Steve Hartman and Bucky Brooks preview Nuggets vs Lakers and much more!

Steve Hartman and Bucky Brooks discuss the passing of NFL legend Jim Brown, react live to the PGA Championship, discuss Jimmy Butler’s masterful performance against the Celtics last night, and preview Nuggets vs Lakers Game 3 and much more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Please don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Yes, living the dream once again on a fully loaded
Saturday of sports. This is Fox Sports Saturday and we
are broadcasting live from the ti rack dot Com studios.
Tyrack dot com. We're gonna help get you there in now,
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(00:25):
tire buy and should be Bucky. We have a ton
of stories we gotta get to in a very short
amount of time. On this Saturday, We're watching the third
round of the PGA right now. It's been raining all
day long, apparently no lightning threats, so they're gonna play
through the rain, toughing it out, so to speak. So

(00:45):
it's a survival day at the PGA. We got NBA
Playoffs to talk about, Lakers looking to get on the
board in this series against Denver. We talk about Boston
losing to it home to Miami. But Bucky, I want
to start off today with a little remembrance of one
of the most significant figures in my lifetime in the
world of sports, and that is Jim Brown, who passed

(01:06):
away at the age of eighty seven on Thursday. Bucky
and I had the great privilege of interviewing Jim on
a number of occasions. Actually, we did a couple of
shows together. This is thirty years ago, back in the
early days of six ninety and I know his legacy's
very complicated with the domestic violence cases that were brought
against him. And to be honest with you, he never

(01:30):
said he was a saint. I don't think that's an
excuse obviously, but that's how he tried to justify some
of the things that happened. But here's what I said
about Jim Brown, and it's very much a sign of
the times. During the nineteen sixties of the civil rights movement,
we had some of the biggest names in sports. You
had a Muhammad Ali, you had a Bill Russell, you

(01:53):
had a Jim Brown, you had a young Kareem Abdul
Jabbar known as Luel Sinder at the time, and they
were the biggest names in sports, and they were front
and center in terms of the civil rights movement. And
I know that later on we look at generations like
Michael Jordan or at Tiger Woods that made the personal

(02:13):
choice to not get involved. And then more recently we
had Lebron James and several NBA players with the Black
Lives Matter get very involved, criticized by many for their
involvement politically. I know that Lebron James had and paid
homage to the great Jim Brown. But this is the
one thing I've always said about Jim Brown in the

(02:35):
times that I was with him, times I got to
speak with him. First of all, I enjoyed talking to
him immensely. We never talked football, but he was a
man that truly walked the walk. There's something to be
said about talk to talk. And I don't want to
be critical of people like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods. They

(02:56):
made a business decision to ride the fence and that
was up to them. It's a personal choice. But for
Jim Brown, especially after the riots here in Los Angeles,
getting on the streets helping to sort of calm down
the situation. His a Mayor I Can group was so
vital during that time. There's a lot of positive he

(03:19):
said about a guy named Jim Brown. And again, no
one's perfect and there's no excuse for some of the
incidents that he was involved with. But when we talk
about those that I have met, the greatest, the greatest
of all time. When that I mean we talk about superstar,
Jim Brown is at the top of the mountain in
terms of football is concern. He was truly a man

(03:41):
of conviction, a man that would look in the eye,
he would tell you what he thought. And he's a
man that walk the walk. And I admired that about
the great Jim Brown.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, he's greatly admired. I remember coming up hearing the
stories about the great Jim Brown. My dad talked about
Jim Brown and how he dominated the game of football.
You talk about like the sixties and being able to
not only dominate, but walk away while he's still at
the peak of the profession. We've only seen that really

(04:11):
happen once or twice Barry Sanders when he walked away,
who still had the ability to be an NFL leading rusher.
Jim Brown walked away after what leading the league and
rushing maybe eight out of nine seasons. He does it
to become an actor. And at the time, gosh, what
was the movie he did with.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
So Dirty Doesn't was one of his old one then
of course he did. Yeah, I mean, but the Dirty
Doesn't movie? What really happened there? Bucky was. He was
planning to come back for the nineteen sixty six season,
but there was delays in the shoot because he got
hired on and Art Modell, the owner of the Brown said,
you're gonna have to make a choice here, and Jim
Brown said, you know what, I've done enough with football,

(04:50):
never missed the game, nine years, completely healthy league, MVP
his final season. He's still at the peak of his game.
He's twenty nine years old. But he's like, I've done
everything I can do all. They had won the championship
the year before, so he checked that box and so
he you know, push comes to shove. He said, fine,
I'll become an actor, and that's what he did.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
He does that and so that is so great. So
now think about the great athletes who made the transition.
He's one of the first to kind of show that
like and how you can use acting as your second career.
But then it's about, you know, the activism and being
active in It's such a different time now. I remember
being in college doing a report and I remember doctor

(05:29):
Harry B. Edwards, who is a legend at San Jose State,
who organized the nineteen sixty eight Mexico City Olympic boycott
where you saw the protest on the podium, But how
all of those guys were organized in Cleveland at one
time during times of social unrest and Kareem Abdul Jabbar
and John Wooton and Jim Brown and Muhammad Ali and
these legendary athletes who also were willing to discuss openly

(05:55):
the issues that plagued the country at the time, and
that level of activism and you talk about that disappeared
for a while, and you had the critics that levied
their concerns and criticisms that the likes of Tiger Woods
and Michael Jordan. Only now recently have we seen guys
become more active in terms of not only like what
they did with their money, but in terms of standing

(06:16):
up and being a voice to the voiceless. All of
those things are part of the legacy of Jim Brown and.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Others of that era.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
So, yeah, today is an opportunity to really talk about
a great man, a flawed man, but a great man. Nonetheless,
you talk about wanting to make sure that you leave
the world in a better place than you inherited it.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
He did that, no question. And by the way, I
know that ESPN had done the one hundred and fiftieth
anniversary at college football. They ranked the top one hundred
and fifty players of all time. Jim Brown was number
one greatest college football player of all time, did not
win the Heisman Trophy. There's all that controversy about Paul
Horny and on a Notre d amtem that was two
and eight. Let me say this about Syracuse at the

(06:57):
time was not really an a lie elite program. Jim
Brown helped elevate him to that level, no question about that.
And it's amazing when when I think back to Jim Brown,
he was obviously very famous for being a lacrosse star.
It's so funny. I was gonna bring it up, ask.
I mean, I just I can't imagine we're actually watching
a little lacrosse right now, Duke and Michigan up in

(07:19):
the NCAA Tournament. I can't even imagine an athlete. You know,
we always say about soccer, if our greatest athletes in
America played soccer, we would win the World Cup every
four years. Imagine an athlete of the stature of a
Jim Brown, who by the way, averaged double digit scoring
for a couple of years on the Syracuse basketball team.
He also was a track and field star, but he

(07:40):
played lacrosse all the way through his collegiate career by
also playing football. That is not a guy that I
would want to face on a lacrosse field.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
No, it's funny. I saw him one time. They did
a story on him and they showed him handling the stick. Yeah,
and I keep moving around and do all the other stuff.
And he talked about that, and he talked about the
footwork from lacrosse lacrosse and how it translated well to football.
And we've seen others play the sports, like play football
in lacrosse, in those things. But man, just an athlete

(08:11):
of that magnitude, being able to be a two sport
or a multi sports star at the collegiate level, just
speaks volumes about what he is as an athlete, but
didn't think about how well read he was, how articulate
he was, like the things that he involved in. Just
we talk about the renaissance man, like those who can
do so much more than just the one dimensional sports figure.

(08:33):
He certainly was a renaissance man in his era.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, Like I said in the conversations that we had
and have been several years, but we had a number
of them over the years, rarely where we talk about football.
I mean, he was in tune with what was happening
in football. He was absolutely loyal to the Browns organization
and everything else. But he was highly intelligent man who
could speak on just about any subject, and he had

(08:57):
interest in subjects. He loved to converse, to talk about
a lot of different things with a lot of different people.
So I was it's one of those like, Okay, I mean,
lived a long life. Eighty seven for a football player
with a physical punishment he took is a long life,
and so that is to be celebrated. But to me,
even certain people, it sort of shocks you. Even though

(09:19):
he was eighty seven. When you see Jim Brown passed away,
you're like, wow, I mean, what's so surprising to me?
He was eighty seven, eighty seven years old. He didn't
look no.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
Eighty seven like the last time you saw him in public,
last time we had those opportunities to see him. He
certainly didn't look eighty seven. Yes, you could tell like
sometimes he was wheelchair bound in those things, but he
certainly didn't look like a man that was nearing the
age of ninety and the thing that resonates in my
mind is that old Sports Illustrated cover.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah, when I think he was forty seven years old
with the Raiders, with the race, I was with the
Raiders at the time, and they're talking about Jim Brown
pondering a comeback at forty seven.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
He could have.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
I don't know he would have been the Jim Brown
we saw when he was twenty nine. But he was
one of those athletes. When the Raiders moved to Los Angeles,
we would see Jim Brown. He was friends with a
lot of people, had an admiration for mister Davis, who
also had ties to Syracuse. So yeah, I mean it
was shocking even though that he had a long life

(10:19):
but complicated legacy. But know this, in terms of his
work with the civil rights movement, he was not just
a man who talked the talk. He definitely walked a walk.

Speaker 4 (10:29):
All Right.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
We got a lot to talk about, including one of
his great admirers. That would be Lebron James, who finds
his team in desperate need of a win tonight down
two o to the Denver Nuggets. We got plenty to
get to as far as the NBA playoffs, so concerned.
This is Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 5 (10:49):
Hey, I'm Doug Gottlieb. The podcast is called All Ball.
We usually talk all basketball all the time, but it's
more about the stories about what made these people love
their sport and all the interesting interactions along the way.
We talked to coaches, we talked to players, We tell
you stories. You download it, you listen to it.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
I think you like it.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Listen to All Ball with.

Speaker 5 (11:11):
Doug Gottlieb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcast.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
Steve Harban and Bucky Brooks. This is Fox Sports Saturday
and we are coming alive from the tay Iraq dot
com studios. Corey Conners, the Canadians still leading the PGA.
He's at minus five, lookout, Brooks. Kopka is at minus four.
As you know, Keepka is a live golfer. One of
these live golfers breaks through and wins a major can

(11:52):
change the whole dynamic of golf. We had, of course,
Kopka and Michelson ty for second at the Masters to
Shambo just had a double bogie to drop back to
minus two. He's another live guy, So we'll keep our
eye on it. But somehow they're getting through the slap
the rain. It's going to be a beautiful day, they
say tomorrow for the final round of the PGA. But

(12:13):
they're gonna get this third round in. All right, Bucky,
I want to get to obviously we got a lot
of NBA to talk about. The Lakers. Well, really, the
story of these NBA playoffs is interesting to me because
the dynamic for the NBA was absolutely clear once we
got to the conference finals. They have potentially their dream matchup,

(12:33):
Lakers Celtics. I mean that. I mean it's if you
can say before the season, if you're the NBA, which
two teams would you like to match up in the
NBA finals every year? It would be the Lakers Celtics.
They've won over half of the NBA championships in the
history of the NBA. They have the most storied franchises,
They have the most history, I mean the storylines. I

(12:54):
was there in two thousand and eight when the Lakers
and Celtics had their first revival of the matchup in
twenty one years and I was there at TD Guardend
Bucky and it was everybody was there, Bill Russell was there,
Larry Bird Magic, it was. It was literally walking through
history when you get the Lakers Celtics. But right now
it looks like it's going to be Nuggets Heat, which

(13:16):
is not exactly the marquee matchup that they were wanting.
But the reason that the Nuggets and the Heat are
where they are as simple. The two most dominant players
in this postseason have been Nicola Jokic and Jimmy Butler.
They have dominated this postseason. Again, this is the kind
of sport where individuals dominance can literally carry teams all

(13:36):
the way to a championship. And I don't think there's
a close third. When you look at these playoffs, there
have been individuals that have had moments. Tatum had to
make moment obviously with the Game seven, we saw step
back in the day, you know Lebron and Ad When
when you look at Jokic, when you look at Jimmy Butler,
these guys right now have taken their games to a
completely different level.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
They absolutely have taken a game up a nuts. You
just you talk about stars being stars in the postseason,
we've seen that. Uh, we have watched look joke, it's
just take his game to another level. Or maybe we
just haven't watched him enough because he is as dominant
as I've seen a big man be uh in this time.
And so when I think of it calling you right

(14:18):
now as a matter of fact, jokers calling me making
sure to guarantee to win. But when you just think
about how good he has been, But it wasn't dad
watching Jamal Murray go bonkers and yes quarter watching the
big time players do that. The one thing that you
appreciate about, uh, the postseason. Who is going to be
the guy along with the star to lead the team.

(14:40):
So we can talk about joke, But when the Nuggets
were going, it was everybody dropping bomb.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
Can I say this about Jamal Murray. By the way,
Jamal Murray, this is the fourth time in the postseason
that he's had a twenty plus point fourth quarter. To
put that number in perspective, there are only two other
players in the history of the NBA they'd ever had
more than one twenty point fourth quarter. Those would be
Michael Jordan and Alan Iverson. Jamal Murray's had four of those.

