Best of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon

On the Best of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon, David Gascon fills in for Mike. The guys jump right into some NBA play-in action, specifically Zion Williamson’s non-action. Jason has a theory that Zion is showing off for other teams. According to Jason, Baker Mayfield still hasn’t learned a thing. Then, NBA Insider Ric Bucher joins the show to talk some NBA play-in action after the Hawks and Pelicans took care of business, and more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmen podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from 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. This is the best of The Jason Smith

(00:23):
Show with Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio. Are you
so done with people every time they say your name?
You're getting gased on stuff? No, that means it gets
to take up my shirt and flex my chest. Okay,
all right? Are you hey? Go ahead and expect rate
at alex ti shirt. Go ahead, go ahead. I'd rather
not do that right now. It's not a TikTok moment,

(00:45):
not that I have that. You got good, body's ready, Dave,
go ahead? Wait, let me ask you t shirt expectorating,
No idea, but it sounds fun. He's just specially good
at expect or rateing. You really don't know what ex
actorate you're talking about the sleeping beauty, right, yeah? Yeah,
well this beauty, same beauty, just not sleep, same thing,

(01:07):
now Bell, Bell, and and to completely different characters. Are
you sure? Are we going through like power rankings of
Disney characters? Now? Oh? Well, Bell is near the top.
I mean, does she beat Mermaid? Where she does? Married?
She's smart. The songs are good arials right up there too.
You know, the wave of that red hair is really cool.
Cinderella number one, No, no, no, no about you know

(01:28):
those princesses were kind of boring. They're kind of boring.
You know. The more modern princesses had more going on.
Right here, I had a lot going on. To Odda
had a lot going on, so did Bell. A little
town all had stuff going on. I like the modern princess.
You know, I had the goal of derailing the show tonight.
I didn't think we'd go off into power rankings of
female Disney characters. But you know that's where we're at.

(01:50):
Stay tuned for hour number two and we break down
Street Fighter characters with Jason Smith. Well, your your last
name is in Street Fighter, your last name is gas Gone.
So the whole Gaston thing came to him. I will
say this because at some point you and T Shirt
are gonna have kids, right at some point you're gonna
have kids. Yes, I'm not carrying in California, it's not now,

(02:12):
so you get So that's good. I mean that the
plenty of people are happy about that. But uh, do
you realize you are a parent when your kid comes
to you and goes dad? What happened to Gaston? What? What
What do you mean? Gaston? He happened he into this
into the cloud? Yeah, sorry spoiler, Yeah, he fell and
he fell away. Oh okay, but what happened to him? Now?

(02:35):
I fell away, He's gone at the end. Look they're
they're together. It's it's it's what happened. Oh but what
happened to him? Though? But what I didn't see it? Yeah, no,
he just he just fell. He turned into the hunchback
and not your dame. That's what lion king, right. He
just he just fell. It's what's what happened. He just
he just fell, Mike Harmon. But it was in the

(02:55):
clouds and the focayest, Yes, yes it was, yes, it
was it was that and he couldn't see and I
think he got up and ran away. Oh why didn't
they show it? Uh? You know, well because you know
he was a bad guy and they beat him. So
they had, uh, you know, they had the kiss at
the end. That's what it is. Goodbye. He's he's just
say that he's with Chubbs. He's with a reference they're

(03:18):
not gonna get for like another ten years. Ten years.
My god. Well, well, when they're five, you know, and
they ask you what happened to Gaston, you gotta tell him,
you realize, Oh crap, I'm a dad now, man, I
gotta I gotta find an answer for this. You couldn't
from Beauty the Beast Too Happy Gilmore on one night,
I got an answer. I should have said, well, guess
dont is Hey, you want some chocolate? You know that?

(03:39):
That's that's kind of what am I picture um expectorating
is to cough or spit out from the throat or lungs. Uh,
I gotta go. That sounds like a that sounds like
a game show from a foreign country. That's that's that's
a show where people spit on the other people. And
then oh that's the one. Yeah, that's it's got like
this like the program. I can't watch it the locker

(04:03):
rooms mouth. I don't like that. I don't like it.
I gotta admit I'm extremely excited to work tonight, not
under these conditions, because, for those that don't know, I
had to drop off Mike Harmon tonight to get therapy
because Mike said that as soon as the baseball season
got underway he had to take days off if the
New York Mets were actually competitive, and today was that

(04:25):
actual day. Our our boss got Shapiro said, take Mike
to see some therapy, and you're stuck with Jason Smith
all night. So here, I am obviously with your team
in first place in the nationally East. Well, and then
Mike Harmon is gonna be taking a lot of time
off because you're gonna be good. Look at this, look
at the beds, a little gross, but yes, Harmon is

(04:46):
off tonight. David Gascon is it, and I'm sure Tisher
will be playing gast on sound drops the entire show.
But we will get into the no hit or the
perfect game that Clayton kershaw inexplicably gets pulled for h
but I don't think people's anger is in the right place.
But before we get to that big night in the NBA,
it's night two of the playing round. We watched Atlanta

(05:09):
just thumps Charlotte one thirty two to one oh three.
So the Hawks move on to the eight nine game
against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Hornet season ends, and right
now New Orleans lead San Antonio six fourteen, this one
early on, still three minutes to go in the first quarter.
The big from this game is before the game, Zion Williamson,
who of course hasn't played all season, had one of

(05:30):
those crazy run between his legs three sixty dunks uh
in the pre game, and of course that has gotten
a lot of attention on social media. Um, let me
tell you all what this is about. Okay, let me
tell you what this is all about. This is not
Zion Williamson showing Hey, I'm getting closer to be playing.
I'm gonna Why did he post that picture a couple
of weeks ago, the video a couple of weeks ago

