February 20, 2023 • 39 mins
On today’s Best of 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe, Brian Noe and Geoff Schwartz fill in for the guys and talk all sports from NBA All-Star weekend to Tiger Woods past weekend! The guys react to the exciting events that took place in Utah and possibilities for the best NBA teams going into the second half of the season. With the NBA heating up with a lot of different action happening around the league the two react to everything going on and much more!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Is the best of two pros and a couple of
Joe with Lamar Areas, Rady Quinn and Jonas Knocks on
Fox Sports Radio. Don't listen to the Fox Sports Radio.
Oh what's going on everybody? Hope you're enjoying your Monday morning. Here.
Lots to get into. Lots of ball. When I say ball,
(00:25):
I mean football. Also All Star weekend in the NBA.
Lot of fun. Tiger Woods maybe making appearance or two
in this shows. I'll have a lot of fun. We're
broadcasting live from the tirect dot com studios. Tirect dot
com will help get you there, an unmatched selection, fast,
free shipping, free road hazard protection, and over ten thousand
(00:45):
recommended installers. Tirect dot com the way tire buying should be.
So we dived straight in with our guy Jeff Schwartz
over here. I tell you what. This isn't quite heavy
metal music in the background, but it's it's Oh it's
the Kissing cousin and one man that I think of
that has a funness in his heart for heavy metal.
(01:06):
Jeff Schwartz, How you doing today? But hey man, I'm
just happy the overhit last night in the All Star Game. Okay,
like I was looking at it. I was like, it
was like three twenty nine and the length. I was like,
you guys like, these guys don't play defense in this game.
Come on, give me the over in it. Um. So
you know, still lack of defense last night happens. But
glad to be here with you, buddy, miss talking talking
(01:27):
football with you yesterday. You ha's a weird transition, right,
You go right from lots and lots of football for
weeks and weeks and weeks to like boom basketball and
then now basketball is off like four days. So, um,
the tradition hits you pretty hard. You know what. That
is a great point right there where I never quite
thought about how stupid the timeline is for the NBA.
(01:50):
Why on earth would you have your All Star break
right after the NFL season ends. What are you doing?
I mean, that's your time to shine. This that's the
weekend where guys like you and me, Jeff, are like
what do I do? Remember like Tom Brady had that
meme what do I do with my hands? Like That's
how we felt this weekend and there was no real NBA.
(02:14):
I mean, it's the same reason they start on on Halloween.
It's the same reason they had four primetime game marquee
games on Christmas when the NFL played like the Packers,
Cowboys and Giants on Christmas, Like it's it's the same
means they never do anything, it feels like for the fans, right,
I mean yeah, Like, would it be great to have
to have had basketball Friday? And it was obviously there
(02:36):
was a condition Saturday that was more entertaining than I
think we've had in the past, especially with a dunk contest.
And then you know the game last night, if you
want to call a game, sure, um, you know it
was as Jalen Brown sad a glorified Layoup line. Um.
And yeah. And then they're off I think until Thursday
or Fridays when they start playing basketball again, and we're
(02:57):
sitting here sports fans like, oh okay, well, I guess
I'll dive deep in a college basketball for the next
four days. It's it's a missed by the NBA not
playing the next couple you know, the next week basically yeah, yeah,
And how about the Rock and the XFL's like all right, cool.
I guess maybe some sports fans that are looking for
(03:17):
something to watch watch our product for a little bit
you know, it's not a bad weekend to launch. It's
all I'm saying. I don't think that you adjusted your
plans to watch XFL Action. I'm just saying, if you
found yourself in front of your TV and there wasn't
a college game to your liking, maybe you watched football
for a couple of minutes. I'll tell you what I
had it on. Um I well, can I I'll give
(03:39):
you a quick a quick brag for a second. I
don't often talk to my son very much about like
my playing career. He was retired, he was two, and
this doesn't come up very much, like I mean, I
played football. But explain to him why I was too
good to play in the XFL was pretty fun. It
was what did that conversation sound like? He was like,
(04:00):
He's like, well, Daddy, why like why That's like He's like,
why can't you play in the XFL. I'm like, I'm like, well,
you know, I was like a legitimate starter in the NFL. Son.
It was like it's like I was like, yeah, I
just so you were you were too good for the XFL. Bad?
Is that what it is? Yeah? Basically he's like he's like,
(04:20):
you were I was like yeah, yeah. Um it's like
it was like he just was like I was like, yeah,
I was, Yeah, I was son, I was He's like, well,
who plays Nancy If. I was like, it's you know,
it's it's it's it's players that were in the NFL.
They're looking to get back in and you know some
college players that haven't made the NFL yet and I'm
(04:40):
looking for their you know, their their their their chance
and so this opportunity for them to still play football
and still chase their their dreams and blah blah blah,
and um. It was. It was a fun conversation. It
was like the one time in like eight years he's
eight and a half now, I was able to like
brag him out my career in front of him. I
don't do a lot of that. I don't just don't need. Yeah,
(05:01):
And it was Week four, so and I was pulling
against the Kids City Chiefs. It was a glorious blood Yeah,
like there's like no port night. Yeah, I just pancake
block Week seven. Um so like yeah, there's just no
point too. So it was pretty funny to explain like
(05:21):
the genesis of the XFL, the the the USFL will
start up in a couple of weeks. But yeah, I
try to put on some XFL. I mean, the scoring
rules and the kickoffs and stuff are different. Um, but
like the highlights right now on Sports Center for the
All Star Game last night, there's like four of them.
There's nothing even to highlight. It wasn't even like a
thing like they just they just ran around the court
(05:43):
and shot the ball, like yeah, yeah. And we didn't
get the cool ending either, because the last couple of
years with the LAM ending where they have the target score,
they don't play a normal fourth quarter. It has been
pretty exciting. It was just out of reach team you
honest came to play last night. But you're right, it
was just I do like I'm gonna sound super old
(06:04):
right now, but don't get me wrong on this one.
I do like how the old school All Star Game,
it was like a legitimate game. Those guys went at it.
It was legitimate competition, and over the years it's just
turned into let's goof around, and some of that is fun.
I did love where Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum, the
Celtics teammates, at the end of the third quarter, they're
(06:25):
just going one on one. That was awesome. That was
the highlight of the game in my opinion. But yeah,
not a whole lot to take away. Damian Lillard, how
he shoots from half court like he's shooting a fifteen
foot mid range shot is insane. So there's some fun moments.
But what do you think about All Star Saturday with
the three point contest? Damian Lillard won that. And Mac
(06:46):
McClung the legend of mac McClung coming from the G
League signing with the Sixers basically so he could wear
a Sixers uniform during the dunk contest and he goes ballistic.
He had three perfect fifties. It was awesome. Matt mcgluan,
what definitely won the weekend, right, I mean his dunks
were incredible. You know you you wonder like can there
(07:07):
you know, can we keep you know, keep seeing new dunks? Right,
like how much new can there be? And then he
brings out I mean they called it a five forty sure, um,
but you know three sixty essentially, right, he jumps over
two dudes told him the ball like it was incredible.
He he brought the best dunks we've seen in a
long time, and um, it was fun. It was entertaining.
(07:30):
And you know, you can always tell in those moments,
you know, when when his team, when when his peers right,
the other players in the league, like how fired up
they are about it, right, and that kind of gives
you a sense of of how much they appreciate it,
which makes me appreciate it almost more, if that makes sense, right. Like, so,
I thought it was great. It was great entertainment. And
(07:50):
I hope, you know, and the Sixers signed him just
for this. I don't know if he's actually gonna play
for them. I hope he does, would be pretty awesome
if he does. Um, So it was. That was a
fun moment, you know, David Lillard in his in his
we we were state uniform getting it done for the
three point shooting contest. Um. You know, it's it's interesting
(08:11):
I had this take about All Star Weekend for UM
baseball and for basketball for the most part, because you know,
the Pro Bowl is the Pro Bowl because it is
the same same way essentially. But I just watched so
much football that I never really paid that to the
Pro Bowl. Is that you know, when we were kids
and there wasn't such access to every game all the time,
(08:34):
that All Star weekend for baseball, especially for baseball. When
I was, you know, more of a baseball fan as
the basketball fan as a kid, and Basketball All Star Game,
it was the first time you saw some players actually
play because of TV, right, like you got. I grew
up in Los Angeles, Like I was watching the Lakers
as a kid, but in the Clippers. But that's like
all I got, right, So yeah, I would see Lakers
(08:56):
play the Bowls when they played in Jordan's but and
then on the weekends, maybe get a a game or
two of the Bulls every now and then, But it
wasn't like you got a ton of watching Michael Jordan
will All Star Weekend was at the time watch Jordan play,
right Like it was time to watch a bunch of
players play that you typically didn't get to see play,
like in baseball, because time I got to watch Ken
Griffey Jr. The Home Run Derby, like right to see
(09:16):
Ken Junior play. Ever, and now you know, you got
turned on the TV and go on social media and
see all these guys playing, like for me, the home
Run Derby, All Star Weekend, Baseball weekend, like some of
these things, like it's not as exciting for me at
least because I watch all the highlights of everyone every
night play and I don't feel it's as special to
(09:37):
watch them play together in this environment because again, I
just watched a bunch of NBA this past week. I
just watch these guys all play all week So maybe
that's just me. I don't know my own mind thinking
about those thing, but I don't. I don't feel the
same way about these weekends as I used to for
those reasons. No, I hear you. It's a good take,
and I never really thought about it that way, but
(09:58):
it makes all the sense in the world. It makes
me think. When I was a kid, I'll never forget, Jeff,
my dad took me out to grab some food, like
grab some pizza. My uncle was in town from Tennessee,
and we went out when the MLB All Star Game
was gonna be on, and I'll never forget. I don't
know how young, I was pretty young, and we're driving
(10:18):
to the place and I was stunned, literally stunned that
cars were driving on the road. I'm like, what are
these people do? And don't they know the MLB All
Star Game is on right now? And but it was
like that because the lack of access. It's a little
a little bit like a peek in the past with
mac McClung in the dunk contest because he had played
(10:40):
two NBA games in his entire career and so there
was no pizzas heading in. You're like mc McClung, they
got to use a G League guy? What is going
on out here? But after he made his first dunk,
and it was like who is this guy? Right, it
was kind of cool not being familiar with him, And
then if you were, I mean there were like tapes
(11:01):
flowing around of the tapes that that's old. Now there
was you a video of him floating around of your
mixtapes of whatnot of him Duncan in high school whatnot.
