June 1, 2023 • 49 mins
Ben Maller talks about the Denver Nuggets being a lock to beat the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals, Monty Williams changing his mind and taking a gigantic contract with the Pistons, Shannon Sharpe getting a buy-out agreement to walk away from ‘Undisputed’ and Aaron Rodgers giving the Packers the ultimatum, him or GM Brian Gutekunst.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, thanks for listening to the Ben Malers Show podcast.
It's me Ben. Be sure to catch us live every
weeknight from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three
am Pacific right here on Fox Sports Radio. You can
find your local station for the Ben Malers Show over
at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
And our lead this hour coming from pro Bouncy Ball.
In a previous episode of the show, we had one
of my favorite callers, Sean the Hood Guy, on and
Sean the Hood Guy was demanding an NBA Finals pick,
and I explained to Sean the Hood Guy, I have
four hours a night to fill on the show and
I had to wait till the proper time to release
the pick. And the one thing you need to hear
(00:51):
that will get you through your life is what the
blowhard on the radio thinks is going to happen in
the NBA Finals. But it twa was the middle of
the night before Game one of the NBA Finals, and
all was quiet on the Western front. As tonight, This
is our Thursday show tonight eight thirty pm Eastern six
(01:14):
thirty pm Mountain time. That's where Denver is located. The
Heat and the Nuggets will be bobbing and weaving in
a scheduled seven round heavyweight title fight. The winner gets
the championship little piece of metal, as a commissioner in
a different sport would call it, Are you excited? Eh? No,
(01:39):
I guess if you're a Nuggets fan, your ex said.
If you're a Heat fan, your ex said, everyone else neutral. Now,
a popular stereotype has held strong, and I get a
kick when these things take place, because they happen more
often than not. But a very popular stereotype of the
modern NBA is playing out in front of our eyes.
The line that has been used a million times, that's
(02:01):
a make or miss league. You've heard that before. And
it turns out that the two teams that will be
playing for the title are the two top jump shooting
teams in the playoffs. So all of the analysis, all
the breakdowns, all the rigamarour that gets tossed out in
the ethos, and it's just simply whoever makes the most
(02:23):
jump shots. That's it. It's a simple equation. It's not
that hard, and they're the only two teams left standing.
Denver and Miami. Now Game one has the Nuggets a
massive nine point favorite. They opened a six point favorite.
The popular opinion by popular people is that the Heat
will be flatter than an ironing board and that the
(02:46):
series will not really begin until Game two. That Game
one is going to be a route or a route
based on the fact that the seven game series happened
between Boston and Miami. But rather than just focus on
Game one, it is now time for the much talked about,
much anticipated Malard monologue that will tell you who will
win the NBA Finals. There is no reason, no reason.
(03:09):
Actually watch, We're gonna tell you who's gonna win. We're
gonna tell you how many games, the whole deal. All right,
So let's discuss the question. You phrased it already, But
who's going to win? Who is going to stand atop
the peak of the mountain after the NBA Finals? Will
it be they Heat or the Nuggets? You make the call.
(03:29):
So I've got barbershop, mosquitoes, and pontoon boat and we
will tie all of these things together, and that we
are going to make a long drawn out championship series.
So a as far as who we are picking, we
are going Chalky mcchalk in the NBA Finals. The Nuggets
(03:55):
are your NBA champion. They bring in the bling blank.
Now be ready for a nice outdoor parade in the
Rocky Mountain area coming up in the next couple weeks.
And I'll tell you why. So this is not brain surgery.
It's merely gas baggery, is what it is. But go
(04:17):
to the barber shop. You're gonna need a shave, right,
You need a shave at the barber shop, and I
recommend you pick Okham's razor, because that's what I picked,
Okham's razor. I was on the radio hours ago in
New Zealand with my friend Darcy Waldergrave. We were talking
about the NBA Finals and I explained, listen, don't outthink yourself.
A Denver is a juggernaut type of team right now,
(04:40):
the way they've been playing, and the card here is
the joker card the Nuggets. He is by far head
and shoulders better than anybody on Miami. And I love
Jimmy Butler, but the Nuggets have outscored their opponents by
one hundred and thirty points. When Nikola jokicch is on
the floor, He's played five hundred and eighty three minutes
(05:03):
so far in the playoffs, and when he's been out there,
Denver has been plus one point thirty. He has been
the most dominating force in the postseason. Do I see
that ending here? Not outside of injury. Now injuries, everything's
all bets are off. But he assuming he stays healthy,
everything goes through the Serbian stallion and you've got the
(05:26):
perfect wingman, Jamal Murray. The way these guys have played,
it's similar to a nice dish that goes together, like
the macaroni and the cheese. Perfect. Murray has upgraded his
game in the playoffs. So many of these guys in
the NBA downgrade their performance. We complain about it all
the time, guys that aren't as good in the big moment.
(05:47):
Jamal Murray has been the opposite. He's averaging twenty seven
point seven points per game here in the playoffs. That
is up from twenty points during the regular season. It's
the yin and the yang and Nikola Jokic has been
assisted by Murray forty eight times. Murray's been assisted by
Jokic thirty six times. So it's the two main game,
(06:08):
the two headed dragon for Denver, which has been getting
it done. That's what we're betting on. Those are the
most and second most assist from a player to a
single teammate in the playoffs. So that's been the most
dominating doing and that's how you end up in the
NBA Finals. Now on the other side, turning the page here,
page two, what gives the Nuggets concerned? Now I'm picking
(06:31):
Denver in six? But what gives Denver some pause here
when it comes to playing the Heat? So the first
thing is rather obvious. It's the tenacity of Miami. Say
what you will. We don't like the term Heat culture.
We're annoyed by that. It's been said too much. But
the Heat do play with gump shit. They are fundamentally sound,
(06:52):
and they have assembled a group of human mosquitoes that
are absolute pest, and they're a news on the court,
and that does wear down opponents. We've seen it throughout
the playoffs. Heere, Now, what's my evidence? Miami leads the
postseason in charges drawn per game, their second in deflections
(07:14):
per game. And I flashed back to when I was
around Phil Jackson years ago, and he used to talk
about hands on balls. Hands on balls, right, Kobe Bryant
did the same thing, but that's because of their spirit
animal in Jimmy buckets. Jimmy Butler thirty five steals. He's
gotten the playoffs ten more than any other player in
the postseason. He also leads the playoffs in total deflections.
(07:39):
So a lot of those numbers, a lot of those
numbers are based on the performance of one Jimmy Butler
leading the way in the Heat. If you don't screw
up and you make the other team have to make
shots to beat you, you can go further. The Heat
have committed almost a turnover and a half fewer per
game than they're in the road through the Eastern Conference
(08:03):
to the NBA Finals. That is the second best differential
in the playoffs. And you know you toss in as
an added bonus. But wait, there's more. The Snipers are
gonna snipe and they have taken a quantum leap. The
Miami Heat, who sucked at a time you could not
suck during the regular season, have corrected that blight on
their resume. The Heat of shot thirty nine percent from
(08:25):
three point range. That is the number one mark in
the postseason. They were twenty seventh out of thirty teams
in the regular season. So they've gone from twenty seven
to number one. That is impressive. That's the biggest leap
ever in the history of the sport. In the history
of the sport, we've never seen anything like this, So
(08:50):
how could I possibly go against that? Well, Denver's better
and I expect a regression to the mean.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Why.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I have learned over the years watching sport that extreme
outcomes are followed by very consistently moderate outcomes. And take
Caleb Martin for example. He's a great guy. Set up
for a crash and burn. Caleb Martin. What a great
story he was in the Eastern Conference finals, not if
you're a Celtic fan. But Caleb Martin has an effective
(09:20):
field goal percentage. I don't even know what that is,
but it sounds important of sixty eight point four percent.
If that holds, that would be the top mark in
NBA playoff history. We have never seen for anybody shot
one hundred and fifty field goal attempts. For more, we
have never seen anyone shoot the basketball more efficiently and
effectively than Caleb Martin. But the law of averages say
(09:44):
that he's not that good. He's not and that will change,
that will fall back down all right, last word, So
I keep looking at ways I can be wrong on this.
I'm picking Denver in six. But how can Miami neutralize
Nicola Yo? So the way I've determined here is to
go online and buy a voodoo doll and I'd like
(10:08):
to to poke with a pin the ankle. Maybe you'll
get a rolled ankle. And that's what Miami benefited from
with Jason Tatum. But in all seriousness, the one chink
and the armor is in the middle. NIKOLEA. Jokic from
mid range has not been good. In fact, he is
(10:30):
the second worst marksman in the mid range game among
players have attempted at least twenty five other shots in
the plus he's the second worst. That has been his
one week spot. So if you can keep him in
the midpoint, you got a shot. If you take a nap,
he'll kill you. As Jokic is shooting over forty seven
(10:51):
percent from three point range, the second best mark in
the entire NBA. The only guy that was better was
Devin Booker. And he's having a cocktail in cankon right now.
And the pressure is also on Bam on a bio.
Good luck, bring it up, Bam. Dribble, dribble, dribble, turn
it over. Now the other storyline, The final final point
(11:13):
here that I've read a lot about and you've probably
seen this is the altitude in Denver, a real edge
for the Nuggets. So I am shaking my head none. Now.
We had some fun with this. I was. I used
to have these guys that worked in the show, Roberto
and Coop. They don't really seem to work on the
show anymore, but they're Laker like guys, and I used
to bust their balls on that. I thought it was
fun because they got annoyed and they would react, and
(11:35):
so I would. I would had my tongue firmly planted
to my cheek while I was saying that. But despite
the preview rideouts, which is lazy River sports journalism, that
mile high altitude will be a little sarting factor. We
don't buy it. We're not buying that. I've heard this
my entire life. The only reason this is a thing
(11:57):
right now is because Dan, this is very hard to
figure out. Denver's actually got a good team. And I
look and over the years, I watched a lot of
Nuggets teams and Rockies and the Avalanche and the Broncos
and everyone in a while, I win the championship the
Avalanche of the Broncos. It's not like they're exactly hoarding titles, right.
