The Bernie Fratto Show talks Duke’s Dominance, MLB Season Storylines, Danny Hurley’s Postgame Rant, & MORE!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You don't listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Well that's right, you heard the man that time a week.
My name is Bernie Fraddle. We are coming to your
line from the tyrect dot com studios here in Las Vegas.
Tyrac dot com, well help you get there. That match selection,
fast free shipping, free road as a protection, and over
ten thousand recommended installers tyret dot com the way tire

(00:25):
buying should be absolute jam pack show tonight, We're gonna
get to all of it. And you know, the famed
actress Lily Tomlin once said, I always wanted to be somebody.
I just wish I'd been more specific. Perhaps she should
have named herself Duke. How good is Duke? We'll get

(00:48):
to that in just a minute. And yes, I have
them winning it all in my bracket.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
And I know the big narrative group think Echo Chamber
narrat around the March Madness tournament this year, I get it.
There's no Cinderella's buzzer beat buzzer beaters and nail better
games have been kind of at a premium. I'm going
to get to that in just a second. But believe
it or not, the March Madness TV ratings are at

(01:14):
a thirty two year high, despite any of those things
being somewhat lacking. Through the first two rounds, they're averaging
almost ten million viewers per game, and that's across CBST
and t TBS, true TV, the highest audience getting through
the Sweet Sixteen since nineteen ninety three. That's according to Nielsen.
They had a record breaking opening day, by the way,

(01:36):
averaging about nine million viewers per game, which is up
four percent from last year, the highest ever for a
tournament under its traditional opening format. But that in fifty
cents to get you a cup of coffee at Berger
chev If you're convinced this tournament needs a villain or
something silly like that, I think he said the same
thing last year about because Duke wasn't good. Look, I

(02:01):
get it. The beauty of March Madness lies in the
unknown players who become tournament legends, and then the mid
major programs who shocked the world with a deep run.
But given the state of this year's tournament, particularly the
Sweet Sixteen, it's fair to ask is nil and the
transfer portal to Death of Cinderella for the first time

(02:24):
since the men's tournament expanded to sixty four teams in
nineteen eighty five, the Sweet sixteen comprised only Power Conference teams.
By the way, the women's side is the same fifteen
Power Conference teams plus Yukon, which, well, they're the most
decorated program in women's basketball sports history. So it's the
sign of the times. It's no secret why this is happening.

(02:46):
Adapt or die Nil and the transfer portal, they've created
a landscape basically better than professional free agency, where major programs,
whether they just steve it or they gobble up the
most talented player around the country at least smaller schools
gutted just the way it is. What are you gonna do?

(03:08):
Greg Campy, who's coached at Oakland University for about forty
years now, I believe he gave sort of a funny
commentary last week. He said he recall exactly when he
realized that mid majors had become a farm system for
Power Conference programs. He recruited a standout player who grew
up just a few minutes from the Oakland University campus.

(03:31):
And this young man had been going to games as
a kid, wanted to sit by the bench, had always
hoped to play for the Golden Grizzlies because his dad
did and his mom did. That was his dream. The
kid's name is Trey Thomsen. He was virtually unrecruited out
of high school completely, and all of a sudden he

(03:52):
ends up on the Oakland University roster and he becomes
the Horizon League Player of the Year sixty six kid,
pretty good player, and he basically saved his best for
the NCAA tournament stage last year. In two games, he
put up forty seven points in twenty five rebounds, and

(04:13):
somehow they Oakland Grizzlies beat Kentucky last year, as you
may recall, and he took NC State to overtime. Right
before the start of the tournament, Townsend was interviewed about
his life dream coming true. He said playing for the
Oakland Grizzlies was a dream come true. Thirteen days later,

(04:35):
he put his name into transfer portal. He just felt
the temptation was too strong. No penalty for transferring, and
with the heavyweight programs offering hundreds of thousands of dollars
in Nile money if he just spent his final season
playing for them, well, they made him an offer he
couldn't refuse. As he said, what did Greg Campy say, well,

(04:58):
he's making twenty times more than and I could have
given him this season. By the way, Trey Townsend started
twenty nine games for Arizona, a Sweet sixteen team. They
did pretty well this year. Greg Campy says, what do
I say to him? Nothing? You wish him well? How
good is Duke well Man? You really got to give

(05:19):
it up to Duke. They're heading to the Final Four
for the first time under John Shire. To take over
a successful program the way he did three years ago,
there's nowhere to go but down. But he hasn't done that.
The Blue Devils are not only number one, they're number
one with a bullet I mean, just two days after
watching Alabama hit a record an NCAA Tournament record twenty

(05:42):
five to three pointers and they're you know, Molly whopping
over BYU Bama hit just eight to thirty two from
behind the ark against the Blue Devils. Why turns out
the Blue Devils, they may have the youngest rotation in
college basketball, not anymore. Their size and athleticism they Natos
and his crew complete fits. They got a seven foot

(06:05):
two freshman room protector. He was incredibly impactful Saturday night.
He only had two blocks, but he always altered Alabama's
drive to the rim, and they ran the tide off
the three point line. All American guard Mark Sears, who's
been sensational this year, he struggled. He's the heart and
soul of the team. They could find no consistent source

(06:27):
of offense. Credit Duke for a dominating performance. How good
is Duke? Well, it was only the twenty second time
this year they won by twenty points or more. That's
tied for the fifth most in Division One basketball in
the past seventy years. Duke's largest win by twenty in
an Elite eight game in twenty six years. Duke had

(06:51):
four players Saturday night with fifteen points an Elite eight
game for the first time since nineteen seventy eight. That's
back when Duke had guy like Jim's monarchle Mike Jimiski.
Okay google it now. Duke also is averaging the most
points per game ninety one point eight in the highest

(07:11):
field goal percentage wait for it, fifty six point two
percent through four NCAA Tournament games since two thousand and eight.
North Carolina now Bama lost two games by twenty plus
points this season, both in the postseason, they lost to
Florida in the SEC Tournament one oh four to eighty two,

(07:33):
and Alabama even somehow made it a seven point game
with eight Minutesry meeting and then Duke says, okay, that'll
be enough. They responded with a thirteen oher run to
get the lead back to twenty. Give it up to
John Shire. He's the eighth person to ever play and
coach in a Final four, along some pretty big names
Hubert Davis, Billy Donovan, Bobby Knight, Dean smith Shire is

(07:57):
only the third person to play in the Final four
for the same school. Hubert Davis did that with North
Carolina and so on and so forth. Now I didn't
even mention Tyrese Proctor. He continues to fly the radar
for much of the season because most of the hype
for Duke centers around Cooper Flag as well it should

(08:17):
and the rest of their talented freshman class. But Proctor
proved he is worth his weight in gold again to
the Blue Devils, seventeen points, seven to ten shooting big performance.
Is the only returning starter on the team and only
the third scholarship player on the Duke roster. Look he
says this is a guy. When you have unsung heroes

(08:40):
like that and they find their rhythm, my god, yeah,
you know it's and by the way, give it to
John Shire a huge breakthrough, right, Duke has progressed further
in the NCAA Tournament every single season under John Shire.
Dude's only thirty seven years old. He was tasked with
th replanning replacing excuse me, coach k. Kachizhevsky. They see,

(09:02):
I never want to replace the legend. Well, look, this
is a guy with high aptitude and the ability to
run schemes, recruit, deal with people, and Duke is far
from done. Like I said, you know, I talked about
this probably ten times, starting about six weeks ago. I
believe there were only seven teams that could win this tournament,

(09:25):
and the only one that's on my list that I
believe could win it got eliminated Saturday by the aforementioned Duke.
And every one of these seven teams, I said, had
a potential bugaboo, a potential damocles that could prevent them
from winning it. And my belief was that Bama was
two reliant on threes. Guess what they were? They missed

(09:46):
twenty four of them. They shot in eighty three in
the last two games. To reliant on threes are either
going in or they're not. They missed twenty five against Buyu,
but the good news is they made twenty five. Actually
they missed twenty six. What was my knock on Duke
Well the youngest rotation in the country. But I don't
think that's going to matter anymore. We'll see what Houston
can do in past years and crunch time their offense

(10:07):
as a way of going away. LJ. Cryer did it
when it mattered most yesterday, unlike you know and Kelvin
Samson on that brilliant you know inbound play that said
they practice a lot look coaching backcourt. What have I said,
Rick Barnes, We'll see. We'll see what they do Sunday
against Houston. They have a tendency to slow their pace

(10:28):
in big games. Whatever, we'll see. I still have not
sold on Florida to win it all. I know you
may think I'm crazy. I can't get it out of
my mind. At one point this year, they were down
to twenty six by twenty six to Georgia. They were
down by nineteen to Missouri, they were down by thirteen
in South Carolina. I see an inconsistency. They had a
fabulous fifteen to two run at the end of the game,

(10:51):
and they got a star player, So we shall see
what we shall see. Duke is headed to the Final
four for the first time under coach Shyer, and this
wasn't chalk tournament. There should be nobody surprised. There's only
been one other time four number ones have gone to
the Final four. But do I think that's gonna happen

(11:11):
this year?

Speaker 4 (11:12):
No?

Speaker 2 (11:12):
I do believe Michigan State will beat Auburn. Maybe I'm
hoping to beat Auburn, but no, I do believe they will.
But if they don't, they'll kill my bracket. That's his
story for a different day. But we got all kinds
of stuff, including NBA two, so we are just getting started.

Speaker 5 (11:30):
Hey.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
By the way, be sure to check out the Fox
Sports Radio YouTube channel. There's a ton of great videos
from 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, and be sure
to subscribe. See you always have instant access to our
Fox Sports Radio videos on YouTube. Coming up. You know him?

(11:51):
You love me? Can'tley without him. He is our Fox
Sports Radio NBA Guru, Mark Medina, a little Badina Magic.
We have all sorts of NBA stuff and maybe that
maybe we'll even talk a little Lebron Why not. I'm
Bernie Frattle. You are. We're coming to your live from
the Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio Tarat dot com studio.
So keep it locked right here. You're listening to the
Bernie Fratle Show on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 6 (12:13):
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 (12:26):
Oh, we're back on the Bernie Frattle Show Fox Sports Radio.
Come to your line from the Tarat dot com studios
here in Las Vegas's welcome in a gentleman. He's a
fixture on the Bernie Frattle Show. Three simple words. It's
that time. Mark Medina, Medina Magic. He's our Fox Sports
Radio NBA guru. You hear you hear him around the

(12:47):
network quite frequently, and as we get into crunch time
with less than ten games left in the season, the
headlines become all the more fervent. Mark good evening, how
are you, buddy?

Speaker 7 (12:58):
I am doing well. Yeah, the headlines a lot of
playoff races. I didn't know the headlines would continue with,
you know, some personal shots with Lebron, James and Steven A.
But here we are.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
We're going to get to all that. But I want
to start with what I think is probably the headline
of the week in fairness. Taylor Jenkins, in his sixth
year with Memphis they were in fifth place, is unceremoniously
relieved of his duties. And I feel like this book's
missing in chapter. Were they really that concerned about losing
home court advantage or is there some more to this story? Mark.

Speaker 7 (13:31):
It's puzzling because very rarely do fire a head coach
when you're fifth or fourth in the Western Conference standings,
and second, very rarely do fire a coach just before
the playoffs started. But there did seem to be a
sense that the writing was on the wall last season
and here's why the front office was imposing the Taylor

(13:52):
Jenkins about replacing his coaching staff with other assistants, and
that can you know, send a message that you don't
really have autonomy anymore. But it was still surprising me
for this he has been very instrumental and the Grizzlies
becoming a playoff contender. And even when you calculate the
fact that there's been this feeling that the Grizzlies haven't

(14:15):
lived up to their full potential, I put more blame
on that on injuries and John Morant. You know, learning
the hard way what happens when you act and maturely
on Instagram Live.

Speaker 5 (14:27):
So yeah, I.

Speaker 7 (14:29):
Don't make sense to move. The other ironic part is
John Morant was a huge Tailor Jenkins fan, and he
had some you know, frustration this season because you know,
the new system that the Grizzlies front office was imposing.
This allowed him to have the ball in his hands more.
So you do wonder what does this mean about their
commitment to John Moran, And you know that is a

(14:51):
fair question. He's a great talent, but he has had
an injury history. But none of this seems to make sense,
and you wonder if this will create a new problems
instead of solve them.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
You bring up a lot of good points, and I
was aware of the storyline you mentioned going back to
last year in the staff, so maybe there was just
some friction between and perhaps is I don't want to
make this too simplistic. Had the relationship between him and
his bosses perhaps deteriorated.

Speaker 7 (15:21):
Perhaps, but I think that there's also sometimes a feeling
that he was hired in twenty nineteen, young coach. He's
considered a really good up and comer. He comes from
a great coaching tree with Greg Popovich, had some instant success,
but do they feel like that success has been stagnant?
Do they feel like they could get a veteran voice

(15:42):
that can get to them to that next level. I
think as a team there are fair questions to be
asked can they do that? But I don't see Taylor
Jenkins as the culprit of it. Again, I think it
has a larger part to do with Last season was
a lost season because John Morant had a twenty five
game suspension to open the season. Shortly after he came back,

(16:04):
he had a season ending injury with his shoulder. You
add that head to the fact that the entire roster
was struggling to say healthy, they are where they are,
so yeah, this only creates more confusion. I think because
they lost against the Lakers tonight, they're now fifth in
the West. You don't know what their seeding is going

(16:25):
to be so again, I don't know what this actually accomplishes.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah, that's well said. We'll leave it there. You don't
really know what this is going to truly accomplish, given
the fact that they are a playoff team and we're
just we're just getting ready to start the playoffs here
in a couple of weeks. Speaking of playoffs, don't look now,
break up the Dallas Mavericks. They've won two in a row.
Anthony Davis is back. They've been completely under the radar

(16:50):
since Luca departed and Kyrie Irving got heard. But Anthony
Davis's all smiles, and the narrative is, hey, we want
to make a playoff? What's going on in Dallas? Is
this all just to save face after what happened, because
it doesn't seem like it makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 7 (17:07):
Yeah, I think it's a little bit with that. I
think it's also mathematically they have a chance, so why
not give it a go. I think for Anthony Davis personally,
he's very well aware he's part of the trade that
Dallas Mavericks fans understandably disapprove of because it meant getting
rid of Luca Dodgics, so he wants to I think,
to do right by Dallas fans. He really only had

(17:28):
less than a game to show how great of a
player he is and then he gets hurt. So I
give a lot of credit to Anthony Davis, but with Dallas,
I don't get it. I mean, yes, they can make
the play in tournament, maybe even make the playoffs, but
all this does is really set themselves up to get
blown out by the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets,
where you know, the alternative could be, you know what,

(17:49):
you hit a reset and you make sure Anthony Davis
is at full health, and you know what, you might
lose enough games that maybe it improves your odds to
get Cooper Flag in the draft. So that being said,
the Mavericks have had a lot of bad experience, a
sense of Luka doctric Strode, So maybe they think short
term it's a little shot in the arm, but I
don't think it'll really go that far. But I do

(18:10):
give a lot of credit for anything Davis personally, because
he wants to do right by Thus.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah, no, I agree. You talking with Mark Medina Medina
Magic Our Fox Sports Radio NBA Guru. You hear him
every Saturday Night and the Bernie Frattle show chopping up
all the latest headlines. So I understand that the JJ
Redick issued a challenge to the Lakers prior to Saturday's game. Mark,
I cannot remember a Jacky and high team like this,

(18:38):
covering and following the NBA team for a lot of years.
You said it best the other day. They're fluid. It's fluid.
They played a good game Saturday night. Looks like they
really wanted to win that game. But what do you
make of this team right now? Because there are all
they're truly is more than one chink in the armor.

(19:00):
Go ahead, you got the floor.

Speaker 4 (19:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (19:01):
I think when you rewind before this road trip why
they were so up and down, some of it had
to do with the fact that this guy named Lebron
James is out of the lineup, and you know, obviously
they're better when Lebron's on the floor. That's number one.
Number two. They had a really compacted schedule for two reasons.
They had to do a makeup game against Santonio. That
game was originally postponed because of the LA wildfires in

(19:23):
January two. That schedule was already compacted because the NBA
backloaded a lot of games. I think for post NFL,
post Super Bowl, get some marquee games on national TV,
and so I think fatigue got the best of them here.
Now clearly they showed they hit the reset a little bit.
Lebron's not as rusty, but I think that some of

(19:45):
the things that we saw in that eight game winning streak,
he gives me some question on whether it's sustainable. What
that basically is is their defense. It was very surprising
that after this Luca Dodgers trade that they would be
an elite team, to elite defensive team, because hey, they
lost anything they and bed. They weren't really a great
defensive team all season, even with him in the lineup,
but they went all out with a great effort. Jackson

(20:07):
Hayes has played out of his mind, and I think
even with Jackson Hayes still playing a high level, everything
caught up to them because they don't have great perimeter
defenders and they can only compensate so much with sheer effort.
So that explains it. So what this means moving forward,
it's going to be up and down. It's going to
be unpredictable. They have every chance to secure home court
advantage in the first round as a second, third, fourth seed,

(20:31):
they also have every chance to fall without having home
court the first round, have to be in the plan
or even miss the playoffs entirely. So I think what's
going to happen. I think that they do have enough
cushion to ensure that they can avoid the plan. But
what the seeding is, it's anyone's guess, and I know
the Lakers. When I asked JJ Ruddick about this, he

(20:54):
stressed a few weeks ago, it's about making the playoffs,
not seeding, playing their best ball, being healthy. But we've
seen that. You know, even with a full roster, things
are always going to be fluid. So strap on your seatbelts,
Laker fans. It could be a well one.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
I watched both Chicago Bulls games, and it looked like
Josh Gatty was playing at a different speed. Can you
beat this Lakers team with pace? They act like they
can run, but I don't think they really want to.
And I don't think Luke is exactly getting in much
better shape from what I can see.

