Aaron Torres & Jason Martin react to the first round of the NBA Playoffs

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't listening to Fox Sports. Welcome in Everyboday, Fox Sports Saturday,
Aaron Torres, Jason Martin, Busy Saturday Night, Official opening day
of the NBA Playoffs. So though, Jason Martin, I mean
we're not called what we're not calling these playing games

(00:21):
playoff games. Because I was watching the scene in Minnesota
that that did not feel like a Tuesday in January
to me, I hope you're doing well, Jason. What's going on? Man?
How are you today? I can't complain, can't complain. My
daughter turned one two days ago. Wait a second now,
before we get started. First of all, happy birthday to

(00:41):
your beautiful daughter, A beautiful you know. But but also
our producer Bo we signed off last week. We knew
that it was his final show last Saturday as he
went on paternity leave. And as I was driving in,
we got a text that Bow has had a beautiful,

(01:02):
beautiful child nineteen inches Is that what I read? Uh?
So Bo, our producer Bow, were very very happy for him. Uh,
A beautiful beautiful girl. And uh he said that she
is nineteen inches tall, set to play in the NBA.
So if you're looking at your what would that be

(01:24):
twenty four forty two NBA mock Draft or so w
n B a mock draft. Uh Bo Benson's daughter. But
our producer Bo had a daughter today. Happy congratulations to him.
Happy birthday to your daughter, Jason. So before we get
into the sports, it's been a busy week for you guys.
Were you guys able to throw a party? Did you

(01:45):
have a party today? What you do for your daughter?
We have both the sets of grandparents in and we
kept it pretty small because she's one, and it's more
a party for everybody to her because she didn't know
what's going on. She's still got spoiled to some degree.
But I found out of the last two weeks what
a smash cake is. That the cake that's designed for
a baby to smash it and take photos and all

(02:07):
of that kind of thing. So there was a secondary cake.
She did not smash either cake. There were two different
smash cakes, one for a photography session, one for the other.
I ended up smashing one, taking both my hands and
just like I'm gonna take this in my hands and
help you out, Clara, and just bam, just crushed it
right there in front of her because she was just
it's like, I don't think she likes getting messy, which

(02:27):
I'm alright with that. I feel like my house is
gonna be better off for it. At times I did
not know that she was gonna be that way, the
way that she eats normally. But yeah, the cake, the
cake was fine. But yeah, it was a fun time.
And you know, everybody is is healthy. She's in the
she's past the ninety percentile. And height and weight and
headsize you talk about w N B A, she's gonna tall.

(02:48):
I mean, her mom is five eleven and I'm six three,
so she's she's likely to be pretty tall anyway. But
we have former we have I have a former SEC
Player of the Year who was already saying, yeah, when
she's five, she needs to start talking to me, like
he's already ready to start training her. He feels like
she's gonna if you've got if she's got size, he

(03:09):
can turn her into a star. So that might be
a thing. She's got a handler already one years old.
She's got a handl her. She's already reaching out to
uh Jimbo Fisher and uh h I oh yeah. We
will talk about Nick Saban and n I L later.
But happy birthday to your daughter. Congratulations again to Bo Benson. Uh,
and we got you know, fun, fun time in sports, Jason.
I mean, you know the way that the calendar has

(03:32):
kind of broken, you know now that we're kind of
quote unquote back to a normal schedule. It's just awesome, right.
I mean, we we have the Super Bowl now in
the middle of February, leads right into March Madness and
free agency. Obviously those two events have largely died down.
There's a few NFL topics that will get through throughout
the day, but March Madness ended literally uh ten days ago,

(03:54):
and we got the NBA playoffs. We had, as I
referenced the playing games this week, four playoff games to
start things off today, I would say probably the most
notable score, uh, the Memphis Grizzlies, not far a couple
of hours from where you are, came in in the
two seed. They lost to those upstart Minnesota Tippers. First
of all, before we get into this game, were you
one of those people? Were you leading your morning show

(04:16):
on on Wednesday or Thursday whenever it was outraged that
Pat Beverley was jumping on scores table celebrating a play
and win, or did you just enjoy what it was
for for what it was there on a Wednesday Thursday
night in that playing game. We didn't speak about it
at all. It's just like whatever, man like Minnesota and
how long it's been for them to be relevant, and
it'd being the Clippers. This is what Patrick Beverley does, Like,

(04:38):
what are you expecting? This is? This is his value
to the lead. I started being good on defense mainly
is to be irritating, to get out of the skin
of everybody, including the opposing fans. He's the kind of
guy you love when he's on your team and you
absolutely cannot stand him if he's anywhere else. And we
could go through a list of guys through the years
where that qualifies. So I just kind of saw this

(05:01):
as whatever. I mean, Minnesota hasn't had a whole lot
to be too excited about. That's a very young basketball team.
It was a nice win for them. I honestly, I
guess at some point, I'm just whatever. If you want
to celebrate, you go knock yourself out. We did not
speak about it at all because nobody in our room
on that show. It just didn't move the needle for

(05:23):
us in terms of let's get up in arms and
let's clutch pearls and all. It's like, nah, whatever, if
they want to celebrate, they can celebrate. But we'll find out,
like we'll find out how far this is gonna go
for them. But that might be the only thing that
they have to celebrate before the end of the year. Yeah,
it's funny, you know, you know, me being so plugged
in college basketball towards the end of the year, as
teams started clinching you know, regular season and conference tournaments

(05:45):
and stuff like that, like Auburn, I think I believe
it was their first you know, regular season conference championship
in years whatever, and their storm in the court. I
forget all the details. They're cutting nets and you know
how the SEC is, it just means more. And other
fan bases are like, wow, you know, why don't you
win a game that It's like, celebrate how you want
to celebrate, And I agree. And Patrick Beverley also referenced

(06:06):
some of the off the court things that have gone
on in Minnesota over the last two three years. The
following day, I'm with you. Uh. If I was hosting
radio the following day, it's not what I would have
led my show with I was not outraged, and I'll
tell you this to to lead into today Minnesota takes
Game one at Memphis one thirty one seventeen. Yeah, listen,
this is the NBA Playoffs. It's not March madness. We

(06:28):
don't have to overreact to one game. But what you said, Jason,
with this Minnesota team, and both these teams are really young,
really dynamic, really fun. But you talk about a Minnesota
team that one hasn't had a ton to celebrate in
recent years, but two could be just a fun story
to follow throughout these playoffs. And again it's very early,
but Karl Anthony Towns twenty nine points, third team boards,

(06:50):
Anthony Edwards going off for thirty six points today. I
just enjoyed watching this game, and I have a feeling
win lose. This is going to be an entertaining team
to watch throughout these playoffs. In an entertaining series here
with Memphis. Yeah, and I think, however it goes, these
are two of the youngest teams in the league. They've
got burgeoning, if not already they're superstars. They've got solid

(07:12):
second guys. You're looking at the future, you're not really
looking at the present. Now. They both had nice seasons.
Don't get me wrong, nobody's expecting them to go particularly deep.
Nobody's expecting them to win the NBA Championship. I know
memphisis a two seed, but they feel to me like
there maybe ahead of schedule just a little bit, but
they're being built properly. What you're seeing is these two

(07:33):
teams have a chance to be a force in coming years,
so let's see what they can do now. And since
they're against each other, this is just wide open, up
and down basketball and it's a pleasure to watch. Like
however it goes. I mean, I really like memphisis makeup.
I'm a huge John Morant fan. I was in college.
I I believe he should he was going to be

(07:53):
the one between him and Zion that was going to
succeed because I felt like the league was built more
for guys like him and felt like he had a
or chance to be healthy. But Minnesota, it's starting to
work out for them in a positive sense. They're both
being built right, They're both fun to watch. That's what
you want in the first round series, like you're getting
from these two guys. Are these two organizations to kind

(08:15):
of basketball to get you excited about the future. And
I think that's what's important for the NBA is creating
as many of these stories as you can, and both
of them are positives. It's so funny that you said,
because that was kind of one of my big takeaways
is Listen, we know a lot of inc has been
spilled over the last frankly six months, but really the
last couple of weeks about the Los Angeles Lakers. What

(08:36):
went wrong? Why did it go wrong? Where is Lebron
at in his career? Can a D be a second
guy that they need to trade a D? Russell Westbrook?
Where is he had in his career? All all that stuff,
And I bring it up to say, listen, biggest brand,
best player in the league, or one of the best
players wherever you think about Lebron obviously a historic figure,
but the NBA at some point does have to start

(08:56):
figuring out what is this league gonna look like? Who
are the face says of this league? Once Lebron retires
here as he's closing in on what he will be
thirty seven later this year, and so I'm not saying
that Anthony Edwards is going to be the next face
of the NBA I'm not saying Carl Anthony Towns, even
John Moran, who obviously played at an m v P
caliber level when he was healthy this year. But I

(09:18):
am so on board with exactly what you just said, Jason,
and listen. I'll say this is I can be at
times critical of the NBA. There are certain things about
the regular season that I don't like, but you talk
about so many young, dynamic, fun players in this league
that are on the way up. I mentioned Anthony Edwards,
I mentioned John Moran. Unfortunately we did not get to
see Luca Dontchage today because of injury, but you have him,

(09:40):
you have Jayson Tatum who will see tomorrow, and then
he still got those guys in the mid to late
part of their primes. Didn't even mention Devin Booker, Janice whatever,
on top of the older guys like Kyrie, like k
d Um. Again, I can be critical at times of
the NBA during the regular season, but the star power
and the talent. Despite what JJ Reddick thinks about what
I've said about the players in the league, I am

(10:03):
very aware that there is a ton of young, very
talented players in this league, and I think today was
a great example of that. Yeah, to your point, we
know what it's like when a league is a player, right, Like,
we've had a player for the last twenty years and
he's still a part of the league, and he's still
one of the best players in the world, and then
given night, he can be the best player in the world,
meaning Lebron James. But it's kind of been Lebron. If

(10:25):
it's cool, Now, let's just have a sport. I'd be
cool to have just a sport. I'd i'd have I'd
be cool to have a league full of guys that
bring me to the dance the way they do in
the NFL. Yeah, there's Tom Brady, but there's a bunch
of other guys that you want to watch as well.
And I think the key to it is something like
Phoenix being able to cash in and the Bucks cashing

(10:46):
in last year. It's this deal where, yeah, I'm watching
the Sunster in the regular season, but Devin Booker, this
is a nice story. But way till they run into Lebron. Well,
now it's Devin Booker might lead them to a championship
that changes it up. It's the same thing with Utah,
Donovan Mitchell or what you hoped maybe could have happened
in Portland with Damian Lillard before they realized seeing CJ
just work going to be good enough to get it done.

(11:07):
It's that kind of thing. It's the Memphis story, it's
Minnesota getting better, it's the East getting deeper. If you
create more parody around greatness, I don't mean parody around mediocrity,
I mean parody around greatness, like there are superstars to
watch in you know, fifteen teams in this league. All
of a sudden, you got something. If you're Adam Silver

(11:28):
and I do like the idea that we are moving
from just having Lebron James and everybody else to a
league that is much much deeper and it's harder to
call from from day to day what's going to happen
in the league? Now, I totally agree, and I'm with you.
I mean, I think that's one thing the NFL does,
you know better than frankly any sport, right, you know,
it's a cliche, but it's true. It's about the shield. Uh.

(11:51):
And we tune in for a number of reasons, fantasy football, gambling,
all that stuff. But at the end of the day,
I mean, there are so many guys that you want
to watch in the NFL, whether it is the quarterbacks,
whether it is some of the young wide receivers, Jamaar Chase,
guys like that. So to me, when I look at
where the NFL is, like you said, I think the
NBA can mirror that, and I think in a lot
of ways it'll be interesting to follow these NBA playoffs

(12:12):
and see if in the long run it's a benefit
where last year, I think America really got to know
Janice in a way that they really hadn't before, even
though I know he had made he had been an
m v P. But that that Finals run, the fifty
points in Game six or whatever it was to clinch
the series, Devin Booker emerging, Chris Paul re emerging as
a story. Uh, and I hope we get more stories

(12:33):
like that throughout these NBA playoffs. This is Fox Sports
Radio eron towards Jason Martin. We're just getting started three
other games today, including in Philadelphia where one guard completely
took over the game. No it wasn't James Harden And yes,
I know Jason Martin's gonna have something to say about that.
This is Fox Morts Red. Hi, I'm George Rice Stir,

(12:54):
host of the Rice Ster or Wrong podcast. This is
the intersection where sports, business, society, and pop culture beat
the truth, absolute fire on Monday's, Wednesdays and Friday's Facts Only.
Make sure you check your feelings at the door, because
nobodys is allowed. We keep it one hundred. This is

(13:15):
where real conversations happen. Listen to the Rights Are Wrong
podcast on the I Heart Radio, Apple Apple Podcast or
wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back, everybody, Fox Sports
Radio eron towards Jason Martin here Saturday night. Uh, three
other games so we talked earlier. Minnesota does take kara

(13:38):
Memphis one thirty one seventeen, biggest upset of the days
so far, Minnesota the seventeen in the West, Memphis the
two seed in Golden State. Right now in San Francisco,
the Warriors are up seventy one to sixty with six
minutes left in the third quarter. We'll keep you updated
on that one. I want to get to the other
games from today earlier, Jason, I mean first game and

(14:00):
we'll get to in a minute. But but the most
recent one prior to this Warriors game, UH, Philadelphia one
thirty one to one eleven against the Toronto Raptors. Of
Toronto Raptors obviously a new look team this year. Kyle
Lowry's out. A lot of the pieces from that championship
team a few years ago were no longer there. But Philadelphia,
you know you you talk about an interesting night in

(14:21):
Philly where Joel em Beat a solid nineteen point fifteen
rebound performance. Uh James Harden twenty two points, not a
great shooting night, six of seventeen. Tyrese Maxie, sorry for
yelling into the mike, but Tyrese Maxie thirty eight points.
Nobody saw that coming. Former Kentucky star five three pointers.
He was the star of the game. So Jason, what

(14:42):
what to you? Is the bigger story? Tyrese Maxie going off?
Or James Harden six of seventeen from the field, to
his credit, though did have fourteen assists in this game.
I'm not gonna Doug James hard not too much, na,
because I'm gonna have time. There's gonna be time, and
I don't mean tonight, I mean over the next halfful

(15:03):
of weeks because Harden is gonna harden. But everybody's entitled
to a bad game. This is a good basketball team,
and I think we need to actually look at Maxie
and give him props for this. This has to happen
in the playoffs. At some point, somebody that you're not
expecting to go off for that much has to show up.
And sometimes they have to overcome bad shooting. Look at

(15:25):
shooting comes and goes. Sometimes it could be streaky. Six
seventeen is not great. Fourteen assists is. But I think
the bigger point here is Tyrese Maxie. This is a
guy that averaged just under eighteen points a game during
the season. It's not like he came out of absolutely nowhere.
He doubled his point total and nearly have forty in
this game, and that's outstanding. This is dude. That's that's

(15:48):
average this year. Seventeen seventeen a half points, four assists,
three rebounds. He's a pretty solid player and this is
to do that was the twenty one pick coming out
of Kentucky and has been a past here, not talked
about all that much, but very capable, and that's what
you need in the playoffs. Sometimes guys emerged sometimes and

(16:08):
we'll see like is there gonna be a follow up
or was this one off in terms of being able
to do this. If this were to actually be able
to continue, if he was able to give you twenty
five game again instead of seventeen, boy, would that be nice.
But I'm not gonna kill Harden for having an off
shooting night in game one. Because the playoffs are gonna
take the next two months to try and play out.

(16:30):
They're gonna be good nights, They're gonna be bad nights.
I'm not gonna be the guy that just tries to
pick and choose, especially on guys that that I've been
pretty critical of in the past. I think I'm gonna
get an opportunity to be with Harden. But I think
you just credit Maxie and say, hey, he picked up
the slack in this one. Harden was able to contribute
in other ways. At least Harden didn't go six for

(16:50):
thirty and take way too many shots seventeens seventeens. You
want to see more, but you also he's a volume shooter,
but you need to see more efficiency in tonight. It
was Maxie's night, and you let him go ahead and
go off. You got to win, and now you move on.
I think it's just I think you just credit Maxie
I don't think you have to dog out Harden tonight. See,
I actually agree, and I know that you know, our

(17:11):
job is to come in strong and have a hot take,
but but I tend to agree. I mean, one, first
of all, let's give Tyrese Maxie credit only for today.
But this was the guy that it was kind of thought,
where does he fit in? What is how does he
because he was so good early in the year, and
then James Harden comes in and he's gonna have to
play off the ball more he being Tyrese Maxie and
what does it mean for him? And he's going to

(17:32):
be the odd guy out and he's gonna be and
you know, he's just taking it in stride. And you know, listen,
I with my college basketball background, I've I've covered him.
I got to know him a little bit in high school.
I don't know what he's like now. I don't claim
to know what he's like, but he was always a
very gregarious kid and a kid that was willing to
do what it helped, what it took to help the
team win. And so I'm not surprised to see that

(17:55):
he has gone off the ball, willing to play a
supporting role as a young player, just twenty one years old. Uh,
in terms of James Harden, and then with James Harden,
I also think it's worth noting with James Harden, like
you know, we can criticize him, but I think I
think it's a testament to him. Is is he's a
former league MVP whose average thirty plus points per game. Uh.

(18:16):
He wasn't shooting the ball great today, but he finished
with fourteen assessts and so when the balls in your hand,
he was making the right play, he wasn't forcing it. Um.
And like you said, it's a long playoffs. I have
my doubts about Philadelphia over the course of the totality
of the playoffs, and I get there there, you know,
not even necessarily a favorite in the East or a
favorite to win at all. I do have a a

(18:37):
you know, questions about the hardened and bead fit. You know,
we were so quick to just credit credit, credit, credit
credit them early on and they kind of struggled later.
The point I'm trying to make is I'm kind of
with you on this is that we could dog James
Harden six of seventeen. He should have done no. I
thought he made the right play in most instances, in
this case there was another hot hand. And by the way,

(18:58):
also credit Joe l em Bead I mean, right, agreed. Yeah,
this was a guy that that you know, the last
two weeks, it seems like all anybody's wanted to talk about,
including him. Is he the m v P. Should he
be the m v P? Is he not the m
v P? What does it mean thirty points a game
this regular season? Uh, and he kind of took a
backseat to Tyrese Maxie as well. So that's what in
my opinion, that's kind of what you want to see
in the playoffs, is if he got a hot hand,

(19:19):
right at Joel Embi is gonna have his nights, James
Harden is hopefully going to have his nights. But tonight
just happened to be Terris Maxie's night. Yeah. So you
mentioned James Harden going six or seventeen, I mean, and
he went five for fifteen. I mean, he only shot
thirty three percent from the field. He missed both his threes.
He was good from the line, he was nine of eleven,
as was hard in six of seven. But you talk
about fourteen assists for James Harden, right, only one turnover.

