Steve Hartman & Jared Smith Talk NBA Finals, Kevin Durant, Lakers, And So Much More!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Live in the Dream once again here on a fully
loaded sports Sunday. This is Fox Sports Sunday, and we
are here in the Fox Sports Radio studios. Welcome in
Jared Smith on what already is a monumental Sunday in
the sports world. Jared, how are you.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
I'm fantastic, Steve. It's a beautiful day here in Las Vegas,
beautiful day for a game seven, and I think we're
going to talk about it at some point today.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
We are going to break it down. In fact, Jared,
I'm going to take full advantage of you, as I
always do when we get this opportunity to be together,
because you've got all kinds of different props and everything else.
I mean, people get excited about any type of NBA
Finals game. This is a game seven. Later tonight, obviously,
OKC will be hosting the Indiana Pacers, a series that

(00:53):
no one expected to go seven games before the series began,
at least I didn't. I was with everyone else sort
of sold on this Oklahoma City team really sight unseen.
I'll get into that a little bit later, but I
got to start with this huge story. Obviously, the announcement
that Kevin Durant is being traded to the Houston Rockets.

(01:14):
And let's just talk about the trade itself right now, Jared,
because it wasn't like Houston just got handed Kevin Durant.
They gave up a twenty three year old Jalen Green,
their leading scorer averaging twenty one points a game this
past season, helping them to a two seed in the West. Also,
the blooding guts of that team, Dylan Brooks sees the

(01:35):
bad guy right here, Draymond Green. He goes out in
this trade to Phoenix, along with what is the tenth
overall pick in the NBA draft coming up, and a
bunch of second round picks. So just on the surface,
as you look at this deal, trading for Kevin Durant, who,
by the way, is going to be thirty seven years

(01:56):
of age by the time next season kicks off. By
the way, I just wanted to go over games played
with you by Kevin Durant over the last six seasons.
All right, from the last six seasons, this is how
many games he has actually played. Ye're one twenty twenty
played in zero games? Okay, miss that entire season. The

(02:17):
following year he played in thirty five games. Then he
played in fifty five games. Then he played in forty
seven games. He played seventy five games two years ago.
This year he played in sixty two. So you give
up a twenty three year old Jalen Green, a twenty
nine year old Dylan Brooks for a thirty seven year
old Kevin Durant plus the tenth overall pick. What is

(02:41):
your gut feeling about who may have gotten the edge
in this trade?

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Well, I think Houston. To me, getting out of Green's
contract is important. That was the first thing I was like,
Oh wow, they got out of that full contract. And
I do think with Houston still has the ability to
make other moves. You know, they keep on and Thompson,
they keep send June, they keep Jabar Smith, and I
do think again, because of getting out of the Jalen

(03:06):
Green deal, they are going to have some wiggle room
down the road. And you get Kevin Durant, so and
you get a first rate like it just I do
think you do have a lot with Phoenix's long term
future here. So I kind of like the deal. I
like it for Houston, I honestly do, well, I mean,
the gut feeling in Houston was and we sort of

(03:27):
saw the surface in the playoffs, right, they needed a guy,
you know, you need you.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Need that guy. But that was the feeling with Phoenix had, right.
I mean, that's why they got Kevin Durant. You know,
they had been to the NBA Finals. Then they had
a sixty four win season, any and disappointment and they're like,
you know, we need Kevin Durant. We didn't get Kevin Durant,
and they gutted their roster. They gutted the depth on
that Phoenix roster and it was a disaster. A disaster

(03:53):
to the level where you had the highest payroll in
the NBA and you couldn't even get into the play round.
I mean that it doesn't get much worse than that.
And so I guess the question is what value does
Kevin Durant actually have. No one's denying that Kevin Durant
is one of the great players in the history of
the NBA. But is he a difference maker in terms

(04:16):
of a team going the next level and becoming a
championship caliber team. Let's trace back right, He's at Oklahoma City.
They have a frustrating loss of the Golden State Warriors,
and instead of saying, hey, let's try another time, he
jumps ship. He goes to Golden State, where he plays great.
He's in the prime of his career, but he was
joining a team that just won seventy three games. They

(04:38):
win a couple of championships, then they had the loss
of the Raptors, and then he decides, you know what,
I don't want to be here anymore, and he goes
to Brooklyn. You know, they're going to build a super
team with the nets that didn't work. Then he goes
to Phoenix with a super trio that doesn't work. Now
he's going to be thirty seven in September. So the
question that I have is, do you really believe that

(04:59):
Kevin d Rant is the guy that's going to take
a relatively young Houston team over the top and get
what they believe they've gotten now is a championship by
adding Kevin Durant to the roster.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
I don't think so. But I also don't think they're
winning is currently constructed either, Right, Like, we've kind of
seen the peak of this current Houston team, which was
a very good seed in the playoffs, but not a
lot of experience and obviously not a lot of tenure
in the postseason. So I like the aggression of Houston.
They're still a very young team at their core. Again,
I think they kept three very good players, especially Am

(05:36):
and Thompson and send you and who were very good
all season long. And because you get out of Green's
contract and you're not gonna have to lock up Katie
long term, I do think there is some room here
for Houston to make another move and to continue to add.
And obviously you give up the draft pick, and that's
not ideal. The tenth pick is a good asset, but
if you had Green on your team, you know, what

(05:57):
are you really drafting in that spot, because as you're
really tied up with his contract. So I see why
Houston wanted to be aggressive here. I think for Phoenix,
you just you didn't have a choice, right, And we've
seen this before with James Harden. We've seen this before KD,
We've seen this before in other situations. The stars, the
players have all the power in these scenarios. And if Phoenix,

(06:20):
if Katie's like, hey, I'm done here, what's Phoenix gonna
really do? So I think, just based off of where
the trade originated, from it originated from a place of
desperation for the Suns. That right, there is a win
for the Rockets. And then based off of kind of
the dynamics here and getting out from Green's contract, I

(06:40):
do think this is a win long term for for
Houston because you still have a chance to win next year.
I don't think they got worse by adding Kevin Durant
and trading Jalen Green. In fact, I think the Dylan
Brooks volatility and he's a very he's up, he's down.
I do think if Kevin Durant's on the floor, you
have a very high floor there, and then the scene
might be a little bit lower, because again Green and

(07:02):
Brooks are probably, you know, together, maybe a higher ceiling.
But I still think Houston can make some moves here
based off of the way their roster is constructed.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
All Right, So I spent a lot of time in
the Phoenix area of these stays here, and let's take
the Suns at it. Okay, now what do you got?
All right? Now, we knew there wasn't any chance that
we're going to be able to move that Bradley Beale contract.
You got Devin Booker, who's still the heart and soul
of this team, and he's under contracts through the twenty
eight season. And then you got a bunch of guys. Now,

(07:29):
all of a sudden, you add Dylan Brooks, you know,
you add Green, You're adding players. Does that move the
needle at all in your opinion for the Phoenix.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Suns Beal, Booker, Green, Brooks is not. That does not
do much for me, honestly, And I think it's more
just you know, who's the alpha in that in that room?
Is it going to be still that battle between Beale
and Booker? And there's Jalen Green now who's on a
rookie max deal, like massive deal, thirty three million dollar

(07:59):
cap hit for twenty three year old, a very unproven player.
You know what's what's that dynamic going to look like?
And again, this is Phoenix is they were forced to
do this, right. I don't know what the other deals
look like either. I think that's the hardest part of this.
From like an analyst perspective, I would have loved to
see what the Spurs and Heat and all these other
offers were because it would have made the assessment on

(08:22):
the choice Phoenix made much better. Because now Phoenix is
very reliant on Jalen Green, like he has to be
a big time player for them or else it's going
to be a really rough year.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, And if you look at again, they had the
highest payroll in the league right now, projected to be
the second highest payroll in the league next year. So
there's no relief for the Phoenix Suns right now. Just
it's amazing, you know. You know, one of the things
I want to get into you today is the situation
with the Lakers. And you know, when we talk about,

(08:52):
you know, every sport's different on how you spend money.
In the NBA, people don't really understand. It's not just
the fact that there is a salary cap in the NBA.
It's the penalties if you exceed the cap. I mean,
it's not just like Okay, you're gonna have to pay extra,
like your first round pick drops to the back of

(09:13):
the pack. I mean there's a lot of a lot
of things that they have put into place to prevent
teams to essentially buy themselves an NBA championship. Are you
four against that? I mean, what is your gut feeling
about some of the severe penalties that the NBA is
laid down so that you know, someone just can't come
in and spend money and say, I don't care about

(09:35):
that luxury tax, I'll pay whatever it takes I want to.
And they've done a lot to try to prevent that
from happening. Are you a fan of that? Well, the
cap goes up so much every year. It's it's such
a it's like the goalpols.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Are always moving. So it's really hard to say I'm
for against something that next year will be completely different,
and odds are it will continue to change because we're honestly,
the ratings this year at the NBA and the way
the TV deals are going like it could be a
really interesting next decade for them. Based off of what's
going to happen, I would say I'm for it because

(10:09):
I don't like I'll be honest, I think the way
the NBA structured, you can get around it, So I
don't really think it matters, to be honest with you.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, And again when we talk about the situation with
the Lakers and Mark Walter taking over now is the
controlling owner of the Lakers, and you know, I've had
first hand, you know, to watch this guy and how
he operates the Dodgers. He's he's a guy that says, look,
I have money to do things Forget the cap. I
understand the cap. That's not the problem. The problem is

(10:38):
expanding the organization something that the Bus family just did
not have the kind of money to pay top dollar
for top coaches. That's why you had Darvin Ham. I mean,
this is why you have JJ Reddick as a coach.
I mean, you know you want top level coaches. I
remember when ty lu was talking to Lakers and he
woned like a five year deal. The guy had a
resume that included in an NBA championship, and They're like,

(11:00):
we can't do that. We just we can't give you
that kind of a deal. So they were missing out.
I saw another step, Jared, where the Oklahoma City Thunder
have something like eighty eight people in their personnel department.
The Lakers have fifty six. So you know, there's this
been this misnomer that the Lakers are this rich organization

(11:21):
that just has all this money to spend. That is
not the case. But with Mark Welter, now they do
have that situation. I think, and I've known Genie Buss
forever and I know that she was committed to obviously
building on her father's legacy, because I've said this time
and again, not only was Jerry Buss the biggest name

(11:42):
and the most valuable owner in LA sports history, he's
the most valuable owner in NBA history. No one did
more as an owner for the expansion of the National
Basketball Association than Jerry Buss. They just weren't able to
keep it going because he was a cash poor guy.
Everything was leveraged, you know, when he bought the Lakers

(12:02):
and the Kings and the Forum and everything else, and
so they just weren't in a position to do that.
And I think Genie recognized that she had to get
the consent of her brother and sister and everybody too,
because it was an all or nothing situation for them
to relinquish controlling interest in the Lakers. And they agree
to it, and she's done what's best for the Lakers

(12:23):
because ultimately, you know, how the Lakers do will always
reflect on the legacy of her father.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
And I'll be honest, like the trend of Walter and
private equity becoming a thing in sports like this is
a big deal. So fun fact about me isact she
used to work on Wall Street as a financial advisor,
like another life ago. So I remember sitting in a
meeting once where I heard a lot of this kind
of chatter like, Hey, you know this is like ten

(12:51):
years ago. So I was very disconnected from it now,
but back then I was very involved with Hey, it'd
be cool if I if I could be part of
a group that would get involved with an NBA team
or an MLAIT team. Twenty out of the thirty NBA
teams now have private equity backing, like this is not
rare anymore. The NFL it is a little bit more rare,

(13:14):
only ten out of the thirty two teams. Major League Baseball,
it's about half NHL. It's a little bit less than that.
But in the NBA, especially because of the things you're
mentioning with the salary cap and all of these weird
levers that get pulled, you need a lot of money
to operate, a lot of cash. And I think private
equity ownership in the NBA will only continue to increase

(13:37):
over the next decade.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
No question. And again this ten billion dollar price tag, yeah,
I don't know where they came up with that number.
I mean, they'd print.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Money these days. They make it a real, I t
all ones and zero.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
I mean, I was shocked when the Celtics, you know,
were sold for six point one. But you know somebody
just said, yeah, ten billion dollars for the Lakers. Do
you think there's a.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
Conspiracy with the Luca trade? I've heard, I've heard. I mean, listen,
you know they make this trade and the family was
willing to They wanted to sell, so they know they
want to how do we increase the value of our
franchise before we sell?

Speaker 2 (14:09):
All right? On the other side, I want to get
into that because obviously it's not about just about Luca,
because I understand this about Mark Welter. I mean, he
is a guy that he hires people. He hires the best.
That's what he did with the Dodgers, right, I'm gonna
hire the best people. I'm gonna spend money to make
this the best organization possible. Now, obviously there's no salary

(14:31):
cap restrictions in Major League Baseball, so he's gonna spend
that money as well. But there's a lot of pieces here,
including the future of Lebron James with the Laker organization.
We'll get into that, and of course we're gonna get
you updated on what's going to happen with Game seven
tonight between the Pacers and the Thunder. This is Fox

(14:51):
Sports Sunday.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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dot com. Within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to listen live.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
Steve Harbn, Jared Smith with here, Fox Sports Sunday and
the Fox Sports Radio studios. Now you can stream this
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(15:24):
on your radio dial, So be sure to preset Fox
Sports Radio on the iHeartRadio app and I'll always pop
up at the top of your screen. All right, coming up,
we're going to get a little more in depth on
tonight's Game seven between the Pacers and the Thunder. But
right now we're talking about the aftermath of this huge
deal in which Kevin Durant is now joining the Houston Rockets,

(15:46):
and also the Lakers situation now before we get to
the Lakers situation with Luca and Lebron and obviously with
Mark Walter taking over as controlling owner of that franchise,
I want to ask you this about the Rockets now.
The last time I checked the futures for you know,
MEBA Champions for the twenty five to twenty six season. Okay, see,
obviously the overwhelming favorite. I saw Houston second on that list,

(16:11):
am I right? I saw Houston and I saw Nicks Pacers.
Obviously the Celtics down with the Jason Tatum situation. What
is your guess about how that's going to play out
in terms of the Rockets futures going into next season
with the addition of Kevin Durant.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
It's actually a good question. Let's pull that up and
see what was going on here with these team futures
for next year.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah, how about that?

