May 31, 2024 • 36 mins
Jason and Mike give you their official NBA Finals picks. The guy's debate if Anthony Edwards was crowned way too early. And HBO tags Harmon’s Chicago Bears for Hard Knocks!
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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 am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Give this part you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hello, Welcome in side our three, The Jason Smith Show
with my bes friend Mike Harmon, live from the tirag
dot com studios tirec dot com. I hope you get
there at unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road hazard
protection and over ten thousand recommended installers tirack dot com
the way tire buying should be. Congratulations to the Dallas Mavericks.
(00:51):
They're into the NBA Finals. They thump the t Wolves
one twenty four to one oh three in a Game
five that was never competitive, terrible. We'll have the tea
Wolves side because we're gonna hear from Anthony Edwards, who
you know, just a week ago was next was the
face of the league. It would still be just a
week ago because he said some really interesting things following
(01:14):
the game and the tea Wolves get knocked out.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
But yeah, but for the game itself, Jason, I mean
Kevin Harlan stopped selling it at halftime.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah, It's almost like when you heard him go to halftime,
he was taking his head set off, going I'm leaving.
You can get somebody else to come in and do
the rest of this. Clrvelle come in clearly frustrated. I
came five.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
You're trying to hype it, and you're like, I gotta
be a realist here.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
But he also wasn't. Let's not. He wasn't al Michaels, you.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Know, no, no, no, no, not alm No, no, no,
not no no, he wasn't asleep.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
I'll tell you this whole game sucks. I can't do
these games, these teams. Also, Harlan normally, guys, he can
sell anything. Yeah, normally, but I think even he got
to the point where, okay, he can sell you an
opening of an envelope? Can I Can I get on
a late night flight out and back home? Do I
have to wait till tomorrow morning?
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Can I got on? Is there a red eye that
I can get on? Can I leave? Yes?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Still excitable. I just didn't feel like it was from
the soul like it normally is.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
I'm sure Herod's peeling out. He can catch play with him.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
But with the Mavericks and the Celtics now set to
meet in the NBA Finals, series begins on the fourth
of July. Game seven is scheduled for Labor Day. It's
gonna be a great, long time play for a long
time to get healthy. It's gonna be fantastic. Rick Bucker
joined us about a half hour ago and he gave
us his for the first prediction for the Finals.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
He likes Dallas, he likes what.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Luca and Kyrie have done, and the path for the
Celtics to the NBA Finals has not nearly been what
the path was for Luca and Kyrie and the Mavericks.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
I agree with all of that. I think it's indisputable.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
However, Yeah, and this is where you know, this kind
of works out for me too. I'm going Celtics because
what have I said from the beginning of the playoff.
If the Celtics don't win the title this year, they're
never going to win. They had an easy road through
the playoffs, They're well rested, they're not banged up. They're
(03:10):
gonna get Kristaps Porzingis back.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
No.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Have they had to extend themselves. No, But that's okay,
all right, this is hey. Oh they haven't extended. Yeah,
but they won games. They've won in five What do
you want them to do? I mean, this is you're
supposed to win games as easily as possible in the
perfect world and have a lot of rest.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
This is it.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
They're also coming into this finals as the favorites, right,
they're the betting favorites coming in. And it's much different
from coming in last time against the Warriors where they
had a great game one and then suddenly they got
lost the rest of the series. There's gonna be a
lot for their stars and they're in their big core
of this playing on this on this stage for the
(03:48):
second time in the last three years, and getting Porzingis
back is a big deal. And I can't believe, And
you know, I'm I'm you know, I believe that Celtics
when I have to, because it pains me to say
psychologicalis could be a huge I mean, I gotta talk
about it. You're kind of getting a brain freezing. Really,
I gotta I gotta talk about Porzingis being the key
to the NBA Bleeping Finals.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Don't we bring the songs back.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I'm telling you that, dude, that's gonna be a long
wait in a minute, that's a long week.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
It's gonna especially the one that's the trance that makes
you want to walk into the ocean. You were late
on the clap, Come on, trying to get Steve. You
know when the clap happened. No, I know, I was
gonna slam my microphone like.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
The lights were gonna go out when you clap.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Liked it, like he's eighty five years old, going, I'm
gonna turn the lights off from bed nocturnal activities. Let's go,
lights are out. Uh no, Look, this is when the
Celtics should win. They have shown and again, are they
as great as their record says?
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Probably not.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
It is a bit of a water down Eastern Conference,
but here they are. You can't deny their talent, and
they will be more healthy, They will be a little
bit more used to this spotlight. Not that something the
maver is gonna walk in going. But you see how
things can get out of control if you get behind.
There's a difference between the conference finals and the NBA Finals.
Every athlete will tell you, hey, we were great in
(05:14):
the conference championship game, but we got to the Super
Bowl and things went crazy, or we got to the
World Series and things suddenly went nuts. The fact the
Celtics were just here a couple of years ago, and
and Tatum was here and Brown was here, this is
a big it's a big thing. And porzingis being coming
back and being healthy. Suddenly you have Now you're getting
(05:35):
your fourth best player back and someone who can be
a big matchup nightmare. This is it, This is it,
This is the time. Like I'm going all in on
the Celtics because if they don't win, I'm never picking
them again. They're going on my nevere list, they go
on the.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Go on some other people's list.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Because all of the tributes that had been laid at
their feet, the roses, roast pedals that are in front
of them, people will immediately charged. The knives out and
the daggers in terms of ink and column inches and
certainly tweets and well, sports talk radio and television shows
(06:12):
will have their way just like they did a year ago.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Right, just like they did a year ago.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
All Right, this Tatum and Brown duo can't work in
a big moment, et cetera, et cetera, and I'm gonna
say they lose and chaos ensues that we get more
of Luca and his band of Merriman, Kyrie Irving as
happy as we've ever seen him. That's good whatever's gone
right in his world this past year and playing great basketball, smiling,
(06:41):
going through and rededicated or whatever the case is. It's
a good story. The sporting cast. I like the guys
from Boston, you know this. I mean, we've talked about
White and the Big Smooth part two Al Horford quite often,
but in terms of their importance to things. But looking
at Gaffer, looking at PJ. Washington, looking at Lively, assuming
(07:04):
he didn't walk away with another injury after he got
hammered earlier and went down like a ton of bricks,
but looking for the physicality to be maybe something that
the Celtics aren't ready for. Well, Indiana tried to play
you know, they were fake tough guys.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah sure, Well that's also that's not their game in
the end of these guys can play both with you.
But here's here's the other key I see right porzingis
coming back is going to present matchup deficiales and and
and the big thing is going to be integrating him
back right does he jump right back in for normal
minutes as he come off the bench, because the celt
has went pretty well without him. But the big thing
is going to be this and they do have a
(07:41):
long time again, they have until the fourth of July.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
But the big guys going to be like twenty pounds
on and is ready?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Is I will bet you, I will bet you Joe
Mizula's strategy and and this could I mean, who knows
it's I'm saying this.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
He may just adopt it is.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
I bet you you are going to see in the
finals Drew Holliday taking one of the stars out and him.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Specific You're gonna see Drew Holliday.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Let's just say they decide, you know what he can
he can hold Kyrie down because Kyrie.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Is a guy.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Look, Luca is always going to get his points. So
I can see the Celtics saying we'll let Luca score.
We'll let Luca get his points. But if we shut
down Kyrie and Drew Holliday is on him, and you
see what Drew Holliday can do. How how valuable. He
can frustrate you if if he can, if he can
shut Kyrie down, that's going to be a Celtics win.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
The big question, right.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
And this is again we will get to watch it
unfold live. Should Missoula take that strategy is Kyrie is
not Halliburton, He's not a young guy still learning how
to play in big moments to where maybe it gets
too big for him. That would be the one, the
one counter to it holiday to your point, and why
(08:53):
I didn't mention.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Holiday holiday holiday, He's a guy that.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
You and I we've we've watched it all season long,
like if he can play right, you made these moves
to bring him in to go to go for it
on the defensive end, and he's also been giving you
fifteen points on a lot of these nights, right and
and helping you on the offensive side. But if he
can shut you down and frustrate one of your top options, yeah,
(09:18):
I mean, that's the ace.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
And the hole.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Uh. And when we look at the Dallas side, we're
still just getting used to the idea that Luca and
Kyrie are playing defense with great regularity.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
But I mean, but look that that's a that's a
big thing because you've seen the best players in the NBA,
boy Holiday, and I think I think I don't know
that you can. Like you saw a little bit in
the Pacer series where the Celtics decided, hey, Drew Holiday
is here, and he's here, but the minutes he's on Halliburton,
Halliburton had difficulty. I don't think you're going to see
him move around. It's gonna be, it's gonna be this
(09:52):
is our strategy, and and it's going to be Drew
Holliday on Kyrie. And now something happens and Holiday's on Kyrie,
and they will wind up getting in trouble. They split
the first game, they lose the first two games, something
like that. Then you could change and say, all right, now,
clearly we got to let Kyrie do his thing. But
I don't think you're gonna have him jump around from
guy to guy. It's gonna be we'll let you. Luca
will get his points. We can beat the Mavericks easy
(10:15):
if we let Luca get his points and nobody else
goes crazy. The other guy gonna go nuts is gonna
be Kyrie. Because look at what they've done this round.
