Steve Hartman & Monse Bolaños Talk Quarterback Carousel, Surging Lakers & More!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't listening to Fox Sports really radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Which you know, sometimes you look at a situation and
in the moment it really seems like the end of
the world, and then the way it plays out, it's
like this actually was meant to be because I had
a lot of miles on the car, and I already
paid off the car, and I was basically already tinkering
with the idea of getting a new car. Because no
one was hurt or anything like that except for my car. Really,

(00:27):
it sort of forced my hand. So actually it's all
worked out very very well.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, I'm glad I got it. I got a better
mileage car, a more practical.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
You absolutely did. I'm glad to hear I did not
hear about you getting in this fender bender that will
be only affected you until yesterday. So I'm glad everything's okay.
And you know, I missed you. I told Sean on
my way here. I was like, I know, it's only
been a week that I didn't see Steve, but I
feel like it's been weeks, Like I missed this man,
I'm so glad to be back here.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, we are back, and we're going to do our
thing over in the next couple of hours, We're going
to have two of our favorites on the show today.
Adam Aplan's going to be joined us. Boy do we
have a lot of NFL news to get to. The
quarterback with Carousel is definitely going around and round around,
and then our dear from Mark Medina is going to
be joining us in the next hour. I actually ran
into Mark. This is incredible. So I had a chance

(01:15):
to cover for TV the Lukadancic.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Game against the Dallas Mavericks.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
I had not covered a Lakers game for television since
Kobe was playing.

Speaker 4 (01:28):
I think I saw a picture with you and Jim Hill.

Speaker 5 (01:30):
Is that the game?

Speaker 3 (01:31):
That's the game?

Speaker 2 (01:32):
So I am Mark was standing there because obviously Mark
works with Jim Hill course a legendary LA TV broadcaster,
but he and I started to show years ago.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
The Mark actually appears on now.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Called Sports Central, and so it was you know what
it was like for me that day because I literally
am running into guys I haven't seen in a long time.
It was like going to a high school reunion. It
was like reunits, you haven't changed, And I'm like.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
Yes, well, You're like I guess I have not.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
I am not but it was it was a ton
of fun to be out there, and obviously there was electricity,
and you know, the Lakers.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Are a story right now.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
And you know I was, I was trying to make
the point early on when they remember he came in
Dunton chafter the trade that beat Utah at home. Then
they go to Utah and looked ugly, and then they
had the even uglier lost to Charlotte coming out of
the All Star break, And so I was going on
a few shows saying, hmm, this could take a while. Yeah,
they haven't lost the game since No.

Speaker 4 (02:29):
Eight in a row.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
I think it's eight in a row.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah, yeah, And now they have a game against the
Celtics tonight.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
Right, big game, and they they look like it's all
coming together now.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
Obviously it's still early on. You can tell they're still
figuring it out. But when you have two minds that really.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
Really just understand basketball in and out like they don't,
they're not one sided when it comes to the game
of basketball. Right, when you put those two together, it
was just a matter of time. Like, I don't think
anyone is surprised that they've won.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
It in a row.

Speaker 4 (02:59):
It's just it happened faster, I think than some of
us were expecting.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Give one hundred percent of the credit to Lebron James,
and I'll tell you why. Because after the Charlotte loss,
a home loss to a miserable team, and Luca coming
out of the All Star break like, what did you
do during the break?

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Did you work on your game?

Speaker 2 (03:16):
And he sort of said something along the lines like
he was still adjusting to the idea that the trade
had happened and everything else. And Lebron came out and said, look,
the problem we're having right now is is that Lucas
trying to fit in with us. We need to fit
in with him. So when Lebron is telling the rest
of the team we need to fit in with him,

(03:41):
turn everything around. So now all of a sudden, you
can see Luca is in his comfort zone.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
He's getting a shot back.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
You know, he had a little rust because he hadn't
played obviously since Christmas before he came to the Lakers.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
He's getting more comfortable with a shot.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
You can just see he's comfortable in his role and
where his place is on the and that's because of
guy named Lebron James, who, by the way, at the
age of forty is literally having a first team All
NBA season.

Speaker 4 (04:07):
Rejuvenated, rejuvenated in a way where it's like we all
knew it was in there, but again, he's been doing
it consistently for so many games now.

Speaker 5 (04:15):
And as somebody who has been.

Speaker 4 (04:17):
Critical of Lebron from time to time and listen, I
don't I don't hate Lebron the way other people do,
but there are things that make you want to criticize
him or you know, dissect what he's doing, and that
whole we have to let him be him. That was
something that I was like a little bit surprised about
because Lebron is a very it's a me kind of world, right,
and that's of course it's Lebron James. You can do

(04:38):
whatever you want if with what you have done in
your career, you can absolutely do and say whatever you want.
Him saying that early on with Luca was a very
like it's like light bulb, Yeah, this is how we're
gonna win. We're not gonna win if we keep everything
the same and we just add Luca. Everything had to
have changed into Luca. Luca's team. It's Luca's team. That's

(04:59):
the way they have success, it should no longer be
Lebron's team. And I think he kind of knows that.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Well, he knows that.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
And also this, the NBA knows they need the Lakers
to be relevant. The Lakers really haven't been relevant forever.
I mean, yeah, they won an NBA championship during the
Bubble season, but what did that mean nothing. I mean,
you're playing the NBA Finals during the World Series, so
it wasn't like, you know, people watched or anything else.

(05:25):
You need the Lakers to be relevant, and you see,
and you still need the Golden State Warriors to be
relevant the addition of Jimmy Butler. All of a sudden,
Steph Curry's rejuvenated. He's scoring fifties, putting up all these points.
I mean, and so you know, with all these young
stars around the league. We've talked about this many times.
Mont See, the two biggest names in this league are

(05:45):
still Lebron and Steph. They are still the faces of
the NBA, but their teams have gone sideways over the
last couple of years. They needed to get them back
in the conversation, back in the playoff picture. Uh, the
Baker's obvious here there with you flying colors as a
two seed right now.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
But even the.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Warriors have played much better basketball since Jimmy Butler joined them.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
Both of those teams were always relevant. They were just
relevant without reason to be. Now at least there's a
reason to be talking about them because we've discussed it.

Speaker 5 (06:18):
They aren't the faces still of the NBA.

Speaker 4 (06:20):
So Lakers were always going to be talked about, and
even the Warriors we're still talked about, but now there's
actual reason to talk about both those teams. They both improved.
I don't think the Warriors are going to win the championship,
but I do think that they're a threat, and I
wouldn't have thought that prior to Jimmy getting there. They're
definitely a threat. I don't know if you want to
see them in the playoffs, you know what I mean
the Lakers right now, you don't want to see them

(06:42):
in the playoffs. They could get to the championship, they
really could.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
The significance of tonight's game between the Lakers and Celtics,
that TD Garden is it matters.

Speaker 5 (06:52):
It does matter.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
I mean suddenly you know, just the name alone Lakers
Celtics is one thing, but when you actually have two
teams that level. This now is what the NBA wants.
They want Lakers Celtics. They're two most fabled franchises to
both be relevant, especially in a game like this.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
So the timing could not be perfect.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
I would imagine a more perfect It's it's it's going
to put up a big number. So, you know, we
were talking in the aftermath of that train wreck that
was the All Star weekend.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
And that debacle. But since then, with.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
The emergence of the Lakers and you know, Step putting
up numbers and let's not talk about the guy that
should be the league's MVP, Yokic, we were trying to
make again this argument. Look, Shay Gildess, Alexander's having a phenomenon,
leads the league in scoring on a team that has the.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
Best record in the West.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yep, Jokic is putting up numbers that he has never
put up before, no big man has ever put up before.
He just had a thirty twenty twenty, which had never
been done in the history of the NBA. He's on
pace to be the first player in NBA history to
finish top three in scoring, rebounding, and assists in a season.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
When you are doing this.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Oh and by the way, shooting forty four percent threes,
Jokic is your MVP.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
He really is. Let's thank Kevin Durant for sending that
game to overtime because that's how he got Those numbers
are also, so let's thank Kevin Durant for hitting that
shot on real.

Speaker 5 (08:23):
What he's doing, and he's been doing this all season.

Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yes, those numbers we haven't seen crazy, but what he
has done. And the Nuggets started off a little rocky,
a little shaky. He's the one that has put them
back to be a consistent contender right now.

Speaker 5 (08:37):
And he does it.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
Steve I swear when I was watching that game last
I was watching the Clippers game, so I had to
go back and forth, especially you know at the end,
but at the end in the fourth quarter, and like
he's running back and it looks like he's just like
going through the motions like Jokicic does it, and it
looks like he's not even trying.

Speaker 5 (08:55):
Which is so awesome.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
Game is so simple for this so simple.

Speaker 6 (08:59):
Those passes he throws, how he throws it perfect, a
perfect lob where the defender cannot get there, but he
goes to the hands of his teammate in a way,
it's like unreal, and he does it without even trying.

Speaker 4 (09:12):
It is unreal.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
The greatest of the greats. And I go back to
the Bird Magic days. Those guys literally know where the
other nine players are on.

Speaker 4 (09:21):
The court at all times times.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, I would make magic, would make passes that if
you had to think about it's too late. He's making
the past before you can even think about the past.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
Mary Caitlin Clark also, who is what we have seen
our friend marketing on TV. We'll be talking to him
in a little bit. But unreal, it is unreal watching him.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
He is.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
It's good our good argument. I mean again, this is
no knock on shake gills of Aladann. He had a
fifty one point night the other night. He's had an
MVP caliber season. But again, Joki's putting up historic numbers.
A big man averaging a triple double for an entire season.
It's one thing for Russell Westbrook way back in today.
Oscar Robertson, a big man who again will be the

(10:04):
first player in NBA history to finish top three in
the league in scoring, rebounding, and assists.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
Never been done before.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Hey, check out the Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel a
ton of great videos from many of our Fox Sports
Radio shows. Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube you
see a whole bunch of video highlights from our shows.
Be sure to subscribe so you can always have instant
access to our Fox Sports Radio videos on YouTube. Coming
up on the other side, the quarterback carousel.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
Around the NFL. All right, so Gino Smith now with
the Raiders.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
What's next? Our NFL insider Adam Kaplan will join us.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
This is Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot Com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Steve Harban, Montci Belanas Here Fox Sports Saturday and we
are live from the ti rag dot com studios.