But again, like you have to kind of be in
the extreme no to see I've seen those, well I've
never seen those before. And so yeah, the excitement of like, oh,
this new kid here right, like the first time? See that?
That's fun? Right, Like again for a three point contest, Yeah, yeah,
(11:24):
I see Deeming the little shoot every night, like I
know we can shoot already. Yeah, Okay, that doesn't excite me,
like like it used to win. Again, there were players
that you know when Also when like Larry Bird was
in the third point contest, that's right, Yeah, it was
like me for Mac, it was wasn't this guy on
the Lakers summer League team with Reeves? And it was like, yeah,
(11:45):
he was, he was. There's an article I read he
he played on like thirty teams, like a hundred fifty
teammates over like a year and a half, like some
insane number over two years. I just amount of the sorry,
thirty cities, thirty cities, and like a hundred of the
teammates he's been in the last like two years, whether
G League, whether your camp invites, whether it was you know,
(12:06):
NBA teams, ten day contracts. During the COVID year, he
had a bunch of bouncing bouncing around ten day deals. Um,
and he's just kind of, you know, kind of slowly
trying to find one place that will give him an opportunity. Now,
I'm not sure this will help. I don't know how
much the dunk contest will help as far as, you know,
actually contributing to a team. But obviously getting your name
(12:28):
out there never hurt, and you know you're you know,
getting national attention can never hurt. So I'm character this
kind of jump starts a career for him in the NBA.
That was the running joke yesterday that I was telling
with Kevin Love. He got bought out by the Calves
and the two teams that he was rumored to go
(12:50):
to was either the seventy Sixers or the Miami Heat.
It was like, well, Philly doesn't have room for Kevin Love.
They got mc McClung. Now, it's like, but what a
thrill for mc McClung because two games in his NBA
career and he was on center freaking stage, He's dunking
in the Dunk Contest and all these stars are courtside.
(13:10):
Janice is like taking videos of mc McClung. You've got Donovan, Mitchell,
and Shack You're getting presented the trophy by Dr Jay. Like,
what a thrill that had to be. That's awesome. That
was really cool this week and I had no interest
what so I'm like, what is going on? No stars
are in the dunk Contest. We got a resort to
(13:31):
mc mccluck and it was one of the best things
for the Dunk Contest ever. This is this is why
we like sports, right, Like, this is like, this is
why this is this is the story that we love
about sports, right, A kid just kind of grinding his
way through the system, right, trying to find a place
as a pro undersized, right, just like kind of trying
to find you know, he's grinding out, sleeping in uh,
(13:54):
you know, and couches and whatnot and try and make
it work. And all of a sudden he is this
one moment and it might not lead to much in
the end, but he has this one moment where the
entire NBA world, all of us are watching him with
a dunk contest when a lot of us didn't know
who he was beforehand. Again, I mean he had you know,
his name has been had been circling in. You know,
if you if you are die hard you know NBA fan,
(14:16):
you you've probably seen his high school videos and whatnot.
I I'm not not all of us pay attention quite
like that. And that's what we love about sports, right,
kind of comes out of nowhere like that, and it's
pretty cool. Yeah, it was. It was really cool. Hey,
still over paying for a razor and this economy gross.
With Dollar Shave Club, you can get a top shelf
shave at a regular shelf price. Dollar Shave club is
(14:39):
available at a store near you, and the men's Razors
Razor Aisle. That's it. That's the ad, all right. We
got a lot to get to Jeff Schwartz. We got
ball on the horizon. We got a little tiger stuff
coming up next. Man, there is a man in the
sports world that I think if Jeff you could get
rid of him, you would. We're gonna compare notes. If
(15:00):
you could get rid of anybody in the sports world,
not like you know, like they're they're dead or any like,
they're just removed from the sports world, who would you choose?
I think I might know who's on your list, but
we'll compare notes. Right around the corner. I'm Brian, No,
he's Jeff Schwartz. We're in for two pros and a
cup of Joe right here on Fox Sports Radio, Polly
(15:21):
Foustco here with Tony Fusco. As you all know, we're
the host of the number one rated show in all
of sports talk, The Folly and Tony Fusco Show Numero
No Yeah, And we know why millions of people tune
in every week. They want to hear us talk sports,
not idiot guests who think they know more about sports
than we don't he listened to these dummies you don't
(15:42):
know crap about. This is the worst things off the
shop that you don't know. If you want to hear
how sports talk should be done, listen to the Folly
and Tony Fusco Show on the I Hot Radio app,
Apple podcast or ever you get your podcasts. I'm probably no.
He's Jeff Schwartz here on Fox Sports Radio in for
(16:04):
two pros and a cup of Joe. We're live from
the Tirac dot com studios. So Jeff Tiger Woods. He
made the cut at the Genesis Invitational, finished up the weekend.
UH finished minus one for the entire tournament, tied for
forty five. But it was a blend, right, It was
a mixed bag. It was good at times, it was bad.
(16:26):
At other times it was ugly. But he made it
through the entire tournament, which is nice. He had five
bogies in the final round, but make some birdies in
there over the four day tournament. So it's just one
of these deals where I think we've gotten so much
less crotchety when it comes to our expectations of tiger Woods,
and it's refreshing, because goodness, man. For over a decade,
(16:49):
it was just about he hasn't won a major, what's
going on? Why hasn't he done this? What? Man? Man?
And now we're just happy if he makes a cut,
if he has a nice round, We're like, hey, look
at tie. You're right, it's much more. We loosen the
top button and it's just like happy hour now when
it comes to our expectations with Tiger. But definitely don't
(17:09):
don't hand your friend a joke, a gag gift though
on the on the opening hole, then get people very
angry at you. Um so, look, I think we're happy
that he finished a full, full tournament, right like they
were just excited to see Tiger back on the prol
Like this gets me excited for for augusta Like, come on, Tiger,
like he did playing full full four days. He was
(17:34):
in contention on Sunday obviously wasn't you know, the leader
of having finished seventeen under so it wasn't close to winning.
But I think we like seeing Tiger back and continue
playing on Sunday, right like it's for a look for
a lot of us our golf fandom, us my age
or I'm thirty six and um a lot of us
are golf I think said with you, Brian, our golf
fandom is basically watching Tiger as a kid, right like
(17:57):
that was my golf fandom was watching Tiger and Phi,
but more Tiger and watching him dominate golf for years
and years and years. As a kid. I was not
a golf fan. I was a Tiger fan. And when
Tiger plays, I watched Tiger plays, I'm a Tiger fan.
And when he's good bad, I'm gonna watch Tiger play
(18:19):
because he could do things on the golf course that
others still cannot do. And so when he's playing well,
it's fun to watch because you've kind of had that
that childhood attachment, that feeling from when you watched him
play when you were a child, and so there's just
something different about watching Tiger play. And you know, I
think people are rooting for him now because of you know,
his leg injury and the comeback he's trying to make
(18:42):
from that. Now, he probably will never win again. Maybe
he'll he'll pop up and he'll win a tournament here
or there, but getting through four rounds with his leg
is impressive. He wasn't able to do that much last
season and Now we'll see if he's able to compete
the rest of the year. But it was nice to
have them back on the tournament um and it's good
(19:03):
for the golf because for a lot of us, again
we watched golf. We watched golf because the Tiger, and
a lot of eyeballs were to the tournament this week
to see Tiger. We end up watching some really good
golf and some golfers have some good rounds because of Tiger.
Kind of was the reason we got to the TV. Yeah,
there you go. That's a good point right there. And
it is kind of crazy where you saw a Tiger
(19:24):
limping around a lot more yesterday on Sunday the final round,
and he talked about that. Here's one of the thoughts
that Tiger shared after the tournament. The reality is, I
really really won't be able to play much. I can
do cards at home, I can I can do I
can do that. I can hit balls chipped and pott.
