Steve Hartman and Rich Ohrnberger talk Bronny and Mychal Thompson stops by!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 2 (00:04):
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(00:26):
How's your fourth of July holiday weekend going, Rich Arnberger?

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Awesome? Awesome. We uh we got back from Oahu.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Uh we uh we took a quick vacation out there.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Actually wasn't quick.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
It was a week long, but it flew by, never
enough time on Hawaii. And then had a day's worth
of radio work before going on break for Thursday and Friday,
and then just a lot of.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Barbecuing, made some ribs last.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Night, you know, just doing the stuff that the the
great Americans who forged this country when they declared their
independence from the British.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
What they were aiming was for a giant.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Two hundred and seventy to two hundred and ninety pound
gorilla to be trapesing around his yard in his underwear
making ribs at ten o'clock at night.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
It was the vision of our founding fathers. I'm sure.
I'm sure Ben and George and John and Thomas. They
were just thinking that is that is the future of
this country. If we have a vision of the future,
it's rich Ornberger in his underwear and join a good
barbecue outdoors. So I'm glad you did that. We had
a good time as well over the weeks. You know,

(01:40):
my birthday being on the fourth of July is a
little bizarre, and I was really thinking about this because
none of my kids were with me on the fourth.
It was crazy. You know, it gets that you have
grown kids, right, And so I knew Paris was out
of town. She was with her boyfriend up at Lake Tahoe.
By the way, you want to hear some little symmetry here.
So my thirty third birthday, July fourth, nineteen ninety one,

(02:03):
I was covering the second year of the celebrity golf
tournament they still have every single year up there a
Lake Tahoe. It started in nineteen ninety I was up
there in nineteen ninety one and it just happened to
fall on the fourth of July weekend, and so I
celebrated my thirty third birthday there. Thirty three years later,

(02:25):
on my sixty sixth birthday, my daughter is celebrating the
fourth of July in Lake Tahoe.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
It is weird, how life, You know, the wheel just
keeps on turning.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Keeps turning and turning and turning.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Uh and then Junior pretty soon, or I would assume,
by the transitive properties of the universe, just like Bronni
James joining Lebron in the League and Paris, she will
soon be hosting here on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
She will be your teammate on the air.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, I want to know, you know, will my great
grandchild be celebrating in Tahoe in my ninety ninth parday,
you know, sort of little symmetry there. Anyway, it was.
It was a great time. Hope everyone's enjoying the extended
weekend for this Fourth of July holiday. All right, So
you mentioned Bronnie James. By the way, a couple of
notes on our show today, Our dear friend John Paul

(03:17):
Morosi is going to be joining us in our final hour,
so he'll be here in a couple of hours. But
before he comes on at one o'clock, West Coast time
four o'clock on the East coast. Michael Thompson is going
to be joining us on the air.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Love that.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
So I tried to get Mike on the show yesterday.
He was grandfather sitting, as he told me yesterday, but
he will be coming on with us at the top
of our third and final hour today to share not
only his thoughts on how his son basically ditched him,
because remember we opened the show last week as I

(03:53):
was texting Michael Thompson and I was texting him saying,
how does it look for Clay to join the Lakers?
And he texted me back, it looks good, real good.
And the next morning it was announced that Klay Thompson
had signed a deal with the Dallas Mavericks. I could
not resist, so I texted Michael immediately when I saw

(04:16):
this story, and I said, apparently your four time NBA
champion's son knows a loser when he sees one.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Oh yeah, And he texted back, have me on the show, heartman.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Well he didn't. He wasn't happy with that text that
I gave him. So we went back and forth a
little bit, having some fun. But we'll have Michael Thompson
coming up a little bit later on to not only
give us the story of what happened to his son,
but where did the Lakers go from here? So we
got a lot of news to get to. And speaking
of the Lakers, yesterday was Brownie James' debut in the

(04:51):
Summer League. And I was reminded yesterday because I had
television LATV last night and if you were to watch
me do television reporting on Bronnie James' debut, you would
have thought he would have gone off for forty points
a triple double. I mean, the way the producers wrote

(05:12):
the script for Bronnie's debut was it was like pure fantasy.
I was like, what is this. We showed his first basket,
he had a steal. We showed that his first basket
was a layup, and then he only hit one other shot.
He was two for nine shooting, and we showed that.
So if you only were to watch the highlights, I like, Wow,

(05:34):
this is Bronnie James is unbelievable. What we did, of
course show you was how he basically got crossed over
on and fell to the court twice as he got
beaten badly defensively and of course clanking just about every
shot that he threw up. I mean, here's the reality.
Well here was my problem with the introductory press conference

(05:55):
for him last week, for Rubbka to step up and
say that Browny earned his way into the NBA. Why
are we pretending here, Bob? Why can't you just say
something along these lines. We had an opportunity to make

(06:16):
history here. This may never happen again. We've had many
sons of former NBA players playing in the league. That's
very common, but we've never had them play at the
same time, much less on the same team. We use
the fifty fifth overall pick. Take a look at fifty
fifth overall picks in the history of the NBA draft.

(06:36):
You won't recognize most of the names. It's essentially a
throwaway pick. But we had an opportunity to make history,
and we're going to give him every opportunity to have
his dream come true. Is he getting favoritism unlike anyone else? Obviously,
nobody with his one year college resume would ever get
a whiff of a chance to play in the NBA.
But because he's the son of Lebron James and has

(06:59):
a chance to make history with his father, we're gonna
give him that opportunity. Just say it, because that's exactly
what it is. Ronnie James has no business in the NBA.
Maybe down the road, he works hard, but I don't
see it. I mean, he's just not that kind of player,
and so just celebrate for what it is. It's a

(07:20):
side show. It's a chance to make history, and I
think that's fine, but don't make it more than it is.
I mean, for him to say, well, he earned his
way here, he did not. You did this for one reason,
one reason only to make sure that to keep Lebron
happy and have Lebron re up and stay with the Lakers. Period.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
I didn't mind anything about this story, to be perfectly honest,
until the introductory press conference and the things that new
head coach JJ Reddick, acting president of Basketball Operations, in
general manager Rob Polinka, and every buddy, even the reporters

(08:01):
in the room to a greater or lesser extent, who
I think, We're trying their best to ask questions, but
it felt all too lobbed up. Yeah, it felt it
felt like it felt like everybody in the room, including
Bronnie by the way, understands what happened here, and nobody

(08:24):
was willing to address that elephant in the room. So
tiptoeing around that elephant gave little room for irony like yeah,
or or humor, or an opportunity to get to know.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Him, because like, here's the reality. I mean, this is
the truth. Truth.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
Like I want to get to know Bronnie James if
he's going to be a part of the sports lexicon,
if he is going to be an important part of
the Lakers, even if it's only because he's Lebron's son,
by the way, not because of anything he'll actually.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
Contribute on court.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
I would have liked to feel like we had an
opportunity to get to know him a little bit. All
of what we saw was fake, every last word of it.
It was all smacking of inauthenticity.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
So much everybody walked out of there with red cheeks.

Speaker 3 (09:17):
It was terrible, lying and pantomiming the script. It was disgraceful.
It was ridiculous. It was like you said, Steve a
side show. And they could have done so much more.
They could have been authentic. They could have said, look,

(09:38):
lebron James only has so much time left in this league.
His one wish was that he get to play with
his son. A fifty fifth overall pick is not a
valuable pick. And this is no offense to Bronni James.
We think that one day we can groom him into
being a very competent, if not star basketball player at

(09:59):
this level. We have that sort of faith in our
development team here, and that's the reason why we spent
this pick. So any questions you have that are going
to dance around.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
The obvious, don't bother. That's the explanation.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
Now, if you'd like to get to know Dalton connect
or Bronnie James or their personalities or where they came from,
or any questions about their background that that need some
backstore here, go for it.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
But that's the reason why Bronnie James is here.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Next question, and and you know what, it's just addressing
what everybody already knows. Instead, you get JJ Reddick. He's
earned this bull looney, get out of here. Who are
you lying to JJ?

Speaker 1 (10:45):
Like? I mean, like, look, he earned it as much
as you did.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Thank you, and to see you've hit it on the spot.
Let me remind you that. So he went to see
Sierra Canyon, right, it's a private school. A lot of
money funneled into this high school, right, And I have
a friend of mine that actually announced games. They actually
is the kind of high school high in high school
that actually has an announcer. I asked him in Bronnie's

(11:11):
junior year of high school, I said, how good is
this kid? I mean, we've been hearing about him ever
since he was essentially born. He goes, to be honest
to you, he's maybe maybe the fourth best player on
this team. As a junior in high school, he averaged
eight point eight points, three point three rebounds, and two
point eight assists. In high school. His senior year, when

(11:35):
he made second team All League, he averaged fourteen points,
five rebounds, and two assists. That's what he did in
high school against high school and then in US he
averages less than five points in the game, shooting thirty
five percent twenty six percent for three point land. And
then they're like, well, he was a consensus four star

(11:56):
recruit really based on what he can only beased on
one thing, his father's name. And by the way, I
don't want to make this a personal attack on Brownie James.
In many ways he's sort of an innocent bystander, although
now he's been well versed as you said at the
press conference, saying, you know all these different things, but
he doesn't know any differently. His whole life has been

(12:19):
a privilege. He's been able to get whatever he wants.
And we talk about nepotism a lot, and it affects
every business in America. We know that. We get that.
By the way, look at ownerships in professional sports. How
did Jeanie Buss become an owner? Oh that's right. She
was handed by her father, you know. So did she

(12:40):
do anything to earn that? No, but she was the
closest one to her father, so she assumes control of
the team.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
So, by the way, and by the way, and by
the way, like part of the reason why. A lot
of times you'll see sort of the fall from grace
when a business is handed down to the kids who
didn't earn the business. Didn't work in the kitchen, washing
the dishes, before bussing tables, before weight staffing, before hosting,

(13:09):
before managing, before running multiple stores, before owning the whole business.
You know, it's tough. The restaurant life is tough. Any
business is tough.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
If you don't learn the ropes.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
Especially now I'm not saying Genie didn't you know, spend
a lot of time with her father and didn't work
for the organization prior to being handed the keys to
the kingdom with her brothers. But the reality of the
situation is when when you've earned your opportunity under those conditions,

(13:42):
it's a lot easier for you to allow something similar
to happen within your organization. Because look, there's something called
imposter syndrome.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Everybody has it a little bit.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
And the higher you get, whatever platitude you're at in life,
the higher you get oftentimes you feel like why me,
Like why do I deserve what I'm getting? When there's
so many people who struggle?

Speaker 1 (14:05):
How did I get so lucky?

Speaker 3 (14:07):
What makes me more qualified than the next guy, the
next girl? And you have to sort of squash down
those feelings because you can't operate if you're operating under
self doubt. But it is buried somewhere inside of Genie
Buss that she didn't deserve it, and she's okay a
little there's a part of it that's okay with Bronnie

(14:27):
not deserving it, because guess what, she turned into a
pretty successful business woman, right Like, even though she didn't
earn it the way her dad, Like, you know, she
didn't quite heart. She was just she was lucky, right,
and then she got handed this situation. She's made some
good decisions since. So why not Bronnie Right? Okay, so

(14:47):
he didn't earn it, so he was a four star
recruit and why and you know he went to USC
and he got drafted in the fifty fifth round by US.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
But who cares?

Speaker 3 (14:55):
Because maybe maybe if he's anything like me, even though
he's been handed the keys to the kingdom, I mean,
the owner of the Lakers passes away and gives me everything,
the king of the NBA, he wants his last wish
as an NBA superstartists play with his son. So why
don't I do that for him, just the way the

(15:16):
same way Doctor Bust did that for me.

Speaker 1 (15:18):
And maybe it'll work out. Maybe lightning will strike twice.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
Well, see again, I'm not rooting against Bronnie James neither.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
Am I by the way, I just I just hate
being lied to.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
So it just it was so obvious. It was it
was embarrassing. It was it was really embarrassing. It is
what it is. It's a sideshow. Are the Lakers a
serious contender for an NBA championship. No, and now, of course,
the question on the other side is why wasn't it
once an honor to put on a Lakers uniform? So
why everyone on is going elsewhere I mean Sacramento, Philadelphia,

(15:54):
Dallas instead of Los Angeles. Well, there may be an
underlying reason beyond well the fact that the Lakers aren't
really true NBA championship contenders. We're gonna break it down
for you. This is Fox Sports Sunday.