Speaker 1 (16:40):
The Rockets are the second favorite? Now? It really is wild.
I think the Pacers are probably a little bit too
high on this list. Frankly, I agree plus nine. I
mean again, I think that's recency bias baking in our
kind of agenda there. I think the Cavs are probably
a little bit miss priced, like they're there. I think

(17:02):
they're going to be a number one or number two
seed in the East. Again, obviously you mentioned Tatum being
out pushes the Celtics number down pretty far. I think
you can make a case, you can make a case
that if the Spurs can figure things out, they will
have some noise to make. But they're they're I think
a little bit too high on the list, frankly, and

(17:23):
I wouldn't put the Lakers anywhere in the top ten.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Well that let me I know we're reading the same list.
So the way right now, the OKC one rockets to Knicks,
three pacers for calvs. Five Timberwolves, six Lakers seven.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
The Lakes get out of the eight, Spurs, nine, Warriors, ten,
the Celtics all the way down to eleven. We're actually
tied with ten with Golden State. So that's your top
ten in terms of the futures on. You know who's
going to win the NBA Championship next year? All right,
So let's switch gears to the Lakers right now, and
what exactly Mark Walter can do. All right, First, there's

(17:59):
two orders of business right now, Jared with the Lakers.
One is they've got to get they got to get
Luca to sign a contract. Yeah, you know, that's a
little bit of a hurdle. But his initial response to
the news about Mark Walter, who by the way, had
an interest memory he bought out and shoots his twenty

(18:20):
seven percent. He and his partner I bought out that
twenty seven percent. They had the right of first refusal
to get majority interest in the franchise. That's how he
is in that position that he is right now. But
the initial response from Luca was twofold one. He said
he was very excited to meet Mark and certainly has

(18:40):
recognized what he did with the Dodger organization. He also
said he was happy that at least temporarily, Genie Bus
will be retain as governor. The Bus family will now
own a minorityist or. It's about fifteen percent. But let's
make it clear, Genie Bus is not making any more decisions. Okay,
that is over. Every decision will now be made by

(19:03):
Mark Walter moving forward for Laker organization. I think that
Luca likes it. He understands, as you were explaining earlier, Jared,
the financial needs of a franchise in the NBA. If
you're going to build the best organization. Yes, there's a cap,
there are restrictions in terms of personnel, and you've got
to make the right moves in the personnel situation. But

(19:26):
it's the other stuff where there isn't a salary cap,
how much money you pay the coaches or your personnel
department or anything else with the organization that is going
to change dramatically for the Lakers. And if you're Luka Dancic,
what more do you want?

Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, it's I think it's a tough situation. Frankly, I
don't like the way the Lakers are currently constructed.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
I agree.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
It's just it's two dudes and nothing.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
Okay, let me can I jump in this or sir,
I'm glad you're going there because I'm with you one
hundred percent. All right. So, when it was leaked out
that Lebron was going to pick up his option, okay,
he's going to exercise his player option for fifty two
million plus for next season. If he does that, by
the way, because of the Sally Kap restrictions, it would

(20:12):
really prevent the Lakers from having any money to get
the kind of impact big man that they desperately need
right now. Yep, he that you'd be out of the market.
You would not be able to do that to me.
That story was leaked by Lebron's people saying like, we're
trying to get a new deal done here, but if
you can, we'll screw it. We'll just take the fifty

(20:33):
two million, and you're all screwed because the Lakers will
be identical to the team they had a year ago,
which isn't very good. So it'll be interesting now with
the Mark Walter situation to see a can you address
the idea because this organization does not need Lebron James anymore.

(20:53):
I mean I would say, fine, we'll give you your
fifty times. We're trading you immediately because this Tea is
not your team. It's one hundred percent Lucas team. Laker
fans have looked over the seven years that Lebron has
been there, Jared, here's what you got. Five seasons either
missing the playoffs or out in the first round out

(21:14):
of seven. Five you had some miracle run a couple
of years ago to the conference finals, and then a
championship that barely anyone recognizes. Certainly there was no parade
or anything else. It was a bubble championship. That's it.
So there is I'm telling you, Jared, I've been around
the Lakers forever. Laker fans have never identified with Lebron.
They're not loyal to Lebron, and the immediate excitement to

(21:36):
see Luka Doncic in the Lakers uniform spoke volumes. So
the idea of you know, Mark Walter walks in and says,
all right, first things first, we need to address this
Lebron James situation because the days of him dictating where
this organization and going are over one hundred percent. And
if you're not happy with that, we're going to get

(21:58):
rid of you immediately.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
I agree with that assessment. I think the youth is
something the Lakers are, you know, needing to find. I
don't see a whole lot. In fact, I'm looking at
the roster right now. Outside of Bronnie and Dalton connect
no one's under twenty five. Yeah, I mean, it's just
it's a very aging roster. There's not a true center.
You've got Lebron, who I think at his career, at

(22:22):
this stage of his career, I mean, saying he's worth
fifty two million is just insane like that, that's just insane.
I think Luca's worth what he's getting, and lucas a
transformative player. I remember he's been in the finals, you know,
two years ago, but he had Kyrie Irving in his prime,
and he had a really good supporting cast that year,
really good defensive team too, some really good defensive pieces.

(22:44):
And I think that's another thing that the Lakers lack
is just that you know that fiery, intense defender who's
gonna set the tone and be kind of the culture guy.
And I think that's the biggest issue right now, is
how do you rebuild a team that is so strapped
for ash That's why they sold the team like that
is one hundred percent why they wanted to sell this team.

(23:05):
And that's why the trade for Luca four months before
the sale happens is super intriguing, because then you throw
in the fact that the NBA will likely expand this summer.
I'm hearing it could be two teams. And if you
raise the value of the most expensive team in the

(23:26):
league right before you expand, then you raise the rising
tide lifts all boats. You raise the value of those
incoming teams as well. Okay, I'm not a conspiracy theory,
But there's a lot of things, Jared.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
Come on, let's say I agree with you that I'm
not a big conspiracy guy either, except when it comes
to the NBA.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
It's hard to deny this stuff.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
And then the matter the number one pay chance of
getting there, it's hard.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
To keep making it claims that there's not a conspiracy there.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
Going back to Stern pointing out that frozen, you know
car New York Knicks again, I'm Patrick Ewing, So yeah,
I'm with you on the conspiracy thing, but it's it's
beyond coincidence how things seem to fall into place constantly
in terms of what's best for the NBA. So, like
you said, it was very similar to you know, when
Bomber bought the Clippers for two billion dollars when they

(24:17):
had a market value of half a billion. It raised
the bar for the franchise value of all the teams,
and so all of a sudden, this arbitrary ten billion
dollars for the Lakers. I was like, wow, you know
this is it is more than a coincidence. So yeah,
call it a conspiracy, call it what you will. But
the NBA, by the way, what's very interesting about to

(24:40):
tonight's Game seven. They don't need the extender officiating a
game seven's not going to be on the floor, So
he's not on the floor. You don't need the extender
on the floor to We're okay, well, we'll just play
this one out. Whatever happens happened, all right. So we
got a lot on Game seven tonight, But first let's
find out what is trending right now now. Monci Jared

(25:06):
is a diehard Clippers fan, a true Clippers fan, I know,
And so what do you make of this whole situation
with the Laker organization? What do you think about the durant?
By the way, I'm looking at your Clippers right now,
plus four thousand to win the championship, right yere?

Speaker 4 (25:22):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
By the way, they're listed behind the Dallas Mavericks.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
We're right there, you guys.

Speaker 5 (25:28):
When you least expect us is when we're gonna come
in and swoop here.

Speaker 4 (25:33):
Listen.

Speaker 5 (25:33):
I think this is really great for Houston. Houston needed
a scorer. They could not give the ball to somebody
be like, hey, go get me a basket in these
final two minutes of the game.

Speaker 4 (25:45):
And so I think that's really.

Speaker 5 (25:46):
Beneficial for Houston, the scoring scoring by committee was not
working for them like it is for the Pacers. They
didn't have a guy. They got to keep alpri and Shangoon.
They extended Stephen Adams. I think this is a good
move for Houston.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
If they can Durant on the court, they.

Speaker 4 (26:01):
Can keep Durant on the court.

Speaker 5 (26:02):
And obviously, like I also really like this for Jalen Green.

Speaker 4 (26:06):
He was not it was not working for him in Houston.
The expectation he was.

Speaker 5 (26:11):
Not living up to it. He needed a change of scenery.
I don't know what's gonna happen with the Suns. I
don't think the Suns are in any position to make
a splash, but I think they helped.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
You had no choice, That's what Jared said.

Speaker 4 (26:25):
But I'm looking forward to see what Jalen Green can
maybe get out of this.

Speaker 5 (26:28):
Because me twenty three, but he wasn't progressing the way
people thought already, and so I'm happy for him to
be moving on. But I do think this does make
the Rockets better in a in an already hard Western conference.
I am going to give credit to Kevin Durant because
you know he had a say in this.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
You know he approved it.

Speaker 5 (26:50):
He stayed in the Western Conference, he didn't go to
the Eastern Conference. That is a wide open shot for
next year because you don't know what's going to happen.

Speaker 4 (26:57):
So give him credit for that.

Speaker 5 (26:59):
The Lakers, I cannot believe they sold the Lakers, Like
we're never going to see families owning teams like this again.

Speaker 4 (27:06):
And for them to I get ten billion dollars is
a lot of money.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
I really do.

Speaker 4 (27:09):
But I don't know if I would have sold the
Lakers for any amount of money.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
I really believe this because I've known Genie that. I mean,
you could say, all right, find the Bust children cash out,
which is great, it's great, you know what, let's have
the money while we're around to actually enjoy the money.
But her just her, she wants to get the legacy
back to her father's franchise, right, and they just did

(27:35):
not have the financial means and Mark Walter does so
she's doing what's best for the Bust family in terms
of cashing out, but also what's best for the Laker organization.

Speaker 5 (27:43):
Movie for But is it really that you need that
much money with the second apron, Like it's almost like
having this money doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
It's not about that. It's about building an organization, spending
top dollar for coaches, personnel, department, and everything else. They
did not have back to the money.

Speaker 5 (27:58):
It's bringing in rambuses to her friends to run things
exactly like.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
The problem was the decision she made early on. It
wasn't the lack of funds. It was just this. This
was a built up of back decisions.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
Tyler was interested in joining the Lakers as coach. They
couldn't come up with the money that he wanted. Guess
who did Clippers?

Speaker 4 (28:16):
Yeah, clip, well yeah, well welcome.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yes, Yes, it's an advantage you have, Steve Bombers. You'll
own it.

Speaker 5 (28:21):
It is.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
It is an advantage.

Speaker 4 (28:22):
It is an advantage. I just I can't believe it.
I don't know. I can't believe it. But yes, durant
to the Houston Rockets. That's right.

Speaker 5 (28:29):
Game seven, two greatest words of the sports Pacers Thunders.
That's gonna tip off at eighth Eastern and it's gonna
start soon. Game two of the men's College World Series
Final between LSU and Coastal Carolina.

Speaker 4 (28:39):
It's supposed to start any minute now.

Speaker 5 (28:40):
Tigers do lead the series one zero, and it's a
best of three series. We'll move on to baseball, where
the Yankees have taken the lead.

Speaker 4 (28:47):
From the Oriols.

Speaker 5 (28:48):
They are now up four to two in the Bronx.
It is the top of the ninth inning, so if
they hold on, they'll win this one. The Tigers have
extended their lead over the Rays. It's eight to one.
Top of the ninth inning. Rangers are blanking the Pirates
two zero after three innings. White sox on the scoreboard,
so they're edging the Blue Jays one zero after four innings.
The Braves and the Marlins are still tied at two
a piece. Top of the fourth Twins on top of

(29:09):
the Brewers at home to one.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
Top of the second inning. The Reds are on top
of the Cardinals, Yes, one zero.

Speaker 5 (29:15):
Top of the second inning, and cal Raley has homered again.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
It's unbelievable. Who would have thought that cal Rawley, the
catcher for the Mariners, is more home runs than RBIs
than Aaron Judge.

Speaker 5 (29:25):
I'm saying he already homered in this game that just
started to run Homer Mariners up on the Cubs in
Chicago one after the first period.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
An unreal under honestly, and thank you very much right, job.
I mean, wouldn't be unbelievable, Jared if cal Rawley, the
catcher for the Mariners, were to break Aaron Judges America
Leak record of sixty two home runs in the season.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
Oh, that's great, Yes, And how about this, Aaron Judge
is still minus thirty five hundred to win the MVP. Wow,
which is like, you know, you don't even want to
bet it because it's such an astronomical problem.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
I mean, Carowally ends up as a catcher with sixty
homers and one hundred and forty runs batted in.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
He's gonna get a lot of votes.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
He's gonna get votes.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
But I still think Judge will win it. I think
the only way, either Otani or Judge. And by the way,
I looked this up the other day because I just
I couldn't fathom a time in history where we had
consecutive MVPs in the same league back to back years.
It's never happened. It almost happened in the early nineties.
We had Bonds and Frank Thomas overlapped by a year,
but they both were on the other end of it

(30:27):
was like ninety two, ninety three and then ninety three
ninety four, so they both won it one year and
then the other guys were kind of alternating bookends. But
we've never had at least not to my knowledge, that
I went back.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
I didn't stop that time. I know the history of
the as how many a year, And I'll tell you
who won the two m vps anywhere. Just packetty your
team forty eight nineteen forty eight the Nation League MVP
with Stam Muzio's third and Lou Boudreau won the American
Leagume that's insane, Okay.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
That Steve, that is insane, that you can do that,
that's insane.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
But that's what I do. Jeriusy, That's that's what I thought.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
I had useless knowledge of my head. I can name
every state capital.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
I'll even make a one step further the runner ups
for the m VP. That yeah, Johnny's saying for the
Boston Braids in then actual league, and it was Joe
DiMaggio in the American League with the New York Yankees. Look,
I'm gonna we're gonna have to st I know brain,
all right, So keep keep the brain moving, all right.
So let's let's move. Let's move to the presence, right,
now as we get ready for this Game seven of

(31:24):
the NBA Finals, and and before we get into a
lot of what I want from you, Jared today is
you know people are you know, we've got an all
day long here is get ready for this game? You
want to make some plays and everything else? Might I
have to admit, So you know, I went into these
NBA Finals thinking, all right, let's let's look at the numbers.
You got the Oklahoma City Thunder who had arguably one

(31:47):
of the top ten least on paper regular seasons in
NBA history. They won sixty eight games by an average
argan of what twelve thirteen points a game in a
vastly superior conference, the Western Conference. And then on the
other side, he had the fourth seed in the East.
I mean it's like, okay, you know we were making

(32:08):
our you know, pre NBA Finals predictions. I said, you know,
I want to say a sweep, I'll give Indiana a
game in a gig. I had, ok yeah, so exactly,
so you know that that's where we're at. And then
Game one happens, which was a repeat of what happened
in their Game one against the Nuggets. And so as

(32:29):
this series has progressed, and I've watched these lapses by
this OKAC team where they just seem to go brain
dead on the court. I had a couple of takeaways. One,
I'm looking at their coach Dagnault, and I'm like, okay,
so this guy was a G league coach for them,
and then Billy Donovan leaves, they hand him the team.