(15:09):
But give Jokic credit because he recognized who has the
hot hand. He didn't have to suddenly say, hey, I
gotta get my shots in. That's not Jokic's game. He's
a team guy, and so he gets his triple double.
He steps back, Jamal Murray makes all those shots, and
they're up to on that series.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
Yeah no, I mean they did just sit there and
find a way to get it done. And the Lakers
will kick themselves because they found a way to work
themselves back into the game like both times, and they've
had opportunities to get it done, haven't been able to
do it. The most important quarter in the series is
the first quarter of this game tonight. How the Lakers
respond to new energy to energy in the building. Can

(15:49):
they jump up on the Nuggets and then can they
hold on at the end.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
This is a must win.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Every game is critical, but this is a must win
because they have to win this one to extend it
and give themselves a shot to kind of creep back
into the series. I can't wait to see what kind
of energy they bring.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
All Right, You and I are mutual fans of Lebron
James and I've made the argument time and time again
he is the goat. With all due respect to Michael Jordan,
Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and all the other legends that have
ever played, no one has the resume of Lebron James. Nobody,
right that being said, right now, he is not your

(16:26):
go to guy with the Lakers.

Speaker 6 (16:28):
No.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
I mean when you when you look at Hatchamurrow, when
you look at Reeves and the way they've been shooting
late in the game. When I when I started to
saw the four started that fourth quarter in Game two
and him jacking up speaking of Lebron three shots, three pointers,
and I'm like, what's he doing?

Speaker 1 (16:43):
That?

Speaker 2 (16:43):
SHOT's not in his repertoire. Now at age thirty eight,
you know, we talk about this ageless wonder. He's showing
his age. He's tired. Look what happened at the end
of the game, right they were down four, He makes
the great steal, goes in for the layup airballs Ian
that's not Lebron James, right, So I think that he's
trying to will his body to take it to the

(17:06):
next level. But it'll be very interesting again, if we're
in a tight game in the fourth quarter, and whether
it's Jokich or Murray, whoever's carrying the load for Denver offensively,
who's gonna be your go to guy with the Lakers?
And once again we're getting the you know, great game
Anthony Davis forty points. The next game he goes four
for fifteen. I mean, if your stars don't show up,

(17:29):
you're just not gonna win.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
Now, it's hard to win with out you start players
contributing their part. And with the Lakers, they need lebron
nad over to thirty point mark because the attention they
command is going to open up for the rest of
the team. And so I can see the frustration. I
consist the frustration you have. I'm sist the frustration that
all of the Lakers nation has. They just need more,
and they need more out of a d They need

(17:51):
to feel like, look, man, if I don't get it done,
I'm literally gonna physically feel like he dies trying. And
that's not to feel in that anyone gets when they
watched him.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Here's another observation that I have. What else do the
Lakers and Celtics have in common this year? A rookie coach.
Oh yeah, So, whether it's Joe Mozoula, whether it's Darvin Ham,
they're making rookie coach mistakes. In the case of Missoula
going up against a guy like Eric Spolstra, who is

(18:25):
obviously going to be in the Hall of Fame someday,
but still is very underrated because no one gives him
credit for the championships he won with Lebron James, Dwayne Wade,
and Chris Boss saying well, anybody could have rolled the
ball out. Eric Spolster is a really good coach, and
right now he's up to with two road wins with
an eight seed, a team that lost the game in

(18:47):
the playing a lost the game.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
I think the thing that's so impressive about what Miami
has done, he says, he started the storyline. He started
the undrafted seven or nine ago guys, undrafted free agents
out of college had to go to.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
Long way to earn their spot.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
His belief and trust in those guys is remarkable. In
a league where we talk about star driven, gotta have stars,
can't leave, gotta have at least one star on the floor.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
They will do it with anybody.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
Their trust and belief in anybody whoever plays the standard
is the standard. All of those things, they find a
way to do it. And I know people get tired
of hearing heat culture, but the environment that they have
created down there in South Beach is unlike anything I've
ever seen in the league.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
All Right, So that's a big question, right, is that
brand of franchise control over the narrative of that franchise
with the pat Riley Eric Spolstra duo that's been going
for a long time now? Is there a place for
that in the NBA where the players seem to have

(19:56):
free reign to play where they want, when they want
to play, They have a certain freedom, and yet you
still have the san Antonios of the world. They're gonna
get the kid. Let's see why that was that the
most predictable thing. Ever, Don't tell me that the fix
isn't in when it comes to the NBA Draft lottery.
It was their fix when the Knicks got Patrick Ewing

(20:16):
with the cold cart and everything else. I guaranteed everybody
it's not going to be Detroit, it's not going to
be Houston. It's going to be San Antonio that magically
gets that number one overall pick. But again, it's getting
a little sidetracked there. When you look at the way
that Pop runs things in San Antonio, the Riley Spolster
situation in Miami, I believe there's still a place for that.

(20:40):
In other words, we do things a certain way. Either
you fit or you don't fit. They found a superstar
that fits beautifully because he's a leader on the court
in every manner, in Jimmy Butler, and that's why the
Miami Heat are where they are right now.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
Absolutely, they're only handful of teams that can get away
with that kind of structure, that kind of organization when
it relates to the way that they're asked to conduct
their business. Having talked to a friend of mine who
has someone who's on that Heat staff, and he talked
about if you look at their staff, all their coaches
are kind of homegrown, either former players, the guys that
have come up through the ranks, starting in the video

(21:16):
room and moving up.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
Eric Spoltra.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
Eric Bolstra started as a video coordinator and worked his
way up. Pat Roley, maybe he was like this because
you are in LA Maybe he's like this, but he
believes in continuity above everything, stability, continuity. There's a rite
of passage when it comes to these jobs, and you
don't leave a Miami job just for another job, because
it won't be as good as a job that you're

(21:39):
going to. And so this has been a remarkable study
in team building culture, all those things performance, Like everything
that you want to look for, you got it right
there looking at the well the heat.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
I will say this about pat I caught him at
the end of his run with the Lakers. His ego
was immense. But I also said this about him. If
you're going to be coaching superstars, you better have an ego.
Phil Jackson had an ego. Pat Riley had an eagle.
That's why they were the perfect coaches to coach superstar players.
But I also know this for pat Riley. If it

(22:14):
wasn't for pat Riley, we would never have heard of
the Van Gundy Brothers. No, he created the Van Gundy
Brothers literally, So if you're a bang Gundy fan, you're
not a bang Gundy fan, understand this. You would never
heard of these two guys had it not been for
pat Riley. By the way, or brought to you by
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(22:35):
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at progressive dot com, let's find out what's trending right now.
And I'm looking right at him. I'm looking right at
Brian Finley right now. Now. I'm a little upset Jonas
taking a lot of cheap shots at you.

Speaker 7 (22:54):
Yeah, it's unbelievable what I take from him.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, and what you add to his program, I mean,
he's right solo, you know. Uh, And I think he
should have a greater appreciation of what you add to
the content of that show.

Speaker 7 (23:07):
He treats me like a whoope cushion, and that's what
he does. That's what and you know what, that's okay,
that's okay. Yeah, Hey, what is okay is that the
weather has improved here at the PGA Championship. A lot
of rain early on. It seems like that's tapered down.
We are in the midst of our third round and
Corey Connors, as the guys were mentioning from Canada, did
not even make the cut at the Masters. Is your

(23:28):
sole leader five under for the tournament? Even on the
day he is through six holes, six holes, all just
bogie free playing par golf. That is good enough right
now as Justin Rose a blast from the past. He
is within two two under on his day three under
four of the tournament, about to make the turn into
the back nine, while Brooks Gepke is three under, so
is Victor Hovelin. Bryson Desshambo put his drive on six

(23:52):
in the water, so he is at one over for
the day through seven holes, two under for the tournament,
and Scotty Scheffler, who started this third round amongst three
with a share of deleted five under, just picked up
his third bogie on the front side, so he is
three off the pace.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
As well. As far as.

Speaker 7 (24:09):
Baseball is concerned, some of the afternoon games are upon
us one of notable status. The Baltimore Orioles are in
front of the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto two to nothing,
bottom of the fifth and Cedric Mullins has a home
run for Baltimore and that came in the third and
don't forget as the guys were mentioning it as well.
It is game through the Western Conference Finals in Los
Angeles now eight thirty eastern Eastern Time, where the Lakers

(24:32):
are going to be hosting the Nuggets after Denver won
both games one and two at home, a chance for
the Lakers to work their way back into this one.
We do have the Preakness Stakes coming up a little
bit later. And we also learned that in one of
the preliminary races, guys that trainer bought Bafford had to
put down another one of his horses. And this was

(24:52):
a horse that was injured during a race today and
then flung the jockey off of his back. The jockey
then went to the the hospital is conscious. It seems
to be okay, but unfortunately not okay is the horse.
And yeah, we got the Preakness coming up in just
moments from now. With that, let's get it back to
the two guys who are jockeying the show leading things.

(25:16):
It is Bucky and it is Steve. All right, be Fann,
thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, this whole horse racing thing, I talked about this
before the Derby, Bucky, you and I were watching the
nine hour pre race show that day. I don't think
they have that like the Preakness. It's just the Derby
where they go on and on and on and on
and on and on and on for two minutes of racing.
I don't get it. I mean, I don't know the justification.

(25:42):
But anyway, the preakness is gonna be a little bit
later on today. Hey, I want to get back a
little bit too. Michael Malone the coach of the Denver Nuggets,
and he's taken a little flack and I'm not understanding
why he's getting a little flat. So he's he's attacking
the media after the Nuggets won Game two because he

(26:06):
was right after Game one, several of these network guys
that are you know, the insiders, you know, the NBA people,
they're all on the bandwagon that the Lakers are gonna
come back and win Game two. I mean, you saw
how they came back. They had a big DEFICITAI early
in Game one and they came all the way back
and Steven A was ripping Jokic. Yeah he was great

(26:28):
for three quarters. Where was he in the fourth quarter?
And I'm like, are you kidding me? And I can
say that because Steph and A have done shows together
in past anyway, but after they won Game two, Malone
really took off on the media. And you know, Bucky
ere coach, so you understand this whole dynamic of getting
your team refocused, and the idea that because the Lakers

(26:52):
are the Lakers, and they have the legacy, and they
have Lebron and they have a d no matter the
fact that the Nuggets were the number one see in
the West and have a guy that should have won
three MVPs in a row and yo catch, they're considered
the underdog. Does that work with the psyche of a team,
the constant hammering that the world's against us and we

(27:13):
got to prove them wrong.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
I mean, I think it can can hinder them a
little bit. I think I've used the right way. It
can light a match, it can spark him. You know,
to think about it is what does he need to
get you know, what did he need to do? How
can he get this done? And so it's one of
those things from a mentality like you're looking on things
that you can hang your hat on.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
How can we dig ourselves out of this hole?

Speaker 3 (27:35):
And so the job of the coach is over the
next few days, paint the picture. We do this, we'll win.
We take care of this stuff, we'll win. We'll have
a handful of objectives that we need to accomplish. We
do those things, it'll put us in a position to
be successful. And so that's all you can do. Man,
You're trying to map out what it is that you
want to get done. You try and work at it

(27:56):
and then hopefully you get an opportunity to show improve
to people.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
You know what I loved about Malon because you know,
they get inside the huddle, you know, late in the game,
and the thing he was harping is the Lakers, you know,
seem to have control of that game. Is defense. He's like,
come on, guys, we got to play some defense here.
Defense is about effort. We need to have more effort

(28:21):
on the defensive end. He kept saying it. Lakers were
getting some pretty easy baskets. You know, you got Reeves
lighting them up, you got Hatchamurra. What was he eight
for eight to start the game?

Speaker 8 (28:31):
Was?

Speaker 2 (28:31):
It was ridiculous, And he's like, look, we gotta play
some defense. Defense is about effort. Defense is you know,
digging down no matter how tired you and you could
tell both those teams are gas at the end of
that game. You just got to dig down and show
some effort on the defensive end, and it resonated enough

(28:54):
to get the Nuggets the winning game too.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
You did resonate enough and you're right. I mean, just
find way to do it. You have to do it.
You have to play catch fans. You have to do
it. It's not just an issue. It becomes a bigger problem.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
What if you, uh, what are you gonna do with
Lebron in this game? You heard what my concerns were. Yeah,
but I mean, I mean you saw Lebron. Lebron is
killing him in the fourth quarters of these games right now,
his shot selection you you know, someoney asked Darvinham after
the game, what was that goes back to back bricks

(29:28):
from three point land that started the fourth quarters that
sort of get ignited the Nuggets?

Speaker 4 (29:32):
What is that?

Speaker 2 (29:34):
And He's like, well, you know, I am very confident
Lebron could knock down those shots. He hasn't made a
single three pointer in this series. No, stop shooting threes.
I mean, go to the hoop. No one can stop
you when you're going to the hoop.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
Yeah, I mean I understand that, but it's such a
big part of my game. I like shooting jays.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
There are no more reeves can hit that shot. That's
the guy I want to see shooting threes. Is that
Austin res Oh, he's gonna make a lot of money. Man.
I saw the contract four year, like four year, fifty
million dollars. Well, wait to say, how the Laker's gonna
sign all these guys. They can't get rid of A D.
They can't get rid of Lebron. They're under lock and

(30:14):
key hatcha Murrah. You're gonna pay him.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
Right, yeah, I mean, like you have to figure that
out because he's been so good for him. You know, Gosh,
I don't know how many fans, like I have no
idea how many families there are, but you just think
about like just all of the expanse all the other stuff.
I know, you've supposed to be, like, what in the
world you have aft self? Like this is crazy.

