Hollins & Harmon Preview the NBA Finals, Talk Hard Fouls on Caitlin Clark & More!

Mike Harmon and 10-year NBA veteran Ryan Hollins open the show jumping right into a preview of what figures to be an electric NBA Finals matchup between the Mavericks and Celtics! What are the X-factors going into the series? Can the Celtics get over the hump this time? Is Luka the best basketball player in the world right now? The guys also talk Caitlin Clark, reacting to a particularly hard foul she took from an opposing player, and examine the young star's place among her peers. That and a whole lot more on a brand new Fox Sports Sunday with Hollins & Harmon!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Ah yeah, here we are another beautiful Fox Sports Sunday,
full slate of action coming up for you. Theme of
the day, heroes and villains, good versus bad? Surely all
a matter of perspective. And what you see in the mirror,
isn't it? Welcome in? It's another edition of Fox Sports
Sunday Live from the tire raac dot com Fox Sports
Radio Studios, tire rac dot com. We'll help you get

(00:26):
there an unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road hazard
protection and over ten thousand recommended installers tyrac dot com
the way tire buying should be. I'm Mike Carmen. Alongside me,
my guy ten years in the NBA UCLA. It's Ryan
Hollins working with the Houston Rockets. You see his work

(00:46):
at the Ryan Hollins. Follow him wherever he's traversing, and
he's a big man. You'll see him in a crowd.
What's going on? Brother?

Speaker 3 (00:53):
What's up? Brother? How you doing?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
It's another week of greatness. I made a long layoff
between NBA Finals game, you know, the conference finals and
into the finals. But I think everybody's done enough. Belly
aching and lamenting that and TV contracts and all those
layoff kind of things. So I'll ask it this way,
as a guy who played for ten years in the
league made how often did you did you get more

(01:16):
than two days off? And if so, how did you
luxuriate you didn't?

Speaker 3 (01:22):
I mean it was rare.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
I think I remember maybe doing something every day for
a month straight, because you come off the plane, you
go right into work, and you know, if there's a game,
you want to come in and get rehab or shots that percepted.
So yeah, no, you're you're really not ever going to
get a day off. So you may say, oh, you

(01:46):
only went in it, you know, you know at nine
o'clock and then you got off about one to do
whatever you want. But I'm doing that every day. Like
your Saturdays, I'm waking up and going to work out.
Your Sundays get waking up and going to work out.
You know, And a lot of people don't understand. You know,
when you plan the NBA, I am your entertainment. So
you know there is no like, oh, you got your weekends. No,

(02:07):
I don't have weekends. My weekends are working or flying.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, the old days off you really get is now
the negotiated extended break for the All Star Game anymore, right,
I mean those you've hadded a couple of days, so
maybe you will actually have a day or two to
sit around pool side, But more unlikely people are taking
care of family business and seeing the people that they
haven't for a couple of months in an extended period.

(02:31):
But it is a curiosity, you know, not from me. Look,
we get into TV contracts and expectations and ad rates
and sales and how you do things in terms of
your prime time programming. You know, summer shows are a thing.
Once upon a time it was just rerun, so maybe
it didn't matter nearly to the same degree. But now

(02:52):
with all the different reality shows and everything that premiere
nearer these times, you know you're trying to get the
most bang for your buck. So it becomes a all right,
we want to lock this in, especially when we're playing
the high advertising rates game that we do for these
live sporting events. But when we look at it, I

(03:12):
mean you look at the injury history. Lively came back
for the Mavericks. Okay, check that box. Kleeber was back,
check that box. On the other side. Now we just
do a daily watch and prayer visual for Christaps Porzingis.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
It seems yeah, uh, Porzingis.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
I think that, you know, the only shot that the
Celtics have is with him healthy, and I fear that
he's not healthy. I would be surprised the way that
he just went out, like you got to show me
that he's healthy and that you guys just aren't forcing
him on the court. And you know, that's kind of
the chess match that the Celtics played behind the scenes, like, hey,

(03:51):
we're waiting on prezingas man, there is no persink. It's
very well could be with the severity of that injury,
and Mike we talked about this. I'm most concerned with
Presingius injury because it looked like it was non contact.
Looked like he just he just went down, and you
know a lot of times when those things happened, guys
end up needing, you know, needing a surgery. So I

(04:12):
hope that's not the case, but I am fearful of it.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Last game he played was in the Miami series, played
on the twenty ninth of April. Has been out since.
Updates have been sporadic, and we've gotten used to that, right,
It's been more more and more like the NHL for
a lot of teams, and you know, hey, it's an
upper body, it's a lower body injury, and well they're
not with the team, so we're not going to talk

(04:36):
about it as it were, and that's fine, right, and
coaches even get creative every once in a while. It's like,
I don't know, it would be a hip of violation
if I talked about it. I don't really think it is.
But you know, hey, for the purposes of the argument,
I like that you can use that as your stump
speech to get around talking about where a guy is
in his recovery. I know, with their media availability and

(04:57):
there has been some subruder film of poor zingis out
there taking some shots and being part of some drills.
But you know, to your point, we're still talking about
clear for contact, getting through contact, how does he feel
the next day? And really, if you're the Celtics trying
to plan through even if he becomes available, you're probably

(05:20):
still looking at him pretty rough. Minutes restriction would be
my guess, right, I mean, you're not suddenly bringing him
back in and expecting him to go thirty.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah, I mean you practice him And here's the big key,
and this is what's tough about Dallas. Let's say Prazingis
comes back right and hopefully he can, you know, take
on a certain load in practice. It's not just like, hey,
keep Derek Lively off the boards. It's like sitting pick
and roll coverage against Luka Dancis, who's coming downhill at

(05:52):
you shooting floaters and jump shops and step back threes.
Just asked Rudy Gobert.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Trying to put you on skates and if it's not
up to the par you're gonna find out real fast.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
And here's the thing about Chris STAPs. You got a
chance to watch him play. He sits in a super
deep drop like he doesn't get anywhere near the level
of the screen. And the way that Kyrie Irving and
Luka Dancetz are shooting the basketball, that ain't gonna work.
Right now, that is not working. So we'll see how

(06:25):
that plays out. But it listen, it's not a good
recipe right now.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, we'll get deep into the finals. As Ryan alluded to,
their big big factor, just his availability and how you
reintegrate him to your offensive sets, but more importantly, trying
to find defensive matchups. And working on the glass. And
we've watched the Celtics in some of these games, right,

(06:51):
if they don't shoot particularly well, they're getting buried on
the boards, right, And we've watched teams work them to
a degree and settling for three point show, right, which
is one of the other keys to this as much
as we talk about it and the NBA as a whole,
And certainly the Celtics live and die and certainly they've
lived and feasted far more frequently than they've they've died

(07:13):
from it in this NBA season with the record that
they've been able to put up. But the porzingis spot
certainly looms. We've got a lot on the on the
slate today here Ryan on so many narratives coming into
these NBA Finals, and then obviously the fun and excitement
that was the w NBA game yesterday and everybody's got

(07:33):
an opinion. I don't think it was the first time
I've seen the X slash Twitter whale tail in a
while coming off of that game, with everybody having an
opinion on selected plays, Angel Reese, Caitlin Clark. That's part
of why the the villain tees becomes it. It's all
a matter of perspective and what your rooting interests are,

(07:55):
and as a basketball fan or in a lot of cases,
basketball players chiming in football players even chiming in, wondering
you know one very fundamental question that I texted you
very early in the Sky versus Fever game, and and
all of the incidences right, we can run them back

(08:16):
to back to back of all of the run ins
that Caitlyn Clark has had. Where the blank are her teammates?
Is now you put that on a T shirt? Because
that seems to be the recurring theme coming out of it.
We can we'll talk about Angel Reaves, we'll talk about
you know, how the game is officiated, played, et cetera.
But for all that you know, watch this and certainly

(08:39):
certainly you've seen it on your social media, if you
didn't see it a million times on Sports Center wherever
you're you're getting your sports information. Caitlin Clark off, the
ball gets well and Ed Reid hit from behind as
the ball is going to be inbounded, not a flagrant
file rule to common file just away from the ball
before the inbound play, she shoots a free throw. Well, lo,

(09:02):
and behold the difference in the game one point a
free throw that Caitlin Clark makes a lot of decision
making in chaos once again in the final minutes of games.
So I have two questions on this One. We're the
blank are teammates? And two, how come they missed so
many damn layups?

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Well, we can, we can, We'll take the man.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
Look at you.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
She could have had twenty two assists.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Here's my deal too, Like, here's one narrative, like like
we got to see like Kaitlyn Clark. At this point,
they're showing the end result. Okay, and Mike, you know
this when your kids argue, you walk in, you just
see an elbow thrower.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
You're seeing the retaliation.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
Seeing the retel Go watch there's a full video out there.
Forgive me on another girl's name, but that that that
kind of hits her.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
Off a rebound.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
Oh, there's a cheap shot to Caitlyn Clark. No, Caitlyn
Clark runs up to this girl, gets her face and
says something. Then she runs over, shoots her and elbow.
The girl keeps playing through and then at a certain
point she had enough. Okay, she had enough, and then
she goes and gets throwing a rebound and shout out
to the WNBA players because that's smart.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
That's the time. Okay, Mike, if you want to come,
take me out.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Mike and me and you were on the court, you're like,
all right, Hollin's just talking to the trash to me. Okay,
you crash in there for a rebound. Okay, that's how
you do it.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
But that's the thing, right, you get it into a play.
I mean, I can't tell you the number of times
have watched, and again, obviously different levels, but we watch
a lot of kids soccer, watch a lot of kids basketball, right,
friends with kids playing, the last thing you can do
is go retaliate six seconds after the grievance is filed,

(10:48):
you know what I mean, Like if Carter had done
it in the heat of battle under the boards, because
Angel Reese got her, and this owes to a whole
other part of.

Speaker 3 (10:59):
No Angel reads the get she flopped.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
No, no, no, But that's my point, right, No, there's
contact and then there's contact. And I'm wondering if Caitlin
Clark's flair for the embellishment isn't part of the reason
that officials are kind of shrugging at this point in
a lot of these contact situations.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
They're okay, there's moments and you know, seriousness. I don't
know if she's physically not strong enough. I don't know
if it's a flop. I've got a much more of
a full game if she's not physically ready to play
in these games. But from the referee standpoint, it's like,
get up and play. And the Angel Reese thing that

(11:39):
anytime those two have any any interaction, that's listen, people
forget what you know, what popped off women's basketball is
not this last season. It's the season before, right where yeah,
and in their moments where Angel Rees gets just completely
bashed and it was it was unfortunately very racial. She
gets completely bashed for saying, hey, you know, bye bye,

(12:03):
we won, you know, after they had already won. And
then there's this video the services of Caitlin Clark doing
the same thing. So it's like, hey, like, let the
women play basketball. That's that's their competitive juice is going. Okay, like,
that's it's not all personal. It's definitely not racial.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
You know.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
Well, but that's the problem, right, is that it's too
easy to grab it, as so many do, and you
get a lot of talking heads that add the racial
component to it as well, and now it festers on
both sides, and we've certainly seen that for two years. Yes,
related to LSU and Iowa and South Carolina, you don't

(12:40):
forget them. You got to tag them into the mix
as well to where you know, you get a lot
of nara's like, no, they're just girls playing basketball, women
playing basketball. And again, owing to having watched a lot
of now higher level girls you sixteen and teen soccer games,

(13:01):
guess what you put them side by side with a
lot of the boys games. There ain't a whole hell
of a lot of difference in terms of the physicality. Yeah, right,
and you know, now we may do the size scope
and you know, a hit might be a little bit bigger.
But yeah, there's so many angles to this. We'll continue
it because I want to get your take on the

(13:21):
the postgame part of it, and still the question of
where the hell are our teammates. He's Ryan Hollins on
Mike Carbon It's Fox Sports Sunday here, Fox Sports Radio.
Just getting started so much in the basketball world. And
then we have a basketball player turned football star. Oh wait,
I said that wrong, it's football star. We'll get into

(13:41):
that a little bit later. As we go at the
Ryan Hollins at Swollen Dome, we're just getting warmed up.
Take us with you wherever you go on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Fox Sports Sunday.

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Speaker 5 (14:04):
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Fine all happening in only one place. This League Uncut,
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Listen to This League Uncut with Chris Haynes and Mark Stein.

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On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
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Speaker 2 (14:35):
Welcome back in Fox Sports Radio Live from thee Tiraq
dot com studios. It's Fox Sports Sunday, My garment alongside
Ryan Hollins. With you, follow my Twitter at the Ryan Hollins.
Find me over at Swollen Dome. The Highways Byeways leading
us to the NBA Finals. The roads travel. Does it matter.
It's a narrative today, Will it be in five We'll see.

