Aaron Torres & Jason Martin discuss LeBron vs. Stephen A., Mark Cuban’s comments, Geno Smith to the Raiders & MORE!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 2 (00:04):
Welcome in everybody, Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday, Ertors
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(00:26):
way tire buying should be. Ertors and the tireraq La Studios,
Jason Martin and Nashville, Jmartin. A lot of college basketball,
a lot of NBA, even a little bit of NFL news.
Not good news if you're a Chiefs fan. We'll get
to that a little bit later. But it is a
busy Saturday. Jmart How are you, my man?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Pretty good man? Fired up to talk over the next
three hours. Draft crazy season of lies is beginning. We're
starting to see some weird trades, some weird moves happening,
some things that we weren't talking about a couple of
weeks ago. And yeah, March is here, which means the
madness is right around the corner. And the NBA, hey,

(01:07):
that's a marquee matchup that they had tonight with Boston
in La. I mean that's that's exactly what you want.
And that's what Charles Barkley would think too. I imagine, Well.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
I was gonna ask you. I just wanted to know.
You know, will you be telling your grandkids about March A,
twenty twenty five, the night that the greatest two week
dynasty in the history of the NBA just ended. I mean,
I've been told by everybody in Charles Barkley seemed to
insinuate the same thing that I mean now that the

(01:36):
Luker the Lakers had Luka Doncic, I mean, they were unbeatable.
In JJ Reddick, he had all these schemes, and Lebron
he's playing like he's twenty four again. Listen, I'll be
quick and I want to throw it to you for
your take. By the way, Disager did just tell you.
But it is a final in Boston. The Celtics do
get a win. Celtics were a pretty big in the
third quarter. Uh, Lakers made a run, but Celtics do

(01:58):
win one eleven, one oh one. Jason Tatum with forty
for the fourth time this season. Yeah, so I guess
I want to throw it over to you. But the
bottom line is this is that we've talked about the
Lakers awesome season, awesome story. But I just go back
to what we said last week. Is that listen the
last two coaches that have coached Lebron, Darvin Ham ind

(02:21):
a Western Conference finals. Two years ago, Frank Vogel won
an NBA title. So to me, listen, what Lebron is
doing at forty years old, we will probably never see again.
Luca is a top five player in the league that
you and I both don't understand how he's even a
Laker to begin with. But it has felt like it's
great that they've gone on a little nice run here,

(02:41):
but it has felt a little bit like maybe the
media wants them to be a little bit better than
they actually are. Does that feel fair to say? Jason Martin?

Speaker 3 (02:51):
Absolutely, And look, I don't blame them for wanting them
to be good because they know that it's good for them.
It's like when Dallas is good or when they're really bad,
that's usually good in the NFL for the talking heads,
that's good for the people in our industry. When the
Lakers are good or when they're terrible, that can be
interesting as long as there's something there in terms of

(03:13):
a storyline. So I can understand it to a degree,
but you and I talked about this last week and
nothing has changed with me. They're playing well, but let's
calm down the reason tonight happened. I mean, yeah, look,
they've been on quite a streak over this last couple
of weeks, and they deserve to have some flowers given

(03:34):
to him, no question. But Boston's a defending champion, and
they're better, They're deeper, they have more talent, they have
more experience playing together. You saw tonight what it looks like,
Lebron Luca combined for let's see, fifty six points. It
wasn't a great night for Lebron, but he played thirty
five minutes in a game. But you look at the

(03:54):
other side, like, so they combined for fifty six. Then
on the flip side, Tatum gave you forty and jaymen
Brown gave you thirty one, So they scored seventy one together.
You're not gonna be able to win because outside, like,
if you look at the Lakers roster, and let's just
be honest about it, if we're looking at this, you've
got Lebron and you've got Luca, and then you've got
Austin Reeves and then you get a bunch of guys,

(04:15):
and that's the problem. Like when you get into the playoffs,
you need more than just some guys. Look, I've been
impressed with the way that they've played. Do I think
they can win a championship? No? I don't. Could I
be wrong, absolutely, But I won't be betting on the
Lakers on this show. I won't be saying that the
Lakers are gonna go win no matter what they do.

(04:35):
Right now, I need to see this last I mean,
Luca has dealt with some injuries, Lebron is old, Lebron
looked pretty gased tonight, thank you, and he's gonna have
that moment. But the question is is it gonna have
it at the wrong time when they can't afford to
lose in the playoffs. They've already been better this year
than I thought they were, and Reddick deserves a lot
of credit. He's done a very nice job there. This

(04:56):
is not let's crap on the Lakers for the next hour.
It is to say, though, can we be objective about
this and see them for what they are, which is
h This is interesting. Let's see where this goes as
opposed to they're gonna win it all. They've got every
piece we told you. Look at this like what changed?
Like who's playing defense? But seriously, just answer the question,

(05:19):
what's different about what we're seeing right here and what
we're seeing in Phoenix over the last couple of years
when you got Kevin Durant and then when you got
Bradley Beal, but you already had Booker and gave up
defense in order to do it. Well, what did the
Lakers do Well? They acquired Luka Doncic and they gave
up defense, They gave up Anthony Davis, they gave up
size on the inside. And I'm not saying I wouldn't
have done that. I'm just saying, if we've seen this

(05:42):
not work in the past, why all of a sudden,
are we just completely losing our objectivity? And I think
that's what it is. It's just we and I mean
we facetiously here. We want the Lakers to do this
because it's good for our business.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
So he basically took the words are out of my mouth?
Is you know the reason? First of all, I will say,
I agree. I think JJ Riddick's been awesome. You know, Listen,
clearly Lebron believes in him, which is most important. By
the way, we should mention Lebron did leave the game
with a groin strain tonight. We will see if there's
any updates before we get off air. You know, he
is forty years old. Stuff is going to happen. Hopefully

(06:19):
it's nothing that's going to be lingering. But no, I mean,
this is my thing with the Lakers, and it's exactly
what you just said. Is that listen, I understand it's new.
It's certainly interesting because we're gonna listen to what Mark
Cuban had to say about the trade here in about
fifteen twenty minutes and even Mark Cuban can't explain the trade.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
So it's new.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
It's interesting. It's the Glamour franchise, it's the Glamour player
of the last twenty years. I get all of it.
What I will also say, and I don't want to
be a wet blanket on what is probably the most
interesting story the NBA has had in a while. I
just keep going back to exactly what you said, J
mart Is, is just the idea that, first of all,
I go back to what I said last week. Is

(06:59):
Lebron He's amazing, Okay, and this is not crap on
Lebron because they lost the Celtics, the defending champ, but
it's also I go back to that Western Conference Finals
two years ago, and I've said it time and time again.
If you watch those games, he was great for a half,
he was great for two and a half quarters, and
he would wear down at the end of every single game.

(07:19):
Luka Doncic. Why in theory was he traded from the
Dallas Mavericks because he wore down and they didn't think
he could finish a playoff run. And so I just
I think that one you absolutely have to get the
best version of those two guys to have any chance
that goes without saying, you have to have it for

(07:40):
four rounds. And then, like you said, what else are
they surrounded by? I understand that Lakers fans love love
Austin Reeves. He's a very good player as a number
three guy. I don't know, you know, Oklahoma City's got
a pretty good number three. By the way, the Celtics
have two Olympians as they're three four five guys when
you add Derek White and Holiday, who I know has

(08:00):
been a little bit banged up. But it's like other
teams have other good players too, and I'm just with you.
It just it has felt like the last month that
it has just been this thing of it's it. We
basically exactly what you said, we want it to be.
We want this to happen, So we're just gonna speak
it into existence. We're just gonna talk about the Lakers

(08:22):
as if it's a done deal. Just put them in
the NBA Finals and then who knows. I mean, maybe
it'll be the Celtics, maybe it'll be the Cavs. But
just we don't even need to play the rest of
this regular season because this because the the Los Angeles
Lakers are so good and I just see a team
with two very you know, elite, high level front end
players with a lot of questions behind them, and even

(08:44):
the two front end players, there are plenty of questions
about as well as we get deeper into an eighty
two game regular season into a playoffs. By the way, listen,
I don't know exactly what the final you know, six weeks,
eight weeks of the regular season is gonna look like,
but my guess is they're gonna to be fighting for seeding,
fighting for positioning. It's not as though you know this

(09:04):
is two thousand and you know thirteen Lebron where it's like,
just get him into the playoffs with whatever seed, it
doesn't matter. I don't know. I just I've gone on
long enough. The point I'm trying to make is I
agree with you wholeheartedly. I think it's a cool story
with certainly interesting characters. But I think it's a better
story right now than it is a reality.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah, I agree with that. I think that's that's well said,
that last part especially, But I just my whole take
on it is if it happens, great, it's gonna be
good for the league, and I certainly don't think it's
a bad thing. It has generated some interest, there's some
stuff here, right, but let's let them earn it, Like,
let's not AstroTurf this thing to death, because if you

(09:44):
really believe that it can happen, then you don't have
to sell it. It's gonna sell itself. You don't have
to overplay your hand. It's going to sell itself. It's
going to work itself out exactly the way that you
want it to. And if you're not so sure about that, okay,
then what exactly are you doing as you're trying to
wish cast this thing into existence, like you are trying

(10:05):
to generate content that isn't something that you actually believe.
So I just need you to back off because we're
sixty one games in. If you're watching right now and
comes in terms of the Lakers record right now, forty
and twenty one, there's still you know, a quarter of
the season left, and then there's the playoffs. There's a
long long way to go. If we're sitting here in

(10:27):
June and we're still talking about the Lakers, trust me,
we will be giving them all the praise and props,
and we are giving them some praise. I just think
we need to back it down just a little bit.
Let's keep it in at least like second or third gear.
Let's let's keep our powder dry just a bit when
it comes to this story so we have somewhere to
go when they've actually done something. Let's let's not talk

(10:48):
about the movie that hasn't come out yet, as if
we know it's gonna be this is this is seriously
like a movie that's coming out in three months and
you're just like, it's could be the greatest movie of
all time. It's gonna be the greatest movie of all time.
Then you see another trailer and you're like, oh, greatest
movie of all time. It looks even better. Now can
you believe this? One month? Await, Oh, this is gonna

(11:09):
be like I can't wait for this. This is gonna
be incredible. And you go see the movie and it's
all right, like it's pretty good, but it's not the
greatest film of all time. And then you get out
of there, and then what are you gonna do? You're caught.
You're either going to lie and say told you best
movie of all time, even if you don't believe it,
or you're gonna say, maybe we overdid that a little bit.

(11:31):
So I'm just I am asking for people like us
in our industry to just chill, just relax. We're all
gonna get to see this thing play out. What you
want to have happen. You never know it might happen.
But how about don't look like a fool on the
way there.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
You know what this is. This is and I've used
this example a million times, so for people listen to
us regularly, forgive me. This is the team version of
the Anthony Edwards narrative from last spring and I've said
it a million times, j Mart, You're probably tired of
me here saying it. But it was Anthony Edwards is, oh, man,
he's really good. Oh Anthony Edwards. You know, at some
point he could be the face of the league. Oh Anthony

(12:12):
Edwards might be the best player in the league right now. Oh,
Anthony Edwards might actually be Michael Jordan. And it was like,
how did we go from he's really good to he
might be Michael Jordan in like a six game span.
That was basically the Lakers. They went from you know,
they went from oh, this is a really interesting story
to hey, they're one step away for being the seventy
three and nine Golden State Warriors. It's like, let's let it,

(12:34):
you know, let's let him play a few games together.
So it's interesting. The Lakers do lose tonight, and again,
as J Mart said to lead the same this isn't
tear down the Lakers. This is let's be realistic and
honest about the Lakers. They are a very good team.
But by the way, it is also worth noting their
next seven games, two against Denver, two against Milwaukee, and realistically,

(12:55):
and I hope I'm wrong on this, but Lebron left
the game tonight with a groin strain. Wonder how much
or when he will be available. So I just bring
it up to say we should probably pump the brakes
a little bit on the Lakers, who do take d
l in Boston Tonight, Fox Sports Radio ertors Jason Martin.
We are broadcasting live from the Tirack dot com studios.
Tell you what, Jamart, you thought the action on the

(13:17):
court tonight with the Celtics and Lakers was good. The
rivalry off of it with Lebron and certain media member,
that's the real story of the week in Lakerland. We'll
discuss that next. Ertors Jason Martin, Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 4 (13:30):
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 (13:43):
Welcome back, everybody, Fox Sports Radio Aerators Jason Martin, broadcasting
live from the Tiraq dot com studio. Busy Saturday in
the world of sports. How about this busy week in
the world of sports? And we saw over the course
of the week the latest iteration of the best rivalry
in sports. Not talking about Celtics Lakers snipe, not even

(14:07):
talking about Duke unc Earlier in the day, Jaymartin, I'm
talking about Steven A. Smith versus Lebron James. So I
think everybody in the world has heard the story by now.
But it was Thursday night. I believe it was. I
believe it was the nixt game. On Thursday, A video
surfaces of Lebron confronting ESPN personality steven A.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
Smith.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Now, we normally don't like to talk about other networks,
but this became a thing.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
Stephen A.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
Smith, I don't know. I wouldn't say he was forced
to address it. I think he chose to address it,
but he did address it on first take on Friday.
Here is what steven A. Smith had to say about
his confirmation, our confrontation, not confirmation confrontation with Lebron James.

Speaker 5 (14:51):
That wasn't a basketball player confronting me. That was a parent,
That was a father. And I can't sit here and
be angry or feel slighted by Lebron James in any
way in that regard.

Speaker 3 (15:05):
By all accounts, he's obviously.