(05:51):
of him going between his legs and dunking in practice.
He's never going to play for the Pelicans again. He's
telling everybody in the league, Hey, I'm okay, it's all
right to come trade for me. Let me grease the
skids now, because this is what I want. Clearly he
wants no part of the Pelicans. Right we we've heard
rumbles of him. It's not been a great fit. The

(06:14):
guy has been out all season. Come on, the guys
running and dunking like that. You can't play in the game.
We can't play a couple of minutes. Oh just no.
That's a pretty athletic play for a guy that I
don't know that he can play. Has not been cleared
for contact yet. So much of players in the NBA,
and and and and look, we're gonna get to it
to night with Jamal Murray some other guys. Ben Simmons, Uh,
is about just the desire to play for whatever reason. Um,

(06:37):
a little too dinged up. You know what. I can
still give the excuse that I'm dinged up. I just
don't want to play. Everybody's got different reasons, Ben Simmons.
You wonder, hey, look at the money he is trying
to keep or get back from the seventies sixers. Uh,
Jamal Murray, that's a huge question mark which we're gonna
dive into. But for Zion Williamson is pretty simple. H
he wants out, and he and and the one question

(06:59):
anybody's gonna have I they're gonna give up the farm
and a trade for him is are we trading for
a guy who's healthy, because that's the only mark on him,
is that boy as young as he is, his weight
is a problem and he can't stay on the court.
Every year of basketball he's had the last four years,
he has missed a large amount of time due to
an injury. This is going back to when he was
in high school. A right, miss a lot of time

(07:19):
in high school, missed time and Duke when a sneaker exploded,
miss his rookie year, missed this year the entire season. Um,
that's a big thing. And teams aren't gonna come and
and make offers for Zion Williamson if they think, how
we're gonna get a guy and probably give him a
ton of money, and then he's gonna wind up being
Greg Odin because that's kind of where he is right now.
So he needs to show everybody, Hey, come get me,
it's okay. So here comes videos and and and he

(07:41):
knows when he when he dunks during before the game,
it's gonna get out there. He knows when he posts
something people are gonna see it. Teams are gonna see
it and go, oh, he looks pretty healthy. Let's call
his agent. Let's call and see what we need. Let's
call and to what we do to get him out
of New Orleans. He's not gonna play there anymore. He
wants to be the biggest of the big stars in
the NBA. He wants a different location. He's not gonna
risk himself or his health playing for a team that

(08:03):
he doesn't have a future for. Because if he really want,
he could have come back by now and played. He
really could have, but he hasn't. And and there's the
that's the reason is that am I gonna come back
and play for a team that I don't have a
future for when I'm gonna leave? And if I get
hurt more, that's just gonna hurt me in my future.
You know, there's a kid who's twenty one years old
and he's got an entire ten, twelve, fifteen years ahead

(08:23):
of him as long as he can stay healthy. So yeah,
he's telling everybody, come get me. I'm okay, I'm fine,
we can make a trade, we can figure it out.
Come get me. It's okay. Well, I mean, you gotta
think about this for a second, Jason. Where's the play
in all this though? Because, like you said, this isn't
a Ben Simmons type of thing. This isn't this isn't

(08:44):
anybody else in the NBA right because of his athleticism,
but he's injury prone. I mean, you look at him
and I can't help but think he's a poor man's
Anthony Davis just because he hasn't been established yet. Anthony
Davis obviously is a player that came on the scene,
worked his way out of New Orleans and want an
NBA title. But for Zion, he's got health issues and

(09:05):
he's got weight issues. So where are you gonna go
if you're Zion Williamson or like, what is your play?
If you're the Pelicans? You just deactivate him and hopefully
he doesn't put this stuff online and then force his
way out. But where are you going with this type
of transaction? Yeah? Well, well, first of all, he's he's
not playing because of that situation. That's the biggest thing
is his injury history, right, So why am I going

(09:27):
to try to play when I could get hurt and
that could really disrupt what I want to do in
my future, that could stop me from getting a big contract.
I'm sure there's some talk in his camp going maybe
I'm just not gonna play for very long. Maybe I'm
just that. I mean, look, he's got an eighty million
dollar en George McKiel, so I'm sure he has enough money.
But he wants that big paid. He wants that kind
of multi multi generational wealth because who wouldn't. So yeah,

(09:50):
I gotta make sure that I stay as healthy as
I can so I can get that big deal. Now.
If I don't make it out of that big deal,
all right, but at least I'm getting that big deal,
and I'll get two million dollars for the next four
years when I wind up signing that that deal somewhere.
So yeah, it's it's the long game that he's playing,
and he's been playing it for a while. I honestly, honestly,
I really thought he was gonna pull an Eli Manning.

(10:11):
And when when it was time for the draft, he
was gonna say to New Orleans, don't take me. Let
the Knicks take me, you know, or I'm not I'm
not going. I'm not signing. And there were some meetings
that they had between his people and the Pelicans, and
they still wind up taking him. And look, he's he's
barely got on the court for them. I mean, he
has showed that he could be Shaquille O'Neil, and that's
the that's the that's the tough part about this is

(10:32):
that he can be the next shock of the NBA
like that that he's he's the next generation Shaquille O'Neil.
But he's got to stay on the floor and he's
got to show that I can I can stay on
the floor. So it's all part of this, this this
plan that that to get him to another destination. Doesn't
have to be in New York. It could be l A,
it could be so but it's somewhere else where he
can be that big guy because he realizes I can't

(10:55):
take over the league from New Orleans. I think I
could be a good player, but I can't take over
the league. Right But if if he was trying to
pull like Manning, I don't think he was. But if
you're doing something like that, it ruins your image. And
for me, I took his image as a guy who
loved to play the game, joy and in college to
play and then all of a sudden want to light
the world on fire New Orleans. And now if that's
the case, this does more damage to his reputation by

