February 22, 2023 • 42 mins
Jason and Mike explain why the golden era of the NBA All-Star Game is officially done. Longtime NBA Insider Ric Bucher joins to talk about the low All-Star game ratings, LeBron's comments on the last 23 games of this Lakers season being the most important regular season games of his career, and all the other major headlines from around the league. Plus, the latest on Lamar Jackson and Ravens. #jss
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio. Hello, welcome, and saw an hour three of
the Dan Patrick Show here on Fox Sports Radio. Jason
Smith and my bass friend Mike Harmon in for Dan
and the Danetts today. And oh boy, maybe you just
heard that bit uh in Nick Cope's update a couple
of seconds ago. We'll get into the NFL on the second.
(00:23):
But the ratings for the NBA All Star Game, My goodness,
but I thought everybody hated what they saw when clearly
nobody watched it. Yeah, well, and I know you watched
the pregame show and they had one viewer, so it
was you. I caught a little of it while I
was at a restaurant with my daughter the other day.
It was on. I didn't have any sound, but I
(00:43):
watched post Malone and she kept going, this supposed to
be a basketball game, right, I got well, eventually, what's
with all the indoor light shows and fireworks? Gotta gotta
make it a spectacle? Gotta try well, got you in,
so that's good, got you in the door? I was captived,
sir videos choice, Hey, what color tie was Ernie Johnson wearing? It?
(01:03):
Was it a nice tie? What was what do you remember?
You have to know? And right it is. But but okay,
so there you know that at least very good. Okay,
all right, it is an all time low, a combined
two point two rating across t NT NTBs, the lowest
rated and least watched edition of the game. I mean
(01:26):
that is just look for this. I mean, if you're TNT,
you're like, man, we could have put on reruns a
snow Piercer and oh my god, people to watch a
little bit. But this is where we are now, right
for all of this All Star I'm never going to
be surprised by All Star games being an all time low,
whether it's baseball or basketball or football, because the era
(01:48):
of the All Star Game as we knew it, the
Golden era, is gone, right, the gold the All Star
Games that that people of a certain age grew up with.
And it's like, oh yeah, I remember when the Eastern
and Eastern Conference wanted to just destroy each other, the
American League wanted to destroy the National League and vice versa.
That's gone. That it's gone and those days aren't coming back.
(02:09):
And when I when I see social media after the
All Star Game and all the complaints of Oh, it's
a layup line. Nobody likes the game. I don't like this.
There's here's the one gift that's getting everywhere of the
four the four players on one side of the court.
We're not gonna play defense on this. Yeah, that looks
like an NBA regular season game. By the way, you're
(02:29):
gonna transported that to a lot of Laker efforts on
the defensive end. By the way, Lebron played defense once
and he got hurt. Yeah, I gotta come out of
the game. When he went up against SGA, he goes hey,
and the only time he played defense and he got
his finger caught and hurt it. Yeah, this is what
all Star games are now. That golden era is gone,
and it's like everybody keeps waiting for the oh the
(02:51):
All Star get No. All that's left now is the
new normal. And to not lose viewers like this because
all Star games, no, all the leagues know, all Star
games are in the decline, and it's just about let's
keep as many people as we can watching and we
have a slow leeching of the audience instead of like
(03:12):
the falling off a cliff like you have here at
the NBA All Star game, and it's it's just an
all star game thing. It's at the popularity of the leagues.
It's an all star game thing. Over the course of
the last few years, it's become the big exhibition. Players
don't really care. Some guys play, some guys don't. It's
just an idea that has seen its time coming gone. Right.
It's like it's like a Macy's or j C. Pennies,
(03:33):
or a clothing outlet or Toys r us Hey Toys
r us has been a staple for so many is well,
you know, now we're going bankrupt. Why the world's changed
and people buy toys online and so now there's no
more Toys rs stores and they're trying to get that's
what That's what leagues are trying to do with all
star games. And every year now is going to be
a gimmick. And some gimmicks are gonna worth better at
work better than others. Right, that's every single year, the NHL,
(03:56):
the NBA, major League Baseball. What can we do different
this year that's gonna pique somebody's interest. Right, It's the
same philosophy as going online and shopping out a website.
You don't just go to a website and shop and
buy stuff right now, when do you go, Hey, Monday
is free shipping. I got to order my stuff on Monday.
Tuesday is buy one, get one fifty percent off. All
(04:16):
I got to do that Wednesday is thirty percent off
the entire website. This is what This is what companies do. Hey,
how do we get people coming through the door? That's
all it is now with All Star Games, it's gimmicks
and it's let's say, Okay, if this didn't work this year, Now,
nothing the NBA did this year, are they going to
try to do next year? Boy, we had a we
had a we had an all time low. We gotta
do all kinds of different stuff next year. So you're
(04:37):
gonna see different ideas hopefully get it back and get
more people watching. But this is what All Star games do.
This is what leagues do. Now, what can we do
every year just to keep the new normal of people
watching paying attention to it Because just because a lot
of people are writing about it online and it's trending
at the top of Twitter, doesn't mean that it's really
interesting and people are watching. And you're seeing that with
the All Star Game this year, you're gonna go. You
(04:59):
go Sunday night to Twitter. Oh, everybody's Twitter. Look the
Allstar it's such a big deals. No, just because you
got ten thousand people tweeting about something doesn't mean it's
that big a deal, right, They're about ten thousand people
in an entire country talking about it. It's it's it
doesn't give you a good representation. You see here the
NBA All Star Game. People didn't watch. They didn't they
didn't like what they saw on TV, and they took
(05:19):
to Kevin Durant philosophy, you don't like it, don't watch.
That's what they did well. And that's the larger thing, buddy,
is that you know, you can have a lot of
complaints and in the echo chamber that is social media,
that you have the opportunity to get frustrated and people
shake their fists and call for the downfall of things
(05:41):
and look at ratings at all. The reality is people
that want to watch it are gonna watch, They're gonna
care if they care, and if they want to just
consume bite sized clips, that's where you go. And that's
the NBA with ratings and viewership in the hole, and
they have to figure that out. What's the new normal?
And for us, you know, we pull back, they're down
(06:04):
twenty nine percent. I think the biggest surprise is, hey,
you're you're part of a dunk competition in game, and
we start raiding your dunk since nobody wants to play defense.
So we have that that breaks out as part of
the festivities. And maybe now you've got some interest because
the Lebron's part of a dunk contest, even though he
didn't intend to be. I don't know, do something, even
(06:26):
if it's wrong. Seems to be where we're at, because
it's hard to get excited about this if for the
first fifty seven games or wherever we're at in terms
of how many teams have played that load management is
one of your biggest concerns at the State of the commission,
the Commissioner's State of the Union address and all that that.
You've got to figure that out, and that's the hard
(06:48):
decision for the league going forward. You can shut it
down all together, but it's a big corporate event. Twitter
at how about a fresca Mike gets swollen dumb, Jason Smith,
Mike Harmon in for Dan Patrick today again, we'll have
more on this with Rick Buker. Maybe Rick's got some
ideas for next year for the goal maybe more, maybe
more Lakers and Nicks. That that's the whole thing. Let's
get more Lakers and Nixon. More people will watch. Um.
(07:09):
But we spent a lot of time today talking about
the case for Derek Carr to be a first ballot
Hall of Famer if he goes to the New York Jets.
The ESPN report yesterday, that's what they told him during
their meeting over the weekend. Derek Car, you go to
New York, you win. You'll be a first ballot Hall
of Famer with the Jets. That wall of tingle my
entire body. But part of this, now, let's take I
(07:35):
watched David Carr talk about Derek Carr on TV, and
I just get so excited. Which infommercial was that? Was
that a B or C? It? Would you have the
American flag behind him? No? It was it was one. No, no, no.
He throws to the guys from Air Supply about getting
all that great love songs from the seventies in one place. Yes,
that's the one. Um, Look the whole thing about to
(07:56):
take this in a different direction, we're waiting right now
for whatever Aaron Rodgers is going to decide. Right, he's
in the darkness, right, we're waiting on this. Derek Carr
has the entire NFL to himself. And David Carr said
yesterday on TV that Derek Carr's free agency situation will
be a long process. And I can't tell you how
(08:18):
ridiculously bad a strategy this is going to be for
Derek Carr. Right, he has the NFL to himself because
of the way his contract was structure. Doesn't have to
wait till the end of the league year to become
a free agent like everybody else does. Because the Raiders
release him. He can sign anywhere. Right, it's the middle
of February. Derek Carr can go anywhere. What have we've
seen so far from Derek Carr. He visited with the Saints,
(08:39):
who said thanks, but no thanks, we want you to
take less money. Nope, not doing it. And he had
a visit with the Jets, who are the most desperate
quarterback team in the league. You can feel the desperation
oozing out of the Jets, every single pore of their skin,
needing a quarterback. And Derek Carr left without a deal.