I mean, maybe they are, and I just haven't been
(12:17):
paying attention. It's a lazy storyline. Visiting teams over the
years have figured out different ways to mitigate the altitude.
It's a factor, but there's all kinds of factors, right.
Guys have issues with their parents who are asking for money,
their cousins or their uncles, or their baby mamas or
their wives or whatever. There's all kinds of mitigating situations,
(12:41):
but variables to these things. But the only time it
ever seems to matter, the only time it's ever an
issue with the Rockies, the Nuggets, the Avalanche, and the Broncos.
The only time it matters is when they actually have
really talented teams, when they have elite rosters spoiler alert,
the Denver Nuggets this year. You could put a giant
(13:03):
pontoon boat out in the Indian Ocean, right in the
middle of the Indian Ocean and play basketball, and the
Nuggets would be really, really competitive and probably win the
whole thing because they happen to have players that are
playing better than most of the other teams players understand,
all right?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
In our lead this hour, coming from the coaching carousel,
another chair has been filled on the sidelines in the NBA.
The finals will begin tonight, but there is moving and
shaking as we head into the first day of June.
As we are all on the supersonic time machine and
(13:53):
way we go. All right, So, if you haven't heard
this Detroit basketball, maybe not my d Williams, the man
that had decided he did not want to coach in
the state of Michigan. Monty Williams has agreed to win
earth shattering contract to coach a basketball team, the Pistons,
(14:19):
And yeah, he's the next head coach. It's the same
job that Monty Williams reportedly rejected several weeks ago. We
are told that Williams receives, at the very minimum, a
six year contract for seventy eight point five million. Now,
keep in mind, Monty Williams will not score a point,
(14:39):
he will not grab a rebound, he will not steal
the pass, he will not have an assist. Seventy eight
point five million, he is the highest paid now head
coach in the history of the NBA, holy Phil Jackson
and Red Arbach Batman. He will replace Dwayne Casey, who
was forced out after five years at the end of
(15:01):
this past regular season. He was given a figurehead front
office position. Dwayne Casey because he's a good guy. They
like him. They think he's a terrible coach. So now
it's Monty Williams era in the Motor City. So there's
a big story. Let us discuss the question why did
Monty Williams have a change of heart on the Detroit
(15:22):
Piston coaching job. So I've got home, Depot, Cornfield, and
totem poll and we will combine all of these things
together and we are going to make a house the
size of the taj Mahll because you can afford any
kind of house you want with seventy eight point five million.
(15:44):
So to lead off here, Monty Williams, I give the
guy credit. Man, what a wonderful negotiation. He played hard
to get, but hard to get in my mind, I
don't think he was playing. This is not a good job.
Monty Williams was sitting on an oil reserve, and we
talked about this in a previous Mallet monologue. They made
a promo out of it. I was going ranting and raving,
(16:05):
going through the fact that he had already won the lottery,
that he was given Monty Williams the ultimate severance package,
that Monty Williams was going to get paid over twenty
million dollars from the Suns to sit on his fat
ass and not work. How wonderful would that be? Now?
I like to work, so for me it would be awkward.
(16:26):
I'd like the money, though. But Monty could sit on
a beach, any beach he wants, for a year or
two years, and possibly for the rest of his life
and enjoy the good life. But he ends up playing
this cat and mouse game. It's like they often say
in the dating game, the ones that play hard to
get are the ones that people want. And Monty Williams
(16:50):
played hard to get cat and mouse game with the Pistons.
The ownership group Tom Gores, I believe is the name
for Old the Michigan State guy who's the owner of
the Pistons, and he would not take no for an answer,
and he kept going, and it got higher and higher
and higher and higher, and Monty Williams ends up with
the home Depot special the Hammer, the Golden Hammer for
(17:15):
Monty Williams. WHOA. When the dust settles, this guy's contract
could end up reaching one hundred million dollars with incentives
one hundred million. So they're already give him seventy eight
point five million, but then if he actually is good,
they'll give him even more money. It includes team options
(17:35):
after the six year deal. Now, furthermore, how does the
path to winning big with the Pistons look in the
in the near future? So you got the micro and
the macro in the micro boyd does the forecast look bad?
Detroit is in a precarious situation. They're not the worst
of the worst. They just feel like the worst of
(17:57):
the worst. They're also not really anywhere close to contending status.
Detroit is on unstable footing. I've been told by management
if I talk too much about the Pistons, I'll lose
my job. But Monty Williams inherits a mess. He is
in slumlord territory, a well paid man at the very
(18:17):
top and a total slum He's overseeing if this was
a premier job. This is a premier job the Pistons.
It's better. Obviously. You don't need me to tell you this.
Every man, woman, and child knows the Pistons would not
have to pay a tariff a bounty to get a
name brand coach. The Pistons, even with Monty Williams, are
(18:41):
like a rat in a cornfield maze going blindly down
random pass trying to get the cheese. Now they have
some players that were highly decorated coming into the NBA,
a lot of undercooked ingredients. One of the reasons it's
not a great job. It's not even an average job.
It's a blow average job. Kate Cunningham and Jade and
(19:04):
Ivy are the blue chip backcourt. They hope that these guys,
it's hope, not reality, on a wing and a prayer
that these guys will turn into Steph Curry and Clay Thompson.
Good luck on that. Heck, you'd like to have Isaiah
Thomas and Joe Dumars, good luck on that. Neither as
close to sniffing all NBA status. You've then got flotsam
(19:25):
and jetsam to fill out the roster. Marvin Bagley and
James Weissman, a couple of lottery picks for Sacramento and
Golden State, respectively, who have failed. That's why they're not
playing for Sacramento in Golden State. If they were good,
they'd still be with those teams. And you've got a
lot of flim flam, so we anticipate Detroit. They'll also
(19:45):
have to make some other moves here and spend some money,
and they are relatively high draftic. They can make a trade,
make some kind of splash move to improve the roster
and get rid of some of these cast offs and leftovers.
The big takeaway here from this is simple. Everyone's got
their price. Monty Williams, he's got a space. Sorry, I
had twenty million. It's like, all right, how do I
turn twenty million into seventy eight and a half or
(20:08):
one hundred million? Ding ding ding ding nang, Yeah, you
did it. Congratulations. It's like pulling a rabbit out of
the hat. Manty Williams is willing to stick his head
in the microwave to coach a bunch of stiffs for
a king's ransom, and good luck.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
All right.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Parting shot thumbs up or thumbs down on Monty Williams
having a major impact on the Pistons turning things around.
It's gonna be there a while, So I am going
thumbs down. I am going thumbs down. This ain't the NFL.
Coaches are marginalized more in pro bouncy ball than any
(20:51):
o sport, with a close second being hockey and then baseball. Also,
baseball managers used to manage. They used to manage the
game based on feel of the game. Now they go
by the three ring binder. So it's essentially AI is
managing baseball teams and in basketball. Look at the Celtics
Joe Missoula. You think he was actually coaching the team
or you think he was just repeating. He was the middleman,
(21:13):
middle manager, repeating what they, the nerds, told him to do.
I'm going with the latter, but you can go with
the opposite if you want. But just in general, you're
coaching the Pistons, you're the low man on the totem pole.
That's where the dogs you're innate all over you, the
dregs of basketball society. And it's been that way for years.
(21:36):
There are very few exceptions. People will bring up the
Miami Heat and they'll say well, there's an exception, but
I would argue that Jimmy Butler is one of the
great players of this generation. And if you take him
out of the equation and put a middling player in
that Coach Spoe and the heat culture are not what
(21:59):
people are talking. Players rule the roost, they ride in
the pole position. And you know who knows that more
than anyone, Monty Williams, because when Monty Williams has had
terrible players, he's had losing records. When he's coaching the
New Orleans Pelicans, I guess they were the Hornets when
he coached them, then they became the Pelicans, But he
(22:19):
had years where they won twenty one games, twenty seven games,
thirty four games. You know why, they didn't have good players.
And then when he got good players, they had good records.
You think there's a connection. Possibly, you think that's a
that's a factor that you've got a weigh in here
that you could put anybody out there if you've got
(22:40):
a good team. And so Monty Williams himself gonna be
one hundred million dollar coach possibly now. The only wiggle
room he's got is that he's going to be making
more money than most of the players on the Pistons
likely and he'll be under contract longer than anyone on
the roster. But that only gets you so far. Over
the years, it has been a proven fact that coaches
(23:01):
do not matter much at all. In fact, the way
they mostly matter is getting in the way. See Doc
Rivers as an example. Right, if you have a championship
level roster, you will win because of the players. The
coach can medal, can only medal and get rid of
that that good vibration. Like Joe Mazzoula in Boston, Right,
(23:23):
let him play Joe. You know who also believes in
this theory, the various aristocrats that happen to own pro
bouncy ball teams. Ask the guy that owns the Milwaukee
Bucks who fired Mike Budenhozer a couple years after they
beat the championship and beat the Suns in the championship round,
or the Toronto Raptors who let go of Nick Nurse,
(23:44):
both of them excommunicated. There have been three coaches in
the last five six years that were on championship teams
supposedly that were let go. So the teams don't think
they matter that much, which makes us all the more outrageous,
like what are you doing? Was this just like a
urinating match and you had to win the owner of
(24:06):
the pistons like a piece of art and you're in
a bidding war and you have to get the piece
of art and the arts Monty Williams, whatever it takes,
My goodness, Dad zeus.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Hi, this is Jay Glazer.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
And you may know me for the world of football
or fighting or even shows like HBO's Ballers or you
don't know is for my entire life. I have lived
in something I refer to as the gray depression anxiety.