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Speaker 1 (17:06):
Again.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts,
and you'll see the show post it right after we
get off the air. Well, one thing that has been
mission accomplished from the Laker organization is they find a
way to stay in the news. When you hire Jj
Reddick with zero coaching experience, a dookie who's been an

(17:34):
analyst on television as your head coach, that's newsworthy. You know,
if you had gone the Darbn Ham route or are
you gone with you know, some rather anonymous but maybe
promising young assistant coach in the NBA, it's not going
to make news. You try out Jj Reddick. People are
talking about it, obviously, you know. No one's talking about

(17:56):
Dalton connect who obviously could be a steal for the
Lakers with the seventeenth or overall pick a unanimous All
American a year ago, Tennessee. No one's talking about that.
They're talking about Bronnie James because it's a sideshow. It's
a story. I mean, Bronnie James is being talked about
about his big four point debut that he made in

(18:17):
the Summer League. Summer League. These are guys that will
not see the light of day in the NBA by
and large, so they find a way to stay in
the news. But here's what's interesting to me, rich is
being a Laker used to be a badge of honor. Yeah,
like that was a desired destination. And I remember when

(18:39):
the Lakers signed Kobe Bryant to that final three year
contract after he blew his achilles and it was obvious
that his best days were behind him, and they swung
and missed the first time I'd ever seen this in
Laker history. Because they always seem to get exactly who
they wanted. You want Shack, You're gonna get Shack. You
want Kareem, You're gonna get Kareem. You want Well, you're

(19:00):
gonna get. You're gonna get whoever you want, Pagasol, whoever
you want, You're gonna get them. And they swung a miss.
I remember DeMar Deroza was one of those guys that
decide now I don't want to be a Laker at
that time. And now all of a sudden, we're going
through this again. And is it they don't want to
hitch their wagon to the Lakers or they don't want

(19:23):
to hitch their wagon to Lebron James. Well, okay, because
when got fair.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
There have been players in the past who have turned
down opportunities to play with the Lakers for a variety
of different reasons, including not wanting to play with other
superstars who the Lakers had. You know, it happened during
the Kobe days and the Shock days. It happened. I mean,
don't don't for a second, you know, kid yourself and

(19:49):
think like it's always been peaches and cream because they
wear the Golden purple.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
It hasn't.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
And and there have been some downtimes in the past,
and I don't even necessarily I think we're in a
Laker down time. The trajectory is still pointing mostly up.
You have an aging superstar with Lebron James, but he
still plays at a superstar level. Anthony Davis went healthy
and available is one of the best stretch fours on

(20:17):
the floor in the NBA phenomenal season last year phenomenal season. Now,
don't get me wrong, they underperformed all that talent and
they made some expenditures in the offseason to build off
of the success of the twenty twenty three to twenty
twenty four or I should say the twenty twenty two
to twenty twenty three season where they got swept in

(20:40):
the Western Conference final. And it didn't go well this
season either.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
So I.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
Don't think. I don't think we're in a situation that's
that the Lakers have never faced before. I do think
that we're there, though, you know, this is the end
of Kobe. This is the similar It feels very similar
to those times where it's a.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Little bit of okay, so which one of.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
These years is going to be the year they sacrifice
and just do the going away party for their superstar,
you know.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Because that's what it felt like with Kobe toward toward
the end of his career.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
Of his career, it felt like, we're just waiting for
the exit so the Lakers could rebuild and figure out
what next steps are going to happen from there. And
I think that's where they're at in some ways right now.
You know, like I said, the arrow is still mostly
pointing up. But in terms of acquiring free agents and

(21:43):
things like that, you know, finding you know, guys who
are willing to be a three with a d and
Lebron who it's a tall ass to get a name
like Clay Thompson to be a three on a team
with an aging superstar who's getting ready to retire in

(22:05):
a couple of seasons and a fragile second you know,
you know, sidecar player like Anthony Davis.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
Well, Kyrie is no spring chicken either in Dallas, and
you have a bald the single most baald dominant player
currently in the NBA, and Luka Doncic, So I'm not
quite sure why he feels. And again, Michael Thompson, his
father's gonna be joining us a little bit later on,
maybe give us some inside, but I'm not quite sure
why he feels for a personal standpoint, that he's gonna

(22:38):
get more of an opportunity to showcase his talents on
a Dallas team with ball dominant players like Luka Doncic
and Kyrie Irving as opposed to Lebron who's still a distributor,
and Ad is not that kind of player either, So
I'm just he'll be curious. We'll get Michael's inside a
little bit later on in the show. Let's first find

(23:00):
out what is happening right now. And by the way,
Rich I mentioned yesterday. So Monsey came in yesterday and
showered me with birthday gifts. Oh my gosh, and shower
it was nothing. It was multitude of birthday gifts. And
I know, and I obviously I think there was incredibly
sweet and very very nice. And I shared with her

(23:22):
the fact that you and I, in our many years,
although we acknowledge each other's birthday. I mean, that's about
as far as it goes. You know, You're on Valentine's Day,
I'm on Independence Day, Happy Birthday, Happy birthday. But that's
about far as it goes.

Speaker 6 (23:39):
Yeah, I was, Oh, so you have to step up
your game, is what I'm hearing here. Guys, you've been
partners for how long I got to step up your
birthday games for each other?

Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yeah? Actually, Montes, you know what, we should have been
better to each.

Speaker 3 (23:52):
Other, but I would, But I mean, after all these years,
would it be weird now to start buying each other gifts.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
So yes, well for us, it would you know not
you can start anytime.

Speaker 6 (24:03):
You're gonna tell me, you're both gonna be upset if
one or the other brought a wine bottle no, or like.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Maybe like a world's Best co host mug.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
You have nice nice outside the box.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
He doesn't even drink coffee though we have a wine
in it.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
But you also brought me a bottle of wine. And
what is that posting? What is that post? What is
the food? Porthos?

Speaker 6 (24:28):
I brought porthos so a little variety of things from
port like this is.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
A commercial she went to Portos even brought in like
a Porto's fruit part with a candle for me to
blow out. Yeah, and I'm like, why didn't Rich ever
do this for me?

Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah? Yeah, this is uh, you know the I'll tell
you right now. Your gift is in the mail. I
mean that. Yeah. And it's been and it's been, and
it's been. You have so many gifts and I don't know,
maybe it's your fault. Maybe you gave me a bad address.

Speaker 6 (25:02):
All right, let's start in Major League Baseball Fellows, where
the Braves had an exciting second inning. Three homers were
hit Adam Duval, Jared Kellmick and Matt Olson, and they're
beating the Phillies five zero, bottom of the third inning.
The Cardinals in the Nationals are tied it to a piece.
Top of the fourth the Tigers of score. They're up
on the Reds one zero. They're about to start the

(25:22):
bottom of the fourth inning and the Giants have added
another run. They're beating the Guardians three zero, bottom of
the fourth inning as well. In the WNBA, the sun
are on top of the Dream fifty seven to forty three,
with about two minutes to go in the third quarter.
At Wimbledon, we're still waiting for Coco Goff to start
her fourth round match.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
It keeps getting pushed back.

Speaker 6 (25:42):
She is next on the main what do we call
that core in the main court. They're waiting for this
one to wrap up, so she still has to play
her fourth center court center corps. I was like the
main one, what do we call this this center court?
American twelve seed Madison Keys she had to retire in
the third set of her fourth thrond match due to
a leg injury. On the men's side. Number one seed

(26:04):
Genics Sinner. He's headed to the quarterfinals, he defeated American
in fourteen seed Ben Shelton in straight sets. Cinner is
now going to face number five seed Danil Medvedev in
the quarterfinals and third seed Carlos Soukrass. He's also headed
to his ninth major quarterfinals appearance.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Back to you, guys, Hi, mine's a great stuff, and again,
thank you so much for you're very very generous as
happy birthday. Thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (26:29):
Now I feel like that, like it's starting to turn.
Instead of feeling like so thankful that Monzi takes such
good care of you, now I'm starting to feel like
she's the student at the end of the class day
that says, hey, do we have homework and you're like,
it's Friday, don't ask now, don't what are you doing?
And like putting apples on the teacher's desk, making us
all look back, like what are you doing?

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Mons?

Speaker 7 (26:50):
Now?

Speaker 2 (26:52):
Will you will understand it?

Speaker 1 (26:55):
We'll start to expect this.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
Yeah, go Hopefully Moncey's not listening right now. You do
not ever get me, because if you get me and
then I got to get you senter you know, you
know what, and then that's a vicious cycle, you know,
And then then you have to sort of one up.
Oh the pressure.

Speaker 6 (27:12):
My birth is in January, January, January.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
We need to we need to throw her like I mean, well,
we definitely need to do something for her.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
You just don't do anything for me. We'll do something for.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
Her, Okay, yeah, yeah, actually yeah, well we'll multiply the
efforts will make it so uncomfortable, like she'll walk out
and she'll be like a Honda Civic.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
When did you guys buy me a car?

Speaker 2 (27:32):
Can I get completely off the rails here with a story,
because I get sometimes I get tired of this whole
Lakers stuff and everything sometimes. Joey Bosa, did you see
this story?

Speaker 1 (27:45):
I have missed any Charger stories. What's going on?

Speaker 2 (27:48):
So Joey Bosa was upset with a report that said
that the food that the Chargers serve their players, like
in house food, is the worst in the NFL. They
gave him an f and he he came out and said,

(28:08):
first of all, I usually bring my own food.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Because he this.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
I loved how he said this. He goes, look, you know,
I have a nutrition is you know, and so I
have a very specific diet and everything else. So I
normally bring my own food. But what I do have
to eat here, Uh, it's.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Not Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
And of course really there's you know how it is.
You know, like when you're a kid, whether you whether
you know or you're not quite sure how good a
cook made your mom or dad is okay, you have
nothing to compare it to.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
Buddy, I have this situation with my mom, a slight detour.
I thought in my life, I thought steak was not good.
I thought it was I thought it was something.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
That that was me and chicken.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
Yeah, I thought you were forced to eat steak. I
thought everybody in the world who talked about, oh my gosh,
I want a grill a steak, I'd be like, oh,
you're insane, You're insane.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
Why would you ever want to do that?

Speaker 3 (29:08):
And then one day my parents, because they realized they
had never taken us to a fancy dinner, not once,
not ever, right, you know, if we went out, it
was like, you know, we're gonna throw these kids in
the car and we're gonna bring them to a pizza
hut because they are feral. They are animals, so that's
the only place we could trust them, you know, or
a diner, local diner, in New York, grown up on

(29:31):
Long Island. So they bring us to a I think
it was a Morton steakhouse. It was one of the
nice Ruth Chris. It was Ruth Chris, you know, one
of the nicer chain restaurants. And we sit down and
we have we have a meal, and I have no
idea how to order at a place like this. So
my dad orders filet mignon and I say what kind

(29:51):
of steak is I was like, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
And he's like, just order that, order whatever you want.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
He was like, you could get a t bone, you
could get a surline, you could get a you know,
a New York strip, you could get a flat. So
I and matter's where I get a file a and Buddy,
when I cut into this steak, it like sang to me.
It was like hearing music for the first time. It
was like smelling Wow. I was like, are you kidding me?
This is the way steak is supposed to taste. I

(30:18):
from that point forward, I never said it to her
directly head on, but it was the moment where I realized, like, oh,
my mom can't cook, but she.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Just she and my mom was the exact same way
I mean, you know, my mom had many talents, but
she was not a happy cook. It wasn't something was
occasionally she had some Hungarian dishes, you know, that she
could put together. I want to read this. So this
was the NFL Players Association that had a survey about
players thoughts about teams accommodations, and the Chargers got an

(30:50):
F grade for food and cafeteria. Now, Joey Bossas said this,
I'll eat here sometimes, I'm quote, I'll eat here sometimes
it may not be the best setup, but they'll prepare
you food that's plenty good. They work harder than literally
anybody in the entire facility, so they may not have

(31:12):
the best means back there, but they're freaking working their
butts off. That survey is not cool, man, How was
it exactly? I mean, how was the food? Now, you've
sampled food for three NFL franchises as a player with
the New England Patriots, the Arizona Cardinals, and the then
San Diego Chargers. Was there any difference in the food

(31:36):
on the premises?

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yeah, very much so. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
Now, granted this, my career spanned from two thousand and
nine till twenty fourteen, so a lot has changed a lot,
definitely could have changed over the course of that time.
So I'm giving you a pie slice from yester year. Yeah,
in terms of how the food services and the quality
of the food was so in New England it was

(32:02):
the best set up by far. They had a full
kitchen staff. They set out you know, chafing dishes, you
know those covered trays that you'd see, had a buffet
where you open it up and you know they have
the food items in there. They had a cold bar
for salad, for fruit, always fully stocked, and then three
meals were served a deal breakfast a day.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
And the quality of the food.