(19:40):
I think that's that's worthy you mentioned as well. But
embed fifteen rebounds, eleven on the defensive end, So yeah,
they only combined for forty one points. Did the two
guys you assume are the stars and the guys that
are gonna have to carry you. But what happens in
the playoffs more than anything else is that role play
years show up at home. And that's what you saw

(20:03):
is Maxie, even though he's a really solid player, Maxi
went off at home. He was a plus twenty and
the plus minus ratio, and then the two superstars kind
of book ended him, left him in the middle to
kind of handle it. From scoring perspective, he was the meat,
but they were the bunt. They made sure that the
sandwich was good. Fifteen rebounds for him, Bead, fourteen assists

(20:24):
for Harden. That that's gonna get it done. Because even
though neither one of them shot the ball well, they
combined to shoot eleven for thirty two from from the field.
They were still huge plus is out there. Like you
want to talk about the Lakers, Westbrook a lot of
times just totally fell apart, turned the ball over six
times and couldn't shoot these guys found ways to contribute

(20:45):
around somebody else that was absolutely dealing with Maxico and
fourteen twenty one and from the free throw line plus
five of eight from three, and they were just like,
you know what, We're just gonna find a way to
help him because it's his night. First game of the day.
Utah takes care of dal Us in Dallas, Luca don
che out with a calf strain. Uh, he is day

(21:05):
to day. We don't know if he'll be available for
game two. Um, is there a hot take from this one? Jason?
I mean, I feel like when you have a superstar
that's not playing, even at home, it's hard to expect
to win. I think the only thing I can really
take away is Luca gets You know, Luca has been
banged up and each of the last two playoffs, this
is starting to become a trend. I'm not criticizing him.

(21:27):
I understand it's the nature of high level athletics. But
he's not available in game one, he might not be
available in game two. Dallas falls down oh one at
home to the Jazz. Yeah, I mean, I think that's
the story. It's just Dallas can't win without him, and
we already knew that they're not going to win a
championship with him without somebody else around there that is
a true superstar, and they don't have that guy. They've

(21:49):
got some nice pieces, but in order to win a
championship in the NBA, you gotta have two studs. Maybe
one of them has to be a soon to be
Hall of Famer. You look throughout this league, that's what
you're gonna see. And your point about the health and
how it's becoming a trend. I heard Joey Taylor say
that earlier this week. She's dead right. Luca is kind
of known not to take care of his body in

(22:09):
the way that a lot of other guys do in
the league. He's just kind of living off his talent,
and it's outstanding talent. Imagine if he married that to
actually really being careful with his body, being in complete
shape all the time. All of that, and that doesn't
mean that he would be able to avoid injuries as
people that are in immaculate shape that can't stay healthy.
But I do look at that and say, dude, if

(22:30):
he's not available, he's not worth anything to you. He's
an absolute superstar when he's out there. But if they
go oh two down to the Jazz and they've lost
both those games at home. I it seems to me
like Dallas is going home early. It seems like it
is well one other game going on. Rather than me
telling you about it, how about for the first time

(22:51):
we bring in Steve to Sagar with what's trending? What's
going on? To Sagar? Hello, gentlemen. This NBA playoff opener
at Golden State is late in the third quarter Steph
kur with ten points off the bench. It's the Warriors
in the lead over Denver eighty four to sixty eight.
Game two is at Golden State late Monday night. Curry
did not start as he's been out for a month
with the foot injury. Philadelphia's went over Toronto was one

(23:13):
thirty one, one eleven. Scottie Barnes of the Raptors left
with a sprained ankle. He at fifteen points, ten rebounds,
eight assists. Minnesota's Anthony Edwards with thirty six points in
a win at two seed Memphis one thirty to one seventeen.
Game two in Memphis on Tuesday night. Minnesota at home
this week. It just defeated the Clippers in a playing
game Utah one at Dallas nine three. Luka don Sage

(23:35):
this year averaged twenty eight points, nine rebounds, nine assist
per game. Was out with the strain calf. Today. They
lost at home to Donovan Mitchell's crew. Mitchell had two
points in the first half and thirty in the second
half for a total of thirty two two Major League Baseball.
They're only four games still going bottom of the six.
Yankees lead five to at Baltimore. Yankees were down to

(23:56):
nothing in the fifth when a rain delay came hale
in Baltimore. Actually the Rockies trying to go to six
and two on the season. They're holding onto an eight
five lead over the Cubs in the bottom of the seventh.
Houston up three nothing at the Mariners top of the six,
and the Dodgers and Reds are scoreless in the late
game in the bottom of the second. Julio Arias on
the mound for l A. St. Louis is five and
two after winning at Milwaukee two to one. White Sox

(24:18):
one again three to two against Tampa Bay. The White
Sox record six and two and the Giants are six
and two after winning against the Cleveland Guardians for to two.
Show hey Otani of the Angels with a homer three
RBIs three run scored Halo's one at Texas seven to
two victories for Philadelphia and Pittsburgh as well. And yes,
the USFL season has started tonight. It's on Fox TV

(24:40):
as we speak in Birmingham. Side of all the home
games this regular season, it's Birmingham hosting New Jersey. Just
for the record, twenty one all last I checked in
the second half. Back to you, Thank you, Steve Seger.
This is Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday eron Torres,
Jason Martin here on a busy Saturday night. We'll keep
updated on this Warrior's game. As to say, you just

(25:01):
told you Warriors up nineteen points with one minute twenty one. Sorry,
math was never my strong suit. It was nineteen They
just scored again. So I just tried to make you
look bad. But no, it's it's getting a bit out
of hand right now. I'm gonna claim that my TV
is behind yours, even though it isn't. The math was
just bad on me. No, no, the bath. The math
was just bad. But let's watch Gears. We'll get back

(25:22):
to the NBA in a minute. You know, a little
bit of a quieter time on the NFL calendar. A
couple of big stories from this week, though we'll get
to Kylin Murray later, but we're starting to get some
Baker Mayfield buzz uh over the last couple of days. Well,
first of all, let's start uh. He was on the
You Never Know podcast earlier this week. We got a
couple of clips, so we got at least one clip.

(25:43):
Let's hear first of all what he had to say
on that show. Not nervous. I also have no idea
where I'm going. But I'm not nervous because I like,
I've gone through a lot in the past few years.
But now I'm I'm gonna control what I can control.
I'm gonna try and impact as many people as I
possibly can and work my ass. I've done it. So
there was some other stuff from that appearance Jason, but
let's let's get into exactly what he just said is,

(26:05):
UH don't know where he's gonna end up. There was
a report earlier this week, I believe it was Ian
Rappaport that said that it appears as though, um, it
appears as though the Panthers are the leader in the
clubhouse for Baker Mayfield. Uh, what do we think about
the Panthers because it feels like a great fit to me. Um,
you know the Baker. So first of all, so let's

(26:26):
start with the Panthers. I have some other thoughts on Baker,
but let's start with the Panthers. What do you think
of a potential fit there? What they need a quarterback here? Okay,
that's that's that's what he is. I mean, he's a
guy that had he not had he just shut it
down last year. And I will repeat this until the
end of time. I first guessed this and I'm still
saying the exact same thing. He never should have kept

(26:48):
playing when he was hurt, because nobody cares that he
was hurt when he was playing badly. They only care
that he was playing badly. The only thing people remember
is that imagine erin if he had shut it down
with Labraham, not tried to overdo it, and then people
are like, hey, man, he comes back fully healthy. He
could be There's there's still help there, because this is

(27:10):
the guy that won a playoff game against Pittsburgh two
years ago. That would be more of the lasting memory.
But instead he tried to gut it out. He wasn't
gonna be much better in terms of his because of
his health, and then case Keenan was gonna be in
those games. He didn't help himself at all. Now people
are out on him completely. And now, of course Cleveland

(27:30):
doesn't want to pay eighteen nineteen million dollars. Nobody else
does either. That's why he hadn't been picked up. It's
not that there's no interest in Baker. It says there's
no interest in paying that guaranteed money. But I mean,
there are a lot of people that could look at
him and say, yeah, he improves our quarterback room. He's
got maturity problems, There's no question about that. He is
his own worst enemy, and some of that is what
drives him. Some of the same things that make him

(27:52):
great make him awful. In terms of a commodity that
you would want as part of your organization. There are
some real pluses and there are some serious minuses. But
when you look at Carolina, they got no quarterback. Baker
Mayfield is a quarterback. He's a guy that's won a
playoff game. You've seen him actually have success in this league.

(28:13):
He was a number one overall pick and he's still
on his first contract, Like, think about that, he's not
an old guy. You're not picking him up, and you're
picking him up off the scrap heat somebody and a
lot of people actually believed he was a top five pick,
enough to actually take him number one in the case
of Cleveland. So if you're Carolina and you can make
this happen, but I just think you're waiting this out

(28:36):
as maybe a couple of other teams could at least
be in theory doing I think Carolina makes a lot
of sense for Baker Mayfield to land. I just think
that they're being crafty about it because everybody's trying to
get out of that money. I totally so, I agree
on everything. And I remember it's I remember being on
with you Christmas and night when the Cleveland Browns played

(28:56):
the Green Bay Packers. It was obviously the only game
that was on that night. Uh And and Aaron Rodgers
did not play well, and Baker Mayfield kept, you know,
they kept giving Cleveland the chance to win the game,
and Baker Mayfield kept screwing things up. And I remember
coming on air with you that night and discussing, hey, Baker,
Baker is not helping his team out by the way
Kevin Stefanski is not helping his team out. And and

(29:20):
you know it's exactly what you said is once you
stepped between the white lines, Um, you know, nobody cares
what what you did or how bad you hurt. I mean,
everybody's banged up by the end of the year, and
and he was more banged up than than most by
the end of the year. But at a certain point
you're you're doing your team no favors. But I'm still
with you, Jason, and I think he has his shortcomings.
And there was some other sound from that interview where

(29:42):
he talks about you know, he let the critics get
to him and dada da da. And I do think
he probably too often, uh let's he uses the social
media fuel and the negativity around him. I think he
thinks that it's firing him up, but I think it's
kind of maybe getting into his head. Um. But I
bring it up because I'm with you. Is that listen.

(30:02):
We we know what his limitations are. We know that
he is not going to be Patrick Mahomes. He doesn't
have the natural talent of Justin Herbert. You know right now,
he does not have the leadership skills of Russell Wilson
or Tom Brady or anything like that. But it's exactly
what he said. He got the Browns of the playoffs
a few years ago. Um and and if he can
get into the right situation, I'm still a believer that

(30:23):
he can win you games in the NFL. And now
he can't put you on his back. He can't do
what Joe Burrow did for several weeks there down the stretch.
But at the same time, like like like, I just
feel like it swung so far the other way. It's funny.
During the commercial I heard Doug Gottlieb talk about being
a prisoner of the moment, and I think we as
a as a football society, not you and I, but

(30:44):
we're a prisoner of the moment in terms of you know,
those last three, four or five games whatever it was.
I don't remember how many games it was down the stretch.
I know he didn't play week A team shut it down,
But we're prisoners of the moment rather than looking at
the totality. And it was like when he had good
coaching with Kevin Stefanski, who I know I was just
critical of, but overall I thought the coaching was really good. Uh,

(31:05):
and he was somewhat healthy, and we know that no
one's ever gonna be a hundred percent healthy over an
eight teen week NFL season. But when when he was
somewhat healthy with solid coaching, he was a guy that
led a team to the playoffs. And so to your point,
I think he's a significant upgrade over Sam Donald and
I'd be excited to see what could happen for him
if he doesn't fact get a fresh start in Carolina. Yeah,

(31:28):
I mean, I think that's true. I think that he's
his own worst enemy when it comes to feeling like
he has to play with a chip on his shoulder
all the time. There are a lot of people to
do that. A matter of fact, I think there's a
lot of people across the NFL that try to create
and manufacture something to try and overcome. And Baker has
that look. He's got a bit of Napoleon in him right,
Like he's got a little bit a little man syndrome

(31:49):
and him, especially with how he had to earn everything
that he got at Texas second and then at Oklahoma,
and we've heard the stories over and over and again.
I think the worst thing for Baker Mayfield is he
can't just shut off the outside opinion, and there are
guys that can't. I remember hearing about Mitchell Robinski early
on in Chicago when it wasn't going particularly well for him.

(32:13):
He just asked them point blank. He's like, hey, you know,
it's not helping the team right now, we're struggling. Could
you just turn off the monitors, turn off the televisions
and the practice facility that are running NFL Network and
running ESPN so that none of us have to see
it because it's not helping us to even have that around.
If we're able to, like, if we're in control of it,
we're not gonna have it on. So don't do that.

(32:35):
I don't think Baker is capable. Baker is constantly paying
attention to social media. He's constantly worried about what other
radio hosts said about him to take those a slights.
And then there's the other thing, and I think that
this has to be discussed and maybe we carry this
over into the final segment of the hour, and that
is I think the other mistake Baker made. And I
don't begrudge anybody for making the money that is that

(32:56):
is offered to him, because life is short. And careers
are even shut order, especially in the NFL. But those
commercials were not a great idea because he hadn't done
anything yet. That dude was endorsing Hulu and State or
Progressive and all these different companies, and he hadn't done
anything on the field yet, Aaron, he put a huge
just marker on his back, where the rest of the

(33:19):
league's like this dude hadn't earned this. I'm gonna show
him when we get out on the field. I think
that he made himself more than antagonists for the rest
of the NFL before he ever even played a snap. Well,
did Baker make Baker Mayfield make himself more of an antagonist?
Did he make himself the bad guy? We're gonna discuss
that next eron towards Jason Martin, Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back, everybody,

(33:42):
Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday. Aaron Torres, Jason Martin
here Saturday night, minute ago. We're just talking Baker Mayfield.
The latest rumors one he appeared on a podcast as
we kind of got vented, first time we really heard
from him. But then uh or later in the week,
Ian Rapport for the NFL Net reported that it appears
as though the Carolina Panthers are indeed the front runners

(34:05):
for Baker Mayfield services talking a little bit about Baker
has fit with the Panthers, all that good stuff. But
Jason an interesting commentary about why Baker is why we
have the opinions on Baker that we do. So, Jason,
go ahead, the floor's ears moment again. I think it's
just it's milts around the fact that that dude decided
he was gonna try and get it out because I

(34:26):
was gonna make him tough guy number one. And that
sounds great in your head, but in reality it doesn't
matter because all we saw was bad football. And that
is the lasting impression of Baker Mayfield is, here's the
number one draft pick that runs his mouth a lot,
that's on a whole lot of commercials and hadn't accomplished anything.
And if you go to Hulu and Progressive and all

(34:48):
the ads, he came across in a way in those
ads where you better have done something first, and it
can't just be I wanna Heisman walked on in Oklahoma. Yeah,
that's a great story, but by the time get to
the NFL, it's a totally different world. As much as
we wish Aaron college football meant more to everybody in
the world. The NFL is a global game. The NFL

(35:11):
is North America's game. College football is still kind of regional,
right like, compared to the NFL. So until you do
it in the league, you haven't done anything yet. I
don't be grudge Baker Mayfield for taking a paycheck in
a sport where it can be it can be well,
it can be difficult to thrive, but also it can

(35:32):
be kind of a short career because of the violence involved,
because of the nature of the injuries and all that.
But it did put a target on his back, There's
no question about it. It made him. It made other
guys in the league who maybe felt like they had
accomplished more look at him like, who is this dude,
I'm gonna show him. I think it made him an
antagonist inside the league, and then the fact that he

(35:54):
played hurt made him an antagonist to a lot of
fans who maybe we're start to feel a certain way
about him. But it was a bad scenario all the
way around. The Browns didn't protect him. Stefanski didn't protect him.
Now you've heard stories that he had Stefanski didn't get
along particularly well at all. O'Dell and him didn't get
along in the O'Dell situation, like, hey, here's O'Dell Beckham Jr. Baker.

(36:16):
Whether you want it or not, whether it's gonna work
or not, this is what we're doing. There are a
lot of things about that circumstance, even going back to
this is the Browns. They're gonna find a way to
screw this up. They've already found a way for everybody
to know they don't want this guy, and now they're trying,
and now they're kind of stuck having because teams are
just gonna wake this out. So they've done all of

(36:36):
these different things, and he's had what six offensive coordinators
or six coaches won. He's had more coaches than he's
had years in this league. And two of them were like,
here's Hugh Jackson, Here's Freddie Kitchens. Kitchens was an awful higher.
That team had way too much volatility going into the season.
And he's doing a g Q spread and all the

(36:58):
stuff he's talking to. Mina comes for a cover store
for ESPN. The magazine is like ten pages long. They're
the hype team. They come in, they have a losing record,
and then the bloom is off the roads. In the
next year, when nobody's talking about him, they go to
the playoffs. I think they thrive better in the role
where the world is not looking at them like they're
gonna be studs. But I do think they've done a

(37:19):
lot around Baker that has helped. It's helped to certainly
expedite his chances of failure. And that's that I think
is what we've seen well. And that's why I would say,
And I don't disagree with with what you said, Jason,
I'm not critical of it, but like when people say
that he didn't accomplish anything when he got those commercials,
I think, to your point, like he really kind of didn't.

(37:42):
But I also don't think we remember how bad the
Cleveland Browns were when he got there, no no doubt,
no doubt. Yeah, and how awesome that story was. I mean,
you know, it's it's ironic, of course if he ends
up in Carolina with Sam Donald, but that Thursday night
game where Tyrod Taylor goes out, he comes in allies
them against the New York Jets, obviously with Sam Donald
as the quarterback at the time. Uh, you know, proven

(38:05):
all the doubters wrong that said Sam Donald should go
number one overall. Uh. Then he leads him and I
and I understand that it was a scenario where if
you really look at the that rookie season, he didn't
really beat anyone of substance, but leads them to whatever
it was, seven wins, six wins, something like that. Um,
and and you know, like he did accomplish something and
it was a big deal. And to your point, it's

(38:27):
not as though you can turn down the money. And
so I do think he was a little um, I
don't know what the right term is, but you know,
ahead of he was doing more than he should have
relative to what he had accomplished. But like, I don't
think we can say that he accomplished nothing either, And
I don't think we can say that that there was
no justification in him kind of becoming the face of

(38:49):
that offseason, if you will, so like like and I
think it just speaks to one what a polarizing guy is.
But to um, all the chapter chapters of his career
where he has that incredible rookie season where we're also
hyped up where people were talking about Browns as the
Super Bowl winner, the following year, you have the disasters
Freddie Kitchens year. Then you have the Stefanski you know,

(39:11):
Stefanski's first season where it's like, Okay, he's got the
good coaching, Stefanski's not letting him do too much, He's
leaning on Nick Chubb, he's leaning on the run game.
And then you have the disaster that was this year.
And so it's not to say that your point is
wrong or I even fundamentally disagree with your point. It's
just that, like we do forget that he took the
Browns from a place that they they were the worst

(39:31):
team in the league by far, too respectable. Now I
understand why they want to go with the Shawn Watson
at this point, but we can't discredit everything that he
did in the Cleveland uniform as well. No you can't.
But I don't think he ever got credit for it
to begin with. I think it all kind of went elsewhere.
It went to other players. It went to the Miles
Garretts to the world, It went to the Nick Chubbs
of the world. It went to Stefanski getting credit for,

(39:54):
you know, Coach of the Year votes and all the
other things that we're going around. I just think Baker
was kind of a long for the ride. In the
way it was covered, in the way it was treated.
It was almost like, yeah, Baker is perfect right now
for this offense because he's doing the things that's helping
them win. But I always think it felt like the
confidence were backhanded. That says Fox Sports Radio ERRANTRS. Jason Martin,

(40:15):
Saturday Night. Coming up more from the NBA, plus football,
but we're not talking the NFL. Welcome back, everybody, Fox
Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday, Aaron Torres, Jason Martin, Busy
Saturday Night. The Sager just told you a final NBA
game of Day one of the playoffs is coming down

(40:36):
to the wire, coming down to the stretch anyway, the
home stretch here. Warriors up by twenty with three forty
seven to go. Uh, they're playing Game one against the
Denver Nuggets. As the Sayer just told you, Steph Curry
coming back after a month from injury. Jason, let's talk
about the Warriors really quick. Um, you know, where are
we at on them? Because because I find it interesting.

