February 8, 2023 • 33 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon discuss the legacy LeBron James will leave behind once he retires, without a doubt he has been the most talked about athlete in sports radio, and so much more!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two a m Eastern seven to eleven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Fox
Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every night
on the I Heart Radio app by searching fs R.
(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Hello and welcome inside
the final hour side of the Jason Smith Show with
my best friend Mike Harmon. Bah from the ti iraq
dot com studios. Tiract dot com will help you get there.
An unmatched selection, fast free shipping, free road hazard protection,
(00:43):
and over ten thousand recommended installers. Tire rac dot com
the way tire buying should be. Well. We're awaiting Lebron
James postgame press conference. He has done interviews with t
N T. Wonder if he'll get any questions about the game. Up.
Lebron did a d N to do more tonight to
support you in in uh in this game for you
to to have beaten the thunder, Thanks Lebron. Hang up
(01:07):
and Lebron, if if you had had Kyrie Irving could
you have won this game and and maybe be a
big jump start for the rest of the season looking
the positive. If you scored a hundred thirty points tonight
as a team, Stephen the back. Hey, you scored that.
But but but you allowed boy, you you allowed so many. Uh.
(01:29):
Lebron James your all time leading score in NBA history,
doing it with a fade away jumper late in the
third quarter before you get into something to make you
feel really old. How did it sound? On the Lakers
Radio network John Ireland, who I've known for about fifteen
years now. Uh, he and I have to share a
great love of West wing and we talk about it
(01:50):
all the time, and we message each other with lines
that we hear and everything else. I was so proud
and happy for him for him to get in to
call that moment when Lebron James become the NBA all
time leading scorer. Here's John Ireland, Lakers Radio Network with
the call. Lets brook with it. Give it to Lebron
at the right elbow. Lebron one on one against kin
Rick Williams backing him in, Turns shoots Kan Town gother
(02:21):
round from one legnic Laker to another. There it is
Johnny I with a big call Lakers Radio Network. Uh,
some kind of call. I like that. Well, you know, look,
you gotta figure out what you want to say. You
know what, now your script now the scripted a scripted
call later? What did you want him? Just have it by? Hey?
(02:42):
There'dius speaking lebronment take you? Hey, I'm sorry? Is that
the record? Is that? The way is that is? I'm
trying to do the math? Was that thirty always got Oh,
that's why everybody's yelling at cheering. Hey, Lebron set the record. Everybody, Lebron,
every play by play guy knows what they want to
say an iconic mole. There's nobody who just wings it.
They all know what they want to say. You this
(03:04):
is oh the oh no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
The only guy who wouldn't know what he was gonna
say an iconic moment was Tony Romo. Romo is the
only guy who would have Jim Jim. I think he's
the all time leaders scored. Jim hang on, let me look,
he had thirty six to come into the game, right,
he had thirty four. He's got thirty six. Now I
know they stopped the game and they're congratulating. But maybe, Jim, Jim,
this is huge Jim. That's like, that's a huge Jim, Jim, Jim,
(03:28):
can you believe he's the all he's gonna go here?
Do you think he's gonna shoot it? Jim? He's got
two choices with the ball all the time. He can
pass it, well, he'sok, three choices. He can pass, he
can dribble, or he can shoot. And he shot the
ball so many times Jim that he's now the NBA's
all time leading scorer. Jim, how about that? Hey? And
that reminds me this great story I want to tell
you about Michael Jordan's who maybe the other greatest basketball
(03:48):
player ever? Jim, I tell you that story. A couple
of things over one, I grew up in Chicago, which
means I got Ken Harrilson and I got Harry Carry.
No chance in hell they scripted anything to carry was
too drunk. But there you go. You I I like
the call. I it's almost poetic the way he delivers it,
so I the Bourbonge is fantastic. It was a a
(04:12):
smile and a nod. The third is people are actually
ask him why wasn't Michael Jordan's there, It's like it's
not his damn record would record. It's like, why the
hell would he be there. He's got nothing to do
with any of this, and so that that was it
makes no sense. Kareem barely wanted to be there. Did
a great interview after the game though, but with the
(04:33):
crew and with Shack a couple of pretty cool moments there,
they didn't know what to ask him. They seemed kind
of scared as to how to approach it. But he's like,
harm you know, maybe harmon you should do on the
show with Kareem tonight. Uh, he's just gonna get the record.
Let's talk about the Knicks winning a big game. Let's
talk about that king total darkness, Let's do that. Let's
(04:56):
talk about some smooth jazz that. That's the one thing
that was really awkward about the broadcast was that, you know,
from the moment Kareem I told Jabbar walked into the
arena and he just didn't look like a guy who
wanted to be there, just looking around at all these
fans out of here. Every time they cut away to
him after a Lebron hooper a moment, no clapping, no
(05:18):
go get it Lebron. No, hey, no, it was none
of that. He finally had. I mean, I wonder if
someone told him and and and God's been said, dude, dude, dude,
you need to be happy. Whether the Lakers got him
there or not. We're paying you a lot of money
to come to this game and be dude, dude, you
need to be happy. So finally, like the third when
when he scored points thirty three and thirty four, hey
(05:40):
we got a little bit of a clap from Kareem.
And then afterwards it seemed okay. But boy, every time
they cut a weight, I'm going, oh, please stop cutting away.
He looks like the guy that it just doesn't want
Law and Order reruns. That's what I want. You leave
Law and Order reruns alone, especially the Jerry Orbach renditions.
But yeah, for for Kareem, it became just like the
(06:02):
Grammys and Ben Affleck. It's like, all right, what's the next?
Pained look on his face as we moved forward. Uh,
and finally after the game, right photo opportunities and smiles
and back and forth. And while it was awkward, some
good answers and conversation in the post game, but that
was as compelling oftentimes is what was going on in
(06:26):
the game of boy. I wish I could I could
hear the thoughts of Kareem like you know one of
those like in movies and television. It's like, all right,
there's the thought bubble, and now you hear the voice Homer, Quiet,
you fool. Money can be exchanged for goods and services.
You know that we could add that with Kareem. As
the points started to pile on. You know, Lebron may
(06:49):
have my scoring record, but could he pilot a plane
like Roger Murdoch? Could? I mean, I don't think he
can do that. You know what I mean? Miles I
flew at the miles I've flown to my record and
Lebron's not catching me through all of those miles. But
you want something serious now? To think about being old? Okay?
They think about being old is that there's not many
(07:11):
times where you can look back and you talk about
someone's career this long that you can say I remember right,
because a lot of times it's when you're young, uh,
you get a guy's career or look NFL careers. We
see NFL careers come and go because sometimes they're ten
there there they're ten years long. We just did it
with Brady and exactly right. But I remember, like I
(07:35):
vividly remember being on the air. Here this is about
being old, right, think about this. I was what was
it was debut two thousand. I was thirty two years old,
and I was filling in doing Days at Fox Sports Radio. Right.
My partner at the time has got named Jim Daniels.
We were on the air, we were doing nights, and
the show was doing really well. We got moved to
(07:57):
Days for a while and that was a lot of
fun and and we I remember doing the show the
day after Lebron's debut against the Kings. I remember the
conversation going in, like we had a fun topic going in, like, hey,
he's playing tonight, and we were like, what if he sucks?
Like all this the Lebron James and all this hype
and and the and him getting drafted in and the
(08:18):
whole thing with the hummer and and and and coming
out of high school and how great is he? And
should you have drafted Carmelo Anthony first and all of
these things. And I vivially remember going, what if he sucks?
What if he went and he has an unbelievable night, right.
