September 22, 2021 • 37 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon react to Conor McGregor tossing a legendary first pitch at a Cubs' game and Jason explains why he believes McGregor threw one to the backstop on purpose. Jason believes Doc Rivers is the primary reason why Ben Simmons wants out of Philadelphia and the guys tell you what star player the 76ers should be looking to get in return. Plus, Jason is convinced that Carolina is not getting the "real" Sam Darnold.
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Episode Transcript
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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
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every night on
the I Heart Radio app by searching fs R. You're
(00:24):
listening to Fox Sports Radio. Greetings and welcome inside The
Jason Smith Show with my bass friend Mike Harmon. Buddy,
we got some kind of show coming up tonight. We
got so much NFL stuff. But if you'd woke me
up the beginning of the day and say you're gonna
(00:44):
start your show with the first pitch at a baseball game,
I'd have said, come on, what can we really see on? Uh,
we kind of have to start with the first pitch
at your Chicago Cubs game tonight. Not my Chicago Cubs. Well,
you're from Chicago. I'm on the other side of town.
Out are you're from Chicago? Your Chicago? No pause, your
(01:04):
Chicago Cubs, Chicago. Because I was going back and forth
with one of the things on the Guns and Roses tours,
they've been doing these really cool posters for each of
the places that they visited, right, so a little bit
of Los Angeles film noir kind of thing. When they
were here. Uh, in Minnesota, there's a lot of Charles
Schultz stuff, right, Peanuts at the Mall of America. So
(01:27):
they did you know, Charlie Brown figures. You have Axel
Is lying as Schroeder, and you have Chuck Brown has
slash and whatever, so you're having some fun with it.
They did one at Wrigley, which I mean it had
a Cubs hat on the skeleton flipping people off, and
I'm like, all right, I like the flipping off skeleton,
but he got a Cups logo. I can't buy that.
(01:47):
Oh no, no, no, no, you my brothers went to
the concert, Like, I can't buy the shirt because I
never wear it because it's got a CUB logo on it.
Oh let's say, wait, wait, didn't your brothers go to
I saw it. Saw a video of them after the
Yuck Cowboys Chargers game this past weekend. They when that
may be getting around. They were in Cleveland first spell
and then they teleported like they were on Star Trek
(02:10):
and got back here to California. In time for for
Cowboys and charging. There's a nice little plause out there,
right you you watched the video. Those that haven't seen
it yet, you can look it up as you listen
to us yelled at each other. Uh, and you've got
this little water thing like it's all cool, little water restribute, redistribution,
and then you got these dopes fighting. But here's the thing.
(02:31):
It's no longer just one on one now, it's like
seven on seven and it's it's a mixed tag team match.
And this whole thing, these fights that go on at
games now, specifically since the NFL has started again. Every
week there's a hey, look at these fans now fighting.
Normally it's fans of different teams, which you know that
happens a lot. Hey, you know the Bills and the Steelers.
(02:52):
There's a fight between a Bills fans and Steelers fans. No,
but this past week was fights between Browns fans that
I was incredible because guys in different jerseys and someone's
yelling we're all rooting for the same team. And then
all Cowboys fans are getting in a fight together after
the Cowboys game over the charges. These videos are hypnotic
and I can't get over the fact that these are
(03:12):
fits of the same team that after wins, you know,
the Browns one, Cowboys one, let's still go fight with
each other. I can't get enough of those videos. I'm
not condoning it, but if you put it out on
social media, I will watch it. Will well, I am
gonna watch it, and sold so many others. I mean,
perhaps eventually we get a modified look. Everybody else gets
(03:34):
paid to fight anymore. Maybe for a couple of bucks.
Based on how many YouTube watches you get, you can
make a couple of dollars on it. But what's funny
is in most of these videos, Jason, not all of them,
but but a hypercentage, someone wanders into frame, either trying
to be a peace maker or just being dumb and
getting in front of the camera, and there's always so
much shouting, what are you doing? Get out now? They're
(03:58):
gonna be part of the fight, even though they were
really part of the fun. It's like, all right, you're
incriminating yourself even though you haven't thrown or taken a punch.
What do you do when you do? Oh boy? But
speaking of social media and what is gaining a lot
of attention, yes, we have to start with Connor McGregor's
first pitch before tonight's game in Chicago, and this comes
(04:19):
courtesy of Rob Friedman, who is in ESPN MLB analyst.
He does a bunch of things. First thing I want
to say is this, dude, when you post a video
like that, put audio on it so we can hear
what the announcers are saying. Don't put a silent video up.
Put audio on it. It would would it kill you
to put audio on this? I mean, come on, so
(04:39):
right now, the only video that exists of this that's
making its war on the internet doesn't have audio on it,
which I'm like, come on, you got just put the
audio on there. So McGregor's out there and he's on
the pitching Robert. You know, he's in a suit, and
you know, McGregor's a left and starts he starts loosening
up his arms a little bit and now you're scuffing
the scuffing the dirt. And he winds up to throw
his first pitch and it is a line shot that
(05:02):
is it's not even anywhere in the realm of the catcher.
It looks like he's throwing it at someone in the
first row of the stands about thirty feet to the
right of home plate, and it's you know, you already
see people on social media going, oh, a pitching fail,
like an awful look at these mechanics, all these things,
and I'm like, time out for a second. Do we
(05:24):
really not think and not understand and not realize that
these are first pitches that are made for this. They're
doing this on purpose because if you just throw the
ball over the plate, hey it's the first pitch. Nobody cares.
But hey, it's one of those things that is free publicity.
If you make a bad first pitch at a baseball game,
it lives forever. You get relevancy forever. Connor McGregor knows
(05:47):
this because the guy knows how to take advantage of
a new cycle. Right the one thing he may not
be able to fight anymore. He may you know, he
may be done fighting. He thinks he can still fight,
but he can't. He may be done, but he knows
how to get the news cycle. And and athletes and
and entertainers know if I make a bad first pitch
and you're hungry for publicity, then this will get me famous.
(06:08):
And now here's Connor McGregor that owns the night on
social media because of this first pitch he made. And
you know it was on purpose, you know, you know,
I'm just gonna throw it as far as I can
to the other side of the catcher and try to
throw it into the stands, and he almost does. He
hits the brick wall on the fly. All right, just
this is this is what people do. Fitty Cent was
the first one to throw it. And look, we still
play Fitty Cents first pitch. Look at this horrible first
(06:30):
pitch in the Mets game. No, we still You can
be a legend if you make a bad first pitch
like this. And now here's Connor McGregor, who's right now,
go scrolling through social media, going did my job? Look
at this? See this? Everybody's talking about me. It's a
bad first pitch. And it doesn't matter because not like
anybody can make fun of him, can say, oh, you
have no skills. I'm throwing a baseball. I'm not a
baseball player. I'm an mm A fighter. It's okay. It's
(06:51):
okay for people to show that I'm not as athletic
when I'm doing something that's not in my wheelhouse. So
This is free publicity for anybody. I can't believe anybody
who's not a star doesn't throw the ball and tried
it off the backstop or hit the mascot or something
some moose, crazy kind of stuff. You know. Most people
had just want to throw it and throw it over,
want to make a good throw. I'm surprised everybody doesn't
do it. I'm what can I'm gonna throw it into
(07:13):
the net. I'm gonna throw it backwards, I'm gonna throw it,
I'm gonna hand I'm gonna hit the guy right in
front of me with it. I mean, I can't believe
everybody doesn't do that. Yeah, I think. I think there's
a couple of things to it. Number one going back
just to cowboys and and charges to clean that up
for a moment, Connor McGregor was in Jerry's box. He
was hanging out as him post Malone, a bunch of superstars,
so he knew where the party was. And then he
(07:35):
goes to to Wrigley and one of the things you
definitely get out of it. The last couple of years
they have done a tops insert set, which is first pitches. Uh.
There was a big deal last week that made the rounds.
And Melissa McCarthy had done one at a Dodgers game
and they commemorated in a trading card, and she was
talking with Stephen Colbert and he had one, and so
she told the story of it, and you know, they
(07:57):
had what Wilson with his really whatever shoe polished black Beard,
and so she was fixated on that. But Stephen Colbert
head thrown one out at Wrigley, right, Northwestern guy, and
so they had a card of him. So we will
get a Connor McGregor card out of this, certainly. The
other part, if you're gonna throw the ball like that,
you have to have a plant. You gotta have a
(08:18):
guy standing back there who takes one for the team,
because then it's even gonna get even more amplified. Maybe
he did, he did, He he just missed them. Maybe
that's what happened. Maybe maybe he was just a little
more erratic than perhaps they thought they would be. But
you know, the otherwise, if if it's a good throw,
(08:39):
it's it's a moment, right, it will show up maybe
on the evening news as part of the cut. If
the game is pretty boring, all right, you got an
extra seven second show you throughout the first pitch. Otherwise
maybe you have Sometimes when we've had an Olympic gymnasts, right,
they do a couple of flips, or entertainers do something
crazy spinning around wrestlers or or whatever. But otherwise it's alright,
(08:59):
first pitch yeah, uh so, Yes, you need to get
a little bit of a hype machine going by being
beyond erratic and then showing you really can't push from
there and back to Chargers Cowboys. One last thing. He
would have been great. He could have gotten a lot
of publicity if he'd gone down and tried to break
up that fight. M hyeah, Maybe think about give him
(09:25):
twitter at How about a fresca? Mike gets swollen doumb
The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon.
