Mark Willard and Ephraim Salaam talk Lakers and NBA Playoff Standings!

Mark Willard and Ephraim Salaam talk about the new look Los Angeles Lakers win over the Dallas Mavericks, the jumbled mess that is the NBA’s Western Conference, Seahawks QB Russell Wilson’s future with the recent articles written about him, and a whole lot more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't listening to sports radio all from big time quarterback,
NFL trade rumors to an NBA team made from absolutely
burst at the scenes to hold on, hold on now,
we're not starting with this. We're not starting with this.

(00:22):
Go ahead, do your thing, man, do your thing. We're
not start with this. We're gonna get there. Don't you worry.
But I'm gonna put you on a I'm gonna put
you on a pitch clock. What I'm gonna I'm gonna
put you put you on a pitch clock. Yeah, well
we'll Actually I have a different question to get you started.
A good evening. Brother, I'm I'm so thankful again. How
you doing to sit here and hang and talk. I'm

(00:42):
doing great. I could not be better. I'm excited with
a plethora of things to get you tonight, including this, Like,
let me ask you this question. Do you ever have
you ever been to a bachelor party? Oh? Come on, man, right, yeah,
I've been and I've had I've had a batch one
bachelor party and yeah had your own. Yeah. Now, different
people go into these different ways, So I want you

(01:03):
to to to to ease into what I'm saying when
I say that at bachelor party's decision making is not
always the best. Now that that doesn't mean that things
are illegal or completely off the map, but here's kind
of what I'm getting at. The vibe is at a
bachelor party, or a bachelorette party, or quite frankly, anything

(01:24):
that might be happening in Vegas or Nashville or anyone
else for that matter. It's like yolo, right, like you
only live once, go for it. The answer to most
things is yes, just have fun, go crazy, because that's
the deal. Yeah right right, So, um, I give you

(01:47):
the San Diego padres are are they? Are they on
a bachelor party? Or what exactly is the long term
plan here? Because I get it? Yeah, actually feel like
a bachelor party. You're super fun. You're a ton of fun.
You got bright colored city, connect Jersey's beautiful ballpark, tons

(02:10):
of good players and fans just like brothers or sisters
at a bachelor or bachelorette egging you on, like yeah, yes, yes,
more money, more players. Whoa explain to me while I
understand how fun and good this is in the moment.
And I love owners that spend and I love owners

(02:32):
that try to win. So I'm not here to say
this is bad. I'm just trying to understand when does
the bubble burst. Three hundred and fifty million dollars for
Mandy Machado, two hundred eighty million dollars for Xanderbauguards, three
hundred forty million dollars for Fernando Tattoos. You got twenty
three million just this year on an arm three for
Juan Soto and you're gonna have to figure that out

(02:54):
in the next year or so. One hundred eight million
dollars for you Darvish, hundred million dollars for Joe Musgrove.
And that's just one, two, three, four five. That's six players.
They've all got nine figure deals. Okay, not Juan Soto,
but he will, and then the payroll goes down from there.

(03:14):
So only the Mets and Yankees are spending more this year.
But that's this year. These are all long term, like
what does this look like five years from now? It's
not supposed to look like anything five years from now.
When you go all in. You're not going all in
for five years from now. You're going all in for

(03:38):
this year next year at the most. When you do that,
when you're buying, when you try to buy a championship
is not trying to buy the future. Yeah, like I okay,
checkbook championship. The Warriors deal last year got called right,
but like baked into that are deals that end within

(04:00):
a year or two. Yeah, But what I'm saying is
that there's no is there a salary cap in baseball? Nope,
So you can if you can afford it, you can
do what you want to do. So it changed. It's
it's a little different from baseball than it is for
football and for basketball, because there's only so much you
can do and if you go over that in basketball,
then it's gonna cost you. As the Warriors, right football

(04:24):
you it is what it is. Look what the Rams did.
They went all in right for one year for a championship.
But there's a cap there, Like we understand that you're
allowed to sort of structure that manipulate it the way
that you want. I guess my point would be, there's
no Padre fan who's not gonna say we love this.
But what is the same Padre fan going to say, three,

(04:47):
four or five years from now when this ownership group
and I promise you this is coming, when this ownership
group says, well yeah, now, now we we gotta reboot
this whole thing. We keep we can't keep spending like this, right,
especially when the production for these players starts to fall off.

(05:10):
Like I'll given the Angels as the cautionary tale. We're like,
oh yeah, Padres, whoa, they hadn't even been anywhere yet,
Like they don't even win when they get into the playoffs,
So like, at what point does this turn around on
them and become a pie in the face like it
did for the Angels for years and years and years

(05:32):
and put you in a bad spot. Well, when you
realize that, I would say, in at the beginning of
year three, if you haven't been in the World Series, right,
either of the first two years, that's when you start

(05:53):
scratching your head. But you're willing to pay the money
and roll the dice to get an opportunity to beat
in the World Series, right, So you're going to at
this point nothing else has worked correct, correct, correct, And
they've won over the fan base, you know, the city

(06:15):
very well, beautiful. They have won them over in a
way that they never had before. Like this is all
and actually i'd make the case you notice you brought
up the Rams as a comp now one of the
Rams and the Padres have in common. Well, what this
is that a few years prior to them doing things
like this, they were both affected by relocation. The Rams

(06:38):
relocated back to la and in a crowded entertainment market,
they really really really really really really wanted to grab
everybody's attention. And so this is the way they went
about doing it. Podres same thing. Chargers leave town, You're
the only pro sport in the town, and you're like, Okay,
how can we capture this fan? And this is how

(07:00):
they did it. So I totally understand the short term
gaining from My question is about the long term loss. Well,
when you make deals like this, do you don't make
deals like this with a long term loss in mind?
Because it's not a no one's saying, hey man, if

(07:22):
this doesn't work out in five years, we're gonna have
egg on our face. They're saying, can these players help
us win? Now? What don't we have? Right? What is
baseball hitting in pitching? Right? I'm I'm coaching kid pitch

(07:42):
nine ten year olds. Same here. I love some tips.
I'm sorry, Hey man, it's it's it's hitting. It's hitting
in pitching. Once you get to kid pitch, and when
it's no longer machine pitcher, coach pitch, the rubber meets
road and it's like that in a Major leg. It's
hitting in pitching man, and it costs money to hit

(08:05):
balls out of the park. We know this. We know this,
and so baseball is set up to where you can
spend what you want. The Yankees for years have been
accused of buying their championships, whether they did or not,
they got the world they got, they got the championship,

(08:25):
they got the trophies. Oh well, although it's here, I
don't know if you've noticed, like it isn't that fine?
How they have that reputation? But uh no, no they
haven't in quite a while. Yeah, how many Let me
ask you this, how many World Series has h have
the San Diego po Pod rays? One? Yeah, that's uh nothing, okay.

(08:47):
So ever, so at some point, right, you get what
I'm saying, Like I'm trying to right, it's like, what
are they doing? But yeah, nothing they've done has ever
worked totally. I'm not, like, I want to be clear here,
I'm not saying I'm against this. I'm saying that I'm

(09:09):
My eyebrows are raised because in an age where analytics
is taking over sports. Yes, this group looks like it's
on a bender, and so that's fun. It's so, it's right,
it's fun. Benders are always fun until you wake up
and your head is pounding and you can't function anymore.

(09:35):
And I have the hardest time believing that that's not
coming for the pod rays. Okay, so what if it
doesn't come? Yeah? But or what if it does? And right?
So it's really it's that adage of Okay, we have
an opportunity, we can afford to really go for this thing,

(09:58):
like all in, let's make it happen. Get some talent,
some serious talent, expensive talent. Do we do it? Or
do we subscribe to what we've done in the past,
which has gave us absolutely zero World Series championships? Like

(10:19):
that is you gotta start thinking like that? All right,
you got a beautiful part. It's San Diego. Man, the
fans are amazing. Could you imagine what that city will
be like if you're playing World Series games? In that
part you're holding up the trophy? Ye? Right, So now

(10:44):
you want to increase the value of your franchise in
San Diego? Wouldn't they have nothing else? Sometimes you got
to prove to the people that you're willing to do
any and everything with it looks unconventional or not to

(11:04):
bring a championship there, a world series there. So what
if I asked it to you this way? Though, Mandy
Machado part of this is because he went public about
six days ago and said I'm opting out and and
and that's going to be it at the end of
this year. So the Padres immediately said, well, listen, Machado

(11:26):
is a huge priority, and um, you know, let's let's
have a conversation, and so off they do, and a
couple days later, you've got three hundred and fifty million
more dollars on Machado's contract. Look what if what if
a fan said, well, hang on a second, Padres, you
already had Machado for this year, You've got Boguards for

(11:48):
a long time, You've got Tatis forever, and Soto, who's
way younger than Machado, arguably better, is coming up in
a year. So did you just pay for Machado's thirties
and at the expense Sodo's twenties? And if you did,

(12:12):
I'm gonna argue that was a stupid move. Yeah, there's
a lot of ifs and maybes and possibilities there. I got.
Players have player options for a reason. The only reason
is to secure a long term deal in that final
option year. We see it a lot in the NBA, right,

(12:35):
A player Chris Paul at the ripe age of a
thousand two years ago, opted out of what forty three
million dollars forty four million dollars in the final season,
and they gave them what four more years at one
hundred and whatever it was, one hundred and fifty million,
whatever that was. Because it's for the long term security.

(13:00):
That's the reason players have. I'm not surprised he opted out.
That's what he was supposed to do. That's what I'm
because now you've forced their hands. And in baseball, you know,
with arbitration and all of that, guys not getting paid
to their thirties, right, So why we guess, yeah, you

(13:23):
see what I'm saying, Soto, Yeah, but why not why
not send Machado out there this year knowing, Okay, you're
gonna opt out, Well, then we're gonna get contract year
numbers from you and let's see how you do. And
we don't have that conversation later in the year if need. Yeah,
but it's not like it's not going Soto. We'll just

(13:44):
we'll put our money towards him. I got it. But
now you got both, not Boel, not both for the
both of you got both at the moment. Yeah, b
O you f f both. Yeah, that's a lot of firepower.
I got a lot of fireproblem. What do you need?