Speaker 4 (30:39):
You know.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
The thing about this Laker team that sort of gets
to me is no one predicted this obviously. I mean,
with eleven games to go, they weren't even in the
playing round, and then they got hot. Lebron stayed healthy,
a D stayed healthy, and suddenly they're in the Western
Conference Finals. Now they're up against it right now. Now,

(31:00):
by the way, quick, no before you completely rite off
the Lakers in the series. Lebron James twice has been
on a team in the conference finals that was down
two to zero. Both times this team won. And by
the way, the Lakers have never lost to the Denver
Nuggets in a playoff series. They're seven to zero, So
there's still a few factors before we write off the series,

(31:20):
and the Lakers obviously trying to get back at home.
But I look at the makeup of this Lakers team
and I asked myself, is this a team that just
had a magical, unexpected run or have they truly rebuilt
this team to get back in the conversation as a
perennial contender for an NBA championship.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
You know, I think the thing with the Lakers rop
Alinka Darbenham, they gotta be careful with this team when
they do the evaluation, because the evaluation is going to
suggest that, hey, got a guy, got to play, ready
to go, that they locked in in those things. But
in reality, they got hot to a month of the season,
carried into the postseason, beat the vulnerable team in the postseason,

(32:04):
and now you're trying to go head to head with somebody.
Some of these monsters brought, I mean the Nuggets and
some of the other ones that emerged. I don't know
if they've done enough. I like what the team is.
I was still lean on them to do more.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Are you feeling okay? I am. You almost look like
you want to get into the game tonight. I mean
I would, I would love to.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
But you know, like I'm not a Laker fan, Like
I'm like, I'm a Jimmy Buckets fan.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
Yeah by me? Heket My thing with the that series
completely over? Is that going to be a sweep out?
I don't know what I mean it's going to do.
Going back to Miami. Well, here's the thing with both teams.
And here's I think. By the way, Boston was my
pick to be the NBA champion this year and uh wow,
I mean that fourth quarter was yeah no not home. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:57):
So I would say here's what both teams can learn from,
Like what's going on. The Lakers have to continue to
dialod up and they gotta win all the fifty to fifties,
the loose balls, the things that are effort based, not
talent based.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
They have to make sure they win that.

Speaker 3 (33:13):
They gotta cut off the spickett meaning they gotta also
make it where look, Joker, you can get yours, but
no one else is going to get off. I would
love them see when game just not being able to
like have him be able to get it to anybody
and everybody when he wants to, Hey, we're gonna stay
on the shore.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Were gon hug them up.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
You can go for fifty, but we're not gonna let
those other guys Breathe some changes, some switch, some sobtle
adjustments to putting them in a better position to make
plays on the ball.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Like that. That's all I want to see.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
Jimmy Butler man, wow well wow wow wow. Yeah, toughness
and effort can go along with well.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
I mean, he's just he's a guy that's he's not
only productive individually, But you talk about raising the guys
around you, That's what I'm looking for in the Star. Yeah,
there's there's guys that can, you know, get their points
or get their you know whatever. But I'm talking about
a guy who's mere presence on the course. They say, course,

(34:10):
I'm watching the golf right now, Scotti Sheffler just broke
in another hole. But on the court, his presence raises
the level of a team that really has no business
going into Boston and winning back to back games.

Speaker 3 (34:24):
Yeah, No, presence is everything impact all this stuff, and
so it matters. We've seen it, we feel it. Uh,
there's a reason why guys go come to the top
because that that X factor, that unquantifiable piece of the
positive day add to the team.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
All right, coming up, we're going to talk about a
big decision at a big time school by someone well
maybe didn't play the game quite right. This is Fox
Sports Saturday, Steve Harvin and Bucky Brooks Fox Sports Saturday.
We're coming alive from the tay Iraq dot Com studios.

Speaker 4 (34:58):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
We started the final round, or excuse me, the third
round of the PGA Golf Championship. Corey Connors, the Canadian,
paired up with Scotty Scheffler, final pairing today. You figure
advantage Scheffler. So both of them have played seven holes.
Connors has seven straight pars. Scheffler has bogeyed four of

(35:18):
the seven holes, so Connor's holding steady at minus five.
Scheffler's dropped back to minus one. So apparently Scotty Scheffler
doesn't like rain, although the rain has led up and
should be dry the rest of the way. So keep
our eye on the third round of the PGA Championship
going on right now. So this was a sudden story

(35:42):
that sort of sneaked through the cracks. Yesterday Mike Bone,
the athletic director at USC, resigned for health reasons. That
was the original story, that Mike Bone resigns as the
AD at USC for health reasons and all hell breaks loose,
try to sneak this one in on a Friday right well,

(36:04):
as it turned out, all kinds of accusations about Mike
Bone not doing the job, fact shaming female and employees
at USC doubling down by the way, according to many sources,
like even when confronted about his derogatory comments, apparently he
doubled down on that. Also, no showing, like no showing

(36:27):
at national championship games where the athletic director would normally be.
One thing about an athletic director. If you're not familiar
with an athletic director at a major university, what is
their main job? Fundraising? And that means that you go
to a lot of dinners. You are glad having Dan Gerrera,

(36:49):
a longtime athletic director at UCLA, was a dear friend
of mine and I knew what Dan had to go through.
It's not a job I would want. I know, you
make a lot of money, but man, oh man, you
really got to work the room and you're going out
every day. Yeah, and apparently Mike Bone wasn't into that.
Mike Bone obviously very instrumental in the US. He's moved

(37:11):
to the Big Ten, which is a financial windfall for
the University of Southern California, but apparently not playing the
game the way they wanted. So yeah, he was like,
they didn't even announce an interim ad So this was
a very sudden departure by Mike Bone. Any chance Land
comes back, do you think Lin Swan can come back?

(37:31):
I didn't, you know, look at Pat Hayden, Lynn Swan.
I mean, this is what they did, Mike Garrett. The
eighties used to be these football legends. That was sort
of the end thing at USC to hire these you know,
in house football legends, maybe Reggie Bush. But I don't
think they wanted to play the part either. I don't think. Again,

(37:53):
like I said, if you're going to have that position,
you're on call twenty four to seven days a week.
I mean that is that is a job that you are.
You got to schmooze, you got to go out to dinner.
You got to go out and meet people, and you
need to raise money. And if you don't want to
do that, then don't sign up for the job. Yeah,
it's gonna be hard. I mean it's a hard to deal.

(38:17):
I don't know, Bucky. What if they were to call you,
would you drop everything to be the athletic director at
the University of Southern County And.

Speaker 4 (38:22):
It is a.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
Pretty penny they would drop, Yes, they would millions of dollars.
I do have a daughter who would like to go to.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Into a film school. So I've just sawing it out there.
Bucky's done everything. I think you've checked every elder box.
I mean I wouldn't I wouldn't mind. I wouldn't mind.
I think some of the perks to come along with it,
I do. I believe though you do you have a
master's degree. I do not, but I would be willing
to go if they. Yeah, pause, I think you have something.
I think you have to have some kind of like
masters or something along that lines' sports administration, athletic administration degree.

(38:54):
So are you good at that? I mean schmoozing with
people all day long? I mean I can I can
think I can fund raise a little bit. I can talk.

Speaker 3 (39:00):
He's at the culture of the program, right, right, maybe
you get to hire a couple of coaches and do
some of the fun stuff.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
Well, what's amazing is Mike Bohm appeared to be the
perfect guy for their transition to the Big ten because
he has roots in the Midwest. I remember he was
at the University of Cincinnati, and you know he had
ties to Ohio State. Remember Originally when he was brought in,
everyone thought he was going to bring Urban Meyer in
to be the new head coach at USC Dave dods

(39:27):
that one, uh, and end up getting Lincoln Riley paid
a pretty penny for him. I still, you know, we
still don't even know the details how much Lincoln Riley
got paid. I mean he got handed a what a
fifteen million dollar house? What was that don at PV
Yeah verda house? Hey one year looking like a pretty
good deal.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
I mean it looks really well, that's good. It looks
good for everybody involved.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
Yeah. So, anyway, vacancy out there if you want a
job athletic director at the University of Southern California. I
don't know the about double down on the fat shaming
of female employees probably Yeah, that's not a great idea.
Not a great idea. The fat shaming and women in general,
it's usually it's done. Call attention to that scoring especially

(40:13):
around the office. Oh man, the inner workings of some
of these universities of one of these days. I got,
I've got stories. I got, I got lots of stories.
I'm not quite ready to divulge them all quite yet.
All right, coming up on the other side, much more
on the third round of the BGA. And yes, we
got some NFL football talk. This is Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot Com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
Rolling along here on another busy Saturday in the sports
or old Fox Sports Saturday, we are broadcasting live from
the tirak dot com studios. Tyrack dot com. We're gonna
help get you there in unmatched selection, fast reshipping. Free
road has a protection over ten thousand rec I'm at
it installers, tire rack dot com. The way tire buying
should be. Corey Conners leading the PGA by two shots.

(41:07):
By the way, bucket, does anybody care about the PGA
champions Are we back to that spot again where no Tiger,
nobody cares or how does it work?

Speaker 3 (41:15):
Well, I'm gonna try and be a little more optimistic
about it. I have paid attention. I do know there
was an event this weekend. I knew the PGA Championships.
I was trying to figure out where it was. It's
in Rochester, right us out of Rochester, and so I'm
on it. But are you going to say that I'm
gonna be tethered to my seat watching all the rounds?

Speaker 2 (41:33):
No, I'm not. Now, let me get to let me
get to Sunday.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
I'm gonna see who's gonna be around and I can
follow that last group around.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
Doesn't the liv golf give it a little bit of
an edge? I mean Brooks Kopka by the way, right now,
three shots out of the lead and sold fourth place
right behind him. Bryce and the Shambico his uh. They
used to be adversarious. Remember a couple of years ago
there was a little rift going on between the Shambo
and Koepka. And now, of course there are teammates on
that Live Golf tour, but that they just it's a
little edge, right if one of these live golfers has

(42:03):
a breakout and actually wins one of these major golf championships. Yeah,
I mean it would be great to see that happen
to see someone. Now you say great. Great in terms
of it's friction a good thing for a sport. Yeah,
conflict is a great thing for a sport. It is.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
Yeah, you want to see some of that. You want
to see some you want to see some of that action,
see how people respond to certain things.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Yeah, it would be great.

Speaker 4 (42:26):
See.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
I remember we were told that the Masters, Greg Norman,
who basically is the guy that is the face of
live golf, that he had said if a live golfer
won the Masters, they were gonna have this big group
shot of all the live golfers there on like the
eighteenth Green. I don't know if he has a similar

(42:46):
plan for the PGA, but I'm with you, Bucky. I mean,
if a live golfer has a breakout, it could change
a lot of different things in terms of golf and
maybe the way that some of these PGA golfers view
live golf, saying, Gee, when I look at all the
money those guys are making playing three days of golf,
fewer golf tournaments, added bonus money with these teams and

(43:09):
everything else. It seems like easy money. Maybe because after
that initial wave we haven't had any other defections yet.
I mean everyone's sort of it's okay. Those that wanted
to go went haven't in any further defections. But if
they find out that it, indeed, they're you know, because
legacy is about these majors. This is how you build

(43:30):
your name. Yes, that's how you do.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
It's about your resume, and so you check out some boxes,
put some more hardware on your hand. Yes, you have
an opportunity to do some of those legendary things. Though,
anytime you have an opportunity to play in a major,
you want to win. You want to win it because
it puts a little special feather in your cap.

Speaker 9 (43:47):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
Absolutely, I mean that's how you get to Halls of
Fame and everything else. All right. Speaking of Hall of Fame,
DeVante Adams is a guy who has built a Hall
of Fame resume, and his time at Green Bay did
not disappoint statistically for the Raiders last year. But let
me ask you this. They paid him forty two million
dollars last year. He had Pro Bowl, All Pro numbers.

(44:11):
They also missed the playoffs, and he gave up a
first and or second round pick to get him. There
are rumors flying that the Raiders are open to the
idea of unloading DeVante Adams. So question is he worth

(44:34):
the investment? Because he has a huge contract, Because he
signed a new contract with the Raiders, He's going to
come with a big price tag. Is any I mean?
And when I say DeVante Adams, I'm probably talking about
any wide receiver because he's on that short list of
the best receivers in the National Football League? Is any
receiver worth that kind of investment, not only in terms

(44:56):
of how much money you're paying him, but maybe the
draft capital you have to get give up in order
to get him. Is he or any receiver worth it?

Speaker 3 (45:05):
Yeah, I'll say it would be worth it out for
the other team to make the move. It wouldn't be
worth it for the Sampsus for forty nineers to make
the move because there's no one in house to replace.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
Him right now? You mean with the Raiders. With the Raiders,
there's no one.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
There's no one to replace him, And I would worry
about this seeping into the locker room if Josh McDaniels
gets rid of Davante Adams after getting rid of Derek Carr.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
This is Denver Bronco's deja vu. It's all over again.

Speaker 3 (45:29):
You know, how can he stand in front of team
talking about the team, the team, the team. We gotta win,
We gotta do this when it's obvious and apparent that
you're not doing it for your team. So it's Look,
it's a tricky situation when I think about the Raiders
and DeVante Adams speaking out about the direction and all
those other things. It needs to be addressed, but you

(45:50):
like to think that those things be handled privately.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Yeah, I just I'm trying to figure this out. Look,
the DeVante Adams move to the Raiders was predicated on
the idea that he wanted to be a Raider. I mean,
he wanted out of Green Bay. He had made it
clear that he wanted out of Green Bay. Obviously reunited
with his college teammate at Fresno State and Derek Carr.
Why didn't it Why did it happen? I'm still trying

(46:15):
to figure out what happened with the Raiders. Last year.
You had the league's leading rusher, you had one of
the top receivers in the NFL, and you go from
a ten win team to what seven six wins? What
last year? And out of the playoffs, what happened?

