Buck & Fitz Talk NBA Playoffs, Derek Carr Retirement, Draymond Green, Browns QB Competition, and So Much More!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio. For the third
consecutive game, the Boston Celtics absolutely annihilated the New York Knicks.
The thing is, this time they managed to hold on
and turn that annihilation in to an actual win. And
now I see here more confident than ever that the

(00:23):
Celtics are gonna take this series and it's not even
gonna be that difficult. It's a it's a Fox Saturday.
It's not a Fox Football Saturday, but it's a Fox
Sports Saturday. Hanging out. He's Buck Rising, I'm Jason Fitz.
It's fucking fits hanging out with you, coming at you
live from the Fox Sports Radio studio. Buck sitting there,
you know, beautiful Connecticut with the weather shine in an
outdoor little patio area. Got my feet up watching this

(00:45):
NBA action, and I'm surrounded by Celtics fans, right, I'm
surrounded because it's I'm up in Connecticut. I'm surrounded by
Celtics fans everywhere. And I see them go up by
twenty and the first thing you hear the whole bar
do when it gets to a twenty point lead, as
you just hear this ugh, oh, this collective Oh, I
can't believe we're back here. I can't believe we're back
up by twenty. This never goes well. And all I

(01:06):
keep thinking is, you know how much it must suck
to be on the other side of this. Down by
twenty yet again, and this time they never relented. This time,
the Celtics hit everything from outside is Monsey just told
you and Buck the Celtics absolutely annihilate the Knicks. And
this is where I just got to remind the world loudly.
We've seen two incredible comebacks in the first two games,
and that's great, but if you really want to look

(01:28):
at what the game flow has been like, the Celtics
have kicked the snot out of the Knicks in every
single matchup and I don't see why that's not going
to continue. The Celtics are clearly the better team in
this series.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, until they have another shooting night like the last
two games fit Sie like that's all it takes. It's
not an annihilation if you are as absolutely frigid as
the Boston Celtics were from three in the first two
games of this series and you go on to squander
any opportunities or any level of dominance that you had
in those games. I vehemently disagree with you. I think

(02:03):
New York still very much has a dog in this fight.
And I think that the Boston Celtics fans are right
to be terrified when they're up twenty points, because again,
we have watched their team fall flat on its face,
in particular when it comes to making their threes. I
know this game is a great example of that. How
much better the talent ceiling is for Boston than it

(02:23):
is for New York. And we understand that Jason Tatum
being able to put together a night like tonight is
critical to their success. Derek quite obviously contributing from three.
It was just a well rounded performance from Boston. But
we haven't seen them play a well rounded game until tonight. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
But the counter to that, my friend, is very simple.
So the Celtics went out for the first two games
and they shot like you and I did in sixth
grade basketball. Like they shot terribly, like in that way
that like if you're in the gym, you're shooting so poorly,
you know you're never seeing the ball again. That's how
they shot in the first two games, right, And Jason
Tatum melted down like I keep hearing all of the

(03:00):
people tell me Jason Tatum is just to Kobe Bryant
and Paul George's I hear this NonStop, and I'm hearing older.
So you get the worst to Tatum, and you get
the worst of two shooting knights of the Celtics. And
you know what that got the Knicks. It got the
Knicks getting their asses kicked until they could claw their
way back in to get a desperation. Oh my god,
how do they do it? Win? So what we're really
saying here is if at the end of the day

(03:21):
the Celtics go out and completely poop the bed, then
there's a chance the Knicks can win a close game
like that. That's the real of what we're saying. That's
why I don't think there's any real chance of this. Yes,
I understand the Celtics shot poorly in those first two games,
but let's not get it twisted. They were still up
by twenty and they still barely lost. This series is
this series is over, the Celtics are and the Celtics

(03:42):
are taking it.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
What kind of nonsense to call a series over when
the team that you are declaring the series over in
favor of is still down to one and still has
to continue to play in New York. I mean, the
thing about the next is what the hell is wrong
with them that they can't just keep pace in these
first three quarters to avoid these twenty point deaths. It's
that they seem to amass. I think the lead at
one point got to as much as thirty one, if

(04:05):
I'm not mistaken in favor of Boston tonight, and to
still be in contention the way that they are, I
think it's a credit to the New York basketball team
and Tom Thibodeau and the staff that they've been able
to kind of just hang on and manage the situation
as best they can, even though they are clearly the
inferior team. And to your point, FITSI, the better team
in basketball almost always wins. It's just a matter of

(04:26):
time before you let that talent take over and widen
the gap between you and a team like the Knicks.
But I mean the adjustments that we're looking for the
next to make on offense, you're looking for far fewer
transition opportunities. Are looking at far fewer transition opportunities for them.
In particular tonight, you just have to see how New
York will handle the situation and try and move forward

(04:48):
as best they can, because it seems to me that
these teams are way more evenly matched than you want
to give them credit for, even though they look like such.
I mean it is. It's crazy to me how much
worse the next look in all three of these games
at any given point, and yet still they lead the
series to one.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, here's all right, he's Buck Rising. I'm Jason fitzber
hanging out your bucking fits hanging out on Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Also walk me through again, the Jason Tatum of Kobe
Bryants of Paul george Is what the hell did you say?

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Or so this is the thing in New England everyone
that keeps saying Jason Tatum is the Kobe Bryant of
Paul Georges. So like, you know, if you think of
what like you take the best of the best of
the middle of the road, like a star star. That's
what he is. Like it alarms me how much Celtics
fans already want to kick Tatum out the door, like
he is barely removed from winning them a championship, and

(05:41):
it's like, oh, the guy's are pulp like and look.
I was listening to sports stalk radio because I do
this because I love listening to it. Right, I was
listening to sports stalk radio after the first couple of losses,
and everybody says, oh, well, the Celtics need to change
up their offense, like they gotta change what they're doing.
And I'm listening to Missoula speak after Game two and
when they're asking him about it, He's like, why would
be change it? The looks were good. That's a part

(06:02):
of this that I think. The reason I have so
much confident in the Celtics is because it was never
that the Celtics were outplayed. It was never that the
Celtics couldn't get their shot. It was never that Celtics
couldn't get the looks that they wanted or find the
open man. Like, no, it was just the first two
games the Celtics couldn't hit anything. Now, I don't know
why they couldn't hit anything, but at some point, the

(06:22):
reason they're not changing what they do is because the
looks they were getting were the right looks for the
way the Celtics run their offense. Like all people like,
you can't shoot that many threes, Well, that's exactly what
they did tonight, and what do you know, they win
by a massive amount, right, because they are who they
are at this point, and who they are is a
bad matchup for the Knicks, Like you're talking about what
the Knicks need to do. What the Knicks need to

(06:43):
do is just hope to God that the Celtics can't
hit these wide open shots. That's not a path to this.
And I say the series is done because I ask
you this, my friend, if you had to, let's say,
Shay's house shape producer, Shay's doing God's work force, if
you had to bet Shay's house, I'm not gonna make
you bet your house. That's not uncomfortable enough. You bet
Shay's house on an outcome of this series right now,
which means every time you see Shay you gotta be like, sorry,

(07:05):
I lost your house and you're homeless. Man. If you
had to bet Shay's house today on an outcome in
this series, would you bet Shay's house on the Knicks
to win or the Celtics to win?

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Oh, obviously the Celtics, for the same reason that everybody
is betting on the Celtics, Because I mean, even Jason.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
Tatum about that shake out that I hate it no
matter what, but.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Bet in my house, I guess let's do it.

Speaker 4 (07:28):
Sorry Mom, Sorry mom, that on on Mother's Day Eve
of all nights, you're going to just just whittle away
the Shae family.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
This guy Bucky, he took the wrong It was a
bad bet. I'm sorry, Mom.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
But got some flowery, lovely car. Yeah, Rose in the back.
We got nowhere to drink.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
I got the bottom of venture. Doesn't look too bad.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Oh my god. That's yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
But I mean it's it's to your to your point, fancy.
And I understand. I understand the larger theme because Jason
Tatum was speaking to this tonight as well. He just
basically said it was only a matter of time, and
that's kind of how we feel about this series. But
I still can't help but think that the way that
the Knicks have performed, or at least have been able
to keep themselves in these games and survive in advance

(08:17):
to this point, again, there is still tons of basketball
to be played, doesn't at least give them a chance
and the confidence to play like they have been or
hope to God that the Celtics keep playing like they
have been prior to tonight as the defending NBA champions.
I just think that's kind of where New York basketball
fans are at right now.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
I get it. But this is also why what's stunning
you mentioned where fans are. It's stunning to me to
look at some of the images outside the garden and
listen to the way Knicks fans are chirping when they're
up to nothing, and they're chirping because they've come back.
And it's historic to see a team come back from
a twenty plus point deficit in consecutive games in the
NBA playoffs has never been done right. So it's historic

(08:56):
what we've seen. And in the process of watching that history,
what you forget is that essentially, you guys like I
say this all the time. If you are broke and
you go into the gas station and you scratch off
and suddenly you win a million dollars and that's how
you pay your bills, that's incredible. But if you're right
back there a month later, broke again and you're scratching
off the lottery ticket hoping to God that you win again,

(09:18):
that's not a method of how you're supposed to pay
your bills. And that's what the Knicks did in the
first two games. They they broke, they scratch off the
lottery tickets. They win two times. That's great. You don't
talk your talk when that's how you paid your mortgage twice.
Like you go in, you realize you got lucky twice.
And now you got to come in and at some point,
especially being in the Garden, you got to show that
you're not the team that's gonna trail by twenty points again.

(09:39):
And they didn't. They trailed by more than thirty this time.
Like that, nothing one changed for the next like they
got their tails whooped, and at some point that has
to mean something.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
And enough of the garden, I mean truly, enough of
the garden, enough of enough of Madison Square Garden. That
is not the competitive advantage that everybody wants to make it.
I understand that it has incredible historic but it is
not the kind of intimidating factor. And we can talk
about this at some point throughout the course of the show.
Obviously we have three hours here with you on Fox

(10:09):
Sports Radio tonight with Jason fitz and me, Buck Rising
and the rest of the crew back there in Los
Angeles making it happen. I am fascinated to see how
the conversation continues to develop around road teams in these
NBA Playoffs, especially what we've seen in the second round
so far.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah. Well, by the way, we're also going to be
covering another game going on tonight. We do have the
don't forget just because all the Stars maybe sideline for
this one. We do have Warriors and Timberwolves tonight for
the four people that care. But I can tell you
that you should always check out the best pregame show
every weekend. Be sure to tune into Fox Sports Radios
Countdown presented by Bett MGM every Saturday Sunday morning nine

(10:48):
am to noon Eastern that's six to nine am Pacific.
For you guys that don't like to do the math,
we couch you down to all the biggest games here
on the best pregame show in the business. Tune into
Countdown presented by Bett MGM every Saturday and Sunday morning
right here on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Buck just mentioned it. We'll get into it next coming up.
There is a wild trend in this year's NBA Playoffs

(11:10):
that impacts every single series. Nobody has an answer, and
maybe it raises questions about what we should do for
the future of the sport. We'll tell you about it next.
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason fitzbucking Fits, hanging out with
you on a Fox Sports Saturday. You're listening to Fox
Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Yes, indeed, welcome back to Fox Sports Radio on this Saturday.
He's Jason Fitz, the aforementioned pop tart. I'm Buck Rising,
and what if home court advantage in the NBA is
finally starting to lose its luster? FITSI it was a
shock when the Calves lost Game one at home to
my Indiana Pacers. It was a surprise when the Boston

(11:50):
Celtics lost to the New York Knicks a day later.
We're coming off a game between the Celtics and the
Knicks where the Celtics went in a Madison Square garden
and just absolutely thrashed the mighty New York next or
I don't know how mighty they're feeling today, and then
the Oklahoma City Thunder blew their series opener to the
Denver Nuggets. It's been a fascinating situation to watch play out,

(12:13):
and I've just come away feeling not just Madison Square
Garden because I'm an anti Madison Square Garden is an
advantage person. You know this about me. But playing at
home in the NBA, certainly in these playoffs, just doesn't
seem to mean what it used to. And I wonder
what you make of the trend or if you even
think it's a trend from what we're seeing in this

(12:35):
second round of these NBA playoffs.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
I mean, it's undeniable what we're seeing, right, we can't
twist that any way, shape or form. Like this is
wild to be watching it, But to me it actually
kind of makes sense, right because at some point I
understand home field advantage in Major League Baseball, for example,
I understand with every park being so wildly different. In fact,
I even understand it, particularly college football. The environments are

(13:00):
so different where the play clock is located at different
NFL stadiums have different light issues that come in, Like
I understand all of the reasons that it can become comfortable.
You know, our mutual friend Harry Douglas talked once about
losing a light in the ball in the lights just
the way that they're they're pointed in the super Dome, right,
Like I understand that when you have home field. You

(13:21):
get an understanding of that in the NCAA way.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
Too much time talking about the curtains of Jerry World
this year because Cedi Lamb couldn't see a touchdown reception one.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Thousand percent, right. But like, but in the NBA, every
one of these courts is the same, Like, how the
hell is there a home court? Like what you get
to that point, you get to the point where you're
making forty two million dollars this year to play basketball,
and you're gonna tell me that there's some adrenaline kick
that's hard to manage over people yelling at you from
a distance. I don't understand it. Like every NBA court
is the exact same, So I don't understand why there's

(13:52):
ever been some massive home court advantage. For all, they're
like hockey. In the NHL, it's a huge advantage to
have home ice because you get the second decision on
when to put your lines out, So there's a there's
an actual chess match strategic advantage to having a home
ice in the NHL. I can understand that all day.
I don't understand why there's ever been a home court

(14:13):
advantage in the NBA because frankly, these guys are used
to it at this point, Like, you can't tell me
that the Celtics walk into Madison Square Garden and they're
intimidated by Spike Lee.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Come on, you're not intimidated by Spike Lee.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
Nobody is at this point. My god.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
Well, it's just just it does seem to be a
bit of an extreme outlier this year, in particular, right
because I was reading a great piece on The Athletic
about this earlier. Today we're all four of the top
seeded teams in the playoffs playoffs lost game one at home,
and right now NBA teams are twenty six and twenty
four at home in the playoffs. It's the lowest playoff

(14:52):
winning percentage among home teams since nineteen eighty one. How
old were you in nineteen.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Eighty one, Now, let's not talk about I was four.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
I was four, Okay.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
Had your parents even started doing the hibbity dibity yet
in nineteen.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
Probably that's not a mental image I would like to
capture for the entire Fox Sports Radio audience. But I
suppose that was something. No, it took them about fourteen
years later before that was even a discussion, at least
as it pertains to me.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Okay, okay, well yeah I didn't. I'm just it's just
I'm just curious my.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Parents' sex life.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
Really appreciate that, Bud Well, you age shame and I'm
just gonna bring straight to the turn.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
The page aside, just a gut punch.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
So you're welcome. You're welcome. But here's the thing. Doesn't
this let me let me be even deeper, all right,
let me be metaphor meant it doesn't this only continue
to now create at least more perception around the regular
seasons completely meaningless. Like if home court doesn't really matter
and seeding doesn't really matter, and you know we're gonna

(16:01):
get to where we get no matter what happens in
this process, then why does anything matter? Like when we're
sitting here and everybody's crying about a load management game
in November, and again I think that's old man logic
and it doesn't matter. But like, if you want to
sit here and cry about, oh my god, this player
took a game off in November, who cares? Because the
only thing we ever want to judge players buyer championships apparently,

(16:23):
especially in the NBA. Anything less than that, and it
just suddenly means in this very black or white world,
they got to suck if they do want a ship, right, Like,
if you're Jason Tatum, Hell, you just won one and
your fans are already revolting that you're not good enough
now the following year. So what is the actual meaning
of a Tuesday night regular season game other than this
this concept we love to run out of. Yeah, but

(16:43):
little Jimmy went to the stadium, it didn't get to
see his favorite play. Life disappoints. Okay, that's what life does.
But at some point, if home court advantage doesn't actually
lead to more wins, and if seeding doesn't matter, and
if the only thing that does matter championships like this
year I think particularly is proving the entire regular season
of the NBA is just basically a glorified video game.