(40:58):
I mean, this is the first year since whatever I
guess it would be, you know, nineteen when they played
the Raptors, in the NBA Finals. Obviously twenty they completely
were out of the bubble. Last year. Of course they
were limited with no Clay Thompson. But they're back in
the playoffs and and you know, I, on the one hand,

(41:19):
do understand the idea that they're older, that Klay Thompson
isn't the player that he once was, that there are
three seed in the West. I haven't seen many people
really make the argument that they think the Warriors can
make a run back to the finals and potentially win
this thing. And I know that Phoenix had a great
regular season. I know that Milwaukee's the defending champ. I
know there's some other threats in the East. Are the Warriors,

(41:41):
like is would you say they're flying flying under the radar?
I don't know flying under the radars the right word,
but it just feels like, I don't know, I just
feel like everybody just kind of has penciled the Sons
into the finals after what they did last year. I'm
a little surprised by that as they wrap up a
what what will soon to be a Game one win here.

(42:01):
I don't know if there's anything more frightening in the
NBA than Golden State getting right and starting to look
the part. Doesn't mean that they are, even though they're
gonna win Game one tonight pretty convincingly over Denver. But
if they were to start to really put something on
Denver for the rest of this series, you can't count

(42:23):
out guys that already know what it's like to win
a championship. Doesn't mean that I think that they're going to.
But let's just say they start playing really solid basketball.
And this is a team it's fifty three and twenty nine,
so it's not like they haven't had a good year,
but they've dealt with injuries and as you mentioned, they
are aging a little bit. But they still got all
the talent in the world and the experience to know
what it takes to win a title in this league.

(42:46):
And so it's hard for me, like watching it. Any
any shot that Steph Curry makes, I'm like, oh gosh,
here it comes like he's five and thirteen to night
he's three or six from three, but sixteen points and
they are walking all over Denver. Right now. They've got
Pool that has twenty nine points. Nobody else even has
twenty in the game. But you look at Clay and
you look at Curry, and you look at Draymond and

(43:09):
Wiggins has become a really solid player in this league
as well. He's really grown up. They've still got guys
that you like, they've got a coach that knows what
he's doing. But that's not a team I want to face.
Let's just put it that less. I don't know if
they make it to the finals. I have no idea.
I'm picking Phoenix too, but it's just that kind of
frightening team where it's like, you get into the playoffs.

(43:33):
Last thing I want to do is stare at Steph Curry,
Clay Thompson and Treymond Green because I've seen this before.
I know what they're capable of. I've sat at home
if I'm a lot of these teams and watch Golden
State win championships, and if they were to get it going,
especially if they were just shooting the lights out, they're
still as dangerous as anybody we've seen in the last
twenty years. See, I completely agree, and and it's funny

(43:55):
and and listen again, it seems like, you know, all
I ever do is criticized the NBA, and I don't.
I don't believe that I do it. But I do
find it funny is that every year we have these
great stories in the regular season. I think Memphis, which
has just told you, lost Game one today at home
to the Minnesota Timberwolves. I think Memphis is a great
example that there are certain teams that are out there
trying to win every single game in the regular season,

(44:18):
and then there's others that know that their season will
be defined by what they do in April, May into June.
And so it's ironic because and by the way, there's
teams that are both right, like Milwaukee was awesome in
the regular season, tied for second place, they ended up
with the three seed with Boston. But you know, most
of these veteran teams, it's get me to the playoffs

(44:39):
and everything is defined by what I'm going to do there.
And so to me, again, it's like I said, is
I get the excitement for the Phoenix Suns. They're coming
off in NBA Finals. They had the best record in
the NBA by far this year. They are deserving of
all of the accolades that they got. But again it's
still do you want to have to go into Golden
State or even host Golden State in a Game seven

(45:00):
with the playoff chops that they have, and now, as
you just said, some of the younger guys starting to
step up, Jordan Pool, etcetera. And I'll take it to
tomorrow's games to Jason, Like Brooklyn Nets are the seven
set out there in the East. They're playing Boston and Boston.
You know, they're They're not quite a super young team
like like Minnesota, Memphis the teams that we saw today,
but they haven't done a ton in their careers either,

(45:24):
they being Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown as well. And
it was funny because all year long it was the Nets,
this with Kyrie, you know, Kyrie with the vaccine stuff,
and Katie's in and on the lineup. It's like, you know,
I get why people that have watched the Celtics all long,
all season long like them going into tomorrow, like the
fact that, uh, you know that they're the defense has

(45:45):
really clamped down during this second half run. I get
all that. But at the same time, it's like one
of these teams tomorrow, and it's the same with tonight.
One of these teams has Steph Clay and Draymond and
emerging Jordan Pool. I'll take that team over whoever they're
gonna play, and I feel like it's kind of the
same in the East. I don't know if the Nets
have enough firepower to get through Milwaukee when they'll eventually

(46:05):
have to play them, or even maybe Miami. But it's like,
you give me the team with Katie and Kyrie for
a couple of rounds, I'll go ahead and take that
team happily, even against a Boston team that had a
great regular season. Yeah. Look, I want to see Tatum
be a closer. I've seen Durant. I've seen Kyrie make
the big three against Golden State, who we just talked about,

(46:27):
along with Lebron's Chase down block to beat them in
a classic game seven years ago in Cleveland. I know
what those two dudes are capable of. The fact that
the Nets are the seven seed is more a function
of when they were able to play than anything else.
Are they as deep as Boston, I don't think so.
Are they as good defensively? No? Are they gonna step
up their defense a little bit? Yes, if if you like,

(46:49):
I don't know, I think I would pick the Nets,
but I certainly won't be surprised if they win. But
not not at all. As a matter of fact, I
think that should be an awesome series. To get that
in the first round is outstanding, Like you're getting young
guns with Minnesota and Memphis, and then you look at
that and there's just star power and there are guys
that are experiencing the playoffs on both sides. You know
what Marcus Smart is gonna do defensively. You know how

(47:11):
Jalalen Brown play that. You understand what the Celtics are
gonna bring to the dance. The question is if the Nets,
if k D and Kyrie are doing their thing, I'm
taking my chances with those two dudes on the floor.
With Kyrie, you wanna talk about a chip on the shoulder,
We talked about Baker Mayfield, just the all the mess

(47:32):
that has gone into this year. Kyrie is just the
kind of petty guy or spiteful guy that just shows
up now and goes for fifty every game to shut
everybody's mouth and basically tell them, look, this is what
you were gonna get. Now you piss me off. Now
watch this. Oh yeah, then it happened a few weeks
ago against Philly. And that's again why when it comes

(47:52):
to this series, when it comes to the Warriors in
the grand scheme of things, it's hard to bet against
them because we have seen it before and think like
that's part of it, right, Like you know, you look
at say, I don't know Dallas. We talked about Memphis,
we talked about even Phoenix. Like listen, I'm not trying
to disparage what Phoenix did last year. They are deserving
of the number one seed. They're deserving of being the

(48:14):
favorites in the playoffs. Uh, you know, at least in
the Western Conference. But at the same time, you know,
it's gonna be a lot different when you have to
go into full arenas, when you have to play the
Warriors at full strength. It's gonna be the same for Milwaukee,
It's gonna be the same for all of these teams.
We saw what happened to Memphis today in their opener,
and so that that's the only thing I'm trying to say,
is like, like, give me the teams with the guys

(48:36):
that have been there, that have done that. And then
by the way, with the Brooklyn Nets, we got the
whole Ben Simmons factor as well. By the way, really quick,
I've done my Ben Simmons spields and all that, so
we don't have to get into all of you know,
everything that I think about Ben Simmons. But there's reports
um he could be back as early as the back
end of this series. He could also very likely. I've

(48:56):
seen the players say that they don't expect him back,
so that's a don't expect it back for this series,
but maybe a second round series. What do you make
of the reports are guy Ben Simmons may finally take
the floor in these playoffs later on as he's now
working out. I believe it's what he was doing one
on zero now he's up to uh five on five
at practice. I don't know what to make of it, Aaron,

(49:18):
at this point, if I see him on the floor,
we'll see what happens. I take anything you get from
Ben Simmons as a bonus at this point for the nets,
I don't know, and I have no idea how it's
gonna work, because there's they haven't had time to build chemistry.
That that makes it even more interesting, Like it's certainly
interesting if he if he shows up halfway through the
series and they're able to gel, that ought to be

(49:42):
very intriguing, but I think it's more just what's the
fit gonna be like, Like, these guys haven't played. We
talked about last year the fit going into the playoffs
for the Nets and what they were doing with and
how many times the big three have played together and
all this other stuff. I mean, what is Simmons? What
is Simmons? With these guys? I have absolute we no idea, like,
no expectation whatsoever, Which is what I'm saying. If you

(50:03):
get pluses out of this, if he's able to play
and contribute for you and do some of the things
that you like from Ben Simmons, I think you take
that as a bonus. You didn't It's not baked into
the cake at all, Like that's just somebody brought an
extra dessert somehow and you're able to have that on
the table and it's good because you have enough. So
it's really funny because that that's my thought on it too.

(50:24):
And I think there's this notion and this is gonna
be a bizarre parallel that I try to make here.
By the way, the Warriors game is final, Golden State
takes game one to one oh seven against Denver. Um,
I'm gonna make a bizarre parallel here, but um you know,
a few weeks ago, we're talking about Colin Kaepernick, and
you know, he's working out and all this stuff, and
we kind of talked about and and I kind of
just said, like, look, I want him to get a shot.

(50:45):
I want to see him, what he looks like, all
that stuff. But the guy's thirty four years old right now,
and the idea that he's gonna be the guy that
was on the field six years ago the last time
he played in the NFL, it's probably not realistic. And
so I use that as an exam because I think
it's kind of the same with Ben Simmons. Right, he
hasn't played in a year. When we last saw him,

(51:06):
he was, you know, to to say the least, he
was not in the best mental shape. He's talked about it.
So I don't think I'm being disparaging of him by
saying that. Um And oh, by the way, he apparently
now has a back injury that I don't even know
if we've ever gotten reports on how the back injury happened.
And so it's exactly what you just said is is
I've seen these people that cover the league, and I
respect these guys and girls, and it's not to discredit them,

(51:27):
but it's like, you know, imagine what it's gonna be,
Like what they get Ben Simmons back, and it's like,
guy hasn't played in a year. Yeah, I have no idea.
I imagine is all we can do, and we can
only imagine what it's gonna be, positive or negative because
we have no idea. Like again, eventually he stops being
the number one overall pick and you start to look

(51:47):
at what he's actually done in the league, and there
have been some question marks as to what he actually
adds and what he actually creates and maybe the opposite,
Like you can kind of see that. So I'm not
just Bet Simmons he's gonna be. I have no idea,
And anybody that acts like he's gonna be some secret ingredient,

(52:08):
I'm gonna need to see that before I lay one
cent on it. Well, and here's the other thing too,
is he's a non factor on one end of the court,
and so you know it's like these these people will
I mean imagine him playing defense on whoever. And it's like, well,
first of all, he's supposedly got a bad back. Now, um,
you know, if it's as bad as as we say

(52:28):
it is, and again we don't. I don't feel like
there's been many details about it, but when he's got
a bad back, but two, at some point he's gonna
be in games that people are just gonna start fouling
him to send him to the foleo alight. It's so
you know, like like that's the part that that I
just laugh about. It is like I'm not listen again
when you when you say stuff about it, it makes
it sound like you don't want him to succeed. It's

(52:49):
not that I don't want him to succeed. It's just
we have to be realistic about this guy. We haven't
seen him in a year. He supposedly has a bad back,
and the numbers were off the charts how bad he
was in the playoffs last year. So I'm more curious
than anything. I'm excited for Brooklyn because I know what
I'm going to get from Kevin Durant and Kyrie on

(53:09):
any given night, Unlike some of these younger guys that
it could be hit, it could be missed. We don't
know what we're gonna get from Luca. I he's healthy,
we don't know what we're gonna get from Jah as
a young guy. I know what I'm getting from Katie,
I know what I'm getting from Kyrie. But this idea
that we're just like you said, we're gonna add Ben
Simmons to the mix and it's just gonna be nothing. No,
I think, like you said, it's going to be an
added whatever if he contributes anything. But I think you've

(53:32):
got to just go in not expecting him too, if
that makes sense. No, yeah, absolutely, I mean I think
that if it works out, great if you're a Nets
fan or if you're one of the teammates or somebody
affiliated with that team, but watching it from the outside,
I need to see what it looks like. And it's
not like, you know, my integrity is on the line.
If I say, oh, he's gonna be fantastic, he turns

(53:52):
out not to be. But I do wonder why a
bunch of experts seem to be so sold on Ben
Simmons being some just see secret weapon when he wasn't
a secret weapon. His last two years in Philadelphia, we
were lamenting him. He went at weapon at all. I tried,
like exactly right, like he was a gun with no ammo.

(54:14):
He was able to defend because maybe you hold up
the gun and that's gonna make somebody run away, But
he's certainly not going to do anything on the offensive side.
And as a matter of fact, he seemed afraid at
his size, with his able, with this ball handling ability,
for him to be frightened to death of going into
the paint to try and get to the rim, which
he did early in his career, because he was definitely

(54:35):
afraid of having to go to the free throw line,
where he was shooting less than thirty percent or something
like it has like thirty spl some of that neighborhood.
He was awful from the free throw line, so he's
terrified to go there. That's a problem because as you
just said, I'm sending that dude to the line like
I would send Dwight Howard or Janice or anybody else.
They can't shoot free throws, particularly well, I'm gonna and

(54:56):
if I can get in Ben simmons head where he's
afraid again in the nets, can't play him. If you
put him on the floor, it's a disaster. Well that's
the other thing, and we can continue at coming up.
But that's the other thing as well, is he hasn't
played and now you're gonna throw him into some high
leverage playoff games. Uh. Ben Simmons maybe the most interesting
story of these two NBA playoffs. Four games are in

(55:18):
the book today, four games coming up tomorrow. We continue
the conversation on those next in towards Jason Martin, Fox
Sports Radio, Welcome back, everybody, Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday.
Aaron Torres, Jason Martin get into a animated I think
guess you would call it an animated discussion about Ben
Simmons before the break. Uh. Brooklyn opens tomorrow against the

(55:39):
Boston Celtics. Ben Simmons not expected now he won't play tomorrow,
unlikely for Round one, but could be ready for Round two.
Real quick, Jason, you know, you know I was thinking
about this. Phoenix, the one seed in the West, is
also opening Miami, the one seed, Milwaukee, the three seed. Um,
do you think in this world of you know, I

(56:01):
guess you would say of load management of guys sitting out?
What do you think about do you think it's important
for the league for a team like say Phoenix, whether
guys show up every single night ready to play. Do
you think it'd be good for the league. Do you
think it matters because I will say, like like, I
think there would be something to be said, and I
think it would hurt the league in many ways. If

(56:22):
Brooklyn goes on as a seventh seed, and I think
they are capable of it, of going to the finals,
of winning a championship, I don't know that they can
win a championship Milwaukee so tough all that, But I
just bring it up to say, if Brooklyn makes a deep, deep,
deep run, UM, it's gonna it's only gonna validate the
the um. You know, the sitting out and all the
things that happened during the regular season. Do you think

(56:44):
it be good for the league? Do you think it's
important for the league if a team like Phoenix makes
a deep run potentially wins the title, shows that you
can play your guys essentially all eighty two games and
still have enough juice in the playoffs to win big
there too. Yeah, but I think last year kind of
kind of helped out in that um because you got
Enix and Milwaukee in the finals, and what you needed

(57:04):
to see was one of those other teams breakthrough, Like
Utah might be the one seed, but if they don't
make it to the finals, what does the one seed
actually mean. It means nothing because it means that there
are teams that are capable of flipping a switch. Now
Brooklyn this year because of the circumstances and the challenges
that they faced. Had they been full strength, you could argue,

(57:24):
if they make a deep run, then you could argue
that had they been full strength and Kyrie able to
play home games and all this other stuff, that they
would have been a much higher seed, and this would
have been a different kind of year. But you do
need something to make it so that what's happening in
the regular season actually counts, and unfortunately a lot of
times it doesn't. The worst thing that could have happened

(57:46):
to the NBA, to this argument, specifically not because the
size the marketing imports the team and everything else. Uh,
it still would have been good for the league, because
it's good for big markets to be playing well. But
the absolute worst thing for the argument that we're making,
the discussion that we're having, is for the Lakers to
have made the playoffs and made a run that would

(58:07):
have been terrible in terms of the regular season meeting
something not not anything past that, and we're talking about
I'm keeping this to this discussion the Lakers making a
run would have been brutal because they've been like, well,
of course his flipped to switch these old guys all
this other kind of stuff. But that didn't happen. They
didn't make the playoffs. So that's the first battle one
in terms of proving the regular season matters. But you

(58:30):
need a Utah or a Portland's or a Denver or
somebody like that over this last three or four years
to do something. And so you've got Phoenix in Milwaukee
last year, and you can argue that there were injuries,
especially in the West, that kept some of the big
wigs from getting there, and you had Harden that was
banged up. With Brooklyn, there's always gonna be that story
out there. But it's absolutely the case that the regular