So now I'm coming out with a new podcast, Unbreakable,
a mental health.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Podcast with Jay Glazer, where each week, while we.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Talk about mental health, I hope to describe it, give
it words. Listen to Unbreakable with Jay Glazer on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
So our lead this hour come from this sports media world.
Big story in this world that I'm in, shake up
on the boob tube debate television is gonna look much
different soon enough. If you're a fan of debate television,
if you didn't see this, and news came out kind
(25:17):
of late in the day on Wednesday, so maybe you
missed it, we have learned that Shannon Sharp has quit
his television job. He's out, Shannon Sharp getting a buy
out agreement with Fox. He is leaving his long standing
position as the sidekick on Undisputed. The reason we're talking
(25:41):
about this story we're relatively confident it's true, is because
The New York Post, which is owned by a gentleman
named Rupert Murdoch, who also happens to own Fox Sports.
The New York Post tells us that mister Sharp his
final show is expected to be right after the two
three NBA Finals, so within a couple of weeks here
(26:04):
in the month of June, which we are in right now.
In addition, his fledgling podcast is also going to be
leaving as well as coming to obvious, they wouldn't keep
his podcast if they're getting rid of his TV show,
So Sharp and Skip Bayless. They've been together since twenty sixteen,
that partnership ending within a couple of weeks, so let
(26:27):
us discuss the question is rather obvious here. The question
is why why is Shannon Sharp leaving? Undisputed? What are
we doing here? All right? So I've got salamander. We
also have coattails and the always popular crystal ball, and
(26:54):
we will combine all of these things together and we
are going to make a very nice goal parachute, which
is what Shannon Sharp is going to get from the
people over there at Fox. They will take care of him.
So I'd just like to have that. I would like
to have what he's getting to leave. I would be
happy with that. So, first of all, I am fascinated
(27:16):
by this. Right, you got a good thing going. Both
these guys, Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharp get paid insane
amount of money and they have an easy job. And
you know how I know that I have an easy job.
In fact, what I do here, I believe is harder
than what they do, right it is. And they got
an even easier job than I have with all the
support staff they have and all that, and they create
(27:40):
much more buzz in social media then they do ratings.
But they have a lot of influence regardless of that.
And when you take a couple of steps back and
you're like, what are you doing? Right? And answer the
question why. The obvious answer here ising got personal and
(28:02):
Shannon Sharp could no longer handle it. He can't handle
debate television. That's my diagnosis that over the years, he's
done this a long time and he's just changed, and
he's undergone a mutation. He's grown a layer of salamander skin,
and all those barbs and all those shots that Skip
(28:24):
Bayless has thrown out suddenly Skips crossed the line. Now
it's personal. And I know from working with different people
over the years and different shows I've worked on at
different radio stations. There's a rule of thumb in broadcasting.
When you do a show with someone for a long time,
you generally end up hating them and you just don't
(28:46):
don't like them in the least. I mean that that
happens all the time in these type of jobs. That's
like your second relationship. But you're not sleeping with the
person in most of the cases, you're just working with them,
and people get under your skin and all that. And
that's that's the simple answer here, that Shannon Sharp just
didn't want to put up with the bull crap anymore.
(29:08):
And to do the job properly, you have to put
up with the bull crap and he can no longer
handle the bombastic bluster of Skip Bayless. And it turns
out the tabloids were right the story a couple months
ago that said there was legitimate bad blood that Shannon
Sharp almost quit. In fact, he did take a show
off after the Damar Hamlin story that Monday night game
(29:30):
between the Bengals and Bills, and Skip Bayless had gone
on an unfiltered rant on Twitter, and people were very
offended because Skip Bayless had said the game should should
go on and all that they can't cancel the game,
and so Shannon was upset by that and and he
almost quit that So likely what happened was the executive said,
(29:52):
I'm just spitballing here. They said, all right, guys, give
it another couple of months, let's see how it goes.
And so they've continued on for another what over half
a year they've done this year as we're into the
month of June, and they just didn't get any better
and Shannon Sharp unable to compartmentalize. So it is a
pathetic hitting. And this is not even up for debate.
(30:15):
You know, there's a dead give way that Shannon Sharp
despises Skip Bayless and it's real. What is my evidence?
All right, let's go to the social media. So Shannon
Sharp liked a tweet. Here's what the tweet said, and
it was regarding the breakup between Sharp and Skip Bayless.
This random person said their relationship got progressively worse over
(30:37):
the last two maybe three years because Skip fought for him,
meaning Shannon, to be on the show. But I feel
like Skip couldn't stand Shannon succeeding without and that's why
Skip was taking potshots on the air. That is a
comment that Shannon Sharp endorsed. Hell who Now, Secondly, how
(31:02):
will Shannon Sharp do on his own? So many people
think he's had this tremendous success and he doesn't need
Skip Bayless anymore. I'm going the other way. I think
that the favorite, if you're putting the gambling line up,
would be that he fades into the background, not into oblivion,
but he fades into the background. This is a questionable
(31:26):
career move. Even with the state of television the way
it is and everything's being watered down because there's so
many platforms, television, old school television, old school radio still
have a larger audience than the vast majority of podcasts,
for example, and you're making millions of dollars to talk
(31:46):
about Lebron, the Cowboys, and the Lakers. That's I think
that's all they talk about. I'm sleeping when that show's
on the air, but I think that's all they talk about.
And while Undisputed did not have a massive audience, as
we said, it was a bully pulpit, a big platform.
And I've always been amazed how the different debate shows,
(32:07):
back when Skip Bayless worked with Steven A. Smith and
now they've each got their own show, the number of
athletes that watch those debate shows and value what is
said on those shows to a level that is unrealistic.
They drove the conversation and so many of the meat
had players over the years who say nobody believed in us.
(32:30):
That's a direct result of an opinion that Bayless or
Smith had on television that they watched First Take or Undisputed,
and that was the opinion. But Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith,
our old morning guy, Steven A. These guys are the
godfathers of modern debate TV. Shannon Sharp got to ride
the coattails of Skip Bayless and good luck he took
(32:54):
advantage of it, and he guy's own footprint and we'll
see how far that footprint will take it him. It's
not impossible, it can be done, but the degree of
difficulty is insane. And I get the vibe that Shannon
Sharp wants his ass kiss. He wants to be around
(33:14):
people that do not question him or poke fun at him.
He's a very proud man, and he wants to continue
to give Lebron James massages and have pity parties when
the Lakers lose, and does not want to be overly
critical of them and listen, people change. He's no longer
cut out for that. And there's a lot of younger
(33:35):
fans that really love soft sports media and they worship
their jocksniffers, and so for that group of people, Shannon
Sharp he's an ex jock, so he scratches that itch.
And if he doesn't criticize anybody, that's great that people
will like that and they will enjoy there's an audience fit.
But it's a lot easier to do a podcast. The
(33:56):
daily grind of the business does end up chewing up
and spitting people out. You have to do roughly two
hundred and sixty shows. If you take away the weekends,
and I'm not factoring in holidays, but there's two hundred
and sixty days during the week without weekends, and then
take away the holidays vacation days, you're roughly at around
two hundred and forty shows you have to do if
(34:18):
you do a daily show. And so there's a lot
of a lot of takes, a lot of original takes.
Two hundred and forty or so shows. Podcasts are much shorter,
they are compact. They are often much easier to do
than live television or radio. That's just the reality. Now,
final thought, who replaces Shannon Sharp on Undisputed? All right,
(34:40):
here we go. Now we get to the good stuff.
So this is a fork in the road. It is
a golden opportunity to re energize Skip Bayless in the show.
Remember the key thing here, Skip Bayless is the key.
He's the starmaker, right, He's the star maker. It's the
star search and he's the one that does it. He
(35:02):
helped launch Stephen A. Smith into becoming what Steven A.
Smith has become. And he also pumped up the tires
on Shannon Sharp. So he's got a pretty good track record.
So who do they go with. They got to find
somebody that's got Rhino's skin embraces debate. So no sensitive
beetle brains need apply. They need not apply. So if
(35:24):
you crank up the old crystal ball here and you
make the call hiring the next Debate star, who are
the prime candidates? I am now in charge of hiring
the replacement of Shannon Sharp, Who do I go it?
So the first call I make is to Rob Parker,
(35:46):
my colleague here Fox Sports Tray. Rob is a firebrand.
He's worked with Skip Bayless at ESPN and Fox. He's
not currently on that show. He's doing some MLB network
stuff and some other TV stuff, But I would call him.
That's unlikely Rob would do it. And so at this
point he's got other stuff. He's moved on to other
TV people, but i'd call him now outside of Rob
(36:06):
park among the and you figure they're going to hire
a jock. Rob's not a Jockey's a sportswriter slash radio
TV guy. So if you're gonna hire a jock, here's
who I have on my big board. Scottie Pippin, No Tippin' Pippen.
Pippin has become a lunatic of late and that's great television.
(36:27):
He's become unhinged. He's neurotic with his opinions. There's a
bit of neurosis there. He has attacked everyone from Michael
Jordan on down. He's got the credentials because he was
on all those Bulls teams. Now I don't know if
he follows the other sports, so that could be a problem.
Another pro bouncy ball player, Paul Pierce. He doesn't seem
(36:51):
to care about anything. He'll say whatever he wants at
this point. And if you hire Paul Pierce, the great
thing about that you can have a couple of strippers
on set giving him lap dances while he's given the takes.
