April 7, 2022 • 38 mins
Jason and Mike explain how Tiger Woods has earned himself the right to drive a cart during the masters after his car accident and body struggles, what the Lakers will look like moving forward, and one NFL team just revamped their stance with an all star wide receiver!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio. Welcome
inside the final hour tonight of The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon, as we get set
for a Master's Thursday where the world could stop with
Tiger Woods all but set to tee off tomorrow. And
(00:47):
you know, before I get to the Tiger Woods hot
take mikel just for a second here Tiger saying today
he's a true game time decision for the Masters. Look,
I get it. I an a stand that coming into
this week, I didn't know can I play? Can I not?
Come on? Man, you're playing right that Now I feel
(01:08):
like this is just hey, let's have let's create some
kind of drama around this. Showed up. He practiced all week.
Everything is fine, He hit the ball fine, He had
no difficulties. Why is he really not gonna play tomorrow.
He's gonna wake up. I'm not gonnay. The potential is right,
he wakes up and and he does have a setback.
(01:29):
I mean physically, dude's been through a ton. I mean
a literal car crash. Right. We talked about the NFL
and every play is a car crash. No, this guy
literally had one with a compound fracture and all these
other things, and his back and the surgeries and everything else.
I mean, look, there there is that off chance that
the night doesn't end right. And maybe he dropped something
(01:50):
on the floor steps the wrong way. Maybe there's a
million things. We watched the n C Double a title
game where the floor suddenly came up on a game.
I mean, there's a lot that can happen. I don't
mean to make light of it, fully, although I am
a sarcastic son of a gun, as you've come to know,
uh and as the audience pass through the years. But
you know, you gotta leave some sliver of a possibility
(02:13):
that he doesn't. But we're all expecting him to climb,
you know, in in between the lines and and look
at the gallery. And my favorite tweet of the day
came from our teammate Jeff Schwartz, former NFL player. You
hear him on Fox Sports Radio on Saturdays alongside Steve Hartman.
He he did a picture of Tiger with the gallery
right all the hundreds, thousands, I don't know how many,
(02:36):
how you estimate how many people were standing around waiting
for him to tee off. But he took a you know,
the illustrator function, and he goes, if you were here, here, here,
or here, there was a pretty good chance at some
point in an eighteen whole day that I would probably
have gotten you just putting it out there. And it's
like people that are like ten feet from where he's
(02:58):
teeing off, So it's like, this is how bad it
could be. It's a little dicey to be that close
when I'm in the tea box, which I thought was
pretty funny and it's something that I can relate to,
but uh, you know for this, yeah, I mean, you
gotta live leave that sliver of doubt with that twinkle
in your eye and uh, you know, the smile on
your face as you say it, which he had today.
(03:21):
Now when it comes to Tiger, and again at this point,
it's really just drama. I really don't know if I'm
gonna play me. Come on, man, you know you know
you're playing now. Now now I feel like, hey, all
the goodwill that he has people waiting, all Tiger coming
back for the bed car crash seventeen months ago, bone
sticking out of his leg, all of this. Now, I'm
a true game time. Just you know, man, just tell us,
(03:41):
come on, dude, could and all of those pejorities would
just go to in the whole other level. This is
not like in the NFL, where I'm not gonna give
the the other team a hint on whom I starting
quarterback is gonna be gonna make him prepare for both
of them? No, he did. Guys are playing, they're playing.
It doesn't Tiger if you're playing, just right, just say it.
But here's my Tiger Woods hot take, right like a
(04:04):
big master's hot take, come in your way, something that
we've not been talked about with Tiger Woods. So as
we watched him this week, and if you watch any
of Tiger Woods practice rounds, he has certainly hit the
ball well, had a little bit of a limp, but
you wouldn't really know it if you didn't know you would.
You would think, Okay, you know, Tiger seems pretty fine.
Just upper forties guy who's been through some stuff. That's
(04:25):
what watched me long enough. I gotta I gotta pronounce limp. Well,
my knees are done. I'm I'm falling apart. Man. I
still get out of a chair like Phil Jackson getting
up out of a chair. Hey, you know what, it's
almost the playoffs. We're almost gonna have to wake him up.
She's still sleeping. Just stop, he still don't do it,
You'll wake you. We gotta finish talking about Tiger Woods. Uh.
(04:49):
Tiger said this earlier today when it comes to how
he feels about being able to play and what could
be the big thing that holds him back over the
co to the next few days. Let's take a listen.
You've said countless times throughout your career that you don't
enter a golf tournam unless you think that you can win.
And so the question is simple, do you think you
can win the Masters this week? I do? And what
have you seen in your preparation that leads you to
(05:12):
believe that I can't? I can hit it just fine.
I don't have any qualms about what I can do physically.
From a golf standpoint, walking is a hard part. You know,
this is normally not a easy walk to begin with. Now,
given them the condicitions, you know, my legs, and he
gives a little bit more more difficult. All right. So
there's Tiger what he is without qualms. He has zero qualms.
He does not have any qualms, no qualms. But there
(05:34):
he is saying, I can play, I can hit it.
I just don't know how much I can walk. Right,
So here's your master's hot take. Give him a cart.
Give him a cart. Why now you're gonna be mad
at you. PGA players are going DoD Dare you that
you can't say that you're violating the sanctity of the game.
(05:55):
He would never ask for one, and he said, I'm
not going to ask for cart. That's why the PGA
short should give it to him. Okay, now I'm old
enough to remember. I remember being on the air when
the Casey Martin controversy came up and I got his
old teammate at Stanford. Yeah, I gotta I gott explained
Casey Martin to millennials. Casey Martin uh in the early
two thousands had a degenerative like condition, and he was
winning his way onto the PGA Tour and he proposed
(06:18):
being able to use a cart. The PGA Tour did
not want him to use a cart, and so many
golfers came out vain sticking out of their next going
walking is an intrinsic part of the game. This is
not right, this should not happen. The fervor and the
intensity in the fire with which golfers talked about how
he should never be allowed to walk, it was. It was.
(06:39):
It was. It would blow you away what it was like,
and it was. It was such a every day Casey
Martin was a daily was venom medeo topic. It was
the fact that it got all the way to the
Supreme Court exactly like it was even decided quickly, you know.
It was no, we're gonna appeal and appeal and appeal,
and we're gonna go all the way through. And it
lasted about four years. When it was all said done,
(07:01):
it was great. But no, no, we can't give him
a cart, can't give a card. It's not it's an
unfair advantage. It's it's Germaine to the game. Every day
was something different, And I mean the best players in
the world no no, no, Jack Nicholas, no no, no,
no no no. Uh. And then Casey Martin didn't stay
on the tour, didn't win enough to stay in the
tour after he won, and so it kind of went away. Um,
(07:22):
Tiger Woods is different, right, I mean you want to hu.
This is a guy that has made golf what it is.
Everything the PGA Tour is and the sport of golf
is in two. It is because Tiger Woods showed up
in and won the Masters and started everything off from there.
Even when he was not playing golf, he was still
the biggest star in the game. He has made untold
(07:42):
money for people who turned professional because purses have tripled
and quadrupled since he became. Oh, the pers for this
is gonna be here now because Tiger Woods is playing.
He has made so much money for so many people. Yeah,
give him a card for the Masters, if that's what
it's gonna take. If hey, listen, Tiger, you're not gonna
ask for it, so we're gonna give it to you,
you know, or at least make the offer, give him
(08:04):
acart and let him play if he can't walk it,
or at least have it there, and if Tiger is
why and he's trying to play and he's nine or
ten holes in and he's like, man, I want to
keep playing, but walking I just can't do it. Then
have a car come out, and then have a cart
come out, and you take him the rest of the
way and he finishes that way. Tiger Woods more than
anybody would deserve to have a cart because of what
he's done for the sport. And I'd like to see
(08:26):
PGA Tour players go, I can't believe Tigers using a car. Really.
Rory McElroy George's being like, yeah, Tiger should be. You
are doing what you're doing for a living and signing
deals with Nike when you're twenty one years old because
of Tiger Woods. Okay, the guy can do whatever the
hell he wants to. And if you do it that
way and it becomes all right, I don't need it,
(08:47):
but I don't need it to start, let me play.
But then it comes in the middle of the round.
It's not that big a deal. I really, I'd love
to see people try to try to stand up after go.
I can't believe tie. That's the biggest, the worst thing
in the world Tiger used in the card. Let him
use a card, because you want Tiger to play well,
be around on Thursday, right and Friday? You want him
around Saturday and Sunday, don't you. Yeah, Tiger says, Hey,
(09:07):
I'm playing well. I wouldn't play if I didn't think
I could win. And look, Tiger Woods is not going
to come back to the Masters if he thinks he's
trunks slamming on a Friday, right, he would come back
and play someplace else that was really far out of
the way. Uh, you know, somewhere where you know, whatever
happens happens. I'm just getting back to playing competitive golf.