But as as I said, his time and intention and
(19:45):
go ahead and get in your eight to ten miles
of walking in and then the concentration that it then
it takes. It's kind of crazy to me, Jeff, is
I think you get used to other sports and you
just don't have an equivalent real you know, like if
you think about football, you couldn't say, oh, you know,
I can still I can still whatever I can still.
(20:08):
If you're I'm a linebacker, I can still you know,
make hits, I can make tackles. But it's just the
walking part that is bothering me, you know what I mean,
Like it doesn't really translate, but it's true in golf.
So I this is a really bad comparison. I'm not
Tucker once, but I have I've had three surgeries on
my left ankle, all right, Brooke my fract just kidding
(20:29):
my ankle when I was playing. A second surgery to
remove a couple of screws that broke in there. And
then I had a third surgeryich remove a plate and
then remove extra tendant I had in my ankle that
was giving me some problems. Oh within a year. And
so that's that. You know, I'm a right handed golfer,
and I don't golf off at fifteen times twenty times
(20:50):
a year, but like dude, after eighteen and I drink,
my ankle is destroyed, like destroyed. And and again like
that's just me. Like, I'm like, and I work out
like I'm after this, I'm gonna go to jail, Like
I like, I stay in good physical shape. I couldn't
imagine having Tiger's leg injury. Man walking eight miles and
(21:12):
then trying to that torque on the leg when you
know the way I'm not. I'm not driving the ball
with a hundred and seventeen miles an hour. It's like
a seven miles an hour, right, Like, I'm like, it's
so there's a lot of wear or tear that he
has on that leg through four rounds. I'm not surprised
he was in a lot of pain. But you know
that he can technically qualify to write a cart on
(21:35):
on on That's well, that's why I get it, man,
I totally get that. It's just for golf. It's like
if you could have Tiger extend his career, he can
ride a car. Man, he just won't do it. He
just it's right there. I think, yeah, hey, man, I
get it. And its goal is to compete in all
four majors, So hopefully that happens would be great for golf.
(21:56):
If that's the case, be sure to catch live editions
of two pros and a cup of Joe with Brady Quinn,
LaVar Errington, and Jonas Knocks week days at six am Eastern,
three am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio. Oh what's going on everybody? Hope you're enjoying
your Monday, maybe your Monday off. With this being Presidents,
(22:17):
they were broadcasting live from the tire rack dot Com studios.
Ti irac dot com will help get you there an
unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road hazard protection, and
over ten thousand recommended installers. Ti rac dot com the
way tire buying should be in for the two pros
and a cup of Joe crew, I'm Brian No, he's
(22:37):
Jeff Schwartz. It's one pro and a cup of no
apparently today what we're rolling with that? Yeah that works.
How about this? Well you have okay, Yeah, it works.
We'll make it. We'll roll with that. If we look
to the NBA, there's something interesting that happened over the weekend.
(22:58):
So you have Adam Silver and be a commissioner who
on one side says public trade demands are corrosive to
the system, is what he said. This is so when
you have star players making public trade demands. I want
to be out of you. I don't want to be
in Brooklyn anymore. Like Kyrie did Adam Silver sets. It's
corrosive to the system. Meanwhile, you've got players like Kyrie
(23:20):
and Kevin Durant among others that say it's good for
the NBA. It's fine. I'll give you a taste of
what Kevin Durant had to say and will compare notes.
Here's k D. I don't think it's bad for the
League's bringing more asks to the league, More people are
more excited. The tweets that I got in the news,
hits that we got from me being traded, Kyrie being traded,
(23:40):
just bring more attention to the league. And that's really
what makes you money, is when you get more attention. So, um,
I think it's great for the league, to be honest,
team has been trading players and making acquisitions for a
long time now. When a player can you know, uh,
kind of dictate where he wants to go and leaving
free agency or demand that. It's just part of the
(24:01):
game now. So I don't think it's a bad thing.
Is bringing more and more excitement into the game. You
buy that, Jeff, what do you think about k D
what he said, right, there is there one chance that
he has Google alert set up for himself or the
way he talked about like the engagement going up, and
like news articles mentioning him when he cant traded, just
like look a Google alert. The Phoenix Sun blog dot
(24:23):
org mentioned me everybody, Um, look, yeah, you're gonna get
more attention with public trade demands. Um. The thing about
it is, it doesn't really bother me either way, right,
I Mean it's a player's league. The players run the
n b A and so they're gonna be able to
(24:45):
to kind of get and control narratives better than other
sports can. But here's the thing though, is that and
I'm sober. If if you're upset about it, go go
talk to the ownership that just trades the players as
soon as they have trade demands. Right, that's a good point.
If if you don't want this to be the way
the NBA is run, then don't have it run this way.
(25:06):
If you're an NFL player and you say trade me,
Now it's changed a little bit, But for a long
time NFL teams were like, yeah, I know, we're not
doing that. They said that to Baker Mayfield initially, remember
that wasn't that long ago. Baker went to the Browns
and said, trade me. You guys are flirting with Deshaun
wattson Amati here and they're like, no, we're not doing it.
(25:27):
Now they landed Deshaun and then they traded him, but
initially they're like, no, tough, Yeah, we're not doing that. Um.
And but the NBA allows guys to be traded when
they have trade demands. And so if the ownership, if
if the Nets ownership was like, yeah, we're not trading you, Kyrie,
well let's stop, that would stop Kevin Durant from you know,
asking out right like it would. So if NBY owners
(25:51):
did not acquiesced all the time to trade demands, we
can see less trade demands. But to me, this is
what the sport is. It's a player's sport, right, It's
a sport controled by the player. And so you know
they're super teams that are that are formed their teams
that you know players wanted to play with other well,
other players like them. We give him an opportunity to
Kevin Durant. It was his press conference every day when
(26:12):
he got to Phoenix, UM, talking about you'll be able
to play with with Paul Booker and Aiden like, the
ability to play kind of on the super team again,
which he's really only played for right the Thunder and
the Warriors and the Nets and now in Phoenix. You
know this is what this is what the NBA is,
and so it doesn't really bother me. I mean, Keimer
Durant is certainly right. It does. It does give the
(26:34):
NBA more attention. I'm not sure the attention is always
positive attention, but he's writing attention his attention though, I
mean more people taught the NBA when Kevin Durank gets
traded then when not the one doesn't get traded. Yeah,
I certainly see both sides of this because I can
see from the player's standpoint saying, let me get this straight.
So ownership has the power to trade us whenever they want,
(26:55):
as long as there is in a no trade uh clause,
and most players don't have that. You have to be
around for a while to be able to even qualify
for something like that. So if ownership wants to trade you,
were traded, so they have power and we have power
to now, so fair is fair if we can exercise
some of our power and force our way out. And yeah,
(27:16):
what's good for the goose is good for the gander
Schwartz right, Like, that's what we're saying here. But the
other side of that is ownership is saying it's and
it's the point that Adam Selver Is is highlighting is
public trade demands. If you publicly say that, you don't
go to the organization and say, hey, man, I want
out of here, but the media doesn't know about it.
(27:36):
It's a lot of there's a big difference between going
public and saying give me out of here, I want
out of here, and that hurts the value you can
get in return. So I understand that side of the argument. Also, yeah,
look what's hurting in the n b A is the
load management issue, not players, you know, publicly demanding trade
requests that I mean that of course, you know, the
(28:00):
doing so demanding trade requests. Obviously putting in the media,
depending what market you're in, definitely helps, right there's obviously
players wouldn't do it. Um, you know, it doesn't help
because you know, the NETS owner gets mean tweets sent
his way. Maybe he didn't care about that, but you know,
the pressure becomes, you know, more from a bunch of people.
(28:20):
When Kyrie Iveran says I want to trade right, just
it just does when you say it publicly and you
make it known, and because more pressured to get it done,
because then the questions become asked on NonStop to you.
Right then you become asked to your players and your
coaches and your staff members and the ownership, and just
becomes the endless cycle of warretory training and what are
your training them? What? You know, what's your thought processing?
Becomes a distraction you don't want right. But to me,
(28:42):
the load management issue is is a far bigger problem
for the NBA than publicly players publicly demanding trades um
and that I don't have a solution for that other
than shorting this season up what they don't want to
do because then everyone makes less money. But you know,
not knowing who's playing a given night, I'm going to
my first NBA game this weekend. Normally I kind of
(29:04):
hold off on NBA games till football's over. I don't
have time. And you know, the Hornets stinks. I'm not
really worried about he was playing for the Hornets, but
like you know, I just don't know if the visiting
team is gonna play all their starters. It's kind of sucks, like, yeah, right,
if that's your first game, you want to see the
best at their best. Last two was the it was
(29:26):
Lakers two years ago and A D and Lebron both
didn't play. Well. Yeah, like I'm not going again to
like I didn't go this year. I didn't want to go.
It was on it was on the same it was
January second, so the same day as the Rose Ball.