They beat Minnesota this round because both of them came
through last round. Kyrie was awful and.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
So I also three had some big moments, but he
also had some games that were on the whole not
not even close to what you expect.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
I'll also throw out there that again, this is the
most basketball Kyrie Irving has played in a long time.
And it looked like maybe, hey, maybe going into the
Western Conference Finals he was gonna hit the wall a
little bit.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Nope, he bounced back. But NBA Finals we saw.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
It really patched you though, because he would look like
it was happening, like he did nothing.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
But he did nothing in that series and energy for days.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
But not to mention the the annointed one was on
the other side, but we.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Saw we saw that with Chris Paul right, hey, suddenly
it's the NBA could only be not because look the
age difference. Chris Paul was thirty six. Kyrie Irving is
five years younger. But it's still more basketball than he's
played in a long time. Four years. And if you
have a fresh defender who is one of the top
three defenders in the league, I'll go with that. That's
that to me, That's the game that I could talk about.
(11:25):
Portzingis and that's a huge deal. But this, this is
the series Holliday versus Kyrie. Whoever wins that battle is
going to win the series. And I'll go Holiday being
able to slow him down enough that Celtics can win.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
But as a superior distributor and ball handler, right, because
that's the other narrative that flows out there, right with
Kyrie in addition to everybody you know marveling at you know,
maturity and whatever other lines they want to throw out here,
it's like, the guy's playing great basketball. He's always been
a great basketball player. It's stunning for a full season.
And now we're in the NBA Finals and is run
(11:59):
back there. So it's great, But it's the always at
the top of the list of all right, who's the
best ball handler, who's the purest player? Right when we
get into all of those things, Kyrie Irving's name goes
to the top of the list. And this is where
if you've got a Holiday. While he may not score
a bunch, perhaps the distribution side of things gets back
kicked up to another notch right where we're not talking
(12:21):
about five or six assists, but maybe we get back
to double digits per game and some easy buckets for
the Bigs.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Exit out about a Fresco exit swollen down the Jason
Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. So there's
our picks for the NBA Finals. I got the Celtics.
Harmon's got the next boy, this is about Sorry Maverick,
Sorry it's Magic Nicks. But coming up next, boy, you
gotta hear some of Anthony Edwards who hit the podium
and talked about the Tea Wolves getting eliminated. The guy
(12:49):
who a week ago was Michael Jordan. What did he
have to say after the elimination? You'll hear it next
right here, Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
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 iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
Two NBA Insiders podcasting twice a week to plug you
right into the NBA Great Five.
Speaker 6 (13:15):
All happening in only one place. This League Uncut, the
new NBA podcast with me.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Chris Haynes and me Mark Stein, join us.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
As we team up to expound on everything we're covering.
Hearing and Chason.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Listen to This League Uncut with Chris Haynes and Mark Stein.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Pop Quiz hotshot. What famous comedy does this song open?
Why do I not know?
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Why am I?
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Here's a hint. It's like eighty eighty six. It's not
a band singing. It's not what is this nas band?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Right right round?
Speaker 7 (13:56):
No?
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Just dead or alive? General alive. It's not dead or alive.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
It's somebody else singing this song that opens up a
famous comedy.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
When I take comedies, who's singing? Wow? Okay, Justin Frostberg?
Go ahead. I think it's an Adam Sallin film. Very good,
very good. I got it. You guys got it?
Speaker 8 (14:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (14:15):
There you go. Yeah, you've been me right round? Ma,
you know? There you go?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, I mean also featured in Pitch Perfect, but a
different version of it.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Yeah, I mean gonna wear the Michael Jackson jacket and glo,
no gonna do that. I remember seeing the funniest thing.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
There was a zombie movie I saw once in the
late eighties, and like one of the funniest things in
it was all these people were reanimating themselves. Are all
like you know, shaking coming back, and there was somebody
dressed like Michael Jackson shaking rings dancing, and I'm like, oh,
that's funny. It makes absolutely no sense, but boy, that's funny.
And I forget what movie you want?
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Well you take it, take the little uh.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
I mean, it was way back here before people knew that, oh, hey,
you know the zombies are pretty popular.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
It was just like, you know, zombie, that one zombie,
that one. Sexy vampires. Man, that's what's the next phase though,
Sexy Vamba.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Could you talked about how miserable the two part Twilight.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
We're gonna go back to sexy vampire? Sexy vampires? Well,
couldn't know because they had the interview with the vampire
go on right now?
Speaker 5 (15:14):
No, right, sexy vampire. Right, you're never left the sexy vampire.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I have to think at some point, it's like like
like Jennifer Assen's film career. At some point they're gonna
make where wolves happen. But do you have to make
were wolves happen going after Jemmy?
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Man? Why is that?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Hell?
Speaker 4 (15:28):
I'm just saying, man, I'm just saying.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Sure, jack were wolves are never happening. Well, wait a
minute lumberjack were wolves.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
I like that idea. I mean when he was on
his walk, wasn't he wear a flanel?
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Like a bunch of lumberjacks working in the woods and
they get bit by something and they all turned tocanthropy. Right, Well,
I like that, and they altern yeah, and they and
they're wolves, but they have like they're not just wolves,
but they have axes and stuff and power machinery.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
See that. I like see that. Yeah, No, it's just
not gonna work.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Like the whole vampire thing works because women like clean shaven,
sexy eyes like that.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Oh that is true.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah, but now Game of Thrones and everybody looking sexy
and dirty, that's kind of become a thing. That's but
you've seen that now it's like, oh.
Speaker 8 (16:13):
Women are paying hundreds of dollars to have dirty shoes.
I think, I think, you, little dad. What was the
what did pay less do again? They changed their name
to like pay Lessie, and people like they were like.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
It was a boutique.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Pay Lessie. I like that, Like, what's where's pay Lessie? Yeah,
but it's like I'm going to Tarja.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
I wanted the dark actually work, and then crews screwed
it up.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Nah, Dark Shirk, Dark Universe didn't work. You know why
because nobody cares about because nobody cares about Frankenstein and
the Mummy. Nobody cares about the whole world. Nobody cares
about those under World was fun. No back Underworld, nobody cared.
There was nobody crying to say, you know what I
like to see is the Mummy? And no, there was nobody.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Fraser was.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Nobody was almost thirty years ago. Fine, nobody was Rangel weis.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
Come on, Yeah, this.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Is why I would be great as an executive because
I would say no to all the stupid movies that
are gonna cost.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
You many months.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
Nobody wants to play the invisible man because you can't
see them acting, but he's gonna have hollow Man.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
I mean the Bacon movie was pretty good. That was good. Okay,
that was good.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah, I would get a guy and I'm gonna pay
you per screen time. It was like Forhoven's last one, right, yeah,
I'm America might have been. It was like his last
big American movie and it flopped badly and he was like, yeah,
I'm out of here. I think I could do that. Hey, listen,
you're a big start we're gonna pay you a screen time. Okay,
but you're the invisible man, so you're only on the
very beginning and the very end.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
I'm only going to pay you for that, mister Coloney. Okay,
all right, thank you. Good that works out.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Well, here's the eve.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Think does he didn't make enough money by which he
can do one of his independent things because you know
he's going to Broadway.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
Well that's true.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, as long as he can make a serious movie
as this could be a Mandy bullet and stuff, this
will be enough for you to fund that independent movie
you have about whatever cause you want to put and
put a light on. That's absolutely fine. Okay, but no,
but that that's how it would work. I think you
gotta kind of what people want.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Man.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I'm telling you got kind of be able to make
where keep shoving were wolves down everybody's throat until it happens.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Man. Remember he's a bit shoe in that movie.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
And Josh Bowlin, Yeah, oh that's right, Josh bowl Yeah,
pre Thanos, Josh Brownell. I've also got another problem with
this idea. What's the problem cat people? That's too long ago.
