Jason Martin & Arnie Spanier talk NBA Finals and QB contracts!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports. What's going on, folks. Welcome
in Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday. Nowhere in Torres tonight.
He's taken a second consecutive week off, which means I've
got Arnie Spannier again for four hours. Come on, man, yes,
come on Torres. Why at two Torres it's Arnie span

(00:22):
your sticking genius one on Twitter. I'm Jason Martin at
j Marrow Radio. We're with you for the next four
solid hours talking plenty of NBA, plenty of NFL, plenty
of all sorts of other stuff. Plus this idiot has
told me all day that he can't wait to tell
me how overrated Top Gun Maverick is. So we're gonna
get to that night together. So that's something to get

(00:44):
excited about. That's gonna be contentious. I'm here to tell
you I will make my point. By the time I've
done making my point, you're gonna pay me back my
ten dollars for the movie I got the Mattenee price
those side. I promised to stay quiet and let you
make your point because I'm just gonna I'm just gonna
Sarah will let you hang yourself. Arnie. That's what you do.
That's what good that's what good interviewers do. You just

(01:05):
kind of sit back and let people talk, and eventually
they exposed themselves way over hype. I'm the man either
you were the sager over hyped it so bad last week.
I demand my ten dollars back. So you could VENMOI
venmoe to me or whatever. Maybe at whatever We've got
Bernie Frido. Later, we've got Mark Willard who hosts for

(01:27):
seven UM the Warriors flagship. He can help us kind
of understand what happened in game one, and that, of course,
is where we can start. As a matter of fact, aren'tie,
Because funny thing happened on the way to the Warriors
being up one oh, having home court. Um, they lost,
and they lost in kind of shocking fashion. It was

(01:49):
hard to watch. I don't know, you know what here
it is? Was it a choke or was it a comeback?
I think the answer is yes. I think both things
can be true simultane asleep because it was certainly impressive
what the Celtics did, but it's hard to deny that
a team that had this is an unbelievable statistic. Ladies
and gentlemen, One hundred and twenty three combined games of

(02:12):
finals experience against squaw dooge zero one twenty three to
zero's the finals games experience between those two teams in
terms of players that had played in finals games, which
one of them look like they had played in the finals,
and which one didn't, because one looked great early and
fell apart late, and that's not what you expect to

(02:34):
see from a Golden State team. Boston taking advantage making
threes late and Golden State just had no answers. Yeah,
you know, I got I gotta be honest. I'm watching
the game. You know, they're done by twelve. I think
it was the start the fourth. I'm talking about the
Boston and I'm saying to myself, you know, maybe I'll
just turn the TV's off. I'll watch it on my phone,
laying in bed, you know, fall asleep. I'm getting kind
of tired, and for some reason, my god, that hell

(02:56):
with it. I'll just go and stay out, you know,
keep the big TVs added and see what happens. And
as they start making a run, I'm Mike, you know what,
there's no way they're gonna come back down by twelve. Eventually,
Golden State's gonna pull away. Steph is gonna hit a
couple three pointers and that's gonna be the straw that
breaks the camel's back. But man, Boston was hitting shots
like it was going out of style. And I know

(03:16):
people have said, well, they're not gonna be able to
do that in game number two. Doesn't make an difference.
If they're able to do it in game number two.
They stole game number one. They've demoralized the Golden State Warriors. Um.
I don't know if people know this, but the series
is over. It's O v er who often it's it's over.
You just went ahead. You came down back from twelve

(03:39):
points in the fourth quarter and you buried them too.
It isn't like it made a last second ditch shot,
um to win it. You went in, you pulled away.
They now have home court. They obviously win game number two,
then it's really gone and forgotten. But um, this series
is over. Boston is gonna go ahead and win it now.

(03:59):
Whoa Oho down, Fang Peaches Peaches love back down. It's
been it's one game. We do remember this is the
same Golden State team that at one point had been
down three to one to Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, that
Thunder team and came back like one game in the
NBA Finals. Now, yeah, you're right, they're gonna have to
get one in Boston now, but you don't think they can, like,

(04:21):
you don't think they can't. I don't even know them
like that. I don't even know if they're gonna go
ahead and win game number two. I mean, I'm so
impressed with Boston. Really know, Boston went ahead and split
with this team. Um, during the regular season, Boston was
a was about a five hundred team. And I told
this on my plant on my Sunday show, and I
kept pushing, I go, watch out for Boston. They're gonna
start picking it up. I didn't know they'd win a championship.

(04:43):
I go. But this team, you know, had to overcome
a lot and boom, next thing you know, they're probably
the best team in the NBA. Over the last one
thirty five games, they think they were like and seven.
This team was on fire. They were beating everybody out there. Um, no,
no it Uh. This is a tough team to beat,
and the really good defensively, their physical team, and they

(05:03):
shoot the ball damn well. And they get points from everybody.
You know, back with Al Horford was on the Celtics
before he got traded. I did a local show here.
We used to call him average ol, I mean, not
average oil. Now is he He's he's unbelievable. So they
could between him and Smart and Tatum and Brown and
even Williams um, they're they're just going, yeah, they're just

(05:23):
a little too much for the Warriors right now. I mean,
they're a good basketball team. We said, well, I mean,
I think we agreed on this last week. Everybody but
Dallas in the conference finals, we believed could win the title,
whether or not it was Miami, whether it was Boston,
whether it was Golden State. But we were staring down
the barrel of a Game seven last week with Boston

(05:45):
and Miami, and I look at Golden State. I don't,
I haven't. I haven't given up on Golden State yet.
I think Boston is an excellent basketball team. But dude,
Jayson Tatum went three for seventeen in the game. I
actually think that's more to the credit of the Celtics
that they actually able to overcome that. But Golden State
shot uncharacteristically terrible in the fourth quarter. I certainly respect

(06:07):
Boston's defense, but I do not look at that rosters.
They want a Jugger, not the fifty one and thirty
one Boston Celtics are. I love the coaching, I do
like the makeup of that roster, but that's not a
team that's like an overwhelming it's a one oh series.
There's a lot of games that have to be played,
and there's a lot of experience, and there's a lot

(06:27):
of pride. Can Boston win, Yeah, they certainly have a
leg up. They got Game one, that's the easiest one
to get for a road team. I do not think
they're gonna get game too. I think they go back
and then Game three becomes pivotal. To your point. However,
if it becomes too oh, then I'm with you, because
you're not gonna be Boston four out of five times,

(06:48):
not even this Warrior's team. You're not gonna do that.
But I just I find it hard to believe that
Jordan Pool is gonna disappear again the way he did
in Game one. That was very, very the was just
tough to watch. He was a minus nineteen on the floor,
only took seven shots, played twenty five minutes. Definitely the
worst game I have seen him playing the Warriors uniform.

(07:09):
Certainly in this postseason. I do not anticipate that happening again.
You know, one of the things you said that I
agree with this. You know, there's not a juggernaut Celtics team,
but it goes to show you you don't need the
big three anymore. You don't need Lebron Anthony Davis and
then you have to get Westbrook in. You didn't need Kyrie,
Kevin durant Um and Harden. And that's and that's when

(07:32):
you should learn from the Celtic team. You really don't
need the big three. You need two solid young guys
in like a Tatum and Brown, and then a couple
of veterans who will do anything offense, defense, be physical,
kind of like with a Hartford and Marcus Smart. So
you know, maybe it's a copycat league like they always say,
and things will change. You don't need that big three
out there. That's just an excuse. We gotta get another one.

(07:55):
We gotta get another star, gotta get another big man
out there, gotta get gotta get another score out there.
You're right, it's not a juggernaut team, but right now, um,
they're a better team than the Golden State, that's for sure.
They're Jason, Well, it's one game. I don't know that
I'm willing to go. Yeah, I get it, but it's
like that doesn't matter. Yeah, but I'm not getting to
a conclusion. I'm not taking the jump to conclusions. Matt

(08:18):
here Arnie, this is not off the space, but the
point that you made. You have to have two solid guys. No,
I think you gotta have two All Stars. I think
that's the difference. I don't think you need three. I
think you need a dynamic duo style. You need a
Janice and a Chris Middleton. Tatum and Brown is a
borderline All Star. I'm not sure whether you made the
team this year, but we know Tatum is a top
five ish player who actually was off. The benefit I

(08:40):
think for Boston is that Marcus Smart and Draymond Green
are very similar players and in terms of what they're
asked to do. But Smart can actually score a little
bit more often, and Draymond I don't know who it
was that coined this year's ago. Every time he takes
a jump shot it looks like he's he's doing so
wearing a backpack. He just he's offensively challenged. It's offensive

(09:04):
to watch him play offense. Everything else he does, he's
brilliant for for what they need him to do, he
is often perfect. But the guy that helps shut the
door in terms of Game one, was smart because Tatum
didn't have it that night. Brown had certainly made stuff
to open the fourth. But the guy that closed the
door was Marcus Smart. And the difference again is I

(09:26):
trust him. If you have to get a shot late
between him and Draymond, I'm taking Marcus Smart all day long.
You see what they should have done is when Boston's
hitting the three pointer, you know that the tendency is
for teams and players to say, okay, we we gotta
get back some of these three. We gotta start treating
three pointers ourselves. Um will make one while they make
like five or six that that's not gonna cut it.

(09:46):
What you need to do is have somebody like stephord
Clay drive to the basketting, draw the foul, slow down
the game, get two of the three points back that
are gonna be easy with either a lay up or
a couple of foul shots. When you start shooting the three,
starting to match them, and you're missing. That's when the
role starts happening, and then you don't know what happened

(10:07):
to that twelve point lead. Next thing you know, you're
down by five points and you're really stretching to try
to get back in the game. Now that's where it
went wrong. They should have drove to the basket, tried
to go to the foul line a little bit more. Well,
I mean where it went wrong was and this is
what was so baffling about it because Golden State you
just don't usually see a lull like this, and if
you do, you see it early and then they overcome it.

(10:27):
No one could stop the bleeding. Nothing nothing, there was
nothing there, but they if nothing. They went to the
line fifteen times Golden State at both at best. Steph
Curry should have got to the line at ten times
in the fourth quarter just to stop the bleeding. Drive
to draw the foul do what like like like everybody

(10:49):
else does where you are leading in this like, uh,
what's his face? That just got gosh from Toronto. He
was in the last where he was in game number
seven where you're leading to somebody and you're drawing the
foul for yeah, do something like that where you're falling over,
you know, over driving. Guys do something to go to
the foul line to stop the bleeding out there. They

(11:11):
didn't do that. Yeah, well, I mean, look, you're gonna
live and die by the three in Golden Stead often has.
But you know, Wiggins played well and Curry played well,
although a lot of it came early and then you
didn't get a whole lot from him late. But to
your point, I agree. Look, the Celtics only took sixteen
free throws in the game. The Warriors took fifteen. Both

(11:31):
of them could still could stand to be more aggressive
based on that both of them were settling for threes.
This was a game that featured forty one threes taken
by Boston and forty five taken by Golden State. Eighties
six three pointers were taken in this basketball game. I
don't know what to say other than that's way too much,

(11:53):
Like that's just that's not that's not working the ball
around like that that right there. I know that's what
basketball has become, but personally I'm not a giant fan
of what basketball has become because of things like that. Well,
I thought you were gonna do the old I'm gonna
blame Steph Curry, now you know, Jason, Well, I'm sure
we will. But in case you didn't know this, all

(12:13):
sports evolve. Um, when I was younger, believe it or not,
stealing bases were a big thing in baseball. I mean
it was actually part of an offense. I mean, you
know Vince Coleman stealing about fifties of the basement in
a season. Now it's just it's not even an afterthought,
it's a no thought right out there. Um, in the NFL,
we've made it more offensively friendly so we can have

(12:36):
more points out there in the In the NBA, things
change and now we're shooting three pointers. Um, that's just
the way it is. And with the people go, well,
look what Steph Curry's doing, He's killing it. Everybody wants
to shoot three pointers. Well, how come everybody didn't want
to shoot a sky hook like Kareem? I mean, if
there was ever a unblockable shot, how about the sky

(12:57):
hook with Kareem? Did you ever have you ever won
showed me a video? I dare you of somebody actually
getting up and blocking Creems sky hook? I dare even
even with a goldtend I've never seen it. Thought it's impossible.
I don't know if we talked about it last week.
I know I talked about it what I think with
with Brian no when we were hosting on Monday morning,

(13:17):
and I pretty much laid out the exact same case.
It's the most unblockable shot in history of basketball. And
I'm baffled by the fact that some big has not
just sat there and learned that shot, because if you
learn it, you're probably going to Hall of Fame because
nobody out there has wingspan that can stop it. I mean, honestly,
if Janice was able to learn it, he might go

(13:38):
down as the greatest player in history of basketball because
nobody is gonna stop that. So that's that's a segment.
But man, I'll tell you what, you actually got further
there than I thought, because you said the series is over.
We'll talk more about that. Are you gonna stick by
your guns out there in listener land or is it
time to change a pick based on one an NBA

(14:01):
Finals game. We will get to that. We will continue
to break down the game, and obviously we're gonna set
up in preview game to which no question, that is
a must win. If you were Golden State it is
Arnie span Here, it is Jason Martin, it is Fox
Sports Radio. We're back in the flash. Fox Sports Radio
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch

(14:21):
all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com
and within the I Heart Radio app search f s
R to listen live. Hey, what's up everybody? It's me
three time pro bowler La Barrington and I couldn't be
more excited to announce a new podcast called Up on Game?
What is Up on Game? You asked, along with my
fellow pro bowler t J. Hudschman, Zada and Super Bowl champion.

(14:45):
That's right, Plexico Burds. You can only name a show
with that type of talent on it. Up on Game
We're going to be sharing our real life experiences loaded
with teachable moments. Listen to Up on Game with Me,
LaVar Arrington, t J. Hudgeman's Out of and Plexico Birds
on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever

(15:07):
you get your podcast from. Welcome back Fox Sports Radio,
Arnie Spaniards with me, I'm Jason Martin. Torres is back
next week. I'm actually out next week, so it's gonna
be like between you know, we're just ships passing the

(15:29):
night right now, me and Aaron. But it's all right,
it's all good. So I was looking at this, this
is only through This is the latest that I could
find the way. Edmonton just tied it up too after,
So there you go. Well, the NHL Playoffs, as usual
have been stellar, and they continue to be year after year,
usually better than, well, not usually, almost always better than
the NBA playoffs. Teams that win the first game of

(15:53):
the best of seven series. This was at least through
the two thousand seven team playoffs. If somebody out in
l A happens to how more updated info you can
get it to me. Teams will win the first game
of the best of seven series go on to win
the series seventy six point six percent of the time. Interestingly,
teams that win the first game of the best of
seven series on the road go on to win the

(16:14):
series fifty two point six percent of the time. So
it's close, but it kind of doesn't. But I guess
it means if you're winning game one at home, you
probably have home well, I mean you do, you have
home court advantage, So that means you're probably an awfully
good basketball team by that point. Gives you a one
oh lead and you go from there. If you went
on the road, maybe then if you still had home court,

(16:37):
you could win it back by just getting one game
on the road. It does seem a little strange now.
Teams that win first two games of the best of
seven series on the road again, through the two thousand
seventeen NBA Playoffs win the series four percent of the time,
and four is what it was at the time. Well,
it's probably not a lot of teams on the road

(16:59):
winning the first two. It probably didn't happen all that often.
When you think about teams that win the first game
on the road, that's seventy two and sixty five. This
number was four, So it's only been like twenty five
times that it could have happened. So it's still a
pretty high percentage. So I heard you say it in
the first segment already, But who did you pick going

(17:22):
into the series? Did you pick Boston? No? I picked
Golden State to win this, Okay, See, I picked Warriors
in six. I'm staying with Warriors in six, although now
definitely think it could go seven. Um, are you are
you sticking with him? Are you? Or is what you said?
In the first segment. That wasn't just a set up. Well, no, no, look,
I'm gonna. I'm staying with my original pick. I'm just
not gonna. But I'm telling you now. Um see, I

(17:45):
thought Golden State would come out and prove they're the
better team, show their dominance, Um, win big and game
number one. That something showed me so much more than
just winning a game. It was coming back from twelve
points in the fourth quarter on the road again one
of the best three point shooting teams in NBA history,
and they didn't let it rattle them whatsoever. And I

(18:06):
would say to myself, I should have known that the
Celtic team was so much better than I was, and
I was even giving them credit for and I was
giving them a lot of credit. Um, they took game one.
But even if this does go seven or whatever, Um,
the you can see that the Celtics are a better
team than Golden State, at least I believe they are,
and they should come out on top, whether it's gonna

(18:27):
be in six or seven games. Okay, yeah, I'm sticking
with Golden State, but I will have a hard time
sticking with it if they were to lose tomorrow. I
just don't think that they're going to This was definitely
one of those pause moments where Boston showed toughness, Boston
showed resilience because they got absolutely crushed in the third quarter.

(18:49):
That was a thirty eight to twenty four quarter, and
then came out and it was forty to sixteen in
the fourth. That was And look in NBA, that's one thing,
and you said you almost turned off the channel. He
almost turned off the game, as did I. But in
the NBA a lot of times you see this kind
of thing where you see like large runs in both directions.

(19:11):
The question is is somebody gonna stop the bleeding enough
to stop that run, keep it at arm's length and
then push the lead back out and finish the job.
And that's what Golden State couldn't do. And they were
in their beautiful new, immaculate facility and they got immaculately
destroyed in that fourth quarter. I wonder how many people
in Boston were live betting the game when their team

(19:32):
was done by twelve. I wonder. I guess you could
have probably gotten about one three to one, four to
one odds, probably maybe even more than that four to
one plus um, you could have made a lot of
de naro bet on your team that will come back
and win the game. How much fun with that would
have been, No kidding, no kidding. I mean, you've got
nothing from Grant Williams in Game one, but Derrick White
gives you twenty one points. He has a plus twenty

(19:53):
five on the floor, very efficient in thirty two minutes.
That was a nice pick up. He's the reason every
college basketball coach needs to be fired. No division No,
the Division one offers played three years of what D
two and then with the Colorado his last year. I mean,
you you can't recognize an NBA talent to come on

(20:14):
your team to play college basketball. This is a ridiculous
I mean, ultimate example of Steph Curry. You know his
dad going to Yeah yeah, well, I mean you know
his dad goes to Virginia Tech and they said, I
think it was Greenberger. At the time, was just kind
of like we just didn't know, we had no idea.
It's like, what are you talking. You know, if you're
one of those if if you're in the major program.