(14:57):
But we're talking a little bit about the w NA
NBA incident yesterday. Yes, a big enough flap that it leads,
you know, and gets the tongues wagging and social media
spinning over like a pinball machine for every piece of
video and clip that you can extended views of the
benches and reactions. We're talking about the Kennedy Carter play

(15:19):
against Kitlyn Clark and the overall discussion as to Caitlin
Clark and her introduction to the WNBA. And I know
the last week or so start contrast, right, Angel Reese
in the low Post got into it and got taken
to the deck and then afterwards said, hey, you know what,

(15:42):
this is what I expect. People don't have to be
nice to me. I'm a rookie. And then depending on
whether you wanted to take it as the subtext of hey, Caitlyn,
welcome to the WNBA with us or not, that's your progative,
you know, all of it. The two are going to
be linked forever as we go through Ryan and certainly

(16:02):
from yesterday, well they were, and when Kennedy Carter took
Caitlin Clark down at the end of the third quarter
in the off the ball situation. You've got the Subruter
film that shows Angel Reese up and excited and then
welcoming her back to the bench with open arms and
a hug, which certainly sparked Part two. The hit was

(16:24):
one thing, then it became the Ah, there's Angel Reese
and at this point she sets up as a perfect
foil two year build up. It's like running up towards
a pay per view in WWE, where you get a
lot of house master matches, make sure there's some chemistry,
both folks get their mic things down. And now here

(16:44):
we are in prime time and every little reaction, every smile,
every fist bump is going to be analyzed till Sunday.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Oh one hundred percent. And you know, it's crazy. I
think a lot of people just forget this narrative. It's like, like,
the women don't compete. They're not fiery, they're not in
your face. You know, it's not personal for them, you know,
And it's like, no, like you said earlier, Mike, they
compete just like the men, if not worse. It's certain

(17:15):
situations so it's definitely kind of a little you know, irritation,
but it's it. It sparked a lot. I mean, there's
more interest in the women's game that we've ever seen.
Nothing better than controversy.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Right, Well, but that's it is, you know, it's how
you then react to it that I think becomes the
next part, right, the attentions here and how do you
deal with it? For Caitlin Clark, yeah, it's a more
physical style of basketball. You and I have talked about
it the last couple of weeks that based on the scheduling,
I understand you want to make it is you know,

(17:47):
late spring summer sport will have the break for the
Olympics and everything else. But you've got grown ass women,
as they refer to themselves time and time again, right
and did in the well what you expect from Caitlyn
Clark and Cameron Brink and all these people coming in,
but usually it's focused Caitlin Clark is the named and
then everybody, you know, the other people coming in kind

(18:09):
of thing which I understand you feel disrespected. You want
to be seen as hey, we're part of this class too,
we're doing great things. And for Angel Rees, she's spoken
about it. I love the Barbie shoes yesterday. Those were awesome.
You know I'd wear a pair, no question about it.
You know style Scott and my style for him baby.
But you know you wear pink. It's bold and people

(18:32):
like it. Every time I've worn a pink tie, I've
had someone either ask for it or try to steal it.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
You're right about that. I wore a pink suit one time,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Like it gets attention, right, it gets you know, people excitable.
But it's the the idea that you know, flowing out
of this and with Caitlyn Clark, that she's taken a
number of big hits. But to your point that you
brought up a little bit earlier, she's a notorious trash talker.

(19:00):
She's a chest your person going up and down the court,
and it doesn't mean that, hey, you should be able
to go without any type of punishment. The fact that
that was rule to common filew kind of funny in
the grand scheme of things given. You know how much
attention there is on Clark and the game right now.

(19:22):
I mean it was a noon start Eastern time, and
and everybody, you know, it's got its attention on ESPN
and you see this big hit, and I again ask you,
you know, as a guy that played for a decade
in the year in the league, you know your your
top guy. I go back to my years of watching
the NHL and certainly growing up in Chicago, the late

(19:44):
great Bob Probert. You knew where he was gonna be.
If Ronick or one of these guys took a hit,
it wasn't gonna be too long before he made his
presence known and at least got in someone's face to
say what they needed. And you go down there's a
full list of na enforcers, uh, going all the way down.
You can go to doctor uh, doctor d David Schultz,

(20:06):
all the way all the way down. There's so many
Dave Schultz, Sergeant Schultz, the Hammer, Seagard, another black Eye.
I mean, just keep going on down the line. You know,
you've got guys that that was kind of their job,
you know, keep the scores, the pretty boys clean.

Speaker 7 (20:24):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
In this case, Caitlin Clark's getting roughed up, and normally
she's the only member of the Fever in the picture.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
And and for me that was part of my job too.
I know when I play with Kevin Gartnet. We know
Kag talks trash. He's gonna talk, yeah, and do. One
thing I knew is that, Okay, if Kevin's talking trash
and somebody gets in his face and they get into
it and then he gets then he reacts. Not that
he can't hold his own, make the mistake. It's not
that Kevin Garnet couldn't hold his own, But if he

(20:53):
gets into it with somebody, guess what we lose if
he's kicked out.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
But if he gets kicked out, it's you get the worst,
that's right.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
And if I get kicked out, it's all good. It
is what it is. Charges of the game. It's a
part of the game. So the reality is is that, yes,
you are supposed to take those hits for your teammates.
So there's a it's a new culture. Don't the Fever
won a winning franchise.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
This wasn't.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
There's a reason they go back yours number one pick
right a Leah Boston last year.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
Caitlyn Clark this year. They get the one point win here,
but there's still two and eight. Yes, so we're already
through a quarter of the season.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
So if you're going to be established as an enforcer
in the league, the one thing that you're going to
have to be able to do is say, oh, if
I do this, this is my job. Oh my job
to have her back, to to make sure no one
touches her. You know, go get a girls six six
sixty seven with some hands. You know, it's a little
hesitation before you're checking her elbowing. And now when Caitlyn

(21:57):
talks her trash, it's not a bad thing. It's not
a you know, no, oh no, you know, poor Katelyn. No,
it's just it's just fair play at that moment. So
that's that's what you will be looking for. And that's
what you know, Draymond and Matt Barnes and those guys
are are shouting about, saying, hey, you know, no one's

(22:18):
having her back. Hey, go go take that person out
because yeah, KG wouldn't touch you know, Blake Griffin wldn't
touch those guys. You know, when I was in the game,
they were free to do what they wanted. And it's
just kind of like, hey, I'll get I'll get kicked
out for you. You know, I'll make sure that you're you're
good or you know, you go to send those uh
send those messages.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
Did you get an extra fruit basket or anything in
response for for being that guy?

Speaker 3 (22:39):
You do not do not depending now he.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
G and those guys never hooked you up, show ups
and all.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
No, they I mean they took care of me. There's
nothing substantial, you know. And I didn't have to thank goodness,
you know, I didn't have to actually fight, you know,
I didn't have to.

Speaker 2 (22:56):
Well, we didn't. We didn't get a lot of real fights.
I mean they're usually some skirmishes, no.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
Yeah, no skirmish for me. You know, skirmmers for me.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
You know, plugging and a little bit of shoving, but
the usually get too bad.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
I made sure I was throwing my you know level
of elbows to you know, make sure that everything was good.
The focus wasn't on you know, Kevin or Paul or
Ray or any of those guys on the team. You know,
the focus is on me, you know, at least when
I was in so those guys were free to you know,
do what they wanted to do.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah. I just felt good that, you know. The question
I was asking in real time became the talking point
of a lot of current and former NBA players. Just
be like Okay, just somebody step in right and say something.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
When you see like a star getting decked, and make
no mistake, maybe maybe she she's not that good, Maybe
she won't be that good. Maybe that's it's you know,
it's it's it's Caitlin Clark. Thing was just a you know,
a face, who knows. But she's the reason right now
that all eyes are on the league. Okay, she's the reason.

(24:05):
You know, with all due respect, the ladies have been
putting in work, but for whatever reason, she's the reason
that the eyes are on the league. So the frustration
comes of, like you guys are not putting her in
a situation where she can be her best. Okay, And look,
maybe I'm assuming, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. Well,
when I see physically she ain't there. She ain't there

(24:26):
yet physically, So you know what, what what do you have?
We got to support you, We got to put you
in a situation where you can be successful, and it
doesn't look like that's happening.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
Well, and that's part of part of the larger conversation,
right is just how quickly you go from the NCAA
tournament to training camp and playing.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
She should be ready though, Well, that's what.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
I'm saying in terms of the physicality coming out of
what the WNBA is like, you didn't get a full
off season and cycle with your strength goes. And I'm
not saying you don't do that in Iowa, but we
know there's.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
A there's there's an inexcusable partner. Here's a tough part
to that. These aren't like you know, when the NBA
players go, they're they're literally one year removed from like
au basketball, Like Katelyn Clark got four years of college,
and she should be physically she's old enough, she should
be physically ready. Okay, So there is you know, there

(25:21):
is a big difference when you know, comparing the two.

Speaker 3 (25:24):
This is not a young kid.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
No sure, and there will be you guys and all
the they've all been so successful as well.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah, and and make no mistake, there will be you know,
she will get better. There there is an adjustment period obviously,
but you know, yeah, she's not a little girl. Okay,
So the expectations, you know, and and a lot of
the you know WNBA start they can come in ready
from college, they come in killing already, they're older. You know,
they don't you know, they get a chance to mature

(25:54):
in college and get better and develop again.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
The larger point I was trying to make is also
it's a full cycle of getting into an acclimated with
a team that isn't very good either, right, because look,
I've watched every minute of a number of these games,
and certainly yesterday's was on the full way through. Even
if she's not putting up thirty points, there's buckets being

(26:20):
left on the door step because women are not converting
layups bunnies in the lane. It's like, Wow, that's an
inordinate number of those, and that seems to be and look,
the turnovers inexcusable to reach in follows a big problem
that she's having. I wanted to get to the quote
though in the post game and get your opinion on this, Kennedy,

(26:41):
Carter and the Sky, and I set this over to
you in a text message because I don't know that
I've ever seen a team so proud of a response
like this kind of on the play before bumping in
with Caitlin, it seemed like she turned to you a
little bit after.

Speaker 8 (26:59):
The few Kaylyn Clark questions.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
Did she say anything to you?

Speaker 3 (27:02):
I don't know. What she said?

Speaker 9 (27:03):
What'd you say to her?

Speaker 2 (27:06):
And then Teresa Weatherspoon comes over the top, it's enough,
we're not talking about that and just shut it down.
Opportunity to explain, you know, heat of the moment, has
it on or is it better for the league if
it just becomes this festering issue.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
I listen. I like the response.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
I think what she knows is like if if I
come out knowing who I am and I tell you
that Caitlyn Clark said X, Y and Z to me,
no one wants to hear that. If I say that,
she says that Kaylen, because there's no I saw one clip.
I saw one clip of what Caitlyn Clark.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
Actually did to this girl.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
But everybody, every media outlet, and this is some nonsense.
It's showing the clip of Cayton Clark when she does
get the reactions, she does kind of, you know, fall
over on a rebound, you know, poor Caitlyn. So they're like,
we're not gonna talk about it because you guys are
already creating your own narratives.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
What do I need to talk about? They're like, what
do we need to talk about?

Speaker 1 (28:10):
You guys have already made your mindset up that, you know,
poor old Kaitlyn Clark.

Speaker 3 (28:15):
So she's like, there's no that is I love.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
I literally love that response because again the question is,
well what happened, And it's like, you know what, I
think she's smart enough that she says, well, I hear
her because she did this, this, and this.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
She may not feel like anybody's gonna want to hear that.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Wow, I still say, as we talked about a little
earlier in the hour, it's like, you can do it
in a basketball play. Caitlyn Clark handles the ball enough.
You just gotta be you know better in your timing.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
She did get her in a basketball player.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
It was not a basketball play.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
Come on, listen, I played the game my brother.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
The time to go and hit somebody is on a rebound,
because everybody.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
I'm talking about that the inbound play is the play
that's yeah, well everybody that's.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
Caitlyn had seemed to have gotten away with a lot already,
and she just was like enough, just like enough, enough
is enough.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
You gotta be smart on the retaliation. Ryan Hollins, you
know that growing up. You know that with your kids.
I certainly learned from the back end of a wooden
spoon in many kitchen implements that I needed to be
smarter about my retalite tory decision making.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
And it's the end of the day, you know, don't
do it, you know, And unfortunately WBA players don't get
what our kids have, which is, you know, go tell
a parent when I happened, so I don't see the reaction.
This is so you know, this is a part of
professional sports. This is not gonna go away. It's not
just the men's side, the women's side also the part
of professional sports. You got to learn how to hold

(29:47):
your own. It looks like Clayton Clark is either going
to learn how to hold her own or maybe she's
good at you know this, this victim role. You know,
we'll find out and the truth will be told. You know,
it's different in college BASKETBA. You know, all lives come
championship time, come playoff time.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
You went full victim.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yeah, because you know I might. I gotta send you
the clip because I don't think you.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
Much at all.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
You did see that, you did see the instigators.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
I'm not I'm not saying she's not, but those are
like in the heat of the actual basketball and look
and even on the hit she takes. You know at
the end of the third quarter, how much of that
is the contact versus an embellishment? I guess the question
I keep asking and why it's it's tough to adjudicate

(30:35):
anything Caitlin Clark related when she's falling to the ground,
because I don't I don't know how much of that
is just I'm trying to sell a call.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yes, And that's the when I say victim when you'd agree, right,
that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (30:47):
The victim wrot.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Takes on way too many connotations, especially given the narratives
that have surrounded the w n b A as we
talked about where people start taking their sides. So you know,
victims is a loaded word at this point.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
Well, hey, you I stand by it. I don't mean
it in any other regard. I understand what you're saying.
I don't mean it in any other regard. But it's
like no play basketball.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
No get up.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
And she even said it after the game. And it
may be too little, too late because you've now got
ten games of narrative.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
So and you know what, you know what the women
are getting used to also, and this is what the
NBA players have kind of been dealing with them. So
there's the NBA player smirking somewhere like, okay, you get
the accolades, right, But every time you sneeze, it's all film.
Lebron James walks out the back room and he trips,
and it's on film. Lebron James are talking with Genie

(31:48):
Boss about whatever and laughing and joining himself. It is
the front page everything and the talking point all these shows.
So you know, they're they're the women are finding out that,
you know, these are plays that kind of just happened
in the game. They're like, what is this doing being
you know, main media coverage? Now, this wasn't main media
stuff before. What's going on here? So they're getting adjusted

(32:12):
to that also heavy as they him.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Who wears the crown, there's no question about it. Hey,
Thoroughbred Racing has a new independent regulator. It's called HEISA.
It's implementing comprehensive reforms sports, combining hands on care with
cutting edge technology to help keep its athletes safe. To
learn more, visit safetyeruns first dot com that Safety Runs
First dot com. Coming up next, we'll turn our attention

(32:35):
to the NFL, where the biggest game may be sold
to the highest bidder and taking overseas. How do we
feel about it? We'll talk about it next, but first
it's Isaac Lowinkraw. What's what's trending this morning? Hi?