Speaker 3 (46:27):
Well the year before, they won all the tight games.
Friz Pasatchi did a great job down the stretch. They
found a way to win games. Sometimes you can make
the mistake when you joshed me Daniels. You come in
and you just think you can be able to roll
out the balls and just kind of pick up where
they left off. Didn't necessarily re establish the environment, the culture,
restock the team, any of that stuff. And so it's
a it's tough, but it's one of those things where, look,

(46:53):
if he's not going to be supportive, he's not going
to be one hundred percent behind a GM, what can
we do?

Speaker 2 (46:57):
What can we do with them? Right now? Of course,
Derek carrs the Saints. If you're the Saints, are you
on the home where the Raiders right now? Saying exactly
what will it cost us to get DeVante Adams? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (47:10):
Geez, Like, I just think about that and how crazy
that offense would be if he does go down there
with it without Michael Thomas. I just think about him
and Alvin Kamara and the weapons that they have and
just how they can just twist everybody up in nuts
with the personnel.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
That'd be interesting. It's hard to gauge I think value
sometimes with on wide receivers. I mean because in recent
years we've seen the addition of wide receivers completely change
the dynamic of an offense.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
It absolutely does, and so you got to know what
you're looking for. You got to put them in different buckets.
The number two bucket, you know, the number one, the
number two, and then you got to change your pace
offensive weapon bucket. Everyone does the same the same stuff,
but you're just trying to figure out, Okay, who's who
in wes what who's worthy of being double team? Who
can we just single and they'll beat us, but they

(47:59):
won't necessarily crushes all that fear factor comes into making
decisions that you have to make on games.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
I mean, this year in the NFL Draft was the
first time ever the wide receivers are taking in four
consecutive picks. It never happened in the first round four
consecutive picks at the wife receiver position. I mean, I
guess again, when we look at Diggs and when he
brought to Buffalo. Obviously, the situation down in Miami with
Tyreek Hill, we knew he was going to have an
impact as far as that Miami team is concerned. I

(48:28):
don't know. I'm looking at the Raiders right now, and
it looked like the Raiders were sort of getting back
on track. I had said at the time, I was
never a big Rooden fan at all, and I said,
this organization will be better off not only on the field,
but off the field getting rid of John Gruden. And
like Basachi comes in, he plays, gets a job done.

(48:51):
He's popular with the players. But they had a mindset
that no, no, no, we got to bring in somebody else.
And then you bring in Josh McDaniels, who has a
lot of rings, as you know, a wingman for Bill Belichick,
and he has been an absolute failure as a head coach.
He just doesn't have it. He doesn't have it.

Speaker 3 (49:10):
But it doesn't matter because people still want some of
that bio parcels magic, some of that juice. And you
know the only way you can get it is you
got to work hard. You gotta do stuff, come early,
stay late, outwork the other people. And you know, I
wouldn't do that, Like, it's not always gonna come in
your favor, and so you can only wish on luck
and that stuff for so long.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
I need some other guys to show up. A Rainmon
has come back in a vengeance. Right now. It is
pouring rain all of a sudden at the PJA Golf Championship.
Keeping an eye they're trying to get this third round
done today so they get clear for the fourth round.
But it looks like they're gonna have to stop now
because I mean, there's only so much you can do.
When you have to squeegee off the greens after like

(49:52):
every pit, that's probably when you have to say, you
know what, would you're gonna let the rains subside. So
we'll keep a eye on the PGA all right. Coming
up on the other side, we're gonna get back to
these NBA playoffs. The Botston Celtics lose two at home
to the Miami Heat. Is that series over or can
the Celtics find the answer to get back in the series.
They're gonna break it down. This is Fox Sports Saturday.

(50:16):
Steve Harbin and Bucky Brooks here Fox Sports Saturday, coming
Alive from the tire raq dot com Studios. John Rahm,
the world's number one golfer and a big favorite this
week of the PGA, has had a rough week, a
really rough week. He's not in contention. He did make

(50:37):
the cut, but I just saw this a little bit earlier, Bucky.
So on the fifth hold today, he had a poor
chip shot and he slammed his wedge onto one of
those microphones they have on the edge of the green
to pick up you know, crowdsentd and everything else. So
he hammered that microphone with his wedge, and the three

(51:00):
holes later, he's looking for his ball, which he thinks
might be out of bounds, and there's a camera guy
coming up on him and he yells, stop aiming at
my face. When I'm mad, it's all you guys do now.
Yesterday I was watching Ram and he had a bad

(51:21):
t shot on the part three eleventh hole and his
mic was on. This is what he said, because I
heard it. I rewound it, great hole, great f and hole,
and he didn't say, fan, let's put it that way.
I like this. I like this, you know, I don't

(51:42):
mind that. I like the emotion. Tiger was that way.
Tiger was a very emotional golfer, and he blurred out
a few f bombs in his day that got picked
up and you know the announcers was so I apologize
for that. You know, I like that kind of stuff.
It gives a little personality to the sport.

Speaker 3 (52:03):
Yeah, I mean, I don't mind a little spiciness, a
little salty language, those things. It's uh, it's a much,
But I mean he feels like he's picking on or
is he melting now, Like I don't think this is
a high pressure environment, Like I don't know why you'd
be so angry.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
Well, I mean he was known as one of those guys.
It was a little bit on edge all the time.
And in recent years as he's ascended to the number
one ranking and you know, having his second major win
with Masters earliers here that it's a calmer genre. He's mary,
he's a father now, he's calmed down. But you know,
when you're not playing well, anybody out there ever cursed
when they having a bad day on the golf course.

(52:41):
I mean, I know, I am. I mean I have
said things that if we had a mike near me, yeah,
it wouldn't be good. So I don't mind that about
John Ram all right. So, and by the way, Connor
still has a two shot laid over Rose and Hoveland
right now at that PGA Golf Championship, they are playing
through the rain. All right, Let's get back to this
Eastern Conference final between the eighth seed, the Miami Heat

(53:05):
and a Boston Celtics team that, at least on paper,
would seem to have the vastly superior team. They have
their triplets, and then of course they just acquire Brogden,
who became the sixth Man of the Year in the NBA.
By the way, the Celtics have now been in the
Eastern Conference finals five in the last seven years. And

(53:26):
if they go down to this Miami Heat team and
they're obviously in deep trouble right now. You know, Celtics
used to be one of those teams, you know, they
win NBA championships the way back in the day. It's
been a long time.

Speaker 3 (53:39):
It has been a long time, and so you know,
one of the things that I'm surprised has been rarely
discussed when it comes to the Celtics in the current state.
I wonder now what this team would be like and
how they would respond. If I'm in Udoka was the
head coach now as opposed to Joe Mizoula, Joe Mozula,

(54:04):
my young guy. I wasn't called the young guy because
he's so young and angry.

Speaker 2 (54:08):
You know a lot of that.

Speaker 3 (54:11):
And I understand like the situation and stuff at the
workplace and all of that. But I think the one
thing that has probably been under discussed when it comes
to the job that Eric Spolster is doing compared to
what the Celtics are doing is not only did the
Celtics at the beginning, you're unexpectedly lose I mean Delka,

(54:31):
they lost the coach, Will Hardy went to Utah, they
lose Damon Stodermeyer to Georgia Tech. This is a team
and I don't know if they really replaced those guys.
So when people are talking about adjustments and in game
things and why aren't they doing this, maybe they don't
have that capacity because you don't have that expertise and experience.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
On the side.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
And the other thing we've talked about this team not
having poise in the fourth quarter and how they're faltering
and why are they faltering and why are they making
these mistakes? Remember last year, before the Celtics turned around.
There was a lot of tough love being doled out
to this team, and you know, oh no, I'm not
taking this. This is on the players. The players got
to do a better job and maybe that team needs

(55:19):
the heavy hand on the And I'm not advocating for
anybody to get fired, but I'm just saying one of
the things that I'm looking at when I look at
this team, and we've seen this team particularly at home,
so up and down five hundred teams shouldn't be like
that in the postseason. Should postseason playoff games at home,
you should win. And so I wonder how much the

(55:40):
coaching change at the beginning of the year now is
impacting how the Celtics are performing well.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
I think that if you look back at the Celtics
victory over the seventy six ers as well as the
Lakers victory over the Warriors, I think more was made
of them than they should have based on the matchup.
So in the Celtics Sixers matchup, you're facing the worst

(56:08):
big tank game coach in the history of the NBA.
Well document it in doc Rivers. He has lost ten
game sevens in the playoffs. Ten He's lost thirty three
games in clinching games for his teams in the playoffs.
There's only been thirteen times in the history of the
NBA that a team has come back from a three

(56:31):
to one series deficit, and Doc Rivers blew three of
those thirteen himself. So when you come up with a
big game as they did in Game six on the
road in Philadelphia, and then obviously Tatum going out for
fifty one in Game seven, keep in mind it was
against Doc Rivers, who immediately was fired after the series.

(56:52):
Same thing with the Lakers. I remember talking before the
playoffs began, after the Lakers got it through the play
in who would you rather face Sacramento or the Golden
State Warriors? And they're like, well, I'd rather face Sacramento.
I'm like, I wouldn't. Those are young legs, you know,
whose legs are as old as the Lakers legs the Warriors.

(57:14):
And it showed, and it showed, it showed up you
see in and so that's why I look at their
win against the Warriors. The Warriors were the perfect opponent
for this Laker team, much as the Philadelphia seventy six
ers or the perfect opponent for the Celtics, which is
why everyone gets excited because it's Lakers Celtics. Oh, they're
on their way. They'll beat Miami, they'll beat Denver. You
know what history they have. No, the two best players

(57:38):
in these playoffs are playing for the Heat, Jimmy Butler
and Nikola jokicch for the Nuggets. And that's why these
teams are right now both sitting too. Oh yeah, they're
sitting there too. Oh. I mean, you just talked about
the Nuggets playing and.

Speaker 3 (57:55):
How about Malone coach Malone being upset because all the
attention has been put on the Lakers, not the Nuggets,
and how everyone supposedly, based on his viewpoint, has kind
of picked the Lakers to knock off the Nuggets when
I don't know if I didn't hear much of that
conversation about the Nuggets being underrated or being disrespected. I
think everyone was going crazy over what Jokers been doing

(58:18):
throughout the postseason, to the point where I issued a
re check an apology saying that I should have made
sure that he was the MVP. This is a team.
When I look at the Lakers and they played hard,
they haven't played poorly. The Nuggets have kind of stepped
up and shown some grit and some fighting. Will know

(58:39):
tonight how far that really goes. But to me, this
has been one where it's kind of playing out like
a ship. Late they'd the number one overall seat and
they've been playing like the number one overall seat compared
to the Lakers and how they came into the dance.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
As far as the Celtics are concern, they're done. I
don't see a Miami melt down at home. At the
very least Miami wins one of the two games at home.
M Yeah, maybe yeah. I mean you think Boston going
Miami and sweep two and get home going back.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
But I think if you're the Miami Heat, this game
is the most important game because you want to go
ahead and let's let's put them out of their misery.
Right three to zero, you're more likely to get them
to quit and just kind of go belly up two
to one. Now Game four becomes an all out brawl
to see how it is and this team is teetering,

(59:31):
going to bring You want to jump on those teams
that are teaving, going to bring believing, uh, whether like
whether they can believe, if they can come back or not.
You put that three to zero on them, they tend
to get ready to leave again.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
It's it's what was really unbelievable if you're a Celtics
fan watching Game two in that fourth quarter, is you
got two scoring superstars and Tatum or Brown and they
both know showed in that fourth What are the chances.
I mean, the idea of having to go to guys

(01:00:06):
is Okay, one guy doesn't have it, the other guy's
gonna jump in and get it done. For both of
them to disappear nikes. No, it's and again I think
Spulster deserves a lot of credit here. Yeah, I don't
know if I don't know if he'll ever get the
credit he deserves as a coach. He's a good coach.
He's a good coach.

Speaker 3 (01:00:26):
This has been an opportunity for them not to do it,
I mean, for them to give him his flowers. And
part of the reason why you have to do it
is just a way in which they've been able to
kind of rise up. They bounce back from being in
the playing tournament, which they lost their first game, finally
make it in, work their way through and then you

(01:00:48):
just seen him. They have just knocked off team after
team and the thing that has been so impressive about
the Miami Heat. There may be games where they missshots,
but the one thing that you never can question about
them their effort level, the toughness they display, and just
the grit and determination to do it even when they're
getting waxed.

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
That's Jimmy Butler man. It is because of the way
he plays the game. It absolutely says sets the table
for everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
When your stars play like that and he has dog
in him, it makes it easy for coach Spoil to
go to everybody else and demand more.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
But just the effort level, and to me, a lot
of what they.

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
Do there isn't anything looks schematically that they're doing that
overwhelms you when you're watching them. The fourth quarter is
basically Jimmy playing one on one basketball in Venice Beach
and he's just banging through there and banging through that,
and he's gonna get a bucket one way or the other.
And if you happen to follow him and put him
on the line, he's gonna knock down two or three
and they're gonna come back and they're gonna challenge you.

(01:01:48):
And that's what has happened. And when Grant Williams poked
the Bear and woke Jimmy up.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
What was he doing getting in his face?