Speaker 7 (21:25):
Well, I think there's a few things. The first Chicago
game that was Lebron James's first game back, he was
very rusty. He had a lot of turnovers. Second game,
it was inexcusable. Now to your point, can they play
with pace? Well, I think their ability to play with
pace predicate on them making defensive stops, because one that
allows them again in the open floor. As you mentioned,

(21:47):
they're not the most youngest, most athletic team. With Lukadancs,
no one's ever going to mistake him for you, Saint Bolt.
But I don't think he's playing as if he's out
of shape, you know what I mean, Like he's still
playing skill level. I think that there's some tactical learning
curves on, even though I think the chemistry is good
with Lebron James and Austin Reeves just knowing when's the

(22:09):
right time to have the other guy go. I think
that there almost seemed to be from good intentions, this
feeling that ever since he got here that it's about
your turn, my turn, let's make sure we share everything
equally where it should be about just reading the defense
on the floor. So I think they've gotten path.

Speaker 8 (22:27):
That a little bit.

Speaker 7 (22:28):
You saw them turn a corner tonight against Memphis with
playing a lot more aggressive, but again, I think the
bigger questions is their defense. Yes, there's gonna be questions
about Lebron's health because he's forty years old, twenty second
NBA season, but I think he's going to play a
reasonably high level. I think Luca will still play a
reasonably high level. But that defense, I don't know if

(22:49):
that can sustain through a seven game playoff series.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Tay Mark Medina Medina magic Are Fox Sports Radio NBIA guru.
All right, let's digress to your initial teas at the
beginning of the interview. And I've always felt strongly that
Lebron has been blessed with a great ability to never
take the high road. And by the way, you know
Bill Russell, who I think is just an elegant man.

(23:14):
I don't know if you've seen the Celtics here. I've
always been a huge Bill Russell fan. He once said,
don't compare ghosts, don't compare eras, And I'm gonna give
you the floor and take it where you want. I'll
have my thoughts on it later in the show. So
Lebron probably askedon was granted to go on the Pat
McAfee shows so he could he could abloviate unabated without

(23:37):
any pushback, and he took shots to Steven A. Smith
in seventies basketball. What the hell did he know about
seventies basketball? He was born in nineteen eighty four. And
Brian Windhorst, who did take the high road, tell me
exactly what you think. I don't want to lead the
witness on this one because I know what I think.
What do you think is going on here with Lebron?

Speaker 7 (23:55):
I think it's got to the point where it's bad
mud slinging for both sides. Now, I think a lot
of times in discourse, when someone blames both sides, that
means that both are equally to blame. No, let me
be clear on that. But here's where everything earned. I
think that Stephen Ah Smith, like a lot of us
in the media, including ourselves when we've talked weekly, had

(24:16):
fair legitimate criticism about a Brownie James and his struggles
and whether he belongs in the NBA. And two, you
know Lebron James's influence on the organization and what extent
he's exerting it and to what extent he's not. But
where I think Stephen A crossed the line is when
he used that phrase I'm pleading to as a father,
that's no one's business. I think the Lebron's credit all

(24:39):
accounts suggest he's been a great dad. But regardless, it's
not our place to tell Lebron how to parent his son.
But after that, it's just gotten into WW soap opera
Kardashian style. You know, I understand Lebron wanting to stick
up for his son, but to do it in that
theatrical fashion where it's within everyone's view, it's a courtside

(25:03):
seed seemed too theatrical. But for Steve and AA then
turn that into a week's worth of content and take
personal shots is ridiculous. For Lebron to then vally back
and take more personal shots on the pack McAfee show
is ridiculous. And then for Steven A to respond and
say a lot of falsehoods about Lebron not being at

(25:26):
Kobe Bryant's funeral or memorial service and question why he
wasn't at Dwayne Wade's Hall of Fame induction. One, he
was at Kobe's memorial service, just not in public viewing
because he didn't want to the camera on him. And
two he missed Dwayne Wade's Hall of Fame induction because
that Cohen's is when Brown and James had that cardiac
arrest and he was in the hospital. So it's not

(25:49):
a good look for anyone. And look, I think anyone
that's been listening to our MBA segments, we call it
like we see it. We have good discussions on sports.
When we keep it to that, we don't get the personal.
And I just wish that it would get back to
that reset. I know that's idealistic and naive given it
today's world, but it's just completely unnecessary for Lebron and

(26:12):
Steven ad to go down this road. And I don't
think they're gaining any fans through this whole discourse.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
Well, I do a little thing in about twenty six
minutes called the Midnight Hour, and I'm gonna ask some
callers to weigh in. Who's saw he on Lebron or
Stevin A But Lebron was on a roll. I can't
see the life of you figure out why he tried
to be smirch. Brian Windhorse too, Yeah, I don't get
that either, And you saw windhorse response. He goes Lebron
owes me nothing. I owe him everything. He took the

(26:40):
high road. So where's Lebron going with that? I mean,
I heard that the whole world doesn't kiss his feet.

Speaker 5 (26:47):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (26:47):
I mean, I haven't seen any any public statements from
Brian Windhorse suggesting that he was really close with Lebron.

Speaker 5 (26:54):
Maybe he's taken.

Speaker 7 (26:55):
Exception to you know, Brian Windhorse auditioning on different things
he's heard about and suggesting that it came from Lebron himself.
I'm not sure, but anyone who follows Brian Windhorse knows
that he's always been a fair, an honest journalist and
he talks to people like he doesn't just say things
out of thin air. He talks to people because you know,

(27:17):
that's how you get the information. So, yeah, it was
very unnecessary and had nothing to do with the subject matter.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
Well and there. That's why I brought it up, because
this was a motif. Lebron was on a roll. And
I don't think he's done. We know he's sensitive, you know,
I believe he's very insecure and he's petulant. He scored
a lot of points in the NBA. I'll give him that,
but this, this is he's going to start to deflate
his legacy a little bit, and well that's probably a

(27:45):
conversation for a different day.

Speaker 9 (27:48):
A couple other.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Quickies, uh, I understand the the NBA is looking into
overseeing or perhaps launching some sort of NBA European League.

Speaker 7 (28:00):
Year about that, yeah, well, Adam Silver to the NBA Commission.
He had a Board of governors meeting on Friday talking
about that. Now, to be clear, it's not like the
NBA is creating this new European league. What he was
talking about is, you know, having NBA owners have some
investment stakes in these clubs. Now, I think what's interesting

(28:22):
is there already is a professional basket league in Europe.
It's affiliate with euro League, So you do wonder could
there be some pushback, some competition. But I think what
it's really about establishing is having another revenue stream for
NBA owners to have some sort of ownership stake or
at least investment stake in and that can create a

(28:43):
pipeline for more players than be developed and some more synergy.
But it's very much in the early stages. But there's
a reason why the NBA announced that they're a global
enterprise and then they're thinking big term because we've seen
just how much more and more global. The NBA has
become both in terms of popularity in the league itself

(29:04):
and just the sport itself that you know, Adam Silver
feels like it's good to tap into more revenue streams overseas.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
Speaking of revenue streams, I'm hearing whispers and hush tones
that this next free agent what season as it were,
however you want to characterize it, this next free agent cycle,
there could be a bit of a free agent recession

(29:34):
as NBA salaries and deals have gone just bananas through
the roof. Is there any merit to that it could be?

Speaker 7 (29:41):
I know that ESPN had a story about that. I
think that what we have to keep in mind or
two things. One, you know, it's not so much about
the NBA running title money or players not seen being
seen as valuable as it once was. It all ties
together with the second Apron penalty. And you know, the

(30:02):
NBA institute this with the idea of having competitive balance
where if you reach past the threshold, all of a sudden,
you don't have full access to use a mid level exception,
can't do signing trade. So even for teams that are
willing to spend all of a sudden they can. I
think the other thing is, you know, basically, ever since
Kevin Durant went to the Warriors in twenty sixteen, as

(30:26):
a way to help teams retain their own players, they
gave teams the opportunity to sign star players to Supermax extensions.
And so what's happened is any star player doesn't really
go through free agency anymore. You know, their commitment or
decommitment for both sides is established before their contract is

(30:49):
even up. And so I think that that's what NBA
fans need to keep in mind. We're talking about all
these trades that happen with these star players, whether it's
a player being upset with their respective franchise or their
franchise thinking, you know what, we got to go in
a different direction. That all stems from the Supermax conversation
because these players are now eligible two years before their

(31:12):
contract ends, and in a way that forces both teams
to really reveal their cards as far as how much
more commitment they want to show each other. And if
any one side blinks all of a sudden, the other
one has to consider, Okay, do I stick this out
or do I cut my losses and look for a
better alternative before its contract is up, so it's all
tied together. And I do wonder if the NBA owners

(31:36):
and the players union to revisit this because it's created
a lot of I think, problems and challenges for teams
to construct the rosters.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
Great stuff, Mark, And yes, we're only seventeen days away
from the beginning of the NBA playoffs, and I contend
there'll be more storylines this year, whether it's Okaysee or
Golden State or certainly the Lakers, or could Boston repeatedt C.
I think once it gets started, no matter what happens,
we're gonna have some pretty sensational storylines.

Speaker 7 (32:06):
Yeah, and I'll forget Cooper Flag, I mean inevitably number
one tech. We'll just see which team lands with the
best lottery on to get them.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Yeah, and of course that'll be after the NBA Finals,
and we'll talk to that in one of our June
shows as the NBA Draft gets closer and closer. All right, Mark,
all stuff, man, we'll see that.

Speaker 5 (32:25):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
We'll see you next Saturday.

Speaker 7 (32:27):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Thanks, Mark Medina, Medina Magic, our Fox Sports Radio NBA Guru. Okay,
we're twenty minutes away from the midnight hour. Callers have
been sensational eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox eight
seven seven nine nine six six three six nine. We'll
limber up your fingers, get ready to dial in. We'll
have three topics that I will share that I will suggest.

(32:51):
But you know you also got the rent. You can
wig in anything you want. By the way, give it
up to the Dodgers. First time in forty years of
defending World Series champ has started the season five and zero.
The last team to do that well was the nineteen
eighty five Tigers. They made the playoff, but they didn't
do so well. But this is also the best Dodgers
start since nineteen eighty one when they went six to zero.

(33:12):
And you know how that year ended. That was the
Fernando Mania year, the split season strike, and the Dodgers
beat the Yankees in six games. By the way, Tractor
Supply knows that a winning season takes practice, teamwork, and
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(33:34):
chickens or a few acres, our team members will help
you succeed season after season Tractor Supply for Life out here,
and be sure to check out the Tractor Supply Fox
Sports Radio Bracket Challenge at Fox sports Radio dot com.
See our hosts are doing with their picks and who
the top ranked listeners are. The listener with the best
bracket at Fox Sports Radio will win a twenty five

(33:56):
hundred dollars gift card to Tractors Supply. Coming out, we
set up our midnight hour topics eight seven seven nine
nine six six three six nine eight seven seven ninety
nine on Fox. I'm Bernie Frattle. We are coming to
your life from the tarret dot Com studios here in
Las Vegas. Don't go away. You're listening to the Bernie

(34:17):
Fraddle Show on Fox Sports Radio. You're back on the
Bernie Fraddle Show, Fox Sports Radio. Come to your lifeter
tire Act dot Com studios here in Las Vegas, twelve
minutes away from where I sit here in Las Vegas.

(34:38):
The clock will strike midnight literally perhaps literally were you
are listening to the show, but certainly figuratively the midnight hour,
a colloquial way of saying, you got the last word.
Eight seven seven nine nine six six three six nine
eight seven, seven nine nine on Fox. Look forward to
hearing from the peeps tonight. I always do you do
a great job? Callers have been sent stational, all right,

(35:01):
so I'm going to do suggest three topics. But as
you know, as you know, there's also the rant if
you have something you want to get off your chest,
that's aside from the three, fine with me, and I
want to start with this and I want to get
your thoughts. I am sick, sick up and fed of
the college basketball official review. First of all, they review everything.

(35:25):
It takes forever. They go frame by frame, and when
you get to a point where a team's trailing by
eighteen and there's six point six seconds left to go
in the game, and the officials review to make sure
it's six point six and that six point nine okay.
And oh, by the way, the one of the inadvertent
byproducts of this situation and this you know scenario, is

(35:48):
that it gives teams free timeouts. And one of the
problems is perfection is now the standard in college basketball.
Anything less is bad, But all the while it ruins
the flow of the game. And I didn't just wake
up this morning and feel this way Now, the truth
of the matter is, if you want to have a
miserable time watching sports tuned into a college basketball game

(36:10):
where there's about a ten point margin and four minutes
to go, there's a good chance it's going to be
like watching paint dry. There was one game late February
when Vanderbilt beat Texas A and M eighty six to
eighty four. This is just a metaphor. It was a
complete disgrace to the sport. It was a total I sore,
and I think it's become the poster child for how

(36:31):
stupid this situation is. Vanderbilt led seventy to sixty at
about three and a half minutes to go, and from
the time the ball was inbounded it took forty minutes
in real time to complete the game. Why the officials
kept blowing whistles for files? Fourteen files were called the
final three minutes, leading to twenty eight free throws, tossing
a couple of instant play reviews, injury stop. It just timeouts,

(36:54):
endless substitutions by both coach coaches, excuse me, and you've
got the most une want you we'll finish possible to
a game, and that includes a tournament that has a
chance to be dramatic. I want to get your thoughts
on College Basketball Official Review. I have a solution, but
rather than spoil it, let's hear from the peeps on that,

(37:15):
or just give me your thought. You might say, Burner,
you're crazy. He's part of the game. Enjoy What are
we talking about? You always say sports as a toy department.
Remember the best conversations are when folks disagree. So I
want to hear from you number one on the College
Basketball Official Review. Secondly, you know Danny Hurley. He has

(37:38):
become really sort of an interesting figure, from winning back
to back championships, to being an offer of the job
by the Lakers, to having my buddy Jeremy shapp to
a full East sixty review, a one hour special on
his life. And you know him by now. He lived
in the shadow of his brother Bobby and his dad.
Bob a legendary basketball coach in New Jersey, and Bobby

(38:00):
to do hero. But Danny really carved out a knife,
you know, a niche of his own. More than that,
he has a seat at the table when it comes
to you know, damn near basketball royalty. The only other
guy in the last you know, fifty years to sixty
years to do back to back with John Wooden. But
did you see how it ended Danny Hurley dropping F

(38:23):
bombs leaving the floor postgame and Raleigh, And it wasn't good.
And as a matter of fact, somebody caught it on
video and it's a lasting image of coach Hurley. Instead
of leaving the court with his head held high in dignity,
the video shows with photographers and other staffers, he was
not exactly trying to keep his voice low dropping f

(38:43):
bombs and you know about the Baylor situation, et cetera,
et cetera. But then allegedly, it turns out that one
of his staffers allegedly threatened the reporter who captured the
viral video of coach Dan Hurley leaving the court following
the Huskies after he lost to a tough, hard fought,
competitive loss to Florida by two points last week. So

(39:06):
I want your thoughts on Danny Hurley. Is it just
a Bernie leave the guy alone. He's human, right, or
it's like, well, you know what, every time he does
something like that, he you know, he diminishes himself. And finally,
we are not not doing this show without getting your
thoughts on the Lebron situation. You heard me tell Mark Medina,

(39:27):
I believe Lebron is blessed with a great ability to
never take the high road. And you heard me say
how much respect after Bill Russell, who once said, don't
compare ghosts, don't compare eras Lebron has no clue what
he's talking about. In seventies basketball, Johannis would drive the
land and get slammed to the floor, and he might
get up and score two fifty. I don't know, but
he doesn't know what he's talking about. Then he compared

(39:49):
to stephen A. Smith to Taylor Swift that it went
after Brian leinors you tell me what you think, and
I want you know whose side are you on? Lebron
or stephen A. So he got college basketball if it's review,
we got the Bobby who is the real Danny Hurley?
And oh, by the way, Lebron versus steven A who sidey?
On eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox, dill him
up the midnight hour on the Bernie Fraddle Show, Fox

(40:12):
Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
Don't listening, no Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
Well that's right, you heard the man, the Bernie Fraddle
Show keeps rolling right along. My name is Bernie Fraddle.
We are company liner from the tyrack dot Com studios
here in Las Vegas, Fox Sports Radio tyrack dot Com.
We'll to help you get there. Unmatched selection, fast, free shipping,
free road hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended in
the stallars tyreck dot com the way tire buying should be.