I think he was twenty six, nine and six something
like that. But the but the Cavaliers lost to the Kings,
like he had unbelieve my twenty nine and six it was.
(08:38):
And the next day was like, well, he doesn't suck
a right. So I remember being on the air the
day after Lebron James made his debut again thirty two
years old. Now here I am fifty two years old,
on the air at Fox Sports Radio the night Lebron
sets the all time record in NBA history. It's insane.
I think about that, and I go, he said, well,
(08:58):
we're in the same place, right, I was doing Fox,
I'm doing Fox. He was playing the NBA. He's playing
the NBA. But boy, his entire career I remember, not
just in its entirety, but I have great memories of
it because I was an adult when it started. Because
if if Lebron, like a lot of people who are
now thirty seven, when his career started, you were seventeen,
do you really remember a lot of that When you're
(09:18):
seventeen now you doing other things, you're out at school,
you're getting ready to go to college, you know. But
being an adult and being thirty two and understanding, Okay,
this is out of the way the sports world works,
and seeing everything and seeing the evolution of Lebron from
being the next great big superstar player, maybe the next
Magic Johnson. Maybe he's better than that, Maybe he's the
next Jordan's look at him? Will his teams to the finals?
(09:40):
He can't win a finals. Now I'm leaving, I'm going
to the Heat. What is going on? How does he
leave his his hometown team and go to the Heat
And he goes and he wins a couple of titles,
and he goes back to Cleveland and he wins again,
and he leaves Cleveland and he goes to the Lakers
and he wins again. This entire journey that was dotted
with with all kinds of crazy things from uh from
(10:00):
triple doubles and and and Lebron setting all kinds of
records to hey, did you see this story that that
um Lebron Lebron's business partner wanted to to buy a
trinket that was that was sold erroneously sold at a
at a at a UM at a garage sale. And
it was a lot of controversy surrounding Lebron James, even
the most innocuous things that happened all throughout his career.
(10:22):
I remember that story and so many things from Lebron's
early career and what he had to overcome, which was
everybody loved him but right because he came into the
league and he was polarizing. He came in everybody loved him,
but he didn't come in like like Jordan where everybody
loved him right away, or like Kobe when he came
in everybody loved him and then Kobe got polarizing. It
was like Lebron. He came in and this was his thing.
(10:44):
I'm going to be a little bit polarizing, right. I
remember from from the first when there was that that
controversy when I brought up to the Hummer when his
mom took out a loan and got him a Hummer
for a present, right when he was still in high school,
and it was wait, wait a minute, where did you
get this money from? How did he get this money?
I don't understand. Something illegal happen. What agent gave him
(11:05):
cash for this? He was a really big deal. And
like two days later at practice for St. Vincent St. Mary's,
He's on the court and he's got a little toy
uhm V that he's that he's tooling around the court
with like one of those remote controlled things. So I
even back then, I remember, Oh, he's got a sense
of humor and he's somebody who's not gonna just let
stuff go or apologize for anything. And then when when
(11:27):
that's the kind of person. Yeah, there's gonna be people
that really like you, there's gonna be people that don't
like you, but everybody's gonna talk about you. Everybody's gonna
talk about you. And that's been Lebron and that's been
his great gift from the beginning of his career until now,
is that Michael Jordan was great. But did you have
a lot of controversy around him when he when he
was on his first couple of runs. No, he was
(11:48):
great and he won and can anybody beat him? Look
at the great performances. But Lebron is about more than that.
He's about the conversation. He was made for this time
in in in the world where social media blew up
and opened up and everybody's got an opinion on him,
and everybody thinks one thing about him, and and the
sheer amount of time We've spoke about him on the
(12:09):
radio and on TV the last twenty years. I'll tell
you what, We're really gonna miss him when he retires,
right because guys like Brady, Okay, Brady retires. Wow, we
just watched Brady retire. That's that's really too bad. We're
gonna miss Tom Brady. But you know what, there's other guy.
We're gonna talk about Joe Burrow, and we're gonna talk
about Patrick Mahomes. We're gonna talk about Josh Allen. We're
gonna talk about Aaron Rodgers. When the Jets win the
Super Bowl. You know, those new guys are gonna come
(12:30):
in and that. But who's gonna be that next guy
in the NBA? Right? Are we gonna talk about John
Morant like we talked about Lebron James? Probably not. We
talked about Luca like we talked about Lebron. Probably not.
The the sheer amount of attention that he has brought
and the time we have spent talking about him, I
can't even I can't even uh summit up over the
last two decades. Well, a lot of it goes to first,
(12:52):
I like how you tried to slip Derek Carr winning
a title with the Jets in and how we'll think
about Aaron Rodgers that he wasn't along for the ride.
Um nice, try uh that and it would be Derek Carr.
So the whole idea is erroneous at the outset. But
go back to that s I cover. Go back to
the coverage you just said. When he was in high school,
(13:14):
I remember my brother going to a pack Jim having
the opportunity to go watch me. He goes, dude, this
is different. It's different. Right. We grew up in Chicago,
so we watched the Rise of Jordan's We watched that,
and he went to that gym and standing room only
people fighting to try to just get a little bit
(13:34):
in the oxygen. He had a chance. He actually ran
into him as they were leaving. However, he positioned himself
and got to say what up and that whole thing.
But he's just like that whole atmosphere was a revelation
and we watched him through all of it. And you
don't have to like his stances on stuff. You don't
have to like some of the way he's played in
and out of the game and out of situations and
(13:58):
teams and everything else. But you have to respect the
longevity the work ethic that you don't have any huge
scandal that detached and look at Jordan's I mean, for
the most part Teflon. But there's still just those questions
of what the hell happened here here here where you
suspended when you went and became a double A player
for the White Sox. All like, those questions are always
(14:21):
going to linger and conspiracy theories of bounds. Other than
wondering aloud if he's part cyborg, right, if he is
in fact the cyborg or an alien, I don't know
that you have a lot of that with Lebron James.
You've just watched a guy that has been a peak
performer for two decades, the Evan flow, and that goes
back to the Durant conversation. You know, he's had only
(14:43):
two two thousand points season since he ain't catching that
record that there ain't no chance in hell he's catching
that eleven thousand points because at his current rate, he
would have to play like another ten years. That's a
that's assuming he's staying healthy or whatever. Else. For the
rest of these guys, you've got to go through ten
(15:06):
to fifteen years. I mean, look how quickly things happen
and guys flash and you get excited about I mean,
Nicola Yokich, we marvel, but that's become kind of commonplace.
We were not doing the ipop's like wow, that's that's
really some remarkable play. It's like, okay, cool. Yanna's same
thing is like you start looking for other people to
(15:26):
give m v p s already you're moved into that.
I will expect excellence, but are you gonna win on
a yearly basis? With Lebron, it's always been about you're
chasing the greats in one category or status or another.
And now the Lebron Jordan thingI rage as people wanted
to do, uh and the all time records here there
(15:46):
and and all over, the aggregation and the culmination of
a fantastic career. But to see people sustain excellence on
that level for that long, come on, man, that's blessed
watch it. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern,
seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
(16:09):
Heart Radio app Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show
with My best friend Mike Harmen Live from the ti
iraq dot com studios. And you know what's what's really cool.
I'm gonna tell you something right now that that tell
Alan at the Mets side for that Lebron James NBA
(16:33):
all time leading scorer UH with the fade away jumper tonight,
very Kobe esk making the fade away UH for the
points that pass Kareem abdul Jabbar on the all time
scoring list. And as part of what happens, you see
conversations come up tonight, you know, Jordan and Kobe, and
we'll talk about in a second, Oh boy, what would
they feel like after losing a game? But just something
(16:56):
that's really cool because I saw some people tweeting, UH.