When it training to vi a little railway crossing, the
results are often deadly. Be cautious at crossings, and if
the signals are going, don't be tempted to try and
sneak across the tracks even if you don't see a
train stop, because trains can't brought to you by knits us.
These big artist this is starting to become when you
(09:47):
look at the people that are making these these bad
pitches like this. It's like, m your career is kind
of on the decline a little bit. People are in
to what what's away for me to get back in
the Hey, I'm gonna throw this ball like nobody's ever
seen it before. I wonder if you did some kind
of correlation between the worst first pitches ever and where
the celebrity was in their career when they threw it,
(10:09):
if it would be everybody on the downturn of it.
You could have some kind of graph that shows, like,
you know, popularity of someone and and how their popularity
goes over the years, whether it goes up or downy
or one of those bell curves, Uh matter to go on,
I'm sorry, graphs that go up and you say where
is the first pitch on the bell curve? Like, at
what point on the down slope of your career is
(10:30):
is is the bad first pitch? Like for Connor McGregor,
he's clearly been to the top of the mountain. He's
collecting the money. He's down the other side. He's not
all the way at the bottom like he's not, but
he's definitely you know, he's started that that descent. I
would say, he's maybe maybe not halfway, just above halfway,
but I guarantee you it's always on the down curve
of the bell curve. Yeah, I mean for him right now,
(10:52):
the biggest thing is he's got to figure out how
to shout out proper twelve every chance he gets, because
that's where he's making his money like everybody else, Whiskey's,
Tequila's and everything else. Right, I don't even know when
his next fight is scheduled. I was trying to look
it up, like I don't know. Quote, I'm improving rapidly,
working with the best team money. Okay, so we'll we'll
(11:15):
maybe see him again so he can again, uh show
us his and sell his wares. But as a fighter,
yeah done. Now it's time for whatever the next part
of the entertainment value is and throwing out first pitches
in a suit. I applaud him, but again he didn't
get the final result. We were gonna laugh at it
for a moment, but it's still fifty cent on the
(11:37):
metal stand. This is just you know, he's a jag.
But look, look look at some of the guys, right,
I have some of the some of the people here,
and you tell me now, there's really something to this, right.
I went through a list of the twelve worst ceremonial
first pitches of all time ranked Okay, all all time ranked. Okay,
here we go. There's something to this ready, all right,
So first on the list Bruce Willis, who bounced the
(11:59):
ball like fifty feet in front of the play. Yeah,
when did he throw out that first pitch? Where is
Bruce Willis's career in Come On Man directed video? Not
because of the pandemic? On on the downtick, right on
the downtick. Okay, A Snoop Dogg, right, his horrible first pitch.
Snoop Dogg's last hit was a long time ago. He's
(12:20):
kind of just saying fun stuff on social media now,
but he's just legend at this point. He doesn't really
need to do anything. And man, he did a drop
from my podcast, So I I am always grateful, Okay.
Carly ray Jepson two years after Call Me, maybe two
years after that, Hello, sh some of her albums. An
(12:43):
interview with her recently and she played some new music
was actually pretty good. I don't think it hit though,
so Carl Lewis two thousand three, way after his publicity
it hit right fifty cent where after he was did
in the club. It's going down. That was two thousand fourteen. Everybody,
(13:05):
all these big celebrities, all on the day. I'll throw
the first ball out here. I'll get some attention, all
on the time. Forget me, there's something there right there.
Who I forget if I did. Forget about Babba Booie.
But yeah, I don't know Babba Booie. Let's see what
year was the only time we talked about Howard Stern
anymore is when we talk about how big is That
(13:25):
was two thousand nine back when, and nobody was talking
about because he had already gone to satellite, right he he,
he was already done. So yeah, okay, so yeah I
did two thousand nine. Okay, I'm with you on that
one too. I'm with you on that one. You're right,
I'll tell you. There's something down there on the on
the bell curve. It is there. And let's let's be
the guys that work with agencies to get folks a
(13:47):
little bit of juice squeezed out of the last vestiges
of their careers. Remember this guy night, it's all that,
It's all there. I'm doing it on purpose. So I
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(14:33):
Well coming up next. Hey, we got a really unhappy
NBA superstar who wants out and we got week to NFL.
I told you so. Keep it right here. Jason Smith,
Mike Carmon. You are listening to Fox Sports Radio, be
sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio
(14:55):
app Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with My
bass friend Mike Harmon. Discovery matches all the cash back
Aaron on your credit card at the end of your
first year. It's amazing because discovers accepted at nent of
places in the U s to take credit cards. Learn
more at Discovered dot com slash yes, that's discovered dot
com slash Yes. Nielson Report limitations they do apply. But
(15:19):
we got big NFL news coming up. Do you know
we're gonna do our week two? I told you So's
we got a quarterback everybody thinks is great, and I'm
gonna tell you he's just a guy. He's a jag.
He's just a guy. But wow. The big NBA story
of the day, Ben Simmons now officially is done with
the Philadelphia seventies six ers, reports Gene uh Wohaich had
(15:43):
the report earlier today that Ben Simmons will not report
for the opening of training camp and intends to never
play another game for the franchise. Adrian Wozonowski with the report,
I almost said Gene Wojehowski, who was a former point
guard for Duke um So Benson is not good report
for the opening of training camp and will never play
(16:04):
another game for the franchise. He told management he has
no plans to wear that NBA uniform again until he's
moved to a new team. So he has dug his
feet in the sand and drawn that line and said
you are going to trade me now. Before we get
to that, there's gonna be the group of people that
blame Ben Simmons for what's happening now, because, like, this
(16:27):
is a guy who's a four time All Star twenty
five years old. Even though we can't shoot and he
has limited what he does he does extremely well his
his passing, his rebounding, his defense. Right, the guy doesn't shoot, okay,
al right, but oh you can't, you can't you okay,
but he does other things extremely well. And this is
(16:48):
one of those guys out there that many teams are
gonna want to go get. And now it's official that
you can go get him. Now you have people that
are gonna be blaming Ben Simmons. Hey, it's your fault.
You didn't play better? Right, How do you not play better?
How do you not learn how to shoot? How do
you not do these things? Then there's gonna be fault
of the seventies sixers. How do you not figure things out?
How do you not make him amends with him? How
do you not welcome him into the fold? How do
(17:08):
you do all these things. No, I'll tell you who
is exactly at fault for this and is not getting
any of the blame. And it's Doc Rivers, okay, because
the moment we knew this was gonna happen was all
on Doc. It was after the six years got eliminated
and Simmons, who had a horrible playoff and clearly, look,
he's not a number two guy because he doesn't do
(17:29):
enough offensively. He's a number three guy. He's your third
best player or maybe your fourth best player on a
really good team. But he didn't do enough, and he
gained all the blame. Right, everybody hated Ben Simmons. And
you know, Doc Rivers, he doesn't take responsibility for anything.
Anytime his team loses, it's never his fault, right. I. I
I still remember going back when he talked about the
(17:49):
Celtics when he says, oh, you know, the team with
Kendrick Perkins, we never lost. Oh wait, so when you
lost Kendrick Perkins and you lost the finals the next
year and you never got back to the finals after that,
it was because you didn't have Kendrick Perkins, That's what
it was. He was the one guy. Oh you know
with perk, the team never lost. Okay, you played one
year in one and you didn't win again. Right, He
never takes responsibility for anything. And then right after the loss,
(18:11):
right the ninth, they got eliminated. Remember this was the big,
big quote from Doc Rivers when he was asked about
Ben Simmons and his future with the team. Do you think,
Ben Simmons, you can still be a point guard for
for a championship team like the one you guys want
to become. Yeah. I don't know that question or the
answer to that right now. Um, you know, so I
(18:31):
don't know the answer to that. Wow. Man, that is
the moment where I'm Ben Simmons and I said I
cannot play here anymore. Because when the head coach is
asked a question, can you be a big player on
a championship team and he says, I don't know the answer,
and he says that publicly, you're done. Man. That's on Doc.