Speaker 5 (15:06):
A wonderful family man and a wonderful father kids very
very deeply about his son, and based on some of
the comments that he had heard, or shall I say,
I think he thought he heard. He clearly took exception
to some of the things that he heard me say,
and he confronted me about it.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
That was Stephen A.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
Smith.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
It was certainly a much longer response, but you know,
I had Mary and producer Bree cut it because he
went on for about two two and a half minutes.
But I'll be quick here, j mart and I will
start by prefacing what we preface this conversation with every
single time that we do it. We are not criticizing
Lebron James the father. We're not criticizing Lebron James the

(15:45):
family man. We are not criticizing Bronni James the person
or young adult. But at the same time, I will
also say this, we saw Lebron seemingly come out of
nowhere to go after our colleague Doug Gottlieb over something
he said months ago. We saw Lebron leave social media
for a little while. He's obviously back at the height

(16:07):
of the Bronny criticism. Now we see this one. I
have zero problem with anything that anyone has said about
Bronnie because I have yet to hear anyone criticize anything
other than the on the court production, in which Bronni
clearly is not one of the four hundred and fifty
best basketball players in the world and should not be
on the floor. I've yet to hear anybody criticize anything

(16:29):
for other than that. I will defend steven A unless
some new audio comes out where he says something other
than that. But I'll tell you what, Jamart, I stand
with steven A. I think Lebron is starting to crack.
I think he realizes this whole thing was a mistake,
that he put undue pressure on his son, that he
put an undue spotlight on his son. I don't know

(16:53):
if he's regretting it, but I think he's starting to
crack a little bit.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
Yeah. So the problem he is that Lebron's the reason
that his son is being criticized. Lebron is the reason
why his son is being talked about at all. And
Lebron knows that he's that reason. And I think you're
the thing you were saying there at the end is
very likely true. There might be some guilt, there may

(17:19):
be some remorse, There may at least just be man.
I've put a mountain of bricks on my own son's back.
But yeah, I mean, I don't know how many times
we always caveat and talk about Bronni's supposedly a wonderful
guy and he works hard and all this other kind
of stuff. But he didn't deserve to go to the NBA.
He just didn't. I don't and don't tell me. And

(17:41):
I've seen this a number of different times. People will
defend Bronnie by talking about his g leagues. I don't care.
I just don't. I don't care what his G league
stats are. Steven A. Smith is paid to have opinions
and to spout those opinions, often at a high decibel level,
no doubt about things that are happening in sports, and

(18:03):
he knows first and foremost. He's an entertainer more than
an informer. A lot of what he says I don't
even think he believes. But it doesn't matter. I mean,
we've been in this business long enough to see that
that's how it's done by a lot of people, a
lot of folks. But lebron James going up to Steven A.
Smith and saying what he said as a father, I
don't Unfortunately, you can't really have sympathy for this, because

(18:28):
it's not as if steven A was doing anything other
than criticizing the basketball of Bronnie James. And look, he
is now an athlete. He's a professional, paid athlete, is
Bronnie James, and so he is fair game just like
anybody else. And Bronnie's game is going to generate this Bronnie.

(18:51):
Anytime that we're talking about Brinnie is probably not going
to be for a positive reason as a released now,
because there's not really anything you could say about what
he's doing in the G League is going to be
particularly interesting. It's going to be something about why was
he playing minutes for the LA Lakers on a random
Monday night like a month ago or whatever else, Like

(19:11):
he has put his son in this position, and now
his son is a public figure that is going to
take criticism from people in the sports media industry who
are supposed to criticize and analyze what they see, even
if it is sad. And he's like, hey, man, don't
talk about my son. It's like all right, dude, Like
you can't have it this way. Yep, you can control

(19:32):
Apparently you have enough power to control whether or not
your son plays in the NBA before he's ready. But
what you don't have control over is what people say
as a result of that, the results, the consequences for that.
That's just that's the way it is. We live in
a country where your power, your leverage, your just stardom

(19:53):
in the NBA, and all that you have done carried
enough weight that you that you brought your son there before,
before he was ready, and now people are criticizing that,
and now you're trying to that same power, that same leverage.
I mean, you go to Steven A. Smith, who was,
you know, known mainly for his NBA stuff at least
early in his career, and that's probably where he's buttered

(20:14):
his bread the most. You go to him. Maybe if
you shut him down, you shut everybody down. Maybe that's
the idea. I'm gonna go after the biggest dog in
the r and create space. But honestly, I would say
behind closed doors when he's not on camera saying I
can't blame Lebron James foray this. He's probably smiling ear
to ear because you gave him everything. This isn't a

(20:35):
bad look for Steven A. Smith. It's a bad look
for Lebron James because it looks soft. It's like, hey,
he's not ready to be here, but you keep your
You do not talk about him, you do not criticize him,
you don't mention that he shouldn't be here, You don't
do any of these things. It's like, who are you trying?
What are you covering up here? Like what exactly is happening?
We all understand this. I understand I think what Lebron

(20:59):
James is doing. And I wouldn't want anything anybody to
say anything about my kids either. But dude, that's just
that's what goes with the territory. I mean, people are
going to talk about you no matter what. But I
mean every pro athlete their parents probably hate seeing some
of the things that are said about their kids. Unfortunately
for you, you still play in the same league with

(21:21):
your son, but you're seeing the same thing, and maybe
you are reacting like a father. But I think ultimately underneath,
you know that the slings and arrows that he is
taking right now are because of you, not because of him,
And because you love your son that much, that is
what might be causing, as you said, the cracks to form,

(21:43):
because that's the last thing I think that he wanted.
I can't believe that he did not see this coming
long before that draft, but somehow we are here well.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
And the only thing I would really add to that
is the only reason I don't think he could see
this coming was because he convinced the media that this
wasn't a bad thing before the draft. I mean, I
go back to ironically. I mean, I vividly remember. First
of all, if you remember j Martin, you might nod,
but I just remember this is like they had the
second round separate from the first round for the first

(22:15):
time ever, and they had the second round at like
one in the afternoon.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
Afternoon.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, but I remember having it on to you know,
I want to see, is Bronni really gonna go with
that last pick by the Lakers late in the second round?
Wasn't the last last pick, but whatever, it was fifty
six fifty seven. I tune it in to see And
the second the pick was made, ironically enough, steven A
was on set and him and WOJ, who I know,
Woj is no longer in the business, and I hope
he's having a fun time in college basketball. But him

(22:42):
and WOJ went on this monologue of don't you even
dare call this nepotism. Uh, there's nepotism all over this league.
And if you're not mad about this GM getting a
job because his dad played, and this coach getting a
job because his dad played, And it's like immediately it
was almost like the media telling you know, it's like
anything else with the media, It's like the media is

(23:03):
trying to tell us how we should feel. And I
guess I don't know, I get because I vividly remember that,
and I guess lebron just felt like because him and
his cronies, you know, Rich Paul and everybody, were able
to convince the media on Draft night that Bronni was
immune to criticism, that that meant that that that went
on in perpetuity for his NBA career. I don't know,

(23:25):
but that would be the last thing I would say
to put a button on this conversation. Is just like,
you know, he did a good job of controlling the
media or convincing the media that Bronni was ready. And again,
we understand that Bronni had the cardiac arrest all that,
but Bronnie also played from December on for USC It
wasn't as though he played probably sixty to seventy percent
of their games, and it wasn't as though at any

(23:46):
point during that season he looked like a guy that
should be one of the fifty nine to sixty players
drafted in that NBA draft. So that's the only thing
I could think of. He clearly controlled the narrative around
draft time, and now I think, listen, the cats out
of the bag. He can't control the narrative anymore. People
can see it with their own eyes. And again from
my perspective, I have no problem with what Steven A.
Smith has said because it's what everybody's seeing. And as

(24:08):
you said, it's his job, like it is all of
our jobs, to just commentate and talk about sports.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
Yeah, I mean I think that's it. I mean I
think that at some point the lie is going to
be exposed. At some point, the I'm pushing him too
far too fast is going to be exposed. Because the
problem for Lebron is you can only control the narrative
until he goes out on the floor and he is
what he is. He's not a marionette, right Like. You

(24:35):
can't control him that way to make him as good
as you are, as bad as you want him to
be as bad as maybe he wants him to be.
But the problem was, we were going to see him play,
and there were going to be reports that were just
objective about what people were seeing and how he was playing,
and we were going to realize the jig is up,

(24:55):
Like eventually we're going to see the thing that's real
and the whole fantasy land thing. It's not a movie, man,
it's not a movie. It's not one of the things
that you're doing at your production studio. Lebron like, he
has to go out and play basketball and the problem
is he's not NBA level at that, and so that's

(25:18):
gonna be a NonStop critique. That's gonna be a NonStop
thing that we see every time. And unfortunately for Bronnie,
I mean, it got to that point where you hit
a bucket and they're like people like ah, like all
excited because you hit a three year stuff like that.
That's that's not what you want, man, And I'm sure
that's not what lebron wants. It's not what Bronnie wants either,
But that's awful. That's like pity almost mockery, and that's

(25:42):
not that's just that's a bad look for for for
Bronnie to go through, and I do feel bad for
lebron but in the same moment I almost take it
back because this could have been easily avoided if you
would talk to anyone and listen to them. Because I
can't imagine any buddy but the most just bogus. Yes men,

(26:03):
not telling you this is not as good an idea
as you think it is. Let's hold off.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Totally agree, totally agree. Nothing else to add. We wish
Bronni well, but we also have to be realistic and
be fair in our coverage, and so far Bronni has
not looked like an NBA player. Fox Sports Radio Air
Tours Jason Martin broadcasting live from the Tireck dot Com studios.
We will come back. We got some more, uh A

(26:28):
lot going on in the media and people talking and
saying stuff. Mark Cuban certainly had some interesting things to
say about the Luca trade. We will get to that
momentarily before we do, though. Newsdesk first time for us
this evening, Steve Disaga, what is trending, my friend?

Speaker 6 (26:41):
Well, the Celtics beat the Lakers, ending LA's eight game
winning streak one eleven, one oh one, Lebron James had
a good night nine assists, just one turnover, twenty two
points and fourteen rebounds in a game he did not finish.
He left with a string groin. For what it's worth,
ESPN saying it's too early for a timetable, but one
source told them the initial thought is it will sideline

(27:03):
Lebron James for a matter of weeks, not a matter
of days. That is not yet official.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
So the greatest dynasty of in the history of the
NBA is dead after two weeks, six seven games.

Speaker 6 (27:14):
I heard have you?

Speaker 2 (27:15):
I mean to say, you cover this stuff? You followed?
Was it a little bit overblown because they won a
couple of nice games?

Speaker 6 (27:21):
Actually, the NBA is always a little bit overblown, all right,
fair enough? Do you not remember Devin Booker being up
two games to none and he's Kobe and Non and
on and on. It's just it's it's an annual thing
and people, I don't know. It's like selective dementia. I
guess it really is.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
The way I can put well, I just go back
to the thing with Darvin Ham, the previous coach that
Lebron ran out made the Western Conference finals. I'm not
saying they're not playing well. I'm not saying that JJ
Reddick hasn't improved the on the court product. But let's
until JJ Reddick gets to at least a Western Conference finals.
Let's not crown him or this organization anything that they
weren't twenty four months ago from whenever the playoffs.

Speaker 6 (28:00):
Can I just say tonight's game in Boston, they really
missed Mark Williams because they didn't have they didn't have
Jackson Hay starting center, and Rory Hutchemur is out and Okay,
there's a lamp and there's another one, and there's another
one down.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
The whole point that me and j mart are making
this is a flaw. This is who they are, yes, exactly.
And it's not to say that they can't get the
right matchups and get hot just but they're just not
who people A lot of people in the media are
trying to make them.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
Now.

Speaker 6 (28:26):
Okay, see has a little more experience than last year.
I look forward to seeing them in the postseason, by.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
The way, and you know they are my team. So
I just quietly enjoying this season because apparently the thunder
don't matter.

Speaker 6 (28:40):
Yeah, that gets part of the conversation on the Sunday
Night Show, of course, because we have a co host
in Oklahoma and Arnie Spandi who just wants to see
the famous teams.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
I was gonna say, has Arnie claimed the thunder as
his own?

Speaker 3 (28:52):
Yet?

Speaker 2 (28:52):
No, that would be the because of death.

Speaker 6 (28:54):
Oh we're still winning, No, exactly, He's still hanging on
with the Knicks. Boston was up twenty two on the
Lakers by the way, eighty to fifty eights. Lead was
down to four one eleven to one oh one over La.
The final we have late night college basketball. It's the
final weekend of the men's regular season. Third ranked Houston
is only leading forty two to forty one at Baylor

(29:15):
with about eleven minutes to go. Number twenty three BYU
ahead of rival Utah fifty one forty one with fourteen
minutes left. Seventh ranight to Alabama won in overtime at
number one Auburn ninety three to ninety one on a
jumper at the buzzer. Six ranks Saint John's at the
buzzer of overtime, one at Marquette eighty six eighty four,
and Penn stayed upset. Number twelve Wisconsin in a comeback

(29:38):
eighty six to seventy five NHL Colorado seven to four
winners over Toronto Saints. Quarterback Derek Carr is restructuring his contract,
clearing cap space.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
He's staying.

Speaker 6 (29:50):
Yankees DH Gencarlos Stanton says his elbow injuries have been
deemed severe. Surgery as a possibility, but that would end
his season. Pitcher Garrett Cola, the Yankee, says he's concerned
about his elbow. He started tests on it. Colin Morikawa
leads by one stroke in Orlando, and gentlemen, we have
the first ticket punch for March Madness.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
We had our.

Speaker 6 (30:10):
First conference tournament title game this evening. It was in
the Ohio Valley and for the first time ever, SIU
Edwardsville is going to the national tournament. They beat first
place Southeast Missouri States sixty nine forty eight, as the
losing side from three point range was three for twenty four.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
Back to you by the way, to Sigre, I could
be wrong on this, but this late night game Saint
Thomas in North Dakota, I believe Saint Thomas is one
of the schools that isn't eligible for the tournament, so
I think if satan. Yeah, I think if they win
this game, whoever they play tomorrow gets an autobitcho. In
other words, they are too new. Yeah, it's a weird
thing that yeah, yeah, but yeah, you have a four

(30:51):
year period once you join the NCAA Division.