People don't remember. We just know I'm saying I'm a cat.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
I don't care about DAWs. Oh okay, yeah, well yeah,
I mean I can we just do a group viewing
of the movie Cats? No, no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
My my grandmother already took piece of that play when
I was young. I'm I'm completely out of Cat's not working,
not working.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
Uh So we gave you our picks for the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
A few moments average show, Let's go, we dovetailed into
cat people and then Tasia Kinski. Uh, I'm going Celtics,
Harmon's going Mavericks. Now it's time to concentrate on the
story from the losing locker room. It was a week
ago Anthony Edwards was the next Michael Jordan. Everything is
all look, how great the guy is. He's Michael Jordan.
(19:07):
Now after a really bad Western Conference Finals in which
we have seen him play poorly, turn the ball over
at the end of games, shy away from potential game
winning shots. Now, where is he and how do you
break down Anthony? Is he still next? Is he's still
next Michael Jordan? Listen to him talk after the game.
All right, this is just from a few minutes ago.
(19:28):
Some of the questions he answered about the Tea Wolves
and why they came up short against the Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 7 (19:34):
What did you see happen so early there that just
brought a knockout punch and made it tough to come back, Luca?
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Is that simple?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
He had like three shots from the from the.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Logo, so pretty much nothing we can do about it.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
We never clicked altogether as.
Speaker 7 (19:48):
A team in the series, not even one game.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
I think that was the main thing.
Speaker 7 (19:52):
Like like in the last two series we was all
clicking at one time making shots and stuff.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
We wasn't clicking at one time.
Speaker 7 (19:58):
At what's your emotions as the and now comes to
an end about what you accomplished and where it fell short.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
We'll be back next year.
Speaker 7 (20:05):
Do you think this is something that you just have
to go through experience to kind of build on.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
Unfortunately is going through with a loss. But I guess so.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
You hear him talk there, and Rick Buker kind of
brought this up a little bit, and this gets into
the right way to judge Anthony Edwards, is that listening
to his post game, he didn't really seem to have
any answers why the Timberwolves lost, right, I didn't really
see him to have any answers. Yeah, we didn't click.
We went through it. I guess got to go through
with the loss.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
I don't know. Luca hit shots from the logo what
are you gonna do?
Speaker 1 (20:35):
It's like, okay, it's not quite where you shrug your
shoulders and say, okay, now I get And I'm glad
that he's honest with what he talks about. But this
is why Anthony Edwards was given too much too soon
about being the next face of the league, because what
did you see after the initial Look how great he is?
Look how great he's look great Now he's struggling, and
(20:57):
what do you keep seeing trending on social media? He's
twenty two, but he's twenty two years old. He's twenty
two years old. Yeah, he's twenty two. Everybody wanted him
to be greater than he is. He's a great player
right now, but you could see the media and analysts
and experts they wanted to Mac Jones, right. I keep
going back to that because that's exactly what happened. All
this guy's Jordan wears the same arm band around the
(21:18):
same part of his left arm. He's athletic like Jordan.
He reminds you of him when he leaves, the explosiveness
of the basket, all of these things. But he was
over hyped because he wasn't ready yet. He wasn't ready
for this moment. And you could tell during the Western
Conference Finals he just wasn't ready. And now it doesn't
even seem like he knows why they lost. And I
don't know, I don't get I mean, yeah, Luca hit
(21:39):
three shots from the logo. Oh that's why he lost
in five games because Luke had three shots in the logo.
I mean, right, I mean, give me something a little
bit more than that, and I get there. Hey you're
twenty two, but dude, you just played in the Western
Conference finals. Man, you're a professional basketball player. This was
the Western Conference Finals of the NBA, and you could
tell he's just not ready. It doesn't mean he's not
gonna get there, and it doesn't mean suddenly you're cutting
(22:00):
bait in the guy. No, the guy's a terrific player.
But the best way to break him down is to say, look,
maybe he's the next great player, maybe he's the next
face the league. Maybe because he might be, but clearly
here he wasn't ready. If he was the next Face
League and he was ready, it would have been better.
It's not about making the shots. It's about wanting to
take the shots at the end. It's not turning the
(22:22):
ball over. It's having a plan in the final minutes,
and he clearly didn't have it. He had the end
of game four, right the end of game four, in
the last minute, he made a couple of shots because
the Mavericks decided, Hey, we're gonna single cover you.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Wait.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Really, yes, we're gonna single cover you. Okay, I'm gonna
make a couple of shots. But like I said, the
guy's a great player. But to be the next Face League,
the best thing to say is maybe he is. But
you can see that there's a long way for him
to go because this moment in moment time right here,
he wasn't ready. The Mavericks were.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
But you know the rule of thumb when it comes
to sportstock radio and certainly sportstock television, when you get
a bunch of you know, people throwing up ideas to
get somebody to say something bad, stinking, over the top
and crazy because their clicks for the week were off
you know, three percent or whatever the case. Was, and
that's what the Anthony Edwards thing became. It wasn't marveling
(23:10):
of Wow, this guy's really starting to come into his
own because we can't do that, right, it's the moment
and the show is today.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Is he playing? Well? Who do we compare him to?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
That's what we do with all of these players, no
matter the sport, right, there's always got to be a
comp and if it happens to be an African American quarterback,
guess what the only guy we can compare him to
African American quarterback from ten years ago, twenty years ago.
So we always pull out Warren Moon and Donovan mcnahbb
and whatever else, and occasionally a Michael Vick pops in's
(23:42):
like but remember he was lefty, you know, kind of
thing with the NBA, what do we go to? We
want guys to be Lebron or Kobe or Jordan, And
in Edwards case, he kind of fits the suit from
the physical build and everything else, which meant if you
can go full hot take non after watching the t
Wolves play for the second time this year, because that's
(24:04):
the thing they all need to be honest with themselves
that you watched him and you went Wow, look at him,
he's skies.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Here's a highlight reel dunk.
Speaker 6 (24:12):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
How many of those stills did you see? Or the
little quick video clips that showed up in your timeline
on Instagram, on TikTok and on Twitter right time and
time again, it was wow, look at how high he
is and trying to estimate his verticality and all of
those things. And then you add a couple of defensive
plays like well, Jordan defensive player of the year all
(24:33):
the time. So let's you know, a guy that buys
in on both ends of the court. And then he's
talking after games and giving you great soundbites. So all
of it became a yeah, thrust him to the front
of the line because you jumped on the t Wolves
band pngwagon. Part of it because of the expectation that
at some part, at some point in this process, the
Luca and Kyrie partnership was gonna blow up, right, because
(24:57):
everybody was waiting for that shoe to drop, like, hey,
the Celtics are definitely gonna give you one for the Mavericks.
It was all right, when are they going to blow up?
And when are these two gonna start fighting? And all
of that stuff well, guess what, it didn't happen. So
in the interim it became all about because the Celtics
were boring because we've seen them how many times in
the last six seven years? Right, they've run to the
(25:19):
conference finals, so they're not new and exciting anymore. It's like, nah,
if they don't win, then screw them. So it became
all about Anthony Edwards and his time in the sunlight
and guess what tomorrow, all those same people, it's like, well,
you know, Jordan had to go through Isaiah Thomas's pistons,
and maybe for Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves, that's Luca
(25:41):
Dancis and the veteran Savvy. And now they get to
prop up Kyrie Irving again.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
See how that.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Goes The guy they cast off, the guy they hated,
had all sorts of monologues bemoaning everything else he was doing.
Now they get to prop him back up. See how
it goes the cycle the certain line. Look, it's like sima, yeah, simba, simba.
They're drawing pictures of Antony how good he is.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
Now.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Look, there's a difference between being so athletically talented and
people seeing it, Like you said, for the first time,
because when did this Michael Jordan thing come up when
the playoffs being's right, forget about all season as great
as we watched how many how many and it's and
it's not like man and it's not like he came
into the league and was bad. This has been a
good push for him over the last four years to
(26:25):
get to this point where going into next year he'll
be an MVP co favorite or a favorite to be
one of the finalists for MVP most likely. But the
whole Jordan thing is, he said, because people just started
watching the playoffs, now, oh wow.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
This guy's crazy.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
He's Jordan because he looks like it, because he wears
the he wears the the sweat band around the same
part of the left arm like Jordan does, and he
does look does look like him when he explodes to
the basket and the athleticism is crazy, but there's a
difference between hey, he looks and looks the part to
actually doing it. And he was and he was over hyped.
He was he was mac Jones. It was we want
(27:00):
him to beat Jordan so bad. Suddenly we're turning him
into that. And he didn't really shy away from it. Oh,
I don't really like it. But he's making threes and
shrugging going back down the court like he's Jordan.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
So it's not like he completely walked away from it,
but now you know he's celebrated, and now you're seeing
it's we talked about a little bit a couple of
nights ago where hey, this looks like he's not ready
for this scene.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Yet.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
He's not ready for this stage, I said at this point.