That'll dress up the show. How about Kwame Brown? What
do you think Kwame Brown? Now, Kwame Brown's not a
big name. He was the number one pick, but he
(37:11):
has had some epic rants. In fact, one of them
was against Shannon Sharp. And he has no filter. The
promise he likes to curse a lot. That's tough to
do on on television. You can't do it, but they
generally pooh pooh that. And then there's some other names,
Tom Brady, who will likely never work a day at Fox,
but he's under the Fox umbrella until he's not. Boy
(37:33):
Brady would be terrible with that, but he's a big name.
He's a big name you can go political if things
don't work out for President Trump, and he loves sports.
That would get some attention. Somebody did mention there's another name,
and I don't know that this is is anything to this,
but I had a friend bring up the name David
(37:54):
Portnoy from Barstool. There's some rumors that he's going to
be out at Barstool. But he's not an ext player though.
That's the problem, and they want to hire a player,
and that doesn't you know, typically they got to have
somebody who played the game and all that stuff. So
that's a problem for him. But U and of course
you can throw my hat in. Of course, I have
the coveted overnight shift here at Fox Sports Radio, so
(38:17):
it'd be very difficult for me to leave the empire
that we've built up here.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
So our lead this hour coming from football, and oh
what a wonderful story it is. Oh what a glorious
story it is. It involves the drama orama behind the
scenes involving Aridaers. So our lead coming from the frozen tundra,
(38:58):
and boy, I love stories like these. I don't know
if you do. But this is low hanging fruit. And
the most delicious fruit is the low hanging fruit. It
is the nectar of the gods. So the story involves
the ugly divorce between Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. They
didn't see this, it played out. We talked about it
seemingly daily on these microphones that I'm talking to right now.
(39:19):
So we are told that Aaron Rodgers attempted a power play,
power play with the cheeseheads, and the story was buried
behind a paywall on the athletic Rogers had a deputized
his agent, David Dunn, with a flame thrower, the old
(39:39):
blow torch there requesting via the agent, who is a
representative of the athlete, to talk to Mark Murphy. So
David done, the agent of Rogers contacted Mark Murphy, the
president of the Green Bay Packers, with a simple request.
He said, you know what that GM Brydon gudakunsk fire
his ass. And so this happened in early of twenty
(40:03):
twenty one, if you believe the reporting early of the
twenty twenty one offseason done, the agent contacted Murphy and said,
here's my mandate. I have a simple mandate. You either
fire guden Kuns or you trade Aaron Rodgers. Period. Stop.
That was the flamethrower in the end, at least right
away in twenty twenty one, and also in twenty twenty two,
(40:27):
the Packers president Mark Murphy said, go pound sand No no, no,
no no. So let us discuss the question, what is
your viewpoint on this report here about Aaron Rodgers making
demands of people losing their job via his agent. So
I've got my observations, You've got Marie Calendars, bottom dealing
(40:53):
and Aladdin, and we will combine all of these things
together and we are gonna make the Babba a cheesy
version of the Barbaga. Nooshe so number w Aaron Rodgers
pushing the boundaries. And it's like a child, right, little kid.
(41:15):
You know you did this when you were a kid.
If you have kids, they do it. You're trying to
see how far you can go, doesn't hurt to ask?
Aaron Rodgers believed that he had so much sway that
because the Packers' front office was run by Boso the Clown,
that he could get rid of Bozo the Clown clearly
(41:36):
frustrated with the methodical approach to the roster building, Aaron
Rodgers was baffled that they did not improve the core,
and so he raised Holy hell via his agent. You
mix that with an equal helping of the inflated ego,
all of the trappings of being a celebrity athlete, and
(41:58):
Rogers was testing the limits, considered himself on par with
Lebron James. Lebron James, how many coaches have lost their
jobs because of Lebron James over the years. There's a
trail of bodies from all the coaches that have been
whacked because Lebron didn't agree, or they were the fall
guy because the Lebron team did not win. But in
(42:19):
the NBA, if a big name player wants the general
manager or the coach fired, here's how it happened. The player,
via his agent contact contacts the team president and says,
you know, this guy's not that good. We should get
rid of this guy. I'd feel more comfortable with somebody else.
I think this guy should lose his job. And then
the team president says okay, hangs up the phone and
(42:42):
then texts the GM or the coach and says, your
ass is Grass, go to the Hoosgal, get out of here,
see you later. Now we have not gotten to that
point yet in the NFL. Things are headed that direction.
We haven't crossed the rubicon full yet. We've seen examples
(43:04):
of that kind of activity. Denver, for example, they gave
Russell Wilson a whole lot of power and then they
went out and took a ride on the Vomit comet
in the Mile High City football wise last year, but
Aaron Rodgers ends up dining at Marie Calendars in this story.
(43:25):
Instead of key lime pie or apple pie or strawberry pie,
Rogers had a big plate filled with humble Pie and
a La Mode. By the way, with the side of
reality check forced the sulk in Green Bay a little
while longer, in fact, I guess two full years longer
before he ultimately entered the transfer portal and got his
(43:47):
wish and ended up with the Jets. But it didn't
happen right away, and he had spent two more years
with the Packers. Now, second, who do you think, just
between me and you here, who do you think leaked
this story of Aaron Rodgers issuing an ultimatum. So this
is another one of my guilty pleasures. I love to
(44:07):
play the parlor game when a story gets out, who
leaked the story? And as a rule of thumb, we
always start by asking two basic questions, who stands the
game for the leak? And why would you leak now?
Why would you leak now? And if you follow the breadcrumbs,
I guess in this case, because we're talking about Wisconsin
(44:30):
and the packers, if you go to the dairy farm,
it's all that cheese, a little piece of cheese there,
the Limburger cheese. The Packers, they stand to benefit, don't they? Right?
In that obvious Mike Mark Murphy stood up against Aaron
Rodgers for two years, pushed back, and all Rogers got
was vapors. When he asked for change, he said no, no,
(44:52):
you're getting nothing, And Rogers shot for the moon and
got nothing. And so the Packers essentially said to Rogers
like them apples. And then only after Aaron Rodgers had
a down year, which he did in twenty twenty two.
He was not up to his standard at that point.
They got rid of him because he was showing signs
of falling apart. So as far as the why now,
(45:16):
on the face of it, my theory is because Rogers
is being smothered, smothered with love from the New York
media and the Jets, and he's no longer a packer problem.
So you go out, you hang the clothes line right
in the front of the team facility on Lombardy Drive.
I believe it's called I was there a couple of
(45:37):
years ago, and you air the dirty laundry. What does
Aaron Rodgers have to say about all this? Well, he
was asked, he was asked about the bottom dealing, and
when he was questioned about this about the demand for
the GM Brian Gooden Kootz to be fired. Aaron Rodgers,
what did he do? Did you say, yes, absolutely, I
did it and I would do it again, be no
(46:02):
comment or c he put up his deflector shield the answer.
C Rogers deflected the question to his agent. So then
the Athletic contacted Aaron Rodgers agent. Do you think the
agent then confirmed the story. B had no comment or
(46:24):
c didn't answer their phone, ding ding ding ding. Yet
see again did not answer the phone. So sleid of
hand using the plausible deniability, using that card from the
bottom of the deck. Now, final point, should should the
New York Jets GM the new sheriff in town as
(46:47):
Rogers has relocated to the I ninety five quarter? Should
the GM Joe Douglass there be looking over his shoulder
with Aaron Rodgers. So I am nodding my head. Yes,
this is a Faustian bargain, is what it is. Now?
The Johnson and Johnson ownership group. You take the temperature
(47:08):
in the room there, and the Johnson and Johnson ownership group,
they are willing to sacrifice just about anything. At this point.
They have tried almost everything, and they have mostly put
dog food teams on the field. So they want to
satisfy that limitless desire to actually have a good team,
a legitimately good team on the field. Again, it hasn't
(47:29):
happened a long time, and they've reached a lot of
low water marks, a lot of low water marks over
the years, and so they've given Aaron Rodgers a very
warm welcome. But Rogers has already shown his Colors. If
he's already done this, why would he not do it again?
He forced his way out, took a couple of years,
forced his way out of Green Bay. He was at
loggerheads with the front office. He wanted a team that
(47:52):
was more aggressive in free agency and all that. He
also wanted to be the one that was the boss.
Who's the boss? He wanted to wear the pants and
he found He found that with Gang Greek now in
New York, Joe Douglas, the GM there with the Jets.
He's got to pacify Rogers. We've already seen it that
(48:14):
the GM is the genie from Aladdin. Your wish is
my command. The Jets have added just about every ex
packer they can get their hands on. Alan Lazard, a
middling wide receiver that's overpay. Alan Lazar check Tim Boyle
(48:35):
backup quarterback. He blows, but he played with Rogers, and
Rogers likes him. We'll use our credit card. We'll bring
him in. Some tackle named Billy Turner. We don't even
know who that is. But he played with Aaron Rodgers
in Green Bay. And the biggest example of how Aaron
Rodgers is running the show, Randall Cobb washed up three
(49:00):
years ago, should be selling insurance somewhere, and he'll be
playing wide receiver for the Jets. I'm not surprised Nathaniel Hackett. Now,
you can't blame Aaron Rodgers for Nathaniel Hackett because he
was hired to woo whoo whoooo. He was hired to
woo Aaron Rodgers. We know that Hacket's at dingle Berry
(49:24):
and now he's the offensive coordinator. Good luck on that.
Those guys are a match made in heaven. And anybody
that played with Rogers, who Rogers got along with in Wisconsin,
is a made man. It's all part of the band
of Brothers and Rogers. He wants to get that trained
back on the tracks. Wants to bring everybody back, even
(49:45):
if they can't play anymore, bring him back. What can
go wrong, Nothing will go right to bring everybody back.