(20:36):
But she always finished in the bottom half of your conference.
The fact that the kid's father played in the NBA
should be enough to give you all automatic scholarship. Side unseen,
side un scene. There you go. Then, you know when
Rudolson took over for Arizona and he was recruiting and
he got to Arizona late and they said that this
guy Steve Curry as a scholarship to Forton and Rudolson said, welcome,

(21:00):
he's good enough for full that he's good enough for
us offer of his scholarship. We were like, what did
seventeen in the back then? I'm back then, so loud
knew he couldn't be picky. He's like, hey, good enough
for them, good enough for us to get to get
his scholarship. And look how that turned out. You know,
is that the first great Arizona team, the one that
had Kerr and Sean Ellie you know on it, that
made it to the Final four the year that Danny
Manning one I think it was. I think that was

(21:21):
the eight Final four where Oklahoma Billy Tubbs team beat
Arizona in the semifinal. But that was Kerr and Seawan Elliott,
I believe on that was a little bit before that.
We I mean we were we had finally made it
to the n C Double A tournament um after like
two years after Steve Kerr got there. So yeah, it
was Uh, it was some thin times, no doubt about that,

(21:43):
some real lean times there. But I mean the amazing
thing if you're Virginia Tech is Dell went to Virginia Tech.
His dad went there, So there was also that tie in.
It was like, you know his height, you know Steph's height, Well,
I don't think it's caused him too much of an issue. Uh.
And and when you saw him that n C double
a tournament roun with Davidson, you realized, actually the first

(22:03):
thing he realized was man, a lot of school screwed up,
a lot of school screwed up. And then amazingly enough
he was still doubted going into the NBA. Well, I
can see you doubting him going into the NBA just
based on his size. Um where you have a full
you know, where you have some reservation of what's going
to happen. Um, not a lot, but some, but not

(22:24):
when you're in college basketball. You'll take anybody that could
just chew gum and can shoot the ball. And then
he certainly could shoot the ball, no doubt about that.
We would you like the idea that if you're Minnesota,
you took Johnny Flynn and Ricky Rubio and just left
him sitting there. That will go down as one of
the biggest gaps in draft history that nobody's really talking about.
That is absolutely embarrassing. By the way, though, um and

(22:47):
I know we're gonna get to this. You would think
that with an upset in Golden State, with Boston coming
back down by twelve, that it would have been one
of the most watched NBA Finals game in the last
twenty years. But that doesn't seem to be the point though,
doesn't Jason, No, it doesn't. A matter of fact, after
we talked to the Sager, we will talk about game one. No, no, no,

(23:08):
I didn't schedule to Sag. Yeah, not su him. I
don't think. I don't think. I don't think you were
part of this. I did. I scheduled when I feel it,
I did the schedule. That's Mozzi, I scheduled. Did you
schedule Aaron Sager for crying out loud? It's like the Undertaker, Arnie,
you just can't keep him down for three unbelieve I'm

(23:31):
gonna have to talk to somebody. Yeah, you gotta talk
to somebody because you've got no power here. You schedule
for next Saturday night. Who's costing next Saturday night? Next Saturday.
I'm not gonna be here because I'm gonna be in
Maine actually, so I'm I can't fill in Arni. It
would have been so easy for you to have just been, like,
you know what I've said, Jason is not going to
be here because you heard me say five act today

(23:53):
take him out yourself. What's up, Steve Hello, You were
talking about how rare it is if a team actually
starts the end BA Finals losing games one at two.
Actually fairly rare what you were talking about in any
round of the playoffs. I saw literally just tonight a
stat from ap of how unbelievably rare it is for
a team to lose at home games one and two

(24:15):
in the NBA Finals. Immediately I thought, we'll wait a minute.
We've had sweeps, like eight or ten sweeps in the
long history of the league. Well, usually it's the better
team sweeping, so they're they're starting at home, winning the
first two at home, and then they win a couple
on the road. There are only two instances in NBA
history where a team has lost games one and two
at home in the NBA Finals already. Of course, Golden

(24:38):
State gag the fourth quarter and lost Game one at home.
They'll be hosting Boston again in Game two of the
NBA Finals on Sunday night. Those two examples, by the way,
are from the n nineties. Remember how great Charles Barkley's
Phoenix Suns were in and had home court advantage and
lost the first two at home and then lost to
the Bulls in that series in six couple of years later,

(25:01):
a great Orlando team was Shack and Penny were the
better team against Houston, which I think was a six
ceed that year, that awful Nick Anderson, Kenny Smith hitting
the three to send it to overtime and it winds
up a magic They get swept, even though they had
a great series a regular season an awful final series.
So those are the only two examples of things that

(25:23):
have lost at home in the finals of games one
and two. We have an NHL up to Colorado. Avalanche
have just scored to retake the lead three to at Edmonton,
which just over seven minutes to go in regulation. Colorado,
without its starting goalie, could be going up three games
to none with a game four of the West Final
coming up in Edmonton on Monday night. Game three of

(25:46):
the East Final tomorrow afternoon at the French Open. Raphael
Nadal in the men's final tomorrow. Number one ranked Egis
Fiontec won the women's final sweeping American Coco Golf today
six one, six three. NASCAR's on FS one tomorrow three
thirty pm Eastern Time from outside St. Louis. Chase Briscoe
will start from the poll. A J. Almondinger won the
Exfinity Race in rainy Portland today on the road course too.

(26:09):
Major League Baseball, it's Mets Dodgers all weekend in l A,
a four game series. Dodgers record thirty five and seventeen
Mets right now thirty five and nineteen, and the Mets
have the early lead. Tonight It's one nothing over l
A and the Mets have a couple of minut on
top of the second inning. Francisco Lindor with an early

(26:30):
home run against Dodgers starter Walker Bueller, who six and
won this season. Lind Or a guy who did not
play the first of the four game series because finger injury.
He was at the team's Ritzy Hotel, which had a
double door, a couple of them, double door happens, and
he closed the double door onto his own finger, and

(26:54):
then couldn't grape group a better throw a baseball on
Thursday and missed that. So right now we're going to
the bottom of the second nothing Mets at Dodger Stadium.
Rockies over the Braves one nothing in the top of
the fifth and the only other game going, and this
is on Fox TV and part of the country. Cubs three,
Cardinals three, top of the ninth. This is the second
of a double header. Cubs won the opener six one
against St. Louis. Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals went over

(27:16):
two with two walks that broke his twenty five game
hitting streak. Yankees won again. They've won five in a row.
The Yankees record thirty eight and fifteen three nothing. The
final over Detroit today, Aaron Judge hit his twenty one
home run that leads the major leagues. Pittsburgh on a
two run home or bottom in the ninth, beat Arizona
two to one. Washington scored three in the top of
the ninth and one eight at Cincinnati Miami one with

(27:39):
a sacrifice fly bottom of the ninth. Five four over
San Francisco, and Philadelphia has beaten the Angels seven to two.
Are you aware that in mid May the Angels were
tied for first in the A L West. They just
lost their tenth game in a row seven to Phillies,
a team that stomped him last night and tonight, a

(28:00):
team that literally just fired their manager, Joe Girardi yesterday,
But they got to play the Angels this weekend. Last
day check Mike Trouts slump was at over twenty two. Also,
Angels gave up five runs in the first lost seven
to back to you. Thank you Steve, And yes, Steve
is here, Arnie, and he's here for the next three hours.
I've been told. So I'm gonna look at that schedule

(28:22):
next week. Yeah, you do what you can do there
Stick of Genius one. You can find Arnie there on Twitter.
I'm at j Mark Radio. NBA game won the Finals ratings, Uh,
this was very interesting. A six point four television rating
eleven point nine million viewers. It was the worst for
a June Finals since two thousand seven. The last two

(28:46):
both of them kind of at odd times where the
series began. Those two were lower than this one was.
So this was above the last two years, but in
terms of playing in June calv Spurs two thousand seven
was the last time that we saw finals till start
this low from a rating standpoint, And that's intriguing because

(29:08):
the Warriors were rating through the roof throughout much of
the postseason. The NBA playoff ratings have been up, and
you've got Boston that's a big market. This kind of
caught me off guard. I thought that this would have
done better than it did, correct me. I can't remember when,
but didn't didn't Biden speak Thursday night at some point?

(29:29):
I know we had a press conference that day, but
I can't remember if it was that afternoon or if
it tied in fairly close to the started game one.
I don't think. I don't think it well. If it
tended fairly close to the game, UM, then you would
think more people would be watching the game as their
TVs are on. UM. I'm not sure how close it
was to the game. I know it didn't overlap that
I that I'm I'm pretty sure on that. It surprised

(29:50):
me also, Jason, because like you said, the ratings was
would be pretty high for the playoffs, and next thing
you know you're you're reading how low that game one was.
Golden State had what six of the highest rated UH
ten NBA games this season or in the playoffs, so, um,
everybody wants to see the Golden State Warriors. It was
on a Thursday night, so there's no excuses there. I

(30:12):
think that's the second best UM day for NBA basketball
besides Sunday. So they got the Thursday night, they got
Golden stayed into it. It wasn't like the other team
is a no team. It's the it's the Boston Celtics.
So you're not gonna lose any ground if anything, Um,
you know you at least be even on the other side.
I have no idea. I I can't figure out why

(30:35):
it's one of the lowest in fifteen years. Now. If
you would have told me it would have been the
lowest in like three or four years, then I'd say,
I don't know how the bubble works, and I gotta
throw those years out. And you know, that was just
a crazy time during COVID and I don't know what
to make of it. But you're giving me a sample
size of fifteen years. I I can't figure it out. Yeah,

(30:55):
So Biden spoke before the game. I don't know how
soon before, but they just told me in my ear um.
This also was the lowest rated according to hoops Wire.
This is the lowest rated leastwatch Finals game involving Steph
Curry in his career in nine different Finals games involving
Steph Curry. This woman's was below Game four the twenty

(31:18):
nineteen NBA Finals. It is interesting because again, Boston is
one of the blue blood franchises in the NBA, and
then of course you've got Steph and Steph It's generally
been a and the Warriors have been a ratings juggernaut
for years. I'm looking at the Boston team Boston, the
Celtics are a draw. Maybe the Celtics as a team

(31:40):
aren't quite as interesting as some might have thought, Like
if this was Bucks Warriors, would that be better? Even
though Milwaukee is certainly not as big a market, Janice
is a bigger star than Jayson Tatum. Tatum is the biggest,
most marketing one star on Boston. I don't know that
Tatum is a household name right now. What if it
would have been the Miami Heat, then what are you
gonna rely and just Jimmy Butler to go ahead. Oh,

(32:02):
I don't. I think that would have been worse. I
think that would have been worse like that. That's what
I'm saying, And we even said this last week. I
think Arnie that this was the matchup that if you're
the NBA, you should want Boston and Golden State of
what was remaining with no Lebron. Who Look, Lebron is
always gonna draw ratings just as much for people that
want to see him get beat as people that want
to see him win or Kevin Durant type or something

(32:23):
like that. At least you've got the Celtics, so you've
got a big time Boston franchise. And then the Warriors
have been basically the Kansas City Chiefs of the NBA
for the last ship over a decade. Now, shouldn't ratings
go down naturally because there's different, so many different ways
to consume sports now with tablets and sports bars, people

(32:47):
going out to or or all your phone or stuff
like that. Wouldn't that lower the ratings or would that
increase the ratings? Do they do they get? Um? You
know points that I know, Well, there's different there's different
ratings classific a. Since there's something that include overnights, and
there's some that include DVR, some that include alternate broadcasts
and things like that, like if you have Monday night football,

(33:08):
you factor in the Manning cast along with what's happening
on ESPN or something to that degree. So there were
multiple ways to watch the game, and then a lot
of people. I wonder, and I don't know exactly how
it broke down in terms of quarter hours. I wonder
if people did what you suggested earlier, where they thought
it was a rap, they thought it was over, and

(33:29):
then you wake up on Friday and realize, oh wait,
the bosson came back, Boston came back and one this thing,
and I went to sleep, like I don't know if
that was part of it or not, because it definitely
was not trending in ation that told you Boston was
coming back. That's what I don't know when. I think
it was about eleven fifteen Eastern from the fourth quarters started,

(33:50):
so because I think the game started a little bit later,
didn't started exactly nine o'clock might have started, like, so
it might have been two hours in at that point,
so it was hamen. After eleven o'clock, people are like, hey,
I gotta get up tomorrow. It's still on Friday. I
gotta go to work. Might as well go ahead and
shut this off. I think Jeff Schwartz admitted to go
in to sleep and shutting up in the fourth quarter

(34:11):
and getting up and seeing what happened. So did you said?
You almost walked away? I did? I hope so radio show.
It's six am. Yeah, you gotta five days a week
for four hours in Nashville. We you know this aren'ty
When you host in the mornings, there's a whole lot
that the listeners think you've seen that you've seen via highlights,
you see via articles the next day. It's the only

(34:32):
way to actually live. Can you imagine, I mean, trying
to live on three hours sleep every night, and you're
not gonna go far. But yeah, what did you think
when you woke up into no, this can't be righted?
I was surprised because watching the game, it really looked
like the momentum was with Golden State, and that's a
team that usually is able to hold on to said momentum,
and they definitely were not. But the ratings were down.

(34:54):
We can talk more about it as the show continues.
The lazy argument is Oh, it's it's it's political and
all this. I just I don't subscribe to that. I
really don't. I don't know. I can't really explain this,
but if all the numbers had been trending right for
the NBA throughout the postseason, it's not like all of
a sudden, well they're tieing with China. Is why people
aren't watching? Like that to me is lazy. There's just

(35:17):
a lazy argument to make that I just don't subscribe to.
We'll come back, we'll talk more about this. Also, the
l I V and the p G A. I don't
know what's going on here, but we may have a
problem if we're the p G A A. It is
Jason Martin Arti spanning here on Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back,
j Jason Martin Arnie spanning, You're in here on Fox

(35:40):
Sports Saturday. NHL is happening and it's now final Avalanche
getting it done, beating the Oilers who by the way,
the Oilers in those dark the dark navies with the
orange big fan ARENI. These are some of the sharpest
looking sweaters I've ever seen, like like overall in in

(36:02):
Jersey's period across sports. They're great like. I mean, I
know there's the classic oranges. You've got a lot of
people in the seats wearing those. But these things are
just sharp. Man. I like them. Man, I liked them
a lot. So I I don't know if I've seen
that color scheme before. It's a little bit different, obviously,
a lot different that you're used to, but they do
look sharp. I like them a lot. Yeah. So do

(36:24):
you like Saudi Arabia over the p G A Tour?
Because now all of a sudden, this has gotten real interesting.
Kevin nah World's number thirty three has resigned from the
p G A Tour and decided, yeah, I'm gonna do
the l I V. Golf Series and p GA basically said, look,
you're gonna have to make a decision. We're not gonna

(36:44):
have this. And of course you've seen Dustin Johnson, you've
seen Graham mcdown, and you've seen them lose sponsors as
a results of it. Obviously, how are they getting them,
Jason though? How are they saying that those guaranteed money
for appearances and that's how getting these guys are? What? Yeah,
I think, um, I can't remember the I think it's
it may have been Dustin Johnson's getting over a hundred
million just to play. Think about that first for you

(37:07):
for a year or something like that. Like there's eight
different events I believe on the l I V circuit,
and you have to appear in all of them. You
can get another you know whatever if you perform well.
But if you show up and play those a lot
of these guys are getting I'm talking just stupid money,
like not just money, but like what that kind of money?

(37:30):
So you know he was gonna face sanctions, was Kevin
nah and just for playing in this event, this twenty
five million dollar events. So he just terminated his membership.
He said, for nineteen years I've played on the PGA Tour,
loved every minute of it. Appreciate the platform and the
tours provided me to play the game that I love.
Recent developments in the professional golf world and giving me
a chance to reconsider my options. Recent developments in the

(37:53):
professional golf world, you mean dumb money, like just how
much any how much money here? That's a good question
and I need to look that up. I mean's he's
world number thirty three, And the one thing that you
knew about Kevin not was Kevin not was the guy
that like took forever and would get delays all the time,
like he would he would get hit for that. I
need to see his career earnings. I'm actually doing it

(38:13):
in real time. I'm not I'm not look I'm I'm
the very casual golf fan of fat. I want to
see Tiger, I want to see phil Um losing somebody
like this, and the p GA isn't that meaningless For
the most part, nobody's tuning in to see this guy.
I mean, number thirty third just said and stuff like that.
We want the big names, we want the guys that
moved the needle. He's not the guy that moves the needle.

(38:35):
You know, there was a year where I think the
biggest the biggest thing he's made was one he earned
three points six million, Kevin, no did. He has nine
professional wins. His highest ranking on the PGA Tour is
back in he was nineteen. He's been a pro now
for twenty one years. To your point, I still don't

(38:56):
really understand where the Saudi Arabian golf fervor came from.
Like I don't, I don't even understand why this is happening.
And the only thing that I can point to is
there are a few people that have a lot of
power that I don't know if they're controlling oil or
if they're in the government or if it's both um

(39:17):
or religious leaders or whatever. That must be golf fans
like and that's all it takes over there is if
the right people want it, it's going to happen. Sorry
my ignorance. Are all eight events in Saudi Arabia or
I don't know exactly, Um, I just know that the
circuit if you have to play in all of the events,

(39:38):
but all you have to do is play like it's
not like you have to win or finish top ten.
I think that what was it? I can't remember. Um.
There was one guy that was offered like one million
just to play in those tournaments decided not to do it.
Rory McElroy has come out and said the first event
is not a proper tournament. Not gonna play it. It's weird, man,

(40:00):
because it just reminds us I think of how sports
are only held together because those involved continue to agree
to the rules of the game. It's the same thing
as if you get draft at number one, maybe you
don't want to play with that team. If you don't,
all of a sudden, you can shake the foundation. Our

(40:21):
number two coming back. How sensitive is Kevin Durant? What's
going on? Folks? Fox Sports Saturday? Here, Fox Sports Radio,
Jason Martinarny Spaniel with your aeron Torres. Will be back
next week, usually with me. But I'll be off next week.

(40:41):
So I'm going to little I'm going to Louisville for
one of my wife's friends baby shower. So what what
look man? What happy wife? Happy life? It was that simple,
basically good look. Ye, I'm not running this network. I
would have said, no, you're not getting the time off
to go to your wife's friends baby shower. That's not happening.