Speaker 6 (30:53):
One, like when Grand Canyon came into the wack.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
And I don't know why they let these teams in
the conference tournament, But that's another conversation.

Speaker 6 (31:00):
Or why do conferences let all the teams into the
conference tournament? Can we just ask that out loud?

Speaker 2 (31:06):
Why they don't let everybody team in?

Speaker 3 (31:08):
No?

Speaker 2 (31:08):
Why do they let every team in? I mean, I
like it. I think it's a shame that the big
ten in the ACC aren't bringing every team to the
conference uram. I mean that's the whole concept of the
end of March madness, right.

Speaker 6 (31:17):
Well they're bigger now yeah yeah, but the conferences you
can play an eighteen game ACC tournament.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
But all right, anyway to sick. Appreciate your help. Fox
Sports radio eritors Jason Martin broadcasting line from the diirect
dot Com studio. Should mention be sure to check out
the Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel. There's a ton of
great videos for many of our Fox Sports Radio shows.
Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube and you'll see
a whole bunch of video highlights from our shows. Be
sure to subscribe so you always have incited access to

(31:44):
all of our Fox Sports Radio video coverage on YouTube.
Tell you what, Jamartin, I want to spend some time
talking about what Mark Cuban had to say about Luka Doncic.
We'll come back. We'll do that next sound. You do
not want to miss Fox Sports Radio. Come back, everybody,
Fox Sports Radio, Aaron Taurus, Jason Martin. We are broadcasting

(32:04):
and I from the Tyreck dot Com Studios, taking you
up till two a m. Eastern time. Jamart Man, I'll
tell you what. We've talked a lot of Lakers.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
In hour one.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
We talked the loss to the Celtics this evening, as
de Sager just told you, Lebron James leaves the groin strain.
Reports are early speculation could be out for a reasonably
significant amount of time. We'll keep you updated as more
information gets out. We also talked about the new rivalry
that is sweeping the NBA. No, not Celtics Lakers, but
Steven A versus Lebron I'll tell you what. The other

(32:38):
interesting part of the Lakers is we're like a month
removed from the Luca trade and there's still no one
that can really explain it. So earlier, real quick, I
got I'm all you, so I.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Was gonna ask this question. I didn't know about the
groin strain until the seger mentioned it.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
Wow, I mentioned it.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
I was watching the game, but I didn't know it.
I didn't notice it happened. I tuned it out when
I realized the game is over. But I was thinking
I was actually going to bring this year attention. Is
like considering his age, like ten minutes left or something,
they're down nineteen or whatever. It's like, why is he
still in the game. I was thinking that to myself,
and obviously I had no idea it was going to

(33:18):
turn out like this, But now I'm just like, he
gets hurt. Apparently he leaves a game with six forty
four left in the game with the groin strand why
is he in the game when they're going to lose
at his age? Like eventually, I think at some point
you got to wave the white flag when you have
a forty year old, Like, that's not a game. He
should have been in in the last couple of minutes.
And I'm not like coming at Reddick or anything like that.

(33:40):
I'm just saying I'm confused as to why he was
in a game they were not going to win.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
Well, listen, I was just gonna say, I mean, they
are saying JJ Reddick is the next Phil Jackson. Actually
the exact quote was there's a lot of pat Riley
in him when he was hired, So I mean, who
am I to question the current pat Riley. I actually
did not see that. I did see that he left
with the Gorn strain mentioned in segment one. Thanks thanks
for paying attention, but that's neither here nor there. But yeah, no,

(34:07):
I didn't see that he was in the game that late.
But I do happen to agree with you, is I
think A yeah, I was poking fun at JJ a
little bit, but yeah, probably not his finest moment. Probably
should I.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
Mean to derail you there, I was just kind of
I was just kind of like he got hurt late,
and I don't know why he was still in the game.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
Well, and the whole thing is too and they're also
on an East coast road trip. I mean, there's a
lot of variables at play, like East Coast road trip.
You know, you just played on Thursday and then you
flew cross country. And I know the NBA guys are
used to the travel, but I'm with you, probably shouldn't
have been in at that point. And then here's the
other thing too. Not only was the game sort of
out of reach, but they had to exert a lot

(34:44):
of effort just to get back into the game.

Speaker 3 (34:46):
So I guess he had just scored. I just saw this.
He had just scored and gotten them within seven. So
they were down seven at that point, So I understand
it at a seven point game. I'm just surprised he
was still in down nineteen like three minutes before that,
like the come back notwithstanding, I guess it's the NBA,
but it seems like that's one where you just kind
of pull back and play a different day.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, well, he is whatever, whether it was, you know,
a mistake by JJ or not. And we'll we'll obviously
we have Brandon in the back, will monitor for any
sound from JJ on Lebron. But yeah, no, I think
you're right. Is that if if the game was out
of hand or getting close to out of hand, probably
not the smartest move to have lebron in. Speaking of

(35:28):
not smart moves, Dallas Mavericks trade of Luka doncic a
few weeks ago. Nobody can explain it, including former Dallas
Maverick's majority owner Mark Cuban. Now, I'll be honest, I
don't know exactly where this sound came from. I meant
to look it up and I kind of forgot. But
Mark Cuban was asked about the Luka doncicch trade earlier

(35:49):
this week, and here is what he had to say.

Speaker 7 (35:52):
If the MAVs are going to trade Luca, that's one thing.
Just get a better deal, you know, no disrespect to
Anthony Davis. I still believe if we had gotten for
unprotected number ones and Anthony Davis and Max Christy, this
would be a different conversation.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
That was an interview with w FAA, a local affiliate
down in Dallas. Thank you brief for that really quick Jmart.
So Mark Cuban basically confirms the deal sucked. I'll ask
you what I've asked you for about five straight weeks. Now,
is Nico Harrison just really incompetent or is there something
else there?

Speaker 3 (36:27):
There's something else here? I have grown increasingly on the
side of there's more here than we know, and well,
I mean we were always there, but I mean, I
don't want to say it because we've kind of beat
around this for the last couple of weeks, but I'm
real close to just saying this thing is not just fishy,
this thing is dirty, like something something really wrong seems

(36:49):
like it has gone on here. And you know, have
you ever heard, well, of course you have, bald don't lie.
This is the most ultimate. This is the most incredible,
like karma induced bald don't lie I've ever seen. Have
you seen what's happened to the Mavericks since Luca left?

Speaker 2 (37:04):
It's unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
Yes, so Anthony Davis and what happened with them. Of course,
the fan base them trying to villainize Luca with a
bunch of stuff that's not true, and then Kyrie rips
his acl so he's probably going to be missing part
of next year as well, and he's not going to
be I would imagine too keen on getting back because
there's nothing there at all. They've lost over a million

(37:27):
social media followers has the organization. Since Luca left, everything
has gone in the opposite directions. It's almost like they're
getting exactly what they deserve.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
Well, it's almost like they're getting exactly what they deserve, or,
if you want to go conspiracy theory, exactly what they
want because of.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
That potentially, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
That was one of the reports. By the way, it's
also worth noting that they mentioned right in the middle
of that injury run that they are raising season ticket
prices for next year, and so to me there was
a sort of half baked, but if you read and
you read into it, it felt like there was something
there about the new family that bought the Mavericks, ironically

(38:07):
from Mark Cuban basically is in the gaming business, and
they were trying to position the Dallas Mavericks to open
a casino when legalized sports betting comes, it doesn't feel
like it's coming. And now they're basically essentially trying to
pull a major league and make the team so bad
that they can move them, likely to Vegas. So I'm listen.
All I'm saying is I'm sort of with you. Is like,

(38:29):
and I just listen. We're now three four weeks removed.
There is still no one that can logically explain a
legitimate reason why the Dallas Mavericks made this trade, I
would add on top of it, you know, Mark Cuban
coming out and saying what he's it's just nothing about
it a week later makes sense and I'll just be quick.

(38:51):
I know we got it whatever, But like this all
comes in the middle of a dead NBA season. Ratings
are going down. Now all of a sudden, you have
the one of the most interesting players on the Glamour franchise.
They're playing well before injury. Today. I know we got
not very much time. J Mart. I don't know what
else to add, but it's just there's something up for sure.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
Yeah. So Markkeith Morris actually who was part of the trade,
and I'll say this quick, he said, And so apparently
Luca wasn't in shape and all this other kind of stuff,
and he was just kind of like, well, I mean
a dude, and go, I get you forty every night.
If that's not being in shape, I don't know what
shape is.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Bingo. There you go. He led him to the NBA
Finals last year. That's all you need to know. And
we've talked about it is if you get to the
NBA Finals, you're one step away. It makes no sense.
Fox Sports Radio Air Tourus Jason Martin more trouble with
the Kansas City Chiefs. That's next, Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (39:40):

Speaker 2 (39:43):
Welcome in everybody, our two tours and Martin Fox Sports Radio.
We are broadcasting live from the tyreck dot Com studios.
Tyreck dot Com. We'll help you get there. An unmatched election,
fast free shipping, Free road has a protection over ten
thousand recommended install direc dot Com Calm the way tire
buying should be. Er tors Jason Martin again, taking you

(40:07):
till two a m. Eastern time. By the way, we
are efforting sound for after the Lakers MAVs game or
after the Lakers Celtics game. Excuse me, per our hardworking
associate producer Brandon in the back. He says that, Lebron
says that, and I'm paraphrasing. Lebron does not think it
is a long term issue. He did leave the game

(40:28):
tonight with a strange groin, so we'll see what kind
of sound we can get, jaymar Before we move on
to a couple noteworthy things in the world of football.
That conversation about Luca got cut kind of short. Did
you have anything to add and basically for people just
joining us, we played the Mark Cuban sound. We don't
need to play it again, Mary or anything like that.
But Mark Cuban basically insinuating. He even acknowledged that it

(40:51):
was a bad deal for the Dallas Mavericks. Now it's
worth noting Mark Cuban is no longer the majority owner
of the Dallas Mavericks. But you know, it was a
little bit of a shorter seg Did you just kind
of finish up everything that you kind of had to
say about that, Jmark.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
The only other thing is that there's that like there's
that other story out there that's just kind of emerged
in the last week or so that Nico called up
the Tea Wolves and said, well, we want Anthony Edwards.
We'll give you Luca. Before the Lakers thing was out
there and the Tea Wolves said they didn't have interest.

(41:24):
That story kind of came out, so that kind of
at least stops the idea that they called nobody but
the Lakers. Although like, I mean, we're the t Wolves
really going to give up Anthony Edwards? I mean, I
understand like you're not giving up Michael Jordan. No, I'm sorry,
we did that. No real quick though, can I was
just joking on that. But I find it interesting that

(41:45):
that just sort of emerges a week later. It almost
feels like damage control.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
It almost feels like damage control. And let me ask you,
let me let me just state something right there. If
that's the argument, doesn't it completely flow counter to the
original argument that Nico Harrison put out when the trade
was made, defense wins Championships. You know, it's like, so
now again, Nico Harrison could just be totally incompetent at

(42:13):
his job. That is certainly in play here. But the
whole argument was defense wins Championships. That's why we decided
to make this move. We think that Kyrie and Anthony
Davis have a higher upside than Kyrie and Luca, and
of course two noteworthy things there. One, of course, Kyrie
unfortunately is out for the year. You feel bad, but
I don't know how much of a higher upside you
can get than a team that just won the West

(42:33):
and made the NBA Finals. So you know, again, it's
just to me and I was cut a little short
during that last hour. Is listen, I'm not saying none
of us know maybe none of us ever will know.
All I will say is that in a year where
the NBA was, let's call it what it was, they

(42:55):
were struggling for relevancy, it was right at it was
you know, All Star Weekend was a dud. The play
at what is it? The NBA Cup was a bigger
dud than it was in your I mean, there was
the biggest story of the first probably sixty percent of
the season before the Lucas trade was Bronni. That tells
you where the league was. And again, all I will
say is that in a year where there was basically

(43:21):
nothing to get excited about on the national level in
the league, a superstar just entering his prime was traded
to the glamour franchise. They immediately turn into a you know, elite, elite,
elite contender and a month later, nobody can really explain it.
And so to your point, and by the way, the
Anthony Edwards stuff comes out three weeks four weeks after

(43:43):
the fact, you know that feels a little bit like,
you know, oh no, no, no, we made some other calls. Yeah,
you know. So the only point I'm trying to make
it again, we will probably never know, and I don't
want to speak for you, but maybe we're digging to
d per but it just it feels like there's something

(44:03):
more that we don't neet know.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
Yeah, look, maybe there's not. But so you call the
t Wolves about Anthony Edwards, and Sports Illustrated others report
they just said no. But then the last line of
the article that I was reading said, but the t
Wolves were stunned that Dallas was considering trading Luca. In
the same moment, the other call that was at least

(44:26):
mentioned in some articles was that they called Milwaukee about Yannis.
So here's the only thing I want to say, like,
did you really think that those trades were going to
happen or were you trying to just create a couple
of other potential things there to kind of soften the

(44:46):
sham that you were pulling, because you went, let me
ask you this, all right, So if you're calling up
and saying we will consider trading our guy Luca for
Anthony Edwards and Jannis antetokumpo, how do you go from
that to Anthony Davis? Like, I'm not saying Anthony Davis
is not good, but Anthony Davis is post thirty, He's

(45:09):
injured a lot, and He's not going to go in
there and replace your offensive talent of Luka doncicch in
that moment. So you're telling me that you were trying
to take those swings, and when they failed, you went
for a really bad deal, one that was lopsided in
every possible direction. Even if you look at some of

(45:30):
the deals that have been made in the NBA over
the last few years, almost everybody got a better haul
than you did for that guy. I don't understand it,
Like something just doesn't spell right about this. And maybe
I've watched too many videos because they're so fun to watch,
they're so entertaining and fascinating to see just how deep
this thing could potentially go. And maybe I've just been

(45:51):
kind of the well's been poisoned a little bit. But
I just I failed to see the logic. And as
you mentioned earlier, no one has been able to give
me a reason that makes any sense as to why
this would have happened.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
Well, and I'm trying to think. I can't think of
anything great off the top of my head. But there
are things in sports that you and I and whoever
we may disagree with, but like there's an explanation for
why it happened, right, Like, this is a bad example,
but it's just the one that's coming to me off
the top of my head. Like we all agree that

(46:24):
Aaron Rodgers is still probably one of the thirty two
best quarterbacks on planet Earth, but you and I can
understand why teams aren't in line to sign him. You know,
that's not a great example, But I'm just trying to
think of something that we can all agree upon that
we might not personally agree with, but we understand why
it's happening.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
You know.