(58:53):
season needs validation for a large swath of the public
to actually care. Doesn't mean that no one watched is.
It just means a lot more people would watch if
they felt like what they were seeing was relevant. If
I was watching a team in January that I needed
to pay attention to because they were gonna be dangerous
in May, and far too often in the n b A,

(59:14):
you get teams that look great in January because they're
going for a record and they're going for a seed,
and they care and they're under the radar, and then
they get into the playoffs and underperforming its superstars because
superstars have managed, load managed, or they just they know
how to go about this. That's why it's usually usually
young teams in the NBA crumble in the playoffs because

(59:39):
they just haven't been there enough. They don't know what
it takes. They don't understand the difference between regular season
and postseason basketball. So the first year you get into
the playoffs, maybe you're pretty solid, competitive against one of
the more blue blood teams in the playoffs, but it
takes you two or three years you take steps from
an eight seed to a four seed, to a two

(59:59):
seed to a one seed. Usually you don't see a
young team just step up in the playoffs and dominate.
That is an incredible rarity in the NBA. But I
think the biggest the biggest thing right now is for
somebody that's a little off the beaten path, or for
a team like Phoenix that dominated the regular season to
go into the playoffs and dominate that to validate the

(01:00:22):
regular season as best you can without changing things around
and changing it so that you can't be all n
b A, you can't be an All Star, you can't
be this unless you have a minimum of game played. Yeah,
and it's it's weird because it's a double edged sword
for me. And again, I feel like my takes are
all lukewarm today. I don't I don't have anything fiery hot.
But it's tough because I am sort of a critic

(01:00:46):
of load management um and I think it's become increasingly
clear for the best players the regular season doesn't matter.
And so my kind of stances, if you're telling me
that the regular season doesn't matter to you, why should
it matter to me. But at the same time time,
like I do understand, and it goes back to what
we always talk about. We've created this culture where it's
all about the rings. You gotta win championships. If you

(01:01:08):
don't win a title, you're a failure. Kevin Durant he's
got to go to Golden State because he feels like
if I don't win a championship, I'll never be respected
in this league. Then he gets, you know, and so
it's one of those tough ones where I get both sides.
Is that I get why, and I know Kevin Durant
had some nagging injuries and all that stuff, and I
get why older players just want to take a night
off here and there. But it's also again, if if

(01:01:30):
you're telling me, as Brooklyn, hey let's just get in,
I don't even care for in the playing tournament. Well,
I'm not really inspired to watch you on a Tuesday
night in February because I know that you really this
doesn't matter to you. You're just trying to get into
the bracket, into the field, and you'll figure it out
from there. So it's kind of one of those deals
where I really do see both sides to the coin

(01:01:52):
in that you know, I wish it meant more. Uh,
in many ways I think the NBA needs it to
mean more. But I also you know, it's just one
of those deals where I can't criticize Kevin Durant. He's
defined by rings. That's what we've done to him, That's
what we've done to Lebron. Eventually Janice will get there,
all these other guys, and it is what it is.
So this is Fox Sports Radio errand Tours, Jason Martin

(01:02:13):
here Saturday night coming up. We had some football today.
But as the USFL sustainable. We'll discuss that next. But
first up, boy, Steve sas they're coming, Steve, what you've
got any hot takes right now? Man? What do you got? Well?
I do like the fact that we have a league,
let's just say it out loud, a secondary league of

(01:02:33):
a sport that does actually have city as well as
nicknames attached, because we've seen on cable some leagues like hey,
it's the Panthers against the Eagles or you know, fill
in your bird versus cat name, and there's no cities
attached now here. They're playing all the regular season games
in one city, but we're still getting the logos and

(01:02:54):
the colors and everything from the old U s f s.
Why is that? To Singer? By the way, obviously, I
know Birmingham's a football hotbed. I get all that, but
but is there is it? They just think they're gonna
draw better there than they will travel, right, And sure,
and you can play every weekend and it's not a
big deal and you can have your headquarters. The playoffs
are supposed to be in Canton, Ohio after a ten
week regular season, but yeah, Birmingham with all the regular

(01:03:16):
season games so that would include the one on FS
one tomorrow night. It's Tampa Bay against Pittsburgh, but it's
in Birmingham tonight in Birmingham on Fox TV. The USFL
season started with a win for the home team on
a late touchdown run against New Jersey. And the late
touchdown run came from the quarterback from Louisiana tech Jamar Smith,
who also had over a hundred fifty yards passing. With

(01:03:38):
about two minutes left, the visitors had hit a forty
seven yard field goal former Texas kicker Nick Rose. But
there you had. It came down to the final seconds
and the USFL is underway, Ladies and gentlemen, and a
programming note that NASCAR is on Fox TV tomorrow night,
seven pm Eastern Time. The dirt Race at Bristol. Do
we have a pictures duel going on at Dodger Stadium

(01:04:00):
right now. We'll get to the hoops in a moment.
Golden State has won pretty easily. Philadelphia the same. But
Hunter Green of the Reds against Julio Areas of the
Dodgers Areus had a no hitter going into the fifth.
Looks like he's out of the game now after five
scoreless innings, five strikeouts, one walk, one hit, sixty five
pitches thrown. If you haven't heard of Hunter Green, you will.

(01:04:22):
He was drafted number two overall out of high school
in seen. He's a Los Angeles native, went to plenty
of Dodger games growing up, and now he's pitching and
throwing very well at Dodgers. He was on the cover
of Sports Illustrated. I think that is correct. Yes, the
next big thing. Yes, because my mom when she was visiting,
she said, did you see the story We went to
watch him in high school at whatever high school he's at.

(01:04:43):
He went down the street at Sherman Oaks High School
what it was at a Notre Dame in Sherman Oaks
where Giancarlos Stanton went. He mashed a home run that day.
By the way, he was great, great position player, hitter too.
I believe people were saying he could have been drafted
for either to be a hitter or a pitcher. Obviously
the pitching thing is working out. Didn't mean to cut
you know. They were telling the story tonight that when
he was in youth baseball, that the baseball field was

(01:05:04):
near the soccer field, and they would tell the soccer
players in their game. Hey hunters, coming up look out
got five scoreless innings, five strikeouts, no walks at Dodger Stadium.
But how about this The record for hundred mile pitches
in a game Jacob deGrom last year in the pitch
tracking era. So this is just the last fifteen years.

(01:05:25):
It doesn't go back to Babe Ruth and beyond, but
Jacob deGrom in one game had thirty three pitches at
a hundred miles an hour. This guy's over that. Just
in five innings tonight, almost almost every fastball he has
thrown has been a hundred miles an hour. I think
he's up to thirty five in five innings. He had
a strike He had a strikeout of Freddy Freeman in

(01:05:47):
l A tonight. The pitch was clocked at one oh
one point seven, which is one of the fastest strikeout
pitches by any starter in these last fifteen years. So
nice way to strike out, Freddy. You've got a pictures
gul in the top of the six Dodgers and Red's scoreless.
Now to the Golden State Game. Out for a month
foot injury, Steph Curry returns tonight in a playoff win

(01:06:08):
over Denver. One three, one oh seven Curry and about
twenty minutes on the court sixteen points. Jordan Pool started
and scored thirty at Philadelphia, Tyrese Maxie thirty eight points
and it win over Toronto one one, one eleven. Scottie
Barnes and the Raptors left with the sprained ankle. Minnesota
a winner at two seed Memphis one thirty to one seventeen,
Anthony Edwards thirty six points, and Utah one at Dallas.

(01:06:33):
Donovan Mitchell thirty two points, thirty in the second half.
Now there are four more playoff openers tomorrow, starting with
Atlanta at the top seed in the East Miami one
pm Eastern time. For the Hawks, forward John Collins was
upgraded to questionable for tomorrow's game. He's missed over a
month with foot and finger injuries, and Hawks center Clint
Capella will miss at least a week. I don't know

(01:06:54):
if you saw his foul and injury last night. He
pulled down an opponent. Could have been a flagrant, but
he pulled down the opponent into his own leg and
left the game with a hyper extended me. And now
he's clearly not going to play at least the first
couple of games of this series, but left the play
in victory and so his team is still alive in
this postseason. In the NHL, Boston and St. Louis each

(01:07:16):
one to clinch playoff spots. Colorado late in the game
is up seven four on the Hurricane, so Colorado can
clinch top seed in the West. As for the baseball,
that's already final today on FS one, Atlanta was a
five to winner at San Diego. Matt Olson and the
Braves three hits. He's batting over four hundred early in
the season. The Braves hit three solo homers, including one

(01:07:37):
by Olson. Padre's offense meanwhile four for thirty one with
eleven strikeouts. And among the games in progress, not just
the Dodgers and red scoreless in the six it's Houston
up for nothing in the ninth at Seattle, just three
hits for the Mariners and to the ninth. Finally, in Baltimore,
Yankees lead five to over the Orioles. Why is this
game still going after eleven thirty pm U asked, Well,

(01:08:00):
it's because they had a rain delay in the fifth
inning when Baltimore was ahead to nothing. They haven't scored since.
It actually was a hail delay in Baltimore, but they
have resumed playing, but it looks like the Orioles will
lose again. That would put them at two and six.
Spack to you, Thank you, Steve Sager. This is Fox
Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday eron Torrest. Jason Martin Here
Saturday night, as the Sager told you. Today first day USFL.

(01:08:25):
All of the games, as the Sager told you, are
being played in Birmingham, Alabama for the third time in
four years. Jason Martin, we have ourselves an upstart Spring
football league. If you rememberen Na twenty nineteen, I think No.
Twenty nineteen was the a f uh disagra. Will remember

(01:08:48):
Arnie Spanners Arizona hot Shots. They were pretty good until
the league fold of two weeks in three weeks in
uh XFL was off to a good start, but then
COVID hit. They are revamping and coming back next year,
and so essentially the last three regular springs we have
had spring football. Now the USFL is back. Are you

(01:09:10):
buying stock in the u s FL? Jason Martin as
the next big thing on the sports landscape? Hell no,
I look, why do we have to keep doing this?
Why is it not just okay to have the NFL

(01:09:30):
college football arena. If you want something just totally different
or whatever. I can't like. I'm a dude that worked
in pro US and for ten years, I've covered it
for well over two decades. I've written about it for
well over two decades. And I remember when the XFL
first came around, and I saw the redo of the

(01:09:52):
XFL and I saw the f and I said, and
I'm seeing USFL now and all the other things that
are happening, and I'm just thinking to myself, when I
go to a concert, I'm there to see Pearl Jam.
I'm not there to see the opener. If you put
the opener after Pearl Jam, I'm not going to stay around.
And the problem is for spring football, I just saw

(01:10:15):
the best possible football on planet Earth for five months solid.
The NFL is now seven three sixty five. In terms
of the news cycle, we talked about Baker. We can
talk about quarterbacks, we can talk about why receivers getting paid,
we can talk about the draft. My wife asked me,
because we're trying to plan out a vacation for the fall, Hey,
when when would be a good week? I said, I

(01:10:36):
have no idea when the Titans by week is going
to be because the schedule is not out until like
the second or third week in May. She goes, why
do they wait so long? It makes it hard and
like so that we've got something to talk about in May.
Relative to the NFL, there's gonna be something every month
to be relevant about the National Football League. So I
just saw world class. I saw the best in college football.

(01:10:57):
I saw the best in the NFL. Those brands have
equity with me. I'm a fan of the Denver Broncos.
I cover the Tennessee Titans. I went to Western Kentucky
University as well as in Cee State University. I like Alabama,
Like you know, whatever it is your story, there is
something that you already follow regardless you know of of

(01:11:17):
your rooting interest. You have a rooting interest in better football.
You buy merchandise, you buy tickets, you watch this on television,
you get together with friends, you drink beer, you watch
this stuff. And now they're bringing you the guys that
couldn't stay or are two old, or there's been other

(01:11:38):
issues or red flags or whatever it is. It's giving
them an opportunity. And it's not that I wanted to fail.
It's just that I see no reason for it to exist,
and I don't think it can succeed. Even Vince McMahon
knew it because when he brought the XFL back, he
sat in a boardroom. He set aside six hundred million

(01:11:58):
dollars and said, we're going to lose this over the
first three years. He literally said it. He set aside
his own money and said, after three years, hopefully two
years in we renegotiate our television contracts. Were able to
get and break even after three years, and I said, well,
he's just facilitating a loss because they're not going to
be around for three years. But that's what it takes.

(01:12:21):
Somebody has to be willing to lose a ton of
money in order to stay around long enough to break even.
And I think that with the USFL. And look the
XFL from a quality standpoint, when it came back, they
were doing things the right way. It looked pretty good
on TV. And I said, the best possible thing, and
this is gonna sound callous, but the best possible thing

(01:12:44):
for the XFL was COVID because it gave them an
excuse to shut down after they had at least looked
halfway decent. It gave it, gave Vince McMahon his out
to say, you know what, we had a shot in
the pandemic shut us down, and then of course the
Rock bought it, and you know whatever else, there's no
point to it existing again, Aaron, because I've already seen

(01:13:05):
the main event. I've already seen the top building act.
I'm not sticking around for the opening act. I don't
have equity in these teams, or these cities or these athletes.
I don't know who half of them are. If any
of them are good, they're gonna get snatched up by
the NFL. You explain to me where I'm wrong and
how spring football is actually supposed to work. Well, I
don't know if you are wrong, but I will respond

(01:13:27):
to what you said next, Aaron towards Jason Martin, fired
up about the USFL. This is Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back, everybody,
Fox Sports Radio. What song was that Don bron Knock
yourself out, Knock yourself out, knock self out? Okay, back

(01:13:48):
to sports here, Fox Sports Radio. Or towards Jason Martin
before the break, we're talking about the USFL. So, Jason,
you know you went a lot of different directions, but
I'm so in agreement with you, man like like you know,
and when we were talking throughout the week about what
topics we're gonna hit on, I don't even think you
wanted to go here because because you knew where you
were gonna go. To me. This is the definition of

(01:14:10):
insanity for people don't realize the USFL has relaunched. Today
was the opening day, first game in Birmingham. The entire
league is based out of Birmingham. I wish all of
the players the best, As Jason said, nobody's rooting against them.
We hope some of them get NFL contracts out of this,
all that good stuff. At the same time, we had
the a F three years ago, we had the UH

(01:14:32):
the XFL two years ago, we had COVID last year,
where there was nothing out of the ordinary too that
was played at all. This is the third time in
three normal off seasons that we have a spring football league.
And I am just so on board with you. And
here's the other thing to Jason. Think about. When the
original USFL launched in the eighties, it was a different world, right.

(01:14:52):
We we did have football, we did have the NFL obviously,
but you know, I don't know if college football, I
don't want to say was more or less popular. I
wasn't around to know. But you didn't have every single
game on every single week. You can watch any game
anytime you want. By the way, we now cover the
NFL Draft as if it's its own sport. We'll be

(01:15:13):
talking about it, maybe a little bit later in the show.
Certainly next week we cover the NFL combine. We cover
free agency, and I'm not saying that when there was
no free agency back then. I mean, don't forget, like
we have enough football. And here's the other thing. We
all know that there's those Monday night games when the

(01:15:33):
Jets are playing the Dolphins, or you know, the Jets
are playing the Giants, or the Giants are playing the Eagles,
that you kind of sit there and say, I love
NFL football, but I'm not even watching this and this
is the NFL. So now I gotta look at a
bunch of guys that I've never heard of playing in
a half empty stadium. I have no affiliation. And that's

(01:15:54):
the other thing, too, write is what makes college football
college football? What makes the NFL the NFL? Even when
your team stinks, you have a ten, twenty, thirty, fifty
year uh relationship with them. Even if you're young, your
family has a relationship with them. So in college, you know,
you follow recruiting, you follow this, you follow that, and

(01:16:14):
so to expect to just start something up at the
drop of a hat and get get people fired up,
I just I don't understand what the obsession is. And
like you said, Jason, like it's not as though there's
this this pot of gold at the end of the
tunnel that is so obvious that it's like, Okay, we
have to do this because in five years it can
know it's always gonna be minor league football. It's always

(01:16:36):
gonna play second fiddle, not only to the NFL but
to college football. And on top of that, the the
ancillary things that come with both sports, the draft, that
combine free agency. I just don't get it. I wish
these guys, well, I hope a bunch of them get
NFL contracts out of this. I just don't get it.
I really don't. The biggest lie I think, and maybe

(01:16:58):
not lie, but what we tell to never enough football. Correct.
We think there's not enough football, but there's plenty. And
the reason why we love the NFL, and we love
college football is because the games have meaning. What did
we discuss about the NBA regular season, not twenty minutes ago,

(01:17:18):
eight two games. It's hard if I'm a player, it's
hard to make me care about at two games. In baseball,
it's really hard to make me care about one D
sixty two. But I know that I need to watch
my team's seventeen NFL games because, man, one of them
means a lot. It's one seventeenth of the season, but
it's still seventeen weeks. That's still four months. College football

(01:17:41):
is all the fall into the winner into January, and
as you said, there's some dog games even there. The
biggest lie we tell ourselves is, man, there is not
enough football. So no, no, we get excited for that
season because it actually has the beginning and end. It
feels to me like the NBA season never ends. It
starts in October and it runs through June. And you

(01:18:02):
see the same thing with baseball. It's like, why do
I need to care right now about what's happening in baseball?
Outside of the Kershaw story, which wouldn't have been a
story had he actually thrown the perfect game. I think
that's the fun thing about that story. The reason people
talked about it isn't because he threw a perfect game,
or it's because he got pulled from the chance to
do it. If he had done, it had been a
two minute story and we have moved on. We actually

(01:18:22):
got some legs out of that because it was interesting
the decisions surrounding the accolade. But football USFL a a
f X. I just don't understand this, like fascination with
we must have spring football. We gotta find a way
we do have spring football because the NFL doesn't stop.
We don't want more football, and we certainly don't want

(01:18:44):
subpar football compared to what we've already seen. And when
you've already seen A plus, you can't sell me even
C plus on a regular basis. I'll tune in out
of curiosity. But this league, just like the XFL, when
it returns or tries to, just like the XFL the
first time around, there's a curiosity factor and then it's

(01:19:04):
diminishing returns. Because all right, had my phil that was cool,
You know what, that's pretty good. I see what they're
doing over there. Not gonna watch it again, but that's
all right. That's that's, that's it. It's it's never ever
ever going to work. See, I totally agree. And it's
so funny because you know, I remember, I want to
say it was the not the a F. I think

(01:19:25):
it was the XFL. Every single week the ratings went
down for the fact reason that you said, we want
to see the novelty of it, we want to see this,
and then everybody moves on. And here's the other thing
I didn't even talk about is the idea that you
know I talked about one. I do think there is
enough football. We don't need more, but people have other
interests to It's like, say you're an Eagles fan, you're
watching the seventies six, or today, say you're a Vikings fan,

(01:19:48):
you're watching the Timberwolves. Today. We have enough football, which
the guys of the x the USFL luck, I'm not
a buyer. Fox Sports Radio Errant towards Jason Martin coming
up Day one of the playoffs has done what we learned.
Fox Sports Radio. Welcome in Everyboday, Fox Sports Radio, Fox
Sports Saturday. Two hours in the books, two hours to

(01:20:08):
go a little over an hour from now. Bernie Frado
straight out of Vegas, will be joining us, getting us
ready for uh. Not a lot of betting stuff going
on NBA. Yes, people are betting on the USFL, some
college football, some early college football. Bernie will have for you.
As the spring games got going, Jason, you're watching the

(01:20:28):
spring games today. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Alabama
had just want to anger me. I still gotta do
two more hours. I can't take it. Well, I can't
take it. You know, uh, you know we uh we uh.
Alabama had a spring game today Georgia in Ohio State.
By the way, I mentioned off the top, but congratulations
again our producer Bo. He will be out for the

(01:20:51):
foreseeable future for the best reason possible. Uh. He had
a daughter earlier this week, so his first child. Congratulations
to him, and of course, was happy birthday to Jason's daughter,
who turned one this week and didn't mess up her
cake for the first time ever. A parent is upset
that their child is completely under control and all that stuff.