Speaker 7 (32:47):
I love, good morning. And it has to be said.
I have to make this clear based on what you
guys were just saying. If I was there, Ryan, I
would have taken down Charlie Villanueva.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
Wow, icly done.

Speaker 7 (33:05):
Oh he's lucky that I wasn't there because I would
have grabbed a hold of that ankle and not let go.

Speaker 9 (33:14):
I would have had your back. And I'll leave it
at that.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Well, you know how he comes at you a heart
over your hamburger takes you know why?

Speaker 7 (33:27):
You know why I would have taken him down because
he wouldn't have been able to stop laughing and he
would have been vulnerable.

Speaker 9 (33:32):
That's all we done, all right?

Speaker 7 (33:34):
What the business in hand, including baseball history, that's coming up.
But we start with Game six of the NHL's Eastern
Conference Finals on Saturday night, saw the Florida Panthers defeat
the New York Rangers two to one to win the
series four games to two in advance to the Stanley
Cup Final for a second straight year in Major League Baseball.
On Saturday night, the Yankees what at San Francisco seven
to three. Aaron Judge did it again, his major league

(33:56):
leading twenty first home run. This one waded at four
hundred sixty four feet. It was his third home run
in two games against the Giants. Dodgers over the Colorado
Rockies four to one. Cubs at Wrigley defeated Cincinnati seven
to five on Dansby Swanson's go ahead, two run home
run in the bottom of the eighth inning. Billy's over
the Cardinals six to one to improve their major league

(34:16):
best record to forty one and eighteen. Bryce Harper hit
his fourteenth home run now Finally, Also on Saturday night,
the first ever glow in the dark game in baseball
tree was played when a collegiate summer league team in
Colonial Heights, Virginia, called the Tri City Chili Peppers hosted

(34:39):
the Greenbrier Knights. Both teams wore glow in the Dark
fluorescent uniforms and played in the dark under black lights.
The baseball itself was glow in the dark. Here was
the key play in Tri City's nine to four victory,
called by Charlie ben Ami.

Speaker 10 (34:59):
That set up the middle head over the head of
the center fielder McGovern with hy Nick speed and we
have ourselves a run another runner Ruddicks throw the stop
signet foot the.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Port oh row, my goodness.

Speaker 10 (35:19):
Cosmic face fall Are you kidding me?

Speaker 9 (35:23):
The Chili Peppers red Hot back to you.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
Guys, nicely done at Isaac Low and Crown. Where you
find him on Twitter? Find Ryan over at the Ryan
Hollins find me over at Swollen Dome. Coming up next
Super Bowl could be in London. Do you care? We'll
talk about it next on Fox.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
Welcome back in Fox Sports Sunday, Fox Sports Radio. My Carmen,
Ryan Hollins with you. Ten years in the league. For
Ryan Hollins, I've watched more than ten years of basketball.
Here's my qualification. Shortly after the show, the podcast goes up.
If you missed Eddio today's show, be sure to check
it out. Search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcast.
Be sure to follow, rate and review the podcast again.

(36:04):
Search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your audio undownload
your podcasts. You'll see this show Fox Sports Sunday. Hollins
and Harmon posted right after we get off the air,
thanks to Ian and Chris making a sound so pretty.
Our guy Isaac Lowencron, he's still watching highlights of Disco
and black Light Baseball, Ryan. I tried to watch two

(36:27):
minutes of the highlight. I couldn't tell what the hell
was going on, which is what you got in the
audio that he played. And there's another runner. I don't
know who he is, but I see him because I
see the logo as he runs. All Right, Mayor of
London City con talking about this week. Hey, I'd love
to put a future super Bowl in his city and

(36:50):
all obviously the United States game and this got a
bunch of outrage as the week we're on. It's an
American game, it needs to be played here and blah
blah blah, And I go, what's it gonna do. It's
gonna change the timing of your five k's, when you
have to start your grill or smoker and how early
in the day you need to make that last minute

(37:11):
run to the grocery store to get your seven layer
dip and chips. Other than that, you're not going to
the game. Most likely you're gonna turn on a TV
and do some gathering. Now you'd probably just come straight
from Sunday Services if you go out to Sunday Services,
so you might be dressed a little better for your
super Bowl party. But the last game that would have

(37:33):
been kicked out, and they're trying to theorize, you know,
when you would have to kick the game off, So
four o'clock Eastern the last super Bowl to kick off
in that hour, So one o'clock Pacific, forty nine ers
over Bangles, which was the highest rated super Bowl in
NFL history. So you can owe to that. And really
it comes down to one thing for me, Ryan, does
London want a pony up enough money to make it happen?

Speaker 1 (37:56):
That has to be a lot of money. That had
to be a whole lot of money for the travel
and yeah, yeah, it'd be a lot of money.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
But it's you know, the corporate event. So you know,
if we're really gonna sell it, go ahead, go all
in on it is my thought. I mean, most folks
you know, talk about as soon as tickets go, you know,
the resale market and teams are set. All they do
is lament how expensive it is and how they'll never go,
which means, you know, they haven't done the saving for

(38:26):
the rainy day kind of thing. You know, the team
actually breaks through the malaise and makes a run towards
the super Bowl. So you're not going, so you just
buy a bigger TV and enjoy it.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
Hey, not bad, and you know what, you know, it's funny.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
I was I think my first like three years in
the NBA, I was in the same city where the
Super Bowl was happening, and I think it was the
Bears and the Colts and it was the first Super Bowl.
I think I was gonna have a chance, like, hey,
I'll go to the game, you know, let me figure
it out. And it ends up just pouring rain. And

(39:02):
you're right, maybe just going to the game is just
completely overrated. I can see that. But you watch it,
you go to the parties, it's an event.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
Oh I'm not saying not to go. If you can
make it happen. I've been lucky enough, I'm saying not
to go. Yeah, I've been lucky enough to go to
two and and I'd go every year if I can
make the money, travel and everything else work. There's no
question about it. Like the energy in a city around
the event and everything for me, has been huge, just

(39:32):
saying they most folks, as much as it's a bucket
list kind of thing, they end up watching and most
of the time their team's not in it anyway. So
in the in the end, just say, hey, the television expense,
you know, experience for the NFL has gotten so good
because you're not seeing all those replays in the stadium,

(39:55):
Like that's the one thing you do lose What the
hell happened on that play? No idea? The commercials, Yeah,
I don't care about those.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
Oh dude, what we got people that watch the game
literally just for the commercials, And that's saying and that's
their project and you don't care.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
I'm saying, I'm up and I'm going to refresh my drink,
hitting the bathroom maybe, uh, you know, watching what else
is on?

Speaker 3 (40:18):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (40:19):
Yeah, No, the commercials do nothing for me because I've
usually seen them before the game as well, Like most
of them are very good anymore.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
They got to do something.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
I meant nothing, They got nothing. Hey, coming up next,
X Factors in your NBA Finals, Ryan Hollins's gonna tell
you what it's all about. As we continue on Fox
Sports Sunday, you're listening.

Speaker 5 (40:43):
To Fox Sports. Grandy's welcome in.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
It's our two Fox Sports Sunday here Mike Harmon alongside
Ryan Hollins. Thanks for being with us on the highways
and by ways of life, to front services up and
at them, work out, walking the dog, whatever you're doing
this morning, however you're joining us. Thanks for being part
of the extended family as you are out and about
later on today, take us with you, keep it locked

(41:08):
on us all day long. Fox Sports Radio dot Com,
the iHeartRadio app, serious XM Channel eighty three, four hundred
plus local stations. Thank you to all the pds and
all you listening out there on the local stations and
as always, and it actually made a promo now, Ryan Hollins,
I also may appear as that voice in your head.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
Really yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
I mean it's a nice soothing voice most of the time.
Unthoughs I'm screaming at Smith about something Jets, Mets or Nicks.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
Related sounds about right to me.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
Eh. There's been a lot of it, and we'll have
a Nick's story in a little while because it's the
season that won't die. But I want to shed some
light and shine a light on the comments of their
superstar from the year because I think he said everything
I tried to and you know that Jay and the
excuse making Knicks fans couldn't get away from. But we'll

(42:04):
do that in a little bit. The NBA Finals are set.
We've got the Mavericks, we've got the Celtics, We've got
superstars galore right up there. We'll get into Kyrie Irving
in about twenty minutes from now, because he's a guy
with a history that makes him one of the focal
points here and a guy that is a as a
betting for Finals MVP Ryan Owins, would you believe he's

(42:27):
eighteen or twenty to one? Little value proposition if you're
deciding to go down that in that way as opposed
to Luca, Tatum and Brown all at seven to one
or less, so might be able to find yourself some
value there. As we broadcast live from the tirak dot
com studios. Tyrac dot com will help you get there
an unmatched selection, fast free shipping, great road hazard protection

(42:49):
and over ten thousand recommended installers. Tirac dot com the
way tire buying should be, and we've got the layoffs
so we won't get games in earnest for another couple
of days. But as you know, everybody goes back and
watch the tape, we do a lot of what ifs
along the way, and one of the narratives carrying things
is the easy path for the Celtics thus far, and

(43:12):
let's call what it is you've got injured players along
the way that's happened, and we've talked about it for weeks,
the war of attrition and the best ability being your
availability this time of year and trying to manage injuries
and hurt versus injured, and all of those things that
we've discussed for trying to navigate the regular season and

(43:33):
through because at a minimum, you're playing one hundred games, right,
you're ninety eight games if you're perfect in the postseason,
not to mention your preseason, and you know in season tournament,
if you made that championship, you got that and the
bonus game didn't count towards your stats to though, which
is I think kind of bogus. So maybe eventually we

(43:54):
get an adjustment and folks can get those tacked on,
because maybe there's points milestones end up being short on
that can help you in your argument for well, if
nothing else bar trivia, but to that point, Ryan, you know,
we got the Celtics that make the run, and I
see it being dismissed, like they were still the best
team in the East by double digit games. So the

(44:17):
fact that they still ran rough shot in the East,
I get it. Stars weren't there, but they were a
hell of a team coming in. So dismissing them just
seems so Sports talk radio and sports media of twenty
twenty four.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
Well, they didn't have the toughest road. We know that.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
And you just saw you just saw the Dallas Mavericks
dismantled the best defense in the NBA. And it's the
first time probably since Lebron on the Heat, that you
can say that you had two superstars put together, two

(44:57):
prolific players on the same team and it and it worked.
You thought we thought the nets would work. We thought,
you know, James Harden, Chris Paul or James Harden and
Dwight Howard.

Speaker 2 (45:08):
And you're gonna keeps hard with a lot of guys.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Oh but just the first in my mind shouting, I
got shot out my Rockets, you know, but their teams
and players that get assemble. Hey, Kyrie on the Celtics, Okay,
and everybody got so excited that it's gonna be amazing,
and it's like, well, they don't defend, he don't pass
the ball. This doing this is working because they defend. Uh,

(45:32):
they're tough minded. Like, there's so many good things that
we saw out of Dallas that were like, man, it's
their time. And you can tell with certain teams when
it's their time. You're looking at Dallas and you're like, nah,
it's their time. You don't feel the same way when
you watch Boston. Now, credit to old Boston. You know,
technically you can say, hey, maybe we're not giving Indiana

(45:54):
the credit that they deserve. But it wasn't Giannis, not
to the Kupo, it wasn't uh. You know, it wasn't
the NBA's best. It wasn't you know, with an Indiana
team that struggled to uh to execute down the stretch.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
This wasn't Damian Lillard with the ball in his hands.
You know.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
So there's a lot that went on that is making
you hesitant when it comes to seeing what the Celtics
are doing. But everything literally, everything that we're seeing from
the Uh, you know, from the Mavericks, you feel really good.
And it's from the defense to the fact that they
can they can execute offensively. You know, this is some

(46:34):
good basketball that we've seen. And even you know that
was a tough Oklahoma City team that they beat. I
meant by the air there, Jenny Jinjin and Luca douneons
impressed us most and in my opinion, by trusting Derek
Jones Junior and PJ Washington on the wings who hit
timely shots and you know, PJ, you got it. The
third option will beat you. That's what's tough about Dallas.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
No, and that's ever since the trade and the change
really of the identity of that squad, right because it
was the Kyrie and Lucas show and maybe an occasional
guest star, and then you get fortified in the front line.
Lively had a fantastic season right by all measures, and

(47:16):
certainly you know Luca obviously jokingly but talking about you know,
his perfect shooting thus far in the postseason or in
the finals, they should say was the idea of here
you take the finals MVP. And I would be remiss
if I didn't bring back the Michael Finley story, Michael

(47:37):
Finley taking Lucas beer. Come on, now, my man's having
a beer with his old man.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
No, I no, he ain't. Not right nowop noop, not
right now, not right now.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
I got a week off, man. You don't think I'm
going to leave the corridor and go drink a couple
of gold.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
Luca daches is the chance to play in the biggest
game in his life that he's ever played, and the
to run the knock on lucas that Luca doesn't take
things seriously, that Luca can get out of shape, that
Luca can relax because the game is so easy for him.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
The game comes so easy for him.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
So take that beer and don't take a kick it
out of slap it out of his hand.