Speaker 2 (46:43):
Again, I'm just I can't think of anything else off
the top of my head. Like I said, there's no
one that can explain this. And then the deeper that
the more explanations that come out, the less it makes sense. Because,
like I said, if Nico Harrison's argument was the night
of the Trade, well, defense win championships, Well that doesn't
make sense to why then Anthony Edwards was a guy
that you pursued that in that trade. Anthony Edwards doesn't

(47:06):
make you better defense, it makes you interesting offensively. I
don't know if he makes you better makes you about it,
but if.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
You But the difference here is though that if you're
gonna Like if they traded Luca for Anthony Edwards, I
don't think we're having the same level of conversation, totally fair.
And if they trade Luca for Giannis, we're not having
the same kind of conversation because we're looking at the
level of Starr. The problem here is these two things

(47:31):
don't measure up if you put them on a scale.
If you put them on a scale together, and you
put Luca on one side and you put Anthony Davis
and one first round draft pick on the other in
twenty twenty five, I mean Luca, And this is not
a fat joke. Lucas is going to the ground at
that point in time on the scale, Like it just
doesn't add up. Like if you're trading Star for Starr, Like, yes,

(47:54):
some people would be upset, But if you traded Patrick
Mahomes for Lamar Jackson, some people could understand it. You're
Patrick Mahomes for Josh Allen or something like that. I'm
just trying to throw another example out there. But you
can't trade show Hey o'tani for I don't know at
this point, there's almost nobody in his league, but just anybody,

(48:14):
like you can't trade Show Hey O'tani for de la
Cruz or somebody like that. Even if he's good, he's
not that good.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
Well, it'd be like trading like Patrick Mahomes for like
Baker Mayfield and.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
Something to know about Baker Mayfield.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
Well, you know it's like I'm trying.

Speaker 3 (48:31):
To think of like Dak Prescott.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
Yeah, okay, whatever. It's like if we were on air
and Patrick Mahomes got traded for Dak Prescott, we would
be like, what I mean, did Patrick Mahomes and maybe
this is uh we were gonna talk about Xavier Worthy,
Maybe this is the way to maybe.

Speaker 3 (48:48):
We take the champion out of it. Let's say it's
Josh Allen, yeah for Dak Prescott.

Speaker 2 (48:53):
Yeah, you'd be like, is Josh Allen in trouble? Did
he demand a trade? Is there something that we don't know?

Speaker 3 (48:58):
Right?

Speaker 2 (48:58):
These were all the reactions that you and I had
live on air five weeks ago. I think it was
when it happened. It was all the reactions that everybody
had on air that Saturday night, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
And again I just go back to here's the other
thing too, And I think this is obvious, but it
is the Lakers too. I mean that is like where

(49:19):
you know, if Anthony Edwards was still on the Hornets
or the Pelicans or whatever, and he's thirty, you know, thirty,
Anthony Davis, he has hypolsiz if Anthony Davis was on
the Pelicans or whatever, not the Pelicans, but you get
the point, thirty one years old, same injury history playing
you know, really talented player. I think we think it's

(49:40):
weird and we think it's dumb. I don't know that
it goes to the level of conspiracy theory, but the
fact that it happened to be the Lakers, the fact
that nobody can really explain it. And by the way,
I didn't really get a chance to explain the casino
conspiracy theory. But basically, the new ownership group that bought
the team from Mark Cuban is in the casino industry,

(50:03):
and basically, and this was the part because I remember
we started the conversation with it's either karma for the
dumb decision that you made if you're the Mavericks. Everything
that's happened since Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, and we're not
wishing injuries, we're just stating facts. It's either karma for
making this inexcusable trade or you're getting exactly what you wanted.
And the theory and the logic behind it was the

(50:25):
family is in the gaming industry. They bought the Mavericks
as a segue into the Texas market, which Texas is
pretty much, along with California, the biggest state that does
not have legal sports gambling. And the thought process is,
we're going to build a casino in sports book around
the Dallas Mavericks. And now it doesn't look like sports
gambling is coming to the state of Texas anytime soon,

(50:48):
and the family is basically using the Mavericks's leverage of like,
if you don't help us get get this thing through,
you know, all the legal loopholes and all the political loopholes,
then we'll take the Mavericks to move them somewhere else.
So that is the conspiracy theory around it. But again
I will tell you if you were putting together a

(51:09):
blueprint to completely ostracize the fan base so that you
could be in position to move them, I would say
trading a homegrown superstar just entering his prime for an
injury prone player right after they made the NBA Finals
and then Oh, by the way, on top of that,
doing so right as you announce that you're raising season
ticket prices for next year. If you're looking to ostracize

(51:31):
a fan base, this is a pretty good way of
doing it.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
Yeah, I mean, you're you want to talk about it.
Just I feel I can't even think of a fan
base I feel more sorry for than that fan base,
the ones that have been there. I mean, look, there
were a lot of lean years before Dirk got there.
But I mean, let's say you were young enough to
where Dirk maybe is what brought you to the dance

(51:54):
in the NBA. You live in Dallas, you live in
Fort Worth, you live in Austin, you live somebody there,
and that's been your team. You weren't a Spurs guy.
You were a MAVs guy. And the MAVs have brought
you a couple of titles, and you brought you a
title and got you to the finals last year, and
you've got to do that. You know, you can go
buy his jersey and support him for the next ten
to fifteen years because he's one of those dudes. He's
one of those guys that doesn't grow on trees. And

(52:16):
then your franchise just for seemingly no reason at all,
just hands him away, just gives him away, and now
you've got to watch him in a uniform. I'm sure
you can't stand playing with Lebron James, who I'm sure
you can't stand. And now there we're going to charge
you more to come to the games. We're not going.

(52:37):
It doesn't look like we're even trying to feel the
team to win. And then I actually never thought I
would say this. I feel really sorry for Kyrie Irving.

Speaker 2 (52:45):
Yeah, I know, right.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
Did you see what Kyrie said after Luca got traded
when he was he was talking about or actually not
after he was talking about his relationship with Luca. I
don't know there's any offseason or earlier in the year.
And he said, you know, we've had some great conver
stations as men about life and about our families, and
we've broken bread together, like he was saying stuff that
was like, okay, this is legit. Like he's saying, he

(53:09):
and I have. You know, we've grown close, and our
families know each other, We've broken bread together in each
other's homes. We've had some great conversations about life and
all this other kind of stuff. He was happy. Like
I was listening to him talking about it, it was
just like, I've really enjoyed being around him and getting
to know him and all this other kind of stuff.
Imagine Kyrie then finding out that he was traded out

(53:29):
from underneath him in the first situation where I mean, Kyrie,
not only has he not been a problem, he's been
the exact opposite the entire time he's been in Dallas.
He stunned me with how well that's gone. We both
were wrong about that and blissfully. So I'm happy to
say it. I'm happy to see it. I feel sorry
for Kyrie Irving because I think he just had the
rug pulled out from underneath him. Well.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
And the one thing I will kind of close on
is that if it is some big conspiracy theory, not
only was Kyrie not in on it, Luca, by his
comments and his actions, clearly had no idea either. So listen,
I'll just say this, and I don't know how much
any of these other mainstream shows are touching on this,
but I just don't think this is a conversation that's

(54:11):
going away, especially as we led the show. If the Lakers,
you know, make the run, that everybody in the media
seems to insinuate that they want them to make, which
is a deep, deep, deep postseason run. I think it's
gonna be a conversation, and I think there are a
lot of people, like you said on the Internet that
maybe aren't part of legacy media, that are willing to
maybe look into some things that other people aren't. And

(54:34):
I just I don't know. I just I refuse to
believe that there's nothing more than he was out of shape,
he smoked hookah, and we didn't believe he could get
us over the hump, when again he literally got you
to the NBA Finals. So Fox Sports Radio Era towards
Jason Martin, we are broadcasting live from the Tireck dot
com studios. Will come back. Some news and notes in
the NFL. Good news for the Los Angeles Las Vegas Raiders,

(54:57):
excuse me who now have their quarterback. Bad news for
a division FO Kansas City Chiefs, more trouble than the offseason.
Discuss it all next. Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 4 (55:08):
listen live.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
Welcome back, everybody. Fox Sports Radio ertors Jay Smartin broadcasting
live from thetirerec dot Com studios. We're gonna come back.
We're gonna talk about all sorts of good stuff from
the NFL. Should mention, by the way, for the best
pregame show every weekend, be sure to tune into Fox
Sports Radios. Count dowt a kickoff presented by BETMGM every

(55:41):
Saturday and Sunday morning from nine am Eastern to noon
six am to six to nine am Pacific time. We
will count you down to all the biggest games here
on the best pregame show in the business. Tune into Countdown,
presented by BETMGM, every Saturday and Sunday morning right here
on Fox Sports Radio in the iHeartRadio app Come back.
Some NFL notes that are absolutely worth discussing. We're gonna

(56:04):
get to that momentarily. Before we do, though, let's toss
it over the news desk Deep Save West third rank.

Speaker 6 (56:10):
Houston has just won again, sixty five sixty one at Baylor,
final weekend of the men's regular season. In college hoops,
a couple overtime games of note in the top ten.
Alabama wins at number one Auburn on a jumper at
the buzzer of ot and six ranks. Saint John's won
at the buzzer of overtime at Marquette. Penn State came

(56:30):
back to win at number twelve Wisconsin to the NBA.
The Lakers eight game winning streak is over. Boston beat
him one to eleven to one oh one, forty points
for Jason Tatum. Jalen Brown scored thirty one. Boston led
by twenty two, eight to fifty eight and held off
LA down the stretch. Luka Doncic thirty four points in defeat,
Lebron James left with a string groin. He finished with

(56:52):
twenty two points, fourteen rebounds, nine assists. Golden State edge
Detroit one fifteen to one ten. Steph Curry thirty two points.
Chicago won a close one at Miami, won fourteen one
oh nine as Josh Gidde of the Bulls recorded a
triple double. Orlando ended a five game losing streak winning
a close one at Milwaukee, won eleven to one oh nine.

(57:12):
That ends the Bucks four game winning streak. Even though
Jannisan Tenecumpo scored thirty seven points at Atlanta thirty six
for Trey Young in a win over Indiana, won twenty
to one eighteen, Young eight assists, seven turnovers in victory
for the Pacers. Tyrese Halliburton was out again with a
strained hip. Washington had a record of twelve and forty nine,
but got to win at Toronto, won eighteen one seventeen,

(57:35):
Jordan Poole thirty four points. Houston over New Orleans won
forty six to one seventeen, and Charlotte ended a nine
game losing streak. Hornets guard LaMelo Ball was out tonight
with his bad ankle, but Miles Bridges had twenty six
points and the Hornets edge Brookland one oh five one
oh two. The Nets had lost seven straight in the NHL.
Colorado seven to four over Toronto, Florida wound up a

(57:59):
four to nine thing winner in a shutout against Buffalo.
Boston won four nothing at Tampa Bay and five minutes
to go at Edmonton, Oilers holding on against Dallas five
to four. Eric Almarola won NASCAR's Infinity Race. Alex Bowman
was a close second. Catherine Legg will be driving in
Sunday's Cup race on FS one at Phoenix, the first

(58:19):
woman in a Cup Series events since dani Ka Patrick
leg has competed in nineteen career IndyCar races. By the way,
all the IndyCar races this season are on Fox TV,
which includes the Indy five hundred in late May. The
IndyCar season doesn't continue till March twenty third. It'll end
in August. Colin Morikawa leads by one stroke in Orlando

(58:40):
at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Jason Days three back, Shane
Lowry shot seventy six. He's now six back. Yesterday, Xander
Schaffley barely made the cut at four over par, but
he still hasn't missed a cut in about two years
fifty eight straight events. The PGA Tour is in Florida
for four straight tournaments, including this week's Arnold Palmer Live Golf.

Speaker 3 (59:00):
This weekend.

Speaker 6 (59:00):
They are in Hong Kong right now. Sergio Garcia, early
in the final round, is tied for the lead. MLS
Seattle five to two over LAFC and Novak Djokovic lost
his second round tennis match at Indian Welles Bick to you.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
Thank you very much, Steve Desager. This is Fox Sports
Radio Fox Sports Sunday. Depending on where you are might
be Saturday as well. Er Torres Jason Martin broadcasting live
from the tire Raq dot Com studios. Jmark a couple
news and notes items from the NFL. First one, I

(59:36):
don't know, you know, I think we got to talk
about it a little bit. Chiefs wide receiver Xavier Worthy
was arrested on Friday night after an alleged assault incident
in Texas. Now it's worth noting that since the arrest
of you know, about twenty four hours or so ago,
now the charges have been dropped. He was accused of

(59:58):
assault of a family or house member by impeding the
breathing or circulation. I am not going to get into
Texas state law and what that means, but it is
not good. This is, of course, on the heels of
for she Rice last offseason, you know, some other stuff
from Chiefs through the years. On a scale of one
to ten, how concerned are you with the maybe a

(01:00:21):
little bit of a loose ship that Andy Reid is
running over there.