Speaker 3 (32:25):
The quality of food was good quality food. I mean
better some days, worse others. Overall, I would say it
was it was a good too great.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
At times I would say, is the standard.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
Like the average they were say they were, you know,
like a two to eighty hitter, like they were doing.
They were doing the job, you know what I mean.
They were doing the job. Now I moved on to Arizona.
I'll get back to Arizona in a second. When I
went to the Chargers, they had the most unique of
the three setups.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
So the Chargers facility in San Diego.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
Before they moved to Los Angeles, they had a basketball
court on the premises that they they didn't really love
that players were playing pickup games because they're worried about injury.
And this was the place where if they had received
money from the city government to build, they probably would

(33:21):
have built a permanent cafeteria on this area of the property,
but they never got that money, so instead they erected
a permanent catering tent.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
I kid you not. We ate in a tent every.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
Single day that they air conditioned with portable air conditioners,
and then they heated with portable heaters.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Depending on the season.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
And we were served one to two meals a day
and the food was okay to good. You know, some
days were some days better, you know. So say they
were like, you know, right at the Mendoza line in
terms of baseball, you know, they were hitting like maybe two.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
Sixty two fifty.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
Okay, it sounds like sort of high end leftovers.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
That's actually that seems like that's yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
They had an omelet bar, you know, but occasionally the
guy was you know, you know, you see me all right.
Arizona had the most interesting situation of the three of them.
So when I was with the Cardinals, they had this
little they had this little corner, and then they didn't
have enough tables to seat everybody, so most people ate

(34:31):
in front of their lockers.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
They had this little corner that almost.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
Looked like an area where in a corporate office building
it would be like where they would put a coffee
nook where they set up chafing dishes. And I kid
you not, every single day the same exact food was served.
We had eggs and machaka, which is a a like

(34:54):
a Mexican breakfast meal, and you could make burritos out
of it.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
And then for lunch it was like you.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
Know, sometimes it varied, but it was usually like sandwiches
or some sort of like faheita thing, you know, also
that you could stuff inside of burritos. It was it
was the like, by far the lowest quality and the
lowest effort of the three. And the cafeteria staff was

(35:21):
sometimes harangued by you know, players or coaches like and
I'd be.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
Like, don't don't yell at these people.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
Yeah, I mean, these people, they're they're not responsible for this.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
This is this is seeking out the Midwell family exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
So anyways, that that was my experience.

Speaker 3 (35:37):
But yeah, the glowing Yelp review that Joey Bosa gave
the Chargers. Hey, listen, I bring my own food, but
sometimes when I do eat here, it's okay, it was
not real.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
I read this.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
I'm like, you're not doing them any favors, no at
all all. Right, coming up on the other side, I
want to get to another NFL story that's sort of
emerged this week and disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared,
and I'm trying to figure out why. We'll explain. This
is Fox Sports Sunday, Steve Harvey, Rich Hornberger here, Fox

(36:12):
Sports Sunday. We are live from the Tyraq dot Com studios.
I don't know if you saw this. I'm sure you
did so. John Gruden essentially was expelled from the NFL
because of the leaking of some email exchanges he made

(36:37):
when working with ESPN to his old buddy Bruce Allen,
who was then working for the then washing Redskins, and
once these were released during the season, no less as
he's coaching the Oakland Raiders or the Vegas Raiders, I
guess they're Oakland Raiders, Vegas Raiders whatever. He was forced

(37:04):
to resign. Obviously the nature of these emails was such
that there was no way he could stay on the job.
But he suddenly realized, wow, like, not only I've had
a job, I'm like done. I've gone from the golden
boy of the NFL to completely erased. I have been canceled.

(37:27):
So he wanted to file a lawsuit because his suspicion is,
this was Roger Gadell on Roger Goodell. How else are
the Wall Street Journal in New York Times going to
get the content of these emails when they are investigating
an organization for wrongdoing. I wouldn't even a member of
the organization. I'm having some kind of private emails with

(37:48):
a buddy of mine saying some very inappropriate things, not thinking,
of course, that they would eventually get leaked. Who leaked
him and he lost his case. It just amazing to me.
And by the way, John Gruden is no angel. Believe me.
I heard plenty of stories about John Gruden over the
years and the kind of person he was, and you know,

(38:09):
his chucky persona and everything else, maybe a little different
than what's going behind the scenes. But it's just I
don't know if we've ever seen anything quite to this
extent about a prominent name, a Super Bowl winning coach,
a star and television commentator in prime time for more
than a decade get erased like John Gruden has gotten

(38:32):
a rased by the NFL.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
Well, here's the thing.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
If it was a malicious attempt to take him down
using obviously some really whoo man I look, I mean,
you know, to put it plainly, to have somebody's personal
emails be released during the time those emails were released. Also,

(39:03):
remember like our country goes through phases where race relations
bubble to the surface of the zeitgeist more so than others.
And during that time also you have to remember race
relations were at the tip of everybody's tongues.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
And look, it always is.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
It's burning in the background always and it can bubble
to the surface, but at that time it was a
surface level you know, topic point or topic of conversation.
And boy, it was just it was terrible timing for
John Gruden. And also he provided the rope to hang himself,
you know, just having words like that in writing exchanged

(39:46):
with anybody, you know, So it was it was a
disaster for him personally. It was a disaster obviously for
him professionally, and if this was malicious and this was
a takedown, there's some legal grounds for him to pursue.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Well, he tried to pursue him, and it got shot
down by the Supreme Court in the state of Nevada.
And then that's the whole point. In other words, he
was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. There
were hundreds of thousands of emails that they were investigating
to try to uncover the wrongdoings of that organization, and
the only ones that were leaked to The New York
Times and the Wall Street Journal were my private email

(40:25):
exchanges of Bruce Allen that had nothing to do with
their organization. It just seemed really really strange. All right,
Coming up on the other side, what do we make
more of what's happened around the National Basketball Association? This
look Fox Sports Sunday. We're lling along here on another
busy sports Sunday. Fox Sports Sunday broadcasting live from the

(40:46):
ti iraq dot Com studios Tyerrach dot com. We're gonna
get you there. An unmatched selection fastree shipping free road
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dot Com the way tire buying should be all right.
So we're here in the month of July rich and
one of the highlights of this month will be the

(41:07):
opening of the Olympic Games, which is coming up on
July twenty six in Paris. If you don't remember our
last Summer Games, they were delayed by a year because
of the COVID outbreak in twenty twenty. The twenty twenty
Games actually were competed in Tokyo in twenty twenty one,
so only I have a three year layoffs since our
last Summer games. Before I want to get into some

(41:29):
of this basketball news related to the Summer Games, have
you ever really been like an Olympic Games must watch person.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
Only at times?

Speaker 3 (41:43):
And I'll tell you the times where the Olympics have
really captivated me. I remember, oddly enough, my mom was
really into some of the figure skaters, so I remember
I can't remember if it was Scott Hamilton or maybe
it was Nancy Kerrigan, or you know, like when this

(42:06):
when I was real little Michael Phelps at for a
time obviously captivated all of us needed to watch that,
and then as a leftover because there was so much
interest in swimming at the Summer Games, even when Michael
Phelps was phasing out Ryan Locktey And yeah, I mean

(42:26):
at times I would say like to me, to me,
the Olympics very similar to other fringe sports. When there's
a superstar, I become interested. Like, am I a huge
UFC or Mixed Martial arts fan? No, I'm not a
huge fan. I pay attention to it. I like to
know who's you know, the stars of the game. But

(42:48):
when there's a breakout star like a Connor McGregor, when
there's a breakout star like a Ronda Rousey, it has
my interest.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
Am I a cycling fan?

Speaker 3 (42:57):
No, But when there's a breakout star and he happens
to be an American like Lance Armstrong, I'm paying attention.
So the Olympics fall into that category. To me, it's
a fringe sport that when there's a superstar, I pay attention.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
Yeah, you never know when a star is going to
emerge from the Olympic Games Women's gymnastics. Obviously, he's had
a number of stars emerge under the Olympic banner, so
it happens all the time. Now as far as Team
usay on the men's side, for basketball. No strangers here.
I mean, this is what's interesting about the makeup of

(43:33):
this year's Olympic team. A couple of things. First of all,
Steph Curry is playing in his first Olympics. You're like what,
It's like, Yeah, this is the first time that Steph
Curry will be playing in the Olympics. Lebron James and
Anthony Davis have not played on the Olympic team since

(43:57):
twenty twelve. It's like, Wow, how's that happen? Right? This
United States Olympic team. I mean, it's Devin Booker, Steph Curry,
Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Halliburton, Drew Holliday, Kevin Durant, Lebron James,
Kawhi Leonard, Jason Tatum, Anthony Davis, bam Adebayo, and Joelle Embiid. Like,

(44:17):
how you gonna beat that team?

Speaker 1 (44:18):
Right?

Speaker 2 (44:19):
By the way, it is the oldest by a good margin,
Olympic men's basketball team from the United States. Ever, it
is an older team. But I was my thought about
this because I remember the Dream Team very well. Obviously
in nineteen ninety two, that guy was already doing my
radio show, and it was such a story rich because

(44:41):
up until that time we have been so dominant in basketball.
There was a controversial, very controversial loss of the Soviet
Union in nineteen seventy two of the gold medal game.
But in eighty eight, using our college guys, we lost
and it didn't sit well. And so while the other
countries were obviously professionalizing their Olympic athletes, it was high

(45:04):
time for the United States to join the club. And
we paraded out, you know, the most legendary basketball team
of all time, and just ran over everybody. Then remember,
of course Monogenobili his country beat out our US Olympic team,
and suddenly Kobe Bryant showed him and said, okay, we
can't have that happen again, right, we can't have our

(45:26):
NBA stars lose at the Olympics. So I always but
when I'm looking at this Olympic team and I'm thinking
to myself, like if they don't win the gold medal,
and again, the internationals are very, very different. It's not
the same style of play you have in the NBA.
And the players that have been in the Olympics will acknowledge,

(45:48):
so it's a different game. But for instance, Wemby, he's
going to be in the Olympics.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
One guy that won't be is Luca. Was sort of
elimination game between Greece and you know was Serbia and
Luca's out and Giannis is in. But this is a
lose lose in a lot of ways. Like if the
United States wins the gold it's a big yawn. Of
course he win the gold medal, why wouldn't you, But
if they lose, Wow, I don't know. It just it's

(46:17):
hard for me thinking back of how the whole world
was watching that first Dream team to where we are
now with Olympic men's basketball. It just I don't know.
I am I driven to watch any of these games,
not really, but it'll be awfully big news if the
US goes down in flames. Not that I'm rooting for

(46:39):
that because I'm always pro United States, but it's almost
like they have everything to lose and almost nothing to gain.

Speaker 3 (46:46):
I'll say this, the Olympics are a tremendous marketing tool.
Oh yeah, So when when we're talking about, for example,
Lebron James, Lebron James, if there's one thing he does
better than any NBA player ever of all time, and
I know there's a lot of people who want to say,

(47:08):
you know, is it Jordan or Lebron as the best
player on the planet, and that debate, that debate can
rage on. I'm talking strictly about marketing. No player has
ever marketed himself better than Lebron James. And I think
he has a specific awareness of when there are ebb

(47:32):
times with his profile and there are flow times, And
right now his profile is ebbed a little bit. What
I mean by that is, you know, when you're not
making a deep run in the playoffs, you know, when
you're not on the court having the level of success
that people are expecting of you, all of a sudden,

(47:53):
you know, don't get me wrong, He's made plenty of headlines.
A lot of them, you know, have been more like
master puppeteer. You know, it hasn't been directly about Lebron James.
It's been more like, behind the scenes, Lebron's running the Lakers.
JJ Reddick has been getting the headlines, but as a
part of those articles, Lebron James is his podcast partner.

(48:14):
You know, his son Bronni is getting headlines as a
second round draft pick to the Lakers, and obviously who's
Bronni's dad?

Speaker 1 (48:22):
It's Lebron James.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
So he is a part of these articles. He's a
part of the zeitgeist. He's a part of the conversation,
but he's not headline material. But if he is a
member of the US Olympic men's basketball team and they
go out and do what they should do, which is
dominate the field in the international game, well then he's

(48:46):
going to headline the Olympics along with Steph Curry, along
with Anthony Davis, along with Anthony Edwards, along with This
team is stacked. It's almost impossible for them to lose.
And so I think he wanted to attach himself to
success on the basketball court again because the last two
seasons with the Lakers, one has ended in a suite

(49:07):
to Denver in the Western Conference finals and the next
was an early round bounce against the same team in
the Western Conference playoffs. So I think he wanted to
I think he wants another positive headline back in the
in the conversation for him and Team Lebron heading into.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
The next basketball season.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
I just.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
In sports like track and field, swimming, gymnastics, winning an
Olympic gold medal is the ultimate in your sport.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Oh yeah, winning.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
An Olympic gold medal in basketball is not the ultimate
for an NBA player, if it, Well, you're for a
golfer to win the Olympic gold medal as opposed to
winning a major golf championship or in tennis, winning a
gold medal or winning a Grand Slam tourna agreed, agreed,
It's it's just not And this this sort of frustrate
when I think Olympics, and I was an Olympics fanatic

(50:10):
as a kid. Uh, it's about track and field. Swimming
obviously a big part of it. I remember when Mark
Spitz broke through and won seven gold medals, seven world
records in nineteen seventy two. It's true nastics, Track and
field to me, is is the Olympics.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
Yeah, diving, swimming, track and field. That's the only you know,
throwing sports, sprinting, long races, you know, pool races, diving competition,
all that stuff that I completely agree with you. I
think the Olympics. Look again, it's a great marketing tool
and the IOC knows this as well, and so as

(50:47):
a result, the committee wants to you know, rebrand itself
every few years and try to get themselves recognition and
so what do they do.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
They roll out you know, skateboarding that's an Olympic sport now,
and they.