(14:05):
What do you need? What do you need? Hitting and pitching?
You need hitting, hitting and pitching? Yeah, hitting and pitching. Yeah,
they got the hitting, there's no doubt. Right, are you
a ton of fund this year? Why do you think
the Dodgers? And you look at the giant hitting, hitting
and pitching. So you gotta do what you gotta do

(14:28):
to stop being the Dodgers little step brother, right like
you gotta you gotta force other teams to make moves
to keep up with you. And that's the big reason
you have to force force other teams hands. Oh my god,

(14:49):
he's what they just did. How do we compete against that? Yeah?
I feel you. I just know how many teams in
sports love the phrase financial flexibility. And I don't know
if I've ever seen a team that now has less
over the next decade as the San Diego Padres. They're
they're like they're locked up. They locked up, locked up

(15:10):
for the next twelve years of their lives. They are
locked up. And let me ask you, wonderful. That's wonderful
as long as you're in love. But thank relationships sideways
get it, I get it. But what if you're locked
up like the pandemic happened. Remember the pandemic happens off
twenty twenty, twenty twenty one. Awful. A lot of relationships
didn't last. I'm talking about rock solid relationship. We've been

(15:33):
get the ten years, twelve years, they come out of it.
We gotta get away from each other, right, But what
if you're locked up with somebody that you like. Me
and my wife been together twenty years. I wouldn't have
made it through twenty twenty without her. Yeah, amen, and

(15:57):
and and they feel like that these players, Yeah, good day.
Look the people who everybody feels that way getting day,
of course, But look the people who broke up after
the pandemic. They didn't know going into the pandemic that
it was about to be over. Yeah, you gotta ride
the wave. Speaking of firepower, I'm imagining you have quite

(16:18):
a bit based on the basketball game that happened earlier today.
I I know you want us flex, so let's do it. Uh.
We're broadcasting live from the Tirac dot com studios. Tirac
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(16:39):
buying should be with you from salam Mark Willard on
Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
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at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app.
Search FSR to listen live. Polly Fusco here with Tony Fusco. Yeo,
as you all know where the host of the number

(17:00):
one rated show and all the sports talk the Folly
and Tony Fosco shop numero. Oh no, yeah, and we
know why millions of people tune in every week. Ye
they want to hear us talk sports, not our idiot
guests who think they know more about sports than we do.
He't listened to these dummies. You don't know crap about.
This is the worst thing. He's still on the shop

(17:23):
that you don't know ball if you want to hear
how sports talk should be done yet, listen to the
Folly and Tony foustco Show on the iHeart Radio app,
Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. I mean,
first and foremost, I don't even know why they would
do you like that. I mean, you don't start off

(17:44):
the basketball segment by calling a team a brick house.
That like, that's that's disrespectful, is is what that is.
But yeah, we will also let you know that we're
to buy Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes buddling easy and affordable.
Get a multipolicy discount by combining your motorcycle, rvy, boat,

(18:08):
ATV and more all your protection in one place, buddle
and save at Progressive dot com. Uh, you can't. You
can't have that on and not move. Um A little
bit like this and a little bit right, a little
funk by the same token. I mean, I know you
are about to let loose. I said to you this morning,

(18:31):
hey man, don't talk to me about your new look,
fancy exciting Lakers until they win today. And they did
so now yeah, because I mean they had a game,
what say you? They had a game on what was

(18:51):
the Thursday against didn't we bet on that game or something.
I believe we didn't been on the game. I don't
think we did not. You are not you are not
going to peacock beating a Golden State Warrior. Hey, man,
I don't not have Hey, guess Steph Curry, Guess Andrew Wiggins. Hey, man,
injured dreamer. You are not gonna be cock beating an

(19:13):
Anthony Lamb. I will not let you do this. Hey,
You're not allowed to do this. You remember what we
were talking about. What were we talking about? We were
last last Sunday. We were talking about the rubber meets
the road after All Star break. All you can do
is play and beat the teams as they show up

(19:35):
to the arena. No, it's nothing against the Lakers. Hey, hey, hey,
wait a minute, you wait a second. Don't not peacocking.
The Warriors were the first team for us to meet
after the All Star breaks. We don't care what's going
on with the Warriors. Okay, we don't care, y'all. Step

(19:55):
on the court. We were I mean Clay Thompson had
no trees the night after Yes against the Houston Rockets,
thank you, but yes, go the same way. I will
not Peacock beating the Houston Rockets like you need all
the everybody everybody in the West needs all the winds
they can get. That's just the bottom line, I know it.
So let me say this. Remember what I said, I

(20:19):
was enthused about the trades and the new look Lakers.
I said the Lakers got younger and longer defensively, and
they got better shooting. Those are the two things they
didn't have. So that combined with a Lebron James and

(20:43):
an Anthony Davis, that resonates because now when they won
the championship, they had youth, length and shooting period. They
went away from that and did the Westbrook experiment, no lean,
no defense, zero shooting, ye for a year and a half.

(21:10):
So as they try to write the ship that they've
been stuck on, stuck out at sea. Did you you
watch that game right? Which one? The Laker game? Yes? Yeah,
bits and pieces, I did not watch all of it.
I did watch all of the one against the carcass

(21:31):
of the Gold. Hey, hey, let me let me, let
me let me tell you what happened. Let me tell
you what happened. Let me just let me just tell
you this. First of all, First of all. Dallas was
on fire in the first half from three. They were
on fire, and the Lakers were not. The Lakers were
two for twenty one at the half of shooting three

(21:51):
in the second half either. But go ahead, no, no, no,
they weren't good in the second half shooting threes. But
you know what they decided to do. What's stopped shooting three?
They decided to stop shooting threes. They only had eleven
threes the second half, and subsequently enough they made four
out of the eleven, but they stopped shooting them, and

(22:12):
they start attacking the basket and using their advantage in
size inside. They went to the free throw line twenty
eight times to the Dallas Mavericks fourteen. That's a shift.
That's a change in mentality. The number one thing though,
and this young man when he got here, Laker fans

(22:33):
were like, who is this and what's the big deal?
Jared Vanderbilt, yep is a monster. He is what I
was talking about when I said they got young and long. Defensively,
he is a problem. He can guard one through five.

(22:56):
He has more energy than every single person on the court.
He single handedly change that game in the third quarter,
single handedly. So now Lebron James, who is awful on defense.
He refuses to play unless it's the last three minutes

(23:18):
of the game. Like well even then, even at the
end of the game, he just let Bullock shoot a
wide open three and you're only up by four. He
didn't move out of the paint and Anthony Davis was
standing in the paint. Lebron James is lazy, and I
defensively not get it. He's tired, he's old. His ankle hurts.

(23:40):
I understand that. But when they put Lebron James on
the bench, the defensive effort it's skyrockets, and that's what
you want. You want to be able to stop teams
when Lebron is on the bench, and then you can
take his offensive prowes is when he comes back and

(24:03):
he went straight to the bucket every single time and
starts shooting underneath the basket. To me, that's a recipe.
And look, and we're down a starting point guard. D'Angelo
Russell's heard so to me coming down the stretch. The

(24:28):
Lakers now, for the first time in any year and
a half, have the ingredients to really put pressure on
the teams above him in the West. Go ahead, Okay,
you're you are very right about something in the basketball world,
potentially wrong about something else, And we'll get to both
of those here in just a second in the tiraq
dot Com studios. But it's time for a quick pause

(24:50):
so that we can we can let we can, let
Steve talk here. Steve, Steve Sager, Hey, Steve, Hello, Steve.
What a weekend of basketball we have had pro and
co college. My goodness. We had that great NBA matchup
last night with Boston getting the last second three to
win at Philly. We had the Lakers engineering the biggest
comeback in the league this year today they were down

(25:11):
twenty seven in the first half and still won at Dallas.
Last night, San Diego State with a three pointer at
the buzzer to win at New Mexico, Perhaps interest to
someone on THEO Also in the Mountain West, second place
Poise State lost in overtime yesterday, and San Diego States
at Poise on Tuesday. This is wild to me. You're
telling me the college basketball has started. Oh, I wasn't

(25:33):
aware of that. Big time, man. It was it was
one don't stop, Mary, what do you mean, don't be facetious?
It was one great game after another Yesterday. There was
a game with Miami up twenty five against Florida State
yesterday early second half, and the Seminoles, who had lost
seven of eight, came back to win the game on
a last second three pointer. The note from stat Sinc.

(25:55):
Was in the last twenty five years of college basketball,
a team that's ranked like Miami when they had a
halftime lead of twenty three or more, was undefeated a
mark of one thousand, two thirty four and oh until
that come back from Florida State yesterday, and Miami had
been undefeated at home for the season this year. And

(26:16):
then Gonzaga beat Saint Mary's last night. It was a
great day. I love that you're going through all this.
And you haven't even mentioned that there was an NBA
game that if the over under had been three hundred
and fifty and you would bet the over, you would
have cast that ticket. You didn't even mention that one. Yeah,
late Friday, very late, Clippers lost in double overtime one

(26:39):
seventy six to one seventy five against Sacramento and the
Clips will have the late game at Denver tonight ten
PM Eastern Time. Meanwhile, Sacramento is in action right now
and leading late third quarter at Oklahoma City seventy nine
sixty nine, and in the second quarter Minnesota is ahead
of Golden State forty six to forty three. Raymond Green

(27:00):
still out with a bruisnee, Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins
are out. The Laker win was by final of one
eleven one oh eight. In Dallas. There were thirteen lead
changes in the fourth quarter. This is the Lakers' biggest
rally to win in about twenty years. I looked it up.
Lakers against Dallas outscored him in the fourth quarter that
night forty four to fifteen was Shack and Kobe and company.