If I missed the cut, I missed the cut. Tiger's
miss cuts now, it's been a regular thing for him
(09:30):
for the past few years. But the fact he's coming
back to play the Masters tells me he thinks I
think I can play pretty well. So yeah, you want
him around. If you think you'll be around, give him
a cart, Let him use a card. Boom Master's hot take. Yeah,
I just remember that on the grand scale. What what
are we monitoring for Tiger Woods? I mean, obviously excited
about him being back on a course at all is
(09:51):
a big deal, right, and and I've talked about it
to Tom Brady uh type effect that when he had
said goodbye for those forty days and and took his
a little sojourn and hung out with his family, know
that that a piece of me was going with it
because all right, now it's younger guys again, which made
me feel old. So Tiger Woods being back out there
(10:11):
again gives me hope. All right, there's still one of
our guys. He's still going. Uh And however that needs
to happen. I love it. You know, he his pride.
I think in the comments that he made to the
for the wind guys uh and and their crew basically said, look,
my my pride is not gonna let me do that,
(10:32):
not for this tour, not on the tour. In other words,
if you hang out with me in a four cement
some charity event or pay me to you know, fly
me somewhere to hang out, then yeah, with carts and
whatever and play. But for this no, I think he
wants to show that he's strong enough and and that
he's back. So you know that that factor is there now.
(10:54):
It would be interesting if he did look for the
exemption because I don't think they could expedite that fast
enough and how quickly would they be looking to? All right,
what what kind of things can we slap on this cart?
How many logos? What's it gonna look like? It could
look like a giant tiger helmet, you know, like it
(11:15):
looks like the Cincinnati Bengals helmet, or it's a giant
t w branded hat like the old baseball reliever cards
from you just prove a guy out there with a
really big, a dark magic marker drawing a logo on
really yeah there, no, no, he's just got a he's
got a binder of stickers. Hey who paid for a
(11:35):
whole number two? Maam, hey man. We talked about dynamic
pricing up to the minute I was Tiger performing. Cost
just went up. Oh you want a bigger logo, Fine,
it's gonna cost you, but it goes on the side
of the cart. And by the end, it's kind of
like when you put your you know, a renewal registration
sticker on, who actually scrapes them off? Out there You're
(11:58):
all looking sheepishly down at your feet and you know,
like kind of making your toes move because you know,
all you do is stacking onto the last five. Same thing. Here,
we had a stack of would be sponsors for Tiger's cart. Yeah,
I mean it's Tiger Woods that you know, and and
and for all of the I would say there's there's,
(12:20):
of course, a big faction of fans who would say
everybody should be treated the same, Right, all golfers should
be treated the same, All NFL players should be treated
the same. No, there's certain guys who deserve to be
treated a little bit better because of what they've done
for the sport and the money they have made an
interest level in relevancy. And Tiger Woods is that guy.
He's the one guy you do do it for, right,
(12:42):
He's the one guy. He is more I'm sorry, but
he is more special than anybody who has ever picked
up a golf club. And in the history of the sport,
we can argue who was better Tiger Woods or Jack Nicholas.
You cannot argue who has had a bigger impact on
the sport. It's Tiger Woods. I don't know that anybody
has had a bigger impact on a work than Tigger
Woods has on golf. So yeah, if he said, hey,
(13:02):
I kind of kind of like to have a cart.
You do it, you know what you do, rather than
he would act because he won't ask for it. You say,
we're gonna give it to you, and we're gonna have
one ready if you need to, because you know, getting
in at thirteen fourteen, that's gonna be that's gonna be
much less of a big deal. It's gonna be a
better optic than if he just gets in the start
of the first hole. But just have it there for him.
Let him use a cart. Oh I can't wait. Well,
(13:24):
that was the end of the The whole Casey Martin
Gates to the Supreme Court was that there was the
ability to ask for the exemption and doesn't trigger automatically,
but based on special circumstances. Whatever group their reviews it
and decides your worthiness. And so, you know, any any
player that decides they want to try have at it,
(13:46):
just make sure you actually have uh, you know, the
the I guess CV, the the things to show that
you've earned that special consideration. In addition to Tiger's dominance
on the court and the billions upon billions of dollars
put in everybody's pockets, be sure to catch live editions
of the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at
(14:08):
ten pm Eastern seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the I Heart Radio ah AP, Fox Sports Radio,
The Jason Smith Show with My Big Friend Mike Harmon.
And last night, well it was Lakers Wake night. We
talked about all the reasons why the Lakers failed this
(14:29):
year and reasons maybe weren't thinking about. And you know,
I just I didn't want to say I told you so,
but I told the middle of February if the Lakers
look like they were going to be falling out of
the playing around, Lebron would start missing games like crazy
at the end of the season because he wouldn't want
to be blamed for not making the playoffs. Now just
wait and see he comes back to try to win
(14:50):
the scoring title now that they've been eliminated. That would
be a great cherry on top of this season. But
that was last night. Tonight is about going forward, Mike,
and you know, look, we have to always okay, so
now we did that. That was yesterday. Today is going forward,
and it also means we don't have to talk about
the Knicks blowing another big lead against the Nets. It's
about well, I mean, it is about today. I mean, look,
(15:11):
you had a huge lead and everybody was laughing, going,
oh look, and Kevin Durant didn't take a lot of
shots until he did and then he buried. I got
a couple of guys send me a nice, uh little
video that was shot before the game of Kevin Durant
walking over a couple of little little fans wanting, uh,
wanting some love, and he gave him the you know,
(15:32):
the fist bump and said, you know, you should change
those jerseys. As they stayed there and there little next
but you had that going uh and and then you know,
there's a story emerging of h well, Kyrie irving on
his way to the locker room at halftime with a
little confrontation with a fan. So add him to the
list of the players where you know, fans have been
(15:55):
jackasses and guys. They're close enough to get guys to respond.
So there's another one. I said, at least half of
the top twenty right, Check there's another one. But yeah,
so be beyond your team collapsing. Yeah, there's other fish
to front. They listen, they blew a twenty point lead
against them. That's last time. Now the only blew one
(16:16):
point lead progress. We're getting better. Man my team at home.
Other than Barack Obama being there for a big ovation,
Bulls didn't bother to show up against the Celtics. So
I didn't stress. I have no you have you have
no you have no quality, like like Tiger Woods at
zero qualms. You have no qualms about this season. You
don't think the Bulls are can even win a playoff
(16:36):
game at this point. I think they can one in
a series. But that but that would be a tall order.
That would be order because they can't play against good teams.
They've they've been players all year. It's like they looked
to the north and looked at Aaron Hudgers said we'll
do what he did. Uh. So, now looking forward with
(16:57):
the Lakers, what do you do for next season? Once
you understand what I'm going to say, you can go forward.
The best way if the Lakers to go forward next
year is to understand next year is just gonna suck
al right, like like like I I think about it
like a teenager who always, you know, worms his way
out of trouble, whether it's sneaking out late at night
(17:20):
or using the car when he's not supposed to the chickens,
are being out late, Yeah, being out late with his friends,
all these things, right, Eventually you're gonna get caught. And
when you get caught, there's nothing you can do. You
lose your phone, you get grounded, you can't use the car,
and no matter what you try to do, no matter
what kind of slick ways you try to talk your
way out of things, your parents are gonna catch you
(17:43):
at some point. Sometimes you can move out of stuff
and if they want to believe you that you're they're
good kid and would never do anything so bad. Okay,
But eventually you're gonna get caught, and then you have
no choice but to pay. The Lakers have no choice
but to pay next year because there's no way they
can improve because Russell Westbrook's gonna opt into that money
for next year, which is forty seven million dollars, and
(18:04):
there's nothing they're gonna be able to do. It's always
gonna be adversarial with Lebron. Right, the Lakers and Lebron
have each other at at at arms length, and it's
more Lebron versus the Lakers than it's ever been. Look,
when he signed, it was always Lebron versus Lakers I
want to run this team, the Lakers saying, no, we
run this team. It's always gonna be Lebron versus the
Lakers next year. You're not getting better, right, You don't
(18:25):
have the financial flexibility, you don't have the assets to
get better. So what do you do. You get rid
of Russell Westbrook in a salary dump, and all you're
gonna get back is expiring contracts. That's gonna suck. You
train Anthony Davis, clearly, it's not gonna work with him anymore.
You won in Anthony Davis will bring back assets, draft picks,
whatever it's going to be. But you have to move
(18:46):
on from Anthony Davis and be more flexible. You can
maybe maybe resigned the leak monk, but whoever you need
to let go, You let go and understand that next
year is gonna be a bridge year because Lebron, as
much as he think goes he near the end. Well,
the guy could win the score title this year. Um,
he says, I'm gonna play for three more years, so
you have to go with that being the operative function.