And it was tough to see because when you knock
out the defending champions like that, hey, guess what you're
You're ready to be on the stage. This wasn't a
team where hey, the Timberwolves drew a couple of easy
matchups and there were guys who were injured and so
hey here.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
They are something. Hey we're in the wets and gurn over.
And the big thing was how they won that final.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
You bet they came back and Starke, yeah you beat them,
you wol He won three games in Denver, where we
can't win these games in the in the in the
in the air like that in the mile high aera.
So they were so talent wise, they were ready and
then they fall short and so clearly, like I said,
there's a difference between playing, Hey, we're athletic, you get
(28:00):
to with this, and then how do you lead and
win at that next level? And clearly he wasn't ready
for the NBA Western Conference Finals level, and Luca and
Kyrie were all right. I mean, that's that's the fair
the fairest way. Maybe he's the next face of the league.
Maybe he figures it out. He's a star player. There's
lots of star players. Maybe he's a next face. A
lot to grow.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
And like we talked about a little bit earlier, just
to punctuate it, how many people were giving up on
Luca after last year. Oh, you go back and find
a lot of tape, a lot of column inches spent
of Well he's twenty five. He's only twenty five. But
we've seen dot dot dot.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
So here we are exit out bout a Fresca exit
swollen down The Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Harmon. Coming up next, a big NFL story from
today that could be great or terrible for one quarterback.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
That's next right here, and it's not Aaron Rodgers. Jason
and Mike Fox Sports Radio. He said, great as a
great or terrible great.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon
coming up in ten minutes.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Boy, do we have a story from the Mavericks' locker.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Room following their win over the Timberwolves tonight video. I
still can't believe. I hope it's a joke, but it
doesn't look like it. Okay, I hope it's a joke, but.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
It just right.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
It is insane, and because I know people, it involves beer.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
I mean it involves beer.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
Especially after ten o'clock West Coast Shine, involved talking about bs.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
And will most insane things. Do jess that, Hey, nothing
good happens after midnight?
Speaker 4 (29:43):
What is that all true? Except in the pac twelve?
Uh yeah, Pack.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Twelve after after dark. But they had run big news
out of the NFL today. Your Chicago Bears, Yeah, are
gonna be on hard sure, the end season Hard Knocks
where we finally force them to there's video, there's football
games and not the offseason. Oh hey, look we're gonna
see exactly what the Giants and no No, the good
(30:07):
one where we get to meet Caleb Williams and everybody
else and Bears on the rise. And the first thing
I'm gonna say is this, this is a phenomenal choice.
If I know, teams don't want to do it, the
Bears didn't want to do it, nobody wants to do it.
But for fans, first thing I'm gonna say, phenomenal choice.
Bears are a really interesting team. You're talking about Caleb Williams.
They have a lot of star power. Now, they're bringing
(30:27):
a lot of new players. They're a team on the rise.
This is gonna be incredibly interesting. I don't know if
you could have a better choice of teams where hey,
we haven't we've seen them already. I mean, alwas you
want to put the Jets on again that we've seen,
But here you're getting something new with the Bears, and
I think that's really good. No, but that's the thing
right long, dormant whatever historic power in the NFL, if
(30:50):
you add up the history, go back to what they
will do all the George Hallis and go on through
the years and plenty of montaige of sayers, Happy Bellid,
you know, happy birthday to the late great running back
and Dick Buckis, you know, and all of those guys
through the years that you can build all the history
(31:11):
lesson for people and they've never been forced to do
it before. They've been eligible a number of times and
they've always been able to kick the can down the road.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Go no, no, go, pick another team like no, no, no.
Now you've got Caleb Williams. Now you have excitement. You've
got prognosticators falling all over themselves to try to say
positive things about the Bears and the front office and
what they built. The expectation that suddenly they're going to
climb to the top of the division. Really, I could
(31:40):
see Minnesota with Sam Darnold and JJ McCarthy battling it out,
but suddenly, you know, is Green Bay gonna fall apart?
Are the Lions going anywhere? Forty nine kill? Let's keep
doing this right. But they're exciting for the first time.
As much as I liked what could have been with
Justin Fields, they never built around him. Trubisky.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
Same thing.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
You had a couple of component parts, but never a
squad that you looked at and go wow, there's a
lot of players that people are interested for fantasy purposes
for all of this, that there's some positivity here and
Chicago can use some good press.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
So let's go.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
There's there's a great and potentially terrible outcome for this.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Right that the Bears are great? Are the Bears now?
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Well?
Speaker 4 (32:24):
Yeah, there that is true. I think they over under
seven and a half wins.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
You look at a show like Quarterback Right, which took
you inside of Kirk Cousins and Patrick Mahomes and Marcus Mariota.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
And what do we see?
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Well, Mahomes is kind of the life you thought it was.
How do you balance being a star player? You're mad
when someone is going to sack you in a drill?
Stop talking. Mariota little embarrassing, how a season went. He's
away from the team and it was tough. Kirk Cousins, Yeah,
Kirk Cousins was okay. He's kind of an average guy.
But boy's got the Harry Potter room under the stairs
(32:58):
for all his stuff. He's a little weird. This is
why nobody wanted to do quarterback after because they felt like,
what's the win?
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Right?
Speaker 1 (33:07):
You need to be able as a quarterback to say, hey,
I'll do this because there's a win for me because
I need to put out I want people to know
who I'm about. And that's a win. Like it's not
a win for Mariota mahomes is. All you can best
is as expected, which he did and Cousins was a
little polarizing. But that's why this can be great or
terrible because Caleb Williams comes into the NFL very polarizing. Right,
(33:29):
great player, but boy is he the right kind of
guy with the painted nails and crying with his mom.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
You have that image out there that people are waiting
to see which way to go on him. Do I
think he's a great player? Do I think he's a
gen Z player that needs more toughness on the field.
Whatever it is, this can do that for him if
you see him, if he plays well, this can be
a great thing for Okay, Hey, guess what you watch
Caleb Williams zipping the ball around. He looks like everything
is fine. He's pick stuff up fast. Look at how
(33:57):
he's standing up for his teammates. Look at how he's
mastering the off. This can be you know what, No
more questions about Caleb Wood. We've seen inside him and
we see what he's about because he will be the
main character of Hard Knocks. He'll be the main person
we look at him. It can be great for him.
Now if he struggles and things look a little weird
and you come out of that going man, now, I
really don't know about Caleb after that.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
I really doubt the other day.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Man, that's the one game, the one day where he
was didn't have a great day at Ota. Let me
come on, because we had that and it was in
parallel to Kenny Pickett is the next coming there.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
But this will be.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
But this is even a bigger story now across the NFL.
Because players star players don't play and starters don't play
in games anymore.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
We don't get as much. There's less games.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
This is what we get. This is football action we
get every week in Hard Knocks. Is going to be
a thing. This can be great for Caleb Williams. It
can also be terrible for him. But I'm hoping that
it's great because I think he is that great. There's
a reason why he is the number one picking. Nobody
else talked about anybody else going number one overall. So
it can be great for him. But if he struggles,
if things don't look good and he struggle assimilating himself
(35:01):
whatever it is. Boy, all this can do is say, hey, man,
I don't know about him. Did we get the right guy?
And suddenly he starts off his season, you know, reading
social media, seeing what people are saying about him. Because look,
social media is a big deal for gen Z players.
They're all on it all the time and wondering what's happening.
So it could be terrible. It's a big gamble, but
I think it's worth the risk because you want to
be able to show out that, hey, this is why
(35:23):
we got the guy, and I'm confident him as a player,
so I'm confident he'll do well here on the show.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
But it also gets back to the NFL being able
to say, you know what, you've ducked it long enough.
You're actually interesting this year, and we just add the Jets.
We can't do them again Miami, Nah, no thanks, Except
now that Waddle signed his deal, maybe a little bit
better wide receiving room dynamic could be fun as well
as the nine running backs they've got there that'll be
(35:49):
battling for carries.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
But and go on down the line.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
But for the Bears, you're interesting and if Caleb Williams
is anything that we've seen a little bit of him
as an exemplary teammate at USC right pro days and on,
and everybody's had glowing things to say. Look, you're gonna
have an army of Chicago people outside of Soldier Field
lining up to get their nails painted on their way stadium.
(36:12):
You're gonna have all the folks saying that's my mama.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
You know all of that.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
They will buy him pulling. That was an old show,
right like in the fifties. So What's Going Down episode
of that?