(41:04):
This is why Eric Carross hates you, Arnie. Stuff like
this right here, stuff like this. Mark Willard seven the
game of course, you know him from Fix Sports Radio
as well flagship for the Warriors. He will join us
here and about twenty minutes we'll be able to talk
to him about everything that happened in Game one. A
guy that used to play for the Golden State Warriors

(41:25):
is Kevin Durant. Arnie. Have you seen how sensitive Kevin
Durant appears to be? And that This is my takeaway
from it. Not not not at all. Um. But you
know I I do a daily show with r Mom Foster.
He played eleven years in the NFL, and his line

(41:46):
I think epitomizes how I would imagine a lot of
athletes feel about Durant. And this is what he said.
He's like, Bro, you're too good to be this petty
Durant is such an outstanding player, like he will he
will run, not trot into the Hall of Fame, you know,
like he's he's as good as it gets. He's won championships,

(42:09):
he's one scoring titles, He's done everything under the sun
that you possibly could want. And yet this guy's rabbit
ears and the way that he reacts to anything said
about him is nothing short of it's small. It's the
kind of thing somebody that's not confident in themselves. You
would think that is that's the way you would feel.
But Durrants not that. Gods, that's why I don't understand

(42:31):
why you would act that one. You don't think Tom
Brady feels the same way. You don't think Tom Brady
is sensitive? Um No, I don't beside. Oh yeah, come on, now,
that's that's what makes him the greatest that uh football
player of all time is because he's sensitive and every
time somebody says you can't do it, you can't play
this long, you can't do this that the other, he
hears everything. He wants to prove everybody wrong. No, I

(42:53):
think he just makes up stuff because Jordan, Michael Jordan's
even admitted that he used to make stuff. You know
what I mean, when we used to when we watched
the thirty on thirty with the balls. Yeah, now that
that's stuff. You know, all of that is true. But
Durant just comes across like, so he's going after Steven A.
Smith and Skip Bayliss and then Draymond Green dares to

(43:13):
say that Steph was getting more double teams in those finals.
I don't know, I mean him and Draymond. That goes
back to that locker room conversation between the two where
Draymond basically said, we didn't need you, you needed us. Uh.
And I don't know how much overblown that was because
we weren't in the locker room with them, but certainly
has been much speculated that that was one of those
breaking points where Durant started to wonder if if he

(43:37):
had made the right decision for his own sanity. I
guess I don't know, but Kevin duran you would think
and maybe this all right, So here's let's let's change
the point then, because to what you said about Brady
and Jordan, I think that's interesting and I think we
should explore that further. What is it about great to
where they would it feels like they should be the
least sensitive people. And this, to me, I think proves

(44:00):
that you can never have enough money, you can never
have enough power, you can never have enough accolades. That's
the problem with social media in general is you can
never have enough likes. That you can have a trillion
likes in one dislike, and that one dislike will hold
more weight because our egos are such the way that
we're wired, our pride is such that that wound sticks

(44:22):
all the positives. You have to keep feeding that beast
over and over and over again. Kevin Durant, maybe it's
just more a product of this time, the time that
he is growing up in the way in which But
I do think this. I think if he just got
off social media, that will be a good start. I
think there's no there's no reason for a Kevin Durant
to be on social media. That's the only way we

(44:44):
know that he's so petty and sensitive. Michael Jordan didn't
have that. Could you imagine if there was Twitter or Facebook?
How since then we would found out? Michael Jordan is um.
You know. Tom Brady obviously had a but not earlier
really in his career. I think Tom Brady listens to everything.
I think he listens and and and you know, I

(45:04):
can't wait for the tell All book to come out
when he tells us everything about Belichick. I'll be first
in line to buy. And I think there's gonna be
some great, great stuff. We'll be able to talk about
stuff from that book for like years to come. That
that's how juicy that one's going to be. I promise
you that. Yeah, look that I think that there's probably
I think it's more like who hides it better. Every

(45:25):
athlete is super competitive, and they're also most of them
play the comparison trap, and you always find out one
thing in life you should never do is play the
comparison trap. The problem with the comparison trap, ladies and gentlemen,
is this, you are always going to find someone to
compare yourself to that you don't measure up to. That's

(45:46):
just that's how you're wired. Like you're gonna look at
the top of the industry whatever it is that you do,
or you're gonna look at the person who married married
the woman that you loved in high school. I don't
know what it is for you, what it is that
you're comparing. But the problem with it is you're always
gonna do that because that's the only way that you
can rationalize the decisions that you're gonna make that are

(46:07):
gonna be rationing generally not smart. Jason. And look, I
wish you a long and healthy and happy marriage. But
if you got divorced and got remarried and things are
going good for you and you're happy, and then I
said to you, but did you see your ex wife? Wow?
Did you see she remarried? And what what well she
She remarried a billionaire and life so much better? And

(46:28):
that that's gonna hit you. Even though you're happy and
things are going well for you, that's gonna kind of
hit you a little bit, saying, God, I kind of
suck she's so happy. Not that you wish ill on her,
but you don't want her to be so damn happy
to marry a billionaires. It's kind of like that situation there,
you know, Yeah, that's absolutely right. And so to that
specific example, maybe Durant is looking at the Warriors like

(46:53):
they're the X because they are the X. Yeah they are.
He should have left though he this is this was
a marriage that was sup was to get a divorce.
This was never gonna be the long term thing. You
didn't think that Kevin Durant was gonna stay with the
Warriors for the rest of his career when he first
signed there, did you know? I really I really didn't either,
and and I certainly didn't once you realize what we
all kind of assumed, which is it was Steph's team

(47:15):
and once Durant wasn't getting the love or there was
always going to be an asterisk next to his name
despite how great he was and all this that eventually
that would drive him away. But to your point, him
watching them succeed after he left and before he got there,
it's like he was there and at the time he

(47:36):
was there, he was the best player on that team.
It wasn't talked about the same way. But they had
success before he got there, and now they found their
way back to the NBA Finals and they're bringing along
a new young crew. Are they gonna finish? I don't know.
I mean, after losing Game one, it's gonna be a
bit of an uphill climb. But Durant hasn't even come close,
hasn't even come close since he left. And so you're

(47:59):
watching your X and your ex is doing pretty good.
She seems to have married up, and you're looking at that,
and my point, there is just this I think that's
why it's it's the fact that it's Draymond that I
think set this off more than anything else, because now
your ex is actually talking about you on a podcast.
And I understand that, but I mean, think about this.

(48:20):
When you said, you know you're talking about your X, Well,
well look at this man. You know they had Kyrie
in Boston, and now look at this. Boston's in the championship.
Golden State had Kevin Durant, Golden State is in the championship.
You know, Miami had the Big Three, they found themselves
one went away from going to the NBA Championship. So

(48:41):
sometimes you can get over your action. What I mean,
it's not the end of the world when you're beautiful
young x with that happens to be rich leaves you
know there's life after that. There's three teams that can
show you that there's life after that. Well yeah, but
Golden State again had one before Durant got there, so
it's not like their entire identity is wrapped in what
Kevin Durant was for them and Boston. If Kyrie Irving

(49:05):
is your best player, man, thoughts and prayers, that's that's
all I can say about it, because there is no
one that has gotten better with him being the star.
He can be the secondary guy behind Lebron James, but
he can't be the star because he's not wired to
be a leader. And on that team, I thought he
objectively made them hate basketball. I watched them in that

(49:26):
series that they got blown out in and I watched him.
I was just like, these dudes don't look like they
like each other. And I think the the fulcrum of
all of that was Kyrie's just malcontent, nous just all
over the place. I think he was taking away the
growth away from Jalen Brown and and Tatum. I definitely
that I think he was something their growth by going
ahead and you know, not letting them grow and take

(49:49):
over the team. I'm glad that he's gone. It was
the best thing that ever happened to those two guys.
If Kyrie was still on the team, I feel as
soon as one of him had a chance to leave,
they would have left their demanded a trade. What do
you think of Durant's comments about Bayliss and Stephen A.
Smith about how they are making the game worse, making
sports worse? You know, doing what they do which and
we know what they do we and they get paid

(50:11):
handsomely to do it, one by Fox and one by
the four Letter, and there they are paid to be provocative.
They are paid to present certain takes in certain opinions. Stuff. Mean,
those opinions aren't genuine. It just means that there is
a way in which to deliver that opinion to make
it entertaining or or just you can't look away from
it kind of stuff. I mean a lot of people

(50:33):
see Skip as a villain, but Skip has been compelling
for a long time, but compelling enough to draw television
ratings and draw interests and draw money. But Kevin durantistan,
they're making the game and they're making sports objectively worse.
To Kevin Durant, I would just say this ain't new.
There have been hot take artists in this industry for

(50:54):
a very very long time, and they're going to be
hot take artists in this industry. Maybe the effect that's
gonna dwindle to some degree. I do think that some
of that stuff is finally mercifully coming to an end,
and we're getting to a place where rational sports talk
and actually thoughtful discussion is starting to it's starting to
win more than it is lose. But Dan, what Duran

(51:17):
is saying is about thirty years too late. I mean,
Mike and the mad Dog has been around for a
long time, and you're right about that. And even before
Mike and the mad Dog are right around there, Um,
the people that were the harshest fans were are the
harshest critics were the fans who would call into shows
and trew players and just say this guy is no
good and and stuff like that. Look, I mean, criticism

(51:37):
has been around for a long long time, so you know,
and take a look at this. Take the take a
look at their ratings. And then half the people agree
with Skip, the other half don't agree with Skip. So
divided by two, right off, the bad. I mean, you know,
half the people are gonna say, no, I don't believe
with Skip. I think he's full of bologny. So you know, no,
I don't think it's rooting sports or anything like that.

(52:00):
Um as you mentioned, we had it for a long
long time, and you know, people enjoy it. People enjoy
two things, watching sports and then talking about sports, and
you know that's gonna be around for a long long time.
I think Skip does a great job. So do you
think it's more just that Durant doesn't like what's being said,
reacted and just kind of overreacted to it, because again,

(52:24):
he's a little bit in his feelings more often than
I think you would want a superstar player to be like.
And I agree, I know that. I know that Michael
Jordan's found a way to have a grudge all the time.
And even in his Hall of Fame speech he was
calling out guys that slighted him. And we all saw
the last Dance. We know how that guy was wired.
But don't you just wish that Kevin Durants like, you know,

(52:48):
screw you, look at my numbers, look at what I'm doing.
I'm just gonna play basketball because eventually you're gonna have
to talk about my greatness because they will be undeniable.
But when they say that, you don't forget you. I'm
living in a great life. I'll have a better life.
I have a great life. Even if they're basketball then
we jumped down their You can't say that, you know.

(53:08):
I'm not saying say it, no, no, no, you get
me wrong. I'm not saying saying. I'm saying in your
own mind, just saying, and you don't have to publicly
react to all this stuff. I think that's that's more.
What I'm saying is privately, be mad, privately, seeth privately,
don't fire out two characters, don't go on Instagram, don't
grab a podcast, don't react. Just don't play because Kevin

(53:31):
Durant is gonna have the last lap, because Kevin Durant
is one of the greatest players in the history of basketball.
And they can say whatever they want because they're gonna
have a new opinion every day, just like you're paid
to go out there, k D and play forty eight
minutes a night, eighty two games a season and hopefully
another in the postseason. Whatever it's gonna be. Those guys
are paid to have opinions, a lot of them about you.

(53:51):
Five days a week, fifty two weeks a year. That's
their job. Those are their reps. They're taking their they're
taking their twos and threes. Each game is just another
game unless you blow it out of proportion, at which
point those statements didn't get magnified. If you just keep
on rolling, they're eventually gonna come around to saying nice
stuff again. Because you believe in yourself and we know

(54:13):
how good a player you are. Maybe that would be
my take. Maybe Kevin the Red needs like a summer job,
and he's got too much time in his hand listening
to what Skip Bayliss has to say. Just let it go.
I'll invite him to fill in for you next week
if he's got nothing to do um and that way
he can go ahead and come back and go ahead
and tell us what's on his mind. If he wants

(54:34):
to do that, I'd get a free form for four hours.
I think that'd be kind of intriguing radio, to be
honest with you, it would be. But considering J. J.
Reddick's thoughts on Torres right now, I'm pretty sure MBA
player is not gonna be co hosting with that guy.
We'll have Mark we Seven, the fan the Warriors flagship
on the other side of the break. We'll be able

(54:54):
to talk to him about what went wrong in game one,
how surprising that was, what the reaction from Warrior Yours
fans that he talked to the next day was to
game one, and how game two will be one. All
of that is coming up next is Jason Martin, Arnie
Spannier here on Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back Fox Sports Saturday.

(55:17):
Here on Fox Sports Radio, Jase Martin and Arnie span
Your with you. Aaron Torres will be back next week,
usually with me next week. I don't know only one
I know he will not be with this JJ Reddick.
That's the That's a sinister laugh right there. Arnie. Well,
I know they had a little twitter war going on.

(55:39):
I don't know what started the whole thing, but I
I was, uh, I saw Torres tweeting on some stuff,
so I thought that was pretty funny. Tores made a comment. Basically,
Tores made a comment that if defense were played in
the NBA the way it was in college, because people
were talking about some of those games being pretty ugly.
In the n C Double A tournament that you would
see games played in the eighties in the NBA, and Reddick,

(56:01):
Reddick called him a name that's not appropriate for Terrestaural Radio.
And now I think he's blocked him on Twitter, so
now it's more funny. And Torrest is just loving this
like he's just eating this up. He loves playing the villain.
Right now, I got this's not a villain fan for
the Warriors flagship. Of course you know him well here
on Fox Sports Radio. Mark Willard on Twitter at Mark

(56:23):
Underscore t Underscore Willard joining us, Mark, how are you.
I'm good, gentlemen. How we doing doing pretty well? So
you tell me you host, you host out there, you
talk to those people. What was the reaction from Warriors
fans on Friday after the events of Thursday night. Well,
you had to pick one or two sides, and uh,

(56:45):
you know, I think there's some fairness maybe in either one,
but the the two emotions are one angry um and
And I say that just because not that there's necessarily
anyone to be angry at it. I think anytime, uh,
in a big game, when you lose a big lead
in the fourth quarter and it ends up being a

(57:08):
big lead, in the other direction. It kind of feels
like a choke. I don't necessarily feel like it was that,
but uh, that's you know, when when expectations go awry,
that's what people are gonna feel. So there was plenty
of energetic anger. Uh the next morning for sure, however,
a lot of people were also chilling um and and

(57:28):
I'm gonna put myself in that boat because this, to
me was the ultimate strug your shoulders game. If you're
going this is a rule of mine, maybe you're gonna
make all your shots, you're gonna win. It sounds stupid,
but my gosh, like that was an unbelievable display by
the Celtics. And you can say that the Warriors left
guys open, and that's all potentially true. Like is there

(57:49):
some stuff that they need to to clean up there
on both sides of the ball. Yeah, But if you
go nine of twelve from three point range in one quarter,
that quarter is gonna go really well for you, especially
when the guys hitting those shots largely where the Celtics
three four or five and six options. So if that's
the case, you know, you shrug your shoulders. It creates

(58:12):
a lot of anks, though, guys obviously tomorrow night now
becomes I got to have a game for the Warriors.
You know, Mark kind type in what would you have
done different if you were Steve Kerr? I said, at
least I would have done different is don't match up
three pointer for three pointer. Then you're reaching. You're starting
to go ahead and see the lead evaporate. I say,
go to the go to the bucket, try to go

(58:33):
ahead and get some fouls. At least get two of
the three points back so you're not going ahead and
losing too much of that lead. What would you have
done different? Yeah, if you could go back and rework
the whole game, I think you get Steph Curry about
four or five more minutes in place of what ended
up being Jordan's pool towards the end of the third quarter,
in the start of the fourth quarter when things started

(58:55):
rolling downhill for the Celtics really really fast. Because what
that does Pool is just twenty two. He's a dynamic player,
but he's inexperienced, and he's prone to having some really
bad stretches in these playoffs. Good ones too, but when
he's bad, he is a total h only defensive player,
and when and when he's bad on the offensive end.

(59:17):
It can lead to a lot of turnovers. He's still
feeling that whole thing out, So what they needed to
do slow it down a little bit more. You're right already,
when Andrew Wiggins goes to the hoop in these playoffs,
good things happen for the Warriors. So if it instead
of the three for three game with Pool on the floor,
if it had been more and a more experienced group
where Andrew Wiggins tried to push things late in the

(59:40):
shot clock more toward the hoop, maybe get a foul
or two that might have been able to stop the Celtics. Mom,
Adam to your point about it kind of be in
the three, four and five, and it's Marcus Smart who
closed the door. Was Jalen Brown who opened the fourth
quarter mark and and and kind of got things going
it almost You tell me, doesn't it feel almost like
you let one get a way if you're Golden State,

(01:00:01):
where you get Tatum having one of those games. He's
had a couple of those in this postseason where everybody's saying,
is he a top five player? And then he shoots
three of seventeen in that game. He's one of the
only guys out there outside of with his assists, that
just wasn't shooting the ball well for them, and you
still found a way to lose that game. Yeah, I
mean you could make that point. I always believe though,

(01:00:21):
that one game, Like we do this as fans, we go, oh,
if in game one Tatum goes three or seventeen and
you still couldn't win, well, then what's gonna happen in
game two? I can tell you what's gonna happen in
game two something totally different. There is absolutely no carry
over from one game to the next. So sure Tatum
didn't shoot well, but he passed the ball beautifully. He

(01:00:41):
was awesome on defense, and I think the Warriors would
trade Tatum shooting well for the Celtics three four or
five six guys not all having the games of their lives.
I mean, that was the best game Al Horford has
ever played from the three point line. It was one
of the best games Derek White and Marcus smart I
all played for the three point line. So that totally

(01:01:02):
offsets a little bit of an offshooting night for Jayson Tatum.
So I hear you. If Tatum plays like that and
they don't win, makes you feel like the Celtics will
be in a better position win Tatum plays well, but
I don't buy it if then four other Celtics, you know,
sort of like regrets to the means. So we'll see.
I know this, and the Celtics have been the proof

(01:01:23):
of this more than any other team in the playoffs.
Nothing carries over like they're amazing on the road and
then they go get one away at home that they
that they shouldn't give up, and so they've they've they've
been very good, but they often look very different from
one night to the next. So uh, you know, we'll
see what those changes are tomorrow. And I'm gonna go
ahead and respectfully to disagree with you. There is a carryover.