(27:24):
But to have that kind of a rally from this team,
shall we say, was unexpected the Lakers overall our twenty
nine and thirty two this season. Cleveland got thirty five
points tonight from Donovan Mitchell and beat Toronto, Chicago and
Atlanta with home wins, and Milwaukee won its fourteenth game
in a row one oh four one oh one over

(27:45):
Phoenix Drew Holliday thirty three points, Janis and Tennacoompa was
out with a bruise quad. He had just returned from
his wrist injury on Friday, but another w for the
Bucks record of forty three and seventeen. UCLA, ranked fourth
in the country, clinch the Pac twelve title with a
narrow win at Colorado sixty to fifty six. Maryland upset
number twenty one Northwestern Ohio States surprised Illinois. Kyle Busch

(28:09):
won the NASCAR race in cold and cloudy southern California.
NHL wins for the Rangers and Islanders, and in boxing,
Tommy Fury beat Jake Paul by split decision in Saudi Arabia.
Back to you, all right, Steve, great stuff. We are
live in the ti Iraq dot Com studios and indeed
things in the Western Conference. And I dig this, by

(28:30):
the way, about the NBA, because we don't get this
especially before the month of March, usually not before the
month of April. But while Adam Silver called it last
weekend the most competitive season in NBA history, a lot
of people have clapped back because it's like, well, that's
because everybody's mediocre. Maybe true, but it does lead to

(28:51):
this month of March. These regular season games, to your
point I from, are going to be a hell of
a lot more urgent than were used to like you're
watching it right now. These Western Conference teams are all
playing really hard because everything suddenly does matter and it's
going to be a race to get themselves to that

(29:13):
sixth seed or in the playing tournament or out of it.
So the Lakers are still not in the best spot.
But we talked last week could they win like six
in a row. Well, they've won the first three in
a row. And this point today about this game is
so interesting because yeah, they still did not shoot the
ball well, but they shifted. They win a difficult game

(29:35):
on the road when they only shoot seventeen percent from
three point range. These are all really really good signs.
On the flip side, though, Let's go back to the
conversation we've had two weeks running now about the team
they beat, and this is one thing I think that
is an overarching fallacy about the Western Conference. Pallas now

(30:00):
got Kyrie, Phoenix has got Durant. Watch out. Those two
teams are now going to be impossible to deal with.
And I'm like, I mean, what is Dallas since this deal?
What are we looking at right now? Today was their
fourth loss in fifth games, and they are as healthy

(30:22):
as a buck. I think the thing with Dallas is
in a playoff series, They're going to be able to
do something they haven't ever been able to do since
Luca's been in the building. They mentioned it on the telecast,

(30:43):
where Luca's normally playing twenty four minutes the second half.
That's just what it was, and he would wear down
those long three would become shorter and shorter you as
you know, as you get tired, your legs go and

(31:04):
your range goes. So now he set out the first
six minutes I believe of the second of the fourth
quarter or at some point in the second half. But
you have the ability to continue to score, and I
think that's the biggest reason. That's what they wanted, right

(31:28):
they have knocked down shooters. Yeah, I mean they were
on fire from three. Everybody was hidden. Now what they
lose is a little bit of defense. Luca ain't trying
to guard nobody in Kyrie, can't guard anybody. But their
plan is to outscore you, which was working well. But
in the third quarter the Lakers held him to twenty points. Yeah,

(31:52):
but that's today. I mean again, they're one and four
in their last five games, and the one win was
over the San Antonio first I'll take it. I just
keep they keep losing, we keep winning. We can we
can change places. I mean, but you're right, only they're
only two like and and then there's the durant thing
like I guess he would be my larger point. You

(32:14):
can fill out your roster with names all you want,
but they have to gel they to you. And you
don't do that in three weeks. You don't. It's it's difficult,
very difficult. Yeah. So if you want me, you want
to make a bet, here's my bet. Sons ain't doing
it in the West. Nope. You can't tell me that

(32:38):
this is the favorite in the West. They haven't even
played together for one minute yet. It hasn't debuted, and
we're like terrified of this team. They haven't played a
game yet. It just in the NBA, it doesn't come
together that fast. It doesn't. You need time to gel

(33:03):
uh talent, no matter how good you need time. It's
really about the defensive rotations, it's about the limitations. Someone
may have expectations all of those things, and only way
there's no practice. They don't practice during the year. I think, um,
I think what helped the Lakers is them being able

(33:27):
to practice a couple of days after the All Star
break to really start jelling with each other. I think
those few few practices were important. O KD still hasn't
been able to come out and and do team practices next.
I think Wednesday he'll be available and ready to go. Yep, Um,

(33:48):
I think um. When you add pieces dynamic pieces A
plus pieces, Grade A pieces, top shelf pieces, the masteration
process is a little it's a little more strenuous, a
little more difficult when you add add on pieces B

(34:11):
pieces to the puzzle or to the project. Role player pieces.
These players already know their role wherever they play, so
you there right. I spoke about Jared Vanderbilt. He knows
exactly what he's there to do any team he goes to.

(34:32):
He's played defense, irritate, rebound, push the ball. He knows.
And I think that's what you're seeing. I think you're
you're seeing guys the teams that went in and added
those ancillary pieces. Those you know. Beasley, he's a shooter.

(34:54):
Even though he wasn't on today, He's got eleven threes
and hit two. But guess what, that won't be the
case every night. Darvin Hamm told him, Hey, brother, you
keep shooting. We brought you here just for that. That's it.
So if you tell me fantastic with it the other night,
if you tell me, right hey, Manphram, we're bringing you

(35:17):
here for this, just do that. I don't have to
worry about anything else. I don't worry about any interesting point. Yeah,
it's an interesting point because coming out of the break,
the most gelled team based on moves has looked like
the Los Angeles Lakers. Small sample size understood. So more
on that in a second, including the sneaky big game

(35:40):
in this Western Conference mess that's going on right now.
We'll get to that in a couple of minutes, and
then some pitch clock discussion that has to be had
coming up at the top of the hour with you
from Salam. I'm Mark Willardan's Fox Spots Radio. So, I mean,
it's kind of wild, brother, Like we choked last weekend.

(36:01):
Lakers are the thirteen seed, Like, come on, man, how
dramatic is that they're the thirteen seed and you win
a couple of games and now they're the eleven? Man, However,
are there really the eleven because they're they're in a
three way tie for the eleven seed. I mean, I
guess this is kind of what I'm getting at, Like,

(36:23):
you have a dramatic nature to regular season games in
this Western Conference right now in a way that you
were not used to. This is certainly not in February
in the NBA, the Warriors have a two point lead
on the Minnesota Timberwolves at halftime. They just went to
the break. The Warriors of the nine seed, the Wolves
of the seven. They actually have the exact same record.

(36:45):
The Wolves have played two more games, but they're they're
both five hundred and the Utah Jazz are also five
hundred and jammed in between them as the eight seed
with the Pelicans, is the ten seed a half game out,
and the Lakers and Thunder and Blazers are it is
a game behind that. And oh, by the way, that
Mavericks team that can't win a game is only a

(37:05):
game ahead of all of these teams. So literally we
sit here right now. I mean, the difference between not
even making the play in tournament and the sixth seed
being clear of the playing tournament three like a breath,
three games less, it's less. It's two and a half
and two and a half right now, And this Warrior's

(37:28):
Timberwolves game like the winner just vaulting to the seven
seed and only a half game out of the six,
and the loser goes careening down to the ten seed.
That we can all change again tomorrow night, of course.
But the point is is that we don't get this

(37:49):
usually in February NBA. Every game matters. Every Western Conference
game matters, every single one for the next twenty games.
You can't ask for better than that. It matters for
your team, whether they're playing or not. Because I'm looking

(38:15):
and I'm like, okay, right now, the Kings and okay
see are playing. I want the Kings to win because
that keeps okay see below us right right, so that
keeps us in eleventh and not twelve. I'm watching, you know,

(38:36):
Golden State and Minnesota. So I'm looking and I'm like, okay, okay,
well I would I would like I would like Minnesota
to lose, right because that puts them in thirty two losses. Okay, okay,

(38:59):
So now every single game in the Western Conference matters,
whether your team's playing or not. We want today, so
now we want other people to lose, right, So that's
that it's all true, But is that buying into what
album Adam Silver is saying, which is this is the
most competitive league, you know, the most competitive season in

(39:20):
league history. The other way of responding to that, and
I know the cynic will, which is that we're really
just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. All of these
teams are not going anywhere. And I don't know that
that's the case because a month from now, the Lakers
or the Warriors or the Mavericks, let's see what the

(39:43):
KD Suns look like. The Clippers with Russell Westbrook being
jammed into this whole thing, all of these teams have
the opportunity thirty days from now to suddenly go a
wait a minute, we're a different team than we were
a month ago. Yeah, it's going to be It's going
to be crazy. And when you want to when you

(40:03):
talk about I think Adam Silver, it really means the
level of movement we saw is amazing. And free agency yep, yep.
So we'll get to more on that. Plus what we
were waiting for in baseball kind of happened. We discussed
it coming up. Oh boy, analytics, right am, I right?

(40:27):
I mean it seems like the same conversation over and over,
which is short term gain long term loss analytics. We
had this conversation recently where let's take any load management
NBA Star for example, right, like, are you helping your
body by sitting out? Yes? Obviously. However, seven years from now,

(40:52):
if all of the Stars sit out all the games,
are there any fans left? So you have a short
term gain long term loss situation? Are we having the
same talk now in baseball as we bring all these
new rules into play. Let's take the pitch clock for example. Okay,
this is a response to our attention spans being completely gone,

(41:17):
if you will, it sounds like most people are are
are feeling like this is going to be a good thing,
this idea of speed it up, speed it up. So
how are you going to react the first time this
happens in a real game? What ended up happening yesterday?
Which is the moment we've all been waiting for. It

(41:39):
is the bottom of the night of a tie game.
It bases are loaded six to six? Is the score?
Three balls? Two strikes? The wind up and oh sorry
strike three ball game night night? Now obvious lee In

(42:00):
a real game, that would simply send it into extra innings. Right,
Let's pretend for a second. The score was seven to six.
The home team is up. It's the bottom the ninth,
The bases are loaded, the fans are on their feet,
and as the best player on the team digs in
and uses that right foot and try to get the

(42:20):
dirt right where he wants, and instead of getting that,
he gets called out on strikes because he wasn't ready
with eight seconds left to go on the pitch clock.
And we'd like to thank all of you for coming
and drive home safely. How are we gonna do with
that fro him? Because in a in a spring game,
this already happened one day in. That's gonna be tough.

(42:49):
That's gonna be a hard thing. Yeah, that's gonna be tough.
That's gonna be That's that's a bit much. They're trying
to figure it out. Interesting, right, Well, what if we
take it to other sports, because now you're gonna hear
a lot of people go, Okay, we're gonna need a
little awareness of the moment, if you will. So in

(43:12):
other words, like how about I've even already thought of this.
How about in the ninth inning we get five extra
seconds onto each pitch because we do want a little
time for the moment and for the drama and the
build up. But then I started thinking about it. If
Tom Brady's driving down the field and scores twenty four
all with thirteen seconds on the clock and he's got

(43:35):
the ball at the opponent's nineteen yard line, we're not
changing the play clock. It is what it is. And
if you're not snapping the ball by then you're going
backwards five yards because that's the damn deal. Same thing
on the shot clock in the NBA. You don't get
more time because it's tied and it's late. Right, rules

(43:57):
are rules. You're gonna put a clock on it. It's
for a reason, and they're gonna enforce it. Yeah, used
to it like it's there's gonna be some you know,
it's gonna be It's gonna be a learning curve here
always is always, every in every sport. Yeah, every single sport.