That is this whole thing is on Doc, because saying
(18:53):
that is what pushed all of this machinations into motion
and why we're at where Ben Simmons isn't gonna play
for the team again, and now you just have to
figure out the best trade you could possibly make, because
what a head coach is supposed to say there to
gain the trust of the players is, hey, I love Ben.
Ben's a great player. I think we all would think
we could have done more in this and and that
that that's we're gonna work on this offseason. Then you
(19:13):
get him in your office, you light into and go, dude,
I don't know what the blank that was. But if
you think you're gonna do, you gotta do X, Y
and Z. That's how you do it. But here's Doc Rivers. Oh,
I don't know, I'm getting the question about I can
blame Ben Simmons. I don't know if he's my guy.
Whether he is or not, that's the worst thing you
can do right there. Man, you're a coach. You have
to be beholden to your players at some point, and
(19:34):
at least you have to know that if I do this,
I'm putting the team in a bad spot. Because let's
say Doc Rivers wanted nothing to do with Ben Simmons.
There's time to get that out. There's time to say, hey,
here's our off season meetings, and before we all go away,
we got to move on from Ben, right Ben, and
we we can't do it. We gotta move on. Okay,
we do it, But now now you do it publicly,
and you know that he's not gonna come back, and
(19:55):
now you're bargaining from position of weakness. This is all
on Doc uh. Well we talked about this at the time.
This quote made made the rounds, and we're on air
and looking at each other going, well, then, all right,
now you you've escalated, and it's another Doc Rivers moment. Right,
can't blame Blake, can't do this. We We've laughed about
a lot of them, this one. You've got a guy
(20:17):
that you already knew was temperamental, that and and not
and didn't like what he was hearing from the Philly faithful,
and whether you want to have him back and have
him be a lynchpin of what you're doing going forward.
You can't do it publicly and just say all right,
we're done. I don't know. I don't know if he's
that good or if he can lead. It's like, okay,
(20:38):
maybe he's not, but you've you've tanked any of your leverage.
You've pisted him off, so any of the stuff that
you were going to try to say, Okay, if we
can try to make it work or smooth it over.
Here's what we need to commit to and work and whatever. Right,
he opted out of playing for the Australian national team
in the Olympics and he's been hanging out on on
(20:58):
boats and whatever. If you read black sports online, but
you go on on down the line as an organization
and you realize how good this guy really is. Right,
usually either the top three defensive player the year, certainly
all defensive team year after year. Yeah, the jump shooting,
that's for you and I and and folks outside the
(21:19):
nitpick because in theory you recognize those as a team
as you construct your squad and recognize, okay, that means
we need another guy that's gonna be able to knock
down shots in big moments because you know what he
can do. He can distribute the ball. So it's one
of those uh situations whereby you've taken a guy who's
(21:40):
still a top what fIF twenty player in the league
depending on how but you want to value each of
those assets that he brings. He just has no jump
shot and the free throw percentage has tanked. So behind
the scenes, the whole Doc Rivers thing should have been yeah,
we we know there's things we need to work on
as a squad, you know, do all your best political
(22:01):
speech as you can, and then behind the scenes becomes
all right, here's our exident of you, Ben, here's what
we'd like you to commit to as we get to
the next phase of working with you and Joel EmpId
And and maybe it's all lip service and he tells
you to go blank yourself and still walks off into
the summer. But how how would you expect a guy
to come back here? And unlike football, unlike you know,
(22:24):
a lot of other sports, guys in the NBA have
the power to do this. They they have guaranteed contracts
and sure you can find them, but in the end,
you're still gonna want to move on and get some
kind of assets back. So he has them over a barrel.
And it's a team that when you look at the
(22:44):
Eastern Conference, there's still a window to compete and be
at the top of it, but that's gonna shrink and
looking to move him. Well, now you've got a diminished
property because they know you can't make it work, so
you're not gonna get the same returns back. It's to
be a all right, we're not gonna give you any
viable assets now. But here's another draft pick for you.
(23:06):
And you know some guys are and think those are
the greatest thing. There are a lottery tickets, like, come on,
I'm gonna get that guy. But here's the problem is,
if your team's any good, the draft picks sucks and
it's a guy that you probably don't even want to
make your team if he's at the back end of
the rod other than the guaranteed contract because he got
selected there. Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with
(23:28):
my best friend Mike Harmon. When a trade it's a vehicle,
the railway crossing, the results are often deadly. Be cautious
at crossing, and if the signals are going, don't be
tempted to try and sneak across the tracks even if
you don't see a train stop, because trains can't brought
to you by Nitza. So it's Doc's fault. We're here.
None of this is happening, and the hand of the
Sixers isn't being forced. If Doc Rivers doesn't say what
(23:50):
he says, he could have found a way to smooth
it over. And you still want to move on from
Ben Simmons. That's great, But once he said it, you
knew that was it. And now here we are getting
close to training camp. Ben Simmons says, I don't want reports.
So now you gotta make a deal. Now you're forced
to make a deal if you want to be a
championship team, because you can't just let him sit while
you try to make a trade, because now you're gonna
you're gonna lose games. It's gonna be awful. So now
(24:11):
you have to go do this, right, that's why this
is all on Doc Rivers. Now there are some teams
and there are some fits out there that are really good. Right,
I told you from the beginning the Warriors should have
been on the phone with the Sixers right after Doc
said that. Right, Doc said, I don't know if he's
our championship point guard, but hang on, I gotta get
this a little. Oh. Oh it's Steve Kirk call Um,
(24:33):
you hang out, Steve, Yeah, what do you want? Oh? Okay,
Wiggins and wise men, you have that money works? Okay, great, guys,
we just made a trade. Uh, it's why to let
you all know, like they should have been on the
phone with the Sixers, right, away because that would that
would get it done. And you've seen the last few days. Okay,
what are the best fits for Ben Simmons. Look, I
like the Warriors, the Clippers are getting a big run,
(24:53):
and you're also seeing Portland getting a big run for
c J McCollum, ay said, the score to Philadelphia, send
Ben Simmons to Portland. Right, I see that, But really,
the best thing you can do because you gotta get
a good you gotta get a really good player. Right,
that's the thing getting Andrew Wiggins and Jamal and James Wiseman. Okay,
if I'm Philadelphia, I go bold and I call portland'
(25:16):
and I go yeah, No, I know you're talking about
c J McCollum. What it's it gonna take to get
Damian Lillard? Because you know, Damian Lillard is just waiting
around to demand a trade, right. You know, he's not
happy he hasn't come out specifically and done a Ben
Simmons or James Harden said that's it, that's I'm done.
But you know that's where it's going, right, I mean,
eventually it's gonna be fair neither as Ben Simmons. Yet
(25:39):
we're getting back to that same area with Yeah, but
this he won't report for the opening of camp like
that's pretty I mean, he's not doing it like that.
That's gonna be the big He says, he's not coming,
So you have a time. You have time to trade me.
Now if he shows up, what you're talking about having
a big drink? What are you doing? But I'm not
(25:59):
showing up. Uh. So you know that Damian Lillard is
just going to want out at some point, right, He's
just gonna want out because unless the Blazers start fifteen
and oh and everything is great at he's gonna want out. Right.
You've heard the rumors. He has talked about wanting out.
He's talked about who he's wanted, but he's never said
I want out. Right, He's being a good as good
(26:20):
a guy as you can be about this without demanding
a trade. But you know what's coming. If you're the Blazers,
you know what's coming. Getting Ben Simmons is not going
to help Damian Lillard because Damillard says, dude, I need
the basketball so I can shoot from the logo. Yeah,
but see, but that's my job. Is I take the
ball and I pass you. No, no, no, no, no, dude,
I have the ball. They call me Logo Lillard for
a reason. That's because I dribble the ball over half
(26:41):
court and I shoot from the logo. This is the
trade because you know you're gonna have to make the move.
You know eventually Damian Lillard is gonna go someplace. And
are you really gonna get a better individual player than
Ben Simmons. You're not. You're gonna get a package of
players who may seem like they have promise or pretend
show you're gonna get draft picks. You're gonna get everything
(27:02):
you're What you need is another really really good player.
This is a guy, a multiple All Star who is
twenty five years old that can do a lot of
really good things. Hey, this is the guy you trade
Damian Lillard. Four. It's not equal value, but you're not
gonna get equal facts. It's not how it works in
the NBA, because any team that wants Damian Lillard is
not gonna trade you one of their great, high priced players.
(27:23):
They want a team Damian Lillard with somebody else, and
Lillard in Philadelphia would be a huge deal. Oh my god.