(01:01:45):
Just like when a team wins ted in a row,
twelve in a row, they're on a roll. They know
from one game to know they can't wait to get
back to the ballpark because they know that the ball
looks like a beach ball up there. Um, you know
when they're playing baseball. Heard in basketball, everything's going in.
When your team wins ten or twelve in a row,
what makes you think that the players when you lose
a game one like that at the NBA Finals. How

(01:02:07):
do you know it's so easy to overcome something like that, Well,
it's not easy. I mean, the data will show you
that that that if you win game one, you're probably
gonna win the series. However, we've watched, I mean last year,
the team that won the first two games that the
NBA Finals lost the series. And I would argue back
that this team that's down one oh is not your

(01:02:28):
garden variety playoff team that's down one oh. It's a
team that collectively their core has three championship rings. But already,
you know this, look at look at the what's already
happened in these playoffs. The Warriors came out in Game
one of the Western Conference Finals embarrassed the Mavericks. The
Matverish couldn't hit a shot. I mean, it was never
even a game. Come back two nights later, and and

(01:02:51):
and their down nineteen. The Warriors aren't half time and
the Mavericks you can't miss the shot. So where's the
where's the continuity these guys are going? You know night
tonight you've got to rEFInd it again. They're all good shooters,
but you're not all gonna have it every night. And
so everything that the Celtics were doing in the fourth quarter,
it's not gonna be there necessarily at the start of

(01:03:12):
the game tomorrow night. So I see these each, each
game in and of itself as its own kind of
chapter book. The Celtics how to choose your own adventure
there in game one, and and you know, we'll we'll,
we'll see if they can do it again. And I
told Warrior fans this all day on Friday. You know,
they got real worried to say, well, the Celtics can
do that again. If the Celtics do that four times

(01:03:35):
playing the parade. But but I don't. I don't know
that they're hitting nine three pointers in another quarter in
this entire series. I've bet against it. Mark, I had
Warriors in six before it started. I've still got Warriors
in six. To your point about it being a chapter
in a book, I actually look at the playoff series
in the NBA as if their books in a series

(01:03:55):
of books, like the seven Harry Potter books. I don't
even think their chapters in the same book. There is
carry over. But how much I don't know. I mean,
the Celtics just went through a seven game series where
Jimmy Butler took made an awful decision for a three
or we're not even having this conversation right now. Possibly,
So what did you have before the series? Have you
at least extended it or did you already have it
a seven game series one way or the other before

(01:04:17):
it started. I had it six. I had it six
just like you. I mean, I think the respect for
the Celtics has always been there, and they play a style.
Let's be honest with two things I said before the series.
One was Warriors and six and to the Celtics are
the biggest challenge that the NBA has to offer. For
the Warriors, simply because of their style of play. You

(01:04:39):
have two little guards in Jordan Pool and Steph curry
Um and other penetrating guards like Clay Thompson Andrew Wiggins
wings if you will. The Warriors love to penetrate. They
have guys who can break down people one on one,
and then when they get into the middle, if there's
a great shop walker like Robert Williams, they love to
pass out of that to an open three. The Celtics

(01:04:59):
do very very well against that, similar to what Memphis
did in the second half of that series when John
Morant went out, they became a very good defensive team,
and the Warriors struggle with it at times. They find
a way often, but they do struggle with it at times.
So I've always thought this was going to be at
least the six game series. What I didn't necessarily account

(01:05:20):
for was the Celtics shooting like that. So again, if
they if they combine their defense with an offense that
can put up a buck twenty, then you know, Boss
is gonna get a parade. But I very very much
like the Warriors chances to uh to respond in a
in a very competitive way to all night good stuff. Mark,
We appreciate the time, brother, thanks so much for making

(01:05:42):
for us anytime, guys anytime. Indeed, that is Mark will It.
Follow him on Twitter at Mark underscore t underscore Willards.
So he's sticking with Golden State in six as m I.
But Game two boys a lot riding on Game two.
As we went into the stats earlier, if you lose
the first two games and you're the home team team,
well that is it. That is a rough way to go.

(01:06:04):
I want to talk about Jimmy Butler's three with you,
and we're gonna do that, and we may even do
that bridging into the final segment of the hour. But
let's bring in I'm sorry to tell you this, Arnie,
but Steve Disager employed by Fox Sports Radio. It's still
our update. Acre. They're very they're listening to us. The game.
Is that your prefer pronoun? And well, they did. They

(01:06:26):
want to. They want to. They want a little East
Carolina to victory. They want today get Virginia didn't get
The score is underway. Yeah. By the way, for those
who didn't hear the earlier stat on what it's like
for a team to lose games one and two at
home in the NBA Finals, the answer is they've never
won the championship. First off, it's only happened twice ever

(01:06:49):
that the teams lost the first two at home, and
those teams did wind up losing. So yeah, it's kind
of key tomorrow night NBA Finals game too, with Boston
up one game to none, playing at Golden State again.
And and you guys had mentioned earlier in the show
about the NBA ratings. The estimate is that the Celtics
Game one win got eleven point nine million viewers, and

(01:07:10):
the comparison was, well, that's down over ten percent in
viewership compared to the Warriors Game one three years ago.
Why you may ask, compared to three years ago, because
that's when the NBA Finals actually took place in June.
They did the last couple of years. Last year, I
had to look it up. It was after July four
when the NBA Finals finally began last summer, and of
course it was much later than that the year before

(01:07:31):
when the pandemic was starting in Keep in mind also,
that was a Warriors Game one against a Canadian team
in so you didn't even have Canadian TV ratings to
add in. And this was still a little, like you say,
a little surprising of the number. But there are two
things to keep in context from Thursday's Game one TV ratings.

(01:07:52):
First Off, it's about the same what the opener of
the World Series got last year, about eleven million for
Braves Houston. And the other thing is Thursday Night easily
the highest rated TV show was the NBA. It was
not even close. The number two TV show got three
point nine million viewers, NBA eleven point nine million viewers.

(01:08:12):
Even the hockey playoffs one and a half million viewers
on Thursday Night. Granted that was cable it's not ABC,
but still you get the idea. So yeah, it's down,
but still almost everything is down these days, kind of
what Arnie was referring to their streaming. There's a lot
of other options and as years go to years, people
are unplugging cable for example. People are just not watching

(01:08:33):
as much live TV. There's a lot going on. As
for the NHL, a whole lot going on. For the
Colorado Avalanche. They're up three games to none in the
West Final, one win away from a Stanley Cup Final appearance.
They wanted Edmonton four to tonight. Game four of the
series is Monday night at Edmonton. At the French Open,
Rafael Nadal is in the men's final tomorrow against number

(01:08:55):
eight seed Casper Route of Norway. Coco Golf of the
U S is in the women's bulls final tomorrow, teaming
up with fellow American Jessica Pagoula. Golf was in the
singles final today at the age of eighteen, a recent
high school graduate. She lost to twenty one year old
and number one ranked Egus Fiontick six one s. Fiontick
is now one thirty five straight matches. In fact, her

(01:09:17):
record this season is forty two and three. It's a
Major League Baseball well at Dodger Stadium. The Mets have
taken the lead six four going to the bottom of
the fourth in l A. As Walker Bueller has another
bad outing. This was the shortest of his career two
and a third innings too, two homers allowed, Mr Met

(01:09:38):
five runs allowed. Walker Bueller had entered with a six
and one record, but in his last five starts he's
allowed nineteen runs in about twenty four innings. So the
e r A continues to rise. The Mets trying to
finally take a game in this four game series. They'll
be playing in l A again tomorrow afternoon. The only
other games still going. Braves tied one one at Kyle

(01:10:00):
Colorado in the bottom of the eighth inning. Cardinals wound
up with a tenanting win to get a doubleheader split
at the Cubs seven four St. Louis in the nightcap,
after the Cubs won the opener six one, and by
the way, they broke the game hitting streak of Cardinal
star Paul gold Schmidt. In that opener, he went over
two with two walks. For the Dodgers, Trey Turner oh

(01:10:21):
for two with two strikeouts so far. Tonight he has
a twenty six game hitting streak on the line, and
the Yankees are just great again. Aaron Judge is twenty
one homer leads the Major's. Yankees beat Detroit three nothing today,
Miami and Washington with late wins Pittsburgh as well. Boston
won eight nothing at Oakland, and the Angels lost their
tenth straight games seven to at Philadelphia. Mike Trout in

(01:10:45):
an O for twenty three slump and nine strikeouts, and
the Angels are gonna be hosting Boston and the Mets
next week in Anaheim, and then they faced the Dodgers
for a couple in inter league play. So this is
as bad as it gets this year for the Angels,
a team that actually had a little pitching and actually
was in first place in mid May, it has all

(01:11:05):
gone south. Sins back to you, how much of Mike
trout struggles have to do with fear Overmuy Tai champion
Tommy Fan potentially taking him down for a fantasy. He's
looking around at home plate. He's not taking yeah the

(01:11:25):
proper case, saying he's Sam Donald. He's Sam Donald. He's
hearing ghosts and the ghosts or Tommy Sam. That's what's
happening right there. I feel that in my bones, and
that's awesome that that's a great series of Dodgers and
Metzer plans. A shame one team has to win, No,
it isn't well for Arnie fans. It would be a
shame that Arnie's team would have to win. Yeah, it

(01:11:47):
looks like there are fans, by the way, I didn't
have to say that there's one. Now, you know what,
I bet you don't even like yourself, Spaniard. I was
gonna say, o, there's one Arnie Spanier fan, but I'm
not even like yourself. Yeah, sometimes I don't believe it.
I mean, you found a way to argue. You found
a way to argue with Willard. You tried, you tried

(01:12:09):
to fight fight him back pretty hard about how there's
carry over in finals games and that way back. And
I looked at the Eastern Conference finals and like, where
was the carry over there? It's because Willard used to
work here, and Artie has a habit of arguing with
anybody who works here, and therefore it's just a force
of habit. I mean, come on, you you're gonna tell
me that does not carry over. Like when a guy's
not batting well at baseball and he goes through a slump,

(01:12:30):
you don't think it's getting in his mind. There should be.
But that Miami Series, every team had their turns at
a twenty point lead. So yeah, exactly, I'm with the sayer,
that's all I'm saying. More that just happened, right, Yeah, Yeah,
this is not going deep back in history. This is

(01:12:50):
not a b side Arnie Spanier. This is literally last week.
I had a chance I before he except after see there,
except wait a minute. This is where Arnie's what you're
saying is you're like, well, they're they're you know he
was saying Steve, he was saying that they were you know,
you win tenor row, you win twelve in a row. Yeah,
but that's not the case here, like the Celtics didn't
win ten or twelve in a row. And then you say,

(01:13:12):
but this is just last week, and then Artie says, yeah,
but the shows tonight, he's gonna work that everybody. You're
gonna let me tell you something. The way Golden State
lost that game, and you can't help but go back
to your house and sit there and go, dad, how
do we agree, and I don't think they were even
facing up to how bad a loss that was. They
were trying to slough it off, will be fine. I

(01:13:34):
I feel like, did you watch the game that we watched,
because that was awful. This should hurt you. You should
have trouble sleeping today. I agree. I definitely agree that
they did not treat it with the seriousness, and they've
kind of thrown off anything that's gone negative because it's
just like we're the Warriors. We're gonna be fine. It's
like you're gonna be fine unless you lose game too,
and then we're gonna have a much different conversation. Probably

(01:13:56):
said that against Toronto as well. Yeah, did you see Maverick. No,
I have not seen the new top Gun yet. Okay, Okay.
In the conversation at the top of the show, nonetheless,
that's why, yeah, I have not. Again, he just tried
that you were looped in as if you had given
him bad ifbody who works here Arnie. Literally I told

(01:14:21):
my wife, I was like, I'm working with Arnie again,
and I was trying to explain who you were and
how I had listened to you when I was living
in Kennesaw, when you were working for six two fan
down there years and years ago, and that I had,
you know, that had talked to you for you know,
occasionally over the years and stuff like that here at Fox.
And I was just like, here's how Arnie operates. I
guarantee you that he is going to tell me Top

(01:14:42):
Gun Maverick is not good simply because I said nice
things about it last week. I was like, Arnie Spaniard
and I even sent you a text when you told
me about it, and I said, is this a contrarian
opinion or is this honest? Like you said, no, you
it's honest. So we'll talk about it because we're gonna
debate this joint. We're we we're gonna get into a
heated discussion over this when we come back. It is

(01:15:04):
already spending at Jason Martin here Fox Sports Radio. Look,
Kinney Loggins bringing us back, Jason Martin AARTI spending here
Fox Sports Radio. We still guts two more hours after
we finished this one up. It won't be Top Gun
for all two hours, but it will be for the
next couple of minutes. Bernie Frotto, by the way, we'll
join us uh in the fourth hour straight at Vegas

(01:15:26):
and then his own three hours following that. Um, so
we'll get into some some gambling and some other things
with him, but right now on Rotten Tomatoes, top Gun
Maverick nineties seven out of a hundred UH. In terms
of critics, the audience review is extremely high as well
as somebody who I didn't write on it because I

(01:15:48):
haven't written in about a year on pop culture, but
I certainly would have given it an a. UM. I
told you last week how I felt about it when
you saw it again on Memorial which was a cool
way to see it, by the way to see it
on Memorial Day, and just the I think the most
impressive thing for me, and then I'm gonna back off
and let you talk, is just these are the kinds
of missions that we never would have even known happened,

(01:16:11):
right like, these are the kinds of things that our
military do behind the scenes to keep us free. And
then to see it on Memorial Day into real action,
you know, people lost their lives doing things we didn't
even know about because there's so there's so much we
can take for granted because we don't understand what goes
into it. And I think it was I think that
really kind of crystallized for me. When I saw it

(01:16:33):
again on Money it held up again. My wife. I
asked her when we're walking out and like, did I
oversell it? She said, absolutely not. It was great. So
Arnie you're take. You completely oversold it. Um, you know,
you guys over hyped it, like I wouldn't believe you
made it sound like it was gonna be one of
the best movies in the history of cinema. It wasn't

(01:16:53):
even as good as the first one, believe it or not.
I mean, it had the typical lines. I didn't find
the movie very funny. I thought there could have been
a lot more laughs. And then I didn't get a
lot of laughs, a lot of yucks in this thing.
During the middle part of it, I felt like the
movie dragged for like an entire hour. To be honest
with you, UM, it just I mean it was like, okay,

(01:17:15):
you know it was like the love interest and and
and what's her name, Jennifer Comlins. She's gorgeous, But I
mean it just kind of dragged that a whole storyline.
Jon Hamm was just average. I expected a little bit
more out of him. Um, you really did over a
hype it. I thought it was gonna be like one
of the top ten movies that I've ever seen in

(01:17:35):
my life, and it doesn't even come close. I I
thought they could have done so much more. And look,
I like Tom Cruise as an actor, and I thought
he was good. But otherwise, and what's the other kid's name,
Pilot Miles? What's his name? Miles? I like him a lot,
but I felt there wasn't a lot of good acting
in this thing. I think it a lot kind of

(01:17:56):
that also, um, either you just you built it when
you when you told me nineties percent rotten tomatoes and
percent of the people that go, I'm like, well, then,
how could you not like it? I was? I was disappointed.
I gave it like a six and a half out
of ten when I when I walked out. All right,
So first off, I just gotta say this, what do

(01:18:17):
you mean you were there for more? Yucks? It's not
a comedy, I know that, but give me a couple
of laughs. There were some, There were a few, but
it's not a cow come on a comedy like it's
just like you know what, hated silence of the Lambs
wanted to laugh a little bit more like that that
that's not that's not a particularly strong We're not a
comedy show. But at least you get some yucks on

(01:18:38):
this show, don't you come on now? I mean I
got one from that comment. Um, you said it dragged
for an hour. I think that. I mean the thing
flies by. It's a two hour and twenty minute movie.
No pun intended by that, but it's it feels shorter
like it felt even better the second time through Jon Hamm.
Considering what his role was supposed to be. He was

(01:18:59):
about his it as you can possibly want him to be,
but he's like a star. He kind of took a
back seat. And by the way, is Val Kilmer really
that sick? Or was that he can't talk at all?
Like that wasn't even his voice. They actually had to
piece that together from old Val Kilmer movies. They pieced
together a voice that would have been his. He's unable
to speak entirely. I'm a big Val Kilmer fan. So

(01:19:19):
that's that's a sadly year because I like Val Kilmer
and I that's what I was saying. I did like
how they pieced a lot of the first one to
the second one, But um, look, I'm not gonna completely papoo,
but I do give it a six and half. I
I don't think it's gonna be one of the top
ten movies that you've ever seen in your wife, But
it's all said and done well, I mean, that's that's
pushing it. I'm just saying that it is one of

(01:19:41):
the best sequels of all time. I have no and
that's what I said last week. And I think it
is blasphemy to say that the first film is better.
The first film does not hold up much at all. Um,
the new one is gonna still be good thirty years
from now. That's what I will say there. We will

(01:20:01):
come back. We will shift gears to talk to some NFL.
Should Lamar Jackson step on a football field before he
gets paid? What's up? Out number three of our program?
Here Fox Sports Saturday, Arnie Spin you're here with me.
I'm Jason Martin. Aaron Torres, my usual partner will be
back next week and then I'll be out, which maybe

(01:20:22):
I should let him know that he's in Vegas, right, Yeah,
I think he is. Just I'm going there in a
couple of weeks. Can't wait. Unbelievable night out. Well, there
you go. Maybe you guys should see top Gun while
you're hanging out in Vegas since you liked it so
much fun, I got all the fraternity brothers meeting in
Vegas for the week. Yes me, keg, Residin and residents

(01:20:49):
my favorite because like I asked you last week and
we were when we were going through the nicknames and
you got the resident, I'm like, are we talking bong resident?
It is a fraternity, So my yesses, that's what we're
talking about. It is a fraternity. And uh, Keish like
I forgot about keys, So all right, why wise? What
what's keish? Now? You just as he's gonna be there too,

(01:21:09):
So we're all gonna you know, can you imagine here
we are like, oh, what's sixty years old? We're walking
around going, hey, keg, what's going on? Hey? You know,
people must be looking at us like we're nuts or
something like that. I imagine you get that a lot.
So I was reading a piece at uh my friend
Tyler Donne, who who does go along tv dot com
you story for Bleacher Report. He wrote the big expose