(32:50):
At that point, Okay, see was a twenty twenty five
win team, so nobody really cares. But now that they
have ascended to this level and of course in a
great position to build on it, considering they have five
first round picks over the next two years, it seemed
really the right guy. Because when I see a team
with talent underperform on the biggest stage, as we've seen

(33:11):
many times through these NBA finals, I'm looking at the
coach like, what the hell are you doing? What what
impact are you having on your team because you are
getting schooled by Rick Carlile, who, obviously, have people didn't
already know, is one of the top coaches in the NBA.
The second takeaway, I though had Jared is I was
based in all this you know, praise on OKAC really

(33:36):
sight unseen. You know how many times have the Thunder
been on TV? You know how it is. We get
the Lakers, you get the Celtics. You know, the usual
golden state, the usual suspects of the teams we see
the most of. And now that I'm watching this OKC team,
look shake Gildess. Alexander, along with Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan,
are the only three players to have three consecutive years

(33:59):
of averaging the league thirty points while shooting fifty plus percent.
That's pretty good company. And what he did in Game
four to carry that team to that obviously must win.
Spoke volumes Jayalen Williams, He's had flashes, and then there's
Chet Holmgren. Yeah, and I'm like two for nine shooting soft.

(34:20):
He gets pushed around, and then you're like, what else
do they have? Caruso. I mean, all of a sudden,
I walk away, regardless of what happens tonight, underwhelmed from
what I have seen from this OKASE, I just thought
they were something entirely different than what I've actually seen
in these NBA finals.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
It's very fair. Holmgrim's absence in this series is very
strange because Indiana has no inside presence and he's shooting
less than fifty percent in the restricted area in the series.
They're like that that he's he is a unicorn. He
could not be shooting under forty seven and a half percent.
That's a field goal percentage for like an outside shot. Chrazy,
I'm gonna be making forty forty five percent of my

(35:01):
jump shots from the elbow, not forty seven and a
half percent of my restricted area shots for a seven
foot are facing a team with no inside presence. So
that right there is concerning. I think what Indiana doesn't
have is that elite secondary score, Like it's they're all
kind of secondary scores, Like they don't have the primary

(35:22):
guy right like they might be could use a KD tonight,
right like late game. Who's gonna take this shot? We
think it's gonna be Haliburton as Haliburton healthy, That's the
biggest question there. I like what Carlisle did in Game six,
took Halliburton off the ball for the most part, twenty
one fewer pick and rolls in Game six than we've
seen throughout the rest of the series. So taking him

(35:42):
off the ball, taking the load off of his lower body,
which obviously has had a huge you know, toll physical
toll in this series I think will help because you
get the extra day two of rest going into Game seven.
So all of those things I think favor Indiana. The
market really likes Indiana. We saw this thing open up
eight and a half and now we're down to seven
and a half, and I'll be honest that I'm starting

(36:02):
to see some six and a half s pop up.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
All right, Well, Jared, hold it right there, because on
the other side, I got a couple of thoughts about
some interesting plays. I was talking to Jeff Schwartz yesterday.
He had some plays that he wanted to throw out there.
We're gonna break it all down with Jared Smith. This
is Fox Sports Sunday.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Steve Harbin and Jared Smith with you here Fox Sports Sunday.
We're in the Fox Sports Radio studios. So, as I mentioned,
we're gonna piece together some fun for you between now
the rest of our shows. We get ready for Todnight's
Game seven between the Pacers and the Thunder. Look, I'm

(36:43):
picking the Thunder win this game. I almost feel like
I'm rooting for the Pacers, though, I mean it just
it's it's really weird. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
I would never do. I've rooted against my own teams before.
If I have money. On the other side, I don't
have an I have no loyalty, but my bankroll.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
I I exactly all right, Well, let's I'm gonna throw
something out. Yesterday Jeff Schwartz throw out to me because
I was asking him about some of his best plays.
Nice and so Jeff threw one out that honestly makes
a lot of sense. So if you're looking for certain
trends in this series, one trend, obviously is the fact

(37:18):
that coming off a loss, we see a different OKC team.
You gotta believe, I mean, how big is this in
Oklahoma City? I beyond belief, Like whatever you think, like,
could this get any bigger in Oklahoma City? It's bigger
than that for this game seven tonight. So that place

(37:40):
is going to be beyond rocking at the start of
the game. So I don't know what the line right
now is on the first quarter score, but Jeff Schwartz
said what it was three and a half, four and
a half, whatever it might be. Take the thunder to
cover first quarter your thoughts.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Well, here's the thing about that particular bet, and I
think it's a great angle. The sports books also know
it's a great angle, of course, so you have to
pay a premium for it. For example, the spread for
the full game is seven, so if you divide seven
by four. I'm not a math major, but that's less
than two, right, Yeah, so you would think, okay, so
the first quarter of a full game should be about

(38:22):
one and a half two, it's three, three and a half, right.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
So it's again you're still said he had three and
a half. He said three and a half was yesterday.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
I could see them being up ten at the end
of the first quarter very easily. It's just a it's
just a bet that you are paying. It's like buying
bitcoin at one hundred and ten thousand, like you're buying
the top of the market.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
By the way I saw your bitcoin, I'm.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
Digging to it. So I'm a big I'm a finance
I'm a nerd at heart, Steven.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
Happened yesterday, it didn't. You get a little spike up
after a big down here.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
I know. And then then geopolitical tensions, right, we're not
Fox News. Don't worry.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
We'll get into it all right. So but these are
the type of things you're looking for. And like you say,
if the overall line is seven and somehow the first
quarter over unders three, three and a half, you're like, so, yeah,
they are expecting that Oklahoma City is going to come
out on fire. I guess. I guess one of the
things we're going to be talking about, obviously is the

(39:19):
Haliburton situation, because under normal circumstances, he should not have
even been on the court in Game six. Now, he
told Carlisle, look, if I look less than one hundred
percent or I'm hurting the team, get me off the court.
And Carlisle admit, I didn't see that at all. But
he only played twenty three minutes, and for the Pacers

(39:42):
to win tonight on the road, he's going to have
to play more than twenty three minutes.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
Agreed. But I think they did a good job protecting
him too, a lot fewer picking rolls, he wasn't on
the ball as much. I don't think the injury will Usually,
the way these injuries work, it's usually more of a
factor talking of about it than the actual when it
plays out there in the game.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
All right, So we're going to continue to break down
some of the plays and what should you expect in
tonight's Game seven between the Pacers and the Thunder. Also,
I want to look at some NFL futures. Yeah, yeah,
we've always talked about the NFL, you know that. Much
more coming up here on Fox Sports Sunday. Rolling along
here on to day we utter the two favorite words

(40:23):
in the world of sports. Game seven NBA Finals tonight,
Pacers and Thunder. Once again we're here in the Fox
Sports Radio studios. Plenty more coming up as far as
tonight's matchup is concerned. Also, Jared, we're going to have
what has been a red hot segment here on this

(40:45):
show over these many Sundays Perfets Picks.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
I've heard about this. Yes, very excited for this.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
So and it has to do with over unders, which
is always interesting play in the world that you're very
involved with obviously, overs and unders. So that'll come up
a little bit later on that. Mark Medina, our Fox
Sports Radio MBA insider, will also give us his final
thoughts as we go ready for this matchup tonight between
the Thunder and the Pacers. I want to get a

(41:16):
little NFL news in with you today, Jared, because you
know we had many camps, OTA's all of this kind
of stuff before everyone breaks for the summer, and then
of course we get ready for the start of the season.
And obviously a lot of notice from the get go
as soon as the NFL Draft was in the books
was the Shorter Sanders situation and how he plummeted all

(41:37):
the way to a fifth round pick with the Cleveland Browns,
a team ironically had already taken a quarterback in the draft,
and so Dylan Gabriel is taking to the third round,
and yeah, we're gonna throw out Shudor Sanders in the
fifth round. And and then and then the kid gets
busted for speeding twice in less than a month, Yanks,
And you know, and I know, and this doesn't take

(41:58):
a genius to figure this out. Any other fifth round pick,
any other fifth round pick that was involved in that
kind of repeat, Shenanigan's probably would be already gone, yepyeah,
we're just not gonna I mean, if you don't have
the maturity to understand what's at stake as a fifth
rounder doing whatever it takes to try to actually make

(42:20):
this team, because fifth rounders are far from being guaranteed
a ticket to the NFL. If you don't understand that,
if you're so arrogant to believe that none of that
matters for you to make this team, you're gone. Almost
any fifth rounder that would be a ticket out of town.
But not Uch Door Sanders, which and I asked again,

(42:43):
Jeff Schwartz is yesterday Jerry as a former offensive lineman,
because I talk about by the nature of the position quarterback,
you need to be a leader, and leaders are not.
You can't be just you're the leader of the team.
That's not the way leadership works. A leader, by definition,
is someone that inspires others to follow. You have to

(43:06):
and it could be you know, your personality, it could
just be the caliber or your play, whatever it is
about you. You are a leader that people are going
to follow, which is necessary in the NFL if you're
going to play the quarterback position. And I only can
imagine veterans on that Cleveland Browns team looking at this
kid like your sense of privilege is overwhelming, yep, And

(43:32):
to try to respect you as a leader when you've
already shown that you don't understand a certain level of
responsibility as an adult. I mean, you, look, it's not
like look at I have my driving record at his
age was worse, to be honest with you, but I

(43:54):
wasn't being asked to be the quarterback of an NFL
team either. And so I just want to get your
thoughts now on where this puts the Cleveland Browns, uh
with this Shador Sanders current situation, because again, when you
look at the Browns, they probably were, you know, two
years ago. They get Joe Flacco off the couch, you know,

(44:17):
and they make a run to the playoffs. It wasn't
pretty in the playoffs, but they got to the playoffs.
Last year. It was just you know, they're not that bad,
but they need to have some kind of stability at
the quarterback position. But what's your overall view of how
the Browns should handle the Shudoor Sanders situation and how
do you think it will affect the Browns movie before.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
Well, it's funny because when he was drafted, if you
go back and watch the screen shot or at the
live video feed of Andrew Berry and the Browns brass
when they were making the pick, it almost looked like
they were all on their way to the dentist office,
right like they just it was just like, oh, we
got to make this pick, and it makes me think
that maybe Jimmy Asl may to call something else happened, say.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
I'm with you. We are all watching in the draft. Yeah,
and you could just see every every single pick in
the draft. These people are high five have ever.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
You know, and that one pick was just like yeah,
So I think right there out of the gate they
kind of like the Suns trading kd They they kind
of had to take Shador And I know that for
two reasons. One, as we just mentioned the look, but
also you don't draft Dylan Gabriel in the round before
and then take Shador the next round, like do you

(45:27):
just that's not something. I think it was two rounds
later whenever they took Gabriel rounds well before they took Shador.
Usually when you're drafting a backup quarterback, and based on
everything we heard from Cleveland, they actually wanted to give
Kenny Picktt a chance, and they brought in Joe Flacco
and they had plenty of options, and so when you
take a guy like Dylan Gabriel, I think it was
the late late stages of the third round. Usually that's

(45:51):
the backup quarterback and you don't double down on that
position right away, you allowed Dylan gabral to come in
and maybe win the job. I don't think Dylan Gabriel
like personally, I wouldn't have drafted him in that spot.
But Cleveland saw something they liked and they took him,
and then they took Shador And you're thinking herself, Okay,
let's give him a chance. He maybe took his medicine

(46:14):
here and hopefully he learned something from this experience. Obviously
not right, And I know he didn't commit a major
crime here, Like on the level of crimes, speeding is
very low on the list, but once you get over
that like ninety mile an hour threshold, then you could
really cause some major major harm to someone. And the

(46:37):
fact that there was just no awareness of the situation
right like after what happened. You're on a very tight leash,
very thin ice, and for you not to have awareness
in those situations, I think kind of speaks more to
the overall maturity level of Shador Sanders. But also in

(46:58):
side note, if I was drafted in the NFL, if
I was a professional athlete, I would never drive anywhere. Never.
In fact, if I was the GM of a team
in every contract, especially for the young kids, the rookies,
you know, the guys that really don't have that maturity
level yet. I would mandate that they can't drive anywhere,
especially after dark. You know, if you're driving somewhere early

(47:20):
in the morning, late at night, you're taking an uber.
We have an uber service, give us a call and
we'll pick you up. But I just think there's this
level of entitlement that seeps into some of these kids' heads.
They think they're invincible. We live in a very i'll
call it narcissistic generation. And now you're seeing the impact
of it.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
No, I couldn't. Everything you're saying is right on the money,
because this is what it is. It is a generation
of privilege. Look, I have three children in their twenties.
Then I love dearly. So there are enough fantastic people.
But there are times you raise them right though, and
well I mean yeah, I mean their mother has been

(48:02):
tough on it and much more than me. But there
are times when I have to take a step back.
And you know how it is when when you talk
to your parents and in the old days and you know,
now I'm in that position, and it's like, yeah, what
things were and They're like, well, the world's changed, Dad.
I'm like, okay, but I mean there are certain consistencies about,

(48:25):
you know, how to be successful in your personal life
and your professional life. There's certain things that are pretty
consistent over the years. You know, if you work hard
and stay out of trouble and make the right choices.
I mean, life is just a series of choices, you know,
this way that way. You know, every day we are
faced with countless choices that we have to make, and

(48:48):
if you make the right choice most of the time,
that's going to work out for you. So but if
you're a repeat offender, I you know, you look at
the Cleveland b let me ask about that division in particular.
I'm just fascinated by the NFC North right now, the
AFC North, they me, so, the AFC North right now?