(44:25):
So you know, how are you doing? Is this snowing
up there with you? Uh? Well? No? What is the
weird thing to ask someone who lives inland in California? Yes, yes, yeah, yeah,
I live up in the in the North Bay, and
there is a m It's not what I would really

(44:47):
call like a mountain, mountain, but there's a very very
oversized hill in very close to our neighborhood and it's
called Mount Tam. I don't know if you've ever heard
of mountain. It's up there kind of near. Yeah, you
can see it from uh say in Quentin Prison. It's
kind of in that that that neighborhood. Um and uh
it doesn't get snow, but uh it it did on

(45:10):
Thursday night. And the foot funny thing is is this weekend.
I it's my daughter's birthday tomorrow and beautiful that right.
We did a little girl's trip with her and some
of her friends, and she wanted to go on a
drive along the California coast and my man, we saw
snow in places that snow don't go there. Now. I

(45:33):
I like, I've lived in this area of the world
for I mean California my entire life. You know, I
was down in LA for twenty years, but the rest
of my time has been here in northern California. I mean,
I'm driving by like San Jose and you're like looking
off into the distance, it's like there's snow on those hills.

(45:54):
Like that's not we don't put snow there. That's not
where it goes. So anyway, the long answer to your question,
we're fine, Like we had a rainy day here where
I live now, and it's all kind of beyond us,
but it was wild this week and I know we're like,
there are probably a lot of people listening to us
right now in areas country that are like, you guys
are adorable and annoying right now with this whole right,

(46:17):
Oh my god, we saw ice and we didn't know
what to do. But but this is not this is
not normal. Not normal. People gotta understand, Like, fifteen minutes
from where I am right now, they're snow snow, yeah,
right where And if people knew what that meant. It's

(46:40):
so damn hot where you are so many months out
of the year, Like in the summer, it's scorching, scorching.
It's like, which version of seventy one degrees do you
want ten months out of the year, And then there's
a hot month where it's one hundred, and then there's
a cold month where it's like sixty two. Yeah, Like

(47:01):
it's so we're I'm I'm sitting in my house, uh
and was it uh Friday night? And I'm sitting there
on the couch and watch the TV and and I
felt something on my hand and I was like what.

(47:22):
And I'm sitting there again and I felt it on
my hand again. I'm like, is that water? And I
look up at my roof. I'm like, oh my god,
it's water dripping into the house. And it's the house,
so you know that's that's like, oh, okay, well, we

(47:43):
gotta fix this. But but it's the other thing, like no,
we went to it on said trip with my daughter.
We ended up at a restaurant for about ten seconds.
We walked in and we're the only ones in there
because people are like not going outside and this craziness

(48:03):
homes right. Well, there was also water coming from the
roof into the restaurant and uh and my daughter and
her friends were not comfortable with this and we did
not eat there. Yeah, like eat we left. California. Roofs
are not built right because they're so dry and they're

(48:24):
so you know, old, and they crack. But it doesn't
matter because it doesn't really rain rain like that, and
if it does, it doesn't rain for forty eight hours straight,
which it did this weekend, like not sprinkle rain. Gale
fourth winds. So I just want to send out apology

(48:47):
to anybody who's listening in any of the other areas
of the country. Um, because I'm sure we get we
get it. Okay, those friends are on Instagram, look at this.
The biggest thing. You know what the biggest thing is.
It's the trees. The biggest thing in California is the

(49:09):
trees that are falling right because there's so much moisture
going into the ground that the trees, which are top heavy,
just give because it's not used to being uprooted by water. Correct.
These trees are old and they've been like that for

(49:31):
you know. I mean they're falling into houses and on
top of cars and smashing people and it is crazy. Yeah,
it's not good. Yeah. There's a little pathway to the
side yard in my house and I the other day
I tried to go and I'm like, oh wait, well
the path is gone. They're they're now just the bushes
and trees. Yeah. Here, So this is a new feature.

(49:52):
We just trimmed down all of our trees too, like
all of them, like super trimmed them down, which is
just a blessing because I would have went out and
new have been sitting on top of my car. Yes,
it would have so, um Mark Willard Andy from Salam
We are broadcasting live from the tira dot com studios.
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(50:14):
over ten thousand recommended installers. Tirac dot com the way
tire buying should be. You just dove into the weather
conversation like you just didn't. You didn't even want to
deal with the pitch clock, like did you did? There
were there's nothing know I wanted to say about this.
On one of my screens, I have the news and
it was just showing all the snow got it and

(50:34):
I was just like oh, because earlier I saw, you know,
my people in Oakland sent me videos and playing in
the snow in Oakland, like playing in the snow in
oak right, like it's there. There are varying levels, like
once every few years in California you'll get this like wow,
it really hailed and and there's ice outside our door.

(50:55):
No no, no no, this was like it was snowing, but
it was. They were making snowballs, right, so people made
snow man. They were having fun in the snow. Yes, Yes,
this was actual, real, like the stuff that happens everywhere else. Yes, right,
the real winters. It was wild man. All right, Coming

(51:20):
up next, I do want to two things. In fact,
I want to get a little bit more into whether
or not they've thought this out enough or if fans
are going to react poorly to it. And then there's
another aspect. The players Union in baseball is bracing themselves
for the really big conversation and you are uniquely positioned

(51:42):
to weigh in on it, Ephraim, and so we'll do
that coming up next on Fox Sports Radio. All right,
let's roll. We're brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive
makes buddling easy and affordable. Get a multi policy discount
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your protection in one place. Bundle and save. At Progressive

(52:03):
dot Com, we talked about growing pains with the pitch clock.
I think that would be true about anything and everything.
That said, I do think what we're looking at is
something where the good is going to outweigh the bad,
and even the stuff that does catch us off guard.

(52:24):
For instance, Mannie Machado how to Strike called Now on
him in the first ending of a game the other day,
and then we had this game yesterday that ended. It
ended on a strikeout simply because the hitter was not
ready in time. And I'm thinking of close games and
dramatic moments that will be robbed from the fan because

(52:47):
of this. But I think we're going to get used
to it pretty quick, and the whole like no more Garcia,
purification of this whole thing. And I love no my
but like the grab the gloves and then adjust myself
and dig in and look down a third and switch

(53:07):
over here and look like get in the box, let's go,
let's play. And I think that's the goal. And I
think it outweighs everything else, don't you. Yeah. I think
it's to speed the game up, make it more exciting,
not to hinder the game, you know. And you don't

(53:31):
know until you implement these things whether they work or not.
I remember the in football the past interference reviews. I mean,
it just brought the game to an halt and they're like,
we're just gonna just get like, you don't know. And
in theory, it seemed like a good idea because a
bunch of playoff games were determined by lack of calls

(53:51):
or the wrong call, and so you try to fix
the problem. This is Baseball's way of trying to fix
a problem. And I just think, also, yeah, yeah, no,
I'm sorry, go ahead, And you know, the preliminary thoughts

(54:15):
are I don't know about this well, I don't know
a lot of like they've seen it at minor league levels.
The reviews are good. I think most of what I
see in terms of reaction from people who have sat
down and watched games, most of the reactions are positive.
I do think they're going to be things that when

(54:36):
you look at them, it challenges our senses for a moment.
Like even watching baseball with a clock visible on the
TV screen on the left there, it sort of creates
this stress that we're not used to. Baseball is often
for people background noise, it's the summer, it's on. Very

(55:01):
few people watch a game from beginning to end on
the edge of their seat, and so it's just kind
of this lazy experience that we kind of welcome into
our world as we go through the summer months, and
that clock creates a different vibe. It's really about the
vibe that it's going to and I think that's going
to be uncomfortable for people at first. But the other

(55:25):
side to it, I think is really good. Like what
we're losing, what we're getting rid of in baseball, more
than anything else, is the stuff that most people don't
realize they hate. I got a picture, right, you got
a runner. At first, I'm looking at the batter. The

(55:45):
batter digs in and he adjusts his gloves and he
shakes about a couple of times, and he gets ready,
and picture looks over at first, and then he looks
back at the plate, and right before he throws the plate,
the hitter goes time and he steps out and any
gonna readjust the gloves and they're gonna get back in
and shake the bat a couple of times, and the

(56:05):
pitcher's gonna look at he's gonna get signed. And right
before he throws the plate and throw over the first base,
just lob it over there. Check out on the guy
and here to toss the ball back. And now we're
gonna walk around to the back of the mound and
let's get a little rose and shake. I mean, my god,
it's been five minutes and you haven't thrown the ball,

(56:28):
So that's gone. And I and I want people to
really notice that being gone because we don't like that.
And so the removal of that, I gotta think is
gonna be a really positive thing overall. Yeah, I mean
that that's nauseating, right, there's so little excitement, right, that's happening.

(56:57):
That's why you do pay for hitters, right, Nobody wants
to sit for nine innings and it's zero zero in
the bottom of the ninth. We get it, dynamic pitching,
but put the ball in play, you know what I mean.
So they're trying to create excitement. They're trying to create,

(57:23):
you know, a faster pace, and I'm all for it.
I really am. I really am. I Like you know,
I hope they do away with the unwritten rules. That's
the way you play the game. Who you're talking about?
Our great grandfathers who wore pajama pants and no man, Now,

(57:52):
the game the game is young. We needs excitement. Flip
the back there to pitch you down. Let's go to
get triggered. When people say, well, he plays the game
the right way? Who help put you in charge? What
do you mean? Like? Right is the right? What right?
What is the right way? Is that written down in

(58:14):
a book. And by the way, even if it is
um it doesn't mean that we don't update the books, right.
We update things after a period of time. We should,
So I get that. Here's another one, though, and I'm
really interested to hear your response because you played in
the NFL. Therefore you played in a hard salary cap league.

