Aaron Torres & Jason Martin Talk Paul George Free Agency, New Laker Bronny James, Klay Thompson & More!

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

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Welcome in everybody, Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday, Eric
Tours Days and Martin broadcasting live from the tyraq dot
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com The way tire buying should be Torres here in

(00:28):
our latiraq dot com studios. Jmart down in Nashville, Jaymart,
My man, what's going on? How are you on this
lovely Saturday? Doing pretty well?

Speaker 1 (00:37):
It's been a busy week, so today was more relaxing
than a lot of sports Saturdays have been in terms
of just the live stuff, but never a shortage of
things happening during the course of the week to get into.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Both on and off the field. Plenty to get into.
And you know, there's nothing certainly on the field that's
really pressing or new or whatever, but certainly from a
you know, free agency obviously, this is a time of
year where the NBA starts to ramp up. I mean,
people I don't eve want to say they joke because
I think there's some truth to it. Is that sometimes

(01:10):
the NBA offseason and kind of the chess pieces moving around,
it's more interesting than the season itself. And today felt
like that day. Obviously it was kind of opt out
day where if you were opting out of a contract,
he had to alert your team. We will talk about
Lebron James momentarily, but I think we both feel and
I think we speak for a lot of people when
we say he's gonna be a Laker. It's just you know,

(01:32):
how he works that contract and what it means for
his future teammates. The one that feels interesting to me,
and you know, I want to be careful how I
frame this because I think he's a good player that
has value. I wouldn't use the word superstar, wouldn't use
the word franchise change or anything like that. But the
one that does seem interesting is Paul George. He actually

(01:55):
got traded almost five years ago to the day. It
was July fifth, twenty nineteen. Happened right in the middle
of my wedding, stopped my wedding when he got traded
to the Clippers, alongside Kawhi Leonard, who obviously signed with
the Clippers that evening. And we come full circle Kawhi
signs that three year extension just a few months ago,
and obviously, look Paul George thought he was getting that

(02:16):
extension as well, the Clippers are being a little bit
more cautious with how they spend and so because of it,
he declined his forty eight point seven million dollar option.
Today he will enter free agency, and among the teams
he plans to meet with over the coming days, he
will still meet with the Clippers, but also the seventy
six ers and Orlando Magic. Just first thoughts, quick thoughts

(02:39):
when you see this news, Jamark.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
I'm not surprised by it, kind of had been talked
about for a couple of weeks. I'm with you, and
I mean I've told you this off air and probably
on air over the last handful of years. But I
understand how good Paul George is. I'm a thunder fan,
so I mean, he played for my team for a
couple of years as well. I know he's a good player.

(03:01):
He's never done anything in the playoffs. He's he That's
why I don't like I understand, like you said, you
don't want to call him a superstar. I'm kind of
with you. He's a great piece but never has he
joined a team and taken them to the promised Land.
I'm not putting him in like James Harden territory where
you can't where where I just shudder to believe you
can win with him or anything like that. But I

(03:22):
think that he gets so much hype and I don't
classify him in the same category with a lot of
guys that get talked about as much as he does.
Another thing that's fascinating, and this is I've read articles
about this over the last probably three years. It seems
like for guys that are of a certain age, Paul

(03:44):
George is like their favorite basketball player.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, Brandon Miller called him the vat.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, like there's several, but it's not just him. But
I think it was Miller that sort of put it
on the map. And then you started, oh, it's not
just Brandon Miller, it's this guy and this guy and
this guy. That seems crazy. I mean, it just seems
wild that he's your favorite basketball player of all time.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
So I have a quick funny story about that. You know,
I was. I was at the cover of the Final
Four this year. Obviously Yukon Purduence, he State Alabama and
you know, you kind of just meet different media from
different walks of life, and you can kind of tell, okay,
who's the old school Big Jay works for the New
York Times, who's kind of the new school this?

Speaker 3 (04:19):
That?

Speaker 2 (04:19):
And you know there's there's a younger, you know guy
in the locker room, you know, and he's kind of
asking those offbeat questions that you know are supposed to
go viral this that the other thing. And so I'm
always trying to learn about our business. And so, you know,
I see him in the hallway later, Hey man, where
are you from whatever? And he was from you know,
one of these I can't even remember, like not clutch points,

(04:40):
but one of these like new age like Bleacher Report
or whatever, blah blah blah. And I was asking him.
I was like, you know, how do you kind of
get an idea of what's going you know, what what
you think will go viral? And he's like, you know,
who's real? You know what's really hot right now? It's
like asking these kids about Paul George And I was
like really, and he's like, yeah, they all love and
I and I obviously remember the Brandon Miller quote for

(05:01):
people forget number two pick in last year's draft, Brandon Miller.
I think somebody asked him mj or Lebron, who's the goat.
He goes, Paul George is my goat. And so I
only bring it up because again I'm blanking on what
organization it was. But again, it was one of these
new age, you know, viral TikTok, you know, House of Highlights.
I think it was actually House of Highlights. And you know,

(05:22):
they kind of again, they're not a big jay there
to write a two thousand word piece on Zach Eed,
either there to get something that's interesting or viral or whatever.
But he said, he was like, dude, you will not.
Paul George is all the rage with the kids now.
And I was just like, okay, if you say so,
but I so anyway to your point. I didn't mean
to cut you off. But when he told me that,
I was like sort of blown away.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yeah. I mean, it's interesting, and he's a guy that
for his career's averaged twenty point eight and you know,
he's shot well from the field. I wouldn't call it
like iconically well or anything, but if you look at
his numbers, they stuck up pretty well. He's thirty three
years old. Okay, he's been playing since he was twenty
in the NBA, so he's been here forever. You know

(06:05):
who he kind of reminds me of. I don't necessarily
mean his game, but just kind of the way he's
talked about compared to the output is Tracy McGrady. Okay,
he reminds me a lot of McGrady, because McGrady was
another guy that got talked about to me far more
than he actually maybe deserved based on wins, losses and

(06:26):
those kind of metrics. It was just individually, he's just
so good, he's an incredible player and all this, but
he never it never ended up translating to anything too massive.
But like so he was looking at the Magic that
seems like, Okay, if you want to go somewhere and
get paid and not win a championship, that's probably a
good place to go. You look at some of these others.

(06:47):
He could go back to the Clippers, I guess, but
the one that's intriguing at least is to go to Philly.
And that's kind of been the scuttle butt for a
couple of months that he could go team up with
him and maybe that's the star Embiid has not had
he hadn't had a guy, and that's still technically in
his priming that he's played a lot of basketball. He's
still I mean, just this past year he average twenty

(07:09):
two point six. So he's a really good basketball player.
I don't know what it does, but the Celtics need
a challenger, and the Knicks go get Bridges and they're
clearly going all in. The Pacers did not have a
particularly strong draft. Miami looks like they're fading a little bit.
So you look at this. If you are Philadelphia, to

(07:29):
keep pace, this might be a movee you have to
make so that you have two guys to go with
the two guys in New York and the whole Villanova
situation up there, and then some of these a couple
of these other teams. So FUI is the one place
where it might make sense for him to go if
he thinks he might be able to win, because you
put those guys together and you build around them properly,

(07:52):
and you hope they stay healthy and maybe you have
something there. I can understand why you would try that
if you're Philadelphia, for sure.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
I'll get back to the stuff in a secon let
me ask you a question though, And again, maybe it's
more interesting because I live in La whatever, but is
there something like like I just find it interesting, And
I think anybody who covers the NBA has kind of
said this is like, once you extend Paul or Kawhi
Leonard excuse me, three year, one hundred and fifty three
million dollars extension signed in January, don't don't you like, like,

(08:23):
isn't Paul George and I And by the way, we're
not salary cap experts, and I know the new salary
cap makes things a little bit more whatever, I feel
like you gotta try, Like I don't really understand the
point of bringing back Kawhi. We all know they're opening
that new arena, uh this coming season. And oh, by
the way, let's not forget that, you know, to their credit,

(08:45):
like when they're both on the court, they're really good together.
I think seventy right right around seventy percent win percentage
now that obviously we know hasn't been nearly enough. I
just bring it up because I just find it interesting
that you go back all in on Kawhi, who has
been significantly less healthier than Paul George. But Paul George
is kind of where you draw the line and say, hey,

(09:06):
you know, I mean we you know, you play hard
ball with him. I just find that element of an
interesting you know.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, I guess from a if they're on the floor standpoint,
Kawhi can probably do more for you even now, but
Paul George is going to be out there more often,
I would think, even though he's gone. I mean, he's
had injuries as well, But I don't know, Kawhi is
just kind of that a loof figure that at this stage,
I don't think you can build around Kawhi Leonard, and

(09:33):
if you're the Clippers, you look at Paul George.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Paul George just played seventy four games this regular season.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
That's that's more than I would have thought. But he's
coming off the year prior. He played fifty six thirty one,
fifty four forty eight in the four years before that,
and then of course he was kind of an iron
man for four years prior to that. But seventy four
out of eighty two is pretty good at age thirty
three for him. So he played a lot of basketball
and his stats were solid. He was ninety percent from

(09:59):
the throw line again, almost twenty three points a game.
He was strong like that was a really good year.
Of the two of them right now, Paul George is
probably the one that is that I would almost say
is more valuable and more trustworthy. But I don't know.
And if you're going to you're not gonna win with Kauwhai.

(10:19):
So I don't know why you give him a bunch
of money to not win. I don't know that you
can win with the two of them. And maybe that
was it, and maybe Paul George forced their hand and
actually wants to go somewhere else. Maybe, but I don't
think that they of the two of them, they picked
the guy that is least likely to form some kind
of like cohesive chemistry laden unit. Luckily for them, they

(10:42):
do have ty Lu hanging around.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Yeah, no, and that that's kind of the I guess
the point that I'm trying to get to is like,
I mean, I you know, we can say like I
just wouldn't have given Kawhi that kind of money, but
I feel like once you kind of do give Kauhi
that money, it's kind of like, well, you gotta run
it back and try to win with him. Yeah, I'd
say back to Philly for a sec. I will say this,
I'd be so curious. I mean, I think we have

(11:06):
enough of a track record where maybe MB the combination
of healthy you know, his actual health doesn't play well
in the postseason, all that good stuff. But I also
would say, like, you know, I don't think that his
front office has done a great job of putting pieces
around him. Now you know Ben Simmons melts down in
the playoffs, you try the James Harden thing. I just

(11:28):
bring it up because Tyre's maxy has emerged as that dude,
and I would be curious, and I think it'd be
kind of a cool story. You know, Paul George obviously
we know, don't I don't think his career statistically it
has been, but I don't think he's been quite the
same since that awful injury twenty fourteen that that you know,
basically his legs snapped and have to be perfectly honest,

(11:50):
and you know, like mbid, it hasn't been healthy. Like
I would like to see them give it a run.
And to your point, that does seem to be the
insinuation publicly is like that that Philladelphia would be the
most likely landing spot. If it wasn't the Clippers, and
I would like to see how that worked out, because
to your point, I will say, this is that and
we talked about it last week when Boston kind of
rolled to that title. Is they there deserve it? Champ

(12:11):
All that it doesn't feel like there's an obvious number two.
Now number two may have emerged with Michale Bridges going
to the New York Knixt this week, but it does
feel like there's It feels like there's like uh Land
to be grabbed essentially behind Boston at number two. And
listen again, I think everybody knows this. We're not you know,
wishing Ill will or injuries, but you just never know.

(12:34):
You know, somebody gets a little bit banged up, somebody's
not one hundred percent, something weird happens whatever, and then
all you know, I mean, look at look at how
Boston's kind of path to the to the NBA Finals
this year. You know, they get Indie because of course
the Knicks were banged up. But so I just bring
it up because I think Philly with Paul George alongside

(12:54):
Joe l Embeid and Tyresee MAXI I think does become interesting.
I don't know if I would necessarily have them a
definitive number two ahead of the Knicks, but I would
say I think Paul George makes them interesting. I think
we saw this year. I just know that you can
rely on Joel emb to be healthy, and I think
you need that other guy to carry you during the
regular season, where even if he is healthy, in the postseason,

(13:15):
you're in a better position than they were this year.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's worth the risk. I mean,
you have to at least try with embiid because if not,
then you got to cut bay with him. If you're
not going to surround him with somebody because you're afraid
he's not going to be healthy, then what are you
doing anyway? So you have to kind of operate under
the assumption that he can be there, but you also
want to have somebody there that can kind of right
the ship if he's out. And of course Paul George

(13:39):
is used to playing next to somebody who takes some
time off, so maybe that is the right fit. And
I've never really heard anything negative about Paul George, like
as a teammate or anything like that. Like it's certainly
nothing negative there. He's just been in situations where they
haven't been ready to win, the pieces haven't been proper.
This is giving you kind of the glass half full

(13:59):
of I'm still a little skeptical and sometimes do believe
he's mildly overhyped. But if you put him next to
Embiid and you can at least have Embid healthy for
the right period of time, like if he needs to,
if he were to suffer some kind of a problem
around Christmas time and come back after the All Star
break or something and be able to be there for

(14:20):
you during the playoffs, they're pretty dangerous because even though
the East is getting better, still a lot of young
teams that are probably another year year or two away
and a couple of good builds away from doing what
they need to do. The nixt are the only other
team in the East that I really like, and I'd
still like Indiana, even though I don't think they helped
themselves this week in the draft. So the Sixers, if

(14:40):
you give me the if you give me this Knixt
team with what they did this week, Boston with a
couple of tweaks probably, and then you add Paul George
to Philadelphia, that's a nice little three and then you've
got a still a pretty solid Indiana team. They're going
to bring the Acam back. They've already paid him. So
you give me four teams right there in the East that.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
Milwaukee's always a factor, at least in there they are.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
Even though if you look at how their draft was perceived,
they did not have a very good draft, like they
don't seem to. I don't know what it is with them,
but something seems I agree, something seems off with the Bucks.
So until further notice, I'm just going to kind of
put a pin in that, but I think that they
it would be a good move, and it would be
good for the NBA for that to happen because the

(15:24):
East has gotten kind of there's a couple teams to
watch and that's it. So that would make them That
would make that conference much more interesting.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
Don't disagree at all. Be curious to see again. Paul
George expected to meet with both the seventy six ers
in Orlando Magic this coming week, in addition to the
Los Angeles Clippers. Tell you what Jason will come back.
I actually maybe we'll talk a little bit of Nicks
and then we'll also talk about, of course, a busy
day across the association as well. Lebron James opts out
as expected, What does that mean? And will he have

(15:53):
a new teammate, a high profile teammate in Los Angeles?
That's next? Erra Toards Jason Martin, Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 4 (16:00):
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Speaker 2 (16:13):
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Speaker 2 (16:54):
Welcome back everybody, Fox Sports Radio. Eric Tords Jason Martin
broadcasting live from the Tiraq do Com Studios. Busy day
in the NBA. Paul George ops out of his deal
with the Clippers. Lebron ops out of his deal with
the Lakers, jaymar Before we get to Lebron, you know,
we were talking about Paul George, the possibility of him

(17:15):
going to Philly, what it means for the East really quickly,
because I know the story is a few days old.
I really do love this. Michale bridges to the nixt story.
What what did you make when you saw the news
come across that yet another Nova nick is well, another
Nova guy is headed to the Nova Knicks.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
I mean I just immediately thought, so, when does Tibodeau
step away right and Jay Wright becomes the head coach?