Hey, thanks for listening to the Ben Malers Show podcast.
It's me Ben. Be sure to catch us live every
weeknight from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three
am Pacific right here on Fox Sports Radio. You can
find your local station for the Ben Malers Show over
at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
And our lead this hour coming from pro Bouncy Ball.
In a previous episode of the show, we had one
of my favorite callers, Sean the Hood Guy, on and
Sean the Hood Guy was demanding an NBA Finals pick,
and I explained to Sean the Hood Guy, I have
four hours a night to fill on the show and
I had to wait till the proper time to release
the pick. And the one thing you need to hear
(00:51):
that will get you through your life is what the
blowhard on the radio thinks is going to happen in
the NBA Finals. But it twa was the middle of
the night before Game one of the NBA Finals, and
all was quiet on the Western front. As tonight, This
is our Thursday show tonight eight thirty pm Eastern six
(01:14):
thirty pm Mountain time. That's where Denver is located. The
Heat and the Nuggets will be bobbing and weaving in
a scheduled seven round heavyweight title fight. The winner gets
the championship little piece of metal, as a commissioner in
a different sport would call it, Are you excited? Eh? No,
(01:39):
I guess if you're a Nuggets fan, your ex said.
If you're a Heat fan, your ex said, everyone else neutral. Now,
a popular stereotype has held strong, and I get a
kick when these things take place, because they happen more
often than not. But a very popular stereotype of the
modern NBA is playing out in front of our eyes.
The line that has been used a million times, that's
(02:01):
a make or miss league. You've heard that before. And
it turns out that the two teams that will be
playing for the title are the two top jump shooting
teams in the playoffs. So all of the analysis, all
the breakdowns, all the rigamarour that gets tossed out in
the ethos, and it's just simply whoever makes the most
(02:23):
jump shots. That's it. It's a simple equation. It's not
that hard, and they're the only two teams left standing.
Denver and Miami. Now Game one has the Nuggets a
massive nine point favorite. They opened a six point favorite.
The popular opinion by popular people is that the Heat
will be flatter than an ironing board and that the
(02:46):
series will not really begin until Game two. That Game
one is going to be a route or a route
based on the fact that the seven game series happened
between Boston and Miami. But rather than just focus on
Game one, it is now time for the much talked about,
much anticipated Malard monologue that will tell you who will
win the NBA Finals. There is no reason, no reason.
(03:09):
Actually watch, We're gonna tell you who's gonna win. We're
gonna tell you how many games, the whole deal. All right,
So let's discuss the question. You phrased it already, But
who's going to win? Who is going to stand atop
the peak of the mountain after the NBA Finals? Will
it be they Heat or the Nuggets? You make the call.
(03:29):
So I've got barbershop, mosquitoes, and pontoon boat and we
will tie all of these things together, and that we
are going to make a long drawn out championship series.
So a as far as who we are picking, we
are going Chalky mcchalk in the NBA Finals. The Nuggets
(03:55):
are your NBA champion. They bring in the bling blank.
Now be ready for a nice outdoor parade in the
Rocky Mountain area coming up in the next couple weeks.
And I'll tell you why. So this is not brain surgery.
It's merely gas baggery, is what it is. But go
(04:17):
to the barber shop. You're gonna need a shave, right,
You need a shave at the barber shop, and I
recommend you pick Okham's razor, because that's what I picked,
Okham's razor. I was on the radio hours ago in
New Zealand with my friend Darcy Waldergrave. We were talking
about the NBA Finals and I explained, listen, don't outthink yourself.
A Denver is a juggernaut type of team right now,
(04:40):
the way they've been playing, and the card here is
the joker card the Nuggets. He is by far head
and shoulders better than anybody on Miami. And I love
Jimmy Butler, but the Nuggets have outscored their opponents by
one hundred and thirty points. When Nikola jokicch is on
the floor, He's played five hundred and eighty three minutes
(05:03):
so far in the playoffs, and when he's been out there,
Denver has been plus one point thirty. He has been
the most dominating force in the postseason. Do I see
that ending here? Not outside of injury. Now injuries, everything's
all bets are off. But he assuming he stays healthy,
everything goes through the Serbian stallion and you've got the
(05:26):
perfect wingman, Jamal Murray. The way these guys have played,
it's similar to a nice dish that goes together, like
the macaroni and the cheese. Perfect. Murray has upgraded his
game in the playoffs. So many of these guys in
the NBA downgrade their performance. We complain about it all
the time, guys that aren't as good in the big moment.
(05:47):
Jamal Murray has been the opposite. He's averaging twenty seven
point seven points per game here in the playoffs. That
is up from twenty points during the regular season. It's
the yin and the yang and Nikola Jokic has been
assisted by Murray forty eight times. Murray's been assisted by
Jokic thirty six times. So it's the two main game,
(06:08):
the two headed dragon for Denver, which has been getting
it done. That's what we're betting on. Those are the
most and second most assist from a player to a
single teammate in the playoffs. So that's been the most
dominating doing and that's how you end up in the
NBA Finals. Now on the other side, turning the page here,
page two, what gives the Nuggets concerned? Now I'm picking
(06:31):
Denver in six? But what gives Denver some pause here
when it comes to playing the Heat? So the first
thing is rather obvious. It's the tenacity of Miami. Say
what you will. We don't like the term Heat culture.
We're annoyed by that. It's been said too much. But
the Heat do play with gump shit. They are fundamentally sound,
(06:52):
and they have assembled a group of human mosquitoes that
are absolute pest, and they're a news on the court,
and that does wear down opponents. We've seen it throughout
the playoffs. Heere, Now, what's my evidence? Miami leads the
postseason in charges drawn per game, their second in deflections
(07:14):
per game. And I flashed back to when I was
around Phil Jackson years ago, and he used to talk
about hands on balls. Hands on balls, right, Kobe Bryant
did the same thing, but that's because of their spirit
animal in Jimmy buckets. Jimmy Butler thirty five steals. He's
gotten the playoffs ten more than any other player in
the postseason. He also leads the playoffs in total deflections.
(07:39):
So a lot of those numbers, a lot of those
numbers are based on the performance of one Jimmy Butler
leading the way in the Heat. If you don't screw
up and you make the other team have to make
shots to beat you, you can go further. The Heat
have committed almost a turnover and a half fewer per
game than they're in the road through the Eastern Conference
(08:03):
to the NBA Finals. That is the second best differential
in the playoffs. And you know you toss in as
an added bonus. But wait, there's more. The Snipers are
gonna snipe and they have taken a quantum leap. The
Miami Heat, who sucked at a time you could not
suck during the regular season, have corrected that blight on
their resume. The Heat of shot thirty nine percent from
(08:25):
three point range. That is the number one mark in
the postseason. They were twenty seventh out of thirty teams
in the regular season. So they've gone from twenty seven
to number one. That is impressive. That's the biggest leap
ever in the history of the sport. In the history
of the sport, we've never seen anything like this, So
(08:50):
how could I possibly go against that? Well, Denver's better
and I expect a regression to the mean.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Why.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I have learned over the years watching sport that extreme
outcomes are followed by very consistently moderate outcomes. And take
Caleb Martin for example. He's a great guy. Set up
for a crash and burn. Caleb Martin. What a great
story he was in the Eastern Conference finals, not if
you're a Celtic fan. But Caleb Martin has an effective
(09:20):
field goal percentage. I don't even know what that is,
but it sounds important of sixty eight point four percent.
If that holds, that would be the top mark in
NBA playoff history. We have never seen for anybody shot
one hundred and fifty field goal attempts. For more, we
have never seen anyone shoot the basketball more efficiently and
effectively than Caleb Martin. But the law of averages say
(09:44):
that he's not that good. He's not and that will change,
that will fall back down all right, last word, So
I keep looking at ways I can be wrong on this.
I'm picking Denver in six. But how can Miami neutralize
Nicola Yo? So the way I've determined here is to
go online and buy a voodoo doll and I'd like
(10:08):
to to poke with a pin the ankle. Maybe you'll
get a rolled ankle. And that's what Miami benefited from
with Jason Tatum. But in all seriousness, the one chink
and the armor is in the middle. NIKOLEA. Jokic from
mid range has not been good. In fact, he is
(10:30):
the second worst marksman in the mid range game among
players have attempted at least twenty five other shots in
the plus he's the second worst. That has been his
one week spot. So if you can keep him in
the midpoint, you got a shot. If you take a nap,
he'll kill you. As Jokic is shooting over forty seven
(10:51):
percent from three point range, the second best mark in
the entire NBA. The only guy that was better was
Devin Booker. And he's having a cocktail in cankon right now.
And the pressure is also on Bam on a bio.
Good luck, bring it up, Bam. Dribble, dribble, dribble, turn
it over. Now the other storyline, The final final point
(11:13):
here that I've read a lot about and you've probably
seen this is the altitude in Denver, a real edge
for the Nuggets. So I am shaking my head none. Now.
We had some fun with this. I was. I used
to have these guys that worked in the show, Roberto
and Coop. They don't really seem to work on the
show anymore, but they're Laker like guys, and I used
to bust their balls on that. I thought it was
fun because they got annoyed and they would react, and
(11:35):
so I would. I would had my tongue firmly planted
to my cheek while I was saying that. But despite
the preview rideouts, which is lazy River sports journalism, that
mile high altitude will be a little sarting factor. We
don't buy it. We're not buying that. I've heard this
my entire life. The only reason this is a thing
(11:57):
right now is because Dan, this is very hard to
figure out. Denver's actually got a good team. And I
look and over the years, I watched a lot of
Nuggets teams and Rockies and the Avalanche and the Broncos
and everyone in a while, I win the championship the
Avalanche of the Broncos. It's not like they're exactly hoarding titles, right.