(58:41):
And baseball has always been the sport where we've said
strongest players union, they'll never go for it, and that
still rings true today for the most part. But Tony Clark,
the head of the Players Union, had to come out
and actually speak publicly on this this week and vow

(59:02):
to fight hard against a salary cap, which in other words,
means here we go again. They're going to make another
hard push at this. The owners are and when you
look at sort of the state of the game, the
state of salaries and how they're getting depressed for a
lot of players. I know that sounds weird after all

(59:23):
of these three hundred and fifty million dollars offers, but
there's only about ten to fifteen guys that are that
are in that conversation. So what is the Players Union
up against here? And let me first ask your thoughts
on the idea of a hard cap, I would. I

(59:45):
think it levels the playing field, right, I think it
It definitely levels the playing field in terms of, hey,
we all have this amount of money to with the
best team available on the field. And I don't think

(01:00:07):
baseball is gonna go for it because you want to
talk about I mean basketball and football they're trying to
get rid of the cap right now. You don't have
endless money to throw around. And I think it's been
that way for so long. I mean, you know, these

(01:00:31):
smaller market teams, you don't really have a shot, and
I think the big dogs at the table want to
keep it that way. Well, so I guess that's I mean,
that is the larger point, which is that in the NFL,

(01:00:53):
Green Bay and Jacksonville can compete with LA and New York.
And does that do more to grow the game and
therefore keep eyeballs and grows salaries that way, then this
idea of look, we've got six teams really really spending,

(01:01:16):
and we've got ten other teams that kind of spend,
and then we got ten teams that really mostly don't spend,
and then we got six teams that you can't even
squeeze a five dollar bill out of them. Oakland A's
talking to you, So what does grow salaries more? Right? Well? Right,

(01:01:37):
what does I mean? I And again here we go,
short term gain, long term loss. If I'm a player
right now, I'm going Look, I'm not sacrificing my money
for somebody who's gonna play twenty years from now. But
if you don't do that, I don't know if there's
gonna be a twenty years from now. Yeah, I get it.

(01:01:58):
And you know, whenever we talk about, you know, salary
caps and is worth it or can we afford, you know,
under a salary cap? Can we afford the type of players,
the caliboy players that we have here on our team,
Like if we had a salary cap here, we wouldn't

(01:02:19):
be able to afford our guy number one on the
salary sheet, number one on the call sheet, highest paid
guy on our team, and that's Stephen h To say it.
I was all with you until I heard that highest paid. Wait,

(01:02:41):
it's like I didn't change my name to Colin. What
the hell you saying? You guys were mentioned the weather
in southern California earlier. The event on Fox TV today
was the NASCAR race as they visit Fontana every year
at this time of year east of Los Angeles, and
the mountains behind the track were covered with snow. They
said that they've had some races there close to one

(01:03:03):
hundred degrees the air temperature, and it was forty three
degrees today for that race, won by Kyle Bush. By
the way, Chase Elliott finished second. Also in the LA Area,
Santa Anita, if you've seen that beautiful view from that
Horton horse Racing track, and horse racing was canceled all
weekend there due to the severe weather snowcap mountains there.

(01:03:24):
You've seen the mountains near the Rose Bowl, no doubt.
The Rose Bowl was due to host the MLS opener
last nights with over seventy thousand tickets sold, and they
called that off in advance. LA Galaxy will play LAFC
July fourth instead. So yes, from a news department, I'm
sitting at a news desk, it was newsworthy. It was
unusual what happened this week. And there was, by the way,

(01:03:45):
with NASCAR no practice even yesterday, much less qualifying. So
guys just got in the car today for the first time.
Kyle Bush wins for his new team owner. As for
the NBA Golden State without Draymond greenstill, Bruisne, Steph Curry
and Andrew Wiggins still and it's a lead from Minnesota.
Early fourth quarter at Golden State eighty seven seventy eight

(01:04:07):
Naz Reid with twenty nine points. Houston has lost eight
in a row. It is underway at Portland. Blazer's up
twenty eight twenty seven late in the first quarter, Damian
Lillard already sixteen points and the late game and a
half an hour, we'll have the Clippers at Denver. At
Oklahoma City, shay giljis Alexander out again with a sore ankle,
and Sacramento beats the Thunder one twenty four to one

(01:04:29):
fifteen Daron Fox thirty three points. Lakers were down twenty
seven in the first half and still won. At Dallas
one eleven, one oh eight. Cleveland got thirty five points
from Donovan Mitchell and beat Toronto one eighteen ninety three.
Atlanta got a game winner from Trey Young to edge
Brooklyn one twenty nine one twenty seven, Young with thirty
four points. Chicago ripped Washington DeMar DeRozan twenty nine, and

(01:04:52):
Milwaukee won its fourteenth straight game. Edging Phoenix one O
four one oh one Drew Holliday thirty three points. Jannis
Antennacoopo was out with a rus quad. In college hoops,
UCLA clinched the Pack twelve title fourth rank Bruins won
sixty to fifty six at Colorado. College Basketball's regular season
ends next weekend. Maryland beat number twenty one Northwestern Ohio

(01:05:12):
State surprised Illinois NHL just final Toronto a five one
winner at Seattle Tampa Bay seven three over Pittsburgh. And
in boxing, Tommy Fury beat Jake Paul by split decision
in Saudi Arabia. Goodness, it was an eight round fight.
The winner got knocked down in the eighth, although he
does say it was a slip, it was just a slip.
Yahoo Sports points out that Fury is the half brother

(01:05:36):
of Tyson Fury heavyweight champ, so of course there's name
recognition and people were saying going into today, oh, Jake
Paul is finally facing a real boxer. Well apparently the
eight and o record with four knockouts coming in for this.
Fury his eight opponents had a combined overall record of
twenty four and one seventy six with five draws. Didn't

(01:06:00):
know that was possible. In twenty four and one seventy
six his opponents and quote, one of Paul's biggest criticisms
is the that he hadn't fought a real boxer. So yeah,
I guess that might still stay still has a photo
real boxer. Oh my gosh, that's like, that's like Alabama's
schedule on Thanksgiving weekend. I mean right, exactly right, North Carolina,

(01:06:22):
A and T. They beat him. Unbelievable. Thank you, Steve.
We're live in the tiraq dot com studios, Mark Willardy
from salam See here's what I'm thinking about. Like, I
get it what you're saying, the salary cap stuff with
regard to the players union and the player's perspective, and

(01:06:44):
that matters. What always matters most to me though, just
because this is the only thing I can experience, is
is the fan perspective. And so when you win a
Super Bowl in the NFL, I'm like, good job, you
you beat everybody. When you win a World Series in
Major League Baseball, I'm like, nice job, you beat like

(01:07:07):
nine other teams. Yeah, it's some teams I don't even
have a shot, not even from the beginning, I like,
I mean, if you're if you're the Dodgers, you're the Padres,
you're the Yankees, you're the Mets, and you're cruising around
with like we spent two hundred and eighty nine million
dollars and and then the Oakland A's spent thirty two

(01:07:32):
and you don't beat them, like you're you're a laughing stock, right,
You're a laughing stock. So in turn, if you do
beat them, and be a little careful with your celebration,
because what did you just do? You're you're a fifth

(01:07:53):
grader who went onto the kindergarten playground and dunked on everybody,
So congrats. Try not to talk trash. So from a
fan perspective, that's why I look at it and go listen.
I don't know what the fix is because I know
that if I was a player, i'd vote against it too.

(01:08:14):
But you gotta find a way in all of these
sports to where all the teams are playing. Yeah, you
got you want to level the playing field. You want
to give everybody the same opportunity. That way, you know,
execs have to earn the money. It's not who has

(01:08:36):
the biggest checkbook, because the Dallas Cowboys, right right, like it.
It'd be like the the the Rams and you know
all of these you know, owners with billions and billions

(01:08:56):
of dollars, the Broncos, we just about to load up
m hm. So you know, I think it brings parody
to the league. I think you have to hire the
right personnel in terms to manage the salary cap, because

(01:09:17):
you can get yourself in trouble. San Francisco forty nine ers.
Remember back in the day when it was was coming
to an end. Who's like, uh, we've we've done this wrong?
Hold on uma? We oh who what? Yeah? Right? Remember
that they actically fireself. Oh yeah, so we've been deferring

(01:09:42):
and deferring and now all of this money is due. Well,
this is that Not the conversation I was trying to
have with you about the Padres. Yeah, Like that's what
I'm getting at, Like, you're gonna pay the piper at
some point, but in the meantime they just want to
want to check a World Series. I get it, I
get it. But then the other side is the fan.

(01:10:03):
And again a Podre fan. They've never won, so they
don't care. They quite they wouldn't. They do not care
even if they cheat. I mean, honestly, I'm not saying
they are. They're not, but they'd be in favor of
it if they were. But if you're the Padres and
you beat the Rockies this year, are you even allowed
to shake each other's hands? Or is it like, well, yeah,

(01:10:26):
we have no billion dollars six players. It's like, I mean,
name a Rocky right now, go ahead? Payers they care, man,
I know they like, I know, hey, man, hey, ma'am,
sorry man, you know, I don't know what to tell you. Well,

(01:10:48):
they're looking at it from the standpoint, especially players who
can be traded to other teams, like, this is all
one industry, just like we all have, and you want
to work for the best organization within the industry. So
who wouldn't want to be a Yankee or an Astro
or a red Sock or a Meta, a Brave Mike.

(01:11:09):
Right to them, this is all the same thing. But nationally,
it's not. If you live in Cincinnati, or if you
live in Pittsburgh or Denver or Oakland or Kansas City
or Baltimore, you're looking at this going, well, this is
just stupid. Why would we participate in this? I mean,

(01:11:32):
I'll give you the comp Is this for those of
you who are listening on the East coast, especially in
the South, do you think that anybody in California takes
it personally? When you win in college football every year?
Nobody's even paying attention. They've moved on because you're not
playing the same game, So why would they watch? Yeah, yeah,

(01:12:00):
you're right. So I don't know what's fix this to that? Man,
I don't know what's fixes to that. Look, it's it's tough,
all right. First of all, I still think it's too
many games in baseball, many too many games. Is everybody's
kind of fixed everything? And we know the owners have

(01:12:20):
never got to do that. No, I mean that's the
only way they can get their money back, all right,
because ain't nobody watching? So uh, it's it's you know,
they're losing in terms of of I get this question
all the time. Why don't more kids stick with baseball

(01:12:47):
in the sport where failure is rewarded? Right, you hit
three out of ten? Man, you're looking at the Hall
of Fame, Hall of fame. The reality of it is,
and you know, die heart baseball fans always balked when

(01:13:07):
I when I talk like this, the game is too
slow and nobody's watching. As they get out of little league,
literal league games are packed. But when you get in
high school, these games are being played. Actually I remember

(01:13:28):
this during school. Baseball games will be happening at six
period in high school, right right, who's going to the
baseball game? Yeah, no it's not. But what don't get
dates unless you're like unless you're like that guy in
baseball right right right? Well, you get what I'm saying

(01:13:52):
where there's a lot of buzz being generated, but for
the most part, their parents and other coaches at these games,
and there's no fanfare. In basketball, you have the rat
the pep rallies. Oh, come on football Friday night lights.