Speaker 2 (17:39):
Can I jump in?

Speaker 3 (17:39):
That?

Speaker 1 (17:39):
Was?

Speaker 2 (17:40):
Can I quit on that? It's really funny you say that,
because you know, with the Dan Hurley stuff of the
last few months, it's been like, well he didn't take
this one, but you know like if the Knicks ever
opens up, uh, he's probably gone. And I was like, what, well,
now it's like, does Jay Wright jump to the front
of the line, because because you know, I wouldn't let
me put it away. I wouldn't hate it as Yukon

(18:00):
fan if Jay Wright decided to come out of retirement
to coach the next let me put it that way.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
So sure, Yeah, Well, look, he's still young enough, and
I know he still loves coaching. I think he one.
He had done so much there it was gonna be
harder going forward with everything in terms of ANIL and
just the changes in college sports in general, and it's
a grind, and he may have needed to step away.
And he's great on TV. Not like that should be

(18:24):
a shock. He's likable all those things, but I mean half,
I mean, so many guys he knows and probably speaks
to on a very regular basis are now playing for
the Knicks, who love him to death. So if there
would be a perfect situation for somebody to step in
that hasn't been in the NBA, it would be that
if he wanted that challenge, he could step in there.

(18:45):
And I can't imagine the Knicks fans would be particularly
upset to see that. That would be an experiment that
would be fun to watch, But I just think you laugh, right.
I mean, they went and got an elite defensive piece
and a guy that I still think Phoenix made a
mistake in getting rid of They paid a ton for him.
Now they got they gave up a lot of draft picks,

(19:05):
but a lot of those draft picks are going to
turn out to be bottom of the first round kind
of picks, I think. So, I think they are in
win now mode. They know they have a store that
they like, but they want to give him some help
and they want to find a way to stop everybody
from you know, shooting all over them. So you bring
in a guy that can do that. And then you

(19:27):
just start to look at it and you realize, oh wait,
like Villa Nova is the Knicks, and that feels like
that should be the Sixers and not the Knicks, but
here we are. So I just lapped at it because
it's hilarious and I was just like, how many other
Nova guys are in the league that they could potentially
get because maybe they're not done.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
No, it's it's funny, and I think the cool part
was seeing the surprise from the Nova players. I mean
I pulled up pulled up Josh Hart's Twitter feed right
now from that night June twenty fifth. Yo, we f
in litt. I think McHale it was either the Vincenzo
or McHale Bridges.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
McHale Bridges June twenty fifth, Yo, this is crazy, lol,
And it's like I just I thought it was really
cool and it's clear like those dudes really do love
each other. I mean, I know they do the podcast together.
I think they call it the Roommates Podcast or something.
And yeah, I don't know that there's anything else to add.
I mean, do I do think it is important, you know,

(20:31):
with the way that Tibbs kind of coaches that team.
It's kind of what we're just talking about with the
seventy six ers, is you hate to say it from
the Mbeed perspective, but like you kind of just have
to bake in that mbiad's gonna miss some time with injuries,
and like, I really wish this wasn't true, and I
hope I'm wrong on this, but I kind of feel
like when you have a Tibbs coach team, like you
have to account for everybody's probably not making it through

(20:54):
the entire way because you know, you have you know,
every guy's expected to play, you know, forty one minutes
a night every night that they're available, and so to
just have another dude that's like a fringe All Star
caliber dude. I just think in the big picture helps them,
and I think to the point we made earlier, j Mart,
I think I would put them at number two definitively

(21:14):
right now in the East. And I think even if
the Philadelphia got Paul George, I'd probably feel the same way.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yeah, I mean, I definitely think that makes it more interesting.
But you're I'm with you. I think the Knicks are
the are the one team that I look at, and
this is what I said last week, even before this move.
They're the team that if they made a had a
good off season, they would be the team I'd look
at to potentially challenge Boston first. Now, I do think
Indiana will be heard from, and certainly if the Sixers
were to get Paul George, that makes that fascinating. But

(21:44):
I like the NBA with the Knicks being good. Sure,
I like it. I love their playoff run. I enjoyed
all of those games. So them not just coming back
and running back everything changing up just a little bit,
but still paying Annonobe too. Sure, so they didn't him
and the deal. I hesitate to say it, but the
Knicks a contenders they are flat out contenders barring injury.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
No doubt about it. Fun story and again, Michale Bridges,
I'm with you. I think it makes them the definitive
number two. Tell you what, Jason will come back. We'll
talk about the Los Angeles Lakers because Paul George ops out.
We talked about that. Lebron James ops out as well,
and is there a high profile teammate ready to join him.

(22:29):
We'll discuss that next, but first let's toss it over
the news desk first time for our show this evening.
Steve de Seger, what is trending? Hello, gentlemen. We did
have a.

Speaker 5 (22:37):
Game on Fox TV, well two of them, depending on
your region, and both were quite interesting at the end.
First off, Baltimore edged Texas six to five, saved to
Craig Kimberrel, who did walk a couple in the ninth
to make it interesting. Texas has lost six in a
row and Ranger star Corey Seeger left early hit by
a pitch on the left wrist. It is swollen. Initial

(22:57):
X rays were negative. The Dodgers scored seven times in
the top of the eleventh and one at San Francisco
fourteen to seven. Shoeo Tani with an early home run,
his twenty sixth. The Dodgers have won fourteen of their
last seventeen played at San Francisco. The Giants tonight left fifteen.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
Men on base.

Speaker 5 (23:15):
As for the two games in progress the Lake contest.
The Twins in the fifth lead to to one at
Seattle now and the Tigers are holding on at Anaheim
three to two over the Angels in the bottom of
the fifth. Atlanta was a ten inning winner against Pittsburgh
two to one. The Padres won their fifth in a
row eleven to one at Boston two homers for Manny Machado.
Cleveland won again seven to two at Kansas City on

(23:38):
FS one the Cubs. He and half with a two
run homer in the top of the eighth. Cubs one
at Milwaukee five to three. The Yankees Juan Soto did
not play today due to a bruised hand. Pitcher Nester
Cortes took the loss nine to three at Toronto, and
Vladimir Guerrero Junior of the Blue Jays had six RBIs,
including a two run homer in the first inning, three
run double in the sixth, RBI single in the eighth.

(24:01):
He is white hot. In fact, since RBI's became an
official stat in the major leagues over one hundred years ago,
only one other guy has had the six game span
that he's currently on to have at least nineteen RBIs
and ten extra base hits over a six game span
a It's Guerrero Junior right now. Be Reggie Jackson is

(24:22):
the only other one on the list from the nineteen
sixty nine a's in Copa America attendance in Miami tonight
sixty five thousand is Argentina one again two nothing over Peru.
Liono Messi was out with a groin entry. Argentina at
three to zero wins the group and it'll start the
quarterfinals on July the fourth. Chile is out eliminated after

(24:42):
a zero zero tie in Orlando against Canada. Mexico plays
Sunday nights on Fox TV against Ecuador in Arizona. The
US plays Monday night and will likely need to beat
first place Uruguay to advance. That Monday game is on
FS one from Kansas City. At the Euros, wins for
hosts Germany and for Switzerland, which dominated Italy two and

(25:03):
I think Italians are out. In fact, the Swiss outshot
him thirteen to three at one point. Fox TV will
have both of the Sunday games from overseas the Clippers.
Paul George did opt out of his contract. He'll be
a free agent. Russell Westbrook will return to the Clippers,
reportedly picking up his four million dollar option and two
WNBA games wins for Seattle and Las Vegas.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Back to you. Thank you very much, Steve Seger, Fox
Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday and Er Tours. Jay Smartin
broadcasting live from the Tyreck dot Com studios mentioned a
few times, but in addition to Paul George opting out
of his contract. Of course, the news broke early today,
well before noon Eastern time or right around new Eastern time,
that Lebron James has opted out of the final year

(25:47):
of his contract with the Los Angeles Lakers and jaymar
I think there were two kind of reactions to it.
Not surprising, and I think that the two thoughts are
either one, he can renegotiate a contract that allows him
to include a no trade clause, which obviously you know.
I think at this point in his career, I understand
why he would want it, although I don't think the

(26:08):
Lakers would ever trade him. But that's neither here nor there.
But the other thing, I think it opens up the
possibility that, hey, maybe after a couple of weeks where
his son got drafted, his podcast, buddy got hired as
the head coach, maybe it's possible that he could potentially
be willing to take, you know, a deal below market value.

(26:29):
And I think, excuse me, Rich Paul even said to
ESPN on Saturday, Lebron is prioritizing roster improvement. He's been
adamant about exuding all efforts to improve the roster, the
insinuation being he could leave a little bit of money
on the table to help the Los Angeles Lakers. And
so I'm just curious from your perspective, you know, by

(26:50):
the way, I'm not gonna sit here and like criticize
Lebron if he wants the full, you know, the full
whatever he's allowed to get under the CBA. I will say, though,
I do think that at a time where I think
there are some Lakers fans that are frustrated how the
last couple of weeks have gone, how Lebron seemingly has
control over a lot of the big decisions in the franchise.

(27:14):
I think it'd be a good step to kind of,
you know, men's some fences with the fan base if
he were to take a little bit less to help
the team.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yeah, and it would then also look like he was
trying to win, because when your son gets drafted and
he's not really an NBA player of any he's not ready.
He's probably a couple of years away from really being
able to do anything if everything were to go. I
read that piece of the Athletic where they basically said, look,
he's not an NBA player right now. He is a

(27:47):
couple of years away if everything goes perfect with his development.
So there's a lot of ifs in that statement. But
so you bring him in. So the question then is,
all right, you got what you wanted, but that's not
a winning move. So how much do you care about winning?
So you try to change that around. You take less
money and then they're able to do some other things
around you to actually improve the team. You have D'Angelo

(28:09):
Russell opt in, which gives them a little bit more
flexibility than they would have had he opted out. But
I will say this, I don't know what the actual
league minimum is, but if Lebron James wants to make
history and upset the union something fierce. Come out and

(28:32):
take the lowest amount of money that he is actually
able to take under the collective Margaining Agreement, and point
blank just say go get some guys. I'm going to
take the least amount of money available. I mean, he's
already a billionaire. I don't know how much you could
spend in a lifetime. I know, no one almost no
one will say that they have enough money. There's always
more that you can make. But his career after basketball

(28:55):
is going to net him whatever he wants on top
of everything else. If he wants to to change some
of the perception, then don't go for the max. Don't
even go close to the max. Go for the least
amount possible and then say hand that around. Remember when
Brady took less money and how that was talked about, course,
and then the same difference with Aaron Rodgers in Green

(29:16):
Bay not doing it, and all that. The optics are phenomenal, Lebron,
if you were to do this, do I think he's
going to do it? Absolutely not, And the Union would
try to stop him because they want you to go
for as much money as humanly possible every time I
get that, but from a history standpoint, somebody at his
level coming out and taking the he couldn't take less

(29:38):
money just to help the team so that they would
have more money to go lure some other free agents,
which would help them likely in the future. It would
set up his buddy JJ Reddick for success. All of
those kinds of things. The story would be incredible and
it would be positive all the way across the board. Again,
not going to happen, but I wanted to at least

(29:59):
throw it out there as a thought experiment. If you
have as much money as Lebron James does, with as
much opportunity to make a ton more off the court
for decades after you stop playing, then why not do
something unprecedented for somebody of his stature and just take
the league minimum and make that a story.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
The league minimum, according to uh Google, is one point
one million dollars. Think about that, So, I mean he
he made about he made fifty one point four million
this year. Imagine him taking a fifty million dollar salary
cut to help the team. Listen, don't think that that's
necessarily gonna happen, but well, I will say two things though,