(40:39):
Phone lines are packing up. We're gonna get to all
of you. Please be patient. I want to hear what
you've all got to say. No one is getting turned away.
I want to hear from all of you. Yup three words.
It's the minnight hour, So this is your chance. Callers
have been tremendous eight seven, seven, nine ninety six six
three sixt nine. We got the college basketball official review.

(41:01):
You've got a situation on Bobby or to check that
Danny Hurley and you heard me set that up. And
then Lebron versus steven A. Who sad?

Speaker 4 (41:08):
Are you on?

Speaker 2 (41:09):
What's going on here? John in Seattle opens up tonight? John?
Is this your first time calling the Bernie Frattle Show.

Speaker 8 (41:17):
No, so I believe I've called before.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
Good, Well, welcome back in John. What have you got
for us? Tonight.

Speaker 10 (41:23):
So I like to talk about the sas.

Speaker 5 (41:27):
Lebron thing.

Speaker 10 (41:29):
Sure, And basically where I'm at is it's.

Speaker 8 (41:34):
Very frustrating because on one hand, you have one guy
who's a professional reporter and talks out I don't know,
ten sides of his head.

Speaker 10 (41:49):
He talks out his ears, he talks out his mouth,
his nose, his but hole. He's always hard to find.
He always said, I'm never hard to find, right, And
then when he gets found, then he wants to run
and cry to a show, and then he becomes like
we call these people Internet gangsters. He becomes an ESPN gangster.

(42:12):
Now I want to understand nothing with him, but he
becomes the ESPN gangster, you know, and because he got found,
and then he just runs and talks crap and talks crap,
and I think it's just crazy, right. And on the
other hand, you have Lebron.

Speaker 5 (42:32):
And.

Speaker 10 (42:33):
You can say you can protect him Samlei or whatever.

Speaker 4 (42:37):
But.

Speaker 10 (42:40):
I think Lebron had a right to check him because
you can't tell me I'm always on the fifty yard line,
you know, I'm always half court, you know.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
So fair enough Lebron checked him at the Laker game,
and but then he has to go back on the
Pat McAfee show this past week to go on on
a ninety minute die Tribe. And I'm cool if you're
on Lebron's side. Who side you on Lebron or Stephen
as among Lebron?

Speaker 10 (43:08):
But how much how long?

Speaker 8 (43:09):
Okay you said Lebron went a a ninety minute or whatever,
but how much was it about s as.

Speaker 5 (43:17):
Well?

Speaker 2 (43:18):
See that's the part that bothered me. A fair enough
about was and the transcript is there for everybody to read.
But then he started to spray the board about Brian
Winnhorst and seventies basketball. I'm just like, what's going on Lebron? So,
fair enough you're on lebron side? Anything about the official
review and or dance?

Speaker 5 (43:35):
Okay?

Speaker 8 (43:36):
Okay, but but do you think that Lebron how to
write a check him?

Speaker 2 (43:42):
Yeah, it's the way he checked him that I thought
was inappropriate.

Speaker 10 (43:45):
But yeah, but you can't you can't be Stephen A.
Smith and say, okay, I'm on the fifty yard line
or the sideline. I'm always here, Like I don't know
how much you watch sas He always says. Now he's
saying that, oh no, uh, you guys just call me

(44:06):
now now I'm here, but now you gotta call me
and we can talk after the game.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
I got you, John, you got Thanks for the call,
big fella. Your points taken and I accept the factor
on Lebron's side. Full disclosure. So the night Thanksgiving night,
the night two thousand and five, right after Detroit Lions
postgame show, Steve Marucci got unceremoniously fired. Steven A. Smith

(44:36):
was in town. Rob Parker, steven A. Smith and I
had dinner along with Mark Wilson. Are the radio partner,
and I've seen running him a few times, and the
Steve and A you're running in person is not the
guy you see on TV. I but listen, we don't
always have to agree. I appreciate the call. John. Don't
be a stranger. Uh, Marino in San Francisco Joint. Just
welcome in here the Bernie Fratter Show, O man.

Speaker 11 (44:57):
I enjoy your show. I'll go, I'll go quickly. I'm
neutral on steven A versus Lebron.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
Okay.

Speaker 11 (45:04):
I was blessed enough to meet Will Chamberlain in the nineties.

Speaker 12 (45:08):
Love it and he was.

Speaker 11 (45:10):
Kind and courteous. He wasn't a I don't know if
I should use that expression on the air player, he
was respectful. Seventy met Mike Tyson, and.

Speaker 4 (45:22):
I heard heard the story that Mike Tyson just like you.

Speaker 11 (45:25):
Met Stephen A in person, but on the air he's
like to know it all, for lack of a better word,
he's a know it all. He's like, I don't blame
him for chastising the Cowboys, but I mean, so I'm
new Tol. I've never met Lebron. I know Shack used
to irritate Laker fans. People think I got on the

(45:46):
Laker bandwagon because of Kobe. He's like, oh no, I
was a Laker fan in eighty four.

Speaker 5 (45:52):
So you know.

Speaker 11 (45:53):
And as far as these reviews taking forever, literally forever,
even the NFL just make a decision and we don't forget.
They wanted to get they wanted to get rid of
instant replace and then somebody like our great coach Joe.
One thing that anger with me, Bernie, is that they
want to change the name of the Redskins. Okay, change

(46:16):
it to Red Potato Skins. Change it you you like me.
I can't call them commanders.

Speaker 5 (46:22):
That makes me sick.

Speaker 11 (46:24):
It doesn't make sense. The name doesn't make any sense,
so I have to be neutral.

Speaker 13 (46:29):
I've never met.

Speaker 11 (46:30):
Lebron in person. He could be the sweetest guy.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
I've never met him.

Speaker 11 (46:36):
And Will Chamberlain was a very nice guy. Yes, yes,
the irony is I saw Wilt a round Hollywood. He
went home alone a lot of nights.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
All right, buddy, listen Marino, I appreciate you, man. I
want to hear from you again. Don't be a stranger
for what. Look Fordsworth and Jim Kevin, Steve Domingo, Hankkit.
I just want to get this off my chest. Look. Uh,
Bill Russell was an elegant aerodype man in addition to
winning eleven championships. I've met him, I I you know,

(47:10):
I was an intern at the form. Magic's rook heere.
I've met Magic, talked to him many times. Kobe, Uh,
you know, uh, Jordan, all these guys are our elder
statesmen that were transcendent to the sport. In their demeanor.
Lebron wants to be that he's not that he tries

(47:33):
his as Lebron would say, ass off to be that
he's not that, he's never going to be that. He's
an then untfel communicator. He's too petulant, he's too sensitive.
He's he bugs people. He rubs a lot of people
the wrong way. Set that aside from his accomplishments on
the floor, Portman want to be rich Richmond want to

(47:54):
be king. He calls himself king and he can't carry
that crown, not off the floor, and he gets himself
into trouble with these things. That's that's my two sets.
Jim in Massachusetts always good to hear from a Jim.
I'm sure you got him mouthful tonight.

Speaker 12 (48:09):
Oh my goodness. As far as Dan Hurley goes, you know,
I'm just gonna let that go. You know, the rest
might have had a bad game or something like that,
but when it's over, it's over in the pedigree that
he comes from, and he has I'm sure he's looking
at the mirror and saying, why did you go act
like that? But you know, I think it's forgotten about

(48:30):
and this and that. So you know, I'm a fan
of his and Yukon a little bit so out I'm
willing to let that go. As far as stephen A
and Lebron go, let me tell you something. Back in
the day, when AA you really started, we used to
travel all over Reford because you were there for the weekend,
so you know, I've been to New Jersey, New York

(48:51):
so well, Bron basically.

Speaker 14 (48:53):
Came out of the womb that big, you know he was.

Speaker 12 (48:56):
He just dominated from the get go and he's out.
He's had his way, you know, and this and that.
You go on YouTube and see the videos of him
when his kid was playing for RT the officials. It's
just it's just it's just nature.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
You know.

Speaker 12 (49:11):
He's always had his way and everything and he just
can't shake it.

Speaker 14 (49:15):
And steven A. Stephen A is a more run you know.

Speaker 12 (49:18):
Now he thinks he's going to run for president, and
he's on the view and he's on all these political shows.
Now Hannity, you know, forget about sports. When your head
gets so big, you know, you think you're you're bigger
than what you are. And I think that's what the
what both of them are going through.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
You know. In stephen A's case, I think there's a
myth to do his madness. He just got one hundred
million dollars. Do you remember, Jim The opposite of love
is not hate, it's indifference. Stephen A. Smith triggers people
with some of the things he does. He's not going
to run for president. There's zero chance of that. But
to your point, he annoys you, and that's fair. So
whose side are you on? Lebron's or Steven A's.

Speaker 12 (49:58):
I'm not on either side if I had to choose one,
to say, Steve and A. But can I bring up
one thing off the cuff? You said you get that one?

Speaker 2 (50:05):
Yeah, go Bernie.

Speaker 12 (50:07):
The Boston Celtics sold for six point one billion dollars.
Saw that six point one billion to one guy. It
usually goes to a corporation, you know, like Magic owns
a Dodger, but he's in there with a bunch of people, corporation,
and it was a young guy.

Speaker 4 (50:24):
And let me tell you something.

Speaker 12 (50:25):
The Bruins own the garden, they own the concessions. So
what are you buying twelve guys for like two thirds
of the year and you play games. I don't understand
where the value and then where the revenue is coming
with a six point one billion to buy twelve guys.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
Well as you know the the okay, so Jim, hang
on there. He was sold to a guy named Bill Chisholm.
I don't know who Bill Chisselm is. And it's still
got to be approved by the NBA Board of Governors.
But these guys, first of all, no major league franchise
in any of the four sports has ever sold for
lesson it was purchased for and we realized this is

(51:04):
a record breaking price. But this is the toys to
these guys. They don't it's they have their own different,
you know, standard by which they live. Anyway, you got
the last word.

Speaker 12 (51:17):
I want to go on the sandbox and play too.

Speaker 15 (51:20):
Give me some of that money six point one bill, Yeah,
come on, give me at cheddar.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
It's a lot of cheddar. Thanks so much time as
always appreciated, Buddy, Kevin and Florida Joint. Just welcome into
the Bernie Frattle Show.

Speaker 12 (51:34):
Hey Bernie, how are you doing?

Speaker 8 (51:35):
Brother?

Speaker 2 (51:35):
Good sir? How are you sir?

Speaker 15 (51:37):
Great boy? I wish you were on more days of
the week. But I appreciate what you said the last
couple of weeks that you've got a family and you've
got things to do in your own life other than
talking on the radio.

Speaker 12 (51:48):
But I just.

Speaker 15 (51:49):
Appreciate the brilliance and the music and there's some wide,
wide open show that you have, so thank you.

Speaker 5 (51:56):
I'm going to make a sort of a.

Speaker 15 (51:59):
Comical comment on the first two, and then the double on.

Speaker 4 (52:02):
This from the last.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
Uh.

Speaker 15 (52:04):
The first is, how about just an official review, no
fun intended? You know what I meanious? Uh review those guys,
you know, rework them because the season's over almost anyway.
And then the second thing is, oh Danny, Uh yeah,
I've lost my temperature, temple temperature, my temper for sure myself.

(52:27):
But how about hyahuasca darkness retreat. You know that's a
that'sn't my idea for for Danny Hurley. I respect his excellence.

Speaker 10 (52:37):
And then on oh boy, geez, I got.

Speaker 12 (52:39):
To get this off my chest.

Speaker 15 (52:42):
By the way, I know who who, who talks the
loudest and makes the most noise, gets all the attention.
But when Mark Medina comes on, and I love Mark,
I love you, but I don't hear anything about I
guess unless it's really buffy and glittery and and and
you don't get I never hardly ever hear about the

(53:04):
Joker or other people. There's certain people that just don't
get much attention.

Speaker 4 (53:09):
That's just that's fair.

Speaker 2 (53:11):
We did when when Denver was more on the spotlight.
It's a fair point. When Denver was more on the spotlight. Uh,
we did talk about that, but it's kind of played.
And he's he's a lunch pill guy. He goes to
work every day. You know, the plane lands safely. You
know when you turn on the news at night, Kevin,
you don't see well today's headlines. All the planes landed safely.

(53:31):
Well they're supposed to do. It's when the one doesn't.
Lebron is a walking plane crash to me. I mean,
he's a pure dichotomy to me. Yes, but you got
the last word.

Speaker 15 (53:42):
Yeah, looking for attention, Yeah, exactly, He's like the he's
like the baby, you know, in his high chair with
his uh swop all over his face and looking for attention. Yeah,
I'm the king and I and I had come to
learn and believe that I respect him. I used to
names at him on the radio and whatnot, but I

(54:02):
respect him as a player and as a person that way.

Speaker 12 (54:06):
But I'm just thinking that.

Speaker 15 (54:10):
Since he causes more attention to himself, I think that
does bring down his legacy. And I would love to
see kids be drawn to somebody in his position. Who's uh,
that's a more humility. I love what you said about
these guys who have elegance or in grace and at

(54:32):
the same time not have swagger or look for attention.
You know those guys from the past, some of the
greatest Will Chamberlain and and.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
You imagine magic Kareem, Jordan Kobe, these guys are very
area that guys actually and Lebron's clunky.

Speaker 15 (54:53):
Yes, and so I thank you for letting me share.
As we approach Easter here in a few weeks, and
and then about a week later, I'll be celebrating, or
I should say, well, let's celebrate the life again. As
I told you when I first talked to you, it
was shortly after my dear son died, my son Casey
Kevin Christopher died of a fentanyl overdose.

Speaker 5 (55:15):
You might remember that.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
I do remember. Prayers up my friend, and listen, don't
be a stranger. You're always welcome to call in, Kevin.
I appreciate it, and I apologize there. I just got
to manage the clock better than I have in the past,
so I didn't mean to cut you short there. Steve Domingo,
Tony and Jerome can't wait to hear what all of
you have to say. We're just getting started on the

(55:36):
midnight hour eight seven, seven nine nine sixty six three
six nine. I don't go anywhere. I'm Bernie Fridder. We're
coming to you line from Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio
tyrack dot com studios. Keep it locked and listen to
the Bernie Fratter Show on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 6 (55:50):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app, search fr to
listen live.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
All right back at the Bernie Frattle Show. That min
at ire keeps rolling right along. My name is Bernie Frattle.
We're coming to live from the Las Vegas Fox Sports
Radio tyreck dot com studios. By the way, for the
best pregame show every weekend, be sure to tune into
Fox Sports Radio's Countdown presented by BETMGM, every Saturday and
Sunday morning from nine am to noon Eastern six to
nine am Pacific. We will count you down to all

(56:26):
the biggest games. There's no better place to prom you
for the tournament games than right here. Tuned into Countdown
presented by BETMGM every Saturday and Sunday morning, right here
on Fox Sports Radio in the iHeartRadio app. I got
to the phones, joined by Steve in Kansas City. Steve,
welcome back in how you been Hey?

Speaker 4 (56:45):
Bernie has to go on Betty listen.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
I'm I'm all all in on team screaming a here.
I'm sort of reveling in the destruction of Lebron's image.
You encapsulated it perfectly earlier. This should be a golden
age for him. He should be enjoying the fruits of
his labor. And Lebron comes off like this is a

(57:11):
revealing of his true character.

Speaker 4 (57:13):
He's a big baby.

Speaker 3 (57:14):
If Michael Jordan won't talk to him anymore, he's the
Oklahoma City thunder. OKAC has twenty draft picks. He's never
going to win another championship again, so he has to
strike out at Brian Windhorst. In an interview, he says
that the Cleveland Championship is the greatest championship because he

(57:34):
did it was less, which is a direct slap in
the face to everybody he played with, including Kevin Love.
I mean, this guy is just not just not a
great dude. And then that speaks volumes to me. If
a guy won't if the greatest of all time, Michael
Jordan won't even talk to him, I mean, that must

(57:57):
be really gall That must be really galling, you know,
for a for a guy who considers himself one of,
if not the greatest, that he's said.

Speaker 2 (58:07):
He said it out loud, he said, no, I know
for a fact, I'm I'm the goat. He said that
years ago. Miss I forget Steve. He made up for
by storming off the floor last year after being eliminated
by Denver after not shaking everybody's hands. So you bring
up a good point as well, the truth. There's an
old saying your actions speaks so loudly, I can't hear
what you're saying. So good stuff on Lebron anything else

(58:30):
on the other two topics.