(01:14:13):
So as kids are making a choice on what to do,
and most of the baseball players play other sports as well.
So what naturally happens is as a teenage boy, popularity becomes. Right,
you'd pitcher and quarterback to start quarterback? Who you think,
what it's a big deal? Yeah, we're live in the

(01:14:37):
Tirack dot com studios. Mark willard Ive from salam More
on mess and is the durant situation going to work
the way you seem to all think it's going to work.
That's next on Fox Sports Radio. All right, we're live
in the Tirack dot Com studios. What if I made
you put a chip next to one team in the

(01:15:00):
Western Conference? Okay, remove your fandom please, Okay, I'm going
to remove my fandom. You gotta remove your fandom. You
gotta pick one team in the Western Conference to go
to the finals. Who do you Who do you think
it is? Right now? Man, that's a tough one. I

(01:15:22):
would want to say Denver, but well you could say
that for the last three year, four years, and it's
just in the playoffs. Man, in the playoffs series, they
just cannot get it together. Um So, if I had
to pick one team outside of the Lakers, I would

(01:15:48):
probably pick the Sun the sunsh I was betting you
would say that, Yeah, I will probably pick the Suns.
I just don't see it. And I say I just
don't see it, but I literally mean I just don't
see it because in other words, I just I mean

(01:16:09):
then't played yet. I would have got left twenty twenty
two games. You can pick a team you hadn't even
see play. I get it. But that's a lot of firepower, man. Okay,
you got You have three guys who can specialize in
the mid range jumper, and you got two bonds. Were
all three shoot high thirty low forty percent from three.

(01:16:32):
That's just a lot of firepower. Oh my god. And
if he's your fourth best player, you got something. Man. However,
I'm just mindful my I got my I don't call
him spidy. Senses from their their sports senses and my

(01:16:57):
sports see senses tell me that when a basketball team
won sixty seven games, you've got some sort of mixture
there that really really works. And so when you break
that up, even though what seems like no big doh,
Cam Johnson whatever, I'm telling you that mixture worked. And

(01:17:25):
now now you ripped it apart. And we've watched this
in sports over and over again, where teams get rid
of mixture or chemistry in favor of big names in
an effort to get better, and they don't. They get worse,
especially in the immediate term. Yeah. But I think with

(01:17:54):
the with the leadership, the veteran leadership of Chris Paul
and KD, and the the ability to to get any
like Devin Booker and KD specialize in getting to their spots,
they can get any shot there one and and and

(01:18:15):
that's dangerous, right I you know, them not having Crowder,
which came back to hunt them today against Milwaukee who
now who Crowder plays for now came down and hit
two big threes down the stretch of that game. Um
and his defensive prowess on the wing. But I still

(01:18:38):
and we'll find out Wednesday what they look like together,
you know, and you know, hopefully I want to see it, Jail.
I want to see it be good because I want
to see good playoff rounds. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well I
think I mean we're gonna see that with with the

(01:18:59):
the closeness of of the Western Conference. I just, you know,
I wonder about a team like the Clippers from and
I know you don't want to hear that, but continuity
is key, and they've now got something if blessed with health. Yeah,
I just think the problem with that is the Westbrook factor.

(01:19:20):
And yeah, he's happy there and all of that, but
that doesn't mean he's going to take to take care
of the ball. Now he's already said he doesn't care
about the turnovers, but your team does, and the momentum
cares and at some point, yeah, that was that was
an interesting That was an interesting signing. Uh, if you
asked me, all right, we can continue that conversation. Plus

(01:19:43):
coming up next two quarterbacks this offseason. It's gonna be interesting.
We gotta get to it. Yeah, done right. Broadcasting live
from those ti irack dot com studios. Tirac dot com
will help you get there. Unmatched selection, fast free shipping,
free road hazard protection in over ten thousand recommended installers
tirac dot com. The way tire buying should be. We're

(01:20:05):
into the NBA night, keeping track on a key Western
Conference game, talking about new baseball rules, and then not
forgetting The NFL never goes three weeks without giving us something,
and I really want to talk to you about two
quarterbacks tonight. One goes by the name Russell Wilson. We
know him well. The other one by the name Justin Fields.

(01:20:27):
We'll still getting to know him. Are you surprised there
are trade rumors surrounding Justin Fields? Real quick on this
from I find it interesting. I never know what's real
behind the scenes, but if the Bears are truly considering
trading Justin Fields, then I do it simply by the

(01:20:49):
fact that you're considering it, especially when you're that organization.
I am forty eight years old, he from and the
Bears have not had a quarterback for my whole life,
they have not had a quarterback where they're like, that's

(01:21:11):
that dude. Never. They've never in my entire life, half
a century. Never. So if you're telling me that you
just drafted a guy, and man, he has some interesting
physical skills, and two years in you are considering trading him,
that means you really really don't like that guy, and

(01:21:36):
you should strike while this iron is warm. It's a
at this point, it's at them, not you. Situation, right,
It's not Justin Fields, it's them. I mean, I got
a worst roster in football across the board. Yep, They've

(01:21:58):
done nothing to it's the roster. And the small bit
of success you did have this year came from Justin
Fields and his ability to be miraculous. So you know,
they're just not a good football team. They're not. They

(01:22:23):
don't they don't have enough weapons, they don't know who
they are. I mean, this kid can only do so
much and if you're not interested in he should be
hoping that they want they want to move off of him.
You should be hoping that I'll tell you what. Yeah,

(01:22:43):
I hear you. I mean there there is there's not
a receiver on that team that anybody really really wants
to speak about. I'm not uh disagreeing with anything that
you just said. He accounted for yard through the air,
right and on the ground. So twenty five touchdowns? Who

(01:23:14):
completing sixty percent of his passes to nobody? So but
but for for real, now, now, are you a believer?
Remember what Jalen Hurts look like before Philadelphias. This is
a real comparison. Yes, remember what you look like? Ye yep,
before Philadelphia got their stuff together and put a team

(01:23:36):
around this young man. Remember what they were saying about
Justin Fields. I mean, excuse me, Jalen Hurts coming into
this year, that hurts? Sure? Remember, Oh well this is
a big give or we got to see if he doesn't.
It feel eerily similar to what's happening with with Justin Fields.

(01:23:57):
I can see it. Yes, I get it. I just
I'm always curious what it is they see in a
young player behind the scenes. There's got to be there's
a reason. Now, now, there have been two different regimes
already in two years with Justin Fields and no it doesn't.

(01:24:22):
But we could say the same thing about Trevor Lawrence
and then it popped and everyone went, oh, I get
it. It It was a regime thing. Yeah, but I totally
get it. It's not a fair cop. I'm just talking
about the fact of two regimes. So in essence, Justin
Fields is a rookie to both of them. They've only

(01:24:42):
had him for one year each, and the second year
was a heck of a lot better than the first.
But I still feel like they're looking at this going
we're not convinced that he is a great thrower of
the football. I'm sure that that's on some level, as
you're pointing out, not fair, like you need an offensive

(01:25:06):
line in receivers before you can tell me whether or
not I can throw the ball. Yeah, and his physical
gifts you you cannot deny what we watch on the
TV screen. He's fantastic with some of the things that
he can do. I just godly. I mean, they're in

(01:25:29):
such an interesting spot because if they are enamored with
a rookie coming out, then do another one. Do it right,
another one? In three years they'll be talking about we
gotta we gotta pick somebody else. This has been the
mo this is not right, Like this isn't surprising or

(01:25:51):
anything like that. It's like, this is what this is
what it is. Just dude put a team on his
back as much as he could, and now they want
to trade him, which would be the best thing for him.
What if Justin Fields was in San Francisco? Think about that.

(01:26:17):
What if you put Justin Fields in San Francisco or
in Washington or in Detroit. What conversation would we be
having about Justin Fields? I think there would be more
excitement so about about where he's going when we're talking
about this, it said, even if if he was in

(01:26:39):
Pittsburgh with the stability of the coaching staff, the playmakers
that they have, Hey, I'll put him in Tennessee with
Dereck Henry. So when everybody wants to point the finger

(01:27:00):
at this young man, look around the worst roster in football.
So yeah, he should be like, yeah, man, y'all should
really trade me, because I guarantee you, I guarantee who
wouldn't look good if you put Kyler Murray in Chicago?

(01:27:25):
What would you think he would look like? You'd be
having the same conversation. I don't, I don't. I don't
know where Kyler Murray looks good right now right, And
it's kind of a similar situation. It's interesting that you
bring up his name because the Arizona Cardinals were the
team that had drafted a quarterback very high and then

(01:27:46):
moved off of him next year. Even really got a
great look the next year because they were like, oh,
we're enamored with this guy looking at all and looking
looking not that they I mean keeping Josh Rosen wasn't
gonna help either. Oh but you you you can get fooled, right,

(01:28:07):
You could. You could be like, oh man, it's hard
to develop someone. It's difficult, and a lot of people
don't have the stomach for everybody's looking for the Andrew Luck.
Everybody's looking for the Patrick Mahomes. Everybody's looking for that.
And it case in point if the structure isn't together,

(01:28:32):
what you're gonna get as a Trevor Lawrence his first year.
Look at Trevor Lawrence. Now, Look at Trevor Lawrence now,
night and day. And so you now are putting all
the onus on these young quarterbacks, like come save us

(01:28:55):
right away, and they're like, okay, well, what am I
supposed to say it's like, hey, hey man, this is
a beautiful kitchen, you know, most expensive kid. Hey, come
on in here and make us a seven course meal.
But you guys don't have anything but bread beans in
a little bit of rice. I only have enough for

(01:29:18):
an appetizer. And you're expecting a Gore Mace, you know,
Michelin star dinner. They don't got no ingredients. So I'm
not gonna I'm not gonna do that to him. I'm
not gonna judge him like that and put that and
put it at his feet like well, I mean they tried.
You know, it's just not working. I'm with you, but

(01:29:41):
you know where this conversation goes next, which is you're
not really deciding just whether or not Justin Fields is
your guy. The world unfairly or not will compare Justin Fields.
Now going forward to Bryce Young and if Bryce Young
goes somewhere that's much a healthier environment and he ends
up being a star, and you kept Justin Fields and

(01:30:03):
it's just kind of a mediocre proposition by by job.
Like sometimes and I don't really I don't buy into
this fully, but sometimes I think the general managers start
the process over because they know it buys them time.
If Bryce Young is your quarterback next year, you're starting over.