(30:44):
is that one like you said, I think it's hard,
and we're going to get into BRONI in the next hour,
and there's a lot of layers to that. But I
think it's hard to say that Lebron and the Lakers
are fully in whatever it takes to win, you know, MO,
because you can't be when I understand it's the second
round pick. I understand it's the fifty fifth pick in

(31:05):
the draft, but your window with Lebron is right now,
and there were guys that were available that could potentially
help you, not as a starter, but as an eighth
ninth man, as a defensive piece, as a three point
shooting piece. There are pieces. So I bring it up
because I don't think that most people. I think it's
they want to win, but it's on Lebron's term, so

(31:25):
I think that would make a difference. And then I
think the other thing too. I do think there's some
fences that have to be mended with this, with this
fan base, because it just feels like, like I said,
over the last couple of weeks, it does feel like
a lot of people have been rubbed the wrong way
by the decisions that have been made clearly in some way,
shape or form to appease Lebron. And so I know

(31:47):
we're kind of just going over exactly what you just said, Jason,
but I think it would go a long way with
the fan base. Even I think the league minimum would
be an incredible story. But I think even taking less
to kind of open things up more, I think would
go a long way in in showing the fan base
that you were still serious about winning.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
Yeah, and even look, if you take a substantial amount
less because there's a free agent that you really think
can help that basketball team, and the perception is that
you're right about that, then that's going to help as well.
I think the perception right now, at least from Afar,
even though I'm on the opposite coast, basically from where
you are out there, where you're a lot more plugged

(32:24):
into it, is Lebron James looks like he's wearing his
own jersey with his own name on the front of it,
as opposed to the Lakers. It's not like he's a Laker,
he's Lebron James. He hasn't come across to me like
he's particularly concerned with the people watching them play at home.
And it's because, and again, it's easy to look at

(32:45):
and say, well, you got your guys, coach, and now
you got your son in the second round who was
not really wouldn't have been wouldn't have even been close
to have actually deciding to go to the draft if
he wasn't your son. He's not even going to do
a two way contract to potentially even go to the
G League. No, he's gonna be there with you on
the bench and all these things. Everything's about him and

(33:06):
it always has been. And even the articles that are
now being written are, well, who are you going to
surround him with, because now that he's all in and
he's gonna opt out and potentially take less money, that
you've got to surround him, Like I mean, that's what
they've been doing, is catering to him for years. So
I think that if you want to talk about fences
that need to be mended, that would be my view
from way away from la is that it would be

(33:29):
nice for it to feel like Lebron was in it
for the Lakers and not in it for himself, his family,
all of those things. And you know that may be
naive of me, because there's a lot of guys in
the league that you could blame for the same thing.
But I just think this would be an unprecedented move
that would make the opinion of Lebron James shift in

(33:50):
a lot of ways, because it would be it would
be the very definition of unselfish, unless you just think
that championships make you selfish, which I do not not
if that's what you do for a living is play
sports to win titles.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
No doubt. And so it does become interesting because it
does appear as though he's ready to take less money
and a very interesting name has emerged as a potential
future Laker. We'll discuss that name next. Is it realistic
and what impact would this individual have? That's next Fox
Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
Welcome back everybody, Fox Sports Radio. Eric Torris, Jason Martin broadcasting,
and I from theti iraq dot com studio. So before
the break, talked a little bit about Lebron James opting
out of his contract. He's expected to re sign with
the Lakers, maybe at a little bit of a discount
to help them build a contender around him. And I

(34:48):
bring it up because there is certainly an intriguing name
that has emerged as a potential teammate. That man none
other than these one of Lakers legend Michael Thompson, Clay Thompson.
So several different reports today, sham Strania reporting alongside Andrew
Slater with The Athletic that the Warriors are preparing to

(35:12):
lose Clay Thompson in free agency. But then after that,
Mark Stein, who's very plugged and I believe he lives
in the Dallas area, said that the Mavericks were perceived
to be an early favorite, but Lebron James is hopeful
per league sources, that the Lakers can mount a bid

(35:33):
to challenge Dallas. So let me ask you, I mean,
let's just start with the Lakers side of things. I mean,
is this the piece that, in your opinion, they need,
like a guy that helps get them to a level
that they're not currently at.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
There was a time when he was an elite perimeter defender,
not quite any more at his age and with the
injuries that he's with, but still, this is a guy
that shoots about thirty nine percent from three just last year.
That was a career low. But we know what he
can do from distance.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
He's not that career by the way, No, it's not.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
His career number from three. As a matter of fact,
for his entire career is forty one percent, which is ridiculous.
But he's a guy. I mean, he averaged eighteen last year.
It was a down year. I figured this was going
to be the year. I've said for months, along with
a lot of other people, that I felt like he
was gonna end up in LA. He still shots ninety

(36:34):
three percent from the free throw line. He could still
help you in some ways. Didn't play as many minutes,
and maybe he wouldn't be expected to. But what the
Lakers need and needed were other guys that could get buckets,
guys that could make shots, and they had streaky guys.
And the thing about Clay is he kind of became
streaky this past year. It feels like the Warriors fans
were ready to move on. I think if they wanted him,

(36:57):
if Golden State wanted him, they would have found a
way to keep it. And I just think that that
relationship soured enough that he wants to go somewhere else.
The Dallas thing is intriguing because that's another team that
wants to add another score and another veteran guy that
understands what it means to win and see what they
can do, because they're certainly in we need to go

(37:18):
ahead and win now mode. Kyrie still very very good
and Luca in his prime, so you want to do
everything that you can there. The Lakers feel like I've
long thought he was going to end up there. I'd
be shocked if he went to Dallas over LA, especially
now that you hear Lebron saying what Lebron is saying.
It's something about his dad being there and him. It

(37:38):
just feels like him being a Laker is something that
is supposed to happen, that's been written into stars at
some point. If he wasn't going to just stay his
entire career in Golden State, my feeling has been all
along he was going to go to the Lakers this year.
So that's exactly where I am. I understand why if
you want to go win a title right now, Dallas
is going to be a better opportunity, I think. But

(37:58):
it just feels right for Klay Thompson to end up
in a Lakers' uniform.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yeah. See, I think two different things can be true.
Is I think the Dallas is the better basketball situation.
Like for the Lakers, I think the problem with the Lakers,
like they're just there's one. There's obviously just not a
lot outside of Lebron and Ad. We'll talk about Dalton
connect in the next hour. He's actually a draft pick
that I think can help that too. We both love him,

(38:23):
we do, but but I don't like Klay Thompson is
just another older dude that, as you said, especially defensively,
and I'm not going to like bore people with like, well,
you know what I mean. But it's like, I just
it feels like a lot of the same. Like I
remember when the end of the Lebron era in Cleveland
was happening, and all they kept doing was bringing on

(38:46):
his buddies who were older veteran guys. Remember one year
they had Derreck Rose and I think he I think
even d Wade came through for like a twelve fifteen
game stretch whatever. And so I just bring it up
because I gotta look that up. Maybe I'm totally making
that up off the top of my head, but I
bring it up because it just it kind of feels
like that, like it's one of those like fantasy basketball.

(39:08):
It looks good. By the way, d Way did play
forty six games in Cleveland in the twenty seventeen season.
I didn't I do not remember that many games, but
I bring it up because it just it feels like
one of those that looks cool on paper. I don't
know that it fundamentally makes them a better team now again,
JJ Reddick has talked about wanting more spacing, wanting more
shooting around Lebron, but I think Dallas is the move.

(39:31):
I think at some point, you know, I get the
nostalgia with the Lakers, and he grew up a Lakers
fan and going to Lakers games with his dad. But
it's like Dallas was right on the cuffs. They don't
really need that much more and obviously Luca is very
much in his prime. I don't know what's gonna happen.
I just know what I think the smart decision is
for Klay Thompson.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
Yeah, I mean, I think I would agree with that.
He's again I talked about how he was an elite defender.
Now he's subpar because he's slow and he's been in
league for a while. He's just not quite the same
player as he was. That's the one thing for the
Lakers that I don't like about it is I mean,
They're already a little too old in their key spots.
This is not going to make them more athletic against
those younger teams that are running gone in the West.

(40:15):
I don't know like it fits, but it doesn't necessarily
fit in twenty twenty four for where I think the
Lakers need to be headed.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
Don't disagree. And part of the reason why is because,
as we discussed momentarily or a moment ago, excuse me,
they use the fifty fifth pick on Bronnie James. So
I'll tell you what, Jason, we will come back. We'll
talk a little bit about Bronnie James, the fifty fifth
pick in the draft, what it means for the Lakers.
And I think an interesting question is this really actually

(40:43):
a cool story? That's next? Fox Sports Radio Welcome in everybody,
Fox Sports Radio, Eric Tords Jason Martin broadcasting live from
the tire rack dot Com studios. Tirack dot com will
help you get there an unmatched election, fast free shipping,
free road hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers.

(41:04):
Tyreck dot com the way tire buying should be. If
you missed our one of the show, we are on
until two am Eastern time, make sure to go back
and download the podcast. We'll have details on that here
in just one moment. So, Jay Mart we talked a
lot about NBA free agency in hour one, and certainly
the future of the Los Angeles Lakers kind of danced

(41:25):
around the big news. And that's of course that with
the fifty fifth pick, the Los Angeles Lakers did in
fact draft Bronnie James lebron soon. Let me ask you this.
I don't know if you were watching the draft live
or whatever. It was obviously day two, it was on Thursday.
The debate was going on, so it was early. I
think it started at four pm Eastern one Pacific. I'll

(41:46):
say this, maybe I'm crazy. It felt like there were
some people that were surprised that this actually happened. I
maybe it's again this whole, this whole, like last month
with the Lakers, there's been a lot of stuff that
I felt was obvious that seemed to catch people off guard.

(42:08):
Whether it was the JJ Reddick higher, whether it was
kind of the clunky Dan Hurley pursuit. It felt, was
there any doubt in your mind as Day two opened
up that Brownie James was gonna be selected with the
fifty fifth pick by the Los Angeles Lakers.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
No, unless somebody took him first, which would have been preposterous.
I mean, it was the worst. Sometimes you just believe
what people say, like sometimes things just turn out to
be right. Just because you didn't think he was an
NBA level talent, which pretty much no one does. At
this stage, we knew this was gonna happen. It was

(42:43):
pretty much written there, and you knew it. When he's
not taking all the workouts that are out there, he's
taken two of them. It was just it was everywhere,
and it was the I the second day of the draft,
that was the thing everybody wanted to see. Wasn't gonna happen.
But I was just waiting for it to come across
and be official so we could move on because it
wasn't a story in terms of it being a shock

(43:05):
or a surprise. It would have been a shock and
a story if it hadn't happened.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
So I agree hundred percent with that. Now that it
has happened, I'll give you my opinion. Say you tell
me if you disagree or not. So I think two
things can be true, is listen. We talked about a
lot in hour one. I don't love the way that
I think Lebron has largely hijacked the Lakers. I think
it's different if it's the Cleveland Cavaliers, if it's an

(43:32):
organization that hasn't had much historical success and you're in
your prime and you're calling your shots of you know, hey,
I want this guy, help facilitate that, make sure this
guy ends up on the team whatever. I think it's
different when it's twenty sixteen and you have your team
in the finals every year. But at the same time,
what I'll say is this is that I think that

(43:54):
if you have the opportunity to, you know, maneuver some
things to help about your child, I think that's something
that a lot of parents would do in that situation.
And you know, there's a million examples of nepotism, and
it is what it is. It is nepotism. I think
even you know, everybody would agree on that. I think

(44:14):
there were two things that did kind of bother me
in the moment, though, and one, you know, one, I
think you had to be kind of watching the draft,
but there was kind of this weird moment where steven
A and Woj kind of went on this weird rant
about if you think this is nepotism, like, well, there's
nepotism in the front offices and on coaching staffs and

(44:36):
on ownership and blah blah blah blah blah, this and that,
and it was like, yeah, but it is still nepotism.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
Yes, Like you can't just but it's not. What about
it ism doesn't work here? Like yeah, I get it. Yeah, okay,
those might be anstists and nepotism as well. This is
the highest profile example of nepotism I've seen in pro
sports ever.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
Well, and that's what I was gonna say is I
think my problem isn't that Lebron moved some chest pieces
around to help out his son. Again, I think that's
what virtually every parent would do if given the opportunity.
I think my problem was more the coverage of it,
in which, you know, the people that were broadcasting the
event live basically told us how we were allowed to

(45:18):
feel and how not to feel. And then I think
there was also the part that you kind of just
mentioned in passing, which is like then there was the
whole well, you know, I mean, it's like and even
Rob Polink at the Prescott well, no, you know, we
really believe in this kid's upside and blah blah whatever.
It's like, if I know, Rob Polinka can't directly come

(45:38):
out and just say, yeah, look, we used the pick
because it's what Lebron wanted or whatever, blah blah blah.
But those were the two things that kind of bothered
me in the moment. I don't blame Bronni, he had
largely nothing to do with this. I mean, you know,
if somebody's gonna draft you, you obviously aren't gonna not
take that opportunity. It was kind of being told how

(45:59):
to feel. But then also on top of that, it
was like basically it was shoved down our throat. No, no, no,
this kid's a legitimate prospect, trust us on this, and
it's like, no, you literally talked to pretty much anybody
who covers this sport, who watched him at USC who whatever,
nobody actually thinks he is. And so that was kind

(46:19):
of my issue with it in real time was more
how it was covered than the actual news drop itself.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
So you mentioned steven A. I remember seeing a headline
the day before saying that was like a big time
like you need to go watch this video, and it
was Smith suggesting that the Lakers shouldn't do it, it was
going to bring them the wrong kind of attention. And
then the next day he got drafted, and there was
a video on that same site trying to tell you

(46:48):
to view it that was Steven A saying it can't
get any better for the Lakers than drafting Brownie. And
I'm just kind of like, you have to say what
you have to say to stay on somebody's good side,
don't you like that? That's kind of how I looked
at it, because if you look at draft experts that
didn't they were just trying to break down was this
guy prospect? And you could tell they weren't really in

(47:09):
the club. They were being a lot more honest about
this yet. And then you have some of those that
you know were tied in with Rich Paul, tied in
with Lebron, and they were saying stuff like, I mean,
remember the other great father son duos, that this brings
up and this could be another example. This might be
the best. And I saw one that compared it to
Bill and Luke Walton, and I was like, shut up.