(17:05):
You do it for enjoyment, and then you move move
about the cabin.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, I would love if we could just sim through
the regular season and be completely honest with you the
way that some people do in video games.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
I love the idea of just starting the season, like,
all right, Memphis, we are giving you the option. You
may play the season or you may sim the season.
Say a will sim it, we will see you, and
it'll see in March.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Well, simming through the season, at least for Memphis would
at least avoid a jah Moran suspension or two that
he seems to pick up from time to time.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Even the computer knows that now you.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
Got it, you gotta factor it in. It's just a
part of the equation here. But I think the thing
really fitsy that's tipped the scales this way is simply
the evolutionary evolution of the game. I think the three
point shooting brings such a variable to these conversations as
we're coming off a game earlier between the Celtics and
the next where the Celtics just simply made their threes
and that's all it took to wipe the floor with

(17:54):
the New York Knicks after the two games previous where
they couldn't hit a shot from three at all. Whereas
in you know, back, if you go back through the
history of the NBA, before the prevalence of the three
point shot became so important to changing the math, it
just felt like you were grinding it out in two
point games that were decided much much more closely, and

(18:14):
that did seem to play a factor where I mean,
any team can get hot at any point in any venue,
and that completely upends the idea of home court advantage
where that started to wane, it feels to me. I
know it's come up a lot in these playoffs in particular,
but I would argue for the past ten years it's
just been a factor that way.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
Yeah, And I feel like, what are the variables, right?
So the variables officiating shouldn't be a variable. I don't
want the team to get all the calls because they're
on home court. Hell, I don't even want the perception
of officiating bias based on home court because that just
is an exhausting conversation that has nothing to do with
the players on the court. At this point, they they've

(18:55):
worked so diligently to make sure every single ball is
inflated and works the same way in everything. Like they're
even testing basketballs right now that will handle elevation differently, right,
So they're doing everything they can as a sport to
nullify any sort of difference in shooting. All the rims
are the same, All the arenas are basically built the same,
Like all of the locations for clocks and benches are

(19:17):
the same, like there's just nothing different. So I also,
this is just part of the process you said earlier,
and I think it's an important note here. The better
team usually wins in the NBA over the course of
a seven game series. I think it's interesting to me
that we use that as a reason at times to
sit here and say, well, the playoffs or you know,

(19:37):
it seems like the better team always like it's almost
like people are bored with it. But then when we
sit here and we see heavy favorites winning college football,
then it was like, oh, you know, no, we need
more chaos, right, Like, we can't decide whether we want
chaos or whether we want the best teams to win.
If you love a sport where the best team is
most likely to win a championship, I think you should
be all in on the way the NBA playoffs are

(19:58):
working this year. And that comes back to the fact
that the best team over the course of the regular
season doesn't mean anything. It's about who the best team
is right now as we sit. And that's why to
tie this all back to the outcome we've seen, Like
I don't believe that there's some big advantage to Madison
Square Garden moving forward. So it doesn't matter to me
that the Celtics lost their first two games at home.

(20:19):
I don't give a damn about that, because that doesn't
put them in some precarious hole. To me, I don't
look at this series any differently to nothing after two
games any of these series than I would if it
was to nothing the other way, because home court doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, And I think that's a great point by you,
and certainly that should be the approach that the Celtics
take and any of the teams that we consider are
considered to truly be title contenders at this point in time,
because in these playoffs, if that trend continues, then these
teams who we think to be clearly and obviously better
being down in their second round series, if home court

(20:56):
advantage is not a strength for them at all, that
it means that they can just as easily come back.
And I don't know if you want to call it
stealing it from their opponents, like I don't feel I
don't feel like the Boston Celtics stole one from the
Knicks tonight, right, nobody does, because the Boston Celtics went
out there and just kicked the Knicks ass up and
down the court at Madison Square Garden. So it just

(21:17):
it's the equalization of what we believe to be happening.
It's just taken a bit of a different flavor than
I think we're used to seeing, specifically in the postseason.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
Yeah, you're not wrong, by the way. I would just say,
every once in a while, like my big brother usually
just kicked the snot out of me when I was
a kid, Every once in a while, i'd get a win.
Every once in a while, i'd get get one on
him like he wasn't paying attention, and I come run
into the room and hit him in the head with
the Tonka truck. Like every once in a while, I
would get that. But let me tell you something, eventually
it all normalized and I would pay for those beatings.

(21:49):
That's what happened today, Like the Celtics made the Knicks
pay for all of the conversation that's been happening. That's
not the only MBA action. We're going to get some
updates on what else is going on right now. Plus
after we the update, some shocking news in the NFL
that has ripple effects that will impact the entire NFC
we'll tell you about that next, but first, Mancie Belanio's
gotta get you caught up on what's going on. What's

(22:09):
going on, Mansie?

Speaker 5 (22:10):
What's up? Guys.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
We're back by popular demand. Here we are on a Saturday.

Speaker 5 (22:15):
We'll start with the game that's gonna tip off in
about ten minutes or so. It's Game three between the
Warriors and the Timberwolves. Golden State leads this series two
to one. According to Shams of ESPN, Warriors believe, like
it's not official, but Warriors believe that the earliest potential
game for Steph Curry to return from that hamstring injury
is Game six. That is what they believe internally. Obviously,

(22:39):
there's no real history to go based off of Curry's
injury because he's never had a hamstring injury, so they
actually just don't know. He's getting a lot of treatment.
But the earliest game they think is gonna be Game six.
So yeah, tip off isn't about ten minutes or so.
The Celtics, well, their slump is over. They get their
first one of the series after outscoring the Knicks at
Madison Square Garden one fifteen to ninety three. Boston Games

(23:02):
one and two was twenty five of one hundred from
the three in this game that were twenty of forty,
Jason Tatum hitting five of them, Peyton Pritchard hitting five
of them. In fact, Pritchard led Boston with twenty three points.
Jalen Brunson had twenty seven points in the loss, and
Mitchell Robinson was four of twelve from the free throw line.
But we'll talk about that another day. In the NHL,
we've got Game three between the Capitals and the Hurricanes.

(23:24):
That series is tied at one apiece. Hurricanes are up
though three zero, seven minutes to go in the third period.
Coming up on the ice at nine Eastern. Game three
between the Golden Knights and the Oilers. Edmonton leads that
series to zero. In baseball, full slate of games, we've
got the Phillies just crushing the Guardian seven zero. Top
of the ninth inning, Bryce Harper with the two run shot.
The Rangers have hit five homers, maybe six because they've

(23:47):
added another run, but Corey Seeer has hit two of them,
so they're beating the Tigers eight to two. Bottom of
the eighth inning. The Red Sox with the four to
one lead over the Royals bottom of the fifth. Royals
have won seven in a row, Reds and Astros Cincinnati
up twelve to seven, top of the fourth inning. It
all started with a three run shot from Elie de
la Cruz, White Sox beating the Marlins one zero. Top
of the sixth inning, Cubs edging the Mets for to three.

(24:09):
Bottom up the fourth, Twins with a two to one
lead over the Giants. Bottom of the sixth about to start.
Padres had the bases loaded in the first inning, and
they're beating the Rockies five zero after the first Dodgers
in Diamondbacks scoreless bottom.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
Of the second.

Speaker 5 (24:22):
And even though Aaron Judge hit two homers earlier today
for the Yankees, he leads major League Baseball with fourteen.
The Yankees did lose to the A's eleven to seven,
and the Braves beat the Pirates three to two and
eleven innings and two days into his job, Don Kelly
gets ejected as a Pirates manager, So not too shabby
back to you guys.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
He's probably happy he doesn't have to watch the rest
of that h.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
That's a mercy ejection at this point in time for
his all.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
A sudden I love the idea of just going out
and be like, yeah, you know what, we'll see you tomorrow. Guys.
We're just gonna hit the shower. So thanks, Monty, appreciate
you as always. By the way, Anthony Edwards to Wolves
coach Chris Finch, hopefully as close to full go as
you can be in Game three coming off the spring
left ankle, which I don't know, man, that's a little

(25:09):
Peter Griffin for me. I'm just gonna be honest with you,
Like you know, Peter Griffin stubs his toe and he
just lays there for like an hour on the ground
going and then right Anthony Edwards like he was laying
on the floor forever, like it was just like he
had just seen Jesus, like it was all coming to
a close, and now he's gonna be as close to

(25:30):
full go as you can be in Game three, Buck.
But I will also say, for the sake of you
and I being live on air for the course of
this basketball game, I'm just very glad he's playing because
without him that game, I mean, let's just be honest,
Minnesota Golden State isn't moving the needle much without the
two biggest stars that they could possibly give us well.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
And the thing, I mean, did you happen to catch
what Charles Barkley said after the fact. No, he very
much called out Anthony Edwards on what he believed to
have been an exaggeration of that injury. And I'm looking
at the quote here quote this is Paul Pierce, like
right here. The only thing he was missing was the wheelchair.

(26:10):
Now we know that there was something also famously associated
with the wheelchair situation for Paul Pierce. But that's a
pretty stinging indictment from a Hall of Famer of an
ascending Yeah, I mean he's not ascending. He has arrived.
He is an incredible star in the sport of the NBA.
But I thought that was pretty stinging commentary from Sir
Charles there.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, a twenty three year old beast of a player.
I mean, just remember he's twenty three years I looked
us up today and I was like, my god, I
cannot believe he's only twenty three years old. Also, the
Vegas Golden Knight's playing tonight. That'll be significant for me
only because I love that team and the absolutely broke
my heart in Game two with the overtime lost to Edmonton.
So that that doesn't feel good, Buck, but also broken

(26:52):
hearts today. I think for New Orleans Saints fans, he's
bucking Jason fitz By the way, you don't think so, Okay,
I don't think so at all.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Have you been on Twitter today? It's like, I mean,
respectfully to Derek Carr, who we are getting ready to
talk about and who is retired from his NFL career
after I believe eleven seasons, there seemed to be much more.
I would almost hesitate to call it celebration that the
Saints are not going to have Derek Carr at quarterback

(27:20):
as opposed to the opposite now. I have no idea
what the Tyler Shuck experience is going to bear out
for them, or if it's going to be anything remotely better.
The Saints are such a weird franchise and this story
is one of the most bizarre things I've honestly ever
seen in my time, coming up on a decade covering
the NFL retiring after eleven seasons, and I think Tom

(27:42):
Pellisero and Mike Garrifola were the first to put it
out from NFL Network. What did you make of? Though?
I guess what do you make of the situation first
and foremost, and then we can talk about the way
that the Saints are handling this entire thing before we
hear from Kellen Moore, the Saints coach.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
Look, I think part of this has to be stunning
because of the time and the timing is really the
biggest key to this. And look, every grown adult that
plays a sport has the right to pick and choose
when they don't want to play that sport anymore. I'm
not here to tell somebody when they can and can't
retire from the NFL. I'm certainly not. The timing, though,

(28:16):
has to at least be part of the context and
conversation around doing this right now, because Kella Moore becomes coach,
and then all of a sudden we hear the well,
the Saints didn't think he needed shoulder surgery, but he
thinks he needs shoulder surgery, he might miss the year,
Maybe things are contentious behind the scenes, and all of
a sudden, now post draft, you get this moment where
he's decided he's stepping away. And I think post draft

(28:39):
is significant. Now. I will tell you I've talked to
people that were confident even leading up to the draft
that Tyler Schuck was the preferred quarterback for the New
Orleans Saints, far above somebody like Chador for example. That
Tyler Schuck was the guy that they wanted. That's been
made abundantly clear to me. So I'm confident saying they
still got the guy they wanted, But you can't tell

(29:00):
me that they wouldn't rethink some of their strategy. For example,
is it if you know that you don't have Derek Carr,
do you do more homework on the thought of possibly
trading up for cam Ward knowing that the Titans seem
to at least leave that door open for a little while.
Are you more aggressive in the free agent market leading
up to it? Does it change the way you approach
for example, Sam Darnold, Does it change whether you become

(29:21):
involved in the Geno Smith conversation? Like all of these
things could have happened, but by waiting until post draft
and post free agency to do this, essentially Derek Carr
backs the team into a corner where now where they
didn't have any other options before, now they're stuck with
nothing viable looking forward to a season that looks like
it's going to be lost in New Orleans. So I

(29:42):
think the timing of this has to be criticized, even
if he has the right to make the decision to
step away from the game.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
And I think that's a completely fair criticism because of
how weird the ramp up or the lead up to
this thing was. Right. I mean, you discover and again
this is all according to him. We have no access
to his medical records or anything that so we had
no idea how it came about that. They actually discovered
this injury in late March while they're getting ready for

(30:08):
things like voluntary work and rookie mini camps all over
the NFL this weekend, and it was a huge blow
for them because it marked the first significant throwing session
for him since he had that left hand injury, and
he had a concussion last year that knocked him out
of the lineup. So they discover this thing in late
March and then it drags out the way that it does.