Speaker 3 (48:18):
Dude, this is not the time, so shout out to.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
Mikeel No, Michael Finley needs to, you know, go back
and play or something again, or just come on you
having a beer with his old man after what he
just did.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
He didn't prove to you.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
What are you celebrating for it? There's nothing that's one.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
You can't get a beer. He didn't bust out champagne
and start cracking it on bottles.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
No, no, because that same beer if they lose, they
can look at Luca didn't take things serious, he's out
of shape.

Speaker 3 (48:46):
You're saving them from him.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
Shit, So isn't that for for Luca to decide whether
he wants to have someone screaming on a TV be
mad at him.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
When Luca steps in with his third NBA championship or whatever,
he wants to hold a beer have at it. But
right now he's trying to build his legacy. Michael's doing
what's best for him. And I really do love, you know,
love that move because it was taking He was definitely
taking care of Luca.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
Yeah, I thought it in infantilized him, made him look
like he sunned.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
Him, as he should. Luca's young, lucas not the veteran,
the experience.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
Six year NBA. Last year, everybody was telling him that
he was never gonna win because of all these things.

Speaker 1 (49:32):
Well, Michael, I love you because I know you don't
believe this. You're just blowing smoke, but you know that
Luca hasn't won anything, and you know you're not and
you're not ready to crown or annoint Luca to anywhere.

Speaker 3 (49:46):
We know that.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
So so the next this point in the NBA where
we're at, sure.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
There's there's yeah, there's no MVPs there's no championships. We
want to annoy somebody and hopefully he can be that guy,
or right now he's not and we know that. So
you're your on page and you and you'd be the
first person going, well, remember that beer he was drinking.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
Look, I would be the first person. Then you obviously
don't know me very well.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
Well, no, you'd be in on it. You'd be in,
you'd be in. People turn well, no, you're reasonable. You're reasonable.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
Why I thought I feel personally attacked.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
It's not about you, it's the it's the Perci.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
Screaming and all those clowns out of this.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
No no, no, no, no, no, no. Brethren here, I am
not even mentioning that, and so we we we you
know me, we ain't even having that conversation. That's not
what I'm saying, But I'm saying that narrative would very
easily be Luca's not taking things serious in the knock

(50:52):
on him. And you can draw the similarities with Luca
even with Joker. Okay, similar right horse racing, Like the
dudes un interested in basketball, and it's like you're sitting
there and you're supposed to be the best.

Speaker 3 (51:04):
Athlete on the planet.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
One of the best athletes on the planet, and you're
chugging a beer afterwards, and you're a guy who's had injuries,
You're a guy who's been out of shape. You're a
guy who who seemingly the game is too easy for you.
So when you talk about, hey man, what are you
doing chugging that beer? No, slap that thing out of
his hand, because we need you in shape, we need
you focused, we need you ready, and you ain't want

(51:26):
nothing yet, you know, go get him a get him
an energy drink, Get.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
Him those are healthy for you.

Speaker 3 (51:33):
Well, not that you know what I'm saying, something healthy.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
Give you some whole whole week grain glory content on
that beer.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
But I think he'd ran enough to probably earn one,
didn't he.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
No, no, no, no, need him in shape.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
No, it's it's if you had the biggest moment of
your life and.

Speaker 2 (51:53):
You're and you're going to beer with my old man.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
No, no, celebrate what you ain't won nothing yet, nothing yet, celebrate.

Speaker 3 (52:03):
What Mike, there's nothing to celebrate yet.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
No, if it's just a post game normal thing, right,
if it was Game three and he was standing there.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
I know a lot of coaches teammates, whatever that may
do that you wait until the proper time, waiting until
you're on the airplane. Do not do this in the
hallways because you're Luca's about to step into the NBA
Championship with easily the most distractions that he's ever seen
in a ballgame. And I know he played in some
major games overseas, but this one is going to be different.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
So when you.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
Say, do not put a beer in your hand, do
not do those things. Do not give these people anything
to talk to you about. We're gonna we're gonna do
our partying, okay, and if he chooses to amongst ourselves,
but we're not gonna give these people anything negative to
talk about you with.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
Not not one thing, not one thing.

Speaker 2 (53:01):
So did you think it was more than it was?
Not a NBA sponsor, No, not even closed.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
Now, Philly don't care about that. Philly knows the perception.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
He's just like, look, I'm not gonna put you in
a bad place, like you're not gonna take this beer.
You're not gonna have that because we don't need anybody
questioning how serious you're taking things that you you know,
in moments, Luca's been injured in the playoffs. Luca hadn't
been ready. Alcohol is not good for your recovery. That
is not the way you recovered. Now, maybe you mentally recover,

(53:30):
and that's where you're like, hey, the guy needs a break.

Speaker 3 (53:33):
You know, he did a lot.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
No, ain't nothing done yet, because if they lose, that
means nothing. If they lose with the best team that
Dallas has had since the championship, it means nothing. So no, no,
my friend, no beer for you. No, Luca, you win
a championship. As a matter of fact, Michael Philly's gonna
hand him a beer. He's gonna personally add them one.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
Should back up a truck like they did years ago
for some of those NBA players, because I don't know.
I just thought it was a bad look that. I mean,
he was smooth with it, don't get me wrong, the
way he slipped it out of his hand and and
got the quizzical look. But he just one of those
h made him look like a child and treated him
like one.

Speaker 3 (54:15):
He is.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
Yeah, seemingly he is. Yeah, yeah he is. He had
one none, yeah he is.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
He got a week off between games, and the man
can't have none here, No, he cannot. Now if he
was one of these guys coming straight from college and
he u ball like you were talking about last hour,
I'd agree with you because it'd be illegal.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
And that's what he's a twenty five year old grown
ass man. That's that same mentality that will have Luca home.

Speaker 3 (54:46):
In losing. So no, wow, No, it's he took.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
It all the way there, that that that would be
the thing that takes him home. That he pauses after
beating this defensive juggernaut as they've been laid up and
he got I pause to have a conversation and a
beer with his old man. Yep, he's not standing there
with a six pack, he doesn't have a mini cag
and he's doing stands.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
It's that, dude, is that serious. It's that serious at
that level. It's that serious. It is. It's that serious.
It's it's not casual.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
Yeah, that's that just seems extreme.

Speaker 3 (55:23):
But winning is it? Winning is extreme?

Speaker 1 (55:25):
No?

Speaker 2 (55:25):
No, and I get it. It's we're just stay I
got a week before I got to play basketball again.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
It's it's probably the hardest thing you are ever gonna do,
literally the hardest in your life. It is that extreme.
So yes, absolutely, there's no question. It is not casual.
There's not casual. You're gonna win an NBA championship. There's
no part of your day that's not accounted for. There's
nothing that's not tight. And I just went to an
Eastern Conference finals. So as far as that, no, or

(55:54):
if that's your routine, like everything in your life has
to be that tight. So Michael Finley saw Luca eating
a little loose and said, no, don't.

Speaker 3 (56:01):
I don't care what you did.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
You the job is not finished because if you blink
for a second, you've lost. Just that second, that's that's
all it is. And you lost because Boston is gearing up.
Boston is hearing everybody and they're talking hands like me
and you and saying they're not good enough, they're not
serious enough, they're not locked in.

Speaker 3 (56:19):
They can't do it.

Speaker 1 (56:20):
So you know, Boston's gonna have some motivation. And guess what,
they swept the Pacers, so they got a little more
arrest even than Dallas got because Dallas didn't take care
of business and they already took a look over and
didn't come with it the way that they should have
came with it.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
Boston in the sweep three games where the win probability
in the final minute, got within what ninety four percent
twice and ninety percent a third and snatched the souls
of the Indiana Pacers. We'll continue with the NBA Finals,
finding those X factors and playing up the villain as
we broadcast live from the tirerac dot com studios. Tire

(56:57):
act dot com will help you get there on matt selection,
fast free shipping, free road hagri protection at over ten
thousand recommended installers, tire rac dot com. The way tire
buying should be. He's Ryan, I'm Mike, and this is
Fox Hey, Welcome back in Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Sunday,
Mike Carbon alongside Ryan Hollins. Appreciate y'all hanging out with

(57:18):
us this morning as we roll through and travel the
many highways of the NBA Finals. Celebrating with another giant
cup of coffee. Here Ryan Hollins, as it is early
West Coast time, celebrating and finding all our wins as
we do each and every week. Thoroughbred Racing has a
new independent regulator HAISA. It's implementing comprehensive reforms and the

(57:39):
sports combining hands on care with cutting edge technology to
help keep its athletes safe. To learn more, visit Safety
Runs First dot Com. That Safety Runs First dot Com.
At the Ryan Hollins where you find them on Twitter,
find me over in the Instagram and X Worlds keep
trying to, you know, make Twitter still happen. And I

(58:00):
don't know what it is anymore. At Swollen Dome is
where you find me there. It's it's a cesspool, but
it's still where we communicate and hang out and get
our thoughts and do all our previews. Find the podcast
wherever you pull your audio, it'll go up. After we're donnian.
I'll make sure that that goes up as well.

Speaker 3 (58:20):
Ryan.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
You know, it's one of those things when apps and
brands that you've come to know change names, trying to
get people to adopt the new name and recognize the
change is sometimes difficult.

Speaker 3 (58:33):
It is it is.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
And I just say Twitter, I haven't taken in X.
You know, I mean on air we'll say you know
via X you know, to be proper, But you know,
I just say Twitter. Don't mind me. Yeah, I don't
think anybody's offended when you say.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
I don't know it's twenty twenty four. I could say eh,
and or thought and I can get people offended. Oh gosh, yeah, hey,
you know what you said around that? And I didn't
say anything. I just say, how dare you look the
Mavericks and the Celtics. Right, Celtics are six and a

(59:07):
half point favorites game one. We've got a few more
days to chop it all up and find all the
angles you you'll I'm sure we'll join Smith and I
later on this week as we get ready towards Game one.
But as you and I sit here across America and
the globe this morning, however, and wherever people are listening,

(59:28):
if the if I give you the sentence, and porzingis
we've already stipulated we expect him back in some capacity
dot dot. But let's just assume he plays a limited role.
For the Celtics. To win, Player X has to be big,
and you can't give me Tatum or Brown.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
What can I give you? Prosingis we just talked about prosilans?

Speaker 2 (59:49):
No. I guess well no, but I mean, like, say
he's not a say available, I'll.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
Go, You're gonna need the ball in Drew Holliday's hands.
Jew Holiday is gonna have to make play.

Speaker 2 (01:00:11):
There you go, Yeah, the porzingist thing. It's just, uh,
they made it to this point in a full month
without him.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
Yeah, and I'll compare it to like Mike Conley. He'll
be kind of like Mike Conley was from Minnesota, where
you know, if Jew Holliday's aggressive offensively, he doesn't mind
sharing the sugar in getting everybody else involved, you know,
so I will That's.

Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
Where I'll go.

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
I like that because you had the defensive side of
it is really where I think he he potentially has
the big impact. We saw it in the last series.
You know what he did when he was locked in
on Halliburton before he got hurt.

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
But I think your offense, his offense is gonna have
to be there. He's gonna he can't kind of just
sit off in the corner because he's the guy that
you can't really you know, account for. He's the guy
that can he can go off, he can score and
again he's a great passer. He's going to make sure
the ball moves. And what's the problem with Boston when
they kind of when they're going, they can staging it right,

(01:01:11):
and you know, if Drew has it, he's going to
make sure those guys, you know, are open. And now
if you're in a closeout situation with Jason Tatum Jaylen
Brown where they have a head of steam or they
have separation, it's a much different matchup.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
Yeah, they're just a curiosity, right because we watched the
Celtics and again they swept the Pacers and man, it's
still four to h I mean, you don't change it.
And we talk about competitive sweeps and we've had our
laughs at that owing to all of the soundbites that
came out of that Lakers Denver series season last season.

(01:01:47):
But when we look at it, you know, in that series,
when they needed a play and they made a play,
right as much as we talk win percentages and best
shots from Indiana, and they made plenty of miscues, plenty
of coaching curiosities from Rick Carlisle in decision making timeouts
and didn't whatever we can, we can write a six

(01:02:08):
page you know, treatise for a short short film, uh,
if we want. The fact of the matter is the
Celtics found a way to make plays and come get it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
They did, they did, and you know, they they found
a way and you know, Indiana they fought. They weren't
the best competition, but they fought, they played together. I
think Rick Carlile did an amazing job.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
I mean just just there's the overall great job, and
then there's in the moment kind of thing, which is
the definite.

Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
I don't think he dropped the ball.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
I mean the fact that they were still competitive in
their best player, Alett Martin, was on the sideline for
a timeout.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
Or a decision here or there in the final minutes.
You take that ninety four percent win probability to one hundred.

Speaker 1 (01:02:53):
Well, we talked about it. I'm not taking that time
out because now one of the best defenses in the
NBA gets to get set, and once they're set, you know,
maybe you can go early, you know, and try to
figure things out. You were aggressive, you made a strong play,
and it just didn't work out. So I don't I
don't have any any second guessing, you know, his decision not.

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
To go early. You know.

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
I'm all in with with what Rick did.

Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
I didn't. I didn't mind it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
Yeah. I was also thinking back to the the other
inbounds insanity with Pascal Siakam coming back to the ball.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
No, but again, the player's got to make plays in
those situations. I thought that Rick got them where they
needed to go, and the guys just you know, didn't deliver.
But you know, with all due respect, it wasn't it
wasn't their time yet, you know, and that's when you
look at look at Oklahoma City. Would you blame their coach,
you know, for for Shay fouling the three point shooter

(01:03:50):
at the end of the game.

Speaker 3 (01:03:50):
No, I think it just wasn't bad.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
Yeah, yeah, but I mean that's a play, right, I mean,
and yes, you have to make plays, but if you
have the opportunity to stop, stop the action and advance
the ball, that doesn't do you any good with that
timeout still in your pocket.

Speaker 3 (01:04:07):
Yeah, yeah, I don't. Personally, I think Rick did a
great job.

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
I don't want to know overrobably did that fantastic job. Right,
They delivered, they took advantage of situations as well. Right,
we talked about the Celtics in their path and certainly
the Pacers. You know that Nick squad. We'll get into
Brunson here in about fifteen minutes because I liked what
he had to say about it, you know, kind of
fighting back against a national narrative there. All right, let

(01:04:31):
me flip it to the other squad. Then for Dallas,
we've got Luca and we've got Kyrie, and who's got
to be the third player to step in for them
for this to work? Or is it just an amalgam
of what's been working.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
No, man, I think he's emerged, and we saw it
more so with his injury. Talked about him earlier in
the show. I think that Derek Lively because you know, defensively,
you know, he's really held down the paint and if
you look back, like it was a different Anthony Edwards
when he was on the floor versus him being off
the floor, you know that Dallas defense goes to a

(01:05:08):
whole nother level because he's big, He contests, he plays
without fouling, you know. He man, he does a lot
of things really really good for their ball club. So
I think Lively, I'm pretty sure like he's the difference
with them. You know, That's who I'm going to look
to and say that, hey man, he you know they
got to have that's the the must have, that's the

(01:05:29):
consistency that has to be there for the Mavericks. And
you know it's honestly, you know, from the guard position,
you can you can toss a coin up at at
Kyrie and Tatum and Brown and Luca and just say, hey,
let's say those two stars all set. I think le
Lively at the rim that is the game. I know

(01:05:50):
that is the the game changer for them.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
I like that digging deep with the rook eight six
and seven to two a game here in the postseason,
the Richard retard of klee right because he missed significant
time and he got some minutes late here. So with
an extra week off again, this is where you know,
as much as folks may lament the layoff, it gives
us the best opportunity in theory to get back towards

(01:06:14):
Fullish squads. Now, whether Chris Stops can come back and
give you twenty five or thirty minutes a night remains
to be seen. We talked about it a little earlier
in the show of It'll be a curiosity, all right,
We're starting to get a little tape of him working
out and all. But Kleeber was a guy that missed time.
And when we talk about the defensive rotations and guys

(01:06:35):
being able to run some bodies and cut off lanes
and passing angles and stuff, you know, between Gafford, Lively
and Kleeber, you've got the three headed monster. I just
hope it doesn't come down to free throw shooting for
the Mavericks because you know, outside of Kyrie Irving, that's
an adventure. Oh, how's that to put it nicely, it's

(01:06:58):
an adventure.

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
Lose the finals because of free throw shooting, that would
be crazy. You know, there's just just a lack of focus.
And it hasn't happened like yet, but.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
It's seventy two percent in the playoffs, seventy five point
eight percent as a team during the year.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
Yeah, and remember, uh, Luca, Luca missed, he missed miss Yeah,
not just free throws like big ones, dude, like huge ones.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
Yep, yep. I remember in my mind's eye, Smith and
I were on air and just looked at it and goes, really,
he made that shot and then he missed the free throw.

Speaker 1 (01:07:38):
And it well, there was there was one where like
they needed his to be in the game, and like
like he's missed like a couple, dude, like one, just
one or two, Like there's a couple he missed.

Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
Yeah, there's one in particular I'm thinking of in one
of those comeback efforts. In the end, they're still on
their way to the final. But yeah, not without their
their stressful moments along the way, no question about it.
Let's see two or three of the last game where
there was an eight of ten. Go back to the
prior series. You had a game against OKC when he
went six for ten. Now, they got drummed in that game,

(01:08:14):
so it's hard to put that into context. But yes,
it's certainly something just from a team perspective when you
look at PJ. Washington and some of the other regulars
that'll see minutes, something to be thinking of as you're
in these close games, and particularly if you're in the
wagering in investing markets as well, that'll come in on

(01:08:35):
you as well. But yeah, everybody that isn't named Tatum,
Brown or Luca a veritable long shot if you're looking
to put a few dollars towards the NBA Finals. MVP
Kyrie coming in at eighteen to twenty to one is
a guy that you know, those are pretty nice odds
for a guy who's going to handle the ball and
see as much time as he does. He's Ryan Hollins.

(01:08:58):
I'm Mike Carbon here Fox Sports, Fox Sports Radio at
the Ryan Hollins where you find Ryan ten years in
the league working over with the Houston Rockets, and of
course my teammate here on Fox Sports Sundays find me
over at Swollen Dome. Now we turn it over to
a guy who is still watching Blackout Baseball may have

(01:09:20):
installed a black light and a disco ball in the
update studio, my guy, Isaac.

Speaker 7 (01:09:25):
Low and Cron You're actually right about that, and it
revealed some disturbing things in this studio.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
Whoa, whoa, dude.

Speaker 3 (01:09:36):
What wow?

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
I'm just gonna leave that alone, right.

Speaker 7 (01:09:43):
Wow, I was talking about the disco ball. Oh okay,
get your minds out of the gutter. It's Sunday. People
are at church anyway. Headed to the opposite of the gutter.
The Florida Panthers, Ladies and gentlemen. They are going to
the Stanley Cup Final for a second straight years. In
Game six of the Easter Conference Final on Saturday night,
they defeated the New York Rangers two to one to

(01:10:03):
win the series four games to two. They will face
either the Edmonton Oilers or the Dallas Stars for the
Stanley Cup. In Major League Baseball, on Saturday night, the
New York Yankees won at San Francisco seven to three
Aaron Judges major League leading twenty first home run of
the season. In LA, the Dodgers defeated the Colorado Rockies
four to one. At Wrigley, it was the Cubs over

(01:10:24):
the Cincinnati Read seven to five, and get this, Dansby
Swanson hit the go ahead two run home run in
the bottom of the eighth inning. On the same day
that his wife, Mallory Swanson scored two goals for the
US women's national soccer team in a four nothing victory
over South Korea. Again, quite a day for the Swanson family.
Phillies over the Cardinals six to one. Bryce Harper his

(01:10:47):
fourteenth home run Philadelphia as the best record of the
majors at forty one and eighteen, follow finally Mike and Ryan.
In college baseball, Division three school Birmingham Southern College, which
was founded back in eighteen fifty six, closed its doors
on Friday due to financial hardship. Even though the school

(01:11:11):
technically does not exist anymore, its baseball team is competing
in the Division three College World Series, and on Saturday
it faced Randolph Macon in an elimination game that was
tied at seven in the bottom of the ninth with
a runner on and Birmingham Southern's Jackson Webster at the plate.

Speaker 1 (01:11:30):
Blessed to the left.

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
Are you kidding? Are you kidding? And do you believe?

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
Alive and kicking.

Speaker 11 (01:11:45):
Birmingham Southern Wednesday nine to seven.

Speaker 9 (01:11:48):
Bob Brainer the call.

Speaker 7 (01:11:49):
So Birmingham Southern will now face Wisconsin Whitewater in another
elimination game later today, even though its school technically does
not exist anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
Back to you guys, well, that's the way to go
out and style, right, it's a it's a final appreciate you.
Ilo at Isaac Lowancrow where you find him, Angel City
FC broadcaster getting ready while we got ninety seven days
or so until we attack the earth with more enthusiasm,
you know, unknown to man or something like that. The

(01:12:20):
Jim Harbaugh quote as he's part of the Chargers broadcast,
just really quickly. Going back to Mallory Swanson, right, so
she scores twice in this game, and because you've got
teammates Lindsay Iran and Sophia Smith, they would need some
tickets as well, because all you know, local local products.
She ended up buying a suite to make sure enough

(01:12:42):
family and friends can show up.

Speaker 3 (01:12:44):
Wow, I like that. It's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
Not a bad way to go, No, not at all.
I did not know. It was also called Dick's Sporting
Goods Park, So there you use me. Yeah, the sporting
goods store. Oh yeah, how about that? Who knew?

Speaker 3 (01:12:58):
Who knew?

Speaker 2 (01:13:00):
Ell sponsors everywhere. Once I'm rich and famous, I'll do
the same somewhere, probably a park bench somewhere where you're
sitting me the ducks. What do you mean once I
got to get the paycheck that goes with it?

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
Brother, You know that pretty big time due your workhorse, dude.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
Well yeah, that's it. Get on my back. I will
carry you with my quads, There's no question about it.
At the Ryan Hollins where you find them on Twitter,
and you are much too kind. Find me over at
Swollen Dom. Hey. Reminder that shortly after the show, the
podcast goes up. If you missed any of today's show,
be sure to check it out. Search Fox Sports Radio
wherever you get your podcast. Be sure to follow rate
review it. That's the key. Tell us how pretty we

(01:13:36):
are and how well we argued with one another this morning.
Search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts, you'll
see this show posted by our guy Ian right after
we get off the air, and coming out next we'll
circle back. The Knicks may be vanquished, but I want
to give some love, one more last breadth to their season,
courtesy of their star. We'll do it next here on

(01:13:58):
Fox Welcome back in It's Fox Sports Sunday, Fox Sports
Radio Live inthetirac dot Com Studios Mike Harman along side
my guy, Ryan Hollins at the Ryan Hollins ten Years
in the League, part of the Houston Rockets, broadcast here
with me every Sunday and of course crossed our Fox

(01:14:19):
Sports Radio network as we get ready for the NBA Finals.
We'll talk a little bit about a couple of basketball
legends and stars that we lost this week, coming up
at the top of the hour. One with a huge
connection certainly to the upbringing of my guy here as
a basketball player, no question about it. We'll do that

(01:14:41):
coming up in about ten minutes. But Ryan, I wanted
to hit the rewind button on the Knicks, not that
I haven't had to do it a lot with my guys.

Speaker 1 (01:14:49):
I was going to say you voluntarily doing.

Speaker 2 (01:14:52):
This, No, because I actually liked this story. Because seven
to eleven Pacific is where you find Jason and I
and certainly you've heard the promo listened to any Fox
Sports radio of me trying to make a nice cogent argument,
a salient point and him screaming over the top with
his oh oh, I can't even do it because I'll
never get my throat back. But the idea of the

(01:15:14):
Knicks and the narrative at the end of the year
was battered, broken down, and Jalen Bronson was like the
final straw right where he has the hand injury as
they go down and defeat in a blowout fashion to
the Pacers. But we always talk Ryan about reasons and excuses, right,

(01:15:35):
reasons something happened versus well, you know what, it would
have been altogether different if that the other Right if
in that review in this last series, Kyrie Irving had
been called for a file instead of getting a ball
awarded out of mounds. Do we have a different series,
Do we have a different outcome in that game? Maybe?
Maybe not. I'll leave the what if to the animation
people over at Disney and Marvel. It's pretty good series,

(01:15:58):
by the way, if you haven't watched that two seasons
of it thus far, third season coming all the different
scenarios in the time continuum as they switch. But for
Jalen Brunson, finally, you know, a little bit removed from
the season, he doesn't want to hear about your excuses
for why the Knicks went away.

Speaker 8 (01:16:15):
The one thing I hated the most, even though like
we were playing well, we were winning, we were up two,
oh did up three to two. Whenever we lost, like
everyone was like, Oh, it's they're tired, or they're injuries
or anything like. Honestly, that that kind of like pissed
me off because I mean, yeah, we don't have a

(01:16:37):
full team, but like we don't want to use that.
I don't want the narrative of being like, oh, they're hurt,
so like let's give him a pass. Like no, like
we had chances to win that series and didn't maybe
a chance to go up three to zero and we didn't. Like,
I just I just hate the fact that sometimes people
give us the fact that we were injured or the

(01:16:58):
injuries happen. Yeah, they're part of the game, but that's
not the Reasonay we lost. We had a chance to win,
like we were winning with those injuries. Like I don't
know it kind of I just hate the narrative.