Speaker 1 (36:22):
You know miss Joe the policeman from the What's Going
Down episode and that's my mama, everybody.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
Mister Rendy Watson, nicely done. Because the Great is love
sex a chocolate Thank you, good night, Mark Henry, nicely done.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Exit out out of Fresco, Exit swelling down the Jason
Smith Show with my best friend my Carvert. Whay, do
we tell you what happened in the Mavericks' locker room
after their win over the Timberwolves.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
That's next, fu
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Give this part you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hello, Welcome in side our three, The Jason Smith Show
with my bes friend Mike Harmon, live from the tirag
dot com studios tirec dot com. I hope you get
there at unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road hazard
protection and over ten thousand recommended installers tirack dot com
the way tire buying should be. Congratulations to the Dallas Mavericks.
(00:51):
They're into the NBA Finals. They thump the t Wolves
one twenty four to one oh three in a Game
five that was never competitive, terrible. We'll have the tea
Wolves side because we're gonna hear from Anthony Edwards, who
you know, just a week ago was next was the
face of the league. It would still be just a
week ago because he said some really interesting things following
(01:14):
the game and the tea Wolves get knocked out.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
But yeah, but for the game itself, Jason, I mean
Kevin Harlan stopped selling it at halftime.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah, It's almost like when you heard him go to halftime,
he was taking his head set off, going I'm leaving.
You can get somebody else to come in and do
the rest of this. Clrvelle come in clearly frustrated. I
came five.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
You're trying to hype it, and you're like, I gotta
be a realist here.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
But he also wasn't. Let's not. He wasn't al Michaels, you.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Know, no, no, no, no, not alm No, no, no,
not no no, he wasn't asleep.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
I'll tell you this whole game sucks. I can't do
these games, these teams. Also, Harlan normally, guys, he can
sell anything. Yeah, normally, but I think even he got
to the point where, okay, he can sell you an
opening of an envelope? Can I Can I get on
a late night flight out and back home? Do I
have to wait till tomorrow morning?
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Can I got on? Is there a red eye that
I can get on? Can I leave? Yes?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Still excitable. I just didn't feel like it was from
the soul like it normally is.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
I'm sure Herod's peeling out. He can catch play with him.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
But with the Mavericks and the Celtics now set to
meet in the NBA Finals, series begins on the fourth
of July. Game seven is scheduled for Labor Day. It's
gonna be a great, long time play for a long
time to get healthy. It's gonna be fantastic. Rick Bucker
joined us about a half hour ago and he gave
us his for the first prediction for the Finals.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
He likes Dallas, he likes what.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Luca and Kyrie have done, and the path for the
Celtics to the NBA Finals has not nearly been what
the path was for Luca and Kyrie and the Mavericks.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
I agree with all of that. I think it's indisputable.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
However, Yeah, and this is where you know, this kind
of works out for me too. I'm going Celtics because
what have I said from the beginning of the playoff.
If the Celtics don't win the title this year, they're
never going to win. They had an easy road through
the playoffs, They're well rested, they're not banged up. They're
(03:10):
gonna get Kristaps Porzingis back.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
No.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Have they had to extend themselves. No, But that's okay,
all right, this is hey. Oh they haven't extended. Yeah,
but they won games. They've won in five What do
you want them to do? I mean, this is you're
supposed to win games as easily as possible in the
perfect world and have a lot of rest.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
This is it.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
They're also coming into this finals as the favorites, right,
they're the betting favorites coming in. And it's much different
from coming in last time against the Warriors where they
had a great game one and then suddenly they got
lost the rest of the series. There's gonna be a
lot for their stars and they're in their big core
of this playing on this on this stage for the
(03:48):
second time in the last three years, and getting Porzingis
back is a big deal. And I can't believe, And
you know, I'm I'm you know, I believe that Celtics
when I have to, because it pains me to say
psychologicalis could be a huge I mean, I gotta talk
about it. You're kind of getting a brain freezing. Really,
I gotta I gotta talk about Porzingis being the key
to the NBA Bleeping Finals.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Don't we bring the songs back.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I'm telling you that, dude, that's gonna be a long
wait in a minute, that's a long week.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
It's gonna especially the one that's the trance that makes
you want to walk into the ocean. You were late
on the clap, Come on, trying to get Steve. You
know when the clap happened. No, I know, I was
gonna slam my microphone like.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
The lights were gonna go out when you clap.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Liked it, like he's eighty five years old, going, I'm
gonna turn the lights off from bed nocturnal activities. Let's go,
lights are out. Uh no, Look, this is when the
Celtics should win. They have shown and again, are they
as great as their record says?
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Probably not.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
It is a bit of a water down Eastern Conference,
but here they are. You can't deny their talent, and
they will be more healthy, They will be a little
bit more used to this spotlight. Not that something the
maver is gonna walk in going. But you see how
things can get out of control if you get behind.
There's a difference between the conference finals and the NBA Finals.
Every athlete will tell you, hey, we were great in
(05:14):
the conference championship game, but we got to the Super
Bowl and things went crazy, or we got to the
World Series and things suddenly went nuts. The fact the
Celtics were just here a couple of years ago, and
and Tatum was here and Brown was here, this is
a big it's a big thing. And porzingis being coming
back and being healthy. Suddenly you have Now you're getting
(05:35):
your fourth best player back and someone who can be
a big matchup nightmare. This is it, This is it,
This is the time. Like I'm going all in on
the Celtics because if they don't win, I'm never picking
them again. They're going on my nevere list, they go
on the.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Go on some other people's list.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Because all of the tributes that had been laid at
their feet, the roses, roast pedals that are in front
of them, people will immediately charged. The knives out and
the daggers in terms of ink and column inches and
certainly tweets and well, sports talk radio and television shows
(06:12):
will have their way just like they did a year ago.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Right, just like they did a year ago.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
All Right, this Tatum and Brown duo can't work in
a big moment, et cetera, et cetera, and I'm gonna
say they lose and chaos ensues that we get more
of Luca and his band of Merriman, Kyrie Irving as
happy as we've ever seen him. That's good whatever's gone
right in his world this past year and playing great basketball, smiling,
(06:41):
going through and rededicated or whatever the case is. It's
a good story. The sporting cast. I like the guys
from Boston, you know this. I mean, we've talked about
White and the Big Smooth part two Al Horford quite often,
but in terms of their importance to things. But looking
at Gaffer, looking at PJ. Washington, looking at Lively, assuming
(07:04):
he didn't walk away with another injury after he got
hammered earlier and went down like a ton of bricks,
but looking for the physicality to be maybe something that
the Celtics aren't ready for. Well, Indiana tried to play
you know, they were fake tough guys.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah sure, Well that's also that's not their game in
the end of these guys can play both with you.
But here's here's the other key I see right porzingis
coming back is going to present matchup deficiales and and
and the big thing is going to be integrating him
back right does he jump right back in for normal
minutes as he come off the bench, because the celt
has went pretty well without him. But the big thing
is going to be this and they do have a
(07:41):
long time again, they have until the fourth of July.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
But the big guys going to be like twenty pounds
on and is ready?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Is I will bet you, I will bet you Joe
Mizula's strategy and and this could I mean, who knows
it's I'm saying this.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
He may just adopt it is.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
I bet you you are going to see in the
finals Drew Holliday taking one of the stars out and him.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Specific You're gonna see Drew Holliday.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Let's just say they decide, you know what he can
he can hold Kyrie down because Kyrie.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Is a guy.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Look, Luca is always going to get his points. So
I can see the Celtics saying we'll let Luca score.
We'll let Luca get his points. But if we shut
down Kyrie and Drew Holliday is on him, and you
see what Drew Holliday can do. How how valuable. He
can frustrate you if if he can, if he can
shut Kyrie down, that's going to be a Celtics win.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
The big question, right.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
And this is again we will get to watch it
unfold live. Should Missoula take that strategy is Kyrie is
not Halliburton, He's not a young guy still learning how
to play in big moments to where maybe it gets
too big for him. That would be the one, the
one counter to it holiday to your point, and why
(08:53):
I didn't mention.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Holiday holiday holiday, He's a guy that.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
You and I we've we've watched it all season long,
like if he can play right, you made these moves
to bring him in to go to go for it
on the defensive end, and he's also been giving you
fifteen points on a lot of these nights, right and
and helping you on the offensive side. But if he
can shut you down and frustrate one of your top options, yeah,
(09:18):
I mean, that's the ace.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
And the hole.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Uh. And when we look at the Dallas side, we're
still just getting used to the idea that Luca and
Kyrie are playing defense with great regularity.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
But I mean, but look that that's a that's a
big thing because you've seen the best players in the NBA,
boy Holiday, and I think I think I don't know
that you can. Like you saw a little bit in
the Pacer series where the Celtics decided, hey, Drew Holiday
is here, and he's here, but the minutes he's on Halliburton,
Halliburton had difficulty. I don't think you're going to see
him move around. It's gonna be, it's gonna be this
(09:52):
is our strategy, and and it's going to be Drew
Holliday on Kyrie. And now something happens and Holiday's on Kyrie,
and they will wind up getting in trouble. They split
the first game, they lose the first two games, something
like that. Then you could change and say, all right, now,
clearly we got to let Kyrie do his thing. But
I don't think you're gonna have him jump around from
guy to guy. It's gonna be we'll let you. Luca
will get his points. We can beat the Mavericks easy
(10:15):
if we let Luca get his points and nobody else
goes crazy. The other guy gonna go nuts is gonna
be Kyrie. Because look at what they've done this round.