(01:21:31):
on the Packers a few years ago. Um, that kind
of let you in on how bad things were going
with McCarthy and Rogers in the front office and all that.
We wrote a piece at his substack called it's getting
weird with Lamar Jackson, but figure it out. He's too
valuable in this loaded a FC. That's how he starts.
So we're getting the point where Lamar it's gonna be

(01:21:54):
next in line to get paid. Now that Josh Allen
has gotten his money, Now Derek Carr's got his money,
We're seeing Kyle are showing up at O T A S.
There's next. There's possibilities, at least I've seen projections out
there aren't of him getting six years two hundred eighty
million dollars, can I before we even get to Lamar.
I get it. I understand that that you might be

(01:22:14):
caught if you're the Cardinals, But I have not seen
six years two hundred eighty million dollars of value out
of Kyler Murray yet. I know he's been available. I
have seen the highs, but I've also looked if I
want to not Kingsbury for how he's performed late in
the season, kind of gotta do the same thing with
his quarterback because the same thing has been true there

(01:22:37):
and I'm not sure I've seen anybody with worse body
language when things are going wrong than Kyler. I just
he's not somebody that I feel like it's going to
galvanize a team. He's an individual superstar. I'm not sure
it's gonna translate. Uh. And that's a whole lot of
scriller to pay for a quarterback that I'm not sure

(01:22:57):
gets you to the promised Land. But I'm Kyler Murray.
I'm I'm gonna have to give him the money because, um,
you already made this mistake before him. Yeah, he can't
be the second mistake. Plus he you've improved so much
with him. Um, and he is. I mean, look, he's
not a top ten quarterback when it comes to passing,

(01:23:17):
but he is certainly a good quarterback, and he's a
big part of that offense. Lamar Jackson's I got more
question marks about him, not even he was barely a
top twenty five quarterback when he gave the passing yards.
I don't know if I could open up the piggy
bag for somebody like that. I got questions about how
good Lamar Jackson really is. Okay, well, I got questions
about how good Greg Roman really is. Much more than

(01:23:38):
I do. Lamar Jackson, his offensive coordinator, I think is
the primary reason why Hollywood Brown wanted out. I think
it's one of the primary reasons why free agent wide
receivers have decided to take less money to go in
other spots. You think they'd want to play uh with
a team that usually is in the playoffs, that has
an excellent head coach at a start quarterback. A knock

(01:24:00):
is always well they want to play with Lamar. No,
they don't want to play in Greg Roman's offense. That that,
to me is the biggest thing Lamar Jackson does not.
He has the same offense that everybody that's at Greg
Roman runs. I remember hearing Steve Smith a couple of
years ago saying, my six year old runs can run
this offense. It has never changed. It didn't change when
he was in San fran when he was in wherever

(01:24:22):
he's been, It's always been the exact same offense. Lamar
needs something else. They need a new offensive coordinator there.
I don't think it's a Lamar problem. New is as
much as it is a Greg Roman problem. But so
you you would pay Kyler before you paid Lamar. Absolutely,
he has better stats. I look I think Lamar Jackson

(01:24:43):
is a good quarterback. But if you're gonna go ahead
and look at the numbers, I mean, that's what it
comes down to, right, It's you gotta look at the numbers.
He's not close to the other quarterbacks out there. He's
not close to pass the yards. He had thirteen interceptions.
That's a bad number out there. I'm opening up the
piggy bag. Plus, um, he did have those wide receivers

(01:25:04):
with him, um, until they're no longer there, and he
still didn't put up the big number. Now he had
he had Marquis Brown, who's not a one. He had
He's had nobody else, no free agents have gone there.
You think about this, put Lamar Jackson in Arizona with
Kingsbury in the way he runs offense, and Nuck Hopkins

(01:25:27):
and all of the guys that they have had through
those through his career there over the past few years,
and then you look at Lamar Jackson, who has Mark
Andrews and he has Hollywood Brown, who was never a one.
He's gonna be perfect next to a one. He's gonna
be great down there, but he was never a number
one kind of wide receiver they wanted to run the ball.
They had seventeen different running backs, and they had a

(01:25:48):
tight end, and they never had a star wide receiver.
So I think it's I can't even look at the
stats to try and point to Kyler Murray because of
the two. I think Lamar Jackson's better leader. And I
think Lamar Jackson, in that offense or in an offense
that actually allows him to do a little bit more,
I think his ceiling is higher than Kyler Murray's, assuming

(01:26:11):
he can stay healthy, which is gonna be my one concern.
And that's the part. The other part of this, Kyler Murray,
I played him. I think I think what uh um,
Lamar jack him is four games? Uh and you know
you still you have to worry about that one. Also,
what would you do different? You talk about Greg Roman's offense,
what would you do different if you were reading the
offense for Lamar Jackson. Uh, Well, I mean I would

(01:26:32):
pass the ball more. I would come up with something
more than two or three different routes. Because everything is
so simplistic. Wide receivers understand when they're playing in that
offense what it's gonna be and what it's not going
to be. That's the issue and they just don't find
a way to marry it. And it's always been that way.
It's usually good Greg Romans and great. He can run

(01:26:55):
a great running offense, but he doesn't do a whole
lot more, uh past that, And I thought it was
really interesting. I've seen stuff that's been said, and now
you're starting to see more. All right, So here's what
Steve Smith said after the Ravens lost the Bills in
in the playoffs. He said, it's not the receivers have
trouble getting open for all of this genius. As a

(01:27:15):
designer of run plays, Greg Roman has been unable to
design route combinations for wide receivers. Or, as Steve Smith said, quote,
my six year old, who is asleep right now, could
probably run this offense as well. And this is Ti
Dunn writing the wide receiver who Jackson told the front
office to draft. Back in twenty nineteen, Marquis Hollywood Brown
wanted to get the hell out. Brown is a smart man.

(01:27:36):
His own contract would be expiring soon, and he liked
to enter the same financial stratosphere as other stars. A. J. Brown,
a member of the same draft draft class, ain't the
four year, one hundred million dollar deal with the Eagles.
Hollywood clearly wasn't gonna do that in Baltimore, not in
an offense that runs through running backs and tight ends
and too often renders the white outs. And afterthought, Jackson's

(01:27:58):
not the reason Brown wanted out former Raven. Robert Griffin,
the third came right out and said Brown asked for
a trade because of Greg Roman. Yeah, you would think
they'd be able to put up more offense, especially when
they're improvising and you know he's scrambling Lamar Jackson and
able to find people down field. I thought that was
gonna be a big part of the offense or some
part of the offense that didn't turn out that way. No,

(01:28:20):
it hasn't. And look, Lamar, in the playoffs, you're gonna
have to see more there. But Kylos never won a
playoff game. Kyler is somebody that has often had great
starts two seasons and then they've sputtered to the finish.
I'm gonna give him a little bit of a mulligan
last year because they lost Hopkins, and Hopkins Hopkins is
the best player on that team, and to lose and

(01:28:40):
of course, guess what, they're not gonna happen for six
games to open the start of this season. Because of
the suspension, they gave Kingsbury the extension. He and Murray
share an agent, which I think is fascinating on his
own right. But Kingsbury has been knocked deservedly so for
falling apart late in the season. It happened at Texas Tech,
it happens in the NFL, But in the NFL he's

(01:29:03):
had a running buddy his entire time there, and that's
Kyler Murray. So if one guy is failing, they both are,
and that that's what you were seeing. By the time
that we knew the Cardinals were playing the Rams in
the playoffs, I don't think anybody thought the Cardinals, what
do you want the Cardinals go through for their third
set of quarterback and no, I do I said, I said,
I said earlier, and this this is the truth. I
think they're trapped. I think they're caught because Kyler is

(01:29:26):
the kind of guy that, because of the way the
market is set, quarterbacks are gonna get this money. And
Kyler Murray, he's one of those kind of guys that
you you don't know what you've got. There's not another
better option. There so you're kind of screwed. But I
think the thing is, are you handing money to somebody
you actually believe can lead your football team to a

(01:29:49):
super Bowl? And there I'm questioning, And there I'm pleased
that I'm not a member of the Cardinals front office
having to cash this check or send this check out
to kay Ler because I'm not really a believer in
his ability in a postseason. You don't need to be
a star quarterback to lead your team to a super Bowl.
Jimmy Garoppolo let his team San Francistical to a super Bowl.

(01:30:11):
They don't even want him around anymore. Uh, Toua could
be leading the Dolphins to a super Bowl? That maybe
I think he will. But that's your Dolphins fan, aren't you. Yes,
I haven't. I forgot I forgot about that yet. You
don't need a big time quarterback to lead you to
a super Bowl when you have the other weapons around
you and you have a good defense. Though, Okay, so

(01:30:32):
what are the weapons then? Like? How great? I mean,
you don't have Christian Kirk because Jacksonville decided to give
him all the money that though, Yeah, that's insane, but
he was a weapon for them. That's no longer there.
They brought him Marquis Brown. They're not gonna have Hopkins
for the first six games of the season. The running
game is. I mean, it's all right, but it's not
like it's not like Derrick Henry or Jonathan Taylor or

(01:30:55):
someone like that. You've got Kingsbury who has been extended,
who for whatever, in the second half of every season
finds a way to fall apart. I I just I
look at that team and it just seems like they
can be eight no, which I think they may have
been before that Thursday night game when they lost to
the Packers this past year. And I just can't believe.

(01:31:15):
I can't buy into it. I mean, now you've lost
a couple of pieces defensively, you've gotten older. I don't
know that this situation with Kyler and the other thing.
And we've heard this for a couple of years. I
had heard this from fact channels in the NFL long
before I actually saw it popping up in public, that
Kyler's the last one to arrive, he's the first one

(01:31:37):
to leave. He's not a particularly like I'm all in
kind of teammate. He's somebody that's really in it for himself,
and you're talking about a team though there was in
second place and probably the hardest division in all of football.
And when you take look at it now, I mean
San Francisco is turning over the reins to a young quarterback,
so they don't scare you. I mean, Seattle's already pencil,

(01:31:59):
you're about that. Seattle's already depending for a lot you
might put in sharpie. They're at last way. So it's
a two team races between the Rams and Arizonas. So
that that's why there's a chance you could do it.
But you're gonna make the playoffs. And no, wait a second,
I don't think it's a two team race between the
Rams and the Cardinals. I think it's a two team
race between the Rams and the Niners. But everything else, no,

(01:32:21):
I don't even I don't know what Lance is gonna be.
I think they screwed that up. I didn't like that
pick when it happened because it was built off all
this potential. But the guy hadn't played all that much football.
He's gonna play now, So I mean they're gonna get
rid of Jimmy g R. And they at least well,
I don't know if they are not. I'm not so
sure that Garoppolo is not starting Week one for the Niners.

(01:32:41):
But everything else is in place. You've got Deebo, who
looks like he's coming back into the fold. You've got you,
You've got George Kittle, You've still got a solid running game.
You've got Kyle Shanahan's genius. You've got the best offensive
lineman arguably in football up front with Trent Williams. You've
got guys on defense that are flying around, that are
making plays. You have Fred Warner and guys like at
like you have a stellar football team. That's what you

(01:33:05):
gotta have. Like if you're gonna have a Tannehill or
a Kirk Cousins or a Jimmy Garoppolo level quarterback, you
gotta have studs everywhere else, everywhere else, because if you're
not a Patrick Mahomes and we're again, we're about to
find out how great Mahomes and Rogers are because they're
gonna have to make guys. They're gonna have to make

(01:33:25):
guys that haven't been in their system before Packers, especially
just because Tom Brady is still a great quarterback with
the numbers he put up. No but yeah, he's still
Wait what number? Wait, what are you talking about? What
numbers are you talking about? Well, like passing yards and
stuff like that. Which which which year? Well, I mean,

(01:33:46):
Brady through insane numbers over the last couple of years
in Tampa Bay. Forty two years old. Though he's still
serviceable to take it to a Super Bowl, was my part.
You don't know, he's he's the greatest of all time
and he's still he's still m v P L. He
could have easily been the m v P in the
league last year. Yeah, well two years ago. Also two
years ago, I guess. Also yeah, I mean what he's

(01:34:06):
done in Tampa is is unreal. Like he has had
to have weapons. Even great quarterbacks have to have weapons.
Josh Allen didn't really emerge until they got Stefon Digs.
You don't, well, Josh Allen. Again, he's not a great quarterback,
but he can certainly take it to a Super Bowl?
Dak Prescott? Can he take the Cowboys to a Super
Wait a second, did you just say he's not a
great quarterback? Josh Allen? Oh, I didn't know he was

(01:34:27):
in the Hall of Fame. My bad. I should have
known that. Well, wait now, Hall of Fame and great
quarterback or two different conversations to happen. Love that word great.
Maybe we should look that up in the dictionary before
you're throwing out. So you don't think Josh Allen's a
great quarterback. Very good quarterback, you know, if we're talking
career wise, Yeah, he's a very good quarterback. He's got
a long way to go, my friend, long way to go.

(01:34:50):
We have an hour and forty five minutes to go.
That that that one I gotta go to broad I
got I need a beverage and it might need to
be of the adult variety. You know what. We're gonna
come back and we're gonnak talk about your Dolphins. We're
talking about quarterbacks. Let's talk about to a real chesty.
All of a sudden, because of one money throw to
Tyreek Hill, nobody has more pressure on them this season

(01:35:12):
than to a Tongo Vola. We will discuss when we
come back. It is Jason Martin and Arnie Spanning here
on Fox Sports Radio. Jason Martin and Arnie Spanning here
on Fox Sports Radio having fun with you. We're with
you for another hour and forty minutes or so. Burton
and Bertie Fratto will then follow us and Bernie will
join us in the next hour of the show. Um

(01:35:36):
to a tongo valla, Arnie, your beloved Dolphins. First of all,
Ryan Fitzpatrick finally announced his retirement. Looks like he might
be headed into the booths and people are interested in him.
I saw a rumor Amazon was already interested in him.
He had played for and started for nine different NFL
teams in his career, including the Tennessee Titians right here,

(01:35:57):
which is the team that I cover on a day
to day basis. Here, he could be pretty good. I
can see how I think, so saying the truth, I
can see him being pretty good. Yeah, he could be.
And he's a you know, thoughtful guy. And if you
didn't know he went to Harvard because they mentioned it
every five seconds, because it just became an easy talking
when you've gone to IVY League, like we have, you
go ahead and like to show it off. Wait, you

(01:36:19):
say we Arizona, Princeton, Harvard, Dartmouth. Yeah, I don't think
IVY mean just because there's an IVY on the campus
somewhere doesn't necessarily mean it's an IVY League. But the
reason I mentioned Fitzpatrick is because famously, Fitzpatrick during to
his rookie year basically took him aside at one point said, hey, man,

(01:36:41):
stop waiting for these guys to get Alabama open. People
don't get Alabama open in the NFL. And it was
this idea that tool wasn't throwing guys open and he
was scared to throw into tight windows. Guys were running
free at Alabama compared to that wasn't there for his
receivers in the NFL. And so there's an adjustment period

(01:37:02):
for every quarterback, but it seemed to be a stronger,
larger adjustment for tah So what's happened in the off
season is the Dolphins have brought in a head coach
that obviously didn't have a lot of experience as a
head coach, but somebody that you like and comes from
the Sean McVeigh tree. Maybe he can unlock you offensively.
You pay money for Tyree Hill, bring him in, Give

(01:37:23):
a weapon next to Jalen Waddle. You bring in Cedric Wilson,
You've got just speed everywhere. You bring in Raheem Moster,
who if he can stay healthy, which is a huge
if because he's been a stud, but he's been it's
been hard to keep him on the field for his
last few years in San Francisco. They beefed up the
offensive line, they paid the defense. They should be good,

(01:37:45):
you would think, but there is nobody arny and you
can certainly say that he's going to live up to this.
I don't think there's anybody in the league with more
pressure on them this year than two uh, because they
are setting him up to either be you know, resurgent candidate,
the Josh allend of the year or whatever, or all
of the blame to go on him because everything else

(01:38:06):
around him they put. They put so much around him,
it's like you can't help but succeed. If you don't,
it's gonna be really easy to cut bait. Well, you're
right about that. Um it's too uh or bust. And
they did put everything around him. I do think the
pick up of Tyreek Hill is the one that's going
to put him over the top. I mean, yeah, they
got up to such a slow start, but then they

(01:38:26):
had that great run. Of course, it was an easy
part of the schedule, believe it or not. That's why
they had their great run. I believe too is ready
to take that next step and w Hill there to
help him. Um Man, he finally has another explosive weapon. Uh.
Their wide receivers are absolutely unbelievable. With him and Waddle
uh Gaseki a tight end, it is just explosive. I

(01:38:50):
just think it's gonna be a monster year for him.
I mean it should be by all indicators. One of
the things that you had heard was, you know, to
his arms right at the beg question. I never noticed
that at Alabama. I thought he had a very pretty
deep ball. I thought he reminded me a lot of
Russell Wilson in the in the past that he threw.
He threw one to end practice. Uh at o t

(01:39:11):
A's here in the last couple of days, and it
was to Tyreek Hill and he called it a money throw,
and he actually kind of chirped back at the critics.
He's like, boy, my arm looked fine right there. So
I think at some point too has gotten tired of
some of the slander that he's heard. So he's gonna
be out to prove something, which that's either gonna go
really well, it's gonna go really poorly. Problem for him
is well, maybe not divisionally. I think the Patriots are

(01:39:34):
done I think they're done. I think Mac Jones can play,
but I think they're done. I think this iteration of
the Patriots this all season flat out was not good enough.
They got worse. Almost everybody in the a f C
got better. The Patriots got worse. The Jets had a
good draft, not bad, and free agency they should be
better if Zach Wilson isn't total garbage in year two.

(01:39:57):
The Bills of the Super Bowl favorites in vague u
is with Tampa Bay is number two. And then there's Miami,
who's a real wild card, just because there's a whole
lot of new pieces, including a coach, and there's a
quarterback who we're not sure we buy into, but we're
gonna know about the end of the year whether or
not two we could play in this league, or whether
or not he's gonna be a career back up after this.
It is. The division is not what it used to be.