And hey, I'm going to take a look and see
what's going on now. Sure part of this is some
(09:01):
teams want to see what's gonna happen with Aaron Rodgers first,
But you're supposed to be the jewel, the crown jewel
of the off season, and this is all the interest
you've had so far when you should have been taken
visits every other day. It should have been, well, I
got the Jets, then you know, am i gonna get
out of the building in New York. I'm gonna want
to sign a deal. Then I'm gonna go visit the Titans,
and I'm gonna go back to the Saints. This has
all it's been for Derek Carr, and I feel like
(09:23):
Team Carr is confusing the being in demand with being
in demand because there's no one else out there, and
that's what it is right now. There's no one else
out there and he's not that much in demand. Forget
about this taking a long process. What do they think
is gonna happen When you get to the beginning of
March and Rogers is available and Lamar Jackson gets franchise
(09:43):
and says he wants to be traded, and Ryan Tannehill
hits free agency, and so is Jimmy Garoppolo and other
quarterbacks are out there. You really think Derek Carr market's
gonna pick up and he's gonna get more money. No,
he's got to sign before free agency because this is
when teams supposedly are gonna go get And if that
means you got to lower your demands a little bit,
contract demands, it means you gotta lower demands, if you
(10:04):
got to put a little bit more sense of urgency
and finding a new team the Nats, you need to
do because when the beginning of March comes, all these guys,
teams are gonna say, yeah, in a vacuum, is Derek
Carr better than Ryan Tannehill. Sure, but Derek Carr wants
three years, one hundred and twenty million dollars. Ryan Tannehill,
I get him for two years and forty million, and
if he stinks I can move on. Yeah, I'm okay
with that. I'm okay with that plan of getting Ryan
(10:26):
Tannehill and drafting a quarterback. You've got a lot of
guys in the draft and veterans like him who are
hitting free agency. Yes, he's a better player than a
lot of those guys, but that's not all that goes
into it. And Derek Carr, if he waits to sign,
he's gonna wind up having to take less money at
a less than ideal destination for him. Because if there's
no competition now and interest is lukewarm, what's it gonna
(10:48):
be when other guys are out there. I mean, this
is the exact I mean, it's like they fall in
love with his all. Derek Carr is a free agent.
Everybody's saying wonderful things about him and all look at
Derek Carr and I'm reading about him online and seeing
what people say about him. Due you have to see
that the reality is there's not a lot of interest.
You got to create interest, and you gotta sign because
a team will sign you if they think they can
(11:08):
get you right now and you can be their quarterback
and get a three year deal and going with all
kinds of assurances and have a little bit more say
in your tenure. But you wait, watch how different it's
gonna be. It's gonna be a complete and failure. If
he does that, well, you'd think he was the victim
of the Montreal screw job. The way they set this
all up, that you know, for a decade or nearly
a decade with the Raiders, everything that went wrong couldn't
(11:32):
possibly land on his plate to have any blame in
failures season after season after season. No, it's because of
the defense. No, it's because they failed and they gave
up these leads like keep scoring points, all of those
kind of things that keep flowing in. And when you
look at the number of suitors around here, and I
wonder if David cars opportunity as well the voice of
(11:55):
this monster at this point, you know, part of the
inner circle that at eas leading the charge, almost as
if saying on the other side, please, somebody call, please,
somebody call. This is dragging out far longer than we like.
And you really should come with a great offer right now,
because we'll take it. We'll take it, please, because what
(12:16):
do you got on the board. Arizona's got Kyler Murray
coming back off injury, rams with Stafford off injury. Gino
allegedly gonna get thirty five million or thereabouts from Seattle.
We've already talked about the forty nine Ers, Atlanta, Desmond,
Ritter Saints have what Jamis and Taysom Hill and then
Carolina as your guy, Sam Darnold, and guys that were
(12:40):
hurt Matt Correll, right, Tampa, Kyle trash time. So you
can go to the NFC South, one of those teams
has to call you again. Probably everything seems to be
set in the North and the East, Sam Howell, anybody
in Washington. I mean, very few spots where you can
legit go and say, hey, we want a veteran quarterback
(13:03):
because we're on the cusp but potentially still being able
to win and be viable. And to your point about
him versus Tannehill, Yeah, that's that there could be a
large gap of money and considerations because if he didn't
want to take a pay cut to go to New
Orleans and really wants his thirty plus million dollars, I mean,
(13:23):
that may be the day of reckoning that'll be at hand.
But as we know in the quarterback market, we were
talking about it a little bit earlier between Dak Prescott
and Daniel Jones, is if you are perceived to be
the best in what should we say without great draft
compensation and considerations there that you're the best in the crew, Yeah,
(13:47):
you're gonna usually be able to command a premium price.
The problem is people got nine years of tape on.
You see the reality sign before a free agency or
you're gonna regret it, I'm telling you. And it doesn't
have to be with the Jets. No no, no, no,
no, no no no. I don't want him there. You come on, Jets,
take play someplace else, someplace else, someplace else. But you
gotta sign. But I feel good giving that advice because
(14:09):
it's needed. I feel like I did for selfishly. I
didn't I didn't sit back and say, okay, let me
do no, no, no. I wanted to help it. It
is the wrong strategy and and it's it's wrong car
family advisor. There you go. Add it to the resume.
Twitter at how about a Fresca Mike, it's swollen dome?
Jason Smith Mike Harmon in for Dan and the Danets
this morning. Coming up next, Fox Sports won NBA insider
Rick Buker stops by, does he have any ideas to
(14:31):
help the NBA All Star Game? What about some big
bull predictions for the rest of this season? Are the
Lakers going to make the playoffs? Is this Anthony Davis's
last year with them? That more? Keep it right here.
This is Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch the
live edition of The Dan Patrick Show week days at
nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the iHeart Radio WAP. Fox Sports Radio. The Jason
(14:55):
Smith Show with Mike Harmon is our show at night.
We're here today filling in for Dan Patrick and the
Danetts here on Fox Sports Radio. But a great morning
so far, and it's just going to get better right
now as we bring in a man who is going
to change the All Star Game as we know, and
he's got a full proof, twenty five point plan to
get people to watch. You can follow him on Twitter
(15:15):
at Rick Buker, Fox Sports One, NBA Inside of Rick Buker,
Rick go ahead, power pointed for us your plan to
save the All Star Game after ratings hit an all
time low this season. Oh no, no, no, no no,
you misunderstood the last time we spoke. I don't have
a solution to getting people to watch. That's damn impossible.
All I want to do is change the way we
(15:38):
actually select the teams. I'm thinking we shouldn't even play. Well. Actually,
I do have a solution now that I think about it.
There you go, see you had eight seconds. Look at
you. You You figured it out. Yeah, rings of fire. Nice, Okay,
we put rings of fire all over the all over
(16:00):
the court and players have to get extra extra point.
Players have to go through the rings of fire before
they can shoot. Oh I like that. That's not bad. Rick.
I also suggested that maybe for the fact that none
of the big name players and good good job by
mcclungan and the guys that participated. Nobody wants to play
in the dunk contest, but you're actually doing it while
(16:21):
you're in the All Star Game since they don't play defense.
So you got random celebrities around courtside that have cards
and they judge the dunks in game. Wow, you didn't
want to participate, Well, here you are anyway, that's an eight.
I think. I think that the fact that we just
came up with several ideas that would be better than
(16:45):
what we actually saw is moving in the right direction.
So yeah, it look. The funny thing is, so it's
been a while, I mean, bagging on the All Star
Game kind of has become an annual event. So maybe
we really don't want it to be well viewed because
this is kind of a dead period in the sports
(17:06):
calendar and it gives us at least gives just one
more topic to hit in in February at this point,
because I look, it's, um, it is a tortured exercise
in every sport for the most part. Um, it's just
not going to be the same. And as we become
(17:28):
more attached, or as fantasy becomes a bigger element that
draws people into paying attention, and gambling does as well.
Like you've got to be some kind of a better
if you're going to bet on the All Star Game,
probably one that people take a path on. And so
(17:51):
you know, as I would say, like for every action
I'm an Isaac Newton fans, for every action there is
a corresponding reaction, And as the league has wetted itself
more to to various things that allow the fans to participate,
(18:13):
the All Star Game really doesn't lend itself to that.
So I'm not I'm really not surprised. And then look,
then the other part of it is the players don't
team to care all that much about winning. And if
they don't care, then goodness, why why would the fans care? Now?
(18:34):
Wait now, to be serious for a second, Yeah, do
the players have to go through the ring of fire
for every shot? Or do they get extra points if
they make one from a ring of fire, Like like
a non ring of fire layup is worth two points,
but you go through the ring of fire, it's worth
four points. No, no, no, no, no no, they ring of
fire every single time. And we could create some moats
(18:58):
and some alligators and a few things. I mean that
we have to introduce something that's uh a little terrifying
in order to this. It's we had a cheaper composure. Oh,
the mystery moat is brought to you by Keia. What
could be lurking? We don't know, but the first player
that falls in we'll find that. Yeah, yeah, I mean,
(19:21):
can you say, like, can you believe Lebron blew that
lay up but he had an alligator attached to his leg?
I mean, I'm gonna give him extra I don't know
belt to spray, It's only get him the release. That's
only a four foot alligator. He should be able to
make that shot. Come on, he's still passing. This is
(19:42):
the dunk that he calls the death spiral as he
escapes the alligator. Rick twenty three most important regular season
games of Lebron James's life. It's like he was staring
in a mirror with one eye off to the side
at Anthony Davis at the same time. Yeah, yeah it
(20:04):
I look, I don't know why Lebron does this to himself. Dude,
this goes I look, look, I will say this, um.