(47:31):
Luke Walton was like a Player of the Year candidate
at Arizona, an incredible college player who then had a
nice NBA career as well with the Lakers.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
And I don't see his father was very much removed
from the league at that much.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
Yeah, and certainly his father was not why he got anywhere.
I mean, his father just gave him some jeens and
I'm sure helped him growing up in terms of playing
with him and all that. And that's not to say
Lebron's not doing that as well. And yes, I'm torn
because I've got two daughters and I heard Jason Smith
say this, I agree. Would I do almost anything for him? Yeah,
I'm not going to go Felicity Huffman and Laurie Laughlin

(48:06):
route try to get them into school and go to prison.
I'm also not going to do something that's going to
reflect poorly on them for something they had no control
over it. Yes, that's the part of It's like, Yes,
the same people that are going to tell you that
this is okay, that this is just a father's love
are the same ones that were going down LeVar Ball's

(48:29):
throat years ago. And the difference there was Lonzo Ball,
which was the one that was really kind of the
crux of all this was an NBA player. He was
a lottery pick. Without his dad doing all that, he
was still a lottery pick. This kid averaged four points
a game for a USC team that was not good

(48:49):
at all, And there's just no comparison here, so you
can't tell me. And then when I continually read stuff
to the effect of and I saw this quoted from
one of those guys, one of those guys that are
clearly plugged in to the Lebron side of things, saying, man,
there's just I think it was Woesh actually said there's
just nothing but upside. It's like, well, right, because he's

(49:12):
starting at zero, Like yeah, like yeah, if you come
in after like for Zach Edie, there's a lot of
potential downside here compared to where he was and now
what's he going to be in the league and all
those kinds of things. We can get into that. But
for Brownie, dude's coming off a four point and a
hard ailment and all that kind of stuff. I'm glad
that that's over for him and he's stepping straight into

(49:34):
the LA Lakers. Do you think he might get better?
I would say there's a good chance that he can
get better. I don't think he can get worse from
where he is right now. So it's like you're bending
over backwards to find a way to say something complimentary here,
as opposed to just evaluating it honestly and saying, right now,
he's not an NBA player, but he's going to get

(49:56):
an opportunity. But there's no reason to like, these are
not the droids you're looking for this thing, like, you
know why he's in the league. And if you're not
willing to say that in an article, then I don't
really need to pay too much attention to you, because
I understand that a lot of your opinions are not
going to be your own.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Well, and let me even I saw because I saw
some of this too. Is like and by the way,
look we know you know we'll give the caveat right now.
First of all, by all accounts a great kid. He
didn't look.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
I hope he I will say this real quick before
we go any further. I hope he's a star. I
hope he's great. I hope everything about this turns around
and this ends up being some kind of unbelievable documentary
down the road where the kid was vilified and he
came in was great. And this is not against Lebron
James wanting his son to fail or anything else. I
hope his son succeeds and it's a great NBA player.

(50:44):
I hope we're covering him for a long time. I
just know that right now he probably didn't deserve this opportunity.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
No doubt. And actually, you know, let me even pivot
really quick. I was going to go in a different direction.
But you know, one thing, I will say one thing
I don't necessarily agree with. By the way, the only
point I was to make was great kid. But the
one other thing that I heard and I actually want
to get to a different point before we get to
break and continue the conversation. But because I saw some

(51:10):
of this yesterday, well it's like, well, you know, I mean,
he had the very serious heart situation, and you know,
he was projected as a top ten pick before that,
and it's just you and it's like we talked about
this months ago, Jason, and he was he.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
Was projected as a top ten pick by one guy, right, by.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
One guy who I mean, it's see listen, let me
just say this and I said this at the time,
is that to use a bad pun and I'm not
trying to use a pun, but it's the only appropriate word.
When when that mock draft came out whatever it was
eighteen months ago, the first mock draft of twenty twenty
four that had Brownie James in the top ten, it
was no pun intended mocked by everyone in the basketball

(51:48):
community because it was just I mean, you know, I
think he was like the twenty ninth ranked player in
his own high school class, and even that was probably
a little bit high, and that was based on upside,
So don't sell me that as well. I mean, he
was a top ten pick before. No, no, no, that has
nothing to do with it. Real quick, I want to
ask you this, and I want to kind of switch
the conversation in a minute. But one thing I have

(52:09):
heard and I don't know that I agree with, is
you know that that Bronnie himself is going to get
a lot of hate. And I don't know that I
agree with that because I just feel like, and again,
I've been wrong on every story about the Lakers the
last couple months, so maybe I'll be wrong on this one.
I think everybody kind of knows that Lebron Lebron's been

(52:32):
pulling strings on this since probably Bronni was in freshman
sophomore in high school. I mean, this was I don't
think like Bronnie is going to deal now. Maybe maybe
in that Lakers locker room, if you know they're losing
games and he's seeing anything more than one or two
possessions in one game, then yeah, Like I but I

(52:52):
don't think like if if the Lakers hit the road
like that, Bronni becomes the bad guy because I I
feel like most fans are smart enough to know he
had nothing to do with this, and you're not gonna
not take advantage of the opportunity if it's presented to you,
even it's even if it's presented unfairly. Like, do you
think that Bronni becomes a bad guy in all this

(53:13):
because I just don't see that. I really don't.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
No, I mean, he hasn't done anything that would garner
him that. I feel like those that are gonna kind
of laugh if he's not good are gonna be doing
so at his father's expense, not him. That's how it's
all gonna be. It's all gonna be sent towards lebron
And I do think there is probably a moment it

(53:37):
will happen at a Lakers home game where Bronni will
get in, maybe in a garbage time situation or something
like that, and Lebron will be out there and there'll
be some moment and a photo opportunity, and he'll probably
get a standing ovation like there'll be a positive response
to that moment, and look, that's gonna be touching and heartwarming.
And look, whether or not I agree with how Lebron

(53:58):
has gone about this, I love the fact that he
loves his kid. That same thing with Lvar Ball, like
nobody could ever say LaVar Ball didn't care about his children.
He may have gone about it in the wrong way,
and he might have been, you know, insufferable in a
lot of ways, but he certainly was paving a way
for his kids as best as possible and all that.
So there's a there's always a way to look at

(54:20):
this that isn't entirely negative. But you're right, I don't
think the hate is coming for Brawny. I think it's come.
Any kind of hate or any kind of reveling in
whatever struggles he might encounter is going to be sent
directly through him, straight to his dad.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
I agree with that, and I think that is an
interesting part of this conversation. I'll tell you what I
think there is kind of another interesting part of this
conversation as far as when it actually does happen, when
Bronni does see the court. We know it will come
at some point with Lebron, and I think people are
missing a narrative on that. We'll discuss that next. Should mention.
By the way, shortly after the show, our podcast will

(55:01):
be going live. If you missed any of today's show,
be sure to check out the podcast. Just search Fox
Sports Radio wherever you get your shows, and be sure
to also follow, rate and interview the podcast. Again, just
search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcast, and
you'll see this show posted. Right after we get off air, Jason,
we'll come back and again there's one more layer of
this that I do want to get to from the
Bronni Lebron perspective. Then we can talk to the rest

(55:23):
of the draft you mentioned. Zach Edie will hit on him,
maybe a little bit on Bronni's new teammate, Dalton Connect.
That's all next. Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back everybody, Fox
Sports Radio, Eric Tors, Jason Martin Broadcasting, and I from
the Tireck dot Com studios before the break, we're talking
a little bit about Bronnie James, the newest Los Angeles Laker,

(55:44):
drafted fifty fifth overall and really just you know a
lot of the discourse around him. But there is one thing, Jason,
there's part of the conversation we talking about, one part
that I disagree with. I don't think Bronni is a
villain in any of this. I think, you know, he's
you know, he's on the other side of something that
a situation that his father can control. Whatever. Why I

(56:07):
bring it up is because, you know, something about this
conversation does strike me that I just I don't think
is accurate or I don't think it's gonna go down,
or let me put it this way, there's a part
of the conversation that I just disagree with fundamentally, and
that's this. I keep hearing so many people like, you know,

(56:32):
even the people that admit like it's a little bit weird, okay,
But I hear him say, well, you know, it's weird,
and Bronnie's not really the fifty fifth best player and
he probably shouldn't have been drafted. But man, like that
moment when they step on the court together, it's all
gonna be worth it. And I don't know how I

(56:55):
feel or or the accomplishment that will come once they
step on the court together will make it all worth it.
And listen, do I think that when Bronnie checks in
when the Lakers are playing you know, the Brooklyn Nets
on a Tuesday, you know, in December or whatever, and
Bronnie James checks in and they hug at mid court, Like, yeah,

(57:18):
it's going to be a cool moment. But like everyone
keeps telling me how cool of a moment. It's like,
how it's gonna be this amazing moment, and like I
just I don't know. I don't really feel like it's
going to be because everybody knows that it was manipulated
and you know whatever, and that Bronnie frankly is just

(57:40):
not worthy of being an NBA player at this point
in his life, like you know, the thing that made
and I know, I think we're both even a little
bit young to truly have like great perspective on the
Ken Griffy Junior Ken Griffy Senior moment. The thing that
made it cool was that it was totally organic, like

(58:00):
King Graffy Senior was definitely at the tail end of
his career, but Kening Griffey Junior is this ascending superstar
that makes the bigs at nineteen twenty years old, and
they just so happen to be on the same field
together and that's what made it cool and so like,
I just don't think this is going to be the
same because it's been orchestrated, it's been manipulated, and listen,

(58:21):
I think there is a cool element of it. Is
pretty cool that Lebron whether you love him or hate him,
is still good enough at forty years old to be
in the league when his son gets there. But I
don't know, I don't think it's gonna be this like
just you know, I don't know. I've said my piece.
I think you know where I'm going with this. I
don't think it's going to be the moment that people

(58:42):
are making it out to be.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Well, I think it's a there's two ways to look
at it. I do think it'll be a cool moment,
and I think it will be something special for Daddy.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Yes, that's kind of where.

Speaker 1 (58:58):
I am on. I you can't call it an accomplishment
because Bronni hadn't accomplished anything. That's the problem. He hasn't
earned it. He has not. He doesn't. If he had
gotten to the league and he was actually seen as
a top fifty player, top sixty player or whatever like
that and deserve to be drafted, this will be a

(59:19):
completely different story. But and I was listening to it
going to break. LeVar Arrington made a really good point
earlier this week on Two Pros and a Cup of
Joe when he said, think about the rest of that
locker room when they have to cut some guys. Yep,
and Bronnie is sitting there cool as a cucumber because
he's still going to be there, even though he's clearly
going to be the worst guy on that roster. What's

(59:42):
that going to do in the locker room? Sometimes you
get what you want and it turns out not to
be the best thing in the world. Sometimes you end
up in the job that you've thought that you were
going to be in for a very very long time,
and you worked hard to get there and it's just
not all it was cracked up to be, and you
have to look at things in real Maybe you've changed
a bit, Maybe this is not going to be that

(01:00:03):
moment for Lebron, maybe when it does happen, he's going
to realize, Man, you know what, I may as well
have just done this, like I may well have just
written this into a story, because there's nothing real about this.
This is all artificial. This is AstroTurf. This was designed
and controlled by me. So it's not like this is
a cool moment other than I manufactured this and made

(01:00:27):
it happen. So I think the only one that gets
anything out of it really is probably going to be father,
and may be some because I'm sure he loves his dad,
But in terms of it being some kind of accomplishment
where we're going to look at it as like this
iconic thing, No, I think it will be a talking
point and there'll be a lot of things said about it,
and there'll be a man, it's nice to see a.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
Father's love for his son and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
True, but you have to separate that from the way
in which it happened, and I don't think you're going
to be able to do that entirely well.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
And that's my point is, like people were like, it's
going to be this incredible woman, I think it's going
to be an incredible moment for Lebron. But I think
it is also going to be a thing, like so
many things in this world that is kind of something
that either A appeases or B boosts his ego. That's all.
It's gonna be just another you know, to use a

(01:01:17):
bad term, like another notch under his belt, like okay, cool,
he did this high scoring this, oh and he played
with his son. But again, I don't know. I don't
want to belabor this point, and we can get over
to saga in a second. But I just I think
I do think when they hug it center Corn or
whatever it ends up being, it will be cool. But
I just I don't think it's going to be like

(01:01:38):
this unbelievable thing that everybody's expecting, because again, it's been manufactured.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
So let me say this. You said, you said a
very good word there. You said incredible. I know how
we usually take incredible, but as you said it, immediately
was like, I just want to look it up and
see how it's actually defined, because I understand that there
are different ways to look at it, but the number
one definition of incredible is too extraordinary and improbable to

(01:02:08):
be believed, so implausible as to elicit disbelief. In that case,
it is going to be an incredible moment because it's
going to lack credibility. That's the problem with the entire
circumstance is that Bronnie James doesn't have credibility as an
NBA player. So when the moment comes, it's just going

(01:02:29):
to feel like you've just watched a sports movie and
it had this was the end of it before the
credits roll, and you're supposed to get excited about it.
But it's just going to be for one guy. Really,
I don't even think it's'd be for Bronnie. I think
it's going to be for one guy, his moment, his amusement,
his ego, as you mentioned. But I think that's right.