Speaker 4 (01:02:02):
What are you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
I mean, it's just stupid, it is, but it was
just enough to wake them up. And I love Jimmy.
After the game. Asked about it, he goes, yeah, I
like that stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:02:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:02:14):
Oh, he's always edgy. He looking for Yeah, he's looking
for it. He's looking for it, and so their team
kind of looks for it. To me, when I look
at this Miami Heat team, I'm having flashbacks to the
nineties and like the way the Knicks and the Pacers
used to play.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
They beat you up.

Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
The underrated part of what they've been doing is physically
they have. Man, they have made every team they faced work.
You have to work for you buck is They're not
giving up easy.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
And that was the one thing about pat Riley, the
difference between his showtime Lakers and those Knicks teams that
he coached. Suddenly he took what the Pistons had been
and put them on steroids. Yeah, I mean he did.
I mean he he made those Pistons team look soft
with those Anthony Mason, the late great Anthony Mason and
John Starr and x Men Oakley and I.

Speaker 3 (01:03:02):
Mean Charles Smith and Starks and Anthony Mason, all those teams,
And how about that in terms of just a credit
to a coach.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
Absolutely to be able, you got to recognize what you got.

Speaker 3 (01:03:16):
Multiple championships one way, the Showtime Lakers running up and
down the floor doing that, even though the nemesis in
Boston required them to play and learn how to execute
in half court, didn't matter. They just roll through to
they in come back and win another franchise. To completely
flip the way that he played based on his personnel.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
Oh, he saw that Pistons team finally overtake the Lakers, saying,
I actually like the way they played the game. I
you lik and go out of the Lakers and get
away from Magic and take them in a different direction.
Let's find out what is trending right now. It's sort
of like a Jimmy Butler type big gamer. You never
awed by the moment. I know that, mister Brian Finley.

Speaker 7 (01:04:01):
Stephen Bookie, I don't know how good your golf games are.
But as we're following this third round of the PGA Championship,
there was a shot that was taken by Justin Rose
that's going to make us all feel good. I saw
that about our own respective golf games. Did you see this,
Steve Well.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
The rough is rough, to say the least. They're at
Oak Hill, and he hit it out the rough and
it went about six inches in front of him. It
went from rough to rough. That's called a Hartman special.
Here's the thing, though, the difference between Justin Rose and
my game is his next shot. He chipped it up
within a less than a foot of a hole. See

(01:04:37):
my one I would have been chipping like for the
three or four times.

Speaker 7 (01:04:40):
Yeah, well that is for sure. See you bring up
a really good point. As far as Justin Rosie is
three off the pace. Sole leader right now was Corey
Connors from Canada, did not even make the cut at
the Masters this year, and his best finished out of
major is six or tied for six. He is at
six under, one shot lead over Victor ham Lynn, who

(01:05:00):
is even through eleven holes, but Connors all pars except
the birdie on the par four eighth. He is one
under on the day through ten holes. Brooks Koepka isn't
far behind, two shots off the pace at four under.

Speaker 4 (01:05:13):
We mentioned Rose.

Speaker 7 (01:05:13):
Rory McElroy is in the hunt four under or excuse me,
two under four behind, and Bryson Deshambeau after sending his
drive on six into the water, trying to work his
way back into the full two under four of the
tournament one over on the day, he is through twelve holes.
As far as Major League Baseball is concerned, a plethora

(01:05:34):
of games are happening right now. The Blue Jays have
scored four unanswered at home and they are taking it
to the Oriels four to two in the bottom of
the seventh. The Rockies are getting pounded by the Rangers
eight to one on the top of the fifth, where
Texas scoring all of their runs in just the first
and second innings combined. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks have put on

(01:05:56):
another run on the scoreboard here, but they were getting
one hit into the sixth. Pirates still in front three
to two over the d Backs raised in front six
to three against the Brewers there in the top of
the six a game that can be seen on FS one.
There have been a total of five home runs in
that game so far, four of them solo shots. Aaron
Judge has an RBI four of the Yankees, but they're

(01:06:18):
still trailing against the Reds in Cincinnati, four to three
into the top of the fifth, and of course we've
got that big game coming up on Big Fox Fox TV,
Dodgers visiting the Cardinals at seven point fifteen Eastern time,
and Bucky and Steve. We also have the Preakness starting
at seven oh one Eastern time, No, not seven, not

(01:06:40):
seven oh two, but seven oh one Eastern time, the
second leg of the Triple Crown, and not the greatest
of news beforehand, as they had the preliminary races leading
up to the big one at seven eastern tonight, and
that is trainer Bob Baffort had one of his horses ethanized.
The horse the name was have a meltdown, and on

(01:07:00):
a day like this, it certainly did, as he suffered
an injury and then proceeded to fling the jockey off
of his back and that was all we heard from
the horse after that. With that, let's get it back
to Steve Hartman and Bucky Brooks.

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
It just I don't know, Like I said, is there
a place for horse racing in the world we live
in in twenty twenty three, It's.

Speaker 7 (01:07:23):
Very hard considering all the protests. We've had seven horses
die at Churchill Downs. Yeah, you tack on this, and
then the drug use to help the horses as far
as performance enhancing things. And then Santa Nita guys, you've
heard all the trouble that they've gotten it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
They had like thirty desks. Yeah, in a short amount
of time, where I mean there were protests and there
was possible legislation to shut it all down. I mean,
I look at I'm an animal lover. These horses are
training to do one thing from the day they're born.

(01:08:00):
Millions and millions of dollars. Look, I have friends of
mine that have been big time investors in this industry.
These are people that have insane money. I mean you
have to have insane money to get into horse racing
because horse goes down, you're gone. There's no fixing and

(01:08:22):
you just you just millions just went down the drain.
These beautiful animals. So it's it's terrible.

Speaker 7 (01:08:30):
If you're an owner of Steven Bucky, you're probably making
money five percent of the time. If you consider all
of the horses that are out there and the price
of the horses, it really has to be it's like gambling,
and you know you're probably going to suffer a loss,
but there's a thrill of owning a horse because you're
probably not going to come out with a profit, considering

(01:08:52):
that you're trying to make money off the winning winnings
and earnings of these horses.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
I found it comical. The Associated Press every year gives
out the male and female athlete of the Year. They've
been doing this for almost one hundred years, and I
believe they gave it to a horse one time on
the female side. I think it was and I think
beat out Serena Williams. She was asked about, you know,
I mean, but what other sport do we have an

(01:09:19):
animal considered as the athlete? I mean, and by the way,
jockeys are athletes. I known enough jockeys over the years
to tell you they may not be big in stature physically,
but to handle a two thousand pound animal the way
they do, you better be in great shape.

Speaker 7 (01:09:39):
And they have to watch their weight. Oh absolutely, so
think about that. They have to be very cognizant of
what they eat. They go to the scale right beforehand.
That's not a life I want. You would not want
to be on one of these horses. I promise you that,
especially when they're racing, you would not want to be
on one of those horses.

Speaker 2 (01:09:57):
All right, So Preakna's coming up a little bit later on.
I don't know if you've been paying attention at all
to what's happening in the NHL. Let me ask you this,
and I'm going to guess that you're like me, sort
of a periphery type of fan, Like, Hey, you get
maybe the Stanley Cup final, which is not the finals,
it's the final, and you might be paying a little

(01:10:17):
attention to the moment. But I'm thinking of the four
remaining teams and I think about where they're coming from. Florida,
North Carolina, Nevada, and Texas. Nothing screams hockey right ice
hockey like the states of Florida, North Carolina, Texas, and Nevada.

(01:10:45):
It's been thirty years since a Canadian based team won
the Stanley Cup. Doesn't it seem weird to you how
the NHL has evolved over the years from what he
used to be. You know, when I was a little kid,
believe it or not, the NHL had six teams. You
had Boston, you had New York, you had Detroit, you

(01:11:08):
had Chicago, you had Toronto and Montreal. Can you imagine
how good the talent was. Imagine, this is what I
always talk about when they dismiss the NBA. Back in
the day. You know Bill Russell, you know he's playing
against midgets or Will Chamberlain. First of all, they weren't midgets.
And think about this. For much of that time, the

(01:11:32):
Bulls were the ninth team added to the Actually they
were the tenth team added. The NBA had eight teams,
then nine, and the Bulls made ten. Can you imagine
how good the talent would be in the NBA if
you only had ten teams instead of thirty. Can you

(01:11:54):
imagine how good those ten teams would be if you
took the best talent from the thirty teams and condensed
them to ten. In the NHL they had six. You
talk about great teams. Plus you're playing those teams over
and over again, so rivalries were intense because you're seeing

(01:12:15):
the same guys over again. That's why I don't exactly
less is more and you go back.

Speaker 3 (01:12:20):
I was listening to it was into another radio and
they were talking about yesterdyear with the NBA and they
were just talking. They were representing the Miami Heat and
the undrafted guys, but they were talking about how the
NBA draft.

Speaker 2 (01:12:31):
Used to be maybe ten rounds.

Speaker 3 (01:12:33):
Yeah, and so you had fewer teams, you have more draftees,
and how hard it was for someone who may have
been a Division two player to make a roster, let
alone make the NBA. But how resilient and tough you
had to be mentally and physically to handle that part
of it. And so when you think about just the talent,

(01:12:54):
just adding talent, upgrading the talent, I can't imagine what
it would be if you had few teams.

Speaker 2 (01:13:00):
Imagine again the NBA today with instead of thirty teams,
he had ten. Every team would be an all star team, right,
an all star lineup every team, I mean, and that's
the way it used to be.

Speaker 3 (01:13:15):
And you're you're talking about not only the starting line
is because you just shrinking the league in general, but
you have all stars on the bench, yeah, hall of famers,
mean on the I mean on the bench.

Speaker 2 (01:13:27):
I would love to I would love to try to
do this sometime, to take every current NBA roster and
try to condense it down to ten teams, so you're
literally getting rid of two thirds of the players gone
you didn't make the cut. Try that sometime and then

(01:13:49):
and then dismiss the old days when they had well,
there's so much different. It was different, and they are
better athletes today, but the concentration of talent it's completely
different in those days. Because he has fewer teams, less
is more NFL. How would you talk to cut the

(01:14:09):
NFL from thirty two to sixteen teams? How good would
the teams be? I think the teams would be good.
The quarterback play would be different. So you eliminate half
the quarterbacks in the league, Yeah, you do.

Speaker 3 (01:14:19):
And you know so sixteen of those quarterbacks would now
be QB twos as opposed to QB ones. You go
back and you think about what the San Francisco forty
nine ers had when they were able to have. I mean,
it's so crazy to think about Joe Montana, Steve Young. Yeah,
I think they had Steve Bono for a minute, and
then later on the head Elvis grow up. I mean,

(01:14:42):
just just you had quarterbacks that could actually play if
someone got hurt. I mean, Steve Steve Young's a Hall
of Famer backing up another Hall of Famer, which is
right ridiculous. But yeah, you talk about the talent, the depth,
what guys, look like how crazy training camp would be
and you have a very competitive environment.

Speaker 2 (01:15:03):
I mean it'll be nice.

Speaker 4 (01:15:04):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:15:04):
I would say, yeah, yeah, it would be a be
a better product. Sometimes less is more. But anyway, as
far as the NHL playoffs, I don't know if we'll
see another Canadian based team win the Stanley Cup anytime
soon because right now, again, when you think ice hockey,
you think North Carolina, you think Florida, Nevada, the Hurricane,
that's ice hockey. And then you got Texas another great

(01:15:27):
place for ice hockey. All right, coming up on the
other side, we'll get right back to more on the
Lakers situation. By the way, Adam Kaplan or a Fox
Sports Radio NFL insider, is going to join us coming
up in the next hour. So the Lakers, are they done?
Are they finished? Can they come back and win the
series against the Nuggets? And if so, how we'll explain.

(01:15:50):
This is Fox Sports Saturday, Steve Harbin, Bucky Brooks, this
is Fox Sports Saturday. We're coming alive from the Tireraq
dot Com studios. Lookout, Kopka is on a roll right now,
just birdied again. He's gotten two five under three hundred
on his round. He's got the best score of anyone
out there on the course today, and he has one

(01:16:12):
shot off the lead. There's another guy. He's like Jimmy Butler,
right Ka. He seems only show up for the big tournaments.
Sort of the argument against Kopka and his all time
greatness is he seemed to have little interest in the
other tournaments, just shows up for the big ones. I
don't know that works, okay, And he's on the Live Tour,
so he's making a lot work that's working. He doesn't

(01:16:34):
really want to play anything but these majors, which is
great if you show up. And this guy shows up.
He's had four wins in majors and four runner ups.
Right now, he's one shot off the lead. So we
got it going on. Speaking of showing up for the
big games, Lebron James and Anthony Davis, who talked a
little earlier about Lebron James and I have some questions

(01:16:58):
if Lebron is really that go to guy now in
the fourth quarter. But I've said this before the season
began for the Lakers. I said this before the playoffs
of the Lakers. I will say it again with the
Lakers there's one player who will dictate how far this
team goes, and his name is Anthony Davis. When you
watch Ad put up forty like he did in that

(01:17:19):
first game and then come back with a four for
fifteen shooting performance in game two, Am I missing something here?
I mean, this guy was voted one of the seventy
five greatest players in the history of the NBA. His
resume has been a little sidetracked because he's had so
many injuries over the course of his career. But he's

(01:17:40):
obviously capable of completely taking over games. Yeah, and then
he doesn't show up offensively in game two? You kidding me?