Speaker 3 (58:31):
Well, and kind of another thread with little Danny Hurley.
If you're the greatest, you don't have to tell people
you're the greatest. And you know in the I've just
watched the program about Danny Danny Hurley documentary, and it
was it was pretty accurate. The thing is, the tournament
was so much bigger when Danny was playing, and when

(58:52):
Duke was playing Kansas uh and and won two titles.
He could win five or ten titles as a coach
and a probably wouldn't he's still going to be second
to Danny because I mean, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, Bobby
the Great. The biggest ratings are still Michigan State versus

(59:14):
Indiana State.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
Six years ago, years ago, Friday, Yep, that's still that's
still the biggest basketball game of all time.

Speaker 4 (59:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
And and you you know, you're you're you're a Michigan guy.
You you know all you know all about that. But
I just feel sorry, kind of like I do for
Lebron because I feel so sorry for Danny because he's
so wrapped up and it's little guy syndrome. He's so
wrapped up and in surpassing his family legacy, he just

(59:48):
needs to be the best Bobby Hurley he can he can,
and he's gonna end up the same way as Lebron.
People are not going to respect him either, because he
acts like such a dirt bag sometimes. I mean, these
guys never they have all the money in the world.
They should be happy with their existence. But boy, I
just it's something psychologically, you know, it's something. It's a
psychological take or something, man. But Michael Jordan will always

(01:00:12):
be the best, and Bobby Hurley will always be the best.

Speaker 4 (01:00:16):
Brother.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
Great stuff, man, is that one guy used to say,
rack them good jobs? Do you love it? And yeah, look,
you're not wrong. There's an old saying in life. You
can buy dance lessons, but you can't buy a rhythm. Lebron,
you can buy the dance lessons you want, You've got
no rhythm. I'm sticking to that. That's my story. I'm
sticking to it. Domingo in San Diego, Welcome in good evening.

(01:00:39):
How are you.

Speaker 5 (01:00:40):
I'm doing good. How are you doing tonight?

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
Doing well? Thank you.

Speaker 9 (01:00:44):
I'm going to talk about Stephen A.

Speaker 16 (01:00:46):
Smith and Lebron for tonight.

Speaker 13 (01:00:49):
I think both of them are being a little petty.
I think from the get go from Stephen A. Smith,
you know the whole reason why I feel like Lebron
went to speak to Smith with over the comments he
was making about Brownie. But you know, watching the show
occasionally with Steve may Smith on the other on ESPN,

(01:01:09):
I don't think he was just criticizing his game for
the most part. You know, he didn't criticize him as
a as an individual, Browny as an individual, And I
think he even said a couple of times that you know,
he's he's kind of happy that you know, Lebron was
able to kind of dictate Brownie's way to get into
the league, So at that part, you know, he kind

(01:01:31):
of just being a sports analyst. But again now with
Steven's doubling down saying like, oh, he's really thinking that
Macha would Jordan's baron Lebron. You know he has an opinion,
but you know, Lebron is just being like a father.
You know, talked to him during the halftime, but he's
being petty off.

Speaker 10 (01:01:48):
Those saying, well, I agree with you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
It takes two to Tango Domingo and Stephen Smith short
sound clean either, but Lebron's pretty petty man dropping the FBO.
Whose side are you on? And I'm cool with whoever
side you, but.

Speaker 10 (01:02:00):
You know what I'm on.

Speaker 13 (01:02:02):
Even though one time because the Bron put a post
about Stephen A. Smith doing a boxing like doing a
boxing drove, that's pretty petty right there. You already know
that if they got in an altercation, the Prime probably
do Steve A. Smith and he's like, hal, you know,
see Steven A. Smith is like, I don't know how
old he is, but you know that's kind of like
a little blow. I say, like, if you got an
altercation the bron will you know, probably beat them up.

(01:02:24):
It's just like you don't need to do that. You
don't need to put all that and prop them just
being petty pulling them are doubling down. And that's all
I have to say for tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
All right, Well, thanks for checking in to Bengal. Appreciate it.
Don't be a stranger. Eight seven seven nine nine six
six three sixty nine Tony in Miami, Welcome back, an Tony.

Speaker 7 (01:02:42):
How you been Kay?

Speaker 5 (01:02:44):
What's up? Bernie? I don't have anything on the other two,
but I will whatever time I'm allowed.

Speaker 10 (01:02:49):
I just wanted to dig in here with the stephen A.

Speaker 5 (01:02:54):
Smith one one. I'm sitting there looking at these two
very very insecure men. One looks like a David with
a receiving hairline, the other one Goliath after fifteen years
of THHD and yeah THHD. Okay, it was sad and embarrassing,

(01:03:18):
if I think, for both of them.

Speaker 10 (01:03:20):
Stephen A.

Speaker 5 (01:03:21):
Smith, I don't want to get into him too much,
but it kind of he could have done something right there.
He's smart enough, but he's too absolved with his money
to Lebron please any younger callers Like the last guy,
anyone younger, please go because I'm in Miami. Go back

(01:03:41):
to YouTube. It's there. Look up the Dan Levittard Show,
July first, twenty ten. Bill Simmons, Bill Simmons, the other
Mamani Jones, and wo Janowski all called the show for
those three hours and the following show, all saying in

(01:04:04):
that moment, let's not do revisionist history here. Please. He
is not in any conversation. Please, he is not, and
he is not, And there's a reason Michael Jordan will
not talk to this guy. If you look at any
and he is. Lebron is in this top ten, but
in that top ten if you really take a look,

(01:04:24):
because the talent is so insurmountably amazing and on a
whole other level, and the NBA is full of high
level talent, but you have to look at these people.
They played the game with an absolute honor and passion.
And Lebron is a great mercenary. He lacks one major

(01:04:45):
thing that Michael Jordan will will not surround himself with
people that do not have it. It's called wisdom, Bernie.

Speaker 4 (01:04:52):
And he does not have.

Speaker 5 (01:04:53):
He does not have wisdom at all. He's Michael Jordan saw.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
He does. He's like to get karaoke singer that sounds
like a train wreck and belting it out and the
whole crowd's going get me out here before I kill
myself with a chainsaw. That's what Lebron sounds like every
time he talks.

Speaker 5 (01:05:13):
You're right, he's and he's listening to me right now,
and I'm coming after his fatherhood. Please tell me, Bernie,
I'm raising a fifteen year old kid. How is he
this great father? Mathematically? Can you please tell me? Because
apparently he spends a million dollars on his body. He's
in an iselbaric chamber. He's in China this week, then
he's in la and somehow he's spending time with his son.

(01:05:36):
That's not good. Father. I'm sorry he's not. You can
come after me, Lebron. I have no money to lose,
and I won't sue you, but I will say Michael Jordan,
Michael Jordan, everyone up to that point, up to twenty ten,
they took the walk up the Mountain, which was the

(01:05:57):
NBA Championship, which was what all the greats had to do,
and some guys had better teams and all that. But
Michael Jordans saw how this guy thought he was gonna
hop in a helicopter along with Kevin Durant and the
rest of the aau chums and just thought they were
gonna fly their way up to greatness and have a
great life. It didn't work out. I'll let I'll get

(01:06:18):
off the phone here. But lebron you got a life's
gonna get a lot more difficult, brother. You had about
three years where no one told you know, and it's
gonna be a hell of a lot more maybe of
a I'll let you go.

Speaker 2 (01:06:33):
Thanks, Tony, appreciate you, man. Just I want to maintain
my objectivity. Every observation on bed of Bronnie is he's
very likable, he's very respectful, he's very mature young man.
He had to learned that from somebody. So I'll throw
Lebron a bone, certainly throw them a bone there. But
Tony's a thoughtful guy. He went done.

Speaker 9 (01:06:55):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
It's it's a highly subjective thing, as is the joy
versus lebron I would refuse to get in that argument.
I would just say this, if you didn't see both
of them play courtside, you got to recuse yourself from
the argument. Okay, I did, and all I will say is,
if I needed one game to save my life, it
would not be Lebron. It would be Jordan, Ladies and gentlemen,

(01:07:17):
boys and girls. The gospel, according to Jerome in Charleston, Joe,
welcome back in buddy, what's up man?

Speaker 4 (01:07:23):
I would never go that far as say as the gospel.
It's just an opinion. It's like, okay, everybody else. You
know what they say about opinions.

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
Right, ok, everybody's got one right, just like we won't
say it, so I don't get tired.

Speaker 4 (01:07:37):
That's right. But let me just say this. I love
Lebron James. Okay, I love expect that he comes from
nowhere and now he's somewhere.

Speaker 9 (01:07:44):
He's not fair, fair, and.

Speaker 4 (01:07:47):
He's kind of do an incredible hard work. That guy
that said he spends a million dollars on his body,
that's a lie, and Lebron James said, he said it's
a lie. He said, it's ridiculous. Not a million dollars.
He worn't time, but never a million dollars. Okay. And
as far as uh, you know him liking him to
care about himself and all that, he's never in a

(01:08:09):
million years. I followed his career. I followed drug career.
He's never in a million years said when you're a
celebrity to let you get away with it. You can
do whatever you want, and look where that guy is. Okay.
So when people talk about why we dislike Lebron jams
and people like laur Ingham's shut up and dribble, yeah,

(01:08:30):
you just shoot where she chucked up to that guy.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
Okay, who don't go down that road, Jerome, because you're
saying it out of context. So that was a book
she wrote about Hollywood stars who uh she was shut
up and sing And then I got morphed into that. Look,
Lebron can say whatever the hell he wants, but if
he's misinformed and plunky, you're ten times more articulate than

(01:08:53):
Lebron's ever gonna dream of being. So let's just chalk
it up here. You're on le bronze side. And I'm
cool with that. I can, I can maintain, I can't,
I'm all I'm all good with that. I'm all good
with that.

Speaker 4 (01:09:06):
I remember good by cal say you know what he
was doing one of those games he keeps his nose
cleaning stage way for the bad flowing discott.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
And it ended up being that. Anything else on the
other topics tonight, because I got so many callers, I
don't want to cut you short, but I got it.
You're on Lebron's side. Anything else on.

Speaker 4 (01:09:27):
Earlier Steven A. Smith. I think he's overrated, and they're
helping people in the media who think he's overrated. Okay,
I'll street in the media drink.

Speaker 5 (01:09:35):
He's overrated.

Speaker 4 (01:09:36):
And when you talk, stop the people.

Speaker 12 (01:09:38):
Just remember that.

Speaker 4 (01:09:39):
Stop his creaky come back at you say any time
to just be careful, all right, just be careful.

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
All right, buddy, Thanks. I appreciate it, as I've said
a thousand times. Uh, the best conversations we have and
when people disagree. Jerome's all in on Lebron, and he
justified his points with relevant specifics. I don't disagree with
his premise. Poppy and San Diego, what's up, Poppy, good Bernie?

Speaker 9 (01:10:05):
Today the beautiful day, you know right here in San Diego.
I went to you know, a little comparison about the reps.
How you were talking about the replace and I wanted
to say a little compresion. How they take forever you're
You're right, they going to really not like today. I
went to the San Diego MC game, and I was lucky, Bernie.
You know, I acted like I owned that place, you know,
And I went there and I got mad. And next thing,

(01:10:27):
you know, Bernie, I saw these reps women rets are
wearing a pet shirt. I went to them, Bernie, and
I told them, hey, give us a home win right here,
that San Diego has to get the first win. And
they were all Latin.

Speaker 2 (01:10:39):
The main rep you have, Poppy, you know, I love
you like a fat kid, love cake. Do you have
anything tonight on Lebron versus steven A. I gotta get
to I gotta get to Seth, christ and Brock. But
but you got the floor.

Speaker 4 (01:10:51):
No, I do, thank Bernie. I just want to say
that because you know.

Speaker 9 (01:10:53):
A lot of people love soccer and Christ Poherfred the
Wi soccer you talk about a little bit more about soccer.
Emlts San Diego second place in the division to and
oh they be you know the book LA teams and
they're forced to be wreckon with like Chuck you O'sona
a great Mexican soccer star. Emily deserves an attention. And
I'm just so happy the city is doing good.

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
You know, you just gave it to him, big fella,
you just gave it to him. I appreciate the call, Poppy.
I do, I always do I and and that's fine.
This is what the minnight hours for. If you want
to bring your own agenda, I'm cool with that. I
just have to manage the clock, big fella. Thank you
for calling Seth here in Las Vegas. Welcome in. How

(01:11:34):
are you? You're in the air, buddy, Go ahead, Seth.

Speaker 16 (01:11:40):
All right, First and foremost, I would like to talk
about the seven a topic, but go please Before I
talked about that, like, I would like to say that,
like the previous call has been talking a lot about
how like Bron's not a good role model or father,
but I'm see like he's known for being a family
man and like you know, a philanthropist, so like how

(01:12:02):
is that not true?

Speaker 17 (01:12:04):
Anyway?

Speaker 16 (01:12:05):
But on the topic of stephen I would like like
to be honest, Steven I love my fan of stephen An,
but he is not in the right here. Like most
players say stuff to stephen A. Kobe said stuff to
steven A about why he's talking about me like that,
But he didn't have a problem with it, and he
just moved on like and doing his regular job, but
Lebron does it and he's got a problem.

Speaker 7 (01:12:28):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:12:28):
Okay, so well, I think that, Okay, that speaks to
I think how uh steven A would have viewed Kobe
and his deportment versus Lebron and his deportment. That's the
best I can answer anything else, Seth.

Speaker 16 (01:12:45):
Yeah, I mean I understand that too, but like they're
both up at like all those high athletes like Lebron,
Kobe Jordan, Like I understand it all, but like Lebron,
Lebron works just as hard, he works even harder.

Speaker 2 (01:12:58):
No one's denying that, no one. No one's in that
Lebron's problem. I respect that you're defending Lebron, Seth, and
I wish I had more time. I want to get
to Chris Brock and Rick so everybody gets their due.
But your point is well is duly noted, Seth. I
think though that the way Kobe expressed himself, the way

(01:13:18):
Jordan expresses himself, and I went all the way back
to Russell Chamberlain, Jabbar, Magic Bird, Shaq. There's a certain
pin off. These guys have the Lebron wishes he had,
and I think that's where he falls short. No one's
You've never heard once heard me question Lebron's work ethic,
so I appreciate you you entering that. Coming up, we're

(01:13:39):
gonna wrap up the mid that hour, Chris Brock and Rick,
you are all up next. Don't go anywhere. By the way,
Tractor Supply knows that a winning season takes practice, teamwork,
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(01:14:00):
Life out here, and be sure to check out the
Tractor Supply Fox Sports Radio Bracket Challenge at Fox Sports
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listener with the best bracket at Fox Sports Radio dot
Com we win a twenty five hundred dollars gift card
to Tractor Supply. Coming up, we wrap up the midnight hour,

(01:14:22):
Chris Brock and Rick, You're up next. Don't go anywhere.
On Bernie Fraddle Company line from Las Vegas, Fox Sports
Radio diirec dot Com studios keep it locked and listen
to the Bernie Fraddle Show on Fox Sports Radio. All right,
back in the Bernie Frattle Show, we are wrap it
up on the midnight hour Fox Sports Radio. We go
out to Cincinnati. Chris joins us. Chris, thanks to your patients,

(01:14:42):
Welcome into the Bernie Frattle Show.

Speaker 17 (01:14:45):
I'm all there.

Speaker 2 (01:14:47):
You are in there, sir, Yes, sir, Hey, I'm just
wanting to say you.

Speaker 17 (01:14:52):
I appreciate you everything, but it I just wonder why
with sports and sub and why don't think just turned
back to the days, you know, stephen A and uh
Lebron right arena, you know that'd be more entertaining.

Speaker 2 (01:15:11):
Well, I realize you're just being a little silly, but
what the hell that we're here to have fun in
sports doc rating. We're not solving the world's problems. Who said,
do you Lebron or stephen A's.

Speaker 17 (01:15:24):
Uh well steven A. But yeah, it's.

Speaker 2 (01:15:30):
Dear all right, Chris. I appreciate where you going? Go ahead?
Anything else real quickly? Okay, thanks, Chris. I appreciate you
checking in from the Emerald City of Cincinnati. Brock and Edmonton, Alberta.
How are you, Brock?

Speaker 5 (01:15:48):
Hey, Bernie hold is go on brother, this talking with you.

Speaker 2 (01:15:50):
Man, Thanks, thank you, sir. What do you got for
us tonight?

Speaker 18 (01:15:54):
Well, I want to start talking about the Stephen A.

Speaker 4 (01:15:56):
Lebron thing.

Speaker 5 (01:15:57):
First of all, Lebron James has gotten.