One of the big trends as that boy wish really
wish Kobe could have been there tonight. We really missed
Kobe being there tonight. A lot of pictures of Kobe
and and Lebron out there, you know, shaking hands at
games and stuff. And you want to go back, you
you want to tell you want me tell you how
Kobe was really there tonight. You want you want something,
you want something that that's that's wild. The last tweet
(17:18):
that Kobe Bryant Ever had. His last tweet was congratulating
Lebron after Lebron passed him on the all time scoring list,
continuing to move the game forward at King James much respect,
my brother number thirty three, breaking Kobe's record. So you
say that Kobe wasn't there tonight, Yeah, look at him
(17:40):
right there. I just went. I went to his Twitter page.
I said, boy, yeah, I know, he's talked about it
and that's and I'm like stunned him going that was
that was his last tweet. Oh my god, that was
his last tweet. That's last week Kobe Ever had, congratulating
Lebron for passing him in the all time leading scoring list.
Crazy how it all intertwined, right, I Mean, we talked
about greatness and and certainly for Laker fans, it's one
(18:00):
of those, uh moments where you celebrated he's in a
Lakers uniform. But you think about Kobe, you think about Cap,
you think about all those guys that were on the
court tonight and what they meant for that organization, uh,
through the years, And I think that's kind of the
cool thing of the history. Lesson you got shocked back
in the studio helping you know, in the coverage there
(18:22):
on T and T, so it all ties together and
that tweet. You know, you and I were on air
when Kobe had his moment, right when that a final
barrage the sixty, and all our guys, instead of editing
highlights were dancing. And always I always remember it's like,
can you go back and get that shot? Please? Can
you go back and get that one that he just
(18:43):
hit instead of dancing past the window. But just all
of those moments and and this is always and you
and I are very upfront with our fandom, you know,
individual players and the respect or our teams from our
hometowns and alma maters and everything. Wear it on our sleeves. Uh.
Just the appreciation and love of the games, the chess,
(19:06):
mass matches that go on, games within games and everything.
And when you have records set like this, you have
that little my you know, in your mind's eye, you
you have the history lessons and all of those those
moments that you watch. For me, it was a lot
of watching sports, staying up late on a Saturday to
(19:27):
go do a card show on a Sunday morning, or
sitting around a lounge with a bunch of people watching
games in college and friends gathering like many will do
this Sunday to watch the Super Bowl, all of those things,
and to be able to say, hey, we're on air
when when this moment was captured, it's cool. I still
don't like the stopping of the game for speeches, but
(19:47):
you know, I'm an old man. I just I just
wanted to watch the game because because what if the
Lakers had gone on a phenomenal run after being down
that whole time? Tell me that whatn't have affected things?
Kill me? You have it? Watch the Laker game this
season without telling me, Hey, you know what, there's always
one Frostburg, There's always one. They did. They did win
(20:09):
twenty plus games this year. Has happened? Listen? They did?
And then they gave up ten or twelfth straight. Look?
Did this gets? This gets into what we talked about
about Lebron a few minutes ago, right that no matter
what Lebron does, it's polarizing everybody. Everybody. You see enough
people on Twitter time and look, and there's people having
(20:30):
fun with tweets tonight. Look, and I like coming out
and saying, Lebron, uh did you uh? Could you have
gotten more out of Russ tonight and maybe you could
have won the game? Just did you? I mean, I
know it's got to speaking Russ? Did you? What? What
do you think about that? I heard a lot of
booze when you set the all time record? Do you
think they were all for us? Are they booing rob
Oblinka for not getting h Kyrie Irving? Can you cancel
(20:53):
the b like? That's fun? Right? But you're likely to
play Thursday? You were Anthony Davis Lebron? Who was who
was more miserable tonight at the game? Was it? Was
it cap Or or was it Ben Affleck? At the Grammys?
Who do you think had war miserable time? Uh? But look,
there's having the fun like that being start. But there's
a lot of you can already see there's two camps
(21:15):
with Lebron. It's Lebron passing this record, and it's look
at the celebrating he did. Jordan's wouldn't celebrate like this.
Kobe wouldn't celebrate like this, not after a loss. They're
about it And look, is Lebron is motivated by winning
as he was early in his career. No he's not.
But the outcome of this game nobody cares, does anybody
(21:36):
remember do you know what the how Kareem's game when
he broke the scoring record with I don't know, were
you there? How is it game? There was kunch somebody
in the face. Frostburg's got it right there. I mean,
maybe that's why Cap had so many points. Hey, give
it to the guy with goggles, But that's Rambus. Now
(21:57):
do you think they were enhanced goggles to where he
the triangulation system there, which made the hook shot that
much more deadly? Eight seven? Pretty afterwards they were TV
twelve goggles. That's what he was wearing. But you already see. Oh,
I can't believe the celebration after the loss. The Lakers
needed this game. Nobody in the history of is gonna
(22:20):
remember this game. Nobody. No one's gonna remember. Yes, it'll
be in Hey, when Lebron broke the record in a
loss to the thunder. No one's gonna remember this game,
No one at all. You're gonna remember. You're gonna remember
Lebron making the shot. The picture that's already making its
way around that that the NBA put out is amazing
of him in mid air taking the shot and all
the camera phones trying to grasp it. The picture is amazing.
(22:42):
You remember him making the shot, you remember the celebration
him with Kareem and him dropping the F bomb. Right,
That's that's what it should be. But this game, all around,
this wasn't the last game of the regular season. The
Lakers are out of the playoffs. If Kobe Bryant had
set this record in a game where they lost, the
reaction would be, ah, you know, Kobe's mad. He wanted
to win a game he set the record in. But
(23:03):
now it's Lebron's fault for celebrating, whereas Jordan and Kobe
would be given a pass because hey, you know they
really wanted to win. Boy, And how does how about
his teammates didn't really pick him up. On a night
where these guys break the all time scoring record, nobody
picks him up. But for Lebron, it's all Look at Lebron,
why is he celebrating when they lost the game? They
know they're chasing the thunder in the standings and they
could have go into the game and then they could
(23:24):
have been a game out of eighth place. Oh, I
can't believe nobody cares about this game. For once, it's
okay to be about Lebron and be about breaking a record.
This is not about it. But again this goes to
the conversation. We have not talked about an athlete in
the last twenty years more than we talk about Lebron James,
and he hasn't been played the most popular game in
(23:44):
the world, which is football. We haven't talked We don't
talk about Tom Brady as much as Lebron. We ever
talked about farv for Aaron Rodgers or Albert pool Hols
or anybody else. We haven't talked about anybody. Well, they
don't play as many games, right with the Well, now
Lebron doesn't either. In the last couple of years. You
don't talk about anybody as much as we've talked about Lebron.
He is these these straw that stirs sports drink. Whether
(24:08):
you love him or hate it, you have an opinion.
You love what he did, you hate what he did
you you have an opinion about his last second shot
the night before. You open about him passing for a
last second shot the night before. These random games that
don't mean anything. You can't remember. It's I can't believe
Lebron did this or is not doing this. I mean
when he retires. When he retires, it's gonna be wow.
(24:29):
We had it great for like twenty some odd years.
We could there was always a Lebron story to talk about.
It's always Lebron. There's always Lebron thing we can get
into and sink our teeth into. And what's next for
him and what He's never boring And that's the thing
what you can really ask for, Hey, just don't be boring.
And Lebron is the furthest thing from it. Man, love
him or hate him, He's so much conversation, so much interest.