Speaker 7 (11:04):
Hey, by the way.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
For the best pregame show every weekend, tune into Fox
Sports Radios Countdown presented by bet MGM every Saturday and
Sunday morning from nine to noon Eastern six to nine Pacific,
counting down to all the biggest games.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
Here on the best pregame show in the business.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Tune in the Countdown presented by bet MGM every Saturday
and Sunday morning right here on Fox Sports Radio and
the iHeartRadio app. All right, so the NFL is kicking
in the high gear right now in terms of making news,
and that means we need to spend some time with
a man that can give us all the latest around
the NFL our NFL insider Adam Kaplan is joining us

(11:43):
right now.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
Adam, we got a lot to talk about.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Let's start with the Raider deal to get Geno Smith.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
How did this come down?

Speaker 2 (11:52):
And you know, again I had told everybody that there
was not going to be any Matthew Stafford. Matthew Stafford
was going to remain a RAM. I don't know, this
was the biggest non story out there. But this whole
dynamic and we know that Pete Carroll obviously has a
lot of respect for Geno Smith, apparently more so than
he has for Russell Wilson. But a let's talk about
how this deal got done, Why did the Seahawks make

(12:16):
the deal, and what kind of impact, if any, is
Geno Smith going to have on the Raiders.

Speaker 8 (12:20):
All right, Let's start with Seattle.

Speaker 9 (12:21):
So their thought process was this, either he was going
to get his contract extended or they're going to move him.
They just they wanted some certainty about what their quarterback
position was going to look like the next couple of years,
and they just could not get the movement they wanted
on his contract. So they opened it up. The Raiders called,
and I got a really interesting note on Gino Smith

(12:43):
and Chip Kelly in a second. But so look, Seattle,
They've just cut a lot of players this week. They
cut five veterans, cleared up a ton of cast base,
a ton of cash, which is very important ownership. And
they're not in the rebuild. I could tell you from
talking to their peace. Well there they're not. They're in
a retooling of their roster. They're going to get younger
at certain positions, and they're gonna they're gonna probably spend

(13:07):
some some time in revamping their offensive line. They're going
to get in the Sam Darnold sweepstakes. The Vikings clearly
won him back, but they cannot reach a deal. They
did enfranchise them, so it's going to be hard. But uh,
you know, the Raiders. Look, chip Kelly is interesting. Chip
Kelly had is a part of this. So what I'm
told with chip Kelly was with with Gino Smith. This

(13:27):
was this guy in the twenty thirteen draft when he
was with the Eagles. As a matter of fact, the
Eagles were going to draft Gino Smith, uh and that
was going to be their quarterback of the future until
Gino's meeting with the Eagles prior to the West Virginia Proda,
and the Eagles made a decision based after their meeting.
They just weren't satisfied and they moved on from him.
But Chip loved Gino Smith as a as a quarterback,

(13:50):
and now they're reunited. It's kind of crazy, you like,
you're talking about like twelve years later. So it's funny
how things work out. So the what Gino Smith did
by the he's on the funny Vers deal. He'll make
thirty one million dollars this season. This gives the Raiders
some time here and also that they may wind up
extending this contract. This gives them a quarterback. There's no question.
Aidan O'Connell will be the backup for Gino Smith and

(14:14):
now they'll develop other resources. They really did not, as
I understand it, they didn't really see the quarterback class
as being very good, unlike most teams. As I've been
telling people for months of FSR, and they're you know,
they've got Geno for now, and they'll look at other
positions like running back, like wide receiver. They've got one
good added rusher. Obviously secondary they look at secondary as well.

(14:35):
So they've got a lot of needs here. But one
of the things they could scratch off as quarterback.

Speaker 4 (14:40):
Hi, Adam, nice talking to you again.

Speaker 5 (14:42):
So here we are Seahawks. Still.

Speaker 4 (14:45):
You just mentioned Vegas has some holes that they have
to still figure out.

Speaker 8 (14:48):
Tom.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
Yes, but the Seahawks, Okay, let's say they don't get
Sam Darnold. They're happy with Sam Howell because that's that's
their next right, next man up.

Speaker 9 (14:58):
Yeah, and look there they're there. They'll get in the
secondary market at quarterback. Then they'll look at a quarterback
if they have to in the draft.

Speaker 5 (15:06):
Well, we know it's not a great it's not I.

Speaker 8 (15:09):
Know, but but you know what the thing is.

Speaker 9 (15:11):
And g Smith, although it took Gina Smith forever ten
years to become a good quarterback, you don't have to
draft a quarterback in the first round to have a
good quarterback. I mean, that's you know, you that's not
absolutely necessary. But yeah, Seattle is in a situation with
Sam how that this guy they like, he's on the
funniers rookie deal. They'll but they've got other things they're

(15:31):
trying to They're very open to movement DK Metcalf. They
haven't got his asking what they're looking for in a trade.
They're an absolute nightmare if they trade DK Metcalf. They've
got one guy jas and Jackson Smith and jack but
who had a very good rookie season, but he's more
of an inside receiver. They wouldn't have a starting outside receiver.
They have a new scheme. By the way, in offense.
You know what's crazy, Monci about this Metcalf thing. Like

(15:55):
Mike McDonald, the head coach and Clint Kubiak made it
pretty clear to him he's going to be a big
part of this offense. And then, you know, the last
couple of weeks he let them know that he wants out.
He just didn't believe in what they were doing. And
obviously now without a quarterback that doesn't help things. And
his numbers really regrets the last two seasons. His role
completely changed less season in particular.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
All Right, so are we expecting Sam donald to ended
with the Seahawks.

Speaker 9 (16:22):
Guys, they're in on it. I don't make predictions until
I know what the contract's going to look like.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
But I mean that the idea that the Vikings are
not willing to franchise tag Sam Donald.

Speaker 8 (16:32):
Well, I could tell you that they're still in it.

Speaker 9 (16:35):
I could tell you as I last night, they're still
in it for Donald, but they are way. The problem
with Donald's contract is with the Vikings they want cost
certainty for a year and they don't want to commit
to him for more than two seasons. And that's not
where the Seahawks are. They're looking for something. In fact,
I would say the structure that Donald will be looking
at for the Vikings would be more one year. It

(16:55):
could be a multi year deal, but be able to
get out of it. So I'm expecting the Seahawks to
come in hard. But as I've learned in twenty seven
years in this business, nothing's a certainty. There's just not
that we know that the Seahawks want Sam Donald. There'll
be other teams in it, and if they don't get Donald,
they'll have other opportunities. But I could tell you this
when they decided they were going to move off with

(17:16):
Gino Smith. This is their plan, is Sam Donald. There's
no question about this.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
Is there a market for Daniel Jones.

Speaker 9 (17:22):
No, not nothing to be a backup. There's there's no
starting job for him. He's a backup quarterback. He needs
to be in a West Coast offense where he didn't
just get rid of the ball quickly. Like by the
way Sam Donald playing with the Niners two seasons ago.

Speaker 8 (17:37):
That really helped his situation.

Speaker 9 (17:40):
That is a big reason why Seattle likes him because
they're going to the Kubiak West Coast offense. That is
the number one reason they want Donald. They think he's
a great fit for their scheme.

Speaker 4 (17:49):
All right, There's been a lot of connections between possibly
the Giants and Aaron Rodgers. The Giants did re sign
Tommy DeVito. Is there is there real mom Yes? Is
there real momentum with Aaron Rodgers going to the Giants?

Speaker 8 (18:04):
There is, Yeah, there is.

Speaker 9 (18:06):
There's the Rams where they had a very casual interest
if if they changed their mind with with Stafford, that
that was something they would have looked at. But they
were We didn't talk this week, so I could tell
you at the combine they were so low key on
the quarterback position. They felt pretty confident that obviously they
controlled Stafford's contract situation because he was still in a contract.

(18:31):
But the bottom line is when you look at the
situation with the Giants, the general manager is looking to
keep his job and he's looking he's looking to do
anything he can to keep this thing going. And now
I would tell you it's not going to stop them
from drafting quarterback. It will not trust me on this one.

Speaker 7 (18:51):
There.

Speaker 8 (18:52):
They're an absolute mess.

Speaker 9 (18:53):
They have a bad roster, not just the quarterback, and
fans sometimes or delusional, well, if we just get a quarterback,
will be fine.

Speaker 8 (18:59):
No, it's the Titans, right, The Titans have a bad roster.
Like you don't.

Speaker 9 (19:03):
You don't all of a sudden become a really bad
football team just because you're a bad a quarterback. There's
it's rarely just one thing.

Speaker 7 (19:09):
All right.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
So the Titans sitting at number one in the draft,
I mean when we talk about cam Warden Shador Sanders,
I mean there are people now saying Sanders could drop
out of the first round.

Speaker 8 (19:20):
That would surprise me. That would surprise me.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
That would surprise me as well, because there's always you know,
teams at the last second. I mean when you look
at teams that are looking for quarterbacks. You got the Jets,
you got the Steelers. I don't know what they're gonna do.
The Browns another team that's sort of up in the
air as far as the quarterback situation is concerned. But
somebody's going to reach I mean, we've seen that year
after year after year. But that being said, the Titans,

(19:44):
would you be surprised a if they hang on to
the pick?

Speaker 3 (19:48):
If there I mean, is there any team that is so.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Desperate to get a quarterback, essentially cam Ward, that they
are willing to make a deal with the Titans to
move up to the number one pick?

Speaker 3 (19:58):
Is that in the cards?

Speaker 8 (20:00):
Well, just a couple of things here.

Speaker 9 (20:02):
So when you look at the situation now with the Titans,
the steam that I got from being at the combine two.

Speaker 8 (20:09):
Weeks ago is they clearly would like to trade out
of that pick.

Speaker 9 (20:12):
I think it's questionable, to be honest with you, whether
you should whether they should do that. The Abdual Carter situation,
which I don't want to say it came out of nowhere.
I knew about the shoulder, but no one knew about
the foot. That stress reaction is a concerning situation. I've
covered this injury in fact, when I cover the NBA
for one year, that that is a very common NBA injuries,

(20:33):
a stress reaction, it's a precursor to a broken foot.
Now they Joe Rosenhoals's agent has been pretty emphatic that
he's going to be fine, he won't need surgery. It's
something I'm working on to see what thirty two teams think.