(01:02:49):
I think that's the exact word to use, incredible, because
it lacks credibility, Like you can't believe it, there's nothing
to back it up. It's completely implausible. I wanted to
make that point.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
No, and and maybe the best way that I can
frame it, I'll be really quick. So I want to
get to seger is, you know, like and this goes
back a little bit to the point we were talking
before the break about nepotism and how we're supposed to
feel and everyone's like wow, I mean, nobody cared when
Jannis's brother was drafted and it was like yeah, but

(01:03:22):
we all get that Fanasais is only on the team
because Yannis basically whatever, and like there's an understanding about that.
And I think again, others trying to sell us that
you know this, Others trying to sell us that this
is legitimate and it could work, and blah blah blah.
It's just it's it's it's it's it's a unique story.

(01:03:45):
I don't know that it's going to have the effect
that I think a lot of people do. Fox Sports
Radio eron towards Jason Martin broadcasting Live Froth. The Tirec
dot Com studios will come back hit on a couple
other notes from the twenty twenty four NBA draft that
is in just a moment. Before we get to that, though,
let's go over toss it over the Who's destin Seger?
What's training? My friend? Hello, gentlemen, And I'm glad.

Speaker 5 (01:04:03):
You phrased it that way that Bronnie James getting drafted
is not an accomplishment and it was treated like it
was by the ESPN.

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
Yeah, I feel about for the kid. You know, it's like.

Speaker 5 (01:04:13):
Him getting to play minutes with USC after the healthscare.
That's an accomplishment. No ESPN though, they also said during
their coverage, and Bronnie's been vocal about wanting to get
out of his father's shadow. Really, that's why he's been
wearing his dad's number. That's why he worked out for
dad's team. That's why he's drafted for dad's team. He
really wants to get out of the shadow, be his

(01:04:33):
own man. By the way, Stat's Inc. Says lebron James
would be the fifth father in the major sports in
history to play on the same team with his sons.
You mentioned the Griffies, Gordi Howe played with his two
sons in pro hockey. There was something about the Nesser
family of nineteen twenty NFL.

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
I cannot confirm ash.

Speaker 5 (01:04:57):
And I did not realize Tim Rain's senior. Apparently they
played with Tim junior about twenty years ago when Junior
had a cup of coffee with the Orioles. So there.
As for what's going on in the NBA, the Clippers
Paul George did opt out of his contract. He'll be
a free agent. Russell Westbrook will return to the Clippers,
reportedly picking up his four million dollar option the Athletics,

(01:05:19):
as Patrick Williams intends to re sign with the Bulls
five years, ninety million dollars. The NBA free agency negotiating
window opens tomorrow at six pm Eastern Time. The new
league year opens on July sixth, which would be next Saturday.
The Summer League starts July twelfth in Las Vegas. I
don't know who's planning for the Lakers, but my goodness,
I'll be watching Summer League in Vegas on July the twelfth.

(01:05:42):
As for Copa America, attendance in Miami tonight was sixty
five thousand and on FS one. Argentina defeated Peru two nothing.
Legal Messi was out with a groin injury. Argentina at
three and zero wins its group and their coach Tonight
was serving a one game suspension. Argentina will start the
quarterfinals on July the fourth is out. It was eliminated
after a zero zero tie against Canada in Orlando. Mexico

(01:06:05):
plays Sunday night on Fox TV from Arizona against Ecuador.
Venezuela plays last pace Jamaica. Brazil's Group finale comes Tuesday
against Tuino Columbia, and then there's the US, which might
be out on Monday night. At the Euros, wins for
host Germany and for Switzerland, which dominated Italy, which is
now out to nothing for the Swiss. Germany's win was

(01:06:25):
two nothing over Denmark. In the WNBA two games, Las
Vegas and Seattle the winners. NASCAR's Infinity Race went to
John Hunter and Nimachek at Nashville. We've got two late
games in Major League Baseball. In Anaheim, the Angels have
tied it up against Detroit. It's five to five now
top of the ninth. Minnesota still leads at Seattle five
to one in the top of the eighth inning. And

(01:06:48):
two great games on Fox TV tonight depending on your region.
There was the game in Baltimore, Orioles six ' five
over Texas. The Rangers have lost six in a row.
Corey Seeger the Rangers left early hit by a pitch.
Initial X rays were negative. The Dodgers scored seven times
in the eleventh inning and one at San Francisco fourteen

(01:07:08):
to seven. Show Hey Otani with his twenty sixth home
run of the season. That's nine Homers in the last
twelve games for him, Giants left fifteen men on base,
the Atlanta Braves edge Pittsburgh in ten innings two to one,
Cubs in Cleveland h one on the road, and the
Padres as well. Padres have won five in a row.

Speaker 2 (01:07:26):
Back to you, Thank you very much, Steve Disager to
Sega will be back with us in just one moment
with his extended up day. Fox Sports radio eron toors
Jason martinbroadcasting live from the Tyrek dot Com studios. Jmar
A couple other notes from the draft. I mean, let's
just do the doll Connect thing now. Listen. I don't
even know how much jj Reddick had to do with

(01:07:48):
with the pick as much as Rob Polinka. But if
we're going to criticize Polenka for, you know, trying to
sell us that Brownni's like this legitimate prospect and they
would have taken him at fifty five regardless of his name,
we should all give Lincoln jj Reddick a little bit
of credit because I thought Darlin Connect, largely perceived to
be a top ten pick, fell to seventeen. They got him,

(01:08:10):
and listen, you know, I don't care about being twenty
three years old, when you have a forty year old superstar,
and I think that's a kid that can come in
step in next year contribute on that team. So overall,
would probably say the biggest takeaway from me in round one,
Darlon connect was probably the steal of the draft, if
you will, by the Los Angeles Lakers.

Speaker 3 (01:08:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:08:31):
I mean there were certain ways that you could talk
about some reaches, but I agree with you. For him
to fall into their lap basically it is perfect for them.
He does exactly what they need. He's a guy that
can get to the rack, but he also can flat
out shoot, and that is something that they have been
so inconsistent with. He is a gym rat. He is
just he's gonna I think he's gonna walk in there

(01:08:53):
and not just help them immediately. I think he's gonna
be pretty popular there immediately as well. Like he plays
with a tennasty fire, he's got a little bit of
swagger to him. Of course, I do the show out
of Nashville, so I saw a whole lot of his
act at Tennessee last year. He's a tremendous player. I
was shocked he was still sitting there for them to
take he fits them, and it's a good spot for

(01:09:14):
him to land. To him, it's pretty cool to go
play with Lebron James. I mean, ask his son. But no,
I loved it. I thought there were several teams that
could have used him that went with other players where
I was a little bit surprised, And the kind of
narrative about what he's twenty three in the history of

(01:09:36):
guys over twenty two being drafted has just been terrible
in the NBA is like, right, but every guy's individual,
he's twenty three, not thirty three's And look, they're about
to hand a couple thirty three year olds two hundred
plus million dollars over the next few days. So don't
tell me twenty three is like the end of the
kid's career. Like that's just absurd to me. So I
think that's going to end up being the steal of

(01:09:59):
the draft. There's a couple of other candidates you could
maybe put in there, but connect was definitely my favorite.
He was definitely, without question, my favorite pick of the round.
And just it was a it was it felt almost
like a coup for the Lakers. It's not like they
had to do anything to make it happen. It was
just kind of like this was just a beautiful way

(01:10:22):
for them to land something that they actually needed. He
actually does something that they lacked, and he's going to
bring He's going to bring a lot of energy to
that team on the offensive side. I think he was
a wonderful pick for.

Speaker 2 (01:10:33):
Them, real quick. Uh, Zach Edy going number nine to Memphis,
I'll toss it over to you first. I have a thought.
But Zach Edy, I think we all thought he was
going first round. But number nine in Memphis was a
little bit surprised to me. Yeah, I just I don't
get it. I mean, I do for Memphis because this
is this kind of thing they've done. Like they they're
the you know, they're they're a team that that can

(01:10:53):
draft some size and likes to draft some size.

Speaker 1 (01:10:55):
And I understand I heard all this, the stuff about
how Edie got better better every year and his defense
got better every year. And he's a big guy that
gets fouled a lot, that makes his free throws, And
I understand why you would want to take a flyer here.
I just who's he going to guard? And how fast
is how fast is he going to have to be?

(01:11:17):
It's a totally different speed. His game was perfect for college,
but I don't know if it translates or not. I
can understand, like when you see somebody that big and
with that kind of wingspan, it's yes, I get it,
and looks like he's got a good head on his
shoulders and all of those things, and he did improve
year after year after year. I just don't know. He
feels a little clunky to me, and a lot of

(01:11:39):
the things he was able to do in college where
he did not get exposed, I think he could get
exposed in the NBA. And he's a guy that he
needs to get out of the way so that John
Morant can get to the rack. And he's a guy
that kind of lumbers a little bit, and especially on
the inside, he wants to play slower, and that's a
team that likes playing fast. So I don't love it.

(01:12:03):
And I definitely think at nine that was way too fast.

Speaker 2 (01:12:07):
So that's kind of my takeaway as well. And obviously, look,
you know, obviously I was a guy that was a
little critical of him in college, but he was an
awesome college player, two National Player of the Year. My
only real thought was not even the number selection, but
even going back to the draft, I remember I was
on local radio here Rogan and Rodney Kevin Figures does

(01:12:29):
stuff with them, and I was on with those guys,
and they asked me about him during the tournament, and
I said, well, you know, the problem is is that,
you know, like I thought even then, I was like,
you know, somewhere in the twenties, and the thought process
being like, Okay, he can have value as a dude
that plays eight ten minutes off the bench, has a

(01:12:49):
couple of foles, whatever, But when you're drafting him high,
ultimately you're drafting him as a guy that you believe
can play significant minutes. And basically the only value he
had as is if you're basically running your entire offense
through him. And obviously that's not something that's gonna happen
at the NBA level. And so to bring it to Thursday,
where I guess I get a little confused, as you said,

(01:13:11):
is that even though Memphis was picking at number nine,
they're one of the few teams that's ever gonna pick
at nine that kind of has their established superstar and
has their style of play, and basically you should be
draft Listen, whether we like Joe don't like Joe dumb
stuff off the court whatever, Like he is clearly the
face of the franchise and you should be drafting pieces

(01:13:32):
to fit him. And they've done that with Jared Jackson,
They've done that with Brandon Clark. I just I don't
see how Zach Edy fits in any scenario with John
rant Like, as you said, John Moran's game, attack the basket, kickout, whatever,
and Zach Edy I think kind of just frankly to
your point, Jason kind of gets in the way. So

(01:13:52):
it's an interesting draft pick. I listen, I wish the
kid nothing but the best. I just don't really see
how he fits in with how they want to play
with John Moran. Fox Sports Radio Air Tours Jason Martin,
broadcasting live from the Tyrek dot com studios, will come
back to Saga with his extended update. He's got all
sorts of good stuff on things you might have missed
from the world of sports today. That's next Fox Sports Rady,

(01:14:15):
Welcome back, everybody. Fox Sports Radio aer Tors Jason Martin
broadcasting live from the Tyrek dot com studios. As we
do every week around this time, let's toss it over
to Steve Saga for his extended update to Saga, the
floor is yours just.

Speaker 5 (01:14:31):
About everything final. We do have a tenth inning starting
at Anaheim. Angels Tigers tied at five, and in the
ninth Twins are leading five to one at Seattle. We'll
get to NBA Draft in a moment. But Atlanta with
that ten inning win at home two to one against
Pittsburgh today and quite a pitching duel as Max Freed
went the first six innings for Atlanta, lowered his ERA
to two point nine to one, and the rookie the

(01:14:53):
first rounder for Pittsburgh, Paul Skens, with six innings with
nine strikeouts. He's four and oh e er two point
zero sixth terrifying. It's ridiculous how good he is at
the major league level already. Meanwhile, the Baltimore Orioles, who
held on six to five over Texas, saved to Craig Kimberrel,
who tends to make it interesting. He did tonight with
two walks in the ninth, but Baltimore hit another home run.

(01:15:15):
That sixty home runs in the calendar month of June
for them, and we have one more game to go tomorrow. Apparently,
the Atlanta Braves had sixty one home runs in the
month of June last summer, and the record for any
calendar month the twenty nineteen Yankees with seventy four home
runs in August of twenty nineteen. As for the NBA Draft,

(01:15:38):
the first round on Wednesday drew four point four million viewers.
NFL Draft first round got twelve million viewers this year
just for the record, and in fact, let's compare daytime
programming because Fox and FS one have had this euro
Soccer tournament in the last couple of weeks and now
that they've finished up the group stage, they averaged over

(01:15:58):
one million viewers for daytime often weekday soccer from Europe
on Fox and FS one, it was one point h
five million viewers. NBA Draft second round got under nine
hundred thousand viewers for ESPN on Thursday. Meanwhile, Fox got
for the England game against Serbia one point eight million viewers.