I mean, maybe they are, and I just haven't been
(12:17):
paying attention. It's a lazy storyline. Visiting teams over the
years have figured out different ways to mitigate the altitude.
It's a factor, but there's all kinds of factors, right.
Guys have issues with their parents who are asking for money,
their cousins or their uncles, or their baby mamas or
their wives or whatever. There's all kinds of mitigating situations,
(12:41):
but variables to these things. But the only time it
ever seems to matter, the only time it's ever an
issue with the Rockies, the Nuggets, the Avalanche, and the Broncos.
The only time it matters is when they actually have
really talented teams, when they have elite rosters spoiler alert,
the Denver Nuggets this year. You could put a giant
(13:03):
pontoon boat out in the Indian Ocean, right in the
middle of the Indian Ocean and play basketball, and the
Nuggets would be really, really competitive and probably win the
whole thing because they happen to have players that are
playing better than most of the other teams players understand,
all right?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
In our lead this hour, coming from the coaching carousel,
another chair has been filled on the sidelines in the NBA.
The finals will begin tonight, but there is moving and
shaking as we head into the first day of June.
As we are all on the supersonic time machine and
(13:53):
way we go. All right, So, if you haven't heard
this Detroit basketball, maybe not my d Williams, the man
that had decided he did not want to coach in
the state of Michigan. Monty Williams has agreed to win
earth shattering contract to coach a basketball team, the Pistons,
(14:19):
And yeah, he's the next head coach. It's the same
job that Monty Williams reportedly rejected several weeks ago. We
are told that Williams receives, at the very minimum, a
six year contract for seventy eight point five million. Now,
keep in mind, Monty Williams will not score a point,
(14:39):
he will not grab a rebound, he will not steal
the pass, he will not have an assist. Seventy eight
point five million, he is the highest paid now head
coach in the history of the NBA, holy Phil Jackson
and Red Arbach Batman. He will replace Dwayne Casey, who
was forced out after five years at the end of
(15:01):
this past regular season. He was given a figurehead front
office position. Dwayne Casey because he's a good guy. They
like him. They think he's a terrible coach. So now
it's Monty Williams era in the Motor City. So there's
a big story. Let us discuss the question why did
Monty Williams have a change of heart on the Detroit
(15:22):
Piston coaching job. So I've got home, Depot, Cornfield, and
totem poll and we will combine all of these things
together and we are going to make a house the
size of the taj Mahll because you can afford any
kind of house you want with seventy eight point five million.
(15:44):
So to lead off here, Monty Williams, I give the
guy credit. Man, what a wonderful negotiation. He played hard
to get, but hard to get in my mind, I
don't think he was playing. This is not a good job.
Monty Williams was sitting on an oil reserve, and we
talked about this in a previous Mallet monologue. They made
a promo out of it. I was going ranting and raving,
(16:05):
going through the fact that he had already won the lottery,
that he was given Monty Williams the ultimate severance package,
that Monty Williams was going to get paid over twenty
million dollars from the Suns to sit on his fat
ass and not work. How wonderful would that be? Now?
I like to work, so for me it would be awkward.
(16:26):
I'd like the money, though. But Monty could sit on
a beach, any beach he wants, for a year or
two years, and possibly for the rest of his life
and enjoy the good life. But he ends up playing
this cat and mouse game. It's like they often say
in the dating game, the ones that play hard to
get are the ones that people want. And Monty Williams
(16:50):
played hard to get cat and mouse game with the Pistons.
The ownership group Tom Gores, I believe is the name
for Old the Michigan State guy who's the owner of
the Pistons, and he would not take no for an answer,
and he kept going, and it got higher and higher
and higher and higher, and Monty Williams ends up with
the home Depot special the Hammer, the Golden Hammer for
(17:15):
Monty Williams. WHOA. When the dust settles, this guy's contract
could end up reaching one hundred million dollars with incentives
one hundred million. So they're already give him seventy eight
point five million, but then if he actually is good,
they'll give him even more money. It includes team options
(17:35):
after the six year deal. Now, furthermore, how does the
path to winning big with the Pistons look in the
in the near future? So you got the micro and
the macro in the micro boyd does the forecast look bad?
Detroit is in a precarious situation. They're not the worst
of the worst. They just feel like the worst of
(17:57):
the worst. They're also not really anywhere close to contending status.
Detroit is on unstable footing. I've been told by management
if I talk too much about the Pistons, I'll lose
my job. But Monty Williams inherits a mess. He is
in slumlord territory, a well paid man at the very
(18:17):
top and a total slum He's overseeing if this was
a premier job. This is a premier job the Pistons.
It's better. Obviously. You don't need me to tell you this.
Every man, woman, and child knows the Pistons would not
have to pay a tariff a bounty to get a
name brand coach. The Pistons, even with Monty Williams, are
(18:41):
like a rat in a cornfield maze going blindly down
random pass trying to get the cheese. Now they have
some players that were highly decorated coming into the NBA,
a lot of undercooked ingredients. One of the reasons it's
not a great job. It's not even an average job.
It's a blow average job. Kate Cunningham and Jade and
(19:04):
Ivy are the blue chip backcourt. They hope that these guys,
it's hope, not reality, on a wing and a prayer
that these guys will turn into Steph Curry and Clay Thompson.
Good luck on that. Heck, you'd like to have Isaiah
Thomas and Joe Dumars, good luck on that. Neither as
close to sniffing all NBA status. You've then got flotsam
(19:25):
and jetsam to fill out the roster. Marvin Bagley and
James Weissman, a couple of lottery picks for Sacramento and
Golden State, respectively, who have failed. That's why they're not
playing for Sacramento in Golden State. If they were good,
they'd still be with those teams. And you've got a
lot of flim flam, so we anticipate Detroit. They'll also
(19:45):
have to make some other moves here and spend some money,
and they are relatively high draftic. They can make a trade,
make some kind of splash move to improve the roster
and get rid of some of these cast offs and leftovers.
The big takeaway here from this is simple. Everyone's got
their price. Monty Williams, he's got a space. Sorry, I
had twenty million. It's like, all right, how do I
turn twenty million into seventy eight and a half or
(20:08):
one hundred million? Ding ding ding ding nang, Yeah, you
did it. Congratulations. It's like pulling a rabbit out of
the hat. Manty Williams is willing to stick his head
in the microwave to coach a bunch of stiffs for
a king's ransom, and good luck.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
All right.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Parting shot thumbs up or thumbs down on Monty Williams
having a major impact on the Pistons turning things around.
It's gonna be there a while, So I am going
thumbs down. I am going thumbs down. This ain't the NFL.
Coaches are marginalized more in pro bouncy ball than any
(20:51):
o sport, with a close second being hockey and then baseball. Also,
baseball managers used to manage. They used to manage the
game based on feel of the game. Now they go
by the three ring binder. So it's essentially AI is
managing baseball teams and in basketball. Look at the Celtics
Joe Missoula. You think he was actually coaching the team
or you think he was just repeating. He was the middleman,
(21:13):
middle manager, repeating what they, the nerds, told him to do.
I'm going with the latter, but you can go with
the opposite if you want. But just in general, you're
coaching the Pistons, you're the low man on the totem pole.
That's where the dogs you're innate all over you, the
dregs of basketball society. And it's been that way for years.
(21:36):
There are very few exceptions. People will bring up the
Miami Heat and they'll say well, there's an exception, but
I would argue that Jimmy Butler is one of the
great players of this generation. And if you take him
out of the equation and put a middling player in
that Coach Spoe and the heat culture are not what
(21:59):
people are talking. Players rule the roost, they ride in
the pole position. And you know who knows that more
than anyone, Monty Williams, because when Monty Williams has had
terrible players, he's had losing records. When he's coaching the
New Orleans Pelicans, I guess they were the Hornets when
he coached them, then they became the Pelicans, But he
(22:19):
had years where they won twenty one games, twenty seven games,
thirty four games. You know why, they didn't have good players.
And then when he got good players, they had good records.
You think there's a connection. Possibly, you think that's a
that's a factor that you've got a weigh in here
that you could put anybody out there if you've got
(22:40):
a good team. And so Monty Williams himself gonna be
one hundred million dollar coach possibly now. The only wiggle
room he's got is that he's going to be making
more money than most of the players on the Pistons
likely and he'll be under contract longer than anyone on
the roster. But that only gets you so far. Over
the years, it has been a proven fact that coaches
(23:01):
do not matter much at all. In fact, the way
they mostly matter is getting in the way. See Doc
Rivers as an example. Right, if you have a championship
level roster, you will win because of the players. The
coach can medal, can only medal and get rid of
that that good vibration. Like Joe Mazzoula in Boston, Right,
(23:23):
let him play Joe. You know who also believes in
this theory, the various aristocrats that happen to own pro
bouncy ball teams. Ask the guy that owns the Milwaukee
Bucks who fired Mike Budenhozer a couple years after they
beat the championship and beat the Suns in the championship round,
or the Toronto Raptors who let go of Nick Nurse,
(23:44):
both of them excommunicated. There have been three coaches in
the last five six years that were on championship teams
supposedly that were let go. So the teams don't think
they matter that much, which makes us all the more outrageous,
like what are you doing? Was this just like a
urinating match and you had to win the owner of
(24:06):
the pistons like a piece of art and you're in
a bidding war and you have to get the piece
of art and the arts Monty Williams, whatever it takes,
My goodness, Dad zeus.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Hi, this is Jay Glazer.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
And you may know me for the world of football
or fighting or even shows like HBO's Ballers or you
don't know is for my entire life. I have lived
in something I refer to as the gray depression anxiety.