(11:17):
having all his antics off the court, being in Portland,
then coming back to New Orleans and then posting these
videos than anything else does Like why wouldn't you just
lay low and talk behind the scenes with management and
get your way forced out as opposed to having all
this stuff on social media? Or is it this day
and age where twenty year old or just inclined to
post whatever they do, whether it's practicing, working out, eating,

(11:39):
go to the bathroom, on social media and then having
people click on it. Well, look that he grew up
with social media being a part of his life. So
that's it's but you pay and pr people to look
out for you. But did he need to pay anybody?
Bye bye? But because he knows if I dunk and
I show that I'm doing something in warmups that's getting
video taken, that's getting put up on social media. Every

(12:00):
he's gonna see it and they're gonna know that. That's
his way of, like I said, it's his way of
telling everybody in the league, I'm healthy. Look at this,
and you know that how many teams in the league
want whether it's the knicks or or the nets or
the box or whoever it was, is scrutinized in this
video going okay is and he looks good? Here, Okay,
that looks good. Okay, looks like he's How does he
come down off of this dunk? Right here? It looks

(12:21):
like he's walking. Okay, you know that's how it's gonna go.
But it's it's gonna be scrutinized. And I agree with you.
But here's the question, though, don't you think NBA owners
or general managers have learned their lesson from Kawhi Leonard
and James Harden as far as what well, I mean
you look at god like Kauai Lands a perfect example.
Load management was an issue for him, supposedly in San Antonio.

(12:42):
Did the same exact thing in Toronto. Now they got
away with it with an NBA title. Been the same
thing in Los Angeles with the Clippers. If you see
Zona Williamson being active right now, New Orleans trades him.
Let's say they trade him to a small market. What
if he goes to Minnesota or Houston or Charlotte or Utah.
What if he goes there, he'll it, I won't go,
He'll go, I won't go, or he'll go and he'll
be good for two months tap out and say I

(13:04):
want out again. He'll say I won't go because because
stars have that kind of power. Now, James Harden said, well,
I want to be net. Okay, so guess what, You're
a net. He has that kind of power. This is
where you go because if you can say you're gonna
trade me someplace, but guess what, I ain't going there.
You could trade me to Indiana, but I'm not gonna
sign and I'm not gonna go all right here, here's

(13:24):
here's acceptable places where I will go continue my NBA career.
So he knows that he's got all the power. He
has seen the power plays in front of him from
Harden and Durant and everybody else and Lebron. He knows
how it is and he's he's learned. He's learned from
some pretty shrewd businessman when it comes to here's how
to get what I want to out of my NBA career.
But the one cave is those guys have a resume

(13:46):
and they have leveraged built on that resume. He has
the potential, which is a lot. Yeah, but that's what
I mean. But he's the guy, like I said, he
when you can be shock. People are gonna line up
and say, we can get this guy at twenty one,
not have to worry about a mid care your thing.
And look because the Nets, as much as the Nets
love having Kevin Durant, you know, they're holding their breath
going how much longer does he have hurt? He's thirty three,

(14:08):
thirty four? I mean, how but hey, Zion man, we
can have Zion for a decade plus and oh my god,
how great it's gonna be. No, sometimes you have that
much potential and you can have that kind of sway.
Not many people do, but he does. He has that sway.
John Morant has that sway. A couple of guys do,
but not not many. But yes, he is absolutely in that.
He certainly has New Orleans over the barrel. But you

(14:30):
gotta feel bad for the Pelicans because it's not like
they have It's not like they don't have pieces around
him to support his talent. I mean, they're they're a
playing team right now. If they obviously win tonight, they
get the Clippers. But you have you don't have scrubs
around him, That's my point. Cege McCollum, brandon Ingram. You
have guys around him in a pretty decent sports market.

(14:51):
So if you're the Pelicans, are you forced to just
sit this guy and wait till he's and then activate
him or do you have him force the hand? No,
you you hope that you can change his mind and
get him to stay. But the only thing that changes
his mind is gonna be truckloads of money. Not uh no,
because because if he says and if he thinks, I,

(15:11):
I know I can get money someplace else, whether it's
a sign and trade and I get the exact money
I want, or yeah, I'll take a MAX from another team.
I'm gonna sign for two years and then I'm gonna
get the big max from them after a year. I mean,
he's gonna get that kind of case. So, I mean, look,
he's gonna be the rare guy that is not gonna
stay for the extra money from the team that drafted him.
If I'm more than okay going because I want to

(15:32):
be someplace else, he's gonna go. I'm telling you this,
that's what he's telling us. He's telling all of us
this right now. New Orleans on top of San Antonio
eight to five, early in the second quarter that Jason
Smith Show with David Gascon in for Mike Harmon Twitter
at how about a Fresca Dave at David J. Gascon,
that's David J. Gascont was Was there a David Gascon

(15:53):
that already had a Twitter handle or Dave Gascon right J?
Tons of tons of guys in France with that name
all of a sudden, I'm like, would have been. I'm
not gonna pay anybody for it either. I'm not gonna
go like at the real David J. Gascon. And you know,
my dad's got the uh, he's got the name leverage
on me there, so I can't can't trump him on that.

(16:13):
Uh Sorry. Then 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 app The Jason Smith Show with
My best friend Mike Harmon. Except as you heard, David Gascon,
I'm gonna eat that ass up in tonight. In tonight

(16:37):
for Mike Harmon. Uh, it is a big night in
the NBALL, big night for David Gascon, but also a
big night in the NBA. We watched yet we want
wow Wow Wow dude anything TI shirt man, I'm telling you, dude,
I'm telling you. Man, what I'm telling on the show.