The Lakers responded to what he wanted. He wanted them
to remake this team. They gave up one of those
(20:26):
uh future first round picks, one of the two remaining
that they had. It was something that while Lakers fans
and various media were like, this is crazy, they should
just give those up, everybody talked to in the league
was like, if they're if they're mortgaging their their future
whatever left of their future at this point. For what,
(20:48):
they're not winning a championship with this team. So they
just didn't see it as being good business. And yet
the Lakers did it anyway. They split the difference, They
gave up one of those, they gave up the second
round picks, and they basically answered Lebron's call to give
him a better team and a better team right now.
(21:10):
So there is I would say there's pressure on him
to bring this. I mean, at least get them into
the play in game, which is not which is no
guarantee the teams ahead of them improved and the teams
and those teams are gunning to stay in the playoffs
(21:30):
or make the play in as well. So they're going
to have to climb over from thirteenth. They're going to
have to climb over a number of teams that are
just as committed right now to doing what they're trying
to do over the next twenty some games. And the
other part is if we look at their schedules or
in Houston, are the only two teams that they play
that are not ostensibly playing for something down the stretch here,
(21:56):
So all their games are going to be competitive. Everybody,
whether they're playing the Lakers or not playing the Lakers,
most of the league is still vying for one of
those spots that they want. So it's not going to
be easy to get there. But Lebron kind of put
it on himself, these are the twenty three most important.
I mean, the translation is, I have to get this
(22:18):
team into the playoffs now or it's going to be
what it's going to be, a mark against my career.
I would never I would not do that. There's nothing
he can do at this point. It's gonna shift my
view of him. But that's what he said. So we're
gonna be watching and seeing exactly what he's able to
do with this new crew. I look at it this way, Rick,
(22:39):
if you said, okay, with this new thing, they have
a little bit of new energy. We've seen it before.
The Cavaliers did it a couple of times with the
trade deadline, will trade half the team, and it kind
of worked. Could I see the Lakers finishing fourteen and
nine ish and being five hundred, Yeah, I could say
I could see them playing there, yea, an Patrick be well,
(23:00):
even if Pat Bev gets them back to back ins
in Chicago, Could I see the Lakers doing that? Yeah,
But I think that's kind of the ceiling. You know,
fourteen and nine looked up the really good teams they're
still going to struggle with. But I could see that
for the Lakers and finishing right around five hundred. Yeah.
And if that's the case, then they're not getting there.
They're not I mean, if they if they're going fourteen
(23:20):
and nine, they're not climbing the ladder into one of
those play in games. And one of the other difficulties
is okay, so they make the play in if they
make the play in now the pressure is going to
be ratcheted up. Well, the Lakers have Anthony Davis and
Lebron James and they should be making the playoffs, So
(23:42):
they're going to have to win one or two of
those play in games. If they get to that point,
that's when it's really going to ratch it up. And
now now the expectation is they're going to be in
the playoffs and play a first round series. The ceiling
is for these guys. As I see it in talking
to people around the league, it's the general consensuses. If
(24:04):
they got to the playoffs and one a round, it
would be a massive, massive achievement at this point because
you just don't build fun. You just don't build teams
with twenty games to go, and this is significant rebuild
and two Lebron James. Let's face it's thirty eight years old.
(24:26):
Anthony Davis, even when he's available, is not what he
once was. And so I think we there's there's still
this vision of Lebron and ad in their heyday, and
now you put some shooters and defenders around them, and
I just don't know that that's a realistic view of
(24:47):
even who their stars are at this stage. Sorry, Lakers fans.
I know that sounds that's a that's a real debbie
downer of view of all that has happened. But I
think it's more reality than than then. Make believe it's tough, Rick,
because in my ear Frostburg kept going, we're back, We're back,
Come on, We're back. And that's the refrain around Los Angeles.
(25:10):
Let's shift to the Eastern Conference for a moment. We
got a dominant twenty seconds of performance from Jannis in
the All Star Game. How serious is this injury? Well,
it's it's it's his rist on his shooting hand. So
you could be snarky and say, well, yeah, yeah, that's
the weakest part of Yannis's game. Son, what's the matter?
(25:30):
What's the problem? Right? But no, it's dominant hand terms
of dribbling, dominant hand in terms of shooting. I don't
know the extent of the injury, but if it's going
to bother him and it's not being shooting, not being
(25:51):
one of his strength from range, if nothing else, if
he doesn't have the same strength in that wrist, that's
going to affect a lot of things, especially especially as
the free throw line. I mean, that's he's still going
to be able to get to the free throw line
if he's stealing anything in that risk that's going to
(26:12):
affect him. It's now one of the toughest mentally players
that we have in the league today. So I don't
know that it's going to discourage him from trying to
get to the line, from trying to figure it out,
from taking free throws that he's demonstrated that several times over.
But um, yeah, it you want, of all the injuries
(26:36):
that you could have other than you know, a knee
or something, that's going to change that equation, right, risk
shooting risks. It's about the worst injury that a star
player could have. Rick Bucker, our guest here the Dan
Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio, all right now, one
(26:56):
of the bits you've had if you talked about it
a lot, It's got a link onto it on Twitter.
Kevin Durant's gonna have his much anticipated debut with the
Sons at some point, maybe soon, potentially in the next
few days. Does he have more to win or lose
with the Suns going forward? Honestly, maybe it's because I'm
just and this is not my view of KD. But
(27:19):
but the general view I get of KD is really
great player, not a champion unless he's playing with the
Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry and Draymond Green and
play Thompson. So while Chris Paul and Devin Booker and
DeAndre Ayton are not play Thompson and Death and Draymond
(27:41):
at this point, that's viewed as a R trio in
the league, is it not. I mean, those three went
to the finals two years ago. So I don't know
how much k D has to gain. I would say
from what has something to gain by winning a championship
(28:05):
in Phoenix, But I don't. I expect the champion this
year to come out of the East, so it's not
going to be this year. And CP three is not
getting any younger, so I don't see the past. I'm
not looking at it and going well, if KD doesn't
win a championship in Phoenix, then this is a failure.
(28:26):
And the biggest thing part for me is what does
KD want at this point? Like what Lebron is saying,
these are the twenty three most important games of my career,
regular season games, so you feel like, okay, he feels
like there's something to lose here. I don't know what
Kevin Durant is that after, because if he wanted to win,
(28:49):
he would have stayed in Golden State. If he wanted
to demonstrate that he could be, without any question, the
centerpiece to a chachampionship team, he would have stayed in
Brooklyn and allowed them to build a team around him,
trusted that that they were going to get there in
the next year or two. He goes to Phoenix. I
(29:15):
don't know, you guys, tell me what is it that
what he would do in Phoenix that would demonstrably change
your view of who Kevin Durant is as a player. Well, look,
he'll win again. Like he's realized that he doesn't want
to lead. He knows that. You know, he's continually in
(29:37):
search of whatever he wants people to talk about him
like he's Lebron and he's not getting that, and he's
very upset. Look, the guy's got burner Twitter accounts to
defend himself. He knows I need to go win again.
So now maybe if I go win with the Suns,
I'll be viewed as a great champion because I won
with two teams, and here's a team that was good
but didn't win until they got me. I mean, at
(30:00):
this point, now he's just trying to Okay, what's going
to continue to keep me going and to keep people
talking about me being great? Wasn't happening in Brooklyn, sow,
I gotta go find I gotta go join another team.
It's not what he wanted to do, but it's what
he kind of has to do at this point. Well,
I would push back on that because I think what
he did when he was healthy in Brooklyn and they
(30:20):
went nineteen and two with Kyrie, I thought he was
turning that perspective right, Like he was reminding everybody just
how good he is. And I think he's great. He's
going and win in a ring in Phoenix. Okay, that's two.
Lebron did it in three places. Like he's not catching
if if he's if he's chasing the ghost of what
(30:45):
Lebron has done, he's not getting there at this point
no matter what he does. Then. Other then, if he
stayed in Brooklyn and he won a championship, I think
that would turn the view of everybody because people kind
(31:06):
of feel like Phoenix has been on the doorstep of
winning a championship. And Okay, so heyde could go there
and he could be the difference maker. Again. This is
difficult for me because my perspective is that the Golden
State Warriors never would have won those two championships without
Kevin Durant, would not have happened. And this finals MVPs
are proof of that and everything everything else. Having an
(31:29):
up close view of that, they're not winning another championship
without Kevin Durant. And but that's not the general perspective.
So I'm thinking the general perspective is going to be, yeah, Kyd,
you won another one in Phoenix, but you needed Chris
Paul and Devin Booker DeAndre Ayton, So did you really
(31:54):
win another championship for did they kind of help you?
Help you win another champion If he'd done it in Brooklyn,
he would have carried Ben Simmons to a title. You
won with Ben Simmons there, you would have been the
champion without right yes, and a Hernia as well. But look,
(32:15):
if he had just gotten to let's say the Eastern
Conference finals, Let's say he knocks off the Boston Celtics,
or he knocks off the Milwaukee Bucks or even the
Philadelphia seventy six ers, wouldn't you give him more credit?