(19:08):
He's gonna play for three more years. So if next
year is the bridge year and it's gonna suck, Okay,
so next year is gonna suck, and then we spend
the year getting out from under the bad contracts, and
who knows, maybe he leads a ragtag group into the playoffs.
You know, who knows how it's gonna go. But that's
gonna be next year, and then this time a year
(19:28):
from now. Now you're getting set for the last two
years of Lebron and you're with you. You're armed with
bringing in new players who you can say, hey, and
in a couple of years, it's gonna be your team,
right because right now you're not getting anybody to come
play with Lebron because clearly Lebron isn't the drawing card
he used to be. I don't know that I'm getting
the finals with Lebron. So so you need to be
able to bring in guys saying, okay, you know what
(19:49):
Lebron is here, Hey, Lebron is still a great player.
It's gonna wind up being your team. They wanted to
do that with Anthony Davis. Didn't work out. They wanted
to be Hey, Lebron is gonna play an a d year. No,
didn't didn't work out that way. So wait till next year,
and that's when you can really make a difference and
then you can jump start the Lakers for a year
from now. So how do you make next year worth anything?
You make the entire season about Lebron James is run
(20:12):
for the record, right because he's gonna probably around game
fifty or fifty five, break the all time scoring record
in NBA history, breaking Kareem Abdul Jabbar's record. And they've
been at odds the last few days. Kareem has been
upset with Lebron for certain things he hasn't done. Now
he apologized to him. You have a Laker who was
chasing a big time Lakers record. Every game is about
(20:35):
how close is Lebron get to the all time scoring record,
the biggest record in NBA history. Lebron James is gonna
break it next year. You make that the focus of
the year, and every day is something new on it,
and and you're following Lebron and you're documenting it, and
you're running a show that you're putting together every week.
Here's here's hard knocks with Lebron James and his run
to the record. This is what you make the entire
(20:57):
year about. And that's how you push the Lakers next season,
be a part of history, come to the games, all
of these things. That's what I'd be working on right now.
So that's next year, and you take advantage of Lebron
who clearly uh needs You need to get a little
bit more out of him because he's getting everything he
wants to out of l A. He want a title,
he's gett to take games off, he's making movies, he's
a mogul, all these things. So now it's time for
(21:18):
you to get something out of him. So you make
next year about him in the run of the record,
and then in the off season you can retool the
team and then then you can make a run and
get back to relevancy. But just understand next year is
gonna suck and there's nothing you can do about it,
and you just have to suck it up and go
through next year being a tough year, and then get
to it in the off season. Yeah, I think when
(21:41):
you look at it there there's just the curiosity of
what you can do with Westbrook. Can you stretch the
contract that's one of your options, right That smooths it
out over three years, you get to the new all
dang effect where you know like Bania and others that
we say, oh he he's still on the books, still
got some money coming, you know, But it's the the
(22:02):
opportunity to change things for the luxury cap uh and
how you move money around. We've gotten pretty well versed
at the tricks and of the trade for less need
in the NFL. NBA still has a couple of things
that you can do, but overall, since they are guaranteed contracts,
it becomes that much more difficult to wiggle out because
(22:23):
of the dopey trade rules and everything. Um So, if
you can get someone to take on the dollars, great,
but forty seven million dollars who saying you know what,
that's the missing piece to putting us over all you're
gonna get back most likely are some other bad expiring contracts.
For Anthony Davis, you have two more years and then
a termination uh year that that could go away before
(22:47):
he would hit free agency. And you've got two years
in a row where you've you've missed you know, some
substantial time, or I should say, you know, at least
for this year. You know year only had forty games played.
Last year thirties into the bubble, thirty six of sixty right,
umen sixty two first year with the Lakers. Actually I'm
(23:13):
conflating that because that that was the first year that
was the title. But either way, you're missing a lot
of time, is I get the guts, the point and
the the Pelican season. People always want to add that
one in from he quit on them and was asking
for a trade, So you know that that one was,
you know, kind of an outlier to it all. But
just the the opportunity with with Davis is he was
(23:33):
supposed to be the guy and go back to the
bubble where it looked like you were having that passing
of the torch. We talked about it on air, right
that he that he'd come up with big games and
those were non existent in the games that he did
play this year. Right, So it's trying to find the
space at this point. Is Lebron still wanting to play
(23:55):
with Anthony Davis? And how much Sadie let Lebron, James
and Clutch Sports have, right, And this is the difficulty.
We alluded to it a little last hour, you know,
and Bo and I were going back and forth on
this a little bit, and it's something we've talked about
some is all right, who do you trust in terms
of decision making at any level of this organization, including
(24:15):
the you know, shadow GM, lebron and and Clutch Sports
that we talked about all the time because Genie Boss
might might have the business down. But clearly outside of
the bubble year, it's it's been a disaster for going
on a decade at this point. What's a really horrendous
team and this team that was favored to win at all,
(24:37):
and you had pundits if everybody had to lose their
job picking the Lakers to win the title, we'd have
a lot of new people becoming the screaming person that
networks all over the place, right, I mean, even even
with even with skepticism of how Russell Westbrook was going
to fit in and the changes there, and it was
(24:57):
it'll work out, and lo and behold was um as
Bill plash Key so appropriately called it in the l
A Times. You know, it was a clown show from
the beginning. And here were all the different acts and
here's like he chronicled at all, as did Dan Waki,
who um just was. We were going back and forth
this morning. Jason I had to talk him down from
(25:18):
the ledge off of a couple of things he'd seen
and heard floating through his timeline and maybe out of
television when he was out getting his oil changed or
wherever he was this morning. But you know, you've got
to figure that out, right, who who's making decisions ultimately
and doing the talent evaluation of how to rebuild around
Lebron James. We assume Frank Vogel is in his final
(25:39):
nineties six hours, So who's the coach? How much, say
does Lebron James getting the new coach? Right? He get
he could zero say that that's the thing. Well, because
that's the other part and all of this that's still
you know, needs to be resolved. Who's the guy coming
in over the top? Well while they make that look
and I told you Les, it's got to be somebody
boring like Kenny Atkinson or Steve Clifford, you know, guys
(26:02):
guys that kind of like the Mark Jackson. Mark Jackson
be great too, but is he too big of a personality, right,
you know for for l A And can he co
exist with Lebron? The same thing with DC Rivers? Is
Lebron gonna be you know? I mean, when you have
a coach come in no you don't have to involve
Lebron James, but you also have to understand, Okay, is
this guy gonna co exist with Lebron. You can't just
(26:22):
bring in a guy that Lebron may hate and not
getta because you're trying to win. So while you may
not involve him or you may not listen to him,
he might ask him for his opinion. In the end,
you gotta hire somebody that that's gonna help you, that
he's gonna wind up getting along with and and looking
guys like that that have won before, that have seen
a lot, that can handle things and and handle whatever
the Lakers are gonna be. That that's who the coach
is gonna wind up being. But look, the days of
(26:43):
being beholden to him are over right, They're they're over it.
And it's always going to be adversarial. It's never gonna
Lebron is never gonna get that hug from the team
or the organization that he expected. I really did think, honestly,
when he had that moment when he spoke for Kobe Bryant,
when when when he had the mike after Kobe died,
(27:06):
and and he and and he and he gave the
Momba out and he dropped the mike. I said, you
know what, Lebron's a Laker now. Now. Lebron for whatever
whatever it was, with all the crap that happened before,
Lebron's a Laker now. And instead of that moment being
something that that was the touchstone for him, now it
just went back to Lebron wants to do things his way,
and Clutch Sports wants this, and then the Lakers want this,
(27:28):
and and and Lebron wants Russell Westbrook and the team
was okay with him, but they brought other guys up. No,
this is a Lebron decision. And that's kind of what
it's been. It's so so it's never really it looked
like it was, Hey, that's gonna be a healing point
for the franchise and for Lebron going forward. And it's
gone back to, yeah, look at Lebron, and and now
the fans still treat Lebron, even though they won the title,
(27:50):
they still treat him as he's still not really a Laker.
Lebron is using the Lakers for his own benefits. Look,
we told you when he signed with the Lakers, he
wanted the Lakers rand and he wanted to come to
Los Angeles, and now people just figure that out like
two and a half three years later. Uh, that's what
he wanted. He's getting what he wanted out of l A.
He wants the Lakers brand, he wanted what Los Angeles
had to offer to him. And that's what's going on.
(28:12):
And so it's still that way, and it's always gonna
be that way, you know, some unless somehow he finds
a way to win a title, which I think he's
done winning titles. You know, we're gonna look back and
go boy twenty. That was the last best one because
so many things had to happen for an aging Lebron
to win. We had COVID have to stop the season,
so Lebron's legs were fresher for the playoff run after
(28:33):
all the time off. You know, they played in a bubble.