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
I don't know, because again it's been dismissed and I
don't know. I mean, the DA declined to file, so
it's not a charge at this point. He's gone home.
I don't know what's happened. I don't know what's true
and what's not. I don't really want to speculate there.

(01:00:46):
In terms of just the chiefs. It's definitely been an
unlucky streak, hasn't it unlucky? Your best I mean, you know,
you had Kareem Hunt, you had Tyreek Hill, you had
the two that you mentioned, of course, and now worthy
of being the most recent of those. I hope that
they'll things a big misunderstanding and it gets worked out.
The description doesn't sound particularly good without even going into

(01:01:07):
any of the details, but there's just a lot that
we don't know here. So I don't know if I'm
concerned about a loose ship, although we have had that
talk about, for instance, Kirby Smart at Georgia with all
the speeding, reckless driving and things like that that we've
seen from some of their athletes, And of course it's
been a lot of these kind of stories throughout the years.

(01:01:29):
There have been I do remember, you know, there have
been moments in the past where the front office of
Kansas City has been willing to kind of turn a
blind eye and take on some problematic, potential red flag
characters based on their talent, and they wouldn't be the
first nor the last to do it. But it was
just something that I think came out in the wash

(01:01:50):
during It may have been the Kareem Hunt deal where
it actually came out during that point, But I mean,
I guess we just need to wait to see what
comes from this. I certainly don't really want to, like
you said, Andy Reid running a louse ship. I just
I doubt it has anything to do with Andy Reid.
I do like Andy Reid, so I guess I'm more

(01:02:11):
apt to be in his favor. But at the same time,
I'm just again I'm hopeful that this is a misunderstanding,
and at the same time, I just I don't want
to get too deep into it because it may because
I certainly don't want to say anything about and say
if you're worthy that isn't true, because it's the kind
of thing that's hard to wash off.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
Yeah, I don't know much else to add there. Chiefs,
like you said, have certainly been willing to look past
some character issues heading into the draft. I mean, Tyreek
Hill being the most famous one, we know what not
only what he was accused of, but what he did
do to you know a then pregnant girlfriend back in
the day. And again we don't have to get into it,

(01:02:52):
you can google it whatever. I just bring it up
to say it has not been good. This does not
look good. But as you said, if the charges have
been dropped opt, if there's no legal matter to be pursued,
it's hard to go too deep on this one. On
a much, much much lighter note, let's stay in the
AFC West, where the Kansas City Chiefs rival Las Vegas
Raiders have themselves. Quarterback probably happened right around twenty four

(01:03:14):
to twenty four or so hours ago from now, on Friday,
Gino Smith, former Seattle Seahawk. We know it was a
backup that obviously got an opportunity when Russell Wilson got hurt.
Pete Carroll stuck with him in the post Russell Wilson era,
even though it led to Pete Carroll's demise. Not necessarily

(01:03:36):
Gino Smith specifically, but Gino Smith was the quarterback. When
Pete Carroll was fired, Mike McDonald replaces Pete Carroll, Gino
Smith stays with him, but on Friday, Geno Smith is
traded to the Las Vegas Raiders. He gets an extension.
He is going to be your quarterback for the Las
Vegas Raiders, at least for the foreseeable future.

Speaker 3 (01:03:54):
Yeah, I mean, the Carroll tie in makes this make
a lot more sense than maybe it otherwise would. Although look,
Gino has played good football. He's been stunningly good as
a matter of fact, since I mean I didn't even
know he was still in the league. And then a
couple of years ago he comes back on the scene.
And not only has he come back, but he comes
back it seems like he's mature, his attitude has shifted

(01:04:17):
some of just sort of the kind of nonsense that
he pulled early in his career. The bluster's gone, and
now he's just out there winning and it seems like
his team loves him and he's doing all the hard
work and at times it seems like he's the best
player on the field for them. And yeah, I'm actually
more interested. I'm not as interested necessarily and what it
means for the Raiders, just because they're certainly better now

(01:04:40):
than they were last year. There's no question about it,
just with him, because he's better than the guys that
they had out there last year. They still got some
talent problems, but they do have rock Bowers and you
know there's a draft coming and some free agency and
maybe this makes you know, makes them a little bit
more appetizing. And this is to me, like, so we

(01:05:00):
talked about what are the Raiders gonna do? Who are
they gonna get? And you were thinking about the crop
of quarterbacks that might be out there, and Donald was
one of them, and Garoppolo was one of them, and
we were talking about all this during the Stafford talk.
Gino is a name that like of all those like now,
I feel like that's a win like that at this stage,
that's not a bad it's not a bad place to
land when it comes to if you're a franchise, you

(01:05:23):
could have done a whole lot worse than Geno Smith.
I'm more intrigued by Seattle, like what exactly are you
gonna do? Like now the Geno is going, what's what's
the plan? Is Sam Darnold about to head to Seattle?
Because I don't see the fix there? Like this doesn't
seem like it's good at all for se for for
the Seahawks.

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
That is an interesting byproduct is with the Seattle Seahawks.
And first of all, say this Gino Smith, to his credit,
total pro you know, wish him well in that division
with that coaching staff. I mean, listen, I'll say this.
I think it's a best case scenario for him. Man
is like a coaching staff that believes in you, a
coaching staff that I think has a ton of runway.

(01:06:07):
I mean, listen. I don't I enjoy the Mark Davis experience,
but there's only so many coaches in a row that
you can fire after a year or two before you
just got to let somebody ride for a while. And
so I think Pete Carroll has a nice little runway here.
And frankly, you know, I don't think Pete Carroll does
this if he feels like, hey, I got a one
two year window to really turn this thing around. So
it's a great landing spot for Gino. I'll say this

(01:06:29):
about the Seattle situation. So one I agree, you know,
it's just it's it's a new team that we actually
just don't know, Like, okay, so what does this mean
for them? I'll say this too, is like I am
a big believer. I understand there's only thirty two NFL
head coaching jobs. If you are one of these up
and coming, guys, and you have options and you are

(01:06:52):
going don't let me put it this away. Don't take
a job where the quarterback situation is not settled. Now, listen,
If you're Pete Carroll and there's no other option and
nobody else is hiring you, that's different. If you're maybe
a candidate that isn't as high up on the totem poll,
that's a different deal. But Mike McDonald, when he was
the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator, was one of the hot

(01:07:13):
candidates last offseason. And I just bring it up because
we see this time and time again. I always use
the example of Matt Rule. Like Matt Rule when he
came to Carolina, he was the guy that couldn't miss,
and everybody wanted him, and the Giants were interested in him,
and this and that and the other thing. And he
gets to Carolina and he doesn't really have a quarterback
and ironically rolls with what Sam Donald in year two

(01:07:35):
and then rolls with Baker May and it never worked
out and he was out on his butt after two
or three years. And I think Mike McDonald's a good coach,
and I think Seattle was better than that. I thought
they were. We talked about it last week. I forgot
that they won ten games. But it's like, all of
a sudden, now you're in a position you probably never
really loved Gino to begin with. You've now fired the

(01:07:58):
offensive coordinator. You're going into ye or two with a
new new offensive coordinator and a new quarterback, and it's
just like all of a sudden, it can just spiral
out of control really quickly for kind of these young,
up and coming guys. And that would be on one
piece of advice, Be a Ben Johnson, wait until you
trust the quarterback situation, be a Mike Vrabel and and

(01:08:18):
hand pick the situation with the quarterback that you want.
I just could see this thing with Seattle, where Mike
McDonald goes from the hot offensive coordinator or the hot
hot coordinator excuse me, is obviously on the defense side
of the ball. To again, if you don't know who
your quarterback is, you know you don't get an endless
amount of years to figure out the quarterback situation. I

(01:08:39):
just worry that's the road that they're going down.

Speaker 3 (01:08:41):
Yeah, I mean I think that's a really good point. Yeah,
I mean again, I just look at how I'm saying,
what what are you planning on doing since you made
this move and you decided you want to go ahead
and take the pick in this spot, like, what are
you gonna do? Are you gonna are you gonna shock
the world and go up to number one? Are you? Like?
What is what is the plan here? Do you just

(01:09:03):
think Gino's not the long term fix? Maybe we bring
another patchwork guy in that we don't have to pay
as much money to, or that we know we're not
committed to, and that buys us some time to find
our guy. I'm not exactly sure what the answer is,
but you've got And of course they've also said, hey, DK,
go explore a trade. So Metcalf's likely not going to

(01:09:26):
be there and Lockett is already gone, so you all
of a sudden have JSN and I don't know, like
from that, it's like that and Kenneth Walker and that's
kind of it right now.

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
That is all you have. And again it's just again
I don't know where that direction is going, where that
organization is going, And it's not as though I don't
think Mike McDonald is good, but it could just spiral
really quickly, and it's a great point. I probably should
have mentioned off the top that DK Metcalf has demanded
a trade, and so so very interesting times in Seattle,
and I think again it speaks to kind of who

(01:10:04):
they worry here we talked about this. I had forgotten
that they finished ten and seven and in theory tied
with the Rams for the top spot in that division. Now,
the Rams clinched the division going into week seventeen, so
it was obviously a scenario where the Rams could lose
and still clinch the division. But they won ten games.
But new quarterback, new offensive coordinator, You're trading the star receiver.

(01:10:26):
It feels like and I just don't know who the
Seahawks are. Fox Sports Radio, Aer Tors Jason Martin broadcasting
live from the tyreck dot Com studios. We will come
back to Sager with his extended update. That's all next.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:10:41):
Welcome back, everybody. Fox Sports Radio, Eric Torris, Jason Martin.
We are broadcasting live from the tyreck dot Com studios,
as we do every week around this time. Let's toss
it over the news desk Steve Desager with an extended update.

Speaker 6 (01:10:55):
Guys, we did have our first men's basketball team to
punch its ticket to the end tournament.

Speaker 3 (01:11:01):
Tonight.

Speaker 6 (01:11:01):
Our first conference tournament title game was in the Ohio Valley.
Congratulations to SIU Edwardsville, which has never made March Madness before.
More on them in a minute. There are four conference
title games on Sunday, including tomorrow night the Summit League Championship.
Aaron with the great point early in the show, and yes,
Saint Thomas, Minnesota did win its conference semi tonight. They're

(01:11:25):
not eligible yet for the NCAA Tournament, but they're in
their conference final tomorrow against Omaha. Rare rare instance where
it's not the winner goes to the Big Dance.

Speaker 2 (01:11:35):
So Omaha has officially clinched the second NCAA.

Speaker 6 (01:11:38):
Tournament, so that is to clinch tonight. You see, there
was an NCAA vote during this school year that a
team transitioning to Division one like this Saint Thomas school
only has to wait four years instead of five. That
doesn't help them this season. Next year they'll be eligible
for NCAA Championship play, but they're apparently one of the

(01:11:59):
rare rare unifsities making the transition directly from Division three
to Division one, and so that affects things. But congrats
to Saint Thomas, at least in its conference final tomorrow night.
Colorado basketball was two and seventeen in the Big Twelve,
but beat TCU by twenty in the late game BYU
over rival Utah. Miami was two and seventeen in the

(01:12:21):
ACC but edged NC State today seventy two seventy, and
there was a four overtime game at Notre Dame. The
Irish beat cal One twelve one ten. Yes, that was
an ACC game. Yale is thirteen and one in the
Ivy League after winning at Brown, and it looks like
UC San Diego's gonna finish eighteen and two in the
Big West. They have a big lead second half at

(01:12:42):
UC Davis, and I noticed this one box score of
women's basketball today. Southern University was fifteen and two in conference,
but they lost at home forty eight thirty five to
Alabama A and M. The winning team made one three
pointer the whole game and had twenty one turnovers. Southern
new was shot twenty one percent from the floor. As

(01:13:05):
for SIU Edwardsville, again, the men are going to the dance.
NCAA says in its tournament history, this is now team
number three hundred and thirty three to make the NCAA
Tournament field. They're going as Ohio Valley Conference Tournament champions.
They beat first place Southeast Missouri State by twenty one

(01:13:26):
points tonight. So I looked up who they had played
early in the season, which brings us to Doug Gottlieb's
team in Green Bay, which lost early in its conference tourney.
Horizon finished four and twenty eight, but Green Bay did
play this SIU Edwardsville team in mid November and killed
them eighty two to fifty seven. In fact, green Bay

(01:13:48):
after that game went three months without winning another game.
So let's just already put it down in pen SIU
Edwardsville is going to be in the first four in Dayton.

Speaker 2 (01:13:59):
Yeah, I'll say I'll defend Doug because he's done a
few interviews where he's basically been like, if you actually
look at our roster and what we've had to deal with.
The kid Anthony Roy in that game against SIU Edwardville
scored thirty four points. Bring it out. He was the
nation's leading scorer when he went down with an injury.
This was on Doug Gottlieb's team Green Bay. Anthony Roy
was averaging twenty six points per game and went down

(01:14:21):
with an injury eleven games in the scene. So I'm
not defending my colleague here, but there are some variables
that people do not mention. When they mentioned the disappointing
season from the Green Bay Phoenix.

Speaker 6 (01:14:33):
They went to a nineteen against conference opponents, I'm just
saying a team that is going to the LA tournaments.

Speaker 2 (01:14:39):
Laughter, That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (01:14:40):
Early.

Speaker 2 (01:14:41):
Yeah, they I don't know enough to know how good
they were at full strength, but when you lose the
leading score in college basketball, that's never a good thing.

Speaker 6 (01:14:50):
Meanwhile, we had quite the finish in the SEC. Overtime
jumper at the Buzzer gets Alabama a win at number
one Auburn ninety three to ninety one, and when it
was Mark Sears, their star averaging twenty points a game,
who was the hero at the end. He had made
only two baskets the whole day until that shot, he
was two for eight.

Speaker 2 (01:15:08):
So Auburn had been.