Speaker 18 (01:15:59):
Really annoying obviously the last while. And I think you
know he's an all time great player. For to your point,
I mean to me, he'll never be better than Michael Jordan,
and to your point as well. You know, I don't
know if you I've told you about my top ten before,
but my top ten or Michael Jordan won, Magic Johnson two,
Shock three, Kaream four, Kreme abdu Jubbar for Tim Duncan five,

(01:16:20):
Bill Russell six, Kobe Bryant seven, Larry Bird eight. I
got Lebron at nine and I got Will Chamberlin ten.
And people might disagree with me, people might hate behave
the most boring conversations when everybody agrees. So you know what,
at the end of the day, all those the guys
I listed, the eight guys ahead of Lebron, I believe
are more interesting and the way they carry themselves were

(01:16:41):
way better than Lebron ever prayed himself. That's just my view,
and I'm sure you would agree.

Speaker 2 (01:16:46):
I don't take umbrage with that list whatsoever. It's fairly
objective and it's subjective. And yeah, I got no problem
with guys like Bill Russell being ahead le Brown. He
won eleven championships. Yeah, and I highly recommend to anybody
to launch the Bill Simmons HBO series on four part
series on Celtics, the history of the Celtics and what

(01:17:08):
Bill Russell had to endure. This is a very interesting
human being, I mean, a very complex right, very area
dight I formally educated anyway? Anything else? Do you like
my list though? Yeah? I do, Actually I do. I genuinely,
I genuinely do. I got no problem with it. Save
that for another show too. It might we might delve

(01:17:29):
into it a little bit more. I'm just I don't
want to mismanage the clock anything else.

Speaker 18 (01:17:33):
Yes, And the last point you said about Lebron, I
remember last year. I remember watching listen to one of
your shows back in early May. Remember when Lebron stormed
off the court in Game five against it.

Speaker 12 (01:17:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:43):
I mentioned that earlier when they lost to Dender.

Speaker 18 (01:17:44):
Yeah, that's Lebron to me, that's another reason why people
hate them, you know, or just don't. I guess not
hate them, but they have a lot of hard to
give him to go. You know, status is just because
he just you know, he walks off and then it's
to me. He other No, I guess not moment the
public perspector that he wants to have.

Speaker 2 (01:18:04):
And I got you, I got you. I got to
get to one more call. Thank you, And you're not wrong.
It's that people take converge with the way he carries
himself much of the time. Ricky got the last word tonight,
Rick and Louisiana, thanks for hanging.

Speaker 14 (01:18:16):
Out right, Yes, thank you for taking the call. The
first thing I wanted to say is with coach Hurley,
the thing that we're living in today is the social
media area and it's I mean, that's the era rather
and you need to know what he knows that the
cameras always roll. So if you throwing f bombs out there,

(01:18:39):
just noted it's going to be captured.

Speaker 2 (01:18:41):
Yeah, no, no, well, well said anything on the Lebron
versus Steven Ah.

Speaker 14 (01:18:45):
Yes, yes, I'm I'm with Stephen Akay. When this situation
first happened, I said, well, I wonder if Shannon Sharp
and I'm just bringing Shannon sharp In had said the
things that stephen A said, it would he confronts Shannon
show up face to face.

Speaker 2 (01:19:06):
Probably not their friend, their friends too. He probably you
know a good point, Rick, as usual, I didn't manage
the clockwell, I got about thirty seconds. Anything else, big fella,
because I like for your first two points well stated.

Speaker 14 (01:19:20):
Yes, I'm a Lebron fan. Okay, Michael Michael Jordan is
the goat.

Speaker 2 (01:19:30):
Rick, Listen, do me a favor calling next week. I
want to make sure you get more time. I didn't
give you as much time as you deserve, but you
got to your points quickly and succinctly. And all the
callers just fantastic tonight. We didn't always agree, but what
I like about this group is they'll tell you the
reasons why they feel the way they feel. You bring receipts,
you justify it with relevant specifics and all the good stuff.

(01:19:53):
Tip of the caps to the minute, our callers. Thanks
for making the success. Hey, baseball's here. One of the
big storylines we talked next Bernie Frey Show, Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:20:02):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:20:06):
That's right, you heard the man. Bernie Fraddle Show keeps
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(01:20:30):
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Bernie Fradle Show. Then you go see the show posted

(01:20:51):
right after we get off the air. So, having lived
in a cool weather city, Detroit from between nineteen ninety
three twenty ten and cover the Tigers, still have my
creditial with the Tigers. I know how big opening day
is in Major League Baseball. It's almost like life begins again.
And of course all my years in song of California,

(01:21:12):
opening Day is just a big deal. And before I
get to what I think are some of the biggest
storylines of Major League Baseball that we can look forward
to this season. There was a lot of fanfare from
Thursday's opening Day from around the country, and just a

(01:21:33):
couple things caught my eye that I want to share. Okay,
So two of the biggest names in baseball, Juan Soto
and choey Otani Thursday. You juxtapose these two seven hundred
million dollar men, you know, next to each other. It's
the department of redundancy department, and their opening day performances
were kind of opposite. Soda could not have scripted a

(01:21:53):
better opportunity for his Mets debut. He comes up to
the plate two on two out, the Mets down on
two runs in the ninth and Josh Hayter said him
packing with a nasty slider, and the seven hundred and
sixty five million dollar man took a seat on the bench.
That was his opening salvo with the New York Met

(01:22:14):
Since then, I know he's gone deep. I'm talking about
opening Day. Meanwhile, the other superhuman seven hundred million dollar man,
Shoheiyo Tani, Well you saw what he did in is
his debut in Los Angeles on opening Day. Yeah, he
does what he does and he went deep. There's always
weird odd You know, there's an old saying in baseball,
just when you think you've seen it all, you see

(01:22:36):
something new. So math is everywhere in baseball. I've said
forever that the historical numerical perspective for baseball records is
more notably recognized than any other sport. If I say
sixty one, you know I'm talking about Roger Merris. Right,

(01:22:56):
seven hundred and fourteen, you know I'm talking about baby.
If you get it one hundred and sixty two, you
know we're talking about how many games thirty teams have
to play this year. There will be thousands of pitches
at bats recorded, and it drives this data dump and
what it does. It eventually every year, you know, unequivocally

(01:23:19):
leads to oddball occurrences. For instance, Yankees catcher Austin Wells
became the first catcher to ever hit a leadoff home
run on opening Day in Major League Baseball history. By
the way, Austin Wells is the first catcher in franchise
history to hit a leadoff home run. And maybe he'll

(01:23:41):
be the first catcher of his kind anywhere to ever
do that. I don't know what he just said. There
By the way, an outfielder for the Oiols by the
name of Tyler O'Neill he also homered on opening Day.
What's the significance. It's the sixth straight year that Tyler
O'Neill homered on opening Day. How many players are on

(01:24:04):
an opening day roster and starting for six straight years?
That alone is is did the numbers start to pare down?
But he broke the record last year and this is
just breaking the record again. By the way, he's Canadian born. Yeah,
they liked baseball up in Canada. To Oriols outfield or
Tyler Andy homers on opening Day for the sixth straight year.

(01:24:28):
Technology in baseball. Sometimes the marriage of technology in baseball
works and sometimes not so much. I didn't experience this,
but apparently Major League Baseball TV had a widespread outage
and fans were outraged from coast to coast. Whoops. It
might might not have been though as embarrassing as the
Twins in their new TV channel, which for the first

(01:24:49):
three minutes of their inaugural broadcast I think it was
an inaugural broadcast, played footage of the Cleveland Guardians. Okay,
why would you do that? Well, maybe they didn't mean to,
and can we stop calling the Dodgers the evil Empire.
I'm not saying you are. I don't know, Lee, what
do you mean? Wee you got a mouse in my pocket?
Speaking French? No, just you get the general colloquial sense.

Speaker 9 (01:25:13):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:13):
I'm about to defend the Dodgers here. Yes, they've dished
out four hundred and seventy nine million this offseason, which
is two hundred million more than any other team besides
the Mets, who, yeah, seven hundred and sixty five of
that went to Juan Soto. But LA's twenty twenty five
luxury tax payroll if you're scoring at home three hundred
and seventy two million is by far the highest of

(01:25:34):
any team. But even that number belies how much their
roster costs when you consider that the Dodgers and Doug
Gottlie talked about this the other day. They've they've engaged
in an unprecedented use of deferrals, which allows them to
spend freely while incurring more minor league penalties or minor penalties,
excuse me. The Dodgers have a staggering one point four

(01:25:58):
billion dollars in deferred money on their active roster and
their active contracts. The Mets and the Red Sox are
the only teams to be over fifty million. The Dodgers
are one point four billion. So with all that money
that the Dodger Big Blue is laying out, put this
in your pipe and smoke it. Yeah, they're off to
a five and zero start. That doesn't guarantee anything with

(01:26:18):
all the money they spent. No team has won back
to back World Series titles in twenty five years, and
just two Rainy Champs in that time have even made
it back to the Fall Classic the following years. So
be careful when you get on the Dodgers, and I'll
tell you why. The Dodgers aren't doing anything that other
teams can't. And they're also not just outbidding teams. Shoyotani

(01:26:40):
offered his sixty seven hundred million dollar contract with deferrals
to every team who was interested in signing him, which
I believe the Angels and Blue Jays were. He just
happened to choose the Dodgers. He likes the Dodgers. Yamamoto
had the same twelve year, three hundred and twenty five
million dollar contract offer on the table from the new

(01:27:00):
York mets Yamamoto just shows the Dodgers. In the end,
he likes the Dodgers. Rosis Husaki, who's a different case
since he's an amateur international free agent. You know how
bad he wanted to be on the Dodgers. Four million
reasons bad. He left four million dollars on the table
to sign with the Dodgers over the Padres, who had

(01:27:21):
offered him four million dollars more. According to records or reports,
ti Oscar hernanders So they had miked up the other day,
one of the fan favorites now also left about six
million dollars on the table to stay with the Dodgers
this offseason. Why, here's this quote. The Dodgers, they're different.

(01:27:42):
They think about everybody, not only the players, not only
the things I can do on the field. For me,
they just give me the confidence I never got that
really mattered and the other places I worked. Does that
sound like an evil empire to you?

Speaker 4 (01:27:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:27:56):
They got money. Lots of teams have money. Well, they're
just seem to be putting it to good use. And
they've created a culture, and they've created the conditions where
people want to be there. We'll see if they repeat.
I think they can, I frankly expect them to. But
wait a minute. Now, it's a marathon, one hundred and
sixty two games. So what are some of the big

(01:28:18):
storylines this year? Very much under the radar? All of
a sudden, you've got two major League baseball teams playing
in two minor league ballparks. The Tampa Bay Raves. They'll
be playing their games in Steinbrunner Field, which happens to
be the home of the single A Tampa Tarponds of

(01:28:38):
the Florida State League, and it's where the New York
Yankees have their spring training. Remember Hurricane Milton destroyed Tropicana
Fields roof, and they aren't gonna be fixing it anytime soon,
or at least not in time to be effective this season. Meanwhile,
the Homeless Athletics willingly ditched Oakland to play it West

(01:29:00):
Sacramento's Cutter Health Park, which is a single I think
it's a single A stadium. Maybe it's a triple A
Pacific Coast League. I should have had that. These moves
aren't unprecedented. Remember the Blue Jays played in Buffalo during
the pandemic COVID. It's going to be fascinating to watch

(01:29:20):
these teams as they adjust to lower level accommodations. And
it's all happening because both teams have long term stadium
situations that are basically limbo.

Speaker 5 (01:29:29):
I do know this.

Speaker 2 (01:29:31):
The Oakland Age will be in Sacramento in twenty five,
twenty six, and twenty seven. We are three days from April.
We haven't broken ground on the new stadium here in
Las Vegas yet, so stay tuned. Tampa Bay Rays not
sure how long they're going to be in Steinbrenner Field,
But you got two teams in the major leagues playing
in minor league facilities.

Speaker 13 (01:29:52):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:29:53):
The National League is loaded with talent, but now all
of a sudden, the American League looks like the NBA's
Eastern Conference. Even the most obvious American League playoff teams
either have noticeable flaws or they're already dealing with significant injuries,
which could kill a pennant race. Will anybody even win
ninety games in the American League? And yeah, I'm looking

(01:30:14):
at you Yankees as possible. If you're gonna score twenty
runs a game, I might change my mind, but you
gave up nine. Also, could a sub five hundred team
like the A's actually sneaking to a wildcard spot after
the expense of the Yankees are Orioles. These are potential
wild scenarios that you may say are unbelievable, but that's

(01:30:35):
kind of the reality right now. The American League is
wide open, all right. You've got some big name stars
that are returning to the Diamond finally at full strength
this year. The biggest name is Mike Trout, who when
he's healthy, does remain among the very best in the business.
He's now a right fielder, moving over from centerfield, and
they're saying this position will take a little wear on

(01:30:58):
tear off him and perhaps an able him to play
more than one hundred and thirty games for the first
time in six years. Meanwhile, in Atlanta, the Braves Spencer
Strader Ronald Cunya Junior. They're both due to return early
in the season. Stratder looked pretty good in his first
spring training start, and they're talking about uh Okunya, he's

(01:31:20):
returning from his second torn acl The Braves season hinges
on those two guys. Alright. I talked about the Dodgers
a second ago. The truth is, how good can this
team really be? I mean, can they I don't think
they're gonna go one hundred and sixty two to zero.
But what the hell the Dodgers. They were already a
juggernaut last year. They won the twenty twenty four World

(01:31:41):
Series and did it in fine fashion. Then they had
Blake Snell, Rookie Sasaki and others to a roster that
already includes a bunch of multiple superstars and for real
future Hall of famers. I think Mookie Betts and Freddie
Freeman our future Hall of famers, and perhaps some of
that pitching staff. Yes, they got to play the games,

(01:32:02):
but these Dodgers look as close to an unstoppable force
as you're gonna find in Major League Baseball. And they
could potentially set records across the board. And you can
call them villains, but you're gonna watch them. You're either
gonna root for him or you're gonna root against him. Remember,
the opposite of love is not hated, it's indifference. It's
hard not to at least acknowledge greatness, and the Dodgers,

(01:32:25):
I think embody greatness the entire organization. By the way,
one year after making we're not done with the Dodgers.
One year after making history with an unprecedented fifty to
fifty season at Otani had fifty four home runs stole
fifty nine bases. He'll take them out again. I don't
think it'll be till sometime in May, And obviously Otani's

(01:32:47):
first start will be a can't miss game. Once the
hype dies down, there's gonna be questions how will O'tani
the pitcher look after missing a full season following elbow surgery,
and did he really have enough time to properly rehab
on the mound given his DH duties. Will he even
be able to make it through the season as a
two way player under these circumstances, given the Dodgers starting

(01:33:09):
staff and Otani's prolific offensive prowise. If it were me,
and who knows, maybe they'll put it up to me someday,
I'd bring Otani out of the pen a couple times
a week. That's what I do. I wouldn't wear the
guy out. We know he can pitch, you can always
start if you need him, But to ask him to
take the ball every fifth, sixth day and keep up
this offensive prowess, it's a bit much, and he's already

(01:33:33):
coming off one injury. Just a thought Remember Otanian didn't
pitch last year, didn't stop the Dodgers from winning a
World Series. How about a full season of Paul Skeins
Remember the stud out of LSU. They didn't call him
up till mid mid season last year. He's already starting
his full big league season, this time a fully fledged superstar,
not an untested rookie. Now the Pirates. Unfortunately he's playing

(01:33:56):
in the team in the city. He's probably not ready
to contend, But twenty two years old, Paul Skiings has
already turned their games at least well his starts, and
do much watched events. It's like Vita Blue back in
the day, much wash must watch events. That's time I
run a ton from that damn place. No reason to
think Paul Skins will not only continue his success, but

(01:34:21):
maybe he'll send to even higher heights, and that could
make this an unforgettable summer in Pittsburgh, regardless of the
Bucks overall record. Look, the nineteen seventy six Tigers had
Mark the bird Faers. They didn't win anything, but man,
he was, I mean he was must see coming up.
I have many more when I would consider to be storylines,
big ones with big name teams. To talk about regarding

(01:34:46):
Major League Baseball. For the best pregame show every weekend,
be sure to tune into Fox Sports Radio's Countdown, presented
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count you down to all the biggest games. No better
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Tune into Countdown, presented by BETMGM every Saturday and Sunday

(01:35:06):
morning right here on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Bernie Frattle. Come to your line from Once Vegas,
Fox Sports Radio, Tirat dot com studios. Keep it locked.
You're listening to the Bernie Frautle Show on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 6 (01:35:19):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot Com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 2 (01:35:32):
All right back at the Bernie Frautle Show Fox Sports Radio.
Come to liar from the Tarrack dot com studios here
and Las Vegas. Continuing on, I have three remaining what
I consider to be big storylines as we head into
a brand new Major League Baseball twenty twenty five season,
and then I switch gears and revisit a topic we

(01:35:54):
didn't go that deep on that I thought we might
in the midnight hour, and I'll get to that and
just the second, but one of the story lions is
could this be the Philadelphia Phillies last to rah? Remember
just three years ago they won the Pennant. They sort
of surprised everybody. It's not been seven years since Bryce Harper,

(01:36:14):
Las Vegas has own. Bryce Harper joined the Phillies with
that big contract, and it looked like twenty twenty two
might usher in a new golden era for the franchise.
But Philly has just simply not been able to replicate
that success. They had a shocking loss the following season
in the National League Championship Series to Arizona, and then

(01:36:35):
that was followed up by last year's early exit at
the hands of the New York Mets. Now the clock
is ticking because they have an excellent corps, but they're
not getting any younger. Kyle Schwarber, Rancher Suarez, jtvol Muto,
they're entering they're playing the back nine and then some,
and they may be looking at their last chance to

(01:36:56):
make good on their promise to win a title before
at some point the Phillies start to make changes. These
Philly teams were built to win. They were built to
win now, and unfortunately for them, the pressure has never
been higher. So can Philly rise to the occasion. They've
got the roster to do it. Can they do it? Meanwhile,
I want to go back to Juan Soto's Mets debut.