There was no worries about playing away from home and
having to win big games. No, it was just a
weird situation. And because Lebron had been through it in
one championships before, and it was the less pressure that
was out there for a guy like Anthony Davis, because
when you're playing in a bubble and there's no fans,
and there's a Okay, it's a little bit easier. You
(28:55):
go out there and just play. I think we're gonna
look back and say, boy, that was the one championship
he was able to see week out of it. So
this is all what it's going to be for Lebron
and the Lakers, And so you have to find a
way to say, all right, um, we're gonna do this
for next year. We're gonna make it about you. You're
gonna give us back something, and then next year we're
gonna try to figure out the best teams we get
back to relevancy. But make no mistake, in two years,
(29:16):
it's gonna be these next couple of guys team that
these players that we're gonna sign here, it's gonna be
their team. And then after that first year, whether we
get brawny or not, I mean, that's gonna be You're
done and we're moving on. So that that's kind of
I don't think they have any choice but to go
forward that. Yeah, I think I think for next year
and look, I don't give away years like ever like that.
Al Right, No, well, all it is about stat padding.
(29:39):
Then we might as well start advertising in the local
papers of of other cities and Lebron's coming to your
town and he's gonna score thirty on your asses as
he moves closer. It's the same old stuff as uh
student ance would say. But you know what, what's interesting
and this is a joke. I think, uh that that's
(30:01):
going around pretty well as people listing the four years
of Lebron with the Lakers, right, no playoffs, right as
they rebuilt and the young guys were gone. Number two,
you get the championship, and that was all the as
you said, all the breakes and and everything worked into
their advantage. But give them credit for being a veteran
(30:21):
lead squad that you know, kept pushing in the right
direction and had guys that committed to playing defense something
that is uh, well really a four letter word and
concept uh and got shredded uh in early October with
this squad. Year three was a first round exit and
obviously this year a disaster and no playoffs, And the
(30:42):
punchline to the joke is still better than anything the Clippers.
Oh wow, that hey, that is uh Western Conference play
and qualifier Los Angeles clip. That's pretty good to say
that you got you say it right, Mike, I'm sorry.
Did they put a banner up for that one yet? Yes,
(31:03):
playing Batterer. Banners are going up all over the place
right now. You can't see that. I just wanted to
make sure. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern,
seven pm Pacific. Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth
Hour with Ben Mallory along with my trustees sidekick David Gascon.
Would mean a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey. You're asking one in God's name
(31:26):
is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin
off of the Ben Maller Show. Cold Hit overnights on
fs are. Why should you listen? Picture if you will
a world will we chat with captains of industry in media,
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(31:50):
It is The Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Harmon. Gotta get to at least eight nine inches
then and then it's gonna be good. Eight nine inches.
That's what's got what it is. Um. So we had
a lot of NBA tonight. We had a couple of
hot takes on the Master. It's been awesome. So let's
finish with a big time NFL story that of course
involves my team. Uh it was earlier today reports came
(32:13):
out that the New York Jets had offered the tenth
pick in the draft to the Seattle Seahawks in exchange
for DK Metcalf. Now Metcalf and Deebo Samuel and A. J.
Brown are all guys that I we told you the
other night. Hey, making f them picks offer for these
guys because we don't know if their teams can afford them.
And and these you know you can go after they
(32:34):
are eminently available. Well and even if they're not technically available,
you make them available with an F. That's what a
fiferable to thing, you know, thing means. Um offer comes in,
means there's a conference call to be had. It means
wait a minute, we weren't thinking about this, but hey,
hang honestly, because you know Metcalf is available, because Pete
Carroll said, oh, we have no intention of trading DK Metcalf,
(32:57):
just like you said, we have no intention of trading
Russell Wilson today. Yes, later he was traded. Uh So
reports were that the Seahawks rebuffed the offer, say no, no, no, no,
don't even call us about Dk Metcalf. A few hours
go by, and then it was reported that, well, that
really didn't happen. The Jets didn't call and offer the
number ten pick for Metcalf. Alright. So now here's the
(33:18):
thing that part of it is irrelevant, right. Number one,
the Seahawks will trade Dk Metcalf. They're rebuilding. They have
no room for a guy that they have to pay
twenty million dollars a year, two in a year. Not happening.
They're not going to trade into the Jets. Not happening,
all right. I have no illusions the Jets are gonna
get Dk Metcalf, because the Seahawks are not gonna sit
back and go I'm not gonna live and have our
(33:39):
fans and media just pound us because they're already mad
at us making one of the worst trades in NFL history,
where we traded two first round picks and a player
for Jamal Adams. Seeing that guys were teams were trading
first round picks for superstar quarterbacks this year. That was
a really bad trade in Jamal Adams has been just okay.
Like I said, he's a box safety, has limited skill, right. Uh.
(34:01):
It was an awful trade and it's a daily reminder.
Why did the Seahawks have to trade Russell Wilson because
they couldn't get better because they had no picks. They
had lost about everything comes back to this trade was awful.
They're not gonna make a trade with the Jets. They're
not gonna go back and say, okay, hey, we want
that pick back and we'll give you DK Metcalf because
the fans are gonna go wait, so it was Jamal
(34:22):
Adams for a first round pick and DK Metcalf, Wait
a minute, wait a minute, this is getting warres. They're
not gonna have that happen, right, Pete Carroll. They're not
gonna go through that and have that and and and
and be browbeaten by that story. Well, but you know
what they'd be able to do. They'd just be able
to go to the podium as they announced and go
remember it's the Jets, and then you just walk off. No, no, no,
(34:45):
they they hate the Jets and see it they hate
it because the Jets are the ones who are at
you know, it was their fault that they made this trade,
trying to be pithy about it, you know, trying to
make the joke. But yeah, it Look, if they're gonna
make an other deal with them, it would have to
be completely egregious and over the top and have scene
in the f M picks category. Uh huh, that's that's it, right.
(35:09):
If you're just saying, well, it's it's just a number one,
I mean, that's offensive. And if that were a legit
that was more just the I'm just hands behind my
hip and I'm doing the mock rana unmocking you M. So, yes,
he's available. He's just not available to the Jets, all right,
But he is. But that's the thing. All these guys
(35:30):
are available, right, all these guys are you know, you
just have to drive the price up. Of course, the
Sharks aren't gonna take the first offer for DK Metcalff.
But look how it got out there today. Look how
it was a big deal that Oh hey, the Jets
called for metcalf and and and the first offer was rebuffed.
It was a number ten overall pick in the draft.
What does this really mean? This means it got out there.
(35:53):
Seattle wants people to know the number ten overall pick
isn't enough. If you want dk Metcalf, it's going to
be more. And now, if you really want him, call
me with a bigger offer, because now we're gonna have
a bidding war form. He will be traded. He is available.
It's just going to be when they get the best offer.
All these guys are available. That's why you make an
FM picks offer. It's the beginning. This is not where Hey,
(36:15):
we're desperate, we're bleeding, we're leaking. We gotta get rid
of Metcalf right now. No, they're gonna they can hold
onto Metcalf as long as they need to and then
trade on whatever they want to. Now, they want to
do it before the draft because they want to get
those picks and get those players and now. But there's
no urgency to get it done tomorrow or the next day.
He still gonna still got a couple of weeks ago
to the draft. So now now you're gonna start seeing
(36:37):
the market for Metcalf and A. J. Brown and and
Deebo Samuel and even Kyler Murray because you gotta make
an FM picks offer for him too, because you know,
if you call the Cardinals, they would listen and maybe
have a conference call and say what do we think
about this offer? So all this is happening, This is
just now the start of the ball rolling on the
f then picks offers. What have we got three weeks
left till the draft? Right, so between now and when
(37:00):
everybody hits Las Vegas, now and now is the time
to amp up. You're doing your last reviews, getting your
board set. But also it's you know, still the silly seasons.
Still got a lot of unsigned guys, so you're trying
to make sure you're you're pricing who's left properly and
evaluating against would be talent in the draft. Right the
(37:22):
wide receiver position, there's a lot of guys available in both,
so you've got that hanging on. So if you're the
Jets or insert other team here, that's saying, all, I
got a quarterback that I'm not sure, but you know,
we could give up some picks bringing a guy like
Metcalf knowing we're gonna have to pay him in short order. Uh,
but we want to evaluate to see how good this
(37:45):
guy can be. Then sure, go, go and make the
big push. But I think we're we We've had a
lot of activity, seemingly every day, a big news story today.
At least we had a rumor, and with the Jets involved,
it made for a good fodder for US one and
the Jets will get a wide receiver. It's just not
gonna be him. And it's if there was no history.
(38:06):
There's just too much history and the bad trade otherwise
would be there. But all these guys and I'm telling you,
Kyler Murray, makeing f them picks offer, make an offer.
I'm telling you he's available. Goes back to my point
of why are those guys still there? Anyway? Twitter it
out about a Fresco, Mike and Swellen done. Ben Maller's
next Metzio
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two a m Eastern seven to eleven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Fox
Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every night
on the I Heart Radio app by searching fs R.