The Sixers might win seventy games with him, and the
beating him and beat it, and beat could disappear for
weeks upon it and go yeah, no, I'm good. I
can come back now and play Damieland you take some
time off. It would be an incredible duo there. But
realize that's that's the best trade you're gonna get is
(27:44):
Ben Simmons for Damian Little. Anything else is gonna be well,
we'll get this guy who might be good and this
guy who might be good, and we'll try to move. No,
you need to have the highest number of best players
you can. That's how it works in the NBA. This
is not the NFL where you can get depth at
position to what. We got a couple of first round
picks and we're gonna get guys and phil holes here.
This is not Major League Baseball where you could trade
(28:05):
a star and you've got two guys that are gonna
be in your starting rotation next year. No, in the NBA,
you have to collect superstars, and when you're gonna lose
a superstar, you gotta get a superstar back. If I
thought the Blazers could get somebody else better than Ben Simmons,
I would say that, then you go for that. But
this is the best you're gonna get the money is
just about gonna match. You'll figure out a way to
do it. That's the trade that should happen. And if
(28:26):
you tell Lillard you want to go to Philadelphia play
with you l and beat, He's gonna say, Okay, I'm ready.
We gotta fire Doc. But I'm ready, I'm ready to go.
I'm ready to go. I mean, this is the trade
that really has to happen. I'll tell you I like
it because it'll it'll set the NBA world on fire.
And I question how much it would change the narrative
of Danian Lillard right, how much we'd start getting Well,
(28:49):
the backstory is and he back channeling his way out
of Portland this whole time, as opposed to, hey man,
I'm just you know, here for the ride until you know,
we hit that point in the road. I think some
of that would be lost if suddenly this were to
come down. And really, do you do you want Ben
Simmons and C. J. McCollum. Is that the team that's
gonna lead you? No, it's not. But if you're gonna
(29:11):
lose Damian Lillard, you want a guy coming in that's okay? Well,
Ben Simmons is coming in. We'll figure something else out,
will get another couple of players. I mean, he's you
gotta keep the beg at the best players you can
in a trade. You can't just get a package. Oh
look at this great package coming. The package is always
the worst you can get. That's just the It's it's
like all the fantasy football trades that you get offered. Here,
(29:32):
here's these four guys for your stud I'm like, I'm
gonna have to cut three people to make this work.
What are you? What are you talking to? Get out
of here with your nonsense. That was a message direct
to Fabriano for the inevitable trade offers that will start
here in week three. He's the worst guy to trade with, man, Fabia.
He's the worst guy to trade with. Every every officer
(29:53):
tries to wear you down, and he sets an alarm
for like two am and starts disrupting your sleep pattern
and the whole I he'd be a great GM because
what Fabriano does with trades, and he'll call and he'll say,
let's make a trade. Okay, they'll say, and he'll make
you a really bad offer, and then you'll counter with
an offer and he'll add a player to it, and
then you'll say, well, when I got this guy that, well,
if you give me this, I need this guy. I
(30:14):
need this guy. That's like, oh my god. And he
just keeps adding guys. It's like it's nobody I want
and you're not and and and he just keeps sending
you these Let's do it, let's do it. Eventually, have
to realize, dude, we're not gonna make a trade. We're
not going I don't know how you make trades anybody.
I'm not gonna make it. You block him. I'm not. Actually,
you just block him. That's kind of what you're gonna
have to do. I mean, I'd love to see Ben
Simmons show up in Chicago, but they've already made a
(30:36):
number of moves and and tried to figure out how
to make money work. There would be too much of
a problem. Uh that. And you know, when it's when
it's all said done, you've already acquired Alonzo ball, so
some of that goes out the window. But uh, it's
it'll be curious to watch the next couple of days. Right,
you got Las Vegas Lakers and and bonding and all
(30:57):
of that, and Carmelo's talk about Lebron that's the GM.
I'm sure that's going over well in the office. Is
that that cats truly out of the bag. But when
when you get down to it, who's reporting, who's not,
who's in shape, best shape of their lives? All of
those stories and nonsense, Uh coming up here in the
next couple of weeks as well as NHL Action Smith
(31:17):
It's all coming together. Mmmm, Twitter at out about a fresca.
Mike gets swollen down The Jason Smith Show with my
best friend Mike Carmen. I'm telling you that's the trade
Simmons for Damian Lillard. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at
ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Hey, what's up everybody?
(31:38):
It's me three time Pro Bowl Little Warrington and I
couldn't be more excited to announce a new podcast called
Up on Game? What is Up on Game? You asked,
along with my fellow Pro bowler t J. Hushman, Zada
and Super Bowl champion. That's right, Plexico Burds. You can
only name a show with that type of talent on it.
Up on Game We're going to be sharing our real
(32:01):
life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen to Up on
Game with Me, LaVar Arrington, t J. Hudgeman's Out of
and Plexico Birds on the I Heart Radio app, Apple
Podcast or wherever you get your podcast from Fox Sports Radio,
The Jason Smith Show with my base friend Mike Harmon.
(32:25):
The last two days, I really can't get over all
the love that one quarterback in the NFL has been getting.
The talk about him has been look At how well
he's throwing the ball, Look at how good he is.
His former team made a mistake, Look how good Sam
(32:45):
Donald is. Okay, Sam Donald is just a guy. He's
a jag, all right. The Jets got rid of him
because he's not a quarterback that's gonna make your team better.
He is just a guy. I told you in the beginning, Mike,
that Carolina was a great landing spot for any quarterback because,
(33:08):
boy do they have a really good team. Right. You
have talked about in anybody's evaluation, at worst, the second
best running back in the NFL and Christian McCaffrey. You
have a couple of pretty good wide receivers, and Moore
and Robbie Anderson, you got a defense with a pretty
good defensive line. Uh, this team is pretty good. They
(33:28):
didn't have anybody could throw the football last year. Teddy
two gloves couldn't throw the ball more than eight yards.
I could put more pop on that than he can.
They needed somebody that could throw the ball. He couldn't
do it. Sam Donald can throw the ball downfield. He
is a competent quarterback. And that's what Sam Donald did
the first two weeks. The first game against the Jets,
you saw how bad the Jets are. The Jets absolutely stink,
(33:49):
and still Donald was just okay against them. Throw a
touchdown when the Jets blew a coverage and Robbie Anderson
didn't have a guy within twenty yards of him. That
was his touchdown. Pass now Here. Against the Saints, he
goes for three oh five and a couple of touchdowns.
He has a nice day. It helps when you have
a running back that can run for seventy yards and
a touchdown, that can catch sixty five yards and passes right.
(34:10):
Then you have wide receivers like d J. Moore. None
of these guys he had in New York, None of
these guys he had. None of these guys he had.
He is on a really good team and he's playing okay.
Trust me, he is just a guy. Yes, he's easy
to root for and I'm happy for him. I mean
it wasn't happy Week one because you know, I wanted
to win. But he was always someone that understood New
(34:32):
York figured out what he needed to do to try
to succeed. He never said the wrong thing. He always
tried to be a team guy. He did things right.
The only thing he didn't wrong was played well enough.
And he's not someone that's going to elevate the team
around him. Is he someone that can play competently on
a good team. Yes, there's lots of guys like that.
There's a Taylor Heiniki is someone you couldn't put on
this Panthers team, and he would be the same guy
(34:53):
as Sam Donald, right, Sam Donald is just a guy,
but on a team that has a lot of talent. Yeah,
he can get the ball out there and he can
look okay, but trust me, he's a jag all right.
So that's part of the the Jets fan in you
that that is going to diminish it. And yes, obviously
all quarterbacks played better when they have better pieces around
(35:17):
them right. A lot of the conversation today about the
greatness of Tom Brady, like, my god, why why is
this a shock? At this point do we have nothing
else to talk about in this world except oh, my god,
look at the numbers from Brady and defying father time.
This is not new new material. But yes, look at
the skill position. Guys around him much better right than
(35:38):
anything you had when he was with New England. Keep
on going down. We can do this with every quarterback
from here to Kingdom come Matt rule in his second
year with his defense rising up. He got a lot
of top picks last year. Remember all they did was
draft defense. You got a lot of young guys that
are hungry. Last year you mentioned Teddy Bridgewater. Mike Davis
(35:58):
did fine. Now he's in Atlanta and other running in mud.
But now you look at you mentioned the wide receivers
on the edge. You got a solid offensive line at
least to this point. I'm still not sure on that overall.
But Christian McCaffrey is gonna solve a lot of ills.
Is that Sam Donald's fault? No, you played to the personnel.
This is where you don't diminish Sam Donald. But you
(36:20):
like a fire like Literally, you take the Brad Pitt
flamethrower and you bring it back to Robert Sala and
the crep that they're putting out on the field in
New York. That's the point here. It's not about Sam Donald.
It's not about him being a jag or being an underperformance.