(30:29):
They go through the draft, they take the quarterback. Obviously
it would it would have affected their strategy had they
known that. Derek Carr's plan was probably just to hang
it up at this point in time. The surgical option,
it sounded like he explored a variety of different options,
whether it was a different kind of injections, rehabilitation surgery,

(30:49):
was obviously going to knock him out for the entire
twenty twenty five season, or had the most likely scenario
to knock him out for the entire season, And in fact,
Shay can we hear from Kellen Moore on this in
particular because the new Saints head coach former Eagles offensive
coordinator did speak on Derek Carr's the retirement today and spoke,

(31:10):
you know, very complimentary, but it's still a difficult position
to put a coach in and an organization, and especially
when you're a coach coming in for your first year
on the job. This was Kellen Moore earlier today.

Speaker 6 (31:20):
Yeah, obviously, uh, you know, as we've gone through this
whole off season, you know, Derek, Derek's had to go
through a lot, just as you go through this process,
and you know, obviously making the decision ultimately to retire
from the National Football League after eleven year career. I mean,
first of all, you respect and appreciate so much that
Derek's done in this league and for the way he's
done it, the the the on the field performance, the

(31:43):
off the field person that he's he's showcased, and the
impact he's had on so many people in this in
this profession is is really really special. And so certainly,
you know, coming here, I've always had so much respect
and appreciation for him, and you know, as we've gone
through this process, obviously this is this is how it
kind of ultimately was was set. It was really good
communication through the whole process as far as navigating this again,

(32:05):
you know, challenging circumstances with him being injured at the
end of the year and then just kind of navigating
things throughout the whole off season process, and so you know,
I think, you know, Derek, the people that are part
of his life have communicated really well. With the Saints,
I think there's been really good communication. So you know,
we feel like it was done the right way.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
He's speaking to so much of the communication right there,
and that may speak to some of what we just
talked about. Maybe the Saints had a sense that this
was coming, but it certainly leaves the team in a
difficult situation. Now a lot of Saints fans are going
to sit here and tell you, hey, don't worry about it.
We're going to turn this around and We're going to
just stink this year, and by stinking, we're going to

(32:47):
be just fine. Coming up, We're going to tell you
why I think that's a failed logic. You may think
that your favorite team can just suck to a quarterback
next year, but it's not going to be that simple.
We'll tell you why next. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason
Fitzberghan out on.

Speaker 7 (33:00):
Fox Sports Radio. 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. He's Buck Rising on Jason Fitz.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
It's Bucking Fits on Fox Sports Saturday, coming at you
from the Fox Sports Radio studios. Be sure to check
out Fox Sports Radio's YouTube channel. It's a ton of
great videos from many of our Fox Sports Radio shows.
Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube. You'll see a
whole lot of video highlights from our shows. Be sure
to subscribe so you always have instant access to our
Fox Sports Radio videos on YouTube. We've been breaking down

(33:39):
a lot of the NBA playoffs and obviously a statement
win today by the Celtics. We've got action going on
right now between Golden State, Minnesota. We'll keep you updated
on all of that. But another key piece of news
today was the retirement of Derek Carr, which hit many
people sort of out of left field. And what I
see on social media so often in these situations, and
I've seen a bunch of it now is Saints fans

(33:59):
coming in and saying this is great because we're gonna
be terrible this year and we'll go get a quarterback
next year. Buck, I hate every answer this logic. There's
a couple of points why. Number One, I don't know
how you can assure yourself that you will outsuck the
rest of the league. Like if you look this year,
the number of teams that had double digit losses was
staggering me as a Raiders fan. With four weeks left

(34:21):
and the season looked like the Raiders had the number
one overall pick. In fact, going into the last week
of the season, were it not for the Patriots. The Patriots,
Joe Milton goes out there, not even a Patriot anymore,
beats the Bills, who essentially play their backups, and all
of a sudden, the entire draft order changes, Like you
can't guarantee you're gonna outsuck and then everyone says, well,
I'm gonna suck for Arch Manning. What if Arch decides

(34:44):
to come back, What if Arch doesn't have a great
year like we've barely seen Arch play. I think all
of this logic is so flawed because you don't control
how it's all gonna play out.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
And I think New Orleans would be so cognizant of that,
given what just went down to your point about Spencer
Rattler being on that roster, a guy who at one
time in his collegiate career was considered to be the
consensus number one overall pick, then gets benched at Oklahoma,

(35:15):
then has to transfer to South Carolina, ends up being
a fifth round pick of the New Orleans Saints. Then
you know, he comes in after Carr gets hurt, he
gets benched. Then Jay Hayner goes in, he gets benched.
It's just an unholy mess. You have no idea how
this entire college football season is going to play out,
so to put all of your eggs in one basket
as a fan base that way, it completely ignores the

(35:37):
nature of the sport, which we think we know what's
going to happen on a weekly basis. In the NFL,
and we have no earthly idea whether the Buffalo Bills
are going to decide to play any defense whatsoever against
Joe Milton in Week eighteen, because of course, the Bills
don't want the Patriots to have the number one overall
draft pick. So okay, let Joe go out there and
look better than he ever did at the University of
Tennessee and fool Jerry Jones into giving up a fifth

(35:59):
round pick for a guy who probably is not going
to be anything beyond a very fun developmental type of
backup quarterback type of player at this point in time. Hell,
as somebody who covers I'm sitting in here in Nashville.
I know you're at your place in Connecticut, and obviously
Fox Sports Radio coming out of LA so we're all
over the place here as a show. But I'm here

(36:20):
in Nashville covering cam Ward at rookie mini camp. There's
a world in which cam Ward never ends up on
the Tennessee Titans because of exactly the kind of situation
that you laid out. I had no idea whether this
team or the team that I cover was going to
end up with the number one overall draft pick until
we saw one the Titans lose to the Texans in
week eighteen two. They needed Joe Milton to go out
there and beat the Buffalo Bills, and there were still

(36:41):
a couple of other things I think that needed to
happen beyond that for the Titans to secure the number
one overall pick. It's a total crapshoot.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
And then everybody sits here and says, arch arch Arch, Now, look,
we all want to believe in but the romantics of.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
That another manning in New Orleans. Come on, Fitzy, you
know why that's happening.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
But here's the thing, Like I tend to believe that
Steve Sarkisian is not stupid. I just tend to believe
that he's a respected coach. Maybe you don't love Texas football,
but he's at least a respected offensive mind from most
other people. So somebody needs to explain to me why
going into the college football playoff. There were a couple
of different times late in the season and in the playoffs,

(37:21):
where it was abundantly clear, particularly with some of the
offensive line issues that Texas was having, that they needed
more mobility at the quarterback positioning. Quinn couldn't give them
to him. Quin Ewers couldn't give that to But did
Arch get the chance in those situations? No, not the
way anyone any of us expected. So you have Sark
here sitting with quinn Ewers, who, by the way, last

(37:41):
time I checked, was not a top ten draft pick
in this year's draft, but he managed to keep Arch
Manning on the bench all year. I don't know if
that's a statement, but I don't know if it's not
a statement, Like there's just a part of me that
sits there and says, I refuse to believe that. Sark
looked at it and said, well, my loyalty to quinn
Ewers because he's seen a lot of football, means I'm
willing to know up with the better player on the
field for this situation. Like they just didn't give Arch

(38:04):
even the group of special plays that we expected at
some point. That means something to me, like we're just
anoying Arch Manning, like he's gonna be his dad when
the fact is he has sat on the bench, he
hasn't been able to get any real meaningful snaps for
any sustained amount of time.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
Who the hell knows, Oh, you better hope he's not
like his dad, Cooper, I assume you mean like his uncles.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
Sorry uncle, not as sorry about that, but I.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Mean that's does that not seem And I'm obviously in
the heart of sec country down here in Nashville, Tennessee.
The doesn't it seem like we do that in college
football or as a draft consuming society in the NFL
each and every year where we annoint a player as
the consensus number one overall pick. Hell, if I'm not mistaken,
there was that kind of conversation around Carson Beck prior

(38:52):
to last college football season taking place, and we all
and you know, Georgia had wide receiver issues and Carson
Beck obviously did not perform up to expectation. So there's
a couple context matters, is my point. But we go
through this every year. When are we as a society
going to learn that you have to let these things
play out before you can have these kind of conversations.

(39:12):
And I know that there's always going to be the
level of intrigue around preseason odds and who's going to
be the Heisman Trophy winner and how those things actually
play out throughout the course of it. But this has
red flags all over it. To me.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
Yeah, absolutely, We're gonna get you caught up on the
latest updates from the NBA. We'll do that next. He's
Buck Rising on Jason Fitz buckin Fits on Fox Sports Radio.
It's been a statement day in the NBA, a statement
day for the Boston Celtics as they absolutely take the
knicks behind the woodshed and slap them around at Madison

(39:48):
Square Garden to finally get their first win in this series.
And now could a statement be made by the Minnesota
Timberwolves who are up on Golden State. But statements have
already been made by Draymond Green that have me fired
up even still tonight. He's buck Rising on Jason Fitz.

(40:08):
We're hanging out with you, bucking Fitz, coming at you
live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. Buck, I heard
something the other day that made me mad. Now, I
understand polarizing people, and Draymond is at some point polarizing.
I understand difficult conversations, and I always acknowledge when we

(40:29):
have difficult conversations. In general, I acknowledge who I am,
where I'm from, and why my perspective may be different
than other people's perspectives. I think it's important anytime we
have nuanced conversations, especially when Draymond comes out and says
some things that have people fired up. I think it's
important to acknowledge, Hey, I'm a middle aged white dude,
right like, so I want to acknowledge I'm a middle
aged white dude having this conversation because it's not an

(40:52):
easy conversation to have.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Buck.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Before we get into it, I want you to hear
a little bit of what Draymond said. The world heard
this after the game. His emotions were running high. Obviously,
Golden State and Draymond gets it technical and everybody looks
at Raymond and the way he plays the game certain
kind of way, and obviously people have their opinions on Draymond.
He is tired of those opinions, and he made it

(41:14):
clear this was all he had to say to the
reporters after the game, after the game the other night,
particularly about the way the media perceives him.

Speaker 8 (41:24):
Check it out, it looked like the angry black man.
I'm not an angry black man. I'm a very successful,
educated black man with a great family, and I'm great
at basketball. I'm great at what I do to the
a gender to try to keep making me look like.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
An angry black man is crazy. I'm sick of it.
Is ridiculous. Oh man, So additional context to what's happened here,
because I would like to let FITZI react to this. First,
there was some racially charged comments made towards him by

(42:00):
Minnesota Timberwolves fans during the game. In fact, the team
put out a statement on at least one fan being
ejected quote. During the fourth quarter of last night's game
against the Warriors, a fan was ejected by Target Center
security for violating the NBA Fan Code of Conduct in
an incident involving Draymond Green. A second individual who was
identified by surrounding patrons as making racially charged comments towards Green,

(42:23):
left on his own before arena security could confirm his identity.
The team is continuing to investigate an additional action may
be taken, And then the Timberwolves go on to cite
their commitment to fostering an inclusive, respectful, and safe environment
and all of these kinds of things, which are of
course important, important and disgusting behavior by the fans. But
what Draymond is doing there is he's accusing the media

(42:45):
of painting him a certain kind of way. And that
is where I, as somebody who covers professional athletes on
a daily basis, who works in locker rooms, who does
the best job I can humanly possible to get too. Oh,
the people beyond just the player as a product of
being tasked with telling their stories. I just think Draymond

(43:07):
is very off base on what he is trying to project.
He is coming into this with his own agenda and
painting it as if there is an agenda against him,
and a lot of this offency to me and I'll
let you. I'll let you have the floor after this.
It's there's a lot of self inflicted wounds here with
Draymond Green that we're working through.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
Yeah, So, first and foremost, anybody that says something racially
charged a sporting event to an athlete deserves to lose
their right to go to that sporting event ever again.
And if you are a garbage human being and you
act like a garbage human being, then you deserve the
punishment that comes with being a garbage human being. I
want to say that loudly now. When Draymond says he

(43:48):
is an educated man, he is and he knows what
he's doing. When he has these conversations when he says
he's being portrayed a certain way, because what it does
is it creates more dialogue around how he's tree. And
I've seen some of my former coworkers at ESPN speak
loudly about this over and over and over again. This
is the thing that bothers me. Draymond's actions make him

(44:09):
seem like an angry man. That's it, just an angry man.
And that's the part of this context. Like you know,
I was lucky enough in my country music touring days
before I was before the band that I was ever in,
before the band Perry, when I was in a band
that nobody ever heard of. We opened for Kenny Rogers
for a while, and I don't know that I ever
learned more just sitting backstage from anybody in music than

(44:30):
I did from Kenny Rodgers. The man truly taught so
much like he took it. He took everybody that ever
toured with him under his wing. And one thing he
said to us, because at that time, if I'm being
really honest and really transparent, that band was partying way
too hard. We were just we were getting after it
in life, right. And I remember Kenny sitting down and said, Remember,
everybody says perception is reality, that's not the full scope

(44:52):
of it. You have to understand that perception is the
only reality that really matters because you helped create it
and now you live in it. You have to take
the ownership of what you helped create in the way
you were perceived, because now you have to live in
it every day. And I think about that that in
this situation, because when you say that you're being painted
a certain way, it assumes that you're being painted a

(45:13):
certain way unfairly. Draymond's actions are the reason that Draymond
is being perceived the way he's being perceived today. That's
what bothers me Buck like it is. It's his actions
on the court, it's his tone, it's the way that
he conveys himself. That is the reason that these conversations happen.
He is perceived as an angry man that happens to
be black, not an angry black man. And there's a

(45:34):
there's a substantial difference to me in the verbiage used
and the order of those words, because it matters to
how he's perceived.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
Yeah, And the thing that I think he conveniently ignores
in the middle of that, again, an emotional response. Anybody
would react emotionally if they were being harassed the way
that I'm sure dre it's certainly not the first time
Draymond's had to deal with that, and at any point
those things can roil over and come up in ways
that are less than flattering. But the whole reason that

(46:03):
Draymond was in this situation is because he picked up
a TECH because he hit nos Reed in a face
after he got after nos Reed fouled Draymond Green. It's
his fifth technical foul in nine playoff games. If he
gets two more techs, he's up for a suspension. Again,
Like we've been through this with Draymond Green. This is
who he is as a player. He is emotional, is

(46:27):
he is aggressive, He is all of the things that
make him one of the primary driving engines of one
of the greatest championship caliber franchises that we've seen in
the NBA in modern history. He has a unique quality
to him that helps that team when it needs to,
but it also hurts that team when these things arise

(46:50):
and they have to work their way through it. And
they have deemed him, you know, throughout the course of
his career, and I know he's had some moments where
he looks like the Draymond Green of old. That's been
few and far between, though at this again, at this
stage of his career, I just don't I don't agree
with him on the idea that he is being painted
a certain kind of way, or at least through the

(47:11):
context that he is describing as you're saying, as an
angry man first and foremost, regardless of color in this situation.
And I think when you start to work race into
these things, or when you force race into these things,
you move away from the point of what we should
be talking about, which is first and foremost the behavior

(47:33):
of the fan, the way that those things are going
to be handled, the way that those things are completely
unacceptable in any way, shape or form to your point,
the basketball second, and then Draymond Green's behavior third, he
just so often finds a way to distract attention from
what the actual story is around him. And that's I think.