(01:40:19):
It's the Jets of the Patriots fighting out for three
and four. The Dolphins, I don't know if they're good
enough to fight it out with the Bills for that division,
but they're good enough to go ahead and make a
wild card. When I'm in Vegas in a couple of weeks,
I'll be putting a few shekels on on the Dolphins
to win the Super Bowl. I really am. I remember. No,
I'm only worried having a new coach in there. Otherwise
they've got a really good defense and offensively they're gonna

(01:40:41):
be just fine. So they check all the box to
be honest. Yeah, so what you were saying about Josh
Allen before the break? Yeah, what does you said when
I said he's a great quarterback and you said, I
think he's got a long way to go to be
a great quarterback? Or no, you don't have to because
Peyton Manning was a great quarterback before he won a

(01:41:03):
Super Bowl? Agree with that? Or no, I didn't know.
I'm saying. You just asked. You just asked a blanket statement.
You just say, is Josh Allen a great quarterback before
he went to Super Bowl? You said, is a quarterback
a great quarterback before he went to Super Bowl? You
just made one argument, Dan Marino, there's a lot of
great quarterbacks. I mean, was Charles Barkley a great NBA player?

(01:41:26):
I think he was, like he's an all time great
player who happened to play in an era with Michael
Jordan's Josh Allen could easily have won a Super Bowl
had a coin toss changed this past year, because I
still think the Bills probably would have beaten the Bengals
the next week, whereas the Chiefs when we're unable to
do so, the Bills then are probably in the Super

(01:41:47):
Bowl with the Rams. But it's not the way it goes,
and what if aren't the way sports are made. But
Josh Allen played nearly a perfect football game and still
lost because of bad overtime rules. I just I think
I don't think you have to win a championship to
be great in a sport. I think that would knock
off a lot of greats. No, you don't have to,
but I mean, if you look at his status overall, though,

(01:42:09):
he didn't really become a good quarterback until the last
two years. So, uh, four years in the league. But
over the last two years have they been very, very good.
That's why he hasn't to call him a great quarterback. Um,
you know, let's see what he's got coming up the
next couple of years. But as of now, he's a
very good quarterback. I'm just not gonna throw that great
word in there after two very good years. Alright, he

(01:42:32):
was an m VP candidate the last two seasons his
rookie campaign. Then they actually started to build around him
in year two. They opened up the offense a little
more and then they grabbed Stefon Diggs. Pretty much most
quarterbacks in the league. I mean, Matthew Stafford, was he
great before he got to the Rams or do you
not think he's great now? Ah? I I always thought

(01:42:52):
Matthew Stafford was great. I love Matthew Stoft. Okay, so
he was great, but he didn't went much at all,
and a lot of times that right, I mean he
through for a lot of yards, but a lot of
that was garbage yards. So well, maybe I just if
you think you're right statistically that Josh Allen is getting better,
then why are you so anti Kyler Murray when it

(01:43:14):
shows that he's actually getting better? Also, um, because Kyler
Murray is crumbling at the end of seasons repeatedly. And
I don't think that players are galvanizing around Kyler Murray
the way that they are Josh Allen, just as one example,
or Lamar or a number of other guys in the league.
I don't think he has the leadership. That's where I

(01:43:35):
question Kyler Murray more than I do the ability to
make throws, I said, But I said this last week.
I believe in the five rule when it comes to
NFL quarterbacks is something that that I that I came
up with, and it is I think everybody, just about
every quarterback in the league can make eighty five percent
of the throws. There's another tier that can make and

(01:43:56):
then it's the other five percent that makes you elite.
And most of that there five percent is not an arm,
it's a brain. It's it's being able to make the
right decision at the right time and be in synergy
and sync with your receivers, your running backs, your offensive coordinator,
all of that. And that right there requires the intangible

(01:44:17):
of being able to draw people to you. You can't
just being a loof player. And I'm I fear could
be wrong, but there's been a lot of smoke here.
I fear Kyler is a bit of any aloof player
on that roster. You never hear that about Josh Allen.
You don't hear that about a lot of the guys
in this league. That's that's the biggest concern I have

(01:44:39):
with Kyler Murray, along with this height, which is always
gonna bother me, just because sometimes you can't see over
the old line. Sometimes that can become a problem. And
I just I haven't seen anything from him in the postseason,
whereas I've already seen some things from Josh Allen. And again,
even in the game that he lost, he played one
of the best orter back games you will ever see

(01:45:01):
and lost because they lost a coin toss. You made
your point when you said you saw nothing from Stafford
in the postseason until he got to the RAM so
sometimes that could be misleading. Though, well, wait, I don't
know how those two things are, and he played in Detroit,
so he was I'm just saying that my argument there
was was Stafford great before he got to the Rams?
And I'm not saying that he wasn't. I was trying

(01:45:23):
to make that argument because you were saying Josh Allen
needed to win a Super Bowl potentially before you would
call him great, And I'm just like, there's a lot
of great players in this league. I think Justin Herbert's
a great quarterback. He's the m VP front runner right now.
I think, unless the odds have changed again, it was
it was Alan, and then it became justin Herbert. Not
one of those two guys has even made it to

(01:45:44):
a conference championship game. I don't believe. I know Herbert
hadn't even made it to the playoffs yet. And I
have no problem saying I think he's a great player.
Joe Burrow made it to a super Bowl. He's a
great player to be. Patrick Mahomes is a great player, okay,
And I'm dying to see what he's gonna go ahead
and do without Tyreek Kill. I wonder how much his
numbers take a hit when he didn't have his favorite
weapon around with him. That's what I want to see.

(01:46:05):
So I'll tell you who my favorite weapon is, Steve
to Seger. I don't think i'd find out what's trending
and back into our corners. Here a bit, Steve, that's
all right, that's called a transition. That's a segue. Don't
try that at home. We can update how the Mets
are doing at Dodger Stadium, and in a couple of minutes,
we will update how the Mets first round draft pick

(01:46:25):
from last summer did because he pitched tonight. These Mets
are at Dodger Stadium, for a four game series this weekend.
Lost the first couple, but they are leading six for
after six innings. Tonight. Something happened tonight that I don't
recall ever seeing, and that is the Mets starting pitcher
too and oh, David Peterson got pulled in the fourth
inning after he gave up a long foul ball after

(01:46:46):
one pitch of the bat to Mookie Bets, a long
foul ball. Buck Shawn Walter comes out of the dugout
and pulled him because they were, it seemed, losing the
lead and Bets had already hit a three run double tonight,
and so Peterson, who had six strikeouts tonight but four
walks as well, was pulled and the move worked because
the reliever came on struck out Bets. It ended the inning.

(01:47:08):
The Mets have had the lead ever since, So there
you go. The other late game has been back and forth. Recently.
The Braves were tied one one at Colorado after night.
I don't know what's in the water there at coors Field,
but it's been quite low scoring so far this weekend.
The Braves and Rockies each scored a run in the tenth.
The Braves have just scored four in the top of
the eleventh, and they're still batting with a six to

(01:47:30):
lead against the Rockies tonight, only those two games are
going up. The Angels lost again. They've lost ten in
a row. Philadelphia got five runs in the first inning,
beat him seven to two. Cubs and Cardinals split a doubleheader.
Late game wins for Washington, Miami and Pittsburgh. Yankees one again,
three nothing over Detroit. Aaron Judge with his twenty first

(01:47:51):
homer that leads the major leagues. Winning pitcher Louis Severino
seven innings, ten strikeouts. He's four and one this year,
and to save de Clay Homes, they have not miss
the injured closer at all. Holmes eight saves for the Yankees.
E er A zero point three four at Toronto. Blue
Jays have won nine of their last ten. Yankees have
won nine of their last eleven at Toronto twelve three

(01:48:12):
Blue Jays over Minnesota today. Jose Burrios finally pitched like
they thought he would, thirteen strikeouts in seven innings, getting
the win today. His e r A is still over
five for the season. In the NHL. Colorado top seed
in the West, one win away from the Stanley Cup. Final.
The Ads are up three games to none over Edmonton
in the West Final. Colorado went on the road for

(01:48:34):
to tonight. Game four Ian Edmonton on Monday night. East
Final continues tomorrow afternoon. NBA Finals Game two is Sunday Night.
Number one rank egis Fiontech one or thirty fifth straight
match taking the French Open Final, sweeping American Coco Golf
six one six three. Golf was the youngest woman to
reach a Grand Slam final since the seventeen year old

(01:48:55):
Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon two thousand four. Raphael Nadal is
in the men's fine Old tomorrow. Goff by the Way
will be in the women's doubles final tomorrow. NASCAR's on
FS one tomorrow three thirty pm Eastern Time, Chase Briscoe
will start from the poll the races outside St. Louis
on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. A j
Almandinger when the Exffinity Race in rainy Portland today on

(01:49:16):
the road course. US men soccer plays an exhibition on
Fox TV Sunday at five pm Eastern Time against Uruguay
in Kansas City, Kansas, and the USFL will be on
Fox TV again tomorrow Philadelphia against one in six Michigan
noon Eastern time. All the regular season games are in
Birmingham and the Birmingham team is eight no so far.

(01:49:37):
They got a late field goal to win ten nine
today against New Orleans. This is week eight out of
ten in the NFL. All the games in Dallas, Texas
or something like that. Idea. That's sorry, because they have
no money in the NFL. They're gonna have to do that.
The playoff games will be at Canton in this league,
New Jersey seven and one so far they beat one
in seven Pittsburgh to eight t and the update on

(01:50:01):
like I need to tell you who this guy is.
Vanderbilt star pitcher from recent years, Kumar Rocker from the
championship team of m v P of A College World Series,
A guy who had in an n c A tournament
game a no hitter with nineteen strikeouts, was drafted in
the first round by the Mets last summer, number ten overall.
The two sides failed to reach agreement and the August

(01:50:23):
deadline passed. They were concerned about his pitching arm. He
was the only first rounder not to sign. Well, there's
another draft this summer and so he in mid May
signed a minor league contract with Tri City and pitch
for them tonight. Four inning, six strikeouts, no walks, two
earned runs allowed. This is a guy who as we
head toward the draft. By the way, the draft now

(01:50:44):
will lead into the MLB All Star Game. They positioned
it for July. It's going to be in l a
As the Dodger Stadium is going to be the site
for the All Star Game that week for the major leaguers.
But tonight it was Kumar Rocker pitching in this independent
frontier league in front of a near sell out of
four thousand fans in Troy, New York. Back to you, Yeah,
it was amazing to watch Kamara Rocker and Jack Older

(01:51:07):
both over the last few years. Right there in Nashville
with Vanderbilt. Incredible and you want to talk about a
little bit of a change. Vanderbilt was in a knockout
game on Saturday one at one to one. But they
have fallen off this year because you just don't replace
two top ten draft picks and pitching and stay alive. Meanwhile,

(01:51:30):
three hours east of them in Knoxville, Tennessee's the number
one team in a country with a fifty five and
seven records. Yeah, and speaking of lopsided games, I think
Tennessee had a tend to nothing at a twelve to
something as well to seven a day, twelve seven a day.
So what's coming up in the segred segment, Steve? You know,
dang it, that name is gonna make it. It's gonna

(01:51:53):
I'm telling you. We will talk about the Golden State
Warriors and exactly how bad the Finals had been for
them recently. We'll talk about a little bit of the
MLB and what's been going on this weekend, and if
we have time, there's an Idea Rod story. You know,
we got the U s fl in in this segment.
There is, and if I don't, I'll get it to

(01:52:15):
it next hour for sure. But there's something from the
Idea Rod that we've just got to post publicly here.
Steve is in a bold take of me to say,
Josh Allen's a great quarterback? No, you agree with? Was
Charles Barkley a great Basketball's? What I said? With any
Banks a great baseball player? Was Josh Allen's gonna be? Yeah?

(01:52:39):
I will, Well, we'll even say, let's just say you
made Arizona baseball start losing, will even say, okay, maybe
hall of fame. Even if you say that at the
point of his career, I think we can all confirm
that when you throw in the running, that's a pretty
good quarterback, right, Ernie, I would say so, right, quiet quarterback? Okay,

(01:53:03):
there have been plenty of great I mean Hall of
Fame great guys who now, I mean the two greatest
probably athletes in the history of San Diego, California, Lydiannia
Thomlinson and Tony quit neither ever won a title, Philip
Rivers of course as well. Yeah, I throw him in
as well. Yeah, you can throw anything in. We'll throw
Arnie in or throw him overboard one of the two.
The the the disigured dis segment is coming up after

(01:53:25):
the break that name is gonna stick. Torres might not
have gotten that joke, but Arnie is letting it happen,
and I appreciate it because now now we've got a
tip pole, we got something in the ground that says
that the segment is going to be a thing. Also
gonna be a thing, Arnie. Yes. Uh. Jason Garrett and
Jack collins Worth potentially doing Notre Dame games for NBC

(01:53:46):
Jason Garrett's what fifty four they've been doing USL USFL games,
which I only knew because I read the story because
watching the USFL, surely you jest. So what do you
think of that? I was down in Dallas, so I
got to talk to him a bunch of times. I mean,
he's a nice enough guy. Is he gonna go ahead
and say the stuff that we want to hear? Is
he gonna give us the true truth? Is he gonna

(01:54:07):
go ahead and, uh, you know, give us behind the
scenes stuff. I don't know. I think he's a little
just bland to me. I didn't well, and I didn't
think Gruden was so great night. I didn't like Gruden
at all because he never found a quarterback he didn't
like exactly. I'm not so sure that this is gonna
work out again. I don't know why they're paying so
much money for these analysts, because, um, we don't watch

(01:54:29):
the game for who's doing the play by play or
who the color analyst is. We're watching for the stuff
on the field. But God bless him that they can
make that type of money. I I think he'll be okay,
but you know, nothing great. I just don't I just
don't know. It's an interesting name, certainly somebody that's been
around the league and has a has a bit of
he has been a cloud just because he's was with Dallas.
And then there's Chris collins Worth's son who's just absolutely

(01:54:53):
loves I have not seen the guy do a game,
so I can't comment on it, but that's an interesting
pairing for Notre Dame like that, it's uh, that's a
little bit strange. Not strange as Steve de Seger. He
will be back on the other side with the segment, Arnie.
You might want to take this one off, big friends.
We'll be back. That's the laughing Arnie Spanier. I'm Jason

(01:55:14):
Martin here on Fox Sports Radio. Hey, welcome back, Jason Martin,
Arni Spann. You're hanging out with you here on Fox
Sports Radio on this Saturday night at least where I'm
at and then someplace already in the country. It's already
Sunday morning. Arnie. It's time for your favorite segment. Yes,

(01:55:37):
it is time for the Steve de Seger, Steve de Segment. Steve,
and we can update it with a Mets score to
begin the segment, because Pete Alonso absolutely owns any picture,
a lot of Dodger Stadium. Eleven career games at Dodger Stadium.
Pete Alonso has seven home runs to tonight. Mets are

(01:55:58):
up nine four in l a bottom of the seventh
inning and Alonso this season is up to fifty three
r b I is best in the National League over
fifty r bis. We are less than two months. He
is Mr Mett from the week nights here at Fox
Sports Radio. Here on the air the last two Shay
come on now. He is at Dodger Stadium as we speak,

(01:56:21):
in a game that I'm not sure it's gonna end
by the time this show ends. By the way, there
was boxing in Melbourne tonight, and American Devin Haney has
retained his w BC lightweight title. He's twenty eight and oh.
He wins a unanimous decision on points over in Australian
who was twenty and oh, George Cambosus, and therefore he
wins the three lightweight titles that that guy owned w
B A, w B O and ib F. NBA Finals

(01:56:45):
Game two's at Golden State on Sunday night. The Warriors
blew the finals opener to Boston and Golden State had
been nine and oh at home this postseason. Boston, it
must be said, on the road is eight and two
in these playoffs. But I never considered this what I
read acros Us from Associated Press that the Warriors in
the finals have now lost four straight home games. If

(01:57:06):
you go back to the Toronto series, can you guess
the last NBA franchise to lose five straight home games
in finals? You'll never guess. It's Magic Johnson's Lakers when
they got swept by the Piston to home games, and
then a couple of years later the last three games

(01:57:26):
they lost against Jordan and the Bulls were three home games.
That's just If Golden State doesn't win at home tomorrow night,
that will be five straight home losses in finals. But
the stat, and this has been banned around for a
couple of days now, it's um. It's humorous as much
as anything is that the Warriors have lost eight of

(01:57:47):
their last nine games in the NBA finals when Kevin
Durant didn't play for him because of course, Durant was
Finals m v P. He was certainly playing for them
when they were back to back titlists in and twenty eight,
but he essentially did not play against the Toronto Raptors
a few years ago and they lost that series and
he wasn't with them yet when they lost the last

(01:58:08):
three games against Lebron and Cleveland in ten. So you
add up the game one lost to Boston. Yeah, the
Warriors have actually lost eight of their last nine games
in the NBA Finals when Durant is not playing for them.
Tell that to Mr New Media Draymond Green. That's right.
I love how Rob Parker, especially during the week on
the Odd Couple Show, is just he will even say

(01:58:29):
in the hallway sometimes, oh, that's the new media that
we're getting, these athletes that think they're gonna overtake traditional
media just because they have a podcast. When we just
heard a promo in the last segment of how laughable
it is to hear and this is I think the
best point that the guys bring up on their show
to hear athletes interviewing athletes is no one challenges anyone else,

(01:58:51):
there's no follow up question. It's not an actual interview.
It's two guys sitting on the couch. Well, we gotta
have a note that Raphael the Doll is playing tomorrow,
a guy who may wind up going down as the
greatest tennis player in history. Is in the men's final,
and he beat number one Novak Djokovic to get this
far into the tournament. Unfortunately, his opponent in what was

(01:59:14):
going to be a long semifinal, Alexander Zverev, had to
leave the court on crutches when he suffered an ankle
injury during the match, towre several ligaments in his foot.
He'll at further game exams. He went off on. He
went on a wheelchair. That's the first thing I thought of,
except this was a legitimate injury. He didn't actually just

(01:59:35):
come back on the clay courts. Hey, I'm I'm okay. No,
he he might be missing Wimbledon, which starts in three weeks.
Appreciate you, Steve. In the fourth hour, of course, Bernie
Fratto will join us in the fourth hour, will reset.
Some of the stuff we talked about is related to
game one plus how is game two gonna be? One?

(01:59:57):
What's up, folks? Fourth hour of our program. Arnie Spanier
at Sink of Genius one. I'm Jason Martin that j
mart Radio. We're of course at Fox Sports Radio as well.
Bernie Frado straight out of Vegas. A lot of tweets,
by the way, very important tweets that you're ignoring. All right,
you tell us, I agree with you. Alan is a

(02:00:20):
very good quarterback, but not great. Jason Martin's overreacting to
Allen based on a few games. Alan was an MVP
cadet last year. He regrets statistically and win percentage, had
a very good twenty three years before that, he was
subpar and average. Bravo, best tweet would ever seen in
my life. That was a year two of his career.