Wouldn't he have gained more credit in accomplishing that than
if he goes through who's he going through in the West.
(32:39):
The people are going to say, Wow, Ken Phoenix Sons
couldn't have done that, and I give them a better
chance of winning of out of the West. But I
just think that who he would have had to beat,
and again who he would have had to beat with
a Brooklyn Nets team that doesn't have Kyrie Irving, that
(33:03):
to me would have been far more impressive than if
the Phoenix Suns end up coming out of the West
this year. With the mixed bag of teams that we
have in the Western Conference, I put the Phoenix Suns
in there in the mix. But I think the fact
that the odds immediately shot them to the top of
(33:24):
the Western Conference tells you what people think of the
Western Conference in general. He's on Twitter at Rick Buker,
That is at Rick Buker. Check him out on FS one,
host of the On the Ball podcast as well. Rick
is always buddy, thanks so much for your time and
I'm going to go to Adam Silver with your Rings
of Fire idea. I think that's a good one. Thank
(33:44):
you very much. I'm glad you're going because I probably
wouldn't do that myself. Thank you for ring. This was
submitted to us by an anonymous the Nbasider It rings
the Fire Twitter and at about Fresco. Mike at Swollen
Dome got a little bit more on Katie coming up next,
as well as the latest on Lamar Jackson. Keep it
(34:08):
right here, Jason Smith, Mike Harmon in for data the
Dan Netts. This is Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com
and within the iHeartRadio app. Search f s R to
listen live. Polly Fusco here with Tony Fusco. Yo. As
you all know, we're the host of the number one
(34:30):
rated show in all of sports talk, The Folly and
Tony Fusco Show numero o No, Yeah, And we know
why millions of people tune in every week. They want
to hear us talk sports, not our idiot guests who
think they know more about sports than we though, he
ain't listen to these dummies. You don't know crap about
This is the worst thing. He's way off the shop.
(34:53):
You don't know bad ball. If you want to hear
how sports talk should be done, ye listen to the
Folly and Tony Fusco Show on the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcast wherever you get your podcasts, Fox Sports Radio,
The Dan Patrick Show, Jason Smith's and my best friend
Mike Harmon. Then for Dan and the Danets. Today we'll
get to Lamar Jackson the second. But just real quick
(35:15):
to kind of tag Rick Bucker the interview we had
with him a few minutes ago, and thanks to Rick
for always stopping by. I mean, the Rings of Fire
idea for the All Time Game is just awesome. But
the Kevin Durant phenomenon now with the Suns, I got
a different view on this. Yes, you know, Rick talked
about it being a risk that Kad is joining the
(35:35):
Suns and does he have more to lose and to
gain at this point he knows that, Okay, I'm going
to be measured by championships and my best shot at
getting one is going to the Suns. And this is
a phenomenal fit for him where he wants to play.
He doesn't want to lead, and now he's joining a
team that has a bunch of leaders on it. But Also,
(35:56):
if they win, k D will be given the credit.
He's joined them, just like he joined the Golden State Warriors. Okay,
there's a bunch of stars on here. I don't need
to lead. I can just be the difference maker and
that's when people are gonna give me the respect that
I really want. I'm the missing piece here to win
with the Suns. So that's why he's there. He doesn't
need to be the big scorer every night. Look a
(36:18):
Booker is back and he's gonna be the guy some nights.
He just has to be that guy every couple of games.
And I look at him joining the Suns, and when
he is healthy, you watch them just run roughshod over
everybody they play the rest of the way. It's gonna
be like when the Lakers got Pau Gasol, and it
was the Lakers were kind of meandering. We thought they
(36:40):
might be good, and then they make the big trade
for Gasol. What did they win eleven in a row?
When when they got Pau Gasol and then they jump
started the second half of the dynasty and they won
a couple of titles, went to three finals. That's what's
gonna happen for the Suns. They're gonna start beating people
like the Nets would beat people when everybody was healthy.
It's one forty nine, one fifteen. Look at this, This
is unbelievable. When he starts playing. That's what the Suns
(37:03):
are gonna do. And it's gonna be the biggest story
of the last twenty three ish games of the NBA season,
how Lebron finishes with the Lakers and KD and the Suns.
They're just gonna start ripping teams right and left. It's
gonna happen. This is a phenomenal fit. No. I like
the cut of your gym. There the excitement, But I
agree with Rick's point from the all right, you accept
(37:25):
who you are, and I think that's the point here
for Kevin Durant and for all of us and whatever
our roles are at our jobs and in our homes
and everything else. You know, know your role and shut
your mom was on Young Rock last week. That was
the learning point that they were trying to push out.
And that's kind of where Kevin Durant must be in
the process. Like, all right, even if I have to
(37:45):
join up and they don't want to give me credit,
that's fine. It's another ring. So long from now, I'll
be able to say not two, but three, maybe four.
You have no idea, do I think? From the whole
legacy and that debate that we always have and I
don't know much I get excited about it, but for
the purposes of sports talk radio and television, we'll have
(38:06):
it that he's never gonna get credit. He's gonna be
on the list and it'll be higher based on adding
another title. But he's got he doesn't get credit for
the other ones, right, That's why he left, even if
he's the MVP, which is the thing that's never made sense,
Like you won the MVP, It's like, yeah, but it
was Steph's team here, It's all right. They already had
three guys. Now you're the fourth, and you helped put
(38:28):
them over. They were the number one seed a year ago.
So it must be he's found some inner peace to
go do that, or he just simply doesn't care and
just wants to go win and want it out of Brooklyn.
Once Kyrie Irving was done, that's it. Twitter at how
about a fresca Mike gets swollen? Don't if you missed
the Rick Bucher interview, it's gonna be up on Fox
(38:49):
Sports Radio in the best of coming up in a bit.
Always a great visit with Rick and again if you
would to forget Kate Ring of Fire, Rings of Fire, No,
that's it. We spent a lot of time to Sporting
talking about quarterbacks and the Derek Carr potential future first
ballot Hall of Famer with the Jets. So it's so
excited Aaron Rodgers eventually coming out of the darkness retreat,
(39:12):
Daniel Jones forty five million dollars deal with the Giants.
It's going to happen. As much as you think it's not,
It's going to happen. And yes, Joe Burrow will get
sixty million if that skates out, goes the quarterbacks. But
the Lamar Jackson situation just gets crazier and crazier. Look
on our night show. We've talked with us for a while,
for over a year. Lamar Jackson's and the and the
Ravens are headed for a divorce. Congratulates to everybody who's
(39:34):
just picking up on that right now. If the Ravens
really wanted to sign him, if Lamar Jackson wanted to stay,
they would have figured things out by now. But The
Ravens don't want to pay him what Lamar Jackson wants.
Lamar Jackson wants forty five million dollars a year. He
wants it all guaranteed. The Ravens not there, right. They
offered him one hundred million dollars less guaranteed than he wants.
(39:54):
So yeah, it's gonna happen. And do you really think
teams are not gonna give this to him? If the
raven said today we're thinking about trading Lamar, the phones
would never stop ringing. I don't get the whole sudden.
Oh I wouldn't. I wouldn't pay Lamar Jackson. Yeah, he's
got hurt the last couple of years. Last year, could
he have come back? Was it real serious? Or did
(40:15):
Lamar Jackson say, Hey, I'm going into an offseason where
I don't have a contract. I'm not gonna come back
and play and potentially risk more injuries. So yeah, I
don't think I'm gonna come back and play the rest
of this year with Baltimore. This is the guy you pay.
You pay a guy that won the League MVP a
couple of years ago. That is this kind of weapon.
Who are you not gonna pay it's free agency, right,
(40:36):
so it's or it's a trade, it's it's an elite,
top five level quarterback who's available. Yeah, this is the
guy you go get. I feel like it's just hot.
Take theater the other way to say, oh, I wouldn't
pay Lamar Jackson. I don't get it, and the market's
gonna bear that out. The second the Ravens say they're
ready to trade him, which will come very soon after
the whole franchise tag situation in Fiasco goes in next week,
(41:00):
teams are gonna call and that's gonna be suddenly be
the guy at the top of the list, which is
why Aaron Rodgers has to make his decision what he
wants to do soon. Yeah, I just don't I don't
get into the the idea when when we're talking about
Lamar Jackson, you can't dismiss the fact that he's missed
as many games he has the last couple of years. Right,
last year, I guess to some degree, folks are like, well,
(41:21):
he's not gonna play again because he's mad at the organization.
Whereas you have other reports that that knee was really
messed up. So in a vacuum of yeahs Lamar the
guy you want over the rest of the guys here. Sure,
But what's the what's the shelf life and what's your offense?
Is it tailored for him like you have in Baltimore
because you have to retro fit everything else to fit
(41:42):
his skill set. That's a tough task when you're paying
a guy near fifty million dollars. But I'll tell you
if Daniel Jones wants forty five million dollars a year
and he's gonna get it from the Giants, is Lamar
Jackson gonna get forty five million that? Yeah, he is.
It's gonna get it. Maybe it's the Jets. Maybe it's
future first ballot Pro Football, New York Jets Hall of
Famer Lamar Jackson. Maybe that's it. Mike Harvin, he ain't
(42:04):
went in there either. Twitter, And how about a Fresca Mike,
It's swollen dome for Mike. I'm Jason Colin Coward coming
up next. This is Fox Sports Radio.