Speaker 6 (01:15:09):
Twenty seven and three this season, but ends the regular
season losing at home to its rival in overtime at
the Buzzer Jenei Broom thirty four points. Number two ranked
Duke went nineteen and one in the ACC after winning
at Carolina, Yes, they beat rival North Carolina eighty two
sixty nine, so the tar Heels are twenty and twelve.
Third ranked Houston wins a late game tonight at Baylor

(01:15:31):
sixty five sixty one. The Houston Cougars went nineteen and
one in the Big Twelve Conference and the one loss
was i in overtime to Texas Tech, which is a
top ten team now. Ninth ranked Texas Tech won tonight
at Arizona State eighty five fifty seven. In fact, Tech
had only two turnovers in the game, led by one
just before halftime, and then blew them out. Fourth ranked

(01:15:53):
Tennessee was trailing South Carolina early in the second half.
South Carolina finished two and sixteen in conference. It's dead
last in the SEC of Alls eventually won at home
seventy five sixty five. Fifth ranked Florida over Ole Miss,
ninety to seventy one. The Gators finished just one game
behind Auburn in the Southeastern Conference. Gators won at Auburn

(01:16:14):
in their only matchup a month ago. Sixth ranked Saint
John's won a finish, winning at the Buzzer in overtime
at twentieth th rank Marquette eighty six, eighty four, and
they won it right after a steal. It looked like
Marquette had the rebound in the final seconds, it was
poked away. Saint John's quickly scores to win. The home
team was stunned. Saint John's finishes eighteen and two in

(01:16:35):
the Big East, finished three games up on Creighton and
the standings. Marquette, I know they are ranked twentieth this week,
but this confirms my opinion that they're yet again this season,
aren't twenty good teams in college basketball, So be careful
when you fill out your brackets about the seedings and
what they mean. Marquette's record the last five weeks is
four and six.

Speaker 2 (01:16:55):
Yeah, I'll say, like I was just watching this Byuutah
game BYUS won eight straight in the rank twenty third
in the country. So it's like the AP ranking is
not reflective of who is good and who isn't at
this point in the year.

Speaker 6 (01:17:07):
I would concur with that tenthranked Iowa State one at
Kansas State seventy three fifty seven. Ky State from three
point range was two for twenty one. Eleventh rank Clemson
finished a SUPERB season sixty five forty seven over Virginia Tech,
which committed twenty three turnovers and made just one free
throw the whole game. One for four Penn State with
the upstate the upset at twelfth ranked Wisconsin. Penn State

(01:17:31):
trailed by thirteen late in the first half, but won
the game eighty six seventy five. Its record and conference
was five and fourteen. Next to last thirteenth rank Maryland
over Northwestern seventy four to sixty one, and UCLA killed
USC ninety two sixty three double by for them in
the Big Ten Tourney. How about fourteenth rank Louisville. It

(01:17:52):
goes eighteen and two in the ACC, tied for second
with Clemson. Louisville beat Stanford sixty eight forty eight Kentucky
one its top twenty matchup at Missouri ninety one eighty three.
Each of those teams finished ten to eight in conference.
Kansas surprised Arizona Arkansas ninety three ninety two over Mississippi State.

Speaker 2 (01:18:13):
By the way. One note Disager, I don't know this
for sure, but we talked earlier about not everybody getting
an invite to the Big Ten Tournament, So it looks
like USC is right on the cut line of getting
an invite to that Big Ten tournament. So just you know,
you talk about, you know, byproducts of this expanded conference stuff.
I think it's fifteen teams go to the Big Ten Tournament,

(01:18:34):
and USC right now is tied for they'd be tied
for eighteen seventy sixteenth three.

Speaker 3 (01:18:41):
What could he use, Brownie James?

Speaker 2 (01:18:43):
I know, No, they they don't. I will say in
their defense that you know who they actually have coming
in next year is Gilbert Arena's son, who's actually actually
like a legitimate NBA prospect, now like a fake NBA prospect,
like a legitimate one guy. We're gonna say's son disagres
I like Bronnie James.

Speaker 6 (01:18:57):
Was that the rest of the paragraph.

Speaker 2 (01:18:59):
I'll let you decipher that.

Speaker 6 (01:19:01):
However, do we not agree that he was not the
best team on his high school team, much less on
his college team, and yet he gets drafted by the Lakers?

Speaker 2 (01:19:09):
Yeah? I mean he question mark, he was like the
thirty eighth ranked player in that class. Find me the
thirty eighth ranked player that's generally drafted as a one
and done.

Speaker 3 (01:19:17):
It doesn't exist.

Speaker 2 (01:19:18):
But tell you what, Fox Sports Radio ertors Jason Martin
broadcasting live from the tyreck dot Com studios. Let's come back.
We'll talk about the Lakers who took the yel What
is Lebron James status with an injury? Oh, that's coming up.
It's next Airtors Jason Martin taking it till two am
Eastern Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:19:38):

Speaker 2 (01:19:42):
Welcome in everybody, hour three tours and Martin, Fox Sports Radio.
We are broadcasting live from the tyreck dot Com studios.
Tire rack dot com. We'll help you get there and
unmatched the election. Fast free Ship, Make free Road has
a protection and over ten thousand recommended installers. Tire the
way tire buying should be. Jason Martin, Er Torres taking

(01:20:07):
it up till two am Eastern time. Bernie Fretto of
The Bernie Fratto Show follows us. J mart Let's talk
about what was probably the lead story of the night
in sports. The end of an era, the end of
the Golden age of the NBA, the greatest dynasty we've
ever seen, the Los Angeles Lakers. Everyone in the media

(01:20:28):
swore that, you know, they might never lose again. You know,
Luca Lebron just just just start playing in the parade.
Boston Celtics had other plans. They win one eleven, one
oh one. It is worth noting Lebron James does exit
with six forty four left in this game. Afterwards, he
was asked by the way I should mention left six

(01:20:50):
forty four a strained groin. Lebron was asked about. Uh
was asked about this. Let's go ahead, Mary Mack and
play Lebron on his growing to look at it.

Speaker 5 (01:21:01):
Each day, see if it gets better, and then take
the proper measure mission, see see what we need to
do going forward.

Speaker 3 (01:21:06):
I don't know, saidam and grabbing Mike.

Speaker 4 (01:21:08):
And then figure out where the best case in their
best case of playing is going, you know, going forward.

Speaker 2 (01:21:13):
That was Lebron James after the game. I don't think
it was really telling one way or the other. But
you know, we figured we just played the sound. But
Lebron James does suffer a strain growin. I want to
get back to the bigger picture of the Lakers in general, Jason,
but I do think it is worth noting the Lakers
are on the front end of what is obviously an

(01:21:35):
East Coast road trip, really just a road trip in general,
four straight on the road, but of their next seven games,
two of them are against Milwaukee, two of them are
against Denver. It is worth noting they do play Phoenix
as well. I know Phoenix is not playing well, but
as we saw on Friday night, could still pretty much,
you know, put the ball in the basket with anybody.

(01:21:55):
They you know, the crazy overtime Jokic legas. But I
just ray up because Phoenix is no walk in the
park either. But I do think it's kind of worth
noting that, you know, the Lakers, who everyone in our
business was ready to crown the NBA champion, now entering
a tough stretch of the schedule. Three more road games
on this trip, two games against Denver, two games against

(01:22:18):
Milwaukee in their next seven, and I think Lebron you
have to assume is going to be out for part
of it.

Speaker 3 (01:22:23):
J Martin, Yeah, I would think so. Hopefully he's not
out for too long, but you don't want to rush
him back either. The other thing is, if they're as
good as everybody tells us they are, then this doesn't matter.
But ultimately, even not joking about it, I think that
they're gonna be in the playoffs, they're gonna have their opportunity.

(01:22:46):
So if you miss it a couple of weeks, it's
not gonna be the end of the world. Don't rush
him back in At his age, maybe it's all right
to get a little bit of a break for a
few weeks as well. Could be a blessing in disguise
for him. Now, they may drop a seed or two
as a result, but I mean, if they're gonna win,
they're gonna have to go through some tough opposition anyway
along the way. So I kind of look at this
more like, eh, hopefully as long as it's not something

(01:23:10):
that lingers and calls this problems beyond what's expected, I
think this will be fine whatever the Lakers were gonna be,
and I don't think this changes the trajectory of whatever
that was gonna be.

Speaker 2 (01:23:23):
So let's talk big picture. So you know, we're obviously
I think everybody knows, but we were being sarcastic about
the state of the Lakers. But listen, they were playing well.
Luca is acclimating well. He and Lebron are two special players.
And you know, we could joke about Lebron, but we
know that at forty years old, he's doing stuff that
we've never really seen before. But big picture, I mean,

(01:23:45):
first of all, let me even just ask you this.
I think this almost feels this Lebron growin tweak. It
almost feels like a metaphor for why it was so
hard for me to believe in this team to make
a deep run. Because again it's obvious, but I'll say it,
nobody's wishing injuries upon anybody. But we're talking about a

(01:24:07):
fundamentally flawed team as it is, that will need basically
Luca and Lebron to play at an elite level every
night for two straight months, four rounds of high leverage basketball.
And I just don't know that Lebron at his age
can continue to do that.

Speaker 3 (01:24:26):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:24:27):
You know, he's luckily avoided any kind of catastrophic injuries
throughout his career. We know that, but you know, he
is a guy that has worn down in the playoffs
the last couple of years, certainly that run to the
Western Conference finals two years ago. Luca, you and I
might not still fully understand why Dallas traded him in
the first place, but he did wear down by the
NBA finals, and we heard that legendary Brian Windhorse sound

(01:24:51):
of basically like, hey, dude, if you want to make
it that final step, you need to get yourself in
better shape. So I just bring it up because again,
nobody wishes injuries upon anybody, but it does feel like
a little bit of a metaphor where you basically need
those guys operating at an insanely high level game over
game over game in the playoffs, and it just feels like,

(01:25:13):
is that something that is realistic to expect from this
team at this time with a forty year old superstar
and a twenty six year old superstar that we are
led to believe was traded from his previous team because
he can't stay in shape.

Speaker 3 (01:25:29):
Yeah, I mean, it's true to a degree for everybody,
but this team can't survive without both of them, first
of all being available, but not just being available at
being good. And you made that point, well, there are
teams where most of the time, if your star goes down,
you're not gonna be able to win. But there are
some that are a little deeper and better equipped. At

(01:25:50):
least this team is an injury or an absence of
Luca or Lebron away from probably getting blown out and swept.
Like I mean, it's that big a deal. Nobody is
ready to take a step up from where they already

(01:26:10):
are in the pecking order on that team. There's no
depth whatsoever to be found on that team. So you
think about it there and it's just that that is
really that's rough because again to your point, conditioning issues
for Luca potentially, and then Lebron just being older, his

(01:26:31):
body being a little bit more frail, as great as
he's taking care of himself and all of those things.
I mean, eventually, Father Tom's going to come for everybody,
and he hasn't been quite as healthy in the last
three years or so as he was prior to that.
And you look at it, you know through that lens,
is he going to be able you talk about him
wearing down, I mean is his body going to hold

(01:26:52):
up period through a what you would think is going
to be a grueling, very difficult trip through the West,
not to mention what you're going to be seeing coming
out of the East, whether it's the Celtics team that
was far better than you on Saturday night last night
or someone else. So that's that's the biggest thing, is
just there's no depth here. This is a team that
is going to be made or broken by those two guys.

(01:27:14):
I still don't think that's going to be enough. But
even if you believe the media types that are trying
to wish cast that into existence, they know just how
treacherous that is. I mean they're on a scaffolding and
there's a lot of wind blowing and you can get
blown off real fast.

Speaker 2 (01:27:30):
Well, with the Lakers loss, now in third place behind
Oklahoma City and Denver, worth noting there are only a
game and a half up on both Memphis and Houston,
and so if Lebron is out for an extended period
of time, you could see them tumble down those standings.
Let me ask you this really quick, is that you
know you and I have been I don't I think

(01:27:50):
negatives are right word, but I think realistic about maybe
what they are and are not. How many teams do
you actually think, specifically in the West, like, are actually
a legitimate bad matchup with them over seven games? Is
it just Denver is a Denver and OKC are the
Warriors in that mix? The Rockets are obviously playing well

(01:28:11):
but don't have much playoff experience. The Grizzlies jazz back
all that, Like, how many teams in the West. Do
you think if those two guys are at least on
the court, Because you know, again forty year old twenty
six year old that historically hasn't been in shape, stuff
can happen. But if those guys are at least on
the court and operating, it's something close to one hundred percent. Like,
how many teams do you realistically think are actually a

(01:28:33):
bad matchup for them?

Speaker 3 (01:28:34):
Yeah, that's a good question. I don't think it's more
than four, And I think four it's probably pushing it.
If they're executing on the highest level possible, then I'd
probably put them about fourth. I mean, I think Oka
See and Denver are better overall teams with more depth.
They're younger teams as well, so you look at that.

(01:28:57):
So I put them there, and then probably would say
either Memphis somebody else, whether it's Memphis, Houston, Golden State.
There's a third team in that mix. I don't know
exactly what it is. I'm not really sold on the
Golden State thing either. Like we talked a lot about
the Lakers, I also think the gold I think the
Golden State stuff's a little bit overblown as well. And
I'm gonna need to see that for a lot longer

(01:29:19):
before I crown them. I don't have any problem crowning
Steph Curry. Yeah, but I need to see this for
a little bit longer than a couple of weeks before.
I think the Warriors are now championship contenders. But I
just think that this is what I think. I think
that the Thunder and the Nuggets particularly, they're just a
tier above everybody else. So then after that is okay,

(01:29:41):
there are some other teams that just depended on just
the circumstances and the way the series are playing out,
the storylines, various injuries, some of the stuff that we
don't see that goes on little details and things like that.
There's a couple of other teams that could be problematic
for the Lakers, certainly in the playoffs. I don't think
that they could look past almost anybody, just because again

(01:30:04):
it's just even you're talking about a high level, but
I mean, they're not gonna be able to play on
a high level throughout the playoffs every single night. So
there's gonna be some series that go pretty long, and
so there's just a lot of unknowns there.