(02:00:41):
Year three he was an m v P candidate, and
last year he was an overtime coin toss away from
going to the a f C Championship game where I
think they would have beaten Cincinnati. Just to put that
out there, but hey, look different strokes for different folks.
That's fine, game too. One thing we all can can
say is this, if you lose game too, that's gonna
be a route. If you've lost game one at home,

(02:01:04):
you better win game two if you were Golden State.
Interestingly enough, the analytics nerds loved the Celtics going into
this series. Five thirty eight gave Boston a chance entering
the finals. ESPNS B p I which is there whatever
their Basketball Power Index gave the Celtics an eighty six chance.

(02:01:28):
This is entering the series now that game yes, now
that game one is over. Boston's chances according to five
thirty eight, which is Nate Silver's website, b p I
pcent chance for them, and they went through all the
stuff about the regular season and how Boston had a

(02:01:50):
better point differential than Golden State on a per game
and per one possession basis and all this other kind
of stuff, and then they mentioned this is just an
incredible line. While the Warriors won two more games in
the Celtics. That happened because Boston undershot its Pythagorean record
by eight games, making it the unluckiest team in the
league by that measure. That's a heck of a measure, man.

(02:02:12):
I'm just watching the games like I was. I was
definitely informed that there was no math, and that's why
I was allowed to do it in the first place.
She's all I can tell you is this, there's seven games.
You're a minus one right now. You need to get
that joint back to even before you head to Boston.
So hard to believe. They gave him an eighties six
percent chance. So what do you the series? In the
series that you come in and an underdog and you're

(02:02:35):
what a three and a half point underdog in the
first game, in four and half point underdog in the
second game. So, uh, somewhere the numbers don't add up.
But if you want to take it by that, you
might as well bet the Celtics on the money line
and game number two if if they have that, I
have a chance of winning. Um. I just think that
they are a better team than Golden State. I think
they've got better players top through bottom. And you know,

(02:02:56):
when you played defense, and Golden State's defense does lack
at times, that's gonna kill you. When they killed them
in the fourth quarter because Boston was red hot. Now
I know people say, oh, they're never gonna be that
hot again. They don't have to be that hot again.
Remember they pulled away. Maybe they could be somewhat hot
and still go ahead and win. They never should have
been in the position. Golden State should have put their
foot on Boston's throat and should have been up by

(02:03:19):
twenty points going into the fourth quarter, and that didn't happen.
So I'm don't think Boston's gonna get blowed out anytime soon.
So who did you pick before the series? I had
Golden State to win it, all right, do you still no?
I have Boston winning and now so you've actually changed
because of Game one. Well, I'll stick with Golden State,
but I think Boston's gonna win it. Or well, no,

(02:03:41):
you've changed your pick then, like you made your pig.
But you're telling me right now the Celtics are going
somethings are going to win it. Yes, somethings are gonna Okay,
I'm sticking with Golden State in six um, but that
is certainly contingent on them not falling down. Oh two,
If it's one one, it's fine because I don't think
Boston's just gonna win easily in Boston all their game games.
I just don't. I I interesting enough that we talked

(02:04:03):
about where the analytics were just now, oddsmakers didn't feel
that way by tip off in game one. This is
at Boston dot com. By tip off a game one
of the Warriors were minus one fifty to win the series.
Now after Game one, the Celtics are now minus one
on some sport books, so we have turned under dog.
Game number two bigger than they were in game number one. Yeah,

(02:04:26):
so we'll be able to talk to Bernie about that
in the next segment and see how things have changed.
But the implied chance at DraftKings Sports Book for the Celtics,
they have now an implied sixty five and a half
percent chance to win the finals. So things have changed
in terms of the way that they felt. The analytics
were already on the Celtics and now the books are

(02:04:48):
moving towards Boston. And I guess that makes sense. After
a game one, do you change anything of your golden
state or do you just say, play the same game.
Just proved that they won't get as hot as they
were in the fourth quarter and we'll be just fine. Uh.
I mean, I don't know what you change at this stage.
I mean, obviously you get new information after each game,
but you kind of are what you are by this point.
You shortened your bench to some degree. Um, what's here's

(02:05:12):
what you change. Jordan Pool is better. Jordan Pool actually
has a game. Instead of nine points in twenty five minutes,
Steph has thirty four. But he's aggressive late instead of
just being aggressive early. Uh. Clay Thompson had an incredibly
it was almost a whisper Quiet fifteen. The one guy
I don't want to see anything changed from his Wiggins.
Wiggins played great in Game one, and he's been an

(02:05:35):
excellent acquisition by them. When he was left for dead,
it seemed like in Minnesota because he had all that
hype coming out of Kansas, and then he came into
the NBA and it wasn't as easy as it looked,
and then all of a sudden they brought him in
and he has been exactly what they need. Also, you
need Draymond Green to give you more than what he
gave you, as if he's gonna talk as much as

(02:05:57):
he's gonna talk, give me more than four man, Like,
I know you had eleven rebounds, but you were two
of twelve from the field. Like they don't all have
to be threes. He was oh four from three. There's
no shock there is oh of three from the free
throw line, two of twelve from the field. He was
a liability for you offensively in that game. But I
think that's and we that's what Mark Willard, who joined

(02:06:19):
us in the second hour. If you miss any part
of the show, obviously podcast us Fox Sports Radio Weekends,
you get all the shows everything that you missed, and
Mark Willard is with seven the flagship for the Warriors,
and of course works with us in Fox Sports Radio
as well. I mean, he said it like they just
made a bunch of shots. And sometimes it's as simple
as that. Like we asked off the top of this show,
Aren'tie was it more a choke or was it more

(02:06:41):
a comeback? And I said yes, because I think that
it takes two to tango in this situation. The Warriors
did collapse, but the Celtics came alive, and they were
historically good from three late in that game, and it
was guys like Marcus Smart four of seven and Al
Horford six for eight and Derek White five for eight

(02:07:02):
in that game. Do I think that's sustainable. No. But
if you want something as a Celtics fan to feel
good about, it's this. You were able to win that
game by twelve on the road on a night where
Jason Tatum couldn't shoot three or seventeen. He was not good.

(02:07:23):
He was great with everything else he was doing on
the floor in terms of the way he was passing
the basketball and the way he was playing defense, but
he was not good offensively and that's not going to
happen throughout the rest of the series. You know what's crazy,
as they missed twenty three pointers, ten king from their
two stars in Jalen Brown and Tatum. They missed ten

(02:07:44):
of the twenty, yet they were able to go and
pull away. You're not gonna see that too often. And
as I said, they're deeper team Boston. That's when Al
Horford goes off and goes six of eight. Oh, I mean,
my goodness, market smart four seven, I mean ten out
of fifteen, right, different three part rage other than your
two stars. That's that's gonna bury you every night. Yes,

(02:08:06):
Curry had thirty four, but the way in which it came,
none of it came late in the game. Don't think
he's overrated like every I mean, you hear what Skip says.
I think Rob Parker says it. They look at what
he doesn't late in the games final five minutes, fourth quarter,
They look at the numbers. They you know, they make

(02:08:27):
it as bad as possible. Do you do you think
that we're overrating does stufford or what? No? But I
don't think he's He's a particularly stellar clutch player. Um
in terms of just statistically he hasn't made a lot
of game winning shots. You think he would, but when
you actually go back and look at it, he really hasn't.
But it's not because he just can't play in the
final minutes. I don't think he's overrated. I don't know

(02:08:49):
that I need the ball in his hands more than
I would want it in some other guys in the
league's hands late, Like if you were going historically, and
I heard Doug Gottlie talking about this, the idea of
trying to is Steph Curry a top ten, top fifteen player.
These arguments need to go away. We need to stop
doing this. We need to be better in media, like, yeah,

(02:09:11):
you can do this as the barbershop. You can do
this around your friends playing with your PS five or whatever.
It is like that, you can have fun with this,
But it's impossible to try and characterize Steph Curry versus
And I think god Leave's argument was how do you
determine Steph and Kareem or Stephen and Moses Malone or
whoever these guys are. I when thousand percent agree with that,

(02:09:33):
I think it's disrespectful to both sides. Like I don't
think it's fair to Curry I don't think it's fair
to the guys in the past. Curry's an outstanding player
that is a trend setter that changed basketball. He's a
Hall of Famer, he's multi time m v P. He's
one of the finest players we've ever had in the league.
Is he top ten? Who gives a crap at this point?
I I do not think he is overrated, though I don't.
I don't care if he Yeah, I don't care if

(02:09:55):
he's top ten, But I do care when you tell me, well,
you don't need to see the ball in his hand
so much of the fourth quarter. Well, if you want
the ball to his heads and quarters one, two, and three,
how could you not want it in number four? No,
I'm not saying in the quarter. Let me just something
correct that. I'm just saying, like, game winning shot, I'd
rather have Kobe taking that shot, right, you know what
I'm saying, Like I certainly would would live and die

(02:10:16):
with Curry doing it. So here's the argument. We didn't
ever get to this, and then we'll have Bernie on
the other side of this. Jimmy Butler's three was a
bad shot. I didn't think so. No, yeah, we'll see
there you go. There were a lot of people on
TV that tried to argue it was not Jimmy Butler
has not shot higher than two percent from three for
the last three years. He's never shot more than thirty
percent from three. It's not his shots the shot. What

(02:10:40):
do you think his chances of him making that shot was? Then? No,
like I said, he that's not it's not a shot.
But what you're missing out on. Yeah, that's not a shot.
And let's say it's but maybe thirty percent in a
given year, that shot might have been forty percent because
he was hot and he was carrying the team. So
you gotta throw that when the three. When when you're hot,

(02:11:02):
then all of a sudden it goes up. You know,
I don't think it does not. When you got out
Horford there and you can blow past him and you're
one of the guys they can get to the rack
and the other guy that's down there, they could potentially
defend you with Jalen Brown, who's got five howls run.
If I get by if I get by Harford, if
I can go ahead and put it past Jalen Brown,

(02:11:24):
what do you think the high what's the higher percentage
taking a leaning three if you're Jimmy Butler, who doesn't
make a whole lot of them and doesn't take a
whole lot of them, or blowing past Al Horford is yeah,
but Jimmy Butler is one of the best to get
into the rack in the league. They have all the momentum.
If you take that shot, there needs to be two

(02:11:45):
or three seconds on the clock, not seventeen. Everybody on
that team didn't think he was taking that shot because
Kyle Lowry charged from outside the three point line when
he realized, oh my gosh, you shot the ball. Bam.
Wasn't even a half court when that shot was taken.
To me, that was a panic desperation. He just lost
his head and that moment. I understand he's gonna do that,

(02:12:05):
But man, I don't think there was any desperation. He
had had a good look at it. If he hits that,
you're really going, oh my goodness, what a guts he
call what a shot that? But he didn't hit it. No,
he didn't hit it because he's not a three point shooter.
If Shock stopped and shot that ball, would that be
a good shot. No, it shocks a little bit different.
But you know, Butler was scoring like crazy in the

(02:12:26):
series in some of the games, you know, but not
from three. That's not what he does. That's not a shot.
Like if it's Steph Curry taking that shot, you're gonna
You're gonna die with that one. That's fine, Like you're
gonna you He's got the green light, and I want
the ball in Butler's hands. I just don't want it
in his hands leading from three when you've got fifteen
seconds left in a two point game where the momentum

(02:12:46):
is all on your side, that just seemed like a
very That was not a heady basketball play. So you
think it would be better going to the bucket and
try to draw the foul or get the way up.
I think one of those two things is quould happen.
Either Brown has to back off because he doesn't want
to foul out because if he gets up the m one,
that's a problem. If Butler scores, they go to overtime.

(02:13:08):
But if Brown fouls him in the moment, that Brown
is not available for the extra five minutes, and I
think you need Jalen Brown to win that game. So
there's there's a business decision that he's gonna have to
make in that moment. And if you're Jimmy Butler, you've
got to think you can blow past Horford. I know
there's an if because you haven't done it. But Horford
is a little bit old. He's a little bit old,

(02:13:29):
and Jimmy Butler is good at getting to the rack.
The thing he's not good at doing is shooting threes,
which is the thing that he chose to do. Came
up empty and there was nobody wearing a uniform to
rebound that basketball. I don't think there was somebody in
his face. You mentioned how Horford being up there, Uh,
there was nobody there to block it or anything like that.
He had a pretty good look at at least I
think he had a pretty good look at it. I

(02:13:50):
mean it was I didn't necessarily think it would be blocked,
but it was definitely spot where you had a bigger
guy in front of you, you were leaning. It wasn't
like a set three. It say people to stop pull
up three with set with fifteen seconds left on the clock.
I just I love Jimmy Butler to death. I think
you can love Jimmy Butler and still be willing to

(02:14:11):
be critical. And I was a little surprised that more
people this week national and NBA experts were backing up
Butler because, let me tell you something, that was Lebron.
He was gonna lose that thing. Either way. He takes
it and misses it, he gets crucified, he passes off
that shot, which was done in his career, we'd still
be talking about that. Yeah, No, I I totally agree

(02:14:33):
to different. It's a different set of rules from Lebron
than Jimmy Butler. There's no doubt about that. And Lebron
is I mean, obviously his best thing is being explosive
to the rim. Maybe Jimmy Butler didn't think he'd be
in that position to win the game, and that's why
he shot the ball. I mean, the last couple of
points kind of ran off pretty quickly. You know, it
kind of got a little confusing out there. Well, look,

(02:14:54):
if he makes it, we're having a we're having an
interesting discussion. But he didn't make it, and the percentage
has told you that was the most likely outcome in
that moment, the most likely outcome for us. After the break.
Bernie Fratto off straight out of Vegas, who follows us.
We'll talk to him about how the books have changed
following Game one of the NBA Finals a whole lot more.
It's Jason Martin and already spanning here on Fox Sports Radio.

(02:15:18):
It's Jason Martin. It's already spanning here. It's Fox Sports Saturday.
Now it's Fox Sports Sunday at least where I'm at,
and in the Eastern time zone as well. Uh, not
in Vegas, not as of yet, but I know Bernie
Fretto will tell us everything that is going on. Of
course he follows us, so straight out of Vegas and
then three more hours. Uh so stick with us all
night long, especially if you're up late. What's going on? Burn?

(02:15:41):
How are you? Gentlemen? Uh? You know, I anticipated that
this was going to be a long series. I still
think it's gonna go seven. We'll get to that in
a minute. Here's what's interesting. If it goes seven, Game
seven will be played two weeks from tomorrow night June.
Now that's a series, yea, yeah, yeah, they don't play

(02:16:03):
against Wednesday. Yeah, it's they've spread it out. Bertie, tell
you what they think about the game was three and
a half in Game number one, the Golden State loses,
and now it jumps to four and a half. What's
the thinking they're the thinking is this is a market
move based on the old, tried and true NBA zigzag.
You lose game one, you come back and win game too.

(02:16:25):
The only NBA Finals team to lose their first two
at home were the Orlando Magic and night they lost
to Michael Jordan's Bulls. So you're seeing a hell of
a lot of market action come in on Golden State.
That drove the line to four and a half. Seventy
seven percent of the actually seventy eight percent of the

(02:16:45):
tickets are on Golden State right now of the money,
so that's typically what that is. You would expect max
effort out of Golden State tomorrow our Sunday, and you
would not expect, if history is teaching us what happens
in the NBA, a team to lose two in a
row at home to begin the NBA Finals. So you

(02:17:06):
thought it was going seven? How did you think it
was gonna go? Bertie? I'm not sure, but I you know,
I thought Boston could certainly get a win in Golden
State and one of the first two games. Look, they're
eight and two on the road in the playoffs. As
Celtics They're six and one on the road in their
last seven. They actually won three road games in Miami.
But they can't stand prosperity. They don't put teams away.

(02:17:29):
They find a way to win, but it isn't always pretty.
So I figured when you've got two teams just reasonating
their ability to what I consider make adjustments. Look Golden
State except for about six and a half minutes of
that game. They pretty much dominated that game. But you
gotta give Boston a lot of credit. And the first
half Golden State came out, they played with pace, they
played with space, they did what they wanted in the

(02:17:51):
second half. The Celtic true mind would be my old
four Pistons, which I covered, who also beat the Lakers
game one on the road. If it ain't roughing in
right cording to Rip Hambleton's and what happened when Boston
started to pressure the ball and get physical it bothered
Golden State. Very much has been made about all those
threes that Boston made, but hey, they also held Golden

(02:18:12):
State to fourteen points in the fourth quarter. To answer
your question, Jason, what we do I believe have are
two very resilient teams that will make adjustments. So it'll
be a heavyweight fight and there will be a lot
of back and forth, and I don't know who's gonna win.
I only know that I believe it's gonna go seven,
or right before game seven, I'll have a winner, just

(02:18:33):
like I felt I was on with you guys this week.
I felt strongly Boston would win Game seven in Miami. Bernie,
I'm coming out with the boys. They want to bet
you have any good props? Maybe, uh, well, we're gonna
be up before game six, But do you have any
good props? What's the series odds right now? What what's
going on there? Well, it's really jumped all around, by
the way. I know you guys are always ahead of
the game running and I'm sure you probably had the

(02:18:54):
Celtics at fifty one to start the season, and so
you're probably looking good on that right. Yeah, yeah, I
know you did. You you had a million right at
the Treasure Island. I think, uh, look, yeah, it's jumping
all around. Before the series started, uh Wednesday night or
checked that, Yeah, whatever it was, Golden State was minus
one fifty to win the series and Boston was plus

(02:19:16):
one thirty. However, you've got a situation where obviously now
it's flipped dramatically. Jason, you mentioned some shops have Boston
now as high as one ninety, but it's really settling.
The consensus is Boston minus one st the winning series,
Golden State plus one forty. You'll probably never get better
odds on Golden State right now, so that's pretty good value.