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio. Hello, welcome, and saw an hour three of
the Dan Patrick Show here on Fox Sports Radio. Jason
Smith and my bass friend Mike Harmon in for Dan
and the Danetts today. And oh boy, maybe you just
heard that bit uh in Nick Cope's update a couple
of seconds ago. We'll get into the NFL on the second.
(00:23):
But the ratings for the NBA All Star Game, My goodness,
but I thought everybody hated what they saw when clearly
nobody watched it. Yeah, well, and I know you watched
the pregame show and they had one viewer, so it
was you. I caught a little of it while I
was at a restaurant with my daughter the other day.
It was on. I didn't have any sound, but I
(00:43):
watched post Malone and she kept going, this supposed to
be a basketball game, right, I got well, eventually, what's
with all the indoor light shows and fireworks? Gotta gotta
make it a spectacle? Gotta try well, got you in,
so that's good, got you in the door? I was captived,
sir videos choice, Hey, what color tie was Ernie Johnson wearing? It?
(01:03):
Was it a nice tie? What was what do you remember?
You have to know? And right it is. But but okay,
so there you know that at least very good. Okay,
all right, it is an all time low, a combined
two point two rating across t NT NTBs, the lowest
rated and least watched edition of the game. I mean
(01:26):
that is just look for this. I mean, if you're TNT,
you're like, man, we could have put on reruns a
snow Piercer and oh my god, people to watch a
little bit. But this is where we are now, right
for all of this All Star I'm never going to
be surprised by All Star games being an all time low,
whether it's baseball or basketball or football, because the era
(01:48):
of the All Star Game as we knew it, the
Golden era, is gone, right, the gold the All Star
Games that that people of a certain age grew up with.
And it's like, oh yeah, I remember when the Eastern
and Eastern Conference wanted to just destroy each other, the
American League wanted to destroy the National League and vice versa.
That's gone. That it's gone and those days aren't coming back.
(02:09):
And when I when I see social media after the
All Star Game and all the complaints of Oh, it's
a layup line. Nobody likes the game. I don't like this.
There's here's the one gift that's getting everywhere of the
four the four players on one side of the court.
We're not gonna play defense on this. Yeah, that looks
like an NBA regular season game. By the way, you're
(02:29):
gonna transported that to a lot of Laker efforts on
the defensive end. By the way, Lebron played defense once
and he got hurt. Yeah, I gotta come out of
the game. When he went up against SGA, he goes hey,
and the only time he played defense and he got
his finger caught and hurt it. Yeah, this is what
all Star games are now. That golden era is gone,
and it's like everybody keeps waiting for the oh the
(02:51):
All Star get No. All that's left now is the
new normal. And to not lose viewers like this because
all Star games, no, all the leagues know, all Star
games are in the decline, and it's just about let's
keep as many people as we can watching and we
have a slow leeching of the audience instead of like
(03:12):
the falling off a cliff like you have here at
the NBA All Star game, and it's it's just an
all star game thing. It's at the popularity of the leagues.
It's an all star game thing. Over the course of
the last few years, it's become the big exhibition. Players
don't really care. Some guys play, some guys don't. It's
just an idea that has seen its time coming gone. Right.
It's like it's like a Macy's or j C. Pennies,
(03:33):
or a clothing outlet or Toys r us Hey Toys
r us has been a staple for so many is well,
you know, now we're going bankrupt. Why the world's changed
and people buy toys online and so now there's no
more Toys rs stores and they're trying to get that's
what That's what leagues are trying to do with all
star games. And every year now is going to be
a gimmick. And some gimmicks are gonna worth better at
work better than others. Right, that's every single year, the NHL,
(03:56):
the NBA, major League Baseball. What can we do different
this year that's gonna pique somebody's interest. Right, It's the
same philosophy as going online and shopping out a website.
You don't just go to a website and shop and
buy stuff right now, when do you go, Hey, Monday
is free shipping. I got to order my stuff on Monday.
Tuesday is buy one, get one fifty percent off. All
(04:16):
I got to do that Wednesday is thirty percent off
the entire website. This is what This is what companies do. Hey,
how do we get people coming through the door? That's
all it is now with All Star Games, it's gimmicks
and it's let's say, Okay, if this didn't work this year, Now,
nothing the NBA did this year, are they going to
try to do next year? Boy, we had a we
had a we had an all time low. We gotta
do all kinds of different stuff next year. So you're
(04:37):
gonna see different ideas hopefully get it back and get
more people watching. But this is what All Star games do.
This is what leagues do. Now, what can we do
every year just to keep the new normal of people
watching paying attention to it Because just because a lot
of people are writing about it online and it's trending
at the top of Twitter, doesn't mean that it's really
interesting and people are watching. And you're seeing that with
the All Star Game this year, you're gonna go. You
(04:59):
go Sunday night to Twitter. Oh, everybody's Twitter. Look the
Allstar it's such a big deals. No, just because you
got ten thousand people tweeting about something doesn't mean it's
that big a deal, right, They're about ten thousand people
in an entire country talking about it. It's it's it
doesn't give you a good representation. You see here the
NBA All Star Game. People didn't watch. They didn't they
didn't like what they saw on TV, and they took
(05:19):
to Kevin Durant philosophy, you don't like it, don't watch.
That's what they did well. And that's the larger thing, buddy,
is that you know, you can have a lot of
complaints and in the echo chamber that is social media,
that you have the opportunity to get frustrated and people
shake their fists and call for the downfall of things
(05:41):
and look at ratings at all. The reality is people
that want to watch it are gonna watch, They're gonna
care if they care, and if they want to just
consume bite sized clips, that's where you go. And that's
the NBA with ratings and viewership in the hole, and
they have to figure that out. What's the new normal?
And for us, you know, we pull back, they're down
(06:04):
twenty nine percent. I think the biggest surprise is, hey,
you're you're part of a dunk competition in game, and
we start raiding your dunk since nobody wants to play defense.
So we have that that breaks out as part of
the festivities. And maybe now you've got some interest because
the Lebron's part of a dunk contest, even though he
didn't intend to be. I don't know, do something, even
(06:26):
if it's wrong. Seems to be where we're at, because
it's hard to get excited about this if for the
first fifty seven games or wherever we're at in terms
of how many teams have played that load management is
one of your biggest concerns at the State of the commission,
the Commissioner's State of the Union address and all that that.
You've got to figure that out, and that's the hard
(06:48):
decision for the league going forward. You can shut it
down all together, but it's a big corporate event. Twitter
at how about a fresca Mike gets swollen dumb, Jason Smith,
Mike Harmon in for Dan Patrick today again, we'll have
more on this with Rick Buker. Maybe Rick's got some
ideas for next year for the goal maybe more, maybe
more Lakers and Nicks. That that's the whole thing. Let's
get more Lakers and Nixon. More people will watch. Um.
(07:09):
But we spent a lot of time today talking about
the case for Derek Carr to be a first ballot
Hall of Famer if he goes to the New York Jets.
The ESPN report yesterday, that's what they told him during
their meeting over the weekend. Derek Car, you go to
New York, you win. You'll be a first ballot Hall
of Famer with the Jets. That wall of tingle my
entire body. But part of this, now, let's take I
(07:35):
watched David Carr talk about Derek Carr on TV, and
I just get so excited. Which infommercial was that? Was
that a B or C? It? Would you have the
American flag behind him? No? It was it was one. No, no, no.
He throws to the guys from Air Supply about getting
all that great love songs from the seventies in one place. Yes,
that's the one. Um, Look the whole thing about to
(07:56):
take this in a different direction, we're waiting right now
for whatever Aaron Rodgers is going to decide. Right, he's
in the darkness, right, we're waiting on this. Derek Carr
has the entire NFL to himself. And David Carr said
yesterday on TV that Derek Carr's free agency situation will
be a long process. And I can't tell you how
(08:18):
ridiculously bad a strategy this is going to be for
Derek Carr. Right, he has the NFL to himself because
of the way his contract was structure. Doesn't have to
wait till the end of the league year to become
a free agent like everybody else does. Because the Raiders
release him. He can sign anywhere. Right, it's the middle
of February. Derek Carr can go anywhere. What have we've
seen so far from Derek Carr. He visited with the Saints,
(08:39):
who said thanks, but no thanks, we want you to
take less money. Nope, not doing it. And he had
a visit with the Jets, who are the most desperate
quarterback team in the league. You can feel the desperation
oozing out of the Jets, every single pore of their skin,
needing a quarterback. And Derek Carr left without a deal.