(01:16:20):
For the US lost this week against Panama two and
a half million viewers, and for the US opener against
Lowli Bolivia three point two million viewers. The Americans could
be out Monday night. They will likely need to beat
first place Uruguay to advance. That game will be on
FS one from Kansas City due to be warm and
windy there. The US and Panama are tied for second

(01:16:40):
in the group, each with one win and one loss
so far in the tournament, but Panama gets to play
last place Bolivia on Monday in Orlando. Bolivia has lost
fourteen straight Copa America matches dating back to twenty fifteen.
Bolivia has one win in its last thirty two games
in this tournament. It is ranked eighty fourth in the world.
Basically it gets to be in this tournament because it

(01:17:02):
is located in South America. So the US just lost
to Panama somehow on Thursday, two to one on a
lake goal eighty third minutes. Attendance in Atlanta was fifty
nine thousand. By the way, attendance for the Argentina game
in Miami sixty five thousand. Of course, they expected, probably
when they bought tickets, that Liono Messi would play. He
was out with a groin entry tonight. But Argentina won.

(01:17:24):
They're three and zero. They'll win their group and they
will start the quarterfinals July fourth. The Americans could be
out Monday, in part because Tim way I got a
red card in the eighteenth minute on Thursday, so the
US played ten on eleven for most of the game
after his punch to the back of an opponent's head,
and the US against Panama all time had been seventeen
and two with seven ties. But a year ago the

(01:17:46):
US lost to him on penalty kicks in a Gold
Cup semifinal, and the way our Jason Smith on the
Thursday Night Show after this loss put it a lot
of US men's soccer fans might be hate watching on
Monday night. That is a chance to get coach Greg
Berhalter fired. Finally, because this was the coach through the
last World Cup, they let his contract expire. There were

(01:18:09):
some controversies and eventually, after months of an interim guy,
they rehired the old coach. And the record for the
US men since October is just five five and one,
And even if the US advances with an actual win
on Monday Night, its quarterfinal would likely be against Brazil
or Colombia next Saturday in Arizona. They already played Columbia

(01:18:30):
in a to up match this month and it was
a five to one loss to Columbia. Just for the record,
to MLB again, we had a dodger game at San
Francisco tonight on Fox TV for part of the country.
Giants left fifteen men on base. Dodgers scored seven times
in the top of the eleventh for a fourteen to
seven wins. So I've mentioned Baltimore winning again. Orioles record

(01:18:53):
fifty three and thirty Dodgers fifty two and thirty two
so far. So we're roughly the halfway point of the
major league season. But sho Hee Otani hit another home run,
his twenty sixth of the season. He has nine homers
in his last twelve games. The Yankees Aaron Judge in
a loss at Toronto nine to three. Judge had an
RBI single. He has eighty RBIs so far this year

(01:19:16):
and as batting three thirteen. We are not done with
the month of June. Left Juan Soto of the Yanks
did not play today due to a bruised hand. We
have the injury for the Rangers tonight. We're on a
check swing. Corey Seeger of Texas was hit by a pitch.
Initial X rays were negative. The wrist is swollen. And
kudos to the Chicago White Sox for getting a win

(01:19:39):
today eleven to three over Colorado, which has lost five
in a row. The Rockies on the road eleven to
thirty one, having about the same type of season as
the White Sox. In fact, it's twenty seven wins for Colorado,
twenty four for the White Sox so far twenty four
and sixty one. But today the White Sox hit four
home runs. Rockies had only four hits in the game,

(01:20:00):
four for thirty. The Oakland A's only had two hits
in their game. They lost three to nine at Arizona
and Tampa Bay at home only two hits, lost eight
one to Washington.

Speaker 2 (01:20:09):
Back to you, Thank you very much, Steve di Seger.
This is Fox Sports Radio Er Tors Jason Martin taking
you up till two a m. Eastern time. Still a
lot to discuss. We gotta get back to the NBA,
Paul George, the Lakers, what's their next movie? Talk a
little bit about the NFL. Brandon Ayuk, we'll discuss him
as well. That's all next Fox Sports Radio. Welcome in everybody,

(01:20:32):
Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday or Sunday, depending on
where you are. Eric Tors, Jason Martin. We are broadcasting
live from the Tirec dot Com studios Tyreck dot com.
We'll help you get there an unmatched election, fast, free shipping,
free road hazard protection, over ten thousand recommended installers, tirec

(01:20:52):
dot com the way tire buying should be. We are
taking you up by the way till two a m.
Eastern time. Bernie Freddo of The Bernie Fratto Show will
follow us. Bernie's got all sorts of good stuff. On
what has been an interesting day in sports, Jason, you know,
it's funny Saturday was. It was a busy day. There

(01:21:16):
was obviously, you know, no major sport. You know, listen,
I don't want to understell major League Baseball, but no football,
no basketball, no hockey. We obviously have a you know,
the Stanley Cup has been settled, the NBA Finals have
been settled, the NBA Draft is behind us. But it
was a busy day because essentially it was the unofficial

(01:21:37):
kickoff too free agencies. So big story of the day
in my opinion, Jason, Paul well lebron opting out is
probably the biggest story. But as we discussed an hour
one and we might discuss it a little bit here.
You know, everybody knows he's coming back, and even Rich Paul,
his agent, is on the record saying today, hey, you know,
this is a situation where he's going to be back,

(01:21:58):
and we're just trying to figure out out, you know,
what kind of discount he can take to help the team.
So the Paul George thing, to me is probably what
stands out as far as the most intriguing news of
the day. Paul George was set to make, you know,
somewhere in the forty eight forty nine million dollar range,
but decides to opt out with the Los Angeles Clippers.

(01:22:20):
Now he can still re sign with them, and he
is planning on meeting with them next week, but at
the same time he will also meet with the Magic.
He will also meet with the Philadelphia seventy six ers.
Your thoughts on Paul George and his decision to opt out.

Speaker 1 (01:22:35):
I mean, he's kind of the crown jewel of free
agency this year. There's gonna be some other nice pieces,
but not in terms of star quality and not a
guy that can come in and well, again I'm still
negative on it just because or skeptical or a little
bit down just because he's never amounted to a championship.
But I know how good a basketball player he is.
You pair him with the right person. That's a shot

(01:22:57):
you take every time. Lebron doesn't count here because he's
not going anywhere, so in terms of a piece that
there's at least some question as to where he's gonna
end up. Paul George is sort of the guy. His
numbers are good, and again, he's not gonna win something
by himself. Orlando is a young, young team that showed

(01:23:18):
out a little bit last year, looks like they're on
the right track. But I don't think a thirty three
year old Paul George ends up going there if he
actually wants to win a championship. And I think at
this stage you start looking around him saying where it's
the best chance to win a ring, because that's where
I can separate myself from some of the other guys
that I might be compared favorably to right now over

(01:23:39):
the last couple of decades that didn't end up with
a ring, but were regarded as really good basketball players.
But I think you want that feather in your cap.
So the best chance to do that is to go
to Philadelphia. I mean, that's the bet you make. I
mean Embiid's health notwithstanding that's a team with him and

(01:23:59):
MAXI that you put him there in an Eastern Conference
that's still very top heavy. I think you put yourself
right there in the mix with them. You stay with
the Clippers, I just don't think they're they can pay
him more if they wanted to. It's two twenty one
to twelve, I think on a four year deal either place,
so he can still make more money if he were

(01:24:20):
to end up staying with the Clippers. But I just
think ultimately this ends up with him in Philadelphia, and
I think that makes the Eastern Conference a little bit deeper,
a little bit more interesting, gives him a little bit
more star power, and that helps the league. Not that
that's part of the decision process, of course, but I
just think that that just seems like where it's trending,

(01:24:41):
And just because of who I've seen mentioned him to
Philadelphia as a possibility in the last month, it just
seems like behind closed doors, and that's been talked about
a lot, Like I know Golden State was looking at
him for a time, but that deals now did so
I just I think he's hen end up in Philadelphia,
and I think that's probably the right move.

Speaker 2 (01:25:00):
I mean, I think it just feels like it's trending
that way. And with the Clippers. We talked about this
a little bit earlier in the show. If anybody missed it,
make sure to go back and download the podcast. But
it's a little bit surprising that they don't appear to
be more aggressive given that they just gave Kawhi Leonard
a big extension. And I'm not saying that you extend,
that's extending, Paul George is the answer to all your problems.

(01:25:21):
What I am just saying, though, is that it does
feel like to me, is that basically like if you
are going to extend Kawhi, they're kind of they're not
quite tied at the hip, but like this era is
kind of it feels like it's sort of dependent on
both of them. Now, maybe the argument is we have
James Harden now, we don't need two wings. But it's

(01:25:44):
like you know we were talking about it earlier, is
like Paul George, say what you want about him. Has
he had the best moments in the playoffs? No, but
he is dependable. He did play seventy plus games this year,
and so I'm just surprised the Clippers are not being
more aggressive. But ultimately they got to do what's best
for them. I will say from a fan perspective, I

(01:26:06):
would like to see him in Philly because I do
think I don't know, I don't know that they're like
that close, but I don't think if MBID can be healthy,
I don't think they're that far. I think they finally
have that dude that fits well alongside him, Tyrese. Maxie
is obviously a burgeoning star, but you need just a
little bit more. And I think the thing you know

(01:26:27):
we talked about now, one, it's not just that you
need Maxi or it's not just that you need another
guy for the playoffs. I think it's that you have
to at this point assume that Joel Embid is going
to miss a fair amount of the regular season and
you can't just bottom mouse is not the right word,
but you can't, you know, fall apart. If he's gonna

(01:26:47):
miss twenty games over the course of a season, you
can't go four and sixteen in those games because obviously
that's going to have big time implications with your playoff seeding.
And that's kind of what happened this year, right They
ended up as whatever they were, the six seeds, seven seeds,
something like that, and it's because Joel m being missed
so much time and they struggled with him without him,

(01:27:09):
excuse me. So I'd be curious to see where Paul
George ends up. I think Philly's the right spot for him,
and as selfishly as a basketball fan, I hope that's
where he ends up real quick. By the way, do
you have anything else on Paul.

Speaker 1 (01:27:22):
Jordan's I agree with you. I mean, I'm looking at
it again from a fan perspective, and I think that's
the best that's the best place for him for the
league standpoint, and I think that it's best for a
consumer as well. Like I just I would like to
watch that team play and see what they could be
at full strength, And again, you never know how that
ends up playing out. But that's where I hope he

(01:27:44):
ends up to real quick.

Speaker 2 (01:27:46):
The other there's some more big news. We talked about
Lebron but but Klay Thompson, Shams shams Is and the
Athletic are reporting that the Warriors are basically moving. They're
under the assumption that he will not be back next year.
And I think Mark Stein was probably one of the
early ones on the Dallas Mavericks as a potential landing spot.
But now there have been increasing reports over the last

(01:28:10):
couple of hours that because Lebron has opted out, because
he may be willing to take a little bit less money,
that the Lakers could be an option for Klay Thompson
as well. Do you have a spot that you think
is a better spot for Klay Thompson, Dallas or the Lakers.

Speaker 1 (01:28:24):
I mean, I think that the Lakers is the one
that makes sense just from a where he's from and
his dad and all that like, in terms of him
going to win. I mean, Dallas is ready made to
go try and win. Right now, we know that we
just saw it. They may have been a bit ahead
of schedule, but with a star like Luca and with
Kyrie really being a good piece for them and being

(01:28:46):
a star again, you know, you add that to the mix.
You add another guy that could make a shot for you.
That helps. The only thing is at his age, with
his injuries, he has slowed down a lot. His defenses
not what it was, So really you have to bring
him in knowing what you're getting and what you're not getting,
and there are gonna be moments where he is just

(01:29:07):
not firing on all cylinders. And he's certainly he can
be kind of streaky at this stage in his career
as a shooter too, so you have to factor that in.
But presuming that you need him to come in and
make shots and go to the free throw out and
make free throws, potentially, you know, I like either spot,

(01:29:28):
but I think the better fit Basketball was is probably Dallas.

Speaker 2 (01:29:32):
Yeah, I do too, And I get that there is
a you know, it's not even a level, it's just
it is nostalgia, the idea of you know, him playing
with the Lakers because of course his father played there,
won championships there. I believe was the number one overall
pick with the Lakers, you know, a while back. But
I just look at it and I just think, man,

(01:29:53):
you know, and by the way, you know, I'd be
curious from Klay Thompson's perspective, is like, this is gonna
sound weird, But is it about winning at the highest level?
You know, because I think if it's about winning at
the highest level, it's hard to argue if the team
that was the runner up in the NBA Final, you know,
the team that made the NBA Finals and couldn't close
the door. And by the way, couldn't close the door

(01:30:13):
in large part because they just didn't have enough offensive pop.
I mean, I think it's hard to argue that that's
you know, that that's not the better basketball situation. And
so what I would be interested in is like, what
what does interest him at this point? I mean, obviously
he's got familiarity with the Lakers, with with LA. He
grew up in the area.

Speaker 1 (01:30:32):
And obviously that's why I think that's where it'll be. Yeah,
I got That's why that didn't The reason why not
to interrupt you is just he doesn't have to go
win a championship because he already has multiple ranks like that,
that doesn't factor in the same way it does for
an aging player that hasn't actually won a championship. The
fact that he has had all the success means that

(01:30:52):
he can pick and choose and do things based on
potentially a different a different metric. And that's why I
think that a lot of the stuff you just laid out,
the nostalgia and all that, I think that's why he
ultimately ends up in LA because he doesn't need to
go gravy train a championship. At this point, where's he
going to be happiest, and I find it hard to
believe that wouldn't end up being la.