(02:19:38):
One South Point better walked into the casino right before
tip off a game one put fifty grand on the
Celtics plus four. That cash fifty grand on the Celtics
to win this series plus one thirty five. So it's
a situation where that's where the value is right now
with Golden State, if that's where you want a head.
One of the other things, guys that's become very popular

(02:19:59):
is what you call the exact series result prop bet.
All right right now, if you had the Warriors to
win in four, you're dead. That tickets dead, it's dead money.
They were twelve to one. If you had the Celtics
to win in four, they were fourteen to one. Before
the series. I said, I liked the game, the series
to go seven. I rarely bet a prop bet I did.
I got it plus one seventy five again, if you,

(02:20:21):
for instance, like the Warriors to win in six and seven,
like the Celtics to win in five, six, seven, whatever,
there are individual bets on all of those if you
want to try to thread the needle, and that those
have become very popular. So I was looking at some
numbers about game one and how teams do, and there's
a high percentage if you win game one of winning
this series. But and I think you'll you'll back this up, Bernie,

(02:20:43):
road teams that win game one, that number is lower
than people might think. You're exactly right, Jason. In the
history of the NBA, when an NBA Finals team goes
on the road and wins game one, it's only happened
six times, and believe it or not, in those city occurrences,
they're only three and three. The team that won game

(02:21:04):
one on the road only three and three. Classic example,
most recently, the San Antonio Spurs went into Miami and
two thousand thirteen one game one, but they lost in seven.
My Pistons won game one. They beat the Lakers in five.
Iverson's member old one Philadelphia seventy sixers. They went into
l A one game one, then lost the next four.

(02:21:24):
The Rockets did the same thing situation in the Magic
Chicago Bulls Jordan's against Magic. Uh, it's not a guarantee.
It puts you in a great position, but history teaches
us that if you win game one on the road,
the six times it's happened, they're only three and three. Bernie,
what could have gotten on the live betting going into
the fourth quarter of game number one? If I wanted

(02:21:45):
to take the Celtics, had they have got what three
to one, four to one, something like that, depending on
what the score was. Remember the Celtics they Yeah, they
trailed by twelve at that point. Uh, you probably could
have got a Boston plus about six hundred six to
one to one. Yeah, because you know, Golden States at home.
Golden States the best third quarter team in all the basketball.

(02:22:07):
So heading in the fourth quarter, I I truly don't
think anybody saw what was coming coming, and uh, you
know it was reigning threes. And again give Boston credit,
they really pressured the ball and I think that bothered
Golden State, but it would have been about six to one.
Uh if they'd lose game too. Um, what happens to
the books then, because historically that's not gonna work out

(02:22:28):
well for Golden State at all. No, I think Boston
will become a prohibitive favorite, probably in the neighborhood of
minus three fifty minus four hundred. But you really still
can't count out the DNA Championship aspect of Golden State.
It's no longer the two three two format like it
was back in the day. I remember an O four.
I know I keep invoking this, but I feel like
there are comparisons here. But that was two three to

(02:22:48):
Kobe hit the uh the shot with two seconds to
go to send the game into overtime and Game two
and the Pistons headed home tied one one, where they
had the next three in the Palace, and Chauncey As
held the team meeting on the buses that we are
not going back to l A. And they didn't. But
that can't happen here, okay, as long as Golden State
can steal one game in Boston and the next year

(02:23:10):
they're coming back home. And as the series gets down,
it gets deeper, the ball gets a little heavier. Here's
when the experience steps in. I think those close out
games become very difficult. We keep hearing, you know, Golden
State had a hundred and twenty cumulative games for their
for their players and finals experience. Boston hand zero didn't
matter in game one. It will start to matter in

(02:23:30):
Game five and in game six. The only time it
didn't matter it was when Michael Jordan's Bulls had zero
finals experience. The Lakers had cumulative thirty five. Michael Jordan's
team one the Ronald Michael Jordan's in this series. Bernie,
I liked the over before the game started. Uh, to eight,
it's what I went up to. It was to fifteen.

(02:23:52):
I know they hit a lot of fourth quarter threes,
but our fourth quarter of threes, but they still only
had fifties six total or something like that. Um, do
you go with you over again or what? No? Actually,
Steve and I talked about this today. It's one of
his favorite players of the week. In the under fifteen
and a half. We don't think you're gonna see raining threes.
Ay're gonna change guys off the three point line. They're

(02:24:13):
gonna contest everything, no catchets in space. You'll see a
different type of a game. We believe Tomorrow night Fest
likes the under of two fifteen and a half and
again you want to kind of fade the public on
these things of the public has the over and whatnot
for nothing. Guys. I know this is not very cliche,
but in the history of the NBA Finals, if you've

(02:24:35):
been fading the public since h you're eight and well,
the public has eight and twelve in finals games number
one and their thirty nine and fifty five and all
finals games. That's defined as whenever there are six or
more tickets on one team, you go the other way.
In this case, there are seventy eight percent on the

(02:24:57):
on the goal of State Warriors. Now that goes counter
to what I just said, because I think Golden State's
gonna win. That doesn't mean they're going to cover the four. However,
we like the under. We think there's going to be
a lot of defense. Tomorrow night, berniey, what do you
have coming up for us in about a half hour?
Oh man, I got the pack show of all pack shows.
We're gonna take a real deep dive into what happened

(02:25:18):
in the NBA game. Want to have Mark Mdina on
where I want a preview game to pretty significantly, Uh,
talk about the Aaron Donald situation introduced everybody to Darvan Ham.
This Tennessee team fifty five and seven maybe the best
college world serious team of all time. They haven't won
anything yet, and I but I actually I've had some
people asked talk a little hockey. I'm gonna talk while

(02:25:38):
the Stanley Cup is the most prestigious trophy. And by
the way, there's some early top ten college rankings and
with O t a s full swing, we've identified the
most intriguing matchups of the NFL. In man, there's some
good ones, starting with Buffalo at l A week one.
And by the way, guys, not for nothing, I don't
want to be part of this argument, but I've always

(02:25:59):
believed there's a journalists. The definition of great is simple.
You're either way above average or way above normal in
most people's eyes, and whatever it is you do, and
that's sort of a generic average, you're great great to
everybody's subjective. But if you appear to be a way
above normal and way above average, you're probably great. Bernie.
And what you're setting yourself up for me to say
you're great? So we're looking forward to listening to you.

(02:26:19):
Uh in a half hour, brother see in Vegas. In
a couple of weeks of buying dinner at the most
expensive steakhouse. That's right. I told you to have anything
you want up to four bucks. Look all right, I
love that's that's Bernie Frotto. He sounds like about nine
hours of content for four hours. I'll take three steaks,

(02:26:40):
two to take home and one day you hear, please,
thank you? All right, you take the steaks, I'll take
the sacre. Let's bring in Steve one more time. Find
out yet again, what's trending? What's up? Steve? He referenced
the NFL season opener that Thursday night game in September
Buffalo l A. That of course would be the l
A Rams, the defending Super Bowl champs. And you should
know that the Ram schedule this year includes not only

(02:27:00):
the Buffalo Bills. The Rams will be playing at Dallas,
Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Green Bay. On New Year's Night,
there's a Rams versus Chargers game that technically as a
road game for the Rams in their own stadium, plus
the division games on top of that. Should be a
great season. Well, I've got a lot to update on
Mets and Dodgers, including something that we've never seen. It

(02:27:23):
was a nine to four Mets win. Well, it's three outs.
A go Freudian slip there. Sorry, it's a nine to
four Mets lead going to the ninth inning, and the
Dodgers starter tonight had his shortest doubting of his career.
Walker Bueller gave up a couple of early homers, lasted
only two and a third inning, so the Dodgers had
used six pictures. They wanted to use a position player

(02:27:46):
for the top of the ninth inning against the Mets Tonight.
Turns out it wasn't a lopsided enough game to be
able to legally use a non picture as a picture
in this game. There was a rule in the short
season a couple of years go. Apparently it's still a
rule that unless the games and extra innings, or it's
a lopsided score, you just can't willy nilly bring in

(02:28:07):
anybody to pitch. There has to be at least one
One report says a six run deficit. Another screenshot of
the rules says it has to be more than a
six run deficit either way. The Mets manager was ticked off,
of course, he always looks ticked off. A buck show.
Walter was motioning to either infielders or the umpires with
six fingers like, we're not We're not up by six

(02:28:30):
yet they can't do this. So there was a ten
minute delay in this game while the Dodgers talked about it,
and then this is the greatness of having the up
actually wired with a mic these days in baseball. He
was able to explain it to the crowd from the field,
so they warmed up a regular reliever. He came in.
He's just gotten his three outs and the bottom of
the ninth is about to start. With a nine four

(02:28:50):
Mets lead. Pete Alonso with his fifteen sixteenth home runs
of the year, he's up to fifty three r b
i's best in the National League. Trey Turner of the
Dodgers has a twenty six game hitting streak on the line.
He's over four with three strikeouts and may not bat
here in the bottom of the ninth. That's just beginning.
It's the eight, nine and one hitters in the order.
He bats third in the order, so unless for example,

(02:29:12):
Mookie Bets and Freddie Freeman get on in front of him,
Turner may not have a chance and therefore the hitting
streak would be over. Bets did have a three run
double earlier tonight, by the way, first batter has been retired,
the number eight hitter. The Dodgers opened the season with
a payroll of over three million dollars. If you see
that headline, keep in mind that that figure includes Trevor

(02:29:32):
Bauer that may be coming off the books. Teams have
to pay a luxury text if their payroll is over
two thirty millions. So far, only teams qualifying for having
to pay this year Dodgers and Mets, Yankees, of course
in Boston. Philadelphia as well, the team that just fired
its manager. Yes, but then they got to play the
Angels and beat him up. Last night's Philadelphia scored five

(02:29:54):
in the first tonight and beat the angel seven to two.
Angels have lost ten in a row and Mike trout
Is in an over twent three slump Atlanta in eleven
innings one six to two at Colorado St. Louis one
in ten at the Cubs to salvage a double header split.
In the opener for the Cardinals, Paul gold Schmidt had
a twenty five game hitting streak snapped as he went

(02:30:14):
over two with two walks. Update on pictures with Mets
and Dodgers. Mets are winning so many games without Degrominuzer
Jacob deGrom through his first bullpen session since March today,
trying to come back from the soldier shoulder injury. It's
only nineteen pitches. It was all fastballs, but baby steps
and Max Schers are recovering from an oblique strain. Says

(02:30:34):
he's okay after his dog bit his pitching hand. This
inies absolutely yeah, there have If we could go a
whole night on baseball injuries. Lefty pitcher Clayton Kershaw, coming
back from the back injury, is due to make his
minor league rehab start tomorrow in a ball. Infielder Max
Munsey started his rehab a triple a today late inning

(02:30:55):
wins from Miami, Washington and Pittsburgh Yankees one again, three
nothing over Detroit. Aaron Judge his twenty one home run
in the NHL. Colorado's up three games to none in
the West Final after winning four to at Edmonton. I
will say in the NHL, unlike other sports, four teams
have come back from an O three deficit in history

(02:31:16):
of hockey to win again a seven game series. Edmonton
will host Game four of the series Monday night, but
it's the Abs who are one and went away from
the Stanley Cup final. Each final continues tomorrow afternoon. NBA
finals have game to Sunday night. French Open final Raffael
Nadal is tomorrow morning our time. Women's number one Egas
Fiontec won the French Final sweeping Cocoa Golf today. And

(02:31:38):
there's a lot of people have been waiting for years
for the Grand Slam tennis tournaments to award equal prize money.
It has been, in a sense long time coming. But
the champions here at roll on garrels. For example, men's
and women's winners each get about two point three million
dollars for winning this Grand Slam, which should pay the
w NBA the same as the NBA. I think that'd
be perfect. Well, my point is that I do want

(02:32:02):
to see it happen, though, see but in tennis people
will buy equal price tickets to see Nadal or whomever
this past week, so I get that part. However, Nadal
has been playing four and five hour matches and some
classics this week, the number one ranked women's player who
just won the trophy today. The final lasted one hour

(02:32:23):
and eight minutes today and her semi final victory was
one hour and four minutes if you paid like two
hundred bucks or whatever it was for the final today,
in about an hour, it's done. That's it. Does that
mean there was no protesters this time? That's right. There
was no ten minutes to lay somebody tying themselves to
the net like we had in the NBA playoffs. But
it's just if anybody's familiar with the phrase, you know,

(02:32:46):
equal pay for equal work, there's just not equal work
going on here. That's the only thing. And finally, the
I did her odd sled dog that's in the news.
You may be familiar with the race across Alaska that
takes place, well, it already took place in March. There
was a dog that was found safe today that had
disappeared in the race from a checkpoint three months ago.

(02:33:10):
He was recovered nearly a hundred fifty miles away. This morning.
His musher, the driver from France, is picking up the dog,
Leon and hopes to return with him to France. Leon
went missing in March, escaped from a checkpoint, and a
couple of months later, some residence of another Alaskan city

(02:33:31):
reported that they'd seen this dog frequently near a cabin,
so they were leaving food for him in hopes of
catching him, and he was captured early today, safe alert
and skin. Was that funny. They just made him into
like a loafing dog. Doesn't want him. It's two outs

(02:33:56):
in the ninth. Freddie Freeman is up. Don't know if
Trade Turner is gonna get back to the dish, but
back to you. Thank you, Steve. Yeah, the I did
Rod dog Um. I feel like he made a break
forward Arney. It's like I'm tired of the snow. I'm
tired of the ice not made for this. All my

(02:34:16):
friends are hanging out, they're doing stuff. You're giving me
an opportunity at this checkpoint. I'm making a run for this.
I mean, if I was that dog, look man, I'm
not saying I would have ditched her, but I understand
to take it from Chris Rock. When we come back,
we will. We'll give you our prediction for Game two

(02:34:37):
of the NBA Finals. Also, there's an NFL player says
he stayed with an organization because he just wants to
chase the Super Bowl. And that dude plays for the
Cleveland Browns. We'll talk about that next. It's Fox Sports
Radio Finish it up, straight out of Vegas following us

(02:34:59):
with Ernie Freddo. Thanks to him for joining us as
well Mark Lillard earlier. Can't wait to get out there.
I bet they can wait for you to get out there.
I can't wait for those five dollar black jack tables.
Can't wait for that five dollar blackjack tables and a
four dollar steak. I know how to party, you do, alright,
So tease this before the break. I just want to

(02:35:22):
chase the super Bowl. That's why I resigned, and I
think we've got a good shot. That is Jedevian Clowney
explaining why he stayed with Cleveland him the most money. Correct,
That's that's how I read that, because, man, I'll tell you,
if the super Bowl was awarded in the summertime, the
Browns would have won two or three in the last

(02:35:44):
five or six years. Because this one is strong. Man
like to remember two years ago and and the year
that Freddie Kitchens was a coach. I first guess that
thing was gonna be a disaster. But you got Baker
Mayfield in front of g Q, got Mina Kimes at
ESPN doing this long form story. He had everybody at

(02:36:05):
the ringer falling over the Browns, and he said a
lot of people I like a lot, and they were
all just, oh, look at this. I mean, it's such
a great makeup. Look at this team, and look what
they've acquired. And I was just like, man, there's a
lot of volatable pizzas here and it's the Cleveland Browns.
What you should have said was there's a lot of
unfinished business. I mean a lot of unfinished business. So
I wanted to come back and see if we could

(02:36:27):
close that gap a little bit. But uh, you know,
that's what everybody usually says when they want to go
ahead and and uh, you know, give a reason why
they came back for the money. Yeah, look look good
for him, And I do think the Browns have a
decent team. And of course you've got to Shaun Watson
at some point. Eventually we're gonna find out from the
NFL exactly when you're gonna see him, how long he's

(02:36:48):
gonna miss and all of those kinds of things. You
got more allegations that have popped up in the last
week or so, so there's that's a that's a fluid situation.
But I look at that division. I don't know exactly
I feel like the Ravens are gonna be a lot
better this year than they were last year because they
had health issues. Cincinnati's got a tougher, much tougher schedule.

(02:37:09):
They had one of the easiest schedules in the league
a year ago. Now they moved to one of the
hardest schedules because they play a first place schedule and
they're gonna sneak up on absolutely nobody because of the
season that they just had and the Pittsburgh's got. I
don't know what Pittsburgh's gouts. I mean, Cleveland's gonna be
in the mix. I mean, Pittsburgh's gonna be decent outside
of I don't know what's gonna happen at quarterback. I
think Trabisky is all right, but just pick are gonna

(02:37:30):
end up taking that job? And what does that mean?
I don't know that they're a contender. They probably still
have a winning record because Tomlin finds a way. But
I don't look at the Browns like their Super Bowl contender.
That's the big question to me. Where's Baker Mayfield going
to end up and what kind of years are you
going to have. I still don't know what's gonna happen there,

(02:37:51):
So what's gonna happen in Game two of the NBA Finals,
by your estimation, or Game two is probably gonna be
what exactly we think is going to happen. Golden State's
gonna be hissed off after blowing that lead. They're gonna
come out, They're gonna get early lead. They'll put their
foot on the uh Celtics jugular. Give the Celtics credit,

(02:38:11):
they kind of hang in there, but I could see
Golden's Day winning the game by about ten. Yeah, that's
kind of where I'm at. I think. I think Clay
Thompson is gonna have a big night. Just he had
a quiet fifteen, very quiet fifteen. I just think he's
gonna be shooting lights out of basketball. I'm taking the
over in Steph Curry minutes. He's never gonna want to
come out of the game this time. You know, well,

(02:38:32):
he played thirty eight, Um, he'll play over forty probably
unless they're just dominating and they were able to do
something about it. But hey, last time they thought they
were dominating, they got outscored by twenty four in the
final frame and lost. So there's plenty of time the rest.
He doesn't need to go ahead and be pulled out
of the game, no question about it, aren't he It's
been uh, it's been fun in the last couple of weeks.

(02:38:54):
I guess you're not gonna be in with Torre, so
congratulations on dodging that bullet. I'm driving the main next
week for my wife's thirty fifth birthday, so I'm ready
to roll. That's a good that's good work. That's good
work by you know that. Yes, she is, absolutely she
is not a day over twenty five, not at all.
Frank Gore has retired. He's way older than twenty five.

(02:39:15):
Do you think he's a Hall of Famer? Yeah, I do.
I think I have to put him in, yes, id do.
Do you think it's the first ballot Hall of Famer?
Oh no, probably not first ballot, but I do think
he deserves it, all right, Yeah, I do too. I
still can't believe that he knocked somebody out in a
boxing wearing a couple of weeks ago. Bertie Frown is
gonna knock a lot of people out over the next
four hours. You don't want to go anywhere for Arnie.
M J. Mart We'll see you next week here on

(02:39:37):
Fox Sports Radio.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Fox Sports Radio News

Host

Jonas Knox

Popular Podcasts

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

The Joe Rogan Experience

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Jason Martin & Arnie Spanier talk NBA Finals and QB contracts!