Speaker 2 (01:30:18):
Yeah, So I agree with you on you know, probably
two or three teams. By the way, it's really funny.
I'll be quick on this, but I was talking to Ian,
who produces the show before us. Ian, of course, was
our longtime producer on this show. And I walked in
the studio and the Laker Celtics was obviously on the
main screen, but then you know, Warriors Warriors Pistons was

(01:30:39):
on the next screen, and I just looked at Ian.
I said, there is not a story in sports that
I care about less than the Golden State Warriors. And
it's like and told I said, it's like a TV
show that has gone on like two seasons too long
and they try to just bring in another character to
just completely like spice things up. And I'm like, I

(01:31:00):
just I've seen it, and like you said, Steph's awesome,
he's great. We know where Draymond is that at, you know,
at this point in his career. I was like, it's
just it's the TV show that tries to add the
quirky character like in season eight, and it's like, we
just need to end this show already. That's how I
feel about the Warriors. I don't think they're a legitimate

(01:31:21):
threat to make a legitimate run. Maybe I look stupid,
but it's just one that I don't know. I just
I think I do think. There are a lot of
interesting stories in the NBA, ranging from Oka See Memphis
with jaw back, the rise of the Calves, Boston going
for a second straight, Denver going for two out of three.

(01:31:42):
I'll just be real. I don't think the Warriors with
Jimmy Butler is one of them. I really don't.

Speaker 3 (01:31:46):
I don't either, and we could. Who knows. Maybe we're
eating our words when we get to June, but we're
gonna wait until we get to June before we eat
those words. We're not going to step out onto a
limb on March ninth after a couple of weeks. It's just, man,
there's a long there's still a lot of basketball that
needs to be played. And as much as it might

(01:32:08):
create decent content for your television program, I just I
would rather I would rather keep my powder dry and
have some degree of integrity and objectivity At the end.

Speaker 2 (01:32:19):
Of this, well, and I'll just wrap by saying this
is that if we're gonna talk about, you know, can
forty year old Lebron and Luca, who is historically out
of shape make it through four rounds. I think it's
fair to ask if a team that's led by three
dudes deep into their thirties can survive four rounds as well.
And again, you know, I get the Warriors trying to

(01:32:42):
extend this this steph window for as long as they
possibly can. But again, you got three dudes that are
well over thirty five at this point, and I guess
I just have my questions on, you know, if they
can if they can extend it beyond, you know, if
they can make a real round. So Fox Sports Radio
Aertory Jason Martin, we are broadcasting live from the Tyreck

(01:33:02):
dot Com studios. Come back. I got a little bit
of an interesting take on Caitlyn Clark. Yeah, that's right.
Caitlyn Clark talked a lot about her last this time
last year, talked a lot about her during the summer.
But I got something that I think is gonna make
you think a little bit. That's next. Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 4 (01:33:23):
listen live.

Speaker 2 (01:33:35):
Welcome back, everybody, Fox Sports Radio er toors Jason Martin,
broadcasting live from the Tirek dot Com studios. We are
taking you up till two am Eastern Time. Bernie Frado
of The Bernie Frado Show follows us. Cannot wait to
hear what Bernie has to say about all things in sports, NBA, NFL,

(01:33:55):
and of course it is March, which means a lot
of college basketball. Speaking of basketball, A jmart So that
time of year, you know, you're you're flipping channels all
sorts of just random games at random times. And Thursday night,
got home from dinner, was just looking for something to watch.
There wasn't very much on. Well, I bring it up

(01:34:16):
because just flipping channels, looking for a game. Flip over
to the Big Ten Network. Okay, Big ten Network is
featuring the six eleven game in the women's Big Ten Tournament.
Now normally, J Martin, I can't go back to every
conversation we've ever had. I don't remember us talking about, uh,
the six to eleven matchup in the Big Ten Women's

(01:34:37):
Tournament very often. Maybe something happened, but I don't remember
it well. I bring it up because you know who
was playing in that game. Jmart The Iowa haw guys, Yes,
the same Iowa. And I'll say this too. It kind
of struck me as I was watching, I was like, oh, Iowa,
like and it just like I was like, have they been?

Speaker 1 (01:34:56):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:34:57):
They weren't literally the biggest this story in sports at
this time. A year ago, they were playing in the
six to eleven game with Michigan State on Thursday night.
They finished this year in a tie for eighth place
in the Big Ten. They ended up losing that game,

(01:35:17):
and it really struck me. Has there ever been an
athlete I guess they actually won that game and lost
in the next round, But I bring it up because
you go from being the biggest story in sports a
year ago Iowa women's basketball, you make back to back
national championship games. Last year you lose to Iowa, or
last year you lose to South Carolina, excuse me, and
now you're playing in the six to eleven game in

(01:35:39):
front of what I would guess was mostly friends and family,
And it really struck me. Has there ever been a
college athlete? We know what she's done for the WNBA,
but a college athlete that has elevated a program more
than Caitlin Clark? Because a year ago they were the
biggest story in sports. I think the National Championship Game
did something like twenty million viewers or something in South Carolina.

(01:36:03):
Now they're playing in the six to eleven game in
front of what I would guess, respectfully was probably a
couple thousand fans.

Speaker 3 (01:36:12):
I don't think so. Now. You you gave me this
take several hours back, and I had two names in
my head immediately, and I want to throw them out.
I don't think either one of them quite gets there,
and you can poke holes in both of them. But
there were two names that immediately leap to mind because
I was just thinking about who were to just transcendent.

(01:36:33):
Everybody was paying attention to them. College athletes at programs
that didn't matter prior and pretty much didn't matter after.
I'm going to go in order. I'm going to get
to the one I think is probably the better case. Second.
But the first one would be Steph Curry at Davidson.

Speaker 2 (01:36:53):
Oh, that's a good one.

Speaker 3 (01:36:56):
Because nobody cared about Davidson at all. And then of
course Steph Curry we cared going into that NCAA tournament
where they had a nice deep run. Now it wasn't
quite the same because we weren't all watching David's in
regular season basketball. So and of course they didn't get
quite as far as Iowa did. And you know, again,

(01:37:18):
you're talking about women's basketball, so you're talking about almost
nobody going to the games to sellouts anywhere to watch her.
So I don't think that it quite rises to that level.
But that would be that would be my first one,
So poke holes in that one before I get to
the one that I like a little better.

Speaker 2 (01:37:34):
The only thing I would say, and I don't totally
remember everything. I think it was a short window where
it became a really big thing because Steph was basically Steph.
Like I remember a second round game against Georgetown where
they probably Georgetown probably would have been like a three
seed maybe, and he went off for like thirty six

(01:37:57):
or thirty eight or something like that. And so then
it goes into the next weekend and it's like, oh,
this thing is for real. And I vividly remember this
is that they played a Friday night Sweet sixteen game.
I'm gonna look this up, but I vividly remember Sweet
sixteen game in in in uh let me see here,

(01:38:22):
Hold on one second, it was in Detroit. I vividly
remember this, and it was against Wisconsin. Steph Curry, I'm
looking it up right now, went for thirty three in
that game. You can go back and look this up.
He had this wild up and under Gus Johnson was
on the call. Gus was going Gus. By the way,
Steph had thirty against Georgetown and that was a two
to ten matchup in round two, so it was really big.

(01:38:45):
They do lose in the Elite eight. The one parallel
that I would say is that there was the crossover
into the following season, a little bit like Caitlin Clark. Now,
it never got as big. He wasn't setting records. David'son
the following year wasn't as good. Uh And actually I
don't believe they even made the NCAA tournament the following year.

(01:39:06):
But I just bring it up because I think there
are a lot of parallels there. But I will say this,
it wasn't as big, it wasn't as extended. But one
you talk about going from nothing to something immediately, there's
a carryover and then the immediate fall off after he leaves.
I would just say it was confined to a very narrow,
probably two to three week window.

Speaker 3 (01:39:27):
Yeah, okay, so I agree with that, and that's and
this one, this next one, which I like better, I
also don't love because of kind of the aftermath of it,
not for the program but for the athlete in particular.
The second one is Jimmer for debt ooh at BYU.

(01:39:47):
I understand at b Yu's right right now, but I
get that. I like the difference. The difference from me
here with Jimmer is Jimmer didn't do anything in the pros.
I mean, went Sacramento, but didn't really ever do anything
in the pros. And Kaitlin Clark is going to have
a good pro career, but no one knew or cared
about anything but BYU football. And then Jim Orferdet Jim Ermania,

(01:40:11):
if I remember right, lasted for a season.

Speaker 2 (01:40:14):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 3 (01:40:15):
A big deal because he was just he was making
shots from everywhere, and like I think it started in
the tournament and then he came back and it was
hot the next year, which is very similar to what
we saw with Caitlyn Clark. And then BYU went back
to being a football school the second that he left.
He just didn't have the success, and of course BYU
didn't go as deep anywhere near as deep as Iowa did,

(01:40:37):
but he certainly didn't have the pro level success that
that Caitlin Clark is going to. But I still think
that one's a little bit closer.

Speaker 2 (01:40:44):
So I like that one too, and I think it's
the same thing, and I think we're going to get
to the same point of there there is. I don't
think there's anything quite like Caitlyn Clark. But that is
a really good one because that season, like that was
the story every single game. And and by the way,
similar player deep threes, you know, thirty five on any

(01:41:08):
given night, and it was I mean it was. It
was at a school that nobody cared about before, nobody
has really cared about since. And yeah, I think I
think those are two really good ones. I couldn't come
up with anything good. This was the best one that
I could come up with, and I think it sucks.
I actually think yours are much better than mine. I
do think like that one season of Cam Newton at Auburn,

(01:41:32):
where it was like every single year it just built up,
built every single week, excuse me, it just built up,
built up, built up, And they were I don't remember now,
but like Fringe Top twenty five, and by the end
of the year, it's like, oh my god, this is unbelievable.
And then they immediately went, you know, gene Chizick got fired,
I believe not the following year but the year after that.
That was one that I thought of. But listen, Auburn

(01:41:54):
has played for a national championship since then, So that's
why I didn't love that parallel, but just shows you
the impact of Kaitlyn Clark. And you know, obviously the
other thing too, is like the trickle up effect to
the WNBA. But yeah, I actually like yours a lot.
J mart of Jim or Fredette I think is a
really good one. I think Steph is a really good

(01:42:15):
one as well. I don't know that there's been anybody
quite like Kaitlyn Clark before since then.

Speaker 3 (01:42:21):
No, I mean, all credits are but yeah, I mean
your point is right. When you said that you had
watched some of that, I was like, you did what?
But then it was just like, the take makes all
the sense in the world. I mean, right now, it's
almost as if they don't have a program with no
disrespect to the women that are playing or the girls
that are playing, not nothing about their ability or whatever.

(01:42:41):
It's just like they don't there's no attention paid whatsoever.
Like you go from completely sold out to you could
hear a pin drop. That's got to be a dramatic shift,
especially for those that played with her last year. I
know that's almost got to feel like I don't even
know what that would feel like, but that it would
be hard to get psyched up to play basketball after

(01:43:01):
getting used to what you got used to the last
season and a third or whatever that was, to then
go back in there to where you got to be
careful and not actually use any curse, use any bad
language on the court because everyone's gonna hear it in
the building.

Speaker 2 (01:43:18):
It's a very interesting conversation. And I think you did
a good job of, you know, thinking of a couple
And I will add I'm glad I told you before
because I thought I thought you came up with a
couple of really good ones. An y. I can't even
imagine what it's like for those girls that were part
of back to back national runners up who were playing
in the six to eleven game in the late game
at the Big Ten Women's Tournament earlier this week, Fox

(01:43:40):
Sports radio eritwords Jason Martin will come back. I got
a little spin off off the Caitlin Clark thing how
it might impact future men's stars. Will do that next
before we do though final time this evening, Steve Di
sigger what is trending?

Speaker 6 (01:43:52):
And then I'm glad you mentioned Steph Curry Davidson. That
was the first name I thought of. Also maybe John
Morant with Murray State, and also looking things up, Buddy
Heal got Oklahoma to the Final four. What has Oklahoma
basketball been the past decade?

Speaker 3 (01:44:11):
Two guys that you could probably name off the top
of your head him and Blake.

Speaker 2 (01:44:15):
Oh yeah, I thought you meant on that team. I
was like, I can't name another guy off that team.
But yeah, no, no, I.

Speaker 3 (01:44:20):
Say, like in that program, like Trey Young standout? Yeah, treyon.

Speaker 2 (01:44:23):
But those are the three right there, That's the big three.

Speaker 6 (01:44:26):
So when Oklahoma today won at Texas to finish the
regular season, each team finished six and twelve in the SEC.
This was the final weekend of the men's regular season.
Haven't mentioned much about women's hoops tonight, but there are
going to be some great conference title games tomorrow in
the SEC tournament semifinal wins today for number one Texas,

(01:44:47):
which beat ninth ranked LSU. South Carolina won its top
ten matchup against Oklahoma. So it's South Carolina against two
seed Texas. Yes, Texas seed at second in the conference
and r number one in the country. It's going to
be number two ranked USC against number four UCLA tomorrow
for the Big Ten Crown, as they each won semifinals today.