(01:30:28):
If Justin Fields is your quarterback next year, well that
would be now time. Yeah, but they keep starting over.
I know it. But don't I know? They keep starting over.
So you got the top three out of the top

(01:30:50):
four teams need quarterbacks. You got Chicago, Houston and the Colts.
What are you? Who are you trading? Look? What a?
What a? What are where are you sending in? Um,

(01:31:12):
Justin Fields? Who's moving up? Well? Look, let's let's acknowledge
the possibility that this is a wonderfully conducted rumor from
the Bears to scare all of those teams into thinking
that they're going to take Pryce Young, so they try
to get on the phone and offer them the world

(01:31:33):
so that they can go get Pryce Young instead. Right,
not by that's quite frankly, that's actually probably what this is. Man.
I'm not even sold on Bryce Young. Wow, I mean,
I'm not sold on anybody when they're in a draft.
Have we done the combine and all that yet? No? Right, nope,

(01:31:57):
I'm like, man, have we seen the well and and
thinking of drafts? You can look right now at this
conversation and see what happened two years ago in the
draft and actually make a little bit of a proclamation
about it, which I'll explain here. Coming up next. We

(01:32:18):
also have a final answer in that Western Conference game
that was going on that was pivotabal, pivotal in the
play in standings and all of that, So we'll get
into that coming up next with you from salam Mark Willard.
This is Fox Sports Radio. Okay, we're live on the
tireraq dot com studios, and we got your answer. You

(01:32:40):
said you were hoping that the Timberwolves would lose this
one because then they would match the Lakers at thirty
two losses. Well, you're welcome me from Yay from the
Bay Area. Down three and a half, men, you're welcome. Yeah,

(01:33:03):
so they do have enough punch to beat the team
didn't have enough punch to beat but get Nope, nope, nope, No,
I didn't say that. You couldn't be happy about the
winner said, you're not allow the peacock. I'm not peacock.
And all I'm saying it's sounded like you're about start.
They've beaten two teams, right, they've beaten two teams. After

(01:33:26):
the Lakers beat them. Correct, Well, yes, those also home
games versus road games. I don't know if you've looked
at the Warriors splits this year. It's they're very, very good.
At Chase Center. They are twenty four and seven. They
are seven and twenty three on the road. It's cool,
it's cool. It's cool. It's all good, dude, it's good.
It's all good. It's Warriors were down twelve in the

(01:33:47):
fourth quarter and rallied to win this one. Clay Thompson
was special. I mean they lost to the Lakers earlier
at home too, so they did yes, yes, for the
Chase Center. Yeah, well yeah, the trade and so yeah,
that's um. Yeah. So the Warriors are now the seven

(01:34:10):
seed and a half game behind the unbeatable combo of
Kyrie Irving and Luca Dodges. Hey, man, this thing is
it's shaking up a little bit. It's wide open. It's uh,
it's wide open for us, you know, because we need that.

(01:34:32):
We need we needed to be wide open because we
got off to such a poor start, so we needed
to be wide open. We needed to to be all
bogged up. We needed to We need for the teams
that can go on a run at the end of
this thing to be in great position, not play in position,
but playoff position. Well, they're not all going to get

(01:34:56):
to the sixth seed. I mean, that's the thing. Like
you know, even if I sort of and I would,
I'm gonna set apart even though they've clinched nothing. I'm
gonna set apart five teams in the West and then
the rest is really what we're talking about. I mean,
Denver and Memphis and even Sacramento set themselves apart. Documentos. Fine,

(01:35:18):
they are ten games over five hundred, and they are
three games clear of the Suns and the Clippers, so
they're going to be hosting a first round series. I'm
confident in that. Now. The Suns and Clippers are only
a game ahead of the Mavericks. But they feel different,
don't They feels a little bit different, even though I

(01:35:40):
want to see the Durant thing before I move forward
and call them a championship contender. The Suns were playing
a little bit better even without Kevin Durant in recent times.
The Clippers are the team that I really like. They
look fantastic to me in when you take a little

(01:36:02):
bit more of an in depth look. I know they've
only you know, they're five hundred over their last ten.
It's it's not like they're dominant or anything, but that's
a team that that scares me as well. That's it's
after that that I sort of think the big old
ball of of of whatever this is is where it
shows up from Dallas to Golden State, Utah, Minnesota, New Orleans, Lakers, Portland,

(01:36:28):
Oklahoma City. I mean, three games cover all of those teams,
and that's eight different teams. That's eight teams. Five of
them will have some sort of postseason. Four of them
will be in the form of the play in tournament. Yeah,
it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be exciting to watch.

(01:36:52):
You know. They're they're teams that they really have a
shot still, and that's a good thing. It's a great
thing for the NBA regular season. We don't get that often. Whatever.
What I'm still trying to figure out though, is which
of those teams can actually be dangerous, make noise whatever

(01:37:14):
cliche you want when they get into the postseason. You know,
it's one thing to look at Dallas Western Conference Finals
last year, big names, Golden State, shore back end of
a dynasty. Are they healthy the Lakers are the Lakers.
They've got Lebron James and Anthony Davis, but Utah, Minnesota,

(01:37:36):
New Orleans, Portland, Oklahoma City. I mean, I have a
hard time really buying which of these teams, if any,
are going to make this really hard on the top
five once they get in. If let's just say, right,

(01:38:00):
it's a small sample size, but if they continue to,
I wouldn't if I wouldn't want to play the Lakers
if they're healthy going into the playoffs with this new group.
It's not that I disagree with you, it's just God,
if I had a dollar for every time someone said
that the last three years, I wouldn't need to be

(01:38:22):
here tonight. But it's the truth. Though it hasn't been no,
because they were poorly constructed for a year and a
half before that they won a championship, correct, So yeah,
they gave up the pieces for Westbrook that it didn't fit,

(01:38:43):
so they it literally undermined everything they had built. They
now got those pieces back in a different form, so
now they have an opportunity to play defense, and they
have an opportunity to knock down open shots. Anthony Davis

(01:39:07):
is a problem when he's playing like Anthony Davis. No
one can keep Lebron James out of the paint. So
if they continue to stay healthy and move like they're
moving with this new group, they had it four new players,
They had four new role players that play intricate parts,

(01:39:28):
mot Bomba, Vanderbilt, Umamura. Like there we're looking at We're
looking at a team now that is built Beasley and

(01:39:49):
um DeAngelo Russell. Yeah, I don't disagree with what you're saying.
I really don't. If they let me ask you this.
Let me ask you this. If they started the year
with this roster, where would they be ranked right now higher? Yeah,
so that's I don't know where, but they would be
in the top six I believe probably probably because that's

(01:40:14):
only a couple of games away. And I'm also gonna
buy this, like, I don't know what's going on with Zion.
I was a big buyer in Pelican stock at the
beginning of the year, so I don't know that. Yeah,
but if you're looking at that top six, like if
I'm Denver in Memphis, what I don't want is to
get to the start of the playoffs. The playing tournament's done,

(01:40:38):
and the two teams that the NBA ejects out of
that into the top eight are the Lakers and a
healthy Warriors. I you're I agree with you completely. If
I'm Denver in Memphis, I do not want that. That's
a whole lot of championship juice being thrown at two

(01:40:58):
teams filled with players who've never done it before. Yeah,
that's a problem. Those would be interesting first round series. Yeah,
because now you have rest, you have practices. It's just
like now it's a problem. It's actually a pretty good
scenario for the NBA. I think pretty good. I think

(01:41:20):
they I think they would sign off on that. I
think I think that they'll probably make that happen, just
you know, make the call to the rest um. Yeah,
come on, you know, you know exactly how it works.
You got to earn it anyway. You know who doesn't
have to? Oh sorry, there it is, Steve Audy. Gentlemen,

(01:41:42):
I hope you are seated. Damian Lillard is leading the
NBA and forty point games this season. He has twelve
of them, fire eight in the last couple of months.
He has scored forty one in the first half. Tonight
at home against the Houston Rockets, They've just started in
the second half, this against the Houston team that's lost

(01:42:03):
eight in a row. They're they're a minute into the
second half. It's Portland's seventy six to sixty in the lead,
Lillard with forty one. He scored fourteen points just in
the last two minutes before halftime from three point right now,
eight three, Steve eight, yeah, eleven from long distance. What's
the record? What's the record of one game? Fourteen? Clay Thompson, right,

(01:42:25):
is it fifteen? I thought, yeah, fourteen or fifteen, but
well he came close to that this past week. Didn't
you have a twelve yea? And what game? Hed? Yeah,
you do? Dangerous man standing by on all counts. Again.
We're only now two minutes into the second half. Forty
one points for Damian Lillard in Portland. Blazer's up seventy
six to sixty against Houston. The late game's underway. At Denver,

(01:42:46):
mid first quarter, Nuggets leading the Clippers eighteen to four.
Golden State came back to down Minnesota one oh nine,
one oh four, even though Draymond Green still out with
a bruisnee. At Oklahoma City, shay Giljis Alexander was out
in with a sore ankle. Sacramento beat OKC one twenty
four one fifteam at Cleveland. Donovan Mitchell thirty five points

(01:43:07):
in a win over Toronto one eighteen ninety three. Atlanta
at the Buzzer got Trey Young's game winner to edge
Brooklyn one twenty nine one twenty seven, Young with thirty
four points. The Atlanta Hawks agreed to a five year
deal with Quinn Snyder to be their new head coach.
Chicago over Washington one two eighty two. Milwaukee won its
fourteenth straight game, edging Phoenix one o four one oh one,

(01:43:29):
and the Lakers had the biggest comeback win in the
NBA this year. Down twenty seven first half, still won
at Pallas one eleven to one oh eight. Anthony Davis
thirty points fifteen rebounds in Orlando, Sine guard Michael Carter
Williams the league's rookie of the Year almost a decade ago.
He's been out for nearly two years, including ankle surgery.

(01:43:49):
College basketball wins for UCLA, Maryland and Ohio State. Kyle
Busch won the NASCAR Race in Southern California. NHL Pittsburgh
as seven three winner over Tampa Bay and Toronto one
at Seattle five to one. Chris Kirk was the golf
winner in a playoff. That's the Honda Classic in Florida.
He earned one point five million. And then there's the

(01:44:09):
live golf opener in Mexico where the winner took him
over forty million dollars. Charles Howell in his three and
he played on the PGA Tour for over twenty years.
In his three career tour victories, he didn't win fort
million dollars. Man, Yes, thank you, goodbye man. The Padres
agreed to a new eleven year contract with Manny Machado

(01:44:31):
and to repeat. Damian Lillard scored forty one points in
the first half. Portland's now up eighty one sixty four
over the Rockets, and Lillard has yet to score in
the second half. What is going on here? Back to you, Yeah,
I don't like this. I don't like this trend at all.
Portland has scored eighth straight without the help of Dame Lillard. Yeah, fourteen,
Steve nailed at fourteen. Three pointers by Clay Thompson is

(01:44:54):
the record, So we're on record. Watch six more to
tie the record for Lillard. Just starting the third quarter.
He shot one of those one dribble past half court. Yep, well,
I mean it's clearly within his range. Oh yeah, I
mean right, like saw it at the All Star Game.
That's that's in the range shot for him. Could together?