(24:50):
It's it's fantastic. Wow. But it's like when folks say, well,
the Cowboys aren't ever ever any good. I'm like, well,
but Jerry Jones is interesting and there are global brands,
so they play. So when folks get mad or do
account on how many times you talk about them or
or Rogers or Brady or Lebron, like, get over it.
It stirs the drink. Right, it's not a nondescript he
(25:13):
let's just talk about this for the sake of talking
about it. Now. Lebron moves the needle for a million
reasons because we're talking about greatness. We're talking about all
time numbers all time history. With Tom Brady, it's been
the same thing, but it was always about winning, all right,
is he going to play again? And if he does,
(25:33):
can he win? With Lebron we've kind of pushed the
winning thing to the side, right. We talk a lot
about the mechanics of trying to bring in more talent
to see if he can't make one more run. And
that's what the next forty eight hours are, right. We
got have this this moment in time, and now we
have forty eight hours before the trade deadline? Does he uh?
(25:54):
And can Clutch Sports convince the front office and ownership
it to pull the trigger on a deal? So it
goes right back into Lebron discussion. But now going back
to the shadow hand and GM as opposed to the
guy that just set the all time scoring record. And
we love to watch the incredible. That's why we watch sports. Right.
(26:16):
We all played as kids and then at some point
we weren't very good compared to the other kid, or
you got hurt, you stop growing, You didn't have the
same you know draw to it. Mom and dad didn't
have the money to push you into where you needed
to for different you know, club sports like kids play
now and whatever, and maybe some of those opportunities Wayne
(26:37):
or it's not as important. You know, you discover boys
or girls, you discover some other part that you want
to give some of your dedication to you, because that's
one of the tributes to Lebron and this is you know,
say what you will about taking a night off here
and there, and you know operations shut down on occasion.
You really have to bust your ass to keep going. J. J. Watt,
(26:59):
in his first to interviews this week, recently retired from
the NFL. It's like, yeah, I could probably do it
and get ready, but I'd have to start now, and
I don't want to start now right. I want to
take some time off. I want to be able to
go and just be for a minute before I consider
going back and playing. And I know that I can't
(27:19):
do that if I take the time off now. Lebron
James is that guy as well. Yeah, you might see
him in a floaty and and shunning you and your
your your locale at the pizza place there Smith, But
in the end, you know he's back at the gym.
Why coues he shows he's back in the gym, Damnit,
He's telling you what it takes to be great. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show
(27:41):
with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm
Pacific Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with My
bas friend Mike Harmon a live from the Tirac dot
com studios. Time now for the Play of the night,
brought to you by Progressive. Progressive making things even easy year.
They'll help you bundle your home and car insurance together
(28:02):
so you can save on both. Learn more at Progressive
dot com or Callgressive. Well, yeah, you know what the
play of the night's gonna be. But coming up in
the second after you hear it a different angle on
the play of the night from somebody that you're gonna
be surprised to hear just how they reacted to this.
(28:22):
To the end of the third quarter, Lebron James has
shot at history stands alone. Scoring record now belongs to
Lebron James. Shoot it so there it is on t
(28:44):
n T. There's your call. Lebron is the all time
leading scorer in NBA history. They stopped the game. Creem
Abdul Jabbar wakes up for a couple of minutes. Is
able to congratulate Lebron smile for the first time all night,
and then Lebron takes to the microphone own and gives
a very heart felt speech that ends with, well a
F bomb. Everybody has ever been a part of this
(29:06):
wrong with me the last twenty years, twenty plus years.
I just want to say, I thank you so much
because I wouldn't be me without y'all. All y'all help,
all y'all passionate, all y'all sacrifices helped me get to
this point and to the NBA, to Adam Silver, to
the late great Davis Starr, Thank you guys so much
for allowing me to be a part of something I've
always dreamed about and I would never ever in a
(29:29):
million years dreamt this even better than what it is. Tonice,
so man, thank you guys. So you think that was
a planned F bomb? Like? Do you think he planned
on saying it just because he wanted to? Oh? I
don't know. There was a prop bet on it that
I saw people saying that it really was. I did
if he dropped an F bomb, really that he would curse. Wow,
(29:51):
I didn't know you could bet on that. Will I
give you bet on anything. I guess, but wow, I
didn't know that. What were the odds I could have made?
I don't know. I've looked at that. I didn't know
who I saw it. Mentioned a couple of spots where
people won, but they didn't say what odds they got
on it. So we've seen this game, we've talked about it,
we've talked about this this basket from a number of
different perspectives. But something that's just starting to get some
(30:13):
attention right now. Video has surfaced from the Lakers tunnel
of what it looked like when Lebron James hit the
fade away jumper that broke the scoring record. Anthony Davis
is coming back out from the tunnel and getting worked on.
He had a rough night. He had a bad night,
you can see in this. In his post game he said,
(30:33):
we gotta get wins. That's what it's all about. And
this is the possession that Lebron is break going to
break the record on. Anthony Davis comes back to the bench.
Everybody is standing holding and these are his teammates are
standing holding cameras getting vidit and Anthony Davis just walks
by everybody and sits down on a chair and Lebron
(30:55):
hits the shot and everybody starts going crazy. They're yelling,
fist pumping, and he just sits on the chair and
doesn't even move, and then he very grudgingly gets up,
like ten fifteen seconds later. So A B I get
the a DS going over. But he comes and he
sits on He sits on the bench and he doesn't
even stand up and clapped the all time scoring record. Yeah,
(31:18):
these guys love each other, right, they're they're in it together,
right Lebron and maybe he doesn't a lot about Russ
after that. I didn't see that one. Oh man, it's insane.
Just look look at the video. He just walks back
really slow and he sits down and the record. Everybody's
standing up, but he's just sitting there like he I
don't know me. I think Kareem was more excited when
(31:39):
the record was broken than Anthony Davis wasn't. That's hard
to do. That's really hard to consider. The cutaways we
saw of Kareem all night during this game. Yeah, it's
it's pretty amazing. Everybody standing there. You saw how many
of the teammates got out onto the court as soon
as they could. The video from behind where everybody's on
their feet and hands go up and he's screaming and
(32:02):
and he's still sitting down. That that's pretty damning right there,
Like whoa so made? Something's going on here? Everything else
here's one Anthony Davis looks pretty fed up. In the
postgame press conference, Lebron calls Rob Polinka, Hey, this guy
didn't stand up for my back. We can trade him
(32:24):
by Thursday, right, We we can make that move, can
we can? We get somebody else? I gotta get him
out of here. And he didn't stand up and clap
for me. Let's get him out. So some wondering is
he okay? How hurt is he? The rest of him
saying he's a salty blankety blank trading? I mean that's
really something, man. I mean there's video Lebron with his
(32:44):
art after he broke the record talking to him telling
me he loves him as a teammate, and a d
is just kind of looking at again. Yeah yeah, yeah,
oh yeah. I think the new chapter about this relationship
is going to be written here over the next forty
eight hours. I mean, he doesn't he just sits out
and then when he bakes, he's like, now I gotta
stand up again. All right, that's great. All right, Well,
(33:05):
I guess if if Cap can stand up, I can too.
I guess all right, I'll just I'll do it. That's fine.
You got well, you didn't think it would be all
happy all night? Come on now, just you think you
would at least clap when he sets the record, the
guy that brought him to the team. They won a championship.
Just remember, in the photo from behind Lebron shot that
(33:26):
is going around the world, there's only one guy that
doesn't have a phone up to take a recording of it,
which means everybody caught every frame of everybody's reaction. Nothing
to see here, guys. All day Mike had Swollen Delmar
(33:46):
Best of podcast goes up on iTunes and ten minutes
all our big coverage of the big night for Lebron is.