Speaker 3 (01:17:52):
I mean it's a huge problem. It's a huge problem
that he doesn't show up, he doesn't play well. Why
you're counting on him? Because this was supposed to be
the takeover. This was supposed to be Anthony Davis taking over.
This was supposed to be almost Kareem abdul Jabbar and
Magic Johnson flipped Lebron James playing the role of Kareema
du Jabbar, Anthony Davis playing the role of Magic Johnson,

(01:18:15):
the young guy that takes it over. We start with
cap early, then we let Magic finish the game. It
was supposed to start with Lebron early, let Ad do
all the heavy lifting and finish the game. It is
not materialized, and so now you have an older Lebron
James having to figure out, how do I play this

(01:18:35):
delicate balance between when I expend all my energy or
not because once I tap in, once it goes to
the red line, it's no coming back.

Speaker 2 (01:18:42):
And he's trying to do that.

Speaker 3 (01:18:44):
But the Nuggets are playing with enough confidence and with
enough people shooters, they're not.

Speaker 2 (01:18:51):
Allowing Lebron to settle into the game and be able
to steal it at the end. I liked the idea
that the Lakers had of not exhausting Ad by tying
to have him somehow shut down on player that's not
shut down a bull, that being Jokic, And so that
was the game planning game too. Remember, so they started Vanderbilt,

(01:19:13):
which was a smart move because the smaller lineup was
a dismal failure in Game one, where they rebounded twenty
two to six in the first quarter of that game.
It seemed to be working, and then everything was in
place for Anthony Davis. He made one three out of
the corner, but that's that's not his game where Anthony.

(01:19:33):
When I'm watching Anthony Davis dominate offensively, Nobody can guard
this guy. He's too long, he's too skilled, he has
touch mid range jumper. He doesn't have to sit at
the three point line and then around the basket. There
is no excuse. Nobody can guard this guy around the basket.

(01:19:53):
So when he just disappears and all of a sudden,
they're turning to Austin Reeves to banking for three point
shots and keep them in a game, or an exhausted
Lebron James, I'm just I'm baffled.

Speaker 4 (01:20:08):
I can't.

Speaker 2 (01:20:09):
I can't include him on the list the best players
in the game. If you can't consistently do it in
the big games.

Speaker 4 (01:20:15):
No, you can't. You have to be able to do it.

Speaker 2 (01:20:16):
You gotta be able to get it done. And he
hasn't been able to do it. Is disappointing.

Speaker 3 (01:20:20):
You want it more, You want more when he was coming,
when he came over, he was brought over to be
the closer, and he's not been able to close out game.

Speaker 2 (01:20:25):
The frustration is definitely with Lebron. All Right, we'll have
much more on that matchup between the Lakers and Nuggets
and NFL football here on Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 1 (01:20:34):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 2 (01:20:45):
Oh, it's been a big day and it's only going
to get bigger with that upcoming matchup between the Lakers
and Nuggets, Game three of the Western Conference Finals, Third
round of the PGA Championship, winding down in the rain,
and once again we are broadcasting live from the tire
rack dot Com studios ty rack dot com. We're gonna
get you there, an unmatched selection, fast readshipping, free road

(01:21:09):
hazard protection, over ten thousand recommended installers, tyre rack dot
com the way tire buying should be. The PGA Golf
Championship is unique that they have twenty players in the
field that are golf pros Bucky, They're not members of
any tour, they're teaching professionals, and they leave twenty slots

(01:21:32):
open every single year in the PGA tournament to qualifiers
from this group. Rarely, predictably do any of these guys
ever come close to making a cut. But this year
not only has one guy made the cut. He's only

(01:21:52):
what am I looking at here? Six shots off the lead.
Michael Block is this guy's name, and he is even
par in the tournament. To put that in perspective, there
are only nine golfers that are even par right now
or better.

Speaker 4 (01:22:09):
This guy's not.

Speaker 2 (01:22:10):
Even a regular golfer. It's like a golf pro. It's
like that guy that tries to make you a better golfer.
Good luck, and the guy is even part he was.
He had an even part seventy yesterday. He had an
even par seventy in the first round and he's on
pace for an even part seventy if he bars the
last two holes today. His name is Michael Block. I

(01:22:35):
mean the world's number one John ram Is at plus six.
This guy's six shots better than John Rahm. Has there
ever been a time in your life where you took
golf seriously, like you really, you know, started got the
bug and he started saying, Yeah, I'm gonna start playing
a little more golf, get out to the range, you know,
play a little more. Did you ever get to that point.

Speaker 3 (01:22:56):
I did for a while where I head to bug
and I was I was playing I was going, uh
three or so times, three four times a week. I
was trying to get my game up. I was doing
all this other stuff. I was obsessed with watching Golf
Channel and tips and books and nuggets and podcasts and
all kinds of other stuff. But then you know, you

(01:23:17):
just kind of watch it enough and you realize it that.

Speaker 2 (01:23:19):
Man, I'd never be a that. Look.

Speaker 3 (01:23:21):
I mean, it's a lot of a lot of there's
a lot of investment. It's just a lot of a
lot of And so I I stopped, and I can
go And if you're like, hey, but let's go play,
I'll go. I can play, and I can play well
enough that I want to embarrass you. I won't decent,
hopefully I won't duff many of them, but I can.
I can pretty much get it out there and do
that other stuff. But yeah, I just could not get

(01:23:44):
into the point where, when it bites some people, it
is all consuming.

Speaker 2 (01:23:49):
It never became that for me. See, I look at
as as you know, Bucky, you know me then I'm
a big historian of sports, all sports. Uh, you know,
I guess what's that's me apart is the fact that
I've met a lot of guys over the years that
you know, really know football, or they know baseball, or
they know basketball, you know, and I'm just across the board.

(01:24:12):
I know them all, and I have interest in all
of them. But I see sometimes, like you mentioned the
Golf Channel, I also watched the Golf Channel a lot,
especially around a major, right, and they interview these people
that are on the periphery, you know, the groundskeepers or

(01:24:32):
you know, golf pros, people that have dedicated their life
to one sport, one sport with the exclusion of all
other sports an expert. Now, one of my frustrations when
I worked for the Raiders organization. It's not that I
don't love the NFL. Certainly, I loved, you know, the

(01:24:54):
players of the Raiders. And I mean I was there
with Bo Jackson, I was there with Marcus Allen, Alie Long,
Jim Plugget, got all the players in just my short
amount of time there. That was all great, But I'm like,
I can't just do one sport. I need to be
around all the sports. So as it turned out, I
lucked out and got into sports talk radio, and I've
been able to expose myself to all these sports. When

(01:25:17):
we talk about the NFL being a dominant force, obviously
in your life football in general. Could you live on
football excluding all other sports, or do you need that
diversity in your on your sports menu? For me, I

(01:25:39):
could take football all the time. You could do football
all the time. I could do it all the time.
And I am a sports junkie.

Speaker 3 (01:25:46):
I grew up loving baseball as my number one and
then everything kind of fell in line after that. But
if you ask me now, if I could have it,
and if you gave me, the only caveat I would
put is do sports have to have to have a
mix of college and pro.

Speaker 2 (01:26:01):
Because I love them for different reasons?

Speaker 4 (01:26:04):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:26:04):
But if I could have you give me seven days
a week and you told me that on five of
those days there's a game on good, I'm good with it.

Speaker 2 (01:26:14):
See, I'm look. I understand the NFL is the game
played at the highest level, but the pageantry of college football,
forget it. Nothing matches, it matches, so it's funny. And
the traditions so I college. I like the traditions of
college football. I love the pageantry, but I also love
the diversity. And let me explain the diversity. I love

(01:26:36):
seeing different styles of play, meaning some teams like Army,
you see triple option.

Speaker 3 (01:26:42):
You will see old school traditional like you'll see USC
running the air ring, You'll see other teams running spread,
and there are different variations.

Speaker 2 (01:26:51):
College football is very regional. Yes, there's a difference between Midwest,
south West, least.

Speaker 3 (01:26:58):
I love all of this, so to me, it's appealing
and I am a huge obviously NFL junkie, but there
is something about college football.

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
On a Saturday. And now this is we're going back yesteryear.

Speaker 3 (01:27:13):
But growing up on the East Coast, it was almost
like watching never never Land when you watch the ABC
game on and they were at USC or UCLA and
it was the night game out my way. But it's
sunset here and the backdrop and those traditions and watching

(01:27:35):
like even going back and watching the rose Ball because
you see the cross matchups between you see a Michigan
take on a Pack.

Speaker 2 (01:27:41):
And the weather usually on January first in Pasadena was different,
just all of it.

Speaker 3 (01:27:45):
And the bowl games and see the bowl games were different.
Because we have so many now you can't appreciate it.
But back then when it was the polls and you
had to watch the Orange Bowl to see Miami and
Nebraska play, you had to watch Oklahom play.

Speaker 2 (01:28:00):
These teams man. That was everything, and to me it
still is everything. College football is my number one I
Brian Fanley, b Fan, I got a question for you.
So we're asking this question. If you were to follow
one sport exclusively, forsaking all other sports, what sport would

(01:28:22):
it be?

Speaker 7 (01:28:23):
Oh, man, you're putting me on the spot. I don't
think I can do that. I would say tennis, but
then I would also say college football. There is nothing
like going to an SEC football game and feeling the
pageantry and hearing the bands play, and I just don't
think anything is comparable to that.

Speaker 2 (01:28:39):
Well, the thing about tennis, tennis and golf are very similar.
They have four majors that dominate their schedule and everything else.
The difference in tennis is that, with all due respect
to women on the LPGA Tour, in tennis, women are
on equal playing field. They play the exact same majors
and they get the same amount of money. So you
really double down your pledge. I mean, it's the one

(01:29:01):
sport or women are literally on equal level of the men.
But can you imagine because you've you've been around the
tennis circuit obviously, and you know those people that are
one hundred percent male married to the sport, like there
is another sport to them. You know those people, right,
And I always wonder what it would be like because

(01:29:21):
I see it in golf also, like these people like
that's it baseball. I've seen that with baseball. Obviously with football.
I don't know how that would be though. It's tough,
right one sport.

Speaker 7 (01:29:34):
If you're into tennis, yes it is. You are out
there on an island, out there by yourself. But if
you are inside the top two hundred in the world,
you have your quote unquote team, you've got your physio,
you've got to coach. Although I got to say, if
you're not inside that top two hundred in the world,
it is very lonely because you're going to these hotels
and you're not making a whole lot of money, and
you might be by yourself, and a lot of these guys,

(01:29:56):
like a lot of those right on the brink dealing
with all sorts of mental health issues because they're trying
to make their dreams happen. They're not making a lot
of money, they can't afford bringing a coach with them
on their travels to these different events, so it's battle
testing you just like all of these other sports when
it comes to trying to break through and become that
household name.

Speaker 2 (01:30:18):
At Cannon Hartman on my Twitter account. If there is
a sport that you could tie yourself to exclusively forsaking
all other sports, what would it be, Chris? What do
you got?

Speaker 1 (01:30:34):
Sorry?

Speaker 8 (01:30:35):
Still learning this new board. As much as NFL and
college football are my kings, the off seasons kills it
so much.

Speaker 1 (01:30:41):
For me.

Speaker 8 (01:30:41):
I would probably have to be and I've been leaning
into it doing coverage. It would be international soccer because
it's just it's always on all the time. There is
really no off season, so you.

Speaker 2 (01:30:52):
Could forstsake all other sports and literally you could survive.

Speaker 8 (01:30:56):
It's a twenty four to seven hour buffet. Be it MLS,
the European club scenes, International for FIFA, the women's game,
which is we're gonna have the world the Women's World
Cup here coming up in July. Like it's always on,
but it's also at the same time, every game is
important enough where it's not like it's not fading into
the background. It's it's like I think for clubs, it's

(01:31:17):
like the thirty eight game season versus the massive seasons
we get for the NBA, or for baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:31:23):
How about you, Brandon, probably say baseball. There are a
lot of baseball people. It's a long season, you know,
and I know people like that.

Speaker 9 (01:31:36):
The off season doesn't feel very good.

Speaker 2 (01:31:37):
They have zero interest in football, zero interest in basketball,
zero interest in anything other than baseball. So you would
envision yourself, Brandon down the road as one of those
people that will see it like Padres games, Camp down
and Peco in your seat every day.

Speaker 9 (01:31:52):
Yeah, I'm gonna have one of those like transistor radios
back when those are an ancient relative.

Speaker 2 (01:31:58):
To those on ass now on the smart Yeah, you
could do that, all right.

Speaker 9 (01:32:01):
I'm earn the little like stupid headphones.

Speaker 2 (01:32:06):
I just can't do it. I mean, as much as
I love all these sports, I couldn't just narrow it
down to one. But if I had to do one
college football, that would be my one. That would be
my one. All right. Coming up on the other side,
we're going to talk to a guy that when it
comes to the NFL I don't well, we'll find out
from him. He is our Fox Sports Radio NFL insider

(01:32:27):
Adam Kaplan will join us. Coming up next, Steve Harbin,
Bucky Brooks, Fox Sports Saturday, coming alive from the tai
Iraq dot com studios Victor Hovlin and Corey Connors. So
we'll share the late one shot ahead of Brooks Koepka.
Somebody sent me on Twitter here, let's see what is this?
He goes here, Wait what you're talking? Golf in an

(01:32:50):
event without Tiger Woods. I'm tuning in because I literally
don't believe this is true. Of course it's true. I
mean it's a major golf championship, whether you care or not.
You know one thing that everyone cares about twenty four
to seven, that is the National Football League. And we
have our Fox Sports Radio NFL insider Adam Kaplan joining
us right now. Adam, before we get to some NFL news,

(01:33:11):
a question for you. We were talking about if you
could only follow a sport with one hundred percent exclusivity,
forsaking all others forever. Could you do that with the NFL?
Or do you need a mix of something else?