Speaker 2 (01:17:11):
See that's why I wanted to shine a spotlight on
Jalen Brunson here. And I'll disavow that this ever happened,
might have to have Ian taken out of the podcast
when it's all said and done, so Smith doesn't know
it exists, Ryan Allins, But it's the idea that you're injured,
and we've talked about it a lot with teams, from
Giannis to Lillard to just go on down the line, right,

(01:17:33):
the Clippers come into this season and go through the
regular season, a lot of expectations. Guess what, you don't
have your core there in the playoffs and you go
home and for the Knicks. You know, part of it
plays to the long standing Tom Thibodeau discussion about wearing
guys out and playing for him and whatever else. But

(01:17:54):
you legitimately had four of your seven or eight rotational
guys that were no longer available to you. So it's
a reason. But I like, you know, his idea. It's
the NFL and an NBA mentality of next man up.
We still had opportunities to go do stuff and we didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:18:11):
Yeah, well, this sounds like Rick Burntson's son.

Speaker 1 (01:18:16):
It sounds like something is Dad was making very clear,
no excuses. Does it matter, No, dude, they were injured.
They played so many minutes, you know, like and you
know the glass half full is if they don't play
those minutes, they don't do it. They don't get to
that point. But these guys might not make it to
next season.

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
No, I mean that is a very real thing when
you get into the world. Having watched it in Chicago
and his other stops.

Speaker 1 (01:18:43):
Listen, hamstrings and abdominal injuries could last a career, and
I hope they don't. But I'm jokingly, not joking. They
might not make it to next season and be able
to report back and the broken hand should figure its
way out. But I mean there was injuries on top
of injury. It is like that, this is a real thing.
It's not an excuse. You guys are going seven deep

(01:19:04):
and the other side is playing ten eleven guys.

Speaker 3 (01:19:07):
That was that was the difference in the game.

Speaker 1 (01:19:09):
You know, you can war out man, when you have
fresh defenders harassing you and guarding you and chasing you around.

Speaker 3 (01:19:15):
Listen.

Speaker 1 (01:19:16):
But again, hats off and and and that's why we
love Jayleen Brunson, right, You love him because he's he's
no excuses, chip off his old block, and man, I'm
telling you, may Rick Brunson, that's as tough as you
can get.

Speaker 3 (01:19:30):
Man, that dude was no nonsense.

Speaker 1 (01:19:32):
I remember I was a young rookie and night, man,
I try to have I try to have a conversation
on the side during the game at the free throw
line with Rick Brunson.

Speaker 3 (01:19:40):
He wouldn't having no parts of it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:41):
So I'll tell you right now, like yeah, that that
is the right mentality. That's what we like James Brunson. Man,
he is tough as nails. You know, he doesn't make excuses.
And you know, I don't think he's the greatest nick ever.
You know, I don't think well, I mean that stopped,
you know, but but he deserves all of the and
then some for what he's done this season by far.

Speaker 2 (01:20:02):
Come on, folks that were pushing that narrative are the
same one telling me that Kyrie and Luker are the
greatest backcourt ever.

Speaker 3 (01:20:08):
Too, scoring scoring backcourt scoring.

Speaker 2 (01:20:11):
Oh all right, he's Ryan Hollins on my car. But
we'll get back into that. And remembering Alegenddax dot Fox.

Speaker 5 (01:20:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio, great eggs and welcome
in another glorious Fox Sports Sunday Final Hour for Ryan
Hollins and I this morning live fromthe tirerack dot Com studios.

Speaker 2 (01:20:33):
Tire rack dot com. We'll help you get there an
unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road hazard protection, and
over ten thousand recommended installers. Tire rackt dot com the
way tire buying should be. You find Ryan on Twitter
at the Ryan Hollins find me over at Swollen Dome
and Ryan. Another huge week ahead for our sporting universe.

(01:20:57):
Lots of speculation about the NBA Finals. We'll dive back
into that coming up in about twenty minutes. You've got
the NBA Draft at the end of the month and
all the fallout there. We start talking about opt outs
and free agency, several days for Lebron, James and Clutch
to do something before the finals start. What's the story

(01:21:18):
they're gonna give us.

Speaker 3 (01:21:21):
I mean, Lebron don't need a store.

Speaker 2 (01:21:23):
You know that he always injects himself.

Speaker 1 (01:21:26):
Come on, man, well, no, no, no, no, in the
sense of him getting paid, you know, I mean, Lebroni's
high enough paid. I'm sure if there's some controversy Lebron
will have a tweet that's going on, and you know
there'd be a lot of hoopla there. But you know, Lebron,
he just enjoys himself. Man, He's kind of just he

(01:21:46):
plays by his own rules.

Speaker 2 (01:21:48):
He well pretty nice about it. Yeah, if everybody had
that opportunity, So why don't begrudge the guy? You know,
I could disagree with things said or or how things
get get out and whatever else. So that's fine, But
in the end, we all look to have that bit
of leverage in our own lives of course, right, I mean,
it's it's the thing everybody wants, and it owes back

(01:22:08):
to some of the conversation from our one of folks
that you know, feel like they should get some of
the shine, right, going back to Caitlin Clark, the WNBA
players who've been toiling, and spotlight's going to change how
everybody looks at things. And maybe the game's always been
played the same way, how about that and now you
just have a spotlight on it all of those But

(01:22:29):
with Lebron James, he's got to opt out. We had
that SoundBite we you and I talked about it last week,
Rich Paul saying, oh, Lebron's a free agent whatever, and
at that point, like he hasn't exercised it. But if
nothing else, it allows you to do a long term
deal up to I think it's one hundred and sixty
four million dollars there, Ryan, but just say it for
argument's sake, for giggle's sake. He opts out, and I said,

(01:22:53):
you know what we can get shit audience your team X.
How would you start that conversation of Hey, le let
me put you in this car I sell. Let me
sell my team to you.

Speaker 1 (01:23:06):
I'd say, Hey, Lebron, I know all the things you're
interested in.

Speaker 3 (01:23:10):
You know, we believe in you.

Speaker 1 (01:23:12):
We believe in Bronni and you you guys competing at
a high level. I think that our city would love you.
I think we would embrace you, and we would fit
to whatever need you have. We think that you can
help mentor our young stars. And at the same time
you played it still at a high level, Lebron. We

(01:23:32):
believe in you and whatever LA has to offer, Hey,
will what you in? What you want, piece of ownership?
What do you want to do, Lebron? You want NBA,
NFL will help you get wherever you need to go.
Because we believe in you and not just you, we
believe in Bronni. And hey, let's do a handshake deal
with your with with Brce too. We'll draft in at you.

(01:23:52):
How about that? How about that for a deal? You
can't turn that down, Lebron.

Speaker 2 (01:23:58):
Now you got the second son in extend the contract.
I mean, they can't pay as outside of the Lakers,
they can't pay the same level. But you know, as
you say, there's there's ways to do this. And let's
face it, not everything's gonna be on a standard NBA contract,
not that you can promise the ownership right now, at
least not from what we're disclosed.

Speaker 1 (01:24:21):
No, no, But but games, you know what is my
You know I'm gonna I'm gonna throw it out there.
Oh of course, you know it's it's it's in the air.

Speaker 2 (01:24:31):
You know, it's already Yeah, it's it's already been broached
a million times. Right. Would he want ownership of the
team if one comes to Las Vegas? Right, We've been
talking about that for years. But I think that's one
of the fascinating things of this whole scenario of just
you know, again, play the what if game? Right like
we do with a lot of games, right, one decision here,

(01:24:51):
one play, one call, all of that stuff and how
it changes fortunes and futures along the way. And for
Lebron James, because look, I've argued, outside of the financial
part of things, I'm wondering if the Western Conference, if
it isn't in the Lakers' best interest to kind of
look and say it's been a good run and try
to figure out who that next superstar is. Again, I

(01:25:14):
recognize the economics of it and the optics of it
and all of that star town, big star, et cetera.
But in terms of winning in the conference, whether a
reboot is it shouldn't be in order.

Speaker 1 (01:25:28):
That would be the that would be the logical choice.
I'll tell you nobody wants to sit through it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:36):
But you're already but you're already a borderline playing team.
Oh you're right right, And this you got kind of
both of these guys. You know, when we were talking
about health and Luca and all these guys earlier. It's like,
you got seventy plus games out of Lebron and a
D and that's what you got and the West ain't
getting any easier.

Speaker 1 (01:25:57):
Listen, Oh, it's it is as competitive as it's ever been.
There's nothing that you're saying that's wrong. It's just LA
don't want to do it. You know, LA doesn't want
to do it, and you hope that, you know, maybe
you can trade for a younger, much younger star or
player that could fall into one of those roles to

(01:26:19):
kind of keep the thing going. You know, that's what
you're The reason you're saying is because that's what you're
not seeing from the Lakers. So you kind of got
Anthony Davis would do it, but he can't quite take
the reins, you know, from Lebron. So we'll see, we'll
see the Lakers. They're gonna have some stuff they gotta
you know, they definitely got to figure out.

Speaker 2 (01:26:39):
Well, because the other thing that kind of went under
the wire, you know, is all these stories float about,
was that the Pelicans deferred taking that final pick from
the Lakers until twenty twenty five. Oh yeah, right, So
the idea being yeah, you're gonna be worse next year
in the draft is going to be better, So let's
go so adding all that up, but I want to

(01:27:01):
take a minute because you know, we lost two players
in the NBA World one with obviously the highest of profiles,
and that is Bill Walton. Plenty of stories we we
told a couple, you know, interactions with him through the years,
Smith having him on a radio show long ago, basically
setting him up for all right, here's what we're going

(01:27:21):
to talk about. He went on for about five minutes
and breaking down every game that had happened, and then
he said, all right, Jason, what do you want to
talk about? So that kind of thing, you know, and
certainly many stories you can find them all over the web.
But since you are a U. C. L A alum,
be remissed if I didn't take a minute in all

(01:27:43):
the all the years with the squad and being around
that program, interactions memories of Walton in all these years,
any particularly memorable run ins, Well.

Speaker 1 (01:27:58):
I say, and he had an her little career, And
for myself it wasn't just on the court, it was
it was in broadcasting too. We brought a lot of energy,
a lot of life. He turned some heads. Definitely ahead
of his time, Yeah, ahead of his time there. But
to me, kind of a funny little interaction we had

(01:28:20):
is you know, I didn't really get a chance to
see a lot of the former greats. When I was
in college, we weren't. We didn't win until I left.
And I'm sure they all showed up.

Speaker 2 (01:28:29):
And they showed up after that.

Speaker 3 (01:28:30):
They all showed up right well. My first time seeing.

Speaker 1 (01:28:35):
Bill were at a at a coaches having a you know,
the like the team banquet or whatever the deal is,
at his house barbecue whatever. Bill shows up. I'm excited.
I'm like, Wow, this is my first time to talk
to Bill Walton. This is this is big. What am
I gonna say? I'm asking h I'm like, hey, Bill,
this is my senior year. We want to win. Man,

(01:28:57):
We're trying to make things happen. You're part of one
of the most winning teams ever in college history. You
know what, what advice you know, would you have for
myself and the guys going in? He's like run, And
I'm like, Bill, we're focused on the national championship.

Speaker 3 (01:29:17):
What do we have to run?

Speaker 2 (01:29:21):
That was never a bad advice had their spons Just run?

Speaker 1 (01:29:27):
That's what he said, you know, But I mean I
just think anytime, you know, he was a ball of
joy and energy, man, and you silly family definitely miss
him and and also really sadden. You know, Bill was
up in age. You know, probably a matter of time. Man,
he would be very missed and very active and thankful
for his efforts. But Drew Gordon Man whether Aaron Gordon, Yeah,

(01:29:49):
and Drew Man, I remember he was a freshman on campus. Dude,
really Sadden. I didn't get all the details and not
think it was a car accident.

Speaker 3 (01:29:58):
I'm not. Don't quote me on specifically, but that one sucks.

Speaker 1 (01:30:02):
Drew was it had a little stint in the NBA,
big big name coming into u c l A. A
lot of energy, a lot of confidence. He is the
reason his little brother is pushed his little brother to greatness,
which is always cool. Sometimes it's not about you, but that, yeah,

(01:30:23):
that hurts man, So condolences to him. The Gordon family,
the Walden family were mourning over at U c l A.
And you know, Mike, when we think about athletes, right
like we think they're indestructible, like they'll never stop, you know,
like we're talking, we're talking about Lebron.

Speaker 3 (01:30:38):
It's like, dude, he's thirty nine. This is gonna be
forty the big bar Old next year.

Speaker 1 (01:30:41):
You know, this is gonna be Ken Griffrey junior and
senior playing in the NBA, which is unheard of you.

Speaker 2 (01:30:47):
But I need him to play another decade because then
I'm not old.

Speaker 3 (01:30:49):
I'm with it. I'm with it, dude.

Speaker 1 (01:30:51):
But we just don't believe these guys ever sat But
there's a humanity side of sports and condolences to the
family and prayers for their strength getting through these tough Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:31:00):
I mean we had it last week. Got emotional on
air just thinking about that moment a lot this week.
You know, the highs and lows again, checking in on
your people as you can. It was a car accident
to car accident Drew Gordon, aged thirty three, so you know,
and we think in the annals of history some you
know that changed careers irreparably, but didn't result in loss

(01:31:26):
of life. With a number of athletes as well, you
know the near misses, and I think all of us
can relate in our personal lives. I had an accident
twenty eighteen that should have taken me out fire. Marshall
looked at me after they're cleaning stuff and goes, woll boy,
that was about six inches pal. I'm like yeah, and

(01:31:47):
then you know walk away, and you know it's something
you think about a lot. So it's it's that kind
of thing. So yeah, it's it's for UCLA a very
difficult week and the outpouring of and certainly Drew Gordon
and his brother. I mean, you think about what the
Denver Nuggets had going on in the locker room, not

(01:32:09):
you know, with with Michael Porter Junior and everything going
on with his family and now you know, Aaron Gordon
with the loss of his brother. I mean, just difficult times.