(01:45:22):
Do you know what? I've thought about that a lot.
Actually it's sort of looked it didn't it feel like
a match that and he's put that out there before
Dame is is. You know, like many stars, you superimpose
that uniform onto KD. And that feels like a match
that would have been really really productive, have been great. Yeah. Yeah,

(01:45:45):
but Kevin not going to Oregon. No, No, you know, yeah,
I wonder about Dame Lillard sometimes. Man, I'm such a
big fan of his and he's had to like fight
off the match uses on social media because for a
while he was the guy that, you know, he was

(01:46:05):
one of the centerpieces of like I'm not gonna do
it like KD. Right, I'm staying right here. And then
at a certain point people are like, so you realize
you're never gonna win, right, and and he took offense
to that, and now people it's like it's almost turned
on him, like well you your big dummy for staying
there for so long and His responses are more like,

(01:46:27):
it's so much more complicated than that. It's not like, oh,
loyal to the soil. It's just like, I don't know
that that opportunity has ever presented itself for Dave Lillard. No,
it hasn't, and they haven't done enough to to put
the proper team around him. So he just left with

(01:46:51):
a superstar out there on an island. And he is
a bona fide superstar. But let's see where's he at
in his thirty two years old Now I'm gonna turn
I'm gonna turn thirty three here pretty soon. So I
don't know, I mean, it does it kind of? It

(01:47:13):
kind of feels like the story has has mostly been written. Yeah,
I mean he said, look, I'm gonna touch over four
hundred million dollars. I'm good. Well that's true for anybody nobody.
But people were saying, you ain't never gonna win no
championship been Portland out of that, and he was like, look,
I've changed the course of my family's life forever. So

(01:47:38):
what right? That's not a negative? Do you think he
says that? That's what he said that he said that,
so what he said, Look, I'm not out there, caring
about what y'all talking about. I'm never gonna win a championship.
I'm about to clear four hundred million. My family's life
has been changed forever. I'm good. Good. Guess what? Let

(01:48:02):
me let me tell you a secret. Let me tell
the world and everybody listening. In the secret, everyone who
plays professional sports doesn't win a championship. They've been Hall
of Fame great players who never won a championship, for sure.
I don't know if people understand that. But but Charles Barkley,

(01:48:23):
is he less great? No? But I guess I'm getting
at because we're You're not wrong, You're not wrong. It
was three teams winning all the championships for a long time, right,
who was the Lakers? Right? And the Bulls? That was?
That's all. That's all you got? What if you sprinkle
didn't here and there? Sure, Patrick Ewing, We can go

(01:48:45):
on and on like they were filled with stars who
didn't get it done. Because the NBA is kind of
a top heavy league. The best player gets it and
and you're lucky if you're if you're kind of watching
during an era where that's shared. I I feel like
we're kind of in that right now. You know, Lebron
and Steph kind of shared the deal for a while.

(01:49:06):
Now you can sprinkle in a little Jannis like there there,
there's maybe enough to go around. But but what got
me is when you said, you know, so what, which
feels like who cares? Because I feel like the player
They do. Of course they care. But what he's not
gonna do is diminish his value or chase something that

(01:49:31):
may or may not come. He's all about loyalty, he
said it. So to use that as a negative when
you're talking about him, that's what he's saying. So what too? Right,
you can't tell Dame Lillard you're stupid for standing Portland.
Ha ha, You're never gonna win a championship. Okay, okay,

(01:49:51):
well that's yeah, that's okay, And right, well, what are
we doing? Like we you know what? He every day
he goes and plays his heart out every single day.
But as you know, you can't win this thing by yourself.

(01:50:12):
It was the same way with Kobe before they wint
got pall gas Hall yep, putting up numbers buckets with
Kwamie Brown, little feats right about all of them. It happens, man,
how many yes, Lebron, Shack and Penny played together. Sure, sure, yeah, No,

(01:50:38):
I have nothing to say negatively about about Dame Lellard whatsoever.
Love Dame Lillard. I just yeah, you just wonder, you
wonder about guys because you you wonder if if the
thought crosses their mind to go to h to a
different spot and chase that because we do that to that.

(01:51:00):
We we ripped the players for wanting to chase the rings,
and then when they don't chase the rings, we make
fun of them for never winning a ring. Yeah, that's
that's ridiculous. So that's lose lose. That's what's called lose.
Lose a dame like man, I ain't nobody loser. And
that's the point. That's it, and it's a fair one.

(01:51:23):
Um Okay, gotta get to Russell Wilson, the rumors that
circulated this week and where it goes next. We'll do
that coming up next with e from salam Mark Willard
on Fox Sports Radio. Simpson quickly has it on the
right wing, going base light around Bailey. It's stolen by
Cannibal and the Bruins have won. The Bruins are the
champions of the Pac twelve for the first time in

(01:51:46):
ten years. Oh that's our buddy, Josh Lewin on lear Field.
And indeed the Bruins win the pack twelve and again,
um news to me that college basketball had started. I
didn't realize they were starting before March this year, but awesome,

(01:52:07):
congrats to UCLA. That is the Progressive play of the day,
brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy
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ATV and more all your protection in one place. Bundle
and save at Progressive dot com. It will soon be
time to start our national cram session to find out

(01:52:32):
what we're supposed to do with those brackets that come
out in a few weeks. I'm just saying we couldn't
get to San Diego State buzzer beating for the play
off the day we were in our conference with that win. Okay,
that's cool, Yep, that's what he's going on. You know,
mid mid major whoa, whoa, whoa Wait a second, No, no, no,

(01:52:57):
I'm all in on STSU brother. You know that, you know,
I do, I do. I mean nobody, I don't know.
They're in a time four and wind the last five
years in basketball. This is a very good program. Brian Dutcher,
yep I I dig it, I dig it I. UM.
I think they could be interesting here come tournament time. UM.

(01:53:19):
What I'm not necessarily a buyer in though, is Russell Wilson.
I just I feel like there's just too much smokey
from this is a classic you know, when you're answering
every accusation. And I don't even know if this is
an accusation. But the story came out this week that
Russell tried to get Pete Carroll fired uh and Schneider

(01:53:43):
as well in Seattle, which, by the way, on the surface,
is like that's no surprise. I feel like I would
have guessed that without even knowing that. But Russell and
his team has come out to very clearly deny this.
They don't want that look, and I feel like this
is just a Rinse repeat to you. I mean, we've
all got that person in our lives where it's just

(01:54:04):
like you're in this constant state of like denying things
explaining things. At a certain point, it's like, come on, man,
they're not all fake, So you're telling me all these
things we've heard about Russell Wilson in the last two years.
It's like Russ and his agent would have us believe God,

(01:54:25):
I have no idea where it all came from. That's
not me at all. I don't know, man, I don't know.
And so now Sean Payton's gonna come in and and
fix this in the face of Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert,
I'm having a hard time saying it. No, I think

(01:54:45):
I think Sean will be able to get Russell back
on the same page. I just think it'll bring stability
to the team, like when you have casing point what
happened in Jacksonville last year. When you don't have stability
at the head coaching job, at the position, everything else

(01:55:07):
is off kilter. We saw it. We knew it was
a train red. I knew it before they even just
from the beginning that urban Meyer got there. And I
keep using Jacksonville as an example because there's talent there
at the quarterback position with no leadership at the head
coaching position. And so one year Doug Peterson came in

(01:55:30):
and completely transformed the entire team, the culture in a year.
The respect that Sean Payton Garners similar to that when
you come in and you changed the culture there, but

(01:55:55):
you have a leader in Russell Wilson that needs to
be led first. There has to be trust there, and
if there's no trust there, then you know it's very difficult,
no matter who the player is is to to get
the best out of them. It's just what it is.

(01:56:16):
I think it'll be better. I think it'd be better.
I don't. Yeah, I don't think it's gonna be good enough.
And by why why am I having a hard time
escaping the image of Aaron Rodgers in a raider's uniform?
Why does that just feel so right? Does it feel right?
It does to me. Maybe it's just because Davante Adams

(01:56:37):
is there. Has he come back from him? Maybe Harkness retreat?
Yet he did? He did, he came out of the darkness. Okays.
I don't know if they no, I don't no white smoke.
I don't know if he has decided to play or not.
I don't know if he's visited Brett Farve's driveway to
decide if he wants to go to Camper. I don't know,

(01:56:59):
but he's playing. Who we kidding? This is not the
way you start a retirement press conference. You could tell
when that's comment, Well, he's not gonna be tired. You know,
we know that he's threatened it eighteen years in a row,
of course, man, because that's what Aaron Rodgers does, something

(01:57:19):
about green Bay to just drive that makes quarterbacks go crazy.
It just drama, Mama, man constantly far retired nine times
in Green Bay. Yes he did today. We're just like,
you know what, man, we just gotta trade you about it.
Here seems to follow the same pattern that we're going

(01:57:39):
through with Aaron rod Dame. Lellard has fifty fifty UM,
but only one three pointer in the process of getting
to that that fifty, So he's at nine threes. It's
about two forty to go in the third quarter. He
can shoot him right there. He can shoot him right there,
pull up, nice pass. That's that's good, high quality, restaurant

(01:58:05):
quality play by play right there. Shoot it, shoot it,
shoot shoot it. Well, they're playing the rockets, so we're
just like, dude, who cares stop passing the ball, just
shoot it like go you know, go for He just
missed another three though, so he did try um but
uh yeah, damn. Lellard gets to fifty with minutes still

(01:58:28):
to go in the third quarter, and I'm surprised you're
rooting for him, don't. Don't forget now, Portland's part of
this little party that we need him to lose, but
didn't know about to lose to the Rocket. So the
Rockets trying to get victor. They're they're they're they're trying
their bet what that means, by the way, once Portland
wins this game, you know what that means, right, Yeah,

(01:58:48):
it's the twelve seeds lakes right back down to the
twelve seeds. Well they started at the thirteenth. Okay, look
at all we could do is just win our games.
That's all we can worry about. I just I just
see you next week. Alright, brother, we'll see you next
week for e from Salam Mark Willard Blanket Spaniard coming

(01:59:10):
up next. Have a great night.