(47:55):
I think it's a classic case of what he's doing
here intentionally or not fancy, I don't know. You know,
we can't speak for him and these emotions in real time.
So maybe he gets up there and says, you know what,
I got a little ahead of myself. I know that's
not really Draymond style to get up there, and he's say, ah, yeah,
I got a little carried away in the moment. That's
not who he's been in his career or in his life,
and that's probably not who he's gonna be. But I

(48:17):
just I think that it completely distracts from what the
actual story is.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
He's buck rising. I'm Jason fitz bucking fits on Fox
Sports Radio. So I'll say this, and I'll say this bluntly.
I think JJ Reddick is a jerk, and I don't
think JJ Reddick acts like a jerk a press conferences.
I think JJ Reddick is a jerk. I had the
opportunity to work with him at ESPN. I've said this
for a long time, Like when you do first Take,
for example, when you're on the show First Take, you

(48:45):
go into a production meeting early in the morning, and
in that production meeting they run every single topic by you.
How do you feel about this? How do you feel
about this? The first time I did it, I did
it with Damian Woody, for example, and every time they
would go to Woody with the topic, he didn't like
what he was like, I don't really have anything to
say about that. I don't like that topic. And every
single time the producers would come in and say, Okay,
we've got a whole laundry list of topics. Well, let's

(49:06):
find something you're hot about. So the first time I
watched JJ Reddick sit on first take and say this
topic is stupid and I don't know why we're talking
about it. What JJ was doing right there was he
was poo pooing all over everybody that works behind the
scenes at ESPN that works really hard to put that
show together, people that frankly have roommates because they don't

(49:26):
make enough money to actually live on their own in
Connecticut while they bust their butts trying to rise at ESPN.
And those are the people that get yelled at by
their bosses because, oh my god, the show just got
trashed on air by one of the talent. How does
this happen? JJ didn't care about that. JJ cared about
looking like he was anti establishment and being cooler than
everybody else, and doing it in a way that really

(49:48):
degraded the hard work of a lot of people that
work their tails off on a show that even if
you don't like it, they work their tails off on it.
To me, that was a level of disrespect I have
never seen, ever seen from somebody on air. To sit
on air after you were in the production meeting and
then say that the topic is stupid is a jerk move.
So I believe JJ Reddick is a jerk. I don't

(50:08):
believe JJ Reddick is a jerk because he went to Duke.
I don't believe JJ Reddick is a jerk because he's
the coach of the Lakers. I believe JJ Reddick is
a jerk because multiple times I've seen his actions up
close and personal and it has made him a jerk
to me. So I don't want to have to qualify
whether or not JJ Reddick is a jerk when we
have these conversations about players, coaches, media people, When we

(50:31):
have these conversations about the people that just are polarizing,
I want us to be able to have the conversation
simply based on their actions. And it bothers me that
we're not allowed to have that conversation now with Draymond
because he's couched it under a race conversation that is
far deeper, far heavier, far more involved than anything that
has to do with him stepping on a player on

(50:52):
a basketball court.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
And to your point, like there's you and I are
are in a difficult position to talk about this because
neither of us are black and trying to speak on
behalf or speak talk through a topic like this where
race has been clearly pushed to the forefront, even though
it from my perspective, I don't think it has any

(51:15):
real business here. We may get some responses from fans
on social media that say something else or accuse us
of ignoring the facts that are clear and obvious to
them but not clear and obvious to us. So I
want to make sure that we acknowledge the blind spots
that we may or may not have. But I think
you articulated that as well as could be done. It

(51:36):
could possibly be done, because there are so many other
things that are more important than the conversation that has
been thrust upon everybody just because he happened to mention race,
and that's the disappointing part of it.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
Absolutely, you can stream this show and all of our
Fox Sports Radio shows live twenty four to seven and
the new and improved iHeartRadio app. Just search Fox Sports
Radio in the app to stream us live. One of
the newest features in the app. You love this, You
can select Fox Sports Radio is one of your presets,
just like the presets on a radio dial. So be
sure to preset Fox Sports Radio in the iHeartRadio app

(52:09):
and it will always pop up at the top of
your screen. We're gonna get you caught up coming up
on the NBA action going on right now. Plus something
has happened right now that I never thought would happen.
Baseball has absolutely decimated the NFL. We'll tell you about
it next. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz bucking fits
on Fox Sports Radio. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz

(52:30):
hanging out with you. Minnesota up on Golden State by six,
and of course the slacking. I don't think I can
overstate how much of a butt hoping we saw today
from the Celtics, who decided this time to play an
entire game. It's a novel concept. Do they get to
win to narrow their gap down two games to one

(52:50):
now in their series against the Knicks. We're gonna get
some insight on that and all things NBA playoffs. Mark
Medina joining us now I always appreciate your time. Mark,
thanks for hanging out. I feel like we're all old
friends now because every time Buck and I are together,
you graciously give us some time, which which we appreciate.
So I'm going to throw you right in the middle
of the fire because I started today by saying the
Celtics are clearly dominant in this series. They've clearly just

(53:13):
whooped the snot out of the Knicks in every game
minus a few minutes of action, and they are clearly
the favorite moving forward. Buck says, I've gone too far.
Where where do you fall on the way this series
is played out?

Speaker 9 (53:25):
Well, I'm somewhere in between. As I was listening in
on your segments just a few seconds ago, I was
chuckling because your commentary on you know what a concept
what happens when the Celics actually try it reminded me
a few years ago when Greg Popovic, you know, the
the legendary Spurs coach, was talking about, you know, the
notion of importance of adjustments in between each playoff series

(53:48):
and he was like, yeah, how about just give a
day I'm gonna try. That's that's your adjustment. So that's
the main thing I mean the Celtics have shown that
when they put a full forty eight and they're engage in,
locked in, they can be unstoppable. And I think that
that is what we saw in the first two games,
and that was a costly thing because the Knicks are

(54:09):
actually a respectable team. They are a team that has
star player and depth, and they work hard and they're smart,
and so you know, a twenty game lead or a
twenty point lead is not safe. So moving forward, the
Knicks are still in the series. They're still in control
the series because they're up to one. So it's not guaranteed,

(54:29):
but if Jason Tatum plays the way he's supposed to
be playing, same thing with Jalen Brown and their supporting cast,
they should be able to win this series.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
At Mark g Underscore Madinas, of course, where you can
follow the great Mark Medina here with us talking a
little bit about the NBA playoffs and Mark, that's just
that's kind of how it feels, right, an almost inevitability
to your point about we know what the balt Boston
Celtics are, we know what they've been all season long.
We know that the defending champions, and we know that
their talent sailing is infinitely higher than the New York Knicks,

(55:00):
even though New York puts themselves in positions to take
advantage of when Boston has had some of these slumpsons,
some of these poor shooting nights at this point in time.
But it it just seems to me, in particular, that
one the impact of home court advantage in these NBA
playoffs so far has been nonexistent, and that we are
going to end up talking about the Celtics advancing no

(55:21):
matter how many games it takes to get there.

Speaker 9 (55:24):
Yeah, I mean, it's very interesting with these playoffs and
all the upsets. I think it shows that there's not
a predominant force. Obviously, injuries play a factory. I think
most notably when you're looking at the Cleveland Cavaliers series
against the Pacers. I mean, you can't discount injuries to
Evan Mowboy and Darius Garrow and DeAndre Hunter. Those are
game changing type injuries that play the factor in the series.

(55:46):
But I think when we're looking at the Celtics here, Yes,
to your point, I think they wind up winning this series.
But this is not like one of those things where
it's a top seed against an eighth seed in the
first round and they're just bored and so nowable door
going to win because again, New York is a respectable team,
and I think if it wasn't for the depth continuity

(56:09):
that Boston and Cleveland had, they would be a team
that would have a chance to contend for a title.
And then I think the second thing is there's always
dangers when you play around with the series because of
injuries and things like that, and they've already encountered that
with Chris Zingis being limited because of an illness that
he's been having. So what I'm getting at is that

(56:31):
the Celtics should win. I think they will win, but
nothing is fully guaranteed. I think that's why you know
the first two games were disappointing because they had twenty
eight point leads. They could have easily put that away.
Jason Tatum did not shoot the ball well, and so
even when you put into account that, you know the
Knicks have a resilient team. Jalen Brunson is a clutch

(56:53):
player and their best player. The Celtics had enough talent
to be able to make this an easy series.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
So Mark, why is home court advantage useless this year?

Speaker 2 (57:04):
In the playoffs.

Speaker 9 (57:07):
I think, you know, let's separate the Cleveland part because
I think that had to do with injuries. I think
the rest of the series it has to do with
the fact that there's not a dominant team right now.
And now when you're looking at the higher seeded teams
and the lower seeded teams, you're having a mix of
teams that have veteran players and experience and then some
that are young, up and coming, and you don't know

(57:30):
which team is for real. You know what it'll take.
Houston and Golden State. For example, Houston seemed on paper
to be the better team because they were one of
the best defensive teams in the league. You know, they
have veteran players around their young guys. But Golden State
was still healthy outside the Jimmy Butler fall, and they
have championship equity. You look at the Lakers and the Wolves,

(57:52):
you flip that around. The Lakers had a number of
injuries and the Wolves are a respectable team. And so
what I'm getting at is I think that there's been
this overlapping narratives of young teams, old teams, no one
being really dominant right now, and because of that, you
can really flip a coin on how the series is

(58:13):
going to turn out. And again that's with exception to
Cleveland against Indiana, because as we saw with Cleveland against Miami,
they steamrolled them. And I think if Cleveland was fully healthy,
this wouldn't be as a competitive series against the Pacers.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
Well, and I think Mark just paying attention to what's
happening in this series between Minnesota and Golden State. As
Minnesota continues to further their lead to leading Golden State
right now by about ten in the second quarter, the
injury factor of Steph Curry potentially not being available or
having to wait until Game six, it seems, according to

(58:49):
the most recent reports, to be able to work his
way back from that hamstring injury. I just don't see.
I mean, from my perspective, I'd love to know what
you feel about it. I just don't think there's any
way that Golden State is able to do this without step.

Speaker 9 (59:00):
Yeah, I'm with you. I think that on paper they
should be able to because they got Jimmy Butler. He
carried the Heat to the finals two years ago. But
as we've seen and yeah, they're the Warriors, they're championship
test and when Draymond Green's not getting technicals and that's
in this He is still elevating their defense. But to
your point, they've shown so far they're struggling to really

(59:23):
generate offense, especially with Jimmy Butler's off the floor. And
as much as a gamer Jimmy Butler is, to play
him forty eight minutes for three consecutive games is going
to be a tough long haul here. So adding the
fact that Minnesota isn't a young isn't just a young
team that seems exciting, but they're not dangerous. They are

(59:44):
a dangerous team. They went through, you know, their playoff
run and experience last year, and they took learning lessons
from that and they've been able to have a full
season with getting Julius Randall and Rudy Gobert on the
same page here as far as chemistry goes. So it's
tough flooding. Obviously, if stuff ever returns, it's a game changer,
but right now it's not looking good.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Mark, as always, man, we appreciate you making yourself available
to us, especially on busy NBA days. Follow him on
Twitter at Mark g Underscore Medina.

Speaker 9 (01:00:13):
Mark, thanks for hanging out with us, buddy, it's always fun.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
It's good stuff by him and a great playoffs so
far less than great for me. By the way, Buck,
I maintained my professionalism. But as he was talking, Edmonton
just scored to go up one nothing on the Golden Knights,
and I blame Canada. Speaking of updates, let's get Moncey
Belangas to help me feel better about this, because she'll
say it, and it'll feel better because she just sounds
less on it. She speaks. Moncey, it's caught up on

(01:00:38):
what's going on around the world. Are you at Edmonton fan? No,
I'm a Vegas colt.

Speaker 5 (01:00:42):
You're a Golden Knights fan.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
Oh right, you're in Vegas. I'm from Vegas. You're you're
from Vegas. Hello.

Speaker 5 (01:00:48):
Sorry, it's I don't really work on Saturday nights, so
as you can tell, I'm a little discombobulated myself. Listen,
it's it's still halfway through the first period. Fits, so
Golden Knights can pull this off. Yes, Oilers up one zero.
They lead the series two zero, but plenty of game left.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
Don't worry.

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
Don't worry.