They beat Minnesota this round because both of them came
through last round. Kyrie was awful and.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
So I also three had some big moments, but he
also had some games that were on the whole not
not even close to what you expect.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
I'll also throw out there that again, this is the
most basketball Kyrie Irving has played in a long time.
And it looked like maybe, hey, maybe going into the
Western Conference Finals he was gonna hit the wall a
little bit.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Nope, he bounced back. But NBA Finals we saw.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
It really patched you though, because he would look like
it was happening, like he did nothing.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
But he did nothing in that series and energy for days.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
But not to mention the the annointed one was on
the other side, but we.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Saw we saw that with Chris Paul right, hey, suddenly
it's the NBA could only be not because look the
age difference. Chris Paul was thirty six. Kyrie Irving is
five years younger. But it's still more basketball than he's
played in a long time. Four years. And if you
have a fresh defender who is one of the top
three defenders in the league, I'll go with that. That's
that to me, That's the game that I could talk about.
(11:25):
Portzingis and that's a huge deal. But this, this is
the series Holliday versus Kyrie. Whoever wins that battle is
going to win the series. And I'll go Holiday being
able to slow him down enough that Celtics can win.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
But as a superior distributor and ball handler, right, because
that's the other narrative that flows out there, right with
Kyrie in addition to everybody you know marveling at you know,
maturity and whatever other lines they want to throw out here,
it's like, the guy's playing great basketball. He's always been
a great basketball player. It's stunning for a full season.
And now we're in the NBA Finals and is run
(11:59):
back there. So it's great, But it's the always at
the top of the list of all right, who's the
best ball handler, who's the purest player? Right when we
get into all of those things, Kyrie Irving's name goes
to the top of the list. And this is where
if you've got a Holiday. While he may not score
a bunch, perhaps the distribution side of things gets back
kicked up to another notch right where we're not talking
(12:21):
about five or six assists, but maybe we get back
to double digits per game and some easy buckets for
the Bigs.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Exit out about a Fresco exit swollen down the Jason
Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. So there's
our picks for the NBA Finals. I got the Celtics.
Harmon's got the next boy, this is about Sorry Maverick,
Sorry it's Magic Nicks. But coming up next, boy, you
gotta hear some of Anthony Edwards who hit the podium
and talked about the Tea Wolves getting eliminated. The guy
(12:49):
who a week ago was Michael Jordan. What did he
have to say after the elimination? You'll hear it next
right here, Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
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 iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
Two NBA Insiders podcasting twice a week to plug you
right into the NBA Great Five.
Speaker 6 (13:15):
All happening in only one place. This League Uncut, the
new NBA podcast with me.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Chris Haynes and me Mark Stein, join us.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
As we team up to expound on everything we're covering.
Hearing and Chason.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Listen to This League Uncut with Chris Haynes and Mark Stein.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Pop Quiz hotshot. What famous comedy does this song open?
Why do I not know?
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Why am I?
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Here's a hint. It's like eighty eighty six. It's not
a band singing. It's not what is this nas band?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Right right round?
Speaker 7 (13:56):
No?
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Just dead or alive? General alive. It's not dead or alive.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
It's somebody else singing this song that opens up a
famous comedy.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
When I take comedies, who's singing? Wow? Okay, Justin Frostberg?
Go ahead. I think it's an Adam Sallin film. Very good,
very good. I got it. You guys got it?
Speaker 8 (14:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (14:15):
There you go. Yeah, you've been me right round? Ma,
you know? There you go?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, I mean also featured in Pitch Perfect, but a
different version of it.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Yeah, I mean gonna wear the Michael Jackson jacket and glo,
no gonna do that. I remember seeing the funniest thing.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
There was a zombie movie I saw once in the
late eighties, and like one of the funniest things in
it was all these people were reanimating themselves. Are all
like you know, shaking coming back, and there was somebody
dressed like Michael Jackson shaking rings dancing, and I'm like, oh,
that's funny. It makes absolutely no sense, but boy, that's funny.
And I forget what movie you want?
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Well you take it, take the little uh.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
I mean, it was way back here before people knew that, oh, hey,
you know the zombies are pretty popular.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
It was just like, you know, zombie, that one zombie,
that one. Sexy vampires. Man, that's what's the next phase though,
Sexy Vamba.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Could you talked about how miserable the two part Twilight.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
We're gonna go back to sexy vampire? Sexy vampires? Well,
couldn't know because they had the interview with the vampire
go on right now?
Speaker 5 (15:14):
No, right, sexy vampire. Right, you're never left the sexy vampire.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I have to think at some point, it's like like
like Jennifer Assen's film career. At some point they're gonna
make where wolves happen. But do you have to make
were wolves happen going after Jemmy?
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Man? Why is that?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Hell?
Speaker 4 (15:28):
I'm just saying, man, I'm just saying.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Sure, jack were wolves are never happening. Well, wait a
minute lumberjack were wolves.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
I like that idea. I mean when he was on
his walk, wasn't he wear a flanel?
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Like a bunch of lumberjacks working in the woods and
they get bit by something and they all turned tocanthropy. Right, Well,
I like that, and they altern yeah, and they and
they're wolves, but they have like they're not just wolves,
but they have axes and stuff and power machinery.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
See that. I like see that. Yeah, No, it's just
not gonna work.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Like the whole vampire thing works because women like clean shaven,
sexy eyes like that.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Oh that is true.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah, but now Game of Thrones and everybody looking sexy
and dirty, that's kind of become a thing. That's but
you've seen that now it's like, oh.
Speaker 8 (16:13):
Women are paying hundreds of dollars to have dirty shoes.
I think, I think, you, little dad. What was the
what did pay less do again? They changed their name
to like pay Lessie, and people like they were like.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
It was a boutique.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Pay Lessie. I like that, Like, what's where's pay Lessie? Yeah,
but it's like I'm going to Tarja.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
I wanted the dark actually work, and then crews screwed
it up.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Nah, Dark Shirk, Dark Universe didn't work. You know why
because nobody cares about because nobody cares about Frankenstein and
the Mummy. Nobody cares about the whole world. Nobody cares
about those under World was fun. No back Underworld, nobody cared.
There was nobody crying to say, you know what I
like to see is the Mummy? And no, there was nobody.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Fraser was.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Nobody was almost thirty years ago. Fine, nobody was Rangel weis.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
Come on, Yeah, this.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Is why I would be great as an executive because
I would say no to all the stupid movies that
are gonna cost.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
You many months.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
Nobody wants to play the invisible man because you can't
see them acting, but he's gonna have hollow Man.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
I mean the Bacon movie was pretty good. That was good. Okay,
that was good.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah, I would get a guy and I'm gonna pay
you per screen time. It was like Forhoven's last one, right, yeah,
I'm America might have been. It was like his last
big American movie and it flopped badly and he was like, yeah,
I'm out of here. I think I could do that. Hey, listen,
you're a big start we're gonna pay you a screen time. Okay,
but you're the invisible man, so you're only on the
very beginning and the very end.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
I'm only going to pay you for that, mister Coloney. Okay,
all right, thank you. Good that works out.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Well, here's the eve.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Think does he didn't make enough money by which he
can do one of his independent things because you know
he's going to Broadway.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
Well that's true.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, as long as he can make a serious movie
as this could be a Mandy bullet and stuff, this
will be enough for you to fund that independent movie
you have about whatever cause you want to put and
put a light on. That's absolutely fine. Okay, but no,
but that that's how it would work. I think you
gotta kind of what people want.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Man.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I'm telling you got kind of be able to make
where keep shoving were wolves down everybody's throat until it happens.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Man. Remember he's a bit shoe in that movie.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
And Josh Bowlin, Yeah, oh that's right, Josh bowl Yeah,
pre Thanos, Josh Brownell. I've also got another problem with
this idea. What's the problem cat people? That's too long ago.
People don't remember. We just know I'm saying I'm a cat.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
I don't care about DAWs. Oh okay, yeah, well yeah,
I mean I can we just do a group viewing
of the movie Cats? No, no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
My my grandmother already took piece of that play when
I was young. I'm I'm completely out of Cat's not working,
not working.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
Uh So we gave you our picks for the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
A few moments average show, Let's go, we dovetailed into
cat people and then Tasia Kinski. Uh, I'm going Celtics,
Harmon's going Mavericks. Now it's time to concentrate on the
story from the losing locker room. It was a week
ago Anthony Edwards was the next Michael Jordan. Everything is
all look, how great the guy is. He's Michael Jordan.