(17:00):
I'm telling you. I'm telling you it's okay, okay. What
I do nothing, nothing, nothing, just figuring out how I
can throw everybody in the show under the bus whenever
I have to, if I really need to do it
to keep my job, Can I do it? Can I? Yes?
I can? You know, you know he realized I can
be a dump button as well. He's short in the
dump button to like five seconds. I did, actually, so

(17:21):
when from five Wait a minute, what how did that
get on the air? I shortened the dump button? Sorry
about that. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. Oh man,
I guess it was all part of a plan. Harmon
had paid him a couple of hundred bucks to uh
sabotage the show tonight. I don't know why, get four
guys fired, and then all of a sudden he's got

(17:43):
the new time slot my car Harmony Harmon just mad
because I said, oh, because he you know, him and
Isaac Lowenkron the other night made up this thing. I
Harmon one Fox Sports Radio Colleague of the Month, and
I'm like, that's not a real award. Oh no, yes
it is. That's that's not an award. I said, let
me see it, let me see the plaque, Let me it.
And suddenly a taped up black and white printer photo

(18:05):
of of of a picture of harm and that just
said the bets are Colleague of the month is put up? Sorry?
Did he go get that thing laminated and graded? As well?
With the rest of not buying a colleague of the month.
The first thing I said was Fox is not good.
It's not gonna go out and spend thirty dollars on
a plaque for that just to be up in the room. Hey,

(18:25):
we got the point. Now we're not. That's not what
we do. That's that's not gonna happen. Would be kind
of nice, though, Yeah, but it's not. But it's not
gonna happen. If you could put colleague of the month,
who would it be? This is what do you mean?
If I okay, if you could be a colleague, if
you can make a colleague of the month, Colleague of
the month should be someone who Let's see, all right, now,
this is good? You asked us before we get to

(18:46):
Baker Mayfield. Um, it's a good I would say. The
most important thing to be colleague of the month is
that the college the person has to do something selfless
that helps the remainder of the peep bullet work up.
But we work in radio. We already doing something selfless.
We're working radio. Yeah, okay, what we got to do

(19:08):
something for the people you work with. That's how you
become you know either you you know you you you
find you find something from something that someone left and
instead of keeping it, you give it back to them. Uh.
You buy food for people one night when everybody is
starving or working. You know, there's different things you can
do to be to be colleague of the mon he
would say, colleague of the monkeys, crossing Ben Miller off

(19:28):
the list. Wow, you do a podcast with Ben? At
least you used to it. He fired me? Did he
fire you? I didn't fire man, but I was channeling
you guys today. I went to the liquor store before
the show started and I was like, this is what
Ben and Jason used to do back in the day
to fight back to chips, A lot of Dr pepper
and mountain dew. We had. We had an entire craft

(19:50):
services board in front of us. We would do shows together.
It would be like, hey, pass me the Hostess cupcake
you'll have right there, and we would just kill him.
We would, we would just kill you. Want a Ben
Maller story, There was one time we did a show together,
and I remember this, and I think I think I
talked about this on his podcast when I was on
a few weeks ago with him. Is that there was
one time we were talking about a topic. I don't
know what it was. I forget what the topic was,

(20:12):
but you know what, we're going back and forth. We're
giving our opinion on him, and he finished talking. I
started to talk, and I didn't talk very like maybe
ninety seconds, you know, ninety seconds or two minutes, you know,
giving my point on it. And in that time he
ate an entire uh a bag of Hostess cupcakes, both
of them. He finished them, down them, was ready to
talk right after, Like it was a ninety second I'm

(20:34):
gonna eat it. They're good. Ones down, boom, another one's down,
and now I'm ready to respond to whatever you have
to say. Take a drink of my soda. I'm ready
to respond whatever you have to say. That was very
impressive by Ben Mouth. Did you feel disrespected, No, I
was pretty impressed, going, wow, I'm gonna finish talking. He's
gonna eat that whole thing. And he crumpled it up
and just threw it right away. And he's looking at me,
nodding his head, you know, as he's chewing. I'm going,
at it's really impressive. And he downed that. He could

(20:57):
have been a competitive eater and it was fantastic, which
is so funny, right, because he did that all the
time back in the day, and now it takes them
five days to eat anything. Like he doesn't eat at all.
He's got like seventy two hours of fasting or ninety
six hours. It's look just like it is in sports.
When you get older, you slow down a bit. Man.
You you think you can still throw that fastball, but
you know you can't. You can't. It's it's just you know, hey,

(21:19):
my fastball was ninety eight. Now it's like three. Now
my fastball is seven. Oh. Now it's harder when you
get older. Man. Sounds like you're given some good support
for Dave Roberts all of a sudden Twitter at, how
about a fresca? Dave at David Jay Gascon The Jason
Smith Show with Dave in from Mike Harmon Tonight show
brought to by one of our favorite cities, Las Vegas,

(21:41):
the greatest arena on Earth. Every game, match, race, and
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Right now, it is all New Orleans playing game in
the Western Conference. They lead San Antonio seventy two fifty five,

(22:02):
eight minutes ago on the third quarter. Still a lot
of time left here, but New Orleans without Zion Williams
and of course having their way with the San Antonio Spurs. Now,
Baker Mayfield's upset, and I get it because he's been
upset for a long time. He's upset. He thought he
was going to be the guy in Cleveland. He didn't
play very well. He was told, well, if we can't

(22:23):
get a superstar in the off season, you're our guy. Okay, Hey,
guess what, We got a superstar. And now Baker Mayfield
is really upset because he's got a plan the rest
of his NFL career someplace else other than Cleveland. He
did a podcast earlier today in which he talked about
how he feels that he is disrespected by Cleveland. No regrets,

(22:43):
but he is disrespected by Cleveland and the Browns. This
is him from the Never Know podcast. I've really, truly,
honestly have no regrets of my time in Cleveland, of
what I tried to give that place and true Clevelanders
and true Browns fans. No know that I feel disrespected
because I was told one thing and they completed another.