Speaker 2 (01:31:13):
Very fair point, very interesting point. I happen to agree that,
And that's why I am curious because he's one of
the few players. I mean, he's got whatever it is,
four rings or whatever it is, and it's like, you know,
he doesn't have to go ring chasing, and so I'll
be curious to see where he ends up again, Mark
Stein reporting earlier in the day that Dallas was the
early favorite. But if Lebron James is willing to take

(01:31:35):
a little bit less money, and his agent Rich Paul
did say today that he is, then it'll be curious
to see where he ends up. Fox Sports Radio Eritords
Jason Martin, broadcasting live from the tyreck dot com studios,
will come back, maybe talk a little bit of football.
Brandon Ayuk. I don't really know what the heck's going
on with that guy. We'll try to figure it out together.
That's next. Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back, everybody. Fox Sports

(01:31:58):
Radio er Tors Jason Martin, broadcasting live from the tyreq
dot com studios. We are taking you up till two
a m. Eastern time. Bernie Fratto of the Bernie Fratto
Show will follow us should all se matches. Shortly after
the show, our podcast will be going up. If you
missed any of today's show, be sure to check out
the podcast. Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get
your podcasts, and be sure to follow rate and review

(01:32:20):
as well. Again, just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you
get your podcasts, and you'll see this show posted right
after we get off air. All right, Jason, We've obviously
hit on quite a bit of basketball with the course
of the last couple hours. Obviously, between the draft and
the free agency period, there is no doubt that basketball,

(01:32:43):
at least for a few more weeks, is the focal
point of what we're going to be talking about. But
obviously the NFL and football is really you know, it's
about to ramp up here very quickly and feels like
there's not very much going on except for this brand
weird Brandon I You situation. So you know, listen, he's
entering the final year of his rookie deal, set to

(01:33:05):
make fourteen million, wants more, and you know, I'll spare
everybody the details, but I mean, there's been all sorts
of stuff over the last couple weeks. I mean, he's
spent some time with Jaden Daniels from the Washington Commanders,
that's his former teammate back back in their Arizona days.
He told Jaden Daniels on a post in social media,

(01:33:25):
they don't want me back. Blah blah blah blah blah.
What do you make of this situation? I'll just be quick,
is that, you know, I look at the forty nine
ers and listen, you know, older team, veteran team, just
feels like they got a lot of dudes to pay,
and or a lot of dudes that have been paid.
And I just think Brandon Ayukx in a tough situation
where he's very productive obviously seventy three catches last year,

(01:33:47):
thirteen hundred yards receiving, but just feels like he's in
the back of the line right now and I don't
really know how much there is he can really do
about it.

Speaker 1 (01:33:54):
Well, he doesn't have the leverage right now and he's
trying to generate it. Really good piece of the athletic
from Randy Mueller, who of course executive for a long time,
does a football on GM podcast now and he breaks
this thing down better than you're going to see it
in most places, because he's honest, even about how the
media tries to create a narrative that the media is
out for itself in a lot of these cases. One

(01:34:18):
of the things he says, I'll just quote it. He says,
be careful how you interpret what is said publicly. That
includes by the way Ayuk and Jayden Daniels and they
said they don't want me back thing. He says, knows
what he's doing. Many in the media also have an agenda,
seeking to create suspense or injury. Some have said Sam
Fran has watched the negotiation, while others argue the Niners
will have to release other players to make room for

(01:34:40):
this contract. And then he goes into that and he
talks about how productive Iyuk has been and how he
compares pretty favorably to Justin Jefferson, more so than Ceedee
Lamb and Jamar Chasey, the other two guys that are
set to get paid big time money. And he actually
mentions that behind closed doors in the NFL, it's the
Aman Ross Saint Round contract that has sort of raised

(01:35:02):
eyebrows and upset people behind the scenes, and that that
right there that basically getting paid he will send a
gift basket to Aman Ross Saint Brown. But I think
it is intriguing in that the Niners are a team
that runs the ball with McCaffrey and could throw it

(01:35:23):
to McCaffrey. They have George Kittle, they have Deebo, even
though it sounds like maybe it's Ayuk that stays and
Deebo is the one that gets moved in this case.
They just paid Juwan Jennings. They didn't pay him big money,
but they paid him decent money and he's a really
productive guy and a hard worker that you want on
your team. I think that Ayuk could be a bigger

(01:35:47):
star somewhere else because he does have wide receiver one ability,
but they don't usually use him that way. Even though
as you said, I mean he had seventy five catches
on one hundred and three targets or whatever it was.
I find it really interesting looking at the whole thing,
because you hadn't been talked about very much like when
you talk about great players, like some of the guys

(01:36:08):
that have been paid Tyreek and aj Brown and Jaylen
Waddle and Justin Jefferson, and we mentioned Chase and Lamb.
It's not like Ayyuk's been talked about in that list
ever before, but now he's kind of out here. But
it does seem like and Mueller lays this out, and
again I would definitely encourage if you have a subscription
of The Athletics read this article. The Niners are in

(01:36:31):
no hurry to pay him because they don't have to be,
because they have the leverage here. They're a team that
a lot of times doesn't pay until the last minute,
and they could make him play under this next year
and then franchise in a year after that. And he's
not in a position because of the way the bargaining
agreement is set to kind of hold out in the
way that some guys have, So he may be stuck,

(01:36:53):
he may be playing for what he doesn't want to
play for, or become a malcatent and potentially let rookies
or younger players come in and make it so he
doesn't have as much value a year from now. So
I just think that right now that neither team is
at a spot where or neither side meaning I uke
in his side, and the team they're not in a

(01:37:13):
place of one of them has something to lose, And
that's one of the things that Mueller points out right
out of the start. He says, teams tend to hunker
down on their position based on facts that might make
sense only to them. A player and his representation will
almost always make their case based on a different set
of facts. And when timing in this case is not
is not of the essence. It's easy to ask for

(01:37:33):
the moon until one side has something to lose. Demands
can be wide ranging or easily dismissed. We're still any
still in June. There's plenty of time here. Nobody is
in a rush. You wants to go ahead and try
to get this done as fast as possible. I get that,
but I also think San Francisco is just going to
kind of wait this out.

Speaker 2 (01:37:51):
Yeah, And that's kind of my thought as well. As
I understand that, you know, listen, we're you know, National Network,
and you know, the NFL pays the bills in many ways,
I just don't find it that interesting because I don't like,
it just feels to me like this is a big
story because one, there's nothing else really going on, but two, like, yeah,

(01:38:12):
I mean, I know, statistically Brandon Ayuk was you know,
statistically awesome and everything last year, but like, I don't know.
I look at the forty nine Ers and and it's
it's the offense runs through Christian McCaffrey, and you know,
you look at the rest of the roster. Obviously Nick
Bosa got paid, Obviously, Trent Williams is a future Hall
of Famer. Obviously, George Kittle's a future Hall of Famer.

(01:38:33):
And so like it just feels like, like you said,
kind of it's a it's an unfortunate situation for Brandon
ayuk Is. It just doesn't seem like it's a priority
and what I would be interested in. And I think
this is where it gets kind of interesting, is you know,
if he does throw too much of a fit. The
forty nine Ers did draft a wide receiver in the
first round in Ricky Piersoll. And it's it's not as

(01:38:55):
though Kyle Shanahan in the past hasn't you know, found
creation of ways to get to get his guys involved.
And so I'm not saying he's not replaceable, or I'm
not saying he's not very valuable, I should say, but
it just feels like one of those where again it
feels like it's a little bit of a bigger deal
because there isn't a ton going on, but it also

(01:39:16):
just feels like a fine line where, like you said,
nobody really has anything to lose right now. But I
would put the you know, the Venn diagram of who
has more to lose the longer this goes on more
with Brandon Ayuk. It's not that he's not a good player,
but it's that, you know, the offense runs through Christian McCaffrey.
As I said, you know, Kyle Shanahan has always seemed

(01:39:39):
to find guys to kind of plug and play in
that system. And it's not to say Brandon and Ayuk
won't get paid somewhere right I just don't know that
it's necessarily going to ultimately be in San fran if
you know, if there's not some negotiation.

Speaker 1 (01:39:51):
Yeah, I mean, I think that that's part of it.
I also think one thing that we are saying, like
wider receivers are getting paid big time money, and it
makes sense and we all saw it coming. But what
we're also seeing is a lot of guys coming out
of college that can play YEP and they can play
the receiver position, and that's only going to get bigger
as they as kids are watching wide receivers get paid

(01:40:14):
this kind of money, more of them are going to
want to be wide receivers. So there's going to be
a bigger depth at that position coming out of college
because more guys are going to be trying to make
their hey that way as opposed to trying to be
running backs, for example, because things have shifted. So I
think the word you use as one that I've been
thinking about for the last couple of hours as I've

(01:40:35):
been looking into this story more and more is I
think he's really good, but is he irreplaceable? And I
think that becomes sort of the storyline and maybe just
that's what you're going to be talking about around the
negotiating table. It gets ugly behind closed doors. We don't
generally hear about it. But is Brandon Iyuke irreplaceable? Are

(01:40:57):
a lot of the guys that are getting paid big
money are going to be ask king for big money?
Are they irreplaceable? You has not been talked about like
he's an irreplaceable player. Now we're hearing about it. I
think you're right. Some of that is because there's not
any other news and IUK has forced his way, you know,
to the front of the line here in June. But

(01:41:19):
I don't think what he does can't be necessarily found elsewhere,
or at least I don't think that's not something they
will push if they have to, because they're not going
to pay a cent more than they absolutely have to.

Speaker 2 (01:41:31):
Don't disagree. And as you said, it's not as though,
you know, it feels urgent now because again, I just
don't think there's much going on. But as you said,
you know, play out this season could franchise tag him
in the future, and so there's the possibility that this
doesn't get resolved anytime soon. Fox Sports Radio Erra towards
Jason Martin, broadcasting live from the tyreq dot Com too
is we'll come back and Jason, I think for the

(01:41:53):
first time ever, we have ourselves a college baseball topic
that I want your opinion on. Yeah, that's right, baby,
we'll be talking about that next but first final time
with us this evening, Steve de Seger, what is trending? Everything?

Speaker 5 (01:42:07):
Final in Major League Baseball? As the Angels won their
six in a row a ten inning went over Detroit
six to five. Earlier, Texas lost at six straight games
six ' five at Baltimore, and Corey Seeger of the
Rangers left early hit by a pitch on the left wrist.
Initial X rays were negative, although the wrist is swollen.
The Dodgers in eleven innings won fourteen to seven at

(01:42:28):
San Francisco as the Giants left fifteen men on base.
Shohe Otani with his twenty sixth home run, Will Smith
three hits, three RBIs. Today in ten innings at Atlanta
Braves two to one over Pittsburgh, the Pirates offense with
runners in scoring position went zero for ten. Houston beat
the Mets in New York nine to six. Mets had
won four straight, but Houston got three runs in the eighth,

(01:42:48):
two in the top of the ninth. Arizona and pitcher
Zach Gallon beat Oakland three to nothing. The A's just
two hits, two for twenty eight at the plate. Washington
won eight one at Tampa Bay Rays offense two hits,
two for twenty eight. The late game tonight at Seattle
went to Minnesota five to one over the Mariners, winning
pitcher Pablo Lopez with nine strikeouts in six innings of

(01:43:09):
work on FS one today, the Cubs got an eend
Halp two run homer top of the eighth and won
five to three at Milwaukee. Cub starter and Justin Steele
had another good outing, but he's zero and three on
the season. No decision for his six innings of work. Today,
Cleveland wins again seven to two at Kansas City. Tan
or byby seven and two got the win. Jose Ramirez
is twenty third homer Guardians record fifty two and twenty nine.

(01:43:32):
The Padres won their fifth in a row. They won
nine of their last ten. After a victory at Boston
eleven to one. Manny Machado two homers, five RBIs at Toronto,
Vladimir Guerrero Junior a home run six RBIs, Blue Jays
beat the Yankees nine to three. Juan Soto did not
play for New York due to a bruised hand. Miami
won three two at Philadelphia, beating starting pitcher Aaron Nola,

(01:43:54):
who had been nine and three and he had nine
strikeouts today in six and two thirds. Cincinnati one nine
to four at Saint Louis, defeating starter Sonny Gray. Eli
Da Cruz of the Reds with his fortieth stolen base
of the season, and the White Sox sent Colorado to
a fifth straight loss eleven to three White Sox with
four homers. Rockies had only four hits. The Clippers Paul

(01:44:16):
George opted out of his contract. He'll be a free agent.
The NBA free agency negotiating window open Sunday six pm
Eastern Time. Just two WNBA games, three more tomorrow. Today
Las Vegas wanted Washington eighty eight seventy seven. Even though
Kelsey Plumb was one of eight shooting from the floor,
she did have eight assists. Washington now four and fifteen,

(01:44:36):
Dallas four and fourteen. After losing at Seattle tonight ninety
seven seventy six, Jewel Lloyd thirty points. At the Euros
Today in the round of sixteen, Switzerland dominated Italy to nothing.
The Italians are out, and then host Germany defeated Denmark
to nothing with two second half goals. There was about
a twenty five minute weather delay late first half in
that one, lightning, heavy rain and hail.

Speaker 2 (01:44:59):
Fox TV.

Speaker 5 (01:45:00):
We will add both of Sunday's games, England against Slovakia
noon Eastern time. That Winter faces the Swiss and the quarterfinals,
then Spain versus Georgia tomorrow. The Republic of that is
winner hosts against host Germany next. As for the Americans
in Copa America. US plays Monday night and will likely
need to beat, not tie, first place Uruguay to advance.