(19:07):
Now after a really bad Western Conference Finals in which
we have seen him play poorly, turn the ball over
at the end of games, shy away from potential game
winning shots. Now, where is he and how do you
break down Anthony? Is he still next? Is he's still
next Michael Jordan? Listen to him talk after the game.
All right, this is just from a few minutes ago.
(19:28):
Some of the questions he answered about the Tea Wolves
and why they came up short against the Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 7 (19:34):
What did you see happen so early there that just
brought a knockout punch and made it tough to come back, Luca?
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Is that simple?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
He had like three shots from the from the.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Logo, so pretty much nothing we can do about it.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
We never clicked altogether as.
Speaker 7 (19:48):
A team in the series, not even one game.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
I think that was the main thing.
Speaker 7 (19:52):
Like like in the last two series we was all
clicking at one time making shots and stuff.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
We wasn't clicking at one time.
Speaker 7 (19:58):
At what's your emotions as the and now comes to
an end about what you accomplished and where it fell short.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
We'll be back next year.
Speaker 7 (20:05):
Do you think this is something that you just have
to go through experience to kind of build on.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
Unfortunately is going through with a loss. But I guess so.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
You hear him talk there, and Rick Buker kind of
brought this up a little bit, and this gets into
the right way to judge Anthony Edwards, is that listening
to his post game, he didn't really seem to have
any answers why the Timberwolves lost, right, I didn't really
see him to have any answers. Yeah, we didn't click.
We went through it. I guess got to go through
with the loss.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
I don't know. Luca hit shots from the logo what
are you gonna do?
Speaker 1 (20:35):
It's like, okay, it's not quite where you shrug your
shoulders and say, okay, now I get And I'm glad
that he's honest with what he talks about. But this
is why Anthony Edwards was given too much too soon
about being the next face of the league, because what
did you see after the initial Look how great he is?
Look how great he's look great Now he's struggling, and
(20:57):
what do you keep seeing trending on social media? He's
twenty two, but he's twenty two years old. He's twenty
two years old. Yeah, he's twenty two. Everybody wanted him
to be greater than he is. He's a great player
right now, but you could see the media and analysts
and experts they wanted to Mac Jones, right. I keep
going back to that because that's exactly what happened. All
this guy's Jordan wears the same arm band around the
(21:18):
same part of his left arm. He's athletic like Jordan.
He reminds you of him when he leaves, the explosiveness
of the basket, all of these things. But he was
over hyped because he wasn't ready yet. He wasn't ready
for this moment. And you could tell during the Western
Conference Finals he just wasn't ready. And now it doesn't
even seem like he knows why they lost. And I
don't know, I don't get I mean, yeah, Luca hit
(21:39):
three shots from the logo. Oh that's why he lost
in five games because Luke had three shots in the logo.
I mean, right, I mean, give me something a little
bit more than that, and I get there. Hey you're
twenty two, but dude, you just played in the Western
Conference finals. Man, you're a professional basketball player. This was
the Western Conference Finals of the NBA, and you could
tell he's just not ready. It doesn't mean he's not
gonna get there, and it doesn't mean suddenly you're cutting
(22:00):
bait in the guy. No, the guy's a terrific player.
But the best way to break him down is to say, look,
maybe he's the next great player, maybe he's the next
face the league. Maybe because he might be, but clearly
here he wasn't ready. If he was the next Face
League and he was ready, it would have been better.
It's not about making the shots. It's about wanting to
take the shots at the end. It's not turning the
(22:22):
ball over. It's having a plan in the final minutes,
and he clearly didn't have it. He had the end
of game four, right the end of game four, in
the last minute, he made a couple of shots because
the Mavericks decided, Hey, we're gonna single cover you.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Wait.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Really, yes, we're gonna single cover you. Okay, I'm gonna
make a couple of shots. But like I said, the
guy's a great player. But to be the next Face League,
the best thing to say is maybe he is. But
you can see that there's a long way for him
to go because this moment in moment time right here,
he wasn't ready. The Mavericks were.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
But you know the rule of thumb when it comes
to sportstock radio and certainly sportstock television, when you get
a bunch of you know, people throwing up ideas to
get somebody to say something bad, stinking, over the top
and crazy because their clicks for the week were off
you know, three percent or whatever the case. Was, and
that's what the Anthony Edwards thing became. It wasn't marveling
(23:10):
of Wow, this guy's really starting to come into his
own because we can't do that, right, it's the moment
and the show is today.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Is he playing? Well? Who do we compare him to?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
That's what we do with all of these players, no
matter the sport, right, there's always got to be a
comp and if it happens to be an African American quarterback,
guess what the only guy we can compare him to
African American quarterback from ten years ago, twenty years ago.
So we always pull out Warren Moon and Donovan mcnahbb
and whatever else, and occasionally a Michael Vick pops in's
(23:42):
like but remember he was lefty, you know, kind of
thing with the NBA, what do we go to? We
want guys to be Lebron or Kobe or Jordan, And
in Edwards case, he kind of fits the suit from
the physical build and everything else, which meant if you
can go full hot take non after watching the t
Wolves play for the second time this year, because that's
(24:04):
the thing they all need to be honest with themselves
that you watched him and you went Wow, look at him,
he's skies.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Here's a highlight reel dunk.
Speaker 6 (24:12):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
How many of those stills did you see? Or the
little quick video clips that showed up in your timeline
on Instagram, on TikTok and on Twitter right time and
time again, it was wow, look at how high he
is and trying to estimate his verticality and all of
those things. And then you add a couple of defensive
plays like well, Jordan defensive player of the year all
(24:33):
the time. So let's you know, a guy that buys
in on both ends of the court. And then he's
talking after games and giving you great soundbites. So all
of it became a yeah, thrust him to the front
of the line because you jumped on the t Wolves
band pngwagon. Part of it because of the expectation that
at some part, at some point in this process, the
Luca and Kyrie partnership was gonna blow up, right, because
(24:57):
everybody was waiting for that shoe to drop, like, hey,
the Celtics are definitely gonna give you one for the Mavericks.
It was all right, when are they going to blow up?
And when are these two gonna start fighting? And all
of that stuff well, guess what, it didn't happen. So
in the interim it became all about because the Celtics
were boring because we've seen them how many times in
the last six seven years? Right, they've run to the
(25:19):
conference finals, so they're not new and exciting anymore. It's like, nah,
if they don't win, then screw them. So it became
all about Anthony Edwards and his time in the sunlight
and guess what tomorrow, all those same people, it's like, well,
you know, Jordan had to go through Isaiah Thomas's pistons,
and maybe for Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves, that's Luca
(25:41):
Dancis and the veteran Savvy. And now they get to
prop up Kyrie Irving again.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
See how that.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Goes The guy they cast off, the guy they hated,
had all sorts of monologues bemoaning everything else he was doing.
Now they get to prop him back up. See how
it goes the cycle the certain line. Look, it's like sima, yeah, simba, simba.
They're drawing pictures of Antony how good he is.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
Now.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Look, there's a difference between being so athletically talented and
people seeing it, Like you said, for the first time,
because when did this Michael Jordan thing come up when
the playoffs being's right, forget about all season as great
as we watched how many how many and it's and
it's not like man and it's not like he came
into the league and was bad. This has been a
good push for him over the last four years to
(26:25):
get to this point where going into next year he'll
be an MVP co favorite or a favorite to be
one of the finalists for MVP most likely. But the
whole Jordan thing is, he said, because people just started
watching the playoffs, now, oh wow.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
This guy's crazy.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
He's Jordan because he looks like it, because he wears
the he wears the the sweat band around the same
part of the left arm like Jordan does, and he
does look does look like him when he explodes to
the basket and the athleticism is crazy, but there's a
difference between hey, he looks and looks the part to
actually doing it. And he was and he was over hyped.
He was he was mac Jones. It was we want
(27:00):
him to beat Jordan so bad. Suddenly we're turning him
into that. And he didn't really shy away from it. Oh,
I don't really like it. But he's making threes and
shrugging going back down the court like he's Jordan.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
So it's not like he completely walked away from it,
but now you know he's celebrated, and now you're seeing
it's we talked about a little bit a couple of
nights ago where hey, this looks like he's not ready
for this scene.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Yet.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
He's not ready for this stage, I said at this point.
And it was tough to see because when you knock
out the defending champions like that, hey, guess what you're
You're ready to be on the stage. This wasn't a
team where hey, the Timberwolves drew a couple of easy
matchups and there were guys who were injured and so
hey here.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
They are something. Hey we're in the wets and gurn over.