I wasn't going. It wasn't missing football for and Lebron
played and scored like forty five points too. He was
like a great game for Lebron, but like I wasn't sure,
Like is he gonna play? He's not gonna play. That's tough, right,
(29:49):
Like you just don't know. And what do you do
as a league if if a team says, you know,
he's got a calf soreness, he's got some back tightness,
so you know, like, were they gonna say no, he doesn't?
We know? That's bs Like it comes down it really
comes down to the player pride and wanting to play.
It's really there's there's nothing. There's nothing that he can do.
(30:11):
There really is nothing. Um, you can't because you can't
to your point, like the injury report, you just say
you have a sore ankle, a sore foot, a rist
is sore, my hurt my finger, like in the league,
cannot dispute that. That's not worth disputing. Um, you know
the NFL. Recently, the NFL find Cam Jordan's of the
(30:34):
Saints fifty dollars were faking an injury in a game,
like a week sixteen game. They were sending the fine
kind of quietly about about I think during super Bowl week.
And the reason they were sitting the fine is you
know they the Saint said he was hurt. I mean,
how do you dispute that now? So I think he
was faking the injury. It looked like he was okay.
It was a defensive quote was like go down, like
(30:55):
waven go down right now. Top Brady's on the field.
But again, like if if the sat staff said he
had a cramp or yeah, his foot was hurting him,
how do you actually that you prove it? Yeah, you don't.
You don't improve that. So if you're if you're let's
use Lebron and he's sitting on in a game, and
the and the Lakers saying he's got a sore foot.
(31:16):
How do you prove that? And that's the thing is
it's one thing. If it's during the game, and let's
just say there was a penalty attached to it, it's
a fifteen yard penalty. Uh, I mean that's gonna stand.
You can't go back in time and redo that. But
if it's a fine, yeah, that can be disputed and
you've got to prove it and the NFL can't um.
(31:38):
But that's the thing. If you apply it to NBA standards,
when it becomes a fine, when it becomes a punishment
after the game, you gotta have something to support that.
If you there's some sort of punishment during it, I
don't even know how you do that. What can you do?
You you hit it. It comes down to player pride,
and if players see the benefits of taking some nights
(31:59):
off where they're fresh for the playoffs, they're extending their careers.
It makes way more sense to make more money in
the long haul. Like if they see all the reasons
to load manage, why wouldn't they, you know, And if
there's no punishment, there's no deterrent. It's just going to
continue to happen. And there's no deterrent, right because they're
(32:20):
making money hand over fist right there, Like there's no
there's no reason, you know, they're making tons of money.
People are watching the NBA um and there's no they
don't there's no they don't see any punishment from this.
Like fans are still like again there's oh Jeff Schwartz
(32:41):
doesn't go to a game, Oh my god, we have
to change their policy. As Jeff Swarts doesn't go to
one game a year now, right, like you know, like, oh,
he doesn't spend the two dollars to get good Laker
tickets when the Lakers show up in Charlotte, you know,
I mean like there's not enough, there's not enough. But
but you know, but I really do feel bad, like
I can afford I'm lucky in a position where I
(33:01):
can afford to like, Okay, I spent two it was
to two bucks on a ticket. It was my sons
are FROs on tickets, right, I can luckily, I can
afford that I can afford that to like that my
experience to be crummy. But a lot of people can't
write if you're if you're even you know, if you're
if you save up all your to go to one game,
(33:22):
and that one game is to watch so and so
come the town and that player doesn't play. That stinks, man,
that's terrible. And you're you're gonna lose that fan. You're
gonna lose that fan because your star did not play.
And I feel bad for that, for that family that's
(33:42):
spent all the thousand dollars to tickets and and driving
and fuel and and food and whatnot hotel. Maybe that's
a tough conversation too. You were talking earlier, Jeff about
like expanding explaining the end of the Daytona five hundred
to your kid, you know, Nascar in general, or like
(34:02):
why you were good enough to not have to play
in the XFL. Yeah, but if you're having a load
management conversation with your eight year old, that that's not
a conversation you want to have as a dad, you know.
And there are a lot of dad's having those conversations. Man.
I'm curious what you think about the playoff picture though.
If you look at the West and how a lot
(34:24):
of these teams are jumpled up, you start looking at
this thing. Nuggets in first place right now, they're certainly
gonna be a tough out the Sons. Now that they
have k D He's expected to play this week, that's
gonna be a lot of fun Kyrie now in Dallas
with Luca and I think the wild card team the Clippers.
Clippers are a deep team. They have their stars in
(34:45):
Kauai and Paul George back. But we're talking about the
load management thing. Do they have the chemistry, the continuity
when they're taking a lot of nights off. I can't
wait for the playoffs in general, but especially out West,
so Deniver continue he fails in the post season. I
don't know how you can really believe in them, even
though that they're the one seed right now, Like, what
about their past makes you feel like they can beat
(35:07):
the Sun's right, I don't like, I don't know, I
mean like right, like's not hope and in prayer and wishing,
I mean the Sun's death possibly. But you put the
Suns together and this next games they have three games left,
is about finding their rhythm, right with Durant, with Chris Paul,
with Booker and a kind of finding Now they're gonna
(35:29):
play seven guys, eight guys, that's about all they have.
But in the playoffs, that's all you need, right, more
than that, So it's finding the rhythm. Now they're gonna
probably get no higher than the three seed, but doesn't
matter to me. It doesn't matter, like just getting the playoffs,
feel good about yourself and then just make it happen
in the playoffs. How about the Warriors get Steph Curry
back at some point, just like last year, right, get
(35:50):
healthy and then boom, take off the Lakers. The Lakers
are two out of the playing game. They probably won't
get out of the playing game range or probably between
seven and ten. But I they make the playoffs. How
about them? They just beat the Pelicans finally with a
full kind of healthy roster if they get older guys playing,
playing in the right direction, all healthy of course, always
(36:11):
a question with with with a D. Yeah, Lebron, they're
gonna be. They're gonna be a playoff team. Now, are
they winning the championship? No? But are you telling me
that the Nuggets don't want to see the Lakers in
Round one? I know it, right, I know. Can you imagine,
like your round one matchup, you might have the best
record in the league. It's possible Nuggets are right there
(36:32):
if you have the number one seed in the West,
and you have to face a healthy Lebron, a healthy
a d a healthy D'Angelo Russell that there are a
lot worse. There're a lot better situations in your first
round matchup than that. Yeah, so you know there's a
lot The West is a is a ton of fun
to see kind of where these teams pan out. As
(36:52):
I mentioned earlier, the King's probably don't stay the three seed,
but they're in the playoffs, so they break a big playoff,
big playoffs streak. The Pelicans that imagine fall out without
Zion in there as well. And the Eastern Conference is
really in my opinion, I mean, it's a three team race,
but really the Celtics and Bucks are the two teams
I see coming out of the East at the moment um,
just because the Sixers can see kind of same with
(37:14):
the Nuggets, right like great, great, great regular season, kind
of fulls goal in the postseason. I think that, uh,
in the West, you're gonna get a lot of sons predictions,
not just because you think they've got a ton of
top end talent, which they do, but you just don't
want to sound like an idiot if you're wrong, you know,
I think there are a lot of picks that are
made that way where you don't want the Sons to
(37:37):
make it to the finals when you picked the Nuggets
or the Clippers, you know what I mean. So I
think there's a lot of people are just gonna roll
with the Suns were worst case scenario. If they're wrong,
they don't sound like a moron if that's the way
it ends up. I have. But you have when the
best point guards of all time, right, who's obviously aging
a little bit, Chris Paul, But you have the best
player in the NBA and Kevin Durant. I mean, like
(37:59):
that's not a accommodation that you have Devin Booker and
any of eight, and like you have a good core
group of players. I mean it's easy to pick them
if they're playing good basketball and healthy and they're entering
the playoffs. That's the recipe, right, You typically have to
have two Hall of Fame players to win a championship.
(38:20):
That's sort of like the baseline to to win to
win a championship. Deva doesn't have that as of right now,
right um, and the Suns do. And I can see
why people would pick the Suns to win, to win
the championship. Plus they've been there, right, They've been close,
haven't been able to pull off quite yet. You know,
adding Kevin Durant gets an even closer. The final push
here after the All Star Break is gonna be a
(38:42):
lot of fun. And you mentioned the Warriors the defending champs.
It's crazy. I know they've had their injuries that Curry's
missed a lot of time, we get it. But to
be five hundred right now and seven at home, seven
and twenty two on the road, Like, we know they're
the Warriors and they're the defending champs and best the
seven Eries when you don't have home court, is that
(39:02):
gonna be a deep run for them this season? It's not.
They kind of strike me as a team that is
like disinterested in the regular season. Yeah, I just it
doesn't feel like the season that where they just turn
it on where it's like probably off times steps back
we're good. Yeah, but it's Steph Curry like squad back. Yeah,
(39:23):
you're probably not bet against the Warriors, um in uh,
but the West is gonna be so much fun the postseason, man,
it's gonna be great. Can we get Warriors Grizzlies first
round matchup. Can we make that happen? That would be tremendous.