(49:08):
You got the Brown situation and whatever that is. Right now,
you got a Cincinnati Bengals team, what they're over runners?
What ten and a half? Am I right on that?
Ten and a half?

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Yeah, I think it's I think it's gone down a
little bit.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
I mean, one of the worst defenses in the league,
you know, and they were, you know, playing around with
the Trey Hendrickson situation. I mean, you know, this is
a cheap organization. Understand this, Mike Brown runs as cheap
an operation as there is in the NFL. And now,
no matter how great Joe Burrow, by the way, Joe
Burrow was my preseason peak pick to be the MVP.

(49:44):
He honestly could have easily have been the MVP when
you look at the numbers he put up, but not
on a team that obviously, you know, flames out and
doesn't get to the playoffs. He got the Bengals out there.
Then the Steelers situation obviously with Aaron Rodgers. But here's
the thing about the Steelers and the Ravens. So your
Ravens are overwhelming, so they can't beat the Steelers. You know,
Mike Tomlin basically owns John Harbaugh for whatever reason. What

(50:08):
do you make of that AFC North right now as
we are still far away from the kickoff of the season,
although he'll be here hopefully sooner rather than later. But
what do you make of the makeup and really all
the interesting storylines coming out of just one division.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
It's a fun division, oh, I mean, it really is.
And yeah, so the Bengals went total nine and a
half juice to the over, So it's like ten, yeah,
nine point seventy five. I would bet the under, and
you've got a lot of moving parts to play. Let's
just start with Cincinnati. So why are you not signing
Trey Hendrickson to a long term deal? That's the first

(50:45):
question I have. And did you make the very good
point about, you know, Mike Brown being a very cheap owner.
I would even take it a step further. So, the
longest ten year GM in the league. I'm not counting
Jerry Jones because he's the owner of the team, but
he's he is the longest ten year GM in the
league officially, but outside of people who own the team,
the longest ten year GM in the league is Duke Tobin.

(51:09):
He's been there twenty six years. He allowed the stench
of Marvin Lewis to waft for a very long time
until they finally moved on from that. They are historically
frugal with how they not only pay the coaches, but
their entire staff, right the analytics, like they're just a

(51:29):
team that is not operating at the twenty twenty five level.
And then you talk about the defense. They had a
great defensive coordinator lou Anarumo. I don't know what happened.
Maybe it was personnel, maybe it was something else behind
the scenes, but that fell off a cliff And so
you're thinking to yourself, Okay, Duke Tobin, here's the deck
of cards here being dealt here. Your defense is terrible.

(51:52):
You've got a great offense, you have a generational talent
a quarterback. You signed t Higgins, Thank goodness, you signed
Jamar Chase, Thank goodness he kept Joe Burrow happy. Keep
him up bright. Because your offensive line's terrible. But at
least you signed the guys that are the key pieces.
But now you need a defense and you got Hendrickson,
who I think probably was asking for a lot, but

(52:12):
to be fair, he accounted for what he has, like
seventeen sacks and back to back years. I think he
was like thirty five percent pressure right last year, which
is the most of one player combined. And then you
don't he's not happy. So then what do you do
in the draft? All right, you drafted guy to replace him,
makes a ton of sense. And then what do you
do after you draft him? Then you have this weird

(52:33):
contract language thing where you can't get him signed so
it just it's like, I don't understand the plan, Like,
what's the plan you bringing? Al Golden did a great
job at Notre Dame last year. I think the defense
has a chance to be better, But you're not going
to be better if you can't get pressure on the
quarterback and the guys that you are tasked to doing
that are not happy. Hendrickson, I think you probably at

(52:55):
this point just need to sign him and shut up
and pay him. And Shamar Stewart he hasn't even played
a snack yet and he's already upset. So it just
feels like Cincinnati is stuck in the mud, and it
feels like they've been stuck in the mud. Doesn't matter
what kind of here Joe Burrow has. What are the
odds that he replicates his MVP season from last year.
I would say not as not very likely. He's probably

(53:15):
going to take at least one step back. So if
you're not going to get that kind of production, but
you're not addressing your defense, like it just again, what's
your plan here, Duke? You've been now doing this job
for twenty five plus years and it seems like it's
your first year on the job, Like It's just it's
a very strange situation in Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
It really is. And that's why. On the other side,
I want to get into the Pittsburgh situation because I'm
I'm baffled. I and I'll explain why why there is
so little respect for the Steelers going into this twenty
twenty five season. Also coming up, we're going to have
the Perfets picks of the over unders. Chris, are you

(53:52):
going to be ready for that? At some point?

Speaker 6 (53:54):
We're always ready, always the s to this though, Yes,
oh wow, I branding, branding needs to be.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
The Perfet picks. But I say, because they are your picks. No,
I know this.

Speaker 6 (54:07):
This is like listen, I grew up around Michigan and
let me tell you, we are the kings of adding
an s onto it. There is a grocery store up
there called Meyer and everyone talks about is Myers.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
Yes, so like yeah, well, it's the same thing with
the NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Final. Yes, so
you go final.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
A jay just like everyone thinks.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
Right, we roll on here. This is Fox Sports Sunday,
Steve Harbin and Jared Smith Fox Sports Sunday. We're in
the Fox Sports Radio studios. I'm gonna get my thoughts
on the Steelers situation. But first it's that time, precise,
profitable over under a half a flagrant?

Speaker 1 (54:53):
Are your perfect picks?

Speaker 7 (54:55):
All right?

Speaker 2 (54:55):
So the perfet picks? Chris? Yes, how's the look today?
It's all you need to update us. So from the standings,
where are we right? So, Jared, first off, welcome to
the perfect picks.

Speaker 6 (55:06):
I did get DJ's picks on the side here, so
at least have that for the record. But Jared, you
are more than free, as our guest, obviously, to make
any of the picks you want here.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
By the way, I might, if I might do this. Okay,
So you say that you have Vj's pick, Well, I'm
going to do it. Do you want to not? If
you're not cheating, you're not trying, I'm gonna. I'm gonna
then have Jared make his picks. And then they saw
those two picks, and I'll make my picks. Yeah, I
won't help you. Okay, Well we'll see where are the
current standings?

Speaker 6 (55:36):
So I think VJ had expected this. As we get closer,
a couple notes here. First off, let's go over the
picks we had from last week days until the knicks Hire.
The knicks hire a head coach. We did have that
at seven and a half. There still hasn't been one yet.
I am going to say that is going over. So
that is a point to Steve and that front times.

(55:56):
My dad will appear on TV during Oakmont, Jared, my
dad is a USGA official and goes to the Yes,
he did not appear on Father's Day unfortunately, So that
is a.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
Point to both you and VJ.

Speaker 6 (56:11):
And USA in the Gold Cup has won two matches,
so I mean six points, they go over three and
a half.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
That is your loss, Steve.

Speaker 3 (56:19):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (56:20):
And then fun thing happened with the College World Series
Jello shots. So you guys told me seven thousand and
a half was wildly over LS who wasn't gonna yes,
get in at LSU wasn't there. So not only is
LSU in the final, this is all moot because Thursday night,
Coastal Carolina hit seven and thirty five yellow shots. In fact,

(56:42):
if you look at the big board right now at
Rocos of the eight schools in the College World Series,
half are under seven thousand and the other half are
actually they're actually over eight.

Speaker 2 (56:53):
Thousands, right, So Jared are you aware of this jello
shot thing. Yeah, so I chose obliterating all records.

Speaker 6 (57:02):
I just want to say, regardless of how this is
fantastic book making skills by me, if you.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
Again, I didn't think Lsu is going to be a
factor some about my bruins of knock him out.

Speaker 6 (57:12):
The problem is that we had a pretty low score.
I found a sheet of bets that I had not
tabulated to the final score, so that actually puts our
running total right now at Steve at thirteen vj at nine.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
So there's a little bit of nine. It was one
of those banner weeks for you. That's funny because he
texted me growing about how he was dominating me in
the Perfect Picks.

Speaker 6 (57:39):
Well, you guys, you guys basically spent last week two
to two was basically what happened.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
So thirteen nine, all right, So what do we have today, Chris?

Speaker 6 (57:47):
Well, since you guys were just talking, you want to
get the NFL Future out of the way. We've been
doing the NFL Future every week sometimes too. Let's go
Since you guys were talking about Shader Sanders and his speeding,
and I really wanted to put down a total here
of the speed Jedter Sanders. This next caught at over
under ninety five and a half miles per hour. But
I know that's not really fair, so we'll just do

(58:08):
the Browns season total, which is set for the amazing
Shudter Sanders and his Gagley co court at five and
a half.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
Five and a half. Five and a half is the
total for the Browns. By the way, if I got
to update Jared on this, So this entire segment Jared started.
So I was sitting this is the Orgrey Show, and
Chris looks at me and he goes the give me
over under on Sanders snaps in the take in the

(58:40):
regular season for the Browns. I go, what's your overrunning
goes a half. In other words, he either will or
won't take a single snap.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
I think he will take it, and.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
Me J Husky is a big fan of shod Or Sanders,
So why don't you throw that out to VJ. See
how he reacts. And that's how this segment all began.
All right, So the over under five and a half
for the five and a half for the Browns. Yes, wow. Now,
as VJ made his pick not on the Browns. No,
I told him this one we would do.

Speaker 6 (59:12):
I would talk with him next time, but he was
in a hurry to get places.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
All right, Jared, where do you stand? Because we were
talking about this AFC North right now. Five and a
half over under where you stand on this one? I
would go.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
Over on the Browns. It's a really low number. A
Their roster's not terrible, it's really just a quarterback position.
If they can get any kind of average quarterback play,
I think they're a six or seven one team for sure.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
Well, you look at the quarterback situation again, something Jeff
Schwartz talked about yesterday. Jerry, really have two battles right now.
The Chador Sanders situation with Dylan Gabriel, at least temporarily
is for the backup shop. Doesn't mean they're not going
to bolt be on the roster, but one of those
two will be the backup. The battle for the starting
job is between Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett, and only

(59:59):
one of those guys obviously will remain on the team.
I tend to agree with you. Five and a half
just sounds like a really low number for a team
that obviously has certainly above average defense at the very
least yep.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
And they've got a good coach like I think Stefanski, Like,
if you're going to get the most out of one
of these quarterbacks, I think you've got the right light
coach to do it well.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
I mean, the way he savaged the season a couple
of years ago. You know, uh yeah, I would tend
to go over on this one. So I'm going to
go over five and a half.

Speaker 6 (01:00:29):
And for the record, I also am like a big
believer in Dylan Gabriel. Not for a long term, but
I think you can get a one year flash out
of him.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:00:36):
I think that's one of those guys why I was
talking to Shedar Sanders snaps.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
Yeah, he's one of those guys, Jared that I'm not
quite sure why people do not believe. You can say, well,
he's not tall, Okay, it's basically the same height as
two a tongue by Lola. Drew Brees wasn't tall. Yeah,
there's a lot there's a ways to do this with
a shorter quarterback. And if you look at his six
years in cop he never had a bad season ever.

(01:01:03):
I mean every single place he played, his numbers were
almost identical, and his efficiency was really off the charts
any won. So I'm not say why people are completely
dismissing Dylan Gabriel as at least, at the very least
a short term option for the Browns.

Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
All right, I would say the reason is more arm
strength and size than anything else. Like that's that's the
only reason why.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Again, we've seen quarterbacks a similar stature.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
On the other side, we will continue on with the
perfect picks. But first let's find out what is a
trending right now? And look at mont see here, I am,
yes here, I am.

Speaker 4 (01:01:51):
I know it didn't seem like I would say you always.
I'm sure now I'm hiszle. I'm hiszle.

Speaker 5 (01:01:57):
Yeah, guys, big story in the NBA as fifteen times NBA.

Speaker 4 (01:02:01):
All Star, Kevin Durant is on the move.

Speaker 5 (01:02:03):
The Sons are trading him to the Rockets in exchange
for Jalen Green, Dylan Brooks, the tenth overall pick in
this year's draft, and five second round picks. ESPN with story.
Here's Kevin Durant speaking to Kay Adams today at Fanatics
fan Fest or fanatics Fest.

Speaker 4 (01:02:19):
You are smiling. What did that feel like? How do
you feel? How happy are you?

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
You?

Speaker 8 (01:02:23):
Know when people could just hang your career in the
balance like that and just choose what they want to
do with your careers and their record, Feller, But being
able to kind of dictate what you want to do
and then being with a team that values you and.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
I'm looking forward to it, Kevin.

Speaker 4 (01:02:37):
People are going to hold on to that dictate what
you want to do. Did you have a hand in it?

Speaker 8 (01:02:40):
Most definitely. I mean they actually get where I wanted
to go, some of my destinations I gave him to him.
Here we are.

Speaker 4 (01:02:48):
Most definitely. We knew you had to handle it, So
no surprise there. But yeah, two greatest words in sports.
As you said, it's Steve.

Speaker 5 (01:02:55):
Game seven between the Pacers and the Thunder that's gonna
tip off at eight eastern. We got Game two of
the Men's College World Series Final between LSU and Coastal Carolina.

Speaker 4 (01:03:04):
They are tied at one apiece.