(01:37:18):
The Mets are trying to turn. Last year they okay,
there's your Cinderella. The New York Mets were Cinderella team
last year. They went on that National League Championship Series
run and they had their own National League geest Thrill.
Steve Cohen made a splash acquisition in the offseason. He's
the owner of the Mets, by luring Juan Soto on

(01:37:39):
a record seven and sixty five million dollar contract, and
based on what he did last season with the Yankee
Soto feels like a player who's made for New York.
But now he's he enters his prime. He's the face
of the Mets. So we'll see if Soto can take
the franchise to New Heights, kind of like Reggie Jackson
did with the Yankees back in the day, a perfect team.

(01:38:00):
They have cerns, many concerns surrounding their pitching staff and
still can't do it little by himself. But if he
gets off to a slow start, he's going to be
hearing about it. Okay, he's in Flushing, New York now,
not the Bronx, but they can boo there as well. Finally,
the Saint Louis Cardinals entered the off season with a
clear objective. They were going to trade Nolan Aernauto, but

(01:38:21):
they didn't. Now, Aeronauto enters opening Day in a Cardinals uniform,
and his future is Murky Aeronauto. Of course, he holds
all the cards for the cards. There's a play on words.
He's got no trade clause, and he rejected a deal
that would have sent him to the Houston Astros. So
as long as he stays in towns, every move and

(01:38:41):
every you know, everything he says and does and every
bat is going to be dissected and analyzed. You know,
Saint Louis is not a major market in the media,
but there's a small market bubble. And if he's unhappy,
or he's loafing or anything between, he's going to become
a franchise, and and and Saint Louis is a proud franchise.
He's become a distraction. Excuse me, Sam Lewis is a

(01:39:03):
proud franchise. But they're teetering. They're teetering, and they probably
deserve better. So those are storylines to watch, all right.
I want to revisit a topic. We didn't get too
deep into it in the midnight hour. That was fine
because I love people did a great job on Lebron
versus stephen A and the and the Danny Hurley saka
as it were. Becomes even more mercurial now, and it

(01:39:29):
has to do with this crazy scenario that college basketball
must fix. It must fix this official review and the
way that it's currently facilitated is a complete tire fire.
I you know, chronicled of just one random SEC game

(01:39:54):
last late February, where one team, Vanderbilt, had the lead
seventy to sixty. They're only three and a half minutes,
but it took forty minutes of real time to play
the rest of the game. Why because the officials kept
blowing whistles for fouls, and then there were free throws,
and then there were some more official reviews and injury
stoppages and timeouts and endless offensive defensive substitutions, and all

(01:40:18):
of a sudden the game becomes unwatchable with all the
fits and starts and stops. And I don't like the
way that they play such as high incredible premium on
official review. They review everything. They go frame by frame,
and it takes forever, and some of the things they'll
do that make your teeth hitch. One team might be

(01:40:38):
leading by twelve points with six point eight seconds to go,
and they they'll stare at the clock for a minute
and stop the game. And by the way, that gives
teams free timeouts. And you got an eighteen point lead
and they reset the clock. Oh, supposed to be six
point six seconds, not six point eight. Really, okay, perfection
should not It is not the standard for anything in sports, Okay.

(01:41:01):
Anything less perfection now, when it comes to referees is bad,
and it ruins the game. It ruins the flow of
the game. And there's nothing about it to me that
I find endearing. All right, And I mentioned that game,
that's just the one off of a bunch of you know,
whether it's constant filing, subbing, the compulsion of college referees
to go to the monitor every single time they're insure

(01:41:23):
late in the game, whether or not a fingertip nicked
the ball before it went out of bounds, and it
takes it's incessant, and it takes forever. Who wants this?
Do you want this? It's my understanding. There have been
lots of calls and texts to administrators throughout the season

(01:41:43):
that there's a broad agreement that the games are taking
too long. Okay, officiers are too reliant on the replay
monitor and these endless parades back to the final line
just suck the absolute life out of the game. For
every great basketball college basketball finish that comes down to
a final possession, you're gonna get five games. It gets
pulled into a slog and there's no reason for these

(01:42:05):
games to so regularly. Again, I just didn't feel this
way just now in the tournament. It's been all year.
Teams routinely overshoot their two hour television window. For instance,
I might want to watch a year. You know, I've
got a UNV basketball credentier, but I don't go to
every game. I might want to watch the UNLB game,
which starts at day o'clock Pacific time and then be

(01:42:25):
a game before that. Okay, maybe it's a Xavier in Miami,
Ohio and instead of the UNLB game starting at day o'clock,
they don't go to that game delay twenty and they
can only delay it ten minutes or so. And now
you catch it four minutes into the game because the
game prior overshot the two hour television window. That doesn't
need to happen. You can't. I cannot see any plausible

(01:42:49):
defense for the way that official review is handling right now.
All right. The good news is this actually could be
fixed if they wanted to do it. Bat and if
someone's got the stomach to raise their hand and you know,
light a fire under the butt of the oversight committee
and say fix this. Okay. Unfortunately, history shows us that

(01:43:15):
men's college basketball is very slow to change any rules,
and there's an establishment in place that gets offended by
any suggestion that they should modify their game to look
more like the NBA. Okay, but your border lining on
a crisis here. I don't know anybody that likes this.
Feel free to tweet if I'd like to hear if

(01:43:36):
you do. Okay. I had a tweet from Bill Shirley earlier.
This says absolutely Bernie. I watched one of the tourney
games where seven consecutive trips that were stopped from some
kind of bs. And then, of course, let's not forget.
Is that a flagrant one? Is that a flagrant file,
a flagrant two? Or is just a common file?

Speaker 5 (01:43:54):
What is it?

Speaker 2 (01:43:55):
Is it fish or file? I mean, we don't know
what we're even looking at here anymore. So the question
is how do you fix it? Okay, one suggestion. I
don't see this happening. I just don't. But it's just
a suggestion. One of the obvious and easiest changes to
do make is instead of you ever know if you notice,

(01:44:16):
college basketball is the only basketball played on any level
where there are two halves instead of four quarters, they
played two twenty minute a halfs what if they were
to play four quarters or ten minutes? Teach that deserves
a discussion. Every other form of the sport plays four
quarters except for men's college basketball. It's starting to look

(01:44:38):
a little ass and I and the question is is
it harming the game? Because everybody knows the sport that
playing halves slows the game down because the moment a
team commits a seventh foul, every subsequent file results in
a trip to a free throw line for the rest
of the half. So if the officials are called in
the game tightly, I've seen that threshold crossed in the

(01:45:00):
first seven minutes of the a half. In every other league,
including women's college basketball, the files reset every quarter, and
there's less time being spent in the bonus after a
team commits its fifth final. Again, there's absolutely no logical
reason why men's college basketball continues to go twenty minutes

(01:45:22):
to twenty minute halfs instead of perhaps four ten minute quarters. Okay,
the second potential fix just get rid of the current
instant replace system, where officials literally look at pretty much
every close out of bounds call in the final two
minutes of the game and they go to this coach's
challenge system like the NBA employees think about it. Get

(01:45:46):
rid of the officials in their discretion. You don't need
to go to the monitor unless the coach challenges it. Now,
even though the NBA approach to instant replay also has
detractors and it's not perfect either, and its officials get
a little too monitor happy when the situations arise. College

(01:46:07):
I don't think college basketball can continue on this current course.
It's relatively common to see an official make a call
and then all of a sudden single for a review.
This second gets their own work. Okay, but here's the
real rub. It just takes too damn long. It brings
the game to a halt. It happens way too much,
far too much frequency, and it's no longer acceptible in

(01:46:30):
my opinion. And again they go frame by frame, they
look at these things incessantly. And by the way, one
of the byproducts of this, teams could be out of timeouts.
You get a free timeout. You're giving me teams for
free timeouts. Now, I get it. You want the call

(01:46:50):
to be right. You're trying to stract that balance and
thread the needle between what might be acceptable human error
and the integrity of the game. That's where it becomes.
You want to get the close calls right, especially when
there's so much on the line, but nitpicking every single
loose ball scramble or did it go off his fingertip?

(01:47:11):
You know, did you step out of bounds? Who touched
it last? Did you take forever? Now, all of a sudden,
you're providing a crutch for beneficiating and what I consider
to be a huge, a huge vacuum of time while
people scratch their heads saying, will you please hurry up?
Okay again, I'm gonna lean on this. Just give coaches

(01:47:35):
a challenge they can use at any point in the
game or keep it in their back pocket, and they
can deploy it when it really counts. Whether it's not
a bounce call, whether it's a controversy you'll found remember
you got Arizona call for it with Look, okay, I'm
not gonna go back into specific games because i'll bore you,

(01:47:55):
but that's what replay should be used for. When you
have situations where it's out bounds and it's a controversial
file with one you know it's a one point game
and there's three seconds, Okay, that matters. Otherwise, sometimes you
just have to live with human error. It's a better way,
I think than what college basketball currently has, and I
think they're still in show business. Networks pay a fortune

(01:48:18):
for these games. People have a lot invested. Now there's
a couple other radical suggestions. They're not mine, but they've
come up in the ether. The suggestion is to adopt
a twenty four second shot clock. A lot of college coaches.
They might not like it because they enjoyed the ability
to set up an offense in a half court and
then they can call their place from the sideline. There's

(01:48:39):
also this long standing argument that the majority of college
players aren't skilled enough to operate the twenty four shot
clock environment, and that might make the game a little
more frantic and not as crisp. I don't know that
to be true. But the other side of the argument
is ultimately players would adapt and it would help their
long term development for pro basketball. So there's that certainly
cut them out on some of the foule Arama tactic

(01:49:01):
could be in the games. It's a math equation. When
a team is trailing in a final few minutes, it's
often better if you could just play defense and get
a stop. I'll out chuck daily when the shot clock
is twenty four seconds as supposed to thirty. Now there's
one last suggestion, and it appears to be the most
controversial now. The NBA G League has for several years

(01:49:22):
now used a one free throw rule, which means a
player who gets filed goes to the line for one
shot and that's only worth the corresponding number of points
until the final two minutes of the game. In other words,
if you're filed shooting a three, you get one shot
worth three points. How about that if you're filed shooting
a layup, you get one shot worth two points. Not

(01:49:43):
my idea, but think about it. It would waste, you know,
eliminate a lot of wasted time at the file line.
And it's worth looking at all these suggestions. None of
them are the bl end all, but to at least
have a conversation about this, you know, and if you
if you can just at least admit that when there
are three minutes to go in the game and it

(01:50:04):
takes forty minutes to play the final three minutes talking
about you know, two hundred and ten seconds, forty minutes
to play two hundred and ten seconds, well then you're
I don't know what this is. This is a sport
of fiasco. What are we really talking about here? Okay?
Coming up? I also want to revisit Danny Hurley and

(01:50:29):
what happened because it's slipped under the radar. And I
might suggesting that Danny Hurley be in trouble or anything. No,
but you know, there's got to be a certain decorum here.
If We're gonna pick on le Brown Wing, pick on
Danny Early too right, turnabout's fair play. And by the way,
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Sports Radio dot Com. See our hosts are doing with

(01:51:14):
therapicks and who the top ranked listeners are. The listener
with the best bracket at Fox Sports Radio dot Com
we'll win a twenty five hundred dollars gift supply. Check
that gift car to Tractor Supply. Coming up, The Bernie
Fradles Show continues. I'm Bernie Fraddle. We'll come to your
line from Las Vegas, Fox Sports Radio Tarrac dot com studios.
Keep you locked. You're listening to the Bernie Fraddle Show

(01:51:35):
on Fox Sports Radio. Hi. Right back of the Bernie
Fraddle Show, Fox Sports Radio copy Live from the tirak
dot Com studios here in Las Vegas. By the way,
for the best pregame show every weekend, be sure to
tune into Fox Sports Radios Countdown, presented by a bet
MGM every Saturday and Sunday morning from nine am to
noon Eastern six to nine am Pacific. We will count

(01:51:58):
you down to all the biggest games. There's no better
place to prime you for the tournament games than right here.
Turn into Countdown, presented by BETMGM every Saturday and Sunday
morning right here on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
I want to credit this to a gentleman named Gray
Papkey from Larry Brown Sports. You may or may not

(01:52:22):
have seen it. You may have missed it. A video
emerged of Danny Hurley following last Sunday's loss. Yukon's lost
to Flora seventy seven to seventy five in the second
round of the tournament, and the video was captured by
a gentlemen of Queen City News and Hurley had a
pretty salty what's the word I'm looking for, Let's put

(01:52:48):
it this way. It was a rant that quickly went
viral and it was against very spicy with f bombs okay,
And it turned out that the folks at Yukon were
not happy about this incident being filmed. According to Queen
City News, a Yukon I'm not going to give the

(01:53:11):
gentleman's name, it's alleged he told this gentleman joey Ellis
of the Queen City News apparently captured the video. This
is according to Larry Brown Sports, that he would quote
ruin his life or something of that nature if the
video was not deleted. Now, that remark was allegedly heard

(01:53:32):
by other reporters and staff on the scene. And you know,
it's not a good look. And this is a team
that would you know, back to back championships and Dan
Hurley really had become quite a remarkable national figure, was
even offered a huge job by the Lakers, right And
in the statement apparently that you know, this recorded video,

(01:53:55):
this private comment was not authorized, you know, by any
by and it essentially I think their concern and they
should be that what this does is this fosters a
more lasting image of Danny Hurley leaving the court, okay,
and what it should have been. According to the gentleman

(01:54:17):
who wrote this piece, he said, quote the lasting image
should have been walking off the court arm in arm
with his seniors, overwhelmed with emotion. Instead a reporter who
was in the area. He should not have been recorded
on a cell phone a private comment made to members
of another coaching staff. Is that fair? Okay? Maybe maybe,
but look, when you're a national figure like Danny Hurley

(01:54:41):
in the games on national TV, maybe a little bit
more awareness. Danny Hurley, as the video shows, and a
ton of leaving the court with photographers and other staffers,
was not exactly trying to keep his voice low, and
he was not exactly trying to confide quietly with anyone
from Baylor. Ultimately, I think it was just another reminder
that maybe, you know, with all the respect to Danny

(01:55:03):
Hurley and for all of his accomplishments and he's an
emotional guy, that his impulse control is no better than
it was back when he was playing at Seaton Hall.
Just throwing that out there, all right. So I think
the response to the video and the attempts to get
it taken down frankly, only made the situation worse. Okay. Now,

(01:55:26):
in his postgame press conference, Hurley was a lot more reflective,
and I think he admitted the loss was tough on
him and reacted accordingly, but a lot of commenters who
observed this weren't as friendly. And as forgiving, I'll just
read some comments from random watchers of this event. Quote,

(01:55:47):
He's an unlikable baby. There was nothing private about his comments,
and there's no one to blame but Dan so private
he yelled it out for all to hear. What a clown? Really?
Yukon really let the big boy face up what he said. Lol,
glad you took a digger in the tourney, or maybe
maybe they sent men dagger. Hurley deserved to get booted. Okay,

(01:56:07):
another comment. If Yukon doesn't recognize that Hurley has a
problem and this is on them and they I've been
paying attention. His passion is as much an obsession and
he needs help to put things in perspective. Why wouldn't
Yukon wanting this out because they know he has zero filter.
They either address it or watch him burn publicly. Again,
these are comments from random fans who observe this interesting

(01:56:30):
that Mullen lectures the reporter about the last view of
Hurley should have been Yeah, if that's what Hurley did,
it would be you jerk, but he did and the
reporter filmed he actually did live with it. So there's
somebody defending Danny Hurley again. These some of these are
our clunky another defender lovely be proud, Yukon, tough luck Yukon.

(01:56:54):
Danny needs to get some counseling, Okay, crazy. I just
think it's it became an event that wasn't particularly endearing,
you know, and the same with Lebron, all right, I
mean Lebron went off on Steven A. Smith. He said,
quote it started off with I didn't want to address it.