(01:21:12):
So I don't know what I'm upset. I don't know
that I'm upset. I'm not upset. I'm mildly surprised because
you always see all these looks smash cake is a
thing because the baby is supposed to smash the cake
and all this. She just kind of she would pull
a piece. Actually, there were cookies also, there were one
year old cookies and things with her name on it.

(01:21:33):
She actually would lean over the cake, being careful not
to get it on her outfit, and grabbed a cookie.
She wanted a cookie. She just totally bypassed the cake.
But she had fun though. Oh she had a blast.
And she had no idea. She'll see photos, but she
seemed to have a blast, and the adults had a
good time. Anybody you have too much fun? Uh you?

(01:21:53):
Jason Martin? When when was the party? Saturday? Sat? Friday?
It was, Yeah, it was Thursday after our radio program.
She actually came into the studio and was on. She
was on the radio for a couple of hours at
one year old. Yeah, that's right, there you go. Yeah,
So it was. It was a fun day. It was
a fun day, and today and yesterday was a fun
day because I guess it's still today for uh some

(01:22:14):
of most of the audience, I guess. But the East
Coast is now officially Easter, So happy Easter to everybody
on the East Coast, but NBA playoffs actually started, like
now we actually have the teams and we're good to
go in these best of seven series. We had four games,
and I think that it was intriguing that two names
that we were talking about were Jordan's Pool and Tyrone

(01:22:36):
Maxie and teams that boasted you know, former league m
v PS. So the Sager told us to score is
really quick. Utah goes into Dallas in the first game
of the day, Dallas without Luka don Che you could Utaw,
the five seed in the West, wins game one. The
second game, Minnesota as the seven seed in the West.
Coming off of that, uh fun playing victory the other night,

(01:22:58):
they beat Memphis memph Of course the two seeds loses there.
Philadelphia takes care of Toronto one one eleven, Golden State
one oh seven. What was the single biggest takeaway of
the four games for you today, Jason Um. I mean again,
I think Minnesota and Memphis, they're both so young and

(01:23:19):
so inexperienced in this spot that anything could happen there.
There's a lot of talent on both sides. Is a
bright future for both of those teams. Maxie playing that
way sometimes you need it. Sometimes your stars aren't gonna
be there. They're not going to all they're not all
gonna be gems. But I think the important thing where
there was hardening and b were able to do other

(01:23:40):
things get double figure rebounds and double figure assists, respectively,
to help those teams win. But I think the biggest
takeaway from me is Denver is really good and Golden
State dominated him on a night where you know, Curries
coming off the bench, and where you've got Jordan's Pool
being the best player on the floor, or even though Yokich,

(01:24:01):
you know, having another MVP season, all of those things.
Because I know what Golden State has done in the past,
and I know they've been in these moments before. I'm
watching them very closely because they are the very definition
of the team I don't want to see if I'm
anybody else in the playoffs see it's interesting because to
me that was I thought. The biggest story as well

(01:24:21):
is that Golden State Curry's coming off an injury. Clay
Thompson obviously has been uh frankly mostly out of the
line up. I don't want to say in and out
of line up, but mostly out of line up for
the last two years. Um, you know, this is the
first playoff game that this new building has hosted since
it opened in twenty nineteen, because, of course the last
two years the Warriors were not in the playoffs and
one in the bubble, and then of course last season,

(01:24:43):
and they looked awesome. You know, they looked awesome. They
have the young legs, and I think with any kind
of dynasty, if you will, if you want to call
the Warriors the dynasty, two championships, what was at five
finals appearances, four finals appearances, whatever it was four in
a row? Um, I guess it was three three championships,
five finals appearances in a row. I guess that is
a dynasty. But uh, you know, as as the star

(01:25:05):
guys get older, and you know, we're now talking about
Steph Curry at thirty four years old, recently turned thirty four. Uh.
Clay Thompson is obviously on the other side of thirty
at this point, he's thirty two. He turned thirty two
earlier this year. I mean, we're talking about uh, you know, uh,
you know, in some cases and aging dynasty. And so

(01:25:25):
I think to get a guy like Jordan Pool playing
as well as he did tonight, it speaks that that
this thing might have more legs than people are given
it credit for, and we talked about it earlier. I
get the excitement for Phoenix, I get the excitement for
a team that won sixty four games in the regular season,
but it felt to me like people are just completely
dismissing this Golden State Warriors team is Oh, you know,

(01:25:47):
they're too old, they're to this, They're too small. You know,
outside of Kavan Looney, they don't have a ton of size.
And I said, I sit here in SAJ So we
talked about it earlier in the show. We the one
thing that that we know about the NBA playoff, if
you bet on the teams that have experience and that
have been there before, you're usually gonna turn out looking
pretty good. Now, yeah, like like that. You know, obviously

(01:26:09):
the Warriors at some point were the up and coming
team that broke through, but you know that the team
with Lebron, the team was Steph, the team with Katie
almost always are the teams that are going to have
the success in the playoffs because one, they've been there before.
Two on any given night, they're gonna have the best
player on the floor. And so for me to see
so many people just dismissing the Warriors over the last

(01:26:30):
couple of weeks. Maybe it's because they just didn't know
what Steph Curry status was, how healthy he would be.
I don't know, I was. I was really surprised by it.
And again, maybe it's too simplistic in my thinking, but
it just feels like, you know, give me the team
that's been there before, with a bunch of guys that
I trust. Uh. You know, obviously they were able to
ease Steph Curry back in today, They're going to be

(01:26:52):
able to ease him in throughout this series because I
don't know how much of a fight Denver's gonna put up.
And it's like, give me those teams that have been
there that have done it. I know Phoenix made the
finals last year, but we got a six seven year
sample size that Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Clay Thompson now
with some young reinforcements behind him, are going to figure
it out come playoff time. Yeah. I mean, you've got
guys that have one titles, that know what it's like

(01:27:15):
to play this time of year, that understand that things change,
that begins to get more physical. The benches shorten, there
are more minutes being played by fewer guys. There's more
trust placed than the guys on the floor, and all
of them especially, I mean these veterans at least that
we're talking about, they are used to adversity. In the playoffs,
they've had to respond to it. At some point, they've

(01:27:36):
been behind, at some point, they've lost, at some point,
they've had to dig down deep. At some point it
hasn't been there for them. So they understand that the
moment there, there is something to be said for the
moment being as big as it is, and sometimes it
is too big, and it's important to have failed as
well as succeeded in those moments in order to be
able to navigate them like eventually. And I actually saw

(01:27:59):
the on on a relative's bathroom wall earlier today Easter celebration,
and it said, stop trying to wait out the storm
and learn how to dance in the rain. So if
you're just sitting there waiting for things to get better,

(01:28:21):
you're missing out. But if you actually learn to dance
in the rain, that's you actually growing through the challenges.
And I think that there's something that can be applied
to sports in that being in the foxhole in those moments,
especially when you flat out don't have it, and finding
a way grinding through falling behind in a series, like

(01:28:42):
that's the deal, right, If Golden State falls behind in
a series, I'm not counting them out because I've seen
them come back from three one before. They've seen themselves.
They know what it feels like to be down three
one and still end up winning a series. But if
they jump up on a team that has not had
that kind of experience, that could be curtains because you
have to learn your way. You have to find your way.

(01:29:06):
You have to you have to crawl before you walk,
so to speak. And there's a lot of teams that
still know how to walk in Golden State. Even though
I'm picking Phoenix too because I think they're an outstanding
basketball team, Golden State is the other team that I
flat out refused to count out until I see that
they've lost four games and they're officially out, because there's

(01:29:27):
just too much talent and there's too much confidence in
guys that can flat out get it done because they
they've seen it, they they've done it. They can go
back and watch their own highlights, they can go back
and watch finals. They can watch conference finals, they can
watch NBA finals. They can watch themselves succeeding in the
biggest moments, and their opponents can watch them doing it

(01:29:49):
because their opponents have already watched them do it. One
team that really, frankly hasn't been here before. They've made
the playoffs but haven't made a deep run. Memphis Grizzlies.
They fall at home game one, uh to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
I mean, listen, this is one where I think, on
the one hand, you could sit there and tear apartment Memphis.
Excuse me. I mean John Morant played well, thirty two points,

(01:30:10):
eight of eighteen, shooting sixteen of twenty from the free
throw line, was able to get to the free throw
line eight eighths sists. Excuse me. Sometimes the other team
is just better. And it doesn't mean that Minnesota or
excuse me that Memphis can't be better, especially on the
defensive end. But you just talk about a big game
one opening night win. Minnesota timber Wolves came out more focused,

(01:30:30):
more ready. I think part of it was they had
played earlier this week. During that playing game, Memphis hadn't
played in over a week. But Minnesota takes game one
and Memphis might be that example Jason of that team
that they're great all regular season. Give them credit. They
play hard every night. They were great even without John
Morant for an extended period of time this season. But
they just weren't ready for that open or not to

(01:30:51):
say that they can't rip off four in this series
and get this series when it advanced the second round.
But a team that really hasn't been here before not
ready for the bright lights on the opening day of
the playoffs as Minnesota goes to Memphis and beats the
two seeds in the Western Game one, Yeah to two
young basketball teams with bright futures. I always think back
to the Oklahoma City Thunder the year they were an

(01:31:13):
eight seed and played the one seed Lakers, and they
played them tough. They didn't win the series, but you
knew watching them, You're like, yeah, they're gonna be good.
They're just learning what it's like. You have to learn
how to win in the playoffs before you actually start
winning in the playoffs. But they had a young Durant,
a young Westbrook that that really was emerging, hardened Ibaka,

(01:31:36):
like they were loaded, but they weren't ready yet. They were.
It wasn't that they were ahead of schedule, they were
on time. But that's just how it works in the NBA.
You don't usually just crash the party the way the
Cincinnati Bengals did this year and end up in the
super Bowl, because four out of seven is so much
harder than any given Sunday. It just is usually the
best team wins the best four out of seven the

(01:31:58):
vast majority of the time time. But you look at
Memphis and you look at Minnesota, and I think you
see mirror images in terms of two teams that are
both on the right track, that are building to something
that are going to be a force in years to come,
and right now you should just enjoy watching it. You
know it's going to be special, even though now is

(01:32:19):
not the time. I think you could potentially look at
a team like the Chargers because you know you've got
something in Herbert and say, yeah, they're coming, but they've
still got some things they've got to figure out. They've
got to learn how to close some of these games.
Their coach has to learn how to make the right decisions.
I think the same thing is true in Memphis. I
think it's true in Minnesota. I think that's gonna be

(01:32:40):
an awesome series to watch. It's gonna be a lot
of fun. It's gonna be up and down basketball, it's
gonna be plays made all over the place. And then
whichever team comes out of that probably is gonna lose
to a more experienced team and they're gonna be better
for it, it, says Fox Sports Radio eron Towards Jason
Martin here, Saturday Night. Four games in the books today,
four games it up tomorrow. The biggest storyline on Sunday

(01:33:03):
is we'll discuss that next Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back everybody,
Fox Sports Radio, Aaron Tords, Jason Martin here, Saturday Night.
Day one NBA playoffs are in the books. The Utah Jazz,
the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Philadelphia seventies sixers, the Golden State
Warriors all win Game ones on Saturday. It leads us

(01:33:27):
to about twelve hours from now. Day two will tip
off the one seed Miami hosts Atlanta, the eight seed,
which obviously won the playing game late last night or
early last night. They will tip off at about one
pm Eastern. That's followed by Boston Brooklyn. Brooklyn the seventh
seed won a playing game earlier this week, Milwaukee hosts

(01:33:47):
Chicago in the third game of the day and New Orleans,
who beat the Clippers to get the eight seed in
the West. On Friday night, they will visit the Phoenix Suns.
To you, Jason Martin, four games on the docket. Single
most interesting storyline on Sunday is the Nets. I mean
it's the net Celtics. I mean, like Atlanta Miami. Miami

(01:34:10):
is just a They're a really good team that nobody
is really talking about. So I don't know what to
make of that. That's gonna be intrigued to watch. But Brooklyn, Boston,
it's got star power, it's got obviously franchise recognition with
the Celtics, and it's got all the drama on Earth
with Simmons. That won't be a story in game one,
but will it be a story before the end of

(01:34:32):
the series, And what kind of stories are gonna be?
Is that going to be a tragedy or comedy or
what's it gonna be? And then you've got obviously Kyrie
and Durant and watching what they're able to do. I
think Chicago Milwaukee is interesting. Chicago has been a solid
basketball team. Are they gonna be able to really challenge Milwaukee?
New Orleans? And Phoenix doesn't really interest me all that much.

(01:34:52):
I think Phoenix is gonna dominate that series. I'm not
I mean, I'm gonna watch it, but I'm not expecting
much into the fireworks there. But Brooklyn Boston is just
you talking about box office right in the middle of
the afternoon on ABC. I'm gonna be glued to that one,
just like most everybody. Yeah, to me, that's the biggest
story too. And it's for everything that we just said

(01:35:13):
about Golden State. Excuse me? Is I get the notion?
And that's funny. During the last couple of weeks, I
filled in a lot with Dan Buyer, and this was
a conversation that he and I had, is I get
the notion for everybody that watches the NBA day in
and day out that you you got to watch a
lot of bad NETS games this year, and so you're
a little skeptical of what this team is going to

(01:35:34):
look like now that they're in the playoffs. But they
did go eleven and six when Kyrie Irving and Kevin
Durant were both in the lineup. That's obviously, well, you know,
win percentage wise, that's well above the record that they
had in the regular season, as they went forty four
and thirty eight overall. Um and they have in that
series with do respect to Jayson Tatum. And I know
they made the Eastern Conference finals a few years ago

(01:35:55):
when Jason Tate was either a rookie or his second
year I can't remember which. Uh. I know that Boston
has playoff experience. I'm not trying to discredit what they've done,
but the Brooklyn Nets have the two most established stars
in this in this series. Excuse me, they have two
guys who have been there before. They have two guys
who have come up on the biggest stages before, and

(01:36:16):
it's just hard for me to bet against that team now.
Now are if we're talking the totality of the playoffs,
if we're talking even as the favorites in the East,
with a really good Milwaukee team in their path, obviously
Miami be in the one seed. I get that. I
get the notion that, yeah, they probably shouldn't be favored
despite the talent of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to
even make the finals. But at the same time, I

(01:36:38):
get game ones in Boston. I get Boston has home
fit court advantage. I get that through the back half
of the season Boston was one of the best teams
in this league. I also get that I've seen Kevin
Durant and Kyrie Irving do it an awful lot throughout
their careers, and like you said, it's just so hard
to bet against them. And it doesn't even factor in
that at some point we may get Ben Simmons on

(01:36:58):
the floor. We don't know what when will get him
or what we'll get from him, but even without him,
it's hard not to like this team with Kevin Durant
and Carrie every Yeah. Look, if Boston wins that I
won't be surprised, but I'm gonna pick Brooklyn to um.
There's just too much talent. I mean, the Stars are
gonna come out to play unless there is something that
that we're missing here. I think Boston is the better team,

(01:37:20):
but I don't know that it matters because if you've
got Kevin Durant, I can in any night go out
and give you forty and Kyrie, who's playing with a
chip on his shoulder and ticked off right now and
probably wants to prove a little something, just because I
think that's part of his nature too. Um, he seems
it feels like he's gonna be driven. I don't know

(01:37:42):
if Simmons is gonna if that's gonna work, when it's
gonna happen, if it's gonna happen, all those things, it's
gonna be interesting to see. But just those two guys,
those two dudes, to me, that's enough for me to
feel comfortable and saying that Brooklyn can win the series again.
They if you're just looking at the entire roster, yeah,

(01:38:02):
I'm I'm probably gonna take Boston, and I know they're
gonna make it hard because they're Boston. They played a
good defense, They're gonna do the little things right. I
just think if it comes down to crunch time, I
choose Kevin Durant or Kyrie to make the big shot
over and I love Tatum, but over Tatum or over
Smart or over Brown or whoever whoever it is, it's

(01:38:22):
out there for them. I just like, I like the
chances for the guys, the studs, for Brooklyn to come
up big in crucial moments. I don't disagree with that. Uh.
The first game, real quick Miami. I get why there's
not a lot of buzz. It's not, as you know,
the Bucks are the defending champs. Obviously, the Brooklyn Nets

(01:38:44):
have more quote unquote star power. Although Miami has really
good players in their own right. What do you make
of them? Because on the one hand, you know, I
think you could just again easily dismiss them. On the
other they they by the way, they did make the
finals a year and half ago in the Bubble. Let's
not forget that October they made it to the Bubble
finals where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers. They

(01:39:07):
got Jimmy Butler, they got Bamato Bio, who's evolved into
an All Star. They have veterans that they've added, like
Kyle Lowry. Um. I know they're not the sexiest team
to talk about our national radio, but again, it's almost
the opposite of the Golden State Warriors. Is I feel
like we're just easy to dismiss Golden State because of
what we've seen the last few weeks. Staying with Brooklyn,
I don't feel like anybody's talking about Miami at all,

(01:39:29):
which is kind of crazy considering that they're the one
seed in the East. Yeah, I just don't. I think
they're the classic example of the team that you need
to see it in the postseason, where I saw Phoenix
in the finals last year, so I can buy into
that one a little bit easier. This is a one
seed to me where it's just like, yeah, but doesn't
mean they don't have talented guys. Doesn't mean they don't

(01:39:50):
have guys that have had success in the playoffs. I
mean Lowry struggled for a long time in the postseason
until Kauai got there. He and De Rozan famously would
come up ball year after year in Toronto, but we
knew he was an all star level player during the
regular season, old depot all star level player, but hadn't
had a whole lot of success obviously in the playoffs

(01:40:10):
and has dealt with injuries throughout his career. Jimmy Butler
stud especially in the playoffs defensively, and just he plays
with an attitude that you like. Hero has got a
little bit of arrogance behind him in the way that
you want it to be in terms of what he
feels like he's capable of doing, and Bam as a
solid player. You like the roster, but you also look
at it and you're just like that roster is the

(01:40:31):
number one seed in the East, considering there's just I
think it's more they're going to continue to fly under
the radar as on one seed because there's bigger stars
underneath them. There are dudes with bigger names that you
know that you have seen, and those guys are going
to get more of the run. You want to compare Minneso,

(01:40:53):
You want to compare a number one seed Miami to somebody,
Compare him to the Tennessee Titans being the one seed
in the a f C. Last look at Mahomes and
the Chiefs, and Alan and the Bills and even Burrow,
the young stud second year player. Like you look at
the playoffs in the a f C and you look
at the fact that the Titans were the one seed.
Now they went in and unfortunately weren't able to get

(01:41:14):
out of that divisional round game that they were hosting
against Cincinnati, But that's kind of how they were seeing.
There were guys you like Derrick Henry, A. J. Brown,
Harold Landry, uh, Jeff Simmons, like, there were guys that
you like, but there were bigger stars on the seeds below.
So you were just waiting for it. You needed to
see it to believe it, and it didn't happen there.