(23:05):
That's what I'm in the middle of right now. You
know what, Okay, I got. I got my taste of
it because I've had four different head coaches in four years,
a bunch of different coordinators, talk about the highest they
always come back. Okay, So now let's let's let's understand
Baker Mayfield and how he still has not learned his
lesson about what it means to be an NFL quarterback.
Right So here he is in there saying there's nothing

(23:25):
I would do different. I get wanting that. That's part
of Baker Mayfield's brand. I'm the best. I'm a guy
got a cock sure attitude, and I'm full of swagger,
and I do whatever I want to and I have
no regrets. No, I'm pretty sure if you're really looked
at your career, you would have some regrets. You would
do things differently coming into the league and not trying

(23:46):
to get involved in all your other teammates business when
it comes to contracts, not trying to get involved in
fighting a battle with your head coach, your former head coach,
and Hugh Jackson. You would concentrate on being a big
leader in the locker room. Right. But no, no, no,
I want to show everybody how a guy who's a
walk on quarterback can work hard and do whatever he
wants to. And I'm doing commercials and all these different things.

(24:07):
I'm a star. Uh Yeah, if you're really honest, you
do have regrets. Not that he didn't try as hard
as he could, not that he didn't attack game plans
like he should, not that he didn't try to play
through injuries, which he did. But it's the outside stuff
that really doomed Baker Mayfield. Yes, it's great to have
a cock sure attitude and have that kind of swagger,

(24:28):
but you clearly saw him come in and see that
being a quarterback in the NFL was a little bit
too much for him. You know why, because no other
quarterbacks come in with that kind of attitude. There's a
reason why guys don't come in with that attitude. It
doesn't work as a quarterback. It doesn't. And there's plenty
of people that came in with the same type of
personality as Baker Mayfield, but they understood, you know, I

(24:50):
need to dial it back a little bit because I'm
a quarterback now. It's it's something bigger than me. I
can't just run and plant the flag in the middle
of the field when I want to. I can't grab
my crotch when I'm up at you know, I want to.
I want to show off to the other team. And
that's the kind of game he brought into the NFL,
and he thought, I don't need to worry about changing
because I'm me. No, everybody needs to adjust to a

(25:11):
new surrounding, right Whenever you have a new job. Yeah,
you walk in and you're as much of your personality
as you want to be. But you walk can you
feel things out a little bit because you want to
be able to fit in. You want people to like you,
you want people able to work with you. If you're
Baker Mayfield, you want people to follow you. You want
people to fight. Hey, this is our guy. This is
my quarterback that when things come up and maybe there's
talk of replacing Baker Mayfield, you have all your teammates

(25:34):
going no, no, no, we gotta keep this dude. Man,
he's done so many things. He did X and Y
for me. There was nobody to stand up and do that.
There there was no there was no one to get
in the way and say, hey, maybe we're doing the
wrong thing. Nobody stood up for Baker Mayfield. Why because
they saw the attitude he came in with. They saw
that he was all about himself and that's what came across.
So when it came time to hey we could be

(25:54):
changing quarterbacks, everybody was silent. Right, Mayfield, you can't when
you're a quarterback. You can't come across as a me
me me guy. Other positions can. You can be a
me me guy at wide receiver, mimi guy at running back,
me me guy at defensive back. All these positions you
can be that, right, I'm the best shutdown corner that
you can do. But you can't be that way at quarterback.
Because there's a reason why the top guys get paid

(26:16):
forty million dollars a year, because you need to be
someone that not only does the best you can on
the field, but you have to be a will be
leading that team off it and have everybody in the
right frame of mind ahead playing their best football. That's
on you as a quarterback. But Baker Mayfield didn't get that,
and and he still doesn't get it by saying I
have no regrets, dude, you gotta learn to be a leader.
That's why I say the best place for him is

(26:37):
Tampa Bay. Go and sit for a year and you'll
watch Tom Brady and go, oh wow, man, I really
didn't get what it meant to be an NFL quarterback
right Tampa is the perfect place for him. Don't go
someplace else and try to win a job in Seattle
or someplace else, because if you can't beat out Geno
Smith or Drew Lock or someone like that, you're never
gonna start again. The best thing for him is to go,

(27:00):
get your biscuit, go someplace where you can sit for
a couple of years. No one's gonna talk about you,
and then Brady's gonna retire at some point or leave
Tampa Bay for the Dolphins or whatever wants to go,
and you will either get a chance to be the
starting quarterback in Tampa or another team is gonna see
you as Hey, Baker Mayfield may have it right now,
he's still twenty eight years old. Let's go do it

(27:20):
and he can come in and try to win the job,
just like Trabisky is doing right now in Pittsburgh. Because
Drabinsky went to went to Buffalo, didn't do anything, barely
saw the field. Two years go by, and it's, uh,
maybe the guy's good. Now, who knows he was in
a good system in Buffalo. He understands more, maybe he
gets it. He had time to sit and learn at
Let's get him a shot. So now he could be
the starting quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Right, that's the

(27:41):
best thing for for Mayfield to go. But he's got
to understand and look at himself first and go, yeah,
there's certain things I should have done better. But he
clearly not not admitting that no than than he's showing
that he still doesn't get it, which is the most
baffling thing, right because when you're an NFL player, there
is always someone you want to emulate grown up, whether
you're in high school or were in college. But it's
not like he translated that game or that player that