And hey, I'm going to take a look and see
what's going on now. Sure part of this is some
(09:01):
teams want to see what's gonna happen with Aaron Rodgers first,
But you're supposed to be the jewel, the crown jewel
of the off season, and this is all the interest
you've had so far when you should have been taken
visits every other day. It should have been, well, I
got the Jets, then you know, am i gonna get
out of the building in New York. I'm gonna want
to sign a deal. Then I'm gonna go visit the Titans,
and I'm gonna go back to the Saints. This has
all it's been for Derek Carr, and I feel like
(09:23):
Team Carr is confusing the being in demand with being
in demand because there's no one else out there, and
that's what it is right now. There's no one else
out there and he's not that much in demand. Forget
about this taking a long process. What do they think
is gonna happen When you get to the beginning of
March and Rogers is available and Lamar Jackson gets franchise
(09:43):
and says he wants to be traded, and Ryan Tannehill
hits free agency, and so is Jimmy Garoppolo and other
quarterbacks are out there. You really think Derek Carr market's
gonna pick up and he's gonna get more money. No,
he's got to sign before free agency because this is
when teams supposedly are gonna go get And if that
means you got to lower your demands a little bit,
contract demands, it means you gotta lower demands, if you
(10:04):
got to put a little bit more sense of urgency
and finding a new team the Nats, you need to
do because when the beginning of March comes, all these guys,
teams are gonna say, yeah, in a vacuum, is Derek
Carr better than Ryan Tannehill. Sure, but Derek Carr wants
three years, one hundred and twenty million dollars. Ryan Tannehill,
I get him for two years and forty million, and
if he stinks I can move on. Yeah, I'm okay
with that. I'm okay with that plan of getting Ryan
(10:26):
Tannehill and drafting a quarterback. You've got a lot of
guys in the draft and veterans like him who are
hitting free agency. Yes, he's a better player than a
lot of those guys, but that's not all that goes
into it. And Derek Carr, if he waits to sign,
he's gonna wind up having to take less money at
a less than ideal destination for him. Because if there's
no competition now and interest is lukewarm, what's it gonna
(10:48):
be when other guys are out there. I mean, this
is the exact I mean, it's like they fall in
love with his all. Derek Carr is a free agent.
Everybody's saying wonderful things about him and all look at
Derek Carr and I'm reading about him online and seeing
what people say about him. Due you have to see
that the reality is there's not a lot of interest.
You got to create interest, and you gotta sign because
a team will sign you if they think they can
(11:08):
get you right now and you can be their quarterback
and get a three year deal and going with all
kinds of assurances and have a little bit more say
in your tenure. But you wait, watch how different it's
gonna be. It's gonna be a complete and failure. If
he does that, well, you'd think he was the victim
of the Montreal screw job. The way they set this
all up, that you know, for a decade or nearly
a decade with the Raiders, everything that went wrong couldn't
(11:32):
possibly land on his plate to have any blame in
failures season after season after season. No, it's because of
the defense. No, it's because they failed and they gave
up these leads like keep scoring points, all of those
kind of things that keep flowing in. And when you
look at the number of suitors around here, and I
wonder if David cars opportunity as well the voice of
(11:55):
this monster at this point, you know, part of the
inner circle that at eas leading the charge, almost as
if saying on the other side, please, somebody call, please,
somebody call. This is dragging out far longer than we like.
And you really should come with a great offer right now,
because we'll take it. We'll take it, please, because what
(12:16):
do you got on the board. Arizona's got Kyler Murray
coming back off injury, rams with Stafford off injury. Gino
allegedly gonna get thirty five million or thereabouts from Seattle.
We've already talked about the forty nine Ers, Atlanta, Desmond,
Ritter Saints have what Jamis and Taysom Hill and then
Carolina as your guy, Sam Darnold, and guys that were
(12:40):
hurt Matt Correll, right, Tampa, Kyle trash time. So you
can go to the NFC South, one of those teams
has to call you again. Probably everything seems to be
set in the North and the East, Sam Howell, anybody
in Washington. I mean, very few spots where you can
legit go and say, hey, we want a veteran quarterback
(13:03):
because we're on the cusp but potentially still being able
to win and be viable. And to your point about
him versus Tannehill, Yeah, that's that there could be a
large gap of money and considerations because if he didn't
want to take a pay cut to go to New
Orleans and really wants his thirty plus million dollars, I mean,
(13:23):
that may be the day of reckoning that'll be at hand.
But as we know in the quarterback market, we were
talking about it a little bit earlier between Dak Prescott
and Daniel Jones, is if you are perceived to be
the best in what should we say without great draft
compensation and considerations there that you're the best in the crew, Yeah,
(13:47):
you're gonna usually be able to command a premium price.
The problem is people got nine years of tape on.
You see the reality sign before a free agency or
you're gonna regret it, I'm telling you. And it doesn't
have to be with the Jets. No no, no, no,
no, no no no. I don't want him there. You come on, Jets,
take play someplace else, someplace else, someplace else. But you
gotta sign. But I feel good giving that advice because
(14:09):
it's needed. I feel like I did for selfishly. I
didn't I didn't sit back and say, okay, let me
do no, no, no. I wanted to help it. It
is the wrong strategy and and it's it's wrong car
family advisor. There you go. Add it to the resume.
Twitter at how about a Fresca Mike, it's swollen dome?
Jason Smith Mike Harmon in for Dan and the Danets
this morning. Coming up next, Fox Sports won NBA insider
Rick Buker stops by, does he have any ideas to
(14:31):
help the NBA All Star Game? What about some big
bull predictions for the rest of this season? Are the
Lakers going to make the playoffs? Is this Anthony Davis's
last year with them? That more? Keep it right here.
This is Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch the
live edition of The Dan Patrick Show week days at
nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the iHeart Radio WAP. Fox Sports Radio. The Jason
(14:55):
Smith Show with Mike Harmon is our show at night.
We're here today filling in for Dan Patrick and the
Danetts here on Fox Sports Radio. But a great morning
so far, and it's just going to get better right
now as we bring in a man who is going
to change the All Star Game as we know, and
he's got a full proof, twenty five point plan to
get people to watch. You can follow him on Twitter
(15:15):
at Rick Buker, Fox Sports One, NBA Inside of Rick Buker,
Rick go ahead, power pointed for us your plan to
save the All Star Game after ratings hit an all
time low this season. Oh no, no, no, no no,
you misunderstood the last time we spoke. I don't have
a solution to getting people to watch. That's damn impossible.
All I want to do is change the way we
(15:38):
actually select the teams. I'm thinking we shouldn't even play. Well. Actually,
I do have a solution now that I think about it.
There you go, see you had eight seconds. Look at
you. You You figured it out. Yeah, rings of fire. Nice, Okay,
we put rings of fire all over the all over
(16:00):
the court and players have to get extra extra point.
Players have to go through the rings of fire before
they can shoot. Oh I like that. That's not bad. Rick.
I also suggested that maybe for the fact that none
of the big name players and good good job by
mcclungan and the guys that participated. Nobody wants to play
in the dunk contest, but you're actually doing it while
(16:21):
you're in the All Star Game since they don't play defense.
So you got random celebrities around courtside that have cards
and they judge the dunks in game. Wow, you didn't
want to participate, Well, here you are anyway, that's an eight.
I think. I think that the fact that we just
came up with several ideas that would be better than
(16:45):
what we actually saw is moving in the right direction.
So yeah, it look. The funny thing is, so it's
been a while, I mean, bagging on the All Star
Game kind of has become an annual event. So maybe
we really don't want it to be well viewed because
this is kind of a dead period in the sports
(17:06):
calendar and it gives us at least gives just one
more topic to hit in in February at this point,
because I look, it's, um, it is a tortured exercise
in every sport for the most part. Um, it's just
not going to be the same. And as we become
(17:28):
more attached, or as fantasy becomes a bigger element that
draws people into paying attention, and gambling does as well.
Like you've got to be some kind of a better
if you're going to bet on the All Star Game,
probably one that people take a path on. And so
(17:51):
you know, as I would say, like for every action
I'm an Isaac Newton fans, for every action there is
a corresponding reaction, And as the league has wetted itself
more to to various things that allow the fans to participate,
(18:13):
the All Star Game really doesn't lend itself to that.
So I'm not I'm really not surprised. And then look,
then the other part of it is the players don't
team to care all that much about winning. And if
they don't care, then goodness, why why would the fans care? Now?
(18:34):
Wait now, to be serious for a second, Yeah, do
the players have to go through the ring of fire
for every shot? Or do they get extra points if
they make one from a ring of fire, Like like
a non ring of fire layup is worth two points,
but you go through the ring of fire, it's worth
four points. No, no, no, no, no no, they ring of
fire every single time. And we could create some moats
(18:58):
and some alligators and a few things. I mean that
we have to introduce something that's uh a little terrifying
in order to this. It's we had a cheaper composure. Oh,
the mystery moat is brought to you by Keia. What
could be lurking? We don't know, but the first player
that falls in we'll find that. Yeah, yeah, I mean,
(19:21):
can you say, like, can you believe Lebron blew that
lay up but he had an alligator attached to his leg?
I mean, I'm gonna give him extra I don't know
belt to spray, It's only get him the release. That's
only a four foot alligator. He should be able to
make that shot. Come on, he's still passing. This is
(19:42):
the dunk that he calls the death spiral as he
escapes the alligator. Rick twenty three most important regular season
games of Lebron James's life. It's like he was staring
in a mirror with one eye off to the side
at Anthony Davis at the same time. Yeah, yeah it
(20:04):
I look, I don't know why Lebron does this to himself. Dude,
this goes I look, look, I will say this, um.