(01:41:37):
Maybe it's gonna happen here for Miami. But I think
that's the comparison to make. Is just a team that's
a one seed in name only until we see a
little bit more. This is Fox Sports Radio air towards
Jason Martin fun day of NBA Playoffs. More coming tomorrow,
coming up next. One, don't such a college football? Nick

(01:41:58):
Saban said some stuff that got people talking this week.
We're gonna discuss that next, but first let's get to
Steve to Sager with what's trending? What's up to say
hello again, gentlemen. Two notes before we get to the NBA.
The Dodger pitching staff had a one hitter through seven
innings against the Reds. It's now a five nothing lead
against Cincinnati in the top of the eighth. And Oklahoma Softball,

(01:42:19):
our condolences our beloved friend. Chris Plank is the voice
of Oklahoma Softball. He co host with Arnie on Sunday
nights here. But the forty game winning streak of the
defending national champs was ended with a four two loss
at rival Texas today. Oklahoma softball had not only gone
thirty eight and oh top ranks so far this season,
but had two wins to end last season Women's College

(01:42:42):
World Eight wins to start a season is incredible. What
was it any do do we know if it was
any kind of record? I feel like it's got to
be pretty close. I don't know if you know. I
didn't even put you on the spot, but it's that's incredible.
Thirty Unless some other Oklahoma team holds holds a longer record,
probably only good. Uh yeah, as far as soft and

(01:43:04):
remember the seasons aren't It's not like you know, baseball
at sixty two games either, So yeah, this is this
is pretty impressive. And every year the defending champ, he
get everybody's best shot every night. I know it's cliche,
but when you play a good schedule yet still one
of the most impressive college marks to me. As dick
Enberg used to point out he was the voice of
u c l A Basketball back when like Bill Walton

(01:43:25):
was playing U c l a s John Wooden, they
won thirty five straight games in the n c A Tournament.
That's ridiculous, really really ridiculous. Okay, well, we had our
first NBA playoff game in San Francisco since nineteen fifty
eight tonight. According to AP, remember as they built that

(01:43:46):
new arena where the Warriors play. Golden State hasn't made
the playoffs last couple of years, but they are familiar
with taking game one at home in a series, and
that's what happened tonight beating Denver one oh seven. Jordan
Pool started and scored thirty points. Steph Curry off the
bench had sixteen. In fact, the Warriors have now won
their last twelve game ones played at home, the longest

(01:44:08):
current streak in the NBA. Spurs had won thirteen straight
in a streak that started a decade ago, and the Bulls,
starting with Michael Jordan in the early nineties, had a
streak of nineteen straight game one victories when game one
was at home. And you mentioned earlier the I won't
say unknown names that started today, but the youngsters that
start in these NBA playoff games today. In fact, it

(01:44:31):
is the first time in NBA history that in the
playoffs on the same day you had three different players
aged twenty two or younger have thirty point games. Not
only Anthony Edwards who had thirty six in Minnesota's win
at Memphis, but John Morant scored thirty two in that
loss and Tyrese Maxi scored thirty eight at Philadelphia in
the win over Toronto, Utah one at Dallas, Luca don

(01:44:55):
Sich of the MAVs still out with the strain calf.
In the NHL, Colorado has one se and four over
Caroline at a clinch top seed in the West. St.
Louis and Boston each one to clinch playoff berth. Calgary
can clinch a playoff berth they get to play Arizona tonight,
and in fact it is Calgary nine one over the
Arizona Coyotes with four minutes to go. USFL season started

(01:45:17):
tonight on Fox TV at Birmingham, and all the regular
season games will be at Birmingham. The home team beat
New Jersey four on a late touchdown run and the
late MLB game now to the bottom of the eighth,
just about to the bottom of the eight, Dodgers five
nothing over the Reds. We'll talk more on Hunter Green,
the Red's great starter in a few minutes in the

(01:45:38):
next segment, but Colorado one. The Rockies are six and two.
Giants one again, Giants or six and two, White Socks
one again. White Socks are six and two and the
Cardinals won again. Cardinals are five and two. Reminder, NASCAR
on Fox TV tomorrow night, seven pm Eastern Time, the
Dirt Race at Bristol. Back to you, Thank you, Steve
to Seger. Of course, we'll be joining us here in

(01:45:58):
just a few minutes to get us caught up on
even more, as he said, all sorts of good stuff
on MLB, USFL and more. Fox Sports Radio aeron towards
Jason Martin. So, Jason, you know I say this all
the time, but you know, me and you were basically
the face college football here at Fox Sports Radio. We
we host the National Overnight Show. Of course, we're on
at this time ten pm to two am Eastern Time

(01:46:20):
every Saturday during college football season. And so there was
some interesting college football stuff this week. You know. It's
it's interesting because we kind of joked, I think it
was at the top of this hour about uh, you know,
watching spring games and all that stuff, and and and
it's it's silly. But at the same time, what's cool
about it is we actually get media availability with Last
week it was Dabo Sweeney and Jimbo Fisher. This week

(01:46:42):
it was uh, you know, Nick Saban and Kirby Smart
and Ryan Day, etcetera. And so Nick Saban actually did
an interview with Ralph Russo from AP earlier this week
and he was asked about the n I L situation
in college football, said some interesting things got people riled up.
Here's what he said. So, the concept of name image
likeness was for players to be able to use their

(01:47:04):
name image likeness to create opportunities for themselves. That's what
it was. But that creates a situation where you can
basically buy players. You can do it in recruiting. I mean,
if that's what we want college football to be, I
don't know. And you can get also get players to
get in the transferportal and see if they can get
someplace else that that they can get more at the
next place than they do at your place. So, Davison,

(01:47:26):
you know, I saw a lot of takes on this
and a lot of opinions on this, And what I'll
say is, you know, everybody's entitled to their opinion. I'm
not criticizing anyone in our business, but I will say
I think two things can be true. I understand that
Nick Saban has made a lot of money as a
football coach, and everybody gets all upset that he has
the audacity to talk about n I L in any

(01:47:47):
type of negative way. He did not say that he
does not want players to get paid. All he said,
and you can tell me if you disagree. All he
said was, look, when n I L came in, it
was supposed to be to reward the players on campus
for what they've done. At Alabama, Bryce Young wanna Heisman Trophy.
He obviously created a lot of revenue for the Alabama

(01:48:08):
football team. He should be compensated as such. Same with
Will Anderson, same with all the star players from last
year's team, Same with all star players at Georgia College Basketball,
Kentucky do whoever the guys that are on campus. And
what he is saying is you can use it as
a recruiting tool to buy players. That's not what it
was intended to be. You can agree, you can you

(01:48:29):
can talk about Nick Saban and these comments without referencing
the fact that he's made a lot of money playing
college football. And I'll just say this, I think he's right.
I get an I L. I get why I was
put in place and it was put in place for
the right reasons, but in the least surprising news ever,
because it is not regulated by the n c A,
because there is no real oversight, it is simply turned

(01:48:51):
into basically paying for recruits before they've accomplished anything. I
understand Nick Saban's concerns going forward, how about you. I
get it. I don't know that he can do anything
about it because I feel like the horses kind of
out of the barn and this time putting the tooth
basted in the tube is going to be a problem.
Right here in the state of Tennessee, there's a quarterback

(01:49:13):
named Nico that is a brand before he's even a
football player. Looks like he can play, but we don't
have any idea. It's still another year away before you're
ever even gonna see him. And there's a possibility, at
least the number that I've seen is eight million dollars already.
And there's these collectives that are popping up, and the
athletics has done a good job of kind of covering

(01:49:35):
these over the last handful of months. There's collectives across
the country that are run by private people that understand business,
that have done investing that are boosters that care about
these universities, and they are setting the stage for bidding wars.
And in the case right here in our backyard, Tennessee
has one of these Spire Sports inspires, like, look, we're

(01:49:58):
not worried about your next four years. We're getting you
up for the next forty. That's one of the things
that they've said. And it's just like, you know, what
are you gonna do when you get out of college.
We're gonna line that up to we're gonna show you
what you can do, and all these other kinds of things.
I understand it's a free market. And um, if Nico
and I'm not even gonna attempt to pronounce his last
name right now or something, but because it's like Yama Leva, Um,

(01:50:23):
he looks like he's the kind of he's infectious. He's
potentially attracting other talent. Here he's wearing pajama pants and
seven on seven is now everybody's wearing pajama pants. Now
we're going to see that probably happen on the actual
team if he's any good. There's all these things that
it's going to continue to happen. Nothing's been proven, I mean,
these are these are kids that haven't had to do
anything yet. But I just don't know what the fixes.

(01:50:48):
I think that the problem with in I L is
that it is such a wild, wild wist situation because
we don't have any regulations. There's not anything that's really
barring any individual deal that would save The saying is, look,
this is if this thing isn't put under some kind
of regulation, um, it's going to become a massive problem.

(01:51:10):
And in effect, he's saying if I have to play
this way, watch out. Like he's not saying that, but
he's kind of saying that because he's done it in
the past where he has spoken out about things and
then changed what he does. Remember he didn't never want
the wide open offenses and all this. He used to
win nine to three, nine to six in national title games,
things like that. Then he evolved changed and started winning

(01:51:33):
that way. Like what does this mean? Because if you can,
if you can recruit this way, if you can do
all these things, then sure it's heck Alabama can. And
I've asked a couple of different college football experts, Andy
Staples being one of them, and several others. I've said, look,
who's going to have more power in five years the
head coach or these collectives in terms of bringing in talent.

(01:51:57):
And what I've been told is kind of what I
what thought, which is the collectives are gonna have more
power because they're gonna have all these things lined up.
What's going to happen when a coach or a program
wants one person but the collective has already signed somebody
else and they want that person, They're like, Hey, this
is this is the guy that we want who wins

(01:52:18):
that fight. There's a whole lot that we're gonna figure
out over the next five to ten years that we
can't possibly fathom right now because we haven't seen these
things happen. All we know is there are now currently
over two thousand players in the transfer portal in college athletics,
and it's only going to get worse. And that's before

(01:52:40):
you even total into the n I L. Because I
just I can't wait to see some of these stories.
There's gonna be a lot of a lot of guys
that are going to be left in bad situations because
they just haven't known. There's no framework, there's there's no
there's no they are there right now. Well, and the

(01:53:02):
other thing is to you know, you mentioned what happens
when the coach and the collective disagree. What happens when
they agree and the kid just isn't good and now
you're paying uh you know, uh, the eight million is
a hype is you know, we know it's it's true,
but you know what happens when you're paying eight million
dollars and now now the kid, uh isn't good enough?
Or oh, by the way, he gets in trouble, like

(01:53:24):
you gotta throw him off the team, and you can't
really because of the So there's so many variables and
it is a changing world. And that's all that Nick
Saban is saying. And you know we're gonna bring to
say you're here in a minute. We'll get caught up
on all the other stuff, but I'll just wrap by
saying this is that, like I said, I think two
things can be true. I think that one, we all
want college kids. We all want college athletes to get

(01:53:45):
a cut of the pie that they've earned. All Nick
Saban was saying for everybody else was that we are
going down a slippery slope with a ton of unintended consequences.
By the way we see it, all the time with
the transfer port you just mentioned it. Transferport. Oh, we
gotta like I leave whenever they want. We got two
thousand kids in the portal. I would venture to guess
hundreds of them will not end up with a scholarship

(01:54:07):
when it's all said and done because they left the
place and they're not good enough to get on somewhere else.
It's impacting high school. So all these rules have unintended consequences.
And Nick Saban is simply saying that is that is
this what we want? But again to your point, Jason,
is there anything that he can do? This is Fox
Sports Radio antwards Jason Martin here Saturday Night, coming up,
we bring to Sagar back. He's got all sorts of

(01:54:28):
good stuff on the opening day of the NBA Playoffs
and much more. Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back everybody. Fox
Sports Radio Saturday Night, errant towards Jason Martin. As we
do at this time every Saturday, Let's bring in Steve
to Seger with an extended look at the world of
sports over the last twenty four hours. To Sega, what

(01:54:49):
do you got for us? I do have an answer
for you. That's still the longest softball winning streak at
n C Double A history belongs to no Arizona Wildcats
twenty five years ago. They had a forty seven game
winning streak when they won the national title and ninety seven.
But these Oklahoma teams have had a forty game streak,

(01:55:11):
another forty game streak, and a forty one game winning streak,
all in recent years. By the way, that Arizona win
streak would have been just before Jenny Finch went there
to become a picture, So that alone is impressive. There
was boxing at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium tonight Erroll Spence
with the win w b A welterweight title t k
O over your Dennis Ugas whose eye did not look good.

(01:55:33):
And Justin Verlander is back like he was never gone tonight.
Eight shutout hittings, eight strikeouts and under ninety pitches thrown
in the road game as Houston beat Seattle for nothing.
The last picture that had numbers like that on the
road Greg Maddox himself twenty five years ago and it
came at Yankee Stadium. So I thought Justin Verlander had

(01:55:56):
had a lot of time off. I think that Swisses
first win in almost two years. But you wouldn't know it,
And then you had the picture of the Reds first
rounder l a native, who threw at Dodger Stadium tonight.
Dodgers are leading the late game by the way, five
nothing in the ninth against Cincinnati. But in the pitch
tracking era in Major League Baseball, so the last fifteen years,
the record for most hundred mile and our pitches in

(01:56:17):
a game was Jacob Degram last year thirty three of them,
tonight thirty nine for Hunter Green of the Reds. He
also set the mark of most hunted and one mile
an hour pitches in a single game by a starter.
But just to put it in perspective, the great researcher
Sarah Leans points out that last season there were only
ten teams in the majors that threw about this many

(01:56:38):
hundred mile and pitch for the season, and this guy
threw that many in five and a third at Dodger
Stadium tonight. For their context, the folks at MLB Metrics
point out that if you look at the Arizona Diamondbacks
pitching staff, how many hundred mile and our pitches in
the last decade? Only four for the Arizona staff. And again,

(01:57:00):
this guy had almost forty in one game tonight. So
if you combine his two starts in the Major League
so far this year, over half of his fastballs have
gone for a hundred miles an hour. In fact, he
averaged a hundred point two miles. It was just silly.
Five sensational innings and then came out charged with two

(01:57:23):
urned runs in the sixth, six strikeouts, no walks. Dodgers
are up in the ninth inning. NFL Draft is less
than two weeks away. It's gonna be in Las Vegas,
not at the Raiders Stadium. They are constructing the main
stage next to the Caesar's Forum conference Center. I looked
at a map. You know where Caesar's Palace is. This
is not gonna be there. It's gonna be on the
other side of the street from that, behind the link.

(01:57:46):
You know where the high roller is. It's like the
London Eye, that great observation wheel that you can go on.
It's just behind there. Apparently is where the NFL is
going to be gathering. Less than two weeks away. And
here tonight we had the start of the u f
L season on Fox TV. It's a ten week regular
season and there is a game on FS one tomorrow night,

(01:58:06):
all the regular season games will be played in Birmingham
and the home team played and one tonight the playoff
games will be in Canton, Ohio. Mike Riley is the
coach of the New Jersey Generals who lost tonight. The
Birmingham coach Skip Holtz Todd Haley for Tampa Bay tomorrow night,
his team will be in action, and the Michigan Panthers
head coach is Jeff Fisher. And yeah, there's only ten weeks,

(01:58:30):
so not possible. Darryl moose Johnston, former Dallas Cowboys fullback,
is this league's executive vice president of football operations. And
we saw Mike Pereira on Fox tonight. Not only the
rules analysts and former NFL VP of officiating, he is
this league's head of officiating. Tickets are ten bucks for
general admission. Tonight was free for kids under the age

(01:58:51):
of fifteen. I could not find a crowd count. Just
for the record in extra points in this USFL this summer, Yes,
one point for the kicks snapp theball from the fifteen
yard line. You can go for two on a play
from the two yard line, or you can go for
three if you run a play a conversion attempt from
the ten yard line. You would get three points for that.
In other words, a team if they're down nine late

(01:59:14):
in the game, they're not out of it because they
can get a touchdown and go for three running a
play from the ten. L Thank you to singer, says
Fox Sports Radio Aaron Torres, Jason Martin. Saturday Night, lot
of NBA today. Also some football that we haven't yet
talked about, So we're gonna get to some Kyler Murray

(01:59:34):
news that popped up over the last couple of days.
Uh fun. Saturday Night. Of course, Bernie Fritto will join
us as well. A lot to still get to. One
hour left Aaron Torres, Jason Martin. This is Fox Sports.
Are you welcome in? Everybody? Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday,
Aaron Torres, Jason Martin, one hour left in the show.