(28:03):
you want to emulate into his NFL career, right, I
mean the guys that have chirped the most in the
NFL that are quarterbacks would last ten fifteen years. You
can disagree with me all you want on this, but
I'm thinking Baker Mayfield, Cam Newton, Josh Rosen, Jamis Winston. Now,
Winston had a obviously a questionable thirty for thirty campaign,

(28:24):
but Cam Newton was obviously a Heisman Trophy winner, won
a national title at Auburn, and then want a league
MVP and went to the Super Bowl Super Bowl fifties.
So I understand his ascension to where he was able
to chirp quite a bit, but you saw the durability
and how he got banged up. His mouth can support
what he was doing on the field. But Baker Mayfield
was like Ricky Vaughan, Right, He'd have an explosive rookie

(28:45):
campaign and then all of a sudden he just wouldn't change.
And I have no idea why he would not do that.
You had a truckload of talent, not only offensively but
also defensively, so it's pretty easy not to say that
you need a manage the game because I know the
quarterbacks don't want to be called a game manager, but
if you took care of the simple things in life

(29:06):
in that division, one it was takable. And two he
had a wide variety of talent on the outside with
Odell Beckham Jr. Jervis Landry, David Joeku, and then of
course Nick chev and kurmacaream Hunt behind him, So it's
not like it's not like your situation where the cover
was bare. And I think for me, the most baffling
thing was he was fantastic in Oklahoma, played the game

(29:27):
with passion, was a Heisman Trophy winner, came from a
good program, and they just never took that next step
to being a professional. And that's what you want to
see him be. And because I felt like he was
under duress, not only physically but also the pressure of
trying to earn himself a second contract, that's what got
him into trouble. That's what forced him to make bad

(29:49):
mistakes this season. I think that's ultimately what led to
the demise of him not being eventually in Cleveland anymore.
For them to go outside and get a quarterback is
one thing, but to get a quarterback that has a
checkered now recent past and DeShawn Watson. I mean that
has to be the most humbling of things for Baker Mayfield.
And yeah, I like you said, you gotta go somewhere

(30:10):
else where you can reevaluate and do it quietly in
a softer market, because Yeah, the attention he's putting out
there is on himself, and he's doing on his own accord.
It's not like someone's t m z M getting cameras
in his face and putting him in bad situations. He's
done this all to himself. It's self inflicted wounds and
it's unfortunate to see because it's not like he's a
bad talent at all. He's got great skill, maybe a

(30:32):
little undersize, but if you put him in the right
system with the right people around, he can flourish. We've
already seen it. Yeah, No, listen, he's he's one of
those guys on the field if you put talent around him,
he can do okay, Right that we saw last year.
They were this close to beating the Chiefs a year
ago in the playoffs and it was a Baker Mayfield.
They figured it out. Now they've built the team a
different way because what did they do they want. They

(30:53):
brought into sledgehammer running backs and more talent around him,
and all right, this may be the way, Like Baker
is not going to throw us t wins. He just
has to do it once in a while. And then
this year what happened. He regressed and when the all
the weapons weren't elite around him, he couldn't put points
on the board. So yeah, you gotta move on. You
gotta move on. That's part of the business of the NFL.
But I mean, if he would understand what it meant

(31:15):
to be a starting quarterback, he would fight, he would
half his problems would go away. But he still thinks
I don't need it. I have all the answers. He's
a guy that would you say, hey, Baker, he would say,
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know.
That's who he is, right. They used to say, my, my,
my aunts and uncles used to say that about me
all the time when I was a kid. Like they
would say, I try to tell you something, and you
would say, I know, I know, I know, I know.

(31:36):
And I used to do that because I don't tell
me when I know I know these I know these things.
Now I understand when I was a kid, I didn't
know anything. But that's who Baker Mayfield. I know, I know,
I know, I know, I know, I know. I'll do
whatever I want to. Okay, Okay, good luck. And now
look where he is. Doesn't see a second contract with
the Browns, and now he his life as a starter
in the NFL is hanging by a thread. Yeah, it's

(31:56):
on him, man, Which is weird because it's not like
he's gotten many black eyes on his resume outside of
playing in the National Football League, right Like, he doesn't
have some kind of checkered history with law enforcement things.
I know he's gotten a little bit of trouble, but
it's not like he's one of these guys that you're thinking, Oh,
this guy's gonna questionable reputation whatnot. I mean, it's just
it's a locker room thing. It's it's a personality thing.

(32:16):
And I don't know where this leads to with a
guy like this because you look at the divisions right now,
a f C, NFC. Where does he go that he
can revitalize his career, had the tutelage and be humble
enough to say, you know what, I need to shut
up and listen as opposed to speaking out because no
matter where he goes, he's like a poor man's version
of Tim Tebow. He's gonna have spotlight on him and

(32:37):
on the starting quarterback no matter where he goes for
the rest of his career. Tampa Bay go to test
sit behind Brady Tampa Bay. 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 app. I'm George rice Stir,

(32:58):
host of the Rice Ster or Wrong Podcast. This is
the intersection where sports, business, society, and pop culture meet.
The truth, Absolute fire on Monday's, Wednesdays and Friday's Facts Only.
Make sure you check your feelings at the door because
nobs is allowed. We keep it one hundred. This is

(33:19):
where real conversations happen. Listen to the Rights Are Wrong
podcast on the I Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast or
wherever you get your podcasts. Make it stop, Oh, make
it stop, it stop. Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show,

(33:46):
David Gascon and for Mike Harmon, I'm gonna eat that
tiny but as man, it's truly for that Uh. The
Night of the playing games in the NBA is now
over victory of the Hawks and the Pelicans, joining us
now on the hotline. You know him right now as

(34:07):
Fox Sports one NBA insider Rick Buker. He is on
Twitter at Rick Buker, also known as Matt Buker's dad.
What's happening to Rick? How argue? Man? I am doing well,
but I'm not doing as well as the aforementioned Matt Buker.
Matt Buker decided to play lacrosse, so we joined just
in time to go to San Diego for a tournament.