It's about the fact that you never surrounded him with
adequate weapons out there. Except for Robby Anderson, the rest
(36:42):
of it was trash. That's the story here, Sam Donald,
Good luck to you. You gotta squad make the most
of it because the rest of the division outside of
Tampa looks like it's gonna be trash as well. You
know how many Jets failure stories. We can do, Buddy,
we can we can do And radio takes week two.
I tell just go next
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 Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every night on
the I Heart Radio app by searching fs R. You're
(00:24):
listening to Fox Sports Radio. Greetings and welcome inside The
Jason Smith Show with my bass friend Mike Harmon. Buddy,
we got some kind of show coming up tonight. We
got so much NFL stuff. But if you'd woke me
up the beginning of the day and say you're gonna
(00:44):
start your show with the first pitch at a baseball game,
I'd have said, come on, what can we really see on? Uh,
we kind of have to start with the first pitch
at your Chicago Cubs game tonight. Not my Chicago Cubs. Well,
you're from Chicago. I'm on the other side of town.
Out are you're from Chicago? Your Chicago? No pause, your
(01:04):
Chicago Cubs, Chicago. Because I was going back and forth
with one of the things on the Guns and Roses tours,
they've been doing these really cool posters for each of
the places that they visited, right, so a little bit
of Los Angeles film noir kind of thing. When they
were here. Uh, in Minnesota, there's a lot of Charles
Schultz stuff, right, Peanuts at the Mall of America. So
(01:27):
they did you know, Charlie Brown figures. You have Axel
Is lying as Schroeder, and you have Chuck Brown has
slash and whatever, so you're having some fun with it.
They did one at Wrigley, which I mean it had
a Cubs hat on the skeleton flipping people off, and
I'm like, all right, I like the flipping off skeleton,
but he got a Cups logo. I can't buy that.
(01:47):
Oh no, no, no, no, you my brothers went to
the concert, Like, I can't buy the shirt because I
never wear it because it's got a CUB logo on it.
Oh let's say, wait, wait, didn't your brothers go to
I saw it. Saw a video of them after the
Yuck Cowboys Chargers game this past weekend. They when that
may be getting around. They were in Cleveland first spell
and then they teleported like they were on Star Trek
(02:10):
and got back here to California. In time for for
Cowboys and charging. There's a nice little plause out there,
right you you watched the video. Those that haven't seen
it yet, you can look it up as you listen
to us yelled at each other. Uh, and you've got
this little water thing like it's all cool, little water restribute, redistribution,
and then you got these dopes fighting. But here's the thing.
(02:31):
It's no longer just one on one now, it's like
seven on seven and it's it's a mixed tag team match.
And this whole thing, these fights that go on at
games now, specifically since the NFL has started again. Every
week there's a hey, look at these fans now fighting.
Normally it's fans of different teams, which you know that
happens a lot. Hey, you know the Bills and the Steelers.
(02:52):
There's a fight between a Bills fans and Steelers fans. No,
but this past week was fights between Browns fans that
I was incredible because guys in different jerseys and someone's
yelling we're all rooting for the same team. And then
all Cowboys fans are getting in a fight together after
the Cowboys game over the charges. These videos are hypnotic
and I can't get over the fact that these are
(03:12):
fits of the same team that after wins, you know,
the Browns one, Cowboys one, let's still go fight with
each other. I can't get enough of those videos. I'm
not condoning it, but if you put it out on
social media, I will watch it. Will well, I am
gonna watch it, and sold so many others. I mean,
perhaps eventually we get a modified look. Everybody else gets
(03:34):
paid to fight anymore. Maybe for a couple of bucks.
Based on how many YouTube watches you get, you can
make a couple of dollars on it. But what's funny
is in most of these videos, Jason, not all of them,
but but a hypercentage, someone wanders into frame, either trying
to be a peace maker or just being dumb and
getting in front of the camera, and there's always so
much shouting, what are you doing? Get out now? They're
(03:58):
gonna be part of the fight, even though they were
really part of the fun. It's like, all right, you're
incriminating yourself even though you haven't thrown or taken a punch.
What do you do when you do? Oh boy? But
speaking of social media and what is gaining a lot
of attention, yes, we have to start with Connor McGregor's
first pitch before tonight's game in Chicago, and this comes
(04:19):
courtesy of Rob Friedman, who is in ESPN MLB analyst.
He does a bunch of things. First thing I want
to say is this, dude, when you post a video
like that, put audio on it so we can hear
what the announcers are saying. Don't put a silent video up.
Put audio on it. It would would it kill you
to put audio on this? I mean, come on, so
(04:39):
right now, the only video that exists of this that's
making its war on the internet doesn't have audio on it,
which I'm like, come on, you got just put the
audio on there. So McGregor's out there and he's on
the pitching Robert. You know, he's in a suit, and
you know, McGregor's a left and starts he starts loosening
up his arms a little bit and now you're scuffing
the scuffing the dirt. And he winds up to throw
his first pitch and it is a line shot that
(05:02):
is it's not even anywhere in the realm of the catcher.
It looks like he's throwing it at someone in the
first row of the stands about thirty feet to the
right of home plate, and it's you know, you already
see people on social media going, oh, a pitching fail,
like an awful look at these mechanics, all these things,
and I'm like, time out for a second. Do we
(05:24):
really not think and not understand and not realize that
these are first pitches that are made for this. They're
doing this on purpose because if you just throw the
ball over the plate, hey it's the first pitch. Nobody cares.
But hey, it's one of those things that is free publicity.
If you make a bad first pitch at a baseball game,
it lives forever. You get relevancy forever. Connor McGregor knows
(05:47):
this because the guy knows how to take advantage of
a new cycle. Right the one thing he may not
be able to fight anymore. He may you know, he
may be done fighting. He thinks he can still fight,
but he can't. He may be done, but he knows
how to get the news cycle. And and athletes and
and entertainers know if I make a bad first pitch
and you're hungry for publicity, then this will get me famous.
(06:08):
And now here's Connor McGregor that owns the night on
social media because of this first pitch he made. And
you know it was on purpose, you know, you know,
I'm just gonna throw it as far as I can
to the other side of the catcher and try to
throw it into the stands, and he almost does. He
hits the brick wall on the fly. All right, just
this is this is what people do. Fitty Cent was
the first one to throw it. And look, we still
play Fitty Cents first pitch. Look at this horrible first
(06:30):
pitch in the Mets game. No, we still You can
be a legend if you make a bad first pitch
like this. And now here's Connor McGregor, who's right now,
go scrolling through social media, going did my job? Look
at this? See this? Everybody's talking about me. It's a
bad first pitch. And it doesn't matter because not like
anybody can make fun of him, can say, oh, you
have no skills. I'm throwing a baseball. I'm not a
baseball player. I'm an mm A fighter. It's okay. It's
(06:51):
okay for people to show that I'm not as athletic
when I'm doing something that's not in my wheelhouse. So
This is free publicity for anybody. I can't believe anybody
who's not a star doesn't throw the ball and tried
it off the backstop or hit the mascot or something
some moose, crazy kind of stuff. You know. Most people
had just want to throw it and throw it over,
want to make a good throw. I'm surprised everybody doesn't
do it. I'm what can I'm gonna throw it into
(07:13):
the net. I'm gonna throw it backwards, I'm gonna throw it,
I'm gonna hand I'm gonna hit the guy right in
front of me with it. I mean, I can't believe
everybody doesn't do that. Yeah, I think. I think there's
a couple of things to it. Number one going back
just to cowboys and and charges to clean that up
for a moment, Connor McGregor was in Jerry's box. He
was hanging out as him post Malone, a bunch of superstars,
so he knew where the party was. And then he
(07:35):
goes to to Wrigley and one of the things you
definitely get out of it. The last couple of years
they have done a tops insert set, which is first pitches. Uh.
There was a big deal last week that made the rounds.
And Melissa McCarthy had done one at a Dodgers game
and they commemorated in a trading card, and she was
talking with Stephen Colbert and he had one, and so
she told the story of it, and you know, they
(07:57):
had what Wilson with his really whatever shoe polished black Beard,
and so she was fixated on that. But Stephen Colbert
head thrown one out at Wrigley, right, Northwestern guy, and
so they had a card of him. So we will
get a Connor McGregor card out of this, certainly. The
other part, if you're gonna throw the ball like that,
you have to have a plant. You gotta have a
(08:18):
guy standing back there who takes one for the team,
because then it's even gonna get even more amplified. Maybe
he did, he did, He he just missed them. Maybe
that's what happened. Maybe maybe he was just a little
more erratic than perhaps they thought they would be. But
you know, the otherwise, if if it's a good throw,
(08:39):
it's it's a moment, right, it will show up maybe
on the evening news as part of the cut. If
the game is pretty boring, all right, you got an
extra seven second show you throughout the first pitch. Otherwise
maybe you have Sometimes when we've had an Olympic gymnasts, right,
they do a couple of flips, or entertainers do something
crazy spinning around wrestlers or or whatever. But otherwise it's alright,
(08:59):
first pitch yeah, uh so, Yes, you need to get
a little bit of a hype machine going by being
beyond erratic and then showing you really can't push from
there and back to Chargers Cowboys. One last thing. He
would have been great. He could have gotten a lot
of publicity if he'd gone down and tried to break
up that fight. M hyeah, Maybe think about give him
(09:25):
twitter at How about a fresca? Mike gets swollen doumb
The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon.