(01:59:57):
Top of the hour, of course, following us Bernie Frado's
right out of Vegas. Bernie will be joining us in
about twenty minutes. Share some gambling thoughts on a lot
of different things, including day one of the USFL. Yes,
people are betting on it. Also some college football stuff.
Spring games are basically done at this point, Bernie's got

(02:00:18):
some updated college football title odds. A lot of good
stuff from Bernie Fredo here in about twenty minutes from now.
Jason and I have been on since ten pm Eastern Time.
Covered a lot of the NBA. Uh If you missed
any of it, make sure to go back and download
the podcast out for the show four Games go Finals
and say you just told you. Utah wins in Dallas
in Game one. Of course, Utah was playing in Dallas

(02:00:41):
without Dallas was without Luka don Chet, so Utah takes
Game one, unsure if Luka Donte will be available for
Game two. Minnesota beats Memphis one thirty one seventeen. That
was the big upset of the day. Anthony Edwards thirty
six points for Minnesota and the win over the two
seed Memphis. Philadelphia easily takes care of Toronto one thirty
one one eleven, Tyrese Maxie thirty eight points, and gold

(02:01:04):
State takes care of the Denver Nuggets in Game one
in San Francisco. We miss any of that NBA stuff,
make sure to download the podcast. Jase, I want to
switch to the NFL and you know a little bit
of a quiet time. We talked a little bit about
Baker Mayfield earlier this week, by the way, really quick
before we get into before we get into Kyler, and

(02:01:25):
we can always get into Kyler later. To NFL Draft.
Are you fired up? Are you excited? Obviously there's there's
not as much buzz, it doesn't seem because there are
no star quarterbacks expected to go at the top, certainly
not five first rounders like we had last year. Are
you more excited? Less excited? Just the same as the
saker just told you, Uh, the NFL Draft here about

(02:01:47):
two weeks away. I mean, I'm always excited for the
draft to some degree, but it's certainly muted a bit
this year just because it's a draft full of look
talented guy is that you're gonna need to win championships
in key spots. But when there's not the glitz surrounding

(02:02:07):
the quarterbacks, I'm just interested to see where they land
and if we're gonna get movement. But because there's not
these quarterbacks, you're you're crawling over broken glass to get
the chance of like the blockbuster trades. I just feel
like that's a little bit limited. So as a result,
I just kind of feel like this is this is
gonna be a relatively forgettable draft. I think it was.

(02:02:28):
I think it's been twenty five years since there wasn't
a quarterback taken in the first round. I don't think
that's going to happen here. I could still see three
guys going in the first round from the quarterback spot.
But I do think that it's just it's not a
glitzy draft because you don't have the Joe Burrows, you
don't have the Trevor Lawrences, you don't have the Andrew

(02:02:49):
lux and you're gonna get those from time to time,
but you're already looking at next year is gonna be
an arms race to try and get in the top
five to get one of those guys. And there's actually
some depth at quarterback next year we're is here. I
just don't have the same I'm not over the moon
about this draft. I'll just say that, yeah, I think
it's shaping up to be from what we do. I mean, listen,

(02:03:11):
I think if you're one a die hard too, if
you're a team with a need outside of quarterback, I
think there's a lot of interest there. Um, it's just
for what we do, it's just not as easy to
kind of wrap your head around. I mean obviously, uh
you know, even the quarterbacks that that we think could
go in the first round. Um, you know, Kenny pickett
Is is being compared most notably to like a Kirk Cousins,

(02:03:34):
Uh Mac Jones, even if he's draft him. That doesn't
really fire you up. Uh you know, Malik Willis I'm
a little lower on than most, but I mean he's
a guy that you talk about, uh you know, a year, two,
year three before he's ready. So I'm with you. I
think it's kind of shaping up to be kind of
the one of the more uninteresting drafts now because again,

(02:03:55):
we do so much college football on this show. We
follow college probably a little bit more closely so to me,
like I do think, like I think the what's weird
to meet? Not weird, but what I'm finding weirdly interesting
some of the wide receivers that we were able to
watch all year in college football. Where does a Garrett
Wilson end up? He was just a star at Ohio State,
Chris Laves star there. Uh, Jamison Williams who of course

(02:04:18):
transferred from Ohio State to Alabama, Drake London from USC
Trail and Burke's to Johan Dotson like, that's kind of
what what's interesting to me and then what's also interesting
and it really has no real you know, we're not
gonna be able to talk about it next week or
the week after the week after that is which ones
don't make it, which ones aren't um, you know, which

(02:04:38):
ones don't turn into stars because it's so tough, and like,
you know, we we just everybody looks so good coming
out of college. It's a reason there's a first round pick.
I'm just curious to figure out which are the guys
that have a ton of success and which ones don't.
But the wide receivers are really good, the edge rushers
are really good. But I'm with you when the quarterbacks
just aren't there. It's just it's from our perspective as

(02:04:59):
as guys that talk about this stuff and are hopefully
interesting and compelling, it's just, you know, having the Aidan
Hutchinson hot take or the you know, Garrett Wilson hot take,
or the Cavon Thibodeaux hot take, it just doesn't ring
the same as it would with as you said, Joe Burrow,
Trevor Lawrence, Zack Wilson, guys like that. Yeah, exactly. And look,

(02:05:21):
my hot take on Hutchinson is I'm I need to
see that to believe it. Uh not because I don't know.
I just he seems overheighted to me, and I'm gonna
need to see what he does on the NFL level.
I think everybody thinks he's J. J. Watt, but he
doesn't really play like J. J. Watt. Um. I could
see why you would try to make that comparison, but

(02:05:43):
watching him against Georgia and watching him Vanish, I just
want to see that on the NFL level because I
know what he thinks he can do. And I've even
seen this comments about how he feels like he's gonna
dominate because he's watched tape and he sees how much
time quarterbacks are holding onto the football. It's like, dude,
do you know how much more time it's gonna take
for you to get to the quarterback? Considering who's a

(02:06:04):
cross from you. It ain't Illinois, it's not Northwestern. He's talking.
He's talking like somebody that's going to get a rude awakening.
To me, if I have a hot take right now,
it's that I think Aidan Hutchinson's gonna be a disappointment
in the NFL. It's tough because you know, he's a
little bit of an older player. He played four years.
And you know the other thing too, is and we

(02:06:25):
get caught up with narratives, is I mean he was
the face of the best Michigan team, you know, basically
that any of us remember, right It's kind of funny.
Right now in studio on one of the ESPN channels,
there's the Tom Brady uh documentary The Tuck Rule Game,
where he's sitting down with Charles Woodson and right now
they're showing all their film from Michigan. And I only
bring it up because Michigan was a certain thing in

(02:06:47):
the late nineties and early two thousands that it hasn't
been in the last fifteen and twenty years. And so
they have the best season in recent memory. Aidan Hutchinson
is the star of that. He has, you know, arguably
his best game in the biggest game of the season
against Michigan. And so it's easy to wrap your against
Ohio State, excuse me, And so it's easy to wrap
your head around it. Everybody watched Michigan Ohio State. Everybody

(02:07:09):
watched the upset. Everybody saw Michigan fans storm the field
in an harbor. Everybody saw Aidan Hutchinson crying and being
the X factor in that game. And oh, by the way, um,
you know, the team with the second pick in the
draft is the Detroit Lions. And it's it's easy to
kind of just uh, you know, create the narrative there
of you know, this guy was the face of Michigan's resurgence.
Now he's gonna go to Detroit and maybe be that

(02:07:31):
as well. So I get that, and and and I
do think people are playing into it a little bit
as well. Do you have any any extreme takes on
Cavan Thibadeaux. I mean there's some character questions and you know,
does he love football and all that stuff. I mean
that that that that seems to be the narrative that
we're pushing. I just feel like, more than anything, I guess,
I just feel like we're we're trying to force narratives

(02:07:52):
that may not be there. Uh. You know, Malik Willis,
I think, is a lot less interesting than we're trying
to make him be Kenny Pickett probably, you know. I mean,
if if Kenny Pickett was in last year's draft, he's
probably the mac Jones. He's probably going uh, you know,
fourth or fifth out of all the quarterbacks available, maybe
late first round whatever. I think maybe that to me

(02:08:12):
is maybe maybe that's the story, is the fact that
it feels like we're trying to force narratives because there
really aren't any very interesting ones there. Yeah, you know,
I'm seeing the comparisons now coming out that Malik Willis
if he's if he you know, really achieves, Michael Vick
is the comparison. And then you see Kenny Pickett. I

(02:08:33):
think it was Tim Houselbeck was saying, Kenny Pickett, if
he's the best that he can be, he'll be Kirk
Cousins and des Ritter will be Ryan Tannehill. And that's
just kind of like that's what we're looking at. We're
looking at Kirk Cousins and Ryan Tannehill. Vick is sexy. Yeah,
if if Malik Willis were able to be Michael Vick
two point oh in terms of I mean, we know

(02:08:54):
what kind of army's got, we know what he's capable of,
but he's certainly a project like he's he's gonna take
some time. And everybody knows that if you were able
to really show out, that could be something. But if
we're looking at well, this guy's perfect comparison in the
NFL if he succeeds, is Kirk Cousins, and that's one

(02:09:14):
of the dudes that's potentially the first quarterback off the board. Yeah,
that that that is not exactly the sexiest draft that
I've ever seen. No, I don't think so the draft
now two weeks away, we will will continue the conversation here.
I mean, listen, you know, it's just, yeah, it's tough
because you know, you hope that maybe there's a trade,

(02:09:34):
maybe there's something, but again it comes down to what
are you trading up for. I mean, you know, if
you like an offensive lineman, there's you know, six or
seven that that could potentially go in the first round.
An there's difference between the center and uh, an offensive
tackler or whatever. But you know you start to look
around and and I think that's the part Jason is
like you want to get excited about it. I'm not saying,

(02:09:56):
by the way, if you're I don't know, if you're
the Lions and you're ready to draw aft. Uh, you
know a defensive lineman like Adian Hutchinson and you think
we're building, We're you know, we're building something here with
Dan Campbell. That's cool. If if you're a Jaguars fan,
you got the new coach, Doug Peterson's in Hey, we
got the quarterback last year, Now what are we gonna
do to help him? Like, Like, I don't think individual

(02:10:18):
fan bases should be unexcited about. It's just the narratives, Like,
like the big narratives that are easy to wrap your
head around just aren't there this year. I guess the
best I'm I'm very excited we have Russell Wilson's quarterback
in Denver because I didn't care what we were doing
at nine, you know what I'm saying, Like they're just
just I'm just it's just not sexy. It really isn't.

(02:10:40):
And my team made a move that's better than anything
they could have accomplished in the draft. So I'm excited
about that. But yeah, if you're the Lions, none, look,
you would want to have the number one pick if
you need a quarterback. The year that there's a quarterback
there there somebody. One of these quarterbacks a gonna turn
out to be pretty good. That drafted I mentioned from
twenty five years ago, not only was not was a

(02:11:01):
quarterback not taking until the second round. But also none
of those dudes ended up doing anything either. So that's
what you don't want. Like, I want as many good
players as can be in the NFL. I want all
these quarterbacks to be good. I really like Matt Correll.
I want to see Matt Carrell succeed. I'd love to
see Ritter, you know, find the accuracy more consistently, the
thing that that most people are dogging him on. I'd

(02:11:22):
like to see Pickett, oh, you know, overcome the hand
size Daron and be able to succeed. And I want
to see Malik Willis show that it wasn't just because
it was Liberty, that he is able to play on
the highest level. All these things. I want to see
all these dudes succeed. And dudes that we haven't mentioned
right here but on paper on the way in the

(02:11:43):
storylines are just not as juicy. They are not. NFL
Draft now two weeks away to say, just mentioned the
draft set up in Vegas. I was there last week.
I actually gonna go back again this week. I have
some family in town, and you could see the city
is starting to get ready. Vegas will put on a
good show. But yeah, the the you know, the the
excitement isn't what it wants what it has been in

(02:12:06):
previous years and probably next year with Bryce Young and
c J. Stroud expected to headline the three NFL draft
since Fox Sports Radio aeron towards Jason Martin, coming up,
our main man, Bernie Fritto. He's got all sorts of
stuff from Vegas, including yes, people are rushing to the
sports books to bet the USFL. He will explain next

(02:12:27):
Fox Sports Radio, Welcome back everybody, Fox Sports Radio Aeron
towards Jason Martin Saturday night into Sunday morning. And as
I always say, when it's one twenty eastern and yeah,
here big pimp and it all. It made one thing.
Bernie Fratto, straight out of Vegas. What's up, Bernie? How

(02:12:47):
you doing? Man? Guys? I don't know if you saw
the USFL game tonight He went down to the wire.
I was secretly hoping that it would go overtime because
the USFL has a very unique overtime rule. What will
happen is the teams will play a best the three
shootout from the two yard line, the alternate possessions, and
every time you score you get two points. If it's
still tied after three rounds, then every possession after that

(02:13:10):
becomes a sudden death. I was waiting to see how
that might look. We came close. I could not be
any less interested in all these weird USFL rules. But
with that said, now, it's not not a criticism of
you've already I'm just so over minor league football. But uh,
tell us about betting on the USFL, because you know
people are betting it, and so what's going on with that? Burn? Well,

(02:13:32):
that's the thing. You put a professional football game on
TV and we don't know we're this iteration of the
USFL is gonna go. But I will tell you when
the last one closed down, he put a hundred and
twenty six people in the NFL, including a bunch of
Hall of famers. Right now, the uh, the betting darling
appears to be Tampa Bay Battended's okay. They you'll get

(02:13:54):
to see tomorrow night make their opening debut against the
Pittsburgh Mallers. They opened up at, you know, laying two
and a half. They're now up to four and a half,
and actually they're the favorite to win the whole championship
at four to one. Now, why, Okay, You've got a
league full of unknowns here. But the Bandits have a
decent roster. They actually have twelve former NFL players. They're
coached by Todd Haley was a bit of a whack job,

(02:14:16):
but he's an offensive genius. They will display a heavy
passing offensive attack that's very creative, led by Jordan's TEAMU,
the guy who beat out Shape Patterson before he transferred
to Michigan. He can pass, he can run. He's a
dual threat. Pittsburgh's a run first team. I wouldn't be
surprised if Tampa Bay blows him out tomorrow. I wouldn't
be surprised if Tampa Baby wins this league. Be that

(02:14:36):
as it may. I have no idea what I'm talking about.
We gotta see what happens because real lines, real betting
futures are based on power ratings, and none of these
teams have played a game in thirty six years. So
how interested are you in this? Parney passed to just
I mean what you just said? Notwithstanding, how how interested
are you in the USFL? Very Dick shapp taught me

(02:14:56):
one thing, you always root for the story. I want
to see what stories emerge from here. You're getting a
group of men who are trying to make the most
of their opportunities, whether they're head coaches, whether they're offensive coordinators,
whether their quarterbacks. In a matter of fact, I was
vocal a couple of weeks ago. Instead of Colin Kaepernick
running around in short's playing the underwear Olympics, he should
be playing in the USFL to show people what he

(02:15:17):
can really do when the real bullets are flying. Now,
you and I both know this is not NFL caliber football,
but I think it's got a given a chance to
see where it goes. Foxes behind at the Addcent attendants
tonight and again you put it on TV, people are
gonna bet it. So burn Speaking of betting, Uh, throughout
the day today, a lot of college football spring games.
Obviously people aren't betting on that, but we know that

(02:15:39):
futures are now starting to come into play for next season.
What's the scoop with early college football betting? Yeah? The
three that jumped out to me is l s U
family man. Uh. I can't even say his name. Thank
you you gott Yeah, you got the excent going. Do

(02:16:00):
you want to work on the accent to if l
s u pacement with Brian w Anyway, they opened up
but a hundred and fifty to one, and they've already
been bet down to seventy to one. But Alabama TOWO
and one is the odds. Two to one is the
odds on favorite. There's no value there at Georgia plus
three fifty. But I will say the pros have jumped
on Ohio State at five to one. Uh, they're they're

(02:16:23):
They're absolutely loaded. They're gonna have the best offense in
college football. They're gonna score. They're the most talented team
in the Big Ten. And since the inception of these
in the CFP Playoff era, Ohio States qualified fifty of
the time. So I think at five to one, you're
seeing the pros jump on that. The other team. People
have all of a sudden overlook Clemson because last year

(02:16:43):
their ten to one proceed him as very good value.
I would not be done on Clemson. They're still one
of the most talented teams in the country. They have
one of the best defenses, that one of the best
front sevens. There's there's almost no chance d j Ukulele
can be as bad as he was last season. I
don't know if he's gonna live up to the hype,
but I think clems shortlist and then uh Aaron are team.
You and I have talked about Texas A and M.

(02:17:05):
You can get them at thirty to one right now,
now you know, Pete rose One said without the horses,
your stage coaches and moving forward. They've got horses. They've
had back to back to back to back top eight classes.
They got a roster ready to contend. They beat Alabama
last year. They have some question marks, but the thirty
to one the pros are taking a flyer on Texas
A and M. Yeah, they have the horses. If Jimbo

(02:17:27):
can't do something with him soon, he's going to be
a donkey. Um NBA, what is what's standing out to
you as the playoffs are now in full gear? Well,
I was very impressed by what Minnesota did today and
they're seventy to one to win at all, but they
looked awfully good. They took it to Memphis from from
pillar to the post. I watched that game. There were

(02:17:48):
six and a half point dogs. I think Phoenix is
overvalued at plus two seventy five. I still feel Milwaukee
can come out of the East. I'm never sold on
Brooklyn for multiple reasons. We'll see what Golden State can do.
I think this is really a wide open tournament. But
somebody I trust, it's really smart, told me he doesn't
think the Lakers will win it this year, and whoever

(02:18:10):
came playing games should be fired. Did Okay, I see
what we're gonna say that. I thought you were gonna
say you did not like the playing games? Was there?
I'm guessing a ton of heavy action stand alone to
stand alone playoff games. They weren't technically playoff games, but
to stand alone games on I guess it would have
been what Wednesday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and then of course

(02:18:30):
Friday we had two games as well. I'm guessing there
was a ton of action on that. Not a ton,
but a typical amount of the NBA's is a fairly
heavily bet league. But I would not see a ton.
I to answer you the earlier question, I look, I'm
a big fan of the the plan. If you don't
want to be in the playing game, finish in the
top six. So what it does? I think it makes
the last six eight weeks of this season a lot

(02:18:53):
more interesting. Uh. It gives teams a chance who might
not have been able to get into the top eight.
To get in, you gotta earn your way, and uh look,
Atlanta none the worse for wear. I know there was
some people that complained, or check that Minnesota people that
complained that if you had to play a couple of
playing games, you're not gonna have much energy. That wasn't
the case with Minnesota today. We'll see how this tournament

(02:19:14):
pans out. I think that the longest short of it
is that probably it limbed up chalk. But it would
not surprise me if you saw another Phoenix Milwaukee final.
Baker Mayfield, how how are the sharps or how are
the better is looking at where he could land at
this point in time. I don't think he's drawing any

(02:19:34):
attention at all. He's man without a country. He's gonna
be paid eighteen million next year whether he plays or not.
I know he wants to go to Seattle. I think
he needs to shut up and get off social media.
I am not a Baker Mayfield hater. I'm not. Uh.
He tried to make a farm tackle, ruined his left
shoulder for the entire season. He was just not the
same Uh, he's not elite, but he's not you know,

(02:19:57):
a ham and Egger either. He's somewhere in between. I
thought he did a good job in Cleveland. Uh. To
your point, though, Jason, Uh, there's no odds here, but offshore,
there's odds where he can end up. And there's only
really two or three teams interested. So it's something that
remains to be seen. And I think we've got to
get through the draft first. The next week, I'll have
a lot of draft future stuff for you guys. I
was just gonna say, I remember burned two years ago. Uh,

(02:20:19):
the NFL Draft was basically the only, if you want
to call it, sporting event that was going on. First
of all, by the way, how is Vegas preparing? Um,
you know, I was, I was in town this week.
I may have hung out with you there for a
little bit, but uh, you know, how how is the
city preparing? And what what do we expect from the show?
And then I imagine the handle is going to be
through the roof on the draft again this year. Hand

(02:20:41):
it will be absolutely through the roof. About three hundred
and sixty thousand people will descend on Las Vegas. If
you're here in Uh, you will already see certain streets
starting to be cordoned off their building stages. They're building
the NFL experience, and uh, the main focal point will
be in front of the Bloggio and in the fountains,
and every time I players drafted, he's gonna ride across

(02:21:02):
the little boat and hug Roger Goodell and it'll just
be wonderful for everybody to see. It'll be quite an extravaganza.
I mean, Nashville did a hell of a job a
couple of years ago. I mean they really, they really
sort of set their standard. So we think we can
live up to that because it's Las Vegas and right
now they're they're doing a lot of things having to
do with the showman ship, uh and the production value

(02:21:22):
of the draft, and so you see a lot of
camera work, a lot of close ups and a lot
of upclose and personal shots of Vegas here during the
draft breaking on and burn. We're ready, Nashal, Nashville's ready.
We need to see it to believe it. You're right,
we set the bar. I'm just cutting a promo at
this point in time. I hope it looks good. Did
I think he did? No? No, two ways about it.