(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio. Welcome
inside the final hour tonight of The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon, as we get set
for a Master's Thursday where the world could stop with
Tiger Woods all but set to tee off tomorrow. And
(00:47):
you know, before I get to the Tiger Woods hot
take mikel just for a second here Tiger saying today
he's a true game time decision for the Masters. Look,
I get it. I an a stand that coming into
this week, I didn't know can I play? Can I not?
Come on? Man, you're playing right that Now I feel
(01:08):
like this is just hey, let's have let's create some
kind of drama around this. Showed up. He practiced all week.
Everything is fine, He hit the ball fine, He had
no difficulties. Why is he really not gonna play tomorrow.
He's gonna wake up. I'm not gonnay. The potential is right,
he wakes up and and he does have a setback.
(01:29):
I mean physically, dude's been through a ton. I mean
a literal car crash. Right. We talked about the NFL
and every play is a car crash. No, this guy
literally had one with a compound fracture and all these
other things, and his back and the surgeries and everything else.
I mean, look, there there is that off chance that
the night doesn't end right. And maybe he dropped something
(01:50):
on the floor steps the wrong way. Maybe there's a
million things. We watched the n C Double a title
game where the floor suddenly came up on a game.
I mean, there's a lot that can happen. I don't
mean to make light of it, fully, although I am
a sarcastic son of a gun, as you've come to know,
uh and as the audience pass through the years. But
you know, you gotta leave some sliver of a possibility
(02:13):
that he doesn't. But we're all expecting him to climb,
you know, in in between the lines and and look
at the gallery. And my favorite tweet of the day
came from our teammate Jeff Schwartz, former NFL player. You
hear him on Fox Sports Radio on Saturdays alongside Steve Hartman.
He he did a picture of Tiger with the gallery
right all the hundreds, thousands, I don't know how many,
(02:36):
how you estimate how many people were standing around waiting
for him to tee off. But he took a you know,
the illustrator function, and he goes, if you were here, here, here,
or here, there was a pretty good chance at some
point in an eighteen whole day that I would probably
have gotten you just putting it out there. And it's
like people that are like ten feet from where he's
(02:58):
teeing off, So it's like, this is how bad it
could be. It's a little dicey to be that close
when I'm in the tea box, which I thought was
pretty funny and it's something that I can relate to,
but uh, you know for this, yeah, I mean, you
gotta live leave that sliver of doubt with that twinkle
in your eye and uh, you know, the smile on
your face as you say it, which he had today.
(03:21):
Now when it comes to Tiger, and again at this point,
it's really just drama. I really don't know if I'm
gonna play me. Come on, man, you know you know
you're playing now. Now now I feel like, hey, all
the goodwill that he has people waiting, all Tiger coming
back for the bed car crash seventeen months ago, bone
sticking out of his leg, all of this. Now, I'm
a true game time. Just you know, man, just tell us,
(03:41):
come on, dude, could and all of those pejorities would
just go to in the whole other level. This is
not like in the NFL, where I'm not gonna give
the the other team a hint on whom I starting
quarterback is gonna be gonna make him prepare for both
of them? No, he did. Guys are playing, they're playing.
It doesn't Tiger if you're playing, just right, just say it.
But here's my Tiger Woods hot take, right like a
(04:04):
big master's hot take, come in your way, something that
we've not been talked about with Tiger Woods. So as
we watched him this week, and if you watch any
of Tiger Woods practice rounds, he has certainly hit the
ball well, had a little bit of a limp, but
you wouldn't really know it if you didn't know you would.
You would think, Okay, you know, Tiger seems pretty fine.
Just upper forties guy who's been through some stuff. That's
(04:25):
what watched me long enough. I gotta I gotta pronounce limp. Well,
my knees are done. I'm I'm falling apart. Man. I
still get out of a chair like Phil Jackson getting
up out of a chair. Hey, you know what, it's
almost the playoffs. We're almost gonna have to wake him up.
She's still sleeping. Just stop, he still don't do it,
You'll wake you. We gotta finish talking about Tiger Woods. Uh.
(04:49):
Tiger said this earlier today when it comes to how
he feels about being able to play and what could
be the big thing that holds him back over the
co to the next few days. Let's take a listen.
You've said countless times throughout your career that you don't
enter a golf tournam unless you think that you can win.
And so the question is simple, do you think you
can win the Masters this week? I do? And what
have you seen in your preparation that leads you to
(05:12):
believe that I can't? I can hit it just fine.
I don't have any qualms about what I can do physically.
From a golf standpoint, walking is a hard part. You know,
this is normally not a easy walk to begin with. Now,
given them the condicitions, you know, my legs, and he
gives a little bit more more difficult. All right. So
there's Tiger what he is without qualms. He has zero qualms.
He does not have any qualms, no qualms. But there
(05:34):
he is saying, I can play, I can hit it.
I just don't know how much I can walk. Right,
So here's your master's hot take. Give him a cart.
Give him a cart. Why now you're gonna be mad
at you. PGA players are going DoD Dare you that
you can't say that you're violating the sanctity of the game.
(05:55):
He would never ask for one, and he said, I'm
not going to ask for cart. That's why the PGA
short should give it to him. Okay, now I'm old
enough to remember. I remember being on the air when
the Casey Martin controversy came up and I got his
old teammate at Stanford. Yeah, I gotta I gott explained
Casey Martin to millennials. Casey Martin uh in the early
two thousands had a degenerative like condition, and he was
winning his way onto the PGA Tour and he proposed
(06:18):
being able to use a cart. The PGA Tour did
not want him to use a cart, and so many
golfers came out vain sticking out of their next going
walking is an intrinsic part of the game. This is
not right, this should not happen. The fervor and the
intensity in the fire with which golfers talked about how
he should never be allowed to walk, it was. It was.
(06:39):
It was. It would blow you away what it was like,
and it was. It was such a every day Casey
Martin was a daily was venom medeo topic. It was
the fact that it got all the way to the
Supreme Court exactly like it was even decided quickly, you know.
It was no, we're gonna appeal and appeal and appeal,
and we're gonna go all the way through. And it
lasted about four years. When it was all said done,
(07:01):
it was great. But no, no, we can't give him
a cart, can't give a card. It's not it's an
unfair advantage. It's it's Germaine to the game. Every day
was something different, And I mean the best players in
the world no no, no, Jack Nicholas, no no, no,
no no no. Uh. And then Casey Martin didn't stay
on the tour, didn't win enough to stay in the
tour after he won, and so it kind of went away. Um,
(07:22):
Tiger Woods is different, right, I mean you want to hu.
This is a guy that has made golf what it is.
Everything the PGA Tour is and the sport of golf
is in two. It is because Tiger Woods showed up
in and won the Masters and started everything off from there.
Even when he was not playing golf, he was still
the biggest star in the game. He has made untold
(07:42):
money for people who turned professional because purses have tripled
and quadrupled since he became. Oh, the pers for this
is gonna be here now because Tiger Woods is playing.
He has made so much money for so many people. Yeah,
give him a card for the Masters, if that's what
it's gonna take. If hey, listen, Tiger, you're not gonna
ask for it, so we're gonna give it to you,
you know, or at least make the offer, give him
(08:04):
acart and let him play if he can't walk it,
or at least have it there, and if Tiger is
why and he's trying to play and he's nine or
ten holes in and he's like, man, I want to
keep playing, but walking I just can't do it. Then
have a car come out, and then have a cart
come out, and you take him the rest of the
way and he finishes that way. Tiger Woods more than
anybody would deserve to have a cart because of what
he's done for the sport. And I'd like to see
(08:26):
PGA Tour players go, I can't believe Tigers using a car. Really.
Rory McElroy George's being like, yeah, Tiger should be. You
are doing what you're doing for a living and signing
deals with Nike when you're twenty one years old because
of Tiger Woods. Okay, the guy can do whatever the
hell he wants to. And if you do it that
way and it becomes all right, I don't need it,
(08:47):
but I don't need it to start, let me play.
But then it comes in the middle of the round.
It's not that big a deal. I really, I'd love
to see people try to try to stand up after go.
I can't believe tie. That's the biggest, the worst thing
in the world Tiger used in the card. Let him
use a card, because you want Tiger to play well,
be around on Thursday, right and Friday? You want him
around Saturday and Sunday, don't you. Yeah, Tiger says, Hey,
(09:07):
I'm playing well. I wouldn't play if I didn't think
I could win. And look, Tiger Woods is not going
to come back to the Masters if he thinks he's
trunks slamming on a Friday, right, he would come back
and play someplace else that was really far out of
the way. Uh, you know, somewhere where you know, whatever
happens happens. I'm just getting back to playing competitive golf.