Speaker 8 (20:45):
So we'll see.

Speaker 9 (20:46):
But getting back to see his question, I just from
talking to people with the Titans, it sure seems like
they are very open to listening to move that pick,
because again, they have so many needs. It's yes, it's
quarterback number one. They have an edge rush problem, they
have a playmaker problem on defense, they've got a wide

(21:06):
receiver problem other than Calvin Ridley, they have a pretty
significant offensive line problem. You just stay there again, folks,
As I just said a couple minutes, you don't become
bad because you're just bad at one position.

Speaker 8 (21:16):
They just don't have a very good roster.

Speaker 4 (21:18):
Last one for me, Adam Miles Garrett. What's going to
happen with him and the Browns? Is he gonna say
in Cleveland or you think he gets moved?

Speaker 9 (21:25):
Well, this is where I'm at with this thing. This
season doesn't start till August, excuse me, September, early September.
What I could tell you and what the situation is.
Andrew Burry's mate cleared to he's the general manager, that
they're not moving them. But this is what the Raiders
told me twenty eighteen with Khalil Mack. They told me
they were not moving them.

Speaker 6 (21:42):
M hm.

Speaker 9 (21:43):
And they moved them right before the season because John
Gruden and commeddy or personnel. He didn't he was not
the general manager. Reggie McKenzie was. But Reggie reluctantly traded him.
He didn't want to do it, but John pushed them
to do it, and the Raiders thought trade him to
the Bears, that they get a high pick for the
new season. Well, who knew the Raiders would make the
who knew the Bears would make the playoffs? Like nobody

(22:04):
knew that, you know, which makes Trubisky. But this is
a prediction. It's not it's not reporting here. I'm just
making prediction. They'll wind up moving him. I just don't
want to. Look, they've just cleared up a lot of
cap space. They've got a lot of work to do
with their cap.

Speaker 8 (22:19):
We know they're they have to get a quarterback, they're
going to get one.

Speaker 9 (22:22):
But to me, Miles Garrett, who's going to now make
probably thirty seven million a season whenever he gets this
new deal, whether it's with the Browns or the new team.
This situation with the Browns, it's just gotten out of
hand here and he's sick of it.

Speaker 8 (22:39):
Now.

Speaker 9 (22:39):
What the Browns are basically put out there, as I
understand it, they want Garrett to see what they're going
to do in free agency in the draft. Well here's
the thing though, if you're ever going to trade, and
you better do it by the draft. But they're hoping
that Garret will change his mind. It doesn't sound like
it based on what I've been told. So he sounds
like he's he's just had it with being there. He's
all the losing. It wears on you. Steve knows from

(23:01):
working for a club and covering this business for a
long time. Players sometimes Oh, by the way, I'll give
you a quick story before we get out of here.
Remember Carl Pickens, the former Sure, I've just I met
him at a business event in Philly. I mean I
spent two hours with him. It was one of my
favorite nights of being around NFL players. I now know
why he couldn't deal with playing for the Bengals.

Speaker 8 (23:23):
It wears on you. I learned a lot from him
that night.

Speaker 9 (23:26):
He didn't deny a lot of stuff was out there either,
so called Carl Pickens role, which was actually real because
about criticizing your team publicly, it really wears on players
when you know you don't have a chance. And that's
part of the situation with Miles. Garrity is sick of it,
and I don't blame him.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
All right, final word here, I'm going to give you
seven teams and you tell me which one will be
the next team to solidify their quarterback situation for twenty
twenty five.

Speaker 8 (23:56):
Seattle's one.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
So we got the Jets, Steelers, Titans, Colts, Giants, Seahawks.

Speaker 8 (24:05):
Seahawks won go ahead.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
So Seahawks will be the next one to do it. Yeah,
I mean, so you're saying Sam Darnold is going to
be a Seahawk.

Speaker 9 (24:12):
I don't put outs on anything. I've learned my lesson
about putting its no I because here you know why,
Steve I'd a GM telling me something's going to happen
one hundredercent.

Speaker 8 (24:20):
I put it out when I was at ESPN.

Speaker 9 (24:21):
Yeah, and something happened before I went on the air. Yeah,
and I was not aware of it because I was
not looking at my phone. And he texted me after,
you know, he texted me to let me give me
heads up, and I was on TV and I didn't
see it.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
All right, I'll rephrase it for you.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
So according to Adam Kaplan, don't be surprised I got
Sam Donald ends up a Seahawks.

Speaker 9 (24:41):
I think it's a very good probability of it. Yeah,
after that, Look, Pittsburgh. I've told you guys for two
months now, I'd be shocked if Russell will swamp back
to Pittsburgh.

Speaker 8 (24:51):
Now others are reporting it.

Speaker 9 (24:54):
Arthur Smith went at a benchumin he was told no
in my reporting, I've been quoted everywhere in this so
I mean it's that's what happened. So Russell is going
to find a job, folks, Steve, you just gave out
the teams. Yeah, there's a supplying demand problem.

Speaker 8 (25:08):
Sure, there are not enough quarterbacks go around.

Speaker 9 (25:09):
The Colts want to bring in someone to compete against
against richardson that that situation, and then there might be
something there might be a surprise here. There might be
a surprise at quarterback where you go, Why I didn't
see it happening, where some team maybe bring somebody in
to compete against Duck or just to be you know,
just to have a veteran presence.

Speaker 8 (25:28):
You should never know.

Speaker 9 (25:29):
But yeah, I would say Seattle with Donald's number one,
and then all the all these teams geo metric and
feilt their dance card. But it doesn't listen to folks
that there's one starting free agency at Sam Darnald.

Speaker 8 (25:40):
The rest of them are back. The rest of them
are compete. That's it. That's all they are.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
That would include Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 8 (25:47):
All right, no, no, no, Rogers will go to Rogers.

Speaker 9 (25:49):
Not a free agent yet, all right, but he's going
to start for the Giants.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
He will start for the Giants.

Speaker 8 (25:54):
He ain't competing, he's not competing, not competing one year.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
All right, Adam, And we could go all day. I
mean so many things going out.

Speaker 8 (26:00):
I would like to do two segments.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
Adam will do it again next week. Thanks so much.

Speaker 8 (26:06):
You got it.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
That's Adam Kaplan our Fox Sports Radio NFL Insider.

Speaker 3 (26:09):
It is that crazy. It is that crazy.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
But it's a domino effect and we just have to
see how the pieces fall. But if Sam Darnold ends
up with the Seahawks, which appears to be the case,
not one hundred percent, but appears to be the case,
where does that put the vikings?

Speaker 3 (26:25):
I mean, JJ McCarthy is your quarterback, right.

Speaker 4 (26:27):
And without experience, like you really don't know what it is.
Adam sounded like he knew something and he was like, oh,
you might see something crazy happened.

Speaker 8 (26:37):
Well, what is it?

Speaker 3 (26:37):
That's why I was trying to help him out. That's
why I was trying to help him out. All right,
let's find out what is trending right now, here's another
guy that has his thoughtnam what's hot? What's not? Always? Martin?

Speaker 4 (26:48):
Martin? I like the fit today, by the way, Thank you,
thank you, appreciate it.

Speaker 7 (26:53):
Gotcha see nothing from you?

Speaker 2 (26:55):
Well, first of all, I have the same shirt on
every every Saturday and every Sunday that the exact same.

Speaker 10 (27:03):
It's like a unifor I mentioned no, no, I was
talking about me. You didn't.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
First of all, I complimented you, well, I should have
complimented you on the salad you ate, which looked absolutely delicious.

Speaker 5 (27:15):
Nice, thank you, where's it from?

Speaker 3 (27:16):
And he brought his own dressing. I like that as well. Wow,
so let's be clear.

Speaker 7 (27:22):
I brought the salad, the dressing I bought from the store.

Speaker 10 (27:25):
Gotchathing the ways team made is sound was like I
got a salad and made my own dressing.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
Yes, but he made the salad and he bought the
dressing and brought the dressing. I did, Hey, I like it.
Look at that right now.

Speaker 10 (27:37):
Kansas with a six point lead over twenty fourth r
inth Arizona with just under a minute left in the game,
eighty to seventy four, Arizona's twenty fourth right team in
the nation.

Speaker 7 (27:46):
I'm pretty sure I just said that.

Speaker 10 (27:48):
Thirteenth rank Maryland got to win over Northwestern seventy four
to sixty one. The seventh rngth Alabama beat Auburn went
a last second shot by Mark Spears in overtime, ninety
three to ninety one. Fourth CE beat South Carolina seventy
five to sixty five. Six ranked Saint John's, also in overtime,
held on against Marquette eighty six to eighty four. Tenth

(28:08):
ranked Iowa State beat Kansas State, twelveth rank Wisconsin upset
by Penn State, Louisville beat Stanford and excuse me, Louisvill
beat Stanford, Kentucky nineteenth ranc beat Missouri, the fifteenthreinetheen in
the Nation ninety one to eighty three, Arkansas where they
win over Mississippi State ninety three to ninety two, and
Texas A and M beat LSU sixty six to fifty two.

(28:29):
NFL resignings, Ronnie Stanley and the Ravens have agreed to
a three year sixty million dollars deal, forty four million
of that guaranteed. The Chiefs in Hollywood Brown have agreed
to a one year contract for next year, and Chiefs
had and Mike Kasecki agreed to a three year deal
to stay with Cincinnati and Chiefs receiver xavier' worthy was
arrested Friday night in Williams and County, Texas on the
charge of assault.

Speaker 7 (28:50):
His lawyers have a different story there. But back to
you guys.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
All right, Martin, thank you very much. We'll check in.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
And by the way, yeah, good gear too.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
It looks good.

Speaker 8 (29:01):
I like it.

Speaker 4 (29:01):
A good fit.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
I mean I would say you're inspiring me, but that's
not that would be a lie because I'm never going
to change my look.