Speaker 3 (01:33:29):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:33:29):
Boy, I see the NBA's a change up for me.
So it does work.

Speaker 10 (01:33:34):
It's funny you asked that, because that's kind of why
I got interested in fact, in two thousand and four,
I covered both sports briefly, but because the overlapped, I
just could not continue to do it. But the NBA
would be my change up. But the NFL, because you're
not playing every day every night, that it made it
easier to manage that you didn't have to worry about that.

(01:33:55):
But as you guys know, the information never stops. It's
all the time. We just don't have game every day
like we have an MLB and NBA and others.

Speaker 2 (01:34:02):
It is amazing because you know, we've talked about this
many times. In the course of a three hour NFL game,
there's actually like ten minutes of actual play in an
NFL game where you know, the ball snapped or that's
how much the rest of it is, you know, huddles
and calling plays and lining up and everything else. And
yet despite that, it doesn't matter. I mean, we live

(01:34:25):
for those ten minute bites right now, all right. As
far as NFL news concerned, any truth of the rumor
that the Raiders are shopping Devonte Adams, I've.

Speaker 4 (01:34:35):
Not heard that. What happened was.

Speaker 10 (01:34:38):
He voiced some complaints about the direction of the team.
Try to walk some of that back. Look, they were
shopping Darren Waller from multiple teams, I spoke with they
were trying to move them. They got actually pretty good
value their started and they traded with the Giants for
a third round pick for a guy who's thirty years
old and turns thirty one's fall and missed a lot

(01:34:58):
of time last season due to hamstering problems. That was
decent value. Now they extend his contract the season before,
which is bizarre.

Speaker 4 (01:35:05):
But no, they're for them to move them.

Speaker 10 (01:35:08):
The dead money on the cap would be very significant.
There's nothing going on there that I know of.

Speaker 3 (01:35:13):
You know, Adam Oda's kickoff this week? What are some
of the things. What's the most important storyline that you're
gonna be following.

Speaker 10 (01:35:20):
Yeah, and not that I want to overrate this stuff,
but it's like with with with Richardson the quarterback for
the Colts. Getting these guys snaps is so important because
he's gonna play this season. He's gonna play a lot.
It's just a matter of does he start week one
Week five? And then the other one is getting Lamar
Jackson in there. I know this is a priority for
that the Ravens. One of the reasons why they pushed

(01:35:41):
is to get him in there with the new offense.
Coordinator Todd Monkin, and the offense is going to change somewhat.
Will still be run based, but they'll they'll be throwing
the ball more than they have in the past. Him
to learn this offense at the terminology, it's going to
be a change for him. So I really and by
the way, I look forward to going to their training camp.
They're gonna have some joint practices with Washington. I'll probably
go to that one. I look forward to seeing how

(01:36:01):
this offense is going to change.

Speaker 2 (01:36:03):
Jim Brown passed away obviously a big story. I mean,
when you talk about a mount rushmore in the NFL,
Jim Brown obviously has a spot. There's no question about that.
And I got to know Jim did several shows with him,
and I've always said this, he was a highly intelligent
man who would talk about everything other than football if
you so chose. He's complicated his legacy because of all

(01:36:27):
the domestic abuse charges against them. That cannot be dismissed.
But when we talk in terms of a running back
of the mold of a Jim Brown who averaged over
one hundred yards a game for his entire career, never
missed a game, was the MVP is last season, is there?

(01:36:49):
I would like to get your perspective as someone that
follows the modern game in a place for a guy
like Jim Brown, who played the game from nineteen fifty
seven to nineteen sixty five.

Speaker 4 (01:37:01):
Yeah, he actually retired the year I was born.

Speaker 10 (01:37:03):
And it's really when I started covering the league in
nineteen ninety nine, just trying to gather information about how
people view the league and the greatness of certain players.
Walter Payton obviously would be right up there, but he
was universally Jim Brown the best player to ever played
like this is the guy that people talked about. And
remember at a time when he played for the Browns,

(01:37:26):
he had the target on his back. Everyone wanted to
take him down. And you remember when he'd get up,
even if it was slow, he'd come right back the
whole He would not go the sidelines.

Speaker 4 (01:37:34):
That was his big thing.

Speaker 10 (01:37:36):
It was just amazing and another one of the things
that I found interesting. I remember hearing about this and
then I'll add a little bit to it. So he
was an All American and not only football but lacrosse. Yes,
and here's the other fact. One of the top scorers
in basketball in Syracuse history. So think about it, this guy.
How often do you hear about you know, it's one thing. Okay,
football and basketball. We've seen that Donald McNabb, I know,

(01:37:58):
playing on the basketball team at Syracuse, but to be
a high level three sport athlete and also including lacrosse
in there, this guy was certainly one of the best
best athletes of any sport in our lifetime.

Speaker 4 (01:38:10):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:38:10):
Piggybacking off your comment about Jim Brown and his involvement
in so many different sports. When you've talked to scouts
and general managers about multi sport athletes, have you found
that they have a preference for guys that have done
more things in the athletic life than just play football.

Speaker 10 (01:38:26):
They like it as long as those sports. Buckeff actually
had these conversations before, have not worn them down now.
And I go back to Antonio Gates, who was a
power forward for Kent State. We might remember him in
the NCAA tournament when then Kent State had a run
and he played very well.

Speaker 4 (01:38:41):
He was a non drafter free agent.

Speaker 10 (01:38:43):
He did not play called football, played in high school
and they loved it because he wasn't beat up. I mean,
we've seen a bunch of former basketb players who have
played football.

Speaker 4 (01:38:53):
But you know, it's one thing.

Speaker 10 (01:38:54):
Let's say you played ice hockey and football, you probably
would worry about that because of the total of the
physical injuries that you could have in the physical play.
But yeah, they from from talking to scouts and personal
people that they like it with two sports because it
does show the athleticism.

Speaker 2 (01:39:10):
I'll share a quick story with you guys. When I
was working for the Raiders, Ron Wolfe was our director
of player person out and I asked him about Artshell.
Artchell played at Maryland Eastern Shore Maryland State Is it
was called Emerson Boozer came out of their great chests
running back and they took an art Shell in the
third round. I said, what what was it about Artshell?
Had he seen much of Artshell? And he said no.

(01:39:33):
But we did a little scouting. We found out that
he played high school basketball, and we're thinking, well, if
the guy is that big and he could play basketball,
he's probably got pretty good feet.

Speaker 4 (01:39:45):
That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:39:46):
And that's how unsophisticated, wow, you know, scouting was, but
that that's sort of like the direction they went to. Obviously,
one of the greatest offensive tackles in the history of
the National Football League. All right, so what's what's that's
the latest with Aaron Rodgers and the Jets when we
talk about OTAs and what's going to go on over
the next what are the Jets games plan and how

(01:40:08):
much time do they need to get him on track
with the rest of this team.

Speaker 10 (01:40:13):
Yeah, he did commit to being there partially for ots
and that's good because now it's not the offense. He
knows the offense. They're running the same exact offense that
they ran in Green Bay. It's just he's thrown to
just about everyone who except for two guys Ranal Cobb,
who's is very close in front of his closest friends,
who will get some time in the slot, and Allen
Zard who signed for eleven million a year. But they've

(01:40:33):
got to get their timing down. And this is another
team when you look at it as Marquee. All of
a sudden, you get Aaron Rodgers, you get five primetime games,
and do not be surprised if they get flexed to
a more primetime games.

Speaker 4 (01:40:46):
And by the league talking to.

Speaker 10 (01:40:47):
The league a couple of weeks ago, you could get
flexed to as many as seven. Again, if that's what,
If that's what the game's called for. They're super important
and the fans want to see if they're going to
do that. So all of a sudden, the Jets have
become a mark key team for the first time in decades.

Speaker 3 (01:41:03):
You know, I think about the just becoming a more
key team. There's been a lot of buzz about the
Detroit Lions. How confident are you that the Lions will
be able to live up to some of the hypes
surrounding their existence this year?

Speaker 2 (01:41:15):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:41:15):
In fact, I did my power rankings. I have them
in the top ten.

Speaker 10 (01:41:18):
I think I have them at seven or eight because
they already have one of the better offensive lines. Jared
goffat was to me. I voted for him for I
think comeback Player of the Year. See I couldn't say
Guno Smith player there because he's never done anything before.
Jared Goff got the Super Bowl with the Rams and
obviously fell in hard times, but he was really tremendous.

Speaker 4 (01:41:36):
Now they had a good draft.

Speaker 10 (01:41:38):
You could say, Bucky that maybe by positional value they
didn't go get the greatest value, but getting Jamior Gibbs,
who's super explosive, most explosive back for this draft and
Jack Campbell one of the best off the ball linebackers
for this draft.

Speaker 4 (01:41:52):
They've really helped themselves.

Speaker 10 (01:41:53):
Their biggest issue is going to be in the secondary,
particularly a corner, but they think they're better off than
they were last year. To me, will decide by the
way I'm already picked them in the Winter Vision, but
the cornerback position will ultimately decide how far they go.
To me, they're better than Green Bay And look, we
don't know much, although I know the Packers are very
high on Jordan Love. They feel like, you really had

(01:42:13):
a great off season last year and now he's going
to be the guy there quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:42:16):
All right, Well, final question is going to be about
the NBA, since that's your side, sure side, Gig Any
chance that either the Lakers or Celtics come back down
two zero in their series and get to the NBA Finals.

Speaker 10 (01:42:28):
I can't believe. I just do not believe. I don't
even know what to compare it to what the Mima
heater doing. Eighth seed in the East, and really, quite frankly,
I don't want to see they linked in, but you
look at their roster and you go, how the heck,
are they doing a great system?

Speaker 4 (01:42:41):
Jimmy Butler is playing at an MVP level. He's put
the team on his back.

Speaker 10 (01:42:45):
Yeah, I'm still look, I'm still going to pick the
Celtics to beat the to beat the Heat. But man, look,
Denver's very good. By the way, I really want to
see that the Nuggets play the Celtics in the finals.
And a shout out to a guy in the Nuggets
front office, Jimmy Lebenoff, who's the director of scouting, who
I grew up with, who went to the same high
school as I didn't back in Philly, and they've been

(01:43:07):
a great story. Ben Nobody really talks about the Nuggets,
but right now they have to be the fair to
win it all.

Speaker 2 (01:43:13):
You hear that, Buck, he's still picking the Celtics.

Speaker 10 (01:43:16):
I hate losing up here, but I the first two
at home, so I know it's unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (01:43:21):
How do you explain the stuff with?

Speaker 2 (01:43:24):
You mean, yes, I don't know the NBA. What's more
attracted to them? The Lakers, Celtics, NBA Finals or they Heat? Denver? Yeah,
don't count him out yet, don't count him out? Yeah,
great stuff is always enjoy OTAs and we'll talk to
you next week. Thanks Adam, Thanks Adam Kaplan, joonas our
Fox Sports Radio NFL insider. All right, let's find out

(01:43:45):
what is trending right now. Be Fenn Brian Finley, who
is given his eye on this golf. They're gonna get
this round done despite all the rain and everything.

Speaker 7 (01:43:54):
It's impressive to consider what they had been dealing with
ever since the sun came up in the morning and
right now there have been waves of rain, sometimes with
more force than at other times, but they have been
able to truck on here and what we've got third
round nearly coming to an end. We do have a
couple of golfers out there, including our leaders, Victor Hovlin

(01:44:15):
and Corey Connors, both a two headed lead here at
six under each, both one under four of their days,
both are through thirteen holes. They were the last, of course,
to tee off today. Brooks Keepka as his within one.
He is at five under, three under on the Dave
Steve is really high on him, and Keepka is making

(01:44:35):
some noise. One who isn't to Scotti Scheffler. He started
the day and he shared the lead at five under,
but four bogies marring his outward nine. He has five
shots off the pace one under for the tournament, plus
four today and yes, Victor Hovelin and Connor's both at
six under as they are deep into their inward nine.

(01:44:56):
Major League Baseball going on as well. The Rays are
p manishing the Brewers eight to three, and Tampa looking
to score some more. They've got runners on all bases
here with two outs in the bottom of the seventh
game that can be seen on FS one. The Yankees
have tied things up here with the Reds. They're in
the top of the seventh for a piece. Elsewhere, the

(01:45:17):
Diamondbacks have jumped in front of the Pirates. They're four
to three in favor of Arizona. Game being played in
Pittsburgh as they are making their way down to the
bottom of the eighth and the Ranger just putting it
on the Rockies eleven to one bottom of the sixth,
Texas scoring eight of those eleven runs over the first
two innings combined, and the Orioles they had an early lead,

(01:45:39):
then came back the Blue Jays and we might be
headed to extras here in Toronto with it five to
five blue Jays and Orioles in the top of the
ninth right now, and lastly Bucky and Steve coming up
in about a half an hour the Preakness seven oh
one Eastern time is post time for that one, so
that in our second leg of the Triple Crown. Also

(01:46:01):
coming up is on Fox Television, the Dodgers are visiting
the Cardinals at seven point fifteen Eastern. With that, let's
get it back to Bucky Brooks and Steve Hartman.