Speaker 3 (51:02):
Roll out breakdancing that's in Olympic sports now, you know,
they roll out football and golf like to be included.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
These sports don't belong. They don't belong.

Speaker 3 (51:15):
It's it's kind of silly, you know, Olympic wrestling that belongs,
That belongs, you know, I mean there are certain sports
that always.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
Have They're gonna have break dancing at the Olympics.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
Yeah, yeah, break dancing, break dancing.

Speaker 3 (51:27):
Yeah yeah, listen, I mean, I mean, and you know
what it'll be judge.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
You know what they eventually have to do. What's that
to get you into barbecuing? I mean, why if you're
break dancing is an Olympic sport, why would barbecuing not
be an Olympic sport? Well still, I mean, just can
you imagine the competition?

Speaker 3 (51:50):
I guess that's what more than those curlers do during
the Winter Olympics. There's no question in my mind when
I'm barbecuing, Oh dude, I mean I I so I
bring one rag out, you know, to the barbecue you
or should say, like you know, a kitchen towel to handle,
you know, wiping off utensils, things like that. One of

(52:11):
the kitchen towels is draped over my shoulder. That's just
to dab my brow because Steve, it gets hot.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
I want to see that gold medal draped around your
neck holding your flamethrower up. I mean, I just I
could just see that right there. It's like playing that.
I know you'd cry, cry many times.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
No, yeah, playing the national anthem. Well I'm on the podium.
You'd be like j and I have a barbecue sauce
stained gold medal draped around my neck.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
Forget about it.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
They might tell you, can you not bring the flame
thrower up onto the metal stand?

Speaker 1 (52:49):
And I would politely refuse. I would I mean, I'm not.
I wouldn't.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
I wouldn't cuss anybody out. I wouldn't make a scene,
but I would politely refuse.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
All right, I have an NFL story on the other side.
I'm going to get your reaction to that just seems
completely out of whack. I have like zero explanation for
what is going on right now with a well known
betting service and the upcoming season in the NFL. We'll
share it with you. This is Fox Sports Sunday, Steve

(53:20):
Harbin and Rich Harberger Here Fox Sports Sunday Live from
the tire rack dot Com studios. Just to update you.
Just because Monsey so graciously gifted me on my birthday,

(53:41):
Rich and I have an understanding that will not carry
over for the two of us. Now we'll do stuff
for her. Oh yeah, because she does stuff for us, right,
But between.

Speaker 8 (53:52):
Us, nothing changed, Nothing's changed it all.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
By the way, Happy birthday, Steve.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
Thank you very much, chieppreciate that. Matt Eberflus. Yeah, in
two years as the head coach of the Chicago Bears,
he has a record of ten and twenty four, ten
and twenty four, and according to DraftKings dot Com, he
is the favorite to do something this upcoming season. Now,

(54:21):
based on a ten and twenty four record, I would
imagine he is the favorite to lose his job at
the end of the season, right. I mean, if you're
gonna have odds on who is the most likely coach
to be shown the door either during at the end
of the twenty twenty four season, Matt Eberflus would definitely
be on that list. But that's not what he's favored

(54:45):
by DraftKings to do no. He is favored at plus
nine hundred to win NFL Coach of the Year. So
he is the betting odds favorite, according to DraftKings dot Com,
to win NFL Coach of the Year in twenty twenty four.

(55:08):
Now I see this story and I'm like, okay, I'm
I'm I'm trying to think about this for a second,
because let's make it clearer. When we talk about gambling outlets,
who's ever running them? They're very smart people, Oh yeah,
because they make a lot of money by putting out
numbers that people are gonna bite on. Right, And I'm thinking,

(55:33):
how many people are running to make a bet on
Matt Eberflus to win NFL Coach of the Year. So
let let's let's let's just think about this for a second. Right,
So you draft Caleb Williams number one overall in the draft,
and as talented as he is and as great as

(55:54):
his potential is to be an elite quarterback in this league,
he will be a rookie. And if you saw Troy
Aikman as a rookie, John Elway is a rookie, Peyton
Manning is a rookie. Pretty much go down the list
of legendary quarterbacks, Hall of Fame quarterbacks and how they
looked as a rookie betting on him to take a
team that's ten and twenty four of the next two

(56:15):
years and I don't know, win twelve games.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
Now, now you said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What happened
in Houston last year? Right? If one quarterback could do it,
another quarterback could do it. And I'm not saying it can't,
but it just seems when we talk about the Bears, who,
by the way, have not had a quarterback make the
Pro Bowl team since Jim McMahon almost forty years ago.

(56:41):
The idea that Caleb Williams and what has been a
graveyard for quarterbacks is going to be the guy to
just immediately turned this thing around and make the Bears
a playoff team. Because if the Bears do make the playoffs,
guess what, Matt Eberflus will be the NFL Coach of
the Year. I just don't see it. Am I missing
something here?

Speaker 1 (57:00):
No?

Speaker 3 (57:01):
I don't think you're I don't think you're missing anything.
I think that futures, futures are interesting bets because I
think I think sometimes futures that like sportsbooks will put
out a number, and they will they will try to
encourage people to sort of squint and make that number

(57:22):
work for them.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
And sometimes there's an.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
Un expected run on a certain candidate, you know, like
for example, I don't know what eber Flus's number was
before they drafted Caleb Williams in terms of coach of
the Year. I don't even know if those odds were
out for a future's bet like that.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
Prior to the draft.

Speaker 3 (57:45):
But on the other side of the draft, I bet
you his his stock rose because of the quality of
the college player that they drafted first overall. You know
what I mean that all of a sudden there's a
little bit more proof behind the fact that it's not
just a rumor. Caleb Williams is actually a Chicago Bear.
And so if you believe that the Chicago Bears would

(58:06):
be much better with Caleb Williams than without him, well
what does that mean? It doesn't mean they're a playoff team.
I look around that division. The Vikings just lost their
starting quarterback. They're breaking in a draft pick. Is he
a better draft pick than Caleb Williams is their starter?
Right now? Sam Darnold a better quarterback. And again this

(58:29):
is all based on opinion than Caleb Williams. How are
they going to handle the Detroit Lions? How does the
rest of the NFC stack up against them? Is Jordan
Love going to slump in what is going to feel
like his sophomore year, you know, because he had to
wait for a while behind Aaron Rodgers. You know, his
second real year as a starter will see, you know.

(58:50):
So if you think the Bears are going to have success,
then maybe eber Flus is a good pick for that.
And so futures bets can be a little bit misleading.
Is he the life as candidate to win Coach of
the Year? No, probably not, probably not. But is there
good value potentially on betting him right now to be

(59:11):
Coach of the Year at plus nine hundred? Maybe, you know,
And that might be the reason why it's a popular bet.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
Understand this any Reid has not won an NFL Coach
of the Year award as the coach of the Chiefs.
Interesting he won once with the Eagles way back in
two thousand and two, but as the coach of the Chiefs,
three time Super Bowl champion, he has never been coach
of the Year. In fact, Kevin Stefanski has been the

(59:39):
two time coach of the Year. So again, this award
is based on year to year improvement. So in order
to win this award, you have to have a really
bad team, even if it's your own doing, and then
suddenly have a leap of five, six, seven wins the
next year. That's how you win Coach of the Year.

(01:00:00):
So I'm gonna throw some of the other names out
at the top of that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
And by the way, I agree with you, like Andy
Reid for perfect example.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
And I don't know who won it in.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
Twenty thirteen, but the Chiefs were a two win team
before he signed as a head coach.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
Ron Rivera won that year for the Carolina Panthers.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
Okay, there you go.

Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
Well he in twenty thirteen, he took a two win
Chiefs game from a year ago who had Matt Cassel
as their starting quarterback to an eleven win team that
lost in the wildcard round the very next season with
Alex Smith and that was obviously the lead in or
i should say, the Bridge quarterback before they moved on

(01:00:39):
to Patrick Mahomes in the draft.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
And the rest is history. With the Kansas City Chiefs.

Speaker 3 (01:00:43):
But to that point, like if you are looking at
the Bears objectively and you trust eber Flus as a
head coach at all, and you say, all right, how
much better do you believe Caleb Williams is than Justin Fields?

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
Yeah? I mean how much better was al? All right?

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Well, let me give you some other Matt Castle, All right,
let me give me some because you do gambling shows
right here on the Fox Sports right a network. All right,
So behind Eberflues at plus nine hundred, you have Robert
Salah the Jets and Jim Harbaugh of the Chargers at
plus eleven hundred. Let's just stay with those three coaches. Okay, sure,

(01:01:21):
Iberflus with the Bears, Slad with the Jets, Harbaugh with
the Chargers. Which one of those three coaches do you
believe will have the biggest improvement in terms of wins
from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four.

Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
Now I'd have to go back and look at the records,
because I know the Chargers won five games. I'm trying
to think how.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
Many holds I'll get to it. I think they won
seven games. Let me give the exact total.

Speaker 3 (01:01:57):
Yeah, the Jets won seven right, and the Charge just
one five and the Bears won seven. So I mean
the knee jerk reaction is the Chargers right, because you
have a star quarterback who's in the prime of his career,
who has had some health concerns, none of them as

(01:02:18):
major as an achilles.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
I'm sorry. Do they have any receivers? They have no
running back, no wide receivers, and no title.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
Well they have running backs, they got in two running
backs from the Ravens, but astrians.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
They have pedestrians at just about every skill position. No
matter how good to your quarterback is, you still have
to have offensive weapons.

Speaker 3 (01:02:36):
Well, I don't disagree with that. And then they they
traded away or lost in free agency all of their
offensive weapons who contributed in a major way last year,
Austin Eckler, Mike Williams, Keenan Allen, you know, and they
really I mean, they got lad mcconklely or whatever his
name is in the draft, so we'll see if that
pans out for them. But I do agree with you
the cupboards look a little bit beare, But that's the

(01:02:58):
knee jerk reaction. The team who I think is going
to have the most improvement and be the most dangerous team. Again,
we're assuming health for star players is the New York
Jets is Robert Sala. And here's the reason why it
has nothing to do with Robert Sala. Frankly, it has
really not much to do with Matt Everfluss or Jim

(01:03:19):
Harbaugh in terms of this next season.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
Over the course of.

Speaker 3 (01:03:24):
Seasons, who do I think is going to pan out
and be the best coaching higher or the best coach
for their franchise? Most likely Jim Harbaugh because his past
precedes him. He has renovated many disastrous organizations into becoming
champions or playoff contenders, etc. Matt Eberflus has a short

(01:03:46):
tenure as a head coach in this league and it
has not gone well. Robert Sala the same. But what
Robert Sala has that neither of these two other coaches
have is a team ready to be a playoff contender
potentially read need to be a Super Bowl contender if
everything goes right. You have a dominant defense that is
a very talented defense, You do have a lot of

(01:04:09):
skill around that offense, a great supporting cast for a quarterback,
and you have one of the best quarterbacks walking the planet.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
Earth still assuming health in Aaron Rodgers. Now, if he
plays like.

Speaker 3 (01:04:20):
Aaron Rodgers should at a star level and he doesn't
get hurt, well, the Jets are the most dangerous team
in the AFC in terms of going from the bottom
to the top. I still think the Chiefs are obviously
very dangerous, the Baltimore Ravens, the Buffalo Bills, But the
New York Jets could be that out of nowhere team
that comes up and people start talking about them potentially

(01:04:42):
winning a championship.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
Assuming health, your faith in Aaron Rodgers coming back at
age forty and suddenly making the Jets a winner is
far greater than mine. I smell disaster. I smell another
aborted season by Aaron Rodgers. That is my gut feeling.
And by the way, as I say that, Jets fans
are rejoicing right now because whatever I say, the opposite

(01:05:06):
tends to happen. So Jets fans are in total glee
right now. This is that finally, Harmon is all in.
The Jets are gonna suck, and that usually means they're
going to be good. It's just amazing. These Coaches of
the Year Awards Phil Jackson eleven NBA Championships. One Coach
of the Year Vince Lombardi. One Coach of the Year.

(01:05:29):
Belichick actually won three if you want to, you know,
but he also won six titles. So anyway, Kevin Stefanski
has more Coach of the Year awards than Andy Reid. Yeah,
so that that award is a very bizarre award, to
say the least. All right, let's find out what it's
trending right now.

