robinson
broke into baseball that just what no part, no part
of it, and their fans and all that kind of stuff,
and the Dodgers still went along with it. And I'm
not saying that the Dodgers were.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Strictly because they were.
Speaker 6 (30:41):
This uh uh franchise, right Morley Wright uh Brench Rickey
saw all these black people in Brooklyn walking past the
stadium and not buying tickets, you know, what I mean,
And I'm not mad at him.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
He's a businessman, right, and sometimes it takes a spark.
Sometimes hey, sometimes it is a business that turns to
doing the right thing that changes the game. But yeah,
you you definitely want at some point organizations, people athletes
would do what's right to speak up for the committee,
for the community, because for humanity. And like I said,
that's why I gave examples of Muhammad Ali. He did
(31:16):
it when it wasn't popular, uh lebron to his credit
and now he jumps in everything.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
But to this credit, you don't want to do that.
That's that's he does.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
But he stood up when he at the peak, and
people would be like, wow, I'm shocked this guy would
do that. Like we said when Tiger Woods wouldn' when
Michael Jordan wouldn't often.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
Billy Jane King.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
You know, there's just people who have been about standing
on things that matter, standing for the good of humanity,
standing for the good of people.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
And you love to see it because it costs people.
It's gonna cost you something.
Speaker 6 (31:42):
You got that, but that's life like that, that's there's
a sacrifice you have to give to get I've said
a million times people don't understand that the oppressors are
not gonna just go oh, you know what, we just
figured it out.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
Man, weird, this is wrong.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
Here you go.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
No, and you gotta pre space all tires. How they
get their big deal dealer and we want to deal. Yeah, no,
we want to deal. No, no yet, okay you know what,
no World series and okay, now what they get They
got a deal.
Speaker 6 (32:08):
Now they have the best union. NFL doesn't have a
good union. You know why, because they refused to stop
the money they like, you have to have a sacrifice.
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