(34:28):
He flies back to the Bay Area and then the
next morning he gets on a plane and he goes
to Poierta, Puerto Varta for for spring break. So, um,
I'm getting videos of him hanging at the beach, jet skiing,
hanging out with his buds, And here I am talking
to you, Jim somewhere my life took a wrong turn. Alright, alright,

(34:52):
note to self, this is the last week to book
Rick Buker. Next week, book Matt Buker. We're clearly talking
to the wrong guy. Hey, you know what I'm I'm
guessing that Matt Bucker is gonna be busy so I
may not be the best buker, but I'm the available buker.
That's that's pretty much how it works. Oh boy, all right, well, listen,

(35:14):
let's let's get to the playing games tonight. And clearly
looked up the best bit of drama before the Pelicans game.
He got Zion throwing down three sixty windmill dunks. Rick.
You know, you and I have talked about it before.
This is him showing the rest of the NBA I'm healthy,
come get me. I can't see him playing for the
Pelicans again, but I gotta show the rest of the
league that I'm healthy. So I'll dunk like this so

(35:37):
they know it's okay to come trade for me. Yeah,
and and but not only that, but it's it's really
it's it's putting it in the face of the New
Orleans Pelicans because GM David Griffin and the medical staff
there have made it clear that you know, they don't
they don't think it's um it's a smart risk to
have him come back and play in the playoffs after

(36:00):
not having played all season long. And so it's it's
it is, as you said, it's the opportunity to say, hey,
I know there's questions about whether I can ever get
on the floor again. Let me show you that I
I can and I can be my same dynamic self.
But I think there's also a bit of um putting
it on on the New Orleans Pelicans and illustrating in

(36:24):
pictures what he won't necessarily say in words, which is
we are not on the same page as all at all,
as far as as me playing. So when it comes
to it and the end of this season comes, is
this going to be a James Harden? This situation is untenable?
Drop the mic? Is it's something where it's more some

(36:47):
feelers are going out. We're gonna wake up one day
in Zions Traded? How is this going to play out?
I wish I could tell you. I don't know. It's
really gonna depend on does do Zion want to try
to get you know deal he wants to get the
max deal in place? Or is he willing just to
go scorts to Earth and say I want out no

(37:08):
matter what um and and if it costs me a
little bit money money in the long run, I'm willing
to do that. I don't know at I don't know
where he is. I don't know where his his counsel
is on that I can I can tell you though
that I mean, for the last year I've been hearing
he's he's going to go elsewhere, that he wants out,

(37:29):
regardless of what he has said, and it's just a
matter it's a matter of when. Um. But there are
teams already trying to figure out what would it take
to get him. And what I'm interested in finding out
is how much what the Pelicans do here if they uh,
you know, if they end up getting in the playoffs
and they have any kind of a showing, I think

(37:50):
it earns David Griffin and the Pelicans a little bit
of license to say, Okay, you don't want to be here.
You know what, we got a pretty good team here.
Let's try to get as much as we can for
Zion and keep this ball rolling. As opposed to ownerships
saying no, no, no, no, we're not a playoff team.
We're not making any playoff money and and you want

(38:13):
to get rid of our bell cow Zion who, regardless
of what the relationship is sales tickets and sponsorships. I
think if they if they end up doing anything, if
they end up in a series and winning a couple
of games. I think that could really color how the
Pelicans approached this with Zion and their willingness to make

(38:35):
a deal rather than being stubborn and saying, you know, no,
you're gonna have to play here. Rick, How does a
guy like Adam Silver rectify this? Because I believe it's
a black eye for the NBA when you have a
premier and up and coming player that's in a non
traditional sports market and he can't stay there even during
his rookie contract. He's not there for the long haul.

(38:55):
So how do you how do you incentivize these players
to stay worth or at or in that same breath
to make sure if they are healthy or at least
look like they're healthy on social media, that they get
on the court, because this doesn't the service to not
only the league itself, but also the fans that are
paying hard earned money to go to these games and
not having the premier talent on the court. Yeah, well,

(39:18):
it's not just Zion. I mean I believe I feel
like it's an epidemic. Um, We've got John Wall sitting
out the season. We've got Ben Simmons sitting out the season. Um,
Kyrie Irving. I I do believe, and and Adam Silver
has hinted at it. Certainly, the the executives and owners

(39:38):
that I've spoken to the next collective bargaining agreement, there
will be some ratification in terms of you gotta something.
I don't know what the plan is at this point.
I don't know how what it will look like. But
in terms of guys getting paid, they're going to have
to play. The tricky part here is that load management
and the medical staff that becomes so powerful in determining

(40:03):
like how much guys can play. And the cynical among
the g ms and the coaches is the medical staff
has gotten so big they have to justify their existence.
So they're they're creating like a guy can only play
thirty two minutes, or this guy's biometrics are hitting a
certain level, so he needs to sit out a game
or not practice today, or whatever it might be. And

(40:24):
so it's going to be navigating what the medical staffs
are saying and what UH and what the league wants
in terms of getting getting guys out there playing. I
I will say this when it comes to um, you know,
all of I don't know with load management and all
of the attention to not overstressing players. I haven't seen

(40:48):
any hard data that says the injuries have gone down,
Like I don't. I don't see guys, those of the
guys getting having any fewer uh you know, big injuries
or missing time or not spraining ankles. I haven't seen
an impact. And it makes me begin to wonder, like,
are we are we micromanaging the player's health and it's