So now I'm coming out with a new podcast, Unbreakable,
a mental health.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Podcast with Jay Glazer, where each week, while we.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Talk about mental health, I hope to describe it, give
it words. Listen to Unbreakable with Jay Glazer on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
So our lead this hour come from this sports media world.
Big story in this world that I'm in, shake up
on the boob tube debate television is gonna look much
different soon enough. If you're a fan of debate television,
if you didn't see this, and news came out kind
(25:17):
of late in the day on Wednesday, so maybe you
missed it, we have learned that Shannon Sharp has quit
his television job. He's out, Shannon Sharp getting a buy
out agreement with Fox. He is leaving his long standing
position as the sidekick on Undisputed. The reason we're talking
(25:41):
about this story we're relatively confident it's true, is because
The New York Post, which is owned by a gentleman
named Rupert Murdoch, who also happens to own Fox Sports.
The New York Post tells us that mister Sharp his
final show is expected to be right after the two
three NBA Finals, so within a couple of weeks here
(26:04):
in the month of June, which we are in right now.
In addition, his fledgling podcast is also going to be
leaving as well as coming to obvious, they wouldn't keep
his podcast if they're getting rid of his TV show,
So Sharp and Skip Bayless. They've been together since twenty sixteen,
that partnership ending within a couple of weeks, so let
(26:27):
us discuss the question is rather obvious here. The question
is why why is Shannon Sharp leaving? Undisputed? What are
we doing here? All right? So I've got salamander. We
also have coattails and the always popular crystal ball, and
(26:54):
we will combine all of these things together and we
are going to make a very nice goal parachute, which
is what Shannon Sharp is going to get from the
people over there at Fox. They will take care of him.
So I'd just like to have that. I would like
to have what he's getting to leave. I would be
happy with that. So, first of all, I am fascinated
(27:16):
by this. Right, you got a good thing going. Both
these guys, Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharp get paid insane
amount of money and they have an easy job. And
you know how I know that I have an easy job.
In fact, what I do here, I believe is harder
than what they do, right it is. And they got
an even easier job than I have with all the
support staff they have and all that, and they create
(27:40):
much more buzz in social media then they do ratings.
But they have a lot of influence regardless of that.
And when you take a couple of steps back and
you're like, what are you doing? Right? And answer the
question why. The obvious answer here ising got personal and
(28:02):
Shannon Sharp could no longer handle it. He can't handle
debate television. That's my diagnosis that over the years, he's
done this a long time and he's just changed, and
he's undergone a mutation. He's grown a layer of salamander skin,
and all those barbs and all those shots that Skip
(28:24):
Bayless has thrown out suddenly Skips crossed the line. Now
it's personal. And I know from working with different people
over the years and different shows I've worked on at
different radio stations. There's a rule of thumb in broadcasting.
When you do a show with someone for a long time,
you generally end up hating them and you just don't
(28:46):
don't like them in the least. I mean that that
happens all the time in these type of jobs. That's
like your second relationship. But you're not sleeping with the
person in most of the cases, you're just working with them,
and people get under your skin and all that. And
that's that's the simple answer here, that Shannon Sharp just
didn't want to put up with the bull crap anymore.
(29:08):
And to do the job properly, you have to put
up with the bull crap and he can no longer
handle the bombastic bluster of Skip Bayless. And it turns
out the tabloids were right the story a couple months
ago that said there was legitimate bad blood that Shannon
Sharp almost quit. In fact, he did take a show
off after the Damar Hamlin story that Monday night game
(29:30):
between the Bengals and Bills, and Skip Bayless had gone
on an unfiltered rant on Twitter, and people were very
offended because Skip Bayless had said the game should should
go on and all that they can't cancel the game,
and so Shannon was upset by that and and he
almost quit that So likely what happened was the executive said,
(29:52):
I'm just spitballing here. They said, all right, guys, give
it another couple of months, let's see how it goes.
And so they've continued on for another what over half
a year they've done this year as we're into the
month of June, and they just didn't get any better
and Shannon Sharp unable to compartmentalize. So it is a
pathetic hitting. And this is not even up for debate.
(30:15):
You know, there's a dead give way that Shannon Sharp
despises Skip Bayless and it's real. What is my evidence?
All right, let's go to the social media. So Shannon
Sharp liked a tweet. Here's what the tweet said, and
it was regarding the breakup between Sharp and Skip Bayless.
This random person said their relationship got progressively worse over
(30:37):
the last two maybe three years because Skip fought for him,
meaning Shannon, to be on the show. But I feel
like Skip couldn't stand Shannon succeeding without and that's why
Skip was taking potshots on the air. That is a
comment that Shannon Sharp endorsed. Hell who Now, Secondly, how
(31:02):
will Shannon Sharp do on his own? So many people
think he's had this tremendous success and he doesn't need
Skip Bayless anymore. I'm going the other way. I think
that the favorite, if you're putting the gambling line up,
would be that he fades into the background, not into oblivion,
but he fades into the background. This is a questionable
(31:26):
career move. Even with the state of television the way
it is and everything's being watered down because there's so
many platforms, television, old school television, old school radio still
have a larger audience than the vast majority of podcasts,
for example, and you're making millions of dollars to talk
(31:46):
about Lebron, the Cowboys, and the Lakers. That's I think
that's all they talk about. I'm sleeping when that show's
on the air, but I think that's all they talk about.
And while Undisputed did not have a massive audience, as
we said, it was a bully pulpit, a big platform.
And I've always been amazed how the different debate shows,
(32:07):
back when Skip Bayless worked with Steven A. Smith and
now they've each got their own show, the number of
athletes that watch those debate shows and value what is
said on those shows to a level that is unrealistic.
They drove the conversation and so many of the meat
had players over the years who say nobody believed in us.
(32:30):
That's a direct result of an opinion that Bayless or
Smith had on television that they watched First Take or Undisputed,
and that was the opinion. But Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith,
our old morning guy, Steven A. These guys are the
godfathers of modern debate TV. Shannon Sharp got to ride
the coattails of Skip Bayless and good luck he took
(32:54):
advantage of it, and he guy's own footprint and we'll
see how far that footprint will take it him. It's
not impossible, it can be done, but the degree of
difficulty is insane. And I get the vibe that Shannon
Sharp wants his ass kiss. He wants to be around
(33:14):
people that do not question him or poke fun at him.
He's a very proud man, and he wants to continue
to give Lebron James massages and have pity parties when
the Lakers lose, and does not want to be overly
critical of them and listen, people change. He's no longer
cut out for that. And there's a lot of younger
(33:35):
fans that really love soft sports media and they worship
their jocksniffers, and so for that group of people, Shannon
Sharp he's an ex jock, so he scratches that itch.
And if he doesn't criticize anybody, that's great that people
will like that and they will enjoy there's an audience fit.
But it's a lot easier to do a podcast. The
(33:56):
daily grind of the business does end up chewing up
and spitting people out. You have to do roughly two
hundred and sixty shows. If you take away the weekends,
and I'm not factoring in holidays, but there's two hundred
and sixty days during the week without weekends, and then
take away the holidays vacation days, you're roughly at around
two hundred and forty shows you have to do if
(34:18):
you do a daily show. And so there's a lot
of a lot of takes, a lot of original takes.
Two hundred and forty or so shows. Podcasts are much shorter,
they are compact. They are often much easier to do
than live television or radio. That's just the reality. Now,
final thought, who replaces Shannon Sharp on Undisputed? All right,
(34:40):
here we go. Now we get to the good stuff.
So this is a fork in the road. It is
a golden opportunity to re energize Skip Bayless in the show.
Remember the key thing here, Skip Bayless is the key.
He's the starmaker, right, He's the star maker. It's the
star search and he's the one that does it. He
(35:02):
helped launch Stephen A. Smith into becoming what Steven A.
Smith has become. And he also pumped up the tires
on Shannon Sharp. So he's got a pretty good track record.
So who do they go with. They got to find
somebody that's got Rhino's skin embraces debate. So no sensitive
beetle brains need apply. They need not apply. So if
(35:24):
you crank up the old crystal ball here and you
make the call hiring the next Debate star, who are
the prime candidates? I am now in charge of hiring
the replacement of Shannon Sharp, Who do I go it?
So the first call I make is to Rob Parker,
(35:46):
my colleague here Fox Sports Tray. Rob is a firebrand.
He's worked with Skip Bayless at ESPN and Fox. He's
not currently on that show. He's doing some MLB network
stuff and some other TV stuff, But I would call him.
That's unlikely Rob would do it. And so at this
point he's got other stuff. He's moved on to other
TV people, but i'd call him now outside of Rob
(36:06):
park among the and you figure they're going to hire
a jock. Rob's not a Jockey's a sportswriter slash radio
TV guy. So if you're gonna hire a jock, here's
who I have on my big board. Scottie Pippin, No Tippin' Pippen.
Pippin has become a lunatic of late and that's great television.
(36:27):
He's become unhinged. He's neurotic with his opinions. There's a
bit of neurosis there. He has attacked everyone from Michael
Jordan on down. He's got the credentials because he was
on all those Bulls teams. Now I don't know if
he follows the other sports, so that could be a problem.
Another pro bouncy ball player, Paul Pierce. He doesn't seem
(36:51):
to care about anything. He'll say whatever he wants at
this point. And if you hire Paul Pierce, the great
thing about that you can have a couple of strippers
on set giving him lap dances while he's given the takes.