Speaker 7 (29:10):
I respect it.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Yeah, well.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
Everything I have exactly. I don't want to get see.
I don't want to scare too many people. They're already
scared out there, Martin. We'll check in with you a
little bit later on once again, this is Fox Sports Saturday.
We're coming live from the tai Iraq dot com studios. Manzi,
I don't know if you know this, but March Madness
is getting very very close.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
We're getting very excited.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
Actually, my UCLA Bruins will be taken on us seed tonight,
last game before next week.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
And I appreciate that we got the Big ten tournament
coming up and then boom, we got selection Sunday a
week from tomorrow, and so we are getting awfully close.
And I was looking at the rankings because there's been
a lot of buzz Saint John's today beating Marquette in overtime,
and obviously with Rick Patino there there there's a lot
of buzz about Patino and his amazing comeback. But here

(30:04):
here's a little note that is just sort of like
it's something that you should take in consideration. So you
got three of the top six ranked teams.

Speaker 3 (30:16):
You have Auburn, you have a coach by Bruce Pearl,
you got Houston, which is coached by Kelvin Sampson, and
then you've got Saint John's coach by Rick Patino. What
do those guys all have in common.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
They've all been given the sort of death penalty at
one point of their coaching career where they basically were
told leave and you cannot coach college basketball for a
couple of.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
Years, all of them.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
I mean, you go back to Bruce Pearl in his
time at Tennessee when he crossed the line he got nailed,
Kelvin Sampson his time in Indiana before he ended up
re emerging after being out for what was five years
and finally got back to college basketball at Houston. And
of course, the Rick Patino situation so bad that you know,

(31:04):
Louisville's championship under Patino is the only team ever to
actually lose at least cording to the NCAA A Championship
because of infractions that you know, he may say I
wasn't directly involved.

Speaker 3 (31:16):
It was the assistants. All right, you're the coach of
the team.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
But I just find it interesting how you see these
coaches re emerge from the shadows, seemingly kicked out of
the sport and because of the quality of their coaching.
And I'm sure just because they are involved in any
kind of cheating in the past, they would never do
it again.

Speaker 4 (31:36):
People learn.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah, anyway, I just find it interesting to see how
these coaches have recycled. And if you said, any one
of these guys Bruce Pearl, Kevin Sampson way back in
the day are now Rick Patino would be in the
conversation of a coaching a team that could end up.

Speaker 3 (31:55):
Winning a national championship. Only in college basketball when you're.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
A good but you're a good coach, right, And I
think that's the point here. Now, correct me if I'm wrong,
because you know, I'm not as versed into college basketball.
But it does seem like this season, the amount of
upsets that have occurred has been real high in comparison
to other seasons. And I know that Auburn is number one,
but it's like again Saint John's b Yu. I feel like,

(32:22):
I don't I don't know, but it seems like this
is going to be an interesting dance.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Well, yeah, and people would say, I take both sides
on that, right, Like, you know you wish you had
more dominant schools. I mean, Duke obviously is looking good,
but they've been beaten several times this year. They certainly
no team is unbeatable. There's always that argument, do you
want dominant teams or do you want to completely wide
open tournament. Look as we're sitting in there with our

(32:49):
brackets after a week from tomorrow, when the bracket, you
know we're all going to be sitting there trying to
figure this whole thing out. I will say this based
on what we saw a couple of years ago where
San Diego State was in the championship game, it would
be what Florida Atlantic in the semi final?

Speaker 3 (33:06):
Anything as possible, So you know, you you.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
Can now confidently fill out a bracket with a lot
of upsets, seemingly like okay, this is a shot in
the dark, and actually end up winning.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
Yes, it's very real.

Speaker 4 (33:20):
Yes, I'm very excited to fill up the bracket.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
Oh yes, that's every every American does that. That's the
way you do all right.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
Coming up on the other side, I want to get
a little baseball news. I know, near and dear de
Monsey with the Dodgers and everything else. But yeah, we
got some baseball news we got to get to coming
up here on Fox Sports Saturday. You're listening to Fox
Sports Radio Radio, Steve Harvey, montcy Billanos.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
Here Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
We're coming alve from the tairaq dot com studios. All right,
the endless spring training continues, by the way, not good
news for the Yankees. Garrett Cole, who missed first seventy
five games of last year after getting banged up in
the spring training, pitched well, but you could tell in

(34:11):
the World Series he'd beginning to run out of gas
a little.

Speaker 4 (34:14):
Bit because he didn't run to first base or.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
Well that that was very general. That that inning, that
half inning, will be replayed forever.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
It's ridiculous. It's the whole, that whole inning.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
Aaron Judge dropping the ball, and then everything that happened
after that, including as you say, Garrett Cole not.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
Covering first base. Rizzo just looking at him like.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
Yeah, we are you gonna make the run anyway. Yeah,
things are not looking good for the Yankees, no at all.
It seemed like last year was there one shot at it.
Obviously they didn't come up with enough money to keep
one Soto. So yeah, don't expect too much from the
Yankees this year. Dodgers are a different story. But what
I wanted to bring up here because I haven't a

(35:00):
has to talk to you about this now. Again, this
is something that is only being done during spring training,
but usually things that are done in spring training end
up happening once we actually get into the regular season. Remember,
I never thought we would have a pitch clock. I
just never thought that was going to happen. It was
used at the minor league level for years. They used

(35:20):
it in spring training, and the next thing you know,
they used it.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
And it works.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
I was not a fan of the idea, but it works.
So the latest is the idea that you can challenge
balls and strikes. Now know there are challenges fair or foul.
We know challenges about safer out and now they've taken
it to the next level where a catcher can turn
around and say, yeah, I don't think he's going to

(35:48):
look like you threw a strike. Now I think that
was a ball. Yeah, So we know every one of
the challenges is going to be a pitch you called
a ball. I'm going to say as a strike and
then they're basing it on the same mechanism we see
in tennis, where there's a ball that's deemed out, they
challenge it and you show the line and the ball

(36:10):
barely touches the line, meaning it's in.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
And the same thing. I've seen challenges where pitches deemed
a ball and then they show the strike zone and
the top of the ball like a low pitch.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Hair is just a hair, and so they're saying, no,
we reverse the call. It was a strike.

Speaker 4 (36:28):
Get out of my face.

Speaker 5 (36:29):
No, that was not a strike.

Speaker 4 (36:31):
I know it was because.

Speaker 5 (36:32):
Of the hair.

Speaker 4 (36:33):
I hate this. I was all for a challenge when
I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Now
I hate it.

Speaker 5 (36:40):
That just happened.

Speaker 4 (36:41):
The Padres were playing Martin Maldonado calls it and the
hair they called a strike. I was like, Okay, if
we're going to give that guy that strike, then everyone
needs to get that strike. And you might as well
just do robot umpires the whole way. I mean, you
can have a guy standing there and him be told
in an earpiece in quick time whether it's a ball strike,
and we don't have to do this and it can

(37:01):
be perfect at all.

Speaker 5 (37:02):
Times, So why don't we just do that?

Speaker 4 (37:03):
But I don't like this challenge thing because it is
not it's actually not fair. It actually doesn't make it
any more fair in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
All right, so understand how this has worked since the
beginning of time in baseball. So when you have pitchers
that are known as control pitchers. I use Greg Maddix
as an example. So Greg Maddox was a master of
manipulating the strike se So he had such preciseness that
he could start, you know, low pitches, inside pitches, outside pitches,

(37:36):
and systematically expand the strike zone because he's hitting a
spot consistently. And then if he moves it as shade
over and now technically it's out of the strike zone,
he's still getting that pitch as a strike. That would
all be taken away if you have electronic umpire. In

(37:57):
other words, if it's a mechanized strike zone where if
it touches the line or obviously inside the line, buzzer
goes off.

Speaker 3 (38:03):
Strike done. Yes, right, it's right.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
And it's and it's custom to every single batter in
Major League Baseball. Then it gets back to, well, why
exactly do we have umpires to begin with?

Speaker 3 (38:16):
Since they don't call fouls.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
They don't call penalties like in basketball and football respectively. Again,
strike ball, safe, out, fair, foul, that's it. Yeah, all
of that can be done electronically. You take the umpires
off the field period. Yeah, and not worry about it.

Speaker 4 (38:34):
But you can have them there just aesthetically because because
people are not going to like not seeing it, So
just have them there. They can have a little earpiece
that tells them literally if it's ball or strike and.

Speaker 3 (38:46):
Then and then we're not gonna pay a guy for that.

Speaker 4 (38:48):
List people get paid for stupid things, so we can
make it. We can make this work. Also, I mean,
let's be real. Our pitchers now, like Greg Maddox, that
they know they're not place them all where they want
to nowadays, well they try to try, but nowadays it's speed.
Nowadays it's the fastest pitch. It's not about putting the
ball in a that's not a thing anymore. I mean,

(39:10):
I'm sure a few, but now it's just about speed.
Can you throw one hundred and two?

Speaker 5 (39:15):
Great?

Speaker 4 (39:15):
Get out there.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
That's a good point. I like that idea. You're right.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
I mean, we now know that these guys basically throw
as hard as they can, for as long as they can,
and then bring in the next start exactly because in
the old days, what pitchers used to do is actually
set up batters, knowing they were going to face them
three or four times during the course of the game.
They would pitch one way the first time to set
up the second time they face him, and so on
and so forth.

Speaker 5 (39:37):
And that's not really a thing interesting.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
I like that. Okay, I'm thinking about this all right.

Speaker 2 (39:42):
Well again, I like I've been a proponent for eliminating
umpires long before this happened. And this is no knock.
I'm sure there's a lot of nice umpires. I've met
a few over the years, and nice people.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
They're just not necessary, but we can keep them there.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
You do all electronically, but even just standing there, they
give me one of those jobs.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
All right, we got some NBA news to get to.
This is Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
Please, you're listening to Fox Sports Really Radio, all.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
Right, rolling along here at a very busy sports Saturday.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
We're broadcasting live from the ti iraq dot com studios
ty rack dot com. We're gonna get you there and
unmatched selection, fast re shipping, free road has a protection
over ten thousand recommended installers ti iraq dot com.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
The way tire buying should be.

Speaker 10 (40:27):
All right.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
So, yeah, we're into the month of March right now,
which means there's a lot of things going on. Obviously,
we've been talking about the NFL and what's going on
with the quarterback carousel as we get ready for free agency,
and obviously the draft coming up, so we get a
lot of news there coming up. Baseball as we get
through the spring training. But this is basketball time. It is,

(40:50):
you know, March Madness. A week from tomorrow selection Sunday,
we're gonna get The field is sixty eight. By the way,
they are talking about expanding the field for the NCAA
tournament beyond sixty eight, seventy two, seventy six. My attitude
about this is you don't have to do that. That's

(41:11):
why you have conference tournaments. So technically, most teams are
very very very few schools that are excluded from their
own conference tournaments, and if you are one of those,
you probably didn't belong there anyway. But technically the conference

(41:32):
tournaments are an opportunity because if you win your conference tournament,
it gets you an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament,
which then gives you an opportunity to.