If I missed the cut, I missed the cut. Tiger's
miss cuts now, it's been a regular thing for him
(09:30):
for the past few years. But the fact he's coming
back to play the Masters tells me he thinks I
think I can play pretty well. So yeah, you want
him around. If you think you'll be around, give him
a cart, Let him use a card. Boom Master's hot take. Yeah,
I just remember that on the grand scale. What what
are we monitoring for Tiger Woods? I mean, obviously excited
about him being back on a course at all is
(09:51):
a big deal, right, and and I've talked about it
to Tom Brady uh type effect that when he had
said goodbye for those forty days and and took his
a little sojourn and hung out with his family, know
that that a piece of me was going with it
because all right, now it's younger guys again, which made
me feel old. So Tiger Woods being back out there
(10:11):
again gives me hope. All right, there's still one of
our guys. He's still going. Uh And however that needs
to happen. I love it. You know, he his pride.
I think in the comments that he made to the
for the wind guys uh and and their crew basically said, look,
my my pride is not gonna let me do that,
(10:32):
not for this tour, not on the tour. In other words,
if you hang out with me in a four cement
some charity event or pay me to you know, fly
me somewhere to hang out, then yeah, with carts and
whatever and play. But for this no, I think he
wants to show that he's strong enough and and that
he's back. So you know that that factor is there now.
(10:54):
It would be interesting if he did look for the
exemption because I don't think they could expedite that fast
enough and how quickly would they be looking to? All right,
what what kind of things can we slap on this cart?
How many logos? What's it gonna look like? It could
look like a giant tiger helmet, you know, like it
(11:15):
looks like the Cincinnati Bengals helmet, or it's a giant
t w branded hat like the old baseball reliever cards
from you just prove a guy out there with a
really big, a dark magic marker drawing a logo on
really yeah there, no, no, he's just got a he's
got a binder of stickers. Hey who paid for a
(11:35):
whole number two? Maam, hey man. We talked about dynamic
pricing up to the minute I was Tiger performing. Cost
just went up. Oh you want a bigger logo, Fine,
it's gonna cost you, but it goes on the side
of the cart. And by the end, it's kind of
like when you put your you know, a renewal registration
sticker on, who actually scrapes them off? Out there You're
(11:58):
all looking sheepishly down at your feet and you know,
like kind of making your toes move because you know,
all you do is stacking onto the last five. Same thing. Here,
we had a stack of would be sponsors for Tiger's cart. Yeah,
I mean it's Tiger Woods that you know, and and
and for all of the I would say there's there's,
(12:20):
of course, a big faction of fans who would say
everybody should be treated the same, Right, all golfers should
be treated the same, All NFL players should be treated
the same. No, there's certain guys who deserve to be
treated a little bit better because of what they've done
for the sport and the money they have made an
interest level in relevancy. And Tiger Woods is that guy.
He's the one guy you do do it for, right,
(12:42):
He's the one guy. He is more I'm sorry, but
he is more special than anybody who has ever picked
up a golf club. And in the history of the sport,
we can argue who was better Tiger Woods or Jack Nicholas.
You cannot argue who has had a bigger impact on
the sport. It's Tiger Woods. I don't know that anybody
has had a bigger impact on a work than Tigger
Woods has on golf. So yeah, if he said, hey,
(13:02):
I kind of kind of like to have a cart.
You do it, you know what you do, rather than
he would act because he won't ask for it. You say,
we're gonna give it to you, and we're gonna have
one ready if you need to, because you know, getting
in at thirteen fourteen, that's gonna be that's gonna be
much less of a big deal. It's gonna be a
better optic than if he just gets in the start
of the first hole. But just have it there for him.
Let him use a cart. Oh I can't wait. Well,
(13:24):
that was the end of the The whole Casey Martin
Gates to the Supreme Court was that there was the
ability to ask for the exemption and doesn't trigger automatically,
but based on special circumstances. Whatever group their reviews it
and decides your worthiness. And so, you know, any any
player that decides they want to try have at it,
(13:46):
just make sure you actually have uh, you know, the
the I guess CV, the the things to show that
you've earned that special consideration. In addition to Tiger's dominance
on the court and the billions upon billions of dollars
put in everybody's pockets, be sure to catch live editions
of the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at
(14:08):
ten pm Eastern seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the I Heart Radio ah AP, Fox Sports Radio,
The Jason Smith Show with My Big Friend Mike Harmon.
And last night, well it was Lakers Wake night. We
talked about all the reasons why the Lakers failed this
(14:29):
year and reasons maybe weren't thinking about. And you know,
I just I didn't want to say I told you so,
but I told the middle of February if the Lakers
look like they were going to be falling out of
the playing around, Lebron would start missing games like crazy
at the end of the season because he wouldn't want
to be blamed for not making the playoffs. Now just
wait and see he comes back to try to win
(14:50):
the scoring title now that they've been eliminated. That would
be a great cherry on top of this season. But
that was last night. Tonight is about going forward, Mike,
and you know, look, we have to always okay, so
now we did that. That was yesterday. Today is going forward,
and it also means we don't have to talk about
the Knicks blowing another big lead against the Nets. It's
about well, I mean, it is about today. I mean, look,
(15:11):
you had a huge lead and everybody was laughing, going,
oh look, and Kevin Durant didn't take a lot of
shots until he did and then he buried. I got
a couple of guys send me a nice, uh little
video that was shot before the game of Kevin Durant
walking over a couple of little little fans wanting, uh,
wanting some love, and he gave him the you know,
(15:32):
the fist bump and said, you know, you should change
those jerseys. As they stayed there and there little next
but you had that going uh and and then you know,
there's a story emerging of h well, Kyrie irving on
his way to the locker room at halftime with a
little confrontation with a fan. So add him to the
list of the players where you know, fans have been
(15:55):
jackasses and guys. They're close enough to get guys to respond.
So there's another one. I said, at least half of
the top twenty right, Check there's another one. But yeah,
so be beyond your team collapsing. Yeah, there's other fish
to front. They listen, they blew a twenty point lead
against them. That's last time. Now the only blew one
(16:16):
point lead progress. We're getting better. Man my team at home.
Other than Barack Obama being there for a big ovation,
Bulls didn't bother to show up against the Celtics. So
I didn't stress. I have no you have you have
no you have no quality, like like Tiger Woods at
zero qualms. You have no qualms about this season. You
don't think the Bulls are can even win a playoff
(16:36):
game at this point. I think they can one in
a series. But that but that would be a tall order.
That would be order because they can't play against good teams.
They've they've been players all year. It's like they looked
to the north and looked at Aaron Hudgers said we'll
do what he did. Uh. So, now looking forward with
(16:57):
the Lakers, what do you do for next season? Once
you understand what I'm going to say, you can go forward.
The best way if the Lakers to go forward next
year is to understand next year is just gonna suck
al right, like like like I I think about it
like a teenager who always, you know, worms his way
out of trouble, whether it's sneaking out late at night
(17:20):
or using the car when he's not supposed to the chickens,
are being out late, Yeah, being out late with his friends,
all these things, right, Eventually you're gonna get caught. And
when you get caught, there's nothing you can do. You
lose your phone, you get grounded, you can't use the car,
and no matter what you try to do, no matter
what kind of slick ways you try to talk your
way out of things, your parents are gonna catch you
(17:43):
at some point. Sometimes you can move out of stuff
and if they want to believe you that you're they're
good kid and would never do anything so bad. Okay,
But eventually you're gonna get caught, and then you have
no choice but to pay. The Lakers have no choice
but to pay next year because there's no way they
can improve because Russell Westbrook's gonna opt into that money
for next year, which is forty seven million dollars, and
(18:04):
there's nothing they're gonna be able to do. It's always
gonna be adversarial with Lebron. Right, the Lakers and Lebron
have each other at at at arms length, and it's
more Lebron versus the Lakers than it's ever been. Look,
when he signed, it was always Lebron versus Lakers I
want to run this team, the Lakers saying, no, we
run this team. It's always gonna be Lebron versus the
Lakers next year. You're not getting better, right, You don't
(18:25):
have the financial flexibility, you don't have the assets to
get better. So what do you do. You get rid
of Russell Westbrook in a salary dump, and all you're
gonna get back is expiring contracts. That's gonna suck. You
train Anthony Davis, clearly, it's not gonna work with him anymore.
You won in Anthony Davis will bring back assets, draft picks,
whatever it's going to be. But you have to move
(18:46):
on from Anthony Davis and be more flexible. You can
maybe maybe resigned the leak monk, but whoever you need
to let go, You let go and understand that next
year is gonna be a bridge year because Lebron, as
much as he think goes he near the end. Well,
the guy could win the score title this year. Um,
he says, I'm gonna play for three more years, so
you have to go with that being the operative function.
(19:08):
He's gonna play for three more years. So if next
year is the bridge year and it's gonna suck, Okay,
so next year is gonna suck, and then we spend
the year getting out from under the bad contracts, and
who knows, maybe he leads a ragtag group into the playoffs.