Speaker 5 (01:03:06):
It's the bottom of the third inning, but in the
first inning, the umpire ejected Coastal Carolina's head coach Kevin
Schnall and first base coach Matt Schilling in the first inning.
I tried to watch because I have it on, but
when I don't have sound on. I'm like, what happened here?
I found a video and it just looks like the

(01:03:27):
coach asks for the count from the dugout and the.

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
Umpire okay, you know what that is out.

Speaker 9 (01:03:33):
But first sinning out rageous and then he ges ever,
this umpire is you just lost your job because for
the NCAA to have a manager and a coach ejected
the first inning of a must win game in the
finals of the College World Series.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
That is putting your ego over what's best for the game.

Speaker 5 (01:03:55):
One hundred percent, you guys, it's un It was unreal.
And then obviously after he was ejected, Kevin Schannat came
out of the dugout and really started arguing because he
was already ejected, and all the umpires kind of like
came up to him.

Speaker 4 (01:04:09):
One umpire fell made the situation worse. He didn't get pushed,
but he fell.

Speaker 5 (01:04:14):
And then Matt Schilling, who was probably defending his manager,
then got ejected on again first inning of this must
win game for Coastal Carolina because it's the best of
three series and LISU the Tigers lead the series one zero.
Crazy day already, all right, the Pirates are up on
the Rangers seven to It's the top of the sixth inning.

Speaker 4 (01:04:33):
Blue Jays are edging the White Sox two to one.

Speaker 5 (01:04:35):
Bottom of the seventh, the Braves and the Marlins were
tied not anymore.

Speaker 4 (01:04:38):
Miami up five to three.

Speaker 5 (01:04:39):
Top of the seventh, the Birds and the Twins were
tied not anymore of Milwaukee of five to three. After
four innings, the Reds and the Cardinals are tied at
one apiece.

Speaker 4 (01:04:47):
Top of the fifth. Marin are still on top of
the Cups four to one.

Speaker 5 (01:04:50):
Top of the fifth, yat Kyle Rawley with his thirty
first homer of the season. The Diamondbacks on the scoreboard
first against the Rockies one zero.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
Top of the second inning.

Speaker 5 (01:04:57):
The Tigers have officially outscored the Rays nine three, and
the Yankees topped.

Speaker 4 (01:05:01):
The Orioles four to two. There's golf going on.

Speaker 5 (01:05:04):
Tommy Fleet, who is in the lead at the final
round of the Travelers Championship fourteen under overall.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
Keegan Bradley is.

Speaker 4 (01:05:11):
One shot back back to you, guys.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
I am watching this right now.

Speaker 9 (01:05:15):
Real, this is outrageous, real, there's nothing happened, Nothing happened.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
I don't care what he said or situated enof bombs.
I don't care you keep him in there, you know
what I'm saying, JD, like.

Speaker 1 (01:05:28):
I really did, especially well, I think you have to
like commit like a felony on the field to get
kicked out in an elimination gamel You.

Speaker 4 (01:05:35):
Would think so, You would think so he was.

Speaker 5 (01:05:37):
He was in his dugout and I really do think
he just asked for the count, maybe disagreed on a
ball or strike when there were ten pitches at this point.

Speaker 2 (01:05:45):
No, unreal, that is unbelievable. By the way. You know,
they had won what twenty five games a row, and
then yes, ran into a kid that probably would be
the first baking the baseball draft coming up. Uh phenomena.
I love seeing complete game shut up.

Speaker 4 (01:06:01):
Yeah, absolutely, you.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
Remember the old days, don't you, Jarre Well you actually
saw an occasional complete game, a shutout, you know, something
like that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
Well unless Shorek's Google, Yeah, Google can still do it
all right, Well, Montsi, thank you very very much.

Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
By the way, We're in the Fox Sports Radio studios,
and be sure to check out the Fox Sports Radio
YouTube channel a ton of great videos from many of
our Fox Sports Radio shows. Just search Fox Sports Radio
on YouTube. You see a whole bunch of video highlights
from our shows, and be sure to subscribe so you
always have instant access to our Fox Sports Radio videos
on YouTube. All right back to our perfet picks.

Speaker 6 (01:06:36):
You got one future in the books, one future in
the books, and now we got three for the week here.
We're going to try to move a little quick on this,
but Caitlin Clark feels like every week.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
There is a new person to get.

Speaker 6 (01:06:48):
This feels like WWE a little bit in that she's
helping to put over other people that we now get
to know the names. So I am setting this line
here at Caitlin Clark, and this is very important.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
I've included drdls here, so listen closely.

Speaker 6 (01:07:00):
Kaitlyn Clark related scuffles, fights and dust ups my next
show over under a half.

Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
I don't under.

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
You don't think there's going to be anymore took me over?

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
Well, I think I think Sophie Cunningham is now the
Dennis Robin of the of the league, and I think
she's going to prevent like we needed finding someone to
step up and have Kaylyn Clark's back, and I think
we have that now. So I think that will and Also,
my guess is that you'll start to see the rets
at some point.

Speaker 2 (01:07:30):
You know, type Well isn't amazing now the WNBA grabbing
headlines during the NBA Finals, because that's what they've been
doing as long as you have the focus on Kaylen Well.
We made this argument the other day, who is is
Kaitlin Clark? If you look at Steph Curry and Lebron
James is still the most prominent faces of the NBA.

(01:07:53):
Kaitlyn Clark's in the same company, is she not Kaylyn Clark.

Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
I'll be honest, I'll say this right now, and I
have no And if you hate this cake, feel free
to at me. Jared Smith bets on X and I'll
argue back and forth with it. Caitlin Clark's the most
influential athlete on the planet right now. I'm Ron James
misses a game, and he's miss plenty of them. We
have plenty of data to go off of here. The
ratings don't drop fifty percent When MJ missed the game

(01:08:17):
in his prime, the ratings didn't drop fifty percent. Let's
put this in perspective for a minute. Stanley Cup Final,
the final game, Game six two point eight million viewers.
The Liberty Fever game the other day two point two
million viewers. The WNBA is on par with a major
championship clinching game, like, it's crazy how much you move

(01:08:37):
the needle.

Speaker 2 (01:08:37):
Well, I'm going to go over on this as well
along with VJ. Because it works for the league. They
want to see Kaitlin Clark involved in these kind of shenanigans.
Because it moves the needle. It continues the momentum from
a year ago. So I'm going to go over on that.

Speaker 6 (01:08:54):
Christ all right, let's move to baseball for a second.
I do have a spicy Game seven prop coming up
with let's move to baseball for a second. Cal Raley
is on an unbelievable clip right now, talk about it.
I believe he's on pace right now for sixty five
home runs. That's incredible. He's very streaky. Now here comes

(01:09:14):
the problem. Between now and next show. I believe there
are seven games the Mariners would play on road games,
no breaks between four games stand with the Twins and
then three with Vjy's Texas Rangers. Cal rally over under
three and a half home runs this swim show, which show, Oh.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
That's a good number. Good number.

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
That is a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
That is a lot of home runs. Here, here's understanding
that it's about this. It's understanding that streaky.

Speaker 6 (01:09:42):
I believe that if he's going to hit this over,
it's going to because he is streaky.

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
Right now, he's already broken Johnny Benches record for a
catcher for most home runs before the All Star break
with twenty two games still to go before the All
Star break. I don't know, man, he is just absolutely
a fuck special player.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
Don't know if he's a special plays having a special year.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
He is, and he's by the way, he's been a
thirty home run hitter. It's not like he came out
of nowhere here all right, I'm gonna jump on this
one first. I'm gonna roll the dice on this kid.
So does that include today?

Speaker 1 (01:10:16):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:10:17):
Not the one that they just had today.

Speaker 6 (01:10:19):
Okay, So you're talking about the way the Twins and
Rangers series three and a half is a big number, but.

Speaker 1 (01:10:26):
A lot in a week it is.

Speaker 2 (01:10:29):
I would go shopping with this.

Speaker 6 (01:10:30):
I was shopping this with Monsey and I think we
agreed this was kind of in a higher I.

Speaker 2 (01:10:35):
Am going to since you made it clear, Yeah, that's
the smart plays the under. But I'm gonna roll the.

Speaker 6 (01:10:41):
Dice on this one. Okay, I'm gonna go over. You're
gonna go over mej is also over?

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
Is he really?

Speaker 3 (01:10:48):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (01:10:49):
You see I backfired on that one, but I thought
for sure he'd be under. But okay, all right, so yeah,
I'll roll the dice on the over. Okay. Now we
have Game seven tonight, very important.

Speaker 6 (01:11:00):
Yes, a lot of people, and let me tell you
something is someone in production. You don't want anything to
go wrong. But all I can think about is hearkening
back to Game one of this series where a Fort
Wayne ABC affiliate cut away early from the end of
the game to the nightly news and they and in
that time, that span of time, the Pacers came back

(01:11:22):
within one point of the Oklahoma City thunder. So with
that in mind, local affiliates who cut away early from
the end of Game seven over under.

Speaker 1 (01:11:29):
A half, I would have to say on ner, I hope, yeah,
I would hope.

Speaker 6 (01:11:37):
So, but let me tell you local operations, something goes wrong,
it does, and trust me, I will hear about this
because I have my finger on the pulse of like
awful announcing. Tim Burk's Blue Sky feed if it happens,
I will know about it as.

Speaker 2 (01:11:52):
Someone that has been doing television all these years. It
just happened to me the other night where we were
running a an abbreviated highlight package of the Angels. But
as I was about to read the eleven o'clock from
the ten o'clock, I guess somebody put in the wrong tape. Yeah,
there were all and all of a sudden, I'm staring

(01:12:13):
at an extended highlight package that we had no script for.
I had lived it, and it wiped out the rest
of them. There were various.

Speaker 6 (01:12:21):
Fox affiliates who did not go back to the I'm sorry,
I've got to go under.

Speaker 2 (01:12:26):
You're not going to cut away from a game seven?
Come on?

Speaker 1 (01:12:29):
What would do with you here? It's one thing for
you to go on, another thing to say what the
odds are that it goes under?

Speaker 8 (01:12:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
Well, unfortunately, I need to work on this because you
and DJ have the scene. Okay, well let's say okay, well,
let's Jared set the wine. Then give us odds. If
I wanted to make it, I want to walk in
and site I'm going to make a.

Speaker 1 (01:12:55):
Chat.

Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
Would you take that bad? If I watched it? Audi
I want to get I want to put ten g
down on one affiliate breaking away from Gates seven for
so kinda local programming.

Speaker 6 (01:13:12):
We are talking about Oklahoma and Indiana, Phil Indiana affiliates.

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
I understand that. All right, good stuff, Thank you, Chris,
thank you. Another edition of the per Fet Picks coming up.
On the other side, We're going to get right back
to this Game seven. Oh and I'll also give our thoughts,
my thoughts and Jared's thoughts on what is next for
the Pittsburgh Steelers now that Aaron Rodgers is in charge.
This is Fox Sports Sunday, Steve Harvin, Jared Smith here,

(01:13:36):
Fox Sports Sunday. We're in the Fox Sports Radio studios.
How much more later on on the Big Trade today.
Kevin Durant is now with the Houston Rockets, and yes,
the Rockets are now listed as the number two favorite
to win the NBA Championship next year with the addition
of Kevin Durant. Will have much more on that coming up.

(01:13:58):
Also more on tonight's Game seven between the Thunder and
the Pacers. But we talked a little NFL football before
the Perfet Picks, and we're talking specifically about the AFC
North the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now I'm trying to figure this
one out, Jared, and you can make a lot more
sense of this than I because you followed the Wines

(01:14:20):
a lot more than I do. So let me get
this straight. If you look at the last four years
for the Steelers, this would include Roethlisberger's last year where
he could barely throw the ball fifteen yards down the field.
I mean, he was completely done. And then we had
a couple of years with Kenny Pickett that failed, and

(01:14:41):
then last year he had this mishmash with Russell Wilson
and Justin Fields, and despite all this instability and poor
play out of the quarterback position, they rattled up four
straight winning seasons. So now you bring in Aaron Rodgers,
who obviously is not the Aaron Rodgers he was, but
he he did start seventeen games for the Jets last year,

(01:15:03):
and you can't tell me that he is as talented,
if not more talented, than what you had at the
quarterback position over these last four years. And yet everyone
seems to be piling on the under that Mike Tomlin
is going to for the first time in his Hall
of Fame coaching career be saddled with a losing record. Now,

(01:15:27):
I'm just trying to figure this out. Where is the
logic because I'm not the biggest Aaron Rodgers fan, But again,
look at his numbers with the Jets. That is the
one of the worst run organizations in the NFL. The
Steelers are one of the best run organizations in the
NFL in terms of stability, no question about that. So

(01:15:48):
how or why should I believe that the Steelers are
going to be worse with Aaron Rodgers as their quarterback.

Speaker 1 (01:15:58):
They won't be worse right where they are, right where
they were last year, which is, you know, a team
that has a chance to make the playoffs, hovering around
five hundred probably gonna win nine games. I think we
actually should make September eighth, nine to eight Mike Tomlin
Appreciation Day.

Speaker 2 (01:16:13):
Yeah, and just like that. I love that. Yeah, we
just do just take that ten games the last two years.

Speaker 1 (01:16:19):
Yeah. Well, I don't know if I'm ready to go
October seventh yet, I'll go I'll go September eighth. I
don't know, I'll go nine, and I don't go ten
to seven yet. Obviously, he's a step up over over
Russell Wilson. He's obviously a step up up at Justin Fields.
He's obviously a step up over Kenny Pickett. Those are
not and frankly, I actually think, you know, with their
offense constructed as is, I do think they have a

(01:16:41):
chance to be better this year than in prior year.
Something you get Dk Metcalfo, I think is an absolute
rock star, and you bring in Rogers, and I think
both of those guys are gonna, you know, increase the
output for Pittsburgh's offense this year. The question is, you
do have some questions, You do have some concerns on defense, right,
wats contract? I think they'll work that out. I think
they did a good job in the draft, I really

(01:17:02):
and I thought the draft was the indicator that they
were going to bring in Rogers when they went defense
in the first round. They went I think defense with
their first three picks, and then they brought in a
running back Caleb Johnson, who had a really good career
at college at Iowa. So they have all these pieces, right,
it's just how do they all fit together? And the
only issue I have with Rogers is when the adversity strikes,

(01:17:26):
when the going gets tough, is he going to be
a leader or is he just another guy on the team.