That's the one reason why I want Dylan Brooks to
be around. If playing the Warriors. Everything, I'm done. I'm done.
(39:45):
He's costingly too much money. I've been on him steaks,
I bet against him. He's good. I don't know.
Is the best of two pros and a couple of
Joe with Lamar Areas, Rady Quinn and Jonas Knocks on
Fox Sports Radio. Don't listen to the Fox Sports Radio.
Oh what's going on everybody? Hope you're enjoying your Monday morning. Here.
Lots to get into. Lots of ball. When I say ball,
(00:25):
I mean football. Also All Star weekend in the NBA.
Lot of fun. Tiger Woods maybe making appearance or two
in this shows. I'll have a lot of fun. We're
broadcasting live from the tirect dot com studios. Tirect dot
com will help get you there, an unmatched selection, fast,
free shipping, free road hazard protection, and over ten thousand
(00:45):
recommended installers. Tirect dot com the way tire buying should be.
So we dived straight in with our guy Jeff Schwartz
over here. I tell you what. This isn't quite heavy
metal music in the background, but it's it's Oh it's
the Kissing cousin and one man that I think of
that has a funness in his heart for heavy metal.
(01:06):
Jeff Schwartz, How you doing today? But hey man, I'm
just happy the overhit last night in the All Star Game. Okay,
like I was looking at it. I was like, it
was like three twenty nine and the length. I was like,
you guys like, these guys don't play defense in this game.
Come on, give me the over in it. Um. So
you know, still lack of defense last night happens. But
glad to be here with you, buddy, miss talking talking
(01:27):
football with you yesterday. You ha's a weird transition, right,
You go right from lots and lots of football for
weeks and weeks and weeks to like boom basketball and
then now basketball is off like four days. So, um,
the tradition hits you pretty hard. You know what. That
is a great point right there where I never quite
thought about how stupid the timeline is for the NBA.
(01:50):
Why on earth would you have your All Star break
right after the NFL season ends. What are you doing?
I mean, that's your time to shine. This that's the
weekend where guys like you and me, Jeff, are like
what do I do? Remember like Tom Brady had that
meme what do I do with my hands? Like That's
how we felt this weekend and there was no real NBA.
(02:14):
I mean, it's the same reason they start on on Halloween.
It's the same reason they had four primetime game marquee
games on Christmas when the NFL played like the Packers,
Cowboys and Giants on Christmas, Like it's it's the same
means they never do anything, it feels like for the fans, right,
I mean yeah, Like, would it be great to have
to have had basketball Friday? And it was obviously there
(02:36):
was a condition Saturday that was more entertaining than I
think we've had in the past, especially with a dunk contest.
And then you know the game last night, if you
want to call a game, sure, um, you know it
was as Jalen Brown sad a glorified Layoup line. Um.
And yeah. And then they're off I think until Thursday
or Fridays when they start playing basketball again, and we're
(02:57):
sitting here sports fans like, oh okay, well, I guess
I'll dive deep in a college basketball for the next
four days. It's it's a missed by the NBA not
playing the next couple you know, the next week basically yeah, yeah,
And how about the Rock and the XFL's like all right, cool.
I guess maybe some sports fans that are looking for
(03:17):
something to watch watch our product for a little bit
you know, it's not a bad weekend to launch. It's
all I'm saying. I don't think that you adjusted your
plans to watch XFL Action. I'm just saying, if you
found yourself in front of your TV and there wasn't
a college game to your liking, maybe you watched football
for a couple of minutes. I'll tell you what I
had it on. Um I well, can I I'll give
(03:39):
you a quick a quick brag for a second. I
don't often talk to my son very much about like
my playing career. He was retired, he was two, and
this doesn't come up very much, like I mean, I
played football. But explain to him why I was too
good to play in the XFL was pretty fun. It
was what did that conversation sound like? He was like,
(04:00):
He's like, well, Daddy, why like why That's like He's like,
why can't you play in the XFL. I'm like, I'm like, well,
you know, I was like a legitimate starter in the NFL. Son.
It was like it's like I was like, yeah, I
just so you were you were too good for the XFL. Bad?
Is that what it is? Yeah? Basically he's like he's like,
(04:20):
you were I was like yeah, yeah. Um it's like
it was like he just was like I was like, yeah,
I was, Yeah, I was son, I was He's like, well,
who plays Nancy If. I was like, it's you know,
it's it's it's it's players that were in the NFL.
They're looking to get back in and you know some
college players that haven't made the NFL yet and I'm
(04:40):
looking for their you know, their their their their chance
and so this opportunity for them to still play football
and still chase their their dreams and blah blah blah,
and um. It was. It was a fun conversation. It
was like the one time in like eight years he's
eight and a half now, I was able to like
brag him out my career in front of him. I
don't do a lot of that. I don't just don't need. Yeah,
(05:01):
And it was Week four, so and I was pulling
against the Kids City Chiefs. It was a glorious blood Yeah,
like there's like no port night. Yeah, I just pancake
block Week seven. Um so like yeah, there's just no
point too. So it was pretty funny to explain like
(05:21):
the genesis of the XFL, the the the USFL will
start up in a couple of weeks. But yeah, I
try to put on some XFL. I mean, the scoring
rules and the kickoffs and stuff are different. Um, but
like the highlights right now on Sports Center for the
All Star Game last night, there's like four of them.
There's nothing even to highlight. It wasn't even like a
thing like they just they just ran around the court
(05:43):
and shot the ball, like yeah, yeah. And we didn't
get the cool ending either, because the last couple of
years with the LAM ending where they have the target score,
they don't play a normal fourth quarter. It has been
pretty exciting. It was just out of reach team you
honest came to play last night. But you're right, it
was just I do like I'm gonna sound super old
(06:04):
right now, but don't get me wrong on this one.
I do like how the old school All Star Game,
it was like a legitimate game. Those guys went at it.
It was legitimate competition, and over the years it's just
turned into let's goof around, and some of that is fun.
I did love where Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum, the
Celtics teammates, at the end of the third quarter, they're
(06:25):
just going one on one. That was awesome. That was
the highlight of the game in my opinion. But yeah,
not a whole lot to take away. Damian Lillard, how
he shoots from half court like he's shooting a fifteen
foot mid range shot is insane. So there's some fun moments.
But what do you think about All Star Saturday with
the three point contest? Damian Lillard won that. And Mac
(06:46):
McClung the legend of mac McClung coming from the G
League signing with the Sixers basically so he could wear
a Sixers uniform during the dunk contest and he goes ballistic.
He had three perfect fifties. It was awesome. Matt mcgluan,
what definitely won the weekend, right, I mean his dunks
were incredible. You know you you wonder like can there
(07:07):
you know, can we keep you know, keep seeing new dunks? Right,
like how much new can there be? And then he
brings out I mean they called it a five forty sure, um,
but you know three sixty essentially, right, he jumps over
two dudes told him the ball like it was incredible.
He he brought the best dunks we've seen in a
long time, and um, it was fun. It was entertaining.
(07:30):
And you know, you can always tell in those moments,
you know, when when his team, when when his peers right,
the other players in the league, like how fired up
they are about it, right, and that kind of gives
you a sense of of how much they appreciate it,
which makes me appreciate it almost more, if that makes sense, right. Like, so,
I thought it was great. It was great entertainment. And
(07:50):
I hope, you know, and the Sixers signed him just
for this. I don't know if he's actually gonna play
for them. I hope he does, would be pretty awesome
if he does. Um, So it was. That was a
fun moment, you know, David Lillard in his in his
we we were state uniform getting it done for the
three point shooting contest. Um. You know, it's it's interesting
(08:11):
I had this take about All Star Weekend for UM
baseball and for basketball for the most part, because you know,
the Pro Bowl is the Pro Bowl because it is
the same same way essentially. But I just watched so
much football that I never really paid that to the
Pro Bowl. Is that you know, when we were kids
and there wasn't such access to every game all the time,
(08:34):
that All Star weekend for baseball, especially for baseball. When
I was, you know, more of a baseball fan as
the basketball fan as a kid, and Basketball All Star Game,
it was the first time you saw some players actually
play because of TV, right, like you got. I grew
up in Los Angeles, Like I was watching the Lakers
as a kid, but in the Clippers. But that's like
all I got, right, So yeah, I would see Lakers
(08:56):
play the Bowls when they played in Jordan's but and
then on the weekends, maybe get a a game or
two of the Bulls every now and then, But it
wasn't like you got a ton of watching Michael Jordan
will All Star Weekend was at the time watch Jordan play,
right Like it was time to watch a bunch of
players play that you typically didn't get to see play,
like in baseball, because time I got to watch Ken
Griffey Jr. The Home Run Derby, like right to see
(09:16):
Ken Junior play. Ever, and now you know, you got
turned on the TV and go on social media and
see all these guys playing, like for me, the home
Run Derby, All Star Weekend, Baseball weekend, like some of
these things, like it's not as exciting for me at
least because I watch all the highlights of everyone every
night play and I don't feel it's as special to
(09:37):
watch them play together in this environment because again, I
just watched a bunch of NBA this past week. I
just watch these guys all play all week So maybe
that's just me. I don't know my own mind thinking
about those thing, but I don't. I don't feel the
same way about these weekends as I used to for
those reasons. No, I hear you. It's a good take,
and I never really thought about it that way, but
(09:58):
it makes all the sense in the world. It makes
me think. When I was a kid, I'll never forget, Jeff,
my dad took me out to grab some food, like
grab some pizza. My uncle was in town from Tennessee,
and we went out when the MLB All Star Game
was gonna be on, and I'll never forget. I don't
know how young, I was pretty young, and we're driving
(10:18):
to the place and I was stunned, literally stunned that
cars were driving on the road. I'm like, what are
these people do? And don't they know the MLB All
Star Game is on right now? And but it was
like that because the lack of access. It's a little
a little bit like a peek in the past with
mac McClung in the dunk contest because he had played
(10:40):
two NBA games in his entire career and so there
was no pizzas heading in. You're like mc McClung, they
got to use a G League guy? What is going
on out here? But after he made his first dunk,
and it was like who is this guy? Right, it
was kind of cool not being familiar with him, And
then if you were, I mean there were like tapes
(11:01):
flowing around of the tapes that that's old. Now there
was you a video of him floating around of your
mixtapes of whatnot of him Duncan in high school whatnot.