Speaker 1 (01:05:47):
She's star.

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
She is the number one in our hearts and our
minds every day, not just every year, every day. Monty
Belanos here, I'm with rich on the Jets.

Speaker 6 (01:05:59):
Don't you remember weeks ago we were deciding on the
over unders, who was going to underachieve overachieve? He brought
up the Jets and I said, I was like, I
think they're gonna go over And you were like, why
how he is so against Aaron Rodgers and the Jets
performing well, he just.

Speaker 1 (01:06:15):
Doesn't believe it. He's been feeling like this for weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
I wasn't sold on them a year ago. And of course,
you know it all gets thrown out with the immediate injury, right,
but even less. First of all, Robert Salah, who was
a very respected defensive coordinator is an awful head coach. Well,
we don't know it yet, because what I mean, we
don't know it. Look at his record, since you don't

(01:06:41):
know Jets, Okay, who has he made back? Well, they
have a really good defense. They're losers year after year
after year. I wouldn't sure like that. I'm not saying
look at I would hire him in a heartbeat to
be my defensive coordinator, but not as my head coach.

Speaker 3 (01:06:56):
The greatest coaches that have ever coached this game have
all had great quarterbacks. And by the way, that's there
are exceptions. There are exceptions. There there are times where coaches,
in spite of their quarterback have found ways to have
playoff success or even Super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
Also coaches that make quarterbacks. Dan Fouts with the Chargers
was a journeyman for six years until a guy named
Don Coriel showed up and made him a Hall of
Fame quarterback. There was no indication that Dan Fouts would
ever get a sniff of the Hall of Fame until
a guy named Don Coriel joined them.

Speaker 3 (01:07:31):
Well, there's no question, and I mean, by the way,
that's rock call of coach. Rock party is benefiting more
from Kyle Shanahan than vice versa.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
Let's be honest with each other.

Speaker 3 (01:07:41):
Maw Ryan benefited more from Kyle Shanahan as offensive coordinator
more than vice versa. But for the most part, great
quarterbacks helped make great coaches great. No, and so Robert Sale,
He's got a great quarterback. The question is Canny stay
healthy at age forty?

Speaker 2 (01:08:00):
All I know is no team had a bigger upgraded
quarterback from year to year than the Packers had last
year getting rid of of fading Aaron Rodgers for an
emerging Jordan Love. You talk about upgrade and look at
the numbers.

Speaker 6 (01:08:15):
Well, I think we have nine Sundays till the start
of the NFL seasons already.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
Do what.

Speaker 1 (01:08:21):
Happens?

Speaker 6 (01:08:22):
All right, let's go to Major League Baseball. Fellas another
homer for the Braves, this time it's Eli White. So
they are still blanking the Phillies six to zero bottom
of the seventh inning, Mets and Pirates scoreless, and they're
about to start.

Speaker 1 (01:08:34):
The eighth inning in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 6 (01:08:36):
The Cardinals have extended their lead over the Nationals six
to three bottom of the sixth inning. But the Nationals
do have a man on first and second and they
have all their outs left for this inning.

Speaker 2 (01:08:44):
The White Sox have added.

Speaker 6 (01:08:45):
Some more runs that are on top of the Marlins
four to one. They're about to start the seventh inning.
Detroit's Cole Keith, with an RBI single, has extended the
Tigers League oh The Tigers lead over the Reds two
to one top of the eighth inning, and the Guardians
of taking the lead over the Giants five to three.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
Start of the seventh inning.

Speaker 6 (01:09:01):
The Twins have tied the game against the Astros to
two bottom of the fifth, The Cubs one more run
over the Angels three zero, bottom of the sixth. The
Rangers now back on top of the Rays four two
bottom of the fourth inning, and the Royals are blanking
the Rockies four zero top of the third inning. In
the w NBA, the Sun beat the dream eighty to
sixty seven. Connecticut is tied for the best record in

(01:09:22):
the league with the New York Liberty at seventeen and four.
At Wimbledon, Coco Goff has officially started her fourth round match.
She is losing in her first set, four games to
three to fellow American Emma Navarro. Is it I think
it's Emma Navarro? Maybe it's not Emmenavarro. Navarro is the
last name, and I see an ean. I'm guessing it's Emma,
but it may be wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
Oh for it, we'll say.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
Right, no, no, imagine it is Emma Navarro.

Speaker 6 (01:09:49):
She is ranked our seat in nineteen in this seed
and she is up again four games to three in
the first set against Coco Golf in the round of sixteen.

Speaker 2 (01:09:57):
Back to you guys, all right, well Montsi, thanks, thank
you very much, very very very much. By the way,
coming up in our next hour top of the hour,
Klay Thompson's dad, Michael Thompson, my former broadcast partner, longtime
a radio announcer for the Lakers, will be joining us,
and then John Paul Morosi will also be joining us

(01:10:18):
in the next hour. So very busy hour coming up.
I was getting back to the Lebron James situation here,
so they're now announcing because we heard that he got
a two year max deal, second year being a player option.
But now it's coming out that he did exactly take

(01:10:38):
the full max, that he left two point seven million
on the table. I started laugh at this, right, So
instead of one hundred and four million, he took one
hundred and one point three to five million. Jeez, I
don't know. I mean you talked about I mean, what
do I mean? How do you explain that to the wife?

(01:11:00):
I mean seriously, how do you go home and you're
like you did?

Speaker 3 (01:11:02):
What?

Speaker 1 (01:11:03):
How?

Speaker 3 (01:11:03):
I mean, like we got these fancy salt shakers? Are
we going to be able to avoid afford the salt?

Speaker 1 (01:11:09):
That's you?

Speaker 2 (01:11:09):
You left two point six y five million on the
table that could have been in our pockets and settled
for only one hundred and one point three to five million.
I mean, what the hell are you thinking?

Speaker 9 (01:11:25):
Do you guys know how hard that was for Lebron
to do? Probably I can't. He has he has a
free Spotify account, he doesn't pay for Spotify premium. That's yeah,
Leaven three million dollars on the table. That's a lot
of money.

Speaker 1 (01:11:35):
Can you imagine every three songs he has to listen
to an ad?

Speaker 2 (01:11:39):
I mean, I mean, when you have, when you have
the kind of wealth that Lebron has. I always try
to try to put this kind of money situation in perspective.
You know, my and my dad's later years, it was
really hard for him. He was he wasn't a sports
fanatic like his son, but you know he followed sports.
The money situation just got to him. I mean he

(01:12:00):
was a depression baby. This is a man that I
wish I had one one hundredth of the aptitude he
had in terms of handling money. It's crazy how he
was able to accumulate money and you know, save money.
And he was a genius, I mean flat out genius.

(01:12:22):
But if you're if you're Lebron James and you find
an extra three million dollars sitting around, what do you do? Like, oh,
like you've reached it in your pocket, like, oh three
million dollars? Like okay, okay, what do I do with this?
If you had an extra three mil just to sort

(01:12:43):
of you know, like money you just didn't count, what
do you do with it? If your guy like Lebron James, Well,
here's the thing. Do you throw it back in the coffee,
you say, let's let's go out for a nice weekend,
or I don't know what to do.

Speaker 3 (01:12:54):
Here's the thing when when you're making more money than
you can spend.

Speaker 2 (01:13:00):
Well, don't say that because we've seen people with more
wealth than this blow through all their money.

Speaker 3 (01:13:04):
So no question, Yeah, no question but Lebron James, on
top of these contracts, has earned so much money in endorsement.
So unless he is literally I mean pouring money out
onto the street and setting it on fire, it's going
to be hard to burn through all this cash when
we're talking about two or three million dollars in terms

(01:13:26):
of leaving those crumbs comparatively.

Speaker 1 (01:13:29):
On the table to his net worth.

Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
This this was done of out of exactly what we're
reading right now, which is a public relations ploy. It is,
it is so scripted, it is so easy to see through.
It's so again it lacks any sort of authenticity, like

(01:13:54):
this idea that Lebron James really cares not to take
that two million dollars to improve the Lakers. I mean,
is that the insinuation is the thought process. He left
that money on the table so the Lakers could go
chase down somebody, all right, needs that two million dollars
more than he does.

Speaker 2 (01:14:13):
I'll actually explain this. This is how complicated things are
when you talk about the cap in the NBA.

Speaker 1 (01:14:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:14:19):
So apparently this decision by Lebron James has allowed the
Lakers to avoid having their twenty thirty two first round
pick to be frozen from being included in a trade
next summer. Okay, now think about this for a second.
Like this, So, in other words, by by conceding this

(01:14:42):
two point sixty five million dollars, this now allows the
Lakers to trade their twenty thirty two first round pick
in a trade next summer. Got it got, That's what
it did.

Speaker 9 (01:14:57):
And it also gives them access to the tax payer mid
level exception, I think, and it loosens up some of
the restrictions on trades they can make.

Speaker 1 (01:15:05):
This makes a lot more sense. Yeah, I people listen,
I I don't you know?

Speaker 2 (01:15:10):
By the way, would you be interested in the lakers
twenty thirty two first round pick?

Speaker 9 (01:15:13):
Yeah? Why not?

Speaker 2 (01:15:15):
Do you think that's the top two? You think that's
a lottery pick? It could be Lakers in twenty thirty two?

Speaker 9 (01:15:20):
Probably is.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
I mean a deal be.

Speaker 9 (01:15:21):
Gone by that, I think. I think this free agency.
People are starting to realize how awful the new CBA
is with these first and second aprons. It's like, this
is bad. Has has anyone looked at what's going on
with the Phoenix Suns?

Speaker 1 (01:15:31):
Oh? I know?

Speaker 9 (01:15:32):
Yeah, they can't do anything. The Celtics are going to
be in that it's so funny that the Celtics are
they going to create their own mess. The Celtics won
a title, paid everybody a bajillion dollars, and the owners
are like, yeah, we're not gonna deal with that. We're
gonna sell the team.

Speaker 1 (01:15:44):
Bye.

Speaker 2 (01:15:45):
Phoenix Suns won sixty four games the year after they
were in the NBA Finals with Devin Booker and a
lot of role players. Then they decided we need Kevin
Durant and then for some reason, we need Bradley Beal.
Oh jeez, some of these people get paid a lot
of money to make some really bad decisions. All right,
coming up on the other side, we'll get back to
some NFL news. We can't be that far away from

(01:16:07):
the NFL right weeks away, to be exact. This is
Fox Sports Sunday, Steve hartin Rich Rnberger Fox Sports Sunday
Live from the tai Iraq dot Com Studios. I did
not get my invitation. Maybe you did and and didn't
tell me about it. Did you get your invite to
Michael Rubins Hampton's White Party, which is known as the

(01:16:29):
number one fourth of July Bash? Did you actually get
that invitation?

Speaker 3 (01:16:32):
No, I didn't and this is the second year in
a row.

Speaker 1 (01:16:37):
Yeah, and every year that preceded those years.

Speaker 3 (01:16:42):
You know what was interesting about the invitations was they
were hand painted by an artist who apparently has sold
paintings for like millions and millions of dollars in the past.
Like like, So, not only are you invited to one
of the most exclusive parties in one of the most

(01:17:03):
exclusive areas on the planet, but also you're giving a
piece of artwork as your invitation.

Speaker 2 (01:17:11):
It's unbelievable. Well, maybe next year. One guy that did
get an invite and showed him in his full fashion
glory with Joe Burrow. Oh yeah, ah had Joe Burrow
was out there, by the way, He was also at
the Paris Fashion Week before that, so he's he's been
hanging out showing off his fashion and everything else. And
actually when I saw the picture, there was a picture

(01:17:33):
with him and Libby Dunn. Although we found out yesterday
Moncey and I because I was thinking, now, I know,
she's with you know, the hottest picture in baseball right now,
Paul Peiness. But apparently the report is Joe Burrow and
his significant other broke up. Oh, so that was interesting.

(01:17:55):
Tom Brady was there. I mean just about everybody was
there except for you and me and next year. But
my first thought when I saw this picture was, oh,
that's right Joe Burrow. I remember him. A couple of
years ago. He was the hottest thing in the NFL.
Led the Bengals to a road victory in the ANFC
Championship Game over Patrick Mahome and the Chiefs got to

(01:18:18):
the Super Bowl against the Rams. And then last year happened.
He wasn't healthy to start the season, and then the
season ended quickly and the Bengals fell back into their
usual spot, which is complete Nowheresville. What is your gut

(01:18:39):
feeling about Joe Burrow for the upcoming season. I mean,
by all accounts, he seems to be healthy. He has
said that, Look, I know I can play this game,
and I know I'll be successful on him on the field.
By the way, his buddy Jamar Chase was also at
the white party. But what is your gut feeling are
we going to cause a couple of years ago, we

(01:18:59):
were talking about Joe Burrow as a you know, one
of those generational talents like this, this guy's got it all,
He's got the game, he's got the charisma. He is
a star. Do you still kind of have that kind
of projection for the career Joe Burrow?