You know, who knows how it's gonna go. But that's
gonna be next year, and then this time a year
(19:28):
from now. Now you're getting set for the last two
years of Lebron and you're with you. You're armed with
bringing in new players who you can say, hey, and
in a couple of years, it's gonna be your team,
right because right now you're not getting anybody to come
play with Lebron because clearly Lebron isn't the drawing card
he used to be. I don't know that I'm getting
the finals with Lebron. So so you need to be
able to bring in guys saying, okay, you know what
(19:49):
Lebron is here, Hey, Lebron is still a great player.
It's gonna wind up being your team. They wanted to
do that with Anthony Davis. Didn't work out. They wanted
to be Hey, Lebron is gonna play an a d year. No,
didn't didn't work out that way. So wait till next year,
and that's when you can really make a difference and
then you can jump start the Lakers for a year
from now. So how do you make next year worth anything?
You make the entire season about Lebron James is run
(20:12):
for the record, right because he's gonna probably around game
fifty or fifty five, break the all time scoring record
in NBA history, breaking Kareem Abdul Jabbar's record. And they've
been at odds the last few days. Kareem has been
upset with Lebron for certain things he hasn't done. Now
he apologized to him. You have a Laker who was
chasing a big time Lakers record. Every game is about
(20:35):
how close is Lebron get to the all time scoring record,
the biggest record in NBA history. Lebron James is gonna
break it next year. You make that the focus of
the year, and every day is something new on it,
and and you're following Lebron and you're documenting it, and
you're running a show that you're putting together every week.
Here's here's hard knocks with Lebron James and his run
to the record. This is what you make the entire
(20:57):
year about. And that's how you push the Lakers next season,
be a part of history, come to the games, all
of these things. That's what I'd be working on right now.
So that's next year, and you take advantage of Lebron
who clearly uh needs You need to get a little
bit more out of him because he's getting everything he
wants to out of l A. He want a title,
he's gett to take games off, he's making movies, he's
a mogul, all these things. So now it's time for
(21:18):
you to get something out of him. So you make
next year about him in the run of the record,
and then in the off season you can retool the
team and then then you can make a run and
get back to relevancy. But just understand next year is
gonna suck and there's nothing you can do about it,
and you just have to suck it up and go
through next year being a tough year, and then get
to it in the off season. Yeah, I think when
(21:41):
you look at it there there's just the curiosity of
what you can do with Westbrook. Can you stretch the
contract that's one of your options, right That smooths it
out over three years, you get to the new all
dang effect where you know like Bania and others that
we say, oh he he's still on the books, still
got some money coming, you know, But it's the the
(22:02):
opportunity to change things for the luxury cap uh and
how you move money around. We've gotten pretty well versed
at the tricks and of the trade for less need
in the NFL. NBA still has a couple of things
that you can do, but overall, since they are guaranteed contracts,
it becomes that much more difficult to wiggle out because
(22:23):
of the dopey trade rules and everything. Um So, if
you can get someone to take on the dollars, great,
but forty seven million dollars who saying you know what,
that's the missing piece to putting us over all you're
gonna get back most likely are some other bad expiring contracts.
For Anthony Davis, you have two more years and then
a termination uh year that that could go away before
(22:47):
he would hit free agency. And you've got two years
in a row where you've you've missed you know, some
substantial time, or I should say, you know, at least
for this year. You know year only had forty games played.
Last year thirties into the bubble, thirty six of sixty right,
umen sixty two first year with the Lakers. Actually I'm
(23:13):
conflating that because that that was the first year that
was the title. But either way, you're missing a lot
of time, is I get the guts, the point and
the the Pelican season. People always want to add that
one in from he quit on them and was asking
for a trade, So you know that that one was,
you know, kind of an outlier to it all. But
just the the opportunity with with Davis is he was
(23:33):
supposed to be the guy and go back to the
bubble where it looked like you were having that passing
of the torch. We talked about it on air, right
that he that he'd come up with big games and
those were non existent in the games that he did
play this year. Right, So it's trying to find the
space at this point. Is Lebron still wanting to play
(23:55):
with Anthony Davis? And how much Sadie let Lebron, James
and Clutch Sports have, right, And this is the difficulty.
We alluded to it a little last hour, you know,
and Bo and I were going back and forth on
this a little bit, and it's something we've talked about
some is all right, who do you trust in terms
of decision making at any level of this organization, including
(24:15):
the you know, shadow GM, lebron and and Clutch Sports
that we talked about all the time because Genie Boss
might might have the business down. But clearly outside of
the bubble year, it's it's been a disaster for going
on a decade at this point. What's a really horrendous
team and this team that was favored to win at all,
(24:37):
and you had pundits if everybody had to lose their
job picking the Lakers to win the title, we'd have
a lot of new people becoming the screaming person that
networks all over the place, right, I mean, even even
with even with skepticism of how Russell Westbrook was going
to fit in and the changes there, and it was
(24:57):
it'll work out, and lo and behold was um as
Bill plash Key so appropriately called it in the l
A Times. You know, it was a clown show from
the beginning. And here were all the different acts and
here's like he chronicled at all, as did Dan Waki,
who um just was. We were going back and forth
this morning. Jason I had to talk him down from
(25:18):
the ledge off of a couple of things he'd seen
and heard floating through his timeline and maybe out of
television when he was out getting his oil changed or
wherever he was this morning. But you know, you've got
to figure that out, right, who who's making decisions ultimately
and doing the talent evaluation of how to rebuild around
Lebron James. We assume Frank Vogel is in his final
(25:39):
nineties six hours, So who's the coach? How much, say
does Lebron James getting the new coach? Right? He get
he could zero say that that's the thing. Well, because
that's the other part and all of this that's still
you know, needs to be resolved. Who's the guy coming
in over the top? Well while they make that look
and I told you Les, it's got to be somebody
boring like Kenny Atkinson or Steve Clifford, you know, guys
(26:02):
guys that kind of like the Mark Jackson. Mark Jackson
be great too, but is he too big of a personality, right,
you know for for l A And can he co
exist with Lebron? The same thing with DC Rivers? Is
Lebron gonna be you know? I mean, when you have
a coach come in no you don't have to involve
Lebron James, but you also have to understand, Okay, is
this guy gonna co exist with Lebron. You can't just
(26:22):
bring in a guy that Lebron may hate and not
getta because you're trying to win. So while you may
not involve him or you may not listen to him,
he might ask him for his opinion. In the end,
you gotta hire somebody that that's gonna help you, that
he's gonna wind up getting along with and and looking
guys like that that have won before, that have seen
a lot, that can handle things and and handle whatever
the Lakers are gonna be. That that's who the coach
is gonna wind up being. But look, the days of
(26:43):
being beholden to him are over right, They're they're over it.
And it's always going to be adversarial. It's never gonna
Lebron is never gonna get that hug from the team
or the organization that he expected. I really did think, honestly,
when he had that moment when he spoke for Kobe Bryant,
when when when he had the mike after Kobe died,
(27:06):
and and he and and he and he gave the
Momba out and he dropped the mike. I said, you
know what, Lebron's a Laker now. Now. Lebron for whatever
whatever it was, with all the crap that happened before,
Lebron's a Laker now. And instead of that moment being
something that that was the touchstone for him, now it
just went back to Lebron wants to do things his way,
and Clutch Sports wants this, and then the Lakers want this,
(27:28):
and and and Lebron wants Russell Westbrook and the team
was okay with him, but they brought other guys up. No,
this is a Lebron decision. And that's kind of what
it's been. It's so so it's never really it looked
like it was, Hey, that's gonna be a healing point
for the franchise and for Lebron going forward. And it's
gone back to, yeah, look at Lebron, and and now
the fans still treat Lebron, even though they won the title,
(27:50):
they still treat him as he's still not really a Laker.
Lebron is using the Lakers for his own benefits. Look,
we told you when he signed with the Lakers, he
wanted the Lakers rand and he wanted to come to
Los Angeles, and now people just figure that out like
two and a half three years later. Uh, that's what
he wanted. He's getting what he wanted out of l A.
He wants the Lakers brand, he wanted what Los Angeles
had to offer to him. And that's what's going on.
(28:12):
And so it's still that way, and it's always gonna
be that way, you know, some unless somehow he finds
a way to win a title, which I think he's
done winning titles. You know, we're gonna look back and
go boy twenty. That was the last best one because
so many things had to happen for an aging Lebron
to win. We had COVID have to stop the season,
so Lebron's legs were fresher for the playoff run after
(28:33):
all the time off. You know, they played in a bubble.