(02:21:43):
That was spectacular when Nashville did a couple of years ago.
And I think Vegas will equit themselves very well. And uh,
it's not a zero sum game. Everybody can do. What
hell it's gonna be in Detroit and two years, No,
we should be dogging that. Man, it's my town. They'll they'll,
they'll throw a good party too. So anytime you you
brought it best there, this will be an event. Yeah. That.
The one thing that will make it so popular will

(02:22:05):
be obviously the ability to throw down a few bucks. Um,
you know who's drafted in the first round, the first quarterback,
how many ride receivers over under five and a half,
you name it. It'll be a lot of fun to watch.
He's Bernie Fratto straight out of Vegas. Can hear him
at the top of the hour breaking down all this
and much much more. Burn. We appreciate your time, man,
we'll be listening to the top of the hour. Okay,

(02:22:27):
thanks so much, guys, enjoy your evening. That's Bernie Fratto.
You can hear him at the top of the hour,
straight out of Vegas. Uh, Bernie always bringing the heat,
a ton of good stuff. That said, final time today,
let's get to Steve sag with what's trendy and the
NFL Draft in a year will be in Kansas City, Missouri.
By the way, Bernie mentioning that the Baker Mayfield attempt

(02:22:48):
at a tackle last season, clearly that was not as
good as when Baker Mayfield got tackled by the police,
and that was that was a much better breakcat of
a guy you guys were talking. NBA, by the way,
with the regular season over, the TV ratings are final.
If you add up the national channels t N, T, ESPN, ABC,
NBA games this season averaged one point six million viewers,

(02:23:11):
which is actually up compared to the last couple of years.
But compare that one point six million to FS one
getting one point nine million last Saturday for NASCAR at Martinsville.
The good news is for the playing game at Minnesota
this week, t NT got two point seven million. And
then we had the playoff openers, four games today, four
more tomorrow. It started today with Utah's win at Dallas

(02:23:34):
three and Luca don Citch of the MAVs is out
with a strain calf. Minnesota one at two seed Memphis
won thirty to one, seventeen, Anthony Edwards thirty six points.
Philadelphia dominated Toronto one thirty one one eleven. Scotty Barnes
of the Raptors left with a sprained ankle, and Golden
Steak got thirty points from starter Jordan Pool. In a
win over Denver tonight on one oh seven. Steph Curry back,

(02:23:56):
he'd been out for a month with a foot injury,
did not start, but off the bend sixteen points. NHL
Calgary clinched a playoff berth with a nine one win
over Arizona. There's USFL on FS one tomorrow night. Tonight's
game on Fox TV went to Birmingham with a late
touchdown against New Jersey. A reminder NASCAR on Fox TV
tomorrow night, seven pm Eastern Time. The Dirt raced at Bristol.

(02:24:18):
A lot of baseball to get to, as the Dodgers
are now six and two. They beat slumping Cincinnati five
to two, but the losing pitture Cincinnati first rounder Hunter
green in l a native, was sensational. His slowest fastball
tonight was ninety eight point five miles per hour. His
fastest was one oh two. He went five and a
third innings, charged with two earned runs, six strikeouts, no walks,

(02:24:40):
but took the loss. Julio areas great in his five
innings as a Dodger starter, but a no decision. Tray
Turner hit a two run homer bottom of the sixth
on a fastball that was merely about ninety nine miles
an hour, so it went out of the park. Three
hits for Turner. Dodgers six and two. Colorado beat the Cubs.
Rockies are six and two. Giants beat the Cleveland Guardians.
The Giants are six and two and the White Sox

(02:25:02):
edge Tampa Bay Today. White Sox are six and two. St.
Louis five and two after its victory at Milwaukee two
to one. Stephen Matt's the win. Houston and Justin Verlanders
shut out Seattle for nothing. Angels got a home run
from show Hey Tony in a seven to win at Texas.
Noah Cinder guard with the victory. Otani had three RBIs
three runs scored. Yankees were gonna rain delay at Baltimore.

(02:25:23):
Actually it was Hale in Baltimore and the Yanks were
down to nothing in the fifth. When play resumed, New
York scored four times. Top of the fifth, Josh Donaldson
a two run homer. Yankees win the game five to two.
So all the Reds are two and seven this season.
The Orioles now two and six, Texas two and six
this season as well. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia each one Kansas
City as well. In fact, the casey win was against

(02:25:44):
Detroit three to one. Tiger shortstop Hobby Bias was placed
on the injured list today with a sore thumb, and
Minnesota got shut out for nothing at Boston. The losing
picture for the Twins, Sunny Gray came out in the
second ending with a hamstring injury. Carlos Korea X of Houston,
is now with many soda. He went over four with
three strikeouts and is batting one fifty four, and Twins
outfielder Byron Buxton, with his knee injury this weekend, will

(02:26:07):
not go on the Aisle four now, they say. The
injury at Toronto, starter Jun Jin Ryu, the former Dodger
a sore arm, lasted four innings five runs allowed today.
Eventually Oakland won seven five on a two run homer
in the top of the ninth by Christian Pash, a
ex of Atlanta. The Braves won the FS one game
this afternoon five too at San Diego. Matt Olsen of
the Braves three hits, he's batting over four hundred and

(02:26:29):
Arizona edge the Mets three to two. Back to you,
Thank you, Steven Seger. This is Fox Sports Radio, Fox
Sports Saturday, Aaron Torres, Jason Martin here on a busy
Saturday night. By the way, you want to tweet into
the show. Always remember you could hit me at Aaron
Underscore Torres and Jason is at jan Mark Radio. Jason topic,

(02:26:51):
you know, we we haven't hit on UM. I find
I find it to be sort of uninteresting. It's the
Kyler Murray deal in Arizona. Go ahead. You don't sound uninterested.
You sound like you're chopping at the bit to talk
about it. So go ahead. I just think Kyler is

(02:27:11):
I understand what he's trying to do. I think, but
I don't know that this is gonna work. And there's
something that there's something I've been thinking about the last
few days. I heard somebody saying, I can't remember who
it was. We want to believe, as people that consume

(02:27:32):
sports and love sports, that every owner shares our affinity
for winning, and it's just not true. There's some organizations
where they want to cash a check, where the owners
want to get rich. They want to have the power
that comes with owning an NFL team, and if they win,
that's cool at all, but they really don't care. There's

(02:27:53):
some owners that will pay to win. There are some
owners that will not. There are organizations that are horribly
run but still end up turning a profit because it's
the NFL. Arizona is not a team that it's run
particularly well historically. It's not a team that usually has
spent money. Now they've spent money recently. But the problem

(02:28:15):
for Kyler Murray in this scenario is, I don't know
what the end game here is because I don't all
the knocks on Kyler. They're kind of well sourced. Like
I said, I told you about this. We we talked
about it a couple of months ago. I've heard this
for two years about Kylor mean, last last one in,

(02:28:36):
first one out in the afternoons, somebody that's kind of aloof,
somebody that isn't necessarily a leader type. And you even
here Kingsbury here just a couple of weeks ago saying
he's looking forward to finally having a full off season
with Kyler so that they can work on They're gonna
mentor him on how to lead and all this stuff.

(02:28:58):
And I read that and I'm just like, those are
not flattering comments about Kyler Murray. Kyler wants to get paid.
And I think we're getting to a spot where you're
gonna see, guys. I mean, how fast is it gonna
be that you realize you're good? So now I'm not
playing on a rookie contract anymore. I know these are
the rules that we've accepted, but these things are not

(02:29:18):
in a court of law, you know. I mean, I
don't have to play for you all sit at home,
as opposed to wearing down my body on a rookie contract.
I don't know how far we're going here. But what
is Kyler Murray actually done other than winning the regular season?
Usually deteriorate towards the end of that regular season and
then underperform in the playoffs because they got dominated. Now,

(02:29:40):
they didn't have Nuck Hopkins this year, and that is substantial.
He's their best player, by my estimation, not Kyler Murray.
Kyler is very good. But I just look at him.
I look at his height, I look at everything and
I'm just like, I'm not sure what he and his
representation are exactly trying to accomplish in terms of they're in.
I don't know that they want to go somewhere else,

(02:30:02):
But I don't think I'm paying that guy. Look, he
saw Derek Carr get forty and a half or whatever
it was and Car. You know Car on that three
year deal. It's a solid deal. I'm not paying Kyler
Murray next up money, not right now. I need to
see more Lamar. I'll pay Lamar, but when it comes
to Kyler Murray, Kyler hadn't done enough for me yet,

(02:30:25):
even in the regular season, consistently start to finish. I'm
I am reticent on that. I know there's a lot
of people talking about paying Aaron Judge and this and that.
I'm looking at Kyler and I'm just like, Kyler, I
don't know that I can pay you forty five mill.
I know that that spot is is something, but you
gotta do more for me than that. That would be

(02:30:47):
that would be at least the start of how I
feel about it. Well, and that's where you know, That's
that's what's tough for me. Is like I just why
I said I find it uninteresting is because you know,
like he did the whole social media scrub. Okay, whatever,
we move on from at but you know, I saw
stat this week that no quarterback, no player has ever
you know, gotten the renegotiated contract as early this early

(02:31:12):
in the calendar as Kyler Murray is trying to get
it right. So like like Carson Wentz got his extension
in June of what would have been his fourth year, uh,
and that was the earliest. We're in April still, and
so the only reason I bring it up is because,
you know, I know the organization hasn't run well, and
Kyler certainly has his flaws, but it's also an organization

(02:31:35):
that spent twenty years looking for a quarterback. I don't
maybe more I guess they had Kurt Warner there for
a little while, but essentially most of our lives have
not had the answer quarterback. They pretty much have the
answer now. And he's limited and he gets hurt, and
he's fragile, and he can't this and you know, maybe
the leadership needs to to to be worked on. But
at the same time, you're not trading him. You're not

(02:31:57):
getting rid of a guy at twenty five years, that's
made four going on t that's made multiple Pro Bowls,
that just led you to the playoffs. And so that
that's why I find it uninteresting, is is it just
feels like we're eventually gonna get there. And it's to
your point, Chason, is what are you trying to prove
in the middle of April, Like like, you know, at
some point it's got to be renegotiated. At some point
you need the new contract, you deserve it. I guess

(02:32:20):
that's just where I'm at is it just feels like
we're in April. You already did the social media scrub
four or five weeks ago, whatever it was. You're gonna
get the money at some point. You know it's gonna
be a negotiation with all these guys signing these massive,
mega extensions to Shaun Watson, Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers, Derek Carr,
all these guys that have signed this offseason. So I

(02:32:40):
guess what I would just say is that's the part
that gets to me is just just you're gonna get
there eventually. I don't need the four or five month
month draw out of it. Uh, it's pretty exhausting to me.
So this is Fox Sports Radio, Aeron towards Jason Martin.
Here busy Saturday night. One segment left, Jason, if you
had more to say on Kylie, we could hit it
on the other side. I will discuss that. Will preview

(02:33:01):
tomorrow's NBA games. Fox Sports Radio, Welcome back, Everybody, Fox
Sports Radio, Aeron Torres, Jason Martin, Final segment of the show.
Top of the hour, Bernie Fried. Oh, he'll get you
caught up on everything going on in the world of Vegas.
Of course, a busy couple of weeks in Vegas. Uh
NFL Draft coming up in two weeks. Bernie will be

(02:33:22):
on at the top of the hour. Jason, did you
want to add anything else on Kyla Muray? I mean
to cut you off there as we headed to break.
Was there anything else you thought we needed to add
on the Kyler Murray conversation? No, not really. I mean
just the idea that I mean. I don't think the
quarterback market gets reset by Kyler Murray. It's not a
Baker Mayfield situation where yeah, he's next to in line,
but he's not getting next to in line money. I
think he's going to get it. I'm just hesitant to

(02:33:45):
pay it because the things that you've kind of heard
about him, what I've heard about him for a couple
of years. None of this seems to be detracting from that,
because all of this is very me first, and that's
how it's kind of being put out there. I think
they're trying to beat the grass to start all the
snakes a little bit for Arizona. Arizona probably will capitulate.

(02:34:06):
Maybe he ends up getting traded. I have no idea.
Maybe that happens on draft night. We don't know. It
just seems to me like if Kyler Murray's, if the
questions for Kyler are less on the field, then off
it attitude, um, if it's if it's kind of selfish
in the way in which he goes about it, If
there are leadership questions and those are the kinds of

(02:34:28):
things that they need to address, that to me is
how you don't end up being alright, yeah, the last
guy got forty one, I want forty five. I'll pay
you forty five. Like I don't think that. I don't
I don't think that his talent indicates he's a guy
that you don't pay that money to. It's just I'm
glad I'm not the one that has to do it

(02:34:50):
because I'm not sure that he's a guy I can
win a super Bowl with, at least not as presently constructed. Yeah,
and I will say in the bigger picture, it's kind
of interest thing. And like like I said a segment ago,
I find it relatively uninteresting because he's going to get
his money where some of these other guys, like like
even going back to Doc, it was like Dac drew
a line in the sand and then he got hurt,

(02:35:12):
and then it's like, oh he maybe he won't get
the money, or maybe it'll be maybe he turned down
the best offer that he's gonna get. Where it's just
like you know with Kyler, it's just again the Arizona
Cardinals um, for years have just been waiting for a
guy like him. Um, they're they're better in general than
they've been in a very long time. They just made

(02:35:32):
the playoffs. And so he's gonna get paid. But but
like you said, I get it. He's not gonna get
Aaron Rodgers Money's not gonna get Patrick Mahomes money. And
maybe that's where the intrigue comes in, is is where
does the line in the sand get drawn. Obviously. The
report this week was that he won't step back on
the field until he gets a new salary, so it'll
be interesting to follow. So what do I do to
wrap the show? I want Don to put on a

(02:35:53):
little music for us, if you don't mind, Don, let's
go through some of the games tomorrow. First game Miami
against Atlanta. Um, you know, we could pull up the
point spreads if you want, Jason, but Miami is the
one seed. Atlanta, of course, coming off back to back
wins in the playing round. Trey Young ice tray last night,
thirty plus he had about thirty after the half. You

(02:36:15):
think there's any chance that Atlanta gives the uh number
one seed in the East eight challenge in Miami? Well,
Trey Young can be a killer, and he can play
the villain roll really really effectively, but a villain that
you actually want to see. UM, I just don't see
it here. We talked about Miami not being sexy, but
they are rock solid, and I just think Atlanta, what

(02:36:36):
they've done, they're probably gonna come in. I don't know
if they're gonna be riding high. I think they're gonna
be riding. We had to earn that, and you put
so much on Trey Young to get the job done
on a night tonight basis, I just I think Miami
is too strong. Second game of the day interesting. Obviously,
Boston is the two seed in the East and they
are a slight favorite, about a four point favorite hosting

(02:36:58):
the Brooklyn Nets. But of course Brooklyn, Kyrie and Katie
are healthy and on the court. They had a playing
game for the seventh seed, easily took care of Cleveland
the other night. Uh what do you think? Because I'll
tell you man, you know I listen. I don't think
the Nets are winning the East. I think Milwaukee's too deep,
too tough, too too physical at the rim. But you

(02:37:20):
give me Katie and Kyrie in this series. I'm sorry.
I know Boston's been playing well. I know they have
the home court advantage. I'm taking Brooklyn to win tomorrow.
I'm taking Brooklyn to win the series. I'm tempted to
take Boston tomorrow, but I'm taking Brooklyn to win the
series as well, for the same reasons. I just I've
seen Kyrie and Kevin Durant this time of years succeed.
Now I've seen the Celtics play well as well, I

(02:37:42):
just think if you're telling me who who in the
moment has to make a shot in the fourth quarter
at the games are tight, I trust the guys in
the Brooklyn uniforms. Those two dudes specifically. I don't know
what happens with with Ben Simmons. I don't even know
if it's relevant. I think the rest of it is
enough for me. I'm tempted again. I kind of think
Boston wins at home in Game one, but I just

(02:38:04):
think in six, Brooklyn is gonna be too good, very good. Well, well,
you know, we don't have to give straight up picks.
But Milwaukee a nine and a half point favorite against Chicago,
Chicago obviously reeling. At one point they were one of
the best stories in the NBA, but they lost four
or five going into the playoffs, and then on top

(02:38:25):
of that, of course, you know, all sorts of just
stuff on the back half of the season. Milwaukee and
nine and a half point favorite. They went in by
double digits tomorrow. Jason, Uh, yeah, I think so. I
think Chicago is a nice story, They've got some talent.
Milwaukee is just too good. I think Milwaukee and Phoenix,
I don't think either one of those two games, it's
going to be particularly close, at least not in game one. Alright,

(02:38:47):
So Phoenix at ten point favorite over New Orleans. It
sounds like Jason likes Phoenix and that one to win convincingly.
I do too. You know, Phoenix is one you know
they've flown a little bit under the radar if you
can do that as the team with the best record
in the league. I don't know if they're flown under
the radar, but they don't get the credit they deserve.
But they are gonna win convincingly, especially coming off an
NBA Finals. We gotta get out of here. I want

(02:39:08):
to thank the crew, want to thank Don on the board.
Want to thank producer Eric. Wanna wish producer Bow a
ton of success on his first night as a father.
He just had a baby girl. So congratulations to producer Bow.
Bertie Frodoll coming up straight out of Vegas. Also, thank
you for singer

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