Speaker 3 (41:43):
Win a championship.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
And we go back to that Yukon run with Kimba
Walker where they won the Big East Tournament.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
They had to win five games and five.

Speaker 4 (41:52):
Nights eight, which is got five.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
Straight nights they played, won it, and then won six
games and won the end, say, championship. So you don't
need to expand the NC tournament because you already have
the conference tournament.

Speaker 4 (42:08):
No, no, no, at that point, just like let everyone
in just put in one hundred, right.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Then get rid of the conference tournaments and have two
hundred and you know how many you know, two hundred
and fifty six teams?

Speaker 4 (42:17):
Is yeah, yeah, I don't I agree. I don't think
there needs to be any more teams added. I don't
get what the fun in that would be. It would
just be more what is the first couple of games?

Speaker 3 (42:30):
Well, you have the first four as they call them.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
The first four, the first four and by the way,
twice twice Virginia Commonwealth, remember when Shaka Smart was the coach,
and then a few years ago my UCLA Bruins actually
went from the first four to the final four.

Speaker 5 (42:45):
Yeah, so what we have the first eight.

Speaker 4 (42:47):
I'm just like, I don't, I don't. I don't get
why expand it doesn't need to do that. I'm just
gonna water down the first couple of rounds.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
No, well, imagine the nightmare for brackets, all right?

Speaker 2 (42:57):
Oh yeah, can you imagine a bread Seriously, let's say
you expanded the NCAA turning by another week, so you
just you doubled it twice. So instead of sixty four schools,
you have two hundred and fifty six schools down to one,
twenty eight down to sixty four. How would you like
to look at your bracket?

Speaker 4 (43:16):
No? No, no, no.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
With two hundred and fifty six schools on it, I
want one. Honest, folks, the majority of schools that are
currently on your bracket you don't know anything about.

Speaker 3 (43:27):
You don't know any of the players.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
You don't even I mean half the time we sit
here that first week and we're trying to quizz each other.

Speaker 3 (43:35):
On school nicknames. Yes, all right, so what is this
school's nickname? What are they known as? We do this
every year? Okay, enough of that.

Speaker 4 (43:43):
Yeah, No, if it's not on one sheet, I don't
want it. I want on one sheets and if not,
then it doesn't work for me.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
Sixty four with a little extra you know, at the
bottom there you have the four games, you know, and
yet no one ever counts those games.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
No, no, they don't even count.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
So the four schools that win those games, you will
you actually get a choice of two because in the
bracket it says either.

Speaker 3 (44:08):
Or right, yeah, and yeah, just keep it the way
it is.

Speaker 4 (44:15):
Yes, it really is unnecessary. It's going to just make
the beginning a little less interesting. And don't you want
to be interested from the beginning.

Speaker 8 (44:23):
I do.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
I do exactly, And like I've said many times, and
this is something that I think about every year.

Speaker 3 (44:29):
I have done shows, many shows over the years.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
On that Thursday and Friday, the first two days of
the tournam, you have sixteen games on Thursday, sixteen on Friday, eight,
on Saturday eight on Sunday to get to the sweet sixteen.
That Thursday and Friday should literally be national holidays. Nobody
is working, everyone is staring at their brackets.

Speaker 3 (44:50):
That's all anyone's doing all day long, right both those days.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
Some people say, well, you should only do it the
first day, because after the first day most people are
ripping up their brackets.

Speaker 3 (44:58):
I wouldn't rip up the brackets this year.

Speaker 7 (45:00):
No, I wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
I think when Mancy you brought this up earlier, there's
going to be a ton of upsets, if you can
even call them that. Yes, I don't even call them
upsets anymore, just you know, they're just the recognizable school names.

Speaker 3 (45:13):
And then you have schools like, oh, I don't know
anything about that school.

Speaker 4 (45:17):
That's the one that's going to go far.

Speaker 3 (45:18):
Well, yeah, that's that's it. So it's it's fun. So
March obviously is March Madness, but it's also a critical
time for the NBA. Now, we got a long way
to go.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
I mean, the playoffs will begin in April and then
it's an endless playoffs.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
We understand that.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
But I like where the NBA is right now, I
really do. I've been highly critical of the NBA. Certainly
they deserve to be criticized for that debacle that we
saw on All Star weekend. But since then, with the
Luca deal, at least for now, looking very positive for
the Lakers. The Jimmy Butler deal certainly has had positive

(45:57):
effects on the Golden State Warriors. Have these young teams
like Cleveland Oklahoma City. A lot of people just don't
trust they're as good as their record indicates. I mean,
these are the two best teams by far record wise
in the NBA, and then the Celtics of the team
to beat in the East.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
No one takes Cleveland. Did you see Cleveland? I mean,
how do you discount Cleveland with the backhart all star
backcourt that they have. They went into Boston overcame a deficit.
One in Boston, one in Boston. Yes, and Oklahoma City,
they've not just been winning, they've been winning big and.

Speaker 4 (46:35):
They win as a team, like yes, shay Gil just
Alexander is their star. But they play so together, Like
I feel like when I see them, they're just a
couple of friends that go out to play. They're gonna
go hoop and that's a problem. Well everybody else is maybe, oh,
I gotta go do my job. I feel like those
guys are out there they just want to go hoop.
And then after the game they all get interviewed together.

Speaker 5 (46:57):
They they're all friends and I feel like that so
it makes them stand out. Now will they get far?
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (47:03):
They are young, but I think that that gives them
an edge. I just feel like their brotherhood is very
tightly knit. And it's evident game after game, every interview,
it's all of them together. It doesn't matter who they're
trying to interview, they're all together.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
The dilemma for the NBA is simple. So you got
Adam Silver, the commissioner, sitting there. He's been very quiet
ever since. Remember that trade.

Speaker 4 (47:25):
Well, he doesn't have much to say because right now,
like you said, the NBA is thriving, not just because
of the teams. We've got Lebron talking smack to stephen A. Smith,
we got Charles and Kendrick Perkins fighting. The NBA right
now is thriving.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
Okay, you mentioned the stephen A. Okay, First of all,
we know that stephen A is a Diar Knicks fan. Yes,
he said that many times, many times.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
I respect that.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
I always respect guys in our industry to make it
clear who they like and don't like.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
The idea that you're an impartial observer is an oxymoron.
If you're in the business.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
The reason you're in this business is because you are
a sports fan. And if you're a sports fan, you
have schools or teams you like, and schools are teams
you don't like.

Speaker 3 (48:08):
Okay, that's being honest. Well, I'm an impartial observer. Get
out of here. I'm a sports journalist. Sports journalist, Come
on again, that's an oxymoron. If you wanted to be
a journalist, you're not going to be in sports. You're
a fan, okay, whether you're a writer, it doesn't matter
what you're doing in sports. You're just being a fan.
But you know, actually, somebody had asked me, I was
on a radio show yesterday, asked about you think that

(48:31):
was a setup? And I put it this way. I've
worked with stephen A, so I know who he is.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
I know what he's about, and I respect steven A
for his great success that he's had over the years,
and I wouldn't put it past him to embellish. Yes,
the bottom line is is that he's a Knicks fan.
And so if.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
Lebron is having fun with him.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
Because as he's an overt Knicks fan and he gets
into a little back and forth, I had to share
this story. Ready for this, this is a story for
back in the day. So I worked for the flagship
of the Lakers, So this is back in Kobe's day.
So we had a lot of back and forth with Kobe,

(49:20):
and I had a lot of fun with Kobe over
the years, but I was sort of what we call
the anti Kobe yes, because my partners at the time,
Michael Thompson, who's still of course part of the Laker broadcast,
father of Clay, and then Victor Brick Jacobs were die
hard suck ups to the Lakers. I mean like they
would never even hint of a disparaging word about the

(49:41):
Lakers period, and so I had to balance that on
our show.

Speaker 3 (49:46):
So I was at a Laker game at what was
then known as Staples Center, and I.

Speaker 2 (49:51):
Was out front and the statue area, and I was
there with my partner, vic the Brick, who was always
dressed in full Laker yah.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
Yeah, all right, he had a fur hat.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
I mean, I mean, imagine being a so called member
of the media and you're literally dressed in a Laker
poncho with a Laker fur hat on.

Speaker 3 (50:09):
All right, this is what I mean, Marshall journalist.

Speaker 11 (50:11):
Right.

Speaker 3 (50:12):
So I'm standing there and this young guy i'd say
late twenties, early thirties walks up to the two of
us and he said, oh, you know, Louise, you can't
listen to you guys all the time, you know, obviously
a Laker fan, and he was, you know, just saying
listening you guys, love you guys and everything else. And
standing behind him was this older gentleman.

Speaker 7 (50:34):
And he this.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
This guy locked eyes with me because the guy, this
young guy is like, hey Steve Harbin, Victor break blah
blah blah. And this old guy is locking eyes on me,
I mean with contempt. And then all of a sudden
he charges me, I wouldn't kill you.

Speaker 3 (50:55):
You want to say bad words about Kobe. And this
young guy is restraining and turns out there it's the
guy's dad and the dad's guy that says all these
bad things about Gore.

Speaker 7 (51:11):
I would kill you, how about it?

Speaker 3 (51:12):
And he's literally restraining him, and I'm standing there and
the guy's like, dad, calm down, calm down. It's a show.

Speaker 8 (51:20):
I will not take another day.

Speaker 3 (51:24):
And you and you feel that passion, right, what did
you tell you? I was was just horrified.

Speaker 8 (51:34):
I was.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
I almost started to laugh, but I mean I mean
literally his eyeballs are popping out of his Oh yeah,
he's an older guy, the gray hair and everything. He
charged me.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
Fortunately his son got in between. But he just the
verbal barrage. And believe me, I'm cleaning it up here
for radio right now of all the things he said
about me.