(01:57:14):
James said he's ripping on stephen A. So I wasn't
going to address it, but since the video came out,
I felt I need to address it. MF are you
kidding me? Okay, Lebron, do you really need to do that?
I don't think. I don't if I ever heard Magic Jordan,
Bill Russell, kareem drop an F bomb? Did you really
need to do that? If there was? And then Lebron

(01:57:37):
went out to say, if there's one person that couldn't
wait until the video had dropped so you could address it,
it was your ass. Like seriously, okay, Lebron, I don't
know man. Then Lebron went on and is clunky English quote.
Never would I not allow people to talk about the
sport criticized that's fabulous. You're You're not You would not
not allow people to talk about the sport or criticize

(01:58:00):
players about what they do on the court. That is
your job to criticize or be in a position where Okay,
if a guy is not performing, that is all part
of the game. That's all part of the game. But
when you take it and get personal with it, it's
my job to not only protect my damn household, but
protect the players from what Lebron, what are you protecting
them from? He's an NBA player, He's Stephen a Smith.

(01:58:23):
It comes with the territory, and you know. James also
acknowledged he was guaranteeing more attention for the story. He
went on to rip Stephen Aspen, saying cool, he's gonna
be smiling from ear to ear when he hears me
talking about him again. He's gonna get home, grab some
ice cream out of the effing freezer. Another f bomb,

(01:58:44):
sit in his chairt is tidy. Whitey's on the couch
like dude, relax, bro like relax like seriously, how about
a few relaxed Lebron, Maybe you get yourself a cold
clown compress, lay down, get some warm milk and soft
music and realize that at the end of the day,
you're first ballot Hall of Famer, you won championships, You've

(01:59:05):
accomplished a lot between the ninety four foot, but seems
you want more. You want more. Poor men want to
be rich. Richmond want to be king. That's why Lebron
calls himself the King. Unnecessary brought unnecessary attention to himself,
and that's sometimes what Lebron does. He's done it before

(01:59:26):
and you'll do it again. Coming up brand new fool
and what my name? Keep it locked? The Bernie Fradle
Show on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:59:33):
Don't listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:59:36):
Yup, that's right, you heard the man. Bernie Fradle Show
keeps rolling right along. My name is Bernie Fraddle. We
are Comedy Alive from the Tirak dot com studios here
in Las Vegas, Fox Sports Radio. Tyraq dot com will
help you get there. An unmatched selection, fast free shipping
for your road acid protection and over ten thousand recommended installers.

(01:59:57):
Tyreq dot com the way tire buying should be well,
we've come to that juncture of the show. You know
you love you. You can't leave without it because we,
like Yogi Beara once said, can observe a lot by watching.
That's exactly what we do. Because across this great land
off ars from sea to oil, the sea and even
around the globe, well, people are observed in odd behaviors. Now,

(02:00:23):
sometimes these behaviors are somewhat innocuous and silly. They can
land you in little trouble. Other times they're far more serious.
They can violate the law, misdemeanors, felonies, it can even
land you in jail. But any way you slice it,
any way you describe it, any way you characterize it,
all of these behaviors that we observe always leave us

(02:00:47):
scratching our head and asking ourselves what kind of brand
new fool of you?

Speaker 19 (02:00:58):
So, what kind of brand new?

Speaker 8 (02:01:00):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (02:01:00):
Well there are you? Well? My story tonight takes is
to Santa Rosa, California. It involves a very i think
serious endemic in this country and drunk driving, believe it
or not, Even after everything we know and all the
warnings and the education and the options to take uber

(02:01:23):
or cabs or whatever. Every day four one hundred and
nine people across our land are arrested for a dui.
But this one in Santa Rosa really takes the cake.
Say hello to mister Corono Ortiza, Santa Rosa, thirty four
years old. He was cruising down the road allegedly driving

(02:01:46):
under the influence, wasn't particularly paying attention. And not paying attention,
he crashed his Toyota truck into a building. But it
wasn't just any building. It happened to be a liquor store. Well,

(02:02:07):
it turns out after the crash, mister Ortiz, who was hospitalized,
actually entreated for significant injuries for the crash, perhaps because
he was when he blew a well, I'll say what
save that for a minute now from now. He got
out of his vehicle, went into the liquor store and

(02:02:28):
attempted to buy more alcohol. Yes, can't make this stuff up.
Got out of his truck, walked into this door and
attempted to purchase alcohol, even though when the police showed
up and they tested him, he was operating the vehicle
under the influence and his blood alcohol content was point

(02:02:49):
three two, which is four times the legal limit in
California of point oh eight. By the way, not for nothing,
mister Ortiz was also driving while his license was suspended
and in contempt a court. He disobeyed a court order.
So here's a gentleman that blows a three to two,

(02:03:09):
crashes his truck into a liquor store, gets out, and
tries to buy more liquor. Well, needless to say, mister
Ortives was arrested and charged with driving under the influence
and obviously had to be treated for what appeared to
be some very significant injuries. You don't have to be
a genius to realize that when you're a dumb criminal

(02:03:31):
and you drive drunk, that's bad enough. You crash your
car and demandage property, that's bad enough. And then after
you crash your car into the building, you go in
and try to buy more liquor even though you're injured. Well,
you make the brand new fool segment, mister Ortiz from
Center Rosa, California. What kind of brand new fool are you? Okay, Brianna,

(02:03:52):
you are up next?

Speaker 20 (02:03:54):
Alrighty Staill, mind's like a little on the cheesier side.
This takes place in Evans, Indiana, and there was two
suspicious packages that were sent via the mail, and they
contained forty pounds of meth inside bags of Cheetos. So

(02:04:15):
of all the chips, right, I don't know, I just
have all the chips to decide to, you know, stuff drugs,
and you know, Cheetos are definitely the cheesiest.

Speaker 13 (02:04:23):
Way to go.

Speaker 20 (02:04:25):
So, according to forty four News, two people were arrested
for packing their meth into these bags and they were
shipping it through the mail. So forty six year old
Natasha Gardner and thirty six year old Goldie Junior Flenner
actually both from La Shout out La. I don't know
if that's where. I don't know why you wouldn't choose
like Fredo's or something. But they were busted when they

(02:04:47):
actually went to go pick up the packages. And so
the detectives with the Drug Task Force were notified by
the delivery facility that something was a little funky and
so the when they responded, they determined that the bug
the bags contained meth. So the two women, as soon
as they were approached, you know from the police officers,

(02:05:10):
they obviously fled and then when they were in the
middle of them fleeing, the van actually crashed into another
sheriff's suv so and so when all all was said
and done, the determination of the pounds and how much
of meth it was, it was valued to be over

(02:05:31):
two hundred and thousand dollars worth of meth. So just
kind of just to wrap this up, other drugs that
have been hidden and other things, Freedo's I was actually
right lays and uh Dorito's, other chips and examples of

(02:05:52):
where drugs a cocaine, meth and little little pieces of heroine,
so a little dark, just a little dark of but
two point six worth. Also back to the cocaine that
was actually found on a cruise ship was another example
of some other chips in another story. But anyways, So yeah,

(02:06:13):
those two women, Man, what kind of brand new fool
are you?

Speaker 2 (02:06:18):
Yeah, that's that's a lot. And if you're sentenced drugs
through the mail, whether regardless of package, I'm pretty sure
that's mail fraud too. And so that's that's big time
federal jail time, I think.

Speaker 20 (02:06:31):
Yeah, federal charges of conspiracy to distribute methaphetamine.

Speaker 2 (02:06:35):
Yeah, so brand new fool. That certainly is a brand
new fool. And that wraps up another rousing edition of
what kind of brand new fool, are you? And again,
hopefully one of these days mister Ramsey will grace us
with his creativity and mister Mark Ramsey will join this,
maybe maybe just one time at least for posterity. But

(02:06:57):
now that we have completed Brand New Fool, that enables
us to say, way into our second favorite bit that
we referred to as what my Name? All right, this
we'll have a March Madness theme, except for maybe well
maybe one of the questions. Maybe one of the questions,

(02:07:18):
So let's get into the March Madness theme. I'm a
head coach of a team that would have gone to
ten straight sweet sixtees had I not lost last week, Brianna,

(02:07:39):
what my name? And one particular clue is he's gotten
to the finals twice but never won. And Chat Holmgren
went to that school.

Speaker 21 (02:07:53):
Oh golly, Calipari, No, I don't think so well.

Speaker 2 (02:07:58):
I'm gonna, I'm gonna. I'm gonna my wife's rule and
try this. Okay, is it? I'll give you three names?
Is it? Is it John Calipari? Is it Mark Few
or is it Mic Cronin?

Speaker 21 (02:08:13):
Mick Cronin?

Speaker 20 (02:08:15):
Mark, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (02:08:17):
Exactly, Mark Fugh yes, it's Mark Gonzaga. And had he
not lost last last week to a tough Houston team,
tough tough Houston team would have been ten Sweet sixteen's
in roll. All right, Well, there are one non non
March Madness question for mister Ramsey here. I'm the head

(02:08:37):
coach of an NFC team that had the fewest touchdown
passes in twenty twenty four, only fifteen touchdown passes in
twenty twenty four. I'm the head coach of that team,
mister Ramsey. And here's a clue. It's a team in
the NFC East, Mark Ramsey, what my name?

Speaker 21 (02:08:55):
Please say the question again? This a coach of something?

Speaker 2 (02:08:58):
Now, yes, he's a I'm the head coach of an
NFC team that had the fused touchdown passes in twenty
twenty four, with fifteen.

Speaker 21 (02:09:10):
A coach a team that can't pass.

Speaker 2 (02:09:14):
Think about it, Think about it.

Speaker 22 (02:09:16):
We certainly know it's not the Eagles, right, I'm just
by deliberating. I'm just thinking the Giants didn't do much passing.

Speaker 2 (02:09:27):
Excellent job. Can you get the coach's name? I'll give
you the three names. Is it Bill Parcells, Rex Ryan
or Brian Dable?

Speaker 21 (02:09:36):
How about Brian Dabele.

Speaker 2 (02:09:37):
Brian Dabele is a winner. Good job. All right, we
go back to March Madness. I to this day am
still the all time scoring leader in March Madness. And
I'll give you a clue. I was so hated, so

(02:09:58):
hated at ESPN did a thirty for thirty about me.
I hate and it was my name.

Speaker 21 (02:10:04):
Christian Lehner.

Speaker 2 (02:10:06):
Christian Lader is a winner to this stake. Christian Ladner
is still hated. All time leading scorer, by the way,
uh in March Madness. Okay. As a coach, I've won
more games in March Madness history one hundred and one
than any other coach in March Madness history. Mark Ramsey.

(02:10:30):
What my name? And here's a clue. He's from the
ACC in the state of North Carolina. Is it Roy Williams,
Jimmy Valvano or Mike Skrzyzewsky. Mike Krzyzewski is a winner,

(02:10:55):
all right, I was. I'll tell you what. Let's do
this one. I didn't even know this till yesterday. I
blocked eleven shots in one game in March Madness. It's
still an all time record. Here's a clue. Went on
to do a great successful NBA career, winning multiple championships

(02:11:18):
with the Lakers, Brianna, what my.

Speaker 21 (02:11:19):
Name uh A Lakers of Low Shack.

Speaker 2 (02:11:24):
It is, in fact, Shaquille O'Neal. He did it for LSU.
He was a beast for LSU back in the day.
Doll all right, Mark, I was the basketball coach of
the legendary UNLV Running Rebels, their national championship team in
nineteen ninety. Mark, what my name is A Jimmy Valvano,

(02:11:45):
Bobby Knight or Jerry Tarkanian?

Speaker 21 (02:11:48):
Uh, the person with the towel in his mouth Tarcanian?

Speaker 2 (02:11:51):
Nicely done? You remember the towel of the mouth.

Speaker 21 (02:11:54):
Yes, thanks the academy.

Speaker 2 (02:12:00):
What a guy. Jerry Tarkanian was amazing. Okay, last one
still with a a march Man Esteam, but we're gonna
switch gears just a little bit, okay. I recently became
the first Yukon women's basketball player to score forty points
in a tournament game. Am I, Diana Tarrossi, Sue Bird

(02:12:25):
or Paige Beckers? Brianna with my name Paige Beckers? It
is Paige Beckers. And actually it was just done today.
All right, Mark and Brianna, good job good job, and
that will conclude another arousing edition of what kind of
brand new food are you?

Speaker 5 (02:12:42):
And what my name?

Speaker 2 (02:12:44):
And on that note, I don't remind the folks. You
can stream this show and all of our Fox Sports
Radio shows live twenty four to seven in the new
and improved iHeartRadio app. Just search Fox Sports Radio in
the app to stream us live, and one of the
newest features in the app is that you can select
Fox Sports Radio is one of your presets, just like

(02:13:07):
the presets on a radio dial. So be sure to
preset Fox Sports Radio in the iHeartRadio app and will
always pop up on the top of your screen coming up.
A big name in the world of sports just got paid.
I think it's well deserved. He has fifty four million
reasons to be happy. We'll see how long he stays

(02:13:28):
there though. I'm Bernie Fradder. We're coming to you, lion
from Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio tirect dot com studios.
Keep it locked. You're listening to the Bernie Frattle Show
on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 6 (02:13:38):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to listen.

Speaker 2 (02:13:49):
Live how right back on the Bernie Frattle Show, Fox
Sports Radio. Come to liar from the tarac dot com
studios here in a Las Vegas well, Dion Sanders take
a bow. Colorado decided to reach into their pocketbook and

(02:14:11):
give Dion Sanders fifty four million reasons to be happy,
very well deserved, I might add, very well deserved, pushing
his annual salary past ten million. And he's, you know,
now in the elite air of college basket or college
football coach is highest wrung in terms of being paid.
He'll get ten million for the next two years, eleven

(02:14:33):
million in twenty seven and twenty eight, and in twelve
million and twenty twenty nine, according to the Bowler City Camera.
And uh look and Dion, you know, had you know,
all the gratuitous comments about developing young man. I'm excited
for the opportunity. We got work to do, he knowl
Rashador Sanders. He did get a quarterback though, Caden Salder

(02:14:54):
from Liberty. But it's interesting because Sanders enters his third
year at Colorad I don't know, after spending three seasons
at Jackson State, and the Buffs did improve to nine
and four last year, their first winning record since twenty sixteen,
and they actually, for a little bit of time there
looked like they might make a run at the Big

(02:15:16):
twelve championship game, and they were seven and two in
conference play, and give it up, Colorado finished the year
ranked in both major polls for the first time in
eight years. So, you know, quite a nice ascension from
a team that was one and eleven two years ago
when Dion took over. He's thirteen and twelve at his

(02:15:36):
time with the buff But Colorado faces a very interesting
season again. Shudor Sanders is gone and the Heisman Trophy
winner Travis Hunter is gone. And you have to give
those two as much or more credit than Dion for
Colorado's turnaround, although again, they wouldn't have been there, neither

(02:16:00):
Shador or Travis Hunter without Dion. And it'd be curious
to see where I think Travis Hunter would be drafted
in the top five. Not sure about Shudor. But we
don't need to go down that road again tonight. All right,
The Buffs have a lot of holes to fill, they
just do. They had a standout wide receiver by the

(02:16:20):
name of Will Sheppard. They had an excellent pass rusher
in bj Green, one of their starting safety Shiloh Sanders,
another Dion Sons. Those all have to be replaced. Now,
there's no question that Dion Sanders is a top recruiter.
He's got a magnetic personality. He probably is one of

(02:16:41):
the most effective recruiters in college football, and he very
much capitalized on the portal two years ago. When he
first arrived in Boulder, he completely overhauled the roster. He
brought in a whopping fifty two transfers that included again
Shador and Travis Hunter. And even though they had some
growing pains or four and eight those core players, a

(02:17:03):
lot of those core players remained not all and that
helped Colorado's turn around last year. Sanders went on to
sign another forty three transfers ahead of last year's season,
and then now when the twenty twenty five winter windows started,
Sanders has brought in seventeen more, most notably Liberty's quarterback

(02:17:23):
Cadence Salter. He will apparently be the heir apparent to
Shudor Sanders all right, but Dion Is miner Stand has
also spent a lot of time recruiting high schools. Remember
he made his first big splash at Jackson State back
in twenty twenty two, he landed Travis Hunter. There's the
first five star prospect to ever sign with an FCS program,

(02:17:46):
and now obviously it worked out very well for him.
I think it'd be one of the top five players,
probably in the top four. And in twenty twenty four,
Dion also signed three top one hundred prospects, including offensive
lineman Jordan Seaton, who immediately started a left tackle and
improved that offensive line. Now Colorado's twenty twenty five class

(02:18:09):
ranks thirty seventh nationally. It's basically comprised of fourteen recruits.
Six of them has have graded out as four star prospects,
and the biggest was a gentleman named Lewis. He was
a former USC commit, the number ten quarterback of the
twenty twenty five class. He'll compete with Salter for the
vacant starting job. I believe Salter will win it, But

(02:18:30):
now Dion has some bench strength. Okay, so the truth
of the matter is he's got a lot of holes
to fill in twenty twenty five. But Dion has already
proven he can attract blue chip talent to Boulder Colorado
then the program more than the program is honestly seen
in I don't know how long since Mike Pritchett was
there when they won the national championship thirty years ago.