The Lakers responded to what he wanted. He wanted them
to remake this team. They gave up one of those
(20:26):
uh future first round picks, one of the two remaining
that they had. It was something that while Lakers fans
and various media were like, this is crazy, they should
just give those up, everybody talked to in the league
was like, if they're if they're mortgaging their their future
whatever left of their future at this point. For what,
(20:48):
they're not winning a championship with this team. So they
just didn't see it as being good business. And yet
the Lakers did it anyway. They split the difference, They
gave up one of those, they gave up the second
round picks, and they basically answered Lebron's call to give
him a better team and a better team right now.
(21:10):
So there is I would say there's pressure on him
to bring this. I mean, at least get them into
the play in game, which is not which is no
guarantee the teams ahead of them improved and the teams
and those teams are gunning to stay in the playoffs
(21:30):
or make the play in as well. So they're going
to have to climb over from thirteenth. They're going to
have to climb over a number of teams that are
just as committed right now to doing what they're trying
to do over the next twenty some games. And the
other part is if we look at their schedules or
in Houston, are the only two teams that they play
that are not ostensibly playing for something down the stretch here,
(21:56):
So all their games are going to be competitive. Everybody,
whether they're playing the Lakers or not playing the Lakers,
most of the league is still vying for one of
those spots that they want. So it's not going to
be easy to get there. But Lebron kind of put
it on himself, these are the twenty three most important.
I mean, the translation is, I have to get this
(22:18):
team into the playoffs now or it's going to be
what it's going to be, a mark against my career.
I would never I would not do that. There's nothing
he can do at this point. It's gonna shift my
view of him. But that's what he said. So we're
gonna be watching and seeing exactly what he's able to
do with this new crew. I look at it this way, Rick,
(22:39):
if you said, okay, with this new thing, they have
a little bit of new energy. We've seen it before.
The Cavaliers did it a couple of times with the
trade deadline, will trade half the team, and it kind
of worked. Could I see the Lakers finishing fourteen and
nine ish and being five hundred, Yeah, I could say
I could see them playing there, yea, an Patrick be well,
(23:00):
even if Pat Bev gets them back to back ins
in Chicago, Could I see the Lakers doing that? Yeah,
But I think that's kind of the ceiling. You know,
fourteen and nine looked up the really good teams they're
still going to struggle with. But I could see that
for the Lakers and finishing right around five hundred. Yeah.
And if that's the case, then they're not getting there.
They're not I mean, if they if they're going fourteen
(23:20):
and nine, they're not climbing the ladder into one of
those play in games. And one of the other difficulties
is okay, so they make the play in if they
make the play in now the pressure is going to
be ratcheted up. Well, the Lakers have Anthony Davis and
Lebron James and they should be making the playoffs, So
(23:42):
they're going to have to win one or two of
those play in games. If they get to that point,
that's when it's really going to ratch it up. And
now now the expectation is they're going to be in
the playoffs and play a first round series. The ceiling
is for these guys. As I see it in talking
to people around the league, it's the general consensuses. If
(24:04):
they got to the playoffs and one a round, it
would be a massive, massive achievement at this point because
you just don't build fun. You just don't build teams
with twenty games to go, and this is significant rebuild
and two Lebron James. Let's face it's thirty eight years old.
(24:26):
Anthony Davis, even when he's available, is not what he
once was. And so I think we there's there's still
this vision of Lebron and ad in their heyday, and
now you put some shooters and defenders around them, and
I just don't know that that's a realistic view of
(24:47):
even who their stars are at this stage. Sorry, Lakers fans.
I know that sounds that's a that's a real debbie
downer of view of all that has happened. But I
think it's more reality than than then. Make believe it's tough, Rick,
because in my ear Frostburg kept going, we're back, We're back,
Come on, We're back. And that's the refrain around Los Angeles.
(25:10):
Let's shift to the Eastern Conference for a moment. We
got a dominant twenty seconds of performance from Jannis in
the All Star Game. How serious is this injury? Well,
it's it's it's his rist on his shooting hand. So
you could be snarky and say, well, yeah, yeah, that's
the weakest part of Yannis's game. Son, what's the matter?
(25:30):
What's the problem? Right? But no, it's dominant hand terms
of dribbling, dominant hand in terms of shooting. I don't
know the extent of the injury, but if it's going
to bother him and it's not being shooting, not being
(25:51):
one of his strength from range, if nothing else, if
he doesn't have the same strength in that wrist, that's
going to affect a lot of things, especially especially as
the free throw line. I mean, that's he's still going
to be able to get to the free throw line
if he's stealing anything in that risk that's going to
(26:12):
affect him. It's now one of the toughest mentally players
that we have in the league today. So I don't
know that it's going to discourage him from trying to
get to the line, from trying to figure it out,
from taking free throws that he's demonstrated that several times over.
But um, yeah, it you want, of all the injuries
(26:36):
that you could have other than you know, a knee
or something, that's going to change that equation, right, risk
shooting risks. It's about the worst injury that a star
player could have. Rick Bucker, our guest here the Dan
Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio, all right now, one
(26:56):
of the bits you've had if you talked about it
a lot, It's got a link onto it on Twitter.
Kevin Durant's gonna have his much anticipated debut with the
Sons at some point, maybe soon, potentially in the next
few days. Does he have more to win or lose
with the Suns going forward? Honestly, maybe it's because I'm
just and this is not my view of KD. But
(27:19):
but the general view I get of KD is really
great player, not a champion unless he's playing with the
Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry and Draymond Green and
play Thompson. So while Chris Paul and Devin Booker and
DeAndre Ayton are not play Thompson and Death and Draymond
(27:41):
at this point, that's viewed as a R trio in
the league, is it not. I mean, those three went
to the finals two years ago. So I don't know
how much k D has to gain. I would say
from what has something to gain by winning a championship
(28:05):
in Phoenix, But I don't. I expect the champion this
year to come out of the East, so it's not
going to be this year. And CP three is not
getting any younger, so I don't see the past. I'm
not looking at it and going well, if KD doesn't
win a championship in Phoenix, then this is a failure.
(28:26):
And the biggest thing part for me is what does
KD want at this point? Like what Lebron is saying,
these are the twenty three most important games of my career,
regular season games, so you feel like, okay, he feels
like there's something to lose here. I don't know what
Kevin Durant is that after, because if he wanted to win,
(28:49):
he would have stayed in Golden State. If he wanted
to demonstrate that he could be, without any question, the
centerpiece to a chachampionship team, he would have stayed in
Brooklyn and allowed them to build a team around him,
trusted that that they were going to get there in
the next year or two. He goes to Phoenix. I
(29:15):
don't know, you guys, tell me what is it that
what he would do in Phoenix that would demonstrably change
your view of who Kevin Durant is as a player. Well, look,
he'll win again. Like he's realized that he doesn't want
to lead. He knows that. You know, he's continually in
(29:37):
search of whatever he wants people to talk about him
like he's Lebron and he's not getting that, and he's
very upset. Look, the guy's got burner Twitter accounts to
defend himself. He knows I need to go win again.
So now maybe if I go win with the Suns,
I'll be viewed as a great champion because I won
with two teams, and here's a team that was good
but didn't win until they got me. I mean, at
(30:00):
this point, now he's just trying to Okay, what's going
to continue to keep me going and to keep people
talking about me being great? Wasn't happening in Brooklyn, sow,
I gotta go find I gotta go join another team.
It's not what he wanted to do, but it's what
he kind of has to do at this point. Well,
I would push back on that because I think what
he did when he was healthy in Brooklyn and they
(30:20):
went nineteen and two with Kyrie, I thought he was
turning that perspective right, Like he was reminding everybody just
how good he is. And I think he's great. He's
going and win in a ring in Phoenix. Okay, that's two.
Lebron did it in three places. Like he's not catching
if if he's if he's chasing the ghost of what
(30:45):
Lebron has done, he's not getting there at this point
no matter what he does. Then. Other then, if he
stayed in Brooklyn and he won a championship, I think
that would turn the view of everybody because people kind
(31:06):
of feel like Phoenix has been on the doorstep of
winning a championship. And Okay, so heyde could go there
and he could be the difference maker. Again. This is
difficult for me because my perspective is that the Golden
State Warriors never would have won those two championships without
Kevin Durant, would not have happened. And this finals MVPs
are proof of that and everything everything else. Having an
(31:29):
up close view of that, they're not winning another championship
without Kevin Durant. And but that's not the general perspective.
So I'm thinking the general perspective is going to be, yeah, Kyd,
you won another one in Phoenix, but you needed Chris
Paul and Devin Booker DeAndre Ayton, So did you really
(31:54):
win another championship for did they kind of help you?
Help you win another champion If he'd done it in Brooklyn,
he would have carried Ben Simmons to a title. You
won with Ben Simmons there, you would have been the
champion without right yes, and a Hernia as well. But look,
(32:15):
if he had just gotten to let's say the Eastern
Conference finals, Let's say he knocks off the Boston Celtics,
or he knocks off the Milwaukee Bucks or even the
Philadelphia seventy six ers, wouldn't you give him more credit?
Wouldn't he have gained more credit in accomplishing that than
if he goes through who's he going through in the West.