Speaker 3 (51:56):
But I mean, this is a good thing. And I
say it's a good thing because you know, we want
to bring passion to what we do.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
We do have passion to what we do. We have
passionate opinions. Whether you agree or disagree or it doesn't
really matter. This is how we feel. If you disagree, great,
if you don't. You know, you know, it works both
ways where.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
You know, people are like, ah, man, you're the smartest
guy in the room, and then the next guy is like,
you are a complete idiot. You know, I get this
all the time. But the bottom line is is that
that passion speaks volumes about the sport. If you have
fans that are that passionate, well we'll attack somebody for
being negative about someone on the team. And this whole

(52:38):
thing between steven A and Lebron, you want to see that.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
As a fan, You're like, yeah, you know, tell him off, man,
you know, let's let's get it back and forth. Steven
A understands that Lebron understands that, so you know, maybe
a little embellish.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
You know, steven A couldn't wait to talk about it
the next day. But that's a good thing for the NBA.

Speaker 4 (52:57):
Absolutely, we're again the as were already being talked.

Speaker 5 (53:01):
About with no real reason.

Speaker 4 (53:03):
Now there's actual reason to talk about them even more.
Whether that was done on purpose so that somebody would
catch it on camera, probably, you know, because there's I
have a hard time believing that lebron cannot get a
hold of stephen A privately, just literally, if you wanted
to talk to him, you to.

Speaker 5 (53:20):
Call him right now on the phone.

Speaker 4 (53:22):
So obviously that was done maybe so somebody would catch it.
And it's interesting how it was just like one video
that is out there where somebody caught him going up
to him and recorded it.

Speaker 5 (53:30):
Because I haven't seen other angles.

Speaker 4 (53:31):
The only angle I've seen is the back of steven A.
There's no other angle. So it's just interesting, you know
that we don't really see what steven A does. But
I agree I probably a little bit scripted in the
sense that they wanted people to see them have that interaction.

Speaker 3 (53:45):
Bottom line is you're talking NBA, Absolutely talking en talking
NBA and.

Speaker 4 (53:51):
With again a Lakers team that is doing well because
this wouldn't matter. If the Lakers weren't doing well right Like,
it wouldn't matter. People would be like, why are you
talking about the Lakers? Talk about the Cavs, talk about OKC,
and it's like, you're right right now, the Lakers are
playing really well and they're all of a sudden a
number two seating in the Western Conference.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
So all of this does matter.

Speaker 4 (54:11):
It's a good conversation to have as an anti Laker fan.
I want to talk about it.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
Everyone's talking about it. I don't.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
That's the bottom line. How about James Harden's fifty point
game the other day.

Speaker 4 (54:23):
James Harden, I apologize for ever doubting you. Okay, you
have been.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
You realize he's one fifty game short of tying Kobe
for third most fifty point games in an NBA career.

Speaker 4 (54:33):
He has scored fifty points against seventeen different.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
Franchise About that. Come on, come on, the Beard still
has he still had.

Speaker 4 (54:39):
I'm sorry for all the bad things I said, James,
take it back.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
Well, we'll have much more on The NBA is going
to be joined by our NBA insider, Mark Medena. This
is Fox Sports Saturday, Steve Hartman and Montcy Belanos. Here
Fox Sports Saturday coming alive from the tire rack dot
Com studios. By the way, you can read this show
and all of our Fox Sports Radio shows live twenty

(55:03):
four to seven and the new and improved iHeartRadio app.
Just search Fox Sports Radio in the app to stream
us live. And one of the newest features in the
app is that you can select Fox Sports Radio as
one of your presets. It's like the presets on a
radio dial, So be sure to preset Fox Sports Radio
and the iHeartRadio app. It will always pop up at

(55:26):
the top of your screen. It's one thing about getting
a new car, you know immediately I have to be
an old school I have to first of all bring
my daughter in the car because she.

Speaker 5 (55:39):
Has She's going to tell.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
These are the features dad, that you can actually make
your life easier.

Speaker 8 (55:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (55:47):
Do you have Apple TV in your car or Apple
the Now your phone is like right.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
There, yes, So in other words, I can control the
phone one hundred percent.

Speaker 5 (55:56):
I don't mean to be Apple.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
Yes, but I don't have.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
An app car, you remember, because I have this, Oh
you have a drawing, I have a droid.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
But I can control.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
I can control my telephone, not by packing it up well,
not that I ever done.

Speaker 4 (56:12):
That, but everything is right there. Good, yeah, so much LEAs,
much easier, much safer, Yes, absolutely, yes.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
So uh yeah, that's the good thing about it. So
once again we talked about streaming and everything else. That's
why I always look at some of these numbers and
you know how many people are watching sports and everything else.
And I'm like, you know, trust me, more people talk
about sports now than in my entire lifetime.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
And it's not even close. What was a niche when
I was a kid, seemingly a kid that was way
out there in that little, tiny world that was sports.
Now it's just this huge ocean, it really is. And
the big money just keeps rolling in and these athletes
are just you know, you know, we're just talking about name,

(57:03):
image and likeness. Like we were talking about a Cooper Flag, right,
So Cooper Flag is making about five million this year
at Duke.

Speaker 5 (57:10):
Not bad, it's not too shabby.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
And you know, you remembered this. He was seventeen at
the start of the year. He turned eighteen in December.
The fact that he was born in December two thousand
and six.

Speaker 5 (57:22):
That's gross.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
That's gross.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
I mean, I mean born December of two thousand and six.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
But you know he's been talking about maybe I want
to stay in Duke.

Speaker 3 (57:33):
I mean, what's the hurry wrong?

Speaker 1 (57:34):
Why not?

Speaker 3 (57:35):
And you're saying, Okay, let's say you double.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
Your nil money. Let's say you made ten million next year.
That's still not as much money as you're gonna make
in the NBA. And do the math. So his rookie
contract would be a four year deal he'd be making.
I mean, right now, your rookie deal's worth between let's
say twelve and twenty million each of the four years.
Then you start getting into the really big money. So
let's say his rookie contract is somewhere in that neighborhood.

(57:58):
But by the time he gets a year, assuming he's
as good at players everyone thinks he is, I mean,
we're looking at eighty million a year. So the longer
you put it off, the longer you have to wait
to get that deal.

Speaker 4 (58:14):
And I understand that, but college is short lived. Yes,
there's an expiration date on it. And I get that
you want to you're trying to get to the big
contract one percent, but you're already making good money that
I feel like if I was Cooper Cup. Why not
one more year? Live it up in college? You're the man.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
Well, Peyton Manning came back a senior year at Tennessee
and this is many years before they were making any money, obviously,
and he wanted one more run. Yeah, win a national championship.
Didn't win, It didn't win the Heisman. Didn't hurt his
NFL career at all.

Speaker 4 (58:48):
Look it up.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
Tim Duncan played four full years at Wake Forest. He
could have come out any year during that run. Did
it affect his NBA career? Actually for the better because
he was ready for the NBA day one.

Speaker 4 (58:59):
And I did it without making any money. So here
you are making money, able to live your best college life.

Speaker 6 (59:07):
College.

Speaker 5 (59:08):
Yes, the best time.

Speaker 4 (59:10):
And there's an expiration date on it. Would you go
back to college?

Speaker 2 (59:15):
I do in my dreams all the time, because that
is I don't know about you. I'm always the guy
that has that dream that suddenly I have re enrolled
in college, not shown up for any classes is exactly
what it was for me at UCLA and then all
of a sudden lights the day of a final and
I absolutely not only don't know where the class is,

(59:35):
I don't even know what the class is.

Speaker 4 (59:38):
Is this a recurring nightmare for you?

Speaker 3 (59:39):
I have this a lot, do you do?

Speaker 2 (59:42):
I always seem to have a lot of dreams where
I'm trying to find my way to someplace.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
Or out of some place. That is that is a
recurring theme with a lot of a.

Speaker 4 (59:52):
Lot of your dreams. Have you looked into what that means?
There has to be an underlying meaning I have.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
I have very vivid dreams, like I make up and
I remember my dreams.

Speaker 3 (01:00:02):
Yeah, I'll look it up.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Yeah, I have to figure that one out. All right,
let's find out what is trending right now. Mark meden
are NBA insider is going to be joining us on
the other side. But first, the ultimate Insider, Martin, how
are you moving?

Speaker 10 (01:00:16):
The Ultimate Insider in that I am currently inside the
update booth.

Speaker 7 (01:00:20):
That is about as far inside as you'll.

Speaker 3 (01:00:23):
Be inside this studio very shortly.

Speaker 7 (01:00:24):
Yeah, but as far as insider.

Speaker 5 (01:00:26):
You're insider, you're inside.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
No. Do you ever have dreams about returning to the
University of Michigan? Everyone's no.

Speaker 11 (01:00:35):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
Dreams about going back to college?

Speaker 8 (01:00:37):
No? No.

Speaker 10 (01:00:38):
And if I was not a dream about going back
to college, your damn sure wouldn't be about homework, loser.

Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
You didn't. You didn't have homework back in my day.
I heard to tell you that.

Speaker 7 (01:00:49):
I heard some of your stories about I. You maneuvered
those blue book exams.

Speaker 3 (01:00:52):
You had to do it, man. That was the survival
of the fittest.

Speaker 10 (01:00:56):
Authorities have declined to press charges against Chiefs far receiver xavier' Worthy.
Worthy was arrested Friday night in Williamson County, Texas on
a charge of assault of a family member or house
member by impeding the breathing or circulation. But the Attorney General,
I mean sorry, the district attorney in Austin says he

(01:01:16):
is not currently accepting the case, so no charge is
pressed against Xavier Worthy. Ronnie Stanley and the Ravens agreed
to a three year, sixty million dollar deal with forty
four million dollars guaranteed.

Speaker 7 (01:01:28):
The Chiefs and wide receiver Hollywood.

Speaker 10 (01:01:29):
Brown have agreed to a one year contract for the
twenty twenty five season, and Cincinnati tied end Mike Gasecki
agrees to a three year deal to stay with the Bengals.
In men's college basketball, we have a couple of games
going on right now. Number two Duke with a forty
one to thirty two lead over North Carolina with three
minutes left in the first half, just under nine minutes
left in the first half, and number eleven Clemson Oh.

Speaker 7 (01:01:50):
Wow, fifty three to thirty five.