Speaker 2 (01:17:32):
But you can't believe that the kind of problems you
run with the Jets, repeat offenders year after year after
year after year, bad decisions, bad karmap whatever you want
to call what the Jets are, that is not the
story with the Steelers.

Speaker 1 (01:17:47):
Agreed, But here's the difference, and this is the only difference.
And I don't know if it's a good thing or
a bad thing. We just have to let the vibe
play out. Aaron was in control of the Jets. He
wanted to bring in Lazarredy, wanted to bring these guys.
They said, okay. They bent over backwards for him, and
I think that gave Aaron a sense of comfort, a
sense of security. Pittsburgh's not that this is a this

(01:18:12):
is Mike Tomlins team. The culture is much more established.
If Aaron gets told no, kind of similar to the
shed door Sanders problem, right, a little entitlement there. If
Aaron gets told no, if things start to go south
and he's not getting his way, or the offense isn't
going in the direction he wants to go, and he
wants to make changes, and they're like no, we're gonna
do it this way. Then what happens right like that?

(01:18:36):
Because when that happened in New York and Aaron's like,
I want to do this, I want to do that,
Aaron got his way, and even it even took Woody
john Woody Johnson almost was the one that pulled the
trigger on Aaron Rodgers early on in the process and said,
we want to get rid of this guy. I just
I'm curious how the locker room vibe is if and
when the adversity strikes.

Speaker 2 (01:18:56):
All right, I have to believe because there were options
for Aaron Rodgers in terms of the Steelers or retirement.
I mean, he doesn't need to add anything to his resume.
The only reason to extend your career at this point
for if you'r Aaron Rodgers, is to pursue a being

(01:19:16):
on a playoff team and then you know, see how
it works out. I have to believe that the Steelers
were one hundred percent upfront with Aaron Rodgers, because he
would have demanded it. I'm not bringing in my choices
offensive coordinator, although Smith that thing has got a pretty
pretty good proven record there. So I got to believe

(01:19:38):
all this was going over and you're not going to
challenge Mike Tomlin. Not no, you're not going to challenge
Mike Tomlin. He's going to be in the Hall of Fame.
He's had an amazing run as the coach of the Steelers,
and this is the way we run an organization. He
has to know that going in and so I think
this is going And again I am not an Aaron
Rodgers proponent. I would much rather have h retire then

(01:20:01):
continue on this charade. But that being said, if he
can stay healthy, I would take the over definitely on
the Steelers coming up. All right, we're gonna get much
more now into Game seven of the NBA Finals. This
is Fox Sports Sunday, four hours away Game seven NBA Finals,

(01:20:22):
the Indiana Pacers. Can they pull the upset taking on
the Oklahoma City Thunder. This is Fox Sports Sunday, and
once again we're in the Fox Sports Radio studios. Mark Mendina,
or NBA Insider, is going to be joined us a
little bit later on in this hour get his thoughts
as we get ready for this Game seven. So let

(01:20:42):
me ask you this, Jared, how much interest has there
been in these NBA Finals.

Speaker 1 (01:20:50):
I think the ratings are down, yes, but I think
the ratings in general can be a little bit skewed
because of streaming and because of how many people view
the game in different ways today and the gambling element
of it. I mean, there's always interest, even when the
game's a blowout, people are interested.

Speaker 2 (01:21:12):
Right well. I mean, you know, it's so funny we
were I was talking about this yesterday about the WNBA.

Speaker 1 (01:21:19):
We never talked about the I mean, come on until now.

Speaker 2 (01:21:23):
Well until last year, and now I'm here in our
morning shows here on Fox Sports Radio, and that's all
they talk about is the WNBA.

Speaker 1 (01:21:30):
I'm really into it, Honestly, I've gotten into it from
a gambling person.

Speaker 2 (01:21:34):
That's what I'm talking about. From a gambling aspect. The
hot ticket seems to be the WNBA.

Speaker 1 (01:21:40):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:21:40):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:21:41):
Here, here's what makes gamblers excited. When the market is liquid.
What does that mean? It means less money can move it, right,
the NBA, more eyeballs, more people know what's going on.
There are more experts, more insiders, and there's more money

(01:22:02):
invested in it, so it's harder to get value in
one direction. Like if you bet something at one and
it closes three, you feel pretty good about your wager.
That happens less in the NBA. In the WNBA, goodness, gracious,
I've seen totals move ten fifteen points if something's really
crazy and the player movement is not as advertised what

(01:22:25):
I say, what I mean by player movement, Like Asia Wilson,
for example, the best player on the aces, she's going
to move the line two or three points in one
direction if she plays or not. She's been dealing with
a concussion in the last few days. It gets the
announced that she was going to play in the NBA
in the NFL. When that happens, when that news hits
the screen, the numbers move immediately within seconds. In the WNBA,

(01:22:46):
you might have two or three minutes. You might be
able to see the alert on your phone, log into
your app, make a bet, and the number hasn't moved yet.
So that's why the WNBA, I think, is becoming a
more appealing product for a lot of the gamblers.

Speaker 2 (01:22:57):
All right, so I want to get some of you
were talking earlier about the over under on the first quarter,
which I'm looking at three and a half right now.
So it's at that three and a half number, and
as I said, Jeff Schwartz, said, taking I'm taking the
thunder to cover. You know, they're yeah, they're gonna cover
those three and a half points. But I want to

(01:23:18):
hear from you, Jared. I mean, as you've been analyzing
this game seven, obviously, been analyzing this entire series. What
do you see, what do you expect, and how this
game's gonna unfold, and what are some of the better
plays that you see on the board.

Speaker 1 (01:23:31):
Well at six and a half, So the number got
to us low as six and a half at our
friends bet MGM, of course, is our sponsor for the
show over the weekends. I was looking, Yeah, it's still
six and a half. Now there's some juice to it.
But they're the only shop I see at six.

Speaker 2 (01:23:48):
And a half.

Speaker 1 (01:23:49):
The rest of the markets at seven. So it looks
like we're going to close right around seven, and that
would be the lowest, the shortest spread of Oklahoma City's
home games in the postseason. They were a seven point
favorite in Game one of the Western Conference Finals against Minnesota.
In Game seven against Denver, which I would say was
the most high leverage game they played so far, right,
you're facing a team that won a title. Nicoleay okicch

(01:24:10):
you're at home, but you're still you know, in hot water.
If you lose, you're done. They were an eight and
a half point favored in that game, So that kind
of surprises me because I would put Denver in front
of Indiana in terms of the rating. So what's that
telling me? Well, there's a lot of support in the
market for the Pacers, and I think that makes sense.

(01:24:30):
The Pacers looked really good, and I don't want to
knock OKAC for Game six. I think I'm gonna give
credit to Indiana. I think that's where I'm at after
the game.

Speaker 2 (01:24:38):
I'll stop you for a second. Go ahead, okay, all right?
So yeah, I could not watch much the game was
once it got out of control, I had checked out
of that game. But I mean, this is what's so frustrating.
I'm sure for a lot of people that are really
getting their first serious look at OKAC, how they can

(01:24:59):
just seems so nonchalant. I mean, I I can't remember
a team that's had more arrant inbound passes than Oklahoma
City and this I mean, they're just lazy passes, lazy passes.

Speaker 1 (01:25:13):
They are very resilient though.

Speaker 2 (01:25:14):
Well that's that's that's the argument and that's that's why
if you're you're playing on OKAC to come back in
a big way in game seven year, say, well, they've
shown this all season along. Yeah, and you can go
back to the game four sixty. You know, my favorite
stat in that game four comeback for Oka see and
that must game in Indiana was shake Gilgess Alexander and
that game had zero assist zero and and and then

(01:25:40):
the reason being he's like, you go, look, we have
to win this game. Okay, I don't trust any of you.
I'm just gonna take over. And he scores fifteen points
in the last five minutes. So uh, all right, well
that's that's yeah, Wow, okay, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:25:53):
Six and oh after I loss this postseason four and
two against the number. In those six games, Shi Gilgess
Alexander averaging thirty four points per game. He's had at
least thirty four in five of the six. He had
one outlier twenty five points in game four against Denver,
but they only scored ninety two in that game, so
he still had almost thirty percent of the team's points. Sure,
they're just so darn resilient, and I think that's why

(01:26:16):
I like Okay seeing the game, so I bet okay
See minus six and a half. This morning. I gave
out a parlay on the show yesterday, Okay See to
win PARLAYD with SGA to score thirty. That's minus one
thirty odds over at bet MGM. I think that's a
fantastic wager as well. I think I'm under on Halliburton
points tonight. I think I'm under on Obi Toppins points,

(01:26:37):
and I'm under on a lot of points tonight. I
think it's going to be a relatively lower scoring game.
The totals dropped eight points from where we were in
Game six. Total in Game six was two twenty three.
We're two fifteen now. So the market thinks Indiana is
going to keep it tight. The market thinks it's going
to be a tight game. But when Oklahoma City wins,

(01:26:57):
they win with margin. And we've seen two elimination games
in this postseason where Okay Season won by thirty plus
Game seven against Denver and in the final game against Minnesota.
The eliminating games in the playoffs have had an average
margin or victory of twenty points. So what that tells
me is when those elimination games are kind of if

(01:27:20):
it is a one sided game. It's ay vary one
sided game. Like you kind of see that snowball effect
where one team can kind of see the light at
the end of the tunnel and the other team's like, yeah,
we're not gonna win this game, and then it just
goes in a very volatile direction. And that's kind of
my vibe in this game. I think if Indiana wins,
it's close. If Oklahoma City wins, it's a wide margin.

Speaker 2 (01:27:39):
I am a That's what I've been saying throughout this series.
I mean, and there's a reason, Like when you go
into the postseason with a team that is well, as
it turns out, the second youngest team ever get to
the NBA Finals, and they just didn't have a lot
of close games. I mean, they won sixty eight games
with an average margin victory twelve thirteen points a game

(01:28:01):
for an entire season. That's that's insane, insane to have
that kind of over eighty two games. And so when
pressed in a close game situation, what happened to him
Game one against Denver, what happened in game one of
this series against Indiana, I guess was almost predictable. Okay,
So if you're if you're I find it interesting though.

(01:28:23):
You're talking about the under on Halliburton and also the
under on top and right, and I'm thinking, okay, well,
where are their points coming from them?

Speaker 1 (01:28:31):
Yeah, Siakam the Thundertaker, I don't know if you saw
that on his social media other day. I think he right, like,
and there's two guys on this team, or two guys
in this game that have I think big game finals experience, right,
Siakam's one of them. The other one is Alex Cruz
ironically on the other side. Sure, I think those are
kind of my two picks to click. I think Caruso

(01:28:53):
his defense and his presence off the bench. I think
lou dort is another guy that I would put in
the cat glory of needs to be on his a game.
And then on the other side for Indiana, I think
Siakam and McConnell, I think those are an outside right,
outside of the obvious answers right, which is Halliburton and

(01:29:14):
SGA and Jalen Williams. Like, outside of those three guys,
I think the players that I expect to have impact
performances tonight, Caruso off the bench, McConnell off the bench,
and then Dort with his defense and Siakam with his scoring.

Speaker 2 (01:29:29):
Caruso all experience. Caruso's all over the map. I mean,
twenty points one night. Zero. I mean, you know, it's like,
but I never looked at Alex Caruso as an offensive guy,
all right. I never thought, well, Okay, you know this
is a guy that's going to get to ten, twelve
to fifteen points off the bench every night. I'm like, no,
that's that's not Alex Cruso. I mean, he'll have a

(01:29:50):
breakout night like he had the twenty point night. I
think that's been a surprise to a lot of people
because we said, all right, one of the reasons that
OKC is such a prohibit favorite, they just have a
deeper team. They just have more good players in Indiana,
And yet the Pacers bench has outscored their bench in
every game? Is it just about every game?

Speaker 1 (01:30:12):
Well? How about some of these stats here, here's some
really interesting stats in the series, and I guess they're
not that interesting, but I think it kind of tells
the story. Turnovers and rebounding. Those have been the two
biggest indicators of who is winning the game. Live ball turnovers,
the team who wins that categories five and one. The
team that wins rebounding is five and one. So it

(01:30:35):
comes and I know it's who scores more points usually wins.
And that's a very basic answer, and I understand that
that's true. But in this particular series, I would not
call either of these teams gifted offensive teams. I think
both of them play offense in unique ways. Indiana fuels
their offense through their motion and Oklahoma City fuels their

(01:30:57):
offense from their defense and their turnovers and how many
live ball turns over as they can force.

Speaker 2 (01:31:01):
What is the overrunner and home rebounds tonight, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:31:04):
Ten, ten and a half, it's going over. I agree.
I think a good bet tonight too is an OKAC
money line with a home grim ten rebounds OKAC money
line with the Jalen Williams twenty point five assist kind
of game. Like, I think I want to take Oklahoma
City on the money line and pair it with all
of these different avenues of the players I think are

(01:31:25):
going to have their performances.

Speaker 2 (01:31:26):
All right, Jared's gonna have more on what's trending right
now updat you all the way through the end of
this program. Also On the other side, we're gonna check
in with our Fox Sports Radio NBA insider Mark Medina.
He'll give us his thoughts on this Game seven. This
is Fox Sports Sunday, Steve Harbin, Jared Smith, Fox Sports Sunday.

(01:31:47):
We're in the Fox Sports Radio studios Game seven. Two
best words in sports tonight it's the NBA Finals. Oh,
I'm sorry, Chris, just reminding me. The best word in
sports is football. Actually, depending on who you ask around here,
might be super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (01:32:06):
Oh yeah, Brian, No, push the two best, And I'll
be honest. The more I think about it, it's hard
not to It's hard not to be honest.