Speaker 5 (01:01:04):
The Hurricanes did already beat the Capitals in their Game
three four zero was a final score. Carolina leads that
series two to one. We'll move on to the NBA
Game three between the Timberwolves and the Warriors. I haven't yeah,
I don't think this is a pretty game. It hasn't
been the best basketball game we've seen in the NBA
thus far. Warriors had a slow start. They tied the

(01:01:25):
game to start the second quarter. Now Minnesota is back
up by ten, thirty nine to twenty nine.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
As the score.

Speaker 5 (01:01:31):
Julius Randall the leading score for Minnesota. He's got thirteen points.
Jimmy Butler doing what he can for the Warriors. He's
got eleven points. Jonathan kaminga kind of started off the
same way he started off Game two. He was three
of three, then four of four. Did miss a shot finally,
but he's got ten points off the bench. Warriors down
by ten with about five minutes to go in the
first half. The Celtics did beat the Knicks earlier today

(01:01:52):
one fifteen to ninety three. They're kind of out of
their shooting slump. They were twenty of forty from the three,
Jason Tatum hitting five them, Peyton Pritchard hitting five of them.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
Off the bench.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
Pritchard actually left or actually.

Speaker 5 (01:02:04):
Led Boston with twenty three points. In baseball, it's all
Red Sox against the Royals right now. Royals have won
seven in a row, but they might not win this
when Boston is up ten to one. Bottom of the
eighth inning, All Reds against the Astros thirteen to eight,
though Houston trying to get back in it. Bottom of
the sixth inning. There Marlin's on top of the White
Sox three to one. Bottom of the eighth. Cubs are
beating the Mets in New York four to three. Bottom

(01:02:26):
of the seventh inning, but New York has a man
on first and second. They still got two outs to go.
The Rockies cannot score while the Padres can't stop scoring.
San Diego is up fifteen to zero after four innings
and the Diamondbacks are edging the Dodgers one zero top
of the sixth inning. You guys talked about it, but yes.
Saints quarterback Derek car announced his retirement, in large part
because of a degenerative rotator cuff injury.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
In his shoulder.

Speaker 5 (01:02:50):
The team says that they are gonna have basically all
three quarterbacks Rota give them each an opportunity to see
who wins the starting job in New Orleans, and Bronco
head coach Sean Payton said that linebacker Dre Greenlaw, who
suffered a quad injury this offseason, is on track to
be ready to be a full participant at training camp.

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
Back to you guys, great stuff from Monsie as always,
that makes you feel about it, Jason fitz fucking fits.
It didn't make me feel better. But Edmonton cheated and
now they've got somebody in the penalty box. So that's
what happens when you're a cheaters. You're a big bug eater.
So let's see I Vegas can even out the score here,
like this is the drama of the Stanley. You don't
know this because you're in Nashville. And let's just say

(01:03:30):
that it was a less than stillar year for the
Predators this year.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
Like, I mean, come on, how do I end up
with the worst team in football as a day to
day situation and a bottom three team in hockey that
isn't even competent enough to do well in the draft lottery.
They end up with the worst possible NHL draft lottery
spot that they could have after having a retched season,
and they're not firing anybody here. People are pissed.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
Yeah, the stupidity of the NHL, and I'm not even
saying this politely. The stupidity of the NHL is on
display when you watch what other leagues do to make
the draft a big deal and then you realize that,
my god, it takes like thirteen people to explain how
the NHL draft works. It's just it's maddening. But yeah,
we'll see. You'll hear if the Vegas Golden Knights score,

(01:04:16):
you'll hear it. But you mentioned you're in Nashville. Something
impossible has happened in Nashville, Tennessee. Baseball has absolutely annihilated
the NFL Buck Rising, and that has happened by way
of the Savannah Bananas. I can't believe I'm saying this,
but the Savannah Bananas have done something. Everybody like you

(01:04:36):
had been in Nissan Stadium so many times. Tell everybody
in the world why today is particularly outrageous for baseball
and frankly for the Titans.

Speaker 2 (01:04:46):
So I had no I mean, I know that the
Savannah Bananas are a cultural phenomenon. I know that they're
the modern day Harlem globe trotters. I know that they
provide entertainment value that I could not possibly find from
any Major League Baseball game anywhere in the world, regular season, postseason,
wild card or otherwise. It's just not It's an incredibly

(01:05:07):
creative concept from minor league which has taken the country
by storm. Nissan Stadium here in Nashville, Tennessee, where I'm
broadcasting from FITZI and Connecticut and the rest of the
crew back there in La. Nissan Stadium is about a
seventy thousand seat venue. I have covered playoff games at
Nissan Stadium. I have covered regular season games at Nissan

(01:05:28):
Stadium for the Tennessee Titans, and I very rarely, almost
never have seen sellout crowds for the NFL football team,
the local professional football franchise, even when they're at their
heights with Derrick Henry and AJ Brown before they you know,
decided to make stupid personnel decisions and give all their
good players away to other good teams and be like
a farm system for the NFL. I have seen them

(01:05:50):
on a few occasions draw a crowd that does that
stadium justice. The Savannah Bananas Fitzie have sold out Nissan
Stadium to the point where to get in, to even
think about getting a ticket I saw ballpark for Nosebleeds
four hundred dollars at Nissan Stadium tonight. It is a

(01:06:12):
full house. They brought the entire Titans rookie class there,
which of course includes the number one overall pick cam
Ward coming off of rookie Mini caamp today, which I
was at. I'm sure we'll talk a little Rooie mini
camp at some point with everything going on around the league.
But cam Ward comes out of the tunnel to raucous applause,
an awesome crowd, a great environment, and my immediate thought is, Oh, no,

(01:06:33):
somebody's gonna have to tell him that's not what it's
like for football here until he starts to change, until
he starts to change some of the temperature around the
Tennessee Titans. Somebody's gonna have to manage his expectations. But
it's a crazy scene right now, just about I'd say
about a mile and a half where I'm sitting right now,
down down Old Broadway on Lower Broadway rather across the

(01:06:55):
Cumberland River.

Speaker 1 (01:06:57):
So Hartford has a baseball minor league baseball stadium here
that the yard Goot's playing, dun Duncan Park, and it's
beautiful it's gorgeous. The place is actually it's tough to
get into a lot of times, Like sales are great
for people up here love baseball. That place is packed
all the time. I've got some friends there from you know,
all my years up here, and you know, usually I

(01:07:17):
can pull some strings and call some people and say, hey,
can I get a couple of tickets tonight. It's never
a problem. The one time I got an immediate no
was when the Savannah Savannah Bananas were here. And like,
the funny thing is it is a truly a cultural phenomena.
Like we say it's the Harlem Globetrotters, but it's far
bigger than that. The Harlem Globetrotters aren't filling sixty thousand,

(01:07:37):
even I don't believe at the prime we're gonna be
filling sixty thousand, like they have built some And this
shows the power of what TikTok and social media has
become to all of marketing. Like this is a fake
baseball team basically that plays against fake opponents and they
do dance moves and have a good time. And the
thought of seeing a baseball game in a football stadium,

(01:07:59):
like the sitelines are gonna be terrible, but still people
want to be in the nosebleeds of it, just to
be in the building, like that is true phenomenon status
And that's wild to me to think, and it just
shows you, man, like, at some point we are such
an entertainment based society that it's just there's got to

(01:08:20):
be something else. You can't just rely on being great
to sell tickets, Like the best musicians in the world
are not going to sell as many tickets as the
greatest entertainers in the world. The best sports teams in
the world will be fine in that moment, but if
you really want to create something that continues year in
and year out to follow you, then you have to

(01:08:42):
actually create this entertainment based product that is bigger than that,
because at some point, the cost of going to these things,
the emotional ups and downs of going to these things,
like you're not guaranteed of a win when you buy
a ticket, so you damn well better be guaranteed of
entertainment because that is the thing that will keep you
coming over and over again.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
Phrasing FITSI. I was told that by an NFL and
that yeah, well, listen, we've we've worked ourselves through a
couple of difficult situations here tonight. So let's not let's
not be that. Let's not have that be the thing
that sends us over the top. I was. I was

(01:09:25):
talking to an NFL executive about that here today actually
at training camp, about the idea of the entertainment value
and how to make the product and fans offering suggestions
about why can't NFL teams do things more creatively to
give them a little more juice other than to just
be content to play football, because those things will always
rate well on television. But the end game experience at

(01:09:47):
most NFL games, you know, there's about what twelve minutes
of total football action in an NFL football game. The
worst when you attend, it's just it's such a crawl
to the finish and occasionally you get some fireworks and
a close finish and things like that. But it's speaking
to it, I think an evolving construct of sports fandom

(01:10:09):
in general, where it used to just be enough to
play the games right, whether it's baseball, basketball, football, But
we are so our attention We have the attention span
collectively of small rodents, and we like shiny things, and
we like right colors. You are a great example of
the bright colors and shiny things. As you sit there

(01:10:30):
in your Connecticut studio with a wall decorated in gold
and platinum albums and things of that nature, we are.
It's curious to see. And I don't think there's any
evolution coming from any major sports at that level right
that would try to incorporate more of the kind of
things that a product like the Savannah Bananas has been

(01:10:51):
so successfully able to capture. But I do wonder if
it does speak to just how sports fandom is changing
in general. Where you can you can follow the NBA,
You can be an NBA fan and not watch a
single game on television, right You can follow it on
social media, you can get highlights on TikTok, you can
follow your favorite athletes and understand all the narratives. You
can get more information about them at any point in

(01:11:14):
time or right now than you could at any other
point in time in sports history. And I love that
they are succeeding as much as they are, but I
know that somebody's going to get bird brained on it
and just try and incorporate something that the Savannah Bananas
are doing into one of these major league sports at
some point, which.

Speaker 1 (01:11:30):
Will be just gross to watch. I mean it will.
That being said, I do think second screen things are
going to start coming to stadiums. They'll have to. I
would need a second screen if I was sitting in
Edmonton right now, because the wheelers around now up to nothing.
I give up on hockey. I've never heard of hockey before.
That's where I am now. I'm too heartbroken to continue.
In the meantime, you mentioned spectacle. The biggest spectacle in

(01:11:53):
the NFL this year might be in Cleveland. And it
took all of minutes for the action to start and
the covers. He's already there. We'll tell you about the
latest with and when we come back. He's Buck Rising.
I'm Jason Fitzit's Bucking Fits on Fox Sports Radio. I
don't know what Cleveland expected given some of their controversial

(01:12:13):
draft decisions, but it took all of one day for
the circus to become the main story for the Browns.
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz, Fucking Fits hanging out
with you on Fox Sports Radio. And look, there's still
so many questions marks. I was covering the draft for
Yahoo Live as Chador Fell and I was covering live

(01:12:37):
as Dylan Gabriel, the quarterback was selected in the third
round and a pick that shocked many people. And it
shocked many people because I think there was a question
about would you take Shador? Are you going to take
a quarterback at all? And then also equally shocking to
then have the same team take Shador two rounds later,
which creates this weird situation. Where is your fifth round

(01:12:59):
of going to beat your third rounder out? Is that
what's gonna happen?

Speaker 7 (01:13:02):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:13:03):
Were you drafting a third rounder to be a backup?
How are you expecting any of this to play out?
But most importantly one thing that was said on our
live streams by Charles Robinson, the Yahoo Sports NFL insider.
As Shadour continued to fall, he came on our live
stream and said, I just talked to a team executive
who said, now you have to ask yourself the question,

(01:13:25):
is Shadur at this point, this late in the draft
worth the conversations, the question the media circus that will
follow him into your locker room wherever he's drafted. I
think we've seen in one day that's the case, right,
Because Buck, what immediately happens is I mean, it took seconds.
It took seconds for Kevin Stefanski, the head coach of

(01:13:46):
the Browns, to go to the podium and be asked
why Dylan Gabriel got the first snaps, Like that's real?
Why why did they decide Dylan Gabriel was getting the
first snaps at rookie mini camp, Like that's outrageous.

Speaker 2 (01:14:00):
Act, Shay, I don't know if you have that had
audio from Stefanski handy. In fact, can I hear Kevin
Stefancy's response? It was just excellent whenever you're ready for it?
I I he was even fielding questions today shad Or
Sanders was about President Donald Trump ripping NFL teams on
social media for how stupid they were for not drafting him,

(01:14:21):
Like it goes so far and above, beyond and above
the bounds of what the conventions of He's not even
a backup quarterback. He's like, I mean, what is the
Cleveland quarterback order at this point in time? We can
work our way through this. But again, I wish almost
that the audience could see Kevin Stefanski's face as he's

(01:14:42):
being asked this question, because he just snarls up a
bit like he smells something bad. This was the Browns
head coach.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
Yeah, I wouldn't look into anything. I think you'll see
the whole weekend going through the spring. I mean, we
don't pay too close attention to who's a Nickers.

Speaker 2 (01:14:59):
He's like, what do you what do you want from me? Guys,
come on and all of this, by the way, reeks
of the Haslam family, Jimmy Haslam meddling around in here,
looking around, saying, oh, we could still get your door
Sanders in the fifth Why don't you guys take them?
Why don't you guys put yourselves in the position to
have to deal with this mess? And that is reckless
speculation by me. I have no inside information on that

(01:15:20):
particular part of it whatsoever. But the way that the
Browns and I'm fascinated to hear your perspective of it,
we probably get into it more in the final hour
fits it. Because I had completely forgotten that you were
covering all that live. You didn't probably get the same
mel Kiper experience that the rest of us got throughout
the course of the draft weekend. Almighty, But this was
this is one of the I don't think I've seen

(01:15:42):
a side show to this extent since Tim Tebow. I
truly can't think of a time in the.

Speaker 1 (01:15:49):
NFL answer me this, because you cover the Titans. For
anyone that doesn't know, and you have for several years,
you have stood in these scrums. Today did this You
literally stood there and talked to the Titans players and
coaches at their mini camp. Was it not the correct
question to be asked? How did you decide who is

(01:16:11):
going to get first reps? And then the follow up
question was was it based on draft status? Like aren't
aren't those fair and reasonable questions for the people covering
the team to be asking? Yes, so that because that's
an important part of this, Like, this isn't a gotcha moment,
This isn't a bunch of you know, we've become such
a society that wants to find a reason to hate

(01:16:31):
the media for everything.

Speaker 2 (01:16:32):
Oh, it's a media's fault.