Speaker 10 (01:01:52):
The score between them and Virginia Attack for DNA attack
thirteen and seventeen on the year. Fifth rank Florida has
a sixty eight to forty nine lead over Mississippi just
over ten minutes left in the first half there earlier today,
Mark seriars today overtime game winning floater for Alabama, the
seventh thraine team in the nation, and beat Auburn, the
number one ring team in the nation, ninety three to
ninety one. Tennessee b South Carolina seventy five to sixty five,

(01:02:16):
Saint John's in overtime squeeze past twenty three to Marquette
eighty six to eighty four. Tenth rank to Iowa State
with the win over Kansay State. Wisconsin upset by Penn
State eighty six to seventy five. Louisville beat Stanford, Maryland
beat Northwestern sixteenth i MEAN nineteenth rank Kentucky beat fifteenth
ranked Missouri ninety one to eighty three and John CALLIPOWERI

(01:02:37):
and the Arkansas Razorbacks upset Mississippi State twenty five I'm
sorry ninety three to ninety one ninety two.

Speaker 7 (01:02:43):
Mississippi State is the twenty fifth ranked team.

Speaker 10 (01:02:45):
In the nation and in the NBA right now, seven
twenty two left in the third quarter, Brooklyn as a
sixty eight to fifty six lead over Charlotte, and the
Houston Rockets lead the New Orleans Pelicans twenty eight to
eighteen with three minutes left in the first quarter.

Speaker 7 (01:03:00):
Monsey back to you and Nerd Steve rt.

Speaker 3 (01:03:03):
Thank you very much, Ultimate Nerd. Please, if you're gonna
address me any way, thank you, Thank you very much.

Speaker 8 (01:03:08):
Martin.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Once again, we're coming you live from the tire rack
dot Com studios. Don't forget after the show. Our podcast
is going up, so if you miss any of today's show,
check out the podcast is. Search Fox Sports Radio wherever
we gets your podcasts and follow review and.

Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
Well that podcast rated five stars.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
Please just give it the Ultimate five stars again, just
search Fox Sports Radio wherever we gets your podcast is
see today's show posted right after we get off the air.

Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
One reason to give it a five stars is this.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
Man joining us right now is our NBA insider and
a man that I brushed elbows with just the other day,
The great Mark Medina is joining us right now. Mark,
were you in a state of shock to actually see
me at a Lakers game?

Speaker 11 (01:03:46):
Well? I wasn't at a state of shock to see
at a Lakers game, because You've been at plenty of
Lakers games. But I was at a state of shock
to see you at that game because I didn't know
about it. But it was cool to reminisce and also
see how giddy to reunite.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
Well, yes, for those that don't know, Jim Hill is
a legendary longtime television sports.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
Anchor in the LA area. It's got a star in
the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
I was there when that star was actually introduced, and
we did a show called Sports Central that I was
the original co host of for twelve years, and now
Mark does it. So it's like, yeah, they had They
took a picture of us together called us the Ogs.

Speaker 3 (01:04:29):
Is that a good thing? I don't know.

Speaker 11 (01:04:30):
I just you know, it's always a good thing. I
think people call Lebron James and Kevin Durant, Steph Curry
og so you're a good confidence.

Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
Nice all right, Mark, Let's let's talk a little bit
about what's been going on with Luca and the Lakers.

Speaker 3 (01:04:44):
I had some thoughts early on. I didn't know if
the chemistry would be right.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
But I pointed out to Montcy after that ugly loss
they had to Charlotte that.

Speaker 3 (01:04:53):
Lebron brought it up. Look, it's not about him fitting
him with us. We need to fit in with him.
Uh And it seems led by Lebron, they've done just that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
And you just see the comfort level of Luca now
on the court with Lebron and his new Laker teammates.

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
How far are we going to go with this?

Speaker 11 (01:05:11):
Well, they could win a championship. I'm not going to
pin them as the favorites yet. I think that's still honor.
That honor still is among Oklahoma City, Boston or Cleveland.
The look the Lakers eight game winning streaker, nine and two.
Since the Luca Doctics trade the Celtics tonight, that can
give some clarity on where they stand. But I think

(01:05:33):
that this fit with Lebron and lucas been seamless. They're
two generational talents and they make because of their gravity
guys are making open shots all of a sudden. I
don't understand this, but without Anthony Davis they're almost on
a better defensive team. But I think got the question
at hand. The Lebron Luca fit, what I've seen is

(01:05:53):
almost kind of an inverse of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul
Jabbar and hear me out here, doesn't necessarily need to
worry about scoring. He's willing to give that up, just
as it was with Kareem, willing to give up kind
of the locker room because that's their natural instincts anyway,
But it's still Lebron's team, Kareem's case. He's still getting

(01:06:15):
the touches. So what I'm getting at is it's a
perfect fit as far as Luca, Lebron, Magic and Kareem
because there is that hierarchy, but it allows, you know,
both players not to do have to do as much
as they once did before.

Speaker 4 (01:06:32):
Mark, nice talking to you, Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 11 (01:06:35):
Likewise, all right, so we gotta.

Speaker 5 (01:06:37):
Let's talk the MVP here, Mark, because I feel.

Speaker 4 (01:06:40):
Like for the entire season up until now, really it's
been Shae Gil just Alexander and for good reason. But
Nikola Jokic what he has also done all season.

Speaker 5 (01:06:51):
Including last night making history.

Speaker 4 (01:06:55):
Is the MVP now gonna change for the last couple
of weeks of the NBA.

Speaker 11 (01:07:00):
Oh, it's definitely going to be fluid. I think that
a lot of people will still favor Shait go to
Alexander because the thunder are the best team in the
Western Conference, and he's really elevated his game where he's
a lot more consistent, not just with his strengths as scoring,
but better being a better passer, mitigating some of his
defensive shortcomings. But you know, I open the season, I

(01:07:24):
talked to a few gms and most of them chose Shay,
but a few of them said, you know what, I'm
going to put my vote from Nikole Jokic because he's
still going to be playing at a high caliber level.
And even if I have question marks about Denver and
consistency and how they've lost a bunch of key role players,
that's going to highlight Nikole Jokic's value even more. And

(01:07:47):
it is a Most Valuable Player award, And so I
think that some people will vote accordingly, but there's no
way around it. A lot of people still use win
loss records Sometimes when an MVP caliber players already won
an awards, sometimes that goes against them of being an incumbent.
But this race is going to go down to the wire,
and I think it will ultimately go down Queen Shay

(01:08:09):
and Nicola.

Speaker 5 (01:08:10):
Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.

Speaker 4 (01:08:11):
So, voter fatigue is a real thing with Nikola Jokic,
it is.

Speaker 11 (01:08:16):
It is a real thing. But what's challenging is there's
so many variables each year. I don't know in the
percentage pie where voter fatigue fits in. Sometimes that does
fit in, Sometimes the win loss record fits in. Sometimes
just individual brilliant performances fit in, like the Nikola Jokic
thirty twenty twenty triple double yesterday. It kind of varies

(01:08:39):
year to year, but predominantly those are the three factors
that most voters take into account.

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
All right, So, Oklahoma City is eleven games clear of
the rest of the Western Conference, and the Cleveland Cavaliers
have the best record in the NBA. They are eight
games ahead of the Celtics, currently on a thirteen game
winning streak, and no one not only is predicting a
Cavaliers thunder NBA Finals, it seems like no one wants

(01:09:08):
a Cavaliers Thunder NBA Finals. So when you're looking at
the two seeds right now, the Celtics Lakers versus Cavs Thunder.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
I think it's very clear where the NBA would stand
on this. Why aren't people taking the Thunder, who, by
the way, have a point differential of twelve point eight
per game this year and the Cavaliers with their fifty
three to ten record, thirteen game winning streak, Why are
they not taking them more seriously as so far clearly

(01:09:40):
the two best teams in the NBA.

Speaker 11 (01:09:43):
Well, really good question. There's a few things on pack here.
I think that the Oklahoma City Thunder, there are some skepticism. Okay,
they haven't made a deep playoff push. They're still quote
unquote and experience with the Cleveland Cavaliers. They've had regular
season success, but we've seen in history that that doesn't
always mean anything in the playoffs. The most recent examples

(01:10:06):
that come to mind twenty nineteen Houston Rockets, they weren't
able to beat the Warriors in seven games in the
Western Conference Finals. The Phoenix Suns, yes, they got the
NBA Finals in twenty twenty one. The following years after
flamed out. But I think the Cleveland Cavaliers have shown
they're not those kind of teams because Kenny Atkinson instant
impact is a great offensive mine first year head coach,

(01:10:28):
and the chemistry with their backcourt Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell.
They compliment each other well. Same thing with Evan Bobowie
and Jared Allen with the Thunder. There might be some
weaknesses with their rebounding, their questions can't shut homeer and
stay healthy, but Shay has been on the tear. They
have so many wing defenders and that means a lot

(01:10:49):
in the playoffs. But with all that said, I would
pin Oklahoma City and Boston we get to the finals.
But you see teams like the Lakers, the Warriors, they
may teach very deadline moves. They're now in the picture.
The Denver Nuggets, they stole the shot because of their
Koyovick web gain at This is going to be a
very wide open playoffs and it's gonna be fun to watch.

Speaker 9 (01:11:10):
All right.

Speaker 4 (01:11:11):
You know, I have to ask about the Clippers Mark, so.

Speaker 5 (01:11:13):
Of course, okay, okay, of course I got it.

Speaker 4 (01:11:15):
So the two questions we'll quick here.

Speaker 11 (01:11:18):
I answer the question that Clippers aren't winning the champion Mark.

Speaker 4 (01:11:22):
Why yeah, why would you just burst my bubble so fast?

Speaker 5 (01:11:25):
No, listen, I know that. Okay Withoo.

Speaker 4 (01:11:27):
Two questions here, Norman Powell, Exactly when did that injury happen?

Speaker 5 (01:11:32):
I'm just confused because it seemed like it. Did it
happen when he was participating at All Star weekend.

Speaker 4 (01:11:37):
I feel like it came out of nowhere and he's
still injured and we need him. Second, I feel like
when the Clippers lose is because Zoo doesn't get the ball.

Speaker 11 (01:11:47):
Yeah, well, there's two things. When norm Pal got the injury,
not queer Clippers aren't very transparent with that, but left
the teller knee injuries are very sensitive, so uh, you know,
it kind of has its ways of getting better sometimes,
you know not, so when he came back, I think
he had more complications with it beats the Zoo bots. Yeah.