They're coming up next my buddy Ben mallor Fox
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two a m Eastern seven to eleven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Fox
Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every night
on the I Heart Radio app by searching fs R.
(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Hello and welcome inside
the final hour side of the Jason Smith Show with
my best friend Mike Harmon. Bah from the ti iraq
dot com studios. Tiract dot com will help you get there.
An unmatched selection, fast free shipping, free road hazard protection,
(00:43):
and over ten thousand recommended installers. Tire rac dot com
the way tire buying should be. Well. We're awaiting Lebron
James postgame press conference. He has done interviews with t
N T. Wonder if he'll get any questions about the game. Up.
Lebron did a d N to do more tonight to
support you in in uh in this game for you
to to have beaten the thunder, Thanks Lebron. Hang up
(01:07):
and Lebron, if if you had had Kyrie Irving could
you have won this game and and maybe be a
big jump start for the rest of the season looking
the positive. If you scored a hundred thirty points tonight
as a team, Stephen the back. Hey, you scored that.
But but but you allowed boy, you you allowed so many. Uh.
(01:29):
Lebron James your all time leading score in NBA history,
doing it with a fade away jumper late in the
third quarter before you get into something to make you
feel really old. How did it sound? On the Lakers
Radio network John Ireland, who I've known for about fifteen
years now. Uh, he and I have to share a
great love of West wing and we talk about it
(01:50):
all the time, and we message each other with lines
that we hear and everything else. I was so proud
and happy for him for him to get in to
call that moment when Lebron James become the NBA all
time leading scorer. Here's John Ireland, Lakers Radio Network with
the call. Lets brook with it. Give it to Lebron
at the right elbow. Lebron one on one against kin
Rick Williams backing him in, Turns shoots Kan Town gother
(02:21):
round from one legnic Laker to another. There it is
Johnny I with a big call Lakers Radio Network. Uh,
some kind of call. I like that. Well, you know, look,
you gotta figure out what you want to say. You
know what, now your script now the scripted a scripted
call later? What did you want him? Just have it by? Hey?
(02:42):
There'dius speaking lebronment take you? Hey, I'm sorry? Is that
the record? Is that? The way is that is? I'm
trying to do the math? Was that thirty always got Oh,
that's why everybody's yelling at cheering. Hey, Lebron set the record. Everybody, Lebron,
every play by play guy knows what they want to
say an iconic mole. There's nobody who just wings it.
They all know what they want to say. You this
(03:04):
is oh the oh no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
The only guy who wouldn't know what he was gonna
say an iconic moment was Tony Romo. Romo is the
only guy who would have Jim Jim. I think he's
the all time leaders scored. Jim hang on, let me look,
he had thirty six to come into the game, right,
he had thirty four. He's got thirty six. Now I
know they stopped the game and they're congratulating. But maybe, Jim, Jim,
this is huge Jim. That's like, that's a huge Jim, Jim, Jim,
(03:28):
can you believe he's the all he's gonna go here?
Do you think he's gonna shoot it? Jim? He's got
two choices with the ball all the time. He can
pass it, well, he'sok, three choices. He can pass, he
can dribble, or he can shoot. And he shot the
ball so many times Jim that he's now the NBA's
all time leading scorer. Jim, how about that? Hey? And
that reminds me this great story I want to tell
you about Michael Jordan's who maybe the other greatest basketball
(03:48):
player ever? Jim, I tell you that story. A couple
of things over one, I grew up in Chicago, which
means I got Ken Harrilson and I got Harry Carry.
No chance in hell they scripted anything to carry was
too drunk. But there you go. You I I like
the call. I it's almost poetic the way he delivers it,
so I the Bourbonge is fantastic. It was a a
(04:12):
smile and a nod. The third is people are actually
ask him why wasn't Michael Jordan's there, It's like it's
not his damn record would record. It's like, why the
hell would he be there. He's got nothing to do
with any of this, and so that that was it
makes no sense. Kareem barely wanted to be there. Did
a great interview after the game though, but with the
(04:33):
crew and with Shack a couple of pretty cool moments there,
they didn't know what to ask him. They seemed kind
of scared as to how to approach it. But he's like,
harm you know, maybe harmon you should do on the
show with Kareem tonight. Uh, he's just gonna get the record.
Let's talk about the Knicks winning a big game. Let's
talk about that king total darkness, Let's do that. Let's
(04:56):
talk about some smooth jazz that. That's the one thing
that was really awkward about the broadcast was that, you know,
from the moment Kareem I told Jabbar walked into the
arena and he just didn't look like a guy who
wanted to be there, just looking around at all these
fans out of here. Every time they cut away to
him after a Lebron hooper a moment, no clapping, no
(05:18):
go get it Lebron. No, hey, no, it was none
of that. He finally had. I mean, I wonder if
someone told him and and and God's been said, dude, dude, dude,
you need to be happy. Whether the Lakers got him
there or not. We're paying you a lot of money
to come to this game and be dude, dude, you
need to be happy. So finally, like the third when
when he scored points thirty three and thirty four, hey
(05:40):
we got a little bit of a clap from Kareem.
And then afterwards it seemed okay. But boy, every time
they cut a weight, I'm going, oh, please stop cutting away.
He looks like the guy that it just doesn't want
Law and Order reruns. That's what I want. You leave
Law and Order reruns alone, especially the Jerry Orbach renditions.
But yeah, for for Kareem, it became just like the
(06:02):
Grammys and Ben Affleck. It's like, all right, what's the next?
Pained look on his face as we moved forward. Uh,
and finally after the game, right photo opportunities and smiles
and back and forth. And while it was awkward, some
good answers and conversation in the post game, but that
was as compelling oftentimes is what was going on in
(06:26):
the game of boy. I wish I could I could
hear the thoughts of Kareem like you know one of
those like in movies and television. It's like, all right,
there's the thought bubble, and now you hear the voice Homer, Quiet,
you fool. Money can be exchanged for goods and services.
You know that we could add that with Kareem. As
the points started to pile on. You know, Lebron may
(06:49):
have my scoring record, but could he pilot a plane
like Roger Murdoch? Could? I mean, I don't think he
can do that. You know what I mean? Miles I
flew at the miles I've flown to my record and
Lebron's not catching me through all of those miles. But
you want something serious now? To think about being old? Okay?
They think about being old is that there's not many
(07:11):
times where you can look back and you talk about
someone's career this long that you can say I remember right,
because a lot of times it's when you're young, uh,
you get a guy's career or look NFL careers. We
see NFL careers come and go because sometimes they're ten
there there they're ten years long. We just did it
with Brady and exactly right. But I remember, like I
(07:35):
vividly remember being on the air. Here this is about
being old, right, think about this. I was what was
it was debut two thousand. I was thirty two years old,
and I was filling in doing Days at Fox Sports Radio. Right.
My partner at the time has got named Jim Daniels.
We were on the air, we were doing nights, and
the show was doing really well. We got moved to
(07:57):
Days for a while and that was a lot of
fun and and we I remember doing the show the
day after Lebron's debut against the Kings. I remember the
conversation going in, like we had a fun topic going in, like, hey,
he's playing tonight, and we were like, what if he sucks?
Like all this the Lebron James and all this hype
and and the and him getting drafted in and the
(08:18):
whole thing with the hummer and and and and coming
out of high school and how great is he? And
should you have drafted Carmelo Anthony first and all of
these things. And I vivially remember going, what if he sucks?
What if he went and he has an unbelievable night, right.
I think he was twenty six, nine and six something
like that. But the but the Cavaliers lost to the Kings,
like he had unbelieve my twenty nine and six it was.