Speaker 1 (01:16:33):
Like it's whether it's a it's the snowflake sor it's
I don't care what side of this you're on. Let
me be clear, politically, I don't care if you're on
the left side of the right side. You've just become
convinced that the media is biased to the other side.
And is throttling your side down, and like that's the
stupidity with which how we consume everything. And so now
all of a sudden, I just have to loudly point

(01:16:54):
out Buck that these questions were not only anticipatable, We're
gonna use that as a new They could have been
anticipated by the Cleveland Browns. They are the appropriate questions
to be asked by the reporters in these situations. Like
everybody's doing their job the right way, except for the Browns,
who decided, you know what we need, we need more
of a circus, like Deshaun isn't enough of a circus,

(01:17:17):
Let's bring more in. Like that's why this feels so
asinine to me.

Speaker 2 (01:17:20):
Well, and that's like, so just to run it through
my prism, I'm covering Cam Moored, the number on two
overall draft pick. We had a press conference with Cam today.
We talked to Brian Callahan, the Titans head coach. The
question was asked, reasonably, so is your plan not to
start this player week one of the NFL season because
you took him number one overall? And of course, for
people familiar, the Will Levis experience was a disaster here,

(01:17:42):
but they are still keeping up this conversation about quarterback competition,
even though we all understand and they understand, that all
of their resources have to be directed to supporting Cam
Word as the number one overall pick, because that's the
logical approach. But you have a completely illogical organization in
the Cleveland Browns making the decisions that are beyond anything

(01:18:02):
that I've ever seen, a mess entirely of their own making.

Speaker 1 (01:18:06):
The hardest part about all. Look right now, they have
four quarterbacks. As an organization, they have four quarterbacks. Now,
I've debated this with some national guys that I think
are smart. Everybody says, no, they're comfortable carrying four quarterbacks.
I don't think any team should carry four quarterbacks like
they tried to. They tried to change the rules in
the NFL to allow the third quarterback to be a

(01:18:27):
roster exemption because it's so hard to get to your
fifty three, right, Like, nobody's carrying four quarterbacks. So what
the hell are they going to do here? And then
how are they going to deal with this? Because it's
not going anywhere. We'll keep breaking it down and he's
buck rising. I'm Jason fitz a lot to say on this,
plus update on the NBA playoff action coming at you
next on Fox Sports Radio. Every single day of mini camps,

(01:18:50):
every single week of training camp, every single week of
the regular season, there is one thing that you'll be
able to count on in Cleveland, and that is pure
chaos as they continue to figure out what's going on
to the quarterback position, how it's all going to play out,
what it all means, and the worst part of all

(01:19:11):
of it is that the Browns have done this to
themselves and nobody can win. He's Buck Rising on Jason
fitz It's Bucking Fits hanging out with you on a
Fox Sports Saturday. Got a lot of NBA action we've
been talking about. Obviously, the Celtics crushed the Knicks. They
get their first winning this series. They're now down two
games to one. We are early in the second half

(01:19:33):
right now Minnesota and Golden State. As you just heard
Monci Belanias tell you, we will keep you updated on
all of it. Got plenty to say about the NBA
action that is going on, But we also have NFL
rookie mini camps already in action, which means we get
to hear from everybody. And this is the inevitability of
hear from I don't think every player wants to be
heard from it. I don't think and Buck Rising, we

(01:19:55):
were just talking about this for if you don't know,
Buck covers the Titans and has for a long time. Buck,
let's start before we hear from these quarterbacks. Let's be clear,
these guys half the time don't want to talk like
they just want to go out and do their jobs,
Like Dylan Gabriel isn't begging to go out and answer
questions about his job and how all of this is working.

Speaker 9 (01:20:12):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:20:13):
The only time they want to talk to us at
any point in their careers is the night that they
get drafted on these zoom calls or conference calls. That's
the only time that they're excited to speak to the
media because it's one of the greatest moments of their
life and they should be excited. And that's about as
good as the media experience will probably ever be for
them and for us at any given point. But no,
half the time, are you kidding me? I have had

(01:20:36):
dudes run out of the locker room after games. I
mean actually like hit a jog to avoid taking questions.
Now you know, I've covered some bad teams. I've covered
some good teams in my career, but I've covered some
awful teams as well. I saw Andre Dillar got a
job with the San Francisco forty nine ers. That is
somebody who has ran away from media in the locker
room after having terrible, terrible performances. So I would say

(01:20:59):
less than half if I would probably put it at
closer to five percent of the time. Are they actually
looking forward to getting in front of a microphone at
a podium speaking to the vultures?

Speaker 1 (01:21:09):
Hell? I mean you can figure this out based on
our friendship. But as a prominent NFL player that I
consider a close friend, and I happen to be at
the game, a game that didn't go particularly well for
the team that he plays on, and as he was
running into the locker room, he just looked at me
and said, no, And that's it. Like it's no, It's
like I'm not even talking to you right now. So
like we just have to acknowledge. Now. Look, I say

(01:21:30):
this because it is not Dylan Gabriel or should do
or Sanders' fault that they are going to be answering
questions every day, every week, every month, all year. This
isn't going anywhere, and it already started. It started after
one practice. We already let you hear from Kevin Stefanski,
coach of the Browns, when he was asked why and

(01:21:51):
how they came to the decision that Dylan Gabriel would
take the first snaps, Like that's how overscrutinized this will
all be. But I want you to hear from the
quarterbacks themselves, because Dylan Gabriel and should were both had
to answer plenty of questions about what it looks like
for them. We'll do this back to back, all right,
so you'll hear from Dylan and you'll hear from Shud
or check out a little bit of what they had
to say about their process and everything that's going on

(01:22:13):
right now.

Speaker 10 (01:22:13):
Yeah, I think the more questions I get asked like that,
it just divides the team and and for me, I think,
you know how you know, we're in a room full
of not just us, but Kenny, Joe and Deshaun, and
for us, you know, we we know how important a
healthy qv room is, but also you know a team
that you want to be a part of, you know,
and how do you create an environment every single day

(01:22:35):
where everyone can be at their best, and that's just
pushing one another, which talent naturally does, and you know,
naturally it's it's healthy, you know for us, where we
all go do our thing and everyone wins.

Speaker 11 (01:22:46):
Thank you for saying that, because I don't like my job.
Here is an approve people wrong, like I prove myself right.
That's that's that's I and I fully self belief with
those people say that's that's just their opinion. So I
don't truly care. They don't really live in my mental
space about that type of stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:23:04):
Really didn't do anything for me. That last part about Schador,
especially given the multiple reports about how blase he was
through the draft interview process. I don't know if apathy
is the thing that you want to be clinging to
right now, if you're Chador or lack of care about anything,

(01:23:25):
even though I understand the point that he's trying to
get across, which is, you know, the perpetual generic cliche
of outside noise. And that was Dylan Gabriel and Shador
Sanders speaking back to back coming out of Brown's rookie
mini camp, which of course probably neither of them are
the starting quarterback for this team, but they're going to
be talked about infinitely more than Kenny Pickett or Joe
Flack or any of these other ones. And I want

(01:23:46):
to go back to something that Dylan Gabriel said about
the more questions that he's asked about this, the more
that it divides the team, And it's almost like a
different version of well, media is making this agenda about this,
that and the other. No, brother, your football team puts
you in position to have to answer these questions, to
be the subject matter of these discussions. It's not their

(01:24:08):
fault that they got drafted where they do well. It
might be sure to res fault a little bit that
he got drafted where he did, but I suppose that's
a conversation for another day. It is a fascinating dynamic that,
again is completely of the Brown's own invention. And this
is why bad teams stay bad, because they have created
a level of innate toxicity that has put these two players,
these young developmental players who it is going to be

(01:24:30):
critical to support at every turn, they have already hamstrung
them out of the gate. It's why I am so
I am so impressed and yet completely perplexed by people
like Shay, who are producing back there? Who's a diehard
Browns fan? Why are you a fan of this team
when they continue to do this to you over and
over again.

Speaker 1 (01:24:49):
I mean the same reason you're a fan of the Titans.

Speaker 2 (01:24:51):
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (01:24:53):
I mean again, at this point, I ad, yeah, yeah,
the same. It's just I've been so die hard for
so long that it's like, if I give up, they win.
You know that my friends are the winners, the ones
that I've been saying, oh you you've never won a
super Bowl. They I can't let them win. I need

(01:25:14):
because I already know the men, and I say I'm done.

Speaker 1 (01:25:16):
With this team.

Speaker 3 (01:25:17):
That's the year they go. They go to the Super Bowl.
So I'm not letting that. I want no reason to
let that. Also, when I do win, you know how
good that's.

Speaker 1 (01:25:25):
Going to feel. It's gonna be the most euphoric thing
in the world for me.

Speaker 2 (01:25:30):
Because fans just after the World Series drunken naked in
the streets exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:25:34):
So of course I'm going to be in Cleveland when
they're like they're making their playoff.

Speaker 2 (01:25:38):
Run and all that.

Speaker 3 (01:25:39):
And of course, I mean it's crazy though, because I'm
thinking about something that might not ever happen in my lifetime.

Speaker 1 (01:25:44):
Obviously, it's like you anticipate, you know, what you'll do
in you're seventy, Like what what are you talking?

Speaker 3 (01:25:49):
That's the thing that drives me as a fan, you know,
and that's what drives all fans to your point exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:25:55):
So it's like you say why, but it's like, why
do we watch sports?

Speaker 3 (01:26:00):
It's not because we enjoy, like enjoy playing that sport,
because I don't get me wrong, I've never played football
in my life and I probably sucked at it. But
it's because of the fanatic nature I have around it,
the feeling of I maybe we got this year or
or we just got this draft pick, like the upside
and there's always upside to it no matter what. And

(01:26:20):
it's it's like almost like a it's like a little
baby coming out. All right, I'm gonna this is gonna
be a weird analogy.

Speaker 2 (01:26:27):
And you look at that baby. Anybody on this radio
show right now have children, we're talking about having kids,
and you see that baby, and there's just so many
possibilities with that baby.

Speaker 1 (01:26:40):
And every year the Browns is just that little baby
to me, And you know why I love this analogy
by Shay because most babies are just like yours, just
like season.

Speaker 3 (01:26:52):
They hit puberty and then they become the hottest person
in the world. So it's I'm just waiting for them
to hit puberty. That's what I need from the Browns.

Speaker 1 (01:27:01):
I did it work. I thought this show couldn't get
any did it work?

Speaker 2 (01:27:04):
I think it worked, though, you said you once we
got into the puberty part of it, but you had
you had me there had for a little bit, you know,
you had listen you but you've spoken, You've spoken to
something visceral there. Because at the end of the day,
why to answer your question, why do we watch sports?
We watched sports to feel, right, We watch sports to
feel whether it's pain or joy or anger or any

(01:27:28):
of these other things frustration. We we watch sports to
feel things. But after I just I guess, because say,
I fight this battle on a local level with Titans
fans because I work for the flagship station here locally,
I cover the team for nine years going on, and
I don't have an NFL team like I don't have
an NFL team that I root for, so it always

(01:27:51):
gives me a little bit of, you know, a little
bit of separation of church and State is a part
of my job. I feel like you have to do
that on my decid on my side of things. But
it's good to have that reminder because a lot of
times I forget what it is to be a fan
because they are my job and I treat them as such.

Speaker 3 (01:28:08):
It's only sorry real quick. Buck said he's not a
fan of the Titans. You're a fan of the Titans.

Speaker 1 (01:28:15):
Hell no, No, Buck is not a fan of the Titans.

Speaker 3 (01:28:17):
Would talk about them and just I understand you work
for them and all that.

Speaker 2 (01:28:21):
It's just no, I don't work for them. Hell no,
I don't work for them. Are you kidding me?

Speaker 1 (01:28:25):
Then why do you care so much?

Speaker 2 (01:28:28):
I don't know, because you know, because I get paid
very well to talk about a terrible football team, and
I like money.

Speaker 1 (01:28:33):
That's okay what you're saying. Most guys they cover a
team on a high level will always say it's better
to cover a team that's really good than a team
that's really bad. I mean, I say this all the time.
Like I've been lucky in my career to cover a
lot of college football. And part of the reason I
absolutely love covering college football is because I genuinely don't
care who wins or loses. I have no dog in

(01:28:55):
any college football fight, so it makes Saturdays a blast
for me. Like Saturdays are fun because I just want
to see everybody lose their minds. But like to your question, Buck,
the thing that I've said for years, if I could
turn off the part of my soul that feels the Raiders,
I would have a long time ago, Like I cannot
help the fact as a grown ass man that, like

(01:29:17):
when you get to Sunday's my address, it's like being
on a roller coaster ride. Man, Like that ball goes
in the air, like this year, when Gino Smith throws
an inevitably incomplete thirty forty yard ball down field, I
am going to stand up in my house and I'm
gonna start jumping up and down and yelling at the
top of my lungs. And I don't know why. I
don't know why, Like I don't know why. I've lived

(01:29:38):
a pretty pretty fortunate life and I don't know why,
Like my Monday suck when the Raiders loose, I don't
know why. If I can turn that portion of me off,
I would because Saturdays are more fun, Like Saturdays are
more fun to say back because my team always loses.
And the hard part about this for Browns fans is like,
Browns fans, it's not your fault that your own owner

(01:29:59):
forced to John Watson to be your quarterback, and that
put Browns fans in an unenviable position, like and it's
not your pot guess it just it sucks to be
a Browns fan right now.

Speaker 3 (01:30:10):
It's just, you know what, the worst thing about you're out,
you know what, Like, sorry to interrupt you, but I
just have to say this. The worst thing about him
forcing Deshaun Watson on us was Kevin Stefanski having to
come out and back every time he came out to
the press conference, He's like, yeah, he's our quarterback, he's
a starter, I think he's going to be a great job,

(01:30:30):
blah blah blah, and you could see it in the
back of his mind. This dude does not believe what
he's saying. And that was the one thing that really
just put me over the edge. It wasn't the fact that,
like he's getting injured, or the fact that yeah, maybe
this was a bad play and yeah, like he's a
bad player, but it was Kevin Stefanski.

Speaker 2 (01:30:48):
No it's your two time Coach of the Year being held, and.

Speaker 3 (01:30:53):
It's like it got to a point where I started
being like, keV, What's what's going on?