Speaker 1 (01:19:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do.

Speaker 3 (01:19:18):
I think he is a uniquely talented human being. I
think he has the skill set that will help him
play this game for a long time and he will
elevate a roster.

Speaker 1 (01:19:31):
He has that type of talent. The problem with Joe
Burrow is.

Speaker 3 (01:19:35):
Well a his health, which he's been injured too often
to really exploit that talent. And then the other problem
is the organization he plays for. Look for as good
as Philip Rivers was, he was playing for an organization
in the then San Diego Chargers who got into contract
disputes with players every single time a big payday was

(01:19:59):
coming up.

Speaker 2 (01:20:00):
Bengals are the same way, and.

Speaker 3 (01:20:01):
The Bengals are the same way. You saw it, I
mean the it already happened with Jamar Chase.

Speaker 2 (01:20:07):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (01:20:07):
It's going to be.

Speaker 3 (01:20:08):
The future, and it could be a potentially bleak future
for Joe Burrow if he stays in Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (01:20:14):
I'm in lockstep with you. That's exactly the point I
was gonna make. Sometimes you're just on organizations that are
not gonna go the extra mile to help you win.
Chiefs are doing that for Patrick Mahomes. The Bengals will
not do that for Joe Burrow. He's gonna win it.
He's gonna be have to do it on his own.

(01:20:36):
What happened to Klay Thompson? Why isn't he a Laker?
While asks his dad Michael coming up, this is Fox
Sports Sunday, Oh, having all the fun in the world
here once again on a beautiful sports Sunday, Fox Sports Sunday.
We're broadcasting live from the tire rag dot com studios
tire rack dot com. We're gonna help get you there
and on matched selection, fast, free shipping, free road as

(01:20:57):
a protection over ten thousand recommended ins tire rag dot
com the way tire buying should be well. Join us
right now is someone that I have known for more
than twenty years. We did a radio show together, fabulously
successful for about five years before we were unceremoniously broken up.

(01:21:22):
By the way, in the history of the Lakers organization,
only one man, the legendary Hall of Famer Chick Hern,
has been a member of the radio broadcast and the
team longer than this gentleman. That's how long he's been
doing it, and he's had an eyewitness to what has
been an interesting odyssey. Who are the once proud Laker franchise?

(01:21:47):
He is again the great Michael Thompson. Michael, how are
you today?

Speaker 10 (01:21:51):
Oh? I got a correct? You forgot the legendary student
Lands who's been there longer than me.

Speaker 2 (01:21:56):
But not on the radio.

Speaker 1 (01:22:00):
On the radio, But.

Speaker 2 (01:22:06):
Yeah, Stu lance Is he's he's mister television these days. Well, Michael,
you and I a week ago, as Rich and I
were getting ready for to start our show, I was
texting you and asking you right at the top of
our show, how does it look with Clay a good
chance he's going to be a Laker? And your attitude was, yeah, looking,
it's looking pretty good, Like you know, seems like all

(01:22:28):
the pieces are falling into place. And then the very
next day, of course, it was announced that Clay had
signed with the Dallas Mavericks. I texted you and said
that apparently your four time NBA champion son knows a
loser when he sees one. You were not happy about that. So,
now that you've had a chance to talk about this
and sort of try to figure it out, just let's

(01:22:50):
leave out the fact that you know Clay's your son.
Just observing a star of Clay's caliber, his origins and
his chance to join an organization that as a young
man he loved, spearheaded by his all time idle Kobe Bryant.
What happened here? Why is it that Klay Thompson is

(01:23:13):
not a Laker?

Speaker 10 (01:23:15):
Well, he had he had two great choices there. Obviously,
he Mavericks had a success last year getting to the finals,
and when he appealed to him, Lucas are very young
and building. Superstar Kyrie is still in his crime. They
has a good depth on that team. They got some
big guys from the player on the rim, and he
just put in all the factors and saw that the

(01:23:36):
plays game fits in in all the teams in the league.
Catch and shoots now the three, and that's what everybody
looks for now. So he style would fit and either
here or in Dallas. But he was looking He says
he's looking forward to a change of scenery, going to
Texas house to stay in California. So he seems to
be happy with it. Chance to get back to the

(01:23:57):
finals in the coming years, So they can't.

Speaker 3 (01:24:03):
Michael, that's looking forward looking back. Is there any hard
feelings with how things happened with the Warriors?

Speaker 10 (01:24:13):
No, the only the only regrets about it.

Speaker 2 (01:24:21):
Hang on a second, Michael, we're having a little audio problems.
Let's do reconnect with Michael if we could here. Obviously
I want to hear what Michael has to say. Just
hang on, Michael, We're gonna reset with you right there.
You know, just my own personal thought. I'll interject it
before we get Michael back on. There's there's a number
of reasons I think why, uh, Clay decided that maybe

(01:24:43):
Dallas was a better fit. But I mean again, I'm
gonna throw something at Michael here in a second. Let's
see if we get Michael back here as bo is
talking to him, make sure he's got a better connection,
because I don't want to lose him here.

Speaker 3 (01:24:56):
One of one of the most fascinating things about this
story is Clay I think handled the departure from Golden
State extremely well, the heartfelt note that he posted to
social media saying goodbye to the fan base. But I
have to imagine even moving on potentially to a better

(01:25:16):
situation for Clay, potential legacy boosting move to the Mavericks.
There still has to be a little bit of a
tug at the heartstrings because essentially the Warriors wanted Steph
and didn't want Clay. You know, if we're gonna do now,
there's a variety of factors.

Speaker 1 (01:25:37):
But that's what this boils down to.

Speaker 3 (01:25:40):
And I'm curious, like you know, if there's moments where
he considers what transpired last season or during negotiations where
that does rub him the wrong way.

Speaker 2 (01:25:52):
Well, it was an interesting end of his season. Obviously,
their last game where they got eliminated. He had no points.
He missed every shot in that game. So we're not
we're having a hard time with Michael. Okay, so what's
going on here?

Speaker 1 (01:26:07):
But we are.

Speaker 9 (01:26:08):
We are working to get Michael.

Speaker 2 (01:26:10):
Back, Okay, because I know John Paul Morose is going
to be joining us, so we might be able to
move Michael later in the hour if it's possible. Yes, Okay,
So I do want to do a reconnect. By the way,
I do have one theory about this. So Michael Thompson
won two championships as a player for the Lakers. And

(01:26:31):
if you don't know this, uh, the announcers for teams
are employed by the teams, right, So whether it's a
it's an analyst. I mean you're employed by San Diego State, right,
I mean, of course, yeah, so they hire you as
an analyst for their football team. And Michael has earned
three more championship rings as an announcer, so they won

(01:26:55):
championships at nine to twenty ten and of course the
Bubble Championship in twenty twenty. So if Clay were to
join the Lakers and the Lakers win the championship, his
father would still have one more ring than him. I mean,
think about that. So Michael has five rings. Two is

(01:27:18):
a player, three is an announcer. Clay has four rings
as a player, or we're on the same team, his
dad will always have one more ring. Right, But if
Clay goes elsewhere and wins a ring, guess what he
catches dad?

Speaker 1 (01:27:31):
Well, so that might have been a part of the calculus.

Speaker 2 (01:27:33):
I was thinking about this, and I'm thinking that might
be part of it. I forget, you know, forget the
fact that I want to win. We got him, all right, Michael.
I want to throw something out at you right now,
because Rich and I were just talking about this. So
one of my theories on why Clay decided not to

(01:27:53):
join the Laker organization. Is that you his father has
one more championship ring than he. If two is a player,
three isn't an announcer, he has four as a player.
If you both were to be with the Lakers and
win a championship, you're still one ahead of him. He
wants to catch you and pass you. He doesn't want
to always be one behind dad. That's my theory.

Speaker 10 (01:28:15):
You know, that's a great theory. I never thought of that,
So that's now it makes sense. So it makes complete sense.
Every you know, once every twenty years hard when you
make sense.

Speaker 2 (01:28:22):
Yes, doesn't that make sense? He's like, wait a second, Dad, No, no, no, no, no,
everyone thinks, well, he wants to win one more ring
than you know, Steph and Draymond. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.
He wants to win more rings than anyone in the
Thompson family and he works in the same organization as
a dad. He can ever catch you?

Speaker 10 (01:28:42):
Now, well, no, he can never catch it because I
really have nine rings. I've got two of the players,
three an four of the dad.

Speaker 4 (01:28:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:28:50):
By the way, you know, you tell me what, yeah,
that every twenty years thing. I mean, it just happened
with Michael as well. I mean, that's unbelievable. You know,
I wanted to get back to the question I asked you,
Michael before we lost connection, because I think a lot
of fans of Clay would like to hear. And there
are a tremendous number of Klay Thompson fans, not just

(01:29:10):
in the Golden State Bay area, but also in the
LA area as well and across the country because NBA Superstars,
they have fans in every city. And the Splash Brothers
was such a thing, and the dominance of the Golden
State Warriors dynasty was such a thing, and.

Speaker 1 (01:29:28):
Clay had so much to do with it.

Speaker 3 (01:29:30):
It really does feel like, unfortunately for Clay, the day
Warriors chose Steph and they didn't chose Klay Thompson. And
I read his heartfelt letter to the fan base, and
I thought it was beautifully written, very much so in
his voice. You know, sometimes you see these goodbyes and
they're very plain and clearly they're just public relations stunts.

(01:29:53):
This one very much so felt like Clay meant every
word of it, and it definitely felt like he wrote
it and and so I think he handled everything with class.
But is there any animus. Is there any hard feelings
at all leaving Golden State, even though he's moving on
to what looks like a great opportunity in Dallas.

Speaker 10 (01:30:14):
No, you can't have any hard feelings. Sure, it would
have been nice for those guys to play it out
together and go out together, Draymond Clay and Steph, but
he's had so many blessings and so many great times
playing for the Warriors and living in the Bay. So
there's nothing one of the little thing to be bitter
about or have any kind of animosity about. Just be
thankful for the thirteen years you had to day he

(01:30:34):
was able to come back from two devastating injuries and
win another championship, So there is nothing to be bitter about,
and just look forward to the future and be thankful
for what they accomplished in Golden State.

Speaker 2 (01:30:45):
So, Michael, I have a theory about why it's been
so difficult for the Lakers to land players, because again,
when we talk about state taxes, when you're making that
kind of money, you're standing at thirteen percent state tax
in a state like Texas. Zero even if the numbers
look similar, Clay will make a lot more money in
his pocket playing for the Mavericks than he would for

(01:31:07):
the Lakers. But that aside with Lebron James, with Anthony
Davis both coming off all NBA seasons, a forty seven
win team with Ruey and Austin and you know, some
pieces in place, and with d Lo coming back. Are
you surprised it's been so difficult for the Lakers to
acquire talent to bolster this roster.

Speaker 10 (01:31:30):
No, not really, not really. They've got Anthony Davis. That's
about a talent is you can get. He's the third
best center in the game. Obviously, D'Angelo Russell's a solid player.
Obviously they drafted well when they selected Austin Reeves. Oh
what's not he wasn't even drafted. I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (01:31:45):
Now.

Speaker 10 (01:31:46):
I mean, it's tough to get a plus free agents
now because the salary caps make us so difficult to
go out and sign a play who was worth forty
or fifteen million dollars. So, no, the Lakers was still
a destination franchise, a destination city. So when Lebron leaves eventually,
they'll be able to attract big time free agency game
to take his place.

Speaker 3 (01:32:05):
How did you feel about the selection of Bronnie James
with the second pick the Lakers had.

Speaker 10 (01:32:09):
I love it, man, is a great storyline. Just think
now Steve Hart is actually going to pay attention to
the preseason to see how Bronnie James is playing. He
basically is going to bring the kind of attention that
Caitlyn Clark's brought to the WNBA and curiosity. People want
to see what he's like seeing him on the court
with his dad warming up or in the game with
his dad. So plus, he's a solid player. Yeah, he's

(01:32:30):
got some growing to do, but he doesn't as a
second round pick. He reminds me of Gary Payton the
second the way he plays the game. He's athletic and
he can jump and get up and down the floor.
So I love the fact that the Lakers are going
to give him a shot of his NBA dream.

Speaker 2 (01:32:44):
Yeah. Unfortunately, there were guys on the court that were
on the court with him last night that will never
get a shot of playing with the Lakers that are
much better players because their last name is in James.
Call it for what it is. I understand it's a
chance to make history. We've seen a lot of sons
of legendary players playing the NBA but never obviously at
the same time and much less on the same team.
It's a publicity stunt. Look. I had a friend that

(01:33:07):
was the announcer for Sierra Canyon a couple of years ago.
I asked him about Bronnie James. He says, look at
Bessie's the fourth plus player in the team. He averaged
eight points a game as a junior. I mean the
numbers don't I mean, I watched the game yesterday. Did
you watch this game yesterday?