(01:45:09):
UCLA dominated Ohio State, USC was tied with about six
minutes to go and then beat Michigan ACC semifinals Duke
over Notre Dame, NC State beat North Carolina Big twelve
semis eighth ranked TCU over West Virginia. Baylor won in
overtime against Oklahoma State. Each team I was just mentioning
these last two conferences. They're all ranked and number three

(01:45:31):
Connecticut won its game today seventy one forty over Saint John's.
Congratulations on the men's side to SIU Edwardsville for the
first time. It's going to the dance Tonight was the
first conference tournament title game. It was in the Ohio
Valley that team won, beating first place Southeast Missouri State,
and as Sarah mentioned earlier, Omaha just by getting to

(01:45:52):
its conference final tomorrow night is advancing because their opponent
tomorrow is not yet eligible for the NCAA Tournament. Selection
Sunday for the NCAA Tournament field is just over a
week away. March the sixteenth, Alabama won in overtime at
number one Auburn on a jumper at the Buzzer, ninety
three to ninety one. Wins in the top five for
Duke and Houston, for Tennessee and Florida, and six ranks.

(01:46:15):
Saint John's won in overtime at the Buzzer at Marquette,
eighty six to eighty four. In the NBA, Boston beat
the Lakers ended LA's eight game winning streak one eleven
to one oh one. Despite thirty four points from Luka,
Doncic Jason Tatum forty points, Boston was up twenty two
at one point in the second half, it was eighty
to fifty eight. Lebron James had twenty two points but

(01:46:37):
left with a string groin. Orlando ended a five game
losing streak, winning by two at Milwaukee. Washington got a
one point win at Toronto, and Charlotte, which had lost
nine straight, edge Brooklyn one oh five one oh two.
The Nets have lost seven straight Philadelphia's Paul George is
out Sunday and Monday with a sore groin. Miami's bam
Adebayo find fifty thousand dollars through his behavior toured an official.

(01:47:01):
After Friday's loss. New York reportedly got PJ. Tucker on
a ten day contract. The Calves have won thirteen in
a row. They'll be at Milwaukee Sunday. Cavaliers are averaging
one hundred and twenty six points per game during their
win streak. The NHL late game to Edmonton five to
four over Dallas. Earlier, Colorado beat Toronto seven to four.
Saints quarterback Derek Carr is restructuring his contract clearing cap space.

(01:47:25):
The Chiefs resigned wide receiver Hollywood Brown. Tight end Mike
Kasicki resigned with the Bengals. The Ravens resigned left tackle
Ronnie Stanley, the Giants resigned punter Jamie Gillen, and Buffalo
gave defensive end Greg Russeau a four year extension. Quarterback
Sam Darnold, according to the NFL Network, is not expected
to resign with Minnesota, and of course, on Friday, Seattle

(01:47:45):
just traded quarterback Gino Smith to Las Vegas Washington is
resigning tight end zach Ertz.

Speaker 2 (01:47:51):
A reminder.

Speaker 6 (01:47:51):
Next week, March twelfth is the first day of the
NFL's new league year. Former running back Eddie George is
reportedly a finalist to be head coach at bowling he's
been at Tennessee State. Yankees dh Gencarlo Stanton says his
elbow injuries have been deemed severe. Yankee pitcher Garrett Cole
says he's concerned about his pitching elbow. He started tests
on it. Braves. Left fielder Jerrekson Profar left his exhibition

(01:48:14):
today with a jammed wrist after trying a diving catch.
Pitcher for the Rangers, Jacob de Gram in his spring
debut through two perfect innings. Time of the game was
two hours, one minute in a five to three win
over the Royals. Pitcher Max Scherzer is now with Toronto.
In his three starts in spring so far, he has
fourteen strikeouts, no walks. Great today against Detroit Tigers signed

(01:48:35):
former Houston pitcher Jose or Keaty and Dodgers pitcher Tyler
glassnow struck out six in his three innings against the
White Sox. A reminder, it is daylight savings for most
of us this weekend, oh wow, which does mean tonight,
and we do have live golf on FS one right
now the final round of the Live Golf tournament in
Hong Kong. Sergio Garcia has a two stroke lead about

(01:48:58):
halfway through this final round, and we will have NASCAR
on FS one from Phoenix Sunday's Cup race back to you.

Speaker 2 (01:49:06):
I'll be real, had zero idea. This week was daylight
savings time, so this is tonight, that's correct, okay, So
we moved the clocks back an hour for spring ahead. Okay,
so we gain the hour, No, no, we lose the hours.

Speaker 6 (01:49:19):
We get to the morning quicker.

Speaker 2 (01:49:20):
So Leslie, I took a nice long map today.

Speaker 3 (01:49:23):
So anyway, Bernie Froud is going to have to talk faster, faster, okay, tonight,
so three hours. I think he wants to short change
his takes because he's always he has a head full
of takes that he has to get out, and an
hour shorter just means he's gonna have to go full
John Mashida from the old micro Machines commercials and just

(01:49:43):
talk as fast as humanly. He already talks relatively quickly.
I didn't know anybody some stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no,
I know worthless stuff like I know a ton of
just incredibly, I'm a.

Speaker 6 (01:49:57):
He could talk so fast he could put a sixty
second spot in thirty seconds.

Speaker 3 (01:50:02):
Absolutely, Oh wow, he had the world record for a time.

Speaker 2 (01:50:07):
This is all news to me. Well, Bernie Fratto is
gonna be trying to break a world record in twenty
two minutes from now. But I'll tell you what, j
Mart will come back. I got a spicy Cooper flag take.
I don't know if the world's ready for. We're gonna
discuss that next Fox Sports, Rady, j Mart. Do you
know what this is?

Speaker 3 (01:50:25):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:50:27):
No, great producing by Brie. You could play you could
play it a little low. Uh. Rick Patino was on
Jimmy Fallon the other night and they did a scripted
corny skit. It's actually funny. You should find it on
YouTube or Twitter or whatever, where it's basically like an
old sea captain that's seeing a red storm in the distance,

(01:50:51):
and that sea captain is Jimmy Fallon. And you know
they have this song which you could turn back up
Mary and uh they have all the players singing along
and the players look like they're in a hostage video.
But this thing will get stuck in your head. I'm
not gonna lie. I heard it first thing yesterday morning,
and it was pretty much stuck in my head all

(01:51:13):
day yesterday. We're gonna say that, I.

Speaker 3 (01:51:15):
Was gonna say it's based off of song Soon made
the Wellerman come.

Speaker 2 (01:51:18):
That's happy. Yeah, there's an actual song.

Speaker 3 (01:51:21):
Yeah. I knew this, so I know the song, and.

Speaker 2 (01:51:24):
They just made a parody out of it. But the
song is really really good too. But this I thought wasious.
It's such a boomer. I don't know any I don't
know anything about anything that's not sports.

Speaker 3 (01:51:33):
That's so bad.

Speaker 2 (01:51:34):
I didn't know that was an actual song. But yeah,
they did a They did a spoof for that apparently,
with with Rick Patino and the Saint John's players. Is
actually pretty funny and it's well done, and Saint John's
is certainly a fun story in college hoops. So I
want to wrap on this. J Mart, By the way,
best week of the year is my favorite week of
the year with all the conference tournaments. I like it

(01:51:55):
more than the NCAA tournament. Maybe that's a conversation for
next week. But so we before we got to Disaga
last segment, we did talk a little bit about Caitlin Clark,
and so, you know, obviously in men's basketball right now,
the big story is Cooper Flagg, who's obviously gonna be
the number one pick, blah blah blah whatever. And so
I bring it up because you know, there's been a

(01:52:17):
little bit of a narrative. I thought the quote was overblown.
So Cooper Flagg did a like literally there was like
a five thousand word profile in The Athletic and there
was like one line where he said, yeah, man, you know,
would totally love to come back. And so this became
a narrative in the media of like, oh, it's Cooper
Flagg gonna come back, and it's like, well, he's not

(01:52:38):
coming back, okay, whatever. But then I did see, you know,
certain people bring up the conversation of, hey, if he
doesn't want to go to the Wizards, if he doesn't
want to go to wherever, you know, should he return
to college? And so I have a little bit of
a play off of that. J Mart. Where I was
thinking about it this week is that I don't think

(01:52:59):
guys will hold out or return to college just because
they don't want to go somewhere, Like I don't think
that's gonna happen. But where the Caitlyn Clark twist comes in,
and we've talked about this. What made the Caitlin Clark
story so big was not just that she's amazing, but
it's because she's an amazing player who played four years
of college basketball, and really all of the main characters

(01:53:20):
in her story returned year over year. Right, Angel Reese
LSU South Carolina, you know, Paige Beckers emerges at yukon whatever.
And so clearly it's been great for women's basketball to
have the best players play four years of college basketball.
Kaitlin Clark, Angel ree Juju Watkins is gonna probably play
four years. Paige Beckers, I believe he's played five. So

(01:53:43):
I bring it up with Cooper Flag and with college
basketball is because one, I certainly think it would help
the men's game for players to stay longer. But this
is my take. I think we are going to see
a Cooper Flag level player return to college for a
couple different reasons. At some point it's not gonna be
Cooper Flag. But my argument is basically this is that

(01:54:04):
one the powers that be in college certainly wanted two
we and by the way, I understand the economics. I
understand how much a guaranteed contract in the NBA is worth, Okay,
But here is my true belief is that one first
of all college basketball players are making insane amounts of
money right now, Okay, and it's because of the actual endorsements,

(01:54:27):
not just anio from the school. Right, I'm sure Cooper
Flag's making a lot of money from Duke, but he
has an endorsement deal with Gatorad, He's got an indorsement
deal with New Balance whatever. But I was thinking about
this is like, say Cooper Flag had a deal with Nike, right,
and he's playing at Duke. If you're Nike and say
Cooper Flag is you know you're paying Cooper Flag. I

(01:54:49):
think Zion made like fifteen a year in his rookie contract.
If you're Nike, isn't Cooper Flag more valuable to you
as a marketing tool in a Duke uniform playing forty
games a year on national television than playing for the
Washington Wizards or playing for the Brooklyn Nets, or playing
for somebody where they're gonna stink probably for several years,

(01:55:12):
you're not gonna be on national TV. I think that's
where we could see guys come back is a Nike
and Adidas and under Armour basically says we'll pay you
at ten million. You know we're gonna give you the
one hundred million dollar deal anyway, but let's start it
when you're in college. Let's keep you in college for
another year. Let's continue to build that brand. And then, oh,
by the way, like eventually you're gonna go to the NBA,

(01:55:36):
but you know, you come back to college or we
use Duke or Yukon or Kansas or whatever as a
marketing tool. I don't know. I think it is going
to happen. I think there is momentum for college basketball nil.
I think these I think the best athletes that can
really sign these real deals are making way more money

(01:55:57):
than people realize. And I understand there's a big difference
between guaranteed NBA contracts and anything you can make in NIL.
But I believe that is going to happen, like in
the next three to four years.

Speaker 3 (01:56:07):
Yeah, I mean, you're gonna have to give me a
reason to go pro if I'm already basically a pro
and there's a known quantity at Duke where I can
compete for a championship again next year, and I'm not
going to be doing that in the NBA, even if
I'm the best player in the world at that point
in time. I think what's also true is if you

(01:56:31):
want to go to the Wizards, you can still go
there in two years because they're still going to have
a good shot at having that pick. Like that's the
other thing, Like it doesn't work to just say I'm
going to go dodge X team by going back to school,
because the way the NBA works, a lot of these
teams are bad forever. They're bad for a long long time,

(01:56:51):
and they're bad for reasons, usually decision making, front office,
overpaying guys that aren't you getting the job done and
all that stuff. I mean, let's say it is Washington.
Washington's really bad. Washington's really going to be bad next
year too, So they're gonna have another opportunity to go
get Cooper flag. So if he stays or if he
was following just that that idea which was tossed out there,

(01:57:13):
I mean, it probably wouldn't work. It would just delay
it for another year. But I think your point is
more real. And I mean, look, we talked about Caitlyn Clark,
and we mentioned this at the time, although we didn't
know we were then going to be having this conversation
about Cooper Flag a year later. But there was a
reason why Caitlyn Clark could have stayed at Iowa. Yeah,

(01:57:34):
like there was a reason, like she stays there. I mean,
she's still the show and they're gonna pay her whatever,
and she's I mean, you talk about elevating college basketball,
and we talked about what's happened to the Iowa program
since I mean, what would they have paid to have
had this experience, this hride go one more year and

(01:57:55):
have all of these games and all these things being
paid attention to. And that's in Iowa. Like here we're
talking about Duke. We're talking about kind of the brand
in college basketball. So yeah, I mean the checkbook is blank, basically,
like whatever it is it takes. If Cooper Flag is
going to bring that many people, that many eyeballs, that
much money, that much extra marketing, and then that time

(01:58:17):
and then if Cooper Flagg realizes that why rush going
to what's going to become an almost immediately inferior product
because you're just not going to be able to stand
out on an awful team.

Speaker 2 (01:58:29):
Wow, I thought I was gonna get much more pushback
on that.

Speaker 3 (01:58:31):
Because I don't think so. I think it makes all
the sense in the world, honestly.

Speaker 2 (01:58:35):
No, and I appreciate that because as soon as I
say that, the default is they'll never turn down the
guaranteed money of the And it's like, I'm just telling you,
like Debant said, the kid that's going to b YU
next year, like he has a shoe deal coming up,
and I don't know what he's going to get. And
I don't think BYU respectfully. I don't think BYU is
the school that you're going to stay at for the

(01:58:56):
extra year. But if that kid was at Duke, if
that kid was at Carolina, it's like it's worth it
for Jordan Brand, for Nike to keep them in school
for an extra two three four year, not four, but
extra year or two and capitalize on that. I'll tell
you what, though, Jay mart we gotta go. I want
to thank the crew, Mary Mack on the board, producer
Bree great producing there in the final segment. I really

(01:59:17):
did enjoy that. From my partner Steve, from my partner
Jason Martin. Also thank you to Steve Disager. I am
Air Tours we got to get out of here. Make
sure to download the podcast, available shortly after the show.
Bernie Fredo coming up next. All sorts of good stuff
from Bernie. Appreciate you listening.

Speaker 3 (01:59:33):
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