(32:39):
The people are going to say, Wow, Ken Phoenix Sons
couldn't have done that, and I give them a better
chance of winning of out of the West. But I
just think that who he would have had to beat,
and again who he would have had to beat with
a Brooklyn Nets team that doesn't have Kyrie Irving, that
(33:03):
to me would have been far more impressive than if
the Phoenix Suns end up coming out of the West
this year. With the mixed bag of teams that we
have in the Western Conference, I put the Phoenix Suns
in there in the mix. But I think the fact
that the odds immediately shot them to the top of
(33:24):
the Western Conference tells you what people think of the
Western Conference in general. He's on Twitter at Rick Buker,
That is at Rick Buker. Check him out on FS one,
host of the On the Ball podcast as well. Rick
is always buddy, thanks so much for your time and
I'm going to go to Adam Silver with your Rings
of Fire idea. I think that's a good one. Thank
(33:44):
you very much. I'm glad you're going because I probably
wouldn't do that myself. Thank you for ring. This was
submitted to us by an anonymous the Nbasider It rings
the Fire Twitter and at about Fresco. Mike at Swollen
Dome got a little bit more on Katie coming up next,
as well as the latest on Lamar Jackson. Keep it
(34:08):
right here, Jason Smith, Mike Harmon in for data the
Dan Netts. This is Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com
and within the iHeartRadio app. Search f s R to
listen live. Polly Fusco here with Tony Fusco. Yo. As
you all know, we're the host of the number one
(34:30):
rated show in all of sports talk, The Folly and
Tony Fusco Show numero o No, Yeah, And we know
why millions of people tune in every week. They want
to hear us talk sports, not our idiot guests who
think they know more about sports than we though, he
ain't listen to these dummies. You don't know crap about
This is the worst thing. He's way off the shop.
(34:53):
You don't know bad ball. If you want to hear
how sports talk should be done, ye listen to the
Folly and Tony Fusco Show on the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcast wherever you get your podcasts, Fox Sports Radio,
The Dan Patrick Show, Jason Smith's and my best friend
Mike Harmon. Then for Dan and the Danets. Today we'll
get to Lamar Jackson the second. But just real quick
(35:15):
to kind of tag Rick Bucker the interview we had
with him a few minutes ago, and thanks to Rick
for always stopping by. I mean, the Rings of Fire
idea for the All Time Game is just awesome. But
the Kevin Durant phenomenon now with the Suns, I got
a different view on this. Yes, you know, Rick talked
about it being a risk that Kad is joining the
(35:35):
Suns and does he have more to lose and to
gain at this point he knows that, Okay, I'm going
to be measured by championships and my best shot at
getting one is going to the Suns. And this is
a phenomenal fit for him where he wants to play.
He doesn't want to lead, and now he's joining a
team that has a bunch of leaders on it. But Also,
(35:56):
if they win, k D will be given the credit.
He's joined them, just like he joined the Golden State Warriors. Okay,
there's a bunch of stars on here. I don't need
to lead. I can just be the difference maker and
that's when people are gonna give me the respect that
I really want. I'm the missing piece here to win
with the Suns. So that's why he's there. He doesn't
need to be the big scorer every night. Look a
(36:18):
Booker is back and he's gonna be the guy some nights.
He just has to be that guy every couple of games.
And I look at him joining the Suns, and when
he is healthy, you watch them just run roughshod over
everybody they play the rest of the way. It's gonna
be like when the Lakers got Pau Gasol, and it
was the Lakers were kind of meandering. We thought they
(36:40):
might be good, and then they make the big trade
for Gasol. What did they win eleven in a row?
When when they got Pau Gasol and then they jump
started the second half of the dynasty and they won
a couple of titles, went to three finals. That's what's
gonna happen for the Suns. They're gonna start beating people
like the Nets would beat people when everybody was healthy.
It's one forty nine, one fifteen. Look at this, This
is unbelievable. When he starts playing. That's what the Suns
(37:03):
are gonna do. And it's gonna be the biggest story
of the last twenty three ish games of the NBA season,
how Lebron finishes with the Lakers and KD and the Suns.
They're just gonna start ripping teams right and left. It's
gonna happen. This is a phenomenal fit. No. I like
the cut of your gym. There the excitement, But I
agree with Rick's point from the all right, you accept
(37:25):
who you are, and I think that's the point here
for Kevin Durant and for all of us and whatever
our roles are at our jobs and in our homes
and everything else. You know, know your role and shut
your mom was on Young Rock last week. That was
the learning point that they were trying to push out.
And that's kind of where Kevin Durant must be in
the process. Like, all right, even if I have to
(37:45):
join up and they don't want to give me credit,
that's fine. It's another ring. So long from now, I'll
be able to say not two, but three, maybe four.
You have no idea, do I think? From the whole
legacy and that debate that we always have and I
don't know much I get excited about it, but for
the purposes of sports talk radio and television, we'll have
(38:06):
it that he's never gonna get credit. He's gonna be
on the list and it'll be higher based on adding
another title. But he's got he doesn't get credit for
the other ones, right, That's why he left, even if
he's the MVP, which is the thing that's never made sense,
Like you won the MVP, It's like, yeah, but it
was Steph's team here, It's all right. They already had
three guys. Now you're the fourth, and you helped put
(38:28):
them over. They were the number one seed a year ago.
So it must be he's found some inner peace to
go do that, or he just simply doesn't care and
just wants to go win and want it out of Brooklyn.
Once Kyrie Irving was done, that's it. Twitter at how
about a fresca Mike gets swollen? Don't if you missed
the Rick Bucher interview, it's gonna be up on Fox
(38:49):
Sports Radio in the best of coming up in a bit.
Always a great visit with Rick and again if you
would to forget Kate Ring of Fire, Rings of Fire, No,
that's it. We spent a lot of time to Sporting
talking about quarterbacks and the Derek Carr potential future first
ballot Hall of Famer with the Jets. So it's so
excited Aaron Rodgers eventually coming out of the darkness retreat,
(39:12):
Daniel Jones forty five million dollars deal with the Giants.
It's going to happen. As much as you think it's not,
It's going to happen. And yes, Joe Burrow will get
sixty million if that skates out, goes the quarterbacks. But
the Lamar Jackson situation just gets crazier and crazier. Look
on our night show. We've talked with us for a while,
for over a year. Lamar Jackson's and the and the
Ravens are headed for a divorce. Congratulates to everybody who's
(39:34):
just picking up on that right now. If the Ravens
really wanted to sign him, if Lamar Jackson wanted to stay,
they would have figured things out by now. But The
Ravens don't want to pay him what Lamar Jackson wants.
Lamar Jackson wants forty five million dollars a year. He
wants it all guaranteed. The Ravens not there, right. They
offered him one hundred million dollars less guaranteed than he wants.
(39:54):
So yeah, it's gonna happen. And do you really think
teams are not gonna give this to him? If the
raven said today we're thinking about trading Lamar, the phones
would never stop ringing. I don't get the whole sudden.
Oh I wouldn't. I wouldn't pay Lamar Jackson. Yeah, he's
got hurt the last couple of years. Last year, could
he have come back? Was it real serious? Or did
(40:15):
Lamar Jackson say, Hey, I'm going into an offseason where
I don't have a contract. I'm not gonna come back
and play and potentially risk more injuries. So yeah, I
don't think I'm gonna come back and play the rest
of this year with Baltimore. This is the guy you pay.
You pay a guy that won the League MVP a
couple of years ago. That is this kind of weapon.
Who are you not gonna pay it's free agency, right,
(40:36):
so it's or it's a trade, it's it's an elite,
top five level quarterback who's available. Yeah, this is the
guy you go get. I feel like it's just hot.
Take theater the other way to say, oh, I wouldn't
pay Lamar Jackson. I don't get it, and the market's
gonna bear that out. The second the Ravens say they're
ready to trade him, which will come very soon after
the whole franchise tag situation in Fiasco goes in next week,
(41:00):
teams are gonna call and that's gonna be suddenly be
the guy at the top of the list, which is
why Aaron Rodgers has to make his decision what he
wants to do soon. Yeah, I just don't I don't
get into the the idea when when we're talking about
Lamar Jackson, you can't dismiss the fact that he's missed
as many games he has the last couple of years. Right,
last year, I guess to some degree, folks are like, well,
(41:21):
he's not gonna play again because he's mad at the organization.
Whereas you have other reports that that knee was really
messed up. So in a vacuum of yeahs Lamar the
guy you want over the rest of the guys here. Sure,
But what's the what's the shelf life and what's your offense?
Is it tailored for him like you have in Baltimore
because you have to retro fit everything else to fit
(41:42):
his skill set. That's a tough task when you're paying
a guy near fifty million dollars. But I'll tell you
if Daniel Jones wants forty five million dollars a year
and he's gonna get it from the Giants, is Lamar
Jackson gonna get forty five million that? Yeah, he is.
It's gonna get it. Maybe it's the Jets. Maybe it's
future first ballot Pro Football, New York Jets Hall of
Famer Lamar Jackson. Maybe that's it. Mike Harvin, he ain't
(42:04):
went in there either. Twitter, And how about a Fresca Mike,
It's swollen dome for Mike. I'm Jason Colin Coward coming
up next. This is Fox Sports Radio.
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Mike Harmon
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