When it training to vi a little railway crossing, the
results are often deadly. Be cautious at crossings, and if
the signals are going, don't be tempted to try and
sneak across the tracks even if you don't see a
train stop, because trains can't brought to you by knits us.
These big artist this is starting to become when you
(09:47):
look at the people that are making these these bad
pitches like this. It's like, m your career is kind
of on the decline a little bit. People are in
to what what's away for me to get back in
the Hey, I'm gonna throw this ball like nobody's ever
seen it before. I wonder if you did some kind
of correlation between the worst first pitches ever and where
the celebrity was in their career when they threw it,
(10:09):
if it would be everybody on the downturn of it.
You could have some kind of graph that shows, like,
you know, popularity of someone and and how their popularity
goes over the years, whether it goes up or downy
or one of those bell curves, Uh matter to go on,
I'm sorry, graphs that go up and you say where
is the first pitch on the bell curve? Like, at
what point on the down slope of your career is
(10:30):
is is the bad first pitch? Like for Connor McGregor,
he's clearly been to the top of the mountain. He's
collecting the money. He's down the other side. He's not
all the way at the bottom like he's not, but
he's definitely you know, he's started that that descent. I
would say, he's maybe maybe not halfway, just above halfway,
but I guarantee you it's always on the down curve
of the bell curve. Yeah, I mean for him right now,
(10:52):
the biggest thing is he's got to figure out how
to shout out proper twelve every chance he gets, because
that's where he's making his money like everybody else, Whiskey's,
Tequila's and everything else. Right, I don't even know when
his next fight is scheduled. I was trying to look
it up, like I don't know. Quote, I'm improving rapidly,
working with the best team money. Okay, so we'll we'll
(11:15):
maybe see him again so he can again, uh show
us his and sell his wares. But as a fighter,
yeah done. Now it's time for whatever the next part
of the entertainment value is and throwing out first pitches
in a suit. I applaud him, but again he didn't
get the final result. We were gonna laugh at it
for a moment, but it's still fifty cent on the
(11:37):
metal stand. This is just you know, he's a jag.
But look, look look at some of the guys, right,
I have some of the some of the people here,
and you tell me now, there's really something to this, right.
I went through a list of the twelve worst ceremonial
first pitches of all time ranked Okay, all all time ranked. Okay,
here we go. There's something to this ready, all right,
So first on the list Bruce Willis, who bounced the
(11:59):
ball like fifty feet in front of the play. Yeah,
when did he throw out that first pitch? Where is
Bruce Willis's career in Come On Man directed video? Not
because of the pandemic? On on the downtick, right on
the downtick. Okay, A Snoop Dogg, right, his horrible first pitch.
Snoop Dogg's last hit was a long time ago. He's
(12:20):
kind of just saying fun stuff on social media now,
but he's just legend at this point. He doesn't really
need to do anything. And man, he did a drop
from my podcast, So I I am always grateful, Okay.
Carly ray Jepson two years after Call Me, maybe two
years after that, Hello, sh some of her albums. An
(12:43):
interview with her recently and she played some new music
was actually pretty good. I don't think it hit though,
so Carl Lewis two thousand three, way after his publicity
it hit right fifty cent where after he was did
in the club. It's going down. That was two thousand fourteen. Everybody,
(13:05):
all these big celebrities, all on the day. I'll throw
the first ball out here. I'll get some attention, all
on the time. Forget me, there's something there right there.
Who I forget if I did. Forget about Babba Booie.
But yeah, I don't know Babba Booie. Let's see what
year was the only time we talked about Howard Stern
anymore is when we talk about how big is That
(13:25):
was two thousand nine back when, and nobody was talking
about because he had already gone to satellite, right he he,
he was already done. So yeah, okay, so yeah I
did two thousand nine. Okay, I'm with you on that
one too. I'm with you on that one. You're right,
I'll tell you. There's something down there on the on
the bell curve. It is there. And let's let's be
the guys that work with agencies to get folks a
(13:47):
little bit of juice squeezed out of the last vestiges
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(14:33):
Well coming up next. Hey, we got a really unhappy
NBA superstar who wants out and we got week to NFL.
I told you so. Keep it right here. Jason Smith,
Mike Carmon. You are listening to Fox Sports Radio, be
sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio
(14:55):
app Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with My
bass friend Mike Harmon. Discovery matches all the cash back
Aaron on your credit card at the end of your
first year. It's amazing because discovers accepted at nent of
places in the U s to take credit cards. Learn
more at Discovered dot com slash yes, that's discovered dot
com slash Yes. Nielson Report limitations they do apply. But
(15:19):
we got big NFL news coming up. Do you know
we're gonna do our week two? I told you So's
we got a quarterback everybody thinks is great, and I'm
gonna tell you he's just a guy. He's a jag.
He's just a guy. But wow. The big NBA story
of the day, Ben Simmons now officially is done with
the Philadelphia seventies six ers, reports Gene uh Wohaich had
(15:43):
the report earlier today that Ben Simmons will not report
for the opening of training camp and intends to never
play another game for the franchise. Adrian Wozonowski with the report,
I almost said Gene Wojehowski, who was a former point
guard for Duke um So Benson is not good report
for the opening of training camp and will never play
(16:04):
another game for the franchise. He told management he has
no plans to wear that NBA uniform again until he's
moved to a new team. So he has dug his
feet in the sand and drawn that line and said
you are going to trade me now. Before we get
to that, there's gonna be the group of people that
blame Ben Simmons for what's happening now, because, like, this
(16:27):
is a guy who's a four time All Star twenty
five years old. Even though we can't shoot and he
has limited what he does he does extremely well his
his passing, his rebounding, his defense. Right, the guy doesn't shoot, okay,
al right, but oh you can't, you can't you okay,
but he does other things extremely well. And this is
(16:48):
one of those guys out there that many teams are
gonna want to go get. And now it's official that
you can go get him. Now you have people that
are gonna be blaming Ben Simmons. Hey, it's your fault.
You didn't play better? Right, How do you not play better?
How do you not learn how to shoot? How do
you not do these things? Then there's gonna be fault
of the seventies sixers. How do you not figure things out?
How do you not make him amends with him? How
do you not welcome him into the fold? How do
(17:08):
you do all these things. No, I'll tell you who
is exactly at fault for this and is not getting
any of the blame. And it's Doc Rivers, okay, because
the moment we knew this was gonna happen was all
on Doc. It was after the six years got eliminated
and Simmons, who had a horrible playoff and clearly, look,
he's not a number two guy because he doesn't do
(17:29):
enough offensively. He's a number three guy. He's your third
best player or maybe your fourth best player on a
really good team. But he didn't do enough, and he
gained all the blame. Right, everybody hated Ben Simmons. And
you know, Doc Rivers, he doesn't take responsibility for anything.
Anytime his team loses, it's never his fault, right. I. I
I still remember going back when he talked about the
(17:49):
Celtics when he says, oh, you know, the team with
Kendrick Perkins, we never lost. Oh wait, so when you
lost Kendrick Perkins and you lost the finals the next
year and you never got back to the finals after that,
it was because you didn't have Kendrick Perkins, That's what
it was. He was the one guy. Oh you know
with perk, the team never lost. Okay, you played one
year in one and you didn't win again. Right, He
never takes responsibility for anything. And then right after the loss,
(18:11):
right the ninth, they got eliminated. Remember this was the big,
big quote from Doc Rivers when he was asked about
Ben Simmons and his future with the team. Do you think,
Ben Simmons, you can still be a point guard for
for a championship team like the one you guys want
to become. Yeah. I don't know that question or the
answer to that right now. Um, you know, so I
(18:31):
don't know the answer to that. Wow. Man, that is
the moment where I'm Ben Simmons and I said I
cannot play here anymore. Because when the head coach is
asked a question, can you be a big player on
a championship team and he says, I don't know the answer,
and he says that publicly, you're done. Man. That's on Doc.
That is this whole thing is on Doc, because saying
(18:53):
that is what pushed all of this machinations into motion
and why we're at where Ben Simmons isn't gonna play
for the team again, and now you just have to
figure out the best trade you could possibly make, because
what a head coach is supposed to say there to
gain the trust of the players is, hey, I love Ben.