Speaker 6 (01:32:15):
I enjoy a lot of the NFL playoffs a lot
like I think Championship weekend is sometimes better, like more
feisty than the Super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (01:32:22):
Well, I agree, because then we've talked about this many times.
There's no more painful loss, you know, whether it's the
Elite eight in you know, because you don't get to
the final door, the conference, the championship because you're already
invested and you won games to get there and now
you're one step away, League championship series, whatever it is,
conference finals. As a lot in the most painful loss

(01:32:44):
is going to haunt me for years to come. Well
that is that is no question, that's the most painful loss.
All right, let's find out from a man that follows
it like no other. He is our Fox Sports Radio
NBA insider, the Great Mark Medina is Johnny Us. Right now,
Mark or Grab we could catch up with you, but
before we even get to tonight's game, obviously, we have
to ask you about the big trade today. Give us

(01:33:07):
your thoughts on you know we talked about Phoenix really
didn't have a lot of choices here and exactly how
will the Kevin Durant dynamic work for the Houston Rockets.
Your thoughts?

Speaker 7 (01:33:19):
Yeah, I think the Houston Rockets are now the prime
team to challenge Oklahoma City in the Western Conference finals
and I are in the Western Conference next season, and
the Phoenix Suns got fleeced. I mean, we knew ahead
of time that Kevin Durant's trade value was going to
be complicated because even though he's still playing at all
NBA level, he's on the final year of this contract,

(01:33:39):
he's thirty seven, he has injury history. But when you
look at what the Sun's gone return for this deal. Really,
the only good thing is the number ten picks. Dylan Brooks,
great defender, and he's grown as a shooter, but he's
only good at a championship contending team. He's not good
on a potential rebuild. Number two Dylan Green or Jalen Green.

(01:34:03):
Great score, but very fundamentally disqualified here because he's only
a score. He's tried to become more productive, but there's
a reason why he flamed down the playoffs. So they
had to trade Kevin Durant because it wasn't sustainable from
a cap standpoint. But they didn't get really any long
term assets that can make them be a viable contender

(01:34:25):
with Devin Booker moving forward. So I'm surprised they didn't
get more draft picks. Surprised they didn't get to Bori
Smith Junior. But the Rockets took advantage of it.

Speaker 1 (01:34:37):
Mark for tonight. Obviously the vibe is Oklahoma City, but
the numbers kind of moving in Indiana's direction. Would you
be floored shocked if the Pacers pulled this upset off,
because down three to two in the series, I would
say it was a pretty big shock. But now in
Game seven, anything can happen, right, yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:34:53):
I mean, I've learned basically during Indiana's run here in
the playoffs not to be shocked surprised by anything, because
they see the expectations. The moment you think they're done,
they you know, they don't have enough injury certainty with
Tyres Talburn, don't have enough depth to match the Thunder.
They prove us wrong. Now that being said, if I
had to make a prediction, I think the Thunder are
going to win Game seven because on paper they are

(01:35:15):
the better team. They have a good bounce back record
eighteen in two this season. Twelve of those wins are
by double digits. They want to pivotal Game seven against
the Denver Nuggets. When Jalen Williams doesn't shoot the ball well,
pattern has shown that he has a really great breakout
game the next game. But I think to the earlier point,
we shouldn't be shocked if Indiana's favorite, should be just

(01:35:38):
shocked if they pull an upset. And as much as
I would think that the game plays out this way
competitive in the first half, the Thunder breakaway in the second,
they have to be very well prepared that Indiana is
going to fight to the very very finish and barring
an injury to Tyres or anyone else, I want to
be surprised. This goes down to the wire.

Speaker 2 (01:35:59):
Mark. Again, we talked about the fact that the Oklahoma
City Thunder this year had one of the ten best
regular seasons in NBA history. They finished sixteen games clear
of the two seed Houston in the much tougher Western Conference.
They won by an average of twelve point nine points
per game over an eighty two game schedule. These are

(01:36:20):
legendary dominant numbers. And yet I've been watching this Thunder
team throughout the playoffs and especially in these NBA Finals,
and I've never seen a team of this caliber checkout
of games the way this team has, where they go
brain dead, where all of a sudden they are incapable
of even throwing an inbound pass, lifty passes, where they

(01:36:42):
just they just seem to be slumbering. This is why
it puts so much focus on their coach, Mark. I
don't understand this. If a team is this good to
do what they did over an eighty two game regular season,
explain to me why we have not seen that team
in these NBA finals.

Speaker 7 (01:37:02):
Dave, You're exactly on the money. I think what it
has to do with is that playoff basketball is different,
and it's not just because of the physicality or anything else.
If anything, that's an advantage for the Thunder because they
have so many wing players that are physical, including Lee
Dort that got away with some shove offs against Tyres
Alburton in Game of five. I believe so. I think

(01:37:23):
the bigger thing is that on paper they have a
skill set, but they don't duplicate that on a consistent basis.
They also don't make the kind of adjustments you made.
Here's some example, Shake Gogess Alexander Well deserving of MVP
best scorer in the league. He's been an improved playmaker,
but a lot of times he'll rely too much on

(01:37:43):
the ISO heavy ball and then if it becomes predictable.
Jalwen Williams, he's a great off the ball score. He
knows how to be ready for catch and shoot. He
knows how to cut into the paint so that he
can stretch the floor. Great defender, but his shooting's very
inconsistent game game out. And then their defense that's their
biggest strength. But they're not consistent with converting turnovers into points.

(01:38:08):
That's example Game one I think they forced twenty five turnovers,
yet the Pacers still won that not just because Tyris
Helbern hit a game winning shot, but the Thunder didn't
really convert those turnovers into easy baskets. So I'm with
you that they're a very jecky and hide type team
and that I think contributes to the unpredictability of this series.
But on paper, they should be the better one that

(01:38:30):
can prevail in Game seven. But again we've talked at
link here. Indiana has shown that they've overachieved and made
the best of their roster, and you never know underestimate them.
I'm just going on the fact that they do have
a good bounce back record. They're in their home court
on Game seven. I would think because of the obvious stakes,
you want to see those kind of miscues that happened

(01:38:51):
when they felt a little bit more comfortable in.

Speaker 1 (01:38:53):
The serious mark. Is it fair to say that the
Thunder have more pressure on them tonight? That feels obvious, right?

Speaker 7 (01:39:01):
I think so, because anything Indiana has done right now,
it's almost playing with house money, and Oklahoma City does
have home court advantage there to the favored seed. Now,
if they lose in the finals, I would be surprised
if all of a sudden they make wholesale changes. The
reality is they still have a window to win a
championship the next two years. Because they have a young core,

(01:39:23):
there's continuity. None of the players are up for extensions.
They don't have to make any tough financial decisions. But
as we've seen in today's NBA, the chance to repeat
it as champion hasn't happened in twenty eighteen. It's never
guaranteed that you'll could be back in the finals just
because you were the year before. So if they lose,
it's not going to say, you know, they're shot at

(01:39:43):
it is over, but it is I think too presumptuous
to think, okay, well they could just get it back
next year. Nothing's guaranteed in today's NBA.

Speaker 2 (01:39:52):
Mark, I got to ask you about the Lakers situation.
So Mark Walter obviously is now going to be in
charge of the organization. I may maintain, you know Genie Bus,
I know Genie Bus. I think she did what she
thought was best for the future of the Lakers. I
believe it Sincerera, I mean, they look at the Bus family,
they get their money and everything else. She wanted to

(01:40:12):
make it work. She obviously lives and brees her father's legacy,
and it wasn't happening, and they just did not have
the financial means to be able to get the top
level coaches, you know, top level personnel people, scouting department
and everything else. People just don't realize that they are
below the bar of these other teams in terms of
employees and those very important departments. Obviously, the cap restricts

(01:40:35):
how much you can do as far as personnel is concerned.
But what do you think Mark Walter's first line of business.
I mean, you obviously have to get Luka Doncict signed
to a deal. But how could this change with leadership
and the Laker organization change the dynamic of the future
of Lebron James with the Lakers.

Speaker 7 (01:40:56):
Yeah, I think regardless of this sale happening or not,
I don't think anything was going to change with Lebron
or Luca. I think Lebron he's going to end his
career with the Lakers, whether it's one more year or
two year, two more years. Luca Dodgers tweeted out a
lot of excitement about new ownership and basically suggested he'll
sign that extension in August because he's saying he wants
to help the Lakers win multiple championships. He has one

(01:41:17):
year on his contract. You connect the dots, but the
expectation is he wants to be a Laker long term regardless.
I think the immediate changes that we're going to see
is the financial resources with behind the scenes type efforts,
more analytics staffing, you know, more team staff, more resources
for training staff. To be clear, it's not like under
the Bus family that they were nickel and diming those things.

(01:41:40):
They put the resources into it. They weren't cutting corners,
but they were always very economical and very pragmatic about it.
And that's a you know, much different than how they
viewed star players. It was always about betting whatever it
takes to have that. So I think that's order business
number one or business number two. It's inevitable when you

(01:42:00):
have new ownership, that means new front office. I don't
think that's going to happen right away, only because Rob
Polinka he signed an extension in April. He still has
some good capital right now because of the fact that
they got Luca Dotchen. The trade. Yeah, it may have
felt on the Lakers lap with Nico Harrison, but he
also have to negotiot and make the trade happen. But

(01:42:21):
I think the telling part is what will the front
office do this summer to really bolster the team's depths,
which getting the center spot, getting a good supporting cast
around Lebron and Luca. So I don't think if I'm
Rob Polinka, I'm thinking my job's in jeopardy. But you know,
you obviously have a job to do, and you have
to keep that equity moving forward, especially when there's new

(01:42:42):
ownership involved.

Speaker 1 (01:42:45):
Mark Who's gonna be the next coach next? I don't
even know if they're going to have one before the
end of the year at this rate, are you what
team are you talking about? For the Knicks.

Speaker 2 (01:42:58):
Coach?

Speaker 7 (01:42:58):
You know, I've been told Mike Brown's the heavy favorite here.
He's already interviewed. It went well. He interviewed a few
years ago. The Knicks were impressed with him. I think
the reason why he has it's not just because he's
has the most head coaching experience, but he was seen,
especially during his time with Cleveland and the Lakers, that
he's a defensive oriented coach and he has these long practices,

(01:43:20):
long film sessions. Sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad. But
he's even those things out. When he was at Golden State,
it was very eye opening to him about the fact
that you don't have to have all these intense practices
that can grind players. Bill Paul same thing with film sessions.
He's been more offensively innovative, especially when you see his
time in Sacramento. So even though the time in Sacramento

(01:43:42):
came to an end, that had more to do with
for an office ownership dysfunction than anything else. When you
look at the numbers, their offense was top one of
the top of the league. So when that happens, I've
been told it's not going to happen right away, so
I would expect sometime after the draft or even after
free agency. So technically Nicks are still looking at other candidates.

(01:44:04):
But if I had a guess, I think Mike Brown
will be the head coach.

Speaker 2 (01:44:07):
Well, if I were the Nicks, I would bring in
Van Gundy, Jeff Aan Gunny, who's a proven commodity in
New York and uh I think I mean it would
be a popular pick. And again, not everyone is suited
to deal with the New York market. If anyone can
handle it, as Jeff aan Gunny has proven that. But
that's just me. I know, maybe it's yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:44:27):
You know what, the I'm with you. Van Gundy's great.
He when he talks to people on the Clippers, they
really paint him as the reason why they become a
defensive elite team. Obviously helps you have good defenders. But
he made a lot of good changes with being active
with game prep, holding players accountable. I just don't know
if Fan Gundy is really up for that, especially knowing

(01:44:48):
how they treated his close friend Tom Thibodeau.

Speaker 2 (01:44:51):
I agree, I agree with you, and then that would
be the problem. In other words, is he going to
step over Tibbs in his protege uh to take that
next job? But you know what, money talks Mark, great stuff.
Can't wait to see what transpires tonight. We appreciate the
time and Joy.

Speaker 7 (01:45:08):
Dave always appreciate you. And Jim Hill continues to say,
keep telling what.

Speaker 2 (01:45:12):
You're doing, thank you very much. Yes, keep the faith
right there, thank you. Mark, Mark Medina joining us right there,
our NBA insider. All right, let's find out what is
trending right now. Rolling along on a very busy Sunday Monsie,
it is busy.

Speaker 5 (01:45:28):
I thought I was gonna come in and relax.

Speaker 4 (01:45:30):
Wait for Game seven.

Speaker 5 (01:45:32):
Wake up to Kevin Durant news, Wake up to cal Raleigh,
you know, giving Aaron Judge already a run for his
MVP money. Show heyo, Tawny pitching again? All right, we'll
start there, show heyo TWI.

Speaker 2 (01:45:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:45:46):
His second start behind well on the mound, not behind
the mound, but on the mound. Only one inning, struck
out two already four pitches reached.

Speaker 4 (01:45:56):
Ninety eight miles an hour.

Speaker 5 (01:45:58):
His first outing, he had two pitches over one hundred
miles an hour and one of them.

Speaker 4 (01:46:03):
Was already the second fastest pitch for a Dodger this season.

Speaker 2 (01:46:07):
So is he out after one in age?

Speaker 4 (01:46:08):
Officially out?

Speaker 2 (01:46:09):
Seah. I told that my son Garrett, as you know,
Big Doddvan we are at the game on Thursday. Yes,
And he was like, oh no, no, no, he'll definitely
go more than one. I go no, no, one inning period.

Speaker 5 (01:46:21):
One inning and so but not too shabby. And in
the two outings that he has had, very small, small
sample size. But I like what I've seen so far
from Otani. Right now, Dodgers in the Nationals are scoreless.
It is the bottom of the second inning. The Guardians
are up on the ace to zero bottom of the
second about to start. The Red Sox have scored first
against the Giants, won zero bottom of the second as well.

(01:46:43):
The Rockies have taken the lead from the Diamondbacks. That's
four to two bottom of the fifth. The Mariners have
added some more runs, so now they're topping the Cubs
nine to sixth bottom of the seventh.

Speaker 4 (01:46:53):
And yes, cal Rawly with his thirty first home run
of the season.