There was no worries about playing away from home and
having to win big games. No, it was just a
weird situation. And because Lebron had been through it in
one championships before, and it was the less pressure that
was out there for a guy like Anthony Davis, because
when you're playing in a bubble and there's no fans,
and there's a Okay, it's a little bit easier. You
(28:55):
go out there and just play. I think we're gonna
look back and say, boy, that was the one championship
he was able to see week out of it. So
this is all what it's going to be for Lebron
and the Lakers, And so you have to find a
way to say, all right, um, we're gonna do this
for next year. We're gonna make it about you. You're
gonna give us back something, and then next year we're
gonna try to figure out the best teams we get
back to relevancy. But make no mistake, in two years,
(29:16):
it's gonna be these next couple of guys team that
these players that we're gonna sign here, it's gonna be
their team. And then after that first year, whether we
get brawny or not, I mean, that's gonna be You're
done and we're moving on. So that that's kind of
I don't think they have any choice but to go
forward that. Yeah, I think I think for next year
and look, I don't give away years like ever like that.
Al Right, No, well, all it is about stat padding.
(29:39):
Then we might as well start advertising in the local
papers of of other cities and Lebron's coming to your
town and he's gonna score thirty on your asses as
he moves closer. It's the same old stuff as uh
student ance would say. But you know what, what's interesting
and this is a joke. I think, uh that that's
(30:01):
going around pretty well as people listing the four years
of Lebron with the Lakers, right, no playoffs, right as
they rebuilt and the young guys were gone. Number two,
you get the championship, and that was all the as
you said, all the breakes and and everything worked into
their advantage. But give them credit for being a veteran
(30:21):
lead squad that you know, kept pushing in the right
direction and had guys that committed to playing defense something
that is uh, well really a four letter word and
concept uh and got shredded uh in early October with
this squad. Year three was a first round exit and
obviously this year a disaster and no playoffs, And the
(30:42):
punchline to the joke is still better than anything the Clippers.
Oh wow, that hey, that is uh Western Conference play
and qualifier Los Angeles clip. That's pretty good to say
that you got you say it right, Mike, I'm sorry.
Did they put a banner up for that one yet? Yes,
(31:03):
playing Batterer. Banners are going up all over the place
right now. You can't see that. I just wanted to
make sure. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern,
seven pm Pacific. Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth
Hour with Ben Mallory along with my trustees sidekick David Gascon.
Would mean a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey. You're asking one in God's name
(31:26):
is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin
off of the Ben Maller Show. Cold Hit overnights on
fs are. Why should you listen? Picture if you will
a world will we chat with captains of industry in media,
sports and more every week Explorer some amazing facts about
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Podcast or wherever you get your podcast, Fox Sports Radio.
(31:50):
It is The Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Harmon. Gotta get to at least eight nine inches
then and then it's gonna be good. Eight nine inches.
That's what's got what it is. Um. So we had
a lot of NBA tonight. We had a couple of
hot takes on the Master. It's been awesome. So let's
finish with a big time NFL story that of course
involves my team. Uh it was earlier today reports came
(32:13):
out that the New York Jets had offered the tenth
pick in the draft to the Seattle Seahawks in exchange
for DK Metcalf. Now Metcalf and Deebo Samuel and A. J.
Brown are all guys that I we told you the
other night. Hey, making f them picks offer for these
guys because we don't know if their teams can afford them.
And and these you know you can go after they
(32:34):
are eminently available. Well and even if they're not technically available,
you make them available with an F. That's what a
fiferable to thing, you know, thing means. Um offer comes in,
means there's a conference call to be had. It means
wait a minute, we weren't thinking about this, but hey,
hang honestly, because you know Metcalf is available, because Pete
Carroll said, oh, we have no intention of trading DK Metcalf,
(32:57):
just like you said, we have no intention of trading
Russell Wilson today. Yes, later he was traded. Uh So
reports were that the Seahawks rebuffed the offer, say no, no, no, no,
don't even call us about Dk Metcalf. A few hours
go by, and then it was reported that, well, that
really didn't happen. The Jets didn't call and offer the
number ten pick for Metcalf. Alright. So now here's the
(33:18):
thing that part of it is irrelevant, right. Number one,
the Seahawks will trade Dk Metcalf. They're rebuilding. They have
no room for a guy that they have to pay
twenty million dollars a year, two in a year. Not happening.
They're not going to trade into the Jets. Not happening,
all right. I have no illusions the Jets are gonna
get Dk Metcalf, because the Seahawks are not gonna sit
back and go I'm not gonna live and have our
(33:39):
fans and media just pound us because they're already mad
at us making one of the worst trades in NFL history,
where we traded two first round picks and a player
for Jamal Adams. Seeing that guys were teams were trading
first round picks for superstar quarterbacks this year. That was
a really bad trade in Jamal Adams has been just okay.
Like I said, he's a box safety, has limited skill, right. Uh.
(34:01):
It was an awful trade and it's a daily reminder.
Why did the Seahawks have to trade Russell Wilson because
they couldn't get better because they had no picks. They
had lost about everything comes back to this trade was awful.
They're not gonna make a trade with the Jets. They're
not gonna go back and say, okay, hey, we want
that pick back and we'll give you DK Metcalf because
the fans are gonna go wait, so it was Jamal
(34:22):
Adams for a first round pick and DK Metcalf, Wait
a minute, wait a minute, this is getting warres. They're
not gonna have that happen, right, Pete Carroll. They're not
gonna go through that and have that and and and
and be browbeaten by that story. Well, but you know
what they'd be able to do. They'd just be able
to go to the podium as they announced and go
remember it's the Jets, and then you just walk off. No, no, no,
(34:45):
they they hate the Jets and see it they hate
it because the Jets are the ones who are at
you know, it was their fault that they made this trade,
trying to be pithy about it, you know, trying to
make the joke. But yeah, it Look, if they're gonna
make an other deal with them, it would have to
be completely egregious and over the top and have scene
in the f M picks category. Uh huh, that's that's it, right.
(35:09):
If you're just saying, well, it's it's just a number one,
I mean, that's offensive. And if that were a legit
that was more just the I'm just hands behind my
hip and I'm doing the mock rana unmocking you M. So, yes,
he's available. He's just not available to the Jets, all right,
But he is. But that's the thing. All these guys
(35:30):
are available, right, all these guys are you know, you
just have to drive the price up. Of course, the
Sharks aren't gonna take the first offer for DK Metcalff.
But look how it got out there today. Look how
it was a big deal that Oh hey, the Jets
called for metcalf and and and the first offer was rebuffed.
It was a number ten overall pick in the draft.
What does this really mean? This means it got out there.
(35:53):
Seattle wants people to know the number ten overall pick
isn't enough. If you want dk Metcalf, it's going to
be more. And now, if you really want him, call
me with a bigger offer, because now we're gonna have
a bidding war form. He will be traded. He is available.
It's just going to be when they get the best offer.
All these guys are available. That's why you make an
FM picks offer. It's the beginning. This is not where Hey,
(36:15):
we're desperate, we're bleeding, we're leaking. We gotta get rid
of Metcalf right now. No, they're gonna they can hold
onto Metcalf as long as they need to and then
trade on whatever they want to. Now, they want to
do it before the draft because they want to get
those picks and get those players and now. But there's
no urgency to get it done tomorrow or the next day.
He still gonna still got a couple of weeks ago
to the draft. So now now you're gonna start seeing
(36:37):
the market for Metcalf and A. J. Brown and and
Deebo Samuel and even Kyler Murray because you gotta make
an FM picks offer for him too, because you know,
if you call the Cardinals, they would listen and maybe
have a conference call and say what do we think
about this offer? So all this is happening, This is
just now the start of the ball rolling on the
f then picks offers. What have we got three weeks
left till the draft? Right, so between now and when
(37:00):
everybody hits Las Vegas, now and now is the time
to amp up. You're doing your last reviews, getting your
board set. But also it's you know, still the silly seasons.
Still got a lot of unsigned guys, so you're trying
to make sure you're you're pricing who's left properly and
evaluating against would be talent in the draft. Right the
(37:22):
wide receiver position, there's a lot of guys available in both,
so you've got that hanging on. So if you're the
Jets or insert other team here, that's saying, all, I
got a quarterback that I'm not sure, but you know,
we could give up some picks bringing a guy like
Metcalf knowing we're gonna have to pay him in short order. Uh,
but we want to evaluate to see how good this
(37:45):
guy can be. Then sure, go, go and make the
big push. But I think we're we We've had a
lot of activity, seemingly every day, a big news story today.
At least we had a rumor, and with the Jets involved,
it made for a good fodder for US one and
the Jets will get a wide receiver. It's just not
gonna be him. And it's if there was no history.
(38:06):
There's just too much history and the bad trade otherwise
would be there. But all these guys and I'm telling you,
Kyler Murray, makeing f them picks offer, make an offer.
I'm telling you he's available. Goes back to my point
of why are those guys still there? Anyway? Twitter it
out about a Fresco, Mike and Swellen done. Ben Maller's
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If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.