Speaker 1 (01:30:57):
Dude? Like why do you keep saying this?

Speaker 2 (01:30:59):
Like you come out twice if you need help?

Speaker 1 (01:31:03):
And he would never do that.

Speaker 3 (01:31:04):
And he never came out and said because they're not
gonna fire the two time coach of the year, you
know what I mean? I mean, I don't know. Honestly,
I don't know they fired Mike Malone.

Speaker 1 (01:31:14):
I think you're onto something. You're onto something like why
didn't you come out and say something? Yeah, But the
fact is, I think the Browns have shown you through
their strategy and drafting and through their strategy and the
free agency period, a team that is bad has shown
you that they have patience to get better. I don't
believe there's a single person in the building right now
whose jobs on the line no matter what happens this year. Yeah,

(01:31:35):
I think that they which is which is Buck does
a degree? We'll continue this. I know this is the
raging Browns debate. You didn't know Kevin's.

Speaker 2 (01:31:45):
Find out?

Speaker 1 (01:31:45):
Next is Kevin Stefansy on the hot seat? Also? I
don't know NBA playoff action, Well, get caught up on
that too. He's buck rising up, Jason Fitz bucking fits up,
Fox Sports Radio. Still not sure why Stix is catching strays?
Good God, he's buck rising. I'm Jason Fitz. I mean,
come say that way, come all right? So I mean,
I don't know how we feel about this. You can

(01:32:06):
keep okay, Okay, thank you so much more of a
damn Yankees guy than a six guy. Not that anybody
care coming at you live from the Fox Sports Radio studios.
You are bougie. Uh And I want to get to
that in a second, But first we we left with
a little bit of an argument, by the way, a
little bit of an argument. I have a little bit
of a little bit of a tift here as we

(01:32:28):
try and figure out if the Browns are actually gonna
fire Stefanski.

Speaker 2 (01:32:31):
Like there's no way, because Jack would say, okay that
there's no.

Speaker 1 (01:32:35):
Way, there's no ways. Knows his job is safe, like
he's they could win two games in his job is safe.
Now you say no to this? In what world? To
where where they were homstrung? They were homes I can speak,
they were hamstrung, hamstrung, But whatever they were tied up
at the quarterback position. Owner admitted it this offseason. They
didn't this wasn't a good draft to address the quarterback position.

(01:32:58):
If they are absolutely awful, you'd be giving Kevin Stefanski
a noted offensive mind. He shot at an actual, real quarterback,
even though they wasted a third and fit this year
on the quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:33:09):
So it is precious how naive the two of you
are about the state of NFL ownership applying any level
of reason or logic to the way that these people operate.
The same person who gave Deshaun Watson a fully guaranteed contract.
You're assuming that he's just gonna be like, you know
what it was. I mean, I know he did it
owners meetings. I was at owners meetings when he did

(01:33:30):
it in Palm Beach saying, you know, hold me and
de Haslam accountable. Jimmy Haslam, the owner of the Browns,
talking about the Deshaun Watson situation. Okay, how are you
going to be held accountable? Jimmy, Who's gonna hold you accountable?
Are they going to take the team away from you? No,
you're not, Donald Sterling. Are they gonna find you? Yeah? Probably?
But who you clearly don't care about that. You just

(01:33:50):
gave Deshaun Watson two hundred and forty million dollars. If
they keep losing football games, who's to say that Jimmy
has them doesn't turn around and be like, yeah, we
should probably do something else. I literally have watched an
NFL franchise, the one that I covered, do it for
three straight off seasons, even though it makes absolutely no
damn sense based on the things that they said before
the season started. It's precious the two are you really?

Speaker 1 (01:34:12):
But if they were gonna fire him, they would have
done it this year. Why keep him for another season?

Speaker 2 (01:34:17):
If they were gonna fire Matty Eberfluso of the Bears
before last season two? And they let that thing linger
on the vine entirely too long. Again, logic and reason
does not apply to the billionaires. I feel like we
should understand this as a country at this point in time.

Speaker 1 (01:34:30):
Well that's still billionaires. Go ahead.

Speaker 3 (01:34:32):
This is like I know, I just said, I'm with
the Browns no matter what. This is probably the one
thing if he was to get fired that would make
me stop watching the Browns. And I'm pretty sure a
lot of Browns fans would agree with me here that
if you get rid of the one highlight other than
Miles Garrett on the Browns like what he is not
I mean, Hashim is pretty dumb, but he's not that

(01:34:52):
dumb to do something like this.

Speaker 1 (01:34:55):
And it just doesn't make sense.

Speaker 2 (01:34:56):
Like say, none of it makes sense. None of these
makes sense. Jerry Jones doesn't make any damn sense. There
are so many examples of this all over the NFL.
I mean, FITZI is a fan of the team ran
by Al Davis for a billion years. Half of the
stuff that they did almost said a bad word on
the microphone that would have been terrible. Half of the
stuff that they did has made no sense at any

(01:35:19):
point in time. FITZI, is there an organization more lost
in the wilderness in the last ten to fifteen years
than your Oakland Slash Las Vegas Raiders.

Speaker 1 (01:35:28):
No, And look, this is the most helpless feeling in
all of sports. And genuinely, to tie this into every
single person listening right now, what do you do when
your favorite team's owner is an idiot? Because this is
the one thing that like if you hate a local,
like give you your favorite restaurant suddenly goes downhill you
stop going to the restaurant, and yeah, every time you

(01:35:49):
drive by, you think, man, I missed the good old
days when I love that restaurant. Right, sure you have that,
but you don't have like that's your recourse just to
stop going. That recourse isn't realistic for most fans because,
as we were talking about earlier, there just becomes something
tied into your soul for the team that you root for.
So what do you do when your favorite team is
run by somebody that, when it comes to sports, is incompetent?

(01:36:12):
What do you do when your favorite team is run
by somebody that is not good at identifying talent, whether
it's talent and playing or talent running an organization? Like,
what do you do when your favorite team has shown
the colors of who they are? Like you mentioned Jerry Jones,
Jerry Jones has shown exactly who he is as an owner.
He is an owner will hire gentlemen to be coaches

(01:36:34):
that are gonna be good but not great, Like that's
just who he is, right, So your team's never gonna suck,
but your team's never gonna be great because that's who
Jerry Jones is, Right, What do you do if you're
a Browns fan and the Hasms are terrible? What do
you do if you're a Knicks fan and you realize that, like,
all right, there's always a ceiling to James Tolen, Right, Like,
what do you do if you're a Raiders fan and
you realize that Mark Davis just isn't particularly a sharp

(01:36:56):
dude when it comes to actually bringing in football. People
like Andy try, they try over and over and over again,
but whatever they try just doesn't work. And the hardest
thing in sports isn't watching your team be bad. The
hardest thing you can live with in sports is realizing
that your favorite team is owned by somebody that just
isn't capable of turning a franchise around.

Speaker 2 (01:37:15):
I'll I'll tell you exactly what you do. This is
what every sports fan should do. You should take a
little bit of sports talk radio therapy. And you can
even do that on demand because shortly after the show,
our podcast will be going up. If you missed any
of today's show, be sure to check out the podcast.
Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcast,
and be sure to follow and review the podcast and

(01:37:36):
rated five stars. We love five stars. Four stars. I
think Bomani Jones used to say, four stars if you're
a hater is always a good line. Again, just search
Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts, and you'll
see today's show posted right after we get off the air. Yeah,
that's all you can do. You can call into your
local sports talk radio station. You can call Fox Sports
Radio and vent about your teams. That's really the only

(01:37:59):
thing that you do. You can take to Twitter and
hope to God you don't tweet something that's gonna get
you fired after the fact, and hope you're not ineborated
watching your team while you do it. It is a
state of perpetual discomfort as sports fans, because there are
so many things about what the two of you have
articulated about why it would make absolutely no sense to
fire fire Kevin Stefanski whatsoever, come what may this season.

(01:38:21):
And yet I cover an erratic owner who has fired
four straight or I guess three straight heads of state
for the local professional football team, the Tennessee Titans, for
me here in Nashville, because her record wasn't good enough
and they told her it was going to be better.
And that's just how she goes about it, goes about it,
and that's just what they get to do, because these

(01:38:42):
are playthings for billionaires. These are toys. This is their sandbox,
and we are just little figurines drowning in quicksand in
the middle of it, trying to enjoy or cover our
favorite sports teams. It's a brutal existence.

Speaker 1 (01:38:55):
Yeah, I will say as a Raiders fan Mark Davis,
I understand the map of why he hired John Gruden.
He thought he was doing something revolutionary. Even I understand
the math of why he hired as much as it
turned out to be terrible Josh McDaniels right like, he
didn't expect to be back in the market and replaced
him with somebody that was at the time coveted by
multiple organizations, even though the guy certainly is not capable

(01:39:19):
of running a franchise. I understand why he kept the
last coach, frankly, because you sit here and say, you know,
if you're looking at Antonio Pierce, you're like, well, the
players seem to love him, everybody wants him. That's what
the team wants to do. We'll do Like, I understand
the math on all of it, and every single one
of those decisions has been stupid. When you look back
at it now, every one of them has just been awful.

(01:39:41):
And I don't know, Like, if you're a Titans fan,
you look around and you realize that maybe you hit
the life lottery and cam Ward is going to turn
out to be incredible. But at the end of the day,
like everybody looks at the Texans model, they didn't sell
their team like Washington sold their team. The Texans didn't
sell their team. They just finally got lucky with the
coach and a quarterback. That's all we can do. I
hope that our favorite billionaire gets lucky. That's all we

(01:40:03):
can hope for.

Speaker 2 (01:40:04):
Yeah, but they got lucky because the Browns billionaire was
stupid in the way that they gave up assets as
many assets as they did to acquire to Shaun Watson
then pay him two hundred and forty million dollars. So
you had to have some stupidity along the way for
another billionaire to get lucky that way. Because to your point,
the Texans are one of the worst worst run organizations

(01:40:25):
in sports, and they've got a nice young quarterback to
cover up all of it.

Speaker 1 (01:40:28):
Now that it's a season of lights and hope, that's
what We're giving everybody the off season. Kids, off season,
Manzi Blagias, give us a little bit of hope. Tell
me what's going on in I turned the Vegas Golden
Knights came off because I just need too much stress.
You turned it off. No, turn it back on, turn
it back on.

Speaker 5 (01:40:47):
I told you there was plenty of time left in
Vegas actually tied the game, scoring within four minutes of
each other. It's still tied. Golden Knights and Oilers tied
it to a piece with about eight minutes to go
in a second period, Edmonton Dusley's years two zero, but
again Golden Knights tied it up, so plenty of game left.
The Hurricanes dished up the Capitol's earlier four zero on
the ice.

Speaker 1 (01:41:06):
Carolina leads that series two to one.

Speaker 5 (01:41:08):
In the NBA, Jonathan Kaminga thinks he is Anthony Edwards
Donovan Mitchell right now, I don't know who he is channeling,
but Jonathan Kaminga off the bench for the Warriors seven
of ten, He's got seventeen points, five rebounds.

Speaker 1 (01:41:23):
Jimmy Butler, playoff, Jimmy. That is a real thing, you guys.

Speaker 5 (01:41:26):
And he is literally proving.

Speaker 3 (01:41:27):
That drives on go beert bags, Amile the way goes
up left hand and scored.

Speaker 1 (01:41:31):
Heck, God found Jimmy Buckets. You heard it all on
the Game Warriors radio network.

Speaker 5 (01:41:38):
They are up on Minnesota right now, sixty seven to
sixty two with two minutes to go in the third quarter.
Butler up to twenty eight points, seven assists, and five
rebounds in this Game three. I also think Anthony Edwards
ankle injury might be more serious than they're telling us.
He seems to be struggling. He is seven of nineteen,
one of eight from the three. He does have eighteen points, three,

(01:42:00):
three rebounds, and three assists, but he's definitely struggling a
little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:42:04):
The Celtics have won one.

Speaker 5 (01:42:06):
They beat the Knicks earlier today one fifteen to ninety
three in their Game three, and Boston shot the three
way better than they had the first two games. They
were twenty of forty from the three. Jason Tatum hit
five of them, beating Pritchard off the bench hit another five.
He led Boston with twenty three points. Jalen Brunson for
Ney York had twenty seven points.

Speaker 1 (01:42:23):
In the loss.

Speaker 5 (01:42:24):
In baseball, this is not a typo. The Padres have
scored twenty runs. Twenty runs against the Rockies. It is
twenty to zero, bottom of the seventh inning about to
start in Colorado. Colorado is having a rough start to
the season, but I feel like this is not what
they wanted. The Red still on top of the Astros

(01:42:44):
thirteen to a bottom of the ninth inning about to
start in Houston. The Diamondbacks have added another run against
the Dodgers, three zero in Arizona.

Speaker 1 (01:42:52):
Bottom of the eighth.

Speaker 5 (01:42:53):
The Angels have a two zero lead over the Orioles
at home. It's the top of the third inning. Roddy
to Les with the solo shot for the Mas and
they're up on the Blue Jays one zero after three innings.
Earlier today, Aaron Judge homer twice, but it was not enough.
The A's outscored the Yankees eleven to seven, but Aaron
Judge does lead the Majors with fourteen homers so far.
The Red Sox snapped the Royals seven game winning streak,

(01:43:16):
coming out on top ten to one, while the Rangers
defeated the Tigers ten to three, snapping Detroit's five game
winning streak.

Speaker 2 (01:43:22):
Back to you, guys, I refuse to believe that's a
real scoreing.

Speaker 5 (01:43:27):
N to nothing, setto big fat zero the box score
their hits. They've had twenty two, twenty four hits compared
to four hits from Colorado.

Speaker 2 (01:43:39):
I know you, guys, it's so bad, so bad.

Speaker 5 (01:43:41):
I feel like they're ready to call it twenty one guys.

Speaker 2 (01:43:44):
Oh, it's twenty one zero the pro rule.

Speaker 5 (01:43:50):
Absolutely yeah, twenty one zero, bottom of the eighth inning.