(08:38):
And the next day was like, well, he doesn't suck
a right. So I remember being on the air the
day after Lebron James made his debut again thirty two
years old. Now here I am fifty two years old,
on the air at Fox Sports Radio the night Lebron
sets the all time record in NBA history. It's insane.
I think about that, and I go, he said, well,
(08:58):
we're in the same place, right, I was doing Fox,
I'm doing Fox. He was playing the NBA. He's playing
the NBA. But boy, his entire career I remember, not
just in its entirety, but I have great memories of
it because I was an adult when it started. Because
if if Lebron, like a lot of people who are
now thirty seven, when his career started, you were seventeen,
do you really remember a lot of that When you're
(09:18):
seventeen now you doing other things, you're out at school,
you're getting ready to go to college, you know. But
being an adult and being thirty two and understanding, Okay,
this is out of the way the sports world works,
and seeing everything and seeing the evolution of Lebron from
being the next great big superstar player, maybe the next
Magic Johnson. Maybe he's better than that, Maybe he's the
next Jordan's look at him? Will his teams to the finals?
(09:40):
He can't win a finals. Now I'm leaving, I'm going
to the Heat. What is going on? How does he
leave his his hometown team and go to the Heat
And he goes and he wins a couple of titles,
and he goes back to Cleveland and he wins again,
and he leaves Cleveland and he goes to the Lakers
and he wins again. This entire journey that was dotted
with with all kinds of crazy things from uh from
(10:00):
triple doubles and and and Lebron setting all kinds of
records to hey, did you see this story that that
um Lebron Lebron's business partner wanted to to buy a
trinket that was that was sold erroneously sold at a
at a at a UM at a garage sale. And
it was a lot of controversy surrounding Lebron James, even
the most innocuous things that happened all throughout his career.
(10:22):
I remember that story and so many things from Lebron's
early career and what he had to overcome, which was
everybody loved him but right because he came into the
league and he was polarizing. He came in everybody loved him,
but he didn't come in like like Jordan where everybody
loved him right away, or like Kobe when he came
in everybody loved him and then Kobe got polarizing. It
was like Lebron. He came in and this was his thing.
(10:44):
I'm going to be a little bit polarizing, right. I
remember from from the first when there was that that
controversy when I brought up to the Hummer when his
mom took out a loan and got him a Hummer
for a present, right when he was still in high school,
and it was wait, wait a minute, where did you
get this money from? How did he get this money?
I don't understand. Something illegal happen. What agent gave him
(11:05):
cash for this? He was a really big deal. And
like two days later at practice for St. Vincent St. Mary's,
He's on the court and he's got a little toy
uhm V that he's that he's tooling around the court
with like one of those remote controlled things. So I
even back then, I remember, Oh, he's got a sense
of humor and he's somebody who's not gonna just let
stuff go or apologize for anything. And then when when
(11:27):
that's the kind of person. Yeah, there's gonna be people
that really like you, there's gonna be people that don't
like you, but everybody's gonna talk about you. Everybody's gonna
talk about you. And that's been Lebron and that's been
his great gift from the beginning of his career until now,
is that Michael Jordan was great. But did you have
a lot of controversy around him when he when he
was on his first couple of runs. No, he was
(11:48):
great and he won and can anybody beat him? Look
at the great performances. But Lebron is about more than that.
He's about the conversation. He was made for this time
in in in the world where social media blew up
and opened up and everybody's got an opinion on him,
and everybody thinks one thing about him, and and the
sheer amount of time We've spoke about him on the
(12:09):
radio and on TV the last twenty years. I'll tell
you what, We're really gonna miss him when he retires,
right because guys like Brady, Okay, Brady retires. Wow, we
just watched Brady retire. That's that's really too bad. We're
gonna miss Tom Brady. But you know what, there's other guy.
We're gonna talk about Joe Burrow, and we're gonna talk
about Patrick Mahomes. We're gonna talk about Josh Allen. We're
gonna talk about Aaron Rodgers. When the Jets win the
Super Bowl. You know, those new guys are gonna come
(12:30):
in and that. But who's gonna be that next guy
in the NBA? Right? Are we gonna talk about John
Morant like we talked about Lebron James? Probably not. We
talked about Luca like we talked about Lebron. Probably not.
The the sheer amount of attention that he has brought
and the time we have spent talking about him, I
can't even I can't even uh summit up over the
last two decades. Well, a lot of it goes to first,
(12:52):
I like how you tried to slip Derek Carr winning
a title with the Jets in and how we'll think
about Aaron Rodgers that he wasn't along for the ride.
Um nice, try uh that and it would be Derek Carr.
So the whole idea is erroneous at the outset. But
go back to that s I cover. Go back to
the coverage you just said. When he was in high school,
(13:14):
I remember my brother going to a pack Jim having
the opportunity to go watch me. He goes, dude, this
is different. It's different. Right. We grew up in Chicago,
so we watched the Rise of Jordan's We watched that,
and he went to that gym and standing room only
people fighting to try to just get a little bit
(13:34):
in the oxygen. He had a chance. He actually ran
into him as they were leaving. However, he positioned himself
and got to say what up and that whole thing.
But he's just like that whole atmosphere was a revelation
and we watched him through all of it. And you
don't have to like his stances on stuff. You don't
have to like some of the way he's played in
and out of the game and out of situations and
(13:58):
teams and everything else. But you have to respect the
longevity the work ethic that you don't have any huge
scandal that detached and look at Jordan's I mean, for
the most part Teflon. But there's still just those questions
of what the hell happened here here here where you
suspended when you went and became a double A player
for the White Sox. All like, those questions are always
(14:21):
going to linger and conspiracy theories of bounds. Other than
wondering aloud if he's part cyborg, right, if he is
in fact the cyborg or an alien, I don't know
that you have a lot of that with Lebron James.
You've just watched a guy that has been a peak
performer for two decades, the Evan flow, and that goes
back to the Durant conversation. You know, he's had only
(14:43):
two two thousand points season since he ain't catching that
record that there ain't no chance in hell he's catching
that eleven thousand points because at his current rate, he
would have to play like another ten years. That's a
that's assuming he's staying healthy or whatever. Else. For the
rest of these guys, you've got to go through ten
(15:06):
to fifteen years. I mean, look how quickly things happen
and guys flash and you get excited about I mean,
Nicola Yokich, we marvel, but that's become kind of commonplace.
We were not doing the ipop's like wow, that's that's
really some remarkable play. It's like, okay, cool. Yanna's same
thing is like you start looking for other people to
(15:26):
give m v p s already you're moved into that.
I will expect excellence, but are you gonna win on
a yearly basis? With Lebron, it's always been about you're
chasing the greats in one category or status or another.
And now the Lebron Jordan thingI rage as people wanted
to do, uh and the all time records here there
(15:46):
and and all over, the aggregation and the culmination of
a fantastic career. But to see people sustain excellence on
that level for that long, come on, man, that's blessed
watch it. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern,
seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
(16:09):
Heart Radio app Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show
with My best friend Mike Harmen Live from the ti
iraq dot com studios. And you know what's what's really cool.
I'm gonna tell you something right now that that tell
Alan at the Mets side for that Lebron James NBA
(16:33):
all time leading scorer UH with the fade away jumper tonight,
very Kobe esk making the fade away UH for the
points that pass Kareem abdul Jabbar on the all time
scoring list. And as part of what happens, you see
conversations come up tonight, you know, Jordan and Kobe, and
we'll talk about in a second, Oh boy, what would
they feel like after losing a game? But just something
(16:56):
that's really cool because I saw some people tweeting, UH.