Speaker 1 (01:32:18):
No, it is difficult. It's it's an understatement, man, And
I can't I can't imagine. I can't imagine. Man, you're
forget a parent, like a sibling, a child, those things
you know, you never you really never get past, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:32:36):
So man, my.

Speaker 1 (01:32:38):
Heart goes out to those guys and he does. I
can imagine competing through a season and you know, not
having you know, your brother there, you know, that family missing, man.
That is that's tough. That is tough. There's nothing, there's
none worse there.

Speaker 2 (01:32:55):
He's Ryan Hollins. I'm Mike Arman. This is Fox Sports Radio,
is Fox Sports Sunday. As we continue, we'll turn our
attention back to the court, but thought it important to
take a few minutes with the you know the passing
of two players of that UCLA history that you've got there, Ryan,
and thoughts to you all the the Bruins family and

(01:33:16):
obviously all their family friends. Hopefully warm remembrances carry you through.
We'll get back into the business of the NBA Finals
here in a moment as we look at Kyrie Irving
and brought up heroes and villains to start the show,
and well, one of those guys, Kyrie does carry one
of those tags. Reminder though, Thoroughbred Racing as a new

(01:33:36):
independent regulator TYSA, it's implementing comprehensive reforms the sports also
combining hands on care cutting edge technology can help keep
its athletes safe. So to learn more, visit Safety Runs
First dot Com at Safety Runs First dot Com. He's
Ryan on Mike and this is Fox Sports Radio. Hey,
welcome back in It's Fox Sports Sunday, Fox Sports Radio,

(01:33:59):
Mike Garment onside Ryan Hollins. As we continue here, wherever
you are out and about on a Sunday, we appreciate
you making part of your day, whether it's your local station,
the iHeartRadio app, serious XM channel eighty three, voice in
your head, I don't know, whatever the case may be
podcast goes up after we're done as well, Ian Chris

(01:34:21):
making us sound so good this morning alongside our guy
Isaac Lowencron and Ryan. A couple more days to the
NBA Finals, so we're, you know, spinning the Dungeons and
Dragons twenty sided die to come up with storyline after storyline.
You've got the long history of the Celtics and all
those championships of years gone by, as well as a

(01:34:45):
number of Eastern Conference Finals appearances, and now here we
are back in the finals. But one guy on the
other side of things that finds himself He always in
crosshairs here one way or another. It seems to be
Kyrie Irving and former Celtics. So that's one of these
subplots to all of this. Remember, I want to be

(01:35:05):
here as long as you'll have me unless I don't,
And off he goes and well traveled. We know of
the man's history, and this is where I think we
get into the hot take nonsense of the day in
sports talk media, in television and radio, of I don't

(01:35:26):
know that anybody really except for availability, be it injury,
be it you know, some of the history that he's
had here these last couple of years. I don't think
there's ever been anybody assailing the aptitude and abilities of
Kyrie Irving. If anything else, it's always been the boy
he could be the greatest. But then you've got all

(01:35:47):
this stuff over here. Look flat Earth or not. You
can believe that or not. That's not polarizing to me.
That's just a all right, someone should give you some evidence,
and eventually they did, and that's fine. Some of the
other stuff you can and certainly entitled to opinions and
discussions and all of that doesn't change what he is
on the court when he shows up. When he took

(01:36:09):
off to be part of a zoom call for a candidate,
he was exercising his important right as an American to
be part of the electoral process, local, state, whatever. You
can get a night off for that right, if you
can take twenty percent off and still be eligible for awards.
I mean, maybe they agreed to it. I don't know.

(01:36:29):
That's between him and his team and his teammates about those.
But I don't know that it's ever been a question, right,
there's always a guy's his heart, his ball handling, and
as you teased at the end of the last hour right,
the discussion being he and Luca as the greatest backcourt error,
and you said scoring, and then I yelled as we
went we are Fox Sports, but they haven't won anything yet.

(01:36:53):
See what I did there?

Speaker 3 (01:36:58):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (01:37:02):
But yeah, for Kyrie Irving though, it's the narrative of
he goes back and he's going to play the Celtics.
And Joe Missoula, as you would expect, was getting questions
about Kyrie in his presser, rightly or.

Speaker 12 (01:37:15):
Wrongly, Kyrie is going to be perceived as a villain
in this series. We all in someone's ass. Pardon me,
We're all villains in someone's ass.

Speaker 1 (01:37:25):
Yeah, exactly, we have.

Speaker 12 (01:37:27):
Just how you know, you guys are good at turn
tuning out the noise.

Speaker 1 (01:37:31):
Is that something that you take into consideration.

Speaker 12 (01:37:34):
Listen, Like, he's a great player. He's done a lot
of good things. I think just how he's carried himself.
You know, how he's played this postseason has been one
of the fun things to watch as one of the
themes in the NBA. So he's a great player, done
a lot of great things over the course of his career,
and he's playing really well.

Speaker 3 (01:37:53):
So you have to respect that.

Speaker 12 (01:37:55):
You can't take that for granted, and you have to
be ready to guard him and them.

Speaker 2 (01:38:01):
And Missoula's line, aren't we all in somebody's eyes? And
every one of you across America and across the globe
listening like, yeah, that guy, her, that guy, that guy,
And suddenly you had a list that formed in your
head of who you might be the villain uh to
in your own life. Because look, everybody's righting their own
movie on a day to day basis. But for Kyrie Irving, unfortunately,

(01:38:25):
the sports talk world and you know how we cover athletes,
we cover everybody's story. It's day to day, right, And
what are you doing today? How did you perform today?
What are you putting out there in a given day?
And is it, I guess the simplistic or maybe all
too simplistic that in two years in Dallas, working with Luca,

(01:38:46):
working with the squad, whatever, Jason Kid's been able to impart,
he's found some peace and he's matured.

Speaker 1 (01:38:55):
Yeah, no, for sure, And I think a lot of
it is situation. You know something about when you were
with a peer and you are one of the best
players on the planet and even though you guys should
be getting along. I'm not saying that Kyrie didn't get
along with his teammates or anything like that, but there's

(01:39:16):
just a competition level where he looks at Luca, he
looks at the rest of his teammates, and there's no
competitive edge. You know, they're not like like, he's not
bumping heads with Luca, He's not looking at Derek Thrones
Junior the same way that the Celtics were looking at him.
It was kind of like a you know, Hey, it's
the same reason why when Chris Paul went to Oklahoma
City and Chris Paul seemingly couldn't get along with teammates

(01:39:39):
or they bumped heads, but he was great with Shaye
Gilgers Alexander because there's a hierarchy. Hey, you're the older
guy who was teaching me, and I'm younger and I'm
here to listen to what you have to give me
and the knowledge that you have to impart. So you know,
the stage was set there and I think you're seeing
that same type mentality where Kyrie is like, hey, I
want to get back, and the rest of the guys

(01:40:01):
are like, hey, we want to get there for the
first time. We want to see what it's like, So
that's really what we're seeing at the end of the
day here, and that's why, you know, in my opinion,
it's been able to work. And another thing too, when
I spoke to everybody at Dallas and their front office execs,
and everybody had the same thing to say. We embrace Kyrie.

(01:40:23):
We're happy he's here. And when I spoke to Kyrie,
he's nothing about him, just just being welcome to the
organization and he's fully embraced all of that. So that's
a large part about why they're working there and everything
is fitting so well in Dallas.

Speaker 2 (01:40:38):
Yeah, we watch in the attempts to make super teams.
For lack of a better term, I'm waiting to coin
that maybe I'll find one in my sleep that'll be
better than it. But when we team up superstars, and
then the expectation is that they're going to run rough
shot as opposed to egos injuries, because oftentimes they're guys

(01:40:59):
in the second or third of their careers too. Ryan, right, Kyrie,
we had the run with Lebron and I'm sure there'll
be plenty more books written about those couple of years
to fall out and certainly a lot of speculation as
to how that that breakup initially occurred, and to his
to his part, Kyrie said, hey, you know what, I

(01:41:20):
had my part in it for sure, and it takes time,
takes some healing, takes some time to get away in
perspective and all but go all the way through these
these different iterations and it's it's not so easy. Right
at one point you basically said, we don't need a coach,
you still need someone to be an overseer, even if
Steve Nash has a Hall of Fame resume and a

(01:41:42):
couple of MVPs on the docket, that it's not quite
so simple. And then availability on a night to night
basis and trying to get things together has been a
difficult point now with this squad. Who knows what it
would have looked like had they not made the trade
that they did the deadline, but they still ended up

(01:42:02):
a five seed, like they're an uncharted waters as a
five seed even going into this series against the Celtics.
So for Kyrie, I just thought the you're a villain
in you know, everybody's a villain in someone's eyes was
just too good a movie quote to not use here
on a big Sunday morning. But the Kyrie discussion, to me,
has just been fascinating. You know, the last couple of months, right,

(01:42:25):
you know, we talked about Jalen Bronson a little bit
earlier in his quotes, but he was also a guy.
I remember he signed that deal with the Knicks, and
how many people did everything they could to take the
verbal pinata to him and to the Knicks for the deal,
and everybody backtracked halfway through the season. Wow, he's underpaid,

(01:42:46):
and this and that and the other, and look at
what a great signing this was, which never happens in
our business. And with Kyrie, it feels like the last
couple of weeks there's been a lot of that on
the heels of the Brunson thing. Like, I don't know
if folks are just kind of reing. Hey, I said
some things because they were great in our pre show
meeting that I should have. But suddenly there seems to

(01:43:06):
be a lot of busses backing up and I hear
the beeps as related to Kyrie, irving.

Speaker 1 (01:43:11):
How about this, they don't talk about this? How about Nike? Yeah, Nike,
Nike pulled Kyrie's sponsorship and went and gave the bag
to Jahn Morant. How'd that play out? And obviously Josh's
story isn't told, but you know, it was pretty much
kind of for you know that I would assume, I

(01:43:32):
don't know, this is my assumption. You know, Hey, they
didn't agree with some of the comments he made or
that he was a little flagrant in dammarrt coats on
a terror man.

Speaker 2 (01:43:42):
You know, so a couple of guns situations for those
that may have missed the Ja Morant backstory to.

Speaker 1 (01:43:48):
Just that's you know, it's it's it's a part of
sports though, you know, it's a.

Speaker 3 (01:43:53):
Part of sorts where you.

Speaker 1 (01:43:55):
You know, in business where you have to project, you
don't know you're projecting and you're assuming, but you know,
Kyrie's kind of I don't want to see sticking it
to everybody because I don't think there's mindset. But you're right,
like a lot of people, there's some of that projected. Yeah,
of course, yeah, yeah. A lot of those projections are
ending up being wrong and you're you're seeing it. So

(01:44:16):
I'm I'm happy for Kyrie.

Speaker 3 (01:44:18):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:44:18):
He's a you know, he's a good guy and you
know I had him as a rookie and you know,
I'm just I'm just glad to see he's happy again.
And make no mistake, man like Kyrie brought a lot
of that on his own, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:44:30):
But that's your thing, right, you have to wear it,
and then you have the opportunity to maybe get that
second chance. Now the shoe deal man going from him
to Jaw, and Jaw was on the comeback and then
he got hurt, right, you know, reclamation projects. But you're
selling yourself the old office space things in those moments, Ryan,

(01:44:51):
is this good from the company?

Speaker 1 (01:44:54):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:44:55):
Is this good for the company and what we're trying
to do. And if you get enough loud voices telling
you their association hinders development here, here, and here, you
might make a decision a little quicker than you would otherwise.

Speaker 3 (01:45:11):
Yeah. No, you're you're don't.

Speaker 2 (01:45:12):
Because you don't have quarters in a publicly traded company
to wait out to see how people respond long term.

Speaker 1 (01:45:19):
Yeah, and and but again for you know, for Kyrie,
the biggest thing that I see is that he's happy now.
He has a huge opportunity. You know, he's being you know,
he's being embraced, he's being taken care of, and you
know that that that's what it's important, and I think,
you know, he recognizes probably the extra curricular stuff he

(01:45:39):
didn't need, you know, he didn't have to have it,
and you know, guys are accountable for themselves, you know.
But for Kyrie, he's such an incredible talent, and you know,
when I played with a man, everything just came so
easy to him. But at this point he's saying, like, nah,
I'm not taking the game for granted. It's not just
a foregone conclusion and you're just saying some amazing basketball

(01:46:02):
from himself. But I mean, look, I play with Ray Allen.
He can shoot like Ray Allen. I think he has
arguably the greatest handle in history. I go him, He
Jamal Crawford, you know, put those guys on the Mount
Rushmore of handles, and it's almost like there's just nothing
that he can't do on the floor. But right now
he's saying, you know what, I'm not taking any of

(01:46:23):
those things for granted. And it's honestly, it's fun to
watch because there's moments, Mike, and I know I've heard
this from you man, he just he's just makes magic
happen on.