Ben's a great player. I think we all would think
we could have done more in this and and that
that that's we're gonna work on this offseason. Then you
(19:13):
get him in your office, you light into and go, dude,
I don't know what the blank that was. But if
you think you're gonna do, you gotta do X, Y
and Z. That's how you do it. But here's Doc Rivers. Oh,
I don't know, I'm getting the question about I can
blame Ben Simmons. I don't know if he's my guy.
Whether he is or not, that's the worst thing you
can do right there. Man, you're a coach. You have
to be beholden to your players at some point, and
(19:34):
at least you have to know that if I do this,
I'm putting the team in a bad spot. Because let's
say Doc Rivers wanted nothing to do with Ben Simmons.
There's time to get that out. There's time to say, hey,
here's our off season meetings, and before we all go away,
we got to move on from Ben, right Ben, and
we we can't do it. We gotta move on. Okay,
we do it, But now now you do it publicly,
and you know that he's not gonna come back, and
(19:55):
now you're bargaining from position of weakness. This is all
on Doc uh. Well we talked about this at the time.
This quote made made the rounds, and we're on air
and looking at each other going, well, then, all right,
now you you've escalated, and it's another Doc Rivers moment. Right,
can't blame Blake, can't do this. We We've laughed about
a lot of them, this one. You've got a guy
(20:17):
that you already knew was temperamental, that and and not
and didn't like what he was hearing from the Philly faithful,
and whether you want to have him back and have
him be a lynchpin of what you're doing going forward.
You can't do it publicly and just say all right,
we're done. I don't know. I don't know if he's
that good or if he can lead. It's like, okay,
(20:38):
maybe he's not, but you've you've tanked any of your leverage.
You've pisted him off, so any of the stuff that
you were going to try to say, Okay, if we
can try to make it work or smooth it over.
Here's what we need to commit to and work and whatever. Right,
he opted out of playing for the Australian national team
in the Olympics and he's been hanging out on on
(20:58):
boats and whatever. If you read black sports online, but
you go on on down the line as an organization
and you realize how good this guy really is. Right,
usually either the top three defensive player the year, certainly
all defensive team year after year. Yeah, the jump shooting,
that's for you and I and and folks outside the
(21:19):
nitpick because in theory you recognize those as a team
as you construct your squad and recognize, okay, that means
we need another guy that's gonna be able to knock
down shots in big moments because you know what he
can do. He can distribute the ball. So it's one
of those uh situations whereby you've taken a guy who's
(21:40):
still a top what fIF twenty player in the league
depending on how but you want to value each of
those assets that he brings. He just has no jump
shot and the free throw percentage has tanked. So behind
the scenes, the whole Doc Rivers thing should have been yeah,
we we know there's things we need to work on
as a squad, you know, do all your best political
(22:01):
speech as you can, and then behind the scenes becomes
all right, here's our exident of you, Ben, here's what
we'd like you to commit to as we get to
the next phase of working with you and Joel EmpId
And and maybe it's all lip service and he tells
you to go blank yourself and still walks off into
the summer. But how how would you expect a guy
to come back here? And unlike football, unlike you know,
(22:24):
a lot of other sports, guys in the NBA have
the power to do this. They they have guaranteed contracts
and sure you can find them, but in the end,
you're still gonna want to move on and get some
kind of assets back. So he has them over a barrel.
And it's a team that when you look at the
(22:44):
Eastern Conference, there's still a window to compete and be
at the top of it, but that's gonna shrink and
looking to move him. Well, now you've got a diminished
property because they know you can't make it work, so
you're not gonna get the same returns back. It's to
be a all right, we're not gonna give you any
viable assets now. But here's another draft pick for you.
(23:06):
And you know some guys are and think those are
the greatest thing. There are a lottery tickets, like, come on,
I'm gonna get that guy. But here's the problem is,
if your team's any good, the draft picks sucks and
it's a guy that you probably don't even want to
make your team if he's at the back end of
the rod other than the guaranteed contract because he got
selected there. Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with
(23:28):
my best friend Mike Harmon. When a trade it's a vehicle,
the railway crossing, the results are often deadly. Be cautious
at crossing, and if the signals are going, don't be
tempted to try and sneak across the tracks even if
you don't see a train stop, because trains can't brought
to you by Nitza. So it's Doc's fault. We're here.
None of this is happening, and the hand of the
Sixers isn't being forced. If Doc Rivers doesn't say what
(23:50):
he says, he could have found a way to smooth
it over. And you still want to move on from
Ben Simmons. That's great, But once he said it, you
knew that was it. And now here we are getting
close to training camp. Ben Simmons says, I don't want reports.
So now you gotta make a deal. Now you're forced
to make a deal if you want to be a
championship team, because you can't just let him sit while
you try to make a trade, because now you're gonna
you're gonna lose games. It's gonna be awful. So now
(24:11):
you have to go do this, right, that's why this
is all on Doc Rivers. Now there are some teams
and there are some fits out there that are really good. Right,
I told you from the beginning the Warriors should have
been on the phone with the Sixers right after Doc
said that. Right, Doc said, I don't know if he's
our championship point guard, but hang on, I gotta get
this a little. Oh. Oh it's Steve Kirk call Um,
(24:33):
you hang out, Steve, Yeah, what do you want? Oh? Okay,
Wiggins and wise men, you have that money works? Okay, great, guys,
we just made a trade. Uh, it's why to let
you all know, like they should have been on the
phone with the Sixers, right, away because that would that
would get it done. And you've seen the last few days. Okay,
what are the best fits for Ben Simmons. Look, I
like the Warriors, the Clippers are getting a big run,
(24:53):
and you're also seeing Portland getting a big run for
c J McCollum, ay said, the score to Philadelphia, send
Ben Simmons to Portland. Right, I see that, But really,
the best thing you can do because you gotta get
a good you gotta get a really good player. Right,
that's the thing getting Andrew Wiggins and Jamal and James Wiseman. Okay,
if I'm Philadelphia, I go bold and I call portland'
(25:16):
and I go yeah, No, I know you're talking about
c J McCollum. What it's it gonna take to get
Damian Lillard? Because you know, Damian Lillard is just waiting
around to demand a trade, right. You know, he's not
happy he hasn't come out specifically and done a Ben
Simmons or James Harden said that's it, that's I'm done.
But you know that's where it's going, right, I mean,
eventually it's gonna be fair neither as Ben Simmons. Yet
(25:39):
we're getting back to that same area with Yeah, but
this he won't report for the opening of camp like
that's pretty I mean, he's not doing it like that.
That's gonna be the big He says, he's not coming,
So you have a time. You have time to trade me.
Now if he shows up, what you're talking about having
a big drink? What are you doing? But I'm not
(25:59):
showing up. Uh. So you know that Damian Lillard is
just going to want out at some point, right, He's
just gonna want out because unless the Blazers start fifteen
and oh and everything is great at he's gonna want out. Right.
You've heard the rumors. He has talked about wanting out.
He's talked about who he's wanted, but he's never said
I want out. Right, He's being a good as good
(26:20):
a guy as you can be about this without demanding
a trade. But you know what's coming. If you're the Blazers,
you know what's coming. Getting Ben Simmons is not going
to help Damian Lillard because Damillard says, dude, I need
the basketball so I can shoot from the logo. Yeah,
but see, but that's my job. Is I take the
ball and I pass you. No, no, no, no, no, dude,
I have the ball. They call me Logo Lillard for
a reason. That's because I dribble the ball over half
(26:41):
court and I shoot from the logo. This is the
trade because you know you're gonna have to make the move.
You know eventually Damian Lillard is gonna go someplace. And
are you really gonna get a better individual player than
Ben Simmons. You're not. You're gonna get a package of
players who may seem like they have promise or pretend
show you're gonna get draft picks. You're gonna get everything
(27:02):
you're What you need is another really really good player.
This is a guy, a multiple All Star who is
twenty five years old that can do a lot of
really good things. Hey, this is the guy you trade
Damian Lillard. Four. It's not equal value, but you're not
gonna get equal facts. It's not how it works in
the NBA, because any team that wants Damian Lillard is
not gonna trade you one of their great, high priced players.
(27:23):
They want a team Damian Lillard with somebody else, and
Lillard in Philadelphia would be a huge deal. Oh my god.
The Sixers might win seventy games with him, and the
beating him and beat it, and beat could disappear for
weeks upon it and go yeah, no, I'm good. I
can come back now and play Damieland you take some
time off. It would be an incredible duo there. But
realize that's that's the best trade you're gonna get is
(27:44):
Ben Simmons for Damian Little. Anything else is gonna be well,
we'll get this guy who might be good and this
guy who might be good, and we'll try to move. No,
you need to have the highest number of best players
you can. That's how it works in the NBA. This
is not the NFL where you can get depth at
position to what. We got a couple of first round
picks and we're gonna get guys and phil holes here.