(41:11):
given an out for guys actually not to do their jobs. Well,
maybe the physical component, but what else? What about the
mental I mean, look at Ben Simmons, him obviously trying
to arbitration getting some of that salary back from the
seventies six ers. What's your guts say? And how do
you think the leagu's gonna handle this? Yeah? Look, it's
it's It is such a tricky subject, not just in
the NBA, but I think in all facets of life

(41:34):
and that we've never really addressed mental health. Um and
certainly in sports it's always been you just got a
tough it out. And I you know that we are,
that we are paying attention to it now, I think
is a very good healthy thing. But I also feel

(41:55):
as if now the tendency is the pendulum goes the
other way. And now we're winging with this broad brush
as if no one's ever supposed to have a bad feeling,
no one's ever supposed to have a bad day, no
one's ever supposed to face the situation that is, uh,
that is mentally challenging, and I don't have I don't
have answers to it, um And I don't think the

(42:15):
league does either. That that is, that is something that
is um to be discovered. But I will say I
don't think that Ben Simmons is going to be the
litmus test for that simply because um, and call me cynical,
but the timing of when the mental aspects of him

(42:37):
not playing we're brought to the four. We're only brought
to the four once he started losing money. So I
am I am a bit cynical in that this all began.
I think he does have some phobias when it comes
to like for whatever reason. I mean, I do think
there's a mental hurdle there when it comes to shooting

(42:58):
and and to and to the ball from distance in games.
But we saw Marquel Folks go through the same thing,
and he's come out the other side. And now some
of that was physical, but it's clearly became a mental
issue as well, and that's where all of this becomes
really gray. And I, as I said, I don't have answers,
but I'm not going to use Ben Simmons as the

(43:22):
stalking horse for where and how the league decides to
deal with mental issues. I I the short of it is,
I would be very shocked if Ben Simmons ends up
getting his money because the league wants him to get
his money. I think they're probably gonna side with the
Philadelphia seventy sixers on this one. You have no answers.
The league has no answers. You know who has answers.

(43:43):
Matt Bucker does answers because I have. I am telling you,
without without question, he is he is living. He's living
not his best life, He's living all of our best life.
He could probably solve this on a jet ski in
three seconds. All right. So now more importantly now, now

(44:05):
now that Matt Bucker is out of the house, living
and living his best life and doing things, you have
a lot more free time. When is your interview to
be the Lakers head coach? You know what's funny is
I just did m if I ever considered that as
something I would want to do. I just finished writing
a piece for Fox Sports dot com. I believe it's
up now and it was UM. I talked to some

(44:29):
former coaches on for attribution, not for attribution, talk to
some people in the league, etcetera, etcetera, framed around the
Lakers job, and one former coach fired just in the
last year two said that UM, I wanted to get
to what what is different about coaching in the league today?

(44:50):
And he said, the top three things you have to
be a depth dat as a as a head coach
in the league today, any head coach is social media,
dealing with social media, dealing with the fallout from social media,
UM load management and which means dealing with your medical
medical staff, and dealing with you're not always going to

(45:10):
have your players available when you need them available, UM
and UM. And what was the third SERDA was player empowerment.
And I looked at the Lakers through the prism of
those three things. The Lakers are the number one team
UH followed on on Twitter. On social media, they have

(45:31):
Lebron James, who with a d eighty million followers have
more has more followers than the league itself. And you
have Magic Johnson, a Lakers legend who has five million
followers followers and as we all know, has not been
shy shy on um giving his opinion on the team
on almost a nightly basis, both both critical and praiseworthy.

(45:52):
And so I look at that and I just thought,
you know, you're the Lakers coach, and every day you
walk into the building, you don't know what potential firestorm
has been created on social media that is going to
affect Magic Johnson just ripped Russell Westbrook. Now that's something
I gotta deal with. Magic Johnson just uh took a

(46:15):
shot at Darryl Morey and um, and now has every
Republican in the country or as you know, as is
in a fight with the President of the United States. Um,
that's something I gotta deal with. Like, I just thought,
you know what there there is how do you how
do you end up possible? Like how much money would

(46:35):
it take to deal with that on a daily basis?
And oh, by the way, you're supposed to be winning
and playing for championships with a past their prime but
still very um high profile of all stars on your
on your roster and a front office that you don't
you're not sure exactly who's running the show. I just

(46:59):
I look at a job and as one GM said
to me, I said, so, is there a clear cut
choice like person that they should go after And he
said he said no, because there's because there's so many
elements that you have to deal with there that there's
no way to know what you're gonna be dealing with
on a daily basis. And I think that's why when

(47:20):
you look at all of the candidates, I mean, have
you ever seen such a pot pourri of of candidates
from Juan Howard to Mike Saschowski to two coaches who
are coaching better teams, um, two guys who Mike D'Antoni,
who coached has been fired once by the Lakers already.

(47:40):
I mean, you've got every possible um, You've got every
every possible iteration of a coach that you could possibly
assistant coaches who have never been head coaches. I mean,
you go, it's the entire spectrum. And I think that's
a reflection of nobody has any idea like what coach

(48:02):
could possibly make the Lakers situation a success right now
based on all of the particulars he's on Twitter at
Rick Buker, that is at Rick Buker also has burner account.
Future Lakers head coach. Uh check out his on the
Ball podcast for the differences between Joel and Beat and
Joannice again the on the Ball podcast and Beat and

(48:23):
Janice and also I'm sure Matt Bucker will have a
podcast that is even better will go up at some point. Sure, yeah,
I'm sure. I'm sure he's on a different kind of
social media there. Yeah, for sure. I mean this is
how Matt Bucker would not even consider the Lakers job.

(48:44):
He's got way better things to do. Rick is always funny,
appreciated man. We'll talk to you good man.