Speaker 2 (01:46:31):
The That's it, like from a basketball standpoint, that's The
hard part is that our job has to you know,
you take the totality of it right, because you can't
ignore the off the court right, or off the field
or where whatever the baseball diamond, the pitch and everything
else comes in. But it doesn't still cloud your appreciation

(01:46:54):
of what the player is right, because it's it's again,
he hasn't gotten himself in some of the trouble that
we've seen from some of the most exalted sports figures
in the world by any strategy imagination, you know what
I mean. But you can still appreciate, even in their falls,
the greatness of the athletes they were. And for Kyrie,

(01:47:16):
while there's some things you disagree with and you can
have those discussion points, and he certainly has to deal
with the ramifications. Watching him on the court has always
been that way. It's like, give me that guy running
an offense over anything else. And now that with this
reconfigured Mavericks team, you've got defensive efforts from him and

(01:47:41):
Luca with some regularity. It's crazy. It's crazy how that
all works together.

Speaker 13 (01:47:46):
Ryan Hollins, Oh, I've seen Kyrie diving on the floor
for loose balls like he's all in and then you know,
one of the big shifts in the season is that
he was like, hey, guys, you know, like we got
to be better on defense. So you know he's putting
money where his mouth is on that side, and you

(01:48:06):
know it's fun and like I like to me in
that last series, you really saw the Minnesota series, like
Dallas was like whoa there, They just like emerged, they peaked,
and the goal is always the peak at that time
of year where you're like, Noah, they're the best team
in basketball.

Speaker 3 (01:48:24):
Right, They're the best team in basketball. Like we could
see it all.

Speaker 2 (01:48:27):
Right, Ryan, And in about ten minutes we'll get predictions
for the for the fight. But I want to go
back because we got some updated news from yesterday's had
never really turned into a melee, some shoving, some pushing,
and the great quote that could have been issued by
anybody entering a bar last night quote I feel like
I'm getting hammered. That was Caitlin Clark and discussing the

(01:48:53):
play of the sky and what she's gone through for
ten games in the WNBA. WNBA has up upgraded Kennedy
Carter's fall to a flagrant one from yesterday's game for
the out of bounds play and the shove at the
end of the third quarter, and Angel Reese was fined
one thousand dollars for not being available to the media.

Speaker 1 (01:49:17):
It's a lot of money. I mean goodness, thousand dollars.
I'm not trying to lose, no thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:49:21):
But it goes back to that Draymond conversation we had
a week ago. Right, we'll start talking about fines and stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:49:28):
She's a big personality, do you know you gotta you
gotta find out how to temper your emotions, now man,
too much as given, much as expected. So they they
the ladies at the hold their own now man, they're
getting Uh, that's a part of it, man. And shoot,
just asked Lebron James. Man, you use you sneeze and
the wrong way, and there's the problems with that too.

Speaker 2 (01:49:49):
Yeah, Sky got fined five k for failed compliance with
w NBA media policies. And I think that's a great
summary statement on all of it there, Ryan, You know
the Spider Man, with great power comes great responsibility. The
eyeballs are there and people are watching in a much
different way, which means every play is going to be
scrutinized and just because you haven't been at the party before,

(01:50:12):
you're at the party now, and what you're watching now
doesn't mean the other stuff isn't important, and the history
isn't important, And all of those great players been celebrating
them for years. Smith and I have watched a lot
of games, talk to a lot of the women's best
at the end of college basketball seasons. But the uh
with the spotlight on every play gets magnified, and certainly

(01:50:35):
everybody trying to cash in is going to have their
say as well. He's Ryan Hollins. I'll buy Carmen. All right,
We got a football story about a basketball player in
about five minutes, and our predictions for the finals. But first,
it's our guy, Isaac Lowenkron, still in a daze over
his disco and black light baseball.

Speaker 7 (01:50:56):
Mostly the black light the disco I can live with,
In fact, I can groove with.

Speaker 1 (01:51:02):
Yeah, what's the black light in the office showing? What
are you seeing on those walls?

Speaker 3 (01:51:06):
Buddy?

Speaker 9 (01:51:06):
You you don't want to know.

Speaker 2 (01:51:09):
But A well, there's a lot of infighting in the
h at the news desk.

Speaker 9 (01:51:14):
Oh gosh, is that what we're calling it now? Anyway?

Speaker 2 (01:51:18):
I don't know Sunday morning. I went for the clean version.

Speaker 9 (01:51:24):
For those people who are uninitiated.

Speaker 7 (01:51:26):
A collegiate summer league team played a glow in the
dark game last night under literal black light. The entire
field was covered in black light. They were wearing glowing
the dark uniforms, glowing the dark fluorescent uniforms and a
glow in the dark baseball. And when you introduce a
topic like that to sports talk radio, mischievous if that's

(01:51:50):
even a word. Mischievous now.

Speaker 2 (01:51:55):
Mischievoussity.

Speaker 9 (01:51:58):
No mischievous sniss.

Speaker 7 (01:52:01):
By the Florida Panthers because in Game six of the
NHL's Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday night, they led the
New York Rangers two to one, and the final seconds
here was Doug Plagans on w QAM.

Speaker 11 (01:52:14):
The final seconds took away and the Florida Panthers are
going to.

Speaker 1 (01:52:18):
The Stanley Cup Final.

Speaker 11 (01:52:20):
The Panthers are Eastern Conference champions for the second straight year.
The Panthers take Game six over the Rangers two won
the final. The Panthers are moving on.

Speaker 1 (01:52:30):
Four big fights out of the apple and it is finish.

Speaker 7 (01:52:36):
Huh interesting The bite of the apple part at the
end kind of threw me let anyway a little extra.
I guess the Panthers will face either the Edmonton Orders
or the Dallas Stars for the Stanley Cup.

Speaker 9 (01:52:49):
Major League Baseball.

Speaker 7 (01:52:50):
Saturday night, Aaron Judge did it again, his major League
leading twenty first home run, this one measuring four hundred
and sixty four feet as his Yankees won at San
Francisco to three in LAS, the Dodgers beating the Colorado
Rockies four to one. At Wrigley, the Cubs beat the
Cincinnati Read seven of five thanks to Dansby Swanson's go ahead,

(01:53:10):
two run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning,
on the same day that his wife, Mallory Swanson scored
two goals for the US national women's soccer team at
a four nothing victory over South Korea. Quite a Saturday
for the Swanson household and the Philadelphia Phillies to beat
at the Saint Louis Cardinals six to one. Bryce harper
Is fourteenth home run of the season. The Phillies have

(01:53:31):
the best record in the majors at forty one and
eighteen and are averaging nearly six runs per game.

Speaker 9 (01:53:38):
Mike and Ryan, all yours.

Speaker 2 (01:53:39):
Appreciate you, Ilo, and because it was such a busy
day running around. They went home and had some Swanson frozen.

Speaker 9 (01:53:45):
Me very good.

Speaker 2 (01:53:47):
Maybe I don't know. He's Isaac Hello and Crown at
Isaac Logo on Where you find him. Find Ryan at
the Ryan Hollins by me over at Swollen Dome. Thoroughbrant
Racing has a new independent regulator. Heis It's implementing comprehensive
reforms the sports, combining hands on care with cutting edge
technology to help keep its athletes safe. To learn more

(01:54:07):
of visit Safety runs First dot Com. That Safety Runs
First dot Com. Fun stat that popped up after the
Panthers win. That and so much more as we continue
here on Fox Sports Sunday, Hey, welcome back in It's
Fox Sports Sunday, Fox Sports Radio. Mike Harvin alongside Ryan Hollins.
Appreciate y'all hanging out with us. However long you've been

(01:54:29):
with us this morning. It's been a fun ride. Podcast
will go up in about ten minutes time from now.
Our guy Ian working on it. Our executive producer Chris
Burffett on the ones and twos are technical producer making
this sound so good. Of course, Isaac Glowencrown at the
News desk. You can follow Ryan on Twitter at the
Ryan Hollins, follow me over at Swollen Dome. As you

(01:54:50):
go on the highways and byways of life, take us
with you on the iHeartRadio app as well, and mentioned
a stat that popped up after the Panthers beat the
Range I think you'll enjoy this one rhyme. It's now
one hundred combined seasons for New York New Jersey teams
without a title. Oh wow, So you got the Knicks

(01:55:11):
go all the way back to seventy three, the Mets,
the Yankees, the Jets, the Giants, the Rangers, and the Islanders.
You're talking about a long time Giants with the last
title out of all of them going in twenty twelve.

Speaker 3 (01:55:24):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:55:25):
So there you go. There's your random trivia question to
take to a bar. I will put that answer up
on the Twitter site so you can carry it with
you a little bit later on. Let's get to another story.
Remember a couple of weeks ago, we had the basketball
versus football players and everybody fighting. I could go do
your sport, you could go do mine, and we get

(01:55:47):
and parse that all out. How about we forgot to
include football? As Dennis Shrewder decided in his offseason training
he went to a sixth division Landesliga Brownschwing in the
German league to play some soccer yesterday. Do you ever
think about that? He played sixty three minutes as a

(01:56:09):
left winger. They lost five to one.

Speaker 1 (01:56:12):
That's great conditioning though, how about that though?

Speaker 2 (01:56:15):
You want to get it back into shape.

Speaker 3 (01:56:17):
Did he get paid and he just played for free?

Speaker 2 (01:56:20):
That's a good question. Evidently he's going to play again
on Sunday, so he's part of the league.

Speaker 7 (01:56:24):
Now, I'm going to imagine, given that as the name
of a soccer league, I've never heard of that. If
he's getting paid, that's a miracle. If he's getting paid
a lot, that's even that's even more of a miracle.

Speaker 2 (01:56:35):
Maybe even paid to play. Just decided this is something
I gotta do.

Speaker 3 (01:56:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:56:39):
Yeah, a good point though, Chris. But some good video
coming out of it, though, I mean, which which is
entertaining to me. It's kind of like some of the
film that we get on prospects coming to the NBA.

Speaker 3 (01:56:53):
Hey, I'm in with it. I like it.

Speaker 2 (01:56:55):
Thank you want to go run a few minutes? We
can get you, especially on set pieces. You could be
a force.

Speaker 1 (01:57:01):
Fun, fun story. I was close to playing some semi pro.

Speaker 2 (01:57:04):
Football, semi pro football football, American football, not.

Speaker 1 (01:57:09):
Full yeah yeah, oh well yeah, definitely American football.

Speaker 2 (01:57:13):
But it was in Italy, in Italy, so all right,
explain this one. Now, let's go.

Speaker 1 (01:57:19):
This would have been a bucket list type of deal.
And I had done it to say I played in
the pro football game semi No, they get paid. I
guess the long story short, I'm on the you know,
me and the family after the season in Italy. We
are going around and you know, you know, while you're there,
it's like, hey, you don't have to go back right

(01:57:41):
after the season. You have a certain date where you're
kind of there. And I was like, hey, we're going
to go around Europe, go around Europe and go like
see everything, right, go around Italy. And while we're on
and you get on the train, you kind of go everywhere.
And we're on the the train and there are these
you know bros, two bros on the train. Yeah, We're like,

(01:58:02):
what are you guys doing here there? I mean they're
like passed out, they're like I mean, they're living out
of a backpack. They are having the best time of
their life, and you know, we kind of get to
we get to talking and they're there with their boy
that plays in Italian Football League. Found Italian Football and
they're allowed a certain the number of American and I'm like, well, hey,

(01:58:26):
I happen to be here on a visa, so maybe
I'll count as a you know, an Italian.

Speaker 3 (01:58:32):
I live here, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:58:33):
And I was like, I'll play in the game, and
they're like, no kidding. And it came down to the
fact that they couldn't find any size seventeens.

Speaker 3 (01:58:41):
But I was going to play in.

Speaker 1 (01:58:42):
This football game to say that I played pro football.
And I mean, this is my eleventh year, my first
year out of the NBA, one year overseas. I'm like,
why not you live once fantastic, But I couldn't get cleats.

Speaker 7 (01:58:55):
There is an Italian Football League and it's been around
since the seventies. You could have stumbled into that. I
think that just they just held the Italian ble here
in the United States, in my hometown of Toledo, Ohio.

Speaker 2 (01:59:05):
As well.

Speaker 3 (01:59:07):
There you go. I was.

Speaker 1 (01:59:08):
I was trying to be a wide receiver tight end
in the league.

Speaker 2 (01:59:15):
Oh I gotta dig this. Yeah, I was gonna do
it sliding doors scenario. Yeah, but the shoes just throw.

Speaker 9 (01:59:23):
It up higher than anyone else, right.

Speaker 2 (01:59:27):
Talking about it a couple of weeks ago, we just
make you a red zone receiver.

Speaker 1 (01:59:30):
I guess their buddy was like a six to seven quarterback.
And I was just like, I'm in I'm going from
flag football to tackle and they're like, these are you Listen.
I'm not scrutinizing the lead, but they were like, you know,
these are you know, a bunch of you know, out
of shape Italian guys.

Speaker 3 (01:59:44):
So you should be able to go and hold your
own in the league.

Speaker 2 (01:59:46):
And I'm like, all right, I'm in seed better conditioning. Yeah,
and then you'd celebrate with a beer. Hey, Mavericks and Celtics.
Who's winning.

Speaker 1 (01:59:56):
We're going Mavericks. I think Mavericks are firing on all cylinders.
The factor is that they play team basketball, and the
thing is when it's bad, it's bad for the Celtics.

Speaker 2 (02:00:05):
I got the MAVs in six as well. We'll see
what Dan Buyer and Kerry Rhodes have to say. They're
coming up next here on Fox Sports Radio.