(01:45:22):
That'll be Monday night on FS one. Tonight in Miami,
sixty five thousand fans on hand, Argentina won again two
nothing over Peru. Chile is out of the tournament, eliminated
after a zero zero tie against Canada in Orlando. Mexico
plays Sunday night on Fox TV. The NASCAR's Infinity Race
went to John Hunter Nimachek in Nashville.

Speaker 2 (01:45:43):
Back to you, thank you very much, Steve Disager, have
a great evening. To Sager, I'll be back with you tomorrow.
I'm with Willard again. So yeah, before Arnie, before Arnie
and Plank. By the way, uh Disager, before you leave,
I told j Martin about our uh the Willard said
in passing the IF I was sports Commissioner segment. So Jamar,

(01:46:07):
I think we're gonna do that next week, is if IF?
Because it started with Willard. It was after the Travelers
Championship and Willard was like, look, tournament was great. You know,
fans rushed the green. He goes, but I watch golf.
He's like, can we please stop calling Saturday Moving Day
and he just got he went on a rant about
how much he hated He's like when I'm sports commissioner,

(01:46:28):
blah blah blah. And Di Seger said, I think it'd
be a great It's like the segment that's Biorn for July. Yes,
I was gonna say, so, oh yeah, so back of
your head, think of some and you know, we can
have some fun.

Speaker 5 (01:46:41):
And my addition was that NASCAR needs to stop calling
the Daytona five hundred their super Bowl because the super Bowl,
you know, it's not the first race of the year.
It's it decides the championship. That's what the super Bowl is.

Speaker 2 (01:46:55):
That's true. Yeah, and I just I just declared that
we don't need the redraft article. So like like right
before the NBA Draft, it's like, yeah, you know, twenty
twenty four draft is this weekend. Let's redraft a twenty
eleven draft.

Speaker 5 (01:47:10):
And let me tell you, those Timberwolves needed a point
guard and they didn't take Yeah, if Steph Curry had
been a nick, let me.

Speaker 2 (01:47:17):
It's like, but Steph Curry wasn't a nick, so we
don't have to talk. It doesn't it's so stupid. So Anyway,
we'll do that next week. Maybe Shay, you could start
thinking some stuff too. Yeah, Shay's working hard.

Speaker 5 (01:47:26):
Say, if you are a commissioner of sports that is
all sports, yes you can just give an edict.

Speaker 2 (01:47:31):
Yes, And so we will do that next week. To Segur,
thank you. I will see you tomorrow with Mark Willard
really quick, Jason. So this story was kind of crazy.
And I'll tell you. You know, you and I both love
college sports. And again I say this is you just
never know when something's gonna become a thing. And this

(01:47:54):
Texas A and M baseball story, it blew me away
how big it got. But I'll be very quick because
I think most people know the story. By now, Texas
A and N plays Tennessee for the national championship. It's
a three game series. Championship is Monday night. Tennessee beats
Texas A and M by a single run, so the
entire championship was decided by one run the day of

(01:48:16):
that third game. The University of Texas the college base
their baseball program. The job opens. And not to bore people,
but Texas baseball is kind of like Ohio State football.
It's kind of deemed like basically maybe the best job,
you know, one of the top two or three whatever.
So I bring it up because there's kind of like
this passing rumor of, oh, maybe they can hire Texas
A and M's coach, he's doing pretty well this year.

Speaker 1 (01:48:37):
Whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:48:38):
Well, literally a day later after the championship, Jim SLOs Nagle,
that's the guy's name, head coach Texas A and M
takes the Texas job. And I'll tell you, you know, Jason,
I knew. I thought it was kind of a niche thing.
This became a national talking point. I saw Chris mad
Dog Russo talking about it on First Take, I saw

(01:49:00):
Dan bayer Manzi Blanio was talking about it on our
airwaves on Tuesday or Wednesday. I was sort of surprised
by how big this story got. But at the end
of the day, it wasn't just it wasn't just a
coach leaving for their biggest rival a day after the
national championship. He also kind of belittled the media that

(01:49:20):
had the audacity to ask him about it. And I'll
tell you it just seemed to really strike a chord
with college sports fans everywhere of like just rubbed a
lot of people the wrong way. It felt like.

Speaker 1 (01:49:31):
Jason Well and then you also had the reporter asked
a question YEP, and Schlasnagel you know, snapped him off
basically and was upset and oh, this is so disrespectful
and all this I'm not even thinking about other jobs.
In less than twenty four hours, he goes to Texas
and then he ends up apologizing, and it did become

(01:49:51):
a big deal and probably a bigger deal than it
should have, except that Schlosnagel kind of made it worse
based on what he did. Did I don't I mean,
I just kind of shake here. I mean, at this
point in time, nothing would surprise me him ended up
going to Texas and get paid big money. The am
M story was good. I mean, they got to the
College World Series final, and I don't think it was

(01:50:13):
a one run game in the end. It was, but
I mean they did a lot in that last half inning,
but you know, they had their their best player went down,
they lost their second starter, they weren't full strength. I
think even apologized to their fans going into the actual
College World Series and saying I'm sorry, we're not one
hundred percent, which was an interesting, interesting place to be

(01:50:34):
but I don't know. I think it's I think the
big you said that, you know, it was perfect for July.
That's what de Seger had just said about that one
topic we're gonna do next week, which would be a
lot of fun. This is perfect for June. Like what
else was happening, there wasn't something else that was gigantic
in that moment that could have taken the attention. So

(01:50:56):
this got more attention than it probably otherwise would have.
And Texas is going to make something a bigger story
almost any time. Everything's bigger in Texas and here, I
think this story just kind of took it just ended
up having a life of its own. But probably more
it's not that big of a deal, but because of
when it happened in the calendar and just sort of

(01:51:16):
the circumstances surrounding it, I think it just kind of
it became a big deal. I will say this, I
really enjoyed watching all of the college baseball postseason this year,
and certainly I watched a lot. My wife was super
excited with Tennessee winning, of course, and a lot of
our friends and everything else here. It was just it
was fun. It's a really good event. To watch and

(01:51:39):
they care and the fans get excited about it. I'd
like to go to Omaha and actually see it. And
whenever the SEGA starts talking about baseball right now, I
just roll my eyes and I'm very upset. And it's
not because the Braves aren't having the best year or
whatever else. I mean, it's because of this stupid television

(01:52:00):
crap where the Balie Sports and the Diamond deal and
whatever's about to happen with baseball means I can't watch
the Braves on TV anymore. I can only watch the
national games because the regional networks have lost everything. And
so I actually have an audio subscription to MLB so
I can listen to radio broadcasts because I wanted to
keep up with the team and I haven't been able

(01:52:21):
to do it as much as possible. Baseball can't afford this, man,
I agree, they just can't. Like they're not the NFL,
where you know they're gonna survive this, Like they were
actually on a pretty good tip last year. I'm like
totally tuned out of baseball because of this, Like, and
I don't think I'm alone, because there's a bunch of
these regional teams that you can't watch them because of

(01:52:41):
these archaic rules, these blackout rules, and they've got to
get this figured out. Baseball is killing itself this year
by not having a lot of these teams available to
these fans. And I just felt like ranting myself for
a bit, you know, talk about me being a commission
and want to fix up and fix it. It's twenty
twenty four. This is insane.

Speaker 2 (01:53:02):
We'll save that for next week because that's interesting because
you know, living here in La Dodgers around every night
and Angels around every night. So it's not something that
I'm even really aware of, but it is interesting. But yeah,
back to the college baseball thing, jimshlas Nagle. It was
a perfect June topic. It wouldn't have been a big
deal otherwise. The last thing I'll say on that is

(01:53:23):
that I just think it's I think the other thing
was is that because he took the job the next day,
it was so obvious that he was negotiating while his
team was competing for a championship. And again, you know,
just just following people who are fans of Tennessee, of whoever, Arkansas, whatever,

(01:53:43):
it's like, Oh that guy, that's kind of a crappy
way to handle yourself as your team's playing for a championship.
But Fox Sports Radio aeron towards Jason Martin will come back.
One segment left, still a lot to cover. That's next
Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back everybody. Fox Sports Radio, Eric
Tors Jsmarin broadcasting live from the tyreck dot Com studios.

(01:54:04):
We are taking up till two am Eastern Time, twelve
minutes from now. Bernie Fratto of The Bernie Fratto Show
will follow us. Bernie has all sorts of good stuff.
On a busy, busy couple days in sports, jmart want
to wrap on a little bit of a lighter note,
and that is because in just a few days, a

(01:54:30):
monumental moment that we've all been waiting for will occur,
and that is that EA Sports will release its first
college football game since twenty fourteen. The reason what we're
talking about today, though, is because in the lead up
to the release, EA Sports has been releasing some of

(01:54:51):
their top twenty five lists with the game, and they
seem to be causing quite a bit of controversy. Among them,
they released the top ten loudest stadium's toughest places to
play according to the EA Sports College Football twenty five
game Tennessee does not make the top ten when I

(01:55:11):
think most people agree Eland Stadium is as tough of
a place to play as anywhere in college football. Also,
they just released their power rankings just the other day.
Among the teams that felt a little bit highly ranked
or maybe misranked, Deon Sanders, Colorado, Buffalo's coming in at
number sixteen. What do you make of these lists that

(01:55:35):
EA College Football is dropping right now?

Speaker 1 (01:55:38):
This is what they do, and this is what AA
has done for a long time. And the reason why
is because it gets people to start talking about the game,
and it hypes it up, and it puts it in
front of everybody's face and everybody's social media feed without
them having to pay a cent for advertising. And so
especially when it's the individual players and things like that
with Madden, like I remember Keenan Allen being Matt years

(01:56:00):
ago and some of the players are. That's by design,
because again it's free advertising. After every week of the season,
they change the ratings based on what's actually happening on
the field. So what they're doing before the season is
basically just advertising. It's generating interest ahead of time. College
football doesn't really need that much. But this is just

(01:56:22):
reminding everybody, Hey, we're three weeks out. Game's gonna be
here in three weeks, so we're gonna start dropping these
things because there is nothing better than debating lists. There's
nothing better then you disrespected me, and I'm gonna go
yell about it because you at EA Sports, you big
time video game sports fan people didn't understand that my

(01:56:46):
stadium should have been regarded as louder, or my defense
is better than this team's defense, or whatever else. It's
just free advertising. It's fun, Like it's fun because it
just shows how passionate everybody is. Many things to that extent,
but it's just a very transparent attempt. Like anybody that
takes these things seriously probably needs to calm down a bit,

(01:57:10):
because I don't think that they are taken seriously at all.
That's just a way to generate discussion surrounding a product
that they want you to drop seventy bucks on in
three weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:57:21):
It's funny, you know, obviously. So I'm not a gamer
at all, and I don't listen. I don't criticize anybody
who is is not. You know, I'm better than you. Yeah, yeah,
but no, I you know, I'll be honest, Like I
obviously saw the transparent effort to get people fired, I
didn't really realize as I was watching it all unfold
this week that this is what they do every single

(01:57:43):
year with the Madden rankings, and you know NBA two
K has you know, and these are things that get debated.
It's funny. I actually I had, you know, somebody from
like two K actually reach out to me a few
summers ago, like, hey, if you or anybody at Fox,
you know, if you want like a pre release of
our rankings so you could talk about it on the show.

(01:58:05):
And it's like and I didn't even again equate what
happened there with the college football game, but it was like, yeah,
like I get it, and I give you know them
credit because at the time it was like and I
just said, you know, I'm not a gamer, it's not
really my wheelhouse whatever, but I will tell you this.
And again, maybe it's because I'm not a gamer, but

(01:58:25):
I and maybe I'm just naive, but like I was
actually stunn like people were big mad when these rankings
started coming out this week, like the one that I
saw it started. It seemed like It started with the
stadium rankings loudest stadiums, and people were legitimately angry, fighting, arguing,
debating whatever. So credit EA because they have clearly gotten

(01:58:45):
people fired up about Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:58:47):
That's the thing. Like, not one person that's upset about that,
that was going to buy the game is now not
going to And all it did is just remind some
people that maybe didn't know or weren't sure or didn't
realize it was coming out in three weeks to hey,
it's coming out, squead and start saving your money. That's
all it is. This is definitely one of those all
publicity is good publicity things. They figured out years ago

(01:59:07):
that this worked, and so they make sure that it
wait until Madden comes out. It'll happened again and then
Madden will be all over people's social media feeds. And
it's just one of their marketing tactics and it has
certainly amounted to a lot of money for them.

Speaker 2 (01:59:21):
No credit to them, And like I said, I hadn't
equated obviously. Again, you know, I've seen the outrage over Madden,
you know, at times in the lead up to a season,
but I never really like equated. Oh yeah, this is
kind of just what the brand does and good for
them because they certainly got a lot of people fired
up here over the course of the last couple of days.
Tell you what, Jay soon, We do got to get

(01:59:43):
out of here. First of all, reminder make sure to
download the podcast available shortly after the show if you
missed any of today's show. But we do have to run.
I want to thank the crew, producer Shay Mary on
the boards, Steve Disager, from my partner Jason Martin, I am,
of course, Aaron Torres, and coming up Fra Bernie Fraddo
the Bernie Fraddle Show. You know Bernie, He's got all

(02:00:03):
sorts of good stuff. Appreciate everybody listening. J Mar and
I will be back next Saturday. This is Fox Sports Radio.

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