One of the big trends as that boy wish really
wish Kobe could have been there tonight. We really missed
Kobe being there tonight. A lot of pictures of Kobe
and and Lebron out there, you know, shaking hands at
games and stuff. And you want to go back, you
you want to tell you want me tell you how
Kobe was really there tonight. You want you want something,
you want something that that's that's wild. The last tweet
(17:18):
that Kobe Bryant Ever had. His last tweet was congratulating
Lebron after Lebron passed him on the all time scoring list,
continuing to move the game forward at King James much respect,
my brother number thirty three, breaking Kobe's record. So you
say that Kobe wasn't there tonight, Yeah, look at him
(17:40):
right there. I just went. I went to his Twitter page.
I said, boy, yeah, I know, he's talked about it
and that's and I'm like stunned him going that was
that was his last tweet. Oh my god, that was
his last tweet. That's last week Kobe Ever had, congratulating
Lebron for passing him in the all time leading scoring list.
Crazy how it all intertwined, right, I Mean, we talked
about greatness and and certainly for Laker fans, it's one
(18:00):
of those, uh moments where you celebrated he's in a
Lakers uniform. But you think about Kobe, you think about Cap,
you think about all those guys that were on the
court tonight and what they meant for that organization, uh,
through the years, And I think that's kind of the
cool thing of the history. Lesson you got shocked back
in the studio helping you know, in the coverage there
(18:22):
on T and T, so it all ties together and
that tweet. You know, you and I were on air
when Kobe had his moment, right when that a final
barrage the sixty, and all our guys, instead of editing
highlights were dancing. And always I always remember it's like,
can you go back and get that shot? Please? Can
you go back and get that one that he just
(18:43):
hit instead of dancing past the window. But just all
of those moments and and this is always and you
and I are very upfront with our fandom, you know,
individual players and the respect or our teams from our
hometowns and alma maters and everything. Wear it on our sleeves. Uh.
Just the appreciation and love of the games, the chess,
(19:06):
mass matches that go on, games within games and everything.
And when you have records set like this, you have
that little my you know, in your mind's eye, you
you have the history lessons and all of those those
moments that you watch. For me, it was a lot
of watching sports, staying up late on a Saturday to
(19:27):
go do a card show on a Sunday morning, or
sitting around a lounge with a bunch of people watching
games in college and friends gathering like many will do
this Sunday to watch the Super Bowl, all of those things,
and to be able to say, hey, we're on air
when when this moment was captured, it's cool. I still
don't like the stopping of the game for speeches, but
(19:47):
you know, I'm an old man. I just I just
wanted to watch the game because because what if the
Lakers had gone on a phenomenal run after being down
that whole time? Tell me that whatn't have affected things?
Kill me? You have it? Watch the Laker game this
season without telling me, Hey, you know what, there's always
one Frostburg, There's always one. They did. They did win
(20:09):
twenty plus games this year. Has happened? Listen? They did?
And then they gave up ten or twelfth straight. Look?
Did this gets? This gets into what we talked about
about Lebron a few minutes ago, right that no matter
what Lebron does, it's polarizing everybody. Everybody. You see enough
people on Twitter time and look, and there's people having
(20:30):
fun with tweets tonight. Look, and I like coming out
and saying, Lebron, uh did you uh? Could you have
gotten more out of Russ tonight and maybe you could
have won the game? Just did you? I mean, I
know it's got to speaking Russ? Did you? What? What
do you think about that? I heard a lot of
booze when you set the all time record? Do you
think they were all for us? Are they booing rob
Oblinka for not getting h Kyrie Irving? Can you cancel
(20:53):
the b like? That's fun? Right? But you're likely to
play Thursday? You were Anthony Davis Lebron? Who was who
was more miserable tonight at the game? Was it? Was
it cap Or or was it Ben Affleck? At the Grammys?
Who do you think had war miserable time? Uh? But look,
there's having the fun like that being start. But there's
a lot of you can already see there's two camps
(21:15):
with Lebron. It's Lebron passing this record, and it's look
at the celebrating he did. Jordan's wouldn't celebrate like this.
Kobe wouldn't celebrate like this, not after a loss. They're
about it And look, is Lebron is motivated by winning
as he was early in his career. No he's not.
But the outcome of this game nobody cares, does anybody
(21:36):
remember do you know what the how Kareem's game when
he broke the scoring record with I don't know, were
you there? How is it game? There was kunch somebody
in the face. Frostburg's got it right there. I mean,
maybe that's why Cap had so many points. Hey, give
it to the guy with goggles, But that's Rambus. Now
(21:57):
do you think they were enhanced goggles to where he
the triangulation system there, which made the hook shot that
much more deadly? Eight seven? Pretty afterwards they were TV
twelve goggles. That's what he was wearing. But you already see. Oh,
I can't believe the celebration after the loss. The Lakers
needed this game. Nobody in the history of is gonna
(22:20):
remember this game. Nobody. No one's gonna remember. Yes, it'll
be in Hey, when Lebron broke the record in a
loss to the thunder. No one's gonna remember this game,
No one at all. You're gonna remember. You're gonna remember
Lebron making the shot. The picture that's already making its
way around that that the NBA put out is amazing
of him in mid air taking the shot and all
the camera phones trying to grasp it. The picture is amazing.
(22:42):
You remember him making the shot, you remember the celebration
him with Kareem and him dropping the F bomb. Right,
That's that's what it should be. But this game, all around,
this wasn't the last game of the regular season. The
Lakers are out of the playoffs. If Kobe Bryant had
set this record in a game where they lost, the
reaction would be, ah, you know, Kobe's mad. He wanted
to win a game he set the record in. But
(23:03):
now it's Lebron's fault for celebrating, whereas Jordan and Kobe
would be given a pass because hey, you know they
really wanted to win. Boy, And how does how about
his teammates didn't really pick him up. On a night
where these guys break the all time scoring record, nobody
picks him up. But for Lebron, it's all Look at Lebron,
why is he celebrating when they lost the game? They
know they're chasing the thunder in the standings and they
could have go into the game and then they could
(23:24):
have been a game out of eighth place. Oh, I
can't believe nobody cares about this game. For once, it's
okay to be about Lebron and be about breaking a record.
This is not about it. But again this goes to
the conversation. We have not talked about an athlete in
the last twenty years more than we talk about Lebron James,
and he hasn't been played the most popular game in
(23:44):
the world, which is football. We haven't talked We don't
talk about Tom Brady as much as Lebron. We ever
talked about farv for Aaron Rodgers or Albert pool Hols
or anybody else. We haven't talked about anybody. Well, they
don't play as many games, right with the Well, now
Lebron doesn't either. In the last couple of years. You
don't talk about anybody as much as we've talked about Lebron.
He is these these straw that stirs sports drink. Whether
(24:08):
you love him or hate it, you have an opinion.
You love what he did, you hate what he did
you you have an opinion about his last second shot
the night before. You open about him passing for a
last second shot the night before. These random games that
don't mean anything. You can't remember. It's I can't believe
Lebron did this or is not doing this. I mean
when he retires. When he retires, it's gonna be wow.
(24:29):
We had it great for like twenty some odd years.
We could there was always a Lebron story to talk about.
It's always Lebron. There's always Lebron thing we can get
into and sink our teeth into. And what's next for
him and what He's never boring And that's the thing
what you can really ask for, Hey, just don't be boring.
And Lebron is the furthest thing from it. Man, love
him or hate him, He's so much conversation, so much interest.
(24:50):
It's it's fantastic. Wow. But it's like when folks say, well,
the Cowboys aren't ever ever any good. I'm like, well,
but Jerry Jones is interesting and there are global brands,
so they play. So when folks get mad or do
account on how many times you talk about them or
or Rogers or Brady or Lebron, like, get over it.