But again, like you have to kind of be in
the extreme no to see I've seen those, well I've
never seen those before. And so yeah, the excitement of like, oh,
this new kid here right, like the first time? See that?
That's fun? Right, Like again for a three point contest, Yeah, yeah,
(11:24):
I see Deeming the little shoot every night, like I
know we can shoot already. Yeah, Okay, that doesn't excite me,
like like it used to win. Again, there were players
that you know when Also when like Larry Bird was
in the third point contest, that's right, Yeah, it was
like me for Mac, it was wasn't this guy on
the Lakers summer League team with Reeves? And it was like, yeah,
(11:45):
he was, he was. There's an article I read he
he played on like thirty teams, like a hundred fifty
teammates over like a year and a half, like some
insane number over two years. I just amount of the sorry,
thirty cities, thirty cities, and like a hundred of the
teammates he's been in the last like two years, whether
G League, whether your camp invites, whether it was you know,
(12:06):
NBA teams, ten day contracts. During the COVID year, he
had a bunch of bouncing bouncing around ten day deals. Um,
and he's just kind of, you know, kind of slowly
trying to find one place that will give him an opportunity. Now,
I'm not sure this will help. I don't know how
much the dunk contest will help as far as, you know,
actually contributing to a team. But obviously getting your name
(12:28):
out there never hurt, and you know you're you know,
getting national attention can never hurt. So I'm character this
kind of jump starts a career for him in the NBA.
That was the running joke yesterday that I was telling
with Kevin Love. He got bought out by the Calves
and the two teams that he was rumored to go
(12:50):
to was either the seventy Sixers or the Miami Heat.
It was like, well, Philly doesn't have room for Kevin Love.
They got mc McClung. Now, it's like, but what a
thrill for mc McClung because two games in his NBA
career and he was on center freaking stage, He's dunking
in the Dunk Contest and all these stars are courtside.
(13:10):
Janice is like taking videos of mc McClung. You've got Donovan, Mitchell,
and Shack You're getting presented the trophy by Dr Jay. Like,
what a thrill that had to be. That's awesome. That
was really cool this week and I had no interest
what so I'm like, what is going on? No stars
are in the dunk Contest. We got a resort to
(13:31):
mc mccluck and it was one of the best things
for the Dunk Contest ever. This is this is why
we like sports, right, Like, this is like, this is
why this is this is the story that we love
about sports, right, A kid just kind of grinding his
way through the system, right, trying to find a place
as a pro undersized, right, just like kind of trying
to find you know, he's grinding out, sleeping in uh,
(13:54):
you know, and couches and whatnot and try and make
it work. And all of a sudden he is this
one moment and it might not lead to much in
the end, but he has this one moment where the
entire NBA world, all of us are watching him with
a dunk contest when a lot of us didn't know
who he was beforehand. Again, I mean he had you know,
his name has been had been circling in. You know,
if you if you are die hard you know NBA fan,
(14:16):
you you've probably seen his high school videos and whatnot.
I I'm not not all of us pay attention quite
like that. And that's what we love about sports, right,
kind of comes out of nowhere like that, and it's
pretty cool. Yeah, it was. It was really cool. Hey,
still over paying for a razor and this economy gross.
With Dollar Shave Club, you can get a top shelf
shave at a regular shelf price. Dollar Shave club is
(14:39):
available at a store near you, and the men's Razors
Razor Aisle. That's it. That's the ad, all right. We
got a lot to get to Jeff Schwartz. We got
ball on the horizon. We got a little tiger stuff
coming up next. Man, there is a man in the
sports world that I think if Jeff you could get
rid of him, you would. We're gonna compare notes. If
(15:00):
you could get rid of anybody in the sports world,
not like you know, like they're they're dead or any like,
they're just removed from the sports world, who would you choose?
I think I might know who's on your list, but
we'll compare notes. Right around the corner. I'm Brian, No,
he's Jeff Schwartz. We're in for two pros and a
cup of Joe right here on Fox Sports Radio, Polly
(15:21):
Foustco here with Tony Fusco. As you all know, we're
the host of the number one rated show in all
of sports talk, The Folly and Tony Fusco Show Numero
No Yeah, And we know why millions of people tune
in every week. They want to hear us talk sports,
not idiot guests who think they know more about sports
than we don't he listened to these dummies you don't
(15:42):
know crap about. This is the worst things off the
shop that you don't know. If you want to hear
how sports talk should be done, listen to the Folly
and Tony Fusco Show on the I Hot Radio app,
Apple podcast or ever you get your podcasts. I'm probably no.
He's Jeff Schwartz here on Fox Sports Radio in for
(16:04):
two pros and a cup of Joe. We're live from
the Tirac dot com studios. So Jeff Tiger Woods. He
made the cut at the Genesis Invitational, finished up the weekend.
UH finished minus one for the entire tournament, tied for
forty five. But it was a blend, right, It was
a mixed bag. It was good at times, it was bad.
(16:26):
At other times it was ugly. But he made it
through the entire tournament, which is nice. He had five
bogies in the final round, but make some birdies in
there over the four day tournament. So it's just one
of these deals where I think we've gotten so much
less crotchety when it comes to our expectations of tiger Woods,
and it's refreshing, because goodness, man. For over a decade,
(16:49):
it was just about he hasn't won a major, what's
going on? Why hasn't he done this? What? Man? Man?
And now we're just happy if he makes a cut,
if he has a nice round, We're like, hey, look
at tie. You're right, it's much more. We loosen the
top button and it's just like happy hour now when
it comes to our expectations with Tiger. But definitely don't
(17:09):
don't hand your friend a joke, a gag gift though
on the on the opening hole, then get people very
angry at you. Um so, look, I think we're happy
that he finished a full, full tournament, right like they
were just excited to see Tiger back on the prol
Like this gets me excited for for augusta Like, come on, Tiger,
like he did playing full full four days. He was
(17:34):
in contention on Sunday obviously wasn't you know, the leader
of having finished seventeen under so it wasn't close to winning.
But I think we like seeing Tiger back and continue
playing on Sunday, right like it's for a look for
a lot of us our golf fandom, us my age
or I'm thirty six and um a lot of us
are golf I think said with you, Brian, our golf
fandom is basically watching Tiger as a kid, right like
(17:57):
that was my golf fandom was watching Tiger and Phi,
but more Tiger and watching him dominate golf for years
and years and years. As a kid. I was not
a golf fan. I was a Tiger fan. And when
Tiger plays, I watched Tiger plays, I'm a Tiger fan.
And when he's good bad, I'm gonna watch Tiger play
(18:19):
because he could do things on the golf course that
others still cannot do. And so when he's playing well,
it's fun to watch because you've kind of had that
that childhood attachment, that feeling from when you watched him
play when you were a child, and so there's just
something different about watching Tiger play. And you know, I
think people are rooting for him now because of you know,
his leg injury and the comeback he's trying to make
(18:42):
from that. Now, he probably will never win again. Maybe
he'll he'll pop up and he'll win a tournament here
or there, but getting through four rounds with his leg
is impressive. He wasn't able to do that much last
season and Now we'll see if he's able to compete
the rest of the year. But it was nice to
have them back on the tournament um and it's good
(19:03):
for the golf because for a lot of us, again
we watched golf. We watched golf because the Tiger, and
a lot of eyeballs were to the tournament this week
to see Tiger. We end up watching some really good
golf and some golfers have some good rounds because of Tiger.
Kind of was the reason we got to the TV. Yeah,
there you go. That's a good point right there. And
it is kind of crazy where you saw a Tiger
(19:24):
limping around a lot more yesterday on Sunday the final round,
and he talked about that. Here's one of the thoughts
that Tiger shared after the tournament. The reality is, I
really really won't be able to play much. I can
do cards at home, I can I can do I
can do that. I can hit balls chipped and pott.