Speaker 2 (01:46:13):
All right, b fan, once again, we are coming you
live from the tyraq dot com studios. Let me ask
you this. In this Lakers Denver series, Lebron said, I
think we improved from game one to Game two. If
we can do the same thing from game two to

(01:46:34):
game three, we put ourselves in a position to win.
By the way, I heard Darvin Ham say something similar
after their game to loss. I'm trying to figure out,
did you see any significant improvement of the Lakers from
Game one to game two?

Speaker 3 (01:46:55):
You know the funny thing in both of those games,
those games were winnable games for the Lakers. There were
fifty to fifty games in the four quarter. The improvement
comes from just the field. Do they feel like they're
beginning to get a sense of what the Nuggets are
doing offensively, meaning mastering their patterns on the court, being
able to anticipate Oh okay they line up in this
that we know that this play is going to happen. Yeah,

(01:47:17):
there can be some improvement. And so what the Lakers
are trying to get us to buy into is more
of a process oriented approach as opposed to results driven.
And so their process they feel like, look, we're mastering
the process of understanding this team. We just haven't gotten
the results. And to be honest, they've played two games

(01:47:38):
on the road. You know, if they're able to kind
of whole serve and whin they are two games at home,
then it becomes a real series, and so a lot
of it will be determined and how well they play tonight.
But I can understand them feeling better about the process.
They just need to get to win.

Speaker 4 (01:47:52):
Well.

Speaker 2 (01:47:52):
I'm concerned about a couple of things here. First of all, Yeah,
the Lakers have yet to lose at Crypto dot Com Arena.
That's hard for a lot of people to say. It's
always Staples to me, but anyway, Crypto dot Com Arena,
So I mean they have that going. They have a
lost home game, yet, including the play in round, Lebron

(01:48:14):
James has now missed his last nineteen three point shots
in the fourth quarter of playoff games. He is zero
for ten in this series from three point range. One
reminded of these numbers, Darvin Ham said, hey, he was open.

(01:48:38):
They're playing off of him. He's a highly capable three
point shooter. He let it fly. I'm not so sure
about that. When I know Lebron James can still dominate
is when he's going to the hoop. He's a runaway
freight train. No one stops him. When he goes to

(01:48:59):
the hoop, nobody, No one has for twenty years. He
gets that big body motoring toward the basket. Never doesn't
have anybody to match up on him.

Speaker 4 (01:49:08):
No, no team does.

Speaker 2 (01:49:10):
And so I know that it takes more energy than
standing there at the three point line. But that is
a losing proposition for the Lakers tonight. The idea that, hey,
the reason they're laying off him is because he's not
making any shots, and so if you continue down that path,

(01:49:33):
you're gonna get similar results. I do not trust him
from the three point line. I think that's a horrific idea,
especially when he's missed nineteen straight in the fourth quarter.
I guess some of that. But you shooters have to
keep shooting. But you have other guys that can shoot.

Speaker 3 (01:49:50):
You have other guys who can shoot. But he is Lebron,
and whether we like it or not, it runs through him.
Because Anthony Davis hasn't shown that he's ready to do that.
Here's what I would challenge all the Lakers to do.
To play with more force, to play downhill. This has
to be a game where everything is either a layup
or were going to the line. We've seen that in

(01:50:13):
other series, particularly in the Eastern Conference, going back to
when we watched the Knicks in the heat.

Speaker 2 (01:50:17):
When they can't hit shots, they put the ball on
the floor, they go to the rack.

Speaker 3 (01:50:21):
And I know we're still at a time where everyone
is living and dying with a three pointer. But if
I am Darbnham, I'm pulling Lebron to the side and
all those other guards get a foot in the paint.
We need to get a foot in the paint and
force them to defend and put the onus on the
referees to either call the foul us while they whistles.

Speaker 2 (01:50:40):
I just don't understand it again. The Warriors introduced us
to a whole different style of game, which, by the way,
if you've only been an NBA fan for let's say
the last decade, you really don't know any other style
of game in the NBA. But that was predicated on
the fact that you had Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.
They two of the best three point shooters in the game. Yeah,

(01:51:03):
they're playing to their personnel exactly. That's why they did it.
Jerry West came in as a consultant and said, look,
with the players you have, this is your best chance
of winning. Now. No one dreamt it was gonna win
four championships, but thats just how great Steph Curry's been,

(01:51:23):
along with Klay Thompson, and then the added grit of
a guy like Draymond Green. I think it's coming back,
though I think we're seeing not the style of play
for the Lakers though that's not their game, no, but
I think it's coming back league wise.

Speaker 3 (01:51:37):
I think it's coming back in terms of, hey, let's
quit firing up all these threes, these low percentage shots
where it's feast of famine. Let's put a foot in
the paint. Let's hit some mid ranges. I mean, we
can keep talking about the heat, but that's what they're
doing there. Yes, people are talking about them hitting threes,
but the daggers are coming from Jimmy Butler in the
fourth quarter, going in in, going into the paint, mid

(01:52:00):
range jays and that stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:52:02):
And you have to do it.

Speaker 3 (01:52:03):
When you look at the Nuggets, yes they're hitting bonds,
but Joker is killing folks inside in the paint with
an assortment of mid range floaters, post moves and all that.

Speaker 2 (01:52:14):
And so you have to do it. If you're the Lakers,
every possession is valuable.

Speaker 3 (01:52:19):
You can't waste them with those bad what I called
just give up shots, bad shots, you just sell them
for bad three.

Speaker 2 (01:52:24):
Yeah, and the guy that is making taking the most
bad shots is a guy that I've recognized, says the goat,
Lebron James. He's taking the worst shots for this team.
Then he can't do it. I'm sorry, you are not
shooting threes today?

Speaker 1 (01:52:37):
You are.

Speaker 3 (01:52:38):
I think you will see him be more intentional, more
intentional when he when he gets it. Because Game six
versus the Warriors, yeah, everything, he's pulling the China shot.

Speaker 2 (01:52:49):
He has to go back to that game plan. That
has to be the game plan tonight against the Nuggets.
No one thing I know at Crypto do carm Arena
fanso already Crypto, They'll be ready to go. Lakers and Nuggets.
All right. Final thoughts coming up on the other side
of what's going to happen this week eventually which teams
will be matched up in the NBA Finals. This is
Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 6 (01:53:10):
So decision do you hit it firmly take the breakout
or do you hit it more gently and give it
a little bit more break That's a little bit more
gently and is in the heart of the whole and
another verd. He goes on the pod for Victor Havlin,
joint leader of the PGA Championship at sixth under.

Speaker 2 (01:53:28):
That's serious exam coverage of the third round of the
PGA Championship, Victor Hoblin taking share the lead there. We'll
have an update on leaderboard here in a second. By
the way, that's our Progressive play of the day, brought
to buy Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable.
Get a multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat,

(01:53:49):
ATV and more. All your protection one place, bundle and
save at Progressive dot com. I want to thank the
guys today. Iowa was Sam out today, John Ramos making
a rare weekend appearance, Chris of course jumping in as well. Well,
I mean, you know, Bryan Finley doing the updates, saying

(01:54:11):
that he could marry himself to tennis perhaps, but he
needs a little college football in the mix. And then
courus our brilliant producer Brandon All checking in. By the way, brand,
I haven't asked you about the struggling Padres today, a
team that was hyped up to be the superstar baseball team.
Uh now Manny Machado on the injured list of some

(01:54:31):
slight fracture on his hand. Are you upset about the
turn of fortune for your beloved Sandy goa Padres? Well?

Speaker 9 (01:54:40):
Yeah, I mean when you can't score with the runners
in scoring position, you can get guys on base all day,
can't bring anything all.

Speaker 2 (01:54:46):
You shouldn't put up in the middle of the thing.
You happy about that?

Speaker 1 (01:54:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:54:52):
I've been going since then. It's been terrible something since
that we saw what happens when you poked the bear,
like having a Grant Williams and Jimmy Butler. Yes, yeah,
there Dodgers up. Dodge has been on fire. Yeah, Dodgers.
I think I have what about seven game lead over
the Potteries now some crazy number deep star mirror. Right now,

(01:55:13):
I'm watching here Corey Conners, who is the leader right
now at seven under par. I'm trying to figure this out.
He had a second shot on the sixteenth hole from
the sand and he hid it straight into the side
of the bunker where they have this very deep rough

(01:55:33):
and it just sort of got buried in it to
the point where I guess they deemed it unplayable and
he got relief from that shot, unfortunately also hitting the rough.
So we could have a change of the leaderboard and
brooks Kepka. When it's all said and done, brooks Kepka
most likely he is going to be in the final

(01:55:54):
pairing of the day and that is going to be interesting,
Bucky if brooks Kepka and his allegiance, his marriage with
Live Golf or to win his fifth major, third PGA Championship.
But the reaction is going to be in the golf world.
I mean, I wouldn't bet against brooks Skepka, that's for sure.

(01:56:15):
Right now, we're watching on the eighteenth, he's looking at
a birdie opportunity right now to take a lead in
this tournament. And there's a long putt. I'm like a
golf announcer, and he just barely missed. But yeah, I mean,
will it'll spark conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:56:31):
Let's put it that way. At the very least. Oh,
I certainly will less is more a man. I can
work less, Like it's almost like flex Fridays. You know,
instead of working five days, I get Friday off, casual Friday.

Speaker 2 (01:56:43):
Well, I mean, if somebody offered you this opportunity, said,
here's our deal, Bucky. We want you to do half
as much work, but we also want to triple your salary.
So we want to cut the amount of work you
do in half and also offer you three times the
money you're already making. Are you interested? I'm very interested

(01:57:04):
because that's the American dream. Exactly. Work less make more right? Exactly? Yes.
So what would you do with that extra time?

Speaker 3 (01:57:11):
Oh, our focus to make sure that my craft is
super sharp, That's what I would do. I would have
more time to focus that everything is on point, it's sharp.
I am right, make sure I'm delivering the goods as
they say, Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (01:57:26):
Mean more time to prep more time to deliver a
spectacular show every time out.

Speaker 3 (01:57:31):
So you really have no clue what to do with
your free time. I mean, look, you're talking about a
yoga of here. I would probably add another yoga class
to the mix and kind of do some stuff like that.
But otherwise I would you think yoga would be good
for me? Oh, it's absolutely man. It'd meilow you out.
You'd be so chill, hello, yeah, and relax. It would

(01:57:52):
help you with everything. I don't want to but you
know you're not.

Speaker 2 (01:57:56):
Yeah, yeah, I'm very loud.

Speaker 3 (01:57:57):
Yeah, look at it. It'll mellow you out, and then
you'll be able to focus on your own map.

Speaker 2 (01:58:03):
Where do you find the time and space to isolate
to do your yoga? I do all of it.

Speaker 3 (01:58:08):
So what I do is because because I'll wake up
and I'll do a little morning routine to kind of
get you know, good morning, and then I'll go to
a studio and do a class later in the day
to kind of really get it out.

Speaker 2 (01:58:17):
M h. Steve.

Speaker 3 (01:58:19):
Look, it's gonna be life changing for you. It is, yeah,
life changing. Where have you doing little things before? The
before the show. Like I think it's long been doing this.
I've been doing it for a while. I've been doing
it for about four, like four or five years, But
I really who introduced this to you? I've just always
been curious about it, and like there were a bunch
of athletes that were doing it, Like, look, there was

(01:58:40):
a time where Kevin Garnett and Kevin Love and all
these athletes were doing I was always intrigued about it,
and so I started doing it and then kind of
went away from it. But then I've been back in
earnest over the last year almost daily.

Speaker 2 (01:58:51):
You know where Kevin Love got it. I'll tell about UCLA. Well, no,
his his uncle Mike Love of the Beach Boys. You
know that's his uncle, the lead singer the Beach Boys. Okay,
he's been into that all forever. Man. You you see
how good Kevin loves us. Right now, Man, he's slimmed down,
he's down there. You know, he points. He's scored in
Game two zero. So that's what that's what's a testament

(01:59:13):
to Miami Heat and what they've been able to do.
He's mellowed out so much he doesn't even score anymore.
But like, but then the next game, he'll have like
fifteen to seventeen. Well, he's definitely got karma on his
side as this team is winning. All right, So what
is your game plan for tonight? What is your Will
you isolate? Will you be joined by friends? No, I've
watched this Lakers Devers game.

Speaker 3 (01:59:33):
No, it just doesn't matter for me. I'm not a
Lakers or a Nuggets fan. I'll watch it because that's
what we do, like sports. I'll watch it.

Speaker 2 (01:59:38):
I'll see how the Lakers respond to the pressure. You know.

Speaker 3 (01:59:41):
I'm a Miami guy, so I'll be more invested tomorrow
when you got a chance to see those guys. But
now tonight is a big one because you don't want
it to end. You don't want the Nuggets to just
sweep the Lakers like I want to see.

Speaker 2 (01:59:53):
If you're a Heat fan, obviously you want revenge for
three years ago. You want the Lakers, right, man, whoever
shows up, don't worry about that. Look, man, it's one
of those yoga things. Whoever show you got to be
watching this game with no rooting interest. No, I don't
worry about that. Don't care, No, never care about that.
You don't care about Matt what Do you have a
prediction on tonight's game? Will the Lakers actually hold home court?

Speaker 3 (02:00:14):
I think the Lakers will win tonight. They have It'll
be a burst of energy and all that into buildings,
so they'll win tonight. The next will be the rough
one for him.

Speaker 2 (02:00:23):
That's gonna be it, all right. Will we have a
team ready for the NBA Finals when we meet next Saturday?
Yes or no? Yes we will there It is the prediction.

Speaker 4 (02:00:30):
Keep it here.

Speaker 2 (02:00:31):
This is Fox Sports Radio.