And the big thing was how they won that final.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
You bet they came back and Starke, yeah you beat them,
you wol He won three games in Denver, where we
can't win these games in the in the in the
in the air like that in the mile high aera.
So they were so talent wise, they were ready and
then they fall short and so clearly, like I said,
there's a difference between playing, Hey, we're athletic, you get
(28:00):
to with this, and then how do you lead and
win at that next level? And clearly he wasn't ready
for the NBA Western Conference Finals level, and Luca and
Kyrie were all right. I mean, that's that's the fair
the fairest way. Maybe he's the next face of the league.
Maybe he figures it out. He's a star player. There's
lots of star players. Maybe he's a next face. A
lot to grow.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
And like we talked about a little bit earlier, just
to punctuate it, how many people were giving up on
Luca after last year. Oh, you go back and find
a lot of tape, a lot of column inches spent
of Well he's twenty five. He's only twenty five. But
we've seen dot dot dot.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
So here we are exit out bout a Fresca exit
swollen down The Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Harmon. Coming up next, a big NFL story from
today that could be great or terrible for one quarterback.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
That's next right here, and it's not Aaron Rodgers. Jason
and Mike Fox Sports Radio. He said, great as a
great or terrible great.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon
coming up in ten minutes.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Boy, do we have a story from the Mavericks' locker.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Room following their win over the Timberwolves tonight video. I
still can't believe. I hope it's a joke, but it
doesn't look like it. Okay, I hope it's a joke, but.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
It just right.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
It is insane, and because I know people, it involves beer.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
I mean it involves beer.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
Especially after ten o'clock West Coast Shine, involved talking about bs.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
And will most insane things. Do jess that, Hey, nothing
good happens after midnight?
Speaker 4 (29:43):
What is that all true? Except in the pac twelve?
Uh yeah, Pack.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Twelve after after dark. But they had run big news
out of the NFL today. Your Chicago Bears, Yeah, are
gonna be on hard sure, the end season Hard Knocks
where we finally force them to there's video, there's football
games and not the offseason. Oh hey, look we're gonna
see exactly what the Giants and no No, the good
(30:07):
one where we get to meet Caleb Williams and everybody
else and Bears on the rise. And the first thing
I'm gonna say is this, this is a phenomenal choice.
If I know, teams don't want to do it, the
Bears didn't want to do it, nobody wants to do it.
But for fans, first thing I'm gonna say, phenomenal choice.
Bears are a really interesting team. You're talking about Caleb Williams.
They have a lot of star power. Now, they're bringing
(30:27):
a lot of new players. They're a team on the rise.
This is gonna be incredibly interesting. I don't know if
you could have a better choice of teams where hey,
we haven't we've seen them already. I mean, alwas you
want to put the Jets on again that we've seen,
But here you're getting something new with the Bears, and
I think that's really good. No, but that's the thing
right long, dormant whatever historic power in the NFL, if
(30:50):
you add up the history, go back to what they
will do all the George Hallis and go on through
the years and plenty of montaige of sayers, Happy Bellid,
you know, happy birthday to the late great running back
and Dick Buckis, you know, and all of those guys
through the years that you can build all the history
(31:11):
lesson for people and they've never been forced to do
it before. They've been eligible a number of times and
they've always been able to kick the can down the road.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Go no, no, go, pick another team like no, no, no.
Now you've got Caleb Williams. Now you have excitement. You've
got prognosticators falling all over themselves to try to say
positive things about the Bears and the front office and
what they built. The expectation that suddenly they're going to
climb to the top of the division. Really, I could
(31:40):
see Minnesota with Sam Darnold and JJ McCarthy battling it out,
but suddenly, you know, is Green Bay gonna fall apart?
Are the Lions going anywhere? Forty nine kill? Let's keep
doing this right. But they're exciting for the first time.
As much as I liked what could have been with
Justin Fields, they never built around him. Trubisky.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
Same thing.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
You had a couple of component parts, but never a
squad that you looked at and go wow, there's a
lot of players that people are interested for fantasy purposes
for all of this, that there's some positivity here and
Chicago can use some good press.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
So let's go.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
There's there's a great and potentially terrible outcome for this.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Right that the Bears are great? Are the Bears now?
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Well?
Speaker 4 (32:24):
Yeah, there that is true. I think they over under
seven and a half wins.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
You look at a show like Quarterback Right, which took
you inside of Kirk Cousins and Patrick Mahomes and Marcus Mariota.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
And what do we see?
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Well, Mahomes is kind of the life you thought it was.
How do you balance being a star player? You're mad
when someone is going to sack you in a drill?
Stop talking. Mariota little embarrassing, how a season went. He's
away from the team and it was tough. Kirk Cousins, Yeah,
Kirk Cousins was okay. He's kind of an average guy.
But boy's got the Harry Potter room under the stairs
(32:58):
for all his stuff. He's a little weird. This is
why nobody wanted to do quarterback after because they felt like,
what's the win?
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Right?
Speaker 1 (33:07):
You need to be able as a quarterback to say, hey,
I'll do this because there's a win for me because
I need to put out I want people to know
who I'm about. And that's a win. Like it's not
a win for Mariota mahomes is. All you can best
is as expected, which he did and Cousins was a
little polarizing. But that's why this can be great or
terrible because Caleb Williams comes into the NFL very polarizing. Right,
(33:29):
great player, but boy is he the right kind of
guy with the painted nails and crying with his mom.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
You have that image out there that people are waiting
to see which way to go on him. Do I
think he's a great player? Do I think he's a
gen Z player that needs more toughness on the field.
Whatever it is, this can do that for him if
you see him, if he plays well, this can be
a great thing for Okay, Hey, guess what you watch
Caleb Williams zipping the ball around. He looks like everything
is fine. He's pick stuff up fast. Look at how
(33:57):
he's standing up for his teammates. Look at how he's
mastering the off. This can be you know what, No
more questions about Caleb Wood. We've seen inside him and
we see what he's about because he will be the
main character of Hard Knocks. He'll be the main person
we look at him. It can be great for him.
Now if he struggles and things look a little weird
and you come out of that going man, now, I
really don't know about Caleb after that.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
I really doubt the other day.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Man, that's the one game, the one day where he
was didn't have a great day at Ota. Let me
come on, because we had that and it was in
parallel to Kenny Pickett is the next coming there.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
But this will be.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
But this is even a bigger story now across the NFL.
Because players star players don't play and starters don't play
in games anymore.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
We don't get as much. There's less games.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
This is what we get. This is football action we
get every week in Hard Knocks. Is going to be
a thing. This can be great for Caleb Williams. It
can also be terrible for him. But I'm hoping that
it's great because I think he is that great. There's
a reason why he is the number one picking. Nobody
else talked about anybody else going number one overall. So
it can be great for him. But if he struggles,
if things don't look good and he struggle assimilating himself
(35:01):
whatever it is. Boy, all this can do is say, hey, man,
I don't know about him. Did we get the right guy?
And suddenly he starts off his season, you know, reading
social media, seeing what people are saying about him. Because look,
social media is a big deal for gen Z players.
They're all on it all the time and wondering what's happening.
So it could be terrible. It's a big gamble, but
I think it's worth the risk because you want to
be able to show out that, hey, this is why
(35:23):
we got the guy, and I'm confident him as a player,
so I'm confident he'll do well here on the show.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
But it also gets back to the NFL being able
to say, you know what, you've ducked it long enough.
You're actually interesting this year, and we just add the Jets.
We can't do them again Miami, Nah, no thanks, Except
now that Waddle signed his deal, maybe a little bit
better wide receiving room dynamic could be fun as well
as the nine running backs they've got there that'll be
(35:49):
battling for carries.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
But and go on down the line.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
But for the Bears, you're interesting and if Caleb Williams
is anything that we've seen a little bit of him
as an exemplary teammate at USC right pro days and on,
and everybody's had glowing things to say. Look, you're gonna
have an army of Chicago people outside of Soldier Field
lining up to get their nails painted on their way stadium.
(36:12):
You're gonna have all the folks saying that's my mama.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
You know all of that.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
They will buy him pulling. That was an old show,
right like in the fifties. So What's Going Down episode
of that?
Speaker 1 (36:22):
You know miss Joe the policeman from the What's Going
Down episode and that's my mama, everybody.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
Mister Rendy Watson, nicely done. Because the Great is love
sex a chocolate Thank you, good night, Mark Henry, nicely done.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Exit out out of Fresco, Exit swelling down the Jason
Smith Show with my best friend my Carvert. Whay, do
we tell you what happened in the Mavericks' locker room
after their win over the Timberwolves.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
That's next, fu
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Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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