It stirs the drink. Right, it's not a nondescript he
(25:13):
let's just talk about this for the sake of talking
about it. Now. Lebron moves the needle for a million
reasons because we're talking about greatness. We're talking about all
time numbers all time history. With Tom Brady, it's been
the same thing, but it was always about winning, all right,
is he going to play again? And if he does,
(25:33):
can he win? With Lebron we've kind of pushed the
winning thing to the side, right. We talk a lot
about the mechanics of trying to bring in more talent
to see if he can't make one more run. And
that's what the next forty eight hours are, right. We
got have this this moment in time, and now we
have forty eight hours before the trade deadline? Does he uh?
(25:54):
And can Clutch Sports convince the front office and ownership
it to pull the trigger on a deal? So it
goes right back into Lebron discussion. But now going back
to the shadow hand and GM as opposed to the
guy that just set the all time scoring record. And
we love to watch the incredible. That's why we watch sports. Right.
(26:16):
We all played as kids and then at some point
we weren't very good compared to the other kid, or
you got hurt, you stop growing, You didn't have the
same you know draw to it. Mom and dad didn't
have the money to push you into where you needed
to for different you know, club sports like kids play
now and whatever, and maybe some of those opportunities Wayne
(26:37):
or it's not as important. You know, you discover boys
or girls, you discover some other part that you want
to give some of your dedication to you, because that's
one of the tributes to Lebron and this is you know,
say what you will about taking a night off here
and there, and you know operations shut down on occasion.
You really have to bust your ass to keep going. J. J. Watt,
(26:59):
in his first to interviews this week, recently retired from
the NFL. It's like, yeah, I could probably do it
and get ready, but I'd have to start now, and
I don't want to start now right. I want to
take some time off. I want to be able to
go and just be for a minute before I consider
going back and playing. And I know that I can't
(27:19):
do that if I take the time off now. Lebron
James is that guy as well. Yeah, you might see
him in a floaty and and shunning you and your
your your locale at the pizza place there Smith, But
in the end, you know he's back at the gym.
Why coues he shows he's back in the gym, Damnit,
He's telling you what it takes to be great. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show
(27:41):
with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm
Pacific Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with My
bas friend Mike Harmon a live from the Tirac dot
com studios. Time now for the Play of the night,
brought to you by Progressive. Progressive making things even easy year.
They'll help you bundle your home and car insurance together
(28:02):
so you can save on both. Learn more at Progressive
dot com or Callgressive. Well, yeah, you know what the
play of the night's gonna be. But coming up in
the second after you hear it a different angle on
the play of the night from somebody that you're gonna
be surprised to hear just how they reacted to this.
(28:22):
To the end of the third quarter, Lebron James has
shot at history stands alone. Scoring record now belongs to
Lebron James. Shoot it so there it is on t
(28:44):
n T. There's your call. Lebron is the all time
leading scorer in NBA history. They stopped the game. Creem
Abdul Jabbar wakes up for a couple of minutes. Is
able to congratulate Lebron smile for the first time all night,
and then Lebron takes to the microphone own and gives
a very heart felt speech that ends with, well a
F bomb. Everybody has ever been a part of this
(29:06):
wrong with me the last twenty years, twenty plus years.
I just want to say, I thank you so much
because I wouldn't be me without y'all. All y'all help,
all y'all passionate, all y'all sacrifices helped me get to
this point and to the NBA, to Adam Silver, to
the late great Davis Starr, Thank you guys so much
for allowing me to be a part of something I've
always dreamed about and I would never ever in a
(29:29):
million years dreamt this even better than what it is. Tonice,
so man, thank you guys. So you think that was
a planned F bomb? Like? Do you think he planned
on saying it just because he wanted to? Oh? I
don't know. There was a prop bet on it that
I saw people saying that it really was. I did
if he dropped an F bomb, really that he would curse. Wow,
(29:51):
I didn't know you could bet on that. Will I
give you bet on anything. I guess, but wow, I
didn't know that. What were the odds I could have made?
I don't know. I've looked at that. I didn't know
who I saw it. Mentioned a couple of spots where
people won, but they didn't say what odds they got
on it. So we've seen this game, we've talked about it,
we've talked about this this basket from a number of
different perspectives. But something that's just starting to get some
(30:13):
attention right now. Video has surfaced from the Lakers tunnel
of what it looked like when Lebron James hit the
fade away jumper that broke the scoring record. Anthony Davis
is coming back out from the tunnel and getting worked on.
He had a rough night. He had a bad night,
you can see in this. In his post game he said,
(30:33):
we gotta get wins. That's what it's all about. And
this is the possession that Lebron is break going to
break the record on. Anthony Davis comes back to the bench.
Everybody is standing holding and these are his teammates are
standing holding cameras getting vidit and Anthony Davis just walks
by everybody and sits down on a chair and Lebron
(30:55):
hits the shot and everybody starts going crazy. They're yelling,
fist pumping, and he just sits on the chair and
doesn't even move, and then he very grudgingly gets up,
like ten fifteen seconds later. So A B I get
the a DS going over. But he comes and he
sits on He sits on the bench and he doesn't
even stand up and clapped the all time scoring record. Yeah,
(31:18):
these guys love each other, right, they're they're in it together,
right Lebron and maybe he doesn't a lot about Russ
after that. I didn't see that one. Oh man, it's insane.
Just look look at the video. He just walks back
really slow and he sits down and the record. Everybody's
standing up, but he's just sitting there like he I
don't know me. I think Kareem was more excited when
(31:39):
the record was broken than Anthony Davis wasn't. That's hard
to do. That's really hard to consider. The cutaways we
saw of Kareem all night during this game. Yeah, it's
it's pretty amazing. Everybody standing there. You saw how many
of the teammates got out onto the court as soon
as they could. The video from behind where everybody's on
their feet and hands go up and he's screaming and
(32:02):
and he's still sitting down. That that's pretty damning right there,
Like whoa so made? Something's going on here? Everything else
here's one Anthony Davis looks pretty fed up. In the
postgame press conference, Lebron calls Rob Polinka, Hey, this guy
didn't stand up for my back. We can trade him
(32:24):
by Thursday, right, We we can make that move, can
we can? We get somebody else? I gotta get him
out of here. And he didn't stand up and clap
for me. Let's get him out. So some wondering is
he okay? How hurt is he? The rest of him
saying he's a salty blankety blank trading? I mean that's
really something, man. I mean there's video Lebron with his
(32:44):
art after he broke the record talking to him telling
me he loves him as a teammate, and a d
is just kind of looking at again. Yeah yeah, yeah,
oh yeah. I think the new chapter about this relationship
is going to be written here over the next forty
eight hours. I mean, he doesn't he just sits out
and then when he bakes, he's like, now I gotta
stand up again. All right, that's great. All right, Well,
(33:05):
I guess if if Cap can stand up, I can too.
I guess all right, I'll just I'll do it. That's fine.
You got well, you didn't think it would be all
happy all night? Come on now, just you think you
would at least clap when he sets the record, the
guy that brought him to the team. They won a championship.
Just remember, in the photo from behind Lebron shot that
(33:26):
is going around the world, there's only one guy that
doesn't have a phone up to take a recording of it,
which means everybody caught every frame of everybody's reaction. Nothing
to see here, guys. All day Mike had Swollen Delmar
(33:46):
Best of podcast goes up on iTunes and ten minutes
all our big coverage of the big night for Lebron is.
They're coming up next my buddy Ben mallor Fox
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.