This is not Major League Baseball where you could trade
(28:05):
a star and you've got two guys that are gonna
be in your starting rotation next year. No, in the NBA,
you have to collect superstars, and when you're gonna lose
a superstar, you gotta get a superstar back. If I
thought the Blazers could get somebody else better than Ben Simmons,
I would say that, then you go for that. But
this is the best you're gonna get the money is
just about gonna match. You'll figure out a way to
do it. That's the trade that should happen. And if
(28:26):
you tell Lillard you want to go to Philadelphia play
with you l and beat, He's gonna say, Okay, I'm ready.
We gotta fire Doc. But I'm ready, I'm ready to go.
I'm ready to go. I mean, this is the trade
that really has to happen. I'll tell you I like
it because it'll it'll set the NBA world on fire.
And I question how much it would change the narrative
of Danian Lillard right, how much we'd start getting Well,
(28:49):
the backstory is and he back channeling his way out
of Portland this whole time, as opposed to, hey man,
I'm just you know, here for the ride until you know,
we hit that point in the road. I think some
of that would be lost if suddenly this were to
come down. And really, do you do you want Ben
Simmons and C. J. McCollum. Is that the team that's
gonna lead you? No, it's not. But if you're gonna
(29:11):
lose Damian Lillard, you want a guy coming in that's okay? Well,
Ben Simmons is coming in. We'll figure something else out,
will get another couple of players. I mean, he's you
gotta keep the beg at the best players you can
in a trade. You can't just get a package. Oh
look at this great package coming. The package is always
the worst you can get. That's just the It's it's
like all the fantasy football trades that you get offered. Here,
(29:32):
here's these four guys for your stud I'm like, I'm
gonna have to cut three people to make this work.
What are you? What are you talking to? Get out
of here with your nonsense. That was a message direct
to Fabriano for the inevitable trade offers that will start
here in week three. He's the worst guy to trade with, man, Fabia.
He's the worst guy to trade with. Every every officer
(29:53):
tries to wear you down, and he sets an alarm
for like two am and starts disrupting your sleep pattern
and the whole I he'd be a great GM because
what Fabriano does with trades, and he'll call and he'll say,
let's make a trade. Okay, they'll say, and he'll make
you a really bad offer, and then you'll counter with
an offer and he'll add a player to it, and
then you'll say, well, when I got this guy that, well,
if you give me this, I need this guy. I
(30:14):
need this guy. That's like, oh my god. And he
just keeps adding guys. It's like it's nobody I want
and you're not and and and he just keeps sending
you these Let's do it, let's do it. Eventually, have
to realize, dude, we're not gonna make a trade. We're
not going I don't know how you make trades anybody.
I'm not gonna make it. You block him. I'm not. Actually,
you just block him. That's kind of what you're gonna
have to do. I mean, I'd love to see Ben
Simmons show up in Chicago, but they've already made a
(30:36):
number of moves and and tried to figure out how
to make money work. There would be too much of
a problem. Uh that. And you know, when it's when
it's all said done, you've already acquired Alonzo ball, so
some of that goes out the window. But uh, it's
it'll be curious to watch the next couple of days. Right,
you got Las Vegas Lakers and and bonding and all
(30:57):
of that, and Carmelo's talk about Lebron that's the GM.
I'm sure that's going over well in the office. Is
that that cats truly out of the bag. But when
when you get down to it, who's reporting, who's not,
who's in shape, best shape of their lives? All of
those stories and nonsense, Uh coming up here in the
next couple of weeks as well as NHL Action Smith
(31:17):
It's all coming together. Mmmm, Twitter at out about a fresca.
Mike gets swollen down The Jason Smith Show with my
best friend Mike Carmen. I'm telling you that's the trade
Simmons for Damian Lillard. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at
ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Hey, what's up everybody?
(31:38):
It's me three time Pro Bowl Little Warrington and I
couldn't be more excited to announce a new podcast called
Up on Game? What is Up on Game? You asked,
along with my fellow Pro bowler t J. Hushman, Zada
and Super Bowl champion. That's right, Plexico Burds. You can
only name a show with that type of talent on it.
Up on Game We're going to be sharing our real
(32:01):
life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen to Up on
Game with Me, LaVar Arrington, t J. Hudgeman's Out of
and Plexico Birds on the I Heart Radio app, Apple
Podcast or wherever you get your podcast from Fox Sports Radio,
The Jason Smith Show with my base friend Mike Harmon.
(32:25):
The last two days, I really can't get over all
the love that one quarterback in the NFL has been getting.
The talk about him has been look At how well
he's throwing the ball, Look at how good he is.
His former team made a mistake, Look how good Sam
(32:45):
Donald is. Okay, Sam Donald is just a guy. He's
a jag, all right. The Jets got rid of him
because he's not a quarterback that's gonna make your team better.
He is just a guy. I told you in the beginning, Mike,
that Carolina was a great landing spot for any quarterback because,
(33:08):
boy do they have a really good team. Right. You
have talked about in anybody's evaluation, at worst, the second
best running back in the NFL and Christian McCaffrey. You
have a couple of pretty good wide receivers, and Moore
and Robbie Anderson, you got a defense with a pretty
good defensive line. Uh, this team is pretty good. They
(33:28):
didn't have anybody could throw the football last year. Teddy
two gloves couldn't throw the ball more than eight yards.
I could put more pop on that than he can.
They needed somebody that could throw the ball. He couldn't
do it. Sam Donald can throw the ball downfield. He
is a competent quarterback. And that's what Sam Donald did
the first two weeks. The first game against the Jets,
you saw how bad the Jets are. The Jets absolutely stink,
(33:49):
and still Donald was just okay against them. Throw a
touchdown when the Jets blew a coverage and Robbie Anderson
didn't have a guy within twenty yards of him. That
was his touchdown. Pass now Here. Against the Saints, he
goes for three oh five and a couple of touchdowns.
He has a nice day. It helps when you have
a running back that can run for seventy yards and
a touchdown, that can catch sixty five yards and passes right.
(34:10):
Then you have wide receivers like d J. Moore. None
of these guys he had in New York, None of
these guys he had. None of these guys he had.
He is on a really good team and he's playing okay.
Trust me, he is just a guy. Yes, he's easy
to root for and I'm happy for him. I mean
it wasn't happy Week one because you know, I wanted
to win. But he was always someone that understood New
(34:32):
York figured out what he needed to do to try
to succeed. He never said the wrong thing. He always
tried to be a team guy. He did things right.
The only thing he didn't wrong was played well enough.
And he's not someone that's going to elevate the team
around him. Is he someone that can play competently on
a good team. Yes, there's lots of guys like that.
There's a Taylor Heiniki is someone you couldn't put on
this Panthers team, and he would be the same guy
(34:53):
as Sam Donald, right, Sam Donald is just a guy,
but on a team that has a lot of talent. Yeah,
he can get the ball out there and he can
look okay, but trust me, he's a jag all right.
So that's part of the the Jets fan in you
that that is going to diminish it. And yes, obviously
all quarterbacks played better when they have better pieces around
(35:17):
them right. A lot of the conversation today about the
greatness of Tom Brady, like, my god, why why is
this a shock? At this point do we have nothing
else to talk about in this world except oh, my god,
look at the numbers from Brady and defying father time.
This is not new new material. But yes, look at
the skill position. Guys around him much better right than
(35:38):
anything you had when he was with New England. Keep
on going down. We can do this with every quarterback
from here to Kingdom come Matt rule in his second
year with his defense rising up. He got a lot
of top picks last year. Remember all they did was
draft defense. You got a lot of young guys that
are hungry. Last year you mentioned Teddy Bridgewater. Mike Davis
(35:58):
did fine. Now he's in Atlanta and other running in mud.
But now you look at you mentioned the wide receivers
on the edge. You got a solid offensive line at
least to this point. I'm still not sure on that overall.
But Christian McCaffrey is gonna solve a lot of ills.
Is that Sam Donald's fault? No, you played to the personnel.
This is where you don't diminish Sam Donald. But you
(36:20):
like a fire like Literally, you take the Brad Pitt
flamethrower and you bring it back to Robert Sala and
the crep that they're putting out on the field in
New York. That's the point here. It's not about Sam Donald.
It's not about him being a jag or being an underperformance.
It's about the fact that you never surrounded him with
adequate weapons out there. Except for Robby Anderson, the rest
(36:42):
of it was trash. That's the story here, Sam Donald,
Good luck to you. You gotta squad make the most
of it because the rest of the division outside of
Tampa looks like it's gonna be trash as well. You
know how many Jets failure stories. We can do, Buddy,
we can we can do And radio takes week two.
I tell just go next
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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