(01:12:09):
That's something that actually Tylu mentioned to me during one
of the before one of the games this past week.
If they talk a lot about how best to feature them,
they want to feature them a lot. But yes, they
often say it also depends on who has the hot hand,
how he's being defended. But I'm with you. When the
Clippers are playing well, he's having a monster performance, so

(01:12:31):
it's on them to put him in the best position
to succeed, to make sure he gets the ball.

Speaker 3 (01:12:36):
Yeah, all right, so there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:12:38):
See, I thought she was going to ask you about
James Hardy after it's fifty point game MVP talk.

Speaker 5 (01:12:42):
Let's go James.

Speaker 11 (01:12:44):
They beat the Knicks well without Jalen brunss. I guess
that doesn't cot I.

Speaker 4 (01:12:47):
No, no, we also beat the Pistons.

Speaker 3 (01:12:49):
Hey, hey, all right, wait, wait, why he mentioned he
did a couple of weeks. What's what's the update on
Brunson's injury.

Speaker 11 (01:12:55):
Yeah, I was at the Clippers next game yesterday. They
haven't given a definitive timetable, only they're reevaluating him in
two weeks. The key thing for the listener, that doesn't
mean that's when he's coming back. That's when they're going
to see. Okay, what can you do? They didn't say
severity of ankle sprain. It could be grade one, two
or three. But the reality of this, guys, they're in

(01:13:16):
third place in the West or the East that were
clearly behind Boston and Cleveland. They don't they're only I
think four and a half games over Milwaukee, so they're
very vulnerable. They're going to lean on Carl Anthony Towns.
They do have some depth with Josh Harnojian Andobi, but
I think that's a very tough hill to climb. They'll
still be in the playoffs, but I don't think that

(01:13:37):
they're going to be a contending team.

Speaker 4 (01:13:38):
Sucks for the Knicks. Mark, thank you so much for
joining us.

Speaker 5 (01:13:42):
We appreciate if.

Speaker 4 (01:13:42):
You guys want to follow Mark on Twitter, Instagram, Mark
g underscore Medina. He's doing a bunch of stuff. We
actually just saw you on TV about an hour ago while.

Speaker 5 (01:13:50):
We were doing the show, or like, there's Mark Medina.
Thank you. We will talk to you next week.

Speaker 11 (01:13:55):
Love it always honored me on the best Fox Sports
radio show the Weekend.

Speaker 8 (01:13:59):
Appreciate you.

Speaker 3 (01:14:00):
It is the great.

Speaker 2 (01:14:01):
Mark Medina read it just like we wrote it, I know, right,
absolutely does never misses and saying that all right, coming
up on the other side, what kind of week do
we have ahead in the sports world? Will break it down?
This is Fox Sports Saturday Fire the great videos Ever,

(01:14:22):
did you ever see the video of this warrant?

Speaker 5 (01:14:25):
I don't know if I have seen it. Now I
gotta go see if I have seen it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:28):
I mean it's a great pie. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:14:31):
What what is this song in? Is this in Wayne's world?

Speaker 5 (01:14:34):
Why do I have likeg it?

Speaker 4 (01:14:35):
Well?

Speaker 3 (01:14:36):
They play this a lot of places, but it was
most notorious.

Speaker 7 (01:14:38):
For its video.

Speaker 3 (01:14:40):
It's let me see him warrant cherry Pie.

Speaker 2 (01:14:44):
All right once again Fox Sports Saturday. We're coming alive
from the tire rack dot Com studios. I want to
thank our crew today. Martin New Chorus getting ready for his.

Speaker 3 (01:14:53):
Own show here. So he just goes from one booth
to the next.

Speaker 2 (01:14:56):
That's right, Mary Mac. Just playing my tunes, a lot
of my tunes today.

Speaker 5 (01:15:00):
Mary mc, you're talking about you played Spice Girls and
you didn't even react.

Speaker 3 (01:15:03):
I just let it go.

Speaker 2 (01:15:05):
But because I knew that she was sometimes she decides, Okay,
I'm going to give Steve a day. Sure, sure, yeah,
well I appreciate that, Mary Mack, thank you so much.
I and of course putting this whole thing together is
our new brilliant producer and we got so much coming up.

Speaker 3 (01:15:20):
I mean, it's getting to that point. Are you seeing
the video yet?

Speaker 4 (01:15:24):
Yes? No, I have seen this, Yes you have seen it.
I have seen this video. It's been a while, but
I've seen it.

Speaker 3 (01:15:29):
Yes, can you even have that video like that anymore?

Speaker 2 (01:15:32):
I mean it's like it's so over the top that
it's like in those days, you could play that kind
of stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:15:37):
You just music videos in general. I used to get
ready for school watching MTV music videos in the morning, right,
That's how I got ready. Now, music videos are.

Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
Like I know, if you had been around when you know,
MTV was first introduced back in my day, and.

Speaker 3 (01:15:52):
We literally would watch it all day long.

Speaker 2 (01:15:54):
Even though they basically had the rotation of about ten
to fifteen videos, they played over and over and over again.

Speaker 4 (01:15:59):
Watch it all over.

Speaker 3 (01:16:00):
They still have like that channel, like you know, back
to the eighties the night you know, but.

Speaker 4 (01:16:04):
It's not the same. It's not They're not the same.

Speaker 3 (01:16:08):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:16:08):
So we got March Madness again a week from tomorrow.
I we were talking about this that next Saturday, we'll
give Medina a week off. We should get Aaron Torres
on the show. That guy, yeah, that guy. I mean,
Aaron is you know, so connected to the college game,
but especially when it comes to college basketball.

Speaker 3 (01:16:30):
Of course, he's a U kond guy. You know.

Speaker 2 (01:16:32):
I want to hear what he has to say. I
mean it's you know, they're all thinking about a three
peat this year. You know when Hurley decided to stay
instead of taking you know, allegedly the Laker job. Well
they were destroying Seaton Hall earlier today.

Speaker 3 (01:16:45):
Yeah, I mean I want to get his thoughts on that.

Speaker 2 (01:16:47):
But see if you can sneak him into our final
hour next Saturday, Yeah, which will be the day before
selection Sunday, and then things get serious. You know, get
those brackets out. Do you do you only do a
bracket or how does that work? Because I know you're
in multiple fantasy football leagues. I mean one league's going well,

(01:17:07):
suddenly you're competing.

Speaker 4 (01:17:09):
No, I only I think the first year I did
a bracket, I think I did two, and then.

Speaker 5 (01:17:13):
I felt like I cheated. I felt dirty. So I
no longer do two brackets.

Speaker 3 (01:17:19):
Just one.

Speaker 5 (01:17:20):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (01:17:21):
See here, I don't think it's the same as playing
multiple fantasy football.

Speaker 2 (01:17:24):
Here's the problem because again, I'm a diehard UCLA guy.
Right Like in twenty twenty one when they went from
the first four to the final four, I think I
actually did have an winning that first game they were
going against I believe it was Michigan State and they
were down big in that game early came back and
then I had them out, and then you had it.

Speaker 3 (01:17:42):
And then when they get a run, I'm like, and then.

Speaker 8 (01:17:44):
You just you.

Speaker 3 (01:17:46):
I could have I could have nobody had U sill
a the final four. I could have just Homer did
the whole way to the final four. Yeah, so's it's
that fine line. Yes, you know, I only do one bracket.
I just you know, I just do one, and I
do a very neatly. I print it out.

Speaker 2 (01:18:01):
Of course, I do a print out, and I can't
handwrite worked crap, but I have I have good printing,
you know, and I can print really well. Yes, and
it's all bracketed. And then I circle winners or do
you cross out losers?

Speaker 3 (01:18:16):
How do you do it?

Speaker 4 (01:18:17):
I I scribble out the I don't just do one
line across. I scribble out so I can't see the
name at all.

Speaker 3 (01:18:23):
Really, yes?

Speaker 11 (01:18:24):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:18:24):
What?

Speaker 4 (01:18:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:18:25):
So do you you do you circle winners or cross
out losers or both?

Speaker 4 (01:18:29):
I cross out the loser cross yes, but but I
like it. It looks cleaner.

Speaker 3 (01:18:35):
But what are you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
And do you do you circle winners cross out losers
both neither.

Speaker 3 (01:18:41):
It's all digital. It's an app, so it just's automatic.

Speaker 5 (01:18:45):
Need you to print it out and have.

Speaker 2 (01:18:46):
To print The idea is you need to walk around
with a bracket and.

Speaker 4 (01:18:52):
Then when you're mad at your bracket, you can just
rip it up and by the end of.

Speaker 3 (01:18:56):
It you're like that aspect, I like that, I can
as you just hitting the delete buttons, I'm saying gone.

Speaker 5 (01:19:03):
Or like, do you also like write it out? And
then you're like no, no, no, I.

Speaker 4 (01:19:07):
Messed up, and like you change your answer like before
it actually starts.

Speaker 3 (01:19:10):
But well then you scribble it out.

Speaker 5 (01:19:12):
Yeah, you scribble it out.

Speaker 3 (01:19:13):
But then how do you know that that wasn't a
seam that lost and it was you said, that's the
same gradual.

Speaker 5 (01:19:18):
So then well it's it's the one that's visible.

Speaker 4 (01:19:21):
And then if I if it loses again, then there's
a bunch of scribbles on it.

Speaker 5 (01:19:24):
Don't don't don't question.

Speaker 3 (01:19:27):
By the way, I do want to. I do want
to tell you guys, we have a bracket challenge here
at Fox Sports Radio, and last year I finished top four.
Stop bragging, yeah, the idea and as a matter of.

Speaker 5 (01:19:39):
Fact, stop bragging.

Speaker 3 (01:19:40):
Yeah, In fact, I had you con Winny at all,
Everyone's like, what you you con after you were terrorizing
her in doors for being a home Mber that I
didn't remember that, and I just give him all this screevall.
But you'd take you going to win it all right.

Speaker 5 (01:19:55):
Because you were like history so top or much more.

Speaker 3 (01:19:57):
Coming up here on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 11 (01:20:00):
He

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Fox Sports Radio News

Host

Jonas Knox

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Steve Hartman & Monse Bolaños Talk Quarterback Carousel, Surging Lakers & More!