Speaker 1 (01:43:54):
If that continues to be a football, if we get
any more football scoring on it, Monzi, please cut in
immediate shocks when it's twenty eight thirty five to nothing.
This is what we're going for, and I always appreciate it.
And Golden State up sixty seven sixty four on Minnesota
as we sit right now, she mentioned playoff. Jimmy, I
just think we should acknowledge that. I mean, come on,
buck Like, I'm not a big legacy guy. I'm not

(01:44:16):
a big like ha man and any of those stupid
Mount Rushmore type conversations. Those are all dead to me.
But I do think there is some element here of
if Jimmy Butler is able to keep Golden State in
this thing, then we got to at least step back
and take a tip of the cap to this, because
it's easy to leave Golden State left for dead in
this game, in this series without obviously without Steph until

(01:44:38):
at least game six. But man, this would be a
pretty epic fail by the Timberwolves to not be able
to take advantage of it.

Speaker 2 (01:44:45):
Well, I mean, depending on the severity of Anthony Edward's injury.
That's something worth monitoring too, as we hope that there
are no more further injuries that impact these NBA playoffs.
But to your point about Jimmy Butler, I don't know
if see like he does this all the time. He
literally dragged Miami Heat teams kicking and screaming damn near

(01:45:06):
to the NBA Finals, but he comes up short like
he's he is a spectacular player. Playoff Jimmy, Jimmy buckets
like the play of the Warriors play by play guy
just said like this, this is a real thing, and
he has these moments, but at the end of the day,
he's just not He himself is not enough, even if
he does things to keep his team in close games.

(01:45:29):
He's always been that guy and he's difficult to work with,
which is why I think that that dynamic in Golden
State has to be fascinating as it continues to play out,
especially with the kind of combustive elements that they have
in that dressing room with Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler
and Steve Kurran. Obviously they're awaiting Steph Curry's return from
this hamstring injury. Very unfortunate that that is the case.

(01:45:52):
But I don't really think the conversation has to change
around Jimmy has to win something of consequence for the
conversation to change around Jimmy Butler.

Speaker 1 (01:46:00):
Well, I understand, I get that to a certain level.
I just think to even keep them in this is
pretty astounding. Also, this game is turned into really a
two on two matchup wildly and interestingly to me, because
what you've got on one side, you've got again Jimmy
Butler at this point with twenty eight, Kamingo with twenty
so forty eight of the Warriors seventy three points. But

(01:46:20):
conversely Anthony Edwards with twenty three and Julius Randall with twenty.
Each team has two guys that are dominating and nobody
else in even double digits and across the board. It's
wild how this game has just turned into a two
on two matchup at some point, so obviously we'll keep
all eyes on. And home court does look electric there.

(01:46:40):
I mean, if there's anything we've learned, Minnesota's going to
win this game because home court doesn't matter. But home
court is electric right now. Golden State is absolutely fired
up as we would expect.

Speaker 2 (01:46:50):
That's the closest thing that I think the NBA had,
or at least the Old Oracle Arena that the NBA
had to like a college basketball atmosphere, like when that
place is at its peak. And they've obviously had some
awesome teams and some incredible moments and some spectacular things
that you'll never see in a thousand more basketball games
after Steph Curry retires, because he is one of the
most gifted athletes we've ever seen. But it is it's

(01:47:13):
always a unique experience. It's such a great crowd, and
I'm glad to see that at least somebody has a
home court advantage because I mean Madison Square Gardener earlier
today it felt like a cemetery.

Speaker 1 (01:47:22):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:47:23):
There was a couple of moments where they tried the
let's go next chance and then they're down thirty one,
and then they get it back to within twenty again,
and they're trying to bring the Knicks back or trying
to manifest something into existence. But as we talked about,
and I believe the first hour of tonight's show, it
is just it's not been a playoff. It's not been
a favorable playoff situation for the home team at any point.

(01:47:47):
Just barely over five hundred for home teams in this
NBA postseason so far this year.

Speaker 1 (01:47:53):
Yeah, which, by the way, look maybe this is my
damage fan syndrome. We need to come up with like
a whole thing for this damaged fans syndrome.

Speaker 2 (01:48:01):
Is well, buddy, I've covered the Tennessee Volunteers art part time.
We call that bvs. Battered ball syndrome. You can come
up with that your onn Ackron. I'm sure we got
one for Shay too at some point.

Speaker 1 (01:48:13):
Like here's the thing that I don't like. I don't
like anybody that gets too high after any win when
you know that your team got lucky to get there,
Like unless it's Game seven, you give me a game
seven win that you didn't have coming, then yeah, go
talk your talk because it's over. I am still stunned
as we sit here to think back to the reaction
of Knicks fans after the last win over the Celtics,

(01:48:35):
when you know that you've gotten your ass whipped in
both of the first two games, but somehow miraculously you
got to win and to go out and talk the
way you talked after that when you know that like
this is the karate kid thing, like you got your
butts kicked and all of a sudden you got one
lucky crane kick and suddenly the match is over. I
don't know that i'd talk my talk, especially because now

(01:48:55):
that this series went back to the Garden, all those
Knicks fans that were outside New York and just like
yeah and screaming and dancing around, like they all look
kind of stupid after you had your chance in the
Garden and you just got walloped. I mean, I cannot
say strongly enough how much the Knicks got embarrassed on
their home court by the Celtics today. And I just

(01:49:16):
got to feel like if you were, if you were
a Knicks fan that was talking you talked the last
couple of games, you deserve to eat a little crow today,
Like this is a helping heap, being like crow with
a little bit of side a butter.

Speaker 2 (01:49:27):
Are are you expecting New York sports fans to be
realistic and nuanced about their situation? You You have been
working in this industry entirely too long to think that's
a reasonable position to take.

Speaker 1 (01:49:40):
That is you are, you have You're a thousand percent right.
And I've always said one of the charming let's say
charming things about New York sports fans and even being
an athlete New York. One thing I've always argued that is,
you know, we sit in there and say everybody should
want to play for the Knicks. Okay, well, there are
very few teams in any sport in the world where
if you have a bad game and you walk in
to get a slice the next day, the local pizza

(01:50:02):
guy is going to remind you that you did not
play well enough. New York is one of those. Like
so they certainly will let every single player on the
court know if they weren't happy. They'll also let the
whole world know when they are happy. Like there is
no but I do feel And tell me if you
agree with this book, I think the sky is falling.
Oh my god. Side of Knicks fans will come out
if they lose the next game. If we're all of

(01:50:23):
a sudden two to two in this thing after two
losses in the Garden, any reasonable approach of the conversation
of where this series is gone will be completely out
the window.

Speaker 2 (01:50:31):
No, absolutely, absolutely, because that's what they are expecting. That
there's some part of them. There's a lot of bluster,
there's a lot of you know, there's a lot of hype,
there's a lot of talk, understandably so, especially in that
part of the country. But if you are, if you
are paying close enough attention to this series, and if
you have paid attention to who the Boston Celtics are

(01:50:53):
when they are on, then you know that it is
an inevitability that Boston is going to roll through the
New York Knicks at some point in time. You have
just been waiting for that moment. Jason Tatum basically said
it tonight, where they're just waiting for them to start
to click the way that they expected Doe Now. Mark Medena,
who was on with us earlier, chalked it up to effort.

(01:51:13):
I know Boston fans have been hyper critical of the
level of effort that was shown in the first two
games with and especially for how awful they're three point
shooting percentage situation was in games one, in game two,
and just able to make their shots tonight and look
like a competent basketball team for forty eight minutes. I
think New York fans it's probably already started, Like it's

(01:51:34):
been enough time since the game ended that they've they've
worked their way through that first phase of denial. As
a sports fan, we're like, all right, it's gonna be okay.
We had to get that one off our chest. The
boys will bounce back. Everything's good. Next, Let's go next,
the whole way through, And then as the hours passes
you have more time to sit and ruminate on it

(01:51:55):
a little longer, you're like, damn, I hope Jason Tatum
didn't have another night like he was last night. Oh
my god, he's coming for us.

Speaker 1 (01:51:59):
Oh my god, They're is. Look. I think there's one
thing we can all agree on. The Celtics Knicks is
really a matchup of the two most delusional fan bases
in all of sports. That's really what we got from
both sides of it, all right, speaking of would you
rather be a Knicks fan or a Celtics fan? Right now?
Coming off next America's Favorite Game Show? Would you rather

(01:52:20):
Bucking Fits on Fox Sports Radio? Got to give a
quick shout out to Shay Mary Mancy everybody behind the scenes.
They they're They're really the the important part. They're the
gas behind all of this that's happening. So I couldn't
do this show without them, obviously, he's Buck rising on
Jason Fitz bucking Fits hanging out on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:52:43):
I'm the only one that get a shout out deservedly
better at their jobs than I am of mine. But
I'm just saying that was hurtful.

Speaker 1 (01:52:52):
You and I had like that was I was shouting
them out on behalf of both of us. You absolutely,
like what what you grown up?

Speaker 2 (01:52:59):
I don't know you. I don't need you shouting out
people for me.

Speaker 1 (01:53:02):
Okay, this is you know what I need, notible, That's
all I'm saying. Okay, are you ready? Are you ready?
Book to Play? America's Favorite game show? Are you ready
for this?

Speaker 2 (01:53:14):
Are we doing it?

Speaker 1 (01:53:14):
Let's do it? Yeah, We're gonna do this. We're gonna
say it together.

Speaker 9 (01:53:16):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:53:17):
The name of the game is Ready. Wood always messes
it up. We read book. Let the stager go.

Speaker 3 (01:53:32):
Buck, I made a nice stager talking over it. You
messed up the intro to let's do what professional, Let's
do this. It's the game where I give the guys
different Would you rather is this one's gonna be a little.

Speaker 1 (01:53:49):
Different, a little more fun? So pissed at me, He's like,
he thanked me, and then you didn't let my works.

Speaker 2 (01:54:00):
Literally three different times he told us, lay out, there's
a stage of these idiots, not just railroad right through it.
Would you rather all right, I'm trying, Bud, I'm drying.

Speaker 1 (01:54:10):
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:54:10):
Would you rather randomly move like a cow in public
once a day or randomly yell I love pickles during
serious conversations, Jason, Let's start with you.

Speaker 1 (01:54:22):
I think I'm gonna go moo like a cow because
even though that gets you stared at, what I'm imagining
is that you're sitting in with your boss and you're
having like a big conversation about the future of your employment,
and you just accidentally scream I love pickles in the
middle of that. I think that's probably bad, but I
also kind of love that, Like it's a I don't know,
I'm gonna go moo like a cow.

Speaker 2 (01:54:42):
Book I do the I love pickles. Thing like, randomly,
I do love pickles. I'll lead them out of the
little packages. I like the pickle juice they have, Like
the pickle juice. That's good for you as far as
the rehydration part of it. So I'm just I'm saying
that anyway, you know, the move thing to be be
some kind of brain tick. I'm not sure what would happen.

Speaker 1 (01:55:03):
Yeah, but all I'm saying. All I'm saying, though, Buck,
is I imagine that you just finished, you know, maybe
the hibbittidibity with a young lady, right, and then she's
looking at you. She's like, Buck, I just want to
know where this is going, and You're like, I like pickles.
I mean you really want that.

Speaker 2 (01:55:17):
It's better. It's better than having the are we gonna cuddle? Conversations?
So I'd rather just yell, I'd rather go with the pickles.

Speaker 1 (01:55:25):
Are we gonna cuddle? Okay? Go ahead, shake o higg.

Speaker 2 (01:55:27):
You've tried many a time, Not today, big boy.

Speaker 1 (01:55:30):
Yeah one day, one day. I want to be big
spoon one day. Would you please move on?

Speaker 2 (01:55:35):
Guys?

Speaker 3 (01:55:36):
Would you rather have hiccups every time you laugh? Or
sneeze every time you blink.

Speaker 1 (01:55:42):
I like this one. This was a good one.

Speaker 2 (01:55:44):
So would you rather have hiccups every time you want hiccups? Suck?

Speaker 1 (01:55:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:55:48):
I get hiccups. So I love spicy food. But I
am so damn sensitive as far as what happens to
my body when I eat spicy food that I immediately
start to hiccup. And I don't know about y'all, but
like my hiccup's hurt. It's like from like as if
as if you've ever seen the movie Alien, It's like
the creature from Alien is merging from my chest when
I hiccup, like it feels like something's trying to bust

(01:56:11):
out of there.

Speaker 1 (01:56:11):
So let me tell you this, though, you just blinked
like ten times right there. That's ten sneezes.

Speaker 2 (01:56:17):
Well, I don't want to get back in a conversation
you're trying to steer us out of. But apparently eight
sneeze isn't supposed to equate to something. You know, that's
quite nice.

Speaker 1 (01:56:26):
Oh oh, I'm gonna go figure out these eight times. Look,
but here's the flip side of it. Here's the flip
side of it. I can not laugh like there. It's
easy for me to just be like life is not
going to be funny anymore. I'm not gonna laugh right
like so I just reached.

Speaker 2 (01:56:45):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:56:46):
I feel like it. I would rather hiccup when I
laugh because I will just control my laughter and not
give the world that joy. And no more laughs, no
more hiccups. Also, I'm in the opposite world of view
my friend. No spicy food for me, but I gotta.
It's not because of my stomach or my butt. It's
my mouth. My mouth gets on fire. The rest of
me's fine, Like I can internalize it once I get

(01:57:06):
it in my body, but it's just man, the fire
in my mouth. I don't want Shaye give us another one.

Speaker 3 (01:57:11):
Would you rather always get stuck behind slow walkers or
always hit every red light while driving?

Speaker 2 (01:57:19):
Fuck? Would I to say it again?

Speaker 3 (01:57:23):
Would you rather get stuck behind a slow walker or
hit every red light while driving?

Speaker 1 (01:57:28):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:57:29):
Red light? Slow walkers make me insane? If you are
going somewhere, go with the purpose, okay. The only worst
person that does not walk with purpose and causes side
effects for everybody else involved is the person who is
getting off of an airplane coming off of the jet
bridge and just stops like right in front of the
jet bridge, as if there's not fifty more people behind you.

(01:57:51):
Try to get the hell off this plane that you've
been sitting in, probably breathing in other people's farts for
two hours, trying to get from one place or the other. Urgency,
move your ass, he.

Speaker 1 (01:58:01):
Said it best bucket fits Fox Sports Radio. Keep hanging out, MHM.

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