That'll dress up the show. How about Kwame Brown? What
do you think Kwame Brown? Now, Kwame Brown's not a
big name. He was the number one pick, but he
(37:11):
has had some epic rants. In fact, one of them
was against Shannon Sharp. And he has no filter. The
promise he likes to curse a lot. That's tough to
do on on television. You can't do it, but they
generally pooh pooh that. And then there's some other names,
Tom Brady, who will likely never work a day at Fox,
but he's under the Fox umbrella until he's not. Boy
(37:33):
Brady would be terrible with that, but he's a big name.
He's a big name you can go political if things
don't work out for President Trump, and he loves sports.
That would get some attention. Somebody did mention there's another name,
and I don't know that this is is anything to this,
but I had a friend bring up the name David
(37:54):
Portnoy from Barstool. There's some rumors that he's going to
be out at Barstool. But he's not an ext player though.
That's the problem, and they want to hire a player,
and that doesn't you know, typically they got to have
somebody who played the game and all that stuff. So
that's a problem for him. But U and of course
you can throw my hat in. Of course, I have
the coveted overnight shift here at Fox Sports Radio, so
(38:17):
it'd be very difficult for me to leave the empire
that we've built up here.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
So our lead this hour coming from football, and oh
what a wonderful story it is. Oh what a glorious
story it is. It involves the drama orama behind the
scenes involving Aridaers. So our lead coming from the frozen tundra,
(38:58):
and boy, I love stories like these. I don't know
if you do. But this is low hanging fruit. And
the most delicious fruit is the low hanging fruit. It
is the nectar of the gods. So the story involves
the ugly divorce between Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. They
didn't see this, it played out. We talked about it
seemingly daily on these microphones that I'm talking to right now.
(39:19):
So we are told that Aaron Rodgers attempted a power play,
power play with the cheeseheads, and the story was buried
behind a paywall on the athletic Rogers had a deputized
his agent, David Dunn, with a flame thrower, the old
(39:39):
blow torch there requesting via the agent, who is a
representative of the athlete, to talk to Mark Murphy. So
David done, the agent of Rogers contacted Mark Murphy, the
president of the Green Bay Packers, with a simple request.
He said, you know what that GM Brydon gudakunsk fire
his ass. And so this happened in early of twenty
(40:03):
twenty one, if you believe the reporting early of the
twenty twenty one offseason done, the agent contacted Murphy and said,
here's my mandate. I have a simple mandate. You either
fire guden Kuns or you trade Aaron Rodgers. Period. Stop.
That was the flamethrower in the end, at least right
away in twenty twenty one, and also in twenty twenty two,
(40:27):
the Packers president Mark Murphy said, go pound sand No no, no,
no no. So let us discuss the question, what is
your viewpoint on this report here about Aaron Rodgers making
demands of people losing their job via his agent. So
I've got my observations, You've got Marie Calendars, bottom dealing
(40:53):
and Aladdin, and we will combine all of these things
together and we are gonna make the Babba a cheesy
version of the Barbaga. Nooshe so number w Aaron Rodgers
pushing the boundaries. And it's like a child, right, little kid.
(41:15):
You know you did this when you were a kid.
If you have kids, they do it. You're trying to
see how far you can go, doesn't hurt to ask?
Aaron Rodgers believed that he had so much sway that
because the Packers' front office was run by Boso the Clown,
that he could get rid of Bozo the Clown clearly
(41:36):
frustrated with the methodical approach to the roster building, Aaron
Rodgers was baffled that they did not improve the core,
and so he raised Holy hell via his agent. You
mix that with an equal helping of the inflated ego,
all of the trappings of being a celebrity athlete, and
(41:58):
Rogers was testing the limits, considered himself on par with
Lebron James. Lebron James, how many coaches have lost their
jobs because of Lebron James over the years. There's a
trail of bodies from all the coaches that have been
whacked because Lebron didn't agree, or they were the fall
guy because the Lebron team did not win. But in
(42:19):
the NBA, if a big name player wants the general
manager or the coach fired, here's how it happened. The player,
via his agent contact contacts the team president and says,
you know, this guy's not that good. We should get
rid of this guy. I'd feel more comfortable with somebody else.
I think this guy should lose his job. And then
the team president says okay, hangs up the phone and
(42:42):
then texts the GM or the coach and says, your
ass is Grass, go to the Hoosgal, get out of here,
see you later. Now we have not gotten to that
point yet in the NFL. Things are headed that direction.
We haven't crossed the rubicon full yet. We've seen examples
(43:04):
of that kind of activity. Denver, for example, they gave
Russell Wilson a whole lot of power and then they
went out and took a ride on the Vomit comet
in the Mile High City football wise last year, but
Aaron Rodgers ends up dining at Marie Calendars in this story.
(43:25):
Instead of key lime pie or apple pie or strawberry pie,
Rogers had a big plate filled with humble Pie and
a La Mode. By the way, with the side of
reality check forced the sulk in Green Bay a little
while longer, in fact, I guess two full years longer
before he ultimately entered the transfer portal and got his
(43:47):
wish and ended up with the Jets. But it didn't
happen right away, and he had spent two more years
with the Packers. Now, second, who do you think, just
between me and you here, who do you think leaked
this story of Aaron Rodgers issuing an ultimatum. So this
is another one of my guilty pleasures. I love to
(44:07):
play the parlor game when a story gets out, who
leaked the story? And as a rule of thumb, we
always start by asking two basic questions, who stands the
game for the leak? And why would you leak now?
Why would you leak now? And if you follow the breadcrumbs,
I guess in this case, because we're talking about Wisconsin
(44:30):
and the packers, if you go to the dairy farm,
it's all that cheese, a little piece of cheese there,
the Limburger cheese. The Packers, they stand to benefit, don't they? Right?
In that obvious Mike Mark Murphy stood up against Aaron
Rodgers for two years, pushed back, and all Rogers got
was vapors. When he asked for change, he said no, no,
(44:52):
you're getting nothing, And Rogers shot for the moon and
got nothing. And so the Packers essentially said to Rogers
like them apples. And then only after Aaron Rodgers had
a down year, which he did in twenty twenty two.
He was not up to his standard at that point.
They got rid of him because he was showing signs
of falling apart. So as far as the why now,
(45:16):
on the face of it, my theory is because Rogers
is being smothered, smothered with love from the New York
media and the Jets, and he's no longer a packer problem.
So you go out, you hang the clothes line right
in the front of the team facility on Lombardy Drive.
I believe it's called I was there a couple of
(45:37):
years ago, and you air the dirty laundry. What does
Aaron Rodgers have to say about all this? Well, he
was asked, he was asked about the bottom dealing, and
when he was questioned about this about the demand for
the GM Brian Gooden Kootz to be fired. Aaron Rodgers,
what did he do? Did you say, yes, absolutely, I
did it and I would do it again, be no
(46:02):
comment or c he put up his deflector shield the answer.
C Rogers deflected the question to his agent. So then
the Athletic contacted Aaron Rodgers agent. Do you think the
agent then confirmed the story. B had no comment or
(46:24):
c didn't answer their phone, ding ding ding ding. Yet
see again did not answer the phone. So sleid of
hand using the plausible deniability, using that card from the
bottom of the deck. Now, final point, should should the
New York Jets GM the new sheriff in town as
(46:47):
Rogers has relocated to the I ninety five quarter? Should
the GM Joe Douglass there be looking over his shoulder
with Aaron Rodgers. So I am nodding my head. Yes,
this is a Faustian bargain, is what it is. Now?
The Johnson and Johnson ownership group. You take the temperature
(47:08):
in the room there, and the Johnson and Johnson ownership group,
they are willing to sacrifice just about anything. At this point.
They have tried almost everything, and they have mostly put
dog food teams on the field. So they want to
satisfy that limitless desire to actually have a good team,
a legitimately good team on the field. Again, it hasn't
(47:29):
happened a long time, and they've reached a lot of
low water marks, a lot of low water marks over
the years, and so they've given Aaron Rodgers a very
warm welcome. But Rogers has already shown his Colors. If
he's already done this, why would he not do it again?
He forced his way out, took a couple of years,
forced his way out of Green Bay. He was at
loggerheads with the front office. He wanted a team that
(47:52):
was more aggressive in free agency and all that. He
also wanted to be the one that was the boss.
Who's the boss? He wanted to wear the pants and
he found He found that with Gang Greek now in
New York, Joe Douglas, the GM there with the Jets.
He's got to pacify Rogers. We've already seen it that
(48:14):
the GM is the genie from Aladdin. Your wish is
my command. The Jets have added just about every ex
packer they can get their hands on. Alan Lazard, a
middling wide receiver that's overpay. Alan Lazar check Tim Boyle
(48:35):
backup quarterback. He blows, but he played with Rogers, and
Rogers likes him. We'll use our credit card. We'll bring
him in. Some tackle named Billy Turner. We don't even
know who that is. But he played with Aaron Rodgers
in Green Bay. And the biggest example of how Aaron
Rodgers is running the show, Randall Cobb washed up three
(49:00):
years ago, should be selling insurance somewhere, and he'll be
playing wide receiver for the Jets. I'm not surprised Nathaniel Hackett. Now,
you can't blame Aaron Rodgers for Nathaniel Hackett because he
was hired to woo whoo whoooo. He was hired to
woo Aaron Rodgers. We know that Hacket's at dingle Berry
(49:24):
and now he's the offensive coordinator. Good luck on that.
Those guys are a match made in heaven. And anybody
that played with Rogers, who Rogers got along with in Wisconsin,
is a made man. It's all part of the band
of Brothers and Rogers. He wants to get that trained
back on the tracks. Wants to bring everybody back, even
(49:45):
if they can't play anymore, bring him back. What can
go wrong, Nothing will go right to bring everybody back.
Host
Ben Maller
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