(02:18:54):
One other thing to note, and I want to give
Mike Harmon credit. He was on with Arnie or Arnie
was on with him Friday night for breaking this because
it was my understanding that the NCAA was not going
to even meet on this until April tenth. But Dion
is not only having a spring football game when many
schools are canceling their string football games because of their

(02:19:18):
fear of injury. It's going to be televised and it'll
be a money maker. And if Dion would have gotten
his way, he wanted to scrimmage Syracuse, and Syracuse said
we'll do it. A Syracuse coach in his second year,
Fran Brown, said yeah, we'll come to Boulder, Colorado. But
the NCAA has to okay it, excuse me, or we're

(02:19:44):
not gonna be able to do it. Well, it was
my understanding and they weren't going to meet on this
and make a decision till April tenth. But apparently the
FBS Oversight Committee Friday met on this and announced that
both Colorado and Syracuse were I had a waiver for
a joint spring game, and I think it's a mistake.
I think it's a blow to spring football because spring

(02:20:07):
football has going the way of the Dodo Bird, because
major schools are canceling their games and coaches want to
make it through spring without major injuries and transfer defections.
And I don't like it. I mean, I think it's
been a part of college football forever. But the NCAA
in the reasoning also brought up academic concerns, which they

(02:20:29):
always fall behind. But it's kind of falls on deaf
ears because come on, we're in the era of nil
landscape and transfer portal and they're really worried about academic
concerns all right now. The committee said they would discuss
a future meeting and a concept that might permit joint practices,

(02:20:51):
but I hope they do that sooner rather than later. Okay,
And Willie Houston's coach, Willie Fritz apparently has now chimed
in and said he's been trying to get this idea
implemented for years. He wants to compete against other teams
in spring ball. He goes, you got a fifty percent
less chance of guys getting injured. Quote. I think it'd

(02:21:12):
be something that's neat for the crowd to see. You
could probably use to help your collective as well, he says,
I think it'd be awesome for both teams. One year
they go to your place, next year you go to
their place, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. You can't
tell me this is a bad idea. Tell me you
wouldn't like to see Oklahoma State scrimmage Texas Tech or
play Texas Tech and just a controlled spring game, or

(02:21:35):
Texas play Oklahoma or whatever. It doesn't have to be
those key matchups. But I give it up to Fran Brown,
the head coach at Syracuse, and I certainly give it
up to Dion for being innovative. All right. I think
it's a good idea. It's an idea whose time might
have come. Maybe the NCAA will come around to it
at some point. You could even have again, you could

(02:21:57):
televise these. It would be a money making things. And
I don't know. Maybe again, they're they're they're worried about lawsuits,
they're worried about injuries, and they're doing it for all
the wrong reasons. So enough of that. Well, we also
cover the other football spelled f ut b o L
and there's always news from around the world, especially with

(02:22:18):
the Gold Cup coming up. It's why it's time now
Chris Purfett's World of Soccer.

Speaker 23 (02:22:24):
The Greatest goals, the thrilling finishes, the international drama.

Speaker 1 (02:22:39):
It's all here in this report from the World of Soccer.

Speaker 24 (02:22:43):
Before we begin with a battle of two teams in
Italy that has been very very interesting to watch, both
going a lesson in hubris when it comes to scheduling,
especially around one loan superstar.

Speaker 19 (02:22:58):
The Columbus Crew decided that they.

Speaker 24 (02:23:00):
Would take their game with Enter Miami on April nineteenth,
less than a month away, out to Cleveland, taking a
game away from the fans in Columbus and moved it
out to Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland, the home of
the Cleveland Browns, one hundred and fifty miles away, and
it is a very attractive game, especially if you are

(02:23:21):
banking on Leonel Messi and a massive Messy turnout sixty
seven thousand plus at the venue to draw people in. However,
Messi has since the beginning of March been battling more
injuries yet again, and so ticket prices are really set
to plummet into the ground and then keep going into

(02:23:42):
the mantle of the earth. If Messi does not play
in this game and suddenly the Columbus crew are going
to have to reckon with the fact that they might
be playing not in front of their home crowd, but
in a mostly empty NFL stadium. Don't tempt fate by
doing these kind of stunts with your regular season. Your
fans are loyal in soccer, do not take it away

(02:24:03):
from them.

Speaker 2 (02:24:04):
And now to.

Speaker 24 (02:24:04):
Europe, with about nine eight matches to go in most
domestic leagues out there, the English Premier League is pretty
much being sewn up by Liverpool and mostly formalities of
the point.

Speaker 19 (02:24:16):
But Italy.

Speaker 24 (02:24:17):
I love watching Italian soccer and I love catching up
on the drama of Siria. We last took to you
about a story about Lozzio and their erstwhile falconer.

Speaker 19 (02:24:29):
They have since dropped his seventh on the table.

Speaker 24 (02:24:31):
But as surprising as Lozzio's falloff has been, even more
surprising is probably the story of Aci Milan, one of
the old powerhouses of Italian soccer that just a few
years ago had won the Scudado and looked like they'd
be after the fall of Juventus, trading blows with their
in a city rival Internazional for the title. Moving forward, however,

(02:24:54):
down at ninth on the table forty seven points and
that would put them about nineteen points out of qualifying
for the Champions League and no shot whatsoever to catch Internazia.
Now with their sixty four points, they are pretty much
out of the competition and it has been a disappointing
of disappointing season, and trouble comes from a lot of

(02:25:16):
places where it is Milan it Poulasich has been doing
fairly well, but long time has he been battling fairly injuries.
Another American, Unis Munsa, has been basically invisible for Milan.
Tammy Abraham, on loan from Roma, should be really entering
his prime, but we haven't really seen the production that

(02:25:37):
he was famous for at Roma turning into goals. They've
already sacked in one manager, Pallo Fonseega, back in December,
and his replacement, Sergio Kunzikau, has really not done much
in ending up and claiming fewer points per game than
his predecessor has and of course we've had multiple times
where the pitch has been invaded by supporters and ultras

(02:25:58):
taking their anger out on the players for lack of performance,
and a lot of this just ultimately comes down to
more than anything, it seems lackadaisical ownership. But the question
is can they get any of their pride and can
they stop another club from challenging Inter Enternopoli Napoli, champions
two years ago, will be hosting Milan on Sunday two

(02:26:20):
forty five Eastern Time on Paramount Plus and it should
be one hell of a showdown. Napoli sits just three
points behind Inter and is still trying to keep pace
with the other Milanese club and has plenty on their
side that they want to do, but ultimately, at the
end of the day, they have been plagued by setbacks

(02:26:41):
in a growing injury list. This all of course on
top of the fact that one of their great stars
of their scudetto push two years ago, Kavark Shelia, is
no longer with the club being transferred to Paris SA Germain.
Their other great star from that run, Victor Osiman, is
on loan with the Turkish side Galatasara. All in all,

(02:27:01):
it's resulted in some terrible, terrible luck down the stretch
and terrible circumstances, as Napoli has won just one of
their last seven Siria matches, really dropping the ball in
any kind of steeple chase with Inter. The good news
for Nopoly is their manager remains defiant. Even though the

(02:27:22):
computers out there give them only about a seventeen percent
chance to win the title.

Speaker 19 (02:27:26):
Antonio Conte is trying to.

Speaker 24 (02:27:28):
Urge his team onward and ultimately, at the end of
the day, Napoli is receiving a fantastic, aged and well
seasoned and possibly final season from star Romulu Lukaku, who
told Press earlier, who told Press this week that he
is already eyeing retirement and he thinks he wants to
be a coach. He still has a few doubts, but

(02:27:50):
it's clear that the thirty one year old Belgian is
starting to think about the next phase of his life.
Either way, there should be one hell of a match.
It's the match I'm watching on Sunday, Bernie. We'll see
you next time on the World of Soccer.

Speaker 2 (02:28:04):
All right, So look, there's always soccer in the news
and things will really heat up next year with a
World Cup returning and Google Cup upon us. And there
you have it. Chris Purfett's World of Soccer coming up.
We wrap up the show. We look ahead later today
to two epic matchups. The first one will tip off

(02:28:24):
in about eight and a half hours. Should be a
defensive slugfest between Tennessee and Houston. Give you my thoughts
in at Michigan State and Auburn. And oh, by the way,
the irrepressible Aaron Rodgers. He has one other option that
hasn't been talked about much yet and he is not
ruling it out, which I don't believe in a million years.
By the way, Tractor Supply knows that a winning season

(02:28:44):
takes practice. Team working a can do attitude. Thankfully, when
you have a neighbor like Tractor Supply, teamwork comes easy.
Whether you're caring for pets, chickens or a few acres.
Our team members will help he succeeds. He's an after
season Tractor Supply for life out here. To be sure
to check I got the Tractors Supply. Fox Sports Radio
Bracket Challenge at Fox Sports Radio dot com. See how

(02:29:05):
our hosts are doing with their picks and who the
top ranked listeners are. To listener with the best bracket
at Fox Sports Radio dot Com, we'll win a twenty
five hundred dollars gift card to Tractor Supply. Coming up,
we wrap up the show and we got a couple
of bits of business left. I'm Bernie fraddlework coming to
you live from the Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio Tarrat

(02:29:28):
dot com studios. Keep it locked. You're listening to the
Bernie Fraddle Show at Fox Sports Radio. All right, we're
wrapping it up on the Bernie Fraddle Show, Fox Sports Radio.
Come to your line from the Tarat dot com studios
here in Las Vegas. For go any further. I want
to thank my producers, Mark and Brianna turning all the dials,
keeping us glued together, brand new fool what my name,

(02:29:48):
managing the calls, a tome clock everything. Thanks for all
of your efforts. And before I get to my look
ahead to the games later today, one will tip off
in about eight hours and twenty minutes. Just okay, Aaron
Rodgers ever so quickly. They had Russell Wilson last year Pittsburgh,
they might have Aaron Rodgers this year. You might be

(02:30:09):
interested to know that their numbers are eerily similar. In
the last three years, Rogers had a one lost record
of fourteen and twenty one, Russell Wilson's seventeen and twenty four.
Both completed about sixty three percent of their passes. Rogers
threw for about two hundred and sixteen yards a game,
Russell to twenty one. Rogers threw fifty four touchdown passes

(02:30:32):
against twenty three interceptions, Russell Wilson fifty eight touchdown passes
against twenty four interceptions. Both passer ratings were similar, Russell
Wilson's ninety two and Rogers ninety point seven, so that
in the fifty cents will get you a cup of
coffee at Burger Chef. By the way, according to Ian Rappaport,

(02:30:54):
Aaron Rodgers still considering one surprising option, even though the
Steelers are establish themselves as an overwhelming favorite to sign
Aaron Rodgers with Russell Wilson no longer available. At one point,
Rogers had offered some the Steelers and Giants. The Giants
didn't sign Wilson, they signed Jameis Winston, and they gave
Wilson twenty one million dollars. Okay, So I don't think

(02:31:16):
I see Rogers in New York anytime soon. According to
Ian Rappaport, he said, Coody will not rule out Rogers retiring,
not buying it. You might not rule it out. You
might not rule out, you know, being lead singer for
led Zeppelin too. That doesn't mean it's gonna happen. So
we will see. I guess anything can happen until Rogers
actually signs a contract, which doesn't appear to be anytime soon.

(02:31:40):
Rogers does things at his pace. If you don't know
this by now, you haven't been paying attention for the
last four years. But be that as it may, I digress.
We shall see what we shall see. All right, it's
been a chock tournament. The question is will it be
four number one seeds as there have been only one
other time to have punched their ticket. Duke is in.
I talked about their dominance in my opening monologue and

(02:32:05):
uh uh, And you know you've got a situation now
where by by the way, Florida's in as well. You
know you got a situation. You got a situation where
you've got a one versus two Sunday and another one
versus two Sunday, and I'm gonna start with Houston Tennessee.

(02:32:26):
Purdue really gave Tennessee check that. Purdue really gave Houston's
defense their toughest test the season, I believe, and they
kept it very close. He was tied with one second
left or two sec whatever it was, and Kelvin Samson
ran that brilliant inbounds play and Houston got it done
and they fall just short of a massive upset Perdue did.

(02:32:50):
The question is do the Houston Cougars take confidence from
their ability to close out a nail better game like that,
or because it show enough crack on the armor and
vulnerability for a very talented Tennessee team to see an opportunity.
The Valls plays some pretty damn good defense of their own.

(02:33:11):
They beat a solid Kentucky team by thirteen. Kentucky had
beaten Tennessee twice during the course of the year, and
Tennessee has three senior guards that combined for fifty one points.
It's the Guy Ziggler, Chanslanir and Jordan Guiney. And oh,
by the way, the defense held the Kentucky Wildcats to

(02:33:33):
their lowest point total since early December, so Tennessee is
a rolling There are three and a half point underdog
to Houston, and I pooh, I'm not touching this game
with a ten foot pole, and I'm not predicting this,
but it would not surprise me if Houston went down Sunday.

(02:33:55):
I'm not predicting it, but what I am predicting, And
you may think I'm crazy. I think Michigan State's beaten Auburn. Look,
Auburn's got Auburn's really good. Okay, they got four volume
three point shooters Denver Jones, Miles Kelly, Chad Baker, massar

(02:34:16):
Into Hot Pettiford. They're all shooting thirty seven percent or
better from the arc. Right. There's a reason Auburn was
considered the number one team in the country much of
the season, and you could see it. The Tigers completely
flipped the game on Michigan's head late in the second
half Friday night. It was a close, tough, hard fought game,

(02:34:40):
and all of a sudden, Auburn found that other gear
that clearly Michigan didn't have. And why Because Auburn's got
guards who are shot makers. They can create for themselves,
and Bruce Pearl does give them the freedom and autonomy
to create for themselves. They've also got size on the paint.

(02:35:03):
They got tall guys and they got big, thick guys,
including a power forward in Jenni Broom, who I think
will give MSUs big men as much of a test
as is anything they have seen all season. Now, you
did beat Old miss and I have nothing but respect

(02:35:24):
for Old MISSUS coach Chris Beard. He's an absolute defensive wizard.
They're tenacious, they're disciplined, they communicate, they switch, they make
nothing easy. They get into the shooter, they bother you.
There are no free catches in space. They can test everything.
They have relentless energy. But Michigan State had better pieces
and more depth than Old miss. The question is does

(02:35:50):
Auburn have better pieces than Michigan State. I am not
saying they have more depth. I am saying they might
have better pieces. Michigan State's outside shooting in the NCAA
Tournament is basically in line with their season numbers. They're
not great, not horrible, but not great. They're shooting twenty

(02:36:12):
to sixty one from threes from three point the arc.
That's just under thirty three percent. Their free throw shoot
numbers are solid, they're seventy five percent and they get
to the line. Okay, they made nineteen of twenty two
free throws against Mississippi on Friday, and Michigan State does

(02:36:32):
I believe legitimately go ten deep. All right, But you've
got two superb, superb coaches, okay, in Bruce Perrow and
Tom Izel. But I'm always going to side with tom Izzo.

(02:36:52):
I get that the Spartans at times very much struggle
with Old miss and they had you know, the they're
relying on their freshman Jason Richardson, who is the son
of Jason Richardson, who was you know, a key cog
in tom Izzo's only championship in two thousand when they

(02:37:15):
beat a very good Florida team with Teddy Dupey and
Mike Miller and you Donnas Haslam. And you know, the
thing you have to watch here is Michigan State has
shown a great propensity to be able to rally from
second half deficits. Okay, they did it all year during

(02:37:37):
their run of the Big Ten regular season title, and
they did it in the tournament too. You saw they
had that they had a reasonable deficit to overcome against Mississippi,
this happens. Sometimes they start slow, but that's not about luck,
and that's about the Spartan's depth. They have a tremendous

(02:37:57):
physical style that wears down opponents, and they have a
Hall of fame coaching. Tom Is though that always seems
to me to manage in making the right in game adjustments. Now,
I certainly like the points which you can stay catching
five and a half, but I think Michigan State wins outright.

(02:38:19):
So I think the Houston Tennessee game was a toss up.
I think Michigan State wins outright. And of course, let's
not forget two teams have already secured a spot in
San Antonio for the Final four, and later on today
they'll find out who their semi final opponents are. And
it's you know, it's maybe not been a sensational tournament

(02:38:39):
because there's no, you know, not as many buzzer beaters,
maybe one I can count and certainly know Cindereo's, but
it's been some pretty damn good, high level, intense, competitive basketball.
And you're gonna see it in about eight hours here
between Houston and Tennessee, and in three hours after that
between Auburn and Michigan state. It's gonna do it for
the Bernie Fratterle Show. See it next Saturday at eleven pm. Meantime,

(02:39:01):
keep it locked up next to great Andy Furman, Fox
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