But as as I said, his time and intention and
(19:45):
go ahead and get in your eight to ten miles
of walking in and then the concentration that it then
it takes. It's kind of crazy to me, Jeff, is
I think you get used to other sports and you
just don't have an equivalent real you know, like if
you think about football, you couldn't say, oh, you know,
I can still I can still whatever I can still.
(20:08):
If you're I'm a linebacker, I can still you know,
make hits, I can make tackles. But it's just the
walking part that is bothering me, you know what I mean,
Like it doesn't really translate, but it's true in golf.
So I this is a really bad comparison. I'm not
Tucker once, but I have I've had three surgeries on
my left ankle, all right, Brooke my fract just kidding
(20:29):
my ankle when I was playing. A second surgery to
remove a couple of screws that broke in there. And
then I had a third surgeryich remove a plate and
then remove extra tendant I had in my ankle that
was giving me some problems. Oh within a year. And
so that's that. You know, I'm a right handed golfer,
and I don't golf off at fifteen times twenty times
(20:50):
a year, but like dude, after eighteen and I drink,
my ankle is destroyed, like destroyed. And and again like
that's just me. Like, I'm like, and I work out
like I'm after this, I'm gonna go to jail, Like
I like, I stay in good physical shape. I couldn't
imagine having Tiger's leg injury. Man walking eight miles and
(21:12):
then trying to that torque on the leg when you
know the way I'm not. I'm not driving the ball
with a hundred and seventeen miles an hour. It's like
a seven miles an hour, right, Like, I'm like, it's
so there's a lot of wear or tear that he
has on that leg through four rounds. I'm not surprised
he was in a lot of pain. But you know
that he can technically qualify to write a cart on
(21:35):
on on That's well, that's why I get it, man,
I totally get that. It's just for golf. It's like
if you could have Tiger extend his career, he can
ride a car. Man, he just won't do it. He
just it's right there. I think, yeah, hey, man, I
get it. And its goal is to compete in all
four majors, So hopefully that happens would be great for golf.
(21:56):
If that's the case, be sure to catch live editions
of two pros and a cup of Joe with Brady Quinn,
LaVar Errington, and Jonas Knocks week days at six am Eastern,
three am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio. Oh what's going on everybody? Hope you're enjoying
your Monday, maybe your Monday off. With this being Presidents,
(22:17):
they were broadcasting live from the tire rack dot Com studios.
Ti irac dot com will help get you there an
unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road hazard protection, and
over ten thousand recommended installers. Ti rac dot com the
way tire buying should be in for the two pros
and a cup of Joe crew, I'm Brian No, he's
(22:37):
Jeff Schwartz. It's one pro and a cup of no
apparently today what we're rolling with that? Yeah that works.
How about this? Well you have okay, Yeah, it works.
We'll make it. We'll roll with that. If we look
to the NBA, there's something interesting that happened over the weekend.
(22:58):
So you have Adam Silver and be a commissioner who
on one side says public trade demands are corrosive to
the system, is what he said. This is so when
you have star players making public trade demands. I want
to be out of you. I don't want to be
in Brooklyn anymore. Like Kyrie did Adam Silver sets. It's
corrosive to the system. Meanwhile, you've got players like Kyrie
(23:20):
and Kevin Durant among others that say it's good for
the NBA. It's fine. I'll give you a taste of
what Kevin Durant had to say and will compare notes.
Here's k D. I don't think it's bad for the
League's bringing more asks to the league, More people are
more excited. The tweets that I got in the news,
hits that we got from me being traded, Kyrie being traded,
(23:40):
just bring more attention to the league. And that's really
what makes you money, is when you get more attention. So, um,
I think it's great for the league, to be honest,
team has been trading players and making acquisitions for a
long time now. When a player can you know, uh,
kind of dictate where he wants to go and leaving
free agency or demand that. It's just part of the
(24:01):
game now. So I don't think it's a bad thing.
Is bringing more and more excitement into the game. You
buy that, Jeff, what do you think about k D
what he said, right, there is there one chance that
he has Google alert set up for himself or the
way he talked about like the engagement going up, and
like news articles mentioning him when he cant traded, just
like look a Google alert. The Phoenix Sun blog dot
(24:23):
org mentioned me everybody, Um, look, yeah, you're gonna get
more attention with public trade demands. Um. The thing about
it is, it doesn't really bother me either way, right,
I Mean it's a player's league. The players run the
n b A and so they're gonna be able to
(24:45):
to kind of get and control narratives better than other
sports can. But here's the thing though, is that and
I'm sober. If if you're upset about it, go go
talk to the ownership that just trades the players as
soon as they have trade demands. Right, that's a good point.
If if you don't want this to be the way
the NBA is run, then don't have it run this way.
(25:06):
If you're an NFL player and you say trade me,
Now it's changed a little bit, But for a long
time NFL teams were like, yeah, I know, we're not
doing that. They said that to Baker Mayfield initially, remember
that wasn't that long ago. Baker went to the Browns
and said, trade me. You guys are flirting with Deshaun
wattson Amati here and they're like, no, we're not doing it.
(25:27):
Now they landed Deshaun and then they traded him, but
initially they're like, no, tough, Yeah, we're not doing that. Um.
And but the NBA allows guys to be traded when
they have trade demands. And so if the ownership, if
if the Nets ownership was like, yeah, we're not trading you, Kyrie,
well let's stop, that would stop Kevin Durant from you know,
asking out right like it would. So if NBY owners
(25:51):
did not acquiesced all the time to trade demands, we
can see less trade demands. But to me, this is
what the sport is. It's a player's sport, right, It's
a sport controled by the player. And so you know
they're super teams that are that are formed their teams
that you know players wanted to play with other well,
other players like them. We give him an opportunity to
Kevin Durant. It was his press conference every day when
(26:12):
he got to Phoenix, UM, talking about you'll be able
to play with with Paul Booker and Aiden like, the
ability to play kind of on the super team again,
which he's really only played for right the Thunder and
the Warriors and the Nets and now in Phoenix. You
know this is what this is what the NBA is,
and so it doesn't really bother me. I mean, Keimer
Durant is certainly right. It does. It does give the
(26:34):
NBA more attention. I'm not sure the attention is always
positive attention, but he's writing attention his attention though, I
mean more people taught the NBA when Kevin Durank gets
traded then when not the one doesn't get traded. Yeah,
I certainly see both sides of this because I can
see from the player's standpoint saying, let me get this straight.
So ownership has the power to trade us whenever they want,
(26:55):
as long as there is in a no trade uh clause,
and most players don't have that. You have to be
around for a while to be able to even qualify
for something like that. So if ownership wants to trade you,
were traded, so they have power and we have power
to now, so fair is fair if we can exercise
some of our power and force our way out. And yeah,
(27:16):
what's good for the goose is good for the gander
Schwartz right, Like, that's what we're saying here. But the
other side of that is ownership is saying it's and
it's the point that Adam Selver Is is highlighting is
public trade demands. If you publicly say that, you don't
go to the organization and say, hey, man, I want
out of here, but the media doesn't know about it.
(27:36):
It's a lot of there's a big difference between going
public and saying give me out of here, I want
out of here, and that hurts the value you can
get in return. So I understand that side of the argument. Also, yeah,
look what's hurting in the n b A is the
load management issue, not players, you know, publicly demanding trade
requests that I mean that of course, you know, the
(28:00):
doing so demanding trade requests. Obviously putting in the media,
depending what market you're in, definitely helps, right there's obviously
players wouldn't do it. Um, you know, it doesn't help
because you know, the NETS owner gets mean tweets sent
his way. Maybe he didn't care about that, but you know,
the pressure becomes, you know, more from a bunch of people.
(28:20):
When Kyrie Iveran says I want to trade right, just
it just does when you say it publicly and you
make it known, and because more pressured to get it done,
because then the questions become asked on NonStop to you.
Right then you become asked to your players and your
coaches and your staff members and the ownership, and just
becomes the endless cycle of warretory training and what are
your training them? What? You know, what's your thought processing?
Becomes a distraction you don't want right. But to me,
(28:42):
the load management issue is is a far bigger problem
for the NBA than publicly players publicly demanding trades um
and that I don't have a solution for that other
than shorting this season up what they don't want to
do because then everyone makes less money. But you know,
not knowing who's playing a given night, I'm going to
my first NBA game this weekend. Normally I kind of
(29:04):
hold off on NBA games till football's over. I don't
have time. And you know, the Hornets stinks. I'm not
really worried about he was playing for the Hornets, but
like you know, I just don't know if the visiting
team is gonna play all their starters. It's kind of sucks, like, yeah, right,
if that's your first game, you want to see the
best at their best. Last two was the it was
(29:26):
Lakers two years ago and A D and Lebron both
didn't play. Well. Yeah, like I'm not going again to
like I didn't go this year. I didn't want to go.
It was on it was on the same it was
January second, so the same day as the Rose Ball.
I wasn't going. It wasn't missing football for and Lebron
played and scored like forty five points too. He was
like a great game for Lebron, but like I wasn't sure,
Like is he gonna play? He's not gonna play. That's tough, right,
(29:49):
Like you just don't know. And what do you do
as a league if if a team says, you know,
he's got a calf soreness, he's got some back tightness,
so you know, like, were they gonna say no, he doesn't?