Speaker 10 (01:33:21):
Yeah, I watched it yesterday. He looked, Okay, okay.

Speaker 1 (01:33:24):
Two for nine. What did he do? Well?

Speaker 10 (01:33:27):
Well, he expect him to come on and go nine
for nine. I mean, get a chance, give him.

Speaker 2 (01:33:31):
A chance to Well, what about the guys that were
actually playing well, how about giving them a chance? Why
won't they get an opportunity to emerge from the summer
league and get a chance to play for the big team.

Speaker 10 (01:33:41):
Well they will. A lot of these guys you see
on the summ League tam are going to play for
the G League team and then you can work your
way from their hartan.

Speaker 2 (01:33:47):
Okay, Well that would be what I would. I would
bury Brownie on the G League for as long as
it takes for him to get up to the NBA level.
That's what I want.

Speaker 10 (01:33:55):
No nobody wants to see him and Elsa Gunda.

Speaker 2 (01:33:58):
We want to see him.

Speaker 10 (01:33:59):
At Crypto dot com, I'm catching the preseason playing with
his father on the floor. Come on, you know, you
know you're gonna be watching.

Speaker 2 (01:34:07):
See what happens with me and Michael Rich. I mean,
it's just you know, friends, It's unbelievable. It's really unbelievable. Well, Michael,
thanks for joining us. I wish we had had a
clear audio a little bit earlier. Look, I'm rooting for
Brownie James. I'm rooting for the Lakers. You know, I
am a Lakers fan, but I have a lot of

(01:34:28):
concerns because this is a roster that won forty seven
games with Lebron and Ad healthy last year and a
first round exit in the playoffs. For me to think
they'd have the same cast back and get the same
results next season just seems wishful.

Speaker 10 (01:34:44):
Boy, with fans like you, Lakers will need me haters.

Speaker 2 (01:34:48):
Oh, come on, by the way, this is a guy
that I've been when Kobe's last years and the Lakers
had losing seasons. Kept telling me every year if they're
gonna have a winning season. So uh, Michael, love you man,
Thank you so much, and all my best of the
entire Thompson family.

Speaker 10 (01:35:02):
That's right. If you will want of disciples, you know
you'd be camless. You always doubting.

Speaker 2 (01:35:06):
By the way, I know Clay loves me. I know
trece Lesmian. I know your family loves me, even if
you have trepidations exactly.

Speaker 10 (01:35:13):
Yeah. I try to convince them to hate you, but
they they still like you.

Speaker 2 (01:35:16):
Thank you very much, Michael. Great stuff is always thank
you there. He is the great Michael Thompson. The Thompson
family is an amazing family. And as you know, I
don't know his oldest son Michael as well, but I
certainly know Clay and a Trace and they're just super
young man. It's a great, great family. But Michael is
one of those guys. When he became my partner, his

(01:35:36):
former Laker teammates said, you have no idea what you
just sign on for. He's so annoying. He is annoying. Hi,
a guy that is far from annoying, very informative. Our
dear friend John Paul Morosi, our Fox Sports Radio MLB insider,
will join US. This is Fox Sports Sunday. Steve Hartman
and Rich Roberger. Here Fox Sports Sunday. We are live

(01:35:58):
from the tai Iraq dot Com student is Let's switch gears.
Johnny is right now. Is our esteemed Fox Sports Radio
MLB insider, the one, the only John Paul Morosese, JP,
Hope you had a great Fourth of July holiday weekend.
I want to get right to this. I'm a stats

(01:36:18):
guy that's well chronicled, and every once in a while
I see an anomaly with statistics that need to be explaining.
Maybe you can do that for me right now, let's go.
The Seattle Mariners today have a team batting average of
two sixteen. That is, their team batting average to sixteen,

(01:36:45):
dead last in the major leagues, and they're sitting in
first place in the Ale West. How's that happened?

Speaker 7 (01:36:56):
Their pitching is that good? The division thus far has
been that mediocre, although the Astros are beginning to change
that narrative with how they've played over the last month.
Their run production in terms of timely situations has been
better than you would expect. I looked this up the

(01:37:17):
other day. Cal Roley could be the very rare and
I'm not even sure how many people in the history
of the game have done this who have driven in
one hundred runs in the season with a batting average
below two hundred. Again, I'll repeat that, a sub two
hundred batting average with one hundred RBI, it's not necessarily

(01:37:41):
likely to happen. I tend to think that if he
gets two hundred RBI by the end of the season,
his batting average will move up above two hundred. But
his first half of the year has basically been one
ninety seven ninety eight with about fifty RBI, So that's
mathematically we're in that in that ballpark. So Julio Rodriguez

(01:38:02):
is that a four starts the season, But some of
their other complimentary players, Dylan Moore among them, have actually
been pretty good. Dominic can Zone when healthy, has been
pretty good. So it's been a very confusing lineup. I
think the premise of your question, though, is very fair,

(01:38:22):
and I would answer it in one of two ways.
If they continue to bat in the low two hundreds
over the big one sixty two, Houston is going to
catch them, because Houston's offense is trending in a better direction.
If Seattle wants to still be in first place when
the season is over, that average is going to have
to come up or else simply. Really, the one team

(01:38:45):
that I think has a good chance to catch them
is Houston because Texas has had a poor first half.
The Angels look like sellers again. Oakland, as we know,
isn't also ran in this division, getting ready to go
to Sacramento eventually and then to Las Vegas. So I
really think the division has allowed this to be true.

(01:39:07):
But I don't think, guys, that it's going to be
true for six months.

Speaker 3 (01:39:11):
What is going on with the Yankees? They started the
season so promising. Obviously they made some offseason acquisitions want Soto,
Alex Verdugo. But these past twenty games or so have
just been terrible. They got the win win was it
was it today or yesterday over the Red Sox?

Speaker 7 (01:39:30):
Yesterday the highest scoring game with Ben Rice three home runs.

Speaker 3 (01:39:34):
There you go, Yeah, fourteen to four victory over the
Red Sox. But that's after as of Friday being five
and fifteen over the last twenty games. I mean, just
really struggling. What's up with the Yankees? Why are they slumping?

Speaker 10 (01:39:50):
Well?

Speaker 7 (01:39:51):
I think a couple reasons. Number one up until yesterday,
where maybe it now looks like Ben Rice is going
to be their answer at first base. They were missing
the level of production that they used to get from
Anthony Rizzo. Rizzo was on the il over the long term,
as is John Carlos Stanton. Stanton did have a solid

(01:40:11):
start to the year, but the Stanton injury and the
Rizzo injury happened right around the same time. Cleyber Torres
has been by and large a disappointment this year. DJ
Lemayhew has never really gotten all the way back from
his foot issues. He's batting under two hundred. The catching position,
they've not gotten a ton of offense out of either,
and so when you line up all of those elements,

(01:40:34):
they need Soto and Judge to be MVPs or else.
The rest of the lineup is simply not going to
be able to be productive enough for them to win
games consistently. And it seems like finally it caught up
with them a little bit that they didn't have Garrett
Cole until recently. Louis Heel came out at the beginning
of the year and was one of the best pitchers

(01:40:55):
in baseball for the first two months, been less so
the case over the last month, so their bullpen is
still really good, but from where I sit, they probably
need at least one starter, maybe one leverage reliever, and
then probably a bat if they really want to win
the World Series. They might be able to still hold

(01:41:16):
on and win the division with the current cast, but
I don't see enough depth to get all the way
through the playoffs with this particular roster. They need some
more improvements. Now Baltimore. I think they're going to get
even better in the second half, and that's because Baltimore
has more prospect capital to move to upgrade their team

(01:41:39):
at the deadline, which is now coming up. Goodness, my friends,
just three weeks from Tuesday, so it's going to be
a very busy month ahead. Of course, we got the
All Star Game a week from Tuesday, a lot of
really great storylines happening. But I do tend to think
that with the Yankees, it's been too dependent on a
couple players in that lineup, and then when you face

(01:42:01):
really good pitchers or just credible, smart major league pitchers
that game plan well, they're basically just gonna say, listen,
if you're a lefty, we're not gonna let judge beat you.
If you're writing, we're not gonna let Soto beat you.
We're gonna pitch carefully to the other guy, and then
we're gonna challenge Faulty or Ben Rice or a slumping

(01:42:23):
labor Torres that they're gonna have to find ways to
beat us. And I think over the last month the
opposition has been more successful in in navigating those two
massive offensive threats in the middle of the lineup, because
if you can do that, you've got a much better
chance than usual to beat the Yankees All star lineups.

Speaker 2 (01:42:43):
Obviously starting lineups were announced. I was excited for Jerks
and Profar because fall in with the podrais yet story.

Speaker 1 (01:42:50):
What I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:42:51):
I mean, this one guy at one time was being
talked about as a potential perennial All Star very early
in his career, and then it's to go sideways. Padres
decided to keep him as a utility guy. But the
guy I want to talk about is Stephen Kwan. So
this guy has been a glove guy, you know, two
years in the majors with the Guardians, a couple of

(01:43:13):
gold gloves, you know, like about a two seventy hitter,
nothing special, no real power, and all of a sudden,
the guy's hitting three to sixty five and he's had
a two hundred and fifty three point rise in his ops.
What the heck is he eating? Well?

Speaker 11 (01:43:28):
He is one of the smartest players in the game,
really smart, and has talked a lot about what he's
learned with mental health and how to allow himself through
meditation and just to really taken care of his emotional
health to be able to be his best.

Speaker 1 (01:43:45):
On the field.

Speaker 7 (01:43:45):
That's been one key thing. The other piece is he's
been able to add more power, and so if you
look at his power numbers, he's already basically a surpassed
the home run total from last year in the first
three months of the season. So I think he's getting stronger.
He's built thing up a really solid base now of
major league at bats to where when you've got someone
who's as smart as kwan Is and he's he's played chess,

(01:44:08):
he's actually that's one of the things he's actually done
to help engage with young people in Cleveland is to
play chess with them and against them, really using his mind.
So he's a true student of the game. And I
think that he just has such great knowledge of his
balanced body awareness swings that he's become an extraordinary player

(01:44:30):
in a great force. Came from a great college program
in Oregon State, so he had a lot of high
level baseball even before he signed professionally. And I just think, guys,
it's just for me, Steve. It just it speaks to
the the the wonder of baseball that the same outfield
at the All Star Game will have Aaron Judge and

(01:44:52):
Stephen Kwan. Aaron Judge, who obviously is one of the
most imposing people you'll ever meet in life, just to
sheer physical strength and athleticism, and then Stephen Kwan, who
just has a very different body presence and athleticism, but
they're both extraordinary baseball players in their own way. And

(01:45:14):
as someone who loves the game and wants to always
draw attention to the diversity of it. Yes, it's a
diversity of country of origin and your personal and cultural traditions,
all those things, but just the diversity of body types
and who is able to thrive in this game, I
just think is something that as a parent and as

(01:45:35):
someone who's coached youth sports, I just love being able
to share that with young people that hey no matter
how you view yourself and who you are, there's a
place for you in this game. And I really think
that having Stephen Kwan on the field starting for the
American League on Tuesday is going to represent something very
powerful for a lot of families.

Speaker 1 (01:45:53):
Across the world, no question about it.

Speaker 3 (01:45:56):
Yeah, that diversity of you know, body types. It's really
one of the few sports where a Jose Altuve could
stand on second next to you know, I mean Fernando
Tatis Junior for example, he used to play shortstop before
he was moved to outfield, who towered over him in
the infield, and they can both be successful players in

(01:46:17):
this league. It's amazing speaking of you know, a foreign
born player who's had success playing in Major League Baseball,
Shoheo Tani just dhing this year due to the elbow injury,
still recovering from. Seems like he snapped the slump he
was in yesterday two for two to two RBI day,
But that doesn't tell the whole story when you look

(01:46:37):
at the five played appearances. He was hit by a pitch,
he stole a base hit, a home run, tripled, he
had two walks, so he really he worked for it
in a five to three victory for the Dodgers. One
of the storylines that has kind of gone away, and
I'm curious your thoughts is this fact that his interpreter
got into all this trouble and shoe hey Otani. There

(01:47:01):
was speculation of his involvement for a time because obviously
the facts were still being sorted out earlier in the season,
major League Baseball having their investigation, a federal investigation occurring
alongside of all of that, and Mitch o'harror facing a
penalty obviously legally for his actions. Shoe he Otani has

(01:47:22):
been able to completely compartmentalize all of that and play
at an all star level, potentially an MVP level.

Speaker 1 (01:47:30):
How on earth has he been able to do this?