Speaker 5 (01:46:56):
We have not even reached the All Star break three
years in a row for Calra with thirty or more
home runs, except this is the first time he's actually
done up before the All Star break. The Reds of
a four to one lead over the Cardinals bottom of
the ninth inning about to start in Saint Louis, and
the Brewers have a nine to five lead over the
Twins bottom of the seventh, But the Twins do have
the bases loaded and they have two outs, so we'll
see what they do there. The Yankees defeated the Orioles

(01:47:18):
four to two. The Tigers took down the Rays nine
to three. The Pirates with an eight to three win
over the Rangers at home. The White Sox defeated the
Blue Jays four to two, and the Marlins had to
come back win to defeat the Braves five to three
at home. At Game two of the Men's College World
Series Final, LSU is on top of Coastal Carolina five
to one. It is the top of the sixth inning.

(01:47:40):
Tigers lead the series one zero and it's the best
of three series, so if the Tigers win this.

Speaker 4 (01:47:44):
One, it is over.

Speaker 5 (01:47:46):
Coastal Carolina did lose their manager, Kevin Schal and their
first base coach Matt Schilling, though in the first inning
they were ejected. We'll check in in golf at the
Travelers Championship.

Speaker 4 (01:47:55):
Tommy Fleetwood is still in the lead. He is fifteen
hunder part overall.

Speaker 5 (01:47:59):
Jason Day with Keegan Bradley and Russel Henley are two
shots back.

Speaker 4 (01:48:04):
We've also got a w.

Speaker 5 (01:48:05):
NBA game going on. Well, we got a couple, but
the Fever and the Aces are playing. Fever have been
up a lot of this game. Las Vegas is now
on top sixty three to sixty one with.

Speaker 4 (01:48:14):
About eight minutes to go in this one.

Speaker 5 (01:48:16):
Aleah Boston for Indiana, She's got twenty two points and
six rebounds. The Sky is beating the Dreams seventy three
to sixty nine. Also early in the fourth quarter of
this one.

Speaker 4 (01:48:26):
What a day. Oh, yes, Kevin Durant, he's headed to
the Houston Rockets.

Speaker 9 (01:48:28):
In case you miss In case you missed it, Yes, why?

Speaker 5 (01:48:32):
And there's a Game seven, which is the two greatest
words in the sports?

Speaker 2 (01:48:36):
In June? Can we say in June? Okay, in June
we can say that June.

Speaker 1 (01:48:40):
I'm curious, MONTI, do you think the Super Bowl the
two better is better than seven?

Speaker 4 (01:48:45):
Hard to argue?

Speaker 1 (01:48:47):
It is hard. I agree, and I love arguing with
Brian No, but it's hard to argue no, for.

Speaker 5 (01:48:51):
Real, Like I do think Game seven just brings a
really a lot of excitement right in general.

Speaker 4 (01:48:57):
But yeah, super Bowl, I hate it. I hate because
I wanted to be Game seven.

Speaker 5 (01:49:03):
But I don't know if i'd win the argument, you
know what I mean, I think it might be Super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (01:49:07):
Well, it's interesting, you know, back in the day as
a college football fanatic that I am. Yeah, that's not
two words, it's sort of three, which is one versus two.
You know, those are ware. There weren't a lot of
those back in the day.

Speaker 1 (01:49:24):
I remember a nine to six game Alabama and LSU a.

Speaker 2 (01:49:28):
While but absolutely that was ugly. But you know you
would have those those rare matchups like that, you know,
Game of the Century. Yeah, Game of the century. Those
are all good, Montsi, thank you so much, pleasure.

Speaker 4 (01:49:43):
Jared's ihead to Jack.

Speaker 1 (01:49:44):
Pot Oh I will, He says, hello as well.

Speaker 2 (01:49:47):
Hey, We're in the Fox Sports Radio studios, And don't
forget after the show. The podcast is going up. So
if you miss any of today's show, check out the podcast.
Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you gaged podcasts, and
then follow review the podcast. You know you going to
give it five stars. So again, just search Fox Sports
Radio wherever he gets your podcast. You'll see today's show
posted right after we get off the air. So any

(01:50:09):
interesting prop bets that you might want to throw up
for tonight's game.

Speaker 1 (01:50:14):
So I think I'm gonna go under on Benedict Mathern's
point prop tonight. I think he's going to be on
a very short leash. He has not played well over
the last couple of games. Let mean, look, I was
looking at his numbers earlier and I think I like
your look on the home groom ten plus rebounds. Yeah,
Mathern three for seventeen from the field over the last

(01:50:36):
two games, and he's logged fifty minutes in the last three.
But I do think the leash will be very tight
tonight because he had a really bad defensive rating in
game six. And I think I think Ben Shepherd's actually
a guy that has kind of stolen some minutes from
Matherin in this series. He's played really well, and he's
also a really good corner three point shooter. He's actually

(01:50:57):
their best corner three point shooter, and that's kind of
been the pocket of space that's been open for the
Pacers in this series. We've seen Obi top and take
advantage of that considerably. I don't like betting overs for
shooting on role players, right the three point shot is
so volatile. It could go in, could go not. But
with Shepard, you're getting plus money just to make one

(01:51:18):
three pointer tonight, and I think that's a decent you know,
coin flip kind of bet where you're getting you know,
plus money on it, so that's a better than fifty
percent chance, you know. I think that's a decent I
think that's a decent look. But if you want to
look at the stars tonight. I think my favorite prop
bet tonight is that SGP that I gave out yesterday
on the Saturday Morning Show for Oklahoma City to win

(01:51:38):
the game, paired with SGA to score thirty. Like, I
just don't see a lot of avenues where they win
the game and he doesn't score thirty. It just happens
so often. And then the other ones Jalen Williams, Like,
if you really think, if, if, if Oklahoma City is
gonna show up tonight, Jalen Williams is gonna have to
be a distributor and a score. And his assist numbers
have kind of taken a dip over the last couple games.

(01:52:00):
He's been almost a lock to go over four and
a half assists in this postseason. He's gone under in
the last two. So I think SGA to get the
thirty points and Williams to have five assists and Check
to have ten rebounds in Oklahoma City to win. Like
that's all kind of in the stew for tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:52:15):
All right, and again Oklahoma City. Keep in mind, there
have been nineteen NBA Finals Game sevens. The home team
has won fifteen of those. I go so far back, Jared,
I remember the first road team to win a Game seven.
That was Bill Russell's final game. I was in fifth
grade and the Celtics upset the Lakers at the Forum.

(01:52:36):
As Will sat on the bench in the fourth quarter
with an injury. As the Lakers came back to make
it close, don Nelson as a player, threw up a
shot with a Celtic one point lead. It hit the
back of the rim, went straight up and right through
the hoop, and that's when you knew the Celtics were
a team of destiny. But again only like Caliburton in
Game one it was against the Knicks. It was the
same type of shot. Actually, Halliburn's bounced even higher than

(01:52:59):
the My favorite was watching people. You can YouTube it,
like you know, the ABC highlights of that Game seven.
Don Nelson at the free throw line. His free throw
shooting style was like a shot put, like he'd be
on one leg with the ball in one hand and
sort of shot put it toward the basket. I love
that old stuff. I love it. And by the way,

(01:53:20):
everyone always says, why was the NBA so slow in
those days? And I go, that's because you had to
keep your hand on top of the basketball when you dribble.
Every single every single player in the NBA would be
called for carrying the ball over or palming the ball
every time they dribbled the ball back in the old
ball every time once in the whole playoffs. I mean again,

(01:53:44):
when I was a kid during that era, I'm telling you, Jerry,
we had a practice keeping our hand on top of
the basketball as we dribbled at all times. So that's
why game looks slow in those days. Much different now,
all right, coming up on the other side, our final thoughts,
our final picks, final scores. We're gonna tell you what's

(01:54:05):
gonna happen before it happens. This is Fox Sports Sunday,
Steve Harvin, Jared Smith here, Fox Sports Sunday and the
Fox Sports Radio studios. Want to thank our crew today Monsey.
Of course, she's getting ready for her show with Carrie
Rhoades coming up, so I want to thank Moncy for
her efforts today. Chris on the board. By the way,

(01:54:29):
so LSU right now, looking like Chris, they're gonna end
up winning this College World Series, which I did not
really interesting? So what do we have an update on
the jello shots with LSU as of three hours ago.

Speaker 6 (01:54:43):
LSU's count at the Rocos Jello Shot Challenge. You know
hamah is no, no, doesn't even need to be stated.

Speaker 2 (01:54:49):
They're in the lead.

Speaker 6 (01:54:50):
Forty five thousand, six and forty two. Still a long
cry from under seven thousand. You took under seven thousands
forty five thou in six hundred and forty Is that
a four or night either way? Still a long cry
from what they did I believe two years ago, where
I believe the total was sixty eight thousand, eight hundred.

Speaker 2 (01:55:10):
But there's gonna be a late there's gonna be a
late run here.

Speaker 6 (01:55:13):
Oh we're talking about people from Botton Rouge. They're gonna
come in and just start pounding the place. I bet
they go over on that one. And our brilliant producer, Shay,
he is a man that.

Speaker 2 (01:55:25):
I love. His demeanor something about yesha, I'm not quite
sure what it is. You have your fun, but it's
there's a serious demeanor like I have a job to do,
I appreciate I get the business done well, that's exactly.
And you know, you get everyone ever gonna have fun
in life, you have to have fun of them exactly.
But I know Jared's got a lot of fun in life, Jared.

Speaker 1 (01:55:48):
I'm living in Vegas.

Speaker 2 (01:55:49):
I'm living the life I was gonna Jared. Actually I
was so. I was in Phoenix last week where it
hit one fourteen. I mean it was really that oven heat.
Did you get close to that in Vegas last week?

Speaker 8 (01:56:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:56:03):
We got one ten? Yeah, I think there was a
one ten out there.

Speaker 2 (01:56:06):
Yeah. People don't understand if you're not exposed. When people
say it's a dry heat, it's ovens. It's literally what
I call oven heat.

Speaker 1 (01:56:15):
A hundred and under. I'm fine. Yeah, once you start
to get into that one oh five to one ten range,
that's where it's oppressive just to be outside. But it's
unfortunate my morning I have morning sun on the balcony
afternoon shade, so the morning sun's not as not as intense.

Speaker 2 (01:56:31):
Yeah, yeah, you just don't. People will say, well, why
are you surviving?

Speaker 1 (01:56:35):
You don't stand in it to them, Yeah, you just
don't go outside.

Speaker 2 (01:56:37):
You don't guess. All right, So let's get some final
thoughts on this game seven that night between the Pacers
and the Thunder. And again, this is one of those
games and I said this at the start, char that
My biggest takeaway, regardless of what happens in tonight's game,
is that I have been underwhelmed by the thunder Mark

(01:56:59):
Dagnall again. I See. Here's the thing. We've had, this
revolving door of champions right. I mean, we're looking at
our seventh different team to win the NBA Championship over
the last seven years.

Speaker 1 (01:57:13):
Went back to back in the NHL two yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:57:15):
I mean gets back to back, seven different teams in
seven years.

Speaker 1 (01:57:19):
Crazy teams go back to back in hockey in the
last six years exactly, you.

Speaker 2 (01:57:24):
Had Tampa Bay and now you got, yeah, the Panthers.
So he got this, uh, this run of you know,
and you know, if the Pacers win, it's just going
to look you go back like, oh, did the Pacers
actually win a championship. It's going to be one of those.
But for OKC, they have again. They would be the
second youngest team ever to win the NBA Championship. And

(01:57:46):
people forget that Portland team in seventy seven lit by
Bill Walton. The next year they started fifty to ten, wow,
and then he got hurt and that was it. It
was done. He never played another game for the pat
Blazers and that was the end of their dynasty, just
like that. But if you look at OKAC with the
nucleus they have right now, what they accomplished in the
regular season this year, and the fact that they have

(01:58:07):
five number one picks over the next two years. Wow,
I mean, we could see a team that could make
a real run at least for the balance of this decade.
But it's gonna have to start tonight. I just it's
it would be a disaster, a disaster if they lost tonight,
major disaster, I mean disaster.

Speaker 1 (01:58:28):
The two in the series right, two games at home.

Speaker 2 (01:58:31):
By the way, the last time a team was down
three to two wins game six. They usually win Game seven.
But that's usually at home, yep, not on the road.
I gotta go, OKAYC in this game, the line is
at six and a half.

Speaker 1 (01:58:45):
Yep, I'll give you six and a half. That's where
it is. A BENMGM, that's what I bet.

Speaker 2 (01:58:49):
Six and a half to me is always a sucker
line in football. It's always a draw in you know
you know me, and you never bet you know you
bet the over instead of the other. I I got it.
I'm going to go with what you said earlier. Then
if the Pacers win, it's going to be a close win, yep.
But if the Thunder win, it's going to be a
blowout or at least going away. I can't see anything

(01:59:12):
other than a double digit victory for the Thunder tonight.
I agree.

Speaker 1 (01:59:16):
And Oklahoma City again six and zero off a loss
this year in the playoffs, four and two against the spread.
They're nine and three against the spread at home in
the postseason, and all five games so far in the
playoffs where OKAC has been at home and the spread's
been less than ten, they've covered all five games. So
if you're giving me a discount, you're telling me that
game seven of the finals is the shortest number we

(01:59:38):
get to bet Oklahoma City in the entire postseason. I've
got to take that. So I'm on Oklahoma City too.
I think they win by ten plus.

Speaker 2 (01:59:45):
All right, So remind everybody about your best plays for
tonight's game.

Speaker 1 (01:59:49):
Well, I really like Haliburton under points. I like a
lot of the under points in this one. Them hard
over two and a half turnovers. I'll put that on
the card as well. And the SGA thirty plus points
at Oklahoma City to win. I think that's my favorite
play of the night.

Speaker 2 (02:00:02):
I can't wait to see this game tonight. I'll be watching.
You know. It's like I'm going over underwhelmed at times,
but tonight is a Game seven, which is always special. Jared,
great stuff. We always appreciate your time. Much more coming
up here on Fox Sports Radio.

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