We know? That's bs Like it comes down it really
comes down to the player pride and wanting to play.
It's really there's there's nothing. There's nothing that he can do.
(30:11):
There really is nothing. Um, you can't because you can't
to your point, like the injury report, you just say
you have a sore ankle, a sore foot, a rist
is sore, my hurt my finger, like in the league,
cannot dispute that. That's not worth disputing. Um, you know
the NFL. Recently, the NFL find Cam Jordan's of the
(30:34):
Saints fifty dollars were faking an injury in a game,
like a week sixteen game. They were sending the fine
kind of quietly about about I think during super Bowl week.
And the reason they were sitting the fine is you
know they the Saint said he was hurt. I mean,
how do you dispute that now? So I think he
was faking the injury. It looked like he was okay.
It was a defensive quote was like go down, like
(30:55):
waven go down right now. Top Brady's on the field.
But again, like if if the sat staff said he
had a cramp or yeah, his foot was hurting him,
how do you actually that you prove it? Yeah, you don't.
You don't improve that. So if you're if you're let's
use Lebron and he's sitting on in a game, and
the and the Lakers saying he's got a sore foot.
(31:16):
How do you prove that? And that's the thing is
it's one thing. If it's during the game, and let's
just say there was a penalty attached to it, it's
a fifteen yard penalty. Uh, I mean that's gonna stand.
You can't go back in time and redo that. But
if it's a fine, yeah, that can be disputed and
you've got to prove it and the NFL can't um.
(31:38):
But that's the thing. If you apply it to NBA standards,
when it becomes a fine, when it becomes a punishment
after the game, you gotta have something to support that.
If you there's some sort of punishment during it, I
don't even know how you do that. What can you do?
You you hit it. It comes down to player pride,
and if players see the benefits of taking some nights
(31:59):
off where they're fresh for the playoffs, they're extending their careers.
It makes way more sense to make more money in
the long haul. Like if they see all the reasons
to load manage, why wouldn't they, you know, And if
there's no punishment, there's no deterrent. It's just going to
continue to happen. And there's no deterrent, right because they're
(32:20):
making money hand over fist right there, Like there's no
there's no reason, you know, they're making tons of money.
People are watching the NBA um and there's no they
don't there's no they don't see any punishment from this.
Like fans are still like again there's oh Jeff Schwartz
(32:41):
doesn't go to a game, Oh my god, we have
to change their policy. As Jeff Swarts doesn't go to
one game a year now, right, like you know, like, oh,
he doesn't spend the two dollars to get good Laker
tickets when the Lakers show up in Charlotte, you know,
I mean like there's not enough, there's not enough. But
but you know, but I really do feel bad, like
I can afford I'm lucky in a position where I
(33:01):
can afford to like, Okay, I spent two it was
to two bucks on a ticket. It was my sons
are FROs on tickets, right, I can luckily, I can
afford that I can afford that to like that my
experience to be crummy. But a lot of people can't
write if you're if you're even you know, if you're
if you save up all your to go to one game,
(33:22):
and that one game is to watch so and so
come the town and that player doesn't play. That stinks, man,
that's terrible. And you're you're gonna lose that fan. You're
gonna lose that fan because your star did not play.
And I feel bad for that, for that family that's
(33:42):
spent all the thousand dollars to tickets and and driving
and fuel and and food and whatnot hotel. Maybe that's
a tough conversation too. You were talking earlier, Jeff about
like expanding explaining the end of the Daytona five hundred
to your kid, you know, Nascar in general, or like
(34:02):
why you were good enough to not have to play
in the XFL. Yeah, but if you're having a load
management conversation with your eight year old, that that's not
a conversation you want to have as a dad, you know.
And there are a lot of dad's having those conversations. Man.
I'm curious what you think about the playoff picture though.
If you look at the West and how a lot
(34:24):
of these teams are jumpled up, you start looking at
this thing. Nuggets in first place right now, they're certainly
gonna be a tough out the Sons. Now that they
have k D He's expected to play this week, that's
gonna be a lot of fun Kyrie now in Dallas
with Luca and I think the wild card team the Clippers.
Clippers are a deep team. They have their stars in
(34:45):
Kauai and Paul George back. But we're talking about the
load management thing. Do they have the chemistry, the continuity
when they're taking a lot of nights off. I can't
wait for the playoffs in general, but especially out West,
so Deniver continue he fails in the post season. I
don't know how you can really believe in them, even
though that they're the one seed right now, Like, what
about their past makes you feel like they can beat
(35:07):
the Sun's right, I don't like, I don't know, I
mean like right, like's not hope and in prayer and wishing,
I mean the Sun's death possibly. But you put the
Suns together and this next games they have three games left,
is about finding their rhythm, right with Durant, with Chris Paul,
with Booker and a kind of finding Now they're gonna
(35:29):
play seven guys, eight guys, that's about all they have.
But in the playoffs, that's all you need, right, more
than that, So it's finding the rhythm. Now they're gonna
probably get no higher than the three seed, but doesn't
matter to me. It doesn't matter, like just getting the playoffs,
feel good about yourself and then just make it happen
in the playoffs. How about the Warriors get Steph Curry
back at some point, just like last year, right, get
(35:50):
healthy and then boom, take off the Lakers. The Lakers
are two out of the playing game. They probably won't
get out of the playing game range or probably between
seven and ten. But I they make the playoffs. How
about them? They just beat the Pelicans finally with a
full kind of healthy roster if they get older guys playing,
playing in the right direction, all healthy of course, always
(36:11):
a question with with with a D. Yeah, Lebron, they're
gonna be. They're gonna be a playoff team. Now, are
they winning the championship? No? But are you telling me
that the Nuggets don't want to see the Lakers in
Round one? I know it, right, I know. Can you imagine,
like your round one matchup, you might have the best
record in the league. It's possible Nuggets are right there
(36:32):
if you have the number one seed in the West,
and you have to face a healthy Lebron, a healthy
a d a healthy D'Angelo Russell that there are a
lot worse. There're a lot better situations in your first
round matchup than that. Yeah, so you know there's a
lot The West is a is a ton of fun
to see kind of where these teams pan out. As
(36:52):
I mentioned earlier, the King's probably don't stay the three seed,
but they're in the playoffs, so they break a big playoff,
big playoffs streak. The Pelicans that imagine fall out without
Zion in there as well. And the Eastern Conference is
really in my opinion, I mean, it's a three team race,
but really the Celtics and Bucks are the two teams
I see coming out of the East at the moment um,
just because the Sixers can see kind of same with
(37:14):
the Nuggets, right like great, great, great regular season, kind
of fulls goal in the postseason. I think that, uh,
in the West, you're gonna get a lot of sons predictions,
not just because you think they've got a ton of
top end talent, which they do, but you just don't
want to sound like an idiot if you're wrong, you know,
I think there are a lot of picks that are
made that way where you don't want the Sons to
(37:37):
make it to the finals when you picked the Nuggets
or the Clippers, you know what I mean. So I
think there's a lot of people are just gonna roll
with the Suns were worst case scenario. If they're wrong,
they don't sound like a moron if that's the way
it ends up. I have. But you have when the
best point guards of all time, right, who's obviously aging
a little bit, Chris Paul, But you have the best
player in the NBA and Kevin Durant. I mean, like
(37:59):
that's not a accommodation that you have Devin Booker and
any of eight, and like you have a good core
group of players. I mean it's easy to pick them
if they're playing good basketball and healthy and they're entering
the playoffs. That's the recipe, right, You typically have to
have two Hall of Fame players to win a championship.
(38:20):
That's sort of like the baseline to to win to
win a championship. Deva doesn't have that as of right now,
right um, and the Suns do. And I can see
why people would pick the Suns to win, to win
the championship. Plus they've been there, right, They've been close,
haven't been able to pull off quite yet. You know,
adding Kevin Durant gets an even closer. The final push
here after the All Star Break is gonna be a
(38:42):
lot of fun. And you mentioned the Warriors the defending champs.
It's crazy. I know they've had their injuries that Curry's
missed a lot of time, we get it. But to
be five hundred right now and seven at home, seven
and twenty two on the road, Like, we know they're
the Warriors and they're the defending champs and best the
seven Eries when you don't have home court, is that
(39:02):
gonna be a deep run for them this season? It's not.
They kind of strike me as a team that is
like disinterested in the regular season. Yeah, I just it
doesn't feel like the season that where they just turn
it on where it's like probably off times steps back
we're good. Yeah, but it's Steph Curry like squad back. Yeah,
(39:23):
you're probably not bet against the Warriors, um in uh,
but the West is gonna be so much fun the postseason, man,
it's gonna be great. Can we get Warriors Grizzlies first
round matchup. Can we make that happen? That would be tremendous.
That's the one reason why I want Dylan Brooks to
be around. If playing the Warriors. Everything, I'm done. I'm done.
(39:45):
He's costingly too much money. I've been on him steaks,
I bet against him. He's good. I don't know.
Hosts And Creators
Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
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.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!