Speaker 4 (01:47:33):
Well?

Speaker 7 (01:47:34):
I think it's a great question, Rich and it's something
that I think when we go back to how this
regular season began, and this was the dominant story in
American sports for a period of time, and I do
think that and Dave Roberts shared this with us. We
were there for the opening day, the domestic opening day,
and then actually the beginning of a series against the Giants,

(01:47:55):
and during those conversations, Dave Roberts told our MLB Network
broadcast crew. So this is when that story was first
very hot and very fresh. He said, I've never quite
seen someone compartmentalize as well as Otani has, And that
was from his manager being very president and right there
in those conversations and observing it up close. I think

(01:48:17):
that too, from talking to people around the Dodgers, especially
at that time, it did seem as though maybe that
that Misuhara himself had created a bit of a barrier
between Otani and his teammates and Otani and the organization,
and that once obviously he was dismissed and a new interpreter,

(01:48:39):
Will Ireton, who has been a part of the organization
for a long time, was brought in, that Otani seemed
to be more approachable to his peers and the organization
and just got to be a bit more comfortable. And
so I guess that in that context, rich to the
extent that and you know this from a standpoint of
being in a professional being in the locker rooms, that

(01:49:02):
maybe it took that ability to be closer to his teammates,
and certainly the way in which it happened was not
something to anybody envision and certainly it's very sad that
he had to go through it, but the relationships being
stronger and more authentic with his teammates has been an
undeniable positive for him. And it seems to me that,

(01:49:24):
however tumultuous that period of time was, the end result
from his individual experience is that he has a new
interpreter who is much more in tune with everybody else
around him, and I think it's resulted in better teammate
relationships for him, and that I think is really important

(01:49:45):
and Shoey deserves an immense amount of credit for that.
It's certainly assigned the largest contract in the history of
North American pro sports, and then that's the way your
first season begins. It was again after Game one, I
was there and Seul when it all happened, it was
it was surreal. But I think now you've got to
credit him for the way that he's handled things, and
it's been a remarkable first half. He's leading the National

(01:50:07):
League in OPS and I think it shows by the
way he's leading the NL and OPS at a time
when the other part of his full time job is
to rehab his arm and get it ready for next season.
So it's just remarkable what he's been able to do.
And let's not forget too that the last number of
weeks they've been without Mookie Betts and so you're without

(01:50:29):
one of the other MVP front runners for a long
period of time. And now it's up to show A
and Freddie Freeman and Will Smith to listen, they're blessed
with a tremendous depth of offensive talent. But that was
a shock to the system too, losing someone like Mooki,
who's the catalyst of the team. So I think you
have to give show An a plus for the first

(01:50:50):
half of his career, the first half of season one
of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Speaker 2 (01:50:54):
All right, great stuff, JP. Of course, we got the
All Star Game coming up, and then we're going to
get into that trade deadlines. See if any big names
are going to be moved around Major League Baseball. This
man will be all over it and joining us every
single Sunday. JP, have a great week. We'll talk to
you next Sunday.

Speaker 7 (01:51:11):
My favorite month of the year, My friends, looking forward
to all the best. Hold everybody out of safe and
happy for the July weekend. All the best friends.

Speaker 2 (01:51:18):
Thank thanks so much. The great John Paul Morosi joining us.

Speaker 1 (01:51:21):
There.

Speaker 2 (01:51:21):
Now let's find out what is trending. She's been on hold.
We had it sort of a shifting of our clock
with the extent of Michael Thompson interview, and we had
to get a lot of questions in for JP Monts
and we got to give Monzies mic God, right now,
that would be good.

Speaker 10 (01:51:38):
Thank you?

Speaker 1 (01:51:39):
There We all hello.

Speaker 6 (01:51:40):
Yes, No, I'll let it slide this time just because
it was Michael Thompson and JP.

Speaker 2 (01:51:46):
But next time I'm not gonna let it slide, all right.

Speaker 6 (01:51:48):
I also really have to use the rushrooms, so it
couldn't have been at a worse time.

Speaker 2 (01:51:51):
No, we're good, guys, We're good. Everything's fine talking Yes, no, guys.

Speaker 6 (01:51:57):
Nineteen seed Eminavarrow has upset two seats Coco Golf at
Wimbledon in straight sets. She's advancing to her first Grand
Slam quarter final. On the men's side, number one seed
Yannick Singer and number three seed Carlos alcraz won their
fourth round matches. They're also headed to the quarterfinals in
Formula one. Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix in

(01:52:18):
the NBA. This just tweeted by shams of the athletic
three time gold medalist Kevin Durant's sideline for the startup
Team USA training camp due to a strained calf. In
the WNBA right now, Asia Wilson's got eighteen points and
the Aces are beating the Wings sixty to forty eight
early in the third quarter. Earlier today, the Sun beat
the dream eighty to sixty seven. Connecticut is tied for

(01:52:39):
the best record in the league with the New York
Liberty at seventeen and four. In Major League Baseball, the
Braves hit four homers. They shut out the Phillies six
to zero. The Tigers with the five to one win
over the Reds. The Guardians came back to beat the
Giants five to four, and Jake Berger just walked it
off with walked it off for the Marlins a three
run shot. They beat the White Sox seven four. The

(01:53:00):
Cardinals outscored the Nationals eight three. Francisco Lindor had a
two RBI single giving the Mets a three to two
lead in the ninth and they secured the victory over
the Pittsburgh Pirates. Games going on right now at Tie
one in Minnesota between the Astros and the Twins tied
at two apiece. They're about to start the bottom of
the ninth inning. The Rangers have exploded after Corey Seeger hit.

Speaker 1 (01:53:20):
A three run shot.

Speaker 6 (01:53:21):
They just kept scoring. They're all over the Rays twelve
to two. Top of the eighth inning. The Royals are
blanking the Rockies five zero. Bottom of the seventh. The
Orioles are shutting out the A's four zero bottom of
the second. The Diamondbacks and the Padres are tied at
one apiece after two innings, while the Brewers and the
Dodgers are scoreless after two innings, and the Blue Jays
and the Mariners are scoreless in the bottom of the

(01:53:43):
second inning.

Speaker 9 (01:53:44):
Back to you guys, it's all right, all.

Speaker 2 (01:53:46):
Right, man, do what you have to do right now.
I have to do I know, and do it right now.
All right. On the other side, we will get to
our thoughts about the upcoming week. I also want to
talk about a sport the needs a Caitlin Clark infusion.
This is Fox Sports Sunday. Steve Harbady read Chrnberger Fox
Sports Sunday Live from the tire rag dot Com studios.

(01:54:09):
Want to thank are supporting crew. Second to none, of course,
the legend herself. Moncey Belanios taking care of business. Now
back in her seat. Chris is on the board. Hello,
have you been watching all this soccer action here?

Speaker 8 (01:54:29):
Absolutely? Absolutely? I know you're not a fan. I do
not care to indulge in any of your complaints about soccer,
but hey, on Big Fox Cope America, Euros this has
been phenomenal stuff asides from Team USA just deciding to
just lay the biggest egg I've ever seen in my life.

Speaker 2 (01:54:47):
Yeah, well again, that's this is the problem again. If
if the United States is not relevant in a sport,
it's hard for me. I'm sorry. Yeah, what are way
up though? On Big Fox?

Speaker 8 (01:55:01):
People care about soccer in this country, but I do
not know if they will if those same people will
care about Team USA as long as Team USA keeps
going out there and stinking it up against a Panama
country we created.

Speaker 2 (01:55:13):
Well, I've been doing TV this weekend, so I did
a lot of Copa America coverage, so I got all
the names down and I was really good at yesterday. Bo,
did you have a chance to talk any off air
with Michael Thompson not a Laker inside?

Speaker 1 (01:55:26):
I did not.

Speaker 9 (01:55:27):
We had to get his phone working, and then we
let Michael go I have I have two things grinding
my gears right now, Steve, can I tell you one
of them?

Speaker 2 (01:55:33):
Sure?

Speaker 9 (01:55:35):
Well, I guess number one is Paul George wearing number eight.
That's he.

Speaker 1 (01:55:40):
He might be.

Speaker 9 (01:55:40):
Lamer than Jason Tatum. It's hard to tell. The Other
thing is, I don't know why the Giants allowed the
roundtable discussion about Saquon Barkley to be aired on TV,
but I'm glad they did. That was really funny. Good
thing that guy doesn't play you twice next year at least.

Speaker 2 (01:55:59):
Right, Yeah, so interesting stuff there, Yeah, sa Kwon Barkley.

Speaker 9 (01:56:06):
Yeah, yeah, Paul George is really man.

Speaker 2 (01:56:08):
Paul George. Uh, I think the Clippers. Uh that's edition
by subtraction. I I you know, And it's not a
it's not a personal thing with Paul George. It's just
his game. I mean, in my opinion, Rich, he may
be the most overrated All Star in the NBA.

Speaker 1 (01:56:30):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:56:30):
Well, the problem is he's effective the when available, I
mean over the I guess past handful of years since
he's been in LA hand selected by Kawhi Leonard, I mean,
how often are they on the.

Speaker 1 (01:56:48):
Court together during that span of time.

Speaker 3 (01:56:51):
Just that to the answer that question, it kind of
spells out all the issues with the Clippers over the
course of their time with these two superstars or all
stars or false all stars, whatever you want to say.
I looked at him as a star, look at him
as a productive player. I just I just think from
the standpoint of what the Clippers got out of that

(01:57:13):
deal or got out of Paul George during the time
with him, just it was it was due to the
fact that they couldn't keep those two stars healthy, it
seemed at the same time, at any point during their tenure.

Speaker 2 (01:57:27):
Yeah, but consider what they gave up or had to
give up, including Shay Gilgis Alexander to get him, and
then he walks away and they get nothing. Yeah, I
think they got nothing while he was there. They weren't
any better with Paul George than they were pre Paul George.

Speaker 9 (01:57:42):
I think it's just the perfect encapsulation of this new
second apron because you have Steve Balmer, probably the richest
man in the NBA. Yes, it has no desire whatsoever
to be a part of what he would have to
pay for that team.

Speaker 2 (01:57:53):
So yeah, it's amazing. I mean, the man has enough
money to literally buy the entire league. I'm gonna give
you a sport that desperately is in need of a
Caitlin Clark. That is women's tennis. Cocoa Goff just lost
again at Wimbledon before the quarterfinals. She's never reached the court.
Remember she had her breakout five years ago in her
first ever Grand Slam tournament, and she made it to

(01:58:15):
the fourth round of Wimbledon. We're all talking about Coco Goff.
She did win the US Open last year. But let's
face it, in tennis, by far the biggest stage is Wimbledon.
You know, you can make arguments about you know, majors
and golf as masters bigger than the US Open and
the Open Championship. There is no argument. In tennis, thank
you very much. Wimbledon is by far the biggest stage

(01:58:38):
and last year's champion, I can't even remember her name,
went down in the first round. This is a sport,
women's tennis that has had so many stars, the latest
obviously being Serena A, Chris Evert, Martine Nevrat, to Loovo
go down the list and it is anonymous right now?

Speaker 8 (01:58:55):
Is it one of those problems because you kind of
always worried about this with golf and Tiger would go
and I always felt like, yeah, there word names in
women's tennis before, but not to the transformative level that
Serena had on tennis.

Speaker 2 (01:59:09):
And we start we're getting so many one time Grand
Slam winners on the women's side now and they just disappear.

Speaker 8 (01:59:15):
Yeah, and we we've gotten teased by stuff like leg
Osaka and Cocoa Goff and it's just nobody. I think
it's going to be hard to ask anybody to show
that level of dominance.

Speaker 2 (01:59:24):
That tech wins the French. You know, nobody cares about
the French. Who care about Wimbledon. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:59:29):
Well, and also, let's be honest, like with Osaka, the
storyline was excuses, like you know, and don't get me wrong,
mental health is a great excuse because it's a real
thing and athletes absolutely struggle with their mental health at times.
But you know, one of the things that separated Tiger
from the rest of the field, or Serena from the

(01:59:51):
rest of the field, or Caitlin Clark the way she's
handled the extreme criticism levied her way over the course
of the time that she's been the professional in her
given sport is the fact that mentally they seem to
be able to handle the pressure. Tom Brady, what's the
greatest aspect of his game. He's not a great athlete
his mind, you know So, I think tennis needs that

(02:00:16):
dominant mental player women's tennis especially to step up and
sort of take the reins of the sport.

Speaker 2 (02:00:23):
Again, there's the problem on the men's side, obviously, with
a feder and an adult and Djokovic and Serena on
the lady side, they have set the bar so high. Yeah,
where the hell do you go from here? I mean,
it just it's it's they need a They need a
Caitlyn Clark is what they need. I think all sports
needed Kitlyn Clark. All right, don't go anywhere. Much more
coming up This is Fox Sports Radio.

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